We left China very early Christmas Eve morning. We had a seven hour lay over in Guangzhou, China (which was an uninteresting airport). After our boredom set in, we played a game called “Spot the Foreigner”. Basically, whoever noticed the most foreigners won. I think we only got up to 9 or so.
The second we landed in Bangkok for our last transfer we knew we were really out of China. I went to the bathroom and ran out exclaiming “Doug! There were western toilets, toilet paper, soap and paper towels in there! I can’t believe it!” We saw a Dunkin’ Donuts on our way to our next gate and our jaws dropped. When we sat down at our gate we looked around and noticed no one was staring at us. We weren’t the only foreigners any more; in fact, pretty much every person around us was a foreigner from a different country so no one paid anyone else any attention. Doug and I just kept looking at each other like “This is so weird…”
When we arrived at our hotel in Phuket (careful, don’t pronounce this phonetically! It’s: pooh-get) apart from being very tired, we were completely shocked with every little detail. We had a king size bed in our room that was soft! A/C, a desktop computer & priter, a TV with cable and English channels, a western toilet and a shower with a lot of pressure and hot water. We felt like royalty. I had the best night’s sleep I’d had in months (Doug actually got too cold from the A/C). We’ve been surprised at how western Thailand is. Almost a little disappointed/suprised that we are re-acclimating to home-life so quickly while still in Asia.
Our first meal here in Thailand was unbelievable. I got yellow curry and Doug got “drunken noodles”. It was the best first meal we could have had in Thailand. We’ve been so happy with the people we’ve met as well. Everyone has been so friendly, helpful and extremely polite. We are getting used to removing our shoes before walking into businesses/restaurants. We’ve been trying to learn a few Thai words but usually end up spitting out some Chinese on accident :)
Our first few days were spent sleeping in, eating lots and lots of awesome food, shopping, getting massages ($6.50/hr!), walking along the beach and hanging out at the pool. I even got to hold a gibbon monkey and fed him some of my banana crepe!
We’ve loved all the gas pumps here! You can purchase gas in old coke bottles or even plastic bags with a rubberband holding it together.
I decided to try the “fish spa”. Basically you just stick your feet in a fish aquarium and all the fish swarm onto you and eat off all of your dead skin. Sounds disgusting. It actually felt great and we were really amazed when I took my feet out at how incredibly smooth they were. Definitely worth it.
