Stories from Thailand (oh yes.)

Ok. So there's a couple of funny (sort of, I hope) that I'd like to share with the world from Thailand.


1. Pao, Shoua and I went on a day tour to visit a Monkey Cave and go white water rafting. We get to the Cave, and have a headache because I haven't eaten anything int he last 2 hours. Keep in mind that I while in Thailand, I ate literally 5-6 full meals a day, so, er, 2-3x as much as I did compared to when I'm here in America. So basically, I wasn't feeling as energetic as I usually am. When we arrived at the Monkey Cave, I got out because I wanted to see it, but my head was pounding at the same time. There were hundreds of little monkeys running around the little park. They would jump out at you if you had anything on you that looked like food.



There were little stands that sold bananas for a couple of Baht so that you could "feed" (in other words, have 50 monkeys jump you) them. There were a lot of incense being burned (there was a Temple next to the cave), which made my headache even worse. I saw a humongous tree, and leaned against it. All of a sudden, there are 3 monkeys that jumped from the tree branches, and began walking towards me, GROWLING. I immediately leaned away from the tree, and started backing away, putting my hands up in defense (yea, I looked stupid). They still walked towards me, showing their ferocious teeth. I was SO SCARED! Calmly, I yelled for help. Freaking monkeys--!!!



Later the same day, we went white water rafting. The young boys (prolly in the 20s) at the white water rafting flirted with us the whole time (they splashed water at us and kept on flipping us over on the boat--yes, that's a sign of affection).



Then later, one of the boys made my Shoua, Pao and I little crowns from some sort of plants. It was kind of cute. lol




So when Shoua, Pao, and I first got to Phuket, whenever we walked down the road to go do something, we always got:
1. Hollered at.
2. Proposed to.
3. asked, "Where you frommmm?" (in a really perverted way, use your imagination)
4. anything and everything.

Sooooo, on our last day, when we were much much tanner, we decided to go to a Buffet and show called Fantasea. Knowing us, we decided to match. A couple of days earlier, we had purchased shorts of different color: Tan, Blue, and Green. We decided that it'd be "cute" to wear matching polos. We then purchased matching pink polos at a mall closeby, and changed while at the mall. On the walk back to our sweet hotel, all of the guys who would normally holler at us just looked at us with confusion. Yes, we were that dark and hideous with our matching outfit. They probably thought we worked a closeby hotel. lol Look for yourself:




Yeah, we rock. lol

Thailand!!

So, Thailand was amazing---definitely life-changing. I've learned so much, about business, development, myself, and other people. Let me fill you in on the highlights. :)



I went to the slum with Brittany, and witnessed one of the poorest place in the world. Their houses were build on stilts above a pond, and they all lived on the minimal. What shocked me the most was that everyone there were so happy. You definitely don't see that everyday.




Check out their bowling allies---SUH-WEETTTTT. They even have a VIP room where there's karaoke. Where is this in America? :)



We went to see the Grand Palace---it was stunning!




We went to a small town, Pakse, Laos, for a couple of days. Everyone was very friendly; definitely one of my favorite cities during the trip.





We traveled on everything you could imagine during the trip: Trains, buses, tuk-tuk, taxis, boats, planes, cars, foot (a lot of this!)..if I forget anything, let me know.




We saw 4-5 breathtaking waterfalls. Beautiful, isn't she?





Climbing up to paradise with the class. :)








Took a tour of Beerlao, one of the biggest company in Laos!






Is this not the coolest plane ever?!!! :)


CATFIIIISHHHHH!!


Brittany and I went Tarzan crazy. lol I love this girl!




We took a ton of these "pretty pictures" (yes, I made it up). It's when you put your face between leaves and try to look cute. lol



FANTASEA! :)

The Land of Smiles. The Low Down.

The Traffic: Crazy!! If you think East Lansing, or Los Angeles is bad, you’re in for a big surprise. These taxi cab drivers must have passed some super extreme death-or-survival driving test (or, none at all?) before they were put on the streets.

The Pollution: You can’t see the sun. The sun is there. You can’t walk down the streets without inhaling all the pollution that a smokers accumulate within a year.

The Women: They’re all 80 lbs, has super long legs, and perfect hair despite the humidity. Oh yeah, they’re gorgeous too.

The Men: I know a girl who went to Europe to study abroad this summer, and her facebook status was something along the line of: “Euro men are the shit!!!” HMM, wish I could say the same thing about the men over here. It looks like the women got the bigger end of the stick.

The Food: Let me tell you….Thailand is the place to be for food. Delicious food are lined all along the streets…and guess what?! Yes, you guessed it---my favorite food are either free, or cheap food… and most of the food in Bangkok is delicious AND free!! Happy days! 

Sawat-kawadi

That means "hello" :)

Flying to Thailand from Los Angeles totaled to approximately 18 hours of immobilization, excluding the layover time. On the way to Taipai, I sat next to a woman in her mid 50s. After a couple of hours of watching movies and playing on my computer, I decided to be social. I asked her if she was going to Thailand also. Robin told me that she was a tax accountant in Las Vegas, and had a business with her three sons. She had a daughter who graduated from and taught at Notre Dame (booo). She has a condo in Thailand and goes there a couple of times a year. Her children were half-Vietnamese and often traveled to Vietnam. Naturally, I asked her how she met her husband.

Robin told me that she used to be a man. She told me that at the early age of 4 years old, she always knew something was wrong with her body, and she was supposed to have been a female. She joined the United States Air Force during Vietnam War during her early 20s, and later went to school to get two Master's degrees. She got married and had 4 children with a Vietnamese woman. However, after a couple of years, her ex-wife gambled away millions of dollars that they had, so they separated. Robin met Cathy, her current wife through Cathy's restaurant business in Las Vegas. They got married a year later. At this point, Robin was in her late 40s. She decided that she's had it--she can't be a man anymore. It just didn't feel right. So she went to Thailand to get a sex change. Now don't get me wrong--Robin is not gay, she just needs to be a woman. Robin explained that the procedure was very simple--the doctors simply dissect the penis and sew the ends to the crotch area. The procedure cost approximately $5,000. Robin is very happy and blessed, she claimed.

Robin gave me a book of "25 Things to do in Thailand". It included a lot of places to see, restaurants to eat at, etc. I was very thankful. She gave me her phone number so that if I had any questions, I can give her and Cathy a holler.

We got off the plane at Taipei, and went to our gates for the next flights to Thailand. Hers was an hour earlier than mine, so we separated. A young Thai man in a business suit began talking to me. I wasn't interested. He talked about how his dad worked with the Thai Embassy and he was the best athlete in his school and how he always broke school records for running, baseball, basketball, and blah blah blah. I tried to avoid him the rest of the trip.

Thailand.
As was expected, the taxi drivers tried ripping me off. 680 Baht for a cab ride? HELL NO, MISTER. I asked for 200 Baht. He said 480. I said 250. He said no. I walked away. He waved me back and said 300 Baht. I said ok.

That little liar. We got into the cab, and he said 400 Baht because I had to pay a "toll". Well apparently, we never stopped at a toll, but I already gave him the 400 Baht.

Note to self: Do not give in so easily to cab drivers!!!!!


So he drove me to my hostel, Hi-Sumkavit. He drove past a street where there were about 100 girls lined up. They were dressed in frilly, short skirts and with their small umbrellas to match (it was sprinkling). They all looked like dolls--all probably 90 lbs, way too much eye make-up, colored hair, and very, er, cute. The driver told me, "these ladies make American men very very happy". I was confused at first. Then it hit me. They were prostitutes. The cab driver continued, "At this time, they are 2-3,000 Baht a night... but by 4-5 a.m., they can come down to 500 Baht. You like, eh?". I was like "WTF". Some things in this world makes no sense.

First blog! :)

My first blog!

Holas! My name is Choua, and I love food. I've been very blessed, and I'm so thankful for everything that I have in my life. I feel as though I'm at a point in my life where things are a bit unstable at the moment, but who doesn't feel that way at one time or another, right? However, I think that everything will be okay--in fact, I'm sure everything will be ok. :) I have a lot of things happening this summer... I can't wait to share it all with you!