Happy New Year everyone! I trust you guys have had a better year than I've been having. I ended up with some kind of parasite or bacteria from Thailand and I've been sick since the middle of my trip. Nonetheless, I tried to enjoy myself as much as possible.
We arrived in Bangkok on Christmas Eve and took a cab to Khao San Road, also known as backpacker's row. There were foreigners everywhere! The whole street is full of guesthouses, bars and shops, so its a haven for travellers in Bangkok. It was nice to see a whole restaurant full of people wearing Santa hats. We found our hotel, which was pleasantly nice for only $15 per night. Christmas Day we went to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Krew, home of the Emerald Buddah. The temple was amazing, so much gold! The weather was sunny and beautiful and it was blinding to look at some of the roofs. The buddah itself was in a building near the middle of the temple and was surrounded by so many gold statues that it was hard to see the buddah, good thing its green so it stood out a bit. The story is that it was covered in plaster to hide its value from raiding nations many many years ago. When the Thai government got it back it was dropped and the plaster broke, revealing the jade inside. Also, the king changes the clothes of the buddah depending on season, so since it's winter, it was wearing a gold jacket. We also went to ChinaTown that day and walked around the many markets. That night we ate delicious Thai food and drank a tower of beer. Actually, almost every meal was the same because it was so good. We ate chicken curry, pad thai and fried rice everyday, sometimes twice!
Boxing Day we took a boat across the river to a Forensic Science museum, which was very interesting. They had mummies of famous Thai murderers and all kinds of preserved body parts. There was also a display about the Tsunami and how they identified victims. In the next room we saw a Pathology museum. I did not know that Elephantitis was caused by a mosquito, but I sure do now! They had a diorama of an old couple sitting on a porch, she had huge legs and he had balls that hung down to his feet. And they had some guy's actual balls. They were enormous....Thomas got scared. When we left we took another ferry all the way down the river. We could see Wat Arun, a very big temple, and old old houses that were build on stilts in the river. We made our way from the ferry port to Patpong, Bangkok's famous red-light district. During the daylight it was pretty boring so we went for massages to kill time until dark. Since Thai massage is so famous there are cheap places everywhere, but we went to a nice place. You change into pants and a shirt and lie down on a mattress on the floor. My masseuse was the 'Olga' of Thailand. She was a big, strong lady....it was intimidating. Parts of it were relaxing, and other parts hurt like hell. She stood on my lower back and I thought I was dying, it knocked the wind right out of me! But for $10 is was a well spent hour. Once it was dark Patpong was very lively. There is a big night market every night that runs down the middle of the street and then go-go bars and sex clubs on the sides. Patpong has kinda become a tourist destination so it was weird to see families with kids walking around between guys trying to get you to go see the ping-pong shows.
The next morning we made the journey to Ko Samet, a beautiful island off the eastern coast of mainland Thailand. It took us about 5 hours between bus and boat, which we didn't expect, and then finding a place on the island was a bit difficult. We eventually found a nice place right on the beach. The weather was beautiful, and since that's when I got sick it was nice to just sit and read. It was super relaxing. The sand there was the softest I've ever seen, it was like walking on powder. And the water was crystal clear and bright blue, I was wading out and there were fish swimming around my legs, you could the bottom, it was so clear. At night, one of the resorts had a fire show on the beach. It was kinda scary, but from a safe distance I enjoyed it.
Saturday we got up super early and went back to Bangkok. We went back to Khao San Road where my friends all went shopping and I sat in a restaurant sipping 7-up and trying not to die before going back to Seoul. I did do one exciting thing on Saturday.....I got a tattoo! Yup, now I'm badass. Its something I always wanted, but couldn't afford in Canada, and finding a place in Korea is really hard. Thailand is famous for tattoo artists, the place I went to just won an international competition. Now I have a black butterfly on my ankle forever...and it didn't even hurt that much. Hmmmmm, what should I get next?
To see a video of me getting my tattoo go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whyzO9LtZXU

To see part of the fire show on the beach go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDnFW22F7YM