I was the only "Yank" (American) in the group--everyone was from England except for two from Columbia (who spoke mainly Spanish to each other), one from Scotland, and two from Canada who were the oldest in the group. I spent the first day and a half of the trip learning how to understand all their accents haha! The first night, I had a half hour conversation with Ian (from Scotland) and I have absolutely noooo idea what we talked about!! I would just respond, "Oh yeah!" "uh huh?" "Cool!" lol!
What was weird, too was that I kinda found myself speaking with a slight British accent by the end of the week.....I felt like they'd think I was just trying to fake my accent which, maybe I subconsciously was lol..but something about being surrounded by them for nearly a week really rubbed off on me! Also started to pick up on their sense of humor...it's pretty subtle but hilarious. It was just a great, great time being around them all! AND everyone added to the group...there were 14 of us total ranging age 18 to age 50 something. I'd say average age was around 27. IT WAS SO FUN!
So, I landed in Bangkok (one of my favorite cities in the world) and found myself a cab and took myself to Marcia's hotel. How random!?? We were both in Bangkok at the same time! So, she and I got to spend the day together (I made sure my flight arrived in the morning so we'd have all day together). We ate a delicious lunch and took a local boat ride (people in Bangkok take boats around like we take subways) to Wat Arun ("arun" in Khmer means morning, and Wat Arun was known for its great sunrise). Then we went back to her hotel, picked up my things, and I took another cab to my hotel where I met my Gap Tour group. :)
I guess I don't need to tell you that much about my trip. Basically it was just the best. Some noteable parts were:
Skipping out on more temple visiting with Pav and Rob to go BUNGY JUMPING!!! 150 feet, byiatch. Woooo!!
Our two day trek into the hilltribe villages and getting to spend time with the locals. That was fantastic.
Rafting on our homemade bamboo rafts!
Ian dropping the puppy (HAHA)
Getting my ear pierced!....and watching Leah get her neck pierced. Lord.
Good music at the Rooftop.
Delicious Thai food.
Disgusting Thai moonshine.
"This is the best train ever."
Bangkok pingpong show...not my favorite part.
Squat pots...surprisingly not bad!
The Reclining Buddha, huge and awesome.
Our pouring boat ride.
Waterfall.
That elephant song when we danced around in a circle.
Watching Johnny hit on Leah!
Elephant ride and drinking through our noses like the elephants.
Overnight trains to and from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Bubbles.
Frog Ladies.
I usually try to organize my pictures to match my text, but there was just SO much that we did (and it's been about 3 weeks ago now...) so here are just a bunch of pictures from it! GAP was a great organization, AND oh duh! our TOUR GUIDE! He was awesome..his name was complicated so he had us call him Thai. Thai was a really nice guy..he could talk your ear off about Thailand and its history, but especially a couple days into the tour he really loosened up and came out with us! He was lots of fun!!
These are only about 1/1000 of my Thailand pictures--it was fantastic and I miss my new friends but facebook and e-mail help! :) It's really great having friends all over the world!!
Yeah, I've been home for over a week...but I don't wanna get into that before I tell you all about my last day in Cambodia and my flights back and culture shock, etc...(it is great to be back, though)
Hope everyone's well! I've begun planning Kenya. My flight leaves January 9th...crazy. Happy holidays and I'll keep updating this over the next weeks!
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