Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Thailand


Goodbye

Anxious and filled with sorrow, a bittersweet goodbye was said to all my fellow Trekkers; it truly felt like leaving my family. As our final act together we had communion and then everyone prayed over us for one last time. Some especially hard hugs were squeezed to make up for the lack of in the upcoming seven months. As we drove to the airport we had our last cup of Timmy Ho's-- something to remember home by.

At the airport, I met up with my mom, Tamara (Brasilian exchange student) and SURPRISE! my brother Nico. My mom, being the mushball that she is, grew teary-eyed when the time came to say farewell. I did better than I thought (perhaps I was feeling too many emotions at once).

Up in the sky

During the whole flight, Fergie's song, "Glamorous" kept running through my head. "We're flying first class, up in the sky...etc."

The flight went smoothly and was actually quite entertaining. I watched Kung Fu Panda and Get Smart with Caleb and I tried sleeping a lot. China Airlines treated us well with pretty decent food and, of course, personal computer games for the whole 22 hour flight. We stopped in Tai Pei, Taiwan for four hours where we skyped and said goodbye to Team Germany.

And then at last, we arrived in Bangkok...

Thailand

First words in the Thai air was, "Whoo! Now that's humid." Imagine a sauna meets blazing sun and then you've got the right idea. We drove to Chonburi whilst snacking on Thai treats and food and gawking out the window.

First thing we went to church (The Life Centre) and worshipped and listened to a sermon in Thai. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner that some of the ladies made for us. Some of the b-boys broke out into break dancing and Josh and Caleb were in awe. (They later showed us the steps they learned--oh my).

We spent the first night in a fairly luxurious hotel, air conditioning included. But the glamorous lifestyle doesn't stop there.

Scandalous Lifestyle

The next day our tasks were to A) Get a foot massage B) Go to the beach and C) Eat ice cream. So, as good Canadians, we obeyed quite reluctantly. At the massage parlor, six of the funniest ladies gave us an hour and a half "foot massage" (which is actually a whole body massage). Josh was definately proposed to and he accidently confessed that he loved someone (he mixed up, "I don't understand" with, "I love you"). After howling and receiving our first friendships we set out for lunch with high spirits. Basically, Thai food is amazing. That's all you need to know.

After lunch we headed back to our place for a siesta before we met up with Uh-oh, a 25 year-old girl who works at TLC. We instantly fell in love with her and her sense of humour. She took us to Monkey Mountain and we saw many monkeys who were fiesty but cute. Afterwards, we headed to the beach. The beaches are a 10 minute walk, 2 minute truck ride from where we're staying. They aren't the nicest beaches but ten times better than anything in Vancouver. Nice and warm but salty as all get out (no, I don't like the saltiness).

In the evening we headed to the market and ate delicious food and browsed around the set ups. Man oh man, do the Thai girls have style or what? The clothes are so nice and talk about cheap cheap cheap. If I finally have style when I come back, you'll know why but don't get your hopes up. We finished our final task of eating ice cream as it got dark.

Well, I will fill you in more later. I don't have too much time to update this blog but I'm going to go learn how to "break it down" b-girl style.

With much love,
Kenzi.

1 comment:

Valeria. said...

KENZIIII!!! IT SOUNDS AMAZING! I saw some pics on facebook too so i can picture what you were doing as I was reading your blog! From the look in the pics it doesn't look like there are any elephants for you to ride for us.. OH WELL.
Love you and miss you!