Brittany
Ross in Thailand
May 28, 2003
Hey SRHS,
Haven't written in a while because i had 2 weeks where i was on vacation, and then my stuff
from NBCC came, so I've been devoting ALL (and yes, i mean all) of my time to finishing my math before i get
home. Which looks pretty promising!! but i'll fill you in on what i've been doing while i've been negelecting the
school!!!
Koh Hai
The weekend before i went to Malaysia we went with another Canadian
family (sort of, the mom and kids are from Argentina, the dad is from Canada and they've
lived there for 5 years in Halifax). Anyways ... Koh Hai was this amazing island. Koh in Thai means island. Which i just
learned. Anyways, it's one of the islands near where Survivor was filmed!! But that island looked like
crap compared to where we stayed!! We were up and ready at 4:45 am to leave for the island, and we drove for
HOURS in one of those horrible vans with the "air conditioning"
that's really just air blowing in your face that makes you
feel ill. But we got to the place where you catch an hour-long long boat. Long boats are like those boats you
see in movies where the characters trying to have a romantic dinner and they have that guy in the
striped shirt rowing around
and singing. But minus the shirt and the singing. And the long boat has a car engine and a propeller. It's
not a great ride if you get sea sick ... like i do! haha. When we arrived at
Koh Hai it was incredibly hot.
And i've adapted pretty well to being in 35 weather all the time, but this was insane!
Not to mention we had no ac in
our tents with shacks over top.
Our main source of amusement in Koh Hai was snorkeling at the coral reef. It was so beautiful,
and they had so many different kinds of fish. There was this fish that looked like a turkey, and i poked
it ... Heather later
informed me that they're poisonous if they attack you. Luckily for me it just swam away. There were all
different
colored fish too. Neon blue ones, and PARROT fish, they were amazing! They actually looked like parrots,
and when they swam they flapped thier fins up and down. It was too cool. They're actually called
parrot fish too. (Heather also told me that, although i'm not sure when she became a
marine biologist). We
traveled to a few other islands and went snorkeling there too. It wasn't as nice as the place right off where we were
staying. Plus at our place we got to go kayaking!
We went to this place, the emerald cave, and saw dolphins on
the way! But it's this cave you swim through (not great if you're at all claustrophobic) and you end up at an
island inside the cave. It was pretty amazing, but when we got in, all the
Thai's swarmed us before we could even get
out of the water! I had to take pictures with every member of a family (of 7 i might add), then a group shot with
them!! They weren't the only ones either!
Malaysia
We really didn't do much on Koh Hai, just enjoyed how peaceful it was!! Then we left
Koh Hai,
and got home at 8:30 that night, only to get ready to go to Penang, Malaysia the next day! We were up at 3:30 this
time, and VERY unimpressed when we got to Malaysia. The secretary at Baker
Huges only included 1 of each of our
passport photos. We gave her 4!!! I imagine she's probably working voo doo on the rest of them
now. So we can't get our visas done until we have our pictures re-taken. It's a pretty good laugh now when we
see the pictures, because in our original ones we're all smiling and happy, and in the ones we took that day none of us are
smiling, and we look like we were in the car for 5 hours!!
We only spent one night in Penang, and trust me, that was
enough!! The people were nowhere near as friendly as they are in Thailand.
(The next week we met some
backpackers who said they had been to Malaysia and the Melayans said that Thai's
weren't as friendly as them, so they thought
they were in store for some real "jerks").
Lindsey and i got food for a few crippled homeless people, and one guy
asked where his water was!!! Not to mention, he had a bottle right beside him. The good things about malaysia
were: the hotel we stayed in, it had amazing English shows and air con on all the time. I even had to call room
service during the night because i was so cold. They brought me up two blankets! So that was nice.
Another
good thing was this resturant we ate at! Afritalia. Half African, half
Italian cuisine. it was amazing!
And the guy was VERY nice.
The only other really nice thing was that Melayans are bigger than Thai's, and
to our great excitement, that meant PANTS THAT FIT!!! You're probably
thinking "why would someone wear pants when it's 34
out?" And to be honest i don't really know, i just prefer wearing pants. So buying pants was a nice treat.
Oh, and the batik store. I found a lovely dress that i really wanted, and the guy said "oh that
won't fit you" and living in Thailand i wasn't THAT crushed ... then the guy said "let me go find you a smaller size" I
nearly cried i was so
happy. Mainly because compared to Thai's i'm an Amazon. Best of all, i got the dress! (in my smaller
size!)
The next day we headed back to Songklah ... and the guy at the Malaysian border was a jerk. But that was
fine because mom was really sarcastic with him and another guy too. We also did a sars check. I
wouldn't
have minded having it if i could have passed it on to the guy at the border. But luckily for me, i
didn't! We even
got stamps proving it! Then we went home!!
Koh Penang.
Lindsey and i travelled by ourselves to Koh Penang for a little sisterly getaway! It took a day to get
there, and then a sleeping boat, where they put you in beds with people you
don't know. It's kind of creepy but
you meet some interesting people!! We arrived where we wanted to be the next day, and got a hotel
room with two
beds and no ac. Big mistake. It was VERY hot. But we didn't sleep much anyways. We
grabbed about 3 hours each day, and spent the rest of the time out at the club, shopping or swimming. It was a really
fun spot because it was mostly English people there! And if the people
weren't English, they spoke English
anyways. So we met lots of new people and had a really great time!! I spent sooooo much time at the beach,
and at the restaurant at the hotel i stayed at. They made these amazing warermelon smoothies that i had about 6 of a
day! (That's a lie ... i had so many more than that!) Plus they had cartoon network.
I was glad to come home after
a few days though, because i REALLY needed to catch up on my sleep. And if i would
have heard any more cockney
from the English guys we were hanging out with my head would have burst. It makes NO
sense at all. It was amusing enough listening to the explanations.
The only one i caught onto was "How's your loaf?" because loaf of
bread, and bread rhymes with head, so it's like "how's your head", meaning how are you. I think it would be
easier to just say "how are you?" haha.
Anyways, if i write anymore, my fingers will fall off!
xoxo brittany