The most amazing month ever...Thailand

Thailand was so amazing! I only went to Koh Phangan so I need to go back to explore the rest of the country! I can’t write about everything that happened on my holiday but I will tell you about most of my adventures!

                                                (View from my first hotel).

My sister and I spent a night in Bangkok while we waited for our flight early the next morning to Koh Samui to get a boat to Koh Phangan. The hotel was very nice and a little expensive. It was ideal for us because it was so close to the airport. The room had a free mini bar with oreos, coca cola, beer and water. We didn’t go crazy and party in the city because knowing my sister and I, we would have never made it on our flight if we’d partied the night before! So I guess I will have to explore Bankok another time!

As soon as we walked through the airport after arriving in Bangkok, I couldn’t stop staring at the amount of westerners everywhere! For the first time in six months I was walking through crowds of people who were not staring at me for being white!

The first hotel we stayed in on the island of Koh Phangan was lovely!! We stayed in a basic hut right on the beach. It was a little out of the way from the main clubbing area of the island but we were happy with it. It gave us some peace and quiet to relax when we would have a break from partying! The hut was very basic and it was very hot because the air conditioning was a little fan on the ceiling! Also, during the day, ants would appear and live on our bed! During the night they would disappear. This was annoying though because we would be out during the night so my sister and I had only a few hours to sleep on the bed before daylight appeared. We had to take turns to sleep in the hammock on our balcony and on the hard wooden bench next to it! It was very basic accommodation but the location was amazing so we couldn’t complain much really!!

                              

                                                   (The beach our hotel was on).

I only stayed in Koh Phangan for one week because I had to go back to China to work! My sister stayed in Thailand and continued travelling for six weeks. She also went to Malaysia and Singapore. Out of the three countries her least favourite was Thailand! She said it was because there were too many British tourists in Thailand. This is understandable but when you have spent a lot of time away from British people it was nice to mingle amongst them! There were also tourists from all over the world! I enjoy meeting new people from different places and hearing their stories! Unlike other British tourist destinations in Spain and Greece, there is a big variety of different types of people to meet. My sister and I loved confusing people about where we were from by speaking in Welsh to each other. One minute we would speak in English and the next we would be talking in Welsh. I love doing this!!

We heard many funny, dangerous and interesting stories about people’s travelling experiences. I loved taking a taxi on Koh Phangan. They are blue trucks and as many as ten people can sit on the back of one. (Maybe more)! This is a good place to meet people! We heard drug related stories of silly boys getting in trouble and having to pay a lot of money to the undercover police or risk getting put in prison! We heard stories of the many beautiful beaches to see. Everyone loved talking about the beach from the film ‘The Beach’. I didn’t get to see it unfortunately as it is on another island, Ko Phi Phi. This will be another place I will have to visit on my return visit to Thailand in the near future!

We also heard stories of people being injured on motorbikes (apparently a girl was killed on one while we were there) and people having things stolen. We heard on more than one occasion of girls having everything stolen from them (including money, phones and sometimes even their passports)!!  During the Full Moon Party, someone tried to rob from my sister. She had a good travel bag so we kept our few possessions of the evening with her in her bag. We walked through a big crowd of people and on reaching the end of the crowd she realised that her bag had been opened. However, her bag is a clever invention and there are so many zip pockets on it. The thief had opened a wrong pocket and had taken only a free map that we had got from the hotel! Lucky for us we didn’t lose anything or have anything stolen! A tip for future travellers and party animals…don’t take anything valuable!!!! Also, don’t ride motorbikes like a crazy person…you’ll get hurt!!!

The parties in Koh Phangan were so amazing! I won’t bore you about how much of a good time I had but it is definitely worth experiencing!! One of the best parties I have ever been to was the Full Moon party! I want to go back there for New Year’s Eve but this is a dream at the moment I think! My sister and I had our arms painted in neon paint. I had a big dragon down my left arm and a Welsh flag put on my right arm! We drank from the famous cocktail buckets.

                                    
                                    

The Full Moon party was fantastic! There were different DJ’s all the way across the beach playing different kinds of music. There were the usual fire games. We didn't take part but watched the brave (and stupid) people who took part skipping over fire ropes and jumping through a hoop on fire.

My sister and I made it to the end. We saw the beautiful sunrise and poked fun at certain people who had got too drunk and had gone to sleep on the sand. We also were aware of Thai children running around staring at the floor looking for valuable items that drunk people might have dropped by mistake! We made it home by 9 AM and went to sleep on the sun loungers. Due to our hotel being so quiet, we didn’t once have to fight for a place on a sun lounger!

We saw many animals during our stay including monkeys, giant iguanas, tiny lizards, massive toads and a ridiculous sized horn beetle.

We also went to a jungle party and a Waterfall party (there was no waterfall there). These parties were also a lot of fun!

After the main parties on the island, most people move onto the next islands for the next parties. My sister and I stayed behind and carried on relaxing. There are still tourists in Koh Phangan during this time but it is a lot quieter! We moved to another hotel for a change of scene. This hotel was much grander than the last one! Our hut was really big and modern. The owners were French and were really friendly. The huts were right on the beach again. It was so beautiful!!

We went to a beautiful beach on the north of the island called Blue Bottle beach. It was very quiet and peaceful! 

                                      

We also went to Amsterdam Bar. The view from this bar is incredible!...

There was a big storm one night and it rained for hours. My sister and I watched the thunder and lightning from a bar on the beach. It was a memorable storm to watch! Even before we left our hotel we could tell the weather was turning. You can see the clouds in this picture gathering and the wind moving the trees.

I cannot describe how relaxed I was on this holiday! It was just amazing! On returning to the overcrowded, dirty, polluted city of Zhengzhou I had the holiday blues for ages! Thailand I hope I will see you again very soon!! 

The most amazing month ever ... the return to Zhengzhou

 Returning to Zhengzhou, I was apprehensive of what my family would think of the city that I have been calling my home for the past year. We stayed in the Novotel hotel in CBD, the new and modernised part of the city. In comparison to the main city, CBD is so much quieter, cleaner, more modern and spacious! It almost doesn’t feel like I’m in the same city when I’m in CBD! It’s the business district and I can’t help but get the feeling that only those with money live and relax there!

 We were staying on the fourteenth floor of the Hotel, the ‘business floor’ which meant we had access to free breakfast and mini bar every day!! The view of CBD was lovely from the free bar but they really needed to clean the windows!! 

                            

For the first night, we ate from the buffet in the hotel because we were too tired to go looking for food. It was expensive but good! However, I still need to learn how to eat at a buffet properly…in future I should not eat rice or bread and fill myself up on them!

On the Saturday, we had a small lie in and then set off towards the Shaolin Temple around noon. However, I forgot the amount of traffic that exists in the city. It took us nearly an hour to get out of the city only to have to travel for another two hours! Half way through our journey it started to rain. It rained….and rained…and rained…

We finally arrived at the Shaolin Temple, disheartened at the continuing rain! We put our umbrellas up and went out into the rain. We were hungry and hoped that if we ate, the rain might calm down. The only place to eat was Dico’s, China’s very own fast food chain. My sister is a vegetarian so all she could eat were chips. In China a ‘vegetarian option’ doesn’t usually exist. Also, due to my lack of Chinese, I ordered wrong/they took the wrong order and we ended up having to eat what we hadn’t ordered!

After eating, we realised that the rain had not calmed and was in fact continuing to fall hard and heavy. We were all feeling quite sad. I was especially sad because I had been looking forward to showing my family the sights that I had enjoyed there a few months before. Even the amazing night show, ‘the Shaolin Music Zen Ritual’ was cancelled due to the weather! I was disappointed!!

                                                              (The kung fu show).

We wondered if it was pointless to even pay but we did. We managed to see a martial arts show, which was held inside due to the rain! I quite enjoyed it. Some of the kung fu stunts were impressive. The loud audience in China always ruins the atmosphere of a show though. In the UK, we are used to being so silent in any performance, whether in a cinema or a theatre. In China however, it is completely normal for the audience to continue talking loudly while the show is ongoing.

                                                  (Smiling despite the weather)

We tried to see some of the temples but we didn’t last long. We took very few photos then made our way back to the hired car and the driver. My family are used to rain as we are from Wales, a country where rain exists on a regular basis. However, this rain was different!! After seeing so many amazing places around China, it was inevitable that something was bound to go wrong at some point!

The next day, our luck changed. The weather was so beautiful and hot! The bad weather the day before had cleared all the clouds and dust. The sun (which is unusual to see due to the pollution most days) shone bright in the unusual blue sky! My mum had been waiting so long to see the Longmen Grottoes and it was a perfect day to see them!

We spent a couple of hours in the hired car again being driven by the hired driver. This time, we left earlier and guess what… we still got caught in the traffic a little! I don’t think there is a time of day in Zhengzhou when there isn’t any traffic!!

The Longmen caves did not disappoint!! Obviously, it was a weekend and so the weekend and the sun had drawn out big crowds of people to the location! It was so funny watching people realise we were foreigners and come rushing over for photographs with us! My family got to experience what it’s like to be a foreign ‘VIP’ in China. It was so strange being able to see such amazing statues of Buddha’s and instead of taking pictures of these incredible monuments, Chinese people just wanted to take pictures of us!! My Dad started taking pictures of people taking pictures of us. It was very entertaining!

Here are a few photos taken of people taking pictures of us...

                                

(My Dad enjoying some VIP treatment)!

 There are as many as 100,000 statues within 1,400 caves. Some of them are tiny, others are very big. Many of the statues in the caves have unfortunately been damaged due to weather or theft. In the early 20^th century, many of the statues were beheaded or extracted entirely by collectors and ended up abroad. Others have had their faces completely destroyed due to vandalism back in the days of the cultural revolution. Therefore, many of the monuments are in ruin but are slowly being restored.

I was worried that my parents would worry about me being alone in China even more after seeing where I live. My neighbourhood is very...different in comparison to neighbourhoods in the UK. It is very Chinese! Living areas in Zhengzhou are made up of blocks. Each block has around three entrances. I can’t even guess how many people live in each block! The entrances are crowded with street food stalls and there are little shops surrounding every block. The apartments are all the same size. Whole families live in these small living areas. It’s small for me and it’s only me living here! 

To my surprise, on exiting the taxi, my family’s faces were in owe! They loved it! They couldn’t believe how Chinese my home was! They told me it was nowhere near as bad as I had been describing it to them on the phone! I was so glad that they approved of my living area! My mum was now relaxed having seen where I live!

I took them to eat at a restaurant on the corner of my building area. The food was great and my dad just couldn’t believe that six dishes of food came to the equivalent of around £5! We then went to a brewery that is also near my living area. It’s expensive there but the beer is apparently good. My dad then couldn’t believe that buying one beer cost more than our entire meal for four people! 

I'm so glad that my family got to see where I have been living for nearly a year now. I was even more glad that they liked Zhengzhou despite the pollution, ongoing construction everywhere, the noise, the amount of people and the dust.

My family went to the airport together and then went our separate ways. My parents went home and my sister and I made our way to Thailand...