Weekend in Ko Samet

I'm finally going to write about my three day trip to Ko Samet. On Jan. 11th, the Friday about a week ago, some friends and I took a minivan taxi, also called a "bus," and rode three hours southeast of Bangkok. The bus was filled to its capacity, holding 11 passengers. (Who would have thought that you could fit 12 people in a minivan? The people in the car probably outweighed the car itself.) Anyway, I rode in the front, and I must say that every eighth mile, I thought I was going to die. (Allow me to provide some insight of what Thailand driving is like. The laws aren't enforced, so you see people driving recklessly and on the wrong side of the road. What Thai drivers especially like to do is drive in two lanes at the same time. They can't decide which lane is faster so they'll drive in both. And they love tailgating. But Thai drivers are very good drivers, it's just that they take quite a few more risks than people in the states would. I think the leading cause of death in Thailand is from driving on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are so abundant in Thailand because they can weave in and out of traffic.) So I sat in the front, and accepted my dismal 63% chance of making it to Ko Samet in one piece. When we got to a little town, we got into a speed boat and boated for 10 minutes before getting to the island. The views were so beautiful, mainly because we were arriving about when the sun was setting. The boat pulled up to the beach and we just got out and stepped onto the sand. Along the beach, there were bungalows, one of which where we slept. Ko Samet is kind of touristy but not that much. It's not that developed like Phuket or Pattaya so that was a good thing. (I'm sure I'll have to go to both of those places sometime while I'm here.)

Because it was getting dark when we got there, it was time to change and go out. Because everything is on the beach (the bungalow, the restaurants, the bars), we basically just stepped outside of the bungalow and walked over to the restaurant for dinner. We then went to one bar for some drinks. It was quite interesting in that it seemed like everyone would walk along the beach while hitting up the bars that they passed by. It was a fun night, from what I can remember.

The next day, a few of us rented motorcycles for the entire day. Yeah, even after everything I've heard and seen about motorcycles. We paid the motorcycle guy and he just gave us the keys. No forms, no waivers, no helmets, no tutorial, not even instruction on how to start the bike up, just the keys. The motorcycles were fun to ride, especially when you need to squeeze pass an oncoming car. [The picture above was taken by someone who was riding on the back of another motorcycle ahead of us.] I have to say of the exchange students who rented motorcycles, about 80% of them crashed and got injured. One guy suffered a broken arm. For another guy, his motorcycle's throttle got stuck and his breaks stopped working so he couldn't slow down except for hitting a tree and getting really bad scrapes. I was lucky enough to not crash. Anyhow, we rode the motorcycles all over the island, making it to other beaches that you couldn't really walk to. Speaking of beaches, the beaches were magnificent, just what you see in pictures– white sand, clear water (very warm), you name it. (By the way, I've been able to steal many pictures from my friends so I don't really need to take any.)

On the beach, there were Thais who were carrying large baskets of food on their shoulders. They offer cooked food (from the guy who's carrying a grill on his shoulder), fresh fruit, ice cream, and other food. I bought coconut and ice cream. I don't know if they had coconut ice cream. At one beach, we did a little snorkeling near the rocks where there were a lot of fish. You don't realize you're swimming with several schools of fish until you look in the water with the snorkel. And you also don't realize that there are weird looking black spiky creatures with white eyes that stare at you in the water too!

When night rolled around, we went out again, but I made the mistake of only drinking beer for dinner. It was a short night for me, but I did win a spiderman doll from throwing darts at balloons.

The following day we did a lot of the same things. (I didn't find it necessary to deviate from the ultimate plan of having a good time– lying out in the sun and going in the water during the day and going out at night. There are boat day trips, jet skiing, kayaking, and scuba diving but I didn't feel I had to do everything because I know I'll back to this island again. It's too close and too good.) It was on this day that I got my first Thai massage, and it was on the beach. It was an eye-opening experience, even though my eyes were closed during the massage. For only two hundred Baht, I got a one-hour massage and I was SO relaxed after it. I felt like I was on drugs.

On the last day, we were able to take in a little more of Ko Samet before leaving at 3 in the afternoon. We took the speed boat, the bus, and finally a taxi to get back to Bangkok (in one piece).

Apartment and school

I had to look at only one condominium complex to find my new apartment. A bunch of exchange students also live in the same place. I live in a two bedroom apartment that overlooks Bangkok. What sold me were the amenities– pool, gym, steam and sauna, and a restaurant that will deliver to your room. There are even aerobics classes that I've done a few times. Where I live is considered very expensive for Thai standards, but cheap for us foreigners.

The building is on one side of the river while the university is on the other. There are a few ways that I can get to school: taxi, motorcycle taxi, ferry, or by walking. I like taking the taxi if I'm with another person so we could split the fare (even though the fare is so cheap anyway, only about 40 Baht, or a little over a dollar).

Thammasat University isn't as big as I thought it was going to be, but I think that is a good thing. Going from class to class is easy and fast. Although most of my classes are back to back, I'll still go to the cafeteria to eat. Similar to Berkeley time (classes start 10 past the hour), there is Thai time. Generally, Thais aren't punctual and so even the professors won't start the class until 20 after. Hence the eating between classes. Because of a stupid UC requirement, I have to take at least 5 classes, more classes than I've ever taken since being in college. The classes aren't going to be that difficult but will require effort and time (for school, not my strong suits). The professors at Thammasat vary greatly in the way they teach. For two of my classes, the professors have just read out loud off the handout. After one day in these classes, I've made the decision to not go to these classes at all except for midterms or when papers are due. My other teachers are good in that they get the class to be more interactive, especially my Thai Language class. I'm surprisingly learning quite a bit of Thai already. It will definitely come in handy when I order food or ask for directions. I'm getting more and more comfortable speaking it, and after I've had a few drinks is when I really want to speak it.

Arrival

Everyone I know who's studying abroad writes on a blog, so I guess I'll give it a try.

I left out of LAX on the first of January and arrived in Bangkok on the third. The first flight was 14 hours long, so I watched four movies. The layover in Taipei was two hours so I walked around at the airport, noticing the "no drugs or you'll get capital punishment or life imprisonment" signs. Upon arriving in Bangkok, there was supposed to be someone there to pick me up, but I couldn't find him. It was early in the morning, like 3 am, and I was really tired so I just looked for a taxi instead. For a 35 minute drive (Bangkok is so big, I don't even know how long it would take to drive across it), I saw close to 30 7-Elevens on the way. You can pretty much see at least two at a time. Anyway, at the end of the taxi drive, the driver turned down a dark narrow ally. (At orientation, they warned students to make sure that the taxis they got into are legit with some kind of decal. I was too tired to even know what was going on though.) So while we were driving down the ally, I knew I was going to get robbed and lose all my luggage. I was just thinking to myself, "Damn, I'm screwed. Now what? What can I do? Can I bargain with the guy to allow me to keep my passport and a little bit of cash?" But as it turns out, he didn't jump me or steal anything of mine, except maybe that he ripped me off on the cab fare. I was very happy.

So I checked into the guest house, where I stayed three nights. (I needed to stay at a hotel while I was looking for an apartment. Finding housing is real easy though, nothing like Berkeley.) I stayed in a room with another EAP student so the cost of the hotel was only 500 Baht per night. I think the exchange rate is close to 33 Baht per dollar. So it comes out to about $15 a night. This hotel was pretty nice, so I'm sure there are other places that are cheaper.

I found an apartment, but I'll talk about that later.