Day 12 Bangkok - Phuket

I decided to pop into an internet cafe before leaving for my 4 day, 4 night liveaboard trip. To the paranoid Hachiumas: I will NOT be posting anything until Thursday evening Thai time (I am 11 hours ahead of you) so please don't assume that I have been kidnapped by drug lords or terrorists, or swallowed up by a tsunami. If there is an earthquake/tsunami, I will be safer at seat than on land. I am in Khao Lak, which was one of the worst-hit areas of the 2004 tsunami. Tourists who come here and put money back into the community are helping the area recover economically!

So last night, after posting my last blog, I walked around Khao San Road for kicks. It was midnight when the internet center closed, but the street is like a huge street fair -- food vendors everywhere, stores are open, people are walking around, music is blaring out of the many clubs and bars around. It's a bit disconcerting to hear a local Thai band playing the Cranberries' "Zombie" then a few stores down hearing "I Will Survive" blaring out of an Irish pub. I saw the bug lady again but decided that I had enough bugs for the trip. The most interesting thing was going in a beauty products/drug store. There are familiar brands like Pond's and Olay, as well as Thai and other Asian brands (lots of Japanese stuff). The most interesting stuff was in the skin care section. For those of you who may not know, the ideal beauty in Asian culture is to have pale skin (essentially, to look as caucasian as possible). There were L'Oreal, Olay and Nivea products with "whitening" properties in their lotions, cremes and elixirs which you don't find in the west. It got me thinking... maybe I should stop by and buy some of this stuff before heading back to the U.S.! I was walking around in the first place because I wanted to find these hysterical panties that one of the street vendors sell. These panties have fake brand names across the butt -- Chanel, Von Dutch, Puma, Adidas, you name it, they've got it. Isn't it funny!? But the panty lady was gone for the day... maybe I am not meant to have them.

I got up this morning and realized I had passed out with the lights on. I guess I was alot more tired than I realized. I forgot to mention yesterday that when I was at the Siem Reap airport, I used one of my handy wipes to clean off my face, and I was shocked to see how much of the terra cotta dust had formed a film on my face. I thought I got most of it off, but my shower revealed that I had alot more everywhere else -- imagine how dirty my clothes must be! I always have to shower at night to get all the grime of the day off -- dirt, sunscreen, DEET. Anyway, my feet were SUPER SORE when I got off the bed -- alot like how my feet feel after 4 hours of salsa dancing. But there was no dancing last night, it was just from walking around.

I made a phone call to Sam, the guy who was getting his MBA in Chicago, to apologize that I wasn't able to call him last night because it was too late. Unfortunately, due to my dive trip, I wasn't going to be able to meet up with them today either, but hopefully we will see each other next Sunday. He said he and his wife are looking forward to seeing me again and offered to pick me up from the airport next Sunday! I'm grateful, because I have 9 hours to kill at the airport otherwise. I told him I'll give him a ring from Phuket airport when I figure out what time our flight is REALLY leaving (I'm flying Orient Thai back to Bangkok, the airline that is always late).

I then went to exchange my dollars to bhat when I found that both exchange booths were closed, even though they both indicate they open at 8:30am (it was 8:45 at this point). But lucky me, I got to meet a nice guy from Ibiza, Spain named Miguel. He is traveling alone as well, and had 6 hours to kill before getting to the bus station. We went back to the restaurant at my guest house and sat at the terrace chatting while he had tea and I had a banana shake. Unfortunately, he was coming up north from the south, and I was going the other way. Plus, he's not a diver so we wouldn't have been able to travel together anyway. We exchanged email addresses and he said I can come visit him in Ibiza. Anyone want to join me!? Did I mention that he is muy guapo!?

I got on a taxi and headed to the airport to catch my flight to Phuket. Speaking of taxi, I forgot to mention that on my cab ride back into the city last night, I had the most hysterical cab driver. He spoke really horribly broken English, but he wanted to talk talk talk. He asked the first three questions most people ask me -- where am I from, am I single, how old am I. When he found out that I am Japanese living in the U.S. he got very excited and started talking about The Beatles (not sure where the leap was there) and said that John Lennon had a Japanese lady and started singing "Love Love Me Do" so I joined him. I think singing a Beatles song with a Thai cab driver will be one of the funniest memories I will have of this trip. He then told me that he knows a Japanese song and started singing Kyu Sakamoto's "Sukiyaki." He was so hysterical I couldn't stop laughing. But my cab driver this morning wasn't as colorful. I just had to throw my cabbie story in there.

The flight wasn't delayed until we boarded the plane -- apparently, there was a "VIP hold" in the airspace above Bangkok and all non-VIP flights were grounded and the airport closed for 30 minutes. I know that Jacques Chirac was due to visit Bangkok while I was in Cambodia, but maybe it was just Britney Spears or Brad Pitt flying into town. I have never heard of a VIP hold before, but we were delayed. This was a problem because I already had a tight connection in Phuket to an hour and a half bus ride to Kao Lak to get to the Sea Dragon Dive Center. By the time I picked up my bags, it was 3:10pm and I was supposed to check in at the dive center at 3pm. After losing several coins in the pay phone, I got an information booth girl to help me make the call. Making calls from a pay phone in a foreign country has got to the the most frustrating thing in the world. But the friendly British woman on the phone assured me that I would be okay but that I should take a taxi to get there (she didn't mention that it would cost me $30). It seemed I had no choice as the information booth told me that all buses to Kao Lak have left for the day -- how do buses stop running at 3pm on a Sunday, I don't know.

Ok 7 minutes to departure time -- I met another solo traveler from England named Jen, and after getting our dive trips in order, we had dinner together. It turns out that we aren't on the same boat (she is on the 3 day trip, I am on the 4 day) but when I get back, we are going to share a room together at the local guest house. She's been traveling for a few weeks and has an open-ended itinerary. She hopes to travel for a year. The Europeans sure know how to do this!

Anyway, I am super psyched about my dive trip. My boat is the Andaman, and it will hit the Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock (one of the best dive spots in the world), another island, then end with the Similan Islands. I think I am doing possibly the top 2 best dive areas in Thailand in the next 4 days. With only 16 dives under my belt, I am excited to add 13 more. I have never spent 4 days and nights on a boat before, so I hope I will be okay. I will write when I get back!

hugs & kisses,
asami :-)