frankly thailand

I am finally getting around to write about Thailand….which was a trip.

(Explicit Content Warning)

We left from Penang, Malaysia, where we visited as a class. It was the first place the British colonized and turned into a port city. They subsequently took over Malacca and then moved onto Singapore. We got to stay in a part of town known as “Georgetown” and the beautiful old Cheong Fatz Tze Mansion. It has the most brilliant blue color that comes from straight from the pigment in crushed indigo flowers. If you ever find yourself in Penang for some odd reason, I highly recommend it for it’s historical significance. And as a bonus, the Catherine Deneuve film “Indochine” was filmed there back in the day. (They were also filming a movie the day we left.)
Back to the point, we flew out of Penang and there was a total of 8 people on a plane that sat 50. For a while it was just the five of us - which we got a huge kick out of. An hour later we got to land on a perfectly green island surrounded by picture perfect turquoise water. Paradise!
The plan was to move around Phuket (perhaps the most popular island in Thailand, though out of season this time of year thanks to monsoons) as we pleased – beach hopping. The first night we stopped in Hat Kamala, then moving onto Hat Kata. The beaches were really beautiful, but ruined by tourists. Kamala was not touristy but it had TRASH on it, which I have never experienced on any beach and it was so disappointing (why do people think it’s okay to litter into the ocean EVER, much less into perfection?)
Kata was long and lovely but dotted with umbrellas and people people people. Tourists aside, and the vendors trying to sell you crap every five seconds aside, it was fantastic. And there was sun! We thought we were going to have to leave Phuket earlier than planned because it would be raining the whole time but quite the contrary. Beautiful weather.
The last thing worth mentioning about Phuket was the large number of kathoey (pronounced ‘Kuh-toy’ to the best of my knowledge), aka transvestites, there. If someone hadn’t pointed it out to me I probably wouldn’t have noticed because these women, or men, were HOT! I mean, I’m pretty girly for the most part, pretty feminine I think, and I felt like a man next to these ladies. If it weren’t for the adam’s apple you’d nneever know. (And sometimes you still don’t know). It’s really rather impressive.
This was more confusing than anything.
What turned out to be incredibly disturbing was the number of Thai women with older white men. Everywhere. Not just prostitutes (I think we only saw those in Phuket but I’m so oblivious to it who knows – and besides, who can tell the difference between a prostitute and a plain ole slutty girl sometimes?) but just younger Thai women. It’s creepy.
PSA: Please no one have a mid –life crisis and end up with a younger Thai woman looking for a better life. She may or may not have been a man in a former life ---- and it’s just not right. Thank you.
Anyhow, we left from Phuket Town on an early morning ferry to the islands of Ko Phi-Phi (Koh Phi-Phi Don and Leh). These are supposed to be some of the most beautiful islands on the west coast and…..the movie The Beach with Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed on Leh. Anyhow, we split up to stay on different parts of the island and three of us rented a long boat and a driver to take us out to Leh for a few hours (no one can stay on Leh, it’s just for day trips) to snorkel and swim.
So beautiful! I always laugh at the water in the rides at Disney and places like Frankie’s Fun Park because the color is so unrealistic but I’ve finally figured out where they get it from – Thailand. Ridiculous. This was much less populated and so we felt like we were exploring. Our drive took us to several coves and bays (we got to swim into a cave!) and we were generally all smiles. (How could you not be?)
The following day we headed back to Phuket and then off to Ko Samui, an island on the east coast. It was supposed to be sunny here, but all we got was rain and clouds. Our beach was quieter and long, white, and beautiful. It was nice to have some quiet time and get lots of reading done. My friend Eric was staying in the hotel right next to us with his family and they were kind enough to charter a catamaran to take us around one afternoon (by this time our numbers have grown to…7). While I was there I also took a catamaran up to Ko Tao two hours away – which is supposed to be on of the best places to scuba dive in the world. Since I don’t YET have my scuba license I settled for snorkeling and saw lots of pretty fish and coral..and some crazy other things.
In order to fly back to KL we had to fly up to Bangkok so we had decided to give ourselves a 24 hour layover in order to jet out and see what we could. It worked pretty well! We went to the famous night market there on Saturday and had delicious and CHEAP Chang beers, pad thai, and pineapple fried rice (yum!). Sunday morning we went to the HUGE market there bright and early. That was crazy. It only happens on the weekends and it was insane. You can get anything you could ever want (food pets shoes vintage tshirts antique furniture handbags candles etc) IF you can withstand the smells. I would not wish some of those smells upon my worst enemy. UGH. We didn’t have very long there and it was such a smelly sticky maze I didn’t buy anything except two glass rings for 50 US cents. (biig spender) But there was some pretty cool stuff – I even saw a Wild Dunes t-shirt for sale! If there had been a Clemson one I would have bought it no matter what. From there we visited the Jim Thompson house (he was an American who promoted silk manufacturing in Thailand and assembled several Thai houses to live in). Then we ran off to ride a ferry up the disgusting brown river to see Wat Bo and the HUGE golden reclining Buddha – which struck me as a little excessive, especially for Buddhism, but whaaaatever. And that was Bangkok.

I kept myself really busy with school last week and then crashed this past weekend. I don’t remember the last time I slept so much at once.
I am really pleased because on a sleepless night last week I came up with a concept for my studio project. I had been worried because I had nothing I was pleased with but it came to me out of nowhere and now it’s going somewhere. Anyhow,
I’m thinking about continuity in terms of flow and progression. Our site in Siem Reap, Cambodia, is surrounded by rice fields and so very in tune with the crop and weather cycles, as well as all those cycles associated with school. I’m really excited with where I’m going. My approach has been very different than everyone else’s, and as a result my project is very different. I haven’t gotten to speak with my partner about it yet, but my teacher has encouraged all of us to move forward because we have no other option time-wise. Hopefully there won’t be a problem as I am very attached to my ideas!

Anyhow, that’s all there is to it for now. I’m going to Singapore at the end of the week, to which I’m looking forward. I’m hoping to scan some of my work before I leave so maybe I’ll put it up here….
We’re posting on the project blog, so don’t forget to check it out every once in a while!