Tired (and sick) in Thailand

Saturday 22 March - Monday 31 March

I won’t bore everyone with the day by day details of Thailand. Unfortunately, Thailand ended up being a casualty of a long trip and a terrible illness :P

It’s a hard thing to explain to someone that hasn’t been traveling for months…but you just get TIRED. You get really really tired. You need normal days and normal activities. While seeing the world is AWESOME!! I am loving every second…there is a part of you that just needs a break...especially when you are sick!! Thailand was our break. It may not have gone this way if we hadn’t been so sick…but man, we were sick.

We managed to crawl out of bed long enough to get some simple toast for breakfast on our first day and then we crawled back into our room. Standing up still hurt. Moving still hurt. We hooked the computer up to the tv via hdmi (I’m so glad I had the forethought to bring both my laptop-something I was unsure about-and that HDMI cord) and decided to see what all this “Breaking Bad” hoopla is about.

Not feeling well? Come hang out with us!!

I think we watched like 6 hours of “Breaking Bad” that first day. We drug ourselves down to the beach for dinner.

First sunset

Feeling rough

We are staying on the island of Phuket. Phuket is probably the best known destination in Thailand. It’s kind of party all the time. We aren’t too big on the party scene. Ideally, I had wanted to go to Ko Samui, but since we booked this part of our trip from Vietnam…the price was just too expensive. So, we settled on Phuket. Ultimately, I’m glad we did. It’s good to see the popular spots of a place.

Anyway, we chose the town of Kamala Beach on Phuket. Kamala Beach is a bit more quiet than the thriving Patong Beach or Old town Phuket.

Downtown Kamala Beach

Path to beach

This river smelled like sewage

It’s a bit like Bali here, but with many more people. There are quite a few tourists (most Scandinavian), more shops, and a busier town. Most of the bars had Thai women inside to keep the patrons company. Like most of Asia that we’ve seen…it’s kind of smelly and there is a lot of trash. There are a lot of cats (yay). It’s much more westernized here…and while I know that’s not the point of travel…I just gotta say…THANK YOU GOD FOR GATORADE. As I said…we are burned out.

Heyyyy

We got the most basic and plain meal that we could find. I had pad thai and Preston had fried rice. I hate to say it, but the food is probably the most disappointing thing about Thailand. Back home…we LOVE Thai food. It’s one of my favorites. We’ve even had it a number of times on this trip in other countries. But, here? IN Thailand?? Not so good :-/ I think it’s probably just because we are in SUCH a tourist area, but the food is plain and unflavored. It also likely doesn’t help that my digestive system is in nuclear winter.

Our days were all pretty much the same. We slept late…had toast for breakfast and some tea. We crawled back into bed…we watched “Breaking Bad”…we crawled (ok, slowly walked) to the beach or the pool…we’d go out for a simple dinner…we’d watch more “Breaking Bad”. We read a TON of books. We got massages one day (mine came with an awkward boob massage, which was unexpected and not very pleasant. Who knew? She also spent a lot of time on my stomach, which almost had me screaming in pain. Things are BAD in there!! Hands off lady!! I know it’s crazy, but I’m just not much of a massage person). We are super tan.

How we spent our days

The beach wasn’t as crowded as I worried it might be. It was busy, but overall not overwhelming. You could rent 2 beach chairs, 2 umbrellas, and a guy to move your umbrellas with the sun all day for $5.

Kamala Beach has a sidewalk along the beach with restaurants and shops built right into the sand. The days we spent at the beach were accompanied by banana smoothies…basically just ice and banana, maybe some sugar. Yum.

Beach path

I think I lost about 15lbs in Thailand (probably all the weight I’d gained up until this point eating myself around the globe :P) Even what I did eat didn’t sit well. My stomach just couldn’t seem to recover from the trauma of whatever I had picked up in Vietnam. Preston was the same. We just didn’t feel good. We were tired…barely being able to eat left us with little energy. But, as I said…it was a much needed, albeit forced, break from the hustle bustle of travel.

Our last night in Kamala, we decided to splurge on a restaurant with a southwest feel. Totally out of place in Thailand, but it was the number one rated restaurant in the town AND it had a “Breaking Bad” reference out front. I was so happy to dig into my burger, but found I could barely eat it and it STILL made me sick later :-/ Womp wa.

Hehe!!

We flew from Phuket to Bangkok. Luckily, we found a hotel RIGHT near the city train and the airport train. Bangkok has a super efficient train system. We walked the city as much as our stomachs would allow. I ate some soup. It made me sick. I ate some rice. It made me sick. Why?! Whyyyyy?!?!

Bangkok is such a contrast to Phuket. It’s very modern. Most of the city seems comprised of stunning shopping malls, all with different themes, high end shops, and amazing restaurants.

We decided to take a break from walking and saw a movie. The theater was quite modern and the popcorn, while insanely salty, was DELICIOUS. I think I was just so pleased by the normalcy of it all. We saw “Divergent” and it was pretty good. Before the movie, everyone had to stand and pay tribute to the King. Kind of funny.

The city was SO crowded, but amazingly very civilized considering the crowds. People actually stood in LINES and didn’t push to board the trains.

Here's a link to a video I took while walking.

We retreated to our hotel room and finished “Breaking Bad”. That’s right…we watched FIVE seasons-62 episodes of a television show in 10 days. It was good and VERY well done…but watching it in such close succession was pretty intense and made the character flaws pretty annoying. At one point, Preston exclaimed “ugh!! They are so frustrating!! We could totally make meth better than these people!!” Haha. True dat. I love you Jesse!!

I feel like we did Thailand a disservice. We didn’t really see more than a few square miles of the entire country; we didn’t experience all that much of the culture. We did get a taste for it and maybe we’ll come back someday, but truthfully…I wouldn’t have done it any other way. We NEEDED this. We are gearing up for Europe…which will be NONSTOP during the final month of our trip. I can’t believe how fast time has flown or how lucky we’ve been or what amazing experiences we’ve had. I just love Europe and I am beyond excited to see what it will bring…and I can’t lie…we are kind of stoked to get out of SE Asia. First stop: Turkey!!

Not that sad facin

Final thoughts/facts on Thailand:

Truly, this isn't even fair to do. We didn't see much.

The thai food is better in LA? 

Get out more?