BootsnAll Travel Network



farang

stolen from christy’s myspace page, originally posted on feb 21, 2008:

“farang” thai for foreigner

i’m so farang, i’m not even sure if i’m sure that farang is the right word to describe me, but it doesn’t matter because i am absolutely loving it here.

after a 10 hr flight, plus a 4 hr layover, plus a 6 hr flight, kimi and i arrived in bangkok international airport and got that stamp on our passports. we waited for kira to join us and then caught a cab to the marriot spa and resort where we met jess, lisa yee and her mom.

we spent the night walking around and buying food from convenience stores and street vendors.

the thing i love about being fadang is that everything is so new, exciting and interesting. the simplest things, like walking into a 7 eleven or crossing the street take on an sense of adventure.

the thing i love about being a fadang in thailand is that i feel like i’m rich! i’m doing things i could never in my wildest dreams afford in hawaii.

yesterday, after lounging at our hotel for a bit and recovering from jet lag, we went down to the train station and booked a 14 hr train ride to chiang mai. from there we went up to the tourist office and made plans to take a 3 day trek with the hills tribe people in the jungle/rain forest. our trek will include staying in the villiages with the tribes people, riding elephants and white water rafting. we also booked flights down to phuket too. (all of this, 5 days, accomodations, a flight, the trek experience, and meals =$250)

i’ll be sure to provide a full report of the experience, and am almost scared to throw it out there before it’s happened, because it’s seems too good to be true. but in thailand it seems like things really work out and the too good to be true actually is true!

case in point…after booking what sounds like it will be an adventure of a lifetime, we went down to a place called Health Land and got 2 hr thai massages for $12 per person. malia and jess wanted us to start off with the best of the best. the place we went was very, very fancy and upscale and the massages were amazing! i still can’t believe that they were so cheap. it almost seems wrong.

dinner that night for 7 people rang in at whopping $6 total (not each, total!). but i have to admit, my favorite foods so far though have come from the street vendors who sell their goods from anywhere between 30 cents -$1. i love them and their smiling faces, their carts of extrodinary wonders and the excitement of new foods and a chance to practice my broken thai.

i love walking around and seeing the world around me.

bangkok is an interesting place. it’s busy and filled with tons of smells. there are stray dogs everywhere. the drivers weave in and out of traffic and pedestrians have no right of way… crossing the street today felt like a death defying feat (but a fun one!)

the place feels dirty and many of the buildings have black soot on them, but it’s also very beautiful. the people are amazing and so far have been very nice and kind to me. there doesn’t seem to be any real order… you’ll see amazingly fancy buidlings right aside a rundown building. there’s something about that, that i really like for some reason.

anyways, i know i’m a little all over the place rambling. truth is, i need to get out of this internet cafe and back into the world of exploration, but i know i’ll regret it if i don’t make some effort to document my experiences.

today, i broke away from the girls to wander around a bit on my own. it’s fun to be solo for a bit, just as much as it’s fun to be surrounded by my lovely ladies.

hope everyone is safe, happy and having fun back home. we are all good up here.

much love, christy



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One response to “farang”

  1. Mom says:

    Enjoyed all of Christy’s entries….you are all such good writers:)…thanks for sharing and taking us along too:)

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