Cars, Motorbikes, Heat and Humidity

This is a quick account on what I see and feel on my way to school: from my condo to the school in Chonburi, Thailand where I am currently teaching at.

I get up and get ready like any person would for any reason on any given day. Since I don’t have a car (because why would I buy/rent a car?),would never rent a motorbike (unless I want to die), no songthaews pass on my street and I haven’t gathered the courage to take motorbike taxis, I simply walk to school. Its not a far walk and I enjoy walking. It takes me between 20-25 minutes from the moment I walk out of my room (on the 7th floor) to the time I get to where I need to sign-in at school. Its a very doable walk and frankly, thats how I get my exercise for the day 🙂

 

What do I see on my journey to and from school? As I walk out of my condo I am normally greeted with friendly smiles and a sawadee kha (‘hello’ in Thai) from the cleaning ladies and guards. Motorbike taxis line the streets waiting for passengers. As I walk on the main road I start to see it and feel it. I see many cars stuck traffic jams while countless motorbikes weave their way around the cars where they can. On the motorbikes I see men, women and children of all ages. On some there is only one passenger, others two and three and I once saw four. That’s four people on ONE motorbike! Thai people make it work. I walk on the sidewalk (cuz where else would I walk?) but sometimes its not much of a sidewalk at all. I usually also encounter people on motorbikes on the sidewalk going against traffic–hence why they are on the sidewalk. I also come across the same couple stray dogs on my walk every morning. Some are just taking a stroll while others are taking a nap under a strip of shade. I hardly see any other fellow pedestrians. I gather if Thai people don’t have their own car or motorbike, they make use of the motorbike taxis to get around. I mean seriously, who is crazy enough to walk in this heat? Oh yeah…I am. Crossing the final road before arriving at my school feels like death every time. It is a huge intersection with cars, buses, motorbikes and any other modes of transportation you can think of going in every direction. OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration given that there are traffic lights. BUT there are no traffic lights for pedestrians. That means I have to simultaneously look at every direction where cars could be possibly coming from. I think there are about 3 lanes in each direction (they aren’t really clearly marked and people just seem to drive anywhere anyhow).

Nearly every morning I have the same thought process. I walk out of my bulding and think, ‘oh its nice and fresh today,maybe today I wont get to school all sweaty and disgusting”. Unforuntely, it never fails to be only wishful thinking. As I make my journey to school I start to feel the hot Thai weather. I think its a combination of the wallking and humidity that makes it feel so–for a lack of a better word–nasty. The sun doesnt feel like its burning but somehow I still manage to get to school more than a little sweaty. At this point, however, I think Ive gotten used to it, or its gotten colder? Whatever the reason, it needs to stay like this 😛

On my way back to home from school its quite similar. I have to cross the death road and I encounter more motorbikes on the sidewalk driving towards me. As I turn the corner to get onto the street where my condo is located, I feel some relief. The day is over and I finally get to take off my school clothes and just relax in some shorts and a t-shirt and watch something while eating ice cream 🙂

 

 

Florida: Sticky Times, Happy Times

As much as I hated the disgusting humid Florida weather, I wish I was back there.
I only started this blog because I had to for a class, and I’m so glad I did. My traveling experience was amazing and I’m glad I got to document it. Unfortunately I haven’t written in over a year because I thought I’d use this as a travel blog. My most recent travel has been to Florida, only for a couple of days and only to see Harry Potter world.
My sister and I had been wanting to visit Universal Orlando for sometime now because Harry Potter world seemed incredible! Finally this summer we decided to take the leap and fly out to Florida. We had an early flight so we only got a couple hours of sleep. We had layover issues, had had no food all day and by the time we actually got to Orlando we were exhausted. The moment we walked out of the airport my sister and I look at each other in disgust. It gets past 100 degrees at home but we don’t have humidity. The humidity felt gross on our tired bodies. In all the excitement however, as soon as we checked in to our hotel we decided to walk the mile to get to universal city walk to look around and finally get some food.

Despite the sleep deprivation, hunger, fatigue and gross weather, being there taking a break from real life if only for a couple of days felt relieving. The first night we walked around city walk for a while looking for a place to eat. After dinner we walked around the entire thing, went into shops and the whole atmosphere got us even more excited for the days to come. The adrenaline (and perhaps the weird weather) caused us to get very little sleep thus making us very tired the next day. However, that didn’t stop us from getting ready excitedly to finally get to experience Harry Potter world! 🙂

Harry Potter world was amazing! When I entered into HP world I started to feel like a crazy person. We really just flew from California all the way to Florida just for HP world. I started to doubt whether or not it was worth it. As much as I loved HP world and was amazed, it was only a part of Islands of Adventure and it seemed too small for my liking. The more I thought about whether or not our trip was worth it, the more I wanted to enjoy myself. We had already made the trip and the opportunity for enjoyment was there so why bring myself down on thinking of its worth when I was already there? We spent all of our morning and part of our afternoon in HP world. We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks, drank butter beer, toured Hogwarts and paid a visit to Ollivanders were we got our wands. We were hesitant to leave HP world because it was pretty much the sole purpose of our trip. Going into the rest of the park with an open mind and with the desire for fun was the only way to go into the rest of our trip. All in all we had a fantastic time at Islands of Adventure. All islands had something unique to offer and gave us a different kind of fun.
As sad as I was to end the day at Islands of Adventure where HP world was, I was excited to explore Universal Studios Orlando the next day.

I was really excited to visit Universal Studios because I wanted to compare it to the one in Hollywood. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the surprise was pleasant. The park is organized by cities so essentially we visited Hollywood, Beverly Hills, New York and San Francisco. Oh, and let’s not forget Krustyland! We went on pretty much all the rides, got to see the parade and catch some shows. Universal Studios Orlando did not disappoint.

By the end of our trip I was convinced that it was worth flying thousands of miles to experience HP world and everything else Universal Studios had to offer. Why not take a chance once in a while and travel far away from home so that you’re forced to have a good time to make your trip worth it. In the end, you’re going to end up going back home anyway. I can’t recall which day I saw this quote but at one point I saw a sign the said something like, “I am going to need a vacation from this vacation”. This couldn’t be more true. For about 4 days we had an average of 5 hours of sleep and did countless miles of walking in the Florida sun–and lets not forget humidity. Needless to say, we were absolutely exhausted! The vacation was very much needed but the coming back home was probably needed even more. Truth is, as glad as I was to be away from home for a while I truly missed certain people (and the California sun) and wished I could have shared the experience with them. As cliché as it is, there truly is no place like home and there is really no better place to be than with your loved ones. <;3
As much as I’d love to be back in Florida at this moment in my life, it’d be more of a runaway attempt rather than a vacation. The memories of happy vacation time in Florida is much more appealing than not so pleasant times at home.