Parents visit, Hong Kong & Thailand

The past two/three weeks have been a complete whirlwind. My parents arrived April 1st and we spent time in Singapore, Bintan and Hong Kong together. It was great to show them my life here and spent time together. They spent a few nights at the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel in downtown Sing. The MBS has an incredible infinity pool on the 57th floor that has awesome views of the city. We got some great pictures, even with cloudy weather. I took them around my school and favorite local restaurants before heading off to Bintan, Indonesia for two days. In Bintan, we continued eating great food and soaking up the sun before returning back to Singapore. I had school all week and met up with my parents after classes each day. They left for Hong Kong on Thursday and I met up with them on Saturday morning.

They made it!!

Playtime in the Marina Bay Sands pool

Marina Bay Sands hotel

The kiddies enjoying some much needed sunshine

We found heaven, it's in Bintan

Hong Kong was AMAZING! It has the vibrancy and pace of New York but the similarities end there. My first stop was for some dimsum (of course) and we spent the rest of the day visiting markets and shopping. Even my dad had a great time. In fact, he had to buy a new suitcase because he had bought too much stuff! My parents were like giddy teenagers running around the city reminiscing about their old favorite spots. I didn't remember anything from when we lived there fifteen years ago except for a few sites from pictures hanging around the house.

Central

Fa Yuen street shopping

Her favorite, the jade market

Best. Food. Ever.

I was dying to go experience the nightlife in Lan Kwai Fung and my parents were total sports about it. We went bar hopping and I even got my mom to do jello shots out of a syringe with me. Everyone at the bar was cheering on the American "sisters" and we had a great time. The next day we visited Victoria's Peak, Repulse Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui. I would say the highlight of my trip was the food. I am obsessed with any and all Asian food and the dimsum in Hong Kong was too delicious.

The American sisters

Lan Kwai Fung, HK party district

View from the Peak

At Dickens bar in the Excelsior hotel, his old fav.

Repulse Bay beach

My parents left HK Monday morning to go back to the US. Before my mom even got on the plane, she was talking about her next trip back. I told her it'll be in two years when I graduate and am living in this time zone full time. So start booking your trips now, people! My flight wasn't until Monday night so I spent the day on Lantau Island. I took a crystal cable car to the top of a mountain in Lantau and met a lovely couple from Chicago who kept me company. I visited the Po Lin Monastery, Tian Tin buddha and Tai O fishing village before my flight at night.

Cable car up the mountain

Walking up the many stairs to Tian Tan buddha... These women stopped after each step to pray.

Tai-O floating village, nicknamed "Venice of the East" haha

On Tuesday, Leah and I were on the internet and found dirt cheap tickets from Thursday - Sunday to Krabi, Thailand. It is "E-learning week" at NTU so all of my classes are held online. The lecture notes are posted online and you write short responses to each lecture. There are no physical classes held. It is really bizarre - and pointless, if you ask me - but it meant that we could book the tickets to Thailand. We did and it was a great decision.

We nearly missed our flight on Thursday morning because the shuttle to our terminal was running late. Luckily, they kept the gate open for us an extra five minutes and we made it. We saw a few exchange students who we'd met earlier in the semester on our flight and made plans to hang out for the day. We spent the rest of the day drinking on the beach and exploring Krabi. We ate amazing Thai food and just had a really fun time.

Thailand crew

"Mrs. Sweet and partner" as the hotel staff called us

Drunkenly babysitting Thai children haha

The next day, Leah and I rented a private longtail boat to visit the surrounding islands. We visited Poda Island and Tub Island. It was absolutely beautiful. The pictures speak for themselves.

Poda Island

Hanging out in our longtail boat at Tub Island

Our driver for the day

After our trip, we got some delicious paid thai and did some shopping. Leah is cross-training for a marathon this summer so she went to the gym and I went to get a thai massage. I was a little nervous because thai massages are very physical and look painful. (Google "thai massage" and you'll see what I mean.) It ended up being an interesting experience because the women spoke no English. She walked on my back and bent me in positions I didn't know were humanly possible. It felt very nice until the next morning when I woke up with a sore neck.

We only have two weeks of classes left before finals begin on May 10th. We have this Friday off and are taking a trip to Malaysia with our friend Rachel. We plan on going to Malacca and Tioman island from the 21st- 25th. We haven't made it to Malaysia yet and I'm excited to check it out! After that is our last week of class. Leah and I are beyond excited because we leave for VIETNAM on the 30th. We are flying into Ho Chi Minh and spending two days there and two days in Mui Ne. I CAN NOT WAIT! Then I've got finals on the 10th, 11th, 18th and 19th. I leave for the US on May 23rd but have a five day layover in Madrid to visit some friends. I am missing Leah's birthday so we are trying to fit in one final trip from the 19th-22nd to celebrate her twentieth birthday.

Am I the luckiest girl in the world, or what? :)

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Sorry I haven't updated Asian Kara in a while. I got back from Koh Phi Phi, Thailand late Monday night and have been busy with classes and homework since. It's Friday now - classes are over and I've just about gotten the sand and paint off my body from my AMAZING long weekend in Thailand!

Leah and I began our journey at 5 am on Friday morning. Traveling was a real pain. We took a bus, train, airplane, cab and ferry to our destination. We finally arrived in Koh Phi Phi around 1pm, Thai time. Koh Phi Phi is a small island off the coast of Phuket. It is pronounced "Pee Pee" and not "Fee Fee" or "Ph-eye Ph-eye." It embarrasses me how most Americans don't even know where Thailand is on a map so please educate yourselves. I have been in way too many arguments with foreigners about how culturally ignorant and geographically illiterate my country is. It's really annoying, especially since I know it's true.

Thailand borders Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Phi Phi is an incredible island. There are no cars allowed. Most of the people who live there are from Sweden, Australia or Canada. No stores are air conditioned. The island takes thirty minutes to walk from one end to the other. The entire island is like one massive market. You can only drink bottled water - so yes, we had to brush our teeth using bottled water. The main Thai bottled water brand is Pornthip, which we got a kick out of.

woo hoooo! PORNTHIP!

We were exhausted and sweaty when we arrived to Phi Phi. We got soaking wet on our 2 hour ferry ride because we sat on the edge with our feet dangling over the boat. Upon arriving, we grabbed our bags and set out to find some pad thai. We stumbled upon to a small eatery called Mr. Tee's. Our meals cost about $2 USD each and it was simply AMAZING! We ended up eating there three times over four days. The meal completed changed our moods. We walked twenty minutes to find our beach bungalow with no issues.

Twin Palms Bungalows - located 10 steps from the beach, bar and tattoo/ piercing parlor.

No dressers, tv, computer, cell phones, air conditioning or hot water. My kind of camping!

The biggest adjustment was the lack of Asians. I have been the minority in Singapore for almost two months now. Everyone in Phi Phi is a tourist. The island is flooded with Swedes, Australians and Canadians. Leah and I were kind of overwhelmed by it at first. But once we headed to the beach and saw all the beautiful white men, we got accustomed pretty quickly. We took three hour naps in the sand before getting ready to hit the town. 

A few of our exchange friends from NTU happened to be in Phi Phi the same time us as. We ran into them at the beginning of our night and all went to the Irish Pub together. The Thai islands are famous (or infamous, really) for serving drinks in sand buckets. They cost about $4 USD and contain whatever you want. It was so fun to walk around the town and beach at night seeing people in their 20's drinking out of buckets. Since our bungalow is so centrally located, we danced on the beach all night and slept in our bungalow only 10 steps away!

Our first buckets at Jordan's Irish Pub

The fire show at the beach bar right outside our bungalow

We spent the following day (Saturday) at the beach. Since it is unbearably hot and sunny, we rented lounge chairs and an umbrella for the entire day for about $3 USD. There are food vendors lined up along the beach and bought corn, fresh shrimp and spring rolls for lunch. THE FOOD IN THAILAND IS AMAZING! Leah and I probably ate about 12 pieces of corn between the two of us. It is SO good. 

This picture sums up our ENTIRE trip.

Before dinner we began our hike up to the famous Phi Phi Viewpoint. Along the way, I stopped to get a traditional Thai foot bath. A Thai foot bath is where you put your feet into a bath that is filled with hundreds of little fish. The little fish attack your feet and legs and bite off the dead skin. Leah is scared to death of fish so she passed. I was feeling daring (and there may or may not have been cute boys watching...) and decided to give it a go. It was one of the craziest sensations I've ever felt. It tickles and is slightly painful and completely overwhelming. It is an extreme version of the sensation when your foot falls asleep. It lasted twenty minutes and I freaked out the entire time. Luckily my awesome partner-in-crime ran to get me a drink midway through.

The lady had to physically hold me down...

My feet felt GREAT when it was done though! 

Then we began our hike up to the Viewpoint. It took about forty minutes and we were absolutely drenched in sweat because of the heat, humidity and hike itself. Of course it was absolutely worth it. I have never been too much of a "nature nut," but the sight of Phi Phi from the top of the island was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. We sat on a rock's edge and just stared at the view in silence for twenty minutes. There are no words or pictures that will ever describe that moment.

The beginning of our hike

Koh Phi Phi Don, Thailand

But we can only be serious for so long. After dinner, we hit the town for round two. We discovered an amazing rooftop bar called Banana Bar. We bought our buckets (pink, this time) and chatted up some Swedish people. It turns out they were actually in a Swedish boy band which I found hilarious. The bar had free neon body paint which everyone went nuts for (okay, mostly us..) and our night began. After Banana Bar, we hit our favorite beach bar for dancing.

Loving our pink buckets

We left our mark :)

Body paint courtesy of artist Leah Sweet

We signed up for an all-day boat tour of all the Phi Phi islands and sights on Sunday. It was called "Canadian Captain Bob's Booze Cruise." Captain Bob left Canada nine years ago and has been running daily tours on his sailboat ever since. There were about ten of us total. The people we met were all in their young 20s and had taken time off from work to travel the world. We all got along great and had the best day EVER. We went to Monkey Beach (island overloaded with monkeys,) Maya Bay (from the Leo DiCaprio movie 'The Beach,') and Viking Cave. We went snorkeling, cliff diving, cave exploring and got pulled in kayaks from the back of the sailboat. We were drinking, eating, laughing, soaking in the sun and having the best day of our lives. Even though we had never met any of the people before, we all became good friends and spent the rest of the night partying together - Captain Bob too!

Getting our snorkle on

Exploring Viking Cave

One of the most amazing moments of my life.. 

Captain Bob and his crewmen

Evil monkeys from Monkey Beach

Changi beer and Thai koozies

Our backdrop for the day.. so beautiful it brought us to tears. How lame.

Can't escape the Asian tourists - they love me!

The myths and stories behind Viking Cave are absolutely incredible. Deep within Viking Cave there are carvings on the wall that experts believe prove that America was actually discovered by the Chinese before Christopher Columbus. There are thousands of sacred birds inhabited in the Cave and because it was breeding season, we were not allowed to venture inside. Captain Bob explained to us that ten years ago, the Thai Mafia overtook Viking Cave and stole the sacred bird nests. Thai tradition claims that if you eat the nests, you will live forever. The Mafia stole the birds nests and sold them for thousands of dollars. The Thai government was forced to step in and protect the Cave. Thai governmental boats are set up around the Cave and circle the islands carrying MACHINE GUNS! Captain Bob told us that four years ago, he got a machine gun pulled on him because the Thai government thought he was with the Mafia. Later on when we were snorkling, we were actually approached by a Thai government boat. Yes, they had guns. Yes, we freaked out. And yes, everything was fine - it was just a routine check up. 

Exploring the cave on land and under water!

Our last night we realized we had not bought any souvenirs. When you live next to a tattoo/piercing parlor, it is only a matter of time before you get tatted or pierced. Don't worry family, we chose the latter. I got my second cartilage piercing and Leah got her bellybutton pierced. It is the perfect souvenir because we will always have Phi Phi with us. We spent our last night like we spent every other night - bucket in hand, body painted, dancing on the beach with foreigners. It was a trip I will never forget.

Chilling at our neighbors and showing off our piercings.

One last thing to leave you with...

BROWN. TOOTHPASTE... yuck.