Trip to Phuket and Nakhon Si Thammarat

I was scheduled to leave on the 23rd of September headed for Phuket by bus, but a miscommunication happened and I didn't leave until the 24th, and instead of traveling by bus, I went by plane. Instead of a 14 hour bus ride, I got a one hour plane ride. Lucky me. I arrived at about 12:30pm and stayed at the hotel until about 2:30pm. There are 7 rotary clubs in Phuket. Each club hosts two students. The girl from Denmark, Caroline, and I were hosted by the same club. One of the rotarians took us to see The vegetarian festival. When he dropped us off at 6:00pm, we had dinner at the hotel with Daiki from Japan, Alex from Missouri, Zach from New York, and Christian from Brazil. 

The next day we got up early to to to James bond Island and Hong Island. That day we did some rafting as well.

rafting

Rafting in a lagon. you had to get through a narrow
cave to get to it..

on the boat

In a Cave with Caroline, Raul from Mexico, and Kenny from
Taiwan

With the rotarian from our host club looking at food

James bond Island with Raul

That evening Alex, Caroline, Zach, Christen, Flora from New Hampshire, and Maia from Canada all went to the vegetarian festival again. We went to a temple and bought fireworks. People let off fire works all the time. The vegetarian festival lasts for 10 days. It is a Chinese culture, and mostly just the south of Thailand celebrates it. The people believe that on the first day a goddess comes down from the heavens and helps to rid everyone of their sin's. Killing things is a sin, so people don't eat meat or animal products. They also believe that some are chosen to take the pain and suffering of others. They do this by walking on bladed ladders, and putting needles through their cheeks, and cutting there lips with axes, or walking on fire crackers. They don't feel any pain. 

The next day we were scheduled to go to Phi Phi Island, but due to weather, that got canceled. Instead we went to another temple, went to a water park, went and saw the sun set, and went to a Central(Central is a mall). 

A wonderful place to be with friends. 

Selfie outside of the temple

The next day we went to watch the parade with of the people who can't feel pain. I will not post any of those. If you want photos of them, say something in the comments or via. email. We also went to watch some moi thai and saw some artists.  After that we went to a lady boy show. For the parade, we were required to wear all white.

chillen' with my bro's

This dog was so cute!

An artist's house

waiting for the parade

before the lady boy show

moi thai

The masks are for the smoke from the fireworks at the parade.
it helped a lot.

Lady boys. And yes, that is a guy in the pink dress

The next day we left Phuket at 9:00am to take a 5 hour drive to Nakhon Si Thammarat. We had free time from the time we got there to 6:00pm. We want to a Lotus(a department store, or a small mall. can be both) for lunch and after that shopped around for food. I had a really good time. After that most of the YE's went to the swimming pool. It felt really good to actually be in a pool again. After that we went to dinner. 

The next day we had to get up at 5:30 to give food to the monks. After that we went back to the hotel and packed a bag for hiking. We took an hour and a half drive to a mountain with water falls. Then we took a two hour walk up the mountain  through the jungle to the water falls. It was wonderful. I got bitten by a leech, so that was a good experience. The jungle was so thick, and there were so many sounds. It was great. We staided at the water fall for an hour and then headed back to a resort. On the way back we stopped at a hot spring. That was fun as well. That night we stayed at the resort. 

driving through the jungle to get to the place we hiked

The hike through the jungle 

That morning some of us got up at 5:30am again to see the sun rise. Don't get me wrong, watching the fog was real cool, but we didn't see the sun come up.

We also went water rafting again. That was soooo much fun. After the rafting we went to the hot springs again. Then we headed back to Nakhon Si Thammarat. 

Sunrise.....

hot springs

On the final day, Maia and Raul took us around their city, to Big C (another mall), a temple, and to their houses. Part of the group left by bus to their city, while those staying up north had to wait until 7:00pm for a train. At about 6:30 the train stopped and I had to take a 3 hour drive to my city. We all arrived safe and sound. 

I had a ton of fun on this trip. Thank you so much for all of your support. Happy late anniversary to my parents. Love you both

~FRS