Tropical Thailand

This Yooper girl is NOT used to 90 degree temps, 8 million plus people, and buying water in a bottle.
As I landed in Phuket, in the south, the sweating instantly started and I realized it had been quite a while since I'd been this warm.... at least since the last trip to Kaua'i, 2 years ago.

The first night, my travel partner, Ben, and I stayed at the Phuket Backpacker Hostel. It was in Phuket town and pretty sweet! An in-house restaurant and bar, free wifi, clean and inexpensive. My kind of place :)

Phuket Backpacker Hostel

An Aussie family was checking in the next morning and suggested a restaurant around the block. I was looking for some good Thai food and they were right! Great food, great ambience and cool tables made from old singer sewing machines and wood rounds.

Cool tables!

There was a beautiful temple in the neighborhood and I stopped to take it all in. You must take your shoes off before entering. It was a wonderful feeling of peace....

That evening, I took a night bus to Bangkok to meet up with Shelby. We met at the Mo Chit bus station  at 8 am and took a taxi to our room at Marriott Suites. We shared our cab will a fella named Andrew who was headed in the same direction. Andrew is from San Fran but was studying in Papa New Guinea on a Fulbrite Scholarship. He'd been traveling for 9 months and was visiting a friend in Bangkok before moving onto Vietnam. We took him under our wings and brought him to the Marriott. It was only 10 am and our suite wasn't ready yet so we went up to the pool which was on the top floor. What a view! 

Bangkok 

Chillin' at the Marriott

After a few hours of lazing at the pool and snacking on street food, we stowed our bags at the front desk and met Nim at her school. Nim is such a delight! So funny and a sweetheart of a woman. I hope we see her again while here! Lunch was amazing... the locals always know the best places to go! 

Following lunch, Andrew moved onto his friends house & Shelby & I went back to our hotel to check in. We felt so lucky to have this suite. It was fancy shmancy... with a kitchen, dining room, full bath, separate bedroom with a kingsize bed, and living room. Thank you Equal for putting us up! 

Since we had a kitchen and love to cook, we had a couple Yoopers over for dinner! Sonali lives in Bangkok and her mother is visiting from Hancock. It's a small world!

The next morning we moved to a different hotel and spent the day at possibly the biggest outdoor market in Bangkok, JJ Market. You could easily get lost in this place. Luckily, Shelby's Thai friend Luck, her sister, and co-worker met up with us and toured us around. 

We made our way through the maze of merchants smooshed together under huge tents, many football fields in size and into an air conditioned 'mall' where we had lunch. The food was from their region of Thailand. Delish! 

Afterwards, it was time to do some shopping. On the way out of the mall, we stopped in a yarn store where Luck sells her knitted dolls. I have never seen so much yarn!!

It was at least 90 degrees outside and hotter under the tents. We saw some fellas playing checkers using bottle caps and a board they made them selves. What a good idea! I was impressed with their ingenuity and asked if I could take their picture. They obliged :)

My first few days in Thailand were amazing. There is so much to see and do! I still have 2 and a half weeks left and have a feeling there won't be a dull moment! I loooove Thailand :)