Samut Prakan and Ko Si Chang: Dec. 11 to 13We are getting spoiled with our three-day weekends and had last Friday off school. I am still in awe of how quickly the weeks go by here, especially when they are shortened.
Emily, Katie, Nathan, and I decided to use our Friday off to find out what our province, Samut Prakan, has to offer. Turns out, not a whole lot. Samut Prakan has a famous crocodile farm that attracts a lot of visitors from Bangkok. We did research before going and knew it cost 80 baht for Thai's and 300 baht for foreigners. The four of us decided we were going to go and use the little Thai we knew to tell them we were teachers in the province and get paid in baht. We tried and tried but the employees weren't budging. I don't think my blonde hair and blue eyes help my cause in convincing someone I should be able to pay the Thai price. After all the hassle we
decided not go in and hopefully our directors will take us and get us the Thai price. The farm has over 30,000 crocodiles so we have to go sometime!
We heard the next best thing to do in Samut Prakan was to go to the Bangpoo Seaside Resort and walk the boardwalk. This was a huge flop. The place was full of seagull poo, it was along a very filthy seaside, and there was no resort or boardwalk. In no way should it be called a seaside resort. We were so surprised that we asked a group of English speakers where the other boardwalk in Bangpoo was. Turns out, this was it. We tried to make the most it and walked the short tar path along the mucky ditch and filthy water. I am willing to say that walking along the ditch we saw some of the strangest creatures in the world. After doing a Wikipedia search we found they are called mudskippers. They are similar to fish but with only two front fins. They use these to push themselves forward or to 'skip mud.' The conclusion of the trip was that Samut Prakan doesn't have a whole lot have a whole lot going on in the tourist category.
On Saturday, Nathan and I decided it was time for our first island trip. We packed our bags Saturday morning and left for the small island of Koh Si Chang. The bus we took to the island topped the worst public transportation list. How the bus worked I'm not sure, it was literally falling apart at the seams. We thought we had purchased tickets directly to our destination, but it turned out the bus made many, many stops and simply passed through our destination. We began to notice signs from our stop and were waiting until we got to a bus station. Well, there was no bus station and before we knew it we were in the next city! I asked the lady next me where to get off and she pointed behind us. Just great. The bus stopped, dropped us off on the side of the road, and the driver yelled across the highway at a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up. After this craziness and a ferry ride, we finally arrived to Koh Si Chang. The island was quiet and full of Thai visitors. All we wanted to do was relax, and that we did. We sat on the beach, went to bed early, and did the same thing on Sunday. It was a very nice trip and I hope to go back and see more of the island later in the semester.
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