Courtney visits Asia: Thai and Myanmar Adventures

Spring Break 2012

It is that time of year, where the water is thrown and the toys are dug out. The largest water fight in the world takes place and all people take part in the celebration of New Year in Southeast Asia! I was blessed with having a two week holiday, where I met up with my dear friend, Courtney, who traveled all the way from Buffalo, NY! We ventured out to Phuket, Thailand, where she was able to meet some of my friends from Yangon and then we had a quick stop in Bangkok before heading to Yangon for a week. It was a BLAST! where Courtney was able to see many different colors of Asia and we could all celebrate such a fun holiday! 

(Photo below: ISM kids celebrating water festival by throwing water anywhere it will land)

Court and I headed to Phuket- awaiting our fantastic adventures that lay ahead!

Bella, my friend- Toon's daughter, is a lovely little lady to hang out with! She loves to draw and sing Taylor Swift, which we were lucky enough to listen to for a week straight :) "Love Story" never sounded so good...

Songkran- water festival in Thailand- was fairly mellow in comparison to the crazies in Myanmar. We walked through the streets and had colored clay smeared on our faces while being asked if we were happy and having a good time. Who would say no to that? 

A few days into the trip, Riff, my trusty travel partner and Ben, our new French friend, met us at Toon's house in Phuket. We ate our way through the city! I swear, I have never had more seafood in my entire life- but man, was it amazing and totally worth it! This would be the moment that Court found out that she will be attending Duke's PA school in the fall! Yay!!! Behind Riff in this incredible photo of his appreciation for delicious food, is apparently a Thai actor! Toon was going a little nutty with having him so close by, but all we noticed was that he has a  blackberry and likes to eat fried fish... :) 

Here is just an idea of what kind of beaches exist in Thailand. Only pretty ones.

As you can see here, Riff and I really love momma Toon! Can! Is phrase that I have managed to pick up from her and I can't help but think "cannnnn" when I see this picture of our love.

We had heat. We had beaches. We have storms. In fact. before we set foot in Phuket, there had been a 8.9  magnitutude earthquake in the Andaman sea and there was a large fear that a tsunami was on the horizon. Thankfully though, we were graced without having any tragic events and all countries surrounding the sea were spared! Talk about a scary moment though, to WAIT and not know what kind of disaster lay ahead. Not a fan.

We went to Toon's homeland! It was so much fun! There, we had a wonderful time meeting her friends and family, as well and attempt to karaoke, but quickly discovered that there were no English songs... oh well! Courtney and I entertained ourselves with a "hotel room workout." If you ever are feeling the need to exercise in a hotel that has no gym- have no fear- we are here! It was pretty funny until I smacked my elbow on the wall and then a random foreigner walked out his door as we were doing a grapevine down the hallway.

Next stop: a resort! We spent a few days at a beautiful resort right on the water and a great deal, due to Toon's fantastic connections! One day Court and I rented motor bikes and went on a hike to discover this beautiful waterfall! No more than 7 min of hopping on our bikes and heading to the sea, I look down and found a LEECH on my foot and about had a heart attack. Good thing Court was EMT trained and also just awesome- for she saved the day!

After finding an incredible cove, playing checkers with Thai and American currency (guess who won that!) and rescuing 5 fly-infested puppies, we headed back to our hotel in time to catch this gorgeous sunset. Life doesn't get better than this :)

The next day we headed out and after a pit stop in Bangkok, we flew to Yangon, where the pace of life was quite different than Thailand had been. We hopped on a train with my friend Kate and rode around Yangon- where one could really get a vibe for the culture of Myanmar. 

The next day we took a bus and headed out to my Myanmar teacher, Winma's village. We then proceeded to go to a floating pagoda! It was quite the trip, where We hopped on a boat and snapped a few shots of the temple before going back to shore all in the matter of 30 mere minutes! My favorite part? Probably seeing that not Christians fall asleep in church... people were passed out at these temples and had absolutely no shame!

We did venture out to a few other places, one of which was Shwedagon, the infamous temple of Yangon. Here, we managed to catch a parade of people sweep the entire temple... it was more interesting than you could ever imagine. It was like scene from Snow White!

Overall, it was definitely a successful trip and I had wonderful time hanging out with Courtney! She is a great friend and I am honored to have had her as my first visitor to Yangon! Now that she has paved the way, I will wait for you to email me when you will be visiting and I can be sure to pencil you in :)