After taking an hour long ferry ride from Phuket Island to the Phi Phis we landed on the main island in the chain and signed up for a snorkel tour. The tour would take us to various locations and Monkey Beach. Monkey Beach is a small island inhabited by spider monkeys that are just as curious as the tourists who visit them.
As you can see from the pictures the Phi Phi Islands were a tropical paradise and a great way to end such a vacation. I did not have much to write about from this part of the trip but instead attached a few pictures. I did, however, summarize my trip and experience below:
Sawasdee was the first word I learned how to say in Thai. Come to think of it, ni hao was also the first word I learned in Chinese. I wonder if hello was the first word I said in English.
It seems when learning a new language the first three phrases anyone learns are hello, good bye, and thank you. In my case, during my visit to Thailand those were the only three words I learned.
Thailand was my temporary host culture for one week. For our spring break last week I decided to take a trip to Bangkok and Phuket Island. I did not really have much of an interest in Thailand before I visited nor did I do the proper research about their culture. All I wanted to do was see another country in Southeast Asia and how their customs differed from China’s. So I basically looked at some flights and Beijing to Bangkok was the cheapest, so I booked a round trip and planned my visit to Thailand. I sought out differences in culture and that is what I found.
Saying hello to Thailand was quite the experience. I got off of my plane and stepped into the first cab I could find. I sat down and saw a steering wheel in front of me. Finding this odd I justified it by thinking it was a student driver car. The taxi cab driver looked at me funny and went around to the other side and said, “OK, so you drive.” I did not realize that in Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road! I laughed and apologized and got in on the “proper” side. To my surprise this was the most English I would hear in Thailand. In a land of such a strange and isolated language I was amazed how little English was spoken. I assumed because Thailand was a tourist destination English would be almost as prevalent as their native tongue, but I was dead wrong.
This trip turned out to be much more frustrating than I bargained for. I was not culture shocked by the fact that Thailand was so different from America, but rather that it was so different from China. There is a lack of cleanliness in the cities and a far greater number of people trying to rip you off. It seems like crime is more common and rules are, at times, nonexistent...which brings me to Songkran, the Thai New Year festival.
In Thai years it is the year 2554. Songkran celebrates the coming of the New Year by staging a three day water fight throughout Thailand. Nothing says “surprise!” like a water gun to the face the second you step out of the cab. I went for the next three days being wet, but I was thankful for the 90 degree weather so the wetness was refreshing. Sadly, in Bangkok alone there were 160 deaths and over 1,700 injuries due to traffic accidents caused by the holiday. This is where the lack of rules is apparent.
After a week of madness in Thailand I was more than ready to return back to familiarity. I never thought I would call China a “familiar” place but it was so nice get back to a country where I can speak the native tongue. In Thai, “good bye” is also sawasdee. I was pretty quick to say sawasdee to Thailand and ni hao to China.
The Chinese phrase for “good bye” is zai jian which translates to “again see.” I cannot really say zai jian to Thasiland because I never really plan on going back, but when I leave China at the end of May zai jian will carry its full meaning.
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Jordan J. Foley
傅力波
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