Things we noticed about Thailand- written by Chelsea, Nathan and Parker

After a month in Thailand, we noticed the following things:

• Great beaches
• Baby jelly fish in water sting us without us knowing....until later!
• Thai people are friendly- most smile at us and some even touch us
• Thailand is not as cheap as we initially thought- it depends on the items
• Lots of crafts and handiwork at markets
• 7-elevens are everywhere
• Very few branded stores
• You need to take toilet paper with you before you go into the stall
• You need to pay to use some public toilets
• Most prices are negotiable
• People eat out a lot
• Street food is EVERYWHERE
• Purified ice and water was more available than we thought
• Safety is not important- no helmets on scooters, crazy drivers
• Tuk tuk rides are even crazier than we thought they would be
• There are markets everywhere
• Cheap massages
• During a thai massage, the masseuse stands on people!
• Massage parlours and nail salons on every corner ...sometimes lining an entire street
• We liked Phuket best because of the beaches.
• We liked Chiang Mai better than Bangkok- it seemed cleaner and less polluted
• We felt safe in Thailand
• There was a street in Bangkok that had only silver shops
• Main soft drinks are Coke and Fanta
• The roads are usually taken over by tuktuks and scooters
• We saw a family of 5 on 1 scooter....and only the dad had a helmet on
• Most trees were tropical.  We saw lots of plumeria trees like Hawaii.
• We saw lots of wild dogs and lots of skinny cats
• We saw very tiny geckos and huge geckos
• At hotels, the pools were all infinity pools
• The most common insects were houseflies and mosquitos
• Lots of crepe stands in Phuket
• Temples are called wats...and there are lots of them
• Most restaurants are indoor/outdoor without a proper door
• Longtail boats actually have a long tail
• Restaurant kitchens are outside even if customers eat inside
• We loved trying different fruit shakes: lemon/mint, lemon raspberry, strawberry, passionfruit, mango, mixed berry, pineapple/strawberry/banana, lychee/passion fruit- so yummy!!
• Elephants can sense vibrations from 20 miles away
• 95% of Thailand is Buddhist and there are statues of Buddha everywhere
• There are huge billboards with a picture of the King everywhere

• 

  Saying goodbye to our friends

• Favourite fruit in Thailand: mango
• Favourite food: pad thai (Nathan),  pad thai (Chelsea), lab- spicy minced chicken/pork with herbs (Parker), pad see ew- fat noodles with greens and meat (Mike) and panang curry and mango sticky rice (Cheryl) 

We LOVED Thailand!  It was so different from home.