A Single-serving Kind of Day

“Everywhere I travel, tiny life. Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They're single-serving friends.” - Fight Club 1.

Going to Thailand was a last minute decision. School had let out and I spent a week relaxing and tying up the loose ends of the semester. I had one trip planned for the summer, Beijing, but that wasn't until July 13^th. I had a few weeks before that was to happen so I started trying to figure out places I wanted to go. It started as a few days in Hong Kong then after a bit of researching it transformed into 9 days in Thailand. It took a few days for my indecisive self to choose Ao Nang in the Krabi Province. The pictures of the area looked beautiful with huge and colorful rock faces and crisp blue watered beaches. It's also a popular place for rock climbing, which was on my list of things to do. I decided on spending a week there then staying in Bangkok for a day and a half.

Fantastic Views

My plane was to leave at 8:30 in the morning. I needed to be at the airport around 6:30 but unfortunately the shuttle from Shoaxing to Hangzhou Airport wouldn't get me there on time. Rather than staying the night in Hangzhou Airport (like Nick, Peter, and I did for our Harbin trip, more about that in a later post), I found a cheap hotel close to the airport with a shuttle.

First Leg: Hangzhou to Hong Kong

Single-serving potato omelet, fruit, and a danish

As I said previously, the plane was suppose to leave at 8:30. This didn't happen and our flight was delayed an hour and fifteen minutes because the gate wouldn't pull away from the plane. This wouldn't have been to much of an inconvenience but there was a chance that I would miss the second leg of my flight. The flight wasn't too bad around two hours and some minutes. I spent most of the plane ride watching Inception and trying to tune out the ruckus my fellow passengers where causing.

Second Leg: Hong Kong to Bangkok

Single-serving chicken, vegetable, and rice with a roll

The second leg of the trip was scheduled to leave at 12:05 and our boarding time began just as the plane landed in Hong Kong. Luckily, they had crew members waiting for those of us with transfer flights and took us directly to the gate. Hong Kong to Bangkok took around two and a half hours. This flight was a bit quieter and more relaxing.

Layover: Bangkok

Subway 6 inch ham and cheese and a Krispy Kreme Doughnut

I had a couple hour layover in Bangkok airport. In that time I had to go through customs which, I've always hated thanks to crossing the border in Detroit. Most of the time when crossing over to Windsor or back, the border patrol would be overly aggressive and about half the time would search my car. Getting into Thailand was easier than that. I filled out the immigration form, handed it and my passport to the border patrol guard, which he then looked over and mumbled one question to me, “When are you leaving?” I replied and was quickly on my way to check in for my next flight.

My gate at Bangkok Airport

One thing I was not expecting as I was wandering through the Domestic Terminal was a food court that would send me into culture shock. Living in China for eleven months straight, I hadn't had as many options for food and was constantly surrounded by people speaking Mandarin. Walking through the food court my mind shut down, there were options that I hadn't seen in a very long time and to top it all off, the most common language spoken was English. I must have looked lost because all I could do for about ten minutes was walk back and forth looking like I was in a daze. It was also nice to eat something that wasn't single-serving and isn't something I can easily obtain. That Krispy Kreme Doughnut was amazing.

Third Leg: Bangkok to Krabi

Single-serving Hodgepodge including coleslaw, a form of Thai bologna, bread, and a piece of cake

My third plane left around 5:10 in the afternoon. This was the shortest of my flights lasting around an hour and ten minutes. We flew over the east coast of Thailand which offered some beautiful views of some of the islands around there. When we landed, it was raining. They parked the plane on the tarmac and pulled a bus up. We all disembarked and got onto the bus. Once it was fully loaded, it took us a total of twenty-five yards to the door of the terminal, which was hilariously pointless. It wasn't even raining that hard.

Fourth Leg: Krabi Airport to Glur Hostel, Ao Nang

Single-serving friends: German backpackers

Krabi Airport has buses that will take you directly to where you're staying. From the airport to my hostel was another forty minutes. It was dark so there wasn't a lot to see aside from how their restaurants and bars where set up around the road. I chatted with some German backpackers about Ao Nang and what we knew about it, places to go, things to do, etc. I finally arrived at my hostel around 8:30 at night.

After a full day of flights, airport security checks, single-serving meals, and single-serving friends I was pretty exhausted. I checked into my hostel and met a few of the other people who were staying in my dorm. I was pretty excited to see what the rest of the trip was going to hold for me.

1. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Twentieth Century Fox, 1999. Fiction Film

Dog Days of Summer

I knew that it would get hot here in Shaoxing but didn't think it was possible for it to be over 100 degrees for more than a week. The heat is incredible, at times making me feel as if I'm wrapped in a wool blanket standing next to a fire. It's stifling. And it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. Weather predictions have this record heat-wave moving well into next week at times getting as hot as 105 degrees Fahrenheit (that's 40.5 Celsius).

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Campus has been, for the most part, empty since early July. The semester ended June 21^st and slowly the students and foreign teachers made their departures. I, along with a handful of others, decided to stick around. Summer here is polar opposite of what it is during the school year. During the school year, the campus is almost it's own little town, with restaurants open within walking distance and on campus Kwik-E-Marts that offer up everything but the almighty Slurpee. But with the end of the school year, nearly everything closes up. 

A few shops remain open, which is nice for quick purchases, but more often than not we have to head into town where they have Wal-Mart and AuChan. There are also plenty of small mom and pop sort of restaurants we can eat at. In the heat, this can be a bit of a chore and cost some money, especially when you have to wait for a bus or taxi in the hot sun. But luckily, a few of us have E-Bikes (a friend is letting me use her's while she's back in the States) making it much easier to get around the city.

Check back soon for more small stories about my travels.