2016 Summer Travels @gabimyliu-blog - Tumblr Blog

Day 15 : I must be dreaming

MICROBIOLOGY So I keep forgetting we are here to learn. We had our first exam today, and left for Chang Mai. Yep. That's all I will comment on school. School is going really well. ♥️ CHANG MAI Wow, compared to Bangkok, Chang Mai is just on a different level of paradise. There are so many tourist everywhere. More on that later. When we arrived to our hotel we were handed drinks and cold towels. I'm not sure how you could even feel remotely stressed with the amount of pampering we all received. We are definitely princesses. "Picture here" We went to hang out by pool. We had the most amazing time. "Picture here" Our hotel has a shuttle that takes us down town. We did some major shopping. There are lots of really great artisan shops. I met some Spanish girls and I asked them to give me the 411 on where we could get some yummy food. Yay for being trilingual. It was fun changing languages a bunch and eating amazing Thai food. Thai artisans are obsessed with penis. The have penis pipes, penis whistles, and penis key chains. LADYBOYS Damn they are so beautiful. Their tits are perfect, and they have legs for days. Every time you glance at them they will give you a flirtatious head roll and you can't help but smile. My time in Thailand is half way over. Yes, in the kingdom of smiles, I've done so much smiling. I never want this giddy euphoric feeling to end. I wish I could add pictures, but it will have to wait till they are uploaded.

#princesscrew

Day 12 : Club not going up on a Tuesday

Today was a most typical Tuesday. Running in the morning... We had class, ate, then had lab, and studied all night for our first midterm coming up on Friday. In lab there was a giant accidental fire. Our professor put that fire in its place, and exterminated it. Yea... That was me attempting to make my boring day sound amazing... Then we had dinner "family princess style". We ordered pad Thai, fried fish, chicken on a stick, something called vegetable moment, and mango papaya salad. Drum roll please!!! We ate that fish I told you all about... The one with that is scaled alive then speared alive, cooked over a fire alive, then consumed dead. You couldn't taste the suffering, but today's meal was most impressive and very delicious. Kudos Thailand. On a side note most of the class is suffering from gastroenteritis. Kudos to the microorganism a of Thailand. No pictures due on account of crappy Internet day 2

Day 11 : Now I owe you 15 Baht

Today was quite the day. After our usual 2 hour Monday class we went out for burgers. No it was not my idea...I still believe burgers was a bad idea, but someone had the bright idea of going. What was most interesting were the french fries. French fries are battered and deep fried ,and our ketchup was mixed with garlic mayo.

Since our lives as princesses is very stressful, we decided to get massages. We entered health land and it smelled like beautiful paradise. We sat in this waiting area and they gave us cute slippers. Then we went up three flights of stairs and into the VIP area. We all have to wear scrubs and all were in the same room.

SO Thai massages are painful.

The stick elbows in all the “right” places and you are in agony for 2 hours. Arms are getting pulled. Little Thai women are walking on you back, then pile driving you into the mattress. Just kidding, but not really. Afterwards you are over come with euphoria. We all laughed because we thought we would fall asleep. We were all clinching our faces, and different body parts to over come the pain as if to look tough in front of each other. This made for big laughs after.

Remember how I told you about feet? How they are nasty creatures from hell? Well you head is the opposite. They (wai) aka bow to your head and treat it like a mystical creature from the heavens. It is quite the experience. All these women go to learn massage from monks. It is a spiritual healing process.

AM I SPIRTUALLY HEALED?

If spiritual enlightenment means feeling like you got hit by a car then , yes. I felt super “enlightened”. I was sore in places I have never been sore before. When we got back to our hotel we sat there and felt stunned... It was the strangest feeling ever.

Below see post massage bliss... aka enlightenment

Running has been going well. With the number of activities and the heat I am surprised I can even run. The humidity makes it easy to run fast. Since I can’t mentally handle running more than 5 miles most of my runs are progressions. Which means easy---> then I build up. Feeling pretty proud of my past few runs.

We went out to eat as usual. I got super spicy green curry, thai tea, rice, an omelet, and a banana roti all for the fine price of 95 Baht. (2.71$) MAN I am going to miss eating for that cheap.

So Jessica and I split the roti. It cost 30 or (15) each. Long story short I owed Jessica 15 Baht. I only had 50 so she took my 50, then gave me 20 Baht and she gave me 20 Baht.

“So now I owe you 15 Baht”-Jessica

We were content and did not think twice about our transaction.

Kym witnessed this little exchanged and blurted “you guys are stupid, Gabi went from owing you and now you owe her the same amount. Why don’t you just wait till you have the correct amount.” Now that I just wrote that all out it doesn’t seem that funny. It’s staying because I like it there, and it was the #3 funniest thing that happened today, Now I get why they call Thailand the Kingdom of smiles...

My abs always hurt here because I laugh so much : whether it is because I am struggling or having a great time.

PS I had 2 more pictures to post but internet was too slow.

Day 9 : Eat More No Pay More

Today we had a 6:30 am departure to Ayuttaya. That place, it is so surreal. It brought so much laughter and happiness after such a horrible day yesterday. It’s filled with so much history. It gave us the opportunity to relax laugh and have fun. The ruins are awesome, and they let you climb all over them like a ninja. This is probably my favorite place so far.

I am trying my best to write earlier as requested by loving fan... (J.Y.)

OUR TOUR GUIDE

Thai tour guides. Let me tell you they are so hilarious. Alec didn’t speak english too well, but he was really funny. After touring all the ruins and learning some history we got on the bus again. We were on route to the Grand Pearl Cruise to have lunch Thai all you can eat buffet. Alec said “eat more, and no pay more” IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!

I learned my lesson about high expectations. When we were on the bus I told the princesses to lower their expectations. To feet level... In Thailand your feet are hideous creatures that should be shunned from all of society.

Feet Rules

-don’t point your feet

-don’t touch people with your feet

-NEVER walk over anyone or anything. EVER.

After we lowered our expectations the world became a magical place.

The cruise was so awesome they had drinks and lots of yummy food to try. I ate everything.

We walked all over the King’s palace. We took so many pictures, and I was feeling inspired to do a handstand. It’s super narrow in the doorway. I had to spider myself into the handstand.

NOW CHECK OUT SOME PICTURES FEATURING THE PRINCESS CREW

(slutty) Tiffany and me taking a selfie

ELEPHANT PANTS!!!

They make hot weather seem better. We wear them with pride.

Summer palace exploring.

The two girls on the left are our Thai student ambassadors without them we would be lost.

WOW WOW WOW

This picture is in honor of Jessica. She sang bubble butt to me all day. We discovered elephant pants give me an elephant sized butt...

Notice in the first photo I said Tiffany's a slut because in this picture her shirt is coming off. Family rest assured she really isn’t... it is an inside joke. In this lake they sell bread and Kat almost convinced Kym to eat bread that’s meant to feed turtles and fish. I am not sure if fish should eat bread, but you best believe it is a feeding frenzy.

YAY for fun days!

Keep them coming Thailand.

#thailand

DAY 8 : Princess crew takes on China town.

You know you’ve hit rock bottom when your waiter hands you a menu with a smashed baby cockroach on it. I wish I could say I angrily walked out, and ate elsewhere, but I didn’t... Let me back up a little to recount this stupid day.

Let the rant start NOW.

I went to Chinatown with 4 of my Chinese friends. It seemed like a great Idea... Chinese friends + Chinatown= bomb ass food right? Our Prof. told us it’s the best seafood ever. Like most millennials we googled the “best place to go eat seafood in Chinatown”.

I want you to remember that we are all FOODIES. SO our expectations are really crazy high. So this cockroach thing was not cool. I looked past it thinking this is “normal”. We got our plates... The food was pretty. It tasted subpar. I was insanely disappointed. Luckily since we are in Thailand I was only out 9 USD so whatever. At least I ate crab, shrimp, squid and veggies for cheap?

It took us 45 minutes to find a taxi to take us home. One taxi man let us in, then drove us to the corner... I’m not sure if it’s because we aren’t Thai, or they hate us. HE MADE US GET OUT OF THE CAR. Many of my classmates share this struggle. We made it home family, so don’t worry.

THIS WAS THE MOMENT I missed Colombia and Ecuador and the USA. Places where my family are. Where everything makes sense, where I am understood, where I fit in... Home is where the heart is, and I was missing my family. I was desperate to get back to the hotel. Princess squad was defeated for the first time. We all were sick of Thailand. HOMESICK is real.

We are all so good at cheering each other up. We reflected, and laughed about being stranded in the city of Bangkok. All is well. No worries like I always say hahah.

I learned that :

-If a place has a cockroach on the menu... leave

- Hang out with people who make you laugh while you are miserable

SILVERLINING

We did get elephant pants. Actually I got a flying squirrel suit and elephant pants . See my happy face? All is well.

#sunnysideup elephantpants

Day 7 : I ate the street food

Morning run and strength training was average. Today was your average day a school. Only difference is I ate on the street! After school Kym and I ate at some random chicken street vendor. We got soup, veggies, rice and chicken all for 30 Baht! We continued our crazy eating at the night market. At the night market we passed a stand that smelled so spicy. Everyone who walks by it coughs and sneezes. I also tried this red spiked fruit. Pictures to be posted when the internet stops being a jerk! Not too eventful.

#thailand #sumertime #mypet

Day Five : I forgot I am here to learn

Thailand has been so much fun. Six days have flown by.

NEW MORALS :

-poke your fish with a spear while it’s still alive and then put it in the fire

-you can drive on the side walk

Before I get into the boring details of my day PINEAPPLE!

I have no idea why... I was under the impression that pineapple here does not give you pain on your tongue. Pineapples here are sweet. After eating a bunch of them my tongue was fine. Then... I ate too many so the limit to pineapples before pain is 5 here. Yes I ate 5...

WORKOUT WEDNESDAY

So today I had my speed workout... 5X4 minutes on the 800m track. I was advised to go conservative on the first 3 and as hard as possible on the last one. GarGar aka my Garmin watch works great here in Thailand. It distracts me from realizing that I am like a little hamster running on a wheel. Plus I really love the beep sound it makes every mile that passes by. I am so happy I finished my workout in 93 degrees at 7am! Not only that, but I ran pretty fast even taking into account the heat. Mentally I am feeling much stronger because I know I can run in the hot and humid oven containing weird smells know as Thailand. I never thought I would be able to run fast in the heat, so yay me.

SCHOOL

Today was the longest day of class ever. We were in class from 10h-17h! That’s the moment I realized I am not just here on vacation. I am actually here to study microbiology. Kym and I are lab partners. Before starting food science I was actually a microbiology major. I worked in a microbiology lab for 3 years.Yay DNA damage repair. Kym and I were actually so fast our professor let us do our own thing. We got out of class early too. Nerd alert: we also stayed and did all our homework and still left an hour early. Here is a beautiful picture of what we did.

I finally ate TOM KHA!!!!!!!! BEST THING EVER. I originally was going to stick to the concept of an anti plate. This is where you take pictures of your food after you eat it. I saw it somewhere and thought the idea was great. Princess crew said that’s not very nice. So here is a before and after picture. Yes I am a good eater. I love food. If I did not run 5+ miles daily I would be in big trouble.

To answer your question : family, here is a typical meal. As you see it is mostly veggies here with some pork belly and rice. The greens are “broccoli”. The flavor of this average 1 dollar lunch is amazing.

#microbio

Day 4 : Princess Patrol

So today was a field trip to the market. We took a boat taxi over to the market. The boat ride was pretty sketchy and smelled like still rancid water.

The market is a place filled with those smells I’ve been telling you all about. The best description I have heard is the smell of room temperature meat with a hint of dirty water that is perfumed with fish sauce and urine...

Now I’ve been to the markets in 3 different countries in South America. I thought I was a tough cookie, but the smells are ripe here.

I took a bunch of pictures of decapitated pig heads and barley alive fish... So in Thailand they have what I consider to be a strange fish market. The fish are all alive. They scale the fish alive; I feel pretty bad for the fish. They also have live toads/frogs that they skin alive. It all seems so savage to me. I told my Prof. I am in awe and cannot even believe any of this. He was really surprised and he took my picture of me smiling with some fish vendors.

Morals of the story

-Keep your fish in 2 cm of water to keep them partly alive in order to scale them alive??

-Flies on food are okay??

I’ll spare you the photos but if you are interested I’ll e-mail you the video.

So my group of friends here in Thailand have this running joke that we are princesses. Why? Because we are all scared of eating at the market/street food. SO instead of paying 15 Baht we pay 30 Baht for our meals... AKA 90 cents instead of 25... AT the same time we are all realizing how sheltered we are even though our families also originate from developing countries. #PrincessSQUAD

Shout out to my home girls Tiffanie, Kym, Annie, & Jessica for being such graceful people. We have way too much fun struggling in the heat of Thailand.

On a side note on our way to school today we saw a homeless man pleasing his one eyed snake. ewww

ALSO raining season in Thailand means it’s rainy all the time the streets are flooded. I had to take the workouts all indoors today. The water was 24 inches I am not even sure how cars can drive through it all.

TOMORROW is 100 Baht aka 3 dollar movie day.

Don’t worry family!!! I am learning so much about microbiology.

FYI “Everyday you eat shit” yes I mean poop this was in my lecture today thanks PROF.

Sorry about the lack of pictures they are super graphic today. Soon a food blog will come I promise.

Here are people violating the FDA, HACCP, & USDA plans. No hairnets, insects present, smoked fish not in proper storage, no gloves, no tongs, no hands washed, pick your nose... America the CLEAN

#fisharefriendsandfood markets Thailand

Day 3

Morning run as usual! 5 miles in the heat is crazy psycho, but my body is adapting. It feels like less of a struggle.

The first day of class went by so fast. Mondays we get the entire afternoon off. Today is special since it is the 4th of July!

Lunch after school I had some fried rice and fried Thai chicken. There were bugs in the leaves again.... All of my friends started having tummy troubles. Anyways for lunch Kym ate some bomb fish. It was covered in peanuts and spices. She let me try some and it was so amazing. I never thought peanuts and fish could pair so well.

I realized that I was violating my Thai visa by staying one extra day... oops. I fixed it... so all is well.

After all the tummy troubles reported by all my friends I got kind of scared and I am eating a tad more on the conservative side. I haven’t had any trouble yet. Maybe because I am always going to Colombia??

Our Prof. gave us some information on micro biota and we will have a field trip to the biggest market in Bangkok tomorrow! Maybe this activity will calm me down?

Tallest building!

The university planned a trip for us to the tallest building in Bangkok! We had dinner on the 78th floor. The top 83rd floor revolves. I got some great shots. Dinner was at the hotel. It was a Thai all you can eat buffet. I am pretty sure I ate my weight in seafood. We also had some super sweet wine that Assumption University made!

Cockroaches

They are everywhere! Anyone who knows me knows I hate them. As we walk to school there is a huge trail of them it's nasty!!!! Even in nice restaurants you see them around.

Thai sweets obsessions

Thai people love sugar. What you think is salt on the table is really just sugar. All teas and coffees are sweetened and are mixed with condensed milk. I mostly drink water because everything is way too sweet!

Palace Exploring

Today I woke up to go running with my carbon pollution mask and Kym (my roommate) joined me. It’s nice to have someone committed to staying fitness abroad. Some more gals are going to join us for the morning run at 6:30 am. Class starts at 10 am so we will hit up some Thai Brekky post run.

PALACE

Holy cow!

You won’t believe how hot it is. Being active since 6 am has a toll on your sprit. Walking around a beautiful palace in the heat is so hard when you have to cover your legs and shoulders all the way. The temples require all people to show respect by fully covering your body. If you violate the rules they make you buy a tapestry or elephant pants to cover up… Breathtaking does not even begin to describe how beautiful the temples are. There are so many intricate details. For example, some of the temples had mirrors cut into triangles and diamonds. I am a huge fan of patterns so this made my eyes very super happy.

The whole group ate at a Thai buffet. It was so spicy, and their desert selection was insanely sweet. My friend Tiffanie found a bug in her food. We told Kat our Thai ambassador and she assured us that was normal. Somehow it proves the food is “organic”… We didn’t agree, but Kym and Jessica kept eating the veggies anyway haha.

After a hot day some of us went swimming on top of our hotel. We had the entire pool to us. We laughed and had fun, and I got to learn some more names.

After we all went out for dinner at some really awesome noodle shop. I had something called crispy pork. The noodles were home made and super skinny. Probably the thinnest noodles I have had. Sort of like Pancit but the noodles are longer and can slide against one another. The crispy pork was so flavorful. We all laughed about the topic of MSG making everything taste like a party in your mouth.Everything here tastes amazing. I am looking forward to taking a culinary day class soon!

I am realizing I am walking so much and sweating so much. I had a headache yesterday from forgetting to drink water. I think I figured out the water drinking stuff. Kym and I got six 2L bottles of water.

Looking at all these awesome things makes me forget I am here for school. Looking forward to the first day of class.

I feel like I should address some of my family yes there are muslims, but they are not radical. The have delicious Thai food and are very helpful when we are a bit lost. I know the world is a bit in chaos, but I have faith in them.

PALACE

Intro to Thailand

I decided to start a blog. I am really excited to be here and share all my fun experiences.

SO I AM FINALLY IN THAILAND!

สวัสดี= Hello

Day one started with a three hour orientation. It was amazing to meet all 29 girls that will be attending Assumption University of Thailand with me. Most of us are Food Science majors... meaning we love to eat food. SO YAY for food adventures.

Arriving to Thailand from Japan was a huge culture shock. Japan is so neat... everything is organized whereas, Bangkok is crazy. There are no traffic rules... Don’t take it the wrong way, but there is so much smog/pollution in the city. It makes running and working out so unpleasant. Traffic is so bad I can only run around an 800m track with a pollution mask on. I actually sparked some inspiration and several of my classmates will join me on the track tomorrow. It makes running around the track for 45 min seem easier. Now I have friendly faces cheering me on and struggling in the heat. I have yet to try any speed workout but Wednesday we will find out how that goes. Thailand is also so humid so it feels like 110 degrees. (It’s 101 so not too far fetched of a feeling) AT night it drops to 89...Other than that small hiccup Thailand is an incredible place.

FOOD STANDS

Food stands are everywhere, and unlike in Colombia even foreigners can eat off them without getting ill? I have no idea what anything is so I try everything that seemed yummy. Some people were brave enough to eat scorpions. I hope I can build up to that

For lunch I had Tom Yum, not only was it only 1 US Dollar but it was tasty. They put pork blood in the soup that is gelatin like. I figure it is a great way to get iron in the diet. At first I was thinking maybe lets not eat the pig blood, but I did it and am still alive.

At night we went to the “student night market” I bought a tiny purse and some food there. The market is ridiculously huge. There are smells... some that are fantastic and some that make you want to hurl. Craziest thing I saw was a fish being cooked alive.

Here are some pictures

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