Tropical Paradise

 I have always seen pictures of beautiful ocean landscapes complete with towering rock facades, crystal blue water, brilliant white sand beaches, and exotic tropical flora and fauna, but I always doubted if these places really existed. I though that maybe the pictures were just some sort of marketing stunt, that they had been edited and embellished on a computer and were larger than life.

I don't doubt anymore.

Last week, I went to Koh Phi Phi in southern Thailand with my friend Ryan. I think that it is arguably the most beautiful place that I have ever been. As I laid there on the beautiful beach, went swimming in the crystal clear 80 degree water, or kayaked next to beautiful limestone cliffs my heart could do nothing less than praise the awesome majesty of our glorious God. My words fell short and I could only profess along with David in Psalm 19:

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

  

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

   

no sound is heard from them.

 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world."

  

Overall, we had an amazing trip. It was a great time to rest after a busy month of travelling and reflect on all of the incredible experiences I have had in Thailand. I couldn't have picked a better place to do it.

We did some snorkeling,

we went kayaking,

we went on a boat tour,

Maya Bay, a famous tourist destination.

This island is known as "chicken island"

and of course, we enjoyed some live entertainment from a couple Chinese tourists.

These ladies were quite hilarious striking
all kinds of ridiculous poses and chattering
loudly with one another in Chinese.

In just three days I will leave Thailand and head back to a busy summer in America doing undergraduate research and applying to medical school. As I reflect on the past and began to think about the future, a mixture of feelings washes over me. I am sad that my time here has already come to a close and I know that I am going to miss my host family and all of the friends that I have made here in Thailand. At the same time, I am so thankful for all that I have learned and experienced during this last semester and excited to begin my senior year and be reunited with friends and family in the US. As I think about all of the blessings of this past semester and look forward to the exciting opportunities the Lord has placed before me, my humble prayer can only be:

"May the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing 

in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19).

Sawasdee krap!

Oh the places you will see

On April 1st, our semester in Thailand officially ended, but I decided to stay and travel for a few weeks with one of my friends. After a fun last night with all of our friends and some bittersweet goodbyes, we hopped on a bus for Luang Prabang, Laos. The bus took us all the way to the border of Thailand and Laos where we spent the night in a cheap guesthouse.

The "speedboat" in all her glory.

The next morning, we crossed the border and rode a "speedboat" for six hours down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. I put speedboat in parentheses because the boat we took only deserves the name "speedboat" because it was indeed fast. Besides this fact, there was very little about it that resembles a typical speedboat. It was a tiny little flat bottomed vessel with a huge outboard motor that runs off of natural gas. All of the bags are strapped up on the front of the boat and then there are six "seats"behind for the passengers to sit on. Once again, I use the term "seat" quite loosely here because in fact, the seats were nothing more than a two by four nailed across
the bottom of the boat. It was quite an experience
holding on for dear life as the driver steered us
through jaged rocks and rapids at over 35 mph.

The Ukrainian lady in the boat with us didn't enjoy herself
very much and wasn't shy about letting us know it haha.
I think this was during the first hour of the trip when
Ryan and I still had feeling in our legs.

At first, I thought that for sure we were going to die, but as I gained confidence in the driver's ability, I began to feel more at peace. The hardest part of the trip was just sitting in such a crunched up position for that long. I think that my legs fell asleep after the first thirty minutes of the trip and I could barely walk when we finally got off the boat six hours later. I probably would have kissed the ground if my aching legs and back would have permitted.

This is the "slow boat" which we could have taken if we
wanted to. It takes two days to do what we did in one.

We actually had some really nice Trek bikes which made
the 20 mile ride much more feasible.

When we got to Luang Prabang, we found a cheap guesthouse for $5 a night and went straight to bed. The next day, after a few cups of coffee and a good street food breakfast, we were ready to explore the city. We ended up deciding to rent mountain bikes and go to a nearby waterfall called Tat Kuangsi. We rented the bikes for only $6 for the entire day and then headed down the road. We didn't quite realize how far the waterfall was, but it turned out to be 32 kilometers, quite the ride.







By the time we got there, we were definitely ready to swim and we weren't disappointed. Kuangsi waterfall forms some beautiful natural pools at its base which are amazing for swimming. The water was clear and refreshing. We ended up just sitting there in the pools for about three hours. After a long ride, it was just what the doctor ordered.

Overall, that was the highlight of our trip. Needless to say, we were worn out after biking 40 miles that day. The next day we took it a bit easier and just looked around town a bit.

Luang Prabang actually has a kind of Western feel to it
and exhibits a good deal of French architecture because
it was a former French colony.

These cars seemed quite anachronistic.

We visited some old temple ruins on top of a mountain
near the city.

The "watermelon temple" as one of the Laos people
called it.

The next day we took a bus through the night to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. We spent one day there visiting some of the famous temples and going to a couple of museums.

This is the presidential palace in Vientiane. It definitely
displays the French influence in Laos.

One of the oldest temples in Vientiane which has now been
converted into a museum

The central park of the city

The view from the top of the tower.

After Vientiane, Ryan and I rode a night train to Bangkok and then took a bus over to Siem Reap in Cambodia. It ended up being nearly 30 hours of travel, but we are young and stupid so we figured, why not? 

In Siem Reap lies one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world known as Angkor Wat. It is basically a complex of ancient temple ruins dating back to the 11th century during the reign of the Khmer Empire, one of the most powerful empires in the history of southeast Asia. The temples are spectacular and actually preserved quite well. UNESCO has taken over the management and restoration of the temples and has done some spectacular reconstructions of previous collapsed areas. The temples are also quite interesting religiously because they show a syncretic mix of Hindu and Buddhist influence. It is thought that the temples were originally constructed to pay reverence to Hindu deities, but were later altered during the arrival of Buddhist influence to the region.

The city of Siem Reap itself is quite interesting as well. People come from all over the world to see Angkor Wat, so Siem Reap is quite the mixture of different languages, cultures, and races. The city is built almost entirely by tourism and has a bunch of fancy hotels (although there are definitely some cheap guest houses like the one that we stayed in). All of the prices are listed in US dollars and most of the Cambodian people who live there speak fluent English from dealing with tourists all of the time. Ryan and I rented mountain bikes and toured the different ruins for two days straight. Here are some of the things we got to see: 

This mural is Hindu in origin and shows the gods
and demons stirring the primordial sea of milk.

Angkor Wat from a distance.

Before and after UNESCO restoration.

Ta Prhom

Bayon

The faces at Bayon.

This is my travelling buddy, Ryan.

Angkor Wat

These were some of the cute Cambodian girls who were
always trying to get us to buy little trinkets from them.
They told us that they would cry if we didn't buy
them and I just couldn't resist.

Overall, we had a great time travelling although it was a fairly busy trip. In the course of 11 days we ended up taking 4 bus rides, 2 night trains, and a boat ride on the Mekong river. By the end of our travels we were quite ready for some rest and relaxation in our well known city of Chiang Mai. Here is a map of our trip so you can get a feel for where we went:

Happy Trails!