When a tired guide went to rest in Thailand…

Hey everyone? Is there anyone else who is still ready and willing to read an article from me, once in six months?

Well, I must say that I am still hoping to write about my summer 2018, another one spent in sunny, full of adventures and inspiration, Italy. And there has been such a great and incredibly busy month in snowy Lapland of Santa Claus…unfortunately cannot find time for writing about all my adventures as there is a new one when the previous hasn’t finished yet, haha.

I am on a plane right now and since my flight will take me about 8-9 hours, I decided that I at least should write about Thailand. Although, it seems to me, it’s so long so I  would have visited a new country for this amount of time))

So, let’s get started …Please fasten your seatbelts:) Let’s fly…

This time the destination of my holidays was Phuket, where I went with my mother. Over the past 10 years it was the second time I shared  holidays with my mother. In general, we now see each other very, very rarely, because I live in the city on the Neva, and not on the Irtysh (where my home-town Omsk situated), and every year I have a tight schedule of tours and travels around the world)))

I must say that now, working in tourism and, being a guide, I judge everyone’s work from a professional point of view and I like and enjoy less things as I used do even still staying positive.

By the way, we flew with the company Anex tour. I didn’t want to buy a tour package at all, because I know all in and outs about tourism or at least it seems so.

My advice.
Whenever buying a tour package, try to find out as much as possible about the trip. It’s always much better to know more rather than less. Unfortunately I had no time to take care of our trip. I am a shoemaker without boots. We traveled from Omsk to Novosibirsk, where our flight was delayed and instead of 4 am the departure was at 6 am in the morning (believe me, even 2 hours at this time of the day seems like an eternity and does not lift the spirits). After a 7-hour flight there was a life-long queue for the passport control waiting for us. After showing all of our documents, talking about the paws and tail, we took our luggages and went to the bus. What was our surprise when we discovered that the way to the hotel was going to take around 5 hours since we didn’t fly straight to Phuket, but to Krabi. On the way, we had a stop at the local typical café, but the disappointment still remained. Finally we arrived to the hotel around 9pm which took about 36 hours of the whole journey from Omsk and we could easily deduct 1day from our vacation. Thus I kindly advise you before buying anything, specify which airport you will fly to and at what time you will check in! I was really busy with my job so I did not control this moment at all. Apparently, it was more important for me that my tourists were happy and relaxed, which I managed somehow. The sales manager from Anex tour was also not good! I believe that such information should be given to the buyer and not once, but several times, even if you really want to sell the tour!

Things that surprised me.
Even for me, a traveler with a huge experience   there were a few facts-surprises that I want to share especialy if you are also going to visit  amazing Thailand.
1. The bus guide on the transfer to the hotel immediately warned us about flying back: it is impossible to carry any batteries, chargers, music-players, etc. in the luggage. Even an electric shaver must be put in the checked-in baggage you’ll take into cabin.

2. The opposite rule was for the fruits: they should be carried in the luggage, not in a hand one. Although I saw some passangers at the airport taking the exotic fruits with them to the cabin. Who knows…
3. Every day we had a bottle of 0.5 liters of drinking water per person brought to the hotel room. Thus we had 2 bottles every day. And since these bottles were then handed over so if there were not the bottles (or they were broken somehow) next day in the room, the guest had to pay the cost of glass containers to the hotel.
4. It is forbidden to eat fruit called duriandr at the hotel. As it is very smelly. If you eat it you’ll pay a fine which is pretty high.
5. When you check-in your hotel, you pay a deposit (they took 100 euros from us and, I must say, I was not ready and happy for this, although it’s also a good point. By saying this I mean that if you really want to spend all the money and you do so, you’ll  have at least 100 euros at the end. Of course, if you are very careful with the room and all its stuff. We were frightened that the Thais silently write everything down, and they are charging you “when you sleep” haha. Even a couple of stains on the sheets can be a big problem. You never know as some people like to eat in bed and the fruit might splash out juice. Of course, we behaved very decently.  Nevertheless, I had a certain fear when leaving the hotel – they would give 100 euros or ask me for the extra payment. It’s the year of the pig, after all, and there were two representatives of this symbol of the year at once, in the same room (me and my mom))). Scary, I know))
   In any case, we were waiting for a happy ending and before you start worrying about me, I’ll tell you that we lived happily ever after, until some purchase in Europe will separate me and the 100-euro bill)
6. Despite the insane driving of the Thais (although they are angels compare to Indian drivers), fastening the seat belts is the law, the BIG Law! Just sit on a public transport or inside a car and you are immediately told about the seat belt and the penalty in case of non-compliance – 5,000 baht.
7. The first thing our bus-guide did when meeting uswas providing us with a phone card (1 per family). It was very unexpected and nice! What a service! I was about to thank Anex Tour but I would be wrong then! It turned out that the tour company was nothing to do with it. The fact is that after the heart-rending tsunami, which caught Thailand in disaster at the beginning of the new millennium, where tens of thousands of people died, the royal family obliged to provide all tourists with SIM cards for free! With such a card you could have a minute call home and a certain amount of the Internet, which as I was told was enough for Whatsapp, Viber and other social networks. If I understood correctly it was done in case a better warning about an impending tsunami or something like that, then the tourist can be easily warned of the danger and expected actions.

MASSAGE.
If I had not written about the massage, it would not be a full article about Thailand. It’s a magical beauty there!
Although, I am not such a big specialist to talk about the professionalism of the local massage therapists, I will however share my impressions, dear readers.
Initially, I went to the nearest massage place, in the next building to our hotel (there were massage salons on every meter). I started with aloe vera massage. It was done with a cooled aloe vera gel and it was fine, BUT when I arrived, electricity was cut down all over the street and the fan and air conditioning did not work. The masseuse complained about how hot it was for her. And suddenly “let there be electricity!” – said life and immediately all the fans started to work at full capacity. I was lying naked and the wind blew straight into my chest. The masseuse was glad that it was not hot anymore, and I (being a good user of the law of attraction) thought how I would get pneumonia, haha. At this point I could not stand it and asked her to cover my body at least a part of me. Then I was very amused when the lady decided to clean my body with a damp, almost wet towel. She cleaned my legs and right afterwards my face with the same towel. I hope she at least hasn’t wiped anyone’s feet with this towel before my session)))
The cherry on the cake was the moment when I wanted to lie in silence, think about the eternalilty, but the lady began to get acquainted, started talking about her life and how she worked at Bangkok airport, she needed money so she took a monthly massage course and came to work on Phuket. Of course, I am also a very open person, naive, always loving to tell the truth, but even I could understand that in this particular case it was better to just keep silent … In general, I did not go to this salon any more, although I also enjoyed massage there.

And I went to another massage salon the following day. I had foot massage, hot stone massage, head, neck, back massage and something else that I don’t remember already.
I liked everything. I found it quite lovely that even if you go for a foot massage, then at the end you will also have a massage for your head and shoulders. Either this was a bonus, or just as it should be. Or, on the contrary, when you take a head and shoulders massage, they will slightly wrinkle your feet at the beginning. I was also pleased that despite the fact that this was in Thailand, where everything was quite simple, cheap, but we had our foot massage on the big leather seats, which were turned into beds with a slight movement of the hand.
I have also dreamed of trying hot stone massage.

And as I have always liked the picture of a slim tender girl lying on her stomach with smooth black stones on her back and a beautiful flower in her hair … I’m not sure that I looked the same way in the year of the pig))) but I liked the massage itself. It was more expensive than other ones, but definitely worth trying. The masseuse kept all the stones in the pan next to me. I did not understand whether the pan was on the fire, or the stones were in hot water … I do not understand how it kept heat for so long. The lady took them out with a special spoon, put them on the bed, prepared my body with the use of the oil and then took these hot stones with her bare hands and massaged my body with them. Sometimes it was very hot, but most of the time very nice, because she moved the stones along me very quickly and the skin did not have time to feel the temperature of the stones. But I still can not imagine how the masseuse held the stones in her hands. In my opinion, this was very hard. And there were some moments when she covered my body with a towel and put the stones on me, in the line-shape. It was very simple, nothing extraordinary, but what a divine warmth. It’s incredibly pleasant and it seemed that the organs inside were warming up. In general, I really liked it, but I decided that it was a massage for once. I didn’t go to for that anymore.

But I also tried (in the same place, at the massage salon) foot-peeling by small fishes. People say that it’s very ticklish, customers cannot stand a second. My dense skin and I have passed the test with flying colours))

Italian.
I really wanted to practice my Italian, and where, if not in Thailand? Generally, no matter how funny it sounds, it’s true. There were a lot of Italians at the resort! Unfortunately, either they were all couples, or they were groups of pensioners and it was very inconvenient for me to interfere in their conversations, interrupt and tell them that here I am, from Russia, next to you and I understand what you are talking about! Only once I did manage to say a couple of phrases when I heard teenage girls hardly  speaking English and trying their best to know where the money exchange was. It happened that it was my first day in Phuket and I luckly knew where the exchangers were and I got into their conversation and explained to them in their own language. I felt that happiness filled every cell of my body!

Thai translation!
This is something great. In fact, I realized that in Thailand almost everything had been translated by Google or another translator. Therefore, reading the menu or any ads – was a special entertainment for me. Unfortunately it may not seem so funny for non-russian speaking person but however I’ll put a couple of things here.
Ice cream with Oreiro (instead of Oreo).

When typing in one of the menus, one of the letters was accidentally deleted and it was possible to order a ried chicken (in Russian again).

Tours.
Initially, I did not plan to go anywhere (excursions I mean). The reasons were as follows:
1. I was really exhausted. I just wanted to lie down and do nothing at all. I think I happened at the first time in my life, precisely abroad. Usually I am on all sights, and not only at  tourist places, I am also a museums walker. That wasn’t the case for this trip for sure.

2. After my work experience as a guide even for a short time, I got some knowledge and my own thoughts on this work and now I evaluate everyone from the point of view of whether a person professionally performs his duties. Unfortunately it doesn’t give me much relaxation. Sometimes I just want to give advice to a guide)))
3. Normally it was very hot in the afternoon and therefore I didn’t really want to go somewhere. And even in Thailand, I was again haunted by work and it was hard to leave for a long time, being without a laptop.  Though working with mango by your side is much better than working without it 🙂
4. And there was another important point. I have seen so much that I was afraid, I will compare. And it happens involuntarily! So, for example, my brother and sister-in-law were almost in the same place, right before us and, showing photos and telling about the excursions, I was told “it was like the Maldives, Natasha! You have to go there!” and indeed, in the photographs they had everything was as in a Bounty advertisement — a heavenly delight, but why should I go to see something that looks like the Maldives if I have already been to the real Maldives.     The Maldives. Myself. 2011 year (on the photo).                                                                          If it was something special, for example, a huge snowy mountain, which I have seen not much in my lifetime, then yes … Or some kind of magical waterfalls. Something special. I can not say that I don’t like traveling, but in this particular situation, when I was very tired and wanted to rest, I didn’t really want to go to places that I saw in a similar performance in other countries.
   But, after all, having rested for several days in Phuket, I realized that relaxing on the beach in the morning, working during the day, and massaging in the evening was a groundhog day that I would like to diversify. So my mother and I bought an excursion to Khao Sok National Park. It began with a departure on a minivan, which took us at 06:30 am from our hotel. Then it was like this: about an hour of driving, the temple of the Black Monk, about 20 minutes drive — the temple of monkeys. Another 20 minutes drive – riding on the elephants and performance from a little elephant. Then, 1.5 hours drive, transfer to the boat (this is already Khao Sok National Park and precisely the pearl of the excursion and Phuket Lake Cheow Lan), 1 hour by boat among the beautiful turquoise water and picturesque rocks covered with little trees, bushes and moss. Then there was lunch, which was included in the price of the excursion (fruits, an omelette, fried with the palm oil, baked fish, white thai rice, spicy soup, vegetables). Then we were given 2 hours of free time: swim in kayaks and simple swimming in the lake as a tourist wished. Then the way back: 1 hour by boat and 3-3.5 hours by minivan. After 21:00 – return to the hotel. I do not want to talk about everything in detail, so I’ll let you know my impressions and thoughts on the tour very briefly. I did like  the monkey temple. In fact, it was a rock and a cave in it, where wild monkeys were living. Every day they were meeting the crowds of tourists and therefore were waiting for the food from them. Monkeys felt confident, like the bosses and took away all the food from a tourist if they saw that he/she was carrying something to them. At the same time they could not be touched. Otherwise you would be biten! Everyone there has to be extremely careful. This place was just like in the movie “jungle book” with the monkey temple there.
   

   

   

The lake Cheow Lan was incredible. Indeed, it was really beautiful, but again, in comparison, I personally prefer the Plitvice lakes in Croatia more. Perhaps because Croatia was the second foreign country that I visited back in 2005. That time I hadn’t seen much in life and it made a huge impression on me.

This was taken from the internet and it’s Croatia.

We are on the boat, going to the point where we will have our lunch and swimming time.

I do not remember ever kayaking and rowing. It was a good experience. I liked it. And my hands got tired. What a weak strong Siberian girl I am)))

Our guide didn’t impress me that much. He was originally from Ufa, but told us that he was coming to Thailand for the fifth winter season already. He knew a lot, talked a lot, but it was obvious how nervous (at a subconscious level) he was while constantly pulling a T-shirt, taking off and putting on his cap and so on. In our small group of 11 people there were 3 girls with pumped lips and, possibly, breast implants, fake eyelashes. The guide (a young man) didn’t look at the girls’ eyes but the boobes))) while talking to them in a familiar way. Despite the fact that I studied and lived in London and used to feel this simplicity of communicating with different range of people and being free from the high etiquet, he was still a guide and I think that familiarity was not good at such a situation.

What’s more when there were 1.5 hours left to the hotel on the way back, the guide said that he needed to go out, said goodbye to everyone and left us. He simply left the whole group with a Thai driver. Well, we had a couple of people who spoke English, but this was not professional at all! In addition to that there was an argument between one of the tourists and the driver on the way which was not nice as well. And the driver himself told us that he had been very upset and angry with the guide leaving us alone.

Anyway I was happy that we went to that excursion and I did enjoy it no matter what. I got new impressions, emotions, experience and view on the work of the guide from the side.

By the way, this is the temple of the Black Monk.

If you look at the next photo you’ll see me near the temple rubbing the gong. If during the rubbing the gong makes a sound, it means that a person has a good karma. The higher the sound, the cleaner and better karma. The photo does not transmit any sound, so you will never know how clean my karma is, but please pay your attention to my hairstyle. It’s obviously that a person cannot have a bad soul with such hair, haha ​​(remember, I said that the excursion began at 06:30, it explains my beautiful appearance).

Sunsets
There were a few times we went to watch sunsets on the beach. Here is the time to thank Google, because you can simply type “Phuket sunset” and the search engine will tell you “18:35”. We came before the appointed time, but it was still very convenient to know at what time you’ll be like “Thank you dear Sun! See you tomorrow!”
Sunset was, as always, beautiful, but rather monotonous, and I must say that it was much more beautiful and spectacular in the Maldives, India and Italy than in Phuket.

Shopping
I will not talk a lot about shopping, as I’m not at all like a true girl, I don’t like to go shopping. It takes so much energy, efforts and, most importantly, time! We went to the Central Festival shopping mall, Jungceylon shopping mall and also walked through small boutiques and shops not far from the hotel and the beach. I was shocked that when I was buying lingerie I obviously decided to try at first and when I went to the fitting room, the saleswoman went into the fitting room with me, and I had to try everything in front of her. I felt very awkward, but for some reason I decided that since she was so persistent, it meant that they had such rules and I couldn’t do anything about it. And anyway the lingerie was so beautiful that I decided to leave the comfort zone in this case.
Just so you know tax free some Thais understood as “taxi”))) and it is called “vat refund” here so don’t ask them about “tax free”.
By the way, if you are good at searching you can find really cool things and even branded, with a big discount in Thailand. For example, my mother, while shopping, found me a cool winter jacket, which normally costs around 1600 euro. And it was several times cheaper there! Because it was 2018-2019 collection, and the winter seemed to be coming to an end so it was discounted well. I was very happy with this purchase. In general, if you look for something you’ll find it! And if the mother is looking, then there is no doubt at all!

And here are some photos with my comments and without …

It’s pure happiness to work with such atmosphere. There is the process of drawing a tattoo for a colleague.

I really wish I could have such lunch every single day wherever I am…

The Sun and Happiness inside me…

A T-shirt for positive people 🙂 Same Shit. Different Day.

We were going to buy this t-shirt for daddy but decided that it was more NO, rather than YES))

I hope I’ll find some time to be here soon again.

With lots of love, from me xxx