#SHE WAS CHALLENGED IN PHUKET, THAILAND

The days leading up to my vacation, I was super excited.  I felt like I was prepared, but at the same time, became super nervous right before I departed.  I did not know what it was, but something said, "watch something go wrong, but try to remain leveled, because you have all the items and documents you need for this trip".  Of course, something would go wrong, later panning out to be a great experience.

This trip brought on much anxiety, prior to my departure, which later was heightened.  I was worried about home life, that something bad would happen to me while traveling to the other side of the world, not speaking any of the languages in either country.  I would like to thank God, for making English, the universal language of the world!  I also would like to thank him for the Google Translate app on my phone 😊. Turns out, whether it was broken English, or bare minimum of understanding one another, myself and our hosts understood each other.  I would finally like to thank Him for keeping us safe, all the while.

Friday Morning 10am NYC
We departed from JFK late!  Folks who know me, know that especially when there is a schedule involved, I HATE BEING LATE!  If I knew how to fly a plane, I think I would've taken off, just to make my connecting flight in Doha, Qatar.  The frustration of our delay was irritating.  But guess what calmed my irritation: the luxe look of our plane and the FOOD AND ALCOHOL!   Man, can I tell you, after riding mostly domestic flights in the USA, and USA branded airlines even to the Caribbean, to be able to have unlimited food and alcohol on my flight, was the bomb!  It seemed to be the trend outside of the USA.  Even our shorter flights, we got food and drinks!  I'll explain more about that later.  Just know, your girl ate and drank her heart out.  I am certain I gained a few pounds.

Care pack on our seat

Dinner: Tofu Tikka Masala

Tired of Flying

I barely slept on the flight.  One reason was I had a man behind me who was super rude and kept pushing my seat up, without asking nicely about raising it, until I finally had enough and waited until we were well in the air, to turn around and give him the nastiest stank face hailing from the Bronx, NY.  He got the hint and finally said please.  I raised it a little, however, I later realized, I paid too damn much for my 12 hour, 1st leg flight so, I rolled it right on back to where I was just as comfy as he was.  I couldn't care anymore.  Please note by this time, I am still awake, only on 4 hours of sleep.

The second reason was of course, the FOOD AND DRANKS! Yes, I made sure my eyes opened wide once I heard the carts.  I even gently woke my friend up.  Not by any means, was I going to miss anything "included" on this flight.  The fact that I saw bottles of Hennessy, Johnnie Walker, wine, big bottles, not nips, made me excited.  They even have a few cocktails where they shook it up and nicely poured in glass for you. No need for a business class seat! BRAVO!  The meals were PHENOMENAL!  I mean really tasty meals, that catered to all types of diets.

Saturday 11am Qatar, Friday 3pm NYC
We finally reach into Doha.  Looking at the time, we were praying that, just like our flight was delayed leaving JFK, our connection would be delayed also, as I was informed via Facebook, the airline has a tendency of not leaving on time 😑.  Surely enough, our connection, was gone. GRRR! A man with a sign for those connecting to Phuket, was waiting for us at the top of the stairs.  He explained that the next flight was at 7pm, Doha time.  We landed 11am, Doha time.  No.  I'm not staying here sir.  Anger began to rush to my face, blood is boiling, and tears of anger are coming to my eyes.  He asks to see our tickets and that the airport offered a complimentary hotel stay if we liked.  We were thinking he was just wanting to see.  Nope.  He slickly, swapped our tickets, for the 7pm flight.  All names and cuss words for when we noticed the ticket swap, began to flow.  He's nowhere to be found for a few minutes.  Finally, a nice girl told us to just go to the desk because, there are usually other flights available, with other airlines.  We said awesome!  I still wanted to fight that dude though.

We were able to get on a new flight, same airline, however, we had to fly to Dubai, then from Dubai, switch airlines, to Phuket.  We were just happy that either way, we were still landing on the day we were supposed to arrive, or at least we thought.  Our stop in Dubai was an experience all within itself. The airport is like a mall, supermarket, hotel, museum, and anything else you can name, all in one.  It was a combo of "really ya'll?!" with "this is so cool!"  It looked like one of the corners of the world. All types of people were rushing to their gates or in and out of stores and spas.

We ran to catch our connection in Dubai.  Connections however, like in Doha, there is bus at the gate, that takes you to the plane.  Very annoying, as the gates are not close to the planes at all.  If your not on that bus in time, they will not allow you or will not have another bus to come for you to make your flight.  We almost didn't make our connection.  A woman at the gate was refusing to let us on the bus that just pulled in, for what reason we didn't know, as we were on the line like everyone else.  With her petty smile, she just said, "sorry, doors are closing".  My friend finally had her moment of anger 😊.  By the grace of God, I looked at the screen, and saw our flight was delayed an hour. YYYYAAAASSSSS!  We still had time to make this final leg.  I shouted "stop talking to her, she doesn't know what she's talking about because, right here, it says our flight is delayed, so we're good!"  The attendants petty smile began to disappear, as ours, appeared ☺️.

We have a whole row, and semi empty flight on this last leg, with Emirates.  It looked as though most of these people, missed the same connection we were originally supposed to have.  The drinks and food flowed nicely, and I finally got some shut eye.  It was swell.

Sunday 1am Phuket, Saturday 1pm NYC
We land in Phuket, immigration took about 1.5hours, to later discover, our bags never made it to Phuket with us.  How was that even possible, considering we left Dubai late.  It was most of my flight, whose luggage was missing.  Tears just flowed.  I'm tired and angry and now, I'm in a place where the English language is a struggle to understand fully.  We fill out a form for our luggage and now have to find a taxi to drive us 45 mins to our hotel.

We share our taxi with a man visiting from Mali, I believe.  Solo traveler.  We chatted some and at the same time, I was monitoring on Google Maps on my phone, how far we had to go before we got to our hotel. He gets dropped off first, us next.  We finally pull up to our 4 star hotel, Banthai Beach Resort and Spa, ready for bed, only to find out that our solo traveler, grabbed my friends book bag, and not his.  It was like, "could this get any worse!"  With the use of Google Translate, we asked the driver to go back to retrieve my friends bag.  We lucked out, as the solo traveler, was the only black man who had just arrived, so the locals pointed us to where he had walked into.  He comes out smiling "oh my goodness, man this is funny and crazy, I took the wrong bag".  Our faces to him 😑😒.  We told him to pay the driver, as his place wasn't all that close to where we were staying.  The excitement of rolling up to our hotel again, was now gone.  Beautiful site to see but, now at 3am, I had no energy left to even take it all in, again.  At the same time, I was emailing our tour person, about the excursion we booked for the morning, begging to have it moved to the following day.  By chance, they were awake, and responded and nicely said "Christina, get some sleep, we will figure it out".  Talk about understanding!

Sunday 11am Phuket, Saturday 11pm NYC
We slept about 4 hours, because we didn't want to miss the buffet breakfast.  With only the clothes we had in our book bags and the nice flip flops provided by the hotel, we went to breakfast, looking a hot ass mess!  I mean, our faces looked so tired and drained.  It was like, we weren't supposed to be in that hotel! We indulged in almost everything they had to offer, which was yummy!

 

We rushed through it however, because we had a 9am meeting with our travel agency tour guide

 Delirium with a touch of anger sets in.

Since we didn't have any clothes readily available and ended up booking a different and later excursion for the day, we said we would venture out in the rain

and pass the local shops along the way, to see if we can find some type of clothing to hold us over at least 2 days.  While on the search, we found a spa that had Garra rufa fish, those fish that eat the dead skin off your feet 

We said lets try it!  It was the picture that we took while experiencing this weird sensation, that I realized we looked a hot mess. LOL.  The experience brought some cheer to us however.  We had to make the most of the day.

We have limited cash, the shops only take cash, so the use of my credit card was limited.  What was also limited:  the sizing options of clothing in the area. GGGRRRRR!!  My friend and I are far from skinny girls.  Everything we picked up a the shops that we liked, we asked if they had a large and all the responses were, "one size fits all".  That one size, looked like a small.  We just continued to let out big sighs.  We decided to walk inside a maze like building, with more shops, to find a girl who was opening up and GGLLOORRAAAYY, she had shirts that were one size fits all but however, they seemed to lean more towards the "large" spectrum.  We purchased 2 shirts.  We later found a swimsuit store that had suits that would fit us as well.  They weren't cheap that's for sure.  We later proceeded to hustle a man at shop we had already passed, for underwear. When we returned to our hotel, my friends luggage arrived however, mine didn't. GGGGRRRR!!

It's 2pm and its finally time for our pick up for our safari tour.  The rain, thank goodness, finally subsided and the sun made its attempts to come out.  Our Tour was hosted by Siam Safari Tours, which, not only included an Elephant trek,

which made you feel like you were about to fall, but also included a full afternoon of showing how the people who live there, live off the land, while raising their female elephants

.  From making coconut oil

, growing rice, tasting traditional Thai food (plenty coconut milk)

, coffee, tea

Thai Tea with Condense Milk

to how they make rubber from their rubber trees,

ending with dinner being included with a beautiful view at the top of the mountain

It was a day that actually made us cheer up more.   The elephants were beautiful!

We head back to the hotel and  believe it or not, we finally just decided to go to bed.  We were grannies.  We had an early morning start for the next day, so had to rest up.  But, at 2am, we woke up and sipped some cocktails in our room. So, not as much sleep as we wanted, was attained.

Monday 8:30am Phuket, Sunday 8:30pm NYC
We get picked up for our full day tour for...PHI PHI ISLANDS! WHOOOOO CHILE!! Listen, nothing beats being at a place that you have stared at on your vision board for about 2 years. Knowing that I was about to see what I have seen online in videos and photos, made me forget, that my luggage was still missing.  I think I cried enough that I said, "welp, make the most of this trip!"

We chose the 1 day speedboat tour, as it would leave our other days for other things to do.  We were in a group of roughly 30-40 people. All ages from many different countries.  This is where we made new friends, a newly wed couple from Australia, via Fiji Islands!  Both places are now on my list.

The ride was a little rough, as rain was leaving the area

  

We stopped at one of our most anticipated islands, Monkey Beach.

I got warnings on my phone to stay away from the Monkey's, which we did.  Our operator kept us on the boat, for safety but, we got close enough.  We visited most of the islands, not all, which I was fine with.  I just mainly wanted to snorkel (which, my friend got scared once the fish surrounded us and even came the surface) and snap whatever pics I could, thanks to my GoPro 4.

Each island was a site to see, even one where we had lunch with an ocean front view

The caves we saw, where there were actual people who lived in them, were phenomenal to see. The water, even with overcast, was so blue, green in color. It was just like, wow, I'm actually here in this water from online!  Unfortunately, the sun did not quite come out the way we would have hoped but, fortunately, I was told it was best that it didn't because, there's not much shade, so you pretty much want to be able to enjoy the sites, without having to deal with serious dehydration and sunburn later.  Perfect. We ended the tour on one of the islands that seems to be like the party island with all the boats pulling up and lining up.  Folks were drinking cocktails, eating local bbq food from the people who lived there. I of course, brought my own special drank :-) .

On our boat ride and bus ride back, I just prayed that my luggage would be there, because in 2 days, we would be leaving to a different country and also because it was now going to be a different airline, I was sure it was going to be lost.  I prayed hard.  We arrived at our room and I just went for it:  asked the front desk about my luggage and it was surely there!  YYYAASSS GOD!  The staff knew us as room 1124.  When she said "yes 1124, your bag is here, from early morning" I was just super ecstatic.

It was then, with clothing, we freshened up and looked like real people.  I called it "Luggage Glowed Up" .  When we left to hit the streets, the front desk girls said we looked nice.  I thanked them.  One proceeded to say "yea because, before, you guys looked bad".  I wasn't sure if I should have taken it as a compliment or insult.  But it was obvious why we looked bad for a day and half. No clothes and stressing about not having clothes!

We linked up with our new friends from our tour, to book our following days excursion.  To say the least, night life in Patong Beach is very busy.  Very similar to NYC Time Square, in the summer.  It's the party central city, on the beach.  Actually, it's a little similar to South Beach, just with more traffic.  It was a little overwhelming but we managed.  It turns out we all were super tired.  Again, we were grannies, and went to bed lol.

Tuesday 11am Phuket, Monday 11pm NYC
We booked a visit to the controversial, Tiger Kingdom.  Many people asked me not to be involved in any events with the animals.  Many people warned us that the tigers are sedated.  Many people gave their point of view about the tigers, and others had no comment at all and just encouraged us to go.  I wanted to see for myself.

We paid to be with the large and small tigers.  Please note, there are extra large Tigers as well however, our large tigers, I believe they said were 6-8 years old.  To me, they looked like they were more 15, 16 lol.  Large tigers appeared to look like adults, at least the ones they brought us to.  The cage with the large tigers had 3.  One was sleep, totally knocked out, while the two others were right behind us, playing in the pool.  I could hear them.  The next thing I knew, I heard one growl at the other, as they were playing.  I almost pissed myself.  I was sweating bad!  The growl to me sounded intense.  What was crazy was, the trainers, for one, were not scared, and two, was encouraging them to play while we were in there.  I just kept my eye on the electrical fence and said "if anything, run towards it if possible".

We were given specific instructions and rules on how to pet them and how to behave while in the cage.  The tiger that was sleep, made me feel a way.  He almost appeared to look like he was dead. We were encouraged to take pics with him but I felt, that his state, took away from the whole experience.  We proceeded towards the other two tigers that were playing.  Here, we were able to get up and close to a tiger that was awake, calm, and allowed us to pet him.  I was sweating bullets!

It was like it wouldn't stop or slow down.  I was encouraged to pose a different way and do other things for pictures but my gut said nope, keep your eyes on this big cat!  To say the least, I was super excited that our 15 minutes was up and we could proceed to the small tigers.

The small tigers cage, had three, if my memory serves me well.  I know one for sure, was sleep heavily.  We posed with that one but again, I just wasn't feeling the vibe.  On the other side however, there was one that was awake and loved it when people pet its belly.

Kinda reminded me of a dog.  I wasn't as scared of her, as she was a medium sized tiger, who was friendly.  Again however, I was happy when it was over.  We had to freshen up after because we all were sweating bad lol.  To take the edge off, we had a shot of Jack with frozen drinks, while we waited for our pick up.

We again had plans to walk around and buy trinkets, which we did.  But we remembered we had to freshen up because we had a show to attend in the evening.  But first, because the weather had been sucky, except for this day, we decided to bless the pool that sat right outside our room.  Not only that, we rushed to make the happy hour special before it was over 😊.

We finally get picked up to see the Phuket FantaSea show

I was told by a few friends on Facebook as well as our tour guides, that we needed to see at least one of the two Broadway like shows while here.  Boy was  it definitely worth the money!  The whole set up of where the show takes places, is actually set up like a theme park.  These awesome lights, souvenir shops, and even a sample of traditional Thai dancing was on display.

The Theater

Their main attraction: the elephants!  We had and opportunity to get up and close to elephants again, who, were also part of the show with other live animals.  

  

The fact that they had them trained so well was unbelievable.  They are only used for a small portion of the time however, their presence was and awesome site to see .  Unfortunately, due to the strict policy of no pictures within the show, they require everyone to lock up their cameras or phones before entering into the show.  I made a big deal about this as: 

1. I do not trust anyone with my electronics 

2. I saw no policy stating that if it went missing, they would replace my phone so with that concern, I received my own key for my own locker that only I could access, which calmed me down.  It's also a ploy to get you to purchase photos inside of the theater with the other rare animals on display along with not revealing the show to non-ticket holders.  We said our final good-bye to our Aussie crew, and spent the evening packing and just taking in the last evening. 

Wednesday 7am Phuket, Tuesday 7pm NYC
We get picked up for our ride to the airport.  Along the way, we got a chance to see Phuket's rush hour, kids going to school, side villages and roads, as well as, a man casually walking his elephant on the side of the road, like someone would their dog, minus a leash.  It was awesome.  I believe it was just his morning walk for breakfast, the elephant tearing from the side of the mountain, plenty branches and tree leaves to eat.  I now, want an elephant.  Totally in love!

We came across more frustration at the airport however, thankfully, we didn't miss our flight.  We have definitely learned, outside of the US, communication of gate and time changes is not something that is clear or happens often. You have to stare at the screens and ask about 5 different people before you finally get the right answer.  Blood begins to boil.

Next stop, Bali, Indonesia.

If your interested in visiting Asia or any other parts of the world, and want to get booked (payment plan options available), along with further information, e-mail me at ChristinaCtravels@gmail.com

An independent travel agent for TropicalTravel.net - We don't only book to the Caribbean
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#SHE'S GOING TO ASIA!!

Do you have a vision board?  What do you have on it?  For me, I have many different things, but most include places that I want to visit, some actually not pasted on it.  I have Greece on there.  I have Thailand on there.  I have to add parts of Africa, Cuba, Haiti, and many others on there as well.

Due to so many different things going the past few day, I totally forgot that I am leaving soon to Asia!!  Not only am I going to Phuket, Thailand (vision coming to life),

but I decided that it makes sense, since on that side of the world, I might as well go to Bali, Indonesia!

Yup, your girl is going to Asia...the other side LOL. Two for one deal!  This sleepless trip will be well worth the constant movement.

When the new year started, I said I wanted to go some place tropical, however, someplace not the Caribbean.  A friend of mine, who went to Thailand alone for about a week, a treat to herself for her 30th birthday, inspired me to just go ahead and book, whether I was going alone or with someone. Deep down, I wanted to go with someone because...I have a fear of flying, and it's just soo far to travel alone!  I don't know how she did it but, I said to myself "go for it, even alone". I did, through my agency.  I even lucked out, and have a friend coming along, that could afford this trip, as we are going during peak season.  Every coin spent, is well worth the experience.

I recently got back from Miami for carnival and realized, the next few weeks are going to fly right by and I need to get organized for my Asia trip.  I saw where we were booked to stay in both countries, at the initial booking however, I didn't pay close attention to them.  I finally looked again, after making my final payment in early October:  I CAN-NOT WAIT!!!  Both hotels are super dope!  I feel like "man..this is how you vacation!"  Don't get me wrong, I know there are possibly even better hotels, however, for what my budget was, the 4 and 5 star hotels selected, at the suggestion of my CEO of TropicalTravel.net, was perfect for us.

Luckily for me, my friend whose going with me, likes what I like.  We do intend on branching out and trying to see local attractions and the local people.  I am currently organizing each day for us.  We are in both places for 4 days each, I believe.  The time will go quickly, watch! UGH!  Especially since one of the days in Thailand, will be an all day trip to the Phi Phi Islands.

My friend is hell bent on this hike in Bali (-_-).

Our chance to be with the locals

Let us pray, the weather is good for my asthma.  We are going for leisure and exercise (-_-).  I will look into some type of Yoga, specifically hot Yoga, while in Bali if possible.

My next post, I will include photos, videos, and more detail on my experience.

Have you been to Bali or Thailand?  What did you do out there?  What attractions did you see?

If your interested in visiting Asia or any other parts of the world, and want to get booked (payment plan options available), along with further information, e-mail me at ChristinaCtravels@gmail.com

An independent travel agent for TropicalTravel.net - We don't only book to the Caribbean

#SHE'S A MASQUERADER Pt. 2

HAY HAY HAY!!

I know it has been a while.  Life basically took over and to finally have some time to sit down and write, is actually calming and reassuring as to why I am doing this!

My previous post, was about myself being a Masquerader and taking part in Trinidad Carnival 2014 (hides face).  Yes, it has been a looonnnggg time!  Well since then, you should know, I have made appearances in many more Carnivals:

Miami 2014, 2015, 2016 - One Island Band (oneislandband.com)

Trinidad 2015 - Ronnie & Caro (ronnieandcaro.com)

Crop Over (Barbados) 2015 - Baje International (baje-intl.com)

Chocolate Nation Mas - J'ouvert

Nottinghill Carnival 2016 - J'ouvert with Chocolate Nation (chocolatenationmas.com) & mas with UCOM (unitedcoloursofmas.com) We even got featured on BBC news:

Each carnival brings a different vibe, different type of fun, and different types of people from different parts of the Caribbean and world.  Each carnival has different symbolism and meaning behind it.  The history behind each, is pretty enchanting.  When I have done further research on each country, and learn a bit more about the history, it makes me excited to say that I got the opportunity to be part of something that the natives have celebrated for many years, with meaning.  For example, in Grenada, for J'ouvert, they celebrate Jab Jab or Jab Molassie (spicemasgrenada.com/jouvert; traditionalmas.com/project/jab-jab-2).  In Barbados, carnival is called "Crop Over" because they are celebrating the end of the sugar crop season (barbados.org/cropover.htm#.WAZjreUrKUk).

I have to say, with Carnival, you should not knock it, until you try it! Once you try it, I'm sure you will become addicted, like I have.  However, if you don't like soca music, are not into big crowds, don't have the stamina for long days back to back, and the most COMFORTABLE SHOES, it is not for you!

Something about being on the road with strangers, you end up making new connections and friends. I have, considering, I am sketch about new people and people in general.  It's pretty dope. When you go back and end up playing mas with them, it's even more fun!  It seems like in that moment, all sour attitudes are gone.  There's a sudden "hey, new person. I like you. Let's turn up together".

Each location even plays certain soca from specific countries and their own country.  I can say for sure, Nottinghill Carnival, which the UK has a mix of people from the islands, definitely had a mix of the big Trinidadian artist playing on the trucks.  However, it was the small islands that were massive! St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent pretty much took over music wise.  It was definitely a new scene for me to experience, and a few songs that I was shocked that I had not heard more often in parties back home in NYC, that I liked alot!

With each location, I took risks with unfamiliar masquerade bands and said, "I like this costume, they are a big band that has notoriety, let's go with them".  In almost all of the cases, it has worked out in my favor.  I always made sure I did further research, some by literally reaching out to friends in those locations to make sure my findings were correct.

Each costume is hand made.  There are very little parts that are actually sent out elsewhere to be made.  My friends agreed, our BEST MADE costume came from UCOM! OMG!!  Each piece was so well made, and because of that, even when jammin hard, we lost no stones, gems, nothing!  Even the feathers just seemed to flow perfectly, without losing any!! Ugh!

J'ouvert and costume package pick-up varies in certain locations.  I have to say Trinidad's Ronnie & Caro (ronnieandcaro.com) has never failed me with picking up my costume package. To add to that list, UCOM (unitedcoloursofmas.com) in Nottinghill definitely had an order that made the process run smoothly.  Please note, the price you pay for costumes, is not only paying for the costume.  Your basically paying for an all day all inclusive party: DJ's, food, drink, security, music equipment, and the people who are making your costume.

If your interested in trying carnival and want to get booked,  especially the ones I have participated in (payment plan options available), along with further information, e-mail me at ChristinaCTravels@gmail.com

An independent travel agent for TropicalTravel.net - We don't only book to the Caribbean