Warning to readers: this will be long as I will attempt to sum up my
whole trip to the land of Thai in one post. TL;DR- Thailand was great!
While on the 6 planes it took to get there and back from Gabs, I only had one flight delay on the last flight on my way home... I was seriously impressed. I took Etihad airways because it was the cheapest flight I could get back in March and it was awesome! I know this is virtually irrelevant to my travels, but check out the actual menu we got on the flight!
On our first full day in Bangkok, we ventured to the MBK mall, which was a sight I was unprepared for. It had 6 floors with no rhyme or reason to any of the escalators so it was quite an adventure just getting around. We then headed to Khaosan Road which is a "backpacker's dream" of sorts.
The following day we headed as a group to our first clinic day! It was so much fun. I performed my first Thai-cat neuter and got a lot of experience being in charge of anesthesia for some animals and assisting the "surgeons" aka other vet students on others. We also got this great photo in front of the Vet4 clinic. This hospital is huge and maintains 15 doctors which is insane.
The next day, Vet4 sponsored us to go to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. It was an interesting experience. Actually it was quite sad. I didn't take many pictures because the way the animals were maintained under very poor welfare conditions and I was unimpressed by this place. Most of the tigers were open mouth breathing from the heat, none of the cages had any grass or natural flooring besides concrete. Far too many tigers were crammed into each enclosure. Baby pigs dressed as tigers were being fed by mother tigers and sows were nursing baby tigers. None of the young ones looked particularly well. Also, as a patron of the zoo, you could purchase a bottle of milk to feed the young tigers in the cage. People were passing the bottles from one tiger to the next without any thought to what kinds of diseases were being passed as well. Finally, the most disturbing portion of all was the bottle feeding fish attraction. Millions of fish were flopping around attempting to suck on this bottle of unknown liquid. So incredibly weird. The next portion of the day consisted of heading to a 3-D art museum where lots of Thai were captivated with taking picture alongside wall paintings. Example shown below. Following the museum, we headed to the Pattaya beach for a while we figured out where to have dinner. I got to put my feet in the Indian Ocean :) Dinner and sunset and finally home to Bangkok.
Then we headed to Mae Sot. This is where the majority of our clinic days took place. It was really awesome and the staff we worked with was wonderful and so helpful! I successfully completed both my first cat and dog spay while there. The clinic days were great and each was followed by a fabulous dinner. We had two free days once the clinic days were through, during which we hiked an incredible but taxing 5 hour journey to a beautiful waterfall. We also saw the crazy bug shown below that eats bamboo! And the next day we visited a very pretty rose garden where roses are specially preserved for people to purchase.
Then we were back to Bangkok again. That night we went up to the roof top bar of our hotel. It is slightly difficult to see but the view was gorgeous. Saturday before I left was supposed to be the last clinic day. Unfortunately, it also happened to be the day I got a terrible bout of stomach irritation. After taking a boatload of medications, as we were sent with a pharmacy from student health, I still was not feeling any better. I decided to sit out on the last clinic day :( Despite being very upset I was missing out, I was greatful for the sleep. But about an hour and a half after the rest of the group had left, I was awoken by a phone call that said "Alert! Calmly evacuate your room! Fire!" So of course I grabbed my hotel key and phone and high tailed it out of there in yoga pants and a short t-shirt. Looking ridiculous, I was under the sure impression that there was a fire. I headed down the fire escape stairs as the elevators weren't working (which made obvious sense to me because of the fire), and reached the bottom after 10 flights. I thought it was odd that no one else seemed to be coming... I got outside and realized immediately that this was a drill. And lucky for me, all of the other guests had warnings placed in their rooms to alert them that they did not have to participate....except our room. Several hotel employees escorted me around and thanked me profusely for participating. I prayed that my stomach would hold out and allow me to get to the bathroom, as it was unhappy after the 10 flight walk. I think because I looked so displeased and sick, they let me go back to my room. Oye. The very next day was my last in Bangkok! Flight at 3am! But we were sure to make the most of it and visited the Grand Palace, which was really cool but it was SO HOT!
While on the 6 planes it took to get there and back from Gabs, I only had one flight delay on the last flight on my way home... I was seriously impressed. I took Etihad airways because it was the cheapest flight I could get back in March and it was awesome! I know this is virtually irrelevant to my travels, but check out the actual menu we got on the flight!
On our first full day in Bangkok, we ventured to the MBK mall, which was a sight I was unprepared for. It had 6 floors with no rhyme or reason to any of the escalators so it was quite an adventure just getting around. We then headed to Khaosan Road which is a "backpacker's dream" of sorts.
The following day we headed as a group to our first clinic day! It was so much fun. I performed my first Thai-cat neuter and got a lot of experience being in charge of anesthesia for some animals and assisting the "surgeons" aka other vet students on others. We also got this great photo in front of the Vet4 clinic. This hospital is huge and maintains 15 doctors which is insane.
The next day, Vet4 sponsored us to go to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. It was an interesting experience. Actually it was quite sad. I didn't take many pictures because the way the animals were maintained under very poor welfare conditions and I was unimpressed by this place. Most of the tigers were open mouth breathing from the heat, none of the cages had any grass or natural flooring besides concrete. Far too many tigers were crammed into each enclosure. Baby pigs dressed as tigers were being fed by mother tigers and sows were nursing baby tigers. None of the young ones looked particularly well. Also, as a patron of the zoo, you could purchase a bottle of milk to feed the young tigers in the cage. People were passing the bottles from one tiger to the next without any thought to what kinds of diseases were being passed as well. Finally, the most disturbing portion of all was the bottle feeding fish attraction. Millions of fish were flopping around attempting to suck on this bottle of unknown liquid. So incredibly weird. The next portion of the day consisted of heading to a 3-D art museum where lots of Thai were captivated with taking picture alongside wall paintings. Example shown below. Following the museum, we headed to the Pattaya beach for a while we figured out where to have dinner. I got to put my feet in the Indian Ocean :) Dinner and sunset and finally home to Bangkok.
Then we headed to Mae Sot. This is where the majority of our clinic days took place. It was really awesome and the staff we worked with was wonderful and so helpful! I successfully completed both my first cat and dog spay while there. The clinic days were great and each was followed by a fabulous dinner. We had two free days once the clinic days were through, during which we hiked an incredible but taxing 5 hour journey to a beautiful waterfall. We also saw the crazy bug shown below that eats bamboo! And the next day we visited a very pretty rose garden where roses are specially preserved for people to purchase.
Then we were back to Bangkok again. That night we went up to the roof top bar of our hotel. It is slightly difficult to see but the view was gorgeous. Saturday before I left was supposed to be the last clinic day. Unfortunately, it also happened to be the day I got a terrible bout of stomach irritation. After taking a boatload of medications, as we were sent with a pharmacy from student health, I still was not feeling any better. I decided to sit out on the last clinic day :( Despite being very upset I was missing out, I was greatful for the sleep. But about an hour and a half after the rest of the group had left, I was awoken by a phone call that said "Alert! Calmly evacuate your room! Fire!" So of course I grabbed my hotel key and phone and high tailed it out of there in yoga pants and a short t-shirt. Looking ridiculous, I was under the sure impression that there was a fire. I headed down the fire escape stairs as the elevators weren't working (which made obvious sense to me because of the fire), and reached the bottom after 10 flights. I thought it was odd that no one else seemed to be coming... I got outside and realized immediately that this was a drill. And lucky for me, all of the other guests had warnings placed in their rooms to alert them that they did not have to participate....except our room. Several hotel employees escorted me around and thanked me profusely for participating. I prayed that my stomach would hold out and allow me to get to the bathroom, as it was unhappy after the 10 flight walk. I think because I looked so displeased and sick, they let me go back to my room. Oye. The very next day was my last in Bangkok! Flight at 3am! But we were sure to make the most of it and visited the Grand Palace, which was really cool but it was SO HOT!
All in all the trip was fantastic and, as I am taking over the organizing for the trip next year, I can't wait to go back!
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