The Traveling Begins!
I just finished my teaching certification and said goodbye to all the new people I had just met. It was the end of March and I wasn’t going to start teaching until May. This was the first time, where I was able to travel for a whole month around an entire country. I made the choice to travel with no plan, and get ideas of where to go from locals and other travelers. During the certification course a girl told me about the island of Koh Tao. A lot of the other participants were going to the island, Koh Sumuai and I really didn’t want to go with everyone. Instead, I wanted a small island all to myself. I had my suitcase and backpack and headed out early morning to the bus station. It was a five hour bus ride to a ferry and an hour ferry ride to the island.
This was the first time I had taken a ferry to an island and everyone had to put their luggage in the front of the boat. I found a seat among all the young travelers, ready to have a nice vacation on a small island in Thailand. As I was sitting there, the boat crew began passing out small plastic bags to everyone and people were taking them like there was nothing to it. I had no idea why we were given these bags, until we were out in the middle of the ocean. People began throwing up all over the place due to the motion of the boat. I began cracking up because my sister hates when people throw up and I messaged her telling her about the situation. For the entirety of the ferry ride, I was listening to people puking and simultaneously getting hilarious messages from my sister, “Why is everyone throwing up? Omg, that sounds disgusting.” I was in tears from laughing so hard.
We got to the island and I set myself up in my hotel that was across the street from the beach. It was about a minute walk to the beach front, so I ended up walking down just in time for the sunset. I was in awe when I got down there. There were mats and small tables to sit right on the beach to have a perfect view of the sunset. Palm trees and island life was all around me. I ordered a beer and sat on a mat. This was the beginning of me chilling the fuck out. I was away from America and didn’t have to start work for an entire month. It was so nice, and proceeded to watch the sunset. It was the most beautiful beach sunset I have ever seen.

I sat there and enjoyed every minute of it. I booked this place for a week and was just going to relax, with no worries. I ended up sleeping in every morning and getting a few Thai massages on the beach. This island was amazing.
After my time on this island I jumped to the island of Koh Samui. It was much bigger and dirtier than Koh Tao. I ended up staying in a small little hut very close to the beach. This was the first place where, when I walked into my room I could tell that spiders and bugs could easily get in. There was also a great little patio that was a perfect place to drink a beer and get some reading done. While I was there I read the book, I am Malala. It was the perfect book to read before beginning to teaching little kids. It was inspiring to say the least and you should read it.

One night, I was sleeping on my stomach and woke up to something tickling me on my back left shoulder. I half woke up, brushed it away and went back to sleep. The same tickling happened again a few minutes later. I turned on the light that was right above my head to find only a couple ants on me. I was very relieved to only find a few ants. Until I turned around and saw the biggest cockroach on the wall at the end of my bed. I jumped up so fast and stood by the side of my bed. The cockroach ran to the side of the wall, by the door to the bathroom and adjacent to the door to get out. I was looking at the side view of this thing and it was massive. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I was facing my fears dead on. I decided to exit the small room and figure out what to do outside. As I walked slowly to the door, my eyes were glued on that cockroach. As soon as I opened the door, it fucking flew! I had no idea of what direction it flew in, I just got the fuck out! I ran off the small deck and saw the security guard who I woke up due to me running like a crazy lady out of my room. He didn’t speak any English and all I was saying to him was, “BUG!” and pointing to my room. He was so sweet, and went inside to get it. I listened and watched from outside. He undid the bed, moved things around, but I did not see that thing come out. After a few minutes I slowly went back inside. I began looking around and didn’t see anything but I needed to know for sure if that thing was gone. At that moment, it ran across the wall. The man jumped for it and I got the hell out of there. I turned around and saw it run off the deck, followed by the guy chasing it. He got the cockroach out of the room. Kòp kun ka, is thank you in Thai. I repeated that to him so many times with a Thai wai. I was so grateful. That was my first incident with a huge bug on this new journey.
After two weeks of island life, I took a flight to the city of Chiang Mai. I left on April 13th which is the first day of Songkran. The Thai new years festival. It’s basically a huge water fight all over the country and no one is safe. Thai people are very quiet and polite, but a few days a year they all have permission to throw water at each other, and they take full advantage. I got sprayed with water walking to catch a cab to the airport early in the morning.
When I got into Chiang Mai, I stayed at a hotel named, Welcome More. The lady who ran it was one of the sweetest ladies I have met. She was so welcoming and advised that I just stay in my room for the next few days because of the festival. I stayed at her place for almost two weeks. It was nice to be in one spot for a little bit. After the second day she moved me into a room in the back of the hotel for more privacy and quiet for my stay.

After making Chiang Mai my home for two weeks, I hopped on a plane back to Bangkok to start teaching with a company called BFITS Thailand. I was a certified teacher and my dream of traveling was coming true.