Posted by Ksenia
Hey, everyone! The volcanic cloud has moved away from Europe and UK and is no longer considered that dangerous for the planes’ engines so now people can finally be where they want to and do not just sit in the airports and endlessly update their Facebook statuses ‘’Stuck in…”.
The situation which at first seemed ridiculous (who would believe that the planes in almost the whole Europe will just stop flying for several days if we haven’t seen it with our own eyes?) then suddenly turned really serious (basically when we found out that the last eruption continued for almost two years everyone started thinking about alternative ways to get to the UK – exams will not wait for a couple of years!
For most of the Russians that was quite problematic as almost no one has the Schengen visa required to travel across Europe by train or otherwise and getting one might take ages). At some point the only thing we could do was wait, check BBC and Heathrow website every hour or even more often, looking at the ash cloud maps and watching the world getting completely mad. And, as true optimists, just hope for the best!
Ok, now a bit about the holidays themselves. At first I went to Moscow to see the relatives and friends, enjoy the home-made Russian food and get ready for the new trip. This Easter me and my mum picked Thailand as our holiday destination – we have been there a few times before and each time was making the country even more attractive in our eyes – sunshine, warm sea, white sand, nice people, good service and total relaxation – what else can you ask for after a busy term in London?
For 12 days no internet, TV or newspapers (only a little bit of Biochemistry - my bible, the Molecular biology of cell, is with me, as always!) - that’s a dream! In that country you feel you can afford being lazy - that’s exactly what we did with my mum – sunbathing, swimming, eating seafood (love it - mussels, crabs, squid, prawns, and fish - all totally delicious), having a massage (this time we tried a few types – Thai, Oil and Foot.
The Oil massage was the most western-like, whereas Thai was quite different from anything I have experienced before – you wear a cotton pajamas and the Thai woman uses her hands and legs (!) to do the massage – this might involve standing on your legs and even walking on your back. All of this is actually much nicer than it sounds or looks and you feel great afterwards.
I realized that I am not a particular fan of foot massage though – I am sure that the person tried to her best and it was supposed to do me good - but that was a bit over my pain limits). I also had time to read a few non-Biochemistry related books and listen to all the music on my phone – before I was not even sure what I had on it.
We chose a great time for our trip as well. On the 13th of April Thai people were celebrating their New Year. The day started with pouring some scented water on the statue of Buddha standing in the reception. This signified rejuvenation and the new start - and we also could make a wish hoping that Buddha will help us.
In the afternoon there was parade involving everyone in the hotel. Staff was wearing beautiful traditional clothes; everybody was singing, dancing and playing with water guns. The parade was followed by the water blessing ceremony (it seems that water is pretty important for Thai New Year).
The main celebration was in the evening. There was a huge barbeque at the pool side with lots of Thai food from different parts of the country. We have tried quite a few things (including blue rice, deep-fried flowers and coconut pudding) but some of the dishes were simply beyond our understanding. The show with singing and dancing again (to which nobody really paid any attention as trying to understand what one was eating seemed more important) was followed by the Thai Beauty Contest. The guest of our hotel had to pick the three most beautiful girls which was not an easy task – we constantly got distracted by the gorgeous Thai clothes they were wearing and ended up judging the dresses but not the girls themselves.
The results were announced latter in the evening and I was pleased to see that the contestants I liked the most took the first and the second places. After this everyone went to the beach and was given a small red hot-air balloon. We then let it go into the air and could make a wish again - hope at least one of them will come true! The balloons looked great in the air – once they flew high up in the sky they started resembling stars and as our hotel had quite a few of them we very quickly created a whole galaxy. That was already the third New Year I have celebrated this year but when it comes to things like that - the more the better!
Even though I said that we were lucky with the timing of our visit I could not say so on our first day – April is one of the hottest months of the year so… it was hot all the time – in the morning, evening and obviously in the afternoon. Even the water in the sea was hot - seemed like you are swimming in the bath.
We were not particularly careful with the sun either even though that was not our first trip to Thailand so we ended up having quite a few sunburns (even went to the hotel spa to do an after sun treatment which was nice but did not particularly help).
After that we tried to spend less time on the sun and either the climatic conditions have improved or we just simply got used to it – but it didn’t feel that hot anymore. The journey back was ideal as well (as ideal as a nine and a half flight can be) – usually flights from southern destinations to Moscow are heavily delayed but this time everything was on time. I came back to Moscow airport on the 15th of April – what I didn’t know was that the eruption in Iceland has already started. So I was completely happy. Fine, I am stating going in circles here! Now time to go to London – back to my dear friends, Imperial and Biochemistry. Have a great term!
Ksenia achieved six A grades at Bellerbys Brighton in 2009
Count your age with friends but not with years. Good luck to you!!
Posted by: Jordan 8 | August 06, 2010 at 07:42 AM