‘Fro’s travel adventures -Phuket, Thailand

Traveling while natural-part 1

This is terribly delayed but it’s still January so Happy New Year 😀

I absolutely love traveling. One of my dreams is to travel all over the world. I used to think I would take a year off and go back packing around the world. I don’t think I will do it anytime soon though or if I will at all. I absolutely love the idea of exploring different cuisines and traditions of different people in their own habitat.

I thought I would write daily while on holiday, taking advice from a friend of mine who also writes, but that didn’t quite work out because I was tired when I got back to the hotel room or just didn’t feel like writing(Too much to explore), so I’m going to share my recent experience with a couple (maybe more) posts…

Anyway started writing this while sitting on my hotel bed in Patong, Phuket. Phuket is an Island in the south of Thailand, just off of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. This was after a whole day of traveling to actually get there (urg the not so great part of traveling -_- ). Phuket’s climate is tropical thus the humidity is to the most extreme intensity.

Chalong Beach, South Phuket

The first thing about Phuket, that I eventually got used to, was the heat that hits you the moment you step out the airconditioned building of the airport. South Africa, particularly Johannesburg is hot and according to my phone the temperature in Thailand did not get much hotter than 30°c while I was there but it somehow felt like it was in the 40’s, even in the evenings. I practically lived covered in sunscreen the entire time (Melanin why you no protect me from sun burn*sigh*)

The hottest it got while I was in Thailand

Before leaving home I put my hair in protective styling because it makes my days easier without spending time styling and stretching out my hair daily and because of the humidity in Phuket, I was afraid my hair would practically try to escape, shrinking right back into my scalp!

My sister did my hair this time, which is rare, the method of plaiting was one that I had never done before so I was not so confident about going to the salon to get it done or doing it myself, so she helped.I used an extension called rough dread from the Darling hair extensions. The rough dread gives tight afro looking curls that are still bouncy, almost like my own hair in a Bantu knot out, just longer. I absolutely love the look. This not only protects my hair, but it gives me a great style which I can change up daily with a few pins or scarf. The extension was put on my head almost the same way a weave is done, it was close to crochet braiding, without using the crochet needle (Contact me if you want to know how).

Rough dread, Darling extension

I had several fears when I used the hair because it’s synthetic, the fears being:

1. Synthetic hair tangles up when certain things happen to it
2. I was going to go snorkeling and swimming in the ocean and didn’t know how the hair would react to salt water.
3. I didn’t know how the hair would react to the humidity
4. I was nervous about my own hair getting enough moisture while covered
5. The damage that may/may not occur to my hairline (trembling in fear)
6. My sister was told that the amount of tangling with this hair will drive me crazy and
7. I’d have a nest on my head a few thousand kilometres away from home.

My fears were unfounded though because I went snorkeling in PhiPhi Island and the hair did not act like I thought it would. I was pleasantly surprised because it didn’t tangle up nearly as much as I thought it would, there was a bit of tangling but nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a run through the hair with conditioner, which was great. I just washed the hair with shampoo everyday after swimming and put in a little conditioner to keep it tangle free. I didn’t put the shampoo all the way down to my tracks so that my own hair does not dry up. I also used leave in conditioner daily on my own hair. Forgot to bring my oils which was not very smart of me. Putting on a snorkeling musk over the hair was however another story

It was a little annoying to be in that heat and humidity with my hair hanging down all the time but I couldn’t exactly have it up and have my tracks on display. And I happen to like the big hair look anyway.

Sleeping or trying to get comfortable on two connecting 8 hour flights with big hair is not a lot of fun and I highly doubt the person behind me liked me very much with all that hair constantly popping on to their screen (tehehe sorry ). Fortunately my sister was next to me all the time so one else had to deal with the big hair. It was just funny when my sister had to push my hair out of the way to be able to see out of the window.

I forgot to take my big bottle of conditioner and we ran out so I had to buy. We went to Jungceylon, one of the biggest shopping malls in Phuket. It was great that it was about 6km from our hotel so we could walk there. Navigating the streets was really interesting because none of them actually have names, which would most probably have been in Thai either way. It’s a good thing that I’m pretty good at reading maps and directions because getting lost in a place where no one speaks English is something I did not want to experience.

One of the things I loved about Thailand was that some things were cheaper than at home (fist pump). Didn’t want to buy products that I knew I couldn’t find back home –just incase my hair loves it and then it would be all sorts of missions to get the product– so I looked for what I knew. Was very happy to find Tresemme conditioner, similar to one I had bought at home for only 130baht ( roughly R46) which is almost half of how much it costs in South Africa. The language barrier was a little awkward, at some point my sister wanted to buy a bigger hair brush than the one we had with us and we were pointed to a tooth brush, I guess the only word the lady understood was “brush”. It took talking to a few sales assistants to find the brush but we eventually did.

 

Tresemme conditioner bought in Thailand 

 

Since there are coconut trees everywhere, it is easy and cheap to get coconut oil. We got some coconut oil, hand made from the local villagers, with the local Thai flower scent and we got some that was pure. I love the smell of both, the pure one more than the Thai flower. It smells nothing like store bought coconut oil.

Pure coconut oil with Thai flower scent

Having extensions in added to my holiday experience because I had more time on my hands and I didn’t have to spend too much time on my hair. I would definetely have my hair in some sort of extension next time I travel.

I still haven’t taken it out yet so I don’t know how my hair looks under this(crossing fingers).
It is really interesting how many stares and second looks you get when you have big hair and are one of the few people of color around o_0 the world needs more people with big hair!… Anyway I’ve always wanted to say this so Big Hurrr Don’t Currrr.

I’ll write more about my holiday in the next post 🙂