Welcome to the Jungle

I definitely picked the right semester to teach in Thailand. Tons of random holidays and meetings…love it!!! So after a 3 day weekend in Koh Samet and a short 3 days of teaching, we had another 3 day weekend for Constitution Day. This time instead of the beach, I wanted to do something different. The girls and I decided to head to Khao Yai National Park. This is one of those places that I would say is a must if you're in Thailand for a longer period of time. A great giant ‘monsoon forest’ north of Bangkok; the largest in Thailand actually.

Khao Yai National Park

We stayed at a hostel called "Bobby's Place" which was pretty awesome. Although we arrived in Pak Chong (the town that surrounds the park and where most hotel/hostals are located) late, Mike who owns Bobby's picked us up. One of many favorable accommodations… We started into the park the next afternoon after sleeping in and just relaxing. That afternoon/evening with our super knowledgeable, funny, and fabulous guide - Jeap- in our personal Jungle Tour sorng-teaw, we went into a cave to see stalagmites and stalactites, and shortly to a field to see about 3 million bats emerge from their cave at dusk. It almost was surreal. The bats appeared to create this smoke like imagery. It went on like this for about 45 minutes, and probably longer if we continued to stay and watch, and if we weren't all starving. That night I ate one of the most fabulous Pad-See-Ew dishes ever although the English name is wide noodles with black sauce (soy sauce?). The portions at Bobby's is the largest I've seen since I stepped foot in Thailand. yah!!!

Jeap our guide

Sunset before the bats emerge

Some of the 3 million bats

The Bat Smoke

The next day we got up early for a day full of unknown adventures. Four of us, a French firefighter from Leon named Lionel, a Finnish veterinarian named Mary, and Jeap trekked through the forest in fabulous socks that were meant to keep ticks and other critters i.e. leeches out.

We didn't see many other people as we traipsed through random 'trails' until we came across this waterfall. I guess it pays to have a guide: unknown routes, knowledge on plants and bugs, and where the heck we were going…This waterfall was the first of three we were to visit, and was the only one we were able to jump from. Liz and Lionel were brave enough to jump, while the rest of us ate our corns, cake shavings, and rested.

After they jumped, we continued on in our journey. I must say I really enjoy the wilderness, and being in an actual jungle reaffirmed why. So as we were trekking, we were able to see with Jeap's eagle eyes, a gibbon (super rare).

Gibby the Gibbon

This totally was worth paying for a guide. I doubt I would have experienced and been able to see anything.

The second waterfall we got to was just as beautiful, and I actually swam in it. Waterfall water is icy but super refreshing.  By now, we aren't simply just trekking, but jumping onto rocks in the river. to cross. Super fail on my part. Short legs and all don't work so well with this. I immediately sink. Eh…water trekking shoes come in handy at this point… Although the trekking was pretty intense as I mentioned, it gets even more so…. we climbed rocks using tree roots as rope, and climbed inclines that required us to use bamboo as anchoring points. I am definitely out of shape sigh…stupid cheap delicious food and desserts… Eventually we make it to the third waterfall and this waterfall is pretty famous. It was filmed for Leonardo diCaprio's film "The Beach." Way crowded and not swimmable with all the rocks..darn I definitely could of used a dip. Hiking in yoga pants is great way to protect you from mosquitos and its stretchy material is great for climbing, but sucks since it insulates your body heat, and soaks the sweat. Lovely yes? hahah

Later that night, the only thing that could of make it even more perfect…spotting wild elephants. And did it happen? DING DING DING….

Several wild elephants were near the roads as we were leaving. Beautiful creatures. Of course right as we get closer one stepped onto the road and stopped traffic. It was soo cool to see it so close, but it looked confused and lost. I think in it's confusion and fear, which turned to aggression, that was the reason why it tried to run us down..eeeekk but a park guide came along and used their special driving skills and experience with the elephants in the park, and pushed it safely into the forest. Phew..

So I know I keep saying it, but PERFECTION!!! I guess each weekend is so unique that each is perfect in my mind. I mean I hiked in the jungle, saw a gibbon, a wide horned bill bird, a wild crocodile during our after lunch stroll, and several wild elephants as we were leaving the park.  Super exciting!

H.M. The King's Birthday

Anything involving the King is a pretty huge deal here in Thailand as I've read and come to learn. H.M's birthday is on December 5,  which fell on a Sunday this year, meaning we got to take Monday off of school to celebrate this national holiday. [Little fact : The King was actually born in America, educated in Switzerland, and is the longest reigning monarch in the world.]

So what to do as a farang and a teacher on this long weekend? Take a three-day-weekend trip to Koh Samet. It is a beautiful island about 3 hours from Bangkok off of Ban Phe.

We got into the boat to fill up instead of it leaving at the designated time (normal), and was met with a picturesque view after taking off - blue water surrounding the boat. I was sensing good vibes…woot! And when we got onto the beach, there wasn't just blue water BUT clear blue water, a small breeze,  beach chairs, and umbrellas (though the Europeans in their swimsuits and the litter was annoyingly distracting).  Almost ideal world to step into.

We stayed in these cute little bungalows at the Naga hostel. Although super simple, that was all I needed - bed, four walls, a roof, and a mosquito net

because obviously I wasn't going to spend much time inside…. beach bum (lol) mode - I tanned, swam, ate tons of fruit, and got a massage by the beach. :) Besides that,  I also explored some of the island. Ciana and I tired of just laying (what a chore!!) and went hiking. We went away from where we were mainly at, came across these little sand crabs that made these very tiny sand balls, and eventually walked into another world far from the one I was living in the last two months…. was I home again was all I could think about as I stepped on crunchy leaves.

But at midnight on the King’s birthday, like everyone else, we were dancing on the beach. Soon everyone stopped, passed out birthday candles, and sang:

Long live the king!

What a great weekend…life is tough as a teacher in a foreign land…no seriously it is, but these amazing weekends, friendly people, and wacky children definitely make my experience.

Wedding Crashers

So whenever I head out with Tu, there is no telling what we will do, or what will happen. And Sunday night was no different. Tu asked us if Jenny and I would like to go to dinner with her. Of course we said yes. When she picked us up, we thought we knew where we were going, but sadly, and as usual in Thailand, we had no clue.  We asked, and she started talking about Kanchanaburi. Huh? Then she began to talk about weddings and asked us how to say bride and groom in English. Was this another random conversation she wanted to have? Apparently not. We ended up pulling into this park that had lanterns and neon lights, and a large stage. Jenny and I were at a wedding of one of her former students.

Even though we protested as soon as we parked and got out of the car since we were no way near properly dressed for a wedding (I was in my tie-dye tshirt, a pair of jeans, and my sanuks), Tu and Ning, the other teacher we were with, insisted we were ok. And in we went. We were immediately taken to greet the bride and groom. We took pictures with them, and received wedding favors (an engraved cup with their names I didn't know). RIDICULOUSLY AWKWARD! We were then taken to a table where we sat with friends of Tu among at least a thousand individuals. There were that many round tables there. Good thing though we were not the only ones dressed casually. Phew…. So we sat at the table, drank some soda as Tu chatted in Thai. 15 minutes later we got up to leave. OMG!!! Jenny and I just crashed a Thai wedding. This is beyond hilarious. We got back into the car still laughing when we realized what we just did. After making an appearance at the wedding, I thought we were now going to dinner, but Tu was driving towards Kanchanaburi. Where were we going next? No idea of course.

An hour later we were at a really nice hotel and when I asked, we were going to another wedding. Seriously? Two weddings in one night? So we were crashing another, but this one we sat down and actually ate dinner as we listened to speeches from the mother and father of the bride (or so I think). This was another large wedding, but there was probably only 500 people (hotel occupancy regulation most likely). We met some nice people at our table, and one couple was actually able to speak to me in Cantonese, not Mandarin! Oh and dinner was delicious as they kept bringing us more and more food.

When we left, we learned that the actual wedding ceremony is held in a Buddhist temple, which is followed by a reception very similar to that of an American reception with toasts, speeches, cake cutting, and kids running around, later on for anyone and all to attend. I never thought I'd attend a Thai wedding least of all two in one night… it is definitely one of those randoms I am appreciating as I'm here…

After we left the second wedding, Tu said we were going to go see the bridge over the River Kwae. We attempted to explain that we had already seen it during orientation week and we didn’t really need to see it again, but we got the night tour of Kanchanaburi and ended up at the River Kwai bridge week celebration to see this "light and sound" thing. It was actually a big festival (of course it was) which celebrated the end of WWII in Thailand. The bridge was light up. There was live local bands and a huge market. We walked around, enjoyed the celebration, and didn't get home until bout midnight. Yay for outings with Tu!

Turkey Dinner. Monkey Business.

After teaching the kids about Thanksgiving, Thursday arrived and it was Thanksgiving! Jenny and I left and decided to take a day off on Friday because we decided we should.  :)  We headed to Suphanburi to have a Thai style Thanksgiving dinner with several of our friends who are from the program. Super excited to see Liz and C!! We had our dinner at Lin's Place where we brought our own "appeteasers, KFC mashed potatoes, and pineapples" but had the chicken and rice prepared by LIn's. Nothing like the roast beef, the yams, the mixed veggies, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, and plentiful desserts at home, but it was more than I expected. I am pretty thankful for the meal I had. Followed by dinner, we took a trip to a Cowboy Bar where one of my friends took it upon himself to get up and sing with the locals, and where we got to dance to a few good songs. I would say this was a pretty successful celebration.

                                                     "Fried Donuts"
                    

                                                  "mashed potatoes"

                                            "Cowboy Bar Sing-a-long"

Because we decided to take Friday off to celebrate Thanksgiving without worry about teaching the next day, Jenny and I headed to Bangkok. We did a little Xmas shopping which was strange because it wasn't done when I was running in and out of buildings trying to hide from the rain (like I do in SF or SC), and because it was freakishly hot that day (high 80s). After spending more than I should of, we decided to treat ourselves to some wizardly-goodness. Harry Potter here I come!!!!

I got to say watching a movie in another country is always different and unique. I recommend it if not just to do a comparison to home. In HK, we had assigned seats. In Thailand, we got up to honor the King before the film started. 

After the film, we left Siam Sq via the SkyTrain to Victory Monument . The metro system is just as easy to use as HK's. woot! We then hopped onto a van and went to Lopburi. Early Saturday we got up to venture round.  We bought the usual cha yen (I think I'm getting addicted), and ended up by the famous ruins Phra-Prang Sam Yot.  It was a former Hindu shrine that has three spires created to represent the HIndu Trimurti - Brahman (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer).

Now it is the famous landmark for where the monkeys roam. With our drinks, we stopped to take pictures of both the ruin and the famous residents. However, less than a minute, a monkey ran towards me. Cute.... and then not so much. It climbed my leg like a dog wanting a treat, and went for my drink. Although I contemplated holding on to it for like a millisecond so I could get a picture of it up close, once it opened it's mouth I gave my drink up fast! Right as I surrendered my drink, a group of monkeys went towards Jenny. She was smart to drop her drink to avoid the "attack." And so on their way they went without a thought of us, drinking our cha yen…

Drinking a Juice Box

I'm kind of glad we were there a day before the Lopburi Monkey festival. This festival is a monkey buffet honoring Rama, a hero of the Ramayana. Just a little scary thinking there are supposed to be over 500 monkeys swarming.

After our encounter, we decided to go visit the famous sunflower fields "nearby." What is "nearby" is an hour bus ride outside the city. It was worth it though. The sunflower fields were spectacular. And there were sunflower seeds we got to try and buy. ------ Oh the memories of warmish days when the Giants played… Shout out to my World Series Champs!! -----

Anyway, we left that afternoon, and what an adventure it was. We left round 3, but found there were no more buses to Suphanburi. Whatt??? It was mid day. What's up with this? Eventually we figured we can go to Ang Thong and then get to Suphanburi from there. We took a rickety old slow bus which got us to Ang Thong, and the driver and his wife were kind enough to wait with us until we got on a van. We arrived round 6 in Suphanburi only to find AGAIN there were no more buses or vans. Seriously?? We only attempted to come back early because we had to go to this English "exhibition" with our school on Sunday morning. (Found out Wednesday and this last minute business is typical).

So we were stranded. A song-taw driver offered to bring us back for about 500 baht as he heard our plight, but we refused. Definitely not. At the same time we refused, Tu called. She of course checked to see where we were, what we were doing, and if we wanted to go somewhere with her tomorrow and have dinner. We said yes, and then when I told her where we were, and our situation, she ended up calling around and getting the school van to pick us up. This only happened after I got a kind Thai mother at the Shell gas station to speak on the phone and talk to Tu to tell her where we were in Thai. Apparently saying we were at a Shell gas station by the only way to U-Thong on the main road wasn't good enough.  I felt guilty Tu had to do that, I felt bad I had to get a random stranger to help us, and I felt uncomfortable that someone had to drive to get us…but if there really was no other way…..sigh... But man oh man how I truly truly appreciate the kindness Thai strangers and friends have shown us. <3

As we were waiting, we thought it would take about 30 minutes for them to get us, but the wait was less than 10 minutes. The van that came to get us was filled with teachers and students from our school who just left the "exhibition."The "exhibition" wasn't just a one day thing as I thought, but a Friday to Sunday thing. EMBARRASSING to say the least to enter the van full of colleagues. It was then promptly filled with laughter for a good 5 minutes when we got in. If you can't stand the situation…solution: Laugh! Jenny and I laughed at the situation if only to ease the embarassment a little. Only in Thailand it seems… 

Note- Thailand is all about having fun or "sanuk," and so if you aren't, find a way or take yourself out of the situation.