Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Lao Laos
On Sunday, November 8th we left Stung Treng for the Laos border. Got through to Laos and went straight to Don Det, one of the 4,000 islands on the Mekong River. We took a small boat to the island and found a bungalow for about $2 a night. From there, we rented some bikes and rode around the island and then also crossed the bridge to Don Khon. Historical tidbit: This bridge was the first bridge built by the French in Laos. We saw the amazing Liphee waterfall, and then I rode around the rest of the island. It took me a little longer than I thought it would, so by the time I got back to the bungalow it was dark. We had an amazing dinner at an Indian restaurant and went to bed at around 10 because the generator was turned off at 9pm.
On Monday, I woke up at 7am and rented a bike again. I rode it to the bottom of Don Khon and rented a boat for an hour. I got to see a few of the fresh-water Irrawaddy Dolphins just swimming around the river. Then I just rode around the island and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Got back to the bungalow after riding the bike on a flat tire for the last 30 minutes and then we had another amazing dinner at the same restaurant.
Tuesday, we took the boat back to the mainland and got a minivan to Pakse which is a transfer city to Vientiane. We took our first sleeper bus to Vientiane and ended up getting there at 5am. We found a guesthouse that let us check in at 6:30am so we stayed there for $9 a night. We took a nap, went to the Vietnam Embassy and applied for our Visas. We rented a motorbike and saw the Royal Stupa (That Luang) and then headed 25 km outside of the city to the amazing Buddha Park. It is a small park with hundreds of religious statues all over. We got back and bought our bus ticket for Vang Vieng for the next morning.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the delicious Scandinavian Bakery and got on the bus at 10:30. We got to Vang Vieng at around 2pm and checked into a guesthouse for about $4.50/night. We rented an inner tube and took a tuk-tuk up to the top of the river. From there, it was plain madness. Bars all along the riverbank giving out free shots. Trapeeze swings and zip-lines to jump into the river. Water slides 20-30 feet above the water. Lots of fun, although the bruises on my body after a couple of days would tell you differently. I might have landed awkwardly a few times and my body was sore for about 4 days after we left Vang Vieng.
Friday morning I woke up around 8 to go see a couple of caves. I rented a bike and took off. The first cave was about 10-15 minutes away, and it was a pretty average cave. It had lights and a pathway installed so it didn't feel very "authentic".
The second cave was a lot better. It was about 45 minutes away and it had an amazing blue lagoon in the front of it. There was also a tree with ropes hanging from it where you could swing into the lagoon or jump off from one of the branches.
I went up into the cave and followed a guide for an hour, then came out and started jumping, swinging, and diving into the lagoon. It was absolutely amazing.
I went back to meet up with Sara at 1pm, and we had lunch before heading back up to the top of the river. We didn't rent inner tubes this time, so we just floated down the river. This way, we didn't have to be back before 6pm to return them and actually hung out at the last bar until about 7pm.
The next day, we woke up early and caught the bus for a 7 hour ride North to Luang Prabang. It's a nice little town with a large French influence. The last few years however it has become very touristy with specialty shops with expensive artifacts and souvenirs. We were there for 2 nights, just hanging out. We went and visited a really beautiful waterfall called Kuang Si one day. It actually has a bear rescue center there also so it was fun to see some bears while we were there.
After a couple of days there, we took the night bus back to Vientiane which wasn't too bad. Got in at 4:30am and it started raining but we were able to find a little stoop with a roof overhead to wait it out. We tried to nap until about 7am when we went to our favorite bakery (Scandinavian Bakery) and had breakfast. We bought our bus ticket to Hanoi and went around to finish up our errands. Got our Visa from the Vietnam Embassy, then finished seeing the sights in Vientiane. Saw the war museum which was pretty cool. At 7pm, the bus picked us up and we were off to Hanoi. The next 24 hours were the longest, slowest of my life....
Coming up...Vietnam
On Monday, I woke up at 7am and rented a bike again. I rode it to the bottom of Don Khon and rented a boat for an hour. I got to see a few of the fresh-water Irrawaddy Dolphins just swimming around the river. Then I just rode around the island and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Got back to the bungalow after riding the bike on a flat tire for the last 30 minutes and then we had another amazing dinner at the same restaurant.
Tuesday, we took the boat back to the mainland and got a minivan to Pakse which is a transfer city to Vientiane. We took our first sleeper bus to Vientiane and ended up getting there at 5am. We found a guesthouse that let us check in at 6:30am so we stayed there for $9 a night. We took a nap, went to the Vietnam Embassy and applied for our Visas. We rented a motorbike and saw the Royal Stupa (That Luang) and then headed 25 km outside of the city to the amazing Buddha Park. It is a small park with hundreds of religious statues all over. We got back and bought our bus ticket for Vang Vieng for the next morning.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the delicious Scandinavian Bakery and got on the bus at 10:30. We got to Vang Vieng at around 2pm and checked into a guesthouse for about $4.50/night. We rented an inner tube and took a tuk-tuk up to the top of the river. From there, it was plain madness. Bars all along the riverbank giving out free shots. Trapeeze swings and zip-lines to jump into the river. Water slides 20-30 feet above the water. Lots of fun, although the bruises on my body after a couple of days would tell you differently. I might have landed awkwardly a few times and my body was sore for about 4 days after we left Vang Vieng.
Friday morning I woke up around 8 to go see a couple of caves. I rented a bike and took off. The first cave was about 10-15 minutes away, and it was a pretty average cave. It had lights and a pathway installed so it didn't feel very "authentic".
The second cave was a lot better. It was about 45 minutes away and it had an amazing blue lagoon in the front of it. There was also a tree with ropes hanging from it where you could swing into the lagoon or jump off from one of the branches.
I went up into the cave and followed a guide for an hour, then came out and started jumping, swinging, and diving into the lagoon. It was absolutely amazing.
I went back to meet up with Sara at 1pm, and we had lunch before heading back up to the top of the river. We didn't rent inner tubes this time, so we just floated down the river. This way, we didn't have to be back before 6pm to return them and actually hung out at the last bar until about 7pm.
The next day, we woke up early and caught the bus for a 7 hour ride North to Luang Prabang. It's a nice little town with a large French influence. The last few years however it has become very touristy with specialty shops with expensive artifacts and souvenirs. We were there for 2 nights, just hanging out. We went and visited a really beautiful waterfall called Kuang Si one day. It actually has a bear rescue center there also so it was fun to see some bears while we were there.
After a couple of days there, we took the night bus back to Vientiane which wasn't too bad. Got in at 4:30am and it started raining but we were able to find a little stoop with a roof overhead to wait it out. We tried to nap until about 7am when we went to our favorite bakery (Scandinavian Bakery) and had breakfast. We bought our bus ticket to Hanoi and went around to finish up our errands. Got our Visa from the Vietnam Embassy, then finished seeing the sights in Vientiane. Saw the war museum which was pretty cool. At 7pm, the bus picked us up and we were off to Hanoi. The next 24 hours were the longest, slowest of my life....
Coming up...Vietnam
Sunday, November 22, 2009
My days in Khmer Country....
It's been quite a fast, yet amazing month. I'll just get you up to my trip through Cambodia since it's been a while.
From Phuket I took one of the worst bus rides to Bangkok. Ended up getting in like at 8am Friday morning, after being on a bus for 12 hours that apparently had no shocks whatsoever. Dropped off my bags at my friend Jon's apartment and headed to the embassies to try to get my Visas worked out. I took a taxi to the Chinese embassy and realized it was way too expensive for the Visa and the train ticket, so quickly scratched that part of my trip. Then I walked to the Laos embassy, the Australian embassy and all the way back to Jon's apartment. I basically walked around all of Bangkok since I walked for about 8 hours. It was a nice tour of the city, yet very exhausting. I hung out with Jon and his neighbors for the weekend and went to Chiang Mai which is in the Northern part of Thailand the next Tuesday. That trip was amazing. I took the night train which was extremely uncomfortable because I didn't have a bed, just a regular seat. I got in to Chiang Mai around 7am and checked in to my guesthouse before touring the city. The old city is amazing, enclosed within some huge walls surrounded by a moat. The next day I took a day trip to Chiang Rai which is on the border of Laos and Myanmar(Burma). It is near where the Golden Triangle is located, which is where most of the opium trade used to occur back in the day. We also stopped by probably the most amazing temple I have seen in Thailand, The White Temple.
On the way back, we stopped at a local tribal village and hung out with them for a bit.
The next day I left for a 3 day/2 night trek through the northwest area of Chiang Mai. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever. We started off with a Snake show and then rode some elephants through the jungle for about an hour. After lunch we began our 2½ hour trek up the mountains to a remote village of a small Akha tribe. We spent the night there in the village and the next day went off to see another Lahu tribe and continued with another 1½ hour trek down the mountain. Ended up at a cabin on the river where we spent the night. Only down side was getting a leech on my ankle which got a good amount of blood from me. What can I say, leeches and mosquitoes agree that my blood tastes good.
We spent the night and the next day went white-water rafting down the river. It was a nice intro to white-water rafting since I have never done it before. I then proceeded to guide our bamboo raft for a couple of miles downstream. Now that was quite an interesting vehicle since I think we were sinking down the river a little more than we were floating. We had lunch before heading to a longneck tribe village and then back to Chiang Mai.
The next day I rented a motorbike and checked out some of the outskirts of the city, including an amazing elephant show and stopping at a factory where they make paper out of elephant dung. I got a nice oil massage before heading back to the train station to catch my train back to Bangkok.
I got back to Bangkok on Tuesday morning and just hung out for a few days with Jon and his neighbors and friends. I ended up having a great time in Bangkok, a city that I did not enjoy much on my first few days in Thailand, but it's definitely a lot different when you know where to go and where to be. The people on Jon's street were so welcoming that they even invited me to a wedding on the day before I left to Cambodia. It was quite an interesting, very early (7:30am) experience, but also lots of fun. I had to buy a wardrobe since I hadn't planned on going to a wedding, so we spent all day Friday coming up with a $30 wardrobe (shirt, tie, pants, shoes) for me. Not too bad.
The next day, on Sunday, November 1st, I met up with Sara and headed off to Cambodia. We caught the bus at 8am and got to the border around 1pm. The border crossing was a fiasco where they overcharged us for our Visa, and ended up taking 2½ hours. We didn't get to Siem Reap until about 7pm. We stayed at a guesthouse for $3 a night and prepared ourselves for the amazement of the Temples of Angkor. Monday, we woke up around 8 and rented bicycles to ride around the Temples. We went to the Roulous Group which is about 13.5 km from Angkor Wat. After getting there, we found out that you have to buy the ticket at the main entrance first and you couldn't buy a ticket there. Rode the 13.5 km back to Angkor and bought our tickets. We rode around the Grand Tour which is about 35 km and saw 4 temples:Preah Kahn, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Pre Rup. The sunset from the top of Pre Rup Temple was gorgeous. Dead tired from a loooong day of bike riding, I ended the night with a nice 2 hour massage for $10.
The next day we grouped up with a couple of Brazilian guys and rented a tuk-tuk that took us around the Mini Tour where we saw most of the other temples. It was raining off and on all day, so renting a tuk-tuk turned out to be the best choice. We saw Ta Phrom Temple (where they filmed Tomb Raider), and Bayon (the one with over 200 faces staring at you) among others that day.
The third day we woke up at 4am to get to Angkor Wat by 5am and see the sunrise. We got there around 5:20, and it was one of the most breathtaking views that I have ever seen. I walked around some other temples, took a nap and waited around for the sun to set at a temple at the top of Bakheng Hill. Simply amazing. Ended the night with another 2 hour massage before watching the Barcelona game and getting to bed.
On Thursday we left the guesthouse at 7am to catch the bus to Phnom Penh. We arrived at Phnom Penh at around 3pm and ran over to the Laos Embassy to get our Visa. We got a room for $5 a night and went out and got some good dinner. The food in Cambodia was a little more expensive than in Thailand, but there were more options for Western Food all around for a similar price as local food, so it was a nice change of pace. We walked around the city and saw a group of about 50 kids/teens hanging out and dancing "Bollywood" style at the Central Plaza. It was pretty crazy and fun to see them having a grand ol' time just dancing and in a sober frame of mind.
Friday we rented a motorbike and saw the S-21 (Security Prison 21) where they held all of the political prisoners before they sent them to get slaughtered. It was quite a disturbing sight that made my stomach turn numerous times. From there we headed off to go see the Killing Fields which also was a pretty traumatic sight. The history of the events are so recent that it becomes much more intense and makes you question what actually goes on in people's heads to allow such a cruel and tragic event take place. We made it back to the guesthouse before it began to pour. After the 30 minutes of rain, we had dinner and then we went to a bar where they had a Cuban band performing all night. It was pretty fun, since the music was good, but the speakers were horrible, so it wasn't appreciated as much as it could have been. We got back to the room and crashed out since we had to be up at 6 to catch the bus to Stung Treng near the border with Laos. The bus ride to Stung Treng was by far the worst one we have endured to this day. The seats fell through so there was no padding and no support, and it was the longest trip, taking about 10 hours. For about an hour we also had no a/c so that also didn't help much. We got to Stung Treng at around 5:30pm and got a room for $6. The next day we were off to Laos at 8:30am.
More to come....
From Phuket I took one of the worst bus rides to Bangkok. Ended up getting in like at 8am Friday morning, after being on a bus for 12 hours that apparently had no shocks whatsoever. Dropped off my bags at my friend Jon's apartment and headed to the embassies to try to get my Visas worked out. I took a taxi to the Chinese embassy and realized it was way too expensive for the Visa and the train ticket, so quickly scratched that part of my trip. Then I walked to the Laos embassy, the Australian embassy and all the way back to Jon's apartment. I basically walked around all of Bangkok since I walked for about 8 hours. It was a nice tour of the city, yet very exhausting. I hung out with Jon and his neighbors for the weekend and went to Chiang Mai which is in the Northern part of Thailand the next Tuesday. That trip was amazing. I took the night train which was extremely uncomfortable because I didn't have a bed, just a regular seat. I got in to Chiang Mai around 7am and checked in to my guesthouse before touring the city. The old city is amazing, enclosed within some huge walls surrounded by a moat. The next day I took a day trip to Chiang Rai which is on the border of Laos and Myanmar(Burma). It is near where the Golden Triangle is located, which is where most of the opium trade used to occur back in the day. We also stopped by probably the most amazing temple I have seen in Thailand, The White Temple.
On the way back, we stopped at a local tribal village and hung out with them for a bit.
The next day I left for a 3 day/2 night trek through the northwest area of Chiang Mai. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever. We started off with a Snake show and then rode some elephants through the jungle for about an hour. After lunch we began our 2½ hour trek up the mountains to a remote village of a small Akha tribe. We spent the night there in the village and the next day went off to see another Lahu tribe and continued with another 1½ hour trek down the mountain. Ended up at a cabin on the river where we spent the night. Only down side was getting a leech on my ankle which got a good amount of blood from me. What can I say, leeches and mosquitoes agree that my blood tastes good.
We spent the night and the next day went white-water rafting down the river. It was a nice intro to white-water rafting since I have never done it before. I then proceeded to guide our bamboo raft for a couple of miles downstream. Now that was quite an interesting vehicle since I think we were sinking down the river a little more than we were floating. We had lunch before heading to a longneck tribe village and then back to Chiang Mai.
The next day I rented a motorbike and checked out some of the outskirts of the city, including an amazing elephant show and stopping at a factory where they make paper out of elephant dung. I got a nice oil massage before heading back to the train station to catch my train back to Bangkok.
I got back to Bangkok on Tuesday morning and just hung out for a few days with Jon and his neighbors and friends. I ended up having a great time in Bangkok, a city that I did not enjoy much on my first few days in Thailand, but it's definitely a lot different when you know where to go and where to be. The people on Jon's street were so welcoming that they even invited me to a wedding on the day before I left to Cambodia. It was quite an interesting, very early (7:30am) experience, but also lots of fun. I had to buy a wardrobe since I hadn't planned on going to a wedding, so we spent all day Friday coming up with a $30 wardrobe (shirt, tie, pants, shoes) for me. Not too bad.
The next day, on Sunday, November 1st, I met up with Sara and headed off to Cambodia. We caught the bus at 8am and got to the border around 1pm. The border crossing was a fiasco where they overcharged us for our Visa, and ended up taking 2½ hours. We didn't get to Siem Reap until about 7pm. We stayed at a guesthouse for $3 a night and prepared ourselves for the amazement of the Temples of Angkor. Monday, we woke up around 8 and rented bicycles to ride around the Temples. We went to the Roulous Group which is about 13.5 km from Angkor Wat. After getting there, we found out that you have to buy the ticket at the main entrance first and you couldn't buy a ticket there. Rode the 13.5 km back to Angkor and bought our tickets. We rode around the Grand Tour which is about 35 km and saw 4 temples:Preah Kahn, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som and Pre Rup. The sunset from the top of Pre Rup Temple was gorgeous. Dead tired from a loooong day of bike riding, I ended the night with a nice 2 hour massage for $10.
The next day we grouped up with a couple of Brazilian guys and rented a tuk-tuk that took us around the Mini Tour where we saw most of the other temples. It was raining off and on all day, so renting a tuk-tuk turned out to be the best choice. We saw Ta Phrom Temple (where they filmed Tomb Raider), and Bayon (the one with over 200 faces staring at you) among others that day.
The third day we woke up at 4am to get to Angkor Wat by 5am and see the sunrise. We got there around 5:20, and it was one of the most breathtaking views that I have ever seen. I walked around some other temples, took a nap and waited around for the sun to set at a temple at the top of Bakheng Hill. Simply amazing. Ended the night with another 2 hour massage before watching the Barcelona game and getting to bed.
On Thursday we left the guesthouse at 7am to catch the bus to Phnom Penh. We arrived at Phnom Penh at around 3pm and ran over to the Laos Embassy to get our Visa. We got a room for $5 a night and went out and got some good dinner. The food in Cambodia was a little more expensive than in Thailand, but there were more options for Western Food all around for a similar price as local food, so it was a nice change of pace. We walked around the city and saw a group of about 50 kids/teens hanging out and dancing "Bollywood" style at the Central Plaza. It was pretty crazy and fun to see them having a grand ol' time just dancing and in a sober frame of mind.
Friday we rented a motorbike and saw the S-21 (Security Prison 21) where they held all of the political prisoners before they sent them to get slaughtered. It was quite a disturbing sight that made my stomach turn numerous times. From there we headed off to go see the Killing Fields which also was a pretty traumatic sight. The history of the events are so recent that it becomes much more intense and makes you question what actually goes on in people's heads to allow such a cruel and tragic event take place. We made it back to the guesthouse before it began to pour. After the 30 minutes of rain, we had dinner and then we went to a bar where they had a Cuban band performing all night. It was pretty fun, since the music was good, but the speakers were horrible, so it wasn't appreciated as much as it could have been. We got back to the room and crashed out since we had to be up at 6 to catch the bus to Stung Treng near the border with Laos. The bus ride to Stung Treng was by far the worst one we have endured to this day. The seats fell through so there was no padding and no support, and it was the longest trip, taking about 10 hours. For about an hour we also had no a/c so that also didn't help much. We got to Stung Treng at around 5:30pm and got a room for $6. The next day we were off to Laos at 8:30am.
More to come....
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Update from Phuket
So as I wait for my night bus to Bangkok, I share with you that my tour through Southern Thailand has come to an end. I will be in Bangkok for a few days before heading up to Chiang Mai, then Chiang Rai and then to Laos.
After leaving Hat Yai, I met up with some friends in Ko Phangan for the "World Famous Full Moon Party". It was pretty insane. A lot of drunk nonsense and idiots mixed in with some good times. From there we went to Ko Tao for a few days. This island was amazingly beautiful. We took a snorkel trip around the island where I was snorkeling with some Black Tip sharks...Pretty fun. They were about 4 or 5 ft. After a few days in Ko Tao, we went to Krabi where we ended up in Ton Sai beach. The place was seriously amazing. Time literally stood still for the 5 or 6 days that I was there. I was supposed to leave on Sunday, but ended up staying until Tuesday. I did some rock-climbing for the first time and that was pretty fun. I got hooked and will definitely be hitting up some cool climbing spots in California when I get back. I left Ton Sai and got to Phuket. I got to town at 6pm, and therefore missed the bus to the beaches. I stayed at a simple hotel for 180 baht ($5.50) a night with a shared bathroom. Toured the city that night and the next morning before heading to the beaches. Got to Patong beach and got a room for 300 Baht which was the cheapest available in all of Phatong Beach. Rented a motorbike and enjoyed all of the beaches, although I spent most of my time in Kata Beach which was gorgeous. Turned in my room, and bike this morning, and came back to Phuket town where I will be leaving to Bangkok at 7:30pm and getting in around 8am. Short and sweet, since my time is running out at the internet place.
Hope all is well.
Cheers.
Peace and love from the land of smiles.
Juan Jos‚‚e
After leaving Hat Yai, I met up with some friends in Ko Phangan for the "World Famous Full Moon Party". It was pretty insane. A lot of drunk nonsense and idiots mixed in with some good times. From there we went to Ko Tao for a few days. This island was amazingly beautiful. We took a snorkel trip around the island where I was snorkeling with some Black Tip sharks...Pretty fun. They were about 4 or 5 ft. After a few days in Ko Tao, we went to Krabi where we ended up in Ton Sai beach. The place was seriously amazing. Time literally stood still for the 5 or 6 days that I was there. I was supposed to leave on Sunday, but ended up staying until Tuesday. I did some rock-climbing for the first time and that was pretty fun. I got hooked and will definitely be hitting up some cool climbing spots in California when I get back. I left Ton Sai and got to Phuket. I got to town at 6pm, and therefore missed the bus to the beaches. I stayed at a simple hotel for 180 baht ($5.50) a night with a shared bathroom. Toured the city that night and the next morning before heading to the beaches. Got to Patong beach and got a room for 300 Baht which was the cheapest available in all of Phatong Beach. Rented a motorbike and enjoyed all of the beaches, although I spent most of my time in Kata Beach which was gorgeous. Turned in my room, and bike this morning, and came back to Phuket town where I will be leaving to Bangkok at 7:30pm and getting in around 8am. Short and sweet, since my time is running out at the internet place.
Hope all is well.
Cheers.
Peace and love from the land of smiles.
Juan Jos‚‚e
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I'm leaving....
Where has the time gone?? I'm sorry I haven't been able to update this thing more frequently, it actually became quite difficult and time consuming. But hopefully when I get back home in April, I'll have plenty of stories to share, and then might be able to catch you all up on my experiences out here. Yes, April.
For those of you that don't know, I was supposed to be back in January to complete my student teaching course in the Spring semester. Unfortunately (or fortunately since it's allowing me to experience other parts of the world for a longer period of time), due to state budget cuts, my university isn't accepting any applications for Spring semester, so I have to wait until the Fall to complete my student teaching. Oh well, to make lemonades out of these lemons, since I was going to be in Australia for 3 weeks, I decided to just extend that part of my trip, find a job out there and live there until April. Not sure exactly where, but I guess I'll just show up and find out. But my goal has always been to be in Sydney to celebrate New Year's Eve, so it looks like that will happen.
My time in Thailand has been amazing and I can't wait to come back here. I'll be leaving Hat Yai tomorrow, Saturday October 3rd in the morning and starting my journey through Southeast Asia and Australia. I've met tons of amazing people here and it's really been sad saying goodbye to them all. But on to the next chapter in my life...
I will be traveling with a couple of friends (1 for sure, maybe 2) that I met out here for about 1 month through Thailand, and then 1½ months through SE Asia, China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Tomorrow I'll be heading to Ko Pangan for the world famous Full Moon Party on Sunday night. 2 or 3 nights in Ko Pangan, and then off to Ko Samui, Krabi, Phuket and Kanchanaburi. Around October 13th or 14th, I'll be heading to Bangkok for a few days and leaving around the 18th or 19th to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, and then Chiang Rai near the Golden Triangle (the borders of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar(Burma). From there we will be going down Laos through Cambodia, and then up Vietnam to China. We will take the train from Hanoi to Hong Kong, hopefully having time to stop along the way. The amount of time we spend in China and Hong Kong really depends on how much time we spend in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. From Hong Kong we will be taking the ferry to Macau where we will fly out to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday, November 29th. From here our trip is kind of planned out seeing as we have to fly to the islands, so we bought the flights in advance to save money. Prior to this flight, we're just going with the flow and seeing whatever comes our way.
We will spend a couple of nights in Kuala Lumpur before flying to Manila, Philippines on Wednesday morning, December 2nd. We'll be in Manila until Saturday morning of the 5th, and go back to KL. We spend the night in KL and fly out the next morning to Singapore where we will be until Wednesday afternoon on the 9th. We fly back to KL and fly out to Bali that same evening. We will be in Bali from the 9th to Tuesday the 15th when my friend Sara flies back to KL and then to Bangkok, and I head off to Perth, Australia. (And for those of you questioning why we keep going back to KL, it's not because it's an amazing place...it's just cheaper to fly in and out of there for some reason)
I will be in Perth from Dec. 15th to the 25th when I fly out to Melbourne. I will be in Melbourne for 4 days and then take the overnight bus to Sydney on the 29th and get in on the 30th around 8am. From there, celebrate New Year's, and then start looking for some work because I'm pretty sure I'll be out of funds by then. So any donations will be greatly appreciated and gladly accepted. haha. ;)
Well there it is...my plan for the next 6 months. Who knows what I'll come across, but I'm definitely looking forward to the journey and the experience. I plan on flying back to KL and taking the train up to Hat Yai around the first week of April so that I can be in Hat Yai for the Songkhan Festival on April 13th. I have no idea what it is, but everyone has been talking about it, and apparently it's lots of fun, so I plan on being here. After that, head back up to Bangkok and fly out to LAX. My open-ended return ticket expires April 23rd, so I just have to make sure I fly out before that date.
Once again, sorry that I haven't been able to keep you all up to date on my adventures, but I promise I will have many stories to tell when I get back.
Hope everyone is well. Much love and happiness to all of you.
From the other side of the world,
Juan José Madrigal
For those of you that don't know, I was supposed to be back in January to complete my student teaching course in the Spring semester. Unfortunately (or fortunately since it's allowing me to experience other parts of the world for a longer period of time), due to state budget cuts, my university isn't accepting any applications for Spring semester, so I have to wait until the Fall to complete my student teaching. Oh well, to make lemonades out of these lemons, since I was going to be in Australia for 3 weeks, I decided to just extend that part of my trip, find a job out there and live there until April. Not sure exactly where, but I guess I'll just show up and find out. But my goal has always been to be in Sydney to celebrate New Year's Eve, so it looks like that will happen.
My time in Thailand has been amazing and I can't wait to come back here. I'll be leaving Hat Yai tomorrow, Saturday October 3rd in the morning and starting my journey through Southeast Asia and Australia. I've met tons of amazing people here and it's really been sad saying goodbye to them all. But on to the next chapter in my life...
I will be traveling with a couple of friends (1 for sure, maybe 2) that I met out here for about 1 month through Thailand, and then 1½ months through SE Asia, China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Tomorrow I'll be heading to Ko Pangan for the world famous Full Moon Party on Sunday night. 2 or 3 nights in Ko Pangan, and then off to Ko Samui, Krabi, Phuket and Kanchanaburi. Around October 13th or 14th, I'll be heading to Bangkok for a few days and leaving around the 18th or 19th to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, and then Chiang Rai near the Golden Triangle (the borders of Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar(Burma). From there we will be going down Laos through Cambodia, and then up Vietnam to China. We will take the train from Hanoi to Hong Kong, hopefully having time to stop along the way. The amount of time we spend in China and Hong Kong really depends on how much time we spend in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. From Hong Kong we will be taking the ferry to Macau where we will fly out to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sunday, November 29th. From here our trip is kind of planned out seeing as we have to fly to the islands, so we bought the flights in advance to save money. Prior to this flight, we're just going with the flow and seeing whatever comes our way.
We will spend a couple of nights in Kuala Lumpur before flying to Manila, Philippines on Wednesday morning, December 2nd. We'll be in Manila until Saturday morning of the 5th, and go back to KL. We spend the night in KL and fly out the next morning to Singapore where we will be until Wednesday afternoon on the 9th. We fly back to KL and fly out to Bali that same evening. We will be in Bali from the 9th to Tuesday the 15th when my friend Sara flies back to KL and then to Bangkok, and I head off to Perth, Australia. (And for those of you questioning why we keep going back to KL, it's not because it's an amazing place...it's just cheaper to fly in and out of there for some reason)
I will be in Perth from Dec. 15th to the 25th when I fly out to Melbourne. I will be in Melbourne for 4 days and then take the overnight bus to Sydney on the 29th and get in on the 30th around 8am. From there, celebrate New Year's, and then start looking for some work because I'm pretty sure I'll be out of funds by then. So any donations will be greatly appreciated and gladly accepted. haha. ;)
Well there it is...my plan for the next 6 months. Who knows what I'll come across, but I'm definitely looking forward to the journey and the experience. I plan on flying back to KL and taking the train up to Hat Yai around the first week of April so that I can be in Hat Yai for the Songkhan Festival on April 13th. I have no idea what it is, but everyone has been talking about it, and apparently it's lots of fun, so I plan on being here. After that, head back up to Bangkok and fly out to LAX. My open-ended return ticket expires April 23rd, so I just have to make sure I fly out before that date.
Once again, sorry that I haven't been able to keep you all up to date on my adventures, but I promise I will have many stories to tell when I get back.
Hope everyone is well. Much love and happiness to all of you.
From the other side of the world,
Juan José Madrigal
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Week 4
Yes, I know I have been slacking big time on keeping you all updated of my experiences and I’m sorry. I usually plan on spending some time to get this blog updated, and then something comes up and keeps me busy. Since it’s been so long, I’ve decided to go ahead and slowly catch up week by week. This way, I’m not posting a massive 300 page blog, and you don’t have to spend 5 hours trying to read it. :D
Enjoy…..
My first weekend in Hat Yai was pretty chill and relaxing. Saturday night, I didn’t do much, just kind of sent out some e-mails and finished getting settled.
I went out to grab dinner around 11pm and stopped by this bar/restaurant on the way home that has a big stage with a live band and a couple of “lady boy” performers.
It was pretty interesting and fun since everybody there was having a good time. It was really packed, but the only bad thing was that it was kind of expensive. You have to buy a minimum of one drink to come in, so I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was a small Heineken for 90 Baht. It only comes out to about $2.75, but when you’re used to paying 30 Baht for a small beer, or 75-80 Baht for a 22oz Heineken, then 90 for a small bottle is definitely over priced. So I milked that baby for an hour or so before heading back home. I also saw an elephant just roaming the streets around midnight, so that was pretty interesting.
On Sunday, I had to figure out where to do my laundry. I had been looking around for a Laundromat, but there was nothing, I asked my landlord where I could do it, and he told me the neighbor washed his clothes for 500 Baht a month. I had asked her and she told me she charged 10 Baht per item, and I thought that was ridiculous, but I figured for 500 a month it would be worth it. So I went back over there and after trying to determine how much it was and whether it was going to be 500 Baht or not, I just decided to leave my clothes since I had minimal options and needed my clothes clean ASAP. It turned out to be 500 Baht/month for a maximum of 70 pieces (Socks and Underwear are free). I still thought it was a little too much, but hey, like I said, my options were limited. I finished up, went to dinner and came back to my neighborhood since there was some type of block party going on down my street. I thought it was just a daily event because I had seen them there all week, and I was pretty excited that there was some sort of live outdoor music going on every evening, but it turns out that they were celebrating a monk’s departure to monastery. I hung out for a couple of hours having a couple of cocktails and meeting my new neighbors. A few spoke decent English, so I was able to communicate a little. It was a fun gathering, with many of the neighbors getting drunk and singing Karaoke. They loooooooove karaoke out here. There are karaoke places everywhere.
Monday I started my first full week of teaching and it was pretty interesting trying to get to know ALL of my students.
I kept the first lesson simple just to try to get them to use their nicknames (which makes it much easier for me, even though I doubt I will learn many of their names) and gauge their conversation level. Monday is also my long day with 6 periods. The other days I have 4 and on Friday I have 5. That same day, the 2 guys from the placement agency, Dol & Dalton, took Craig (the South African teacher) to another school so he could interview. Apparently he had been complaining tremendously to them, and the school had been complaining about him also. So they tried to get him to another school before bigger problems arose. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well and they didn’t want him, so he’s stuck at my school.
The weather has been pretty consistent throughout. It actually reminds me of Costa Rica, where it rains really hard for an hour or so, and then clears up the rest of the day. But even when it rains, it’s still 80-90+ degrees. It actually rains in Rattaphum (where my school is), or on the way home, but then when I get to Hat Yai it stops. So when I got into town, I headed straight to the Tourism office to see if I could get a map of the city and the surroundings so I could better acquaint myself. They closed at 4:30, so I wasn’t able to make it. I walked back home, through downtown, which has a lot of little stands and shops with pretty much everything you could think of. There were even some really, really nice Lacoste shirts for about $14.00. They looked pretty nice, and if I needed shirts, I would probably buy some (even though the gator looks like a mix between a frog and a dinosaur...hahaha). I also saw some guys playing Futsal on a court right behind the train tracks about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, so I planned on stopping by on Tuesday to see if I could play with them. I went to go eat and found a place that had some good fried rice with seafood for 30 Baht, or about 95 cents. Delicious. I went off to find some dessert and found a dessert cart with all kinds of typical Thai desserts. They eat a lot of jello textured desserts made from a flour base. I tried a couple of them out, but wasn’t very impressed. Out of the 4 small pieces that I tried, I really only enjoyed one of them, and that was more of a bread pudding type dessert. I got home and organized my lesson plans. I started typing out a summary of my lessons and what I go over in class so that I can keep better track of what I teach in each class since I have so many. I’m pretty much teaching the same context, just at a different pace for different levels. Even though 1 or 2 classes that are level 2 can keep up with some classes that are level 4 or 6. The other quite intriguing aspect of my school is the bell to begin and end class. It is the tune of “Yankee Doodle”. I was a little in shock the first time I heard it, and it still makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
On Tuesday, my second class was a little troublesome since it was difficult for them to focus. After lunch, I played ping-pong with the students a little bit. These kids are damn good. They play with pretty much anything they can find if they don’t have a paddle. I’ve seen them play with pieces of tile, pieces of wood, bricks, with their hands….pretty much anything. After my last class, I went back downstairs and played a little more ping-pong. At first, I was getting worked, but after I warmed up, I held my own and might have won a couple of short games….maybe. Well they played 3 points some games and 5 points other games, so I was kind of confused on the scoring, so I’ll go with: I won a couple of games. :D
Around 3 o’clock I realized that Craig and I were the only people pretty much in the whole school. There was 1 or 2 other teachers walking around, but for the most part, the school was a ghost town. I asked one of the teachers and it turns out that they have faculty meetings every Tuesday, but since it was the first week of school, there was no meeting and all the teachers left. That was all I needed to know, and so I also went on home around 3:20. I got home around 4 and ran over to the Tourism office. I got there about 5 minutes before they closed and they gave me a bunch of maps and information about activities within the region. On the way home, I stopped and bought some handkerchiefs to help out with the heat, and an umbrella for the rain. Then I stopped by the futsal court and played for about 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up some of my laundry because it wasn’t all finished yet. I went out and had some Pad Thai (Fried Noodles) with shrimp. I also bought some ant poison because there was a couple of little ant trails in my apartment. Unfortunately the Pad Thai did me wrong because my stomach was in massive pain the next day.
On Wednesday my classes went well, although my stomach was struggling all day. It was probably the worst stomach ache that I’ve ever had. That’s definitely the last time I’m eating at that restaurant. My classes were over by 1:30, so I just sat at my desk for the last 2:30 hours trying to sleep away the pain. I took off around 3:45 went home and just went to sleep. I did happen to pass by a car that had been totaled and my neighbors were trying to salvage every piece of it (eventually they were able to, it only took them 5 weeks, but they made this thing completely disappear).
I woke up around 7 ate some chips and a Sprite for “dinner”, and picked up some more of my clothes. My stomach started feeling a little better, but I went to bed early, like around 11.
On Thursday my stomach issues started improving, although it was still struggling. It was a real bummer, but thinking that it took 4 weeks for me to get sick isn’t all that bad. I ate my usual breakfast which consists of a couple of slices of papaya, Kirkland instant oatmeal, and a glass of orange juice. I’ve never really been a fan of papaya, but being out here, something happened and seeing as it’s such a healthy fruit, it makes it taste even better. I created a questionnaire for my classes; a kind of “get to know you” worksheet with such topics as favorite color, movie, sport, team, animal, music, etc. Since the students are pretty good at reading and writing, I thought it wouldn’t be so difficult, but I was mistaken. Only a few of my classes have been able to understand it. It is alright though, because it will be fun to see them present it in front of the class. One of the teachers offered to give me and Craig a ride that day because although he usually carpools with other teachers, that day he had brought his own car because he was running late. So that was nice that it saved me the 25 Baht ride home, and I got home a little faster also. I got home and one of my neighbors made me sit at his stand and gave me one of his desserts (a crepe styled substance with egg yolk inside topped with condensed milk and sugar. I later learned it’s called “roti”). It’s actually quite tasty, although I’m sure not the healthiest. He also gave me a glass of tea since apparently his is the best in town. It was pretty good, although I would have preferred it cold seeing how it is no less than 90 degrees every day out here. I tried to pay, but he would not accept any money, so that was nice of him. I changed and ran over to the Futsal court and played for a good 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up another load of my laundry. I know I had a lot of clothes, but I definitely did not expect for it to take as long as it did, but I have been getting used to “Thai time” so it doesn’t really affect me all that much. I didn’t really have dinner again because I still wasn’t 100% confident in the ability of my stomach to maintain it, so I just ate a yogurt and a Clif Bar for dinner. I packed up my stuff, since I was going to head out straight to an island on Friday right after work, and went to sleep. A few of my friends that live in Satun (a town about 2 hours away) decided to go to an island for the weekend, so I had to find my way to Pak-Ba-Ra which is the “port” town where all the boats/ferries leave from. The teacher that gave us a ride, Pairote, stopped at the minivan station and found out for me that it costs 100B to get there and the minivans leave every 30 minutes with the last one leaving around 5:30pm.
Friday I was told that I had to complete a “unit plan” for the semester stating what topics I would be teaching the students. So I figured I’d do it during work hours, rather than take it home for the weekend, especially since I’d be relaxing on an island. Unfortunately, I forgot my USB drive with all my updated lesson content, so I had to pretty much wing all of my lessons that day. Also, my last class is an activity class where the students actually signed up to be in that class. So there are 14 students, and the department head asked me if it would be alright if some teachers from other departments sat it on my class. I told him I didn’t have a problem with it, so 6 or 7 teachers showed up, although I feel that it did make the students a little more uncomfortable and might have been a bit intimidating for them. They are the youngest level, and I think that they’re so used to being punished, or yelled at when they do something incorrectly that it has an effect. The only reason I say this is because they were a lot more outgoing and not afraid of speaking the first day, as opposed to this day. Hopefully they’ll be able to open up a little more and not worry about the teachers in the class. So I took off at 4 o’clock and called my friend Matt (from Akron, Ohio) who was supposed to meet me at the minivan station at 4:30, to tell him I was on my way. I got there around 4:30, and he still was not even close to the station. He was getting a ride, and since we’re in Thailand, punctuality isn’t a strong point. The guy at the station also tried to charge me 120 Baht, but I told him that it was 100, and he just kind of nodded his head. They see a farang (foreigner) and always try to make an extra buck. So I waited for him and thus missed the 4:30 van but was able to get on the 5 o’clock one that left around 5:10. We got to Pak Ba Ra around 7 and met up with John and Christy (a couple from Atlanta), and Kate and Tamsin (2 girls from the UK). We immediately got on a longtail boat that John and Christy had set up for us. Apparently this weekend was the beginning of the monsoon season, because no boats were going out to the islands. The boat ride was one of the most peaceful and amazing trip of my life. We had clear skies and were able to see hundreds of thousands of stars everywhere. It seemed like shooting stars were just traveling all over the sky.
Along with that, the water was phosphorescent all the way there and because of this, we saw flying fish jumping in and out of the water the whole ride there. It was truly one of the better experiences I have enjoyed out here. Some conversations on the longtail did attempt to hinder that trip, (such as believing Einstein and Frankenstein was the same person, or believing that space or the universe was not real) but for the most part I was able to ignore those and just focus on the beauty and peacefulness that nature provided. It took us about 2 hours to get to Ko Bulon Leh, and the longtail just dropped us off and told us he’d pick us up at noon on Sunday. So it took us about an hour to find a bungalow, but we got 2 bungalows right on the beach for 500 Baht each. Since it is Thailand however, we negotiated it down to 400 Baht each per night. Kate, Tamsin, Matt and I all piled into one of them, and John and Christy took the other one. That made it come out to about 100 Baht/per person/per night. Not too shabby at all. We had dinner there and finished the Thai “rum” that we had brought over from the mainland.
We ended up crashing out around 1 or 1:30, and it wasn’t too difficult since the power went out at 12. Fitting 4 people in a queen size bed was a little difficult, but somehow we made it work. The mosquito net that came with the room also was extremely useful as we saw tons of them flying around everywhere. It was also quite odd to see that many ants everywhere (inside and outside of the bungalow). They really ran rampant on that island.
On Saturday I woke up around 9 or 10 because you get to a point where it becomes uncomfortable to sleep with the heat. We took a dip in the water and then went to go look for the “town” and “explore” the island.
It turns out that we were the only non-residents on the island. There were no other people renting out bungalows or any tourism whatsoever on the island. Apparently the monsoon season really detracts a lot of tourists, and on top of that, apparently many of the ferry operators have stopped taking people to this particular island.
It was fine with me, because it made the whole experience much more relaxing and enjoyable. There was only one other place open on the island, where they sold beer. It is a very Islamic community, and therefore very difficult to find alcohol. There was no rum or liquor of any kind anywhere on the island. But we did luck out because the only place/restaurant that served food was particularly the place that we were staying at.
It is a family owned and operated resort and they were really friendly, helpful and extremely attentive to us. No matter what time it was, they were there to cook us breakfast, lunch or dinner, or there to allow us to get some snacks from the market on the resort. After lunch, it was low tide, so Christy, Matt and I were able to get around the island pretty easily and check out the awesome rock formations all along the beach. I was almost able to make it all the way around the island, but I forgot my shoes, and the rocks started getting sharper, and more slippery, so I had to call it quits and head back.
Unfortunately I also forgot my camera, so I was unable to take advantage of some cool rocks and scenery shots. On our way back, we decided to try to build a bonfire at night, so we collected some firewood and threw it in a pile near our bungalows. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how high the tide would come and all of our wood got wet by the time we got back from dinner. The six of us went back to the small market that sold beer and they actually sold Thai whiskey also. Well what they call Thai whiskey was a very disgusting alcohol that seemed to me like a variation or mix of Sake and Everclear. It was horrible. We tried to mix it with everything, soda water, coke, juice and nothing seemed to help. We drank about 3 of the bottles (some of us more than others….I quit after a few drinks-the taste was just unbearable) and after dinner the girls tried to get the bonfire going and went out and got some more “dry” wood.
Amazingly, they weren’t very talented gatherers and grabbed some pretty green branches that were never going to light. So we just hung out until about 12 when the lights went out.
Sunday I woke up around 9:30 and immediately jumped in the water. I had an omelet for breakfast and then went back in the water. We settled up since all our food and snacks they had just put on a tab. It wasn’t too bad at all. For the room, all the food, we each put in 650 Baht….almost $20. The round-trip boat ride alone cost almost as much (600 Baht). Our longtail captain was hanging out, waiting from about 9 or 10am, so finally around noon, we headed on back to Pak Ba Ra. We got back to Pak Ba Ra at 1:30 and had some lunch. Matt and I took off and headed back to Hat Yai around 4 and got home around 5:30.
I even got to take a longer walk back home because I didn’t know how to tell the minivan driver to stop, and since I was in the back of the van, I couldn’t do what I usually do, and tap them and say OK while pointing. Luckily 2 guys got off about 3 blocks past my stop so I was able to get off too. Unfortunately for Matt, the last minivan to Nathawi (where he lives) leaves around 5, so he had to stay the night in Hat Yai and catch the minivan in the morning. I got home, took a shower, had some spicy Som Tam that I was feeling the effects of on Monday (even though I requested not spicy….I have come to the conclusion that they’re not allowed to make Som Tam without spice) and went to bed around 11:30 to get ready for the next work week.
Well that’s a summary of Week 4….like I said, I’m definitely going to try to keep them coming more regularly, at least 1 or 2 a week until I get caught up. These next few weeks might be difficult for me since my parents are going to be here for 4 weeks, but I’m definitely going to do my best. I’m really excited to get to see them and hang out and travel with them. They get here on Thursday night, and on Friday we are going to Krabi until Monday and then to Malaysia until Saturday. It’s a holiday weekend until Wednesday, so I’m taking advantage and taking Thursday and Friday off so that I can spend a whole week with them.
So I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to e-mail me and let me know how you’re doing. I would love to know how life is out in your parts….I’m sure not everyone’s life suddenly stopped because of Michael Jackson’s death, right…..??
Until next time…peace and love.
Enjoy…..
My first weekend in Hat Yai was pretty chill and relaxing. Saturday night, I didn’t do much, just kind of sent out some e-mails and finished getting settled.
I went out to grab dinner around 11pm and stopped by this bar/restaurant on the way home that has a big stage with a live band and a couple of “lady boy” performers.
Lady Boy performing
It was pretty interesting and fun since everybody there was having a good time. It was really packed, but the only bad thing was that it was kind of expensive. You have to buy a minimum of one drink to come in, so I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was a small Heineken for 90 Baht. It only comes out to about $2.75, but when you’re used to paying 30 Baht for a small beer, or 75-80 Baht for a 22oz Heineken, then 90 for a small bottle is definitely over priced. So I milked that baby for an hour or so before heading back home. I also saw an elephant just roaming the streets around midnight, so that was pretty interesting.
On Sunday, I had to figure out where to do my laundry. I had been looking around for a Laundromat, but there was nothing, I asked my landlord where I could do it, and he told me the neighbor washed his clothes for 500 Baht a month. I had asked her and she told me she charged 10 Baht per item, and I thought that was ridiculous, but I figured for 500 a month it would be worth it. So I went back over there and after trying to determine how much it was and whether it was going to be 500 Baht or not, I just decided to leave my clothes since I had minimal options and needed my clothes clean ASAP. It turned out to be 500 Baht/month for a maximum of 70 pieces (Socks and Underwear are free). I still thought it was a little too much, but hey, like I said, my options were limited. I finished up, went to dinner and came back to my neighborhood since there was some type of block party going on down my street. I thought it was just a daily event because I had seen them there all week, and I was pretty excited that there was some sort of live outdoor music going on every evening, but it turns out that they were celebrating a monk’s departure to monastery. I hung out for a couple of hours having a couple of cocktails and meeting my new neighbors. A few spoke decent English, so I was able to communicate a little. It was a fun gathering, with many of the neighbors getting drunk and singing Karaoke. They loooooooove karaoke out here. There are karaoke places everywhere.
Monday I started my first full week of teaching and it was pretty interesting trying to get to know ALL of my students.
The morning assembly under the blazing sun
I kept the first lesson simple just to try to get them to use their nicknames (which makes it much easier for me, even though I doubt I will learn many of their names) and gauge their conversation level. Monday is also my long day with 6 periods. The other days I have 4 and on Friday I have 5. That same day, the 2 guys from the placement agency, Dol & Dalton, took Craig (the South African teacher) to another school so he could interview. Apparently he had been complaining tremendously to them, and the school had been complaining about him also. So they tried to get him to another school before bigger problems arose. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well and they didn’t want him, so he’s stuck at my school.
Picture of the only classroom with working fans and a whiteboard
The weather has been pretty consistent throughout. It actually reminds me of Costa Rica, where it rains really hard for an hour or so, and then clears up the rest of the day. But even when it rains, it’s still 80-90+ degrees. It actually rains in Rattaphum (where my school is), or on the way home, but then when I get to Hat Yai it stops. So when I got into town, I headed straight to the Tourism office to see if I could get a map of the city and the surroundings so I could better acquaint myself. They closed at 4:30, so I wasn’t able to make it. I walked back home, through downtown, which has a lot of little stands and shops with pretty much everything you could think of. There were even some really, really nice Lacoste shirts for about $14.00. They looked pretty nice, and if I needed shirts, I would probably buy some (even though the gator looks like a mix between a frog and a dinosaur...hahaha). I also saw some guys playing Futsal on a court right behind the train tracks about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, so I planned on stopping by on Tuesday to see if I could play with them. I went to go eat and found a place that had some good fried rice with seafood for 30 Baht, or about 95 cents. Delicious. I went off to find some dessert and found a dessert cart with all kinds of typical Thai desserts. They eat a lot of jello textured desserts made from a flour base. I tried a couple of them out, but wasn’t very impressed. Out of the 4 small pieces that I tried, I really only enjoyed one of them, and that was more of a bread pudding type dessert. I got home and organized my lesson plans. I started typing out a summary of my lessons and what I go over in class so that I can keep better track of what I teach in each class since I have so many. I’m pretty much teaching the same context, just at a different pace for different levels. Even though 1 or 2 classes that are level 2 can keep up with some classes that are level 4 or 6. The other quite intriguing aspect of my school is the bell to begin and end class. It is the tune of “Yankee Doodle”. I was a little in shock the first time I heard it, and it still makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
On Tuesday, my second class was a little troublesome since it was difficult for them to focus. After lunch, I played ping-pong with the students a little bit. These kids are damn good. They play with pretty much anything they can find if they don’t have a paddle. I’ve seen them play with pieces of tile, pieces of wood, bricks, with their hands….pretty much anything. After my last class, I went back downstairs and played a little more ping-pong. At first, I was getting worked, but after I warmed up, I held my own and might have won a couple of short games….maybe. Well they played 3 points some games and 5 points other games, so I was kind of confused on the scoring, so I’ll go with: I won a couple of games. :D
Around 3 o’clock I realized that Craig and I were the only people pretty much in the whole school. There was 1 or 2 other teachers walking around, but for the most part, the school was a ghost town. I asked one of the teachers and it turns out that they have faculty meetings every Tuesday, but since it was the first week of school, there was no meeting and all the teachers left. That was all I needed to know, and so I also went on home around 3:20. I got home around 4 and ran over to the Tourism office. I got there about 5 minutes before they closed and they gave me a bunch of maps and information about activities within the region. On the way home, I stopped and bought some handkerchiefs to help out with the heat, and an umbrella for the rain. Then I stopped by the futsal court and played for about 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up some of my laundry because it wasn’t all finished yet. I went out and had some Pad Thai (Fried Noodles) with shrimp. I also bought some ant poison because there was a couple of little ant trails in my apartment. Unfortunately the Pad Thai did me wrong because my stomach was in massive pain the next day.
On Wednesday my classes went well, although my stomach was struggling all day. It was probably the worst stomach ache that I’ve ever had. That’s definitely the last time I’m eating at that restaurant. My classes were over by 1:30, so I just sat at my desk for the last 2:30 hours trying to sleep away the pain. I took off around 3:45 went home and just went to sleep. I did happen to pass by a car that had been totaled and my neighbors were trying to salvage every piece of it (eventually they were able to, it only took them 5 weeks, but they made this thing completely disappear).
My neighbors salvaging every single part of a totaled car
I woke up around 7 ate some chips and a Sprite for “dinner”, and picked up some more of my clothes. My stomach started feeling a little better, but I went to bed early, like around 11.
On Thursday my stomach issues started improving, although it was still struggling. It was a real bummer, but thinking that it took 4 weeks for me to get sick isn’t all that bad. I ate my usual breakfast which consists of a couple of slices of papaya, Kirkland instant oatmeal, and a glass of orange juice. I’ve never really been a fan of papaya, but being out here, something happened and seeing as it’s such a healthy fruit, it makes it taste even better. I created a questionnaire for my classes; a kind of “get to know you” worksheet with such topics as favorite color, movie, sport, team, animal, music, etc. Since the students are pretty good at reading and writing, I thought it wouldn’t be so difficult, but I was mistaken. Only a few of my classes have been able to understand it. It is alright though, because it will be fun to see them present it in front of the class. One of the teachers offered to give me and Craig a ride that day because although he usually carpools with other teachers, that day he had brought his own car because he was running late. So that was nice that it saved me the 25 Baht ride home, and I got home a little faster also. I got home and one of my neighbors made me sit at his stand and gave me one of his desserts (a crepe styled substance with egg yolk inside topped with condensed milk and sugar. I later learned it’s called “roti”). It’s actually quite tasty, although I’m sure not the healthiest. He also gave me a glass of tea since apparently his is the best in town. It was pretty good, although I would have preferred it cold seeing how it is no less than 90 degrees every day out here. I tried to pay, but he would not accept any money, so that was nice of him. I changed and ran over to the Futsal court and played for a good 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up another load of my laundry. I know I had a lot of clothes, but I definitely did not expect for it to take as long as it did, but I have been getting used to “Thai time” so it doesn’t really affect me all that much. I didn’t really have dinner again because I still wasn’t 100% confident in the ability of my stomach to maintain it, so I just ate a yogurt and a Clif Bar for dinner. I packed up my stuff, since I was going to head out straight to an island on Friday right after work, and went to sleep. A few of my friends that live in Satun (a town about 2 hours away) decided to go to an island for the weekend, so I had to find my way to Pak-Ba-Ra which is the “port” town where all the boats/ferries leave from. The teacher that gave us a ride, Pairote, stopped at the minivan station and found out for me that it costs 100B to get there and the minivans leave every 30 minutes with the last one leaving around 5:30pm.
Friday I was told that I had to complete a “unit plan” for the semester stating what topics I would be teaching the students. So I figured I’d do it during work hours, rather than take it home for the weekend, especially since I’d be relaxing on an island. Unfortunately, I forgot my USB drive with all my updated lesson content, so I had to pretty much wing all of my lessons that day. Also, my last class is an activity class where the students actually signed up to be in that class. So there are 14 students, and the department head asked me if it would be alright if some teachers from other departments sat it on my class. I told him I didn’t have a problem with it, so 6 or 7 teachers showed up, although I feel that it did make the students a little more uncomfortable and might have been a bit intimidating for them. They are the youngest level, and I think that they’re so used to being punished, or yelled at when they do something incorrectly that it has an effect. The only reason I say this is because they were a lot more outgoing and not afraid of speaking the first day, as opposed to this day. Hopefully they’ll be able to open up a little more and not worry about the teachers in the class. So I took off at 4 o’clock and called my friend Matt (from Akron, Ohio) who was supposed to meet me at the minivan station at 4:30, to tell him I was on my way. I got there around 4:30, and he still was not even close to the station. He was getting a ride, and since we’re in Thailand, punctuality isn’t a strong point. The guy at the station also tried to charge me 120 Baht, but I told him that it was 100, and he just kind of nodded his head. They see a farang (foreigner) and always try to make an extra buck. So I waited for him and thus missed the 4:30 van but was able to get on the 5 o’clock one that left around 5:10. We got to Pak Ba Ra around 7 and met up with John and Christy (a couple from Atlanta), and Kate and Tamsin (2 girls from the UK). We immediately got on a longtail boat that John and Christy had set up for us. Apparently this weekend was the beginning of the monsoon season, because no boats were going out to the islands. The boat ride was one of the most peaceful and amazing trip of my life. We had clear skies and were able to see hundreds of thousands of stars everywhere. It seemed like shooting stars were just traveling all over the sky.
Boat ride to Ko Bulon Leh
Along with that, the water was phosphorescent all the way there and because of this, we saw flying fish jumping in and out of the water the whole ride there. It was truly one of the better experiences I have enjoyed out here. Some conversations on the longtail did attempt to hinder that trip, (such as believing Einstein and Frankenstein was the same person, or believing that space or the universe was not real) but for the most part I was able to ignore those and just focus on the beauty and peacefulness that nature provided. It took us about 2 hours to get to Ko Bulon Leh, and the longtail just dropped us off and told us he’d pick us up at noon on Sunday. So it took us about an hour to find a bungalow, but we got 2 bungalows right on the beach for 500 Baht each. Since it is Thailand however, we negotiated it down to 400 Baht each per night. Kate, Tamsin, Matt and I all piled into one of them, and John and Christy took the other one. That made it come out to about 100 Baht/per person/per night. Not too shabby at all. We had dinner there and finished the Thai “rum” that we had brought over from the mainland.
The group, sans photographer
We ended up crashing out around 1 or 1:30, and it wasn’t too difficult since the power went out at 12. Fitting 4 people in a queen size bed was a little difficult, but somehow we made it work. The mosquito net that came with the room also was extremely useful as we saw tons of them flying around everywhere. It was also quite odd to see that many ants everywhere (inside and outside of the bungalow). They really ran rampant on that island.
On Saturday I woke up around 9 or 10 because you get to a point where it becomes uncomfortable to sleep with the heat. We took a dip in the water and then went to go look for the “town” and “explore” the island.
Our isolated beach
It turns out that we were the only non-residents on the island. There were no other people renting out bungalows or any tourism whatsoever on the island. Apparently the monsoon season really detracts a lot of tourists, and on top of that, apparently many of the ferry operators have stopped taking people to this particular island.
It was fine with me, because it made the whole experience much more relaxing and enjoyable. There was only one other place open on the island, where they sold beer. It is a very Islamic community, and therefore very difficult to find alcohol. There was no rum or liquor of any kind anywhere on the island. But we did luck out because the only place/restaurant that served food was particularly the place that we were staying at.
Our bungalow
It is a family owned and operated resort and they were really friendly, helpful and extremely attentive to us. No matter what time it was, they were there to cook us breakfast, lunch or dinner, or there to allow us to get some snacks from the market on the resort. After lunch, it was low tide, so Christy, Matt and I were able to get around the island pretty easily and check out the awesome rock formations all along the beach. I was almost able to make it all the way around the island, but I forgot my shoes, and the rocks started getting sharper, and more slippery, so I had to call it quits and head back.
Beach at low tide
Unfortunately I also forgot my camera, so I was unable to take advantage of some cool rocks and scenery shots. On our way back, we decided to try to build a bonfire at night, so we collected some firewood and threw it in a pile near our bungalows. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how high the tide would come and all of our wood got wet by the time we got back from dinner. The six of us went back to the small market that sold beer and they actually sold Thai whiskey also. Well what they call Thai whiskey was a very disgusting alcohol that seemed to me like a variation or mix of Sake and Everclear. It was horrible. We tried to mix it with everything, soda water, coke, juice and nothing seemed to help. We drank about 3 of the bottles (some of us more than others….I quit after a few drinks-the taste was just unbearable) and after dinner the girls tried to get the bonfire going and went out and got some more “dry” wood.
Me on the beach
Amazingly, they weren’t very talented gatherers and grabbed some pretty green branches that were never going to light. So we just hung out until about 12 when the lights went out.
Sunday I woke up around 9:30 and immediately jumped in the water. I had an omelet for breakfast and then went back in the water. We settled up since all our food and snacks they had just put on a tab. It wasn’t too bad at all. For the room, all the food, we each put in 650 Baht….almost $20. The round-trip boat ride alone cost almost as much (600 Baht). Our longtail captain was hanging out, waiting from about 9 or 10am, so finally around noon, we headed on back to Pak Ba Ra. We got back to Pak Ba Ra at 1:30 and had some lunch. Matt and I took off and headed back to Hat Yai around 4 and got home around 5:30.
Picture of the fishing boats in Pak Ba Ra
I even got to take a longer walk back home because I didn’t know how to tell the minivan driver to stop, and since I was in the back of the van, I couldn’t do what I usually do, and tap them and say OK while pointing. Luckily 2 guys got off about 3 blocks past my stop so I was able to get off too. Unfortunately for Matt, the last minivan to Nathawi (where he lives) leaves around 5, so he had to stay the night in Hat Yai and catch the minivan in the morning. I got home, took a shower, had some spicy Som Tam that I was feeling the effects of on Monday (even though I requested not spicy….I have come to the conclusion that they’re not allowed to make Som Tam without spice) and went to bed around 11:30 to get ready for the next work week.
Well that’s a summary of Week 4….like I said, I’m definitely going to try to keep them coming more regularly, at least 1 or 2 a week until I get caught up. These next few weeks might be difficult for me since my parents are going to be here for 4 weeks, but I’m definitely going to do my best. I’m really excited to get to see them and hang out and travel with them. They get here on Thursday night, and on Friday we are going to Krabi until Monday and then to Malaysia until Saturday. It’s a holiday weekend until Wednesday, so I’m taking advantage and taking Thursday and Friday off so that I can spend a whole week with them.
So I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to e-mail me and let me know how you’re doing. I would love to know how life is out in your parts….I’m sure not everyone’s life suddenly stopped because of Michael Jackson’s death, right…..??
Until next time…peace and love.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Update from Thailand
(Yes, I know it's looooong, but hey, it's been 3 weeks....)
Well what can I say...where to start. It has been an amazing 3 weeks that have felt like months. I've been super busy with everything and doing so much. I finally got myself situated on Monday night and have my own apartment. I'm staying in the southern part of Thailand in the 3rd largest city, Hat Yai.
Let's start with my flight. I left LA on Friday afternoon at around 12:30. It was only supposed to be one stop in Taipei, but it ended up stopping in Osaka and then Taipei. The flight from LA to Osaka was about 12 hours, which was nice because I had my own bench and I was able to catch up on my sleep since I hadn't had a wink of sleep the night before finishing getting ready for my trip. So after a one and a half hour layover in Osaka, and a 3 hour layover in Taipei, I finally got to Bangkok at about 1:30am on Sunday. The organization was supposed to pick me up at 1pm, so I just decided to hang out in the airport for a few hours. I slept a little, and had breakfast, then read, and took a couple of naps here and there.
We got picked up and ended up leaving the airport around 2:30. There was about 12 of us, from pretty much all over the world, that met up at the airport. We took a minivan to Ban Phe which is a small coastal town about 2 and a half hours Southeast of Bangkok. We checked in to the program and got sent to our room. Our hotel (CondoChain) was literally across the street from the beach, so needless to say we were all enjoying the nice weather and the nice ocean for the first week.
(Picture of the view from our hotel)
I had a roommate, Patrick who is from Northern Cali. He quit his job after 19 years or something and decided to travel the world, and apparently teaching English in Thailand was his next stop...pretty cool. We had a quick orientation and then went on our way.
Monday was the first day of class, and we started learning about the basics of teaching English to speakers of Foreign languages. Our school was at a local Buddhist temple. The classes pretty much became kind of repetitive, but there was a lot of useful information. We didn't have to dress up until the second week, so I took advantage and went to class in my swim trunks every day.
We got almost an hour and a half for lunch, so I would eat and jump in the water for a while, then get out and dry off in like 5 minutes because the weather was so hot.
(Picture of our daily lunch spot right on the beach)
This pretty much went on every day. A typical day during the first week was: class from 9am-12:15, then lunch until 1:30, then class until 4:45. Sometimes we would get out early, but that was only if one of the trainers wasn't there or wasn't in a bitter mood. Monday night we had our welcoming dinner in Ban Phe where we got to really meet and get to know everyone. We had some good food and a good time. There was a festival going on in Ban Phe, so it was really packed around the town.
Tuesday night we took a trip into Rayong which is a little bit bigger city than Ban Phe. Our hotel was actually a few kilometers from Ban Phe, so if we wanted anything from town, we had to get on a songthaew (which is the main method of transportation here - a pick up truck with two rows in the back for people to sit on).
(Picture of our daily songthaew ride)
Wednesday, I actually met some locals on the beach and started playing football (soccer) with them. It was interesting since they spoke no English, and I spoke no Thai, so we just spoke football and had a good time.
(Picture of me playing soccer on the beach - Courtesy of Sara)
Later, we hung out at our local "internet spot" which was a restaurant 100 meters or so from our hotel where they had wi-fi available. We had dinner there, and then a few of us happened to wander off to the beach with a bottle of Thai rum and enjoy the bright lights of the shrimp boats off of the coast until about 2am. Needless to say, Thursday was a bit of a struggle during class. Thursday night we actually had to focus and do homework, and study for our grammar and phonology test on Friday. All of the procrastinating throughout the week caught up to me and I was up until about 1am finishing studying.
After class on Friday, the majority of the group
(13 of us) took a ferry to Ko Samet which is an island about 30 minutes on ferry from Ban Phe. It was labor day weekend, so the island was pretty booked, but luckily a friend in the group had a tent so me and another girl pitched the tent right on the beach and had a camping weekend.
(Picture of the 3 campers with our tent in the background)
The other 10 in the group had to endure a drunk night passed out on some tables of one of their friend's bar. In the morning they had all been pretty much eaten alive by the mosquitoes. It was quite a looooong, extremely fun weekend that involved maybe one or two cocktails. We met some cool Thais from Bangkok that were there on vacation and played volleyball, football and had dinner with them on Saturday night. I was also able to watch "el clasico" on Saturday night at 1am at the bar next to the club we were partying at. It was the culmination of a great evening
seeing Barcelona beat the crap out of Real Madrid in Madrid. Best game of the year. On Sunday, about 5 of us rented some scooters and rode along the island for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Ban Phe. (Picture of me at the south end of the island)
All in all, the weekend consisted of a lot of sun, swimming, napping on the beach (or passing out; however you want to call it), and getting sunburned.....and maybe a cocktail here and there.
The second week, we began our practice teaching to the young monks that live at the temple.
Monday, we just observed, and then Tuesday through Friday we taught our own classes. It was an awesome experience because the young monks were always in a good mood and enjoying what we taught them. (Picture of me teaching the monks - Courtesy of Matt)
The toughest part was preparing our lesson plans every night, but after the first night, we all pretty much got the hang of it and finished it within an hour or two at the most. The first night, it took a long time, because I don't think any of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing. I didn't get to bed until about 1:30 on Monday night, but the other nights, I was out before 12. I was able to watch the second half of the Champions league semifinal match between Barcelona and Chelsea on Thursday morning at about 3am. Once again, I was lagging a little on Thursday, but it was nice to be able to take a nap on the beach during lunch to catch up on my sleep. Lunch was another thing that was amazing throughout those 2 weeks.
You could get a big piece of grilled chicken breast and a bag of rice for about 45 Baht, which is roughly about $1.25. I ate that pretty much all of the first week, with a few papaya salads (or Som Tam) mixed throughout. The second week, I went for the shaded restaurants on the sand and ate fried rice with seafood for about 40 Baht.
(Picture of our daily lunch meetings on the beach)
You really can't beat the price for the food out here. I think out of everything, that is the part I have enjoyed the most. Great food for really, really cheap.
Thursday night, we had our going away dinner that most of the group attended. The course was supposed to be 3 weeks, but since many of the schools in Southern Thailand started school this week,
everybody that was posted in Southern schools, only did 2 weeks of training, so about 11 or 12 of the 19 students left after 2 weeks. So we had a going away dinner on Thursday at a beautiful restaurant with a live band, a lagoon and some small waterfalls. Most of the food was great, and we had a great time going through a couple of bottles of rum.
(Picture at our Good bye dinner)
We all still had to go back and finish our lesson plans for Friday, so we continued with another bottle back at the hotel while we finished our lesson plans. That might have affected our drawings and ideas slightly, but everything still went well on Friday. After packing most of my stuff (since we were leaving to Bangkok right after class), I got to bed at about 2:30am.
On Friday, we had our teaching practice,
and then we had a celebration to donate a water tank to the temple. It was quite an impressive ceremony, and you could tell that the monks were extremely grateful. (Picture with the water tank that we donated)
After class, we finished packing, had a couple of drinks on the beach with Ji, our awesome instructor/trainer, and took off to Bangkok at around 7:30, which makes sense in Thai time since we were scheduled to leave by 6 at the latest.
(Picture with Ji on the last day)
We ended up getting to Bangkok about 10:30pm, and checked into our room at about 11:30. I took a shower and we headed to a local nightclub. We got on a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle multi-passenger taxi) and it was a really fun ride. We even stopped before we got to the club to buy some drinks because they were really, really expensive at the club; I mean ridiculously expensive...$9.00 for a beer!!! It was quite an interesting and loooooong night, since we stayed there until 6am. 
Took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and knocked out.
(Picture of me driving the tuk-tuk)
On Saturday, we got checked out and bought our bus ticket to Hat Yai (the 3rd largest city in Thailand, in the southwest part of the country)because the train was all sold out. We toured the city for a little bit and then got on the bus at 7pm. We got to Hat Yai at 11:30am on Sunday and got picked up and taken to a nice hotel. Like I've said, Thailand is really cheap: It was a 3-3½ star hotel for 380 Baht (12 bucks a night). We spent the night there and then on Monday went searching for an apartment. I looked at about 6 apartments that were either really nice but full (2), or really old, nasty, and dirty (4). They call them apartments here, but they're actually just basic studios with a room and a bathroom. No kitchen.
Finally about 7pm, we found this place on the West side of Hat Yai for about 3200 Baht a month (plus 300 for internet and 300 for a fridge). (Picture of my apartment)
Since the program covers 1500 Baht per month, I only end up paying 2300 Baht, which is less than $70; plus electricity and water. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk to downtown, so it's pretty close. It also takes me about 35 minutes on a Songthaew to get to my school, so it's not too bad.
On Tuesday I wanted to check out the city and get to know my surroundings all day, but I had to wait around because they were supposed to install the internet on my computer, and bring me my fridge. I waited around, and my fridge got here around 4:30pm, and at about 6pm, they told me that the internet guy couldn't come until the next day. So I wasted a day, but oh well...that's Thailand. I then went out and bought some basic necessities for my place and got everything I needed to get settled in. It was quite an experience getting back seeing as the Songthaew driver had no idea where I wanted to go. I showed him the picture of a school on the corner of my street, and he said he knew where it was. We ended up going to 2 different schools, until finally one of the guards at the University we stopped at showed him how to get here. It took me 20 minutes to get to the store, and about 50 minutes to get back. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. Wednesday, my internet finally came, and so I was able to walk around a little more and get to know my town a bit. I found the street where all of the restaurants are at (about 5 blocks from my place) and had a great, cheap dinner: stir fry noodles with veggies and chicken with a soup for all of 30 Baht....95 cents. I love it!
On Thursday, I woke up at 3am to watch the Barcelona vs. Atletic Bilbao - Copa del Rey Final. Watched Barça win 4-1 for the first of their 3 upcoming total championships. I went back to sleep around 5, and woke up at 6:15 because they were supposed to pick me up at 7 to get to the school for my first day.
They ended up picking me up at 8, so I could have got an extra hour of sleep, but oh well. It's about a 30-35 minute drive to the small town of Rattaphun, where my school is located. (Picture of one of my classrooms)
It's a pretty rural area and only one of the rooms has working fans, so that is going to make it quite difficult to keep dry. haha. It was supposed to be just an "introduction day" where I meet all of the students and the other teachers. I had to get up in front of the entire school and introduce myself and tell them a little about me. I had nothing prepared, I showed up with a pen and a small notepad, and of course I had to jump right in and teach 4 classes. The schools here operate very differently to say the least. I have a total of 23 classes a week, and I only see each class once a week. I have anywhere from 8 to 43 students in each class, so all in all, I have 608 students a week (yes, I counted). I also have a different schedule every day. The school goes from 8am - 4pm. There's an morning outdoor assembly from 8-8:30 (yes, outdoor; and yes, yesterday I was a huge ball of sweat by 8:30am) and then a total of 9 periods 50 minutes long. So on Mondays I teach 6 classes; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I teach 4 classes; and on Fridays I teach 5. I had been told that I might be able to leave on days when I finished classes early, but that's not the case at this school. We have to stay until 4 no matter what. At first I was a little bummed that I have so many students and I only see them once a week, but then I figured that it makes my job a little easier. Since I only have each class once a week, then I only have to prepare 4 lesson plans per week (I'm teaching 4 different levels). It kind of sucks that I won't get to know the students as well as I could if I saw them more regularly and didn't have so many, but then again it takes pressure off of me because you can't really expect me to work miracles when I'm only seeing each student for 50 minutes a week. I mean, as long as I show up and speak to them in English and get them engaged and speaking in English, then I'm doing my job. The English department at the school is definitely quite different. There are 9 teachers, 1 student teacher and 2 foreign teachers. All of the Thai teachers focus on teaching grammar, reading and writing (since not many of them can speak very well), and it is our job to just basically get them to listen and speak correctly. The other foreign teacher is a guy from South Africa who used to be a chef. He's been out here for about a month, and was teaching for 2 weeks at another school with "better resources", so he didn't seem to happy about being placed out here in this rural community. He was also pretty upset that we had to stay until 4 every day, no matter what. Personally, I just go with the flow. It's pretty pointless to get upset about things that you can't really control. It's also frowned upon in this culture when you show emotions in a negative fashion.
So on Friday I was a little better prepared with somewhat of a lesson plan for each of my classes. I had some fun in my last 2 classes playing tic-tac-toe with English words. The kids seemed to have a good time and enjoy it. I had a few students throughout the day that did not want to participate, but I didn't really pay them much attention because the other 98% of the students were participating and doing well. Craig (the other foreign teacher) and I left at 4 and took the songthaew back home. We get off at the same spot since he lives across the major street from where I do. He was complaining the whole ride home about the students. It was quite amusing actually. He said that one of the classes just "really pissed him off" because they did not want to participate. Personally, I thought to myself that if the students aren't participating, they're either bored, don't know how, or don't know exactly what you want them to do. I had some trouble with one of the classes getting them to move from desk to desk during practicing, but I just told myself that I have to model it better for them next time. But, whatever...people operate differently and some people have trouble just going with the flow. On the way home, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning all over the place. I had to go to the bank to exchange my last few dollars, so I ended up getting soaked. I got home, took a nap, took a shower and went out to meet up with some of the other Western teachers that are staying in Hat Yai for a couple of drinks. Had a cool time, and actually met some guy from Long Beach who's been out here for 2 years, so that was interesting meeting someone from so close to home. Walked home and got to bed at around 3:30am.
Well that pretty much sums up my first 3 weeks. There's been a lot going on, and I'm truly having a great time. Sure, I do miss a few things and people from back home a lot, but I'm enjoying the moment for what it is, knowing that it's a special time in my life. The people here are truly kind and genuine and always seem to be happy. I can really see why they call Thailand the Land of Smiles. The last few weeks have helped me get back to my old me, and begin to enjoy life to the fullest once again. I have been able to regain my happiness and optimism towards life, and also happened to come across that little, fun thing called sarcasm that I had lost along the way recently. :D
So I'll try to keep up on the updates so that they don't end up being so long, and send out some more pictures when I can. Til' next time. Hope you all are doing well. Cheers.
Well what can I say...where to start. It has been an amazing 3 weeks that have felt like months. I've been super busy with everything and doing so much. I finally got myself situated on Monday night and have my own apartment. I'm staying in the southern part of Thailand in the 3rd largest city, Hat Yai.
Let's start with my flight. I left LA on Friday afternoon at around 12:30. It was only supposed to be one stop in Taipei, but it ended up stopping in Osaka and then Taipei. The flight from LA to Osaka was about 12 hours, which was nice because I had my own bench and I was able to catch up on my sleep since I hadn't had a wink of sleep the night before finishing getting ready for my trip. So after a one and a half hour layover in Osaka, and a 3 hour layover in Taipei, I finally got to Bangkok at about 1:30am on Sunday. The organization was supposed to pick me up at 1pm, so I just decided to hang out in the airport for a few hours. I slept a little, and had breakfast, then read, and took a couple of naps here and there.
We got picked up and ended up leaving the airport around 2:30. There was about 12 of us, from pretty much all over the world, that met up at the airport. We took a minivan to Ban Phe which is a small coastal town about 2 and a half hours Southeast of Bangkok. We checked in to the program and got sent to our room. Our hotel (CondoChain) was literally across the street from the beach, so needless to say we were all enjoying the nice weather and the nice ocean for the first week.
(Picture of the view from our hotel) I had a roommate, Patrick who is from Northern Cali. He quit his job after 19 years or something and decided to travel the world, and apparently teaching English in Thailand was his next stop...pretty cool. We had a quick orientation and then went on our way.
Monday was the first day of class, and we started learning about the basics of teaching English to speakers of Foreign languages. Our school was at a local Buddhist temple. The classes pretty much became kind of repetitive, but there was a lot of useful information. We didn't have to dress up until the second week, so I took advantage and went to class in my swim trunks every day.
We got almost an hour and a half for lunch, so I would eat and jump in the water for a while, then get out and dry off in like 5 minutes because the weather was so hot. (Picture of our daily lunch spot right on the beach)
This pretty much went on every day. A typical day during the first week was: class from 9am-12:15, then lunch until 1:30, then class until 4:45. Sometimes we would get out early, but that was only if one of the trainers wasn't there or wasn't in a bitter mood. Monday night we had our welcoming dinner in Ban Phe where we got to really meet and get to know everyone. We had some good food and a good time. There was a festival going on in Ban Phe, so it was really packed around the town.
Tuesday night we took a trip into Rayong which is a little bit bigger city than Ban Phe. Our hotel was actually a few kilometers from Ban Phe, so if we wanted anything from town, we had to get on a songthaew (which is the main method of transportation here - a pick up truck with two rows in the back for people to sit on). (Picture of our daily songthaew ride)
Wednesday, I actually met some locals on the beach and started playing football (soccer) with them. It was interesting since they spoke no English, and I spoke no Thai, so we just spoke football and had a good time.
(Picture of me playing soccer on the beach - Courtesy of Sara)
Later, we hung out at our local "internet spot" which was a restaurant 100 meters or so from our hotel where they had wi-fi available. We had dinner there, and then a few of us happened to wander off to the beach with a bottle of Thai rum and enjoy the bright lights of the shrimp boats off of the coast until about 2am. Needless to say, Thursday was a bit of a struggle during class. Thursday night we actually had to focus and do homework, and study for our grammar and phonology test on Friday. All of the procrastinating throughout the week caught up to me and I was up until about 1am finishing studying. After class on Friday, the majority of the group
(13 of us) took a ferry to Ko Samet which is an island about 30 minutes on ferry from Ban Phe. It was labor day weekend, so the island was pretty booked, but luckily a friend in the group had a tent so me and another girl pitched the tent right on the beach and had a camping weekend. (Picture of the 3 campers with our tent in the background)
The other 10 in the group had to endure a drunk night passed out on some tables of one of their friend's bar. In the morning they had all been pretty much eaten alive by the mosquitoes. It was quite a looooong, extremely fun weekend that involved maybe one or two cocktails. We met some cool Thais from Bangkok that were there on vacation and played volleyball, football and had dinner with them on Saturday night. I was also able to watch "el clasico" on Saturday night at 1am at the bar next to the club we were partying at. It was the culmination of a great evening
seeing Barcelona beat the crap out of Real Madrid in Madrid. Best game of the year. On Sunday, about 5 of us rented some scooters and rode along the island for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Ban Phe. (Picture of me at the south end of the island) All in all, the weekend consisted of a lot of sun, swimming, napping on the beach (or passing out; however you want to call it), and getting sunburned.....and maybe a cocktail here and there.
The second week, we began our practice teaching to the young monks that live at the temple.
Monday, we just observed, and then Tuesday through Friday we taught our own classes. It was an awesome experience because the young monks were always in a good mood and enjoying what we taught them. (Picture of me teaching the monks - Courtesy of Matt) The toughest part was preparing our lesson plans every night, but after the first night, we all pretty much got the hang of it and finished it within an hour or two at the most. The first night, it took a long time, because I don't think any of us really knew what we were supposed to be doing. I didn't get to bed until about 1:30 on Monday night, but the other nights, I was out before 12. I was able to watch the second half of the Champions league semifinal match between Barcelona and Chelsea on Thursday morning at about 3am. Once again, I was lagging a little on Thursday, but it was nice to be able to take a nap on the beach during lunch to catch up on my sleep. Lunch was another thing that was amazing throughout those 2 weeks.
You could get a big piece of grilled chicken breast and a bag of rice for about 45 Baht, which is roughly about $1.25. I ate that pretty much all of the first week, with a few papaya salads (or Som Tam) mixed throughout. The second week, I went for the shaded restaurants on the sand and ate fried rice with seafood for about 40 Baht. (Picture of our daily lunch meetings on the beach)
You really can't beat the price for the food out here. I think out of everything, that is the part I have enjoyed the most. Great food for really, really cheap.
Thursday night, we had our going away dinner that most of the group attended. The course was supposed to be 3 weeks, but since many of the schools in Southern Thailand started school this week,
everybody that was posted in Southern schools, only did 2 weeks of training, so about 11 or 12 of the 19 students left after 2 weeks. So we had a going away dinner on Thursday at a beautiful restaurant with a live band, a lagoon and some small waterfalls. Most of the food was great, and we had a great time going through a couple of bottles of rum. (Picture at our Good bye dinner)
We all still had to go back and finish our lesson plans for Friday, so we continued with another bottle back at the hotel while we finished our lesson plans. That might have affected our drawings and ideas slightly, but everything still went well on Friday. After packing most of my stuff (since we were leaving to Bangkok right after class), I got to bed at about 2:30am.
On Friday, we had our teaching practice,
and then we had a celebration to donate a water tank to the temple. It was quite an impressive ceremony, and you could tell that the monks were extremely grateful. (Picture with the water tank that we donated) After class, we finished packing, had a couple of drinks on the beach with Ji, our awesome instructor/trainer, and took off to Bangkok at around 7:30, which makes sense in Thai time since we were scheduled to leave by 6 at the latest.
(Picture with Ji on the last day)
We ended up getting to Bangkok about 10:30pm, and checked into our room at about 11:30. I took a shower and we headed to a local nightclub. We got on a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle multi-passenger taxi) and it was a really fun ride. We even stopped before we got to the club to buy some drinks because they were really, really expensive at the club; I mean ridiculously expensive...$9.00 for a beer!!! It was quite an interesting and loooooong night, since we stayed there until 6am. 
Took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel and knocked out. (Picture of me driving the tuk-tuk)
On Saturday, we got checked out and bought our bus ticket to Hat Yai (the 3rd largest city in Thailand, in the southwest part of the country)because the train was all sold out. We toured the city for a little bit and then got on the bus at 7pm. We got to Hat Yai at 11:30am on Sunday and got picked up and taken to a nice hotel. Like I've said, Thailand is really cheap: It was a 3-3½ star hotel for 380 Baht (12 bucks a night). We spent the night there and then on Monday went searching for an apartment. I looked at about 6 apartments that were either really nice but full (2), or really old, nasty, and dirty (4). They call them apartments here, but they're actually just basic studios with a room and a bathroom. No kitchen.
Finally about 7pm, we found this place on the West side of Hat Yai for about 3200 Baht a month (plus 300 for internet and 300 for a fridge). (Picture of my apartment)Since the program covers 1500 Baht per month, I only end up paying 2300 Baht, which is less than $70; plus electricity and water. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk to downtown, so it's pretty close. It also takes me about 35 minutes on a Songthaew to get to my school, so it's not too bad.
On Tuesday I wanted to check out the city and get to know my surroundings all day, but I had to wait around because they were supposed to install the internet on my computer, and bring me my fridge. I waited around, and my fridge got here around 4:30pm, and at about 6pm, they told me that the internet guy couldn't come until the next day. So I wasted a day, but oh well...that's Thailand. I then went out and bought some basic necessities for my place and got everything I needed to get settled in. It was quite an experience getting back seeing as the Songthaew driver had no idea where I wanted to go. I showed him the picture of a school on the corner of my street, and he said he knew where it was. We ended up going to 2 different schools, until finally one of the guards at the University we stopped at showed him how to get here. It took me 20 minutes to get to the store, and about 50 minutes to get back. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. Wednesday, my internet finally came, and so I was able to walk around a little more and get to know my town a bit. I found the street where all of the restaurants are at (about 5 blocks from my place) and had a great, cheap dinner: stir fry noodles with veggies and chicken with a soup for all of 30 Baht....95 cents. I love it!
On Thursday, I woke up at 3am to watch the Barcelona vs. Atletic Bilbao - Copa del Rey Final. Watched Barça win 4-1 for the first of their 3 upcoming total championships. I went back to sleep around 5, and woke up at 6:15 because they were supposed to pick me up at 7 to get to the school for my first day.
They ended up picking me up at 8, so I could have got an extra hour of sleep, but oh well. It's about a 30-35 minute drive to the small town of Rattaphun, where my school is located. (Picture of one of my classrooms)It's a pretty rural area and only one of the rooms has working fans, so that is going to make it quite difficult to keep dry. haha. It was supposed to be just an "introduction day" where I meet all of the students and the other teachers. I had to get up in front of the entire school and introduce myself and tell them a little about me. I had nothing prepared, I showed up with a pen and a small notepad, and of course I had to jump right in and teach 4 classes. The schools here operate very differently to say the least. I have a total of 23 classes a week, and I only see each class once a week. I have anywhere from 8 to 43 students in each class, so all in all, I have 608 students a week (yes, I counted). I also have a different schedule every day. The school goes from 8am - 4pm. There's an morning outdoor assembly from 8-8:30 (yes, outdoor; and yes, yesterday I was a huge ball of sweat by 8:30am) and then a total of 9 periods 50 minutes long. So on Mondays I teach 6 classes; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I teach 4 classes; and on Fridays I teach 5. I had been told that I might be able to leave on days when I finished classes early, but that's not the case at this school. We have to stay until 4 no matter what. At first I was a little bummed that I have so many students and I only see them once a week, but then I figured that it makes my job a little easier. Since I only have each class once a week, then I only have to prepare 4 lesson plans per week (I'm teaching 4 different levels). It kind of sucks that I won't get to know the students as well as I could if I saw them more regularly and didn't have so many, but then again it takes pressure off of me because you can't really expect me to work miracles when I'm only seeing each student for 50 minutes a week. I mean, as long as I show up and speak to them in English and get them engaged and speaking in English, then I'm doing my job. The English department at the school is definitely quite different. There are 9 teachers, 1 student teacher and 2 foreign teachers. All of the Thai teachers focus on teaching grammar, reading and writing (since not many of them can speak very well), and it is our job to just basically get them to listen and speak correctly. The other foreign teacher is a guy from South Africa who used to be a chef. He's been out here for about a month, and was teaching for 2 weeks at another school with "better resources", so he didn't seem to happy about being placed out here in this rural community. He was also pretty upset that we had to stay until 4 every day, no matter what. Personally, I just go with the flow. It's pretty pointless to get upset about things that you can't really control. It's also frowned upon in this culture when you show emotions in a negative fashion.
So on Friday I was a little better prepared with somewhat of a lesson plan for each of my classes. I had some fun in my last 2 classes playing tic-tac-toe with English words. The kids seemed to have a good time and enjoy it. I had a few students throughout the day that did not want to participate, but I didn't really pay them much attention because the other 98% of the students were participating and doing well. Craig (the other foreign teacher) and I left at 4 and took the songthaew back home. We get off at the same spot since he lives across the major street from where I do. He was complaining the whole ride home about the students. It was quite amusing actually. He said that one of the classes just "really pissed him off" because they did not want to participate. Personally, I thought to myself that if the students aren't participating, they're either bored, don't know how, or don't know exactly what you want them to do. I had some trouble with one of the classes getting them to move from desk to desk during practicing, but I just told myself that I have to model it better for them next time. But, whatever...people operate differently and some people have trouble just going with the flow. On the way home, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning all over the place. I had to go to the bank to exchange my last few dollars, so I ended up getting soaked. I got home, took a nap, took a shower and went out to meet up with some of the other Western teachers that are staying in Hat Yai for a couple of drinks. Had a cool time, and actually met some guy from Long Beach who's been out here for 2 years, so that was interesting meeting someone from so close to home. Walked home and got to bed at around 3:30am.
Well that pretty much sums up my first 3 weeks. There's been a lot going on, and I'm truly having a great time. Sure, I do miss a few things and people from back home a lot, but I'm enjoying the moment for what it is, knowing that it's a special time in my life. The people here are truly kind and genuine and always seem to be happy. I can really see why they call Thailand the Land of Smiles. The last few weeks have helped me get back to my old me, and begin to enjoy life to the fullest once again. I have been able to regain my happiness and optimism towards life, and also happened to come across that little, fun thing called sarcasm that I had lost along the way recently. :D
So I'll try to keep up on the updates so that they don't end up being so long, and send out some more pictures when I can. Til' next time. Hope you all are doing well. Cheers.
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