a wildflower in the land of smiles: Weekends On-The-Go!

This semester has less holidays and long weekends than the last one, so I try to make the most of my time off! I now tutor six of seven days a week (not Friday because I have gate duty at school) so I never have a full day off. I do enjoy being busy though, and the extra cash is always nice. I have had three long weekends though, so here is the gist of them!

In June, two of my good friends from UCSB, Casey and Emily, backpacked Thailand for six weeks! I played hooky for a day and was able to meet them in Bangkok their first day in the country, and we zipped off to an island that I went to back in December called Ko Samet. We were able to meet up with our other UCSBer BC, and Jenna was there the same weekend as well! Gauchos took over the island!!!

Five Gauchos!

Ko Samet!

Later in Casey and Emu’s Thai journey, they were able to get off the tourist trail and experience real Isan with me in Khon Kaen! They just so happened to be here for the 4^th of July (which also happened to be the same weekend as Thailand’s elections, meaning bars, restaurants, and clubs were closed for the entire weekend as well as a ban on the selling of alcohol). It was SO amazing to have them here and I didn’t realize how much I missed my friends and home. They reminded me that I have SO much to look forward to and SO much to come home to. THANKS CASEY AND EMU!

Chocolate covered banana at the Chatuchak!

Buddhist Lent: Bangkok! For our four day weekend in July, Jess and I spent a day in Kanchanburi to see the famous Seven Falls (seven tiered waterfalls), then spent three days in Bangkok. Bangkok mostly consisted of being a lot of farang food (Mexican, Hardrock Café, Subway.. anything good we could get our hands on). But we also went to Bangkok’s famous Chatuchak Market, one of the worlds biggest street markets. Every Saturday, this huge arena/parking lot thing is filled with thousands of people, food stalls, vendors, and huts selling everything from art to animals to purses to clothes to incense to watches.. EVERYTHING and its seriously HUGE! Anything you could ever imagine is at this market. We spent a few hours strolling around and Jess bought numerous souvenirs to bring home in October and I bought a purse to use in the real world. We visited the Jim Thompson house, a museum in Bangkok. It is a complex of various old Thai structures that the American businessman Jim Thompson collected in from all parts of Thailand in the 1950s and 60s. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand. Then of course, we spent our last night in Bangkok wrecking havoc on Khao San Rd., the backpacker hub of Bangkok. Overall, it was a great weekend get-away.

Waterfalls in Kanchanburi

Queen’s Birthday/Mothers Day: Three day weekend in Chiang Mai! I love love LOVE Chiang Mai and haven’t been back since Songkran in April. Jess and I took the 12 hour bus ride and arrived in Chiang Mai bright and early on Friday morning. The first thing we did was go up to Doi Suthep, a temple up high on a mountain that over looks the entire city of Chiang Mai. After, we went to the farang used book stores (I picked up the next three True Blood books.. YEEES!), ate some AMAZING food (Mexican and farang), and did a full day Thai cooking course. We spent all Saturday out on the farm where we cooked a seven course Thai meal.. EACH! Each participant made their own appetizer, stir fry, noodle, curry paste and curry dish, soup, dessert. I made papaya salad, fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, massaman curry, som tam, and mango with sticky rice. All pretty tasty and now I can make Thai food back home (hopefully)! I spent Sunday strolling the famous Sunday Night Bazaar with Jenna, Katie, and Bradley, two girls that teach at the same school as Jenna! I’m so glad that we were all able to meet up and spend parts of the weekend together. The night bazaar was AMAZING, I’ll definitely be going back to Chiang Mai to buy all my gifts and souvenirs here! More handmade items and crafts, much nicer than Bangkok. Now that I know how easy it is to get to Chiang Mai, I expect to be going back a time or two more while I’m in Thailand. Jess and I were very tired for school on Monday (and an hour late since our bus arrived back to Khon Kaen Monday morning), but our Thai teachers held down the fort until we arrived.