FINALLY! The best part of my travels! Be prepared.. this is a long one!
Jenna and I arrived in Bangkok around 1pm ready for our 6pm bus that evening. After we trekked around the city with our ridiculously heavy bags (I over packed.. what a surprise), we made our way to the travel agency where Jenna had booked our tickets. They let us leave our bags there and we wondered around Khao San Road for a while. Khao San is very well known amongst the backpacker community, it has cheap accommodations, travel agencies, inexpensive clothing, and various other items for sale. Since I don’t get to go to Bangkok very often, it was fun to wonder around and see all the things to see. We stocked up on snacks and splurged on subway so we were ready for the 15 hour bus trip. We were waiting at the travel agency for our bus to be called and were excited when the guy yelled “Krabi!”. (We needed to take the bus to Krabi, then the ferry to Ko Phi Phi). We showed him our tickets, he shook his head and gave them back to us. Very confused, it turns out he didn’t have our receipt number on that bus list. He kept telling us “Wait one minute” and Jenna and I began to freak out. It all ended up working out because they just stuck us on a bus leaving at 8pm, but we had to anxiously sit around for another 2 hours.
The bus wasn’t exactly comfortable. My seat didn’t recline at all and I got very little sleep. Luckily, my body doesn’t need much sleep to be functional and 11 hours later, we arrived in Surrathani. Again, a little confused because this wasn’t Krabi, it was 3 hours away from Krabi. But this little hub in Surrathani sends people off for the various islands around Southern Thailand. A guy went around asking where people were going and stuck stickers on everyone accordingly. About 15 minutes later, Jenna and I jumped in a van with six other people to Krabi. Lucky for me, I was able to sleep the entire van ride to the ferry dock. With our ferry tickets in hand, our van driver told us we needed to run to make the ferry, so we did! We plopped ourselves down in some seats and prepared ourselves for the last hour and a half of traveling until we get to the island. Jenna surprised me with some Chang beer to celebrate the last leg of the race. It was 11am but its always 5 o’clock somewhere!
We arrived on the island and got off the ferry and after paying the 20 baht “clean up fee”, we were thrown another curve ball. For the past 15 hours, Jenna and I had been dreaming about spending our time in the sun and getting tan in the sand, only to find that it was drizzling! AHH! After getting over the fact that the clouds were thick and there were actually drops coming down, we accepted the fact that it wasn’t sunny only because it was still warm. I had made the hotel reservations at a place called Tropical Gardens two months ahead only because it was New Years and he heard that the island gets full fast, and we were easily able to find our hotel representative waiting for us at the dock to lead the way. Thank goodness he had a little cart thing with him for our bags, I was SO over my heavy bag at this point that I considered ditching some of my stuff so it was lighter (I learned my lesson for the future, the less the better!). We entered the town which is basically a mini city, and I was amazed to see not only see so much going on, but how many westerners there were! I had no idea that the island would be so touristy and filled with so many people from around the world! The streets (which are only for pedestrians and bicycles, there are no cars on the island because its too small) are more of wide cobblestone paths and lined with restaurants, bars, guesthouses, dive shops, and internet cafes and the beach was lined with longtail boats. I was in aw of this place and after Jenna and I threw our bags in the room, we explored! It reminded me of a mix of Cabo, Hawaii, and IV. The water was blue and clear like Hawaii, the bars and restaurants were a lot like what I experienced in Cabo last Spring Break (which was AMAZING!), and the people were a lot like those in IV, looking to meet other travelers and just have a good time! This is hands down my favorite place I have ever traveled to (okay, tie with Cabo because Cabo has the Mexican food!).
Jenna and I spent the next day relaxing on the beach even though it wasn’t sunny yet, and exploring more of the small town. We checked out menus for different restaurants and I was so thrilled to find a huge variety of menu items! Along with Thai food, salads, chicken burgers, sandwiches and pizza although a little pricey, were available on the island! So different from Khon Kaen and I was determined to eat everything my heart desired on this trip. There was a good mix of bars and clubs including a sports bar (the first time I have watched sports since I’ve been in Thailand!), a Reggae Bar with boxing (Thai boxers and they let people from the audience box and participants get free buckets!), and a few beach clubs right in the sand on the water! Amazing.
The next morning was New Years Eve, and Jenna and I woke up early to hike up to the Ko Phi Phi Viewpoint to see the sunrise. In my travel book, it mentions that it is a long hike of stairs and that some people need to rest on the way, I didn’t think much of it but boy was it a workout! The viewpoint is 186 meters above sea level and you can see much of the island from the top. Jenna and I went to all three viewpoints and even though it was too cloudy to see the sunrise, it was beautiful!
After our hike, we had just enough time to change to go snorkeling with our tour at 9:30! Jenna and I picked an all day tour that took us to numerous destinations around Ko Phi Phi and Ko Phi Phi Leh, an uninhabited island next to the big island we were staying on. Our longtail boat held about 20 passengers, and it just so happened there was a couple on there that did our same program 6 months before Jenna and I, and the girl graduated from UCSB! What a small world. While snorkeling, I saw the most amazing fish I have ever seen and spent hours in the beautiful, crystal clear, turquoise water, and the sun even made an appearance! At one point while I was snorkeling, a French man on our tour boat (he looked like a professional snorkeler/diver, his underwater camera was intense!) waved me over to check out an eel he was taking shots of!! The eel looked a little creepy but it was amazing to see up close! We also made a stop at Monkey Beach and Maya Bay, which was the location for the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo Dicaprio. Of course it was nothing like the secluded beach from the movie and was overrun with tourist, but it was amazingly beautiful. At our last beach destination, there was a sudden downpour and we all had to sprint back to the boat as our day trip was coming to an end. We weren’t able to snorkel at Shark Point since it was now too dark to see the sharks, but we were all ready to start our New Years Eve celebrations.
New Years Eve was amazing! The girls (Jess was there with her sister so we all met up) and I spend the night watching muy thai fighting matches at the Reggae Bar, drinking buckets, dancing on the beach, watching fireworks, and an ocean swim while the sun was rising. My most amazing/fun New Years yet! It’ll be hard to top it!
After sleeping for about 4 hours, Jenna and I hit the beach again because it was finally sunny!! That’s basically what we did for the next two days, sat in the sun, drank banana smoothies, and lived up the island life.
Jenna needed to head back to school while I still had another week off. So she trekked back to Bangkok and I stayed on the island and switched guest houses so I could stay somewhere cheaper. I never wanted to leave the island! I was on the island by myself for two days and I had a blast. I went to the beach, read at the coffee shop, hiked the viewpoint for sunset, went to the bars, and met a ton of other travelers! I met this older couple who sailed to Ko Phi Phi unintentionally, they live in New Zealand travel on their boat and the wind brought them to the island instead of Malaysia. I also met a guy from Sweden who went to an English learning school in Santa Barbara when he was 18 and lived in I.V. in 1997!! I had an amazing time and I’m so much more confident now when it comes to traveling alone.
On Tuesday, my friend Brandon Feria and his brother met me at the island. Feria (I have quite a few friends that I call by a nickname or last name, Feria is one of them) graduated from UCSB with me in June and worked hard all summer so he could now travel the world. He left the states a week or two before I left for Thailand and he’s already been to so many places in Europe and Asia and it just so happened that his time in Thailand would begin while I was on the island! It worked out great! He and his brother met me at Phi Phi and it just so happened my guesthouse gave me a room for three people so the boys went in on my room with me. The day they got there, we hit the beach and enjoyed the night with Thai boxing and more buckets.
I had been telling Feria that we should do a snorkeling tour and that I was interested in doing one with cliff jumping. Cliff jumping is something I am normally totally not into and I’m not sure why I was so hooked on doing it (maybe because of my Twlight obsession) and Feria was very onboard for doing this activity. So the next day, we did a snorkeling/cliff jumping tour! We booked through a company called Spidar Monkey which has great reviews and also provides a tasty lunch and English speaking guide. When I realized that we were actually doing the cliff jumping, I regretting ever suggesting it. I was getting real nervous, but luckily we started off the tour with snorkeling at Shark Point, which I missed out on during the last tour. We saw a few sharks and even though we were told they never attack humans, we kept our distance. We made a stop at Monkey Beach again, where Feria got slapped by a monkey for petting it, and again to Maya Bay. Finally.. cliff jumping. We were given shoes to wear because we actually had to rock climb to get to the cliff. It was a windy and chilly day and Feria had to walk me through where to put my feet and hands to climb up the rocks (I know now I am NOT a rockclimber). I was basically freaking out and couldn’t believe what I was doing and didn’t realize that I was physically shaking while climbing. With Feria’s help, I nervously made it to the top and watched everyone else jump from the 8 meter cliff into the choppy water below. Finally, it was my turn. Luckily, our guide, Bell, got me all set up to jump from the lowest point which was 6 meters (like 20 feet ). I literally stood on the edge of the cliff for 15 minutes with our whole tour crew and Feria cheering me on and encouraging me to jump. After shaking and near to tears, I finally made my plunge into the water.. and surfaced back up, I DID IT! I know now that I like the idea of cliff jumping more than actually doing it, but I’m proud of myself for doing something out of my comfort zone. Because the water was so choppy, swimming back to boat was almost impossible for me and I asked someone to throw me a life jacket. After settling back on the boat and able to breathe, I was real happy I did it.
The next day was finally my time to leave the island. Not only had it wiped out a lot of my January paycheck but I needed to make the 20 hour travel back to Khon Kaen so I could teach on Monday. I said goodbye to Feria who is making his way to Singapore then Australia where he will spend some time and find a job, I’m SO glad I got to see him! I took the ferry to Krabi to take the bus to Surrantani to take another bus to Bangkok to take a cab to the skytrain and skytrain to another cab and cab to another bus to Khon Kaen. All in all it took me about 28 hours to get home! But it was an amazing vacation and an awesome way to start the new year. Ko Phi Phi is high up on my list of places to go back to.
I cant believe that I was just starting my traveling just about a month ago and I still haven’t blogged about it! This week, I have been bogged down with Parent Teacher Conferences and writing an almost essay on my 24 students and analyzing their fine and gross motor skills, problem solving ability, cognitive development, attitude, and social skills and discussing these areas with the parents. Meeting with the parents is a little nerve –racking especially since nearly all of them speak English, some better than others, but I guess many of them liked me since I got three tutoring jobs from the process! Other than that, nothing too new going on here! We did have a teacher party which I’ll talk about once I’m caught up with my travels. Also, I will be the princess for the end of the year show in March. I might have already mentioned that but I’ll get into that later.
Waiting for the train
So after Ayutthaya, we woke up early the next morning to get to the train station to take the train to Lopburi. Lopburi is just threeish hours outside of Bangkok and is most well-known for being overrun by wild monkeys! Jenna and I didn’t choose this destination particularly for the monkeys though.. we decided to go here because on the outskirts of Lopburi are beautiful sunflower fields. Jenna and I thought trains left for Lopburi about every hour and we got to the station just as one was slowly pulling away. When the attendants realized that was the train we wanted, they were shouting for it to stop so we could hop on, and it actually did stop! However, there were three different people telling us to go different directions. I think it went something like “HURRY JUMP ON THE TRAIN!” “No, you need a ticket!” “Hurry, get the ticket and jump on the train!” (but in Thai). We rushed and threw money at the ticket booth and ran to get the train and we literally missed it by seven seconds, if we didn’t have our backpacks we probably could have lunged on but we didn’t want to risk it. Oh well, we ended up having to wait two hours for the next one, but it was really reassuring to have people trying to help us in our voyage. The train was only 13 baht (less than 50 cents) and was about a two hour ride. I wasn’t too sure what to expect for Thai trains, but for some reason I honestly pictured something like the California Amtrak train like the one I’ve taken to and from Santa Barbara. Well, let me tell ya, that wasn’t it. It was extremely crowded, no open seats, hot, and because the windows were down and trash is often burned here, we zoomed by piles of burning trash and the ash flew into the train getting in my eyes and mouth. It wasn’t exactly pleasant. But the most annoying part of the ride was that there were people who would walk up and down the isles every 30 seconds trying to sell different food and refreshments. Because Jenna and I were standing in the isle since there were no seats, they were constantly squeezing by us which was a little uncomfortable.. But we did make it!
We arrived in Lopburi and went to a hostel that we had heard of from a friend. This hostel was run buy the cutest little Thai couple who had the most adorable baby. They were so nice and helpful and gave us his cell phone number just in case we got lost going to the sunflower fields. At first, I didn’t notice any monkeys around the city and when we checked in, I asked where they were and they replyed “they are everywhere!” When Jenna and I were walking to the bus station to go to the sunflower fields I finally saw them and it was true, they were EVERYWHERE! Hanging from the wires, running free in the streets, hanging off buildings, snatching food.. Everywhere! Jenna and I hopped on the city bus to get to the fields. The bus dropped us off on the main road and we needed to walk a short distance to the fields. Boy, were they beautiful! Thousands and thousands of sunflowers on an extremely beautiful and sunny day. We took lots of pictures and checked out some stalls near the field. We picked up a three little bag of sunflower seeds of three different flavors, chocolate, strawberry, and honey, for a snack for later. One of the women at the stall offered to give us a ride back to the main road on her motorbike, and we gladly accept! Once we got to the main road though, it was about 4pm and we were a little unsure of how to get back to the city. The owner of our hostel encouraged us to hitchhike but we were a little unsure about that one. We stood there for a while someone would stop and offer us a ride or that the bus would drive by, but no luck. About 20 minutes later, we finally stuck our thumbs out (only to non sketchy cars) in hopes of hitching a ride, but luckily after only a few minutes of doing that, a big bus stopped and drove us back into town.
That night, we grabbed some street food and called it a night. We had a long adventure ahead of us the next day, our trek to the islands! In the morning, we woke up to little monkeys right outside the screen of our window and running around the common area in our hostel. I was caught very off guard to be greeting by monkeys on the way to the shower and I bolted back to my room. A few seconds later, I heard the owner shooting at the monkeys with her BB gun an they quickly jumped back out the window. We decided to give the train another shot and took one to Bangkok. Trains are a lot cheaper than buses and we are on a Thai teacher budget! We were able to snag seats this time and made the easy three hour ride to Bangkok.
Next up, the good stuff!! Check back to hear about my ten days in a tropical paradise.
So I’ve been back in Khon Kaen for a few days now! Coming back from two weeks of traveling was interesting, everything is exactly the same other than the house next to my apartment building has a few liter of puppies, making their total count of pups in between ten and fifteen. I’ve also been in Thailand for three months now! On day 90 (deadline day!!), Jess and my work permits still hadn’t come in, so we had to go to immigration to get a seven day extension. Luckly the school took us and paid for the fee, and the next day our permit arrived. We made another trip to immigration and now have our work permit/year visa! We gotta check into immigration every 90 days but we’re good to go! Also, I have signed up to participate in the Khon Kaen Marathon next weekend! Well, not the marathon, just the 5K.. my travels put me very behind any sort of training schedule I had before the break.
My travels! Here we go!
Christmas Eve margs and tacos!
I woke up bright and early Christmas Eve to catch the first bus out of Khon Kaen into Bangkok to meet a group of girls to celebrate Christmas for the weekend. Two of the girls had booked us spots in a cheap hostel.. we are on a Thai teacher budget! This is the very first hostel I had ever stayed in, and I have to say it wasn’t too bad. All six of us shared a single room which had 4 bunk beds making that 8 places to sleep. The bathroom was down the hall but very clean. The first night we had two random dudes filling up the two other spots but had the room to ourselves Christmas day. I arrived to Bangkok early afternoon on Christmas Eve and explored the city with my friend Olivia since she had the day off school too. Many of the other girls had to actually teach on Christmas Eve, so I’m lucky I had the day off. Olivia and I had been brain storming about places to go to dinner that night; the girls originally wanted to hit up a Christmas theme buffet but they were all SO expensive. We then had a genus idea of checking out a place that Jenna had found online and sent me as the best Mexican food in Bangkok according to CNNgo.com. Olivia, another girl Allie, and I went there for dinner that night since the other girls were still traveling in, and it was AMAZING! I’m not sure if I’m getting desperate or if it really was good, but cali shrimp tacos, chips and guacamole, and a strong margarita was all I wanted for Christmas and this place gave it to me. We found out that the owner graduated from Berkley with a degree in Chemistry and is from Oakland and has since moved to Bangkok and opened up this restaurant. It was so good that we took the rest of the girls there for Christmas dinner the next night! We finished up Christmas Eve by checking out the Bangkok night life and some good clubs. The next day, we celebrated Christmas with Starbucks, more Mexican food (the owner was there again and gave us all free tequila shots.. Merry Christmas to us!), and Christmas lights at the Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok. It was great to be with friends; definitely a unique Christmas but one to remember!
Famous Buddah Head
The next morning, Jenna and I started our week long adventure! Our first stop, Ayutthaya! Since Jenna lives near Bangkok, she knows A LOT more about the city such as where to go and how to get places, so I basically was following her lead. We hoped in a van that only cost 60 baht (2 dollars) to take us to Ayutthaya which was about an hour and a half away from Bangkok. In short terms, its a city with a whole bunch of amazing ruins. But for those more curious.. "The beautiful city of Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 by King U-Thong and was the capital of what was then known as Siam. Over the next 417 years it was ruled by 33 kings and repelled 23 Burmese invasions, before the Burmese finally succeeded in razing it to the ground. At its height, Ayutthaya was surrounded by a 12-kilometre-long wall which was five metres thick and six metres high and boasted 99 gates, brick and clay roads and canals to transport water into the city. By all reports Ayutthaya was stunning and rivalled most European capitals of the time and portions of this grandiose past can be re-experienced through its ruins scattered throughout the province, but for the relics and records from this period, the Burmese obliterated almost everything in 1767 -- even melting Buddha images down for their gold." Jenna and I bought an all day pass for admission into a whole bunch of different ruin spots and rented bikes and biked around the city, which brought us back to our college days at UCSB! It was a very warm day but we saw some amazing sites. We talked a restaurant owner into letting us rent bikes again later that night for an hour so we could see the ruins illuminated at night. It was beautiful and interesting to think about how these amazing ruins must have looked before the Burmese came in and destroyed much of it. After our bike ride, we called it a night so we could wake up early the next morning!
Next up is the monkey city, sunflower fields, and island paradise!
I have been getting a lot of requests for my address, so here it is! However if you are wanting to send me something (no pressure!), I have a few tips.
-I will be gone until the beginning of January (my birthday is in February ☺ ), so don't send until the first week of January.
-It generally takes ten days to get here
-The United States Postal Service is the cheapest way to send, they measure by size instead of weight!
I am leaving Khon Kaen early tomorrow morning (which is Christmas Eve) for my first big Thailand adventure! Last week, I found an AMAZING deal on a backpacking backpack.. in the states its about 200 dollars but I bought it on sale at Central for 37! Armed with my new gear, I am ready to take on 2 – 3 weeks of traveling! I am meeting 5 other girls at a nice hostel in Bangkok for Christmas weekend. We have arranged a secret Santa gift exchange and have plans to go to a nice Christmas dinner somewhere. It’ll be really nice to be with friends since I am so far from home, cold weather, and anything that feels like Christmas. After the weekend, Jenna and I will do a little traveling for a few days to some ancient ruins and sunflower fields. After, we will spend 4 nights and 5 days on Ko Phi Phi island in Southern Thailand and I couldn’t be more excited. A 15 hour bus ride and 2 hour ferry ride from Dec 28 – 29th.. this place better be amazing! Jess and her sister will be meeting us there as well. I have heard great things about Ko Phi Phi and I think it’ll be an amazing place to ring in the new year. Jenna needs to go back to school on the 4th, however I don’t need to be back until January 9th. I think I might use that time to do some solo traveling. I have never traveled alone before and have never been in a city, island, or really anywhere where I don’t know a single person. I think I may pick an island to go to from Ko Phi Phi and spend a couple days there. I normally have no problems meeting people so I’m not too concerned. If the gal from Eat Pray Love and go to Italy, India, and Indonesia by herself, I can do it too! I’m planning to be back home a few days before school starts and will update my blog then! I’m leaving my computer at home and will be doing some true traveling, hoping to get some good stories along the way.
Happy Highlights of my week
Receiving not one, not two, but THREE carepackages this week! Thanks Mom, Mr. Harney, and Brian!!! ☺
Teaching my kids about Christmas and that they LOVE seeing pictures of Milo dressed up as an elf. And that everyday, they remember his name and ask about him.
Having a class of Thai children sing “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and "Jingle Bells" multiple times a day
Getting gifts from my kids and their parents.. I got a teddy bear and candle, huge tin of cookies, bracelet, shall knit by grandma, and a pink umbrella with a bunny as a handle!
Using the candy canes Mr Harney sent me to bribe my kids to behave.. Its been working! I have uncovered the secret to making the naughtiest of the naughty listen, well, for the most part!
Dī māk dī, which describes how I am feeling today.. very very good! Not only did I have a pretty good, but busy, day teaching the kids all about Christmas (which again included pictures of Teacher Chelsea celebrating Christmas in America, Teacher Chelsea in the snow, and of course Milo dressed up as an elf.. which they LOVED!), I received not one but TWO care packages in the mail! Beside the fact that carrying two large packages home from school and on the songtell was a little challenging (I fell out of my seat on the songtell and into the woman next to me.. opps!), I was ecstatic! One from my mom which included the necessary magazines to give me my celebrity gossip fix and cosmo advice as well as spaghetti os, chicken flavored top ramon (Thailand has something like top ramon but it is all fish flavored), peanut butter, McDonalds sweet and sour sauce (only have plum sauce here at McDonalds.. anyone who knows me knows that along with ketchup, I LOVE sweet and sour and can’t eat nuggets without it), microwavable easy mac, and best of all homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate fudge! Nothing says Christmas like my moms homemade fudge. Thanks Mom!!
My second package came from someone special, my fifth grade teacher Mr. Harney! Mr. Harney is my most favorite teacher I have had in my entire educational career. He has always been a creative teacher with a great sense of humor, encouraging to students and a wonderful role model (Mr. Harney, you tell your students they don’t know how good they have it! J ) In fifth grade, I learned how to follow the stock market, follow baseball stats (also learned to love the San Diego Padres), how to write a check, how to balance a checkbook (well, I could still work on budgeting my money), and basics of traveling around the United States (maybe that is what sparked my travel bug!). We have kept in contact and he has been so supportive of me over the years, including my decision to come teach in Thailand. In my box sent by Mr. Harney, which his awesome daughter Julianna helped with, were ritz crackers, four different types of cookies (you know me too well), almond snacks, and my new favorite candy Peanut Butter M&Ms. Also included were Christmas candy to coerce my kids to behave, such as candy canes and sponge bob gummy krabby patties. Julianna, wonderful job with the treats! So wonderful in fact, that it’ll be hard for me to share with the kids.. Thank you SO much Mr. Harney and Julianna!
Yesterday was a special day for me too. Last weekend, my school coordinator took me to the local orphanage to look into volunteering there. Khaen Thong Childrens Home, the only orphanage in Khon Kaen has about 200 children aged newborn to six years old. Yesterday was my first volunteering day! A few weeks ago, I decided that I really wanted to volunteer while in Thailand. From all my involvement with the Wellness program at UCSB, I had learned giving to your community and volunteering in general doesn’t just benefit the give-y, but greatly affects the quality of life and overall happiness of the giver.. and boy is that true. I showed up at 9am Sunday morning, ready to just play with some babies. When I went last weekend with my coordinator, they were very excited that I wanted to help out and even said they wanted me to be around the 2 – 3 year olds that are in the process of being adopted by foreign families in hopes that the children would get more used to the foreign face. They just needed me to fill out a quick application with my information to be approved by the supervisor and when I called on Wednesday to check up on it, they said I was good to come on Sunday morning. But when I showed up yesterday morning, there was only one woman there in the office and she happened to speak not a word of English. But even so, she encouraged me to sit down and began trying to communicate with one another, very awkwardly and unsuccessfully. She then pulled up google translator on her computer, and we began to communicate that way.. thank goodness for technology! She asked if I were here “to visit children” and I typed that I was here “to volunteer. Application already finish” (keeping English simple is a good idea here). She immediately lit up and was so excited that I was here to volunteer. She grabbed another woman who was maybe from a side office who grabbed her phone to call a friend who could interpret for us. The woman on the phone asked all about what I’m doing in Thailand, volunteering here, etc. Then, the ladies hung up the phone and asked if I could wait about 15 minutes until the 2 – 3 year olds were done with snack time. Then with google translator, the women asked all about me.. What is my name? exchange student? University? What do I do here? How long been in Thailand? For how long? Do I like the weather? Where I come from? Where do I live? Do I have teacher for Thai? How did I get there today? How old I am? Do I have friends? Basically, a million questions. To answer the questions, I tried to use my new Thai phrase book, which thankfully has a glossary in the book with English, Thai pronunciation, and Thai symbol. And with every answer, they smiled bigger and bigger.
Then, the woman with the phone took me to the kids. It was just around the corner from the office and the kids were still eating snack, so she took me inside the building and told me to sit on a grass mat on the floor in a very empty room, except for cots stacked up in the corner and a television set in front of me. She turned on the TV, maybe to avoid the silence, and we watched some Thai dance for a few minutes. Then, a little boy and girl both in some sort of cat pajama set, came running into the room like little tornados. The Thai woman greeted the children and they immediately stopped for about ten seconds and stared at me. Of course I sat smiling, saying “Hello!” in about has high pitched as I can get, and said “Sa wat dee ka”, and like a flip of a switch back on again, the children both came barreling at me and both crashed into my lap. They wanted hugs, to be held, and love. For the next 2 hours, I played with this group of 15 toddlers. They have a set schedule which I couldn’t read because its in Thai, but I was there at the play outside time from 9:30 to 11. The caretakers which are two older women put a grassmat outside for the children to sit and play on with toys. The toys they played with while I was there were more of flat plastic fruit and food cutouts and plastic plates, forks, and knives. The children didn’t really seem to pay much attention to the toys though, many of them were more focused on getting my attention. I was often sitting on the ground trying to balance one kid on each of my legs and as soon as one stood up, another child would plop down. I held one little boy in my lap for at least 30 minutes and he completely stole my heart. He was so sweet and wouldn’t take his eyes off me for the rest of the time I was there. I spent this time hugging, tickling, and playing with these beautiful children and I think this very moment was the happiest I’ve been in Thailand so far. I feel a little selfish when saying that because it completely breaks my heart to see these amazing children, many too small to be 2 or 3 years old, have no family and no toys but it made me so happy to be with them.. I feel like just for a short time, I can make a difference in their day. I am already in love with these babies! (bringing my camera next time)
I walked the 30 minutes back to my house with a smile, picked up some fresh pineapple, finished the day with a Starbucks session and finished the book “Eat, Pray, Love”. I like it here. Feeling very very good.
Nothing too exciting going on, but here are highlights of the past week and a half.
This week and last weeks theme was “People of the World”. Naturally, I dedicated an entire lesson to America. I made a slide show with pictures of Obama, the flag, American money, American food (hot dog and hamburger), American football (which Matthew yelled “DAAANGEROUS” when he saw my slide including a picture of a charger pileup and LT sailing over it) and also focused on California.. I even showed a youtube clip of the video that is shown on the ride Soaring Over California at Disneyland (which they LOVED)! I explained that Teacher Chelsea is from a city near Mexico (which didn’t mean anything to them) and next to Disneyland (or Mickey Mouse’s house). I showed pictures of Teacher Chelsea in America, which included graduation, charger games, with my family, with the kids that I nanny for in Santa Barbara, any pictures that I felt were appropriate to show. They had a ton of fun picking teacher Chelsea out of my friends. My last picture was one of me and my mom, brother, and Milo Boo. Dogs are viewed differently as they are in America.. in America they are a member of the family. Here, they wonder the streets and are often abandoned when they are no longer puppies. When they saw this picture of me holding Milo, they yelled “TEECHA CHELSEA AND DOG!”. I said “Yes, this is Milo! He is my baby!” And little Kiwi in the front, with a huge grin on her face said “Teacher Chelsea, I like to EAT Milo!”. A little mortified, I was speechless just for a second.. I then realized that “Milo” is a chocolate brand, just like Nestle.. they make candy bars, coco puff-like cereal, and even chocolate milk. I laughed awkwardly in hopes that she meant chocolate.
Last week was Khon Kaen’s Silk Festival.. which honestly didn’t have much silk to sell. It was an even more intense version of like a county fair. It had rides, food, and junk for sale. And when I say junk, I mean JUNK. Like used shoes, 99 cent store stuff, ton and tons of cheap watches, clothing.. I did find a cool sea shell mobile thing for my room, but nothing else appealed to me. Because my city is not really a tourist spot, events like these seem to cater to the Thai people, who apparently want old cheap shoes. Or baby bunnies, squirrels, or porcupine. I was tempted to pick up a furry friend, but decided against it once thinking of ways I could smuggle him through customs when coming back to the US.
The people at the gym no longer call me Chelsea.. it’s now Maria, as in Maria Sharapova. One of the instructors even told one of my workout classes that I am Maria.
Christmas is very prominent in Khon Kaen.. Thai people LOVE Christmas decorations, but I don’t think they actually celebrate the day. They love the idea of Santa, Snowmen, and Christmas trees, which are all mega-sized at Central Plaza mall! I even come across Santa Claus himself while I was leaving the gym today, he made an appearance at the Pullman (5 star hotel which my gym is at) to do their tree lighting. Me and Santa were leaving the hotel at the same time (it looks like he’s lost a little weight) and with a twinkle in his eye, he looked at me and said “Ho Ho Ho!”.
As you all know, I sure am picky when it comes to food. I have found a place at the Central Plaza food court that I love! The food court is just like it sounds, is a big area with maybe like 6 different counters that’ll make different kinds of food (all Thai). There is one for Pad Thai, some soupy thing, and my very favorite fried rice with an omelet! Normally, this order comes with seafood creatures that all have eyeballs (I made the mistake of ordering it the very first time because I thought it would just be shrimp.. I didn’t know that the shrimp would have a face and bring along other sea friends). So the next time I went, I said “Mai ow seafood ka” which means “I don’t want seafood please”. From then on, they know my order! Just plan old fried rice with an omelet, which actually isn’t an omelet at all, but just a flat egg. And it is always the same two women working and cooking. Yesterday when I went for dinner, the women, who speak very little English, asked me my name. When I said “Chelsea”, they looked so bewildered and disappointed like they could never learn to pronounce my name. So they had me write it down on a piece of paper. I asked them theirs but immediately forgot. I’m not sure how they feel about me piling my plate up with six or seven spoon-fulls of American ketchup, but they sure smiled big when I told them that it was “Aroi” or delicious.
I’ve been in Thailand for two months now! I feel like I am finally getting into the swing of things. However, I still know VERY limited Thai. I am having my kids teach me a word a day, which little Pao Pao LOVES doing. He now translates almost everything he can for me from English to Thai, he is one of the few kids with amazing English. I am finally going to pick up a language book this weekend.. next week I have three weeks off for Christmas break! I will be doing a lot of bus time and maybe can finally get myself to learn a little Thai. I just feel so unmotivated since I have gotten away with not knowing any. At least my kids taught me how to count to ten. That’s a start! :)
The bus wasn’t exactly comfortable. My seat didn’t recline at all and I got very little sleep. Luckily, my body doesn’t need much sleep to be functional and 11 hours later, we arrived in Surrathani. Again, a little confused because this wasn’t Krabi, it was 3 hours away from Krabi. But this little hub in Surrathani sends people off for the various islands around Southern Thailand. A guy went around asking where people were going and stuck stickers on everyone accordingly. About 15 minutes later, Jenna and I jumped in a van with six other people to Krabi. Lucky for me, I was able to sleep the entire van ride to the ferry dock. With our ferry tickets in hand, our van driver told us we needed to run to make the ferry, so we did! We plopped ourselves down in some seats and prepared ourselves for the last hour and a half of traveling until we get to the island. Jenna surprised me with some Chang beer to celebrate the last leg of the race. It was 11am but its always 5 o’clock somewhere!
We arrived on the island and got off the ferry and after paying the 20 baht “clean up fee”, we were thrown another curve ball. For the past 15 hours, Jenna and I had been dreaming about spending our time in the sun and getting tan in the sand, only to find that it was drizzling! AHH! After getting over the fact that the clouds were thick and there were actually drops coming down, we accepted the fact that it wasn’t sunny only because it was still warm. I had made the hotel reservations at a place called Tropical Gardens two months ahead only because it was New Years and he heard that the island gets full fast, and we were easily able to find our hotel representative waiting for us at the dock to lead the way. Thank goodness he had a little cart thing with him for our bags, I was SO over my heavy bag at this point that I considered ditching some of my stuff so it was lighter (I learned my lesson for the future, the less the better!). We entered the town which is basically a mini city, and I was amazed to see not only see so much going on, but how many westerners there were! I had no idea that the island would be so touristy and filled with so many people from around the world! The streets (which are only for pedestrians and bicycles, there are no cars on the island because its too small) are more of wide cobblestone paths and lined with restaurants, bars, guesthouses, dive shops, and internet cafes and the beach was lined with longtail boats. I was in aw of this place and after Jenna and I threw our bags in the room, we explored! It reminded me of a mix of Cabo, Hawaii, and IV. The water was blue and clear like Hawaii, the bars and restaurants were a lot like what I experienced in Cabo last Spring Break (which was AMAZING!), and the people were a lot like those in IV, looking to meet other travelers and just have a good time! This is hands down my favorite place I have ever traveled to (okay, tie with Cabo because Cabo has the Mexican food!).
