Breaking News!

After getting resettled back in Khon Kaen and into my school routine after having two months of traveling, I was faced with a new unexpected decision.  Jess and I often enjoy fantasizing and discussing our ideas about the places we want to go and the things we want to do when we’re done with Thailand and we both realized that this time was nearing.  I use to think I only had two options, go home to California or go somewhere else.  But then I realized that I had another choice, to stay in Khon Kaen.  It was an option I never even considered considering but here I was at the beginning of the semester, actually thinking about it.

From the very first day of school, my Thai teacher T. Nim, would at some point during the school day say to me “Teacher Chelsea, stay one year!”  At first I’d laugh it off and say, “I don’t think so T. Nim.. I miss my friends and family.”  She was very persistent with presenting the idea (but never in a pressing way, just making it clear that she thought I should stay).   

The next week.. “Teacher Chelsea, stay one year!  I get you A LOT of special class, make A LOT of money then can go to America.”  I’d respond with “Maybe T. Nim, not sure. Need to think.” 

The following week.. “Teacher Chelsea, stay! Good for you and good for kids!” "Maaaaybe T. Nim, maybe." She could sense I was caving in.

Finally after a few weeks of bringing it up, I told T. Nim after lunch.. “Teacher Nim, I want to stay one year.” T. Nim squealed with delite, she was ecstatic and rushed to tell the other teachers. She basically single handed talked me into staying another five months.

So you may have already heard but its true.. I decided to commit to another five months to finish the school year.  Instead of coming home in October/November, I’ll be coming home in March/April.  This decision was a very tough one for me, I made numerous pros and cons lists weighing many different options, I talked to numerous friends and family members and of course had lengthy conversations about it with Jess, who had already booked her flight home in October.  I was beginning to get very overwhelmed and anxious when thinking about what to do after Thailand, then with the thought of if staying longer was right for me.  My body began responding to this stress by breaking out in not one but TWO fever blisters (that’s often how my body responds to stress and also when my immune system is weak), as well as different colds/infections that I needed to make different trips to the pharmacy for.  After I sat down with the Head of the English Program and committed to teach the second semester, it was like a weight was lifted.  Its funny, I remember when I first arrived, two girls that were teaching at my school said they had been teaching here for two or three years. My instant reaction: my jaw dropped and I thought to myself “WHAAAT?! Why?! Khon Kaen for three years? That’s just crazy”. Now here I was, making the commitment to stay longer.. but I’m leaving in March, I promise.

At first I thought I made this decision just to put off “real world” and to prolong the decision of “whats next?”.  But I had many other factors play into this decision.

One: I’ve grown very attached to my kids! I can’t imagine leaving them half way through a school year to a brand new teacher, I feel like I would be abandoning them. I care about all my kids so much, I have a GREAT group this year and I think they are the cutest/smartest/funniest Kindergarteners in all of Thailand.

Two: My Thai teacher.. T Nim is AMAZING! We teach more as a team than two separate teachers. I know I wouldn’t be staying longer if I wasn’t with T Nim. She’s an amazing teacher, she is very patient, warmhearted, generous, and very creative with her teaching methods. She helps me be a better teacher by constantly giving me new ideas of how to teach. She very fun to work with and is even helping me out with my Thai! I couldn’t be happier in the classroom! Plus, she brings me surprised about once a week, sometimes with fruit (she gave me half a watermellon on Friday), snacks (she knows I like ham sandwiches), and bracelets from a Thai town she visited on the weekend. Yep, she's amazing.

Three: Special Class.. T Nim sure stayed true to her word and has hooked me up with LOTS of special class (special class is just another word for tutoring). I’m making practically double what I made last semester and will get a raise for staying over a year next semester.  I’ve made myself a budget and I’m hoping to be able to stick to it and come home with a little money, as well as have some extra money to do some traveling in October, Christmas, and March.  If I were to come home in October like originally planned, I would come home with a big empty wallet.

Four: Travel! I’ve been to most places that I want to go in Asia, but I would like to do Malaysia and maybe another country.  When’s the next time I’ll be in Asia after this teaching experience? Probably not for a while, so may as well go to as many places as possible!

Five: Various things.. Khon Kaen International Marathon in January! I’d like to get PADI (scuba diving) certified here, do more Thai islands, learn more Thai, and I’m looking to create some sort of community service project.. still brain storming ideas on that one but hopefully I’ll find something!

Six: This is a special life experience and why not stay an extra four months! I’m happy here, I like school and I love traveling. Plus, I’d rather come home when its warmer (rather than cold winter!).  Life is easy here, everything I need to can buy at 7/11 (bus tickets, pay for flights, stamps, credit for my phone), I’ve gotten into the swing of school, and I really have no worries or stresses here, other than how to make my hair work in this humidity. Since I’ve done second semester already, I know that its SUPER easy.  We have many long weekends and of the five and a half months, I have 6 weeks off (2 and a half in October and 3ish at Christmas).  I’m feeling really good about the decision to stay, I feel that its right for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I miss home SO much! I miss Mexican food, having a kitchen, cheese, working internet, baking, walking the dog, driving a car to work, watching the news in English, shopping for cute clothes and having it actually fit, Taco Tuesdays, American sports, couch time, Trader Joes, exercising outside, listening to music on the radio, normal weather, normal human interactions (normal American interactions I should say.. culture is different here so people interact differently), the Pacific Ocean, blending in, and of course my friends and family!! I’ve officially been in Thailand for nine months and I know one thing is for sure, my friends and family will always be there for me to welcome me home with open arms (and hopefully a burrito in one hand and a margarita in the other).  I wouldn’t have made it this far without all of your support and encouragement and I think I have the most amazing friends in the world! So thank YOU for being a positive influence in my life even when I’m across the world, I love getting emails/messages/facebook notifications/ picture comments/ blog comments/skype calls from friends and family, it reminds me that you’re thinking of me and that I have amazing friends/family and support system. And although I’ve made the decision to stay longer, I am extremely looking forward to my epic return in March/April… California better be ready for me by then!

PS. I know where I'll be for the next eight months.. visitors are welcomed and encouraged! :)

I love these faces

Back to Khon Kaen!

PHEW! I’m finally caught up on my blog after two months of being back in Khon Kaen!

KHON KAEN UPDATE!

My Class: The school year in Thailand begins in May and ends in March (meaning their summer break is a few months earlier than ours, March – May.. that’s when its hot season here), so we just started a new semester! I’m physically in the same classroom as I was last semester, but I have a different Thai teacher and new kids. My Thai teacher has been working at Patanadek for a number of years and is so warm and friendly.. I LOVE working with her! My kids are great, not nearly as rowdy as my class last semester and I love coming to school everyday. I have 26 kids in my class, 15 boys and 11 girls.

"Smile, T. Chelsea's Special Class!"

Tutoring: Along with teaching every weekday, I decided to pick up some extra tutoring jobs to make a little extra money. On Mondays, Jess and I take a brother and sister from grade 3 and 5 to Central Plaza for an hour and a half to practice speaking English. Its really a sweet deal, Jess takes one kid while I take the other and we often go to grab dinner (which the kids treat us to), and go to the book store. No worksheets and no need to prep, just conversation! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I tutor at the school. The school sent letters home at the beginning of the semester asking if parents were interested in having their child learn English for an extra hour after school with me and three other teachers. They had more students sign up this semester than ever before so the classes are move overcrowded than usual. I have nine or ten kids each session and I try to make the classes fun by starting out with a movement or song (Hokey Pokey, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, ect), milk break provided by the school, then a game, and finish with an easy coloring worksheet. Some days are rougher than others, the students generally sign up for two days a week so I get a different combination of kids every class. Of course the days with my trouble makers are more of a challenge and an extra hour of school is difficult for some students to handle. On Sundays, I do more tutoring both with students I had last semester, so they are in grade 1 now. On Sunday mornings, JJs mom picks me up on her motorbike and drives me to their shop. The family has a bedding shop near the night market and across the street from a high school, so JJ and I go study at the school. We work on workbooks and worksheets but I always try to bring at least one game. On Sunday afternoons, Tan’s mom drops him off at my place and we decided what we want to do for the next hour and a half, walk to central or play games, whatever we want to do. Tutoring is sure keeping me busy but I love having extra one-on-one time with the kids, its a lot lot of fun!

Wai Kru Day: Wai Kru (“wai” is the Thai respect bow and “kru” means teacher) ceremony is a Thai ritual in which students pay respects to their teachers in order to express gratitude and is held at the beginning of the semester. My Thai teacher helped my students make footed trays out of flowers which were presented to us teachers at the ceremony. The ceremony began with a Buddhist prayer and followed by the students’ recitation of the Wai Rru chant, which expresses respect and gratitude to the teachers and asks for the teachers’ blessing in their studies. After, a representative of each class presented the teachers with an offering of flowers, candles, and joss sticks arranged on the pedestalled trays. It was a special day and I felt very honored and respected as a teacher!

This semester is FLYING by but I’m loving every minute of it!

Bali!

12 days in Bali = Amazing!!

Backpacking Bali.. No Big Deal!

Fun Facts of my time in Bali

1 USD = 30 THB = 8600 Indonesian Rupiah

Food: I ate alot of fried noodles and a lot of chicken satay in peanut sauce

Travelers: I met only ONE other American in Bali! Mostly Australians

Cost: Accommodations were much more expensive in Thailand, probably because the quality was nicer. And everywhere we stayed included a free breakfast!

My Favorite Thing: Beaches and culture, all on one island!
Funny occurrence:  Multiple Asian people/families (mostly from China) asking for me to join in on their family picture. I'm a celebrity!

Alysha and I took an early flight from Bangkok to Bali on the morning of April 26. We spent the next 12 days running around Bali and spent three of those days on a small island off of Lombok, Indonesia called Gili Trawangan! Here are some highlights from our trip! 

After spending our first few days in Kuta (Bali's most touristy destination), we went up North to Pemuteran for snorkeling. We took a tourist bus up north for a town, then a Bemo (Bali's public bus) to the town of Pemuteran.  The Bemo is more of a shady van without doors but it wasnt bad.  It dropped us off at a guest house which was more of a resort, probably the nicest place I've stayed on the entire 2 month trip!  It had a pool and gave us amazing choices for the free breakfast.  The next morning, Alysha and I headed out for our snorkeling tour.  Along with two couples from Europe that were diving and a solo traveler from A European country I had never heard of, we had the boat to ourselves.  We went to three different spots and the Indonesian guides showed us to the cool fish and coral.. it was hands down the most amazing snorkeling I have ever seen in my life! Coral and fish of every color, its going to be hard to beat. It was an amazing underwater world!

Next we went to Ubud, located amongst the rice paddies and the steep ravines in the central foothills.  One of Bali's major arts and culture centers, it has developed a large tourism industry due to the movie "Eat, Pray, Love".  While in Ubud, we went to see a traditional Balinese dance, ate yummy Bali food, explored the rice fields, and shopped! I figured out how to bargain and finally become comfortable with the currency, and got a few pieces of fabric to bring home. I found many home decor pieces that would have loved to get but didn't have enough space in my bag.  We stayed at a small guesthouse that was mentioned in my Lonely Planet that served us free breakfast, wahoo! (Side note: While leaving Ubud, we were at the bus station when I recognized the voice of our President on breaking news on the television announcing the killing of OBL. This was the only TV I saw on the entire trip and the only piece of news I heard. I think this will be a "where were you" moment for me)

Next stop, Gili Trawangan! We took a four hour boat ride to Lombok’s largest island of the set of three Gili Islands.  We had heard good things about Gili T from other travelers (as well as from Lonely Planet) and wanted to spend a few days here.  The island is truly a tropical paradise, coral-fringed with white sand beaches and crystal turquoise water and a rainbow assortment of reef fish. There are no motorized vehicles on the island and the main means of transportation are bicycles and cidomo, a small horsedrawn carriage.  Gili T has only become popular for travelers sometime in the past twenty years, so it was touristy but not overwhelmingly so in that we felt like we were still in Indonesia (however, we could tell that tourism could possibly ruin the beauty of this place in the future.. we feel really lucky we went when we did!).  The island is lined with numerous scuba diving centers (very popular there), places to eat, and accommodations.  We spent our days on the white sand beaches, walking around the island, drinking smoothies, and running around the night life.  On our day to leave, I had slept through my alarm but miraculously woke up ten minutes before our boat was to leave to take up to Lombok.  Alysha and I frantically packed our stuff, which was more an act of rushing to stuff our various belongings in our already stuffed bags, threw them on our backs, and bolted to the boat.  We boarded in the clothes we fell asleep in and looked a bit messy but at least we had made it! We spent one night in a small little fishing village, then our last night in Kuta, near the airport.

We spent our last day in Bali doing some last minute shopping (a bought a batik fabric duffle bag that I definitely didn’t need), eating, and strolling around the beach.  In the afternoon, we made a trip to Pura Tanah Lot, a rock formation off of Bali.  We hired a driver, WanWan, to take us for the hour drive and take us around the temple.  He filled us in on all the facts and history behind Pura Tanah Lot.  It is home of a pilgrimage temple and a popular tourist and cultural icon for photography and general exoticism.  The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been part of Balinese mythology for centuries.  The temple is one of seven sea temples along the coast of Bali.  Each of the sea temples were established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast.  At the base of the rocky island, poisonous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders.  Tourists could pay to take a look at the giant snake that protects the temple, but Alysha and I figured we would pass on that one.  Although it was too cloudy to see the sunset, it was a beautiful seaside temple! On the drive home, WanWan told us all about the Kuta bombing in 2002, the deadlest act of terrorism in Indonesia’s history.   Wan Wan had been working down the street when the suicide bomber walked into the nightclub and first-hand witnessed the devastation.  It killed over 200 people, mostly tourists, and was a huge blow to the economy. Another bombing 2005 caused more devastation.  Our last night in Kuta was only a few days after the killing of OBL, so we were a little extra vigilant only because we were out of the USA.

We caught a noon flight on May 7th to end our two month adventure!!! Bali was the perfect end to the perfect trip, and besides an AWFUL sunburn (I forgot to put sunblock on my back after a day of snorkeling and got the worst sunburn I've ever had!  A week later, my back broke out into hives and I had to seek assistance from the Thai pharmacy), Bali was amazing!  I wish I had more time to explore Indonesia, I think I'll need to go back one day :)

 

Ubud rice fields!

Gili Islands from google! (I stayed on the largest of the three, far right)

Gili Trawangan!

Cambodia: Angkor WHAAAT

Nearly two months later and I’m finally blogging about Cambodia!

One thing I have learned about traveling.. It is sometimes best not to have a strict plan, because they often change… When I started traveling, my original plan was to travel with the girls then head back to Khon Kaen for a day or two after Chiang Mai to repack to have a solo traveling adventure for a week in Bali.  While in Chiang Mai, Alysha expressed great interest in traveling to Bali with me. Long story short, the girls easily talked me into going to Cambodia with them and changing my flight so Alysha could stay longer in Asia (she extended her flight date home to the states) and go to Bali with me!  Funny thing was, I had only packed for Laos and Chiang Mai, basically a weeks worth of clothes and now needed to make it all last for another month of traveling! I always knew that I am an over packer but this really made it a reality! I made it work with NO problems.. my “week” packing is really a “month” packing. I’m hoping to be a better packer in the future!

The girls and I took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then another bus to the Cambodia/Thailand border.  We had been warned by other travelers to watch out for scams in Cambodia and we were instantly ripped off at the border.  From the bus station on the Thailand side, we needed to take a tuk-tuk to the border to walk across but instead it took us to a visa station which over charged us for our Cambodia visa.  We walked across the border in the scorching heat and were directed to a “tourist bus” to take us to a bus station to get to Siam Reap, a city about three hours from the border.  Another scam.. these tourist buses over-charge westerners for bus tickets and we were warned of this in the South East Asia Lonely Planet but we didn’t have another option..  The four of us ended up splitting a cab to take us to Siam Reap.

We spent the next three days in Siam Reap, Cambodia’s most popular tourist destination and gate way to Angkor Wat,  the worlds most religious monument and one of the wonders of the world! Angkor Wat is surrounded by numerous temples and we spent our first two days exploring them.  We broke our days into halves because of the heat so the first day we went out in the morning, and the second in the afternoon.  We hired a tuk tuk for about 15 dollars a day and it took us to different temples including the temple “Tomb Raider” was filmed at. My very favorite was the Bayon, a Khmer temple decorated with 216 gigantic faces.  When we weren’t running around temples, we were eating delicious food, drinking fruit smoothies, exploring the night markets, and getting pedicures and massages for less than five dollars!

We woke up at 5 am on our last day in Siam Reap to go see Angkor Wat at sunrise.  At orientation in Bangkok six months before, Jenna and I went to the Grand Palace where they had a mini model of Angkor Wat.  When we saw it, we took a picture in front of it and decided that we would make it there while we were in Asia, and today we had! Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s pride and joy and has become their national symbol, appearing on their national flag as well as having Angkor beer.  It was built thousands of years ago in the Khmer Empire and has Buddhist and Hindu influences.  We explored the worlds greatest religious site for an hour or two, then headed back to our guesthouse to get ready for our bus ride that afternoon.  Even though it was too cloudy to see an actual sunrise, Angkor Wat was AMAZING!

Around 12 30, a janky little blue van that looked like it was about to break down pulled up in the pouring rain to take us to the bus station.  We hopped in, it reeked of mold and was a bumpy ride, picking up a few Cambodian people on the way.  We arrived at the bus “station” which was more of a dirt lot where the bus pulled up. Five hours later, we arrived in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia.  Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia and has grown to become the nation’s center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security, politics, economics, cultural heritage, and diplomacy of Cambodia.  Phnom Penh has more to offer travelers than a quick, depressing swing to the Killing Fields..  I didn’t know much about the genocide in the 1970s before coming to Cambodia, but after visiting the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, the actual torture prison where thousands of people lost their lives, I learned more about it.  We encountered a huge memorial site filled with thousands of human skulls and it was extremely surreal to realize that this genocide occurred only 30 years ago.  (For those interested in learning more about it, google).

We stayed in Phnom Pehn for three days and visited the Russian Market which has good souvenir shopping, ate tasty food, got caught in a huge rain storm while at dinner (it caused numerous of the streets to flood in about an hour and we couldn’t walk through it, we took a tuk tuk which took us around town because the streets were so flooded!), attempted to visit the royal palace THREE times and turned away each time due to strange hours and lack of appropriate attire (needed to have our shoulders covered but can’t wear a shawl, close toed shoes but nice ones), and had Easter linner (lunch/dinner.. with Sangria! The best meal I had in Cambodia!) at an AMAZING Spanish restaurant on the Mekong River.

After Phnom Pehn, we took an overnight bus back to Bangkok.  We were slightly nervous as we approached the border because Cambodia and Thailand are currently in disagreement.  They aren’t exactly one another’s biggest fans and are in fighting over a temple near the border.  It made headline news the day we left Phnom Pehn and a few people had been killed in the battle.  Luckily, this wasn’t at the border that we were crossing and the bus ride went very smoothly.. other than they turned on the lights and music at 4am which woke us up.  

All in all, Cambodia was a pleasant experience, even with the scorching heat!  Cambodia uses the US dollar so it made the conversion extremely easy for us.  Everything was very inexpensive and we could easily find lunch or dinner for three dollars a day.  However, it was still obvious that the people of Cambodia have been to hell and back and they rely a lot on tourism as a major source of income.  Many of the people in Cambodia are uneducated and it broke my heart to have small children grab my arm and ask for money.  As westerners, we were often approached and asked to buy sunglasses, books, and were countered with a “Please, miss?” when we declined.  I had a little bit of a hard time in Cambodia because I have never seen families in such a struggle and I was heartbroken when feeling like I couldn’t help them.

We made it back to Bangkok and Kianna, Alysha, and I stayed the night on Khao San Rd before our flights the next day.  Jenna went back to her town for a few days before her parents arrived to visit, Kianna had a flight to the US the next morning, and Alysha and I were flying to Bali at 6am!  Sadly, this marked the end of our adventure together, but I had such an AMAZING time with these girls! I’m so lucky I was able to explore three different countries with them, we all got along so well and it'll be a trip I’ll never forget.

Next up… BALI!

Tomb Raider!

Angkor Wat!

We made it!

Tasty icecream!

Happy Easter!

Sangria and BOMB food

Chiang Mai: Songkran!!

I’ve been back in Khon Kaen for a few weeks now and I’m still ridiculously behind blogging and posting pictures from my travels! School started full force last week, and I’m loving it! I’m working with a different Thai teacher this semester and have a new set of kindergarteners and I actually look forward to going to school! I love my teacher, students, schedule, and keeping super busy by teaching special class (tutoring) five days a week. I’ll blog more about school once I’m caught up on traveling!

After Laos, the girls and I took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai, the biggest city in the North of Thailand.  Jenna and I have been planning to be in Chiang Mai for the second week in April since we arrived in Thailand. April 12 – 15^th every year is Thai New Year, Songkran, and its celebrated with a nation wide water fight. Streets are lined with thousands of people armed with buckets and water guns as well as pickup trucks filled with trash bins filled with ice water and Thais dousing anyone they can reach. Its all great fun and I had an absolute blast!  The Thais often take work off to celebrate and love having foreigners getting involved and I loved feeling like party of the Thai community.  Songkran is a fun Thai tradition and I’m so lucky I was here for this cultural experience! No where else in the world will I be able to experience a three day water fight!

We took a break from Songkran one day to go ziplining! Ziplining is something I thought I’d NEVER do because I’m sometimes afraid of heights, but I loved it!  I wasn’t even too nervous at the beginning because I felt that the rope and harness kept me pretty safe.. It was a blast!

The day before we left, we spent a whole day at an elephant camp just outside Chiang Mai. We learned commands in Thai (Yut = Stop, Qua = Right, Sigh = Left, forward, backward, slowdown, etc) and rode the elephants bareback to the river.   Freems, me and Kianna’s elephant, wasn’t always obedient and stopped a lot to munch on the plants along the trail. Elephants sure eat a lot! Once we got to the river, we swam and bathed with the elephants. Another fun day in Thailand!

Chiang Mai was absolutely amazing and one of my most favorite places I’ve ever been! It has a lot of culture, variety, and all the locals are so friendly and welcoming of foreigners! I’m hoping to go back again while I’m in Thailand.

Check out my album of pictures! :) 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1810882585884.2094738.1054560056&l=30dc981853

 

Laos: In the Tubing

Traveling Numbers

91 hours on buses (approximately)

58 days on the go

14 cities

10 modes of transportation (bus, songtell, taxi, train, motorbike, boat, tuk-tuk, plane, songtell, and horse carriage)

5 islands

4 countries (and four different currencies)

AND 1 AMAZING TRIP!

LAOS: After the Thai islands, I made my way to Khon Kaen and was only there for 24 hours to repack my backpack. I unpacked my island gear and packed for my upcoming week in Laos and Chiang Mai. On April 7th, I got on the 8am bus from Khon Kaen to Vientiane, Laos without any sort of guide book or definite plan. I knew I was meeting Jenna, Kianna, and Alysha in Vang Vieng (Kianna and Alysha are friends from UCSB that came to travel with Jenna on our time off), but I had no idea how to get there or anything about Laos in general. My bus went very smoothly and of course I was the only foreigner on it. It was a short ride and only took three hours to get to the border. Immigration was quick for all the other passengers but took longer for me since I have a foreign passport and needed to get the visa on arrival. The bus driver brought me my backpack while I was one of my numerous lines. I was pretty confused on what was going on, but quickly realized that my bus couldn’t/didn’t want to wait and left me at the border! Normally I would stress about this situation.. being stranded at the border of a foreign country without a Lonely Planet (backpackers bible) and no knowledge of the currency or language, but I was abnormally relaxed about it. There were numerous drivers asking where I was going and I easily spotted the scams and avoided them. I buddyed up with this older man and his wife from San Francisco, they were visiting family in Thailand. We took a tuk tuk into town for cheap and they took me to where I catch the bus to Vang Vieng. After 4 hours on windy roads on a full bus, I arrived in Vang Vieng with no knowledge of where the girls were staying, so wondered around for a bit and booked a place on the river for my first night. I grabbed some dinner at a place with a lot of foot traffic, hoping I would see the girls walk by (our Thai phones don’t work in Laos) and luckily I spotted the girls later in the evening as I was going to use the internet! We made plans to meet up the next morning to go tubing!

Vang Vieng is a backpacker town and its main street is full of guest houses, bars, restaurants, internet cafes, tour agencies, western tourists, and various stands selling “In the Tubing” tanks and Ray Band sunglasses. Inner tubing down the Nam Song River is a popular attraction amongst backpackers, the river is lined with bars selling Beer Lao and equipped with rope swings, zip lines, and large riverside decks. The girls and I did two days of tubing and it was a great time! The first day, the water was really muddy because of rain the previous day. The second day, we attempted to float down the entire river which we were told would take three hours since its dry season and the water was really low. We needed to get our floats back into town by 6pm to get our cash deposit back, so after a few hours we decided to get out and grab a tuk tuk back into town. Tubing brought us all back to our UCSB days and reminiscing about Floatopia, a party that happens the first weekend of Spring Quarter and is known for floating on rafts and other home-made or store bought floating devices. Before it got out of control and police closed down the beaches, it was much like tubing in Laos but in the Pacific Ocean and with thousands of college students. Needless to say, I enjoyed tubing in Laos!

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we spent one day in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. Vientiane is right on the Thai-Laos order and situated on the Mekong River. We were only there a short time but explored some cafes and had breakfast at a delicious Scandinavian place. With its French influence, Vientiane has great food! After lunch on the 11th, the girls and I caught an overnight bus that left in the afternoon to make our way to Chiang Mai, Thailand!

(Jenna had a waterproof camera which captured some of tubing! Unfortunately, her waterproof camera wasn't mud proof and couldn't handle the river water and broke.. but she got a new one in Chiang Mai! Thanks for the pics, Jenna!)

The girls and I in matching tubing tanks!

Gauchos tubing!!!

Ko Tao and Ko Phi Phi: Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

After 7 weeks of traveling and living out of a backpack, I’m back in Khon Kaen!  School starts next Wednesday so I’ve spent the last few days re-cooping, doing laundry, catching up on my shows, posting my adventure pictures on my facebook, going into school and preparing the classroom, and attempting to update my blog!  I had an amazing time traveling and want to share my adventures but I’ve been putting off updating my blog because it seems like such a daunting task. I kept a journal on my travels so I wouldn’t forget the good stuff.. so here we go!

After Ko Phangan and the National Park, Olivia, Jess and I jet over to Ko Tao on March 22.  While at Full Moon, the girls and I were still up in the air about which island to go to next (life is SO tough!).  We had two options..  

1. Ko Samui: a big and beautiful island that’s high on New York Times’ List of 41 places to go in 2011, but very touristy and resorty.. the kind of place you’d like to go when you have money to spend, which is definitely not us right now. 

And 2. Ko Tao: turtle island, a smaller island with beautiful coral and fish, therefore attracting a lot of people interested in diving.   

We decided on Ko Tao because we had heard great things about the island from friends who didn’t do diving, and I’m so glad we made this decision!

Ko Tao! We took the ferry from Ko Phangan to Ko Tao and easily found a cheap bungalow for the three of us to share on Sairee Beach, the backpacking hub of Ko Tao.  We spent the first day exploring our surrounding area and made a mental list of all the places we wanted to eat at and the bars we wanted to check out that night. The next day was Jess’ 24^th Birthday and we had signed up to spend the day snorkeling.  The water and fish were beautiful but it began to rain and storm mid day causing dark and rough water so we ended the tour an hour early.  It rained on and off for the next three days so we tried to stay dry during the day and went out at night, including a huge mud party festival on our last night. There was a performance stage set up in a large open area that was covered in a foot deep of mud. It was messy but tons of fun!

The next morning on March 26, the girls and I woke up and made it to the ferry.  Luckily it hadn’t started raining so we boarded the ferry without much thought.. the ferry needed to go from Ko Tao to Ko Samui to Ko Phangan then to the main land, so it goes around all the major islands in the Southern Gulf to pick up passengers before heading to Surat Thani, the main port on the main land.  As soon as we pulled out of the harbor, we knew this was going to be a tough ride. We hit the open water and it as rougher than rough, our boat was not only bouncing front to back but also side to side. We thought it would steady out but it continued this motion for the next three hours.  I grew incredibly anxious and began to panic grabbing the seat in front of me when the actual windows of the ferry were hitting the water due to the rocking. 30 minutes into the trip, I was convinced our boat was going to sink and I didn’t see a single life jacket.  I don’t normally get nervous on boats or seasick but it didn’t take long before I was sharing a large trash barrel with other sick passengers. The looks on other passengers’ faces were anguish and pain, and I could tell they were thinking the same thing.   I was feeling pretty crappy and accepted the fact that the boat was either going to sink or I wouldn’t survive the motion sickness so I curled up next to the luggage and piles of backpacks to try to fall asleep. The next thing I knew, we were in smooth waters and gliding to the dock at Ko Samui. I rushed back to our seats and to Olivia and Jess in tears and shaking. We were told we needed to switch ferries and take another boat to the other island that would take us to the main land.  I was terrified and couldn’t imagine being on water like that ever again and was considering staying on Ko Samui until the following day just to wait out the rocky water.  With Jess and Olivia’s help, they talked me into going on the next boat which ended up being no problem. The rest of our boat trips were smooth as could be! (I wish I had been competent enough to take a video of our boat but that was the last thing I was thinking of.. but I feel like I can't even explain how bad this boat was!)

            We found out later that our ferry was one of the last ones to leave the islands for the next week. The storm and flooding continued and put Ko Tao and Samui into natural disaster modes.  Ko Tao and Samui were hit hard with flooding and faced issues of no electricity and running water for days.  Thousands of tourists were stuck on the islands and the Thai Navy and helicopters came in to evacuate.  Although the ferry ride probably ranks high on my most miserable moments in life, I’m REALLY lucky to have gotten out of there when I did!

Ko Phi Phi: Olivia and I headed over to the other coast to visit some islands over there and our first stop was Ko Phi Phi!  I had been before with Jenna and Christmas and loved the island so I was excited to go back.   It rained most of our time there except for our last few days so we got a little beach and snorkeling time in, but I made friends with people who work on the island so we found something to do most days. I mostly wanted to stay on the island until the storm passed in fear of another rough boat ride. Ferries weren’t leaving the island everyday and many of the buses were canceled because they couldn’t drive up to Bangkok because of the flooded roads. When I left Phi Phi, my bus went through Surat Thani and actually began to fill with water because the flooding was still so high!  Much of Surat Thani still had no electricity and many people had lost their homes.  I have never first-hand seen such devastation, streets flooded, bridges collapsed, and homes washed away.  I’m really lucky that I left Ko Tao when I did and that Phi Phi wasn’t affected nearly as much on the other islands. After Phi Phi, I came back to Khon Kaen for 24 hours before heading to Laos!

Snorkeling in the rain on Ko Tao

Adorable little girl on Ko Tao

Mud Party!

Rain coming in on Ko Tao

Maya Bay for the third time in Phi Phi

Windy day on Ko Phi Phi

Flooding on the bus from Phi Phi to Bangkok!