quite a LONG weekend

this past sunday was a buddhist holiday, and so we had monday off. the long weekend gave us a chance to go on a trip a little further away than we would normally prefer to do in just a two day weekend, and so we opted for the beaches of koh chang. from what we had been told, it was suppose to be so amazing there that once we had been, we wouldnt want to go anywhere else.

to get to the port town of trat takes about 5 hours from bangkok, so we bussed down to trat and spent the night at a cute little hostel there, then woke up in the morning, had breakfast, and headed over to the ferry. we thought the whole thing might take about an hour and half and then we would be on the beach! but no, of course not, because THIS IS THAILAND.

so it took a good half hour at least to get to the port, or what we thought was the port, and so we booked our tickets for the ferry to koh chang, back and our bus back to bkk since it was a good deal. then we climbed into another songthaew and went on another ride to the port. as we were about to enter, the guy stopped us because apparently the four of us who got the package deal did not receive our tickets TO koh chang. great. so we spent about 10 minutes arguing with him, as he was being very not nice, before he finally got smart enough to call the desk, and things were eventually settled. but we had missed the ferry and had to wait for the next one.

so we ferry over to koh chang and are loaded onto another songthaew, this time packed fuller than it should legally allowed to be, and we start on our journey to lonely beach where we had booked our stay. after driving for a half hour, we still hadnt made it, and to make it worse, we were pulled over so that some of the other passengers could go to a bank. we were stopped there in the heat for about 15 minutes before they got BACK on the songthaew and continued on with us, ugh. finally, we saw a sign for lonely beach, and thought we would be getting off. but not yet. our place wasnt that close, and after a little longer, we got dropped off on the top of a hill with a sign pointing down to where we could find our bungalows. at this point, i was not happy, but our place was nice enough and that cheered me up some, until i discovered we had to trek BACK about 15-20 minutes to get to a beach. needless to say, my first moment in the water was long anticipated and well deserved.

the water was crystal clear and definitely the warmest i have yet to encounter here in thailand. the group we went down with was me steph tasha beth jake and eric and then when we got there we met up with david megan and nicole who did ati in chiang mai at the same time we did and are friends with beth from school. we stayed

on the beach all day and had a nice time. i had decided that i wanted a jumping picture at sunset, and so i made everyone stay out until we got a semi good one...after 22 attempts. its much harder to do than it looks.

thats the only one that is semi-good. i need more coordinated friends :P

so after that we got showered and ready and had dinner, then we heard that there was a full moon party on the island somewhere but found out it was way too far for us to go to. some people the others knew from their group joined us and we went to happy hour where drinks 20 baht, then we went back to a bar closer to the beach and danced and drank and swam until we were tired then made the trek back to our bungalows. the next day was more relaxing and basically all we did was stay on the beach and eat. we got to see the start of a gorgeous sunset before some clouds moved in and blocked it, then i ended up reading in a hammock until dinner, which was a nice barbaque. jake and steph and i took a long walk and explored the area some more and then we called it an early night.

i wouldnt say i preferred koh chang more than koh samet, but it turned out better than i expected it to at the start and i ended up having a great long weekend.

o yeah, i also made a new friend:

and steph and i almost puppysnatched yet again. the two of us are dangerous when it comes to baby dogs and the longer we are here the more likely it seems as if we will have a pet pretty soon...

too much (or not enough?) monkeying around

at this point it was two weekends ago that steph tash and i headed up to the little town of lopburi. around thailand, it is known as the town to go to if you want to see monkeys. we knew we wanted to go at some point, and found out back in january that on this particular weekend, there would be a festival, and so it was the weekend we chose to head on up about 3 hours north of bangkok.

the journey seemed like it should have been easy enough. we opted to leave from the northern bus terminal which is pretty close to the last stop on the bts, mo chit. the three of us met up at that stop and then taxied over to the bus terminal. however, of course we arrived at the perfect time for rush hour and it took us a good half hour to get to the station. then when we get there, we get directed all over the place by multiple people before finding the stall to buy the tickets to our destination. so we get there and find out if we arent taking the immediate next bus, which was leaving in 10 minutes, (which we werent cause we needed to eat before our journey) then we couldnt book yet. ok. fine. head back to the other side of the station for dinner. then walk back to the booth to buy our tickets, all the while being pointed in still different directions by people thinking we have no clue whats going on.

finally, we get on our bus which is set to leave at 8:20. we are pulling out by 8:30, not to bad by thai time standards, so we figure we will be in lopburi by 11. but then the most obnoxious thing starts to happen. every 10 minutes or so, we start stopping on the side of the street. it is a normal occurrence to stop and pick up a few people a random spots along the way, but this was like...a new load of people getting on and off at every stop, almost as if using this bus as a mass transit, public bus.

not.cool.

i was already in a bad mood...or according to tasha and steph, a more than bad mood, and was not having it. so steph said something to the guy about how long it would take to get to the city, showing that we had a feeling something was up, and eventually the side stops stopped. but that wasnt the end of our debacle. nope. about an hour before we should have been arriving, the attendant started to ask us for 300 baht, or 100 baht each. when we would ask him for what, he would ramble on in thai for 5 minutes and we would just keep saying that he had ALREADY COLLECTED OUR TICKETS showing that we had already paid. this happened at least three times until we finally pulled into the bus station and could escape the bus. then he tried to point us in the direction of the city. we knew there were no cabs here, and so we started in the direction he showed us until we realized that we were heading away from the lights.

luckily (?) as we were walking and looking lost, a car pulled up next to us and asked where we were going. when we said into the city, he told us he was a taxi and was going there. despite the fact that he already had two thais in the car, we hesitantly got in. the entire ride, the driver and the two thais kept talking about us, but at this point, we didnt even really care. we got to the hotel we were planning on staying at and got out, ready to crash.

we had been told that lopburi isnt really a big tourist spot and that it would be easy to get a room. but nope. that was not the case. the first, and second, and third places we tried were all full. eventually, after wandering around the city for a bit, a nice thai man decided he would try to help us out. he took us to a few more spots, which were also full, and then he was about to start taking us to a few we had already gone to when i spoke up and said we had already been there. so he took us a different way and THANKFULLY they had one room available. it was just a fan room with no hot water (and no sink either) and with windows facing the street, but it was a place to sleep. and thats what we did.

the next morning when we got up and started searching the city to see what the festival had to offer. we decided to first eat, but the places we went to at first only had western (?!) food offered in the morning and we wanted thai. finally we found a place on the side of the road and had some breakfast/lunch, but it wasnt very good. it gave us enough energy to continue on though, and so we went to see king narai reigns castle. (the festival was for that king) almost immediately, while we were watching a performance, some thais called us over to join them in their festivities. they were a group of mostly men, with a few of their wives, who spoke some decent english. they started chatting with us and then had us sit with them and began to offer us food, alcohol, drinks, and then they even started fanning us! we sat with them for a while until we decided we needed to see more of the festival, so we told them we would be back later and headed on.

steph and tash with our lopburi friends.

the city is tiny but actually really cool, as it is built around ruins. there is one that is in the middle of a traffic circle, and even though its not the most modern city by any means, it was cool to see the contrast of that very old mixed in with the new. we kept walking around and seeing what there was to offer, but we got confused because we had yet to see any of these monkeys we had heard so much about. we asked someone and they told us that they congregate around a certain monument because thats where they get fed. so we headed over to that area and were waiting for meghan and emily to arrive when i started feeling really sick. sure enough, as soon as our friends got there, i was throwing up on the sidewalk, and the monkeys had come over to eat it, little scoundrels. so while everyone continued on, i went back to the room to lie down for a bit and try to feel better.

the ruins in the middle of the city.

a few hours later, they came back to get me and i was feeling fine again. we went out and bought some 'thai' outfits to wear that night, and then went back to get ready. then we went for food, which took hours, and following that meghan and emily left (o i didnt get to spend time with them in lopburi, boo). so it was just the three of us again and we headed out to see more of the festival, since we were told it was more of a night thing anyway. and it was. there were fireworks, and parades, and light displays, and shows. we walked around for a while, and had a lot of people asking us for pictures with them, haha. between that and the people fanning us earlier, we felt famous!

we actually asked her to take a pic with us! the lady who sold us the clothes, hehe

we went and saw some muy thai boxing, for free, and had an amazing time there. this time, it was a lot more aggressive than when we went in hua hin and we were actually in the crowd with the thais, who really get into it, cheering and such. but since they hadnt had a three hour nap like i had, they were tired, and so we called it an early night.

we got up early the next day, but i refused to leave without spending some time with the monkeys. so thats what we did for about a half hour.

more monkeys than people?

baby baby, right in front of me! no zoom!

monkeys all over me!

and even though it was a rough start, i left lopburi happy.

apology

my apologies for not posting more. its been crazy busy lately with the end of the semester, making giving and grading finals. i have a long weekend coming up and we are heading down to koh chang. it might be wishful thinking but im going to try to write a few posts while i am down there to catch up.

its official

i have signed a new contract saying that i will be working for kasintorn vittaya until september 30th. my plans for after that are to travel for maybe a month down south and in the philippines. right now, my goal is to be back in the states by the end of october/early november. :]

travel plans

in the recent emails ive been writing, ive found myself repeating this information numerous times, so im just putting it on here instead.

ive finished teaching, and until next wednesday, all i am doing in class is giving final exams. it takes about three class periods for each class because i have to do a speaking portion with each student one on one. and next thursday and friday, we have no classes because the students take their 'thai' exams all day, which means every class other than english. and we just sit in the room all day. following that, i have that monday off and then my contract goes until march 12, and i spend the days doing paperwork, writing an evaluation for each and every one of my students.

when my contract is up, im heading over to south korea for just under two weeks to visit my friend from high school/college who is teaching there. erik has been there since last april and finishes his first contract at the end of april, then heading home and then off to africa where he will make his way down to south africa for the world cup before coming back over to asia to do another years contract in korea. before he starts teaching again, he will come visit thailand. so he will be able to show me around and then i can return the favor. it should be cool.

i come back on march 24 and on march 25 start teaching 12 days of summer school. the summer session is broken by the holiday of songkran, which is the thai new year and lasts 3 days. the days are tuesday-thursday, so we have that entire week off. but because they only have enough students for one english teacher, i wont be coming back after that, steinar is taking that portion. so from april 9th, im off until may 17th when the next semester starts.

it actually works out because april 8th, a mr. adam winer is coming to visit me for 10 days! we are going to head up north to chiang mai on the 9th when i get off of school with steph and some other friends and spend the holiday up there, because it is suppose to be the place to be for the new year. and while we are there, we will do our long anticipated elephant trek!

winer leaves from bangkok on the 18th so we will come back down here and spend his last few days in the city and after he leaves, meghan and i are going to be doing a three week trip through laos, vietnam and cambodia.

needless to say, there is much for me to be excited for. now i just need to get through these last couple of weeks!

gobbledigook

just a series of random statements about my life or from my observations here in thailand, which i either cannot or dont want to contribute an entire post to on their own.

-i dont understand why ALL of the parents have the SAME laugh for when their children ignore our 'good mornings' and simply walk by us.

-ive gotten really good at killing mosquitoes in mid air.

-i still cannot bring myself to eat chicken feet. or crushed up bones curries.

-i spend more money on the weekends i stay in bangkok than when i travel to other parts of thailand.

-kids still get nervous over here for speaking exams even though they know they CANNOT fail. seriously, i have to give them at least 50%.

-i will think again before getting another oil massage.

-taxi drivers who try to take advantage of white farangs need to learn how to tell when the said white people actually live here and know of their schemes.

-some people have surprised me in how well they have kept in touch with me while ive been over here, while others have let me down.

-its crazy how easily we meet people who went through ati at other times or place.

-ive changed a lot since ive been over here.

-there are still moments when the though of "omg, im actually living in thailand" overtakes me.

-the people who living in the building next to my apartment building just got two puppies, and that makes me so happy :]

*the title of this post is also a reference to the song by the same name by sigur ros, which i have recently become slightly obsessed with, especially on beach weekends

vday

for valentines day, the kids at my school put the sticker people to work. instead of cards, they go around giving out stickers to everyone, especially teachers. this was yesterday:

and this was just now (now being friday afternoon as im about to leave)

but the best picture was right after i got back from my 3/2 class today:
happy valentines day to all!

a special guest

of all the people who were not placed in the bkk, the ones i was most upset about not being near were the kiwis, claire and kerry. (in case you dont know, they are called kiwis because of the bird from new zealand, which is where they hail from)

they were always up for a party and were honestly two of the sweetest people ever. when we found they would be down south, we were bummed. as ive explained, we cant really take vacations and traveling down there takes more than a weekend. except for a brief stint at the full moon party on new years, we hadnt seen them since we left phuket.

but this past weekend, someone said that there would be a special guest on monday. usually, we do not venture out or drink on mondays...we reserve that for later in the week when its free and a little more essential to our functioning. but when we heard it was for claire, who would be in town for possibly only one night, we jumped.

then we found out her flight didnt get in until around 9 at night, which meant she wouldnt have been to the city until at least 10 at the earliest, and THAT was a little too much to handle for a monday night. thankfully, she ended up staying in the city tuesday night as well, and so we did an impromptu meet up on good old khao san road and had an amazing time. it was probably the largest group we have gotten together since the first weekend or so. we had dinn

er and went out, but didnt stay out too too late. learned my lesson last time.

it was that night that we realized that people start leaving NEXT WEEK. super sad. so tonight, we are having our first of our "last nights out" (because for those of us that are staying, we will be celebrating before each departure, each one harder than the one before) and hoping that we will all see each other again at some point in our lives.

last weekend, i fell in love...

...with the island of koh samet. or koh samed. or koh sumet. however you want to spell it. its paradise. and i was here while all of you back home were getting hit by snowpocolypse :P

i know ive referred to many places ive seen over here as paradise. is it possible that there are so many places where such happiness can be found? yes. but is there one that stands above the others on my list? now, yes.

i wont say it was prettier than phi phi, because im pretty sure no such place exists. what makes koh samet so amazing is:

1. its just about as gorgeous as beaches come, with fine white sand and crystal blue waters.

2. the atmosphere of the 'town' (if you would call it such, as it is a very small island) is just amazing. a mix of thais and locals with the nights spent dancing

(or drinking) on the beach. and

3. ITS ONLY 2 1/2 HOURS FROM BANGKOK!!!

the last one is key, as i am not allowed to take off on fridays or mondays and therefor get very few long weekends. going go koh samet is very doable on a friday night so that i can wake up at the beach and have a full day there. going down south on a normal weekend just makes absolutely no sense because the entire time is spent traveling.

needless to say, when everyone leaves, i will be spending my time on this little slice of paradise so close to the bkk.....at least, any weekend that it isnt monsooning.....

beaching it

the last time i saw the beach was in koh samui after the full moon party in koh phangan. that was a month ago. and since i am living in thailand, that is unacceptable.

it is true that being in bangkok now and not the southern paradise of phuket, it is more difficult to get to a beach, especially since i spend the week working. but there are beaches not too far from the city on the gulf, and it was one of those beaches, hua hin, which we (me, meghan, stephanie, and tasha, and on thursday amit had decided he would join us before going down to the islands) decided to venture off to this weekend.

we had heard that this was a place that was less geared to tourists and more of a beach where local thais would go to vacation. when we arrived on friday night around 11, we discovered that was not the case at all. the entire town was much older, white, mostly german tourists. we were slightly disappointed but would not let this ruin our weekend. afterall, we were at a beach again!

the first thing on the to-do list was find a place to stay. normally, it is pretty easy to find a simple, clean hotel or hostel that is affordable on our teacher salaries. we wandered around the town for a bit and most of the places we tried were out of our price range and/or only had one room available. then we found saw signs for the 21 guest house.

we followed a few signs and eventually turned down an alley and saw the place at the end. there was a sign on the gate that said to ring the bell, so meghan did. she did not see that the man was standing right on the other side. and he was not happy. but he didnt say anything so we opened the gate and walked in to inquire about rooms. he told us there was one room but we had a hard time understanding him when he said the price. we thought he said 300 baht and he was very angry when we tried to clarify, shouting back 600, but again in thai, so it was still slightly unclear. his attitude made some of us think we should just continue on, but some wanted to see the room, so we started walking back to see it.

i need to backtrack here and say that when we got onto the bus and took our seats, we were an odd number, so one person would be sitting with a stranger. there were five seats together with the middle row having one person already sitting. i took that seat. the man next to me asked me to put my backpack in the overhead compartment and not my lap (why im not sure, it wasnt touching him at all) but i told him it wouldnt fit, as the compartment is extremely small. he got furious at this and stormed off, cursing at me in a language i couldnt understand.

back to the 21 guesthouse. as we were being led back to the room, the very same man from the bus was standing in the hallway. i turned around then and there and decided this was absolutely not happening, and it turned out the room was something akin to that from the movie "hostel" we continued on.

eventually, we found a place right by the water with two rooms. one didnt have a bathroom, but they were right next door to each other so it wasnt an issue, and it was clean enough and definitely in our price range. we took the rooms and changed into our swimsuits, as we wanted to get to the beach as soon as possible after such a long absence, nevermind the fact that it was midnight.

we made it to the water and some of us swam for a bit. it was a full moon and the water was warm and i was just happy. we didnt stay out too late though since we had worked earlier that day and wanted to get up early to hit the beach the next day. which is what we did. and we stayed on the beach almost all day and then went to get another, proper, thai massage before showering and heading out for dinner and a muay thai fight.

muay thai is a special kind of traditional boxing that is huge here. tash had done research before we headed down to the beach and found out that there is a fight every saturday night. we were set on this, or some of us were, and steph amit and i had an absolute blast. there were 5 fights each consisting of 5 rounds. the fourth fight was actually to girls, and that was maybe the most interesting to watch because they were just going for it. around the stadium were pretty much all tourists, and of them, we were clearly the most into it. around the ring were the thais, probably trainers and friends of the fighters, and we have decided that we want to try to go to another fight and be with the locals because they were so into it.

after the fight, we wandered a bit but since theres not too much of a nightlife and it was already getting late, we decided to head back to the hotel to meet the others and call it a night so we could have another full beach day before us girls headed back to bangkok and amit continued his journey south to koh tao.

the whole weekend, these lyrics kept playing in my head:

"i dig my toes into the sand. the ocean looks likes a thousand diamonds strewn across a blue blanket. i lean against the wind, pretend that i am weightless, and in this moment i am happy."

and its great, because we decided were going to have ANOTHER beach trip next weekend and venture to koh sumhet. yay!