I Stepped in Elephant Poo

Who'd think I’d want a little break away from the city and the beach? This weekend I went to Khao Yai, which is a National Park in Thailand. It was a fantastic time – and get this, I actually needed a jacket (a light jacket, but a jacket nonetheless) while I was there. My friends and I went on an organized day tour since we figured its best to go with experienced guides and it just made sense. We did a 4 hour trek through the jungle – and on that trek, I stepped in Elephant Poo!! I was the only one who did. Just my luck. I always seem the one to experience an unfortunate event such as that. Thank God it wasn't fresh!

Throughout the day at the national park, we spotted many animals. Our guides are on this network, they are so connected with other animal spotters. They'd call each other on their cells and race in our songtaews to the area of the park where the animals were. They also had these hi powered binoculars and telescopes so we could all get a really good look at the animals. We spotted wild elephants and got hear them call to each other. It was exciting because the elephants that I usually see around Thailand are domesticated and used for entertainment purposes or labor. It really hits you to the core listening to the elephants call to each other. I am sure they were scared when they hear the engines of our trucks coming and all of us trying to get a shot.

We saw gibbons (a species of monkeys with white faces), other monkeys, hornbills (toucan looking birds) wild deer, and others. This tour was pretty legit as far as animal watching goes – there were a few guys from California who had just came to Thailand to check out Khao Yai and they were serious outdoors guys. They were complete with their bird watching books, where they documented the many animals and bird species we had spotted throughout the day. So this tour was great in that arena. We then went to Hew Suwat waterfall – which was the waterfall from “The Beach.” As with everything in the movies, it was different than I had imagined. The waterfall was smaller than the film made it out to be, but it was still such a beautiful sight. Then we went to the highest point of Khao Yai and watched the beautiful sunset while enjoying fresh slices of watermelon. (By the way, all the fruit in Thailand is amazing – I haven't tasted better fruit anywhere else in the world, the have fresh fruit shakes with no sugar added or power – just the pure stuff. That is one of the many things I'll miss about Thailand.)

The next day my friends and I went to a heavenly winery in the Khao Yai valley. The landscape and the climate reminded me of home, near the Napa Valley. There were rolling hills and rows upon rows of grapes. It was absolutely gorgeous. It made me a little homesick, but I again shook the sickness away and reminded myself that I am incredibly lucky to be here. We arrived at the winery and were pleasantly surprised. If you have ever heard about how wine was in Thailand, then you'd know that it's not a common beverage enjoyed amongst the Thais unless you're in a metropolitan or touristy area. My wine experiences of Thailand (when I could get it) weren’t too impressive, and I wouldn't consider myself a connoisseur by any means. But the wine my friends and I enjoyed on that Sunday was divine.

we arrived at the winery, we just had missed the scheduled tour by 10 minutes so we had an hour to kill. My bpen lai (no worries) as the Thai's say. There was wine and appetizers, heaps of amazing travel magazines (that only further ignite the travel bug I have), killer views from the acclaimed restaurant, The Great Hornbill Grill, and great company. We also got an unexpected free 10 minute massage to kick off the relaxing vibe of the property.

Post massage my friends and I went on and enjoyed a few glasses of vino and no sooner were informed that our tour was waiting with a few extra people. They asked us if it'd be alright if we did the tour with a television crew for channel 11 – we all looked at each other and shrugged and said it was fine. The tour was nice and informative. We got to taste the different varieties of grapes on the property and were filmed throughout each stage of the tour. Wish I could have seen the footage! Funny, we weren’t even asked to sign a waiver...a little different from the states! The winery and the National Park tour at Khao Yai made for a great weekend, I’d definitely do it again, especially since I feel like I only scratched the surface of the massive park.

Short Trip To Pattaya

A short trip (again) to Pattaya. After going to Pattaya with my sister only for a day, I figured it would be a good place to go again to stay the night and spend the day. We had teachers day as a holiday on January 13th – so Jessica and I headed to Pattaya. We had the best burritos for dinner you can possibly get in Thailand at an awesome restaurant “Tequila Reef.” It was so good that we went there both days! Something I definitely miss about California, is the amazing Mexican food!

We stayed the night at a guesthouse and in the morning took a ferry to Ko Larn, A small island just about 7 km off the coast. It was so worth going there as there is quite the presense of Pink Lit Bars and bar girls in Pattaya. Ko Larn was beautiful and exactly what I needed for my midweek escape! The wind was blowing and it was just so refreshing and energizing to feel the gusts of wind against my skin. The ocean air is just so invigorating in comparison to the overbearing congestion and humidity I experience most of the time in Bangkok.

Ayutthaya and Lopburi

I am a weekend warrior!! This weekend I along with friends, headed to Thailand's original Capital and cultural megaplex, Ayutthaya, and then went to Thailand's Monkey Town, Lopburi. I took about a 2 hour bus ride into Ayutthaya and wondered the streets at about 9 p.m. for about an hour with Jessica searching for our guest house. Once we found the much recommended guest house, Tony's Place, we enjoyed dinner and drinks and had an early night. Tony's place was awesome; it was like sleeping in a huge tree house mansion! The next morning we woke up and had an amazing breakfast and proceeded to rent bicycles for the day. Ayutthaya has over 20 temples in such a small area. Ayutthaya is basically a small island surrounded by rivers – it's so unique. As we biked around the town, it was so cool to see all the ruins of a Thailand's former powerhouse and be able to navigate around the city without being at the mercy of bargaining with Tuk Tuk drivers or taxis. Seeing the ruins of the many temples was amazing! You could see and feel the history all around you! A shutter bug's paradise! Too bad all I had was my point and shoot camera!

More on Ayutthaya: http://wikitravel.org/en/Ayutthaya

After temple touring on our bikes, we met up with my friend Taryn who has her teaching placement about 1 hour from Ayutthaya. We handled transportation Thai style; I biked around a bit with Taryn on the back of my bike – which was no easy feat since the bike I was using wasn’t made for such a trip. We all got massages after checking out the only temple not ruined by the Burmese and meandered our way to grab dinner on the river. It was delicious and reasonable. We ate like queens for roughly $20 for the 3 of us!

The restaurant was beautiful; we ate right on a traditional boat on the river along the island of Ayutthaya. It was the perfect ending for our time in Ayutthaya! After dinner, Jessica and I said our good byes to Taryn and jumped our Lopburi bound train, in just the nick of time.

The particular train we jumped on was ok, it did the trick, but it was no “Euro Star,” that's for sure! After about an Hour, we arrived at Lopburi where our friends who teach there greeted us at the train station. We started out the night with plenty of Thai whiskey and exchanged our teaching stories and experiences in general. It was so neat to hear how each of our experiences vary so much! Some people have a completely different dynamic with their administrative staff or Thai teachers than Jessica and I. Let's just say we have to deal with a much more, dramatic and conservative administrative powers that be than others! We then all headed to the local club and danced the night away.

More on Lopburi : http://wikitravel.org/en/Lopburi

The next morning our Lopburi friends showed us around the town, which was so pleasant since the town is really easy to walk around. The town is known for its residents - more specifically its monkeys who roam about. They swing from telephone and electric wires and live in the center of town. It was surreal to see these monkeys just hanging out – no fences or bars, they live in the city! What's more crazy is that these monkey's are pretty aggressive if you get near them, which I chose not to! The stories I've heard was that the monkeys steal from you and put quite a few people in the hospital if you try to resist them taking your things or look at them wrong. The monkeys will seriously hurt you and could possibly give you rabies if they bite you- so you can understand why I chose to just enjoy the sight from afar!( Aplogies for no Lopburi photos but my camera battery died) All in the all, I enjoyed the weekend of seeing sights and meeting up with friends. That's what is so great about going through my TEFL program; I have a network of 60 people whom I trained with and can call up and visit through the many diverse regions of Thailand!

Holidays in Thailand

So the holidays have come and gone – so fast! It was a great time to spend time with special people. One advantage of being at a Catholic school was the fact that they observe Christmas and I got Christmas off. Even though it didn't feel like Christmas in most parts of Thailand, it definitely felt like Christmas at my school. Every classroom in our program was decorated to the nines! It was awesome and the students loved it. I helped my students prepare for their big Christmas performance – they sang “Rudolf the red nose reindeer.” They really enjoyed the performance aspect of the song since its fun to sing and dance to. One of the more “Santa like” students, Poom, acted as Santa and was adorable. He had his own solo when singing to Rudolf, who was played by Jeffrey.... You'll never guess what happened to me though, while I was doing all the students makeup before their performance – my sensitive stomach kicked in and I had to leave early and go to the hospital. Darn my sensitive stomach!

The next few days a few of my students gave me Christmas gifts – it was so sweet and unexpected. Some of their gifts were above and beyond a typical gift from a student! It's funny; it’s like getting schwag from my previous job – minus the logos of companies. The ideas are still the same though :)

After the Christmas celebrations at my school, I along with a few friends took off to Ko Sumui! It was a wonderful time considering it was one of the most unorthodox Christmases I've ever had. I spent a lot of time on the beach, basking in the sun where I saw Christmas trees every so often in lobbies of hotels and restaurants. I again, also took full advantage of the amazing massages right on the beach every day. On Christmas Eve, we did the most unchristmas like thing and went to the “full moon party” on Ko Phangan. It felt so wrong, but also right since - we’re in Thailand where majority of the population doesn’t celebrate Christmas and it's one day, one year..Why not!? It was a good time, lots of Santa hats were worn and good times were had. It's basically dancing on the beach to great music. One Christmas eve I won’t forget, that's for sure!

After Christmas, I returned to Bangkok and relaxed there for a bit, and then met up with my family up north near Khon Kaen. My mother, sister, and uncle flew from the U.S. And went back to my mother's hometown or village rather. My mother's village is small, about 200 residents and it's in an extremely rural part of Thailand. It was peaceful, but not a whole lot to do there. The air was so clean in comparison to big cities in Thailand, that’s for sure. It was so good to see my family again, and to spend time with my Thai side of my family. Mind you again, my Thai is that of 4 year olds at best and very little of Thai family can speak English. But smiles go a long way, and my body language is pretty darn good if I do say so myself! I'd rock it in Charades from teaching English here! :)

But, I tell you, my mother is a much more relaxed person in Thailand, she's always on the go and always busy

in the states, but when she is here in Thailand, she's got this huge smile and is a lot more easy going. It's great to see her so happy. Another thing about my mother is she's not one for details when she tells me things; this has always caused a little strife with our communication through out my life. Here's a little example of that when I recently visited her village. So, I am napping with my sister and we're awoken by mother who says, “Come on, get up, we're going to go for a walk.” I'm thinking, why is it so important to go for a walk. She then continues us to hurry up; “Lieu, Lieu!” ( Hurry in Thai she says) , Some of our family members will be joining as well as friends.” Well, when my sister and I tumbled outside in a quasi sleepily stupor, we noticed it was the WHOLE village and everyone was Thai Dancing in the streets to blasting Upcountry Thai music provided by a stereo system with two gigantic speakers being toted in the back of a pick up truck. What a sight – and guess what. My camera's batteries were dead – so you'll have to wait a few more months for the pictures since they’re on my mom’s camera...

But it was a quite a sight! Oh yes, everyone was out having a grand time, candy was being tossed for the kids and the adults were enjoying libations being passed around. Also, there was a family sitting in the pickup truck's back on chairs. People from the village were giving them gifts – which of course prompted me to inquire why, my mother shortly responded, “They’re father died, so the villagers are giving them gifts and condolences.” My mother also told me this parade like village walk is for good luck. I've noticed that there are a lot of things that are for good luck here. I had a blast. But my stomach wasn't cooperating with my visual paradise. My sensitive stomach was not letting me get away with the traditional Isan ( Northeaster region of Thailand, where my mother is from) food I had cautiously consumed mere hours ago. My stomach killed me, but I kept on trucking with the aid of Gatorade, Soda water, and bland food. Hey, after playing the food poisoning game for a while – I know what helps :) Also, Susan, a fellow teacher and former Peace Corp member, told me about the B.R.A.T. Diet. This is also one that I've used often after getting sick here – it consists of Bananas, Rice, Apple Juice, and toast. It helps! Also, Rachel, another fellow teacher endorses it as well...so it works :)

In addition to the BRAT diet, thankfully, my mother being the woman is always prepared for anything – (she is the original Mary Poppins) brought some good' ol American snacks that would be kind enough to our stomach. She kept my sister and I going with the timeless concoction of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I love my mom for that, but boy did I get over the snacks after consuming them for 3 days!

So most of my time spent in my mother’s village was spent spending time with family members I didn't know or didn't remember who remembered me. (I feel like a jerk for that) People in the Northeastern part of Thailand aren't exposed for Farang (foreigners) like Thais in touristy parts of Thailand, so my sister and I tend to stick out and be remembered. There's many of them and 2 of of us :)

On New years Eve, there was a huge party held my uncles house. Tables, Chairs, Tents, Karaoke System, were set up at my Uncle's place. Also, from wee hours of that morning my aunt and other family members were cooking up heaps of amazing food! It was a busy day filled with plenty of friends and family celebrating the New Year. My Uncle also got his house blessed by monks, so there was a lot of commotion on New Years Eve. It was a trip, I walk upstairs and there are like 6 monks sitting “Indian Style” at the front of the room all lined up, beginning to do
their chants to bless the house. The day was really cool because everyone came to celebrate New Years with us

– for my mom (New Years is her birthday) since Thai New Years is different from U.S.'s New Years. On New Years day, I packed my things and headed back to Bangkok. I was sad to say goodbye to my Thai side of my family, but I looked forward to spending more time with my mom and sister in Bangkok. My mother and sister later joined me in Bangkok for the weekend before they returned to the states, which was nice to be able to show them

my place and have them meet a few of the people that I spend a lot of time with. . I got the chance to take my sister to check out the beach of Pattaya – it is the closest beach to Bangkok, so it was a nice day trip. Looking back on my Christmas Holiday, I felt very thankful to be able to spend it with my family and great company. Like everything enjoyable, it went by so quick!