I was a mess today. I'll be the first to admit it. It was our last day at Kid's College, which was indeed very bittersweet. I was doing fine, setting up for the day and preparing lessons, when the first busload of kids came in. One of my boys came in with the saddest look on his face. I picked him up and took him to teachers' room where he sat on my lap and snuggled for about five minutes. The thought of leaving him took over and brought me to tears. The fact that he was so sad made it even worse.
I was doing well throughout the day. My boys kept climbing on me and hugging me much more than usual.
When the final bell rang I lost it. I hugged each of my boys extra hard. It was so difficult to let them go. To know that I might not see any of them again. One of the mothers came and started crying because I was crying.
But they had to leave. And I had to let them.
Just the first in a series of hard farewells as we start of on the new, next adventure. In about 36 hours we head out to New Zealand and our first farm there. I'm so excited to get on with this new chapter. It's just closing out the old ones that hurts so bad sometimes.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
My Kids
Oh how I'll miss these darlings...
Only 1 week until we fly out to our next big adventure. Only 3 more days of teaching class left. Slowly saying our goodbyes... it's hard. But I know that God had me in their lives for a reason and He'll look after them long after I'm gone.
Only 1 week until we fly out to our next big adventure. Only 3 more days of teaching class left. Slowly saying our goodbyes... it's hard. But I know that God had me in their lives for a reason and He'll look after them long after I'm gone.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Countdown: Two Weeks to Go!!
We have two weeks (that's right two weeks) left before we depart from South Korea. This thought seems quite surreal to me now. There were times in the year when I thought this time would never come, and yet, now it's here. Time is a funny thing, going both fast and slow at the same time.
Today I hit a wall. It was a Monday and I was more tired than usual since I'd woken up super early to witness my cousin's baptism over Skype (God bless the creators of Skype). It was one of those teaching days where I was just ready to be done. Most of my kids are good... I love them to death, but there's one kindergartner in particular who is pushing me to a hair pulling stage. The only word I can think of to describe this child is contrary. Everything I say he has to disagree with, even if it's something as simple as "I like cheese." Within 2 seconds he'll chirp "I don't like cheese." He does this all the time. And to top it off he's been rather mean to me as well. When I told the kids that I was sick last week he immediately shouted "YAY!" (which more than disgruntled my ear-infected/sinus-infected self). Today I told the kids that I was leaving in two weeks. While the rest of the class looked disappointed, this one particular student once again shouted, "YAY!" It's so difficult for me to be patient with him. I know that he's only 5 years old and he's just acting out. But some of the things he says genuinely hurts my feelings. When I tell him that he just thinks it's funny.
But in two weeks, I will no longer be a teacher, simply a world-traveler, so I won't have to worry about that anymore.
One of my friends from high school came up to Incheon this weekend with his extremely pregnant wife. They spent the weekend with us, enjoying western food and the maternity shoot that David did with them. It was so refreshing for me to be around people from home. People who grew up in Charleston, who understand where I'm coming from and have the same homesickness as me. Although I'm super excited about our travels after we leave Incheon, I'm also very eager to be home. Today, when I was attending a family gathering via Skype, I had a hard time trying not to cry because I missed everyone so much.
That said, I'm also going to have a very hard time leaving my boys.
Such is life. Choices.
Today I hit a wall. It was a Monday and I was more tired than usual since I'd woken up super early to witness my cousin's baptism over Skype (God bless the creators of Skype). It was one of those teaching days where I was just ready to be done. Most of my kids are good... I love them to death, but there's one kindergartner in particular who is pushing me to a hair pulling stage. The only word I can think of to describe this child is contrary. Everything I say he has to disagree with, even if it's something as simple as "I like cheese." Within 2 seconds he'll chirp "I don't like cheese." He does this all the time. And to top it off he's been rather mean to me as well. When I told the kids that I was sick last week he immediately shouted "YAY!" (which more than disgruntled my ear-infected/sinus-infected self). Today I told the kids that I was leaving in two weeks. While the rest of the class looked disappointed, this one particular student once again shouted, "YAY!" It's so difficult for me to be patient with him. I know that he's only 5 years old and he's just acting out. But some of the things he says genuinely hurts my feelings. When I tell him that he just thinks it's funny.
But in two weeks, I will no longer be a teacher, simply a world-traveler, so I won't have to worry about that anymore.
One of my friends from high school came up to Incheon this weekend with his extremely pregnant wife. They spent the weekend with us, enjoying western food and the maternity shoot that David did with them. It was so refreshing for me to be around people from home. People who grew up in Charleston, who understand where I'm coming from and have the same homesickness as me. Although I'm super excited about our travels after we leave Incheon, I'm also very eager to be home. Today, when I was attending a family gathering via Skype, I had a hard time trying not to cry because I missed everyone so much.
That said, I'm also going to have a very hard time leaving my boys.
Such is life. Choices.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
exploring siam
Before we begin this massive blogpost, David wanted me to tell you that he got the chance to do a really wonderful photoshoot in Thailand. Please check out the pictures at his blog! Also, he'll be posting more artsy photos of our trip there later on in the week.
Thailand. What words are there to describe it? Tranquil, jostling, neon, thriving jungle of beauty. It is a country of both energy and rest, of struggles and luxury. The last time I went to Thailand (in 2007) I was exposed to the former side: the poverty, the struggles. This trip I got a taste of what Thailand looks like through an average tourists eyes.
Our friends, Tina and Nathan Smiddy, arrived in South Korea a few days before we left. Both of them are photographers and then brought over a wedding dress they’d bought to do a few shoots with. They did shoots of our friends Amanda and Ferrin rocking out the wedding dress on some traditional Korean buildings! When David and I weren’t working we showed them around Korea, mostly taking them to the essential meals: shabu shabu and galbi.
Saturday morning we woke up and left for the airport around 11. The easiest and cheapiest way to get to the airport from our apartment is to take a bus. We were crossing the massive bridge when David decides to look at the ticket print out. Next thing I hear is, “Oops!” I turn my head to find him starting at the printed departure time. Somehow, we’d all gotten it in our heads that our flight left at 1:40, when in reality, it left at 1:05. I tried my best not to panic, I’ve traveled enough to know that worrying doesn’t really do anything except raise my blood pressure. Still, I was a bit on edge when we got to the airport. We scuttled on up to the check-in desk, only to discover that our flight had been delayed. Not only had it been delayed, but it was so long delayed (about 5 hours) that the airlines was going to book us onto another flight that would take us straight from Seoul to Bangkok. Our original flight had a connection in Beijing with a 4+ hour layover. The newly booked flight got us into Thailand sooner than we’d expected!
The flight itself was smooth and uneventful. When we flew over Vietnam the night sky was so clear that I could see the reflection of moonlight snaking across the endless rivers below. We got into Bangkok, wrangled with a taxi driver and found our hostel. One thing about Thailand that drove me absolutely batty was how ridiculous the cab drivers and other vendors were when it came to sucking money out of you. As soon as you walk out of the airport you’re swamped with cabbies who are jostling you and quipping outrageous prices to try and get you to go with them. Less travel-wary people often accept their rip-offs without a second thought, which only encourages them. By the end of the week I was sick of being hassled so much.
Our hostel in Bangkok was nice and city chic. We settled in and, though it was late, set off in search of some delicious street food. The street we stayed on wasn’t incredibly populated with stands, but we managed to find a cheery, chubby Thai woman who spoke pretty decent English. She led us over to a table and handed us a menu. Pad Thai, Tom Kha Kai, Curries… Oh the multitude of delicious food! It was so hard to pick just one, so David and I split two plates.
The next morning, David and I woke up early to go explore. There wasn’t much right close to our hostel, so we had to walk up the main street a little ways. Lo and behold, what did I find but a coffee stand. Coffee stands in Thailand are like little slices of heaven. You can get large cups of iced coffee and iced chai for 25 cents. Thai tea, which is black tea brewed with sweetened condensed milk, is an old favorite of mine. We got some to start off the day right.
Because we only had a week in Thailand, every day had something scheduled into it. Our first days in Thailand’s capital was actually spent outside of it. We decided to check out the floating markets that so often appear on tourist posters and postcards. This involved a two hour bus trip out of the city and more wrangling with people who wanted every cent they could snatch from us. In the end though, it was worth it. The four of us got our own guided boat tour through the canal markets. Although a lot of it was touristy, it still had an atmosphere that was “otherly.” No where else in the world except Southeast Asia can you find these floating markets. We drifted along, buying souvenirs and snackes (mostly the delicious fresh fruit which is everywhere there). The three photographers had their cameras out and were snapping like crazy! I felt rather left out, being the only one who wasn’t scrambling around the boat for the perfect shot. But hey—at least the trip was well documented!
This is a great picture to show what most of the trip was like for me...
Once we got back to Bangkok, we made our way over to the north side of town for a Muay Thai match. On the way to the stadium I managed to slip on a set of stairs going down. I saved myself a nasty fall by catching my arm on the handrail, but managed to get a big fist sized bruise on my underarm. It was swelling uncomfortably by the time we reached the Thai boxing rink, but I used some ice from Tina’s bag drink to help it calm down. We paid to go see about 7 rounds of Thai Boxing. It was a very exquisite, yet rigid and at times brutal form of fighting. The main form of combat is a high side kick, combined with some punches and a strong hugging grip. Once again, the rest of the group was obsessed with catching the perfect action shot (well, the boys more than Tina). While the fighting was neat, I did get a little bored after a while. Fortunately we did get some good pics, and it was a pretty neat experience overall.
The next day we woke up early again, this time to go to the train station in hopes that they still had train tickets left to Chiang Mai. The train tickets can’t be easily booked over the internet, so we had to go in person to get them. We went as soon as the train station opened, telling our taxi driver where to take us. He, hoping to get some extra commission like every other cabbie in Bangkok, took us to a travel agency instead. We would have had to pay extra there, so we went back and insisted that he take us to the train station. Aggravating. Despite our undesired detour, we managed to book train tickets to and from Chiang Mai. Our return train was slightly earlier than we wanted, but better an early train than no train at all.
We made our way to a Wat (temple) which was close to the train station. It was pretty impressive. Looked so much different from the Buddhist temples of Korea. There’s so much gold and glitter on the temples here—almost to the point of gaudiness (but not quite). We went in to see the golden Buddha and watched as dozens of Thai’s bowed, prayed and made offerings.
What the girls did all trip.
Dragonfruit=my favorite food ever!
The cool thing about traveling all over the world is that, sooner or later, you’re going to end up in the same place as you! That happened in Bangkok. A friend from middle school and high school was passing through the capital at the same time as us, so I met up with him for lunch. It was a lot of fun catching up over a lunch of Thai street food. Afterwards, he went with us to see Wat Poh (we had trouble getting there though. Our cab driver actually kicked us out of the cab because he didn’t want to wait around in traffic!!! And this was after we’d told him “no” to a boat tour offer about ten times! Ah!) , a very large and glamorous Buddhist temple close to the Grand Palace. It was much more impressive than the temple we’d visited earlier that day. Its grounds covered 8 hectares and the main attraction was a massive reclining Buddha. He was 46m long and 15m high. There were also some really cool tombs near the temple that housed the remains of some kings. They were decorated with colored porcelain mosaic squares and looked almost like ridiculously tall birthday cakes.
Me, David and Wills.
After touring the temple we had to say goodbye to Wills and head back toward our hostel. Our train for Chiang Mai left at around 6. It was an overnight sleeper train—which meant that the overall journey there takes about 13 hours by train. Crazy huh? It was nice to just relax and hang out with the Smiddy while the train took us along. We played cards and talking about ministry and traveling. The beds were also a lot more comfortable than I was expecting. I managed to get a full nights sleep on the trip there. It was pretty cool to wake up and see the jungles of Thailand’s north rushing past my window. The land there is so lush, rural and at points, purely wild. What a stretch from Korea! The foliage was so much brighter, and the sky was so much bluer than Korea. Being out in such a beautiful wilderness after months and months in the city was liberating! Chiang Mai itself was a pretty cool city. The older portion of the town was surrounded by a moat and a crumbling wall. Inside was a labyrinth of markets, Wats, stores and massage parlors. Our taxi driver had trouble finding our hotel at first. He took us to the wrong one and charged us extra to get to the right one!! It was frustrating, but there wasn’t too much we could do about it. The place we stayed at, Banilah, was away from the center of town, and I had my doubts about it as we were driving there, but once we arrived all my apprehension melted away. It was such a cute place, filled with so much character. The doors to our rooms were made of teak wood and there were pet cats that napped in the hostel’s greeting room. Once we’d settled in with all of our stuff, the lady gave us some good tips on what was in and around the city for us to see.
Eating street food before we left Bangkok!
We wanted to find a market to go shopping, so we headed off to one of the ones on the map. When the taxi driver dropped us off there, we realized that the market wasn’t really a touristy place, but more for Thais who wanted day to day things, like pots and fruit and such. We crossed the river and found a cute little Victorian-esque teahouse just in time for the daily monsoon to strike.
Eating dragonfruit!
After more talks of business and traveling, we decided to go seek out a good place to get a traditional Thai massage. We decided to seek out the place that our hostel lady pointed out on the map she gave us. It took us a bit of wandering, but we eventually found it. The place turned out to be a haven for blind masseuses. It was only $3 for a 1 hour massage. The experience was, unique, we’ll say. The girl just pressed down really hard on different parts of my body, waited for the blood circulation to cut off, and then pulled back. It was painful in parts, but ultimately very relaxing. Apparently blind masseuses are esteemed in Thailand since they supposedly have a better sense of touch than seeing masseuses would.
That afternoon we went to a crazy, hip little ice-cream parlor called iBerry. The guy who owns it is apparently a celebrity in Thailand. He’s also a prolific artist who decorated the ice-cream parlor’s property in his masterpieces. There were fun ice-cream flavors like coconut, rambutan and gooseberry (which I got all three of those). After a fun break there were headed toward the night bazaar to grab dinner. Afterward we hit the night market with all of our bargaining force. Tina, Nathan and David all grew up in Africa, so they’re used to bargaining. I’m not so good at it (although I got more practice on this trip). I always cave a little too early and pay more than I should. That’s why David usually steps in and does it for me. For example—I saw a pair of stretchy pants that I really wanted. The woman quoted 700 baht for them (which is like $20, pretty absurd for dirt cheap Thailand). I then decided to by two, which gave me more leverage for a deal with her. David, through much persistence, whittling and staged attempts at walking away, managed to get her down to 320 for the two pants. Yay! I also got some neat head bands (to hold back my bangs when they get too frizz crazy) and a few cool t-shirts. All for under $20! Tina and Nathan did all their Christmas shopping in the night market and we ultimately rolled back to our hotel as very happy shoppers.
The next morning we were up early— 6:30— in order to start our elephant trek/hiking trip. Since we had such a short time in Thailand, David booked a one-day trip. Although it was only one day, we saw a LOT. Our guide, Texi, picked us up from our hotel and drove us a few hours out of the city. We started a hike through the jungle/(rainforest?) of the mountains in the north. We started at the base of a hill-tribe’s village. The path was steep at parts and always slick with mud. Our guide was navigating it in flip-flops!! I was very impressed with his ability to not fall. At the village we started out in, a couple of skinny, happy dogs started trailing us. They stuck with us on the entire 4-hour hike, dashing ahead of us on the trail and running around in circles. Texi said he was very happy that they decided to accompany us because they helped root out all of the snakes! I was happy they came too, although they made me miss my dog a lot! =( Texi pointed out lots of cool plants, including one that wilted as soon as you touched it, as well as teak leaves which had lots of red juice in the middle. It looked like blood when he squirted it out.
About halfway through the hike we stopped at a pool with a pretty large waterfall and swam. The swim was super refreshing after a sweaty hike. David clambered up the slimy rocks to the waterfall. I followed him, although I had a bit more trouble navigating the slippery rocks. It was pretty cool standing under the falls though.
We continued through the jungle and made it out to the rice fields that belonged to the Karen, a hill-tribe that lived in the area. After a few more kilometers we made it into their village. The children came up with fists full of bracelets and other things. I bought two that looked pretty cool. The village itself was pretty poor. The Lonely Planet Thailand book says that hill-tribes as really fourth world citizens. They aren’t Thai citizens and aren’t legally entitled to things like land or jobs. It’s pretty awful. Their living standards are still pretty primitive. Bamboo huts with dried teak leaves for the roof.
I bought a bracelet from a hill-tribe girl.
Our new doggie friends!
The hike was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We saw some pigs in the forest (I don’t think they were wild) and I’m pretty sure the dogs that came with us ate a piglet in the forty minutes they disappeared from our side.
After the hike we went to ride elephants. David and I rode one and Nathan and Tina were on the other. It was a short, one-hour saunter through the jungle. Our elephant was pretty grumpy. He kept grunting and demanding that I feed him bananas and sugar cane to fuel his walk. We walked through the forest and into a river (where the elephant promptly pooed). It was a pretty unique experience, and I was quite glad for it.
Afterward we had lunch and hurried off to the last leg of our tour (we had to hurry because we might miss our train)! The last part was riding down the river on a bamboo raft. That was also pretty unique and cool. The raft was made of pretty thick, long pieces of bamboo. Our guide was a prankster, he kept screaming shark and splashing us with a pole. However, one time he yelled snake. At first I didn’t believe him. And then I saw it. It was a bitty little thing, maybe 5 or 6 inches long. It was in the process of sunning itself on a rock when our raft startled it and it swam into the river, straight toward us! The raft was too fast for it though. I also saw a rather large spider resting on another rock a few feet away.
Once we got to the end of the river our guide rushed us back into the van and drove us to the train station. Our clothes were so thoroughly soaked that we were forced to change in the van. We made the train and, since we were so exhausted from the hike, crashed early. It was a rough night’s sleep.
The next day was swallowed up in transit. Although Thailand looks small when compared to other countries in the world, it’s pretty dang long in parts. We arrived in Bangkok in mid-morning, made our way to the airport and got on a flight to Phuket. We didn’t get to our hotel until 3 in the afternoon. I never realized what a huge island Phuket is. We stayed at Patong, which is a rather touristy beach town on the western side of the island. Our hotel was really nice, but the beach wasn’t quite the paradise you see in all the pictures.
That evening David did a photoshoot of Tina and Nathan (again, check out the results on his blog). We went and ate seafood and then went to get oil massages. This second massage was better than the first, but it was still rather painful at times. It was so relaxing that afterward I collapsed straight into bed. ZZZZ.
After a buffet breakfast the next morning we spent a few hours at the beach. A monsoon came after about two hours and drove us back to the poolside. It was nice to spend the day simply relaxing. Toward the evening we got ready to do the photoshoot with Tina and Nathan. They wanted us to model the wedding dress and a suit that they’d brought over simply for this shoot. Both of them are wedding photographers trying to build their portfolio to break into destination weddings. So I dolled up, put on the dress and walked out to the beach. So many people were staring. It was funny. We couldn’t have asked for a better setting though. The sunset turned out to be GORGEOUS despite the entirely cloudy day. David and I had a lot of fun posing. We rolled around in the sand. Played in the waves and splashed each other. The dress got super heavy as soon as I went into the water, and my mobility was rather limited.
That night, after such a great photo-shoot, we had to say goodbye to the Smiddys. They moved to the other side of the island the next day and we decided to take a tour of the more paradise looking beaches. The next morning we packed up, left our bags at the hotel and went on a tour of Phi Phi Ley and Ko Phi Phi, some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. The waters were crystal clear blue. Towering islands of rock capped with lush green plants jutted dramatically out of the sea. The sand was white. The palm trees leaned. There were scenic wooden boats with the colored ribbons lashed to the bow. Our tour took a speed boat to a bunch of scenic places, including the place where they filmed Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “The Beach.” We went snorkeling in a bunch of places, which was super fun. There were parrot fish, angel fish, coral, sea urchins, jelly fish and all sorts of critters in the ocean around us. They even took us to a beach where wild monkeys live. Lots of tourists come and feed them fruit, so they don’t have to work too hard for food.
The last part of the day we spent lounging in the sun. It was lovely. Then after the tour we set straight back to the airport and then home. We made it back in about 15 hours of travel. Not optimal, but not horrible either.
Thailand was a lovely break and vacation. It was so relieving to be away from teaching and traveling again. It whetted my appetite for what’s in store for us in the next few months. Only 4 more weeks with my babies though! The thought brings me near tears. It’s going to be harder to leave them than I thought. I’m going to try my best to soak in these next few weeks and really treasure my kids and coworkers before I have to say my goodbyes. Still, traveling to Thailand for some reason also made me super homesick, so I have that to look forward to.
Thailand. What words are there to describe it? Tranquil, jostling, neon, thriving jungle of beauty. It is a country of both energy and rest, of struggles and luxury. The last time I went to Thailand (in 2007) I was exposed to the former side: the poverty, the struggles. This trip I got a taste of what Thailand looks like through an average tourists eyes.
Our friends, Tina and Nathan Smiddy, arrived in South Korea a few days before we left. Both of them are photographers and then brought over a wedding dress they’d bought to do a few shoots with. They did shoots of our friends Amanda and Ferrin rocking out the wedding dress on some traditional Korean buildings! When David and I weren’t working we showed them around Korea, mostly taking them to the essential meals: shabu shabu and galbi.
Saturday morning we woke up and left for the airport around 11. The easiest and cheapiest way to get to the airport from our apartment is to take a bus. We were crossing the massive bridge when David decides to look at the ticket print out. Next thing I hear is, “Oops!” I turn my head to find him starting at the printed departure time. Somehow, we’d all gotten it in our heads that our flight left at 1:40, when in reality, it left at 1:05. I tried my best not to panic, I’ve traveled enough to know that worrying doesn’t really do anything except raise my blood pressure. Still, I was a bit on edge when we got to the airport. We scuttled on up to the check-in desk, only to discover that our flight had been delayed. Not only had it been delayed, but it was so long delayed (about 5 hours) that the airlines was going to book us onto another flight that would take us straight from Seoul to Bangkok. Our original flight had a connection in Beijing with a 4+ hour layover. The newly booked flight got us into Thailand sooner than we’d expected!
The flight itself was smooth and uneventful. When we flew over Vietnam the night sky was so clear that I could see the reflection of moonlight snaking across the endless rivers below. We got into Bangkok, wrangled with a taxi driver and found our hostel. One thing about Thailand that drove me absolutely batty was how ridiculous the cab drivers and other vendors were when it came to sucking money out of you. As soon as you walk out of the airport you’re swamped with cabbies who are jostling you and quipping outrageous prices to try and get you to go with them. Less travel-wary people often accept their rip-offs without a second thought, which only encourages them. By the end of the week I was sick of being hassled so much.
Our hostel in Bangkok was nice and city chic. We settled in and, though it was late, set off in search of some delicious street food. The street we stayed on wasn’t incredibly populated with stands, but we managed to find a cheery, chubby Thai woman who spoke pretty decent English. She led us over to a table and handed us a menu. Pad Thai, Tom Kha Kai, Curries… Oh the multitude of delicious food! It was so hard to pick just one, so David and I split two plates.
The next morning, David and I woke up early to go explore. There wasn’t much right close to our hostel, so we had to walk up the main street a little ways. Lo and behold, what did I find but a coffee stand. Coffee stands in Thailand are like little slices of heaven. You can get large cups of iced coffee and iced chai for 25 cents. Thai tea, which is black tea brewed with sweetened condensed milk, is an old favorite of mine. We got some to start off the day right.
Because we only had a week in Thailand, every day had something scheduled into it. Our first days in Thailand’s capital was actually spent outside of it. We decided to check out the floating markets that so often appear on tourist posters and postcards. This involved a two hour bus trip out of the city and more wrangling with people who wanted every cent they could snatch from us. In the end though, it was worth it. The four of us got our own guided boat tour through the canal markets. Although a lot of it was touristy, it still had an atmosphere that was “otherly.” No where else in the world except Southeast Asia can you find these floating markets. We drifted along, buying souvenirs and snackes (mostly the delicious fresh fruit which is everywhere there). The three photographers had their cameras out and were snapping like crazy! I felt rather left out, being the only one who wasn’t scrambling around the boat for the perfect shot. But hey—at least the trip was well documented!
This is a great picture to show what most of the trip was like for me...
Once we got back to Bangkok, we made our way over to the north side of town for a Muay Thai match. On the way to the stadium I managed to slip on a set of stairs going down. I saved myself a nasty fall by catching my arm on the handrail, but managed to get a big fist sized bruise on my underarm. It was swelling uncomfortably by the time we reached the Thai boxing rink, but I used some ice from Tina’s bag drink to help it calm down. We paid to go see about 7 rounds of Thai Boxing. It was a very exquisite, yet rigid and at times brutal form of fighting. The main form of combat is a high side kick, combined with some punches and a strong hugging grip. Once again, the rest of the group was obsessed with catching the perfect action shot (well, the boys more than Tina). While the fighting was neat, I did get a little bored after a while. Fortunately we did get some good pics, and it was a pretty neat experience overall.
The next day we woke up early again, this time to go to the train station in hopes that they still had train tickets left to Chiang Mai. The train tickets can’t be easily booked over the internet, so we had to go in person to get them. We went as soon as the train station opened, telling our taxi driver where to take us. He, hoping to get some extra commission like every other cabbie in Bangkok, took us to a travel agency instead. We would have had to pay extra there, so we went back and insisted that he take us to the train station. Aggravating. Despite our undesired detour, we managed to book train tickets to and from Chiang Mai. Our return train was slightly earlier than we wanted, but better an early train than no train at all.
We made our way to a Wat (temple) which was close to the train station. It was pretty impressive. Looked so much different from the Buddhist temples of Korea. There’s so much gold and glitter on the temples here—almost to the point of gaudiness (but not quite). We went in to see the golden Buddha and watched as dozens of Thai’s bowed, prayed and made offerings.
What the girls did all trip.
Dragonfruit=my favorite food ever!
The cool thing about traveling all over the world is that, sooner or later, you’re going to end up in the same place as you! That happened in Bangkok. A friend from middle school and high school was passing through the capital at the same time as us, so I met up with him for lunch. It was a lot of fun catching up over a lunch of Thai street food. Afterwards, he went with us to see Wat Poh (we had trouble getting there though. Our cab driver actually kicked us out of the cab because he didn’t want to wait around in traffic!!! And this was after we’d told him “no” to a boat tour offer about ten times! Ah!) , a very large and glamorous Buddhist temple close to the Grand Palace. It was much more impressive than the temple we’d visited earlier that day. Its grounds covered 8 hectares and the main attraction was a massive reclining Buddha. He was 46m long and 15m high. There were also some really cool tombs near the temple that housed the remains of some kings. They were decorated with colored porcelain mosaic squares and looked almost like ridiculously tall birthday cakes.
Me, David and Wills.
After touring the temple we had to say goodbye to Wills and head back toward our hostel. Our train for Chiang Mai left at around 6. It was an overnight sleeper train—which meant that the overall journey there takes about 13 hours by train. Crazy huh? It was nice to just relax and hang out with the Smiddy while the train took us along. We played cards and talking about ministry and traveling. The beds were also a lot more comfortable than I was expecting. I managed to get a full nights sleep on the trip there. It was pretty cool to wake up and see the jungles of Thailand’s north rushing past my window. The land there is so lush, rural and at points, purely wild. What a stretch from Korea! The foliage was so much brighter, and the sky was so much bluer than Korea. Being out in such a beautiful wilderness after months and months in the city was liberating! Chiang Mai itself was a pretty cool city. The older portion of the town was surrounded by a moat and a crumbling wall. Inside was a labyrinth of markets, Wats, stores and massage parlors. Our taxi driver had trouble finding our hotel at first. He took us to the wrong one and charged us extra to get to the right one!! It was frustrating, but there wasn’t too much we could do about it. The place we stayed at, Banilah, was away from the center of town, and I had my doubts about it as we were driving there, but once we arrived all my apprehension melted away. It was such a cute place, filled with so much character. The doors to our rooms were made of teak wood and there were pet cats that napped in the hostel’s greeting room. Once we’d settled in with all of our stuff, the lady gave us some good tips on what was in and around the city for us to see.
Eating street food before we left Bangkok!
We wanted to find a market to go shopping, so we headed off to one of the ones on the map. When the taxi driver dropped us off there, we realized that the market wasn’t really a touristy place, but more for Thais who wanted day to day things, like pots and fruit and such. We crossed the river and found a cute little Victorian-esque teahouse just in time for the daily monsoon to strike.
Eating dragonfruit!
After more talks of business and traveling, we decided to go seek out a good place to get a traditional Thai massage. We decided to seek out the place that our hostel lady pointed out on the map she gave us. It took us a bit of wandering, but we eventually found it. The place turned out to be a haven for blind masseuses. It was only $3 for a 1 hour massage. The experience was, unique, we’ll say. The girl just pressed down really hard on different parts of my body, waited for the blood circulation to cut off, and then pulled back. It was painful in parts, but ultimately very relaxing. Apparently blind masseuses are esteemed in Thailand since they supposedly have a better sense of touch than seeing masseuses would.
That afternoon we went to a crazy, hip little ice-cream parlor called iBerry. The guy who owns it is apparently a celebrity in Thailand. He’s also a prolific artist who decorated the ice-cream parlor’s property in his masterpieces. There were fun ice-cream flavors like coconut, rambutan and gooseberry (which I got all three of those). After a fun break there were headed toward the night bazaar to grab dinner. Afterward we hit the night market with all of our bargaining force. Tina, Nathan and David all grew up in Africa, so they’re used to bargaining. I’m not so good at it (although I got more practice on this trip). I always cave a little too early and pay more than I should. That’s why David usually steps in and does it for me. For example—I saw a pair of stretchy pants that I really wanted. The woman quoted 700 baht for them (which is like $20, pretty absurd for dirt cheap Thailand). I then decided to by two, which gave me more leverage for a deal with her. David, through much persistence, whittling and staged attempts at walking away, managed to get her down to 320 for the two pants. Yay! I also got some neat head bands (to hold back my bangs when they get too frizz crazy) and a few cool t-shirts. All for under $20! Tina and Nathan did all their Christmas shopping in the night market and we ultimately rolled back to our hotel as very happy shoppers.
The next morning we were up early— 6:30— in order to start our elephant trek/hiking trip. Since we had such a short time in Thailand, David booked a one-day trip. Although it was only one day, we saw a LOT. Our guide, Texi, picked us up from our hotel and drove us a few hours out of the city. We started a hike through the jungle/(rainforest?) of the mountains in the north. We started at the base of a hill-tribe’s village. The path was steep at parts and always slick with mud. Our guide was navigating it in flip-flops!! I was very impressed with his ability to not fall. At the village we started out in, a couple of skinny, happy dogs started trailing us. They stuck with us on the entire 4-hour hike, dashing ahead of us on the trail and running around in circles. Texi said he was very happy that they decided to accompany us because they helped root out all of the snakes! I was happy they came too, although they made me miss my dog a lot! =( Texi pointed out lots of cool plants, including one that wilted as soon as you touched it, as well as teak leaves which had lots of red juice in the middle. It looked like blood when he squirted it out.
About halfway through the hike we stopped at a pool with a pretty large waterfall and swam. The swim was super refreshing after a sweaty hike. David clambered up the slimy rocks to the waterfall. I followed him, although I had a bit more trouble navigating the slippery rocks. It was pretty cool standing under the falls though.
We continued through the jungle and made it out to the rice fields that belonged to the Karen, a hill-tribe that lived in the area. After a few more kilometers we made it into their village. The children came up with fists full of bracelets and other things. I bought two that looked pretty cool. The village itself was pretty poor. The Lonely Planet Thailand book says that hill-tribes as really fourth world citizens. They aren’t Thai citizens and aren’t legally entitled to things like land or jobs. It’s pretty awful. Their living standards are still pretty primitive. Bamboo huts with dried teak leaves for the roof.
I bought a bracelet from a hill-tribe girl.
Our new doggie friends!
The hike was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We saw some pigs in the forest (I don’t think they were wild) and I’m pretty sure the dogs that came with us ate a piglet in the forty minutes they disappeared from our side.
After the hike we went to ride elephants. David and I rode one and Nathan and Tina were on the other. It was a short, one-hour saunter through the jungle. Our elephant was pretty grumpy. He kept grunting and demanding that I feed him bananas and sugar cane to fuel his walk. We walked through the forest and into a river (where the elephant promptly pooed). It was a pretty unique experience, and I was quite glad for it.
Afterward we had lunch and hurried off to the last leg of our tour (we had to hurry because we might miss our train)! The last part was riding down the river on a bamboo raft. That was also pretty unique and cool. The raft was made of pretty thick, long pieces of bamboo. Our guide was a prankster, he kept screaming shark and splashing us with a pole. However, one time he yelled snake. At first I didn’t believe him. And then I saw it. It was a bitty little thing, maybe 5 or 6 inches long. It was in the process of sunning itself on a rock when our raft startled it and it swam into the river, straight toward us! The raft was too fast for it though. I also saw a rather large spider resting on another rock a few feet away.
Once we got to the end of the river our guide rushed us back into the van and drove us to the train station. Our clothes were so thoroughly soaked that we were forced to change in the van. We made the train and, since we were so exhausted from the hike, crashed early. It was a rough night’s sleep.
The next day was swallowed up in transit. Although Thailand looks small when compared to other countries in the world, it’s pretty dang long in parts. We arrived in Bangkok in mid-morning, made our way to the airport and got on a flight to Phuket. We didn’t get to our hotel until 3 in the afternoon. I never realized what a huge island Phuket is. We stayed at Patong, which is a rather touristy beach town on the western side of the island. Our hotel was really nice, but the beach wasn’t quite the paradise you see in all the pictures.
That evening David did a photoshoot of Tina and Nathan (again, check out the results on his blog). We went and ate seafood and then went to get oil massages. This second massage was better than the first, but it was still rather painful at times. It was so relaxing that afterward I collapsed straight into bed. ZZZZ.
After a buffet breakfast the next morning we spent a few hours at the beach. A monsoon came after about two hours and drove us back to the poolside. It was nice to spend the day simply relaxing. Toward the evening we got ready to do the photoshoot with Tina and Nathan. They wanted us to model the wedding dress and a suit that they’d brought over simply for this shoot. Both of them are wedding photographers trying to build their portfolio to break into destination weddings. So I dolled up, put on the dress and walked out to the beach. So many people were staring. It was funny. We couldn’t have asked for a better setting though. The sunset turned out to be GORGEOUS despite the entirely cloudy day. David and I had a lot of fun posing. We rolled around in the sand. Played in the waves and splashed each other. The dress got super heavy as soon as I went into the water, and my mobility was rather limited.
That night, after such a great photo-shoot, we had to say goodbye to the Smiddys. They moved to the other side of the island the next day and we decided to take a tour of the more paradise looking beaches. The next morning we packed up, left our bags at the hotel and went on a tour of Phi Phi Ley and Ko Phi Phi, some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. The waters were crystal clear blue. Towering islands of rock capped with lush green plants jutted dramatically out of the sea. The sand was white. The palm trees leaned. There were scenic wooden boats with the colored ribbons lashed to the bow. Our tour took a speed boat to a bunch of scenic places, including the place where they filmed Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “The Beach.” We went snorkeling in a bunch of places, which was super fun. There were parrot fish, angel fish, coral, sea urchins, jelly fish and all sorts of critters in the ocean around us. They even took us to a beach where wild monkeys live. Lots of tourists come and feed them fruit, so they don’t have to work too hard for food.
The last part of the day we spent lounging in the sun. It was lovely. Then after the tour we set straight back to the airport and then home. We made it back in about 15 hours of travel. Not optimal, but not horrible either.
Thailand was a lovely break and vacation. It was so relieving to be away from teaching and traveling again. It whetted my appetite for what’s in store for us in the next few months. Only 4 more weeks with my babies though! The thought brings me near tears. It’s going to be harder to leave them than I thought. I’m going to try my best to soak in these next few weeks and really treasure my kids and coworkers before I have to say my goodbyes. Still, traveling to Thailand for some reason also made me super homesick, so I have that to look forward to.
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