October 13, 2010.
Sawatdee Ka! Well, I made it to Bangkok pretty tired and a little jet legged but overall excited! The flights weren't as bad as I thought, especially the 14 hour flight from LA to Hong Kong. The service on Cathay Pacific airlines was great! I met Becca on my flight from LA to Hong Kong so it was nice to get acquainted with a fellow teacher right away. Once arriving in Bangkok, we went through customs no problem and met a few other teachers before cramming into three vans with everyone's luggage. Stepping out of the airport, the air was very humid but the sky was overcast. The drive from the airport to our hotel, Louis Tavern, was longer than expected. Thais drive on the left hand side of the road, and I should not forget to mention they drive very fast! Needless to say I was a little nerv.ous ... ..
A lot of the buildings I saw from the highway were tall and ran down. Also, a very common thing to see was clothes hanging from apartment balconies probably to dry. I was surprised to see so many trees along the roads and highways. We finally got to the hotel after about a 30 - 45 minute ride. My roommate's name is Jenna; she's from Santa Barbara, California and is teaching at a school just outside of Bangkok. We are staying at the Louis Tavern Hotel. It's definitely a lot nicer of a hotel than I expected it to be. I was surprised because the hotel even had bellman to help us with our luggage. The rooms are nice; kind of remind me of the 70's. I did attempt to plug in my hairdryer and well let's just say that didn't go well. I plugged it in without a transformer to immediately find a flame fly out of the socket and black ash all over my hand .... I screamed of course but surprisingly enough did not get hurt or feel any sort of shock!
A few of us went to explore the area in hunt for some Thai food. We didn't walk too far before coming to an outdoor restaurant. The atmosphere was nice, but unfortuanly it being only 3:00 in the afternoon, between lunch and dinner, they did not have majority of the food items on the menu. The server had a very hard time explaining to us in English what we could order. We ended up with fried chicken wings that tasted like KFC, nothing special and fried morning glory which was actually really good. Overall the meal was disappointing ... ..
We walked around more, visited a 7 / 11. Yes, just like the ones in the U.S ... .. well a little different, more of a small grocery store than a gas station. Majority of the items were Thai and very CHEAP!
After getting back to the hotel I was very tired from the flight; needless to say I went to bed EARLY!
October 14, 2010.
Thursday was our first day of orientation. Before orientation, each morning the hotel has a breakfast buffet. Most people know how much I enjoy food, especially breakfast! I have to say I was a little curious as to what the typical Thai breakfast entailed. The hotel's buffet entails mini omelets, a few different rice dishes, a variety of vegetables and fruits, danishes, fried eggs, ham, and yes even cereal! The milk tasted fine too. I was very happy with such a variety. J. but I do realize I probably won't be eating like this when I move to Suphanburi in a few days.
We were able to meet the other 80 teachers involved in the program along with receiving a warm welcome and introduction from the OEG group in Thailand. (The Thailand coordinators we will be working with). Our week of orientation seems pretty intense, filled with a lot of learning opportunities as well as fun activities including a visit to the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple, a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwae, Elephant trekking and Bamboo rafting!! !
We were then split in to two groups; my first lesson was on tips for teaching followed by an amazing lunch. Oh, a random fun fact I learned besides teaching tips, Chern Long is a famous Asian actor or in the US also known as Jackie Chan! Lunch was very good! The pad Thai was delicious! After lunch, I learned a lot of different basic Thai phrases. Including, Chan chue Chelsea ka. Chan ma jak Wisconsin ka. I'll let you guess the English translation! We also learned some food phrases to help us out at the restaurants. After classes we went out exploring and in search of place for dinner. A group of girls stumbled upon a restaurant that was like an open air restaurant. There were a lot of locals there, so we figured they must have good food. Of course as we were walking in, everyone is staring and chatting .... I don't think I mentioned this before but our hotel supposedly is in Bangkok, but really it's on the far outskirts of Bangkok and any touristy areas or people. Jess ordered a cat fish, not expecting to have a whole catfish with the head, whiskers, and everything put in front of her on a plate. It was pretty funny! It actually tasted pretty good! Although after looking at it for a while I began to lose my appetite for the chicken curry I had ordered. The curry was not what I had expected ... it was alright, but nothing great. I am beginning to believe it will take some time before I know how to order the right food items from an authentic Thai restaurant without seeing the pictures.
After dinner, we stopped at the Internet Café close to the hotel which was filled with loud, screaming Thai boys playing games on the computer. Walking back we also came across a few stray dogs .... Those kind of creeped me out ... .. but everything was fine! There was also some Thai Karaoke going on at the Hotel's Restaurant. That was fun to listen to for a while.
October 15, 2010.
Today, we woke up early for breakfast and pilled in to two double decker buses to visit the Grand Palace and the Emerald Temple. The trip in to downtown Bangkok didn't take too long, about a half hour. We got out of the buses right by a van filled with military men walking along the streets as well as street vendors trying to sell us everything imaginable, from umbrellas to clothes to those cool pointy hats that you see Thai people wearing ... .. I still. have to figure out the name for those.
The weather was hot and muggy, but overcast and sprinkly. The rain actually felt good since it was so humid and hot. Our group of teachers split up in to a few smaller groups. Each group had a tour guide to explain the important significances of the Palace and the temples. I took many pictures ... but I don't know if they can describe to you what I saw in person. The architecture was so intricate, detailed, and beautiful! It was unbelievable ...
The King of Thailand was recently very sick and was and I believe still currently is in the hospital. He is 84 years old. Also, something I observed while on the bus ride to the Palace was the amount of buildings, billboards, and pictures of the King and Queen. Thailand, at least Bangkok, shows a lot of respect for their King and Queen.
The Emerald Temple holds the Emerald Buddha. In order to go in to the Temple you must take your shoes off. They ask you if you chose to sit and worship the Buddha to sit with your feet facing away from the Buddha. I walked in but did not sit down. Our tour guide was surprisingly Catholic, and she says she doesn't sit when she goes in.
After the Temple, we walked by the Palace of the King and Queen which was beautiful! The Grand Palace and Temple was definitely an amazing and beautiful place to visit in Thailand.
For lunch we walked through a Bangkok street market, passing by food vendors. Wow .... This is what people talk about! The smells were so appealing. It was really cool to see. I cannot wait to explore the city more, since we really haven't had that big of a chance to do so so far. Our lunch was also amazing. We had a variety of different dishes from fish, to shrimp cakes, to chicken. Of course these names are not the correct Thai names .... But trust me it was good! And some of it finally was SPICY, like they say Thai food is going to be. I think because they see we are American, the Thai's tone down the spice for us, which I don't really want them to do. But I have plenty of time to experience the spice and hotness of the food.
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