Baby, its not 90 outside

Today marks a week until Christmas day which I will spend in Bangkok with my mom and brother. I am very excited and lucky to be able to spend Christmas in Thailand with my family J Last night was Grace’s wedding reception. She is a Philippine English teacher at my school.  The reception was held in the theater area of the school. Katie and I were invited along with all the other teachers at Bangplamasoongsumarnpandungwit School and of course the bride and groom’s family. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this event, but it turned out to be an enjoyable night; however not the typical American wedding reception one would think of by any means. Grace looked beautiful! Her dress was very simple but elegant especially with the way her hair was done. Toon was the host for the evening; she said a few words about the bride and groom and introduced the Director of the school to give Grace and Darwin his blessing. After the blessing, Grace and Darwin sang a song together and cut the cake. Before the cake was served, there were food items placed on each table, an assortment of different Thai dishes. The whole time the guests were eating Grace and Darwin were either walking around or were on stage. There wasn’t a table designated for them to sit and eat themselves. A group of four students were singing throughout the night, as well as one of the teachers. She sang Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, which I thought was an interesting choice for a wedding….The bride and groom had their dance together; besides their dance there wasn’t any other dancing that went on. It was very thoughtful and generous of the school and all the teachers to help put this event together for Grace. It is like we are all part of the Bangplamasoongsumarnpandungwit school family.

This past Tuesday, Katie and I went with Toon in the school’s van to Ayutthaya to finish our work permits. We are now legally working in the Kingdom of Thailand. This process was completed much sooner than I thought too! It ended up being a fun day. On the way, Toon helped Katie and I learn some new Thai words and phrases that we will find helpful in the classroom. We stopped at a restaurant across from some of the ancient ruins of Ayutthaya, which is Thailand’s ancient capital. Toon did the food ordering. We had a delicious noodle soup with beef and an omelet filled with calamari, mussels, and shrimp. It may sound a little fishy, I know…..but it was really good! After lunch, we went to get our work permits. It was a very small room packed with desks and people standing waiting to be seen. It was worse than the DMV, luckily we didn’t have to wait too long. Next, we made a surprise visit to one of the floating markets called Ayootthaya. I wish I would have brought my camera. Definitely a place I want to visit again. It’s not your typical “floating market” where people actually sell things from boat; the shops sit on a boardwalk right next to the river. We strolled through the area and each store seemed more unique in its own way to Thailand, selling things from souvenirs and food to specialty items. Toon had us try a famous Thai dessert I’ve seen before but wasn’t sure what it was. I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s a roti pancake, very similar to a crepe, filled with a cotton candy like material. It is aroi….delicious in Thai. The rest of the week went rather well. My students were surprisingly well behaved for me this week. It was perfect timing weather wise in Wisconsin for me to be teaching some of my students about winter weather; I showed some pictures of the snow storm that hit Wisconsin recently to my students.

The students all seemed to be pretty surprised to see snow and said the pictures were “beautiful!”….thanks mom! One of the days after school, Katie and I began teaching a group of 20 students the “cha-cha slide” that they will perform at the Christmas program on Christmas eve. I’m not really sure why they are performing a dance at the program, but one of the Thai English teachers wanted Katie to teach the kids an “American” dance and since we couldn’t really think of anything Christmas specific, we thought the cha-cha slide would be a good alternative. I can’t wait to see them perform next week! Thursday evening it rained like cats and dogs here in Thailand; with the rain came a cold front and by cold front I mean temperatures are now probably in the 70’s. In our apartment the usual temperature is in the high 80’s sometimes even low 90’s, but Friday it read something as low as 69 degrees! It was amazing waking up Friday morning cold and drinking a warm cup of hot chocolate. Today I even got to wear jeans! I hope this cooler weather lasts for a while.

Tonight will be spent relaxing, drinking a glass of the first bottle of wine Katie and I splurged on since we’ve been in Thailand, and probably watching Bones or Elf. Unfortunately, the taste of that glass of wine didn’t live up to my expectation I had for it....

Happy Birthday King and Wild Elephants

December 5^th was the King of Thailand’s birthday; therefore Monday, December 5th was a National Holiday. A group of girls and I went to Ko Samet for the long weekend. We had a great time…. r & r on the beach followed by amazing fire shows and dance parties at night.  We ate dinner at Ploy’s Restaurant, sitting on cushions right in the sand.  A Philippine band performed some popular American songs before the fire shows began. They were very good! The whole crowd helped them sing, including what to me looked like a European man who was very intoxicated. He would stand on his cushion bouncing and dancing around while he attempted to sing along….it got to be quite entertaining especially when the fire shows began. We had front row seats for the band and the fire shows until they moved to the beach. The show was a little bit different than the last time I was on Ko Samet. The “Firemen” lined up along the beach and there was an announcer that introduced each fireman and said their “story”. After another synchronized fire show on the beach, they had everyone who was eating dinner get up and join them for the LIMBO….fire style. It was awesome! I am not very good at the limbo though, so I made it only two times under before stepping away. This may have been due to my inflexibilities but I think it had more to do with my fear of catching on fire! The bar they used for the LIMBO was completely immersed in flames. Some people kept with it as it got lower and lower. Finally when it came down to the very lowest height possible only two of the firemen were left….what do you expect though, they do this for a living. They both made it under the bar with the little room they had left.  After the LIMBO, there was the jump rope of fire and the fire hoop. Jenna and Allie, two of the girls I was with, did the jump rope of fire. They did an amazing job! No one I knew did the fire hoop; thank goodness because there was a girl who tried jumping through it and burned her leg…..the hole jumping through a small hoop of fire seemed pretty dangerous to me. She seemed fine though…..

After another day of relaxing on the beach and eating delicious Thai food and fresh fruit smoothies, we went to another beach bar to celebrate the King’s actual birthday. It turned out to be “gay night” on the dance floor which was entertaining and very fun! At midnight, the bartenders passed out birthday candles and everyone began singing a Thai song while we watched a sign on the beach blow up in flames that read, “Long Live the King”.

That week at school was rather short. Only three days of teaching because Friday, December 10^th was Constitution Day, another holiday we had off. I taught my students about Christmas and am having them create Christmas cards to turn in for a Christmas card contest. Tuesday, after one of my classes, I find a package on my desk in the English Department. St. Nick found me in Thailand!! He delivered me my very own stocking from home filled with a few goodies and even turned Harley’s old stocking in to a stocking for my roommate Katie. It was perfect because I was able to show my student’s what a stocking is and what mine looked like. To get even more in to the Christmas spirit, I bought multi-colored Christmas lights at Tesco and hung them on my walls in my bedroom. And…it gets better! I can now say I decorated a Christmas tree this year in Thailand J Katie’s parents sent her a mini Christmas tree with decorations; so we listened to Christmas music as we decorated our mini-tree.

Thursday after school, I headed to Thailand’s oldest and one of the largest intact monsoon forests

remaining in mainland Asia, Khao Yai National Park. I went with Liz, Ciana, and Olivia. We stayed at

Bobby’s Apartments and Jungle Tours, which by the way were great accommodations offering great hospitality! We arrived rather late Thursday evening but luckily I was able to sleep in Friday morning since our half day tour didn’t begin until the afternoon. Seven of us sat in the back of Bobby’s pick-up truck to begin the tour. Jip was our Thai tour guide, who spoke very good English. Along with us was a woman in her mid-40's from England travelling with her mother around the world in three months; a French man who was a fireman back in France and spoke just enough English to get by; and a young Veterinarian woman from Finland vacationing in Thailand. The half day tour included swimming in a rather cold river with mini-waterfalls, a cave tour, and watching thousands of bats evacuate their cave into the night sky. I was a little on edge about entering the cave. I really had no idea what to expect, but it was much bigger than I expected. I got to see stalagmites and stalactites, icicle shaped mineral deposits that occur in limestone caves….pretty boring actually ha….but we also saw bats and some sick looking millipedes which reminded me of something in the Nightmare Before Christmas movie. They were huge!

 

After the cave venture, we drove out in to the middle of a corn field to see an amazing sunset and watch thousands of bats come out of their cave. As they flew out of the cave it looked like a line of smoke in the sky. It was pretty cool seeing them flock together in groups and disperse to different areas of the sky.

 

Our way back to the guesthouse took longer than on the way there due to the music festival traffic. As we were stopped in traffic, there was a car full of Thais, one of which was playing the guitar in the backseat while the passenger in the front was singing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” rather loudly for everyone to hear…it was quite entertaining actually. We finally made it back to the guesthouse and enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal… Chicken, Cashew Nuts, and Vegetables with Rice….aroi mak mak!

Saturday was the full day tour. We woke up bright and early, had a wonderful breakfast, and were on our way to Khao Yai around 7:00 a.m. Our first stop in the National Park was at a viewing point where Jip, our tour guide, had us put on leg warmer looking booties to protect our feet and legs from tick bites. I have to say, we all looked pretty good in them! Ha ha….

As we continued on, we began to see monkey after monkey on the side of the road and even right in the middle of the road. The cutest thing was the mama monkey holding her baby monkey tight in her arms. Our next stop was at the Visitor’s Center where we walked across a rather wobbly bridge and read some information about the animals we may see in the park…... an assortment of birds, elephants, monkeys, gibbons, snakes, etc. After another short drive, we were dropped off at the side of the road and began our hike. The further and further we were in the jungle, the less and less of a path we were on. There really wasn’t much of a hiking path to begin with though. I felt like I needed one of those swords that you cut down brush and trees with to create my own path. It was quite rustic. As we hiked through the jungle, I began to hear the sounds of a waterfall along with the other nature sounds. The waterfall noise got louder and louder until we finally reached it. It was beautiful; the area was so peaceful. There was no one around us. The waterfall was, if I remember correctly, 12 meters high. Liz and Lionel, the Frenchmen, decided to make the jump. I’m too chicken…it was too steep of a jump for me! Plus they had to climb back up the falls in the jungle with no shoes on to meet back up with us. It was pretty cool though to watch them jump. I was content with not jumping and enjoying the peace and quiet of my surroundings.  

After our first waterfall break, we continued on along the falls. This part of the hike was a lot different than the first part in the wooded jungle. We were pretty much rock climbing or at least what will be the closest to rock climbing I’ll probably get to. As we were hiking, Jip all of a sudden is “shhh’ing” us as he quietly shouts “gibbon, gibbon”. Sure enough, high up in the trees is a gibbon. It was awesome! We watched the gibbon hang from the tree high above us and swing from branch to branch. It even looked like “Gibby” was eyeing us up for a while. We decided to give the gibbon a name, “Gibby”. I was pretty thrilled to be able to see a gibbon. Many people, who have done the Gibbon Experience and Flight of the Gibbons, where the tour is specifically to see gibbons, don’t even see them.

The hike continued for a while, making a stop at a smaller waterfall and finally making it to the end of our hike at the mouth of the famous waterfall, Nam Tok Haew Suwat which was filmed in one of the scenes from the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Beach”. This waterfall was packed with tourists but so beautiful! After our long, strenuous hike it was time for lunch. I was pooped, so Liz and I sat in the back of the pick-up truck and played cards while the rest of the group went on a hike to see crocodiles. I decided I’ve seen enough of them in Florida so I was going to rest for a bit. After their return, we drove up to the highest viewing point of the National Park. Unfortunately, the sky was rather foggy so we weren’t able to see much of a view. On our way back down it was closing on dusk and we were told that if we are lucky we may come across wild elephants. As I am yawning, enjoying the drive through the park, Liz screams, “Elephants!” Sure enough, there are four wild elephants, one standing pretty much in the road. The truck driver drives by slowly and Jip says something in Thai to the elephant. The only phrase I remember is, “mahut….mahut”. The elephant was being quite peaceful just eating some dinner and then all of a sudden it must have gotten irked by something and decides to start charging at our truck as we were slowly driving by it. “Oh shit!” The driver of course started to speed away and the line of cars waiting to pass by in the other direction begin trying to reverse. Man can those elephants run….and I thought they were slow moving animals; I guess only when they want to be. As we began driving faster, the elephant stopped running eventually; but our guides didn’t have enough and neither did I. It was so thrilling!

We started to approach the elephant again, just wanting to get closer to look at it and sure enough it began to charge at us again. This time the front of the truck was facing the elephant; therefore, the driver had to go in reverse at a fast speed which was rather interesting considering there was a line of traffic behind us. We got lucky though the elephant didn’t run too far away from the others he was with. I just kept imagining what would happen if it decided to actually charge one of the cars or try stepping on one of the smaller cars. Who knows what could happen….They are very large, wild animals. Finally, a ranger truck came to move the elephant in to the jungle so cars could pass by. All it did was approach the elephant at a fast speed and had some type of stick to give the elephant a little push into the jungle. I was sooo excited to be able to see a wild elephant like that! It was pretty awesome and not to mention extremely thrilling!! I loved it! We had quite the day at Khao Yai National Park. It was great to experience one of Thailand’s amazing natural landscapes and habitats.