Vietnam: Lovin' the Hats

Thursday, March 3^rd.

After an overnight bus back to Bangkok from Khon Kaen I made an early van back to Bangplama to re-pack for my next adventure to Vietnam. Katie and I flew AirAsia from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City Thursday afternoon. Let me tell you AirAsia’s website is rather frustrating along with the lack of leg room on their planes. I guess that’s what you get for purchasing cheap flights. Minus the lack of leg room, the flight went fine and we landed in Vietnam in about an hour. My first observation of Vietnam was, “Holy Mopeds!” There had to have been at least 50 mopeds for every car on the street. The streets were packed with them.

Another observation was like back home, they drive on the right hand side of the road. I thought when I would be back home it would be strange to see cars driving on the right hand side, it really wasn’t as strange as I thought while I was in Vietnam. After we settled in our nice accommodations in District 1, aka the backpacker/touristy area, we explored for some dinner. As we were talking to someone from the restaurant down the alley way our hotel was on, I felt something hit my head. I look on the ground and it’s a spoon! It must have fallen from the porch above us and landed right on top of my head. Apparently, you have to beware of falling spoons in the alleyways! Katie and I found a great place for dinner. The entire infrastructure in Vietnam builds up rather than out, so each building has at least 5 floors and is very narrow. We found a place with out door dining that overlooked the main drag, great for people/moped watching. Vietnamese food deserves an A+! It was delicious! We ordered a few different dishes to try a little bit of everything. My favorite was the stuffed pumpkin nugget. It tasted more like a Mexican dish than Vietnamese but it was aroi!! Friday we decided to explore Ho Chi Minh by ourselves. We did our own walking tour which included a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the War Remnants Museum, and a coffee/sandwich shop for lunch. The War Remnants Museum was very educational. I learned a lot about the Vietnam War. It was quite emotional, as well, viewing the different photographs that were taken throughout the war along with the stories behind them. It was hard visiting as an American; I sensed a strong feeling of animosity towards the American soldiers/government by the war relics displayed. It gave me a whole different perspective on things after seeing such a war from the American enemy’s side.  

Lunch included one of my favorite shakes on this trip, a peanut butter coffee shake. I don’t know why I never thought of creating such a thing but it was yummy. You could taste each ingredient separately; it mixed together so nicely. We also found a place near our hotel that had really yummy fruit smoothies. For the 4 days we were in Ho Chi Minh, Katie and I became regulars to this smoothie stand. Every time we walked by the smoothie ladies they made sure to smile and say hello. Friday night we met up with Connor, Becca, Lee and Steph who trained it down from Hanoi. They said it was a very long train ride, 15 hours or something ridiculous like that. We went to dinner back at the same place Katie and I went the night before. After dinner, we went to a few different bars. It was interesting drinking the Vietnamese beer (Bia Saigaon) instead of the familiar Leo or Singha I’m used to drinking in Thailand. Katie and I woke up early the next day to head to the Mekong Delta for a two day tour  and one night homestay with a Vietnamese family. The tour of the delta was really fun! One of my main missions of coming to Vietnam was to wear and buy one of the cone shaped, Vietnamese style hats. Check that off the list!! The tour included a visit to a coconut candy manufacturing plant, a secluded place for lunch, a honey manufacturer, the floating market, and a rice paper manufacturer.  It also included a more private tour of the delta with a ride on small canoe boats through the canals. After the first day of the tour as we were on our way to drop some of the tourists at the hotel it began to down pour. It rained so much that the streets of Can Tho were flooded. It was flooded so badly that there was water in the buildings. It was actually pretty scary. I have never been in such bad flood conditions before. Katie and I didn’t know what to expect for our home stay. We were still able to do the home stay. Without really knowing what was going on, the tour guide shoved Katie and I in a SUV taxi along with 5 other people. The taxi drove us to what looked like an abandoned market. We waited for a bit until the man said “follow me”. He guided us to a canoe boat on the delta and loaded us all on, then decided to act like he was going to push us off the dock into the dark night sky without him getting on. He was just joking, thank goodness. After about a 20 minute boat ride we arrived to our home stay. The group all stayed together. They provided mini bungalow/huts for us to stay in. Katie and I enjoyed the company of a very diverse group of people from all over the world, Spain, France, Canada, Finland, Vietnam and America.  The family made us a delicious dinner that entailed elephant fish, the fish of the Mekong Delta, wrapped in spring rolls along with some other vegetable and rice dishes.

They also served us rice wine, aka very strong vodka. It was fun saying “cheers” in Vietnamese though, the one time we all tasted the rice wine. It was nasty tasting and too bad I don’t remember how to say cheers in Vietnamese. In Thai, it’s Choke Dee ka! One thing special about doing the home stay was being able to see a way of life very different than anything I’ve seen in Thailand, and especially different than America. The homes along the Mekong River Delta use the river water for pretty much everything. As we were boating through the river/canal, I noticed numerous people using the water as a source for washing pots and pans, scrubbing laundry, washing their hair, and brushing their teeth. I couldn’t help but notice how dirty the water seemed. It was sad to see the Mekong Delta families have to use such unsanitary water as their main water source. Katie and I arrived back to Ho Chi Minh later that day and decided we’d go to one of the nearby markets. There was a lot of clothing and accessories at this market. On our way back from the market, we were trying to cross the street but there were so many mopeds coming from all directions it was nearly impossible. Another tourist trying to cross with us told us he heard it would almost be best if we just walk across the street blindfolded, that way the mopeds can just maneuver around us. We of course didn’t do that but it may have been a good idea. The next morning Katie and I packed our bags and hired a private driver to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels before we had to go back to Thailand later that afternoon. The tunnels were used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. It was very interesting learning and seeing the different war tactics that were used against the United States. It was really incredible how they were able to create such a tunnel system throughout the country. The main purpose of the tunnels was for communication, supply routes, hospitals, and even living quarters. There were also camouflaged holes in the ground where the Viet Cong hid and waited for the enemy. Part of our tour included a chance to squeeze and hide in one of the holes. Those soldiers had to make sure they were in tip top tiny shape, because I barely fit through the hole. Also, we were able to crawl in part of the tunnel which of course had been made bigger in order to fit the Western tourists. I can’t imagine it being much smaller than it was!

After the tunnels, Katie and I got dropped off at the airport hours earlier than we really needed to be. We had a fun photo shoot with the Vietnamese cone shaped hats while we waited J Also we splurged on a nice glass of wine and a yummy sandwich. Vietnam was fun and educational! Overall, my impression of the people was friendly in Ho Chi Minh; a little pushy with trying to get us to make purchases though. Some differences I saw between the Vietnamese and Thai people was the lack of similar religion between the people, a lack of patriotism towards an anarchy like in the Kingdom of Thailand, and the woman of Vietnam love wearing very colorful silk/cotton like material pant and top suites with the cone shaped hats!

My Welcome Home Present from Wisconsin

Home sweet home! I flew from Bangkok to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to San Fran, and San Fran to Chicago. My mom was there to greet me at the baggage claim bright and early Wednesday morning. Thankfully, my mom and I made it home safely from Chicago around 10:30 Wednesday morning; unfortunately, Green Bay was getting hit with the biggest snow storm of the season. It was a great day to sleep off my jet leg. I snuggled in my bed around 3 p.m. with the intention of just a nap; well it turned out I ended up sleeping pretty much throughout the entire night, not really awaking until 7 a.m. A good day/nights rest was definitely needed after the 3 hour ferry ride, 8 hour bus ride, 1 hour van ride, another 2 hour van ride, 25 hours of flying/layover times including 3 different planes, and a 3 hour car ride. It had been a long few days of travelling. It was so great to jump in to my comfortable bed! It never felt so comfortable, coming from sleeping on buses, planes, and Thai mattresses. It’s great to be home! minus the 17.5 inches of snow…..

Tears for Thailand

Hard to believe the next few blog posts to get everyone updated on my past travel adventures in Vietnam and Thailand won’t be posted from Thailand anymore. I’m sitting in the Hong Kong airport, 4 more hours to go until I board my flight to San Francisco.  I can’t believe I’ll be in America come 17 ish hours. These last 6 months in Thailand have flown by. At first I didn’t think I would get so emotional when it came time to leave the place I’ve called home for the past 6 months, but I definitely experienced differently.  It was a very emotional day/2 days saying my good-byes to all the friends I’ve met while teaching in Thailand. After wrapping up my travels down south in Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party with a big group of girls, including Jaci!, I had to say my good-byes to the girls. The night before I left, they presented me with a mini photo album of printed pictures of all of us in Thailand along with  “For the Plane” notes. I waited to read them on my flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong. It was soooo sweet of them to put this all together for me. Olivia and I are the only ones out of the group of girls leaving after 6 months of teaching; they all really wish I would be staying for another semester of teaching and more travel adventures. It’s always sad to have someone leave L Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait to see them all when they come back to the States. The notes they wrote to me made me cry….. and made me really realize what great friendships I’ve made during these past 6 months. It’s sad to have to leave, but I’m optimistic that we will all meet again in the future. I’ll never forget this experience teaching in Thailand has given me, educationally and friendship wise. I had a warm farewell today at the Bangkok airport as well. Katie decided to send me off along with my coordinator Toon and another English teacher, See. Lun, my favorite school van driver even drove me to the airport. That definitely made the trip worthwhile! I love listening to his laugh. I even caught some of it on video J We couldn’t make the good-bye official without stopping at Amazon Café, our frequently visited coffee shop in Bangplama, to get one last Amazon Special coffee, some bean desserts to bring back to the U.S., and say good-bye to our coffee girls.

Overall, it was a very emotional day saying good-bye to the people in Bangplama that made my experience in Thailand so meaningful. It’s going to be strange not seeing Katie every day, like I’m so accustomed to. I’m going to miss her!  It will also be weird not waking up to rice fields and a beautiful sunrise every morning. I’m really going to miss the delicious smells and tastes of Thailand along with the all their friendly, smiling faces.  I hope someday I will be able to travel again in Thailand. I will always consider it my second home….. I’m really going to miss it here.

Bye-Bye Bangplama

As I sat on the overnight double decker bus almost a week ago with Katie headed towards Krabi I thought about the farewells that I had to make along with all the great relationships I had formed by teaching in Thailand. We left Bangplama a few hours ago for the last time together. It was a very strange feeling. We said our good-byes to Gan and Ji. Ji is the girl we have been tutoring from the Market. She is so sweet and was in tears as we were saying our good-byes. She was ecstatic when I told her she could have my old lap top. She brought Katie and I a good-bye gift with a card saying the sweetest message. She did not want us to leave. I really hope I can see her again; maybe I will come back to Thailand but I hope someday she can fulfill her dream of visiting America. Ji is definitely a person that I would say I made an impact on and helped her in some way. I feel so grateful to have done that in someone’s life. Saying good-bye to Gan was also really sad. She also wrote a good luck message to me on picture of me from the Suphanburi games and gave Katie and I a Chinese shirt to remember her by. I don’t think I could ever forget her. It’s sad because we can’t keep in touch via Facebook because China restricts the website, but there’s always e-mail.

My last day of teaching was February 25^th. It was a bittersweet moment. Really that last week of February wasn’t much teaching at all rather saying my good-byes to students. It was time for taking pictures with all of my classes and telling them I would be going back to America. I made sure I thanked them all for the wonderful experience I had teaching them and wished them good luck. I also expressed to them that if and/or when they travel to America to please not to hesitate to contact me. Unfortunately, I highly doubt majority of my students will be able to have that experience. It wasn’t only Katie and I’s last day teaching at Soongsumarn but also Gan and Aon’s last day as well. The English Department organized a really special lunch for the four of us that included some delicious Thai dishes.

The Vice-Director was also there to give us his farewell blessings. Toon surprised us by asking each one of us to give an impromptu speech.  I made sure to thank the whole department, especially Toon, for all that they did for me while I was here. They made me really feel like I was part of their family. I think it was hardest for everyone to hear Gan’s speech. She was very emotional. She had been teaching at the school for two years and had made long lasting relationships with all the teachers and students at the school. I could tell it would be very hard for her to leave. The most humbling moment was when Katie and I were leaving the flat and Jiranee, my co-teacher, ran after us to give us a hug and say in broken English, “I will always think of you girls” along with walking by a bunch of our students waving us good-bye.  I realized even though I’m not positive how big of an impact I made on my students, saying my good-byes that last week and watching them wave me good-bye Friday afternoon made me realize I probably did have some type of impact in their lives as a teacher and hopefully they will always remember that they had a farang teacher Chelsea.  

Takin' it Easy

As I sit on a beach chair on Koh Lanta staring at the Andaman Sea and the most stunning sunsets I’ve ever seen, I realize I’m really living the life of paradise; I’m free of all worries at the moment and I’m just taking in all the beauty I can for the next 10 days I have in Thailand. I’m sorry for being so absent in blog writing recently. I’ve been preoccupied travelling the North of Thailand, Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City), and some of the Southern Islands of Thailand. I’ll first recap you on my trip Northern Thailand. My trip to Vietnam and the Southern Islands will be soon to come.

This past weekend was a weekend very different than any other weekend I’ve experienced here in Thailand. I would have to say it was one of the more special and memorable weekends yet. Katie has family friends back in New Jersey that had an exchange student live with them from Thailand in the 1970’s, his name is Ron and he is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Ron came to the U.S. as a high school student with an organization called AFS and every year other people from his program get together in Thailand. This year we happened to be invited along. The get together was held at Ron’s friend Woody’s summer home in Khao Yai National Park. His home was gorgeous! I should actually say homes. There were three different buildings that housed his guests; one of which was a beautifully painted barn with bedrooms in side and a lower level where guests slept on mattresses camp style with projector screens on the walls. The kitchen in his home was huge. The detailed wooden floors in the home were beautiful. The view and landscape was breathtaking.

It was such a nice weekend to chat with all AFSer’s who had studied, lived, and travelled all throughout the United States. Talking with them made me realize how much of the States I still have yet to see. They were all very hospitable, offering Katie and I a bedroom whenever we were in Bangkok. I felt like I was at a family reunion with all the people and the food. It even seemed a little bit like Door County with the barbeque going minus the campfire. They even busted out the guitar and old school 70’s music. It was great! Things settled down a little when the monk arrived for the evening ceremony. Along with the great family feel this weekend, I experienced a lot of the Buddhist religion. Saturday morning we attended a smaller ceremony and offering of food to the monks at a near by Temple where Ron took part in his “ordainment”. Apparently all Thai men should go through this ordainment sometime in their lives. It’s a commitment of 10 or 14 days devoted to the monk lifestyle. It was a simple temple, with a small town village feel to it. We also attended another ceremony with the AFS group Sunday morning. This ceremony included a visit to the Buddha in the cave. It was pretty cool seeing a Buddha and place to worship in an underground cave. Each ceremony I attended was unique in its own way. The first one was special because I was able to see how even a toddler pays respects and practices the Buddhist religion. A little boy was bowing down and meditating just like his parents. Saturday afternoon, we went to Palio Market. It was like a mini-trip to Italy. I loved it! The Asian’s ate up the opportunity for pictures at this market. People now have to pay an admission before entering the Market because majority of the people only come to take pictures of the Italian Tuscan feel. Sunday after the Buddhist ceremony I headed to the Northeast with Katie to Ron, Peace, his daughter, and his wife’s home. Although it took about 6 hours to get to their home near Yasothin, it was a pleasant drive seeing different sights in Thailand. Ron’s home was much more than the average home in Thailand, or at least that I have seen so far. The outside reminded me a lot of a Florida style home. Ron and his family were so welcoming and openhearted. Our Sunday evening dinner seemed like Katie and I were truly part of their family. After dinner we spent the evening looking through photo albums of Peace and Art’s (his son) trips to the U.S. along with old school albums of Ron’s first trip to the U.S. That was really enjoyable. Even though I didn’t really know anyone in the albums, it was fun to listen Ron and Peace reminisce about their trips to the U.S. It really opened my mind to two different things. One being the greatness of print photos and photo albums and the other being my realization of what a great experience it is for people from different countries to experience a family home stay in a different country like Ron, Peace, and Art experienced. I remember when I was in high school my mom was considering having a foreign exchange student come to live with us, but my dad was strongly opposed. I recall myself and my brother not being strongly in favor of opening our home to a foreign student as well. It is really too bad we felt so strongly against it. After visiting with Ron and his family and teaching in Thailand for a longer period of time, it really makes me think I someday will want a foreign exchange student to come to live in my home, if possible or if/when I have children I would want them to have a foreign experience like I’ve had or like one that of Ron and his children. Monday morning, Ron and his wife took us to their school. Ron introduced us to a few of his M4 students. He was very proud introducing us to some of his “smartest” students. It was cute. Before leaving their home in the morning, Ron’s wife Tok gave me a gift. It was extremely nice and unnecessary of her and the family to do so. They gave me a pretty blue Thai silk scarf. Ron was nice to get me to the right bus station that would take me to Khon Kaen to visit Jess and Chelsea. We visited one last Temple in their town, which had the most amazing displays of popcorn string garlands. They were incredible! They hung throughout the whole Temple, some even hung from the ceiling to the floor.

It was great visiting Khon Kaen. Since the girls still had to teach while I visited them, I had a lot of down time to explore and just hang out. The city of Khon Kaen and the area where the girls live was great, I thought! It seemed like a bigger city but definitely manageable to walk to most places or take song-taus wherever you needed to go to get around town. I visited the night market the first night I was there with the girls. We ate some delicious pad thai. I was able to go to school with Jess on Wednesday.  Both her and Chelsea teach at a private primary school that is focused on teaching students subjects in both Thai and English. From the stories I’ve heard about their teaching situation prior to coming to visit, I already knew it was a lot different from my experience teaching 800 students at a government school in Bangplama. I found this to be very true especially after “shadowing” Jess on Wednesday. She was actually helping out at the Thai school’s pre-school and Kindergarten’s end of the year play. So Wednesday morning I went with her to watch her practice with the adorable little children. We got there right in time for the Flag Ceremony, which was “same same, but different” to the one I attended each morning in Bangplama except a million times cuter. The kids were soooo cute!

After the Flag Ceremony they do a warm-up dance. It was hilarious watching some of the students jump up and down and sing and dance. I fell in love with these students immediately. Practice for the play started shortly after flag ceremony. The play’s plot is a combination of International dances and songs performed by the pre-school and kindergarteners. Jess acted as the English tour guide. There were three other main characters that spoke in both English and Thai. Watching the little ones dance to the tango, 50’s, Hawaiian, and Indian music was the cutest thing I think I’ve ever seen. They even had matching outfits for each country dance that they performed. I couldn’t get over how good these young students were at dancing and performing. It was absolutely adorable!

We went back to Jess’s school just in time for lunch. It didn’t measure up to our amazing lunches at Soongsumarn Katie and I will miss so very much though. After lunch, Jess taught her 3^rd grade class that she teaches Social Studies, Science, Math, and English too. In her class there is about only 25 students. Their level of English is far more advanced than the level that my students were at. Really I can’t even compare her experience to my experience teaching in Thailand because it is very different. Her kids were great! So cute! It was hilarious watching the students chew the Double Bubble Jess generously gave some of the students who won a game the day before. It was actually a good example of why gum should not be in the classroom or even for that matter given to children at all. The boys would try to blow bubbles and it ended up all over their cheeks. I was quite entertained. Along with noticing the abundance of half white half Thai children at the school, there were a few mentally challenged students at the school. Jess had told me earlier that they lack special education school’s in Thailand. It blows my mind that that is the case. I don’t see how it is fair for the mentally challenged students to learn at the same level as their peers who are not mentally challenged. It was a great experience shadowing at Jess and Chelsea’s school! I would definitely have a much harder time leaving my students this semester if I saw the same group of adorable 3^rd grade faces that Jess does every day.