Monday, December 21, 2009
Khao Yai - a breath of fresh air
Sarah and I went to Khao Yai over the weekend - a national park about 3 hours to the north of us.
Our train stopped in the middle of nowhere for an unnecessary amount of time and we ended up being an hour late. Thankfully, our awesome hostel owner Joe waited at the train station for us until 1:45 in the morning. Our room was fantastic - by far the nicest and cleanest place we have stayed so far. Comfy beds too! After only 4 hours of sleep, we left on a jungle trekking tour at 8 am with 1 Swedish couple, 1 Dutch couple and 1 Czech woman - they also turned out to be some of the funniest and greatest people we have met so far. We drove through the park on a Sorngthao and saw some macaques and snakes. Then we went gibbon hunting and found tons! Our guide, Puma, was great at spotting tiny animals from the road; suspiciously good so Sarah and I decided that all of the animals are actually his pets and he plants them around the park for all the tourists. We had to wear these hilarious leech proof socks and of course Sarah had one on her the instant we walked in the jungle. Our guide promptly removed it from her leg and threw it on me. Horrifying! Then we found a cool little orange snake and Puma told me to hold it so I played around with it for a little and then he decided to tell me that its' bite hurts REALLY bad. Awesome. I took a picture just for you mom. We almost ran into a huge Komodo dragon type lizard and saw some pretty cool birds, like a hornbill. After we drove around for awhile, the real trekking began and I was drastically unprepared for this "hike". Hiking somewhat implies there is a trail. Instead, we basically army crawled through the jungle completely not worried about ticks or spiders or snakes and tried to desperately keep up with Puma; who is a foot shorter and a professional. He got our group pretty close to a gibbon family so it all ended up being worth it! We tried to find some wild elephants but it was too crowded on the weekend so we ate lunch and went to see a waterfall (actually the one Leo Dicaprio jumped off of in The Beach). It was pretty cool and then we drove around some more looking for elephants but they were hiding pretty well. We got back around 8, absolutely exhausted and just showered and ate dinner quickly with our group. Our guesthouse was family run so it was a really friendly, laidback atmosphere with amazing food and after chatting for a bit, we went to bed at 9:30 like true 80 year olds. On Sunday we had to get up early and catch a train back, which again was late and also stuffed full with standing room only. The Thai teens right by us closed the window too so they wouldn't get tan and it was stifling! I don't get the obsession with whiteness but they were already super tan and there was no airflow so naturally I opened the window and laughed at their dramatic attempt to seem annoyed. Khao Yai was one of the best trips we have taken so far and we met some great people while there! We also planned the whole thing ourselves without tips from anyone else and it worked out well so Sarah and I feel pretty successful! Now just 4 more days of showing Elf to my noisy students and beach, here I come!!!!
Our train stopped in the middle of nowhere for an unnecessary amount of time and we ended up being an hour late. Thankfully, our awesome hostel owner Joe waited at the train station for us until 1:45 in the morning. Our room was fantastic - by far the nicest and cleanest place we have stayed so far. Comfy beds too! After only 4 hours of sleep, we left on a jungle trekking tour at 8 am with 1 Swedish couple, 1 Dutch couple and 1 Czech woman - they also turned out to be some of the funniest and greatest people we have met so far. We drove through the park on a Sorngthao and saw some macaques and snakes. Then we went gibbon hunting and found tons! Our guide, Puma, was great at spotting tiny animals from the road; suspiciously good so Sarah and I decided that all of the animals are actually his pets and he plants them around the park for all the tourists. We had to wear these hilarious leech proof socks and of course Sarah had one on her the instant we walked in the jungle. Our guide promptly removed it from her leg and threw it on me. Horrifying! Then we found a cool little orange snake and Puma told me to hold it so I played around with it for a little and then he decided to tell me that its' bite hurts REALLY bad. Awesome. I took a picture just for you mom. We almost ran into a huge Komodo dragon type lizard and saw some pretty cool birds, like a hornbill. After we drove around for awhile, the real trekking began and I was drastically unprepared for this "hike". Hiking somewhat implies there is a trail. Instead, we basically army crawled through the jungle completely not worried about ticks or spiders or snakes and tried to desperately keep up with Puma; who is a foot shorter and a professional. He got our group pretty close to a gibbon family so it all ended up being worth it! We tried to find some wild elephants but it was too crowded on the weekend so we ate lunch and went to see a waterfall (actually the one Leo Dicaprio jumped off of in The Beach). It was pretty cool and then we drove around some more looking for elephants but they were hiding pretty well. We got back around 8, absolutely exhausted and just showered and ate dinner quickly with our group. Our guesthouse was family run so it was a really friendly, laidback atmosphere with amazing food and after chatting for a bit, we went to bed at 9:30 like true 80 year olds. On Sunday we had to get up early and catch a train back, which again was late and also stuffed full with standing room only. The Thai teens right by us closed the window too so they wouldn't get tan and it was stifling! I don't get the obsession with whiteness but they were already super tan and there was no airflow so naturally I opened the window and laughed at their dramatic attempt to seem annoyed. Khao Yai was one of the best trips we have taken so far and we met some great people while there! We also planned the whole thing ourselves without tips from anyone else and it worked out well so Sarah and I feel pretty successful! Now just 4 more days of showing Elf to my noisy students and beach, here I come!!!!
Monday, December 14, 2009
December
This last weekend, Sarah and I decided to stay in Chachoengsao to save money and to take a much needed rest from traveling. Thankfully we did, because I developed a debilitating illness!
On Friday, we met up with some of our Thai friends Bomb, Gang, Pek and May, and went out to dinner with Kevin, Beth and the teacher who used to teach me classes - Elliot. Elliot was traveling in India for 2 months after he finished teaching and is back to visit for a week before leaving for Australia. We ate at this little place called Steak n Pizza by our apartment and much to my surprise, 2 students joined us! It was fun, because these 2 twin boys are fantastic students but drinking with them was slightly awkward. We all had a good meal and then the students left so we went to a bar down the street to chat. Elliott told us all about India and Bomb loaned us some English books that he has been collecting from past farang. It was a good night - everytime we see Bomb and Gang is sure to be a hilarious time. The next day we woke up early to go visit the Old Market. After some confusion, we finally found Banmai and were not at all impressed. The market was the smallest one so far and mostly just had food (aka dried jellyfish, disgusting). We walked around for a bit, got some smoothies and fried bananas, bartered with some people and ended up leaving. We got massages with our friend Erica and it was fantastic! After a quick nap, we went out to dinner with all the British and Irish teachers and hit the town! Our friend Calan came into town for the night as well and it was nice to relax with some English speakers. On Sunday, Sarah and I slept in finally!! we went to Big C (kinda Wal-Mart place) and ended up eating some delicious pepperoni pizza. After going home with a food coma and relaxing the rest of the day, enjoying the nice weather I decided to goto bed around 10, the earliest ever so I was very excited to be well rested. Well, then I started getting dizzy, then I got horribly, terribly sick. I cthought it was food poisoning but some of the other girls in town had a terrible stomach bug so it could have been either. I didn't get any sleep that night so obviously missed school on Monday. They took me to the Dr. and got me some medicine which worked miracles and now I'm back at school, on the mend but absolutely exhausted. One more class and then I can nap. I think Sarah and I will be staying in town again this weekend to get healthy before our big Phuket/Phi Phi vacation but we may take a daytrip to Kow Yai, a national park pretty close to us. I can't believe it's almost Christmas, with the warm weather, it doesn't feel like it. Pretty soon Sarah and I are going to be working on our travel plans after the program ends so we're very excited about that. Until after Christmas then, I miss you all and happy holidays!
On Friday, we met up with some of our Thai friends Bomb, Gang, Pek and May, and went out to dinner with Kevin, Beth and the teacher who used to teach me classes - Elliot. Elliot was traveling in India for 2 months after he finished teaching and is back to visit for a week before leaving for Australia. We ate at this little place called Steak n Pizza by our apartment and much to my surprise, 2 students joined us! It was fun, because these 2 twin boys are fantastic students but drinking with them was slightly awkward. We all had a good meal and then the students left so we went to a bar down the street to chat. Elliott told us all about India and Bomb loaned us some English books that he has been collecting from past farang. It was a good night - everytime we see Bomb and Gang is sure to be a hilarious time. The next day we woke up early to go visit the Old Market. After some confusion, we finally found Banmai and were not at all impressed. The market was the smallest one so far and mostly just had food (aka dried jellyfish, disgusting). We walked around for a bit, got some smoothies and fried bananas, bartered with some people and ended up leaving. We got massages with our friend Erica and it was fantastic! After a quick nap, we went out to dinner with all the British and Irish teachers and hit the town! Our friend Calan came into town for the night as well and it was nice to relax with some English speakers. On Sunday, Sarah and I slept in finally!! we went to Big C (kinda Wal-Mart place) and ended up eating some delicious pepperoni pizza. After going home with a food coma and relaxing the rest of the day, enjoying the nice weather I decided to goto bed around 10, the earliest ever so I was very excited to be well rested. Well, then I started getting dizzy, then I got horribly, terribly sick. I cthought it was food poisoning but some of the other girls in town had a terrible stomach bug so it could have been either. I didn't get any sleep that night so obviously missed school on Monday. They took me to the Dr. and got me some medicine which worked miracles and now I'm back at school, on the mend but absolutely exhausted. One more class and then I can nap. I think Sarah and I will be staying in town again this weekend to get healthy before our big Phuket/Phi Phi vacation but we may take a daytrip to Kow Yai, a national park pretty close to us. I can't believe it's almost Christmas, with the warm weather, it doesn't feel like it. Pretty soon Sarah and I are going to be working on our travel plans after the program ends so we're very excited about that. Until after Christmas then, I miss you all and happy holidays!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Pictures of Koh Chang
The ferry ride over
Breakfast on a gorgeous morning!
I want to live here for the rest of my life
Our lovely little bungalow
Lonely Beach
The sunset was AMAZING!
Happy birthday!
Our little fishing village
Beach adventure in Koh Chang!
Our first traveling snafu has finally occurred. On Friday, our bus driver was late picking us up and it took us 4 hours to drive to Trat. We arrived about 10:30 only to find that the last ferry had left at 7. We had already paid for the night on the island and were determined to get a ferry. After an hour or so of begging random people (with the help of our lovely bus driver!), we chartered a ferry across. The ferry took an hour and thankfully our driver called us a taxi and then it was another whole hour in songtow (basically the back of a pick-up) to get to our bungalows. Our bungalows were secluded in a small fishing village away from the main beach activity and NOTHING was open. The place was silent until a huge dog ran out of nowhere barking and snapping at us. I really thought one of us was going to get bit but after 10 straight minutes of fear, we found some other people awake. Since they were Thai, and offering us rooms, we first assumed they worked there. We quickly discovered they were all hammered and just offering us THEIR rooms. Well that was no help. We banged on the manager's door for about 30 minutes straight and there was NO way he didn't hear us. After finally resigning ourselves to sleeping in hammocks outside, the manager finally decided to grace us with his presence and yell at us for being late. Ah well, at least he gave us the keys. We all just crashed since it was about 2:30 already.
The next day though, we gloriously woke up to sun and the ocean! Our bungalow place was beautiful and we were pretty close to some little shops and a great restaurant. After catching some breakfast, we all headed to the beach for the whole day and it was fantastic! (We had to trek throught the jungle and over this shady bridge covered by the tide made of sandbags...) All I did was nap, go swimming, drink fresh smoothies and eat delicious food all day long. I got a massage in the late afternoon with Sarah and Erica and we all watched the sunset on the beach. We went back to our bungalow, rested up and showered and then headed out for dinner and drinks. When Sarah and I got back to our bungalow, there were 2 humongous cockroaches sitting on my towel right next to the bed. I nearly lost it! I've been killing spiders and mosquitos for weeks and the sight of those huge roaches just did it. Thankfully, Sarah kept her wits about her and killed one and the other one hid. The next night, we definitely left our lights on while we were out.
The next day was pretty much a repeat but it was Erica's birthday so her, Sarah and I rented a kayak (conveniently called a Tri-yak for 3 people) and paddled around to some of the smaller islands that are inhabitable. We landed on one of the bigger islands for a couple of hours and swam around and relaxed completely by ourselves. It was seriously amazing! We paddled back in the late afternoon and enjoyed the sun until evening. We all went back, showered and got ready to celebrate! We found a hilarious mini-cake at 7/11 and sang happy birthday in the restaurant so I think Erica was really pleased. We ate a great dinner and went out for drinks on the beach bar. We ran into some of the people from our original CIEE group later on but then all split up into smaller groups to explore. There were about 6 of us, including the birthday girl, that found our own little private bar and it ended up being great. I think they were just excited to get any business so most of our stuff was free the whole night and the birthday girl ended up with a great night. Taxis stopped running around 11, unfortunatley we discovered this at about 3 in the morning so getting home was interesting. Some taxi man tried to charge us each 100 baht ($3) and that was just outrageous! We eventually bartered him down to about 50 baht a person. The next morning we went to explore some of the shops, ate at this great little restaurant right on the pier where you can hang your legs down in the water under the table. Then we had to unfortunately hop on our bus back to Chachoengsao.
The next day though, we gloriously woke up to sun and the ocean! Our bungalow place was beautiful and we were pretty close to some little shops and a great restaurant. After catching some breakfast, we all headed to the beach for the whole day and it was fantastic! (We had to trek throught the jungle and over this shady bridge covered by the tide made of sandbags...) All I did was nap, go swimming, drink fresh smoothies and eat delicious food all day long. I got a massage in the late afternoon with Sarah and Erica and we all watched the sunset on the beach. We went back to our bungalow, rested up and showered and then headed out for dinner and drinks. When Sarah and I got back to our bungalow, there were 2 humongous cockroaches sitting on my towel right next to the bed. I nearly lost it! I've been killing spiders and mosquitos for weeks and the sight of those huge roaches just did it. Thankfully, Sarah kept her wits about her and killed one and the other one hid. The next night, we definitely left our lights on while we were out.
The next day was pretty much a repeat but it was Erica's birthday so her, Sarah and I rented a kayak (conveniently called a Tri-yak for 3 people) and paddled around to some of the smaller islands that are inhabitable. We landed on one of the bigger islands for a couple of hours and swam around and relaxed completely by ourselves. It was seriously amazing! We paddled back in the late afternoon and enjoyed the sun until evening. We all went back, showered and got ready to celebrate! We found a hilarious mini-cake at 7/11 and sang happy birthday in the restaurant so I think Erica was really pleased. We ate a great dinner and went out for drinks on the beach bar. We ran into some of the people from our original CIEE group later on but then all split up into smaller groups to explore. There were about 6 of us, including the birthday girl, that found our own little private bar and it ended up being great. I think they were just excited to get any business so most of our stuff was free the whole night and the birthday girl ended up with a great night. Taxis stopped running around 11, unfortunatley we discovered this at about 3 in the morning so getting home was interesting. Some taxi man tried to charge us each 100 baht ($3) and that was just outrageous! We eventually bartered him down to about 50 baht a person. The next morning we went to explore some of the shops, ate at this great little restaurant right on the pier where you can hang your legs down in the water under the table. Then we had to unfortunately hop on our bus back to Chachoengsao.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monkey Fest and a City of Ruins
We just got back home from visiting Lopburi which is a small town infamous for the takeover of monkeys. After a long bus ride through Bangkok, we were dropped off literally 1 block from our hotel and then some taxi man took us 4 miles away from it for 20 baht each. What an asshole. It was literally like 30 cents so we all quickly got over it and the hotel send someone to find us. We ate a late dinner and had some drinks before turning in for the night after a long day of teaching and traveling. Saturday we woke up to some delicious fried bananas right outside our window and of course, monkeys! We went to see the monkeys at the temple briefly before hopping a bus to Ayuttaya, Thailand's old capital city. We took all these back roads and the trip ended up being closer to 2.5 hours instead of 1 so we had a pretty late start. Our friend Danielle that we were meeting up with had been waiting for about 6 hours and had made some Thai friends who offered to drive us around all day for a measly 200 baht. We went to lunch at a really nice restaurant and had some fried fish, chicken dishes and of course, rice. Then we were off to the ruins! The ruins were extremely cool and there were Buddha statues everywhere that were pretty decently preserved. We went to 4 different sites before sunset and all mostly felt that we saw all we needed to see. We took the train back which was much cheaper and quicker. The only downside? Bugs EVERYWHERE! The lights were left on and so bugs were massing around the top of the train and there were these pebble sized black bugs covering the floor so it was pretty much impossible to not be covered in bugs. We just all gave up and brushed off at our final destination. Ma pen rai. We went out for dinner and had some fried fish that was excellent, some pretty delicious duck and chicken. We only ordered 4 plates to share thinking it would be heaping servings, but we had to order another whole round! We also bought bottles of whiskey to share from 7/11 (our new favorite place), which is much cheaper than buying from the restaurant. We stayed out pretty late and ran into some other farong from our CIEE group so the next morning was pretty rough. We found a little place with some classic English breakfast food and enjoyed that before heading over to the monkey temple for the mass feeding ceremony. It was PACKED! We finally pushed throught the crowd and got some serious close contact with the monkeys. One jumped on Calan, one almost jumped on me and some girl from our group got peed on by multiple monkeys. It was hilarious! They were drinking bottles of water, cokes and eating everything you could possibly think of! We saw multiple monkey fights break out along with some brief mating and Sarah and I even got interviewed! Look on Associated Press website to see if you can find me! We finally decided we had enough and checked out of our hotel and hopped a bus back to Bangkok where we had a deliciously fantastic pizza meal. Now I'm exhausted and ready to struggle through another week of teaching...after some much needed and deserved rest. Love you all!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Teaching
So, I've been updating mostly about traveling and all the other Thai fantastic things, but most of you haven't heard too much about my teaching experience. As expected, most of my classes have some very redeeming kids and can be really fun on any given day. There's a couple of bad apples in each class but I think they're starting to respect me more and have more fun. However, I have 3 absolutely awful classes that I can not stand! One of my senior classes is full of a bunch of smart asses that think they run the school and I just lost my temper one day. I told multiple boys not to come back to class if they're not going to work or listen and I think they were so scared of me, they completely stopped coming to class. Honestly, it works out better because the kids that do show up get all of my attention and time and then I'm not fuming after that class because of those couple kids. One of my other bad classes is just lazy - the sad part is they are actually pretty decent at English but they're lazy and rowdy so nothing ever gets done. It takes all my effort to teach to about 4 kids in the front who really want to learn and seem to like me so I'm trying to focus on them.
Most of my frustration actually stems from the administration. Rowdy kids I can take, incompetency is another thing. Our school forgets to tell us about holidays, pretends they don't know when midterm exams are, forgets to tell us when classes are missing from school for special exams or field trips and has an extreme lack of textbooks. The one book they gave me has multiple paragraphs about the Soviet Union so that's not helpful at all. The Thai teachers don't speak English and so they teach all the students incorrect grammar such as "I am black hair" and "My father name's Somsak". It's infuriating trying to correct these habits! Then, there is no continuity in what the kids learn - each teacher just comes in, teaches what they want for 5 months and leaves. So my kids can say words like "coronation", "venerate", "gracious" and "honest" but they can't tell me how old they are or what their name is. I had a really hard time trying to decide what is important for them to learn so I just ended up picking things I think I would need to know in Thai - such as directions, how to ask for a toilet, introductions and food items. Teaching has gotten easier as time goes on because after a month, I'm a little more used to the daily grind. However, the administration is just as frustrating and unhelpful as ever so I really feel like the four of us Americans are just here for show and pomp - not to actually help these kids speak fluent English. Also, each of my classes is about 50 kids and some of them don't even have desks to sit in. With a bunch of 16-18 year olds, boys and girls, there is no way I can keep control of these classes! I have no disciplinary authority except to yell "quiet!" in Thai over and over again or make them stay after class and write repetitive phrases. I had my first really bad day earlier this week but I guess out of 5-6 weeks of being here, 1 bad day is not too terrible at all! Teaching is definitely my least favorite thing about Thailand, but I still do have some classes that are absolute angels to have! Speaking of, I have to go teach now. I miss you all, happy turkey day and hopefully I can talk to everyone soon!
All my love,
Katie
Most of my frustration actually stems from the administration. Rowdy kids I can take, incompetency is another thing. Our school forgets to tell us about holidays, pretends they don't know when midterm exams are, forgets to tell us when classes are missing from school for special exams or field trips and has an extreme lack of textbooks. The one book they gave me has multiple paragraphs about the Soviet Union so that's not helpful at all. The Thai teachers don't speak English and so they teach all the students incorrect grammar such as "I am black hair" and "My father name's Somsak". It's infuriating trying to correct these habits! Then, there is no continuity in what the kids learn - each teacher just comes in, teaches what they want for 5 months and leaves. So my kids can say words like "coronation", "venerate", "gracious" and "honest" but they can't tell me how old they are or what their name is. I had a really hard time trying to decide what is important for them to learn so I just ended up picking things I think I would need to know in Thai - such as directions, how to ask for a toilet, introductions and food items. Teaching has gotten easier as time goes on because after a month, I'm a little more used to the daily grind. However, the administration is just as frustrating and unhelpful as ever so I really feel like the four of us Americans are just here for show and pomp - not to actually help these kids speak fluent English. Also, each of my classes is about 50 kids and some of them don't even have desks to sit in. With a bunch of 16-18 year olds, boys and girls, there is no way I can keep control of these classes! I have no disciplinary authority except to yell "quiet!" in Thai over and over again or make them stay after class and write repetitive phrases. I had my first really bad day earlier this week but I guess out of 5-6 weeks of being here, 1 bad day is not too terrible at all! Teaching is definitely my least favorite thing about Thailand, but I still do have some classes that are absolute angels to have! Speaking of, I have to go teach now. I miss you all, happy turkey day and hopefully I can talk to everyone soon!
All my love,
Katie
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Weekend in Bangkok
This past weekend we went to Bangkok and stayed with a coworker of Mr. Arntz named Somsak. His family offered to pick us up in Chachoengsao, drive us back, and let us use their condo! The condo facility was amazing, we even had hot water and a glorious resort-like pool. We went to JJ Market, the biggest market in the world, and shopped like crazy. This market had everything from live animals to clothes to kitchenware. You can find absolutely anything you need, except for shot glasses apparently. I bought a big traveling backpack for about $4 and had a blast bargaining. We went to Siam Paragon, the huge center of Bangkok, and saw a famous Thai popstar, a dance competition and surprisingly, the USA fair. The mall was all decorated for Christmas so that made us feel a little bit like back home. The next morning we got up really early to travel to the floating market in Ratchaburi, about 1.5 hours away from Bangkok. We rented a boat and bought several things along the river but didn't really get started until we walked around to all the rest of the shops. I had a total blast bartering with everyone; I even started bargaining for stuff I didn't even want! I bought a silk Thai robe for about 15 bucks, even though it started more at like 35 and I got a lot of really cheap souvenirs. Some woman gave me a discount because I "spoke Thai so well" - aka I know how to ask how much things are and then can make a distressed face and say ahhh, too expensive! We tried some coconut ice cream, a huge selection of new fruits and altogether had a blast. After a quick nap and some lunch, we headed back home, thanked Somsak and got settled back in for a full week of teaching. He offered to pick us up and let us stay at his place again (since he has 3 houses) and we'll probably see a Muey Thai boxing tournament next time we head up there. Another successful weekend and now back to the daily grind of losing my voice, hating my administration and teaching from a textbook that apparently still thinks the Soviet Union is real. Oh Thailand...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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