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.
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