Finally our travels begin!!!

The morning we were to leave on our travels and have James and Pat take us to the bus station, they tell us that we need to talk to the director first and tell him our plans. We couldn't have done this a month ago? It is interesting to me how much "power" this director has. He is really put up on a pedistal. To make a long story short, we ended up waiting 6 hours until they finally took us to the bus station! I told myself, that if this journey doesn't teach me patience, God help me. I just don't think it's in the cards for me! We finally got on our bus and arrived in Chiang Mai 9 hours later. Unfortunately we only got to spend the night there because of our delays the previous days and the fact that we were meeting our friend Chelsea from Holland there, and she had already spent 2 weeks there. Next we stopped in Chiang Rai for a day and then headed to the Thailand/Laos border. Northern Thailand is beautiful and I hope to get back there. I ran into a gentleman there who asked where I was from and then what state I was from. When I said South Dakota, his first response was, "Where all the Indians are?" Is that all people think about South Dakota!

It was quite an interesting and simple process getting our Laos visa. Our bus took us to this lady in a small shop on the Thailand side and we filled out some paperwork. Then they took us to the river, where we took a short ride to the other side, to Laos. We handed in our papers, gave them some money...and in about 10 minutes I had my visa! In a few hours we were off for our 15 hour bus ride to Luang Prabang! It was a CRAZY ride! The roads were insane. They were ridiculously curvy and a normal person would have driven quite slowly...but not our driver! Also the road itself was in very bad shape, so it was a very bumpy ride. It was strange because I was so used to people driving on the left side of the road for the past 3 months, but here they are on the right! What makes people decide which side to drive on!

The landscape in northern Laos (which is pronounced Lao) is absolutely breath-taking. There we were on this incredibly narrow little pavement road laid between these gigantic and glorious mountains and hills and deep valleys of lush forestry and jungle.

It was truly stunning. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it the whole time because it was an overnight bus and then I had a bit of motion sickness! After a while the bus stopped and I saw this young boy and lady get out...and run into the woods and "pop a squat!" A few hours later, in the dark of the night, the bus stopped again, and about 50 people got off and each found themselves a "spot!" Another interesting aspect of this culture, which was prevelant in Thailand also, but not near as much so, is paying to use the toilet. The best part about it? That there is almost never even toilet paper! And only at a few spots can you actually buy TP.  It would be an interesting job to be the cashier in front of the toilets collecting money.
Just a few days prior to this bus ride, I was commenting about how much I missed a good thunderstorm...and I was happy to awake from sleep hearing rain on the window and cracks of thunder! It gave me goosebumps! Once the morning hit we were able to see this eye-pleasing landscape again and got to see more of the small villages speckled amidst the mountains. They consisted of little bamboo huts with thatched roofs. At one point we saw about 30 villagers all crowded around this one small TV!

Dad and brothers....I don't know if you can clearly see the fence work that is in the foreground of this next picture but I was wondering how it would hold up next to your fence work!  

I'm not sure what the purpose of the fence really is, since there are always cows wandering about over the roads!

Also, I got a bit nervous when we passed these army guys...not sure why....but my fear went away when they smiled and waved and said hello to us!

The end of the school year

The last two weeks of school were quite hectic....between trying to finish up lesson plans, to trying to squeeze in last minute bits of knowledge to the kids (which i think is silly...just review the stuff they already know instead of throwing new stuff at them), to working on our end of year presentation for the kids' parents. We split up the students into different groups that would cover different subjects. I got to do the MATH part! After some thought I finally figured out what my students should do. At the beginning I would have some addition and subtraction problems on the board and call on different students to read and answer the problems. Next I had my group count from 1 to 20 and from 20 to 1.

Then I had a story problem on the board, that all the kids would read together and then I would ask for a volunteer to solve it. It went like this...."Kron (one of the students) has 20 fish. He gives 8 fish to March (another student). How many fish does he have left?" After that I had 3 students come to the board at a time, and I would say a math problem and they would write and solve it. They loved this part. For alot of them it was a little competition.

 Last we ended with a Math game. Two people play against each other. You count to 20 by saying 1 or 2 numbers at a time. For example, I would say 1, 2. You would say 3. I would say 4, 5. You would say 6, 7...and so on. Whoever says 20, loses. The kids love it...and are very good at it. I'm sad to say that I have yet to beat one of my students!!!  For this part of the presentation, we had some of the parents come up to play against the kids...and the parents never won! The day went very well. The director, the head of the MEP program, and the parents, we all happy with our work and how we connected with the kids.

This first picture is of my group. The second picture is when I told them to put their seriously face on and to not smile!

Life didn't all go as smoothly as the end of year presentation unfortunately! I just had to keep reminding myself...an easy life teaches nothing!  I'm not sure if I mentioned that my visa initally came back as a 3 month single entry instead of a 1 year, mulitple entry. Again, with this lack of sense of urgency in Thailand, this issue was not dealt with, until shortly before we were to leave for our traveling! We were told that we needed non-B status visas instead of non-O that we had. The B's are for working. Yet again we were given wrong information from the beginning. So, I needed to get my visa switched to a B and then extended for a year. Unfortunately, it's not as simple a fix as one would imagine or assume! After driving to Bangkok twice and Lopburi once and being told a hundred different things...the final conclusion was this: they couldn't do anything to help me....I would have to leave the country...get a tourist visa for Thailand while I was gone at an Embassy inVietnam or Cambodia....then, come back into the country and get my visa changed to a B and extended for a year.  WHAT!?!?! I would have been fine with the whole thing....but unfortunately I haven't found a tree that grows money here! Bah. So, I guess I hope that I am able to get back into Thailand after our travels!

James was very aware of the fact that I was not a happy camper with this situation. So to try and lighten my mood, he says, "Do you speak Deutsch, German?"He's made a German comment to me before so I assumed he knew the answer was yes! The next thing I know he started singing this german song! It was an interesting sight to see this Thai man, singing a german song!

Cailin and I stopped at this little restaurant we pass every day on our way to school. The owner lady spoke decent English and really tried to accomodate us. We told her that we were leaving to travel but that we'd definitely come back. She said when we got back she would help teach us Thai! This is a picture of her precious little girl! The following picture is of their 2 pet bunnies....and yes, that fuzzball...is a real bunny!

The next picture is of a little friend I found by our washing machine. Not a fan!

This next picture is of a spider that was outside our house on the neighbors wall. If that thing ever managed to get inside the house....I think I would move back in asecond! He was about 6 inches in diameter.

We were invited over to supper at one of our students parents house. I was nervous about what was going to be on the menu...but it turned out okay! We read and played with the girls and then I noticed a piano in their living room (I'm sorry Mavis, it's only an electric piano, not a REAL one!). The oldest daughter took lessons and she played a few songs for me. I then noticed a piece of sheet music. I guess I assumed that music was the same around the world, as far as notes and how it's written, but I was wrong! This shows the symbols that they use and the girl explained to me that the symbols represent, do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti do! I'd like to see what bigger pieces of music look like.

Independence

Most of you who know me well, know me as an independent, strong willed, go-getter sort of gal (mother do you know where I get this?? Haha!).  If I set my mind to something I am going to do it. I don't always follow the norm. I'm used to doing what I want, when I want.  Although I still find myself always trying to please others and do things to satisfy them, sometimes over my own happiness. This trip is an example of a step of my independence. I wanted to do it, so I did. Since I have been over here though...I feel I have been lacking indepedence or not being able to express my independence fully. I don't do anything on my own and I hardly have any alone time.  I have another person to check in with and constantly be aware of. (I truly enjoy your presence Cailin! It's just been a change for me!).  We live together, work together, and do everything together.  Again, if I didn't have Cailin, I think I would feel very alone. This past week I started something new...something I've never done before....getting up extra early! I've always been someone who sleeps until the last minute...and then rushes to where I have to be.  I figured that since I can't sleep well here anyway, especially in the mornings, I might as well get up! I leave to bike to school by about 7:30 every morning. Unfortunately, it is already getting warm at that time! I've really been enjoying this morning, alone time.  I would do just about anything for a cool, crisp morning air though! Another thing that I have been craving and desperately wanting is a good thunderstorm!  Maybe during their monsoon/rainy season?  I can only hope!

A vice of this personality is that I don't like to ask for help often because I think I can do things on my own. I think it's important to know when to ask for help. This experience thus far has been a blessing because it has taught me to ask for help. I don't know everything (yes, I admitted it mom and dad!). Being here has made me sometimes feel I don't know anything! It's a humbling, yet necessary experience to ask for help and I feel I ask for help alot here! The last two months have been draining on my being, trying to get accustomed to this new culture, communicating through the language barrier in the classroom, and just figuring out how things work. Thankfully, it gets a bit easier every day. We only have end of year tests left at school and then we leave to travel for 7 weeks.  I am very excited for the new school year in May. I feel alot more confident than I did 2 months ago and know that I am over the hump and look forward to learning more and more about teaching strategies and how to be effective in the classroom.  

As I mentioned before I feel that they expect alot out of us and expect us to do miraculous things. I have been extremely overwhelmed and stressed the past couple weeks trying to fulfill the things they ask of me. I have decided that it's a bit irrational...but, because of this darn personality of mine, I will still do everything in my power to accomplish everything I can so as to not let them down!  I feel that after this experience I should be able to put "miracle worker" on my resume!  One thing I know for sure is that I definitely know how to do lesson planning after the past month! Even though it's been stressful, I feel it has been very helpful and I've learned alot. They really make you go through every step and think about the objectives and if they are being met through the knowledge and the process.
I feel that we have been made to feel a bit guilty about leaving for 7 weeks to travel, even though it is during their holiday school break. They keep saying, if its "necesary" for you to go. Or James has mentioned how Americans need to travel. I have often wondered while I've been over here, how people make it by. Alot of people have food stands and it is so cheap I wonder how they can make any money. James said he's never been out of Thailand. I have gathered that most of the people here (except those with money of course) do what they can to get by and don't have their goal in life being to make alot of money. They have a roof over their head, food to eat and their families. Do we really need much more than that in life? So I had a few moments of guilt for wanting to travel...that is was maybe unecessary.  The whole point of me wanting to come here was to experience a new culture and to learn from them and I feel that if I made the effort to come half way across the world, I should take it what I can!
This next picture is of some veggies we bought at a market. For all of that it was about $2!

Every morning when I bike to school I see the same lady at this stop light who goes around to the cars and motor bikes trying to sell these flower arrangements that you hang on your vehicle. I assumed it had something to do with Buddhism. One morning when I was biking to school early, I decided to buy one. Maybe I thought it would help me fit it! When James got to school later I asked him what they were for. He said that it is a cultural thing, not Buddhist. Thais believe that objects have spirits. The flowers are a way to thank the spirits and it is supposed to give you protection. I asked if locals would get offended if I had one hanging from my bicycle because I'm a farang. He assured me not.

One of our students has been coming to the pool we go to and we have had a chance to get to know her mother a bit. Her mom invited us to supper one night. She picked us up at our house and inside the car was her and her husband, and their 4 daughters! The daughters ages ranged from 4 to 11. They took us out for pizza! How many of you can say you've had shrimp cocktail pizza! It was actually pretty tasty! The mother also told us that she wanted to pay for our membership to the pool every month. I was overwhelmed with her generosity.  An interesting experience that I had while we were waiting for our pizza is that the oldest girl, 11, pulled out a book to read. So, I started reading it.  After about a page in, the mom said something to her in Thai, and I realized that she was supposed to read it to me! I was very impressed with the English skills that she had. It was only every now and then I had to help her or correct her on a word. 

I will end with one final experience that Cailin and I had over the weekend. Friday night we were going to find a new place to eat. We stopped by this one place and realized that they didn't have English on their menus and they didn't have Pad Thai or Kao Pad (fried rice), which are the only foods we can say inThai at this point! We came to another place that had a lady singing up on stage. We had rode by their many times, so thought we would check it out. We asked if they served food and they did. It didn't take us long to realize that this place was highly populated with lady boys (women who used to be men!).  I think I mentioned before that this is a HUGE thing in Thailand. A few of them were very friendly and the one spoke very good English, so it was an interesting and new dining experience!

Kayaking down the river

While we were in Kanchanaburi, we also did some kayaking.  Decisions had to be made. Should we do the 4km, 7km, or 12km ride? We decided on the 7km so we could take our time and enjoy our trip a bit and not have to rush. We told our driver and off we went. I was anticipating the view along the river and just enjoying the outdoors. In my past life, I was always too busy to get out and soak up the outdoors as much as I would have wanted. My sister commented that she was thought this adventure would be good for me in the respect that I will actually get to slow down and enjoy my life and be able to reflect on it....instead of buzzing around like a crazy bee all the time! Well, I truly got to relax and ingest my surroundings going roughly 2 miles an hour!

Some scenery pictures....

I am off looking for something...I'm not really sure what!

Before I snapped this next picture, I almost fell out of my kayak because I was startled by a noise and I was sure it was some creature in the water that I did not want to encounter! It ended up being a couple boys that had big spears and goggles and were doing some under water fishing!

I'm not sure what the structure of this house is being constructed from (bamboo possibly??), but I know that it is like nothing I've seen being built back home!

The first few kilometers of our paddling were as I expected, with the scenery being very satisfying. After a while though, the river banks were chuck full and lined up with resort after resort after resort! I knew this was a tourist trap location of sorts, but it was just the same thing, one after another. The buildings and landscape was pretty, but it wasn't the natural look I was antcipating. There were also hundreds of floating restaurants and restaurants overlooking the river. The river water was clear as day. The whole trek, minus when it was too deep, you could always see straight to the bottom, which was rare compared to most of the bodies of water I've encountered thus far in Thailand.

It was a crazy sight to see these gigantic palm trees sticking out amongst the regular trees.

After what seemed like forever of paddling and coming around numerous forks and bends in the river and seeing nothing....we started to wonder if somehow we missed a turn! We were all a bit exhausted. A little angle was sent to us in the form of a floating restaurant being pulled by a tug boat....where we got up next to it and held on for a while...totally fulfilling the term "free-loader!" Unfortunately I didn't last very long because the front of my boat caught and I got dragged away and couldn't paddle fast enough to catch back up! Cailin became a pro very quickly though! 

 

FINALLY we reached our final destination! It was then that our suspicions came to rest and we found out that we in fact did 12 km not 7km! No wonder we were pooped! We treated ourselves with some tastebud popping Indian food! It was quite pleasurable! I also tried to cool off a bit with smoothie that hit the spot!

 

It was at this Indian restaurant that I discovered these amazing paintings on the wall and the guy Steve who was with us said that he knew the artist. Later that night I inquired about how much one of the paintings was and he said that he had sold one to someone in Europe so his price was 26,000 baht. I'm sure he saw my mouth drop! That is over $800! I told him that was almost 2 months salary for me! Later that evening we got a ride in a sort of taxi I hadn't seen before. Our driver's name....Mr. Duck. I liked it!

The next day Cailin and I headed to Bangkok to MBK, this ridiculously humongous shopping mall. I told her I didn't like malls, but because I liked her I'd come in with her! Before I moved to Thailand I looked into buying Rosetta Stone to help me learn Thai. I'm glad I saved $300 and just bought it at this place for roughly $6! There are hardly any DVD's or CD's that you can buy in Thailand that are real deal.

This past week I had a plethora of encounters of stares. It really is an interesting feeling to be stared at in such a way. I can't help but think, "WHAT ARE THEY THINKING??" Are they judging and stereotyping me like I have possibly done to them without being able to help it? Or do they also have thoughts like me of, "I wish I could speak their language so I could truly get to know them and see if we have things in common!" 

The other morning at school at an early morning assembly (which of course I couldn't understand!), I saw a student that had a shaved head minus 2 really long braids. I asked the MEP coordinator how that could be because I thought kids had to have short hair. She said that he had been sick for a really long time and that Thais believe that braids like that will help you get better. I would like to learn more about the reasoning behind this belief.

In light of trying to get all these lesson plans finished, I've been working through lunch! Here is a picture of one of my top 2 favorite things to eat...papaya salad (som tum). It's not only delicious, but very healthy. It consists of crushed garlic, crushed red pepper (I have to say nit noi ped, a little spicy!), lime juice, soy sauce, tomatos, green beans, sugar, dried shrimps, carrots, shredded papaya (not ripe), and some peanuts and cabbage to garnish. Som tum makes me a happy lady!

Journey to Erawan Falls

After using 5 different types of transportation, we finally made it to Kanchanaburi! We found a lovely place to stay that had AC and hot water for rougly $20 for the night! (the next 2 nights we got a different room and the only difference was that it didn't have a tv and it was half the price!). I met some people from Ireland that evening who had been traveling all over and I got some great advice from them and got contact info for help in the future! We had a bit day ahead of us so we woke up early and found a place to rent motor bikes for the day for about $6! Erawan Falls was our destination and it was about 70km away (45 miles). I was so glad that we decided to get the bikes. It was a gorgeous ride.  The wind in my face, the sun beating down on me and a breath-taking landscape at my fingertips!

I will admit it wasn't all roses. I've mentioned before how the traffic here is a bit hectic and there were a few times where I felt cars zoomed by me, just inches from my bike! I was constantly getting peeped at, which I was annoyed with because I was trying to get over as far as I could, but I later found out that it is just a nice gesture from them to let me know they are coming! 

Every now and then I would stop off and snap some pictures. This one was particularily interesting to me and reminded me of one of the Indiana Jones movies! It is a billboard for food...the top is not the part that I questioned...it was the bottom and what appeared to be a monkey head on a plate! If it is true, I guess I wasn't aware that they ate monkey brains here!??!

Once we got to Erawan falls I was actually a bit disapointed about the lack of wild we saw on our hiking up the falls. We did spot this little guy though I was thoroughly impressed by his colors! So bold!

Also on our hike up to the falls we ran into this next group of people. All we did is just pass by them and make eye contact and smile and the next thing we knew we were invited over to eat with them and they offered us water.  Unfortunately we had just ate. I was still overwhelmed by their hospitatlity.

This is a view of the lush landscape and terrain that surrounded us.

Going into this journey we heard that the falls are alot better during the rainy season, but they were still brilliant. The color of the water was magnificent. One new experience that I encountered was having fish "clean" my feet. (It's a big touristy thing I've seen in Bangkok where you pay a good deal of money for this fish massage, where they eat all the dead skin off of your feet!). All you had to do is sit on a rock and dangle your feet in the water and within minutes you had an array of little fish nibbling at your feet! I might have squealed the first time or two, but then I started to enjoy it. I will admit though, my feet came out of the water pretty quickly when a big fish came around! 

We actually got to slide down these big rocks. It took me a minute to work up the courage but when I did it was quite enjoyable! There was another part of the falls where you could jump off this cliff into the water, but I didn't feel like breaking any bones!

I'm excited to go back to the falls in the rainy season when there is alot more water. This next picture satisfies a dream of mine...I've always wanted to crawl under a waterfall! It was an invigorating feeling to have the water crash down on me.

Maybe I haven't been to alot of national parks in my day but I found it very interesting that on our way into the park we had to pay a deposit on all the water bottles we were carrying with us. This was to prevent people from littering. I thought it was a brilliant idea! Again, I'm not that brushed up on my rules in national parks, so maybe this is standard! I also had to surrender the munchies that I had brought with me for our hike because of the "fierce monkeys" that lurked in the woods! I was disapointed that I didn't have any encounters (albeit maybe next time I'll sneak some food in so the monkeys find me!).

Something else that I have found intriguing since I've been here is that basically anything that you have to pay to get into...parks, tourist attractions, etc....farangs (foreigners) ALWAYS have to pay more....a significant amount more! Can you imagine if we tried to get away with that in the US? Charging different people different prices....it would never fly! Could it work to have some sort of sliding scale depending on where you were from? Something to look into perhaps!

We then hopped back onto our motorbikes and make the 70km trek back while dusk was approaching. I don't know why it still strikes me as odd to see fields of crops here! I think maybe it's because it's hard for me to grasp the concept that there could be some similarities between Thailand and home! Here are some fields of sugar cane in the middle of harvest.