Back to Laos....AGAIN!!

Ann, my 2nd grade teacher, and I made a quick trip to Lopburi to see if I could get my visa thing figured out. We didn't get the news we were hoping for and I was told that I would have to go back to Laos! When we were catching a little taxi back to the bus, and we and an old man got on, these 3 high school aged boys got out of their seat for us to sit down. As I've mentioned before, respect is huge here. Sometimes I feel that it is a lost art back home. I was thinking that this visa thing was my fault because I didn't know what I had to do to fix it before...but I also feel that the first time this happened and I had problems, that SOMEONE could have mentioned the proper protocol! 

I was up at 5am one morning because we were taking our kids to this English Conference in Bangkok. I think of myself as a morning person and that I'm not too grumpy in the mornings, but there are some things that I have found living here in Thailand, that I just don't appreciate at early hours of the morning....and that being REALLY LOUD THAI MUSIC!  I decided there was no way I could sleep so instead I played around with the kids in the bus on the way there and we had a lot of fun!

Here is me with my seat partner Ninee.

 

Here I'm with another precious student, Mint.

With Omsin and Bai-Tong....Omsin IS having more fun than it looks like!

With Mind, Bonus, Korn and March. I don't think back home the kids would get away with being out of their seats and running crazy around the bus....but here, I guess it's okay!

The fab five all pretty in pink! (By the way I HATE the color pink!) This is the Anuban Singburi School MEP crew.  Ann, myself, Pat (Head advisor), Tuk and my favorite Thai man James. 

 Having fun posing with my Thai translators and fellow teachers! I have really enjoyed both of them and feel very lucky and special to have them!

 On the way home from Bangkok we stopped in Ayutthaya at a temple and this is a picture of a fruit stand I passed. I believe that most of this fruit is pickled. I couldn't even tell you what most of this fruit is! I know that one of them is mango, but that's it! All the smells were quite overwhelming!

I am constantly entertained by the things I see done on motorbikes! Here March holds the umbrella to keep his mom from getting wet on the way home!  Also a quick story...the next day as I was walking through the school yard, coming back from lunch, I saw a little boy running at full speed...BUT, when he saw me, he stopped dead in his tracks and just stared at me! I didn't know if I should have felt good or bad about this! Another similar story, where again I was coming back from lunch, riding my bike through the school, I had some little boys stop and stare and me and then one reached out and touched my arm....to see if I was real? I'm not sure!

 So, yet another adventure began for me...back to Laos for another visa! This time, I was lucky to have some people to go with me.  There were some teachers from a nearby town that also needed to do a visa run. I met them in Ayutthaya to catch a train to the border. I almost didn't even make it to Ayutthaya because the bus forgot to stop and drop me off until we were almost to Bangkok and I finally asked if we had passed Ayutthaya! Then I had to take a little mini-bus to Ayutthaya...where I was surprised I made it alive because the driver was going like 145kmp (roughly 90mph!) the whole way! Finally I made it and met up with Kevin, from Canada, Shane from California and Dave from England. It was a fun group to travel with. Oh this next picture is of the little glasses of complimentary pop that you get on the buses!

I was irritated about making this trip because I was going to have to spend almost half of my peanuts salary to go. Then on the trip there I found out that all of these boys were getting their trip paid for by their school! I was already having monetary conflicts with my school so there was no way they would pay for this trip! I had discussed it with these guys before, but they could still not believe how little I was getting paid in comparison to them, when none of them have a teaching degree or masters. Over the past month I had talked to many other teachers in the area and all of them told me I was getting taken advantage of and that I should move schools. I had seriously considered it, even though I would hate to leave my kids. I decided that I would wait to see if the school was actually going to give me my promised and deserved bonuses for all the extra hours I had put in over the last two months doing lesson plans. I've been waiting and waiting and waiting...but I was finally promised of a date of when I'll get my bonuses...so we will see if it is in the correct amount. I continue to work very hard for the school, regardless of how they have treated me at times. I guess I don't know any other way. I would go crazy if I didn't work hard! 

Monday morning we dropped off our visa applications. When I got to the front of line I saw that I was going to get the same lady who caused me problems last time...and what do you know, instantly she found something wrong with my application! I was missing one number on a document. So I had to call the school, wait for James to find it and call them back. When I got back to the front of the line, I handed them my application and said, you have my passport back there. The lady said, no we don't, it is not here. Trying to remain calm I told her she did not give it back to me. She claimed that she set it on the counter and a man took it. I said, you gave my passport to SOMEONE ELSE!?!?!  She acted like it wasn't her fault and that it was my problem and put about 1/100 of an ounce of effort into helping me with the situation. After 3 times of going up to talk to her, I was about to explode, but my friend Kevin went up with me and talked to her for me. He asked her if it was possible it got taken into the other building. She was still being difficult but finally walked over to the other building. After about 5 minutes she waltzed back over to us....with my passport in her hand! Finally, after a couple hours, we could leave the Consulate! 

We found a little place on the street to eat. It is a rice noodle, vegetable, chicken sort of soup dish. 

One thing that I love about the little street places to eat is they have a plethora of condiments that you can add to your dish, all over the table. I usually stay away from most of it because I don't know what it is and it looks a bit fishy! The big tub in the middle of the table are the bean sprouts, where you just reach your hand in and grab your share! Someone that is concerned about germs would probably not fair too good here! 

Here is the visa run crew! We did get to have a little fun while we were waiting for our visas to get done!

 And I'm not going to lie...I'm quite fond of the scenery and landscape of Laos!

Cambodia Part 3

There were alot of small children that I saw while in Cambodia, doing what this little girl was doing....whatever she wanted! Just walking around at her own leisure, no parent in sight! I saw alot of children running around in the countryside as we were driving, or even in Siem Reap and there were not hardly any that had shoes on...and there were alot that barely had alot of clothes on.

This was the woman's temple called Bantrey Srei. It was definitely the most beautiful because of the red coloring and the detailed design.

The "guards" of the temple. It reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie for some reason!

I don't think this guy realized he was flashing everyone!

On the ride back I got the chance to stop at this landmine museum, which is a non-profit organization that shares the story of landmine victims, it helps house landmine victims and it's main goal is to safely find and discharge landmines that are scattered throughout the countryside that get mistakenly found by farmers or children.

This is the man who started the museum. He has a very interesting story. He says he doesn't know when he was born....and was given a gun at 10 years old and was a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge. He planted thousands of landmines in his day until he realized all the harm they caused. He then decided his mission in life would be to help clear all of these landmines. So he started this museum to help landmine victims. Underneath his picture are many landmines he's safely removed.

A painting by one of the landmine vicitms that stays at his shelter.

This is a very common site around southeast Asia.

Children have to learn balancing skills at a very young age!

I was saddened by how young some of these children seemed. The girl in white can't be more than 4. All of these little kids spoke good English. They could ask where you are from, what your name is, and some could even tell you that the capital of the USA is Washington DC! Alot of children were selling 10 postcards for $1. They would count out the postcards to you and tell you what they were each of.

Why not make it even and have one kid on the front and one on the back!

You think 4 is something on a motorbike? The most I've seen is 5!

Even though this was a very short trip to Cambodia (about 2 and a half days!), I enjoyed my time there and learned alot. I wish to know more about the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields. I remember reading that they would kill anyone of status or intelligence. Even wearing glasses was a sign of intelligence and could have cost you your life.

I woke up early and took a train back to Bangkok...it was a long 6 hours! It was beautiful scenery and I had the wind blowing in my face the whole time! Unfortunately the seats they have, that face each other, are made for smaller people then myself! My long legs were definitely over my "half" of the floor space! During the whole 6 hours I also got to enjoy all the "lovely" smells of Thailand! I fear when I get home my nose will just be bored!

Cambodia Part 2

In Cambodia they have the kiel as currency but also use the US dollar. I think they actually use the US dollar more than the kiel because at every restaurant, hotel, shop, etc, they all had prices in only dollars. Cambodia in general seemed quite poor. I would assume that a huge part of what they live off of is the tourism. Something interesting that I saw, which I also see constantly in Thailand, is people sweeping the streets or sidewalks with these tiny brooms. I feel that would be an endless job because the leaves and dust would be constantly reappearing!

This was one little child, of MANY, that harrassed me to buy their goods. Instead I told him I wanted a picture of him, which he was quite excited about!

He was even more excited when I asked him to take a picture of me! (It wasn't quite the angle I was going for...but not too bad for a 6 year old!).

A woman pointed out an amazing ring that was around the sun.

Don't worry, I didn't look straight at the sun to get this picture! I just aimed and fired! Not too bad though!

Along the way there are shops after shops and endless women and children constantly yelling, "Lady, lady! Hey lady! You buy from me! You want to buy this, you want to buy that...(I say, no thank you!)....okay well you come back and you remember me and you buy from me, okay?" It was non stop. And of course in your heart you feel bad like you should buy from them because you know that you are more well off than them.

These two ladies have their hands placed for a Thai dance. (I sat in during music class at school a few times, that's how I know!)

Some of the trees have started to take possession of the ruins.

On my second day I awoke to a nice, cool rain! What a beautiful day to walk around outside! I actually didn't mind it because it was surprisingly a bit cool out!

I got to practice my Khmer on the ride out to the ruins!

I saw no tractors while riding through the country....only the old fashion plows pulled by cows! It seemed as though all the people I passed were either working very hard, doing physical labor, or they seemed to be just sitting around. I have found this quite normal in southeast Asia. Maybe they work in shifts!

I'm glad I decided to go out to this temple that was quite a way out because I got to soak in alot of countryside and see alot of local people and villages. This next picture shows a common site along the road of people selling their goods. Unfortunately every stand is the exact same. Sometimes I didn't like passing the villagers because I felt that they were probably just thinking, "Oh there is another wealthy foreigner passing by." And I had this feeling that they also thought I was judging them.

You see alot of "organization" like this at these kinds of stores. Just stuff everywhere!

A typical home of a villager...made out of everything you see around you.

Cambodian People's Party: their goal is to fight against poverty and they feel that rural development is the key to their success.

One quick story to end...I met this middle aged English man, who once he found out I was from South Dakota said, "Oh I've been to Dakota!" (Strike one: we are not one...we ARE separate states!). He then said, "I found it quite boring, there is really nothing to do there." (Strike 2!). Following that he said, "I don't know why anyone would want to go there." (Strike 3!). This fellow was lucky I am pacifist!

Cambodia Part 1

I found myself off on another adventure by myself! I actually found out with more than one days notice, that we had a 4 day weekend because of two days off for a Thai holiday. I almost didn't go because of my ear situation, but I felt good enough so I thought I'd venture off! My adventure started by heading to Bangkok after school, staying the night there and getting up at about 4AM so I could make it to the bus station to catch the earlier bus to the Thailand/Cambodia border. I got a bit nervous when the bus pulled over and stopped and a policeman got on the bus and I saw everyone rummaging through their things. I came to realize he was checking passports and ID's. I'm not sure what happened, but one man got kicked off the bus! This happened two more times before we made it to the border.

I enjoyed this picture of the "old school" lawn mower!

This border situation was 100 times easier than when I went to Laos. I had a very nice man help me from the beginning. He took me over to where I needed to go to apply for my Cambodian visa, where I then waited 15 minutes and was led to where I would exit Thailand and enter Cambodia. Unfortunately I got given some news I wasn't expecting and didn't want to hear! That the Thailand visa I had was not a 1 year like I thought, but only a 3 month and that when I would come back over I would only get a 15 day stamp! I'm not sure why I have to get all the good luck! This nice man also got me a taxi ride to Siem Reap. Before we parted ways and I was off in my taxi, the man asked for a tip! OF COURSE! People aren't nice to you for free these days!

This is a picture of the entrance to the Cambodian border.

While I was waiting for my taxi I was constantly impressed by the huge loads the locals were hauling. They do not mess around! That is a whole lot of buckets!

On our ride to Siem Reap, I happened to notice that we were back to driving on the right side of the road. Then I noticed something even more interesting....that the steering wheel of the car I was in was on the right side! I noticed it when we started passing people because our driver would have to get really far over and almost look over in front of me to see if traffic was coming.  I came to realize that when you are passing someone, most of the time you just go, even if a car is coming...because that car just moves over, so you have 3 cars side by side when passing! It was not a very comforting feeling!After obseving many cars, I noticed that some cars had the steering wheel on the left, like back home. I gauged it was about half and half, with steering wheels on the left and right. I'm not sure how that is legal!

I finally made it to Siem Reap and decided it was too late to try to go to the Angkor Wat ruins, so I just explored the town and had an early night so I could get up early with the birds!

I was looking forward to renting a motorbike, but found out that you have to get a tuk tuk driver or bicycle. Unfrotunately I didn't have time to bicycle, so I hired Tong to be my driver for 2 days!

Here are the first of the Angkor Wat ruins, which were built in the 12th century and are the single largest religious monument in the world. 

8 hands are better than 2 don't you think?

Here are some nuns and monks having lunch, with little boys holding umbrellas to shade them.

Angkor Thom

Sometimes the doors seemed to go on forever...

It was a hot and sweaty day walking around the ruins for 6 hours!

Some of the detail in the stone was fascinating and beautiful.

I wanted to know what all these people were doing...and what the meaning was behind it!

The entrance to Angkor Thom.