Bangkok

If you’ve been reading these blogs in a row, then you know that the last one left off with me saying “Our next location had a nice mix of every kind of food. It also has many temples right next to a thriving metropolis.”

So, yes, you guessed it, from Phuket we headed to Bangkok! On Wednesday evening, Avery flew back to America, and then Thursday morning, Brad and I took the bus up to Bangkok. We were supposed to leave at 7:00 am, but the bus we were going to take had been in an accident and we got put on a different bus that left at 8:30 am. The bus we had paid for included a meal (so we didn’t have breakfast), but the bus we had been put on did not, so we ended up starving all morning, until finally the bus stopped for a lunch break. For lunch, I had some vegetables that were served on top of rice, and Brad ate something spicy. He likes spicy food, but this dish was making him drink quite a bit of water! He claims it wasn’t bad, but I think he just won’t admit it.

Then, after lunch we had to get back on the bus and continue sitting in the rock hard bus seats for 8 more hours, making our total trip time 14 hours. We got off the bus, and there were a swarm of taxi drivers trying to grab our bags from us, to help us into their cab. We went with one guy, and he tried to charge us 1000 baht ($30) for the ride, which we knew should only cost 150 baht ($4.50). We refused to pay that price and got out of his cab and went and found a different one. We’re on a budget and can’t afford to be getting scammed!

The second cab driver used the meter for his price and it was around 150 baht for our ride to the apartment we were staying at. I’ve stayed at a few different places through airbnb, and always have had fantastic hosts, and this place was no exception. We stayed in a cute little apartment, located in a residential neighborhood right downtown Bangkok. The location was great, and we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go.

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After getting a good nights sleep, we got up and wandered down to the shopping district. We don’t have very much room to carry anything else in our backpacks, so we were only shopping for a few specific items. I needed a coat and Brad needed hiking boots. (spoiler alert: the next location we are going is India, where we will be doing an 8-day trek through the Himalayas) It was a struggle to find this stuff, especially because it is so warm in Thailand that nobody would ever need a coat, which is exactly the reason I didn’t bring one from home. I pretty much only brought shorts and t-shirts, so hopefully I’m moving enough to stay warm while at those high altitudes. But enough about India, right now we’re in Thailand, enjoying our last few days here. 

As we finished out our time here, we took in the new Thailand at the shopping malls and the ramen restaurant we ate at, and then on the next day, we took in the traditional Thailand by seeing the Wat Pho and attempting to see the Grand Palace.

Wat Pho has the huge reclining Buddha and here are some pictures of it and the temple.

For the Grand Palace, they succeeded at scamming us by telling us that it was a Thai holiday and that the Palace was closed until later in the afternoon. They said we could go visit other temples while we waited and called us a tuk tuk to take us around. It all seemed great until after the tuk tuk driver had taken us to a different temple with a tall standing Buddha, a man came up to us and started talking about suits. We really didn’t understand why he was telling us that, but then when the tuk tuk driver took us to a suit store, it all made sense. We said we didn’t want to buy a suit but they insisted we go in and see them. When they finally realized that we were not there to buy anything they got upset and the tuk tuk driver took us back to the Grand Palace instead of to the other temples we had been told we would see.

We arrived back earlier than the time that we had been told the Grand Palace would be open to tourists, and there was plenty of tourists inside. So it turns out the whole thing was a scam and it wasn’t even a Thai holiday. We were a little upset about the whole ordeal, and then when we went in to the Grand Palace, we were told we had to buy clothing to cover our knees to go in. Now I know, that you can borrow a sarong and give it back at the end of your time at the Palace, but they were insistent that we had to spend more money. Basically between the scam, them trying to scam us again, and all of the tourists, we said we simply wanted to go back to the apartment we were staying at and go for a swim, and that’s exactly what we did.

We then had some dinner at a quiet Thai restaurant right next door to the apartment, and finally cuddled up and went to bed. Seriously, we were exhausted because we had walked all the way in to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho and then walked back to the apartment; close to 15 miles according to my phone.

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On our last day in Thailand, we woke up and took a taxi out to the floating market. Now there’s a big tourist floating market about 100 km away from town, but I wanted more of a traditional experience. To get that experience, we ended up going to a smaller floating market with only about 15 boats. Nevertheless, it was still a cool experience filled with boats that look like this. 

Then after looking around and eating a very weird omelet with bean sprouts, peanuts, and something sweet in it, we decided to go on a boat tour that took us down the canals of Bangkok. Here's a picture of what we saw!

Riding along, it seemed as though we were no longer in Thailand, but rather that I was back in Venice. The ride was peaceful and allowed us to see Bangkok from a new perspective. Here's another picture, to help you imagine something other than the hustle and bussle of the city.

After we had our fill of the canals and floating market, we grabbed a cab and headed back to the apartment. We then spent the afternoon doing laundry and getting ready for our flight to India.

Phuket

After boarding the ferry in Koh Phi Phi, Brad, Avery and myself arrived in Phuket in the afternoon of September 26^th. We found our way to our hotel, and then simply relaxed and tried to let our stomachs adjust from almost being sea sick on the ferry back. We then looked up some places for dinner and went and grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe. I ended up having a caesar wrap, which I know that doesn’t sound that exciting, but after eating rice everyday for five months, it was a nice change!

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On the second day in Phuket, the three of us went out on a sea kayaking adventure. We were the only three people on the excursion, and it was so pleasant to enjoy the huge limestone cliffs and caves, without other tourists around. Here’s a picture of the cliffs.

We took a larger boat across the ocean to the spot where we got into our kayaks. Brad and I had one kayak and Avery and the guide had the other. The four of us kayaked through the ocean along the side of the cliff, until we came upon a cave that we could kayak through. Thankfully the tide wasn’t too high, so there was a little room between the top of our heads and the roof of the cave. I guess when the tide is higher, they have to lie down and paddle to get through the cave, and sometimes they can’t even go in. Anyways, I’m glad we were able to get through it, so we could come out the other side of the cave into this lagoon.

After being inside the lagoon for a while, we came back out, and spent the rest of the time exploring a few more caves (pictured below), swimming, and kayaking around. To end our excursion, we got back on the big boat and enjoyed dinner while watching the sunset and cruising back. 

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On our third day in Phuket, we woke up early to grab a taxi and head up to the Big Buddha. This Buddha statue is on top of a hill, and overlooks all of Phuket. You can see the statue from everywhere in town, and now you can see it below!

We then walked down the hill from the Big Buddha and walked to the Wat Chalong, a Buddhist temple. Now Brad and I have explored quite a few Thai temples while living over here, but this was Avery’s first. It was interesting to hear her talk about the differences between Hindu temples, which she saw in Bali, and the Buddhist temples here in Thailand. We’ll have to see for ourselves when we head to Bali in a month!

Here's a few more pictures from Wat Chalong.

We then stopped for some street food on our walk back to the hotel, and it was pretty good. Honestly though, we just miss the Thai food in Sisaket, which was so cheap and delicious! But some food we did enjoy more down here than we enjoyed in Sisaket was the fruit. Down here it is all tropical, as opposed to the traditional ‘King of the Fruit’ (durian) and ‘Queen of the Fruit’ (mangosteen) that we were used to eating up north. 

Our next location had a nice mix of every kind of food. It also has many temples right next to a thriving metropolis, so make sure to look at my next post to see where we're at!

Koh Phi Phi

After a week of trying to consolidate all of our things into two big backpacks, Brad and I are finally ready to take off on our adventure. But before we could get to the fun stuff, we had to move out of our apartment and say goodbye to our favorite old lady who cooks us dinner every night. Then we took the bus from Sisaket to Ubon Ratchathani one more time, as we made our way to the airport.

On our flight to Phuket, we found ourselves surrounded by four large Chinese tour groups. I swear that every person in their group was a minimum of 80 years old and they moved even more slowly than you could ever imagine. Then, since it took us probably close to an hour to get off the plane, we had to rush to grab our bags and catch a bus to the southern tip of Phuket. Here, we made our way to the hotel, where my friend Avery was anxiously awaiting our arrival.

Avery is a fellow South Dakotan who has spent the last few months in Africa, and has now made her way to Asia to explore Bali and Thailand. I’m sure glad the timing worked out for us to see each other over here, before she goes back to America for her med school interview (good luck)!

Anyways, since it was late when we got in, we just spent our first night catching up while enjoying a Chang (Thai beer). We then headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before our early morning ferry out to the island of Koh Phi Phi Don.

On the morning of our ferry ride, there was torrential down pours (typical since it is still rainy season). This weather made us pretty nervous that we would end up seasick from the waves, but it was surprisingly alright (unlike the ride back, but I’ll get to that later). Then, right as we were arriving, the rain stopped and it didn’t rain again until the ferry ride back. Somehow we lucked out and had the best weather!

During our time on the island, we spent the first day walking around and looking at all of the little shops, and then making our way up the viewpoint of the island. As you can see in the picture below, this view was definitely worth the hour of walking.

After soaking it all in, we found a different path to go down than the one we came up. This one simply involved stairs that led right down to the center of town, as opposed to the steep, windy road that we had come up. Either way, both paths involved a lot of sweat, and by the time we were down, we decided it was time to shower and get ready for dinner. We ended up going out and eating a calzone that was as long as a watermelon! Seriously, it was huge, and I thoroughly enjoyed each cheesy bite!

Now Koh Phi Phi is a bit of a party island, so there are bars around every corner. We had planned on skipping the nightlife, but I saw a cat hanging out in the bar and wandered in to pet it. The cat was super friendly and cuddled up in my lap, so we decided we better enjoy a drink while playing with this cat.

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On our second day on the island, Avery and I went out on an all day boat tour of the beaches around the island. We started by soaking in the sun on Bamboo Island. Here, it was like a little slice of heaven filled with velvet soft sand, the perfect amount of sunrays, and very few tourists.

After we left Bamboo Island, we headed out to a spot to snorkel. Now, I’m no expert on fish, but all I know is that there were a lot of them. They would swarm around you when you got in the water and swim close enough for you to touch them. We got to snorkel in two different spots throughout the day, and both times, we were surrounded by these small, brightly colored fish. There were also a few sea urchins and some coral to look at.

We then drove by Viking cove (pictured below) and past monkey beach (we unfortunately didn’t see any monkeys here) on our way to Maya Bay.

I found out that the beach at Maya Bay was used in the movie ‘The Beach’ starring Leonardo Dicaprio, so now all tourists seem to flock to see this beach. To get to the beach, we had to be dropped off on one side of the island and walk across to it because the waves were too big to get around to that side. Now getting there wasn’t just a hard thing for the boat driver to do, but also for us. On the side we got dropped off on, we had to climb up this swaying rope ladder/netting while fighting through the waves. We didn’t have our shoes, as we would have lost them in the water, so we had to walk barefoot across the rough terrain of the island.

Once we crossed the island, we completely forgot about our throbbing feet and were taken back by the breathtaking views. Take a look for yourself!

After Maya Bay, we finished up the boat tour by almost drowning. Okay, not really, but the winds had picked up and the waves were so crazy, that our little long-tail boat was taking on so much water. It’s two weeks later, and my eyes still hurt from all of the seawater that was sprayed into them. Nevertheless, the day was still amazing.

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For our last day in Koh Phi Phi, Brad and I got up early to take in the sunrise from the viewpoint (this time we were smart and walked up the stair instead of the long way). We then packed up and took the ferry back to mainland Phuket. Now as I mentioned above, this ferry was pretty rough. I’m not sure which was worse, the small long-tail boat or this ferry, but I think about ¼ of the passengers on the ferry got seasick. Thankfully, Brad, Avery, and myself were not part of that ¼!

We finally arrived back in Phuket and you can read about it in my next blog post!

Time Flies

Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

Just five short months ago, Brad and I took off on an adventure of a life time. We arrived in Thailand lost (mostly because we didn't have phones to use google maps) and confused. But with being thrown into teaching just a day after we arrived, we quickly got adjusted.

At school you can just give a lot of high fives, and everyone will think you know what you're doing! But on a serious note, I am going to miss these kiddos.

Anyways, back to my recap of our semester.

We started off not knowing a word of Thai, which made basically everything harder. Since we are in such a small town where there are no tourists, most of the people do not speak English. So even though we were here to teach English, we made it a priority to immerse ourselves in their culture and we tried to learn to communicate.

The first thing we learned was how to greet people. It took a while to learn who you simply say the word hello to, who you bow to, and depending on who the person is, where you place your hands to bow to them. The next thing we learned was some food words, so we could eat. All of the good, cheap food is sold from people cooking from a little cart that they set up on the street corner. They can cook basically anything you want, you just have to be able to order it in a way they understand.
So at the beginning of the semester, we did a lot of pointing at ingredients, but I am now proud to say that we can successfully order fried rice with pork, suki, papaya salad, or a few other things. Below you can see a picture of one of the dishes we typically eat.

As the days went on, Brad and I got in a routine of going to school and teaching all day. Then after school, if it was not raining, we would go walk around the lake for some exercise. We would watch the sunset over the lake, and then come back and grab dinner from one of the carts. The simplicity of life was enjoyable, but now we're ready for more of an adventure (although I am going to miss these sunsets).

We're ready to explore the depths of the ocean to the summits of the himalayan mountains, so part two of our Asian adventure starts tomorrow! To kick it off, Brad and I will be heading to southern Thailand, to meet up with a good friend of mine. We will spend some time with Avery relaxing on beautiful beaches and scuba diving before she takes off for America and Brad and I head to .... (you'll have to stay tuned to find out!)

Make sure to keep reading to find out where we are in the world and to hear about the adventures we're having!

xoxo

Laos

Brad and I have officially been in Thailand for 3 months now, and with those 90 days having flown by, it's already time for us to leave.

Oh wait, don't get your hopes up, we're not coming back to America yet. I just meant, we had to leave Thailand to do a border run, so we could stay here legally. Basically, after 90 days your visa expires, and you have to leave the country and then come back in and get a new visa. So to do this, we took the bus to the nearest country, which in our case was Laos.

We discovered that life is simple in Laos. The people are friendly, and everything moves at a slower pace, especially the traffic. Seriously, they stop and give pedestrians the right of way to cross the street, which was a nice change from almost getting hit by a scooter everyday in Thailand.

The town of Savannakhet is nothing spectacular. It's just a little border town that we spent three days exploring while we waited to pick up our new Thai visas. During our explorations, we walked from one side of town to the other, and then back again just to get some exercise and see the way that people live here. Here's a few of my favorite pictures that I took of their everyday life.

It makes me smile just to see how happy the kids are, even though they don't have very much. So everyone be thankful for what you have, and keep reading my blog! :)

Doi Inthanon National Park

The remainder of our time in northern Thailand was spent enjoying the beautiful scenery and escaping from the city. One morning, we woke up before the crack of dawn, so we could watch the sun rise from a hot air balloon. It was so peaceful as we were flying 2000 feet above the ground. We floated over the jungle and the highlands, and then we flew over part of the city as it was just waking up. It seemed like in just a matter of seconds, the city went from quiet to the hustle and bustle of scooters everywhere. Being able to get a different perspective on the city and the scenery, made it that much more beautiful. Here's a few pictures, but they do not do justice.

We loved the scenery so much from the hot air balloon, that Brad and I decided to hire a driver to take us to Doi Inthanon National Park. Here, we were able to see the different landscapes up close and also the plants and animals that live in them.

Our first stop in the park was at a beautiful waterfall. Brad and I took the time to admire its beauty, and then we walked off the path to find some of the smaller waterfalls. Pictured below.

In the national park, there are different hill tribes living throughout. We came across one, and I asked the driver if we could get out and explore. When we stepped out of the car and walked in to this little village, it seemed as though I was transported back decades. They live so simply here, but they seem so happy as you can see in the photos.

We then spent the majority of the day exploring the highest point in Thailand. Although it was cloudy up here, we still enjoyed the view and the temple at the top. With all of the temples in this country, it is no surprise that they would have one up here. But this temple was different than many of the others. This one was simple and beautiful, just like the area at the top. Below are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Ran-Tong Elephant Center

Our second day in Chiang Mai was spent at the Ran-Tong Save and Rescue Elephant Center, and honestly this was one of the best days of my life. It was so incredible to interact with the elephants and learn each of their stories. Elephants are wild animals in Thailand, and they are allowed to roam free wherever they please. There are laws in place that protect these beautiful creatures from being captured and forced to work in industries such as logging or farming. Unfortunately though, elephants are not protected in the surrounding countries. So if one of the wild elephants wanders over the border, they might be captured there and forced into these awful situations.

At the beginning of our day, we learned that the elephant we got to ride was rescued from a logging company in Laos. The center bought the elephant from them, and now she is allowed to roam free for the majority of her life. The elephants roam free all night, and then in the morning, a Mahout finds them and rides them back to the center.

Each elephant has a Mahout, or a person who takes care of them. They come from a tribe in northern Thailand, who have been working with elephants since as long as they can remember; it is their way of life. The Mahout that takes care of our elephant was a 17 year old boy. He was so sweet and he took all of the pictures for us as we were riding along. Below are a few of my favorites.

Before we hopped on the elephants, we were taught how to control them. Basically, it is just like riding a horse. To turn, you kick with your outside foot of the way you are turning. To go, stop, and reverse, there are voice commands. But in case you forget any of the commands, the Mahout is right there beside you.

When we finally got to climb on the elephants back, it was the most amazing experience! We rode  through the jungle for a couple of hours, and then when we returned back to camp, we got to swim with and bathe the elephants. As we were still on top of our elephant, she walked in to the swimming hole and started sucking water up in to her trunk. She then sprayed the mud and water all over us. We hopped off and splashed her to get her back, and then she sprayed us again. We swam and played around for a while until finally it was time for her bath, as seen in the picture below.

After the bath and the long trek through the jungle, our elephant was hungry, so we got to feed her. We went and cut the sugar cane from the field and then brought it back and fed it to her right from our hand. Check out our elephant looking cute while eating.

To finish off our day, we got to play with the baby elephant. She is only about six months old and 250 pounds. Her mother is protective, but she is still very curious. Whenever her mother allowed, she would wander up to Brad and I and wrap her trunk around our hands, resulting in a game of tug of war. (pictured below) We also splashed her with water and fed her some sugar cane. Really, if I haven't said it enough already, this was one of the most wonderful days.