Phuket and Thai Christmas

Last week was midterm week at Suksanareewittiya School.  Fortunately, our coordinator is awesome and signed us in every morning so we were free to travel.  One of my friends and I decided to travel to Phuket.

Phuket is easily the most famous beach in Thailand.  It is one of the spots I knew I would have to hit while I was here.  Because it is so far away (12 hours by bus), last week was really one of the few chances I knew I'd have to get there.  We decided to leave Saturday and come back on Friday morning to be home in time for Christmas.

Like I said, the bus ride was extremely long.  It was an overnight bus so it goes a little bit faster once you fall asleep but it was a long time nonetheless.  Don't get me wrong, the bus was not your average bus.  The seats were spacious and reclined all the way back and they gave you enough leg room to be comfortable.  Unfortunately, no matter how comfortable a bus is, 12 hours is a long time.  Needless to say, by the time we arrived, I was thrilled to be there.

We arrived at about 6:45 am and needed to find a way to the hotel that we had previously booked.  A few friends had stayed at this particular hotel the weekend before so we trusted their suggestion.  It turned out to be great.  The owner was a nice lady who helped us plan a few day trips to the surrounding islands.  The hotel was also located right in the heart of the nightlife area and only a short walk from the beach.  It really was a great place.

The first day I relaxed at the beach and worked on my bronze.  I should mention that Phuket is in the Andaman Sea which is part of the Indian Ocean.  I thought it was pretty cool to be swimming in the Indian Ocean.  That night I explored town a little bit.  It was crazy.  There were literally hundreds of bars packed along one main street and the streets branching off of it.  The street was packed with performers and lady boys (far too common a sight in this country).  The bars had women (or men trying to be women) outside trying to attract male customers.  They paid absolutely no attention to females but every time a white guy walked by they all tried to pull him in.  This wasn't just at one place though.  It was everywhere.  I eventually picked a place to go that seemed to be a little bit more relaxed.  It was going on midnight at this point and I knew that the Giants game was set to start at 1:00 am Thai time.  I convinced the bartender to try to find the game (I would have loved to watch any NFL game but I was very fortunate that the Giants-Eagles game was the one that the Australian Sports Network was showing live).  I really enjoyed sitting there and watching the first NFL game I've seen in almost three months.  Around 2:30 the bar decided to close so I was forced to head home.  However, it was halftime and the Giants had a pretty substantial lead so I felt confident that they'd get the win.  You can imagine my surprise when I woke up the next day to find out that they completely blew the game (and now what's looking like their season as well).

The next day, I had a great time relaxing on the beach.  It was certainly nice having no responsibilities.  The following day, we took a trip to the nearby island of Koh Phi Phi.  It is also one of the more famous islands in Thailand, mostly because the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach was filmed there.  We took a guided tour of the island and had an awesome day.

Arriving at Koh Phi Phi

The beach at Koh Phi Phi

Snorkeling in the Indian Ocean

The remaining two days of the trip were a lot of fun for the most part.  They both involved a lot of relaxing during the day and heading out to the main strip at night.  The only setback occurred when I got the worst stomach bug I've had since I arrived in Thailand.  Normally, this wouldn't really have bothered me much, however, I had a 12 hour bus ride to endure.  I managed to make it home in one piece but it was a long, long trip.

Christmas Eve was pretty quiet.  Our coordinator was nice enough to realize how much we'd be missing our families so, although she is Buddhist, she invited us over for "Christmas Dinner."  Despite the fact that this was the first time I've ever had pizza on Christmas Eve, it was a nice gesture.

Christmas morning I woke up and was able to Skype with my family.  I really enjoyed it.  It wasn't fun not being home but Skype made it pretty easy to feel somewhat included.  After Skyping, I headed out to Mass.  Although the taxi got lost on the way and we were a bit late getting there, Mass was very nice.  It was in English which was certainly helpful.

After Mass a bunch of us got together at a beautiful hotel room in downtown Bangkok that we decided to splurge on in celebration of the holidays.   The place was really awesome.  It had three bedrooms with king sized beds, three separate balconies, a living room and dining room, and a full kitchen.  We had a blast attempting to make a Christmas dinner.  We had buffalo wings and deviled eggs for appetizers.  Then we had rotisserie chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and salad followed by cookies and brownies.  It was really delicious.  We spent the remainder of the night watching Christmas movies and having a little gift exchange.

Our Christmas home

Delicious, homemade Christmas dinner

All in all, Christmas was pretty good.  I certainly have a new appreciation for having the holidays with family, but we managed to make the best of it over here.

In a few hours I have a very special visitor arriving in Bangkok.  Jen will be here for New Years and for the first week of January.  I've been looking forward to her visit for weeks now and I couldn't be more excited.  We are traveling to one of the islands this coming weekend and probably into central Thailand next weekend.  There will be a long post and many pictures coming after that.

Kanchanaburi and Erawan Waterfalls

This past weekend was another three day weekend (they really don't like to work over here) so a bunch of us planned to do a little bit of traveling.  We decided to go to Kanchanaburi.  My thousands of loyal readers all around the world will remember that this was where we rode the elephants during orientation.  However, Kanchanaburi has a lot more to offer than just elephant rides so we decided it was worth a longer visit.

Ever since the disaster with the hotel room in Lopburi, my main objective when searching for a place to stay while traveling is cleanliness.  I've decided that it's worth a 15 minute walk to the main row of bars if I'm sure I won't wake up covered in bed bugs.  This being Thailand, a country where the norm for cleanliness is far lower than anything we are used to at home, my goal can sometimes seem ambitious.  However, after enough searching and reading many reviews, I am usually able to find a place with a good reputation that is relatively cheap.  I know anyone who has backpacked before probably thinks I'm being lame but in my opinion it's totally worth it.  Anyway, we really hit the jackpot in Kanchanaburi.  We found a great place run by a nice lady named Apple.  All of the rooms were brand new and spotless.  Although it was a bit of a walk to the bars, I was extremely happy with our hotel selection.

If you remember from my previous post about Kanchanaburi, the Bridge Over the River Kwai is located just north of the city.  When we went to the bridge during orientation, it was getting very dark so my pictures did not turn out as well as I hoped they would.  I got a few better ones this time around:

I don't know if I'd trust being on that train going over a bridge that has been blown up so many times.

Right next to the bridge was the Kanchanaburi WWII Museum.  I'm not really sure why it's called that because it's pretty much just a collection of random things in four big buildings.  We lost interest pretty quickly.  Friday night we wound up checking out the bar scene of the city.  I was surprised to see how many expats there were living in Kanchanburi.  It is not uncommon at all to see Europeans, usually older men with Thai wives (I'm sure the women are in it for love), living on the islands but Kanchanaburi is in northwestern Thailand, not on the ocean.  Whatever the reason for them being there, the Europeans run some fun bars.  Many of them have live music while others have western sports on the TV.  There is a strip about a mile long with numerous bars.  We had a really fun night just checking out the different places.

Saturday was the real highlight of the trip.  We got up early (despite our fierce hangovers) and headed an hour and a half north of the city to Erawan National Park.  The park is famous for the Erawan Waterfall.    This is a seven-tiered waterfall located along a 1.5 mile hike up a mountain.  It was amazing.  Each tier has its own fantastic waterfall.  I knew heading into it that it would be cool but I was totally unprepared for how unbelievable the waterfalls would really look.  While swimming in one of the pools below the fifth tier, one of my friends remarked that these are the type of natural swimming areas that five star hotels try to model their pools after.  We really had a great day doing the hike.  The first tier was very cool but it was entirely overshadowed by the second tier.  The second one was what I imagine when I think of the classic picture of a waterfall.  After that, the next really cool one was the fourth tier.  It had a natural rock slide that we had a lot of fun sliding down.  The fifth tier was definitely my favorite one.  It was big waterfall with a bunch of beautiful pools spreading out over the rocks in front of it.  The seventh one was also very cool.  It is definitely the biggest and is also the most famous.  The best part was that every time we started to get really hot and sweaty from all of the hiking, we'd approach a new tier and jump in the water.  I must say, though, my only problem with the falls was the fish.  The water was crystal clear so you could see everything moving below you.  This wouldn't bother me except that the fish wouldn't leave you alone while you were swimming.  One of the things I've noticed in many of the hair and nail salons around Thailand  is a thing called a fish massage.  I guess you put your feet in a tank and the fish eat the dead skin off of the bottom of them.  As disgusting as that sounds, the pools at Erawan had hundreds of this kind of fish in them.  Whenever you would plant your feet to get in or out of the pool, you could feel them nibbling away.  It was really just a bizarre feeling.  Anyway, that being the only downside (albeit one that you got used to after a few minutes anyway) I can honestly say that going to Erawan was one of the best things I've done so far in Thailand.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Tier Two

Tier Four with the rock slide

Feet Eating Fish

Tier Five. My favorite one.

The pool below Tier Seven

Me in front of Tier Seven

After a long day at the falls we were all pretty exhausted.  However, we rallied and had a really fun night out on the town again.  Overall, Kanchanaburi was one of my favorite trips so far.  I was with some great people and we had an awesome time.  

In more recent news, tonight I attended the wedding reception of one of my coworkers.  It was a great example of the cultural differences that exist between Thailand and the U.S.  It was a fun time but it wasn't like any other wedding I'd ever been to.  It was actually held in the auditorium of the school where I teach.  It is apparently a tradition to avoid hiring a band and instead have the guests sing karaoke all evening.  These are just a few examples of things I found amusing throughout the night.  All in all it was a nice event and I was glad to be a part of it but it certainly did not hold up to the standard set by a Hickey family wedding held just a few months ago.

Tomorrow I head to Phuket, the most famous beach in Thailand.  The students have midterms next week so I get the week off because they don't make us proctor the exams.  I have a really tough life over here.  Phuket, and the neighboring island of Koh Phi Phi, are supposed to be pretty incredible so look for some cool pictures sometime after Christmas.  I think this will be my last post before the holiday so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

The King's Birthday

I’ve fallen a week behind with my posts so this one actually covers what happened last weekend, not this past weekend.  I plan on catching up this week, so look for another post coming in the next few days.

A few of us spent the week scrambling around trying to figure out where we were going to travel.  We felt like we needed to travel because it was going to be a three day weekend in celebration of the King’s birthday and we didn’t want the opportunity of a longer than usual trip to pass us by.  However, after many failed plans (it seems that because of the day off people had booked trips well in advance and every hotel and bus was booked) we decided on taking advantage of all that Bangkok had to offer for the holiday.

Saturday, a bunch of us got together at the bus station and took a quick trip north of the city to the International Balloon and Adventure Sports Festival.  We had heard a little bit about the relatively new festival and decided to give it a try.  It actually turned out to be pretty cool.  We spent the afternoon doing some white-water rafting.  It certainly wasn’t the most intense river around but it was still a lot of fun.  

That night, the festival had a hot air balloon show.  I imagined this would involve them actually taking flight but it really didn’t.  What they did instead was light the balloon’s torches to the tune of various John Williams songs.  

It was really fun seeing these giant hot air balloons light up in sequence with the music.  Overall, it was a pretty nice day trip.

Sunday came and Bangkok was all done up for the King’s birthday.  People were everywhere.  All over the city people were gathering to celebrate and get ready for the night’s fireworks.  We wound up walking over to a park that had a big parade planned.  Somehow a bunch of us got separated.  My friend Lee and I were trying to catch up with everyone and wound up actually walking in the parade.  We are pretty sure that the people in charge of security didn’t know how to speak English so they just didn’t bother telling us to get behind the barricades.  It was very funny being surrounded by Thais while the two of us were so clearly out of place and holding beers as we walked.

Lee clearly doesn't fit in with this group

After we met up with everyone else we watched the fireworks show.  It was pretty awesome.  While the show was going on people began launching lanterns into the sky.  They are basically miniature hot air balloons.  A small fire is connected to a bag-like piece and the heat of the fire causes the bag to rise into the sky.  It’s really amazing to see these things start to fill up the sky all over Bangkok. 

I couldn't get a good shot of all of them in the sky but this is a close up of one of them.  They launch these things for every celebration.

We ended our night in the backpacking district of Bangkok.  This is basically a place with a lot of bars and a lot of foreigners.  It was a really fun night and the best part was that I was able to come home to my own apartment rather than a hotel room.

Crazy Monkeys

Last weekend, I planned on having a relaxing time in Bangkok.  Some friends were coming into town and I was actually looking forward to the chance to hang out around the city and come back to my own apartment on a weekend night for a change.  Friday night everything went according to plan.  A bunch of us got together at a great place downtown and then they all came back here for the night.  Saturday, however, everything changed and I'm really glad it did.

My friends convinced me to join them at the "Monkey Festival" in the city of Lopburi.  I knew nothing about the festival but after some convincing arguments I figured, when else would I have the chance to attend a monkey festival?  So off we went to this city two hours north of Bangkok.

The only regret of the trip turned out to be our last minute decision making.  Apparently, this festival is the biggest event of the year in the small city so naturally all but the worst hotel were sold out.  And when I say worst, I mean it.  It was nasty.  I actually had to go out and buy insect killer when we first got there.  I guess I was bound to stay in a disgusting place or two during my time here.

But other than that it turned out to be one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.  The entire city is inhabited by wild monkeys.  They are EVERYWHERE.  They climb on all the buildings and street poles.  More often than not if you look up at the telephone wires while walking down the sidewalk you will see a monkey hanging up there.

It was really crazy.  There are so many monkeys that the shop owners all have b.b. guns.  Whenever a pack of monkeys blocks the entrance to their store or restaurant they go outside and shoot them to scare them off.

Apparently, these monkeys have been around for centuries.  The ruins of an ancient temple sit in the middle of the city and the town puts out food for the monkeys everyday at ten a.m. and four p.m.  I guess despite how annoying the monkeys are on the street, they bring a lot of tourism to the city so the residents want to keep them there.

So it was into this environment that we arrived Saturday night.  The first thing we saw regarding the monkeys was this sign:

Definitely foreboding but we were certainly intrigued.  Only a few minutes later we came upon the temple ruins where the monkeys congregate.  It was insane.  There were monkeys everywhere.  It was actually a little bit scary thinking that these packs of wild monkeys could just come right up to you.  We managed to get to our hotel (it barely deserves that title) safely and then actually met up with a lot of people from orientation.  I think there were about 25 people there who were part of the program. That was a nice surprise.  We had a great night comparing teaching stories and telling each other about the great places we've traveled to.

Sunday morning, the real fun started.  This was when the actual festival took place.  The festival is always during the last weekend of November and it is a way for the city's residents to give thanks to the monkeys for bringing tourists to the city.  It's basically monkey Thanksgiving.  We made our way back over to the temple ruins and found the place swarming with both monkeys and people.  We wound up surrounded by the very same monkeys that seemed so intimidating the night before.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  The town puts out trays and trays of food and the monkeys just take whatever they want.  I found it hilarious that they actually set up a few tables with chairs and covered them with food and drinks.  I watched one monkey desperately trying to open a Pepsi and when a guy tried to help him he slapped him across the head.  Eventually, the monkey got it opened and seeing a monkey drinking a Pepsi is almost as funny as seeing it slap a guy.  The monkeys were actually pretty friendly, as long as you weren't trying to steal their food.  Some of them would even jump on peoples' backs and try to open their backpacks.  One of them stole my friend Lee's sunglasses and actually put them on.  We all had a blast.  It was definitely something that could only possibly take place in Thailand.  It really was one of the top three experiences I've had over here.  The pictures below show some of the madness.


The table is set:

A monkey with some manners:

Monkeys with no manners:

Crazy monkeys:

Hungry monkeys:

He is definitely in charge of the crew:

Stephanie and her monkey friend:

The coolest monkey around:

This past weekend was the King's birthday so I'll have a post about that coming in the next few days.  In the weeks between now and Christmas I'll be heading to Kanchanaburi and Phuket.  There will be plenty of pictures and much to talk about from those trips.