Koh Samet #2

This past weekend I went to Koh Samet again. I had to work saturday for a bit, but they let us take monday off so it worked out pretty well. The trek there took around 5 hours total to get from my apartment to the beach and this is considered a short trip. Since it was dinner time by the time we got settled on Saturday we decided to go to the best dinner place ever, Red Ginger. I got seafood fettuccine. I'm not really sure how I feel about squid in fettuccine, but sacrifices have to be made sometimes. Since I don't much enjoy going out without my girls with me, I went home after dinner to hang out by myself. Gosh Thailand is making me so lame.
Surprise! In the middle of the night I got woken up by the bathroom light and wait what is that noise? Parker (a fellow english teacher who was staying in the same room) was throwing up in the bathroom. Like 8 million more times that happened. He got food poisoning. Morning comes and he is far to sick to do anything so I buy him some water and snacks and hit the beach solo. Before the beach I had one of the worst breakfasts ever so that was a bummer, but oh well. I should have guessed the bacon would taste like diseased dog right? I got to the beach and picked my spot.

Postcard life!

I got some serious back pain from the van ride to the beach so I was thinking about getting a massage, but only if someone came up to me and asked if I wanted one. Lucky for them and me a lady came up and asked if I wanted a manicure after laughing at how chipped my nail polish was. I said nothing and pointed to the massage and said, "Can I do this?" and she said, "Oh! Yes!" It was only 250 baht for a shoulder/back/head massage. To appease my ever present money weary mind, I decided because I was getting a massage on the beach I would not buy any alcohol. Then I wondered why in gods name I hadn't thought of that before?! Brilliant! So there I was laying on a blanket on the beach having a terribly painful massage that was half painful in a good way and half painful in a painful way. She rubbed all this oil on my back and I convinced myself it would be okay to not put more sunscreen on, that I would do it later. But I forgot because I always forget everything and I got one serious sunburn. Like I got back 3 days ago and I started peeling already.
I find myself splurging on fruit when at the beach. I feel it is important to get a coconut. This is because of two fairly simple reasons. 1. You get the most bang for your buck (this point can be easily debated I know). A delicious beverage that once finished has become a nice little snack as well. 2. Because eating the snack that is fresh uncut coconut is fairly time consuming which lets be honest, when at the beach from 9am to sundown a way to pass the time is certainly welcome.

I finished like the entire book for the second time since I've been here

Also I got really embarrassed taking this photo

I left the beach early because I got too sunburnt and went back to the room. Due to Parker's sickness, I read in the room until it was too dark and then went to dinner alone. While walking to Red Ginger I was stopped by some young short Australian guy who in wanting to talk to me blocked my path and forced me to step in the street making me immediately unattracted to him. I then proceeded to my dinner place alone after I told him several times that my plans for the night involved eating a salad. I got my favorite grilled goat cheese salad and a coke. When I finished the salad the owner, this old white haired white beard Canadian guy named Roger who called me sweetheart, came and sat with me. He chatted about his life and asked about mine. It was pretty nice.
I left the next morning fairly early after eating a huge amount of mango and banana for breakfast. I was the last one to get on the van so I sat up front in the middle seat that doubled as a center console, but was mostly just a center console. Needless to say my butt was numb the entire time. I got to see the scenery though and the driver (this big thai guy wearing a Tommy Hilfiger jersey) was super nice. He asked if I was okay with a thumbs up and then shook my hand which I loved because Thai people never shake hands, it must be a western custom. So accommodating. We then continued to communicate via various hand signals and I realized that everyone can speak a little sign language. Overall the trip was not as thrilling as I had expected it to be, but it was still a good time and hey I got to eat my favorite salad and see some puppies!

He only turned around once I put my camera away.

He had a face like Sadie

Peanuts! Water!

Just kidding thats the guy with a grill and chicken in one basket and veggies and rice in the other.

Poor little dude with his leg cast

Get well soon!

Hey Buddha

Fruit city

This was the path from my "hotel room" to the main road...

The ferry dock

I almost missed my ferry because I wasn't paying attention like a dummy

The Farewell Party

The farewell party was so early because the Chinese teachers go home... well they actually might have already left by now. It was after "school" on friday. School is in quotes because it was a finals day and so us foreign teachers were doing nothing but killing time all day. I read a lot of adolescent literature online and watched TV shows.
All of a sudden at around 3pm all this food starts arriving and I'm getting thrilled because I know I just saw two watermelons in those bags and 4 bottles of soda. There was a ton of food. Some prepared by the teachers and some bought from someone down the road selling it out of a cart somewhere. I was especially thrilled for the som tom (pronouced more like sew-m taaam). In american its called papaya salad which doesn't at all explain what it is. Its like this spicy like salad made with shredded green papaya (that tastes more like if you shredded cucumber or squash). Its hard to explain, but its pretty tasty. Usually they make it not too spicy for Americans (I really cannot understand the spice tolerance that thais have. It is seriously impressive. Like oh you just chopped up 8 thai chilies for one dish that is essentially salad? Casual.), but this lady made it more for thais. Needless to say that my tongue and throat were burning uncontrollably, yet I kept eating it because I didn't want them to think I didn't like it.

The lady making Som Tom

The assortment of food was enormous and some of it was kind of scary.

I ate some mini hot dogs, a piece of fried chicken, papaya salad and a ton of watermelon

The night was basically us chatting and eating and people singing karaoke. Normally they go to a restaurant, but one teacher really likes karaoke so he had us have it at school. I refused to sing like the party pooper I am. In my defense I am still getting over a cough. I danced for like 13 seconds though.
The teachers gave this speech about how they loved us and would miss us. It was touching. Then they gave us all these shawls. It was very kind. If I'm ever half as kind as these people, I will consider myself lucky.

It was a great little family dinner

The presents were exciting obviously

Also noticed my nose HA HA

Group photo

Saturday Adventures

Last Saturday I did some much needed and a little unneeded shopping. Spent too much baht, but whatever and all that. I got some people some gifts that I'm pretty thrilled about. I also got myself some gifts that I'm also pretty thrilled about. Perhaps the most exciting gift I got myself was a salad.
I shared a tuk tuk (taxi type thing in the first photo) with this great little french couple. Gotta love that french accent. I told them I was going to Paris soon and I don't think the woman spoke very good english because her response was, "Paris is a very big city." I was like yeah totally lady. The only thing the man said to me was, "Do you speak French?" and after I responded with, "No, only English," he just sort of looked away and didn't talk to me anymore. It was classic. They smiled a lot which was right up my alley.

Riding around the streets of Bangkok

This wall was covered in murals that all seemed to be based on reading.

It was wonderful.

Read for life!

I forgot it was there after we passed it so I forgot to go back and take more photos

Khao San in all its glory

Later students...

I had my very last day of teaching. I never thought the day would come. I will say, I don't think my teaching abilities got any better the entire time I was here. I think I just learned how to get by better which may sound bad, but I am quite proud of myself for that alone. Teaching is the hardest thing I have ever done. I haven't done many hard things in my short life, but I have done some things other people might find hard. I can say teaching is far more difficult than Calculus 2, weeding your dads palm tree farm in the middle of summer, taking care of small children, running three miles and getting an A on a paper based entirely upon theory. One thing teaching might be equally as difficult as is making good quality well crafted pottery, both of which I have not successfully done so I wouldn't know which is more difficult.
I will miss all my students so much; the smart kids, trouble makers and everything in between. Okay that statement was a bit ambitious (and I'm assuming the grammar is atrocious) since I had like over 800 students in total. So I'll miss all the students I will miss and the ones I will miss fall into those three categories of students. They said such wonderful goodbyes. Some gave me huge hugs and some were too scared to, but made indications that they wanted to. They welcomed me so easily right off the bat and were always so kind to me. They would give me treats in class and if they bumped into me they would turn around really fast and say, "Sorry Teecha!" and wai (put their hands in prayer position in front of their nose and bow) me. I wonder if they knew they were teaching me the whole time. I learned there is never a time when a smile isn't okay (even when you're friend just hit you with the white out you let them borrow). I also learned that even the smallest reason for a celebration is enough. I learned several other things, but most importantly I learned to always say thank you... ALWAYS!
I still have a little less than a month here. We are supposed to get all of our final grades together and such. You know all that stuff teachers do when school ends that none of the students know that they do. I also intend on doing some more fun things so hang in there readers. You can't get rid of me that easy.

Hey guys thanks for the breakfast most mornings

Nothing like a good pork skewer and sticky rice for breakfast

My little 7th graders are so cute

The scout outfits they have to wear every wednesday are classic

A couple of trouble makers

Guys the senior girls loved me

I took like a hundred of these back to back

Erawan!!

At around 10:30 am on Friday morning we start our journey. Traveling to somewhere never seems all that bad even though it takes ages to go anywhere. Going home is when the journey takes a toll. We arrive at the bus station and eventually hop on a bus that is supposed to be "a little over an hour", but ended up taking closer to over two hours. I actually didn't mind it much though. The bus was super bouncy and I forgot my head phones, but the ride provided some lovely views of rice fields and bright green trees that I don't ever get to see living in a suburb.
We arrive in Suphanburi, my friend Hannah and Franki's town. We walk around a bit and grab some lunch at a local little "hole in the wall". This place was less of a hole in the wall once you went inside, but from the outside I was surprised anyone would be able to tell there was a restaurant there. What I found super interesting was that the tables were inside the restaurant, but the guy cooked the food outside in front of the restaurant (not in the back like in America). It was kind of neat. I'm assuming it allowed the heat and fumes to clear out easier. We had some delicious yellow curry with chicken drumsticks soaked in it. When I first came to Thailand it really freaked me out how they often cook chicken and meat in the soup so the meat has the bones still in it and has been soaking in the broth for ages. Its pretty tasty now though, once you get past the fact that sorry but your fingers are going to get dirty and you might not be able to find napkins.

Jack and Hannah waiting for food

They love their elephant shaped bushes here... like A LOT

We spent the rest of friday afternoon chatting and rotating taking showers and playing this wonderfully fun card game involving calling people profanities (okay only one profanity and not the one you're thinking of... it wasn't bullshit). Once we realize it is dinner time we decide to go to a new sushi place. The place was so cute. All the seating was outside and the deck, tables and stools were all made of unfinished pine. Although I will say I think I did a better job with woodwork in my wood shop class junior year of high school than whoever made those tables and stools. The food was delicious though and I ordered far too much that I pawned off on others.
7 am wake up call! Time to trek to the Erawan National Park for the waterfalls! We arrive at the bus station at around 8:30 and leave at around 9. The bus was bouncy once again and took longer than we had thought, but provided some lovely views once again. An old thai woman fell asleep on my shoulder, but that happens fairly often here so it was casual. We arrive in Kanchanaburi and immediately hop on a song teow (pick up truck with benches in the bed) and arrive at the national park at 12:30.

Everyone smile!... or do something sort of awkward.

The brightest of the bright greens

I was not expecting both locals and tourists alike to be EVERYWHERE! Once I got over the initial disappointment that half clothed people would be in all of my photos of the falls, I realized just how beautiful the place was. There were clusters of bamboo that I found so cool. The branches of the other trees bent down low and curved back up to form handles. I felt like Jane from Tarzan. It was amazing how the rocks looked as if they were covered in algae, but it was actually just the change in color and texture of the rock from the erosion of a constant flow of water. The water was a cloudy turquoise which was beautiful. There were huge fish in every pool too and they bit us! I screamed unnecessarily, but it didn't hurt. They were the kind of fish that feed off of dead skin. Not my favorite thing though.

Every other tourist in Thailand had the same idea as us.

I thought it was cool that no matter where you go, people have to carve their names in trees

It was especially beautiful when the sun would shine through the trees

There were 7 different tiers. It was all one waterfall, but each of the seven provided an especially beautiful view of the waterfall. My favorite part was the portion that had these huge rocks that served as the most thrilling natural water slides.

At some points, like this one, we had to walk through small pools of water

This provided some nice up close and personal moments with mini waterfalls

Maggie, Me, Franki and Hannah

The slides!!

We loved them!

The upper most waterfall

Proved to be difficult to get a good photo of, but it was quite tall

There were also people in the waterfall at every moment

Overall it was a lovely trip. Sometimes we have to play the spectacle being the only white people in the area, in this case the only white people in a bus packed to the brim. This particular instance was especially uncomfortable with lengthy conversations in thai about us, extensive pointing and staring. In the beginning we just tried to smile, but after 10 minutes of no smiles back it was awkward. Other than the awkwardness and the huge bug spray spill that resulted in my purse forever repelling both bugs and people forever (that I cried about a bit, but without physically crying because crying is for babies), I had a great time!

Some random dog that decided to go hiking too

My favorite photo of the falls