Traveling through Thailand: Part II

Kanchanburi

After escaping the flooded peninsula of Thailand I headed to a small town about 2 hours north of Bangkok in hopes of getting some sun and rest. The main attraction of the town is the Erawan Falls which is a 7 tiered waterfall that winds down a mountain about a mile long. The water is a light clear teal and contains small fish that give you a pedicure if you stick your feet in the water. It was a hot day so we stopped at each tier in the waterfall to cool off and enjoyed a rock slide at one of the pools. One of the perks of being a teacher in Thailand is for most tourist attractions upon showing our work permit we get the entrance fee of a Thai person rather than a tourist. For the Falls it cost a tourist about 200 baht to enter rather than just 40 for Thais. Too bad I forgot my permit this day!!

Songkran

Songkran might be Thailand's biggest holiday (besides the King's Birthday of course!) and many of the volunteers decided to meet up and celebrate it together in the most well known place for songkran, Chiang Mai. Songkran is the Thai new year that happens between April 13-15th (in places like chaing mai it stretches to more like 5 days) and consists of a city wide friendly water fight. This is a water fight on the scale of thousands of people. Traditionally though the throwing of water was a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddhas for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder. It also happens in Thailands hottest month, April, and can relive some of the heat. However, over the years it lost much of its or gins and has turned into a tourist party among the streets. Upon arriving we all got fully equipped with water guns for as soon as you step out of your room it would be fair game to become completely drenched in water. So for the next 4 days we walked the streets with our water guns engaging in a water fight with the young and old. Thais would drive around in their pickup trucks with garbage cans full of water drenching people and letting the foreigners on for a ride through the jam packed streets

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Chiang Rai & Mae Sai

For a night I stopped in Chiang Rai a northern city 3 hours north of Chiang Mai to see the famous white temple. The white temple is one of a kind in Thailand consisting of modern art. There are many images of modern day impurities such as alcohol and cigarettes in statues outside the temple and scary devil creatures. The temple is made all white and has shiny mirrors to represent the purity of Buddha.

After leaving Chaing Rai I took another 2 hour bus still north to Mae Sai, a small border town with Burma. After being in tourist destination for the last month traveling going to a place where few white people reach was refreshing to back in Thai/Burmese culture. I could also noticeably see more poverty in this area with many children begging for money. The majority of the people are Burmese and don't even speak Thai (which I quickly found out when I got confused faces). The town is officially the most northern part of Thailand and it was interesting to see the very secretive Burma where I learned you have to have a "guide" to follow you the entire 24 hours your allowed in the country. I decided not to go in but at least I got to see it from Thailand.

Tales of Traveling through Thailand: Part I.2

Departing the Islands we made our way first to Khao Sok National Park about a 5 hour bus ride away from where the ferry landed. However we accidently took the wrong bus and we were dropped off on the side of the highway with the semi understanding that another bus should picked us up. About 30 minutes later while we stood in the rain it did! We stayed on the edge of the national park with a very nice thai family who rented us cheap bungalows for only 100 baht (about$3!).They said usually their place is full this type of season but due to the heavy rains it was almost empty. In the jungle now we encountered various animals that made there way into our rooms including birds, bats, mouse, and giant centipedes. The following day it was still raining but we decided to rent tubes and look at the goregous vine covered cliffs and jungle as we floated down the river. After rafting we wanted to hike to the waterfalls for a little exercise after being coop up by the rain. With our ponchos on we headed out to the jungle. To make a long story short after 15 minutes into our hike we all realized we were being attacked by leeches!! I was wearing my meesh water/hiking shoes which made it easy for the leeches to crawl through and bite me. The hike turned into the ending of a scary movie with everybody running back on the trails while trying to pull leeches off of them. If we stood still we could see the leeches detect us and start inches their way towards us. I got attacked the most (no surprise there!). My foot was covered in blood dripping from the bites since leeches inject a blood thinner. Lucky the family we were staying with knew what to do and gave me a wad of tabacco to press against my bites to stop bleeding. After this episode I think we were all ready to get the heck out of the jungle.

The following day we took an elephant trek up a river, literally the elephants stomped there way through the river. With the rain still not stopping and hearing tid bits from the news that the south of Thailand was flooding with tourist already getting evacuated off some of the island we decided we should probably start heading up north. We gathered our backpacks and went to the side of the road to hopefully catch a bus to the city where they run buses to bangkok. After sitting along the road for 3 hours we came to the consenses that no bus would be coming due to the floods and were lucky that a thai man offered us a ride in a songtao the same price as the bus. About 2 minutes after being crammed in the back of a pickup truck we see the bus we'd been waiting for so long follow us, and even pass us!!

That was the least of our troubles for the day. Forty minutes into our ride we come to a halt, traffic has completely stopped and people are getting out of their cars. Our driver also gets out and reports to us "Mai di, mai di" (He can not go). The floods that we had been seeing the past few weeks where now in front of us with the road being completely washed out and under a few feet of water. Now we are in the middle of nowhere with no place to put are things or sleep. Someone jokingly spots a huge military truck and says, "Yea we just need one of those things!". Being a group of white people we are easily spotted by the police who come over inquiring what we are doing. Within the next few minutes the Thai miliary is waving us over in a hurry to jump in their Cargo vessel to go through the flood. Awesome! Inside the truck we are huddled together with other Thai people who were caught in a hard place. The military truck goes straight through the flood which looks exactly what we'd been seeing on the TVs.

We made it through and our minds quickly turn to our next problem. Are the buses running to bangkok? Are we going to be stuck in another city that has no hotels or guesthouses? In the truck with us was a Thai lady who spoke really good english and being how generous Thai people are she quickly offered all 6 of us (who she only a few minutes early met) to stay at her house if the buses weren't running. I wish I could say someone in the US would have done the same thing. We arrive at the bus station and run to the ticket office to see 1) if the buses are going to bangkok 2) if there are any tickets left due to all the tourist being evcuated off the islands. To our luck, we got tickets for a night bus departing at 8pm and arriving around 5 am. For the next few hours we camp out in the bus station with everybody else waiting to get out of the flood.

Tales from traveling through Thailand:Part I

After a solid two months of traveling around Thailand and Laos, I'm back to my village of Pla Pak! Accumulating over 150 hours of bus, ferry, and airplane time I was on the go exploring a country that I'd been living in for the previous 5 months. I'd be impossible and possibly very boring to tell you everywhere and everything that I've been up to but I'll try and give the best snip-its of what I've done to in the next few blog postings. I arrived back in my village yesterday and had my first day of teaching today so you can imagine I have a lot of catching up to do as I try to recoup from traveling but also get back into the full swing of teaching. I also have hundreds of pictures to sort through.

I can try to break my traveling adventures into a few different parts

I. The Islands

II. Northern Thailand

III. Laos

IV. Mom and Dad come to Thailand!

These are the main sections from my trip starting with our 10 hour overnight bus to Bangkok and flight to Krabi (southern province in Thailand).

When I first arrived in Bangkok after spending the last 5 months in my tucked away village my travel friends and I were eager to enjoy some of the treats of western culture that Bangkok has to offer. This included an A/C room, hot shower, a trip to the mall, western sandwich, and a mani/pedi. All set for the white sand beaches and clear blue water we jumped on a plane ready to get some time on the beach. Within the next 2 1/2 weeks we enjoyed the beaches of Ao Nang- a big tourist destination, Tonsai- Hippies and rock climbers, Koh Lanta- a quiet laid back island, and Koh Pi Pi- party island central. With a good week or so being a complete down pour of rain we still manage to have a good time and enjoy the world renown beaches of Thailand. However we were not alone with Thailand being a top tourist destination for many Europeans and Australians. We were met with huge sun-burned masses of "white people". After only seeing the other 13 volunteers sometimes in the city it was a bit of a shock to see all the tourist and hear more English than Thai. Many of the cities were completely catered to tourist and it seemed hard to believe I was even in the same country. Another adjustment was the type of clothing. In my village women rarely if ever show their shoulder or knees and now I was seeing men in speedos and topless Europeans! I wondered what the Thais thought of this, which I'm sure they are use to by now.

A funny story of before I left my village some of my female co-teachers approached me asking about my travel plans. A more outgoing teacher curiously asked " You wear one or two piece bathing suit!?" Without thought " Two-piece". This sent them into a giggle saying," ohhhhhh Miss Universe, Miss Universe". I guess they associate Bikinis with Miss Universe? I found it hilarious. Then they went on to explain how Thais are very very shy and no wear bathing suit. You will rarely see a Thai in an actually bathing suit but rather just their normal clothes!

Once we got to the beaches it felt good to be able to wear a tank top and shorts that don't go down to my knees.

Here is a long tail boat. This is the main way of transportation between smaller islands or remote beaches. The cloth rapped around the bow is to bring good luck. We took this to explore islands off of Koh PiPi and get to Tonsai beach which is only accessible by boat.

Viewpoint at Koh PiPi. It seems perfect that this photo as the looming clouds overhead. On this party island it rained the majority of the time, flooding the streets. This did not stop the huge European rave scene on the beaches every night. To get off this island we had to take a 1 1/2 hour ferry to Phuket during the storm and lead to one of my most uncomfortable traveling experiences. The ferry felt like a toy boat going over the swells rocking back and forth and then crashing down after going over the way. You can imagine this led to many upset stomach and a crowd of people hovering over the trash can! yuckk

A bay we snorkeled in at Koh PiPi. Our boat driver instructed us to "go swim". This left us treading water for 30 minutes.

It felt so nice to be next to the water again and I forget how much I love being near the ocean! The next part of my journey the rain stilled followed me and led to more serious problems for not only me but southern Thailand as we headed toward the Khao Sok national park.

A cooking lesson: Eating Issan

On Wednesday my english classes were cancelled due to the students preparing for testing the following days which meant I had the day to prepare materials, hang out with my students or get a impromptu cooking lesson from a lady that comes to cook lunch for the students on certain days. She doesn't speak a word of english but was excited to show me around our little school kitchen and let me help out. Almost all thai food in my village is cooked with nothingless than a camper like stove, wak and rice cooker. For lunch that day we were having Pak Kah pow sia moo (vegetable basil with pork), Bla pad (fried fish), and the teachers get extra dishes of Pad See-ue and Pad Pak si Kia (fried vegteble with egg). Of course this is all serve with Kao Neio( sticky rice) which also doubles as the eating utensil that you roll up in a ball and grab the food with. Lunch time at PlaPak Noi is one of my favorite times of the day due to the wonderful array of dishes served at lunch that I have yet to get bored of and the company of my co-teachers. I'm not going to lie when I say one of the reason I chose to come to Thailand was because of how much I enjoy their food! I have had very few cravings for western food ( except maybe a good cup of coffee and my favorite trader joes peanut butter!) and have enjoyed my daily consumption of rice.

Here is the cook at work in PlaPak Noi's humble kitchen

The fish that was served at lunch was caught in the school pond by my third graders the previous day! The fish was seasoned (I didn't see what was put on them) and tossed into a wak full of boiling oil.

I love how substainable the schools are here with almost every school having their own garden full of vegetables and herbs that the students tend too.For the Vegetable basil Pork dish I helped pulled the leaves off the freshly picked basil leaves from the garden and slice up a few heads of cauliflower to throw into the wak. But first one of the most essential ingrediants needed to be added chili peppers and garlic. For this I used a clay type bowl and pounder utensil to extract the flavors. I'm thinking of getting on of these once back in the US since they are very effective and also are used to make one of my favorite dishes of papaya salad.

Once the vegetables were adequately cooked the pork was thrown in. Two sauces that you'll find in a majority of thai dishes are Fish sauce and oyster sauce. They sounded kind of gross to me at first but they really make the dish complete and add lots of great flavor. And one more thing of course, SUGAR. Sugar is added to all dishes as well. I've seen my Thai friends and teachers add spoonfuls of sugar to their soups, noodles, and just about anything!

Finally I learned how to cook Pad see-ue, a dish containing large rice powder noodles, chopped lettuces, and fried egg. This is also one of my favorite dishes that you garnish with fresh squeezed lime and chili flakes. Along with the noodles there was a small dish of fried vegetable, I'm not sure of the name but it looked like some sort of asian cucumber and egg. While all this preparation and cooking was going on the sticky rice was being soaked in a pot of water for an hour and finally put in a basket to steam on top of the stove for the last 20 minutes of cooking. It was a delicious lunch and makes me hungry just by writing about it again.

However I must add that not all my lunch are as "normal" as this menu. Many times items such as baby frogs or whole chicken feet will show up in the soups, which are some of my teachers favorites. Recently I had a veggie dish with ant eggs, they weren't that bad except I'm not too fond of the idea of what I'm actually eating! Also they might pick up a basket of fried crickets to snack on through out the rest of the afternoon. The culinary experience has been especially wonderful with the exposure to some many great new foods and tastes. I'm hoping to pick up a few more cooking tips and recipes before my time is up! In my next blog I'm planning on going into more detail with pictures about my favorite dishes here in Issan so far...Arroy Mak (thai: very delicious) Sap eely ( Lao: very delicious), the two words that you will learn first when moving to Issan!