Santa Gets a Tan

Happy holidays everyone! This is that time of year that kids get excited about seeing Santa and everyone looks out the window in the morning for a white Christmas. You all obviously sat down at your computer last week hoping to find a new exciting blog post from me as an early Christmas present! Unfortunately I decided to leave you all hanging for another week as I was off for a big adventure in Thailand! This post will be a bit longer than usual as it covers several HUGE events, so make yourself comfy with some hot chocolate and a blanket!

Firstly, last week was my 23rd birthday! I'm not sure whether I've mentioned this before but at Little America for the teacher's birthday, everyone gathers in the lobby of the school and sings "Happy Birthday" together. The other teachers pitch in and provide a cake as well as a small gift for the teacher as well. After singing for several other teachers' birthdays it was my turn! The teachers got me a beautiful cheesecake with gingerbread men on the top. I received several cards from my students throughout the day which made me feel very special! Birthdays are not as big of an event in Korea as the United States because they all share the same birthday on New Years when everyone turns a day older.

Happy Birthday Lola Teacher

 After the day of work, Katrina, Amanda, Shanna and I went out for my birthday dinner of sushi (of course!) which was delicious. It was all in preparation for the thing Amanda teacher and I have been planning since we met when I first arrived here. We bonded over the fact that Les Miserables was coming to Korea and we promised to go for my birthday. Suddenly 4 months flew by and it was finally the day! We stocked up on tissues and met up with several other teachers. The eight of us went into the theater excited to watch this new take on the classic play. I saw the theater production in 8th grade I think, and I did not really enjoy it then. Of course in 8th grade all you are really worried about is when you can use the bathroom during the intermission and buy crinkly wrapped snacks to bug everyone around you. After watching previews and sneak peaks I was SO SUPER excited to watch Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman do their thing. If you haven't seen it yet- you absolutely need to! The singing is so emotional that if you don't have tears in your eyes during some part of the film you should probably see your doctor.

After the emotional roller coaster that was that movie, Friday brought the Christmas/Monthly Birthday party at Little America. We started the day by giving the kids the perfect craft/snack of cheerios and melted marshmallow aka "teacher my hands are stuck together can you help me?" They had to mold the sticky mess into a Christmas tree shape then stick skittles into it as tree ornaments. Slimy, yet Satisfying.

Texas making their trees

Edward, the silent artist

Cheeeeeeeese

After crafting it was time for Santa to come to the school! I was so excited to be Santa this year. Some students tried to pretend that they knew it wasn't the real Santa, but they didn't fool me! I knew they believed a little because they were all timid and shy as they walked into the lobby where I (Santa) was sitting waiting for them.

Chloe excited about Santa's gift

We tried our best to disguise me in the suit. I stuffed a blanket around my middle and had two beards on as well as huge sunglasses (not one student asked why Santa was wearing sunglasses...). To say the least, I was in a sweat suit. At one point a student sat so energetically on my lap that one of my beards popped off so Katrina teacher had to come make sure my sudden coughing wasn't anything serious as we tried to do some beard damage control. After each student got their gift from Santa I ran in the office to take off the suit and go ask the students if I missed seeing the jolly man! They all said it was me, but I assured them that I needed to run out and do some errands and got back too late to see him. Katrina then had the brilliant idea of dressing up in the suit and coming in while I was already in the room. The look on the kids faces was priceless. Muahaha we are so sneaky.

The day was full of fun and games for all the students. I was in charge of the candy relay where students put on oversized gloves and tried to open up small, wrapped candies as quickly as possible. After the games, the students all performed their Christmas song. Texas did a great job on their performance of "Run Run Rudolph"! I will upload the video soon. After each class shared their songs it was birthday party time! John, from my class, shares the awesome birthday month of December, so it was his turn to choose a birthday kiss. Sua gladly stepped up to the plate!

The rest of the day was a day of pizza parties and Christmas celebrations with the elementary classes. Basically, I've had very little motivation to do very intense lessons this week, which the students are perfectly okay with. The whole week I was prepping for my trip to Thailand!

Saturday morning at 5:00am I headed off to Incheon Airport (to get there waa-hay-hayyy to early) and check in for my flight to Macau then to Bangkok to meet up with Ryan. For those of you who don't know Ryan, he attended Hood College for a few years while I was there. I remembered hearing that he was teaching in Thailand so I decided to use him as a tour guide. Now don't look at me like that, you would do the same! I gave him an open invite to make me a Korean tour guide as well! The flights were easy. There were a lot of foreigners headed off to Thailand for a warmer Christmas!

I arrived in Bangkok around 3pm on Saturday and met up with Ryan. He wrote out a basic itinerary with some ideas of what we could do over the week. A lot of it would be playing things by ear which is the best way to travel I think! The first night we checked out his favorite restaurant/bar where he DJs called Phranakorn. We enjoyed some Phad See Ew (the "ew" does not reflect the taste at all) and Yellow Curry as my first Thai meal. I loved tasting the different herbs and spices of Thai food compared to Korean. Also, Thai people are big on their rice. Ryan said if he didn't had rice that day he has that feeling that he forgot something...It's a big deal.

The next day we grabbed a quick breakfast at another favorite restaurant called "Ricky's" then grabbed a Taxi to the Grand Palace. Traffic in Thailand takes some definite getting used to. If you plan on a meeting time or deadline, you definitely need at least an hour cushion in there for when you hit the inevitable traffic jam. The roads are packed with taxis, vans, cars, trucks, tuk tuks (kind of like golf carts...) and motorbikes. Everyone swerves in and out trying to avoid pressing their breaks until the last possible second. I would definitely get used to seeing the back of a taxi throughout this trip! When we finally make it to the Palace there are men standing outside one of the entrances saying that it doesn't open until 1:00pm and that we should take a tuktuk to the Big Buddha statue until that time. He was doing us a huge favor apparently. We politely declined and headed inside where the Palace was in fact open and ready for visitors. When we got inside I was awestruck by the intricate designs and details of every surface of the palace buildings and statues. Everything sparkled and glittered in the sunlight. I could hardly put my camera down before seeing something else that I attempted to capture to share with you all, but it is just not the same as seeing it all in person.

 Gold covered every surface as well as sparkling jewels and rich colored tiles. Compared to the Korean temples I have seen this blew them out of the water. The royalty in Thailand wanted to show their wealth and status through elaborate decor and incredibly detailed structures. We snuck along with a few tours to catch some interesting information about certain buildings and statues then we just wandered the Palace taking it all in. Ryan had been there several times before, and I am so glad he wasn't too sick of it to take me!
After the Palace we headed to Wat Pho, which is the temple of the reclining Buddha. From the sound of it, I was thinking it would be a pretty relaxed and groovy place (ha..haha...). Anyways, we made our way in and I was shocked once again by the beauty of the temple. In its own way, Wat Pho also had shining surfaces and gold statues everywhere.

When we walked into the building with the reclining Buddha I was caught off guard by the sheer size of the golden statue! It is more than 40 meters long and about 15 meters high, taking up the entire building! The feet even had toe-prints carved into the stone.

Don't mind my newly adopted Thai family.

The Buddha's feet

After being outside all day in the heat checking out the temples we went to wander around the mall to cool off. The mall we walked to was huge and had every kind of store you could imagine! It also had little coffee shops sprinkled in the middle of the walkways. On our way in we were met by an interesting site...

This group of people were handing out coca-cola to passers by and posing for pictures in front of the mall entrance. We weren't exactly sure why, but I don't ask questions anymore.
That night we went to the Train Market which is a huge campground area filled with people selling things out of their cars, tents, and blankets. We took a tuktuk to get there! It was a fun experience piling into the back of the mini-golf cart and buzzing along. Once you get to the market you're greeted by smells of food carts and hundreds of people walking around looking at the variety of random stuff that covers the area. These items range from clothing to old school microphone and everything in between. 

Toy Story!

You could spend a week looking through each booth to find hidden gems in the piles and piles in front of you. I found an old view finder that reminded me of one I had when I was younger. We also found vinyl records, silly shirts, some of the first style of TV and radios ever made and a lot of other neat things. If you have ever lost anything at all...in your entire life...it ends up at this Train Market in Bangkok. So if you miss that pair of leather pants covered in British flags, you know where to go!

The next day was Christmas Eve! It did not feel like it as it was around 90 degrees and sunny, but with a little Christmas music and decorations, anywhere can feel like the holidays! We checked into the Sheraton where we would be having our Christmas Eve feast later that day and went to meet some of his friends at a vegetarian restaurant called Thamna.

I got a papaya salad which is a typical Thai dish. I loved it! It was spicy but sweet at the same time, and the fresh ingredients make the dish really crisp and delicious! It was definitely one of my favorite meals during my trip. We also shared some lotus root which I hadn't tried before but was really good! On the agenda for the day was Wat Arun which is one of the most famous temples in Thailand. Unfortunately, after discussing it with his friends, Ryan and I decided that it would take a long time to get there by boat and taxi that by the time we arrived we would have to turn right back to get ready for our dinner that evening. We opted for the Golden Mount temple instead which was closer.

The king's flag is the far one. The whole city is decorated with yellow flags and banners.

Happy Buddhas

Harry Potter brooms

A view from the bottom

On our way to find a taxi to get back to the hotel we walked up and saw some strange contraption with a conveyer belt moving on its own. When we walked further up past the telephone pole to investigate we found this little guy getting his exercise on the puppy treadmill. We weren't sure whether the puppy was for sale or the mini-gym cardio machine, but either way I wanted to give the puppy some water! Before I could do that the owner came out and took the puppy off treadmill to walk...some more...down the street. That is going to be the most in-shape chiwawa in Thailand.

No pain no gain

After arriving back at the Sheraton and getting all spiffed up we made our way down to the feast! There was more food than you could imagine. There was an Italian section with bruscetta and pasta, there was sushi, salad, bread, small plates (scallions, tuna, etc.), several kinds of meat, traditional Thai dishes, a caviar bar, endless fruits, and a great cheese spread! I chose things that I cannot find in Korea which was cheese and some of the fruits they had to offer (mangosteen and dragon fruit). I also had to have some sushi of course...

 We were there with a table full of his friends and coworkers from school. It was a fun group and I really enjoyed meeting them! After a while the mulled wine and champagne hit us and we crashed after a great Christmas Eve celebration.

The next morning was Christmas! Looking out the window at people in shorts and dresses and swimming in the rooftop pools, it was hard to believe. We exchanged some small Christmas gifts- of course Ryan had to get a pair of Gangnam Style Socks- then we headed back to his school to pack a small bag for the beach! We stopped at a duck restaurant nearby to grab some lunch to have on the van ride down.

When we arrived at the van location to get a ticket for the beach we were told that the last van left 45 minutes earlier. It was time for plan B! Our whole trip was full of moments where we had to play things by ear and go with the flow.
Plan B included going to Lumphini park, which has a lake where you can rent paddle boats and enjoy the sun! Around the water are huge lizards sunning themselves on the lawn. I didn't want to know how many of them were in the water around us.

Captain Ryan

After paddling, we set our sights on a hotel in the distance that has an open part up near the top with a tree in the middle of it. Ryan hadn't been there before but apparently it was a bar. Sounded like a place to check out so off we went! The building played tricks on us by seeming very close and then getting further and further away. The two of us all gross and sweaty walked into this very fancy hotel and asked about where the tree was...we got blank stares from both the lady at the desk and another hotel employee.. "Tree? what tree?". uhh the huge on that is in the middle of the top of the building? It can't be a very common thing to have. The hotel is named after the tree. When they remembered that they indeed had a tree, they told us the bar wasn't open until an hour later. All that walking to find it closed. Oh well, we made it there!

The next plan of action was to find a restaurant across the river from the Wat Arun temple that we had planned on going to earlier in the week. After wandering around a bit and seeing some sketchy alleyways we found "The Deck" restaurant and walked up to the fourth floor where we had an absolutely breathtaking view of the Wat Arun in the early evening. As the sun began to set behind the temple everyone on the deck was taking photos. It was a beautiful way to end a long day of walking and exploring. We even found Pimms! (yay mum!)

Wat Arun at sunset

The next morning we woke up at 7:30 to catch our van that we knew was going to be there this time to take us to Koh Chang, an island a few hours away from Bangkok. After being stuck inside a taxi in traffic we decided to bail and go on my first motorbike taxi ride. Not going to lie, I got butterflies in my stomach. I'd been watching these guys ride around weaving in and out of cars and crossing through oncoming traffic. I said my prayers and sent love to the family before hopping behind the guy. I held on tight as we sped through the traffic jam to the van station. I think he could sense my nervousness so he slowed down over some speed bumps instead of taking them at full speed which was super thoughtful of him. When I got off, my legs were a bit shaky but I had survived yet another mode of transportation in Thailand! That's a check off the bucket list.

The van ride was a tight squeeze but it was neat to get the chance to see the different terrains and towns of Thailand instead of just the big city with tall buildings and traffic. The van dropped us off at a gas station area where we hopped on a Songthaew (song-taw) which is essentially a pick up truck with some benches and a roof welded on. This truck took us to the ferry which leads to Koh Chang.

If you want picture the island just think about the exact opposite of Bangkok. The island is incredibly hilly and covered with thick trees. One road goes about 85% of the way around the outside of the island. The middle of the island is mainly accessed by dirt roads. We hopped into another songthaew and made our way to the hotel/resort that Ryan's friend Vara's mother owns called "Mangrove". She opened the resort 10 years ago and has made very few changes since then. The bungalows are all very rustic with no hot water or air conditioning. The mosquito nets over the bed keep you safe from bugs attacking at nights but not from the monkeys throwing coconuts around.

I loved how quiet it was compared to other resorts on our way around the Island. While bars were full of loud travelers and music, we all could retreat to our hotel for a more relaxed setting with the beach and the trees.

We walked around the beaches for a while and grabbed some dinner at a barbeque put on by a resort nearby. Then we checked out the night life at some of the bars around town. There seem to be more foreigners on the island than Thai people, and the foreigners are from all over the world. Whereas in Korea if you see a foreigner they are going to be 99.9% of the time from an English speaking country such as the US or Canada. In Thailand you are never really sure where they are from until they speak, and even then I was never good with deciphering western European languages.

The next day, Vara invited us to join her and her friend David on a snorkeling and boat trip around 5 small islands near Koh Chang. This speed boat took us through the beautiful turquoise waters. Again I was amazed by the complete contrast of Bangkok to these islands. I felt like we were in a postcard the whole time, the water just did not seem real! As we snorkeled we saw clown fish, parrot fish, a cuttlefish and hundreds of other colorful fish around the islands. The water was refreshing and several of the men working on our boat would dive down and bring up giant clams or kinds of coral for us to see first hand. On the third island we stopped for lunch and a rest before continuing onto the last two islands.

 On our way back to the mainland we pulled up close to the coast to find a huge group of monkeys sitting on the rocks. Before we knew it one of the crew members jumped onto the rocks with a bag full of the extra fruit and rinds from our lunch. He dumped out the bag and the monkeys all grabbed their share of the delicious snack! I wonder if they all know the schedule now. Whelp, its 4 o'clock, time for some fruit!

Enjoying his pineapple

After the long day of snorkeling it was time for a shower and a quick rest before heading to the restaurant Ryan had been talking about since I got to Thailand. Apparently the Mexican restaurant on Koh Chang has the best Mexican food ever...
It was so nice to have the spice and lime taste of Mexican food again! My fajitas were perfect!

The next morning we went on an adventure to rent a motorbike. When we arrived on the island it seemed like the motorbike rental places were like Starbucks in New York. As we walked further and further without finding a motorbike rental place either open or stocked with bikes we chalked it up as a valiant effort and headed back to Mangrove. Vara then worked her magic and found us a bike! We took the bike out to find something I had been looking forward to seeing the whole week...

We pulled over and found a place with several elephants and the option to ride and/or feed them! I did not need to ride the elephant but I definitely wanted to feed them! We got a basket of bananas to hand out to these gorgeous animals. I have never felt the trunk of an elephant before (or not that I can remember) but it was the most incredible experience! The pointy bit at the top works as a thumb to grab the banana from your hand. It felt stronger than I expected. After getting covered in elephant goo, I looked at another lady feeding them and saw that you can also put the banana a little underneath the end of the trunk and the elephant wraps her trunk around the fruit lifting it into her mouth. Not only did she inhale the bananas we were feeding her, she also ate whole pineapples! She had a baby with her but when we tried to feed it she took the banana for herself until one of the ladies who worked there unpeeled a banana and gave the baby elephant a little bite to eat. Being so close to these animals made them look less real. The skin around the feet and legs looks fake, almost like its a bunch of people in a costume. (hmm so thats how they make money!).

We then hopped back on the motorbike to find a waterfall. After missing the turn once we drove down a smaller road towards the entrance to a park. The waterfall was only about a 500m hike through the woods and it wasn't too crowded once we got there! Because it is dry season, the water is not as strong as usual, but it was still beautiful. The water felt great on our feet as we stretched a bit from sitting on the bike for a while.

Can you tell its hot out?

 It was a lot of fun being on the back of the motorcycle. Once I got more comfortable and did not feel like I was going to fly off I could look around and take pictures of the scenery! We rode as far as the ferry one way and then rode back past our resort to the end of the road the other way around the island. There are small huts, towns, restaurants, and resorts lining the beach of the island. Tourism is definitely supporting this place.

Now I'm not a motorcycle convert. I will not be getting a Harley when I return to the US, but it was such a fun and quick way to zip around the island as well as stay cool with the breeze!

For our last night on the island, Vara's mom took Ryan and myself, and Vara and David out to a French/Thai restaurant that she raves about (it might have to do with the fact that she thinks the young French chef is cute). The menu was small but amazing. We had watermelon and feta salad as well as more papaya salad, I got some seabass, others got duck and beef. And the dessert..


Sorry had to clean drool off the keyboard. It was a passion fruit and chocolate cheesecake with a thick biscuit crust and torched on the top so it looked like creme brulee- YUM! After drinking wine and stuffed with food it was time to get to bed so we could get up early and catch one of the first ferries off the island. The trip home was a bit bumpy. Vara's mom brought one of the dogs with us...which she can do, because she can do anything. As we sped over hills and around corners we held on tight!

Just doesn't look real

A wood carving in the restaurant and their beautiful chandeliers

I also got to make my contribution to the Mangrove resort by making them a drinks menu! If any of you end up there, let me know if it is still there!

 We woke up at 6:30, walked a bit before finding a songthaew, got to the ferry took another songthaew, then a van back to Bangkok. So much transportation! The van got stuck in traffic when we got back so we escaped and walked around to find a taxi instead. We stopped in a restaurant nearby to grab some food before my flight. We had a chicken and rice curry dish that again was sooo good. I think I will definitely miss the food in Thailand. I didn't try anything I did not like! Granted I did not have any sketchy looking street food...that will be the next trip.

Overall it was so nice to get away from the cold for a week and see a totally different place. Bangkok was busy and loud and crowded but there is a lot of hidden beauty there with the temples and old architecture, it was fun to explore and find these things! Now I'm back in Bucheon where it was -7 Celsius when I landed and the roads were coated with a dangerously invisible sheet of ice. We have a couple days off and back to work on the second! Happy 2013 almost everyone! Any New Year's resolutions? I'm going to work on my Korean more, and be a bit more organized with my filing and documenting at work. I think you all should have some that involve traveling to Korea....just a thought!

xoxo

Thai word of the post!! : สวัสดี (swahdi kap [male] /ka [female]): "hello"
Isnt the Thai language beautiful to read and write?