Mountain Adventure

So after a long day of shopping (you won't know how long until you go shopping with Jessica, but its all good, we love you Jessi) and hanging out with friends, I call for a ride home for myself and Dengtai (who was staying over at the time) and when we get in the car, my mom asks if we want to go with her to the mountain.  I didn't know what she meant, but Dengtai said her friends family had taken her to one of the temples on the surrounding hills of Chanthaburi.  So we decided "yes, we'll go see the temple".
It was a long drive down, longer still as we had to stop and talk to friends of the family along the way, one of which was going to join us in our car on the way, but opted out when we already had three people in the back (but by no means is this opting out a regular occurrence as we often drive with four people in the back seat).  We finally made it and were wondering what was going to happen, as communication is not a priority generally (all they've said was that we'd get tired and be scared or excited).
So a few minutes pass and we see a lot of trucks coming and going, from this we surmise that we will be taking a truck up the mountain.  So we pick a truck and we get in the truck bed that has been outfitted with benches and railings, and head out.  We don't get far before the truck we picked runs out of gas, some seemed irked by this development while I was merely curious and happy it didn't happen farther up the mountain.  A new truck is quickly arranged and we are fast on our way to the top.  When I used fast just then, I meant it.  The truck goes speeding up the mountain!  Taking sharp curves on a narrow road in the dead of night at stomach churning speeds!  It was totally AWESOME! We were screaming and laughing and being laughed at the whole way up, so enjoyable!  It seemed like there were some close calls, as those coming down were using the same road as those going up, and their speed was only slightly reduced so they could brake properly, also there were tree root and large rocks to navigate around.  Dangerous? Yes.  Necessary? No. Fun? Definitely.
So we get to a stop and get out of the truck, only to be put in another truck and told this one is more dangerous and steeper.  They weren't lying, we had to hold on to the railing so we didn't fall off the back.  It was just as fun though, couldn't go as fast, but had to keep the speed pretty high so they could make it up the hills.
That was the last up round of fun, and at this point I was hoping down would be just as fun.  But it would be hours before I found out.  We weren't at the top, but the trucks couldn't go any farther so it was on foot from there.  I can't guess how far it was, it seemed longer going up than coming down, but I would estimate it took maybe an hour, hour and a half to get up.  Along the way there were these series of bells, there were at least a hundred.  And you took out a coin and hit every bell along the way with it, if you missed one it would be bad luck, so we did this and at the end you put the coin in an unmarked donation container. Suspicious, a little, but I can only hypothesize that the temple uses it as upkeep money and it counts as spiritual merit (merit being like when you say Hail Marys or Pray and follow the rules kind of thing, I don't know how to explain you can Google it if you care) for the person.
So we get to the top, long walk, and find out we went to go see Buddha's footprint (at Khao Kitchakut).  I'm sure the more spiritual would have found it to be kind of profound, but as a tired person who isn't very spiritual, I just thought that I walked all that way to see a giant rock.  But I got over it, and joined in with those making merit, figured that I came all the way up here might as well make the most of it.  So I took off my shoes (they're big on that here) and waded into the sea of people to get closer to the giant rock (I mean footprint of Buddha).  The rocks were painful and I was sure I was going to get a foot disease from all the bare sweaty feet, but I made it to the offering place with Dengtai and we threw flowers into a pit of some kind wishing for good health and happiness for a bunch of people,  I threw two in for my mom, my cat, my family and myself as well as all my friends, one in for a good future, one for driving safety when I finally get out on the road again and then just to make sure one in for "Peace on Earth and Good Will towards Humanity (I think I said "men" but I meant it in that "humanity as a whole" way).  Then Dengtai and I got out of there because they were going to to a mass group prayer.  We sat on the steps overlooking the exit and waited, for like two hours.  We finally headed down about 1am and got into the trucks around 2:30ish.  Down was also fun as hell!  Thought I was going to lose my glasses because of the sheer angle of the truck (I didn't).  It was harder to see because the brake light was in my face but that kind of added to the "OMG I'm gonna die!" aspect of the whole thing.  Also we went faster on the longer stretches that we did on the way up, presumably less static friction to overcome.  We made it down alive and in one piece and were headed home by about three.  Got back faster because we didn't stop, ate something and went to bed.  Classic times.

Chiang Rai, etc.

     Hello All, I know its been quite a long time, but this time I really have been busy.  I'll try to cover everything up to now in this post, it won't be overly detailed, because some of it happened soooo long ago.

     So, I'll start at the Chiang Rai Rotary Trip.  We were all told we were going to Chiang Rai for a conference, and we did drive through Chiang Rai, stopping to visit the White Temple (really pretty) and eat at the Night Bazaar (our first American food in a long time), but then we kept going and ended up in Mae Sai.  I suppose it was just a miscommunication as all of the exchange students thought we were going to Chiang Mai the city, but Mae Sai is still in Chiang Mai the province. Its on the border of Myanmar, way up north, so we enjoyed the cooler weather.  There is very little to do in Mae Sai, you can shop, go to the caves or go to Myanmar.  We did 1 1/2 of these things.  We shopped and we walked to the Myanmar border, but we weren't allowed to cross.  We did a lot of shopping though, we had three days there and none of the conference was pertinent to us (we just had to come because everyone else in our clubs was going).  We also looked and prayed at a temple.  It was a really pretty temple, at the top of an immensely large flight of stairs...it was fun though and the climb was worth it there were lots of cool statues and architecture up there, as well as great views.  Its very mountainous in the North so some of the houses are built right into the mountain side, its really pretty.  All the exchange students from my club (and DangTai, who rode down with us), got a cold, a terrible cold, because the air conditioning in the van was at a stupidly low level and the Thai people had jackets, so they weren't cold and so they wouldn't turn off the a/c for us when we asked, so we froze, I literally (and that's a literally that is used properly, I don't mean figuratively) couldn't feel my nose, it was like winter.  That was a bit "rant-y" but it upset me because I was sick for like two weeks, and I hate being sick.

     So that was Chaing Rai, despite the sickening end to the trip, it was still a good fun time to hang out with all the other exchange students.

     That's the only big thing that happened in the last little while. Besides Chiang Rai, I switched host families and our Mexican, Jessica, had her birthday.

     Switching host families, I didn't know how I was going to fit all of my stuff into my bags, its strange how you accumulate things so quickly.  At first I didn't want to leave, I think it was that I had gotten comfortable in my first house (probably because they told us we wouldn't be switching this year, but there were complications).  I love my new family though, there are more bugs and more lizards in this house, but there's also better food and good people.  The three things you hear the most are gin reu yung (have you eaten), sabai sabai (its all good) and mai pen rai (no worries mate).  Well fed and happy, all is well in this new household, I'm sad that I will be switching again in April.  Also, their dog is adorable or creepy...I can't tell, I think adorable though.  And it doesn't look like a dog...

     Jessica's birthday was on the 14 of February so we all got together and Jessi made Mexican food for us all.  I now love chilequiles and have to learn to cook Mexican food (as well as Thai food, Indian food, "Canadian" food and Italian food).  Good times.

      Foods that I miss include well-made sandwiches, potatoes and peaches.  Going to Subway as soon as I get back.

The White Temple

Cool Architecture at Temple

Heads hanging from tree at Temple

Depiction of souls suffering in Hell

The Bathroom at the Temple

The Giant Staircase to a temple in Mae Sai (Temples here are like castles in the UK)

Scorpion Statue at top of the stairs

View from the Top

Buffet, my host family's dog

Phu Kradeung

November was a really busy month.  At the beginning of the month we travelled to the province of Loei to climb Phu Kradeung and celebrate the Loy Krathong festival.  The festival entails floating krathongs, small boats made from banana leaf with candles and flowers and incense, on some kind of body of water.  Also, lanterns are lighted and floated into the sky.  Picture that Tangled scene, but with fireworks.  If anyone's wondering what happens to the lanterns: the flame eventually goes out and the paper thing falls back down, slowly enough that one can dodge though.  Some of the lanterns didn't quite make it into the sky and there were people there who would catch them and try to push them back up, so they didn't light anything (or anyone) on fire.  One lighted lantern didn't make it up, but it fell down over water, so no one could push it back up.  The fountain destroyed that thing (which sadly means a lot of bad luck for the lantern owners).  On some of the lanterns they attached fireworks to the bottom and when the lantern was full of hot air, they lit the fireworks and then let go of the lantern.  If no one has ever done that before, the lantern doesn't rise as fast as one generally runs away when one lights fireworks.  So, needless to say, I did not feel safe when those were sent off.   

We celebrated Loy Krathong at ground level and the next day we headed up the mountain, Phu Kradeung.  It took about 5 hours to get all the way to the top and the last 2km or so was literally climbing up large amounts of steep, rocky terrain.  We stayed at the top for a few days, it cost 50 baht for a warm shower, so I had cold showers.  Due to the altitude the temperature was cooler, more like a Canadian autumn but with more sun.  The cool mountain air was refreshing.  We watched the sunrise one morning and then walked 30km to the other side of the mountain to see the sunset. My friend and I almost got lost once.  We decided to explore (and we did tell one of the adults) and see some more of the waterfalls before heading back for dinner.  We saw a sign that said to be out of the forest by 3pm because that's when the wild elephants come out, it was 2:30, so we headed back.  This friend of mine kept wondering how the elephants got up the mountain in the first place, its not an easy climb.  

One drawback of the mountain was the sheer amount of leeches.  The leeches here are different then they are in Canada.  They are smaller, faster and live in grassy areas.  The first night we were there my friends and I spent an hour on the porch picking leeches off of each other and each others’ shoes.  I had eight in my shoes and two on my socks and I picked four off of one person’s foot and applied first aid to another’s.  Classic times.  Through the night on occasion you would hear some of the kids coming back from their friend's cabins and then you hear screams as they discovered the leeches all over their feet.  I invested in a pair of leech socks, which you put on over your socks and pants and they keep the leeches on the sock and off your skin.  They'll make a good souvenir.    

Counter-intuitively, going down the mountain was both harder and more dangerous.  Either because we were tired from our week of hiking, or because gravity thought we were spiting it, I don't know.  But everyone made it back safe, with only a few minor injuries and very sore appendages. 

Hard to get a good picture because I would jump every time a firework went off :)

Krathong

Lantern

          

       After we got back to Chanthaburi; which meant a 5 hour bus ride, a night in a hotel, a three hour van ride and then a 2 hour truck ride; we had a few days rest before we were headed off to Pattaya for a conference, some fundraising and some fun at the beach.  The Rotary kids walked in a parade to raise money for the flood victims, with the exchange students holding the donation boxes and walking down the sidewalks beside the parade.  The parade marched to the central mall, where a show was then held to raise more money.  People preformed dances, sang and two of the Mexicans put on a magic show.  At the end the Exchange Students all went up together and sang Imagine by John Lennon.    

Sawatdee Bii Mai

This is just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  In Thailand the year is 2555 BE (Buddhist Era).
In the last few days I've been to three New Year's Parties, all going late into the night and involving good food, karaoke and good company.
Fireworks and lanterns are abundant in the sky tonight.  Filling the entire horizon with artificial stars and wonderfully colourful explosions.
I have plans for another party in the near future with the other exchange students where we will make some of the food that we've been missing thus far.
I am working on the next retrospective update from November and hope to get it up soon.

I wish everyone a healthy and happy new year!  Try to stick to any resolutions you make and enjoy yourself as much as possible.

(See a nice and quick post)

Not the fireworks from tonight (because my camera couldn't capture them) but fireworks none the less :)

Fa la la la la la la la bacon...

     Hello all, I realize that it has been quite a long time since I've updated. My deepest apologies to any who were upset by this.
     In the last two months a lot has happened. So much so that it would be nearly impossible for me to include everything in one blog post. So I propose this solution: I shall restart my blogging with a lovely Christmas story and then we can Tarantino it back through the beginning to see how I got there. Everyone okay with that? Good, because that is how I have decided it and so it shall be.

A Lovely Christmas Story
     As with most Christmas stories this one begins with hopelessness and end on a high note (or a kiss, but not this time). Over the weeks leading up to the holiday we, that is my friend Deng-Tai and I, were planning a trip to Khon Kaen to join our friends in the celebrations. After many complications and then finally a ban on all holiday travel, due to some exchange students breaking certain rules, the plans were cancelled. It was at this point that we had lost our Christmas spirit; there was no snow, no visiting of friends and no "holly jolly" feeling in the city. 
     However, as we are exchange students and therefore adaptable and resilient, we did not let these draw backs ruin our Christmas. We planned for me to stay at Deng-Tai's house. A main factor in our decision and renewed happiness was that she had macaroni and cheese that her mother had sent. So I set out for her house on the eve of the big day, with a only bag and Christmas box from my mom. We got lost only twice, for a moment or two, but we'd made it before and could this time too. 
     After arriving I headed up to her room where we could begin our celebration. We watched three movies over the course of the night; the Grinch, A Charlie Brown Christmas and the Miracle on 34th Street. While we waited we decorated our tree, a simple drawing in a book, but that was all we needed. At supper time we took a break and made the macaroni and cheese which so swayed our decision. While we worked we listened to and sang the carols of childhood and of our home country.
     We ate way too much chocolate and I nearly threw up with the amount of macaroni we ate.  We finally went to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, anticipating a warm Christmas morning (something new for both of us).  Our plans to awaken early and Skype with our families were ruined when we slept in :D  It all worked out though, we just Skyped later in the day.  Christmas morning was definitely a success! 
     Later in the evening we went to the mall to buy presents for the gift exchange we were going to do at a party later.  The party was at our friend Gun's house and there were farang and Thais alike.  Before going to the house we visited one of the waterfalls in the city.  Fie from France made spaghetti carbonara for us, it was delicious, she did a great job.  There were also French Fries and many other Thai foods (some I liked, some I did not).  We listen to music and comedy, played with his punching bag and his dad let us check out his guns.  We ended up staying the night, unknown to us at the time of arrival.  One of the gifts was a movie Let the Right One In, the original Swedish version of the Hollywood remake Let Me In, and in my opinion a much better movie, so we watched that.  
     Christmas was fun, the party was great (I helped cook shrimp, I don't like shrimp and seeing them cooking didn't help) and  I had an awesome holiday!

Plans for the next week include a Rotary New Year's party and seeing a movie with some friends (A Big C just opened in out city and they have movies in English subbed in Thai, so everyone can enjoy :)).

I will attempt to update much much sooner with more stories from the last two months.  Until then please enjoy my Christmas story and share with me what you did for the holidays!

Flying a kite at Gun's Grandparent's House

Our Super Special Awesome Christmas Tree!

Chang lae Ngoo lae Bling, Oh My!

This will be a very short post.  I will post again next week sometime with more details and events.

 

All the farang (foreigners) got to participate in our school's sports day parade.  Which means it was another day to get dressed up.  Now, if I had written a post the day of or the day after this parade, it would be an angry one.  But I have mellowed out on the subject and have found that it wasn't quite as bad a day as I had thought (wow the tenses in that sentences are screwy).  I won't go into much detail, but we started 2 km from our school and then walked to the school, then we stood for about an hour waiting for a ceremony to finish (I only use these words because none of us farang knew what was going on, so we waited), then me and my friend had to stand on the road side and wait for our ride, for another half an hour or so.  Luckily there was a shop just across the street and we bought some orange Fanta. 

With my Rotary club here, we helped out with the flooding by packing bags of supplies for those unable to leave their flooded homes and for those who are living elsewhere.  A big circle was set up and you would get a bag and then walk around the circle and people would put the supplies in your bag (a bad explanation, I realize), think of it like trick or treating for the Good Samaritan.  The bags were then delivered to Bangkok; some of our club member (like our President) went to help distribute them.  I myself would like to go to Bangkok to help out directly, but I have a feeling that it may be deemed dangerous.  I will ask and in the meantime, continue to do what I can here.  As long as you all over there do what you can as well (donate, pray, give support, etc.) --> there was this really nice commercial on here that had messages for the Thai people from Japan.  They said things like ganbatte and sousou (meaning fight fight in Japanese and Thai respectively) as well as messages of hope and love. 

I learned a new word in Thai that doesn’t have a direct translation to English its: nam jai, it expresses the idea in Thai culture that it is necessary to help other who are in need, whether you know them personally or not.  From my understanding it means something like “water heart”, in the sense that you have to let your heart pour out in the giving to and helping of others. 

On to something a little more light-hearted, I had my first moment of “Oh, I can’t remember what the word is in English.”  It was brief and it involved the word “sapaloht” which means pineapple but, at the time, I couldn’t remember that J

That’ll be all for now, a non-picture post, as I have no pictures from these events on a camera that I currently have access to.  

Tomorrow I am off Phu Kradeung National Park; where I will be climbing a mountain, taking beautiful pictures and attempting not to be eaten by wild animals (including snakes and leeches à ngoo and bling in Thai) or trampled by wild elephants (chang). 

Thus I will be without internet until the 14^th and probably too tired to write a blog about it until the weekend.  I will however bring paper so I make notes to make sure I do not forget anything important that occurred.    

At this park on November 10^th, we will be celebrating Loy Krathong, a water and lights festival.  It is a time when thanks are given to the water spirits, couples wish for happiness, others pray to Buddha and still others wish for good luck and longevity.  All this is accomplished by floating a krathong (boat made from banana leaves) down a river after having lighted candles and incense on it and decorated it with flowers; as well as floating paper lanterns into the sky (like Tangled).  If you would like to read more go here: http://www.thailand.com/travel/festival/festivals_loykratong.htm

If you would like to see pretty pictures Google Images Loy Krathong Festival. 

I will talk/write at you all soon, hopefully with pretty pictures.  Until then....

See you on the flip side :)

Too hot to think of title...(well, one any better than this one)

Wow, almost a month since my last post.  Well, sorry for the really long stint of inactivity.  It was mostly due to lack of internet connection and business.  I'll try to cover everything in this post, but if it turns out I'm too lazy, I'll post again in a few days to cover the things this missed. 

First thing I did was explore a little, so here are some pictures from my exploration. 

Then; Pit Nui, Pre Pun, Puen and I went to the Mangrove forest.  It was very pretty and only a little dangerous (on the bridge and the damaged pathway that had trees growing through the middle of it. 

That same day we went to the aquarium and saw lots of cool looking fish, including those in Finding Nemo and also some sharks and rays and other cartilaginous creatures. 

The next thing I did was go to RYLA Camp (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards).  It was just like summer camp and it was all good fun.   We did a lot of things (which I have no pictures of because my camera died and also my memory card became full). 

Day 1 we hung around the camp and got to know each other (the camp was completely in Thai, unless there was something very important for the foreigners there to know in which case it was translated). 

Day 2 we went to a wat, which is a temple and also a pottery place.  The camp was in Korat Zoo, so we also got to explore that.  Saw some reptiles and nocturnal animals (had a staring contest with an owl). 

Day 3 we went to Little Italy and an adventure place called Bonanza.  Here it rained, a lot.  Everything was soaked and when things get wet in Thailand, they don't dry because it's so humid here.  But it was still fun.  I bought chocolate, really good chocolate and then helped clean the garbage that was left on the bus and accidently put my chocolate in that pile.  It pains me to talk about it, I'll be in therapy for ages. 

Day 4 we toured a hydro power plant, we went into a really deep tunnel to see something mechanical (I didn't quite understand because they were speaking Thai, my vocabulary doesn't yet extend to Hydro Power jargon.  We also hiked up a large hill to plant a tree at the top, I called it a pilgrimage because I assumed it had more meaning to those who knew what was going on.  Then each team (everyone was split into teams, I was green) did a presentation and every country did one too.  I went with Canada because I didn't have enough time to learn the lines in Thai to present with the Green Team. 

Day 5 was the last day and we all sat in a big hall and awards for participation were handed out.  Then we went on home.  Well most people did.  All of the Foreigners and some of the Thai students went to ThreeBound.  A Rotary conference.

At ThreeBound, the inbound were all there to tell the potential outbound about their countries and about the exchange itself.  Also we played sports.  Marvellous times were had by all. 

After all that I took a few days off to relax and then went and made pancakes at Deng Tai's house with Jessica.  It was an adventure because (due to Deng-Tai's wheat allergy) we had to make our own mix, and we didn't have all the ingredients.  But it all worked out in the end, after some playing with batter to make it a less watery concoction.  The first one we made had the consistency of crepes and the appearance of scrambled eggs, ergo the name Scrambles PanCrepes.  I think we should patent it, it's quite a good snack food.  So just when we were thinking Jessica and I would have to leave, DengTai's mom comes in and says that we are staying the night.  Which was fun, but smelly, we hadn't brought any "sleepover items."  Then in the morning when we thought we were going to go home, they said they would take us to Robinson (the good mall in Chanthaburi) until 2pm.  Also, because Jessica had a dance class it was supposed to be me and Deng Tai, then the dance teacher calls and cancels, so we got to unintentionally hang out for two full days, gotta love Thailand. 

Monday, my family and I travelled to Pattaya.  For some good old fashioned tourism.  We saw the Sanctuary of Truth, which is essentially a temple but made completely of wood.  It contains many styles of art, including Thai and Cambodian and Indian.  It has four halls each facing a different direction and each representing a different creator or aspect of human nature.  Construction started in 1981 and is still not done, it has cost 2,000,000,000 baht so far. 

After we went to a National Park, whose name escapes me, I may look it up later, but probably not.  Its pretty well known.  We saw traditional Thai dancing and a Muay Thai performance as well as an awesome elephant show (although occasionally the "fun time" mood was killed when you heard the jingle of chains around the elephant's foot).  The elephants, threw darts, played basketball, danced, and gave massages (at this I thought, I don't care how well the elephant is trained I would not let it step on me).  It was quite good.   

Pictures all at the end in an annoying way, because I'm tired of trying to position them.

That's everything I have for now.  I start school again tomorrow and I think things are going to change there because Noi Na's Mom called and said she was bored at school.

I'll let you know when it happens.

Delicious drink that I will miss

This milk is an important plot point

Mangrove Forest

Mangrove Forest

Mangrove Forest

Mangrove Forest

Tree in the middle of the path

Shark at Aquarium

Seal Show at Korat Zoo (RYLA)

Figure in Wat

Cool Pottery

Dinos at the Zoo!!!

Sanctuary of Truth

Thai Dance

Muay Thai

Thai Dance

Elephant Show

Elephant riding a bike

Elephant playing basketball