Hua Hin
I was really looking forward to going to Hua Hin again for my first official week back in Thailand after traveling for so long. The beach there is beautiful, the night life fun but not overwhelming, and there is always something going on. Unfortunately, this trip did not really live up to the last one.
Because of all of the flooding that Thailand has been experiencing this rainy season the beach was a complete disaster. What was before clean, beautiful, soft white sandy beaches was now covered with debris, trash, and general ugliness. As we were walking along the sand there were Thai people sweeping trash into the ocean as it washed up onto the shore... of course the trash would come right back so other than being really sad and gross it also just made no sense. Ohhh Thai people.
Despite the beach we did get some tanning in and also went to Cicada market where I had gone last time. We perused the markets, got some Leos, and watched the kids break dance for awhile. Funnyyy. Naaalak. We also ended up finding this really good but expensive restaurant with duck curry, pizza, and crab cakes (all in one meal... what a combination) and a really good cafe the next morning that had cream cheese and lox on a bagel. AMAZING for Thailand. Finally, I have found the purpose of expats--providing food that I miss out on in the States.
The night life was also lacking from before, however, on Saturday night, HALLOWEENNN, we did end up finding a Johnie Walker club called High 4 that had a really strange show of girls in chains wailing about while men pretended to slash them. This is how Thais understand Halloween, Hahaha. It was also decked out with orange lights and had good music minus the Thai band that played every hour. Thai bands have their place but not in night clubs.
Pattaya
The following weekend I made my THIRD trip to Pattaya. Entirely too much if you ask me, however, we were less going for Walking Street and more going for Koh Lan, the island off of Pattaya. It was beautiful!! I was not feeling great after the debaucheries the night before in Bang Saen, however, I was conscious to note that this was one of the best islands that I have been thus far in Thailand. All was great except for the pushy Russians who were acting like they had to get on the boat OR ELSE DIE when we had to leave at the end of the day. Seriously, they were jumping into it from the shore, pushing people out of the way... ridiculous. It was such a mess. The Russian mafia controls the prostitution in Pattaya so there are a lot of them and they are all really fat and ugly. Sucks for the prostitutes for sure.
That night we had Indian food, soooo good. Then we passed out around mm 8:30pm. Yup, that's right. We went to Pattaya, the most notorious place in Thailand for a good night life and passed out after dinner. We were exhausted! I don't regret it at all, in fact it was perfect and we were able to get up early and spend a good part of the next day relaxing on Hot Jamtien Beach. Not a bad weekend at all.
Bangkok
I have been wanting to have a Bangkok weekend for soooo long. I still had drink tickets for RCA and really just wanted a fun weekend out without the hassle of traveling. It was perfect. We met friends, got drunk, danced a lot, went to Ko San Road after RCA closed, then I took a cab back to Sampran (cheaper than spending a night in Bangkok and I wake up in my own bed... I'm really getting old. It was awesome but I did note that if another African man or balding white guy hits on me I WILL LOSE IT.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Teeechaa Lissie!! Said the 'Catholic' kiddies
My first few weeks at Joseph (my new school in Thailand) have been amazing. It is night and day from Prabhassorn in Chonburi where I taught for the first 5 months in Thailand. Joseph is a very prominent and well-known school in Thailand, and, best of all, it is Catholic. This Catholic connection does nothing for me as far as religious affiliation, however, it DOES do a lot for me in terms of holidays!! I get a full week off for Christmas whereas teachers teaching in regular Thai schools obviously don't get any time off at all. SWEETTTT more time to travel!!
Other than the travel perks, Joseph does have a number of other great things to offer. The classrooms are air conditioned, the class sizes are 20-25 kids max, it is super clean and I get supplies/copies/paper and the kids even have books!! Honestly, its a whole new world. I could not be happier. Also, one of the hardest issues to deal with at PBS was having no one to talk to. It was really hard being the only foreigner at my old school and not being able to speak enough Thai to have real conversations with people. I basically just came, did my classes, and watched a lot of TV shows on my laptop during the day. Super boring and most of all a waste of time.
Now I am in an office with 9 other people who all teach either English or Chinese. The Chinese teachers are super nice and can speak decent to really good English depending on the person. CeeCee is a Chinese teacher who is 24 and is totally awesome. She is teaching Chinese at the school and studying English at Burapa University in Bang Saen so that she can get her degree in English and go back to China to teach English there. Dakota is from Texas and at 40something is the next closest person to my age. Chris is from Ghana and is great but keeps to himself a lot. Weigand is a German who is in his 60s and just started his second family in Thailand. He has a Thai wife and 2-year old daughter who he does not shut up about... at first it was cute and I tried to listen intently but honestly, will NOT shut up, ever, so sometimes I have to just ignore him. Paul is my co-teacher and is from Cambridge, England. He has terminal cancer and has already picked out a graveplot at the school. Yikes. He has been teaching at Joseph since the school opened 5 years ago. He is mostly pretty nice but makes a bunch of comments that I have to ignore... such as when he refers to Thai women as "little brown things." He is harmless though and is by far the smartest of them all so that much at least I respect him for. Even though it is good to finally be able to understand conversations during the day, most of what comes out of these ex-pats mouths are ignorable, or noteworthy for all of the wrong reasons. For example, Weigand asked on first day of school "What's a thesaurus?" It was my first day so I kept my mouth shut, but had I felt a little more comfortable to speak I probably would have responded with a nice "Well, it's a dinosaur, duh." Yeah... and he teaches English... obviously qualifications are a little loose in Thailand, which should be obvious anyway since I am here, but whatever. They may not be the brightest bunch, but nice, yes, entertaining, at times, and overall good people, yes.
Now, more importantly, my kids. I don't feel as close with them yet as I did with the kids in Chonburi but I am sure that will come with time. On the whole they are SOOO smart. Or at least have been prepared with English skills far exceeding those of the kids at PBS. I actually feel like a real teacher, like they can actually learn things from me, versus at the other school when I gave up teaching after the first few weeks and decided just to hang out with the kids every class. I also have younger students (4th, 5th, and 6th graders) so they are easier to control than the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders that I had before. On the whole they are awesome and I am really excited to see how they will grow and improve this semester.
I will keep updating this entry as new developments happen with the kids, or more likely, when the ex-pats make really stupid comments. hahahaha.
Other than the travel perks, Joseph does have a number of other great things to offer. The classrooms are air conditioned, the class sizes are 20-25 kids max, it is super clean and I get supplies/copies/paper and the kids even have books!! Honestly, its a whole new world. I could not be happier. Also, one of the hardest issues to deal with at PBS was having no one to talk to. It was really hard being the only foreigner at my old school and not being able to speak enough Thai to have real conversations with people. I basically just came, did my classes, and watched a lot of TV shows on my laptop during the day. Super boring and most of all a waste of time.
Now I am in an office with 9 other people who all teach either English or Chinese. The Chinese teachers are super nice and can speak decent to really good English depending on the person. CeeCee is a Chinese teacher who is 24 and is totally awesome. She is teaching Chinese at the school and studying English at Burapa University in Bang Saen so that she can get her degree in English and go back to China to teach English there. Dakota is from Texas and at 40something is the next closest person to my age. Chris is from Ghana and is great but keeps to himself a lot. Weigand is a German who is in his 60s and just started his second family in Thailand. He has a Thai wife and 2-year old daughter who he does not shut up about... at first it was cute and I tried to listen intently but honestly, will NOT shut up, ever, so sometimes I have to just ignore him. Paul is my co-teacher and is from Cambridge, England. He has terminal cancer and has already picked out a graveplot at the school. Yikes. He has been teaching at Joseph since the school opened 5 years ago. He is mostly pretty nice but makes a bunch of comments that I have to ignore... such as when he refers to Thai women as "little brown things." He is harmless though and is by far the smartest of them all so that much at least I respect him for. Even though it is good to finally be able to understand conversations during the day, most of what comes out of these ex-pats mouths are ignorable, or noteworthy for all of the wrong reasons. For example, Weigand asked on first day of school "What's a thesaurus?" It was my first day so I kept my mouth shut, but had I felt a little more comfortable to speak I probably would have responded with a nice "Well, it's a dinosaur, duh." Yeah... and he teaches English... obviously qualifications are a little loose in Thailand, which should be obvious anyway since I am here, but whatever. They may not be the brightest bunch, but nice, yes, entertaining, at times, and overall good people, yes.
Now, more importantly, my kids. I don't feel as close with them yet as I did with the kids in Chonburi but I am sure that will come with time. On the whole they are SOOO smart. Or at least have been prepared with English skills far exceeding those of the kids at PBS. I actually feel like a real teacher, like they can actually learn things from me, versus at the other school when I gave up teaching after the first few weeks and decided just to hang out with the kids every class. I also have younger students (4th, 5th, and 6th graders) so they are easier to control than the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders that I had before. On the whole they are awesome and I am really excited to see how they will grow and improve this semester.
I will keep updating this entry as new developments happen with the kids, or more likely, when the ex-pats make really stupid comments. hahahaha.
"Weeecome tu my keeedum! Would you rike tu see a caaab?!"
Now I bring you to the island of Borneo. It is a very large island located in the South China Sea and had territories from 3 different countries on it, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. The Malaysian part is mostly an outdoorsy-person's dream come true filled with challenging mountain trekking, beautiful beaches and diving, and jungle excursions. The Indonesian part I am relatively unfamiliar with but I hear that it is very undeveloped compared to the Malaysian section. Finally, the entire country of Brunei resides in on the northern coast of Borneo in an area that totals only 2,226 sq miles. The state of Rhode Island is about 1,500 sq miles to give you a comparison. Basically, it is really, really, small.
We started off in Kota Kinabalu, located in the Sarawak region of Borneo (Malaysia). Our first day we spent exploring the city and getting an idea of how we should spend the rest of our time there. We went through some markets (handicraft, dry, and wet). The handicraft market had a bunch of, wait, oh yeah, pretty obvious... handicrafts. And nothing all that different from Thailand. The dry market had a bunch of dry spices, fish, etc, and the wet market was basically a butcher shop. Intense, strange smells, constantly, but interesting to look at for sure.
After we looked through those markets we somehow ended up stumbling upon the fish market. It was right on the water in an open warehouse. We were intrigued and thought that we could get some good pictures of the fresh seafood so we ventured in. Immediately upon entering the pavilion we had a Malaysia man enthusiastically shove a live crab in our faces and say "Weeeecome tuu my keeeedum! Would youuu rike (like) tuuu see a CAB?!?!" I mean, terrified does not begin to describe how I felt at this point or would feel in the next few moments. We were screamed and hooted at more intensely than anything I have ever heard of or experienced in my life. It was deafening. Obviously, these old men had never seen girls before. It was insane. We got through it as quickly as possible without any photo opportunities (however, we did, bravely or stupidly, make a trip back there another day while in KK when there were a lot less fishermen and got some great pictures then, sooo, yeah, it all worked out). As we scurried out of the fishermen arena a little boy shouts "Sing a song sing a songggg!!! Do you understan??" Sooo cute. Made me miss my kids in Chonburi a lot.
Afterwards we went through the Muslim district to check out the snack selection then headed towards Atkinson Clock Tower and the observatory. The clock tower was constructed in memory of Francis George Atkinson who was the popular first District Officer of Jesselton when the British controlled Borneo. We got lost trying to find the observatory and decided to call off the search around 5pm and went back to the lodge. For dinner we went to the waterfront and had Indian food (again), Guiness, and hookah. Not too shabby.
The next day we woke up late then walked to the Jetty to go to Manutik island off the coast of Borneo. Yup, an island off of an island. It was really peaceful and pretty with very few other tourists but A LOT of dead coral. Ouch! That night we walked along the cobblestones of Gaya Street looking for a bar or something entertaining but ended up calling it an early night after our second ice creams of the day... yum!! I made progress on my book on Buddhism. I figured if all the Thais are buddhist it would be in my best interest to learn more about their beliefs. There is no 'self' and we are not corks floating along in a river but rather the river itself... no corks involved. We only exist in reference to one another. Hmm, I like it.
On the third day we got up very early to do what most people come to KK to do.. climb Mt. Kinabalu!! We shared a taxi with other people to get there then went off on our own and hiked the Silau Silau trail before heading into the Botanical Gardens. We saw a lot of really cool flowers including the spider orchid, rabbit orchid, and lipstick orchid as well as the smallest and largest types of pitcher plants in the world! I was pretty confused but it was very pretty. Sarah was excited because she likes plants more than animals, hahaha.
That night we went to the Loft at the waterfront for Ladies Night (even though the bartender screwed us over and we ended up paying for all of our drinks anyway). Rickey, the bartender, looked like a magical creature and so did some of the US Navy sailors that we met. They had just pulled in that day and were very interested in, uh, talking to new people. There were definitely some propositions made but overall they were pretty tame, I was surprised. Next, we headed to the club Bed and danced our little hearts out until Rickey came and pulled us away from our fun. Lame. I was a little more than inebriated so we made our way back and said bye to KK!!
To finish off our adventures we made a 20 hour stop in one of the smallest countries in the world, Brunei. It has a population of only 300,000 and is such a small dot, even on the island of Borneo. Despite all that the Sultan is one of the richest men in the world and the country thrives off of its oil. Getting there was fine except that the KK security man took my contact solution and Sarah's eye makeup remover! Damnit Malaysia! I traveled for 3 weeks and 7 flights to have no one take it and then YOU had to ruin it all. Grrr. Typical.
Since we had such a short time in Borneo we decided to take a tour through a company so that we could have transportation and see as much as possible. Fazlin was a very tiny Bruneian man (23 like us, but he looked about 12) who showed us around. We went to the National Mosque, Royal Regatta Museum, another mosque, the Brunei National Museum, the water village (30,000 people in Brunei live in this stilt village.. it has its own schools, fire department, police office, everything), and the Empire Hotel. My favorite part was the Royal Regatta Museum because of the adorable pictures of the Sultan when he was young and how they tried to portray him as being athletic. So cute. There were also a ton of presents on display that nations around the world had given to Brunei over the years. Some were lame (The UK gave a green cup with Queen Elizabeth's initials on it), some were scary (Guana's weird looking African man made out of wood and banging on a drum), and some were very elaborate (the mini version of Dubai). We got back dropped off at the hotel at 12, had lunch, then headed to the airport! We flew to KL, then Bangkok arriving at 10:30 at night. We stayed at my home away from home, Lub D, of course.
Great vacation overall and now it's time to start working at Joseph Upatam!! Yeahhh!!
The next day we woke up late then walked to the Jetty to go to Manutik island off the coast of Borneo. Yup, an island off of an island. It was really peaceful and pretty with very few other tourists but A LOT of dead coral. Ouch! That night we walked along the cobblestones of Gaya Street looking for a bar or something entertaining but ended up calling it an early night after our second ice creams of the day... yum!! I made progress on my book on Buddhism. I figured if all the Thais are buddhist it would be in my best interest to learn more about their beliefs. There is no 'self' and we are not corks floating along in a river but rather the river itself... no corks involved. We only exist in reference to one another. Hmm, I like it.
On the third day we got up very early to do what most people come to KK to do.. climb Mt. Kinabalu!! We shared a taxi with other people to get there then went off on our own and hiked the Silau Silau trail before heading into the Botanical Gardens. We saw a lot of really cool flowers including the spider orchid, rabbit orchid, and lipstick orchid as well as the smallest and largest types of pitcher plants in the world! I was pretty confused but it was very pretty. Sarah was excited because she likes plants more than animals, hahaha.
That night we went to the Loft at the waterfront for Ladies Night (even though the bartender screwed us over and we ended up paying for all of our drinks anyway). Rickey, the bartender, looked like a magical creature and so did some of the US Navy sailors that we met. They had just pulled in that day and were very interested in, uh, talking to new people. There were definitely some propositions made but overall they were pretty tame, I was surprised. Next, we headed to the club Bed and danced our little hearts out until Rickey came and pulled us away from our fun. Lame. I was a little more than inebriated so we made our way back and said bye to KK!!
To finish off our adventures we made a 20 hour stop in one of the smallest countries in the world, Brunei. It has a population of only 300,000 and is such a small dot, even on the island of Borneo. Despite all that the Sultan is one of the richest men in the world and the country thrives off of its oil. Getting there was fine except that the KK security man took my contact solution and Sarah's eye makeup remover! Damnit Malaysia! I traveled for 3 weeks and 7 flights to have no one take it and then YOU had to ruin it all. Grrr. Typical.
Since we had such a short time in Borneo we decided to take a tour through a company so that we could have transportation and see as much as possible. Fazlin was a very tiny Bruneian man (23 like us, but he looked about 12) who showed us around. We went to the National Mosque, Royal Regatta Museum, another mosque, the Brunei National Museum, the water village (30,000 people in Brunei live in this stilt village.. it has its own schools, fire department, police office, everything), and the Empire Hotel. My favorite part was the Royal Regatta Museum because of the adorable pictures of the Sultan when he was young and how they tried to portray him as being athletic. So cute. There were also a ton of presents on display that nations around the world had given to Brunei over the years. Some were lame (The UK gave a green cup with Queen Elizabeth's initials on it), some were scary (Guana's weird looking African man made out of wood and banging on a drum), and some were very elaborate (the mini version of Dubai). We got back dropped off at the hotel at 12, had lunch, then headed to the airport! We flew to KL, then Bangkok arriving at 10:30 at night. We stayed at my home away from home, Lub D, of course.
Great vacation overall and now it's time to start working at Joseph Upatam!! Yeahhh!!
The Rare Vos Return to Malaysia
On my way back from Kuala Lumpur a few months ago I remember a family who was talking about their amazing weekend on Penang (an island off the west coast of peninsular Malaysia). At that point I knew that I would be making a trip to that island and hopefully other areas of Malaysia since I felt that I did not get the full experience of the country by only visiting the capital. SO. Fast forward a few months and a long break anndddd here we go back to Malaysia!
I had night, actually, 14 hours, between when my flight from Hong Kong landed back in Bangkok to when I was scheduled to take off for Penang. I had thought about just waiting it out in the area but after Sarah Barr made me through away my only dress when we were in China (for good reason... it was see-through and had holes in it) I had a mission to go shopping and get a new 'go-to' dress while in Bangkok. I headed to Central World (the mall that the Red Shirts burned down in May... it had partially reopened only a few weeks before) to visit an old and familiar friend, Forever XXI. I picked up a t-shirt and a tank top then headed to the airport!
It was sooo nice to see my friend Sarah Cortes after being apart for 3 weeks. Seemed like an eternity. We spent the whole plane ride chatting and catching up on each other's lives and adventures, much to the displeasure of all of passengers seated around us. Once we arrived in Penang we had to take the 401E bus in order to get into Georgetown (the town on the island that we were staying). On the bus we met 4 Cheque boys who had been backpacking around SE Asia for a bit as well as a Korean guy named K who was going to school and working in the Philippines but was on vacation to Malaysia for the weekend. We ended up hanging out with them that night and we all stayed in the same hostel (The Blue Diamond, a foul establishment that we knew we would be vacating early the next morning in search of cleaner accommodations). After we got settled we went hostel searching for the next day and got dinner in the Little India area at a restaurant called Kapitans. It was really yummy.
After walking around the town for over an hour we could not find any bars or suitable hostels! What kind of a paradise was this anyway?!?! We finally stumbled upon Old Penang Guesthouse, which was awesome, but only had availability for the night after next, so we booked, but still had to find a place for the day day as well (Banana Guesthouse). While making arrangements with Paul, the manager of Old Penang, this guy Jason started talking to me (while i was 'slyly' ripping out pages of a Lonely Planet on Penang so I could figure out where the good times were to be had) and invited himself out with us. Okay, fine, random Canadian/Dutch/American/Arab guy. He was alright but the BEST part of hanging out with him was discovering the bar/club area of Penang that was an entire street, closed off to cars, where beer towers and dance parties coexist in happiness. It felt like home (Thailand home, that is..).
We got beer towers (he didn't pay, even though he was a lawyer, negative 10 pts) and we eventually met up with the backpacker boys we had met earlier that day and drank and chatted until 5:30am. Oops. Fun night for sure.
A few hours later we moved to Banana Guest House, got kebabs at Kapitans, and went shopping at Queen's Mall for clothes. They also had a Forever XXI and since I had neglected to find a new go-to dress while in Bangkok I finally picked one up here, yeah! It was wayyy to short but cute and had pockets to help me constantly pull it down. Hehehe. For dinner that night we went to a seafood place that the Penang Food Trail had recommended (you got you pick your own seafood out from whatever they had fresh that day, tell them how you wanted it prepared, and they cooked it up. Awesome. I also had to admit that later that night I had a burger from a burger stand. It had an egg on it, an intriguing combination that I had been to scared to try in college for fear that I would immediately keel over from a heart attack but it was amazing and I do not regret it one bit. That night we went back to the same pedestrian bar area but went into the clubs instead. It was fun but we didn't make any new friends, a rarity in the Sarah/Lizzie saga of life.
The next morning we woke up to vicious banging on our door. Terrified and disorientated I opened the door to find the hostel staff standing there. Apparently it was 12:15 and check-out was at 12. Oops again. I mean, really Malaysia, if you supplied rooms with windows so that some natural light could get in maybe that whole situation could have been avoided. We grudgingly but apologetically got our stuff together and walked down the road to Old Penang Guesthouse. We really took on the 'hostel-hopping' mentality in Penang.
After we checked-in we headed to Batu Ferengi after yet more Indian food for lunch. We got off the bus at the Holiday Inn, walked in like we belonged, and hung out at their beach and pool for the rest of the day. Thank you Holiday Inn.
When the sun started setting we took a walk on the beach, being sure to avoid the AVs roaring around us, and chilled out with a beer at a beach bar to watch the sunset. Not too shabby. This bar was extra special because it came with a puppy that the owners kept trying to shoo away but after seeing the interest that Sarah and I took in its cuteness left it alone for us to play with. After our drink we roamed the night market, picked up Merrick (a freaky stack of cups and bowls with a painted Asian face on it that freaked me out to no end), and headed back to Georgetown for another burger stand burger for dinner. Mmmm.
Our last day in Penang was spent on self-navigated historical walking tour of the old city. It was good, we saw temples, mosques, and churches as well as a cool graveyard and interesting buildings and clock towers. We ended at the jetty and took the 'Free Cat' shuttle back to our area, showered, and headed to the airport for our 6pm flight to Kota Kinabalu.
Before leaving we came up with a series of code phrases to help each other decipher whether or not we were into a guy that was hitting on us. We decided on "DTF mai?" (are you into it) "Do you have any chopstick?" (do you want to get out of this situation?) and singing the opening to Usher's 'Baby, Let me Love you Down' "Ohhhh myyyy GOD!" (get me the fuck out of here right now). It needs some work, but its a good start. <3
I had night, actually, 14 hours, between when my flight from Hong Kong landed back in Bangkok to when I was scheduled to take off for Penang. I had thought about just waiting it out in the area but after Sarah Barr made me through away my only dress when we were in China (for good reason... it was see-through and had holes in it) I had a mission to go shopping and get a new 'go-to' dress while in Bangkok. I headed to Central World (the mall that the Red Shirts burned down in May... it had partially reopened only a few weeks before) to visit an old and familiar friend, Forever XXI. I picked up a t-shirt and a tank top then headed to the airport!
It was sooo nice to see my friend Sarah Cortes after being apart for 3 weeks. Seemed like an eternity. We spent the whole plane ride chatting and catching up on each other's lives and adventures, much to the displeasure of all of passengers seated around us. Once we arrived in Penang we had to take the 401E bus in order to get into Georgetown (the town on the island that we were staying). On the bus we met 4 Cheque boys who had been backpacking around SE Asia for a bit as well as a Korean guy named K who was going to school and working in the Philippines but was on vacation to Malaysia for the weekend. We ended up hanging out with them that night and we all stayed in the same hostel (The Blue Diamond, a foul establishment that we knew we would be vacating early the next morning in search of cleaner accommodations). After we got settled we went hostel searching for the next day and got dinner in the Little India area at a restaurant called Kapitans. It was really yummy.
After walking around the town for over an hour we could not find any bars or suitable hostels! What kind of a paradise was this anyway?!?! We finally stumbled upon Old Penang Guesthouse, which was awesome, but only had availability for the night after next, so we booked, but still had to find a place for the day day as well (Banana Guesthouse). While making arrangements with Paul, the manager of Old Penang, this guy Jason started talking to me (while i was 'slyly' ripping out pages of a Lonely Planet on Penang so I could figure out where the good times were to be had) and invited himself out with us. Okay, fine, random Canadian/Dutch/American/Arab guy. He was alright but the BEST part of hanging out with him was discovering the bar/club area of Penang that was an entire street, closed off to cars, where beer towers and dance parties coexist in happiness. It felt like home (Thailand home, that is..).
We got beer towers (he didn't pay, even though he was a lawyer, negative 10 pts) and we eventually met up with the backpacker boys we had met earlier that day and drank and chatted until 5:30am. Oops. Fun night for sure.
A few hours later we moved to Banana Guest House, got kebabs at Kapitans, and went shopping at Queen's Mall for clothes. They also had a Forever XXI and since I had neglected to find a new go-to dress while in Bangkok I finally picked one up here, yeah! It was wayyy to short but cute and had pockets to help me constantly pull it down. Hehehe. For dinner that night we went to a seafood place that the Penang Food Trail had recommended (you got you pick your own seafood out from whatever they had fresh that day, tell them how you wanted it prepared, and they cooked it up. Awesome. I also had to admit that later that night I had a burger from a burger stand. It had an egg on it, an intriguing combination that I had been to scared to try in college for fear that I would immediately keel over from a heart attack but it was amazing and I do not regret it one bit. That night we went back to the same pedestrian bar area but went into the clubs instead. It was fun but we didn't make any new friends, a rarity in the Sarah/Lizzie saga of life.
The next morning we woke up to vicious banging on our door. Terrified and disorientated I opened the door to find the hostel staff standing there. Apparently it was 12:15 and check-out was at 12. Oops again. I mean, really Malaysia, if you supplied rooms with windows so that some natural light could get in maybe that whole situation could have been avoided. We grudgingly but apologetically got our stuff together and walked down the road to Old Penang Guesthouse. We really took on the 'hostel-hopping' mentality in Penang.
After we checked-in we headed to Batu Ferengi after yet more Indian food for lunch. We got off the bus at the Holiday Inn, walked in like we belonged, and hung out at their beach and pool for the rest of the day. Thank you Holiday Inn.
When the sun started setting we took a walk on the beach, being sure to avoid the AVs roaring around us, and chilled out with a beer at a beach bar to watch the sunset. Not too shabby. This bar was extra special because it came with a puppy that the owners kept trying to shoo away but after seeing the interest that Sarah and I took in its cuteness left it alone for us to play with. After our drink we roamed the night market, picked up Merrick (a freaky stack of cups and bowls with a painted Asian face on it that freaked me out to no end), and headed back to Georgetown for another burger stand burger for dinner. Mmmm.
Our last day in Penang was spent on self-navigated historical walking tour of the old city. It was good, we saw temples, mosques, and churches as well as a cool graveyard and interesting buildings and clock towers. We ended at the jetty and took the 'Free Cat' shuttle back to our area, showered, and headed to the airport for our 6pm flight to Kota Kinabalu.
Before leaving we came up with a series of code phrases to help each other decipher whether or not we were into a guy that was hitting on us. We decided on "DTF mai?" (are you into it) "Do you have any chopstick?" (do you want to get out of this situation?) and singing the opening to Usher's 'Baby, Let me Love you Down' "Ohhhh myyyy GOD!" (get me the fuck out of here right now). It needs some work, but its a good start. <3
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The SARs of the PRC... how's that for lingo??
Hong Kong. Macau. Are they part of China or are they their own countries? Sovereign States perhaps? Do they have different rulers, political systems, currency, laws?? Even after visiting these places and doing extensive Wikipedia research, some of these questions remain unclear, but, officially, Hong Kong and Macau are China's SARs (special administrative regions) of the People's Republic of China. They do have different political systems and they do use different currency (Hong Kong dollars, Macau dollars). You also have to go through passport control when flying into them from China, since they are listed as 'international'. However, they are officially now no longer under British or Portuguese rule respectfully, therefore, Chinese. I will also repeat what a Chinese friend told me about what China teaches their students about Hong Kong and Macau. "Hong Kong and Macau were like two children taken away from their parents and raised by different parents so they grew up differently, however, they always know who their true daddy is." Creepy China, creepy. Phew, hopefully that alleviates some confusion and now I can begin with the adventures.
Barr and I couldn't track down Rochelle in the airport after we arrived in Hong Kong so we headed to the hostel ourselves. When we had searched online for a place to stay a few names came up all in the same area. Once we arrived at the hostel (above Burberry...???) we noticed a sign that said the hostel was operating illegally and that the building was not responsible for anyone who chose to stay there. Great. We got in and immediately looked online for another place to stay. We found one down the road, however, when we went to check out that one, it was closed, or never existed... Later on we realized that the hostel was listed under about 7 different names presumably because it was illegal and had to change it's name constantly. It definitely wasn't the nicest place but we survived and it was in a good location in Causeway Bay. Overall very unclear, but it did the trick and was cheap.
Barr and I had lunch at this hole-in-the-wall place and the people were sooo nice and gave us some milk tea to try. Awesome. Later that day once we had tracked down Rochelle we had dinner with Gigi, a friend of Kevin's who he had met while abroad in Shanghai and who was currently living in Hong Kong. She was greattt. We had really yummy sushi, 2 bottles of sake, and about 20 beers. This was before I told Gigi about '7-hopping,' a game I claimed we played all the time in Thailand but really I had just made it up in my head. The game involved getting a beer at every 7-11 that we passed and chugging the beer in between 7-11 stops. Needless to say it was a really fun game, however, we were all pretty smashed when we finally got to the bars. We ended up dancing on the bar at Carnegie's, causing a ruckus on the streets, and getting drunk food at Ebenezer's in the form of gyros... typical night. So much fun!
The next day we headed to the mainland part of Hong Kong (we were staying on the island... and part of the land that is Hong Kong is on mainland China), called Kowloon, and visited the Museum of Fine Arts, the Space Museum, and saw Cosmic Collisions in the Planetarium (during the show we all ended up taking a nap... which was fine with me especially after the announcement "Hello, my name is Robert Redford, and I am going to talk to you today about how are universe developed..." snore, literally.
After the show we toured through the markets on Temple Street and attempted to locate the Jade market but failed so we ended up having dinner on the street in clay pots. We got chinese eggplant and beef brisket and then a fried oyster cake. Very random. Chinese food was okay but it's super greasy and heavy on the sauce so not my favorite. At this point I'm really starting to miss Thai food for sure.
Day 3: We took the Peak Tram up to the Peak in Hong Kong then hiked a mile or so straight uphill until we reached Victoria Peak, the highest peak in Hong Kong. It would have been a lot prettier had it not been for the smog that engulfed Hong Kong, so unfortunately it was a little bit of a let down. Afterwards we visited the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. We concentrated on the animals instead of the plants, oops. There were lemurs, orangutans, monkeys, raccoons, Asian crocodiles, etc... pretty too look at but small cages :(
We had dinner that night with Gigi again and Lauren (who arrived late to HK after spending time with a teacher/co-worker and her family in China) at Bang Bang Pan where we made our own okinomiyaki!! Curry/chili, pork belly, veggies, egg, and all sorts of awesome sauces were involved. So cool I love cooking my own food!
The next day we headed to Macau. L-O-V-E Macau. It may have been my favorite place of the entire trip. It was Asian, yet, it felt like I was in Europe. The food was crazy, everyone I met was Filipino, the things we did we awesome, just sooo happy. We got up early in HK and took the Macau Ferry over to the mainland. After hopping on a bus downtown we popped into a restaurant and nibbled on some Farmer's beef brisket in a bread bowl, Macanese pork sandwich, Macanese chicken, and last but not least a Portuguese egg tart. Sooo good. We spent some time walking through the streets and markets, Largo de Sanada, and the famous ruins of St. Paul. It was breath-takingly beautiful.
After our explorations in the city we took a bus to the Venetian to check out the casino scene and see my first Cirque du Soleil performance, Zaia. It was awesome. My favorite part was the Chinese dog/dragon acrobats (obviously because the performers were the only Asian ones). Although the casino itself was really impressive I was not blown away by the Chinese gamblers. I really thought that they would be super hardcore, however, almost no one had a drink in hand, they were all dressed really casually, and it was pretty much empty. What kind of a casino was this anyway?! Vegas for sure trumps in the atmosphere category, get with it China!
Our last day in HK we slept in then headed to Stanley Market to get some souvenirs for friends and family back home and in Thailand. The area itself was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the coast of northern California. For dinner that night we headed to Gigi's favorite hot-pot place and stuffed ourselves on seafood, beef, pork, veggies, tofu, and went to town on the 'make your own dipping sauce' area. After dinner we went back to the bar area in Wan Chai where we head gone all-out our first night in HK. It was ladies night so after our 2 for 1 margaritas we ended up back at Carnegie's, which was serving champagne free all night. Obviously at that point we found no reason to go anywhere else and ended up back on top of the bar again. Told you, typical.
The next morning before our flight we chilled out at the tea house for like 4 hours and occupied ourselves with some Chinese checkers and Monopoly. I bought at 7-11 umbrella that I had been admiring and we headed back to Bangkok. Lauren had left earlier that morning to head back and grab her bag for Bali before heading to Indonesia, Barr was going to her uncles and then back to New Jersey, Rochelle was meeting her dad in Bangkok and going on their own Thailand adventures, and I was just passing by and doing a little shopping at Forever XXI before heading to Malaysia with Cortes. :)
Barr and I couldn't track down Rochelle in the airport after we arrived in Hong Kong so we headed to the hostel ourselves. When we had searched online for a place to stay a few names came up all in the same area. Once we arrived at the hostel (above Burberry...???) we noticed a sign that said the hostel was operating illegally and that the building was not responsible for anyone who chose to stay there. Great. We got in and immediately looked online for another place to stay. We found one down the road, however, when we went to check out that one, it was closed, or never existed... Later on we realized that the hostel was listed under about 7 different names presumably because it was illegal and had to change it's name constantly. It definitely wasn't the nicest place but we survived and it was in a good location in Causeway Bay. Overall very unclear, but it did the trick and was cheap.
Barr and I had lunch at this hole-in-the-wall place and the people were sooo nice and gave us some milk tea to try. Awesome. Later that day once we had tracked down Rochelle we had dinner with Gigi, a friend of Kevin's who he had met while abroad in Shanghai and who was currently living in Hong Kong. She was greattt. We had really yummy sushi, 2 bottles of sake, and about 20 beers. This was before I told Gigi about '7-hopping,' a game I claimed we played all the time in Thailand but really I had just made it up in my head. The game involved getting a beer at every 7-11 that we passed and chugging the beer in between 7-11 stops. Needless to say it was a really fun game, however, we were all pretty smashed when we finally got to the bars. We ended up dancing on the bar at Carnegie's, causing a ruckus on the streets, and getting drunk food at Ebenezer's in the form of gyros... typical night. So much fun!
The next day we headed to the mainland part of Hong Kong (we were staying on the island... and part of the land that is Hong Kong is on mainland China), called Kowloon, and visited the Museum of Fine Arts, the Space Museum, and saw Cosmic Collisions in the Planetarium (during the show we all ended up taking a nap... which was fine with me especially after the announcement "Hello, my name is Robert Redford, and I am going to talk to you today about how are universe developed..." snore, literally.
After the show we toured through the markets on Temple Street and attempted to locate the Jade market but failed so we ended up having dinner on the street in clay pots. We got chinese eggplant and beef brisket and then a fried oyster cake. Very random. Chinese food was okay but it's super greasy and heavy on the sauce so not my favorite. At this point I'm really starting to miss Thai food for sure.
Day 3: We took the Peak Tram up to the Peak in Hong Kong then hiked a mile or so straight uphill until we reached Victoria Peak, the highest peak in Hong Kong. It would have been a lot prettier had it not been for the smog that engulfed Hong Kong, so unfortunately it was a little bit of a let down. Afterwards we visited the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. We concentrated on the animals instead of the plants, oops. There were lemurs, orangutans, monkeys, raccoons, Asian crocodiles, etc... pretty too look at but small cages :(
We had dinner that night with Gigi again and Lauren (who arrived late to HK after spending time with a teacher/co-worker and her family in China) at Bang Bang Pan where we made our own okinomiyaki!! Curry/chili, pork belly, veggies, egg, and all sorts of awesome sauces were involved. So cool I love cooking my own food!
The next day we headed to Macau. L-O-V-E Macau. It may have been my favorite place of the entire trip. It was Asian, yet, it felt like I was in Europe. The food was crazy, everyone I met was Filipino, the things we did we awesome, just sooo happy. We got up early in HK and took the Macau Ferry over to the mainland. After hopping on a bus downtown we popped into a restaurant and nibbled on some Farmer's beef brisket in a bread bowl, Macanese pork sandwich, Macanese chicken, and last but not least a Portuguese egg tart. Sooo good. We spent some time walking through the streets and markets, Largo de Sanada, and the famous ruins of St. Paul. It was breath-takingly beautiful.
After our explorations in the city we took a bus to the Venetian to check out the casino scene and see my first Cirque du Soleil performance, Zaia. It was awesome. My favorite part was the Chinese dog/dragon acrobats (obviously because the performers were the only Asian ones). Although the casino itself was really impressive I was not blown away by the Chinese gamblers. I really thought that they would be super hardcore, however, almost no one had a drink in hand, they were all dressed really casually, and it was pretty much empty. What kind of a casino was this anyway?! Vegas for sure trumps in the atmosphere category, get with it China!
Our last day in HK we slept in then headed to Stanley Market to get some souvenirs for friends and family back home and in Thailand. The area itself was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the coast of northern California. For dinner that night we headed to Gigi's favorite hot-pot place and stuffed ourselves on seafood, beef, pork, veggies, tofu, and went to town on the 'make your own dipping sauce' area. After dinner we went back to the bar area in Wan Chai where we head gone all-out our first night in HK. It was ladies night so after our 2 for 1 margaritas we ended up back at Carnegie's, which was serving champagne free all night. Obviously at that point we found no reason to go anywhere else and ended up back on top of the bar again. Told you, typical.
The next morning before our flight we chilled out at the tea house for like 4 hours and occupied ourselves with some Chinese checkers and Monopoly. I bought at 7-11 umbrella that I had been admiring and we headed back to Bangkok. Lauren had left earlier that morning to head back and grab her bag for Bali before heading to Indonesia, Barr was going to her uncles and then back to New Jersey, Rochelle was meeting her dad in Bangkok and going on their own Thailand adventures, and I was just passing by and doing a little shopping at Forever XXI before heading to Malaysia with Cortes. :)
Shanghai Shenanigans
Kicking off my 3 week break in between semesters in Thailand is Shanghai. Although I traveled to Hong Kong with my family when I was 16 I had never been to mainland China until this trip... nor was I particularly planning on going here while in Thailand, but alas, it was fate, and I definitely don't regret it.
We left BKK at 2am and arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport at 7am. After a brief argument with the hostel staff we were finally allowed to crash on some beds and make up for some sleep we had missed while traveling overnight + jet lag. The only condition was we had to sleep on beds with sheets that had not been cleaned yet from the previous guests. This is one of those 'I know this is not the most sanitary thing in the world but I would do anything to just sleep right now' kind of moments. I mean, really, how dirty could they have been (?!?!). Whatever, no one caught any diseases and we all slept soundly for another 5 hours.
Later that afternoon we met up with Barr and Rochelle's friend Gianmarco who they had met at Full Moon Party on Koh Pagnan a few months prior. He took us to his favorite hot pot place (delicious) and then to the Yu Yuan Gardens and Fashion Street Market to hit up some tourist attractions in the later afternoon. Dinner that night was street food skewers (different than Thai skewers... less BBQ like, more spices) and fried rice. We had a chill night just hanging out, smoked a bit, and were overall mesmerized by the lights that he had which was later than my hand. While walking back from their apartment later that night we saw the dirty side of Shanghai... literally. There were massive piles of trash EVERYWHERE. Just everything that had been thrown out that day piled in the middle of the street where earlier that day raw fish, frogs, chicken, beef, etc had been laid out and would be the following day again. Yikes. Definitely not the prettiest sight but I really have to give it up to the Shanghai street cleaners.
Day 2 was spent walking along the Bund and through the financial district. We took Bund Sightseeing Tunnel across the river to get a better look at some of the architecture and get a different perspective on the city. This tunnel was unreal. It's ashame that I could not get a better picture of it but all I can describe it as was jazzy meats Halloween meats Disney. Ridiculous and soo Asian. When we got to the other side we tried scoping out this coffee shop that we had read about in Lonely Planet (damnit Lonely Planet you let us down again!!) but the staff in the HSBC building where it supposedly was did not know of any coffee shop so we settled for the mall and discovered MOCHI!! I had had mochi for the first time the Khon Kaen weekend when the Japanese teachers made it for the Amata dinner party, however, this mochi was unreal. It was the same dough but really cold and had filing on the inside. We each got 2, all different flavors, and made sure to sneak bites when one got a particularly good rating.
That night we went to a new area of town, the French Concession, which is like the Soho or Meat Packing District of New York.. young, hip, and good restaurants. We ate at this Chinese restaurant called Schezwan Citizen and had a spread of awesome Chinese food as well as a basil martini which I will not forget anytime soon. Afterwards it was a night out on the town. We had Bijo (rice liquor) and beer and headed to a few different bars before ending our night at M2 club. We met a Chinese guy named Billy who would not take off his sunglasses inside but was pretty, uh, entertaining.
The next day we had a late start, switched hostels so that we could be closer to downtown (Shanghai Soho International Youth Hostel... highly recommend it) and had a chill night walking along Pedestrian Square, having tea on a roof top, and of course, eating.
Our final day in Shanghai was spent at the EXPO. The EXPO (also known as the World's Fair) is an international exposition where participating countries create national pavilions that demonstrate a common international mission current to the time (the environment in Shanghai) as well as a glimpse into that particular country, its customs, and its people. Although people had warned us that the lines were insane (2 to 3 hour waits per exhibit) and warned us that we would be lucky to see 3, we ended up being able to see 7 different countries which included New Zealand, Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Greece, Angola, and the Netherlands. They were all cool but Indonesia and Angola were the best that we saw for sure. I thought that they both represented the environmental conservation message of the EXPO as well as the country's heritage in the most interesting and people-friendly way possible. It was a great experience overall though and I was really happy that we did it despite being unsure whether or not it was going to be worth our while.
After the EXPO we headed to the Urban Planning Museum to check out how Shanghai developed so radially from a closed-off, un-westernized, ancient city to the thriving metropolis of architecture and culture that it is today. That night we had a final drink with the boys at the View Bar on pillows the size of swimming pools. The first part of China extravaganza came to a close wayyy too quickly, however, Hong Kong here we come!!
We left BKK at 2am and arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport at 7am. After a brief argument with the hostel staff we were finally allowed to crash on some beds and make up for some sleep we had missed while traveling overnight + jet lag. The only condition was we had to sleep on beds with sheets that had not been cleaned yet from the previous guests. This is one of those 'I know this is not the most sanitary thing in the world but I would do anything to just sleep right now' kind of moments. I mean, really, how dirty could they have been (?!?!). Whatever, no one caught any diseases and we all slept soundly for another 5 hours.
Later that afternoon we met up with Barr and Rochelle's friend Gianmarco who they had met at Full Moon Party on Koh Pagnan a few months prior. He took us to his favorite hot pot place (delicious) and then to the Yu Yuan Gardens and Fashion Street Market to hit up some tourist attractions in the later afternoon. Dinner that night was street food skewers (different than Thai skewers... less BBQ like, more spices) and fried rice. We had a chill night just hanging out, smoked a bit, and were overall mesmerized by the lights that he had which was later than my hand. While walking back from their apartment later that night we saw the dirty side of Shanghai... literally. There were massive piles of trash EVERYWHERE. Just everything that had been thrown out that day piled in the middle of the street where earlier that day raw fish, frogs, chicken, beef, etc had been laid out and would be the following day again. Yikes. Definitely not the prettiest sight but I really have to give it up to the Shanghai street cleaners.
Day 2 was spent walking along the Bund and through the financial district. We took Bund Sightseeing Tunnel across the river to get a better look at some of the architecture and get a different perspective on the city. This tunnel was unreal. It's ashame that I could not get a better picture of it but all I can describe it as was jazzy meats Halloween meats Disney. Ridiculous and soo Asian. When we got to the other side we tried scoping out this coffee shop that we had read about in Lonely Planet (damnit Lonely Planet you let us down again!!) but the staff in the HSBC building where it supposedly was did not know of any coffee shop so we settled for the mall and discovered MOCHI!! I had had mochi for the first time the Khon Kaen weekend when the Japanese teachers made it for the Amata dinner party, however, this mochi was unreal. It was the same dough but really cold and had filing on the inside. We each got 2, all different flavors, and made sure to sneak bites when one got a particularly good rating.
That night we went to a new area of town, the French Concession, which is like the Soho or Meat Packing District of New York.. young, hip, and good restaurants. We ate at this Chinese restaurant called Schezwan Citizen and had a spread of awesome Chinese food as well as a basil martini which I will not forget anytime soon. Afterwards it was a night out on the town. We had Bijo (rice liquor) and beer and headed to a few different bars before ending our night at M2 club. We met a Chinese guy named Billy who would not take off his sunglasses inside but was pretty, uh, entertaining.
The next day we had a late start, switched hostels so that we could be closer to downtown (Shanghai Soho International Youth Hostel... highly recommend it) and had a chill night walking along Pedestrian Square, having tea on a roof top, and of course, eating.
Our final day in Shanghai was spent at the EXPO. The EXPO (also known as the World's Fair) is an international exposition where participating countries create national pavilions that demonstrate a common international mission current to the time (the environment in Shanghai) as well as a glimpse into that particular country, its customs, and its people. Although people had warned us that the lines were insane (2 to 3 hour waits per exhibit) and warned us that we would be lucky to see 3, we ended up being able to see 7 different countries which included New Zealand, Indonesia, USA, Brazil, Greece, Angola, and the Netherlands. They were all cool but Indonesia and Angola were the best that we saw for sure. I thought that they both represented the environmental conservation message of the EXPO as well as the country's heritage in the most interesting and people-friendly way possible. It was a great experience overall though and I was really happy that we did it despite being unsure whether or not it was going to be worth our while.
After the EXPO we headed to the Urban Planning Museum to check out how Shanghai developed so radially from a closed-off, un-westernized, ancient city to the thriving metropolis of architecture and culture that it is today. That night we had a final drink with the boys at the View Bar on pillows the size of swimming pools. The first part of China extravaganza came to a close wayyy too quickly, however, Hong Kong here we come!!
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Last Days
The last few weeks of the semester at Prabhassorn FLEW by. I stayed in Chonburi almost every weekend after Kuala Lumpur and really made sure to take advantage of the town, my friends, and the remainder of my time with the students. This blog is more of a list of the things that I really enjoyed about living in Chonburi so that I can look back on this and hopefully smile about my first few months in Thailand.
I frequented new places like Dream Bar, Naraya, explored hidden Chinese temples, made numerous trips and nights out in Bang Saen, as well as made sure to devote some time to my old favorites: The Babe, Central Plaza, Yamon (Elephant Bar in Amata), Shabushi, and Pattaya. I had an amazinggg time and will never forget my experiences at PBS and in Chonburi.
More things to remember:
-crushing on Teacher Love
-time spent with Noon and Bua (Bang Saen, The Babe, Pattaya)
-Central Plaza
-Yamon with The Team (Barr, Cortes, Rochelle)
-Favorite students: Twins from IEP (Phem and Plume), Memo, Momem (One-One), Tian, Pang Pond, Mook, Of, Game, Milk, Sun, Pai, Sun <3
-bonding with IEP the last weeks while practicing for that awful parent's show
-having a few too many and heading to work the next day... felt like college but worse
-Burdock, B2 (Amata), Yamon, The Babe
-market foods: rice sausage with chilis and extra ginger, sticky rice with pork on a stick, squid on a stick, green curry no blood no chicken, salad with weird dressings
-motorbike rides along the beach
-speaking Thai... attempting to speak Thai
-getting stared at everywhere I go/being called beautiful or fat or both by everyone and anyone
-trying new things (food, places, transportation... any and all things in Thailand basically)
Amsterdam ain't got nuthin' on you.
Pattaya, round 2.
Noon, Bua and I had been talking about doing a trip together sometime before I left to go back home to the states (or as it turned out, before I left to move to Nakorn Pathom.) We decided on Pattaya. The Vegas of Thailand and so close to where we lived, what could be a better plan?
Friday night Noon and I went to Bang Saen to wait for Bua to finish teaching class. It was getting late so we decided to have dinner with her parents and sister, Newie. They knew I loved seafood and since Bang Saen is right on the water, the decision was pretty easy. Her parents were so cute! We got fresh crab meat over salad, raw oysters, fried rice, whole fish, and som tam. Sooo much food but everything was soo good! Her parents couldn't speak much English and my Thai isn't the best for conversations but everything was really nice and I really enjoyed meeting them.
After dinner Newie, Noon, and I strolled the market looking for some going-out clothes for Newie to wear in Pattaya that night since we had convinced her to come. Drinking age in Thailand is 20 and she is only 19, however, she speaks English SO WELL and studied in California for a year so we decided that if she got carded going into the bars that we would just tell the bouncers that she was American and didn't have her idea. We are brilliantttt, it totally worked. Getting a little ahead of myself though as usual...
Bua picked us up in Bang Saen when she was done teaching and we headed down to Pattaya, got Lauren at Central, and checked in at the hotel. We stayed at a place that Bua's friend knows so it was really nice and we got a good deal on the rooms. We started off the night at the infamous Walking Street, of course, then after a little dancing and beers went to Noon's favorite German bar off the strip called Hopf, which I had actually been to the last time I had come to Pattaya with Danielle and Eric, random. We got their special deal of 5 liters of beer for like 1,000 baht. Yes, 5 liters of beer. And this was real beer, not Thai watered down nonsense. It is safe to say I was feeling pretty good when we left Hopf.
It was late but we were still looking to stay out so we ended up at a Johnnie Walker club and partied until 5am. I was having a GREAT time and making a lot of new Thai friends. In other words I was dancing up on their little groups and getting free drinks. All in a nights work.
The next day we slept in and then went to play paintball in the afternoon! My experience with paintball is limited and I was pretty bad at it. I was out first I think 90% of the time but the Newie, Lauren, Lizzie team eventually prevailed Woo Hooo!! Afterwards Lauren headed back to BKK and Noon and I went shopping while Bua got a massage. I got a dress at Zara (it was super expensive for my Thai income but I was in desperate need of new clothes and I really liked it... write it off at a US purchase and call it a day.)
That night we had a much more chilled-out experience which was good for a chance. We got pla pow, som tam, and fresh grilled shrimp at a market then went to a bar and smoked hookah and drank Heineken moderately and ate popcorn :)
We woke up on Sunday and moseyed about. We had breakfast on the beach that included grilled squid with the eggs still on, pad ka pow kai, and tom yum kung. The weather was pretty overcast so we got henna tattoos to occupy our time. Then we took the slow route back to Chonburi stopping often at outlet malls, Naraya (the Vera Bradley of Japan but SO CHEAP and SO CUTE), and of course more food. I will miss those girls sooo much but I am really happy that I got to spend some quality time before moving to NP!!
Noon, Bua and I had been talking about doing a trip together sometime before I left to go back home to the states (or as it turned out, before I left to move to Nakorn Pathom.) We decided on Pattaya. The Vegas of Thailand and so close to where we lived, what could be a better plan?
Friday night Noon and I went to Bang Saen to wait for Bua to finish teaching class. It was getting late so we decided to have dinner with her parents and sister, Newie. They knew I loved seafood and since Bang Saen is right on the water, the decision was pretty easy. Her parents were so cute! We got fresh crab meat over salad, raw oysters, fried rice, whole fish, and som tam. Sooo much food but everything was soo good! Her parents couldn't speak much English and my Thai isn't the best for conversations but everything was really nice and I really enjoyed meeting them.
After dinner Newie, Noon, and I strolled the market looking for some going-out clothes for Newie to wear in Pattaya that night since we had convinced her to come. Drinking age in Thailand is 20 and she is only 19, however, she speaks English SO WELL and studied in California for a year so we decided that if she got carded going into the bars that we would just tell the bouncers that she was American and didn't have her idea. We are brilliantttt, it totally worked. Getting a little ahead of myself though as usual...
Bua picked us up in Bang Saen when she was done teaching and we headed down to Pattaya, got Lauren at Central, and checked in at the hotel. We stayed at a place that Bua's friend knows so it was really nice and we got a good deal on the rooms. We started off the night at the infamous Walking Street, of course, then after a little dancing and beers went to Noon's favorite German bar off the strip called Hopf, which I had actually been to the last time I had come to Pattaya with Danielle and Eric, random. We got their special deal of 5 liters of beer for like 1,000 baht. Yes, 5 liters of beer. And this was real beer, not Thai watered down nonsense. It is safe to say I was feeling pretty good when we left Hopf.
It was late but we were still looking to stay out so we ended up at a Johnnie Walker club and partied until 5am. I was having a GREAT time and making a lot of new Thai friends. In other words I was dancing up on their little groups and getting free drinks. All in a nights work.
The next day we slept in and then went to play paintball in the afternoon! My experience with paintball is limited and I was pretty bad at it. I was out first I think 90% of the time but the Newie, Lauren, Lizzie team eventually prevailed Woo Hooo!! Afterwards Lauren headed back to BKK and Noon and I went shopping while Bua got a massage. I got a dress at Zara (it was super expensive for my Thai income but I was in desperate need of new clothes and I really liked it... write it off at a US purchase and call it a day.)
That night we had a much more chilled-out experience which was good for a chance. We got pla pow, som tam, and fresh grilled shrimp at a market then went to a bar and smoked hookah and drank Heineken moderately and ate popcorn :)
We woke up on Sunday and moseyed about. We had breakfast on the beach that included grilled squid with the eggs still on, pad ka pow kai, and tom yum kung. The weather was pretty overcast so we got henna tattoos to occupy our time. Then we took the slow route back to Chonburi stopping often at outlet malls, Naraya (the Vera Bradley of Japan but SO CHEAP and SO CUTE), and of course more food. I will miss those girls sooo much but I am really happy that I got to spend some quality time before moving to NP!!
Khon Kaen Cruisers
At the end of September Barr, Cortes and I made a second trip up to Issan in Northern Thailand for our friend Neil's birthday and to check out another town in the mountains. Although this sounded like a great idea initially, I had forgotten about the 7 hour overnight bus rides and showing up to school Monday morning in time for class on about 2 hours of sleep. Thank god for dramamine and caffeine.
We left Amata Friday night after an awesome farewell dinner with the Japanese and Chinese teachers at Satit Casset. They brought okinomiyaki, mochi, Japanese omelets, potato cakes, chicken salad, and all kinds of amazing food. As Americans we represented with chicken fried rice, eggplant salsa, and beer. The other teachers bought an ice cream cake since it was Barr and Rochelle's last dinner. So cute! We all had a really good time then headed out at about 10:30 to try and make our way up to Bangkok and on to Khon Kaen. We ended up cabbing it to Mo Chit bus station and then taking a VIP bus to Khon Kaen. A little expensive but considering we saved on a room by taking the overnight bus it was well worth it. Plus between the super comfy seats and dramamine I got a good nights sleep.
We arrived in Khon Kaen at 6am, tried for Hotel Roma but they were booked, so we ended up around the corner at Khon Kaen Inn, which was nicer than the places we usually stay and we got a few hours of sleep in before starting our day!
As I mentioned, it was Neil's birthday, so the Kalasin kids (Neil, Josh, Reuven, Charlotte) came and we all went to Central for some bowling and karaoke!! After a riveting afternoon we headed out for a group dinner then all piled into a song taew (15 of us at this point... there were definitely Thai heads turning, some in wonder, others in confusion, and a few in disgust, as 15 white people pulled up in a remodeled pick-up truck to the night club) ahh, the wonders of Thai public transportation methods. We danced and drank at Johnnie Walker RAD club until late in the night, which was a fairly good time, although very crowded. Later on for a midnight snack we spotted what we thought was grilled pork on a stick, I asked the man selling in Thai if it was what I thought (moo yung ka?) and he said yes. Only after the first bite did I realize something was off. When I examined the contents of my styrofoam bowl more closely I could see that in fact it was night grilled pork meat, but instead grilled pork intestines. Mmm, no thank you. I have eaten a lot of weird things in Thailand but this honestly did not taste good at all and the thought was freaking me out. Thank goodness there was a 7-11 right around the corner. I threw away my pig intestines and opted for a 7-sandy (7-11 ham and cheese sandwich) then took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Relatively successful night.
The next day we wandered through the markets in Khon Kaen and headed down to the lake in the center of the city. It was a really nice day and so we rented some ducky paddle boats and spent the afternoon on the water. Beautiful!! I overestimated my paddling abilities and was totally exhausted by the time I got back to the dock an hour and a half later. Phewww. It was sooo hot but thankfully the fruit man showed up so I got some much needed nutrients from the pineapple, papaya, and guava he was selling. Amazing.
After that we said bye to Reuven and Neil and waited around at the Pizza Bake for our bus which was scheduled to leave at 9. Unfortunately, even though this bus was only 50 baht cheaper than the one we took up here, and was also called VIP, it was not nearly as comfortable so I did not sleep well at all, despite the dramamine. I arrived in Chonburi in Chulum Thai at 5am, headed back to the apartment via motorbike, passed out for an hour or so, then got up and headed to school!
Ohhh Issan weekends <3.
We left Amata Friday night after an awesome farewell dinner with the Japanese and Chinese teachers at Satit Casset. They brought okinomiyaki, mochi, Japanese omelets, potato cakes, chicken salad, and all kinds of amazing food. As Americans we represented with chicken fried rice, eggplant salsa, and beer. The other teachers bought an ice cream cake since it was Barr and Rochelle's last dinner. So cute! We all had a really good time then headed out at about 10:30 to try and make our way up to Bangkok and on to Khon Kaen. We ended up cabbing it to Mo Chit bus station and then taking a VIP bus to Khon Kaen. A little expensive but considering we saved on a room by taking the overnight bus it was well worth it. Plus between the super comfy seats and dramamine I got a good nights sleep.
We arrived in Khon Kaen at 6am, tried for Hotel Roma but they were booked, so we ended up around the corner at Khon Kaen Inn, which was nicer than the places we usually stay and we got a few hours of sleep in before starting our day!
As I mentioned, it was Neil's birthday, so the Kalasin kids (Neil, Josh, Reuven, Charlotte) came and we all went to Central for some bowling and karaoke!! After a riveting afternoon we headed out for a group dinner then all piled into a song taew (15 of us at this point... there were definitely Thai heads turning, some in wonder, others in confusion, and a few in disgust, as 15 white people pulled up in a remodeled pick-up truck to the night club) ahh, the wonders of Thai public transportation methods. We danced and drank at Johnnie Walker RAD club until late in the night, which was a fairly good time, although very crowded. Later on for a midnight snack we spotted what we thought was grilled pork on a stick, I asked the man selling in Thai if it was what I thought (moo yung ka?) and he said yes. Only after the first bite did I realize something was off. When I examined the contents of my styrofoam bowl more closely I could see that in fact it was night grilled pork meat, but instead grilled pork intestines. Mmm, no thank you. I have eaten a lot of weird things in Thailand but this honestly did not taste good at all and the thought was freaking me out. Thank goodness there was a 7-11 right around the corner. I threw away my pig intestines and opted for a 7-sandy (7-11 ham and cheese sandwich) then took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Relatively successful night.
The next day we wandered through the markets in Khon Kaen and headed down to the lake in the center of the city. It was a really nice day and so we rented some ducky paddle boats and spent the afternoon on the water. Beautiful!! I overestimated my paddling abilities and was totally exhausted by the time I got back to the dock an hour and a half later. Phewww. It was sooo hot but thankfully the fruit man showed up so I got some much needed nutrients from the pineapple, papaya, and guava he was selling. Amazing.
After that we said bye to Reuven and Neil and waited around at the Pizza Bake for our bus which was scheduled to leave at 9. Unfortunately, even though this bus was only 50 baht cheaper than the one we took up here, and was also called VIP, it was not nearly as comfortable so I did not sleep well at all, despite the dramamine. I arrived in Chonburi in Chulum Thai at 5am, headed back to the apartment via motorbike, passed out for an hour or so, then got up and headed to school!
Ohhh Issan weekends <3.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Malaysian Invasion
Anyway, Malaysia. I had no idea what to expect going into this weekend. I had never really heard much about Malaysia and when I looked at pictures it seemed similar to Thailand but thankfully not the case at all. It is so much more developed and built up... and the people speak ENGLISH. Like, a lot, I might even say most, speak English. This obviously made it a lot easier to get around although their infrastructure is pretty advanced anyway so it would not have been too hard. We flew in late Friday night, got through customs, took a shuttle to Sentral Station in Kuala Lumpur and argued with a cab to take us to the hostel. 2am and a success.
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| the number of Malaysian flags on this cab is unreal |
The next morning we got up at 7, ate breakfast, and were ready to go at 7:45 so that we could make it to the Patronus Towers (once the tallest buildings in the world, now the tallest set of 'twin towers' in the world... you will see later in this post more examples of how proud Malaysians are and how they need to qualify all of their attractions as being the 'biggest or best or largest or tallest'). Oops. 7:45 is already too late. We learned after talking to Susy (cute girl that ran the hostel... very helpful) that we really needed to have already left for the towers at 7am in order to make sure that we got tickets to get up to the top. The Patronus Towers are free to go up, however, they only let like 10 people up at a time for 15 minutes at a time during certain times of the day. If you want to go up them and to the sky bridge you have to arrive on sight at 7am, stand in line for 2 hours (they don't start giving out the tickets until almost 9am) and then try and figure out a time that you and your party can come back later that day. Getting there early enough means that you don't have a super awkward time like 11:30am or something where it is not enough time to go and do another activity really but like you don't want to wait around at the towers for 2 more hours waiting to go up. It's complicated, obviously, but really cool if you don't mind getting up early.
At this point we decided to go to the Lake Gardens to check out the Bird Park, Butterfly Farm, and Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens. We paid 45 ringit or almost 450 bhat to go into this Bird Park (which, by the way, is the WORLD'S LARGEST, WALK-IN, FREE FLIGHT AVERY). I'm telling you, if Malaysia were a person it would be the Jon Goselin of SE Asia. Doing all right on it's own, got the coolest thing on the block (Patronus Towers = 8 adorable kids and a hit TV show) then loses the title and just goes nuts trying to salvage any part of it's (mind you, newly made) identity. Insecure is the understatement of the century.
That night we hit up the night scene. Knowing we had to get up at 6am to do the Towers we didn't go too crazy but got drinks at a few different bars and finally ended up at this Irish place and hung out with some French guys for the rest of the night. One of their names was Gale. Spelled Gael but still pronounced Gale, as in one of my elder relatives in Kansas. Obviously, I couldn't possibly take him seriously (still makes me giggle).
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| on the sky bridge at the Patronus Towers |
That rounded off our adventures for the weekend. We finished the Batu Caves by 2pm and our flight was not until 9pm. I am still bitter that we rushed to do the KL Tower on Day 1 since we had nothing to do but hang out at a train station and airport for the next 7 hours but ah, mai pen rai. I had a huge smile on my face heading back to Thailand, home sweet home.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
English Day
So the first day was for the younger kids, who are technically not mine but I was there to help out and run some of the activities. They played scrabble, had a spelling bee, and read aloud facts about themselves to be judged on pronunciation. ADORABLE. Some of the winners were my prathom kids from my Intensive English Program so I was able to cheer them on and give them candy the next day in class :)
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| naaalak. so beautiful. |
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Leeches are Foes
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| great hornbill |
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| gibbon |
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| green viper snake |
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| asian scorpion |
Other than the leeches, we saw a lot of cool stuff and never could have done it without our guide, Lek! As I said we saw the great horn bill, some deer, and a family of gibbons before we entered. Then, we spotted a viper snake that was bright green and apparently deadly but he was hanging out on a bush and is a nocturnal animal so he wasn't super conscientious of the foraaangs staring at it and bursts of light sounding off as our cameras flashed. We found a few more gibbon families as we moved throughout the jungle. Also, really cool bright orange mushrooms and other strange plants. Lek even coaxed an asian scorpion out of it's hole in the group and we got to hold it!
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| baby camelion |
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| bambi wanted to eat lunch with us after the trek |
The last part of the journey included a long song taew ride through the jungle but on the main road again as we searched diligently for elephants. None were found, however, we did manage to squeeze in a watermelon break and a dance off. Not too shabby. Next time I come to Khao Yai I really want to do the bat caves but unfortunately it was too short of a trip to get everything we wanted done this weekend. Can't wait to return!!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Babs and Face Take on Thailand: Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai Oh My!!!!!
Babs and Face arrive in THAILAND!!!!!!!!!! And so the family adventure begins...
First, we started off in Bangkok for a few days so they could recover from the flight and we could see some sights. I am not the biggest fan of the grand palace but it is the first thing that most people want to do when they come to Thailand. So i took them there but instead of paying the 300 baht fee to enter we just roamed around the outside, saw the laying down Buddha instead (much cooler) and i introduced them to various street foods (squid on a stick, coconut juice, and satay among some others). Then, we headed to Chinatown to roam around a bit before heading back. The next day we got up wicked early (that's right, I'm from Jersey but I can say wicked too!) like, 5am, to go to the OTHER floating market, Damnoen Saduak. It was cool and had a lot more going on in the water it seemed but much less on the outside. There were much fewer boats than I expected too... basically, Ampawa was a lot better but I am glad I did it nonetheless.
Saturday morning we flew up to Chiang Mai. This is where my ambition really kicked into high gear...
Day 1: Elephant Trekking and White Water Rafting
Day 2: Thai Cooking School
Day 3: Flight of the Gibbon (zip-lining through the jungle canopy)
All totally amazing. The white water rafting was the thing that terrified me the more (we almost backed out at breakfast the morning of) but i am soooo happy that I went through with it. Our guide was great and I felt (mostly) safe. I would totally do it again in Thailand or on vacation elsewhere. 2 teenage girls fell off their raft but the Leonaggeo's stayed in tact, even though Face decided to jump off the raft on his own.. twice.
The last morning in Chiang Mai (before we got on a plane to Phuket) Babs and I went on a walking temple tour of Chiang Mai, however, it was pouring and pretty miserable. Finally we ducked into Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Facility. Yup, real great place to find some shelter. They train the inmates there so that they can get work when they get out. Some of them sew, some of them cook, and some of them do massage. And better yet, the public can eat at the restaurant, buy hand-sewn items, and even get massages from these inmates! Guess which one I went for? Yupppp. I got an hour foot massage by a Thai inmate. Her name was Ying and she was 24 and had graduated from University. That's about all I could get out of her without being rude but totally cool. The money goes to the women once they get out of prison too! It's a good cause overall and a really unique experience... thanks Lonely Planet!
Last stop: Phuket. I have to admit, as much of a 'do all you can in the shortest amount of time possible' person i am, once i got to the MomTri Villa Royale I was more than satisfied sitting on my ass for 4 days. The resort was amazing. We got our own villa, splash pool, veranda, and another sitting area too. There were 3 swimming pools and it was right on the beach. The food was delicious. Honestly, we never left. One day we took a boat trip to do an island hop and saw Ko Phi Phi, Maya Bay (where the movie 'The Beach' with Leo was filmed, and Monkey island which had a lot of... you guessed it, monkeys! We got back to Bangkok Sunday afternoon and met up with one of mom's old bosses who is also teaching in Thailand. Up to this moment things were going surprisingly smoothly until... Babs and Face came to Chonburi.
Chonburi, where I live in Thailand, is about 1.25 hrs Southwest of Bangkok heading towards Pattaya. It is a small city that is pretty spread out and does not have the best public transportation system in the world. I live almost 2 miles away from where any bus, van, or songtaew travel to so I have only 1 other option: motorbike. I really like the motorbike drivers and trust them with my life regularly (it is there job to drive them after all), however, they are not the most well-educated bunch and know very little if any English. I never find this too much of a problem, however, when you are a 19 year old college sophomore on a motorbike with a driver that doesn't speak English, have no idea where you are going or have an address, or telephone number, or any Thai money, it can be an issue... especially when that motorbike driver decided to deviate from the other 2 (mine and mom's) and get lost. He dropped Matty off at some random street corner in Chonburi. Matty, having no money, gave him a $10 US bill. The guy just looked at it. Matty took it back, handed him 2 1$ bills, and the guy accepted them and drove off (wtf Thailand?!) Meanwhile, Babs is standing in the middle of the highway in Chonburi because her baby is lost and I am holding my motorbike driver hostage while he tries to call Matty's driver to find out where he had dropped him off. We then went searching through Chonburi and finally found Face standing at the corner of a 7-11, hands in pocket, looking very calm but awkward as hell as a 200 bearded white man in the middle of Asia... whatever, phew, anther Thai crisis averted! After a quit and fairly silent dinner in Chonburi (Babs was still pretty rattled) it was back to Bangkok and the states for them and back to teaching for me!
First, we started off in Bangkok for a few days so they could recover from the flight and we could see some sights. I am not the biggest fan of the grand palace but it is the first thing that most people want to do when they come to Thailand. So i took them there but instead of paying the 300 baht fee to enter we just roamed around the outside, saw the laying down Buddha instead (much cooler) and i introduced them to various street foods (squid on a stick, coconut juice, and satay among some others). Then, we headed to Chinatown to roam around a bit before heading back. The next day we got up wicked early (that's right, I'm from Jersey but I can say wicked too!) like, 5am, to go to the OTHER floating market, Damnoen Saduak. It was cool and had a lot more going on in the water it seemed but much less on the outside. There were much fewer boats than I expected too... basically, Ampawa was a lot better but I am glad I did it nonetheless.
Day 1: Elephant Trekking and White Water Rafting
Day 2: Thai Cooking School
Day 3: Flight of the Gibbon (zip-lining through the jungle canopy)
The last morning in Chiang Mai (before we got on a plane to Phuket) Babs and I went on a walking temple tour of Chiang Mai, however, it was pouring and pretty miserable. Finally we ducked into Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Facility. Yup, real great place to find some shelter. They train the inmates there so that they can get work when they get out. Some of them sew, some of them cook, and some of them do massage. And better yet, the public can eat at the restaurant, buy hand-sewn items, and even get massages from these inmates! Guess which one I went for? Yupppp. I got an hour foot massage by a Thai inmate. Her name was Ying and she was 24 and had graduated from University. That's about all I could get out of her without being rude but totally cool. The money goes to the women once they get out of prison too! It's a good cause overall and a really unique experience... thanks Lonely Planet!
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