Kanch x2

This weekend I traveled back to Kanchanaburi to check out the Erawan waterfalls and the Tiger Temple. We had gone to Kanch my first week in Thailand with the orientation group (elephant trekking, bamboo rafting) but this time was even better I thought. I ducked out of school about an hour and a half early on Friday, hopped on a bus to Bangkok, zipped along on the sky train to Victory Monument, then look a van up to Kanchanaburi... ETA approximately 8:30pm. Not tooo bad. Since they were traveling to Kanch from another part of Thailand, Lindsay and Leighanne met me at the hostel about an hour later. Our hostel was beautiful!!! The rooms were nothing to get excited about but all of the bungalows were built on stilts over a slow moving river with lots of giant plants and it just had the most beautiful, mangled, twisted wood that had been made into garden swings, tables, chairs, and even the bungalows themselves. It was called BlueStar and i would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get back up to Kanchanaburi. It was also great to be in the actual town since when we went up last time we were way off in the outskirts and got scolded by the resort for drinking and swimming after 8pm?! THIS time, since we were able to leave and explore, the experience was much more suitable to our needs.

Okay, the waterfalls. We got up at 6:30am, had some breakfast at the hostel, then took the 8am bus from the bus station to the Erawan waterfalls. There are 7 tiers that each have different rock formations, foliage, and even BITING FISH!!!!! I don't like water/fish/swimming with fish in the water in general so I could only bring myself to get in once when we were in a small pool so that the fish were smaller. Their bites really hurt! They eat the dead skin on your feet and legs and such so it's not only foul to think about but they are actually biting you to eat you, not to just like nibble to see what you are... so that makes things a little more terrifying as well. But, BEAUTIFUL water. Sky blue-clear, cool and refreshing, and just ahhh. I would definitely go back despite the aggressive climb to the top. Totally worth it.

That night we mingled with some British ex-pats at the 10 baht whiskey bar and they bought us all of our drinks, which was a welcome change since it was the end of the month and we were all short on money. Ex-pats really sketch me out in general with their Thai wives/girlfriends and other wives at home and usually they are in a lot of debt or something which is why they left England in the first place... it's creepy to say the least, but for the most part they are nice guys. Just ugly. Poor Thai girls. Anyway, the town was pretty dead that night for some reason so we just played pool, got drinks from the ex-pats, went to another outdoor live music bar, then called it a night... have to get up early for the Tigers!!!

Leighanne and Lindsay went back to Saraburi Sunday morning so I was on my own to adventure to the Tiger Temple. When I had looked it up online they advised against wearing bright colors (reds and oranges especially) or flowing skirts or dresses. The pictures on the website had people in shorts and tank tops. This seemed weird to me since I knew that the Temple was run by Monks and when you visit a monastery you have to wear clothes that cover at least below your knees, your chest, and to your elbows. But whatever i thought, maybe they make exceptions because it's a tourist destination and they know that tourists arn't used to the 100+ degree weather. WRONG. Thank god I had come straight from school on Friday because the dress and cardigan that I had worn on Friday were the only acceptable clothes I had with me for the monastery. Phew.

Even though I really wanted to go see the tigers, the temple is a big source of constoversy in Thailand and even internationally for animal rights. Some groups claim that the Monks sedate the tigers, keep them in little cages, overbreed them, and take away the babies from the mom's immediately leaving the mothers in a lot of physical and emotional pain. The monastery, on the otherhand, claims that the reason the tigers are so calm is because they are raised by humans from when they are cubs and only taken out to see visitors during the hottest part of the day when they would normally be sleeping. They also say that they feed them a large meal right before so they are effectively in a food coma while about 60 people take turns petting, goggling, and taking pictures of them. It was definitely touristy, the tigers all had leashes secured by chains tied to trees, but it did not seem to me that they were sedated. Especially when one of them threw his handler to the side and proceeded to run down the canyon, which prompted about 10 other handlers to scurry after it. They got the tiger back. Ha.

The baby tiger were definitely the best part. You actually could get close to them and nuzzle them a bit while the bigger ones you had to stay behind them and just touch them firmly with one hand. Huge paws for babies. HUGE. So cute. Overall I really liked it, obviously a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but unlike Erawan I do not think I will be returning, although I do recommend it to other people who are interested. I left the monastery early to make it back to Chonburi before the vans stopped running there from Bangkok. Back to being Teachaaa Lizzie!

Boom Boom Bangkok

Although I planned for this weekend to be a Bangkok weekend I wanted to get dinner with Danielle and Melissa in Bang Saen Friday night and go into the city Saturday, so that's exactly what I did! Cortes and I met up outside of Prabhassorn and headed about 15 miles south to the beach and Bang Saen! Our song taew ride there was pretty awful. It is usually only supposed to take 20 minutes and it took us 45. Then the driver was trying to get us to pay him 40 bhat to take us down the road another mile!! Insane! The trip is only supposed to cost 15 each and he wanted 40. Bullllshit. I was pissed and we walked.

The girls met us at the end of the road and we walked along the beach (or the road when the water came in very very quickly) to get to the restaurant. On the way there we saw an old, bright pink, VW van that had been made into a street bar!! WHATTT?! Thailand, you are my hero. So unique and cool. Anyway, we headed towards a seafood restaurant that one of thai teachers at their school had recommended for dinner. It was sooo yummy! We got shrimp flavored cakes, whole fish, seafood green curry, and grilled squid! As well as a multitude of Signa to wash it all down. Aroi mak and it was great to see the girls! We will definitely have to get dinner again soon either at the beach or perhaps at one of the restaurants in Central Plaza since we are so close to them! Yeah Thailand! Off to Bangkok tomorrow!

I am just amazed with Bangkok every time I spend some time there. It has an amazing compilation of old school Thai markets, temples, shacks, etc as well as the biggest mall in Southeast Asia, the sky train, and a wild awesome night life scene. The first weekend of June I came to Bangkok with a bunch of people and we went to RCA which is a club district. Basically, you pay 200 baht, go through a turnstile, receive a 200 baht drink coupon, and have a giant crazy dance party in the street/open bars to both American and Thai hits. It's pretty ridiculous. Also, to ensure that one has a great time, there are Vodka Towers instead of the typical Thai Beer Towers. They make like a citrusy vodka mix and supply you with a number of shot glasses to share in the pleasure with friends or strangers. Needless to say, I had a LOT of fun, and had to be 'guided' back to the hostel at 4am but not without a promise that I would return to this magical international city the next weekend.

The next weekend Barr, Rochelle, Peter and I made a little 'whole foods' picnic at the park by my apartment in Chonburi. We got a WHOLE fish, WHOLE duck, WHOLE fishcake thing, and had WHOLE oranges for dessert. We are pretty creative.... haha. Then we went to The Babe and got a few beer towers and watched the World Cup kick-off against South Africa and Mexico. Getting home was pretty interesting since we were squeezed onto 2 motorbikes between the 4 of us (3 ppl per bike with the driver) and zoomed away to Amata feeling pretty good and slightly more than tipsy. Overall, great little night in the 'Buri.

As i promised, Saturday night I went into Bangkok again. We went to dinner at a Tapas restaurant!! Can you say cheese, artichokes, and prosciutto?? I have never been more pleased. Afterwards we found an American sports bar owned by this old American ex-pat who went to Oregon State. Go Beavers?! The bar's atmosphere was nothing to write home about but we were there for one reason.... WORLD CUP!!!!!! The England-USA game started at 1:30am Thailand time so we got to the bar at 10pm to make sure that we had seats for all of us (about 15-20 at any given point, screaming, loud, drunk, happy Americans... don't worry, we fit right in). The game was fantastic. There were a lot of ugly old English men their with their lame chants and 'dodgy' escapades as they hit on the Thai waitresses but they shut up pretty quick once they realized that they were incapable of repeating their one-hit-wonder goal at the 3 minute mark.

The past two weekends in the city were fantastic but I am in desperate need of a break from the wild/crazy life for a weekend but I will without a doubt be returning to Bangkok again very very soon. PS-- the picture above this blurp is of Central World, the once-largest mall in Southeast Asia that the Red Shirt protestors burned and destroyed. RIP Central World.

Koh Samet!!!!

Long weekend (thank god for Buddhist holidays) + Thailand transportation system + beautiful island = amazing but expensive weekend. We decided to travel to one of Thailand's most picturesque islands, Koh Samet, after our 2nd week of teaching because we had a long weekend and wanted to spend some time in the sun!

Getting to the island was an adventure all its own. First I went to Barr's apartment (even though it is technically in the wrong direction) to make sure the 4 traveling buddies were together before we began. Also, Barr and Rochelle had been to Koh Samet before so they had a good idea of how to get there. We were supposed to take a motorbike to a bus to a ferry to the island. Instead, we took a motorbike to the bus, the bus to nowhere (literally, the man drove us around in circles probably for 3 hrs then dropped us off on the side of the road over 80 miles away from our destination), hired a car to take us to the port (another 250 tb and 1.5hrs later), and then got on a speedboat (900 tb) to take us to the island. Exhausting. The trip took over 6 hrs and it was supposed to take 2-3. Unfortunately, that's Thailand. Nothing ever works out exactly the way you think it will with transportation so you just have to go with it and hope for the best. The good part is that eventually you always get to where you are going :)

SO the island was very pretty. Nice blue clear water with white sandy beaches and rocky hills surrounding it. We tanned, ate, swam all day and it was fanntastic. The beaches were a little crowded since it was a holiday but still less so than the Jersey Shore! Haha. One day we parked ourselves right next to a Thai wedding that was happening on the beach so that was pretty/fun to watch.

Nightlife on Samet was prettyyy amazing as well. It was a full moon that weekend so the glow paint, fire throwers, torches, and shirtless dancing bartenders were out in full force. I have to say, it is kind of my ideal scene. We had lots of fun and partied at Naga, Sunset Bar, and Silver Sands. Got a little too smashed the first night and fell on my face (again) trying to get over the rocks on the way back to the bungalow. Although I had a bruise and some scratches it was not NEARLY as bad as last year in college when I fell and it looked like someone had taken a bat to my face. Overall a very successful trip and now back to teaching the kiddies than Bangkok next weekend!