Loy Krathong and Thanksgiving

Tuesday, December 1st 5:30 PM

Three weekends ago I went on a hike with the other foreign teachers in Tak and a few visitors through Lang San, a nearby national park, to a small waterfall in the deepest part of the park. As I hiked I was struck by how a year before I would never have imagined that I would be spending Saturday afternoons journeying through Thai jungles in search of the perfect waterfall to swim under. I would never have guessed that I would be in charge of a thousand students in a foreign country who do not speak the same language as me. Even just a few months ago I had only a faint idea of what to expect out of this program and this experience. I am so glad I made the decision to put everything at home on hold for a time and go on this adventure. Already I have seen so much and met so many amazing people. We had a blast at Pa Tay waterfall that day. The long, hot hike ended with a dip in the water below the waterfall. It was refreshing and a perfect way to get in touch with nature after being in Tak for the past couple weekends.

Molly, Sarah and Meghan enjoying the waterfall

Cooling off

Two weekends ago we headed to Chiang Mai to meet up with some friends from orientation and see some of the Loy Krathong festivities. Unfortunately, the lantern festival we planned on attending was cancelled due to concerns from the airport about lanterns impeding air traffic. We decided to do some exploring around the city instead, and because of the planned festival we had a ton of friends in town to hang out with! When we first arrived the teachers from Tak met up with a few others at the Beer Terminal, a bar with an impressive beer selection, especially for Thailand which features only a few standard domestics in most places. I was able to enjoy a Rogue Mocha Porter and a Trappist beer that everyone raved about.

 Really tasty beer!

Molly, Melanie and I met up with Carolyn, a friend from orientation who is teaching just outside of the city, the following day. We wanted to see some of the fun places in Chiang Mai that we didn’t have time to visit during orientation. The first place we visited was the 3D art museum. The museum features many paintings/scenes that when viewed from the correct place appear 3 dimensional. 

Later that day we headed to the Chiang Mai Zoo. It was sprawling and featured a lot of opportunities to feed different animals. The regulations in America would never allow people to get so close. I was about six inches away from a gaping hippo’s mouth and got to feed a jaguar some raw meat. If you know me well you know that I was inordinately excited about this.

All week we had planned on getting Mexican food for a meal at some point as cheese is not featured in Thai cooking (and we miss it...a lot). We decided on Salsa Kitchen earlier in the day and planned on meeting a few friends there. I had no idea how many people would eventually end up getting Mexican food with us. It started out with the four of us meeting up with the other Tak teachers and a few friends from outside of Lampang and Mae Sot. We thought we would have no more than ten people. Fast forward an hour and almost 60 Americans, mostly from our orientation, ended up at the restaurant. It was a complete takeover and so fun to see so many familiar faces. I find it so interesting that just by word of mouth we all ended up there.

The next day we ventured outside of the city to go zip lining in the jungle. We spent around three hours whizzing from treetop to treetop, traversing treacherous bridges and even jumping through a few free falls. It was a beautiful and exciting way to enjoy the Thai landscape and a perfect end to the weekend. 

We had an amazing time in Chiang Mai but we were a little bummed about missing out on Loy Krathong activities. Luckily for us Loy Krathong in Tak is a huge event, and we got an opportunity to set lanterns off by the river that is just down the street. Tak is a small place in Thailand that usually does not get many visitors. Loy Krathong is the city’s biggest draw and it was so fun seeing it lit up and busy. The festival is traditionally meant to pay your respects to the river and all that it allows you to do by floating a lantern down it or releasing one into the air. When you release the lantern you are supposed to make a wish for the following year. We all got to release lanterns by air and by river.

Nadia, Clay (two other teachers at our school) and I
having fun with our Krathongs

Molly and I also got to spend our first Thanksgiving together this year. We purchased a small motorbike the day of and then had a traditional western Thanksgiving dinner with the current foreign teachers and teachers at Takpitt from years past. It was complete with Turkey, stuffing, rolls (bread isn’t that common here), gravy, cranberry sauce, and last but not least, mashed potatoes. 

Yum!

The meal was delicious, I thought I would miss out on a Thanksgiving meal here and I didn’t. I got to enjoy one with lots of new friends who are all wonderful people. The one drawback was that I burned my hand that night. My hand feels a lot better now but the first night was pretty excruciating. A more pleasant surprise for the holiday was that I found a cheap motorbike to purchase through another teacher at school. It is so fun getting around town on it and it gives us a lot leeway to explore the surrounding areas. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. I missed my family but I am happy that I got to spend the day with Molly and our new friends. Hopefully it is the first of many happy Thanksgivings together for us.

Our new bike!

This weekend we wanted to go somewhere where we could easily meet up with a lot of friends so we settled on Lampang. We spent the first night there eating pizza and talking together. Later we found a bar that was willing to stay open a bit later for us. Sean, Willie, Joel and I befriended one of the Thai men who helped run the bar. His name was Wassan and he shared some of his whisky with us while we all tried to communicate with his broken English and our far more broken Thai. The friendliness of Thai people never ceases to amaze me. The two guys running the bar were about to close up when a group of foreigners walked by, and they kept the whole place open for just us. The next day we visited a cave outside of the city and travelled to a dam where we all enjoyed a pontoon style boat ride around the reservoir. That night we went out to a burger place and hung out at a nearby bar before I went back to the hotel to try and watch the OSU Michigan game before going to sleep. Unfortunately, the wifi was not working so I did not get a chance to watch. No surprise that the Buckeyes once again trounced that inferior team from up north. I’m hoping for some chaos to help us climb back into the top four, crazier things have happened.

The light shining down on Melanie
in the cave

Everyone relaxing on our boat ride

Being that this was Thanksgiving week/weekend I have been thinking a lot about just how much I have to be thankful for. I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to go on this adventure, and that Molly could join me for it. It has been such a pleasure travelling around the country, living and working with her. I’m thankful for my friends and family at home who I do miss dearly out here. It will be so fun catching up when I get back to the states. I’m thankful for all of the incredible people I have met through this program; it has been so fun getting to know so many new friends.

Here are some blogs and videos made by some of my new friends that you should check out:

Video from Willie

Hannah Charney - hannahcharney.com

Sean Peters - Teachings from Thailand

Hilary Powers - Adventures of Hilary Jane 

Paige Roberts - Turningthepaigesite