Family Visit!

Friday 1/29/16 11:00 am

Two weekends ago my parents and sister travelled all the way to Thailand to visit Molly and I. We were so happy to see them and show them around. We met in Chiang Mai on Wednesday night. We spent the next day visiting Doi Suthep, the temple that Molly and I saw during orientation, and lounging at our hotel. We introduced them to some traditional Thai dishes for lunch, and got Thai massages. It truly was a crash course in Thai culture. We went to Chiang Mai’s favorite night market and got lots of fun souvenirs.

On Friday we spent the day at the Chiang Mai Elephant Sanctuary. We got to feed the elephants, make medicine for them, take a mud bath with them and wash off in a waterfall at the end of the day. They are such majestic, massive creatures; it was an awesome experience to interact so closely with them.

The next day we took it easy in the morning and then went on a small river cruise/ruin tour. We ended up getting the entire boat to ourselves, and enjoyed the scenery around the Ping River. That night we all took a Thai cooking class. I learned to make some of my favorite dishes: Tom Yum, Khao Soi, and Pad Thai. 

On Sunday we headed from Chiang Mai to our little town of Tak. We spent the next two days showing my family our school and all the places we frequent here. It was so great to be able to share what life is like here with my family. They enjoyed learning a little about Thai culture and getting a better idea of what exactly we do here. We had a lot of fun grabbing dinners with the rest of the American teachers here in Tak, and even got to go out to lunch with some of the teachers in the math department. My family departed on a van headed to a nearby airport on Tuesday morning and spent one day in Bangkok before taking the journey home. I was happy to bring two separate parts of my life together, even if it was only for a short time. It was so nice to see my family again after being away for so long. It was so fun to share stories of my trip and spend time with them.

The next weekend we visited a nearby school in a more isolated, rural area than where we teach. Students here have very limited contact with native English speakers and we helped with some activities during their weekend English camp. The students were not as proficient as our students typically are, but they were extremely appreciative of us being there to work with them. I had a lot of fun working on pronunciation with them and playing games like Simon Says.

Me with one of the students from the other school

This weekend we are headed back to Chiang Mai to see cherry blossoms, a sunrise atop a mountain, and to meet up with good friends. It has been frigid by Thai standards this week, dropping to near 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but the weather should be much warmer while we are in Chiang Mai. It was the coldest Thailand has been in our students lives. It was also 90 degrees in the days before the cold hit. The crazy weather reminded me of northeast Ohio, and it was funny to see how all the students reacted to the cold. This weekend is also mine and Molly’s three year anniversary of when we started dating. It is hard to believe it has already been that long. We have both grown so much as people since we first met. I am very lucky to have her in my life, and I am so glad we took the leap to come to Thailand together.

Molly and I have been progressively learning more and more Thai massage. We have learned the steps for the body and foot massages. Next week we will learn head massage and take a test by massaging our instructor. It has been fun to learn something new, and Pi Jan has been a great teacher.

I want to close this post with a funny story about communicating in a foreign country. The ease with which we communicate with one another at home is often taken for granted. You can easily figure out how things work, where to go, what to do, what someone is asking etc. In Thailand that is often not the case. It has gotten better as time has gone on. We have learned a small amount of basic Thai and have a better idea of how things usually go here. However, this basic Thai caused some problems at lunch last week. I wanted to order one of my favorite dishes, crispy pork with basil. This dish is called kop pow mu kap (the spelling is probably wrong). I asked for it and was excited to chow down, when the waiter brought out basil with squid instead. He thought I had said kop pla muk kap. I had no way of really communicating that I wanted the crispy pork and not the squid, so I just ate the squid. It was really funny when he brought the squid out, I was so surprised and disappointed at the same time. The squid was a lot less fishy than I thought it would be and I got to cross eating a squid dish off my list of things to do in Thailand. So it wasn’t all bad. As always thanks so much for reading!

Bangkok, Koh Samet, and Rayong

Friday, January 8, 12:00pm

In Thailand I have learned to broaden my expectations. Most people wake up in the morning with an idea of how their day will go. There is a list in their minds of many possibilities that may or may not happen depending on how the universe reacts to what they decide to do that day. In Thailand that list is much longer than at home. Spontaneity must be embraced here. Classes that you thought you had will be cancelled because there is a Muay Thai demonstration, or you will be asked at 4 pm to put together a dance performance with your fellow teachers for the following day. So here that list in my head has grown as I have adapted to the Thai culture. On the beginning of mine and Molly’s holiday trip something happened that was not even remotely close to being on my mental list of possibilities for the day. It struck me just how seldom this happens for me, I am someone who likes to have things planned out after all. We arrived at the Sukhothai bus terminal and got a cab to the airport there (it is the closest to our town, Tak). When we got off the taxi the airport was stunning: it had beautiful scenery, an outdoor waiting area with a pond to sit and snack by, and ancient ruins along the runway. Given Sukhothai’s reputation as an ancient capital, the airport being beautiful, outdoors, and among ruins was unexpected but not outside the realm of my list of possibilities for the day. What really floored me was that there was a full scale zoo just outside the gate to enjoy while waiting for your flight. Never in a million years would I think, “there might be a zoo at the airport today”. It had animals ranging from zebras to monkeys to porcupines to beautifully colored pheasants. We had a blast as we passed the time before our flight to Bangkok.

The beginning of the runway 

Molly and I spent Christmas Eve and Day in Bangkok. We had a semi traditional Christmas morning as we got to skype our families and open up the gifts we got for each other. After that we went to visit the Grand Palace, which it the Thai equivalent of the White House. It was a beautiful place to spend a couple hours marveling at the temples there.

Later we had Mexican food for dinner which was absolutely delicious. The Thai diet is severely lacking in cheese. After that we went up to one of the city’s sky bars, Cloud 47. There we enjoyed a few drinks and spectacular views of the city below. The night was capped off with seeing the new Star Wars movie. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it even for people who were not the biggest fans of the other movies. I loved our Christmas in Bangkok, but Bangkok can be an intimidating place. It is not the easiest city to get around and cabs often see foreigners as people they can get much more money from than locals. Many cabs will refuse to turn their meters on and will try to charge 3 or 4 times what it should actually cost to get somewhere. If you visit Bangkok only take cabs that will turn the meter on. Bangkok is a crazy, sprawling concrete jungle definitely worth visiting, but I much prefer the more laid back Northern Thai cities that I have been to. 

Molly and I enjoying Cloud 47

Next we travelled down to Koh Samet, which is about a 4 hour bus ride and 45 minute ferry ride from Bangkok. The island was absolutely stunning and our hotel was literally one step away from the ocean at high tide. We spent our days there lounging by the pool or beach and our nights eating delicious dinners while enjoying small “fire shows” on the beach. One day we went on a snorkeling excursion and got to see many smaller islands with beautiful beaches and coral reefs to explore. We loved spending our afternoon exploring, but at the end of it one of the boat drivers tried to get 900 baht for a “lost snorkel”. It seemed fishy as no careful track had been kept of the snorkels throughout the day, and there is no way that the snorkels were worth that much. In the end no one paid for the snorkel. Later we learned that this is a common scam in the islands if you go snorkeling in Thailand make sure to watch out for this. It was disappointing to feel that people were trying to take advantage of us. I have never really felt that way up north, but it seems that in more touristy areas it is something that you need to be much more aware of.

The inlet where we stayed

Molly on the hotel steps

One of the small islands we toured

a swing on that same little island

The last few days of our trip we spent in Rayong, the region across from Koh Samet on the mainland of Thailand. While it was not quite as nice as the island it was still a great place to relax by the beach and pool. We found an awesome Indian restaurant called Purple Haze near our hotel and ate there for almost every other meal. The food was delicious! Molly’s second cousin, Geneva is working in Chiang Mai and came down to Rayong to visit us while we were there. It was really great to meet her. Molly and I spent New Year’s Eve on a beach staring up at stars, fireworks, and lanterns. It was a great way to ring in the new year.

At the Rayong Aquarium

While it was hard to be away during the holidays, we had an awesome trip that helped take my mind off of the friends and family I was missing back home. It was mine and Molly’s first Christmas together and I was so happy to spend it with her. Now we are back in Tak and life is great as always here. Molly and I started learning Thai massage this week and have learned the steps for the arms and legs. Next week we will move on to the back and shoulders. It is so fun to learn from a true expert, our teacher Pi Jan. It is so nice of her to teach us as her English is great and she has been doing massage for over 20 years. Next week my parents and sister are coming to visit us in Thailand. I am so excited to see them and show them around our home here. I hope everyone else had a great holiday season!

Lastly I want to open things up to questions from you guys. If you have anything you are wondering about what my experience here has been like, please ask in the comments and I will answer in my next post.