Thi Lor Su

Thursday, February 25th, 5:00 PM

At orientation we decided to play sharks and minnows at the hotel pool. A version of tag that people usually stop playing at a much younger age. We all had a blast but I sustained a minor toe injury: a bruise at the base of my big toe nail. Now, months later, the bruise has almost completely grown out of the nail. I suspect that it will do so at about the same time that we leave Tak and head out to explore the world on our way back to the United States. I thought that was a pretty funny coincidence.

This past weekend we finally made it to a destination that we have wanted to visit since we heard that we would be placed in Tak: Thi Lor Su, Thailand’s biggest waterfall. It is located in Umphang, a district in the south of Tak province. Despite the short distance, it is quite hard to get to. We had to take a van to Mae Sot (a 90 minute drive) and then get a song taew to Umphang, a 5 hour endeavor. 

The view from the bottom of the falls

We also celebrated Molly's bday at our favorite Western restaurant in Tak last week

On Friday night Clay, Melanie, Nadia, Molly and I headed to Mae Sot right after school ended. That night we met up with some friends there and had an awesome dinner at a Canadian restaurant. We then went to grab some drinks at a nearby bar. We took it relatively easy since we had to get up at 5 am to catch the first ride to Umphang. We got to the bus stating around 5:45 and ended up getting on a song taew around 6:30. The ride was a rough one. A song taew is a pick up truck with a bed that has been converted into a passenger area. They are designed to hold about 12 people. For much of our 5 hour journey through mountainous, windy roads the vehicle was packed with over 20 people. I spent about two hours hanging on the back ledge of the truck. Despite all that the views were spectacular and I got to see even more from my vantage point as I was able to look out over the truck. The weekend we had was well worth the travel.

Nadia made all of the arrangements for the weekend, and the rest of us are so grateful that she did. When we got to our cabins, they had lunch waiting for us. The food they provided was delicious all weekend. We got a package deal that included meals, lodging, and all of our activities around Umphang. The first activity was a river rafting adventure. We all expected to get some exercise paddling after sitting on the song taew all morning, but when we got there we realized we would have two people join us to do all the paddling. This was great as it allowed us to take in the breathtaking sites, and jump in the river at will. It was truly amazing to float down a river with the Thai jungle on one side and a cliff face over a hundred feet high on the other. We got to stop and soak in a hot spring that was just off the river, and even tried some Thai moonshine.

The hot spring

Once Sunday morning arrived it was finally time to get to why we were there in the first place: visiting Thi Lor Su waterfall. Again we woke up early and got to the national park before the crowd rolled in. After braving another bumpy road all that separated us from the waterfall was a short hike. Even outlaying pools on the hike were stunning. The multiple tiers of blue-green water rushing through the Thai jungle made me think of an Indiana Jones movie. It was truly stunning. We had a blast climbing up and down the different levels and swimming in the pools below the falls. 

On the walk to the falls

The pools before the falls

At the middle tier of the falls

Monday morning we woke up to catch the sunrise atop a local peak. After that we went to a small temple had some downtime before making the long journey back to Tak.

Visiting Thi Lor Su was the last major trip we will do while living in Tak. One of the first places we visited was Phu Chi Fa. This trip reminded me a lot of that one. Both sites were pretty difficult to get to, not listed on most travel sites, and were extremely beautiful. I am so glad I got to bookend this experience with so much natural beauty. If you happen to go to Thailand time spent getting to and exploring those two places will be time well spent. 

Over the next few weeks we will proctor exams, do a small amount of grading, say goodbye to our students, pack our bags and move on to the rest of our travel plans. This weekend we are getting together with a lot of friends from orientation which somehow seems like it was long ago and just yesterday at the same time. It sometimes feels like I just got here, but when I look back on everything it seems crazy just how much we have done in the five months or so that we have been living in Tak. I am excited to literally make my way around the globe, but it will be sad to say goodbye to the little life we have built here in Thailand.

P.S. 

If anyone is thinking about going to Thi Lor Su you should consider staying where we did. The food was excellent, the activities were great, the people were friendly, and they even had karaoke. 

Camp Suksathean
phone: 055-809-104, 081-281-5323, or 092-545-1533
email: suksathean@hotmail.com

Chiang Mai and Lampang (again)

Thursday, February 10th, 11:00 am

21 classes. That’s all I have left to teach before final exams start. After that we will proctor exams, grade, and our time at Takpittayakhom school will come to a close. The next phase of our adventure will begin. I am excited to start journeying the rest of the way around the globe, but I will miss the life Molly and I have created here in Tak. Living in Thailand has been full of surprises, mostly good, but occasionally we find ourselves in frustrating situations where the lack of communication becomes a real hindrance. Trying to catch a bus to Lampang this past weekend was one of those times.

The roots of the frustration both Molly and I felt were planted the weekend before. We made it a point to get to the bus station early on Friday so we could get to Chiang Mai at a reasonable time. We bought a bus ticket for a bus departing at 4:30 but it left early and we were forced to wait for the next bus through the company we bought our ticket with. This was the first time we bought a bus ticket before getting to the bus station and it totally backfired. We were forced to wait a long time while other buses to Chiang Mai came and went due to an “accident” with the bus from the company we had already bought a ticket from. Then on the way back from Chiang Mai our bus took 2 hours longer than normal. This time we did not pre buy a ticket, but the same company said they had a bus that would be leaving within 30 minutes. Again this company had a mysterious bussing accident that caused the two of us to spend two and a half hours waiting at the bus station. We were both fuming but eventually we caught a bus and got where we needed to go. Part of the frustration came from not being able to talk with the staff to say something like “look the same thing happened last time, is a bus really coming or not?” Safe to say we will not be using that company again. Despite all the bus frustration we had great weekends both times.

From reading this blog it may seem like we go to Chiang Mai a lot. This is because it is one of the closest places that has western food, craft beer, and there is just so much to see and do there. Every time we have gone we have done something different. It also is a fairly central place for all of our friends to meet. This time we all booked a hostel together and had 8 people in one dorm. We had drinks and dinner when we finally go there Friday night and went to bed so we could get up early on Saturday. We woke up to catch the sunrise on the mountain by Doi Suthep, the temple we visited during orientation and again with my parents. We headed up there to check out some gardens in the morning. The cherry trees blossom around this time of year. Unfortunately, we were a bit late and most of the blossoms had already come and gone, but it was still a beautiful place to visit.

The other spot we decided to check out on Saturday is called the “Grand Canyon”, a quarry that has been filled with water to swim in and jump into. My friend Willie and I jumped off of a ledge that was about 55-60 feet tall. It seems a lot taller when you are standing there waiting to jump. It is one of the only times in my life that I had enough time in the air to think, “ok, yea I am still falling”. It was an awesome sensation. The Grand Canyon was a beautiful place to relax in the water and spend a few hours. That night about 20 of us all went out together and we had a great time. I knew I would do a lot of amazing activities here, but I truly underestimated how many great people I would meet through this program.

Check out this video of Willie jumping

That night in Chiang Mai was also mine and Molly’s three year anniversary of when we started dating. It blows my mind that we have been together for three years already. We went out to dinner just the two of us for Greek food. The meal was great and it was nice to spend time reflecting on our relationship. I can’t imagine what this experience would be like without her here. Having someone who I am so close to and knows me so well is such a blessing. She is such an amazing part of my life.

The next weekend in Lampang we spent Friday night catching up with friends and grabbing dinner. Then on Saturday we visited Chalermprakiat Temple and Chae Son National Park. The temple had the feeling of Doi Suthep’s hipster cousin. It featured breathtaking views, a giant gong you could ring, and caps built on nearby peaks that gave the temple a more sprawling feel. It was a truly beautiful place.

The gong sound was much louder in person. You could feel the vibrations

On the way from the temple to the national park, Thailand delivered one of its delightful surprises. We passed a field littered with flowers and blossoming trees. We had to stop to take in the sights and explore the little park. The pictures below do this hidden gem more justice than any description I could come up with.

We had a great hike in Chae Son, the water was freezing but it felt great to be out in the wilderness. Hiking through the jungle in Thailand always makes me think “wow I’m hiking in the jungle in Thailand right now”. Two years ago it would have been hard for me to imagine that this is where my life would take me, but I am so glad that I ended up stepping so far outside my comfort zone for this adventure. It is moments like these that make the frustrations from the lingual and cultural barriers seem like a small price to pay for the overall experience I have had here.

There was a hot spring you could boil eggs in!

That night in Lampang instead of going out to bars, we all grabbed pizza and beers. Long Jim’s pizza is undoubtedly the best pizza in Thailand. The owner is from Oregon; it is the only place I have been where the pizza measures up to the pizza back home. They also have ranch sauce, a rarity here in the kingdom of smiles. After pizza we grabbed some Changs and gathered around my computer to watch the Cavs vs. Celtics game from earlier that day. Willie is a Celtics fan and Sean has ties to the greater Boston area so there was definitely rooting interest in the game. I didn’t realize how much I missed watching a game with friends. It was a night that reminded me a lot of home.

Speaking of home, this week something a little crazy happened. My sister, Katie, has left to study abroad in Ecuador. My dad is on a business trip to England. My mom is at home. So right now each member of my immediate family is in a different continent. Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. I think that is pretty cool.

We have some great stuff planned for the next two weekends. Melanie, Molly, Clay, Chanida and I will be headed to Thi Lo Su next weekend. It is the largest waterfall in Thailand, and quite difficult to get to. We have been trying to arrange a trip there since we arrived in Tak. We will also be done teaching when we leave for that trip. It is the premier site in Tak province and I am so excited to see it. This weekend I am headed to a neighboring town called Phitsanulok. I will fill all of you in on how that goes, thanks so much for reading!

Bonus pic of me and "Swaggy" for reading all the way through!

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.