Friday, October 04, 2013

Epic Adventure: Days 1 and 2 - Bus travel, elephants and tigers

Snacks provided on arrival!




This was the largest tiger that was allowed to be with people and they said he weighed over 200 kilos.

Labels: Bangkok to Chiang Mai bus, Chiang Mai, elephants, Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Thailand, Tiger Kingdom, tigers

Monday, August 05, 2013

Vacation Cambodia Style! - Presented in Multimedia Format

Even though I hadn't even been teaching a full two months yet, it was time for a long weekend. I'm not actually sure what Thai holiday dictated that I get a four day weekend, but I was truly grateful for it! With four days and limited budget, Kiki and I decided to tackle Cambodia. We got in a taxi at 3am and headed to FuturePark to catch a van to the border. Other than being crammed in the back of the 15 passenger van (a popular form of public transit here) the ride to the border was fairly uneventful. (Little did we know, that would be best transportation all weekend.)

After lots of standing and waiting and shuffling from one building to the next, we successfully left Thailand, got Cambodian tourist visas, and cleared immigration to enter Cambodia.

That blue and yellow sign above us says, "Kingdom of Cambodia".  Yeah baby!!

After lots of "let's screw the foreigners" games, we finally boarded a bus for Phnom Penh, the capital. This bus was certainly the worst. Again, foreigners to the back please. Normally not a big deal, but because this was a huge old diesel guzzling bus, which meant we were sitting directly over the engine, so even though the bus was theoretically air conditioned, we were being blasted with heat. Additionally, this bus decided to make waaay more stops than necessary, oh and let's not forget the part where we got a flat tire, meaning we didn't arrive at our hostel (after being drastically over charged by a tuktuk) until MUCH later than anticipated.

Just waiting for the flat tire on the bus to get changed... no big deal.

Lucky for us though, as we were checking in, two Canadian girls approached us to see if we would be interested in splitting a tuktuk for the following day. As it seemed we had a pretty similar itinerary planned, we jumped on it. The next morning the tuktuk driver picked us up and we headed out of town quite a ways to the shooting range. The story goes that this place has ties to the Cambodian military which is kind of the draw, in reality, I'm pretty sure it's just a place to shoot some big guns... and shoot them we did!



We shot both an AK-47 and an M-4. For the most part the 4 of us were splitting the clips, so the guys set the guns to only fire once per pull so we could split the shots evenly. At the end though, I had several shots left on the M-4 and wanted to try it in the automatic setting.....



After that we shifted the tone of the day pretty dramatically by going to The Killing Fields and S21. I, frankly, didn't really know about this until we started planning our trip, which is quite terrifying considering it occurred in the 1970s. Sadly, I'm rather certain that this was never a part of my education.

I didn't take photos really because it just didn't seem right somehow. I'm not going to detail all of the events that occurred at either location, but if you're not familiar with it, you should definitely look it up. While this didn't happen in my lifetime, it started only a few short years before I was born. It's pretty terrifying to think about. Phnom Pehn itself was not a particularly interesting city to me, but if you find yourself headed to Cambodia, you should make it a point to visit the Killing Fields and S21 for your own education.

In particular, The Killing Fields included an audio tour with the price of admission. I typically skip audio tours as I'm never terribly impressed and like to be free to move along at my own pace. This was by far the best audio tour I've ever experienced. It's narrated by a Cambodian who lived through it and has stories of others as well.

Afterwards we had to rush back to the hostel to grab some lunch and catch our bus to Siem Reap. Once again, foreigners to the back please! Back in a 15 passenger van, we shared the back bench with two German guys who were staying at our hostel. This was by far the bumpiest ride ever and one of the guys was really tall. Besides being crammed into the tiny back seat, I'm sure he hit his head on the roof multiple times!!

At one of the stops on the way, we hopped out to get snacks and go to the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom, one of the German guys held a bag out in front of me and said, "You want some bugs?" I looked down to discover that he was in fact holding a bag full of fried bugs. I'd seen these in the markets and street stands in Thailand and had planned to give it a shot at some point, so I figured, why not now?



Eventually we arrived in Siem Reap and were kindly picked up by a tuktuk driver sent by our hostel. The next morning the same driver pick us up to take to Angkor Wat in time to catch the sunrise. Apparently this is supposed to be a pretty amazing sunrise that can score you postcardesque photos, but it was pretty cloudy so we didn't get that lucky. Regardless, we explored Angkor Wat throughout the day, getting some pretty sweet pics of the various temples.



Since we got such an early start on the day, we were back at hostel around 1pm, giving us just enough time to catch a quick nap before indulging ourselves in the 3 hour spa treatment that the hostel offered. That's right! A scrub, massage and facial for the outrageous price of .... wait for it.... $35 USD!

That night we headed to the famed "Pub Street" to check a bar that Kiki had read about called Angkor What? They even had a tshirt that we were both super excited to get... until we saw it and it was boring. BOO!! Nonetheless, it was a pretty cool place and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Even when the electricity on the entire street went out, the party continued via candlelight. (Thank goodness the electricity came back on though, the bar population was starting to get a little antsy with no jams to dance to.)



The next morning it was back to Thailand. Clearly we hadn't had enough bad luck with transportation, so this time we crossed the border and were shuttled to a stop to wait for the second bus (Most bus companies don't take the buses across the border. You get off on one side, cross the border and then get on a new bus in the other country). Upon arriving we sat and waited... and waited... and waited... Four hours after we crossed the border, the bus finally came. The total time from Siem Ream to Bangkok was supposed to 7-8 hours. It was over 10!!

In the end, by Kiki's calculations, we traveled (including waiting for transit) a total of 40 hours in four days and did touristy things a total of 14 hours. Suddenly the overpriced plane tickets we'd considered previously seemed totally reasonable. Regardless, we truly enjoyed ourselves and I honestly hope to be able to visit Siem Reap again.... but I'll probably book a flight next time.

Labels: Angkor Wat, Angkor What, border crossing, Cambodia, Phnom Pehn, S21, Siem Reap, Thailand, The Killing Fields, vacation

Monday, July 01, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 4: Getting Settled

I can't believe that in just a few days I will have officially been in Thailand for one month. Sometimes I swear I've been here a year and others it's like I just walked off the plane. Life is currently a bit crazy. When I first got here I was able to find an apartment right away. It took a little over a week to truly get settled in an I actually switched apartments (same building, just different floor) in that first week or two. The landlady and her son are both super and helpful. They got me a motorbike (moto - because I just can't call it a motorcycle, and a bike is something I power, not an engine... and it's what they call them in CR so it's kinda ingrained in me) to rent that was terrible and terrifying but then got me a good one which I love.

Last week I got incredibly sick. I'm still not really sure if it was food poisoning or some kind of flu. I went to school Monday morning with my stomach feeling not so great. I've actually come to expect this in the morning here as I assume my body is just getting used to the food and more specifically the spices. Usually it goes away pretty quickly and I'm good to go. This time it just seemed to be getting worse. By lunch I felt awful and asked if (since it was 11am and I didn't have another class until 1:30pm) I could go home and lay down and then I would come back for my 1:30pm class. I managed that and after school went home and went immediately to bed which is where I spent the next two days as well. I returned to school on Thursday, but I really wasn't feeling back to 100% until Saturday.

Other than being sick, I've very much fallen into a groove at school. The Thai teacher I have now continues to be fantastic and I feel like I can actually teach the kids. That is, of course, if they were ever actually in class. It seems at least once/week there is some kind of special activity. There was Teacher Appreciation Day (which I VERY much appreciated), some cultural day, Boy Scout somethingorother day, who knows what's next.

So now I feel nice and settled at school but it's looking like I'm going to end up moving apartments. When Kiki moved into our building they told her they would work on getting wifi there. I moved in under the same assumptions. After lots of talking to Kung (the landlady's son) and going back and forth with various internet providers (all of whom we have had to seek out and get info from because the landlady and Kung weren't actually doing anything) it seems we aren't going to be able to get internet. On top of that, after talking to some other friends, it seems we're paying quite a bit more for utilities than anyone else, which makes our super cheap place, not so great of a deal afterall.

I spent the entire day Sunday riding around on my moto just stopping in at different places asking about apartments. It's not like back home where all the places have websites and on every street corner there are free "Apartment Guides" that give you all kinds of information. No, you just have to go... and go... and go... and go.... and ask the same questions over and over and PRAY that someone at the apartment complex speaks enough English that you can get the info you need. In the end, I still haven't found anything, but there are couple that might work. I'm not excited about moving away from Kiki (who is not moving because she's only here for 3 more months and she's decided coping with the stupid AirCard for internet is tolerable for that long), but on the plus side I'll be moving closer to Fums and OyOyOy, and Fums will actually be here about as long as I will. (More on those lovely ladies later). Overall I'm still really loving it here, I'm just ready to actually be settled and start feeling like I really live here.

Labels: apartments, Pathum Thani, teaching, Thailand

Friday, June 14, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 3: Cat Herding for Dummies

I know there are many who have been anxiously waiting for this post. Sure I've been talking about how excited I am that I get to teach Kindergarten, but I know all my teacher friends and others who work with children regularly are just waiting for me to eat my words.

After getting cleaned up from the moto incident, I arrived at school (in a taxi) ready to go. My schedule had me with K1 and K2 (together in the same class) from 8:30am to 11:00am. Having not been given the kindergarten schedule or curriculum, I really didn't know what to expect. Luckily the Thai teacher who is supposed to be my co-teacher was there and almost immediately whisked them away to music class. Hm. Okay, well I guess I don't teach until 9:20, nice.

After music class, 2 of my 6 students (yes, my k1/k2 class only has 6 kids... my life is awesome!) came running into the classroom and immediately started stripping off their clothes. The other kids just started playing. My co-teacher was nowhere to be found, and I was quite confused. I tried asking the kids what they were doing, but well, there's that whole, they don't really speak English and don't speak Thai thing. Finally, one of the kids, we'll call him MoonPie, reached into his cubbie and pulled out a swimsuit, which was great since at the point he was stark naked.

I had seen swimming listed on my 1st graders schedule, so I figured all was good. My co-teacher arrived and took the now bathing suit clad students to the pool. At this point I still didn't have a clear explanation as to why some kids were going to swimming and others weren't, and it didn't make sense to do school work that a third of the class was going to miss, so we played with clay and legos. (Turns out the 2 that went to swimming are the K2 students and the others are K1. Might have been good info to give to their teacher... maybe.)

The swimmers returned and again stripped down to nothing and started putting on, not their uniforms, but... yep... those are pajamas. Again, my Thai co-teacher appears from who knows where and starts rambling something that I can only assume means (did I mention that my co-teacher speaks no English) that she doesn't understand why all the kids aren't in their pajamas yet, they're going to be late to lunch. If only someone had been told that that was what was supposed to happen. The munchkins are shuttled off to lunch, and I eat lunch myself. They get to take naps, hence the pajamas, while I go meet my 1st graders for their first English class.

My first grade class has a total of two students. Yep two... and they are about as opposite as they can be. We spent the hour going through the various pictures and posters on the wall (body parts, numbers, animals, etc) and singing some basic songs (we've got the ABCs and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes down pretty well) so I could get a feel for their level of English. I don't have an actual curriculum, so I'm unsure of exactly what I'm supposed to be accomplishing.

Fast forward to today, I've officially completed a full week of teaching and am starting to actually feel like I know what's going on. On Mondays and Tuesdays I'm only with my first graders and teach English, math and science. (For those of you who knew what the job was going to be before I left, if you're scratching your head thinking, "I thought she was going to have all Kindergarten, and she definitely didn't mention math or science." You're not crazy. I had no idea until I arrived at the school last week that I would be teaching 1st grade and teaching more than just English. Welcome to Thailand!) Wednesday through Friday I have the K1/K2 class from 8:30am - 11am and then a couple classes with the first graders in the afternoon.

I still don't have an actual schedule for K1/K2. There is a schedule posted on the door, but it's all in Thai. There are 3 class periods between 8:30am and 11am, and to this point I've just been trying to figure out if I'm supposed to be teaching them or if they are supposed to be at a different class. It's quite confusing. However, today I got a new Thai teacher, and I LOVE her. She actually stays in the class the whole time, helps control the class a bit (I assume by their behavior that she is threatening to call their parents or beat them or something, I don't know, but they behave so well! It's delightful!) and actually teaches them (CO-teacher... interesting!).

I think someone finally figured out that maybe it made more sense to put an experienced teacher with the foreigner (farang) rather than the person who I'm pretty sure is part time and/or temporary. Sadly, I think the reason I got the new awesome Thai teacher was because of yesterday's "incident."

To make a long story short, one student scratched another enough to leave marks. I tried to talk to both sets of parents when they came to pick up the kids, but language was definitely an issue. The director later came up and asked what happened and told me that in the future I should have a the Thai teacher help with the situation. I pretty forcefully said that the Thai teacher wasn't there to help with the situation. In the end, the student who did the scratching was moved to another class (I don't think this was the first incident for her) and I got a new awesome Thai teacher that makes me feel like I will actually be able to teach... as opposed to just, as the title says, herding cats.

We also just had Teacher Appreciation Day where every primary student in the school presented a teacher with flowers. So much cuteness that words can't do it justice. So, check it out...




So for all of you waiting for me to say how stupid I was to want to teach Kindergarten, it's definitely had its interesting moments and I'm sure there will be more. It's had its ups and downs in the short week I've been here, but at the end of day, I get paid to play with those adorable faces all day! And how many of you spend the last hour of your work day playing with giant legos?

Labels: kindergarten, Pathum Thani, teaching, Thailand

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 2: Motobikes 101

When we last left our fearless wanderer.... wait that's me... I had just arrived in Bangkok after a less than ideal journey. After managing to sleep a few hours at a place in Bangkok, I was driven to Pathum Thani where I will be spending the majority of my time. We headed first to my school to prove to the director that I am a real human and will in fact start teaching soon. (Apparently the parents were getting nervous that their "native English speaking teacher" that they paid so much for their children to be educated by, wasn't really coming.)

After meeting the director, taking a tour of the school, and getting my schedule and books we headed over to Kiki's (the other teacher from the US) school. We spent a few minutes finally getting to chat face-to-face and since the timing was right, we snagged a free lunch with her in the school cafeteria.

Next it was off to find an apartment! Kiki had found a cheap place that was really close to her school and said she really loved it because the woman who owned it and her son really took care of her, so it was almost like having a host family. I liked the idea of being in the same building as someone else who spoke English, and the whole host family feel, so after checking the place out, I decided to stay. My room wasn't actually ready yet, so I ended up crashing in Kiki's room that night while they "got my room ready" - though I don't think anything actually changed in my room from when I saw it. (Don't worry, future posts will include photos of the apartment.)

The school director had asked me to come back at pick-up time so the parents could meet me (or... so the parents could see a white, blond haired, English speaking girl). The landlady intended to loan me her motorbike to make the trip, but after a couple practice tries and realizing that the starter was not terribly reliable, we decided to use the car instead.

That night Kiki took me to FuturePark to get a sim card for my phone and an AirCard for internet. (More on FuturePark in a future post... see what I did there? ha!) The next morning, Kiki volunteered to take me to school on her moto so that I didn't have to take a cab. We somehow managed to both get ourselves ready in her room and headed out the door. She knew it was important that I be at school on time so that the parents who hadn't seen me the day before would know I was definitely there now. In an attempt to get me there, she did what ALL moto drivers do when traffic is a little nasty and started driving on the side of road instead of really ON the road. Unfortunately, it had rained the night before and the ground was really muddy and well... Muddy ground - 1, Moto and 2 farargs - 0.

We both got a bit scraped up, but nothing serious. Since we were both now covered in mud, we headed back to the apartment to get cleaned up. When we arrived back the apartment the landlady went crazy making sure we were okay. She came up to Kiki's room and brought iodine and gauze and made sure we were really okay before she would let us go. While I was cleaning up, Kiki made a call to the school to let them know I would be late. Late on the first day (after already being a whole day late!). I'm amazing!

Stayed tuned for Adventures in Thailand Part 3: Cat Herding for Dummies.

Labels: moto, Pathum Thani, Thailand

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Adventures in Thailand Part 1: Getting There - Isn't this Supposed to be the Easy Part?

On June 3rd, I departed my house around 8am to embark upon my epic journey to Thailand. After arriving at the airport and enjoying a lovely breakfast at Cafe Patachou with a friend, I ventured through security where things moved seamlessly as I boarded my American Airlines flight bound for JFK. And then the lovely seamlessness ended. The moment I threw my backpack in the overhead compartment and my ass hit the seat, I heard an announcement coming over the speaker. Many people were still settling into place so I couldn't make it all out, but the key elements I heard were "...no flights to New York... more than 4 hours ... deplaning."  Lucky for me there was a bar directly across from the gate, so I downed some delicious Sun King beer while I waited.

We finally departed and landed uneventfully at JFK. I made the 30-40 minute journey over to the China Eastern counter (American wouldn't issue me a boarding pass or check me in because it was a different airline - so what's the point of all that "Sky Team Alliance" crap then?!?). I arrived to find no one there. A nice airport employee asked what I needed and I said I needed to talk to China Eastern because my flight had been delayed and I needed to find out how I was going to get to Bangkok now. "They're closed! Won't be back until tomorrow. Sorry." I cried. After calling friends and the company I booked the ticket with, and journeying all the way back over to the American counter, I sat in line for almost 3 hours only to be told by American that all they could do was rebook me for the same flight the following day, and no, they won't pay for my hotel tonight because it was a weather delay and not their fault. Awesome!

Waiting in line at American

After spending $150 on a hotel room (and after having Will sign into my fb and get in touch with friends who have friends in NY, but discovering that the cab fares would probably end up being as much as the hotel) I ventured back to JFK for round two. This time things moved pretty smoothly, except for the fact that American had apparently booked me on different flight from Shanghai to Bangkok, so China Eastern couldn't check me in for that flight, because I would need to stop and get my luggage re-routed before boarding. Awesome!

Despite being 15 hours, the flight to China wasn't awful. I quickly discovered it was more battery efficient to watch movies on my iPad Mini than my MacBook and managed to get through several. (Win number who can keep track for the iPad!) Bag re-routing was less cumbersome than imagined and I even had time to stop at a free internet kiosk to shoot off an email saying I had made it that far. (They had about 4 open wifi networks in the airport, but none would actually let me connect. The free computers wouldn't allow access to FB... Welcome to China!)

The stop in Shanghai was really all worth it for this sign...


I don't really know what "Mind your head" means, but I feel like I can interject it into normal conversation and it will be fun. Also, I got to pay $8 for a liter of water, who doesn't love that?!

I got settled on the flight Bangkok and after eating, decided it was definitely time to watch some Pitch Perfect. Don't judge me! It's aca-awesome and you know it! After arriving and discovering that my bags did in fact make it all the way to Bangkok (pretty shocking given the previous information) one of the Echo English staff members picked me up and, since it was about 2am, dropped me off at place to stay for the night (or sleeping hours of the morning, depending on how you want to look at it.) Depite the fact that is was early afternoon back home and that Thai mattresses bring a whole new meaning to the definition of firm, I passed out rather quickly.

Random pretty thing in Bangkok Airport

In case you're counting, the total estimated door to door travel time was 56 hours, the first 33 of which were just trying to get out of the US. I can't actually pinpoint how many time zones I crossed because I'm while I can't be sure of this, according to app I downloaded, my flight from New York actually took me back west to Shanghai, not east. So confusing.

Stay tuned for Adventures in Thailand Part 2. I'd tell you the tentative title, but you'd just get too excited.

Labels: American Airlines, Bangkok, China Eastern Airlines, JFK, Thailand, travel