I just got back from a 3 ½ week excursion around Thailand – or more appropriately, central Thailand.
My friend Josh (who yes, I used to date) was coming into Bangkok so I thought it would be a good idea to travel up there and show him around, what with my limited knowledge of Bangkok. But I thought I might be able to help with translating, forgetting that nearly everyone in Bangkok speaks English. It was nice to go though. I got to see the big city park and drink many bottles of beer, so it was a good change from my site. Oh and I saw Hellboy 2, although I think I was peer-pressured into it.
After three days in Bangkok, I took a bus about 2 ½ hours north to Singburi where I used to live with a host family. Lesson learned: Don’t tell your Thai mother you’re coming to visit unless you want 10 phone calls a day. 2nd lesson learned: Don’t stay in Singburi for 3 days. I basically spent the time sitting in the hammock in extremely hot weather reading, which sounds awesome… until you’re on your 25th hour of doing it. I did get to go to a construction site though, which tops the 25 hours in a hammock on the “Things I Don’t Want To Do” list.
After that I went back to Bangkok for a 4-day weekend with friends. This also happened to fall at the beginning of Buddhist lent which meant that the city was on an alcohol ban for 2 days. Not good, but we were able to get around it. PC volunteers are resourceful. We stayed at the backpackers’ guesthouse Soi 11 which looks like a big tree house and has a shower on the roof. I did not indulge, but Alec did and he couldn’t stop talking about it. Apparently it’s pretty cool to look out over the city while you shower. We also found amazing Middle Eastern food close to the hotel and we kept going back for naan and hummus. I’m still thinking about it now.
After the long weekend, the volunteers met up at the PC building and took a bus into Chainat, where we had two weeks of meetings on technical skills, safety training, medical briefings, and community development. The best part was walking around the night market, buying all kinds of food, and then having a feast back at the hotel. Rumpai took us on an excursion one night to have us try “the roti that would make us forget all other roti” (roti = kind of like a crepe, but smaller, and with condensed milk on top). Our counterparts joined us for 3 days to plan a community development project. I felt kind of bad because the woman I brought thought we’d be working on our teaching project. I think in total we were able to spend about 2 hours on it. I think there were 4 birthdays in the group that got celebrated during the 2 weeks. LOTS of karaoke. Even more beer. I think the best meeting was when we weren’t listening, but drawing tattoos for each other instead. I drew Mark’s: a unicorn riding a bicycle under a rainbow. Catherine drew Angela’s: a tranny dancer with thigh high boots saying “mai bpen rai (nevermind, or it’s OK) underneath. Both classics.
Back to Bangkok for 3 days, hanging out, eating naan, taking naps, drinking, dancing. My favorite part was sitting in Starbucks on cushy chairs drinking a vanilla latte with Alec. It was a bit surreal, not that my site doesn’t have some perks – but Starbucks! I stayed one night with Cat and Angela because they had a super-nice hotel as part of a Gender and Development conference and I was staying an extra day anyways. I really wasn’t that excited to come home, other than to see my dogs and watch Lost Season 4, which I found in Bangkok for 500 baht (15 dollars).
So I’m home now, and sitting back in the school office trying not to suffer from heat stroke. I did the obligatory bringing canomes (sweets) back for the staff and I start back up with the after school English clubs next week.
Random:
-I’ll be going to Phuket at the end of the month – Krabi the beginning of next month.
-I keep trying to upload pictures to my facebook account, but it takes FOREVER
-11 volunteers have returned to America. The one I’m most disappointed about is Roxy, who was my best friend in the group and the closest geographically.
My friend Josh (who yes, I used to date) was coming into Bangkok so I thought it would be a good idea to travel up there and show him around, what with my limited knowledge of Bangkok. But I thought I might be able to help with translating, forgetting that nearly everyone in Bangkok speaks English. It was nice to go though. I got to see the big city park and drink many bottles of beer, so it was a good change from my site. Oh and I saw Hellboy 2, although I think I was peer-pressured into it.
After three days in Bangkok, I took a bus about 2 ½ hours north to Singburi where I used to live with a host family. Lesson learned: Don’t tell your Thai mother you’re coming to visit unless you want 10 phone calls a day. 2nd lesson learned: Don’t stay in Singburi for 3 days. I basically spent the time sitting in the hammock in extremely hot weather reading, which sounds awesome… until you’re on your 25th hour of doing it. I did get to go to a construction site though, which tops the 25 hours in a hammock on the “Things I Don’t Want To Do” list.
After that I went back to Bangkok for a 4-day weekend with friends. This also happened to fall at the beginning of Buddhist lent which meant that the city was on an alcohol ban for 2 days. Not good, but we were able to get around it. PC volunteers are resourceful. We stayed at the backpackers’ guesthouse Soi 11 which looks like a big tree house and has a shower on the roof. I did not indulge, but Alec did and he couldn’t stop talking about it. Apparently it’s pretty cool to look out over the city while you shower. We also found amazing Middle Eastern food close to the hotel and we kept going back for naan and hummus. I’m still thinking about it now.
After the long weekend, the volunteers met up at the PC building and took a bus into Chainat, where we had two weeks of meetings on technical skills, safety training, medical briefings, and community development. The best part was walking around the night market, buying all kinds of food, and then having a feast back at the hotel. Rumpai took us on an excursion one night to have us try “the roti that would make us forget all other roti” (roti = kind of like a crepe, but smaller, and with condensed milk on top). Our counterparts joined us for 3 days to plan a community development project. I felt kind of bad because the woman I brought thought we’d be working on our teaching project. I think in total we were able to spend about 2 hours on it. I think there were 4 birthdays in the group that got celebrated during the 2 weeks. LOTS of karaoke. Even more beer. I think the best meeting was when we weren’t listening, but drawing tattoos for each other instead. I drew Mark’s: a unicorn riding a bicycle under a rainbow. Catherine drew Angela’s: a tranny dancer with thigh high boots saying “mai bpen rai (nevermind, or it’s OK) underneath. Both classics.
Back to Bangkok for 3 days, hanging out, eating naan, taking naps, drinking, dancing. My favorite part was sitting in Starbucks on cushy chairs drinking a vanilla latte with Alec. It was a bit surreal, not that my site doesn’t have some perks – but Starbucks! I stayed one night with Cat and Angela because they had a super-nice hotel as part of a Gender and Development conference and I was staying an extra day anyways. I really wasn’t that excited to come home, other than to see my dogs and watch Lost Season 4, which I found in Bangkok for 500 baht (15 dollars).
So I’m home now, and sitting back in the school office trying not to suffer from heat stroke. I did the obligatory bringing canomes (sweets) back for the staff and I start back up with the after school English clubs next week.
Random:
-I’ll be going to Phuket at the end of the month – Krabi the beginning of next month.
-I keep trying to upload pictures to my facebook account, but it takes FOREVER
-11 volunteers have returned to America. The one I’m most disappointed about is Roxy, who was my best friend in the group and the closest geographically.
Me and Roxy: 
-I saw Batman in Bangkok (not totally out of the loop)
-I was a judge in a moustache competition (for the volunteers; Thais have a hard time growing moustaches) Alex's moustache turned out quite nicely:
-I was a judge in a moustache competition (for the volunteers; Thais have a hard time growing moustaches) Alex's moustache turned out quite nicely:
-I believe he got the award for "Most Likely to Grow Legs and Walk Off"
-In January we are having a mullet competition (cause what else are we going to do with our time?)
-I tried going blonde (for fun) and ended up orange. Thai stylists have no idea how to make hair blonde.
-I tried going blonde (for fun) and ended up orange. Thai stylists have no idea how to make hair blonde.
No comments:
Post a Comment