A little Irish boy that was up there with his family (so you can see how big the flower is)
March 10, 2010
A little Irish boy that was up there with his family (so you can see how big the flower is)
February 25, 2010
P.S. This little kitten in the internet cafe has been a part of this blogging experience.
February 16, 2010
The little dough balls before they were boiled
Pi Nui chopping up some pineappleThe whole crew (minus me) enjoying our feast on the floor :)
February 15, 2010
- Thais are not concerned with cleaning children's baby teeth, because they figure they will fall out anyway. So most children have at least one horribly rotting tooth. A good example of their "live in the moment" attitude that can sometimes have negative consequences.
HOWEVER, the students have toothbrushes at school and brush their teeth after lunch...Go figure. - Thais do not use toilet paper. There is a handy "bum cleaner" next to the toilet, a hose that squirts out water to clean yourself.
- The showers are not separate from the bathroom floor. There is often a showerhead randomly in the bathroom and a drain in the floor. Otherwise, there is a tub of water with a bucket that you use to pour water over yourself while standing in the bathroom.
- Spoons are used instead of knives. Most of the food here is soft enough to cut through with a spoon.
- There is wireless internet in more places in the major towns here than at home.
- Porn is a common name for women. (Both my laundry lady's name and one of the teachers I work for.)
- Thais take off their shoes before entering houses, shops, and classrooms...But the children run around in socks that have holes big enough for all of their toes.
- Women who give laundry services tie tiny colored strings around each item so that they know whose clothes are whose. I love seeing the little purple and white strings tied around each of my socks and underwear.
- Many families have shops and restaurants in the front area of their homes. So when I go to the restaurant next door, I am essentially sitting in a family's living room. When I go to the water/snack shop, I am greeted by my favorite plump, smiling Thai lady feeding her five cats or making dinner for her family.
- Babies, toddlers, even entire families cramp onto motorbikes to get around. It is standard to see a tiny little kid standing up in the front part and holding onto the handles while two or three adults or children sit on the seat; or babies in laps; or 10 year olds riding by themselves. And virtually no one wears helmets!
February 10, 2010
Two of the teachers at the Primary School, Pi Nui and Pi Rai (Pi is what you say before a person's name if they are older than you, to show respect), are so sweet to us. They love to hang out with us and are always inviting us to do things outside of class time. The teachers here are much more casual than the teachers in America. Veryyyy laid back, which seems to be both a good and a bad thing. Nothing is very organized, and everyone seems to just go with the flow. If a teacher wants to leave school early on a Friday to go shopping, it's no big deal. They make and cancel plans constantly, and it doesn't seem like they spend much time out of school working. One day last week, I joined Pi Nui and Pi Rai for their daily ritual of swimming in the creek behind the school and playing badmitten and ping pong. The two of them are so silly and down to earth, it's good fun to be around them. Pi Rai's English is pretty good but Pi Nui just laughs a lot. Thais love to give foreigners Thai nicknames, so the two of them have named me Num Won, which means sweet water. It's an extremely sweet red syrup mixed with water...tastes like candy.
Last Wednesday, Pi Nui, Pi Rai, and Pi Tung (the assistant director of the school), took Tammy, Mim (one of the volunteers who has been out here 6 times), and I out to dinner at Lomsoc. Lomsoc is the really nice seafood restaurant on the water that I was taken to once before. The Thais love having us try all of the different shellfish and Thai dishes. "Can you try? Can you try?"
On Friday we had an "end of term" party at GVI for all of the people getting their TEFL certificates and all of the adult students at the community center who finished their course. We also invited the teachers from the school, so there were dozens of guests who brought lots and lots of homemade Thai food to share. It was nice to hang out with members of the community in a very laid back atmosphere. Lots of photos taken, beer drank, and karaoke sung. The Thais LOVE LOVE LOVE their karaoke, it's hilarious. So when the GVI manager called us teaching children volunteers up to give us some recognition, she made us sing "Build Me Up, Buttercup" in front of the whole party...so embarassing! But the Thais got up there with no hesitation, singing all of the popular slow Thai songs in their amazing voices....nothing like American karaoke where we basically just shout the words. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that most Thais can actually sing well because their language is based on tones.
The morning after the party, Tammy and I headed off to Railey Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous...nothing like Ao Nang the weekened before. It was still touristy, but the people there were much more chilled out, and the place itself is smaller and more remote. It had been recommended to us to cross over to a different beach called Ton Sai, where all of the rockclimbing happens. So we took a 2 minute boat ride over to Ton Sai to check it out, and we fell in love. It's slightly less perfect than Railey...the beach smaller and the sand not quite as soft, but the vibe was much more our style. We walked up to ChillOut Bar, and asked if they had accommodation available. They showed us these adorable little bamboo huts just behind the bar that you can stay in for 250 baht a night...about $8. I jumped for joy and made myself at home in my cute little hut with a pink mosquito net. After chatting with the guys who worked the bar (Thais with dredlocks down to their butts), I found out that it just so happened to be Bob Marley's birthday, and they were having a party with Reggae djs and fire shows. I couldn't believe we were staying at this Reggaed out bar on Bob Marley's birthday...what a coincidence. So I hung out on the beach all day, wondering how I ended up in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We stayed up late (didn't have much of a choice since my hut was like 10 feet away from the DJ), watching Thai guys swing fire around their heads and chatting to some English teachers who work in Korea.
Sunday morning we slowly made our way back to Railey. We decided to be brave and trek back over instead of taking the longtail for 50 baht. A local guy who works at one of the bars showed us the way. It took about 20 minutes, but it was quite the experience. You have to scramble around and climb big, sharp rocks, with your legs half in the water (the tide was high). I had my backpack on and was struggling not to fall in the water the whole time. I cut my finger on one of the rocks, but did eventually make it over, feeling very accomplished.
All of the newly qualified TEFLers are in Ko Lanta for the week teaching at an English camp. That leaves Tammy, Mim, Ella, Olivia (new 18 year old volunteer who just arrived), Kerry, and I all by ourselves. It's nice to have some peace and quiet around here though. Last night we went to a party at the Primary school (mostly just so that we didn't have to cook ourselves dinner..haha). I'm still not really sure if there was a reason for the party, but it was just a gathering of all of the teachers and staff. There was food, alcohol, karaoke, and plastic chairs, which seem to be standard for Thai gatherings. The young music teacher (in his twenties) drank an entire bottle of rum to himself, and the older music teacher was downing his drinks and then serenading me, singing me love songs in English (one of them was Black Magic Woman), and telling me he's been waiting a "looooooong time" for me. All of the teachers thought it was hysterical, and I just sat there crying of laughter and hoping he wasn't being serious.
February 2, 2010
This past weekend, five other volunteers and I escaped Ao Luk and went to Ao Nang, a touristy beach town about 45 minutes away. It was an odd experience leaving what feels like home to visit an area that was packed with European travelers. I was able to see the tourist life in a whole new light. We were on an entirely different level from the tourists--while they didn't hesitate to sunbathe topless, we felt strange wearing short shorts. Ao Nang is one of the biggest tourist stops in Southern Thailand, so it's pretty westernized. It even has a McDonalds that delivers---eww. Most people stop there in between traveling around though, because some of the most beautiful beaches are just a short long-tail boat ride away from Ao Nang.
I loved the break from rural Ao Luk, the refreshing swims in the sea, the non-Thai food, and not being swarmed by hundreds of children. It was such a strange feeling though, to be in one of the Thailand tourist stops feeling like I was on a vacation away from Thailand. Not a local but not quite a tourist.
We stayed in one of the super cheap guesthouses, 400 baht a night ($12), which I slightly regretted after finding sand in my bed, no bin (trash can), no towel, no toilet paper, and a toilet down the hall. Mai pen rai! (nevermind!). One of the other interesting/shocking/disturbing parts of the weekend was encountering the dozens of Thai prostitutes dancing on poles (and people) in front of all of the bars. It was hard for me to ignore all of these women, so I spent a lot of the first night drinking my cocktail very confused. We did find a reggae bar that played Bob Marley and Jack Johnson which was refreshing (and a nice reminder that I was still on planet earth).
On Sunday we went on a snorkeling tour with GVI's friend Nong, who showed us around four different islands, including Ko Hong, the island I went to the previous weekend. This was interesting too, returning to the same island with a tour group on a speed boat rather than being shown around by local Thais on a small longtail boat. The island hardly seemed to be the same place, though sparkling water, the Tiger fish, and the doughy sand hadn't changed.
Lading Island (Tammy)
January 24, 2010
On Saturday a group of us visited the Tiger Temple.
"Wat Tham Seua (Tiger Cave Temple) 5 km from Krabi Town is a small temple built inside a long shallow limestone cave, surrounded by natural forest. The temple, one of the south's most famous meditation centres, takes its name from a stone formation nearby which resembles a tiger's claw. Today, about 250 monks and nuns live in the temple compound." (www.krabi-thailand.org/sight/index.php)
We climbed the infamous 1,237 steps to get to the top of the limestone mountain...each step being the size of my calves and the width of my foot. It was quite the experience holding onto the railing to pull myself up each "step". Luckily there are landings at each flight of about 50 stairs to take a quick breather every so often.
After making our way down (which was much harder than you'd think), we sat amongst all the scary looking monkies that live around the temple area. I had been anticipating my first encounter with wild monkies for months...maybe even years. My vision of cuddling with a cute little monkey did not quite match my experience with the dozens and dozens of crazy monkies jumping around at the Tiger Temple. They were everywhere, and they were vicious! They jump and swing around grabbing anything in sight...which unfortunately included my reusable water bottle! I stood up for a second to take a picture when this sneaky monkey jumps along and snatches it away from me. He was very infatuated with it, cuddling it, tossing it around, and eventually untwisting the cap, so I decided to let him keep it (ha ha). Thank god he didn't decide to go for my camera!
We had previously met two photographers from Bangkok at Pa Pui's house, who are currently working on helping Pa Pui's family advertise their soon-to-be homestay and the areas surrounding Ao Luk to lure in tourists. So we went on this boat trip with Bum, two friends, and the photographers to model for the adverts. Since it was bikini modeling, they wanted very skinny models so I was saved from having to do sexy poses on rocks like my thin friends did. This all probably sounds very sketchy and weird, but the photographers and Bum are the most down to earth people and their main intention was to the capture the beauty of the area...keeping in mind the style of advertisements that generally appeal to tourists. We were taken out on a motorboat to the most peaceful limestone islands and beaches. Our main task was to kayak around beautiful islands while the photographer took shots from the boat. This was actually quite difficult because not only did we have to steer the kayaks at the right angles, but we were being shouted directions in Thai the entire time--very entertaining. Bum was feeding us exotic fruits all along the way, taking such good care of us. We went swimming, visited a beautiful white sand beach, and ended up at Mu Ko Hong, many Thais' very favorite island. The sand was white, soft, and doughy, and the water was sparkling clear. I swam in the water, fed gorgeous yellow fishies, ate a shrimp stirfry that appeared in front of me, and slept on the beach until we were the last people in sight (there were many tourists at first). We headed back home in peace, watching the sun hide behind the karsts and communicating as much as possible (which was very little considering the language barrier). When I thought our perfect day had come to an end, we arrived at an amazing seafood resaurant on the edge of the water, where we were treated to the freshest (and biggest) crabs, shrimps, calamari, and delicious flaky fishes.
Bum
My legs are still pulsing from Saturday and I am more sunburnt than I have ever been (not an exaggeration), but it's just my body's way of constantly reminding me of my incredible weekend.