Good Times at Lertlah

So I've realized that I haven't written a lot about the school - which is where a lot of time has been spent.  If you're interested in seeing some of the things that go on here, keep reading.  Otherwise, save yourself some time and stop now:P

I know I've mentioned that I am teaching music... well, I have been for the last three weeks.  It has been a lot of fun, and has made me miss music a lot.  Especially when I'm conducting in band class.  Today I was going through one of the CDs in the room to put together a song list for the sub next week (the permanent music teacher is back the following week), and was having flashbacks to my childhood.  It's funny how those songs you sang religiously seep through the cracks of your memory, but they come back just as easily - as if you had never really forgotten them.

Other things that have happened here... hmm...

June 16 - Wai Kroo is a great day for teachers in Thailand.  For those of you who don't know, the Thai word for teacher is kroo.  As you may now have guessed, this means that the 16th was a sort of teacher appreciation day.  It doesn't necessarily mean that the kids are particularly good this day, but they have an assembly to pay respects to their teachers and you feel special.  Something that doesn't always happen in this line of work.

July 1 - Because so many of the foreign teachers are Canadian, we celebrated here.  At our campus they actually had RCMP from Vancouver flown in to talk to the kids!!  The Grade 1,2, and 3 classes performed Baby by Justin Beiber - so funny.  Then the Grade 4,5 and 6 band played O Canada while the Grade 3's sang.  It was crazy.  The rest of the day was a bit of a write off to tell the truth.

July 8 - In preparation for Buddhist lent, a candle making ceremony takes place in the morning a week prior.  This is done so that the school may donate a candle to the monks.  This is done so that they do not run out of light during their 3 months inside the Temple 'compound' (for lack of a better word at the moment).  All of the kids get to go up and put 1 ladle of melted wax from various small candles that have been donated into the metal tube that shapes the candle.  The nursery and K's were the cutest because they actually had to be lifted up to ladle the wax in!  Haha.

July 12 - FIRE!  Actually, it was a fire drill.  Unlike the Manitoba School System where we have to have 10 fire drills each school year, Lertlah only has one.  This may seem crazy, but the truth is that fire drill takes on a whole different meaning here.  Sure, the alarm goes off, but unlike in our schools, here everyone goes down the one main stair case and then exits the main floor through the three exits but we don't get very far away from the actual building so it's really safe - ya?  What really made me laugh (sarcasticly) was the fact that the students on the higher floor got to go down the stairs first because they pay more money to the school than the kids on the floor below them.  Pretty ridiculous.  The K's also get priority, but they go so slowly down the stairs that the older kids quickly catch up.

Following the emptying of the building, we all gather in the courtyard on the ground level so that the men from the fire department can do a fire demonstration for the kids.  Most of what they were saying was in Thai so I had no idea what was being construed but I really hope that the first and last thing out of the head guy's mouth was "DO NOT TRY ANY OF THIS AT HOME".  They lit a fireman on fire, lit the gas coming out of a compressed gas tank on fire, and started a grease fire!  Everything was loud and hot so the K's and Nursery kids spent an entire period crying and hiding.

One word to describe all of this:" insanity.

July 14 - Just as with the ethics camp, a group of monks came to the school.  This time, it was to receive the candle made on the 8th.  We weren't able to attend because we would run the risk of offending the monks, as we don't know what to do, but it gave us two periods off... I guess that was good but we lost some precious review time.

So ya... that's what we've been up to here.  Today is the last day and it's bittersweet.  I'm excited to do the last bit of my traveling and get home but I'm definitely going to miss these kids.  It's going to be weird to go back to older kids now that I've been dealing with early years and earlier but I'm excited to teach math and science again.

Well, that's it for now!  Talk to you soon!

A Very Short Long Weekend

I know you all had to work on Friday (15th) and Monday (18th) but we had them off :P  Hahahaha,  To be fair, this is my first long weekend since the middle of May so I think it works out.  Because there are a number of places that are 'far' from Bangkok, we decided to use the long weekend to head North and go to Chiang Mai.  It's a city far older than Bangkok, about 3 hours South of the Northern Thailand border and it is actually the second biggest city in Thailand.  Because it is so far North, we flew there and this is (obviously) where the excitement begins...

On Thursday all the foreign teachers were talking about our various plans for the weekend because it is the only long weekend of the term.  We had been planning on leaving at 6pm for the airport since our flight was at 9:00pm, but people said that traffic was going to be absolutely insane so we decided to leave at 5:30pm from the apartments (since the campus 2 people needed time to get back to the apartments).  As it was, this was a very good idea.  We didn't get to the airport until 7:45pm!  Even so it wasn't as chaotic as when Lynne and I flew to Phuket, which was nice and relaxing.  We had arranged to be picked up by the hotel when we got there which made the trip relatively stress-free - a first for us if I'm not mistaken.

The hotel gets it's own paragraph, so you know it was good.  Overall, we've stayed in mediocre guesthouses and hotels during our weekend travels so this weekend we didn't expect much different.  I booked the hotel through agoda.ca which is a discount hotel website that I've discovered and really like, just as I did the one in Patong, Phuket.  When we walked into the hotel though, we were immediately under the impression that we 'didn't belong' there because it was too fancy - or at least that's how I felt.  Furthermore, when we got into the room we were so blown away that there were shrieks of joy and lots of laughter.  The guys had come up before us and were able to find us easily due to the commotion we were making. haha.  What made it even cooler than the cushioned beds, the complimentary water and the various free toiletries in the washroom was the fact that our room had an adjoining door with Judianne and Julia's room.  This was fantastic and lead to some great late night conversations and even more laughter.

Friday was the start of a wide variety of activities that we did during over the course of three days.  The weekend was a [extra] long weekend because Saturday was the start of Buddhist lent - when the monks retire to the temples and do not leave for 3 months (marking the rainy season in Thailand).  This is a major Buddhist holiday and Doi Suthep (the temple on the hill) is one of the pilgrimage sites for it, we decided to take a tour up there and see what it was all about.  

Unlike the temples we had seen in Bangkok, which were more for show, this temple is used regularly by Thais.  This was extremely evident by the number of locals that were at the temple with us, in addition to a few other tourist groups.  Seeing the temple in use was a great feeling, and the vibe the practicing Buddhists gave of was so calming - despite the fact that the temple was full of people.  I used the fortune sticks again which are very interesting.  You shake a bamboo container full of sticks until one falls out, then you get the paper with the same number as the stick that fell out.

Following this our tour was over but our guide wanted to play hooky so she took us to the Gem Gallery (where we all spent a lot of money) followed by the silk factory, the cotton whole-sale shop, the laquer shop and store, and the umbrella factory shop.  We had a lot of fun and saw how all of these goods were made.  All in all it was very interesting and it didn't cost us anything extra!

We killed a little time in the room after this tour but were picked up at 4:45pm for our cooking class.  Again, it was so much fun.  We actually ended up being in it with people from Lertlah's campus 3 - because the world is that much of a small place - along with another couple from Canada.  This class was different from the course we took in Bangkok because we actually had options for cooking.  My menu was the following:  coconut soup with chicken, fried chicken with cashew nuts, red curry and sweet sticky rice with mango.  DELICIOUS.

We had a lot of fun cooking again - it's been ages since any of us set foot in a kitchen.  It was also a good feeling because, unlike the Lemongrass class, Sam and I seemed to be some of the more experienced people in the group when it came to the kitchen.  At the end of the evening we were given recipe books for all the dishes that they teach at the school.  It was pretty generous and I'm pumped to try out some of the other recipes! mmm Panang curry.

Saturday was the first of a '2 day' tour, surrounding the tallest point in Thailand.  On the way up the highest peak we stopped at two different waterfalls.  Unlike the Hua Hin and Erawan waterfalls that we saw soon after arriving in Thailand, these ones were huge!  The second one was located at the Royal Garden, and it splits in two.  The left side is considered the King's side while the right is the Queen's.  Also, the garden was beautiful.

Following the waterfalls we went to a White Karen village where we got to see the rice fields up close.  Although they don't look particularly complicated, I found it impressive how the 'fields' were terraced and set up so that water would run down from one field to the next. 

 Also, we got to see some of the women working on their looms and I bought a gorgeous blanket from them.  I wanted to have my picture taken with the woman who wove it but she was not working that day.  

At the highest peak we could not see very far because of the clouds in the area (we were above them) but it was beautiful none the less.  The vegetation at that altitude is similar to that in Canada so it looked familiar, plus the temperature was a mere 20 degrees so it really felt like home.

Following this we made our way to the chedi of the King and Queen, built as a birthday present.  The gardens in the ground here were spectacular and well maintained.  I personally preferred the King's chedi because of the tiled look of the murals outside of it, even though the Queen's chedi was purple.  Again, we could not get a good glimpse of much of the surrounding area but Sam said that what we saw actually looked similar to the maritime provinces.

This concluded our day first day.  Once we were dropped off we proceeded to wander around the night bizarre where we were staying then hopped into a tuk tuk to the Saturday Market.  It was so crazy here - probably because Chiang Mai was so busy for the long weekend - but apparently it is actually even more crowded during high season!  We didn't stay out too late that night because we were expecting to get picked up the next morning at 7:30am.

SURPRISE!  Unlike the previous two days where we were picked up late, on Sunday I was woken up by a phone call saying that they were at our hotel to pick us up!  Needless to say, I needed a few moments to put myself together so they picked up some others from another hotel before coming back for us.  This day was a long day during which we spent a good chunk of time in the minibus.

Our first stop was the hot springs.  We didn't stop at the largest ones but the one we went to is so hot that you can boil an egg in it!  Aside from this fact, this stop was not all that impressive, but I was still half asleep when we got there.

 A short drive later and some extra time to wake up allowed us to be ready to see the White Temple outside of Chiang Rai.  This temple is really cool and memorable because it was so different from all the other temples we had seen.  Unlike Doi Suthep, this is a major touring spot, even for Thais, instead of a place of worship (although it is still a functioning temple).  You notice what is different the second you see it.

As you can see, the style of the building itself is odd.  It's a combo of Western Gothic, Thai and Chinese styles.  Also, the colour (or lack there of) is different.  The inside sets this temple apart also, but we weren't able to take pictures inside so I'll just describe it for you.  All temples have paintings on the walls describing the life of Buddha and how to reach Nirvana (Buddhist heaven-ish).  This temple has this on the left half of the interior walls painted in a more modern flare, but the right hand side of the temple (which is still being finished) is depicting a more modern world.  You can see characters such as Batman, KungFu Panda, Darth Vader, Jason, a cell phone, and Michael Jackson.  I was really thrown when I noticed this so I asked the tour guide if Thais are somewhat offended by this and he said that some were but because the artist is so respected it's alright.

After this temple, a long ride led to the Golden Triangle of Thailand.  Unlike the Golden Triangle of India, this one covers a smaller area and signifies where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet.  The reason for its name is because this was a significant location during the peak of opium trade in Northern Thailand and the currency used for this was gold bars because all three nations used different currencies (and still do).  It was neat to be there, and we actually stopped briefly in Laos.  In Laos, the big souvenir that you could get that was different from everywhere else was their Snake Whiskey.  They bottle it with the snake in it!  Super gross.

After this wonderfully gross vision, we went for lunch then on to the Northern most point of Thailand.  It was pretty neat to head that far north and actually see the border and into Burma (which looked quite different here than at the Golden Triangle).

Our last stop on the tour before the 3 hour drive back to Chiang Mai was the Hill Tribe Village where we were able to see Long Neck Karens as well as Big Earred Karens.  I have mixed feelings about this experience so I'll write about that once I look into the whole scenario further.

We didn't end up getting back until 8:30/9pm so we went straight to dinner at The Duke's (right across from our hotel).  The slogan of the restaurant is "Created by a man who loves to eat... and eat... and eat" so as you might imagine, it was delicious.  This in itself was a nice change because we had some mediocre food experiences in Chiang Mai otherwise.  Sam and I shared an order of chicken quesadillas, a green salad with Greek dressing, and a grilled vegetable sandwich.  SO GOOD.  In fact, we liked it so much that we went there again for an early dinner on Monday before heading to the airport.

As you can tell from the fact that you've been reading for hours, it was a busy weekend.  I was exhausted by the end of it.  Good times - it was totally worth it! I'll be posting about this last week tomorrow so keep be ready!  I've only got 3 more blogs before I'm home!!!  Luv y'all!

- Amanda

The Name's Bond... Diego Bond

I thoroughly enjoyed making the name for this blog.  At first I was going to have Jesus or Javier Bond but apparently Diego is the Spanish equivalent of James.

Last week we broke up the evenings by going out to Coyotes.  It's a Mexican restaurant that is actually a chain here - it's in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya if I'm not mistaken.  We ate so much food it was ridiculous - Caesar salad, onion rings, a 'Big Burrito' with chicken, and peach and pecan enchilada for dessert.  Delicious.  The beans that came with the burrito were just a little sweet but still tasty, and the Mexican rice was also good but I had minimal room for it so I didn't eat much of it.  As it was, I only had one bite of the dessert.  What topped the meal off was that we got there during happy hour so it was bogo on - get this - margaritas.  And they had a huge menu to choose from so we got to experiment.  Overall a good experience that left me feeling like I could roll back to Piya.  (That's where the Diego came from).

The week of teaching itself was awesome.  I officially started music and it is so much fun.  It really makes me miss music - especially during band class.  The kindergartens are so adorable - we sing songs and dance to CD's.  One kid in particular was hilarious when I put on Lady Gaga because he danced like he should have been in a music video or something.  I wish I had had my camera because I won't be teaching him again, since next Monday is a day off.

The week went by so fast that Friday came just that quickly.  Lynne and I booked it from the school (after I found my key to the music room so that I could get my travel bag) to get a cab so that we could get to the airport for our 7pm flight.  The traffic was pretty bad so we ended up running (basically) through the airport.  Nothing like a couple farang running through a Thai airport in their teaching uniforms.  The flight was short so I occupied my time by reading the inflight magazine.  Upon arrival at the airport there were many willing drivers who wanted to take us to our hotel, but since we had arranged a shuttle with the hotel it was great.  We just got to walk to the guy with a sign with my name on it, and hopped into a pimpin' car.  As we headed to Patong, Lynne and I almost died of silent laughter because the driver's ringtone was Shania Twain.

Our next day was the Canoe and James Bond tour (hence the other part of the blog name).  The day got off to a bumpy start as we picked up the wrong couple from one hotel then had to turn around to get the right one, who were unbelievably late - making us an hour late for the boat.  Once we were on the boat we set off to Koh Panak where we canoed through a bat cave (ew) to the interior part of the island.  It reminded me of The Beach because it was this lower part of an island with vertical walls all around.  I freaked out because there were these things called Mud Skippers - they're fish that can survive on land for short spurts of time and actually hop along - that I had seen on my Life DVD's!

This was also my first real-life encounter with a mangrove tree.  They're pretty neat - this is what they look like at low tide.

After this we went to Koh Hong - another island.  This one was a little more open - no bat caves.  It was also a lot bigger.

And then... JAMES BOND ISLAND!

For those of you who are not acquainted with this island (aka everyone BUT Scott) it was in the Man With The Golden Gun, with Roger Moore.

After visiting the island and being hastled by a number of vendors set up there (all selling the same things I might add) we returned to the boat, and set off to our final destination before returning to Phuket island - Koh Lak.  During this trip (about 45 minutes I think) we were served lunch on the boat (it was a big boat).  The food was a good mix of Western and Thai food, all prepared well, and they also provided us with a wide variety of different fruit to eat.  Once we got to the island we could not dock so I jumped off the back of the boat and swam to shore where Lynne and I soaked up the rays for a bit before chilling in the water and swimming back to the boat when it came time to leave.  Very relaxing.

I have to say that the tour was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it if you're heading that way because it was 'adventurous' but still very laid back.  I must admit that Lynne and I were further pleased by the couple that we met on the trip - Melissa and Peter - from Australia.  She is also a teacher, which was great because we could talk about our students and not seem crazy.  All in all, pleasant.  Plus, both of us being fair, it was quite impressive that neither of us burned at all even though we were that close to the equator!

That evening we did some shopping in the streets and ate at an Irish Pub - apparently you can find them anywhere.  We also got Thai massages, as usual, which were different from the ones we had had in Kanch but I still found it quite relaxing.  It always amazes me that I am at risk of falling asleep when they're whacking and poking me.

Sunday was also pretty chill.  Since our flight was at 3 pm we arranged for a shuttle at 1pm, so we had some time to kill.  We walked the length of the beach and it was bizarre because there was a massive number of tiny jellyfish on the sand.  Turns out that these jellies follow the water of a certain temperature, and this water made its way in at high tide.  As the tide fell, the jellies didn't move fast enough and got stranded on the beach.  Most of them were about the size of the top half of my thumb and clear but some got as big as my palm!  I ended up stepping on a few and was unphased by it so perhaps the toxin had been washed away or had lost potency in death... that or my soles are quite tough.

All in all a great weekend.  I'm getting excited for this coming weekend - my second last in Thailand!!  I'll keep you posted on everything that happens - which should be a lot!

Luv for now - Amanda

Two Weeks Worth of News

Hey All!!  I know I didn't post about two weekends ago, but it's because there wasn't really a whole lot to share.  Now I have definitely accumulated enough news to make a decent blog.  Sorry - it's jam packed!

Two weeks ago was fairly uneventful - didn't do a whole lot... The weekend was fun though, even though we stayed in Bangkok.  The Friday was nothing too crazy and Saturday started blissfully because we slept in and took our time getting out of the apartment.  Sam went into school to do some work on exams so Lynne and I set off to Khao San (our usual starting point in Bangkok apparently).  We ended up having lunch there because there was an Indian restaurant - and Lynne was craving food that she could actually eat since she's allergic to fish and seafood.  As it turned out, the food was amazing and we left by rolling ourselves out onto the street.  The rest of the day was spent bumming around and at night we just hung out in Lynne's room.

Sunday was a blast.  Having been rejuvenated by two nights of sleep Sam, Lynne and myself set out for Chatachuk weekend market.  You may recall that we have previously been here but we barely made a dent because it's just that big.  This time we went with purpose - probably to buy art - and otherwise tackle it in a strategic way.  As it turns out, we spent a large chunk of change but left with a good amount of loot including art work (for Sam and I at least, although Lynne is getting Sam to go back for her to get one painting in particular).  A very productive day that included a lot of fun and laughs.  Something that we learned: when you bring a lot of money, you spend a lot of money.  haha.  So much fun though.  It was really great to look at the art though because they're all originals on canvas - not just prints.  Mine is currently on it's way home because it was just too cumbersome and awkward to take home on the plane.

Last week was a little more exciting because there have been some changes around the school.  Mainly, my replacement arrived and so he was set to take over for me on Friday (Canada Day) while I shifted over to the music room to sub for the month of July for the usual music teacher, who is back in Canada to visit.  This meant a lot of work for Amanda because I had to have the PE exams and review books done and do all of the evaluations.  As it stands, I still have to finish the eval's for my P's but I should be able to finish that this week - yay:)

A key to breaking up the week was that on Tuesday night we went out for dinner at a place called JSM.  It reminded me of the Olive Garden when we got there, but the menu was so varied in terms of the types of food that it offered it was amazing.  I had spaghetti bolognese and it was mind-blowing.  Granted, I was craving it so that might have influenced my opinion but still.  Another thing that broke up the week was Wednesday - cheap night at the movies.  We went to see Transformers 3 and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it was actually decent.  The plot was existent so it was a definite improvement from the second movie, and there was not a lot of time spent looking at the female eyecandy unnecessarily.  Because it was opening night we got to the theatre early to buy our tickets so before we went in we had our first experience with Swensen's ice cream.  So good.  I <3 chocolate and banana together.

Canada Day was great.  We had a lot of fun and the school put on a great assembly to acknowledge the foreign teachers.  The P1-3's sang Baby (by Justin Beiber) and the band played O Canada.  The school even paid to have 2 RCMP officers from BC flown in to talk to the students!  By the end of the day, everyone was bedecked with maple leave pins, stickers and tattoos.  Quite funny.

And here is where the adventure really begins because it was after school that we left for Ko Samet... again...

It was an absolute downpour when we were leaving Bangkok so the traffic was not enhanced.  If you have never experienced it, every rain storm in Bangkok affects traffic the same way the first snow fall in Winnipeg affects traffic.  At the same time as this, the election was this weekend so the traffic was bogged down because of this as well!  It took us over an hour to get out of Bangkok and an additional 3.5 to get to the pier to go to Ko Samet. 

By this time it was 10pm and the hotel I had reserved at had said that they went to bed at 10 so I was desperately calling them to make sure that they waited for us to get there. 

We finally got on a speed boat (in the rain) only to go about a k from shore and have to turn around and switch speed boats.  By this point I was just laughing, and have since decided that during our weekend trips it is getting there that is the real adventure.  This new speed boat was smaller than the first and when we got going it was not a smooth ride.  Because of the weather, the water was unbelievably choppy and we could not see a thing because it was pitch black.  This meant that every time the boat flew into open air and then crashed down in the trough of the wave, it was completely unexpected.  They also refused to drop us off at the beach by our hotel so we were dropped off at the pier and then (with their help - thank goodness) had to find a 'taxi' to take us down to where we were staying.  If you are wondering why I decided to put 'taxi' in such a manor, it's because we loaded into the back of an open pickup truck that had benches added to it.

We finally got to the hotel at around 11pm and (thank goodness) the owners had stayed.  I love TOKS so it was a great relief that we could stay there.  After all of this, you can guess that we slept quite well.

The following morning by around 10am the weather had cleared up.  After breakfast Sam and I rented scooters and went on a self-guided tour of the island.  I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a tad bit scared, and I definitely went slower than Sam, but it was a lot of fun.  Once we got of the main strip along the most popular beach (where we were staying) it was great because there was very little traffic.  We went all the way to the south of the island and then all the way to the north and along the coast there. 

At one point we decided to stop to take some pictures - dumb idea.  Sam closed the ignition cover on her scooter and couldn't get it back open to put her key in, and I couldn't figure out how to start mine.  What a joke.  This gave the Thais another chance to show us how friendly they are.  A guy who was pulling into a building by us came over to help, called the guy who had rented us the scooters and told him where to find us so that he could help us.  Luckily the island is quite small so it took the renter about 5 min to get to us and another 5 min to get us going again.  Both feeling quite blonde (no offense anyone), we made our way back to the hotel.

Following this excursion I was on a high and decided to go parasailing.  Sam was nice enough to come along and be my photographer.  It was so much fun!  It felt like flying.  According to Sam, I had a 'shit-eating grin' on my face the entire time.  It was fantastic.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting pampered on the beach by a number of Thai ladies and playing in the water.  The four of us girls had a little photo shoot while frolicking in the waves.  Hilarious.  I don't think we stopped laughing the whole time.

Saturday evening we went to Ploy Talay for dinner.  Mmm fresh crab.  We stuck around and watched the fire show since Lynne, Christie, Ian and Sean had never been there before.  It was even better than the last one we saw, even though it was windier and their various props didn't stay lit for nearly as long.

Sunday we just bummed around on the beach until1pm when the boat picked us up and start us on our way back to Bangkok.  Overall a very fun weekend. :)

That's it for now.  There will definitely be another blog for this week and the coming weekend.  Sorry this one was so long!! Luv ya.