Temples Temples Temples - Ayutthaya, Thailand

To jump start our two month cross-country travels we (Stacy, Bridgette, and I) began our journey in Northern Thailand.  After an "exhausting" 2 hour train ride north we arrived in Ayutthaya.  This is the original capital of Thailand.   Not knowing what to expect we began our day with a three hour tour of all the old temples.  Learning half-way into our journey that we could have easily seen all the city had to offer in 2 hours, instead of two days.  Making the best of it we took the necessary tourist pictures at each temple and finished the afternoon at a local pool.  The pool being designed in Thai fashion was outdoors with a tarp covering at least ¾th of the pool, to protect against the “deadly tan”.  After chilling in our hotel for a couple hours, the need to explore the two local night markets peeked our interest.  Not really knowing where we were heading we jumped in a tuk-tuk for a mere 20 Baht and got a ride around the block to a deserted street.  You would think by this point we would have figured out a way to not be swindled, but alas it seems we are always going to be walking targets.  Finding no night market in sight we returned to our hotel once again and watched a movie.  The next day we had a few hours to kill before our train for Chaing Mai.  Stacy expressed interest in traveling to the Old Portuguese settlement.  We bartered for a two hour ride in hopes of also visiting the Japanese and Chinese settlements as well.  When we arrived at our first stop we were presented with an open crypt and that was about it!  So after a couple photos we inquired as to our next stop.  We were faced with “Sorry too far!!!”  Why our tuk-tuk driver thought we would want to spend 2 hours at one place was beyond us, but making the best of the situation we moved on to check out 2 other temples.  At this point we had seen almost all the temples in Ayutthaya.  For the rest of the day we did what we always do with an hour or two to spare, we got massages!  We then boarded our night train and got all comfy in our cozy beds for our 13 hour trip up to beautiful Chaing Mai.  

~  Randi 

Pro's and Con's of Thailand

As our time here in Thailand is coming to an end, we’ve created a list of things we’ll miss and what we’re happy to leave behind. It’s been a blast and there’s nothing we would change or do differently. We both value our time spent here and cherish the friends and memories made, the places visited, and all the experiences we've had this past year.

Things we will miss:

- Our FRIENDS
- Our weekends on the southern coasts and the islands
- Thai BEACHES
- Spicy fish sauce/vinegar/chili peppers condiment
- Luke Skywalker, our stray dog
- Cheap weekend getaways
- Cheap food and beer (Randi: Leo, Stacy: Chang)
- Cheap transport
- Riding bikes to school
- Thai time (when in our favor)
- Smiley, friendly people
- Most students
- Cheap clothes
- Warm, sunny weather (Stacy)
- Elephants
- Karaoke
- Street food
- Pirated DVDs
- Buckets (mixed drinks)
- Photo frenzies
- Wacky Thai bands
- Live acoustic music on the beach
- Moto-taxi’s
- Diverse landscape of Thailand
- Bangkok (Stacy)
- Thai tea
- Ratchaburi
- Being tan all year round (Randi)
- Fans (Stacy)
- Watermelon shakes

Things we won’t miss:

- Thai food
- The fact that we’d be so much skinnier if we didn’t drink so much doughy beer (Stacy)
- Sweating (Randi)
- Hard beds
- Shower and toilet all in one
- Ants on our skin
- Scorpions in our bathroom
- Spiders
- Always having dirty feet
- Bad skin
- It’s ruined our luxurious locks
- Deteriorating health (Randi)
- Thai spatial awareness
- Turkish toilets
- Deteriorating bicycles (Stacy)
- Unreliable and slow Thai internet
- Thai fashion sense and vanity
- Close encounters with motorized vehicles while riding a bike (Randi)
- Thai time
- Thai behavior:
         Two-faced, fake, petty, immature, dishonest Thai attitudes
- Small clothing sizes
- Sweltering, sticky heat
- Bows, pok-a-dots, and ruffles on everything
- Viral mosquitoes
- Sand flies (Randi)
- Bangkok traffic
- Having to pay for drinking water
- Thai school system (55 + students per class)
- Skin whitening products
- Old perverted Western men with young Thai women
-7- Eleven
- Sangsom and Hong Thong whiskey
- Wearing skirts everyday for school

~ Randi and Stacy

Hua Hin, Thailand: A Weekend of Fun in the Sun

Last week, after Randi and I spent a tiring week completing grades for 2,000 students, we were in need of a fun weekend away . We joined 5 friends for a weekend  in Hua Hin, a beach town popular with Scandinavian retirees. As some of the youngest beach goers, our self-confidence in a bikini did get a large boost, but our views were less than spectacular!

After experiencing a bit too much sun on the first day, I may have slightly resembled a tomato. To cool off the following days, we went to the movies and stayed under the umbrella that accompanied our lounge chairs. Randi and I felt quite accomplished after creating our own drink: a watermelon shake with a shot of Bacardi.

We spent the evenings along the beach drinking Chang, and dancing at 2 of the only clubs open past midnight. One night we dressed up for a classy night at the Hilton's Sky Bar. Another night, we each had to randomly don 20 baht accessories (bows, headbands, a boy band pin, green nail polish, and nylon stockings) for a portion of the evening. I do think that the girls got the better end of that deal as the large bows looked less conspicuous on us than the guys. The Thai women do love their bows and ruffles, so we  fit right in. Contrary to public opinion, Randi and I will not miss Thai fashion.

~ Stacy

Living in Ratchaburi, Thailand

We are in our last official week of teaching; this consists of drinking iced coffee and making sure the kids don’t cheat on exams. As our year in Ratchaburi comes to a close here are a few of the highlights from living in our charming little city. As we said before we live in Ratchaburi, about an hour and forty-five minutes south of Bangkok. We have been living here since June but did not move into our house till the end of October. It is great having a house and we really enjoy being only five minutes from school.  Our house is located in a typical Thai neighborhood complete with rice fields, tin shacks, multiple stray dogs, a family of pigs, and the local cattle.

       

The house itself is a lovely two story concrete building.  We each have our own bedrooms, a hot shower, and living room complete with couch, entertainment center, and cable TV.  There are only three stations we ever watch; therefore we have a movie night, every night. There are also multiple fans in each room and with the recent weather change they are now a necessity. Last but not least is the kitchen, or as we like to call it “the Kitchen of Horrors”! By only having a sink and a microwave, “kitchen” is a very loose term. It is home to all of the scary things that go bump in the night and therefore we really don’t use it. Not to mention it is an obstacle course with lids and plungers covering random holes where creepy crawlers love to appear. With every house come unwanted house guests; one morning I awoke to find a full on scorpion just chilling in the bathroom.  Not sure what else to do I donned one of my tennis shoes and proceeded to stomp on the critter until dead, though I did have a slight error in judgment as while I was chasing him around the bathroom, he got very close to the foot without the shoe.  I was successful in killing him and we now thoroughly check our shoes for any more cunning guests. We are lucky enough to have two very loyal guard dogs, though they are probably only loyal for the treats but we do love being greeted every time we come home by wagging tails.
 

Though we don’t stay here most weekends there are a few things to do here during the week. We usually frequent the night market which is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. A river runs right through our town so the market is perfectly located along the boardwalk. At the market we frequent a Chinese tea house and sample the many foods street vendors have to offer (our favorite are the grilled scallops and mussels!). There are also many street vendors selling random things from t-shirts to kitchen utensils. We lucked out in being here for the Chinese New Year and the night market was especially decked out for the occasion. Complete with fireworks, dancing, and a performance on the river. We also have some bars as well where we get dinner on occasion (our favorite being One Brain Two Hands, which some nights has a local Thai band. There is also the hookah bar run by two very friendly Thai girls who welcome us with kisses on the cheek. Last, but not least, we have our mall, Robinsons, where we get weekly hour foot massages for only $3. Though we do have pretty bicycles we do get lazy now and again so we usually just walk to the train station and grab motto-taxis. We are entrusting our lives and helmet- less heads to local Thai drivers. It has been a great base with BKK only a short trip to the north and Hua Hin (where the Thais go to vacation) only two hours south. With the train running pretty much through our back yard it is very easy for us to travel. Living in Thailand has been an amazing experience and with our teaching coming to an end we have really enjoyed living in Ratchaburi.

~ Randi

Chumpon, Thailand

This past weekend Randi and I went South to Chumpon, via a 4 hour air-conditioned express train. It was a large improvement from our last journey south when we spent 6 hours on the floor in 3rd class.We were there to celebrate our friend Bridgette's B-Day. Randi, Lucy, and I stayed in a bungalow near the beach. We had a fourth roommate as well, a large spider in the bathroom. The fine accommodations included a Turkish toilet, and only 2 small pillows and one blanket for the 3 of us.  On Friday night, we went to a beach party and spent the night dancing to Thai bands playing reggae music. Saturday was spent at the beach and getting oil messages.

















The theme of the weekend was masks, although Randi and I were the only ones that brought masks (we'd bribed Win with beer to make them:)). At around 11 pm on Saturday night, while at a beach bar, we all got the urge to head into  town. There were no taxis or motos available at that hour, so the bar owners offered us the use of their car until 2 pm the next day, at no cost!  Kevin, our chauffeur for the weekend, passed the driving test by pulling into a parking lot. Bridge, Randi, and I took turns riding shotgun and holding the malfunctioning passenger door closed. One of the three stops of the night was Eddy's, where we all played musical instruments after they opened the bar just for us. I'd say the celebratory weekend was a success :)

~ Stacy

Cha Am and Hua Hin, Thailand

This past weekend we visited Southern central Thailand.  The first weekend was spent in Cha Am and Hua Hin.  We were pleasantly surprised with how much both cities had to offer.  Our first stop was Cha Am, where we were very surprised to find a large amount of foreign couples.  The majority being older couples mostly from Europe.  There were a few younger couples, but not many.  We spent only one relaxing night there; As it was only an hour and a half south of Ratchaburi, it was a nice way to break up the trip to Hua Hin.  With an array of foreign dinner choices, we sampled the best Indian and Italian foods in Thailand so far.  We spent most of the time laying on the beach and enjoying the amazing weather, while working on our tans.  Both nights we went to local bars, where each night a band performed.  This consisted of the usual American pop music with Thai girls dancing on bars.  We also had a couple cocktails at SkyBar, located on the roof of the Hilton, with an amazing view.  One night was eventful as we met a guy from England who is pedaling the world to raise money for Save the Children.  His plan is to pedal the entire world on his bicycle, without using an airplane around the whole world.  He just began his journey and we are now fans of his blog to keep up to date on his travels.  We had a great time just relaxing on the beach and enjoying the amazing weather.

~ Randi

New Years in Sankhlaburi, Thailand

After celebrating New Years on Thursday with our students, we went away to Sankhlaburi for the long weekend. We (Rachel, Win, Randi, and I) stayed at the P. guesthouse in the employee quarters as there were no other rooms available. We slept on thin mats on the raised tile flooring. We were joined by an older lady from New Zealand, who after stealing my moto-taxi invited herself to join us. We quickly realized that to sleep soundly on such a hard surface, a few bottles of Leo or Chang would be necessary.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve on a rickety wooden bridge in Sankhlaburi. We were accompanied by our new Burmese friend, an employee at the guesthouse. While waiting for the countdown to midnight, we drank Thai beer and watched as the Thais set off lanterns into the night sky. It was, I must admit, a pretty cool way to ring in the New Year.

On Saturday, we attempted to cross into Burma, however; the border was closed to non-Thai residents. Instead, we visited the 3 pagodas, took pictures in front of the Myanmar sign, peeked into Burma, and shopped for Burmese crafts on the Thai side of the border. We, also, observed Thai immigration at work as a pregnant Burmese woman traveling in our sang thwae (a taxi truck) was denied entry into Thailand.

On Sunday, we all signed up for a travel package to visit the Mon and Karen tribal villages. As the elephants were full, we signed up for the trekking option. We traveled along the Runtee River by long tail boat to visit the underwater temple. Then, we went trekking in the jungle. After a brief period of walking atop thousands of swarming ants and climbing a ladder covered with the aggressive little creatures, we were led by our Karen guide to the elephant pathway. Randi was especially pleased to be rid of  the ants as she was, in her own words, "severely attacked by the little vampires who drew blood". We faced a few river crossings, one of which entailed wading through waist-deep waters. My purse was placed over my head and Randi was entrusted with Win's shoes while he took her backpack. Unfortunately, during one crossing, Randi’s sandal was swept downstream! But, on a positive note, nobody lost their colorful, matching hats!

After lunch, we went bamboo rafting down the river. At first quite intimidated by the prospect (as you have to stand up while navigating the river), Randi and I ended up enjoying ourselves. Despite the attempts of other rafters to overthrow our raft, we made it without tipping. I stood in the front (after being persuaded by Randi that since she was shoeless it was only fair she take the coveted position of leisure and safety:)), Randi stood in the middle, and our guide was in the back. I’d like to take all the credit for keeping us on course, but we had a very skilled guide. We were quite pleased that although we did lose our balance and fall a few times, we fell on to the raft and not the chilly river :)

~ Stacy