Erawan Waterfalls - Kanchanaburi

Monday, February 25 is a Buddhist holiday - Makha Bucha. It is a public holiday so no school! We decided to travel for the long weekend. Plan A was relaxing on the beach at Koh Samet, after finding out all hotels were booked. We moved onto Plan B - Kanchanaburi. We had been to Kanchanaburi during orientation week back in October, when we rode elephants and floated down the River Kwai. This time we had a different location to visit - Erawan Waterfalls, a series of 7 tiers of falls.

We left Saturday morning and headed down to Victory Monument to find a van for the 3 hour trip. It was much quicker finding the correct van this time! We got prime seats (near the vent) in the van so no sweating for us! The 3 hour trip went pretty quick. After being dropped off at the bus station we found out it was only 1km walk to our hotel, so we start walking. We settled in to our room then headed down to the pool for some relaxation.

Sunday, after breakfast we made our way back to the bus station to catch a 50 baht (less than $2) bus to Erawan National Park. Having been in Thailand for 5 months, the bus we rode didn't surprise me at all; no ac windows open, wooden floor, rusted body, the broken door that were fastened open. We made the 1.5 hour trip up into the mountains, people getting on and off the bus along the way. Because we have a Thailand work visa we were able to enter the park at the Thai rate which is 40 baht instead of the foreigner price of 200 baht. Once paid and in we all got off the bus and started making our way to the first tier of the waterfall.

Door wide open as we drive.

It was a bit of a walk, with so many people on the first and second tier of the waterfall we decided to continue moving up. We stopped at the third tier to dip our legs in, then kept moving up. The four tier was great! Two massive rocks acted as the water slide into the deep aqua blue pool below. We each slid a few times and swam a bit, kicking often to keep the fish from nibbling the dead skin off our feet. Time to keep moving, we continued to make our way up on the rough rocky path. We briefly stopped at the 5th tier, then kept moving up. We came to a fork in the road and saw three little monkeys playing in the trees. We took the path leading to the seventh tier. This was turning into quite the hike - rocks, tree roots, wooden bridges and shaky wooden steps. Glad we decided to go all the way to the top - the view was gorgeous! Waterfalls gently coming down from the mountain that surrounded it. After the long hike up we again jumped into the cool blue water, swam under the waterfall, and climbed up another waterfall. We had a lot of fun!

3rd Tier

Josh on the natural waterslide

4th Tier

5th Tier

7th Tier

We started to make our way back down the path. It was easier coming down, but still took some effort! On our way we quickly stopped to peak at the sixth tier. Finally down, we changed and hopped on the bus and headed back to town. Our seat was right in the back of this old run down bus, the door wide open. Gotta love Thailand buses!

6th Tier

Once back in town we enjoyed a very late lunch at a great little place and walked through the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery  where almost 7000 allied troops were buried. They had died during World War II while building a railroad and bridge over the river near this town. They were imprisoned by the Japanese. Most of the fallen soldiers were British, Australian, and from the Netherlands.

Later, we got a massage to relax our hard worked muscles (we hiked about 2 miles in the mountains in flip-flops.) A great end to a great day! Oh and did we mention - our bed is soft, our pillows fluffy and the water is hot - so we are living in luxury and loving it!

Valentine's Day & Other News

Happy Valentine's Day from Thailand - a bit late. Valentine's Day here was quite the experience, they sure like to celebrate - but not with the little Valentine's Day cards we give out. They go bigger!

First, lets back up to the a few days prior to Valentine's Day. Beth was asked by two of the Thai teachers, more like told, that the two of us will be doing a presentation about Valentine's Day at morning assembly - in front of 3700+ students and staff. We were to give a presentation about the history of Valentine's Day, how to celebrate it and explain different symbols of the day, then end it with a kiss!?! The next day it turned into us two and a student translating and interviewing us about the holiday and no kiss. Later that day it turned into just Beth and the student, same interview. Beth had some minor research to do on the history of Valentine's Day, then she and the student wrote a little mock script comprising of 4 questions and answers. Beth was also instructed to wear pink on Valentine's Day. 
 
On Valentine's Day - the sidewalks were filled with flower, candy, and sticker vendors with students gathering around purchasing all their Valentine's Day goodies. We got to school and made our way down to the quad for morning assembly. First up on the program was a dance, performed by four ladyboys. This dance was one of the most provocative dirty dances we have seen in Thailand, and it was in school.

 
Following this interesting and provocative dance (a hard act to follow), was Beth's interview. The student would ask the question in Thai then in English, Beth would then respond in English and the student would translate to Thai for the students. It went pretty well.

 

After the interview, two English Program students (we both teach them) did a small presentation on their upcoming study abroad experience. Then they presented us with beautiful flower creations.

 

 Us with the the two boy students traveling abroad to study soon, the girl student in the middle is who interviewed Beth. We both have these students in class.

 








Whew - got through morning assembly, now onto classes. Students were giving flowers, stuffed animals, and candy to everyone - friends, girlfriends, boyfriends. It seemed like everyone had a few roses from a special someone! Then the stickers - wow the stickers! Student would cover their uniform in Valentine's themed stickers, some forming words and others just placed haphazardly all over their shirt. Josh was given many stickers by his M2 students, Beth was proposed to by an M1 student. We both received a one flower from different students.

Other News:
An interesting thing the M2 students do every Thursday - clean the fish tanks. There are 4 or 5 huge fish tanks behind our building. We're told that students raise them and sell them once fully grown. It's so funny to watch them cleaning! Students in the tanks attempting to gather all the fish to one side as they scrub the walls on the other side. The fish all wiggle attempting to find freedom. It's quite the sight!

There is a carnival in our neighborhood for the next couple days. We are told it is in celebration of the upcoming Buddhist holiday on the 25th. Many carnival games are set up, a Ferris Wheel, a few bouncy houses, trampolines, and even little trains for children. There are also a few street vendors selling different items and numerous food stalls. Our sidewalk is flooded with several different stalls. We ventured down to on Friday night, looking for supper, we found a great savory rotti with chicken and onions. We were slowly making our way through the carnival back to our apartment when Beth stopped dead in her tracks - She saw an NDSU t-shirt hanging on the fence behind a street vendor selling American t-shirts from who knows where. WHAT?!? We had to buy it - only 59 baht or $2 USD! Our first NDSU shirt and we bought it in Thailand!

School News:
Today marks the last week of actual teaching for us! We will teach this week and next week is finals week. Finals week means students are taking final tests and the foreign teachers sit in the office all week and "grade." Wow - this time has gone by so fast - can't believe it! More reflection later next week when we have all day to compose a reflections blog.

Oh and Josh has no classes today - his M2 get a day off to rest.

Weekend in Nonthaburi & Bangkok

This past weekend Jess and Alex decided to visit our neighborhood. We were excited to show them our life in Nonthaburi. Their bus arrived on Saturday at 6AM - so early! We met them at their hotel, then went to find some breakfast. Shortly after the rain started pouring! It hasn't rained in about 2 weeks and it poured for about an hour!! This made for a wet walk back to our apartment. Attempting to dry off and grabbing some street donuts and 7-11 food, we visited a mall near us, something Alex and Jess do not have in Mae Sot. After a great lunch at a cute Italian place in the mall, we cooled off by the pool and soaked up the sun.

Saturday night we headed to downtown Bangkok to meet up with some other OEG teachers for dinner, at a sushi buffet. We were a bit nervous about the whole sushi thing, haven't ever had it before. The sushi restaurant had a moving treadmill type thing with many different ingredients to make soup.There was a stove with a pot on it in the middle of our table. We could grab food from the treadmill and throw it into the boiling pot. There were also many types of sushi, soda, and ice cream. We walked through the sushi line, unsure of what to grab yet filling our plates. Guess what..... Beth loved it!! Josh enjoyed it but it turns out that sushi is not his favorite food. We tried a few soup items but the sushi was the best! It was great to try new things and meet up with fellow OEG teachers.

To end the evening, us four went bowling. Fun times!

Loving Sushi!

Sunday we ventured out to Chatuchak Weekend Market. We wandered around, purchasing items here and there. The heat and crowds became too much so we returned to the pool to cool off. That evening we traveled to Asiatique, a converted warehouse block. It is now nice restaurants and shops next to the river, there is also a newly built Ferris Wheel. We enjoyed a great meal outdoors with live music. After dinner we  rode the Ferris Wheel. Each enclosed pod was air-conditioned! We went around 5 or 6 times and enjoyed great views of the city. Asiatique is such a beautiful area! We wanted to spend more time down there, but because we worked in the morning we left a bit early.

This weekend was Chinese New Year, so where ever we went we saw some sort of Chinese display or dance through the streets!

Monday, we went to work. Jess and Alex explored on their own. After school we met up to enjoy massages and grabbed supper. The massage place we usually go to only had three masseuses, so they stayed and we went to one of the other four places in the mall. We walked into one but decided to leave because it was a very odd place, all manly ladyboy masseuses, odd smell, and uncomfortable chairs. We did find another place to go, but we decided that our original place is the best one in that mall.

It was great to have Jess and Alex in our neighborhood, especially considering we will not see them until April, right before we go back to America. They have been great travel buddies and friends!