Goodbye Thailand

It is our last day in Thailand. We have filled it with packing and cleaning - and of course one last massage before the 30 hour journey home. We have had quite the adventure over the past 6 months and we would not trade it for anything! It was a great experience and we defiantly learned a lot! Thailand will always hold a special place in our hearts and memories.

We have been reflecting over the past few days, reminiscing our initial reactions to Thailand, the weather, our little apartment, the language, the food, and our school - oh how we have grown! We have learned to really appreciate and enjoy each aspect so much. With this in mind we do look forward to coming home - people to see and things to do!

Living in Thailand for 7 months we have learned to better appreciate things back home. Things we are looking forward to:

• Hot water and a long shower. In Thailand, our water supply is in a tank on the roof warmed by the sun each day. After a few morning showers in freezing water, Beth took advantage of the warm water in the afternoon.
• Soft Seats. In our apartment, we have no soft cushy surfaces to sit or lay on.
• A bed that is not hard enough to bounce a basketball on.
• Beef - really do not have a good supply in Thailand.
• Cooking. Beth cooked everyday at home, it has been 7 months! After our cooking class, Beth is really excited to try some Thai dishes at home!

Pad Thai!

Massaman Curry

• Having more than 250sq. feet of living space.
• A clothes dryer. We hang dry our laundry on our little patio, it quick in this heat, but clothes are pretty wrinkly! We have come accustomed to it now – maybe we will try it at home...
• The choice of wearing pants to work – this one is Beths’. She has grown used to only wearing dresses and skirts, and does not mind it. She wears lots of sweaters because women have to cover their shoulders here – but it gets hot!
• Knowing what we are eating at all times...
• Having a dry public bathroom. The bum gun is used as the main cleaning tool, if you want toilet paper you bring it. A downfall of the wonderful tool is the toilet and floor are often wet. We have tried the bum gun and it sure leaves you feeling clean and refreshed!
• Reliable internet.
• A good homemade cup of coffee. All coffee here is instant – it just does not taste the same. We have found some that we do like, but nothing like a coffee at home.

Living in Thailand for 7 months we have also learned appreciate life in another culture. Things we will miss:

• Cheap Street Food! We eat for about $2-4 combined, with filling portions and drinks. Our new splurging meal is $10-15, but we do not do this too often.
• Cheap Delicious Fresh Fruit! Beth got a bag of fruit everyday at school for under a dollar.
• Thai Food. Khao Pad, Pad Thai, BaMeGeOw, Rotti, Sam Tom and the delicious drinks and snacks! Many drinks here have little jellies in them – Beth has really learned to love them!!
•  Mai Bhen Rai. It is a way of life here. Meaning: Do not worry, it will be okay, no problem. We have learned to take things as they come and to not worry, it will be fine.
• Students beginning and ending of each lesson. “Good Morning Teacher!” “Thank you Teacher!”
• Songthaews!-pictured below

• Cheap transportation anywhere around the country. We feel very lucky to have traveled fairly extensively while in Thailand. It was wonderful to see all the different personalities of Thailand!
• Markets with tons of cheap clothing and accessories.
• Wai. The traditional greeting of folding your hands in front of you and bowing each to each other.
• The heat – just kidding! But we think our bodies have adjusted to this climate of 80-90 degrees F – 70 is cold for us!!
• The shoes. It is cultural custom to remove your shoes before entering someone’s house and in many times a business as well. Example, whenever we go to the coffee shop we remove our shoes before going inside. 
• The Thai people in our neighborhood and school – we have really grown to like our small community and the people around us. They all know who were are and us them. Even though it is difficult to communicate we still have a connection to many of them in a small way.
• All the fun festivals and celebrations! 

Home - here we come! Unless something profound pops into our minds - this will be our last blog. Thanks for following our adventure!

Songkran Festival

Happy Songkran! Songkran is Thai New Year and is celebrated from April 13 - 15. Up north the celebration can go on for longer. April is the hottest month in Thailand temps reaching in the 95-100+ with high humidity!  There are many symbols and traditions of this holiday some include: bathing Buddha images for good-luck, visiting a Wat, doing some spring cleaning, or making a new year resolution. The water is meant to symbolize the washing away of all the bad. The chalk is a representation of the chalk used by monks to bless things.

We discussed the holiday with some students prior to school getting out and they told us Khao San Road is one of the best places to go. Luckily our Canadian friends, Jess & Alex, were staying on Khao San Road on the 13th. So we hopped in a taxi and headed to Khao San Road to visit our friends and take in the festivities. As we drove we saw groups of children with big garbage bins full of water and armed with buckets, waterguns, and hoses waiting at street corners. As cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, or people pass they would douse them in water! As we got closer to our destination scenes like this occurred more frequently.

We arrived and were amazed at what we saw! Khao San Road was completely blocked off and FULL of people and water flying! We got out and starting walking. It didn't take long to get wet - everyone was armed with a bucket and endless supply of water (sometime with ice!) or watergun. We were dry so we were a target for sure! As we walked, shoulder to shoulder, Thais would also come up to you armed with liquid chalk! They would rub it on your face and tell you "Happy Songkran!"

Khao San Road - Packed for Songkran!

 After walking a few blocks in this craziness we were soaked and chalked up! We finally found the hotel. We retreated to their hotel pool for some lunch and relaxation before heading back out into the battle field again.

Us after our first walk through!

Armed again for battle, this time with Jess & Alex and three of their guests, two of which were headed to the airport with their big luggage (in the first video they have shower caps on.) This was quite the sight!! Again, people seemed to aim for all of us as we were dry - didn't take long for each one of us to be soaked, some with a bowl of ice water!!

We stayed inside for the majority of the remaining days of Songkran. Whenever we went out we got splashed by the community members we have come to recognize. 7-eleven workers had three totes full of water waiting for the next passerby. We walked passed our favorite soup place and they ran out with a small bucket eager to get us - the cutest thing! Down at the market we got hit by some small kids. Walking down the street we were hit again by a family loading up the back of their truck with the large water drums preparing for drive-by water attacks.

One of the many trucks we saw!

 













 

 Oh wow - what a festival!! It is a very fun holiday and everyone really gets into it! Even the police cars, taxis, busses, and pizza delivery guys are drenched and chalked! There are so many strategies of water attacks - the street corner armed with an endless supply of water, the truck loaded with water bins, buckets, and waterguns, motorbikes armed with a watergun, tuk tuks for the quick getaway, or just walking with a watergun or some liquid chalk paste! It is one crazy fun holiday!


Today: Went ice skating with a student at a nearby mall. It was a chilly 60 degrees Fahrenheit, lots of fun.

 

  

What's Next: Thai cooking class tomorrow and starting our journey home on Thursday.  Be back in the cold weather by Friday evening, look forward to seeing everyone.

Beach Getaway

We had a great week at the beach!

We started out with a quick fly, long wait, and a ferry to Koh Tao, a very small island in the golf of Thailand - it takes less than 5 minutes to drive a across! Our hotel met us at the pier and we took the short drive up steep hills and rough roads to Aow Leuk Beach. The view was amazing! A shelter bay with crystal clear aqua blue water and coral reefs on either side. It wasn't the best sand, but the beach was quiet and not many people - perfect for us! Our room was set up on the cliff side with great view of the bay. It was rustic and natural - no ac, no hot water, no tv - huge doors opened up onto our deck (with hammock and chairs!) overlooking the bay. The room was equipt with a net to cover the bed while you slept - for the bugs and we hoped it was deter any lizards too! One night, we did spot a very large lizard in our room - we chased him out. He woke us up during the night with his lizard call as he was in various spots in our room.

 

We named him Bingo.

In our two and a half days there we snorkeled (lots). It was probably the best snorkeling we have ever done - the coral was colorful and came in so many different sizes and shapes. We also saw many brightly colored fish! While Josh was taking a video - he spotted a shark! We made our way back to the beach in a hurry. Later we found out it was only a black tip reef shark - we showed a local what we saw and he said that was a very big one! Check out the video - can you spot it?!

 

We spend the rest of our days reading and relaxing on our deck, laying on the beach, enjoying the restaurant. We rented kayaks one afternoon and made our way to Shark Island - we didn't spot any though. While out we got a view of some other beaches and bays on the island - I think we picked the right one! We had a wonderful time in Koh Tao! It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful, and relaxing! And we saw many geckos and lizards - no snakes though!!

Wednesday we made our way to Koh Phangan by ferry. The hotel was nice, but we missed the last one - had a.c. this time which was a nice change. It was a fairly nice beach with views of the nearby islands, but it had murky water compared to Koh Tao. It was a protected bay so in the late evening and early morning it looked just like a lake back home!! We didn't spend too much time here, as we left the next day. We did have a nice walk in the ocean - seemed to be knee/thigh deep forever!

Thursday we made our way to Khanom on the mainland by ferry.  Once at our hotel we were pleasantly surprised with how nice it was. A beautiful quiet beach - less people than in Koh Tao! Our room was very nice, probably the nicest we have been in in our 6 months! We rented a moped and drove into town, it felt great to be on our own driving how we wish! 

School we saw on our drive - notice the cow!

The next day we got up early in hopes of spotting a rare pink dolphin known in this area - we had no luck. After breakfast we hopped back on our moped and headed in search of a waterfall and a cave. It was wonderful driving down local roads, some gravel, and seeing rural Thailand, and being on our own again. We searched and searched for the waterfall with no such luck. Later, we found out the directions were old. We headed to the cave next. While driving down the road we heard a scraping noise - look back to see our license plate 20 feet behind us! We retrieved it and attempted to put it back one, but somewhere along the way we lost a washer and a bolt. Two Thai teens stopped to help us - we got it back on, but it was only hanging by one bolt, not two! So on we drove - after a few bumps it fell off again. So Beth held it the rest of the journey. We made our way to the cave and a Thai park ranger, who spoke no English, took us through the cave and tried to explain things the best he could. The cave was amazing - we had to fit through some tiny spaces and also saw some huge halls with formations everywhere. We also saw many bats! 

On our way back it started to rain, gradually it came down harder and harder. Later we talked about all those times when it would rain and we would see people on mopeds and say "I think that would suck riding in the rain." - turns out it does, but it's much drier if your the passenger!

It rained off and on for the rest of our trip, we did find a break in the rain to enjoy the ocean for a bit and battled the waves. We got a massage in a little outdoor hut near the beach - in the pouring rain! It was actually really neat and the massage was great! We left our resort very early - 5:30 a.m. to drive to the airport. We really enjoyed our beaches getaway - even if we didn't get too many sunny days. It was great to relax and soak up some of our last days in Thailand.

 
Back in our hometown of Nonthaburi now, preparing for Songkran Festival - the three day country wide water fight! We will let you know how it goes in our next post!

Australia - Week 3

Here's a recap of our last week in Australia - 

We enjoyed a wonderful moonlight picnic overlooking the downtown Perth area. It was a great night, a little chilly, but fun!

 

The next day we packed up and headed south to Albany. There we met up with more family and friends of the Balls. We stayed on a ranch in a cute little house. We had a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. We had beach days, walks, tourist days (visiting two famous landmark sites), a bonfire, and climb up a massive mountian!

This is The Gap, the site where Antarctica split from Australia. It is a huge, deep gap into the rocky coast. Waves in this thing build continiously on top of themselves. Words cannot describe how amazing this was!

Below is The Bridge, water has worn away the rock foundation leaving a natural bridge. Over time the bridge will collapse.

We also visited The Blowholes. Waves slam against the rocky coast, sending a blast of air through the holes within the rocks.

The beaches were great! Sadly, we forgot the plug converter in Perth, and our camera died on the second day, so didn't get too many photos of the nice beaches. Despite this, we had a great time in the sun and surf! We even climbed up a rock and tried to stay on while the waves hit us - fun times! Our last night we went to the beach for a fire, so fun!!

We ended our Albany trip driving to Bluff Knoll, the second highest point in Western Australia. It was a 6k hike round trip. It was a tough climb - very steep and lots of steps! After sweating up the mountain for just over an hour we were rewarded with amazing views at the top! We were probably 70-80k inland, yet we could see the ocean from way up here! Down was much easier, but under the hot sun it was exhausting! It was a great hike, we're glad we got to do it.

Almost there... boy it's hot out!

The Climbing Group

 

Bluff Knoll

Back in Perth we enjoyed some beaches, ice cream, family time, and one last game of Catan (Beth won!). We had a great time in Perth and really enjoyed spending time with James and Katrina! Thanks for hosting us!

Perth Sunset

Last game...until next time!

Back in Thailand!

Bangkok welcomed us back with 100 degrees (F) and humid weather! April is the hottest month in Thailand - and whew it is hot! On some level it felt good to be back, heat and all. It was great to get a massage after all the travel and hiking - have to take advntage of the cheap massages while we can right? We visited some of our regular street food vendors - good to taste that familiar Thai food. 

Craziest thing - we met up with our friend from Breckenridge, Merecca! She was traveling through with a friend, the timing worked out and we spent an afternoon/evening with them. It was great to see her - and here in Thailand, wow! We hung out downtown and went bowling.

Now this is a tuk tuk!

 

 

Whats Next? 
We are headed out to Koh Tao tomorrow for a few days, then onto Koh Phanang, then finishing up our beach getaway at Khanom Beach on the mainland. Lots of fun in the sun to come... stay tuned for more details on our next blog!