Ringing in the year 2555!

By Matt

The new year here in Thailand is 2555, which is pronounced: sawng, haa, haa, haa (which is pretty funny).

Our week between Christmas and New Year's was packed with activities, but not much of that time involved being in the classroom.  We had 2 days of teaching on the 26th and 27th followed by 3 "Sports Days" on campus.  In a nut shell, the sports days give all the kids at the high school a chance to participate in competitions ranging from table tennis to dancing to soccer to singing.  (As you check out the costumes and props, remember that these kids made or built everything).

We were recruited to join the teacher's soccer team in the first soccer match of Sports Day #1 against the seniors.  We were warned that the seniors have pulled out a victory as long as anyone can remember (maybe we were supposed to let them win, but no one told us).  The game started off with a soccer ball about 10 times larger than a regulation size ball, because that's apparently how the game has to start.  The normal size ball came in about 5 minutes later when we finally got used to using the first one.  Regardless of ball size, we spent the next 30 minutes destroying the heavily favored seniors.  Highlights included Shelly being dubbed "The Wondah Woman"" by the game commentator over the speakers whenever she touched the ball and me drilling the last penalty kick of the day into the back of the net, even though I was told later that the penalty kicks were just that....for kicks. 

Sports Days, December 28-30th:

Opening Ceremony!  Light the flame!

No, really.  We had a lighting ceremony!  Thai Mohammed Ali with the Phanom Adun Olympic Torch

Before the games begin, each team has a skit.  Not a one of us could figure out what this one was about.

if you look closely, you can tell the soccer ball to shelly size ratio is a bit off

Celebrating one of the orange team's many goals.

Matt back on defense.  alone.  again.

Shelly sike'in out one of the few oversized seniors in my oversized shorts, but with the normal size ball

New Years Party at Phanom Adun High School

After two long, hard days of playing sports and reading books in our office, it was time for the school's exclusive, teacher-only New Years Eve Eve Eve party.  Our school coordinator informed Shelly and I earlier in the week "you will prepare a song to perform together in front of everyone".  This is the method used to get us to agree to things, and it's quite effective really.  We originally settled on a duet of Aladdin's "A Whole New World", but a couple hours before showtime I realized I didn't know any of the lyrics so a last minute switch was made to DJ Sammy's dance version of "Heaven", a Bryan Adams re-make that I am intimately familiar with from my days at Notre Dame.  I'd like to think that most of the administration was impressed by my choreographed dance moves and Shelly's singing capacity.  My roommate, Clay, also sang a pretty schweet rendition of 'Stand by Me'.....both he and I followed up the singing with some traditional Thai dancing.  Pics below:

The evening's festivities included a catered dinner from the local Chinese restaurant I was unaware existed, a raffle where Shelly won a large bag of 3-in-1 ready to drink instant coffee that she can't drink, and I won a crate of 30 brown eggs and a baby blanket.  My roommate won a DVD player and Shelly's roommate won 500 baht (about $16, which will buy you dinner for 16 consecutive nights at our favorite street stall), but I still like to think our prizes were better because of the sheer randomness.

Two of the other foreign teachers, Eunice and Sarah, with our super cool coordinator, Sompit.

Shelly, being, well, Shelly!

 

The fellas finishing off our bottle of Hong Thong (thai whisky)

Hopefully the additional protein will help me re-gain the 10-12 pounds I've lost here...

New Years Eve in Bangkok

Shelly and I were excited to hear that a couple of my ND college buddies Maura and Adam, who happen to be married to each other, would be visiting Thailand for the entire month of January.  They landed in Bangkok on the 31st, which gave them just enough time to drop their bags, and come meet us at a Volkswagen Van Bar set up on a side street in Bangkok.  We only managed to get one photo that night (to my knowledge):

Total cost of drinks for the night for 4 people?  $33.  Gotta like this place (Apologies for the pic quality of this one).

Hope all of you had a Happy New Years!

Christmas, Thai Style

By Matt

Shelly and I kinda enjoyed spending our Christmas in Bangkok and in our hometown of Phanom.  Granted, we didn't enjoy the fact that we were away from friends and family, but we made the most of it!

Christmas in BKK

We decided to go all out for Christmas (on ourselves) and used some of my few remaining Starwood points to score a room at the Sheraton directly in front of the Chao Phraya River.  Our room had a great view of west Bangkok and the river, which was an added bonus when the unannounced fireworks went off on Christmas Eve.  We spent the weekend shopping in one of Bangkok's newest malls (Bangkok getting a new mall occurs pretty frequently when there are 12-14 million potential shoppers), going to Catholic mass at Bangkok's cathedral, and lounging pool side in the 85 degree sun.

Being in a warm climate for Christmas didn't phase me much being from Phoenix, but Shelly mentioned Christmas shouldn't involve palm trees or drinking from a glass that has a tiny umbrella in it.  We also splurged on a very, very good Spanish tapas dinner on Christmas Eve.  It might not have been traditional, but we both were in the mood for something we can't get very often and eating olives, prosciutto, goat cheese, and Spanish omelettes fit quite nicely!  Here are some of the pictures from the weekend for your enjoyment:

Views of Bangkok from the hotel:

All those shopping malls are in there somewhere...

  

Christmas Eve Dinner at Spanish on 4 in Bangkok (Matt giving the horns for Christmas '11 with the gazpacho and vodka shot, and our spread at dinner)

 

 It felt like Christmas kinda!

 Our Christmas Tree and Presents back in Phanom!

A pretty nice collection of gifts for ourselves...Shelly and I both put framed pictures and saved them for the last gift to each other.  Aww.

Christmas Celebration at Phanom Adun High School:

Despite the fact that no one is Christian or has a real grasp on the meaning of Christmas in our town, the school puts on an annual Christmas celebration for the students, and we think, for the foreign teachers to make us feel like we're back at home.  In addition to the typical Christmas carols (the foreign teachers performed Jingle Bell Rock and Santa Clause is Coming to Town in front of the student body) and gift giving, our Thai version of Christmas also included an appearance by a Thai Santa Clause, Christmas Clowns, and pink balloons that incited a near riot among the boys in the first few rows of the assembly.  I worry that it's hard to explain some of our experiences here so they can be fully appreciated for just how ridiculous, but hilarious, they all are.


The Foreign Teachers unsure of what is about to happen:

Christmas wouldn't be complete without palm trees, the school dog, our a small Buddhist shrine

Gift Raffle with Teacher Clay and Thai Santa with his Santarinis:

Inciting the riot with pink balloons...

Try to spot the only girl attempting to get one of these sought after balloons..

For more on how we spent the holidays, check out the "Ringing in the Year 2555" blog!

Floods in Bangkok, Extended Vacation Down South

By Shelly (finally!)

As some of you may or may not have heard, there has been some massive flooding here in Thailand. We got back from our semester break to find that we would not be starting school on Nov.1 like originally planned. There were 11 provinces that delayed school 2 weeks due to flooding, or schools providing refuge for those affected by the flooding. So, after a nice long 3 week vacation, we were told by our school coordinator to take another vacation and be back by the time school started on the 15th. So, since we had to go on another vacation, we decided to check out Southern Thailand; Matt, me, and my new roommate, Sarah. After brief deliberation, we agreed on Krabi, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta, packed a backpack and headed to Bangkok to catch an overnight bus down south. *In case we've never mentioned the overnight buses here, I just want to say the govt buses are quite delightful with blankets, refreshments, and of course, either Thai music videos or a Thai television drama.

Railay Beach, Krabi

We spent 2 full days on Railay Beach in Krabi with incredible scenary, and less than incredible accommodations; the only real disadvantage of traveling to popular destinations down south on a budget. Luckily, the beds in our bungalow had mosquito nets to keep the bugs that came in through the warped floor boards away from us. We spent the first day doing some exploring of Phra Nang Cave beach and swimming in the beautiful Andaman sea.

 

The path to the beach was littered with monkeys all along the fence.

 Since Railay beach is world famous for climbing with it's towering limestone faces featuring over 700 routes, we decided to do that on our second day there. It cost 800 baht for half a day, and lucky for us, our climbing guide took a special liking to Sarah, lending us an extraordinary day of climbing. After we completed 3 climbs at Phra Nang beach, our guide, Neung (1 in Thai), took us to a cave in Thaiwand Wall (a popular face) that had breathtaking lookout points over the beach.

We climbed up and through the cave, ending up on the other side where we learned how we'd be getting down: repelling.

And so we did. We spent the remainder of the day swimming out to explore a tiny beach and small caves in the nearby island (visible from picture 2) and continuing to relax, just as any beach vacation requires.

We left late morning the next day by boat and arrived on Koh Phi Phi Don that afternoon.

Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi reminded me of chinatown in San Francisco right off the bat. Except, instead of Chinese residents and tourists, their were Thai residents riding bicycles all over the place and European tourists.Walkways were a little too narrow for all of this, and loaded with shop after shop of the same exact touristy merchandise. It was a little crazy to say the least. This area is called Tonsai Village. After a short hike up the hill, we found a place to stay, set our bags down, and headed out for some more beach time. Walking down to the beach was a little calmer after we got out of the "downtown" area and was only disturbed by dodging the occasional bicycle rider. Lots of bicycles, not really any cars. It took us about 40 minutes to walk down to the beach we wanted to go to, a quiet beach with relatively few people. The water was the perfect temperature and was the perfect depth for sitting and relaxing. After wading out about 30 feet, it eventually became waist deep.

The majority of island residents on Koh Phi Phi are Muslim. Other areas in the south of Thailand are a mix of Buddhist and Muslim, so it was a bit strange to see the crazy bikini-clad (both sexes) tourists mixed in with the ultra conservative Thais covered from head to toe.

  Our second day on Koh Phi Phi, we took a boat out to the smaller island of Koh Phi Phi Leh (remember the late 90's film "The Beach"?) and visited three spots before landing in Maya Beach, which is THE beach, from The Beach. :) Needless to say, we definitely should have gone camping on Koh Phi Phi Leh (the only way you can stay overnight there). The next morning, we left early to finish up our trip on Koh Lanta. Enjoy the Koh Phi Phi Leh montage before you go on though... :)

            

Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta was a nice change of pace from the other touristy spots. The island is pretty big but allowed us to chill out for the last bit of our islands vacation. We were hoping to get some good snorkeling in, but every day during our vacation, it would cloud over around 4pm and rain -- sometimes a lot and sometimes not so much. Either way, it totally affected the visibility in the normally crystal clear water, which also meant that snorkeling would be futile.Regardless, we still got some awesome activities in! Our first full day on Koh Lanta, Sarah and I went stand up paddleboarding while Matt rented a motorbike and explored the island. Pete, the super nice owner of Lanta Paddlesports on Koh Lanta, charged us a mere 400 baht (half price) for all day paddleboarding, anticipating that we would last 2 hours, tops. I assured him that we would last at least 3 hours. Almost 4 hours later, 20 minutes after Sarah came in, I brought the paddle and surf board back in to an amazed Pete. Apparently, 2 hours was the most that anyone had ever lasted, and that was on a day that the water was still and clear, rather than choppy from the storms. Needless to say, both of us slept VERY well that night. Enjoy the photos of our adventure below:

 LOI KRATHONG -- Krabi Town

The very last night of our trip was the annual Loi Krathong festival, which happens on the full moon in November. You make a Krathong, made of banana leaves or the layers of the trunk of a banana tree or a spider lily plant. A krathong contains flowers, incense sticks, a candle, a 5 or 10 baht coin, a clipping of your nail and a piece of your hair. Then you float (Loi) the krathong down the river to pay repects to the water spirits. We made our own krathongs at a bar down the street from where we were staying and were basically given creative powers to make it however we wanted. The other part of the fesitval is sending a floating lantern into the air. It is such a beautiful sight!