Elephant Trekking

Here are some pics of our elephant trekking experience yesterday. I'll be going to Ko Pi Pi (the island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed) tomorrow, back to Ban Niang/Khao Lak on Friday, up to Bangkok on Saturday and then flying home on the 21st. So, hope to see you all soon.

Khao Lak National Park

All the new V-STAY girls (Chantelle, Nikki, Jenny, May) and I went to Khao Lak National Park today.

Left to Right: Me Chantelle, May, and Jenny at the Khao Lak National Park entrance

We had a great time doing a short hike down to a beautiful beach.

Arriving at the secluded beach


Chillin at the beach


One of the many gorgeous views along the trail to the beach

We ate a late lunch at Khao Lak Seafood, went to the grocery store for snacks and then went to The Well to watch a movie and relax. Although this may sound like a pretty plain day, I enjoyed it so much just because of the people I was with. I’m comfortable and enjoy hanging out with the new girls. They seem very down to earth.

The new V-STAY roomies and I had our first night in as a group and just hung out, playing different card games and enjoying each other's company.

Playing poker with crayons as chips

We’ll be going to a restaurant a few doors down from our house tonight to watch a tsunami memorial concert. Tomorrow, we’ll be going elephant trekking.

And the Goodbye’s Begin

Today was my last day of teaching at Lam Pi School.

Carrie and I with 5th grade

We gave the girls nail polish, the boys colored pencils, and all of them a drink and cookies. We also gave away some of the coloring books my parents sent as prizes for winning a spelling bee. I’m so proud of the kids. Their English has improved so much within the past few months and they actually seem to be enjoying the learning process (games we came up with).

Winners of the 6th grade spelling bee (Left to Right: Jenjira, Nathong, Kwanepa)

Most of the kids made crying noises and said, “Nampung, America, no”. And, several of the boys who aren’t used to showing affection toward females gave me a hug.

Throwin' up the kewl sign for Thai kids with some of the 4th graders

Why does it seem impossible to fully appreciate what you have in the moment? Why do loss and change tend to bring about such a longing for good times in the past, good times that become greater times in hindsight?...Just a tear drop from the flow of questions constantly streaming though my mind.

On a completely different note, I had a blast last night keeping score for the Lady Boy contest last night. There were 14 proud TVC guys, some of whom were such pretty girls that I was jealous. Three rounds of competition (talent, Q&A, and a surprise round) led to a British bloak named Ed being crowned Miss Khao Lak 2005. We danced and celebrated the rest of the night.

Some of the new roomies and I at the Lady Boy competition. Left to Right: Me, Jenny, Adam, Larry, Nikki, Angie (not a roomie)

The Weekend and Beyond

Last Thursday Jiri invited me to “Worship at The Well”. It’s weird how I always seem to find out about some of the kewlest places to go right before I have to leave. The Well is a free lounge place for volunteers to hang out and chill in. There are couches, chairs, tables (luxuries to me since I’ve been living in the V-STAY house), a TV with a DVD player and DVDs, a kitchen and a guitar!...I could’ve been cooking this whole time.

Friday was a great day at school. The 6th graders have learned the alphabet letters and sounds well enough that we were able to do a spelling bee with them. They seem so excited about learning now. Friday was probably the most rewarding day of teaching for me since I’ve been here. 5th graders were standing outside the 6th grade classroom, watching the games we were playing. Then when we began teaching 5th grade, they kept saying “six, game”. They wanted to play the same games as 6th grade. Hopefully, this will motivate them to learn the alphabet and to pay attention better in class.

After school, I quickly packed for a wonderful weekend trip to Khao Sok National Park (www.khaosok.com), about an hour and a half north of Khao Lak. Limestone mountains covered in diverse rainforest foliage surround rivers and a gorgeous lake. Jiri went too, but it was great to make some new friends. There were 7 of us total, Jenny and I being the only girls, a guy-to-girl ratio I’m sure the fellas would’ve liked to change. We went tubing down a river and had great fun knocking each other off the tubes and into the water. Our guide looked for snakes in the trees hanging over the river after we stopped at a rock with a rope swing and all had a chance to be Tarzan or Jane.

Left to Right: Ed, Jenny, Andy, Eddy, Fred and I just outside Khao Sok


King Rama at Khao Sok

There was supposed to be a spot on the river where people throw bananas in the river and monkeys dive for them. We went after the tubing, but were unlucky. Turns out the monkeys only show up some days.

The river we went tubing on. This is where the monkey diving takes place

Still, we enjoyed hanging out at a restaurant on the river and played card games like S&%$ Head and Speed until the rain stopped. Once the rain stopped, we were all keen on getting a Thai massage. I was so excited about the massage, but I ended up getting sick during the first 15 minutes. I think the lady working on me may have released something that had been stored up for a while. I ended up in the bathroom for almost the entire hour. The Thai lady didn’t understand when I asked for water, so I asked for Ed, who was in the middle of experiencing his first massage from a guy. After some water, deep breathing, and a release of which I’ll spare you the details, I felt much better.

After our massages at different locations (none of the places could do 7 of us at once), we met up at the Poor Bar and relaxed. Some of the guys practiced muay thai on the punching bag hanging in the corner of the bar. And later, Ed continued to practice the Thai form of kickboxing with a tiny Thai guy until they interlocked and just appeared to be hugging for a few minutes- very entertaining.

Before we headed back to Khao Lak, we attempted to find the lake and go for a swim. After being lost for a while, we found an edge of the lake. It looked a bit dodgy, but everyone jumped in before a man in uniform came to tell us “no swim”, everyone except me. The man arrived immediately after I had changed into a bathing suit and walked down to the water’s edge. Still, the ride back was beautiful and peaceful.

The Lake at Khao Sok

Later that night, was the weekly poker tournament and an English Premiere soccer game. I played some pool at the Marlin Bar and then allowed myself to be talked in to joining the poker game. I ended up winning 100 Baht. I was also told by a great pool player named Beth that I should pursue pool if I’m not pursuing any of my other talents because I “have what it takes”. She said she could see that I was thinking through things, working it all out in my head, and that I was a natural. So by the words of drunken Beth, I’ve decided to stay in Thailand and fine tune my magic pool playing skills. (The last sentence- True/False).

And that takes us to Monday…

Monday was a holiday, the king’s birthday. In addition to the sales of alcohol being prohibited that day, there was no school, so I joined my new friends from TVC on the Tap Tawaan project of building houses. I helped mix cement, lay bricks for a toilet and a step, filled in the step with sand and cement, and sealed the pipes to the septic tanks. At lunchtime, a freelance journalist who said he was seeking the source of compassion in people interviewed several TVCers at Tap Tawaan. I wasn’t feeling his vibe, so I declined an interview. On a different note, an English bloke named Jamie almost sawed his leg off with the circular saw. He was miraculously lucky in that he suffered a mere flesh wound on his thigh instead of having accidentally amputated his leg.

When I went home to shower after Tap Tawaan, I met 5 of the new V-STAY volunteers (1 guy and 3 girls from Australia, 1 guy from Malaysia) who had arrived earlier that morning. They all seem nice, and it was comforting to have some new energy in the house.

Natty Dreadlocks…

Sebelle (Aussie) and DJ (American) working on my dreads

That’s right, I have finally had them done. For the past 2 days, I have been blessed with the giving spirit of an Aussie named Sebelle. She and I hung out at The Well and watched ELF last night while she began to dreadlock my hair. It has taken about 5 hours so far, but there are only 2 locks left! After that, she says I’m supposed to keep messing with them, knotting them and putting dread wax or beeswax on them every chance I get. I’m also not supposed to wash my hair with anything moisturizing for the next 6 months. That’s when they should start to look like solid dreadlocks. I had no idea it was such a long process with so much maintenance involved, but I’ve always wanted to have them for a while, so I’m committed.

Lam Pi Waterfall

Here are some pics from my little excursion to the Lam Pi waterfall after school yesterday. It's just about a mile down the road from the school.

Sticks and Love

Yesterday I saw almost all of the teachers carrying a stick around at some point during the day. The woman who used to give me some of her home cooked lunch is almost always carrying something to hit the kids with. She taps it on the wooden posts and railings and even I get scared. I guess the rumor’s true that the Thai teachers hit the kids with a stick to discipline them. That would explain why the kids are not as behaved with us- they know we won’t hit them.

4th graders at Lam Pi

The other day, this woman chased “Bubba” around and whacked him on the butt. It made him cry and I wanted to take the stick away from her and tell her there are less violent ways to discipline that can be just as, if not more, effective. At the same time, I must admit there have been a few times when I wanted to throw the volleyball we have at some of the kids just to get them to turn around and pay attention.

The other night the guy who gave me a ride home had given me a ride home once before. He kept speaking to me in Thai, but the English words he did manage to get out were “Chai (his name) loves Koura”. It reminded me of the kids at school. I wonder if they have several different words for love, or if they only have one word that describes liking and loving someone.

A Reminder of Tourist Season

In addition to the flood of people continuing to flow through Khao Lak, an experience I had this morning signaled to remind me that it is definitely tourist season here. Eit and Jay, the new V-STAY project managers who are here to do some errands and update us on the project, hitched with Carrie and I to school this morning. A guy in a car with plastic covering all of the seats picked us up, dropped the guys off at Chow Tai Mei School before taking Carrie and I less than a mile further to Ban Lam Pi. When we were exiting the car with “kob kun ka’s” (thank you’s) for his generosity, he blurted out “300 Baht”. Even more upsetting than this being a ridiculous amount to charge us (a taxi ride to the school would only be around 40 baht) was the fact that he didn’t say anything about paying when he picked us up, in which case we would have waited to catch another ride. No, he waited until he was dropping us off to let us know that he wanted us to pay for the ride. We called Eit, who is Thai, and asked him what we should do. While he and Jay walked over to help resolve things, Eit told us to have the English teacher talk to the guy in order to “shame him” out of making us pay. Seeing as how our “English teacher” doesn’t speak the languag he supposedly teaches, we called Eit to talk to the teacher after failing in our attempt to communicate via hand gestures and small words. The teacher walked out to the car, and instead of telling the guy that he was trying to screw over volunteers, Mr. Non-confrontational whispered two words- probably “’’tao rai”, which means “how much”- and gave the guy in the car 200 Baht.

We were all bothered by how the teacher decided to handle the situation despite the conversation Eit had just had with him. Interestingly enough, he wouldn’t allow Jay and Eit to reimburse him when they arrived.

This is the first time someone’s ever tried to rip me off by charging me for a ride in Thailand after they’ve driven to the destination without mentioning pay…It must be tourist season.

The rest of the school day…

Fourth and fifth grade were frustrating to teach because it seems they’ve forgotten most of the alphabet and letter sounds, which they appeared to be retaining last week. There is, however, always comic relief in at least one of the classes to help get us through such a challenging day. Today, this took place in fourth grade. We were making a circle when the girls, including myself, began to scream after noticing a spider nearly the size of my entire hand crawling up a wall next to one of the girls. One of the boys began kicking the spider, eventually knocking it off the wall. As soon as the spider landed on the ground, the rest of the boys joined in, smashed the spider, and began to play soccer with it, passing the spider to each other’s bare feet, and ultimately scoring a goal by kicking it out the classroom door.

New Pool Tournament Champ

I got sick again (just a head cold) on Friday, so I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with the pillow I don’t have this weekend in an attempt to dream the illness away. I also treated myself to an aromatherapy massage. It wasn’t very good- they should probably stick to Thai massage- but it did remind me that I want to take massage classes and become a certified masseuse. This in turn led me on a train of thought about other classes I’d like to take for fun- singing, music theory, ceramics, glassblowing, painting, cooking, and yoga instruction. Oh, and can’t forget the foreign languages- German, Italian, and French for the near future.

New restaurants are continuing to open and pop up all around. There are too many now to keep track of which ones have the best pad thai or fried mixed vegetables. Some of the restaurants are having a free dinner for volunteers as their grand opening. After trying out one of these new restaurants last night, a group of us went to the Marlin Bar to watch an English Premiere soccer game.

There is a pool tournament every Saturday night at the Marlin Bar. I felt like playing a game, so I joined in the tournament for 50 Baht (~$1.25), not expecting to play more than 1 game. Well, check out http://fishing-khaolak.com/marlin_bar/ to find a picture of the first female pool tournament champ in Khao Lak. Although there was one very good game, I must say it was mostly luck because each game was ultimately won by the competition doing something wrong with the 8 ball- scratched, sunk before the other balls, or sunk in a pocket different from the one called. Check out the website before next Saturday because there’s sure to be a picture of a different pool champ after the next weekly tournament.