Ko Chang

Ko Chang

So here is my first post in a very long time. I primarily blame teacher’s college applications. But those are in the past now, so I can focus on other things. Hooray!

December is probably the most holiday filled month in Thailand, with Father’s Day/The King’s Birthday, Constitution Day, and New Year’s. Father’s Day and Constitution Day are fairly close together, so I took a couple other days off to create a 5 day holiday. I decided to go to Ko Chang, one of the last places I still really wanted to visit. Ko Chang is about 5 hours east (and slightly south) from Bangkok. It’s the second largest island in Thailand, I think. Most of the island is a national park, so Ko Chang is a bit less ridiculous than the southern islands.

Anyway, another one of the foreign teachers, Krista, and I left Thursday morning – there is a bus that runs from Bangkok to the Ko Chang pier. We arrived at the pier around 1pm, and boarded the ferry. The ride took about half an hour, and we arrived. We then got to enjoy the insanity that is the roads of Ko Chang. Ko Chang is a very mountainous island, and the roads are notoriously dangerous. The main way to get around Ko Chang is to take a sawng teaw. The roads were insanely steep and twisty, but they followed the coast, so the views were gorgeous.

We arrived at our hotel, Oasis Bungalows, around 3pm. Oasis is up a hill near Lonely Beach, the main backpacker beach (fewer fancy resorts). The bungalow was very nice, and surrounded by jungle. In the evening, we walked down to the beach to enjoy the sunset. 

Friday

Friday morning, I decided to explore the island a little bit on my own. The biggest waterfall on Ko Chang Nam Dok Klong Plu, wasn’t too far from Lonely Beach, so I decided to head in that direction. After another precarious sawng taew ride, I got off at the side road leading to the waterfall. After a short walk down a shady road, I arrived at the entrance to the National park and waterfall. There was a 2km path that led through the forest and to the water fall. I always love getting back to nature and the walk was quite beautiful. The walk to the waterfall wasn’t long, and the falls were pretty. But there was a fair numbers of tourists, so after a quick dip, I decided to continue on the path. It led up a hill/mountain and back down. At that point, I was super hot and sweaty, so I went back to Lonely beach to watch the sunset. 

 Beach near the waterfall

Saturday

Saturday, Krista and I decided to venture to the east coast of the island. Most western tourists stay on the east side as it is much more developed and easier to get around. I had read on the East side, there were neat-sounding mangrove forests that you could kayak through. We ended up having to hire a special sawng teaw to take us there, as they usually don’t drive on the east side. It was expensive, but we both really wanted to go. The drive was beautiful, very natural with hardly any big buildings. After a while, we stopped at the forest. There was an elevated concrete path that led through part of the forest. It was amazing to see the trees growing out of the water. The mangroves survive in the salt water by pumping the salt they absorb into a few leaves, which turn yellow and die. After the walk we went to a small village where you can rent kayaks. I think the village was primarily a fishing village, as there were many boats and fishermen tending to their nets. We kayaked through the forest out to the ocean, where there was a smaller, floating fishing village. It was a beautiful paddle, and I’m glad we got the chance to visit.

Sunday

On Sunday, I had signed Krista and myself up for a guided hike. The description said we would walk up a mountain and get some really nice views. However, once we arrived at the starting point, our guide informed us that today we would actually climb TWO mountains with lots of steep up and down parts between them. I was excited – often when you sign up for guided hikes, they are piddly little walks through the forest. There were 4 other people in our group, all from Germany. We started by walking through a rubber farm. I had never seen one up close – the farmers cut small strips in trees and the sap drains out, and is collected. We then started up-hill. The path was quite steep and wild. It was challenging, but not any harder than the paths in the Adirondacks. We arrived at the peak of the second mountain around noon or so, and enjoyed some spectacular views of the island. The way down was also very steep, and challenging. Mid-afternoon, we reached a small river with a pool for swimming. Finally, we arrived at the end around 5pm and were driven back to our hotel. The hike ended up being 18km, I think, and it was a very beautiful walk.

 Rubber tree

Monday

We decided that Monday would be a lounge on the beach day – to recover from the previous day’s hike. We picked a spot on Lonely Beach and then swam, napped, read books, and were beach bums. We on;y left to find food. I also played with my new waterproof camera. In the evening, we were rewarded with the most beautiful sunset on the island yet. 

 Lonely Beach

The next day, we traveled back to Bangkok. And I have officially decided that Ko Chang is the best island in Thailand. Beautiful nature, and not too many idiot travellers.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween in Thailand

First post in a while - mainly because last semester wasn't TOO exciting. I didn't travel that much, and there weren't a lot of fun holidays to write about. BUT! Now it's the start of my last semester in Thailand (granted I get accepted to teacher's college in the all), and the winter semester has many more opportunities for fun!

Halloween is sort of celebrate in Thailand, but definitely not to the same extent as Canada. People will have Halloween parties, and go out, but that's about it really. And some schools will do small Halloween activities. Normally on holidays, I like to make a craft with my students. I don't do crafts very often because I have to buy all the supplies myself, and it can be quite time consuming. But Halloween has always been my favourite holiday, so I wanted to do something special. I decided to have my students make Jack-o-Lantern hats - which I especially liked because it gave them sort of a costume. So, I spent about 300 baht on supplies, and 3 hours cutting up the paper into smaller pieces. But it was so worth it!

( PSI had also planned to wear a costume, but all the teachers at our school have to wear black and white as the head of the Thai Buddhist monks recently passed away. So I decided a costume wouldn't be appropriate)

Here are some pictures for your amusement:

Mother's Day is in August Now

Mother’s Day

In Thailand, Mother’s Day is celebrated on August 12, as the 12^th is the Queen’s birthday. To celebrate, many businesses put up beautiful displays of Queen Sirikit, as well as new banners and flags on the streets. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest holidays in Thailand.

 Her Majesty Queen Sirikit

 The week before Mother’s Day, I planned activities to do with my classes to celebrate. For Prathom 3, my co-teacher P’Nii, planned to make little cards out of paper plates with the students. Prathom 4 can handle a bit more complex activities, and I have noticed the students love making things out of origami. So I found a cool idea for a card with origami flowers.

On Thursday, we made our crafts. Observe the below pictures:

The other foreign teachers and myself were told we would be dressed in formal Thai clothes for the Mother’s Day assembly on Friday, August 9^th. I will now write a bit about the Thai clothes. Most Thai women are not very curvy... A bag of long skirts were brought up for us to try on and needless to say, none of them fit. I was trying to wiggle into one when I heard a large RIP! So it was not the best few days for our self esteem. But eventually some skirts that fit were found. I had to wear a different skirt, as I was to lay a bouquet in front of a portrait of the Queen. So by fit, I mean I squeezed into my skirt, and couldn’t really do it up at the top. Close enough. But the clothes were beautiful, so it was worth it.

Friday morning, I woke up early to make my hair look pretty. At school, we put on our clothes, did final hair and makeup touches, then went down stairs. As usual, we look lots of pictures. All the Thai teachers were dressed in their best light-blue outfits – light blue being the Queen’s colour. Everyone looked lovely.

The assembly started around 8. First, the administrators placed their bouquets in front of the Queen’s portrait. Eventually, we (the foreign teachers) went up. Mr Wayne and I placed the bouquets, as we had been at the school the longest. The whole process was a little stressful – we had to curtsey and look dignified a lot. (the previous afternoon, we had a rehearsal. It was... ok). This is how it went: walk to stage – curtsey – walk up the stairs – place bouquet – curtsey – walk off stage. With many, many people. But it went smoothly! Hooray! After, the marching band played the Royal family’s anthem – which is an amazingly beautiful song. (They play the song also when you see a movie in theatres – by the end of it, I either feel like crying or cheering.) Next was a really neat Thai drumming show – featuring a couple of my students in P4. It’s customary that drumming also includes traditional dance. It was very well done – a great performance!

 Mr Wayne and myself - we are the most senior foreign teachers (Mr Wayne - 8 years, me - 9 months) so we got to place the boquets

 I was really hoping that my skirt WOULDN'T explode

Above ad below photo cred - Amnuayvidhya School

The photo shoot followed the assembly. Naturally.

Mink, Wayne, Deaw, P'May, Me, Krista, Aubin, Taylor, P Aey, Jenny and Mr Brian (head of the English department)

Taylor, Me, Wayne, Dr Srirean (like the principal), Mr Brian, Aubin and Krista

All in all, an interesting holiday to be part of.