Teachering!

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Now that I'm finally finished writing about Laos, this post will be pretty laid back. I haven't posted about teaching for a long time, so this post is going to consist of primarily pictures of my classes. Enjoy!

Later, more to come about traveling in Isaan, a few weekend trips and life in the neighbourhood!

Learning about clothing - Prathom 4

 Prathom 3 also got to learn about clothing

 Break time with 4.2

 Learning ordinal numbers - Prathom 3

 Above: Teaching ordinal numbers in 3 steps

 Watching a video about the weather

 Group project - What do you wear when it's snowy/rainy/sunny/etc

 Wai Kru Ceremony - the students give the teachers flower arrangements to thank them for filling their heads with stuff (photocred - Amnuayvidhya school)

Southern Laos - Laos part 4

Southern Laos

April 26^th

Well my travelling group had all broken up – most of them went on to Vietnam from Vientiane. However, I decided to continue traveling south in Laos. I wanted to see some cities more off the beaten track, and I also wanted to make the most of my visa. So on the morning of the 26^th, I checked out of my hostel, and caught a bus to Thakhek, a town about 330 km south-east on the Laotian-Thai border. The trip took about 5 hours – I think. I was on quite a nice tour bus, which was also mostly empty. So the ride was quite comfortable. I arrived in Thakhek in the late afternoon, and checked into a hotel in town. I then went for dinner in a local restaurant – had some peppery fried pork and Beer Lao (of course). Thakhek is literally across the river from Thailand, so I had phone reception for the first time in about 2 weeks. After dinner, I walked a little around town – the view of the river and the lights across the river was beautiful.

April 27^th

 

That morning I decided to explore the town. I wandered to the outskirts of town towards a market that was supposed to be interesting. The walk was nice – the town was very quiet and calm. Ahhhh. I waked through several temples I passed on the way. I eventually made it to the market and continued to wander. The market was not TOO exciting – although one lady was selling several species of frogs... for eating. Apparently, over-hunting is a large problem. Many people in the rural areas are very poor, so they will eat anything and everything they can catch. This includes frogs, birds (other than chicken and ducks), bats, snakes, and many other variety of small to mid-sized animal.

After the market, I walked back to my hotel. The weather was scorching hot: April is the hottest month of the year Thailand and Laos. I’ve never been so hot in my life as I have been in April in SE Asia. You can literally feel yourself baking in the sun. Most people do what they have to in the morning, hide in the afternoon, and come out again at night. So after a very hot and sweaty walk to back to the Mekong River, I found a place for lunch. I had some tasty Laotian food – similar to khao soi in Thailand. So, a type of crunchy yellow noodle with sauce, vegetables and a meat. Mmmmm. There were a few other Laotian men also having lunch, while watching Thai TV. Another thing that’s fantastic about traveling in Laos is that Laotian is very similar to Thai. Furthermore, most people watch Thai TV shows and listen to Thai music. So, I was able to communicate with the Thai I know – which got me farther than English would have for sure.

 Breakfast - mix between Vietnamese Pho and Thai Gwai Deaw

 The market

After lunch, I went to hide in my hotel for a while. It was too hot to function. My TV had BBC, so I watched the news for a few hours, haha. I eventually emerged for dinner – I went to a nice restaurant on the river. I had a nice but somewhat odd dish – it was like pork stew with herbs, and much dill. But it was tasty. I also watched the sunset. The sunsets on the Mekong are some of the absolute most beautiful I have ever seen. Amazing.

April 28^th

 

The next morning, I decided to move on to a town a couple hours south, Savannakhet. I caught a local bus from the station, and was on my way. The ride was fairly uneventful, and I arrived around noon. When I got to the centre of town, I discovered it was pretty much deserted. I found an area with a few hotels, but none of them had anyone at the front desk. Well, one had a man sleeping on a couple chairs pushed together in the lobby area. After wandering for a while to no avail, I decided to go try the sleeping-man hotel. When I walked in for the second time, the man was still asleep. So I tried to wake him up gracefully. After a few “excuse me”s, he woke up and kind of leaped off the chairs. They had a room so I checked in. 

In the afternoon, I walked around the town. There were a couple sights to see, so I went looking for them. There was a dinosaur museum – but it was closed. I wandered into a few of the temples, which were gorgeous. In one temple, Wat Xayaphoum I think, there was a monk sitting in the room with the Buddha statue. He asked me if I spoke Lao..Laotian... whatever, and I said I didn’t. So he then went on to talk about the history of the temple (I think)... In Lao. I kind of nodded and smiled for a while. It was still really neat. Then he gave me a orange and white woven bracelet. Pretty cool! In another temple, I stepped through the gate and was immediately beckoned over by a monk. He asked if we could talk for a while so he could practice his English. Also, very cool. On my way back to the hotel, I walked by the local Catholic Church, St Joseph’s or something. I stopped to take a picture, and was immediately photo-bombed by two young boys on their bicycles. It was hilarious/super cute. 

For dinner, I had another tasty Lao meal. I decided to get up early the next morning, and catch the international bus back to Thailand. So I went back to my hotel and read my book.

In conclusion, I loved Laos. It had everything I enjoy – natural beauty, culture, and history. And not a lot of idiot tourists everywhere. The people were also very friendly and helpful. It is a lovely country and I would love to go back one day. Maybe that will be the next place I go teach... We shall see!

Vang Vieng and Vientiane - Laos Part 3

Vang Vieng and Vietiane

April 20^th

On the morning of the 20^th, we caught a bus to Vang Vieng – a city/town/traveller’s destination about 185 km south of Luang Prabang. If you look this distance up on google, it will tell you it only takes 2.5 hours to drive this distance. This is a lie. What they fail to take into account is that about 90% of this trip is through the mountains of Northern Laos. The roads are twisty, steep and slightly terrifying. You just need to not look down when looking out the window. Anyway, I think it took about 7 hours to reach our destination. Fortunately, our bus had a bathroom... with a hobbit sized door. It was kind of funny. The ride through the mountains itself was stunning. We drove through several very rural towns as well. They consisted of the typical bamboo houses with thatched roofs. Laos in general is a lot less developed than Thailand – there are FAR fewer big cities/urban centres, and much of the country is very rural. Which is part of why it’s so beautiful there.

Anyway we arrived in Vang Vieng in that late afternoon. For many years, the main attraction to this area was going tubing down the river. Now this was no ordinary tubing – much drugs and alcohol could be purchased along the river at the various bars and whatnot. However, after several deaths, many of these bars were shut down and the river tuning was made much tamer/safer. Unfortunately, this has caused many people to bypass Vang Vieng. I’m not even kidding. Which is a huge shame because it’s gorgeous. It was also sad because all the nice hotels that have been built not too long ago are practically empty. So we were able to stay in a really nice hotel for quite cheap. A couple of our friends paid the extra money, and got a room with a view – facing the river and the mountains. It was lovely at sunset.

That night, we went for pizza, and then visited a nearby bar. Like all of the country, things shut down around 11, so we had a fairly early night.

April 21^st

This was the day we decided to go tubing on the river – which is still a major to-do in Vang Vieng. Despite the lack of drugs. Darn. (... I’m being sarcastic. Please don’t arrest me.) We didn’t head out especially early but we still made it out. First, we went to the tubing centre to pick up our tubes and then caught  ride in a sawng-tao to the start of the tubing. When we arrived at the start, we had lunch at the non-profit restaurant/farm there. The foods was delicious. Laotian food is kind of like a mix between Thai and Vietnamese food. So, delicious. Mmmmmmmm!

Basically, tubing consists of floating on your tube for a couple hours. There are still some bars and whatnot you can stop at on the way for beer and homemade whiskey stuff. Which is VILE. Ick! At a couple of these bars, there are caves etc you can walk to. But we just wanted to float and relax. 

We got back to town around 6, returned our tubes, then went for dinner. A night a lot like the one before. Wooooot.

April 22nd

That afternoon, we had a bus/mini-van booked to take up to Vientiane, the capitol. We still had all day, so we decided to visit a local spring and cave to pass the time. We caught a sawng –tao there. On the way, we passed a heard of cattle on the road and several small farming villages.  It was very scenic.

Once we arrived, we walked by the spring/pool. It was amazingly beautiful. There were also some monk novices swimming in the pool. I wondered if they were “allowed” to do so haha. We decided to explore the cave first. This we did without a guide – with only some headlamps we rented from the people at the entrance. It was really neat to explore. You just needed to try not the think about the large hole you could have easily fallen into, or the fact that you didn’t really know the way out. But we made it eventually. After, we went for a well deserved swim in the pool. There was a huge tree with branches you could climb and jump off. One was QUITE high but I decided to jump off it. First, you had to climb a rickety bamboo ladder. Then you had to inch your way out on the wt branch – there was a bamboo railing at least. It was slightly terrifying. But the jump was quite exhilarating. I’m glad I did it! 

In the afternoon, we caught our van. Our driver was ON A MISSION and drove at top speed the entire way there. So the ride only took a couple of hours. Once we arrived in Vietiane, we found a hostel and checked in. That night, we had dinner in a local outdoor restaurant, and visited one of the nearby bars for drinks. When you looked around this bar, you quickly realised it was full of white mean with very attractive Laotian women... *ahem*. It was slightly upsetting but also interesting to watch. 

April 23^rd

In the morning, I went with a friend to the Thai embassy to sort out her new Thai visa. On the way back, we walked by the “Arch de Triomphe”, also known as Patuxai. It is modelled after the Arch in Paris. It was quite spectacular. In the afternoon, we decided to go to the public pool. There, we relaxed and swam. We also had a splashing contest/fight with some Laotian girls. And we passed the night pretty much the same way as the previous day.

April 24^th

That morning, we had breakfast at the Joma Cafe we found in Vientiane. I ordered chili again and garlic bread. I thought they would give me a couple pieces – they gave me a WHOLE LOAF. It was fantastic. A large part of the group was catching a bus to Vietnam that afternoon, so we saw them off. There were 5 of us left. Myself and another friend decided to go to the museum – it basically gave a history of Laos from the dinosaurs to present. It was quite interesting. One of the more interesting displays were some gold Buddha figures locked in a metal cage – they had been stolen in the past. It seems that artefact theft is a large problem in the country. After the museum, I wandered around Vientiane by myself for a little while and visited a couple of the local temples. 

In the evening, we decided to sit by the river for a while. One trend that developed along our travels in Laos was “Songkraning”, inspired by Songkran.  To “Songkran” someone successfully, you throw some water on the person and yell “Songkraned!” or “Songkraning!”. This had been going on for our entire time in Laos pretty much. So by the river, we had a big “Songkraning” fight. Haha. We then went back to the outdoor restaurant from the other night. Had delicious red curry. Mmmmm. And Beer Lao. The other trend we developed was peeling the label of the beer bottles (they come off quite easily and remain sticky). Then, you slap the label on someone and yell “Beer Lao’ed!”. Hehe. We’re mature. 

After dinner, we went back to that same bar. When it closed (at 11) we went back to our hotel, and sat outside on the patio. Had a nice night – we were all parting ways the next morning. And so ended my group travels in Laos – one of the highlights of my travels in SE Asia so far!