Advertisement
Published: February 7th 2012
Happy New Year!
even the elephants were celebrating!So if you didn't already know.. Thais love to party! That's great news for us. Life should be celebrated. In America we get 2 weeks to 3 weeks off for the holidays where we can celebrate with our families. Here in Thailand (for the most part) school continues and the school throws a huge celebration bash for the new year. We were told about a week before about the celebration and it meant NO CLASSES! That's always a good thing to know. The celebration was the Friday before New Years. The day of celebration started with a long assembly and then a food offering for the local monks. There were tables set up so that the monks could walk past and accept the food and offering blessings. After they finished the offerings the students rushed to prepare for the talent show! Little did we know that this talent show was to last 5 hours!!! The students came up with their own acts and costumes. All very impressive and it made for a very entertaining day. Of course, at a celebration in Thailand, there was plenty of food to be shared. Students brought dishes from home and would call for us to
Food!
these girls were so nice to share with us! Their food was really delicious as well! have a taste as we walked past. It was really nice to be able to get some one on one time with a few students. They are really sweet and love to show us foreigners a taste of their country. Erika and I felt like movie stars as well because we got stopped on so many occasions to take pictures with students. It was like once it started we were trapped and the pictures kept getting snapped! Who knows how many pictures are on their facebooks that we are not aware of! We found an area where they were playing this really fun balloon popping game. After observing the game for a while we asked to join in! In this game you put a balloon around your foot via rubber band and then go around trying to pop other people's balloons! It's hilarious! Mike was so good that he even won a prize!!
After 5 hours of loud singing performances Erika and I decided to go ahead and head out of school early so that we could make good time for our 4 day weekend trip to Koh Chang. Koh Chang is an island southwest of Bangkok
Pose!
She noticed me taking pictures before their act started :) really near the Cambodian border. We wouldn't make it there in time to catch a ferry so we planned to overnight at our friends, Melissa's, in Chonburi. Transportation is always hit or miss here with the traffic but Erika and I had smooth sailing all the way! We took our usual 50 Baht van into Bangkok and then from there another van, about 100 Baht, to Melissa's. Overall the trip took about 3 hours total and about $5 usd, not bad. Melissa also took the same training course in Phuket with us. She teaches little kids at a research facility at a University. It was really nice to walk through the campus and feeling that college feel. I miss college already. Her apartment that the university gave to her to live in temporarily was hooked up and we were really jealous! She had a kitchen complete with a fridge, microwave, sink, and burner! She also had a bathroom that had a separate section for her shower! So no wet toilet seat after showers! Oh she also had a table to eat at complete with chairs! The small conveniences you take for granted are no longer taken for granted by me!
The three of us enjoyed a very tasty meal from the market and good conversation before heading to bed for an early start.
Modes of transportation to get to Koh Chang: walk to the travel agency (20 minutes), take a van once one is filled up (2 hours), randomly get told to get out and switch to another van (5 confusing minutes), new van once filled up (3 hours), dropped off at a ferry ticket counter to buy and wait for truck bed to get filled up (30 minutes), travel in said filled truck bed to ferry dock (30 minutes), wait for ferry (10 minutes), ferry ride to Koh Chang (30 minutes), finding a taxi to our hotel (15-20 minutes), finding out that our hotel was walking distance away from the ferry dock (1 minute taxi ride). Gotta love traveling! 😊 (all this for less than $10!)
**when I say truck bed, there are "buses" that are normal trucks with rows of seats on either side… **
So once settled at our hotel we took a shuttle truck that our hotel offers (only at awkward times) down to the main beach
on the island. The beach was absolutely gorgeous! The water was so clear you could see to the bottom even far out from shore. The island is very mountainous so it was a wonderful backdrop from the ocean looking in. I couldn't believe that I was spending my new years eve watching the sun set over such a beautiful beach. Definitely a great way to end a wonderful year. I had many blessing to count for 2011.
We were very excited for that night. Being able to count down to the new year on a beach seemed unreal. We got ready and waited for our hotel shuttle truck to collect us and take us down. Side note: the one and only road on this island is very steep and curvy due to the mountains. It's one heck of a ride. As we waited we met another esl teacher who was planning on meeting up with friends later on so she joined us for some dinner. All along the beach are restaurants with tables right there in the sand. If I could live on an island for the rest of my life I would! Listening to the waves
Paradise <3
on one of the islands on our snorkeling tour come in while enjoying a delicious western meal was really nice. There were also lanterns being sent away in the night sky every once and a while. Once we finished our delicious meal we walked over to the resort where her friends were enjoying a new year's show. We snuck in and joined them at their table. Only a few minutes later, they announced that adults had a chance to play the same balloon pooping game we learned just the day before. The 6 of us rushed to join the game. After a very intense game with other very competitive adults, Erika ended up being the winner! I have an amazing video of her triumphing. It was good that we got our practice session the day before because Erika won us two snorkeling passes! Before we knew it, it was almost midnight. Ringing in the New Years on a beach was very surreal. You could see the fireworks go off all around the island on the different beaches. I loved being able to feel the ocean water at my feet as I watched the fireworks explode all around. It was a sight to see! I loved seeing the fireworks reflect
Beach fire show!
I love the reflection in the water on the ocean reminding me that I was in paradise.
The next morning, to start off the new year right, Melissa, Erika, and I went kayaking around our bay. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the water. Our hotel offered free kayaks and we couldn't let that opportunity go to waste! It was a fun morning kayaking around. We ventured around and found some isolated resort beaches around the corner from us. I kept scaring Melissa with shark talk.. The water was deep! And warm! And they kept scaring me with Tsunami talks. Fair enough. 😊 The rest of the day Erika and I ventured around the island via moped. I let Erika drive as I held on to her for dear life during the ride. Her driving was very good but the roads were terrifying!
On our last full day in Koh Chang, we made use of our free snorkeling tour. It was a beautiful day for it as well. The tour took us to 4 different islands where they let us get out of the boat and snorkel around. I just love the water here in Thailand. You can
see so many things beneath the surface, it just takes your breath away. It was such a fun and relaxing way to spend the day.
That night, even though I was exhausted from being in the sun all day I ventured over to a local carnival/festival. It was neat. There were plenty of carni games and a stage for performances. Going home from this is where the story is. I took a moped home and half way there it started to rain. Remember, these roads are terrifyingly steep and curvy so just add water and it's a recipe for disaster. I just knew that I was in for something bad. Also note, when taking mopeds there are never any helmets available for the passenger. At the top of a hill, we saw a motorbike accident and there was a woman laying facedown on the pavement. The police weren't in any rush to help her (and she was obviously alive) so I thought that she was ok but it really sent a wave of reality my way. I instantly prayed for them and for my own safety on my journey home. I then text my friends who were
back at the hotel that I was on my way home and that it was raining. I just wanted to have some sort of note of where I was in case something horrible happened. There were cliffs! And it was dark! (not that that text helped, they didn't see it until the next morning) Literally, just about one minute after I sent the text we were going down hill, very slowly, and were making a left sharp turn when the motorbike lost traction and slipped from underneath us. I skid a few feet down the pavement and watched the motorbike slide down the mountain road as the guy ran chasing after it. Such a scary scene but could have been a million times worse. I had really bad road burn on my calve but that's it. There was a taxi-truck just behind us that saw the scene unfold. They offered me a ride but at then end of it I paid an overcharged fee to get back to my hotel. I was just glad to be on a four-wheeled vehicle. I came back into our hotel room to find Erika and Melissa sound asleep. Part of me wanted to wake
them up and tell them my story and show them my scars but instead I tiptoed to the shower and cleaned myself off. It burned so badly when the water ran across my road burn. I was so thankful that that's all that happened, it could have been really bad. Thank God, my driver was going slowly. Now this is just another story to scare my parents while I'm abroad and make them worry even more. Oh how I love torturing them!! Lol just kidding.
So my new years lesson. Live life to the fullest, watch that sunset, be thankful for everything I have, and remember that I'm not invincible. Very humbling. I pray that 2012 is an amazing year for everyone. Here is a good quote to live by, "Enjoy the little things in life… for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things." - Robert Brault
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0692s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
katie
non-member comment
considering teaching
Hi there! I'm considering teaching in Thailand and would love to talk to you more about your experience. Could we chat through email?