Skatbos in Thailand

Erawan Falls

Last weekend we met up with some friends and took a short 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Kanchanaburi Province.  For those of you who know your WWII history, this is where the Bridge Over the River Kwai was built, and thousands of American, Australian, English, Thai POWs were forced, by the Japanese, to build.  Not only is there a TON of history there, but there is also unbelievable waterfalls, temples in the mountains and in caves.

We spent all of Saturday at the Erwan Falls.  This is a park with 7 tiers of unbelievable waterfalls.  The hike is incredibly challenging but so worth a swim in the cool waterfall pools.  Actually swimming was the reward for the hot jungle hike.  The pools are full of some kind of fish and we found that if you don’t keep moving in the water they like to nibble your toes.  Some of you know that I don’t like the idea of swimming with fish, but I wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by.  After some coaxing I was in the water and didn’t stop moving until we were ready to get out!

One of the falls was over a smooth rock that people used as a water slide.  There is a similar sliding rock in NC, but the water in the Erawan falls in not nearly as

Nature's version of a waterslide.

cold and NC mountain streams.  We were all pretty muddy by the end of the day and exhausted!

The following day we made several stops.  We first went to the JEATH museum which is about the history of the Bridge of the River Kwai.  All 7 of us found the history pretty difficult to stomach.  Tim and I also realized how much our history classes lacked!

The next leg of our adventure took us to two amazing Buddhist temples in the mountains.  The first temples

Mountain temple

we saw (Wat Tham Seua, Wat Tham Khao Noi) after climbing 186 steps.  It was absolutely stunning (they all are) and over looked the country side and rice paddies.  This was one of the first places our group was

Tim ringing bells at the temple.

stopped by Thai people wanting their photos with us.

The Golden Dragon

Wat Tham Mangkon Thong is the cave temple of the Golden Dragon.  This temple can only be reached by climbing hundreds of stairs into the golden dragons mouth.  Eventually you reach a cave with a Buddhist shrine inside, but the stairs continue.  We all decided that we had already climbed a few million stairs, what’s a few more!  We eventually came to a little mountain look out with a Buddhist monk worshiping.  We were invited in and he gave us a Buddhist blessing.  It was a pretty neat experience, but our journey continued.  From the mountainous lookout there was a sign next to a very steep, jagged rocked path.

Looking up from inside the cave temple. (Meghan, Nadia, Milla, Andy)

Some Thai people were coming down the path and in Thai were telling us to go up…..so we did….barefoot.  (Shoes are not allowed inside Buddhist temples, therefore we left our shoes at the bottom of the mountain.)

The trek was extremely painful.  There was quite a bit of stumbling, cussing, and whimpering (in American, British and Canadian accents) as our poor little soft feet took a beating from the mountain rocks.  EVENTUALLY we made it to the mouth of yet another cave.  We had come this far, we couldn’t turn back now.  We decided to start the “decent” into this cave…..barefoot.  We could see a

The Buddhist monk who blessed our group.

light at the bottom and had read in 0ur guidebook that there was supposed to be a “floating nun” in one of the caves.  Apparently she floats in a cave pond while worshiping.  We did not find a nun or a pond or anything but an empty cave.  We all agreed it was worth it though and started our painful decent down the mountain, swearing at every sharp rock.

Meghan at the mouth of the cave.

Bridge Over the River Kwai

Our final stop was the Bridge Over the River Kwai.  Hundreds of people from all over the world were there to see this piece of history.  It doesn’t have a lot of fancy detail, it isn’t especially big or glamorous, but

Meg and Tim on the bridge.

the history of its existence deserves respect.  The 7 of us walked the bridge.  It was a pretty great ending to a packed weekend.

A new friend we made in Kanchanaburi.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

We recently had our first “guests” arrive from the USA.  Tim’s parents came for a quick 10 day trip.  We got to meet them in Bangkok for a weekend and took in some Thai culture and history while being treated to

Dave and Linda in a Tuk-Tuk

a SWEET hotel stay and great Western food.  We saw the Grand Palace with them, took in some shopping at a market and saw an amazing show, Siam Niramit.

After a few days in the big city, they came back to Krathumbaen with us.  They got to see our school and our little apartment.  They then spent a few days in Phuket and saw where we spent our first 3 weeks in Thailand.  I think they really liked the beaches, except for the nasty sunburn!  (Always wear sunblock in Phuket, the higher the SPF the better!)

We met them the following weekend and the 4 of us flew up to

Meghan about to lifted!

Chiang Mai.  We did a lot of shopping. Linda is amazing at bartering, I actually thought people might pay HER to take the merchandise.  We got to see the Chiang Mai zoo, (pandas, elephants, koalas, giraffes, etc.)  We took in another cultural show, took a river cruise, and hung out!

Dave and Tim had a great time with their cameras!  Linda and Meghan loved the cheap shopping!  We had a nice time, but by the end I think Linda was ready to leave the heat, humidity and street food behind.  You guys are

Chiang Mai Zoo, feeding the giraffes.

troopers!  Thanks for a great couple of weekends!

Chiang Mai Zoo, Tim with the 4 year old elephant.

Walking around Chiang Mai.

Tim, Dave, and Linda

Tim with one of his students.

Just in case you wondered if we actually work, I decided to post some stuff about school.  In all honestly, teaching has been extremely difficult for both Tim and I.  We have struggled with the fact that we really have no clue what is going on at our school.  We have never been given a semester schedule, therefore we have no idea when midterms or finals are.  Thai’s have an number of holidays that we don’t have and usually we find out a day or two before hand.  We are often “reminded” of events or projects we are supposed to complete by the next day, but nobody ever told us that there was an event.  It has been challenging.  As someone who likes rules, direction, and guidelines, these situations have REALLY ticked me off.  Tim keeps reminding me that maybe I’m supposed to learn to be more relaxed and go with the flow.  I’m trying…..really, really, trying!

The school open house, English Dept tent.

On the brighter side of things, we have had some pretty great stories to tell each other after classes.  Tim has a student who comes to class early.  Tim usually reads while he waits for the kids to arrive.  This boy

English Dept activities at the open house. (Tim and I heard about this the day before.)

will take out a book and sit right next to Tim until class starts, occasionally pointing to pictures and asking Tim to tell him the English word for the image.

I have a student, his nickname is James Bond, who loves the song, “You are my Sunshine.”  He asks me to sing it every Friday and we usually sing it together.  It’s really sweet!

Some of Meghan's boys in their Boy Scout uniforms, James Bond on the far left.

Our students are always yelling, “Hello Teacher”, “Good morning Teacher” which usually sounds more like “Goose Moaning Teacha”.  When we arrive to each class the students are directed by a fellow classmate to stand up and they welcome us to class.  Usually the instruction sounds like, “Stand Up Prrrease.”  After class the students stand up and yell, “Thank you Teacha!”  Some with enthusiasm and some not so much!

Students and English teacher Taveesak.

Recently we have had an opportunity to tutor one of Tim’s students after school.  He is interviewing for a scholarship to spend a year in South America.  His name is Metawe and he is SO smart and such a sweet kid.  Tim describes him as a sponge.  We tell him something in English, use it in the appropriate context and he knows it!  The scholarship he is after is a “Study Abroad Scholarship for the Needy.”  Basically, only poor kids may apply.  We are really rooting for him.  The one thing we find strange is that he is a Thai student, who excels in English, and they are sending him to a Spanish speaking country.  Ahhhh Thailand!

Students performing traditional Thai boxing (Muay Thai) moves at the open house.

This Wednesday is Mother’s Day in Thailand and also the Queen of Thailand’s birthday.  We have the day off and tomorrow there will festivities.  We love festivities……usually some classes are cancelled!  Anyways, Happy Mother’s Day!

We realized today that we only have 6 weeks of teaching left!  We have officially been in Thailand for 4 months.

The first is of our Visa run to Laos (sorry, these are from June)… beautiful place!  Check them out on the photo page, or click here.

The second is of a weekend of sightseeing in Bangkok from a few weeks ago.  Again, on the photo page, or here.

Watching the sunset. (Meghan, Kate, Amy, and her sister Kathy)

Okay, this is my last post on Koh Tao.  I really just want to share pictures with everyone.

Traveling in Thailand has been extra great since we met such a great group of people in our TESOL training course.

Another sunset from an amazing view.

We all bonded quickly and have shared the ups and downs of living abroad.  We usually meet up in Bangkok on the weekends but Bangkok doesn’t really have a relaxed atmosphere.  It was really nice to share our island fun with friends.  We really are so blessed!

I love this guy!

Rob and Tim, the faces say it all.

Blue Wind, our seaside home for 5 nights.

Our bungalow

They had two 6 week old puppies. I was in heaven!

Fresh seafood anyone?

Some "girls" we met. Actually we went to their cabaret show...very fun!

I’d like to say that I posted the pictures because people keep requesting more pictures, but actually it’s my way of pretending I’m still there.  Okay, back to reality Meghan.  You aren’t on the island anymore!

The crew waiting to snorkel!

While we were vacationing on Koh Tao we decided it was a must to do some snorkeling in the infamous waters of the island.  Our friend Rob spent 3 weeks on Koh Tao earlier this year.  Everyday he would say, “well, maybe I’ll stay one more day.”  After three weeks, he knows the island well and helped us select our excursions.

Megs and Rich

We took an all day boat trip to 4 snorkeling destinations around the island and ended up on Koh Naang Yuan, which is a private island.

Lots of fish (Meghan, Nadia, and Rob)

We saw beautiful coral, colorful fish, and lots of other sea creatures.  We took turns jumping off the boat into the ocean.  We soaked up a lot of sun and fun!  Since my hubby is an amazing photographer, it was hard to pick which photos to post.

Jumping

These guys know what they are doing!

Megs with the fish!

Koh Tao

So I know that my last post was a little sad.  So lets get back to talking about adventures.

Tim and I recently had a break from teaching. It was Buddhist Lent and they gave us 4 days off. Many of our Thai English teacher friends suggested Koh Tao (Turtle Island), and we decided they would know best.

Pics never do color justice, but check out that water.

We were THRILLED by our decision. Koh Tao is a small island that is very mountainous and known for it’s spectacular snorkeling and scuba diving. It’s the 2nd best diving location in the world, after the great barrier reef in Australia. We were pleasantly surprised by the cheap accommodations and great food. It’s a place that you want to take everybody you know, but at the same time, you hope nobody else finds it.

Tim and Rob (our Aussie friend) on their toys!

Because of the crazy mountains on the island there aren’t many paved roads. You need to have a truck or a 4 wheeler to get around. We decided to rent a 4 wheeler and explore the island on our own.

Meg hiking through the jungle after the roads got to dicey for the 4-wheeler.

Tim was ecstatic that he got to drive it and had a hard time parting with it after 2 days of adventuring through the jungle. I rode on the back and only had to get off and walk once. This was due to the fact that we decided it would be a fun idea to attempt to make it to the top of a mountainous dirt road that had been washed out by the tropical rain storms. Going up was scary, but okay. Going down was REALLY scary and I walked.

A great view from the top of a mountain.

The views we got to see at the top of the mountains were worth all the risk. We would drive along the “paths” and suddenly get a glimpse of a gorgeous turquoise bay surrounded by the green jungle.  We were able to make it down to a few of the bays.

The view of Hin Wong Bay.

My favorite was called HinWong Bay.  The shore is covered in big boulders.  There is a little restaurant where you can get refreshments, a light lunch, or rent snorkeling gear.  We did all three!  There are a few little bungalows on the side of the mountain and a pier/dock made of small tree trunks and large branches (real rustic).

Hin Wong Bay, a closer view.

At the end of the pier you can look into the turquoise water and watch the fish.  We decided to jump in and see what we could find.  It was spectacular.  The coral and colorful fish surrounded us.  I’m crossing my fingers that heaven is like this place!  At one point we realized that there were only 15 people there.

Drinks with friends on a bungalow porch. All English teachers.

We spent our evenings laying in the ocean and watching the sun set.  The water was very warm, sometimes hot, and calm.  After the sun would set we would head back to our bungalow to shower and then head to dinner.  We had seafood on the beach twice.  One night we had to move our chairs because the tide was coming in and getting our feet wet.

Some island bungalows.

The bungalow we stayed in was $10 per night.  It was a little cabin with a bed, mosquito net over the bed, a fan, a toilet, and shower (a hose on the wall).  That’s pretty much all you need when living on an island.  We are hoping we can end our trip with a few more nights on Koh Tao.

Here are a few videos from our 4-wheeling adventure!

More to come….

July 4th, we spent it with a Canadian, an Australian, and 4 British mates.

If you have been reading our blog you have seen that we have had some amazing adventures in Thailand. We’ve seen things that we thought only existed in pictures, both beautiful and a little scary. We are so grateful to be here, but we definitely have our days where we wish we could just go home.

This is a part of the adventure that we knew would come and go. We have made it past the hardest part, getting to know our town, dealing with a very different culture, the language barrier, etc. Those were obstacles that we knew we would encounter even before we left Chicago in March. Knowing that you are putting yourself in a very vulnerable situation is tough. We were able to laugh at our difficulties in the beginning, then we went through a stage of frustration and just being pissed off at everything. We are now at a stage where we just miss home.

The timing for this trip worked out well, but we are missing summer at home. The best part of the year. We are also missing out on some pretty major family events and situations. It’s hard! During the week we have quite a bit of down time. After teaching we spend a lot of time in our apartment reading, blogging, working on grad school applications, etc. The town we are in doesn’t have much to offer on the side of entertainment and the lack of sufficient sidewalks, traffic, and pollution make it difficult to go out for a jog, not to mention the heat.

To add to the frustrations Tim and I have been sick for about 6 weeks now. It started with Tim getting food poisoning, I then got Brochitis (they said it wasn’t the swine flu). Although I’m much better now, I am still occasionally coughing. Tim is now back on antibiotics because he has the virus/bronchitis that I had a month ago. We are trying to figure out if it’s just new viruses that our bodies aren’t used to, or the AC in our apartment, or the stress of such a big life change. Probably a combo of things.

We have never had this much down time in our LIVES! We are each reading about a book a week, I usually have a hard time reading a book per month. We are watching a lot of movies on our little laptop and have plenty of time to just be together and talk about the future. It’s really a blessing. Most of us crave that kind of time, but Tim and I can only do that for so long. We are hoping that after this round of antibiotics we’ll have the energy to explore this dirty little town of ours. Maybe there is a beautiful, tropical oasis just past the next palm tree.

That being said, it’s hard to believe that our trip is about half over. We left the middle of April and we are done teaching at the end of Sept. We’ll do a few weeks of traveling before making our way home.

Here are a few things that we miss.
1. The smell of homegrown tomatoes.
2. Sitting in a park or playing frisbee.
3. Fishing from the pontoons.
4. Time at the cabins in WI and MN.
5. Our niece, Eva, is growing so fast.
6. Apparently everyone is moving, we won’t know where anyone lives when we get home.
7. Chicago festivals, concerts, etc.
8. Having friends to see everyday.
9. Fresh air! (Chicago is not polluted…Bangkok is filthy.)
10. Driving…oh how we miss our pretty little 2000 Pontiac Grand Am. We call her Betsy Singer.

We have a lot to look forward to. Mosbos will be in Thailand in 13 days, Skattums will be here at the end of August and all the siblings + our friend Jed will be here to travel with us after we are done teaching. We are really looking forward to those trips.

(Image courtesy of www.thailand.net.au)

We’re heading to the island of Koh Tao in a couple of hours for a long weekend away!  We get Mon-Thurs off of school next week so we’re taking advantage and hitting the beach, baby! This island is known for being quieter and more laid back than most (hard to believe… they’re all pretty laid back). It’s also known for being a huge attraction for snorkeling and scuba diving. Can’t wait to checkout some amazing sea life.

We’ll head to BKK, take a 7 hr bus ride to Chumporn province and then tomorrow morning we’ll hop on a boat for 2-3 hours to get to the actal island.

During the trip, we might jump over to a sister island, Koh Phangang (sound like Panyang) for a night or two witness the birthplace of the full-moon party… just like any other party, only it’s on a beach in the moonlight on a night with a full moon and there’s a few thousand people there. Yikes!

For more info on Koh Tao, go here.

We’ll tell you all about it when we get back!

Tim and the reclining Buddha.

Tim and I have spent quite a few weekends in Bangkok now.  We usually use it as an escape from our little town (Krathumbaen) and visit our friends.  We decided a few weekends ago that we should do some “cultural excursions.”  We realize that living here we are immersed in the culture but we thought we should hit up some historical sites.

Thai people are Buddhist and there are temples (Wat) everywhere.  Most neighborhoods have a temple and they are hard to miss.  They are ornately decorated and usually very sparkly. (I like sparkles.)

Pretty nice yard huh?

In Bangkok we decided to visit Wat Po because it is well known for its reclining Buddha.   We got there and realized that Wat Po is more like a campus than a temple.  There was a lot to explore.  We spent about 2 hours wandering around.  Tim took A LOT of great pics.

Can you find Tim?

Everything was beautifully detailed and each area of the temple campus was different.

The structure you see to the left is decorated in mosaic style tiles.  All the flowers and detailed corners are actually 3 dimensional.  Other structures had colored mirror tiles that reflected the sun.

We ended our excursion with a greater  appreciation for the heat in Thailand.  It’s hard to do site seeing all day.  The heat really zaps your energy.  We found some ice-cream and were glad to jump into an air-conditioned taxi.

A close up, so you can see the 3D details.