Author: Kathryn Ashin

Mother’s Day celebration at school – my coworkers all put on their fancy white uniforms.  It was the only time I saw these uniforms all semester!

Me standing in front of the backdrop for the Mother’s Day ceremony.  The images are of the Queen of Thailand.  Notice the flags.  The ones on the left are the flag of Thailand, the ones on the left are the flag of the Queen.  Blue is the color of the Queen.  Also, Mother’s Day is on the Queen’s birthday.

My students in their military uniforms for presenting the photo of the Queen.

During the second part of the ceremony, mothers of the students of each class came on stage and accepted awards.

And after that, the students planted trees and shrubs all over the school campus.

For the long weekend created from Mother’s Day, Emily and I decided to visit Pai.  I like this description of Pai the best:  “Fresh air, green mountains, friendly Lanna people — no wonder so many hippies decided to settle in the quiet, riverside town of Pai, Thailand. Situated in the mountains just four hours from Chiang Mai, Pai is an accessible escape when the tourist hordes start clogging the moat around Chiang Mai.

We climbed up a few massive sets of stairs to get to this Buddha statue.

The “Grand Canyon” of Thailand.  Rather a stretch, but still a lovely little sight to visit.

Thai people are obsessed with things like this: A tourist destination with EVERYTHING strawberry.  Go figure.

We cruised on our rented motorbike to a waterfall, which was full of foreign tourists.

A view of the mountains from a cruise around the countryside.

Our accommodation:  A cozy little bamboo hut with a thatched roof.

It had a mattress on a raised surface, a mosquito net, a fan, a light switch, and two plugins.  At night, we slept to the sound of the crickets and bullfrogs.  It was lovely.

The bathrooms were “jungle style.”  Two closed off rooms, each with a toilet and a shower.  It was like fancy camping.  We loved it.

I got home from Pai just in time for a(nother) Mother’s Day Celebration.  There were performances on a big stage in the center of town, including from this group of adorable little girls!

I saw my landlady’s granddaughter, Deef, and grabbed her for a photo.  She is always happy to see me, and runs up and gives me a big hug.  We don’t understand each other, though, but she always jabbers away to me in Thai.  Such a cutie!

At the end of the celebration, we all lit candles and they turned off the lights.  They sang two songs for the Queen, then we put the candles in a little raised trough filled with sand.  It was a really neat experience to be a part of.

Every Thursday, I do a morning talk in front of the school assembly.  My topic this day was about shaking hands.  In Thailand, the formal greeting is the wai, where you press the palms of you hands together in front of your chest with your fingers pointing up and bow your head.  In this picture, I was showing that it is important to shake hands with a firm hand.  Floppy hands are baaaaaddd!

Practicing shaking hands with my student

I had a two week break right before the end of the school semester because my school was hosting a “soldier camp.”  I took the chance to travel!  The next four destinations are from this two week break.

I had heard about this fabulous temple near the town where my friend Emily teaches, and I was determined to visit it while I was in Thailand.  It was definitely worth the effort it took to get there!  I took a bus up into the mountains, got a ride on someone’s motorcycle to the temple, and on the way home, waiting for a bus, I was offered a ride back into town from a van full of lady monks.  What an adventure!  It was absolutely breathtaking.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking!

Enjoying nature along the way

I have no idea what these are, but they were like hallow, flimsy plant balloons.  So cool!

When I left Lom Sak, I headed up to northern Laos, to the city of Luang Prabang.  The road to Luang Prabang cuts through the mountains on a small, potholed, windy road, with cliffs often on one side or the other.  The air conditioning in my “VIP” bus broke down, and the lunch break took two hours since they were pulling apart and putting back together the engine.  At the end of the trip, we drove THROUGH a thunderstorm in the dark, in the rain, in the mountains.  It was one of the most stressful moments of my life.  All that said, it was absolutely worth it to get these views of the mountains.  Absolutely breathtaking.

My first destination in Luang Prabang was the Kwang Si Waterfall, and at the entrance of the waterfall was the Asiatic Black Bear rescue center.  It housed about a dozen adorable bears.

The path led you along the lower parts of the waterfall until you read the main spectacle.  The amount of water going over the falls was impressive with it being the rainy season.

The main falls!  To put it into scale, there is a man standing at the base of the falls on a small bridge on the left hand side.

See the small person in a blue shirt out on the bridge?  That’s me!

I went to a language center and participated in an English conversation swap.  I made friends with the girl on the left, named Mon, who was sassy and hilarious.  We had dinner together both nights I was in LP and I got to know her fascinating life story.

A group of novice monks visiting the Royal Cars Exhibition at the National Museum.  LP is known for having many young novice monks.  Every morning at 5:30 AM they walk the streets of LP and accept food donations from the locals.  It’s a pretty sight with their bright colored robes.

The Royal Palace of Laos, which is now the home of the National Museum.

The temple at the National Museum

I went the second night as well to the English swap.  I had a great time and really enjoying meeting young people in Laos!  Their spoken English was remarkably good.  They were asking me for definitions of words such as fire extinguisher, illiteracy, alibi, alter.  Very impressive.

Phimai is a small town in NE Thailand that has some beautiful, well-preserved ruins older and similar in style to Angkor Wat.  They are believed to possibly be the blueprint for the famous ruins in Cambodia.  I made the trip to see them.  This is a picture of me renting a bicycle from my guesthouse to cruise the town for the day!

The ruins didn’t let me down.  They were beautifully preserved and in a well-maintained park.  Being a person who appreciates aesthetics and being in a country where they often lack, I truly enjoyed visiting the historical park.

Since I was traveling alone, I got a little creative with the 10-second timer on my camera.

I went to visit their National Museum, but the indoor exhibit was under a complete remodel.  The outdoors exhibit, which was a collection of pieces pulled from the ruins, were open to the public.  Again, in an effort to entertain myself and record my visit, I got creative with the timer, dancing in the same style as the lintel behind me.

Then I went to visit the oldest and largest banyan tree in all of Thailand, which inhabits and small island in a river in Phimai.

The main trunk of the tree was tied in all the colored fabrics shown above.  This is to protect the spirit that lives inside the tree.

This is what a typical inter-city bus looks like.  The bus attendance was sitting on a little chair next to the open back down.  I was afraid he was going to fall out… though he’d clearly been doing what he was doing for a long time.

Khao Yai National Park is the oldest and most famous park in all of Thailand.  It is over 2000 square kilometers (800 sq miles) in size and houses 112 species of mammals, 209 species of reptile and amphibian, and 392 species of birds, as well as numerous insects and spiders.  I went on a guided tour and got to see some of these magnificent animals!

A pretty snake spotted in the trees by our guide.

We stopped for a quick dip in a cool spring.

Bats!

A tarantula lingering in the entrance of her burrow.

Another neat insect.

And a cool centipede.

For some reason, the guide felt compelled to put this enormous millipede on my neck…  And as he took it off, he explained that they are venomous but not aggressive, so they rarely bite.

Then we went to watch the bats leave their cave for the evening to go feed.

Lovely sunset over the mountains

They bats are insect eating bats, and when they leave the caves, they leave in a narrow line formation, and they tornado down to the low areas to feed on insects.  We watched them for the whole 45 minutes while the tens of thousands of bats left the cave.

On the second day, we found a pretty snake that was the same species as the white one we’d seen the day before.  This species are chameleons – they can change color!  But they change very slowly, over a matter of days, not instant like some animals can.

Got my leech socks on and I’m ready for some jungle trekking!

This snake is called a pit viper, and it is a venomous snake that is fairly common in Khao Yai.  We saw two.  The guide said he had just eaten because he was fat and sleepy.  I let the guide borrow my camera to get this up close shot. =)

A gibbon!

A cool horned beetle

The guide spotted a giant squirrel – they can grow up to 2 feet long!

A monitor lizard.  She was about 4 feet long… through they can grow to 6.5 feet long!  Yikes!

A large spider on her web.

The guide lured a scorpion out of her burrow and then we all took turns holding her.  I was terrified but this guide really knew how to control her movements and said the sting was not dangerous from this species.  Just painful.  Nobody was stung in the process.

Pretty fungi

A waterfall in the park

We spotted a handful of giant hornbills.  Enormous, impressive birds!

A type of deer that lives in the park

Macaque monkeys.  Like the ones I’d seen before, but a different species.  These ones are called pig-tailed macaques.

This was me with my two guides.  They were absolutely amazing at spotting and showing us different animals on the tours, and had answers to any questions we had about any of the animals.  They were wonderful, really educational tours. LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL

It’s my last week of school, and I gave the final exam in every class.  After the exam, we took pictures.  This picture is of my 1/1 class, who has been wonderful all semester.  They all showered me with little gifts of pages they colored and decorated with “I love teacher Erika!”

I don’t know if you can tell, but my eyes are all watery.  They love and gifts they showered over me completely overwhelmed me.  I’ll miss these little sweethearts.  This boy’s name is Toey.

This student offered to take a group photo, then spiced it up with the selfie.  Haha.  Class 5/4

1/5

Every Wednesday, I teach an English lesson to whatever teachers at the school want to participate.  After our final “teaching Thai teacher” they wanted to take photos with me!

Every Thursday morning before school, I do “gate duty” which means I stand by the main entrance and greet students as they arrive.  The students wai the teachers at the gate and wai the Buddha statue on the other side.

The students sitting during the morning assembly

The whole school sits through a 30 minute assembly every morning, where they sing the national anthem and raise the flag, sing the school song, and listened to the teachers give speeches.

Me giving my final morning talk.

4/1

During one of my off periods, a group of M1 students came and crowded around my desk.  They begged to see pictures of my mom!  I showed them her Facebook tagged photos and the crowd got so large that they were standing on chairs behind the first group to see.  They know true beauty when they see it! =)  This student was so excited when she saw this picture of my family that she wanted to take a picture of them.  I hope my family is okay that I’ve completely exploited them…

Some of my sweet little ladyboy students.

This is my friend New.  I spend most weekends and weeknights with him and his family.  I found some things I’d brought in case I was teaching children and I gifted them to him.  He got a stickerbook and two childrens books.  He was overjoyed to get The Lion King.

While I was gone on vacation, they got another cat.  Here’s New showing me their newest addition.

While cruising around town, I found a big group of students from my 3/1 class hanging out and eating together.  They pulled me in and had me try some tom kah gai that one of them made.  Delicious!  I was impressed by a 14 year old boy could make this yummy soup!

A typical night hanging out with my “adoptive” family.  Mae is cooking up some dinner and New has created a game where he shoots marbles with little milkboxes (like juiceboxes… but with milk) into goals made with milkboxes.  Life is simple and entertaining in this town.

I’m going to really miss this kiddo.  He has been my best buddy in this town.  Language barriers disappear when your games include playing with cats, paper airplanes, badminton, and tickle fights.

This week, I have class on Monday and Tuesday, and I will wrap up all my loose ends and say goodbye to my friends, students and coworkers.  On Wednesday, I’m traveling to Bangkok, and on Thursday, Emily and I are flying to Myanmar.  It’s time to say goodbye to this settled life and say hello to life on the road.  I’m incredibly excited for the travels to come.  We will see thousands of temples in Myanmar, the stunning Halong Bay in Vietnam, ancient Angkor Wat in Cambodia, busy Kuala Lumpur in multicultural Malaysia, modern Singapore, lantern festivals in northern Thailand, and much, much more.  I can’t wait.

And then, home.  I can’t wait to be home and see everyone I love and miss so much.  I can’t wait to have a proper cheeseburger.  And Mexican food.  And spaghetti.  And then I’m sure I’ll be crying for some Thai food again. =)

My friend Ell took me to a cool springs on a weekend day with her friend and her neighbor, Boo, and Boo’s son, New.  The picture below is of New playing in the spring water.  It was a wonderful escape from the incessant heat.

A sunset from over the lake in my town of Ban Phet.

Emily and I visited Khon Kaen, the largest city in Isan (NE Thailand).  There we saw the temples pictured below.  We’ve been to Khon Kaen a handful of times now.  It’s a good place for us to go to the movie theater and eat pizza, things we cannot do in our towns, and two things that we’ve discovered are hard to live without.

My wheels.  I’m renting this little beauty from a coworker.  For about a dollar a week in gas money, it gets me to school and back as well as to the next town over when I want to take a bus somewhere.  Having the freedom of a scooter is the best.

Those are colored chicks.  I have no idea why they are painted or why someone would want to buy a chick painted the color pink or green.  Add that to the list of things I just don’t understand in Thailand.

This is my friend Ell.  She is eating a frog.  The frog was boiled and cooked in some sort of stew, probably super spicy, and is eaten whole.  This is one of those moments were I look at her and say, “You are so Thai.”

A traffic jam on the way home from school.  Created by cows.  I live in the country, folks.

This is an image of Wai Kru day.  Wai Kru is a day that students show their respects to their teachers for all they do for the students.  The students gift large arrangements made of leaves and flowers to their teachers and bow before them, while the teachers wish them luck and pour love and support over the students.

Here is a pretty picture of some colorful mushrooms being sold at the daily market in Ban Phet.

Taking photos with students after school.  The student to the right of me has since shown me a mini slide show on her cell phone of pictures with me.  There were about 5 or 6 photos in the slideshow, and they were set to Thai music.  It almost made me cry.

When our visas were about to expire, it was time for Emily and I to go to Laos for a visa run.  Since we both have multiple entry visas, the process was simple for us.  Basically we had to do what we call a “border bump,” which means that we just had to leave the country and come back in.  We decided to make a weekend of it and visited the Laos capital of Vientiane, which is right on the other side of the border not too far from where I am teaching.

Being colonized by the French, Laos has a lot of French influence in their food.  Unlike Thailand, bread and cheese are common in the food supply.  I indulged in this with a plate of nachos for lunch.  This is pure chips, cheese, chicken, salsa and sour cream goodness.  I was in heaven.

Back in Ban Phet, I explored the outskirts of town (which literally meant I drove one road farther from the route I take to school) to find a pretty rice paddy field with cows and water buffalo grazing.  I truly love the peacefulness of being in the country, no matter where I am in the world.

Posing for another picture with students.

I stopped to take this picture from my motorbike on my way to the bus station in Phukhiao.  I admired the advancing rainstorm for a moment before speeding off to avoid the storm!

In late June, I went to Phi Ta Khon Festival in Dan Sai Loei with Emily and a bunch of her coworkers.  Phi Ta Khon is hard to explain, but there is a lot of music, food, and people in crazy masks.  Here’s a little copy-and-paste to help explain the festival:

The origins of this part of the festival are traditionally ascribed to a story of the Vessantara Jataka in which the Buddha in one of his past lives as a prince made a long journey and was presumed dead. The celebrations on his return were so raucous as to wake the dead.

I just had to include this picture of some students lounging around between classes.  There is no concept of a personal space bubble in Thailand, as shown from these boys.  These are all M5 students, probably 16 or 17 years old, and very comfortable with each other.  They just make me laugh.

I love my M1 students!  They are so adorable and lively and my classes with them are almost always completely enjoyable.  Do you see that one white girl in there?  Yeah, that’s me.

In preparation for the parade coming up for a Buddhist festival in Ban Phet, my coworker and friend Pooky taught some of the women of Ban Phet the dance they would be performing.  Pooky is pictured in the front of the line in the bright green shirt.  I participated and learned how to do the dance, and was showered with compliments on my abilities for it being my first time trying to do Thai dance.  (My mom keeps telling me not to get a big head because people aren’t going to shower compliments on me when I get home.  I know, I know.)

When the festival weekend arrived, Emily came out to visit my little town.  Ell took us to a temple Friday night to participate in a prayer ceremony at the temple.  We walked three loops around the temple with a group of people holding flowers, three sticks of incense and two burning candles.  When we finished the walking we placed the items on the stones pictured below.

After going to the temple, we went back into town, where they were holding an Isan concert.  Emily made some friends with some little boys while we watched the concert.  The picture shown below is of the little boy teaching Emily a Thai version of rock-paper-scissors where the winner smacks the loser’s hand… though Emily couldn’t figure out the details of the game.  The result was a lot of miming and laughter.

The following morning, at 4 o’clock in the morning, I drug Emily to the school with me, where I was made into a Thai princess.  Well, not really a princess, but I felt like it.  I was dressed in Thai clothing, including four different things attached to my hair, and had more makeup put on my face than I ever have before.  The end result was something that looked like it was from another world and another time altogether.

Pooky and I ready for the parade.

This is Pommy, the student who did my makeup.  He makes a beautiful woman, doesn’t he? =)  He also wore about 4 inch heels during the entire parade.  I was beyond impressed.

Me with the group of students who prepared together for the parade.  Aren’t they cute?

Here was my duty:  Hold the sign and smile.  The sign I held said the title of the dance they were performing behind me.  By the end of the parade, both my arms and my face hurt.  I’ve never smiled so much in my life.  But whenever I felt the smile turning into a grimace, I would see another familiar face – a student, a coworker, a friend – and the smile would become real again.  I had hundreds of pictures taken of me that day.  It was an incredible experience, and is something I will never forget!

Emily and I went for a cruise on my scooter and decided to stop and take pictures of people working in a rice paddy.  I was tentative, but as soon as we held up the camera and asked, they broke into huge smiles and agreed to pose for photos.  The lady in the green and pink stood and grinned the whole time we snapped photos.  We thanked them with a big khawp khun kah! before driving off again.

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to travel with the M2 students to a national park about four hours away.  The park is called Pa Hin Ngam National Park.  I arrived at the school at 6 AM where we loaded into four large charter buses and headed out.  The ride there and back were nonstop bumping Thai music and karaoke, and I discovered that I can sleep with blaring dance music playing in my face.  The picture below was taken before we left the school grounds.

The park was lovely.  It was on top of a mountain, and first we visited this great overlook of the valley below.  (Yes, this is the first time I’ve worn pants in Thailand.  It felt really strange to have my legs covered.)

The sign below says maybe the name of the lookout (I’m guessing here) and the height of the location.  It said 800-something meters.  So we were up high!

Next we hiked along a path to get to the flower field.  There was a clear path but this group of boys were jumping rock to rock along the side of the path.  I let my inner child out and joined them.

I also spotted this large centipede thing along the path.  It was probably 3/4″ thick and 6 inches long.  I’ve been collecting images of everything creepy and crawly… it will deserve its own blog post by the end of the trip.  The pictures are inspired from my cousin Brody, who looked up everything deadly and dangerous in Thailand before I left.

The flower fields at Pa Hin Ngam National Park.

The last attraction at the park was a field of these limestone formations.  The one pictured is a favorite because of its likeness to the World Cup trophy when pictured from the right angle.

We had two days of sports competitions at our school during school hours.  Although class pretty much screeched to a halt, I got to watch some fun sporting events, and discover a new sport altogether.  The sport below is called Sepak Takraw, and it’s basically volleyball played with your feet and a medium-sized hard plastic ball.  The coolest part is when they go for a kill – they basically do a backflip and kick the ball in midair to send it rocketing down on their opponent’s side of the court.  You can block the kill with your body.  This is what is happening in the picture below.  It was really neat to watch.

Again with the lack of space bubble.  These three boys, who are actually sort of the trouble kids of their grade, have no problems sharing a chair while watching the sepak takraw match.

I was invited to join this group of teachers for dinner and karaoke for the guy in the blue’s birthday.  He had a few drinks with dinner and was having a great time at karaoke.  I previously was clueless my town had karaoke until this night.  It’s just a small room next to a restaurant in town with two wooden benches and a TV with karaoke videos on it.  Nothing in English, unfortunately, so I was unable to participate.  Thai people have absolutely no problems grabbing that mic and singing in front of other people.

On Wednesdays, we wear orange at my school.  With the black pants and skirts, I feel like every Wednesday is Go Beavs Day.

Ell and I.

This is my boss’s niece, June.  She is my favorite baby in all of Thailand.  She just turned 1 last month.  She is happy and chunky and sweet as can be.

Believe it or not, I grilled steaks.  It’s the only time I’ve ever had beef in my town, and will probably be the last.  Ell’s fiance Riku came from Finland and we bought some steaks and potatoes and feasted like true westerners.  It was glorious.  Though watching the Thai people that ate the steaks I grilled was pretty funny.  They were pretty iffy about the whole thing.

The board says “Mattayomsuksa 2/3 love teacher Erika Wilmes”  Awwwww.

Cute little Thai baby!

My mom sent me a care package, and it was glorious.  Thanks, Mom!

I wanted to take a picture of the food spread, and my coworkers all leaned in for a photo.  Thai people love taking pictures.  The meal was all sorts of strange Isan food, most of it stinky and bitter and spicy, all hallmarks of true Isan food.  I was asked to join, so I ate some rice and politely picked at some of the dishes, settling on stir fried vegetables and raw cucumber slices.  I’ve never been such a picky eater before.

One day, while chatting with Pooky at school, I mentioned that I wanted to learn how to make Pad See Ew, my favorite Thai dish that is wide rice noodles with vegetables, egg, pork, and flavored with soy sauce.  The next thing I know, I’m getting a cooking lesson from the school’s volleyball coach.  It was awesome, and he said I can come back whenever I want!  Did I mention how wonderful and generous the people in my town are?!?

More adorable M1 students.

These little rubber band bracelets are all the rage right now.  These have all been gifted to me from students.  Awwwwww.

For as difficult as some of my students can be, walking into my class and seeing this sure makes me happy.

Saying goodbye to my good friend Emily!  She’s only a couple hours away in Lom Sak, and I’m sure we’ll be visiting each other and traveling together!

Almost immediately, I was taken in by the town.  I made friends with two key people – Pooky and Ell. Pooky teaches computer classes at the same school, and Ell has an internet cafe in town.  Both take care of me, feed me, make sure I am happy and comfortable.  They take me into town when I need to buy something.  They speak some of the best English in my whole town, besides some of the English teachers at the school.  I don’t know what I would do without them.

My room in Ban Phet when I first arrived – a bed, a closet, a desk, and two chairs.

The closet has more room than I need with my limited clothes.

My bathroom – a toilet and a tub of water.  I use the tub of water and a small handled bowl to take showers, flush the toilet, wash my hands, wash dishes, wash clothing, etc.  And if you’re concerned about the water being cold, don’t worry.  I’m always up for a cold shower in this country, and the water warms to room temperature anyways.

Meet my friend Deef.  She is my landlady’s granddaughter.  She is four years old and she is hilarious and friendly.  Whenever I am around, she runs into my room and crawls up on my bed and chatters in Thai.  Of course we don’t understand each other, but we’re still buddies.

On day two in Ban Phet, an air conditioning unit was installed in my apartment.  It was totally unexpected and totally appreciated.  Now I have relief from the heat and I can sleep soundly.

Deef took this picture for me.  On the right is my landlady.  I can’t remember her name, but I call her Big Mama, and she thinks it’s hilarious.  On the left is Patty, her daughter.  Patty is 18 years old and graduated from high school last year.  In August she will be leaving for university.  She speaks a tiny bit of English and is sweet but painfully shy, and she normally only uses English when she really needs to communicate something with her.  Big Mama doesn’t speak any English at all.

The day before school started, I was taken to school to get my class schedule and meet my bosses.  Most foreign teachers will hardly meet their School Director, but I took photos with mine on the first day.

And another picture with the rest of the consultant team from MediaKids, the agency through which I am hired.  From left to right is Dayna (curriculum consultant, British), me, Yok (placement consultant, Thai), the director, Eye (HR staff from MediaKids, Thai), Joe (curriculum consultant, British) and Miaw (placement consultant, Thai).  My team is great and responsive and there for me when I need a hand or have a question.

My schedule!  I have 26 classes a week, which is more than most, and I also teach all six grades in the high school, since I’m the only foreign teacher.

In Thailand, school works like this – three years of kindergarten, six years of primary school, and six years of secondary school.  High school is called Matthayom, so I teach Matthayom 1-6.  This is the equivalent of 7th grade through seniors in high school.  It makes for an interesting and varied schedule. Not to mention a busy one!  On Mondays I see one M1, two M2 classes, one M5 and one M6.  On Tuesdays I have one M1, three M3 classes, one M5 and one M6, and so on.  I have some friends who teach in bigger schools and teach less grades but more classes of each grade.  For example my friend Emily only teaches M1 and M6, so about 10 classes per week of each.

My first night in Ban Phet, I was sitting in my room when someone knocked on the door.  That was when I met my friend Pooky.  His Thai nickname is Pook, he explained to me, “but you can call me Pooky.”  I hung out with him my first few days in Ban Phet, and he showed me around town.  On the first night, I went with him and his friends to a festival at the temple in the next town over, and the next night, I went to a concert at the same temple.  Pooky’s friends are all ladyboys, which means that they are very feminine men who like to dress up like girls.  And yes, they like to date boys.  No surprise there.  I had a blast hanging out with his friends, who are super friendly and goofy.

The concert was a traditional Thai concert, and the costumes were fabulous.

Pooky and I

Pooky’s friends.  Don’t let looks deceive you – they are all men.  The two on the left are wearing wigs and women’s clothing.  Including high heels!  I might have mentioned it before, but in Thailand, all sexual orientations are completely acceptable.  From a very small age, kids are able to choose how they want to be, and that is completely okay and normal.  I think it’s awesome.

Pooky had me and his friends over for dinner one night, and we sampled all of the foods sold are the market.

This was dessert – the solid pieces are gelatinous in texture and they are served in a milky sweet sauce.  It was served cold – almost frozen.  Delicious!

My favorite restaurant in Ban Phet.  It’s open air because, well, there’s no need for walls.

The first week of school was dedicated to introductions and making of nametags.  Here was my script for my introduction:

My name is Erika Wilmes. (have them repeat the name)  You can call me Teacher Erika.  I am from America. (point to it on the map) I am from Oregon. (point to it on the map)  I like volleyball (act it out) and basketball (act it out).  I like Thailand. (this always got a big smile and ohhs and ahhs).  The food is delicious (act it out, and if they looked confused, giving a few examples of Thai dishes I like – pad thai, pad se ew, kao pad, etc) and the people are friendly.  In this class, we speak English and have fun! (smile big and point that all my students are smiling)

I recorded all my student’s names and nicknames and took a picture of each student.  In Thailand, children are given a name and also a nickname at birth.  The nicknames are typically shorter (and easier to pronounce).  Here are some examples of what my students look like:

M6

M5

M5

M5

M1

M5

M5

They love me.  It’s completely unjustified.

I eat dinner at Ell’s house almost every day.  Here is a good example of what we eat – white rice, sauteed pork and green beans, a fried egg, and some other noodle and egg and soup dishes.

On a night where I didn’t eat with Ell, I went to the market to buy food.  I ended up buying “pizza” (I quote it because it was hardly pizza… the topping was mostly mayonnaise, not cheese.  Yikes!).   These girls were at the pizza place (maybe their mom runs it?).  They are M5 students at my school.  They got all nervous and silly around me, but posed for a quick picture.  You can see the pizza stand on the right.

A student asked me for a picture after class, so I obliged, of course, and got one on my own camera as well.

M4 students diligently working on their nametags.

Here is my office.  My desk is the one on the front right.

The rest of the office area.

My classroom!  Eventually I’d like to decorate the boards.  Haven’t gotten there yet.

The schoolyard from my room.

Some students at school.  The dog pictured on the left is a stray.  Lots of strays in Thailand, and most just mill around and wander wherever they please.

The court where morning assembly is held every day.  There is a stage in the center where speakers stand and a statue of Buddha on the left.

Princess Chulabhorn is visiting on Friday, and here is the helicopter pad put into place for her arrival.  More on her visit later on.

The indoors assembly hall.

The cafeteria.

Students riding on a motorbike through campus.  That’s three full-grown sized Thai men on one bike.  Not an uncommon sight.

On Thursday, after mounting political tensions, the military took over the country, suspending the Constitution.  Thailand has a long history of (generally peaceful) coups, and this one is proving to be no different.  As a result of the coup, all schools in Thailand were cancelled on Friday.  I seized the opportunity of a rare 3-day weekend to visit my friend Kathryn in Sukhothai.

M, Kathryn and I on a scooter.  M is Emily’s agent, but she is more of a friend than anything!

On Saturday, we went to a waterfall.  And by waterfall I mean a trickle of water that occasionally accumulates into pools of water big enough and deep enough to swim in.  But the water was cold and felt great.  Also, I should mention that Sukhothai is the hottest province in Thailand.  If Thailand is an oven, then Sukhothai is the surface of the sun.  The kind of heat where you actively sweat at rest in the shade.  The only relief is cold water and air conditioning.

Mountains on the way to the waterfall.

A typical house in the countryside.

Cruising on the scooter with M!

The rocks were broken off in really neat formations along the creekbed to the waterfall.

This is the biggest pool and the spot where we spent the afternoon.  All of these kids were high school age, and most of them were from the school where M taught.  They were being typical young kids – laughing and joking and jumping into the water from too high of heights that made us nervous.

Do you see that slanted rock in the middle?  It functions as a waterslide.  I showed curiosity and one of the girls showed me how to get up there and slide down.  It was fun!

Vines hanging everywhere.  I made this one into a swing.

This is M’s house.  The ground floor is like a house on stilts, with a kitchen in the back and the rest an open air area.  the upstairs has the bedrooms and a bathroom.

Kathryn and Murray kept raving about how they make fried flowers, so we made some on Saturday night.  We dipped them in a lime-chili sauce.  Yummmm.

On Sunday morning, before I caught a bus back to Chaiyaphum, they took me to Sukhothai Historical Park.  Sukhothai is one of the old capitals of the Thai empire, and we went to visit the ruins of the old city.  It was beautiful and ancient – about 700 years old.  The structures were built from brick, mud, and stone, and were quite impressive, even after the elements chipped away at them for 700 years.

After visiting the ruins, we grabbed my bags and dropped me off at the bus station.  I took this picture waiting for the bus to arrive – I was in a complete sweat from my strenuous morning of riding on a motorcycle and very leisurely walking around the ruins.  Once it cooled, it crystallized into salt crystals.

This is a view from the bus window on the way back to NE Thailand.

I caught this picture of a large Buddha statue against the sunset on the way home.

And back to class on Monday.  I think these students are M2.

Laundry day at my house!  Also, the outside of my apartment got a paint job, and I learned that I live at 54/4.  Haha.

My room after a little makeover – they installed a curtain separating the front of the room from the back – that way only the front part is kept cool from the A/C.  Also, I bought a shelf, a comforter, and a nightstand.  I spent 1900 baht on the shelf, which was by far the biggest purchase.  That’s about $58.  It’s nice to have somewhere to put my things!  I also bought a mirror that I hung on the opposite wall.  Now I can see myself when I put on makeup!

Feeling much more homey.

This is my friend Ell and her neighbor, New.  He is adorable.  And shy around me.  He always rolls his eyes when I say something about him, and cheeses back when I smile at him.

Erika written in Thai!

That is all for now!  I will write another post soon – we are having a royal visit at my school on Friday, and you can feel its effects rippling all around the town.  I will take lots of pictures and tell you all about it!

Ryan and Emily were excited that we’d made it to the caves!

The trail

The view of the beach along the hike.

I thought this was really awesome – it was the site of an ancient underground stream that slowly closed itself off by depositing silt.  What was left behind was a really cool formation!

In the first part of the cave, the ceiling had fallen in in two spots, letting light in and letting all these plants grow!

Breathtaking!

On our way back from the caves.  We called a taxi and were expecting large vans, but 2 songteaws came to give us a ride.  we had about 15 people in each one.

Here’s an image of the king and queen of Thailand as a young couple.  Images of them are all over the country – in all houses, buildings, large posters out on the streets, along the highways, in front of markets.  They are very well respected in Thailand.  They are now much older – in their 80’s I believe – and they live in Hua Hin.

At the night market, posing with the lady who makes my favorite coconut milk tasty treats!

Overlooking Hua Hin.

Before we left Hua Hin, we wanted to check out the Dinosaur Market.  It was a neat market, mostly with wholesale foods for sale.  We were the only non-Thai people in the market, and got smiles from the locals when we took pictures of their items for sale.

Mystery food.

Oink, oink.

Chicken feet

Then comes the time for goodbyes.  Our TESOL course ended on April 24th, and we parted ways with all the friends we made along the way.

A group picture with the employees at our favorite restaurant in Hua Hin.

The TESOL class of April 2014.

Me with my awesome, crazy TESOL course instructor, Jaco.

After graduating, we decided to treat ourselves with fish pedicures and massages!  (Fish pedicure = letting little fish eat the dead skin off your feet.  Kind of freaky.  I could hardly handle the tickly sensation!)

This was the outfit I had to wear for my Thai massage.

Cute little elephant towel creations.

The day after I graduated the TESOL course, I was shipped to Bangkok for the day to participate in a English Camp.  I ran a class by myself where we “made ice cream” which means we froze syrup in little bags and then ate it.  It was quite the experience!  The kids could hardly understand me and I ran through my material in 20 minutes when I had a full 60 to entertain the kids.  Yikes!

After making ice cream, I was assigned to the class of 5th graders and made hats with them.  This boy was willing to ham it up for a pictures with me!

When I got back to Hua Hin from English Camp, Emily and I set out on a mission to wring Hua Hin dry of every last adventure possible.

Adventures started that night by going to El Murphy’s, and Irish/Mexican bar with a kick-ass band that plays every night.  They called for requests, and I called for Guns N Roses.  The lead singer was awesome, and killed it!

Then we woke up the next morning early to watch the sunrise.

That day, we went to the Black Mountain Waterpark.  It was awesome!

Strangely, for a country with no rules, we had to wear helmets to go on the waterslides.

After the waterpark, we went to check out the train station in Hua Hin.

The station is supposed to look like a gingerbread house, and is something that the people of Hua Hin are very proud of!  It was so cute!

Walking home from the bus station, we saw the fire station in Hua Hin.  This one is for you, Kai!

Riding the songteaw home, we pulled up to someone’s house and they put a TV in the back with us.  Haha.

Goodbye, Baan San Pluem, our home of four weeks.

My bags all packed!

The crew at Baan San Pleum getting ready to leave!  The lady in orange was on the staff of our building.

Then we loaded into the fifteen seater van with all our luggage.  Being small and not prone to carsickness, I took the back corner seat with the luggage.

I was placed in my school through an agency called MediaKids, and were required to attend an orientation with them in Bangkok the week after our TESOL course was done.  My roommate, Emily, was placed through the same agency, in fact, the same region of the same agency, so we packed up our bags and headed to Bangkok for a week.  The orientation was held in the Sudapalace Hotel, which looked spiffy from the outside… but super dated on the inside.

This was the, uh, “nightstand” between the beds.  The knobs were once wired to the radio and light switches.

Here’s the lovely bathroom.  On the fourth morning, we woke up to a massive water leak running down the wall near the sink.  It was the one night I didn’t leave electronics charging in the plugin in by the sink.  Thank goodness!

We had two free days before the orientation started, so Emily and I, along with our friend Chloe,  decided to see the sights of Bangkok.

I found a massive pile of rambutan!  In Thai, rambutan = ngaw, but I don’t think I’ll ever pronounce it correctly.

We took a water taxi to the temples.

There is a strict dress code in the temples, as shown by this poster.  Basically, keep your body covered to your knees and over your shoulders.

The following are pictures of inside the Grand Palace complex, which includes Wat Phra Kaew.  On display inside Wat Phra Kaew is the Emerald Buddha, a 1.5-foot-tall statue of a Buddha carved from one single piece of green precious stone (nephrite).  (Wat = Temple)

Wat Phra Kaew, home of the Emerald Buddha.  Of course, we couldn’t take pictures inside, because it is too holy a site.

The artwork on some of the buildings was a 3D mosaic of painted tiles

After seeing all the sights within the Grand Palace, we headed next door to Wat Pho, which houses the Reclining Buddha, as shown below:

Each Buddha was unique to the next.

We found some sweet corn after visiting the temples.  Yummmm.

And after the temples, we met up with Emily’s friend Johan, who works at the Dutch Embassy in Bangkok, and he took us to a neat little outdoor restaurant.

The orientation with MediaKids was four days long, and covered topics such as language and culture, curriculum, classroom management, etc.

As part of the cultural orientation, they brought in dancers to show us a traditional Thai dance.

Also, did I mention that we have a uniform to follow?  Black skirt to the knee, white blouse, and lovely MediaKids blue scarf.

After orientation was done, we had a full 13 days until class started, so I started making arrangements to head down to the island of Koh Tao to get my PADI scuba diving certificate.  Emily decided to join me, and our journey together continued. =)

Rock formations on the way out to Koh Tao

Our bungalow on Koh Tao

The bungalow had a porch…

… two beds, and a bathroom.  Simple and perfect.

We did our course with Sairee Cottage.  This is a picture of their pool, which is used simultaneously as a guest pool and a training pool.  We spent five hours here the second day of the course practicing skills.

Sunsets from Sairee Beach were absolutely breathtaking.

Emily and I had dinner on the beach.

One of the best meals yet.  Kebab, salad, baked potato, corn on the cob.  Mmmmm.

And while we had dinner, we enjoyed the fire show.

Here was the sunset the next night, with some Thai kids playing on a floatie in the warm, shallow water.

Don’t let the sign fool you.  He’s actually selling what they call “rotee” which is basically a dough they stretch out and fry with different fillings.

Emily and I after finishing our final dives.  We are PADI certified open water scuba divers!

Taking the taxi boat back to the shore from the diving boat.

Our view from lunch.  Who could ever get tired of this?

I wandered into a bookstore and found these cute kids tearing up the shelves.  Their mom (or aunt? or cousin?) was sitting in the back, watching TV.

Emily and I went on a hike one day to the north end of the island and found this cool lookout place. There were people snorkling down in the water, but we just hung out and enjoyed the sunset.

Cool little crabs crawling on the rocks.

I loved this shot – see the words “farango” and “gringo”?  Farang = white person in Thai, and Gringo = white person in Spanish

The night after getting my scuba cert, we went to a nice restaurant to have dinner and watch our scuba film they made during our final dives.  I splurged on a ribeye steak.  What see on top is garlic butter.  I was in heaven.

The last day on the island, we went across to the east side of the island to Tanote Bay.  It was remote, quiet, and beautiful.  We spent the whole day snorkling, sleeping and laying around.  In the shade.  We had had enough sun at this point.  The snorkling in this bay was amazing.  We saw tornadoing barracudas hunting schools of small shiny fish, schools of colorful parrotfish and other kids of fish feeding on algae off the rocks.  I saw a large triggerfish and made sure to stay out of his territory.  We saw Christmas Tree Worms, awesome little things that look like they came straight out of the movie Avatar. (Look them up on YouTube.  Seriously cool.)  It was an awesome day, and a perfect way to spend our last day on Koh Tao.

A panorama of Tanote Bay.

People would climb up this rock and jump off the end on the right of this picture.

And, the sunset over Sairee Beach once more.  Ahhhh.

Leaving Koh Tao.

After Koh Tao, Emily and I headed to Lom Sak, the city where she will be teaching English.  When we got here (which took a 2-hour catamaran ride, an 8 hour bus ride to Bangkok, one night’s sleep in Bangkok, then another bus ride to Lom Sak, this one 6.5 hours long, with a few more hours sprinkled in there waiting between buses)… when we got here, we heard music down the street, and went to check it out.  There was a festival going on, a festival that happens every Saturday night, and there was music, food, clothing, and toys for sale.

The event is called “huglomsak.”  Cute.

Men welding a knife

The river is a little low.  We imagine it will rise when the monsoon season starts.

Emily’s Thai teacher took us out for dinner to a Thai BBQ.  There are coals below the cooktop, and you serve yourself pieces of raw chicken, pork, beef, and seafood and cook them on the grill.  There is soup in the sides of the cooktop, so you can throw veggies in there to boil.  The meal was buffet style, and we could eat as much as we wanted.

You know you’ve been in Thailand for long enough when you start protecting yourself from the sun like the locals do.  (Thanks, GMC, for the umbrella!)

We found lunch at a little restaurant.  We were served a plate of noodles and ate it with different sauces that were on our table in pots.

So! That’s where I’m at in my journey.  I’m still with Emily in Lom Sak now, but tomorrow I’m moving to Ban Phet, the town where I will be teaching.  It’s just over two hours away by car.  School starts on Friday.  My life is about to change drastically, and being in Lom Sak is a good transition to getting there.  We have already gotten a lot of attention for being foreigners in a small town.  Emily’s Thai teacher knew we had gone to the Big C supermarket because her brother had seen us here and phoned her.  We went to dinner last night and the restaurant owner excitedly called his son who spoke English to come to the restaurant and make sure we got the right food and to talk to us in English.  We had a tour of Emily’s school, and she’s starting to get an idea for how things will work for her teaching responsibilities.  I’m nervous and excited.  I’m nervous for seeing how I handle life without A/C, I’m nervous for teaching, I’m nervous for what my apartment will be like.  I’m excited to see my town, to finally be in a place where I can unpack and settle in, I’m excited to meet people and find food vendors that I like.  It will be a mad journey, and I’ll try to keep you all in the loop as it happens.  Wish me luck!

Chatuchak Market

My purchases on day 1 – a dress, a fan, sunglasses, three pairs of earrings, and a bag of little mangos.  I’m pretty sure I spent about $30 total.

Driving from Bangkok to Hua Hin

Rice paddies

My first pad thai in Thailand… The first of many.

Mango and sticky rice = new fav

Washed up stingray

Beach in Hua Hin

Military boat off the coast of Hua Hin.  The Thai King is living at his palace in Hua Hin right now, and there are several of these military boats off the shore near the palace.

A buddhist shrine statue, in Chinese style.

Kite-surfers in Hua Hin.

Pony rides on the beach

A lobster at the Night Market.  It was enormous!

More goodies at the Night Market.  These are little waffle things with coconut and lemon.  So tasty.

It’s hard to explain the motorcycle culture in Thailand.  Motorcycles or scooters make up about a third of the vehicles on the road, and they often carry an entire family, as shown here – mom, dad, and two little ones.  It’s really quite impressive.

Stray dog in Hua Hin.

Here is the classroom where we are taking our classes.  It’s a “typical” Thai classroom, complete without air conditioning.  Thank goodness for the oscillating ceiling fans.

Lunch at my favorite restaurant.  This day was chicken Panang curry with rice and a mango smoothie.

This is one of my favorite dinner places.  It’s a little foodcart they pull in at night, and it serves the most simple and delicious pad thai.  A plate of the delicious stuff is 35 baht, which is just over a dollar.

Here it is – pad thai.

Here is the songteaw (bus) we took on our excursion day.

This is Jaco, my awesome TESOL instructor from South Africa.

A man giving his dog a bath

This is inside the Buddhist temple we visited last week.

A large-bellied Buddha outside the temple – this style of Buddha is chinese.  The Thai Buddhas are tall and skinny, and are often standing.

The view from the temple.

A typical Thai Buddha.

Climbing to the Buddha on the top of the hill… barefoot.  We spend a lot of time barefoot in Thailand – in the classroom, in the temples, on the beach.  When it’s 90 degrees out, it feels pretty good to be without shoes.

The Buddha on the top of the hill.

The view from the top.

A picture of my entire TESOL class.  There are about 30 of us, primarily from the US and South Africa, a few people from the UK and Canada.

Crammed in the songteaw on the way to the pineapple farm.

Pineapples!

There were also honeydew melon for sale at the pineapple farm.  I love how they leave the vine on.

Creeper shot of an adorable Thai girl.

Lunch.  A simple soup with broth, thin glass noodles, pork, bean sprouts, and green onions.

Dessert at my favorite gelato shop near the school.  This day, I got mango (bottom) and Thai tea (top) flavors.  Mmmmm.

Fried sweet potato goodies at the Grand Market.

On Thursday, we went to a Muay Thai class.  This guy was the buffest Thai man I’ve seen, and he was a blast to train with.

The whole class at Muay Thai.

Me, Emily, Kathryn, and Fallon treated ourselves to a nice dinner after going to the beach on Thursday.

Drinks and seashells.

A eat a lot of cut-up fruit here.  There are street vendors everywhere selling fruit – mostly pineapple, mango, green mango, roseapples, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

On this day, we unknowingly wandered into a Vietnamese restaurant.  The meal with boiled chicken and rice, cucumbers, sauce, and chicken broth, as well as some not-so-palatable chicken parts on the side.  We think they were liver and heart, but no one is for sure.  We left the questionable parts on the plate.

Pepsi, written in Thai.

The class with our amazing and beautiful Thai language teacher.  She is the stunning one behind me in the white top.

Another plate of pad thai from my favorite street vendor.  Did I put two pictures of this on here?  It’s THAT good.

On Friday night, we went to a Thai movie party at Michael and Bpang’s place.  Michael is the Managing Director of Xplore Asia, the company who is training and placing us.

Inside Michael and Bpang’s house.

After the movie, we went out dancing.  On the left is Victoria, one of the girls in my class.  On the right is a guy/girl we were dancing with.  There are a lot of guys who are girls and a lot of girls who are guys in Thailand.  It’s culturally acceptable to be anyone you want to be.  It’s pretty awesome.

Getting our dance on.

I took a motor taxi home.  Don’t worry Mom, I made him promise to drive SLOW.

Spring rolls

Garlic chicken

Here’s the little restaurant where we had lunch on Monkey Beach.

Monkey!

Monkey Beach is next to Monkey Mountain, which is literally a mountain covered in monkeys.  I researched it and I believe they are crab-eating macaques.  They are not aggressive unless you aggravate them.

Fallon loving life on Monkey Beach.

Monkey Mountain

Monkey Beach

Monkey Beach

Litte sand crabs.  Each crab is about the size of my thumbnail.

These castings are from a sandworm.

Thai Buddha

Fallon taking a picture of monkeys on the roof of a bathroom on Monkey Mountain.

A big, beautiful plumeria bush.  I can’t get over how beautiful these are.

A man sharing his ice cream bar with monkeys on Monkey Mountain

For a small donation, you could feed these cows owned by the monks.  Look at their cute floppy ears!

Some monkeys taking a nap.

Bells by the temple on top of the hill.

Kathryn and I from the top of the temple.  We were given sarongs to cover our bare legs, thus showing respect for the temple.

The temple

Some monkeys grooming each other…

… and eating leaves.

Looking up the stairs to the temple

Someone fed the monkeys a basket of bananas and fruit, and they went crazy.

A momma monkey with her infant baby.

Look at that baby’s face!

So far, this has been an incredible journey.  I’m starting to experience and understand the Thai culture. The people are inexplicably friendly and warm.  They value the good of the community over the good of the individual.  Everyone pitches in – for example, at dinner last night, the four year old daughter was serving our dishes while her dad cooked them.  The pace of life is a little slower than our Western pace, which is probably mainly due to the heat.  Harmony is valued above all else, which is why the people smile so much… even when they don’t feel like it.  The king of Thailand is adored by the Thai people more than you can even imagine.

Week one was everything I could have hoped for.  Now it’s time to dig into the coursework and get ready for the teaching responsibilities that are coming.