Tales from the Road

Swatdeekha! We just got back from our week vacation. We went to Ko Samui and Ko Tao two islands near us. We didnt do much besides bum around on the beach and eat foreign food. It was pretty relaxing. The only upset was on Ko Tao (a small island farther out from Samui that is known for its diving courses). We stayed on the beach in what seemed like a great local, except in the middle on the night there'd be all sorts of noise from the beach and the road behind us. The second night some people decided to set off a bunch of fireworks at 3 am. Justin went out to talk to them and they told him remorsefully that he had missed the show, and to come back Friday night for the next one.

We found out on our trip that we won't be teaching at the Donsak high school like we thought this term. They were having a meeting the day before we went on vacation to finalize the details. The principal changed his mind about all the plans they had made thus far and decided they wanted 60 hrs of teaching between two teachers instead of 20 hrs like they had decided on. The doctor said we couldn't do that so now we don't know where we'll be during the day. We had all our lesson plans made up for the first week and targets done for the whole year. It's kind of a bummer, but there's nothing to do about it. We'll keep you posted on what we end up doing.

I wanted to back track a bit to the vacation with my mom. For the last bit we were on Ko Samui. We celebrated Songkran on Samui. I don't remember if we told you before but Songkran is the Thai New Year. Thais celebrate by throwing water on each other and slapping baby powder mixed with water on each others cheeks. Everyone gets super drunk too. Some places it lasts for 5 days or so, other places just a day. On Samui it was just one day.

It was an awesome day. We went and stood by the road with a bunch of Thai people for a long time throwing water on passing cars, trucks, and motorbikes. I was impressed by how few accidents we saw considering the number of buckets of water poured on drunk motorbike drivers.

Later we went to a restaurant where we hung out with three super drunk thai people who fed us seafood and drank beer with us. They would literally crack open a mussel and hold it to our lips. The guy loved Justin and kept massaging his arm. They made us promise to come back for dinner and karaoke which we did that night.

It was a lovely day. Anyone reading who knows about Flunk Day at Knox College- it reminded me a lot of that.

While on Samui we went on a trip to the Ang Thong Marine Park. We went kayaking and snorkelling. It was a lovely and beautiful trip. We also took a cooking class which was really fun. We learned how to make Tom Yum Goong (spicey shrimp soup), spicy beef salad, masaman curry, and cashew chicken. We got to take home the recipe and loads of extra food.


After Samui we went to Bangkok. We drove there because all the trains were full. We were hoping it would take about 8 hours. For a while it was really smooth, until we got about 100- 150 miles outside of Bangkok at which point the traffic slowed to a halt. There were several lights we passed through that seemed to be slowing us down, but more than anything I think it was just people traveling around after Songkran. There were zillions of cops everywhere not doing anything but waving us forward in places where there were no other options. We were averaging 10 miles an hour for four hours before the traffic cleared up. It was a pretty trying experience. We also got pretty lost in Bangkok trying to get to our hotel which was mixed up in a maze of one way streets.

In Bangkok we stayed at the Miami Hotel, which was a fun hotel that looked like it hadn't been renovated since the 60s. All the carpets, sheets,towels, etc were patched up from the wear.

My mom had just one day there so we took the sky train and a public boat/bus thing to the Grand Palace. It was a very beautiful place, but very tiring in the heat. We wanted to go into the actual palace but the princess's body is in there so we couldn't go.


My mom got off without much trouble. We stayed in Bangkok a couple more days. We didn't do much; bought some books, ate at Burger King, and so on. We hung out with Andrea and her mom a couple of nights. They treated us to their fancy buffet at their hotel where Justin ate his weight in sushi, prosciutto ham and olives. Our last day we walked to the zoo and saw lots of monitor lizards roaming about.

Our drive back from Bangkok was free from traffic; however, we did get pulled over for making a left on red. We are able to do that in Surat all the time but I guess there was a sign in Thai at this particular intersection that said we couldn't. The cop was hilarious and kept laughing about everything. We told him we couldn't pay the 1000 baht ticket and make it home to Surat (which was true) and he just laughed and laughed. He kept showing us where it was written not to turn and how much the fine was. He also wanted us to follow him to the police station which would have taken god knows how long. In the end we were able to give him 500 baht there and not follow him to the station. Phew.

That's all the news. We'll write more after this term gets underway. Happy Mother's Day!!