NYC in Thailand

So I finally decided what Thailand reminds me of...well, at least Bangkok does anyway...New York City! It just dawned on me today...there are so many similarities...faster pace of life, crowded streets, tons of taxis, lots of people everywhere, subways, and people from a variety of different countries...Just today I met people from Germany, China, Hong Kong, England, Sweden, Italy, and of course Thailand :) It's crazy...but that is one nice thing about being in a tourist-packed place!



So I have to catch you all up on the last few days...I got to spend some time with the kids at the children's home that Terra works with during my last few days in Mae Ton...we got to share a little devotional with them one night and play games, then did another game time on Saturday morning (we also taught them a dance...that was really fun!). Then sunday we got to help teach sunday school and spend some more time with the kids before heading out...so that was a lot of fun! The kids were so much fun!




We also got to visit another place where a bunch of the kids from Agape are living on our way back to Mae Sot, which was awesome because I really wanted to see as many of the kids as possible! There were about five girls there and three of the boys...they have all gotten so big and it was so great to hang out with them for a little while before going back to Mae Sot.

So we had dinner at a Thai BBQ where you cook your own food so that was quite an experience....it was awesome too because it was all locals (aside from us that is!)...I always like avoiding the tourist attractions if I can help it!




Anyway, I took the night bus from Mae Sot and then spent my last day in Bangkok! It was a very long, but fun day! I went to the Grand Palace, the Wat Pho (one of the temples...beautiful not really my thing to go look at a ton of statues of Buddha), and the MBK (probably the biggest mall in Thailand)! It was all very fun but exhausting! I also got to meet up with one of the girls from Agape who now lives in Bangkok! She is 17 so she has been working here...We met up for dinner and I got to take her to the Siam Center...she had her first experience on an elevator...it was so cute! She told me she was a little bit scared and was holding onto my arm...what a cutie pie!



So, I've been awake since my bus arrived this morning at 4:30 am and I've now officially been awake for over 21 hours so I think it's time to check out....I'll be off on my plane tomorrow and hopefully sleeping the whole way home! :) Goodbye Thailand...I'll see ya when God brings me back here again!

Back in Mae Ton

Today we got to see the kids at the Hoi Bong School where I taught with Andrea last year when I was here. We were really excited to see a bunch of girls from Agape and got to hang out with them for a few hours! It was great to catch up! They are such sweet girls!


If you ever want to feel like royalty, just take a trip to Thailand and go to this restaurant, "Khao Mao Khao Fang". There's waterfalls and nature all around you and the servers pretty much stand by your table waiting for your beckon call :) You also get all this for the very low price of about $5-6/person. Andrea and I were willing to spend the big bucks to treat Teep and Terra to dinner :) They hadn't been to that restaurant for over a year, so it was fun for all of us to get the chance to go!

Tiger Time at Chiang Mai

Well today was a really fun day! Andrea and I headed up to Chiang Mai to go to the Tiger Kingdom...they just opened it last year, so I didn't get to go the last time I was in Thailand. On the way to the bus station, Terra and Teep (our friends who live here in Thailand) told us that a girl got bit in the butt by one of the tigers earlier this year...so that wasn't very reassuring, but I was still excited to go...The tiger kingdom is a lot of fun...Basically you choose which tigers you want to go in and see...First, Andrea and I went to see the baby tigers...they were a couple months old and were basically like big cats...it's fun because they let you lay your head on their stomach and take pictures. One even crawled on my lap and put it's head on my leg like it wanted to take a little nap...it was so cute. We had fun with the babies and right as we were about to leave, another girl who was in there with us got pooped on by one of the tigers! It was hilarious! She was freaking out and we were just laughing...thankful that it didn't happen to us!

Later, we went to see the big tigers...The trainers told us that they weigh over 100 kilos (more than 200 pounds)...it made me a little bit nervous being in there with those huge tigers, petting them and taking pictures with them when you know they could bite you or attack you...they were all pretty mellow, but if they get playful, they don't know any better. It was funny because one of the guys that took us in to see them had scratches on his arm. We asked if it was from the tigers and he said yes. Then we asked if they ever bit him and he said "oh yes, many times! But they are just playing so they don't know any better. You can't blame them." That was pretty reassuring. What makes you feel the most comfortable is that all they carry around in there are these small sticks...I was thinking "yeah, right. If the tiger attacked anyone, there's no way that stick is gonna do anything." But even though Andrea and I were both a tiny bit nervous, I figured we'd be fine..I really wanted to play with them and lay down on their stomachs like the ilttle ones but I didn't want to take my chances, so we were a little more careful with them.




After getting back from the Tiger Village, I came back and took a nap while Andrea went out for dinner. I was feeling really tired and a little sick and just needed a nap...whenever we go to Mexico, they always say "Don't drink the water" but I didn't obey that rule earlier when we were out to eat. They served the water in a pitcher with the food and I've drank it like that a few times before and been fine, but this time, it really hit me hard and made me sick. After taking a nap I felt a lot better though and had enough energy to go out to the night bazaar with Andrea. The night bazaar is a pretty crazy place. Al the action starts around 7pm...and all these people set up their little stands on the side of the road selling all kinds of different fun souveniors....There are lots of foreigners and it's a big tourist attraction. It's fun to look at the different Thai stuff and barter a little...and of course, shopping is always fun in general..especially with a friend! So Andrea and I had a really good time and found some fun stuff...and even found some mango sticky rice (which is our favorite). Tomorrow we'll head back to Mae Sot to see Teep and Terra and then friday we'll head to the school where we used to teach to see the kids! It should be a lot of fun!

Reunions

Well, the last two days have been filled with little reunions with old friends here in Thailand. Yesterday, we spent the day with two teachers who taught with us at the Hoi Bong school near Mae Sot last year. It was great to see them again and share memories. They are so sweet. The one I was closest with was Cru Ham, who used to take Andrea and I out to lunch almost every day after school. She was a sweetheart and liked to give us rides on her motorbike all the time. It was great to see her and help her brush up on her English....she has forgotten a lot just like I forgot a lot of Thai...guess it's true what they say: "if you don't use it, you lose it." I feel like more Thai has been coming back to me though, especially what I understand. Anyway, we had a fun day with the teachers. We went to lunch with them and then spent some time in Mae Sot before they had to go. I think we'll see Cru Ham again at the school on Friday.

Then today we had another fun little reunion with some of the kids. We spent the morning hanging out with Teep and Terra on their cute little balcony at their house in Mae Ton. They have an awesome view of the mountains...everything is so green here too! So it was nice to have a relaxing morning and just hang out with them and catch up a little!

In the afternoon, Yupapon arrived in town and came over to see us. She is one of my favorite girls. She was one of the girls from Agape who Andrea now sponsors to go to college. It's so crazy to me how much she has grown up and how much she has matured in just a year. I'm sure college has played a huge part in that. She is 20 years old now, which is so crazy to me. She was always like a mom to the kids at Agape and made sure they were taken care of....so now she is in college to be a teacher! Her English is pretty good too so it was awesome to catch up with her and see her!

By late afternoon, I was feeling a little disappointed because a few of the other kids had planned on coming and since they don't have phones, there was no way to communicate with them and find out why they still weren't there. Terra said it looked like they weren't coming after all! I was really disappointed because a huge part of making this trip was to see some of the kids from last year!

So, we were all surprised when finally around 6, they all showed up (they were supposed to come at noon!)...We found out that Samu had forgotten a key that he needed to get for the motorbike (they had to walk really far then take the motorbike to our town). So he had to run back 20 kilometers to get it....So that made for a total of more than 40 kilometers walking/running...he told us the story of what happened and said that he realized that he had forgotten it and thought "I want to cry." Poor guy! I was so glad they had made it and it was so great to see them! We all stayed up late playing cards and checkers and other games. I had brought a bunch of nailpolish to paint the girls' nails so we did little manicures and pedicures which was a lot of fun! It's so crazy to me how much the kids have grown up! Samu is now 16 and it looks like he shot up at least 6 inches in the last year!

Anyway, we had a really fun time with the kids and it made me so happy to see them and see how much they've grown and matured both physically and spiritually in the last year! We should have some more fun reunions on Friday with the kids at Hoi Bong School! I can't wait!

4th of July on the Beach

Well, there's always something different about celebrating the 4th of July in a foreign country...it's just not quite the same as being in America...So I told Andrea we would have to at least go to the beach since I associate 4th of July with being at the beach (maybe just from growing up in California...I don't know...I just like being by the water for the holidays)...So we headed for Pattaya Beach today. It was interesting getting there at first but ended up being a fun day...

We decided we would take one of the minivans from the airport (they travel to Pattaya every couple hours)...But when we got to the airport, they told us they didn't have any minivans going...just a bus...we went to the counter to get our bus tickets but no one was there to help us..just a sign that said "Pattaya." It was still another hour an a half before the next bus would leave anyway. We went up to the counter just as a group of three others were going up...So, since there were 5 of us standing together, we were all of a sudden bombarded with all these drivers telling us they could take 5 and quoting us prices...we bartered with them for a good price and the other 3 people (who were from Indonesia) decided they would be in on the deal too, so we started walking out with this driver....

Well, he takes us all the way to the parking garage and opens the door to his taxi...We all looked at each other with confused looks on our faces and were like "No, where is the minivan" to which he replied "we take taxi"....Ha ha, ya right....there was no way we were paying more money than the bus to be crammed into a little taxi with 4 people in the backseat...Thankfully he didn't give us a hard time about it and just gave us our money back...So, we went back in for the bus and ended up getting on one that was leaving earlier than expected! So it all worked out in the end.

Once we got to Pattaya, we decided to just walk down to the beach instead of taking a taxi..It was a nice day and it felt good to go for a walk...As we were walking along, Andrea was like "You know, we should get a massage while we're here...maybe we can find a place" and as the words were out of her mouth, we turned the corner and there was "Health World"...this really big spa...It was perfect timing...I was like "Andrea, it must be a sign. Let's go in here" so we went in and ended up getting an hour and a half aromatherapy massage! One awesome thing about Thailand is that everything is super cheap...Andrea and I never go to the spa back in the states so every time we come to Thailand, we decided we have to have one little pampering day to get massages at the day spa..it's our splurge day....which is funny of course because Thai prices are still ten times cheaper than the states! Anyway, it felt really nice after my 27 hours of traveling the day before and way too much time in the same position sitting on an airplane!

After our massages, we went to a little Indian restaraunt and got some lunch...we had Thai food for breakfast so we figured we'd try something else since we have the rest of our trip to eat Thai food...Then we headed down to the beach and layed out and relaxed...It was really nice...We stayed until sunset and then headed over to the shops to do some shopping...which wasn't too successful for me...Andrea found a cute dress though and I enjoyed seeing all the stuff they had at the little shops...

While we were walking along, we came to Hard Rock Cafe where they were having a little 4th of July celebration...So we took a picture with their little statue of liberty and proceeded on singing "And I'm proud to be an American"...yes, we are dorks..and we're not ashamed of it...I know people probably don't think we're very patriotic since we leave our own country for independence day but really we're here helping the rest of the world see how wonderful Americans really can be :)

After awhile, we went back over to this place where it had looked like they were doing karaoke...it turned out to just be a live band with a singer who liked going out into the crowd, but it was fun to go back and enjoy the music...There were a couple people dancing, so I decided to take the opportunity to try to teach Andrea some swing dancing and we danced a little...it was fun....Andrea and I have decided that we can make fools of ourselves singing in the street and dancing around because we're in a foreign country and we're never gonna see these people again (that's what she tells me anyway....there will probably be a YouTube video of us singing on the street by the end of the week ha ha)...I'm having so much fun traveling with her though because we can just be goofy together and we don't think anything of it...not to mention we are both last minute and spontaneous so we just decide what we're doing as we go along and it all works out....

So we didn't see any fireworks today or hear the national anthem (although I'm sure people would've appreciated it if we'd sung that one as we were walking down the street!) but we had a really fun time...and how many time can you say that you celebrated 4th of July in Thailand...it's probably a once in a lifetime thing so we thought we'd make the most of it! Tomorrow we leave Bangkok and will head up to Mae Sot to stay with Terra and Teep and see the kids! It should be a fun week!

Up, Up and Away

Well, I am finally in Thailand after 27 hours of traveling...it was exhausting but not as bad as I thought....I flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Taipei to Bangkok and met lots of fun people along the way. The flight from LA to Taipei was the longest...13 1/2 hours...So I felt very blessed and fortunate that despite the fact that the plane was really packed, there ended up being an empty seat between me and the other lady in my row. So, we were very excited to have some extra space which helped me not to feel closterphobic. The lady in my row was named Debbie and ended up being from Arizona too...not only that, she was also a nurse and was going to Taiwan to teach the Taiwanese nurses in a nurse practitioners program. So we had a lot to talk about...nurses just always seem to have a special bond...we understand each other in a way that no one else understands us....so it was fun to share different stories about working in the hospital and working overseas with medical missions....and it was great hearing her stories too about how nursing has changed and what it used to be like (she's been a nurse for 25 years so it was a lot different back then)!

The flight went well and when we landed in Taipei, I met a group of people from San Diego. It was their first time going to Thailand so I thought I'd fill them in on places to go and things to see...I also met a guy from Holland and got to talk to him about my travels to Amsterdam on my trip back from Kenya...it is always nice having something familiar to talk about when you're out of the country...especially traveling alone...not to mention, I love talking to International people...especially when they have fun accents!

Anyway, the rest of my travel time was uneventful until I got to my taxi in Bangkok....I had been a little nervous about taking a taxi to the hotel where Andrea was staying because I wasn't sure how much Thai I was going to remember and since my flight got in so late (we didn't land until about 1am), Andrea was already gonna be at the hotel sleeping and I was just gonna meet her there...So traveling by taxi in Thailand at 1:30 in the morning with my broken Thai (which was even worse because I was so tired) made me a little nervous...So I said a prayer that I would be safe and headed out of the airport...

So the taxi drivers are all lined up and you have to take the one at the front of the line, right...Well, we get in the taxi and the driver is looking at the map to the hotel (it was even printed in Thai!) and he had a confused look on his face...he was like "I don't know." So, lesson #1: If your taxi driver doesn't know where he's going, get out right then and there! I was about to get out and tell him I'd take another taxi, but I felt bad and he was already starting to drive, so I just said a prayer and we started off....

The hotel we were staying at was supposed to be right by the airport...well, about 20 minutes later, we are still driving...and lost...not a good way to start...especially when it's 2 in the morning! I was getting frustrated with how little I was able to communicate with him...A little bit of Thai was coming back to me, but I had to keep looking phrases up in my little Thai book...not to mention I was tired and just wanted to get to the hotel and get to bed...So, finally he stops to ask directions...don't know why that took so long...maybe because he was a guy :) So he asked another taxi driver on the side of the road and then told me he knew where he was going..we started driving and about 5 minutes later he stopped again and asked some cops on the side of the road (at least he was learning to ask for directions)...Finally about 40 minutes (maybe longer, I wasn't paying too much attention) we finally got to the place...thankfully taxis are cheap in Thailand...it was only about $10 for the ride...I was just thankful I had finally made it...

It was great to see Andrea...we were both excited to share travel stories and ended up staying up for another hour talking....It was almost like deja vu...Being back in Bangkok with Andrea all over again...I can already tell this is gonna be a fun trip!

Return to Thailand

So it's obviously been awhile since I've written on my blog...I haven't been on any international trips aside from Mexico in the last year, but an opportunity to return to Thailand came up so I decided to finally pick back up on my blog. I wasn't planning on going anywhere out of the country this summer but about two months ago, I was talking to my friend Andrea who taught English with me last year in Thailand. She mentioned that she wanted to go back to Thailand this summer and told me the dates she was planning her trip. I had hoped it would work out for me to go, but wasn't sure if it would really happen...But I thought I'd ask off work during those dates just in case. So, I saved up some money but kept debating whether or not I should go because of some other things that were going on. About two weeks ago, I got my schedule from work and saw that they'd given me the full two weeks off! So, I checked the prices for tickets to Thailand but they were significantly more than the last time I had flown to Thailand and I hadn't planned on paying so much. So I was really dreading telling Andrea that I couldn't come...I put it off for awhile because I knew she really wanted me to go. Finally, about a week later (exactly one week before the day my planned departure date) I got online and was about to email her that I couldn't come. But, there was something inside me that felt like I should go. So I told God, "Ok, here's the deal...If I can get a ticket under $800, then I'm going." I don't suggest playing the Make a Deal with God game, but God was gracious and heard me and the very first site I went on to check, there was a ticket for $798 (including tax)...I just laughed and was like "Wow, God...Two bucks under...you do have a sense of humor." It was crazy to me that I found one for that price because it had dropped about $400 in a matter of a few days. So, I bought the ticket a week before my flight left and now I'm off to Thailand. I decided to post about my trip on my blog even though it's not exactly a missions trip...The last time I came to Thailand, I cam so I could help with a medical clinic and teach English with my friend Andrea and help at the children's home where she was working....This time we don't have much of an agenda aside from going back to see the kids that we worked with and visit our friend Terra who is now married to a Thai man named Teep (Terra is from California and also worked at the Agape Children's Home). So, we're hoping to spend some time with the kids, see the teachers we taught with, and enjoy the culture of Thailand all over again...but mainly we came to have an adventure! So off I go to Thailand....you're welcome to join me for the ride! :)