Chaz arrived all in one piece and without much flight grogginess so we made a full day of it. Our first stop: lunch at a street vendor. We pointed at what some Thai lady was eating nearby and said, “That, please!” It was delicious. And spicy. And around a dollar! Awesome. Next, having already scoped out Khao Shan Road we decided to go there again to take care of some souvenir shopping and check out the surround palaces, temples, etc. The main goal of the day was to be in a public place surrounded by lots of people at 6:00 pm. Why? Because Kate and I wanted Chaz to experience a rather shocking daily ritual of the Thai people. But we failed at this goal. You see, at 6:00 pm each day Thailand’s national anthem is blared over loudspeakers in the city (supposively 8am as well, but I didn’t experience this). What’s funny about this, and what we wanted Chaz to experience, is every Thai person freezes the few minutes while the anthem is played…much like those flash mob videos you can watch on Youtube…then carries on with their evening as if nothing happened. Our first day in Bangkok Kate and I were warned about this ritual by the Frenchmen but still were not prepared when we first experienced it.
We were in the subway station about to exit when suddenly a song began to play, everyone stopped in their tracks, leaving Kate and I scared and confused. What was going on?! Then we realized it was 6 o’clock…phew. Another day we were in the train station and suddenly the guards blew their whistles loudly, everyone stood at attention from their seats in the lobby while the song played. It was hilarious to watch the faces of all the tourists go from scared, confused, then amused as they realized what time it was.
That evening we wandered to the river and found the public water bus to take us down the river. The ride down the river held a spectacular view of the Grand Palace, temples, and 5 star hotels we didn’t even know existed. After having a random mix of market food for dinner we go back to the hostel with intentions of sleeping early after enjoying a few beers. We found ourselves having such a great time swapping travel stories with some hostelmates (1 from Ireland, the other from America), armwrestling each other and introducing them to K-pop (vvvvery popular in Thailand!), that little sleep occurred before we had to be up for our commute to Koh Chang the following morning. Nights like that are what I enjoy most about traveling…being able to meet new friends and share life stories.
The bus combined with ferry ride to Koh Chang was brutal…nearly 6 hours. We booked a bungalow on the beach (named Lonely Beach) and arrived to find it a bit more trashy then we anticipated. The place was cheap so we couldn’t be too surprised or upset by it. It didn’t take long to get settled into our one room plus bathroom bungalow and soon we were able to joke about our dump of a “resort” with fellow bungalow stayers. Speaking of fellow bungalow stayers….our neighbor to the left was from none other than BOONE, IOWA! What are the chances? She went to UNI and dated one of Chaz’s close friends. Our heads exploded…tis too small of a world my friends. The time on the island all seems to have blurred together into one gloriously sunny and perfect memory. Let’s see…we lounged on the beach, rented mopeds to cruise around on, went on a kayaking trip with our new buddies Jen and Ciaran (where Ciaran almost drifted out to sea forever from kayaking exhaustion…hahaha!), ate fabulous food, hit up all the FREE BBQ’s and drink specials, danced to a lot of techno/electronica, and made friends from Ireland, Scotland, France, England, Canada, Korea, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about our surprise roommate! A huge and most UGLY lizard that lived in our bathroom. It would be on the wall hanging out every time we came home and would often be peaking through the crack in the wall at us while we were showering. Creepy….and all part of the Thailand experience!
Since all of us booked different flights, our departure times were all different as well. I said goodbye first on Saturday morning (the 30th) and began the loooong trip back my to my own bed. I was lucky to have met a friend from Sweden on the island whose flight was leaving around the same time so….travel buddy until departure in Bangkok! And a handsome one at that. J First a bus ride back to Bangkok, a few hours on Khao Shan Road, a taxi ride to the airport, layover in Shanghai, arrival in Seoul, subway to the Seoul Train Station, KTX train to Busan, subway from the Busan train station and FINALLY 30+ hours later in my own bed. Waaaaah, it was exhausting...but so worth it! Thankfully I had a few days to recover before I was back to school.
Thus ends my vacation.
Overcoming the post vacation slump/longing for Thailand each second of the day took a solid week to get over. Now I feel back into the swing of things….but just in time for another vacation! Yep, next week is “spring break” for the students. All students will be “graduating” on Saturday to a new grade which begins the 2nd of March. Yes, you are calculating correct…the students came back to school after winter break for 2 weeks in February. The students are finished with their lessons in most subjects, their exams are long finished so what’s the point?!
I have no idea. I have come to accept that I will never understand the system, I just follow it, repeating over and over in my head, “It’s not messed up, it’s just different! It’s not messed up, it’s just different!”
No plans for spring break as of now because I may have to go in to lesson plan...no solid word on that yet. But stay tuned….as proved now, it only takes a few hours to plan a great vacation...bahahaha…..I love my life. J
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