my community

I wish I was brave enough to take more pictures of where I actually live but at this point I’m not. I am in the middle of a very alive and I think its save to use the word, vibrant, community. I live next to an Indian family, perhaps two of them. I’ve received a few looks from them, but none too welcoming as for me to expect a plate of curry on my doorstep. (Oh the days at Kingsley College in Melbourne!) but they are interesting.
Imagine coming home to Bollywood music pumping from the neighboring apartment infiltrating your own apartment though both doors. Sometimes annoying, but pretty interesting. Add on top of that crying children from I believe that apartment as well as the rooms downstairs, men singing along with the music, people yelling at the other children who are riding their tricycles down the hallway. It’s quite a noisy environment. But I like it compared to the silence I had in Korea where I never saw my neighbors much less heard them. I think another reason that it is so loud is because of the work of the community. I don’t think many people here work 9 to 5. Most of my students work 4:30 to 4:30 or 12 to 12 or other hours. So due to those working hours (plus the tourists that live here) you see men and women everywhere just sitting around and talking in the middle of the day.
Within the apartment complex there are 3 to 4 different restaurants, 2 convenience stores, 3 laundry services (there are also washing machines at the bottom of the stairs, too), massage parlors, a 24 hour internet café and a swimming pool. My favorite part of my building is the two condom machines at the bottom of my staircase that I pass when I enter and exit my apartment. The building is airy and spacious with the balcony and instead of real windows, they have those plates of glass that you can open and close. So everything flows from the music, to the kitchen smells to the doors slamming around the building.
There are downfalls to this as well. Of course the noise, and then the fighting. I just happened to be around by myself at 2pm when I guess the husband next door came home and was mad about something. I listened to him yell at (I assume ) his wife, then scuffle, scuffle, more ferocious yelling, scuffle scuffle…what’s going on…a bit of crying and then the wife’s turn to yell and cry back at him. The interesting part is that they didn’t seem to yell back and forth. It was like he took his turn perhaps smacked her around, then she had her turn and I assume he just doesn’t even listen to her therefore has no need to even respond to her cries and screams of indignation. I mean where I come from you yell back and forth. But maybe that is just not a right some people (women) even get. Hmm.
Hopefully I won’t have to listen to too much of that. I don’t really like people fighting. Plus it’s that awkward situation of what do you do, leave and take the chance of running into them in the hallway, or just sit there and listen. Or play some music loudly so they know you are at home when you typically aren’t? Does the presence of a neighbor make a difference? I don’t know. I mean they have been living here a lot longer than I have and I’m not their only neighbor. Granted I might be their only white neighbor. I think there are some Burmese (not Kachin) families living at the other end of the hall.
But the point of the story is that I’m living in a very interesting and wonderful apartment complex full of Burmese, Thai, Indian, white foreign – yes, yes, mainly males from what I’ve seen – people in a loud and active area. I hope I can get a spot like this in America. I’d like to be part of a community where I know my neighbor and we can at least somewhat communicate in English – or Spanish. I would like that, too.

the joys of being a teacher

Besides the obvious huge responsibility of teaching students who really want to learn, teaching is pretty great. One of my students who I teach from 10pm to 12am has yet to fail to bring me food. Awesome. My other student brings stuff for my house to make it homier. Of all of their generosity, I feel undeserving. But on the other hand, my work has begun. As was to be expected questions beyond my ability have surfaced (in less than a week, but in my defense against the dark art of mocking me, I was a language teacher for the past 3 years, not a grammar teacher.) Today for example, I worked with one student from 10:30 through to 2:30. Then I took a nap, woke up and headed to my coffeeshop (let me pause the story here)
So this coffeeshop I determined today is my spot. It’s nothing really special but the lady who works there is so nice. When I went there today for the 3rd time since arriving in Pattaya she told me I had to try the Thai tea. So of course I agreed. She automatically cleans off my table outside and hands me the password for some free wifi. The Thai Tea was great!! Oh man! This will be my new ritual. Plus it’s only a $1 for a huge cup of tea and she lets me sit there as long as I want. They have my loyalty.
But back to my story, so I went to my coffeeshop where I sat for two hours researching the answers to the questions from my student today and the student last night. I am back to trying to learn the difference of present perfect simplified and divided by two. So not only do I have to learn it for myself but then translate it to being a bearable piece of information. All this without the internet in my apartment makes life a wee bit hard. But also makes me work harder. The other part of my research was figuring out how to teach a student to download movies…wait, that’s illegal…I probably shouldn’t be doing that but on a brighter note I also am learning about how the Green Card system in the USA works. Again tough without internet in my apartment but I just copy and paste a lot of things.
Ah yes, so I returned home around 7pm to get ready to teach two more ladies but then I found out that they had to cancel because they were still stuck at work. No worries. So I sat down to start transcribing my new lesson on grammar and around 8pm W stops by to ask me to join her for a movie and cards. Beautiful! So we watched some movie with Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins as it was the only one we could get to play in English and really neither of us speaks Thai well enough to enjoy a Thai movie. And we pretended to play cards. Then at 10pm my last student for the night called and we met to discuss grammar and pronunciation, until around 12.
Tomorrow start again when W will come by at 10am. The nice thing is that siestas are built into the culture. I like that.  Keeps me alive. So I’m busy.

my reading list

Finding George Orwell in Burma
The Land of the Green Ghosts
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Lolita
The Heart Must Break
The Darkness We Saw: Torture in Burma’s Prison Camps
I have completed “The Land of Ghosts” a great book written by a boy who grew up in a hill tribe then went to university in Mandalay. He is then caught up in the revolution against the regime which closes the university and soon finds himself hiding out with one of the fiercest tribes in Burma – the Karen. He stays and fights with them until providence helps him reconnect with a British man who helps bring Pascal to Burma. The book is well written and nicely describes a bit of the history of Burma and its people through the story of this ultra-spiritual man. I really enjoyed it!
The thing I enjoyed the most about the book is his own view of the other people groups he encounters. Pascal, the author, is a Padaung, but he lives and travels with many other people group who carry their own traditions and customs. He openly shares his disgust as some of the food he had to eat, which just makes the foreign reader feel like they can relate. Also it opened my eyes to the interesting and unbelievable people who inhabit Burma. I had no idea. The people that I have read about I thought lived in Africa. The Padaung people with the rings around their necks lengthening them to 14 inches, the Wa people who are believed to be cannibals, the Karen with their fierce guerilla warfare and unbeatable jungle prowess all live in the country of Burma. What a fascinating place! I still have one more “history” book about Burma that I want to read and see what it says, but so far I am fascinated by this country that has so much stored in its borders that the world has not seen.

teaching

There is something wildly intimidating by 9 sets of eyes looking up at you in expectation of teaching them something useful. This is much different than 9 sets of eyes that peer at you openly wondering if you are going to make their semester another living hell or slightly enjoyable. This is one of the biggest differences of teaching kids in Korea versus people who want (and need) to learn. This is a much bigger responsibility for the teacher.
But yesterday’s class, besides the huge intimidation factor went rather well. By the end they were catching my jokes and laughing at my mannerisms which I was not doing on purpose. Rather just kind of flow when I teach. Whew, thank goodness for that. The beginning of the class was rather quiet and serious and I was really getting worried that I was in for a long next 3 months. But after I scared the crap out of them with a waaaaay too hard placement test, they loosened up and really had some fun with the “Common English Questions.” A lot of what I asked them to do was too hard and went over their heads but at least we were able to move on from there. They were pretty forgiving, as was I – but I don’t know if that’s the word you could use for what I was doing. I guess so…I mean I forgive myself and realize as fast as possible that I made a mistake. But today will be better.

life in pattaya

As my new cultural broker/translator M promised me yesterday, he delivered a friend. Just after I arrived home after dragging out my time spent eating dinner and then in a coffee shop which I was taking advantage of the free wifi, I had enough time to use the bathroom when there was a knock at my door. Who could it be?

Well it was the newly married couple that live in my housing complex. Funny enough S (the husband) said some stuff in English to me about hanging out at their house when I am bored or need somewhere to go. Then he dropped his wife off in my house. Now I had a friend. 

This caught me a little off guard, I mean I was looking forward to 4 more hours of reading on top of the 6 I had already done today….but here it was! My golden opportunity. You don’t really put yourself in this situation, in a new country, where you don’t speak the language, hungry for friends who can and desire to teach you about their world – unless you are willing to be ready for this: The unexpected drop ins. Now, I need to practice cleaning up just a little bit better and live my life ready for whoever or whatever may come. And buy some cups so I can share my water. 

Luckily I had put up some pictures around my mirror so that gave us a great start to talking….in whatever language we could figure out. Then I also luckily had some playing cards sitting out and about so we played a version of Go-Fish. Then she began to teach me Thai. Ahhh, yes….here we go! It’s a bit confusing trying to decide what language to dedicate my free time to. I mean I’m in Thailand, but I work with Burmese people, and many of who are Kachin – not Burmese. Where do I fit into this as the English Teacher?
Again, a blessing is always there – my new friend well call her W. -- had worked in Korea for 3 to 4 months so she knew some Korean! So our Go Fish game consisted of Thai, English, and Korean. Fabulous! Needless to say she beat me several times, and after feeling bad, changed her “methods” of playing to even-out the game.

Also, she happens to be pretty amazing at reading! So my newly purchased copy of the Bangkok Post was a great way to spend the time. She can read very well, but as with my Korean, reading doesn’t necessarily mean understanding. But we read about Gareth Bale who didn’t play for the Wales team and blah blah blah…..We also spent a good amount of time looking at maps of Burma which are in the books I am reading and trying to find out where she is from and other ethnic groups as well. Very interesting. She consistently refers, wait wait, blames her teachers in Burma and Yangoon for her bad English pronunciation. Quite humorous…makes me think of Korean students who go to the Philippines to learn English. That might not be the wisest decision. But regardless, interesting!

Apparently in my apartment building there are several Indians living here as well as Burmese people. I was still unsure whether or not she was from Burma or not…But then we were listening to the racket in the hallways, and she looked to me, “Many Burma people live here.” I just kind of nodded at her while she had a bit of a disgusted look on her face. Meanwhile I’m thinking, your husband is from Burma….or did I get this all wrong? “But I am not Burma. I am Kachin.” She smiled at me. Then it all made sense. Makes me want to research the possible prejudices here. I mean is it similar to some Koreans you meet who hate Japan but don’t hate Japanese people, just the politics. Or is it that they really don’t like Burmese people for the ruling regime that has controlled and ruined many of their lives? I don’t know.

But I’m thankful for a great day with a fun new friend. We are meeting for food at 8:30am tomorrow! Hahahaha…. She is teaching me how to order in Thai so I can get food downstairs. I know, I know, it’s not hard to get street food. Trust me, I’d love to pay less than a dollar for a plate of noodles but when there are no pictures it makes it really hard to order. Plus all the old white men sitting around everywhere really makes me wonder if I’m really a valued customer or not. Hehe….I’m getting over that intimidation factor, meal by meal.

trust

traveling by yourself (and even with only one other person) there is a lot of trust involved. i think i forget about the trust in everyday situations, but when im traveling in a foreign country its amazing how it pops out at you. sometimes its small, for example if i pay a guy for a snorkeling trip, i have to trust that a ride will pick me up the next morning and take me snorkeling. now you could get into the seriousness of that situation, beyond the money that he might be stealing from you to the fact that you trust the people's van you get into is really taking you snorkeling and nowhere else. a lot of trust.

i signed on with one organization which set me up with another organization to volunteer with. now that organization has sent me a 12 hour bus ride away to do some teaching. each time i trust that someone will be there waiting for me when i arrive at the bus station. i trust that that will help me find housing and guide me around my new area.

and all of this goes back to trust in God. i mean, like they say, with God on your side, who can be against you? and its trust. i pray for safety (as im sure my family and friends do as well) and things happen - im reading a book right now about a guy traveling. stuff happens. but i trust that no matter what, God's got my back. my fortunes maybe taken, my prize possessions revoked, my body crushed and crumbled but i trust in God's plan. I trust in His work which is greater than anything i can think or do. Trust.

on route

so the trip to my placement begins romantically....at 5am until the bright moonlight of the biggest moon in the past 18 years. made me wonder where ill be in the next 18?... a quick ride to the bus station where i grabbed a 6 hour bus to chiang mai where ill be hanging out tonight to meet with my organization tomorrow to find out what ill be doing. then i head down under to an old Vietnam War R&R (rest and relaxation) area -- Pattaya...oh baby i'm going to the beach. but thats all i know. not much. haha

its been an interesting week going through orientation with my cohorts. a great bunch of people and so diverse. as i said before we hail from all over - oz, england, france and singapore. by the end of the week we had the best time making fun of each other while we made our attempts at different accents. the brits said my english accent was not too bad. :) haha, i kept it minimal though.

ah, and our last night together was spent on a long bike ride, eating mexican food, and a st pattys day party. oh and trying to haul me around because i had to return my bike. let me just say that riding on the back of a bike is not as easy as it may seem. i do have a nice bruise where i fell off in one of our practice runs and definitely had a few close calls with some brick walls. but still in one piece and happy!

so tomorrow hopefully ill be finding out more about what work ill be doing and where ill be settling. :)

AAPPB -- political prisoners

so im afraid i won't really be able to give this subject justice, one, im kinda tired, two, its been a long day, and three it was a lot of information to take in.

we had the chance to visit an organization focused soley on support to political prisoners in their homeland. the people running the organization were prisoners themselves. they were also some of the most beautiful people ive ever met. the kind where the inside just radiates through to the outside.

the organization focuses on 3 main goals:

1. providing assistance to familys of prisoners so that they can visit them bc the visits from the world outside of prison are crucial in a prisoner's resistance to what happens in prison.

2. support for the children of prisoners, helping them go to school and pay for other necessities

3. drawing international attention to the issue

international pressure does make a difference! that has been true in north korea's situation as well as the witness of these prisoners. the pressure of the international community pushes these regimes to allow groups to come in and check out the situation. which lessens the burdens of the prisoners at times.

this organization knows of every single political prisoner in burma -- there ar 2,076 of them. they have them categorized by gender, age and occupation -- well monks. they know who is sick and what is happening. it was unbelievable.

on top of that they have pictures of the majority of the prisoners. and they even have created a model prison cell for people to see and understand better the situation.

and with the funding they have they are able to provide support to half of the political prisoners in burma! amazing!

there is so muc more to say about this organization and the situation! it will return, especially in accordance with the book i finished reading, The Heart Must Break.

Mae Sot

Mae Sot is a town located near the Burmese border in northeast Thailand. As I was riding the bus there for 7 hours, I slept for 6 of them, and the last one I stared out the window, slightly wondering what I had gotten myself into. There were maybe some rolling hills, forests of trees that looked like it was the dead of winter…and not much else. When I arrived at the bus station, my opinion was not changed.

Usually at bus stations there are tons of taxis and tuk tuks waiting to take you where you need to go. I saw none…but instead of freaking out I decided to entertain myself in the elevated squatty potties (wait till I post you a picture of them. Simply fabulous!) When I came out I noticed a few motorbikes and tuk tuks had gathered, no need to worry. And as a white kid with a lot of baggage, well I had a ride in a matter of moments.

Now Mae Sot itself is a very interesting town, to me. It’s a gateway to Burma and the Thai Burma Friendship Bridge is located here. As I said, at first looks and appearances it looks like nothing much but once you start walking around you realize this place is pretty much as modern as another place you’d like to be.

I went from being the only white kid on my bus ride to running into 3 different white families dining on the main streets. (This is only the tip of the white iceberg) There are English signs advertising Burmese and Thai food. There are probably 4 (and more) different ATMs that I can take money out of. There are massages to be had and several different wats, or temples. The night life here is loud and crazy, at least near my guesthouse. I don’t have to go out and experience as I can hear the music, whootin and hollerin in my room. Sounds fun!

Mae Sot has 2 main streets each going in one direction. The buildings here sometimes have beautiful architecture…other times, run down or perhaps under construction…I guess the best comparison I have would have to be Iringa, near the Houghton Campus in Tanzania, Africa. Or at least Iringa in my mind. It’s a cool little town that I’m starting to feel more and more comfortable in.

On Saturday I just happened to pass by a market near a Chinese temple and that was cool to wonder around in. But today as I was searching for the Peace Café which is showing a Burmese movie, I walked through another market. Again, selling clothes, niknaks (spelling?) and food. The highlight of my market experience would have to be the young girl selling fried toads, with fried fish next to fried cockroaches. Haha, that’s funny. Whole fried frogs. Even better was when I passed back through and realized that the young girl next to her was selling live toads. Just in those mesh bags that you would buy oranges in…live toads. She would touch them to make them jump. To ensure freshness I assume. Interesting.

and so it begins

this morning i met with my volunteer group for our orientation, and what a multicultural group we are! i represent the NA'merica - from Mexico to Canada. While others hail from Engand, France, Phillipines, Singapore and Australia. Some have great experience with human rights organizations while others of us have just been teachers around southeast Asia.

we had a nice long orientation session from 10 - 5 which started with a fun bike ride while our leader rode on her scooter and the rest of us followed in a straight line as to not get lost, or hit by a car. very cute. like a goose with her geeselings.....reminds me of 8th grade when my sisters and i wanted to ride our bikes to school 5 minutes away and we were required to wear helmets and follow my mom who put lacie in a little biker seat on the back of her bike. good times, good time....needless to say that didn't last too long. (but i appreciate the momness of it, i just wanted to be cool like the gordon boys!)

the main attraction of today was finding out about our placements....which we found out little. except most have no housing, which is a big disappointment to me, but there is hope. still too little information which surprised and confused all of us. plus there are 7 placements and 7 of us. so the lawyer in the bunch suggested we eat dinner and talk about our first choices, so its not a bloodbath tomorrow morning when our supervisor asks. problem is that the information is so little that most of us have no clue what we want. but thats ok.i have an idea, but im not gettin excited about it bc i wont know till wed or thur if i get it or not.

the other fun of the day was riding back to the office where im hanging out for free (i can't live luxuriously all the time) with two other girls. buuut we really dont know the way back to the office from town very well. its raining. its dark. there are scary dogs. oh yeah and im carrying my huge backpack filled to max capacity on my back and my bag over my shoulder. alright bring it on!

definitely took me two hands to control the bike, but we made it with not falls, scratches or dog bites....(thus far....) now im here on a thai mat on the floor getting ready to fall asleep to wake up to another fun day of orientation. yee haw!

~from the yankee

The Heart Must Break by James Mawdsley

So I picked up this book randomly before I left Korea because it’s about a British guy who decides he wants to fight for Burma’s freedom by being imprisoned. Hmmm, interesting…. I finished it today after a marathon reading and it raised a lot of questions. I’m sure this book will continue to come up during my stay here. He started out teaching English at a Burmese rebel camp and then decided to go to prison to face the Burma regime.

This sounds very similar to two Americans who were arrested last year in North Korea after illegally entering the country hoping to change the regime and come face to face with Kim Jong Il. I personally get angry at those two men because they chose to enter those countries only to waste the time and attention of our government to get them back out. I mean I’m glad our government did for sure, because if I do something stupid I hope the American government will help me out. But at the same time I guess just looking at it from the outside, I’m just so confused about their motives and what really changed. Part of me really loves that they did that – just ran into a country demanding change. Awesome! But the other part of me is asking, what did you think would happen?

Now James’ book sheds light on his motives, now whether they are similar to the two men who entered North Korea, I don’t know. I’ll have to wait for their books to come out, but its raises some interesting questions. James’ hope is to go to prison to face the junta and bring attention to the situation in Burma. What better way to bring attention to a country then to have some westerner stuck there and the governments scrambling to help them out? Its true of the American journalists and the 2 dudes who went to NK. The American press focused on NK, hopefully causing some interest.

James’ also has an amazing family who he tells all of his plans to as they are to work with the embassies and be the face of his release campaign. He is arrested, not once but twice. The first time he was detained for 3 months and the second for over a year. Throughout the book he wants to focus on the plight of the other prisoners and the citizens of the country not himself. Interesting tactics. Even when he was released, it was bittersweet as he left all his friends there in prison.

Did he change anything? I don’t know. But his family: mom, dad, 1 sister, 2 brothers and uncle all became part of his fight against the Burmese regime. His mom even volunteered on the border while James was imprisoned, just for her own sake. So his family became part of the cause. Lots of people around the world held vigils for his release….did the vigils focus on the true victims of the regime? I don’t know.

So I guess my true question is, whether or not being arrested is really helpful in these regimes….The people James met in prison and the Karen people who are being oppressed thanked him numerous times for his work. So it wasn’t like the natives were rolling their eyes at him. But did much change? In that prison…not really. But maybe those people whom he met with were encouraged by his actions. Something to think about.

thailand loves Korea

thailand loves korea

i love korea

therefore i love thailand that loves korea

its a beautiful thing!

on khoasan road on thursday night they played almost one for one korean pop songs to american pop songs. and right now, im watching korea Arirang tv in my room in Mae Sot. God is good. :)

i am not alone

so here i am, im in the small town of mae sot in north east Thailand. i have to admit i am pretty lame sitting in my room on the internet. but im taking it slow with myself just so i dont have a breakdown. i mean im ok, but really, whens the last time i have been on my own traveling? about 3 years ago when i left my home for seoul all on my own. i have traveled since then, but its all been with friends or to places where my friends are waiting. im certain i have friends waiting here -- i have to go meet them. but instead im chilling in my overpriced, too good for me, guesthouse room with english news blaring in the background, my belongings laying around me and here on the internet.

getting here was fairly easy actually. i barely slept last night as i uploaded pics, did laundry -- I used a dryer for the first time since being home!!! wow!!!! -- and repacked all my things. woke up after an hour of sleep at 6:30 to head to the bus station as i was told my bus can leave anywhere from 8 - 11. great.

i used the sky train to get to the bus station exit -- the skyrail is really easy to use! everything in english, places to get change, get your tickets from a machine -- sooooo easy but no nearly as extensive as seouls. :) once i got to mo chit station though the bus terminal was not there. so i had to get a taxi for 60baht to take me there. again, easy peasy. my bus ticket was about 350 baht and left at 9. so not too bad.

in the bus station there was a dunkin donuts. hehe....interestingly enough as i was sitting waiting for my bus all of a sudden at 8am the tvs all showed the thai flag and everyone stopped and stood up while they played the thai national anthem. i had read about that but finally saw it in action today. i stayed seated which i dont think was too disrespectful as i think one woman was sleeping through it and another teenage girl chatted on her cellphone.

the bus ride took about 7 hours and i slept like a baby. i was a little nervous as i was the only white kid on the bus and at the bus station. let me clarify, being white doesn't bother me, not speaking any of the language bothers me. i can recognize thank you but i havent had the guts to try it yet. ill ask some of my students to teach me. paid too much for a motorbike to carry me from the bus station to a guesthouse....which was full. so then i had to walk about 5 minutes to another guesthouse which is super nice. i took it becuase i hate carrying my stuff everywhere....but ive created a new rule for myself. i dont need to book all nights at once. if im lazy then i can book one night at the first place i find -- then go search for another spot.

as i later went to go search for an atm i found numerous cute little guesthouses. but i have to say mine is the nicest, and is full of white people -- as this whole city is. i saw 3 white families walking down one street! needless to say -- im not alone. but what am i more afraid of? foreigners? or natives?

dumdumdummmmmm

f&*$'n bangkok

To quote my dear friend as we walked out of the 3rd guesthouse we had been devastatingly disappointed with. Standing, sweating with our baggage pulling on our sunburnt skin as our stomachs rumbling, she yelled out her curse and shook her fist. (Well, something like that.) Sarah remembers the days of Vietnam when we were wondering around Hanoi and a guesthouse owner signaled to us to check out his place. Cynical, we agreed to follow him, only to be offered a room with cathedral ceilings, tv, aircon and a balcony for only 5$ a night. But Vietnam this is not.

To come back from Ko Chang we paid 700 baht to take a minibus from our hotel to Khosan Road. We decided to stay there instead of Siam Square because it had a much more interesting feel to it. But finding cool accommodations at a nice price seemed to be a much more challenging endeavor than we originally thought. The first place we decided to look at a room took us up to the fifth floor, without an elevator only to find a room with a window, a ceiling fan and a bed. Yeehaw…but we thought we could do better. But 4 guesthouses later – and one of them was only 200 baht (7$) but the door didn’t even fully open – well the sanity left and craziness began to take over.

But luckily for us, just when we were about to go bananas we decided to stop in one more place before we called it quits. Here is where we are – Ben’s House. The cute little Thai woman showed us the room on the first floor. Its cool! Its like a tiny townhouse, bathroom and fridge downstairs with the bed and a tv upstairs. Nice! 800 baht – a little more than we wanted to pay, maybe $12 a person. But when she brought us free mango, we knew we made the right choice.

The next adventure – more food!

pass the dutchie on the lefthand side

So sarah and I decided after not finding a flight to pucket, to go to Ko chang which was recommended by our friend Carolyn who studied in Thailand. She said it was not as developed as Ko Phi Phi (and not as beautiful) but was still a nice beach haven.

There are many beaches on Ko Chang, the island of the Elephant, so we decided to go to Lonely Beach as it is a more popular place with more nightlife. This decision came after not staying at Khoasan Road in Bangkok for that exact reason. We left Bangkok at 8am for a 6 hour bus ride to the ferry where we waited an hour for the ferry hungry, but thinking, we should be leaving any minute. Then we had a 30 minute bus ride to the ferry where we just watched the last one leave – giving us another 30 minute time to wait. Whoo hoo! After the hour ferry ride we arrived on the island of Ko Chang where we then had about another 45 minute drive to Lonely Beach. Whew! Finished!

The bus driver drives down a dirt road into a bit of jungle to let us off at Lonely Beach. Sarah and I climb out and look around….here we are surrounded by a good amount of jungle, dirt, bungalows and trash. What in the…..We kinda stand there for a moment…is this was Carolyn had recommended to us? Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool place…and it gets cooler…but when you are thinking of Vietnam’s chill flat beach roads with sand everywhere and climb out into the jungle with a lot of trash around, it’s a bit of a shock.

So we start walking down the muddy roads looking for the beach and a place to stay. This will be ok if we can find a nice beach hut on the ocean….First place we stopped, 300bath = 10$ and they are bungalows in the jungle (with trash). I look around spotting a long haired dude drinking a brewsky on the porch of his bungalow back in the jungle a bit…uh, lets keep walking. But it seems like those are our only options. Except for a super nice resort with “seaside villas.” Here we find white cement, a view of the beach, and hopefully not death by snake. Being the scaredy cat that I am, I opt to live luxuriously. And it was nice, comfortable, clean and had a great feeling.

After getting a little bit better acclimated with our new hippie surroundings we decided it was not so bad. Now, I quickly discovered that I am not as cool and relaxed as I think I am. No,ma’am. I mean I think Bob Marley and dreads are awesome. Even tattoos are cool. But I am a giant poser. Lonely Beach is full of dreadlocked, hippie clothes, relaxed and oh so cool people. Each restaurant and bar is nestled in the jungle with trees growing everywhere, with no roofs. Christmas lights decorate the trees and people are selling tattoos, jewelry and massages to you in a relaxed fashion.

Lonely Beach was cool, if you are looking for the ultimate hippie hideout where you can meet new people and share ideas together. Definitely the place to be. But as for Sarah and I…the next morning we took the taxi to White Beach.

"thats probably the closest a man has ever been to amber's crotch"

thats what sarah said as we wobbled out of our first thai massage session.

"what?"

"you didn't notice?"

"what do you mean? are you saying that was a man who gave me that massage?"

"hahahahahaha....you really didn't notice?"

"well, i mean, i did, but i also thought that it was just a really pretty girl..."

And so it went, my first experience with a thai massage. despite the gender confusion of my massuse (spelling?) it was a great experience! the thai massage had me bent and twisted in all kinds of fun directions. I had a great experience, feel good and relaxed and i am ready to go back for more!

THAILAND!!

so i know ive been pretty crappy about updating my blog for the past year -- but the time has come to pick it up again! I have finished my second contract at avalon and am moving from seoul....to Thailand! for 3 months!

Right now im on a week of vacation with my friend sarah as we debrief and say goodbye to seoul in our own ways, while taking in another amazing culture.

keep in touch.....