Songkran

I'm back....covered in beer-water, ice, holy-water, random buddhist tiger balm powder, klong (dirty canal runoff), sweat from hundreds of people...and more! You think they'll let me through airport check-in or quarantine me? 
SONGKRAN WAS AMAZING! It was a fantastic way to end my time here and totally is going to make me more depressed as I hop on that plane tomorrow thinking of how fun Thailand is. Chiangmai was definitely the spot to go it was packed with people all throwing water for the Thai New Year. You had everything from extremely drunk party-ers, to families from their small villages with buckets of water and seven kids in a truck bed. The kids seemed to have the most fun and loved being hit when you squirted them with water guns. *We went all out and got these kiddie guns with refilling backpacks in animal characters*
For the die hards Songrkan festival actually started Tuesday that week when we got here. Our Song-Tao taxi driver purposely slowed down for kids to jump on the back and bucket us with water and would weave through residential streets where he knew kids would be celebrating early. We were soaked a full day in advance because of his 'skills', hahaha. Everyone wanted to touch or soak a 'farang' - 'gringo' - 'white person' just for kicks too. So we were sought after targets.
Its a bittersweet ending here 'khom-wan' if you will...I'll definitely be depressed and missing Goi and everyone here for a while but I can't wait to see some of you soon!!! :)
A little taste of songkran: 
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150214337074747

Ode to BKK

Ode to the last day of work.

I showed up this Wednesday assuming there would be work but...it appears its a random Mission Holiday, the place is closed. Somehow I'm still scheduled to meet with the hospital design team however because NO ONE announces said holidays here. So I set up my computer, harddrives (techie stuff) open up my bag of papaya and behold...bad fruit from the vendor! Hahaha, amazingly somehow I can stop thinking about how much I'm going to miss all this in two weeks. This is my last week at the office, then next week is the Thai new year 'Wan Songkran' where basically the entire country participates in a nationwide water-war.
Update: This last weekend we hung out with Goi and went to a random naval museum on Saturday and then a floating market on Sunday. Fun stuff! All the shoppers basically walk on the sidewalk and the vendors all have canoe-boats on the small river and sell stuff. This one was more of a 50/50 floating market and house market. Lots of the shops at this one were built on stilts too, so it kinda felt like you were on land half the time even if you were walking over the canal. We had noodles and wandered around and on our way back we saw a monkey! I remembered seeing them farther out of the city but apparently Bangkok has a native monkey population in some of its more natural areas too...King Kong must have had babies when he came to the city, haha. This one was just sitting on a telephone pole chillin...fishermen would talk to him and throw him up bait sometimes just for entertainment while they waited for bites. *Sidenote* I kinda laughed at the fishermen here at first because I've seriously seen Thai's casting lines into puddles and ponds that shouldn't have fish in them by any common sense but then five minutes later coming up with some fish about six inches long (a local favorite around here, they salt it, then fry it head and all, and pick the meat off the bones with chopsticks or fingers). Its probably all over-grown Goldfish from Bangkok sewers but...doesn't taste too bad.

Naam Toum!

Flood! This Monday Goi and me were on our way to work when we got a call saying worship was canceled and we had to come straight to our office. It had rained unusually hard the night before (any rain, we should just say is unusual right now actually, its been dry for so long now) and the roof had leaked. It wasn't just the type of leak you could stick a bucket under though. The Mission roof is designed *un-designed* to have a giant seam/dip in the middle that happens to form right over our wing. The seam had leaked to the point of pouring everything on our neighbors P.Yuwana and P.Saipins desks. Their computers, books, printers, scanners, everything was covered in water, this wasn't everything however. Because of the giant leak there, the water had traveled into the neighboring offices too. Ours in particular was about four inches deep. We bucketed water out the windows for several hours until we could mop and use rags. The powercords to the computers were pretty waterlogged and we spend the remainder of the day moving out *incase it rained again that night* and blowdrying the equipment.
SIDENOTE: (Funny blowdrying story tangent) Goi was trying to dry her hair the other day, and I always teased her because it took her little blowdryer hours because it was so weak. So I loaned her mine...haha. I had it set on low but immediately you could sense the change, it was almost as if her hair was in some wind tunnel/vortex/jet-wash. Her hair was BLOWN backwards and she screamed in shock. A couple minutes later she was shouting 'dron dron dron' *trans: 'hot hot hot'! I was laughing SO hard but I showed her how to use the 'cold' setting whenever it got too warm. Now she's addicted of course...
So back to our story. P.Yuwana had come back from her house with a blowdryer and had started on their sopping wet books and computers when Goi walked in. She saw Yuwana and was like, "Oh! I know the PERFECT thing!" I saw her later showing them how to use it and they were ALL screaming at how strong it was! Gotta love American technology...
We've been officially relocated for the dry-time-being into the radio room down the hall and it looks like the rain should let up soon and we can move back in :) We do have another office with equipment, but it has a giant hole in the roof!! Apparently the ceiling broke a couple months back and caved in on Andrews computer so we haven't been in there since...ironically however this room didn't leak a bit!

Castellano?

When I came to Asia I was under the impression that speaking Spanish would be relatively useless here and I'd come back speaking it worse than ever...boy was I wrong! Yesterday a friend texted me and told me to come to a different church because two Argentinian friends of his were visiting. After the sermon we eventually found each other *its a massive church* and went to potluck together (the Argentinians, my friend Bronsen, and me). When we got there we ran into Flavio, a volunteer from Brazil, and his house hostess who's from Brazil as well. They joined us and practiced their Spanish as well and we all ended up having Mate after at their house! Haha. It was definitely the most 'out of Thailand' I've felt since I've been here. It was an experience totally disconnected from Asia, like we were really at their house in 'la villa' sitting on the porch after culto. So cool!

Winding Down

So the weeks are winding down...and it kinda sucks.
Seems like the work just HIT this week and I got totally submerged. I walked in this morning and had a stack of things to do on my desk, finished a couple off, worked with Andrew on some motion graphics, met with Doug (my boss), met with Jon (my other boss), met with Doug again, then called Jon, then before I realized it the day was over and it was time for dinner. I grabbed some Pat-Priaw-Wan (Sweet & Sour Chicken and veggies *my fav here* NOT to be confused with Chinese food however, its totally different) then headed home. Goi basically collapsed on the floor mat in exhaustion and is still basically unconscious at the foot of the bed, fully clothed, haha. I was gonna head out and do some yoga but got totally distracted on design prep for job searching this summer. Its definitely feeling closer!

Krabi

Glap ik! Back again! Suprise, after Cambodia I was not done traveling for this month. One more trip we had scheduled was Krabi! Rock climbing in Railay, Krabi has been on the top of my checklist since I arrived here. Amazingly yet again however, learning nothing from our unplanned Cambodia trip, we didn't plan anything this trip either. We bought tickets for Thursday night from Bangkok to Krabi, we had a suggestion for a hotel, knew we'd have to haggle for a rock-climbing deal there, and needed to find a ticket back! So Thursday arrives, we all get to the bus station (Amazing considering our taxi diver was thoroughly lost...we told him "Oh! It's here, turn right." and he says, "You were going HERE?! I was taking you somewhere else!") Our bus was late so we figured we'd try again to see if we could get return tickets, last time the counter lady had just said flat out "No. Cannot." This time we tried again and got tickets. Brenda and me had to run back to the bus and managed to hop on just before it pulled out. Sitting on the bus relaxing however, we realized a mistake. The ticket lady had re-issued us the tickets we already had, we had TWO trips TO Krabi now, and still no ticket back. Woops. The bus ride otherwise was un-eventful, we all slept great and woke up in the islands!
When we got there we got a very helpful tuk-tuk driver that helped us find everything, hotel, return tickets, and a climbing package for a half day at Railay. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing on the beach *sunburning* doing some quality people-watching. Beaches here are practically European, old women are usually topless, if they have bathing suits they rarely cover enough, and its fun to guess where everyone's from. The guest house was great, at first we were worried it was a little sketch and didn't know what we were getting into...from the outside it looked like a Chinese restaurant but they had rooms upstairs that were perfect! We got stuck in a rainstorm on our way back from the beach and the owners of the guesthouse had a good laugh looking at us. Their guard asked to take a picture with us and then handed us some bananas while we dried off under the eaves so we didn't get their lobby wet. The next day we took a long-tail boat *canoe with a motor* to Railay island where we rock climbed! The Thai's on the boat ride over with us were our belay's when we rock climbed later and super entertaining. One asked me when I strapped my harness on if I had climbed before. I told him I did back at school but usually just indoor courses. He said, "Oooh, outdoor rock-climbing very difficult...no rope!" I stared at him, then he says, "Joke! Joke!" Hahaha. They spoke this local islander language that sounded sorta like if Bob Marley spoke Thai, "Jah Mai!" haha. We were allowed to climb anywhere there were ropes hanging down basically. Lots of the climbs took longer because they were SO high. Most weren't too difficult but your muscles got super tired about halfway. When you got to top there were amazing views though, my belay 'Raam' helped me strap my camera to my harness before going up so I could snap a few photos :) All in all it was an epic trip and totally worth the chaos and bus rides there and back (The return trip was probably one of our grossest bus rides, but we were so tired and sunburned it was easy to sleep through).

กัมพูชา Cambodia!

So my tops list of things to do when I came to Thailand were 1. Cambodia 2. Krabi 3. Songkran. Starting this week, I crossed one off! Cambodia was seriously one of the most epic adventures EVER. Definitely not an experience for the rookie backpacker however. All the times we camped in the countryside here and Thailand were definitely good prep for our experience to come. SUN: So We took off Sunday morning with tickets to the border and knew from there we would have to wing it. Ironically after all my dreaming about Cambodia however, I never planned an itinerary (I should learn more from my mom). Woops! Even Andrew the normally detailed person, forgot to print off some of the particulars. We were just so stoked to actually get to go it didn't hit us till we were on the buss to Aranyaphated border station that we realized we had NO clue what we were going to do after! On the way we texted some people and got the names of the places we were going to stay on my cell phone. Getting to the border was a remarkably short drive and we realized when they dropped us off at this market...we'd been there before! On our last trip to Issan we'd actually SHOPPED at the border market without realizing we could have spit across the line to Cambodia. Hahaha, We're such American tourists sometimes. We made a deal with one of the 30 men trying to get us taxi rides across and probably got scammed a few more dollars than we should have but everything else was oddly painless. We shared our 'taxi' (a normal car with tape on the door saying 'taxi' haha) with a super nice couple from Russia, they wanted to know all about Bangkok on our way to Siem Reap. Arriving in Siem Reap we were basically pushed out the door and into a tuk-tuk that swept us away to the orphanage Wat Prah Yesu where an Australian Missionary family housed us in their guest "jungle house". MON: We got dropped off at 7am the next morning to catch a bus to Phom Penn (pronounced: bpen-om bpen) the capitol city of Cambodia. Surprisingly the drive there took us longer than our bus ride and the taxi the day before! The roads are so bad within the country and the roads are crowded with cows, water buffaloes, naked babies running, people riding bikes, motorbikes and selling giant baskets. Arriving at the embassy the police told us it was closed for some random holiday BUT for $100 they would get it ready for us by tomorrow. A scam you ask? Yes indeed! We said "Heck no! We'll come back." Some more mission friends of ours housed us that night and gave us the all powerful, all knowing Lonely Planet Cambodia guide book!  Equivalent if not more informative than the Hitchhikers-Guide to the Galaxy, this book totally gave us all the information we needed to know to keep us busy in Phom Penn the next day. TUES: We dropped off the passport in the morning and ran into some issues. First, our letter of recommendation didn't say the right kind of visa so instantly the ticket counter lady tells Andrew, "Sorry, we can't do this here. Try America," (basically). So Andrew looks at his letter and realizes there was an error, it was asking for a different type of visa than the kind he needed! So he just scratched it out with a pen and wrote in the one he wanted. The lady wasn't phased by the unofficial correction technique and was like, "Oh, ok." So then she says, "Well we can do this visa, you can pick it up on Friday." My mouth pretty much hit the floor because that meant we'd have to spend five days in Phom Penn and we'd miss Angkor Wat! We were sitting in the lobby another twenty minutes discussing how to change the date and time and on our way out the same lady motioned Andrew back over to the counter. She grabbed his Visa Application and crossed out the 'Friday' and wrote 'Tomorrow-Rush' (basically). Yeya! I know she's Cambodian but I felt she'd understand and I gave her the deep 'wai', traditional Thai bow for thank you like three times. The rest of the day we decided to make all the tuk-tuk drivers trying to sell us rides angry and just walk everywhere, show them that white people do indeed have legs. We saw the grand palace, the national museum, a silver pagoda, and Russian market! It was super interesting because you could really see all the French influence on the architecture (Cambodia was occupied in the past by the French, just like Laos and some parts of Vietnam). WEDS: Finally we got to pick up our Visa Wedsnesday afternoon and we hopped on the first bus back to Siem Reap, back to the orphanage jungle house! The highlight of today was actually breakfast, haha. PANCAKES. Our hosts Ann and Mark reccomended this great restaurant that makes the most superb pancakes I've ever tried. Thin and cinnamon flavored with, instead of syrup, sliced mangoes and bananas with passionfruit seeds. Arroi mak! We stayed there another night and woke up at 4am the next day to go see Angkor Wat! THURS: We'd hired a tuk-tuk driver the night before for the entire next day. He picked us up at the gate to the orphanage all bundled up for 80 degree night weather *from the looks of it he'd probably just slept in the tuk-tuk there the night before*. Everyone had told us that to get your moneys worth you should see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Our driver drove the tuk-tuk (basically a carriage pulled by motorcycle) down these little dirt paths behind a line of other tuk-tuk drivers. It was like a little lantern lit caravan through the forest until he just stopped and said, "Ok! First temple is here." Both of us looked at him like, "Okaaaaaaay? Where?" It was pitch black and what I had THOUGHT were treetops out one side was actually the front of Angkor. (Side note: Angkor Wat is the ancient capitol city of the Kmers. The city was built hundreds of years ago complete with a giant moat/gate surrounding a series of at least 10 ginormous temples you have to DRIVE between because their kilometers apart from each other.) So we kinda saw other tourists crossing this bridge and decided to follow, we could start to see more as the daylight started to come out. As we crossed we realized there were these ancient stone gargoyle like creatures and the gate was meters thick, and when we came out the other side it opened up into this giant field that led straight to the first temple ruins of Angkor. All the tourists were camping out next to this lake in front of it waiting for the sunrise... something we were questioning would even BE that epic because it looked like the day was going to be cloudy :( So we kept walking and thought we'd just get a peek at the outside before the mobs came but then realized...there was no security, no cameras, no guards, no checkpoints, no signs, no NO's! We could do WHATEVER we wanted. Go Asia. So while it was still dawn and all the other tourists were waiting for their sunrise...we tomb raided! We crept through these ancient hallways and towers and had the whole place to ourselves minus five or six other brave souls. Kinda a creepy erie feeling but super cool at the same time. As soon as daylight was officially out we were almost done, and as everyone else was entering the temple, we were leaving! This kinda kept us a step ahead of the crowds most the day (it didn't really even matter the place is so ginormous it doesn't matter you'll never see them anyway). Our tuk-tuk driver doubled as a tour guide and told us some fun facts about temples as we drove up to them just from common Cambodian knowledge. We got to walk through temples being constructed, even lifted a couple carved stones ourselves! Each one is being worked on by a different country in collaboration with Cambodia because the project is so huge. Japan, China, and India were all given their own temple-project. Our favorite, and probably any tourist you ask however was the temple Ta-Prohm. Sadly the crowds were just suffocating there but we had to hold back until lunch hour anyway thanks to a full camera card and got to see it a bit less populated. This temple is the most unique because unlike the others where they clear away the trees and jungle that just want to take over the ruins this one they left to the elements. The tree roots just seem to swallow the boulders and statues up creating this surreal feeling of being in a fiction story or something from Lord of the Rings. There's little butterflies floating everywhere and you had to find your way in or out a different direction because you get so lost in the jungle. Andrew and me accidentally found or way into some halls that WERE roped off (probably truly dangerous considering the freedom everywhere else) but it was honestly impossible to navigate inside Ta-Prohm. We found lunch at a booth our driver reccomended, Cambodian curry....WOW! So far Cambodian food has been my favorite, even over Laos and Thai.  Surprisingly we were able to finish seeing all the major temples by 4:00 in the afternoon (a solid 12 hours of tomb raiding) and we felt we'd done Angkor Wat proud. It was super hard to say we were ready to go, you just don't wanna leave when you know you could still potentially find more. Lots of people come for 3 to 5 days straight its just so massive! FRI: Another travel day basically, we had to say goodbye to our orphanage friends and the jungle-house :( Great people! Traveling back we got to see more Cambodian countryside before we left, and I've officially concluded I now need to see Vietnam...from research and movies it seems like Cambodia has a lot more in common with Vietnamese landscape and culture than Thailand.  I guess this pretty much wraps the epic-ness up! I'll be posting pictures slowly throughout the rest of the weekend, I think its gonna take me a solid 48 hours of editing :/

Not so bummed?

Chan mi quam sook, jing jing! (I'm happy, really!)
Just kidding! This Sunday *two days from now* I'm off to Aranyaphated, CAMBODIA! The trip is still on...Andrew and me went to go get our visas for Laos (thinking our trip to Cambodia was a for sure no) but decided to just stop by the embassy and ask how things really were on the other side of the border...just curious. Surprisingly while we were standing outside the gate waiting for it to open there were several other tourists there, a guy from Nigeria, a man from India, a pilot from Bali and a couple Thais! We were shocked! The guy from Nigeria lives in Bangkok and told me he was also just going over for his 'visa-run' too. When we talked to the embassy they basically just told us that the fighting was really centralized on the part of the border with the temple, there were no more problems (than normal) within the country and they didn't forsee any issues for tourists. Mai mi panhaa! (no problemo)! The fact that even Thai's were braving it and going over was super reassuring actually, we're still not completely confident enough to have Goi come though :/ Its probably better if just the tourists go...Americans are kinda known for being naive travelers (I think brave sounds better) apparently...and a good source of business. I guess that's the latest on THAT.
We said goodbye to our first Missionary headed back last night :( :( :( WOW! Have I been here that long?! The fact that we're starting to say goodbye to them already kinda hit me and it feels like we're leaving SO SOON! Sandrina is a German missionary teaching English at Tomburi, a really special church plant here in Bangkok. One of the churches with the largest and newest Thai attendance. It could be said its in the 'slums', but lots of people have said its one of the nicer slums around here. We had a surprise (sorta) gathering of her friends near the Mission here at Doug's house and had MEXICAN FOOD last night! Sanook mak (Super fun)!

Bummed

So I'm bummed...for purely selfish reasons, and should probably get over it. Basically I every 3 months we have to do "visa runs" to borders of different neighboring countries around Thailand to renew our work-visas. I only get to do two, my first 'run' was to Laos in November and my second was SUPPOSED to be to Cambodia....my ultimate destination/bucket-list stop since I got here! There's supposed to be a really great mission just out side of Siem Riep that has a great media-center that we were going to live at for about a week or so, BUT Cambodia it seems was not in the cards. This week we were supposed to buy our Visa's for exiting Thailand at the embassy here in Bangkok but we were stopped by CIVIL WAR. There's this landmark temple near the border (where Laura Croft was filmed actually) that's always been disputed territory, who made it the Thais or the Cambodians (chicken or the egg as far as history's concerned...its probably a hybrid temple). So apparently just recently it was proved Cambodian, but after re-possession they found artillery shells and damage to one of the walls. Even more drama is going on because of course its a well known religious landmark so many of the monks and worshipers from Thailand would have to relocate. We thought for a while of just FLYING over the border but of course, last time this fight happened on the same scale (its kind of a regular decade event) they blew up the Thai embassy - where we would be going. Even normally Cambodia is a seriously rough place, hearing gunfire in the major cities is common and you're able to buy landmines for close to 3 dollars...somehow, even with all that negative I'm STILL depressed about missing out on seeing it :( I have some consolation temple pictures for you guys though, its here in Bangkok, but I thought it was gorgeous.

Suk San Wan Truut Jiin!

I got to go to Chinese New Year this week! Woot Woot! It was more of a giant mosh-pit or some concert like experience there were SOOO many people trying to touch sacred objects, rub lucky rabbits, pray to special dragons, etc. It was a definitely a cultural experience. We couldn't really move for two blocks sandwhich-ed between all the people looking at Chinatown condensed into several hundred feet. They had some really ornate puppet shows held by Geishas.

The weekends are numbered!

Sounds like my weekends here are dwindling already, everyone keeps threatning me and saying the last few months go the fastest. I totally believe it, JANUARY is almost over!! Holy Cow!!
I was looking at a calendar trying to budget the last few weekends with some friends...between now and the date I'm leaving ***(I think/hope/cross my fingers/pray-I still dont have the ticket yet!)*** I've only got 3 free weeks left! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!
The bucket list goes on, but...whats a girl to do chai mai? Only so much time in eight months...I really shoulda been packing more in.
Goi and me had an epic girls day out randomely after work. We decided to go 'su kong' or 'shopping' at Ramhamhaeng street market just down the road. Several hours later with several bags and an ice cream cone we made it home looking like twins as always, somehow we always seem to end up looking like twins. Well sorta... she still always looks like the cool Thai chick and I'm her giant farang-barbie, haha. After that we went out to BBQ! My personal favorite. You sit around a personal fire/pot/grill thing and roast your meat with chopsticks and add veggies and stuff. You have to eat a lot too because they actually charge you for whatever food is left ON the barbecue after your done O.O Later, Goi and me still weren't tired so we stood on the street corner, and decided to take the next bus and find out where it went (its always a gamble in Bangkok, bus route maps don't exist and the numbers are sometimes subject to change...one time we got on a bus and two blocks later it broke down, woops!) So this time we ended up downtown near Siam/Na-Na...a little sketchy at night, easy to witness Bangkok's infamous nightlife and almost everyone speaks English because its a tourist or 'farang' district.
I'm pretty sure I saw a purse snatcher, unless the man was holding the purse for his girlfriend AND playing tag? Haha, good thing my wallet was safe.

Tam-Ahan-Thai

I've pretty much dedicated the last weeks to cooking or 'tam ahan' in Thai. We've all been doing some budgeting to save up for some more travel...my time here is already over halfway through! Kind of a sad and exciting thought at the same time.
Cooking however has been more of an adventure than I could have ever expected. First P. Yuwana, a friend from work, wanted to cook with Goi and me on Sunday so we made quai-teow-jiin this noodle dish with a bunch of spicy toppings, it was definitely a group project.
After Sunday Goi decided to make mien soup and eggs, and then it was my turn to surprise them with some form of Mexico meets Asia. Finding ingredients here was a pain and it ended up being more of a Thai dish in the end anyway...a bit of a letdown. It was rescued from some salsa I received from the states (shout-out to Zach and Kayloni!)
After those three dishes though we've been haunted by leftovers the last week, we cant seem to get rid of ALL the remaining ingredients at the same time, haha. So I've been buying random new Thai vegetables I've never tried and trying to cook and combine them with whatever we've got left, somehow creating more leftovers to combine into the next day...and so on. I THINK tonight should be it. Our last dish I got to make these freakish green-beans that I adore...theyre super weird looking and a bit tougher, but taste the same:

The Chinese Long-Bean

hola

I have so many photos I just have to keep uploading a few a week I think. This whole week has been just relaxing/recuperating from all the traveling. I still haven't managed to get my backpacking laundry done, gross! I know! I promise it'll get done this weekend.
It's been super busy at the office just catching up on all the projects that built up while everyone was gone but with the help of a little caffeine its been productive.
Shockingly I even managed to put in a little time on the ol' website and finished that up, you guys can feel free to take a look and gimme some feedback! :)

http://nicolepidoux.com

moewan glap krungtep!

She's back!
FINALLY back at home for longer than 2 days...I think?
Last week after returning from my three week backpacking extravaganza, I unpacked my travel gear only to find I was going on another trip the next morning for Thailand Mission Video.
We went to the East Isan region of Thailand, still somewhere near the south to a little village near the Cambodia border (which I was dying to cross! but that'll have to wait till February...) 
We got to go to a small village and video/photograph these stories of locals an how they came to know the Adventist Church there, really interesting stuff. I photographed the first day but they had to go back the next morning to get some b-roll of the same stuff again so I stayed back near the church to get some design work done. I couldn't help laughing at how weird it looked, I was sitting next to this little church in the middle of the country side with my mac laptop plugged into the one outlet they had at this table in the middle of this field, there were cows mooing behind me, I was wearing mosquito repellent and a bird pooped on my power cord! HAHAHA, all in a days work right?
Later after the video team got back we drove to the next village about a 3 hour ride away...super remote actually. It was really awkward at first because we kinda felt like celebrities, little kids followed us EVERYWHERE and stared, hid in bushes etc. I kept hearing noises behind the windows of the church members house we stayed at and thought they had rats or robbers but they were neighbors spying on us!!! Then later everyone wanted us to come to their house, eat visit and chat and it just took forever to video anything. Kind of frustrating but thats the dynamic when you're out here, haha. Later I figured out just WHY it was so strange to them tho....after church we were all at a members house waiting for lunch and everyone was outside chatting. These two old men motioned us over and we were talking with them...one grabbed my arm and gave me a palm reading!! O.O Kinda freaky I'm not gonna lie, but he was pretty vague and the rest I couldn't understand because he had no teeth and spoke a dialect of Issan thats kind like British English to American English...sometimes confusing. All smiles. Then the second man told me he was 96 years old and that he was so excited because we were the FIRST white people he'd ever seen in his village! This place had been untouched by foreigners for at least the last 100 years or more...we were the first they'd seen. I was SPEECHLESS.
We left last night and it took a good 3 hours to get out of the village because villagers would say goodbye, then one would hop in the car with us and say they'd help us out, but make us stop at their daughters house or something to show us off, then the daughter would hop in the car, take us to her daughters...etc. Finally at like 10pm we started to drive off and had to give the car a once over to make sure no Issan locals were somewhere inside, hahaha.
We got back this morning and it feels so weird to be in the 21st century again!

Christmas!

I definitely enjoyed a little heaven on earth this last week. Phuket, pronounced 'poo-khet' was PHENOMENAL.

Our entire day plan while we were there was pretty much survive for as cheaply as possible, relax to our maximum potential while still seeing everything on the island and getting to hang out with some friends. Our first day we just crashed on the beach until we decided we should find the bungalow we reserved to stay at for the week. The girls all got the bed and the guys camped it on the beach and just used the shower and porch...we had a fantastic view of the city!! 

Day 2 We got a Thai driver for the day for really cheap and had him take us to all the sites he thought were the best on the island, he showed us this great swimming spot, a giant buddha monument, a village of sea-gypsies and some temples before taking us home where we spent sunset swimming on the beach again.

Day 3 We scored another deal and got to go to Ko Pi Pi, a great island with some epic cliff views and really good snorkeling. I identified all the characters of finding nemo but couldn't tell you the real names of all the fish. I've never seen a coral reef in the wild before, it was sooo beautiful!!
Day 4 Spent the day on the beach

Christmas! Found another beach and bummed it there, later managing to score MEXICAN FOOD! Yay! Everyone devoured the food and we even got to spy on a live Christmas concert next door, jamaican singers? It was a definitely island-christmas. 

Fon To

For the King.

This picture didn't quite make the Klong look so trashy...

Did I go to Italy? Somehow this doesn't feel like it belongs in Bangkok.

{Some pictures from a boat ride I took on the river last week down near the kings palace.} 

I'm watching Avatar in Thai with Goi, it was on t.v. and we jumped in half-way. I'm having a hard time trying to describe why Jake Sulley is a blue creature in a loincloth but also doubles as a bearded human in a wheelchair...? haha. I'm having a hard time distinguishing between Avatar language and Thai sometimes in the dubbing...

I got a package today from a church youth group in Santa Rosa, WOW! They baked Christmas cookies and just sent a tin over. I've never devoured cookies faster. We shared some around the office, but after that I took the tin and set it between Andrew, Goi and me. Goi wasn't so sure they were 'wan' or 'sweet' enough, and usually prefers salty food. So basically that left the rest of the batch up to me and Andrew. I'd say we polished off a good seven cookies a piece...plus crumbs. I'm going to have to go on a diet cleanse.

We had our last Thai class for December, kind of nostalgic its fun being able to just try and chat in Thai for a couple hours a day. I'll have to harass some Thai's on the beach into talking with me. P. Ma'm (our teacher) did leave us with homework though of "Kien ha prayok tuk-wan, lago puak-rao ja an gap Phuket, choc dee!" translation:"Write five sentences every day, so later we can read about Phuket, Good luck!"

Athid Na

SO. I've basically been gearing up for vaycay next week, thats pretty much the story of my life. It seems like in ORDER to leave or go anywhere you have to kind of get your vacation desk in order and your fun-face on, haha. Being new to the 'real world' I think its probably something everyone feels like they go through, probably not unique to Thailand, just my life.
Today I got a fun chance to hang out with an SM from Bogota, Colombia named Brenda. I was so worried my Spanish would suffer when I came here and I looked at Spanish speaking options for countries to go to when I finally realized I would "go" somewhere. Amazingly I've made so many Spanish friends I haven't had the option to forget it yet!
We went to this Christmas program at the Ekamai International School Church and got to listen to a lot of the students and teachers sing carols, not helping the NOT-home-for-the-holidays-syndrome thats for sure, but it was cute. After we grabbed a bite to eat at this Thai restaurant Green House that Brenda hadn't been to yet and met up with Andrew to go to Lumpini Park in the center of the city. After looking at a map I kinda realize its a lot like Golden Gate Park, kind of a city community hub/activity park. As luck would have it we ended up going during an International Street Show! Basically there were about fifteen mini-stages set up all around the park and different street preformers from different countries at each one. We saw a CREEPY puppet show from Laos, a Thai clown, Aussie Kangaroo's on stilts and some Scandanavian acrobatics!!! The only downside to the day was the heat...so intense today. I think humidity had to be 90% it felt like breathing water...
Our park day ended with a Christmas bon-fire at the Venns and some amazing lentil stew and guava fruit. How is it that all I can talk about is food when I think of Thailand?

Laos

We survived!! 
Talk about the most amazing/insane adventure yet here in the continent of Asia. 

The run down: basically, every 90 days the governement of Thailand requires all 'farang' or tourists to go renew their visas if they're spending another 90 days in the country. So Andrew, Sandrina and me had to make a Visa run and leave the country to one of its many bordering nations in order to get a stamp in our passport that says something like "welcome back!" 

So we went to Laos for (what we thought) would be just an over-night stay. **You have to leave your passports for at least 24 hours at the Thai embassy in your destination country. So we get on this bus on Tuesday night, and drive 10 hours north to a city called Nong-Khai. Now the bus was first class, but here in Thailand when you pay for first class anything there's an a/c fee...apparently we were the FIRST of first classes because we were refrigerated by the end of the ride...it was sooo cold!! They give you a snack, and coffee in the morning and one pit stop on the ride there (probably smarter in the long run not to drink the coffee).

Once we arrived in Nong-Khai we had no clue how we were actually going to cross the border, but we asked around and found out there was a bus heading to the capital every couple hours or so. Upon arrival at the border or "friend-ship bridge" as its called in Thai, we realized I had a multiple entry visa and didn't have to go through all the paperwork the other SM's did anyway. Surprise! So I was just along for the ride after I got my stamp. When we got into Vientien (the capital 'village' of Laos) we were bombarded immediately by tuk-tuk drivers wanting to scam us off the bus, we managed to barter one down to a reasonable price and get a ride to the embassy after 10 mins though and didn't have to wait that long for Andrew and Sandrina's paperwork.

After the embassy we had to drop off a package at the Adventist Mission in the city so we found the school next. They were so nice to us and one SM named Rachel even took us out to dinner at an indian place near-by. We learned a lot about how Thai-Lao culture is similar and different. We could basically speak Thai everywhere and be understood, but the Lao people have a different accent and a few different key grammar elements...sometimes frustrating, English was almost easier for once. Most of the city was a mix between dirt roads and minimal pavement, poverty and tourism, super different from Bangkok. I immediately realized how modern Thailand was compared to Laos, I even saw my first domesticated elephants right in the city!!

We found out our second day we were supposed to leave Laos was actually a Lao holiday so we ended up having to stay another night. I was THRILLED because I felt there was so much more of Vientien I wanted to experience first! We had a crazy day of looking around, it felt like the city was a lot bigger, but actually its almost physically impossible to get lost. They have one mall, no 7-11's (unlike Thailand) and they have dozens of national landmarks, temples and tourist sight-seeing locations. It felt like we saw pretty much everything in one day though. That night all the shops started to close early (its a communist country and curfew is at 10:45) so we grabbed french bread loaves, peanut butter and jam and had a "picnic" in our room.

The next morning our fun vaycay took a slightly more sinister tern however when Andrew knocked on our door asking if we had been in his room the night before. O.O! He was robbed in his sleep! Someone had walked into his room, taken his wallet and iphone sometime during the night while he was sleeping! We were just happy he was alive but it kinda put a dark cloud over the rest of the day...we had to file a police report but of course the only police station we knew was the hut on the street corner with 4 motorbikes parked under it.

So after a long and tiring day, we managed to get some church members to translate to the police at a slightly more legit station, to get a report, to file a claim...ugh. While Andrew completed the depressing run-around, Sandrina and me had to go to the Visa office to claim their passports before three and grab food for our bus ride (which we hadn't bought tickets for yet O.O)

No worries! Everything worked out fine, we managed to get our Visa's just in time, picked up lunch from these super sweet Lao ladies that practiced some Thai with me, and Andrew walked up just as we were ready to buy bus tickets. We managed to get on the bus leaving the city in the next half hour and I was thrilled that my passport was all good and I managed to leave Laos without hassle (I was secretly still scared I might need another type of Visa).

So all's well ends well...we're back safe...I'd still ironically reccomend Laos as a great several day tourist destination (the city was fantastic) just watch your stuff...

Happy *Belated* Thanksgiving!

I figured that Thanksgiving deserved a blog-post right? Sorry its been so long! It's been an interesting several weeks...! To catch you up:

1. Health Expo was a success!! The banners went up and looked gorgeous, and my posters were miraculously finished on time...it was a race to complete the website however, but we did finish by Opening day. During the event I worked the kids table and ran eye exams on these machines that showed if you were near sighted or far sighted. The machine was a fairly simple process, you aim for the iris then click this button and try and get everything to zooom in...

2. Almost immediately after the Health Expo ironically I was sick. And I mean IMMEDIATELY. That night I had a fever and a cough and the next day Goi and me went to a clinic to get meds for it. Its interesting being sick here because everyone thinks they have the cure for you. The Thai's I work with rarely get sick and seeing me be sick for a while has defnitely inspired them all to try and fix me, haha. I've been randomely handed, fruit, herbs, medicine, you name it.
Two weeks and two doctors visits later I'm still trying to kill this Asian virus but I definitely don't think my body was used to it. Hahaha, I looked at a calendar though and realize...I only have two more days to be sick. So, I plan to be well on Monday :)

3. Beginning part 2 of sick week I went to a festival called "Loi Katong" (sp?) basically its a Buddhist holiday where people send these homemade flower rafts with incense sticks and candles down any body of water nearby. The rivers are flooded with them and lots of times people play music and have carnivals to celebrate. Apparently the holiday is to give thanks to the water for giving them life.
I went with Goi to her University in Ramkhamhaeng and we got to see their school carnival, music, talent show stuff and even send off a little raft of our own!

4. Holiday blues...I'd not reccomend being abroad over major holidays like Chrirstmas and Thanksgiving. Luckily for me, its the tropics so it rarely feels like the holidays anyway. It just seems like summer extended itself and the holidays will be back home for me waiting. Unless of course you look at a calendar, go to a mall thats all decked out, get invited to a Thanksgiving party...like me.
I didn't quite realize I was missing the holidays until I walked into the Venn's house (the family of the pastor I'm working for) and heard Natalie Cole singing Christmas songs and helped cook mashed potatoes and gravy in the kitchen...ooooooooh boy I need to be on an island for Christmas! Thanksgiving was bitter-sweet and Christmas I imagine will be the same.

Next stop Laos! Tuesday we're going on our visa run, we have to get to the border, get our passports stamped for another 3 months, cross back over, get checked again, then we can come back *crosses fingers* Wish me luck! Choc dee!

Rot-fi-fah

 Today was back on the job...
After crashing last night from the weekends adventures I woke up to another very full day :)
I worked the morning hours on the Presidents "Quinquennial Report" believe it or not that IS correct. I'm having to make this backdrop for some stand they have at the Asian Conference Meeting coming up. Andrew and Goi have been slaving away on the video for the same project so we all kept each other company today a while.
We snuck down the road to J Nu's for lunch (AMAZING!) I wish this restaurant was in the states. Its a hole in the wall but run by one family, they live upstairs and work downstairs and the food is great and very reasonable. Everything basically costs 30b a dish.
After lunch we had Thai class. I learned today that theres a reason to every part of a word in Thai. Trains here are called "rot - fi", cars are called "rot" so today I asked the teacher what "fi" was?
She told me that back in the day they used to run trains by wood & fire (not by coal) so they called trains "fire cars" essentially...hahahahaha! I dunno why it felt just like I'd reached some nirvana state of learning or something, everything just clicked! And the BTS Sky Train is known as "rot-fi-fah" or "car-fire-sky"....KABLAM! Just blew your mind right?
PS. Pictures are posted from Mission College this last weekend, enjoy!