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!"