a place out of time

Friday noon marked the beginning of a long weekend, and in Thailand a lot can happen in 4 and a half days! Maggie and I chose Ton Sai beach as our destination and decided to leave straight after work so we could explore a little Friday night in Krabi, grab a hostel or accommodation and take a boat Saturday around to Ton Sai. From the bus station we were able to grab a deal including transportation, a hotel room for the night & elephant trekking in the morning for a total of 1000 baht (about $33.00). And the truck-tuk-tuk stopped the moment I saw a wall with a big piece up on it and dropped us at Krabi Guest House & Tour! 

Our room with taxi was only 200 baht total, and we were shocked it looked just like the pictures! On the 4^th floor with a balcony, double bed, fan, toilet paper, water bottles, AND hot showers! We headed straight to the huge night market we had seen driving in, and found ourselves in a beautiful and somewhat reminiscent thai market. Krabi had a lot more artists, musicians, and craftsmen than I have seen at any of the markets so far though! Still lots of food and clothing merchants too!

In the morning we were up early and ready for Nosey Parker's Elephant Trekking and River Camp! After breakfast at the hotel, only the most delicious pancake I've ever had topped with fruit and caramel, and a 30 min ride in a minibus we were stepping out into an amazing forest sanctuary housing 8 elephants, from 18 to 79 years old! We rode our elephant across a river, through the forest, down muddy hills, between rubber trees and back through the river! It was such a beautiful setting, and we got the feeling that our giant friends were happy there by the water and the mountains!!

From the river we went straight to Ao Nang pier to catch a long-tail boat to Ton Sai! This was my first time to the West coast and my first time to the Andaman Sea! 

After about 15 min on the boat we were approaching land, a small bank of sand known as Ton Sai beach. The cove is surrounded by large dripping rocks and jagged caves. Home to only a handful of Thais, maybe 15 bars (it was low season so only 4 of them were open!) and at least 100 or so bungalows ranging from thatched huts to walled structures, and one really nice resort-style place with a beautiful swimming pool. Ton Sai is world famous for its rock-climbing and truthfully I've never seen walls anything like this!! They also have deep water solos where you free climb a huge rock and then jump off into the sea!

We dropped our stuff into a bungalow and took the short, steep path one cove over to Railay beach, its a lot more touristy there, more resorts, restaurants, beginner climbing courses, and boat/diving tours. Maggie quickly bargained her way into a 45 min foot massage on the beach for 100 baht ($3) and vacation was in full effect. We spent the rest of the day lounging in the sun and collecting sea shells. AND I saw a monkey that was wild & not chained to a tree or to anything else!!! (throughout the weekend I ended up seeing tons of different kinds of them too!!) 

On our hike back the most beautiful cat found us in the cliffs and walked with us back to the beach! My favorite thing about this place was all the cats everywhere!! And they were all super healthy and pretty!!

Sunday we decided to be adventurous and try canoeing in the sea! I think they were calling it a kayak, but it didn't have the seats that hold you in, so in my book its still just a canoe. By 11 am it was still slightly overcast so we figured it would be a good day to be out on the water, but by the time we reached the nearby rocks off of Railay the wind started picking up along with the waves! We decided not to fight the weather and headed to shore for a break. We had the canoe for 5 hours so we had time, but after sitting on the beach over an hour the weather had not improved and waves were still high. Another hour passed, and we decided that we were going to have to give it a go and try to make a run for it! It was only around the point, but we immediately knew we weren't going to have a chance against these waves when the first one completely flipped us over! After discussing our options we decided we better go talk to a boat man. On the other end of the beach were at least 15 long-tail boats, and we convinced one of them to take us and our canoe back to Ton Sai! But surprisingly when the boat took us around the point there was no water! It was low tide and even if we had canoed around, we would have been stuck dragging our canoe through rock and mud!! Instead our boat man unloaded the canoe and took it all the way up to the sand for us! We needed a few laughs after that one, so we spent at least a good hour swinging on the tree swings and the rest of the evening bumming around Sunrise Bar.

By Monday it seemed as if time had already ceased to exist after entering a vortex portal into this place. Spent the whole day enjoying fruit shakes, beers, pancakes, tokes & playing games with the locals! The Thai guys were hilarious and were happy to show us their local version of Jenga, plus some fun mind puzzle games, cubes, and inventions! The whole place feels like it was made out of found objects from the sea.

Life here is simple. The more I am around Thais I feel like I am just slowly understanding them, they seem to be big jokers.. everything is funny! And they also seem to be very creative and musical!! It was nice to be in a place like this when it was low season and during the day the Thais might easily outnumber the tourists! It was cool just to see how they relax, and how they fish, how they eat together, how the kids interact with the adults, and I just love listening to them speak! They also seem to be eager to help teach me Thai as well, I need to keep a phrase book with me that I can write down things as I learn them because I have such a bad memory!!!  

..and just as quickly as I came, it was time to catch a boat and a bus back home to Suratthani where there was a hot shower and clean clothes waiting for me... 

Fireflies on Koh Lampu

Friday night I was invited to go on a boat tour on the river to see fireflies! Chatcha and her aunt picked me up at 7pm and we headed down to the pier where we met up with some of their other friends and coworkers. The 7 of us climbed aboard a long wooden boat, took a seat on the wooden planks and our tour guide handed each of us a life vest. It was basically a large canoe with an engine, so we sat right at water level.

We pushed off and headed across the river to the shores of Koh Lampu, (pronounced Got Lampu – also known as “Exercise Island”) a great spot during the day for sports, jogging, and watching jet skis fly by. At night you can see houses lit up along both sides of the river, some of them are even on stilts sitting right on the water.

It didn't take long to spot the first mass of fireflies! They grouped together, as if they had carefully chosen 1 tree and all agreed to stay there. It was amazing! The closest way to describe it was like a Christmas tree! The white lights flickered on and off and the whole tree was full of thousands of them! The light of the fireflies was not bright enough that you would have seen it from a distance, so it was perfect to be on a small boat, with no lights, and when we got close the guide cut the engine and pulled out a long ore so he could stop us right up next to them!

Soon we continued down the river and for the next hour and ½ we slowly made our way east, heading towards the Gulf of Thailand. Every couple hundred of feet or so we would spot another tree or two twinkling with lights. He would guide the boat in near the shore and at times they were so close you felt like you could just reach out and catch one of them! They say it is good luck if one lands on you, but none of us had that good of fortune this time!

It takes them over 1 year to mature from larvae to adulthood, and they only live as adults for 2 weeks and then die. During the two weeks is when they are able to light up, and the lights are intended to attract a mate. The males have a brighter light, and smaller bodies so they can fly more quickly than the larger bodied females. We weren't able to take pictures, as the guide warned that any flash would scare them, and realistically flash or no flash you wouldn't be able to capture the essence of it anyways. Maybe with a super nice camera, but we were all happy to keep our electronic devices safely stowed away and simply enjoy the experience. It was truly magical!!!

thankfully google images exists... so i found you guys a picture of what it was like!!! 

Over The River & Thru The Wood... To The Pool We Go! + Waai Kru, Monkeys On A Barrel, And Other Asean Adventures

Well time just flies when you're living in paradise! I keep thinking my posts will get shorter, but so much keeps happening its hard to keep up with it alll!!!

 

So at the end of June we were honored at our school for teacher's day, known as Waai Kru (aka “bow to teacha”). After the kids all sang some songs and some Thai was exchanged, all the teachers for each grade sat at the front, next to an altar and of course a large photo of the king, while two students from each class crawled up to us on their knees with offerings of flowers and numerous bows. We graciously accepted the bouquets and gave our students a blessing in return. Every one of our students brought in a small & unique, thai-style flower arrangement—complete with incense and candles, wrapped in large green leaves! They were just too adorable.

.

This is Japan, he is one of my favorites. He is hilarious, loves to sing, dance, and bat his eye-lashes! He also wants to be a mermaid when he grows up & draws at least 1 mermaid on every piece of paper he touches!!

This is N'Pun (sounds like Ban), he is completely out of control, energetic & wild! Loves to run, scream, and pretend he is a dinosaur. Gets pulled out of our lesson every day, but he is still one of the brightest kids in class & always knows the words to the songs...even though he won't sing during song time – rather while he's running down the hall on the way to lunch!!

In June we only received ½ a months pay, as classes didn't start until mid-May, so most of the teachers were patiently waiting for payday, which meant less weekend trips away from Surat and more exploring of our own neighborhood! Which was actually great! Just across the river from us we found a brand new pool that none of the locals seem to be going to. In general, Thais are not eager to build their suntans, in fact its quite the opposite. Every lotion or skin product in the country is full of “whitening agents” which I'm pretty sure is just bleach! So they must think the farang are absolutely insane to go out and lay in direct sunlight for hours and hours then proceed to compare our tan lines :D But with a view like this how could you not?!

I also rented a motorbike last month and have been enjoying perusing the city, and really beginning to realize how big Suratthani even is!! Its not huge by any means, but there are definitely several main streets which all seem to confusingly wind around into a big circle of sorts, and we have our share of department stores, movie theaters, bike shops, restaurants, bars, dessert shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, electronics stores, pharmacies, 7-Elevens & there's even a football stadium!

Here's me in my work uniform, with my brand new, shiny helmet!!!

nee bpen rotmotersai khong chan gap muak gannok mai - this is my motorcycle & my new helmet!!

Over the weekend I took a little drive over the bridge, past the pool, and found myself in a forest of palm trees!! It is neat to actually see NATIVE palm trees, where they aren't awkwardly all in one neat row on top of a hill :D But as I was driving I found, first, a cool building with a colorful mural on it!!!

And second, I saw a monkey!! At first I was really excited to finally see a monkey in the wild, but then when I stopped for a picture I quickly realized it was tied up to the tree! Dislike... But it seems Thai's have a thing for keeping animals tied up... I've seen everything from a cat, to an elephant, a squirrel, a bird & a monkey all tied up! And yet, its the dogs they let run free on all the streets! Even people who own dogs just let them completely come & go as they please...

In other news, I have a new favorite restaurant! Its called “Good Health” and they use all fresh ingredients and they don't add MSG to their food!! Hallelujah!! PLUS they have a whole page of tofu dishes!! I am slowly but surely adjusting to the food here & my new favorite dish is tofu green curry!!!

Lastly, I've still been practicing my Thai! It's going slowly, but honestly I think my yoga instructor is helping a great deal! Listening to her 3-4 days a week is really helping me begin to grasp the tones and the sounds of the language, and a little bit of vocabulary is sneaking in there too!! I've also made friends with some of the Thais that come to class, one girl & her two aunts have invited me this Friday to join them on a night boat to go see fireflies on the river!!

Last week the 4 of us were the only ones in class so P'Noi had us doing partner poses that turned out to be rather challenging, but FUN! I am so grateful that Holly showed me this studio, I absolutely LOVE P'Noi & her family! What a great place to be practicing!!!

~ namaste ~

the light in me honors & reflects the light in you