Jub Jub Suphan! Chan Ja Kit Tueng Suphan Mak Mak!

The time has come. Suphan has been a wonderful home these past 12 months. Thailand has made me a very calm, blessed and happy person, mee kwarm sook mak loey! Here's just a few of the things that I have loved and will really miss about living in Thailand:

Sights: the wai greeting, cute students, dogs riding shotgun on a motorbike, pictures of the King in every store, restaurant and home, food carts pushing their way down the street, bugs for sale at the night market, elephants walking down the street, geckos climbing all over the walls, standing to watch the tribute to the King at the beginning of movies in theaters, peace signs in pictures, shoes lined up in the hallway, students walking single file into school, Oat climbing all over our table at Dton's restaurant, 555 all over my facebook wall, stuffed tuk-tuks, people sitting on chairs on top of bags of rice on a moving truck, old shirtless men sitting on their stoops late at night, babies on a moped...

Sounds: tuk-tuk motors, chanting monks, the students daily greeting "Good Morning Teacher," the Thai language, the band at Chaba Cafe, old-school Thai music, the Suphan accent, Thaienglish, people yelling "farang" at me, the gecko squeak, the national anthem every day at 6am, 8am, and 6pm, the ding every time you enter a 7-11, motorbike drivers going past yelling out "I love you!," the Thai reactions "oh-hooooo","aow","oyyy!", "chon gow, mot gow" at the bars, traditional Thai tv show at PTL, chup chup!, Grandma babbling in Thai at PTL, 25 Hours concerts...

Smells: fresh coffee, Thai street food, bug spray, loaded up on sunscreen, toasties from ImD. (Okay, I'll be honest, there are more smells here that I won't miss than those that I will...)

Touch: Thai massages, cramming my longish (in Asia) legs into a seat on the public bus, riding on the back of a motorbike, hugs from the students every morning when I walk down the hall, dancing to too much so much very much whenever it comes on, tuk-tuk rides around town, hot and sunny weather all year long...

Tastes: chili peppers, fresh fruit, som tom, Thai style iced coffee, bamee noodles, flower water, rice bread, banana shakes, pocky, sticky rice, pad thai, khao soi, beer with ice, fried donuts, grapow moo, Thai style omelettes, locally grown rice, cornettos from 7-11, kai jiew, siracha sauce...

I've now pretty much moved out of my apartment and I'm no longer an official "resident" of Thailand.  I'm off to live the backpacker life and be a vagabond for the next 5 weeks. Michaela has arrived and starting on Saturday we will head to Bangkok, up through Northeastern Thailand, into Laos, then I'll go back to Chiang Mai, and on to Pai and Mae Hong Son, back to Bangkok to pick up my brother, down to Koh Lanta, one final night in Suphan, and then on to Seoul, South Korea for a few days before I head back to St. Louis, Missouri, USA!

It's been amazing, Thailand. I'll always consider Suphan home and I'm so happy I've got such a big family here to come back and visit. Khop Khun Mak Mak Mak Mak Mak Ka!!

SYEP Good-Bye Ceremony
Photo by Clare

It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Lately I've been struggling to get out of bed to get to school and I take an extra deep breath before I walk into each classroom to face a room full of rowdy students. I find myself daydreaming for the summer days when I was globetrotting across Asia and exploring new places. Thank goodness this weekend we have our first break in the semester - a four day weekend - holler! Nell and I are off to the island of Koh Mak, a very small island in the Trat province near Koh Chang. If the Google Images of the island weren't enough to convince me, I discovered that every beach bungalow for rent seems to feature its own hammock outside - sign me up!

To reminisce a bit on my summer of freedom, I put together a video of all of my trips in the Tour de Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam - it's all coming back to me now! Check it out below...

Summer Vacation, Asia Style

Starring: Nell Riccio, Meghan Hart, Emily Rall, Amy Wallace, and heaps of cool locals. 

Song: "Go Do" by Jonsi

Summer Vacation: Asia Style from Sarah Rall on Vimeo.

Tomb Raiders: Touring Angkor Wat

Emily and I left Chiang Mai on Sunday night to begin an epic trek to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  It started with an overnight bus from CM to Bangkok, on a sofa seat, with 9 other people. It was definitely not the most pleasant bus ride, but we made it to our destination at 4:30 am and were able to quickly hop a bus to the Thailand/Cambodia border at Aranyaphratet/Poi Pet.  Once we arrived at the border we managed to avoid all of the border scams and people trying to sell us Visas for a ridiculous price and quickly found ourselves in Cambodia.  From there it was still a bit of a trek and a lot of confusion to get from the border to Siem Reap but after some negotiating we got a cab to take us the 2.5 hours to the city and we finally made it to our hostel around noon, exhausted and sweaty.

Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples are all absolutely massive, they require scaling a lot of really steep staircases, really good balance, and great effort to stay hydrated - in our 4 days there the temperature hovered around 43-44 degrees Celsius or about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  Here are some of the highlights of our time exploring Siem Reap and Ankgor Wat:

• Sunrise at Angkor Wat: Yes, it requires an early morning wake up - 4:30am! But at least you can beat the heat! Viewing the sunrise from Angkor Wat you can get a spectacular shot of the pink clouds reflecting off of the small pond on the grounds.  As a bonus, once the sunrise is over many people head back to their hostels so you can roam through the temples and be pretty much on your own.

• Nice monks: For some reason the monks in Cambodia are so much more friendly than their counterparts in Thailand.  In Thailand I'm often scared to make eye contact with the monks, but in Cambodia they were all so nice and friendly, greeting us with big smiles and happy to talk with us or have their picture snapped. 

• Siem Reap's Night Market: Emily and I did some serious shopping at the market here, it's full of things you don't really need, but when everything is $1 it's so hard to resist! We also enjoyed some pampering by way of fish pedicures, foot massages, and mani/pedis.  The night market is also surrounded by ridiculously cute streets full of restaurants, shops and bars (including a pub appropriately named "Angkor What?")

• Trees taking over temples: It's amazing to see the way these huge trees are growing into and around the ancient ruins.  It's mind blowing to think how old these structures are and how they were built long before modern building techniques and tools were introduced.  The trees winding around and growing out of the stones make for some really beautiful sights. 

• The faces of Bayon Temple: Bayon temple in Angkor Thom was one of my favorite spots, the massive faces that sit at the top of the towers are so fascinating to look at and someone always seems to be looking down on you as you explore.  

• Tuk-Tuk tours: The best way to navigate the temples - because the complex is massive, the Banteay Sray temple is more than 40 Ks away from the central temples - is to hire a tuk-tuk to bring you from one temple to the next, unless you were feeling spectacularly ambitious on a bicycle.  Emily and I hired a man named Po who was so friendly and literally drove us all across the city for $20 for the day - and we started at 4:30am to head out for sunrise.  He was a true champ, at the end his tuk-tuk was practically falling apart and we had to pull over several times to make sure it wasn't going to self-combust, but luckily all was well and we made it back to the hostel in one piece. 

There is so much more I could say about all of the beautiful and amazingly ornate temples and the city and people of Siem Reap, but this blog post is already far too long and I've got a flight to Bali to catch, so I'll leave you with a link to some more pictures on Facebook if you're interested: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.824462483427.2340862.1606236&l=32bd3b639f

Koh Kong, Cambodia: Don't Drink and Tuk-Tuk

I think it's safe to say that going into Cambodia the three of us were slightly apprehensive.  We had heard and read about a lot of petty theft, purse snatching, even "brick attacks" on foreigners (these are the types of things you don't tell your parents before you go somewhere...) and from the moment we walked across the border it was clear that Cambodia had a bit more of a renegade feel than Thailand.  I was, however, very pleasantly surprised by Cambodia.  The countryside was beautiful, the people were very friendly and helpful, the food was delicious (Khmer curry!) and the beaches were great.

When we arrived at the border by minivan we proceeded to stamp out of Thailand and were ushered through a gate on to a dirt road that was surrounded by trees on one side and water on the other.  With no one directing us and no signs, we were unsure of where we were supposed to go or if we were even across the border, but we stumbled upon the immigration stand.  We were immediately surrounded by men in skinny jeans and trucker hats (Cambodian fashion) who held a contraption near our head that supposedly measured our temperature and gave us a clean bill of health.  They then took control and filled out all of our forms and paperwork before we realized we should be doing this by ourselves and they began to ask us for their "tip."  We also paid double the price for our Visa but at that point decided it was a moot point to try and argue. Definitely not the typical border crossing/immigration checkpoint.  Once we survived this debacle we had to get ourselves into the town of Koh Kong to find a place to stay. Using our trusty Lonely Planet guidebooks we decided on Ramsey Buntam Guesthouse.  It wasn't the most luxurious of places, with dead mosquitoes littering the sheets and a giant dead cockroach on the ground, but it was monsooning outside and we weren't in the mood to traipse around town to find another place.

The location turned out to be perfect, however, because right next door was Paddy's Bamboo Pub - a very small pub with just a few tables. After enjoying a delicious meal of Khmer Curry and some Angkor Beer, we were invited by a group of Cambodian men behind us to join their table and have a drink.  Only a couple of the men were fluent in English so we stumbled our way through some hilarious conversations and taught them some of our favorite Americanisms such as the fist pump and "Booyeah!" The owner, Paddy, came out and joined us for a bit and told us about his dream to start a hostel and his goals of helping his fellow Cambodians to have work and learn English, quite the amazing fellow! After a few rounds, which involved a "cheers" every other drink, literally, we were invited to join the group at a club for some dancing.  We were wiped out from our trek though and decided to take a pass as our only way home would be from one of the guys, a tuk-tuk driver, who had been downing beers with us until he stopped so he could be the "designated tuk-tuk driver." I'm sure it would have been a very memorable experience, but I was ok with skipping out this time around.

The next morning we had some great breakfast with baguettes (real bread! Can't get this in Thailand!) before Paddy personally gave us a ride, by tuk-tuk of course, to the bus station so we could head down south to the beaches of Sihanoukville.  There wasn't a whole lot happening in Koh Kong, but Paddy's Pub made it a very worthwhile stop on our trip!

Tour de Asia by the numbers...

I have returned from part 1 of my epic summer adventure! It was a whirlwind trip with two of my best friends that was full of delicious food, beautiful scenery, crazy characters, lots of shopping, immigration lines, jazzercise, Asian beer brands, florescent body paint, dim sum, tuk-tuks, flash mob dances, tour guides, and jumping shots. Sadly, it ended this morning with a tearful good-bye to Megh at the Hong Kong airport, but it was so much fun having a visitor from the US and checking out so many amazing places together, definitely a trip I'll remember forever.

I'll post some more details on each stop later, but for now here's a breakdown by the numbers of my 3 week jaunt around Asia:

• 3: Countries visited.  Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam.
• 2: Special Administrative Regions (SARs) visited. That would be Macau and Hong Kong, which are SARs of China. 
• 10: Cuisines sampled.  While my life in Thailand revolves around rice or noodles, the rest of Asia sure has a lot to offer.  I ate some of the best meals of my life in the past 3 weeks, including a few Michelin starred hot spots.  It was definitely a treat for the taste buds! We tried out some Cambodian, French, Vietnamese, Chinese (Cantonese), Italian, American, Thai, Mexican, Australian, Portuguese - delish! 
• 16: Passport stamps added. With lots of back and forth and in and out for the odd day trips, the trip to Bangkok a few weeks back to add pages to my passport certainly proved to be necessary. 
• 13: Modes of transportation.  Tuk-Tuk. Cyclo. Minivan. Chartered Bus. Longtail Boat. Airplane. Ferry. Cab. Bicycle. Canoe. Songtow. Car. Elephant. 
• 1: Number of poisonous snakes held. Yep. For some reason we decided to take a photo with a boa constrictor. Booyeah! 
• 348: Impromptu singing sessions.  Megh and I tested our harmonization skills and Nell attempted to tune us out but joined in with the occasional high note, for some reason we were human jukeboxes for the entire trip, not necessarily a bad thing in the land of karaoke. 
• 5: Currencies used. To put our singing skills to good use, we decided to make up a song for every currency: Thailand - "I like big BAHT and I cannot lie" (Sir Mix-A-Lot). Cambodia: "I've got RIEL" (J-LO and Ja Rule). Vietnam: "Let me see that DONG." (Sisqo). Hong Kong: "DOLLAR, Dolla bills y'all" (Wyclef and Akon).  Macau: "Who's down with MOP? Yeah you know me" (Naughty by Nature). 
• 5: Types of accommodation. From the room full of dead creatures in Koh Kong to the 3-floor private apartment in Phnom Penh, we definitely hit some highs and lows in our choices of accommodations.  There were mosquito nets, hotel slippers, overnight buses, dead cockroaches, bunk beds, cold water showers, beachfront views, t-shirts as towels, and outdoor toilets. 
• 896: Pictures taken. My camera ran out of memory the very last night of the trip -success! Here's a very small sample and a couple of my favorite shots from the trip. 

A birthday cake, a chest x-ray, and some ancient ruins

Hello, Hello.  My birthday weekend began with an iced coffee and a pineapple pastry from Nell, no better way to start my 25th year!  When I got to school I was given my first piece of mail here, a birthday card from my sis Kathleen that sang and featured a recorded poem she created, super cute.  The kids were also very aware it was my birthday thanks to Kru Nell passing along the message.  While I was teaching my first class of the day I was serenaded by my M.3 students "Happy Birth Day To You," it was pretty special, and once I returned to my office I found my desk overflowing with cards from the students in Kru Nell's M1 and M2 classes.  Some of the cards were extremely artistic and detailed, and all of the messages were amazing, here's a sample:

• "Kru Sarah I hope you happy in birthday and every day  You're good teacher.  You teach me so fun."
• "Happy Birth Day.  Have a good thing come to your life."
• "Happy Birthday Kru Sarah.  Kru Sarah is very good teacher.  Have an enjoy. I love you."
• "November 12, your birthday! I like you so much.  You are rejoice!"
• "Happy Birthday Kru Sarah have a good time Health, and I ask God to protect you forever."
• "I wish you healthy.  You are so cute and beautiful. I wish you beautiful more than everyone.  I wish you happy in your Birth Day and everyday. I love you."

Small sample of the birthday cards!

I also received a delicious birthday cake from the EP program and was treated to my 4th "Happy Birthday" serenade of the day - I'm so thankful for a great work environment! Amidst all the birthday celebrations, there was some Visa/Work Permit business to attend to so Nell and I made our first...and hopefully, last visit to the Suphanburi Hospital.  It was an experience!  We were greeted upon entry by a few elderly patients on stretchers chillin' in the hallway.  The forms were all in Thai so our co-teacher, Kru Phon, took control. Once in, we were moved around from room to room, including one stop where Kru Phon said we needed to get our "butt checked," Nell and I both couldn't contain our laughter and were also seriously scared for what sort of procedure we were about to undergo, but after asking Kru Phon for more details and a few pronunciation lessons and quick game of charades, we figured out she meant to say: "blood checked," crisis averted.  As we were moving through the hospital, and attracting the attention of every single patient/doctor/nurse, we also passed a few prisoners shuffling along, carrying their heavy shackles while security kept an eye out, yikes! We then had to give a chest x-ray, assuming the most interesting position and using some seriously outdated technology, before we were shipped off to another room and another line.  Next, we sat down with a doctor where I attempted to tell him I had asthma and was allergic to penicillin...and I'm pretty sure he understood nothing, but he signed off on my letter of good health and I should be good to go.  I can only pray that I stay healthy in my year here and don't need to go back for serious medical issues!  

On Saturday, Nell and I decided to ship out to Ayutthaya, a 2 hour bus ride from the Soup, and a tourist hot-spot due to the ruins and temples you can find there (Ayutthaya is a former capital city of Thailand).  Nell and I rented a tuk-tuk (our favorite mode of transportation) for 3 hours to take us around town to all of the famous spots, most of them were built in the late 1400's to early 1600's, and it's pretty amazing that anything is still standing, although some look as though they are one brick away from toppling.  Once we returned to our hostel we took off again for a longtail boat tour around the city where we were able to see a few more temples with a beautiful sunset in the background.  We were also able to see the effects of the flooding around the city, with many buildings featuring a very high water-mark and some temples inaccessible due to the still high water.

Nell and I spent the night in relative luxury, we splurged on a slightly more expensive hostel for the bonus of hot water and I must say it was quite a tease, it made my cold shower this morning even more painful!  Sunday we did a little more exploring around the city center, the market, and we took a lot of jumping shots around the ruins before grabbing a bus back to the Soup where we pretty much passed out from exhaustion due to 2 days full of walking, climbing stairs and fighting off 95 degree heat.  All in all, a wonderful weekend and a good start to 25! Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I could get used to this whole 36 hour birthday thing with the time difference from the States to here! : )  Here's a link to some more pics on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2312213&id=1606236&l=53655f3be9

Love the tuk-tuks! 

Rocking the fisherman pants! 

Off to the Souuuup!

I am finally set up in my new apartment and my home for the next year in Suphan Buri (aka The Soup) - it's a great little town in the midst of a lot of rice paddies - I dig it.

We finished up Orientation with a trip to Kanchanaburi - which is a beautiful city - I think for a lot of us the area made us fully realize that we live in SouthEast Asia.  It had a very tropical/jungle/muggy feel to it, and there were some really beautiful mountains in the distance.  We didn't have time to explore the waterfalls of the area  but we did get to go rafting on the River Kwei and ride elephants - which is definitely a highlight.

The bamboo rafting was so relaxing, our guide was singing Thai songs the entire time and a few people remarked that it was "just like Venice"...only not at all.  Elephant riding was amazing and terrifying at the same time.  Nell and I were on the same elephant, Kondi, she was a cutie, and I think her mahout thoroughly enjoyed making fun of my Thai skills - I must be pronouncing Thank You (Kob Khun Ka) completely wrong, because whenever I say it to a Thai person they laugh and repeat me.  Good thing I have a year to practice!  At one point the mahout hopped off and must have given Kondi a command to run because she went buckwild - my back was banging into the seat and I currently am sporting a huge welt because of it - Kob Khun Ka, Kondi.  The mahout then let me take the reins and I got to sit on Kondi's neck - I definitely got a new perspective on how strong and enormous elephants are.  Once I relaxed I really enjoyed my time as a mahout and may consider a second career while I'm here.

My other big adventure yesterday was a trip to the grocery store in town - it pretty much blew my mind and completely overwhelmed me.  While some of the other Americans rooms came with a microwave or a kettle - mine came only with a fridge - so there wasn't much I could buy in terms of food - I'm hoping I'll figure that out as I go.  I did have fun exploring the options though, found some really great Pringles flavors: Seaweed, Blueberry & Hazelnut, Grilled Shrimp, and Soft-Shelled Crab.  I'll let you know when/if I ever try them.  As I said I'm still working on that whole "try new foods" thing.  Once we left the store, 5 American girls with lots of purchases, we were told that the van had left so we were taking tuk-tuks home...it was quite the "We Live in Thailand" moment.  We managed to squeeze it all in though and I'm feeling much more settled now.  

Nell and I are going to walk around Suphan Buri today to check out our surroundings and try to get our bearings.  Hopefully tonight I'll have time to post some pics on facebook.

Interesting Thailand tidbits: 

• The number 5 in Thailand is "Ha", so instead of writing "LOL", Thais will say "555"
• The animal sounds are totally different - we demonstrated our version of a bee, a cow, a dog, a monkey to our Thai teacher and she then showed us how Thais would demonstrate--it was quite hysterical, hopefully at some point I can capture my students on video and send your way.
• The Thai words for curry and prostitute are the same - it depends on the tone used.  So you could think you are asking for "curry powder" and really be saying "whore dust".  I think I'll stick to plain rice for now...

I'm ready!

It's really happening...

After months of preparations and a good-bye tour that took me from Boston to New York to Chicago to St. Louis, I'm finally ready to board the plane to Thailand to start the next phase in my life!

The preparations have been never ending, in the past few weeks I've had to get my vaccinations (Japanese Encephalitis, Hep. A, Typhoid, Polio Booster, Tetanus Booster, Flu Shot), I've seen 4 different doctors and my dentist for final check-ups, I've had to fill out multiple forms to change my address from Boston to St. Louis, I've packed up, sold and donated all of my belongings except for 2 suitcases, I've cancelled my cell phone service, deferred my student loans, and made several trips to Target, WalMart, and Sam's Club for any random supplies I might need in the next year.  I've visited all of my favorite people and all of my favorite places.  Finally, it's time to take off...

Peace out, America. Bring it on, Thailand.