pretty sketchy

Things have been escalating over the past few days in Bangkok. The PAD protesters have taken over the police barricades at the airport, and now have total control over it, completely shutting it down. The Thai government has switched off all Thai TV stations, so nobody will know what is going on...so my main source is internet and word of mouth.
From what I hear, a bomb went off and shots were fired, and the Prime Ministers compound was bombed this morning. There was also a scuffle at the military airport that left 49 injured. I have the feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better. The protesters have complete control of a massive airport and a military airport...not allowing people in or out, and refuse to negotiate with the Thai government. Since the protesters have now become violent, the government who was set on resolving this through non violent methods is probably going to have to get violent too as they are losing millions of dollars everyday. From what the locals say, it almost seems inevitable that the government will attempt some sort of violent method in order to end the protest. There as been an increased police and military presence which is strange...but where I am everything seems to be ok. I am still safe, I just probably can't exit the country for a while...not that I was going to!
We met with our boss yesterday, and the internet line here is not good enough to efficiently train us, or for us to start teaching. But we got it figured out for working on Monday and getting payed so money wont be an issue....and supposedly we are moving into a house within the next week! I guess we cannot start teaching online until the 15th, but I am doing private tutoring tomorrow, and then getting paid to do 2 weeks of lesson plans, so at least I actually start working and getting payed tomorrow. The guy I am tutoring is French, 24, and almost fluent in English. Oh and his name is actually "Pierre"(I know...right?). I met him last night, and he is pretty cool and basically just wants help with verb tenses and someone to converse with in English, so it should be easy. Tomorrow I get to take him on a field trip to Sriracha to go to a tiger preserve...all paid for by TEFL. Tuesday, Matt tutors him and they are taking a Thai cooking class. Wednesday Scott takes him to a waterfall. Thursday Rachel and him are going to get a Thai massage, and Friday Andre is taking him to a party for the Kings birthday (also the Thai father's day). I guess this guy just signed up for a month in Thailand of taking field trips and learning English...pretty cool. We should be tutoring him next week too, so hopefully I get him on a day where the field trip is something cool. Hopefully this Tiger preserve is fun, or its just me and a French guy at a crappy zoo all day having awkward broken English conversations.
OH, last night i got to see Shaam!! We hadn't seen him in month, since we moved out of our apartment, and into the TEFL school! His restaurant is too far away for us to walk, and difficult to get a ride to, so we can never go. He came into town and bought us all beers, and hopefully we can go visit him soon. I miss his food (seriously the best Thai food I have had in Thailand!). It was good to see him!
Alright thats it for now. I would try to keep you updated on the Bangkok situation more, but like I said, the government is censoring TV and newspaper so it is difficult to actually know what is going on, and what is rumor. Maybe YOU can fill me in?
Lots of love!

more laos pics

Here are Andre's pictures from Laos...
He has a waterproof camera so there are actually some shots form the river!!

Enjoy:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015652&l=b79df&id=83901952

Back from Laos, and not dead in Bangkok!

Hello all!!
Sorry it has been a while since I’ve updated…this may get a little long. I know many of you are worried about me over here with the whole situation in Thailand…just know I am safe and far from the mayhem! Apparently there are mass protesters of the government who have shut down the airports so nobody can get in or out. Many people think there is going to be a coup, and many predict bloodshed. I was in Bangkok this morning, and everything seemed normal, though I was far from the airport. I am staying far away from everything…so don’t lose any sleep over me!
When I left for Laos, the country was a bit more relaxed…none of this had started. In fact, most of Thailand was in mourning over the death of the princess. She was having a 6 day funeral. Apparently she died over a year ago, but they are just now cremating her. A lot of people came to Bangkok to pay respects and the whole country shut down and had a curfew during this time. I guess when she died last year, every Thai person had to wear black for a whole month. Anyway, as soon as her ceremony was over…this whole mayhem began!
Aside from all this, Laos was GREAT! It was such a different experience from Thailand. It is so rural and nowhere near as fast paced…in comparison it makes Thailand seem futuristic. As I mentioned before, we flew from Chiang Mai into Luang Prabang, in the north of Laos, because Scott and I had food poisoning. This was a GREAT decision because we avoided a 12 hour bus ride!
Luang Prabang was gorgeous. Laos still has a lot of French influence, so there is French Colonial architecture set amongst the backdrop of Asian jungle. We hiked to this AMAZING waterfall. At the bottom there were pools of turquoise water to swim in, and smaller falls to jump off of into the pools. As you hiked higher the waterfall became spectacularly tall. We climbed all the way to the top, and it was breathtaking, though somewhat steep and intense of a climb!
Luang Probing (and most of Laos) has a 11:30 pm curfew. All of the bars close, and everyone heads to…the bowling alley (not joking)!! We actually did some bowling, which was fun! The next day, we did a walking tour of the city using our guidebooks. This culminated in a sunset climb to the highest temple in Luang Prabang, which gave an incredible view of the city! Laos is known for its French baguettes (of which I ate about a million because theres no bread in Thailand). Dad you would have flipped your lid at this bread...it was so fluffy and delicious and often they use it to make awesome sandwiches on the street!! They were delicious, and so was Lao coffee!
After Luang Prabang, we took an 8 hour bus ride down to Vang Vieng in the center of the country. This bus ride was horrific. It was on dirt roads, covered in rocks, winding around mountains....a very bumpy ride! At one point I awoke to find a woman sitting next to me with a chicken sitting on her lap. Yes…I rode on a bus with a live chicken…only in Asia!!
Vang Vieng was amazing. The Mekong river is surrounded by limestone cliffs, that look unreal. We floated in tubes down the river, which had makeshift bars alongside that pull you in. At these bars, there are ziplines, swings, epic water slides, and trapezes that fling you into the water. They are SCARY but fun! I actually got pretty banged up on one of the water slides…I have huge bruises and gashes on my back and legs, but it was worth it!
We also visited the caves in Vang Vieng where the Chinese used to hide during the war. We climbed pretty far through them with a tiny flashlight, until we all got a little scared.
We hopped another bus (only 6 hours this time ughhhh) to Vientiene, the capitol of Laos. It was a gorgeous city with beautiful temples and an unfinished Arc de Triumph, which we climbed up to see the whole city. Apparently they started building it, and then due to the turbulent history had to give up. Now from far away it looks gorgeous, but up close is basically a well formed slab of concrete.
We left Vientiene and crossed the “friendship bridge” into Thailand, where we got on an all night train. Luckily this time we had sleeper cars and got to lay down. We arrived in Bangkok this morning, and took a bus back to Ban Phe where we immediately started training to start teaching on Monday, but the internet still isn’t up to par here and we could not even train. There have also been a few issues with my work permit here. Allegedly the province we are teaching in needs extra paperwork, of which they neglected to inform us of until now. So I may not be able to start teaching but I have a meeting with the boss tomorrow at which I am going to tell him I need to start working because I am going broke…and also that they need to move me out of the shithole TEFL school (sorry about the language mom, but I came back to find ants all over my bath towel and bed…and no working electricity in my room. Not to mention it’s a cold shower and rather dirty anyway). Basically I am not being nice anymore, and they WILL be paying me, fixing my work permit, and moving me out of here, and I am NOT taking no for an answer (can you tell I am about ready to burn down the TEFL office?). The internet SHOULD be ok for us to teach by Wednesday, and if not I have to go to Bangkok for a couple days to teach from there (worst case scenario), but don’t worry I will stay FAR from the airports, and TEFL will be funding that little adventure!
Traveling with the boys was fun, but after 2 weeks I have about had it with burps, farts, wrestling, and dumb man jokes. In all fairness they got me doing it too…but it feels good to be back!!
I have added pictures from Chiang Mai and Laos:

Chiang Mai:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015632&l=bdc19&id=83901952

Laos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015633&l=282e0&id=83901952

Thats it for now...and seriously, I am FINE here in Thailand (mom), and am nowhere near the upcoming bloodshed!! LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you to everyone who sent me mail too! It was SO nice to come back to letter in English! It made my day!!

Chiang Mai

Hello all!
I am writing this from Chiang Mai, a city in the North of Thailand! We left from Bangkok on an overnight train (12 hours ughhhh) to get here. I basically took tylenol PM and was konked out for the whole ride, otherwise I never could have slept sitting upright on a train. When we got here, it was about 7 am. The city is absolutely beautiful...very clean and surrounded by green hills. The old city is surrounded by a moat and a 700 year old wall which was built to keep out Burmese invaders. I was VERY excited to learn that the climate here is much more mild...about 70 degrees and less humid!
Our first day we decided to go to the zoo and aquarium. The zoo is gigantic, and very much like the San Diego Zoo...except you can get much closer to the animals, and actually feed them!! I got to feed hippos and giraffes! The aquarium is the largest in Asia, and was incredible too!
We have explored the city a lot and have done some incredible things! We visited an orchid farm, where the flowers are grown hydrophonically, so the roots hang down from the ceiling. The orchids were all different colors (even blue!).
We went to an elephant camp, and rode through the river and the jungle. The guy actually let me climb off the seat and ride on the elephant's head, and he let Matt go into the river and swim with the baby elephants! When we came back to the camp I walked up to a baby elephant and it made a kissing noise. The owner said it wanted to give me a kiss, so I let it. It took its trunk and suctioned my face...SO FUN!
We also went bamboo rafting down the river. These are seriously planks of bamboo strapped together with reeds and you row them with a long bamboo pole, sort of like a gondola. It was very relaxing and offered a spectacular view of the river and jungle. We also went to visit the Karen hill tribe who wear brass rings to elongate their necks. I tried on the neck rings and they were extremely heavy (about 5 pounds). They attach the rings when the women are 5 years old, and remove them every 3 years to add more rings. It was really neat to see how this hill trible lives.
After the hill tribe we hiked to a beautiful waterfall! At the top you could slide down and land in the pool below (about 20 feet). However it was surrounded by rocks...so very scary! Scott and Matt went down the slide, but Andre chickened out. I climbed the rocks up to the top at least, but then I chickened out as well and just swam in the pool below.
We also went white water rafting, which I have to say has been my favorite thing thus far! I thought I would be scared (these rapids were mostly level 3 but some level 4), but it was exhilerating! I have not had so much fun in a long time! We are thinking about doing a full day rafting trip in Laos.
Unfortunately the fun ended for me in Chiang Mai here...Scott, Matt and I ate dinner at a restraunt near our guesthouse, and then were walking towards the boxing stadium to go see a Muay Thai fight, when all of a sudden I was hit with a violent strain of food poisoning. I have never been this sick in my life. The boys got me into a cab and took me home. I threw up 14 times in 12 hours, and had dihharhea (at the same time ewwwww). Scott was so nice to me, tucked me in blankets and force fed me water, and didn't make fun of me when I cried on the bathroom floor saying "I want my mom"...until about an hour later when the food poisoning hit him as well. Both of us were up the whole night vomiting about every 1/2 hour. Luckily we had 2 bathrooms! I had nothing left in my stomach after about 5 hours but was dry heaving. Matt fortunately was not hit by it, and was able to go get us gatorade. Andre ate at another place and missed it all together. I am starting to feel better although I am still not feeling great, and neither is Scott. I have kept down about 3 crackers and it has been about 24 hours since it started.
We decided to fly to Laos now because we are both sick, and avoid the 12 hour bus ride through bumpy dirt roads. I think this is a good decision although a little more expensive. Hopefully by the time we fly out tomorrow I will be feeling ok enough to enjoy Laos.
On a better note, traveling with the boys has been a blast. I thought I would be overwhelmed by too much testosterone...but we actually all want to do similar activities. Aside form the food poisoning this trip has been a blast and I am very excited for Laos.
I will try to update soon...but I am going to go try to down some more water and try to feel normal again!

send me mail and make me feel better about this...

I met with my employer yesterday. The good news: He seems really nice and I should like my job. The bad news: I don't start until December 1st, I will be teaching classes of 6 korean students ages 9-17 online (so I can't really use any of the Thai I have learned), oh and I am homeless until they find me a place to live on or around December 1st (they claim to be looking for apartments for us...right).
I can live at the school until I start working...but it is kind of a crap hole (no hot water, my AC is broken, and I have a room filled with ants). So instead the boys and I decided to go to Chiang Mai (about 12 hours north of here), and then into Laos for the next 2 weeks. We are leaving tomorrow.
Don't get me wrong, I am VERY excited that I have more vacation time, and that I get to see the North of Thailand AND a whole other country...I was just counting on getting a job A MONTH AGO. I am running low on cash so if they push back my start date another time I might have to find a side job.
That is the update for now...I am sure my trip will be fabulous and I know I am going to like my job once it actually STARTS!
Until then, I FINALLY got a hold of the address here! You can send mail here any time since it is the address of the school I will be working at.

Tami Laird
c/o TEFL International
38/53-55 Moo 1 Suan Son Rd.
Klaeng, Muang
Rayong 21160 Thailand

I would LOVE to get any kind of mail...especially because I am feeling a little homesick. Send me letters, send me pictures, heck send me anything...I would love it! Oh and don't forget to include your address too so I can send you postcards.
I will update probably in Chiang Mai or Laos! Until then...miss you all as much as I miss mexican food (which is A LOT)

Loy Krathong

Yesterday was Loy Krathong, which without a doubt is my new favorite holiday. Loy Krathong is celebrated once a year on the full moon in November. The word loy means to float, and a krathong is a banana leaf cup. People make a krathong from the trunk of banana trees, which is a lot like styrofoam. Then they are ornately decorated with banana leaves folded in patterns and topped with flowers. People place a candle and incense sticks in the krathongs. People also place a piece of their hair and some coins as an offering to the goddess of water. Once the krathong is finished and the candles and inscence lit, the krathong is floated on a local river or the sea. As they push away their krathong, they let go of the past and wish for good fortune in the future (somewhat like new years as they consider november the 12th lunar month). There are also paper lanterns that people float in the sky and people set off fireworks, so the sky and water are all lit up throughout the night (it is incredibly beautiful to see but difficult to capture in a photograph).

We went to a local thai restaurant and made our krathongs with thai people who taught us how to fold the banana leaves and attach the flowers. We entered them in a contest for later in the evening. They had a "Thai' contest and a "white person" contest, which we entered alongside several other competitors. We finished our Krathongs and then had a BBQ, and walked around the festival which closed down the main street of Ban Phe. There were food stalls, and rides, and games all along the water. Some of us tried the Thai delicacy of fried crickets, but I was not brave (or drunk) enough to do it. In the center of the street there was a large stage with Thai dancing and music. The sky was filled with paper lanterns that float in the air, and everywhere you looked people were setting off fireworks (some narrowly missing your head).

After dark, the water was quickly filled with the ornately decorated Krathongs. We returned to the restaurant and did some karaoke...and then the contest happened! Courtney got 3rd place for her "unique and very white person design". I clinched second place and was told I had made mine in a very traditional and beautiful "Thai" style. Sarah got first place for overall creativity! We were surprised that we actually won all three prizes because so many people entered!! The prizes were bottles of beer and whiskey (very appropriate for the later festivities).

After the contest, we walked with our Krathongs down to the sea, where we lit the candles on them, and floated them into the water. It was incredibly beautiful to see them all floating. Loy Krathong is such a happy and wonderful ceremony, and you could see that by the astonishing number of people on the beach launching their carefully made krathongs. We met a lot of Thai people who were really happy to share their culture and holiday with us.

We met some Thai friends, who rented a speedboat which took us over to the island of Koh Samet. We got off the speedboat outside a waterfront bar, and danced the night away with all of the locals celebrating. We returned to Ban Phe on the boat about 4:30 am...but it was worth it.
I have to say it was a beautiful holiday with so much meaning and tradition...but I also have to say the Thai's really know how to celebrate after the traditional part is over!

I have put pictures up from both bangkok and last night's Loy Krathong (including my second place winning krathong)!! Enjoy!

Bangkok:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015356&l=371e4&id=83901952

Loy Krathong:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015357&l=d0f8f&id=83901952

Tomorrow I meet with my employer so I should have an update on the job and living situation soon! Until then...
xoxo

Bangkok!

I just spent the last 5 days in Bangkok. Since I don't start teaching until the 15th, I decided to go up there. Luckily my dad (who is officially THE MAN) hooked us up with his holiday inn points, so we got to stay there for free, in the heart of the city. But this is no ordinary holiday inn...it was the holiday MANSION...seriously like the 4 seasons but nicer. Anyway, Sarah and I got there, were blown away by the amazing hotel...and invited Gabby and Rachel to stay with us. Then later, Laurie and Courtney came to stay. Bangkok is basically ordered chaos...difficult to describe, but awesome! I can't go into detail of the whole trip, though I would like to, because it would take too long. So here are a few highlights:

The Erawan Shrine: Basically you make a wish at this shrine and if it comes true you are supposed to hire Thai dancers and musicians to perform outside of it. Needless to say there are tons of dancers and musicians outside.

Wat Pho: The oldest and largest temple in Bangkok which also houses the "reclining buddha". This buddha was ENOURMOUS, gold plated and his feet were covered with mother of pearl detailed pictures. The wat was beautiful and there wasa lot to see!

Chatauchak market: Pretty much the largest market I have ever seen in my life. I saw about 5% of it.

Khao san road: a bunch of white people...great bars

Our hotel: In-fricking-credible

tuk-tuk drivers: sketchy and take you to dark alleys to see "ping pong shows" against your will.

all in all...mostly good, but I am not a big city girl. Although I must say it was easy to navigate, despite the dirty smellyness of 80% of the city!
We met up with the others from our group placed in Bangkok for teaching, and about 12 of us just ran around the whole city. It was so fun to see everyone!

The transportation coming home was less than great. We got on a bus, which should take about 3 hours maximum to get back to Ban Phe. This bus stopped at EVERY city, and sometimes even in the middle of the highway to let on random people. The "bus attendant" kept coming up to me, singing to me, turning off my ipod, and trying to touch my hand. He kept saying "I like you", and singing to me in Thai. I tried to tell him the feeling was not mutual...but he didn't understand. He also would not let me look out the window. I kept opening the curtain and then he would immediately run back and shut them and say "NO CURTAIN". When I asked why I couldn't look out the window, he said something about it being too hot, even though it was cloudy outside. The bus let so many people on that at one point a woman sat next to me, and plopped her child on my lap for a good 45 minutes. It was about 3 people to a seat and others standing in the aisles. Oh and did I mention this bus ride took 6 HOURS, and then dropped us off in Rayong (15 minutes away form ban phe) in the middle of nowhere with no explanation. We hopped on a taxi and made it home...barely. Oh and there were no bathroom stops...nope, not one! OH and to top it off, the driver blasted (and I mean MAX volume) bad Thai pop music all through the bus.
needless to say I am glad to be back. I am staying at the TEFL school for a couple days but might go to Koh Samet for a bit to lay on the beach while I wait for my job to start.
Pictures to follow!
xoxo

PLACEMENT!

Looks like I will be teaching online in Ban Phe starting November 15th. Kind of sucky...but kind of not because I will have Scott, Matt, Andre and Rachel to keep me company! Off to Bangkok for the next 5 days...should be interesting. I will update when I have more info on my placement...and of course good stories about bangkok!

xoxo

pictures!

I put up my pictures from Koh Chang...and a few random ones from Ban Phe....enjoy!

Ban Phe:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015055&l=7e3e6&id=83901952


Koh Chang:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015053&l=b8de3&id=83901952