fireflies, floaties, and festivals

I had a great weekend! The boys went on a "Man trip" to Kanchannaburri, so I decided to go on a "girl trip" to visit Courtney. On Friday, I took a bus down to Trat where Courtney teaches. Trat is a small town, near Cambodia, and close to the island of Koh Chang (where I went in October and rode elephants). Trat is adorable, full of cute little buildings, and friendly people. This weekend there was a festival in the town, and the street was full of delicious food stands and performances. We walked around the festival eating everything that looked good (which was a lot)! There was a shadow puppet show made with ornate cutouts of Thai figures (hard to explain but I took pictures), there was singing, dancing, playing of instruments...it was really fun! We tried all kinds of new Thai foods and desserts (using the phrase "what is this" in Thai was helpful haha you never know when you are eating fermented fish guts or mango sticky rice). There were TONS of people at the festival, mostly locals. We were some of just a handful of white people, but the Thai people in Trat were so friendly and helpful letting us try foods for free and tolerating us trying to ask what they were.

On Saturday we went to the island of Koh Chang. One of Courtney's students' family owns a restaurant on the island, so they told us to stop in that night and have dinner. The restaurant was right on the bank of a small river and had delicious food! Courtney's student came and she was adorable! After dinner, she asked if we wanted to go see the fireflies. We got into a boat, and went down the river to a grove of trees. There were tons of fireflies in the trees, and it looked like blinking Christmas lights. It was beautiful. After that, we went and found a place to stay, then went out to "Treehouse" the bar in the woods. We danced and met a lot of travelers, and had a great time!

Sunday morning, we woke up and headed to the beach. We layed in the sun and rented floaty rafts to lay on in the water. It was really nice. We walked around the island in the afternoon, and then headed back to Trat on the last ferry boat, catching an amazing sunset over the island!
When we got back to Trat we went to the festival again, and ate more delicious street food. Then we came to a CD stand of Thai pop music. I have a favorite Thai song that I hear all the time, but never know the name of. Courtney and I asked the guy if he had it, and we sang it for him. He then got his friend, and we sang it again for him, then this guy got another friend. This went on for a while until FINALLY someone recognized it and found us the CD! It was hillarious, but now I am the proud owner of a CD containing 183 Thai pop hits (oh yesss).

Monday morning, I caught the bus back to Ban Phe, and made it back in time to teach my classes and get noodles with Rachel. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend.
This is Rachel's last weekend in Ban Phe :( and then it's just me and the boys. I am bummed because I will have nobody to get noodles with or bounce around at aerobics with anymore...but we will meet up with her again in April to travel a bit in the south! I will finish teaching in about 2 weeks. It seems like this just flew by! I can't wait to start traveling in April. We are making plans now. The first leg will be Phuket island, the phi phi islands (where they flimed "the beach"), the similan islands, and Krabi in the south of Thailand...then off to Vietnam (Hanoi to Ho Chi Mihn for 2 weeks), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, and Indonesia (Bali and the Gilli islands for 10 days)! If any of you have traveled these places and have reccommendations, let me know! Or if you have researched them and come across anything you think I need to see please tell me!
The only drawback is taking 1 large backpack , which I have to keep under 25kg for the flights...(yeah not gonna happen), and one carry on! I am putting my non-traveling big suitcase in storage in Bangkok (they have a Uhaul like storage facility run by an australian expat that you can store things in really cheaply and for long periods of time. That will be good for me to fly back into Bangkok grab my stuff and head home, and not to have to worry about carrying a HUGE suitcase around Asia)! It seems surreal that this is almost over, and yet the fun is just beginning! I will be home in about 2 months! eeeek.

Anyone have a job for me when I get back?
xoxo