I know. I don't post very often. However, I got a treat for you. Movies! Here are movies of the places I have been while in Thailand.
Khao Yai National Park
Ancient Siam
Khao Sam Roi Yot Park
Temple of the Dawn
Thailand was great, but it wasn't paradise. If you followed the news, you would know that Josie and I were there while Bangkok was the center of protests. It didn't get too bad for us but we didn't want to get suck in the country with the airport shut down. We ended up leaving there sooner than planned.
Back to America
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Vaction
I have a little break from school right now. While we are waiting to get back to work, Josie and I are trying to see Thailand. We traveled down to Koh Tao and we spent four days their while I worked on getting my PADI divers license. Josie refused to do it with me, so she spent most of her time blogging and hanging out on the beach.
We stayed at Crystal dive resort and it is also where I got my license. It's a cheap and fun place to go to. http://www.crystaldive.com/
After I finished, Josie and I headed to Koh Phi Phi. It is considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The movie "The Beach" was filmed on a island right next to it.
We left for Krabi after Koh Phi Phi. We took a long tail boat to We visited Railey Beach. We climbed around in the caves. I got to feed some monkeys. It was a good time even if the ride back was a bit choppy. We also went to the hot springs and the Emerald Lake. This was around the time of Thailand's Songkran Festival. After we got back to Bangkok, I went out to see what all the fuss was about. It was one of the biggest water fights I ever been to.
We stayed at Crystal dive resort and it is also where I got my license. It's a cheap and fun place to go to. http://www.crystaldive.com/
After I finished, Josie and I headed to Koh Phi Phi. It is considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The movie "The Beach" was filmed on a island right next to it.
We left for Krabi after Koh Phi Phi. We took a long tail boat to We visited Railey Beach. We climbed around in the caves. I got to feed some monkeys. It was a good time even if the ride back was a bit choppy. We also went to the hot springs and the Emerald Lake. This was around the time of Thailand's Songkran Festival. After we got back to Bangkok, I went out to see what all the fuss was about. It was one of the biggest water fights I ever been to.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Another status update
Let's start with my trip to Guam. Josie needed to do an interview with the Japaneses embassy and I went with her. Guam is a USterritory and is also where "America's day begins." If you don't know, Guam is the most western part of America. Josie and I spent time at the beach and at few historical sites. It's was interesting place to visit. We all know about Pearl Harbor but these lands were also attack. Japan really did a number to the people who lived here. I'm not going to bash Japan, but let's just say that the people ofGuam were glad when America came back.
Guam also has some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. They have a reef that stops most of the wave. This allows the water to become crystal clear. I bought a swimming mask and saw fish swimming inches away from my face. I even had one attack me.
Josie and I wanted to go to point Udall. It is one of two places, named after two brothers, which are the easternmost and westernmost points in the United States. Josie was born in the Virgin Islands and has already been to the easternmost point. The problem was it's on a military part of the Island. We gained the help of a police officer to get onto the base but were faced several time with different road blocks. Basically, there is no way to that point unless you want to face a military trial.
Overall, I loved Guam. I never had been to such a lovely place with such friendly people. Plus, there was several Taco Bells!
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On the way back from Guam, we had over a ten hour layover. After we landed, we headed to Manila. In the city there is a place called Intramuros. It is an old walled city built by the Spanish. The city had many building that used to be churches. It seemed like there wasn't a building that wasn't a church at one time. It was strange for me to take pictures of Cathedral and churches instead of Buddhist and Hindu temples.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.
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Taryn, a friend from Korea, joined us on a trip to Ko Samet. It’s a small island an hour or two away from Bangkok. The beaches were nice but I think Guam spoiled me. We stayed there for a few days but sadly we had to go back for work.
Later, the three of us went to see Muay Thai. If you don’t know what this is, think of boxing where kicking, kneeing, and elbowing is allowed. Heck, you can’t win if you don’t do it. I was really excited and we ended up getting the most expensive seats (about $50). This of course, allowed us to have front row seats. We were sitting on the red side corner. I was watching the matches but I think Josie and Taryn were more impressed with the coaches. They seem to react more to each punch landed and thrown.
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That weekend, Josie and I hosted a meetup. It’s our way of getting other people to see Thailand with us. We went into Southern Bangkok. We started with a floating market. It’s not “the floating market” but a floating market non-the-less. We then took a ride to the Erawan Museum. This is a huge three headed elephant that is also a shrine. We climbed into the belly of this beast.
After the Elephant, we went to a crocodile farm. We watched three Thai guys play around with the gators but nothing coming close to the alligator wrestling I had imagined. The place also had an elephant show. It was cool to watch but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the elephants. Somehow, I don’t think God intended them to ride skateboards. The place also had many caged animals. You could buy food to feed them, but I had a feeling they were feed enough by the time we got there. They would just drop the food and look at you bored. It wasn’t a total loss. I got to eat a gator burger before we left.
After the crocodile farm, we stopped at Wat Bang Phli Yai Klang, which has a huge Buddha you could enter. I touched his heart! We also went to Wat Bang Phli Yai Nai. It has a temple that holds some sacred artifact or something, but we were interested in the bathroom. Somehow, this place built a 5 million baht or 150,000 dollars bathroom. We had to check it out.
Josie and I went to Jim Thompson House by ourselves. There is a lot of mystery about Jim Thompson. I think he used to work for the CIA. There were rumors of a forbidden love and such. The only thing for sure was that he mysteriously disappeared.
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Taryn joined us for our trip to Ayutthaya. It’s about an hour or two north of Bangkok. We got to see some old ruined temples. We also stopped of at the Dutch church were the bodies were dug up. It was really creepy.
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The last thing Josie and I did was to go to Samut Songkhram to feed the monkeys. It was another meetup trip Josie and I hosted. However, only John went with us. We started the trip on a train. This train leads to another train which uses the oldest train tracks in Thailand. Unfortunately for us, we came at a bad time and we would have had to wait three hours for the next one. So we took a cab the rest of the way. I bought a bunch of Bananas (around 40) for less than two dollars and we went searching for Monkeys. We found a boat that took us to a little grove, where the monkeys were. They monkey weren’t shy about jumping onto our boat and begging for food. It was a really cool experience. On the way back we took the train we missed earlier. This train passes through a market that built right on the tracks. Every time the train comes by the people on the tracks have to move or face being run over.
Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.
http://www.facebook.com/album.
Status update
This is a status update I sent to family and friends. I didn't bother to write a real entry. If you remember from my last blog, I was a very lazy blogger. ;)
Here is the link to my Chachoengsao pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.
Here are pictures from my other trips. I'll blog about them later.
Chiang Mai, Thailand : http://www.facebook.com/album.
Loas : http://www.facebook.com/album.
Bangkok : http://www.facebook.com/album.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A very hot December
Josie and I just left Korea and landed in Thailand. Neither of us had a job. We only a little bit on money and a very basic idea of what life is like in Thailand. This situation was worse than Korea by a long shot. At least in Korea, I had a job lined up and a place to live. Josie and I only had a temporary place to stay.
We read online that finding a job in Thailand is almost impossible outside of Thailand. For whatever reason, they refuse to answer emails and don't post many openings online. We were left with little choice but to come to Thailand without a job. However, finding a job when in Thailand is supposedly easy. Check this website out Finding a job Teaching English in 10 days.
Josie booked us a place to stay as our base of operations. We got our bags and went looking for a cab or bus to take us there. We found a van that worked sorta like a bus. There was a group of us loaded on the van. By a lucky coincidence, there was a mother and daughter who been to this hostel before. It's a good thing too, because we would have a heck of a time finding it.
While we were riding, the daughter was telling us that this is there third time coming to this hostel and how great it was. She thought it was one of the nicest hostels she has been to. This got Josie and I really excited. We were just hoping for a clean and simple room.
Then the truth hit us. While Josie was checking in, I grabbed our bags and headed towards our room. I opened the door and my mouth dropped. It was bad. I mean really bad. It was a like a tiny prison with a fan to keep you cool. The bathroom was tiny and had the only window. This window was very small and couldn't be opened. Heck, it even had a pattern so you couldn't see out of it. I knew I would go crazy after a day or two. Josie wouldn't even last the night. So I grabbed our things and told the clerk to move us to a bigger and nicer room. Sure it cost more, but sanity is worth a lot.
The room they moved us to wasn't much better. It was twice as big as the other one but was still small. At least, this one had a balcony that made it seem larger and would give us fresh air.
The truth? I was in panic mode. I don't like not have my future laid out at least a little bit. I wanted to have a job lined up. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't looking forward to start working. That would be crazy. I just wanted job security. To know that I would have money to pay for a bills and not have to beg on the side of the street. I started to email as many places as possible. I knew I wouldn't get results but I figured at least one or two would respond. I don't know why a place would put ads in the newspaper and not respond to applicants.
We hit the streets. We make photocopies of our resumes and started giving it to about everyone. We called places and left messages on their machines and waited.... and waited. Not a single response. Why me!?
Ha. Ha. Don't feel bad for me yet. The truth was a bit better than that. After we made our resume, we went to hand them out to every English school in Bangkok. Our first stop was BFITS. It just happened that their headquarters was only a few minutes walk away from our hostel. It was our first stop. We went in and had a job interview right away. They asked us several questions and I'm proud to say that we impressed them. Josie was given an offer right away to be a Math teacher at a public school. The previous math teacher just quit a few day earlier and they needed her to work right away. As for me, they said that they might have a spot for me. There was a teacher that was very "homesick" and was thinking about leaving. They told me that they'll let me know if the spot opens up.
At least Josie had job. This made me feel a little better but this didn't mean we were out of the woods yet. I still need a job and I couldn't depend on the English teacher quiting. So we went to Siam and I dropped of several resumes. Nothing happened with the emails I sent nor the resume I dropped off. They didn't call or emailed me back.
Lucky for me, that English teacher decided to leave and I had a job. We were only here for less than two weeks and Josie and I both had a job.
After the first step
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." --Chinese philosopher Laozi
If you want to read about my first step, please go to this webpage http://koreaninkorea.blogspot.com. That was my first step into the outside world. After living a life in Michigan for most of my life, I took the plunge and left the USA. It was a very exciting time for me. I have experienced things I would never would have if I stayed home. However, I have left Korea and am continuing my journey. Will you come with me?
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