Sue & Steph's Adventure Extravaganzaaaaa... Victoria Style

Saturday, June 25 (Canada)

So I’ve had this blog ready to post for a week now, but I haven’t had internet access so it’s a little late... 

Since the time change worked in my favour on the way home, I got to have two Saturdays! 

When I arrived in Vancouver on Canadian Saturday, June 25^th I went out to the greeting area at the airport where my parent’s friend Jenn and her four year old son Lucas were waiting for me.  I had no trouble finding them, thanks to the “Steph” sign Lucas had made for me!  I had made plans to go straight to the ferry to Victoria to meet Sue, so after I shuffled things around in my suitcase in the airport parking lot Jenn drove me to the Tsawwassen ferry.  We just missed the 12:00 ferry so we drove into town to get lunch.  We had Tim Hortons sandwiches (SO good) and then drove back to the ferry.  I was in time for the 1:00 ferry so I got my ticket and waited for it to arrive.  It was an hour and a half ferry ride to Victoria.  I started out sitting inside because I had no idea where I was going, but I noticed some people sitting outside on the upper deck so I went and sat out there.  It was a beautiful day; I sat out on the deck and soaked up the sun and the amazing view.  It was also an amazing feeling to breathe in fresh air...  I never thought I would appreciate it so much! 

It was about an hour and a half ferry ride over to Victoria where Sue and Adam were meeting me.  I had no trouble finding them when I got there... and was SO excited to see them, and Sue’s ring!  In case you didn’t know... they got engaged the night before I got there!  Apparently I have a thing about hanging out with newly engaged couples, haha.  We started our adventures as soon as we left the parking lot... as we only had a limited amount of time.  First we drove into Sidney and walked to the pier.  On the way Sue pointed out Jessie’s Juice Company, which is owned by the country singer Jessie Farrell.  We finally made our way down to the Sidney Fishing Pier where we had an awesome view of the ocean and saw people fishing for crabs!  We then walked up the main street in Sidney and stopped for lunch at the Red Brick Cafe.  After lunch we drove to downtown Victoria where we saw horse-drawn carriages, the parliament buildings and the empress hotel.  We then walked through the inner harbour where we saw Plasterman.  Plasterman was a guy dressed and painted completely white from head to toe and he would stand still like a statue, but if someone put money in his money can he would move around and pose for a picture with them!  We were too cheap to pay so we just watched and took pictures.  Sue had been talking about a place called Wannawafel and I can’t say no to waffles so of course we had to go.  We each got a waffle, and they were delicious... just what we needed to give us some more energy to keep touring around.  As we walked through the inner harbour we went past the spot where Adam had to proposed to her the night before... I was so excited!  I tried to make them rein act it for a picture but some old man was sitting on the bench where it had happened... so I just took a picture of an empty bench down the sidewalk... same idea!   

By this point I had been awake for pretty much two days and was getting pretty tired so we decided to make our way back to their place.  On the way back we drove down Dallas Road where we saw some of the cruise ships... they were HUGE!  It was just like you would see on TV!  We had made plans to go mountain climbing/hiking the next day, so we drove down to Goldstream Park to see the mountain we would be climbing, Mount Finlayson.  We finally made it back to Adam and Sue’s where I had a tour of their place, showered (which felt amazing), had supper and went to bed around 8:30/9:00. 

Sunday, June 26

We had planned on leaving at 9:00 sharp to go to the mountain, so I set my alarm on my ipod for 8:00 just to make sure I had enough time to get ready to go.  My alarm went off and I got up and started getting ready.  I was kind of wondering why Sue and Adam weren’t up yet but didn’t think anything of it until I looked at my phone and realized my alarm had gone off at 8:00am MB time, which was only 6:00 BC time... so I went back to bed for a couple hours!  Sue came in and woke me up at 8:30 and we got ready and the three of us headed back down to Goldstream Park.  Mount Finlayson was 1.5 km... we had to take a few breaks on the way up but we made it to the top!  When we got to the top we stopped for a snack and to enjoy the view.  It was so awesome, you could see the ocean, mountains and city all in one glance.  We then tackled the downward climb.  It wasn’t too bad, just a little awkward at times.  We got back to the bottom around 11:30 and then drove to the 6 Mile Pub (the oldest pub in BC) for brunch.  It was all you can eat brunch with bacon, eggs, French toast, fruit, pancakes, and anything you could think of... I was in breakfast heaven!  After breakfast we drove to “Granny’s Ocean” aka Esquimalt Lagoon.  Sue and Adam call it Granny’s Ocean because it is the road on the way to Adam’s Granny’s house.  It was a lagoon where the ocean surrounded either side of the road.  We stayed there for about half an hour as  we picked some awesome sea shells, took some beach pictures, put our toes in the ocean and found a sweet fort made out of trees that we hung out in for a bit!  It was fairly warm out but the sand was BURNING hot!  We had taken our shoes off to put our feet in the water but couldn’t stand in the sand for longer than a few seconds without our feet burning!  We made our way back to the car by finding an alternate path walking on fallen down trees.  On the way back to Sue & Adam’s we went to Hatley’s Castle.  Hatley’s Castle used to be the army base but it is now Royal Roads University.  The castle was in the movie X-Men.  It was cool and very “Harry Potter” looking.  After the castle we drove back to Sue and Adam’s to change out of our hiking clothes and get ready for the afternoon! 

Once we got changed we drove back downtown to Fisherman’s Warf.  Fisherman’s Warf was a harbour where many people docked their boats.  There were also tons of houseboats... but not like the houseboats that you rent and take on a holiday.  People actually LIVE in these houseboats!  It was crazy, there were literally homes where people lived year round... it was so cool!  Sue had told me about Sammy the Seal who is always nearby the dock at Fisherman’s Wharf and people come to feed him.  But of course the one day that I was there he didn’t show up!  I did see a seal from the car when we were driving home later in the day, but it wasn’t Sammy.  After Fisherman’s Wharf we drove to Ogden Point (aka the breakwater).  The breakwater is a huge cement wall/walkway that was built to prevent waves from crashing into the harbour.  We walked along the breakwater to the very end where there was an old lighthouse.  Along the way we saw jellyfish and starfish and at the end there was a neat old lighthouse.  Our next stop was at a petting zoo called Beacon Hill Children’s Farm.  Yes, we realize that we are grown adults... but who doesn’t like a petting zoo?!  At the zoo we saw adorable baby pigs named Fleur and Noir.  We also saw peacocks which were in heat and had their feathers spread out, it looked really  cool.  There were also llamas and donkeys.  I’m not sure about the llamas but the donkey’s names were Jenecee and Peanut Butter.  The best part was the baby goats... we could go right into the pen and pet them, brush them and cuddle them!  They were adorable and were all named... there was one for each Vancouver Canuck, one for each character of Bambi, a couple names Will & Kate after the royal couple, and many more.  They were so soft and cute... I wanted to bring one home!  We took the scenic route on the way home, driving through uplands where there are tons of fancy expensive houses.  We also drove through the University of Victoria campus, it was HUGE... there were so many old, new and beautiful buildings along with perfect campus grounds.  I was going through slight ice cream withdrawal since my body was used to eating it every day, and Sue had the perfect solution.  They took me to Qoola Frozen Yogurt Bar.  Let me tell you, I was in HEAVEN!  There were ice cream dispensers (like slushie dispensers at a gas station) along one wall and you could choose as much and as many different flavours of frozen yogurt that you wanted (vanilla, cookies & cream, pineapple, strawberry, coconut, etc.).  Then you could go to the topping bar where they had every topping imaginable (sprinkles, cookies, gummy bears, reese’s pieces, skor, crispy crunch, etc., etc., etc.).  The downfall was that you pay by weight... and I wanted EVERY topping!  It turned out being not to expensive and TOTALLY worth it!  It’s probably a good thing they don’t have something like that in Brandon cause I would be there every day!  After we stuffed our faces with frozen yogurt we went back to Sue and Adams and just hung out for the night.  It was nice to relax and visit for the evening.  

Monday, June 27

Sue and Adam both had to work, so my plan for the day was to catch up on sleep.  Apparently my body had an alternate plan, cause I was up at 8:00!  I laid in bed for a couple of hours updating Thailand pictures on facebook and finishing my blog.  I had breakfast around 10:30 and then was tired... so I had a nap from 11-2!  When I woke up I showered and got ready for the day and walked down to Walmart.  It was about a ten block walk.  It was nice to go for a walk and breathe in the FRESH air!  It started drizzling a little bit but it felt refreshing.  I got a few things at Walmart and then walked back to Sue and Adam’s.  Sue was running late from work so I started supper and when she got home we finished it and ate her delicious chicken pot pie!  After supper we watched Limitless.  It was a good movie, but my eyes were slamming shut part way through so as soon as it was over I went straight to bed. 

Tuesday, June 28

My second attempt at sleeping in also failed... this time I was up at 7:00!  I laid in bed for a little bit and then decided to get up and go for a walk hoping it would wake me up for the day.  It was cool out and again I really appreciated the fresh air.  Apparently the walk didn’t wake me up because I got home around 8:30, had breakfast and fell asleep again from 9-11.  Again, when I woke up I showered and got ready for the day.  I headed back towards Walmart but went to the mall instead.  I looked around there for a little while but didn’t buy much... things seemed MUCH too expensive after coming from Thailand, and I didn’t think it’d be appropriate to try to barter in Bootlegger, haha.  I went back to Walmart to waste some time and then walked back to their house.  Adam came home shortly after and offered to take my suitcase for me so I didn’t have to haul it around later, so I got that packed up (which took a while) and sent it with him.  I watched TV for a little while (which still seems very weird) and then walked down to the bus stop where Sue got dropped off from work to meet her there.  When she arrived we walked home together and made some smoothies!  We chatted while we drank our smoothies and Adam came home shortly after.  As soon as Adam got home we had to leave so I could catch the ferry.  On the way we stopped in Sidney to grab Subway for supper and then went to the ferry.  Sue and I said our goodbyes (sad face sad face) and I got on the ferry.  There was an amazing view of the sunset over the ocean and the mountains so I spent the first little while outside taking pictures and enjoying the view.  After a while it started to get dark and I got really cold so I went inside for the remainder of the trip. 

When I got back to Vancouver Jenn was waiting to pick me up from the ferry and she took me back to her house.  It was already midnight when we got back so she just showed me around quickly I went straight to bed. 

It was a very quick trip jam-packed with lots of adventures.  Thanks to Sue and our awesome tour guide Adam I saw more of Victoria than I had ever imagined I would be able to in such a short time.  The best part was seeing Sue... it had been way too long and we had so much to catch up on.  I knew I missed her but I didn’t realize how much!  I had forgotten how much fun we had together and how close we became when we lived together in Brandon.  Thanks for an awesome four days Sue, it was so good to see you and hopefully I will see you very soon!  PS.  Congratulations again :)  xoxoxo 

Canada Bound!

Saturday, June 25 (Thailand)

We got back to our apartment from Khao San around 12:30am... we had three hours to kill until our van was coming to take us to the airport!  We all showered and changed into comfortable clothes for our flights and finished packing up of course!  I still had some time to kill so I sent some final emails and sorted through some of my pictures.  I was surprisingly wide awake and kept myself busy until 3:30.  I heard the van pull up to our building so I went and got Tori & Jill and we went to wake Amanda up to say good bye.  I’m going to miss her so much... but we have big plans to hang out when she gets back in August and still have a whole school year together! 

It was a good thing that there were only three of us, because our luggage filled up almost the entire van!  We each had two huge suitcases and two carry-on bags!  Once we got everything loaded up we were on our way!  It was approximately an hour drive from our apartments to the airport, I was trying SO hard to stay awake but I kept dozing off from time to time.  When we got to the airport the check-in booths weren’t open yet so we waited in line for a while until they opened.  It was finally my turn to check in, and I was prepared to spend $100 for my overweight luggage.  The lady weighed me in and I was over 5 kilograms.  I had a pretty big carry-on bag so I took all of my shoes and a few heavier things out of my suitcase and put them in there.  I was still over 2 kilograms but I put on a sad face and she let it slide!  I was so excited!  After we checked in we went to a small restaurant to grab breakfast and then went to our terminal to board the plane. 

Jill and I totally lucked out for this flight from Bangkok to Tokyo.  We were beside each other and got the seats behind the stewards kitchen so we had a ton of leg room!  The flight was 6 hours, I was feeling more and more sick (stuffed up, sore throat, headache) as the day/night progressed, so I slept on and off pretty much the whole time.  In addition to being up all night and being sick I took a gravol as soon as we got on the plane so I was knocked right out for a while.  Apparently they came around to serve us two meals and I had no idea!  With the combination of plugged up sinuses and the differences in pressure when landing, I was in so much pain while we landed.  Thankfully it didn’t last too long but it really sucked at the time!   

When we landed in Tokyo around 4:30pm we had to go straight to our connecting flight which left at 5:10pm (Tokyo time).  Unfortunately we didn’t luck out with our seating arrangements this time.  For some reason, Jill’s seat was way up in front of us.  Tori and AJ were beside each other and I was beside/behind them.  We asked the man sitting beside Jill if he would trade with me but he refused, so I asked a girl sitting beside me if she would trade and she didn’t mind at all!  I helped her move her bags over to where Jill was sitting and we moved Jill over to where I was sitting.  Two minutes later the girl came back and said that man that had refused to sit with me was being difficult and trying to make her switch seats with him now!  How RUDE!  He made her feel very uncomfortable, so Jill went back to her seat and the other girl came back and sat beside me.  It wasn’t a huge deal, our seats weren’t bad, it was just that Jill and I had bought food together on the plane and not sitting together or even remotely close to each other made it pretty hard.  There was a man with his little boy (who was maybe 1 ½) sitting a little bit in front of me, and they were sharing a seat.  I’m sure it’s a lot cheaper to book flights that way but I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would be for an 8½ hour flight.  I have trouble staying comfortable on long flights, never mind with a child sitting on you the whole time.  I felt sorry for the kid too, he was very well behaved but of course he was squirming and fussing for a while... who could ever expect a child to sit still for that long?!  Thankfully there were cartoons on the airplane TVs, but still... yikes! 

We were served supper at 6:30pm Tokyo time, which I think is 4:30pm Bangkok time, so 4:30am MB time?  I was so confused, I just ate when the food came and called it supper! Lol.  After supper I alternated between watching Desperate Housewives and Glee and sleeping.  I had a much harder time sleeping on this flight.  I would doze off but wake up after fifteen minutes.  I did get a little bit of sleep but not as much as I’d hoped.  At 10:30am BC time we were served breakfast... this meal made sense.  This is when I decided to change my clocks to BC times and forget about Bangkok and MB so I wouldn’t be so confused!  After breakfast we only had approximately 45 minutes left, so I packed my things up and read for the remainder of the flight.  I was in a lot of pain during the landing again, it was even worse than the last time.  Note to self, if at all possible... do not fly when you have a cold! 

We were all so surprised and happy about how quickly our flights went by.  We had almost been travelling for 24 hours and it did not feel like it at all!  When we landed in Vancouver we had to go through customs.  Jill & I didn’t have any trouble, but Tori and AJ went through the computer check-in booths and got interrogated but still made it through.  After we went through customs we had to pick up our bags, which were thankfully all there.  We loaded everything up and said our goodbyes and the girls went one way to their connecting flight and I went the other way out of the airport!  It was very bittersweet... I was excited to be back in Canada and staying in BC for a while, but I was sad to say bye to them.  After all, we had just spent every day of the past 7 weeks together!

I’ve decided to keep writing about my adventures while I’m in BC, so if you are interested I will keep you posted!  If not, thanks so much for reading all about Thailand.  It was an amazing experience and I’m glad I could share it with you!

The Final Week

Monday, June 20

Our last Monday!!  Today I taught my final lesson that was to be evaluated.  It went very well and the kids were engaged and well behaved!  It was a relief to get the evaluations all over with.  After school we went to a massage place down the street from the school.  I attempted another massage, hoping it wouldn’t be as painful as the last one.  It did hurt, but it was much better than last time!  After our massages we went to Old Bar for supper.  I got Mama Pad Guy, of course.  It took a really long time for our food to come but once we got it, it was well worth the wait!  After supper we went back to the apartment to do all of our laundry from the weekend.  We hung out in Jill’s room for the evening, sharing all of our pictures from the past couple of weeks and reminiscing about our entire trip.  Between picture swapping and laundry, we ran to 7-11 to get ice cream!  We were all still really tired from the weekend and were planning on going to bed early, but we got talking and ended up going to bed after midnight, again!

Tuesday, June 21

This morning when I got to school I was asked to teach the K1 (3 year old) class again!  Of course I accepted the offer.  They are definitely a busy bunch, but I was so excited to have the opportunity to have my own classroom for the day!  I also ran back to my own K3 class for one period to finish up a math lesson... it was a busy day!  After school Geordie, Amanda, Jill & I went to MBK (a big mall) for supper and to go shopping.  We went to a place called BBQ Plaza for supper.  There was a small BBQ in the middle of the table and you could order an assortment of meats and vegetables to cook on the BBQ.  It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious!  After we finished supper we got right into shopping.  I only had a few souvenirs left to buy so I was on a mission.  We only shopped for a little while and then everything started closing!  We begged a few people to let us in their stores and ended up getting a few more things, but we still didn’t get everything we had planned on buying.  We were all a little upset that everything was closed so we decided to go to Swenson’s to get the ice cream fondue we tried to get on Sunday!  We asked for directions and some girls told us where to go, we couldn’t find it so we asked again and the security guard told us it was CLOSED!!  We hopped in a taxi and went back to the apartment with no ice cream (sad face sad face).      

Wednesday, June 22

Yesterday afternoon Katherine (my faculty supervisor) and Winston (my cooperating teacher) got together to write up my final report.  Today Katherine brought it to me to read and sign, and it was all good!  Thankfully all of the teaching things I was worried about all went well and are over with now!  After school we went to the State Tower.  This is the hotel with the gold dome on the roof where part of the Hangover II was filmed!  We went up to the 64^th floor on the sky bar where they have breakfast in the movie, it was SO cool.  There was an amazing view of the river and city and the atmosphere was really neat.  Drinks were $20 each so we each only got one!  I ordered a Mai Tai and it was SO strong... it tasted like pure alcohol!  Geordie, being the nice guy he is, traded drinks with me, so I had his Hangovertini!  We hung out up on the sky bar for a couple of hours just taking in the atmosphere and taking a million pictures (of course) before heading back to the apartments.  I wasn’t feeling well when we got home so I went to bed fairly early... for once! 

Thursday, June 23

I still wasn’t feeling well in the morning and my cooperating teacher could tell, so I just observed from his desk during classes in the morning.  Over our lunch break I went and slept in the nurse’s room and felt quite a bit better when I woke up.  It really sucked that I wasn’t feeling well, but I suppose I would rather it be two days before I go back to Canada instead of at the beginning of the trip.  In the afternoon we had EEE (Extended English Environment) where the kids watch videos that help them learn English.  Tan, the little boy that I have mentioned before, came and sat on my knee for the entire class and was snuggling his head against me.  It was so cute... I just might bring him home with me! 

After school the staff at Lertlah had planned a farewell party for us.  There were a few speeches to thank us for all of our hard work, and I made a speech on behalf of the five of us to thank the staff.  After speeches we had some snacks and visited for a while before heading to Old Bar for supper.  Oh and we also got a Lertlah coffee mug!  There were quite a few people at old bar.  It was nice to visit with everyone out of the school one last time before we head home.  We stayed at Old Bar until 8 and then walked around trying to find a place to get a massage.  One of the places was closed and the other place didn’t have enough staff for us all to get massages.  We were a little bummed, but when we got back to the apartment we decided to go swimming since we hadn’t been in the pool yet!  Geordie, Amanda, Jill and I got ready to head down to the pool.  We brought a candle, some matches and some marshmallows with us and had a little marshmallow roast beside the pool!  They tasted a little fragrant but for the most part it tasted a lot like home!  If you have see the Hangover II you will understand where we got the idea to roast marshmallows from!  After our roast we all hopped in the pool, but not for long.  It was SO cold!  We did a few laps and tried to warm up by doing water aerobics but it wasn’t helping.  We went back up to the apartments and started packing for Canada!  I got most of my things packed, I still have a few things left but I think everything will fit... it will just be very tight!  It took me a couple of hours to get organized and packed and then I went to bed for the last time in my little apartment! 

Friday, June 24

I woke up in my rock hard bed for the last time this morning!!  I was having trouble sleeping and woke up at 5am and laid in bed until 6:15.  Once I got up I skyped with my mom one last time too!  We had an assembly first thing this morning and the teachers didn’t have to be up in the assembly room until 9 so we just hung out in the staff room until it was time to go up.  We only had to stay in the assembly until 9:30 and then went back to the staff room.  The kids were supposed to be back in their classes for their 10:20 class but it went longer than expected so they had lunch as soon as we were done.  We didn’t see the kids all morning!  We went to Bee’s for lunch (like we do every day) to have one last meal from her restaurant, and we also got fruit one last time!  After lunch we were supposed to have our first “club” class.  Club is when the students pick different clubs they want to go to (Ex. Stories, sports, singing, acting, etc) and they spread out around the school and mix up with different classes.  We were all ready to go and then the Thai teachers told us Club was cancelled and would start next week so we had ANOTHER prep!  We are five weeks into the school year and it’s time for me to go home so I will not see one Club class! Haha.   

We finally got to see our class at 12:50.  Winston and our class had planned a farewell party for me!  The kids had all brought in all different kind of food (chips, nuts, chocolate bars, etc.), one student brought pizza and pasta and Winston bought me a Swenson’s ice cream cake!  I didn’t know it was so obvious that I LOVE ice cream!  A few of the kids brought me presents, so I opened those and then we had a little dance party and ate our big feast!  We took up a whole class and a half so decided to watch Despicable Me for the rest of the afternoon! 

After school the girls, Geordie and I went to the massage place right by our school.  I had convinced myself that the third time is the charm and that I would have a GOOD massage!  Turns out, I was right!  I had also decided that I was going to give in and try a Thai Massage.  Once the lady got started I realized that I had been getting Thai massages all along and didn’t even know it!  It still hurt a little bit at times, but for the most part it felt SO good.  When I was done I felt so relaxed and could’ve fallen asleep in an instant.  Jill, Amanda and I decided that we wanted spa pedicures as well, so the lady got us big buckets of hot (which was really not hot at all) water to start soaking our feet!  It felt so good to have my feet scrubbed and cleaned thoroughly.  Walking around the school all day with no shoes makes it impossible to have clean feet!  When she was finished my feet felt so clean and soft and looked pretty too! 

We didn’t get out of the massage/pedicure place (which is called P.P. Pretty by the way) until 7:30 or so.  By that time we were all fairly hungry so we walked over to Old Bar and had our last meal of Mama Pad Guy (Jill & I were a little sad).  I still had a few last minute things that I wanted to buy that I couldn’t get at MBK on Tuesday because the stores closed so early.  On the way home Amanda, Geordie and I walked another way that took us past a market to see if I could find anything.  But, I didn’t!  We had been planning on getting Swenson’s ice cream fondue all week but it wasn’t working out... we got back to the apartment and realized that if it closed at 9 we still at 20 minutes to make it there in time!  We ran as fast as we could to the main road where we caught a taxi and made him drive as fast as he could to the Big C (Swenson’s is on the main floor of Big C).  We booked it across the parking lot and through the store and when we got there they were still open!  We were all frantic and out of breath, so we quickly chose our ice cream flavours and ordered as we thought they were going to close and kick us out.  Turns out, they didn’t close at 9 for some reason... they were still open when we left around 9:30!  Oh well, the adventure was exciting!  As for the fondue, it was SO good.  We got all different flavours of hard ice cream scoops (peanut butter, rocky road, cheesecake, mocha, etc.) and also a little tray of fruit to dip in the chocolate fondue.  We discovered that if you didn’t shove the ice cream in your mouth immediately after dipping it the chocolate would harden... yummmmmm! 

I was a little bit sad that I wasn’t able to find the last minute things I wanted to buy so I somehow convinced everyone that we should go to Khao San Road!   We were all a little bit tired so we did this warm-up dance exercise thing that Jill introduced us to, to the song “Captain Jack.”  We got a little bit out of control and I ended up kicking Amanda and hurting both of us, so that was the end of that!  We all got changed and headed down to catch a taxi!  Since there are five of us, someone has to squish... so on the way there and back Jill & I shared the front seat!  It wasn’t so bad on the way there because I could lean forward, but on the way back the taxi driver wouldn’t let me so it was fairly uncomfortable, but we made it!  I ended up buying everything I had planned on, and maybe a couple extra things too :)   

Bad News Bears...

Friday, June 17
As I mentioned in my previous blog, we walked home after school to get packed up to go to Phuket for the weekend.  We left the apartments around 5:30 and had a two hour taxi ride to the airport and checked in as soon as we arrived.  We had a bit of time before our flight when we got there so we had supper at the food court and got ice cream!  When it was time to board our plane we went through the ticket counter and had to take a bus to our plane.  When we got to the plane we boarded the plane from outside (went up stairs right into the plane).  I had never boarded a plane like that so I was excited!  The flight went by quickly and was a lot smoother than our flights to and from Chiang Mai, and there were no stinky pork buns!

We arrived in Phuket around 10:45 and got a taxi/van to take us from the airport to our hotel.  On our way to the hotel the taxi driver said that we had to stop at their travel agency and that we had to go inside to sign something for the taxi ride.  Geordie went in because we were a little sceptical of the situation.  He came out and showed us a brochure he found of a tour we could take on Saturday morning.  The tour was going to take us to Koh Phi Phi (an island) and Maya Bay (an island where The Beach was filmed).  It sounded awesome, so we gave a 1000 baht ($30) deposit.  From the travel agency we went to our hotel.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!  We went up to the rooms and they were gorgeous, everything was made with dark wood and granite.  Just when we walked in the room our phone rang... it was the travel agent that we booked our tour with.  She was phoning to tell me that she had to cancel our tour because there weren’t enough boats to take us to the islands.  I immediately told her to bring our deposit back to our apartment ASAP.  After that phone call we went down to the hotel lobby where there was a tour information booth.  The booth was closed but we insisted that we wanted to book something so the receptionist phoned their travel agent at home... she was in the shower, lol.  I explained what had happened with our other tour and she helped us book another one.  We booked a similar tour going to the same islands.  Once we got that sorted out we went up to our rooms and figured out our sleeping arrangements.  We ended up getting a cot in our room so everyone could have their own bed.  We went back to our own rooms to get ready for bed and 15 minutes later Amanda knocked on our door to show us that they had actually dropped off the 1000 baht!  I was so excited, everything was falling back in to place and we were booked in for an awesome tour the next morning. By this time it was 2:30am and we were all exhausted and had to be up at 6am to go on our tour so we went straight to bed (in very comfortable beds)! 

Saturday, June 18

6am is way too early to wake up on a Saturday morning after you went to bed at 2:30am... but we did it!  We rolled out of bed and got ready to go on the tour to Koh Phi Phi and Maya Bay.  We were just finishing packing our bags when Geordie came over to our room to inform us that the travel agent phoned and said our tour was CANCELLED!!!  I just about blew a fuse... actually, I’m pretty sure I did!  We were all furious, so we decided to go down for breakfast to cool off.  Breakfast was included with our room, it was amazing!  They had everything you could think of – bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes, French toast, fruit, potatoes... and the list goes on and on!  During breakfast I was on the phone with the travel agent trying to figure out a tour we could go on, but by this time it was too late to get on any of the day tours.  I “politely” reminded her that this was her fault and that there should be some compensation for what had happened.  She didn’t care.  We decided to take a taxi to the pier ourselves to hop on a boat... but of course when we got there all of the boats were gone and there weren’t any more going until 1:30... but the boats that left at 1:30 weren’t coming back until the following day.  There was one boat leaving shortly after we arrived and we begged the driver to let us go, but apparently it was too full so they drove away right in front of us.  Oh they also said we could book a private boat which would cost 18 000 baht ($600 CDN)!!!  By this time we were tired, frustrated and annoyed, so we took another taxi back to our hotel.  When we arrived at the hotel the travel agent was at work... I did not want to look at her, so Jill went and talked to her.  We ended up booking a different tour to do in the afternoon.  The tour didn’t leave until 12:45pm so we sat by the pool from 11-12:30.  The pool was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous.  They had really comfortable lounging chairs so we sat in those for a while and then spent some time in the pool.  At 12:30 we walked down to the main road to meet the tour bus.

We had an hour and a half drive to a Monkey Cave Temple and Sleeping Buddha.  We all slept on the way there.  At the Cave Temple thing there were wild monkeys roaming around outside.  Geordie wanted to feed them but we were too scared and Amanda wouldn’t let him!  It was cool to see, but really, who wants rabies?!  It started raining so we decided to go in and check out the cave.  It was SO cool.  The structure itself was amazing.  Geordie, Amanda, Jill & I climbed to the top of the cave, it was quite the hike but we did it... we even saw bats along the way and didn’t turn back! 

After the cave we had another short bus ride to the pier where we got on a long-tailed boat to tour around Phag-Nga Bay.  It wasn’t the most pleasant boat ride... there was water splashing into the boat and we all got pretty wet, but it wasn’t a big deal!  Our first top was at James Bond Island.  There were small market stands in the middle of the island where people were mostly selling jewellery.  The island itself was fairly small and the view was amazing.  There was a beautiful beach and massive rock formations; it was like something you would see on a postcard.  We looked around for a while and had a little photo shoot before getting back on the boat to continue on our tour!  Our next stop was at a gypsy village.  It was a village built solely on stilts.  There were a lot more buildings than we expected.  There were a lot of little market stands inside the buildings, and there was also a school on stilts!  It was neat to see, but a little bit depressing to see how differently they live their lives.  I had a hard time believing people actually lived there.  After the village we had a 45 minute boat ride back to the pier.  The scenery and view was amazing, and it was cooling off a little bit so it was nice to breathe in some fresh air rather than hot and humid air.  When we got back to the pier we hopped back on the bus for the hour and a half bus ride back to the hotel.  We all slept on the bus again!  The bus driver drove right past our drop off point and wouldn’t go back, so we had about a 20 minute walk back to the hotel.  Ugh.  So frustrating! 

We got back to the hotel around 8:15 and went up to our rooms to shower and get ready to go out for supper!  We left the hotel around 9:30 and walked around looking for a cool place to eat.  We ended up finding a restaurant called the Rock Hard Cafe.  It was in the middle of a busy party street so the atmosphere was really cool and the food was really good!  Amanda and I shared a clubhouse sandwich and nachos... everything was delicious!  After supper we went to check out a couple of bars as we had intentions of going out for the night.  We found one good place that gave us a ticket to buy one get one free so we went in!  Jill & I used her ticket and got the same drink.  As soon as we took our first sip we immediately knew that it was just juice so we went back and asked the bartender about it.  He disagreed but added a tiny splash in each of our glasses and told us to go away!  So we did... all five of us.  We were planning on going down to walk by the beach but we were all too tired so we started walking back to the hotel.  On the way home we decided to stop and get foot massages!  It felt SO good and was so relaxing... we were all falling asleep in the chairs.  After our massages we walked back to our hotel and went straight to bed, as it was 1:30am!

Sunday, June 19

We were all really excited to sleep in this morning, but for me sleeping in was only until 8:00 apparently.  Everyone else was still sleeping so I quietly got ready and went to lay by the pool while I waited for everyone to wake up.  It was already SO hot when I went down!  I was laying there for about 15 minutes and my body was already so warm and I felt like I was burning.  Thankfully Jill came down around 9:30 and we went in for breakfast.  Amanda and Geordie had just come down for breakfast as well so we chatted with them while we ate and then we all went back out to the pool.  We hung out at the pool until 11:00 tanning, swimming and playing a little bit of volleyball.  Yes, I even played even though I am the most uncoordinated person on earth!  We went up to our rooms to pack up and check out.  The hotel allowed us to leave our bags at the front desk for the day.  Once we got organized we walked down to the main road and took a tuk-tuk to the beach. 

The beach was beautiful!  There was an amazing view and the lounging chairs were super comfy.  The sun was very hot but it was fairly windy so it was quite comfortable.  We tanned on the chairs until 1:45 and then Jill and I took a walk down the beach.  There wasn’t anything exciting so we just took a few pictures in the sand and went back to where Amanda, Geordie and Tori were sitting.  The five of us had a little photo shoot and then we grabbed a tuk-tuk back to the hotel at 2:00.  When we got back to the hotel we all showered off in the pool showers since we were all full of sand and salt water, and then a taxi picked us up to take us to the airport at 2:30. 

We checked in first thing when we got to the airport.  We had no problems on the way there on Friday, but for some reason our suitcase was overweight on the way back!  We don’t understand why, because we didn’t shop or add anything extra to the suitcase.  We had to fill our carry-on bags and reusable shopping bags to take as carry-on bags with us in order for them to allow our suitcases on the plane!  While this was going on, a little boy puked everywhere and it splattered on Geordie’s foot!  Ewww.  Once that was all over we grabbed Subway for lunch and boarded the plane.

When we finally took off we had an AMAZING view of Phuket and other islands.  It was nothing like I have ever seen.  It was a very smooth flight and the landing wasn’t too rough either.  When we got back to Bangkok we took a taxi back to the apartment, quickly dropped of our bags and went to the Big C to grocery shop one last time and get snacks for on the plane.  Once we finished shopping we were planning on going to Swenson’s to get ice cream fondue, but when we got down there it was closed!  We decided to settle for Dairy Queen so we walked over there... and it was closed too!  KFC was the only place still open that sold ice cream and we were desperate so we got some from there.  I don’t know if life would have went on if we didn’t get any ice cream!  We had bought quite a few groceries so we took a taxi back to the apartment, which only took about two minutes and only cost 40 baht (just over $1).  When we got back we unpacked our bags from the weekend and got things ready for our last week at Lertlah!

We had a very rough start to our weekend and there were a LOT of bumps along the way, but it turned out to be a great weekend with great friends.  We had our minds set on getting a lot of sun and we definitely got that on Sunday, and we have the burns to show it!  It was a great ending to our Thailand adventures!

Trying New Things...

Monday, June 13
We woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning and were exhausted from the weekend... I felt like I could have stayed in bed all day!  My perspective of the day changed quickly when I got to school and was asked to teach K1 (2-3 year olds) by myself for the day.  Of course I accepted!  There were six kids in the class and they were adorable.  They listened very well and knew more English than I expected them to.  I loved having my own classroom for the day.  I feel comfortable in the classroom with my cooperating teacher but it is a different feeling when you have your own class and you aren’t being constantly evaluated.  I cannot wait to have my own class all the time! 

Every day at lunch there is a man outside of the school selling cooked corn on the cob.  We had seen a couple of people eating it so decided to try it.  It was SO good!  It tasted so fresh and juicy.  Yum, yum, yum.  After lunch I went back to teach K1 and left for one period because I was scheduled to teach my own K3 class a science lesson.  We had a writing center where the kids had to write the word of something that is red (Ex. Fire truck) and then draw a picture of it.  It took longer than I expected but it went well! 

We had heard about a place called the Platinum Mall, so after school we decided to go check it out.  Nobody had done their research to find out where to go, so we took a taxi to the sky train, we took the sky train to one stop only to find out that we were at the wrong station so we went back to a different station.  When we got to the “correct” statement we walked for about 10 minutes only to find out we were walking the wrong direction.  Finally someone pointed is in the correct direction and we walked for another 15 minutes before we arrived at the mall.  We arrived at the mall at 7:10 to find out that it closed at 8:00.  By this point we were tired, annoyed and frustrated.  We quickly grabbed some food and walked around the mall for half an hour.  We were clearly not in a shopping mood and didn’t buy anything.  We left the mall around 8:00, went to McDonalds for ice cream (which cheered us up a little bit) and then took a tuk tuk back to the sky train station.  From there we took the sky train back to our original station and took a taxi back to our apartments.   

When we got back to the apartments we just hung out and talked about our plans for the week.  Around 10:30 or 11:00 we received an email with our course registration information for university this upcoming fall.  A lot of things had changed with the class sizes and courses we were to register for so we stayed up for quite a while trying to figure that out before going to bed. 

For those of you who are wondering... my sun burn from our weekend in Koh Samet didn’t turn out too badly!  I peeled a little bit on my shoulders and forehead but nothing like I had anticipated!   

Tuesday, June 14

Today I taught the first lesson of my Patterns unit.  I did a few activities with the kids to see where they were at and they pretty much knew everything!  We watched a couple videos about patterns and played some games, they really enjoyed the lesson!  After math I had my second last science lesson on colours.  For this lesson we split the students into two groups and took them on a tour around the school playing “I Spy” to recognize different colours and shades in the environments.  They seemed to enjoy this lesson too! 

We had been meaning to take a broom up to our apartment for a few days, so we finally did today!  We spent about half an hour cleaning the apartment... for those of you who know me well, it was very exciting for me!  After we finished cleaning we just relaxed in our rooms for a while before going for a walk.  On our walk we stopped at Pizza Company to order pizza for supper.  While the pizza was cooking we walked a little bit further and came across a couple temples not far from our apartment.  They seemed out of place and weren’t as nice as some that we have seen but it was still neat to see them!  When we got back we went down to a common area in the apartment to have our pizza and then headed back up to our rooms. 

On Monday Geordie (Amanda’s fiance) sent me an email to tell me he was at the Winnipeg airport and was on his way to Bangkok!  He was supposed to come on June 23 but decided to come early to surprise Amanda.  He called us around 10:45pm to tell us he thought he was close to the apartments so we quickly ran down to the street to watch for him.  We took him up to the apartment.  Amanda was watching a movie in her room so I knocked on her door and asked if I could come in.  Instead of me going in Geordie did... she was so surprised!  I was so happy for them, but was sad at the same time.  Our walls are paper thin and I assumed they would want to stay up late to visit and catch up on our trip so I had a sleep over in Jill’s room! 

Wednesday, June 15

Wednesday is our long day with our students; we only have one prep class all day.  Today we got lucky!  The students had an assembly during the first and last periods of the day!  It was a little girl named Aileen’s birthday today and her mom brought us an ice cream cake from Swenson’s.... BEST CAKE EVER!!!!!  So right after lunch we had a little birthday party for her, the kids were so excited!  Between assemblies and birthday parties I did teach a math lesson, which went very well!   

After school we were planning on going to Siam Paragon to go to the Ocean World Aquarium.  We had put our leftover pizza in our friend’s fridge for the night so we grabbed it and quickly ate it on the way home.  We then took a taxi and the sky train to Siam Paragon.  The aquarium was really cool.  They had all different types of animals (penguins, water rats, sharks, etc.).  It cost 900 baht (approx. $30) to go in and look around.  It was very interesting but I wouldn’t say it was work the money we paid.  Once we were finished looking around in the aquarium we went to the food court in the mall.  It was HUGE!  They had every kind of food that you would ask for, and two or three restaurants for each kind of food!  I wasn’t hungry since I had eaten leftover pizza, but I got the most amazing cinnamon bun! 

After we ate we went back to the apartments.  We got home around 9:30 so we just relaxed and got ready for Thursdays events! 

Thursday, June 16

We tried something new today!  A few people have mentioned taking a “motorside” taxis to school.  “Motorside” taxis are essentially motorcycles that you hop on!  It was pretty cool, and it was nice to get to school a few minutes early!  This morning we had a Wai Kru (Teacher’s Day) assembly.  The important teachers and head administrators sat up on the stage and the students went up one by one to give them flowers.  The assembly took about an hour and then we went back to our classrooms.  When we got to our classrooms Winston and I each tied a piece of string onto each student’s wrist.  The strings symbolize good luck and happiness and if you get one put on you, you are not allowed to take it off until it falls off. 

Because of the assembly we only had to teach two classes all day!  At 4:00 we had our weekly staff meeting.  Since we are required to stay at the school until 4:30 it doesn’t cut into anyone’s personal time, which is nice.  After the staff meeting we had plans to go to Khao San Road for the evening.  Khao San is the backpacker’s street where there is tons of shopping.  We went a few weekends ago and had really good luck shopping and had a lot of fun so decided to go back one more time!  Our plan was to run home and change and before we went.  We were all fairly hungry so we decided to finally try food from a street vendor on our way home!  We got chicken skewers from a vendor by our apartment and it was really good!  We were all nervous to try it, but we wanted to at least once before we left.  We ate our skewers on our way home, changed and went on our way to Khao San Road.  When we got there we were all still hungry and tired so we went for supper before we started shopping.  Amanda and I shared a really good clubhouse sandwich with fries and I go the same banana smoothie I got the last time we were on Khao San... it was just as delicious as I remembered it to be!  We all had really good luck with shopping again!  I got a ton of stuff, I think my shopping sprees have almost come to an end... my bank account will thank me!  Oh I forgot to mention, we were walking down the street and a guy pushing a mobile food vendor ran my foot over!  It really hurt at the time, but the pain went away quickly and I was fine... just a little surprised!  He didn’t even stop to say sorry or to see if I was ok!   

We got back to our apartments around 11:00 and of course needed to go through everything we had bought and try everything on!  We then realized that we still had to pack for the weekend as we were flying out to Phuket the next night, so we quickly got a few things organized and decided to do the rest quickly after school the next day.  We ended up going to bed later than we had hoped to but it was totally worth it! 

Friday, June 17

We were running a little bit late this morning so we took the motorside taxis to school again!  I had another math lesson this morning, and had the kids do the same activity as yesterday but using three elements instead of two.  They thought it was lots of fun and all did a great job!  This afternoon Winston evaluated me teaching a GrapeSEED lesson.  It went fairly well, I had all of the activities planned out and we got through everything, the only problem was that the kids were very chatty!!  I felt like it didn’t go very well and was really worried that I was going to get a bad evaluation but Winston said he thought it went really well and I did a good job dealing with the chatty kids!  During one of our classes today we were playing a game and somehow it came up that I asked the students if they liked Mr. Winston & I.  One little boy said he didn’t like me... when I asked why he said “because you are not cute!”  I pretended to be sad and Tan (the little boy who reminds me of Aiden) said, “I think you are very cute!”  I think I might just bring little Tan back to Canada with me!   

After school we walked home and got packed up to head to Phuket.  I will fill you in about our trip to Phuket very soon!

Monkeys & Tigers & Elephants, Oh My!

Friday, June 10

So as I said in my previous blog, we were allowed to leave school at 3:15 instead of 4:30.  We were to walk quickly to our apartments and grab our bags as our taxi driver (Mr. Chicken) would be picking us up at 3:30.  When we went to leave it was pouring rain, again!  We called a cab to pick us up at the school, but waited ten minutes and it hadn’t showed up yet so we ran home in the rain!  The downpour had let up a little bit so we didn’t get as soaked as the last time, but we were still really wet!  By the time we got in the cab it was about 3:45.  We were flying from the Don Muang Airport which is only supposed to be an hour drive from the apartments, but we left during rush hour and it took us over two hours to get there!  Thankfully we had left early enough and still had 50 minutes to check in and board the plane!   

We were all starving so we grabbed some Burger King at the airport before we boarded the plane.  Our flight was only an hour long, although it felt longer.  It was a smaller plane and was really loud and rough.  I did not feel safe at all!  They handed out “supper” which was a tuna croissant and chicken flavour coated peanuts... YUCK!  The smell of people eating the tuna thing made me feel sick!  I was so happy when we landed and got out of that plane!   

When we landed in Chiang Mai we went straight to get our luggage.  We waited and waited and waited.... and then they turned the luggage belt off where our bags were supposed to come from.  We had a minor freak out and then someone who worked at the airport pointed to another belt where our bags were continuously going around and around!  Thank god!  Once we finally got our luggage straightened out we went out to find a taxi to take us to our hotel.  There was a taxi stand right outside of the airport which booked us a taxi for very cheap (120 baht, approx. 4 dollars) and we were on our way.  We stayed at the Imm Hotel Thaphae, it was very nice and very CLEAN!  The hotel was in the central part of the town so we could walk to all sorts of shops and restaurants.  There were small flat screen TV’s on the walls in our rooms, and we realized we hadn’t turned a TV on since we got here a month ago!  We found one English channel but there wasn’t anything good on, so we attempted to do some Thai karaoke!  We then went for a walk to look around the hotel.  We found an “Entertainment Room” where there was a couch, really comfortable bean bag chairs and a big screen TV.  We hung out in there and talked for a while and then went to bed around 11:00, as we had to be up at 5:00 the next morning! 

Saturday, June 11

We had 18 hours of adventures today!  Here it goes...

Amanda, Jill & I woke up at 5am.  Yuck.  Tori wasn’t feeling well so she stayed in bed for the day.  When we woke up we got ready and grabbed breakfast at McDonalds before a van picked us up from the hotel to take us to the rainforest to go zip lining at the Flight of the Gibbon!!  It was an hour drive on VERY narrow roads to get to our destination.  On the drive the guide showed is an episode of the Amazing Race where the contestants were zip lining at Flight of the Gibbon!  When we got there we had to sign insurance forms so their company wasn’t responsible if we got injured (this made me a little nervous) and then we got geared up and ready to go!  We walked to the first zip lining platform and Amanda went first out of everyone in our group!  Then it was my turn.... it was AMAZING!!  It was so cool to be up in the jungle with nothing but trees below me!  The scariest part was coming to the end of the line because I thought I was going to hit a tree, but the guide caught us at the end every time.  After the first line I couldn’t wait to go again and again and again!  I never wanted it to end!  We did a couple of short lines and then one that was 800 meters long, I loved it!  It cost 2600 baht (approx. $86 CDN) which seemed a little expensive but it was SO worth it.  We felt so safe while we were up on the lines, the guides always made sure we were hooked up to something so there was no way we could fall!  Our guide’s name was Mr. Cash.  He was so much fun and was always joking around.  There were two lines where you could go with a friend.  We were sad because there were only three of us, so he let us go together!  The first time it was a line from tree top to tree top, but the second time was straight down to the ground from the top of a tree!  It was really cool, and so fun to do Amanda & Jill!  He made our adventure so much fun!  We also got a “Flight of the Gibbon” t-shirt with our tour price... but nobody else did on the tour!   

We zip lined for about 2 and a half hours and then took a van to a set of waterfalls.  It was a tough climb up a whole bunch of really steep stairs, but we made it... and then came right back down!  When we got back down a van took us to a neat little restaurant for lunch (which was also included in our tour price).  The food was so good, we had chicken, potatoes and vegetables.  There was also a three man band playing cool music while we ate!  Once we finished lunch we got back in the van for the hour drive on narrow roads back to the hotel!  We arrived at the hotel around 2:00pm. 

Next stop... Tiger Kingdom!  When we got back to the hotel we went up to the room to check on Tori and see if she wanted to come to Tiger Kingdom with us.  She still wasn’t feeling well so she decided not to come.  We got McFlurries and hopped on a tuk-tuk (which we found out is actually pronounced “took-took).  When we got to Tiger Kingdom we had to choose what size of tigers we wanted to see.  We chose to see the smallest and the biggest!  It was 840 baht (approx. $28CDN) to see each size for ten minutes each.  The smallest tigers were 2-3 months old and they were absolutely adorable!  They were very playful but cuddly at the same time.  The ten minutes went by so fast, we weren’t ready to leave when they told us to!  Next we went to the biggest tigers which were 20 months old.  They were very calm and either laid in the grass or walked around a little bit.  The guide showed us how we could lean on the tigers for a picture, but I obviously wasn’t paying attention because I attempted to lay right on TOP of the tiger, and the guide started yelling “NO, NO, NO, DANGER, DANGER!!!”  Oopsie, thankfully I didn’t get eaten!  The ten minutes with the big tigers went by quickly too, and again we didn’t want to leave!  We then went into the souvenir shop where we bought post cards, magnets and t-shirts!  Once we were finished shopping we took our tuk-tuk back to the hotel.  The tuk-tuk driver that drove us to Tiger Kingdom waited for us while we went in and then drove us back to the hotel!  When we got back we went to Starbucks for a snack and a drink (don’t ask me why we were still hungry)!  I had my very first frappacino and Jill & I shared a big piece of carrot cake.  They were both delicious! 

Adventure #3... we went back up to our rooms to shower and get ready to go to the Chiang Mai Cultural Center for a Dinner Theatre with Traditional Dancing.  Tori STILL wasn’t feeling well so she had to miss out on that too.  It was fun to get dressed up and straighten my hair!  It had been so long since I had straightened it that the girls said I looked like a totally different person!  A van picked us up at the apartment at 6:45 to take us to the Cultural Center.  We stopped at another hotel to pick up more people and it was Taylor and Oneyda from BU!  It was only a five minute drive to the Cultural Center.  When we arrived we checked in at the counter and then took some group pictures while we were all dressed up.  Once we finished taking pictures we went into the restaurant/hall area.  There were a whole bunch of seating areas set up on the floor for people to sit to eat their dinner and watch the dancing.  The principal at our school made the dinner reservation for us and our seats were on a platform at the front of the stage, we felt so important!  The waiter brought us a tray of food which was DELICIOUS.  There were all different kinds of pork, chicken and vegetables, and we got sticky rice in a little wicker cup/basket type thing.  Whenever we finished something from our tray the waiter would re-fill it immediately.  It was awesome service!   

While we ate, there were Traditional Thai Dancers performing on the stage in front of us.  It was very neat to see that aspect of their culture.  It reminded me of Ukrainian Dancing (not that it was at all similar, just the whole idea of traditional dancing).  There were all different kinds of dances:  one guy did a dance with knives, and a group of girls did a candle dance.  Those are just a couple examples.  After about an hour of dancing they invited the audience to come up and dance on the stage with them... of course we went!  When we finished dancing we were escorted out of the building to an outdoor theatre where we watched another hour of dancing.  They had little kids doing the traditional dances as well, it was so cute.  The whole evening cost 550 Baht (approx. $18) and it was SO worth it.  The only problem of the night that all three of our cameras died within 5 minutes of each other! 

When the dancing ended we took the van back to the hotel where we ran in to charge our cameras for ten quick minutes.  We then took a tuk-tuk to a night market to do some shopping!  We had about two hours of shopping but it went by SO fast and we didn’t even get through half of the market.  We bought quite a few things (I don’t feel guilty anymore since I don’t have much time left to buy cheap things, haha).  We took another tuk-tuk back to the hotel around midnight.  When we got back we got ready for bed and went to sleep as we had to be up early again the next morning!  As you can imagine, I slept SO good.   

We have done a lot of awesome things since we have arrived in Thailand, but I would say that this was the BEST day I had so far, I wouldn’t have changed a thing! 

Sunday, June 12

Another early morning... we woke up at 6:30 to get ready to go on an Elephant Trek!  We got ready and went down to the hotel lobby for breakfast.  We then checked out of the hotel as we would not be back before the check-out time.  Thankfully the hotel allowed us to leave our luggage behind the desk while we were out for the day. 

Our tour guide picked us up in a private van at 8:15.  It was about an hour drive to the elephant training center.  On the way to the elephant grounds we stopped at a butterfly farm.  It wasn’t what we expected.  There weren’t very many butterflies, but there WERE a lot of beautiful orchids.  We then stopped at a small market along the way.  It was mostly a food market, but of course I found a pair of sandals to buy!  In the food market they had all different kinds of insects to eat!! It was really gross!  After the market we went straight to the elephant training center. 

When we got to the elephant grounds we had to walk across a very long, rickety, scary bridge.  As we were crossing the bridge we saw a group of elephants and their trainers getting ready for the elephant show!  We made it across the bridge and went down to a little area to watch the first part of the show.  Just so you know, the elephant show was not like watching a circus.  It did not seem like there was any sort of animal cruelty, the elephants seemed happy and the trainers were very nice to them.  First we watched the trainers bathe the elephants in the river.  It was really cool, they would roll in the water and spray their backs with their trunks as the trainers scrubbed them!  We then moved to a grand stand type area where we watched the elephants perform the duties they were used for in the past.  They had logs attached behind them and dragged them to dig trenches, and they worked as a team to roll and pile huge logs with their trunks.  For the big finale an elephant held a paint brush in his trunk and painted a picture!  They only showed the elephant painting the one picture, and Jill was lucky enough to be able to buy it!   

After the elephant show we walked over to another area on the grounds where we got on the elephants!  We rode them through the jungle for about an hour and a half.  On our journey we stopped at an old village where there were locals selling their hand-made products.  The girls & I bought cute matching hand-made bracelets.  The huts in the village were made from bamboo and leaves, and the guide said that’s what some of the actual houses are made out of.  We then got back on the elephants to go back to the training centre.  The trek through the village was so nice.  It was cool, calm and peaceful.  On the way back we went up the Ping River.  It was amazing to see how the elephants walked against the current.  When we got back to the training centre we met up with our original guide.  She told us that the training center was in the movie Rambo!  We thought that was pretty cool.   

Once we were finished at the training center we loaded up into the van and headed to a beautiful resort for lunch.  We never did get the name of the resort, but it was so quiet and peaceful and we had an amazing view of the mountains.  The food was also very delicious.  Once we finished lunch we got back into the van for an hour and a half drive back to the hotel.  All four of us slept the whole way back... we were exhausted!   

We got back to the hotel around 3:15 and called a taxi to take us to the airport.  We had a little bit of time to kill once we got checked in at the airport so we walked around and looked at the little shops, and got ice cream of course!  The flight was a little bit rough and scary and they had the disgusting pork buns again.  Amanda and I chatted the whole way so it went by really quickly!  When we got back to Bangkok we got a taxi from outside of the airport and prepared ourselves for another two hour cab right.  However, this taxi driver took some sort of short-cut detour and it only took an hour!  We got back to the apartment around 7:30 and then went to the Big C to get groceries for the week and then came back to unpack and get ready for bed! 

Many people have said that the bugs and mosquitoes are really bad up north around Chiang Mai so the girls and I loaded up with bug spray for the weekend.  However, we didn’t see a whole lot of mosquitoes.  We actually haven’t seen a whole lot of mosquitoes at all since we have been in Thailand, which is very nice! 

This was by far the best weekend I have had so far.  We had a couple long days and were exhausted by the end but it was totally worth every penny!  My camera was very busy this weekend too... I took 520 pictures and 17 videos, not to mention the pictures we took as a group on Jill & Amanda’s cameras!