Sports and Sukhothai

Being the lucky ducks that we are, Cyrus and I got a 2 week break from school.  They told us it was something about a sports week and midterms at school.  All we know is that we don't need to be back until the 17th.  Jackpot! 

After our New Years trip to Bangkok and Koh Sichang, we hung out in Suphan for a few days to get ourselves together.  Our coordinator told us that we should try to go the opening ceremony for the Sports Week, which was at the soccer stadium in town.  Since we were in Suphan, we decided to show some school spirit and go check it out.  We expected it to be a little performance by the school, maybe some songs, and a few track and field races or something.  Well, it went down a little differently.  Sports week is actually called the "OPEC Games" and schools from all over Thailand come to compete in a week long tournament of all different sports.  The opening ceremony was seriously like watching the Olympics.  We saw first class marching bands, choreographed dances with hundreds of kids, fireworks, the lighting of the torch, and the procession of all the different school teams.  And we are talking about elementary to high school kids...in public schools.  For a seemingly poor country, they know how to celebrate sports. 

Students from our school performing:

During the procession of the schools:

The lighting of the torch!

After being in Suphan for a few days, we packed our bags for Sukhothai.  It's about 6 hours north of Bangkok and is known for it's ancient ruins from the kingdom of Siam, and fun fact: it's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ruins were built around the 1200s and I'm not too well informed on the history, but they were really beautiful.  It was around the time when Theravada Buddhism became the official religion of Thailand, so there were a lot of huge statues of Buddha.  Obviously I'm not Buddhist, but there's something about the statues that makes you feel relaxed and kind of spiritual.

  

The ruins are contained in the Sukhothai Historical park, which covers a pretty big area.  We rented bikes to ride around to all the different temples, and because the complex is so big there were a lot of times when we were the only people at a site, which made it a lot more authentic.  Also, please note the artistry that went into taking some of these pics.

If only we were as good at using the camera timer as my mom is....

Just cruising...

A friend of Cyrus' from Kalamazoo teaches in Taiwan, and is coming to visit Thailand this week.  So we'll spend the rest of our break hanging out with him and his girlfriend in Bangkok and showing them around Suphan.

Paige and Cyrus

Happy New Year!

Happy belated New Year to everyone! We had a whirlwind weekend to bring in 2012, consisting of rooftop parties, last minute destinations, island ferries, motorbikes, and too much whiskey.

For New Years Eve, a group of us met in Bangkok to celebrate.  It's funny how jaded we get by being here; to us Bangkok is just an hour's ride away and no big deal, but a year ago, Bangkok sounded so foreign and exotic.  We had to keep reminding ourselves where we were and to appreciate the experience. For the countdown, our group decided to go to a rooftop party on the 40th floor of a hotel.  Unfortunately, it was "farang" central ("farang" are what all westerners are referred to in Thailand, a term that we are growing to resent, because we feel we are more than just tourists), but I guess that should have been expected. Regardless, we had a good time and did a proper job ringing in the new year.

It was awesome to be eye level with all of the fireworks.

Our relationship with Bangkok is what you could call "love/hate".  The "real" Bangkok is alive, loud, dirty, beautiful, in-your-face, and exciting.  But the Bangkok that you are most likely to encounter is  glossed over and full of tourists.  We've been here for three months, living and working in Thailand, so it's disheartening to be treated like "just another farang" when we're there.

So after having enough of the city and all of the tourists, our group decided to relocate for the rest of the trip.  We had originally planned to go camping in a national park, but we had a spark of spontaneity and just chose a place out of the guidebook instead.  It felt so adventuresome to literally choose a destination, pick up our backpacks and go to the bus station.  That's the thing we've noticed about Thailand, there's no use in planning or worrying about not planning, because nothing ever goes the way you want it to anyways.  But everything seems to works out in the end.  You many not take the route you intended on, but you ultimately end up where you're supposed to be.

So we headed out to a small island south east of Bangkok, called Koh Sichang.  The island is nothing that would be on a postcard, but it had an authentic atmosphere and we made up the majority of tourists. We spent the trip riding motorbikes, exploring the island, and eating good food.  It was one of those times, when it's not so much where you are, but the people you are with that shape your experience.  Our small, yet wonderful group hailed from all over the US and the world. With people coming from California, Texas, Philly, Manchester, and South Africa, the conversation and company were always of high quality.  How we all ended up together on a small island in the Gulf of Thailand is an amazing thing.

There's a feeling I'm constantly having here that is much rarer to come by at home.  It's hard to put into words, but it's an overwhelming sense that you are exactly where you are meant to be, doing exactly what you are meant to be doing, with the exact people you are meant to be doing it with.  For that brief moment, everything feels right. 

Lots of love,
Paige and Cyrus

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone is happy and healthy.  Thought we would share our holiday experiences with you all, since it was definitely an experience...

For some reason, Thai people love Christmas.  The country is over 90% Buddhist, but I think they just like any excuse to celebrate so they embrace the "holiday spirit". Although, they don't have it all quite down yet...I was playing Jeopardy with my kids, and for the Christmas category I asked where Santa lives.  They shouted out England, Canada, Alaska, and everywhere in between, but only 1 student knew it was the north pole.

Our school had a big assembly in the morning, and they made us wear santa hats and sing "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in front of everyone (because that's obviously what they thought we would want to do on Christmas!).  It turned out to be really fun, and we got to walk around the courtyard and throw out candy to all the kids.

We also go to see a special performance by Santa's elves, at least I think that's what they were supposed be. See the picture below.  It was hilarious, and we couldn't stop laughing.  They went out into the middle of the courtyard and did a little choreographed dance.  We loved it.

For Christmas Eve, Cyrus and I just had our own little celebration in our apartments. First, we started out with a gourmet appetizer plate made up of oreos and multi-grain sour cream and onion pringles.  If that doesn't say the holiday season, then I don't know what does! Yummmm.

 

Then we opened presents.  Guess which one Cyrus wrapped....

For dinner, we attempted to cook a home style meal, which actually turned out pretty legitimate.  We made pasta in our rice cooker, with salad, rolls, and baked potatoes.  

It definitely wasn't the Christmas we were used to, but it was fun and something that we probably won't ever do again!  Next week we are heading to Bangkok for New Year's Eve, which should be a fun time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Paige and Cyrus

Kanchanaburi

Hello world! My name is Cyrus and this is pretty much my first blog post (the last one didn't really count). Paige has been writing all the other ones but I promised her that I would write this one. I included a few random links that I thought were funny or somewhat related to what I'm talking about. Feel free to click on them or don't if you don't want. Well, here it goes...

This past weekend Paige and I decided to finally take a weekend for ourselves to kind of relax and explore Thailand without a group of 20 other Americans by our sides. We ended up going to Kanchanaburi, which if you're not familiar with, is where the famed Bridge Over the River Kwai (actually pronounced like square without the s) is located. We had another three day weekend for Constitution Day and Kanchanaburi is only two hours away so it was a pretty easy trip for us to make.

The first day we were there, we jumped on a bus and drove for an hour and a half to a nearby national park. The park was called Erawan and is a hiking trail with waterfall after waterfall. This is a big tourist spot which was obvious to see because of the number of people we saw in their speedo's, 2-sizes-too-small bikini's, beer belly's and flip-flops. The hike was actually pretty tough which made it even more amazing that the Europeans were able to get all the way up the trail in their flip-flops. But the hike consists of seven different "tiers" with a showcased waterfall on each tier. Some of the waterfalls that we saw were amazing. You would think that you were at the showcased waterfall and would hike 100 more meters only to realize you were then on the proper level and saw a whole new waterfall.

So many dirty people counting this as their bath for the week...

 

It took us about two hours to get all the way up to the seventh level (video of us sitting on the top level) and we finally decided to jump into one of the pools of water. The craziest thing about seeing all of the waterfalls was just how clear the water was through the whole hike. You could literally see the bottom of the river we were hiking next to the whole time. However, when we did finally jump in we were quickly surprised by the amount of fish swimming. Not only were they swimming right next to you but as soon as you get in they start swarming your feet and legs and eating the dead skin off of you. It is a strange, strange feeling and we ran out of the water pretty quickly and had no desires to get back in. The hike down was a lot quicker and only took us about a half hour. After that we jumped back on the bus and went back to our hotel.

 

Later that night we went down to the market and got our shopping on. We both finally splurged and bought some clothes but the highlight of our night was walking back to the hotel. As we were walking down the street a man stopped us and told us to look up in the sky. It was a "black moon" as he called it but we realized that we had already missed out on half of a lunar eclipse and hadn't even noticed it. It was the last one until 2014 so it was pretty cool that we got to see it while we were here.

Sunday morning we woke up and decided to finally make our obligatory trip to the Bridge Over the River Kwai that we had heard so much about. Seeing the bridge was pretty anti-climatic. It's one of those things where seeing the bridge isn't actually that cool but knowing the history behind it makes it a lot more interesting and relevant. We walked across the whole thing and even did a little march while singing the song from the movie. Overall it was a good experience and we can now check that off the Thailand list.

Most of the original bridge was destroyed during the war, but the wood used on the edges of the bridge was salvaged.

On our way back from the bridge there was a little market that we walked by. We stopped to look and noticed that there was a spokesperson from the nearby zoo who had a baby leopard in a cage and was taking donations for the zoo. We gave a donation and Paige was able to hold and feed the leopard for a few minutes. She loved it and got mad that I only took one picture (who knew you needed more than one picture of something) but here is a video of it. And don't worry I will be looking for jobs as a narrator after we get back.

Now we are back to school and no more long weekends until our New Years break. We are just going to be hanging around Suphanburi enjoying living the dream here for a while to relax and catch up a little bit on sleep that we've been missing out on the past couple weekends and throughout the school weeks. Hope my post wasn't too long and boring and maybe I'll start writing a few more of them from now on. Hope everything is going well back home for everyone!

And as always GO LIONS! Let's get that last wilcard spot!

Love,

Cyrus, Paige and the baby leopard.

PS. I don't think the Packers need any more luck, they have everything locked up already.

Koh Chang

After six weeks of being in Thailand, it’s finally happened.  It hit me suddenly and without warning, not like the gradual creep that I had expected.  But I’m ready to admit now that I’m in love, and I don’t care who knows it.  I’ve fallen in love with this country and I don’t think there’s any turning back…

This Monday was the King’s Birthday, and a national holiday, so we got our first three-day weekend.  We decided to pack our bags and head to the beach. From Suphan, we took a van to Bangkok, and then caught another van to Trat (after getting McDonald’s first of course).  From Trat, we took a truck ride to the pier, then a ferry ride to the island of Koh Chang.  It took about 8-9 hours total, but after the first view of the island, the long ride was all worth it.  Koh Chang (meaning “Elephant Island”) is about 20 km long and is mostly mountains and jungle.  It’s starting to become a popular tourist spot, but not quite as bad as some of the better known islands.

Our hotel was called Blue Lagoon, and it was made up of one-room bungalows on the bank of a little inlet from the ocean.  It had a lot of character and was about 200 m from the beach (plus it was only $20 a night).  We walked to the beach when we first got there, and the only thing everyone kept saying was, “this just can’t be fair”.  It was unreal how pretty the beach was.  You could see other islands in the distance, and looking back towards land all you noticed were the jungle covered mountains.  We knew already that it was going to be a big struggle leaving the island to go home.  Words can’t describe the feeling of pure bliss we had as we took in the surroundings. Here's a video of the beach: Beach Video

A big group of our friends from orientation met up on the island as well, so we had a lot of people to hang out with. The first day was spent lounging on the beach and walking into town for food (we probably had about 10 mango/banana smoothies in 3 days).  And on Sunday, we learned a little more about why it is called Elephant Island.  There is an elephant sanctuary in Koh Chang, so we got to ride elephants through the jungle!  It was really crazy and really awesome.  They are so smart, and such big animals, it was an unforgettable experience. 

After the elephants, we rented motorbikes and drove down the coast to some other towns.  The roads were pretty steep and winding, but thankfully Cyrus had a lot of scooter experience from home, so he was pretty much an expert!  We had one minor incident, but I survived with only a scraped knee. Don’t worry mom, we were really careful and were both wearing helmets. 

 This picture is at a lookout spot we found on our motorbike ride:

Unfortunately, we had to leave early on Monday.  I easily could have spent another week there, but it was a good trip.  We had a long ride home, but eventually made it to Suphan and promptly fell asleep.  We have another three-day weekend coming up, so we’ll be heading somewhere new.

Paige, Cyrus, and Elephants

Monkeys for everyone!

This weekend we put on our adventure caps and took our first trip outside of Suphan.  A big group of people from our program decided to meet in Lopburi for the “monkey banquet”.  The town of Lopburi is famous for having monkeys running around everywhere, and once a year the town throws a huge feast for the monkeys at the temple they all hang out at. I wasn’t too excited about the monkeys, but I wanted to see everyone else, so we joined in. 

We traveled with about 5 other people from our town, and we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for making it to Lopburi with no major setbacks.  The bus was 80 baht (less than $3) and the hotel/hostel we stayed at was 100 baht each (so a little over $3).  I was pretty surprised by how many monkeys roamed around.  Our hotel was right by the temple where most of them are, so we got to have a lot of quality time.  I will admit, I wasn’t the biggest monkey fan.  They had no fear of jumping on you to try and steal your snacks or water (and no one steals my snacks!), and a few people got little bites and scratches.  I tried to keep my distance, and let everyone else have fun getting climbed on.

 

We joined in on a tour that other people were going on, which included a sunflower field, a lake, and a bat cave.  It sounded like a pretty good deal for 200 baht, but it ended up being somewhat lame.  The lake was reminiscent of Lake Lansing, and the bat cave wasn’t very active….but the company was good, and at times that’s all that matters.

That night we went out with everyone, and the majority of people had one too many Changs (the beer of choice here).  Maybe we were trying to make up for missing the "day before thanksgiving night out".  The following morning, we went to the banquet for an hour or so, and then took the bus back to Suphan.  It was a brief, but fun trip.  Although getting up for school on Monday was a bit of a challenge.  Next weekend we are heading to Koh Chang, an island in southeastern Thailand.  We are definitely in need of some beach time.

 

Paige and Cyrus

Two temples and a football game

This weekend we took a few field trips around town.  With no breathtaking waterfalls or significant ancient temples, Suphan isn't too well known in Thailand.  I guess you could call it "plain jane".  But if you had to name something worth noting about the city, it would most likely be the huge dragon temple on the city's outskirts.  It seems like it would be a semi-popular tourist attraction, but it's not in any guidebooks and barely anyone knows about it...but it's definitely there.  I was surprised to see how big it was (that's what she said), and as you can imagine it looked pretty out of place. The dragon is actually a Chinese museum, with a lot of other little Chinese temples in the same complex.

And no, I'm not actually doing the "asian peace sign" seriously:

 

Cyrus standing at the foot of the dragon:

After the dragon, our friend took us to a lesser known temple that he visited before.  He randomly befriended a monk, Utai, the last time he went, so we were able to tour the temple led by a monk that lives there.  The site is over 700 years old and has hundreds of Buddha statues. Being there made you feel like you really were on the other side of the world, in a place that has a history very different from your own.

Utai also showed us how to do a traditional Buddhist prayer, by lighting incense and a candle, and then placing a gold leaf on the Buddha statue.  We bowed three times, then another monk splashed us with water for good luck.  The experience was pretty awesome.  It was one of those things that we didn't want to do at first, because we were all tired from seeing the dragon temple, but it ended up being one the best experiences I've had here so far.

Later that night, we went to the soccer (aka football) game of the professional team that plays here, Suphanburi FC.  The Thailand professional league is nothing to call "ESPN deportes" about, but it was definitely a fun time and it felt good to just blend into the crowd for a while.  It was an exciting match to watch, but Suphan lost in the final minute of play.  Fortunately, the soccer games are free to go to (awesome), so although we didn't get a win, we at least got our money's worth.

The people standing up in the pic below are the Suphan FC cheering section.  They brought drums and had organized cheers, as did the other team's cheering section across the stadium.  It's funny that you don't need to understand the language to know exactly what the guy in front of you is yelling after the ref makes a bad call.

 

It should also be noted that in Thailand beer is drank with ice, and occasionally through a straw.  This may seem outlandish, but I won't lie, it's actually kind of good. And I might bring the ice thing back to the US for those hot summer beers.

 

It was a good weekend, but we're ready to explore some new cities next week. Another American girl who lives in our apartment has a boyfriend that owns a restaurant in town.  All of us are going to meet there for T-giving dinner and grill some good ole' American food. It will be sad not being home, but at least we have a lot to be thankful about. If only we could watch the Packers - Lions game....

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and go Packers!

Oh, and Cyrus says go lions.

Paige and Cyrus