Relaxing on Koh Samui

The patio at our Koh Samui hostel 

When planning a trip to Thailand there are three popular locations that people have on their list: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the islands in the south. Although I've been in Thailand for six months and visited quite a few beautiful islands, I've never made it down south to the infamous Thai islands. Fortunately for me, this past month my sister came to visit with her roommate and boyfriend, and they were all ready to explore the beauty of the southern islands! When researching the islands there are at least ten popular ones that come up, and even more smaller ones, so we struggled at first deciding where it is we wanted to go. In the end we decided to pick two islands to see during our week down south and we decided on Koh Samui and Koh Tao. ("Koh" is Thai for "island"). Although each of the islands have something unique to each of them, we weren't catering towards any specific plans (such as scuba diving or hiking) so we decided to pick two that were popular and close together.

Blogging with a view 

We flew from the northern city of Chiang Mai down to Surat Thani and then took a ferry over to Koh Samui. I was grateful that our island hopping also matched up with the plans of three other English teachers that I've become friends with. We quickly merged our groups, blending ages and histories, and managed to do a lot of activities together over the next week. We stayed at Chill Inn Hostel  which was right on the beach, offering calm waters and beautiful sun rises. Our itinerary was very simple for the islands: relax, get a tan, take advantage of the cheap massages, and drink out of coconuts. On our first full day we were able to check everything off of our list and started off our beach vacation on the right note.
Samui offers various tours and adventures such as snorkeling trips, renting jet skis and parasailing, but I was pretty content with my book and a shady chair on the beach. The great thing about all of the islands is that there are endless resorts right on the beach and they're happy to have outsiders relax pool side as long as you're willing to purchase a drink or two. We spent our days bouncing between various resorts, checking out their pools and private beaches. And of course it wouldn't be a Thai vacation without a massage, and we managed to find some right on the beach for the great price of $7/hour.

View from the bar of the Conrad Hotel. See those floating squares close to shore?
They're personal little islands with a palm tree and lounge chairs for the hotel guests. 

Our last evening on the island we decided to check out the much talked about views from the Conrad Hotel. Located high on a hill on the southwest corner of the island, the Conrad offers stunning views of the sunset and the ocean below. Owned by Hilton, it is most definitely out of our price range, but they're accommodating towards any visitors who want to stop in for happy hour. We splurged on their buy one get one free deal, spending about $12 for two drinks, which is actually a really good deal, especially compared to SkyBar. The hotel itself has more of a resort feel and it appears that each room is it's own stand alone building on the side of the cliff. Even as visitors we got excellent service and I definitely felt fancy in my elephant print dress and $3 sandals as we got driven around in golf carts and rode in a private SUV back to our hostel, which cost us the same amount as our drinks.

The next morning we were picked up at our hostel by a scheduled van (which we booked through the hostel) and were driven to the ferry docks and we boarded an air conditioned ferry on to our next destination of Koh Tao. Read about that here!

Although vacation in Southeast Asia can be cheap, the ferry and general transportation definitely adds up, especially when on a budget. We paid about $16 to get from the mainland of Thailand over to Samui, and then another $22 to get to Koh Tao. From Koh Tao to the mainland we took a ferry for $17. It doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're budgeting $20-30 a day to cover accommodations and food it completely ruins the budget!

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Logistical Info

- Although the islands are still relatively inexpensive the ferry rides can add up. We flew into Surat Thani to get to Samui because flights directly into Samui were too expensive. We booked a bus, ferry, taxi combo to get to our location in Samui, costing us 550 baht ($16).
- There are numerous overnight buses and even ferries that go from Bangkok to the islands. These are much cheaper than flying.

- Chill Inn Hostel $12-$16/night

Koh Tao

Koh Samui and Koh Tao are located in the souther
region of Thailand, in the Gulf of Thailand

While my sister and her friends were visiting we set aside a week to relax on some of the islands in the south of Thailand. We started off on the larger island of Koh Samui and after relaxing there for a few days we decided to mix it up a little and head north to the smaller island of Koh Tao.
Because Koh Tao is so much smaller we felt it was easier to see and do all of the popular things. There's one main footpath that stretches along the west coast of the island, making the whole area easily accessible. On this route we were able to find a new restaurant for every meal, plenty of coffee shops, good bars, souvenir shops and taxi boats to smaller islands and beaches nearby.
As always, our plans for our islands adventures were very minimal: get massages, eat good food, get some sun. All of those were easy to accomplish during our time in Koh Tao.
Although we basically had the same goals on Koh Samui I enjoyed our time on Koh Tao much better. It's a smaller island with many more backpackers, as opposed to the families that Koh Samui attracts.

On a longtail boat with my sister and her friends, and some
fellow English teachers

During our first full day on Koh Tao we hired a longtail boat to Sai Nuan beach, which is still on the island of Koh Tao but is kind of difficult to get to by land. We had a full boat headed to the beach and we each paid around $6 for roundtrip transportation. We chose to go to this beach because we figured it would be more secluded and quieter than going to the main strip of beach, and we were right! It was just our group and about ten other people who had the whole bay to ourselves. There was a resort located relatively close to where we camped out, so we were able to rent snorkels from them for around $3.

Relaxing on Sai Nuan beach

View from the overlook on Koh Nang Yuan 

The next day was our big expedition of the trip, we hired a longtail boat to take us to the small neighboring island of Koh Nang Yuan. It's technically three small islands joined together by a sandbar and it's most known for it's awesome overlook, which is exactly why we came. As soon as we set foot onto the island we figured out which way the overlook was and began the strenuous climb to the top. In decent weather and hangover-free it would be an average uphill climb, however, it was pushing 100 degrees and a bar crawl the evening before left us feeling far from athletic, so it was definitely a struggle for us to reach the top. The view from the top was worth it, but I don't think it's anything I'd be jumping to do again soon. Koh Nang Yuan is a small island with limited beach space, so we went in for a dip to cool off after our hike, but then took our boat back to Koh Tao to enjoy shade,

air conditioning and more spacious beaches. 

Thais excel at drag shows

The rest of our time on Koh Tao was uneventful but as blissful as an island vacation can be. We drank out of coconuts, indulged in endless cups of coffee, ate Thai food, snorkeled and participated in the previously mentioned bar crawl. We mainly wanted to do the bar crawl for the free tank top but ended up having a lot of fun while participating. The highlight of the evening was our stop at a ladyboy bar where we enjoyed one of Thailand's infamous drag shows.

Koh Tao pub crawl with Lexi and Sam, two fellow
English teachers, and Sam's friend, Lauren, visiting
from the States 

Getting fish pedicures! These little guys eat off all of
the dead skin on your feet (if you can sit still long enough!) 

Overall I would say that the Thai islands live up to their hype, and we didn't even visit some of the most popular ones! On my next trip to Thailand I would love to explore some of the islands on the west coast of Thailand. After our week of ocean and sun we flew back north to Bangkok for a few days of city life before my sister and her friends flew back to wintery Ohio.

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Logistical Info

- Koh Nang Yuan is privately owned and therefore has a few more rules than a typical island. We paid 200 baht each for our longtail boat ($6) and then had to pay a 100 baht ($3) entry fee onto the island. All plastic water bottles are confiscated upon arrival, so if you don't want to overpay for water at the restaurant then you should bring a reusable water, which they'll let you enter the island with.
The island and beaches are slowly eroding away and because of that they're very protective of the sand there. As a result, you're not allowed to lay on the beach with your towel, because towels collect the sand and too many people end up taking sand away with them. Your options are to rent a chair for the day (but they fill up fast) or lay on the sand bare. Because of the limited laying options and limited shade we didn't stay on the island for too long, we mainly just did the hike, had some snacks and then went back to Koh Tao.
- We stayed at AC 2 Resort which was around $45/night. It was nice to get out of the hostels for a couple of nights but I wasn't blown away by the quality of our stay. I think there are cheaper or better options when it comes to bungalows or resorts on the island.
- To get to Koh Tao from Samui we booked a taxi and ferry through our hostel on Samui. It was 750 baht ($22) and we still had to pay for a taxi once we got to Koh Tao to get to our hotel, which was another $4.
- From Koh Tao we took a ferry to the mainland to Chumphom, and flew from there to Bangkok. That ferry was 600 baht ($17). That included our ferry and bus to the airport.- There are numerous overnight buses and even ferries that go from Bangkok to the islands. These are much cheaper than flying.

Hostels of Asia

Stamps Backpackers in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Each bed was in it's own cubby with a curtain
and bedside table

Hostels often carry a reputation of being unsafe, unclean and just overall weird, especially to those who come from countries where hostels aren't as common (aka America). However, for travelers on a budget hostels are a great way to save some money while still having a safe and cozy place to sleep each night. I've stayed in my fair share of hostels throughout Europe and Asia with my most expensive being $20/night in London and my cheapest being $6/night in Bangkok.

WH Hostel in Bangkok, made up entirely
of shipping containers

There are a lot of factors when it comes to judging a good hostel including bedroom sizes, bed comfort, atmosphere, cleanliness and location. For me one of the most important factors is function and convenience. I appreciate hostels who acknowledge that their main clients are twenty-something year olds living out of suitcases. Some of my best hostel stays have included free towels, cheap laundry, cheap or free breakfast and good layouts in the bedrooms and bathrooms. Newer hostels are doing a much better job at making their accommodations practical, such as having outlets for each bunk, providing safes or luggage lockup for each bunk, and having good shelving and storage in the bathrooms. My most recent hostel in Kuala Lumpur had an ensuite bathroom and changing room for our group of 12 to share. Knowing it was just the 12 of us using the bathroom (as opposed to a whole floor of strangers) we felt safe and comfortable leaving clothes hanging in the bathroom and our toothbrushes near the sink. This hostel also provided shelves for those on the top bunk, so I had a place to keep my phone, book and water during the night. Many hostels are also getting good at accommodating electronics. It's becoming more common for each bunk to have their own set of outlets and their own reading light, these bunks often come with curtains as well, making it a little easier to feel cozy and keep things dark while going to bed. 

Personal outlet, light and lockbox for each bunk at
Twenty5 Hostel in Kuala Lumpur

There's a hostel and bedroom for practically any traveler. Many hostels offer single or double rooms incase you're not jumping at the chance to sleep in a room of strangers, and they also offer all female or all male dorms. There are party hostels which cater towards rowdier groups and often have a bar inside the lobby and offer chances to join in on bar crawls each evening. I've stayed at hostels that have clubs in the basement and host beer pong competitions each evening and I've also stayed at hostels with a strict "quiet zone" rule at night and I have even stayed at a few that don't allow any alcohol on the premises. 

I do my research before staying somewhere new, and I almost exclusively book from Hostel World, which gives honest reviews and ratings from previous guests. In all of my years of hostel stays I've never felt unsafe or uncomfortable in any situation and honestly when it comes to traveling alone I'd much rather sleep in a room of strangers as opposed to staying in a hotel alone where no one would be able to help me if something happened. Because of hostels I've done free walking tours, learned new card games, participated in bar crawls, got educated on local foods, had epic New Year's parties and met countless people from every corner of the world. 

Family adventures in Bangkok

As the end of March rolled around I officially finished my term at school and began the process of moving out of Pattaya and packing my life into a 46 liter backpack. I plan on spending the next six weeks traveling throughout Asia and I got to start this adventure with a visit from some of my family members from Ohio! Last week was Spring Break for most public schools, so my dad, step-mom, Julie, and step-brother, Drew, hopped over to Thailand to spend their week of vacation learning the crazy ways of the Thais!
As most travelers will find, Bangkok is an easy hub for travel in Asia, as it's one of the larger cities and also has many budget flights coming and going each day. We used Bangkok as our homebase during their week long Thailand adventure and it's where we started and ended their vacation. Many flights coming and going from Asia land late into the evening and depart early in the morning. Theirs was no expection; they landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport around 11pm and departed a week later at 6am. I was able to take the BTS (Thai metro system) paired with the Airport Link to pick them up, costing me about 90 baht one way (just over $2). After traveling for over 24 hours I figured I'd give them the easy way into the city, so we all climbed into a taxi and took the hour long journey into the city for about $14.
We stayed at Anantara Hotel in an awesome family suite, which was complete with our own balcony overlooking the Bangkok skyline. The hotel also had a rooftop bar and restaurant which gave a 360 view of the city. It was definitely one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in, and definitely the largest room I've ever had, yet it only cost about $140 a night! Expensive for Thailand, but a splurge by American standards.

View from our hotel balcony 

Their first full day in Bangkok was a Sunday, which meant we had to head to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Although some portions of this market are open during the weekdays, the weekend is the preferable time to go, offering some great selections of Thai souvenirs. The market is home to over 8,000 stalls and each time I visit I find another corner and section I've never seen before. I usually ending up buying more food than souvenirs, but it's a great place to buy bags, leather goods, clothing, art and jewelry. Wandering the market gave everyone a good opportunity to buy some souvenirs and get a basic understanding of the value of the Thai baht. We also used our time at the market to explore some traditional Thai dishes such as pad thai, papaya salad, tom yum soup, fresh fruit smoothies and a dessert of mango sticky rice. 
I wanted to give them some time to acclimate to Thai time, so we didn't have much planned for the first full day in Bangkok. The city heat can be a lot to take in at first, and it's easy to wear yourself out by spending too much time outside. After a few hours wandering the market we headed back to our hotel to take advantage of comfy couches, air conditioning and showers. Eventually we dragged ourselves out into the heat once again for dinner reservations along the Chao Phraya River which runs through the city of Bangkok. We ate at Sala Rim Naam which is a restaurant paired up with Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It was a fancier and more Western alternative to Thai street food, but still provided traditional Thai meals and drinks, all with a great view of the river!

Day two in Bangkok we set off to see the traditional sites of the capital city. After an awesome and huge breakfast at our hotel we grabbed a taxi to The Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is basically a   walled in city block that houses many influential buildings of Thailand. It is the previous home of the royal families of Thailand and is also where most governmental business takes place. The Grand Palace comes up as a must-see in Bangkok, but I personally wasn't too blown away by it. Although there are some stunning works of architecture within these walls, it's nothing too different from what's visible on the streets. On top of that it's way too hot with very little shade, and they allow an absurd amount of people inside at the same time. Although the streets can get a little hectic out in Bangkok this was definitely more than I bargained for and I spent more time trying to avoid bumping into others instead of enjoying the sites around me. Many visitors think The Grand Palace is an important stop in their Bangkok tour, but it's something I will happily skip in the future.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Next we walked next door to the much calmer Wat Pho which is home to the world's longest reclining Buddha. This is still a popular site in Bangkok and definitely worth seeing, and it's also a lot less crowded than the Grand Palace, making it easier to handle.
After exploring this area for a bit we hopped into a quick tuk tuk ride over to Khao San Road for some lunch. Khao San Road is most known by the backpacker crowd, especially those looking for a night out in Bangkok. It's filled with bars, restaurants and loud music and is a great place to hangout both day and night.

That evening we took a one hour flight to Chiang Mai to play with elephants! More info on that trip can be found here. 

To end the family vacation in Thailand we flew back down to Bangkok for one last evening in the city. We had originally planned to start the evening with drinks at SkyBar, but some open-sided Teva sandals didn't make the cut for dress code. We were allowed out onto the terrace for a few quick pictures and then we headed to a different location.

SkyBar view! 

Drew had it high on his list to ride a motorbike taxi, so we decided the six mile journey to our next location was the perfect time! I quickly flagged down a few motorbikes and we each piled on for the crazy ride through Bangkok.

Three people on a motorbike is the norm in Bangkok 

We ended our ride at Above Eleven which is a rooftop bar and restauarant in the center of Bangkok. We had delicious drinks and overpaid for fried rice, but got a great view while doing it, so all was well in the end. The next morning Julie and Drew had a 6am flight back to the states, and my dad, Emiliya and I hopped on a 6:45 flight to Hanoi, Vietnam! (That post will be coming soon) 

Having my family in Thailand for a week was so much fun, and it helped me realize everything I've learned throughout these last six months while living in Thailand. It was fun having them try all of the Thai dishes and seeing their content after a $6 massage.  I loved showing off this country to them and it made me even more excited for the arrival of my sister this weekend! 

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Logistical Info

- The BTS is easy and cheap transportation during the day, but it stops running by midnight each evening
- Although Bangkok requires taxi drivers to use the meter to determine the price, they're hard to find at either of the airports within Bangkok. Instead they often just give you a set price for driving into the city, usually starting somewhere between 400-500 baht ($12-15)
- Accomodating four people within one hotel room is hard to do in Thailand. At Anantara Hotel I was able to book a family suite which slept four, for about $140/night
- Chatuchak Weekend Market is open on weekends from 6am-6pm. It is located near Mo Chit, the most northern stop on the BTS.

- The Grand Palace is usually open from 9-3:30 and costs $14 to enter 

- Wat Pho is usually open until about 6:30pm and costs $3 to enter 

- dress code for SkyBar: women have to wear a skirt or dress without flip flops. Men must have their knees and shoulders covered and have closed shoes (tennis shoes appear okay)

Family adventures in Chiang Mai

Feeding elephants! 

In continuation of our family explorations in Bangkok (found here), my family and I headed up north to Chiang Mai for three days of adventure-packed fun! My step-mom, Julie, had elephants listed as a high priority for her time in Thailand, so on our first full day in Chiang Mai we scheduled a day volunteering with elephants through travel hub. As I've previously written here, responsible and ethical tourism in Thailand (and elsewhere) is extremely important, and it's crucial to understand the brutality against elephants in the tourism industry. In order to get a genuine and kind elephant experience in Thailand you should head to an elephant sanctuary, which are companies that have formed in order to rescue elephants that are stuck working on the streets of Thailand. I previously volunteered with Elephant Jungle Sanctuary and loved my experience, but for round two I wanted to try something new! Like most elephant sanctuaries in Chiang Mai we started our day feeding and petting the elephants. We learned a bit about their health and how to keep them in good spirits, and then we got to give them a bath in the river! To end the day we said goodbye to the elephants and then hopped in some tubes for a lazy float down the river. We had a great day learning about our elephant friends and I think it was a crowd favorite for the whole family!

bathtime 

Day two in Chiang Mai we hired a Songtaew to drive us around for the afternoon. I previously had plans for us to rent motorbikes for the day, but after my recent run-in with the ground I nixed that plan and went with an easier option. By hiring a driver we didn't have to worry about maps or directions, instead we let our driver lead the way as we relaxed in the back. Our first stop was Doi Suthep which is a known temple at the top of a mountain Northwest of the city. Asia has presented me with my fair share of temples, so at this point I was really going to Doi Suthep for the view. Unfortunately Chiang Mai is surrounded by hills, so once the humidity hits the clouds basically stay stuck over the city, resulting in a very hazy view. This visit was no exception and turned out a lot hazier than my previous visit in January. Despite the nonexistent view we were still able to enjoy the temple and my family all got bracelets blessed by a monk, score!

Views from my first visit to Doi Suthep in January 

The Grand Canyon in Chiang Mai 

Next up we drove to the Grand Canyon which is an old mining quarry Southwest of Chiang Mai. While there we challenged my dad's fear of heights and jumped off the ledge into the deep water below. We spent some time lazing around in the water and floating on the bamboo rafts, then we wrapped up our afternoon with traditional Thai meals purchased from the local cafe on site. Chiang Mai offers plenty of activities for the adrenaline junky such as rafting trips and zip lining, but they usually come with a pretty large fee. A visit to the canyon is easy and cheap ($1.5 entry fee) and is a great way to spend the day getting some thrills without blowing your budget. And if you're not up for the three story drop then there's still plenty of action for you to sit back and enjoy :) 

Dad and Julie making curry 

Day three in Chiang Mai we put our cooking skills to the test and participated in a really awesome Thai cooking class. I normally don't spend much time in the kitchen at home, unless I'm baking something that involves chocolate, so I didn't have terribly high expectations for our cooking class. It turned out to be a lot of fun and easier than I expected! Thai food usually uses a lot of fish sauce and various meats, so I found us a vegetarian cooking class which replaces fish sauce with a vegetarian chili paste. I really enjoyed learning how to make some of my favorite dishes without the taste of seafood! We made about eight different dishes including a few curries, pad Thai, papaya salad and various forms of the famous tom yum soup. I think we all enjoyed learning about the Thai ingredients and seeing how easy it is to make some filling dishes! Our class lasted about four hours and we had six students in the class, making it a really small and easy group to get along with.

The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was much more unscheduled, involving a lot of food, laying by the pool, massages and browsing the night bazaar for souvenirs. Chiang Mai is arguably the second most popular city in Thailand (after Bangkok) but it is a lot smaller and far less hectic. It still provides plenty to do and see, but at a slower pace. This was my second trip to Chiang Mai this year and I'm looking forward to another trip next week with my sister! 

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Logistical info 

- Our elephant adventures were booked through Travel hub and we paid $52 each 

- We hired the songtaew for 2000฿ ($56) and asked our hotel to refer a driver. They had a whole book of private cars, motorbike taxis and songtaew drivers who they prefer. 

- cooking class was done with May Kaidee Cooking School and was $42 a person  

Clinic visits in Thailand

Any building with a green or red cross will be able
to provide basic medical and pharmaceutical care
Photo from Nana Thai Herb

Some of our coworkers have an ongoing joke that Thailand hates us, because Emiliya and I rarely go a week without one of us being injured or sick. The environment here is definitely giving us a run for our money, and at the very least the constant change of 90 degree weather to an air-conditioned room is always giving us colds. This week I've been presented with a new challenge following an inevitable motorbike crash that I had last week. There's chatter in the expat community which says you're not a true expat in Asia until you get hurt from a motorbike, because with more bikes than cars on the road it's just bound to happen at some point. Emiliya has her motorcycle license so in the past she's always been trusted as our chauffeur whenever we rent a bike on the islands or in Chiang Mai, but last week I attempted to prove myself capable, which resulted in my lasting about 2 minutes before crashing into the sidewalk. Overall I walked away relatively unharmed, and thankfully there was a Thai guy who stopped nearby and drove me back to Emiliya so I wouldn't do any more damage. Lesson learned: I'm going to stay away from motorbikes for now. Unfortunately my immune system isn't up to par with Thailand, and the wound on my foot quickly got infected giving me a rather painful and swollen foot, thus resulting in another adventure with healthcare in Thailand.
As I've previously mentioned, there are countless clinics throughout Thailand which seem to be helpful with ailments anywhere from the flu to infections, and it's the first place we head whenever we're having health issues. Unfortunately we've become somewhat of regulars at our local clinic, as we've visited in the past for bad cases of food poisoning, tooth infections, stomach problems and now my foot. I've been pleasantly surprised by healthcare in Thailand, and this most recent visit was no exception. The nurses speak minimal English, but the doctor himself probably has a better vocabulary than myself. He quickly informed me that the wound on my foot was infected, and assured me that I would receive a good cleaning and some meds to help me get back on my feet (pun intended). He sent me to another room to get care from a nurse, but he popped in every few minutes between other patients to help translate and make sure that I understood what was going on. He was also extremely patient with me while I looked up my medical history online with Cleveland Clinic (thank goodness for MyChart) and urged me to get a tetanus shot because my most recent was almost ten years ago. I was also informed that I could come back each day to get a proper cleaning and redressing of my foot, which is awesome and something I will definitely take them up on.
Overall I got an exam, wound dressing, topical ointment, a tetanus shot and 7 days of antibiotics for about $25, which in the end will be reimbursed by my Thai health insurance. I believe that if I go back in the future for redressing that won't be covered by insurance, but it shouldn't cost more than $3-4 each time. Of course following true Thai disarray, when checking out the nurse told me to take the antibiotics twice a day. Later while at a nearby coffee shop I noticed that although the package has a number two on it, there's also a number four mixed in among the Thai letters. Fortunately we've made friends with the barista at this coffee shop and I went up to her for some clarification. In almost perfect English she informed me I have to take two pills, four times a day. Leave it to the cafe worker to outshine the nurse! With just about 6 weeks left in Asia I'm hoping this will be the last of any health issues, but it's also good to know that minus a few translation issues, the clinics have yet to fail us!

Last weeks of school

I was really just hoping for
a yes or no answer.. 

The normal structure of Thai culture often prevents me from really knowing what's going on, and as a result I've been pretty lost and confused at school these last few weeks. I was aware that there would be a lot of testing the second week of March, and beyond that I wasn't so sure if I would continue teaching each day. There would be days I would show up to school and ask a teacher if I would be teaching only to be given some vague answer such as "oh maybe, I don't know. Perhaps the teacher told students not to come today." What!? So I spent each day showing up to my assigned classroom, usually just to play games with the handful of students that showed up to school. It seems that the last day for students was up to the teacher, so there was no official last day for any of my kids. Meanwhile, the ones who have working parents are still showing up to school, even though lessons have been finished for days. This has kind of been a bummer because I never really got to say goodbye to my students, because I was never aware when the last day was.

some of the kindergarteners on graduation day (with faces full of makeup) 

However, last week we got one last hoopla with all of the teachers and a handful of students. Our school put on a graduation ceremony for the oldest students who are done with school (Emiliya's students), and for the kindergarteners who are moving up to the first grade. It was an adorable day of the little ones performing Thai dance and showing off a lot of Thai tradition. It's common practice for the teachers to tie white bracelets onto the wrists of the graduating students, wishing them good luck in their future. So after each kid walked across the stage and received their diploma they then lined up around the teachers to receive a wrist full of bracelets. It was a really fun tradition, and one of the Thai teachers taught us a few Thai phrases to bestow upon the students, like how to wish them happiness and adventure. So although I didn't formally say goodbye to my older students, I still got a last day and a lot of photos with my kindergarteners.

Giving bracelets to each of the graduating kids 

Tiny Thai dancers! 

Although the students are gone the teachers are working through the end of March, so Emiliya and I are expected to be working as well, even though we have no papers to grade or students to teach. As a result we're spending the last two weeks of the month sitting in the teacher's lounge for seven hours each day. It's definitely easy money, and is giving us ample time to plan all of our travel adventures that we're starting at the end of the month, but I would much rather be off doing something exciting as opposed to sitting at my desk each day. 

Some of my travel plans for the next two months

It's crazy how quickly these five months have flown by and it's so nice to see how far I've come since my first day at school. It took a while but I finally gained control over my classrooms and formed friendships with a lot of my students. For quite a while I was toying with staying for another term, but currently going home outweighs the pros of staying in Thailand. I'm falling harder for this country more and more each passing week, but I'm just not in love with the lifestyle I have here. In my small town I eat from the same market each day and am finding it increasingly difficult to have some variety in my food but still stay a vegetarian. On top of that, last week our fruit lady stopped showing up to the market so now we have no easy access to any fresh fruit, which was one of our daily staples. I'm eager to get out of this hot and humid climate and I look forward to spending a day outside instead of always running for the AC or waiting for the sun to go down. I've grown to love teaching a lot more than I was expecting to and am definitely not ruling it out as a future option.
Next week my dad, step mom and step brother are coming to Thailand and they're helping me kick off six weeks of travel. I'll be showing them around Bangkok and Chiang Mai and the adventures will continue from there. I'm also excited for the arrival of my sister who's bringing along her friend and boyfriend, and together we'll be exploring some of the islands in the south of Thailand. From there I'll be traveling south through Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. I don't have the time or money to accomplish everything on my bucket list, but I'm definitely excited to get started on some Southeast Asia adventures!

Visa run to Laos

Vientiane, Laos

Because Thailand likes to keep things complicated we've had a lot of run around when it comes to visa procedures and staying in Thailand legally. Most recently, Emiliya and I had to take a trip to the neighboring country of Laos in order to reapply for our tourist visa, allowing us another 90 days in the country. We've constantly been asking why we keep leaving the country and visiting local immigration for visa extensions when we could just get a work visa, but these decisions are up to our company so we're just going with the flow at this point. And besides, each visit to immigration gets us a day off work and we often welcome the break.                

The Mekong River, separating Thailand and Laos

Our trip to Laos took us to Vientiane, the capital and largest city of Laos. It's right on the border of Thailand and Laos, sitting just over the edge of Mekong River. Thailand is deceivingly large, so although we were just hopping the border it was still about an eight hour drive from Bangkok. We went through a visa service so overall it was a really simple trip. We handed over our money at the beginning of our journey and our driver handled all of the complicated stuff for us, which left us plenty of time to explore the city of Vientiane. I've heard from numerous people that there isn't much to Laos, especially in Vientiane, but I was determined to prove otherwise.
Our journey got off to a rocky and tired start due to the weird schedule of our van. We left Bangkok about 9pm and drove through the night, only to arrive at the Laos border at 4am. There we sat in the van for close to two hours, and then at 6 AM we had to get out of the van and line up in the street, waiting for the border to open. As soon as we saw the doors to immigration open people actually started running towards the building. It honestly felt like I was in some strange refuge movie where I was fleeing the country. Needless to say, it was intense. Anyways, the morning was filled with long lines and paperwork, both to apply for our Laos visa in order to enter, and to apply for a new Thai visa in order to get back to Thailand. By the time we finished it was the afternoon and we were running on very little sleep from the night before. Emiliya and I had a decent list of things we wanted to see in Laos, but we were tired and defeated and decided to take a nap, cutting off a lot of opportunity to see the city. 

Once we woke from our nap half the day was gone, so we decided to skip to our most eagerly awaited item on our list: french bread. During the early half the the 20th century Laos was under the control of the French colonial empire, and as a result there are still some French charms lingering throughout the city of Vientiane. We hit a cafe and had some delicious coffee and fresh bread, which we are sorely lacking in Thailand. Well rested and well fed we headed towards the city center to check out the Patuxai Arc, another French influence in the city. It was built in dedication to those who fought for independence from France, and obviously pulls a lot of influence from the Arc de Triomphe, although the detailing is more Asian than French. We paid 15฿ (about 30 cents) to climb to the top of the arc which offered stunning views of Vientiane. The atmosphere of the city center was great, because it's surrounded by busy traffic but the land itself is very calm. We enjoyed a nice Beerlao (Beer brewed in Laos) which we found to be cheaper than beer in Thailand ($1.50 compared to $2). At this point it was almost dinner time (free through the visa company), and I am not one to pass up free food so we headed back towards our hotel. If we had had a full day in the city we would have ventured to at least two other places in Vientiane, first being Pha That Luang. It's a gold covered Buddha stupa which is thought to have been built in the 3rd century. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and a national symbol for Laos. Our other stop would've been Buddha Park, which is a large plot of land home to over 200 Hindu and Buddhist statues. Beyond that, not much else up on our search for activities in Vientiane, perhaps it is a sleepy town afterall!

The next morning we treated ourselves to more coffee and bread and then headed to immigration to pick up our passports, and then it was time to head back to Thailand. 

Even though the visa company handled a lot of the paperwork and logistical stuff for us, we still spent 5-6 hours in lines at immigration within 24 hours. Legally staying in Thailand is so much more complicated than predicted and as a result I've now been to two different Thai embassies, the US embassy and various Thai immigration offices, and I have to go back to immigration next week! I still don't know how to do taxes, but I'm a pro at visa paperwork, so that has to count for something, right? 

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Logistical Info 

-The visa company charges 5550฿ and includes round trip transportation from Bangkok to Vientiane, a hotel in Vientiane, meals, assistance with paperwork, and transportation within Vientiane to all necessary locations (hotel, immigration, the border etc)

- Laos has their own currency, but in Vientiane they accepted Thai baht as payment, however they usually give you change in the Laos currency 

Recently in Thailand

Some of my first graders

2016 (or 2559 in Thai time) is flying by much quicker than anticipated. Thailand being the vague, easygoing country that they are, has been unable to give us an end date to teaching, so we've just been showing up each day with no idea what's going on. Some days we're told we're teaching until the end of March, other days they say we will only teach through the first week of March. Overall it doesn't matter a ton, but it's been making it a little complicated to plan lessons and make sure we have all the proper grades in by the end of the semester. This week I showed up to my kindergarten class only to be told that I'm done teaching kindergarten; what!? I didn't even get to enjoy my last week with them. Fortunately I still get to see the little ones running around in the mornings and after class. School officially closes March 30, but it seems that the students might be leaving earlier than that. As always, it's still a mystery!

I mainly stuck with Teacher Tip and her class throughout the day  

Last week I got to go on a fun and exhausting field trip with grades 1-3. We started off the morning at a NASA space center in Pattaya where the kids had a tour guide who took them through the space museum. We got to watch a 3D movie which the kids absolutely loved and even though the whole day was in Thai I still think I learned a little :) After the space museum we drove another 20 minutes north to an aquarium. This was far less exciting than the space museum, but the last room was awesome, presenting us with a giant glass window looking into a huge pool of fish. I swear, at least half of the kids ran up to me yelling "Teacher! F, fish, ba! F, fish, ba!" (ba is the Thai name for fish). It was awesome seeing them apply their English during a fun day out. Personally I think a seven hour field trip is a little long for kids under the age of 9, and most of the students fell asleep on the way home. But overall I'm so glad I got the opportunity to go with them. It let me bond with the kids in a stress free atmosphere and we had a ton of fun running around learning words in Thai and English.

View from the hotel room at Sheraton Resort

The weekends have been busy as always. A few weeks ago a fellow English teacher, Yavette, had friends visiting from the States. Her one friend had a lot of credit card points to cash in, so she splurged at Sheraton Pattaya Resort, so obviously we mooched off of that for a day, enjoying their numerous pools and private beach. The entire resort was a dream with amazing rooms and stunning views of the ocean. Before coming to Thailand I was strictly a pool girl, much preferring a comfy beach chair over laying in the sand. However, endless weekends at the beach in Thailand quickly changed me, and as nice as the pool was I was almost bummed that we didn't make it to the beach that weekend.

Summer will be in full swing starting in April and I'm planning some backpacking adventures throughout Asia which will include Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In preparation for these adventures I've needed to take two recent trips to Bangkok. The first was to get a Vietnam visa and the second was a quick trip to the US Embassy to get a new passport, because mine is almost full! In order to get a new passport I had to unwillingly turn over my old one, leaving me feeling extremely vulnerable for this past week. My new one is hopefully in the mail as I type, filled with 52 empty pages for me to fill up. When I got my Vietnam visa Emiliya came with me to Bangkok, as we're going to Vietnam together. We enjoyed a low key trip to Bangkok, simply seeking out good coffee and cheap food.

Sunset from Sky Bar 

When I went back up a few days later it happened to coordinate perfectly with Sam's trip to Bangkok. She is also a fellow English teacher who I met through our company, and we hadn't seen each other since New Year's Eve on Koh Samet, so it was great to catch up. We splurged on our evening there and lived a brief life of luxury while having drinks at Sky Bar. This location is known for it's appearance in Hangover 2 and it offers unrivaled views of the Chao Phraya River from 64 stories up. We each bought a drink for the high cost of $15 and drank as slowly as possible in order to catch the sunset. There are many places in Bangkok that offer similar views, but a lot of them have cover fees usually starting around $14, so we were happy to find a place that wouldn't completely ruin our budget. I personally think on a crowded evening it would be easy to sneak up to the roof for a quick view without buying a drink. We definitely lingered after finishing our drinks and no one
was pressuring us to buy another or leave, which was greatly appreciated.

Evening from the Sky Bar

I've now been to Bangkok six times (and returning this weekend!) and I'm still continuously baffled by this huge city. Bangkok is more than double the size of New York City and offers endless amounts of restaurants, temples and shops to visit. Each time I've come to Bangkok I've stayed in a different location in the hopes of one day fully comprehending the entire city, but I'm still a long way from that. Either way, my opinion on Bangkok has drastically changed since my first visit here. I've now learned how to take the public transportation (BTS) and I embrace the challenge of haggling with taxi drivers and I'm always looking forward to my next adventure to Thailand's capital.

My favorite view on the island, the boardwalk to Tien Beach

This past weekend I took another trip to Koh Larn, the beloved island of Pattaya. In November and December I spent most weekends relaxing on the beaches of this island, but haven't had any time to go back since 2016 started. Unfortunately it was a rather breezy day, which brought all sorts of stinging critters close to the beach, so I didn't spend too much in the water. Nonetheless, it's always nice to relax on the sand while drinking a smoothie with some friends. The island is a great weekend getaway for us when we're not trying to spend a lot of money. If we don't go crazy on food or alcohol the whole day could cost as little as $3-4. But of course I can't help myself from splurging on some ice cream or a fresh smoothie.



I recently realized that I'm not taking advantage of all of the amazing things Thailand has to offer, specifically cheap massages and fresh fruit. I've vowed to change that and have started branching out with my fruit options each evening. I usually stick to watermelon because it's the cheapest (and still delicious!) costing me about 40 cents for one serving, but I started mixing it up these past few weeks. I've learned that Thailand has at least four different types of mangoes, possibly more, and they all taste very different. There's the sweet yellow mango which is served as dessert with sticky rice, and then there are three others that are much more bitter. Recently a smaller mango appeared at the market so I gave it a shot with very disappointing results. It was like eating a lemon coated in sour flavor; it was just way too bitter! Our fruit lady didn't seem too surprised when we didn't want to order it again the next day. I've also been eating a lot of jackfruit and dragonfruit, neither of which I had previously tasted before Thailand. I'm quickly expanding my list of fruits tasted, next up is more massages!

Bananas, jackfruit and dragonfrui

An extremely bitter mango

Em's hospital bed in the overflowing waiting room

This past week Emiliya and I had to accomplish something we were definitely hoping to avoid while living in Thailand: a trip to the hospital. Emiliya had been sick all weekend with sharp pains in her side which we were hoping would heal itself on it's own, but eventually it became too serious to ignore. On Monday Em had plans to go to the clinic while I went to school, I showed up in the morning and informed some of the teachers that Em wasn't coming that day because she was sick, and they immediately sent me home to take care of her. I was really grateful that they did that because I was definitely worried about her getting around town by herself while she wasn't feeling well. The teachers were all really great about it, telling me to take the whole day off and make sure she gets better. We headed to a nearby clinic, not really sure what we were getting ourselves into. We had previously been told that the clinics are a great resource whenever we're sick or need some general first aid, but we weren't sure if they could handle something as obscure as Em's problems. We showed up to a clinic full of sniffling but generally healthy people and we realized that we were probably out of luck. The doctor spoke with Em for a few minutes and concluded that she was suffering from some sort of small intestine problem, and he urged us to head to the nearest ER. Fortunately he wrote us a note in Thai to give to the hospital, because we struggled at first with finding someone who spoke English. We've concluded that most nurses and general staff only speak Thai, but it appears that all doctors speak English. It turned into a long and confusing day which included nurses taking pictures with us (everyone is always so excited to see white people), waiting five hours before speaking to a doctor, and even then we really didn't get much more information. He told her she would be getting an IV of antibiotics and would also receive a prescription to take home. Grateful that we were actually getting some medical attention we just rolled with the punches and followed the staff around as they found Em a bed. It appears that we were in some sort of area for outpatient and simple procedures, because there were only a few exam rooms but no patient rooms. While Em was hooked up to the IV she was simply up against the wall in the waiting room.

I was pretty annoyed with waiting five hours, but I later told some of the teachers about it and they said that sounded normal, so apparently that's just how they do things in Thailand. Besides that the medical attention was decent and I think everyone did the best they could despite the language barrier. One really bizarre thing was when it came to actually getting the IV, apparently in Thailand you pay for your medical expenses beforehand. Once they told us she would be getting an IV they sent us to a cashier window where we had to pay for the meds and supplies, which they then physically handed to us and we had to transport back to the nurses. I'm curious what would happen if someone didn't have enough money, would they still be helped, or just sent back to the streets? Thailand's reputation of being cheap spreads to the hospitals, Em paid about $22 for antibiotics, saline, a needle, alcohol wipes and all other materials needed for the day. She can then submit her receipt to our insurance company and will probably get reimbursed for all of it. Once she handed over the cash they presented her with a bag full of all the necessary medicine and supplies. It was a strange procedure but also interesting to observe. 

Minus that one little hiccup, life has been going on as normal. The students start testing this week, but if I've understood correctly they still have to come to school for another week after testing has finished. It sounds like Em and I might be going on a field trip with the older kids next week to an area near Bangkok, and then at some point there will be a small graduation ceremony for the oldest kids who will be leaving school this month. It's crazy how quickly this term flew by, it feels like just yesterday was Christmas. I think I previously mentioned how my sense of time is off because of the weather, and I really do consider that a huge factor in why it feels this semester passed so quickly. Because there are no seasons I've found it really hard to process the concept of passing time, it just always feels like August. When I try to think back about something that happened all I can think is "well it was warm then, and it's warm now, so it hasn't been too long since New Years". To me that's a valid reason, who knows if there's actually any validity towards that. Either way, I have four months of teaching under my belt and I've learned so much since I began teaching in November.
Although it definitely got easier and more enjoyable as the term went on I've decided that I will not be staying for another term. As long as I'm abroad and working in a public school there isn't much potential for me to become more adapted. Unless I start studying intensive Thai, I will always be the quiet girl in the corner and I hate being that person. I constantly depend on Thai people for everything, both inside and outside of school. Papue is always talking to our landlady for us and the teachers at school are my translator whenever I need to tell the director something. I can't help kids when they're crying or trying to explain something to me. I can't even properly explain stuff myself, instead I live a life of miming and drawing out what I want. There are countless activities, lessons and games that I've tried with my students that have ended in failure because they simply couldn't understand what the heck I was attempting to do. I've helped them with their vocabulary and their pronunciation and I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to influence these kids, but I feel that there has to be something bigger for me in the world. I feel like no one at school truly knows me, I'm constantly slowing my speech and picking shorter words which will make me more understandable. I'm ready to go back to a job and life where I'm not constantly editing my speech. I think for now I've ruled out teaching English in public schools, but I am still very open to the idea of teaching in an international school where English is a primary language. I would love the opportunity to work around kids from all over the world and be joined by staff who are fluent in English. The future is a mystery! For now I will be teaching through March, followed by a month or two of traveling Asia, after that I will be returning to Ohio until the next opportunity arises.