Christmas tree drinks & Barefoot Bowling

It’s been a bit since my last blog update…so here’s what I’ve been up to.
A few weeks ago we made it to Jae Sarn National park. From Lampang, it’s only accessible through private transportation, so we decided to motorbike it. So we (Margo, Apple, & I) set out on a drive to Tao’s house, which is on the way to the park. It took about an hour and a half in total, not including the time it took to pick up Tao & enjoy a meal while looking at family pictures. The ride was beautiful…once we got out of Lampang, there were just us, the roads, and the mountains around us. The sun warmed our backs so there was no need for long sleeves. We got to the park, which holds a few waterfalls, and a hot springs. After seeing the waterfalls in Thoen (especially the second one) this one wasn’t much to see. But we settled for a picnic at the hot springs complete with (almost) hard-boiled eggs that we cooked ourselves in the springs.
On the ride back, as the sun was setting, I knew I was in for trouble. When the sun hid behind the mountains that’s when it got bad. I had a long-sleeve shirt, but that wasn’t enough to keep the cold wind from penetrating my thin layers and jeans. By the time we got to Tao’s house my fingers were starting to swell from the cold, so Margo ended up driving my motorbike & I back while Apple drove Margo’s with Tao in tow. I spent most of the ride using my hands to cover my ears, which are particularly susceptible to the cold, and getting pelted by bugs. But after what seemed like forever, I started recognizing the scenery and made it back home safe, where I fell into my bed and slept like a baby.
The weekend after that we took our third trip to Apple’s house in Thoen: this time not for a visit to a waterfall, but to a cave. The cave was not quite like any of the caves I’ve been to. We climbed to the top of a set of stairs to the entrance, where Apple lit a candle and rang a bell to ask the spirits of the cave for their permission to enter. The cave was dimly lit; at times I thought we had come to a dead end only to see an arrow pointing our way down another dark alley or signaling us to crawl under a rock formation to another section of the cave. One dark park of the cave we heard some squeaking noises and when we looked up we could see the wall of the cave above us covered in hanging bats, which umm to say the least scared me a bit. The most memorable moment was when Margo literally jumped across the cave when she heard “a bat laughing in her ear” and I look over to see Apple and Margo hugging each other and cowering in fear. Behind where Margo had been standing was a stalactite in which a bat must have been sleeping and made a noise that Margo claimed was a laugh. We finally made it to an opening in the cave and climbed out and then to the top of the mountain. The whole cave exploration would have been a lot easier if we had sneakers on instead of flip-flops, but we managed.
I got home that evening and had a package…but I wasn’t sure from who. I knew my parents were sending one but that won’t be here until January at some point. So I was super surprised to see it was from Dawn. I ran up to my room and opened a package full of candy, cookies, and Christmas stuff. It was like Halloween and Christmas rolled into one. I had been craving chocolate cookies for the longest time so immediately went for those and brought them over to share with Margo and Apple. With the surplus of candy and a stocking I got in the package, I brought candy to my class that I was proctoring during midterms week. They were all very excited to try American candy, and I watched some of their faces of shock when they tried sweet-tarts and realized they weren’t that sweet after all. On Christmas Eve, I received another package from Alyse and Dan with more chocolate and goodies. It didn’t really feel like Christmas this year being away from home, but the cards and packages were a nice taste of home 
Christmas was an odd one this year. We were done with school around 12 since it was midterms the whole week. Margo & I celebrated by listening to Christmas music and drinking what my brother likes to call “Christmas tree drinks” (otherwise known as gin & tonics) and dancing around.
My favorite Christmas picture...


I went out to dinner with the rest of the Farangs to exchange our secret Santa gifts. The rest of the night included bare-foot bowling, beers, and pool.


Another Holiday away from home came and went…
Now, I’m looking forward to New Years in Chiang Mai! We got some visitors (Margo’s sister Mariana & friends) so it should be a good time!
Happy New Year to all!
This is me & some of my students!

The Adventures of Guava & Mango

This past week, Margo and I went on a little adventure. Friday we had off for the King's Birthday, Wednesday we had off for Constitution Day, and our school decided to close for those who weren't involved in an art competition. We went last Wednesday night to buy bus tickets to Bangkok on Thursday, but they were booked. Our options were to leave Friday or to leave Wednesday night. Not wanting to miss out on a valuable day of vacation, Margo and I decided to miss school to get to BKK earlier. So we took the overnight bus to BKK and got in around 5:30 am. We took a VIP bus, which includes snacks, drinks, head pillows, big seats, and blankets. The blankets were necessary only because they turned up the A/C past high, to artic. Even with jeans, a sweatshirt, socks, and a blanket, I was shivering and had the blanket covering my face. It seems to me that they could save quite a bit of money by turning down the A/C, which would then mean we wouldn't really need the blankets. Maybe that's just me.
We ended up walking around all day Thursday with our back packs; we went to a cafe in the morning (where I had some "wood flavored" coffee), the golden mountain wat, national library, and a palace. While wandering around the palace a guard said under his breath to Margo (in Thai), "you're cute." When we passed by again, Margo asked (in Thai) how to get to the entrance to the main palace. I wish I got the guard's face on camera when he realized she could speak Thai. I don't speak Thai or understand very well, but I understood that he was shocked and a bit embarrassed. But he went out of his way to walk with us to show us where we needed to go and even asked Margo for her phone number. Margo said she didn't have a phone (although it was sticking out of her pocket) and got his number instead. That evening we caught a showing of "Twilight" at Margo's request. I can't say it was a good movie, but it was entertaining for us to make fun of it.
We made it to Margo's Aunt's house that night and stayed there for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Friday we spent wandering around BKK. Did some shopping, spent 2 hours at a bookstore, and met up with one of Margo's friends from her TEFL course for dinner at the food court in the mall. The system for paying at the food court is so odd to me. You pay a certain amount of money to be exchanged into "Monopoly money" which you can pay the vendors with. After eating, you have to exchange the monopoly money back into real money. I guess its so the vendors don't have to worry about change?
Saturday, we rose at the crack of dawn to get to the floating market about an hour outside of the city. The markets used to be the way everything was exchanged. Most of the houses were built on the banks of rivers and canals, so small boats were the choice method of transportation and floating markets were the choice method of shopping. Now the floating markets are more of a tourist attraction. The only thing we actually bought there was coffee and food, but it was a fun experience.
Saturday night we went to a famous bar called "Saxophone" to see Margo's cousin P Noon play with her band Pure. The bar definitely caters to an older crowd- Margo and I were by far the youngest one in there. They played a wide range of covers- a lot of Queen, which was fun. Dad, if you ever come to Thailand, you would like this place.
Sunday Margo and I were headed to Ayuthaya. There we saw another palace and wat or 2, had lunch at a boat restaurant, and checked into our guest house that her aunt had recommended. In our travel book, it was described as a "romantic get-away" but I can't say it was very romantic. We were right on the river, well one of the rivers because Ayuthaya is actually an island. That night we went on an adventure to look at the wats (temples) that were lit up, walking around the city at night. It was neat to see the ancient ruins all lit up at night and saved us the walk in the heat of the day. Monday we headed to a "high-tec" museum and (one of my favorite parts of the trip) to see the elephants! I bought some bananas to feed to the elephants. They are such amazing creatures. We then splurged on a bumpy elephant ride around the ruins. We passed another elephant passenger who said "Its a guava and a mango!" (in Thai of course) about Margo and I. In Thai, the word for guava (farang) also means westerner. So I am the guava and Margo is the mango.
The baby elephant:


Our next stop was Lopburi, purely because I wanted to see monkeys! There were also ancient ruins there, but we felt no need to pay to get in since they were so small and mostly we just wanted to see the monkeys. We saw lots of monkeys! I got a couple videos as well. I accidentally caught monkey sex on tape; I was filming one of them walking and he just walked over to another monkey and well, started having his way. There were signs warning us that monkeys steal purses. The monkeys didn't really have any purses to steal from us; purses were something we both forgot to bring, so we carried around plastic bags with our stuff instead.
A monkey chowing down on a stolen banana:


After the monkeys, were were pretty wiped and ready to get back to Lampang- a day earlier than we had planned actually. We had to take a train to Pitsanuloke- which took 2 hours longer than the tickets said, and then a bus back to Lampang in time for bed.
In total we went to 3 palaces and 12 wats. The highlights of the trip- the elephants and monkeys :)
This is a map of Thailand with our travel route in red: