Frodo Baggins is the Capital of New Zealand

The past three weeks, we've done a lot of traveling. I would say we've had about 7 days of actual teaching in the past 3 weeks. Our first little trip was for New Years to Chiang Mai. Margo's sister Mariana and her two friends Bri and Andrew arrived on the 29th. They came to our classes to observe us teaching. After school we left for Chiang Mai, where we met up with Margo's friend Mike who teaches in the south. New Year's Eve day those of us who had never done any of the sight-seeing in Chiang Mai (basically everyone except Margo & Apple) went to a mountain village, Doi Su Thep Wat, and a palace just outside Chiang Mai. For our New Years celebration, Margo, Apple, and some of her friends reserved us a table at a club called "The Monkey Club." To get a table, they had to get there at 5ish. We arrived at around 8 after polishing off a bottle of Sang Som (Thai rum) on the songthoew ride over. Not a very tasty choice. The rest of the night was spent dancing (even though Thai people don't normally dance) and drinking.
The 2nd, Ba Oy (Margo's aunt) who was visiting from Copenhagen came to pick us all up in a giant van. All of us except for Apple headed to Chiang Rai to stay with one of Ba Oy's friends. Their house was situated on a golf course outside of the city. Their house is beautiful. I didn't even feel like I was in Thailand. We arrived to have BBQ prepared for all of us and every meal we stuffed our faces because it was so delicious and there was more than we could possibly polish off. After being pampered until Sunday morning, we headed back to Lampang so Margo & I could get back in time for teaching on Monday. On the ride back, Atlas at hand Margo tried quizzing on the capitals of the world. None of us were very good at it expect Ba Oy who works for UNICEF so knew almost all (if not all) of the ones we asked her. When Margo asked "What is the capital of New Zealand?" Andrew answered "Frodo Baggins" (Thus the name of this post.)
4 days of teaching followed before more traveling begain. Friday, I had to head to Chiang Mai to extend my visa and catch my flights to Phuket. I spent 3 hours at immigration to find out that I had to make it to the Labor Office in Lampang by Monday morning. After freaking out for a few minutes thinking I wouldn't be able to make the trip down south, but I called my consultant who called the Labor Office to let them know I would be there Thursday. Margo, who left after her classes, and I barely made it to the airport in time to check-in, but fortunately we made it! After a short flight to Bangkok and then another to Phuket, Ba Oy picked us up and drove us to Krabi where we were staying at a hotel that Ba Ahe (Margo's other aunt), the architect, designed. Saturday was full of island hopping, swimming, snorkeling, monkey watching, eating, boating, and tanning (or burning if you are Bri.) The water is amazing and the white sand so soft I just wanted to roll in it. This is a picture of Maya Beach on Phi Phi Island...This is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed.


After a long day on the motor boat island hopping, we were all so sore from the waves that continually compressed our spines (or as Margo described "Made our stomachs reach our throats"). Sunday we did a little more island visiting. We stopped at two small islands, which during low tide are connected by a sand bar. That afternoon, we headed to a famous wat where we climbed 1,237 steps to reach. Parts of the climb were almost completely vertical and a bit unnerving on the way down (especially for those with a fear of falling, like myself). I am still a tiny bit sore from the climb and its been quite a few days!

Monday we headed to Phuket, where we stayed at a resort for free (thanks to Ba Oy who knows the owner), and spent more time on the beach. Tuesday was about the same, until our delightful vacation came to an end when Margo & I had to fly back. We actually missed Monday and Tuesday of school, but had to be back Wednesday for a festival at our school. In order to save money, we decided to take a bus back from Bangkok. Little did we know it would take 3 hours to get from the airport to the bus station (due mostly to traffic), and the only bus left stopped outside Lampang, so we had to hope there would be a songtheow to take us back to school at 6am. Luckily there was. We had enough time for a short nap before waking up for school.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip, I just wish I could have stayed in paradise a bit longer.


The green marks are where we were during the past 3 weeks...a lot of traveling