one year in one post...
Ok ok... so it's been a while. As most of you know, I'm heading to Korea at the end of July. I figured I should probably have some closure on my last year in Thailand before starting round 2 of international teaching. So I'm going to listen to the advice of my mother..."Crys, if you wrote less you might actually get through everything." So I'm going to attempt this lack of detail thing. We will see how that goes!Last time I wrote, Jess was just finishing her stay in Thailand, and Jenn and Amy had just begun... it was wonderful having so many visitors but definitely hectic. And like any good thai vacation we started with a massive ASB trip to Ko Samet. And there is really nothing else I can say about that island... it's amazing. I went about 6 or 7 more times throughout the year, and it was equally awesome every time.
School was school... my new batch of kiddies were amazing. I had 10 kids, with a surprisingly ethnic mix for ASB. They were rowdy, and creative and brilliant... just the way I like it. So all in all it was a great year teaching wise, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to throw them out of the window by the time May rolled around.
Meet the Grade Ones!
Meet the Grade Ones!
So Mom made her 2nd visit to Thailand... and have no fear, I put her straight to work. She spent the whole time in the classroom pretty much doing my job... it was fantastic! I swear, she said she liked it. I gave her a short little trip to Ko Samet. She liked it, except the hotel we stayed at was a little bit noisy for her 8pm bedtime!
Our sailboat ride in Boracay
The beautiful beaches of Boracay!
Ok, the rest of the term was pretty uninteresting. A few more trips to Samet and I finally made it to Krabi... which was as beautiful as everybody claimed it to be. The landscape was breathtaking and the water was that colour that is on the postcards. One day we went on a boat tour in one of those sketchy longtail boats and got stuck in a torrential downpour, and I swear I thought we were going to die... but luckily our trusty boatman got us safely to shore.
Christmas time!! Home for the holidays. Yi-pee! I actually got snow this year. Fun fun.
Back to school - again. Not to eventful. A few more beach trips... Tim and his girlfriend Liz came to visit... that was fun. Ummmm yeah... really life goes on... nothing to report...
Until MOM AND MIKE DO THAILAND! So mom came back for her 3rd visit, and this time she brought Mike with her. So obviously, I couldn't put her to work, so we headed down to Phuket for just less than a week. It was fun, the weather was great, Mike got super burned... his review of the beaches... well, they are no Bahamas... but they are pretty nice. So I happily accepted that endorsement.
Shortly after Mom and Mike left, Sonkran Holiday rolled around, and I finally went to Laos. Laos was as wonderful as everyone had hyped it up to be. However, we spent A LOT of time in buses. Jenny and Emily joined me on this particular adventure. We started out on a 12 hour bus ride to Vientiene, which is the capital city. It was pretty nice. It was very much influenced by French colonization, which I liked because we enjoyed many a baguette. After a few hours there we hopped on anther bus, for about four hours en route to Vang Vieng. This is a really cool hippy town with lots of fun eco things to do. We swam in caves, biked through villages, had water fights with Laos children and went tubing down a natural lazy river. Now, this isn't any ordinary lazy river... it is lined with bars and rope swings and zip lines. Loads of fun, and drunkeness (however, not from me!) The other cool thing about the time we went was that it was Laos New Year, and like Thailand they also have a water festival. So the streets were packed with people with super soakers, buckets of water and hoses. There was not a dry person out there. Best way to bring in the new year ever!
Best lazy river ever!
The next morning we got on another bus, for one of the rockiest rides of my life, but the view was amazing. We were heading to Luang Prabang, which is a really beautiful and unique city. We looked at temples, walked through the streets, ate more baguettes, climbed in more caves, climbed an outstanding waterfall. The strangest thing about Laos is that the town falls asleep at 10pm. Literally all shops and restaurants close up, and the once crowded streets actually have tumbleweeds rolling through them. Excepts for a few tuk tuks asking you if you'd like to go "bowling." Highly suspect, yes. But, how could we not check it out? And sure enough... there it was... a bowling alley packed with tourists. Quite random.
Our last spot on the tour was some islands in the south. They are a set of 4000 islands called Si Pan Don. They were really beautiful, and we stayed in this amazing raft house on the river. It was really chill. We rented bikes, and cruised around the islands. Downfall, it was darned hot... and the electricity only worked from 6-10pm. I thought, no electricty, no problem, I'm a camp girl. But, what my highly functioning brain did not realize was that no electricity meant no fan. It was pretty rough. We still had a blast, except for poor Jenny, who was super sick the whole time. My food poisoning held off until we got back to Bangkok, so it didn't ruin any vacation time!
After that, my time at ASB was practically over. I enjoyed my last little bit with my kiddies, started shipping boxes to Korea, and just started shutting down my thai life. Quite depressing... but man how two years fly! May managed to keep us super busy, Jenny had a bunch of visitors, and Stewart, my brother came to town! All in all I think Stew had a good trip. He had a great time doing Muay Thai and jungle treking in Chiang Mai. He had a fun time in Krabi, until his Dengue fever kicked in. He had a not so fun time during is stay in the hospital. But he made it through, and we still managed to squeeze in Hanoi and Halong Bay, in Vietnam. Hanoi was as crazy as the last time I was there. Halong Bay was as breathtaking as everyone said it was. I loved it!
Then Stewy went home, and I headed South to soak in the last of my Thai beaches. They treated me well.
Then I hopped in the plane, after having a baggage argument with the Thai Airways lady, and headed home.
So that is the end of the Thai chapter of my life. Can't believe it's been 2 years! Insanity. I couldn't have asked for a better place to start my international teaching adventure. I will miss it so much, but now (it's taken me almost 2 months to write this!) I am in Korea, and pumped about round 2!
Plus, I'm flying back to Thailand in a week!
Good bye all you loyal blog readers, who have stuck it out through my blog slacking. I'm gonna try to be better with my Korea blog - but I make no promises!
Love to all.
Shortly after Mom and Mike left, Sonkran Holiday rolled around, and I finally went to Laos. Laos was as wonderful as everyone had hyped it up to be. However, we spent A LOT of time in buses. Jenny and Emily joined me on this particular adventure. We started out on a 12 hour bus ride to Vientiene, which is the capital city. It was pretty nice. It was very much influenced by French colonization, which I liked because we enjoyed many a baguette. After a few hours there we hopped on anther bus, for about four hours en route to Vang Vieng. This is a really cool hippy town with lots of fun eco things to do. We swam in caves, biked through villages, had water fights with Laos children and went tubing down a natural lazy river. Now, this isn't any ordinary lazy river... it is lined with bars and rope swings and zip lines. Loads of fun, and drunkeness (however, not from me!) The other cool thing about the time we went was that it was Laos New Year, and like Thailand they also have a water festival. So the streets were packed with people with super soakers, buckets of water and hoses. There was not a dry person out there. Best way to bring in the new year ever!
Best lazy river ever!
The next morning we got on another bus, for one of the rockiest rides of my life, but the view was amazing. We were heading to Luang Prabang, which is a really beautiful and unique city. We looked at temples, walked through the streets, ate more baguettes, climbed in more caves, climbed an outstanding waterfall. The strangest thing about Laos is that the town falls asleep at 10pm. Literally all shops and restaurants close up, and the once crowded streets actually have tumbleweeds rolling through them. Excepts for a few tuk tuks asking you if you'd like to go "bowling." Highly suspect, yes. But, how could we not check it out? And sure enough... there it was... a bowling alley packed with tourists. Quite random.
Our last spot on the tour was some islands in the south. They are a set of 4000 islands called Si Pan Don. They were really beautiful, and we stayed in this amazing raft house on the river. It was really chill. We rented bikes, and cruised around the islands. Downfall, it was darned hot... and the electricity only worked from 6-10pm. I thought, no electricty, no problem, I'm a camp girl. But, what my highly functioning brain did not realize was that no electricity meant no fan. It was pretty rough. We still had a blast, except for poor Jenny, who was super sick the whole time. My food poisoning held off until we got back to Bangkok, so it didn't ruin any vacation time!
After that, my time at ASB was practically over. I enjoyed my last little bit with my kiddies, started shipping boxes to Korea, and just started shutting down my thai life. Quite depressing... but man how two years fly! May managed to keep us super busy, Jenny had a bunch of visitors, and Stewart, my brother came to town! All in all I think Stew had a good trip. He had a great time doing Muay Thai and jungle treking in Chiang Mai. He had a fun time in Krabi, until his Dengue fever kicked in. He had a not so fun time during is stay in the hospital. But he made it through, and we still managed to squeeze in Hanoi and Halong Bay, in Vietnam. Hanoi was as crazy as the last time I was there. Halong Bay was as breathtaking as everyone said it was. I loved it!
Then Stewy went home, and I headed South to soak in the last of my Thai beaches. They treated me well.
Then I hopped in the plane, after having a baggage argument with the Thai Airways lady, and headed home.
So that is the end of the Thai chapter of my life. Can't believe it's been 2 years! Insanity. I couldn't have asked for a better place to start my international teaching adventure. I will miss it so much, but now (it's taken me almost 2 months to write this!) I am in Korea, and pumped about round 2!
Plus, I'm flying back to Thailand in a week!
Good bye all you loyal blog readers, who have stuck it out through my blog slacking. I'm gonna try to be better with my Korea blog - but I make no promises!
Love to all.
posted by Crystal @ 7:02 AM
2 Comments:
Better late than never.
Love,
Daddy
I'm glad you take some of my advice. Love You,
Mom
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