Food Cravings

Yes, Thai food is wonderful. Yes, we enjoy it every day without getting tired of our options too often. However, we've been keeping a list of the American foods that we're pining for since we arrived, and we figured, since we're half way through our trip, that we'd share it with you. If you're a 23-year-old abroad for six months, these are the things you miss the most:

February:
Veggie bagel sandwiches (K)
Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies (K)
Bison burger and French fries (D)
Deluxe nachos (D)
Thin Mint Blizzard (D)
Chocolate chunk brownies (K)
Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich (D)

March:
Umpqua dairy ice cream (K&D)
Safeway chocolate chunk cookies (D)
Orange juice (K)
Plums (K)
Cool Ranch Doritos (D)
Bagels and cream cheese (K)
Sour cream (K)
Lucky Charms (D)
Red Robin Salmon burger (D)

April:
Cupcakes (K)
Hot dogs (D)
Dip 'n Dots (D)
Mountain Dew slushy (D)
Tuna (melt) sandwich (K)
Cheddar cheese (K)
Mu shu pork (K)
Crispix (K)
Butterfinger Blizzard (K)
Perogies (K)
Apples (D)
Protein smoothies (D)
Guava & Mango shaved ice (D)

May:
Eggnog with nutmeg (D)
Applesauce (K)
Cherry coconut donut (D)
Homemade almond chocolate chip ice cream (K)
Mashed Potatoes (K)
Mexican food (K)
Blackberry Preserves (K)

So, please enjoy these tasty treats on our behalf, and appreciate the foods you take for granted! Meanwhile, we're having all your favorite Thai dishes for about $1 apiece and not cooking or doing dishes, so really, we don't have it that bad ;)

I'll never eat Corn Flakes or toast again once I'm back. For sure!

Bond, James Bond

Monday, May 3, we took a holiday for "International Labor Day." We set off in the morning following a car crammed full of friends from Bangsak church and headed to Phangnga Bay, where the legendary James Bond Island is situated. We split the cost of a big boat, as there were 14 of us, and for just under $5 a person, we made a very inexpensive day of it!

This island was featured in Roger Moore's 1974 movie, "The Man with the Golden Gun," which is unfortunate, because he's NOBODY'S favorite Bond, or even a second favorite. I'm a fan of Knick-Knack, though, who was featured in the film. Despite Connery's absence, if you're ever in the mood to put up with sub-par acting to view this ancient beauty on the big screen, then it's worth a watch. Check out the video clip below...



We sped along the water front and enjoyed the stunning natural rocks jetting from the water. The sun was hot, but we had a little roof on the multicolored wooden boat, and there were puffy white clouds above. We stopped at an island that our friends insisted was NOT James Bond Island, but was called "Ko Tapu" which means "nail" as it sticks straight out of the water. There was a National Park fee, but only if you were white, so we decided to stick it to the man and wandered onto the beach without being stopped. I don't feel sorry for it, if you're curious. We took some pictures on the beach and swam in the bay.

We wandered back to find caves (we could hear bats inside but it smelled like a sewer, so we didn't venture further) and a slanted wall of rock that must have been 80 feet high. There were booths selling massive shells, the likes of which I've only ever seen on my dad's bookshelf - a huge conch he bought in Hawaii. Momentarily I considered buying one, but Derek was concerned as to the method used to collect them, and the women were grabby and pushy. I ripped my hand away and sharply responded in Thai (I don't know much, but I know enough). Nobody pulls me anywhere, and immediately they lost a chance at my money. Of course, I also gave up the chance to buy one of these incredible shells. We saw post cards and gifts that said "James Bond Island" on them, but when we asked the Thais we were with, they denied that this was the island. James Bond was somewhere else, apparently. Once we got back home, we looked it up, and our pictures matched every advertised version identically...we were on James Bond Island. We're sure.

We stopped at another island for lunch where we took pictures of the basketball-sized jelly fish that were in the bay. These were visible from the boat even at high speeds. There's nothing in the picture to give you a size comparison, so just know that I'm not exaggerating when I say it was as big as a basketball. And basketballs are not small.

On our way back to shore, we slowed near a cave where ancient writing could be seen. Pictures drawn 2,000 years ago on the rocks could be viewed today. Naturally they weren't crystal clear, but they were a very cool part of Thai history that we felt blessed to witness.

Chasing Aquariums: Our Day in Phuket

Life is continuing on here as usual (teaching English and typing up annual reports), so we thought we'd write about a previous adventure. The week of Songkran, Kendra, Bailey, and I made the short trip down to Phuket for a day of adventure. The first stop? The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project.

The GRP is an initiative maintained by the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand. They receive, maintain, and rehabilitate Gibbons, in addition to slowly reintroducing them back into the wild when possible. I was as giddy as a schoolboy as we drove to the National Park wherein the whooping noises made by the territorial Gibbons could be heard from far away. After paying a pointless entry fee to the park, we made it to the GRP site.

Gibby, shown here in a thoughtful pose, was especially rambunctious 

After walking up some stone steps, visitors can see the phenomenally acrobatic gibbons swinging and leaping about their chain-link enclosures. A small shop with gibbon related items sits to one side, while the path among the enclosures leads off to the other. You first come across a long billboard with photos and back stories of the GRP's gibbons. Many of them have quite sad tales as to how they came to be at the center. A common practice is to take gibbons from the wild, often the babies from slain mothers, and maintain them for the purpose of taking pictures with tourists. One such gibbon was playing with the 'owner's ' daughter, when it mildly bit her. The man beat the gibbon so furiously that she had to have a hand and foot amputated (a terrible blow for such an active animal), and was given up to a collector. The ignorant collector, however, just threw her in with a cage of other gibbons, and since the others were quite territorial, she was attacked and lost all but two fingers on the remaining hand. She was apparently in the most pitiful condition of any they'd received, but she's paired up with a male right now and was able to swing about her cage with her "good" hand.

The separation between the path and the enclosures, combined with a request to not use a flash, made it difficult to take photos but we got excellent video of the little guys pulling of moves that even an under-aged Chinese Olympic gymnast couldn't touch. After speaking with two volunteers in the shop, we headed up a 300m path into the park to check out a waterfall.

We made it up the picturesque jungle hike to reach a shallow creek with a sandy bottom fed by a 50 foot waterfall (though it was reduced to a near trickle). Locals swam about and even dove off the cliffs into the narrow pool of water, but Bailey and I were content to simply swim at the base and climb up beneath the falls. Kendra and I then had an impromptu photo shoot.

Refreshed from our time at the waterfall, we made the hike back down and set about driving into Phuket Town. On the way, we spotted a local market and were able to grab a simple chicken and rice dish for lunch, adding some delicious sauces to the mix to spice things up a bit.

One of the vendors at the market

We then undertook one of the greatest quests since Lewis and Clark explored the American West- we tried to find the Phuket Aquarium.

That damn Aquarium. It was so far south of Phuket Town it might as well have been the Malaysian Aquarium. Knowing they closed at 4:30, we raced through the city, following directions locals gave us as the website directions are a very descriptive, "go South." As the clock ticked closer to 4:30, the excitement reached fever pitch as we grew nearer to our elusive goal. Finally we reached it!

But they were closed. After such great lengths to find it, the moment was highly anti-climactic. We immediately pronounced it 'lame, anyway' and, upon driving back to Phuket, decided to journey off the beaten path to a nearby beach. This would be a wonderfully relaxing stop, as the shallow water of the sandy beach cooled our hatred of the Aquarium, while two retrievers owned by a beach-side bar owner taught us how to love again.

Hungry tummies soon led us to seek fulfillment and an evening's entertainment at Phuket's mall, where cheap eating and good times are easy to come by. It was a wonderful day experiencing some of what Phuket has to offer (other than speedo-clad tourists), and we certainly rested well that night.

Three Girls find Thailand in Washington

This is a quick shout out to Mrs. Weyhrauch's reading group! Katie, Sarah and Chloe, we're so happy to hear that you're interested in learning more about Thailand. We really appreciate that the country is getting some exposure "in our honor" with these three girls and wanted to say "sawadee" (hello) from your friends in southern Thailand, Derek and Kendra. Keep learning!

Rambutan

To play video, hit the pause button and allow to buffer for a few minutes before playing to avoid pauses.

White Water Rafting? That's a Stretch!

The next morning, I awoke to find Bailey ready to take pictures of the gigantic spider that was mounted just across from the bathroom door. The horrifying thing was that I had passed very near it several times in the dark and had no idea it was there. It was about 6 inches across and had a green body and orange fangs. I have not yet identified what type of spider this is, despite my efforts, but I was told by our guide that it was poisonous. Ya think?!

We were ready to head out, but before we did, the guy who owned the shack we stayed in went ahead of us with a machete. Non told us that we were going to walk through the lair of a king cobra they had seen before, so the other guy would go in front of us just in case. Great. I'm sure if someone were attacked by a king cobra out here it wouldn't even make the news. Worse than that, they decided to inform us when we were entering the area so I was nice and panicked...they couldn't have just let us pass through and told us later that, clearly, we had nothing to worry about.

We walked until we reached a clearing, and to my surprise, a truck was waiting there to pick us up. We got in the back and as we rode (it was unbelievably bumpy), we determined that we must be going to the white water rafting. We backed down a hill and left our things in the car, including our shoes. We were given life jackets (somehow I managed to put mine on inside-out, to the elation of the guides, who had a good laugh over it) and helmets and went down to the water. I left my camera for fear of getting it wet, but I would soon learn that the danger of that happening was extremely minor.

We were held up by every boulder we hit. The water was low, and we were backed up behind five or six other rafts, packed full of 'farangs' on treks that ended here as well. Because they were heavier, they would get hung up on everything, and since the water was hardly flowing fast enough to push us along, we'd get stuck behind them, and just wait. While we would wait in line, hung up on the boulders, we were learning Australian slang and having fun calling the Brits in the other rafts names. We heard only two commands from the raft's "captain" - forward, and stop. He would get quite frustrated with us if we didn't mind his commands, as we were too busy chatting to be much concerned with them. Either way, regardless of his direction, we'd always end up hung up on a raft, having to jump up and down and move side to side to get over it. During the ride, Bailey and I decided that we had reached the point where the magical nature of this trip was fast disappearing, and all we could think about was lunch. At one point, we stopped near a shore and a family of Thais got in the boat. I was shocked, confused at how they were all to fit in with their baskets and bags, and upset that we had no idea why these people were boarding, or how far they would go with us. We ferried them to the other side, and the ones who couldn't fit in just walked. I don't know why they needed to be carried such a short distance, especially because the water was hardly 2 feet deep. Ah, Thailand.

Not long after this, the raft pulled to the middle of the river and parked itself on a sand spit, which had risen from the lacking water. He told us to give him all our jackets and helmets and to get on to a bamboo raft. I had been quite thrilled about this part of the trip and was looking forward to floating down the river with only a long bamboo pole to steer us, but was surprised at the transition. An older Thai man, who accompanied us on our raft ride, kept splashing us. We were very hungry, and he was giggly, like the Mad Hatter (long-term exposure to mercury). We were SO done, but it wasn't over. He tried to pull me in, and I yelled at him in Thai. He just giggled. A girl from a nearby raft motioned for me to stick his head under water, as he was swimming next to us...I seriously considered it. Then, the need to take him out was gone, as the Aussie flew off the raft and took him out, wrestling him under water. He kicked us off after that.

We didn't feel too bad at the loss, and finally got lunch! We changed and headed back to town in the back of a truck (called a "Song Tao" meaning "two rows") and suddenly, before we knew it, we were back in Chiang Mai, standing on the sidewalk. We took a bus that night back to Bangkok, and spent the day with the Quinleys, then left that night after an unbelievable dinner for another all-night bus. I didn't sleep at all, and when we finally walked in the door the next morning at 7 am, we felt ill-equipped to begin our classes for the day...but was it worth it? Oh yeah!

Star of my own Shaving Commercial

On the second day of my journey, we woke up for breakfast and met earnest questions of whether we had slept well. I chose not to answer. I just ate my toast and quietly mourned the sleep that could have been mine had I not been in a mountain-top village with noisy poultry.

We started off, and after gaining rest from hiking, I felt a great sense of accomplishment at having done what I wouldn't have thought my body was capable of the day before. I reveled in the unique situation I was experiencing, visiting a village such an uncomfortable jaunt away, high in the mountains of Thailand, where so many will never go. I can do this! I can hike a bit today. We were told that, although today's hike would be twice as long as before, it was much easier - mostly down and horizontal, with a little uphill. As we started, we would stop to look at the water reserves or the lychee trees. Some kids were picking lychees and gave us each one. This fruit is not found in America but is quite popular in Asia, especially in India. It has a rough, red exterior but it's thin and easily peeled off. The fruit is white and translucent, and quite sweet. The brown, glossy nut in the middle is poisonous, so you eat the fruit from around it and spit out the nut (why would you want to eat the nut anyway?!). It's like a grape, but not as moist.

To my great dismay, the first part of our trek was all uphill, just as steep and just as hot before. I was ready to quit almost right away and had immediate flash-backs of the painful day before. My muscles reminded me of what they had done, and what they were unwilling to do again so soon. Thankfully, for me, Bailey was struggling today alongside me more often, so I didn't feel so far behind. Then, it really did even out, and to bring our spirits up, our guide's friend "Ping Pong" made us bamboo walking sticks and fern crowns. We learned how to say "I am the princess of the forest" in Thai (wish I could remember now) and marched in high spirits through the woods. We came across a termite mound, about 4 feet tall, where a pile of leaves were held on top by a big rock. We learned from our superstitious guides that hikers believe they will be spared from danger if they add leaves to the pile, so we put two leaves each on top of the already fairly substantial pile.

Bailey and I got to talking and most of the morning went almost without notice as we focused on our footing. At one point, we hiked along a ridge the width of our feet, and we held on to a pipe running along the hill parallel to us. We headed down a very steep hill and ended our morning hike at another village for lunch. While we waited, we taught Thai phrases to two other hikers waiting for food too, so we taught them to say "kiss" (jupe) and "honey" (tirak), which they playfully shouted at us as we ran into one another along the same trail throughout the day. The women and children were sitting below a house that was built up on stilts, pounding away at twigs that they had collected and bagged from the woods. Their hands were dyed red. I asked what they were doing, and I was amazed when I heard that they were busy knocking bug dung off of twigs to sell in the market for a mere 75 cents a kilo. It's used as a sealant because it's sticky.

We changed into our suits and gave our princess ferns to two girls in the town, then headed off for a nearby waterfall. Walking out of the village, I complemented a man on his hat, and immediately he took it off and offered it to me. I insisted that he keep it, amazed at the response to my complement, though I'm not sure why I was surprised. People will offer you the shirt off their backs if they think you would want it.

The waterfall was very beautiful, and I got in. It was cold, which was so nice after the hot hike. It was dark and I couldn't see the bottom, which is one of my weird fears. A little boy from the village swam naked with us - he wasn't more than 4, and enjoyed sliding over the algae-covered boulders and splashing us. We walked a little further to the next waterfall where we ran into other hikers, and where we were asked to 'shower.' After the others left to make camp farther down hill, I got out my shampoo and our shared soap and  cleaned up in the waterfall (clarification - still in my bathing suit). The Aussie shaved his face in the water and complained that the razor wasn't dull enough, and that his wife usually used it a few times before he did to take the 'edge' off. He asked me if I would be so kind as to dull it up for him. I objected pretty strongly, as a razor is a very personal item, and told him how gross it would be to have to use it after I was done, as my legs hadn't been shaved for at least two weeks. But, he was insistent, so I shaved my legs on a rock in the waterfall, feeling quite a bit like a Skintimate model on a commercial shoot. One of our guides gawked at the process, having never witnessed a girl shaving her legs :) He said that Thai women have very little body hair, so many of them never shave at all.

We were very reluctant to leave the quiet waterfall - it was perfection, with a sandy, shallow bottom, and cool but not frigid water. We had a great dinner and sat by our fire, singing loudly the American songs we could (sort of) remember the lyrics to. That night, we slept very soundly as there were no roosters in this part of the jungle, and their squawking was replaced with the sound of water running over the rocks to the valley below.