Monday, January 18, 2010

Thailand

So, it's been a while since my last post, but this is mostly because I was out of the country for a while, then I was in the country but away from home, and finally because I had four hundred photos or so to sort through for the blog. (Be assured that you're getting the best of the best.)

Anyway, we are allowed to leave the country once during our grant period, for up to two weeks, so I went with some other teacher friends to Thailand and Cambodia.

Flew in to Bangkok, where we visited the Golden Buddha. Maybe it has a more official name, for all I know. "Wat" is Thai for temple, I believe, and so this was Something Wat, at least, but it's famous for a large golden reclining Buddha. When I say large I mean huge.


After Thailand, we took a taxi for 6 or 8 hours to an island called Koh Chang. It's the second biggest island in the country, apparently, and the name means "Elephant Island." We spent several days hanging out on the beach and enjoying the food (and getting massages).


Oh, and we also rode elephants. I mean, it's Elephant Island, after all.

That's me, Alexa, and Thom. Not pictured is Sarah, who has been there and done that (because she's cool and has been to Asia before). We hung out with the elephants in the water, and then we rode them around in the rainforest a bit before coming back and feeding them some bananas.

The food in Thailand was great, and while we were there we took a cooking class. We learned how to make red curry, pad thai, and spring rolls. Making the pad thai, I was like, "Oh, yeah, no big deal, just like we do at home."


After Koh Chang, my friends went off to Cambodia and I went up to visit my friend Mer in Chiang Mai (sorry you don't get a clever nickname, Mer). It was pretty great to be in a city with used bookstores and bagels and things like that. On Christmas Eve, I rented a bike and went to the zoo, which was fun. And then on Christmas Day Mer and I got massages and had a great, relaxing holiday.

After a couple of days I flew to Phnom Penh to meet up with my other friends, and we had a somber day of visiting some of the historic landmarks of the city (the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields). But from there we flew to Gili Trawangan, a small island off of Lombok, which is near Bali, and we were back to beaches and relaxation.

Stay tuned for part two, which will have more pictures of food.