in the land of smiles.: public transportation.

So I’m finally all settled at my new school on the outskirts of Bangkok. We rearranged the room so its not so bad anymore and its starting to feel a bit like home. We had a long weekend, we didn’t have anything to do till Tuesday when the owner of the school got back. All the other girls were planning on traveling somewhere so I figured I would too! So I called my friend Chelsea who is in northeastern Thailand and decided to visit her for the weekend! Another girl that I met at orientation, Jess, also lives in khon kaen and teaches with Chelsea so it was a bonus that I would be able to see both of them! Chelsea lives in a town called khon kaen, which is about a 6 hour bus ride from Bangkok. I decided to be brave and figure out how to get there on my own. So on Friday morning my roommate Bradley and I headed into Bangkok. She was meeting some friends in the city so we decided to go together and get a cab to our first stop. So our first task was to get a taxi to take us from our school to the sky train. That was a pretty easy process. Next was figuring out the skytrain. Again, this was pretty easy, its really similar to the tube in London and I’ve had experience with that so it was just a matter of figuring out which line to get on and where to get off and where to switch lines, etc. So Bradley left me at a stop in the middle of Bangkok, so I had to ride the train to the end of the line where it would put me closest to the northern bus station. Even though the skytrain puts you somewhere close to the bus station, its still quite a ways, so once I got off the skytrain I had to get a motorcycle taxi to take me to the bus station. Let me just tell you now……motorcycle taxis are my new love. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the feeling of riding on the back of a motorcycle in Bangkok during rush hour. Weaving in and our of cars…going sooooo much faster than we should be going….letting go of the drivers shoulders of the driver and just sitting freely on the back of the motorcycle is such a rush. I’m just in love with it and its just never going to get old to me. Sadly, the journey to the bus station ended waaaaay too soon and I was at the bus station. The northern line bus station is the largest of all the stations in Bangkok and it was confusing. None of the signs were in English and I had no idea where to go to get a ticket to khon kaen. Fortunately some random thai man came up to me and asked me where I was going (obviously by the look on my face he could tell I was completely lost) I told him my destination and he just grabbed my hand and said “follow me. I show you where to go”. So off we went. He led me from ticket window to ticket window helping me get a ticket for the next available bus. He led me straight to where I should wait for my bus and was suuuuper helpful…..of course he wanted a tip for all his help. I knew it was too good to be true that he was just being a kind person to help me out so much, so I handed him a 20baht bill (about 70 cents).

Ok just a little side note right now….i’m out in the common room right now and its pouring rain and the most intense lightening/thunder storm is going on right now. The room is pretty much all windows and the room is illuminated every time the lightening flashes. Its just huge and crazy and scary and amazing.

Ok, so back to my adventure…..i got on the bus. So northeastern Thailand is having some of the worst flooding it has experienced in over 50 years….of course I didn’t find this out till after I was already on my way up that direction. So what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride turned into a 9 ½ hour bus ride. There were portions of the drive where the roads were just completely flooded. So I finally arrived in the city and had to call Chelsea to see where I should meet her. She was at a nearby restaurant with a group of English teachers from her school. So I hopped on the back of another motorcycle taxi and rode over to the restaurant to meet them.

The restaurant we went to had everything……and by everything I mean everything but thai food, which was a welcoming site after eating nothing but rice for almost 2 weeks. I ordered a garlic tomato pizza and let me tell you, I was in heaven. Don’t get me wrong, I love thai food, its great, but there are moments when all I really want is a huge burrito, a big pizza, or just an in n out burger. So this pizza hit the spot! After dinner we stayed in the downtown kohn kaen and went to a few of the bars and clubs there. It was fun to go out and see some of the nightlife. The only downside was that since I had met them straight off the bus, I still had my huge backpack with me! But the girls were super nice about it and we all took turns carrying it around to the different bars so it was fine! At the end of the night Chelsea, Jess and I took a tuk-tuk back to their apartment and passed out!

The next morning I woke up and got to check out what chelsea’s accommodations were like. I’m jealous. She has her own apartment which consists of a queen sized bed, a little table and chair, cable TV, a mini fridge, and her own bathroom. So envious….but sharing a room and a bathroom and not having a tv or fridge is just going to help me build character…right? Anyways…that day we decided to take full advantage of her cable tv and the one English channel that was on it. So we spent almost the entire day in bed watching law and order. It was amazing. When we finally did get out of bed….around 8pm, we went to the night market that was a few minutes down the road. I had the most amazing chicken and pineapple skewer and this sweet corn thing. It was like corn that was mixed with condensed milk and sugar. It was really good….very different to have corn made into a dessert, but I really liked it.

The next morning we woke up super early (aka 8am) so we could spend the whole day exploring khon kaen. We started the day at the Bung Kaen Nakhon lake. There was a decent sized market that surrounded part of the lake. You could follow a path around the entire lake so we started off the path just taking in our surroundings. About ½ around the lake we found this little woman who was renting out bikes. I didn’t think anything of it till I saw a bicycle built for 3!!!!! I was so stoked and had to ride it! So I forced jess and Chelsea to rent the bike with me (20 baht a person for an hour) and we were off to attempt to ride this rusty old beast. We tried and tried, but we just couldn’t get all 3 of us to successfully ride the bike. SO finally we had to settle for just 2 of us riding the bike at a time…one in the front seat, and one on the back seat leaving the middle seat open. Jess and I got pretty good at it and were flying down the path! It was a lot of fun, but it was soooo hot that after 5 minutes were dripping in sweat! So we returned the bike and headed for anywhere that had a/c……and so we ended up at the MALL! In khon kaen they have this HUGE mall! It was 5 stories tall and had tons of shops! So for the rest of the day we stayed in the nice, cool mall and just wandered around. To get home we used a new form of transportation…the songthawe. Its literally just a pick up truck that has two benches built into it that people sit and ride on. Its super cheap and a great way to get short distances for suuuper cheap (about 10baht).

I woke up early the next morning to head back to my little town. I took another sonthawe to the bus station, took the bus back to Bangkok (it only took 7 hours this time!), took a motorcycle bike to the sky train, and then a taxi back to my dorm! I know it may seem silly to say, but when I was finally back in my dorm room, I was really proud of myself. For anyone that knows me, I am HORRIBLE with directions and trying to find my way around new places. But I was able to do this all on my own! Well almost all on my own….i wasn’t sure what I was doing most of the time, so I would just walk up to people and ask if I was in the right place, or if I was on the right bus. I’m learning that its ok to ask for directions and its ok to look stupid and not know what you’re doing. People here are really happy to help you out and help you figure out where you need to go. So now, whenever I’m in doubt about where I’m going/what I should be doing I just stand with a confused look on my face…it’s the fastest way to get help here!

So now with my fun filled weekend behind me it was time to get down to business! This morning we met with the owner of the school. She wanted to meet and talk with us to figure out what grades she would want us to teach. So after a few minutes of talking with all of us she decided that Bradley (my roommate) and I would be teaching at the kindergarten school, while the other two girls would stay and teach at the primary/secondary school! The owner took Bradley and I to the kindergarten campus, which is about a 10 minute drive from the main campus. The school is so cute! Although they call it a kindergarten school, it is actually a pre-school/kindergarten school. The kids range from about 2 or 3 years old to 6 years old! So technically I guess I could be teaching pre-schoolers! I’ll find out tomorrow what age I’ll be teaching so I’m excited to find that out! For the rest of the week Bradley and I are going to be observing the other English teachers in the classroom and then next Monday we start teaching our own classes! I’m excited to finally start teaching and having something to do to fill my days!

So that’s all the excitement I’ve had so far this week!

Love you all!