Hello!
Greetings from the beautiful island of Koh Tao, located in the South of Thailand. Before I start, I want to tell you that I am sitting across from a ladyboy who I gather (from my not well-disguised eavesdropping:)) is talking via skype to a foreign lover who has now returned home. I am glad that after almost 2 months, I am still continuing to learn about this very different culture.
Anyway, I believe I last left you in Kanchanaburi...
On our route South, we returned to Bangkok for less than 24 hours. I made sure to use my time there wisely, ordering a tailored three-piece suit that I hope will turn out well when I pick it up. Thailand is known for its tailors and my thinking is that if I have a great professional suit, I will get a great professional job. Let's hope :)
The next day, we left on a long journey south to Chumphon, a coastal city that is primarily visited by tourists on their way to the islands. We spent a few days there and while I thoroughly enjoyed taking multiple naps on the hammocks that lined the beach, the highlight for me was a visit we made to a boarding school for children with special needs. The children live there during the week and return home to their families on weekends. We arrived right at lunch time and served the food to the children who ranged in age from maybe 8-18. I was on fish duty and couldn't have been happier to pick up a fish and place it on the dish of each child . Only after all the students were served, they said a prayer together and sang a song for us. Then, they started eating (what restraint!). While the students ate, my friends and I decided to make donations to the school and I was thrilled when my friends chose me to present the envelope filled with money to the head of the school. I've been told by Tam, our guide, that for 1000 baht (about $30US) 100 kids can be fed for a week, so it was a huge honor to be able to present this money to the school, knowing that it could really help. I think it was especially touching because I know that John Muir (the school where I worked the last two years) is in dire financial trouble this year due to the budget crisis in California and though I can't help much there, here I was able to make a difference. The best part of the visit came as the kids were finishing their meals. I brought loads of stickers with me to Thailand and passed them out to my travel buddies. As the students were finishing up, we started giving the stickers to the kids, placing them on their faces, belts, pens, everywhere. And the kids were overjoyed. We took many pictures and after each picture the kids wanted to see how it turned out. I loved when I showed one child the picture I had taken and when he saw himself with stickers covering his face, he got so so so excited and started showing off to his friends. We only stayed at the school for about one hour, but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far because I felt I was really able to connect with a part of Thai life.
After a few days on Chumphon, we took a ferry to Koh Tao, or turtle island. The island is much less developed than the other islands that I have visited, which is nice in the sense that there are still many beaches and bays one can visit that are just that (beaches and not a shopping center). The island is very well-known for its diving spots and I have spent several days relaxing on beautiful beaches and snorkeling the days away. The diverse marine life is incredible to see and the fish seem to follow you and approach you, rather than swim away. It is so cool to see how the fish interact with each other and with the vegetation, to see the precise synchronized moves of the schools of fish, to notice the various patterns on fish that resemble land animals (I love the girrafe fish), and overall, to just enjoy the relaxing yet constantly moving life under the sea. In case any of you travel to Koh Tao soon, my favorite snorkel spots were Tanote Bay and Nang Yuan Island.
In addition to the amazing snorkeling, I tried scuba diving for the first time. It was an amazing experience to know that I was breathing under water. I sort of felt like I was breaking human barriers which felt empowering and exciting. I loved seeing the fishes and the underwater plant life, but I also really enjoyed (weird as it is) the bubbles. When I scuba dived above another scuba diver, the bubbles from their breathing came up to me and I was surrounded by loads of bubbles. I loved it :)
This island has also brought many adventures. On our second day, my friend Elise and I decided to volunteer teach at the local primary school. I had this great lesson plan prepared and have been lugging around paper, scissors, and watercolor paints this entire trip in preparation for this lesson. When we arrived, the Thai teacher who teaches English explained that she really wanted us to focus on phonics. It makes sense, because she can teach the students the colors, numbers, animals, or parts of the body (my glorious lesson). But what she cannot teach the students is how to pronounce the words correctly. Elise and I scrambled for the shortest thirty minutes ever to put together a lesson and I tried desperately to remember my RICA studyguide from my teaching classes. When we entered the hot classroom filled with about 15 second graders we went for it. I think most of the students now know how to correctly pronounce "Hello", "My name is _____", "How are you?", "I'm happy", "I'm sad". But it was very difficult to achieve this. I'm very glad I had stickers to use as a motivational tool :) I thought the adventure had ended once the lesson was over, but it turned out that this was just the beginnig of a crazy day. Elise and I went to a beautiful beach, where the water was clear aqua and shallow, so that you could lay in the water and sunbathe. We saw an island in the middle of the shallow water and being expert travellers, we thought it was a great spot to unload our bags and towels because we could keep an eye on our things. It was only about 45 minutes later when we looked at our bags and saw that the tides were rising and the island was quickly disappearing that we realized our mistake. oooops! Next, we decided to move on to Auk Lek Bay, another beach where the rest of our friends were. Our guides sent a motorcycle driver to pick us up to cheaply take us to the rest of the group. Unfortunately, the driver had no idea where Auk Lek Bay was. After asking to use my phone multiple times to get directions, he took us back to our guesthouse because he still didn't know where to go. There, we switched to a more powerful motorcycle. But it wasn't powerful enough, because as we were climbing one hill in particular, the bike started slowing. The driver, Elise, and I all leaned forward in an attempt to help the struggling bike, but before we had reached the top of the climb, the bike stopped and fell to one side. Elise and I got off the bike and walked the rest of the hill. It was then that a kind tourist eagerly informed us of the abnormally long snake that was slithering in the bushes beside us. I was completely freaked out and could not have jumped back on the motorcycle faster. About 1km later, the bike stopped again and the driver told us to get off. I was thoroughly confused and crossed my fingers that the driver was not going to leave us there because he had stopped at the entrance to the gun shooting range. I have seen kids as young as 10 driving motorcycles on Koh Tao, so I do not even want to know how young you can be to shoot a gun. It was certainly the last place I wanted to be dropped off at. A few moments later, the driver stopped another motorcycle driver to ask directions to Auk Lek Bay. Pheeeew! We weren't getting dropped off at the shooting range. We each then got on a bike and soon we were AGAIN told to get off the bikes. We saw a sign that read " Auk Lek Bay 2km" so we started walking down the incredibly slippery path, watching out of the corner of our eyes for long snakes, and inching along barefoot so not to slip and fall. When we finally arrived to the bay, our motorcyle driver was waiting for us laughing (he had ridden his bike the rest of the way). He still laughs every time I pass by him at our guesthouse :) Auk Lek Bay was beautiful, but I think enjoyed the adventurous journey even more than the time relaxing at the beautiful beach :)
I have decided to extend my trip for one week so I can visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I will take this journey with Elise, so I am sure there will be many more adventures to report. Until then....
BESOS!
