http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqMq82S7OVQ
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
My new fav song!
So apparently all of my Thai Students LOVE Korean music and this is their favorite song! Its kind of catchy. I actually kind of like it and oh yes have memorized the dance!! All of the girls at camp know it and they taught me!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
BKK and Beyond
I arrived back in BKK on Thursday after a long 3 days at summer camp with 90 9th graders. It was a lot of fun, but completely exhausting! I got to be the MC of the camp so that means they basically just handed me a microphone and told me to speak English. The camp was in Prachuap Khiri Khan, a beautiful beach about 3 hours outside of BKK, but nothing can compare to Ton Sai....sigh. I already want to go back :(
Friday morning I had an interesting adventure. My insurance card was mailed to me via priority mail, but since I was out of town I had to go pick it up at the post office. The slip for the package was entirely in Thai so I asked the front desk for directions and started out on foot. After about a mile down the road I decided to grab a cab. Naturally I showed the cab driver the slip because it was in Thai and he was Thai. Well I think he just wanted to play a mean trick on me because he brought me to a post office alright, but not the one that was mapped out on the slip with my package. After about 15 mins inside I had to grab another cab back in the direction I was walking to the actual post office with my package. The entire process took about 2 hours of my morning. It was the first time not speaking the language has really been an issue. After the post office adventure I bought equipment needed to hand wash some of my clothes at my apartment since I don't have a washing machine and they charge by the piece around here. That was an experince, but not quite as painful as I thought it would be to handwash some of my clothes.
Jenny and I decided to take our first weekend trip together out of the city to Kanchanaburi. There are a couple of different ways to get there (bus, train, mini van) we decided on the mini van option because we heard it was the fastest. We took a cab from Jennys work to Kha San Road (backpackers area of BKK) and had to walk a good bit to get to the hostel with the travel agent, but of course during our walk it started monsooning! We managed to stop at subway on the way and get turkey sandwiches. Side note you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find turkey here. They have every type of ham you can think of in the stores, but NO turkey so you can only imagine our excitment. Anyways, once we arrived we had to wait an hour for the next mini van to leave, and then when we thought we were finally on our way they took us to another stop where we waited for an hour for them to fill up the van. Jenn and I were the only foreigners in the van, and I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that spoke English. The entire adventure took about 6 hours.
We had a great time in Kanchanaburi. It was awesome to get away from the crazyness in BKK. We met up with one of my friends from the summer camps, Scott, and one of his friends from Ton Sai, Amy. They are both from Canada. The first day we went to the Erawan National Park about an hour outside of the town. This park is known for it's 7 tier waterfall. We hiked up to the first 5, but had to stop there because the top two were closed. The 5th tier had these awesome rock waterslides so we stopped there for a bit and swam. The slides reminded me of the ones we went to in VA except there were monkeys climbing in the trees here.On Sunday Jenny and I went to the Death Railway Museum. It's a museum that's dedicated to the Thailand-Burma railway that was built during WWII by Asian laborers and POW. The Japanese built it because they wanted to extend their reach west and conquer India, but in order to do so they needed an alterative supply route to the sea. Overall it was a really good museum. It gave us a lot of really good information about the history surrounding the railway. After the museum we took an hour truck ride to the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno (Tiger Temple). This place was just plain crazy! We lined up and guides took each of us around to about 8 different tigers. We took pictures touching either their paws, backs, or tails. After the photo session we went behind a waist high fence and watched the tigers "play" in the pool and on the rocks. We were literally only a few feet away from the loose tigers and the guides were only using sticks to keep them away! It was really crazy how close we were able to get to these animals. It's hard to believe, but apparently they aren't drugged they are just naturally that calm.
We decided to take the bus back to BKK. It was a lot cheaper and actually nicer than the mini van. I arrived yesterday at the 2nd camp. This camp is about 2 hours outside of BKK in Cha Am just north of the last camp location. It's with the same school in BKK, but with 178 7th and 8th graders.
Now that Jenn has Internet in her studio we will be posting blogs a little more frequently.
Xoxo,
Nichole and Jenny
Friday morning I had an interesting adventure. My insurance card was mailed to me via priority mail, but since I was out of town I had to go pick it up at the post office. The slip for the package was entirely in Thai so I asked the front desk for directions and started out on foot. After about a mile down the road I decided to grab a cab. Naturally I showed the cab driver the slip because it was in Thai and he was Thai. Well I think he just wanted to play a mean trick on me because he brought me to a post office alright, but not the one that was mapped out on the slip with my package. After about 15 mins inside I had to grab another cab back in the direction I was walking to the actual post office with my package. The entire process took about 2 hours of my morning. It was the first time not speaking the language has really been an issue. After the post office adventure I bought equipment needed to hand wash some of my clothes at my apartment since I don't have a washing machine and they charge by the piece around here. That was an experince, but not quite as painful as I thought it would be to handwash some of my clothes.
Jenny and I decided to take our first weekend trip together out of the city to Kanchanaburi. There are a couple of different ways to get there (bus, train, mini van) we decided on the mini van option because we heard it was the fastest. We took a cab from Jennys work to Kha San Road (backpackers area of BKK) and had to walk a good bit to get to the hostel with the travel agent, but of course during our walk it started monsooning! We managed to stop at subway on the way and get turkey sandwiches. Side note you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find turkey here. They have every type of ham you can think of in the stores, but NO turkey so you can only imagine our excitment. Anyways, once we arrived we had to wait an hour for the next mini van to leave, and then when we thought we were finally on our way they took us to another stop where we waited for an hour for them to fill up the van. Jenn and I were the only foreigners in the van, and I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that spoke English. The entire adventure took about 6 hours.
We had a great time in Kanchanaburi. It was awesome to get away from the crazyness in BKK. We met up with one of my friends from the summer camps, Scott, and one of his friends from Ton Sai, Amy. They are both from Canada. The first day we went to the Erawan National Park about an hour outside of the town. This park is known for it's 7 tier waterfall. We hiked up to the first 5, but had to stop there because the top two were closed. The 5th tier had these awesome rock waterslides so we stopped there for a bit and swam. The slides reminded me of the ones we went to in VA except there were monkeys climbing in the trees here.On Sunday Jenny and I went to the Death Railway Museum. It's a museum that's dedicated to the Thailand-Burma railway that was built during WWII by Asian laborers and POW. The Japanese built it because they wanted to extend their reach west and conquer India, but in order to do so they needed an alterative supply route to the sea. Overall it was a really good museum. It gave us a lot of really good information about the history surrounding the railway. After the museum we took an hour truck ride to the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno (Tiger Temple). This place was just plain crazy! We lined up and guides took each of us around to about 8 different tigers. We took pictures touching either their paws, backs, or tails. After the photo session we went behind a waist high fence and watched the tigers "play" in the pool and on the rocks. We were literally only a few feet away from the loose tigers and the guides were only using sticks to keep them away! It was really crazy how close we were able to get to these animals. It's hard to believe, but apparently they aren't drugged they are just naturally that calm.
We decided to take the bus back to BKK. It was a lot cheaper and actually nicer than the mini van. I arrived yesterday at the 2nd camp. This camp is about 2 hours outside of BKK in Cha Am just north of the last camp location. It's with the same school in BKK, but with 178 7th and 8th graders.
Now that Jenn has Internet in her studio we will be posting blogs a little more frequently.
Xoxo,
Nichole and Jenny
Friday, September 18, 2009
Somebody pinch me!
This place is absolutely beautiful!! Since I don't start work till the 22nd. I decided to head down south for a bit. I ended up in this amazing little town called Ton Sai. It is completely cut off from the main land. You have to take a boat to get to it because there are no roads that leads over the mountains. It is amazing...we are staying in this bungalow in the jungle for about 250 baht (8 dollars) a night. Its about a 5 min walk to the beach and it includes electricity from 6pm to 6am, bathroom (western style), and a cute porch. Today we rented a kayak and paddled all around to a few of the beaches and islands. We went to Railay West and walked to Railay East. We saw a ton of wild monkeys. Two of them climed on me to get a banana...crazy experience!! Sadly I did not have my camera for any of it because we were on the kayak! Next time I come down here I will def bring a waterproof camera. Tomorrow I either plan on island hoping in the area or going rock climbing. This is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to do it! Don't worry I will post lots of pics soon!
xoxo,
Nichole
xoxo,
Nichole
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Apartment found and job accepted!
Jenny and I finally found an apartment after 3 days of door to door apartment hunting. We literally got off the BTS (Skytrain) at the On Nut Station and just walked into every apartment or condo we could find for 3 days. We decided to go with this brand new condo complex about a 5 min walk from the On Nut station. We each have our own studio apartment in the complex. We moved out of the hotel and into the studios yesterday. It was hilarious watching the hotel staff trying to pack our luggage (6 suitcases) into the taxi. Hopefully we will post some pics of the studios soon. They are both super cute with balconies and mini kitchens. There is a McDonalds, KFC, and 2 huge shopping centers similar to walmart all within walking distance! Plus a ton of cheap cheap massage places! 100 baht for an hour.
Since I don't officially start work till Oct 26th I got a job at a summer camp. This camp takes groups of students from schools in Bangkok on three day trips to a few different beaches, and national parks around Thailand. One of the camps even goes to Chiang Mai. I plan on working at 6 of these camps starting September 22nd. I am excited about getting to see other parts of Thailand while getting paid! Between now and Sept 22nd...I am heading down south to Krabi. It looks amazing and is supposed to be one of the best places to go rock climbing in the world. I haven't decided if I am going to try it or not, but either way I will be posting lots of pics!
Jenny will be heading down on Friday to meet up with us in Krabi for the weekend. This week is her first week of work. She seems to be really enjoying it. Her students sound adorable!! Hopefully she will post more later for you all to read about!
xoxo,
Nichole
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Truck Bar on the side of the road
Joe took us to this truck that sets up shop on the side of the street as a bar. It was blaring 70s music and had a disco strobe light going. It was hilarious... apparently they are all over Bangkok.
Canal houses
This is what almost all the houses looked like along the canal. Very sad, but the people we passed were all so lively and happy.
Gorgeous Building right next to the slums
This was taken during our canal boat tour along the main river. Notice all the slums on the right of this beautiful building.
Friday, September 11, 2009
First couple of days in Bangkok….
Day 1
Jenn and I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday September 8th, 2009. We went straight to our hotel and hit the streets in search of food. Our first meal consisted of vegetable noodle soup and two drinks each. The entire total for both of our meals combined was 100 baht (3 US dollars) and the best part is the food was really good! After that we took our first venture on the Sky train down to the US Embassy only to find out it was closed for the day. The sky train is one of the nicest modes of public transportation I’ve ever seen. There are flat screens on the platforms and inside the fully air-conditioned trains. The screens play commercials and let you know what stop is coming up next. After our failed attempt of going to the US Embassy we decided it was time for a Thai massage. We ended up getting hour foot massages for about 6 US dollars. They were AMAZING!!!
Day 2
We went to one of many crazy shopping malls and got our Thai cell phones. After that we went down to the river and took a private canal tour. The river was insane because there really is no concept of bad block good block here. There could be a gorgeous 50-story building and right next to it is slums on the river (see pics). We passed a gator and snake farm, a HUGE Buda statue, tons of houses on the water, and a lot of the really nice hotels like the Peninsula. Everyone here is so nice and just smiles and waves all the time. We get a lot of stares being two blondes, but not in a creepy way. It’s more of a curious friendly way.
That night we met up with a friend who lives in and out of Bangkok. He took us out to dinner and then out on the town for a great night!
Day 3
We got a late start thanks to our friend from the night before…. We went and found Jenn’s school. It is in a GREAT location right next to this HUGE shopping mall with everything and anything your could want. The malls here have amazing international food courts where you literally can get food from any part of the word. I think we wondered around it for 30 minutes just looking at all the options until we finally decided on pizza and salad. That night we met up with our friend Joe again at this 5 star hotels wine tasting event. There were a lot of other Expats that live in Bangkok at this event. We met a few new friends J. Then we headed to another part of town to meet up with our friend Travis who has been living in Bangkok for the last 15 months teaching English. He is moving back to the states until January and then he is coming back to Bangkok. We went out “Thai Style” which basically means you sit outside and eat and drink beer (with ice b/c its so hot) while listening to a Thai singer. It was really chill, but a lot of fun! We got to meet a lot of Travis friends from work that are from Scotland, Australia, England, and the states.
Day 4
We both had to be up early to go to our schools. I had an interview for a 7th , 8th, and 9th grade math teaching position at a Christian School and Jenn had to go meet her students and check out her preschool it’s a very poshy school, 12 students, a teaching aide and even an au pair in the classroom, the students are 4-5 years old and their parents are high society business people from all over the world. After our interviews we went apartment hunting and shopping. I think we might have found a place, but we have to call today to negotiate the price. These really cute 2 bedrooms right next to the Sky train and a HUGE shopping area complete with a KFC and McDonalds J. After finding a few places we explored the area and did some shopping. The shopping here is INSANE!! Everything is so cheap and sooo cute!! We both got a couple of things and spent less than 30 US dollars. I think Jenn spent less than 15 on 3 shirts and 2 dresses.
We went out with one of our friends Christy’s brother’s friends named Pom, who is a Bangkok native. She has lived all over the world and is going to be a great friend here! She took us to this restaurant called Jim Thompson, who is a famous American who disappeared in Malaysia? He made Thai silk famous.
Day 5
Colie had an interview today and got the job for a summer camp like position! Yay! The rest of the day we are going to go to this floating market and hopefully get our apartment situation figured out. We will keep you all posted.
Overall Bangkok is a great place and we LOVE it!! Come visit, you won’t regret it, this is an amazing city and we can’t wait to share more with everyone!!
Sincerely,
Bangkok Blondes, Nichole and Jenn
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