Blahhhhhhhhhh

Alright friends, I know I haven't updated in awhile.  That's because I'm kind of sort of stuck in Bangkok.  The deal is that they tell you your placement, but they also tell you that something could go wrong at the last minute and they have to change where you're going.  For that reason, they're making us stay in Bangkok until they get final confirmation to us.  Which could be as late as the 15th.  Which means that every single person will be flat freaking broke by the time we start teaching.  So I'm not really sure when I'm going back to Chumphon and steady internet access.

On the upside, I've met loads of really cool people from around the world, and some of them are headed to Chumphon with me.  So laters, I'll write again when I'm back in the jungle!

Bangkoking Away

When I said seven stories, I wasn't kidding.  I made it through about four floors before I got bored.  I thought I'd finally found an exit, but instead it just led me into a five story mall.  Finally found the exit from that and got swept into a four story mall.  Turned out it was a good thing, though.  Because that four story mall had the aquarium in the basement.  Score!

It was expensive, about 30$ American, but I got to do a couple extra things other than looking at fish.  We'll get to that later.  A lot of the fish and stuff were native to Thailand or Asia.  I'm kind of disappointed.  I was really hoping for a "boring fish of America!" section.  Anyway, here are fish pictures

Wait, what's this?  One of the things I paid for was a glass bottom boat tour of the shark tank?  Awesome!  Why don't they do this in the Newport Aquarium?  Oh right, because it is dangerous as shit and this sort of dangerous thing is only acceptable in Asia.  Inside the shark tank they had a small plastic bubble with a baby doll in it.  The workers said it was so the sharks would be trained to eat children that fell out of the boat.  I am not making any of this up.

I also got a behind the scenes tour, which I was asked not to take pictures of, and this

This is a fish spa, and Thailand is crazy for them.  The little fish are doctor fish and they nibble at the dead skin on your feet, something like a more ticklish exfoliation.  It doesn't hurt, but there are times that you can feel them nibbling.  Weirdest feeling in the world.  Some people claim it tickles, but even with how ticklish I am, I just thought it felt weird.  And my feet felt all gritty when I got out.  It wasn't till later in the evening I realized that actually, the grittiness vanished and my feet feel like I just got a pedicure.  Seriously.  The little guys even trimmed my cuticles for me.

And this wasn't something special, just one of the exhibits, but it's really cool

You can't see it in the photos, but those brown things are real bamboo shark eggs, backlit so you can see the shark inside.  And it was moving.  How weird,  The little thing in the tube is a just hatched bamboo shark.  It was adorable.

Well, that's all for this time, I'm off to the school for my Thai Culture Classes.  That's gonna consume my days from 7:30am to 6pm for the next five days, so I'll report back then.  Maybe I'll even know what school I'll be placed at and *gasp* get an apartment of my own.  Golly it sure will be nice to be paying rent again.

Back in Bangkok

Staying at the same hotel I stayed at when I first landed, actually.  After grabbing the night bus here, I'm not really any better off than I was when I first arrived in Thailand.  Sleep-wise, that is.

I know I need to get work shoes while I'm here, with luck, I'll be able to hit the aquarium too.  But still, first stop, seven story mall, MBK!

Malaysia and Songkran

Let's see, how do I put this.  Malaysia was not fun.  Granted, it allowed me to eat real curry and some lemon chicken (it's shockingly rare that I see chinese food other than sweet and sour chicken and fried rice here), but yeah.  It was really not fun.  The beer was really freaking expensive, and this right here

tasted really bad.  Really.  I'm not sure if it was because I was so hot and the beer is so heavy, but it didn't taste right and made me feel a little ill.  Anywho, here are the rest of the Malaysia pictures.

Not really sure what this building is, I just happened to see the doors and snapped a couple pictures.

The outside of a Buddhist temple.  I really loved the stone dragon columns.  It was really nice to see all the Chinese artwork again.  Thailand, as it turns out, is one of, if not the, only countries to have never been colonized.  So it's culture is really all its own.  Other countries, you can usually see influences of the culture that took em.  Whatever, on to more fun stuff!

Ahhh, Songkran.  I'll warn you all right now, I plan to celebrate this holiday every year for the rest of my life.  Fair warning.  It lasts for three days, most shops are closed (except stuff like 7-11 and the mall) and stepping outside of your house has dangers.  The holiday is officially the Thai new year and this is the day when people would wash the statues of Buddha in their homes or in the temples.  It was customary to collect the water that came off of the statue and pour cups of it down the back of your elders as a blessing.  And monks would rub chalk on people's faces as a blessing.  As holidays tend to do, it's changed a little over the years.  It's now a 3 day long water fight.  Traffic is a madhouse, as the streets are crammed full of pickup trucks, all full of barrels of water and people with bowls and pitchers.  There are squirt guns everywhere, people mix chalk with water and gleefully rub it all over the faces of passerbys.  Kat and I opted to park her scooter at the lot, a short walk from town, and before we'd even made it there, a truck in front of us tossed water all over us.  By the time we got to town, we were already soaked, and stayed that way until getting back to her place at about 5.  Everyone is drinking beer or whiskey straight from the bottle.  Excitingly, in the afternoon across the street, some random long haired Thai guy bolts down the street and around behind a building.  Followed by a cop covered in chalk with his gun out.  Yeeeah.  Even the cops get in on this holiday.  I'm figuring the guy was just a drunken ass, as the cops let him go after making sure he didn't have any weapons.  Yaaaaay.

Here are the pictures I took today.  There's a couple of me, but they're on Kat's camera, so it'll have to wait until she puts them on her computer.

Tomorrow, we're headed to the beach for day 2!  Joy told us that's the best party for Songkran.  Depending on the situation there, I may have pictures.  The only reason I could get away with it today was because when you're near the shops, people won't chuck water at you.  Well, most of the time.

Koh Tao and Other Random Pictures

I want to preface this by saying that Koh Tao was not in the best of shape.  Remember all that rain I complained about?  Well, it was over that island, too.  And it did a lot of damage.  Houses were washed away, streets were flooded, etc etc.  *Most* of this damage was gone by the time we got there, but the ocean was really murky and the main street in Sairee (the busy beach) was running water from end to end.  So yeah, I took some pictures, but I didn't go snorkling or stay on Sairee like I planned.

This was from the night before we left.  That is a dragonfruit.  You can buy them at Jungle Jim's for a very high price, but I recommend doing so at least once.  They're so yummy.  Kind of kiwi-esque.  The come in white and purple, it's impossible to tell which from the outside.

Dinner at Akki and E's bar by the train station.  Believe it or not, this is the Thai version of curry.  Oh Indian food, how I miss thee.

To get to the catamaran that takes you to Koh Tao, you have to walk down this really really long rickety pier.  Those white spots are all Jellyfish.  Swarms of Jellyfish as far as the eye could see.  Well, I know where I'm not going swimming anytime soon.

The view from our table at lunch.  You dock on Mae Haad, and we both ended up staying on that side, because of the aforementioned water.  Mae Haad is a lot quieter, with less shopping.

This is a Mr. J sign.  Stuff like this is all over.  Mr J has a lot of big ideas about things like reincarnation and homosexuality.  And they're all on signs all over the island.

The outside of the bungalow I stayed at.  The inside wasn't much to write home about.  And truthfully, as soon as night fell, the bullfrogs made it pretty unpleasant there.  Loud little bastards.

Sunset views from Kat's bungalow.  I didn't stay at those because, well, I wanted a bathroom in my room.  The thing with Asia is that a lot of it is like camping.

 Giant gecko.  These things sound like freaking goats when they chirp.  No lie.

Breakfast my last day on Koh Tao.  Eggs Benedict.  Yummy, even though the heat made me feel like I wanted to die after I ate half of it.

Chilled coconut.  They pull it out of a cooler, chop the top off and stick a straw in it.  I've been told the little coconuts are better, but street vendors aren't selling those, at least not that I've seen.

Tiny geckos at Kat's place.  These guys chirp too, but not as loudly.  Supposedly if you hear a gecko chirp as you're leaving the house, you're supposed to wait until it's done to leave, because they're warning you of danger.  Thai people are very superstitious. 

Random shirt I bought on the street last night.  Engrish, ftw.