Field Trip - Ayutthaya

Today I tagged along on the M2 field trip even though I don't teach this grade. All OEG teachers are allowed to go on ANY field trip no matter the grade because our coordinator would like us to see as much as Thailand as possible. 

Today was long but interesting! We left at about 6.30 AM and got back at about 7.20 PM. It was a lot of bus time but it was worth it because we got to see a place that was once the capital for over 400 years. It was the capital until it was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was already on my travel "to go" list so it worked out perfectly when the school asked if I wanted to join! Today we explored lots of ruins and visited some temples. We ended the day with a monk throwing holy water on us and watching the students and teachers donate money and pray with him. 

The girls with our "tour guide" - hopefully he
 told us the truth.

TRAVEL UPDATE - I am headed to help!

Travel UPDATE - 

From May 1st to May 22nd I will be working on Project Leyte helping rebuild in the Philippines!! I am pretty excited about this as the Philippines has always been somewhere that I have wanted to visit but I would never go there as a tourist when there is so much to be done! The Philippines is also a place that is very close to my families heart and I CANNOT wait to go help! 

As you MANY of you know I raised money for clean water in India last year... Just because! This year I would love it if you helped me raise money by donating to -

https://secure.commonground.convio.com/allhands/philippines/project.html?personalFundraisingProjectId=a0kG0000003PINYIA4

Please donate! 

I don't know...

But I do know that I will be returning to America on May 28th - who knows what I will do or where I will go from there though...

Because Thailand... Part 2.

Oh... the way the caption/name things!

At least he has a chair right? 

Spelling is not important here.

Started 2014 in #28!

Well I started 2014 in #28 and #47 booked for April... Vietnam also in April but I don't think that cave is in my budget.

52 Place to Go in 2014 - 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/10/travel/2014-places-to-go.html?_r=1

April just got real!

So today during some down time Nichole and I sat in the cafeteria and started BOOKING and PLANNING April. Everything  is booked (except flight to Vietnam and Vietnam travels) and all the dates are SET! I am super excited to travel during the month of April. We are headed up north first because it is too far to do the northern areas for us right now as a weekend trip, we will be in Chang Mai for the Thai NY celebrations and then we fly to Cambodia then Vietnam.

I also have applied to volunteer in rebuilding areas in the Philippines for the first three weeks of May - here is to hoping they get back to me soon so I can plan and budget that in to my travels!

Crazy to think that in just 2 and a bit months I will be living out of my backpack and traveling SE Asia!

I hate to be so far away but this helps!

It is Tuesday morning here in Thailand which means one thing... It is time for the big game - WDE! 

Do you feel sea sick? Hend videos underwater...

"NO PAD THAI... MAI PEN RAI!" - Koh Tao New Year Vacation!

Getting to Koh Tao was something I never want to do again. Traveling on the 1st is never a good idea but we had to move on an explore more of Thailand and to relax on some more beaches! So we suffered the trip and after a long bus and a very sea sickening (I won't share all those details) boat ride we made it to our hostel in Koh Tao.

Jan 2nd -

Our lazy day with lots of walking. We started the day with a great breakfast - we had the same thing every morning - and some research for the next few days. "Sairee" beach followed breakfast and I put that in quotes because we never actually made it to the beach in the pictures. After tanning we headed for massages and then we watched the sunset with a Chang. We ended our day with dinner across the road from our hostel, window shopping with plans to come back, turtle bracelets and elephant cuffs, and an early night. Oh and yes I SWEAR I was still rocking from the boat from the day before most of the day.

So delicious we had it 3 days in a row.

Didn't see one turtle!

Jan 3rd -

We waited around for our taxi guy but before he showed up we gave up waiting for him and talked a longtail boat guy into a good price to take us to Mango Bay for the day. A short ride away we got there and were so happy to find such a beautiful beach with NO ONE around. The poor taxi guy almost sunk his boat as he left us and as he finally starts to drive away (almost sinking) I yell MAI PEN RAI to him to get him to finally smile and all the other people who were helping on the beach start to laugh.

Hend and I settled in a sunny patch, and all of a sudden boats started coming in! Hend's face was priceless! We wanted the beach to ourselves but the snorkeling groups killed that buzz. Thankfully they didn't stay long, an hour or so maybe, and we had the beach back to ourselves - with a few others. Snorkeling was much better than Chicken Island despite our cheap masks which kept on losing their snorkels and filling up with water.

Even though I begged and complained of back pain Hend wouldn't let us get massages so instead we went shopping. We also had a very romantic meal at Whitening - Hend finally got her fish meal and it was delicious. A very popular place on Koh Tao... We had to make reservations!

Manog Bay

What you looking at?

Nerd!

A mermaid? 

So glad I didn't delete this photo.

Jan 4th -

So I managed to avoid Shark Bay and the lady at the hostel helped a lot when she said it's not great for snorkeling and you have to go at 4/5 pm for the sharks so we spent the day at another beautiful beach called Aow Leuk.

Aow Leuk is a private beach but don't be scared by the reviews! We saw no man with a machete but we were gone by five so that might have been why we got lucky. We spent the day soaking up the sun one last time and snorkeling on either side of the bay. It was a little choppy so the visibility wasn't as good as Mango Bay but we did manage to get some good photos... oh and Hend worked on her underwater video skills.

Jan 5th -

A sad day. A long day. The lady didn't have any spring rolls for our journey (we were regulars over our stay) but we got a yummy Thai omelette instead. The line for the ferry check in was insane. Hend grabbed us some sea sick pills which we probably didn't even need because the waves were nothing like the journey to Koh Tao while I waited in the heat to check us in. Thank goodness I was wearing my new flowy dress because I would have over heated in my pants! We spent the day traveling. A boat then a very long bus ride to Bangkok where we said our SAD goodbyes. Once in Bangkok I had to catch a taxi back to Amata because I had missed the bus back due to traffic.

My holiday was AMAZING and it just made me want to travel more! It also made me want to live on an island and have no worries but I'm back in Amata now and ready to teach! I only have 2 full months of teaching left. It is crazy how fast time is going!

Some snorkeling fun at Chicken Island.