On the Friday before new years the kids had new years day activities. Basically every homeroom had a huge food party and all the kids ate ate ate. A lot of the kids brought food and ice cream into my and Rob's room to share with us. After a while we decided to go to some of the classrooms to see the parties they were having. The kids were in their highest spirits as they didn't have to wear uniforms to school and every classroom we walked by they mobbed us, jumped on our backs, and took us by the hands into their classrooms where they fed us lots of food. It was a nice day that I had to cut short, as the paperwork to get my appropriate visa was finally ready. I said goodbye to all the kids and headed to Bangkok to get my working visa. It all went smoothly and I was finally permitted to stay until the end of March.
The next day I woke up pretty early and went into Bangkok to meet up with Devon, Kate, and Devon's friend Loretta who was visiting from China. When I got to Bangkok I checked into Lub D for the night as we were staying in Bangkok for new years. It was weird being back in Lub D after being in Thailand for so long. After checking in I walked down to an Indian food restaurant where the three of them were having lunch. I introduced myself to Loretta, gave Kate a hug, and gave Devs a wave as I had just seen her a few days beforehand.
After lunch, we were all going to split up to take care of errands for a few hours. Devon wanted to go get some highlights put in her hair, Loretta was going to take a nap, and Kate was going to come with me to the bookstore in order to trade some books. Loretta decided against a nap so the three of us said goodbye Devon and headed to Dasa's, which is my favorite used bookstore in Bangkok.
After finishing there I hadn't ate so I decided to go to MBK to get some food, and to show the girls since they had yet to go there. Once on my way Devs called and asked where we were and I told her I'd give her one guess. She asked if we were at or on our way to the food court at MBK and I confirmed it. She said I was ridiculous and would meet us there shortly. Once Devon arrived she showed us her new hair that was a slightly blonder blonde.
Once we were done at MBK we decided to head back to Lub D and get ready for New Years. On the way back we bought some Sang Som "Thai Rum" and Coke to make drinks back at the hostel. When we arrived at the hostel we decided to have a few drinks first, and played a game. I don't remember the name of the game but it is a card game where first you have to pick the color of the card "red or black", then if the next card is higher or lower, and then if the next card is between the two numbers or outside of the two numbers. If you fail to guess right at any of these points you have to have a drink. We played this game for a while and then the girls decided to go change while I waited downstairs.
After the girls came back down we headed out to get a taxi. We met some backpackers outside who we talked to for a while, and I met a girl who had been to Otes Beach in Cambodia, where I got my worms. A taxi came so Devon hurried me to get in and off we went. We decided to go look for a Mexican food place that Devon had looked up online, so we asked the cab driver to take us there. Once we went a little ways the cab driver pulls over and tells us that the roads are all closed due to New Years so we would have to take the skytrain. We basically went no where travelling about one or two BTS stops down the road. At this point Devs was beginning to feel the drinks a bit so she took control of finding the BTS stop and asking motobike drivers to take us there. We decided against taking the motobike taxi as the BTS stop was only a short walk away. Once we got up to the platform to wait for the BTS, Devon was being quite entertaining as she was doing break dancing like moves on the platform. The skytrain came shortly after and we all hopped on the train. A few stops later we got off and walked around looking for the Mexican food place. We hadn't really considered the fact that it might be closed due to new years, but soon came to this conclusion when after searching the area for a while it was complete darkness.
We decided after this to hop back on the skytrain and head towards central plaza where the Thai version of the Times Square ball drops. Once we got off the BTS Devs was beginning to get anxious due to the fact her contacts weren't working and her eyesight was getting blurry. Kate was also quite hungry by this point in time, so we decided to go to the only open place McDonald's. It was quite packed inside and we all ordered our food and sat down. By this point in time Devon was feeling sick due to a little too much to drink and her contacts issue, so she laid down for most of our time in McDonald's. Loretta also discovered that during our last BTS ride someone had cut into her purse and stolen her wallet. The whole time we were in McD's, Devs was not feeling well and Loretta was calling her parents and different credit card companies to cancel different accounts. All of this together led us all to head back to the hostel a bit earlier than expected.
We got back about an hour before New Years, and they had a ton of free popcorn at the hostel so we all sat together and had some. Devon asked why no one was as drunk as her, and none of us could really say as we had all had about the same amount. For the next hour we all sat and talked, and for New Years walked outside to see if we could find any fireworks, which were hard to see due to the tall buildings. Afterwords everyone went to bed and Devon and I stayed up for a while talking in the bedroom.
The next day we said goodbye to Kate, and headed back down to Hua Hin to stay with my mom and Paul at the apartment they rented for the week. We headed over to Victory Monument and found a minibus to take us down to Hua Hin. The ride was pretty uneventful and we got there a lot quicker than the previous weekend when there was more traffic. We were quite hungry once we arrived so we decided to get some pizza and eat it on the curve while we waited for my mom and Paul to meet us. Once they arrived we headed to a farang grocery story and I was amazed at all of the foreign goods, such as goldfish and wheat bread! After that we headed back to the apartment and hung out there for the night. The next day it was a little overcast to head to the beach so instead we hung out by the pool all day. Everyone laid out and I also went swimming for a while. After having lunch by the pool and swimming we headed back to the apartment to go to downtown Hua Hin for dinner. One everyone was ready we went back to the Mexican food restaurant we had went to the weekend before. It was as good as I remember and I had some street tacos on corn tortillas yum. After that we walked around the night market for a while and bought a movie to watch when we got back.
Once we got home I put the movie in and switched it from Thai to English, but unfortunately it didn't work so we weren't able to watch The Help. Instead Devon, Loretta, and I watched the Pixar film Cars on the TV, which was worthwhile as Devon admitted it changed her opinion about animated films. After that we went to bed.
The next morning we all prepared to leave for Bangkok as we had to check out quite early. We all got into the minibus around 9:30 AM and left. Once we arrived in Bangkok we checked into the hotel we would be staying out for the night called the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, which is the tallest building in Thailand, and about the 30th or so tallest building in the world. Once we checked in we all went up to the top of the building to look at the skyline of Bangkok, and the building is quite a bit taller than the rest. After that we walked around for a while, and then said goodbye to Devon and Loretta, who had left their bags in the room, but were going to go shopping and then get there bags and head back to Devon's apartment. After we said goodbye I hailed a taxi, and my mom, Paul, and myself all headed towards my apartment. Once we arrived at the apartment I showed my mom and Paul where I live, I showed them the school I work at, and then took them to the park under the bridge I go to read at. After that I took them back to Bangkok by public transit so they could get a taste of how local Thai's transport themselves. They were able to ride on a Song Tao, a Public Bus, the Skytrain, and a riverboat, all firsts for them in Thailand. Once we got back to the hotel we decided to go get dinner at Cabbages and Condoms, which I think I have mentioned in a blog post a while ago. It is a restaurant that brings awareness to sexually transmitted diseases. After dinner we walked around for a while, and my mom found some lanterns she had been looking for the whole time she was in Thailand. After that we headed back to the hotel, and went to an even higher observation deck than before that was located above the top floor and was outdoors. It was quite beautiful to see all the different parts of Bangkok that I knew while being that high up at night.
Once we were finished there we headed back to the room, and I gave my mom a hug goodbye as they would be gone by the time I woke up in the morning. I took a nice hot shower, which flooded the bathroom due to a drainage issue, that caused a late night impromptu visit by housekeeping. After my shower I watched TV for a while and then went to bed. By the time I woke up everyone was gone, and I had to hurry to get dressed. Once dressed I grabbed a taxi back to my apartment and went to school. Since it was new years week school started on Wednesday making it a short week. During the week I bought a blender, and began making myself awesome vegetable and fruit smoothies, which usually taste amazing.
Even though it was a short week, and I had just saw Devon I decided to go visit her the next weekend. I had been suffering a lot of anxiety lately that I think was due to being holed up alone in my apartment. After work on Friday I went to Bangkok to grab a minibus to Krathumban where she lives. By the time I got there it was already dinner time, and she was having dinner with some local Thai friends, and one of our friends from the ATI course named Lindsey who I hadn't seen since the end of the course. The local Thai friends were opening up a new restaurant that weekend. I decided to eat with all of them, and I met some really amazing people, including some local rugby players at one of the universities in Bangkok. After dinner we had a beer with them, and then Devon and I took off to her apartment. The next day I woke up late, worked on my blog for a bit and paid my electricity bill at 7-11 while I was waiting for Devon to finish teaching (she has to teach every other Saturday to catch up due to all the schooling missed because of the floods).
Once she got home we went on a bike ride along a small river by her house, and I have to say it was one of the most relaxing things I have done in a while. It made me miss my bike more tremendously, and made me decide wherever I live next will not be without my bike. After the park we rode the bikes to a local market and bought some ingredients for dinner. Once we got back I had one of my first homemade meals in 7 months, as I don't really consider the smoothies I make to be a meal. It was grilled chicken with vegetables, yum yum. After that we watched the movie Meet Joe Black and went to bed.
The next day we went for one more bike ride to this massive temple that had a lot of ponds full of fish. The temple is on the main river and in Thailand they believe any fish that are near a river are good luck and hence cannot be eaten. This means that right outside of the Temple you can see giant catfish that people feed all day long, but never hunt. They are everywhere in the water and huge. There were also some cute turtles hanging out in one of the ponds.
After that we rode the bikes back and went to Big C, so Devs could buy some things she needed. We ran into Lindsey at the Big C and I gave her a hug goodbye as I would be leaving Krathumban soon. After that we went back to her apartment and dropped off her stuff. She walked me to the minibus stop and I hopped on to head back to my apartment, which I got too quickly, taking me about an hour.
That's where I will leave off for now.
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| Krathumban Temple |
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| Giant Catfish |
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