Katie and Nicole . . .Thailand 2007/2008

Sawasdee Kah Friends and Family,

After almost a week of basking in the sun at Koh Chang we were ready to be on the move again and had plans to meet up with Nicole's aunt, Pi Tdoong Tding and her friend Pi Bui who live just outside of Bangkok in Nakhom Pathom. Transportation to make this happen went something like this: songtaew - ferry - songtaew - bus - taxi - taxi! (with one stop at Leung Sadit's, our homebase, in Bangkok). Hooooweee! - are we getting familiar with the public transportation system! After resting overnight in Bangkok, Nicole made plans with Pi Bui for us to meet up together in Nakhom Pathom. This wasn't necessarily an easy task. With Nicole's minimal Thai and Pi Bui's minimal English, we felt a bit sketchy that we were all on the same page. Thankfully, Nicole's mom is always willing to be an overseas translator so Nicole made a few calls to her and she called Pe Bui to confirm our plans. Whew!

After a few morning phone calls, Pi Bui found us waiting at a crocodile/elephant zoo (our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong spot) and took us back to her and Pi Tdoong Tding's lovely home. Pi Tdoong Tding, who is a very gregarious and cheery person, was cooking all kinds of food for us to eat. Unfortunately, we were already stuffed with pineapple and batangos (fried dough) and tried to politely decline the offer of more food. We sipped tea and coffee instead while we chatted with the sweet and kind Pi Bui. After a bit of chatting Pi Tdoong Tding entered from the kitchen with 2 plates served up for us, not quite heaping but a healthy serving size. Pi Bui informed us it was pork liver and rice. Already full and slightly squeamish, but not wanting to be rude we looked at each other and slowly started to work away at our plates full of liver. We each finished about half of our servings before we had to announce that we were too full to possibly eat another bite, but admitted to each later that as far as pork livers go, it WAS deliciously flavored, despite the odd new texture. Katie was quite impressed that Nicole didn't completely bury her liver pieces under the rice mound seeing that Nicole is very particular about food and had definitely never eaten liver. When in Thailand, do as the Thais do!

Next it was into the car for our drive to Cha-am Beach, a weekend getaway beach for Thai folks living in Bangkok and Nakhom Pathom. It seems that when Thai folks take us anywhere it always involves a couple random stop-offs here and there before actually heading to a destination. This trip proved the same. Our first stop was at a temple with a very beautiful, large Chedi (stupa) which we quickly gazed at from a distance and snapped a few photos before hopping back into the car. It wasn't until later that we realized this is actually the tallest Buddhist monument in the world (Pi Bui hadn't informed us of this) and a significant landmark during WWII. Our next stop was at a produce market where Pi Tung Ting bought us some Somm Oh. which is similar to a grapefruit but bigger and not quite as bitter. Delicious! Our last stop was at another temple, the site of one of Pi Tdoong Tding's building projects (she is an architect and builder). The engineer and other workers fawned over Nicole's luk-kreung "beauty" and farang status while Nicole asked a few curious questions about where the cement gets poured into the foundation etc. (she is now concerned with these things, after all her learning at PunPun Then it was off to Cha-Am!

We slept most of the way to the beach and were there before we knew it. It was apparent that we were close when Pi Tdoong Tding used her phone to call a restaurant and order some crab fried rice, which Nicole had mentioned in passing that she LOVED. From the car we could see that the beach was loaded with Thai people, particularly families and children. There where tons of large umbrellas crammed together where Thai folks were sitting in the shade relaxing, eating and drinking. The ocean was a bit rough but full of Thai kids and teenagers swimming fully clothed (modest types-they don't usually wear swimsuits here) and there were jet skis pulling large inflated rockets that sat about 10 wailing and giddy kids on them. There were only a few white folks (well, red actually) and they stuck out quite clearly in their skimpy swimwear and as the only sunbathers on the whole beach. We drove all the way along the beach until we came to our sweet hotel and restaurant. Our crab fried rice was waiting for us, but Pe Tdoong Tding and Pe Bui encouraged us to order more, along with their favorite picks. Our meal consisted of crab fried rice, a large plate of crabs, fried fish, curried crab, and a Thai omelet. Pi Tdoong Tding had also ordered beer for her and Katie and fancy coconut shakes for Pi Bui and Nicole. We stuffed ourselves senseless and Pi Tdoong Tding upheld the apparent Thai tradition of keeping your glass of alcohol full at all times. OH what hosts they were!! Pi Tdoong Tding amused herself by watching us struggle with our crabs, which we are not used to cracking and eating! Come on, we're from the United States, where meat comes in the form of a 'nugget' or a fish stick. We don't know how to eat fresh animals! Pi Tding assisted us with a lesson and then cracked many open for us, grinning wildly at her ability to free large pieces of the crab meat with little effort.

After lunch we rested a bit in the fancy beach-house that the Aunties got for us and then headed down to the water. It was full of tiny crabs and strange tubular sea-plants so we walked for a while trying to find a spot to swim that wouldn't be too funky on our feet. We took a short dip, but after Katie spotted a jelly fish swimming nearby (she had been warned by her mother to beware of jellyfish), we decided to explore the beach instead. We found a near by tide pool and waded around finding many interesting creatures. There were big and teeny hermit crabs living in various beautiful shells, and we spent some time fishing out pairs from the water and racing them. We also discovered beautiful blue star fish with many tiny wiggling feet on their undersides, live sand dollars, big crabs that moved to fast to catch, and jelly fish we steered clear of. Nicole was like a child squeaking at the sight of every new creature.

Cha-Am was wonderful. As usual, we were spoiled by Nicole's family and gave them many thanks. The Aunties stayed in another room for the first night and then left the next day, handing us loads of cash to pay for everything we needed until we left. So kind so kind. We had so much fun with them, especially during our second meal where Pi Dtoong Dting convinced the server to sell her beers wrapped in newspaper so that Katie could have some the next evening (it was election week-illegal to sell alcohol). Pi Dtoong Dting and Pi Bui are a lovely and complementary pair, and we only wish that we could communicate even more deeply with them!

The weekend was full of rest, sunshine and Fox News. We had a t.v. in our room and felt obligated to learn about what was happening in the U.S. primaries, but the only English news offering was from the detested Fox News, complete with the O'Reilly show. It was gross, but we felt slightly more informed about what was going on with Hillary and Barack! Even though our minds were churning with interesting political dramas, we still managed to have a very peaceful visit to Cha-Am.

More stories soon! We miss all your beautiful faces and will be home in less than a month!
Nicole and Katie

P.S. Don't forget to check our picture gallery and old blogs for new photos.

Hello again from Koh Chang after a long day out at sea. Tomorrow we will leave the island and head back to Bangkok. So as a farewell how 'bout a few highlights of our time here . . .

1. Crystal blue ocean, white sandy beaches . . . swimming . . . sunbathing

2. Nicole ordering a whisky coke at one of the bars and receiving a bucket (literally a bucket with a handle and everything- the only thing missing was the shovel) full of whisky coke with 6 straws in it. Good thing she was thirsty! Apparently glasses are a waste of time. Ha.

3. Watching a night time fire dancing performance on the beach.

4. Watching the Simpsons at an outdoor bar while eating French fries and tuna sandwiches.

5. Nicole randomly singing some tunes at an open mic while the Thai folks praised her and announced that she sounded like Norah Jones and Pink put together.

6. Renting air mattresses and floating in the ocean for hours.

7. Snorkeling . . . clear water, dancing fish, stunning coral.

8. Applying greasy sunscreen all day and Aloe Vera at night.

9. Pina Colada . . . Mai Tai . . . Daquiri (fru-fru tropical drinks).

10. Wandering the pier at Bang Bao (the fishing village) and eating the most DELICIOUS food -- crab fried rice and Pad See Ewe with Shrimp . . . . mmmm seafood

peace, katie

p.s. 11. Seeing 4 monkies randomly hanging out in the road.

I LOVE snorkeling! I should probably write "Hello, how are you all?" or something first, but I just can't. I am too overly excited about snorkeling! I am tempted to write a lengthy essay about the joys of my snorkeling experience today, but I will try to share more about our recent travel days than just that...BUT I LOVE snorkeling so I will start with that. The iridescent fish, the sea cucumbers far below me, all of the crazy living things that look like giant warpy brains of all colors, the silence of the underwater world, the meditative state I was in with all the deep breathing, the mystery and beauty that was unlocked for me just by putting on plastic goggles in the right spot on an ocean...WOW! I think I snorkeled once long ago, but obviously didn't appreciate what I was seeing if I hardly remember! Today, we decided to join a boat trip that was headed out for a 9-5ish day of snorkeling, swimming, boating and eating. We visited 4 islands (most appeared to be all and only rainforest) that were within an hour and a half range of the "big" island, Ko Chang. The trip was centered around snorkeling so every island stop we made (1 hour each) was in a fishy and corally spot. Katie was a bit reluctant when I first suggested the idea (she has snorkeled many times in Hawaii and maybe it seems like old hat to her , but I really wanted to find some other activity to do besides bake in the sun all day and add to Katie's lobster skin.

The weather has been wacky (a little rainy, cloudy on and off, and even a monsoon one night) so we were very lucky today we woke up early to check the status of the boat trip and it was YES, we're going! The weather was beautiful! I decided that I love to snorkel almost as much as singing, and a little more than floating on an air mattress in the ocean all day...which are the things we did yesterday!

If I would have written this yesterday, I would have started the blog with the sentence I LOVE AIR MATTRESSING! But ah, things change so quickly... We have been laying around in the sun for about 5 days now and were getting burnt and tired of eating farang food. The decision to rent the lime green floaties yesterday was a damn good one. Instead of laying on the beach, we laid in the water, lazily moving with the waves and blissing out... lovely and relaxing. At night we stumbled upon an open jam session type thing at a bar, and it took me awhile, but I got up the courage to ask about it and join in (I'm actually more shy than you think!). Apparently it was a good thing, 'cos the drunk Thai guy running it kept blathering into the mic about a beautiful luk-kreung farang (half Thai/foreigner) named Sangsuree who will be UP NEXT! He also proceeded to sing along with me as I sang the one Thai song I know. It was a grand 'ol time. It also added to the day that I got an oceanside Thai massage. They never seem to do it hard enough for me, but still it was amazing of course. I had a wonderful time chatting with the Thai masseuses and trying to practice a bit more Thai. Even though I LOVE spending every second together with Katie, (how can we not on a trip like this!) it is really nice for me to sometimes connect with Thai folks on my own, even if they're strangers and only for a moment. Awww, special.

We have had an interesting time here at Ko Chang. Of course it is stunningly beautiful and we feel privileged beyond belief to be here, but we're really quite disconnected from Thai culture. It is easy to get trapped in the culture bubble created here, which consists of eating cheeseburgers, getting bamboo tattoos, listening to reggae day and night, getting wasted frequently and laying topless on the beach (an extremely UN-Thai thing to do). From what I can see on the small island, the whole economy is built on serving foreigners... which is a bit grody and weird. Thais aren't the ones necessarily enjoying the beaches and owning all the new resorts. Ohhh globalization...where will you take us next? It is so funny (is that the word?) to often be the only person of color in the room at home (Oregon) and then travel to Thailand and have it be the same scenario! Ha! On the beach I stick out like a sore thumb 'cos I am so much browner than all the other (mostly) European farang. It is okay, but I'd like to get back into an environment with a few more Thai folks...and to be doing something where I feel a bit more productive!

What else?

We saw four adorable monkies while walking down the road here (no cars around). It started out that there was one monkey flinging itself around on a telephone pole, then another bopped into the street, then two more joined and they ran off after awhile. I loved it.

Every night weird things happen outside (or inside?) our hut. I don't know what. We have heard the funkiest animal noises (frogs or big lizards we think). One night I was sure "it" was inside so we got up and fumbled to find our flashlight. We couldn't find the source of the noise so I figure it must have been outside. Another night there was a loud, creepy buzzing noise, and I was sure a gecko was being sizzled by our porch light. When I opened the door, there was no gecko corpse to speak of, so again... it remains a mystery. Also, we had crazy, heavy rain one night (after sunbathing all day?). It was intense and exciting to hear it beating down on our thin roof...too bad the nearby 2 AM rasta music was competing with it!

Amazing butterflies...they look like a hybrid butterfly/hummingbird.

Discovering Oregon-ish things here: The Simpons playing every night at a local bar (dvd after dvd!) / We bought a Pink Martini CD here, which was one of a small selection of discs to buy, including J-LO and Frank Sinatra / The fact that they sell a variety of Kettle Chips at the local store (made in Salem, OR) Odd odd odd!

The farang food pit that we've fallen into. When we first arrived in Thailand, we were disgusted by the idea of farang food. We craved fried rice and phad se ewe noodles... Now here, surrounded by all the options of tourist food for all the tourists, we have managed to eat: french fries, multiple tuna sandwiches, crossaints, chicken/hamburgers etc. And they aren't even good!!! We better watch it.

So, tomorrow we are heading back to Bangkok and the next day we'll be picked up by my auntish person, Pe Dtoong-Dting. We're looking forward to spending time with another one of my family members. Although we haven't been homesick yet, we realize that the amount of time we have chosen to spend here is perfect. We have less than month left and soon will be back home in P-town! Although it is sometimes difficult to not stress about "home" (job situation, living situation (we found out we have to be out of our place by June 1 so keep your eyes/ears open for us) we are trying to live in the moment and remember that every second is precious and deserves our complete attention. Especially when snorkeling...

I could have missed the big grey fish with freaky bulbous eyes and gynormous teeth!
Or the black spidery things with long spikes coming out of their center, where a single white/red/black eyeball rests.

Love you all and miss you oodles,
Nicole

P.S. I wish I were writing more often, but I've been in a strange state this trip- a state where it feels much easier to observe and experience and take in rather than create, share and push out. The last time I was here I was a writing machine so maybe I expected the same? But I was traveling alone.... Hmmm what does it all mean? It is good to not get too obsessed with writing and picture taking of course, but I haven't spent a day journaling or writing songs. Oh well. 'Tis my life for the moment...

The whirlwind continued for our next few days in Bangkok. As we continued to try and keep up with the pace of the big city we filled our days with running around, shopping, my suit fitting at the tailor, a stupid (by stupid, i mean amusing yet thin on plot) movie at the mall (there are very few choices of movies that play in english), on and off subways and skytrains, and in and out of taxis. No worries though, we didn't manage to wear ourselves out enough to miss out on the night life. One of the highlights of our Bangkok time was a "lady-boy" caberet show. It was amazingly vegas-like (well, I don't actually know that because I've never been to vegas, but it makes it sound good and it was). There were probably over 50 dancers that did an insane amount of costume changes. Costumes included feathers (lots of feathers), skirts made of bananas, peacocks, lots of sequins, a tear-away wedding dress, a geshia, a clown . . . the rest is a blur, but it was wonderfully entertaining. I have to say, these ladies put Darcelle's to shame . . . bad. The next night we went to Nicole's uncle Sadtit's bar again (we went with him once, during our first week in Thailand). We watched his band play and Nicole sang a few tunes with them. Exhausted we finally went home to sleep in preparation for a day of travels to get to the Beach.

We decided to head to the beaches in the Gulf of Thailand which is closer to Bangkok and less busy than the beaches of the south. Nicole had been to Koh Chang (Elephant Island) before so we decided to head there. It meant a long day of traveling. We grabed a taxi to the bus station and arrived within 15 minutes of when the next bus was leaving. We rushed onto the (supposedly) first class, air conditioned bus to Trat. This was about a 5 hour bus ride in which I could feel the air conditioning for maybe the 1st hour and was far less roomy than any other first class bus we've taken. When we arrived in Trat we bought ferry tickets and jumped on a packed Song Teow for a half hour ride to the ferry. Then it was onto the ferry for a 20 minute ride across the water to the island. It was getting to be dusk at this point and the view across the ocean to the islands was beautiful. Next it was off the ferry and onto another song teow for a 30 minute ride around to the south western side of the island. Worried we wouldn't find a place to stay for the night we had made a reservation at a guest house over the phone. By the time we arrived it was dark. We were given the key to our room which was a little bamboo hut. There was a matress on the floor in the middle of the small dimly lit hut and a concrete bathroom. Even in the dark this place wasn't appealing and it cost twice as much as any guest house Nicole and I had paid for thus far. However, we were weary of traveling, tired and hungry so we decide to stay for just the night. We ate some dinner along the ocean, took a short walk on the beach and turned in for the night.

We awoke early the next morning with the goal of finding a new place to stay before we needed to check out of the one we were in. So we took a walk looking at different options and found Sunflower huts and bungalows that Nicole had read about on the internet. Much nicer and cheaper. Sold.

So we've spent the last several days lazing on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating, playing card games, and watching the Simpsons at this bar near our guesthouse that plays them every night. It's been fun and relaxing, but is so different from all our other experiences in Thailand thus far. It is very touristy (though the beaches are still much less populated that those in the south). It seems like every restaurant serves foreign food (tuna sandwiches and french fries are a standard on the menu). Our guide book (which is admittedly a little outdated) said that Koh Chang is still about 70% rainforest but has been designated by the government to be developed as a upscale tourist resort destination. Although it is still relatively undeveloped it seems that even in our short time here we've watched new buildings go up. It is being developed fast and already looks quite different than it did 3 years ago when Nicole was here last. Everything is geared toward tourists so its harder to feel very connected to Thai people and Thai culture. Being here for a bit makes me feel so grateful for our time at Pun Pun connecting with the land and experiencing rural Thailand, and for Nicole's family that has shared their homes with us and have given us so much of their time that we might experience a different side of Thailand. We have been so blessed with a such a diversity of experiences here.

The plan now is a few more days here resting on the beach, catching some more rays, swimming with the fishies, maybe a snorkel trip . . . and then back up North for our next adventure!

Katie

We have found one of our biggest expenses of being in Bangkok is transportation. It is near impossible to walk anywhere in this bustling city and cab fares add up. In all our adventures yesterday we found a Tuk Tuk (moto taxi) driver who would offer us a very cheap fare if we would stop by his sponsor's (his sponsor was a tailor) shop and browse for a minute. We agreed thinking we'll never want anything at the tailor and it would be a quick in and out and back on route to our destination. Easier said than done. Once in the shop they started showing us fabrics and then these brochures of dresses and women's suits and slacks they could make. I chuckled at the dresses and even the women's power suits, but then I came across the brochue of men's suits and became interested and the wheels started turning: I can never find a suit that fits (being such a small woman that wants a men's suit),there were a lot of nice styles, the fabric choices seemed endless and it was extreamly cheap for a tailored suit. Once the sales person finally figured out that I wanted a man's suit it was a matter of minutes before he had picked out fabric, picked a style for me, thrown in a free tailored shirt, taken all my measurements and I was out the door to return in a few days for my fitting.

They were still trying to convince Nicole of a tailored dress, but she held to her guns and made it out without a purchase.

So somehow our cheap Tuk Tuk fare turned into 20baht and a new suit . . . our most expensive taxi yet!

I'll post pics later . . .

katie