this post is coming live from a bar, the witches tavern. amazing.
did i mention that jess has dengue fever? yeah...not fun. everyone should send her you well wishes.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Paradise is only a 2hr cab ride away
We just got back from beautiful Ko Samet after a much needed weekend out of Bangkok and I have some stories to tell.
We left on Friday night. We had to leave after school and decided to take a bus because it was going to be heaps cheaper than taking a cab (180 THB each instead of 1000-1500 THB.) The bus took 4 hours to get to the ferry terminal, followed by a 30min. ferry ride, and a 5min. taxi ride (when I say taxi I mean truck bed with benches.) After all that we arrived at 9:45pm, exhausted, ready for a Singha and bed.
Saturday morning was overcast but it didn't end up raining during the day (there was a 60% chance of thunderstorms.) We had a big "American Breakfast" (included in the cost of the room) and then laid in deck chairs for the rest of the morning. The sun was never really out all morning but I still got burnt. Go figure. In the afternoon, the sun burned away all the clouds and became really hot. We wandered around our resort, found the pool, the other beach, and a giant Buddha. For dinner, we cleaned ourselves up and walked down the beach to one of the beach BBQ restaurants. You choose your meal (from Tuna to T-bones, baked potatoes and corn, or mussels and crabs), the cook cooks the meal, while you lounge on the beach in Thai beds. Once night fell at this particular place, there was a really cool fire show. All this for the less than thirty Canadian dollars! We ended the night with rotis cooked on the beach, by a vendor, on the walk home.
This morning, we rose to beautiful sunshine. After another great "American Breakfast", and another swim in the ocean, we cleaned ourselves up and got ready to leave. W
e took the resort's ferry back to the main land and started walking to the bus depot, dreading another 4 hours in a bus. On the way there a man on a motorcycle stopped and asked us "Taxi?" We asked how much, to which he replied "1200 Baht!" We said "No thanks!" and kept walking to the bus depot. He caught back up with us and asked "1000 baht?" and after a little deliberation we said yes. Now, immediately after getting in the cab I became leary that this was a con - the driver switched on the meter, which began rising quite rapidly. The 1000 baht mark came and went on the meter as the driver sped along the highway at speeds reaching 155km/h. (My heart was in my throat a couple times, as the driver swerved in and out of traffic, lauched us over bridges, all without the protection of seat belts as very few cabs have seat belts in the back seat.) Regardless, we made it to our door in 2 hours on the dot, for the low price of 1000 baht. Jess and I paid the driver and laughed all the way up to our apartment. Ko Samet really is close when you find a cab driver like that!
Looking forward to the next trip out of the city. It's true, Thailand - Bangkok specifically - becomes a lot more bearable when you know you can get out of the city easily.
I added some more pics from the trip to my Flickr site. Go check them out!
We left on Friday night. We had to leave after school and decided to take a bus because it was going to be heaps cheaper than taking a cab (180 THB each instead of 1000-1500 THB.) The bus took 4 hours to get to the ferry terminal, followed by a 30min. ferry ride, and a 5min. taxi ride (when I say taxi I mean truck bed with benches.) After all that we arrived at 9:45pm, exhausted, ready for a Singha and bed.
Saturday morning was overcast but it didn't end up raining during the day (there was a 60% chance of thunderstorms.) We had a big "American Breakfast" (included in the cost of the room) and then laid in deck chairs for the rest of the morning. The sun was never really out all morning but I still got burnt. Go figure. In the afternoon, the sun burned away all the clouds and became really hot. We wandered around our resort, found the pool, the other beach, and a giant Buddha. For dinner, we cleaned ourselves up and walked down the beach to one of the beach BBQ restaurants. You choose your meal (from Tuna to T-bones, baked potatoes and corn, or mussels and crabs), the cook cooks the meal, while you lounge on the beach in Thai beds. Once night fell at this particular place, there was a really cool fire show. All this for the less than thirty Canadian dollars! We ended the night with rotis cooked on the beach, by a vendor, on the walk home.
This morning, we rose to beautiful sunshine. After another great "American Breakfast", and another swim in the ocean, we cleaned ourselves up and got ready to leave. W
e took the resort's ferry back to the main land and started walking to the bus depot, dreading another 4 hours in a bus. On the way there a man on a motorcycle stopped and asked us "Taxi?" We asked how much, to which he replied "1200 Baht!" We said "No thanks!" and kept walking to the bus depot. He caught back up with us and asked "1000 baht?" and after a little deliberation we said yes. Now, immediately after getting in the cab I became leary that this was a con - the driver switched on the meter, which began rising quite rapidly. The 1000 baht mark came and went on the meter as the driver sped along the highway at speeds reaching 155km/h. (My heart was in my throat a couple times, as the driver swerved in and out of traffic, lauched us over bridges, all without the protection of seat belts as very few cabs have seat belts in the back seat.) Regardless, we made it to our door in 2 hours on the dot, for the low price of 1000 baht. Jess and I paid the driver and laughed all the way up to our apartment. Ko Samet really is close when you find a cab driver like that!Looking forward to the next trip out of the city. It's true, Thailand - Bangkok specifically - becomes a lot more bearable when you know you can get out of the city easily.
I added some more pics from the trip to my Flickr site. Go check them out!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Rain in biblical proportions
Howdy everyone. Been a while...I know.
We are settling into the routine nicely - gym, school, sleep, etc. The kids are fun, everything else isn't. But that's another story...
So because it is the tail end of the rainy season the rain is falling hard out. Everyday. In biblical proportions. And when it rains it shuts everything down. Traffic stops, cabs don't pick you up, the sky darkens, thunder rolls, etc. The other great thing is that the really torrential rain usually starts about the time that we go home from school. So great! Anyway, on Tuesday, the rain came at about 3:30pm and the sky grew darker than I have ever seen before. It was like night time. I was sitting in my classroom talking to my co-teacher when there was the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard and an extremely bright flash (in some countries they call it lightening...) Anyway, the lightening hit a transformer about 25 meters away from where I was sitting and it caught it on fire. The transformer was attached to the music room and possibly ruin all the equipment in the music room. Unbelievable.
Well...that's about all the interesting stuff that has happened here.
We are settling into the routine nicely - gym, school, sleep, etc. The kids are fun, everything else isn't. But that's another story...
So because it is the tail end of the rainy season the rain is falling hard out. Everyday. In biblical proportions. And when it rains it shuts everything down. Traffic stops, cabs don't pick you up, the sky darkens, thunder rolls, etc. The other great thing is that the really torrential rain usually starts about the time that we go home from school. So great! Anyway, on Tuesday, the rain came at about 3:30pm and the sky grew darker than I have ever seen before. It was like night time. I was sitting in my classroom talking to my co-teacher when there was the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard and an extremely bright flash (in some countries they call it lightening...) Anyway, the lightening hit a transformer about 25 meters away from where I was sitting and it caught it on fire. The transformer was attached to the music room and possibly ruin all the equipment in the music room. Unbelievable.
Well...that's about all the interesting stuff that has happened here.
Monday, September 1, 2008
The land of laziness
The land of smiles eh? More like the land of laziness...I am slowly figuring out that in this country anyone can find someone to do everything for them. Need a driver or a nanny? A maid or a tailor? Girlfriend or wife? All can be had for a small sum.
I went golfing yesterday and it was a very surreal experience. It may have been the heat or the hangover, or both, but it was like nothing I have every experienced. The course was about a 1.5 hour cab ride from my apartment. Upon arrival, there is a caddy waiting to take your bag from the trunk. The caddies are all petite, attractive females covered nearly head to toe (Thai women find "whiteness" more attractive than their natural colour so they try to hide them selves from the sun at all costs) in identical bright pink, canvas pant suits. The green fees and the beer were all very resonable (1450 THB + 300THB to tip the caddy + 250THB for food and drinks). The course was quite nice - lots of water and sand - and out in the country. There were cows grazing in nearby pastures, mosques calling worshippers to prayer over their loud speakers, brush fires causing smoke to engulf a number of holes, local gearheads burning around on dirt bikes, and old men swimming in the water hazards. All this in near spontaneous-combustion-like temperatures. Most of the group went to a sports bar after for food and drink but I had to come straight home for a soak in the pool before an early bedtime. On the cab ride home, our first driver stopped after 11km because (we assumed) she didn't want to drive us all the way into the city. After sitting for 10 minutes on the side of the road (with the meter running of course) she finally flagged down a cab that would take us the final 25km.
In an earlier post I think I mentioned that a friend from school is opening an Italian restaurant and we were supposed to be going for a grand opening on Friday. Well, plans were changed last minute. It turns out that my friend and his partners, who are opening an Italian restaurant, were supposed to be cooking food for a bar nearby the new restaurant. On Wednesday of last week, as the renovations were being completed on the kitchen, one of the employees leaned against the meat slicer and received a fatal electrocution. Needless to say, the deal was canceled, and my friend and his partners got the hell out of dodge. Long story short, we didn't go to the opening on Friday night. Just another example to make you more than a little concerned about the quality (or lack thereof) of anything resembling regulatory bodies in Thailand.
We are into our second week at school. The pace is picking up, deadlines are coming due, etc., etc. It's only the second week into it and I'm already exhausted. And on that note it's early to bed for me.
I went golfing yesterday and it was a very surreal experience. It may have been the heat or the hangover, or both, but it was like nothing I have every experienced. The course was about a 1.5 hour cab ride from my apartment. Upon arrival, there is a caddy waiting to take your bag from the trunk. The caddies are all petite, attractive females covered nearly head to toe (Thai women find "whiteness" more attractive than their natural colour so they try to hide them selves from the sun at all costs) in identical bright pink, canvas pant suits. The green fees and the beer were all very resonable (1450 THB + 300THB to tip the caddy + 250THB for food and drinks). The course was quite nice - lots of water and sand - and out in the country. There were cows grazing in nearby pastures, mosques calling worshippers to prayer over their loud speakers, brush fires causing smoke to engulf a number of holes, local gearheads burning around on dirt bikes, and old men swimming in the water hazards. All this in near spontaneous-combustion-like temperatures. Most of the group went to a sports bar after for food and drink but I had to come straight home for a soak in the pool before an early bedtime. On the cab ride home, our first driver stopped after 11km because (we assumed) she didn't want to drive us all the way into the city. After sitting for 10 minutes on the side of the road (with the meter running of course) she finally flagged down a cab that would take us the final 25km.
In an earlier post I think I mentioned that a friend from school is opening an Italian restaurant and we were supposed to be going for a grand opening on Friday. Well, plans were changed last minute. It turns out that my friend and his partners, who are opening an Italian restaurant, were supposed to be cooking food for a bar nearby the new restaurant. On Wednesday of last week, as the renovations were being completed on the kitchen, one of the employees leaned against the meat slicer and received a fatal electrocution. Needless to say, the deal was canceled, and my friend and his partners got the hell out of dodge. Long story short, we didn't go to the opening on Friday night. Just another example to make you more than a little concerned about the quality (or lack thereof) of anything resembling regulatory bodies in Thailand.
We are into our second week at school. The pace is picking up, deadlines are coming due, etc., etc. It's only the second week into it and I'm already exhausted. And on that note it's early to bed for me.
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