Monday, October 02, 2006
So my trip to Bangkok has turned out to be two weeks in Bangkok! It also was a 3 day trip to a neighboring province of Muak Lek where my father's twin is the sheriff (head of police) I arrived on Sunday after a hour long flight where I saw Koh Samui for the first time and the other neighboring islands. Which only made me want to go more. The water was perfectly blue and the islands covered in lush green trees. Aah Utis is an officer in the Thai air force and so once we where off the plane we took a short cut across the the airport on the military side. Here in Thailand most airports are split in half one for civilian travel and one for the air force. Then we headed into the air force base. We stopped to take photos of me with the first tank we saw which just happened to be commandos (special forces). I gave them roses and took photos which I will try to get up once I'm back in Suratthani. We went to their house put out stuff in and then were off to Jatujak market. It's this huge weekend market in the middle of BKK. After an hour or so there I realized what people said was true. You could spend two days there and still not see everything. Well it was also way too hot so we decided we had had enough and headed off to my other Uncle's house. I meet more cousins and extended family. Lung Utt has two sons P Golf, Gab(15) and a daughter Nong Gip(9). As per usual the family tried to get them all to speak English to me which just made the boys more shy and the girl nervous. That night I went to Kau San Road to have dinner. It's the famous road in Bangkok where all the tourist especially backpackers go. It was strange to be there with my Thai family see all the tourist. It was fun though to see all the things they sell. On t-shirt which I hope to pick up soon that says "same same" on the front and sometimes "but different" on the back.
The next day I spent most of the time sitting around the house while my host cousin Ake pronounced more like Egg played video games. I did get to go to the Air force museum. We walked around and Ake talked about all the planes and such. He knows most of them if not all. I guess though if you live right next to an air force base and your father is an officer and mother works for Thai airways you should. On real cool thing about the museum was they make models of the planes from paper and give lessons. So I tried to make one. I got a lesson along with Ake and P Bop. It was rather interesting and required a lot of patients and care. Tuesday was much of the same until we got a call from Luong Ut and he said okay lets go to Muak Lek today. WE had planned on going to Muak Lek on the weekend with both families but plans changed. We packed our bags and by 1 were off. For this trip it was my Uncle Luong Ut, Ake and P Bop. The trip up was a little over an hour and we stopped in a town to eat delicious noddles with fish. Let just say that before I left I was told that Muak Lek is cowboy country. now I'm not really sure what I expected that to mean as none of the afsers have seen any cows and well one doesn't think cowboys when you think of Thailand at least I didn't. So we went to my Uncle's house in the city and then to his office. Then we drove around the area. It was all truly beautiful. All country with mountains an rolling hills and fields of corn which reminded me a lot of home. Over the three days I saw Conestoga wagons named for states that are also rooms at one cowboy place. Lots of horseshoes, listened to the most awful American country music, rode around in the back of pick up trucks. Went to an ATV place and almost rode horses. We ended up staying at the Muak Lek resort and Spa instead of at my uncle's house per my aunt's request and well I didn't argue that one. It was really a lot of fun. Much more relaxed and laid back than the normal atmosphere of my home in Thailand and a much needed break.
Since then I've gone to the huge mall in Thailand Siam Paragon. I discovered it has an aquarium and I went there for a while. I spent one night in my uncle's house in Bangkok and I'm actually back there again for two nights with his family while my cousin Ake goes to Precadet school. We went to another district Nakron naiuk, I believe I'll check on that one later, to have sea food which was delicious. I went to Wat Prat Gaow and Wat Pho with Gip. I also talked them into letting me go back to Jatujak market for an extended time. Which was so much fun but my wallet isn't too happy about that trip, but I'll justify it by saying in Bangkok I can actually buy clothes that fit and find cute things to bring back home.
Yesterday I went with Ah Chou and Ah Utis to bring Ake to precadet camp. Gip came with us as we were planning to do zip lines, kayaking and parachuting. Once we got there we went to the house of the head of the Precadet school as he is a good friend of Ah Utis. I met his family and then he took us to the camp. Just as we stepped out of the car it started to pour. We waited for 5 or 10 minutes and it didn't let up at all, so we decided to try again another time and instead went to have dinner. We said goodbye to Ake and drove back to Bangkok rather late. Gip and i grabbed our bags and headed to her house back in the city. Today I'm staying at the house where luckily I have Internet and can update you all. I went on a nice walk to see another temple. Oh yes i forgot before we went to eat seafood the other night they took me to two different temples where apparently my host father always goes. Now I'm relaxing while my two host cousins Golf and Gab study and sleep and Gip is at school.
I''m hoping to get a few more walks in around the city today and tomorrow before I head back to Ah Chou's house for the end of the week.
Yesterday a new Prime minister was announced and it looks like even more of the tanks left the city. The city is just a little awkward. There aren't too many tanks around though there are some. There are many many soldiers all over with guns which is strange and weird for me. No one seems to really notice except to take photos and move on. Life here like back in Suratthani seems to be going on as normal.
One really awesome thing that came out of one dinner with Ahh Utis, Ah Chou and Luong Ut was a call to my host mom to convince her that my friend should visit me after our trip to Koh Samui but that she should come with us. Okay so next week is the planned trip to Koh Samui and my friend Dana (AFS not teacher) wanted to come to the south for a week to see another part of the country and we had planned for the week following. Now Dana is coming down from the North to spend two days with me in BKK before heading back with me to Suratthani for 4 days and then on to Koh Samui. We also lucked out because Suratthani is apparently having a festival this weekend and we will be back just in time. So not only have I had an awesome time in Bangkok but I have great plans for the future. I send a big big thanks out to Hilary for answering her phone when i needed to vent about the hours of TV and boxing that I had to endure to also get the good things.
Something I learned during this trip. Some of the most frustrating parts of American culture can be found all over the world. Country music and WWF wrestling were not expected on my part.
Well thats all for now. Pictures to come and I'll try to remember what I forgot to write!
The next day I spent most of the time sitting around the house while my host cousin Ake pronounced more like Egg played video games. I did get to go to the Air force museum. We walked around and Ake talked about all the planes and such. He knows most of them if not all. I guess though if you live right next to an air force base and your father is an officer and mother works for Thai airways you should. On real cool thing about the museum was they make models of the planes from paper and give lessons. So I tried to make one. I got a lesson along with Ake and P Bop. It was rather interesting and required a lot of patients and care. Tuesday was much of the same until we got a call from Luong Ut and he said okay lets go to Muak Lek today. WE had planned on going to Muak Lek on the weekend with both families but plans changed. We packed our bags and by 1 were off. For this trip it was my Uncle Luong Ut, Ake and P Bop. The trip up was a little over an hour and we stopped in a town to eat delicious noddles with fish. Let just say that before I left I was told that Muak Lek is cowboy country. now I'm not really sure what I expected that to mean as none of the afsers have seen any cows and well one doesn't think cowboys when you think of Thailand at least I didn't. So we went to my Uncle's house in the city and then to his office. Then we drove around the area. It was all truly beautiful. All country with mountains an rolling hills and fields of corn which reminded me a lot of home. Over the three days I saw Conestoga wagons named for states that are also rooms at one cowboy place. Lots of horseshoes, listened to the most awful American country music, rode around in the back of pick up trucks. Went to an ATV place and almost rode horses. We ended up staying at the Muak Lek resort and Spa instead of at my uncle's house per my aunt's request and well I didn't argue that one. It was really a lot of fun. Much more relaxed and laid back than the normal atmosphere of my home in Thailand and a much needed break.
Since then I've gone to the huge mall in Thailand Siam Paragon. I discovered it has an aquarium and I went there for a while. I spent one night in my uncle's house in Bangkok and I'm actually back there again for two nights with his family while my cousin Ake goes to Precadet school. We went to another district Nakron naiuk, I believe I'll check on that one later, to have sea food which was delicious. I went to Wat Prat Gaow and Wat Pho with Gip. I also talked them into letting me go back to Jatujak market for an extended time. Which was so much fun but my wallet isn't too happy about that trip, but I'll justify it by saying in Bangkok I can actually buy clothes that fit and find cute things to bring back home.
Yesterday I went with Ah Chou and Ah Utis to bring Ake to precadet camp. Gip came with us as we were planning to do zip lines, kayaking and parachuting. Once we got there we went to the house of the head of the Precadet school as he is a good friend of Ah Utis. I met his family and then he took us to the camp. Just as we stepped out of the car it started to pour. We waited for 5 or 10 minutes and it didn't let up at all, so we decided to try again another time and instead went to have dinner. We said goodbye to Ake and drove back to Bangkok rather late. Gip and i grabbed our bags and headed to her house back in the city. Today I'm staying at the house where luckily I have Internet and can update you all. I went on a nice walk to see another temple. Oh yes i forgot before we went to eat seafood the other night they took me to two different temples where apparently my host father always goes. Now I'm relaxing while my two host cousins Golf and Gab study and sleep and Gip is at school.
I''m hoping to get a few more walks in around the city today and tomorrow before I head back to Ah Chou's house for the end of the week.
Yesterday a new Prime minister was announced and it looks like even more of the tanks left the city. The city is just a little awkward. There aren't too many tanks around though there are some. There are many many soldiers all over with guns which is strange and weird for me. No one seems to really notice except to take photos and move on. Life here like back in Suratthani seems to be going on as normal.
One really awesome thing that came out of one dinner with Ahh Utis, Ah Chou and Luong Ut was a call to my host mom to convince her that my friend should visit me after our trip to Koh Samui but that she should come with us. Okay so next week is the planned trip to Koh Samui and my friend Dana (AFS not teacher) wanted to come to the south for a week to see another part of the country and we had planned for the week following. Now Dana is coming down from the North to spend two days with me in BKK before heading back with me to Suratthani for 4 days and then on to Koh Samui. We also lucked out because Suratthani is apparently having a festival this weekend and we will be back just in time. So not only have I had an awesome time in Bangkok but I have great plans for the future. I send a big big thanks out to Hilary for answering her phone when i needed to vent about the hours of TV and boxing that I had to endure to also get the good things.
Something I learned during this trip. Some of the most frustrating parts of American culture can be found all over the world. Country music and WWF wrestling were not expected on my part.
Well thats all for now. Pictures to come and I'll try to remember what I forgot to write!
