Geckos sound like birds.

And their poop looks like mouse poop. And since they crawl everywhere, they poop everywhere—that’s the main reason we sleep under a mosquito net. There you go: more than you ever wanted to know about geckos.

So what’s it like living in the jungle house? It’s like camping—cabin camping, and it’s a good thing I love camping.

The Jungle House

A couple of representatives from my school headed down to Bangkok to pick up Jack and me. As soon as I met Pii Pan and Lung Janevit (Uncle Jane), they gave me big hugs and told me that they were going to be my Thai aunt and uncle while I’m here. How sweet! Since it was already late in the day and would take about 8-10 hours to drive to Hang Chat, they decided we should leave the next day. They told me we can stay at the Louis Tavern hotel another night. OK!

The next morning Pii Pan would call me and we would head home. Oops, Uncle Jane was getting the car inspected so it would be later. After a few more setbacks (mai ben rai!), we started our long journey at 4pm.

We stopped for dinner in Sing Buri at a cute little place on the river. The sun was setting and the view was beautiful.

Kanchanaburi (Part 2): Elephants!

This morning was amazing! We went to Taweechai Elephant Camp to meet some pachyderms. Shot this on the way (I think I’m going to like this place!):

Kanchanaburi! (Part 1)

We finished orientation and now it’s time for some fun! Three hours on a bus and we are in Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok and home of the River Khwae. The orientation crew made a stop at the famous bridge over the River Khwae, as seen in the 1957 film “The Bridge over the River Kwai.” (It is called the River Khwae here as kwai means water buffalo and is also an insult.) The film is about the Japanese forcing  prisoners of war to construct this bridge as part of the Burma Railway during WWII. I haven’t seen it yet, but I will now!

Aksra Theater

We had quite an evening! After spending the morning at the Grand Palace, we loaded up in the buses for another little field trip. This time we headed to Aksra Theater/Ramayana restaurant for a fantastic buffet and puppet show. I know what you’re thinking…puppets, how great…but you better rinse that sarcasm out of your mouth. The puppets were incredibly detailed and required 3 puppeteers each! The crew performed traditional Thai dances and battle dances and walked around the room pretending to kiss members of the audience. So cuuuuute!

Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew

We’re almost done with orientation, and today was a chance to explore the city a little bit. We all loaded into 3 double-decker buses bound for the Grand Palace. These definitely were Super Elegance…except if you had to use the bathroom… They even came with some reading material (Thai Cosmo? and a creepy comic):

Orientation

So, I've been holed up in an intense orientation for the last few days while Jack has been exploring Bangkok. My training consists mainly of Thai language, teaching ESL, and the Thai school system. The upside to the long, exhausting days is the food...every few hours. We get a buffet breakfast, coffee/snack breaks twice a day, and a buffet lunch. Yeah, we're pretty spoiled. Here are some samplings:

Day Two in Krueng Tep (Bangkok)

Skytrain above the downtown traffic

Jack and I started our second day a little more refreshed than the first. After talking with Eric yesterday, we had big plans to take the ferry along the river and check out the Grand Palace. Our hostel is right off the BTS line, a Skytrain that runs all around town. Bangkok has THE most amazing public transportation and it is incredibly affordable. In addition to the Skytrain, there is an elaborate subway system and plenty of busses.

We took the Skytrain to the central stop of the Chao Praya Express. This is a system of ferries that runs along the Chao Praya river making various stops depending on the line. Eric recommended we avoid the tourist line and take the orange line instead. Good call!

Jack's First Bangkok Update

Hello everybody! It's your brother Jack with an update from Bangkok. My elation from arriving safely after our twenty hour plane ride has yet to wear off. I'm loving everything about Bangkok; as a fellow English speaker at my hostel put it, "When the only downside to a city is that the pineapple is too sweet, you know you've got a winner."

Day One of Bangkok Fun

How bizarre it felt to wake up this morning thinking, oh yeah we're in Thailand now! Once I heard one little noise this morning, I was wide awake and totally excited again.

Not exactly what I had in mind for my first Thai meal
but hey, we have places to go, people!

Jack and I got ready and headed out for some breakfast. We'd read that Thais don't really eat what westerners would consider breakfast foods like eggs, toast, pancakes, etc, so we decided to just get a few quick things at the 7/11 on our corner (they are everywhere here). We ended up getting yogurt, chocolate milk, iced coffee, coconut cookies, water, chopped mango, and spongey cake for about $3.50.

Most everything was better than we thought it would be (we didn't know what to expect so we kept our expectations low). I realized after we got back to the hostel that the mango bag said pickled mangos--uh oh! The ingredients list was also in English and I didn't see anything about vinegar so I suspected it might be a translation issue. Oh well, let's try it!

Leg 4: Seoul, Korea to Bangkok, Thailand

5 hours, 30 minutes, 2,286 miles

We made it, we made it, we made it! Same type of plane (same movies too, blah) and similar seats as the last except the one next to us was occupied. Despite this, we both ended up snoozing for about 15-20 minutes this round because of sheer exhaustion. We did get a second (third? fourth?) wind by the time we landed--funny how that adrenaline kicks in. We got swept up in a wave of people heading out, breezed through the passport-checking line, and quickly found our baggage claim. Easy peasy.

Leg 3: Chicago, IL to Seoul, South Korea

13 hours, 40 minutes, 6,538 miles