Oh Look, There’s Burma!

One of the must-see attractions in Mae Hong Son is the temple on top of a mountain, Wat Doi Kong Mu. Well, apparently the temple isn’t so must-see, but the sunset is. So I decided to make the hike up on a not-nearly-cool-enough evening.

The Gremmers Take Bangkok (and Phuket)

With impeccable, and totally coincidental timing, my mom and dad arrived in Bangkok on Sara's final day of orientation. They took our advice and flew in on Korean Air, with twenty hours in the air split between Chicago, Seoul, and Bangkok. The day they arrived, I'd been staying alone in various guesthouses and hotels all over the north side of town and was elated not only to see them for the first time in six months, but to have a bigger sense of day-to-day purpose than finding the best deal on a bottle of Coke Zero.

Koh Phangan Style

After a few days stumbling around Bangkok in the oppressive heat, Sara and I were both excited about spending some quiet time on the beach. Sara had been talking about visiting the famous island beaches of Thailand even before we left America, but she was still finalizing plans for our trip to Koh Phangan the night before we left Bangkok. She found us an amazing guesthouse with beachfront cottages called Ocean View, whose name turned out to be the understatement of the year.

But, first, we had to get there! We loaded into a taxi and headed to the Bangkok train station, Hua Lamphong. The station is a pleasant enough place to spend four hours waiting for a train, and afforded us the opportunity to do some great people watching - dividing time between guessing the nationalities of the countless hordes of incoming tourists and suffering through the first presidential debate on my laptop.

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 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!