Burns in Bangkok

Well, this has taken me a while to write.

Two weekends ago, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Bangkok. It just so happens that it was the Harry Potter weekend. :) Harry Potter came out on the 14th of July, and it just so happens that the 15th was a public holiday, so we got Friday and Monday off of teaching. So that = extended weekend in Bangkok!!!! We left Thursday evening and Friday morning we got to see Harry Potter, IN ENGLISH! I must admit, we are all a bit obsessed.

AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

In 3D!

We got free posters with the tickets!

I love Harry!

I kinds like Ron too ;)

DUEL!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

The rest of the day was spent mall hopping. I think we visited somewhere around 5 or 6 malls? Some were really, nice malls, others, just a walk-around market. There were miles of stands selling everything from furniture, to clothes, to puppies, to squirrels, to sugar gliders, pretty much anything. It was sketchy and an absolute maze, but we made it through, only to find out later that we only went through a fraction of the market. Oh well. I was fortunate enough to find my wedding shoes in one of these malls! They are so cute and perfect! And not to mention cheap! :)

Just a few pictures from Bangkok. I love the colorful taxies!

We aren't the only white girls. It was strange to not be stared at... as often.

(according to the guy in the photo)

The walkway overlooking the outdoor market

I love Bangkok!

Taxies!!! We tried to ride every color. We failed.

Five of us cramming into a taxi. It was tight.

After a long Friday at the markets, Saturday was spent at the beach. We went to Pattaya, about a two hour bus ride from Bangkok. This was our last opportunity to go to the beach, so of course we took it. It was an overcast, kinda cool day. Me being as white as can be, of course I burned. It didn't help that I fell asleep on the beach. Oops!

Maybe not such a good idea...

Well I got to worst burn of my life. After a week of the most excruciating pain I have ever felt (over my WHOLE body) I finally went to Thai Mom and Dad. Fortunately for us, our Dad is the local doctor and Mom is a dermatologist. They were shocked at the extent of my burns and immediately covered me in various creams and loaded me with pills. I go to Mom twice a day now to get checked. I saw improvements in days! I love magical Chinese creams! And pain pills. :) I burned three layers of skin at some parts of my body. Its been a week of treatments now and I am happy to report that I can move without pain. I still have scabs everywhere, but my skin is evening out. Mom wants me to be a beautiful bride. :) She said, "Consider this a wedding present."

Interesting thing about Thai fashion. Tanning is a big thing in the states. Everyone wants to be tan and beautiful right? Well in Thailand, everyone wants to be white. The lighter your skin, the more beautiful you are. Well many creams, soaps, and lotions have 'whitener' in it. I have had to be careful when I buy Thai products because I don't want all my "tanning" to go to waste with one whitening product. Well I found out 2 days ago, that one of the creams Mom was using to "make me beautiful" was a whitener. I laughed about it and tried to explain how I didn't want to be white. She thought I was hilarious, but discontinued that cream. So we will see how I turn out in these last three weeks.

Did you read that correctly? I HAVE THREE WEEKS LEFT!!!!! 20 days to be exact. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of our weekends are booked. This Saturday, we are traveling to Burma. Yup, our visas are expiring (an accidental oversight), so we are crossing the boarder, getting a stamp, doing a bit of shopping, then coming back that night on a traveler's visa. I will try to document that better than I did the Bangkok trip. :-P Hahahaha

OH! I know how to count in Thai! If you are facebook friends with anyone from Thailand, you may have noticed them comment "5555555555" about something. I have seen this in almost every post and have been boggled about what it means. Weeeeeeelllllll, my curiosity was satisfied last Sunday when I learned to count. 5 in Thai is "ha". Soooooo... 55555= hahahahaha. Hahahahaha!!!!!! (typing ha ha ha ha comes more natural to me, but 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 is simpler) Anywho, yet another interesting fact. :)

Kids and Racecars!

As a new teacher, to begin you teach the same class subject for a month to get used to the program. I have been teaching kitchen and it has been a blast! I love cooking with the kids. Seeing their faces light up when they taste something good, seeing them concentrate, trying to decide if a peanut goes in ice cream, or a leaf goes in a smoothie has brought me joy in their improvement.
Well this past week, I have been teaching a new class. Shop. We get to build things and take them apart. It's been tricky trying to come up with lesson plans. The kids however seemed to love all of them: slingshots, putting together ball point pens, the game ball-in-a-cup, and racecars. The racecars took two days to make! It was so much fun!!!



My racecar. Made with a popsicle stick, pencils, rubber bands, toy spools, pipe cleaners, and yarn.

Phuvit and his racer

Nest pausing long enough to let me take a picture

Name with her car

Ivy asking for help

Num-nan, one of the new girls, following the crowd

Num-ob enjoying running around

Kids at play

Tiger dragging his car around

Great trying to follow the line of tape

Ongry and Phuvit loving their creations

Phuvit fixing his car by himself

He liked to go fast

I think the racecars were a huge success. In the one-year-old class, we get to play games and learn how to share. They are the cutest!

Mew-Mew and Ink

Prea (Pear)

Mew-Mew loves the camera. Whenever I take it out, she comes and sits on my lap to see the screen

I love her little baby teeth

Her version of the peace sign

Pear has the hardest time sharing. If someone else has it, she needs it.

Ink is the newest member of our school. Her Dad dropped her off in desperation cause he couldn't handle her crying. She is the sweetest little girl I have ever met!

 I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!!!

Gardens and Elephants and Tigers... CHANG MAI!!!

We finally went to Chang Mai!

It's a large town up north about an 8-9 hour train ride away. The first train to get up there left at 11pm Friday night. We were expecting to be able to sleep on this train, since it was an overnight ride. We thought wrong. The train was so cold, it was all I could do to not beak out into violent shivering. They did offer us complementary blankets... about the size and texture of a towel. Let me just say, it ranks up there in the top 5 worst nights of my life.
We were overjoyed when we stepped off that train and into the hustle and bustle of Chang Mai. It was beautiful! Nestled in the hills of northern Thailand, and, in my opinion, it was cooler than Phichit. :) Jack, Tang's cousin who lives there, told us that we would not want to go back. I believe him. It was hard to say goodbye, but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Our first stop, after that insane train, was to our hotel to drop off our bags. It was quite nice.

Probably the most comfortable bed I have slept on this whole trip.

Our royal carriage

We sure got a nice breeze in there.

We then had the opportunity to see an elephant show. They were funny and clever. Some a bit sassy. They each did a cute bow while trumpeting after each trick. It was awesome!

"Welcome to Maesa Elephant Camp"

Follow the leader

Play dead!

This was the baby of the group. He kept hitting other's with his trunk, and didn't always want to do what he was told. I liked him :)

This one wouldn't give it back. She would get close, then take it back and waggle her ears as if laughing. Her trainer would nod, and she would shake her head. Quite hilarious!

Professional painters (their artwork was amazing!)

Then, what do you know... we got ON the elephants and trekked through the jungle! A bumpy ride, but so much fun! We got to see the jungle from a different view. Amazingness!

Alisha, Whitney, and Sarah as our journey began

AH! Don't lean too far!!!

Alisha and Whitney had a particularly bumpy ride. Their elephant was a young 25 year old! So young to my 27 year old mama elephant. But Sarah's out aged us all, with a whopping 51 years old!!!

Our Regal Sarah!

When we asked to take our driver's picture, he agreed, then became very serious. I guess he needs to look tough for the camera.

We caught him a few seconds later. He laughed at us all the time.

It was beautiful country!

The end of the trek landed us in a village of long-neck women. If you don't know who they are, the pictures will explain. From what I have gathered, is that long necks are a sign of beauty. They start lengthening their neck at an early age. It soon gets to a point where their spinal vertebrae aren't connected any more. They are completely dependant on the rings of brass around their neck. Without them, their necks would break and they would die. Kinda crazy! The things we do for beauty...

A woman weaving silk.

They start so young!

Everything there was hand made.

Two little girls skipping along on an errand.



Then we went to see some snakes, but when we found out what it cost to see a show, we decided tigers were much cooler. We chose the BIG cats from the list of small, medium and large. Let me tell you, they were big! We paid a little extra and had a photographer come in with us and take our pictures. Here are some of my favorites of all of us. :)

The group

 right before this tiger dashed off unexpectedly (which scared the living daylights out of all of us)

Alisha looking like a model

Sarah lookin' pretty with the kitty

Lovely Laura

I love Whitney's smile. She conquered the tiger!

I tamed the beast ;)

These pictures were taken one after another very fast. Those teeth are kinda intimidating.

He liked the belly rub I was giving him. (or her)

Something tasty on his paw (fortunately better than the thought of me)

After our incredible time with the tigers, we went to visit a temple way up in the hills (I don't remember its name). 303 steps this time to get to the top.

 

The outside

Many bells of different sounds

The beautiful view from above

Gorgeous Chang Mai

see the clouds? About 10 min. later, a massive storm hit

Reflections after the storm

 We wrapped up our day with a visit to the "walking market" and the "night bazaar". They were fun, but my feet hurt. I bought so much stuff! Cool thing about Chang Mai is that most of the goods they sell are hand made. I loved it!

After some much needed sleep, it was an exhausting adrenaline filled Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to church. There is a wonderful branch in Chang Mai and the people are so loving. Hearing all the talks and the prayers translated exactly was a blessing and I felt the spirit so strongly. The Elders in our branch are wonderful, they just don't always translate for us and they ad lib most of the time. After the last fast and testimony meeting, the Elder translating confessed that 90% of what he told us was just his own testimony. It's completely understandable, but hearing the Sacrament prayer in English was incredible! I love the church so much!!!

Then, we had the rest of the day to kill, so we did the most peaceful thing we could find, we went to a garden. This was no ordinary garden. There were hundreds of gardens of different types throughout the place. It was amazing. I took so many pictures, it would be impossible to upload them all. (I found a new love for photography and I might want to look into studying it) There was a beautiful temple right in the middle of it all. Here are a few pictures.

The Gardens are nestled next to the beautiful hills of Chang Mai

It was all made of flowers!

I fondly named "Turtle Hill" ;)

The temple

Stairs...everywhere...

View of the land beyond

Consider the Lilies

We made a cool beat with the drums

The train ride home was sooooo much better!!! It had BEDS!!!!! I got top bunk! There is a fist time for everything and sleeping on a bed on a train is a first for me. :)

I'm so glad we went to Chang Mai! I had experiences there that I don't think I'll have anywhere else.