IMMM BACCCKKK :D

Wow I am a terrible person for not blogging in aeons. I apologize profusely, for my absence and unreliability. I assure you as soon as I resolve my current computer issues I will continue to haunt your homepage with stories of my glorious travels.

On November ninth I squished myself in to a van with twelve other exchange students for a three hour bus ride to PHU KRADEUNG.   Also known as the tallest mountain in North east Thailand at an exhausting height of 1316m.

We arrived in the small town at the base of Kradeung and checked into our lovely “resort”. The reason I use quotation marks is because it was motel-esque settlement with rooms that put horror movies to shame.  Our toilet didn’t work there was one bed and five girls. To make it even creepier beside the bed was a broken mirror. After we unpacked we set out to the town to join in with the towns festivities celebrating Loy Krathong.

 Now Loy Krathong, I am not sure what it is to celebrate, because Rotary, didn’t really explain it basically they put us all on a bus and dropped us off down town. There were some beauty contest type of shows and a big dinner. It was strange though because all of us exchange students ate before the rest of the town. Which I feel kind of defeats the purpose of trying to get us to intermingle with the culture and the people. After dinner all the people in the town lit a candle on a banana leaf boat set it in the river. Legend has it if a boy and girl put a boat in at the same time they will fall in love in this life or the next.

After that we bought some lanterns to light and set up in the air. It was so beautiful. You light your lantern make a wish and let it fly. It was amazing to see so many lanterns so many wishes soaring up in the air, so many wishes.

After that my friends and I headed back to the bus because the Rotarians told us we were leaving shortly. We sat on the bus for an hour practising our freestyle rapping waiting for the rest of the kids and rotary. They arrived later after a fight broke out at the festival. We spent a very uncomfortable night trying to sleep in our sketchy hotel rooms.

 The next morning we rose at 6 am to start our 5km climb to the top of Phu Kradeung. To fuel our bodies for this treacherous hike we had a well-balanced breakfast of..... Wait for it..... TOAST!! Yumm.  We started the hike in semi high spirits for hungry tired teenagers, these high spirits quickly faded after we found ourselves hiking alone with no guide, no water up a miserable trail. My one friend slid down a cliff at one point when we took the wrong trail and people were crying and miserable. Five hours later we made it to the top, where we found out we had to hike 3 km to our lodges. So 3km we all arrive at the visitor’s center hungry and tired. Rotary had set it up so this one restaurant/ convenience store would let us eat whatever and as much of it. So we pigged out on food.

We finished our day by just lying in the sun complaining about how much we hated climbing mountains. Come on we are teenagers, that’s just what we do. That night we got a lovely speech by none other than our esteemed Rotarian, Pa On. Did I mention she got carried up the mountain and then told us all she walked but one of the kids saw her get unloaded. Yeah four men carried her on a chair. Anyways she told us that there were leaches so be careful and then as a joke she told the girls they couldn’t go pee or the leeches would crawl up their.... THIS WAS A VERY BAD IDEA!! Never joke about that kinda thing with a bunch of exhausted teenagers that are mad because their parents paid for a trip and we had to climb a mountain which no one found fun. Then we got shown to our lovely cabins. These cabins made the horror hotel we stayed in the previous night look like 5 star resort. There were holes in the floor the toilet was beyond backed up and there were just mattresses on the ground.  So we all settle into our cabins separated by boys and girls of course and just hung out. Then it got cold, like really cold, so people started going to other cabins to get sweaters and stuff. Then when they came back we found leeches all over them. As you can guess after Pa Ons little speech this did not go over well because no one had salt, no one had a first aid kit, (well I did of course, but it was used up on like three people.) People went crazy, people were crying and screaming and Rotary did nothing. Then of course we got angry, because sure Rotary can’t stop leaches but they can be helpful, and provide us with the means to get through the night.

One of the girls host mom had packed her with bags of salt, so a few of the guys started going around giving each of the cabins some slat to get the leaches off. But the people didn’t know how to us the salt so they just started throwing it around the cabins thinking it would work as a repellent. Eventually we all settled down I think at that point there were ten people in my cabin and we were all huddled in a corner trying to stay warm and avoid the leaches, which could crawl through the giant gaps in the floor. One of the French girls in my cabin found two leaches on her and one in her bed and started vomiting. So the guys who were in my cabin went and found Pa On like, “hey this girl is sick we have no toilet, we have no heat and there are leaches everywhere. Pa On came to our cabin and told the girl, “mai pen lai,” which means don’t worry about it. So as you can imagine we were enraged, like people are crying bleeding, screaming fainting and now vomiting and you are telling us not to worry. The French girl spent the night in another cabin throwing up out the window.

The next morning we woke up mad, cold and miserable and were delighted to hear we were going on a hike. Some of the kids just didn’t go, I went and we walked to a little pond thing and then to this waterfall which was awesome. I hiked up behind it and set behind the water fall, watching everyone below. Then I saw some of the guys debating going in and decided that would be fun. So I walked down took my shoes of and jumped in.  The guys were being pansies; the only way to do something is to just do it. Of course once one person gets in, especially a girl all the guys jumped in. I was the only girl brave enough to go swimming in that water fall though. CANADA REPRESENT!! After that we walked to this crazy high cliff and ate lunch. Then I started feeling a little nauseous and had really terrible chaffing from my wet shorts, so we went home early and get this we got free hot showers. YES!

That night we all grabbed as much food as we could and headed to our cabins early, to avoid the leaches and just stayed there until morning. The next morning we slept in and just hung out around the site. Later that day I went for a hike with some of the guys on a search for  some waterfalls to swim in but just ended up hopping along rocks in the river on the mountain for a couple of hours. We later hiked to another waterfall, ignoring the repeated warnings for wild elephants after three pm. around five we hiked back   to the site for dinner, and went to bed preparing for our hike back down the mountain.

I woke up from my friend Annie screaming at me, “ Chantel, its five am we have to leave now, so I hopped out of bed, with a tired head and threw all my stuff in my suitcase, grabbed my phone and started looking for  my bathroom bag when my friend Luis, asked me what time it was. I looked at my phone and it was the middle of the night. But on plus side the next morning when it actually was 5 am I had already packed.

 I hiked/fell down the mountain by myself, because I found it easier to go quickly and not have to listen to other people complaining because that would only remind me of how unpleasant the experience was. When we got to the bottom we had to wait a few hours for the others so we ate ice cream and slept. Then we got in the van and drove home.

That night I went to central, with my host family for dinner. The next day I was back in Khon Kean to renew my visa and then I went back the next day to hang out with my friends in Khon Kean. I also went back on Friday and then on Saturday. I have found that all of this is so much easier when you have friends who are going through the same thing.

 I spent that Saturday night at my friend Ashlee’s house in Khon Kean. We spent some time at a garden outside the mall with our friend Andre from Mexico, who is living in Khon Kean because of the flooding in Bangkok. The garden was situated beside a huge Christmas tree. It was so beautiful, and then we went to the night market to meet up with some other Khon Kean kids. We spent the night at my friend Ashlee’s ultra modern, Khon Kean house.

The next day we went to her house in Nam Phong where we met up with her friend who goes to school in Maha Sarakham, (where I live). So we went back there and spent the night in a hotel at the university. We went out to a club that night and Ashlee and I got invited to dance on stage, in a contest. We collectively won one ticket to some concert of some band we had never heard of so we ripped the ticket in half and made it into pins for our blazers.

 I know that only brings us up to November 19^th of my journey but to be honest  Mamma Mia just finished downloading and you know how I love my musicals. Tomorrow I will write another blog post telling about my weekend and Pattaya and upcoming adventure.

Toodleloo

Xoxo Chantel <3

I am alive, unfortunately my keyboard isn't doing so well

 Wow, I am so sorry, for not blogging for the past two weeks. Don’t worry though, I am ok and I had a good reason for not blogging too, my keyboard is broken. My “T” and “Y” keys don’t work and I know, you’re thinking, “So what? Two keys don’t work and you just abandon us?” Well think about it in the past paragraph alone I have used 20 “T’s” and 10 “Y’s,” they are kinda essential.

So I know you are wondering what I have been up to in the past fifteen days and I am happy to say, I can’t recall everything I have done off the top of my head. So I will dedicate this post to telling you about the memorable things that have happened. Unfortunately, it might be rather brief.

Ok here we go.

 As far back as I can recall anything memorable happening has to be October, Friday the 28^th, when I went with my Host cousin May and my host brother Go to the Chinese Opera and market, that was in town. It was really crazy they were selling everything imaginable and there were people everywhere. My cousin, brother and I walked through the market, but then had to go home because none of us had money and they didn’t tell my host parents we were going.

 The day before that while, Sara and I were out for our weekly Thursday milkshakes, there was a Chinese parade in the town that literally consisted of a bunch of Thai people with Chinese heritage, dressing up in traditional outfits and throwing firecrackers around in the middle of the street. An ambulance showed up just in case things got out of hand,( if you ask me they started out of hand.) There were also two of those dragon costume things you always see in Chinese festivals in the movies, so that was pretty cool.

It was funny because later that day while Sara and I were in the mall, the people brought the dragon costume through the mall… it was so random.

 On Tuesday, November1st, I woke up and got ready for school like any other day. I was eating breakfast when my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to a dance competition, I said yes, of course because the first rule of Rotary is always say yes. Then, she said ok you go today. I thought, ok I get the day of school sweet. Then as I was packing my school bag getting ready to leave my host mom says, “You need to pack for three days.” WAIT, WHAT?!? THREE DAYS?? But being a good exchange student I ran upstairs and threw some clothes in a bag and put a smile on as we left my house. The problem was once again, I had no idea where I was going, no idea who I was staying with and no idea what to bring or how much it would cost. So I brought my stuff to school and waited until a random Thai girl told me to go with her, so I did, into a car with her family and we drove away. At this point based on what I knew about the situation I was convinced that this was my eventual demise. Isn’t that against every rule you ever learn in elementary school, don’t get in the car with strangers, even if they say they have something good like a dance competition because they will take you some strange place and bad things will happen. Wow, kinda sounds like an exchange.

 I am just kidding. It turned out fine we went to a dinosaur museum and they were amazed that I had seen dinosaur bones before. Then we went to the dance competition which was held in a university conference room. It was a ballroom dance competition which was cool. So they practiced for a bit then we went out for dinner then we went back to the hotel. I was supposed to share a hotel room with these two other dancers but they decided they didn’t want me to sleep there so I had to share a room with the family that brought me. Now this was awkward because a) I was intruding, b) there was only one bed and five guests and c) I didn’t know them. To make matters worse staying in tune with Thai hospitality they let me sleep in the bed… with the two sisters… in the middle of the two sisters…who both felt the need to sleep as close to me as possible. Now as tempting as it was to accidentally elbow them in the face while sleeping, I didn’t I kept my cool and just stared at the ceiling. The next day they competed for the morning and then we went to a temple for the afternoon. Then we went shopping and out for dinner then right back to that cozy bed situation. After another long night, I was soo ready to finish this dance competition and go home.

Now being exhausted, after two nights of no sleep all I wanted to do was sleep on the car ride home but that was impossible for a few reasons.

Reason why I could not sleep on the car ride home from dance competition in Sakhon Nakhon:

1.       It was sunny. Like really sunny and right in my eyes the whole car ride.

2.       I was squished.  I was tucked up behind a driver who apparently likes his leg room and doesn’t consider mine, now why they put the tallest person behind him; I don’t know just some more Thai hospitality.

3.       Thai road developers are raging drunks. The road we drove on had an average of 10 seconds between each hair pin turn. By hair pin I mean 180 degree rotation drive for ten seconds then repeat. Also the roads are extremely uneven and bumpy. So you try sleeping with your whole body bouncing up and down from the bumps and your head swaying left and right every ten seconds. You try dealing with that for two hours nonstop.

4.       Annoying horn blasts every ten seconds. Thai drivers truly believe that they always have the right of way no matter what. Now this family I was with, the father really loved his car every morning he would wash it by hand and he put a cover on it at night. He also had a fancy smancy horn installed that goes like hoonk honkhonkhonk hoooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkk as it slowly fades out. So instead of just an immeadiate burst of sound it went on for like two minutes after he pressed it. To make it even better he suffered from CHD (compulsive honking disorder) and he suffered bad.

But in the end I did make it home.

 Then last Saturday, November 6^th, I decided to go meet some of my exchange student friends down in Khon Kean. I asked my host mom she said Yes, like always and it was set. So on Saturday morning my host brother drove me to the bus stop. I waited and waited and eventually half an hour later the bus showed up and it was full. So I waited and waited and waited some more until another half an hour later when the second bus showed up and reluctantly let me on. I had the best seat in the house, standing on the platform beside the door at the front of the bus. Basically, if we were to crash, I was to act as the airbag. Now for those of you blog readers that are familiar with Harry Potter, Ernie Prang, the Knight bus driver is a legend in these parts and all bus drivers try to mimic his maneuvers, resulting in one scary bus ride.

But once again, I made it to my destination relatively unscathed, with only a slight mishap of running out of time on my phone. Since this was my first time to Khon Kean, I hadn’t the slightest idea how to get to Central, the big mall, where I  was meeting my friends, so I decided to just take a Tuk Tuk, since it was direct and easy.  Now thing about Tuk Tuk’s is they make the Knight Bus from Harry Potter look like the equivalent of a carousel compared to Drop Tower. Tuk Tuk drivers don’t require a license or a speed limit, so although it’s terrifying, it’s fast. So I arrived at Central, did I mention this mall is huge and I started looking for my friends. I used my keen deductive reasoning skills and decided they shouldn’t be hard to find they are foreigners and they are probably at a restaurant. So I went up to the food floor and sure enough they were all tucked in a Steak House. 

So we hung out for the day hopping from international food chain to international food chain. Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen, McDonalds, we hit them all up finally stopping at the food haven for all exchange students in Thailand, Tops Market. Tops Market is what Thai people call a gourmet fancy smancy grocery store; it’s what we call an average grocery store, equipped with normal food. I was good though, I only bought some cookies and salad dressing.

Then it was getting late so we all decided to head home. My friend Tipsy gave my friend, Emo and I a ride. She dropped Emo off at his house then we got lost trying to find the bus station. Now the buses stop running at six pm and it was like 5:50pm or something and we were totally lost. So we found the bus station and she drops me off and I go to get on the half empty bus and they won’t let me on. So I go to buy a ticket but none of the ladies will sell me one except for this one lady who has a huge line up of people waiting to buy tickets from her. So I get in line and wait. I look down at my phone just as it says low battery and shuts off. Great, I think how am I going to call them when I get to the bus stop? Oh well, I think first deal with getting on the bus. So finally I buy a ticket and go try and get on the second bus, but they still won’t let me. So I just stand there and keep trying and finally they let me on the bus and get this I get to sit down this time.

So we are driving along fine and I am trying to ignore the fact I have to pee ridiculously bad but couldn’t go because I had to catch the bus. I am listening to my music and staring out the window, when suddenly the bus just stops in the middle of the road. The lights turn off and everyone is quiet. We sat there for like fifteen minutes until the bus finally started again. I made it home around7:15pm and called my host mom, so scared she was going to be mad at me for not calling or being out so late or something, but no, she’s not even home so she sends Go to come pick me up and that’s that.

My last adventure is really an adventure more so a very strange experience. Two days ago my host mom asked me to come watch a dance competition and go out for dinner at food street a celebration celebrating the week before Loy Krathong (more on that later), food street I think, awesome. We end up in some field crawling with bugs where a bunch of vendors have set up around a big stage. Well first of all we couldn’t find a place to sit and when we finally did, we ordered dinner. It was delicious of course except I had to keep picking bugs out of my food because there were so many they would land for a second and get stuck and you had to pick them out. I didn’t even bother with the soup because in like the first ten seconds it was on my table five flies had drowned in it. 

After dinner my host family went to watch the dancers. I decided to walk around and see the vendors. Something bit me on the back and caused this extreme burning and itching feeling to spread all over my back and I started going crazy I was trying to scratch it or get whatever bit me off and it hurt so bad. I was so close to ripping my clothes off and had there been a bathroom nearby I would have. It eventually stopped hurting. I went and sat and watched the dancers for a couple of hours until I became so incredibly tired and bored I could actually focus on the dancers my eyes would just sorta cross and stay there.  I had to get up and get moving because once again he bugs were driving me insane so I went to a little vendor set up cutting hair. I figured hey I could use a trim, so I asked how much. Then this older Thai guy dressed like a cowboy who was very obviously gay, comes over and says for you free. Ok, I think so I tell them in Thai just a little bit please and they start cutting my hair. Every single person that walked by stopped and watched me have my hair cut. Seriously, there were like fifty people just watching me. To make it even weirder when I was finished, they went and picked up my hair. When I went back half an hour later all of my brunette hair was gone but all the black Asian hair was still there. They did a beautiful job cutting my hair though, it’s just like a wanted, just a little trim.

But seriously, how many people can say guess what I did last Monday, I got my hair cut for free at a night market in Thailand by a gay Asian cowboy and I had people watch and take locks of my hair home.

Tomorrow, I head to Phu Kradung for my first Rotary Trip. We are going to celebrate Loy Krathong, (which I will tell you about when I find out what it’s all about) and then we are going to hike up a mountain and stay there for few days then hike back down and come home.

Sorry, for the wait and rushed post, but I am hungry and I hear they have free food in the Canteen.

Xoxo Chantel <3