Adventure Time with Keri!

So sorry this didn't get posted sooner...the internet was down for a bit. Please notice when this was written =) Hope it's worth the wait!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

I am very behind, I know. These last few days have been quite exciting for me, many new experiences!

Let’s start with Monday morning. I once again saw my bus pass me as I was walking down the road to the bus stop. Not to be knocked down again by waiting for another bus in heavy traffic again, I ran to catch up with it…and succeeded. It kind of helped that someone else was running for the same bus right in front of me. Haha. The traffic is so bad that the driver got out of her seat and walked off the bus. Lol. She reappeared again in a few mins…don’t worry, she didn’t abandon us. Haha.

Today they let the kids sort of paint. And but sort of paint, I really mean they gave them cut up pieces of straw to blow designs on the paper with the watered-down paint. I’ve decided that if you mix kids and paint together you might as well not give them paper b/c the majority of the paint will NOT end up there and will, instead, end up on the table, floors, their clothes, and of course, themselves. Haha. Yes, this was the case, and b/c they had to blow into the straws guess where the paint ended up? Yupp, in their mouths. I’m guessing (and hoping) it was non-toxic paint b/c the staff didn’t look too alarmed.  

Most of the kids thankfully fell asleep during nap time except for four or five brats that absolutely refused to fall asleep. So, I went upstairs to go play with the babies instead. Haha. When the kids were outside on the playground there was a lot of screaming in my ear and roaring like savage animals going on. Haha. They love it when I chase them…but my body doesn’t. Haha. You can tell I’ve finally adapted b/c I was definitely texting when I was riding on the motorcycle taxi instead of hanging on for dear life like I did when I first got here. Lol! One of the parents took me back to the main road again and he wouldn’t let me pay him! I still have faith in humanity!

SO. On to new experiences. Later that night, I had the privilege to go with my host family to a wedding reception. The ceremony and reception do not take place on the same day as we are used to, so I unfortunately did not get to witness a wedding ceremony. But we shall not dwell on such losses, but shall focus on the gains. (Lol, I crack myself up.) The reception was held at the Royal Thai Police Sports Club b/c the groom happens to be a police officer or something to that extent. The whole reception was quite modern as you can imagine. My host family made sure they introduced me to everyone (Auntie seems to know everyone and their mother, quite literally) and there was a LOT of wai-ing involved (the proper greeting in this country). After the couple was presented, different people talked (this was all in Thai so I pretended to be attentive as possible while still eating the food. Lol). Po sat next to me and was trying to explain everything to me as best as she could. There was a slideshow presentation of their lives and how they met. Then they had a really cool [short] sword ceremony done by the police and then his entire police class got up on stage and sang their class song. Lol. It was totes cute. There was more talking and more clapping and more of me not quite understanding everything. Haha. There was the typical “tossing of the bouquet” and cake cutting. Actually the cake cutting was interesting b/c they used the same kind of swords as the sword ceremony (I’m pretty sure) and I don’t think they actually cut the cake on display b/c I looked at it closer and it didn’t look very cut to me. Haha. After everything was said and done Po and her cousins and I took pictures together. There was a lot more wai-ing involved when leaving and it took us a while to leave since Po’s oldest sister, Phon, was catching up with people. Yay for my first Thai wedding reception!

The first four wedding picture credits go to Dr. Chumkasian whose iPhone takes better pictures than my dinky point-and-shoot camera takes. Lol. It also helped that he was super close to everything. =.=

Anyway, on to our second adventure. 

My host family had invited me last week to go with them to Khao Khitchakut. They wanted to leave at 3am in the morning (!!!!) since it is a long drive and difficult to get up there. I thought it would be a great experience for me and Na Goi thought so too, so I requested to get off today to go with them.

Now, let’s pause for a moment. We had just finished with a wedding and in a few hours was going to traverse to the mountains. Another sleepless night for Keri! Haha. I decided to sleep as much as possible that night and set my alarm for 2:30am since they wanted to leave at 3am. What I forgot was to add in Asian time to the equation…which is very similar to Hispanic time and Islander time. Haha. Yeah, we didn’t leave the house till about 4:30am. I had, by that time, fallen asleep again (but ready when they were). So, bleary-eyed as we all were, we set off on our journey east to Chanthaburi. All of us girls (Po and Wan came along) knocked out pretty quickly and I opened one eye in the middle of the trip long enough to see the sun rising and beautiful mist all around us. If I hadn’t been so tired I would’ve gotten my camera and snapped a shot…but I was too tired to even do that. Haha. We arrived there about 3.5 hours later and took two 4WD trucks up the mountain. When I say “up” I mean “UP” the Prabad mountain. The mountain is over  1,000m above sea level, I’m told. It was seriously like an uphill roller coaster. There were so many sharp twists and turns I thought for sure we were going to hit another truck. It was great fun b/c it reminded me of when we go to my uncle’s plantations and get thrown around the truck. Thankfully we were all sitting inside of the truck and not in the back of the truck like everyone else. I probably would’ve felt less secure if I was back there. Lol. 

Ok, I must admit, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into (as usual).

APPARENTLY I just came back from a Buddhist pilgrimage. Apparently. Haha. Not everyone can say they’ve done that, I guess. Haha. And no, I’m not turning into a Buddhist; I was merely going for the experience, rest assured. Hundreds of thousands flock to this area to pay respect to Buddha’s footprint up in the mountain. Yes, you read that right, his footprint (footprints?Idk.). 

So, this place is only opened for 2-3 months [once] a year (right before the rainy season, I think) and Buddhists are supposed to make the pilgrimage 7 times in their lifetime. It’s about a 1 km climb up further into the depths of the mountains (it felt like a breeze after my Chiang Mai trip, haha!) and there are all these little huts selling things pertaining to the religion, like chrysanthemum petals, incense sticks, and the likes. There were hundreds and hundreds of people constantly going up and down the mountain. The whole time I only saw one foreigner, and of course, me, but I’ve proved already that I can pass as a Thai. Haha. I forgot to time us on the way up but I think it took about 30-45 mins with a few stops along the way. At one point I got showered by droplets of [probably] holy water that was thrown at my direction by a monk with a bunch of incense sticks. At that point you’re supposed to pay respect to whatever was there. When we got to the top we had to take off our shoes (all of us girls brought long skirts to put on before we reached the top) and walk on the rough rock. Well, it wasn’t quite what I expected, I can tell you that much, although I’m not actually sure what I was expecting. It was basically a rectangular stone within a stone with lots of chrysanthemum petals covering it and many people around it praying. But hey, to each their own, right? It was quite intriguing, I must say.The family and I took a few pictures after that since the view was great albeit a bit hazy.

Also, apparently making it up here means I have gained a lot of merit. Pretty cool, huh? Not exactly sure how that’s going to help me in life, but at least I can say I’ve done this, right? =)

We started on our way back down and stopped for water and snacks for a few mins. The way down by truck was just as sketchy as on the way up and I wasn’t too fearful of our lives b/c the worse that could happen (besides hitting another truck full of ppl) would be to hit a large rock or tree since there weren’t really any cliffs (thankfully). 

I slept some more once we got back into our car and we stopped somewhere to have lunch. Lots of traditional and yummy Thai food...but extremely spicy!! Haha. I feel asleep in the car again and when I woke up we were at the beach! Haha. We stopped by the beach near Chonburi just for a few minutes. I hadn’t had time to go at all since it’s quite far away. I love the ocean!! 

We stopped a few minutes later at the local market where they sell all kinds of snacks and food. We bought these really cool things called Khao Lham which is glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk and sugar and sometimes red bean. It’s so good!! I also got to try this other thing which I’m not actually sure what it was, except that it was sticky and coconutty and delicious. It was wrapped in banana leaves and grilled. So. Good. 

On the way back I slept part of the way again (trying to catch up on sleep is never easy!) and the traffic was so bad on the other side that we got off and crossed the road to go home instead of riding in the car with Wan to make a U-turn.  Told ya the traffic here is crazy!