Sports Day

One more post before the pictures/stories from our travels...this is about Sports Day, which was on the same day as the Monkey Temple.
After returning from the Monkey Temple, we enjoyed a traditional Thai lunch with our fellow teachers. After lunch, it was time for sports day. Sports Day began with a parade featuring each of the schools. We were quickly enlisted to march in this parade, so we headed over to where the rest of our school was standing.  Some of the other schools had really gotten into this portion of Sports Day and were dressed up in all sorts of ridiculous costumes – including a man with white paint on his face and a big brown afro wig, and another group dressed up as the characters from The Wizard of Oz.  Jon started taking pictures, and I was just hanging out talking to some people…when all of the sudden Moo, the music teacher, handed me one of the batons held by the drum majors who lead the parade.  Confused, I quickly tried to hand it back, then looked for anyone else who would take it from me…but no one would.  As a result, I ended up at the front of our school’s portion of the parade.  Luckily, there were two other “drum majors” and one was really into it, so it worked out, but it was still quite the adventure.

The three drum majors posing with our batons

Marching

Chiang Saen Wittayakhom teachers carrying our school flag

The directors watching their staff act ridiculous

           Sports Day started after the parade.  The first half was a set of ridiculous games that reminded me of the field day activities at Celia Clinton.  There was a hula hoop race, a water balloon toss, a three-legged race, and a group activity that involved using the bodies of the group to contract and expand a giant rubberband.  All of the activities were pretty silly, and everyone had a great time just goofing around.  We both participated in some of the activities, including a balloon relay race that we actually helped win!  Our teammates were so happy that I somehow got nominated to go collect the prize.

Water balloon in flight!

After the water balloon smashed to the ground...

Racing to victory!

Collecting the prize from one of the directors

Rubberband game

          The second half of sports day involved more traditional sports:  soccer, volleyball, and basketball.  These were more intense, and we both were asked to help our teams to victory.  I played volleyball with some of the women (volleyball was actually the only sport women played…hmph), and after losing the first game my team won the next two, and we won the match. Jon played basketball, but his competition was a little more fierce – the opposing team came out in matching uniforms and immediately targeted the farang.  Every time Jon’s team would get the ball, the opposing team would yell “farang, farang” and shut him down.  I didn't realize how serious this was until I saw the scratches and bruises on his arms the next day!
           When those games were over, sports day was over and it was time to feast!  We all sat at tables and were brought course after course of "Chinese-style" food.  Unfortunately for us, they consisted primarily of seafood courses, but we did our best to pick around the fish, squid, and shrimp, for any veggies we could find.  Fortunately, we were also distracted by the entertainment onstage - every school was required to prepare at least two performances for the other schools to enjoy.  This turned out to be pretty hilarious, as it included Peter singing (and I was asked to bring him a paper chain to put around his neck), and SEVERAL renditions of Gangnam Style, including one by our school.  

Jon & Peter posing at dinner.

Adding to Peter's necklaces

Our school's skit:  entirely in Thai, so we had no idea what was happening, but we knew it included our coworkers dressing up in school uniforms, and it ended with a Gangnam Style dance

Wat Thampla: Monkey Temple in Mae Sai

So, I just finished sorting our pictures and I'm now working on writing down all of the amazing memories from our trip in October...so until that happens, here is a post about two amazing events that happened before our trip - a visit to a monkey temple, and sports day with our school.  
At the end of the term in October, nine schools in the Chiang Rai province get together for a meeting and sports day.  Jon and I went with our school to the event, which was held at a school about 30 minutes away from Chiang Saen, near Mae Sai.

When we arrived, we were told that the first part of the day would be an awards ceremony where everyone would be speaking Thai, so we were free to explore the area surrounding the school.  A few of the teachers recommended that we check out a nearby temple – “They have a crocodile, and big fish, and so many monkeys – maybe one hundred” one of our coworkers told us in his limited English. 

Needless to say, a temple with those animals sounded enticing, so we walked over there as soon as we could.  The temple was in a very dramatic location, right at the base of a mountain.  We wandered around for a bit and took some pictures around the chedi and some of the small caves, but we were a little confused – we had yet to see any monkeys. 

Green Buddha?

Outside of one of the caves

As we turned back from the chedi, however, monkeys were suddenly everywhere as they came down from the jungle.  They covered the roof of the temple, and spread out all over the temple grounds.  As we walked back towards the main area, monkeys strolled in front of us.  It was truly a remarkable sight – there were baby monkeys, old monkeys, mama monkeys…they were hanging from buildings, eating corn cobs, wrestling each other in the trees.  We spent about an hour just watching the monkeys, amazed at how close we were to these wild animals!

Monkeys appearing on top of the temple!

          After awhile, we decided to check out a mysterious set of stairs heading up the mountain. The trip turned out to be much longer than we thought, as the stairs turned right and left, but when we reached the top we discovered our efforts were well worth it.  We were in a thin canyon, with sheer mountain faces on either side of us.  The sound of monkeys hooting at us could be heard all around us, but no monkeys could be seen.  A path led to a crevice in the mountain, where we took a small dark tunnel into a cave, using Jon’s iphone to light the way. Inside the cave were several Buddha images, as well as hundreds of bats above us.

Buddhas inside the cave

              After exploring the cave, we headed to an outlook located on the base of the mountain.  Fields and mountains extended as far as the eye could see, and we knew we were looking at a landscape made up of Thailand, Burma, and Laos.

After the voyage back down to the ground, we got a cold drink and decided to sit and relax for a bit by the pond.  Monkeys were still everywhere – our favorites being the baby monkeys playing in the tree near us.  Watching them throw each other to the ground and push each other’s heads down, we were reminded of the TV show American Gladiator.  Jon got up to take several pictures, so I sat alone on the bench, relaxing and enjoying watching the monkeys. 

       
             Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me.  Startled, I turned around…and a monkey had decided to join me on the bench! Completely nonchalantly, my new friend went about his business of licking his fingers and feet clean, while I sat there in shock.  I definitely had not expected to get this close to one of the monkeys!  Slowly, I turned in the bench so that I could at least keep an eye on my new friend.  We sat together for about thirty minutes, before some of the baby monkeys came by and my new friend left with one of them clinging to his belly.

We were almost ready to leave, but decided we wanted to feed the monkeys first – we were so grateful for all of the joy they’d brought us that we wanted to give something back! We bought a basket of peanuts, and I’ll admit the monkeys became a little intimidating at that point.  They quickly flocked towards us when we were holding the peanuts, and weren’t afraid to reach their hands up for a peanut.  In fact, when Jon took over the feeding, one monkey decided he was being too slow with the peanuts and reached to grab a handful of peanuts out of the bin itself!

Greedy monkey!

After feeding the monkeys, we decided it was time to head back to the meeting for some lunch.  We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to check out this temple, particularly as it is in a pretty isolated area, and is not a typical place for a tourist in Thailand to visit.  It definitely made us grateful that we are living in Thailand, as these experiences are an everyday opportunity for us, and we are extremely lucky to be in that position. 

October Travels!

      October marks the halfway point of the school year, and students are given a couple weeks off before returning to school at the end of the month.  For two of those weeks, we have been leading an English camp for thirty students, but as that finishes this Friday, we are extremely excited about having two weeks off to travel!
       Given that our experience in Thailand has so far been limited to northern Thailand (which is nothing to sneeze at) we are excited to explore the south during our time off.  We have been doing a lot of research on the best places to go, and the best way to reach those places, and we will share some of that information on this blog to help others who might be doing similar travels.  We found travel blogs extremely useful when planning this trip because they provided information from people who were seeking similar experiences and were also not interested in package tours or staying on the tourist track.
      As we will not be bringing a computer on this trip, our access to Internet will be limited. However, we will be taking lots of pictures, and you should expect plenty of blog posts about our travels down south.  You can look at our itinerary below to give you an idea of where we will be and what we will be doing!

Saturday, October 13	Chiang Saen -- Bangkok
1 day Saturday afternoon- Sunday morning October 13-14	Bangkok ·         Wat Phra Kaew & Grand Palace ·         National Museum
½ day DAY TRIP	Bangkok’s Floating Market: 100 km out of the city
3 days Sunday-Tuesday morning October 14-16	Khao Yai National Park Trekking tours around the park: Sunday: ½ day tour Monday: full day tour Visiting waterfalls, caves, and hopefully some wildlife encounters with the gibbons, bats, elephants, and more that live in the park!
1 day DAY TRIP Tuesday October 16	Ayuthaya Ancient historical city with plenty of ruins and temples for us to visit.
Tuesday evening October 16	Night in Bangkok
1 day Wednesday, October 17	Bangkok-Ko Samui
5 days Wednesday evening-Tuesday afternoon October 17-22	Ko Samui Beach time on an island along Thailand's gulf coast!
1 day DAY TRIP October 19	Ang Thong Marine National Park Kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking around an island that is a national park
Possible Visit (depending on weather) October 20-22	Ko Tao Supposedly even more beautiful than Ko Samui, a great place for snorkeling
Monday, October 22	Gulf Coast Islands– BKK Overnight train/bus
Tuesday, October 23	Bangkok
Wednesday, October  24	BKK – Chiang Rai – Chiang Saen

Road Trip to Utaradit

The past few weeks, the differences between the collectivist culture in Thailand and the individualistic culture in the United States have became increasingly apparent.  This Monday, for example, the entire Chiang Saen Wittayakhom Foreign Language Department piled into the school van to escort a teacher to the school they are transferring to next term.  This endeavor meant that 12 people, including some who were over the age of 40, some with children at home, some not in the best shape, piled into a car at 5 in the morning for a 12-hour round trip adventure!  And no one complained.  Even the four teachers who were stuck in the way back, sharing a bench that was designed for three people, did not complain.  In fact, everyone in the van was extremely chipper, laughing and joking the entire way down and back - even at 5 AM!

The school van. Our home for 12 hours on Monday!

Everyone was, however, sad to say goodbye to Daniel, the teacher who is leaving our school.  Daniel is one of the Thai English teachers, and has been a huge help to us since we first arrived - for example, he was the one who thought to order us crates of water so we didn't go thirsty during our first weekend here.  He's also one of the better English speakers, making communication with him far easier than it is with most of the other Thai teachers.  However, Daniel's wife and son live in  Utaradit, a province that is south of Chiang Rai province where Chiang Saen is located.  Utaradit is an 8 hour bus ride away from Chiang Saen, so Daniel has been trying to get a transfer to a government school in Utaradit for quite some time now.  Needless to say, although we were sad to say goodbye to him, we were also extremely excited for his family to be reunited.

Daniel and his son

Five of the Chiang Saen English teachers plus Daniel's wife and son.

Daniel and son, showing off the ridiculous amount of fruit purchased in Utaradit

Utaradit also proved to be an interesting place for us to visit, particularly as we probably would not have visited this city otherwise.  It's apparently famous for growing fruit, particularly the durian, which is a fruit we are not very familiar with but everyone tells us has quite the rank smell.  We also visited some of the other tourist attractions in Utaradit - a statue of a famous soldier, who fought until his sword broke; the river, where Carolyn made wishes while setting fish free into the water;  and a temple, where Jon made wishes while lifting Buddha statues over his head.

Purchasing fish/eels to set free in the river for good luck

Daniel and his wife, praying before setting their fish free

Setting my fish free - although as cynical Jon had to point out: "won't they just get caught to be sold again to someone else making a wish?"

Daniel's father at the temple

We never really learned what this truck was about, but we did teach Peter a new English word: "photobomb"

Inside of the temple was a row of five different Buddhas.  As Daniel told Jon, tradition states that you make a wish at each Buddha and then attempt to lift the Buddha.  If you can lift the Buddha, your wish will come true.  Apparently, not all Thai people are as strong as Jon, as he was able to lift every Buddha leading him to the conclusion that his life would now be basically perfect as all of those wishes were going to come true.

As these pictures should make clear, you never know what to expect when you are in Thailand - you might just end up on a 12-hour road trip, holding a Buddha statue over your head and releasing fish into a river.