Spirit Houses

Spirit houses were one of the first things to catch my eye here in Thailand.  Found outside of most houses and businesses, they look like dollhouses mounted on pillars - they often even have little people and animals standing on them!  After talking with some of our coworkers, we learned that these are called Spirit Houses, and are shrines to the protective spirits of a place.  The house provides shelter to these spirits, who can be dangerous if they are not appeased.

Below are some pictures of some of our the spirit houses we have seen around Chiang Saen:

This practice dates back to animist beliefs that are now intertwined with Buddhism in Thailand.  When traveling through South East Asia, particularly Thailand, keep an eye out for these Spirit Houses!

Spirit houses are usually all discarded in the same place.
A ceremony is performed to transfer the spirits from the old house to the new.

Khom Loi

            The arrival of winter in Thailand brings with it the beautiful local tradition of khom loi.  Khom Loi are paper lanterns that lift gently into the sky once they are lit, carrying away bad luck.  Although they are lit during special occasions throughout the year, they are particularly abundant during the month preceding the Loy Krathong festival. 

            So far, we have lit and released our own khom loi twice.  The first time was during dinner along the Mekong River with Tone and Heidi.  After enjoying Chiang Saen’s Saturday night market, we lit up our lantern and let it free. 

            The next time was during the foreign language department’s welcome dinner for the two new English teachers, Heidi & Nat.  Peter brought a bunch of khom loi back from his hometown, Sukohthai, so that everyone in the department could light one for themselves.  These khom loi had different wishes written on them in Thai – wealth, happiness, good luck, and so on.  We had a wonderful evening releasing the khom loi. Although everyone was able to light their own khom loi, what was most special was when the entire department joined to release one khom loi together.

    This upcoming Tuesday is the Loi Krathong festival here in Chiang Saen, and I am sure that we will have plenty more pictures of khom loi after that.

Thankful for Hospitality in The Land of Smiles

            My sister, Charlotte, recently returned from a trip to Germany.  Although she had a great time on the trip, she did notice that people were markedly less friendly with her when they realized that she did not speak German. Discussing this, she asked me if I had encountered the same problem while living and traveling in Thailand. 

            This question made me once again realize how fortunate we are to live in a place like Thailand, and how different this country is from many others.  Although this is speaking from our limited experience, we have found Thai people to be extremely kind and helpful to foreigners who do not speak their language.  In fact, not only are they willing to help foreigners, at times they will actually go out of their way to provide help, even if they have not been asked!

            The best example of this is when we first arrived in Chiang Saen.  Due to some delays in transportation, we were arriving much later than we had anticipated.  We knew we were on the correct bus from Chiang Rai, but as we drove through the pitch black countryside on a road that alternated between pavement and dirt, we realized we had no idea what to do once we arrived in Chiang Saen.  How far would the school be from the bus station? How would we get a hold of the school once we arrived?  What the heck were we doing up here in the middle of nowhere Thailand? Apparently able to discern our discomfort, some of the women on the bus began asking us where we were going, and once they found out we were going to the school, they began to discuss among themselves how to best help us.  Long story short, we ended up sitting at the bus stop with two of the women from the bus, both of whom spoke next-to-no English, waiting for their friend to arrive to pick them up on a motorbike.  Their friend arrived (wearing a WhoDey! shirt, which I took as a sign he could be trusted) and he ended up taking Jon on his motorbike to the school.  Jon used a phone from the security guard at the school to call Peter, Peter came and picked us up, and everything was resolved.  This story has a happy ending, but life would have been a LOT more difficult if these women hadn’t decided to take us under their wing.  Even though we couldn’t communicate with them, even though we were not their responsibility in the slightest, they took time out of their day to help us get where we needed to go.  Every once in awhile, we see these people (we call them “our angels”) around town, and we always make sure to thank them once again and tell them how much they are appreciated.

Although this kindness and hospitality is probably more common in a small town like Chaing Saen, in our experience, this sentiment can also be found in more touristy areas.  During our travels in October, for example, we booked a combined ferry and bus ticket from Koh Samui back to Bangkok.  We got on the bus on Koh Samui, went to the ferry station, got off the bus, took the ferry, and then got back on the bus for the trip to Bangkok.  With all of the getting on and off buses and ferries, this whole process was slightly confusing, especially as all of the directions were given in Thai.  Once again, without a word being said on our part, some of our fellow passengers recognized our confusion and figured out a way – despite their ability to speak very little English, and our ability to speak very little Thai – to help us understand when the ferry would depart and where we needed to be.

Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles, and we have found this country to live up to its reputation.  Although there are exceptions to every rule, people here are laidback, friendly, and giving -- if they see a way they can help you, they will provide that help.  It’s almost an instinctual thing, whereas Americans might conduct a cost/benefit analysis, Thai people just do it.  They offer whatever they can provide and seriously expect nothing in return except for you to do the same -- not even specifically for them, but for others in general.   Living in Thailand and being exposed to all this kindness and hospitality has really pushed both of us to consider the ways that we treat others, and the lessons we can learn from this culture and these people.

Ang Thong Marine Park

On our last day on Koh Samui, we took a day trip to Ang Thong Marine Park, an archipelago of 42 limestone islands. This scenery was on this trip was nothing short of stunning, and this was easily one of the best days of our entire trip.

We took the trip on a tour with a company called Highway Travel High Sea Tour, after it was recommended to us by a man named Mike who ran a travel agency on Samui and who we came to like during our time on Samui.  Mike was originally from New York but had sold all his belongings and moved to Thailand about ten years ago.  He was never pushy, just gave us all the information we wanted and let us make our decision.  In addition to setting up this tour with him, we rented our motorbike from him, he helped us book our ferry & bus tickets home, and his wife even did our laundry.  

We were originally a little nervous about taking the tour with the High Sea Tour company - we had been planning on spending about twice as much to go with a company that had received high ratings on Trip Advisor.  Luckily, our new friend Mike convinced us that we should go with the company he trusted, and this was definitely the right decision.

The Ang Thong tour was a full-day event.  We were picked up from our hotel at 7:45 AM, and taken to the pier where we got on the tour boat.  Onboard, we were provided a "breakfast" that was really just some croissants and instant coffee.  While we were finishing breakfast, the boat started the 90-minute trip to the Marine Park.

View from the ferry...you can see the park in the distance!

Once we arrived in Ang Thong, the tour boat came to a stop at Wua Talap island, and we got on smaller boats for the trip to the island.

Turquoise water and sandy beaches!

Some of the tour group stayed along the beach to snorkel, but hearing that there was a beautiful viewpoint at the top of one of the island's mountains, we started the trek up.  Although we'd been warned that the trek was strenuous (once again Mike came through by telling us to bring sneakers!), we had no idea what we were in for.  Until about halfway it was just a steep climb up a combination of rocks and mud which was pretty rough but manageable...but the second half was even more difficult and by the end we were using a rope to help us scale razor-sharp rocks!
When we reached the top, however, we realized that all of this effort was definitely worth it - the view was gorgeous.  Turquoise water stretched out as far as the eye could see, with tree-covered islands dotting the ocean. I feel like words can't even do it justice, so just enjoy the pictures:

After clambering back down the rocks to the bottom (along the way being jokingly asked by the Thai guides if we'd taken a shower while we were up there because of how sweaty we were...by the way they were doing the hike either in flip flops or BAREFOOT-no joke), we took a quick dip in the ocean then headed back to the tour boat for lunch.  Lunch was a pretty decent buffet, and it was nice to take a minute to catch our breath on the boat. 

Our tour then took us a to another island, this time where people had the opportunity to snorkel or kayak.  We, of course, went with the kayaking, and had a great time paddling between the different islands.  For most of the time, we stayed up in the front of the pack with the guide, who took us on all kinds of really cool routes so we went through small openings in the limestone instead of just through the open water.  This was really fun and once again, absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately my camera died so we didn't get that many pictures of everything we saw.  

After our kayaking adventure, we stopped at another island famous for the lake on the inside of the island.  Named Emerald Lake, it is actually a saltwater lake, connected to the ocean by an underwater tunnel, and was featured in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach as the Blue Lagoon.  The lake was beautiful, and we took lots of pictures in our minds so that we could remember it!  We also went snorkeling for a little bit at this island - although the water was not clear at all, we still saw a few small fish and just enjoyed ourselves paddling around.

Once we had exhausted ourselves snorkeling, we headed back to the tour boat to get ready to return to Koh Samui.  We soon realized, however, that our adventures were not over, as some of the members of our tour began jumping from the boat into the water.  Of course we had to join in, and I even received some applause for my (attempted) front flip into the water.  Unfortunately, I'd forgotten I still had sunglasses on my head, and I was distracted by my unsuccessful attempts at saving them from sinking to the bottom of the ocean.  The game of jumping off the boat continued for awhile after that, as we started moving up to higher decks on the boat...eventually involving climbing over the railing of the sundeck for the jump.  Only 5 or 6 of us were brave enough for this jump, and it was definitely a sight to behold when the giant German (at least 6 foot, 275 pound, blonde hair longer than Carolyn's, wearing tight swimshorts) backed out of the jump, climbing back over the railing to the deck and muttering "nien, nien, nien".

After all this excitement, we settled back into our seats and dozed off for the boat ride back to Samui.  Overall, we were completely satisfied by the day's events - we had a spectacular time and even got lucky with the weather!

An Island Paradise: Koh Samui

By far, the most relaxing part of our October travels was our time in Koh Samui.  We knew we wanted to fit in some beach time during our time off, but were a little worried because October is the beginning of monsoon season in southern Thailand.  Luckily, we decided to go for it, and were rewarded with mostly clear skies during our six days on Koh Samui.  Going at this time also meant that it was "low season" for tourists on Koh Samui.  This worked out really well for us, as this made the island more peaceful and relaxing than if it had been crowded with tourists.

Thailand actually has three different coastal areas - the Eastern seaboard, the Andaman Coast, and the Gulf Coast.  Koh Samui is on the Gulf Coast, and after viewing some pictures of its long sandy beaches and palm trees, we decided that would be the location of our island retreat.

Beautiful beach on Koh Samui

Jon on the beach

Our time on Koh Samui was incredibly peaceful and relaxing.  We stayed at a place called PGS Sandy Resort, and had a great time - in fact, after our first day at the resort, we extended our original reservation for two nights to the entire five nights of our stay in Koh Samui.  The resort was right on the beach, with two pools, a reasonable restaurant, and a very friendly staff.  We were also really happy with its location in Koh Samui - instead of being on one of the more touristy beaches, this resort was located in Mae Nam, a less populated area that was just a short walk to numerous restaurants.  Even better, we got a great deal on this hotel, as we booked with a site called agoda.com.  For our own personal bungalow just minutes from the beach, with cable TV, internet, A/C, and breakfast included, we spent about 700 Baht a night, about $23!

One of the pools, with the ocean visible in the background!

Our own personal bungalow

This is where we ate breakfast every morning - right along the beach!

       During our time in Koh Samui, we relaxed and spent most of our time going back and forth between the pools and the ocean.  We enjoyed walking around the beach, and we were just a 10-minute walk from the Bo Phut Fisherman's Village.  This was an area with a lot of different restaurants and stores, and was a fun place to people watch.  The Fisherman's Village also has night market on Friday nights, where we ate some delicious bruschetta and bbq chicken.  The food was very cheap, and there was a huge variety of both Thai food and farang (foreigner) food.  There were also some pretty hysterical handicrafts for sale, including some ridiculously crass bracelets that made me wonder if the person who made them had any idea what the English words they were writing meant.  

Fresh fruit and grilled corn for sale on the beach

At the end of Bo Phut pier

      Bo Phut is also where we headed for our big splurge of our time in Koh Samui - a romantic dinner right on the beach.  We headed to a place that had gotten good reviews, called Happy Elephant, and ordered whatever our hearts desired.  Although the main courses we ordered were pretty good, the side dishes were our favorite parts of the meal - Jon loved his onion soup, and I enjoyed a generous helping of mashed potatoes.  The ambiance of the ocean in the background, as well as the view of various boats lit up in the distance, made this a wonderful dinner - and we are extremely grateful to be in Thailand, where such a meal is affordable even for poor teachers like ourselves!

       Our one activity on Koh Samui that was not very relaxing was when we rented a motorbike to explore some more of the island. Koh Samui is actually a pretty big island, so we wanted to check out some of the other beaches further south from where we were.  After riding our friend Katie's motorbike in Chiang Saen, we thought this would be a fun way to explore the island independently.  After the first couple minutes on the bike, we realized that this maybe wasn't the best idea.  Chiang Saen is a quiet town where the streets are usually pretty empty, Koh Samui is a lot more populated. Also,Thai drivers are seriously crazy, and the streets are pretty much chaos - trucks, cars, and motorbikes all zoom around and lane markings are just suggestions. People regularly cross into opposing traffic to pass slower vehicles, and speed limits are completely ignored.  As a result, driving the windy roads in Koh Samui was not the most pleasant experience, especially as it started raining right after we got on the motorbike. I think next time we will just rely on the cheap songthaews that can take you pretty much anywhere in Thailand.

At least we got a great picture from the experience!

       Our time on Koh Samui was wonderful to the end - we enjoyed a beautiful view of a sunset over the gulf as we left.

Sunset on the ferry leaving Koh Samui

The Historical City of Ayuthaya

No tour of Thailand would be complete without a visit to the historical city of Ayuthaya.  Ayuthaya has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was the capital of  Siam.  Ayuthaya is located just north of Bangkok, so we took the train directly from Khao Yai to Ayuthaya and made Ayuthaya a day trip on our way back to Bangkok. Unfortunately, we had no idea how crowded this train would be, leading the two of us to spend the 3 hour train ride standing in between two of the train compartments.  Although this was not ideal, the experience was unforgettable - a kind Thai man let me stack our backpacks on his belongings, and vendors pushed their way through the crowded compartments every couple minutes selling water, beer, chicken skewers, fruit, corn, and homemade snacks.  The view from the train was also incredible - the forested mountains of central Thailand gave way to rice fields as made our way to Ayuthaya.

View from the train

After we finally arrived in Ayuthaya, we avoided all of the aggressive tuk tuk drivers, and headed out on our own, determined that being young and healthy, and with the help of a guide printed out from the internet, we would be able to walk and bike our way around Ayuthaya without a guide... this didn't exactly work out as planned, as we couldn't find the ferry (we later found it and realized this wasn't really our fault - there were ZERO signs!) which led to a looong, hot walk until we found bicycles to rent...once again, this was just another lesson learned: no matter how easy everyone makes it sound online, always get a map of your location ahead of time so there is no possibility for error!

It took a little more work than expected, but we eventually found our bikes and headed out!

After successfully renting bicycles and getting a great map of Ayuthaya, we marked all of the temples we wanted to go see and headed out - and were immediately rewarded at the first temple we visited, Wat Phra Mahathat, home of one of the most impressive sights we've ever seen: a tree growing around a Buddha head.

We enjoyed wandering around the seemingly endless rows of headless Buddhas

Leaning prang of Ayuthaya

The main chedi

Right across the street from Wat Phra Mahathat, the next temple we visited was Wat Ratchaburana.  This temple recently had one of its large prangs restored,  and also featured a lot of beautiful stone carvings.  As you can see, the impact of flooding was evident at this temple, although we are very lucky that the floodwaters are nowhere near where they were last year.

In the guide we found online for Ayuthaya, we'd noticed that the information about this temple included something about a "mysterious staircase".  As a result, even after spending close to an hour exploring the temple, we refused to leave until we found this mysterious staircase. Luckily, we soon realized that we could climb up the temple and actually enter the main chedi (we actually weren't 100% sure this was allowed, but given that there were no signs to the contrary, we decided to try it!).  Once in the chedi, the mysterious staircase immediately presented itself, and we headed down to explore and were greatly rewarded.  At the bottom of the staircase was a small room...more like a box... with original paintings from the 15th century on the walls.  These were absolutely amazing to behold, and it was hard to believe that we were looking at something that ancient.

People leave 10 baht coins as an offering

360 degree view

After the excitement of the last temple, we decided to venture to one that was a little further away from the rest- Wat Chaiwatthanaram.  This wat was the largest that we saw, and the most intact - truly a majestic sight to behold.  Although we couldn't get too close due to flood damage, we still enjoyed walking around the outside and taking pictures.

After a few turnarounds looking for another temple (due to flood damage the map we had wasn't that inaccurate and led us astray!), we decided to call it a day and head back to the city center.  On the way, we stopped by Wat Phra Si Sanphet, the largest temple in Ayuthaya.  This temple used to hold a Buddha covered with 340 kg of gold - but the Burmese set fire to the Buddha to melt the gold and destroyed the temple in the process!  The wat was restored though, and looked a lot more modern than the others we visited.

Due to time constraints, we had only planned for Ayuthaya to be a day trip - but especially due to our love for temples - we easily could have spent at least two full days exploring this city.  We love the temple ruins in Chiang Saen, and the temple ruins in Ayuthaya are on an even grander scale than those!  This is one place that, time permitting, we will definitely return to so that we can explore even more of the historical gems in this city.

We also viewed Ayuthaya as a learning experience - although, isn't every travel experience a learning experience?  We made some good choices - renting a bicycle instead of a tuk tuk, and printing out information instead of paying for a guide.  We also made some bad choices - not getting a map of Ayuthaya beforehand, and trying to get to temples far far away instead of just sticking to the ones that were close together.  Luckily though, despite the heat and the exhaustion, we stuck it out together and stayed positive, and, as you can see from these pictures, we were rewarded by seeing some beautiful sights.

At sunset, we found the ferry - it was a lot easier when there were signs for it on the other side of the river - and headed back to the train station.  We even lucked out on the way back to Bangkok, as this 2 hour train ride was a lot less crowded, and we were able to have our own seats the entire way back.

Much nicer than standing between two compartments!