Trip to Phuket and Nakhon Si Thammarat

I was scheduled to leave on the 23rd of September headed for Phuket by bus, but a miscommunication happened and I didn't leave until the 24th, and instead of traveling by bus, I went by plane. Instead of a 14 hour bus ride, I got a one hour plane ride. Lucky me. I arrived at about 12:30pm and stayed at the hotel until about 2:30pm. There are 7 rotary clubs in Phuket. Each club hosts two students. The girl from Denmark, Caroline, and I were hosted by the same club. One of the rotarians took us to see The vegetarian festival. When he dropped us off at 6:00pm, we had dinner at the hotel with Daiki from Japan, Alex from Missouri, Zach from New York, and Christian from Brazil. 

The next day we got up early to to to James bond Island and Hong Island. That day we did some rafting as well.

rafting

Rafting in a lagon. you had to get through a narrow
cave to get to it..

on the boat

In a Cave with Caroline, Raul from Mexico, and Kenny from
Taiwan

With the rotarian from our host club looking at food

James bond Island with Raul

That evening Alex, Caroline, Zach, Christen, Flora from New Hampshire, and Maia from Canada all went to the vegetarian festival again. We went to a temple and bought fireworks. People let off fire works all the time. The vegetarian festival lasts for 10 days. It is a Chinese culture, and mostly just the south of Thailand celebrates it. The people believe that on the first day a goddess comes down from the heavens and helps to rid everyone of their sin's. Killing things is a sin, so people don't eat meat or animal products. They also believe that some are chosen to take the pain and suffering of others. They do this by walking on bladed ladders, and putting needles through their cheeks, and cutting there lips with axes, or walking on fire crackers. They don't feel any pain. 

The next day we were scheduled to go to Phi Phi Island, but due to weather, that got canceled. Instead we went to another temple, went to a water park, went and saw the sun set, and went to a Central(Central is a mall). 

A wonderful place to be with friends. 

Selfie outside of the temple

The next day we went to watch the parade with of the people who can't feel pain. I will not post any of those. If you want photos of them, say something in the comments or via. email. We also went to watch some moi thai and saw some artists.  After that we went to a lady boy show. For the parade, we were required to wear all white.

chillen' with my bro's

This dog was so cute!

An artist's house

waiting for the parade

before the lady boy show

moi thai

The masks are for the smoke from the fireworks at the parade.
it helped a lot.

Lady boys. And yes, that is a guy in the pink dress

The next day we left Phuket at 9:00am to take a 5 hour drive to Nakhon Si Thammarat. We had free time from the time we got there to 6:00pm. We want to a Lotus(a department store, or a small mall. can be both) for lunch and after that shopped around for food. I had a really good time. After that most of the YE's went to the swimming pool. It felt really good to actually be in a pool again. After that we went to dinner. 

The next day we had to get up at 5:30 to give food to the monks. After that we went back to the hotel and packed a bag for hiking. We took an hour and a half drive to a mountain with water falls. Then we took a two hour walk up the mountain  through the jungle to the water falls. It was wonderful. I got bitten by a leech, so that was a good experience. The jungle was so thick, and there were so many sounds. It was great. We staided at the water fall for an hour and then headed back to a resort. On the way back we stopped at a hot spring. That was fun as well. That night we stayed at the resort. 

driving through the jungle to get to the place we hiked

The hike through the jungle 

That morning some of us got up at 5:30am again to see the sun rise. Don't get me wrong, watching the fog was real cool, but we didn't see the sun come up.

We also went water rafting again. That was soooo much fun. After the rafting we went to the hot springs again. Then we headed back to Nakhon Si Thammarat. 

Sunrise.....

hot springs

On the final day, Maia and Raul took us around their city, to Big C (another mall), a temple, and to their houses. Part of the group left by bus to their city, while those staying up north had to wait until 7:00pm for a train. At about 6:30 the train stopped and I had to take a 3 hour drive to my city. We all arrived safe and sound. 

I had a ton of fun on this trip. Thank you so much for all of your support. Happy late anniversary to my parents. Love you both

~FRS 

Had Yai

On the 14th I left for Had Yai with Janique, and Caroline(from Denmark). Our flight left at 1:30pm, so we had to leave the house at 9:00 to get to the airport with plenty of time. We arrived in Had Yai at about 2:30 and was greeted by our inbound coordinator, Emma, and Kelly, from Florida. Janique and I both stayed at Emma's house, while Kelly and Caroline stayed with the Had Yai rotary club's president. We went to dinner that night, and ice cream. We found a ton of rats in the back, crawling around under the ice cream machines, but the ice cream was good. When Emma took us home, she showed us a little bit around the city in her car. The next day we traveled some more around the city with Caroline and Kelly. We went to a few temples, a Market, and to a collage. That night we went to dinner at a funeral and had some Had Yai fried chicken at another restaurant. That was good. We also went to a restaurant that had Karaoke. That was fun. On Tuesday we went river rafting! I was in the raft with Kelly and an employ. We saw two snakes! It was so cool. The guys was really fun. He kept tipping the boat and rocking it back and forth. We went to dinner again, and another Karaoke restaurant. On Wednesday, Emma took the four of us to Song Klan, a neighboring town near the beach. We had lunch and spent some time playing in the water. We could see a storm approach as we sat in the water. It looked like an invasion because all of the boats were coming in. As soon as we changed and hoped in the car, it started pouring like crazy. We drove about a mile, and we were in a light shower. We saw an ice cream cart and bought some coconut ice cream in a coconut husk. We then drove back to Had Yai and had two hours of shopping in the black markets. I didn't buy anything, but Caroline got a good deal on on a fake Channel bag that looks almost real. She bought it for 1500 baht, about 46 US dollars. On Thursday, P'Boy picke us up and took us to his town, Nakon Si Tamerat. P'Boy is with rotary. He helps out with the inbounds and the outbounds. Caroline flew to Bangkok from Had Yai, and Kelly lives there. Janique and I meet up with Maia from Canada and Raúl from Mexico. I had a great time talking and meeting Raúl. The next day P'Boy drove Janique and I  to our final destination: Krabi. We meet up with three ladies from our club: a past exchange student to New York, P'Mook, Her mom, the future district Governor, and another lady to be on the district comitty. Paula from Estonia was there as well with a lady from her club. P'Mook did not have to go to any of the meeting, of on Saturday, Janique, Paula, P'Mook, a friend of P'Mook and myself went on a boat tour to Hong Island. Alex from Missori and Risa from Japan Joined us. They happened to be in Krabi when we were there. The next day we flew home at 4:00. We got home at about 7:40 and went to bed. This trip was so fun. and I am burned from the boating trip. but it was worth it.

Due to some technical mouthfuntion, I couldn't post any good photos of the trip.  I hope to get more up... but we shall see.

Me getting ready for a funral

~FRS

New baby

On Tuesday I stopped going to school. Finals are starting for them and I won't be taking them, so I get to stay home. On Wednesday, Janique and I went with P'Nong to work. Sh works at a collage. We went to a market that is only there on Wednesdays. We hen got bored, and Janique suggested we go get a Thai massage it was fun to spend our first day of freedom relaxing and enjoying a new experience.
On the 11, the new baby was born. His name is Kenchin, Ken for short. I have not gotten to hold him yet.

The top is EQ, and the bottom is Ken

I will not be posting a blog next week due to traveling.

~FRS

Rants

When I say rants, I don't mean to get something off my chest. I mean it in a joking way.

Todays culture shock rant: Lady boys. Definition of a lady boy: 1) A man who is homosexual 2)A man who dresses up as a women.  This man can be both, or just one and still considered a lady boy. Now, I have seen some cross dressers on the US, but not as many in one setting as I have here. There have to be at least 20 cross dressers in my school, and even more homosexual people there. Don't get me wrong, I am fine with homosexuality. But I was very surprised to see so many lady boys. Some of them had me convinced, until I saw that they were wearing pants instead of a skirt at school.



I keep forgetting to post my schedule....so here it is:
On Monday, I have Fabric and dress from 8:30 until 10:30, Internet from 10:30 until 12:30, lunch for an hour, and Fabric and dress(again) from 1:30 to 4:30.
On Tuesday, I have Internet from 8:30 to 10:30, and Popular menu of Thai food for the rest of the day with a one hour break for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30. school that day ends at 3:30. I also have privet Thai lessons that day for 1 and a half hours too 2 hours.
On Wednesday, I have an hour before class to hang out, then at 9:30 I have Thai dessert until 4:30(with an hour for lunch, 12:30 to 1:30)
On Thursday, I have international Food from 8:30 to 12:30, lunch and then Baking from 1:30 to 4:30.
On Friday, I have fruit/vegitable carving from 8:30 to 12:30, lunch and then banana leaf folding from 1:30 to 4:30. and Thai lessons again.


The thing about Thai school, is you stay with one group for all of your classes, you can arrive late, and no one cares, and once you are done with your project, feel free to go home. That is my school anyways. Janiques school I have heard is much more strict.

I love my school, and my friends. Even if we can't communicate very well, they always ask if i want to go the the cafeteria with them, the help me with class, and involve me with things. So, I think I will have some good friends for my year.

Trip to the beach.....again

By the total you would think that photos of a sandy paradise and scantily clad girls would fall. Such is not this case. Instead, Janique and I went to a nature preserve and saw elephants. I tried to get a video of the second baby elephant we saw on our first day, and I thought I had got it, but by the time I was 'done' with my video, I realized I hadn't pushed record.

We got into the car with an ex exchange student and drove about 4 hours with her (P'Mok) and the driver P'Mruk. We got to the resort at about 1 o'clock. Then we went to the reserve owned by the king and took a tour. It started to rain. that was a tone of fun. The road was extremely bumpy. I'm pretty sure the pick up we were in didn't have shocks.

Soldier Dude, P'Mruk, Janique, Squid

That night we went to a beach for a party with P'Mok's dads company, but we couldn't go swimming. :/

A Thai Giant. And yes, it is a women. 

Those are boats

The next morning we packed to get ready to plant trees in the elephant reserve.

Creeping on dem soliders

The tree we planted 'Hary'

The foot print of an elephant

That girl between janique and myself is P'Mok

WE GOT THEM TO SMILE!!!!!

We had a small lunch and the headed back home. While we were gone, all of Nakon Pathom got 10 cm of rain. So....It flooded. Thank goodness our room is on the third floor!!

~FRS

Week two

I went to school for the first time this week. That was interesting. I made leaves out of cucumbers. I made a swan out of an apple. I made lots of food(eclairs, cookies, curry seafood). I also went to my club's 26th birthday party. The theme was international. We are going to the beach on the 26th.

~FRS