Takhli, Why Don't I Have a Hammock?

Behold, the most awesome part of my Takhi weekend - Dance off at the birthday party. Enjoy :)

In Takhli, my friends met a couple that spent the last 10 years living in England. The woman is Thai, so now that they are back home in Takhli, the pair is a great and unusual gateway for the farang into authentic Thai culture. It was fantastic to participate in this Saturday evening shindig of a birthday party. 

I was too surprised when I heard all the motorbikes come up to take any pictures at that time, but the arrival of this gang definitely got the party started. It was so unexpected, way out in the middle of nowhere, to hear all of these motorcycles coming closer and closer. When they started to pull in I knew I was at a great party. They were all very nice and just hilarious with their dancing, and they brought another lone farang from the town of Chainat, about 20 km away.

By far, the coolest bike around. It was just ridiculous seeing him drive up with a facemask, this helmet and matching belt buckle. 

I am so cool, and I know it. At first I felt a little bad just taking all these crazy pictures, but then I realized they were doing the same to us. Just walking right up thinking "Oh wow, a farang!!!" and snapping them all in our faces. By this time I realized it was no problem and went for it wholeheartedly.

Notice the matching belt buckle. Later in the evening he was trying to teach me to dance the authentic Thai way with their hands. It's actually really beautiful, and I had only seen it in a traditional setting. They do it in all circumstances, and I very much enjoyed the mini-lesson. It's easy, but not so easy as it looks..

Food and drinks for everyone, even a cute little baby with a mullet. You just never know, but it's always good in Thailand.

I arrived in Takhli Friday afternoon, which was great and allowed us to really maximize the weekend time. And by that, I mean maximize relaxation time. Since Takhli is so small and slightly out of the way, the last bus leaves Bangkok at 3:30 and costs 158 baht, which seems outrageous. From Si Racha to Bangkok, depending on how you go it differs slightly, but I always spend around 100 baht. The time constraints kept me from going in the past. It was the perfect thing to do with the day off from school. On the way home I took two mini-busses, for 160 baht into Bangkok and 130 baht to Si Racha. It cut about an hour out of the time, but both were significantly less comfortable than busses in the past (I think this is unusual, most of the time they are ideal). Minivan number 1 had a TV, which is almost always bad news for a farang in Thai transport. LOUD LOUD Christian-style Thai sermon over and over and over again for 2 and a half hours. Bus number 2 had no aircon and no open windows. Smelly smelly farang (aka me).

So, without the Friday, it would have been an almost impossible trip. I was so glad to have it. 

The view of banana trees from Bridget's porch. All the green was so soothing and relaxing. 

I really, really loved the hammocks, and we spent a lot of time in them as a result. From what I gathered, she uses them on a daily basis. I mean, why wouldn't you if you have them. This is one of the many reasons I will now be in search of a house in Si Racha. It was so great to have this kind of space.

In order to get her drinking water, she has to syphon it out. I found this pretty entertaining.

Her daily ritual of preparing to kill all the roaches that have gathered in her apartment while she's away. Simply the fact that I was capable of taking part in this photograph demonstrates how much I've changed. Dad, can you believe I could really do this? I can :)

Some of her neighbors..

Yep, putting up the satellite in rural Thailand.

Outside the temple and the buddha. There are always always roosters and dogs. These dogs weren't very nice to us at all, they smelled farang and didn't like it much.

View of Takhli. So green and pretty!

Bridget and the big Buddha on the hill.

Another Buddha she hasn't figured out how to reach yet. A lot of exploring doesn't get you where you intend to go, but you always find something new. Eventually she'll figure it out. It looks huge!!

Friends and Their Thai Stories

1) A friend of mine had a student bring a bag of fertilizer to class. By fertilizer, I of course mean human feces. 

2) A friend of mine lost her wallet and her bus dropped her in the middle of rural Thailand, over 30 km from her town. She was able to hitchhike home.

3) A friend of mine got locked in her bathroom for over an hour. They had to unhinge the door. She had been in the shower.

more to come...

Rockin a Full Week Off

So, I ended up with an entire week off in Si Racha during mid-terms, only having to show up in the morning to sign in and out. This was fantastic timing, as two friends were given the week off because of swine flu (not sure how worried I should be about all the swine flu over here, for now I am aware and mildly concerned) so they decided to spend it with us in Si Racha. Having visitors is so much fun! Especially when you don't have to work either...

The next five posts are of all the new adventures we were able to share with friends. If I wasn't sure before, no matter how many times you do something here or think you know what will happen, time and again I am left surprised and confused. In a good way, of course.

Bangkok - Si Racha - Koh Si Chang - Bang Saen - Pattaya - Koew Keaoh Open Zoo are a few of the places we visited.

Saturday -- New Si Racha Finds

Giant turtles on Koh Loi Park. They are awesome to watch and endlessly entertaining. I seem to become more and more easily amused, but I guess that's a good thing.

This kid has not one, but two rat tails on the top of his head. A rare sighting, but we were excited about it. The pic isn't so great because I was trying to be stealth in my photo-taking. Not sure if I was successful on either count.

Horseshoe crabs anyone? These suckers look pretty cool; I'm sure I'll get around to tasting them before I leave.

Cats everywhere at the temple on Koh Loi.

View of the ocean from the temple on the hill. So colorful and pretty.

Families picnic on the mini-island a lot, and on the weekends this turns into the place to be. There is always so much life in Si Racha.

Umm, yes, this is where I live.

Nice view of the turtle pond from beside the temple.

Saturday Night -- Pattaya Walking Street

How very Thailand of you, Thailand. We stayed Saturday evening in Si Racha so Bridget could see the park aerobics and the bridge bumpers (not yet blogged about these guys, will come with photos. they are absolutely awesome!), and then headed off to Pattaya around 8 pm. Just far enough out of town, yet still nowhere near Pattaya, we got a flat tire. My first. Realizing in no way could we continue to drive it, we found a service station and started to figure out how we were going to fix the problem. After a lot of misunderstandings and negotiation, we continued down the road to find a man who looked like he might help us, and we were right.

Not entirely understanding what he was offering us, we agreed to go with the flow. Awesomely, the plan turned out to be loading the bike in the back of a tuk-tuk (fantastic!), and following behind in this nice man's car. They drove us all the way back to Si Racha, where the tuk-tuk driver's motorbike taxi driving friend fixed us up right quick after hours. This man not only drove us, he waited with us until the bike was good to go, and he offered to pay (we, of course, politely declined). There are several people in Thailand with very good hearts who want nothing more than to help, you just have to know where to find them. We were very lucky in some sense, but, before we had any help at all, we knew we would be lucky, because we knew what to look for and were able to find it. It was an excellent way to start the evening and put us in Pattaya at a much more reasonable time, rolling into town around 11.

Our nice new friend and the tuk tuk driver loading up the bike. 

Tee-hee. Something I've never seen before, and I really enjoyed it. 

Our view from the car. We were rolling laughing the entire time. So ridiculous to see my bike in such a state. I can't believe it didn't fall out!! 

Wowza. It was seriously, seriously blown. Lucky they were able to fix it immediately.

Watching and waiting. This was the first of two flat tires over the weekend, just fyi. I guess two months is about their max.

Walking street at night. There are several other images I have on facebook, none of which are appropriate in any way. I've never seen any place like this, and I can only hope I never do again. It's amazing the bubble some people live in, just trapped. And it's even more amazing the people who choose to have this life. With all our faults, we are so blessed not to be thrown into this kind of life or forced to choose between our morals and putting food on the table. Many of the women are here because it helps them to support their families. And, to be fair, many of the women here are actually men (or used to be). Stupid stupid unsuspecting farang men..

Bob Marley, Che Guevara, and a Texas Longhorn (Native American included?!). Apparently, we're pretty up there as far as the icons go. I dig it.

Monday -- Koh Si Chang

Ferry from Koh Loi (Si Racha) to Koh Si Chang: 40 baht one-way. leaves on the hour until 6 p.m. and then you're stuck.

Tuk-tuk: 250 baht for the day. we found this to be a fantastic deal, and split it 5 ways.

This was my second trip to Koh Si Chang, and I saw the island from a completely different vantage point. First trip we thought we could outsmart them and their attempts to bamboozle farangs out of money left and right. The difference with Koh Si Chang, though, is that it's not really a touristy island. The only tourists there are other Thais from the mainland, so the same rules don't apply. We tried to walk everywhere and do everything on our own. It's much too big and we missed a lot as a result, including the main attraction: King Rama V's (1868 - 1910) summer palace and grounds.

This time we opted to pay for transport, and were surprised by how incredibly reasonable it all was. Plus, we were obviously able to see a lot more in a shorter amount of time. The palace (more like a cottage surrounded by its own mini-city, equipped with swimming holes and lots and lots of stairs carved from the rock) was a great find, and it was fun to share with so many people. It's so very different from the other tourist islands I have visited in Thailand. The locals seem to be living their lives in spite of your existence, rather than them being dependent upon us, as they are in Bangkok and Koh Samet, etc etc.

Our yummy appetizer before our absolutely amazing meal. All the seafood was as fresh as you can possibly get, and it's western owned, so they did it just the way we liked it. Unbelievable.

Our tuk tuk driver sleeping while he was waiting on us to eat our meal.

The palace. For a more complete history (as opposed to the nothingness I have given you) click here. King Rama V traveled through Europe, apparently really dug it, and wanted his palace and grounds to have a European style. Well, it's definitely not Thai..

All of us in front a swimming pool that was made to be like the bottom of the ocean, right in front of the actual ocean. It seemed pretty dangerous to me to swim in that thing.

I'm not sure why they do this, but it's pretty!

Exploring on the grounds.

Hands up!

Another one of the many pools. We were showing off our talents; obviously, we're chock-full of 'em. 

A tree growing out of the cliff (obviously you can see this, but I felt like it needed a caption).

A temple where the king used to meditate and pray to buddha.

All of our shoes outside of the very, very un-Thai, European temple.

What is that over yonder? No idea, we didn't have time to find out; but I'm intrigued.

Trying to climb, unsuccessfully, of course.

Walking back to the tuk tuk. I had to do it. This is Liza, Lia and Denise, btw.

Colorful colorful boats at the dock.

Getting ready to head back to Si Racha, Thai-style. We don't need no stinkin seats, we'll sit on top of the boat thank you very much. Oh wait, you're cool with that?! Of course you are..

Boys swimming and playing in between the boats. Some might say this is dangerous (because it is), but they definitely know how to have fun and enjoy life while it's there.

Sunday -- Bangsaen

Liza arrived and we headed off to the beach and Bangsaen. Didn't make it 5 km before the other tire on my motorbike blew out. Typical. We were able to get assistance, and waited for my second new tire of the week. It's nice to be with people who also live in Thailand, therefore don't bat an eye when things get in the way of original plans. It happens all the time, be happy or don't. We choose happy.

We made it to Bangsaen in plenty of time to have a great meal on the ocean and stick our feet in the sand for a bit. So nice. PS - this is the place with temple on the hill over the ocean and tons and tons of crazy monkeys (in case you were wanting a point of reference)!!

Bridget is texting, she's not bummed :)