Sports Day

Sawadee ka,

Last month I had the chance to participate in my first Thai Sports Day.  Sports Day is like field day in the States except my school is 7th grade-12 grade.  The event is 3 days and they do all kinds of sports such as volleyball, track and field, basketball, football (soccer), badminton and a few other sports as well.  As a teacher we are supposed to monitor the activities and the kids and I did that.  The teams are divided up by colors: pink, red, blue and yellow and of course awarded per activity.  On the last day, they have a ceremony where the the students walk from downtown Maptaphut to the school which is about 3 miles, maybe.  The theme for the closing ceremony was to celebrate each ASEAN country and the students carried banners that represented each one.  ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations that aims to increase economic growth, social progress and cultural development among the countries.  The ASEAN countries are: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  The costumes were beautiful and a great effort was put into making them.  I was able to capture pictures on the last day and I am going to share some of them with you all.  It was a great experience and the only THINGS missing were: sour pickles, nachos, hot dogs, candy....ok I guess that is it.

Always learning,

Charmel

Khao Yai National Park

Sawadee ka,


On December 7th, I had the opportunity to go hiking at Khao Yai National Park in Pakchong, Thailand.  So my friend Rachel and I left Friday evening from our respective cities and headed to Bangkok.  The ride from our town to Bangkok was horrendous because the driver was driving like a maniac.  Anyway, we arrived safely in Bangkok and then took a bus from Bangkok to Pakchong.  Khao Yai National Park became Thailand's first national park in 1862.  The park is home to an abundance of wildlife including gibbons, birds, elephants and many other species of animals.  Our adventure started around 9am and included a 2-hour hike and waterfall visits and ended around 7pm with bat watching.  We saw a white handed gibbon, numerous birds and an elephant!!!  The day was great and now I want to do more hiking in Thailand!!!  Here are some pics from the adventurous day!!!


Always learning,

Charmel

Blue scorpion

Rachel and I

White-handed gibbon

Leech socks

monkey!!

Haew Suwat Waterfall 

being silly

Nothing like a mother's love

Yes, I see you Mr. Elephant!!

Loi Krathong

Hello all,

     Loi Krathong is a festival that takes place on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month of the Thai calendar.  This year it took place on November 17, 2013.  The Krathongs are made out of banana trunks and lotus flowers.  The bright light from the full moon makes the river clear for floating the Krathongs.   There are many purposes for the festival but the main one that I hear about is to ask forgiveness Pra Mae Khongkha and also ask for good fortune.  Also many Thai's release the Krathongs as a symbol of letting go all grudges, anger and negative thoughts.

     As I was walking to catch the songthaew to go to the mall last Saturday, I saw this guy with a chainsaw cutting up this huge, long tree stump.  I thought that it was a bamboo tree but then my friend told me that bamboo trees are hollow.  So, I asked one of the merchants at the stand what kind of tree it was, that was an epic fail.  I continued on my journey home and I saw my friend Anna and she was buying some of these cylindrical pieces so I asked her what they were.  She told me that they were banana trees, problem solved.  Then she said "Loi Kratong" in her loud boisterous Thai accent.  So, I later learned that the base of the Krathongs are banana stumps.  They then take these Krathongs and wrap them with banana leaves and flowers for decoration.   A candle and incense is placed in the middle of the Krathong and you light it before you release your Krathong into the river.  The purpose of the candle and incense is for honor and praise to the original Buddha.

Yi Peng, another Thai festival also coincides with Loi Krathong and in Chiang Mai they have a big lantern festival on the same day.  Here in Rayong at the sea, they had lanterns but we did not participate.  We were able to see some of the lanterns floating in the sky though.

I have some pictures from the bare banana stumps to an actual finished product of a Krathong.  They are really beautiful and I wish that my crafty self could have made one.  All in all, I really enjoyed the festival and learned something new in the process.  I did say a prayer as my Krathong floated away.

Always learning,

Charmel

banana trunks

   

banana trunks - bases of the Krathongs

 Krathong

Krathong

Borden, Charles and me with our Krathongs

Lanterns floating in the sky

PLEASE don't jump on me!!

Sawadee ka,

     I had one of the most UH-mazing experiences last Sunday.  I had the pleasure of going to Lopburi, Thailand to the annual monkey festival.  As I was eating breakfast at my hotel, I overheard a young couple speaking English.  I made my way to their table and starting conversing with them.  We chatted and decided that we would go to the festival together.  Yeah, I was traveling alone, it was not my original plan, but sometimes you gotta do it.  We took a songthaew to the center of town and proceeded to the Khmer ruins.  We were greeted by monkeys before we entered the gate where the festival was being held.  As we are walking around and they are feeding the monkeys peanuts, we noticed a lady with a slingshot.  She was there to keep the monkeys away from the buffet that they were arranging for them because the ceremony did not start until 10am.  The monkeys came down and they had a feast!! I was able to get some GREAT pics and also some video of them.  I am going to TRY and upload the video to this post!!

The monkeys are long-tailed macaques and highly revered in Thai culture.  Thai people view monkeys are heroic deity since they saved Sita, the wife of Lord Ram from the clutches of a demon (http://www.fest300.com/festivals/lopburi-monkey-banquet). The monkeys literally run the city wild and free, I was just hoping they would not poop in my hair as they were running along the power lines. I met up with some other guys from my group and we had great time.  I have NEVER been this close to a monkey in my life and I am glad that I did not get bit.  The festival was great and I highly recommend it to anyone that comes to Thailand.  The monkey's are ALWAYS in the town BUT the festival is once a year, the last Sunday in November.

Always learning,

Charmel

monkey police (water bottle weapon of choice BUT he did not hit the monkey's)

monkey police (she did not shoot the monkey's with anything)

Lotions, Potions and Creams...

Good evening,

As you all know, I have been in Thailand now for about 1 month.  Everything is going well, I have decreased my rice consumption to ONCE a day, if that.  I have also found an aerobics class that meets close to my apartment.  The class is HARD for me PLUS it is EXTREMELY hot in Thailand, so I sweat profusely during the class.  Now on to the real reason for this post.....

A great thing about traveling and exploring new parts of the world, is learning things about their culture.  I am pretty sure some of you all have heard of about this phenomenon before but this is from first-hand experience.  When I first arrived, I went to the supermarket to buy some beauty products.  I was looking for some soap and lotion and noticed that on some of the products it said "whitening".  The deodorant even contained whitening agents!!  I QUICKLY put those products down and avidly looked for the products that did not contain whitening products.  I asked around about this, and I was told that in Thai culture, the lighter your skin is, the more acceptable you are in society.  In Thai culture, they believe that when you have darker skin you are not well off.  The dark skin people are usually stereotyped as migrant workers, farmers or food vendors, which in Thai society are deemed poor.

So, I went to the beach a few weekends ago and I noticed that ALL, well most of the Thai females were swimming FULLY clothed.  Also,when walking down the street on a sunny day, they will usually carry umbrellas so that they will not get darker.  This is a normal way of Thai culture and all we can do as non-Thai people is accept the facts.

Always learning,

Charmel

School pics!!

Friday November 8, 2013

Greetings,

I took my camera to school today and got some photos of my colleagues and a few students.  I also managed to snap a pic of the other foreign teachers that work with me as well.  Typhoon Haiyan dumped a lot of rain in Rayong today and the wind was blowing really hard at one point but it only lasted a couple of hours.  I played bingo with one of classes and they LOVED it and they requested prizes for the next time.  The kids are generally well behaved, besides some of them talking too much.  So, ALL of the students greet the teacher with "Good muhning teacha, how are you?"  Then I answer and they have a seat.  I wanted to get a video of that today but I was not able to.  Next week I will get a video of them and I will post it so stay tuned!!!


Always learning,

Charmel

The guys: l-r: (Jay, Borden and Rob)

Fish sauce (they use this stuff like vinegar)