Laundry Day

Did that all that dirt really come out of my clothes? They didn't look that dirty when they went in!

Kata Beach

View of a storm as seen from the back of a tuk-tuk on the way to Kata beach.

Nothing but sunshine at Kata:

Nicole shows off her lovely road rash from her motorbike experience:

(Watch out for the leathered 'Booby Woman' in the background!)

Night Out On Patong

Ross' birthday celebration + my one year of freedom anniversary + Patong Beach = not at all good things (but very fun times).

Bye Bye Birdie ==sniff==

On my way to class Wednesday I was startled by a pigeon flying around frantically in the hallway. It had flown into one of the small open windows in the stairway and couldn't find its way back out. I could tell it was extremely stressed out as it kept flying from window to window. I didn't think much of it at the time though, thinking eventually it would find its way back out.

Yesterday morning when I opened my door, I was surprised to see the same bird perched on the top stair right outside my door. "Hello little thing," I said. I didn't move an inch and seemed to not even notice me. It was breathing very heavily and obviously in a state of shock. I thought if I got it in my room and opened the door to the balcony it would find its escape.

So I got a piece of cardboard and a blanket and set forth to scoop it up and take it outside. This, however, seemed to awaken it from its shock and it took off flying, right into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Ouch. From there I attempted the catch again, and again it took off back up the stairs. Stair by stair we climbed until I finally got the poor little thing into my bedroom and closed the door. By this stage I could tell it was pretty dehydrated, so I filled an ashtray up with water and pushed it near.

I kept on trying to herd it toward the water, but it seemed pretty oblivious at that point and even walked right through it a time or two. I had to get to class, so I managed to wrangle the bird out onto the balcony and left the ashtray of water out there with it.

I checked on the bird several times throughout the day and when I went to bed at night, it was still out on the balcony with the water. I was hoping I would wake up in the morning and it would be gone.

However, when I woke up this morning, the poor little thing hadn't made it. Now I have a dead bird on my balcony and I'm not really sure what to do with it. Rest in peace little thing.

Street Food, Cheers!

I love getting food from the street vendors here. Most of the time I have no idea what I'm ordering and I am rarely disappointed with my choice. Tonight I went with something a little more obvious, if not brutal.

They take a live catfish, shove a bamboo skewer down its throat to do it in, the roast it over glowing coals. I'm pretty sure this would be an act of animal cruelty back home.

Grilled catfish and cold beer. Cheer!

Welcome, and Please Take Out Your Shoes

I am used to taking off my shoes when I enter someone's house, but I am still getting used to taking off my shoes when entering a business.

East Meets West

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country, but since Phuket is such a popular destination for western tourists, Christmas decorations and holiday decorations litter the island, often quite jarringly. Coming across this Buddhist temple with a Christmas tree inside was quite a spectacle.

Last week, a group of us visited a little bar around the corner from the school to listen to a Thai guy play an acoustic set on guitar. The picture of Geoff posing with the Christmas stocking was taken at this little hole-in-the-wall.

The Thai guy sings a mixture of Thai song and western songs, often butchering the words of songs we know very well. Listening to him sing Oasis or the Beatles or even 'Happy Birthday' was funny the first couple of times. However, his sound system is very loud and my bedroom window happens to face the direction of the bar. Having been serenaded to a butchered version of the Cranberries 'Zombie' at two in the morning for the third time in a week, the novelty is losing it's charm. Especially since we have begun to teach this week.

Being thrown into the classroom this quickly was a bit of a surprise, but my first day went rather well as I taught a lesson on singular and plural regarding 'things that can be counted.' "Can you count bananas?" Yes. "Can you count water?" No, but you can count bottles of water. Some water, a bottle of water two bottles of water. Etc., etc.

Perhaps the most interesting part of teaching so far are the names. Some Thai keep their given names and spell them out in English phonetically. Other chose English names for themselves. My favorites so far: Jib, Joke, New and everyone's personal favorite, Gun.

Phi Phi Don

Snorkeling the Phi Phi Islands

Phi Phi Bound

Heading out to Phi Phi Islands with some TEFL students for the weekend.

The bow of the boat seemed like a perfect place to enjoy our early morning ferry ride...

... until we all quickly got soaked and stayed that way for the next two hours.

Approaching the islands: Phi Phi Don on the left and Phi Phi Leh on the right.

20 baht fee for exiting the ferry:

View from our bungalow:

It's going to be an awesome weekend.

Ai, ai, ai

Late nights with Latvians are very fun, but make for painful early mornings at class with grammar. The Norwegians have a word for this feeling and this word is "Uff da."

Looking for sustenance today, I decided to chose adventurous. The results were mixed.

Grass Jelly Drink:

Verdict: Vile. I am no closer now to knowing what grass jelly is than I was before buying this drink, but I think it may involve straining the juice from a rotting bag of refuse and adding a hint of licorice flavoring.

Cuttlefish Crackers:

Verdict: Pretty tasty. Imagine shrimp-flavored Funyuns stamped into the shape of cross-hatched calamari bits.

Food Cart Mystery Meat:

Verdict: Delicious. I call this game 'point, pay, eat.' Point at something interesting, hand over some cash and dig in. I have no idea what I was eating, but I liked all of it. I will be playing this game more in the future.

Pretty in Pink

Q: Why are three Latvians running about Phuket Town in matching pink polo shirts?

A: "So we don't lose each other."

Thanks for an entertaining night boys.

Coffee To Go

Three of my fellow students and I decided to get up early and run up Rang Hill this morning. There is a small fitness park with very concrete and steel bars in the lower half of the park and we thought it would be a good workout. Indeed. Jena, the leader of our fearless group, ran cross-country for her university team last semester, and it is clear that she is MUCH better shape than the rest of us. As the three of us lesser runners were walking to catch our breath three-quarters of the way up, Jena came careening back down around a switchback. "Hey guys, you might want to be a more quiet around this next corner -- there's a monk walking up the hill up ahead. They do their morning meditation walking up this hill sometimes, so you should probably be respectful when you pass." And with that she took off back up the hill.

Feeling guilty at our walking pace and being essentially lapped, we resolved to resume running at the next switchback, and there -- halfway up the next stretch of road -- was indeed a monk, clad in an orange robe, walking up the hill. meditating. He turned and stared at us as if we were crazy as we huffed and puffed our way past him. First a young, spry, wiry blond-haired woman passes him, then runs back down the hill, disappears around the corner, only to reappear, pass him once again and blaze up the hill. And no sooner than she is out of sight do three out of shape Americans come laboring up the hill, wheezing and struggling slowly by. It must have been quite a sight.

After a quick shower, Jena and Ross -- one of the other two runners -- and I headed out to get some breakfast. About six blocks away from the school we came across a mother and daughter who had a food cart in front of their house. After some broken English communication, Ross had ordered what he thought was two eggs and toast, I had chosen some pre-prepared mystery food from one of several pots, and Jena set off to find some coffee.

When the food came, it turned out Ross had actually ordered two plates of egg fried rice with vegetables (which looked fantastic). Jena came back with the coffees...

... (it seems as though everything you order to go here come in baggies -- even scalding hot liquids) and found herself with Ross' extra plate of fried rice. Both agreed it was excellent.

And after devouring what was on my plate, I still have no idea what I had eaten. My best guess is some sort of spicy ground fish with rice.

At any rate, this little inconspicuous mom 'n' pop operation has been a big hit and we all agreed we would be coming back for more. These are the kinds of experiences I have come to Thailand for and I hope I have many more to come.

I Do Not Like Monkeys

After classes today, hiked to the top of Rang Hill just up the street behind the school here. There is a park at the top of the hill that is known for its views of the island, its monkey population and its stray dogs. The climb up the hill is extremely steep and very sharp switchbacks are overgrown with jungle plants. Drivers on motorbikes come flying down it two and three passengers deep and if you're not careful, you will be run over. It took me about forty minutes to get to the top and this is the view that I found:

And monkeys. I found lots of monkeys. I thought they were cute at first, like this guy:

He sat quietly playing with a nut shell while I snapped a few photos of him, then when I stood up to go take some photos of other monkeys, he bared his teeth and charged at me. It scared the crap out of me. Then I noticed other monkeys were attacking an elderly couple who had just run out of peanuts and another group of monkeys were screeching at a young couple holding hands who were just passing by and then I saw this guy pulling wires out of a lamp post:

And it was decided. I do not like monkeys. They scare me. They scare me almost as much as this sign for the bathroom:

I am curious -- but not quite curious enough -- to find out just what "The Breeze of Toilet" entails.