Ko Tao... then Midterms

Sorry this post is so delayed... the trip to Ko Tao was amazing but right when we got back I had three midterms to study for.

So to get to Ko Tao we took an overnight bus, which just so happened to be decorated by Nemo :)

The group of us heading down consisted of 5 girls and 5 guys. On the bus we randomly ran into a college friend of one of the girl's traveling with us. The friend was with his two brothers, one sat next to me on the bus. The guys was younger than my brother but happened to be a pretty huge guy and well it turned out that when he sleeps he cuddles... so i spent the 8 hour bus ride attempting to sleep while this 18 year old large Australian boy attempted to cuddle with me. But don't worry, I asked his brothers about it later and they said it was normal, the last bus trip they had taken to Chang Mai he had done it to an elderly Thai woman. I don't think she dealt with it quite as well as I did though. 

The crew (Niko, Sam, Rachel, Antoine, and in front... Issac)

We arrived in Ko Tao around 11 am the next day and searched Hat Sairee (Sairee Beach) for a bungalow.

On the ferry to Ko Tao... finally made it!

It was so nice to see a beach!

Our taxi ride to Hat Sairee was the back of a pickup truck

Our Bungalow!

They're serious about helping the marine life

Once we were settled we grabbed some lunch on the beach and were in the ocean and laying on the beach for the afternoon.

A couple of us went to try to climb some rocks on the north end of the beach but unfortunately, only about 3 hours after we arrived on the island, two people slipped and cut themselves on the rocks. One ended up with stitches while the other was just bandaged up, but all the wounds were on their feet. So we spent a majority of the late afternoon searching for good antibacterial ointment and bandages and crutches for our friends. However I did get some good pictures from the rocks (I managed to climb them safely) and of some much more upscale bungalows that were part of a resort on the north end of the beach. It was a paradise pretty much. Things you see in movies.

Scene of accident

Hat Sairee

The Bungalows we couldn't afford

That night we had dinner on the beach at a barbeque place. We ate here on the last night too so I could get snapper. basically they grill a fish on a plate, the whole thing. It was soo good. The seafood here was amazing. Then we explored some of the nightlife on the island. Ko Tao, Ko Samui, and Ko Phangan are three island all within a short ferry ride of each other and known for their great snorkeling, beaches, and nightlife pretty much.

At night there were lots of entertainers twirling fire. Most were young adults, apparently they start young though

The next morning Rachel (the girl who cut her feet) and I had a lovely breakfast on the beach and then I explored the beach a bit more with some of the other exchange students.

Breakfast beachside

We found some snorkels and went snorkeling. I found a big school of coral feeding fish around the coral right in the bay of our beach.

That day more exchange students from Chula showed up and we had a big game of volleyball on the beach until sunset. Not only was the game hilarious because of all these different people from different cultures playing volleyball (most of which weren't very good at it, no offense) but the beach we were on was on the west side of the island so we had an amazing view of the sunset.

The next day, most of the exchange students paid for a snorkeling boat tour which took us around the southern end of the island to Shark Bay (where they said there would be lots of sharks but their definitely weren't, I did see a turtle though!), Mango Bay, Hin Wong Bay, and Ko Nang Yuan island. The snorkeling was amazing and it was just nice to be on a boat. We ended up going around the entire island and the Ko Nang Yuan island we stopped at had some amazing views of the ocean, beaches, and of Ko Tao. When we got back to the island most of us were pretty tired so while some of the boys napped, me and 3 of the girls went and got oil massages right on the beach. It was heaven.

Everyone on the boat

Noggin... dude

Snorkeling in Shark Bay

Viewpoint from Ko Nang Yuan

North end of Ko Tao from Ko Nang Yuan

We left the next day and made it back to Bangkok at about 2:00 am Monday morning. That morning I had a field trip with my Vehicle Acoustics class to the Jaguar, Bentley, and Porsche manufacturer in Bangkok. It was an all day thing pretty much, we got to see some really cool cars, including all of cars belonging to the royal family (all roll royce of course). We also saw Jaguar's new diesel engine and we observed some of the acoustical adaptations in the cars. Since our class has only 9 students, two of which are exchange students, and our professor is quite young, it made the experience really cool because it was quite intimate and we got to talk one on one with professor, who really makes an effort to help us understand.

Jaguar Diesel Engine

All Jaguar engines have sensors that can send signals to this computer which analyzes why something went wrong. They now can do this through satellite so this machine can analyze any Jaguar engine in the world.

Apparently there are only two of these in Thailand

In Thailand there is a HUGE tax on cars so if you have one, especially a nice one, it is usually a sign that you are pretty well off. I think the price of cars is almost double than in the United States

Porsche

The rest of last week was left to studying pretty much. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had two midterms and today (Wednesday) I had one so I spent most of last weekend getting ready for those. I did take some time to go see the movie No Strings Attached at the cinema in MBK. In Thailand at the beginning of every movie you have to stand for about 3 minutes while they show a clip of the King. We also went back to that sushi buffet place. So delicious. I can't get over it.

So now midterms are over and I'm off to Ko Chang (Elephant Island) where there is a national park with cool waterfalls and elephants. Supposedly you can swim with elephants as well. And it's an island so I'll a little more beach time in. Then next week I have one more midterm then I am moving rooms. Rachelle (my roommate now) and I are moving in with two girls from Singapore so that we can pay a little less rent. I'm very excited, the two girls came with us to Ko Tao and they are great. Then Kayla Gebeck is coming! Kayla is in my sorority back at school and has been studying in New Zealand for the winter term. I can't wait.

Rachelle is on the right and my soon to be roommates Anjali and Isabel are on the left

Ok sorry this is so long. I'll try to update this a little more often from now on...

Heading to Ko Tao!

It's Wednesday today and tonight we are heading to Ko Tao!!! Also known as Turtle Island (Ko = island, Tao = turtle). Ko Tao is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to scuba dive and snorkel. Although I don't think I will have time to take a scuba class I will definitely be snorkeling. Southern Thailand is also very well known for its seafood, another thing I'm looking forward to.

So this week started off with me getting up at 6:00 am on Monday morning to find that the Super Bowl was not broadcast on any of the channels in Thailand so we had to go to a sports bar to watch the game. I got to see the last part of the 2nd half, halftime, and most of the 3rd quarter then I took a motorbike taxi to school (so cool!). Watching the game was a blast. I haven't seen that many Americans in one place since I've been in Southeast Asia. Made me feel at home :) Two of the guys on the exchange are also from the US, and they are both from Wisconsin so that made the experience even better haha. Go Green Bay!

Monday night we also discovered an all you can sushi restaurant for only 288 baht, which is less than $10. It was amazing. There is a buffet of all kinds of sushi, dessert, fruit, then are your table there is an inductance pot with broth in it and little plates on conveyor belts around the restaurant with raw meet and vegetables you can cook in the pot on your table. It was the best dinner ever.

Tuesday I had class in the morning and afternoon, then at night I went to play some volleyball with Eye. Her and I and one of Eye's coaches were the only girls there, the rest are men, so we played on a men's net but it was still good volleyball. I'm still pretty rusty but it's nice to be able to touch a ball. They also play with the international ball which is a little different than what we use at home but it's not too bad. So out of the 30 guys there were there to play volleyball with us about 3 were "real men" (that's what Eye and Ploy, another vball girl, call them) meaning on three of them are straight. haha. Being gay or a "ladyboy" in Bangkok is not something out of the norm at all. It is very accepted in this society which is very different from the US I think. They've gotten past all prejudice and it's just a normal way of life here. It's almost like the cool thing to do haha. But I think that is just in Bangkok, not for all of Thailand.

So I'm off to class from 4-7 then we leave on our overnight bus at 8! I can't wait!

Back in Bangkok

After arriving back in Bangkok from our two week trip in Vietnam, Rachelle and I were pretty worn out. For the next day and a half we laid by the pool, read our books we bought in Vietnam, ate some good Thai food and got Thai massages!
Unbeknownst to us, Thai massages are not quite like real massages. It's a lot more stretching, and stepping on, and digging their elbows into you. Basically I was in more pain when I left the place than I was when I went in. It's the experience that counts though right?

Later that weekend we went to the weekend market with some of the other engineering exchange students. This market is insane. One of the biggest I've seen, and one of the hottest. You basically go in and get lost, so we each had our buddies and looked around for a few hours then hung out in the park nearby for a bit.

This woman was just frying some fish next to her tshirt stand. No big deal

All the animals had clothes... it was really sad. I even saw a squirrel in a clown outfit

I almost bought these guys

Shout out to Jenny Caren

That night we went to Lumphini Park, not to far from Chula, to see a free concert. There was the symphony orchestra which played the Pirates of the Caribbean Theme song and was back up for a female performer who sang Abba and this Thai boy band who played at the end. It was great!
Then we went for Japanese and great restaurant that just so happened to be pretty much in the red light district. Luckily it was early in the night and it was Sunday so we didn't see too much haha.

Monday classes started up again and that week and this last week we pretty much got our classes squared away. I ended up having to drop one class and take another but overall I'm figuring it out I think. Classes aren't too hard, especially in the amount of work you have to do every night, but they're usually three hours long. Having class for that long of time, even with a 20 minute break in the middle, is so difficult, so it's going to take some getting used to. Also without the constant homework, it makes it harder to stay on top of your work and therefore harder to study at midterms I'm assuming. So we'll see how that goes. The Thai way of learning is also very different in that because there isn't much work besides the test, most students either don't come to class or don't pay attention in class so it's rather hard to motivate yourself while everyone around you is not really attempting to learn.

Traditional Building at Chula- The campus is amazing. All the buildings are open and most things are outside. A lot different than Dartmouth

On the other hand, the Thai students have been more than nice. They always come up and ask how I am and where I'm from. At lunch I often go with one classmate and two of my exchange friends and my Thai friend teaches us Thai then my exchange friends teach us French. I don't really have a lot to offer since everyone knows English but I'm learning a lot.
Speaking of learning Thai, we started Thai class the first Monday back. We have two classes a week until the end of February. So far we've learned how to order pretty much any kind of food, we've learned numbers, time, and a few sentence structures. At Evergreen (where I'm staying) and the restaurants in the area, the Thai people are very helpful when we attempt to practice our Thai.

In addition to classes, I got back in touch with my volleyball friend Eye. I got to play volleyball once last week and then went to dinner with her and her volleyball friends for her birthday. We went to a restaurant right on the river that had live music, featuring Ladyboys so that was a treat. The restaurant was set up so that you sit a big long table with multiple cookers at each table. Then there is a large buffet of raw meat so you go and pick what you want and bring it back and cook it. It was the coolest thing ever. All you can eat too. Plus there was dessert. It was amazing. Then later that night Jess Zarker, a friend from my sorority at Dartmouth, came to Evergreen with her brother and we all got to hang out for the night. It was so cool to be with more Dartmouth people when we're halfway across the world. Kinda crazy though.

Volleyball at the Chula Games!

Men's Semifinal match

That little box there to the right of the coach is a buzzer. When he wants a time out he calmly presses that. I think the US should adopt this approach

This last Wednesday through the weekend was Chinese New Year so on Thursday night after Thai class we headed to Chinatown for dinner. There were thousands of people there! The streets were packed with people... and lots and lots of food. It was great.

Wat in Chinatown! (Wat = church/temple)

The Gang

Chinese Opera... and a lot of people

The king! He's everywhere. Every store, restaurant, bar, bathroom, has his picture

Year of the Rabbit!

Soooo many people... and so much food!

After Chinatown we headed back near Evergreen and enjoyed some live music at the bar across the street.

This last Saturday was the big Chula vs. Thammasat soccer game. Everyone for Chula sports their pink while Thammasat is in red and yellow. Outside MBK, the big shopping center, there are parades and dancing and all sorts of festivities before the match, which was played at the National Stadium, right down the road from the mall and from Evergreen. After a great lunch with Eye and Rachelle, we met up with the exchange students for the match. Each school has a section on opposite sides of the field and puts up signs so that the whole section spells out something or creates a picture. The things they made were quite elaborate. There was basically bantering going on between the two sides the entire match and on top of that there were shows on each end of the field, often staring Ladyboys :)
There were also probably 5 sets of cheerleaders, each with a different and equally ridiculous outfit, a bit different than the US.
In the end Chula won!!! 3-1. Which I guess is a rare event so YAY! GO CHULA!

National Stadium

Rachelle, Eye, and I (haha)

The teams (Chula is in pink)

After Thammasat scored the first goal

The King of course

Cheerleaders?

Yes we actually watched some soccer too

Chula WINS!!!

Then on Sunday Rachelle, Sam, Issac, and I took a water taxi and headed towards the Rattanakosin area (where the Grand Palace, National museum, etc. are). Using our Chula ID's and our swiftness, we managed to see everything for free which was great. We saw Wat Po, the Grand Palace, and the Royal Barges Museum. It was nice to finally see some of the traditional things in Bangkok. The architecture is amazing, everything is so ornate and intricately decorated. However, it was extremely hot, and it's just supposed to get hotter. You think your body would adjust but for some reason mine hasn't managed to do that yet.

Water Taxi right near our hotel - 8 Baht (about 30 cents)

Wat Po

Wat Po- it was sooo hot out

Reclining Buddha at Wat Po- he was huge! His feat are made of pearl

You're not allowed to point your feet at the Buddha

Golden Chedi at the Grand Palace

Royal Guard outside where the King and Royal family actually live

Rachelle, Sam, Issac and I in front of some audience halls and strange trees at the Grand Palace

Water Taxi... some how we didn't pay for this?

So now it's Superbowl Sunday so I'm going to get up at 6:00 am and make some eggs and watch Green Bay with a couple of my exchange friends from Madison. Then class at 9:30... yay!

So class Monday morning (Biochemistry) Thai class at 4:30. Tuesday Control Engineering 9-12 and Fluid Mechanics 1-4 then volleyball at 5. Then Wednesday Biochemistry at 9:30 again and Vehicle Acoustics (my new class) from 4-7 then we're leaving for Ko Tao (Turtle Island) for a long weekend! I can't wait to finally get to a beach!

That's all for now :)