Coral Island

Welp - the first week of training is OVER!!! It was celebration time for us soon-to-be teachers!!! So Friday night we all headed into Rai Wai beach (a few of us had gone to the fish market up there the night before - think ‘pick out your own freshly caught fish, then have them cook it any way you want) for dinner, dancing, and drinks.

Once we got to Rai Wai beach and saw the bar, Laguna, which was our destination for the evening, we split up for dinner. A large group of us sat at a little cafe down the street from the bar and got some drinks and got some dinner. Timmy headed to 7-11 and came by with a surprise for me…..my first ICE in Thailand!!! Pshh…I got him back later!

After dinner (BTW - you can bring your own alcohol into anywhere, and even drink it on the streets) we headed to meet the rest of the group at Laguna, which was full of Thai women (most of them hookers), but we had such a large group we took the place over! Each bar in laguna had a different theme, ”Red Bar”, “Blue Bar”. “Snake Bar’, etc. Red bar had a huge bell, and everytime it rang you had to run over there as fast as you can and if you made it in time you got a free shot! The secret was whoever rang the bell had to pay 1000baht (about $33), and thats how the shots ended up being free for everyone else. I got a few free shots that way then tried to recruit people to ring the bell but noone fell for it!

Around 11pm the “back room” opened up - AC and drinks for 40baht!!! So the dance party was on!!! 3 of us girls wandered off at once point to explore and found another bar where we practiced our Thai with the bartender, and chatted with some Australians. Then we headed back to Laguna to join in the dance party. We ended up dancing till around midnight then we all headed home - as we had a BIG day planned for Sat. Which leads me to…

CORAL ISLAND!!!

Saturday morning we woke up and about 25 of us from the class met to go into Rai Wai Beach to Coral Island. Once at the meeting point at Rai Wai Beach, we took wooden motor boats and raced to the island. Once we got to the Coral Island, we set up shop in 2 large huts. Then it was time to start the party! We spent the day tanning, swimming, snorkeling, drinking, and just enjoying the day. We were on a secluded island, surrounded by more islands. We saw a Komodo Dragon, AND toucans!!

The whole day was completely relaxing and gorgeous - I can’t explain in words how awesome it was, but hopefully the pictures will show SOME of it.

Whelp, back to the beach for this girl!

Sawasdee Kha!
- Apes

Welcome to Paradise!

Phuket is AMAZING!! This morning after breakfast we decided to go exploring. We walked down to the beach and saw our South American friends (Jodi and Gavin). Then we went walking around the area and bartered for some beach towels. We talked them down 80 Baht! Ok, so if you do the conversion, it’s not a lot – but we were still excited. So we wandered back over to the beach and set up camp by Jodi and Gavin. The water was cool enough to be refreshing but not VA water cold. Tim and I played in the water and pretty much took in the gorgeous scenery. After a while, the 4 of us decided to get some lunch and we went to one of the Beach resturants. We were able to practice a little Thai wiith the server, saying ‘excuse me’, ‘thank you’, and ‘may I have the bill please’. Then we ended up walking around some before heading back to the hotel – at which we played a little volleyball in the pool. Around 3pm we headed over to meet with the rest of our English teachers to turn in some paperwork, then the 4 of us went back to the beach restaurants to grab a drink. On the way we stopped in a little convenience store and I got a woven fan. It was a GREAT BUY!!!!Then we got our drinks, and the guys got Thai Whiskey – I did not enjoy that at all. I got a “cococut punch” and it was served in a REAL cococut. Not like a plastic shaped one, but like they pulled one off a tree, machete-ed it open and poured in the drink. I WIN!!!! :) We did our first Thai toast “Chok dee ka” which is a good luck cheer. Look at us, learning the language already (well, not enough for a conversation though).After we chatted for a few hours about America and South Africa (they even asked us about Greek life because they watched the show Greek) we parted. Timmy and I came back to shower and do some internet business before dinner.Tomorrow we start our first teaching class – very exciting!!!

Sawasdee ka!
Apes :)

Hello Thailand!

This morning I woke up in Thailand. I woke up to warm weather, sounds of birds chirping, bugs buzzing, Timmy typing away on the computer outside (and watching VCU in the Final Four on his laptop) and thought “Wow. This is my new home!” Then we headed to breakfast in the lobby and had noodles, chicken, rice, fresh fruit (as in watermelon and pineapple!!), eggs, croissants, FRENCH TOAST!!, bread pudding, etc. Yup, it is PRETTY awesome here…but here’s how we got here.

During our few weeks of “retirement” from work Tim and I got our VISAs for working in Thailand, had our goodbye parties, saw our families, and packed our lives away to start our new adventure. Then it came – Thursday 3/31/2011 we headed to the airport for about 2 days of travel. We left out of Dulles airport Thursday evening and flew on Russian Airline, Aeroflot to our first layover – Moscow. The food on the plane was the best plane food I had eaten before (and while that isn’t saying much, it was actually pretty tasty). We had chicken and rice with green beans and a side salad with Cheesecake as dessert for the dinner meal and then for breakfast we had an omelet and a small side salad and shrimp. We spent the flight sleeping, snacking, and playing travel games we had picked up before we left the states.

Once in Moscow, we settled into the airport for our 6 hours. We got online and checked in with our families, and then of course we had to try Russian Vodka in Russia! We took a shot, and then grabbed a Russian beer. It tasted like the Russian version of Milwaukee’s Best but WAY more expensive. It was great to people watch – you could tell who was Russian because they were super attractive and dressed to the nines (just for the airport!). Once we got onto our next flight (2:40pm Russia time) we headed to Bangkok.

The flight felt a lot longer than our first flight, but that’s probably because we were just ready to be in Thailand already. There was a LOT of sleeping done on this flight, which was fine since we didn’t really travel over anything awesome to look at. But once in Bangkok we settled in for our next layover. We grabbed some Thai food, and I got something spicy – AND SURVIVED!! Also, I had the TASTIEST smoothie ever. I swear the watermelon smoothie was just watermelon put in a blender, I felt like I was eating a real watermelon through a straw. IT WAS SO TASTY!! Once it was time to get on our flight to Phuket (our final destination) we headed to the gate and boarded our final leg of the trip. It was a quick trip (about an hour and a half) and then we were there…our home for the next 3 weeks: Phuket, Thailand!!! We were EXCITED! So we went to our shuttle meeting location and made friends with another couple that were waiting, Joni and Gavin from South America. They were just married in December, and this is their first big adventure as hubby and wife. Our first Thailand friends!! JWe took the shuttle to Naiharn Beach to our resort: All Seasons Phuket and checked in. Driving through the island was really neat, tons of temple looking buildings, huge walls with paintings of the king, and everyone driving on the left side of the road! Once at the hotel we got our rooms – and it really does look (and feel) like we are staying in a tropical paradise.

After we unpacked a few things and took MUCH NEEDED showers we headed to do a little exploring. We went to a cute little restaurant beside the hotel and grabbed dinner: a large (wine bottle size) of beer, a mixed fruit smoothie, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts. It came out to like $12 in US dollars. Yeah, I like living like a king!! There were also a few dogs milling around, and they even got into a little fight! Who knew we’d get dinner AND a show! We also saw one of those same dogs this morning, so we know that dog isn’t on the menu tonight

*Side note: you may think that “Thai Food” is just called “food” over here, but we have already seen in a few restaurants over there that has a “Thai Food” section in their menu. It cracks me up each time!!

Afterwards, we walked down a block (if you can even call a few feet a ‘block’) to the beach – and WOW!! It looks like a secluded beach, with umbrellas and chairs, and a restaurant right to the side. Just a little spot of paradise! I’ll get pictures of that later today and post them on my pictures page. Whelp, that’s our trip here! Timmy should be back from the gym any minute, and room service should be knocking on our doors any minute, meaning it’s time to go exploring!!! :)

Sawasdee Ka!
- Apes :)

PS – Fanny packs are ALL THE RAGE here!!!