Change is mandatory, growth is optional.
Advice my dad gave me years ago. These are also the words that helped me in my transition from living in the states, to living in Korea. They are also words that can be applied to so many things in life.
I have been working in Korea for 6 months now. In those 6 months, I have grown quite close with my students. I have been with them for 5 days a week and I have seen them grow so much, both physically and academically. It is only natural that I have formed bonds with each of them and that they play a big part in my life. About a month and a half ago I learned one of my favorite kids was moving to the states. I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites but let's be honest, we all know our teachers had favorites when we were in school. I was so sad when I heard this news, I almost had tears in my eyes. He was such is such a cute little guy and such a sweet kid; he was almost like my Toby replacement.
The month before he left, he was gone quite a lot, saying good bye to family and friends around the country. And he was so sad. When he was at school, he was always on the verge of tears and a few times he did start crying. The week before he left, it was the end of the day and I was giving him a hug good-bye and he looked up at me with his big brown eyes and stuck his lip out and said, "10 more days." So sad! I wanted to cry then and there. He was only at school about 5 days of his last 2 weeks and with about 3 days to go, we were walking up the stairs after lunch and he looked up at me and asked, "Katie teacher, will you miss me when I leave?" So precious!
Three days later, it was his last day. We threw a little party for him and gave him a few good bye gifts. I had all the kids make a card for him, took his picture with all his classmates, laminated all of them and made a little book for him for a keepsake. As the party was winding down and "home time" was getting closer and closer, him and his classmates were realizing what was about to happen. Justin, the boy leaving, was quite sad, as was his best friend Ian. I have to say his teacher was very sad as well.
We said our good-byes and I assured him that he would have so much fun in the U.S.A. I will miss Justin but like the saying goes, change is mandatory, growth is optional.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Islands, Caves, and our last days in Thailand...Part III
Thursday started bright and early for us. This was our day for our island tour. We signed up for a full day of snorkeling, kayaking, and island hopping. We had our expectations set quite high, we had heard nothing but great things about the sights we would see on this boat trip, turns out we may have had those sights set too high.
We boarded the boat at 8:00am and were under the impression it was an hour and a half boat ride to the cluster of 40 islands for some snorkeling and kayaking. The boat took off around 8:30 with about 40 of us on board. It was moving quite slow and I thought it was going to be a long hour and a half. The views were gorgeous but I was just so anxious to get to the islands. Luckily, the 6 of us girls are quite outgoing and were quick to make friends with a wonderful French couple. They were there on holiday and they were a joy to talk to. And the husband made it his priority to get his picture with every one of us. Any other place I would have thought he was a creepy old guy but not in Thailand, and not on that boat.
And thankfully we had that couple to entertain us because our hour and a half boat ride was really about two and a half hours! As we got closer and closer to the islands, we got more and more excited. The views were already spectacular and I couldn't wait to get to shore and see it up close. The water was a gorgeous blue and the islands were absolutely beautiful.
We finally made it close to shore and they started unloading the kayaks for those who wanted to kayak. Diane and I were the only ones in our group of 6 who wanted to do this, so we got our life jackets and got ready to go. They threw the boat in the water for us and off we went. We didn't paddle that far but we went to this wonderful island where we got about 10 mins to look around and take pictures. It was beautiful and I felt like I was in a movie. After the 10 mins we got back in the boats and paddled to another beach. On the way, we paddled through a few "caves", which was really cool. We made it to another beach where those who had not kayaked were waiting. We were able to go swim and relax for about 20 mins before we got back on the big boat to eat lunch and go to the next beach to go snorkeling.
During lunch, we made our way over to the snorkeling beach. It was at this point that I was a bit disappointed. I had envisioned the snorkeling would be at a more remote island where there were little to no people. Boy was I wrong. We pulled up to the island and instead of it looking like an abandoned island of bliss, it was more populated than Mall of America at Christmas time. We got to shore and found some place in the shade to lay our stuff and relax. Before we even tried to go snorkeling, we talked to a few other foreigners on the beach and heard the snorkeling about as exciting as watching paint dry. So, instead of boring ourselves with looking at sand through goggles, we decided to venture off on our own. We heard there was a pretty cool cave to check out just up the beach so we decided to check it out. We headed up the beach and found the path to the caves. It wasn't an easy climb but it wasn't far and in about 20 mins we were in the cave. It was well worth the climb!! I'm not sure what kind of stone it was, but it looked a bit like huge icicles stacked on top of each other. I climbed a bit more into the caves and made it to a spot that looked up out the top and to the sky. I felt like I was in a National Geographic special. It was no doubt one of the highlights of the trip.
After the climb through the caves it was time to head home. We got our stuff together and loaded the boat one last time. It was again a long ride home but we filled the time by singing to Lindsey's iPod, which I'm sure all the other passengers loved.
We got back to Koh Samui around 5pm and we were taken back to our hotel. It was a long and tiring day but in the end, the sights and memories were well worth the trip.
The last two days on the island were pretty low key. We spent Friday lounging around on the beach and enjoying our last full day in paradise. We had a great last night in Thailand but we were all ready to go home.
Saturday brought clouds and a bit of rain. Even though rain on vacation is always a downer, we were very lucky with the weather during the week so we were okay with the gloominess. We spent the day relaxing and spending the Thai Bhat we had left as to not bring any home. We enjoyed one last meal of street food and packed our bags, ready to head to the airport. Our flight was at 10pm so we caught a cab around 8pm and said good-bye to the sun and surf we had enjoyed the past week.
Our flights home were long and tiring but we got back home safe and sound. Living on island time for a week made it a bit challenging to get back to real life. Work that Monday was a struggle. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult, but even more so after escaping to a tropical island.
I am proud to say I now have two more country stamps on my passport. Slowly but surely it is getting filled. Traveling is addicting.
We boarded the boat at 8:00am and were under the impression it was an hour and a half boat ride to the cluster of 40 islands for some snorkeling and kayaking. The boat took off around 8:30 with about 40 of us on board. It was moving quite slow and I thought it was going to be a long hour and a half. The views were gorgeous but I was just so anxious to get to the islands. Luckily, the 6 of us girls are quite outgoing and were quick to make friends with a wonderful French couple. They were there on holiday and they were a joy to talk to. And the husband made it his priority to get his picture with every one of us. Any other place I would have thought he was a creepy old guy but not in Thailand, and not on that boat.
And thankfully we had that couple to entertain us because our hour and a half boat ride was really about two and a half hours! As we got closer and closer to the islands, we got more and more excited. The views were already spectacular and I couldn't wait to get to shore and see it up close. The water was a gorgeous blue and the islands were absolutely beautiful.
We finally made it close to shore and they started unloading the kayaks for those who wanted to kayak. Diane and I were the only ones in our group of 6 who wanted to do this, so we got our life jackets and got ready to go. They threw the boat in the water for us and off we went. We didn't paddle that far but we went to this wonderful island where we got about 10 mins to look around and take pictures. It was beautiful and I felt like I was in a movie. After the 10 mins we got back in the boats and paddled to another beach. On the way, we paddled through a few "caves", which was really cool. We made it to another beach where those who had not kayaked were waiting. We were able to go swim and relax for about 20 mins before we got back on the big boat to eat lunch and go to the next beach to go snorkeling.
During lunch, we made our way over to the snorkeling beach. It was at this point that I was a bit disappointed. I had envisioned the snorkeling would be at a more remote island where there were little to no people. Boy was I wrong. We pulled up to the island and instead of it looking like an abandoned island of bliss, it was more populated than Mall of America at Christmas time. We got to shore and found some place in the shade to lay our stuff and relax. Before we even tried to go snorkeling, we talked to a few other foreigners on the beach and heard the snorkeling about as exciting as watching paint dry. So, instead of boring ourselves with looking at sand through goggles, we decided to venture off on our own. We heard there was a pretty cool cave to check out just up the beach so we decided to check it out. We headed up the beach and found the path to the caves. It wasn't an easy climb but it wasn't far and in about 20 mins we were in the cave. It was well worth the climb!! I'm not sure what kind of stone it was, but it looked a bit like huge icicles stacked on top of each other. I climbed a bit more into the caves and made it to a spot that looked up out the top and to the sky. I felt like I was in a National Geographic special. It was no doubt one of the highlights of the trip.
After the climb through the caves it was time to head home. We got our stuff together and loaded the boat one last time. It was again a long ride home but we filled the time by singing to Lindsey's iPod, which I'm sure all the other passengers loved.
We got back to Koh Samui around 5pm and we were taken back to our hotel. It was a long and tiring day but in the end, the sights and memories were well worth the trip.
The last two days on the island were pretty low key. We spent Friday lounging around on the beach and enjoying our last full day in paradise. We had a great last night in Thailand but we were all ready to go home.
Saturday brought clouds and a bit of rain. Even though rain on vacation is always a downer, we were very lucky with the weather during the week so we were okay with the gloominess. We spent the day relaxing and spending the Thai Bhat we had left as to not bring any home. We enjoyed one last meal of street food and packed our bags, ready to head to the airport. Our flight was at 10pm so we caught a cab around 8pm and said good-bye to the sun and surf we had enjoyed the past week.
Our flights home were long and tiring but we got back home safe and sound. Living on island time for a week made it a bit challenging to get back to real life. Work that Monday was a struggle. Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult, but even more so after escaping to a tropical island.
I am proud to say I now have two more country stamps on my passport. Slowly but surely it is getting filled. Traveling is addicting.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Motor Scooters...Thailand Part II
The third day in Thailand started just like every other day in Thailand, with an early morning run. I get up and run every morning before work in Korea, but there was just something so satisfying about getting up to run in Thailand. Maybe it was because I knew the rest of my day would be filled with relaxation and not kids asking me, "teacher, page what?" all day, but whatever the reason, it was wonderful.
After my run and fresh fruit breakfast, we resumed our positions in the sun on our beach chairs, staring at the Gulf of Thailand. After about 4 hours of sun bathing and switching between swimming in the infinity pool and the gulf, we decided to rent some motor scooters and explore the island of Koh Samui. We rented the scooters for 24 hours, and it was pretty cheap, but not all of us wanted to ride on our own. Brandy and I decided to split the cost and ride on one together. This seemed like a great idea at the time, save a bit of money and still have some fun, but neither one of us had ever driven one of these before, and now we were driving with someone else on the bike with us. I'm not sure how we missed the huge "DISASTER" warning written all over this idea, but even if we had seen it we probably would have chosen to ignore it.
Before we hit the open road, we each had a few practice runs. It went pretty well but I did not feel very comfortable driving with someone on the back. Never the less, Brandy fearlessly hopped on the back and off we went. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, in Thailand they drive on the left hand side of the road-made the trip a bit more interesting. We made our way out of the hotel parking lot and on to the Lamai walking street. We maneuvered our way through people and other moving vehicles, just a tad frighting, and made our way to the main road. To get to the main road, you have to go up a somewhat big hill and make a left onto the main road. This sounds easy enough, but when you don't' really know how to drive a motor scooter and when you have someone riding on the back, this is quite difficult. As we were climbing the hill and making our way to the intersection, we had to stop and wait for traffic. As I stopped, or tried to stop, I lost control of the scooter and we fell over. Luckily we weren't going very fast so the bike just fell over, unluckily the exhaust pipe fell right on Brandy's leg! I felt horrible!! She had a huge burn mark on her leg and she was in a bit of pain. She took it like a champ though, and continued on as we made our way to some sights around the island.
It was so great being able to explore the island on our own. We spent the rest of the day traveling around discovering new beaches and quite little coves that we would never see on a scheduled tour. The places we found were very peaceful, such a change from the beach we were staying on. And as we made our way from place to place, the landscape of palm tree mountains made me feel as if I was driving in a movie.
After about 3 hours of riding and exploring, we decided to head back since it was getting dark. We had only made it to the south part of the island and there was so much more to see on the north side. We had only rented the scooters for one day, we we had to have them returned by 1pm the next day, unless we rented them for another day....
When we got up the next day, and after my run, I decided I was not ready to give up my scooter just yet. So Hayley and I rented our scooters for another day so we could explore the north part of the island. After my much needed relaxation on the beach, well maybe "much needed" is taking it a bit far, we headed back out on the bikes (I think it can go without saying that Brandy was finished with the scooters). We wanted to check out Chawang beach. Lamai and Chawang were the two big beaches on Samui. We chose to stay on Lamai because it was more low key than Chawang and we wanted to have some quite and relaxation on our vacation. Even so, we wanted to check it out.
We made a few stops before we actually got to Chawang. We stopped at the Big Buddha Statue, which is exactly what it sounds like, a huge gold statue of Buddha. It was really cool, but it was clear it was just made for tourists and not an actual place people worshiped. After Big Buddha, we head to the beach. It was very pretty and the water was a beautiful shade of blue, but I thought our beach was more beautiful and I was very happy we had chosen to stay on Lamai. After we checked out the beach, we started making our way home. We rode back right along the coast, and I would have to say this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We stopped twice on the way home to see the gorgeous views of the island. We found another cove and stopped to take some pictures. The views made me speechless, which is hard to do! The water was crystal clear and three different shades of green and blue. The mountains were over flowing with palm trees and the sand was so white it looked like someone bleached the beach. The contrast of all the colors reflecting off each other was like nothing I had ever seen.
As I stood there, trying to take it all in, it was hard to realize that this was my life. I was standing in paradise. We took a few more pictures, the pictures couldn't capture the beauty of that place, and we made our way back to the scooters.
After we arrived back to the hotel, we parked our bikes and made our way back down to the beach. We swam a bit more, then headed into our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner.
Even though I had already rode an elephant and fed a baby tiger, and I knew I had more adventures like snorkeling and kayaking in front of me on this vacation, I would say that this day was my favorite part of the trip. The freedom of the scooters is something you can't get on a guided tour and the sights I saw is something I will never forget.
That being said, the next day was another adventure in itself......
After my run and fresh fruit breakfast, we resumed our positions in the sun on our beach chairs, staring at the Gulf of Thailand. After about 4 hours of sun bathing and switching between swimming in the infinity pool and the gulf, we decided to rent some motor scooters and explore the island of Koh Samui. We rented the scooters for 24 hours, and it was pretty cheap, but not all of us wanted to ride on our own. Brandy and I decided to split the cost and ride on one together. This seemed like a great idea at the time, save a bit of money and still have some fun, but neither one of us had ever driven one of these before, and now we were driving with someone else on the bike with us. I'm not sure how we missed the huge "DISASTER" warning written all over this idea, but even if we had seen it we probably would have chosen to ignore it.
Before we hit the open road, we each had a few practice runs. It went pretty well but I did not feel very comfortable driving with someone on the back. Never the less, Brandy fearlessly hopped on the back and off we went. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, in Thailand they drive on the left hand side of the road-made the trip a bit more interesting. We made our way out of the hotel parking lot and on to the Lamai walking street. We maneuvered our way through people and other moving vehicles, just a tad frighting, and made our way to the main road. To get to the main road, you have to go up a somewhat big hill and make a left onto the main road. This sounds easy enough, but when you don't' really know how to drive a motor scooter and when you have someone riding on the back, this is quite difficult. As we were climbing the hill and making our way to the intersection, we had to stop and wait for traffic. As I stopped, or tried to stop, I lost control of the scooter and we fell over. Luckily we weren't going very fast so the bike just fell over, unluckily the exhaust pipe fell right on Brandy's leg! I felt horrible!! She had a huge burn mark on her leg and she was in a bit of pain. She took it like a champ though, and continued on as we made our way to some sights around the island.
It was so great being able to explore the island on our own. We spent the rest of the day traveling around discovering new beaches and quite little coves that we would never see on a scheduled tour. The places we found were very peaceful, such a change from the beach we were staying on. And as we made our way from place to place, the landscape of palm tree mountains made me feel as if I was driving in a movie.
After about 3 hours of riding and exploring, we decided to head back since it was getting dark. We had only made it to the south part of the island and there was so much more to see on the north side. We had only rented the scooters for one day, we we had to have them returned by 1pm the next day, unless we rented them for another day....
When we got up the next day, and after my run, I decided I was not ready to give up my scooter just yet. So Hayley and I rented our scooters for another day so we could explore the north part of the island. After my much needed relaxation on the beach, well maybe "much needed" is taking it a bit far, we headed back out on the bikes (I think it can go without saying that Brandy was finished with the scooters). We wanted to check out Chawang beach. Lamai and Chawang were the two big beaches on Samui. We chose to stay on Lamai because it was more low key than Chawang and we wanted to have some quite and relaxation on our vacation. Even so, we wanted to check it out.
We made a few stops before we actually got to Chawang. We stopped at the Big Buddha Statue, which is exactly what it sounds like, a huge gold statue of Buddha. It was really cool, but it was clear it was just made for tourists and not an actual place people worshiped. After Big Buddha, we head to the beach. It was very pretty and the water was a beautiful shade of blue, but I thought our beach was more beautiful and I was very happy we had chosen to stay on Lamai. After we checked out the beach, we started making our way home. We rode back right along the coast, and I would have to say this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We stopped twice on the way home to see the gorgeous views of the island. We found another cove and stopped to take some pictures. The views made me speechless, which is hard to do! The water was crystal clear and three different shades of green and blue. The mountains were over flowing with palm trees and the sand was so white it looked like someone bleached the beach. The contrast of all the colors reflecting off each other was like nothing I had ever seen.
As I stood there, trying to take it all in, it was hard to realize that this was my life. I was standing in paradise. We took a few more pictures, the pictures couldn't capture the beauty of that place, and we made our way back to the scooters.
After we arrived back to the hotel, we parked our bikes and made our way back down to the beach. We swam a bit more, then headed into our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner.
Even though I had already rode an elephant and fed a baby tiger, and I knew I had more adventures like snorkeling and kayaking in front of me on this vacation, I would say that this day was my favorite part of the trip. The freedom of the scooters is something you can't get on a guided tour and the sights I saw is something I will never forget.
That being said, the next day was another adventure in itself......
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Thailand!! Part I
It's been way too long since I last wrote, but I have a pretty good excuse.....I was in Thailand! For someone who had never left the country before moving to Korea, well I had been to Canada but that doesn't count, a trip to Thailand had only been dreamed about! We had been planning this trip since we can to Korea 5 months ago. It had been talked about for so long, I thought it was just something we would talk about but would never happen. That's why the whole trip was so unreal, but also amazing, wonderful, and so hard to put into words. But god knows I'll try.
We, and by we I mean myself and 5 of the other foreign teachers. We left early Saturday morning, around 5:30am and we had a long day of traveling in front of us. We had layovers in Shanghai and Bangkok before finally arriving in Koh Samui at 9pm Saturday night. Even though it was a long day of traveling, once we got to the island we were so excited we didn't care about the 12 hour travel we had just endured.
We got a shuttle to our hotel, got in our rooms, and went straight to the beach. Even though we couldn't see anything, I could hear the waves crashing and feel the sand beneath my feet and I knew I was some place special. We spent Sunday just relaxing on the beach. We all got massages and pedicures on the beach and ate wonderful "street" food from the beach vendors. These vendors sold ,whole pineapples, grilled corn on the cob, and papaya salads, and for very very cheap. I think I probably ate about one whole pineapple each day, they were just so good!!
Sunday night we took it easy and found a good place to eat right on the beach. We discussed what we wanted to do that week and decided to sign up for the Elephant Trek the next day. The elephant trek consisted of viewing the mummified munk, riding an elephant, feeding a baby tiger, going to and swimming in a waterfall, visiting a "magical garden", and finally eating a Thai style lunch atop a mountain with magnificent views. After dinner we walked around to find the place to sign up for the trek, gave them our money and called it a night. It's amazing how much the sun really drains your energy.
I woke up early the next morning, and every morning really, to go for a run. It was interesting running in Thailand. First, they drive on the left side of the road so I had to get used to that. Also, there are A LOT of stray dogs. At first I was a bit scared they would start chasing me but they were quite friendly and didn't even flinch when I would run by. After my run, I met the others for breakfast and waited for our guide to pick us up for the days adventure. We stopped and picked up two other couples along the way, one pair was from Australian and the other from Sweden. They were all good people and fun to have on the trek.
Our first stop was the Mummified Monk. This was a man who had his body preserved for his family. It was a little creepy and gross but interesting all the same. After we saw that, we headed into the "jungle" to ride elephants. This was pretty cool! I got to actually sit on the elephant, like I was controlling him! A bit scary but unbelievable at the same time. After the elephant ride, I held and fed a baby tiger!! This was one of the highlights of the trip! It was so cute and so sweet but yet in the wild, a completely terrifying animal! After the animals came the trek to the waterfall. The 4X4 we were ridding in had places to sit on the top of the roof, so me and two others got to ride on top of the car as we climbed into the jungle. Let me tell you, this was one of the roughest, craziest, most fun rides I have ever been on! It was once again a bit terrifying but very cool all at the same time. Once we made it to the waterfall, we took pictures and went swimming. Even though this water was not the clearest, it was very very refreshing, and just really cool to be able to swim in a waterfall.
After the waterfall, we got back on the 4X4 and headed higher into the jungle to go to the "Magical Buddha Garden" and eat lunch atop a mountain with "magnificent views", these are not my words, these were the words the brochure used to describe the trek. I was back on top the 4X4 for the climb to the garden and I think I saw my life flash by eyes about 8 times with tree branches and power lines flying by my head! But we made it to the top safe and sound and walked around Buddhas "Magical" Garden for a bit. By this time we were all famished and ready for some grub,ewe climbed back in the 4X4 one more time and climbed higher to the top of the mountain for lunch. And they weren't kidding with the "magnificent views." It was breathtaking. No other way to describe it.
After lunch, we piled back in and made our way back to the hotel. We were all pretty beat so we decided to relax on the beach and swim a bit in the gulf, it was a rough life for a while I know! We showered up and headed out dinner. We were staying in a great place, we had food markets, restaurants, and shopping markets right outside our door. We found a restaurant and enjoyed some delicious Thai food. It was once again an early night, I think I was in bed by 10:30, but god did it feel good to sleep!!
Much more to come on Thailand...but if I wrote about the whole week in one entry you may never leave your computer. Part II to come shortly......
We, and by we I mean myself and 5 of the other foreign teachers. We left early Saturday morning, around 5:30am and we had a long day of traveling in front of us. We had layovers in Shanghai and Bangkok before finally arriving in Koh Samui at 9pm Saturday night. Even though it was a long day of traveling, once we got to the island we were so excited we didn't care about the 12 hour travel we had just endured.
We got a shuttle to our hotel, got in our rooms, and went straight to the beach. Even though we couldn't see anything, I could hear the waves crashing and feel the sand beneath my feet and I knew I was some place special. We spent Sunday just relaxing on the beach. We all got massages and pedicures on the beach and ate wonderful "street" food from the beach vendors. These vendors sold ,whole pineapples, grilled corn on the cob, and papaya salads, and for very very cheap. I think I probably ate about one whole pineapple each day, they were just so good!!
Sunday night we took it easy and found a good place to eat right on the beach. We discussed what we wanted to do that week and decided to sign up for the Elephant Trek the next day. The elephant trek consisted of viewing the mummified munk, riding an elephant, feeding a baby tiger, going to and swimming in a waterfall, visiting a "magical garden", and finally eating a Thai style lunch atop a mountain with magnificent views. After dinner we walked around to find the place to sign up for the trek, gave them our money and called it a night. It's amazing how much the sun really drains your energy.
I woke up early the next morning, and every morning really, to go for a run. It was interesting running in Thailand. First, they drive on the left side of the road so I had to get used to that. Also, there are A LOT of stray dogs. At first I was a bit scared they would start chasing me but they were quite friendly and didn't even flinch when I would run by. After my run, I met the others for breakfast and waited for our guide to pick us up for the days adventure. We stopped and picked up two other couples along the way, one pair was from Australian and the other from Sweden. They were all good people and fun to have on the trek.
Our first stop was the Mummified Monk. This was a man who had his body preserved for his family. It was a little creepy and gross but interesting all the same. After we saw that, we headed into the "jungle" to ride elephants. This was pretty cool! I got to actually sit on the elephant, like I was controlling him! A bit scary but unbelievable at the same time. After the elephant ride, I held and fed a baby tiger!! This was one of the highlights of the trip! It was so cute and so sweet but yet in the wild, a completely terrifying animal! After the animals came the trek to the waterfall. The 4X4 we were ridding in had places to sit on the top of the roof, so me and two others got to ride on top of the car as we climbed into the jungle. Let me tell you, this was one of the roughest, craziest, most fun rides I have ever been on! It was once again a bit terrifying but very cool all at the same time. Once we made it to the waterfall, we took pictures and went swimming. Even though this water was not the clearest, it was very very refreshing, and just really cool to be able to swim in a waterfall.
After the waterfall, we got back on the 4X4 and headed higher into the jungle to go to the "Magical Buddha Garden" and eat lunch atop a mountain with "magnificent views", these are not my words, these were the words the brochure used to describe the trek. I was back on top the 4X4 for the climb to the garden and I think I saw my life flash by eyes about 8 times with tree branches and power lines flying by my head! But we made it to the top safe and sound and walked around Buddhas "Magical" Garden for a bit. By this time we were all famished and ready for some grub,ewe climbed back in the 4X4 one more time and climbed higher to the top of the mountain for lunch. And they weren't kidding with the "magnificent views." It was breathtaking. No other way to describe it.
After lunch, we piled back in and made our way back to the hotel. We were all pretty beat so we decided to relax on the beach and swim a bit in the gulf, it was a rough life for a while I know! We showered up and headed out dinner. We were staying in a great place, we had food markets, restaurants, and shopping markets right outside our door. We found a restaurant and enjoyed some delicious Thai food. It was once again an early night, I think I was in bed by 10:30, but god did it feel good to sleep!!
Much more to come on Thailand...but if I wrote about the whole week in one entry you may never leave your computer. Part II to come shortly......
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