Northern Thailand

Got back from Cambodia (safe and sound) Friday night, though unfortunately too late for the meeting :( Then turned around, repacked my bag and Saturday night headed back to the train station. From there we took the night train to Chiang Mai, arriving at 2:30 the next day. Checked into a 200 baht guesthouse then headed to Chiang Mai English meeting.

Interestingly, their watchtower study was held using the simplified magazine, which was a first for me, and they had 104 in attendance even though they have only 40 publishers! Apparently it's high season in Chiang Mai.

After that we headed to the walking market. After Janelle's visit - and having bought 3 pairs of Thai comfy pants and totally pulling them off - Dayanna and I were on a quest for Thai pants and tees - I'd been in desperate need of clothing to kick about in, and had to leave most of my casual clothes in Bangkok since there wasn't time to wash them after Cambodia. We had a blast and a bit of a spree. I bought 3 pairs of pants a tee, tablets and post cards and heaps of delightful random food. Dayanna did likewise - 3 pants and 2 tees.

We got back late and went straight to bed after showering and packing to take off at 6:00am!! the next day. Then it was a bus to Thapan and a mad songtao ride to Mae Salong. For the first part of the trip 18 people were crammed in- sitting on the floor, and hanging off the back! Many were local hill tribe people. The scenery was stunning! And after the Songtao cleared out a bit we all took turns holding onto the back to see the view.

Mae Salong is a Chinese village in the mountains known for its tea farms. It one of Alanna's favorite places in Thailand to relax. It's been raining off and on all day so the town and mountains are covered in mist. It's surprisingly chilly, but each place has hot tea to warm you up.

 Halfway to Mae Salong!

 Where we ate lunch.

On the back of the Songtao.

We decided to splurge on a bungalow (a whole $15 a night!), then went to a cafe with a view for coffees, cocoas and lava cake - mmm... Followed by Chinese noodle soup, then we headed back to our bungalow to watch a movie - whereupon we all fell asleep :)

Views from the Songtao.

 At our Hotel - Terry in his market buy - it says Kon Thai - Thai person.

 At the cafe.

 Our room.

 Out and about in Mae Salong.

 Our lava cake -mmmmmmm

In front of the bungalow, Day and I in our market buys. So comfy!

Cambodia Pics

View from the Gecko Cafe.

Fountain on the "bike path" by the river.

View from my guest house. Pretty right?

My room. Felt very fancy :)

Me at the end of the day - Sorry you'll just have to turn your head as I can't figure out how to fix it on my PlayBook. I was hot, sweaty and sunburnt tho not as gross as after my day of traveling.  The windows on the train were left open - which made for a comfortable temperature but meant you got hit with all kinds of gunk - especially since people were burning stuff in their fields, and occasionally branches were smacked - at one point the car was filled with what looked like dandelion fluff!

                                          

This pic doesn't exactly do justice to just how dirty my feet tend to be at the end of the day, but it kind of gives an idea - dunno if I've said this before but I have a new appreciation for why they washed feet in Jesus day!

Side Trip to Cambodia

Wow can't believe it's been a month since my last post! Sorry about that! Time seems to get away from me here (ok so everywhere but especially over here). Hard to believe I'm half way through my six months in Thailand!

With that 3 month mark comes the need for a Visa run - I have to leave the country and return to renew my Visa for another two months, so on Terry and Alanna's advice I have took the 48 baht ($1.50) train to the Cambodia border. Bit of chaos getting through, but made it in one piece :)

Decided to stay in Battambang for two nights - with a trip to northern Thailand and Burma planned my schedule was a bit tight. Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia, but what drew me was that it's possible to navigate on foot - and you know I love me a town where I can avoid taxis etc.  Getting here took pretty much a full day in transit starting at 5 am! But I'm happy to have made it - and not just for the baguettes :)

I started the day by ramblings about a bit, heading in the general direction of the Gecko Cafe, which I'd been told had good food and was Witness owned.  I walked through a market for the experience but it was a bit too hectic and tight for my tastes - considered buying some grapes but the price was too dear.  It's hard not knowing the language again, and I find myself struggling to not talk to people in Thai! The trouble let is that in my head I know it isn't English, but Thai is the only nonEnglish language I really know and it's what I'm used to using at markets and about town, so I tend to automatically revert to it even though here I'm better off using English.

In walking about I found Battambang to be both quieter and more Chaotic than Bangkok, as odd as that may sound. It seems that here there is a great fondness for honking of the horn- even when it sometimes seems there's nothing that they're honking at! And they have fewer sidewalks, plus I just don't know the city or customs, which contributes to the feeling of chaos. However the streets are, in general, smaller and less filled than in Bangkok so it seems at times almost oddly quiet - that and they don't seem to have the streetsellers going about on their calling out their deals on their (incoherent) loud speaker or ringing their bells/honking their horns to alert people that a certain good is in the area. Or maybe that's just what a,let the random honking is about...Still it means the city seems oddly quiet.

Especially in the afternoon.  After I found the Gecko Cafe - Had fish, mint lime drink and a banana smoothie (after a day in transit doing little more than snacking I felt like a little indulgence), I found the river.  Felt a little like the Cambodia version of Athens bike path - I couldn't have been happier! They had a nice,wide paved path on both sides of the River that was empty for the most part, allowing me to leisurely wander down one side and up the other to see what there was to see while a few kids splashed in the river and men fished, snapping pics of whatever caught my fancy.

It was interesting, while in Thailand everywhere you look are carts selling traditional coffee and milk tea, here the drink of choice seems to be made of iced sugar cane - and here I'll admit I wasn't up to trying it, so can offer no opinion on the taste. However the method of making it I found fascinating! The carts carry around long stalks of the cane, which they feed into what I can only describe as a loud wood chipper that is also on their cart!  Well, at least you know it's fresh!  :)

So had a long walk, took in too much sun - umbrellas don't seem as common here and I think I only really sawa couple monks carrying them- hats must be the trend as I saw whole stalls filled with them, but i didn't end up buying as in general the prices seemed a bit high, and communication was difficult.  Then had an early night - enjoyed the luxury of ENGLISH tv - though it seemed every thing on I had seen before :) Isn't that just how it goes?

Now I'm waiting for my busback to the border using the wifi in a gas station - a gas station with no cafe, but a nice little sitting area and English speaking staff.  I'd be lying if I say I hadn't been surprised to see the sign advertising wifi on a Family Mart, but can't complain as its air conditioned and I don't have to spend a fortune to just sit and chill.

OK. I'll try to post the pics later - blogger is currently being difficult :( I'll also try to update as I travel through the North, though I can make no promises as it depends on wifi availability in random little towns ;)

CO Week

It's been a bit crazy - had CO at Thonburi Thai Cong last week. This meant everyone was extra busy since normally we don't meet out on Thursday or Friday, but with CO we do! By Sunday everybody was tired but happy. We had 119 in attendance for Sunday meeting and at least 30 went out after!

Our CO is great, he seems to really get the challenges of the foreigners serving there. His first talk was on the sacrifices we make for Jehovah. There were some teary eyes over his loving acknowledgement of the difficulties of serving in a foreign land. Then on Sunday (as Alanna explained to me) he made the comparison of learning a new language to Jesus coming to Earth and how it was humbling to go from being a powerful spirit creature to being a baby unable to talk. In the same way those coming from other languages have knowledge and experiences to share, but are unable to do so. I appreciated that as it is definitely humbling and sometimes frustrating trying to learn such a different language. I feel like a 2 year old when trying to form my simple Thai sentences - that people then struggle to comprehend... Oh those cursed Tones! My reading is coming along - I can read where a bus goes now before it's gone AND keep up with the Kingdom melodies - but my speech is still hopeless!

It was funny, on Wednesday we went out near Wong Wian Yai where there are a number of Indian ones, and the first two times I gave my presentation the people said I could use English :) Still, we got a number of nice people and had a lovely morning. I always feel so appreciative of the kindness and patience of the ones I meet in the ministry - and the brothers and sisters who lovingly, patiently try to teach me the correct way to say and do things.

There were enough out on Wednesday that we separated into three big groups each with their own territory. I was in Brother Wassing's group and was he ever in a mood! The whole morning he was making jokes. We went by this one shop with some chests that look like the ark of the covenent and others looked liked pillars laying on their side. Brother Wassing asks me if I need one. I had no clue what they were - I thought maybe it was furniture? All the while he's laughing while everyone around me tries to figure out how to explain in English. They were Chinese coffins.
Another time he stops in the middle of the road and tells Chieka and me that we're done here for the day. We look at him startled, we still have another half hour til 12 and he says, no just kidding, keep working.

Later that day I went on calls with Alanna who is just back from Australia so has lots of calls to make. One was at an Indian Beauty Salon where Alanna had her eyebrows threaded. It cost $2, mine were looking a little rough and of course I'm always game to try something new, so after Alanna left the chair teary eyed I sat down. OUCH. Yeah I may stick with plucking and waxing. Of course it probably wouldn't be so bad for others since I lost half my eyebrows...but Alanna said Joanne only goes once every six months, so maybe it's worth it. Afterward we got Indian "biscuits" (Aussie for cookie) to sooth our pain. They were yummy, like a mix between a sugar cookie and fudge.

It must have been the day for Indian food because we had Samosas and fried potato thingies (technical term) for dinner with Indian tea at the Indian Emporium. These were the absolute BEST Samosas I've ever had (admittedly only the second time I've had Samosas), Alanna and I had to wait a bit, but we then watched them fried fresh for us.

When the next day Dayanna, Alanna, Megan and I met Terry and Renee at the Indian Emporiam, we were all talking Samosas. Dayanna and I went to buy 12 while Alanna and Megan went to meet up with the others - only to find there were only two Samosas left and they were done for the day! Well two was something...but it'd be cruel to try to split it 6 ways, so Dayanna and I decided it was best to just eat them ourselves - only to be caught guilty in the act by Terry and Renee!

Oh well, Terry and Dayanna both have calls there, so we'll doubtless be back.

Afterward (back to Wednesday) we had pomegranet (probably wrong spelling) juice to clean out all that delightful oil. Then, rough life that it is, Alanna and I went to the Thai Massage place in Wong Wian Yai to relax after our busy day while the others went through Chinatown. Cheap massages are a definite perk for living in Thailand. After walking around as much as you do out in service (there is no rural driving territory that I've done yet in Bangkok), and getting calluses on your calluses, there's nothing better than a good foot massage to make you feel ready for the next day. I swear Wednesday I thought they'd have to pour me off the table :)

On that note, with all that rambling and only one day, I'm for bed - sorry, two in the morning here! And I be leaving to go to immigration at 7 to extend my visa by 30 days. Hard to believe I've almost been here two whole months!

Party likes it's 2012

Because Thailand did not have enough malls, there was a new one opened while I was gone: the mall Seacon.  Their decorations for the winter:

Enormous white gummy bears in dress up of course!  I had to get my picture with them because I Know a gummy bear when I see one.  While they look a bit like blow ups, they're hard plastic to the touch.  Wouldn't it have been something if they really were made of gummy, hee hee... Dayanna thinks I should go into marketing :)

 

Additionally they had pictures of pictures you could take a picture behind.  Everyone catch that?  So Dayanna and I had to take pictures!

I decided to go for sweet for a change.

 

Inside Seacon.

Four or five (I tend to lose count) glossy, sparkly floors all decked out for the winter/holiday season.  That's right, even though it's Thailand (and I had thought I'd so cleverly escape Christmas) the malls are all decorated for Christmas and New Years and often play all the classic holiday favorites.  I didn't take a pic, but there are booths set up with polar bears, penguins, sleighs and snow on top. 

 

Here I couldn't help but focus on the fact that this mall has a DINOSAUR!  The whole top floor is a kids area (as is the case as the mall Bangkae also).  The dinosaur is part of a dig where they bury a prize in the sand for the kids to find.  There's also rides, dress up, a theater and a mirror house.  All in a mall.

 

But most exciting...

 

 

 

MCDONALDS!!!!

Or Mackers as our Aussie calls it (took me a bit to realize she'd been referring to McD and not some other burger joint).  For a mere 100 baht I can have a taste of home.  And it really is almost identical - they even have Coke Zero.

The sauce choices are: Tomato, chile and American Ketchup.  Although a smidge off, in this instance the American choice is my favorite.

So I thanked Ronald on my way out.

 

Okay so this was actually on my way in, but I couldn't pass up a chance to get a shot waing back to good old Ronald McDonald.  Unfortunately Dayanna was being ridiculously slow with the camera while the Thais pointed and laughed...

 

And for B's photo op, we go to another Land Mark in Thailand.  Siam Center:

 

And a carriage drawn by a unicorn and lit by pink fountains.  Oh yes, this is UN -doctored.  Did I say only in Thailand yet?  Oh I did?  Well it deserves to be said a few times :)

 

After seeing all the fuss for Christmas, Dayanna and I decided to dip our toes in the city to see what was going on at Rivercity Bangkok and what their idea of New Years was.  My favorite part: After hitting a market, we took a boat.

On our way there Dayanna declares we must take a "selfie".

 

And on the way back.

 Another "Selfie" in front of River City.  It's a pretty posh mall with antiques taking up the top floor and lots of tailors and expensive name brands.  People in fancy clothes were signing up for a river cruise to be on the water when the fireworks went off.  Dayanna and I, in tennis shoes and flip flops, were a little worried we'd be kicked out at any given time.

 

So we headed on home.  Regardless, it all was just lovely at night.

At Midnight, safely ensconsed in my apartment, the noise of the fireworks was really something.  It came from literally every direction and it left me unsure of which way to look for the best show!  Thailand does love it's fireworks!  A side note: in Thai the word for firework translates into Fire Flower.  I just loved that - the beautifully descriptive nature of Thai helps to overcome the difficulties in learning it.

 

Additionally they released wish lanterns - not sure if that's the official name, and I know they're pagan (as is the celebration) but never having seen them aside from in Tangle, they really are beautiful, looking like fireflies ascending into the atmosphere.  Sorry no photos of any of this, but it just wouldn't have done it justice and it went on for at least half an hour.

 

Better than all this, Dayanna had over a group of sisters.  We sang Kingdom songs in Thai (Day and I need the practice!), each choosing one (I accidentally chose a fast one).  We ate sweets and fruit, Saki did Candy's hair and then we played spoons.  It was a fantastic day, and Dayanna and I are discussing doing it again with a different group so we can get to know all the ones in the cong.

 

To remember the occasion we took a group shot using the timers on our cameras (between us we had 4 different cameras and lots of posing).

 

Here's a candid shot as everyone laughs at Dayanna and I setting up our respective cameras.  On the first attempt I used the timer but Dayanna accidentally did immediate.  Second attempt I took an instant pic and Dayanna used the timer.  As they say, Third times the charm:

Clockwise from me: Saki, Appun (Apple), Brooke :), Sayaka, Dayanna, Candy and back to me.

Pics and Notes 2

Sorry I'm so behind on my blogging!  I'll try to make up for it with lots of pics :)  Starting with the absolutely most embarrassing...

My cheesy noodle grin. This one is on Day One with B.  It looks like the picture on the front of a noodle box with the caption: "These noodles are the best ever!  100% of moms approve!"

B's first day in service.

B's behind the camera, of course. It wasn't until last week that we actually got any pics together!  What you may or may not be able to tell from this shot is that there are spaces between boards on this path - but Brother Shoko assured us it's okay - Motorcycles use this path!  Ah Thailand...

 

And B decided we needed a bus shot.  Dayanna is nice enough to smile...me, I'm the nongsao (Little sis).  In my defense, my hat was likely smacking me in the face from the wind on the bus at this point.  Okay, I'd have given her a dirty look regardless :)

 

We went to Wong Wian Yai for our Thai leg massages - which due to some sort of miscommunication ended up being full-body, but it was quite nice just the same.  I insisted Brooke had to try it at least once.  The total cost after tip for one 1 1/2 hr massage was about $10.  OUCH Right? :)  After we got freshly made cinnamon sugar donut holes and watched the round about light up.  Front left is an image of the king and in the center is a man on a horse - many Thai's wai (bow) to the statue as they go by.  Thais do love their big round abouts.  Just today we took a BUS around one.  Cedar Point has nothing on some of the bus rides here :)

 

Our favorite restaurant - we can order just about anything on the Thai menu, the two ladies that run it are super sweet and they have a TV so Dayanna and I can keep up with our dramas.  Ok, so we don't REALLY understand what's going on, but with the music and sound effects we have fun making it up.  Can't wait until Terry and Alanna get back - Dayanna says Terry is the King of this.  Of course he has the unfair advantage of actually knowing what's going on...

 

 

And from our corner restaurant: Kao Pad a.k.a. Thai Fried rice.  Another fantastic Thai lady, and she's super generous in her portions - what you see here is ONE portion.  Cost: 25 baht.  Less than a dollar for B and I both to eat.  She also does a pretty mean Pad See Yew (wide noodles, greens, eggs and meat fried in soy sauce and sugar.  Mmmm health food.)

 

This adorable little boy Dayanna and I met while searching for the group out in Field Service with Sister Wan.  I think we caught up with the group around 11.  Dayanna and I have been working on being on time since then - today we beat them to the territory! (But mostly because we caught a better bus.)  Oh, and FYI, we have no clue what this cutey here told us, but he did offer his banana.  We both declined.

 

They actually have a candy in Thailand called a Bon Bon!  I was so amused Dayanna and I both had to take a cheesy marketing picture with it:

New country, cheesy grin: same same.  By the looks I was expecting a truffle with a soft center, but it's more like a chocolate wafer coated in chocolate.  Not overly sweet but very yummy - Dayanna says they're Raywot's fave.

Pics and notes

This is the so dubbed Yummy fruit - which Brooke momentarily thought was the actual name.  No, just a description, such as "green donut" and "jelly drink" etc...  Actual name: Mangosteen.  But yummy nonetheless.

View from Terry and Alanna's apartment - the orchid is also theirs and I'm tasked with the important assignment of keeping it alive.  I may need to buy them another...

And another view - this one with the traditional Thai house.  I worked with a Phillipino sister in the English territory who had been in Thailand 3 weeks but had yet to see housing other than the tall apartment buildings!  What a loss!  There are several back in our neighborhood that are quite nice - and one that is an international law office.

Our breakfast the first day - noodle soop with sprouts and chicken and lime and cilantro and deliciousness.  It's so good! Unfortunately we're still a little unsure of how to order it, heh heh.