Daytrip to Laos

It has been two weeks since I last published a post and I am embarrassed! However, these past few weeks have been really crazy, so there will be much to read about in the coming weeks. This past Sunday, one of the English teachers at my school, P'Noon, took me on yet another amazing adventure with her family. This time we went on a daytrip to Laos, only a two hour drive from our home in Ubon Ratchathani. (It is so wild to me that I can "daytrip" to Laos!!!)

The drive to Laos was absolutely beautiful: rolling mountains, green leafy trees, and some gorgeous rivers. One major river is called "Pattyha Noi," which literally means "small Pattyha" (Pattyha is a popular beach vacation spot for Thais outside of Bangkok). It is still unclear to me whether Laos is pronounced "Laos" or "Lao," as I have heard mixed things from different people. Along the drive, we stopped at the most magical wat on the top of a hill. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name (oopsy!), but it is unlike any wat I have ever seen in terms of its architecture, and simply its secluded surroundings. P'Noon and I took many pictures there. Then we headed to lunch very near the border, but still in Thailand. The restaurant was "outdoors," as you paid for a mat to sit on, ordered your food, and ate overlooking the river. Simply gorgeous, and a cool breezy day nonetheless! As usual, we ate a feast: tom yom goong (spicy shrimp soup), a juicy chicken stuffed with lemongrass, fried crab on a stick, quail eggs with balsamic vinegar (so good!), and a dish called "goong dten," or LIVE SHRIMP!!! Eating live, or "dancing" shrimp, is probably one of the coolest things I've eaten here. I was really scared to eat them at first, but P'Noon told me they were "too delicious" and popped one in her mouth. As soon as I saw her eat it and survive, I started eating them too. It reminded me a little bit of the scene in the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid" where the mean chef serves the crab (Sebastian!) to Ariel and he is still alive on the plate. When the dish is served to you, the waiter, or 8 year old boy in our case, brings the dish out with an extra plate on top of the dish to keep the shrimp from jumping out. To my knowledge, we have nothing like this in America.

At the Thai-Laos border, we parked the car and walked maybe a quarter of a mile to the entrance. While P'Noon and her family were able to skate by with photocopied IDs in a fast moving line, I had to wait in a separate line (I was the only white person in sight- I guess Ubon to Laos isn't the hottest tourist destination), and the man looking at my passport had never seen my visa before and called over 2 other people to take a look. It was pretty hilarious, because I am technically a Thai government worker, along with an American government worker, and the government gave me a pretty rare visa with no hassle on my part whatsoever. (It's a multiple reentry visa). Once in Laos, P'Noon, her family and I went shopping at all of the local crafts shops. It didn't even really feel like I was outside of Ubon, because everyone speaks Laos in Ubon more than they speak Thai. I bought a really cool woven bamboo pillow, a ring, and some beautiful fabric with the Laos pattern. When we finally made it back to the Thai border, I was sent back to Laos because I hadn't purchased a Laos Visa. So, P'Noon and I walked back to the Laos entrance and had to buy a $35 visa to LEAVE Laos (they didn't make me purchase it upon arrival). I was in Laos for a total of 3 hours, and the Laos visa takes up an entire page of my passport. An adventure and memory!

Tomorrow I am off to Phuket for a long New Year's holiday with my college girlfriend Natalie. I am very excited, and I am sure that there will be some beautiful photos to be taken there. I have so many stories and pictures from my school, I really need to post those. It will be one of my new year's resolutions!

Happy New Year 2012! Or, if you're in Thailand, Happy New Year 2555! (Who knew that the whole world doesn't follow the Christian calendar?!)

A secluded, beautiful wat we stopped to see on our way to Laos.

P'Noon and me!

Wats are so grand and intricate, these pictures 

don't even come close to doing them justice!

There are different Buddha statues that represent different meanings

(e.g. happiness, peace, good luck, etc.)

You can't really tell from this photo, but the wat overlooks a beautiful lake in the distance.

Too gorgeous

Me in front of a beautifully carved, tall door. 

(Notice my shoes are off)

The structure to the left is the monks' residence. Every wat in Thailand has monks

that live on the premises, except for Wat Phra Keo in Bangkok's Grand Palace.

Bamboo Forest! No hungry pandas, though.

Market near where we ate lunch: teeny tiny dried fish!

This is a special Northeastern Thai delicacy. Small fish are somehow stuck 

together in beautiful "star" or "pinwheel" arrangements.

View from our mat during lunch :)

The man on the boat is a fisherman. There were many fisherman out and about, catching

tiny shrimp, small crabs, and little fish.

Jigsaw, P'Noon's son, and me.

A very "Thai," "Southeast Asia-river" photo

Fried crab on a stick and quail eggs (the best appetizer)

Goong Dten! Notice how messy the dish is...they were jumping all around!!!

Me eating a live shrimp!

Tom Yom Goong and Chicken

Banana chips are made!

Different kinds of banana chips

Quite the mounds!

A monk checks out lottery tickets from a man selling them from his bicycle.

I love this picture.

Thai - Laos border. Does the giant image of the King give

away what country we are in?

The long walk to Laos

Market in Laos

Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! or "gope" in Thai. I do

not find them delicious.

A baby left alone casually napping. I hope she is not for sale.

This is one of my favorite photos. It lists the visa prices to enter Laos for different countries- isn't that prejudice if they're not all the same?! Most of them are $35, except for some reason Canada (top) is $42 and Afghanistan is $40. New Zealand, second from the bottom, once said $30 but now says "$3" (we can only guess how that happened :))

The best part: the bottom line says, "The Other Countries." 

Exploring Wats with New Thai Friends! (and the King’s Birthday)

After a challenging past few weeks (as some of you know!), I decided that it was really important that I actively try to create a social life for myself here, outside of the other middle-aged teachers at my school.  While it might sound silly, it is actually pretty challenging to make friends in Ubon Ratchathani. The fact that I am only fluent in English and that I am isolated from all of the other Fulbrights makes it both awkward and unsafe for me to go out alone. So, where and how do you meet friends?!

This weekend, instead of checking my emails and doing work on my computer inside, I left my apartment with my laptop and sat on some picnic tables on the street right outside my building near food vendors. Sure enough, the vendors started talking with me, and their children stopped by, and it was really great to talk with people my own age in an unforced situation.  (Some people literally just sat down at the table with me, wanted to know what I was working on, doing here, etc.) By the time I went back to my room,  I had several numbers from nearby college students, and a date with 4 of them (3 girls and 1 boy) to go explore Ubon’s wats the following day.  As awkward and pathetic as it seems, the moral of the story is: GET OUT THERE, even if it actually means physically leaving your apartment, where you will be in contact with lots of people.  Secret: It has been my dream to have Thai friends, too. The other Fulbrights mainly hang out with other expats or European foreigners.

My new friends met me at 9am today to go wat exploring. We took a songtaew (pickup trucks that have covered roofs and installed seats that are used as buses) to drive about 15 minutes away to our first wat. It was a really interesting experience riding the songtaew in itself, as every time an older man or woman came on, a younger passenger immediately stood to give up their seat. Also, you paid the driver when you got off at your destination. Can you imagine in America paying for your bus ride after you already rode the bus?

After all morning together, we saw six wats and had a delicious pad thai lunch. (Three, and multiples of three, are considered lucky in Thailand, Chinese influence!)  Today day was as close to perfect as they come. I didn’t think that I could be more overwhelmed by a wat than I was by many of the grand wats I saw in Bangkok. I was wrong. Ubon has some absolutely breathtaking, mesmerizing, magical wats. My new friends showed me how to pray using flowers, candles, and incense (which you buy at the wat), and how to stick a tiny square of gold-leaf paper (that you buy as well) on the Buddha for good luck. After our first songtaew ride, we walked from wat to wat. We embarked on a wat walking tour! We briefly stopped to feed the fish on Moon River. These fish were monster fish- people buy an entire loaf of bread as fish food and throw in one whole piece of bread at a time. One single fish eats the entire piece of bread in one swallow!

At the final wat we went to, we were sitting on the floor admiring the wat when we noticed a monk was approaching. My new friends told me that I had to move as far to the side of the wat as possible- because monks are not allowed to touch or be near women. The monk was carrying holy water ("naam mohn"), and before I knew it, my friends were telling me to kneel to the ground (with them) placing our foreheads on the floor. The monk started chanting and spritzing our heads with the water. I was blessed by a monk today!!! It might have been the coolest experience of my whole entire life. So unbelievable. I will always remember staring at the ground, feeling water flicked on me, and hearing that monk chanting. Another world.

As we rode the songtaew home, our conversation turned to the different kinds of bananas that grow in Thailand. There are many different kinds, and we had passed a banana tree on our walk (I was excited). I think that the different kinds of bananas in Thailand are comparable to different kinds of apples in America. There is a type of banana called “gluoy kai.” I accidentally pronounced it “gluoy coy.” The entire songtaew of people burst out, belly-over laughing. Yep, I unintentionally yelled penis on the bus.

My new friendly friends :)

From left to right: Yee, ToTo, (me), Kae, Bow, Mon

 Learning what to (do) with the flowers, incense, and candles.

After you are done praying, you place your bouquet in the pot!

Sticking our tiny squares of gold paper on giant balls of gold leaves. 

(Still don't quite understand this one).

Tourist picture

I don't speak good enough Thai yet to understand exactly what they told me about the significance of this tree, but it has something to do with Buddha's birth. I think.

Overwhelmingly beautiful. 

Anyone who makes it all the way to Ubon, I will take you here.

Sleepy little blue man

Me and a black cat. Considered bad luck in Thailand, but good luck in England! 

If you think about it, it's kind of racist to consider black cats bad luck.

Flowers wrapped in newspapers at the market

Barefoot walking monks (well, one). Most likely hungry, too. I just found out that monks only eat either one or two meals a day. Monks do not eat dinner. 

My friends laughed at me for taking this picture. It is so foreign for me, though!

Monk's home (even monks do laundry!)

ToTo and me. To the right is an image of the King. 

Thailand's monarchy is highly intertwined with Buddhism.

Wat #4, getting ready to make merit...again!

Some red fantas- with straws, coconuts- with straws, and gluoy *kai. 

These spirits must be happy.

Some chilly pigeons peacefully perching on the wat.

Bananas! 

THE COOLEST WAT EVER

Buddha with a bouquet of flowers in his lap

This is the only wat I've ever been to with this open "box" where you can give coins

In honor of the King's birthday, my school had a mandatory assembly (the last school day before his actual birthday). I was pulled out from class, and all teachers had to report to the ceremony to show respect for the King. The King's actual birthday, December 5th, is a national holiday (Father's Day).

Everyone chanted, I felt like I was in a religious ceremony.

At the end of the ceremony, one by one, each teacher was called up to sign their name and write "Long Live the King" next to their signatures. I'm not sure if you can see, but my writing is the only English writing, 4th from the bottom.

One final, random, happy picture:

Merry Christmas from the plastic decorative marijuana plant in my apartment's lobby!