So for the last half of May I was traveling around Thailand with PSU English Camp. We started in Bangkok with just the camp leaders and moved down to Trang were we went snorkeling for a day before we met the crazy and insane students! The snorkeling was alright but since I had just gotten back from diving it wasn't amazing.

In Trang we went to the toy factory and canopy walk again. It was pretty much the same as last year only with 9 students each instead of 4. After Trang we went to Krabi where we had even more fun. We were in a hotel right by the weekend market which was great because it made getting food and shopping easy. We went back to James Bond Island (which is still unimpressive) and to one of the beaches this year. They also added a trip to Phuket to go see Chalong Temple and the beach but because of silly scheduling we spent 30 minutes at the temple and 3 hours at a shopping center by the beach.

After Krabi we went to Surat Thani were we went to the Salaka garden, monkey show, and Chaiya weaving village. We were supposed to go to a cave instead of the village but I convinced the Thai staff that the village was a better trip (because it's not dark, smelly, slippery, or suck ass).

At the end of the trip the camp leaders all went to Samui for a day of relaxing. I spent the day with C one of the Thai girls who I met last year. She and I walked on the beach looking for shells and then we got into the water. One of the other camp leaders and I tried to teach her how to swim but it really wound up being just a bunch of water fighting. After the swim 'lessons' we decided to bury C in the sand which she seemed to think was hilarious. Then C turned around and buried me. The whole time she kept making me laugh which made her yell at me to stop...she even got to the point where she told me to "Stop breathing!". Samui was a blast this year :D

After the camp I came home and promptly got sick. I'm pretty sure I gave myself food poisoning :S

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Ok here's a quick update for everyone! I just got back from my birthday dive trip to Koh Phi Phi. Basically I spent 4 days on the island diving as much as possible and sleeping or eating when I wasn't under the water. The diving was beautiful! I saw lots of pretty sea anemones, lion fish and clown fish (mostly the super cute orange ones)! There was a bit of current for most of the dives which wore me out and totally ruined my air consumption by the end of the trip. It was a great way to spend my birthday :D

Now I'm getting ready to leave for PSU English camp tomorrow morning and will be spending the next 2 and a half weeks at camp!

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Some of my favorites out of the 600+ pictures I took over 3 days (the 12th-14th).

Shopping for a weapon

I love the tuk-tuk drivers grin as his passengers get blasted

He's ready for a swim in the moat...or for canal road to flood!

The common reaction after getting hit with ice water

Assault Tuk-Tuk!

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So I am home and have un-surprisingly come down with a cold...if this post gets rammbly or stops making sense it's because my head feels like it's filled with helium and floating 3 feet above my body. Ok now onto a recap of last weeks festival.

Last week was Thai New Year...or the best festival ever. Officially the festival started on Wednesday the 13th but since Chiang Mai is special it really started on the 11th. I wound up missing out on the water fight on Monday because I didn't wind up going up to Thapae Gate, the main gate. However, on Tuesday I wound up getting soaked on my way back to my hotel after lunch. I was not planning on getting wet right after lunch, I was still wearing jeans and they take forever to dry:(, but c'est la vie. After I got drenched I decided to grab a water gun and join the battle! The fighting was still mostly around Thapae Gate but was slowly moving down the moat.

On Wednesday, it decided to rain which didn't stop the water fighting but it did decrease the number of people who were out. All in all this day was pretty much miserable. People still decided to douse each other with ice water even though there was no sun to warm you up afterward. I spent most of the day in my friends Burmese restaurant watching the water fights as I tried to dry off and warm up. Everyone in the restaurant wound up drinking lots of the hot Burmese tea spiked with some whiskey to get warm.

Thursday was by far the best day. It was hot and sunny and the water fights were in full force. I had a blast assaulting people with our ice water and taking pictures of the madness.

This year I did not take a dive into the moat (thank god) but i still wound up getting sick (I blame Wednesday and all the moat water). I still love this festival and can't wait till next year! I'll post pictures once I go through the 500 or so that I took :P

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Flooding in Surat/

On the way to the Airport

Karen/Long neck Village

Orchid Farm

TIGER KINGDOM!!!!!!!

Elephant Camp

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So on Tuesday I escaped from the rain storms and flooding in Surat to get a jump start on my Songkran holiday. To get up to the airport in Surat I had to get a ride on a military truck with about 30 Thai people. On the trip there we saw houses underwater, people swimming in front of their flooded homes, camping on bridges, and beating down the medians to get the water to drain from the higher street. The trip took about an hour and a half and by the time my flight left a grand total of 20 people had made it for our flight. After I got to Chiang Mai I went to the night bazaar to do some shopping

On Wednesday I decided to just relax in my hotel and walk about the city for a little bit.

Thursday was the beginning of my adventure in stupid tourist things. I started the adventure by letting a Tuk-Tuk driver talk me into going out to a long neck village and orchid farm for the afternoon. The long neck village was a little sad because the villagers were basically treated as props to take pictures with (they were also selling things). I wound up buying a bracelet because after the girl clamped it onto my wrist I couldn't get it back off (luckily it is a pretty bracelet and I was able to work it open enough to slide it on and off my wrist). After the village we went to the orchid farm where I took a bunch of pictures of the different types of orchids and bought jewelry made out of orchids and butterfly.

That night I went to the night safari with 2 of the other teachers from Surat. We decided to all pile onto a motorbike 'Thai style' and see if we could find the safari. We got there with now problems...except for a few speed bumps. On the safari we got to see a bunch of different animals. I almost got to pet a zebra and we all got to feed giraffes...those guys have freakishly long tongues!

Friday was another adventure in being a tourist. I started the day by meeting up with my Tuk-Tuk driver again and going out to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom was awesome! I got to play with 3-4 month old tigers and pet some of the bigger (almost 2 yrs old) ones. The tigers were beautiful...sadly the big ones were pretty much all sleeping...but they do tend to be slightly nocturnal. After playing with the tigers and then watching some of the others ones I went to an elephant camp/show. The show was a little weird, dancing and playing kazoos, but watching the elephants paint was interesting. Then I went to a snake show which was basically 3 crazy Thai guys playing with cobras and non-poisonous biting snakes. The best part of the show was when they threw the amazing jumping snake...or piece rope at the group of tourists next to me which caused them all to jump and shriek.

This week is the Songkran festival/water war :)

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The "Superhero" temple

The temple at the top of the hill by
Doi Tung Royal Villa

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