From Point A to Point B

May 8. Actually, I’ll need to begin this day on the night before. On the night of the 7^th, I had left Mae Sariang for the last time. I was scheduled to fly home on the morning of the 8^th. This was a bit sooner than I had originally planned, but in order to ensure that I had a summer job I needed to be home earlier. My goodbyes with the staff and children were short and sweet. However, if the other children had been there I’m sure it would have been a different farewell. With Bay, Goe, and Tim all in America, I didn’t feel as sad, but it was still depressing to leave the place you had called home for a month. Brian, Bowjoe, and Doe came with me into Chiang Mai for one last good time together, and we did have a great last night.

We didn’t even waste time hanging around the base house. As soon as we arrived, the Thailand Manager drove us to the mall for dinner where I experienced my last authentic Thai meal for a very long time. I ordered some delicious curry and some sticky rice and mango to finish. Afterwards, we wandered aimlessly through the mall trying to find the main exit (all the other ones had been locked). Upon finding the main exit, we spotted a movie theater inside the mall. I hadn’t seen an actual movie in a while and was eager to. Thankfully, Fast and Furious 5 was playing at midnight and it was the only movie in English.

I ended up not sleeping that night. The four of us went back to the base house talked until 5:00, at which time I needed to board my plane to Bangkok. I wanted to keep my goodbyes to everyone as brief as possible (it’s really not in me to have drawn out goodbyes).  It actually turned out to be more of a “see you later!” than a goodbye. From that point on, things starting going badly.

I needed to wait another hour for the check-out counter to open, which wouldn’t have been a problem if my flight didn’t leave in an hour and a half. After checking my baggage, I had to continue through customs. However, I was stopped halfway through the procedure and asked to step out of the line. It turns out that I had stayed 8 days over my 1 month visa. I had to pay 500 baht for every day I had stayed over, in cash. Now, I had spent all my cash beforehand and I lost my ATM card days ago, so consequentially I had no means of paying, and that was just the beginning.

I exhausted every guilt trip in my arsenal, but this customs officer was immune to my charms. The only option left to me was to find Wi-Fi, Skype my parents, have them give me the PIN to my backup credit card, and buy a new flight to Bangkok. It all went surprisingly smoothly and I was on my way to Bangkok within the hour.

I wanted nothing more than to doze off on my flight to Bangkok, but I couldn’t. I was too anxious about the next flight to even blink. The customs officer caused me to sacrifice crucial time for my transfer to the flight going from Bangkok to Hong Kong and now I only had 30 minutes to check my bag, check in, pay my way through customs, head through security and make my way through one of the world’s largest airports to my gate.

I tried preparing for the upcoming ordeal as well as I could. I nagged the flight attendant to make sure that my luggage was handed to me as soon as we landed, so I wouldn’t need to go through baggage claim, and I put all my metal into my backpack, leaving only the cash I needed, my boarding pass, and my passport in my pocket. All my daily runs also came in handy, because if I hadn’t have sprinted through the airport, I would have never made that flight.

I was too relieved and full of adrenaline to sleep on the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong. I tried blogging about my flight, but I wasn’t in the mood to write. Even attempting a little self-reflection was too much for me to handle. In the end, I gave up trying to do anything productive and decided on watching a few movies before I landed in Hong Kong. Even during my 4 hour layover, I couldn’t let the creative juices flow.

For 4 hours, I walked around the airport, eating lunch, and peering at the quirky, duty-free items for sale. I began to feel guilty of how much time I was wasting, and the endless rows of perfume and rum wasn’t helping this feeling. Then I realized, I was feeling a sense of loss, one that I had felt only once before. That was when I was on my way home from my service trip in Tanzania so many years ago. But before I had time to let this feeling swell inside me, I was falling asleep on the plane to New York.

From Tourists to Farmers

May 2-7. I never thought I would miss the sound of the roosters cooing above my head at 5am… and I thought correctly. Their piercing shrieks are almost as bad as listening to Chinese karaoke when you’re trying to sleep, but it’s a close call. The mornings were as glorious as ever at the orphanage and I relished in the rising sun that I had missed for 2 weeks straight. The rotis, apples, pineapple, and patka poa were as delicious as ever. Even Tavi, a rambunctious 12 year old who got on everyone’s nerves, couldn’t bother me when he tried to poke my eyes out with his fork.

The differences in this week of the orphanage were few, but profound. As I had explained in my last post, the second half of the kids were here at the orphanage, while the ones I had been with before were away with their families. I also did not do as much adventuring or new things as I normally had done before. Bowjoe and Goe seemed too busy to spare time to take us to any waterfalls or temples, and since every other staff member was either busy or had left for America (including Tim and Bay), Brian and I were left to our own devices. This wasn’t much of a setback, just more of an unexpected change. My schedule also became much fuller than it normally was. I was now teaching 3 English classes a day. The 2 girls who sold us rotis every morning were eager to learn English, so every evening at 7pm you could find me tutoring these 2 girls in the Big House.

Brian, on the other hand, was content with playing soccer in the evenings. I was never all that great at soccer and didn’t want to try my hand at becoming seriously embarrassed, so I let him do that on his own. During our down time, we would bike around Mae Sariang, get massages, or watch a soccer game. However, we didn’t get a bunch of down time because in addition to our jobs as English teachers, we also became farmers.

Every afternoon, before lunch and after English lessons, we would plow a field with the other staff members. When I used to think of plowing, I thought of oxen pulling the plow machine while the farmer steers it. The Thailand reality is much farther from that. There was a small motor equipped to the plow, but it did almost nothing to ease the process. It was mostly the strength of your body to propel the plow forward. As such, it took a long time. After one circle of the field, you would be too hot and your hands would be too blistered to carry on, so we switched after every round.

Talking with Brian about our adventures never became dull. It was amazing to realize how much we had experienced in such a short time, and it was great to share these experiences with someone who could understand what they meant to you. We never wasted time in pondering whether or not we wanted to do something new, because were both in a “let’s do it all” state of mind. It was even better to have a friend with you during those experiences at the orphanage because it made plowing fields, climbing trees, teaching English, and biking around the area 10 times more fun.

The nights were also fun with Brian. We stayed up, watching soccer games and talking about nothing, while the kids played games. They let us join in a few times on their ridiculous hand games, but Brian and I were so bad that we decided to no longer embarrass ourselves after the first few rounds. Before bed each night, we would take turns buying the kids ice cream, which probably gave us some bonus points in their eyes. Our logic behind it was that if we ever want to come back to Thailand to stay for free, we could always count on those kids to remember those chocolate nut bars.

Old Friends

May 1. An hour after I had left Bangkok I was to be found picking up my luggage and in the company of one of the coolest Thai dudes ever, Bay. His original plan was to leave for America on the 18^th, but he stayed just long enough to send me out to back to Mae Sariang. We spent the night in Chiang Mai and the next morning I was waving goodbye to the coolest Thai dude ever through the glass of a public van.

Another student of the orphanage, Chat Chai, came with me. I had met him on only one other occasion and that was precisely a month ago when I had first come to Thailand. The public van was uncomfortably cramped, long, and smelled of vomit, so I had a great welcome back to Mae Sariang.

When I finally arrived back at the orphanage, I was half expecting a few kids to run out and say hello, but I was greeted by a palpable silence. Nobody seemed to even be around. I found P.A., Nan, Goe, and Doe back in the kitchen and received a warm welcome from them, but no kids. Upon arriving at the big house, I figured out why. Every single kid I had known for the past month left to go for a home visit and second half of the orphanage group was here. This was quite alarming, because it meant that I was starting from scratch. I had to learn new, hard to pronounce names and had break through the awkward shy stage that came with a new foreign student. Yet, I was ready for the challenge.

I met Bowjoe upstairs on the computer and he was accompanied by none other than Brian, one of the kids I had spent my month of February with! I was half surprised by his presence, but I was glad to see him nonetheless. He had told me he was coming to visit the orphanage at some point, though he never gave a specific date. Katie is also supposed to be arriving soon, but I believe she doesn’t come until the 8^th.

The last few hours of the day were spent catching up with Brian. We both excitedly threw detailed stories of our past travels at each other and reminisced about New Zealand and Fiji, which we both agreed was the most fun month of Rustic so far. Even when he had just come back from Tanzania with Andrew, Steren, and David (who were also on my New Zealand trip) he could say that it couldn’t top New Zealand. That evening, we played an intense game of soccer and ate our fill of the delicious curry Nan had prepared. It wasn’t soon after that I passed out on my bed from exhaustion, but it wasn’t an unpleasant exhaustion. As I went to bed, I felt truly peaceful for the first time in a few weeks.

Old Friends

May 1. An hour after I had left Bangkok I was to be found picking up my luggage and in the company of one of the coolest Thai dudes ever, Bay. His original plan was to leave for America on the 18^th, but he stayed just long enough to send me out to back to Mae Sariang. We spent the night in Chiang Mai and the next morning I was waving goodbye to the coolest Thai dude ever through the glass of a public van.

Another student of the orphanage, Chat Chai, came with me. I had met him on only one other occasion and that was precisely a month ago when I had first come to Thailand. The public van was uncomfortably cramped, long, and smelled of vomit, so I had a great welcome back to Mae Sariang.

When I finally arrived back at the orphanage, I was half expecting a few kids to run out and say hello, but I was greeted by a palpable silence. Nobody seemed to even be around. I found P.A., Nan, Goe, and Doe back in the kitchen and received a warm welcome from them, but no kids. Upon arriving at the big house, I figured out why. Every single kid I had known for the past month left to go for a home visit and second half of the orphanage group was here. This was quite alarming, because it meant that I was starting from scratch. I had to learn new, hard to pronounce names and had break through the awkward shy stage that came with a new foreign student. Yet, I was ready for the challenge.

I met Bowjoe upstairs on the computer and he was accompanied by none other than Brian, one of the kids I had spent my month of February with! I was half surprised by his presence, but I was glad to see him nonetheless. He had told me he was coming to visit the orphanage at some point, though he never gave a specific date. Katie is also supposed to be arriving soon, but I believe she doesn’t come until the 8^th.

The last few hours of the day were spent catching up with Brian. We both excitedly threw detailed stories of our past travels at each other and reminisced about New Zealand and Fiji, which we both agreed was the most fun month of Rustic so far. Even when he had just come back from Tanzania with Andrew, Steren, and David (who were also on my New Zealand trip) he could say that it couldn’t top New Zealand. That evening, we played an intense game of soccer and ate our fill of the delicious curry Nan had prepared. It wasn’t soon after that I passed out on my bed from exhaustion, but it wasn’t an unpleasant exhaustion. As I went to bed, I felt truly peaceful for the first time in a few weeks.

Realities of Bangkok

April 18-30. Bangkok. Our last stop was in Bangkok, where we spent 3 nights and 4 days. It was quite an environment and culture shock to go from the sunny beaches and blissfully peaceful atmosphere of Krabi to one of the world’s largest bustling cities. We stayed at the Lebua hotel in the State Tower, which failed to break the continuous luxury vacation I found myself in.

I have no doubt had my fill of Buddhist temples by now. Our tour guide, Sunny, brought us to the most famous temples of Bangkok, but there seems to be an endless number of these famous temples. Sunny, who is one of the nicest people and tour guides I have had the pleasure of meeting, insisted on describing and giving the history every aspect of each temple. I was only too happy to listen to her, but it did become a little tedious when you’re trudging around Bangkok during the hottest time of the day.

The temples we visited that, I believe, are worthy of highlight are as follows: the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace and the temple of the Reclining Buddha. Each was amazing, but each had their own peculiar features. The Reclining Buddha, for example, was a massive 25 meters and painted in gold leaf. The Grand Palace had decorations of monkey demons slaughtering humans, which I thought were incredibly interesting.

Yet, the Emerald Buddha stumped me the most. When I heard that this Buddha was made of nothing but Jade, I thought it would be amazing to see. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing, but it was a bit misleading. I expected a massive jade Buddha, but when I stepped inside the temple, I had to look hard to find where the Buddha was. There were so many decorative gold pieces that it took a full minute for me to spot the jade Buddha. It stood no taller than a foot at the top of the golden hill. Everyone around me stood in awe, staring up at the Buddha. I didn’t find a foot tall, jade Buddha that impressive, but maybe that’s just my opinion, because it does seem to attract plenty of viewers.

I can describe Bangkok as a mix between New York City, Chiang Mai, and Venice. The aspect that it holds of New York is that it is just as crowded and just as cluttered. The aspect of Chiang Mai that it holds is that it’s genuinely Thai, which I found surprising because it attracts so many foreigners. The canals of Bangkok are where Venice comes in.

Sunny rented us a longboat one day, and we spent that afternoon zipping through the canals. I’ve been to Venice and I felt as if there was a distinct similarity. The hoses were located directly on the water and instead of cars; the people had boats parked right outside their doors. Vendors floated around on their rowboats trying to sell souvenirs or food to us foreigners, while 4 foot lizards swam past us. Poverty was abundant in this area as well, but it brought out the true nature and beauty of Bangkok. That journey was unforgettable.

Our nights were spent in the hotel, swimming in the pool, and sitting atop the State Tower at the Skybar. The Skybar provided a breathtaking sight of Bangkok, but also brought the reality out of the city. The effect of sitting atop one of the highest points of Bangkok, sipping on your 25 dollar drink, and being surrounded by a bunch of rich westerners brings a smug feeling of overwhelming self-importance. I didn’t really need that.

Before I knew it, it was time to part ways from my brother and parents. They were going back home, while I was going back to the orphanage. I was half glad to say goodbye to my parents because it seemed that I had lost some of what I had gained. I noticed that I was no longer making decisions for myself as often as I had done in the past 3 months. I had lost some of the independence that made me who I was now and I needed to gain that back. I had also noticed that I had become accustomed to having everything handed to me on a silver platter, and I needed to get back to reality. The other half of me was slightly down. Only after 3 months did I notice how much I missed my brother and I didn’t want to say goodbye to the kid who is my best friend. Yet, while I sat on the plane to Chiang Mai, I noticed something peculiar. While my parents were heading home, so was I.

Riding Giants

April 18-30. Krabi. The island of Krabi is a neighbor of Phi Phi, which conveniently meant that we didn’t need to take another plane, just an hour ferry ride. If my arrival at the island was any indication of the time we had spent there, I would have been miserable. My dad and I were so eager to get off the ferry that we didn’t even realize that we had jumped aboard the wrong longboat, causing us to be separated from my mother and brother. Not until we arrived on the island and walked about a kilometer along the beach to the hotel, with backpacks and the 2 heaviest bags of our family, did we notice our mistake. Will and my mom were sipping tropical smoothies by the pool in their bathing suits when we arrived covered in sweat and with our arms aching. To make matters worse they both informed us that they arrived on an air-conditioned boat on the right side of the island. Now I wasn’t only tired, sweaty, and irritated, but I was also envious.

The hotel we stayed at for the 4 nights we were in Krabi is called The Rayavadee. There is nothing negative I can say about this stunning area and hotel. The people were uncharacteristically and almost unnaturally nice, for southern Thais that is. The beaches were all stunning, the water was green and warm, the surrounding cliffs were breathtaking and the area flourished with the unexpected. Sometimes a monkey would jump down right in front of you to scurry up another tree and other times a bat would swoop overhead and into one its larger dens. The rooms were 2 story villas made and stocked to perfection and the food was beyond delicious. Honestly, I would have stayed there for another week, even with the prospect of going back to the orphanage.

We embarked on several new adventures during our stay. We did more snorkeling, more rock climbing, and plenty more relaxing on the beach. However, my brother, my father, and I went for a few dives one day. I have to say, there is no other beautiful place to dive, in my opinion, than off the coast of Krabi, Thailand. I didn’t see anything I hadn’t seen before, but the mix of rock, coral, fish, and water was unbelievable.

We also went on plenty of hikes around the area, but the most amazing of them was the Big Bat Cave I journeyed into with my dad. True to its name, it was massive. It held plenty of bats, which you could hear fluttering above you as you stepped cautiously through the cave and once at an opening point we were able to cliff jump into the water, which was pretty exhilarating (although it could never compete with The Nevis Bungee).

One of my favorite parts of Krabi, and Thailand itself, was when we rode elephants through the jungle. This was particularly what I had been looking forward to since I came to Thailand, but I never imagined that I’d actually be able to DRIVE an elephant as well. Thai elephants are massive compared to the ones I had seen in Africa, especially the males. When we reached the jungle, our driver turned to me and asked if I wanted to drive the elephant, and who am I to pass up such an occasion? I slid onto its head and uncomfortably sat there for the rest of the journey. The reason why it was uncomfortable is because it was extremely unsteady while the was lifting its head to eat some greens and the elephants head is also one large, rough caliste, and I happened to be wearing shorts on the occasion.

I was also able to feed my elephant pineapple. This was pretty amusing considering that I had never fed anything larger than a dog. The elephant snatched the pineapple from my hand as soon as I picked it from the pile. I developed a close relationship with my elephant during this adventure, and I was heartbroken when I was forced to leave and I’m almost sure I saw a small tear trickle down my elephants face when I left as well.

So my Krabi experience was definitely one of the better ones of Thailand and as I left I wished I could split myself into 4 parts. Part of me wanted to stay, another part of me wanted to continue the journey to Bangkok, the third part of me wanted to go back to the orphanage. The last part of me was a desire that I had not felt since I had started traveling. I wanted to go home. I thought this was strange, because I had just had the best time of my life. Now, I didn’t want to go home because I was tired of traveling or missing the Hamptons. I just wanted to experience what it would be like to go home after all I have done. Well, I guess that time will come very soon, but I hope I experience plenty more of Thailand before it does.

A Paradise Unfit

April 18-30. Phi Phi. From the cities of Chiang Mai came the beaches of Phi Phi in southern Thailand. I had never known there was a distinctive tropical paradise in any part of Thailand, but I experienced such a place. After a 1 hour on a plane and a bumpy boat ride, we arrived on the white beaches of Phi Phi, where the emerald water kisses the fine sand every so often. It was exactly like an ad for Budweiser or one of those cheesy tropical postcards people send each other and that aspect was a little unappealing to me. The only things disrupting this tourist paradise were the dozens of longboats motoring around the island.

The longboats were the taxis of the islands of Phi Phi. They have been used for several decades and used to be similar to rowboats. Now they are equipped with long propellers connected to a car engine. It was a wild sight that I hadn’t become accustomed to even after spending a week around them. We were picked up by one of these contraptions on our way to the hotel. Once we got on the boat we immediately noticed that if the weight of both sides wasn’t precise it would tip to one side and be in danger of capsizing. This was a slight inconvenience, given that we consisted of a 12 year old, two adults, 4 bags of luggage, and me.

Our hotel was situated right on the beach, so we never took the time to doddle in our rooms. The next few days were spent snorkeling right off the beach, rock climbing the stunning mountain faces, and relaxing on the beach. The snorkeling, in particular, was unique. We were able to see black tipped sharks, sea turtles, moray eels, seahorses, and several varieties of fish just off the beach. On one day we hired a longboater to give us a snorkeling tour of the surrounding islands, but after a while it seemed slightly repetitive. He took us to several tourist locations, each cheesier than the last. The most touristy of them all was Miami Beach, which is improperly and properly named. It is improperly named because it possesses a natural beauty of green waters, perfect sand, and stunning cliffs that a Miami beach cannot compete with. It is, however, properly named because it is filled with so many people that it’s hard to walk peacefully.

The nights in Phi Phi were fun, but also repetitive. The hotel we stayed at put on a fire dancing show every night. It was great to see, but then again if I had stayed for more than 3 nights at the hotel I would have been fed up with it. The food was great, just as Thai food usually is and I finally convinced my father to eat his first piece of fish in the 49 years he has been alive. I was pretty proud of myself after that.

I became more comfortable with my family during these 3 days, to the point where it seemed that the stage of getting to know each other had finally seemed to have dwindled away. I had a blast with them during this time, but time and time again I found myself longing for the experiences I had become accustomed to. Meeting new people, spending time with the friends I had made, sleeping on the floor, and experiencing vast cultures were the things I was used to. Then whenever I thought of this I would tell myself that I’m just on a vacation. Yet, I couldn’t help thinking that this was a sign that, eventually, my adventures will have to come to an end.