walking not safe, hitch-hike better

This past weekend I took a trip to Kao Yai National Park with a large group of people. During the trip we had 8 people, then 14 people, then 4 people as groups split off to enjoy different parts of the park. We went camping (in an actual tent and slept on the ground). Im not a very outdoorsy kind of person, but I really enjoyed the trip. Luckily, we had a restroom area, so I was able to do things like wash my face and brush my teeth with the comforts of a running faucet. As always, practice makes perfect with squat toilets... and I did a lot of practicing. The main attractions of Kao Yai are waterfalls, and we got to see many of them during our day of hiking on Saturday. Josh and Steve got leeched (literally), but I somehow managed to escape the suckers! We did see many deer on the trip (I thought of you, Dad!) and a troop of monkeys (who purged our campsite while we were hiking).

We hired a guide to walk us around the area by the campsite, but he ended up just leading us through the well marked path through the woods. We started passing old men and women on the hike, a sight that made us feel silly for hiring a guide. But nonetheless, he braved the leeches for us- and we paid him 300 baht for his service.

How can falling water be so beautiful? One of my favorite things to do at the waterfalls was to pick a cluster of water at the top and follow it all the way down the waterfall to see how it breaks apart on the drop. I could sit and do this for hours!

Many places had signs for "No Swimming"... and even though I put on my cutest face and asked the guide, the rule didnt bend. Lesson learned: leeches. I often saw a "Beware of crocodiles" and "no swimming" signs together. Seems like you would just need to put a sign about crocodiles to deter people from swimming... but maybe not?

Our guide is pictured above (with appropriate leech gear). He seems like he is having a good time watching us admire the waterfall. We walked the 3 kilometers back to the campsite and decided to go exploring on our own.

Our task: Get to the visitor center... 10 kilometers down the road. There are no taxis in the national park. We could walk... but we had been told the night before by our songtau driver that "walking not safe, hitch-hike better." We started walking down the road and stuck-out-our-thumb in Thai. The Thai way of asking to be picked up is palm faced down extend fingers and curl them towards the palm. The US version of come here with palm faced up means something inappropriate in Thai (but still not sure what it means). A truck stops to pick us up...
driver "Where are you going?"
us "visitors center"
driver "I go to waterfall"
us "OK"

So we hitched a ride to another waterfall. BEST IDEA EVER. This waterfall was gigantically majestic.

We couldnt make it all the way to the bottom of the waterfall because the stairs ended here. The never-ending stairs were extremely steep and not to code at all! They are Thai-sized, so my foot (I wear a size six) was deeper than the step.

I thought the arrows before this bridge were great. You see them everywhere, reminding foreigners that people also walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk in addition to driving on the left side of the road. This bridge looked like a patchwork quilt. A really poorly done patchwork quilt with boards just nailed down over holes in the bridge. Made me feel pretty safe.

There are lots of these kinds of trees in the national park. We call them dandelion trees because they look like dandelions when you see them from afar on top of a mountain. It feels like you should just be able to blow the leaves away with a big breath. I guess we can see them above all other trees because they are pretty much the tallest trees I have ever seen.

After we left the waterfall, we hitched a ride to the visitors center with the same people who picked us up earlier. It honestly felt like I was on a rollercoaster during the ride- he drove waaay too fast for four people to be sitting in the back of his pickup, but it was fun! We slowed down to a stop at one point because a troop of monkeys had decided to hang out in the middle of the road. We had to drive AROUND them as they wouldnt move out of our way. Once we got to the visitors center, we ordered lunch (or early dinner). This was one of my first chances to order food in Thai outside of BKK, and I ordered sen-lek muu naam (or pork and noodle soup). The food was excellent. We signed up for a night safari tour but ended up having to wait for 3 hours for the tour to leave. We used this time to develop a closer bond between the four of us (Johnny, Steve, Josh, myself). Learned a lot, told a lot. Then a gecko peed on me. seriously. What are the odds of that happening? I was sitting there and felt drops on my arm. Turned on the light and sure enough there was a lizard on the top of the gazebo. It smelled REALLY bad. The night safari was a let-down because we only saw deer. We saw A LOT of deer. Then we started counting and reached 67 by the end of the tour. 67 deer? ugh. We hitch-hiked back to the campsite in the back of a jeep-size car. We practiced a bit of Thai before bed.

The National Park didnt have any food for sell after 5pm, so resisting the urge to snack on non-nutritional foods was pretty hard. I did however manage to just eat enough to satiate my hunger. We slept 4 people to a 4 person tent. I think all tents that say 4 people had a misprint and meant to write 3 people. The first night it POURED down rain which kept me up most of the night... probably because I had to use the restroom, but didnt want to go out in the rain. Also, we left our shoes outside the tent, so that was fun the next morning. All in all, it cost me 110 baht to rent a tent and a sleeping bag for a night... less than four dollars- score! The second night was much better (I had an extra blanket to keep warm), and I slept a lot. Had chicken fried rice (khaaw-phat gai) for breakfast and then we hitched a ride out of the park. The guy actually took us all the way to the train station (almost 60 kilometers!). At one point we stopped on the side of the road and thought he was making us get out of the truck. We hopped out and looked around like 'What the heck are we supposed to do now'... but turns out that he was just waiting for his friend. He just said FRIEND. which I thought meant ONE person, but before we knew it there were three others cars around us. One car had his friend. One car had a professor from Thammasat (weird, I know). The other car had a Thai family (with a baby on the front-seat passengers lap)... we thought these people were like 'hey there are white people on the side of the road, lets see whats up'.... I have no idea how all of these people knew each other, but we got back in the truck and rode the rest of the way into town with each of the three cars leading the caravan for some length of the journey. We pulled up with four cars to the bus station. Sometimes things really cant be translated, and you just have to smile and say thank you (khoop khun kha).

Lesson Learned this week:
Life doesnt stop or slow down for a day because you put on a sad face. Youve got to choose to be happy. Once you choose to be happy, you realize that true happiness doesnt respond to wishes. True happiness is a product of work.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day! I received these beautiful flowers from a wonderful boy in NC around 1pm on Vday. I feel truly blessed to be loved so much from so far away. I couldnt be more excited about seeing him on our spring break trip to Barcelona! 26 days!

the scoop

Alright guys, Ive used this blog to post about the awesome experiences that I have had while abroad, but I think it is time to open up my heart. Let's talk about how Im really doing...

Homesickness
I spent the first month here completely homesick. I would have taken a ticket back to NC without hesitation. The voyage away from NC came at a time when I was just beginning a relationship, and I was worried I would lose in the transaction. Desperately seeking encouragement, I was very open about being homesick.* I was letting myself be vulnerable and opening my heart up to the world, which is something I don't do on a regular basis at home. A close friend of mine told me just a week ago that she realized that I was a real person during January. Who would have known? As for now, I am doing tons better! I have really acclimated to the culture swap and have embraced the opportunity to learn about the world around me. I also booked a ticket to Barcelona to meet up with my favorite QC boy for NCSU's spring break. I will see him in four weeks from today. Im counting down the days!

*Your kind words during those few weeks helped tremendously. Feeling as loved as I did from the other side of the planet is unforgettable. I feel truly blessed to know so many people care about me!

Information
I have been surrounded by many other foreigners who know a lot about the world. They not only know more about geography, but they know more about the current issues pressing on many nations. I took this as a cue that I need to get more informed, so I started reading Newsweek. Once I started reading the news, I realized how daunting the task of trying to be informed can be. Firstly, there is always more news to read. Secondly, news builds on old news which builds on old news. I didnt have this institutional knowledge to understand the news I was reading! Nonetheless, I will never be informed if I dont read it at all, so I persevere. Also, the vocabulary in Newsweek is out of my league. Josh and I talked about how you can pick up the meaning of words contextually, and probably use them correctly in everyday conversation. We found that we might could use the words in the correct context, but we couldnt really define the word (seems like something you should be able to do if you want the word to be in your vocab). Therefore, I started writing down the words I read that I can not define and proceed to look them up later.

My new favorite word: confab- to 'chew the fat' or talk socially without exchanging too much information. Newsweek called the World Economic Forum a confab.

Irregularity
You probably gathered from my previous posts that I have a problem of irregularity in Thailand. I am without a science based class this semester, so I devised an experiment to perform on myself. A diet experiment! I had planned to alter my diet to include more fibrous foods such as fruits and vegetables and evaluate the effects on my regularity. Check plus! The diet has helped with my issues, and I feel a lot better from all the extra fruits consumed. I havent found a publisher yet, but I have high hopes for the write-up of this experiment. :]


Food
As everyone warned before I headed to Thailand, the food is excellent. Not only is the food excellent, but it is EVERYWHERE! I can not walk a block down the street without seeing meat on a stick, fruit, a bakery, an ice cream shop, more meat on a stick.... I have never really had a problem with overeating, but I ran into a serious issue during January. We have 10-15 minute breaks in class where we can go grab something to eat or drink, and the majority of the time we arent in class is spent in close proximity to food.  I literally was thinking about food all the time, and when I was consuming food, I was thinking about the next time I would get to eat. I filled up on pastries from delicious bakeries (the bread is absolutely wonderful here). Anyways, I got into a problem with overconsumption and gained a few LBs. probably more than a few, but who's counting. Now I realize that Im not fat and that a few LBs wont kill me, but you have to understand that it was making me feel horrible. I was always overstuffed and worried about my self control issues. (this was just last week). I agreed to cut back on the pastries and sweets and to eat more fruit whenever I needed sustenance. I feel better already, but it has only been a few days- so Ill get back to ya!

Going out
At first when I got to BKK, I was content to be my own person and make my own social rules. Many of the international students started bonding through late night adventures. I had my small social network and chose to opt out of the roof-top parties and club hopping. This was during the time that I was homesick, so I was spending a lot of time in my room (skyping, writing emails, eating, reading, etc). Then I got this idea in my head that I wasnt having an appropriate study abroad experience, because I wasnt going crazy. I had no desire to go crazy. I would honestly rather sit in my room and read the bible or write a blog/email or look up words from Newsweek... really, Id rather do anything than go out. What was wrong with me? I started to feel bad about not wanting to attend late night fiascoes. I was feeling antisocial, the peer pressure to fit in and be like everyone else. After a while I realized that it is okay that Im different. We are all studying abroad to find something different. Im seeking to grow in my faith, learn who I am, learn about the culture of Thailand, and spend some time becoming a more stable person both emotionally and mentally... so of course I didnt want to go out - that didnt fit into any of my goals while abroad. Other people probably have some similar goals and some different goals, and that is okay! Everyone's study abroad experience will be different, and as long as I am happy with my choices- there is no reason to fit into the party mold.

Jesus Christ
This is the big one... Ive been on ups and downs with JC for the past few weeks. Early January was a time when I fell to my knees and asked for strength from the only person I knew could give it to me. He responded how He always does, with divine love that helped me cope, helped me see the time here as a gift to me and not as punishment. He showed me that he brought me here to open up my eyes to HIM. Away from the day to day hustle of Raleigh, I would be forced to change my routine and learn how to incorporate HIM into it. And I did. I was proud and ready to share with the world around me MY accomplishment. I bet youre thinking... YOUR accomplishment? Who do you think you are, Jennifer? You didnt accomplish anything, HE accomplished something. Stuck in my ways of proving myself through my actions, I thought I had accomplished something. I was wrong.

I began to think that my light to the world was my blog and how I could use it as an evangelical tool. How I could seek recognition for discovering Jesus. Like I was the first one to discover such a gift. How I could share my discovery with friends and family back at home. I dont think this is a bad goal, but I was looking at it the wrong way. I was starting to feel necessary, like I was an asset to Jesus. He needed me to do this, and he couldnt do this without me. wrong. again.

I sent an email seeking counseling for the daunting task of being called to do something for Jesus. I am thankful to Pastor Taylor for bringing me back down to earth. Truth is, Jesus can do his work without me. He doesnt need me to do his work for him. I got so wrapped up in what I was doing FOR Jesus, that I forgot all about Jesus. I was seeking to find my self worth in an accomplishment that I did (oh yeah, and dont forget to throw Jesus in there).

So here I am, humbled like never before. Humility is not one of my strong characteristics. Here is the important thing: Jesus saved me. Jesus gave his life for me! Jesus is changing me to be more like him every day. To get the focus back on Jesus and off of me, I starting reading the New Testament based on the New through 30 plan from Charlotte's Elevation Church.

At first, I was terrified. The first day's reading read through many of the ways we should be like Jesus, and I realized how I was not at all like the first 12 chapters of Matthew. Topics like compassion, giving to the needy, anxiety, judging others... Do I need to keep going? I was not living in the likeness of Jesus if these were my parameters. Holy Moley I had a lot of work to be doing. I got discouraged after two days of reading, because I felt like I wasnt getting anywhere. I was reading through the chapters too fast to absorb anything. Trey was also doing it, and he helped encourage me to start reading again. We were both busy during the week, so it was hard to keep up with the reading. Through talks with him and Elevation's sermons, I began to realize the merit of reading the entire NT as an exercise. Here's how I relate it to my life...

Last year when I was working for EM, I learned that industry values engineers who can get down deep into the weeds of an operation and understand the process on a nozzle by nozzle level. Industry also values engineers who can get high above the weeds and explain the process to a senior management executive in layman's terms. Being able to articulate the merits of the process as a whole and being able to understand each specific component of the process are indispensable skills for industry engineers. Maybe that is what I was learning to do in the New through 30 exercise. I could already look at a verse and find a significant meaning in the 'weeds level' of the bible, but I couldnt honestly say that I knew the overarching themes of the New Testament. Perhaps this is a skill that is indispensable to followers of Jesus Christ, too. 


Take a look if you are interested: New Through 30 explained

"Into marvelous light I'm running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life you are the way"
- "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall

Lop Buri

After we got back from Koh Samed, I spent the week catching up on sleep and enjoying sleeping in a real bed. The week actually passes by fast when you only have class for four days a week. The teachers assigned homework, and I had my first test last Friday. We had heard about a place a few hours above Bangkok called Lop Buri who have a pack of wild monkeys that live on the local temple ruins. We got up early on Saturday to take the day trip. I had stayed up extra late and gotten up extra early, so I took the opportunity to sleep on the train.

The first monkey we saw when we got off the train was this one.

This town takes their monkeys seriously, because there were statues of monkeys everywhere! As soon as we arrived, we headed down the street toward the famous monkey infested ancient wat. We saw the monkeys on the corner of an intersection from about 20 meters away. They were hanging on the telephone wires, sitting on the stop sign, running across the shop awnings, perched on the fence above the shops, climbing on the barbed wire of the telephone poles... basically they were everywhere. We probably spent the first 15 minutes taking pictures of the creatures, and they didnt seem to mind... until Steve got a video camera in their face. The monkey was about 4 feet from Steve's face when he snarled. He pulled back his lips to show his teeth and ran after Steve with his face in a fierce formation. He let Steve get away, but continued to shriek at passersby on the street corner. Steve didn't get close to another monkey the entire day.

We crossed the street to see the wat ruins where we saw many more monkeys. They were lounging around the wat, content to be photographed by the tourists. If you look carefully at his photo, you can see the camouflaged monkeys.

I walked up to a baby monkey to get a closer look. He really did look harmless. I had extended my hand to point at him and turned my head to show the boys, who were about 10 feet away from me. Next thing I know the baby monkey has jumped on my arm! My immediate reaction was to shake him off, kind of like you would shake off a bug. He was holding onto my arm and hanging upside down. The sensation of him climbing up my arm was scary and thrilling at the same time. He hadnt mastered the ability to sit on top of my arm just yet, so I helped him balance and took a good look at him. He jumped down when he had enough, but he succeeded in making my day memorable!

We continued to walk through the wat ruins and found more monkeys. Josh got groomed by a monkey, Johnny pacified one with his empty water bottle, and Steve stayed far away from the commotion. After about 10 or 15 minutes of the monkeys, the newness was gone and the monkey filth was left all over us. They monkeys became more comfortable with us and started trying to get in our bags (they know how to work zippers!). They would gang up 3 or 4 to one person and try to open the backpack.... and thats about the time we made our way for the door. A thought kept crossing my mind that these were actual wild monkeys and could probably do some damage to us if they wanted to do so. When they got a little out of hand, the security guard would come over and disperse them with a pole. I read a sign in the wat that explained that people should not feed the monkeys, as they are fed twice a day by the security guard. Feeding the monkeys simply teaches them that all visitors are supposed to give them food, and will encourage them to harass tourists for their possessions.

We kept walking around the town for the next few hours and saw a money free ancient wat's ruins. We also saw a money swimming pool near the train tracks where a group of monkeys cooled off from the hot sun.

Another reminder that these are wild monkeys!

We had a great day with the monkeys, and we were eager to shower as soon as we got back to the mansion!

elephant stampede, tiger nap, island getaway

To the left, you can see the welcome sign for the Karen village. Immediately past the sign is a long bridge over the river. Our guest house was at the top of the hill where the dirt road seems to end. We left the Karen village right after breakfast and trekked all day, just stopping for lunch. We made friends with a dog who lived in the Karen village, and he walked with us all the way to lunch. The sun was scorching, and we were glad to be mostly covered by the forest while hiking. We reached a swinging bridge with slats (about 1-2 feet apart) for crossing. Had I not had a backpack on, I could have easily fallen through the slats. We crossed 2-3 at a time, trying not to sway the bridge too much. This is where our canine companion stopped following. Steve spent almost half an hour trying to coax the dog to walk across the bridge to no avail. A dog from the opposite side of the bridge walked halfway out on the bridge and waited for it to stop shaking, then he continued to cross to the other side like it was no big deal.

We stopped just on this side of the bridge and had lunch at a local village. The village women once again tried selling us bracelets and hand bags, but this time I didnt pay them any attention. I learned 'may oww' means 'no need.' I noticed that this village also had baby chicks, so I spent the time Ah was cooking to chase around the hens and try to get my hands on one of their chicks. Every time I bent close to the ground, the mother hen would turn around and puff out her chest while opening her wings. I gave up on the adventure, but Steve had realized the dog wasnt going to cross the bridge by this point, so he tried to catch a chick for me. He succeeded, and I got to play with the chick for just a few seconds under the hen responded to the panicked chirps of the little rascal. We had noodle soup for lunch with bananas and pineapple. This small village did have electricity, evident by their solar panels situated beside the kitchen hut.

After lunch, Ah asked us if we wanted to take the long trek or the short trek for the rest of the day. 30 minutes vs. 2 hours. We unanimously voted on the 2 hour trek which was actually at a 35 degree incline for the first hour. I had gotten really tired the previous day while we were trekking, but I took care to pack my backpack better this morning and was having an easier time. Something kept pushing me up the mountain even though I was tired. I was dripping with sweat by the time that we reached the top of the mountain. The view was great, and I felt amazing after expending so much energy on the hill. We reached the Lahu village around 5 pm and got settled for the night. This tribe was insistent on giving us all Thai massages, but I declined and took a short nap instead. We were done with all hiking for the trek, the next day would be just smooth sailing down the river on a bamboo raft. We stayed up a little bit later that night with the entire group around a fire enjoying the occasional trumpet from an elephant in the distance. We were singing songs and sharing stories until a villager came up to speak to Ah about something. He looked worried.

I was the first one to take notice of the intense conversation between Ah and the local. Ah would look down at the bamboo porch and shake his head every now and then. The local was perfectly balanced in a squatting position during the conversation. When the villager left, I asked Ah what the problem was, and he explained. The elephants are allowed to roam free at night as they have poor night vision. If anyone approaches the elephant at night, it will stampede at the animal or human out of fear. The worst thing to do is shine a flashlight at the elephant, because this enrages him. Ah continued to explain that a particular elephant had gotten angry in the woods and was heading toward the village. Elephants have been known to stampede down villages in their night rage outbursts, and the local was afraid of such an incident. I began to understand the impeding danger of an elephant stampede at this point. Ah said that the villager had taken a flashlight and a gun (not to mention his 5 year old son!) out to the edge of the village to scare the elephant away. We looked over the porch balcony and could see the flashlight scanning the trees as the elephants trumpet got closer and closer. We heard the rustling of branches from the other side of the river, and then BAM! the gun went off. I jumped as the elephant turned around and ran the other direction. Just a typical night in a hill tribe in the jungle of Thailand, I guess.

They have crazy dogs over here! I was hot sitting outside of the fire pit!

The next morning, I climbed out of bed only for the promise of a cup of coffee from Ashton. Strawberry jam and toast with scrambled eggs. We loaded up the bags and set out for the last leg of the trek on our bamboo raft!

We were lined up one by one all the way down the extra long raft with our bags near the front of the apparatus on a stand out of the water. Brett and I tried to soak up some sun on the ride. The raft was surprisingly sturdy and didnt have any problems navigating the river. This time of year can be difficult (as it is the dry season) and many rocks can obstruct the raft's course. Song tried to fish during the first part of the ride (which was about 2 hours in total) but was not successful. The probability of falling off the raft was high, so we put our electronics in a waterproof bag for the trip. We stopped to take a few pictures where the boys started a rock throwing contest. typical.

We did find a bamboo leaf that was taller than me (and taller than Will!) on the way down the river. If you look close, you can see my shorts tan line from the trek. We had to do some swimming to get to the side of the river, but it was well worth it. Some other westerners flowed by us on the river (in their life jackets) while we were stopped and disapproved of our swimming in the river, but it was a lot of fun! I recognize that it wasnt the cleanest river that I will ever swim in, and it probably did have snakes. But, when in Thailand....

haha! Im not sure what Will is doing in the background.

We arrived safe at the songtau in time to grab some Pad Thai before heading back toward Chang Mai. Overall, the trek was a once in a lifetime experience, and I would have only changed one thing... I had digestive issues the entire time and had gone 5 whole days without a bowel movement. By the time the trek was over, I was in constant pain from Linda, my food baby.

The entire group before we hopped back into the songtau for the bumpy ride to Chang Mai. Im SQUANDING!

On the way back to Chang Mai we stopped by the a tiger attraction. I had a goal to take a picture with a tiger during my time in Thailand, and I did it! I paid 320 baht to spend 15 minutes with two tigers in an electric fence cage. The tigers were sedated and slept most of the time, but the experience was totally worth the 11 dollars spent!

size comparison.

That looks like it would hurt.

This tiger was beautiful. I really was that close to his face, no zoom necessary!

RAWR!

The rest of Chang Mai consisted of a lot of rest, a victorious bowel movement, and a couple temples. We headed back to BKK after two days of sightseeing. We got home to the mansion around 10:30, and the internet wasnt working (we had planned to look up information about a weekend trip when we got home). No worries though, we got up the next morning and headed to the bus station, and looked for a bus to the beach! Here are some pictures from our trip.

ferry ride over to the island of Koh Samed with Steve.

This little kid had NO facial expressions. We made it our job to try to make him smile before the ferry ride was over, but even Steve beat-boxing skills didnt produce a grin.

No beach vacation would be complete without fire dancers -- make that children hula-hooping with fire rings.

I could NOT have been happier about this grilled cheese that we found on the island. HG used to make me a grilled cheese almost every day last semester, and this was a welcome reminder of our lazy snacks together!

mmmmm. sweet mango on the beach!

Josh tried to complete a pizza challenge, but only got this far. Steve and I finished it off for him!

The water was wonderfully relaxing.

Taken on the ferry ride back from Koh Samed. Look at how blue the water was!

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."

Matthew 6:19-21