Feb. 26-Mar. 1
Friday the 26th marked the farewell gathering in BKK for the 1st semester of CIEE--can you believe the 1st semester is nearly over? I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a different post, but it's definitely eye-opening how fast time goes. We met up with our crew in the evening after sitting in an absurd amount of traffic-an all too familiar Friday happening in Thailand. After an evening of reminiscing, laughing and RCA we said our farewells to many of the people we had shared the last few months with. Weird.
We woke up and decided to see a movie (aka it was so hot that A/C sounded incredible!) A bunch of us went to see the Book of Eli which turned out to be a really awesome flick. I'm not the hugest Denzel fan, but I thought the overall concept/twist of the movie turned out to be pretty cool. Josie, Emily and I said our final goodbyes to the Sunflowers (some of our friends who taught at the Sunflower School) which was kinda surreal. It's slowly but surely sinking in that some of the faces we look forward to seeing most on our weekend excursions are heading back to get settled into the future.
Sunday found us heading out to Ko Si Chang as we had Monday off for Maka Bucha--not really sure what this holiday is, but we don't need anymore motivation to snag an excuse for an island excursion. Learning from the last time Josie and I went we paid an extra 20 baht for the bus landing us in Sri Racha in under 2 hrs (last time it took almost 4!). It's so nice to be able to learn from our mistakes and no that with the amount of time we have left we can really utilize all the shortcuts/experiences we've found. We sat on the roof of the ferry as the cabin was full and took in the salty (and sometimes fishy) sea air as we headed to our little paradise away from home. We decided when we docked to walk and get snacks before heading to the beach and along the way we ran into our tuk tuk driver from our first time on the island. He approached us and was so happy to see us! We were in awe that he remembered us (I think it goes to show how few westerners know about this island) and so excited to have a personal driver for the weekend!
Shoe (or Shu, not sure about the spelling) brought us to where we stayed last time, but as it was a holiday it was full, so he brought us to one of the few places on the island that had available rooms: the Sawatdee Si Chang Resort. It is a beautiful country home looking place nestled in the hills with a wonderful view of the water. We thought it was going to be really expensive, but it
turned out to only be 950 baht for the 3 of us (it was supposed to be more, but through the little thai we understand we overheard Shoe telling the owners to make it rot dai--cheaper--for us!) How awesome is that?! The ladies working at the resort were also unbelievably friendly and welcoming- Pe Jom was really the only of the 3 that could speak some English, but was sure that we had absolutely everything we needed, showed us around, etc. The owner of the place speaks no English, but was all smiles and jabbering away in Thai, laughing all the while when we were able to respond to something she said! The only downside about the resort is that it's not on the beach (there's only 1 beach on the island and the place we tried to stay is the only place that's on the beach), but with Shoe being as nice as he is, he waited for us to unpack and change and was there to drive us to the otherside of the island.
We gorged ourselves on some seafood pad see eew (thick noodles) before heading to our spots near the clear blue waters to soak up some rays and play in the waves. The water was almost like a bath it was so wonderfully warm; the perfect companion while staring at the sand and hills of the island. We got a midday snack of Som Tom (thai papaya salad) that turned out to be one of the spiciest things we've eaten--it still boggles my mind how hot some of the food is! Shoe was right on time to get us back to our place where we showered and read our books while watching the sunset over the water. A bunch of Thais were all outside enjoying the view and were whipping out fish and squid left and right to cook on these little charcoal grills the resort provides--pretty cool!
For dinner we went to Pan & David's, the island's famous restaurant, as Josie and I have been craving the sweet and sour chicken since the last time we were there. We met David, the owner, an American expat who owns the restaurant with his wife Pan, one of the cooks. We also ordered garlic/pepper squid (Si Chang is known for it's squid and I can't describe how good and tender it is), a shrimp soup w/ black pepper and mixed vegetables (including pumpkin which we actually eat a lot of here) and spicy wing bean salad. My mouth is watering thinking about how good it is...Getting to sleep was a little hard as the a/c sort of quit on us, but after some healthy sweating I finally drifted off realizing in the morning that it turned itself back on somehow during the night! We had some coffee on our deck for breakfast and returned to the beach--you guess it Shoe came through once again. After another squid dish we got some more sun and headed back to the ferry. Shoe was sad to say bye, but after exchanging phone numbers and a tip for his amazing services he was overjoyed. 'My friend my friend! okay see you again! i see you soon! okay my friend you carr me!' and carr you we shall.
Friday the 26th marked the farewell gathering in BKK for the 1st semester of CIEE--can you believe the 1st semester is nearly over? I'll talk more about my thoughts on this in a different post, but it's definitely eye-opening how fast time goes. We met up with our crew in the evening after sitting in an absurd amount of traffic-an all too familiar Friday happening in Thailand. After an evening of reminiscing, laughing and RCA we said our farewells to many of the people we had shared the last few months with. Weird.
We woke up and decided to see a movie (aka it was so hot that A/C sounded incredible!) A bunch of us went to see the Book of Eli which turned out to be a really awesome flick. I'm not the hugest Denzel fan, but I thought the overall concept/twist of the movie turned out to be pretty cool. Josie, Emily and I said our final goodbyes to the Sunflowers (some of our friends who taught at the Sunflower School) which was kinda surreal. It's slowly but surely sinking in that some of the faces we look forward to seeing most on our weekend excursions are heading back to get settled into the future.
Sunday found us heading out to Ko Si Chang as we had Monday off for Maka Bucha--not really sure what this holiday is, but we don't need anymore motivation to snag an excuse for an island excursion. Learning from the last time Josie and I went we paid an extra 20 baht for the bus landing us in Sri Racha in under 2 hrs (last time it took almost 4!). It's so nice to be able to learn from our mistakes and no that with the amount of time we have left we can really utilize all the shortcuts/experiences we've found. We sat on the roof of the ferry as the cabin was full and took in the salty (and sometimes fishy) sea air as we headed to our little paradise away from home. We decided when we docked to walk and get snacks before heading to the beach and along the way we ran into our tuk tuk driver from our first time on the island. He approached us and was so happy to see us! We were in awe that he remembered us (I think it goes to show how few westerners know about this island) and so excited to have a personal driver for the weekend!
Shoe (or Shu, not sure about the spelling) brought us to where we stayed last time, but as it was a holiday it was full, so he brought us to one of the few places on the island that had available rooms: the Sawatdee Si Chang Resort. It is a beautiful country home looking place nestled in the hills with a wonderful view of the water. We thought it was going to be really expensive, but it
turned out to only be 950 baht for the 3 of us (it was supposed to be more, but through the little thai we understand we overheard Shoe telling the owners to make it rot dai--cheaper--for us!) How awesome is that?! The ladies working at the resort were also unbelievably friendly and welcoming- Pe Jom was really the only of the 3 that could speak some English, but was sure that we had absolutely everything we needed, showed us around, etc. The owner of the place speaks no English, but was all smiles and jabbering away in Thai, laughing all the while when we were able to respond to something she said! The only downside about the resort is that it's not on the beach (there's only 1 beach on the island and the place we tried to stay is the only place that's on the beach), but with Shoe being as nice as he is, he waited for us to unpack and change and was there to drive us to the otherside of the island.We gorged ourselves on some seafood pad see eew (thick noodles) before heading to our spots near the clear blue waters to soak up some rays and play in the waves. The water was almost like a bath it was so wonderfully warm; the perfect companion while staring at the sand and hills of the island. We got a midday snack of Som Tom (thai papaya salad) that turned out to be one of the spiciest things we've eaten--it still boggles my mind how hot some of the food is! Shoe was right on time to get us back to our place where we showered and read our books while watching the sunset over the water. A bunch of Thais were all outside enjoying the view and were whipping out fish and squid left and right to cook on these little charcoal grills the resort provides--pretty cool!
For dinner we went to Pan & David's, the island's famous restaurant, as Josie and I have been craving the sweet and sour chicken since the last time we were there. We met David, the owner, an American expat who owns the restaurant with his wife Pan, one of the cooks. We also ordered garlic/pepper squid (Si Chang is known for it's squid and I can't describe how good and tender it is), a shrimp soup w/ black pepper and mixed vegetables (including pumpkin which we actually eat a lot of here) and spicy wing bean salad. My mouth is watering thinking about how good it is...Getting to sleep was a little hard as the a/c sort of quit on us, but after some healthy sweating I finally drifted off realizing in the morning that it turned itself back on somehow during the night! We had some coffee on our deck for breakfast and returned to the beach--you guess it Shoe came through once again. After another squid dish we got some more sun and headed back to the ferry. Shoe was sad to say bye, but after exchanging phone numbers and a tip for his amazing services he was overjoyed. 'My friend my friend! okay see you again! i see you soon! okay my friend you carr me!' and carr you we shall.
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