School is over and nothing left to do but pack and play

Although we still have one week left of school, the marks are in and we have three days of activities with the students then two days without. I think that time will fly.

Coming back from the market I was blown away by the colour of the sky. We do get some beautiful hues.

My new wheels which we bought from a friend who is moving to Senegal. Vince also has one which we will get later but for now this is the speedy way to get around. Of course, you know I'll ride my bike everywhere but this gives us the flexibility to go a little further and will be a great addition for out second year of adventures.

This is what happens when you give Thai boys an american football. they had a vague idea of how to throw but no-one knew how. Fun to watch them.

This plant has taken over the klong so I thought I would dig up before and after pictures. They are essentially the same section of waterway but from a different angles.

Before

After

Klong village.

Check out the vines in the background.

One of my obstacles on my run. I really have to duck to get under and so far have not yet hit my head.

Frisbee Team

I hadn't played frisbee since I slipped on water back in October and messed up my shoulder for a few months but got back into it tonight.....just in time for the group photo. Nice timing! We had ordered T-shirts and got them last week so I figured I should at least play once before the end of the year. Many of these people are leaving so will have to recruit some new people and keep it going.

Where were you during the Coup d'etat?

Well my regular golfing buddies Neil and Eric were looking at one more round before the end of the year just to remind ourselves how much practice we need during the summer.  We had heard about night golf and since Neil is heading back to the the home country after this year we had best find a day/evening to fit this in. Well Thursday looked like a great day for this so we booked our  late afternoon T-time and our taxi driver and off we went  to Panya Indra. Panya is a 27-hole course actually quite close to where we live and takes only 15-20 minutes to get there. What is unique is that 9 holes are actually lit so you can play at night for half the round.

Here are  few shots of the course. Lots of water and sand bunkers to keep you honest.

 Nice looking clubhose.

 

Of course we cannot forget our caddies for this round. 

No we did not hire pretty caddies, that is an extra 20 bucks.  They are all dressed, many Thai do not like the sun since it darkens their skin so they are pretty much covered up all the time. I can't imaging their body temp fully dressed as the air temp this afternoon hit 37 C.

 

We did say we were playing night golf, so we watched the sun set as we are teeing off the last couple of holes before going to the last nine holes under the flood lights.

 Well it was about his time that the news about the Coup d'etat was official as Neil was busy working between shots to prepare the school communications, really he was just making sure we could finish the round!

Well we did start the round under the lights as we were the last group to get off  on the last nine.

Just waiting till the previous group gets out of the way.

Helicopters overhead just add to the atmosphere as we were just informed that we have to leave the course no later than 9 pm. Curfew has been announced so we have to get back by 10 pm and all stores, services are ordered closed by 8 or 9 pm.

Can you see the hole Neil.

Well it was just another day round, the darkness did not improve my game... although the events in the surrounding area were a little interrupted with troops moving into key locations around the city, and a few helicopters overhead.  We managed to get 16 holes in before we were escorted off the course.. time to go home.

Winding Down for The Summer.

It was a sad day last week....my trusty bike got stolen from the main road or the "pac soi". I had left it there (locked) and jumped on the bus to go to a market a few streets away. So sad but they left my lock and I have to say it was a nice clean cut. So, I guess I will leave it at the regular street where there is so much chaos that nothing ever gets stolen.

I picked this one up a week later after borrowing Vince's for a week. Its blends in better than my yellow one did...I hope. I don't know what is with Vince's halo. Just so you know, that seat was a about 50 deg C when I jumped on it after this photo.

 They sell T-shirts like this. I am not that mean but it was funny.

A typical parking lot for a get together. 

 I have decided to try and at least recognize some words. At the rate I am going I might be eating curry for a while. I know other dishes but reading is a whole different story. We go by this ladies little stall all the time and she just opened up a little restaurant behind her. Like most, it's really the front end of her house.

This is it from inside and she does all of her cooking at the little stall. 

See the big jar of liquid on the counter?  It's Thai whisky and we are about to get our first taste.

It was good but it packed a punch so we were happy we shared one. We heard later that we we were supposed to put the whisky in the water......and I thought she was just giving me a drink. 

New regulations at our school require that the gate (on the left) to the pool is locked after 5 pm so we don't have any accidents. This means that we need to hop the railing on the stairs to swim now. Actually, it's even funnier. More often than not, we are locked in because we only start swimming after the practices are over at 4:45. The 25 m pool is wide open so we cannot really figure out the logic. Just go with the flow.

Our running group getting ready to leave. We are female heavy but have plans for next year.

Last weekend I went for an adventure with my neighbour, April plus two friends and their girls. They are probably the most adventurous couple I have met and jumped at the chance to go on another klong ride....kids and all at 6 am on a Saturday morning. We met with man eating ants (seemed like it anyway), foot-wide board crossings, downed trees and just plain old other klong stuff. The kids were amazing!

A group effort to get around the tree.

The klong gang. Evie (Evelyne) on the back finally smiled at me that day. She's got a great stare down and is cute as ever. Paul and Nicole have lived in Alaska for years so this is likely pretty calm. 

This is what my classroom looks like while I try to figure out labs before the kids do them. 

My friend Cookie (I forgot her real name) on teh sway bridge as I like to call it. She has a cool story. In short a retired teacher who came to stay with her daughter here for a while. The school fired a teacher at the beginning of the year and Cookie happened to be highly qualified and like that she was out of retirement. We were on a klong walk on Sunday to the market which is a 7.5 km walk if you take the long way which we did. That bridge was pretty rickity.

It is very exciting even though you can't tell: they are rebuilding the klong on the other side which is great for our running gang. It is also where I fell last year.

From what I understand, these plants were given to the king and escaped the palace gardens. They now choke up the klong. It wasn't like this when we cam in July so we'll see what it looks like when we get back.

A minute before this picture, that big white bull was galloping (or whatever bulls do) towards us beside the walkway. Gulp.....

 Sammakorn Market which is where Cookie and I were walking to. It's a nice smallish weekend market.

Vicne in the mall....went to a movie (Xmen) last night. Seats are assigned and you can actually get a couch for two.

 Lunch on our way to Tesco which is a big British chain of grocery stores here and we needed a few Western things. We have decided that in our last 2 weeks we will try different places so ended up here. Big life goals, huh? Those people statues behind me are everywhere.

This is why it takes us so long to get anything done.....stopped by the pier.

Hmm, which should I get? A taste of things for sale at the market.

Long Weekend in Krabi

Six of us took advantage of the long weekend and took a 1 hour flight to Krabi in the Southern part of Thailand.

Our first time on Nok Air.....love the duck bill! Or maybe a goose?

Our place for 3 days.

One of four but no-one was around so it was super quiet.

Nice pool....

The outdoor showers which were in (out) of each room.

...and the design flaw inviting peeping toms. We had to announce when we were taking showers because it was easy to wander by and get a full view.

The beach was pretty much deserted. It's not the white sand kind but had lots of really sweet shells.

Like this.....

 Always looking for some activity, we joined a bike trip for the day which is often a nice way to get around and get some exercise. This is the first place I have seen that is really bike friendly and not traffic congested. It felt so good to be out on the open road.

Having fun!

It's cool when your guide can do this. He owns a bike shop in Ao Nang called "The Bike Shop".

The bikes

The fearless riders.

Hiking on the cement walkway.

One of the sights we visited was The Blue Pool which is a spring filled pool. Legend says that if you clap, the water bubbles more. Whether or not it's true is irrelevant.....but we all clapped.

A funny place to get a phone call from a friend saying that she had picked up wine glasses for us from a market. Wine out of mugs is over I guess.

Interesting shirt.

The main attraction was the pool in which you could swim. Like most things in Asia, it was crowded.

 Pretty relaxed

 Sunset.

Sunset

Our deserted beach

Colby (and Ryan) are from the West coast of the US....Portland, Oregon. We were giving each other a geography lesson and making plans to visit the San Juan Islands...whenever.

We took a ferry to Koh Siboya which is a fairly untravelled island with one very resort which usually houses divers.

Getting ready to go with our three matching scooters.

When the ferry turned out to look like this we had discussions about bringing the scooters. It was a little difficult to imagine how they were going to fit on...but the did without any trouble. Check out the "on-ramp"

Six people and 3 scooters.

Really? We are going to dock here? Where's the dock? Oh, there isn't one. We just pull right up onto the sand.

A map of the island.

Looking for a beach. The map makes it look like there are only two roads.....sure, just to confuse us.

 As promised, there were no tourists that we could see and we were treated to a very quiet beach. Weird though, the water is so warm that it is not refreshing.

Fair warning.

Rainy season started last week and it will likely rain daily until October. We certainly remember the tail end of it but it is interesting to see how quickly things changes. We heard a bit of thunder and decided to seek out the only resort which was 300m down the beach. 

It was cabins based around the restaurant which also became our cover for one of the loudest wildest storms I have witnessed. The thunder cracks actually left your ears ringing.

Cabins were great.

Sadly, they had a huge fire a few months ago in which many of their cabins burned to the ground.

Vince is starting to look like he belongs.

 Post island relaxing.

So, on the way back to the ferry one of the scooters gets a flat tire but it is amazing how much people help out. We walked 100 m to a store and they sent us down the road. They then went ahead of us to make sure that we turned at the right place.

Good thing too because I am not sure if we would have realized that this was the repair shop

Happy days....tire getting fixed.

Cocktails on the beach.

I don't know what this was all about.

I ran all three mornings and it was so nice to be out in the country. We seemed to be amongst boatbuilders.

 Maple syrup? Nope.....rubber trees.

Vince accepts the challenge of driving up the ramp...success.

A bike on a bike?

A typical store.

Lots of palm oil produced here.

Another mosque.

Gas station.

 We really were away from it all.

 The restaurant

Time to kill at the airport = Mexican Train game.

And finally, a fierce storm whipped through on Tuesday and I met a casualty on the way home.