First Field Trip and Langkawi

The Buddhists celebrated a holiday over the weekend which gave us Monday and Tuesday off from school. In preparation for this holiday Satit demonstration school took the kiddos to one of the wats (temple) in Nakhon Si Thammarat. This was my first field trip and I was excited. I wasn't just excited to get out of school, but also to see the kids in action. Neils and I have visited several wats and they are always so beautiful. We've also seen people worshiping in these wats, but we didn't know any of them. I was excited to see how the kids would do in such a holy environment.

I must say that I was quite impressed. They were required to sit still and be quiet for a time while we waited for the monk to come into the temple and then even longer as the monk talked to them. With the exception of a few wigglers, they did a very good job.

We arrived at the temple, filed in, sat in lines, listened to the monk (well, I couldn't understand a word he said so I mostly listened for sounds of children who weren't listening), and then the kids got to go up to the monk and give their offerings. They crawled up to the front of the temple on their knees (in lines), placed their offering in front of the monk and then waied. They are then supposed to crawl back to their spots on their knees, but they mostly just got up an ran back.

Emerald Buddha

Kiddos on their way to give their offerings.

I shared an offering with Saifon, one of my students.

I have to admit that I find Buddhism to be absolutely beautiful and wish I understood more about it.  We had planned to try to find a monk who spoke English who could teach us but were told that is highly unlikely in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

We were gone all morning, so by the time we got back to school all that was really left to do was eat lunch, take naps and use their 'bahts' to buy stuff from the 'store.' I have implemented a rewards system where they earn a 'baht' each day, maybe more if they are extra good, and then at the end of the week they can use them to buy little prizes.

Once school was out we were ready to start our long weekend. Neils and I rushed home, changed and caught a ride to Trang with a co-worker.  We found a room, ate some dinner, did some shopping at the night market and then hit the hay. The next morning we got some breakfast and caught the bus to Satun. Before we go any further, I feel it is only appropriate to let you know that the public bus in Thailand has about two inches of leg room...well maybe a little more than that, but not much. Neils and I squished into one seat, Neils being more squished than me and we rode for about three hours like that.

We arrived in Langkawi late in the afternoon. The taxi driver didn't know where the hotel was that we were looking for. He drove us around for awhile and then dropped us off in the area he thought it might be. We didn't have reservations so we wandered in the heat and humidity about for about an hour looking for a place. We eventually found a room that was really very nice, although it cost a little more than we hoped to spend. But we were sweaty and tired, so we took it. That night we wandered a bit, ate some pizza and went to bed. We were pooped.

 
The next morning we got up, dressed for the beach and headed out to find some breakfast. It wasn't long before the rain started. It rained on and off pretty much the whole day, so we scrapped the beach idea and went out in search of an English movie theater. We found the mall that the movie theatre was located in but couldn't find any information for where it was exactly. While wandering we found a store called GLOE. Um...pretty sure I didn't even know I there was a Malaysian jewlrey/show store named after me, but I couldn't think of a more perfect kind of store to have named after me. ;-)

We finally found the theater and got information on show times. We saw Inception, which was fabulous. They served Carmel corn instead of buttered popcorn, but we didn't complain. After the movie we had lunch at McDonald's (Don't judge. You don't understand how much you miss a decent hamburger when you are away from home!) The movie theater was quite a ways away from our room and shortly into our ride home it began to rain and then it started to POUR, buckets. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was just rain, but instead it was chilly rain with even chillier winds. By the time we got back to the room were cold to our bones, so we took hot showers and curled up under the blanket and read. Eventually, Neils ventured out to get us a pizza, but I was still cold so I stay holed up the rest of the night

Monday morning started the same way as the day before, cloudy and with some drizzle here and there, so we looked for another non beach alternative. We grabbed some breakfast and took a taxi to Langkawi's cable car. It is the steepest cable car in the world at a 45 degree angle in some places and goes to the top of a mountain. We loved it. The view was amazing. The pictures don't do it justice, but we were so high that we were in the clouds and when we got to the top you could see the whole island and oceans surrounding it. You could even see some Thai islands. It was really phenomenal.

Us on the first landing. This isn't the top.

This is the top and picture just doesn't do it justice.

The weather had cleared up, so after the cable car we grabbed some lunch and headed to the beach. Despite it being cloudy and kind of grey, we were able to spend a lovely afternoon at the beach. We were able to play in the biggest waves we've experienced thus far in our travels and lay on the softest sand. Seriously, it was the kind of sand you expected to turn into play doh because it was just so smooth. The water was less clear than some of the other places we've been, but I have a feeling that's due to weather and season.

The waves were actually much bigger than this, but you get the idea

The island itself is really extremely beautiful. It's very clean and covered in rice paddies which give it a very antique feel. However, while the feel may be that of a time long ago, we learned they are not harvested in antique ways. We past a giant swather in the water in one of the rice paddies doing it's thing. Since a lot of my family is in the farming/ranching business I found it quite interesting. The swather had two large rubber wheels at the back but had triangle tracks at the front. I assume this helps it maneuver in the water/mud. I did not get a picture of the swather, but I thought it was an interesting piece of information.

We ate a lot of wonderful food and we found an Irish pub where Neils was able to drink Guiness (he's not the biggest fan of Thai beer). And while things on Langkawi are a little more expensive than we are used to in Thailand, we were definitely able to enjoy ourselves. All in all, we had a really great weekend.

I often wonder what I did to deserve all this. I mean, I am married to an absolutely wonderful man, we are living in beautiful Thailand, every day I get attacked by a mob of leg high huggers, I get paid to make kids laugh and this weekend only added to that charmed feeling. Being on the top of that mountain, looking at the gorgeous blue green of the ocean, jumping in the waves and wandering around rice paddies, makes me wonder if I saved a holy village and its people in a past life. I can't think of any one action so far that makes me worthy of this and I am doubtful that all my good deeds add up, but I'm happy that I'm here and I'm not going to take it for granted.

We hope you are well.