Tales of Teaching in Thailand: Vacation

**** This may be my longest post yet!!!! And there are a lot of photos!!!! So sorry if it takes long to load :*

Hello. I just returned from the THE MOST incredible trip. I will honestly say that it has really changed me.

There was a Buddhist holiday on Thursday and Friday of last week, and the students got two days off. Becky and I decided take advantage of this time and plan a trip to Bali where her friend had just become the GM of brand new hotel. We budgeted four days in Bali, and then planned on flying back to Thailand and fly to the island of Koh Pangan in the south for the infamous Full Moon Party.

That Friday night, we packed our bags and took a night bus down to Bangkok. We arrived at about 4:30 in the morning and our flight wasn’t until 12:30. So we made it to the airport and lounged around for like 7 hours haha. We went to duty free and covered ourselves in expensive perfume, exchanged our baht currency of Indonesian Rupes (which are totally crazy. 120,000 Rupe is approximately equal to $10, so I spent about 25, 000 on a coke, it was a novel experience), we went to Subway and spent way to much money on a sub sandwhich, we lounged about, and got coffee.

We checked in so early that the gate had not been assigned yet. As 12:30 was drawing closer we headed back towards security where we had seen a tv screen with the gate information. Unfortunately it was right next to security, and a crazy security woman lady saw Becky holding a water bottle that she had purchased INSIDE the terminal, and was absolutely convinced that she had snuck it in. It was so preposterous I just had to laugh. We were like “no, we bought this in here” and she would not believe us. So Becky was like “do you want me to show you where I bought it” and she said yes. So she followed us allllll the way back to the store (the terminal is quite large) and Becky pointed to the bottles. But the woman was STILL not satisfied, so she asked the workers of the shop if they remembered Becky and if they had printed a receipt. They all nodded in confusion. She finally accepted that she was wrong but good lord it took a lot of convincing! I hate to say it, but that experience was somewhat representative of the inefficiencies of Thai authority. It was a pride thing and a saving face thing, versus actually worrying about the water. I struggle with this a lot here.

ANYWAYS, the gate was rapidly filling up with all these FARANGS!!!! Haha yay farangs!!! I was so starved of their presence haha. Basically every passenger was a a white family dressed in beachy holiday garb and a little side of me thought to myself, ahhh a little piece of home. I’m awful I know, but when you are the ONLY people of your kind, it gets a little claustrophobic.

The flight to Bali was about 4.5 hours. Upon arrival neither of us really knew what was happening, I was truly going with the flow. I didn’t know where the name or location of the hotel, or much about Bali. Becky had said there would be a cab from the hotel to pick us up but that turned out to be false. We were able to connect to some airport wifi and get the address and direction to the hotel.

I that we had flown into the town in which the hotel was in, but it turns out the hotel was in Ubud, which is more inland. So the cab ride was about an hour long and I was just in this amazing mindset of feeling the energy of the island and absolutely loving life, which was hilarious because the ride was in complete darkness. But I could just feel the specialness of this place, and catching glimpses of the twisty roads, the beautiful carved stone statues everywhere and the incredible architecture made my heart sing.

Earlier that day we had learned the opening party of the hotel was on the night of our arrival, so as we pull up to the hotel, I can see TONS of people milling about on the hotel roof. It was a fully blown, glamourous party!! Becky and I wandered in, bleary eyed, smelly, and carrying our backpacks, in search of her friends. We managed to find them but the whole time I was just so overwhelmed. You guys, I cannot explain. This hotel is one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever seen. It is a four storied structure with a center rectangular courtyard containing the most beautiful pool. The patio around the pool is made up of these natural inlaid stones, and flowers like marigold and plumeria were placed all around the place. The roof was converted into this incredible open air patio, where you could look down into the courtyard or out over the little cottages and rice fields of Ubud. The hotel was basically the definition of my taste. Super modern lines, beautiful natural colors, and many aspects of nature were incorporated like the stone patio, and raw wood furniture. Every aspect was so well thought out, and coming from good ole Kalasin, where there are many very ugly things, I was just at a loss for words.

We were shown to our room, which we were sharing with Becky's friend Jenna. We quickly changed into something more party appropriate and Becky's other friend Ali (her brother is Sky, the GM of the hotel) brought us each a fresh coconut. HEAVEN. We wandered back out into the party and oh my god, every SINGLE person was beautiful. The whole image of the Shift ( the name), is wholesome raw vegan, meditation, yoga type stuff, and that attracts a very specific very very beautiful crowd. Everyone was natural and glowing, and wearing beautiful clothes and exotic jewelry. Trays of raw vegan truffles were being passed around, as well as fruit and other goodies. I was just speechless!!!! The contrast of Kalasin to this was simply unreal and I felt like I was in a dream. We hung out, and I met Sam, Ali's husband, who is an artist and was doing a live art display on the roof. At once point this musician began to play. I fundamentally agree with wholesomeness, and eating food from the earth, and vegetarianism, and yoga and meditation and being in tune with yourself but I did have to take this all with a grain of salt, because this vibe attracts a lot of fake people who are super egotistical and take pleasure in knowing that they are more hippy wholesome raw vegan than you will ever be.

Anyways the party came to an end and the three of us girls went to sleep in this giant, cushy amazing bed and life was good. The next morning we headed down to Alchemy, the fully raw vegan restaurant that works in conjunction with the Shift. We were given breakfast coupons and we all ate these amazing breakfast yogurt parfait things made up of raw yogurt, nuts, fruit, coconut cream, etc. It was really really nice.

Due to the grand opening of the hotel, this famous Australian yogi, Octavio Salando, was hosting a yoga class at the shift that morning. I was a little hesitant, because everyone at this hotel appeared to master yogis. I do yoga every once and a while but not #yogaeverydamnday status. Anyways, he opened up the class with some yoga theory, and explained how various cultures explained the universe, and if analyzed further, there were many similarities in between cultures. He said the pyramids were actually built as a sort of grounding energy structure, that people could go to, to find guidance. We then talked about the various chakras and the noises associated with each one. We then took those noises and chanted them faster and faster until it was this sort of meditative hum. I really loved that. Then we got into the darn tootin yoga, which was fine, but I didn't have any leggings, so I was wearing shorts, and because of this, was in perpetual fear of revealing too much!!! Octavio and his fiance were these stunning tan beautiful creatures, perfect at yoga and life, and here I was flashing my underwear and looking like a real baboon. But yea, it really was a good class and I certainly enjoyed learning about yoga theory and the chants. We took that day pretty easy and wandered around Ubud for a bit and then got massages at one of the million spas in town.

I must add that there is definitely a more elite community within Ubud itself, and by knowing Sky, we were rubbing shoulders with them. That night, we drove to Bambu Indah, a fancy hotel resort founded by John Hardy, who also founded the Green School ( watch the TED talk here). As you may have guessed the whole structure was made of bamboo, but it was done in the most innovative way, with incredible lines and architecture. The furniture inside was also breathtaking, and made up of giant pieces of rough hewn would. The table at which we dined was a 25ish foot long log sawed in half. Someone had had the ingenious idea to use some of the bamboo columns as instruments and they were strung like a guitar that you could strum, ant it would make the most beautiful, almost haunting noise. Ubud is positioned in a very hilly area, with many valleys and rivers. Bambu Indah looked over this amazing valley filled with rice paddies, palm trees and a river.

Again, I was going with the flow and didn't really know with who or what the dinner entailed, I was just in this joyous dreamworld enjoying the ride. It turns out we were having dinner with a bunch of people involved with the shift (the cook, the owner, the GM, John Hardy himself, his son etc) The meal was again fully vegan, and instead of having meat main dishes we had papaya and jackfruit "steak" in which they basically prepared them in a savory way. For desert I had fully raw cheesecake which was made of crushed nuts for the base and a cashew cream type thing for the filling, pretty bloody impressive what you can do without cooking things.

BUT YEA, day one alone was pretty amazing. We were initially going to go to the beach the next day, but one of the dinner guests told us about this holy water temple near Ubud so we decided to go there instead.

It was about a 25 minute drive outside of Ubud. The drive itself was so stunning, and the land was covered in stacked rice fields, palm trees and little huts. Apparently it is Balinese culture to fly kites in the air, so when you look up in the skies, you see hundreds of kites fluttering in the breeze. Upon arriving at the water temple, everyone, man and woman, had to wrap themselves in a sarong, out of respect. It was also expressedly stated on multiple signs that menstruating women were not allowed in the temple. We walked into the temple and were greeted by two large pools with about 5 fountains gushing water from the sides. The water was crystal clear, and the bottom of the pool was covered in these round gray stones, giving the water the most incredible hue. You could see large fishing swimming lazily between tourists legs.

We weren't sure the protocol, so we put our stuff down and waded in. The water was crisp and refreshing. It seemed that it was customary to go over to one of the fountain heads and dip your head under it, a sort of cleansing. Even with all the people, there was such an air of peace and calm about the place. I wandered over to one of the fountains and took a moment to just appreciate my life, and give thanks to all those who are in it (corny, so flipping corny but I don't even care).

*(I stopped working on this blog post for the day, and have lost all my writing flow, sorry if the quality has gone down)

I wandered around alone for a while after, taking in this magical place. The Balinese weren't lying when they called this place holy, there was such a strong powerful energy throughout the temple.

After we had all gotten our fill, we hopped back into the car and made our way back to Ubud. Our driver Kadek mentioned something about a coffee place that we could visit on the way back. We all just assumed it was a little coffee place that sold really good coffee. It turns it was a place that produced Luwak coffee, or Civet coffee. Basically they keep civets, cat like little mammal creatures, and feed them coffee berries. The civets cannot digest the coffee beans themselves so they poop them back out in these funny little coffee bean clusters. The digestion process ferments the beans and makes them ready for roasting.

This place (not sure what to call it, a coffee compound?) was so profoundly beautiful. Pretty stone paths wandered through this glorious garden of coffee trees, cocoa trees, pineapple, and other exotic foliage. We walked over to one of the civet cages. and I fed him a coffee berry which he chewed in a very appetizing, juicy way. At one point we stopped at this little hut where this woman showed us what the beans looked like before roasting, various different spices used in Balinese cooking, and even a vanilla bean vine!! Inside the hut, a man was patiently roasting the beans over an open fire. Once roasted, they are then pounded into a powder via a large stone mortar and pestle. I sampled one of the freshly roasted beans and it was simply divine! We followed the path further into the garden, and came upon this incredible open air structure overlooking this massive, fertile green valley, where visitors were sampling the various drinks and coffees produced by the company. We were given a tray containing (I'm jogging my memory, can't fully recall) a cup of ginger coffee, vanilla coffee, cocoa coffee, pure cocoa, plain lewak coffee, and a few others that I don't remember. I am not usually a fan of flavored coffees but all the ingredients were so pure and fresh that each one was amazing. ALSO, ginger coffee sounds heinous right?? WRONG, it is absolutely delicious. I don't know why that stuff is not drunk in more places.

But yea!!!!!!!! That was such a cool experience, and all for free!?! Nice. After such a jam packed day, all us girls decided to get massages, at this massage place that overlooked another gorgeous valley. We needed to get to bed early, because the next day, we were going to way up at 2:45, yes that's right 2:45 to hike up a volcano (Mt. Babur) and watch the sunrise.

So, just as planned, we rose at the given hour, and made the hour journey to the base of the volcano. As you may have guessed, it was still dark, and we were all half asleep, so I really didn't know what in the heck was going on, so I stuck to my vibe of going with the flow. We arrived at the parking lot, and it was filled with tourists and Balinese guides (you cannot hike the mountain without a guide, which is kinda dumb but I guess it gives people jobs). Everyone had warned us that it was extremely cold at the top of the mountain and that we should dress warmly. Being that this is Southeast Asia, I hadn't packed much in terms of warmth, and decided to rent an awesome 1990's jacket from one of the guides. I'd always associated hiking as a free or low cost activity, but we were charged about $20 each to go up.... annoying but I knew this was a truly unique experience.

So once everyone had payed and rented their jackets, and gotten their flashlights, we began the trek! Being that we were still in the valley below, it was quite warm and I quickly overheated. The trail was very crowded, and if you looked up, the only thing you could see was this river of twinkling flashlights up the volcano, it was actually quite magical. The trail itself was pretty tough! Given the volcanic terrain, there were a lot of lava rock obstructions, and it was pretty steep, and was only made more challenging by the lack of light. I think it was a blessing that I could not actually see the volcano, because I didn't have any expectations or understanding of how big the thing was, I just put one foot in front of the other.

About an hour and a half in, we reached this plateau like area, with a little hut to get a warm drink and rest. From the bottom, it had looked like this was the top, but upon arriving we saw that there was a whole other hill to be climbed! There was a slight mix up in which our guides told us that we had only paid to be taken to this point, and we were like "oh hell no, we are going to the top", we managed to finagle something out and continued our ascent.

This part of the hike was so steep!!! Switchbacks were non-existent, so it was basically a very steep straight line up. The terrain had also transformed into volcanic sand, so imagine walking on a beach, but at a 15 degree angle. About 70% of the energy I put into each step was sucked up by that evil black sand. After another 45 minutes of beleaguered trudging, we made it to the top just as the sun was peaking out over the horizon.

Oh my god you guys, it was breathtaking. It turns out Mt. Batur overlooks a large crater like valley, with a giant blue lake at its base, and then beyond that, another huge volcano. And golly gum drops, they weren't lying about the cold. After having attained a delicious layer of sweat from the hike up, the chilly morning air promptly turned us all into icicles. I don't usually buy things offered in touristy areas, but the pull of a hot ginger tea was too strong, and so I had one. A sweet little Balinese man delivered it to me in a glass mug, and I savored it's warmth for all it was worth. One of our guides had brought up an extra sarong and scarf and generously lent them to me, which made for one hell of a trendy outfit.

The volcano is still active, so we took a little path down into the side of the crater, where it was seeping hot steam and we thawed our cold little bones. But soon it was time to continue onwards! A few hundred more meters along the path, monkeys!!!!!!! A whole troop of them. We gave them bananas and eggs (which had been cooked in the steam of the volcano, so flippin epic) and man they were handsy little bastards. They pushed and shoved and grabbed with their little monkey hands, greedy for their next bite. At one point, this baby wasn't really aware of me, and wandered up and rested his his tiny little hand on mine. It was the sweetest thing. You guys, I was having a time!!!!!! This was my version of heaven, epic views, nature, monkeys, ginger tea, sunrises. From all these activities I was looking a hot mess, i was wearing the worlds hottest outfit, I was covered in dirt, banana and egg crumbs, and my hair was laughably greasy, but I could not have been happier.

We followed the path all the way around the crater, and were able to view the valley from all angles. On one side of the mountain was a ginormous lava bed, from an eruption past. The descent was super fun because the hill sides were made up of that same black sand, and you could simply jump and slide y our way back down (although about 10 lbs of sand entered your shoes). Even in the daylight, so many tourists were tumbling and tripping. It was pretty lolz.

So before nine o'clock, we were back at the parking lot! And looking up at the mountain we had just climbed, we were rather impressed with ourselves I must say.

To top off this incredible moment, we soaked in some hot springs afterwards. The resort was situated on the shores of the lake, and one of their infinity pools literally blended into the lake behind it. We spent a few hours letting the hot water soothe our muscles and then it was back to Ubud.

We did so very much during our four days in Bali that I am struggling to remember it all. On the last day, we had planned on doing some shopping, because guys, there are some incredible things to be bought in Bali. We changed our plans last minute to visit The Green School, the world's most sustainable school (http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hardy_my_green_school_dream?language=en), and man what an inspiring thing.

I went into the tour a little skeptical, because I had heard all these celebrities were visiting, and people were paying thousands of dollars to send their kids here. I found the idea to be rather elitist, and was probably churning out these overly precious, pretentious kids. And honestly that is probably happening a little bit, but the actual gist of what John Hardy, the founder, is doing, is pretty revolutionary.

The school is built completely out of bamboo, because the stuff grows so incredibly fast, and is strong as heck. John Hardy's daughter is an architect, and designed all the buildings (along with those at Bambu Indah) so the place has a beautiful, modern, yet organic look. Almost all their food is grown onsite in these beautiful layered gardens, all the classes are open air to discourage dependency on AC, they use old car wind shields painted white as white boards, the students each receive their own beautiful bamboo desk, and if they write on it, they must sand it off. John told us that initially, they were at a loss on how to produce all their own energy. They had a river, but no real decline to capture the energy. And then they found The Vortex. The Vortex was designed by either a Swedish or Norwegian engineer (some scandinavian country). Basically, a side channel is built to feed a certain amount of river water (not the entire river) into the vortex. The main structure is literally a circular funnel, and due to the physics of a funnel the water begins circle as it exits through the hole at the bottom. There is then a crank like object placed into the center of the whirlpool, that captures all the energy!!!!!!!! So incredibly genius. It is simply amazing what the human mind can create, and I am so sad that this invention is not being used all over the world - in due time I suppose. At the end of the tour, we all treated ourselves to THE MOST amazing ice-cream you have ever tasted, and all the proceeds went to fund the local scholarship, that allows Balinese children to attend the school as well. So yea, The Green School really was impressive, and I truly hope the world sees this and follows suit, because becoming more sustainable can be done quite easily with just a little imagination and innovation.

This was our last evening in Bali, so we drove down to this beach town and stopped at this famous beach club Potato Head. The entire outer structure was made up of old Spanish shutters, and appeared like this giant wooden collage. Upon entering, you could see that the club was shaped like a horseshoe, and the inner space was made up of lawns and pools and patios looking out into the gorgeous ocean. Wowa woowa how glamourous! Everyone was dressed in their most resort-y resort wear, hip beats were being played, and overly priced drinks were being consumed at a rapid pace. I was having a real time being an observer. All these people were in the most gorgeous place in the world, and they appeared way more hyper concerned with their beachwear fashion, and who was talking to who etc. (this is me hypothesizing) We each ordered one heinously expensive drink (and the cup was about a quarter full of alcohol, the rest was ice....) people watched for a bit then bounced. It was pretty fascinating to watch that culture. But yea, we had dinner at this rather fancy restaurant that served serious dishes from all around Indonesia. And that was basically the end of our Bali stay!

The next morning, we rose at five am and headed back to the airport. Next it was onto Southern Thailand, to the island of Koh Pangan for the infamous full moon party. Becky and I were pretty sad to leave this magical place, but the blow was softened with the knowledge that our vacation was continuing once we returned to Thailand.

We flew into Bangkok, switched airports and then flew 45 minutes south to the Islands. FINALLY, when I thought of Thailand, this is what I had envisioned. Sleepy beaches, rickety wooden piers, palm trees, warmmmmmmmm water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in a dream world... after 3 months in Thailand, I was finally in the place I had wanted to be all along. But yea the next few days were a heavenly blur. We spent our days lounging on the beach, and the evenings hanging out at our hostel, and filling our stomachs with all the western food we could, knowing it would no longer be available in the near future. We drank fresh coconuts, people watched to our hearts content, and swam in the deliciously warm water. We experienced the full moon party in all it's glory, although I personally remained a bit more on the tame side in comparison. Scary side note- the Friday of the weekend we were there, a girl died from a box jellyfish sting at the very beach we had been frequenting. Not wanting the vacation to end, we took monday off as a travel day, and let me tell you, we needed that ENTIRE day. That monday morning, we woke at 3:45, took a 30 minute cab ride to the ferry station, took the 2.5 hour ferry to Surat Thani, took another hour bus ride to the airport, took an hour plane ride back to Bangkok, took a taxi to Mochit bus station, and then got an a TEN HOUR toiletless bus ride back to Kalasin. We didn't get back until about 12:15 at night (or technically morning). WOW, and all that was within Thailand, this country is GINORMOUS!!!!!

So that was the end of our 10 day long break from school. I know it is corny, but I feel profoundly changed by this experience. I think I was affected so much due to the contrast of going from living in Kalasin, to experiencing the freedom and beauty of traveling. I think all the events I had leading up to this made me fully susceptible to feeling each moment to its fullest. Honestly the best word to describe that past week was spiritual. I felt so in tune with the universe, and went with the flow and was in the moment, more than I had ever been in life. My perspective has been elevated, and I feel myself becoming more of the person I want to be. I am excited! And I am so proud of myself. I am constantly seeing myself handle situations in a positive proactive manner, situations where in the past, I would have been overwhelmed, and wallowed in the misery. This trip was the culmination of all that growth. Life is truly beautiful.

Marigold embellishments at the shift

Plumeria trees were planted above the pool, so that the blossoms would photogenically fall into it.

rice paddies in Ubud

Temple

Basically all the architecture was gorgeous carved stone and wood that had been worn by the elements. Absolutely stunning, I was constantly at a loss for words.