Thailand
I'm back in Kabul after a rather long trip home. Thailand was fun. It's definitely the easiest country to navigate in SE Asia. Things are set up and run a lot more efficiently than in other countries I've been to like India/Nepal/Sri Lanka (although I think Sri Lanka remains my favorite.)
I think the last I emailed was when I was heading out trekking. That was a fun 2 days, although temps around 100 degrees make it... hot. My pack wasn't quite 20 lbs, so it wasn't too heavy, but a chunk of the hike was uphill, so.. yeah. We (there was a German guy and myself. It's always worrying when you sign up for a trek and find out there's only 1 other person, because if the other person is obnoxious, you're stuck. But he was cool, so that was good) spent one night in a "village" which was one family's collection of bamboo buildings. The full moon was too bright to see many stars, but the moon was really pretty!
Then more hiking through bamboo forests and eventually back to town. Oh, I also went ziplining, which was fun, although the course was fairly short. I need to do it on a longer course somewhere. Well worth doing, though.
Then I met up with an Irish girl at the hostel who was going up to Chiang Rai. I'd been debating going, and the promise of a good travel buddy made the decision for me, so off we went. In Chiang Rai, we kept running into German guy all the time (it's a small town with not many places. Plus German guy was vegetarian, which meant we kept frequenting the same couple restaurants.) So most of my trip was spent running around to various temples and such with fellow travelers. I think I've seen about enough Buddhist temples for a good long time.
I took an overnight bus back to Bangkok Thur night/Fri morning, and wandered around Bangkok on Friday. I did the main core tourist stuff and then went to the airport about 6 hrs early (my plane left at 9:30 pm) because places with air conditioning are exceptionally appealing when it's 100 degrees.
Oh, and I seem to have managed to get eaten by either spiders or bed bugs on the bus back to Bangkok. I have about 20 bites of what looks a bit like giant mosquitoes, except that I'm very sure they aren't mosquitoes for a few reasons... 1) mosquito bites don't affect me (including the occasional bites I did get in Thailand.) 2) These itch/hurt like bedbug bites do, which mosquitoes don't. Annoying, but it'll pass in a week or so.
And that's a very quick overview of my trip to Thailand.
I was supposed to start teaching tomorrow, but the students haven't been organized into sections or anything. Very bizarre because I sent the info to the registrar a week and a half ago (I'm the person who liaisons with the registration dept about student levels and such) and the registrar is usually exceptionally efficient and organized, so I have no clue why he hasn't done it. I'll go in tomorrow and figure out what's going on. In reality, it's good. We have 3 new teachers and no one has any idea what's going on, so it'll give us a day to get everyone there and organized before teaching. It's just weird.
I think the last I emailed was when I was heading out trekking. That was a fun 2 days, although temps around 100 degrees make it... hot. My pack wasn't quite 20 lbs, so it wasn't too heavy, but a chunk of the hike was uphill, so.. yeah. We (there was a German guy and myself. It's always worrying when you sign up for a trek and find out there's only 1 other person, because if the other person is obnoxious, you're stuck. But he was cool, so that was good) spent one night in a "village" which was one family's collection of bamboo buildings. The full moon was too bright to see many stars, but the moon was really pretty!
Then more hiking through bamboo forests and eventually back to town. Oh, I also went ziplining, which was fun, although the course was fairly short. I need to do it on a longer course somewhere. Well worth doing, though.
Then I met up with an Irish girl at the hostel who was going up to Chiang Rai. I'd been debating going, and the promise of a good travel buddy made the decision for me, so off we went. In Chiang Rai, we kept running into German guy all the time (it's a small town with not many places. Plus German guy was vegetarian, which meant we kept frequenting the same couple restaurants.) So most of my trip was spent running around to various temples and such with fellow travelers. I think I've seen about enough Buddhist temples for a good long time.
I took an overnight bus back to Bangkok Thur night/Fri morning, and wandered around Bangkok on Friday. I did the main core tourist stuff and then went to the airport about 6 hrs early (my plane left at 9:30 pm) because places with air conditioning are exceptionally appealing when it's 100 degrees.
Oh, and I seem to have managed to get eaten by either spiders or bed bugs on the bus back to Bangkok. I have about 20 bites of what looks a bit like giant mosquitoes, except that I'm very sure they aren't mosquitoes for a few reasons... 1) mosquito bites don't affect me (including the occasional bites I did get in Thailand.) 2) These itch/hurt like bedbug bites do, which mosquitoes don't. Annoying, but it'll pass in a week or so.
And that's a very quick overview of my trip to Thailand.
I was supposed to start teaching tomorrow, but the students haven't been organized into sections or anything. Very bizarre because I sent the info to the registrar a week and a half ago (I'm the person who liaisons with the registration dept about student levels and such) and the registrar is usually exceptionally efficient and organized, so I have no clue why he hasn't done it. I'll go in tomorrow and figure out what's going on. In reality, it's good. We have 3 new teachers and no one has any idea what's going on, so it'll give us a day to get everyone there and organized before teaching. It's just weird.