Short stories of our "firsts"

Things have seemed to settle down here. We have now been in Saraburi for over a month, and it is starting to feel super comfortable! It's weird when we come back from little weekend trips and as we pull into our neighborhood, it feels like we are back home. :)

But that's not how our first few weeks were... it did take a bit of adjusting. Here are a few stories of our adjustments to life in Thailand. The good and the not-so-good. But all of them were adventures!

Our first moped and first monsoon. (With our luck, these just happened to coincide). After crunching the numbers, we realized that it would actually be cheaper for us to rent a motorbike each month rather than taking two motortaxis everywhere we go. So here it is! (along with it's amazing driver...)

After a mini driving lesson (and let me tell you, it was very brief), we picked up the motorbike from one of the teachers at our school who rents them out. We wanted to grab some dinner before meeting up with our friends to see a movie, so Jonathan precariously drove us to this little restaurant on a corner not too far away from our house. However as we started eating, the first big downpour of rainy season hit us. Haha that would be a great way to break in the bike - driving/sliding in monsoon rains amidst chaotic Thai traffic. The rainy season in Thailand doesn't mean that it's constantly raining, it just downpours for like an hour or two every day, usually in the afternoon. But when it pours, it is violent! So we figured it would be best to wait it out. We ended up waiting in the restaurant for about an hour and a half after we finished our meal haha. But the Thais always take forever to eat, so it wasn't a big deal. The first break in the rain we saw, we booked it home! Didn't really want to spend the night there if we could help it. Now THAT would have been a story.

First movie theater experience. Since we don't live in a touristy town, there is only one movie theater in Saraburi that plays movies in English. And it doesn't even always do that. But when it does, the movie is only in the theater for a couple of weeks. So we had to get on it! Our first movie in Thailand was X-Men: Days of Future Past. But the tickets were even more expensive than in the States! Like $12 a ticket. I think it's because it's a luxury here. And we had to pay for our 3-D glasses (it was only being shown in 3-D). Anyways, we bought some popcorn, (I feel like I should note our choices were cheese, sweet, or original, not butter) and went into the theater. Before every single showing, everybody stands up and they play an anthem to the King while clips of people crying and showing their love for the King play on the big screen. After which, we enjoyed our movie! It was very entertaining. Unfortunately though, this may have lead into the next experience...

My first (and hopefully only) bout of gastroenteritis. Ugh, I will spare you the details, but I have NEVER been sick like that before. Where I've been physically constrained to my bed and the toilet. For 4 days. Once figuring out that it probably wasn't just mild Traveler's diarrhea, we took a quick trip to the hospital down the road and got some antibiotics from the doctor. You know how I said how cheap healthcare is here? Well get this - a doctor's visit, plus a full round of antibiotics, plus pain relievers, plus a pain relief IM injection, plus rehydration packets - all for under $15, without insurance. Couldn't believe it. After a week on the medications, I felt like a new woman. I have never missed food that badly before! The only thing we could trace it back to was the popcorn that I ate at the theater. Jonathan and I have the same food every day, all day. Except I had that popcorn and he didn't. The doctor laughed when I told him that, but that's the only thing we could think of! Haha. Either that or I just had super bad luck.

Our first day of church. We knew there was an LDS Branch located semi-close to us, we looked it up online before flying into Thailand, but we had no idea of how to get there. Yeah, there kind of was an address on the website, but that's not how transportation runs here. Even if there were taxis out here (which there aren't), they don't know any addresses. Luckily, one of my friends from BYU study abroad served his two year mission in Thailand so he was very helpful! (S/O to Robert!) The branch is located in Lopburi, which is the neighboring province and about an hour away. We went to the van station down the street and kept on saying, "Lopburi?" until we got to the right van. Lucky for me, I am Thai-sized, but poor Jonathan was crammed in the back of that van with 4 other people and under-operating AC. We then realized about halfway through the drive that we didn't really know where/when to get off. We were assuming it would go to the station in Lopburi and then we would pick up a motortaxi from there. But the van made multiple stops...whenever the passengers asked him to. My friend had sent me a little message in Thai that explained where it is we were trying to go (thank you!!!), so we showed this to the lady sitting next to us on the van and she pointed behind us. We had passed it - great. So we yelled, "yut kha" which is 'stop, please' and clamored off the van. Then we proceeded to walk down the road, showing that message to a few people and they just continued to point downward. We had no idea how far away we were, so we kept on walking, but then we finally saw a policeman on his motorbike. We figured he'd help us out. After reading the message, he flagged down a motorbike taxi and gave verbal directions to the driver. Jonathan and I squished onto the motorbike (I think this was the first time we tripled hah) and we took off. The guy took us a few minutes off of the main road and we were getting worried because we thought the church was on the main road. We figured he was given wrong directions, so we asked him to stop and then showed him the message. Just like we thought, we had to turn right back around and make our way back. Right as we entered onto the main road again, we saw the same policeman drive up from right behind us! Haha, I guess he realized he gave the driver the wrong directions and he chased after us. How sweet :) Then we finally made it to the meetinghouse - well, it is more like a couple of rooms inside a building shared with a pet store - like 30 minutes late.
The meetings were all in Thai, but there were a couple of missionaries that translated for us during Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School. As I went to Relief Society, a cute little sister came up to me and introduced herself. She said she was learning English and wanted to be my facebook friend :) She couldn't translate, but she pointed out where we were in the lesson and I tried to follow along with the English version on my phone. Hardly anyone speaks English in the branch, but they were all welcoming and friendly, just the same. Once all the meetings were over, the members put out these long tables and brought out a bunch of food. Apparently that's the thing here! A linger-longer every Sunday (except for fast Sunday of course). It is always so delicious and so authentic. We love it! I think we will try to bring rice cooker-macaroni and cheese to the next one, and share our American goodness :)

First time teaching school on a Saturday. So apparently our English Program students go to school on Saturdays as well. I guess its a very normal thing for all students in Thailand. Even shopping malls have extra classrooms and group study rooms for self-teaching and English instruction on the weekends. We were asked by our school if we would teach Saturday morning classes. We wouldn't turn down extra money, so we said yes. It's only for 3.5 hours and we only do it every other week (so that we can travel on our off-weekends). But the students don't really want to be there, and the teachers don't really want to be there either, so what do we do? Watch movies, of course! To help with their listening skills..... :) You know I have seen Tangled now about four times now and I am still not sick of it haha. And Megamind is up next! It's weird how much I love movies.

First Wai Khru Day. Wai Khru is a day where all the students in the school pay respect towards their teachers. Wai - is the greeting of respect (where you put your hands together and bow) and Khru - means teacher. Each class spends the whole previous day arranging bouquets of flowers and then they present them to their teachers during a ceremony. We all got up on stage sitting above the students (a little awkward) and each of the class representatives took their turn walking up to the stage and bowing at our feet while giving us flowers. I couldn't believe how respectful these kids are! I mean, they are still kids so they still act up sometimes, but each one is so genuinely sweet. Even students I didn't even know would stop and 'wai' to me on campus. It was incredible. I don't think "teacher appreciation day" in the States even comes close to this.

Unfortunately we couldn't keep the bouquets, they are just for show and they were actually part of a little competition. But all throughout the day, students had little flower bracelet things that they bought and would hand out to teachers of their choice. Needless to say I was super touched and appreciative that I was lucky to receive a few :)

First Thai massage. If you've heard anything about the famous Thai massages, you know that they are amazing, but horrible at the same time. Well, I never had a professional massage before, like in my whole life so I knew that I was going to be pretty tight everywhere. It also didn't help that I did a bunch of squats for the first time in several months the day before and I couldn't even walk. We went to this place down the street from our house and a full-on Thai massage is only 200 baht ($6) for one hour! My first time, I was so tight and in so much pain that two ladies worked on me almost the whole hour. They just giggled and kept on saying, "broken lady, very broken lady." And don't I know it! Haha. They also would laugh and say "baby, same, same" when they would get to my feet and hands. Who knew that I would still be considered tiny among all these Thai ladies :) It was actually very helpful that their little granddaughter was running around and putting toys in our faces while she sang songs in Thai. She is so adorable and it helped keep my mind off of all the pain. Her grandmother has her practice her ABCs and other English vocabulary when we come in for massages. It's a fun break and a great way to de-stress. Hopefully getting regular massages will help my migraines too! I think it will become a weekly occurrence for us.

And LASTLY...

First District-turned-Stake Conference. Just this last Sunday, we went down to Bangkok to attend District Conference, for the Bangkok North District. After we taught Saturday morning classes, we hopped in a van and took the 1.5 hour trek down there. Once we got into the city, we found a little bed a breakfast, and had 5 minutes to change before heading out to the hotel where the Saturday evening session was going to be. We were told that it was only a 10 minute walk...but of course it took almost 30 because we kept on having to stop and ask people for directions. We finally got there all sweaty and gross and walked right into a high school prom. Hahaha, turns out the Saturday evening session was at a DIFFERENT location. After deciding we weren't dressed for the "Great Gatsby" theme, we cut our losses and grabbed dinner and a movie. Sunday morning though, we made it to the right spot. And at the beginning of the meeting, they announced the formation of the new Bangkok North Stake! Meaning that now we are members of the Lopburi Ward. For those of you readers who aren't LDS, you probably don't understand the significance of this. (All it means is that membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing in Thailand). And it is incredibly exciting! After the announcement you could just see all of the members' faces light up with huge smiles :) I didn't know this, but apparently Thailand has the fastest growing membership in the church in all of Asia! This new formation makes now 2 stakes in Thailand. Once we get a few more stakes formed, there will be serious talk about building a temple here. All of the members can't wait! It will still be a while, but it has been amazing to witness the growth here :)

Impromptu Weekend Getaway: Ayuthaya

It was a normal Friday morning, Jonathan and I woke up and got ready for school. Then I get the thought to look at my phone. There awaited two texts from fellow teachers at our school saying that all the universities and schools were closed that day because of the declared coupe. Cool, long weekend! However we sat there wishing we could see into the future so we could have put together some sort of trip. Dang.

But then Jonathan turned to me and said, "Why don't we just go somewhere? Like maybe that Ayuthaya place." Although he didn't really say Ayuthaya, it was more like uh-you-tayama, haha close. But I got the gist. We pulled out our Thailand travel book, read a little bit about the area, packed up our backpacks and headed toward the train station! Can I just say how awesome this felt?! I am the kind of person that has to have all the details worked out in my planner before we take a trip. I need to know where we are going to stay, how we are going to get there, and what we are going to do once we get there. But this was so exciting! Just dropping everything, grabbing a toothbrush, toothpaste and some cash and heading out the door. 

The train schedule said that the next train heading towards Ayuthaya would be getting in at 11:51, so naturally, we Americans made sure to get there a few minutes early so we could buy our tickets. Haha, silly Farang. We forgot that Thailand runs on "Thai time." Turns out the train would be an hour delayed, coming in at 12:51. So we walked around, grabbed some lunch and went back to wait at the station around 12:30. Time came and went and then the train finally showed up at 1:22. An hour and a half late - mai pen rai! We were shocked that the tickets were only 9 baht each, that's about 28 cents for an hour train ride, but it made a little more sense when we boarded. There were at least some benches, but it was pretty crowded, super hot, and vendors were walking up and down the aisles selling dried squid on sticks....ulgh.

Ayuthaya is somewhat known to be the "Venice of Thailand." The central part of the city is completely surrounded by a river so you have to ride a ferry to get across. Once getting to the 'island' we found the soi (street) where most of the guest houses are and found a place to stay. It was very interesting because as we were walking down the street, people would be running out to us and asking us if they could show their place. It is the low season for tourism, so for once, we Farang actually had a bit of say in the price! Found a little room (with AC - that is non-negotiable), dropped off our stuff and went back out to see the sights. 

So when you see pictures of ancient ruin temples in Thailand, almost all of them are in Ayuthaya. This city was the ancient capital of the Siam Kingdom from 1350-1767. It was a major trading port between Asia, Southeast Asia, India and even Europe. It was a pretty big deal back in the day. Because it was the central capital there are temple ruins everywhere! Apparently at one time, there was a total of 400 temples standing within the city. Modern Ayuthaya has been built up around it, so you'll just be driving down the street and then a huge ruin pops up on your right. Here are some pictures of the Wats (temples) that we ran into on our first night out:

Wat Phra Mahathat. Throughout all the temples, most of the Buddha heads are cut off, I'm not sure why. I think they were stolen by thieves after the Burmese ransacked the city. But looks like they left one behind! Some people say the head was too heavy to steal so it was left and trees protectively grew around it. 

Wat Ratburana. At night, they turn on a bunch of floodlights towards the temples. It was gorgeous. Too bad they were doing construction... pardon the scaffolding.

The next day, Saturday, we wanted to spend hitting up all the most famous wats in the area. One of the ways to get around the city is by tuk tuk - those 3-wheeled kind of car things. But they are pretty expensive...they try to charge 'farang price' which we couldn't afford paying all day. So we chose instead to rent a couple of bicycles! Turned out to only be 30 baht each for the whole day (that's under $1). It was a blast!!! Riding our bikes around, pulling the map out, getting lost (once), and discovering everything on our own. We started the day off by stopping at this little vendor on the side of the road. This really sweet lady made each of us a rockin omelet with some toasted garlic bread and orange juice. Perfect way to start out the day. It was so funny that she really wanted to get a picture with us - we are just such an oddity out here I guess.

Our first stop on Saturday was Wat Phra Si Sanphet. Well, actually we went into this building which is right next to the wat. This building, Wihan Mongkhon Bophit, houses a 17-meter tall Buddha statue so those people who come to see the once-great temple can pray and pay homage.

Here, you can see a picture of what the Buddhist monks look like. We see them everywhere here, just walking down the street, riding the train, some even using their cell phones haha. But of course you see them most frequently in the temples. I also wanted to show that little Buddha statue on the right - it's covered in little paper gold leaves. As part of 'paying tribute,' people will either buy a lotus flower and kind of shake it while praying, or you can buy a little gold leaf to press onto one of the many statues located around the inside of temple. As you press it on, you make a wish for good fortune. It's also a good way to keep all the Buddhas looking golden!

Now here's Wat Phra Si Sanpet. The largest (and most iconic) of all the temples in Ayuthaya. Love it!

Wat Lokayasutharam. Has the largest reclining Buddha in all of Ayuthaya at 37 meters long.

After a morning of biking around, we grabbed a couple of smoothies and spent part of the afternoon in the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum where they house all of the images and Buddha relics found in the temple ruins. It wasn't really air-conditioned but it was nice to get out of the sun for a bit.

Then we were back out on the road. This was our last and probably our favorite temple. It took quite a while to get to it considering it's 'off the island.' Wat Chaiwatthanaram. SO massive, pretty well put-together still, and there weren't hardly any people around! I did get my first Thai sunburn that day so I spent most of the time hiding in the shade while Jonathan walked around some more. (Can't believe that we forgot sunscreen!) But yeah, I could have sat in this spot for hours just taking it all in. Beautiful.

Sunday morning, we were able to find the Ayutthaya LDS Branch and go to church. Again, everyone was so incredibly sweet and inviting. We enjoyed a very Thai lunch afterwards and then walked over to the last few neighboring temples.

Here is Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. One of the few temples that you could actually walk up the stairs and see inside one of the chedis/prangs (those cone-shaped things).

Wat Phanan Choeng. And here is the largest Buddha in all of Thailand! Just kidding, it's not. Stands at 19 meters tall. I just did my research and this one doesn't even come close to the largest in Thailand... which is 92 meters tall, but that one is outside. This one was pretty big for being indoors. By the way this picture does NOT do it justice, so you will just have to take our word for it. It was huge.

Then before heading back to the train station, we spent an hour walking through the Ayuthaya floating market. That was a perfect way to end our weekend. Found some good spots to get souvenirs and bought some fresh coconut ice cream topped with peanuts and sweetened condensed milk - the Thais drizzle that stuff on top of every dessert. It was delectable! And was served in a little clay pot, which we got to keep.

There are still SO many things that we didn't see! We will definitely be taking another trip back down here to hit up that market and see more of the sites. The city itself is not that big, but there is just too much to see in only 2 days. Our trip back to Saraburi was much better on the train (I think we may have inadvertently bought seats in a nicer car), but still 2 hours behind schedule haha.

Mai pen rai!