Busy busy!

For the past two weeks we have been working on building a fish pond that will feed the children and monks who live at a temple inside a small village about 20 minutes from Surin. We had to fix up the pond, make it leak proof and build a roof over it. We have painted it with a pretty underwater scene that the kids will love. Also, today, we bought about 400 baby catfish that will grow and feed many people. The kids are so cute. They come to the temple during the day while their parents work in the rice fields. They are all really young, preschool age. They are totally facinated by our white skin, it's funny.

We have the weekends off and last weekend we traveled to Chiang Mai with a few friends it was an amazing trip. The busride was 15 hours but totally worth it. We did a tour where we rode elephants again, went to a longneck village where the women stretch out their necks and legs with brass rings, hiked through the jungle to a waterfall, and went whitewater and bamboo rafting...oh and visited an orchid farm. It was an amazing day!! The markets in Chiang Mai are like nothing I have ever seen before. We also visited a few temples and talked for hours to a group of monks. We shared stories and learned all about their lives and the ways of Buddhism.
We actually experianced what I guess you could call reverse culture shock in Chiang Mai. They were so many westerners there! We are used to Surin, where it's just us and we understand no one. There, we kept hearing English and understanding what everyone was saying... And there were hamburgers and warm showers and toilets that actually flush! Crazy.

We are back home now, in Surin. We only have about a week and a half left in Thailand which is hard to believe. Time goes so fast! It will be sad to leave all of the friends we have made here.



Fish pond we fixed then painted



Village we worked in

Photo Journal of Thailand so far!

Riding Elephants!
Sam and another volunteer, Hayley, after we went for a swim with the elephants!
Yeah, I volunteered to be stepped on by an elephant, think what you will of me.
Elephant show, never knew elephants could do this sorta thing!
Bananas for the elephants!
Feeding the elephants!
This is the awesome group of people that we are staying with while volunteering in Surin!
Big Buddha!
Big staircase to the big Buddha..297 stairs!
Phenong Raung..or some spelling like that, the temple on an extinct volcano.
Awesome huge gecko who lives at our house!
Fun times at the waterfall with Katoon, our guide and Stuart, our Scottish travel mate for the two weeks of touring that we are doing.
Behind the waterfall
The Hero Monument in Korat
12th Century Temple/Palace in Korat

Bali photo journal

Our first temple visit!
Attack of the monkies in the Monkey Forest
Traditional Balinese play about good vs evil...Barong Play



Computers here are really slow and we are paying for internet, so all apologies for these photos being posted so late and in such a small quantity...more to come when there is time!

Thailand goodness!

So who wants to guess what crazy food we've been eating? I shall tell you...I started the trip with frog curry which was good but they use the whole frog not just the legs so it was very boney and the tendons were very chewy. We have also had cricket which is surprisingly tastey and coagulated chicken blood which actually tastes good but has a texture that is hard to get past. Oh and Paps, I'm sorry, but we tried durian and it is totally gross and it stunk up the whole house even though we left it outside!
This week has been full of sight seeing. We went to a 12th century royal palace, to the hero statue that represents woman power and here we made wishes on her. We also went to a sweet waterfall! Today we went to an enormous Buddha statue that has 297 steps up to it! We also got to see Phanom Rung, a royal palace slash temple from the 11th to 12th century that is on top of an extinct volcano!


-- Post From My iPhone

Thailand!

So we made it to Thailand!!! For the past few days we have been settling into our house and getting aquianted with our town, Surin which is a town in the east of Thailand. It's been amazing so far. There are eight of us here to volunteer. One other American and the rest from the UK. Everyone is really cool. We share a house and each have our own room! We have been learning Thai because most people here don't speak English. In fact, we are some of the only Westerners here. Surin is known for the elephants that live here. At night, you see elephants on the streets, transporting people around.
This week, we are learning all about Thai culture and then we begin our volunteer work. Jess and I will be working on a organic farming project at a temple that provides food for the monks and children there. It's going to be interesting because we will be working alongside the monks, but there are all sorts of rules about how we interact because we are women. For example, if even just one of our hairs touches a monk, they have to lock themselves in a room for three days and three nights with no food to purify themselves. I think Id feel pretty bad if I sent a monk into solitary confinement!
The food here is amazing! The people who live next to us run a noodle shop at night and it's so good! We've been testing out all our favorites and of course they're even better here...pad Thai, red curry, Thai iced tea!! Today, we are learning Thai cooking.

We are working on finding a computer so that we can put more pictures up!!!

-- Post From My iPhone

Singapore!

So we spent the day today wandering around Singapore. It's an amazing city!!! More clean and advanced than any city I've ever been to. The transit system far exceeds the subway or T or any other one I've been on. Totally clean with tv's and tons of really fast people movers. It's weird because everyone speaks a different langauge but everything in the city is in English...all the signs and tv, radio, you name it. Makes it easy for us. It's a nice encounter with the familiar after way different Bali. There is every kind of food you can imagine although neither of us have our appetites back yet.
Today we went to a few HUGE shopping malls I guess you would call them, the biggest malls I've ever seen, then went out to Sentosa island via cable car over the harbor where we went to a butterfly garden, learned about the Singapore merlion, And rode segways...which are our new favorite form of transportation. We were feeling worn out so we then caught a movie in the biggest movie theature I've ever been in with gloriously comfortable seats. Like I said, very nice to feel somewhat connected with the modern world (for me anyway). That and I totally fit in here because everyone has iPhones!!! Good times!


-- Post From My iPhone

The good news and the bad news

Which would you like first? I'll give the bad. While on a full day snorkeling trip in Pemutaran, we ate bad food. Sam got off with a mild case of traveller's issues, but I got it in the SEVERE way... Yesterday I woke up at 2am with issues that got progressively worse until I not only had the runs but was also sick to my stomach, and you all know how I am about that! Miserable! Anyway, about 6 hours later I was a bit better thanks to cipro but was still only able to eat a bit of plain rice. Today Sam is better and I feel mostly better, but still lack energy... I am drinking lots of electrolytes to hydrate and got 14 hours of sleep last night and hopefully will be good as new tomorrow!
The good news... Snorkeling was amazing, though sad to see how much garbage was on the beach and in the water. We saw some eels including a big moray eel and a sea turtle and a bunch of really neat fish! Beautious! We leave for Singapore today!

-- Post From My iPhone