Heading out

We are preparing to head out to our final dinner and then off to the airport.  As of right now our flight to Tokyo is on time.  (JAL# 718).  Again, we are scheduled to land at MSP at 3:45 Monday afternoon.  Check the previous post for flight details.  I am positive all of our travellers are excited to see their loved ones.

Last day

We made our way back to Bangkok last night and had one final thai dinner together (tonight’s final meal is Italian).  The whole group sang “Happy Birthday” to Lauren as she celebrated her 22nd birthday yesterday.  Hopefully the students enjoyed their last night in Bangkok, I am sure they did.

It is now 7:30 am on Sunday morning here (6:30 pm Saturday evening in St. Paul, MN).  We will post another blog as we ready to leave for the airport this evening (7:00 am Sunday morning in St. Paul, MN) letting you all know we are on schedule.  As of right now we arrive at MSP at 3:45 pm Monday afternoon on  a flight from Dallas, TX (AA #668).

Here are some thoughts from Drew Thao and Emila Spalding:

There is so much to see and talk about that could fill the pages of a book, but in this entry we rode elephants. We were just in Koh Chang, the island of the elephants, exploring yet another part of Thailand. Our hotel is on the edge of the beach where it had white sand and the beautiful turquoise water. It was breath taking and I could not believe I was in such a beautiful place. I was so excited to ride the elephants the next day and couldn’t believe that we were finally going to do it. The elephants, of course, were huge, friendly giants. The elephant I had is a female of thirty seven years old. They had these little benches on the back of them that held two people. My partner and I climbed onto the third elephant and right away, it took off. We rode the elephant, moving left to right as she took a step. Then we were going to go into the water and I was scared to get splashed at, at first, but watching all the other elephants with people on their backs also going in, made me relax. It was a great sight and I wanted to stay longer. One of the elephants from the behind mine reached its trunk up to sniff me. I was scared, but I knew it was just curious and I touched it. It was awesome! I got a great picture of it too. Nearing the end of our ride, my elephant driver hopped off of our elephant to take pictures of us on it, I was so worried that it would just start walking but she didn’t and we got great pictures. The ride ended and I got to feed a mother elephant who just had a baby elephant that was only a month old. We learned that the pregnancy of an elephant takes two years! Amazing. However we had to keep our distance because the mother knocked down three women the day before and that’s just mother instincts. It was an amazing time, followed by the beauty of a waterfall that my fellow students swam in. It was yet another great day.

~ Drew Thao

Hello to all. First off just need to say a quick “Happy Birthday, and I love you!” to my mom, it’ll probably even be her birthday at home too by the time this is read.  I can’t thank all my family and friends enough for being supportive of me running away for this amazing adventure right before leaving for the semester.  AMAZING is really the only way to describe this whole trip.  I can hardly believe it’s almost over.  We have done so many amazing things in the past few weeks and I’m sure you’ve been reading about them all from all of our perspectives, which is great since we’ve all had a wide variety of experiences on this trip.  I can confidently say that we will all be coming home a little bit different than when we left, we’ve learned so much about not only Thailand but ourselves and the people we’ve spent the past 23 days straight with.  I know we’ve all made new friends and I truly hope some of those last, and regardless I hope that we’ve all been able to learn from each other’s experiences and the viewpoints that were brought along with them.  Hopefully we’ve learned to embrace some parts of the Thai lifestyle as well, I know many of us have taken to saying “Same Same” as the Thai do when something doesn’t quite go how we planned or we’re just not sure about something. We’ll see if that relaxed outlook on life carries over to our western way of life.  As far as recent experiences go we all were fortunate to have a free day on Koh Chang yesterday and many of us took that opportunity to do some adventuring. There were people snorkeling, boat riding, fishing and just plain old relaxing.  I personally went on a full day snorkeling trip with some of the other girls and it was an experience I will not soon forget.  The water was so clear you could see everything in front of you, all different types of fish and coral and other aquatic wildlife.  We spent one island stop just relaxing on this beautiful white sand beach; not something you can do every day.  Then again, not much we’ve done over the past month is something you can do every day, and that’s what makes a trip like this so great.

~Emilia Spalding

last days

Yesterday (Friday) was a free day for the students. Nearly all went snorkelling for the day. At breakfast everyone was down in the mouth as it was raining cats and dogs. By 9:00 am the sun was shining and it turned out to be one of the finest days yet. Based on the tans (and burns) that returned in the evening, along with the smiles, it seems all had a great day.

Last night we had a group dinner and everyone joined in to sing our daughter “Happy Birthday,” as Krin turned 2. Today brings another birthday as Lauren Torres turns 22.

We have our final class this morning (Saturday) and then return to Bangkok. Tomorrow evening we board our plane to Tokyo, then to Dallas, then to Minneapolis.

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beach

After a morning of elephant riding, rubber tree cutting, and waterfall finding, a number of the students took to the sand volleyball court. After unspecified points, all jump in to the ocean to dust off. Our rooms are about 50 feet from the beach and 100 feet from the water.

Another first, rain on the island in January. It rained on our way here, but cleared off when we arrived yesterday (Wednesday). A storm shut down electricity during the night, but no rain yet today (Thursday). It’s quite warm with some cloud cover. Good for us fair skinned Norwegians. Not as sunny as some of the sun gods and godesses would like, but there have been no complaints. I think they simply look around and realize where they are.

Talk has turned to heading home and seeing all of you. There is plenty of excitement for our last couple of days, yet growing anticipation to return.

The following are some thoughts from Dan Erzberger, Sam Moen, and Molly Muller:

Having previously experienced river boat cruises as a timid private method of enjoying dinner in Bangkok, I did not expect any different when we traveled to the familiar port for our scheduled meal. Instead of a steadily crafted traditional wooden boat, we were greeted by an 2 story illuminated ship with its own stage, sound system, and overly friendly staff which offered us an experience we wouldn’t soon forget. Instead of hustling the food from a shore based kitchen onto the boat before departure, the staff leisurely stacked piles of traditional Thai food into a buffet style of dinner which we shared with other guests who seemed to be having a romantic getaway or enjoying retirement. During our meal, a live singer played slow saxophone-based American music which our class enjoyed. After we ate, the band began to speed up the tempo as the crew showed us with glow sticks, hats, whistles, and rings. It wasn’t long until the whole ship was on the dance floor living the boat ride to its full potential. The staff was clearly amused by our class and pulled people would were not dancing into the crowed dance floor. We had a conga line going with people ranging from age 6 to 60 and had Ashley try her best to sing on the mic. We enjoyed the music even after the boat had docked.

Dan Erzberger

I would like to start the blog out by saying Mom, I am alive and well however I am traveling to the last city Koh Chang and I plan on not wearing any sunscreen the whole time J, hello aggressive freckles. And I am sorry that there have not been many emails or phone calls.  Mrs. Geskermann, Mark is not going to use sunscreen either and he is happy to tell you that he had a picture with a snake surrounding his neck yesterday at the Royal Palace. He is planning on eating snake adding to our resume of heated up worms, cold worms, and numerous crickets.

A few days ago I was sitting alone at a smoothie shop watching traffic in Bangkok. I realized the amazing parallel between the Thai way or culture and the way that they drive.  I saw five cars continue through the intersection after a red light sign turned on, clearly holding up traffic.  There were no horns or suburbans slamming down the petal sticking their hand out the window “waving.”  Everyone looked relaxed and calm.  As they drove, nobody was using turn signals as they would gradually move into the parallel lane.  I rode in the front of a “tuk tuk,” a three wheel taxi which is a mix between a golf cart and a tricycle, and noticed how relaxed the driver was or appeared to be.  I, in the meantime, was pulling the mom with their newly licensed child on the freeway, freaking out.  He maneuvered through traffic with ease and an elderly confidence.  I peaked at the car that just got cut off and they didn’t seem affected at all.  I know that I would have given an aggressive and solid 4 second horn.  This comes up in many different areas of the culture, a relaxed free flowing feel.  I saw a firefighter with a hammock hooked up between a tree and the fire truck.  It has appeared in many other aspects as well.

One last note to tease my mom a little, my favorite beer is Chang which means elephant in Thai and its 40 baht or $1.33 at the seven eleven for 650 ml.  Aggressive.  Much love to the family and friends.  Adam, Luke, Dad, Mom and Stella, I miss you.  To the roommates: get it girl.  Thanks to the Mark and Kristin and most importantly Krin for the scheduling of the trip and putting up with all of us and our traveling ins and outs.

Sam Moen

I want to first say hello to everyone back home that I know is anxiously reading the blog – Mom, Dad, Lisa, Mickey, Ava, Sue, Jimmy, Ashton, Christa, Hailey and Marci. I’m writing on the bus as we are headed to the tropical Island of Koh Chang. As Sam said, Chang means elephant, and tomorrow we will be riding elephants through the rainforest! We are all also very excited for the beaches of Koh Chang.  It is raining once again, and our guide Chula said it’s because we are here.

I’ve learned that Bangkok is the city of malls. If you ever have the urge for never ending shopping, Bangkok is the place to go. Yesterday we were tourists around the city of Bangkok. We started out by going to a wat (temple) that housed a Buddha made of 5.5 tons of solid gold. Mark figured out its worth to something like 236 million U.S. dollars. We then traveled to the next wat with the second largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. And no, a reclining Buddha doesn’t mean he is sitting in a reclining chair like I originally thoughtJ, he is lying down. We then headed to the Royal Palace. We visited the summer palace the previous day – talk about luxury. At the royal palace there was a wat where the famous emerald Buddha resides. He was a lot smaller than many of the other Buddha’s we’ve seen, but one of the most revered. Mark and Kristin have been trying to keep us as far from the “typical” tourist as possible, and after yesterday I now see why. Some tourists were being very disrespectful and rude, from asking someone praying to move because they were in their picture, to taking pictures in areas that were not allowed. I couldn’t believe how rude some people were, and you could tell that some were Americans. After seeing the wat at the royal palace we saw (only through gates) the royal living quarters, where they house horses and elephants, and had the opportunity to see the change of guards. The King doesn’t currently reside there as he has been in the hospital for months. We saw the hospital he is at from our river tour and saw the naval boats outside protecting him. It was a day full of sights to say the least.

Molly Muller

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dancing queen

Mark G. found this python waiting for him outside of Wat Po. He escaped unharmed. As did Mark.

Yesterday (Tuesday) gave us our last view of temples and palaces. A hot day (near 90 degrees) zapped us all and I feel the kids enjoyed the afternoon off. Many soaked up some sun lounging around the pool. Last night everyone ate to their hearts content as we cruised down the Chao Praya river. After the meal, nearly all of the students got some dancing in as the boat made its way to port. I was pleasantly surprised that all these young people knew such classics as “YMCA,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Achey Breaky Heart.”. Smiles were abundant.

We head to Koh Chang this morning (Wednesday) and will return to Bangkok one final time Saturday evening as we prepare for Sunday’s departure. Several students informed me they have taken more than 1,500 photos. I hope each of you enjoys their stories.

Again, not sure of the Internet connections on the island, but we will do our best to keep you updated, while continuing to have students share their thoughts.

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dancing queen

Mark G. found this python waiting for him outside of Wat Po. He escaped unharmed. As did Mark.

Yesterday (Tuesday) gave us our last view of temples and palaces. A hot day (near 90 degrees) zapped us all and I feel the kids enjoyed the afternoon off. Many soaked up some sun lounging around the pool. Last night everyone ate to their hearts content as we cruised down the Chao Praya river. After the meal, nearly all of the students got some dancing in as the boat made its way to port. I was pleasantly surprised that all these young people knew such classics as “YMCA,” “Dancing Queen,” and “Achey Breaky Heart.”. Smiles were abundant.

We head to Koh Chang this morning (Wednesday) and will return to Bangkok one final time Saturday evening as we prepare for Sunday’s departure. Several students informed me they have taken more than 1,500 photos. I hope each of you enjoys their stories.

Again, not sure of the Internet connections on the island, but we will do our best to keep you updated, while continuing to have students share their thoughts.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

templed

Yesterday (Monday) had us at the Royal Summer Palace and the ruins at Ayuthya. The ruins date to the 14th century. Today (Tuesday) we will visit the largest reclining Buddha in the world, a 5.5 ton gold Buddha, an emerald Buddha, and the Grand Palace. The students will have the afternoon off as we prepare to head to the island of Koh Chang tomorrow.

Temple fatigue has set in as we’ve seen many. However, I think we can hold everyone’s interest a bit longer. Once on the island the kids will have a bit of well deserved R&R before we begin our journey back.

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Temple of the Dawn

Yesterday (Sunday) brought a morning boat ride on the Chao Praya river and some of the canals in Bangkok. Interesting to see how people live along the river. The students fed the massive amounts of catfish with bread and seemed to enjoy the morning. We stopped at the Temple of the Dawn which was truly impressive. Many of the students climbed to the top along very steep steps. Fun watching them come down. Today (Monday) brings us to the King’s summer palace and to Ayuthya, the former capital of Thailand to again visit some ruins. It’s a full day and with many students (I suspect) staying up to watch the Vikings beat the Cowboys (the game finished at 4:00 am our time on Monday morning) it may be a tiring one.

Here are some thoughts from Marge Thornton, Megan Gosselin and Megan Hoeft:

I now know why people fall in love with Thailand. We have accumulated some varied and eclectic experiences from busy Bangkok, to the serene countryside of Sukothai and 12 days in the tourist hot spot of Chiang Mai. However, the Thai people themselves remain constant. My encounters with the people have been gracious, enthusiastic and genuine. Villagers came out to greet us as we biked by, some to giggle at the large and what must have seemed strange looking Americans and some held their babies out to wave at us yelling “hello” in English. Hospitality is a large and profitable business here, so I understand the kindness is part their job, but the one on one encounters are so authentic. People are curious where you are from and what you are doing in Thailand. Some seem to laugh and smile easily, I am sure half the time it is at me and my terrible accent and sometimes it is out of joy and acceptance.

I believe travel of any kind changes you. This trip is by far the most unique and most satisfying of my travels. I take away a better understanding of Buddhism. I will leave here more relaxed than I have felt in years (really…years!!). I enjoy seeing it through 29 other sets of eyes as well, together we have seen a lot and in very different ways. What an adventure! I need to come back with my family and who knows…maybe they need English speaking nurses in Thailand…

Love to you all, as much as I love it here, I can’t wait to hug you there,

Marge Thornton

Today we had a bus ride from Sukhothai to Bangkok. We were all very thankful that it didn’t turn into a 23 hour ride like the train! On our ride we stopped at a temple that is the home for wild monkeys. A few people got out but I was too afraid to get out once our guide told us the monkeys might steal our cameras or bite us. Last night we had a sunset dinner in the Sukhothai Historical ruins. We found out before we got there that it is illegal to serve food in the ruins but our hotel had some sort of connection and were able to get us dinner there without getting us arrested! We were all very thankful to the hotel for making such great accommodations for us. The scenery was very beautiful with the sun setting over the mountains, pond, and a Buddha statue. My pictures I took definitely don’t justify how gorgeous it was.

Our bike ride yesterday through the country side was equally as amazing. I’m pretty sure other people have already blogged about the bike ride but I’m going to give my quick rendition of it. I really enjoyed seeing the farmers work in their rice and tobacco fields. The people were all very nice and the kids at the school even gave us high-fives as we rode through.

I am happy to say that I have ventured out and tried a lot of different foods. Pad Thai and fried rice are still my favorite but I have tried regular fried worms, silk worms, and grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were definitely the best!

I can’t believe that the trip is over half gone and we will be heading home in a little over a week. We have a great group of people with us and we have all been learning so much. I’m sad to be leaving Thailand soon but excited to get home to tell all my friends and family about my trip! Hope you are all doing well in the cold United States! Miss you to all my friends and family!

Megan Gosselin

Hey there everyone!

It is already the sixteenth day of our trip! It is unbelievable to think that we are already on the decline of our little adventure. Sure there are things I miss at home, but all my friends and family realize that I would never return to winter unless I had to.

Mark promised me in my interview that he and Kristen would make this trip interesting enough to beat the plane ride, and he was right. Each day I think to myself, this has been the best part of the trip, and in many ways each new day has been the best part. Some events, however, will beat out others when I talk about this trip for years to come.

One of those stories will be how we were able to talk with a monk. I had a very vague idea of what Buddhism was when I began this trip. It has been fascinating for me to see how religion influences daily routine here in Thailand. Throughout this trip we have been bombarded with different interpretations of Buddhism, much as we have different forms of Christianity in the States, but I thought the monk did an amazing job of explaining where the differences stem from and, how it is possible to be Buddhist as well as practice other religions. I was sad for our hour to end with him.

I also thoroughly enjoyed our bike ride through Sukhothai (although I am still a little sore). Every once in a while I will turn to the person next to me and say, “hey, guess what? Its January.” So obviously it was exciting for me to be outside in January and worried about overheating. Other than that, it was fabulous to bike through the country side with seas of green all around me. Farmers were hard at work in the tobacco and rice fields. Some of the more adventurous group members opted to plant some rice themselves. I have always said I do not want to be a farmer, not even on facebook or in Thailand, sorry. As we rode through parts of town it was easy to tell that we stood out significantly. I felt like a celebrity as people would stop, stare and wave. Some children dressed in what seemed to be boy scout uniforms even gave flowers to some of the female students. Sukhothai is definitely not the same tourist hub that Chang Mai or Bangkok is.

I am looking forward to our time on the island in a few days; elephant riding, more trekking, and relaxing on the beach with my new book, a perfect way to end J-term. To all of you at home, I hope you are enjoying your January and I will talk to you soon!

Megan Hoeft

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back to Bangkok

We arrived back in Bangkok early this evening (Saturday). On our way we stopped in Lopburi to visit a Khmer temple. The interesting thing about both the city and the temple (aside from the beauty) is the fact that wild monkeys are everywhere. Their home is the temple, however, they run down the streets, sit on roofs, and swing from powerlines.

We also stopped by Saraburi and visited a temple that is home to Buddha’s footprint (see picture). Tomorrow (Sunday) brings a tour of Bangkok’s canals and some class time. As far as we can tell, the Vikings play the Cowboys at 1:00 am Monday morning our time. Any bets some students find a place to watch that?

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learning a new skill

Yesterday (Friday) was spent biking through the countryside seeing the more classical life of Thailand.  Students planted rice in the fields and were greeted by numerous children who don’t see westerners too often.  In the afternoon we were greeted by a solar eclipse and then a wonderful sunset dinner at the historical park which was arrnaged by our guest house.  This is atypical, and our guide was not sure how they pulled it off.  We all sat on the ground, with pedestals of food and watched the sun set behind a 700 year old Buddha and the mountains in the distance.

Today (Saturday) we are off to Bangkok for four days.  There are two posts previous to this one that have a picture plus some words from students.  Be sure to read them all.  Here is what Lauren Torres has to say:

We just returned from a bike ride through Sukhothai, we saw the country side, the old and new city, and a lot of rice and tobacco farms.  It hasn’t been hard getting up at 7 each morning here and running around all day, it’s definitely a new experience actually being productive everyday and taking in so many new things.  The people here definitely put us to shame with our “Minnesota Nice” and for as many different places I have traveled I think that as a group we are so fortunate to come to this country that they are enthusiastic to please us instead of looking at us like we are intruders into their daily life.  So far we have traveled by plane, train, tuk-tuk, mega bus, a tractor, sungtao, bamboo raft, bicycles, on foot, and soon to travel by boat and elephant.  We are beginning to do a lot more traveling than we did on the first part of the trip but it is good to get moving around more often, giving us the chance to see rural and urban Thailand.  The best part of the trip is the times we are in the country side and as a group we can almost all agree that the most fun we had was our 6 hour trek through the hills of Chiang Mai, we had spent most of it going uphill and it would have been nice to see the path that we took or how far we really walked but at our turning point they told us that we were a 2 hour walk away from Burma, at that point some of us had hiker’s high and probably would have loved going that extra 2 hours but we stopped at the most gorgeous waterfall and saw several hill tribes that really makes you question how much work we really do every day to support our lifestyle compared to the hill tribes.  I have written in my journal using the word amazing way too often but it definitely is AMAZING and every single one of us is lucky to have this experience and are blessed with Mark, Kristin and Krin to have put so much effort into us coming here.

Lauren Torres

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