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

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]