Koh Samui = paradise

Earlier in the school year, the girls and I decided to bid on a condo in the MS silent auction. The condo was valued at 45,000 baht/night (about $1500) and we got it for 11,000 baht total ($375) for 2 nights!! $75 each is a small price to pay for the luxury we enjoyed. We flew down to Koh Samui first thing on Friday morning, and relaxed in a secluded paradise for our last long weekend of the school year (and Jess’ last weekend in Thailand).

The condo was absolutely gorgeous, 2 bedroom, 2 flat screen TVs, full kitchen, balcony overlooking the ocean – beautiful! The best thing was that the resort was practically empty, so we did a rotation through the 3 infinity pools and all of the lounge areas. We went into the main part of town one night and had a drink on the beach, but we were much happier further away from the crowd. All of us were looking for relaxation from our busy Bangkok schedules, and this was the perfect place.

We spent the entire weekend lounging in the sun, swimming, reading and enjoying aromatherapy massages at the spa. The storms rolled in at about 5 pm every night and took out the power, adding a funny element to the trip. It was a nice chance for all of us to hang out before Jess left, and we made new memories to add to our already amazing year! I would love to come back here one day!

Songkran in Japan

 

In need of a little family time, I took advantage of Thailand’s spring break, Songkran, to visit my brother and friend in Nagoya, Japan.  It was a great week of relaxing and just hanging out – exactly what I needed. I got to play with my cutie nephews, hang out with Rob and Hiroka, and visit with Ricco at Nagoya International School. Had some great sushi, saw the oldest castle in Japan, did a little shopping, hiking in Nagano and even took in a Nagoya vs. Tokyo baseball game. Fun times! I also got to visit some of Hiroka’s family, eat a ton of delicious Japanese food (mmm Yakitori), and found Dr. Pepper and red wine – both of which are not available or too expensive in Bangkok!!! I loved being able to wear pants and a jacket (not possible in the crazy BKK heat), and enjoyed the last of the cherry blossoms. A great Songkran vacation! 

 

IB in India

Four days after returning from the conference in Malaysia, Ann Marie and I boarded another plane – to Mumbai, India. We arrived at about 1:30 am and had an interesting taxi ride to our hotel. Our 1950’s cab broke down in the middle of nowhere and we didn’t get in until about 3am. Oh India.

We were in India for another workshop that ISB sent us to. We are currently teaching in a high school that has the International Baccalaureate curriculum, and needed to take the Level One workshop to gain a deeper understanding of the assessment and the program. I learned a lot from the IB Biology workshop, mostly about the lab requirements and other external assessment. The IB is an intense and rigorous curriculum where the students can get University credit from the courses, and I now feel more prepared to be teaching at this level.

Although we were only in Mumbai from Thursday night until late Sunday night, and spent everyday until 4:30 in the workshops, we tried to see as much of the city as possible. Friday after the conference Ann Marie and I went to the Gateway of India (which was under construction) and checked out the Taj Mahal Hotel that was the location of the November 2008 terrorist attacks. It is beautiful and they had a nice memorial set up to remember the victims. We walked along the water back to our hotel, which was conveniently located next to a slum. Ha. Since we had almost no sleep Thursday night, we had a long night and grabbed some delicious Indian food poolside at our hotel. 

Saturday, we hired a taxi to pick us up after the conference and tour us around the city. It was questionable as to whether the man would show up or not, but at 4:30pm he was there waiting for us. My colleague Dan joined us on the tour, and our driver did not disappoint. He took us to Naimon point, Chowpatty beach and this pretty garden that looked over the city. We drove through the different areas of Mumbai all the way to the Dhobi Ghat – the cement laundry area where all of the cities laundry is done everyday by hand. The colours of the clothing was amazing. We went by the Central (Victoria) train station and the Crawford market – both recently featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire! We drove past a mosque that is built on the ocean so the walkway is covered up during high tide – very cool. After about 3 hours of touring that included seeing Ghandi’s house, we made it safely back to our hotel and decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner out. We choose a place called Indigo from our trusted Lonely Planet, a Brad and Angelina fave. We dined on delicious pasta and wine while superbly underdressed. We enjoyed the slightly sketchy but very interesting walk back to our hotel through the Colaba market on the side of the causeway. A really fun night!

 

Sunday was the last day of the workshop and our flight wasn’t until 11pm. We did a bit of shopping in Colaba and went in search of our last Indian food meal. This was after I insisted on a McDonald’s stop so I could try the McVeggie. Mmmm. We decided on Leopold’s Café – a very famous Mumbai institution where travelers and locals alike dine on amazing food and share stories in the open concept seating. We wanted to try everything and ended up with way too much food – but it was amazing. Garlic naan, chicken tikka, butter chicken, aloo gobi – yummy. I wish I could go back to India just for the food. Delicious. It was a brief whirlwind of a trip, but I cannot wait to go back to Northern India to see Goa and the Taj Mahal….someday.

EARCOS 2009 - Boreno, Malaysia

 

For 5 days at the end of March, ISB sent teacher delegates to the EARCOS teachers’ conference. It was located in beautiful Borneo, Malaysia – which made it quite hard to make it to the workshops! We mingled with teachers from all over SE Asia and E Asia, attended workshops, dinners, keynote speakers and even a concert. I met some interesting and innovative science professionals, and gained new ideas to implement in my science classroom. On the last day, a group of us decided to take a day off the conference and go to a nearby island for some snorkeling and parasailing. We were very close to where the very first season of Survivor was shot. We saw lots of cool fish – and even some nemos! The resort was amazing and Borneo has most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen in my life!!

 

Birthday bash in Krabi!

For my 24^th birthday, I convinced my fave Bangkok girls to join me on a Krabi getaway. We took an extra day off school (love self-made long weekends) and went to my now favourite island in Thailand. It is the least touristy beach I have been too, it’s super small and absolutely beautiful. It is also quite the trek to get to. Taxi, plane, van, longtail boat in the dark and John Deer tractor – just to get to the bungalows in Railay. Crazy. We spent our days sunning and our nights at Bamboo bar with buckets! It was a nice relaxing weekend spent with great friends!

Cambodia- Angkor Wat

Due to the PAD airport occupation in Bangkok in late 2008, our planned trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and run a 5km race was disrupted. Luckily, the tourism industry was hit hard, and we were able to re-purchase our flights for half price! (Thank you Bangkok Air!) Friends had already gone over Christmas break, so Megan and I set out on our weekend adventure together with Flat Matt in tow! 

Note: Flat Matt is a flat version of my nephew Matthew who is in Grade 4. Each student made a small, flat version of themselves and sent them to various people/locations around the world!! I think Matt definitely went to the coolest place!! He should be the envy of his flat classmates ;)

Note2: Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

We arrived in Siem Reap around dinnertime on Friday night after school. After being ripped off on the price of my Visa by the Cambodian government not 5 minutes after landing, I don't know why I was surprised that our driver took us to the wrong guesthouse. Oh well, we can live in anything for two nights, and it was only $15 a night so we sucked it up. Siem Reap is very, very small with not a whole lot to do, but a surprising number of places to eat. We had some pizza and 50 cent draught Ankor beer for dinner, and strolled through the night market that looking exactly like any market in Thailand. We took a tuk-tuk back to our guesthouse and hit the sack, knowing we had a 4:30 am wake-up to look forward to.

Since we only had a day and a half in Cambodia, I wanted to see sunrise over Angkor Wat. For those of you that don't know, my traveling companion is NOT a morning person. Quiet as she was, she came along without complaint. Walking into an ancient ruin in the middle of nowhere Cambodia in the pitch black is definitely an experience. Just a reminder of how nothing like this would ever be allowed in Canada. We stumbled our way through the darkness over the unven bricks to the reflection pools of Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the sun didn't actually rise that morning - and we were left with a cloudy view. Exploring the temple was amazing, as there were very few tourists there (perhaps they checked the weather reports!!) 

 

We met our tuk-tuk driver back out front and he hustled us around the surrounding temples for the rest of the day. My favourite was The Bayon, which has about 260 faces carved into the stone of the temple. Every inch of stone is carved so intricately...it was amazing. We saw a bunch of other temples...including Angkor Thom, and one that has been taken over by jungle that was shown in one of the Indiana movies (that was Flat Matt's fave!) It was a tiring day, but so worth the trip!

 

That night, after a long afternoon nap, we tried some authentic Khmer (the name for Cambodian people) food for dinner. I had baked pumpkin and chicken which was delicious! We wandered down the tourist-y pub street after dinner and enjoyed some cheap beer and people watching on the patios.

 

Sunday, we decided not to go see more temples, but to hang out in Siem Reap and relax. We left our sketchy guesthouse for good and walked downtown, stopping for fresh mango from the roadside fruit market of course! (I'm addicted!) We wandered in an out of art galleries and little shops, had an afternoon foot massage, and patio hopped all day. I read, wrote postcards, relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine. Very nice. We even ate breakfast at Red Piano, the bar that Angelina Jolie frequents, when in town.

It was a fun trip, and I hope Flat Matt had as much fun as I did!

Day Trippin' on Winter Break

 

Upon my return from Hawaii…I was insanely jet-lagged and spent a few days in bed. Once I finally got up, Megan and I decided to show her mom around Thailand and do some day trips we never seem to have enough time to do.

 

One day we went to the Ancient city of Ayutthaya. It was the old capital of Thailand before being invaded by the Burmese in 1767. We took the third class train for 2 hours and 15 baht  - about 50 cents Canadian. We explored the ruins of the royal palace and many other old wats (temples). Most of the Buddha statues are missing their hands and heads as the Burmese chopped them off because it was thought to hurt the spirit of the Thais.  It was really neat to see the old buildings and all of the Buddhist influence.

  l

Another day we took a trip West near the Myanmar border. Kanchanaburi is a city in Thailand that is famous for it’s Bridge over the River Kwai. It was a place impacted during WWII, and was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. They commissioned the building of a railway in Thailand which later became known as the “death railway”, as the work and terrain was so treacherous, over 100,000 labourers lost their lives. We went to a pretty brutal WWII museam that actually had Canadian Tire money in a display case that held currency used in different countries during the war. Ha! We saw the bridge, took a train ride along the death railway, went to  Sai Yok Noi waterfall and lastly visited Tiger Temple. This is a place where monks care for orphaned tigers and other animals…but is definitely a tourist trap. I do look forward to coming back to Kanchanaburi with a Grade 6 trip I am supervising!