emilyonearth

Hi hi hi hi hi! … That was to a tune in my head, but unfortunately it doesn’t translate well in text :(

So last week was National Holiday in China, and the most sensible thing to do during this week seems to be to get out! I had wanted to do some travel within China, but by the time we got our passports back and were booking tickets, all travel to the places in China I wanted to see was either booked out or ridiculously expensive. So Alicia and I decided to go to Thailand, with approximately 4 days notice :D

After a very early morning to cross the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border and get to the airport in Hong Kong, we flew into Bangkok. We had been supposed to arrive late afternoon but we had a couple of hours flight delay in the Philippines, so ended up arriving just in time to check into our hostel and have some dinner and a nighttime stroll. The next day we visiting the Grand Palace and Wat Pho with its reclining buddha, had a delicious lunch, booked our tickets to Chiang Mai, and hopped on the 12 hour night bus, hoorah! We had planned to get sleeper bunks on the night train, but the tracks between Bangkok and Chiang Mai were undergoing repairs, so bus was the only option. Luckily the busses had been overbooked so they got an extra bus for the overflow, meaning there were only 10 of us on the bus – plenty of space to stretch out!

Next morning we arrived a little sleep deprived in Chiang Mai, and set off to see the sights. The initial plan was to rent mopeds to get around the city, but it soon became rather apparent that neither of us had any hope of being able to drive one of those things. We opted for bicycles instead :D That day we visited a couple of temples, a pretty well stocked second hand bookstore where we stocked up on reading material, and took far more photos than necessary :D In the evening we spent several hours at the night bazaar, which was quite the experience! So much stuff, so many people, lots of haggling… Eek. Fun though :) On our second day in Chiang Mai we went out to the Baanchang Elephant Park to hang out with some friendly (hungry) elephants. My favourite part was probably hopping into the water with the elephants and giving them a good scrub :D And then on the third day we took a Thai cooking class. We started off going to the market and learning about a few of the ingredients used in Thai cooking, then went back to make 3 dishes plus a curry paste – I did spring rolls, panang curry, and pad thai. They were rather tasty tasty, but it was soooo much food that I couldn’t have more than a couple of bites of the pad thai :( I have the recipes though, so I shall make them all again in the future :D That afternoon we had a Thai massage at a blind massage place. It was interesting… I really did not know my back was capable of clicking like that haha!

After our massage it was back on the bus, and back to Bangkok. Arriving around 6am we felt a little worse for wear, but dropped our stuff back at the hostel, had a shower and some breakfast, and then headed off for the floating markets about an hour out of the city. I can imagine that once upon a time they were really nice, but now that there’s more tourism around they’re filling up with the same touristy crap that you can find everywhere else. We did see a bit of the town around the area though, which was really fool, people pretty much living in the canals. Traffic on the way home made the journey about double in length, and then as soon as we were back we headed out again for the Chatuchak weekend market, apparently one of the largest markets in the world. We didn’t stay too long (I was feeling a bit marketed out) but the part we saw was kind of like a huge big op shop, with recycled clothing and shoes, a few food places and some stalls with little trinkets. Then it was back home again for dinner and packing our bags for our early morning flight back to China.

So yes. Thailand was fun.

:D

Back in Chinaland I’m back to school. Was worried my lessons would be total flops this week after reduced planning due to holiday, but they haven’t been too bad so far. I had an amazing grade 6 class today where we had a boys vs girls debate over which gender was better. Some of the kids got really into it, and while their arguments started off quite logical (eg oys are stronger, girls study more etc), they soon deteriorated into “boys are bad because they pay games in class and hit their classmates”, “girls read too much, and eat too many cookies”, and so on. It was quite amusing really. Have to work another Saturday again this weekend to make up some of the time for the National Holiday, but I’m not too worried. Will just have to sleep all day on Sunday instead :D

Coolies, I think that’s been my week, photo time!