Day 233

The bus that took us from Phuket Town to the village of Nam Khem where a very nice local man eventually got us to the pier where we took a long-tail boat to Ko Kho Khao!

Day 232

We were just walking around the main street of Kata Beach (the beach just north of Karon, where we're staying, still on Phuket) and out of nowhere pops out this baby elephant. People were paying 20 baht to feed him, and after this guy fed him the elephant gave him a kiss. It was cute.

Day 231

Fisherman going in for the evening. I think. That's what it looked like anyway. Didn't do much today, we were headed out this afternoon but the skies and wind felt like rain. We came back to our guesthouse and it did rain for a little while, Jacob did some work and I did some reading. Pretty quiet lazy day.

Day 230

Day 2 in Phuket, sun setting.

Day 229

Just arrived in Phuket and walking along the beach.

Day 228

Some of the ingredients that went into our pad thai tonight! Also, we leave for Phuket tomorrow, yay!

Day 227

Came back home to lots of flooding prep! This is the two driveways and security gate at the front (and only) entrance to our apartment complex. One of the driveways is closed off, and there are lots of sandbags. There were some when we left, but they're all over now. It hasn't rained since we got back late last night, and we haven't noticed anything that looks like it has flooded here. School was cancelled for the week though... here's one of the latest articles.

Day 226

Last day wandering around the city, this is Sri Mahamariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur.

Day 225

Snapped a picture of the Petronas Towers and Menara KL Tower while wandering around Lake Gardens.

Day 224

Busy day, this was taken at stop #2: Batu Caves!

Day 223

Headed to Kuala Lumpur for a long weekend!

Day 222

Hung out at immigration for most of today getting my work visa and re-entry permit sorted out. Fun times.

Also, school was canceled today and Friday because Wednesday afternoon some critical barriers on the river broke and more flooding is spreading through Bangkok. About a third of our students homes were starting to flood. We still haven't seen anything yet, but more sandbags are being put up around our apartment complex and signs are up (all in Thai) that look like warnings about 60-80 centimeters of flooding. We're supposed to leave tomorrow for Kuala Lumpur and so far looks like the airport is still up and running, so hopefully we make it out! And hopefully we can make it back in on Monday!

Here's some of the latest news.

Day 221

We had "Show and Share" today with 2 other project classes. Our students give presentations to each other about what they have learned in class. It's mostly in Thai, but some students speak English. One group presented on Angry Birds! Unfortunately, it was all in Thai so I still don't know much about it. At least they're practicing presentation/public speaking skills!

Day 220

The more commercial looking vendor where we buy rotisserie chicken. It is so very tasty, but also greasy. We buy it when we're cooking and want to add some chicken that already tastes good to noodles/rice/etc. Tonight we made yellow curry/coconut milk ramen noodles with some veggies and rotisserie chicken, it was very good. This guy's always right at the front of our apartment complex.

Day 219

This is the spirit house in front of our apartment complex (Baan Suan Thon) main office and pool. Spirit houses are all over (in front of businesses, restaurants, hotels, homes, etc.) in Thailand, they are shrines to the spirit of the land to both request permission to build/conduct business/live/etc. and to protect whoever/whatever resides there. Find more info here and here.

Day 218

We found a cheap bottle of red wine so figured it was probably bad, but we should try it (wine is hard to find around here). It was really bad. Turns out it's pineapple and roselle fruit wine. It had kind of a funny translated label as well...

Day 217

I was trying to get a picture of the rain. It was pouring for awhile this afternoon, but not since then. No signs of any flooding in our neighborhood. A night of Quest apps ahead, maybe it will start pouring again!

Day 216

PB&J and rummy to wait for the flooding to reach us. It was a beautiful day with blue skies, some thunder randomly but not much else. It finally started raining about an hour ago (6pm). We'll see what happens from here! We have plenty of food and water, and Quest applications to read so we're ready!

Day 215

One of my co-teachers (Neung, in the picture from yesterday), brought me two pairs of traditional Thai pants today! Now I have something to wear on Thursdays for traditional Thai dress day at school, yay! Thanks Neung! Now I just have to figure out what to wear on top...

In other news, flooding is expected to reach Bangkok this weekend. It's reached it already actually, the northern parts of the city already have some flooding. School was canceled for tomorrow and all the stores are out of bottled water and ramen. We should be fine, I don't think much will happen where we are. The country is in disaster mode though:

Epic monsoon rains and typhoons have battered a vast swath of Asia relentlessly this year, killing hundreds of people from the Philippines to India and inflicting billions of dollars in damage over the last four months. Thailand is among the hardest hit; the floods here are the worst in half a century, claiming more than 280 lives since late July.

Flood waters have swamped more than two-thirds of the country, submerging rice fields and shutting down hundreds of factories. American computer hard drive manufacturer Western Digital Corp. and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. became the latest to suspend production in Thailand on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said many provinces could remain submerged for the next two months, according to state broadcaster MCOT.

Find more here.

Day 214

We tried to get a group picture of our afternoon activity in project, but only my co-teacher looked at the camera! Palm on the left had made hers into a baby, and she was re-wrapping the blanket. Fem and Pop covered their faces. Teacher Neung is looking at the camera, and Artie is mid-something.

Day 213

Thailand has been experiencing some of the worst flooding it's had in decades. This article says "Floodwaters have swept across 60 of Thailand’s 77 provinces over the past two months, swamping factories operated by Honda Motor Co. and Canon Inc. and destroying more than 10 percent of the nation’s rice farms." Until now, none of Bangkok has really been affected. Everyone's been talking the past couple days about the flooding reaching our part of Bangkok at the end of this week, or next week. The estimates I've heard for our neighborhood are 50-70 centimeters (approximately 20-28 inches) of floodwater. They might even cancel school this Friday or some of next week.

Jacob and I went with our friend Jordan (in the picture), another teacher at DSIL, to the big Tesco nearby to get a few things, and this was the bottled water aisle! The ramen aisle looked similar. Don't worry though, we will be fine and we bought cereal, PB&J supplies and we're ready! We also live on the second floor so that's good. We don't live very close to the river, I don't think our neighborhood will be affected much. It's everywhere else being affected that disrupts delivery of things: water and power, shipments to supermarkets, etc. I'll keep you posted about what's going on as long as we have internet and power! If we lose it though, don't worry, there won't be much flooding where we are and we have plenty of food to keep us nourished.

Day 212

Tasty buffet dinner at Swissotel in Downtown Bangkok.

Day 211

Lays Stax Spicy Lobster flavor!

Day 210

The view from our living room balcony.

Day 209

Looks like rain! This is on the walk back to our street of the apartment complex. That building back there with the angled roof is the school building. I spend most of my time on the 6th and 8th floors.

Day 208

Best breakfast meat-on-a-stick (pretty sure it's chicken) and khao niao in the neighborhood!

Day 207

Solitaire!

Day 206

I'm officially a teacher! My uniform shirt arrived last Friday. They are tailor made and embroidered so it took a couple weeks. I wear this every Monday-Wednesday. Thursday is traditional Thai dress, and Friday is casual day (but still no jeans). Plus my trusty slip-on crocs (easy to take off at work) and umbrella in case it starts raining randomly.

Day 205

A wai-ing Ronald McDonald.

Day 204

Great weekend.

Day 203

Ko Samet!