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Traveling to Thailand Tip #10

If it looks like the wrong city...it’s the wrong city. 

If it looks like a brothel...it is a brothel. 

No further explanation needed. 

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Thanks to Mandana (another English teacher at our school), we got the chance to volunteer at a children’s foundation! The children don’t come from the best circumstances but from their personalities alone, you’d never be able to tell. I haven’t seen so many smiles and so much energy in a long time. They took my camera and set up their own mini photoshoots, had their way with Val’s slack line, and played a countless number of games with us. They have so many different personalities at the foundation- some of them are quiet, some are boisterous, some are hilarious, some are comical and some are all the other bits in between. Their energy is addictive and we love every chance we can get to tag along with Mandana and say hi to our little minions. 

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Sports day at school. Compared to our pep rallies, that lasted half of one day, the students have sports day for 3 days. They danced for the opening ceremony, and wore some amazing costumes. Not to mention all the impressive decorations they made.

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While walking home, we made a new friend. However, elephants should live in the forest.. Not in the city. I wish that we could have freed her. Elephants have such beautiful energy. 💚

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Fun Fact #9

In Thailand, the year is 2558.

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Beach front lunch at Cha-am. Our coworkers introduced us to new and interesting foods. We had raw shrimp with lemon/lime juice and chili peppers...definitely a first, but surprisingly good. We finally tried Som Tam, the popular Thai papaya salad. For desert we had Roti Saimai - something similar to cotton candy, but stringy. You eat it inside of these tasty green crepes. Beware, it's super addicting! We ate almost the entire bag.

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Cha-am beach. It is typical in Thai culture to wear normal clothes to the beach and even in the water, unless you're on the islands. We played paddle ball, watched countless people get tipped over on banana boats, and saw some animals. Mandy made this beautiful face out of sand. It was a great day!

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We have some of the sweetest coworkers ever. In the last photo, you’ll see two of the teachers at our school with their adorable daughter. When we asked which bus to take to the closest beach, they volunteered to take us there themselves and show us around. On the way to the beach, they took us to a “Swiss Sheep Farm”. Super fun :)

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Some more students with their pets. Probably one of our favorite things about this school is the constant presence of pets :)

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View from our apartment building at sunset.

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Traveling to Thailand Tip #9

When buying soaps watch out for whitening chemicals. It's funny because everyone from Miami is obsessed with being tan, and here it is just the opposite. The whiter the better.

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Some of the students at our school on Sunthorn Phu Day.

Sunthorn Phu was the most famous Thai royal poet. Students in Thailand learn his poems in school, and there are even films and comics based off of his writings. On this holiday, the students dress up as characters, recite his poems, and put on performances as a tribute to his work.

Thailand has a lot of holidays, which makes school way fun!

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Our weekend spent in Bangkok. We met up with friends, got to see our teacher, and spent way too much money. It was totally worth it. Eventful parts of the weekend - our first time staying in a hostel; sharing a bottle of wine at dinner as if we could afford it; ordering spicy, hot sauce-filled drinks; eating food that is 10X what we normally pay in Samut Songkhram; exploring one of the largest clothing markets in Bangkok; and visiting Khao San road, the largest party strip in the city. We had so much fun, the only thing drawing us back was the money. :P

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Fun Fact #8

All students in Thailand have the same school uniform.

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Thailand's escape from the unforgiving sun - umbrellas, umbrellas, and more umbrellas.

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Don Hoi Lod. About 15 minutes from our apartment, you'll find the coast. The "mangrove forest" by the ocean. We didn't find too many mangroves, but rather market places and a large paved area where people relax on mats while enjoying goodies from the markets. We indulged in some green grapefruit while soaking in the refreshing ocean breeze. It was a really nice break from the still heat.

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The oldest students at our school have a class specifically dealing with pets. Often times they will bring their furry friends to school, which is adorable. They bring anything from squirrels to porcupines to dogs. Here you can see a student sharing a brownie with his cat. Now that's dedicated parenting right there :)