This temple in Chiang Rai has been under construction for 12 years and is still not complete. It is the artist\architect's modern interpretation of Thai Architecture. The project is funded entirely by the artist.


Monks on the Mekong

I spent 2 days on the Mekong River to get from Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos. It was not the most comfortable boat but the scenery was beautiful and there was plenty of Beer Lao to pass the time.

Tacomepai

I went to Pai to do a homestay on an organic farm for a week. The whole place is sustainable and everyone who stays there helps out. There wasn't much farming to be done while I was there because all the rice has been planted and harvest is in December but there were plenty of other small chores to be done. I stayed in a treehouse for the week. It didn't have electricity but there was a stream that ran underneath it and it had a great view over the rice fields.
There were about 8 other travelers staying on the farm and one afternoon Sandot(owner of farm) took us all to the hot spring where we had a natural spa mud treatment before going for a swim.

After I left Pai I went back to Chiang Mai just in time for Loi Krathong Festival. On full moon night the whole city was filled with Lanterns and fireworks were going off everywhere. There was a parade and everyone went to the river to float small offerings downstream.

Zipping Through Northern Thailand

On Matt's last day with me in Chiang Mai we did the Gibbon Experience Tour which is a series of ziplines through the jungle canopy of Northern Thailand. It was great!

Angkor What?

To get from Battambang to Siem Reap we took a very scenic boat ride. We passed through several of Cambodia's floating villages.

Angkor Wat at Sunrise.

Carvings at Angkor Wat.

There were monks everywhere! It was awesome.

If You Catch Me At The Border I Got Visas In My Name

After only minimal trouble at the border we made it to Cambodia. Right now we're in Battambang. Today me and Katie went on a tour of the Cambodian countryside. This is us on a bamboo train. These things go surprisingly fast.

The track ahead.

Its a two way track so we had to backtrack when traffic came the other way.

Little girls in the village at the end of the track. They really loved having their pictures taken.

Red peppers drying out in the sun. They're all along the road and they smell great.

Full Moon Appreciation

Koh Pha Ngan. The beach in the center of the photo is where the full moon party takes place every month. The view from the beach is framed by mountains on either side and the full moon rises up through the center. The moon looks amazing here, it totally justifies a monthly celebration.

This is me enjoying one of the other beaches on the island.

Matt relaxing on some island off the coast of Krabi.

Longtail boats.

Sunday Fight

A few weeks ago Amm bought a fighting chicken. It was his first fighting chicken. Now he already has a second one. He decided to name the first one Gabby after Kate's pet from back home.

Every week on Sunday mornings there is a chicken fight and it attracts practically everyone in the village. This is the view from outside the ring. Amm's chicken was't fighting this week.

Inside the ring. The chicken on the left (or maybe the right, I can't actually tell them apart) is a three time fighting champion. The other chicken is a novice and was the smallest of the bunch.
They fight 5 rounds, each round is 20 minutes long. They don't actually fight to the death so I'm not really sure how the winner is decided. This week the three time champion got its fourth win.

This is Ta, a fellow spectator.

Kayaking and Climbing

Me and Kate rode our bikes up to Prachuap Khiri Khan for the weekend. The drive was nice, it took us about an hour and a half on the back dirt roads. The first thing we did when we got there was climb up to this temple overlooking the sea.

Then we kayaked to the islands you can see from the temple in the last picture.


The next day we tackled the other mountain. (The jagged one from the last pic)

I Catch My Own Food

We had to wake up way too early to go fishing. We arrived at sunrise and we were still the last boat out on the water.

Chillin on the boat. I'm tired from catching so many fish.

The rest of the crew.


Our mornings work. I caught all the little ones ;)


Amm's mom immediately got to work cooking the fish and we ate them for lunch. Of course with a healthy side of rice. Yum.

Monkey City

The town of Lopburi is rumored to have a larger population of monkeys than of people. Most of the monkeys seemed to congregate around the main temple of the city but all over the town you can see the creatures hanging on power lines and lurking outside of restaurants. When we went to the temple we were offered a guide for protection from the monkeys. The guide turned out to be a young Thai boy with a big stick who was working for tips. He was pretty good though, he saved us a couple of times when the monkeys tried to steal our bags or jump at our cameras.

Here's a picture of him making sure we see this especially fat monkey.

Sukhothai

Sukhothai was fun. Its not the easiest place to get to from my town so I spent a significant part of the 5 day holiday on a bus. I finally arrived and the town was great. We spent the fourth of July biking around to all the historic ruins that are scattered through the area. We even found a place to buy a cheeseburger, although it wasn't very good. Once it was dark we were surprised by loud cracking noises in the distance and looked to discover that someone was shooting off fireworks. The next day we were told that they shoot off fireworks in the town the first weekend of every month. We tried to explain to the woman about the coinciding american holiday that celebrates with fireworks but she seems less than interested.

5 Hours South of Bangkok

Here's a picture of my apartment. I'm living in a very small town south of Prachuap Khiri Khan and north of Thap Sakae in the gulf of Thailand. I'm using the word "town" very liberally in that there isn't really enough here to even qualify as a town. There is one restaurant, one convenience shop and a school. I'm in the part of Thailand that is very narrow. About 2 kilometers east is the ocean and to the west are the mountains and the Burmese Border.

My job is hard. I'm teaching decently difficult math and science to 7-9th graders. Fortunately my classes are small (5-8 students per class) but they still manage to push my abilities of classroom management to the limits. Lesson planning takes forever because in addition to trying to figure out how to teach math and science in an interesting way I'm also having to study a bit to refresh my memory as to how to find the least common denominator and the identifying the various steps in the nitrogen cycle. Some of the science is basically chemistry which I can't even fake like I know what I'm talking about. So we'll just be skipping over those chapters.

There is one other american teacher at the school and we are the only white people in the town. We both have motorbikes though so it will be good to have a travel partner for weekend escapes.

Chiang Mai

So I've spent the past three weeks in Chiang Mai which is an amazing city in northwest Thailand. The city is so colorful. The monks wear vibrant orange robes, the temples are composed of blindingly white stone and shiny yellow roofs. The mountains give the town a deep blue backdrop and the sky is always a spectrum of grays.
I just received my teaching placement for the next 4 months. I'm going to be about 5 hours south of Bangkok in a small beach town near Prachuap Khiri Khan. I'm taking an overnight bus on Saturday and arriving early Sunday morning. I'll be teaching english, science and math to high school students. I'm apparently qualified to teach science and math as a result of my architecture degree. They don't know that I just went to design school for 5 years.

Upgrade

Last weekend I went to Pai, a small hippie town northwest of Chiang Mai. After 3 months of getting around by walking and an occasional bicycle it was a welcome change to hop on a motorbike and zip around the countryside for a couple of days. I just had to remember to drive on the left side of the road. The bike cost a total of $6 to rent for 24 hours, that even included accident insurance!
Pai was gorgeous. The town is so small and secluded that the whole place often loses electricity without warning and the locals don't even miss a step, they've just gotten used to it. The weekend was packed full with visiting waterfalls, hot springs and elephant riding. The elephant riding was an adventure. The elephant went in this river and sprayed us with water before deciding to shake the three of us off him. We all flew head first into the water.

Thailand!

So I made it to Bangkok! I met my brother and we explored the city for a few days before I had to leave to come to Chiang Mai. I took the overnight train from Bangkok and arrived in Chiang Mai 14 hours later. It was surprisingly comfortable. I've been eating nothing but pad thai and street food for the past week. Its great.

Last Week In China

Here are some pictures from my last few days in Beijing. Thats me and my students in the first picture on my last day of work. The other images are from the trip to Simatai Great Wall. This section of the wall is to the northeast of Beijing and is a little farther outside the city so it was much less crowded. It was really amazing. We even got to ride a zipline from the base of the great wall over a river to the bottom.