Getting there is half the fun!

All Aboard!!

After 3 long and stressful weeks of teaching, it is finally time for a vacation! ;) 2 weeks of freedom, and a whole new continent to conquer! Where to first? The decision was made, and Chiang Mai it was! Chiang Mai is a beautiful part of Northern Thailand. It is famous for many things including: Elephants, Handmade pottery and crafts, Wooden Umbrellas, and of course its silver. [haha this description was taken right out of the 4th grade social studies textbook!]

Our Journey begins as soon as class is over! With one final afterschool meeting where we say goodbye to some foreign teachers, and welcome the new ones! Pack our bags, and off we go. Our group consisted of Nick and I, and our wonderful travel buddies/co-workers Michelle, and Cassandra! Michelle is an American from Colorado, who is a firecracker in her own sense. Cassandra is a Mexican who has broken all the typical “Mexican” stereotypes for me. Our little group has been getting along well, and Nick being the only boy has a interesting week ahead of him! We hailed a taxi and got the heck out of dodge! Bang Bon [the town where our school is located] is a very small town, with not much to do other than go to the Internet café, shopping, or watch movies! Needless to say, we are very excited about our trip. Not much is planned, more of a 'Do as you go' type traveling. This is actually my favorite form. I am not known as the planner of the family and having a detailed itinerary is not my thing. Where’s the fun in that? No surprises! No adventure! The only thing planned is where we are staying and how we are getting there!

Which brings me to the beginning of our trip. After a long, but entertaining taxi ride to the train station we exchanged our number with the driver. Then planned to have dinner at what he described as, his “small home made of wood”, in exchange for some English lessons. He had a laugh that could make anyone smile, and a desire to learn English like no other. It's people like this taxi driver, and moments like this that make being here worth it. The people who truly want to learn and better them selves,are very inspiring, and instill a sense of pride in myself and my country![USA] Little did I know that this sense of pride would inspire a new way for my travel buddies and I to converse! What I mean by this is for the duration of the trip we would randomly start talking in a very southern redneck accent. Saying things like “Ya’ll and What in tarnasion?” Coming up with silly sayings like, “Well your about as ugly as the East end of a horse going West!” I highly recommend it to anyone who is in need of a good laugh. Especially when you have Cassandra, Mexico native, trying her best to master our southern slang.

I digress. We arrive at the train station around 5pm. Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, I was actually pleasantly surprised! The station was beautiful (by my standards). Filled with many people waiting to travel all over Thailand. We did the usual things to keep us busy, read books, listened to random people playing guitar, played cards, observed some Monks.

    

                             *Cassandra*

Our Lovely Travel Buddies, reading their naughty novels! 


*Michelle*

Something I really love about Thailand and being a part of a Kingdom is that every day at 6pm no matter where you are, if you are by a speaker or radio, you will hear the National Anthem being played. At this point, everyone is to stop what you are doing, stand with your hands by your side and pay respects to your country! Nothing bad will happen to you if you don't, it's just common courtesy and respect. It's like the end of a musical number, where everyone magically knows the choreography and bursts out into song and dance. Then when the song is over, everyone nonchalantly goes back to what they were doing! It is a very proud moment for me, as we have been trained to stop and stand still when we hear it begin playing. But most travelers coming to Thailand don’t.

So the minute I hear it playing, I stand at attention. Maybe a bit over exaggerated at times to show off that I may be a “forang” but I do respect and follow Thai customs! I wish this was something we did in America, but being the cluster fuck of personalities that we are I am sure people would find it to be more of a communist, socialist act as oppose to instilling pride in our nation.

Onto the train we go, and for 750 Baht, [About 25$] we buy ourselves a 2nd class ticket from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. This gets us a private sleeper car, with fresh linen, a pillow, a bed and a curtain for privacy! I hadn’t been on a train since I moved from New York to Florida and was almost as excited for the ride as the entire trip! 15 Hours on a train can sound long, and boring. But it was actually a lot of fun! We put down our backpacks, placed our order for breakfast the next morning and made our way to the Dining Car.

Here the 4 of us chatted about life, what we were doing, and how much we loved the decision we made! Somehow we wandered on to the topic of astrology, which led to looking up each other’s signs, and talking about our personality characteristics.Which then led to which element we were. Who is Fire? Air? Water? Each of us is actually 1 of the 4 elements; I suppose this is why we get along so well. We balance each other out perfectly! A few beers and a couple of hours later we decided it was time to turn in for the evening. We retired to our bunks, and went to sleep to the gentle rocking of the train! And when we awake, we shall be at our destination.

Next Stop--→ Chiang Mai!


Cheers!








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If the United States of America played the national anthem at a certain time everyday, would you observe it, or ignore?


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