Depending on the grade level, there was an ethics camp that the students had to attend. It was all done in Thai, and was taught by monks. They were there all dressed in their saffron robes, and happy as can be. They loved to joke with the students, however I could not understand any of the jokes. You would just hear a gym full of students laugh and the monks would be giggling too. I've heard from a lot of people that these are chatty students and classroom management was a challenge, but I have seen that these students are capable of very good behaviour, they were so quiet while the monks were there. The Thai staff came over and talked to me and asked a lot of questions while the monks were teaching the students. They were incredibly friendly but probably thought I was nuts to be sitting in on the ethics camp when I didn't understand anything more than the numbers! But they were very kind, and now I know a few of them by name, and they greet me in the halls with warm smiles.
Friday night, Lindsay and I went to Mall Bang Kapi again. We went and had pizza (which wasn't as good as we had been told it was...) and then wandered around looking for things. I was hoping to find some shoes, a pair of cute and comfy black flats, but it seems impossible to find a size 8 in cute and comfy black flats. And it's not that they don't have size 8 here, just that everywhere that has a nice black shoe is sold out of sizes 7-9. If I had smaller feet, I could be very successful! I love shoes, and there is such a variety! A lot of the prettiest ones are the impractical ones though! So I've reigned myself in! So, I'm still on the hunt for some nice practical, comfy shoes!
Saturday was interesting. Friday night almost all of the Brandon students left for Ko Samet. I have nothing against Ko Samet and would have loved to go, but we've just been travelling so much that I didn't have the energy to leave the city again this weekend. I was content to hang out in Bangkok and see the sights here. So Lindsay and I decided to get up and take the sky train to the downtown area, and then check out some temples and the Grand Palace. I had never taken the sky train (a.k.a. BTS) and had asked Francine where we would go to get there. The closest terminal is right next to the largest market in the world, Chatuchuk. That station is called Mo Chit. So I told the cab driver to take us to Mo Chit and he asked where we were going so we told him the Grand Palace. Somehow he thought I had told him Pattaya and so he took us to the bus station and not the sky train! I explained to him Mo Chit BTS and he laughed and told us it would be another 10 minutes. So after about an hour in a taxi, we arrived at the BTS terminal. We start flipping through the books to figure out where to go from there and what station we want to go to, and we cannot figure it out. My guide books don't have the same names that are on the BTS lines, but thankfully we met a wonderful lady he saw us struggling and helped us out! We had to take the train the the Siam terminal and then switch, and take the other line from Siam to Saphan Taksin.
We got on the sky train and got off to switch at Siam, but we were hungry and decided to hang out there for a bit to see if we could find some food. I decided to try something new, and ate some super spicy chicken with rice noodles, and then vegetables on top. The food was soo spicy that I drank my entire bottle of water so fast! My mouth was still burning so I went on a hunt for something to drink. Nobody seemed to have water or juice, but there were some interesting drinks that it took some self convincing to try. All of these drinks had things floating in them. I asked what the lady would recommend (using my lovely Thai phrasebook! I highly recommend them!) and she pointed to one that looked almost like milk, but it had little slimy blue and green things that looked like noodles. It's hard to describe, and even harder to believe its a drink! She poured a little bit of sweetener (I think it was Chrysanthemum syrup) and then added the white noodley concoction and then topped it off with some ice. With great apprehension, I took a sip. To my great surprise, it was delicious! The drink was sweet and refreshing! You have to get past the texture of the noodles which remind me a lot of the bubbles in bubble tea.
After I finished eating, we headed toward Siam center, and Lindsay was swarmed by a group of Thai students that asked if they could interview Lindsay. The students asked her a few questions and then we went inside. Only moments later, they were back! She had her own little fan club happening! After they finished asking a few questions, I suggested we should get going right away to avoid being swarmed again! So we went through Siam Center (a higher end shopping center) and when we tired of that, decided to see the famous MBK mall. Lost in Siam Center and not having a clue which way to go, I asked the closest gentleman to us which way to MBK. He pointed us in the direction, but then told us that he was on his way there himself so he would just show us. As we walked, we talked and found out that he was on vacation for a week in Bangkok, it was his 6th trip to the city, and he was actually from Seoul, South Korea. He was friendly and funny, and even after we had gotten to MBK, he walked around and talked with us. We received a phone call that Kelsey and a couple other from campus one and two were coming downtown and were going to meet us at Siam Paragon, and we were sad to say farewell to our new Korean friend.
We made our way back to Siam Center and then to Siam Paragon where we met up with some friends and went for lunch in the food court downstairs. The food court is huge and has every kind of food you can think of, from McDonald's to sushi, steaks, and subs, coffee shops and smoothie shops, and desserts galore. Having recently had breakfast, I wasn't interested in a large meal so a fruit smoothie and a few fries were my lunch before carrying on to find the palace. We went on the sky train again and went further downtown to see the Palace and the temples. We got off the BTS at Saphan Taksin and went outside in search of a tuk tuk or taxi to take us the rest of the way. We ended up taking a tuk tuk with a crazy driver, but it was a lot of fun! As we drove past, we got a lot of laughs and looks. They were all probably thinking that we were a group of crazy farangs (foreigners) and laughed at us squished into the tuk tuk and giggling away. We arrived at the Grand Palace after 4:00pm and it closes at 3:30pm So I got a picture from a distance but we didn't get to go inside. From there, a guy charmed us into another tuk tuk and sent us to see the Big Buddha. Our driver took us to see the Big Buddha, and then he took us to a bunch of tailor and jewelry shops. At one, I decided that I get a dress for my friend's wedding, and a nice skirt and jacket suit. I can't wait to see what it's like, I hope it's as amazing as I'm picturing it to be!
After all of that journeying, we were 3 hungry bears! We returned by taxi from the Grand Palace where our tuk tuk driver returned us to, and then we hit up the sky train back to Siam. In Siam, we had supper at cute Italian restaurant but were sorely disappointed when our spinach lasagnas were not what we were expecting. It was small and lacking flavour, and since we were still hungry we found other things to enjoy, like subway and ice cream! Then we took our final trip on the sky train for the night, and headed back to Mo Chit where we took a taxi back to our apartments. We were excited to have Kelsey come for a sleepover!!!
Sunday morning, we woke up fairly early and were off to see Chatuchak market. This is the biggest market in the world, and I'm not kidding you when I say it goes on forever. I believe you could spend the entire weekend there and not make it to all the stalls. There was food, makeup, clothing, accessories, dishes, furniture, everything you could possibly ever go shopping for! It is someplace fun to be, but exhausting too. It was really hot, and since it is outdoor, there is no air conditioning and very few fans. Arrive too early and you will miss many stores that haven't yet opened, but arrive too late and the place is crawling with people, and it's hot and sticky. I would aim to be there before 11am and out of there by 1pm if I could. It doesn't allow a lot of time to go through things, but you'll be tired by the time you finish. I purchased some nice decorative fans for my siblings, and a t-shirt for my dad. I also picked up some nice postcards, some of which I hope to send away very soon!
We walked from Chatuchak to the BTS at Mo Chit, which is incredibly close, and too the sky train down town again. We had another lunch at Siam Paragon and then hung around the malls for a little bit and met Julie from the other campuses. We hopped on the BTS and went downtown once again, but this time taking to further so that we'd be closer to where we wanted to go. We took a taxi to see Wat Po, since we were again too late for the Grand Palace, and had an amazing tour guide. He spoke English very well, and he liked to joke with us a lot. He took us to see the Reclining Buddha, the standing Buddha, and what he told us was the most important Buddha in all of Thailand. He told us stories about the Buddhas and about Buddhism, as well as stories about himself and his daughter. When he found out that we were all English teachers, he told us how he wished we could teach his daughter to speak more English, but he was so proud of his daughter and told us a lot about her. Then, as he had promised when we decided to take his tour, he took us across the street to find the best Thai massage for cheap. We spent 250 baht for a traditional Thai massage that lasted a full hour. It was painful, and hard not to make noises with the pain, but it was worth it for how relaxed my muscles feel right now, and she cracked my back into place, so I feel pretty amazing right now!
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