Same same, but different

So, it's been a while, but due to a combination of laziness and being incredibly busy, I just haven't made the time to stop and keep up with my life. This shall be a long post, I have to somehow cram two busy weeks into one entry! 

Last week, I just wanted to do something fun, nothing was really planned, so I did some searching and found a little blog with things to do in the Bangkok area, and came up with Lop Buri, or as it's better known, Monkey City. Originally, I planned to go with two friends, but due to miscommunications and last minute decisions, they couldn't go on the trip. Mai pen rai, no problem. I caught a bus that took about an hour and a half to the city, and once I arrived, I was a little surprised. Where are the monkeys? When I read the article on the city, it was crawling with them, and now that I was standing in the central part of town, I didn't see any. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. After being so let down about the monkeys, I walked over to this old temple ruins and took some pictures inside. It was incredible. There were tons of Buddha statues, worn with age, with broken arms and legs. It was really beautiful! The colors of the stone were so interesting, some were reddish brown, others a decaying grey and black. After getting my fill of the historical side of Lop Buri, I walked across town in search of something else, seeing as I had no idea where I was going and I knew little about the town, it really didn't matter. As I turn the corner after a short walk, I see what I came for. This was definitely monkey city. They were climbing on telephone wires, jumping on the sidewalks, atop cars, on tables, scaling buildings, EVERYWHERE! I had never seen this many monkeys in my life. There was another ruin at the top of the hill that was crawling with the crazy little creatures. They were so cute, well most of them. I loved seeing them from afar, but when they got super close, that was enough for me. I was focused on a little baby monkey with a plastic bag. He sat on the corner of the temple and took the bag over his head, then freaked out, and took it off. As this little one distracted me, apparently a giant one caught a glimpse of the bright pink luggage tag on my backpack. The next thing I know this insane monkey is literally jumping on my back and grabbing at my backpack. Naturally, I freak out and he jumps on my head and pulls my hair and my ear. After running away to try to shake the monkey's death grip off my head, I see the police officer out of the corner of my eye. And what is he doing while I'm being attacked? He is hysterically laughing and pointing. Once you hear a bunch of Thai and then the word Farang (foreigner), you know you're sort of being made fun of. I imagine it was a pretty entertaining sight, I probably would have laughed too. Trying to keep my composure, I decided to give the monkeys another chance. I walked to the other side of the temple and remembered that I brought some crackers. Surely, with food in hand they'd be more apt to patiently wait on the ground. Somehow I forgot I wasn't in the zoo or a feeding place, these were wild animals. Opening the plastic on those crackers was like a homing beacon to the monkey population. It was so unreal, like a scene from a movie. They all freeze and slowly look up at me. Then in a matter of seconds, I have like 30 monkeys running my way. I threw the crackers as far from me as I could and ran back to the gate, my visit was over. I was done with the monkeys. I was going to stay the night, but seeing as the town was kind of creepy, no one spoke english, and I was frazzled from my run-in with the primates, I was over Lop Buri for the day. I'd love to go back, however, perhaps for more of the monkey experience, but mostly for the sunflower fields. I couldn't find someone that was willing to take me, they all said "tomorrow, tomorrow" and the one person that I found that did speak enough english to explain said that they won't take you in the evening because you won't find a ride back. Fair enough, I'll be back for that tour!

Sunday, I decided to go to Sriracha. It's a small town beneath Bangkok, around 2 or 3 hours away. In Sriracha, I went to the Tiger Zoo. I read that this was one of the best zoos in Thailand, that they treated the animals really well and they believed in harmonious living between the animal species. It was so cute to see adult tigers caring for baby pigs in little tiger t-shirts as if they were their own cubs. I definitely wasn't disappointed in the zoo, I thought it was really clean and the animals seemed to be well cared for. The zoo was also insanely organized. My OCD for time has caused some turmoil for me since I've arrived in Thailand. Thai's aren't really concerned with schedules or time. They are on their own schedule. You can expect trains, buses, teachers, and just about everything else to be late when you're here. The zoo was a very welcome change. Everything happened EXACTLY when they said it would. How nice! They had three animal shows: tigers, elephants, and crocodile. The shows were really cool. They were in huge arenas and the people were really interactive with the crowd. Unfortunately, I don't speak Thai, but I still understood what was going down. In the crocodile show, the performers stuck their arms and heads into the crocodile's mouths. I have seen this before, so it probably wouldn't have been as shocking if I didn't just see the crocodile almost destroy the man just minutes before. The show was centered on this little island made of tile and had kind of like a moat around it. The performers went in barefoot and splashed water on the tiles to try to get the crocodiles out. The crocodiles were swimming in circles in the moat. The performers would pull out the crocs by their tails and put them on the little island. I didn't really blame the animals for snapping at them, I mean they were being pulled from the nice, cool water into the sun and heat. The man pulled the biggest one out, and the crocodile twisted around and snapped at his stomach, he was literally inches away from what I would think would be a pretty serious injury when the guy matrixed himself out of the way and fell on his back just feet from his attacker. Like a ninja, he sprang to his feet and flipped over the crocodile to jump on his back. The guy has a death wish, I'm sure. It was a neat to see them so close, I used to watch Steve Irwin (RIP) on Animal Planet with my grandparents and I was always amazed at the skill required to handle such an animal. If you go by looks alone, crocodiles don't seem like they'd be very fast, but when they've got some motivation, they're insane! I can't believe their little legs can even move that quickly. For the tiger show, they had about 10 tigers in a circle. They were doing various tricks and show moves. Jumping through flaming hoops, walking on tiny poles, jumping over each other, etc. The most degrading, I think, was that they made them roll over. I just thought it was too much to see them roll over like a domesticated house dog. The elephant show was really cute! They had tons of little babies and they had them playing basketball, walking tightropes, massaging volunteers (yes! they gave people massages) and popping balloons with darts! I loved elephants before I came to Thailand, but the more time I spend here, the more they are rounding close to my favorite animal. They're so incredibly intelligent and gorgeous! 

Around the zoo, you could stop at several places to take pictures and hold animals. I held a baby tiger and bottle fed it. I think the bottle was more for myself than it was for the tiger, they were pretty squirmy, and their claws were insanely sharp looking. Luckily they lay a blanket down over your legs, so they can't scratch you. I also got a picture with a giant tiger. It was a little intimidating to look at a real tiger no more than a few inches away from you. The staff urged me to get closer to its head, and dumbfounded, I complied, but very wearily. The tiger's head was the so huge, as I got closer it turned to me and snarled, showing its teeth that were like the size of my fingers. I probably turned white, because the man who was taking the picture said mai pen rai, and flicked a little stick with a feather on the end at the tiger. He turned back, annoyed and took the photo. It was such a surreal moment. I am for sure in Thailand. You can't just go up to animals like that in the states. Crazy! The rest of the zoo was reserved for animals in little enclosures like capybaras, deer, rabbits, etc. There was also a scorpion queen who wore a shirt of scorpions. There are such weird attractions here, it really makes me laugh sometimes. 

Sometime in between the tiger zoo and this week, I went to see a 4D movie. I had seen a few at amusement parks back in the states, but never a full length feature. Underworld was probably not the best decision for my first long 4D film. For those of you that haven't seen the Underworld movies (go see them now) the movie is loaded with action, blood, fighting and death. So basically, my chair wasn't still and my face wasn't dry for the entire movie. It was still a really cool experience. Every time something was killed and blood would splatter, these little jets would spray you with water and for all the fighting, your chair would move with the action and little mallets would hit the back and sides of your seat! So cool, but so exhausting! 

This weekend was lovely! Thammsat University hosted a weekend homestay at the Plai Pong Pang Village in Samut Songkram Province.  We had a full two-day itinerary, so I was really excited. First, we arrived at a pier that would take us to the floating market. Someone told me on the trip that Bangkok and surrounding areas are often called "The Venice of the East" and I would believe it. After this weekend, I have a whole new appreciation for people that live on the water. I cannot imagine not being able to step off my porch without my swimsuit or a boat. The people use their boats to go everywhere. The floating market was incredible! There are stores on either side and if you see something you like, you just pull over to the place and make your offer! The items were insanely overpriced, but it is a touristy spot and they know that they will have to bargain with you. I wonder if anyone actually pays the listed price? After the floating market, we went to a small area where they showed us how to make palm sugar. In my Thai Cuisine class, we ironically just learned about the process of making palm sugar, so it was cool to see it in real life after learning about it in class. To make the sugar, they climb up the tree, cut the ends of the flowers, and let the syrup drip into a little canister. They have to do this twice a day, and if they miss a day, the tree won't produce anymore. Our teacher told us that the people who supply her palm sugar never leave their farms for this reason. Can you imagine? The sugar tasted like normal sugar, only it was more buttery and thick tasting. It was really good, but super rich. One taste was enough! Then we headed to the homestay where we would be staying for the night. The homestay was an incredible traditional Thai home where 9 of us stayed on thin mats on the floor. They were so nice, and though they didn't speak English they spoke to us in Thai and we shared awkward smiles of misunderstanding. 

The house was so beautiful. P'maa, the international office coordinator and our chaperone for the trip, told us that you could tell when a house was a traditional Thai house when the space was completely open to accommodate large families and the wooden floors were made from the oldest trees. It was really cool to see how families lived in traditional ways. They provided us with mosquito nets, but since Myriam and I got one with holes in it, it kind of defeated the purpose. Luckily I was drowned in bug spray anyways, so no bites for me.

That night we went on a firefly boat tour. It was so pretty! Being from West Virginia, of course I've seen fireflies, but they are a little different here. At home, they seem to float just above the ground in lonely strides, you can see a few at a time, but they're never in large groups. Here, it's almost unbelievable, they're in large clusters high in the trees. It's almost as if there are christmas lights in the trees, not small twinkling bugs. The tour was a nice change of pace to traveling around, it was very relaxing. And get this, I actually felt a tinge of being cold, just for a few seconds, but it was nice. 

The next day, we had to wake up extremely early (ugh!) to feed the monks. In Thailand, the people of the village offer food to the monks. Monks can only eat before noon, so they only eat either once or twice a day. It was a really neat experience to see the monk paddle up to the dock and they had prepared rice, soup, fruits and vegetables, and a soup to offer to them. After the monk collected our food, he prayed for us and then paddled to the next house. After we fed the monks, our hosts fed us. Since I've arrived in Thailand, I haven't really eaten "a normal breakfast." They just don't really eat breakfast foods like the ones I'm used to at home. Since I'm not a huge breakfast fan anyways, it doesn't bother me, but breakfast here is definitely not my favorite. We had rice porridge and I will say, that will be my last rice porridge. It's just overcooked spicy rice in broth. Not a great way to start the morning for my stomach. Strange.

For the remainder of the day, we visited temples and saw a small animal zoo! It was really sad to see some of the animals, they were in very small cages and they looked a little sad. But, I got to feed them a bundle of bananas. I fed a bear 3 bananas, and it licked my hands. It still amazes me that wild animals can be that close to you here. At zoos in the US, you can't really get that close to animals that are potentially dangerous, but here you can just stick your hands into their cages to feed them and pet them. Crazy! I saw goats, peacocks, a bear, pigs, monkeys, porcupines, a mongoose, and other little small farm animals. A girl in the program, Aasa, was wearing a pair of sunglasses and was taking a picture of a small black monkey. As she was distracted by his cuteness, he snatched her sunglasses off her head and took them into his cage. Everyone tried to get them back, but they were gone for good. He broke the arms off the glasses and stuck the lenses into his mouth. He was a little crazy. Monkeys are definitely not to be trusted. Lesson learned. 

After we returned from the temple tours, we had a snack of mango and sticky rice with coconut milk. It was delicious! Then we had a cooking demonstration where they showed us how they would make our dinner. Green Curry, Stir-fry, and pumpkin dessert was on the menu. The food was delicious, but it was so hot, as everything is here in Thailand, so no surprise. And another thing about the food, pumpkins here are totally not the pumpkins I'm used to at home. Not the halloween pumpkins, but instead, a sweet yellowish pumpkin that is more pineapple looking than pumpkin. It was all very interesting though!

After we got back from the weekend trip, I decided to get a Thai massage. I've been here for almost two months, so it was LONG overdue. Everyone said they were awesome but painful, so I was kind of nervous, but after sleeping on the floor for the past weekend and then sleeping on my equally uncomfortable bed for the past month, my spine was crying out to me, so I braved through it. Painful pleasure is the description that would accurately describe the massage. I've never had a professional massage, just impromptu ones from boyfriends etc, but this wasn't something I would even have gotten at home. There is no relaxation during this massage. I now can say I know how a contortionist feels. My body was into positions I never knew were possible. Ones leg should simply not be bent in that direction. The masseuse climbed on top of me, driving her heels into the back of my legs and back, she had me lace my fingers and pulled my arms so she could crack my back with her foot. It was crazy! But, at the end, I felt like a new person. I had a few new pains from the massage, but the old ones were gone, and my body no longer ached of my travels. Interesting to say the least, but something I'll reserve when I truly feel sore. Perhaps an oil or herbal massage next time. If you're in Thailand though, you've gotta try it!

Well, that's two weekends shoved into one blog! Too much! Next entry will be a photo entry, long overdue, but I am getting to it!