The One and Only Phi Phi Island -- P.2

If Part 1 was about our arrival and a wild monkey chase, then Part 2's got EVEN MORE monkey madness.

Tyler 1 and I split off in the morning of Day 2 from Amanda.  She's got her international scuba divers license and went off to do that.  She's cooler than us (damn Europeans).  We decided to rent a kayak and navigate some of the beaches and other spots around the main island.

Our morning was full of fun-filled entertainment, to say the least.  This is a video of us on the kayak as we approach what's known as "Monkey Bay" -- yes, more monkeys!

We did a little snorkeling off the beach.  There was a very large group of Chinese tourists there so a lot of sand was kicked up and the visibility wasn't great.  We found ways to entertain ourselves on the island.  Within just a few minutes, we had a wild father monkey show up scouring through our snorkeling bag.  He apologized to us, then decided to stick around for a little social conversation.  Check it out.

The island had a few random tin huts.  No one was living in them -- and they definitely weren't for tourists.  We explored them a little.  Then Tyler 1 decided it was time he make one of them his new permanent residence.  Here's his "send off" video to his parents...tear.

Finally it was time for some "man-venture."  A little snorkeling.  Some cute videos.  No sir.  Can't leave it at just that.  Off in the distance we saw a small passage of water cutting through one of the large cliffs.  We decided to pass through it in our kayak while the water crashed the rocks and the waves undulated like maddened giants.

Our kayaking adventure would eventually come to an end, sadly.  The three of us all re-grouped and moved onto our next excursion: island hopping with a group of about 8 other people.  Yeaahh!

We stopped at about 6 different spots.  Our first stop was "Monkey Beach," not to be confused with "Monkey Bay."  And yes, there were plenty more wild monkeys, though these ones were a little more timid.

Actually no -- scratch that -- the monkeys were just as frickin' nuts!

They were jumping on the boats, falling from the trees and doing strange Asian monkey belly dances (okay, maybe not that).  One of them even bit Tyler 1!!  Fortunately he was wearing a shirt so the skin wasn't punctured.  He'd otherwise have to be taken to the hospital for rabies (which we were convinced he had BEFORE he was bit, anyways).

Here's a clip of one of the little buggers.  Kinda cute, actually.

Next up was a few different coves with absolutely beautiful, clear, blue water teaming with all sorts of colorful fish and marine life.  Here are some great shots.

A nice 360-degree view.

But the grand finale was Maya Bay.  You've probably heard of the Leo DiCaprio movie, "The Beach."  It was directed by the same director that won an Academy Award for Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle.

Maya Bay is where The Beach was shot.  We were given an hour to check it out, snorkel, take pictures, etc. Every minute was breathtaking.  All this on a day when the sun wasn't fully out...

Me and Amanda playing in the sand. 

Some people from our excursion group.  We had people from Germany, England, Holland and even Vietnam!

The trek back to the boat.

We left the island in the early afternoon the following day.  

Here are some shots from our departure back to Phuket, to eventually go home.  

Needless to say, we were each a little depressed to be leaving.  The trip was too short, but we definitely made the most of it.  Phi Phi Island can be sure it hasn't seen the last of us -- for sure!

Thanks for reading.  Keep a looksy for my next post.  Who knows what adventures are a'brewin' as I write this!

The One and Only Phi Phi Island -- P.1

Phi Phi Island's resorts (pronounced "Pee Pee") were just voted by Frommers as one of the top 10 beach fronts of the world.

...and there are so many reasons why I wholeheartedly agree.  Phi Phi Island is truly a special place.

"The Mighty Three," as I now refer to Amanda, Tyler 1 and myself, made a trip down to the beautiful islands over a 4-day Buddhist holiday a few weeks ago.  From Bangkok, Phi Phi is about a 12-hour bus ride.  The bus will take you to Phuket and from there you take a 2-hour ferry ride to the main island of Phi Phi.

Sadly, the morning we arrived, it was overcast and raining, but the islands and their inherit beauty did not disappoint.  As you get close to the main island of Phi Phi, you begin to see the surrounding smaller islands as they majestically rise from the ocean.

We arrived on the island with the whole day ahead of us.  We intended to pack as much into our days there as possible.  After leaving our bags at the hotel, we headed straight to the beach.

Within seconds of stepping on the beach, we found our feet surrounded by these small, rectangular shaped jelly fish.  They were EVERYWHERE.

We had no idea what they were at first.  It took some gusto to finally pick them up.  And when we did, we could feel them pulsating in our hands.  They were completely clear, so you could see their brains and whatever other internal organs they had inside.  Pretty trippy.

The highlight, however, of the day was our little snorkeling excursion to what appeared to be an abandoned beach.  Just before the beach, however, we hit a large patch of sea urchins, where I was summarily pricked in the foot.  I panicked slightly (being that they're poisonous), but overall it wasn't too bad so we soldiered on.

We saw a large group of wild monkeys hanging around the beach; looking for food, carrying their young, etc.  Not thinking much of "primate territorialism," we walked on the beach closer and closer to them.  It wasn't before long when the three of us actually found ourselves surrounded by 5 wild monkeys.  And these guys weren't coming to say hello.

Before we knew it, they began chasing us.  Amanda and I split without thinking twice, while Tyler swung his snorkel gear at one that almost jumped him.  We all gunned it back to the ocean and they stopped.  Phew!  That definitely got our adrenaline going.  Let me tell you, if you're looking for a rush, go get chased by wild monkeys off an abandoned beach :)

Now, If you've ever been to Thailand, and specifically the islands located a ways from the mainland, you'll know that no one gives much credence to the weather reports.  The natives' method is simply to look up in the sky and see what's around.  If you see clouds coming, that means rain.  Pretty simple.

So within just a few minutes of returning to our hotel a large storm came.  This is a little clip from our balcony that afternoon.  Commentary courtesy Tyler Capp (Tyler 1).

We found some good photo opportunities during the trip.  Here are some shots we thought were funny and had to capture.

Want a tuna burgur?  How about a ham burgur?

Many Thai people have the habit of dropping the sound of the last letter of English words, as in the Thai language where many endings of words are not aspirated.  The humor in this is that "James Bond" becomes "Jame Bond."  We just had to get this shot.

That's all for Part 1.  The other days were just as adventurous.  I'll be putting up Part 2 in the next few days so keep a lookout!  I'll leave you with some nice photos of the main island we took before leaving.

The Fall of the Thai Language Barrier

Even Ronald McDonald speaks Thai here... I'm DOOMED!

Many Thai people outside of downtown Bangkok do not speak good English.  It is even more pronounced in Mahachai, the town where the school I teach is located.  Though English studies are mandatory in every school in Thailand, it does not universally produce oral fluency.  I find that many Thai people can read and understand several words and sentences in English, but carrying out conversation is very challenging.

Though its hardly worth mentioning, I was quick to discover these facts.  And because I like to communicate with people and be friendly, I found myself up against a very formidable barrier when trying to accomplish much of anything in my day-to-day life: from teaching to shopping to asking for directions -- even just being friendly.  Smiles and hand motions only go so far :)

Since the first day I arrived here, I've made it a point to learn new words and phrases on a daily basis.  Just about 6 or 7 weeks ago, I decided to take on learning their alphabet.  It looks like this:

In case you haven't noticed, it looks absolutely nothing like English or any Latin-based language.  The Thai language derived from Old Khmer Script.  According to tradition, the Thai script was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng The Great.  The above are just the consonants.  Whereas English has its 5 vowels as part of the alphabet, Thais consider the consonants their alphabet.  There are a total of 44 consonants.  Outside of this are the 32 vowels.  They look like this (4 are hardly used anymore and are omitted below):

Vowels are placed to the left, above, to the right and below consonants, depending on which vowel it is.  To a foreigner, like myself, this is highly confusing.  We are so used to reading left to right.  And while Thai is read from left to right, you kind of have to recognize what's above, underneath and to the side while reading.  It definitely makes the learning process very interesting!

I decided to take on my studies on a gradient.  I taught myself how to write the Thai numbers, 0 through 10, though the customary Arabic numerals are what's commonly now used here.  After that I took on the 44 character alphabet.

Each character has a sound, then an associative word that uses that sound.  This helps differentiate characters within the alphabet, because despite there being 44 characters, there's actually only 20 unique sounds.  There are 4 different characters that make the sound "K", for example.  The first character is read "Gau Gei", however it is a soft "G" sound, which almost sounds like a "K".  The "Gei" means chicken.  So this character is associated with the word for chicken.

Then there is the issue of tones, voice pitches when reading the character.  There are 3 classes: high, mid and low.  These classes affect the way you say the character when read independently and read within a word.  This is the brick wall I'm currently running up against now.  I can now write, read and say each of the 44 characters, but sometimes my tone is not correct.

Okay, enough with all the didactic gibber jabber.  I'll spare you... for now.  This is a video of me writing and reading each of the characters in the Thai alphabet.  Enjoy.

For the record, I entirely taught myself this alphabet.  I downloaded videos from YouTube, watched them constantly and practiced writing each character until my hand went into a full-on, catatonic, carpel tunnel stasis.  But it was fun and I was always kept at high interest.  I enjoyed approaching Thai friends, showing them my new-found skill.  Their astonishment that I was learning, and getting it right, was real motivation to keep going.

An easy way I remembered each of characters in their proper sequence was through a YouTube video I found.  It's a narrative about a cute little rooster that is trying to find out why Mr. Sun did not rise when he was supposed to.  The story takes you through every associative word of the complete alphabet.  So when I think of the order of the characters, I go through the story in my head.  Because its all in Thai, I wrote a little script for it, according to what I thought was going on.  Check out the video.

Even if you can't understand what's being said, it's still very well done and very cute.

I am now learning each of the vowels.  I can read and write about 8 of them now.  For the last few weeks, I've been studying 3 hours a week with one of the Thai teachers from my school.  I am putting together words and sentences, which is really cool.  I am constantly trying to read the signs when I drive around, which is probably not the safest idea.

This past week I wanted to learn a few new goofy phrases.  It's always fun meeting new Thai people and saying something totally random to them.  I always love their reaction.  Here's a video of "Important Thai Phrases."  Enjoy.

That's all for now.  I hope to be well-versed in writing and reading in the next 3 to 4 months.  So hopefully you'll see a blog some time from now where I'm carrying on whole conversations and reading long, complex, bombastic dissertations, all in Thai :)

I'll leave you with some random pictures from around Thailand over the last several weeks.

Thanks for reading!

March of the Penguin Suit

That's me.  Donned in dapper.  Dressed to kill.  Turning heads and saving lives.  Well...maybe not the saving lives part.

But you guessed it!  I'm in a tuxedo, or as some Thai people call it: a "body suit."

Every year in the month of June there is a big parade/procession in the town the school is located, Mahachai.  All of the schools, programs and even some companies in the province of Samut Sakhon march through the streets to promote themselves and celebrate.  The streets are endlessly lined with locals: from 6-month-old babies to 85 year old grandma's.  Everyone and their mother -- and grandmother -- is there.

I was informed about a week before that this was happening and that I would be fitted for a tuxedo.  First I was told that I would be modelling.  I got the idea it was some kind of catwalk or something indoors.  NO.  Then I found out it was going to be outside in the late afternoon.  That was some kind of misunderstanding on my part because just the day before I discovered that, not only would it be outside, it would be at 2pm in the afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year!  And I'd be walking 10 kilometers (approx 6.2 miles) to boot!!

The cherry on top was when I was told, "Oh, and the teacher who did it last year passed out from heat exhaustion -- AND HE WAS FROM KENYA."  What??!!!  If a Kenyan can pass out from this heat, I'm SCREWED!

Nevertheless, being the trouper that I am, I carried through.

That morning we had to drill the formation and who was doing what exactly.  This is me thinking of what's to come...

The school wanted me at the very front of the formation.  They had one of their Thai teachers dressed in traditional attire, me in my "traditional" attire (if you consider a tux Anglo-American traditional) and a Chinese teacher.  Behind us were the signs and most of the faculty.  Tyler 1 joined in the ranks and took most of the pictures throughout the day.  Gotta give him props.

We arrived at a large temple lot where everyone was waiting to start.  Let me stress again: IT WAS HOT.  The heavy, non-breathing, black tux only exacerbated the already wonderful warmth I was feeling.

Here's a video that shows you how lively it was in preparation for the parade.  You really get the contrast between me and local culture.

When Tyler 1 and I got there, we were greeted by the management and faculty.  Being that they never see a foreigner in a tux, I was quite the showcase.  Everyone wanted their picture with me.  The students.  The dean and manager.  The Thai teachers.  The Chinese teachers.  It was celebrity status.

There was an old temple right behind us.  After entering, we were warmly greeted by a friendly, young monk. He showed us around a little and we got a picture with him.  It's hard to tell, but he's smiling -- it's a humble smile.

From inside the temple.  They had all this great natural light coming through.

Then "The March" started.  And while it didn't end up being 10 kilometers, it was still a hellavu trek.  Fortunately, there are assistants constantly handing you wet towels, water, electrolytes and all manner of food and candy, so you definitely stay fueled.  It was really an experience.  Here are some shots from along the journey.

Heading out into the street.

There were all kinds of cool sights throughout the day. 

Here was a group of women in traditional attire.  Look closely.  The woman in the foreground clearly likes her watermelon. 

Throughout the 2-3 hours of walking, Thai people were constantly saying hello, waving, greeting me with smiles.  They were all extremely amicable.  I was constantly bombarded with heavily-accented "Hello!", "I love you!", "Good afternoon teacher!"  And when I acknowledged them, they would get giddy with glee.  It was hysterical. 

Tyler 1 shot a video of me about 2 hours into the walk.  I was definitely feeling it. 

It did finally end.  Needless to say, I was drenched in my own sweat and my feet were on fire.  Boy did it feel good to get out of that tux.  

The school was grateful and said I could take a 3-week paid vacation for my dedicated service -- NOT.  I wish.  It definitely was great promotion for the school though.  They were very pleased to have us and were happy that I didn't pass out.  I felt pretty good.  I lasted longer than a native Kenyan.  I must have good blood :)

Here are some other shots from throughout the day.  

Hope you enjoyed.  Until next time!

3 Months in Thailand -- and Counting!

Well folks, as of today, I have officially been in Thailand for 3 months.  That's 12 weeks.  90 days.  2,160 hours.  And here I am -- still kickin' -- to tell the stories.

As promised in my last blog post, I've got some more videos and pics from the school where I work, Samchaiwitaedsuksa.

Here's a video of just one of my Grade 1 classes (all age 6) holding up their new English books.  Per our program, every student gets their own book to study with.  They love the classes and are learning very quickly.  Because we have two Teacher Tylers at the school, I am called "Teacher Tyler Song" which means Teacher Tyler #2.

This is one of my Grade 2 classes holding up their new books.

This is another one of my Grade 2 classes walking into my classroom.  You can hear me doing the Star Wars theme song.

This is one of my Grade 3 classes.  I was taking a random video before class and some of them caught on.  They loooove the camera :)

These are some of the high-schoolers.  Tyler 1 teaches them but I'll pop in sometimes during break and say hi. This particular class are all very good students.

I'll usually play a few games with every class.  With the Grade 1 kids, I have this game where they have to respond to a command.  It's boys against girls.  A boy and a girl come up, then I say a command and the first one to respond correctly gets a point.  The first gender to 10 wins!  They absolutely love it every time.  Here's a video of the final match.

Two weeks ago they had "Teacher Respect Day".  This is basically where the kids spend 3 hours wai'ing and showing respect to the heads of the school.  All the kids get together in the auditorium and the each class systematically gets on stage and pays their respects.  As you can see, it's just a sea of black haired kids.

Some of the kids on stage.

Because my 3 months was coming up, I needed to renew my visa.  I had to go to Cambodia to do this.  I went with about 15 other people who all needed new visas.  We were at the Cambodia/Thailand border for two nights, most of which was spent hanging out in or around the hotel while the visa run staff took care of the paperwork for us.

I befriended a cool group of Filipinos that came along.  They invited me to eat with them at a Filipino restaurant that also had karaoke.  It was a blast.  This is us.

And of course, I just had to break out the Frank Sinatra.  Oh, I sang to my hearts content and they frickin' loved it.  This is me in the moment whilst singing "My Way".  Franky would be proud.

That's it for now.  It has been a great experience being here.  The people, the culture, the food, the language, the stories.  You don't get this anywhere else, my friends.

Until my next blog post!