Being on Thai TV at a Wedding Extravaganza

Just arrived back from a huge weekend down south.

I caught up with my country manager and some friends in Bangkok, living it up in a very swanky apartment of a boss of a friend, then on to some nearby towns to the north to witness the traditional Thai wedding of a fellow volunteer (in the process, appearing on Thai TV), and to do the tourist thing again amongst ruins, elephants and monkeys in Ayuthaya and Lop Buri with volunteer buddy Liz. Busy!

Danielle was planning her wedding from the very start of our assignments, so it was great to see her big day. It was the first wedding held at this particular Elephant Kraal, the community living at the park went all out and everyone had a part to play in the traditional activities. Colourful and Elaborate, I'm inclined to say, and there was a strong media contingent to capture the day.

The ceremony: monk chanting, water blessings, wrist strings, dowry gifts....
.....a village procession, & lotsa, lotsa elephants (including a day-old one)

Probably the craziest tale to tell would be about the phenomenal number of monkeys at a temple in Lop Buri, and being chased by one beady little rat-like one we named Clefty. The stuff of nightmares. There were some pretty mangy looking gremlins making mischief.

After all that touring around, we relaxed back at the central Bangkok digs - poor volunteers love freebies, and boy I loved that pool.

More from Chiang Mai

Here are some more pics of Chiang Mai that I took when my friend Quynh was in town this week:

Ruins of the first site of the city (was flooded out)

the colours of the flower & fruit market at night

party time at english teaching

Here's a pic of some of the cheeky teenagers I teach english to twice a week.

Lotsa mud and a Motorbike

It's been raining all week! Getting cooler - at night enough to need a bed sheet, even.
I spent a pleasant day today back at the Mae Taeng river (for my last adventure there see "Lots of Planting and Going with the Flow" July post). I was there with some Bangkok teachers, planning a school camp for January.
Check out these muddy pics - quintessentially Thai.

negotiating elephant tracks; local rafters enjoying the view on the slip&slide road

returning to the scene of drama - the Mae Taeng in it's white water splender

Yes well the other news is that I joined the motorbiking community this week - I'm the only person in Chiang Mai (and probably all of Thailand) sporting a retro white aussie postie helmet. It's not a good look but is much safer than the $20 local helmet varieties. A little scary day #1, but now at one week in I've got my confidence & am loving the freedom.

reflections at halfway

Well the first six months of my travels have passed pretty quickly.
Thanks for your encouragements over this time - I really appreciate it. I have posted some halfway prayer points in the green column on the right, towards the bottom.
Jen

Fun time with the folks

My folks are travelling in Thailand for 2.5 weeks, and I've spent the last few days with them, catching tuk tuks and sampling local foods. We saw our fill of waterfalls up Doi Inthanon (largest mountain - my 2nd trip), and headed to my local church and english teaching gigs. It's been fun (a necessary comment, seeing my folks are reading these regularly ;) Here are some pics.

Vietnamese Vacationing

Northern Vietnam is such a fantastic destination for a holiday.
Pity I was sick as a dog for most of it (but better off than the roasted ones in the markets....) A great time of year to travel: sunny weather after the end of the wet season; the rice harvest underway. Sooooo many photo opportunities. Fun withdrawing a million dong dollars a time at the ATMs too.

Hanoi in the north
Flying into Hanoi was lovely – a patchwork of ripening rice fields and villages, with lots of cathedrals. The frenetic motorcycle and bicycle traffic in Hanoi takes a bit of getting used to, but the French architecture, baguette stalls on street corners, the bicycles, colours of the fruit and rose vendors, iconic Vietnamese hats, French-style coffee houses and especially the chocolate éclairs made this a wonderful place to visit. The streets in the old quarter are named after the merchandise sold there – our hotel was on the shoe street. We (my travel friends Kate and Kris and I) scored the penthouse (5 storeys, no lift) with our own courtyard overlooking the roof tops. On the last day when we were in Hanoi a friend of a new Vietnamese friend I made on a bus (he works in community development projects in the northern mountains) took me for a motorcycle tour of the city, capping off a great stay.

old classy buildings; banana vendors everywhere

a tomato vendor; Hanoi streetscape

gigantic grapefruits and baskets of other fruits; rose vendors

a cucumber vendor

Halong Bay to the east

We spent 3 days in the world heritage area of 1996 limestone islets, cruising around on boats, eating big seafood meals and enjoying the scenery (and dodging the litter). We walked and kayaked through caves, slept overnight on the boat, rode bikes through island villages and enjoyed the sunshine. It was so lovely to spend some time on the coast. Luckily for me we headed back to Hanoi when we did because a head cold turned into an acute eye infection -not good but could have been worse.

local fishing boats and chinese-style junks in Halong Bay

taking it easy and enjoying the sunset on Halong Bay

thrils and spills from the top deck; kate the kayaker

nearby Ninh Binh to the south
We then headed south to a nearby town to visit "Halong Bay of the rice paddies" and were not disappointed by the scenery. We signed up for some daytrips of the local area, to see more limestone caves, more boating, some temples and pagodas, and a trip to the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre at Cuc Phuong National Park.

Rowing through the river grottoes at Tam Coc; group photo looking over the rice paddies

a local rower in a sea of boats at Tam Coc; a birds-eye view of the boats and scenery at Tam Coc

one of the extremely endangered locals at the Primate Centre

rural villages & rice harvesting
We picked a fantastic time to be in northern Vietnam. The rice harvest was underway, and the farming methods in the local villages are a lot more traditional than in Thailand. Every farmer has a water buffalo, and we watched the various stages of hand harvesting, machine threshing, drying of rice and hay on roadsides, haystacking and tilling for new crops. The locals were really friendly too - lots of smiles and greetings. Very memorable.

drying rice on the roadside for 3 days; water buffalo in action

the locals watching us watching the tilling - so friendly!

Last account to give, was that I saw my parents at Bangkok airport on the way back yesterday - our flights arrived at the same time. They'll be travelling in Thailand for a few weeks, and I'll see them here in Chiang Mai on the weekend. I had a very amusing account at the final screening desk at the airport holding an opened large jar of vegemite upside down to prove that it wasn't a liquid......had to be there for that one.

So now I'm back in Chiang Mai, still with a headcold, 3 days into the hard antibiotics and hoping I'm not developing an ear infection. Fun and games.

Seeking sunshine and sand

Tomorrow I'm heading to Bangkok to catch up with some other volunteers, then on to Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, to travel for 8 short days with a Sydney friend Kate who has been translating in Tokyo for a couple of years. Many adventures await! Hopefully including lots of boats on water in karst country (then it's back to work for a long while to replenish my leave days bank - not to worry).