ketchup

So a lot to catch up on the last few weeks, time has been going by so fast and it has been pretty busy the last week or so it will be a pretty general broad overview of some of our stuff.

So the last few days we had to put up with a little bit of rain, it’s a fair price to pay for about 13 absolutely perfect beach days. The rain and clouds were from a hurricane that passed to the south of Hawaii. We just had to deal with 2 days of clouds and some rain. The first day we went to Kahului, it had a large mall that was part outdoor and part indoor, it was nice, and we did some shopping and just kind of wandered around, we came back tired and just bummed around the condo for the rest of the day and night, it was nice to just hang out on a rainy day and watch movies. The next day it had dried up a little bit, but was still cloudy so not a beach day. We headed on a hike nearby, it was a challenging hike which gained about 1500 feet over 2 and a half miles, we were both pretty tired but once we got to the top we had a nice view of the valley of the island and the pacific ocean. 

Hike up the hill

We quickly made our way back down the trail then we drove back to Lahaina, which was where we were a few days earlier, but decided to give it another shot and get some lunch. We found a nice rooftop restaurant over looking the water and had a good happy hour special. We were talking to the waiter and told him how we never had poke, which is a Hawaiian style of raw tuna, but we were not willing to pay for it and felt like we were being up sold by the waiter so we declined. He was really cool about it though and said you have to try it its really good, and he proceeded to comp it. So we got some great food good beers and a big serving of the spiced sesame poke for free.  

Free Poke and good beers 

Once we got back to the condo we realized we couldn’t go two days without going in the ocean so we headed down to the water at dusk and swam for a while.

Our last day in Maui was spent at the beach all day, swimming with turtles, getting a great deli lunch sandwiches and drinking beer on the beach at sunset. 

sunset beers 

It was a perfect way to end our Maui trip, now it was off to Honolulu for 2 days. We got to Honolulu after a 23 minute flight from Maui and checked into our casual but rustic hostel, it felt good to be back in a hostel and always has great energy. We walked around a while on the main strip before going back to the hostel to get our bathing suits and spending the rest of the day at the ocean and watching a nice sunset. That night we decided to go out, so we got some wine and drank in the hostel courtyard before walking around, we stopped at the rooftop rotating bar since we are both suckers for stuff like that. It was a fancy bar but had decent prices so we sat and had some drinks as the city of Waikiki spun around beneath us. After that we headed to the Yard house, which has about 140 beers on tap and had our favorite coconut porter from Maui Brewing. The next day we both didn’t feel exactly a 100 percent but it was ok because it was rainy and cloudy so we just spent the day walking around and going in and out of stores and malls.

Off to Thailand

Kristen caught an early morning flight out of Honolulu (around 1:30AM) and my flight was not until later that morning around 11:30AM. It was weird going our separate ways and knowing the next time we would meet up would be in Bangkok. Our flights both went well, filled with copious amounts of decent airline food, lots of sleeping and a layover in Taiwan for Kristen and Seoul for me. On our layovers is when you really got a sense that you were going somewhere you have never been before and have no idea about. Arriving in Bangkok was not overwhelming, it just kind of felt like a regular airport, but getting in a cab and getting lost in Bangkok for about an hour and struggling to call people to find the hotel for the cabbie who spoke no English was a smack in the face with what we were getting into. 

Orientation week at Ebina house was a pretty wild week, it was like college spring break with around 230 kids whom most have graduated within the last 5 years. It was definitely a big party but also carried a sense of importance to it and we all understood that we had a job and for most of us had absolutely zero idea what to expect. We walked around the Hotel and got some really good Pho, Pad Thai and beers from local vendors. The food truly is amazing, and everyone seems to have their own food cart, and houses porches and front yards blend seamlessly into a restaurant or bar. 

streetmeat pho

We met some really cool people at orientation and will be nice to keep in touch in the coming difficult weeks.

We took a huge trip as a group to the grand palace in Bangkok. It is a massive compound all centered around one of two emerald Buddha statues. We went in a group of about 150 all wearing bright orange shirts. It was tourism to the extreme which was kind of fun, knowing that we were all getting ready to embark on the complete opposite of that for a year. 

selfie stickin

Welcome dinner entertainment 

After a few days of classes and sightseeing in Bangkok we headed to Kanchanaburi. There we checked into a beautiful resort on a sprawling compound directly on a river. It was lush with green trees and tall mountains in the background. We saw the bridge of Kuwai, and walked along it over the river. After some shopping and site seeing we headed to a barge that was docked and tied to a few buildings for dinner. Next thing we knew the barge began floating upstream being towed by a small but powerful boat. This was a surprise that OEG (overseas education group) pulled on us. It was a beautiful ride up the river with a great dinner and fun party music, that later in the night we all utilized to have some fun on the boat.

Surprise river dinner cruise 

The next day was an early start and we headed to a Elephant camp where they had about 30 elephants that they cared for. We started with a elephant show which was cute with the smaller elephants, and was pretty humbling when we all realized how much more thai they knew than us. From there we headed up a river and took a bamboo raft down stream, it was peaceful and very quiet, it was refreshing to get in the water and swim around with everyone for a while. 

sailing 

After the rafting we got shuttled back to the camp where we got to go on a Elephant ride, Kristen and I got a huge male named Pai and we went on a slow stroll for about 45 minutes. It was impressive to sit atop the animals back and have him feel like you were not even there, reaching down and feeling his shoulders felt like two boulders moving around.

Our Elephant Handler made us take this picture and proceeded to shout "oh muhh gawwwd I lub youu"

 That night was our last night all together so once we got back to the hotel we had a pretty wild pool party with around 230 people all in our program, it was a fun day and one that will be a highlight of the trip early on.

From Kanchanaburi we all headed back to Bangkok before heading our separate ways to our schools, some people met their coordinators back in Bangkok while others like Kristen and I got ready to hop on an overnight train up to Lamping to meet our coordinator.

Like I said it has been a pretty mad week or so, and as I write this I have no internet connection of any kind so some names and things might be a bit off since I cant check them. It is nice being disconnected and makes you realize that everything you know back home is not the center of the world and that many people here have no idea what is going on outside of their immediate community, and they seem perfectly happy.

ps. posting this from our school in Soem Ngam, which i will get to next post......so. much. sweat