Mugged By a Monkey

During our journey through Erawan Falls, we got a chance to meet a monkey. He was sitting atop a tree at the seventh and final waterfall of the hike. We decided to go for a swim in the waterfall, but wanted to be cautious and put my purse inside Jarek’s backpack so nothing would be stolen. Inside our backpack was a plastic bag with a bag of bread inside. As Jarek pulled the plastic bag out of the backpack to make space for my purse we suddenly heard, “Here he comes!” Before I could blink, the monkey jumped through the air and onto the bag and held on for life as Jarek shook the bag with all his might. With an iron grip the monkey tore through both bags and scurried away with the entire loaf of bread, and I was left hungry. I hate that monkey.

Without a Paddle Boat

Sometimes Asian safety standards are, well, nonexistent. You want to ride on top of the truck? Sure! You want to play with tigers? Why not! We laughed to ourselves as we rented a canoe in the middle of the Chiew Larn Lake and nobody asked if we could swim or offered to give us life jackets. As long as we didn’t lose the ores; they cost 1000 baht. We decided to go across the lake to see the huge cliff on the other side. As we neared the cliff, we realized our canoe had a lot more water in it than when we started. More water in a canoe means less stability and less stability means we capsize. And we did. As we tried multiple times to climb back into the sinking canoe, we slowly realized we were stuck without a boat in the middle of the lake. Good thing we actually know how to swim. We threw the ores back in the “canoe” and went on our way. Eventually, I found a way to balance in the sinking piece of plastic while Jarek swam beside me. We finally made it back to the docks to find our guide pointing at his watch to signal that we were over time and needed to leave. What could have possibly taken us so long?

Herbs! And a Free Massage

There I was in the Activity Center for Seniors doing my best to look like I understood the meeting that was being held in Thai when out of the corner of my eye I saw Jarek suddenly start rocking back and forth. I turned to see one of the old ladies sitting behind him giving him a deep tissue massage. After that went on for a few minutes she leaned forward and asked the translation for “samoonphai” which, despite sounding like the name of an unhealthy pastry, we told her is perhaps translated as “herb.” She ran outside and was gone for quite some time. Suddenly, she was back! She poked her head forward, showed us a pretty blue flower, yelled “HERB!” and devoured the flower as quickly as she could. She produced a few more for our delectation, and soon our tongues were dyed a vibrant blue.

BYUH Biker Gang

Have you ever biked in a big city? Have you ever biked in Asia? Picture this:

Fourteen people on ghetto rented bicycles all in a line trying to navigate the streets of Ayutthaya. No sidewalks, no bike lanes. Driving on the wrong side of the road (or on our right side, which is their wrong side, which is even more dangerous). No clear sense of direction and utter pandemonium. Imagine one person stopping in the middle of a hill and the resulting pileup. Imagine avoiding both cars and elephants (no joke). Imagine an unexpected dead end and a sudden change of direction, like a flock of birds (only without grace and coordination)… I wish I caught the whole day on film J

Blackout Spider

Blackouts are a common occurrence when living in a small village. We had just come home from teaching English and were walking in the house when the lights when out. We carefully kept walking through the dark and someone turned on a flashlight only to reveal a giant, and I mean giant, spider sitting in the dark next to our feet. One wrong move and we would have stepped on it! There were many screams and our host dad ran over and picked up the huge monster with his bare hands! He was the hero of the house that month and we will forever be thankful for his bravery.

Destination: Unknown

On our way to Khao Sok National Park I realized that 250 baht is not quite enough money to provide easy transportation and peace of mind. We paid for a van to take us to Khao Sok, but instead it took us to another bus station. We waited there until a guy told us it was our turn to leave and we got in a new van. A few hours later, after everyone except us and one other Thai girl had exited the van, we came to a serious road block: the river had overflowed and the road was only accessible by construction truck. Our van driver left us there and drove away leaving us with no idea how we would make it to our hotel. We waited with another small crowd of people for the big truck to pick us up and take us across the river. Once we crossed the river, we showed the address of our hotel to some guys who offered to give us a ride. I’m not sure I was ever positive we were going the right way, but we did make it just fine. The spirit of adventure and, more importantly, the kind nature of the Thai people prevailed yet again.