So the last 2 weeks have been more than great. I feel myself losing track of days and by that I mean I stop counting days and just enjoy days. It’s very hard to try and explain what’s going in my brain because I don’t quite understand it myself, I guess it’s just what happens when you sit with your own thoughts for too long with nobody who you can really have a proper conversation with or somebody you trust enough to share your thoughts. So the first few months were very hard for me, but the last 3 weeks actually I stopped counting days… progress I think J
On the 13th of March I was in Thailand for exactly 100 days and I spent the day with my older host sister P’meeu in Paragon mall in Bangkok. We took the sky train to get there and then her and her friend went job hunting and I walked around unsure of what I would do to keep myself busy. After walking around 10 million stores and floors I could never afford I decided I would treat myself to Burger King and Starbucks 😀 it was the first time I had either of those two things and I must say there is nothing special about ether of them but just be there and being part of that experience was enough for me and I had a great time on my own.
Let me just start by saying without sounding mean, Thai people SUCK at making plans and informing me of the half made plans! It might be the language barrier but dear greatness 99% of the time I have no clue of what’s going on. On the 16th of March I had one of the best day/night of my exchange so far. I was told I would be climbing a mountain with my Rotary club president and a few other people but that they would pick me up at 6 PM. A strange time to climb a mountain I know… But I got dressed and ready to climb the mountain anyway. 6 PM came and gone and by 7 I decided the plans must have just changed and had dinner with the family. Then my host mom asked me if my bag was packed? (This is where I really got confused and asked 10 million questions and still did not understand) I figured out that I would only be gone for 1 night so I went upstairs and packed everything you would need for 1 night and 1 day. When the president showed up at 8 she asked why I had a bag with me and the confusedness continued because I thought I needed one but once again nothing could be explained to me. When we got into the mini bus she hired for us and her 3 friends she told me I should try and sleep for a few hours she would wake me up when we got there. Needless to say CONFUSION continued. I could not fall asleep not matter how hard I tried I kept thinking about how I had no idea what was going on so I turned on a little light on the roof and read my book for a few hours until we stopped at a what looked like a market just before midnight. Then I was really just clueless as to what was going on because there was like 200 people at this market at midnight?? Then we sat down and ordered food and I kept thinking: “normally I would be sleeping right now, why am I awake and eating at a market with 200 other people?” after we ate we went to a tiny shop next to the road still in the market and bought tiny little coloured stones according to the animal you were born under and the day of the week you were born on and I tried my best with fingers crossed to give them the right answers to try and figure out what colour stones I need. After about 15 min we left with our stones and our flower petals and got onto the back of a pick-up truck. This was the first time I actually realised we were going to climb the mountain right now at 1 Am… As we sat on the back of the pick-up truck more and more people got on until there was about 10 people on the back and 5 people in the front. We then started making our way up the first part of the mountain. I soon realised that the driver did not care about safety nearly as much as he worried about getting the next group of people as quickly as possible. We drove up a very small dirt road that was steeper than any road I had ever driven on that was leading up the mountain with cars going up and down at crazy speeds and missing each other by centimetres. The very first then that went through my mind was MY MOM WOULD KILL ME IF SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING! For the first probably 10 min I kept freaking out in my head about how my mom would never allow this, how she would have a heart attack if she could see this, how she would make me get off right now! After freaking out and being scared out of my mind I started to realise how fun this actually was, how much I loved the chilly night air, how much I loved the sound of the engine struggling up the hill how much I enjoyed holding on so tight I had blue marks on the arms the next day. I loved it. Then we needed to change cars 1/3 up the mountain at a place I called the largest collection of Toyota Hilux’s in the world (I thought of my uncle Le Sueur immediately) there must have been 200 of them standing around there and another 50 driving around!! We changed and did faze 2/3 of the terrifyingly fun car ride. Then we got to a set of stairs, I guess this is where it really gets too steep for the pick-up trucks and even too steep to walk normally because whole trail was just stairs… We got to the top at 2 AM and made our way to the great rock witch they believe flouts in mid-air because it doesn’t touch the ground on any of the side’s right around. So the believe it’s the birth place of one of the Buddha’s. you also can not see all the way to the other side so I just let them have their belief while knowing there is a rock somewhere in the middle keeping it up … The president then went to meditate for 2 hours and I kept myself awake by eating random things they were selling. We made our way down the mountain and got to the minivan and I watched the sunrise and then went to sleep because I had not slept in about 29 hours… After 3 hours of sleep they woke me BECAUSE WE WERE AT THE BEACH. It was the complete opposite direction of my house but I never complain about going to the beach. We had breakfast in Pattaya and then went to the largest botanical garden in Asea and walked around and took pictures in the scorching heat. After a very long very hot sleep deprived day we went home and I slept the whole way got home got into bed and slept some more. It was so much fun and I had the best time even if I was deadly tired.
-just a quick note I just had dinner with my family and the food was sooooo gooooood-
On the 21st of March I went to stay with my Rotary counsellor P’Nong and her family for a few days so that I could meet a girl called Veronica from the US who was an exchange student in my club 2 years ago and came back to visit! We went shopping, got our hair done, went to the wax museum, got our nails done, gave a tour of the city to a old German couple, ate sooo much more than we should have, went to morning and night markets and spent hours playing with the little baby of the family. I love that family so much and I love spending time with them you just laugh, eat and have fun all day everyday even if you’re not doing anything .
Im having the time of my life that’s all I can say. And I am so grateful for every single thing I get and do because I know how lucky and blessed I am.
Fingers crossed that I get the language down soon !!!!
