The Past Few Weeks

Friday, February 13, 2009

So it has been several weeks since our last post. Sorry for the lapse. I would say that we have been incredibly busy, but I do not know that we actually have been. School is school and teaching is still continuing. I only have one day left of teaching and then my final is Tuesday, while Pat still has a couple of weeks. So life in Trang…the weather is getting extremely hot. I could not tell you the exact temperature as the news/weather that we would get on our TV would be in Thai and also in Celsius. It is in the 30s (Celsius that is) which is around the 90s. Mornings and evenings are still kind of pleasant with a nice breeze (if there is a breeze), but the classrooms that are lacking both fans and air conditioning are becoming ovens. April is supposed to be the hottest month, so if it is as hot as it is now, I do not want to imagine April. For the most part there is no rain with the exception of Wednesday when there was an afternoon shower that we entirely missed.

We have done a bit of traveling since our last post. The weekend after we arrived back from Chiang Mai we headed back to Phuket to stay with Barry’s house sitter and enjoy the beautiful weekends. The following weekend was my birthday (24th!!) which was spent in Trang as Pat had caught some peculiar stomach illness that kept him near the house for a handful of days. Pat surprised me with a gorgeous and delicious oreo ice cream cake and a bottle of Trang wine that we have yet to open because we cannot find a corkscrew. The last weekend of January we went to Koh Libong, an island in Trang Province. We took a minibus from Trang to Hat Yao and then took a longtail boat to the pier on Koh Libong. From the pier we took motorbike taxis across the island to our hotel. The motorbike ride was incredible. The island is very much a local island with villages here and there. The 30-minute ride was beautiful and tranquil as we passed rubber tree farm after rubber tree farm of perfectly aligned forests. Our hotel was in a remote part of the island with a piece of beach out front. Our bungalow was nice enough with a pristine bathroom and fan that worked during the hours of electricity (8-1 and 5-midnight). The food was ordinary and expensive, the beach was strewn with trash, but the quiet and forced relaxation was lovely. We spent two nights on Koh Libong before heading back to Trang. Last weekend we had planned to visit Koh Lipe, but transportation and accommodation was proving to be too much of a hassle and too expensive, so last minute we decided to go back to Koh Lanta, the island we stayed on during our first week in Trang. We stayed at the same place we had stayed in October and it was lovely! While the rocky beach had not changed, we were able to better appreciate what Koh Lanta had to offer after seeing the crowded beaches and streets of Krabi and Phuket. Koh Lanta is a lot less built up and thus quieter and more relaxing than Krabi or Phuket. The hotel had wonderful food including some much-appreciated Indian food like a delicious curried chicken wrap in nan. Mmmm!!! We ate delicious food and spent several hours reading in hammocks that overlooked the ocean. Again we enjoyed hanging out with the friendly and welcoming staff. Pat and I are really looking forward to heading back to Koh Lanta for a few more days before our Southeast Asian travels begin in mid-March.

This week has been fairly uneventful with the exception of our water getting cut off one morning. I tend to wake up early shower, eat breakfast and do my thing on the internet before waking up Pat who only needs 25 minutes or so to get ready. On Wednesday morning, I was enjoying my tea and cereal while checking my email after an earlier shower. Pat was showering. I went into our kitchen to wash our dishes only to find that there was no water coming out of the kitchen sink. Pat called through the bathroom door to see if there was any water because there was none coming out of the shower. He poked his head out showing that he had a head full of shampoo. I told him I would go see if I could figure anything out. I went in search of our landlord only to find his elderly mother or mother-in-law who speaks no English. I tried to explain in broken Thai “No water (mai naam).” She seemed a bit confused but waddle around the exterior of the house. I headed back to our place and found Pat dressed with seemingly clean hair. In desperation to get the shampoo out of his hair he had used what was left in the water bucket for flushing the toilet. In the end we made it to work a few minutes late and Pat had somewhat clean hair.