วันเกิด - Birthday

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY SISTER DANIELLE!!

Have a great day Dee Dee. I love you. 

Here is my class wishing her a happy birthday! I showed them a picture of you and they love to sing! The video isn't great quality and it was really sunny today so I'm sorry about that but here they are :) 

เชียงใหม่ - Chiang Mai

This past weekend we went to Chiang Mai. It was around an eight hour train ride away and we left at 10pm on Friday night but it was worth the wait! We went on a tour, attended church and went to the best market we had seen yet. Here are some of the experiences we had.

This was our hostel. Full of hippies (which we loved) and only 6 dollars a night. We split up into two rooms of three people and it was pretty nice! We had our own bathroom and the beds were clean! But the best part was that it was not only fifteen minute walk to the best market we had been to yet, but only five minutes away from an LDS chapel!

Entrance to our hostel.

The Saturday night market! So, we all bought WAY too much. But we also finished all our Christmas shopping. Family, be excited. All in all the market had great food, great souvenirs and this little cutie:

He was SO cute!

This little boy was standing in the middle of the pathway in front of his parent’s stand. He was singing “Mai ah la hee, Mai ah la ha” “Numa numa yay” song. But he hardly got through one line before he would just bend his body in half and start to laugh. He would then turn to his parents and they would be cracking up. It was SO cute. His little basket had a sign that said something in Thai and the word “Scholarship.” He was adorable. We just HAD to get a picture with him.  

Thai foot massages, they were incredible! They cost 60 Baht for 30 minutes, as 

you can see in the sign, 30 Baht is one dollar. You do the math. Worth it.

Church!! We had not been to church in Thailand yet. There is a small branch in a town about 40 minutes away but the first week we couldn't get in contact with the missionaries for directions and the second weekend we missed the train. So, this sign was extremely comforting to all of us! 

Church was fantastic. We walked in, and got head phones from the sister missionaries who

 would talk into a microphone and translate from Thai to English. The first speaker was a teenager

 and bore his testimony. He talked about one day going on his mission and how lucky he would 

consider himself to be able to go to an LDS temple just once in his life. His words touched my heart. In 

Provo, Utah I live in walking distance of a temple and it still is a challenge to attend regularly. To my LDS readers, make the Temple a priority. And to my non-LDS readers, ask me about the

 Mormon temples; I would LOVE to tell you about it!!

Banners in one of the temples we went inside. 

Two of us came upon this ruin. After spending quite a lot of time admiring it we looked up what time period it was built when we got home. Wikipedia told us that the temple was called “Wat Chedi Luang.” The construction of the temple began in the 14^th century and was originally meant to be a tomb for King Saen Muang Ma. But the king died after ten years of construction. In 1468 a large Emerald Buddha was placed inside but 77 years later, after an earthquake, the structure partially collapsed and the Buddha was then moved. The temple is now surrounded with other small structures and other temples that are stunning as well. 

Our first time seeing a fat buddha

We finished the day with lunch at a restaurant that served pasta, pizza, fried chicken, Mexican food and just about any mango dessert you could imagine. We were full of excitement! We finished feeling more full than we have since we arrived in Thailand. It was a perfect ending to our vacation

Heidi and I shared a pizza. We were SO excited to eat it!

This was the taxi that we took to the train station. They were everywhere it was fun to ride in them!

Trying to fit all of our purchases in the taxi.

Our train to head back home was very nice and very cheap. It never gets old that things in Thailand just work out that way! We had a sleeper and thank goodness because we were exhausted! Here is a picture of us in one of the rooms!

Next post will be more about our Saturday tour!! Elephant show, one hour and halt elephant ride, secluded temple that has over 500 steps, an amzing lunch, caving and the long-necked lady tribe! :)

งานเทศกาล - Long Boat Festival

Our town, Phichit, is really only known for two things: Alligators and boat races. The boat racing festival only happens once a year and teams from all over Thailand come to compete. Tang's husband, Ake, told us that there are teams from each county or district. We were aware that the festival was getting close when we decided to go paddle boating (50 cents a person) one day and we saw a team practicing.

If you look close in this picture you can see the team behind us.

Super duck?

Old man giving us a thumbs up!

Later in the week we went to festival for the boat racing. The racing was only on the weekend but vendors from all over came to Phichit to set up, in the rain, and sell their products, whether that meant food, clothes, toys, lottery tickets, you name it. Tang and Ake were great, they wanted us to try everything!! They spoiled us until we were full and couldn't eat any more. Here are some of the foods that we tried.

Thai dessert

Coconut juice

Alligator bread... with shredded pork inside.

Sticky rice made in bamboo with coconut, SO yummy!

Foods we did not try:

Octopus

Sausage... and Angry Birds sausage?

Frogs

Self-explanatory. 

Common sights at the festival:

Restaurant with people sitting on the floor

Tarps to keep the rain out

Traffic jams

So this was a game that we just called "feet volleyball." We passed a small tournament 

going on. Here is a picture and a video. It is unreal. 

After making it through the vendors we went to the Phichit Buddhist Temple. It was beautiful!!

This is a money tree where people can leave money for the monks

Inside the temple

First, we shook these little canisters and until one stick came out. 

The stick had a number on it which correlated to these drawers that had fortunes in them. Ake

 translated mine and it said that I will not be having children anytime soon (true), 

if I ask for money I will get it (I can live with that), and that I am like a young tree only 

starting to bloom. He said that it didn't sound too pretty in English but it was a beautiful poem in Thai. 

We were blessed by this Monk after making an offering and repeating some kind of prayer with Ake. 

The monk then sprayed water on us with a bundle of sticks to bless us. It really 

was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

When we left the temple we saw these monks making little ants and beetles for money. They were so cute and just because a monk made it I couldn't resist buying one. Monks are very sacred and respected here. Some of us teachers don't really know how to act around them. We were told things like, "Never look a monk in the eyes" "Dress EXTREMELY modest around them" and "Because you are a woman you cannot make any offering to them." But Ake informed us that some of this was false. But one true thing we were told was that you can never touch a monk or put anything in or take anything directly from their hands. When I started to look at the little figures, one of the monks came up and asked if I spoke Thai, I told him no so then he spoke to me a little in English. He asked where we were from and why we came to Thailand. I told him America and that we were teachers here in Phichit but he got a little confused, I must have talked to fast. Well I remembered that I can't give him money so I put it on the table, but then we were both talking with our hand to communicate and our hands touched! He pulled away pretty quick but he knew it was an accident. I felt so bad, and he could tell, but he just kind of laughed a little. Ake teased me all day.

This is the beetle I bought. 

Another treasure I got was a shirt with my name written in Thai. The man at the booth was so patient with us and wrote my name in Thai so if a Thai person sounded it out it would sound like "Jessi." Here are some shots of him and the front and the back of my shirt.

"Jessi" in Thai and the back of my shirt

Front

Him starting my shirt

Finally, the actual boat races! They were quick but intense. We watched a few and then it just got too hot sitting in the sun, but it was really neat! I with I could have understood the announcer because he was incredibly enthusiastic! 

These are cheerleaders, and I have to admit my favorite part of the racing! They were all dressed to match and did cute little dances during the entire time we were there, it was so cute!!

A team that sat in front of us and stared at the six white girls for about twenty minutes.

It probably would have weirded us out if that wasn't the norm for us in Phichit.