I remember back when I was preparing to leave Taipei, I had the busiest week of my life. Which is still is true, but Bangkok is giving it a run for its money. With the semester over, I find there is just so much to do. For one, you have to compress your entire life into a suitcase again. Not to mention cleaning your apartment, looking for a new job, working out visas, how to transfer money, flights, travel arrangements, finishing out stuff at work, it's a full time job. It's been compounded with the fact I fly to Myanmar tomorrow, and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write. Anyway, what have I been up to lately.

Obviously April and Cliff have left me (sadface), and Ella and I did manage to make it to the aforementioned wedding. It was really nice, ripped straight out of a postcard - right on the beach, with horses, and cosplayers. Yes, cosplayers. The bride is quite into it, and had her friends show up in costume. It was a very small ceremony, and I loved it. I've always liked going to weddings, because it's a party where everything is free, and everyone is usually in a super good mood and/because of the drinking. I really wish we could have enjoyed this one longer, but it was on a Sunday night and about 3 hours away from Bangkok. We had to work on Monday morning, so we had to rush back and get the last bus at 9pm so we could get back home by 1ish.

Other activities around Bangkok included a visit to Chinatown for Chinese New Year. Despite being Chinese New Year Eve, the ceremony was a bit more muted, with most of the big stuff planned for the following day. It was still awash in activity though, with everyone cleaning, booths and stages being constructed. and all manor of preparation going on. Apparently the Princess spoke the following day, who I've noticed becoming a much bigger deal over the past year or so I've been here. While the Prince is next in line, the Princess has started to appear on pictures in public, alongside or even in place of the King. We also stopped in to see the Sikh Temple in Bangkok, apparently the 3rd largest in the world. I don't know anything about Sikhism, but I guess I understand a little more now. They're quite nice people, and a large majority of their religion is devoted to pacifism, which is always a good thing. They also give out a free breakfast every day to travelers, homeless, or just anyone who wants it. I wish it was breakfast time when we went, because whatever they were cooking smelled absolutely delicious. A nice guy invited us to come upstairs to see the ceremony, and showed us how to tie this scarf thing we wore on our heads. He explained the priest, for lack of a better term, is not a priest at all - just a member of the church who decided "I want to lead the ceremony today." I think that's really cool. I got to eat this blessed bread, which, if I have to criticism Sikhism in some way, the bread tasted really weird - like a grainy pudding. But kidding aside, everyone there was super nice, took the time to chat with us, and were nothing but welcoming and cool.

With Heather moving to her new place in On Nut, we spent the day out with her seeing some sights. We went to an artists village along a canal, and went to a Laos Flute Village. It's pretty off the mainstream tourist circuit, and this "village" is apparently just some dude's house. Of course it was pretty hard to find then, but eventually we found it. They invited us inside to this guys living room, and he showed us all the flutes he made, and invited us to play some. Seeing as how I have the musical ability of... something with no musical ability, I butchered it badly. Of course Ella was playing like a master within 30 seconds of seeing the thing, even having a duet with 85-year old flute guy. Jeez Ella, way to make the rest of the world look bad. We also went to see a temple I've passed many times but have not seen, Wat Ratchabopit Sathitmahasimaram Ratchaworawihan. Maybe that's the longest Wat name so far. It's quite pretty, and despite being near the big central, tourist area, doesn't really seem that popular. I don't know why, it should get a lot more attention. After, we met up with Dmytro at the Siam Museum. I've been here a few times, and it's definitely my favorite museum in Bangkok. If you're curious what it's like, the entry talking about it is here.

Changing gears, there's also been some excursions outside of Bangkok. A long time ago, on the way to Kanchanaburi, the train stopped in a town called Nakhon Pathom. Heather, Ella, and I took an hour or so bus to see the chedi in the middle of town, at Wat Phra Pathom Chedi Ratchaworawihan (not the longest name). But something I had not seen is the Sanam Chad Royal Palace. It was built for Rama VII, who unlike other palaces it seems it was actually used. Also, he really, really liked his dog. There were pictures of this dog everywhere, and he even had a giant statue built for his dog when it died. It was a really beautiful place, probably one of the best palaces I've seen in Thailand. Cause, ya know, there's just so many. The real star was just before the palace, there was a small zoo we randomly came across. One of the monkeys there was named Soda, and quite liked swinging by his arms and being loud. At one point we gave him a banana. He picked it up, smelled it, and threw it on the ground like a fussy child. Well, fuck you, Soda! See if we ever give you a banana again!

Pictured: Not allowed in Burma

And finally, for the last few days I made two trips to Khao Yai with two different groups of students. Khao Yai is a National Park not too far from Bangkok, which seems to be renowned for its waterfalls. But it's the dry season, which means those waterfalls either don't exist or are tricklefalls. Regardless there would be no trekking, instead we just stayed at a big conference room to do activities. Because it's not like we couldn't do that in Bangkok. We did however go to the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy. At first there was a small museum talking about the Thai Military. Not overly exciting, but Dmytro and I played around with the different statues. After that was the real highlight of the trip, they had zip lining, guns, bikes, and archery. We managed to secure a 3-person bike, kidnapped the Chinese teacher, and rode around for a bit. I've never done a bicycle built for 2, but a bicycle built for 3 is really damn hard to use. The activities involved us singing and dancing a Thai song called "Chang Chang Chang". It's an elephant talking about his tusks, ears, etc. Of course we butchered it. That's kind of the point. The students also had various talent shows, which many were entertaining. Many, if they were to occur in America, would be raided by child protective services. The sexually liberated culture of Thailand does not know age, so it was quite odd seeing my 12 year old students go bananas in very inappropriate ways. Hey, when in Rome. On the way back we got stuck in some pretty bad traffic, and one fashion-minded kid styled Dmytro's and my hair with lots of waxes, gels, and who knows what. After looking quite dapper, we played a truth or dare type of game, and a hand slapping game. Eventually our hands got sore from slapping each other, so it changed to eating these really hot wasabi peanuts - or more accurately, hold x number in your mouth for x duration depending on how much you lost. It was good fun, and seeing the others and myself tear up from the heat brought lots of laughs. The whole situation was actually really fun, and something I'll remember for a long time. On a long car trip, maybe I'll use that game again.

Whew! All caught up now. As mentioned, tomorrow is a trip to Myanmar/Burma. It's a bit off the tourist circuit, so I'm excited at the prospect of walking around the city and actually feeling out of place again. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and for an added bonus - a video of the kind of stuff we saw at the talent show. That is a boy wearing a women's clothes and a wig. Oh, Thailand.