Sob Ruak!

We have arrived safely in Sob Ruak!  This is a picture of our beautiful hotel. We've had time to unpack and settle in. Thai dinner soon!  Our group consists of three Aussies, two Californians, and Karon and myself. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone and begin our study!  

Waiting in Chaing Rai

We keep looking each other and giggling, we are really in Thailand because someone out there agreed with our grant proposal and funded us to come study elephants.  What is crazy is how well things are going.  I can not say enough about the ease of travel in Thailand.  English is everywhere, and the Thai people seem to appreciate my brutal attempts at asking simple questions in Thai.  Hey, I teach 7th graders so I am not to cone rented about making a fool of myself.

Our flight up north went just as planned.  We departed the Casa Nithra at 5 am and got to BKK with plenty of time to spare.  At our gate there was complementary breakfast with coffee and panang chicken calzones (yes you read that right).  Connie did manage to find a tasty looking chocolate muffing to go with her latte.

I was fortunate to have an isle seat and I could watch the quilt like topography of rice patties, roads and rivers.  As we neared Chaing Rai, we started to see the start of mountains and jungles.  Many geology and topography questions are already starting to formulate for me.  Even though our flight was short, we were served a meal.  Good fruit and yogurt along with what eared to be a spam sandwich (I passed on the mystery meat).

So now we have a new block of time waiting.  We secured 2 free hours of internet at the airport.  By 3pm all of our group members should be here, then we will drive an hour north to the preserve.  I am loving taking in so many new sights, sounds, task and flavored.  I am also ecstatic to be embarking on an intense learning experience.  As teachers, we give a lot away.  Yes, the goal is to share knowledge, but the reality of the profession is such that we pour our hearts and minds into our students.  For two weeks (really 10 days) we get to be the students.

Thanks Fund for Teachers.

Tuk Tuks, Long boats and shopping oh my!

One day.  That is ll we allowed for being a tourist in Bangkok.  Yes, there is weeks worth of things to see and do, but alas, we are both mothers, teachers and we are really here for the elephants.  And, with all of that said, we really had an amazing time in Bangkok today.  We dove into the day ready to be flexible and go with the flow, knowing that rarely do international travel plans work out just like we would expect them too.  I must say though, our plans worked out perfectly.

We were able to start our morning off by having a tasty buffer breakfast at our hotel.  Our tour guide from Absolute Bangkok and our driver were right on time. The car was wonderfully cool, clean and we did not die in it (although I chose not to try to make any sense of driving rules).  Of all the decisions we have made thus far, choosing to pay for a tour, was the best.  Our Gide took us to several Buddhist temples.  She was able to tell us all about the Thai royalty, the painting, the meaning of the Buddha poses, and about the architecture.   The temples were truly stunning.  I think Connie will be able to upload pictures soon.

Another huge highlight was getting to take a long boat through the canals.  I especially enjoyed seeing the sights from the perspective of the river.  We saw amazingly fancy places and places that were nearly falling down.  We could also see where the floods three years ago came through town.

After the river, our guide found a great restaurant for us, and we had our first pad Thai of many.  It truly is amazing to have my seances overwhelmed by new and exciting things to observe.

In the afternoon heat, jet lag began to sink in, so as our tour ended we returned to our hotel, Casa Nithra, for a much needed rest.  Connie was immediately out, and I decided to go for a swim on the rooftop pool, then nap.

When I woke up, I realized that I could have easily slept until tomorrow, but knew that we would regret not going out on our only night in Bangkok.  So, we hit the road.  We steped out of our hotel and the. Wavering on which way to go  we happened to see a Tuk Tuk with our hotel logo on the side.  Remembering that this was a free offer of our hotel, we hitched a ride to San Kau road for shopping and food.  If we thought the driver was risky this morning, the Tuk Tuk called for lots of eye closing. I tried to look around as much as possible so we would know how to get back, but something's I just did not need to see.

I must say, I am very proud of us and how well we did.  We were able to visit and barter for some souvieners.  I had a great dinner of street food, and Connie was thrilled to indulge in a subway sandwhich.  Then we made our way back to the hotel.  Fortunately I had printed a map of our hotel, and while I was pretty sure we were on the right path, everything was starting to look familiar, like a "I'm walking in circles familiar."  So, we asked for directions.  "Yes, down this road."  Oh good, we are going the right way, but maybe we should ask one more person to make sure.  Sure enough, we found our hotel just fine.  We are scheduled for a 4:15 wake up call and a 5:00am taxi ride to the airport.

Tomorrow, we start a whole new level of exploring.  We will fly to Chaing Rai in the morning, then we will meet up with our expedition team.  By tomorrow night we should know more about the research and elephants.  Until the, we are going to try for some much needed rest.

Bangkok in Pictures!

Karon is posting a blog now about our tour day in Bangkok, so I thought I'd let you all see how our day went in pictures!

Safe Arrival in Tokyo!

Glad to be done with that leg of the flight!  Everything has gone smoothly so far!  Next stop -BANGKOK!!!  Tour day tomorrow!  I'm excited!!!

Wonderful stopover in Denver!

Thanks to Karon's awesome friends Bo and Lia we've had a wonderful night's rest and are now ready for the killer 12 hour flight to Tokyo!  

The Plan is Working

For those who know me in real life, you know that I love a good plan, and I really like it to work.  Yes, I do have my pacing guides for all year completed, and I'm sticking to it.

Fortunately everything is going according to plans.  My husband was able to drop us both off at the Atlanta airport early.  We managed to check our bag for free to Denver despite kick back from United trying to call the first leg of the journey a domestic flight.  Our flight to Denver was also pretty uneventful.  Granted we were both getting pretty stiff and antsy by the third hour.  We are going to need some serious toughening up for our 12hour flight to Tokyo today.

But already we are getting to experience the thrill of serendipity and unexpected adventures and encounters that come with travel.  As we were getting off the plane, I heard someone call my name.  It is the pilot.  "Karon, is that you?  It is me Bruce."  This was a good friend of mine from college and ironically, the last time we were on a plane together was when he took me sky diving as a graduation present.

After that, we met up with another piece of my past.  A good friend from Oregon who now lives in Golden picked us up.  We had a great night of visiting, a comfortable bed to sleep I. And we are about to have a fabulous breakfast.  To top things off, it is Free Day at the natural history museum.  It looks like we will hit that up before embarking on the next leg of the trip.

Yes, there are plans, and yes, I love them, and it is good that he already I am being reminded that they are just the skeleton of the journey.