Christmas Cheer

These pictures are pretty self-explanatory. Christmas in Lampang. David really looks like a shady Santa!

Surprise!

I cannot say enough how great of a roommate hilary is. she threw me a surprise birthday party at the local japanese restaurant. i was just complaining last month about how people don't surprise each other enough and voila! i had no clue. the 27th was my friend kirk's birthday so i thought we were just going to dinner with him and his girlfriend but when we got there, hilary had reserved our own private little room and about 20 of my closest friends were sitting there. i almost cried! then hilary placed special "birthday boppers" on my head and kirk's head. and wonder of wonders i got a kite for my birthday! i'm sooo happy. it was such a good way to go into my birthday. there's nothing better than agedashi tofu and a shot of warm sake. it was bliss!

A Very Kayak Birthday

I'm so glad that I was in girl scouts because my years of canoeing definitely came in handy yesterday. It was so exhiliarating and the cliffs were majestic. These are not adjectives that I use lighly so you can understand how impressed i was by the scenery. After I took my turn on the kayak, Hilary gave it a whirl and then David. Luckily no one capsized which has apparently happened quite a bit in past years.

Adventures in Wonderland

The week before Christmas is usually a pretty hectic time. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen and a lot of time rehearsing with my students and fellow teachers. The students had to act in a christmas play and sing christmas carols in various languages. my youngest students were chosen to be shepherds and angels and to read the christmas story from the bible. Not only did none of them want to dress up but they were sooo shy to read in front of everyone, especially difficult words like "bethlehem," "judea" and "glorify." Though i tried to explain it, i knew that they had no clue what they were reading about. The foreign teachers also had to participate in a play which was chosen by one of the philipino teachers. I guess it was an okay play though very religious for my tastes. It was a talk show in which the host was trying to discover what christmas is all about. My character said that christmas is all about food (come on, it is!) though my actual answer would have been family and friends. anyways, the last person explains that "Christmas is Christ." however, when one of the teachers wrote it on the board, she actually wrote "Christmas is Chris" which was pretty funny. then we sang a couple of songs. hilary, natsumi and I sang along with kazu while he played that john lennon song "and so this is christmas." the notes were very VERY high so we ended up kind of shrieking along. the crowd seemed to really dissipate during all the teacher's numbers but that was fine by me. then the thai teachers came on and did a dance. finally there was a "fancy dress" competition. this is basically a free-for-all in which the students can dress up as anything they can think of. there were some christmas-themed outfits but some people just seemed to be wearing weird conglomerations of clothing and decorations. so we spent all morning friday at this show and then i had to go teach at the hospital and then go straight to the shopping mall where our students were to perform once again in front of the crowds of shoppers. it actually went a lot better than i thought and most of the teachers ended up hanging out and having some beers, glad to be finished with the whole thing.

saturday was spent shopping and baking cookies and shopping some more. strangely enough, i woke up on sunday morning and was brushing my teeth when i discovered that my tongue was black. well i just finished reading "angels and demons" in which the pope's tongue turns black after being poisoned so very wild thoughts began to fill my head. was i secretly poisoned? i know that i didn't eat anything black before i went to bed and i was contemplating whether or not i could have contracted some strange tropical disease. i felt fine so i just ignored it. it's a funny thing to say but i was very relieved on christmas morning to find that i didn't have a black tongue or weird malady. i still can't figure out what happened. maybe the cookie i ate before bed was burned on the bottom?

sunday i arrived at karen's early to help put up decorations. there were lots of folks there. everybody gobbled up the cookies and we played "sequence" for a long time. the gift exchange was fun...i got some cute picture frames. after that we all went out to More Tao. it seemed like everyone in town was there. everyone was dancing and singing along and we actually got up on stage and sang some christmas carols with the band.

christmas morning hilary and i opened our presents and guzzled freshly-made coffee. i honestly think i had more presents this year than last. maybe because i'm away from home and people try to overcompensate. anyways, it was great and there were many cool gifts. i would have to say the best are necklace with a krishna pendant made by katherine, the rainbow legwarmers from hilary and the scrabble boardgame.
rick and chan came over to exchange gifts and then brought us a Moo-gra-ta cooker. moograta is like a little clay grill on which you cook a soup and veggies. we don't usually eat it cause it's not vegetarian but now we can make our own! i was very psyched. we played scrabble and chan (the only non-native english speaker) ended up winning. hilary made up interesting words like "Eo" which according to her is the name of a wizard.

i spoke to my family for awhile. it was really nice to hear all of their voices and to just be talking to them on christmas eve. it was a difficult conversation and i was very sad after i got off the phone. i managed to cheer myself up in time to go over to rick and chan's for a late lunch. rick cooked a duck and tried to make gravy which turned out very strange. he also made sausages which ended up being hollow. i've never seen anything like it. they must have been overcooked. i was secretly glad that i'd brought my own vegetarian food.

in the evening we went over to nadine and la's. all of la's family came from the village so it was really nice to meet them. david dressed up as santa claus. unfortunately the costume didn't have a beard so it was pretty easy to tell who it was. however the little, little kids really liked itt and everyone had a good time.

today i'm back at work and getting ready for my birthday boat bash. i'm not sure what to expect but i know it's going to be a blast. then friday it's off to bangkok. hope you all had a nice holiday celebration and i'm thinking of everyone.

Christmastime in Lampang

Well I have to admit that I'm pretty surprised by the amount of Christmas decorations I've seen around. Most of them are actually for New Years because the Thais really go all out for the holiday, but it's still nice to see so many lights around. And I've been hearing snatches of Christmas music here and there. This weekend I stayed in Lampang and just got ready for Christmas. It will be my first one away from home and I'm getting a bit whistful already.

On Friday night, our friend Joe showed up at the bar dressed in a Santa costume. He is an old guy from Brooklyn...real thick New York accent and a long grey ponytail. He had just finished participating in his school's Christmas show in which he rode up on a motorcycle dressed as Santa. The funny thing was that he didn't even realize he had the costume on backwards so he looked even sillier. When he walked into More TAO, the band immediately started playing Jingle Bells.

Saturday, I spent the day alone because Hilary went to Chiang Mai. I got lost in a sort of labyrinth of an indoor market that had very few exits and little light. I was highly aware that I was the only foreigner in the place because it's not the sort of place that mos foreigners would venture. It was behind all the stores on the street and there were stalls that went on for miles and miles. It's weird to think that there are such hidden places like that...must've walked by it a hundred times but never even knew it existed.

I bought some Christmas decorations and went home and watched the Grinch and Polar Express. Maybe it was the fact that I was alone in a foreign country putting up Christmas decorations but somehow that Polar Express movie really got me crying. I'm such a wimp! It's not even that great of a movie but i think it's going to be a bit of a difficult Christmas for me. Sigh.

Saturday night I went with Nadine and La to the ceramic fair again. It was the second-to-last day open so everything was discounted. I was planning to buy lots of stuff for christmas gifts but unfortunately most of the good stuff had already sold. We still had a good time looking around and then went out to dinner with friends at the Riverside.

Sunday I made Christmas cookies with Chan since she has an oven. I made these Thumbprint cookies that I've always loved. What an ordeal to get the ingredients! I couldn't find shortening or pecans. I ended up substiuting almost everything...thank god they turned out alright! We had so much fun that we're going to bake more on Tuesday. We also went shopping at the Chinese weekend market and I found quite a few nice gifts.
We're getting our Christmas plans in order. My school's Christmas show is on Friday. Christmas eve is a potluck at Karen's house. Actually we are also making a pinata and having a gift exchange. Then Christmas day we are eating at Nadine and La's.

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays. I'm thinking about everyone and sending you my best Christmas wishes!

Pai Sabai

Well I finally made it to Pai and what is there not to love about that place? No wonder people talk about it all the time. After living in quiet, provincial Lampang, Pai is such a shock to the system. It took us 4 hours from Chiang Mai to drive up the curviest mountain roads I've ever seen and in the middle of nowhere there is this explosion of music,art and colorful people from around the world. It's a pretty small town but it was definitely overrun with tourists as it's high season.

Hilary and I spent the weekend with our friends David and Jeab who are really silly and interesting folks. We rented bicycles and rode out to our guesthouse. We went back into town for some yummy Italian food and walked around the night market. We watched a guy simultaneously play steel drums, digderidoo and gongs and then sat and people-watched at a shisha bar. We were all so tired from the bus ride that we ended up hanging at the Sun Huts the rest of the night. David and I sat out on the hammocks and chatted while we drank Beer Laos (which I've never seen in Thailand). Hilary ended up going out with some friends and she witnessed a scary gang-fight of sorts. Pai really is like the old west of Thailand.

Sunday we were planning to rent motorbikes but the town was so crowded that all of them had already been rented out. We were determined to check out this waterfall and so we decided to cycle to it because we were told it was only 5 K from town. Well, it turned out to be much, MUCH further than we expected and we spent the better part of 3 hours biking up a mountain. We were all huffing and puffing in the mid-day sun so we decided to stop at the Lisu hill tribe restaurant. I really want to post a picture of the Lisu outfits because I was enthralled by them. They look like medieval dresses or magician robes made out of pieces of velvet and sparkly materials. I've never seen anything like it but the dresses cost 900 baht so I wasn't buying. The restaurant had a great view of the mountains...we were parallel with most of them! and the spicy Lisu food was amazing.

We finally made it to the waterfall and I went right for the water. It was freezing cold mountain water but I didn't care after what we'd been through to get there. This waterfall had some "sliders" which are like natural waterslides made by the rocks covered with lichen. You just literally let the water push you down into the pool. It was superfun. The bike ride back to town took about 15 minutes since it was downhill all the way and we just coasted. We had to take a nap after that ordeal but then we met up with a friend for dinner. We decided to go on a dinner tour of sorts because everyone wanted different things.

After dinner, we met up with the people in the Tonic Rays (the Chiang Mai band) and chilled at the Taku Art Bar which was full of amazing installations. This Austrailian woman with a phenomenal voice got up and sang and played acousticc. She was joined by a crazy, classically-trained violinist. You would never guess that they hadn't played together before. Everyone in the bar was spellbound and hushed and we just sat there for 2 hours listening. Afterwards, we went to see the Tonic Rays play a set at Be Bop, the local jazz and rock club. You definitely meet some interesting characters in Pai. The energy is very high and there's so much to do that it felt like a whirlwind.

By the time we got up on Monday, we had to get ready to leave. We returned our bikes and caught a mini-bus which was much faster and more comfortable than the regular bus. As we careened around the mountains, I nodded off thinking that it's so good to know a place like Pai exists and that I can go there anytime I want.

Our Kingdom...the Sun Huts

In Pai, we stayed at the glorious Sun Huts, which were luckily reserved by David. Everything in town was booked because of the bike night and the long 3-day weekend. The town was not only packed with foreigners but also Thais from Bangkok. Our guesthouse was a bit out of town which was nice. We rented bikes and drove over the river, past rice paddies and reached our destination. Go down a bamboo pathway, over a babbling brook and then you're there. The Sun Huts looked like paradise. We got a bungalow which had two bedrooms and a shared porch with tables and hammocks. There was an open-air sala which had a fountain and a fire pit and was full of comfy cushions and books to browse. I coudln't believe how cold it got in Pai! In the chilly morning, we would drink our hill tribe coffee and eat hot and spicy soups. I slept so well there cause you could hear the stream and the beds were comfortable and warm. I definitely plan to visit again!

Roadside on the way to Pai

Bike Day

Our friends the Lampang "Knight Riders"...they pretend to be fierce but they're pretty harmless. All of their bike are so gorgeous. The man in the cowboy hat is Gaeng who used to be in the band at our local bar. Unfortunately they broke up last week so we don't know where we're going to find more good local music. We're going to be in Pai this weekend during the bike night so I'll let you know what it's like. I think it will mostly be a bunch of people hanging out in the woods and showing off their bikes. I'm looking forward to hot springs and relaxing in the sun huts. Happy weekend to all!

Lampang Ceramics Fair

Karen and I had a chill afternoon looking around at the ceramics fair. I always think that Lampang has little to offer in the way of arts, but seeing all the amazing ceramics that are made locally really cheered me up. There were billions of 10 baht ceramic mugs and plates which Karen informed me will be even cheaper by the end of the fair. I can't imagine how much cheaper they could get. Come on, 10 baht is about 25 cents! There were also some nice art pieces on display. I love the female form with wings and the tea pot shooting electric blue tea into the mug. I took a couple of pictures of interesting people. I love the little boy helping his mom unload coconuts to sell and the Akha woman selling twigs (?) Finally, I included the Lampang skyline which is just gorgeous and makes me feel happy and free everytime I glimpse those heavenly mountains.

Random Temple Pics

Tee Hee! These are the lovely little statues that can be found in spirit houses. I like to think of them as the Homiez of Thailand. Also these are the ferocious green lions that I often pass by on the songtaew.

If You're Reading This,

You are loved! Just want to say thanks to everyone for checking in and keeping in touch. It really means so much to me. Hope you have an enchanting weekend.

All the Ladies

A night out in Chiang Mai with Hilary and Jessica. These are all my Lampang ladies at our potluck last week. Good times!