Finally Settled In

Graham and I have finally settled into our new home, and I have to say that I am STOKED! We are living in a cabin campsite and each have our own little room and shower. But, the best part is that we are right on a beautiful (and currently very fast-moving, as there has been lots of flooding around Thailand the last week or so) river, and the grounds of the place are beautiful, complete with hammocks, outdoor eating areas, and lots of picnic tables and plants and trees. We are a bit out of town, but it is nice to get away from the city a bit, where we live feels very rural. But our little city is great too.

Dan Chang is so small it is not in any of the guidebooks (not even in Lonely Planet-GASP!) but it has a market, a gorgeous wat complex (wats are Buddhist temples, sometimes I can hear the monks chanting from my room!), and even a college. We have gotten plugged in with a few ex-pats, and it is pretty crazy to hear a bit about their stories, and we have attempted to speak with a ton of Thai people. Everywhere we go people say hi to us, everyone seems excited to try their hand at a bit of English. Graham is especially popular, all the girls LOVE him (hey, what's new? or should I say, wat's new? 555-only people familiar with the Thai language will get this joke! sorry to be exclusive here...:) ) and they all giggle when he walks by. We almost caused an accident today when 3 little girls were crammed onto one kids bicycle, and the girl who was steering the bike turned around to look at us and they all almost toppled over! But they, and everyone so far, were so sweet and really warm and just darn adorable! The Thai people really have been nothing but so loving. No wonder why they call it the land of smiles...

I don't want to bore anyone with the details, but we also just finished a week of intensive training and language courses to help us teach English and speak Thai. We have been practicing our Thai and picking it up pretty quickly (Graham has a pretty good accent already! Spanish was sometimes a bit tough for him, but he is a natural with Thai! Not that I can really tell but people tend to understand him pretty well). It was so exciting to learn so much in just a few days, and we met some REALLY amazing people. It is crazy what fast friends we made, I seriously miss them already and look forward to meeting up with some of them during vacations. Everyone had a crazy cool story to tell and I loved getting to know some pure gems. (Lacey, not that kind of gem! Perv!) I will never forget swimming with them at 2:00 am. Alcohol may or may not have been involved. Exploring Bangkok a bit and seeing the unreal Grand Palace was also a highlight.

Some other highlights thus far have included a $5 hour-long Thai massage, getting to see the Bridge over the river Kwai, riding an elephant named Roi, eating some amazing mango sticky rice, and exploring some awesome markets. I was expecting to hurt after my Thai massage, I kept hearing about how rough they are with their clients, but it was actually pretty mild and I only had a few bruises afterwards. Seeing the infamous Death Bridge at dusk was a truly incredible and somber experience; seeing something that caused so much death and suffering is always hard to deal with.  It was overwhelming and darkly beautiful. The day we rode the elephant Noi was no doubt one of the best days of my life. Seeing such gorgeous animals so close up is emotional, and again, overwhelming. They are so powerful and majestic-horses have nothing on elephants, and I love horses! Noi was a young male (and daddy to 4 baby elephants at the preserve) with gorgeous tusks and lots of cool tricks. His trainer was really nice and obviously loved him. All of the elephants seemed healthy and had a lot of space and food and attention, so I felt good about going to the preserve and supporting their cause. I just cannot put into words how cool it was! Noi walked in the water and trumpeted and we fed him a ton of bananas. Graham was making fun of me because I just had the biggest grin on my face the entire time and spent a ridiculous amount of money on bananas. My heart was rushing and expanding and I was just as happy as a little elephant-loving clam.

Today was yet another great day, I just got out of sitting in the river for an hour drinking a beer and cooling down from a warm day of exploring. We are really loving it here so far, and are off to the ancient capital of Siam, Ayuttya, tomorrow. We will write about our trip when we return.

Beijing was also fascinating and so cool to see, as was Bangkok, but this post is already too long, so I will have to postpone that until another day.

Love to you all and tons of hugs and kisses from Thailand!

Natalie