Bear Grylls' white whale...Phu Kradung

Sorry the internet is acting funny so pictures will be put up latter.

So the past month or so has been a little bit crazy at school. It is now January and I don’t think we have had a full week of classes since mid November. It seems like there is always some sort of festival going on that they need to get ready for and what better free labor supply than a school full of teenagers who must obey anything you tell them to do. Anyways I wont get that right now but there never seems to be Friday classes. Because of this weird phenomena and a couple scheduling errors, I have not taught my M6 students( my seniors) to this day two months after being here teaching. Haha only in Thailand… mai pen rai

Last week was an especially short week. I had no classes Monday afternoon because of the Christmas gift exchange party. Every student in school brought a gift and put it into the pot labeled with a number. Then each student came up and picked a number out of a hat, found the gift with the same number, and that was the gift that they got.  It was a fun little party for the kids with games and a student band playing a few songs.

are we in Disney World? whats up with these costumes

We didn’t have class on Thursday because of Sports Day which is pretty much like what we call field day. The difference is that the school is divided up into three teams and for a month they compete against each other in various sports after school everyday. Then Sports Day is the championship matches for each sport and at the end of the day trophies are handed out.

this was my team, the pink team

all the primary students watching the parade go by

oh Tom... awesome gloves, this is why you are one of my favorites

they don't have a track, so they made one

me and some of my hoodlum M1 students

Thursday night was the teachers new years party. I was so excited for this because it was the first party with all of the teachers, most other schools have had multiple parties, and the food is always amazing. And sure enough the food was superb, the whisky and beer was free, and of coarse the karaoke was blaring. The other teachers have been talking about this party for weeks and how I was required to sing a song. I tried to weasel my way out but it was hopeless. They handed me the mike and so I closed my eyes and tried to imagine that I was at The Mangy Moose with the Mad River crew singing along to James and Stackhouse singing “Country Roads.”
The next day I was on the road bright and early heading to Loei to eventually meet up with Peter, Rita, Sarah, Jackie, and Heather at Phu Kradung National Park where the biggest mountain in our area is located. They were a day ahead of me because I did not want to miss sports day and the party so I was traveling alone. I hung out in Loei for new years eve and stayed in a fantastic guesthouse for $6 a night.

the Sugar Guesthouse in Loei

Saturday morning  I was up at 3:45 AM to catch the first bus to Phu Kradung. I get there around 6 AM and sure enough the park didn’t open till 8 AM… mai pen rai. Being a holiday weekend, the park was packed. I guess it is the same as trying to go skiing over Christmas where everyone has the same days off.

I was pumped to finally get on the mountain. I had been itching to get out in the wilderness for the past three months. I was all geared up ready to go out into the wild with my hiking boots on, my name brand apparel, my big hiking pack and Bear Grylls as my wing man. But… this is Thailand, their idea of hiking and camping isn’t exactly the same as ours, as I would soon find out.

As I headed up the steep trail, I was a bit confused. “Am I on the right trail?” I thought to m

there were hundreds of porters carrying peoples gear up to the top

yself, “Are these people going the same place I am going?” Many of the people that I was passing were wearing flip flops, girl’s sandals, work cloths, and or they were carrying babies, dragging toddlers, smoking cigarettes, over weight, old or all of the above… and none of them had much more than a purse and many didn’t even have water bottles! To explain some of that last statement, just look at these guys and what’s along the trail.

So those pictures explain the lack of gear but how do these people make it to the top in flip flops, carrying babies… at the end of the day I came to the conclusion that it must just be their mai pen rai view towards life. Don’t have nice hiking boots, whatever. You’re 64 years old and over weight, no problem. You only have one leg, you are asthmatic, and you are carrying triplets, no worries… the guy next to you is probably doing the same. No one is in a rush to get to the top. When you get to the top, you get to the top. Much different than many western attitudes towards hiking of always having a ton of gear and you must make good time. It was kind of refreshing/ entertaining to see the / mai pen rai attitude applied to hiking.

I make it up the strenuous 4 miles to the top of the plateau and then to the campground right at 3 hours… I was told by many Thais that it would take 5-8 hours to complete and I guess it would I was hiking Thai style haha. I got to the camp ground, and there were fields full of nothing but rows of tents. We think there were probably 5-8 thousand people up there camping that weekend. And its not exactly what I would call camping. Yes, you sleep in a tent, but there are convenience stores, souvenir shops, rows of restaurants/ food stalls, bathrooms/ showers, and a visitor center. So when my friends told me that they did not want to spend another night up there (remember they were a day ahead of me), I was not very disappointed. I was in it more for the hike anyways. 

notice the old wrinkly hand sticking out. this guy was prob in his 90s and i guess
he wanted to see one more sun rise. we were not sure if it was a round trip ticket or not haha 

On the way down, we passed something really cool/ would only happen here in Thailand and it just reinforces how strong the family bond is here.

We stopped at one of the rest areas and got some fresh watermelon, "full of good vittamins" as Bear would say. Then we relaxed at this overlook and ate our watermelon. Then we kept going down to begin our long journey home.