Fieldtrip and other Thursday night fun

After one day of teaching at CBAT, the teachers told us that they were going to take us on a field trip. With people's schedules, we decided to go, on Johan's second to last day. Destination: Ban Chieng.

So we go into school like normal that day(which means waking up before 7am), expecting this to be a few hour trip with some of the teachers, but in the typical Thai way, it is nothing like you expect. It was an interesting trip for me regardless though because I was the only girl, with four boys(Bart and Jereon from Holland, Johan from Sweden and Andy from the UK).

We arrive at CBAT and are told to hop onto the vechile shown here. It is essentially a tuk-tuk on a huge truck, but its what they would call a bus. If nothing else, Air Con isn't a problem because it can't get hot when you are going fast on the highway. Big enough to fit about 20 comfortably, so in the typical Thai way there was almost double that amount. People were sitting on the floor, singing and dancing. It was quite an experience. They of course treated us like royalty and had enough food and drinks to feed an army. About 5 of the teachers we teach every day went, and the rest were a mix of students and other teachers. They took more pictures then we did it seemed, since many Thai people hardly leave their provinces(counties).

We arrived first, about an hour and a half later, at a forest temple, where Buddha went to meditate, and was protected by the Naga, or the 7 headed snake. It supposidly lives somewhere in South East Asia and the mythology surrounding it is similar to the mythology of the Loch Ness Monster(or Nessy as she is apparently affectionately called in Europe. P.S. I mentioned the parallel's I witnessed between Naga and Nessy and almost got my head bitten off by the boys who were trying to convince me that Nessy is real.) The temple was really pretty and very peaceful. I did not like though, that they made us pray. I mean on one side its "when in rome, do like the romans", and it looks rude not to, but on the other hand, if I have no idea what I am doing and only going through the motions, I'm not sure if I see a point to it. If Buddha really is an all knowing, shouldn't he know how I feel without having to bend three times, wai and burn incense? Johan and I had an interesting conversation here, in which he explained much of the Buddhism philosophy. We also prayed for things we wanted, and if you could make sound on this thing(in picture) then it will come true. Mine had sound!

Then we went to Ban Chieng. Ban Chieng is one of the oldest known archaelogical sites in South East Asia, which has also made discoveries which have affected world known theories. I would not know what they were though, because we spent a half an hour watching a filmstrip about the site as a whole and had like 15 minutes to walk around the whole of the museum before it was lunch time. I understood they used pottery, tools, and jewelry. I was most looking forward to this part, but the museum wasn't that great and we had little time to really traverse it. We had lunch as like a buffet style, where you order a bunch of food on the tables and take what you want. Thai food is very spicy, way too spicy for my Macaroni and Cheese diet upbringing, and I always have to ensure that the food is Mai phet, or not spicy. They swore up and down that this papaya salad wasn't spicy, but when I put it in my life, it caught fire I swear! Also, I had to use the Thai toilet and had no toilet paper. I had to use the butt washer. It was gross. Just thought I'd share.

We then had some time to shop around and I bought a few things. They also bought the boys necklaces and me a bracelet. Since Johan and Jereon are leaving they also got them t-shirts I believe. We took a few pictures and then got back in the vechile. It was 3pm at this point and I thought we were heading back to Nongkhai, but no such luck.

We wind up on a wine tasting tour. But by tour I mean a house that had some wine at it. There were three different kinds of wine and they all had different uses, such as to lower blood pressure, or to increase circulation. We had about 2-3 glasses each. One of them, apparently was supposed to increase, um, well it had the same active ingredient that Viagara has, if you catch my drift. So we decide to buy a bottle of that for one of the other Volunteers who's birthday was that evening. We also had some as well.

We get back into the vechile on the way back and they tell us that they bought us two bottles of wine, one for the bus, and one for our party that night. Yes, that's right. We had one for the bus. An open air vechile with the thai and farang's alike doing shots of wine in the truck bed. What kind of crazy country is this you might ask? One that loves to have fun, I'd say! I then decided to share with the boys that this was a weird trip for me being the only girl, and that I felt like one of the guys and it was fun. They then told me that they had actually censored themselves because I was there, so I told them to pretend I'm not here. Guy bonding + wine = a very enlightening experience for Lacy. I learned much about the inner workings of the male mind. We spent alot of time trading pick up lines. My favorite: you break a piece of ice in front of the girl and then say "now that the ice is broken..."

We arrived back in Nongkhai around 5:30 and had to get some meat for Charlotte's birthday party. So Jennie, Bart and I headed to Tesco's(like the walmart all-in-one store) after watching some of Sin City. I try to take a nap after knowing its going to be a ridiculous night. Dinner, which was supposed to start at 630pm, begins around 830pm. We had a BBQ at the Green dorm and chilled out. It actually cost us more then triple the amount to buy food and cook it then it did to just go out to eat, even in a nice restaurant. Either way we hung out there until 1030pm or so, and then Sam, Johan, Johanna and I headed to Surreal, with plans to go to Banana, the local Discoteck(sp?). After drinking a bit and having a good time, Jennie, Bass and Jeroen join us and we continued to enjoy ourselves. I had one of the greatest nights ever. It was very fun, I won't bore you or scare you with the play by play, but know I had an amazing time. Before we knew it, it was 3am, and we never made it to the disco. I was in bed by 4am.

I awoke at 7am to teach. As I was leaving the rest of the people who did not have to teach today were finally going to bed. Johan, was pretty much still drunk in class. I could hardly concentrate or write on the board. They made us dance and sing. It was the funniest thing ever. Then they took us out to lunch, and fed us so much food. It's now 1pm, and I have not slept more then 3 hours in 36 hours with plans to play tennis at 3pm and go out all night again for Johan, Charlotte and Melanie's last night. Should be ridiculous. Maybe I'll actually get to go to the disco tonight?