bobandkelly-blog

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Kathy Came! Bob got a Job! Malaysia!

Hi All!

It’s been an eventful couple of months in this idyllic little village. Major occurrences include a visit from Kelly’s mother, Kathy, a promotion, a trip to Malaysia, and a kitchen remodel, not necessarily in that order.

Kathy’s Visit- For her first journey out of the country, Kathy chose to fly 18 hours to Thailand to see us! They spent 2 weeks enjoying beaches and temples in nearby Khao Lak and Phuket. Kathy said it was eye opening, beautiful, and cheap so hopefully that will help provide further incentive for more friends to visit soon. There was one small scooter accident during the visit but we basically discovered that Kathy is a ninja when she rolled over a car and popped back up like it was no big deal. Kelly was less ninja-like and ended up with some sweet stitches. The remaining days of vacation were taken at a little slower pace but were still filled with delicious food, street markets, and gorgeous beaches. Here we are feeding sea turtles.

Malaysia- Our trip to Malaysia was actually just to Kuala Lumpur. We hopped on a very reasonably priced plane to KL to go to the Thai embassy and get Kelly’s visa sorted for another 3 months. We also ate a ton of delicious Indian food. Apparently, Malaysia has a significant Indian population and is very proud of its ethnically mixed culture. The festivities became a little muted when I got the flu on the 2nd day and Kelly got kidney stones. Luckily the hotel room had good air-conditioning and Wi-Fi, so we spent some time recovering and binge-watching Orange is the New Black. When we did make it out we saw that KL is a very modern city that makes for an interesting mix of Southeast Asia culture and western influence. There were things like giant malls with street vendors just outside and walking down a dirt road lined by fabric shops with the Petronas towers looming over us. We explored some caves with a temple inside and make a point to find Mexican food and pizza. By the end of the trip we were both very happy. This isn’t the dirt road, but it is a cool picture of the towers.

I got promoted! I interviewed for my supervisor’s position and was offered the job. Starting at the beginning of the year I will be the Community Project Coordinator here at GVI Phang Nga for 2018. It comes with housing on the beach, a raise (I’ll actually be getting paid), and correspondingly increased paperwork. Ups and downs.

Kitchen remodel- Not what you think. Our neighbors for the last 3 months at the guesthouse were an older couple who have been coming to Nam Khem every year for the last 12 years. They think this was their last trip, so they gave us a bunch of their stuff. Mostly it’s the organization stuff we just haven’t gotten around to buying yet (shelves, silverware caddy, etc), but there were some diamonds in the rough. We scored half a block of cheddar cheese and some taco seasoning! Maybe this doesn’t seem like big news to some of you. I challenge you to go 4+ months without cheese. Also, Kelly and I have both been missing Tex-Mex, alot. Like Kelly would actually hurt someone for a burrito.

Those are the highlights from the last couple of months. Less exciting things are happening now. Work has been a little slow because October is a school break around here. No school and very low volunteer numbers combined for a lot of time to practice Thai and plan activities for the next few months. Kelly is figuring out that it may be tough to find work in this part of Thailand, so we’re exploring different possibilities for her. Monsoon season is tapering off now, but it was pretty wet for the first couple of weeks in October. There are definitely more tourists than there were before. High season is just around the corner, so we’ll see how that goes.

That’s about all I can think of at the moment. If I think of more, I’ll probably just wait until next month to write about it. Here’s a Buddha.

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#2

Post #2

-First is the worst. Second’s the best!

It’s been a little over a month since our last post and a lot has happened since then! Kelly and I bought a sweet scooter to help us explore, I released a baby sea turtle back into the wild, Kelly had a birthday, we went to Patong beach in Phuket, and monsoon season is in full force. 

I’ll start with the last one. I said in the last post that monsoon season wasn’t that bad. I was wrong. It’s sunny right now, but at any moment it might start raining and not stop for 4 days straight. Not drizzling or sprinkling either. Buckets of rain. Buckets. 

Back to the beginning- We bought a handy little scooter to get around town and the surrounding area. It’s the archetypal scooter. It tops out at around 50 mph and goes for 60ish miles a tank (1 gal). We bought helmets and look like the most touristy tourists riding on it together. I don’t think either one of us cares. and it’s been really handy for running to the nearby towns. Waiting on Song-Thaews (local buses) can be hit-or-miss. 

Baby sea turtles are super cute. Locals apparently find them delicious as well. A big part of my company’s conservation work here is partnering with the Thai Navy to protect the native sea turtle population. I was told that roughly 1% of sea turtle eggs in the wild reach maturity and almost 40% of sea turtles raised in a hatchery make it to maturity. Basically, the idea is that raising the turtles for 6 months to a year in tanks allows them to get big and strong enough to make it in the ocean, without the predators picking them off when they’re itty-bitty. I got invited to a ceremonial release for the King of Thailand’s birthday. I realize I didn’t do anything special, but releasing an animal into the wild gave me the warm-fuzzies.

 Kelly had a birthday! We invited over some of the staff and drank some moonshine with our landlord, Kohn Poon. He’s a nice guy who used to be a musician before the Tsunami. His father passed away and he came back to Nam Khem to support his family. He loves big-bikes (motorcycles) and he’s excited that a Harley Davidson factory is opening near Bangkok in the next few years. 

That weekend, we took a trip to Patong Beach on the west side of Phuket Island to celebrate some more. Patong is a tourist trap, but we took advantage of the opportunity to go a movie theater and a microbrewery. The movie was good. The beer has a long way to go to catch up to Oregon. We spent the weekend marveling at the number of tourists and avoiding people hawking sunglasses and sex-shows. It was an interesting time, but it was a relief to see our village again on Sunday afternoon.

Other tidbits- Kohn Poon just got 3 puppies from the temple, so Kelly has 3 new best friends. I’ve been working basically four 12 hour shifts and resting on weekends. I’m getting the hang of the job and am starting a school garden this week, so I’m excited about that! We also took a brief trip to Phang Nga town to deal with Visas and Work Permits. It’s a neat town in the shadow of two giant rock pillars that has a “Dragon Temple” which we’re going to visit soon.

-Just a bridge in the middle of nowhere. It’s cool-

I think that’s all I have for now. You are all still very much invited to come visit. Kelly is getting really good at cooking curry!                 

-And here’s a picture of a Temple in Phuket              

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Thailand: First Impression

-Somewhere after 24 hrs of travel and 14-ish time zones, you lose all sense of time.

-It’s hot here.

-People are fairly friendly, and don’t yell at you as you pass.

-Thai food is delicious, and usually under $1.50 a meal.

-Monsoon season isn’t as bad as it sounds, but when it rains it absolutely pours.

-WiFi is pretty common, so that’s nice.

Those are most of the big ones. We’re having the usual sensory overload from moving to a new country. We spent the first 4 days in staff housing, but there were no ceilings to our rooms. They could have just hung up shower curtains for the amount of privacy we had. Bob’s boss got us set up with a small guesthouse with AC and WiFi through the company’s landlord.

So now we’re all moved into our bungalow and you’re all officially invited to come visit!

This is the temple entrance down the street. They’re pretty fancy.

Bob is getting settled into his new job. He’ll be spending his mornings teaching English or monitoring volunteer English teachers at local schools, and his afternoons working at a center for children with various disabilities, ranging from Down’s Syndrome to Cerebral Palsy. His coworkers are predominantly Brits, but there are a few Americans and his boss is Hungarian. They seem like a fun bunch, and mostly younger than us.

I’m getting settled and enjoying having some vacation time. I’ve been trying really hard to learn some Thai but it’s pretty difficult. It’s a very tonal language (kha, kha, kha, kha, kha are all different words depending on the tone you use) and that’s pretty rough if you tend to be a quiet person when you get nervous like me. I wander into the village daily to try to talk to someone to practice. People are very nice so it usually goes okay, but it still ends up in a lot of pointing and smiling so, I’m working on it.

I think that’s all for now, this is a trial blog since we are both new to it. We’ll try to update it semi-regularly but no promises. Until next time, here’s a picture of the harbor where we live...