New Ride & Elephants

I'm now one of the thousands in Thailand who own a scooter. She's a beauty, don't you think?

She's a 2012 Honda PCX 150. She's a lot of fun to ride too. Most of the scooters here are 110's or 125's and Thai's don't want the faster bikes, not sure why. I wanted something a little faster to get up the mountain. 

We recently had a visitor from Korea, a young lady, Jung Hwa, who Pat worked with at summer English camps. On Friday after she arrived I, along with a co-worker, took her up the hill on the scooter to visit a watering hole. This certain watering hole is visited by "falang", foreigners, who are on treks to ride elephants, go river rafting, and visit tribes in the mountains. We were hoping to get a glimpse of elephants and we weren't disappointed.

Here are a few pics:

These cuties were ornery! They would push you with their heads ... just like kids!

There were about 10-12 elephants there. People were coming in riding and then they would all go into a little pond like area. 





This is Jung Hwa ... she is currently a teacher in Korea. She teaches 5th grade. She was "excited" to ride with me on the scooter....crazy!

When the elephants would go into the water, they would poop ... big yellow looking hay balls. Soooo disgusting. After about 3 took a dump, in comes two ladies with thigh high boots and large butterfly looking nets. They were the pooper scoopers. These poops were as big as soccer balls and probably weighed 10 pounds or more. What was even more disgusting, those riding the elephants would go into the water and throw water on the elephants. Nasty

Dried poop ... I know, why would I want to put up a picture of elephant poop. Well, it's not everyday you see baskets of elephant poop. :)

Jessie, co-worker, says they make wonderful paper out of it. So .... I'm going to find some and maybe one of you will get a letter on elephant poop paper!!

THE END!

My First Week On The Job

This is what my job consists of:

• Wake girls up in the morning .... at least 3 times
• Check each room for cleanliness
• Welcome girls back to dorm after they are done with school
• Plan activities for girls on the weekends
• Make sure they go to bed on time
• Encourage them to go to meals
• Help them with their homework

I get paid to love on girls .... I get paid to love on girls! It's amazing, there's very little stress and it's quite nice. Sure, there are some girls who have attitudes but every where you go there are people with attitudes. I can make a difference... by showing love to these girls, I can make a difference. 

My first morning waking them up, I went to each room and I had the song "Good Morning" by Mandisa on my iPad and I blared it as I knocked on their doors to wake them up. Some sat up in bed wondering what the heck was going on and others looked at me like I was crazy but it was fun. The next time I went around I had the song "Happy" by Pharrel on my iPad. Some smiled at me and others still thought I was crazy. 

My work schedule is pretty easy and I get most days from around 9am until 3:30 pm off. Today I went down the mountain and went shopping to buy Abbey some dry dog food and I went to get a pedicure. The dog food cost three times as much as the pedicure ... :). I made it home without being run over or running over anyone. I call that a success.

My job is fun ... and I'm hopeful that I can share my faith with some of these girls. Loving on them is the first step. Can you love on someone who needs it? Can you make a difference in someones life? 

Enjoy your day!

Song Tau Beats Scooter

I consider myself an experienced rider. I've had my Piaggio Fly 150 for over five years. I love riding "her" and I've rode in rain, cold, and icy weather. Not too smart at times but oh well. ;). Riding is fun .... Most of the time. Not the case here in Thailand and even more so in Vietnam. 

Do you remember the game Frogger? For those who don't, Google it. The object is to get a frog across a busy road to the other side. Picture a busy road with thousands of vehicles on it. 70% scooters and the rest other vehicles .... Cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, and song taus. What are tuk-tuks and song taus? See below.

This is a tuk-tuk ....

And this is a song tau. It's basically a truck with a cover and two benches inside for seating. Pat had warned me about them as they are all about riders .... If they see someone that needs a ride they'll move fast to get to the left side of the road. 

Song tau beats scooter. 

Insert frogger game here and Joy on a scooter in the middle of chaos. Pat is ahead of me and I'm behind a song tau, beside a car, with another car behind me. I panic because I know what Pat has said about ST's and I want to get around it. You know what happens don't you? Yep, as I'm trying to make sure I don't hit a car on my left, I look left .... I shouldn't have done that . I run right into the song tau. Oh, I didn't tell you I have Abbey in her backpack carrier with me too. It's about 85 degrees and I want to cry. 

This is us waiting at the bank ... Before the crash and we're not hot and sweaty, in traffic, attached to a stupid song tau. The driver gets out and has a, you hit me look on his face. I give him the saddest look I can. He speaks Thai to me and looks T his vehicle ... No damage at all to his but my scooter is smashed in the front and side. He leaves and I try to find a place to pull over. I manage to make it to a Starbucks. :) Pat messages me and comes to meet me. The first thing I said to him was "Song tau beats scooter". The rental place was great about it and only charged us $106 ... At home this would be a lot more I'm sure. 

Both Abbey and I were fine ... We got back on another horse right away. I was nervous but it's how I'll get around here. 

Stay safe and watch out for scooters!

Hoi An

We left Halong Bay at 1:30pm by sleeper bus. So much more comfortable than by regular bus. It holds about 40 people. 

The ride is about 3.5 hours. We pass through Danang which is a very modern city. We hitch a ride on motorbikes to our hotel. It costs us about $5. The drivers tried to change the price once we got to the hotel. That's why it's best to get the price up front. :)

We go to a very nice restaurant for dinner with regular seats, no kindergarten chairs for us. It's very romantic too. 

Our meal is cashew chicken with veggies, spring rolls, pork in clay pot, and stir fried morning glory. We call morning glory a weed in the states but here it's a common staple and quite delicious. 

For the next couple days we rent motorbikes to tour the country side. You really get to see how the people live and work by scooter. We ride out to the marble mountain and on to Danang. 

We also ride to My Son, an ancient temple ruin that is similar to Angkor Wat but not as massive. 

 

Pat is not feeling well, has a tickle in his throat and has started coughing. We lay low both nights so we ring in the new year sleeping. Happy New Year everyone.

Note: some have said they have tried to comment but can't. I've changed the settings on the blog so hopefully you can comment now.