Reflections On Our Year in Thailand

So it's finished. We've packed up all our things, said goodbye to this incredible country we've come to love, and headed back home. It's something I've been looking forward to for nearly a year now, but also something sad. We've had homesickness and job uncertainty as well as amazing adventures and wonderful friends, and somehow it seems nearly impossible to be back to our old lives in Canada.

We've talked several times together while we've been here about how our life here seems so totally separate from our life back home. It feels vaguely dreamlike in its dissimilarity. This has been really apparent whenever people come to visit us; crossing the divide between our Canadian life and our Thai life, but is becoming a glaring reality now that we're coming to the end of our time here. Will it all seem real once we're back home? Will home be everything I've been missing and longing for for? What will we miss about Thailand? Will we ever get the chance to come back?

Sometimes I feel like I'm crazy to want to leave this place; there is so much here that I love. But, there are a lot of things I love and miss about Canada too. Before I fall asleep I imagine myself going on a walk in the woods back home; with the crunchy earthy smell of the fall leaves all around. When I'm feeling homesick I think about sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper on a Sunday morning while enjoying a good cup of coffee. I always knew that I was kind of a homebody; that I am a person who needs to be close to my friends and family to feel really content; but this has come sharply into focus through the homesickness I've felt here in Thailand. I now know that although life sometimes doesn't take you in the direction you expect, I really hope that I can convince it to let me be near my community of people.

On the other hand; we'll miss a lot of things about Thailand. Shane will certainly miss the beaches and the surfing. I will miss the amazing food, the excitement of my students when I walk in the classroom, and how incredibly Thai everything and everybody is (sometimes amusing, sometimes exasperating but always opening my eyes).

So we're both happy and sad to be leaving and coming back home. We're so glad that we've been able to share our experience through this blog, and I hope that you have all enjoyed reading it. Who knows, maybe we'll have to start a "Shane and Hannah's Adventures in Canada" to keep up with our exploits back home? Overall, this has definitely been an experience that has helped us to grow as individuals and as a couple and I wouldn't trade it for anything. As we close this chapter in our lives we'll just hope that the next one is just as full of amazing experiences as this one was. "The straight way's short, but the long way's pretty."

One orangutan, two orangutan, three orangutan four...

So far this vacation has been incredibly memorable! Our first stop after arriving in Sumatra was the jungle town of Bukit Lawang, home to the Gunung Leuser National Park. We signed up for a two day, one night trek in the jungle. The other trekkers were sporting some pretty flashy backpacks and trekking gear while Shane and I hiked the jungle in crocs (on me) and chucks (on Shane) but we made do.

Gunung Leuser National park was home to an orangutan rehabilitation centre, and is now home to wild and semi-wild orangutans. A semi-wild orangutan is one who was originally in captivity but was rehabilitated at the center and now lives in the jungle. At this point they are no longer taking rescued orangutans as the park has a healthy and stable population. The park is also home to other monkeys and even some Sumatran tigers (although it is VERY rare to spot one of these).

Our guide was a charismatic fellow named Thomas who has been leading treks into the jungle for over 20 years! He was really knowledgeable about the jungle and a great guide. We were impressed with his commitment to keeping the orangutans and the forest healthy as he asserted that even our fruit rinds had to be packed out with us so that the orangutans don't get used to following around tourists for food!

This is a Thomas Leaf Monkey. They have hilarious hair.

 After a long day of trekking we got to our campsite which was near this beautiful waterfall. What a great way to wash off the grime from a day of walking in the jungle! After a delicious camp supper of various Indonesian dishes our guide told us some interesting stories about the differences between Western and Indonesian cultures.

During our trek we saw a total of 11 orangutans, including a bit of a close encounter with one named Jackie. She was one of the orangutans who was released into the wild by the rehabilitation centre so she isn't shy of humans. Jackie is a clever girl and has figured out that she should go for people's backpacks in the hope that there will be food inside. If that fails, she grabs a hold of a tourist... luring the guides into bribing her with food to make her go away. Although our guides do not normally feed the orangutans, this was a special case as they were holding us hostage! Shane noted that the orangutan's grip is surprisingly strong...

We also saw several other kinds of monkeys in the park, as well as birds and some beautiful plants. Thomas showed us all kinds of plants and trees that are used for food, medicine or other things in the jungle. We even got to taste the bark of the quinine tree (not advised, it is VERY BITTER) which helps to keep away malaria.

It was definitely an experience that neither of us will forget, it isn't every day you get to see an extremely rare ape in the wild!

Time for Vacation!

Yes, the semester is done and after we finish our weekend classes this Saturday and Sunday we'll be headed off to Sumatra, Indonesia. Sumatra is a big island right on the equator, but has fairly mountainous terrain so we may be in for a little bit of refreshing cooler weather. This is one of only two places in the world where Orangutans still live in the wild so we're really hoping for a sighting. There is a national park where apparently sightings are very common so we are definitely heading there for a visit!

We'll try to update while we're there but aren't sure about the internet access so it might have to wait.

If you're interested, more information on Sumatra can be found here and here.

My Baby Brother in Thailand

His visit might have been short but we got a lot done! Tim arrived on Saturday night and we took him shopping to shake off the jet lag, then sent him off to Rayleigh on Sunday for a little time on the beach. After the beach it was a night at pub quiz, and some celebrating my birthday.

Good times were had by all!
The next day was snorkeling. No pictures there, we forgot to put a memory card in the camera! We took Tim to our favourite restaurant for a birthday dinner and then ice cream for dessert.

On Friday we spent the morning at soi dog walking THREE pens of dogs! So many happy tails.

Next it was time for a surf lesson! Teacher Shane took Tim out to the beach to teach him to surf. Tim did great and even managed to get onto a few waves on his first day!

The last stop on our whirlwind tour of Phuket was the big buddha. They are building this monument on the top of one of the mountains here in Phuket. In order to help fund the project they let you buy a square of marble and write a message on it; then they use the square to continue the mosaic on the buddha. Tim took this opportunity to get a little thank-you gift for Aunt Barbara who generously helped to fund his trip!

We were sad to see him go! Luckily I will get to see everyone VERY SOON when I come home on October 6th!

Monsoon Racing

In Phuket, monsoon season supposedly runs from April-October. We were a little apprehensive when we moved here, picturing rain all the time for six months. However, it turns out that for most of monsoon season it is actually pretty damn sunny... until the last few weeks.

All of a sudden, our tropical paradise has turned ugly. The rains come often, they come fast, and it rains really hard! I don't know about rainfall in other parts of the world, but if you took the average Ontario rainstorm and multiplied it by 5 you wouldn't be far off.

Unlike rain back home, which warns you with days of gray skies before anything actually happens; Thailand's rainstorms come within a few minutes. Today's rainstorm went like this:

I drove back from the apartment under partially cloudy skies.  (Neither blue nor gray skies seem to be an accurate predictor of good or bad weather).

I called Shane to ask where he wanted to go for lunch. "Soup place sounds good Shane, I see a big cloud coming over Monkey Hill... it's about to start raining I've gotta go!" At this point I figured I had maybe 2 minutes to get indoors.

I started walking down the sidewalk. Suddenly I heard a "whooshing" noise, it sounds a lot like wind but we've been here long enough that I knew to turn around. I saw this...

Monkey hill and our apartment building were already being poured on. There were 100 metres between me and the motorcycle repair shop (which has an awning over the sidewalk) and of course I was carrying my laptop in my backpack. I started to sprint...

The rain was chasing at my heels but I managed to make it... until next time monsoons.

A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Rental Bike

Today's post SHOULD have been full of adorable pictures of our dog-to-be and his friends. Today I was headed to the north end of the island to the soi dog shelter, but Shane needed to head south to go surfing. Our solution was to rent a bike from the place down the road, not too expensive and then we could both go where we needed to. Or at least so we thought...

I headed up the highway and stopped to fill the bike up with gas. After filling it wouldn't start! The nice guys at the gas station helped me kick start it (the electric starter was dead) and I was off.

Fifteen minutes later I was driving along when I heard a "pop" and suddenly the engine was revving but the bike wasn't going anywhere. The belt had snapped :( I called Shane and he gallantly came to my rescue at a TINY repair shop in the middle of nowhere (a cow across the road was roaming around eating grass while my bike was fixed). We switched bikes so he could take the broken one back (and then head out south to the beach) and I could still get to soi dog since I was halfway there.

I headed off on our bike, and arrived at soi dog just in time to answer my phone. It was Shane "arrrrrgh the belt broke again, I am stranded on the side of the highway". I quickly explained to the soi dog staff the reason for my super quick visit, and headed off to rescue Shane.

After I found Shane on the side of the road we went back to get the original mechanic, who talked on the phone to the rental place. The rental place said they would come get the bike, of course this is Thailand so they didn't exactly jump on it and we waited from around 11 to 2 for someone to show up. Too late to go to soi dog we headed home...

What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad motorbike!

Dog Love

As many of you know, I have been volunteering every week at the soi dog shelter since we arrived in Phuket in April. It has been a really great experience and I continue to enjoy going out each week to walk and hang out with all these lovely dogs.

What you might not have known, is that we have been thinking about adopting one of the little guys for some time now! It is impossible to see them every week without falling in love.

After much deliberation (it is pretty hard to choose from almost 200 dogs) we have decided on this one!

 He is medium-sized and has nice thick fur, perfect for coming home with us in October when Canada starts to get cold! It might be a bit of a change for him, but I think he'll really enjoy the cooler temperatures (most of the dogs here don't look like they enjoy the heat too much)!

 He is a really sweet calm boy. When the other dogs are climbing all over you to get their turn to be petted or walked, he will wait on the sidelines until there's a space and then snuggle in to have you all to himself.

 We can't wait for everyone to meet him!!!

We haven't decided on a name yet. He has a name here at the shelter but the dogs don't really know their names and we don't really like it... I am still processing the fact that we are actually going to be bringing this little guy home with us in just a little while! Sooooo excited!