From NKP to Chiang mai - summer break travels

The past couple weeks have been amazing, both hectic and relaxing at the same time. I was finished teaching sometime during the first week of March and after going on a school field trip to a temple in Roi Et province with the graduating M.6 students, I packed my backpack and took off for Bangkok! From Bangkok I went back up to Isaan, to Khon Kaen, to help out with and English camp and then I was really on my way to Chiang mai, where I've spent the last week at this wonderful hostel right outside the Old City (where most of the tourist stuff is). I'll admit that I was a little worried about traveling alone - how would I meet people, would I have fun on my own, etc - but it hasn't been an issue at all. Even on day 1, I met people to travel with around Chiang Mai and may even meet up with some others down south. It seems most travelers are either going up through Laos from Chiang Mai, or they're headed South. In my case,  I'm headed to Phuket this afternoon (gotta love overnight transportation) and then island hopping for several weeks. So that's the plan and here are some pictures from my travels so far

(The view from Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkhon in Roi Et)

So you can't truly see the temple, but you can sort of see from this picture how far up it was - we were able to spot the pagoda about half an hour before we actually arrived at the temple, it's just built into the side of the mountain and surrounded by trees. Part of it was under construction. It's supposed to be one of the most important wats for the people of Roi Et. Uploading those pictures soon..

With some of the M. 6 students in the Science Club (they test into it in M.4 and continue with the same students until they graduate). 

Just a few of the students - about 200 students went on this trip - we had a 4 bus long caravan and as many of the students were late, we kept stopping on the side of the road to pick up straggling students even an hour into our drive! Roi Et is about a 4 hr drive from NKP. 

Wat Benchamabophit in Bangkok - Haley and I stopped there to see Chokee - our monk friend who lives in New York and who we met in NKP!

With Chokee - women aren't allowed to touch monks nor are they allowed to stand too close....we never quite know if we are doing everything correctly or not...

Sitting down in front of the buddha image at the wat - you aren't allowed to stand in front of a buddha image as it's disrespectful.

Before meeting Chokee in NKP, I was extremely nervous around monks. I never know what was okay for me to do as there are all sorts of rules that monks have to follow regarding women. I would lower my head so that I wouldn't make eye contact or just wai to any monk I was passing. Turns out monks aren't so scary after all! It's polite to wai to a monk if you pass close to them and women really can't stand close to a monk. When receiving something, you must just put out your hand, as you don't want to be taking anything from a monk. There are all these intricacies to behavior around monks that I still don't understand, but at least they no longer make me nervous!

After spending a day or two in Bangkok I was off to the english camp, which was much like the one in Ubon though we did end up sleeping on the floor instead of a hotel. Still, just as comfortable. Only problem with this English camp is that on the way, I managed to lose both my phone and reading glasses. oops...

After khon Kaen i took off for Chiang Mai which was a bit of a long ride. But once I got here, everything has been wonderful. I'm hogging the computer so I'll just upload pictures later and give a brief outline...

Doi Suthep (wat in the mountains), Tiger Kingdom (got to play with baby tigers!!), a man made lake for some R and R, walked around the old city, met up with two people I sort of 'knew' here in Chiang mai (friends of friends), went to the SUnday walking street market - soooo much stuff - and just hung around doing nothing at the hostel with some poeple I've met here. All in all - awesome week. 

Pictures for sure in the next post. Off to phuket! Wish me luck :)