Pai, Songkran, and a New Traveler

        Last week we headed up to Pai, a small town on Northern Thailand that we kept hearing about on out travels from fellow backpackers. We had an interesting ride to Pai, to say the least. To put it quickly, we were jammed in 1/4 of a pickup truck back (the rest was full of stuff) with three thai teenagers, driving up a road that they make tee-shirts about due to the 700 and some turns/uturns it takes to get to Pai over the mountains. Luckily we only hit one chicken, which smashed the front light, and only rubbed one guard rail on an espcially tight turn, making it there safe and sound. In Pai we had a relaxing couple days filled with a great Thai cooking class, and a Thai massage class the following day. Both were very informative and I'm sure very useful for the future. The area itself was really beautiful, lots of mountains, and a great little town full of stalls and cafes.
      After Pai, we took the bus back to Chiang Mai to stay at the house of Judy and Richie, friends of a friend from Lizzie's family in Chicago. Jusy and Richie lived in New York for 30 years and are now retired back in Chiang Mai in really great house with beautiful gardens. They took us in like family and piled us up with more Thai food than we could handle (Judy loves food and is a great cook as well). These few days also happened to be Songkran, the Thai new year. It is also known as the water festival and in Chiang Mai has turned into absolute mayhem. The streets are crowded with thousands of people, mostly Thai, with foreigners mixed in, in an all out water fight for three days straight. Every truck that drives by has eight people in the back, and three trashcans filled with water and buckets to throw on the crowd. Everyone in the crowd is armed with giant super soakers and buckets of their own to battle the trucks as well as each other. To make it all even crazier, there is loud music blasting from different stages and trucks with ice blocks that some people have the coldest water possible to dump on you. This goes on from morning until night in the center of Chiang Mai. Luckily, after the 200th bucket of water gets poured over your head it's all the same; though you never get used to the ice buckets. It was a really fun time, comparable to a spring break like atmosphere down in Florida, but much better.
        Three days ago my Mom arrived in Chiang Rai, Thailand and we met up with her that afternoon! Since then we have been having such a great time together exploring the markets of Chiang Rai, ordering all the best Thai foods, and for the past two days we have been on a bike trip through northern Thailand with our guide Bee. It is such a great change of pace to ride through smaller towns on bike and to enjoy the beautiful countryside and different farms. Tomorrow, we have one more day on our bikes before heading into Laos for ten days, where we will meet up with my dad. For all of you family members worrying, mom is doing great, and Stef and I are trying to keep up with her. We just enjoyed a nice Thai massage and are off to the Opium Hall in the morning before heading out on our bikes. Hope everyone back home is happy and doing well. Love, Mas
    

Pygmy Seahorses and Giant Olivers

       Tonight is our first night back in Thailand so, as always, we celebrated with a trip to the night market for pad thai, spring rolls, fruit shakes, mango sticky rice, and banana roti. Amazing. Our last week in Bali was a blast. We took our rented moto up and around almost all of Bali. Our first big leg of the trip across half the northern coast line took three hours and was spent nearly entirely in a torrential rainstorm..not very fun on moto. We arrived at our final destination in Lovina late that night and after two hours of bargain hunting found the best room. We went on a morning, 6AM, dolphin watch on a tiny Balinese boat and saw two dolphins for a total of 3 seconds. The more entertaining part was watching the 40 other boast zoom around in packs every time one boat appeared to have seen a breach. After that we took our moto to the NE corner of Bali to look for Oliver, who we knew was docked somewhere off the Menjangen Resort bay. Two hours of motoring and we found ourselves at the beach looking out at his ship the Mir. I stopped to help some locals and a westerner fix an anchor while we waited to try and figure out how to get to the boat. Turns out that westerner was Laser, the owner and captain of the Mir, and the mooring we were getting ready was for his ship. Soon after, we found ourselves aboard the Mir with Oliver and the rest of the crew, enjoying some lunch and an amazing view of mountains, volcanoes, and ocean. We ended up spending the entire day on the Mir, helping with daily chores and mooring the ship. We had dinner and left around 9 to get back to Lovina for the night. Our next two days after were spent in the most amazing world ever. We went diving, four dives in two days, at Menjangen Island, which is known as one of the best dive sites in the world, especially for coral. It was incredible. Our first day was highlighted by spectacular hundred meter walls covered in every color coral and every color fish you could imagine as well as five black tipped shark sightings (The Mir had seen two sharks on twenty some dives so it was very lucky). While I thought it would be nice to get a closer look at them, Stef, Wide eyed with terror, went torpedoing in the opposite direction. Day two was highlighted by equally amazing coral  and the sighting of the pygmy seahorse (three) which is the smallest seahorse in the world, about 1cm long. The big time divers come from all around the world hoping to catch a sighting of these guys in this area, often with no luck at all. A frog fish, also very rare, and another shark topped off a great trip. We spent our last day and a half meeting up with Oiver back in Ubud and saying our goodbyes at Yayasan. I will definitely miss Bali, but am excited to get back to Thailand as well. Hope all is well back home, Love Mas

Shipwreck Scuba

        This weekend we headed to Amed. While there we realized the main attraction for Amed was scuba diving and we decided our time had come. I needed a refresher course from 8^th grade and Stef decided to begin her certification class. For our first day, and only day so far, we spent 20 minutes in the pool learning and then it was off to Tulamben for two 35 minute dives at the famous USS Liberty shipwreck! It was torpedoed in 1942 and then knocked out and under water by a volcanic eruption, Mt. Agung,  in 1963. It was Unbelievable. The amazing abundance of coral was all so bright and fish were everywhere and every color. We were in disbelief of this new world we found ourselves in and so quickly too. We dove down to a depth of 50 feet on our second dive which was incredible. When we looked up at one point we saw a school of thousands of silver fish circling above us. There were sharks in the area, but we missed them this time. We did come across an enormous barracuda which was pretty awesome. It was about 6 feet long and had teeth about that long as well. The amount of life we saw in such a short time was incredible, from the thousands of coral species to the thousands of fish species and all in about 60 feet of visibility underwater, crystal clear. I hope pictures will be better able to explain our dive as its hard to put into words.

 

 Barracuda!

 

                                                                     Beautiful Coral

  

                                                                             Fish Above

                                                           All this coral is growing on the ship

Field Trip

       Sadly, today was our final day teaching at Yayasan Widya Guna. It has been an influential three weeks that I have really enjoyed from start to finish. I have especially loved our morning special ed class which I blogged about before. They are all so enthusiastic, celebrating every right answer with multiple fist pumps and high fives around the class. They are eager to learn despite their difficulties learning and always entertaining. Our oldest student, Putu, is always amazing us with his dance moves and passion as he performs rock and roll songs up front, using the chalk as his microphone. Our afternoon class was also great, though a bit less organized. We had the kids for two hours and were told to teach anything in English. This left lots of room for creativity but was also more difficult without any guidance. The kids had okay English skills and were much more interested in games involving being chased and thrown in the air. To be fair they were arriving after real school and probably a bit burnt out on learning for the day. It's also tough as we have such limited Indonesian. None the less, I loved working with all the kids and learned a lot about teaching...I think.
        Last Friday we took the mentally/physically handicapped class to the zoo and the beach. As you can imagine this was one of my favorite days so far all trip. At the zoo they all got to hold iguanas, parrots, and even pet the deer. There was also an amazing bird show which our older kids participated in. They had eagles and hawks landing and eating food off their outstretched arms. It was so great seeing the amazement on their faces as these birds of prey swept past their faces. The lions, tigers, and even the orangutan were all very cooperative as well, and all came right up as close as they could get to the viewing areas, which made it all even more exciting for everyone. After the zoo and some lunch we all headed to the beach at Sanur. Little did we know, everyone was terrified of water deeper than 1 foot. They loooved playing in the waves though, and I took a few of them out into the deeper water with me. This ended up being a little more dangerous for myself than expected as they koala beared my neck and chest with all their might in terror/excitement. Putu only lasted about 30 seconds before panicking and almost taking us both down. One of the greatest moments for me was getting to take our two cerebral palsy kids, Ayu and Ari, out with me into the water. They could not have been happier in that water. Uncontrollable laughter and screaming accompanied their kicking and splashing. It was a really great trip.

Yayasan Intros

     I am officially exhausted but feel the need to blog before I have too much to write..which may have already happened. Before I really get started I need to let you know that we actually farmed today! Stef and I got up early and headed over to Putus' farm, our neighbor, to help harvest his rice field. We helped cut and then bang (to knock the actual rice off the stem) the rice crop and he filled us in and the whole process and techniques for growing the best crop. It was great. Now to get started..we have spent five days at Yayasan Widya Guna where we are teaching. To correct an earlier statement, it is not an orphanage. At one time, orphans were living here but all have moved out at this time. Instead it is a children's foundation which provides extra classes for all of the children in the surrounding area as well as some of the only classes for mentally and physically disabled children. School ends at lunch time for primary school so afternoon classes are held here daily for these children from 2-4pm. Yayasan provides sponsors for over 100 children, and these sponsors financially put these kids through the extent of their education. Many of the children here have lost parents, some to the Bali beach bombings in 2005, but all except 8 sleep at home. Of the eight here, two are children of the founders Ketut and Nyoman, and three are his sisters sons. Yayasan also provides playing fields, a computer room, dance classes, and music classes for all of the children.
      Our main task to date has been teaching the mentally disabled class each morning Monday-Friday, alongside Nana, their Balinese teacher, and at times, other volunteers. There are usually around eight students with either downs syndrome or cerebral palsy and one with severe autism. It is an unbelievably challenging job teaching this class without any background in their language, but by using pictures, white boards, games, and Nana, we are able to make good progress. The kids are amazing and I find myself fluctuating between excitement, frustration, love, and heartbreak very quickly. There is one girl I find myself especially attached to named Ayu who is wheelchair bound by cerebral palsy. There is no question that she is extremely smart, and it is so so difficult to see the frustration in her eyes that her body won't do what she wants it to. She cannot walk, has minimal motor function, and has trouble getting words out. I find myself trying to speak to her through my eyes because I can only imagine what she wants to be able to say, and can't imagine how hard it must be to be trapped inside. When she does answer questions, they are almost always correct. It is really hard. The other kids are all great and each has his/her own difficulties and sadnesses. This said, they are some of the happiest kids you'll ever meet and loove coming to school. There is lots of high-fiving, clapping, and chanting going on for every assignment.
       Some afternoons we have been teaching the younger primary school kids from 2-4. They are all great kids and their english is good. Daily activities with the kids include yoga, baseball, roughhousing, and helping with homework( for the ones that live here). I will not embelish for now as this is already getting long.
       In our spare time we have been keeping equally busy. We rented a moto for three weeks so that we can travel around on our days off, and we have visited spice farms, sarong weaving businesses, markets, and warungs(cafes) in the surrounding areas like Ubud. We tried local Kopi Luwak (for those who know what it is) and also took our moto up to Mt. Batur, an active volcano north of here which was beautiful. One night, Stef and I got dressed up in our finest Hindu attire (sarongs, sashes, headdress) and headed to Temple for a ceremony to honor the gods. We were a little late but got to sit and talk to the locals and the Pomang Ku (he leads the ceremony) about how they pray and to whom. It was very intresting, and we have been invited for dinner at one mans house sometime in the future.
      Starting Thursday we are taking over the afternoon primary school class full-time so I will keep you updated and maybe get some pics on here. Hope you're all well and safe. Mas

Beautiful Rice Terraces (all over Bali)

 

 Stef and I in our Hindu Attire with Mapong and Kawi

  

Ayu

 

Our Classroom..and some of the students

Small World Big Friend

        For those of you who missed the last blog, we are currently in beautiful Bali. We had a very exciting encounter our first day and half in the great form of Oliver. We met him at his marina, during a massive thunderstorm, the nigth we arrived, as he was given a two nights leave from Mir, his ship. We headed out to a delicious Balinese meal and a walk around Kuta beach, the site of the Bali bombings, before heading to our less than stupendous lodgings, which consisted of two extremely narrow twin beds. It was an upgrade for Oliver atleast. The next mornig we got up early to walk to the beach after some breakfast omelettes. We swam for a while, enjoyed the sunshine, and headed North to Sanur beach for the afternoon and some more beach time. This beach was much quieter, almost all locals, and we treated ourselves to some 4$ massages before heading back to our room. After a quick rinse, we went to a local cafe for a dinner special which included eight or so different balinese dishes, and gave us great insight for our future dining. This was followed by live reggae music, aka Bob Marley, and some arak, a Balinese liquor. Eventually we found ourselves at a very westernized sports bar where we finished the night out with some drinks and pool. It was really great to run into a great friend so far from home and in such an amazing place. If I had to describe him in two words; dark and trim.
       Now Stef and I find ourselves at Yayasan Widya Guna, a children's foundation (orphanage/school) in Gianyar, Bali. So many thoughts and feelings are sprinting through my mind. An impossible feeling to portray in blog form right now, so I will have to embelish later. We are teaching, learning, and experiencing something new and great.

Thank You Grows!

        The last 10 days have been spent in luxury. We have been visiting my cousins on my dad's side, the Grow Family (Shawn and Glen and their children Sawyer, Corbitt, Sorell, and Caleb) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they live. They have been the friendliest, most generous hosts we could ever imagine, and it has been so much fun to spend time with their whole family.
       Our day to day activities varied, but always included a refreshing dip in their pool and lots and lots of all the foods we have been missing in our travels (like cheese!) Other activities have included baseball games and practices with their kids, movies, and city tours! It has been a real treat.
      On our city tours we investigated the many cultures of Malaysia. There is a large population of Chinese and Indians here so naturally we visited China Town and Little India. Both were very touristy and were highlighted by authentic meals (we got to eat with our hands at the indian stall!) We also visited Batu Caves, which is the site of a Hindu temple right outside KL. There were roves of vicious monkeys waiting to steal anything they could on the long 272 stair stairway up to the caves, and plenty of vendors to really set the mood. The caves were beautiful, and a huge Gold hindu statue guarded the entrance. Definitely worth the trip.
       Another highlight of our trip included a great jungle hike with Glen, Uncle Tom, and Marsha (Shawn's uncle and his wife who were visiting). The morning mist was hanging in the canopy and we found the leech population to be very friendly. Glen kicked up a triangle headed snake which I have yet to identify and on top of that we saw a Giant Blue Forest Scorpion which was about 7" long! It was surprisingly beautiful, an iridescent blue, and poised to strike. We are now well rested, clean, and packed for our next adventure which has changed drastically. Thanks to Glen and Shawn, instead of heading back to Northern Thailand to a new farm, we will be traveling south to Bali to teach at a local orphanage for three weeks!! Shawn and Glen are friends of the founder and have helped us set up this opportunity to live in the guesthouse while teaching and helping with the day to day activities. It should be an amazing time.  Hope your all well and ready for spring, miss you. Love, Mason
    

Batu Caves -Light Beam

Batu Caves Entrance

The Grows!

Giant Blue Forest Scorpion

p.s For those of you following Oliver's blog, you'll know he's also in Bali so we are planning to meet up before he sails off in two days!