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More Ho Chi Minh activities. Lots of walking and admiring the pretty architecture. We checked out the Vietnam War Memorial museum, which was depressing and sad and also offered a lot of perspective, especially as an American. War sucks, guys. Let’s not do it anymore. We also tried out a ‘dine in the dark’ restaurant called Noir. The wait-staff are all blind, and you eat in total darkness to simulate the feeling of being blind. Definitely a really powerful and humbling experience. It’s real hard to find your water glass when you’re sitting in total darkness.

We spent a day at the Reunification Palace (also called the Independence Palace) and explored everything from the basement bunkers to the rooftop helicopter pad. The palace was beautiful and vibrant and all the rooms looked very grandiose and important.

#ho chi minh city #Vietnam

Activities in Ho Chi Minh included applying for and picking up my Non Immigrant B visa (great success), walking around and sweating a lot, getting hustled into buying coconut waters on the street, and admiring pretty architecture (I fell in love with the building in the 3rd and 9th pictures). Brian and I also took a lot of really unfortunate selfies, only a few of which will be posted here.

The day after Songkran ended I hopped on a bus and took a 14 hour ride down to Bangkok in preparation for a visa run. The destination this time was Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where my good friend from college, Brian, would be meeting up with me. Fun fact about Brian- He's an Ernst & Young business bro (can I say that Bri, or is that offensive?) and he has many Marriott hotel points saved up. Thus, we stayed in ritzy hotels our whole time in Vietnam, free of charge. It was ridiculous. I got to pretend to be rich for 10 days, which was weird. We spent the first 3 days in Ho Chi Minh before heading to the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc, which is just south of Viet and Cambodia.

Songkran Day 3 So after two full days of partying (the second of which featured 12 hours of drinking and losing Ky for a few hours in the middle of the night), we decided to take it easy on Day 3. Everyone came over to Blue Koi house and we ate and chilled and listened to music and sniped people with our water guns from our second floor patio. It was a pretty perfect, easy going ending to the three day festival. Songkran '17 was legendary, and I don't know if we'll be able to top it in years to come.

Songkran Day 2, or, The Day I Found the Perfect Party

So one of my favorite shows is a comedy called Broad City. It follows two slacker chicks named Abbi and Ilana on their adventures throughout NYC, and the stars of the show are also its creators and writers. I’m pretty sure the characters are just exaggerated versions of themselves, and they are hilarious.

One of my favorite episodes of Broad City centers around Abbi and Ilana’s search for the perfect party. They hop from apartment party to club party to rooftop party, all the while laughing with friends and dancing and drinking. But with each new scene, they’re sure that there’s a better party out there. They finally find their perfect party (which is a highly individualized concept, btw) in the form of a back door speak easy, where Abbi sometimes performs as a jazz singer when she’s drunk.

Ever since I saw that episode, I’ve been on a quest to find my perfect party. And I finally found it on April 14, 2017, or, the second day of Songkran. I can’t really articulate why it was my perfect party; it was more of a feeling. But I can tell you that it was a block party, so we were all dancing in the streets in the pouring rain, and having water gun fights, and the DJ was amazing, and the music was on point, and people were laughing and hugging and dancing on cars and we all felt free. You could tell that everyone felt free. AND, it was hosted by a coffee shop, so when I needed a break from dancing (which rarely happens, btw), I could get a cup of delicious coffee and chill inside for a sec. Everyone was super nice, and the vibes were dope. There was nothing more I could possibly want. So, I’d encourage everyone to get out there and find your perfect party. Real talk, it was a soul fulfilling experience.

SONGKRAN!

As I mentioned, Songkran is the Thai New Year, and takes place on April 13th of every year. The New Year is rich with tradition, and Thais often celebrate in a few different ways. Visiting grandparents or elder members of the family is important, along with cleaning and using water to wash important relics in preparation for the new year. Water is meant to be used as a purification medium, and Thais will often wash Buddha statues with water during this time. In the old days, Temples would bring Buddha statues out into the streets, and people would throw water on them as a means of cleaning them. That tradition is still ongoing (as seen in the first picture), and from that, an entire three day water festival has stemmed and become an integral part of Songkran tradition.

Participating in Songkran has been my favorite experience in Chiang Mai thus far. Three days of water fights and celebrations with my Chiang Mai fam left me feeling very lucky and full of love. The festival was so unique and reminds you that the world is so big and joyous and fun sometimes. Vicky and I walked to Marlboro (our go to bar) on the first day of Songkran and showed up completely soaked. Folks were stationed on sidewalks outside of their homes and businesses with giant tubs of (sometimes ice) water, buckets, and water guns. As we walked by, we were ceremoniously soaked and greeted with shouts of "Happy New Year!" But the main event takes place around the moat of the Old City. Thousands of people gather there for water gun fights and partying. Restaurants and bars blast music onto the streets. The beds of pick up trucks are filled with water, and people sit in them and soak passersby with buckets of water. The streets are filled with trucks and motorbikes and people honking and laughing and celebrating together. Oh, and everyone wears really brightly colored clothing (see Caitlin in the last picture). Thousands of people wearing bright Hawaiian-style shirts wielding water guns and partying for three days. And what a party it was. The entire experience was different from anything I else I'd ever taken part in, and I'm so grateful for the chance. And people were right. If you want to do Songkran right, Chiang Mai is the place to be. So much love to this city always.

Surprise!/nobody is surprised to hear that my super secret trip was back to Koh Tao to go diving with my friends again. I went down for 6 days, from Friday until Wednesday, right before Songkran started. I owe this trip to my Chiang Mai friend, Cara, who’s friend was visiting her in Thailand for the month. She made it her mission to make sure Cris got the full Thailand experience, so she squeezed in an impromptu diving trip to Koh Tao, and insisted that I tag along because she knows I <3 diving so much. It also meant I got to see all my friends at Phoenix Divers again. My three TEFL friends Molly, Caitlin, and Connor all stayed in Koh Tao after Vicky and I left and began their dive master certification. I’m only slightly burning with jealousy. Connor had just finished his cert, and I was lucky enough to witness something called the Snorkel Test on my first night back in Koh Tao. The Snorkel Test is basically the initiation into Phoenix’s Dive Master cert. It’s called the Snorkel Test because participants have to drink a mystery alcohol mixture through a snorkel, among other drinking challenges and activities. The test did not disappoint. It was hilarious, and we all headed to the bar next door afterwards and drank heavily. The last few days on the island were a lot more chill. I got 8 dives in (4 in one day!), and I truly felt at home in the water. I think I will eventually complete my dive master when I have more time and money to do so. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I will say that it was soul fulfilling to be back on Koh Tao diving with my friends. It was also lucky that Songkran was coming up, because if not for that, I’m unsure if I would have left the island. Cris, Cara, and I got back up to Chiang Mai on Wednesday night, and immediately had to gear up for Songkran on Thursday. If I had to leave the islands for anything, Songkran was a good reason. It didn’t disappoint.

An Announcement

I have two phones (someone queue up that Kevin Gates song): My US phone and my Thai phone. My US phone is still locked and can't take a Thai SIM card, so I got myself a Thai phone with a local number for everyday use. But that's not the announcement. The announcement is that my US phone is broken. So if you've tried to contact me in the past three weeks via Viber, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Snapchat, Chat Roulette (kidding, but remember when that was a thing?), etc., I'm [probably] not ignoring you, I just can't see it. And yes, these are all apps that various people have had me download as primary modes of communication. Now I am only available via Facebook Messenger and email ([email protected] holla atcha girl if you wanna be email buddies. Just know that my response rate is probably a 3/5 ratio). Between my away-ness and Thai holidays, I have yet to find an open Samsung store that can fix my phone without charging me an arm and a leg. And truth be told, it's kinda nice to be unplugged. One could argue that I've been dragging my feet to get my phone fixed because I feel much more present when I'm not constantly checking social medias. By don't worry fans (lolz), I'll get it fixed at the next opportunity. Like I said, until then, Facebook and email are what's up (not WhatsApp. I can't check that anymore).

I got a job! And other life happenings.

Okay so here’s a life update: I am officially employed! At a school! A Thai school! With Thai students! Who I will teach English to! Isn’t that weird?! I am officially an English teacher at The Prince Royal’s College, which is a K-12 school located literally down the street from my house. A friend of a friend works at the school and mentioned that they were hiring. He said he had a very positive experience as a teacher there, so I thought I would give it a shot.

The English teacher job hunting process in Thailand is a bit old school, because you’ll rarely get a response if you send your resume out via email. The smartest thing to do is go to the school you’re interested in with your resume, university diploma, passport and the like, and simply ask for an interview. More often than not the Director of Foreign Languages will interview you on the spot, and hire you straight away if they like you.

I had my interview, and they offered me a kindergarten job. I laughed and said no thank you. They offered me an M1 or M2 job (7th or 8th grade). I gratefully accepted. The school has 53 foreign language teachers, and the english program seems to be pretty organized and functional, which is not always guaranteed of a teaching job here. I start in early May, but first I have to get my visa stuff in order so I can apply for a work permit through my school. This also means I’ll have to go on a visa run before school starts, and apply for a different visa (no more tourist visa for me!). I’ve been spending the last two weeks filling out paperwork, getting fingerprinted, and googling one-day criminal background checks. All of my paperwork should be in order in a day or two, and then I’ll be ready for my visa run.

But before that, I have some fun trips and events coming up. I don’t want to jinx myself by saying too much, but I’ll be taking a trip this weekend, then I’ll return to Chiang Mai for Songkran (the Thai New Year) next weekend. The spirit of the new year is all about purification and washing away one’s sins. This culminates in a giant 3 day water fight. With like, water guns. I’m not kidding. Songkran is celebrated all over SE Asia, but Chiang Mai is apparently the place to be to celebrate it. I’ll post more once I’ve experienced it, but I am very excited to participate.

After Songkran I’ll immediately leave for my visa run to a mystery location, featuring a very special guest~~. Sorry to be so elusive, but I’m a bit superstitious when it comes to travel. I prefer to tell travel stories retroactively, rather than in anticipation. You’ll be hearing more from me soon, I promise!

-bb

Various nights out with TEFL friends in Chiang Mai. As much as I loved adventuring all over the south, it felt good to be back.

(Also Mike if you're reading this, come back, we miss u)

Ok so I mentioned that the non-free Ladyboy Show featured a Ladyboy Rihanna. We pretty much went to the show to see her, and it was not a disappointment. She was beautiful and very much did look like a Thai Rihanna, and I was excited because this was probably the closest I would ever get to real Rihanna, so pictures were necessary.

Additionally, my friend from high school, Annie, came to visit Chiang Mai with her boyfriend for a few days. I got to see and catch up with her, and it was lovely. I was upset that we forgot to take a picture together, but something I did document was her boyfriend Rafael’s participation in the Ladyboy show. Five dudes were brought up on stage and put in dresses and wigs for the final part of the show. Maybe I’m biased, but I think Rafael was obviously the best one up there. He made a fine ladyboy.

Caitlin dyed her hair pink and then we accidentally wore matching outfits. News worthy stuff here.

Down Time

When I finally got back to Chiang Mai, I had some down time after 7 weeks of nonstop events (4 weeks of TEFL, 3 weeks of traveling). It was weird. The priority was to score a job, and then everything else was flexible. Vicky was looking at language schools, while I wanted to work in a K-12 school on a one year contract. As we started the job hunt, we supplemented with hanging out with friends and visiting the spots we missed most while we were away. I spent a lot of time with Marisa, who would be leaving in a few weeks to teach in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jeremiah and Lexi, who were traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam while the smokey season picked up.

Smokey season, also known as burning season, takes place this time (March and April) every year, and it coincidentally (and cruelly) coincides with Summer/hot season. It’s when farmers burn their leftover crops to make the soil more fertile for the upcoming season. While it’s a farming tradition here, it results in lots of air pollution and a high smoke index. Some expats leave Chiang Mai, or Thailand altogether, for smokey season. It’s definitely been getting hotter and hazier as the days go by. You can’t see the mountains in the distance anymore, since they’re covered by the smoke, and it looks like it’s steadily getting worse. I wished I could’ve made plans to be away for smokey season, but like I said, the job hunt was the first priority.

Along with job hunting I’ve been doing a lot of reading and a whole lot of free writing, which I've never really done before. I’ve been journaling, drafting poetry, and writing critical analysis essays, just for funsies. I recently watched the horror movie Get Out, and I loved it so much that I wrote a piece about the sociology of racism in the horror aesthetic. I acknowledge that I am a weirdo, but some of my favorite days have been spent hanging out at London Tea Room, drinking a pot of lavender & chamomile tea, and writing. (Also, how pretty is that tea pot pictured above?)

Vicky and I stayed an extra day in Pai, while Marisa stayed two extra days. On my last day we visited two different waterfalls, and still made time to climb all the steps, visit, and wai the White Buddha. It was overall such a great trip, and I am so grateful that I have so many great friends in my life, even though I've only been here a few months. It also sparked an interest in making trips to other towns in northern Thailand. Those plans are in the works, but I'm hoping we'll get a move on them soon.

After we dropped Cara and Lily off at the bus, we hopped on over to Pai Canyon for sunset. The canyon is this network of sandy trails that are a bit like raised platforms above the trees. You can walk all over the trail, but it's a bit of an obstacle course with all the climbing and maneuvering involved. You don't want to fall down into the forest below, either, so you have to maintain balance the whole time. Watching the sun set behind the mountains was a great way to end the day, and Pai Canyon was easily my favorite part of the whole trip. Would 100% recommend.

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