phi phi

Chrisy: I'm stuffed

Anna: we've been travelling for forty eight hours

Chrisy: yesterday, no it was friday, we got on that long tail boat, almost sinking under the weight of 8 very full back packs, and then it was a ferry, where over half the salt content of the ocean encrusted itself upon pur tann-ed skin, and then bus, another bus, another bus, then your family took us to that CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZY market where I ate caterpillars and was force fed little bits of sugary and fishy everythings and then ate more in an outdoor...

Anna: can i talk about the outdoor?

Chrisy: if you must.

Anna: my thai cousins took us to an all you can eat buffet wher you cook your own meat right in front of you, surrounded by millions of thai stuffing-their-face-types. megan, being a police officer was a novelty and my old aunty refused to accept that you guys didn't speak thai.

Chrisy: Um..Anna, in case you are forgetting, I was there.

Anna: ok let's talk about phi phi then.

Chrisy: Wait! and then it was an overnight train and a day in Kanchanburi celebrating the bridge over the river Kwai festival

Anna: How amazing was the light and sound show?

Chrisy: it included men on fire jumping off a bride into the river

Anna: fireworks, a remote control plane, and after that an overwhelming walk, in which we could barely move through the masses of people, shopping for everything under the sun. The following morning we had a sobering experience at the war cemetry where thousands of Aussie POW have been buried.

Chrisy: It was incredibly moving...and followed by more sadness as we farwelled megan and john and deni before jumping on a bus back to your place where FINALLY we saw your mum and dad.
and yes, i have to say, Phi Phi was good.

Anna: It was great.

Chrisy: Actually, yeah, it was amazing. I can't even believe it was real. the coulour of the water, the stillness of everything, the fire-twirling at night on the beach..actually, YOUR fire triwrling at night on the beach!

Anna: Can't forget the moment where you got up on a karaoke stage to sing 'lady marmalade' alongside drinks in buckets and thai boxing.
how incredible was the place we stayed? i felt so priveledged to be eating breakfast every morning sitting in front of this stunning creation. snorkkelling....

Chrisy: i know!! too bad when i snorkel i lose the ability to be aware of anything other than the INCREDIBLE fish and coral (ie. swim in the oppposite direction to everyone else and get lost in the ocean). I seriuosly couldn't believe God made all that. amazing.

Anna: How lovely is megan!! she's such a gem...but we were all so excited when the other girls could arrive...after their extended stay in Australia a.k.a. an airport full of flag wavers in Bangkok.

Chrisy: so so good. Megan is the best. I can't believe Lisa has been hiding her from us all this time! and even better when she is the owner of AN UNDERWATER CAMERA! the other girls arn't too bad though. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited when they arrived.

Anna: We seemed to have a pretty jammed packed schedule for them as soon as they arrived. (needed to make up for lost time we did). that day trip around the islands...swimming with sharks and mini nemo's was splendid...

Chrisy: and extremely effective in reddening our backs.

Anna:...more fire twirling (dean and gean...wink wink).

Chrisy: they just had nice smiles!

Anna: and soon...it was time to say goodbye to this friendly little 'niche/nook'.

Chrisy: Yes, that it was. (After over 5 disagreements of the meaning of the word niche)

Anna: "sawadeeekaaa pii JOY" were our final words.

Chrisy: I miss Joy already. Everyone needs a little man who walks behind you chatting and tells you to pay your bills, when you already have and sits behind a reception desk making jokes. Ah, our little Joy.

Anna: So chrisy....this all sounds rather lame. i think we are extreeemmmely tired! big day tomorrow...trek into the jungle. sleep time i think

Chrisy: ooooh yeah.. it's so good to be at your house again. i'm looking forward to curling up. this is going to be a big contrast to the week just been. i found the tourism of phi phi pretty hard.

Anna: This is true. it is pretty confronting when you think how comfortable everything is down there. and that it's not quite like how the rest of thailand operates.

Chrisy: So visiting the Telakon village this week is going to be a VERY different side of Thailand. My bag is packed- mosquito net, rid, malaria tablets...

Anna: doxy, and your dried fish?

Chrisy: check. your speakers?

Anna: we are ready to rock our way into this village.

Chrisy: appearances are everything.

Anna: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Chrisy: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz fart. "i can't poooooo"

let me tell you about Anna's place...

Anna's house:

Anna had told me it was a tree house. In the jungle. With about a million pets. Suffocating in flora and fauna. (Well, she said the first three, anyway). It's all true. As you approach the house, passing hibiscuses lining the long driveway, dogs start running, barking sawadee kas and jumping with the energy that only a dog can have. Anna's mum Jan yells, "Ebony! Nonny! Honey! Calypso!", and each dog obediently quietens down. At the front door of the two storey wooden house lie almost as many cats as there are pairs of thongs. The house is light and airy with with wide open windows on every wall. Out of the kitchen walks the lovely, smiling Helia, the Yawan's cook, followed by the incredible waft of lemongrass and coriander and all that Thai yummaliciousness. Upstairs is more openess, level with the coconut trees outside. A deck goes the whole way round, and a cool breeze blows. Down the bottom of the yard, after passing corn crops, rice crops, fish ponds, bamboo, is a river, flowing quickly.

At night, I lie in bed to the hum of the jungle, insects singing, lizards making noises I thought only a goose could produce, and Anna's dad, Jit, cutting bamboo downstairs.

Anna's town:

Huay Malai is a wee little place, with seemingly as many little bamboo made shops as there are smiling faces saying "AnNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!". Everyone is pleased to see Anna, surprised that she is not the same girl who left two years ago, and lots of happy Thai chatter always follows. There is one road in Huay Malai, on which there is one temple, two schools, a hospital (Anna's mum and dad are very much involved in one of the schools and the hospital, both of which are Christian organizations), Ba Busadee's INCREDIBLE little kwityiu (mmmm...I like this one) shop (plus about 15 replicas)and lots and lots of bamboo homes, made as high and precarious as the coconut trees that surround them.





Yesterday, Anna and I went to watch and help in one of the Year 4 English classes at the Christian school. The kids were gorgeous, learning how to say "How are yooooo?" and how to reply "I am happy" or "I am sad", "I am hot" or "I am tired" or "I am surprised". The latter ones were basically ignored, as everyone just wanted to be 'happy'.



Out of town are rice fields and rubber trees in perfect rows and kids swimming in the river and people on motorbikes and little kids in school uniforms riding pushbikes and games of soccer on fields, and a horizon like I have never seen before.




And the best way to see it all, is on Jit and Jan's retro bicycles. I think there may be almost nothing better than riding along an open road as the sun is setting, passing smiling faces saying sawdee ka as they enjoy the cool breeze of the evening, on a bike with big handle bars, a basket at the front and no breaks.



I L.O.V.E. being at Anna's place. Jit and Jan are the best, and I really do feel so at home. It's amazing to see the good and hard work thy both do for the name of Jesus. It is an incredible privelige to be a part of this wonderful family, and I'm thanking God for it.

All my love,
Chrisy xo

a first taste

It's so great to be back at one of my many 'homes'.

I Flew into Thailand the Monday after canoe trip, which seemed to concrete the idea that i was indeed on holidays-away from uni! Feeling excited, overwhelmed and a bit tired i stepped on the plane with a burst of exhilaration. 9.5 hours to go. That time went surprisingly fast; as i flicked through the huge movie selection (the setup in thai air is fantastic-might i add), slept a little and had a couple of wines.
I was greeted at the airport by mum and dad, and it was sooooo wonderful to see them and hug them again. This year's gone fast, but it's so great to be in their presence. I’m looking forward to some good ol’ family time!!

Went back to the guest house (that’s bang in the centre of city Bangkok) and by that stage it was 4 am (Aussie time) and all I could do was crash into bed, followed by a deep sleep. Nothing was going to stir me. The following days we spent roaming around the streets and water ways of Bangkok getting ourselves to the grand palace, booking train tickets for our little ‘posse’ and absorbing the sights and smells of the country.

It felt like hardly any time had past since the last time I was here. Everything seemed so normal. So, I wasn’t expecting to experience any form of ‘culture shock’, but I found myself going through a rude awakening, reminder…or in other words ‘shock’! Bangkok is incredibly diverse; the divide between rich and poor is really quite evident (but not as in-your-face as India). But the image that confronted me as we turned the corner in our taxi, was a beggar (with no legs) on the street counting the loose change that a few people had thrown him. I felt selfish and I wanted to cry. I’m pretty sure that when you live in a country with so much poverty, you become a bit desensitized to it. I think I had. And this time away obviously made me more aware, seeing how different things look to Australia. It was humbling and I needed it and I thank God for reminding me that the only real hope and security is found in Christ.

Met Chrisy in Kanchanaburi. It had been less than a week from when we’d said goodbye in the gong! So good to have her experiencing Thailand too. We ate dinner for less than a dollar and walked the night market. I love the moment after people realize that I can speak Thai. Their initial thought is to presume that I’m a ‘Farung’ (or foreigner) and when I surprise them with my somewhat accented-Thai…they ask me all about my background and I can have a good chin wag with most shop-keepers!!

Here are some photos of that evening





The trip home was enchantingly beautiful (as always) and the mountains were inviting me into their charm. It’s been a busy few days catching up with old friends, but I don’t mind it at all.



Much love
Anna xx

Our first post.

For the next three months we will be travelling the Asian lands- Thailand, Nepal and India. We will be joined by Steph, Hannah, Lisa, Sarah, Deni and many other waifs who cross our paths. With one day of having the enirity of our belongings strapped on our backs, we are proud to carry the prestigious name of 'backpacker'. Yeeehah!!

Here's a rough guide to our summer adventures:

November (or what's left of it): anna arrives first (woohoo for family time!!!) and then chrisy lobs in. We spend time at Anna's treehouse before meeting the mob of hooligans in Bangkok. From there it's beaching it up at Ko Phi Phi.

December: a trek into the jungle to visit a remote tribal village, travelling northern Thailand, spending the christmas and new year time with Anna's family and helping out where we can!

January: exploring Nepal (can't really say how excited we [sarah, han, steph and lisa too] are about this- none of us have been there), then joining a tour group of northern India.

February: staying at Hebron School in Udhagamandalum (pronounced wooooooooty with head wobble), visiting friends and helping at the school and at a beautiful little orphanage called Mizpah Home.

We sit now, in the Yawan's study, level with the trees and birds and mosqitos and crickets, happily tired after a day of wandering in the Thai heat, amidst bustling streets and fish balls on sticks.