Update...Sort of

After my last post, I have had numerous people hound me about providing an update to how things are in Thailand. More particularly, how things are going with Bow. So for those of you who have been asking, and you know who you are, here you go. :)

Things with Bow are going really great.
Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!!!!

However, she is currently in college at Ratchaphat University in Thonburi (an area of Bangkok) and so we don't get to see each other all that often right now. She is about a 5 hour bus ride and an hour taxi ride away at the moment, making it hard to travel down to visit her on weekends. So instead, we just talk on the phone everyday, sometimes more than once per day, and often for a couple hours at a time. But, yes, I still miss her like crazy. Talking on the phone is never enough.

This is a picture of Bow in her new College Suit. She is working on a Bachelor's Degree in Law and had to have a suit made for all those Law type meetings.

A couple of shots of Bow in her school uniform

Random pic of Bow sitting around waiting for the bus

And a couple pics of her new, slightly curly hair style. I love her hair like this and tell her so all the time.

Dream World

A couple weeks ago (last week in March), I went down to Bangkok to pick up Bow and bring her back to Phitsanulok. (Bow had been in BKK for two weeks visiting her dad and I really missed her). Anyway, on our last day in BKK, we decided to kill some time by going to Dream World in Rangsit Province. Dream World is kinda like a Thai miniature version of Disney Land but with a fairy tale story book theme. Here are some photos taken around the park.

Bow, her youngest sister Boom, and her mom, P'Tim sitting in a giant Papaya at the Giant House.

Giant Boots

and Giant Slippers

Bow and a giant hammer.

Played some cards with a skeleton crew

Bow standing next to a mushroom house

The two of us with a newly-wed ant couple

Bow following the line of ants

I like this picture.

Had to take a pic with the characters around the park.

And lastly, a bunch of pictures of Bow and I.

A fun, little place to visit, especially with the company that I had. :)

3 months

Ok, it has been about 3 months since I have posted anything to this blog. About time I gave a quick update.

I have been pretty busy with teaching during the week days and traveling all over the country on weekends. I have been over to Korat, Petchabun, Chiangmai, Chiangrai, Rayong, Chonburi, and Sukothai all since New Years. Lots of fun and tons of photos taken. Here are a few from various places around Thailand.

This was taken down in Chonburi

Taken at a park in Pattaya, Chonburi

On the beach in Rayong

At one of the local waterfalls with Bow :)

Doi Suthep in Chiangmai

At a mountain village somewhere in Chiangrai

Same village. This is Bow and her little 10 month old cousin Nano

A photo of Bow, just outside the village of Pai in northern Chiangmai or southern Chiangrai.

At the bottom of the stairs to a mountain temple in Phitsanulok

Taken in Sukothai, Thailands first capital city.

This is just a quick taste of many of the different places I have been over the past couple months. More to come later, maybe.

Tenth Grade Field Trip

One of the tenth grade classes had a field trip this past weekend and I was invited to tag along. We went to the province of Petchabun, to the area known as Khao Kho, which is about 100 kilometers to the east of Phitsanulok.  On Saturday, we stopped at a Buddhist Temple

where I rang all 108 bells.

Then we stopped at the flower garden outside the Khao Kho International Library.

Then we hiked up Khao Kho mountain, a very steep climb of 770 meters from bottom to top. My students all started together and made it to the top in small groups of one or two. Eventually everyone made it to the top and got to enjoy the scenic view.

and some of us rested.

After the quick trip back down the mountain, we went to a waterfall to cool off. This was a very small waterfall compared to some of the others I have seen in Thailand, but the water was nice and cold and felt very good on a hot day.

After camping for the night, we woke up on Sunday morning to a sea of fog.  We loaded up the trucks and headed out for a day full of site seeing.

First stop was a Soldier Museum.

Lots of old school military weapons and aircrafts

including this M.A.S.H. style helicopter.

Next was a Soldier Monument that has the names of those killed during some war engraved on the inner walls.

It also has an old war bunker area

and a scenic view.

As we were driving to another destination, we spotted this temple and decided to take a look. It is still being built but we were able to wander around and take pictures anyway.

After all this, we still had one more stop, but it gets its own blog.