Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew - The Last Chapter

Chapter 3:  …David became monkey chew!!!!!  The monkey jumped on him and bit him on the forearm.  It was quite a deep gash, about an inch long.  Several of the workers who were nearby, including a monk, rummaged through their first aid kit to find items to clean out the wound.  They all said we should go to the hospital.  David wasn’t really keen on the idea.  I figured that if the people who worked around these monkeys thought it was a good idea, we’d better go.  What was crossing my mind was, “I think we probably should have had those rabies shots before we came.”  Khun Wow drove us to the hospital.  When we walked in, the greeters asked what happened.  David showed them the monkey bite and was immediately ushered to the emergency room – “Infection Area.”  The staff was lovely.  Long story a little shorter:  It was a nasty bite, David had to start the rabies shot series, he also required a tetanus shot, he had to start 7 days of antibiotics and he needs to return to the hospital each day to have his wound cleansed.

Moral of the story:  Don’t get too close to the monkeys!  (but you can play with the tame and playful monkey, Mong, on the left side of this blog!)

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew - The Next Chapter

Chapter 2:  Last weekend, David and I went to Hua Hin, a beach town about 2.5 hrs. south of Nichada Thani (where we live).  The morning after we arrived, we took the shuttle into town to check out the pier and surrounding area.  We hired a tuk-tuk driver (Khun Wow is his name) to take us around to get the lay of the land.  One recommendation of Khun Wow was to visit Monkey Mountain.  I assumed it was a wildlife park – I was wrong.  As we drove to the top of the mountain, we began seeing monkeys everywhere.  The largest were no taller than 1.5 feet tall.  We walked down a street to a nearby wat (temple), as probably 100 monkeys lined the street - monkeys were everywhere!  They were hanging from electrical wires, climbing trees, sitting on rocks, etc.  We reached a place where a woman was selling small buckets of bananas to feed the monkeys.  Khun Wow suggested we buy a bucket.  As the bucket was being filled, a literal MASS of monkeys started moving towards us.  The woman held up the bucket.  Next thing we knew, monkeys were straddling our calves and climbing up our backs. We even had monkeys climb to the top of our heads while others sat on our shoulders. They ALL wanted bananas.  You might think this would freak us out a bit – IT DID!  After about 5 minutes, the woman threw the rest of the bananas on the ground so the monkeys could fight over them (she must have sensed our apprehension).  From there we walked a little farther to a viewpoint of the ocean.  It was beautiful.  Khun Wow took a photo of us while we were standing about 3 feet from a monkey perched on the edge of the railing.  He suggested that we move a little closer to the monkey when all of a sudden…CHAPTER 3! 

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Chew?!?

Chapter I:  During our time in Koh Samui, we went elephant trekking.  At the entrance of the elephant park, there was a caged monkey.  After our elephant ride, we gathered around the cage talking to the monkey.  It was very friendly and liked to wrap its fingers around our finger.  At one point, Ryan (Amanda’s boyfriend) got a little too close and the monkey grabbed his sunglasses and began screeching and jumping around the cage, gnawing on his glasses.  The staff came around, rescued his sunglasses and calmed down the monkey.  From then on, Ryan’s new name for sunglasses has been “monkey chews.”

No Planes This Time - Mostly Trains!

After 9 days on the island paradise of Koh Samui, it was time to head towards our new home near Bangkok.  We thought that instead of traveling by plane again (we had our fill of planes at that point), we would travel by train.  We booked 1st class seats on a train to Bangkok.  The train was scheduled to leave in the late afternoon and arrive early the next morning.  We chose "1st class" because, at night, the cabin turned into bunk beds and this way we could sleep through the dark hours.  We've always wanted to travel on a train and book a sleeper cabin.  This was such a fun experience.
When we boarded the train, our beds were already made up.  A young man came through the car and took orders for food and drink.  We partook in good food and beverages which, including dinner and breakfast the next morning, came to around $30 US.  After eating that night, off to sleep we went.  (We teased Ryan because David and I were booked in one cabin, Amanda and Caryn in another, and then Ryan was to be in a cabin that MIGHT have another passenger.  Luckily, he had it all to himself.)  It was great to travel through the countryside, and SEE the countryside rather than fly over it.

When we arrived at the Bangkok train station, we got a real dose of Thailand and it was only 7:00 a.m. in the morning.  Since Amanda and Ryan joined us, our luggage had grown to an even more unwieldy amount.  We were able to put it all on a flatbed-like cart.  We think we were the entertainment for the Thai at the station that morning as Ryan navigated the cart through throes of people entering and exiting the station.  Even though it was hectic there at the end, it was a great experience and one I see us repeating in the near future.  Again, Note to Self:  Pack light!

An Island Paradise - Koh Samui

All we really knew was that we were ready to leave the wet weather of Australia and head for sunshine and heat.  We didn't really know what to expect of Samui except for the photos we saw on the internet. In our wildest dreams, we couldn't have imagined the beauty of the land, water and people of this lovely island. We booked a fabulous villa overlooking thousands of banana and coconut trees.  Beyond that was a view of the Gulf of Thailand. We rented a little jeep that seated two so Caryn, Amanda and Ryan always rode in the bed of the jeep, standing and holding onto the roll bar.  Because July is the start of rainy season, almost every afternoon we got stuck in a monsoon rainstorm and arrived back at the villa with the three of them drenched.

Our many adventures on the island included driving that same little jeep around the perimeter of the island through different moo baans.  We frequented several beautiful beaches including Chaweng, Maenam, Bophut and Lanai.  It didn't take much arm twisting on David's part to get Caryn and I to agree to massages and pedicures on the beach.  Of course, the food was great and we bought food off of the carts regularly (yes, David had to stop at EVERY one we saw that had something we hadn't tried before).   One of our biggest EATING adventures was stopping to eat at a "bbq" place for dinner.   We were the only farangs in the joint and very little English was spoken.  So we used our powers of observation to guide us through this delectable experience.   Our sight seeing included visiting the Big Buddha, going to Fisherman's Village and negotiating prices for t-shirts and dresses, riding elephants through the rainforest and visiting rock formations that resemble the male and female genitalia (we only went because the story was sweet and romantic - :0).

Our Journey to Thailand - First Stop, Australia

On our journey to Thailand, we took a detour to Swansea Heads, Australia.  While David worked for three weeks, Caryn and I took road trips to pick up/drop off cars at various Thrifty locations, visited numerous beaches including Red Head Beach (love the name), had a few beers and pies and explored nearby towns.  While we were there, we also had the opportunity to get to know Rod and Gisela's (our hosts and owners of the Thrifty franchises) German daughters and granddaughter, Maren, Gabby and Natalie as they were in town for a visit.  The yanks and the Germans had many fun times, especially involving driving on a side of the street none of us were accustomed to.  By the time we left Australia, I felt like I had learned a fair share of German.

Other highlights of our time in Australia included a weekend in Burleigh Heads, on the Gold Coast,  to visit Jan and Bill (Rod's sister and brother-in-law).  The beaches were stunning and although it was the middle of winter, I still managed to get sunburned.  We also spent a weekend in Sydney visiting our old stomping ground (Balmain, where we were on a teaching exchange in 1997), meeting up with friends Peter and Ali and Marg and John at the London Pub in Balmain, running into two former students (now 23 or 24) and making sure we had some tourist time at the Opera House, the Paddington Outdoor Market, the Rocks, Paddy's Market, Manly Beach and Darling Harbour.

Lots of Planes - No Trains Yet!

Note to self:  Learn to travel LIGHT!  Okay, so when we left the states, we had to bring with us all of my school clothes and the coaching materials I might need until our shipment arrives in September.  Our "stuff" was mostly dispersed between a number of checked and carry on luggage.  What we didn't realize was that the allotment of "international" pieces of luggage that were okay going from the states to Australia would be different than the allotment of "international" pieces of luggage that were okay going from Australia to Thailand.  I got to the point that I waited far, far away from the ticket counter while David and Caryn checked our luggage at each airport.  Yes, I stood guard for all of our 8 carry on pieces of luggage (17 total pieces between the three of us).  We made quite the negative impression when flying out of Australia.  And we were just laughed at by the Thai when we arrived in Samui and ESPECIALLY at the train station in Bangkok. If nothing else, I hope all of us Westricks do indeed learn to travel light.

Welcome to Westrick's Backyard!

This is my first post to a new blog set up today to keep family and friends up to date with all of our goings on.  We’ve just move to Thailand and are looking forward to new opportunities and experiences in the near future.