life update, photo accompaniment

and in reverse order from the past post...

koh samet, the return. celebrating the start of 2011.


bangkok riverside.


nothing says christmas like a bucket in the sea.


angkor wat revisited.

two months later, and i do believe a life update is in order

i'm not quite sure how the time has passed so quickly, but it's already nearing the end of january. i haven't posted in two months now. i suppose an update for that time is in order. here goes...

december:
~a trip to siem reap over a long weekend. i needed to do a visa run to keep my stamp in my passport up-to-date, so why not make an adventure of it? i love cambodia. it was nice to return there and to be a bit of a tour guide for my friends at angkor wat. jess and i intended to run a half marathon there, but given the absolute lack of training and my (at the time) injured ankle, it didn't seem like the best idea. nonetheless, a wonderful weekend exploring temples.
~christmas in koh samet. we had a ten-day vacation from school, and my friend aramenta and i just decided to play it by ear. ten of us went to koh samet for christmas, and we enjoyed the usual island activities--beach, buckets, and fire. we stayed a few days afterwards and came back to bangkok for new years. the plan was to go to laos, but that was dropped as a result of a forgotten passport. everything worked out, and i spent new years' eve with good friends in our local place.

january:
~right after ringing in the new year, aramenta and i met up with my friends from korea and went back to samet for two days. rinse, lather, repeat. a good time once again.
~busy, busy with school. what have i been doing all month?!?! banging around bangkok, nothing too exciting.

and now, one month left of the term with some exciting adventures ahead. my mother is coming over in march, and i am taking her to chiang mai and then to vietnam. after that, i am going to south africa. then i have a couple more weeks of vacation. what to do?!

i did something on friday night that i would like to do more often. a friend and i went to the bus stop planning to go to kanchanaburi to go hiking, but then we found out we had just missed the bus by fifteen minutes. rather than returning home and having another bangkok friday night, we walked around the bus stop, picked a random place, and went there. i went to ayutthaya when i was in thailand the first time, and i went back with jess.

ayutthaya was the capital of thailand until the burmese marched through and burned much of it a couple hundred years ago. the name ayutthaya is still a part of the capital's name today...the thais do not call this city bangkok but rather krung thep mahanakhon amon rattanakosin mahinthar ayuthaya mahadilok phop noppharat ratchathani burirom udomratchaniwet mahasathan amon phiman awatan sathit sakkathattiya witsanukam prasit (krung thep, city of angels, for short).

enough for my poor, brief account of history. the temples in ayutthaya are beautiful and inspiring. i can't help but wonder what it would be like to walk around there when they were built...

loy krathong

road running

when i was here in bangkok the first time in 2008, i ran the bangkok quarter marathon (10K) with my friend leslie. it was a lovely, quick run through a beautiful part of the city, including crossing two bridges over the chao praya river.

after i decided to come back to thailand, i knew i had to do run this race again. on sunday, i ran with jess. to my surprise, i had the same crew of cheerleaders as in 2008: the hua hin nature preserve. they ran as a pack and never stopped cheering. they helped me conquer my sprained ankle and keep running during the second half of the race. if i'm in bangkok for another november, i hope i will be lucky enough to hear "hua hin huh! hua hin huh!" coming up behind me for another road race.

life update, first in pictures (words to come soon...)

i see this dog on my way to work most mornings. he is always taking a nap on the same table, although i have no idea how he gets on the table. in korea, one might think it's dinnertime, but here, it's just a morning snooze.



touristic cultural adventures with jess: sunday afternoon at the grand palace





halloween on khao sarn road...it's like every other night but with pirate hats!

happy place