Taking off on a jet plane...

Hello hello!
It is Friday morning here, and I am in the English office at school taking care of things that I probably should have done before (like cleaning my desk which is a mess!). Classes and finals are done, and most of the teachers are at meetings all day - already talking about plans for next year. I am also in the middle of baking some chocolate chip cookies to bring as a travel snack!

Tomorrow morning I am leaving my town and because the Thailand Fulbright office organized our transportation back to Bangkok, I am traveling by plane! I won't be able to do justice to the Sukhothai Airport, but I will give it a try: It is all outdoors and surrounded by beautiful rice fields. It is serviced by one airline (Bangkok Airways) and only has two flights a day - to Bangkok - and that is only if enough people buy tickets. When I tell people in my town that I am "flying" to Bangkok, they all laugh because it isn't something a local person would typically do...mostly just tourists. Either way, I am excited to visit the Sukhothai Airport again and I will try to take some pictures to capture the essence of this fabulous place!

I am traveling to Bangkok with my friend Karen, and when we arrive we will meet up with our friend Zoe. Then we have quite a few errands to run in Bangkok - like going to used bookstores and selling back some books, and going to a storage place so Zoe can store some of her bags, and of course going to lunch at a non-Thai food restaurant (we are thinking of maybe getting falafels!). Then tomorrow evening we fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia! We will be in Cambodia for about five days and we will tour around Phnom Penh and then travel to Siem Reip to see Angkor Wat (considered the eighth wonder of the world!).

We will return to Bangkok on March 12th - just in time for the end-of-grant Fulbright meetings on the 13th and 14th. Our meetings will take place at Chulalongkorn University and we will stay at the Suskit Nives International House where we were during our month-long orientation. It will be fun to return to where we started our Thailand experience!

Then, after a few more days in Bangkok, Karen, Zoe, Karen's friend, and I will head to Vietnam! We are flying into Hanoi and will travel around for about 2.5 weeks and then fly out of Ho Chi Minh City back to Thailand. I have some friends who studied abroad in Vietnam last year, and they gave me some recommendations of sites to see, but our travel plans are still pretty flexible - definitely let me know if you have any ideas of sites to see and places to visit in Vietnam.

When we return to Thailand, Zoe and I are going to do a "fun run" in Hua Hin (a coastal town south of Bangkok). Here is more information if you are interested: http://amazingfield.org/en/e_comdetail.php?id=13

And finally we will end up in the southern islands of Thailand enjoying some swimming, snorkeling, and possibly scuba diving during what is supposed to be the hottest weather of the year.

I am so excited for all of these plans! At the same time, it is weird that I won't be returning to teach at my school. It has become so familiar and I will miss it very much.

Hopefully I will get a chance to update this blog during my travels, and I will definitely check email now and again and I would love to hear from you!

Always,
Kate