Angler Sila

This was Friday night. We slept over at the Trek boys place in Ang Sila because early next morning Dave, Jason, and I were going to go fishing on one of the boats at 6am.

A Trek Team English Teaching Production.

Dave and Jason with their Airsoft guns that they bought at a local market.

They are also wearing masks that we would wear the next day while fishing. They are supposed to protect your face from the sun.

This is the boat that we were about to go out for 4 hours in. It is about 15 ft. long. There wasn't much room for three larger forongs.

Somsak and Ganiga looking out at the peir at 6am.



A fish trap far from the coast. People live in the little house you can see up there. It kind of reminded me of Water World.

A combination of getting 1 hour of sleep, not eating or drinking anything and being on a 15 ft. boat out in the ocean had made me very sick. I didn't peuk though...which was good. I made it back to shore with no dry heaves on the board. Jason and Dave joined me in the feeling sick department soon enough...as you can see in the picture above :P. We were out in the boat from 6am until 10am...and around 8:30am it started to get uber hot.


Jason and Dave.


The owner of the boat.

After fishing , Jason and I went with a bunch of Ang Sila friends for lunch because our friend Somsak is leaving in a week to go back home (north-eastern Thailand). Then we went for a message.


This is me enjoying life :)


Ganiga and myself getting some mean foot messages...



Jason was having a good time as well.

CAMBoywhatsthebigideIA

The Border Scam.

Jason and I went to Cambodia today to renew our visas in Thailand. We took a cab to the boarder, which took about 3 hours. When we got there we entered a parking lot about 150 metres away from the boader crossing. As soon as we got out of the taxi two guys in uniforms labeled "Cambodian Boarder AAL". They said that they would help us fill our forms out to cross into Cambodia.

At this point Jason starts to get suspicious, however we were not sure how the boarder crossing worked so we went along with it. So they filled out our forms and then said that the visas cost 1500 baht ($50) each. We thought that this was a bit strange so we told them that we only wanted to go in to Cambodia and out right away. We said that we only wanted a 30 day visa. They said that they understood, and we heard before we left that there was money required to renew a visa, so we went with it.

They came back to us with a 1 month visa in our passports and so we proceeded through Cambodian customs. After we got on the other side they met us there and said that we had to give them our papers so that they could get a departure stamp. They said that it cost 300 baht each. After Jason and I started asking questions, they started to change the price...it turned into 600 baht a person for a stamp. At this point we realized that we were getting screwed so we said, "NO, we are in Cambodia...we should not have paid you already and now we just want to get back into Thailand."

They then brought the Police over and had one of them try to tell us that we had to pay. We looked at him and said "NO, can we have our passports back." He looked at us and gave them back. We then proceeded over to the Thai Customs building. The two men in uniform continued to pursue us insisting that we don't know what we are doing and that we had to pay them. After the Thai boader guy told us that we actually needed a departure stamp we headed towards where the Departure Centre aparently was. On the way the two guys in uniform directed us to more police which tried to intimidate us into paying. We still insisted that they leave us alone and we moved on.

We then ran into a couple of "Tourist Police" that asked for our passports and asked us what happened. We told them that we got jipped and they immidiately had us sit down. They acted like they wanted to help us. They pulled out a book with a bunch of pictures and profiles of suposed suspects and had us try and pick the right ones out. After they directed us to the building where we could get our departure stamp. They told us to come back to see them after we were stamped and ready to go.

So we came back and what do you know, they have the guy who took our money. They have him, even though we pointed out a different guys in the bookd earlier. They had us sit down and they put on a long show for us. They had the Captain of Police there "busting" this guy who took our money. They said that the visas actually cost 1100 baht each (which was a lie) so that they could give us back 1000 baht of our 3200 baht that was taken.

At this time we wanted to leave so we agreed. They also had us fill out a "thank you" note to the Boarder Police for "catching" the criminal who took our money. They also had us pose of a picture with the captian giving us our 1000 baht back, so that it would make the Boarder Patrol look like it was doing it's job.

In the end we made it back to Thailand, realizing that the two men in uniforms, the Police, and the Boarder Patrol were all in on this scam to take our money.

We figrue that the Visas cost very little if anything. We also assume that the two men in uniform and the Police split the 2200 baht, and the Police get some good publicity for "catching" the criminals and "doing their job".

It was an adventure, we now know the scam, and we have our visas renewed. All in all it wasn't all that bad.

This is the "Diamond City". As soon as we entered Cambodia we ver obviously left a 2nd world country and entered a 3rd world country. There were children begging for money and the cars on the cement road in Thailand turned into wood buggies on dusty/dirt roads in Cambodia.

You can see the lineup of karts on the side of the road.

Here is Jason with one of te "good guys". (cough)yeahright(cough)

Myself, with an obvious look of happiness on my face with our "heros". (hack)iwaschoaked(hack)

Jason and I with the Tourist Police Captain that "rescued" our 1000 baht from us. (sneeze)itwasallbull(sneeze)

(ah cheew)croaked cop(ah cheew)

The guy on the left was supposed to be the guy that took our money getting in trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if he is back on the boader looking for other forongs to steal from.

An archway near the boarder.

Despite our sort of negative Cambodian experience...it still starts here.

Another Somday

Sunday was good times, as it almost always is no matter where I am in the world. Aun, Somchai, Sai, Sam, and Sarah came to The LC because Somchai was preaching. So I had yet another chance to chill with Sarah...

Aun snuck up on me with a camera...

Sarah is getting a good nap.

Back in the Big Bang

So our time with Somchai and Aun has ended. We are back here in Bang Saen. Tonite we will be staying overnight in Ang Sila because both tonite and tomorow morning we will be teaching english in place of the Trek team. We spent our last few hours at the Lorenzo home teaching and hanging out with the children one last time...for a while at least.

Jason and I with the sisters at the Lorenzo Home.

"M"ade "E"veryone "I"nvoled

So yet again our path has crossed with the MEI team that is out here in Thailand for a few weeks. Today we were all at the Lorenzo Home. MEI peeps put on a carnival kind of event. It was good times.

This is one of the Lorenzo Home staff chillin and mellow skrillin.

The Candy Necklace Station.


The Hand Paint Station.

The Face Paint Station.

The Blades of Steel Station.

The Hair Beading Station.

Fantasmo parachute fun.

Continued parachute fun.

Only if I could take you home...

The children put on a short musical for us. This is the MEI peeps with the sisters getting ready to watch the abundance of cuteness that is about to engulf them.

Cute action.

My Princess of Cute.

A future pro dancer.

MEI/Lorenzo picture.

These are our good bye pictures of and with Aun and Somchai's family for we are leaving for Bang Saen tomorrow.

This was a fun picture...the camera took two pictures and this was the second one that caught us off guard.

Poo Thai Me Sky

This is a picture of the rain storm of intenseness that occured yesterday. Many gallons of water were spilt in this shower of the rain persuasion.

However, the next day was bright and hot again. This is a picture of Jason and I out for lunch with Aun and "Princess Super Sai" and "Super Sam"

Money Pic Un.

Money Pic Deux.

Aun and Somchai wanted us to cook a "Canadian Meal". So Jason and I went to the local market and tried to find what we could to put together what we usually eat at home. The market didn't have much of the ingredients we needed so we improvised. We ended up making pork roast and cooked it with vegetables accompanied by western style stuffing and some vegetables. For dessert we had brownies and ice cream.

This is what our "pork shoulder" looked like. This and another piece of meat were the largest we could find at the store. Thai people dont eat huge pieces of meat, so we had to cut it much smaller then what you see in the above pic.

Aun and Somchai invited a bunch of friends from their church over to have some forong food.

Me and my mit.


Jason carving our masterpiece :P.



I guess our meal wasn't half bad because our Thai friends grabbed seconds and some even thirds!

So in Thai the name "Somchai" means "%100 man" or "complete man". So we call Somchai the complete man. On top of being pretty athletic, killing flys from a distance with an elastic band, playing drums, pastoring a church, fixing anything...in the past he has actually made...get this, get this, I was standing right beside him, get this, get this, he was right beside me...he says to me, he says to me, standing right there...get this... his own home made ELECTRIC DRUM SET! That's right...the complete man is a genius. In fact he has made a few of them. Here are some pics of one of his electric freak drum sets!

My jaw is currently in the dropped position even as I post these pictures.

This is Somchai taking a picture of sleep Jason.

This is the end of our day...and this is the not so random boy that sees us in every single night to the Best centre (where we have been staying). He lives next store i think.

PS - IT STARTS HERE!