Rick and Kelly's Life Anew

Dad's visit!

2008-10-20T09:33:00.006+07:00

Well, Dad was here for a foot blistering ten days of action. In that time we saw more than most people see in a month of traveling around Thailand. I'll spare you all the details, but it was a great trip that I was hoping wouldn't end. But alas, Dad is back to work and I am cramming for the GRE. Life is fun some days and boring as heck the next. Check out the photos for an idea of what we did while he was here.

Thailand is invaded by Yankees!!!

2008-09-03T14:35:00.008+07:00

We had two good friends visit us at the same time! Ronjon was only able to spend a few days, but Steve clung on like a persistent dingle berry for weeks on end. There were good times, sad times, scary times, and of course a few disturbing moments. For instance the time Steve and I had a PG rated night at the lady bars only to be visually violated by an unscrupulous lady boy on our drive home at 5 a.m. Neither of us were prepared to see such a nicely enhanced chest followed by the dropping of trousers in the middle of the street... ridiculous. Here are a few photos of other things:

One bald man said to a balding man, "hang on man, hang on."

Spiceeee

Look at those happy diving faces, let's blow some bubbles!

The ladies

Thai ghosts... lookout, they're everywhere

Making whiskey friends

Getting a little too close don't you think?

Shortly before pretending to be David Hasselhoff

Drinking games... everyone's a loser in one way or another

Token scenery shot

Steve had to literally stand on the heads of tourists for this shot

Failing to fly yet again, what a disappointment

It was fun having visitors, and now we have a month to rest before my Dad, Kelly's Mom, and Kelly's friend come to visit in October. Over and out

Random Photos

2008-06-04T09:59:00.002+07:00

So we are "back to work" teaching the youth of Thailand. In this update are a few pictures including everything from the house, to the English camp we did in Koh Sok, to the shedding of my long fur. Check out the photos if you want to know what we have been doing!

The New House

2008-03-17T13:26:00.002+07:00

Well we finally got out of our cramped crappy row-house and moved into a beautiful place with a garden and big yard. We face a rubber tree plantation and wake up to the sound of birds every morning. It's paradise! We kicked off our first weekend with a proper American cheese burger barbecue. Needless to say with Kelly's culinary skills it was a delicious success. Here are a few photos from the night and we'll add more shots of the house soon. All of you that have wanted to come visit but haven't found a good reason, you have an excellent spare bedroom now so come on over.

Painful Moment

2008-03-05T16:16:00.002+07:00

We were at the weekend market (see Jamie's blog for some nice pictures). It was evening time around 6:30 p.m.. The sun had just set and everyone was jubilant. There were people buying orchids, fake Levis, weird lawn ornaments, along with more exotic items like fried insects. Kelly and I happened to be doing some t-shirt browsing when a surprisingly horrible thing happened. I know some of you may not believe what happened next but I promise you I could not create such an event with my dwarfed imagination. Over the dusty loudspeakers, placed throughout the market to play music for the masses, came Billy Ray's country voice singing about his achy breaky heart! Ughhhh. I don't know if it ruined anyone else's night like it did mine. I looked around and was amazed to see that most people were actually going about their shopping as if nothing had happened!

What is this world coming to you ask? I don't know... I just don't know.

2008-02-21T11:18:00.003+07:00

Well, I guess that after 6 months the blog has been cracked open again! Rick forgot to tell everyone that he is also starring in the TV show LOST as Daniel Faraday. Creepy.

Me love Thailand long time

2008-02-20T11:14:00.004+07:00

Here is a disturbing picture of me with the birthday cake Kelly got for me. Sorry if some of you have nightmares.

Anyways, it appears we are gearing up to stay in Thailand a little longer. When it came to discussions of our next move we just couldn't convince each other it was time to leave. We have finally settled into the area with a group of friends and beautiful places to keep us busy. I have been volunteering at the local Phuket Aquarium http://www.phuketaquarium.org/ (I helped with the website!), finishing up my PADI divemaster training, and now I teach English to kids on the weekends. Kelly has shown her endurance and ability to put up with anything as she is almost done with her first full year of teaching! She will be rewarded with three weeks of very easy teaching followed by three weeks of paid vacation which she deserves.

Our latest plan is to be here through October this year. We are looking for a new house to move into for that 8 month period, which will be a good change from the screaming children we have next door and the pesky thieves in the neighborhood we have been struck by three times. The last of which ended in me chasing them down the street in my boxers at 1:30 in the morning screaming profanities. Needless to say a change will be welcomed.

We are uncertain of course of what happens after October, so don't bother asking Mom. We are both interested in going back to school but who knows what the future holds for us. I hope all is well for everyone, drop me or Kelly an email sometime and let us know what is new with you.

I promise to make more frequent posts (that is of course if something interesting happens).

Wow. Almost Face Planted into this....

2007-08-29T22:24:00.000+07:00

There's nothin' like hiking through the jungle, only to stumble backwards and let out a loud yelp when you come across this fella! Rick says it is the little things that distinguish life in Thailand from life in the US, I say it is this kind of thing.

Hmmm, It's Been a While

2007-08-11T13:29:00.000+07:00

Well, sorry to all of you fans (Moms, Dads, and Heather :) for not updating on a regular basis. We have been doing the daily grind of work for a couple months now and have just not been motivated enough to post. Yes, to all those of you that are wondering, we actually were able to convince someone here to hire us!

We are teachers for the first time in our lives. Kelly is teaching Kindergarten levels two and three for an ESL program in an all Thai school. I am a homeroom teacher for a 1st grade class in the "English" school, where they are supposed to have some basic comprehension of English to be enrolled. Both of our jobs have been an eye opening experience and have kept us quite busy.

We are living just outside of Phuket Town on the island of Phuket in the south. The island is quite large (would take several hours to drive around it) with many beaches and even more resorts. The main tourist season kicks off in mid to late October, and it supposedly gets a little crazy around here. All in all we are loving the tropical island life, even though we are in the middle of monsoon/hot as hell season.

We did recently have a great break from the routine when we took a trip back to the States for my brothers wedding! I was there for almost two weeks and Kelly came for the wedding weekend and got to visit her family in Colorado for a short time. It was good fun and we've posted pics of the wedding on the albums site.

As for our day to day life now... we have rented a small house that is attached to other small houses in a Thai neighborhood. We have two small motorbikes to get around with and spend a lot of our free time "hanging out". Really life isn't drastically different from living in the states. We have bought a small couch, go grocery shopping every week, and have to drop our clothes off at the "laundromat" every weekend. Of course it's a little different because the "laundromat" consists of leaving our clothes in a basket at someones house and coming back the next day to find them neatly folded, clean, and back in the basket!

The times that we really notice that we are in Thailand are often the little things. Seeing geckos on the walls or clinging to a roll of paper towels, or trying to have Kelly ride side saddle on the back of a motorbike so that her skirt stays in place, or within a short drive from the house being on a beautiful white sand beach surrounded by lush rainforest! Another strange thing is paying the monthly water and electricity bill at one of the million 7-11's near our house, I can't say that I've ever done that back home.

We have also uploaded some pics of our schools, kids, house and such for your viewing pleasure. Please email us and let us know how you all are doing! Or you could try and connect with us on skype, either screen name topgun997 or "kelly.krohn".

Hopefully everyone is living life to the fullest, and looking at plane flights to come visit! We have a couch that anyone is more than invited to crash on (well almost anyone).

PS: And yes that is me in the pictures with the long hippy hair, it is still my testament of freedom from the Navy! Take a second and vote in the right hand column on whether you feel like I should keep it or not. (Steve, don't stay up all night voting for the mullet, let's be honest, it's going to happen anyway.)

New Web Albums!

2007-05-10T21:36:00.000+07:00

Kelly was nice enough to do another post, so I am posting the pictures. There are two new albums. One is of the meditation retreat, and the other our travels before the retreat. Not taking too many pictures these days as we are trying to find jobs in Chiang Mai and looking for a place to live, so these might be the last you die hard fans get to gander at for a while... enjoy.

Chiang Rai and Surrounds

Meditation Retreat

Absence makes the heart grow......??

2007-05-10T21:09:00.000+07:00

So maybe some of you are wondering what happened to the dynamic duo.....and some of you barely noticed our absence! Regardless, we have returned to civilization after living at a Buddhist temple for the last few weeks to study meditation. Still dealing with the overwhelming shift between simple, quiet monastic style life and Thai city chaos. I'd also like to backtrack for this first blog in awhile to let all of you know about the Thai holiday Songkran, which was around mid April.

It is a celebration of the Thai new year, but in the typical fun of Thai spirit, becomes an all out, 3 day play-fest. What started as the gentle sprinkling of water from monks and to respected elders is now, in many parts of the country, a waterfight worthy of epic magnitude. Being in Chiang Mai, known particularly to celebrate the occation with enthusiasm, was amazing. The old part of the city is still surrounded by a moat, meaning that there is plenty of ammunition. Grab your weapon of choice; a plastic bucket on a string, and get ready. You will be soaking wet within 10 to 30 seconds of leaving your guest house, but somehow everyone will still want to douse you with water. People load up in the back of pickup trucks and circle the moat, flinging water along the way. IT WAS CHAOS, the sort of thing you have to see to believe. But still, completely Thai in personality. No wet tee-shirt contests, no fighting, all taken with a smile. Beautiful. There should be some new pictures on Picassa, but not many as the camera would have been in grave danger.

A trip within a trip....

2007-04-16T21:44:00.000+07:00

A Trip Within a Trip

Here are the pics from our 3 day trek in the North. We visited hilltribe villages, rode the river separating Thailand from Burma, and rode elephants through the forrest. Needless to say, it was amazing.

Sittin' Pretty

2007-04-09T21:08:00.000+07:00

After Pai we headed to Mae Hong Son, small town with beautiful views and especially vibrant celebrations. We were lucky enough to experience the festival celebrating the entry of boys into novice monk hood. Almost all Thai men enter the monk hood for sometime during their lives, perhaps for a few weeks or more. This is of great importance not only to the individual, but for the family as well, as it is thought to benefit all.
In Mae Hong Son they celebrate with a massive 3 day festival, where the little boys are dressed like 'princes' and paraded through the streets on the shoulders of their fathers. I suppose that 'princes' get a little gender bent, as the celebration involves lots of face make-up, flowers for hair, fans, umbrellas, and glittery sparkle. We watched for days as the novices awoke at 4am and paraded from temple to temple, mostly looking hot and tired. Some were definitely tiny, maybe 7 or 8 years old.

The main event was a parade through the whole city, with family carrying offerings and all essentials to the different wats. Needless to say, neither Rick or I had seen anything even remotely close to this, and there were very few tourists on hand to witness the spectacle. The town itself was very nice, lovely lake and friendly people that invited us to bang the gongs along with them.
The only drawback of this leg of our travels is the immense amount of smoke billowing from the hills all over the northland. Farmers are preparing their land for rice planting in a few months by burning massive quantities of underbrush. Soon the monsoon season will start and these will be green rice patties, but in the interim the hills apprear to be out of Dante's inferno.

New Batch of Photos!

2007-03-31T21:01:00.000+07:00

These photos are of our last couple weeks, including Bangkok, Sukhothai, Ayutthya, Pai, and a few from Mae Hong Son. Enjoy and let us know how you all are doing, either post a comment or email us at leerick@gmail.com or kellykrohn@gmail.com.

On a quick side note we are narrowing down our goals for work in the area. We have decided to concentrate on Environmental work and are open to Thailand, Cambodia, and Loas. If anyone knows of anybody working in SE Asia or who might have some contacts we would love to talk with them. Just shoot either one of us an email or have them contact us. Thanks in advance for any help!

Second half of March

It's been awhile, but here goes the catch-up

2007-03-29T13:33:00.000+07:00

I suppose it might be the dispersal of novelty, or apathy due to heat, or perhaps just maybe too many amazing things in a short period of time. That said, I'm finally posting!

Rick's sister Jenny and her girlfriend Sam came out for a brief stint in Thailand, we were lucky enough to catch up with them for a few days in Bangkok and visit a few of the sites. It was really good to catch up and see familiar faces. It was way too short though, they wanted to hit the Southern beaches, and we were heading North. It was good to see you guys!

We headed North out of Bangkok to Ayuttaya, a historical city of temples hundreds of years old, but unfortunately many of which were destroyed by Burmese invaders, also hundreds of years ago. This is also where I got really nasty sick. On the train out of Bangkok I started feeling poorly, then like a ton of ancient ruins falling on me I got a high fever, pounding headache, nausea, the whole gambit. Luckily, somewhere in my delirious fits Rick would appear with a Slurpee from 7-11. Good travel mate. After about 2 days not leaving my bed, I finally felt well enough to venture into the ruins. (Check out the pics in our next posting on Picassa) We rented bicycles and cruised around, very pretty scenery.

After another 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Sukhothai, old capital of the empire. Amazing ruins, temples, and a world heritage site. Definitely more what you would imagine Khmer and Thai ruins to be, along with a good museum and friendly people. We enjoyed the laid back atmosphere tremendously.

We have now ventured onward, North of Chiang Mai to a town called Pai. More on it and our activities later, but it is an obscure town full of hippies, artists, and musicians.

Either Thais love festivals, or we're really lucky.....

2007-03-14T19:53:00.000+07:00

We seem to keep running into celebrations! Ranong is a pretty little city, somewhat off the beaten tourist track except for its proximity to Burma which makes it a border run town. When we arrived they were closing off the main street for a celebration. All along the street hordes of people ate, drank, and watched the various performances: little kids dressed as bugs rhythmically spasming to Thai techno-pop, teenagers hammering out riffs mimicking 80's metal bands, low key bongo drums and steel sounding guitar that seemed more at home in Hawaii. We wandered and ate, ate and wandered. Ranong also has a natural hot spring, and people buy eggs raw and cook them in the water. All in all, a pretty laid back and happy scene.

We have since moved on to Prachuap Khiri Khan, another out of the way place, where by chance we pulled into town just in time for the "Prachuap seafood and Thai-sky festival" Hordes of skydivers from around the world have descended on this small fishing town to make jumps, drink lots of beer, and watch with wonder the multitude of Thai sports in the park. We were walking up the main drag, taking it all in when we ran into a huge crowd of people. A beautiful Thai woman smiled at us, handed us plates full of steamed mussels, grilled squid, and crab curry saying only "free for you". I noticed several smiles as Rick and I tried to negotiate the squid while trying to avoid eyes, guts, etc. All the other foreigners were with the skydiving group, and had eaten at the hotel, they also looked on smiling as we devoured our fare.

We spent the rest of the evening watching several Thai sports. The most awe-inspiring to watch was Takrow Lot Huang, a game where teams of 3 kick a small rattan ball over a volleyball like net, blocking and spiking with moves that look right out of a Bruce Lee flick. We watched the tournament for hours, getting into the different teams. I think the most amusing part was when foreigners would walk up, exclaiming "did you see that!?" or "holy ****" in utter amazement. There was also a full evening of Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, just down the street. 7 different 5-round fights, ranging from kiddies barely old enough to stand to the big boys.

Prachuap is also known for its spectacular Chedi (part of Buddhist temple) that sits on a cliff side overlooking the ocean and towns below. It is over 400 steps to the top, and a most perilous climb as the stairs are crawling with ill-tempered monkeys. Rick got into a stand-off with one of them on the way up, teeth bearing and all. Then, just as we though we were to be devoured by monkeys, came our savior. At the top of the stairs, just within the fortified monkey proofed walls of the Chedi, sat a golden robed monk, slingshot in hand. If any monkeys got sassy, or tried to get past the front door, he got a big surprise, monk style. We stayed there for hours, waiting for the sunset and enjoying the breezes. We must have let our guard down, being inside a holy place and all, and unfortunately, became the victims of a purse-snatcher. I got a good look at the perpetrator, but probably will not contact the police as he dropped the purse when Rick gave chase. He was about 20 lbs, brown-eyed, a foot and a half tall, large fangs, long tail, and hairy all over. Almost got away with wallets and passports. We felt especially lucky when leaving the Chedi, there was another scoundrel beating a golden medallion with a rock. Monkey Trouble.

New Photos!

2007-03-08T12:44:00.000+07:00

Most Photos up till March 14th

This will link you to the web album that we set up with MOST of the pictures we have taken so far. Hopefully you enjoy, pace yourself and don't over do it because there are a lot. Sawatdee Kap! (Hello/Goodbye)

Blissfully recovering from Bangkok on Ko Phi Phi

2007-03-01T13:55:00.000+07:00

We landed at midnight in Phuket and after Rick's wallet fiasco, a day full of tourist police, long flight delays, and crazed bus rides to Phuket town we decided to venture on to the beautiful island of Ko Phi Phi, a few hour boatride past the crazed hoards of sunburnt Germans and all night girly bars of Phuket. The island itself is absolutely gorgeous, limestone cliffs and thick vegetation plunging into crystal green waters. This makes it THE most popular island for tourists to visit, and as such the main town is laid out like this: dive shop, hotel, restaurant, dive shop, bar, hotel, bar, diveshop, etc. Luckily we had a recommendation to head to an unheard-of set of bungalows on the opposite side of the island. Of course, being the cheap asses that we are, opted to take the hour long trek through the jungle and over the hills instead of hiring a longboat water taxi. Of course every Thai that we asked the way to the trail laughed at us, shook their heads and stared at our packs. In fact it is almost unheard of to walk anywhere longer than a few meters, everyone here takes motorbikes or tuk-tuks. About half-way through our trek the sun went down, I imagine we must have been quite a site on arrival, drenched in sweat, looking around wide eyed after our narrow escape from the wilderness. Pom, who owns the guesthouse, had a giant smile for us, but was concerned because the resort was close to running out of water. Ah, who needs it when you have a stretch of deserted sand, a nice little bungalow, and plenty of beautiful reef to snorkel on. Surprisingly the reef looks healthy here, tons of diverse corals, fish and even a spotted eel. We don't want to leave To Koh beach, it seems this place attracts a certain type of traveller and we've made friends with several groups of people. Between snorkeling, beach volleyball, kick ass meals and a tiny bar run by a 24 year old ex-pat hippy from Missouri, we've landed in an elusive paradise. (And Cory....Ben the bartender went to Waukarusa 4 years in a row, small world after all) We will be moving on soon, we need a bit more reality and a bit less holiday, at it seems the only jobs here are in the myriad of dive operations and beach bars........
oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENEVA!!!!

I'm a huge loser!

2007-02-26T15:08:00.000+07:00

Well it could be worse is what everyone is telling me, and I am really trying to believe it. I have lost my wallet like an idiot. I dropped it in a cab last night and am in the process of filing a police report and getting the mall that was next door to look at their video cameras for the cab that Kelly and I got into to go home. There is still a chance that we find the specific cab and somehow get a hold of the guy, but it's a long shot at best. And with that to boot we are getting on a plane in 3 hours to fly down to Phuket. So I guess a couple hundred dollars worth of cash, all my credit cards and my drivers license is not that bad. I could be without a passport which would probably be an even larger pain in the rear to replace. The worst of it is that I can't even blame this mistake on being drunk or intoxicated in any sense of the word, just a mistake made while flat sober!

I was going to post a picture of me sulking but I'll save all you the misery of looking at it. We have seen a few islands in the north and have so far put one place on our possible permanent living list, the islands name is Ko Si Chang and is very small with only motorbikes running around the place. They have an aquatic resource center on the island that we are going to see if we can help out at. We'll keep you all posted. Hope all is well with everyone back home, please leave comments about what a fool I am or email me with them, the more creative the better.

Take Care

Kelly's been a long time coming!

2007-02-15T16:06:00.000+07:00

Well I've been here living the single life for 6 days, but that will all come to an abrupt end at 11:45 pm tonight when Kelly's plane lands in Bangkok :-) I spent most of yesterday trying to line up a place for us to stay for the next couple of nights, I didn't realize that this weekend is Chinese New Year and most places are booked! I eventually found one that isn't the most ideal but will provide us with a room which is all we really need.

The past couple of days I have mostly been taking it easy, but I did take the opportunity to see the palace, Wat Po (with the ginormous reclining Buddha), and the Wat that houses the infamous Emerald Buddha. All three were pretty spectacular, with enough polished gold on the outside of a few buildings to permanently scar even the strongest retina. The Emerald Buddha was still wearing his cold season outfit (he has three outfits for the three seasons) even though it was at least 85 degrees outside. I've been learning Thai as fast as possible but it is really funny when you know enough to ask how much something costs in Thai and of course the person responds with the amount in Thai and you have no idea what numbers are coming out of their mouth! It's going to be a challenge to stay out of trouble.

Thanks to everyone that has emailed me so far I just read them all, it was great to hear what's been going on with you. Take care!

Happy B-day to me and my brother from the Land of Smiles

2007-02-11T10:38:00.001+07:00

Well it's not quite the 11th of february in the USA, but the celebration has begun in Bangkok (BKK). The plan for the day is to get massages, lounge by the pool and hit the town tonight. There are a lot of cool people here. I've been staying with a friend of my sisters who has been a great host and lives in a fantastic part of town. I already feel like an ex-patriot local and it's great.

Heather and her parents (friends from Colorado) are here too and we have been seeing some sights together. Yesterday we went to a gigantic weekend market that was easy to get lost in, and at night went to a transvestite cabaret show! It was crazy how beautiful some of the ladies were and what music they decided to dance to. They went back and forth between Thai songs and American. My favorite was watching 20 or so transvestites doing a representation of Michael Jackson's Thriller!!! They did the monster dance and everything, it was great needless to say.

Anyways, I hope all is well stateside and sooner or later I'll figure out the picture thing so you can all see how great it is here so maybe you'll visit. Take Care

Ski Trip and snow sculptures

2007-02-05T02:22:00.001+07:00

The Basic Guidelines

2007-02-05T00:55:00.000+07:00

We want this to be an interactive experience for you the visitor. We would love to hear from all of you throughout our journeys! Feel free to comment on the photos or post a comment on the blog. Although we can obviously not email everyone with updates feel free to send us emails on how everything is going in your lives, or if you have suggestions on this blogging thing because we really don't know what we're doing. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch with everyone through this blog and/or emails, it is important to us to stay in touch. Take care of yourselves and each other.

First experiment with a web album

2007-02-05T00:51:00.001+07:00

Silly Passport Photos