Merry Christmas!

I hope this finds you all well. It truly feels surreal to be out in Thailand so far away from all of you. Christmas is not as “big” here as it is at home. Some stores and restaurants are decorated, and you do hear the odd Christmas carol here and there.

On Friday, we had Christmas Activities for the students. We set up stations in the gym and the students rotated throughout for the afternoon. Nicole and I did ice buckets; where the kids had to put their hands into freezing pails to dig out a token to redeem for a prize. It was fun. And the kids were so dramatic! Some students have been wearing parkas – yes, down filled ones. It’s chilled off here, but not to that extent! It’s so funny to see them all bundled up.

On Saturday morning, Nicole, Kristen, and two of her friends, and I hopped on a plane and went down to Krabi Island for the long weekend. The foreign teachers were able to have Christmas day off, but the Thai staff had to work. . . . a little different than back home – not exactly 2 weeks off! We had a spectacular weekend. We also met up with another friend of Kristen’s and 2 backpackers from Canada. Five of us stayed in a lovely place – we decided to splurge a bit, seeing as though it was Christmas and all! We stayed on Railay Beach, which was phenomenal. The water was amazing, and the sand was gorgeous – just like a postcard. What was really picturesque was the view, the island is basically full of huge rock formations (maybe limestone), so it was amazing to be in the water, and look up to see these really cool rocks. Apparently, Krabi is the best place for rock climbing in all of Thailand. On Sunday, we chartered a long boat to take us to Chicken Island (about 10 minutes away). It looks like a chicken – head and all. But what was really neat, was that there were 3 islands joined by sandbars, so as the tide receded, it was possible to walk between all three. Wow!

On Christmas Eve night, we went for a nice dinner. There were gala dinners with entertainment, but they were quite pricey, so we settled for Thai food. No turkey for us! Everyone was so friendly – the Santa hats were out in ‘full force’ amongst the travellers.

Yesterday, for Christmas day, we rented kayaks for a couple of hours and explored the area. There is definitely not too many times I’ll be able to say that I went kayaking on Christmas! It was so beautiful. We also enjoyed some Christmas carols on the beach, thanks to Leah. (“Aye Aye Aye, it’s Christmas . . .”)

We arrived home around 9pm on Monday evening, which was 8am Christmas morning back in Winnipeg. I called home and it was so nice to talk to mom, dad, and Leah. They even unwrapped some gifts over the phone, so I really felt like I was there . . . . Soda was getting into the spirit of things too – barking up a storm for the paper!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you health and happiness for the new year.

Take care.