Kelly Talk Thai: Oh. Well, yippidy do dah!

Let me just start off by saying everything that was supposed to happen on Monday didn't, yet so much ended up happening. Allow me to explain.

After another fabulous weekend in Lampang (our friend Bridget came through town to celebrate her bday, we went on bike rides, had some coffee, ate delicious food yadda yadda yadda) we would normally get up on Monday morning dreading another long week of work. However, our department head invited three of us to miss school and go to Chiang Rai for a National Open House for over 20 schools in the country. Never wanting to miss a fabulous opportunity for a little Thailand adventure (aka pure hilarity), we eagerly accepted their offer. Of course after accepting the invite we were told we'd still have to re-schedule the classes we'd miss and oh yeah, we were going to be leaving at 5am. What do you know, duped again.

So by 5am Monday morning we were waiting at one of the many 7-11s in Lampang until the 15-person van full of our favorite Thai teachers and one director pulled up honking. Regardless of the fact that the sun hadn't even risen yet, our teachers were in full effect, bantering away in Thai and breaking into song about every 5 minutes. J, Georgie and I, all piled in the back, began our church pew giggles about 10 minutes into the 3 hour ride. There were a few times that the teachers did turn around to speak to us in English. However, like I've said before, sometimes there just isn't anything else to say. After awhile responding with "oh great!" and "oh that sounds nice" gets a little old so at one point J decided to reply in the most hilariously sincere tone "Oh. Well, yippidy do dah!" And so it became. . . our slogan for the day.

Now let me preface the rest of the story by saying we've found that some things in Thailand run in a fairly unorganized fashion compared to what we're used to. Hence the need for slogans like "Thai Time" since most things are done later than expected. Or "TIT" (This Is Thailand) that our HR director told us to use anytime we feel like getting frustrated, to remind ourselves that it's just the way things are run here. And we're usually left out of the loop until someone realizes that we have no idea what's going on when everyone is speaking in Thai. It's become a guessing game for us. But for the most part we've learned to just run with it. That's why we found the rest of the day to be so amazing. . .

After surprisingly only three stops, we show up to a school in Chiang Rai where J, Georgie, and I assume the open house function is being held. The teachers pile out of the van, everyone speaks in Thai, then everyone gets back in the van. We follow suit. We show up to a hotel where we now assume the function is being held. The teachers pile out of the van, everyone speaks in Thai, then everyone gets back in the van. We follow suit. We show up to the school, again, where we assume the function is being held. The teachers pile out of the van and finally we are greeted by what appears to be an important person at the school. We sit at a huge table with this woman, everyone speaks in Thai. Then we move to another building, sit at another table, everyone speaks in Thai. We move to what seems to be the director's office, sit at yet another table, everyone speaks in Thai. Eventually we are shuffled back to the original table to sit and chat, in Thai. Finally, Georgie decides to ask when the main event is happening and when the other 20 schools are arriving. And that is when the three of us are informed that the big open house is in fact being held. . .on Wednesday. As in two days from now. As in we drove 3 hours north for an event and showed up on the wrong day. Apparently someone missed the memo that they changed the date.

But in true Thailand "mai pen rai" form ("not to worry") the ladies decide to embrace the opportunity and use it to go. . .shopping!! They begin to tell us about this great market with lots of cheap goods from China. When we ask where it is they all say "Myanmar" (aka Burma) and laugh. Now I must say our Thai teachers have a pretty great sense of humor so the three of us laugh along assuming the joke, don't ask any questions and get back in the van. Next thing you know, we're at the Myanmar/Thailand border and the teachers are asking for our passports. Um. . .I'm sorry, where are we going?

Unfortunately it was going to cost the three of us 500 baht each to walk about five feet farther and actually cross the border. (Not to mention the fact that we didn't have a re-entry visa into Thailand and had we decided to pay that 500 baht to cross over, we wouldn't have been able to come back to Thailand. Could have been a problem). So what do our teachers do? Pretty much say "See ya later! Wait in van if you tired" as they cross over. Amazing what a few women will do for a good deal on pirated DVDs. Luckily for us there was a massive market on the Thailand side as well (where all the Myanmar rejects, ourselves included, are allowed to shop) and we moseyed through the goods o'plenty before the teachers came back.

At this point it was around 3:30pm and the three of us made bets for our arrival time back in Lampang. . .immediately followed by bets for how many stops we would make on the way home. First stop (a screeching halt on the highway) for some pineapple at a fruit stand. Obviously. Next stop (a screeching halt on the highway along with reversing for about half a mile and then making a U-turn down a side road heading into the mountains) for a stop at a Chinese Temple. We of course weren't told why we were stopping so after speeding through the back roads for about 15 minutes Georgie asked "What are we doing?" about 8 times with absolutely no response (J and I were in histarics). After deciding to change her question to "Where are we going?" we finally got an answer of "temple". It turned out to be beautiful and set right in the mountains. Next stop, dinner on a lake in this cute town during a gorgeous sunset. One more pineapple stand stop and one last bathroom stop before finally arriving back in Lampang at 9:30pm. Georgie won the bet.

By the time we got back we were exhausted. Our eye lids could barely stay open and our stomachs were sore from laughing all day. Definitely not what we expected but when is it ever in Thailand? We decided without a doubt that if we could do the whole day over again we'd do it in a heartbeat. So yippidy do dah to that.

The Little Duck hotel. Notice how no one else is here. Not until Wednesday that is.