APRIL 9, 2019 | LEUM DTAA COHORT | SOUTHEAST ASIA - LEUM DTAA
Dear viewers,
Welcome back to our blog. After a mindful and peaceful week at Plum village, we are back to the city life. As mentioned before one of our group member’s birthday passed. We were determined to celebrate it properly. We decided to go out and karaoke. To make this night one to remember we took public transportations. We first got on a boat that took us half and hour to get us to the BTS sky train station which we took next. Funny story we got off on the wrong stops on both modes of transportation. Afterward we were puzzled because we didn’t know which way is south. After much walking and asking people for directions, we met a nice lady who willing to let us use her phone for directions. We finally made it after two hours and turned out the place was booked all night. We were sad but we weren’t going to let that ruin Roselin’s birthday. We decided to go get dinner because we were all hungry. We found a really cute place near by the karaoke place and we did a family style dinner. The food was very delicious. It was very lavish and what some might say luxurious meal.
The next morning most of us went to the mall to spend our half day in Bangkok before leaving to Koh Tao. Jessica, Loida and I got a fast & furious tuk tuk. I thought I was going to fly out of the seat. It was fun and scary ride for us. The mall is enormous and crowed with people. That afternoon we were ready to go to the train station. For most of us this was our very first overnight train ride. We were looking forward to it. On the train we slept while some us played some intense card games. Around bed time the attendant came and set up our beds. After seven and half hours of ride we finally got off. But waited two hours at train station for the bus to take us to where our ferry at. In ferry some of us stayed under air condition and some of us enjoy the hot and breezing air. We reached Koh Tao at mid day which gave us time to explore and enjoy the island before we got introduced to New Heavens Marine Conservation program.
Marine Conservation program helps preserve marine life through creating artificial reefs and bring awareness to the ocean. Their slogan is (Our ocean, our responsibility). We were taught by the three awesome teachers who made our three days unforgettable experience. Their name were Elle, Spencer and Crissy. Overall we went snorting at Tanot where we saw baby sharks and Shark Bay. We helped built artificial reefs and care for turtles. On our last evening we had a special surprised planned for our OEs. We met up on the beach shore and have a small fire going. First we went around and gave our individual gratitude to show our appreciation and love for them. Afterward we sung them a song written by the group which made them emotional. Lastly we toped it off with a small meaningful gift. We got emotional for a bit. Afterward we decided to have a dance party along the beach. Toper got his speaker. Then Nolan surprised us with sprinkler firework. We took badass photos. We kept dancing until we were tired and we laid on the sand admired the stars. Realizing we are almost finish with the program and will be back in Portland in a week. TRAGIC!
