What an amazing time our group has had on Phu Quoc island here in Vietnam. We’ve spent almost everyday learning new skills towards our scuba certifications which 7 out of our group recieved. Our digs have been quite splended with only a 10 second hop to the beach. The sea food as you would imagine has been amazing aswell and many of us stuffed our selfs silly with crab, elephant… Read More
Wazzzzupp Capre Parents,
This is a story all about how the Southeast Aisa group turned Vietnam upside down. I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how we became the princes of vietnam.
In Ho Chi Min we started our stay in a waterpark where we spent most of the day, chillin out maxin, relaxin all cool, causein mahammm in the wave pool.
I whistled… Read More
We’re in Vietnam! I think the border crossing was a great foreshadow for the week to come; it was relaxing and easy.
After the bus ride across the border, we rode right in to Ho Chi Minh City. There we had an evening to explore the city on our own. A lot of us tried some staple Vietnamese food: pho and Vietnamese coffee. Pho, pronounced fuh, is a noodle soup… Read More
Hello everyone !
For our last day in Cambodia we visited S21 and the Killing feilds. S21 was formerly a high school that was transformed into a prision during the Kemer Rouge. It now serves as a genocide musem. I think our group could agree that it was one of the more intense places that we have visited. S21 is full of jail cells, interrogation rooms, and tourture instruments that… Read More
SEE-SA-DAI! That means hello/hi in Khmer (one of the few words we know).
After our lavish stay at the hotel in Battambang, we drove less than 10 minutes outside of the city to the Street Families Center. The scenery changed drastically within those few minutes from nice hotels and paved roads, to wooden houses on stilts to dirt roads. We recieved loads of loud “HELLO’s” from little children that were… Read More
Hello Carpe families,
Due to recent flooding in Thailand we have cut Bangkok out of the itinerary and decided to come to Cambodia a day early. After a brief stop in Khorat and a eight hour bus ride we arrived at the border in the city of Poi Pet. With our tactful leaders, we were able to elude the sketchy scams that were happening all around us.
We then took… Read More
Hello everyone!
We are currently in Sukhothai and enjoying everything that it has to offer. We got here after having an amazing time in the hill tribes. After a day of trekking through the mountians we spent some time staying in a Lahu village. While we were there we helped the community by building three bathrooms and we learned that the Lahu word for hello, goodbye and thank you is… Read More
Seasia with our “Law” faces. In Thailand, “Law” means handsome, and if you frame your face with your thumb and pointer finger in a photo, it implies that you are good looking. After a week of hiking, building, and smiling, I think we are all looking pretty good:-)… Read More
Greetings from the land of smiles!
We just reached the city of Chiang Rai after our relaxing meditation retreat! The resort like “New Life Foundation” welcomed us into their facilities for an eye opening week. Right as our bus pulled up to the center, we had a quick orientation meeting with the manager and some of the residents of New Life and then jumped into our meditation practices. Matthew, a… Read More
Hello everyone of the carpe community, We are in Chiang Mai about to depart to Chiang Rai for our meditation retreat. We have been in Pun Pun, an organic farm, for the past week learning alot about earthen building, organic farming, and sustainableliving. It was an amazing experience, but meow we are off to see more of Thailand but the problem is there has been a whole lot of flooding… Read More
Hello again! I just want to say right off for everyone back at home that we as a group are high and dry, and completely safe here in northern Thailand. As you may have already heard on the news, parts of Thailand are experiencing some of the worst flooding its seen in decades. Since July, Thailand has been enduring a series of tropical storms. Due to the unusually long and… Read More
Hello again from the Carpe Diem crew! It’s hard to believe that we’re already back in Chiang Mai, after our five day long stay at Sam Fan orphanage in Samoeng. The 2 and a 1/2 hour ride north to the orphanage was a long and windy one, but well worth the car sickness. We quickly settled in after the fist day, helping the kids out with many of their daily… Read More
fun trivia about thailand !
1. the biggest exports of thailand are:
1. Rice 2. Shrimp 3. tin 4. Diamonds
2. Bangkok is the hottest capital city in the world
3. Fathers/Mothers day is celebrated on the king and queens birthday… Read More
Hello family and friends!
We left our homestay families yesterday morning. The night before we had a celebration that was heartwarming and very sanook (fun in Thai). Activities included but were not limited to:
A performance of “Take me out to the Ball Game”
About a quarter of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” with coreography
Making flower boats with insence and a candle that we sent out with our families… Read More
For the last week or so we’ve been immersed in our home stays. The major changes from here and Chiang Mai, is that rather the awkward timid use of our Thai, and having to awkwardly decline the vendors at street markets after they have informed us not only of their difficult financial situation, but also their several kids which they must feed (I’m not so sure they were always telling… Read More
Fun fact: Bangkok actually means ‘olive fruit’. The capital city of Thailand is refered to as Grung Tep by Thais.
We’ve had 3 formal Thai lessons so far, learning basic greetings:
Sawadee ka (for ladies)/kap (for gents) – Hi
Sa baa dii mai ka/kap – How are you?
Sa baa dii ka/kap – Good
Slowly but surely the group is getting the hang of the 5 Thai tones. Our teacher… Read More
Hi Mom, Dad, and Sina! It’s my second day in Chiang Mai and I love it here! The weather is pretty much like it is at home: hot and humid. The food is awesome and the people are really nice. We’ve been exploring around the city and in 5 days we’ll move in with our homestay families. I miss you.
Love,
Sonya… Read More
