By the light of a flash light and other adventures

I'm in Ko Chang right now and we have been here for about 2 days now. We left from Pattaya at about 8 in the morning and arrived in the afternoon after a long day of traveling. We were whisked away from the bus station to the ferry and from the pier on Ko Chang we jumped into bus bound for somewhere. We ended up reaching a fabulous resort, KB Resorts, right on the beach. We have a fantastic little bungalow and are in a perfect location. It's a bit more expensive than we were planning, but it's worth every baht. We have been worried that it would be rainy while we were here but today was a beautiful day and we spent all day in the sun. My legs and arms can attest to that as I got a bit burned. Yesterday morning we kayaked from shore to several islands of the coast and enjoyed that. It was a strenuous paddle, but was beautiful. We ended up at on a beach with a nice calm cove and stayed there for a bit and relaxed before the last crossing back to the beach. We were a bit worried about the current coming back as the winds were strong and the current seemed to be strong as well, but after asking a boat pilot we met on one of the islands we decided that all was well and made the crossing. Upon reaching another island, we realized that some water had penetrated my ziplock bag and had gotten several things wet. So, we dried that out and attempted to make do. My camera made it through okay, but my phone didn't. On the beach I saw that water had gotten inside and had condensed on the screen-not a good thing-but at that moment it seemed to still work. After we got back I opened it up to dry it out and noticed that it wasn't reading the sim card - not good. I thought that the phone was okay and it was the sim card that had been damaged and was really worried because I'd have lost all my phone numbers and text messages - something that would have been survivable, but no fun. It turns out that the sim card is okay and it's the phone that's shot. I've been thinking about getting a new phone, so in the end, I did and am only out 3,500 baht and have a new phone. So, it could have been worse. After dealing with the phone we showered and rented a motorbike to drive around the island. We headed up the coast and stopped at a restaurant along side the road. It was just us at this little restaurant and we ordered food and fruit shakes from the lady and ate. After she had finished cooking, she sat down and started to talk to us. It was great to chat with her. She moved to Ko Chang about 5 years ago from a province in Isan (northeastern Thailand) and runs this restaurant. I asked her about the changes over the last few years and she attested to the changes alluded to in the guide books about the rapid development of the island and the ever increasing influx of tourists every year. She talked of forests coming down and guest houses rising, but also of a greater income than she has had before because of the foreign tourists. She also talked about the slow and high seasons and how in a few weeks more and more tourists will come as the rainy season comes to an end. It was a fantastic conversation and we exchanged bits and pieces. I talked about my experiences here and teaching and she talked about her family (she has two sons; one drives a bus from her home town to BKK and the other has a farm). We talked about whether or not I had a Thai girlfriend yet or not and if I wanted one. As with most every other Thai, she was very curious to know about my relationship status and many jokes were made. A friend of hers came to the restaurant and told me that she didn't have a boyfriend and asked if I wanted to be hers (I'm assuming she was joking...). It was just wonderful to have that conversation and to be able to communicate like that. I still surprise myself sometimes at how much Thai I do know and how much I can communicate with others. It's moments like that which help to erase the moments where I wasn't able to communicate or struggled - we really had a conversation. After lunch, we continued on around the island and ended up at the entrance to a trail in the national park. I spook Thai to the women working the gate and she immediately asked me if I worked in Thailand and told me that I could enter in the national park for the Thai price (20 baht). Peter, a foreign tourist, would have to pay 400 baht. It's crazy how that works, and I'm glad I can take advantage of the Thai price (it doesn't always happen like this - getting this rate was easy. I tried to get a similar deal at the Grand Palace in Bangkok but to no avail). We decided that we didn't have enough time to do that and continued on to another waterfall further down the island that was free. We got there and hiked a bit in, but it started to get dark before we got there. The island has some very neat roads and are very steep in some places. We had made it there find, but it appeared that some o f the hills coming back would be very steep. We attempted these hills and we were almost flung back down the hill (figuratively). The first hill was a challenge and our bike stalled half way up. So, we turned the bike perpendicular to the hill, started it again and continued up in first gear. The bike worked hard, we thought of fluffy cotton and other light objects and we made it. We certainly put on a show for the others on the road and while you may be thinking this is one of those moments where, at the time, it's not funny but in hindsight it is. In reality it was a moment that was as hilarious then as it is now. We were laughing our way up that hill as well. On our way back, as it got dark, I (as most people would) turned on the headlight on the bike. Unfortunately nothing happened - it was getting dark and we had no head lamp. After discovering this, I did the prudent thing and pulled into the next motorcycle repair shop and asked them to change the light (assuming it was a burned out bulb). Upon closer examination, they realized that the whole light assembly needed to be replaced. Now, keep in mind this is a rental and I'm in Thailand - that combination does not work in the renters favor if something breaks while renting. So, instead of spending the money (almost 3 times what is cost to rent the bike for one day) we went to 7/11 and bought a flashlight. So, by the light of our blinker and the light of a 55 baht ($1.15) flashlight we found our way home (about 10 km). It was a slow but exciting ride. It was one of the few times in my life when I found myself thankful for development and the light pollution that exists in cities as it made driving without a headlight much easier.

Today was a much less eventful day. It was the first day that really felt like vacation and I enjoyed simply laying on the beach and relaxing. After a lazy morning and a phone call home, we decided to start our day by driving into the next town, White Sands, and go shopping. There were a few gifts Peter wanted to pick up, so we did that and returned from where we can the night before (the drive during the day is much easier with light). A quick shopping trip and a short hike to a waterfall rounded out the morning and we headed back to put on our swimming suits and lay on the beach. After looking forward to jumping in the ocean (it was another beautiful morning), right as we walk out our door it starts to rain. All we can do is look at each other in disbelief. But, luckily for us after about 30 minutes the rain let up and we were rewarded with yet another beautiful afternoon. As the sun began to set, Peter headed back to the bungalow for a surprise and returns with two bottles of Sunshine beer, one of my favorite beers bottled in Colorado by the New Belgium Brewing Company. I was delighted to have one and we spent the next half hour sipping our beers (which tasted amazing by the way) and watching the sun set.

And thus that wraps up our time in Ko Change. We are planning to leave tomorrow afternoon after another relaxing morning and head to Ayudhaya (an old capital of Siam).

Hope all is well,

RM

If you can't find a restaurant what do you do? Our Story

Okay, so to continue with the adventures as of late I'll finish writing about our last day in Bangkok. Our last day was relatively relaxing and laid back compared to the first few. We spent the early part of the morning at an internet cafe writing emails before heading down to the pier to catch the river taxi. This morning, we took to taxis - one down river and one across the river. We ended at Wat Arun. This temple is famous in part because it is the temple featured on the back of the 10 baht coin (it is also right across the river from the Grand Palace and Wat Phrat Keaw). This was my favorite temple in Bangkok. It's location right next to the river and the peaceful nature of the temple combined were amazing. Standing on the corner of the center chedi looking out across the Chao Phraya river at the Grand Palace was incredible. The simplicity of the temple was complemented by the magnificence and significance of its location. I enjoyed every minute of my time there. After the temple, we walked around the neighborhood surrounding the temple and purchased Peter a yellow shirt. As I've written before, this is the King's 60th year on the throne and there has been a jubilee celebration all year and many Thai's can be seen wearing their yellow shirts. This year also marks the King's 80th birthday which will usher in another wave of yellow shirts sporting the logo/icon celebrating the King's birthday. I can't wait until December 5 (the King's birthday) to be a part of that celebration. Afterwards we had lunch and headed home for a quick nap and then that's when the fun started. We had decided to go to Cabbages and Condoms, a restaurant in Bangkok that supports a non-profit that works in many different communities across Thailand. We made a 5:00 reservation and set out from the guest house at about 4:00 thinking we had plenty of time to get there. Our journey would include a trip on the river taxi and sky train followed by (what we thought would be) a short walk. The river taxi took longer than expected and we made it to sky train closet to the restaurant at about 5:15. No problem we thought, we'll only be a few minutes late. Without thinking too much about which direction to go (and because of the absence of street signs) we took off to the right. After walking for about 10 minutes, we realized that we were going the wrong way. We should have gone left. So, we turned around and walked back from where we came crossing the street and walking 10 minutes in the opposite direction only to again realize that we were going the wrong way. This time, after taking the time to look for street signs we decided that we turned around a bit early and would head back the other way (the way we initially went) but walk further this time, which we did. Now, after doing this and walking for yet another 30 minutes, we come to the most embarrassing realization that we are on the wrong road - not surprising given that we had already gone both directions and hadn't found the restaurant. It was a very "I can't believe we just spent an hour doing that" moment and we vowed to kick ourselves for that. So, we headed back to where we began. On our walk back we were rewarded with a great view of the sunset over Bangkok as we walked along a very large park in the center of town. After once again reaching our starting point we turned up the road hoping that this was the direction that we were supposed to head. But yet again we were disappointed and turned around once again. At this point with no other directions to go, we confidently (yet now at a bit slower pace after having walked for quite a long time) walked towards the restaurant which we found a few minutes later. We sat down to enjoy our meal at about 7:30 or 3 1/2 hours after we left our guesthouse. We took a taxi home.

The following day we met several folks from the English Camp early in the morning and began thus began our adventures at English Camp. There is much to tell about English Camp and all will eventually be told, but I'm tired and will sign off now. I am going to skip ahead though and post the happens after English Camp before I get to talking about the camp.

Without end,

RM

Neon Lights, White Elephants and Mother Water

Last I wrote, Peter had just arrived and we were just beginning our adventures together in Thailand. As of now, we have indeed had many and I'm going to attempt to write about a few of them here. Peter arrived very late at night and so his first night was filled with a taxi ride from the new airport and he was introduced to Thailand under the neon lights of Khao San Road. Khao San Road, the infamous backpacker/foreign local in Bangkok, is abuzz with activity at all hours of the day and during the night the neon lights flicker on, the stereos are turned up and the street vendors hit the ground running. It's quite the scene and it very different from the Thailand that I have grown used to over the past several months (there is nothing quite like that in Lampang). It's an interesting place and a mixing pot of many cultures. It's not Thailand, but there's no place in the world quite like it. We had a guest house of Khao San and were able to escape most of the noise and neon lights and get a peaceful nights sleep. The next morning we awoke early as Peter was still on L.A time and we hit the streets looking for some food. While we were planning to catch the Grand Palace and Wat Phrat Keaw that day, we ended up going to several different smaller Buddhist temples. Each had it's own special charm. One had the Lucky Buddha, another the Standing Buddha and yet another the Marble Buddha (this Buddha isn't actually marble, but is housed in a marble temple). We strolled around town and found our way to the outskirts of the King's Residence - a massive complex near the center of town. Near to that was the Royal White Elephant museum and the Royal Golden Teak Mansion, both of which proved to be interesting. In Thailand, the white elephant is connected to royalty and every white elephant found in the property of the King. The museum documented the different royal elephants and talked about the history of royal elephants. The museum is actually housed in the old royal elephant stables. We made our way to the Chao Phraya River, the river running through the center of Bangkok and the most famous river in Thailand and took the Chao Phraya River Express (a river taxi back) towards our guest house. It's said that all of the rivers in Thailand (or at least the largest; the Wang, the Ping, the Yom, and the Nan rivers) all flow into this river. Many of the royal celebrations take place both on land and on water and it's interesting the role that water (specifically rivers) have played in Thai history. It's something that has fascinated me and something I want to continue to studied. Added to that, after having lived in Chiang Mai and Lampang, both of which have a river running through the middle of town, this river culture seems pertinent to my experience in Thailand. Another interesting tidbit; the word for river in Thai (mae nam) is literally translated as "mother water". Dinner and a stroll in the rain and that was our first day in Bangkok.

Our second day was as adventurous, but much easier to describe concisely. We went to the Royal Palace (the former residence of the King of Thailand) and the adjacent temple, Wat Phrat Keaw. Both are incredibly ornate and beautiful filled with objects unique to Thailand. They are those sites that one must go see if you travel to Thailand, and are amazing cultural, architectural and historical wonders, but aren't much to write home about. Another temple close to the Grand Palace is Wat Pho, a beautiful temple in it's own right, but add to it the ornate and intricate gardens and the larger than life reclining Buddha with intricate mother of pearl inlay on it's feet, it became my second favorite temple in Bangkok, second only to a temple that we would visit the next day. After seeing the temples and eating lunch we headed down river again toward Siam Paragon, Bangkok's newest and most posh mall. We got off the river taxi and caught the Sky Train (another Bangkok specialty) to the mall. The Sky Train was an experience in itself. Riding on elevated tracks above the city, you essentially have a birds eye view of Bangkok while you ride. We were so impressed we talked coming back just to ride the Sky Train. Now, Siam Paragon was interesting. It was a state of the art, modern mall with all the amenities and all the globally recognized retailers. Just like many of our airports nowadays, we could have been any where in the world. We wandered around for a bit browsing in the stores before heading to meet Peck and the other staff in order to prepare for the English Camp. We met at Pizza Company and chatted while going over the schedule. At the meeting I met several of Peck's colleagues and friends many of whom I was able to get to know over the next few days at the camp. It was good to chat with them and I was glad to finally get some details about the camp. After our meeting, Peck decided to take Peter and I around the city to a few places. Out first stop was the Red Light District in Bangkok. Peter and I had not particular interest in seeing this part of town, but at Peck's insistence (saying that it's part of town and it's something we had to see), we saw it. It was neat to see and walk though and experience. We then headed to a night bazaar to shop and then to a beer garden to have a beer. We didn't just have any beer though, we had Peck's favorite European beer (whose name I can't remember). It was a taste acquired by Peck while he studied in Norway during university. We had a fantastic conversation about politics, economics, Thailand etc (which I'm sure was aided by the beer) and then made it home. All in all, a fanstastic day 2.

I'm beat now and will call it a night, but there is still so much more to write about. So, I'll try to make it back here tomorrow and write more (that's weather dependent...If there's rain, there will be writing; if there's sun, there will be playing).

Until next time,

RM

The perks of teaching and a brand new airport.

I'm am now enjoying one of the perks of teaching - vacation! I've officially finished the first semester and am now on semester break for 3 weeks before going back to start the second semester. The end of the semester was very anti-climatic teaching wise - I created tests, they took them, I graded them and that was the end of it. Besides having to navigate the Thai grading system (which involved conversions, transformations and grades for responsibility, diligence, honesty and disciple), they past two weeks were easy ( a stark contrast to the last two weeks of school as a student and, I'm assuming, a teacher in the US). My students did well on the finals and I was pleasantly surprised by several students performance on the test. As the semester wound to an end, I did begin to look ahead to next semester and am excited to teach and am looking forward to many of the topics as well as being able to experiment more with teaching as I have a semester of "practice" under my belt. I'm sure it'll be just as challenging, but I hope the challenges will be less of a reaction to not knowing what I'm doing and more of an ongoing effort to create a more stimulating and interesting learning environment. Nevertheless, despite having been here for three months, there are moments when I still don't know what the world is going on (and I don't think that'll change). But that's why it's exciting.

On a related note, this past week I've started to work with Project Citizen Thailand. Project Citizen is a program that I worked with at DU helping local schools develop public policy proposals and educate students about policy issues and the ways to change those policies. And as it turns out there is a Project Citizen Thailand. Bunyawat actually won first place in the northern region Project Citizen Showcase and are now going to compete in Bangkok in November. That's were I come in. Previously, all of the competition was in Thai, now they must present in Thai and English so I was drafted as an English coach a few days ago. I spent Monday and Tuesday working with them and will continue once I get back and it looks like I may come back to Bangkok with them for the competition (which would be awesome). Their policy is really neat and deals with the issue of deforestation in Thailand and it's impact, particularly on flooding since that has been a huge issue in the north (Lampang was flooded several times last year, one inundating a large part of town under several meters of water).

I'm currently in Bangkok and am planning on spending the next several weeks traveling with Peter Reding who arrived last night. I took the train from Lampang to BKK overnight on Tuesday and arrived early Monday morning and spent the day resting and relaxing before making the trek out to the brand new airport 50 km from town! The opening of this airport has been huge (it opened 1 week ago today) and long awaited. It was one of the central publicity pieces of the ousted prime minister, but now is the subject of much criticism in design flaws and corruption, but despite all that it is a source of national pride. Over the past week about 200,00 people have gone through the airport and only 90,000 were arriving or departing by plane - the rest were tourists simply coming to see the new airport. It's insane. I made it out there at 11:00 pm and met Peter in the brand new airport. I do have to admit it was neat to know that I was one of the first million of so people to come through that airport and be there within a week of it's opening. But I did come with a purpose. Peter and I will be in Bangkok until Sunday when we'll take of for the English Camp in Pattaya.

Take care.

RM