If only we were smarter...

Hi!

I've found myself saying this a lot in the past few days. Taryn and I have a had a blast exploring HK but we haven't really thought much about what we were doing or made any sort of a plan. That really hasn't resulted in anything unfortunate happening save losing a bit of time.

We woke up on Sunday ready to go. Taryn was going to spend most of the day out exploring with me and put off studying until later that evening (I'm such a good influence on my sister) and we hit the hills early. We quickly made our way down to the Central MRT station (essentially the subway) and were soon on the line bound for Lantau Island. Lantau Island is actually bigger than HK Island and one of the small islands just off the coast was turned into the airport. So I had been out here the previous day when I flew in and will be back out here again tomorrow when I fly out. Why we found ourselves making that journey so many time, I haven't a clue but that was the first time we both said in unison, "if only we were smarter". Poor planning aside, we had a grand old time. Our itinaray for the day was to climb the second highest mountain in HK and visit the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha statue in the world. We couldn't help but notice all the qualifiers they attached to this statue. I quess they just really wanted to be the biggest in world for something. We caught a bus from the MRT station out to the Buddha which was situated on a hill top. As we approached the Buddha you could see it up on the hill. It really was big. The Buddha didn't open until 10 and so we climbed the mountain first. It was a pretty much uphill for about 2 km. We were blessed with a cool breeze and a clouds which misted on us while we climbed. This we appreciated greatly while we were climbing but were hoping would promptly vanish once we reached the summit. What? Do you blame us for hoping we could have the best of both worlds? Anyway, the Weather Gods complied. We summited and the view cleared up. We were able to see the airport from our vantage point as well as a bunch of the outlying islands. I had wanted to see the airport from above because the airport is shaped like a giant airplane. We came back down the mountain and checked out the largest outdoor seated Buddha in the world. It was only recently built (maybe 10 year ago) so is relatively new when it comes to Buddhas. It's claim to fame (outside of being the largest outdoor seated bronze Buddha in the world) is that it has a very important Buddha relic. The allow you to view the relic which is very different from temples here in Thailand. Normally the relic is buried underneath a chedi and is inaccessible. Here it was prominently displayed. Taryn's motivation for coming out here was that they had a really good vegetarian lunch at the monastery. You could buy a ticket for the Buddha and lunch and end up saving a few bucks so we did that and ate our vegetarian lunch. We then made out way to the far end of the island. We came from one side and decided that we would go back via the other side and the ferry. We took the bus and then hopped onto the ferry. We had to wait for a few minutes for the ferry and so we sat down on some benches near a beach. There were two things that stood out while we were sitting there. First, there were gigantic statues of ants along the path. Now, I don't know how people in Hong Kong feel about ants, but they are not something that I generally want to be a part of my beach going experience. So why there were giant ant statues at the beach I haven't a clue. Second, as we sat their, people constantly were passing by looking as if they were going to the beach. However, as we looked at the beach it didn't seem to fill up. We have no idea where they went? They just seemed to disappear. We hoped on the ferry and were back in HK in no time. It had been a long day and Taryn needed to study so we headed back to Taryn's place for a study session. I hung out for a while and then I was off to explore. I planned to check out a few places before it got dark and then explore the city at night with all the lights. But the first order of business was food. I was pretty hungry and as I mentioned this to Taryn, she told me about a really good kebab place and I was sold instantly. I grabbed kebab and was off walking. It was Sunday and the downtown area was packed. One of the reasons, is of course, that it is a major city on a Sunday evening. The other is that Sunday is usually the only day off for many of the Filipino maids and nanny's and so they all gather around downtown to chat and enjoy themselves on their day off. They'll sit in almost every corner of this part of the city and will bring things to sit on, food, games etc. and simply hang out with a group of their friends. They do this every Sunday and they do it all day long. So after finding my way through the crowds, I headed towards the pier. One of the unique things about Hong Kong is the daily lights and laser show that takes place around Hong Kong Harbor. There are lasers and lights placed on many of the different buildings and they are coordinated and it supposedly makes for a neat show. I was more captured by the moon rising over the skyscrapers. The show was neat, but the full moon was far more impressive and provided an interesting contrast as it rose up over the towering buildings of downtown Hong Kong. I headed back, but before jumping on the bus to take me up the hill to Taryn's, I grabbed her the kebab she requested for dinner (what a nice brother I am) and of course another one for me. And that brought to an end my second day in Hong Kong.

A free place to stay means Ryan comes to visit

Greetings and salutations from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (also known as Hong Kong). Many of you might find it odd or surprising that I'm currently in Hong Kong but I am in fact actually in Hong Kong. It all started a few months ago. My older sister (who is in law school) decided that she would take some classes in Hong Kong after she finished her internship in Bangkok (remember?). So she left for Hong Kong in early July and has been here ever since. Deciding to take advantage of this opportunity (the free place to stay...and of course the chance to see my sister again ;-)), I came to Hong Kong. It just so happened that this is a holiday weekend in Thailand. School is closed on Monday and Tuesday (for the beginning of Buddhist Lent) and so I have a four day weekend. I left Lampang Friday evening and took the overnight bus to BKK where I caught an early morning flight into Hong Kong. And that's where I am now. Got it?

Flying into Hong Kong was exciting. From what I've been told flying into HK is actually less exciting nowadays. The old HK airport was located in the heart of the city and so planes literally would have to land amongst the skyscrapers. Well, they've done away with the old airport and have constructed a new one. Actually, it has been open for quite some time already and has lost that new airport smell already. That's besides the point. Some years ago I watched a Discovery Channel documentary on the new HK airport. The project was massive and it involved creating a new island, transportation infrastructure etc. and was fairly impressive. So the excitement came from the fact that I was flying into the airport that I had previously seen on TV. I'm a sucker for those kind of things. Moving on. I met Taryn and we headed back to her place. She's been studying at the University of Hong Kong and so that's where we went. Apparently while I was watching the documentary about the airport I missed the part about the hills. Hong Kong, believe it or not, is very hilly. It's essentially an entire city built at the base of a hill and as the city has grown the buildings have slowly worked their way up the mountain. It's quite impressive really.

While this was a holiday weekend for me, it unfortunately wasn't for Taryn. She actually has finals on Monday and thus had to study a bit while I was here. Me + new city to explore means that I have plenty to keep myself busy while she studies. After dropping of my bag and checking out her digs, we headed back down the hill. There is an area of town, Lan Kwai Fong, which plays host to the modern and hip young crowd and they were having their July Fest complete with lots of beer, food, music and the inevitable inebriation that follows. One of the unique features of this event is the preferred container for consuming said alcohol. Beer bottles aren't allowed and cups just aren't any fun so they found some long tube-like cups (maybe 18 inches long) tied a lanyard to the top and wear their beers around their neck. It was hilarious! Not only did you have young and rambunctious Western men (and women) walking around with these around their necks (they of course thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread), but you also had the old Chinese men and the tiny Chinese women walking around with these things around their necks. So, while Taryn studied in a little coffee shop, I partook in the annual July Fest consuming the local brew, Lan Kwai Fong Beer. After a long day of traveling and not really eating or sleeping much in the past 36 hours, I found myself ready to move on rather quickly and escaped the noise and the crowds for the quiet back streets and Hollywood Road. I managed to work of any buzz I had very quickly (it was those darn hills) and was off exploring for a few hours. I met up with Taryn a bit later after simply plying the streets for a while. We were met by another Duke Law student studying in Hong Kong for the month and we made our way towards The Peak. Hong Kong is an island and at the center of that island is the highest point affectionately called The Peak (its actual name is Victoria's Peak). There is a tram that has been in operation for the past century hauling people up and down this mountain and so that was where we headed but apparently everyone and their uncle (and aunt too) had the same idea. So we took the bus. We jumped on the first one we saw that said 15 (the line that goes to The Peak) and we were off. We found ourselves basking in our good luck - we hadn't waited long (haha suckers waiting for the the tram) and this was a double decker bus with an open second story roof and we were on top. We were flying through the streets of Hong Kong on top of a bus with these incredible skyscrapers looming over our heads. It was perfect...that is until the bus stopped and we were nowhere near The Peak. In our excitement we had gotten on to the bus that that went back and forth between the pier and the Peak Tram. We had read The Peak on the bus and stopped after 'Peak' and unfortunately missed the word 'Tram'. We were now further from The Peak than we had started. Shucks. Luckily, the actual bus stopped where we were and in no time we were back on track. The tram essentially goes straight up the mountain. This bus couldn't do that so we started to wind our way up the mountain slowly but surely. This was an incredible ride. As we climbed, the fantastic heights of the these buildings were made abundantly clear as we continued to loom above us until we had just about reached The Peak. It all is a fantastic feat of human engineering and creation. Imagine a skyscraper built perched on the side of a cliff and you might have come close to imagining a simple build here. It's insane. We gradually rose up into the mountains and above the buildings however even once we reached the top it still seemed like the tallest building in Hong Kong was still above us (I'm currently looking into the stats on that...check back in a few days). Anyway, we went to the viewing platform and checked out the view (by the time we got there it was dark and I could swear I heard several people snickering and saying 'suckers' under their breath). Dinner was simple and was eaten at a little restaurant on the top of The Peak. A quick cab ride brought us back down the mountain and we called it a day.

A Morning Greeting

Hi

It's Thursday morning and I've just arrived at school. Most days, I drive into the school through the front gates, sign my name in the registrar and go park my motorcycle in front of my building. This whole process is usually fraught with students milling around making it nearly impossible for me to drive through school. As I've become more of a familiar face around campus, more and more students will say 'hi' as I drive through or walk around campus. Recently, a group of girls has congregated near where I park my motorcycle. I don't remember exactly how long ago they started hanging out there, but it's been within the last month. They make sure to say 'hi' every morning and are always ready to chat. There aren't my students, just students at Bunyawat. Chatting with them has become part of my morning routine. Today, however, I was late. I arrived at school a bit later than usual and as I parked my motorcycle these girls made sure that I was aware of it. Every morning the student have some function to attend. They play the Thai national anthem and the Bunyawat song and other information is passed on to the students in the morning before classes. They are supposed to arrive at 8 and classes start at 8:20. Normally I arrive at school at about 7:45 and so this group of students has plenty of time to say hello to me and move on where they are supposed to be. Today, they waited for me. They didn't go to assembly like they were supposed to and waited until I arrived and said hi to me before they went.

Brutal honesty

I had my hair cut yesterday. It had gotten pretty long and I figured that it was about time for me to get it cut. The biggest reason why I decided to get my hair cut was to shorten the time needed in the morning to shower and reduce the amount of shampoo and conditioner I use. I'm being very honest here. I normally would like to have my hair a bit longer (and was enjoying having it long) but I don't really care if it is long or short. Little did I know that this would create such a firestorm of activity. I arrived at school this morning and soon found out that the evenings activities which resulted in Ajaan Ryan having a different hairstyle was the talk of the town. My M1 students were visibly distraught and the news spread rapidly. Pretty soon they were coming up with excuses to come into the office and catch a glimpse of my new hair style. Other were more forward and stood in the doorway talking about it. Other found it necessary to peek their head around the corner and attempt to catch fleeting glances without me noticing (however it's impossible for 12-year-olds to do anything secretly). I felt a bit like a celebrity and quickly became very self-conscious. Eventually they got a bit used to it and things got back to normal. I was abruptly reminded of my new haircut later in the day as I saw several of my M3 students. I was not only reminded that I had in fact had my hair cut the previous night but also of the typical Thai trait of being very blunt when talking about physical appearances. I was asked by one of my students why I cut my hair. Before I could respond she exclaimed that I looked more handsome before. And that was that. It sparked another round of discussion and pretty soon the whole class was chiming in and everyone had an opinion. It turned out the general consensus was that I shouldn't have cut my hair. At that point I conceded defeat and made an announcement and declaring that I was going to begin growing my hair out starting now.

This entry didn't turn out exactly like I was thinking it would turn out. It's funny how some of the littlest things turn into very big things. But I guess I should take comfort in the fact that they are honest enough with me to tell me that they think I'm uglier than I was before. At least that means they care, right? That's what I keep telling myself as I focus more and more mental energy on growing out my hair. I think it's helping.

RM

Lampang Legends (and other interesting things about Lampang)

The chicken is ubiquitous throughout Lampang. It is found artistically rendered on nearly every dish in most restaurants in town. Even my own collection of dishes is graced by the presence of the Lampang chicken. It is impossible for you to go a single day without using a chicken dish. The chicken is also found throughout town in several forms. What I would defined as the center of town is an intersection where five rather important roads converge. At the center of this intersection is a clock tower. Off to the side, prominently displayed near the portrait of the much revered King, is a large statue of a chicken. A short distance from there, at the center of a roundabout, is another statue of a chicken. Drive a little further and you will hit one of the most beautiful roads in Lampang. This road had been built using tiles and other ceramic products. Lampang is very well-known for their ceramics and thus has used this road to showcase their work. This road is lined with not only super-sized chicken bowls, but also chickens placed atop poles. The easiest way to describe it is to have you picture a streetlight. These are essentially streetlights, except in this case, the light has been replaced with a chicken. Lastly, one encounters the chicken on the official seal of Lampang. This seal is placed on every official document that comes out of there government office.

After noticing the significant presence of the chicken (or more accurately, the white rooster) here, I decided to make several inquiries as to the reason why this rather unassuming animal was raised to the position of "Mascot of Lampang". According to the local legend Buddha visited the province in his lifetime. The god Indra worried that the people would not get up in time by themselves to show respect to Buddha. So he took it upon himself to wake them up and thus transformed himself into a white rooster. It was also noted that during the Buddha's visit, he planted a tree in the temple he visited. This tree, supposedly the kachao (กระเชา) tree or jute plant (Holoptelea integrifolia), was planted in the temple gardens and has since become the provincial tree. On a similar note, the provincial flower is the Heliconia (Heliconia sp.).

The Great Seal of Lampang
This is a rendition of the front of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang (one of the more famous temples in Lampang with the white rooster in the doorway. The text on the bottom is 'Lampang' in Thai.

This is a picture of the chicken "street light". There is a whole row of these down the middle of the road stretching for a good 500 m. If you look closely, you can see a small chicken bowl underneath the chicken.

This is a close up shot of the chicken "street lights"

This is the White Chicken Games Mascot. The White Chicken Games are an annual sporting event held in Lampang every January. It's like the Olympics but for Lampang and the mascot is a chicken.

This is one of the chicken statues, however, this one is located in a temple.

Here are some real, live chickens running around a temple in Lampang.

This is the larger statue of the chicken in the center of town near the portrait of the King.

Here is a just a closer shot of that chicken. It's an odd-looking chicken, but it is in fact a chicken.

This is me in front of the super-sized chicken bowls along the Ceramics Road in Lampang. My bowls are just miniature versions of this. Can you picture it?

This is a picture of the provincial flower. It looks like a bird-of-paradise, but in reality it is just a relative.

And finally, this is a picture of the jute tree which was supposedly planted by the Buddha during his visit to Lampang.

I hope you enjoyed that entry as much as I enjoyed writing it and figuring the whole story out.

RM

Another anniversary

July 7, 2007 or in a much more interesting form, 07/07/07 has come at last. The past few years (the early years of the 21st century) have brought with them the inevitable one-time-a-year event when the day, month and year can all be written with the same number. January 1, 2001. February 2, 2002 and so on. This year, however, this date was anticipated by two people whom I know fairly well. 28 years ago today my parents were married. On July 7, 1979 they were married in a little ceremony in at Pine Valley Ranch in Colorado. 28 year later they are able to celebrate their anniversary on 07/07/07 which is kind of neat.

So, Happy 28th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

365 Days

Hi!

In the blink of an eye a year has passed. Another chapter of my life has been written and I’m slowly turning the page as I begin to craft the next few lines of text. This anniversary, more so than others that I’ve celebrated (either publicly or privately) seems to stick out in my mind. It’s an anniversary which celebrates so many things. Though, more than anything, it is the recognition of the passing of time. This recognition is accompanied by the inevitable and unstoppable reaction of being unable to fathom how quickly time has passed while as the same time realizing how much has been accomplished. It’s one of those eternal and universal feelings that sneaks up on you and becomes more pronounced as you get older (at least that is the case in my experience). In reality, July 5, 2007 is no different from the day before or after. Nor does it vary significantly from either the prior month or the following month. It is utterly and totally symbolic yet it still holds this unyielding grip on my thoughts and consciousness. One year. 12 months. 365 days.

It’s moments like this which tend to push me towards the philosophical and I’ve spent several moments (well, more like extended moments) trying to wrap my head around the significance of this anniversary. For me anniversaries are a tricky thing. Anniversaries remind you of where you’ve come from. They provide a concrete way of examining your life. You are able to contemplate the events that have transpired and how you responded to them. It is a time to pat yourself on the back in recognition of your achievements and truly appreciate how much one can do in such a short span of time. And then the anniversary rears its ugly head. You are pointedly reminded of how many things have gone undone. The year suddenly becomes such a short period of time and in the blink of an eye that time has passed as well as the opportunities it brought with it. The need for progress - a plan which can be used to harness and make the most of this time - becomes more pressing and you promise to take more concrete steps towards achieving your goals.

In the past few weeks I’ve experienced all of this. I’ve tried to be philosophical and discern some overarching lesson or insight gained over the past few years but I was unable to pinpoint a single lesson. There have been far too many. I’ve tried to remember if, in hindsight, I had any regrets. While there are many events and things that I have missed and while there are of course blunders and failings that I’ve had along the way, I still firmly believe that this was and is the right choice for me. One of the blessings I’ve received from this journey is an impressive collection of writing (impressive not in their message or poignancy, but in their breadth and length). Not only have I chronicled my time here through my blog entries, but I’ve also kept a journal. In the last 365 days, I have accumulated 196 single spaced pages of text as well as the countless numbers of emails and other correspondence that I have had. Reading back through them reassures me that the time dedicated to working on that part of my life was time well spent. Not only did it provide me with an outlet and a connection to home, but it also gives me a window back into these moments to look through long after I’ve left.

I also feel like I need to share a bit of information. I made this decision several months ago and have shared it with those closest to me; however, there are those at-large with whom I’d also like to share this decision with. I have extended my contract with Bunyawat and will be teaching here for another year. The way that works out is that I’ll teach until the beginning of March after which I’ll travel for a while and wrap up my Thailand Adventure and make my way home. So, tentatively I’ll be back in Colorado towards the end of April or the beginning of May. At the latest, I’ll venture home at the end of May as I’ve promised my sister that I’d be back in time for her high school graduation.

And I guess with that I’ll bring an end to this entry and July 5, 2007. Today wasn’t as eventful as last year and I haven’t just finished a marathon trip around the world but I did teach four classes today, after which I went to the market, came home and cooked dinner before sitting down at the computer to write. Both were very different days yet both are days that I cherish and I look forward to having more of both in the future.

Yours truly,

Ryan Marks

PS. While I might not be traveling around the world today, my family is. They just happen to be flying home after their stint in Asia on the same day that I left last year.

A belated post

Today is July 3rd, 2007 and I've just now finished writing about my New Years celebrations in Bangkok which took place more than 7 months ago. I wanted to complete some of my posts from the past six months and for some reason I was motivated this evening and sat down and knocked out that entry. At this point, it's more for my own amusement and a record for me of my time here but if you are interested it was posted on February 4th (the day I started writing) under the title 'My New Years Story'. It makes mention of several interesting things that happened at that time including my trip to the Thailand/Vietnam soccer match I watched, the bombings in Bangkok and a visit from a friend.

Sorry it took so long!

RM

Attack of the visiting family!

I thought that this title was an appropriate (although my family may disagree with me) summary of the events of the past few weeks. My blog was one of the first victims of the attack and is only now recovering from the onslaught. It was a long battle and at points I almost succumbed to the overwhelming fatigue but somehow I survived. Haha. Okay I think it's time to put an end to that analogy. I reckon I probably carried that analogy too far and my mom is probably mad at me for suggesting that their incredibly generous and wonderful visit somehow reminded me of an attack.

In case you didn't pick up on it, my family just visited me here in Thailand. Somehow they managed to find two weeks when they weren't doing something else, scrounged up a few plane tickets and crossed that big wide ocean. I greeted them at the airport on June 15th at about midnight after they had been traveling for about 26 hours. Now, I don't want to take anything away from their incredible sacrifice and the pains of international travel, but I do want to make mention of the fact that prior to meeting them I had slept four hours the night before, was up at 6am, worked all day, traveled to Chiang Mai by bus, flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and met them in the airport at midnight (which for me was actually midnight...for them it was the middle of the afternoon....sort of). Anyway, our reunion was highly anticipated by many and on several times (as my mom later recounted to me) there was actually a countdown in progress. While highly anticipated, the reunion didn't play out as all had thought. It turned out that I was waiting at the wrong gate. To be honest, they came out the wrong gate (but don't tell them that). What ended up happening was Sara wandering around the airport, spotting me from across the corridor and running up to me. Mom shortly followed and I was brought back to where Dad and Kali were waiting with the bags at which point Kali began her steady rulk (run/walk) towards me (she is still recovering from knee surgery). We were reunited at last! The only one missing was Taryn, but she had already arrived in Thailand several weeks ago and was asleep in her apartment as she had to work the next day. We grabbed a limo (they called it a limo but it was nothing more than a minivan) and headed for the hotel.

The hotel was nice. Another nice perk about the family (specifically the parents) coming to visit means that we stay in nice hotels (or at least much nicer hotels than I normally stay in when I travel). We got to the hotel at about 2am and I was immediately bombarded with presents. It seems as though half their luggage was presents for me. I felt bad as they had come to visit me and brought presents. I had nothing for them. We decided to open the presents in rounds and the first one I was given was a tin of homemade cookies from my mom. Apparently she was a cooking fool the week before they left and had made all these cookies to bring with her for my sister and I (and the rest of the family seeing as she made a ton!). It was a wonderful treat! I bit into the first one and it was still soft - a testament to how recently they were baked (and my mom's baking abilities). Despite the jet lag and the long day behind us, we seemed to take a long time to get settled down and ready for bed. I don't think that I got to sleep until about 4 or 4:30.

And that was the first several hours. It was really great to see them all again. It had been just under a year since I had seen them. I left the US on July 4th and they arrived on June 15th. Of course they had changed a bit, but on the whole they were still the same as when I left and we seemed to just pick up right where we left off. It's uncanny how family is able to do that. You can be apart for so long and as soon as you're back together you just jump right back into your old habits and assume your traditional role. That was very comforting.

I'm going to try to recount the visit in several volumes so as to not overwhelm you but as with other entries that plan may very well fail. Only time will tell.

Until then,

Ryan

P.S. Just to reiterate what I said above I do not in any sense truly feel like I was attacked by my family while they were here. I won't say that I wasn't physically harmed (I was...I had to share a bed with my sister Kali who has a habit of kicking and hitting those close to her while she sleeps), but I most definitely wasn't attacked.