Ryan's ThaiBlog - How do you say "blog" in Thai?

Big Apple

2009-06-26T18:24:00.001+07:00

I’ve been writing a lot more recently and I’ve really enjoyed that. I have continued to journal since coming back to the US, but it hasn’t taken up the same amount of my time and energy that it did before. My blog, and this is one reason for the resurrection, suffered the most and until yesterdays post hadn’t been touched since April, 2008. This misses my trip to Cambodia and my return home not to mention the past year. Again, this is what I’m trying to remedy the next month or so.

My first morning in NY was uneventful. I spent the morning taking care of business and catching up on sleep. My meeting was at 12 uptown at Columbia so I made sure to give myself plenty of time to get there. I grabbed my copy of Rolling Stone magazine and grabbed a seat on the subway and was on my way. I arrive with plenty of time to spare and so I found a quaint little coffee shop nearby and indulged in a croissant and a cup-a-joe. The wondrous thing that is summer vacation is often enjoyed most in these simple moments. The moments between “planned” events. The time that otherwise would have been spent fretting over things undone or things needing your attention. Rarely is the simple fact that you are early and have nothing to do mean it is time to grab a coffee and read. Unencumbered by the stress of life and work, I enjoyed that coffee and damned if it wasn’t a great cup.

Once the clock stuck twelve I was sitting outside the office of the School for International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. I sat down with the program director and spent about an hour chatting with her before I headed over to one of their classrooms and sat in on a class. The program is intense. It’s a three semester program and is very rigorous. It’s designed to prepare the students for careers in public policy and is focused on environmental policy. In many ways the program is a great fit – it combines environmental science with economics and international studies. My background and interests seems to dovetail perfectly with the program and the director herself said that I’m am ideal candidate. But I have my hesitations. I sat in on the class and one of the students was a prick. Very arrogant and cocky, he told me off as I explained to the girl he was sitting next to who I was and what it was I was doing. The professor, on the other hand, was very nice. The material was, while being a bit mundane and not very challenging, was interesting. The class focused on memo writing at first and ended with a look at a case study examining the emergence of environmental policy and coordinated governmental action to address environmental problems in the Pacific Northwest. So, while I’m glad I went, I think that visit left me with more questions than answers. While I was there I also went to the School of Journalism and spoke with them briefly about their dual degree program in Journalism and Environmental Science. I hadn’t thought about going this route, but think that it could be interesting.

After grabbing something to eat from a street vendor, I headed to the Guggenheim. I had never been and was excited to simply see the building. As I walked in I noticed that the exhibit was a showcase of Frank Lloyd Wright and his work, who, if you didn’t know, designed the Guggenheim itself. I’ve always loved his work and have several books of his work. The exhibit was fantastic as was the building. The spiral concept was evident in several of his earlier works, none of which actually ever came to fruition. He had this great design which played off of his love of the automobile which was essentially a ramp up and a ramp down spiraling around a half sphere which was an planetarium. It was such a cool concept. The Guggenheim is essential this inverted and for people not cars. There were also the “great” works there. There were some paintings by Picasso, Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet etc. I looked, but with the exception of some of the more contemporary stuff, was more interesting in the Wright designs.

I then began the trek back to the hotel. I walked from 86th all the way down to 42nd via Rockefeller Center. It was a great walk – stimulating, great for people watching, and cool (rain clouds were moving in). I saluted Liz Lemon as I passed by 30 Rock and headed off to grab a beer and do some writing. Now, there is nothing much of note to speak of, save the fact that after six years and all my laptop and I have been through, I finally split something on it. I was sitting at the table and had just taken the first sip of my beer and sure enough I knocked the table and a good bit of beer splashed onto the keyboard. I sopped it up and did my best to clean it up and for all my efforts I was rewarded. The computer still works. The only residual effect is that the keys in that corner are a bit sticky underneath. All’s well that ends well.

And then the fun started. I ended up meeting my good friend Alex later that night and went out to drinks just around the corner from the hotel. It was great to see him and chat. It’s interesting to think that there are quite a few people out there who are in similar positions in life to me. We had a great heart-to-heart over a few beers. One fun fact though – he works in DUMBO. Now, this is an actual place and is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Coolest thing ever. I wish I worked in DUMBO.

The following day I went to the Museum of Natural History and wasn’t even able to see all of the first floor. They had a great exhibit on trees, more specifically tree rings and age, which included information about the reasons rings grew faster or slower. And I know that Peter is shaking his head and calling me an ecologist now, and while I’m okay with that, this was a really cool exhibit. I also ended up spending a good bit of time in the section on gems and minerals, fascinated by the crystals and the structure of the exhibit. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to change up my curriculum and think themes are the way to go and I got the feeling that crystals could provide a neat theme for one of my thematic units. I took notes on the exhibit. It was cool. I’m cool. And then I hoped the bus to New Jersey. Over and out.

Resurrection

2009-06-25T17:25:00.002+07:00

As the relative calm of summer vacation sets in, I find myself saddled with time and energy that had previously been required for other more productive tasks. The past year stretches our behind me. The collection of experiences, events, lessons and moments seems to exceed in quantity the fixed amount of time that is bottled into any given year. Despite my own failure to grasp the passing of time with any measurable success, I am going to try to organize these thoughts back into my blog which, for so long, had gone neglected. This is, in parts, a way for me to reflect on the past year. This year has brought with it so many changes and personal mountains to climb, as well as many success and moments to be catalogued. These next few entries will also document my return to Thailand and my travels throughout this very special country as I visit old friends and favorite places. I will also be sojourning to northern Vietnam in an effort to balance old and new and will share my experiences there. Finally, I will try to utilize this forum and opportunity to attempt to bring closure to this blog, and in doing so, bring a degree of closure to my tenure teaching abroad in Thailand.

And so it begins. The end of the year came not too long ago. As with most charter schools our year is one of extended length. The days are longer and the students spend more days in our presence that other students their age. Wrapping up the year, we host the Summer Bash, an event organized by the homeowners association on the last day of school. As I sit atop a platform suspended over a tub of water, the Summer Bash is cancelled due to rain and lighting. But this was not before one lucky student, on his first ball – one of three chances – hit the target sending me rear-end-first into the tub of cool water. Needless to say, I had no need for an umbrella as the rain started falling. And so it was, as I walked dripping wet – drenched from head to toe – that I parted ways with the students and colleagues that I had spent the past year with. In many ways, this dunk tank is an apt metaphor for my time spent teaching in Colorado this past year. As I sat atop the platform, I had thoughts of regret. Had I made the right choice? There was risk involved, but it made the people in my life happy and satisfied their wishes. Was it what I wanted? And the thrill of falling was obviously there – the suspense and the not knowing what was going to happen was exhilarating. There was a complete release of expectations and I simply allowed myself to experience the moment, however fleeting. This was followed closely by the enveloping water. It surrounded me and took over – it dominated all my senses and left me wishing for what I had only just had. Then the moments spent sitting atop the platform, freezing and wet, pondering the future. What will come next? Will the thrill outweigh the costs? There is the feeling that you don’t have control of your future and what happens next. And I feel I need to end this metaphor before it becomes too cheesy and I stretch the situation more than I already have. I’ll touch on these thoughts later, but for now I’ll focus in on the adventures that followed, and have preceded this moment.

After a few busy days in Denver, I boarded a United Airlines flight to New York City. I was going to New York under the guise of visiting Columbia University. I had seen and researched several interesting programs they offered and I wanted to try to get a better feel for the school and the programs. Not less significantly, I wanted to try to assess my own desire to go back to school. For sometime now, that has been the next step. When I left Thailand my “excuse” was simple – I was going to return home to spend time with my family and go back to graduate school. I took the GRE and had done some research. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was simply looking at schools as a way to move forward without actually having to make any decisions. I’ll be the first to admit that the concept of going back to school leaves little to chance. There is little risk in that. It’s a safe choice. And it’s a choice that would be respected by those in my life. In all honesty, this thought of going back to school is only in my head because when I told my Thai acquaintances the “real” reason I was going back to school, they couldn’t understand me. My reasons were vague. They were obtuse. I was looking for something that was hard to verbalize. And that’s a difficult concept to explain in English much less Thai. So, I changed my strategy. I told them I was going to get a Master’s degree. No one questioned my motives. No one tried to convince me otherwise. Some offered to set me up with their daughters and friends so that I would stay and students told me that they wanted me to stay, but they all understood. They just didn’t want me to go.

Anyway, coming back to the point. I landed in LaGuardia Airport at about 10pm. My parents had kindly offered to put me up in the Westin in Times Square for my birthday so I had a destination. I simply had to get there. After all, how hard could navigating NYC be? I hopped a shuttle bus that took me into the city and dropped me off at Grand Central Station. GCS is about six blocks from Times Square so I decided to hoof it. And you have to love NYC because a teacher from Colorado can walk down 42^nd with his backpacking bag on his back and another smaller bag on his chest and not be looked at twice. That is until I stroll in the front door of the Westin. The journey was uneventful- a few wrong turns and a few ponderous looks in several directions and at several street signs. Nothing out of the ordinary. A point of note – while walking I walked under a banner on the street which was a part of the marketing campaign for Times Square. It said “Welcome” in Thai. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Thai language it reads like this “ยินดีต้อนรับ”. And without delay or hesitation I strolled into the Westin. Now, I’ve had this experience before (Cambodia and Brunei) and I cherish the moments. Here I come walking through the door of a fancy hotel – my bags on my shoulders and a grin on my face more often than not streaming with sweat and I tell them I’m here to check in. More likely than not, this is all in my head and they don’t take a second glance at me. But I like the contradiction of images. It amuses me.

And I’m going to stop there. My battery is dying, but I’ll be back. And now I know the exact situation of the reference. I hadn’t seen The Terminator until this trip. If ever I decide to drive a car into a building, I’ll walk in and say, “I’ll be back” before I do.

Soutern Thailand and Indonesia Pictures

2008-04-14T12:22:00.000+07:00

Here are the pictures from my trip to southern Thailand and Indonesia.

Enjoy!

Large Lakes and the Trans-Sumatran Highway Epic

2008-04-10T12:17:00.000+07:00

Arriving in Medan was uneventful. I was on the overnight bus from Banda Aceh and as such arrived early in the morning. I found a ride into town and a room quickly and was ready for the day. I spent the day mostly just wandering around town and catching up with emails and such. One of the more interesting happenings of the day was when I strolled up to the Northern Sumatra Military Museum. I had seen it on the map and had wandered over there. Much to my dismay, it was closed. However, there was a guard at the gate. I told him that I had walked all the way out here just to come see the museum. He apparently took pity on me and quickly offered to give me a private tour of the museum. He ran off to get some keys and we walked around the museum with him unlocking and locking different doors as we passed from one room to another. Along with opening doors he gave me some information about the displays in his best English. Unfortunately his best English was hard to understand and I missed most of what he said. But the thought was appreciated. After we had gone through the whole museum, we stood at the entrance and I thanked him for the tour. I was about to walk away and he put out his had to shake mine. I did. I pull my hand away and he had slipped a 20,000 rupiah note into my hand and began to walk away. I stood there very confused. Of all the things which could have precipitated at that moment, this was not one I could have predicted. I had expected him to ask for money – a fee for letting me in and giving me a tour which I would assume would go straight into his pocket. But that wasn’t asked for nor even alluded to. Instead he slips me money. And 20,000 rupiah is a good bit of money as well. You can buy a nice lunch for 10,000 rupiah. Not knowing what to do and him having gone off back into the back of the museum, I simply walked away. Nothing much else of note happened that day.

The following morning I was up at the crack of dawn and caught the bus to Parapet, the town closest to Lake Toba. Lake Toba is a huge volcanic lake and is the largest lake in SE Asia. About four hours from Medan, this bus ride was uneventful. Coming around a corner, we were given our first glimpse of the lake and the imposing volcanic mountains surrounding this body of freshwater. The bus slowly wound its way down to the edge of the lake and parked right across from the pier so it was simply a short 100m walk from the bus to the waiting ferry. Shortly after I boarded, it began to pour. Passengers clamored aboard but workers and locals continued to carry on as if nothing happened, now only slightly inhibited by the plastic rain coats that they threw on with the first drops. Crossing the lake was uneventful. Arriving in the midst of a downpour creates problems and makes finding a place to stay quite hard. After a very wet motorcycle ride, I arrived at a guest house and made myself comfortable and had lunch while I waited for the rain to stop to go off in search of a place to stay. The food was amazing. I had a freshly caught fish from the lake smothered in a spicy sauce with an avocado salad and all the while the rain fell. I was quite content. Venturing out after the rain stopped I followed a small ring road around the peninsula. The island is rather large, but this small peninsular sticks out towards Parapet and that’s where many of the guest houses and hotels are located. As I walked, the town felt abandoned – there weren’t many people out and about. I attributed that to the rain at first, but that judgment soon proved wrong. I found a nice place to stay right on the northern tip of the peninsula which offered lake front views for 180 degrees. A walked around the rest of the peninsula and dinner rounded out the evening.

The following day I rented a motorbike and took off to try to see more of the island. There is a road which circles the island along the coast and passes by several sights of interest and has good views. So I hit the road. I stopped at an old village which still had the old batak houses (the traditional house) as well as many different rock carvings and statues. Here they had preserved the “courtroom” where thieves and criminals were brought and guilt determined. Should they be declared guilty, there was also an execution rock around back were death sentences were carried out. Along the road there were many rice fields and other fields. In Thailand, there are spirit houses placed near the rice fields where offerings can be made. It’s come out of the animist tradition. In Indonesia, the animist tradition was blended with the influx of Christian missionaries and there what can only be described as spirit houses that look like small churches in the fields here. The further south you go in Sumatra, the more Christian it becomes. Aceh is very Muslim and Parapet and Toba are almost all Christian.

This conversion to Christianity was a result of Dutch missionaries coming to Indonesia in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. They established themselves here and began converting the locals. One man I talked to reinforced my previously held views on missionaries. As he talked about his culture and heritage, specifically about their previously held animistic beliefs (many of which have been blended into a local form of Christianity), he was very critical of his ancestors and their beliefs. He spoke in way which to me seemed to be so influenced and dictated by missionaries. I’m having a hard time articulating this conversation at the moment. But he dismissed what his ancestors believed as magic and claimed that the magic was gone. I’m sorry this is so poorly worded but to me reinforced my dislike of the whole concept of missionaries.

Coming back to Tuk Tuk, the name of the peninsula, I dropped the motorbike off and took off for another evening stroll around. This time it wasn’t raining and the town was equally as deserted. The infrastructure here could (and did) support a large number of tourists. But as tourism has declined in Indonesia (for many reasons, many of which are supported by false claims) these hotels and restaurants are left empty. My usual method of determining where to eat – by finding a place with many people – was ineffective as in every restaurant there were only a small number (if any) of people. My business was welcome and I had my run of the island.

The next chapter of this story is an epic journey. From Lake Toba, I had to make my way down towards Bukitinggi and eventually Padang. I was flying out of Padang to head back to Lampang to teach summer school. Before hoping on the boat to cross back to the mainland, I reserved my bus ticket. I would leave Parapet at 4:30 and 14 hours later arrive in Bukitinggi. I got on the ferry at 3pm. I didn’t stop traveling until 4:45 the following day as I crawled into a hotel in Bukitinggi. Arriving at the bus station, I met several guys who had been there for a few hours already waiting for their bus that had yet to arrive. It was now several hours late and proved to be an ill omen for me. 4:30 came and went and there was no bus. There were about seven of us waiting for the bus, three people for the early bus and four for my bus. At about 7:30, the early bus arrived. It was supposed to arrive at about 1:00. Ours didn’t arrive until an hour later. We were overjoyed upon its arrival but that joy was soon swept out the door and replaced with disbelief. The bus we had been waiting five hours for was full. There were no seats on this bus. Our reservations hadn’t been passed on to the right person and so all the seats in Medan were sold. After another hour of heated discussion between the bus operator and the folks working at the bus station, a solution was presented. They would put several people on seats in the aisle. Three of us would sit on a bench against the back wall. These were normal seats but couldn’t recline. The last person, me, would be on a makeshift bench squeezed between the last row of seats and the toilet. Hard wooden benches and a back that was vertical. I was given a pillow to make things easier. We finally left and were settling in when we stopped again. After being on the road for about five minutes we stopped to eat dinner. Eventually we did move on but it wasn’t until about 10:30 that we actually started to make some progress. Between the pillow I was given, my own travel pillow and my rain jacket, I was able to make my seat somewhat comfortable and got some sleep. But at about 3am I was woken up and told to get off the bus. Bleary eyed I looked around and everyone else was filing off the bus. I grabbed my rain jacket and followed suit. Stepping out of the bus I realized what was happening and hopped back on the bus to grab my camera. We had stopped at the base of a hill. All night we’d be rocked back and forth along the Trans-Sumatran Highway which in places in barely more than a dirt road and at its best a windy and narrow road. At this point, the road was dirt – clay would be a more accurate term – and was riddled with potholes and rocks. Looking ahead of me was a truck halfway up the hill with more lights up top of the hill. Looking back was a line of headlights stretching as far as I could see. Walking up the muddy slope to the top of the hill we passed by several men kneeling in front of the truck. They were attaching a cable to the truck which in turn was attached to a winch which would pull the truck up the hill. Once this was accomplished, our bus was up. As it revved the engines and roared up the hill it was bounced back and forth over the rocks and bumps tilting precariously to one side and then the other. Eventually it reached its limit and stopped. Cables attached and winch straining under the weight and our bus was dragged up the hill. We happily climbed aboard and continued our way along the Trans-Sumatran Highway which continued to be dirt and bumpy for several more hours preventing sleep.

As I drifted off, I noticed that we had come to a stop but since I was finally asleep I was uninterested. As the day broke, I woke up to realize that we were still stopped. Climbing out of the bus and walking down along the road I realized what was keeping us. During the night, two landslides had slide across the road. The first was the smaller of the two but as the rain continued to fall it washed the slippery clay across the road causing a bus to slide off the road into the ditch, partially blocking the road. The second slide came after and was larger and blocked the other part of the road slightly behind the now stuck bus. Eventually things were maneuvered in such a way that we could pass and did. The line of trucks, cars and buses stretched for kilometers. Many of the trucks were loaded down with oil palm fruits.

Eventually we arrived in Bukitinggi. There wasn’t any other hindrance (other that the nature of the road) and we made decent time. Overall it took about 25 hours to make that 500ish km journey, a distance comparable to Bangkok-Lampang. But that journey takes only 8-9 hours.

As a result of the delay I only had a day in Bukitinggi so I was confined to just walking around town. It was a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains surrounded by active volcanoes. It was occupied during WWII and there were some old Japanese caves nearby which I explored as well as several markets and mosques. But pretty much I just recovered from my journey. The following day, in the afternoon, I headed to Padang. I spent the evening there and was off to Kuala Lumpur the next morning. I had to stay in KL for a day to catch my flight to Chiang Mai the following morning. It was good to be back in KL. I really enjoyed my time there. I treated myself to some good food and took in the Petronas Towers again as well as a movie and an art gallery. Then the flight to CM and the bus ride to Lampang and I was home again.

Banda Aceh

2008-04-06T17:27:00.000+07:00

After a few days on Pulau Weh, I made my way back to Banda Aceh. I arrived in the evening after having taken the afternoon ferry back. I quickly went into town and found a place to stay and got rid of my bag. I had a few hours of light left so I went out to explore a little and get my bearings. I spent about an hour walking around the area near the hotel. One of the things I enjoy about new cities is period of exploration or getting my bearings. Whenever I arrive in a new city, I always like to take big blocks of the city and walk them – essentially walking in a big square. It helps me to gain a better perspective of where I am in the city, the size of the city and gives me landmarks to help me navigate over the following days when I’m sure to wander off in search of things and inevitably get a little turned around. Plus it’s a great way to see the city – simply walking around. I passed by some busy markets, one of which was a fish market which in the evening after the afternoon heat didn’t smell too pleasant. Near the river I found a project sponsored by USAID and some incredible views upriver of the main mosque in town. The sky turned menacing and black and the wind picked up so I started to work my way back passing some pool halls whose location I mentally noted so I could return later or the following day. As I walked back, the pangs of hunger which are so common after these long walks returned, I began looking for a food stall – my only criteria being that they have large avocados. I found one, sat down and was immediately engaged in conversation by a young man sitting at the next table. Now this wasn’t extraordinary – in Indonesia, much more so than Thailand, foreigners are fairly rare. The national greeting for foreigners in Indonesia is, “Hello, Mister”! It’s shouted indiscriminately and often. You’ll hear it from, at times, every warm body you pass by on the streets. It’s charming at first, but as the daily grind wears on you this inevitably changes. However, this man’s English and the quality of his thought took me by surprise. Rex owned the shop next door and quickly became one of the more interesting people I’ve met traveling. Over the next few hours we sat there chatting, interrupted only by the need for him to take care of the occasional customer. Originally from Banda Aceh and having lived there all his life and having learned English and spent a good deal of time with foreign aid agencies had a unique perspective on many of the “issues” in Banda Aceh. Banda Aceh is known for its longstanding history of natural disasters, the Boxing Day Tsunami in particular, and its desire for independence from Indonesia.

My first exposure to Banda Aceh came as I was whisked from the bus station to the ferry terminal on the back of a motorcycle on my way to Pulau Weh. We wound our way through villages - each house identical to the others - which had been built by aid agencies after the tsunami destroyed the previous village. Villages which prior to the tsunami were made up of a diverse collection of houses established over many years and whose boundaries often paralleled family lines where now distinguished only by the different aid agencies which built and designed them. The villages quickly gave way to the sea and the shore. We wound along the shore for several kilometers. Looking over my left shoulder towards the ocean, one could only attempt to imagine what others would have been looking at as the huge wave raced towards shored. The shore line was denuded. Even after four years it looked unnaturally bare and featureless. There were a few pockets where some vestiges of life had sprung up along the shore. Buildings were rebuilt, ports and docks refashioned and reopened and these pockets bustled. But they were still dominated by the landscape and barren terrain that lay between them. As I slowly absorbed these powerful images, the landscape which had dominated my vision slowly gave way to another now ubiquitous feature of Banda Aceh – construction.

Passing through those coastal regions twice (on the way to and from the ferry) gave me a limited, but powerful visual understanding of how the tsunami impacted the town. Talking with Rex, and then traveling with him to a few other places, added a more personal understanding to that visual experience. Rex was in Banda Aceh the day the tsunami hit and has been actively involved with the reconstruction of the city. Off and on over the last four years, he’s worked with different aid organizations and rebuilt his own business. He’s been a translator, a guide and a teacher all in addition to running and managing his shop. Rex describes the events and the tsunami and despite the clarity and power of his descriptions my attempts to visualize them fail. The power of this wave defies comprehension. I tell Rex this. Minutes later we are standing at the base of a large ship. Easily 30m tall and 60m long, this massive bulk of steel and iron now sits three kilometers inland -then ocean isn’t even in sight. Originally two kilometers out to sea, this mass was lifted out of the ocean and carried five kilometers to its final resting spot right in the heart of a small village. The village has now been rebuilt, but the ship remains. A small handwritten message has been inscribed on the side of the ship with the date 24-12-2004. The conversation gives way to absolute awe and disbelief but soon we’re driving through many of the new villages built by the aid agencies. They have been hastily built and are all identical – one village, one design. Inconsistencies between villages has resulted in a lot of conflict as one family is given a house with certain specs only to learn that another family is given a different house in a different village which has better specs. Some villages sit empty or unfinished. We headed towards the shore and towards one of the mass graves that were constructed immediately after the tsunami. I wasn’t sure about going. Had I been alone I probably wouldn’t have gone. However, Rex wanted to take me and so we went. It was very simple. A large grassy area surrounded by a small fence with each post carrying one of the many names of Allah in Arabic. They are constructing something in the shell of the old hospital which stands behind the site. The road that passes in front in under construction as is most of the surrounding area. Traffic rumbles by bumping along the dirt road. We join the steady march of cars passing this lone green patch of land and meander along the coast. Our last stop is at a small house which during the tsunami was given an unwelcome addition. A large fishing boat ended up on top of the house with the lower walls remaining intact. Now the house still stands with this boat perched on top. The government had provided funds to turn the house into a museum/memorial of sorts and the house and boat have been stabilized and other work is currently being done. Like matchsticks, these boats were picked up and flung across the city. One ended up here. Another landed in front of Rex’s shop and countless others were found throughout the city. Most have long since been taken apart. Rex tells me about the boat in front of his shop. Casually he mentions that that boat and the area around his shop were cleaned up by a group of Israeli soldiers. That stuck me as interesting. I probed him further and he came back quickly saying that after the tsunami everyone forgot about politics. They welcomed anyone who would come to help. But, he adds, that attitude quickly faded. His frustrations with the government in Jakarta finally surface. The government began to place tremendous restrictions on the movement of aid workers confining them to certain areas. In the case of the Israeli soldiers, eventually they were forced to go home, he claims. Aid was mostly restricted to Banda Aceh. Many of the villages and towns on the west coast are still in shambles. And slowly he transitions into his obviously previously delivered laundry list of grievances with the Indonesian government. He makes no effort to hide the fact that he desires independence, but accepts the fact that achieving that would be difficult. Money, not culture, lies at the heart of his grievances. Corruption, favoritism and bureaucracy top this list. Ironically, those are same criticisms which are listed to me by a woman from Medan as she complains about Aceh and her frustrations with them. I spent several days talking to Rex and others in Medan and still lack a clear picture of the roots of the conflict and its issues, but I’ve at least been given an introduction to it. These few days gave me lots to think about and process, but they have been rewarding. I’m glad I endured the 24 hour return trip to travel to the northernmost tip of this island.

As a last note, I guess I should mention that I'm actually back home now and am finishing the blog entries. I'll try to get them and the pictures finished and up in the next few days.

Bye!

Post Script and Beach Time

2008-03-21T15:07:00.003+07:00

So I was sitting around thinking and I forgot to mention several things from those first few hours in Indonesia. First off is that while on the bus from the port to Medan, Jason and I were chatting and just getting to know each other. I mentioned that I was teaching in northern Thailand and he said, "Are you teaching in Lampang?". That blew me away. While he was traveling in Thailand, he came down to Lampang and actually hung out with Nick, one of the guys I'm teaching with now. This was about 5 years ago, so I wasn't there, but needless to say it was pretty crazy to meet this random guy who hung out with one of my colleagues back in Lampang. The second concerns my trip from the city to the bus station. I rode on a betuk, the Indonesian version of a tuk-tuk. It's essentially a motorcycle with a sidecar. While we were driving the driver asked me different questions about myself - my name, how old I am and where I am from. As soon as I said I was from America, he looked at me (and remember he was also driving on SE Asian streets) and raised his right arm and said "I love Obama!! Do you?". I said I liked him (I think saying otherwise would have endangered my safety) and we chatted a bit more. He told me that he loves Obama because he stayed in Jakarta for a while when he was younger. He said most Indonesians feel the same way. That's especially interesting given the current attitude towards Bush (most disdain him...and for good reason). This conversation was essentially repeated several times as I made my way onto the bus.

And so with those postscripts out of the way I can pick up where I left off the other day. I arrived in the morning and made my way to the port. I thought that there was a ferry at 9:30 so arriving at 8:30 was perfect. It turns out the ferry didn't leave until 11:00, so I had some time to kill. The journey to the ferry terminal was a very interesting one - but one I'll wait to comment on until I cover my return trip. Banda Aceh was devastated by the tsunami in 2004. As I drove to the ferry, we passed straight through the worst hit areas. I'll come back and touch on that later when I talk about my time spent in Banda Aceh. For now, it's the island. While I was waiting for the ferry I grabbed some breakfast at one of the little stalls near the terminal and sat down to read. I didn't get very far. Every so often different people would come up to me and start talking. Most couldn't get further than the simple introductions, but others stayed and chatted for a while. I connected with this group of boys, students, who had come away for a few days. One of them spoke good English and the others just hung around. We got on the ferry and began our two hour trip to the island. We got off only to climb into a minibus which took off (or more accurately, crawled) across the island towards the beaches. We made are way along the coast up and down hills and around pot holes bigger than the road, through packs of dogs, goats and monkeys before coming to rest (an hour later mind you) at the beach. From there it was a short hike along a little pathway to different clusters of bungalows. I found one nestled in the rocks perched right above the water with a hammock swinging from the deck out front. I thought it would do nicely. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and recovering from the long journey here. I ate dinner at a great little place - they had avocados so I was happy. I guess I should describe where I am (or at this point, was). I was on Ipoih Beach on Pulau Weh (Weh Island) which is off the northwest coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Ipoih Beach is a small collection of bungalows and restaurants catering mostly to travelers who come to snorkel and dive. It's very idyllic and peaceful. The road ends at the mosque and the only way to get around is to walk or swim. Over the next few days I started and finished a book, wrote a ton in my journal, went for some walks, and more importantly went for some good swims. The first swim took me along the coast below my bungalow. The coral got better as we went along, but the fish were spectacular the whole way. It was stunning. I've been to some beautiful spots to snorkel and this ranks as one of the best - plus it wasn't very crowded, heck I was the only one in the water. The second journey consisted of me swimming across a little channel between the beach and another small island just offshore. Then I walked across the island and snorkeled back around the island. It was a good four hour trip and was amazing. The coral was stunning - they call it a Sea Garden because of the colors and variety of coral. The fish were spectacular as well. Over the course of the two trips I saw a handful of sea turtles, several octopus (or octopi?), sting rays, lobsters, and the highlight (something I hadn't seen before) - a huge manta ray which let me swim over top him and sort of play a little. It was cool! I went to bed early and woke up early. I read and fell asleep when I was tired. It was a great couple days of relaxation. But eventually I had to leave that oasis and head back into "real" Indonesia. So I packed my things and headed back to Banda Aceh.

But that will have to wait until next time as I've run out of time again. Hope you are well.

Ryan

It's not the destination, but the journey

2008-03-20T15:22:00.003+07:00

Hi again!

Last I left you I was getting ready to embark on an epic journey across oceans and mountains. I have since completed that journey and am able to write about it. I left Penang at 9 in the morning on what I thought would be a 5 hour trip across the Straights of Malacca - it turned out to be more like 8 hours. But that was okay as the ferry had plenty of shoot 'em up movies to keep playing the entire time. It was a bit overwhelming. At first I was excited since they had movies in English, but after the first one, I got a bit bored and would have rather listened to music or read my book but the sound was overpowering. We started with Rambo IV and then went straight into a car racing movie of some sort then actually finished the journey with a flick actually called Shoot 'Em Up. We pulled into the harbor but hadn't reached our destination. While I was forewarned about this next challenge, it added another hour to my journey. When you leave Penang, you purchase a ticket to Medan. That ticket doesn't actually get you to Medan. It gets you to the port closest to Medan, but the port is about an hour from the city. I got off the ferry and proceeded to go through immigration. They hearded all the white people off the boat (there were about 8 of us) and ushered us to a counter which was labeled 'BANK'. Here we forked over our crisp $25US entry/visa fee. They then gave us a nice skip of paper which we carried to the next counter where they processed our visa and stuck it into the passport. Fairly simple. Once we left immigration, however, things got more complicated and we were attacked by the many people trying to get us to go with them somewhere (they really didn't care where). Luckily I had met an America guy, Jason, who had taken the ferry over to Penang a few days earlier to get a new visa. He was traveling around for two months and you can only get a one month visa. He was a really cool guy - a budding evolutionary biologist. So he was able to guide me to the right bus which took us the last little way into Medan. It was also fortuitous since I was then able to leave my bag in his room while we explored the city before my overnight bus to Banda Aceh. My introduction to Indonesia was fantastic. Arriving in Medan, the bus ride, the sights, the sounds, the smells re-ignited a feeling in me that I haven't felt in a while. It was the feeling I had when I rode through the streets of New Delhi in the middle of the night coming from the airport. It was the same feeling I had crossing the border into Honduras on a whim. It was this feeling that comes with entering a new and foreign place. It's hard to describe, but those who have traveled now what I mean. And for me, it's been a while since I've felt that sensation. I've done a lot of traveling but most places I've been too are relatively familiar to Thailand. They challenged me and were fantastic places, but this for whatever reason sparked this feeling. I'm still processing that (I think part of it is the general sense that Indonesia is somewhat forbidden or off limits to Americans) and will get back to you. Walking down the streets of Medan, we were met with such enthusiasm that it was almost as if we were clowns performing. We drew so much attention and the "Hello Mister's" were never ending. Everyone wanted to be our friend, and then take us somewhere. It was quite an experience. We found the requisite ATM and then went to grab dinner. For an introduction to Indonesian fare, I couldn't have asked for a better menu. We ate at a little roadside stand which beckoned us with its mound of fruits in the cart window. Piled high with a wide assortment of fruits and veggies, we answered the call. I had Satay Padang and a chocolate and avocado shake. Satay is found in Thailand (it's marinated meat on a skewer and grilled) but this was served over pressed rice chucks and covered in a peanuty/garlicy sauce that was to die for. The avocado and chocolate shake was one of the most wonderful drinks I've ever had. I would never have guessed that combination would work, oh but it does. My habit of being a food traveler has again pushed itself to the front and I find myself eating more often than not. But I'm okay with that. I then headed to the bus station to catch my overnight bus. From Medan, it's about 12 hours to Banda Aceh. I climbed on board and we took off fairly on schedule. The bus ride was characterized by three things: the freezing temperatures inside, the steadily increasing noise and nuisance created by the trash which was thrown on the floor and then slid around and lastly the incessant moving about in my chair as the bus careening around corners, stopped for passengers along side the road and slammed on the breaks to avoid hitting someone. It was a long night. But I've come somewhat accustomed to rides like that so I was actually able to get some decent sleep despite it all. I think the temperature bothered me the most. I got in early and made my way to the ferry for the short (well, relatively speaking) journey to Pulau Weh, my destination. But that'll have to wait until next time as my time is running out.

Have a wonderful day!

Ryan

Oh! I almost forgot. After we hit the ATM, Marcus, a German guy who was also with us, stopped at McDonald's for a quick burger. He ate it and the then was carrying the wrapper around waiting to find a bin to toss it in. He didn't find one. He brought it with him into the place where we ate dinner and left it on the table as we left. The shop owner came running after us as we left with the wrapper. In Indonesia, any rubbish you carry around with you is something you want to keep because if you didn't want it you simply tossed it aside.

Puppets and Me

2008-03-14T15:02:00.003+07:00

Greetings again.

Since leaving Krabi I made my way east (and slightly north) and found myself in the quiet town of Nakorn Si Thammarat. It's one of the bigger cities on the east coast gulf side of Thailand and isn't on most tourists lists of places to go. It was on my list however and for one overriding reason - it's home to one of Thailand's most well-renowned shadow puppet craftsmen and performers. I was introduced to the art of shadow puppets in Malaysia last summer and really enjoyed it. The Malay and Indonesian puppets are similar to the Thai puppets (there are similar characters etc.) but there are different unique features to the Thai puppets, so I wanted to take a look. It was short hop (about 3 hours) from Krabi and was then easily connected to my next destination so I jumped at the chance. I got in late in the evening and one of the people I was traveling with helped me find a place to stay, which was nice. I had a nice big dinner of Thai food, which was a change. For that past few days in Krabi I'd been eating wonderful foreign food. The abundance of choices and the similarity in price to Thai food made it an easy choice. Why pay exorbitant prices for Thai food I can get at home much cheaper and why not eat good foreign food that I can't eat at home? I couldn't come up with an answer so I ate. But it was nice to have Thai food again. The next morning I hit the street running only to run into rain. I holed up in a little coffee shop for a little while and waited for the rain to pass and then went to the Shadow Puppet Museum. I was the only one there so I had the whole place to myself. It's a little family home that's been turned into this museum. They show you a bit of the history of the family and their involvement in making puppets as well as a bit about the history of the art itself but the neatest part was watching them make the puppets and the performance. I spent about an hour and a half talking with the daughter of the puppet maker (Suchart Supin) after walking through the museum. She was really cool and walked me through the whole process. After that I headed off to the National Museum where I walked around for a while. It was...a museum. Then it was a stroll past several of the temples and remnants of the old city walls and whatnot before I hit the Internet to escape the heat of the day. A little net then a little dinner and a surprise on HBO in the form of The DaVinci Code in English rounded out my evening. One of the highlights of this part of the trip was the enthusiasm I was met with when people discovered that I spoke Thai. I don't know what it was about this town, but everyone I met whom I conversed with in Thai was so enthusiastic. The lady at the shadow puppet museum was very happy and excited but all the reactions pale in comparison to the reaction I got from the guy working at the post office. I went to mail a package back to Lampang (I bought some things and they were a bit too large to carry around so I mailed them home). I went up to the counter to mail the package and said in Thai, "I want to send this to Lampang" and the guy just about burst! He immediately reached across the counter grabbing my head and shaking it vigorously while exclaiming, "You can speak Thai! So fantastic!" He continued to this effect for quite some time before starting the normal line of questioning i.e What's your name? Where are you from? Do you have a girlfriend? and so on.
We shook hands about 5 times while I stood there sending my package. It was awesome.

From there I hoped on a little minivan and scooted south to Hat Yai where I changed minivans and headed for Penang, Malaysia. It was a pretty simple trip with the usual antics at the border - lines and stamps and short trips in no mans land in between the border checkpoints. I got to Georgetown, the capital of Penang and found a place to stay. I rode down from Hat Yai with some folks from England so after getting settled and a quick orientation stroll around the city, I met up with them for dinner and drinks. It's been nice to have a few drinks in the evening in Krabi and then again last night. It's been good to have something other than whiskey and water or Leo beer. Last night was Carlsburg, Tiger and even a Guinness Stout.

I spent the day wandering around town. There were a few museums and temples and such to see but mostly just walking around taking it all in. I booked my ferry ticket so I'm all set to head out tomorrow. Tomorrow it's off to Indonesia - I'll arrive in Medan and then hopefully will be on an overnight bus to Aceh where I'll then get on more buses and boats and by the end of the day Sunday (today is Friday) I'll be on the beach on Pulau Weh.

Talk to you later.

Summer Fun

2008-03-10T16:03:00.002+07:00

Hi!

My blog has been suffering over the past few months. There is a list the size of a small whale posted to my desktop on my computer listing the different things that I need to write about. I'd like to think that I'll eventually get there. At this point though that's neither here nor there because I've started another adventure which I hope to document as I experience it - it's called Summer Vacation 2008 Part 1 and it started a few days ago.

Classes finished up several weeks ago. The students took finals last week. I spent the beginning of this week grading those finals and submitting grades. Come Wednesday evening, I was finished and ready to go. Thursday morning found me on a bus heading to Bangkok. Once in BKK I took a taxi across the city from the northern bus terminal to the southern bus terminal where I met Yui and a bunch of friends. We got onto the bus and began our 12 hour journey to Krabi. We got in at about 9am and headed straight to the guesthouse. There are 8 of us so were were staying in the National Park bungalow right on the beach. We stayed on Noppharatara Beach, which is just north of Ao Nang (one of the more famous beaches in Krabi). Just about as soon as we had gotten our bags inside, a truck came to pick us up and we headed out to meet the long-tail boat. We were hiring the boat for the day to take us out to several of the closer islands. We ended up going to four different islands by the end of the day. The first island was just a simple little island near several very stunning islands. The views of the cliffs were spectacular. We ate lunch on the beach and played in the water for a bit before jumping back into the boat. We then headed out and around the island towards Chicken Island where the main sight is a rock formation that looks uncannily like a chicken. We moved on and parked offshore another island. We jumped in and the guide started throwing bits of bread into the water which was instantly gobbled up by the hundreds of fish that swarmed towards it. He got his laughs by throwing the pieces of bread close to us and watching our reactions as the fish would poke and ram into us as they tried to eat the bread. There were so many and so thickly packed that I reached out and several time had one or two in my hands for a moment or so. We then swam into shore and hung out on the beach for a while and ended up getting into a sand ball fight - that was fun. Our next destination was one of the most famous sights in Krabi. There are two islands which are connected by a sandbar. At high tide both appear discontinuous however at low tide the sandbar appears and you are able to walk from one island to the other. We timed it so that we were there pretty close to low tide. While the sandbar wasn't exposed, we were able to walk across in about 4-5 inches of water. As we were crossing, it started to rain. We sought refuge in the boat for a while until the rain passed and then headed out to the last island of the day. This island was beautiful, but was unfortunately the home several classy resorts. There was some neat things to see and of course the amazing cliffs that dominate the coastline here were stunning, but the resorts and the people ruined it a little. And with that we headed back to shore where we stumbled onto dry land only to be drenched by a fast-moving rain storm shortly there after. We sought refuge in a restaurant where we ate dinner while we waited for the rain to pass. Then we picked up the obligatory two bags of ice and headed back to the guesthouse for showers and a night of UNO, Go Fish and drinking.

The following morning I woke up feeling like I was on vacation. Despite having been on vacation for a day already, it was so long and tiresome and followed a tremendous bus ride that I just felt a bit out of sorts all day. But waking up Saturday morning ushered in those wonderful feelings of serenity and peace. Ah. It was going to be another busy day, but I was ready for it this time. We headed out to meet the boat - today however we were riding on a speed boat and heading out to the more distant islands. After a 40 minute ride which left me wetter than if I'd swam there, we piled out of the boat onto the beach for our first snorkel of the trip. The conditions weren't ideal and the coral wasn't that spectacular, but I was the only one who had snorkeled before so they all loved it. We then headed out to another spot which was significantly better. It was a beautiful little bay surrounded by high cliffs which has a secluded beach on one end. We did a little hiking and headed to the other side of the island before getting back on the boat and snorkeling in the bay. Krabi has many 'famous' sights including James Bond Island (the island from one of the James Bond movies (I can't remember which) and the island that was used in the movie "The Beach". That was where we headed next. Just a quick look around and it was time for lunch. For lunch we went to a restaurant on Phi Phi Don island. The buffet was fantastic and it was wonderful to get my fill of food. One thing I've failed to mention so far is that Krabi and Phi Phi were severely impacted by the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. Phi Phi was the hardest hit place in Thailand and as we approached it, it was easy to see why. The largest concentration of buildings is at the center of the island which sits at the back of a long bay which gets progressively narrower as you move inland. Not only this by the bay is lined with spectacular cliffs - both of which would funnel water straight towards the heart of the island. There are two things that have stuck me - the newness of all of the towns that I've spent time in so far and the ever-present tsunami evacuation route notices. We ate dinner and then walked around the island. Apart from what I mentioned, there was little evidence of the tsunami. But I wonder what the non-touristed areas look like. Of course the tourist destinations are going to get re-built quickly. After Phi Phi island we headed to several more snorkeling destinations before heading home. Oh! The guide who was leading our little trip here eventually started asking about me. I was traveling with a group of 7 Thai people and she got curious and phased the question in such a classic way. She basically asked one of my friends where they brought this foreigner from. They said Lampang. She then replied inquisitively if my plane had crashed in Lampang. Classic. Once she found out I was a teacher she started calling me 'Ajaan'. It was humorous.

After showers we headed out for our seafood dinner. We loaded up on all kinds of seafood - clams, squid, fish, crab etc. and ate until we all nearly burst. It was fantastic. We worked a little bit of it off as we went to buy more ice for our evening festivities. Unfortunately the whiskey ran out early in the evening so we had to start taking shots of whatever we had in the room. We ran out of everything at about 11. But by that point we were half asleep as it was so we happily went to bed.

The following morning we all got up and had breakfast and got ready to head out. Everybody else had to go back to BKK to get back in time for work Monday morning so we had lunch together and then they took off. I moved into another guesthouse and took a nap and relaxed on the beach all afternoon. I had originally planned to leave with them and go to my next destination on Sunday but decided against that. After watching the sunset, I headed off to a great little bar/restaurant and had a Happy Hour cocktail while the sun set and then had their salad bar buffet for dinner (which was amazing! They had baked potatoes!) and another cocktail before calling it a day. Sitting there on the roof of this little bar sipping my gin and tonic watching the sun go down with a great ocean breeze at my back was the ultimate way to relax. As I was sitting there I could feel all the stress and anxiety being blown out to sea. Bliss.

Since I didn't leave Sunday, I planed to leave Monday but seeing as it's Monday and I'm still here, that didn't happen. I just wasn't ready to leave and to travel again so I spent the day here sleeping and reading on the beach. I really didn't do much today other than that. I did get an amazing sandwich from this sandwich shop though. That was the highlight of the day today. I do think I'll head out tomorrow though. My next destination is Nakorn Si Thammarat, which is a city on the Gulf side of Thailand famous for their shadow puppets so I figured I'd check that out. From there, I'll work my way down to Penang, Malaysia where I'll catch the ferry across to Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia where I'll spend about two weeks in Sumatra. I'll be sure to update the blog soon. Hope you all are doing well (if anyone is still reading this).

Ryan

Room with a changing view

2008-01-28T12:36:00.000+07:00

One of the perks of living adjacent to a rice field is the constant evolution of the fields and the landscape. It's prime arable land and is utilized. This means that nearly everyday there are happenings and goings on around my house. Over the past few months, there have been lots of changes. I've documented to process of transforming the field into a new rice field, but this time they had something else up their sleeves - they wanted watermelons! So now I live next to an expansive watermelon patch, which is cool. Here are some pictures so you can follow the changes with me. I've also included some pictures and such taken from the house of the surrounding area.

Burning away some of the forest in the mountains near my house at night.

A really cool picture of the moon from my front yard.

The moon looking out from my backyard.

The watermelon field.

The first watermelon I saw in the field.

Three little melons in a row.

Enjoy!

Touching heaven and crossing into Burma

2008-01-12T11:57:00.001+07:00

A winters trip up north seemed the perfect thing to do in the days leading up to Christmas. Several of my good friends from Bangkok had time off for the New Years so they decided to road trip up north. It also turned out that I had a three day weekend due to the parliamentary elections, so Boy, Sign and Ploy showed up in Lampang on Saturday evening to pick me up on their way north. The following morning we took off for Chiang Rai at about 8am. On the way, we stopped at Pha Thai Cave, which is about 60km outside of town. It’s actually a place I’ve wanted to go for a long time, but haven’t made the drive out there. We wandered down into the cave with a guide. It was spectacular. It was a huge cave, much bigger that Phra Sabai cave (which is closer to Lampang). We say some amazing stalactites and stalagmites as well as some neat rock formations and several snakes. It was very cool. We continued on traveling through Phayo only stopping to check out the lake for a few minutes (it’s supposed to be the biggest lake in Thailand). We then headed towards Chiang Rai town were we ate lunch and went to Wat Rong Fa. It’s the new white temple in town. I’ve been there twice – I stopped there with Katie and her host family when they took us to Chiang Rai when I was studying here. We stopped there for a bit and walked around. From there we started to drive to Phu Chee Fa. It’s a mountain on the Thailand-Lao border which is topped with a nice point and a cliff which allows you to look out over the surrounding area with stunning 360° views. A somewhat indirect translation of Phu Chee Fa is the mountain where you can touch/reach heaven. We wound our way up through the mountains along these small roads through strings of villages. Many of the villages had painted rocks and the fences along the road yellow and so we were driving through a yellow lined road for multiple kilometers. It actually looked really cool. They had done all of this for the King's birthday which was earlier in the month. We caught our first glimpse of the mountain and leaned out the car to take a picture of it and continued to take pictures the whole way up. We got to the parking lot and began the short walk to the top of the mountain. The views from the top were stunning. We looked down on to these valleys which stretched for kilometers. It was incredibly clear and the sky was a perfect blue. There were a few clouds but that only highlighted the blueness of the sky and the colors on the ground. There were so many colors on the ground – reds, yellows, browns and greens. It’s been a lot like fall here as it’s gotten colder and some of the tree have changed and lost their leaves. It’s quite stunning. I noticed it first in Pai, but it was present to a much greater extent in Chiang Rai. After goofing around on the mountain for a while, we headed out to get to the resort before it got too dark. We hoped back into the car and continued to listen to music, take photos and talk. We rounded one bend and we saw the moon rising over the hills in front of us and had to stop. The moon was full and was huge! It was just coming out from behind the mountains and was right on the horizon and was lit up nicely by the sun setting. We checked into the hotel and went to eat dinner. We stayed at a strawberry farm run by people from Yunnan so our dinner was Yunnanese food, which wasn’t bad.

After our dinner we headed back inside and played cards and drank plum wine. It had just so happened that this was also the night of the first election since the coup and the country was electing their parliament. We sat on the bed and played cards and occasionally watched the results come in. It was a real unique way to spend election night and I enjoyed myself. I was also able to chat with them about the election and pick their brains a little about the election. We both feel the same way towards Samak and all basked in the brilliance of Abhisit’s English abilities (it was flawless – he graduated from Oxford). I remember watching the ticker tape along the bottom looking for Lampang results and being frustrated when it showed that all three constituencies in Lampang voted for PPP and Samak. Bummer. But I guess that’s what I expected to happen. We hung out for a while playing cards and ended up hitting the sack later than we wanted since we were going to get up early the following day to watch the sun rise. We did get up early and drove up to another mountain, one close to the guesthouse and climbed up to see the sun rise. We forgot our flashlights in the room, but the moon was nearly full so we climbed by moonlight. We camped out near this rock outcropping along side this cliff and waited for the sun to come up. We watched as the sky lit up and the colors appeared on the horizon. As the sun came up, we could make out the clouds lying in the valleys in what seemed to be a sea of fog in the valleys. It was incredible. We spent a lot of time there, but then at the convincing of a local guide we headed up to the top of another small hill where we watch the sun come up. We were there for a little while before we actually saw the sun come above the horizon and as it did it lit up the sky with incredible oranges and reds which then blended with the blue of the sky at the boundary of the sky, sun and the blackness of night. It was stunning. We took lots of photos and spent lots of time up top before heading back down to the car to grab breakfast and showers before heading out.

We had a good drive ahead of us through some more mountains and then along the Mekong through Chiang Khong and Chiang Saen on our way to Mae Sai. It was a route that I’d wanted to take for a long time and really enjoyed. The scenery was stunning along the whole route. We got to Mae Sai at about lunch time and had lunch along the small river which separated Thailand from Burma. It was very strange as we were sitting eating lunch we heard Christmas music coming from the Burmese side of the river. Not only was it coming from Burma, but it was coming from the temple just across the river. Strange. I guess I should also mention that this was Christmas Eve day. We then went to find out about crossing over into Burma. This is something that many people will do. Thai’s can cross the border with just a photocopy of their ID card and cross to go shopping. It’s a lot cheaper in Burma so many people do it. Last time I was there with Boy, Sign, Yui and Peck, they crossed over but I stayed behind with Yui since I didn’t think that I could cross. This time we asked more questions and it turned out that I could cross. I got a couple copies of my passport and left them with immigration on the Thai side. They gave me a little scrap piece of paper with a stamp on it an my information. I walked through immigration. I met the gang in the middle of now where i.e. no mans land between Burma and Thailand on this little bridge over the river. We took several pictures of me straddling the middle point of the bridge – half of me in Thailand and half of me in Burma. I crossed over and hit Burmese immigration. I went into a small little room where I gave them the little piece of paper and paid $10. They then gave me another piece of paper and told me to make sure I was back across by 5pm. We were then free to wander around Burma. We didn’t get far from the border and stuck to the markets along the river, but we did some good shopping. I got a lot of DVD’s and some wine for Christmas dinner and the others got DVD’s and shirts and liqueur and the like. We spent about 3 hours in Burma before we had to head back to cross over before 5pm. We headed back. I spoke to the Burmese officials and they took the paper back. Then I spoke to the Thai authorities and they took the piece of paper and gave me my passport back. All told, I ended up leaving a foreign country and entering another without my passport as I had left it in Thailand while I was in Burma. So that’s that.

We then drove back to Lampang and had dinner at the new restaurant, Glimpse, before calling it a night. We caught up again the next day (Christmas Day) and had lunch and coffee before they headed back to BKK and I headed over to Mike’s for Christmas dinner. All in all, it was an amazing trip and I’m so glad I was able to spend that time with them and do the things that we did.

Here are the pictures from the trip. Enjoy

Would you like some beef and wine before class?

2007-12-30T16:10:00.000+07:00

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised any more by the questions that I'm asked over here, but this one surprised me a bit. The week before New Years we had several things on the agenda in terms of celebrations for the New Year but there were no plans (at least to my knowledge) that involved drinking large amounts of wine at school before class. We, the teachers, had arranged to do a gift exchanged amongst ourselves and order pizza on the Friday before the New Year. Classes were canceled in the afternoon so that the students could have their own little parties and hang out before the long weekend. This was our plan - the director of the English Program had other ideas. On Thursday, I don't teach in the morning, but I do have several afternoon classes. I had gone out to get coffee in the morning and read and came back at about 11:00. As I approached the office, I smelled what could only have been bar-b-que but that didn't jive with where I was - there shouldn't be bbq at school. Much to my surprise, I walked into the office and there is our director grilling up some beef with several bottles of wine on his desk. The other teachers wrapped up with their classes and came back to the office and we're told that this is his New Years party for us. So we obligingly started to eat and drink. He had brought a good amount of beef and three bottles of wine. Despite our protestations that we had to teach later in the afternoon, he kept our glasses full and we all enjoyed some good wine and beef. About 50 minutes later, I headed off to class sucking on a mint my director so thoughtfully provided for me. And so that's how I ended up drinking a good bit of wine before class - all in the name of celebrating New Years.

The following we came back to school and had our official party and the students got time in the afternoon for their parties as well. I brought my camera for these festivities and took a few pictures. Here's the album that I made from our New Years parties.

Bai Pai Ma

2007-12-28T19:20:00.000+07:00

There is this place which has achieved somewhat legendary status among the foreigners living in Thai. I've been told of this place many times by many people. When asked by foreigners and Thais alike if I'd been and upon receiving my answer of "no", I was given the open-mouthed questioning look. If I could read their thoughts it would go something like this, "I can't believe he's lived he for almost two years and hasn't been to Pai!" And most then walk away in disgust. All this being said, I felt like I had to find a way to get myself to Pai. And I did as my post title proclaims (albeit in phonetic Thai, but a proclamation it is nevertheless). About four weeks ago now, we had a holiday. For those of you familiar with the month of December in Thailand, that doesn't come as much of a surprise. It also explains why I haven't written in a while and why I've seemed to gain a few pounds. Anyway, December 10 is Constitution Day in Thailand and unlike last year, the country was actual governed by a constitution (this holiday doesn't actually celebrate just any old constitution, it actually celebrates the day that Thailand first became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, but that's beside the point). It was a Monday and that meant that we had a three day weekend.

Pai is in Mae Hong Son province and is northwest Chiang Mai. It's up in the mountains and is about four hours from Chiang Mai (add another two hours to get from Lampang to Chiang Mai and it's quite the trip). I was able to convince two friends from Chiang Mai (Som and Maew) to come with me. I went to Chiang Mai late Friday evening. I was planing on going earlier in the evening but Mike (another teacher at Bunyawat) made chili. So I stuck around to eat some. I met up with the gang at the bus station and headed up to Pai. The drive is famous for it's curves. Pai is 136 km from Chiang Mai and there are 762 curves along the way. In a bus it takes about four hours. In Pai, we rented a few motorbike and hit the usual spots-a few waterfalls, Pai canyon, the river - and ate a ton of food. More importantly, we took a ton of pictures. In a weekend, we (and by we I mean Som) managed to fill my 2GB memory card. That's about 1400 pictures. Needless to say, my inaugural trip to Pai is well documented. We also did a good bit of shopping as well. I haven't really spent much time talking about what we did partly because I'm a bit daugnted by what I have on my To Write list and partly because the pictures explain most of that. So check out the album below!

Worlds Apart

2007-12-07T15:43:00.000+07:00

Christmas in Thailand 2007

It's Christmas time and unfortunately I'm away from home again. But like I did last year, I've decorated a tree and am trying to make this tropical Buddhist home of mine feel a bit more like Christmas. I've gone ahead and posted a picture of my Christmas tree this year along with a photo of the Christmas tree that my family has put up in Colorado. Enjoy and may you all have as many wonderful memories as you put up your tree as I did while listening to Christmas music in 80 degree weather.

Christmas in Colorado 2007

7-11

2007-12-04T11:04:00.000+07:00

It just came to my attention that there are 4,300 7-11 branches in Thailand. That's a lot of 7-11. It prompted me to look into the company a little more. Worldwide there are 28,123 stores around the globe making it the largest chain store in any category (even more than McDonald's). Thailand's 4,300 stores means that Thailand has the 4th largest number of stores after the Japan, the US and Taiwan. Taiwan has the highest density of 7-11's in the world.

I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again - 7-11 has been a huge part of my life here in Thailand. Many an adventure has been had in its stores and countless items have been purchased off its shelfs. I'll leave you with a little known fact - 7-11 in Thailand isn't called 7-11. It called Sewen because Thai's have a hard time pronouncing the 'v' sound partly because Thai doesn't have that sound.

Buddha Casting

2007-12-01T13:19:00.000+07:00

Thailand is a predominately Buddhist country and as such there are temples nearly everywhere. Having been here for a good bit of time, I've seen my far share of temples. One of the most common sights in the temples are the images of the Buddha. These images occupy a place on honor within the temple as well as many peoples homes. Recently I was able to witness the casting of a Buddha image at a temple in town. The director of the English Program decided to have a Buddha image cast and invited us to the casting.

The casting took place at a temple in town. There was a short ceremony before the casting in the temple and then most everyone moved out into the courtyard where the casting would take place. They had set up the molds and were heating the metal when I arrived. In the picture below, you can see the molds in the left part of the picture. The metal is being melted in several different fires/ovens and those are fairly easy to spot (hint - look for the flames).
We arrived to the scene above and then entered the temple for a ceremony. But the ceremony lasted longer than our attention span so we ventured outside to watch what captured our attention which was the incredible bright flames and the steady buzz of activity around the molds and the fires. The kept feeding the fires and stoking them; keeping the metal molten until the ceremony finished.
It came time for the image to be cast so they pulled the bricks down from around the molten metal housed in what was now a glowing container. Using very long poles they exposed the container which was now bright orange.
Very carefully they used this clever little tool to lift the molten metal up out of the fire/oven and proceeded to clean off the outside of the container. These containers didn't have a lid to them and if you remember they just threw charcoal on top of them assuming (and correctly so) that the surface of the molten metal was hot enough to ignite all the charcoal and burn it off.
They transferred the molten metal from the lifting tool/contraption and put it into a tool/contraption more suited for pouring. They carefully lifted the molten metal up onto the platform which surrounded the molds and began to pour the metal into the mold.
The steam which was coming off of the metal as is streamed into the mold was incredible. The color of the metal was also equally amazing. This black and white photo shows the steam a little bit better than the color photos could.
Here's a picture of the molten metal (which I'm assuming to be bronze...I never got confirmation of that, but most of the Buddha images are made from bronze) as it is poured into the mold. This picture doesn't do justice to the color of the metal. But you can still see the oranges and the yellows in the container nonetheless.
While this was all happening, people had gathered around the men working and had run a string through their hands (a common part of Buddhist ceremonies) and held their hands up in a wai while the image was being cast.
And that was that. The image was cast. The image had to sit for a few days before it could be broken out of the mold and then polished and have the finishing touches added to it. The image will stay at the temple for a few days and then it will be taken to my boss's house where he'll keep it or store it until he decides to donate it to a temple.

And that's how Buddha images are made - Thai style.

Kingdom of Illusions

2007-11-20T20:16:00.000+07:00

I was browsing through a book store in Chiang Mai a few months back and came across a book entitled ‘The Kingdom of Illusions’. It was a book about Thailand and the title stuck a chord with me and I immediately wished that I had thought of that. You see, Thailand, for all intensive purposes and on many levels, is a kingdom of illusions. There is a very high value placed on appearance and one must be conscious of their appearance. This value is reflected in dress, behavior and other aspects of life. In my classes my students often spend more time than their American counterparts adding what I would call finishing touches on their project. The result is something that is often more visually appealing than what their American counterparts might produce. However, often times the quality of the assignment doesn’t mirror the level of quality of the appearance of the project. Some of the most beautiful projects I’ve received are significantly lacking in substance. While the value of appearance is one to be encouraged, it shouldn’t overshadow substance.

Thailand is in the process of recovering from several prolonged years of political confrontation which resulted in a coup and the ensuing political ramifications of that. A constitution has been reinstated and elections are scheduled for December 23 after which a new parliament will be installed. Recently, the Election Commission released a set of rules and regulations for the campaigns leading up to the election. They hope to stamp out the widespread vote buying and other underhanded methods of obtaining votes which is far too common in Thailand. They hope that these rigorous standards will ensure a fair and free election. Several days ago, the last of the candidates registered with the EC and following the closure of the registration they took all of the candidates to Wat Phra Kaew, one of the most sacred and famous temples in Thailand, and had them swear in front of Buddha image that they would follow these rules. The Bangkok Post published a political cartoon the following day which I feel captures my sentiments. It shows the candidates in a boxing arena with a statue of the Buddha in one corner with a politician seated in front of it while whispering out of the corner of his mouth to his followers behind him who are engaged in a tremendous fight to also promise to abide by these rules. The Election Commission and the current government (as well as the candidates themselves) are trying to create this illusion that the election is going to be democratic and fair. I can’t help but think that the lessons and values (related to appearance and substance) which my students have at this age are not much different from those of the politicians. Of course I realize that politicians project images and it is rare to find a politician who consists of much more than an image, but I can’t help but wonder what messages these public ceremonies are sending to the people watching them. I can’t imagine that anyone took them seriously. To those who have already been taught that image trumps substance this only reinforces that message. To those who have lost faith in the government and the candidates this only confirms their fears. And to those who hoped for something different this time around this only shows them that the while the government has changed the substance has remained.

King's Fashion Trends

2007-11-18T09:50:00.000+07:00

Those of you who have been to Thailand know that there are two uberubiquitous sights in Thailand - 7/10 and in recent years the King's Yellow shirt. Many people started to wear the yellow shirts several years ago in honor of the King's 60th Anniversary on the throne which was celebrated in June of 2006. The shirts sported a emblem designed specially for this celebration representing the many aspects of the monarchy. Once the anniversary celebrations were complete, people continued to wear their yellow shirts. Politicians are always sporting one when they make public appearances and the news anchors always have some splash of yellow if not the shirt during their broadcasts. Teachers and other government employees are asked to wear them every Monday and many wear them multiple days throughout the week. To continue honoring the King and his 80th birthday (which is on December 5th), a new logo was designed for the 80th birthday celebrations and people bought even more yellow shirts with the new logo. After nearly a year of wearing a fairly plain yellow shirt with a symbol, many companies began offering more stylized shirt with other designs and patterns in order to spice it up a bit. Nonetheless, there is still an abundance of yellow on every shirt (only now there is a little bit of flair). Over the course of the past year and a half or so I've collected roughly six different versions of the yellow shirt (both 60th anniversary and 80th birthday shirts). Anyway, the point here is that people have become accustomed to wearing these yellow shirts as a external representation of their affection and support for the King.

The King was admitted to the hospital about four weeks ago and upon his admission to the hospital swarms of people flocked to the hospital to sign a guest book set up in the hospital and offer their moral support for the King. Buses and water taxis offered free rides for people going to the hospitals and many international monarchs and diplomats expressed their wishes for a speedy recovery. For nearly three weeks there was a steady flow of people in and out of the hospital. He left the hospital last week. His departure became nothing short of a large celebration and procession. Thousands of people came to the hospital to see him off and it the entire journey home - from the moment he walked out the hospital doors to the moment his car entered the palace grounds - was filmed and broadcast on all channels. After paying respects at statues of his parents in the lobby of the hospital he got in his car. The entire hospital ground was covered with people sporting their yellow shirts. The entire route from hospital to palace was lined with more people. What was interesting (and what has become a little absurd lately) was the countries response to his attire. The day the king left the hospital, he wore a pink collarless shirt and a pink blazer. I've been told that an astrologer reportedly told the king to wear the color typically associated with baby girls and bubble gum because it also symbolizes Mars and would help him gain strength. This sparked an almost fanatic rush by the countries loyal royalists to purchase pink shirts and show their support. Stores reported that their stocks of pink shirts were gone within hours of the kings appearance on TV. Manufacturers promised to increase production and retailers promised to increase their stocks of pink shirts. Several days later, the king returned to the hospital to pay a visit to his older sister who is also in the hospital. This time he was wearing a green blazer with a pink shirt, as green can reportedly bring success for someone like the king, who was born on a Monday. The rush to buy pink shirts was short-lived as people now sought out green shirts. Vendors immediately ordered more green shirts and people headed out to buy them. No more than two days after his appearance in a green shirt, he returned to the hospital for another visit this time wearing a blue shirt. You can guess what happened next. Anyway, I find this to be highly indicative of the typical Thai response to the monarchy. There is a tremendous amount of respect for the king and for the most part that respect is deserved. But much of this respect and admiration is blind and very few understand the relationship which the king has with the country and so many express their (somewhat blind) love by imitating him and expressing this love externally (by wearing the yellow shirt etc.). I've had many people who while claiming to love the king are unable to explain why. And it's not that they can't find the words or reasons, it's that it's not something to be questioned or thought about but simply done. It's a very complex relationship - one which has many different facets and intricacies and one which has been developed for 61 years. What this most recent trip to the hospital and the ensuing fashion trends does indicate though is that there will be a significant amount of change (which will be fiercely resisted) when the king dies. But until then, people will continue to wear these yellow shirts and follow his every move.

Royal Barge Procession

2007-11-12T16:08:00.000+07:00

A few weeks ago I was witness to an old Thai tradition steeped in culture, religion and Thailand's monarchy. The ceremony took place on a Monday in Bangkok on the Chao Phraya River and was broadcast throughout the country on all the TV stations. It was held in the afternoon and I actually canceled class so that my students and I could watch. The Royal Barge Procession is a old tradition with its roots tracing back nearly 700 years. As with many early cities and civilizations, Thailand's early cities were located along major rivers. It is speculated that the Royal Barge Procession originated during the Ayutthaya period during the 14th century. It has been held since then, but the ceremony has always been sporadically held. In 1932, as the absolute monarchy became a constitutional monarchy the Royal Barge Procession began a period of decline as monarchical power also declined and it wasn't until 1957 that a Royal Barge Procession was held. The tradition has been successfully revived, in large part due to the popularity of the current king. Since the late 18th century, the ceremony has been associated with the Royal Kathin Ceremony procession. The Kathin Ceremony is the presentation of robes and making of merit in tribute to and support of the monasteries under royal patronage. Over the past 60 years there have been 16 sailings of the Royal Barges, with most occurring on special occasions. This year's sailing was done in celebration of the king's 80th birthday while last year's was held in honor of the kings 60th year on the throne. The procession includes numerous boats with this year's total reaching 52 unique boats and the boats were manned by more than 2,000 oarsmen. The barges usually move down the Chao Phraya River from the Wasukri Royal Landing Place past the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), the Grand Palace and arrives at Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn.

The barges are themselves works of art and are recognized as such. In Bangkok, they are housed and restored in the Royal Barge Museum. Joey and I were able to venture over there while he was in town and caught a close up look at the boats. They were stunning. Here are a few pictures (sadly not my own) of some of the boats.

This first boat is The Royal Barge Suphannahonse and was built in 1911. The bow of the boat was built to resemble a mythical swan, or Hongsa, and is adorned with gold lacquer and glass jewels, with a crystalline ball and tassle dangling from her mouth. It was carved from a single trunk of teakwood and is 46 m long. When the members of the Royal family participate in the sailing, they will sit on board this boat. This year's ceremony didn't feature the King (who was in the hospital) but his son, the crown prince.

The Royal Barge Anantanagaraj was built in 1914 and the w is carved into the 7-headed Nagaraj, the mystical snake-like creature, in gold lacquer and glass jewels.

The Royal Barge Narai Song Suban H.M. Rama IX is the only barge built during the reign of the current king. It was built in 1994 and built in cooperation by the Royal Thai Navy and the Thai Department of Fine Arts and was built to honor His Majesty during his 50th anniversary celebrations in 1996.

This an aerial view of what the procession would like as it makes its way down the river. The whole procession stretches about two kilometers down the river.

Finally, a picture of the Royal boat landing at the pier at Wat Arun.

Take care and I'll be back soon with more!

Ryan

Pictures from Laos and Phu Kradung

2007-11-10T09:20:00.000+07:00

I've finally gotten my pictures edited and up on the internet. I'm using a different website to host the pictures this time. I'm keeping everything within Google and hopefully that cuts down on the amount of work I have to do (more importantly it means I only have to label the photos once).

So here are the highlight pictures from my semester break trip. Enjoy!

The Other Side of Paradise (i.e. the Mekong River)

2007-10-30T13:05:00.000+07:00

After crossing the border, I headed into Nong Khai and found a little place on the river to call home for the night. My impeccable budgeting made it so that I was down to my last few kip as I crossed the river. I had exchanged my last few baht a few days ago to replenish my supply of kip and so as I walked off that bus I had several different currencies on me but they only totaled up to about $2. I needed to get cash and kept my eyes out for a Bangkok Bank ATM (so that I could avoid those nasty fees). I spotted one, but I thought that I’d rather check-in first and then come back so I didn’t stop. The after checking in, all I wanted to do was eat dinner, but in order to do that, I had to have money and thus I needed that ATM. I re-traced my steps trying to find the ATM that I had seen earlier but I couldn’t find it. I ended up at the bus station and hadn’t seen it. I circled back and still didn’t see it. I eventually consulted the map I had and found a Bangkok Bank branch in town and went there. Plain and simple – no problem. But had already wasted a good hour trying to find that ATM. Stupid Ryan. I did find food which I promptly ate and went to sleep.

The next day I rented a bicycle and rode out to the second Buddha Park. It’s another sculpture park much like the one that I went to in Laos - only cooler. It was actually built by the same man is they are pretty much across the river from each other. This one is much larger and older, and in my opinion, a much cooler experience. But the one is Laos is more well known and people, mostly foreigners flock there. I’m glad I got to see both. The statues were huge! They dwarfed me. I remembered to bring my tripod that day, after forgetting it when I went to the other one – I’m glad I had it this day instead of the other day. I got some really neat pictures of myself with the statues. It was a large park and took a good hour to walk around and absorb all of the statues. There was a lot of emphasis placed on the wheel of life sculptures which represent different stages in life. The guest house gave me a handout explaining it, which was neat, but I still don’t fully understand it. Many of the statues were explained, but in Thai and my reading isn’t that good yet. I headed back to the guest house, but was caught up by the boat races! I decided to ride back along the river and ran into this huge festival along the river. Everyone was watching the river, and it turns out that they were watching the Dragon Boat races. They are an annual event held at about this time of year all along the Mekong River. I watched a few and then dropped off the bike and came back to get some food and snacks and watch the races and people watch. It was really neat. There was an announcer and he would talk about the different teams and people would get really excited as the races were underway. In each boat there were maybe 30-40 people and during the race they all paddled. They were going downstream so they must have gotten going pretty fast. They also trained by paddling upriver.

After I had my fill of food and boats I caught the bus to Sangkhom. That was an adventure – but it’s good I’ve re-gained my patience otherwise that would have been unbearable. I was told to take the yellow bus – it’ll take me straight to Sangkhom, he said. Wrong, he was. It took me to the next town were it stopped. I had to get off and wait for another bus. That bus arrived after a good bit of waiting, but it also didn’t go all the way to Sangkhom. I got off again. And waited. The last bus was finally here – I climbed aboard, ready to go. But then they said we won’t leave for another 30 minutes. That’s okay because I was in the right state of mind and eventually I got there. I left at 1and got in at about 6 – five hours. Direct it should have taken about two. The country was really pretty and I didn’t have any where to be. It was great to be able to take on those problems and changes and not get stressed. It’s very different than most of my trips to Chiang Mai. I stayed in this great little bungalow along the river. It was really cheap and right on the river. It wasn’t the nicest place, but it worked for me. I just wanted a place to rest my head and then a place to read and nap in the morning, which is exactly what I did. I met this English guy there who just couldn’t stop talking. When one person would leave the room, he would start talking to another. He even followed the lady around while she was working in the yard. He is retired and has come out here for a few months to relax and get out of England. Interesting man. A bit annoying. He sold doors. I then hoped on a bus to Loei. I was told to catch the yellow bus going left and I’d be set. It came, I got on and I was set. This time the bus actually went where it was supposed to go but it traveled very slowly. At one point, we even stopped for 30 minutes. I’m not sure why. A lady got on. Then she got off. But I stayed and eventually we started moving again. I got to Loei and checked bus times to Phu Kradung and Lampang and found a place to stay. Dinner was found and then I had a date with The Saint dubbed in Thai.

The following morning I headed for Phu Kradung. I had to make a connection near the park and had to wait for a bit and so I did. I ended up going to the park with a group of students from Khon Kaen and they tried to befriend me. I entered the park and got my tent arrangements made – they’d have the tent set up and waiting for me when I arrived. The only thing that was left was climbing the mountain. It was about 1000 vertical feet and about a 8.5 km hike from the base to the park headquarters. The climb was fairly straightforward. I just went up. There were some good flat parts along the way to recoup and many shops along the way to stop at if you needed. I stopped at the last area for a bit to eat and some water and then headed to the summit. The sign at the top of the mountain reads, 'Welcome Phu Kradung Conqueror'. They make a big deal about climbing it. And now I’ve done it. From the summit it was another 3 km to the park headquarters, but it was flat. It was quite a strange environment. It was sandy with pine trees. But there was also this meadowy yet tropical feel to it too. There was a mist and clouds which hung over the mountain as well. I found my tent and got settled in. I ran into the guys I rode over with again and they made me take a shot of whiskey – I guess that’s why it took them so long to get to the top. I read a bit and walked around but then it started to get cold so I went to a shop and got some hot tea. While sitting and reading at the shop, the shop owner asked me to translate her menu into English for her so that it would be easier for her to help the foreign customers. I did and sat there for a long time reading and watching people as they passed by and ate dinner. Eventually those guys found me and we spent an hour or two engaging in conversation (and drinking) but the events of the day soon overtook me and I sought out the refuge of my tent.

I woke up early the next morning before the sun so that I could walk out to the edge of the mountain and watch the sunrise. I joined a large group of people and hiked the 2 km out to the edge. The tea and coffee cart beat us there and was set up when we arrived. I then watched the sun rise. It was very cloudy and foggy but the mix of everything was really beautiful. I met some more people there who were standing by me as the sun rose. I was able to get some really neat pictures. This experience and the views themselves made the whole trip worthwhile. I headed back for some rice soup before hitting the waterfall trails. There were 4-5 waterfalls that I hiked to that morning before heading back down the hill. A short bus trip and I was back in Loei by 5. It was into the hotel, find dinner and I called it a night. I had been up since about 4:45am. Oh by the way, on the way down the mountain I did pick up a few souvenirs including a Phu Kradung shirt which also says "hello, how are you? I’m fine and you?". I thought that was hilarious.

And so that brings to an end my vacation. It was a good one. I’m glad I went and I got to do some cool things and I’ve got some good stories. And another one bits the dust.

Notes from the Road

2007-10-24T14:41:00.000+07:00

Following my excursion to Phonsavan, I once again boarded those rickety buses and followed that thin black line snaking up, over and through the mountainous northern part of Laos. This time my ultimate destination lay further to the south and after five or six hours the road started to flatten out. I was headed to what many call the ultimate tourist destination in Laos - Wang Wien. It's reputation for attracting those on the backpacker circuit is the stuff of legends as is the attraction which draws those tourists - tubing down the Mekong. I arrived and decided that my body had suffered enough and I would treat myself to a nicer place, in particular one with a nice bed and a nice river view. Wang Wien, located right on the Mekong river is nestled into a valley and off to the west are some spectacular limestone cliffs which are littered with caves. I procured a room on the fourth floor with a view of the cliffs over the river and the rice fields in the distance. The views of the sunset (and the softness of the bed) were well worth the cost of the room. Day 1 in Wang Wien was travel and relaxation. The following morning I woke up and continued to enjoy the spectacular views and the wonderful bed until they forced me out at noon. I switched to a cheaper place just downstream and proceeded to explore town and several of the surrounding caves. After several hours of walking, another massage was in order. I never made it to the Mekong to go tubing, but I did enjoy a couple relaxing days in Wang Wien doing nothing but eating, reading and sleeping. After the hectic and incredibly busy past week, it was much deserved.

I jumped on yet another bus and snacked on a sandwich en route to Vientiane. I ended up spending most of the afternoon driving from Wang Wien to Vientiane and along the way I noticed several things. As we got closer and closer to the town, the electric lines and telephone poles became more and more like the telephone poles in Thailand – cluttered with wires. A tangled mess. There were wires looped around each other, hanging low across the road, wrapping around the pole, stretched through the trees and intermittently connected to the houses through what appeared to be a simple and exposed connection. This was a change from the country that I had seen up until that point. The telephone lines had one or two wires connected to them, if that. There was a stretch that I remember as I traveled from Phonsavan to Wang Wien that had the poles but was conspicuously lacking in any wires connecting the poles. Speaking of lines, as we got closer to the city, more and more lines appeared on the streets. Until Vientiane, there were no lines on the road. It was a free for all (not that lines make much of a difference). I arrived in Vientiane without much hassle and made my way to a guest house were I procured a room which was followed on by dinner and sleep.

I awoke refreshed the next morning and had breakfast at a little restaurant before walking around and taking a look at several of the temples around town. They were interesting, but nothing spectacular or impressive. Following that, I went to the National Museum and walked around there for a while. It was more interesting, but was a bit repetitive. I did enjoy the constant referral to America as being the ‘American imperialists’ or some other fun reference. It was comical how overdone it was. I then headed to lunch and had myself a Swedish pizza in honor of the Swedes I had met earlier on. It wasn’t much different than a normal pizza but it was good pizza so I couldn’t complain. A quick trip back to the guest house and then I was off to the Buddha Park, a collection a statues from various stories in Buddhism, Hinduism etc. It’s quite unique and very interesting. I only wish I knew more so that I could interpret the images. I knew a few, the Buddha was obvious. Ganesh was there as was what I thought to be allusions to Shiva. I was proud to be able to identify Indra riding atop Erawan, her many-headed elephant. And that pretty much wraps up the highlights of the day. Vientiane is a nice town, but there's not a lot to keep one occupied.

The following morning, I talked to my Mom and Dad for a while in the morning before heading out to walk. My cell phone had come with me and the other day I had noticed that if I was close to the river in the right spot, my cell phone would get service. So, I gave my parents a call and let them know that their son was doing alright. I walked pretty much all day after that phone call which was nice and something I really enjoyed doing. That’s something I haven’t done enough of this trip. Walking has always been a big part of my travels and I enjoy the peace of mind that exists when your walking in a new place with no real destination or intended route. It's a wonderfully blissfully free feeling. My agenda for the day included the Laos Arc de Triumph, which isn’t very triumphant. It was built from American-donated concrete, which was intended to build a runway. Instead they built a monument to the Communists victory over the Americans and their allies. They (jokingly) call it the Vertical Runway. You can climb up to the top. On several of the upper levels, they have shops inside selling tourist items. On top there are views of the city, none of which are very impressive. It’s approached by a wide road with lights down the middle – very European. After that it was to Phra That Luang, the national symbol of Laos, which wasn’t impressive. There wasn’t much to it other than what one sees in the pictures. It was a bit worn down. There were no paintings or other significant items. It was simply that ubiquitous missile-shaped structure. Then to the Unknown Soldiers Memorial, which again wasn’t impressive. I’ve noticed that there’s not much to see in Laos. I guess most people come to Laos to go hiking or do other nature-oriented things. They do have a lot of nature. They are actually one of the most pristine of the SE Asia countries and have a lot of undeveloped/untouched wilderness. That is due to several factors mainly bombings and insurgencies but also a relatively sparse population. They also have a lot of Beer Lao, so drinking is another good thing to do. I came back into town and spent several hours on the internet updating the blog and then headed off to the bus station were I wasn’t able to get a seat on the bus (it was full) and had to wait an hour. After that, I got on the bus and was later joined by a Canadian man traveling through SE Asia. We endured immigration together. As with my entrance into the country, my exit from the county had some hints of drama. I purchased a ticket that took me from Vientiane, Laos to Nong Khai, Thailand going across the Friendship Bridge built over the Mekong River. The bus stopped on the Lao side of the river and I went through immigration - a couple quick looks at the passport and my pretty face and with the thud of the stamp I was officially out of Laos. We all then climbed back on the bus for the short trip across the bridge. Departing on the other side of the bridge we looked out at a swarm of people - no they weren't there to welcome me back into Thailand. They were all trying to get into Thailand as well. We promptly got in line and took up our places in the queue. Shortly after getting in line, the hostess on the bus approached us and said that they bus was leaving. Judging by the length of the line it would have taken us at least 30 minutes to get through immigration and the bus along with our bags was leaving shortly. We thought about grabbing our bags and figuring out a ride into the city after immigration only to discover that while we were one side of the border, our bags were on the other. No dice. The hostess tried wheeling and dealing and eventually found a solution to our particular problem. There were many immigration officials manning their posts to check the papers of those crossing the border in a personal vehicle and the number of personal vehicles crossing at that moment was small so she had us walk through immigration impersonating a car. It actually worked. We got our passports stamped and a smile from the immigration official who found our method of beating the line fairly humorous. And with that my trip to Laos had come to an end but there were still adventures to be had in Thailand before heading back home.

Shake, rattle and roll (and not in the good way)

2007-10-19T14:13:00.000+07:00

Ugh. There are few words which I can use to describe my feelings after having traveled from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan (and ugh is one of them). I left that peaceful oasis of a town at about 8:30 after having a sandwich at the bus station (which was amazing by the way). And that was the highlight of the day. It's unfortunate when the highlight of the day comes at 8:00 in the morning, but that was indeed the case. I ended up sleeping most of the time on the bus. I didn’t realize that I was that tired but I couldn’t stay awake for more than a few minutes. I read a bit, but always got too tired to read so I closed my eyes and slept. The bit of the landscape that I saw was absolutely stunning. We just wound around, up and down, mountain after mountain passing through this gorgeous town’s right on the side of the rode. We would pass through a town every 30 minutes or so and each town was perched right along the road with either a cliff rising up behind the houses or dropping away underneath them. The road however was less impressive. Despite the fact that this was one of the best roads in the country and a significant amount of traffic plies back and forth on this road, it was in a significant state of disrepair. It was narrow and windy and hard to navigate. At several points, there were areas that had been covered by run off from mudslides and it was clear that there had been a significant number of mudslides recently. It’s very easy to see that road being shut down without too much difficulty. After one of my many naps, the scenery changed. It went from being mountainous and tropical to being hillier with rolling meadows and pine trees. The houses switched from being built from bamboo to being built from planks of pine. The transformation was incredible. There is definitely a difference in temperature. It hasn’t been too hot, but it’s a lot cooler at the moment than in Luang Prabang or Lampang. The pine trees (inevitably) reminded me of home and there were lots of flashbacks to home.

I got into Phosavan after a grueling nine hours on that bus. In a half-asleep state, I descend the stairs and exited the bus to fetch my bag and before my foot even hit the ground I was bombarded with propositions and guest house touts. I had only just awoken and wasn’t at all prepared for that – even fully conscious it would be overwhelming. And as my last entry prior to leaving alluded to, I’m not a fan of the bus station tout. I normally avoid them and find some other means of transport into the city or simply walk. However, in my semi-delirious state, I acquiesced to their demands to take me somewhere. They were aided but the appearance of a young Japanese guy who attached himself to me after I got off the bus. His English skills weren’t very good and felt like his best bet was to befriend me and have me help him find a place to stay. I was more than happy to do so and we ended up spending the next couple days together. But his appearance and willingness to go along with anything made me a much easier sell. We eventually did find a place after a painful 20 minutes of the tour operator who eventually was given the honor of transporting us trying to get us to sign up for different tour packages. We did find a place and after a few deep breathes in my room, I was ready to venture out into the town. Phonsavan is not a pretty town. It has a very industrial and bleak appearance – a drastic change from Luang Prabang. I was hoping it would grow on me but it never did. We ended up finding a place to rent a motorcycle and thus avoided being forced to take one of the package tours out to the Plain of Jars, the attraction in Phonsavan.

The reason I, and many others, come to Phonsavan is obviously not the town itself. It is the nearest town to the Plain of Jars. Anyway, the Plain of Jars is an archaeological site in northeastern Laos. They’ve found hundreds of stone jars of varying sizes, many of which are bigger than a person, lying about. They were all carved from single stones. They aren’t sure exactly what they were used for but people now believe that they were funerary urns of some sort. This area was a crossroads for trade a long while back and they think they originated then. There hasn’t been much research into them given that

Laos

has had a rough last hundred years, but they are starting a few big projects soon and hope to learn more. It’s hard to study something when it’s being bombed. At several of the sites there are many visible craters left from the US bombing

Laos

in the 60’s and 70’s. During the many Indochina Wars of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, Laos was the most heavily bombed place on earth – ever. More ordinances were dropped on

Laos

than in all of WWII. Now the challenge, in addition to having very few Lao who can carry out the studies, is that many of the sites are littered with unexploded ordinance from the bombings. So before any archeological activity can happen, they have to be cleared of explosives. In Phonsavan, there is an office for the NGO that has been responsible for clearing most of the ordinance in Laos so far. Anyway, there are three main sites that have been found and cleared of any unexploded ordinance, so that's where I went. We left early in the morning and headed to the first site. This is the closest site to the city and the site that most people visit for that reason. There were several clearings where the jars were congregated. Most of the jars are as tall as I am and are scattered about. They are in different positions - some are still standing up while others have fallen over. Originally they all had lids, but most of the lids have long since disappeared. At this site, it was very easy to find several bomb craters on and near the site, a testament to the many challenges to uncovering the secrets behind these jars (and the indiscriminate bombing that took place). The second and third sites are much more difficult to get to. The owner of the motorcycle shop cautioned us that the road to the second and third site would be muddy and slippery. His warnings didn't come close to describing the actual condition of the road. But at the end of the road were the second and third sites, which were more pristine and spectacular so the drive was worth enduring. But after the bone-jolting bus ride the day before on top of the bone-crushing motorcycle ride, my entire body had been shaken in places that I didn’t realize could (and most likely shouldn't) shake. Driving back into town I noticed the Lao Red Cross building and remembered reading that they offered steams and massages at the Red Cross. So, after a quick trip back tot hotel to drop of some stuff I came back out and had myself a steam and massage.

If I Had A Million Kip!

2007-10-13T10:52:00.000+07:00

The next day we woke up really early and Peter and I headed out to see the monks collect alms. We started walking towards the temple that we had been to the other night and saw several people preparing for the daily ritual. Walking through the temple, we didn’t see much, however on the other side of the temple two carloads of Spanish tourists were unloading. They had some idea of what was happening so we eavesdropped on them and figured out what was going to happen. The monks started to appear from the side streets and collect a small ball of sticky rice from each person sitting along side the road. They continued to file by for a good 30 minutes or so. We started walking in towards town following them and more and more monks joined the procession. At one point, there was a long line of people along side the road giving alms and so the monks formed a long line stretching for several blocks as they collected their rice. They then turned off to the right, in what appeared to be a circular route, and started back. It was really interesting to see it. I’d never gone out in Thailand before to see the alms giving, so it was good to see this. After that we headed to the Scandinavian Bakery again for breakfast and then we walked around a bit. We went to meet Yuuka at her guest house and started walking around town. We had a few errands to run and so we all did those real quickly in the morning. I had to go and exchange some money. I wanted to exchange about 5,000 baht. That ended up being 1.4 million kip! I’m walking around with more than a million kip in my pocket! Granted, it’s only about $100, but it still feels like a ton of money. Then it was a walk around town taking in all the temples and the side streets and just getting a better feel for the town. We stopped at a nice little restaurant for lunch where I had the Indochina burger, a beef burger with cheese and pineapple on top. The bun was fantastic. I’m going to have to cook more hamburgers on my grill in Lampang once I get back. At this point, Yuuka headed off - she had to catch a flight later that afternoon and so she went off to use the internet and pack. And so after that, Peter and I went to rent some mountain bikes and took off looking for trails to ride. We headed out into the country and just followed any dirt road or trail we came to until we couldn’t go anymore. Many of the trails ended at fences, but some continued for a while before we got struck. We were riding through the mud and through rice fields. There were streams to cross and large puddles to peddle through. We were dirty and sweaty, but we had a good time. We stopped for water at a shop along the road twice and spent a few minutes along the Mekong. We came back into town, gave the bikes back, and walked back to the guesthouse to get cleaned up. As we walked through town, we had many people look us and smile or laugh at our appearance. We were caked in mud all over. The bathroom floor was a big pile of mud once we were finished showering. It was then time for a few Beer Laos along the river and then we met Eric for dinner. We went to a little India restaurant, which was fantastic, by the way, and had a few more beers. While at dinner, we invited a solo traveler to come join us. He was from France and hadn’t had a home in about two years. He’s just been traveling all over the world, including France, but doesn’t have a place to call home. I think that a few years ago I would have envied him, but I don’t now. In some respects, I pity him. I don’t want to have relationships that last, at the most, a month. I want to have a home and a family and friends. I love to travel, but could never do it by myself for two years. That’s why the past few days have been great. It’s been great to spend time with Peter, Yuuka and Eric. I’ve felt more at home here because of it and because I’m able to say hi to those I see around town who were on that flight with me from Chiang Mai. It’s been a very social couple of days. It’s been a busy and I've had a long few days, but I’ve really enjoyed it.

The following morning, Peter left for his elephant camp trip and so I was on my own in the city. I made plans with Eric to meet up after work, but until then, I was free. I headed to the museum first since I’ve wanted to go but haven’t had the time. I got there and was informed that it was closed for the day. I was really bummed. I was looking forward to the museum and learning more about Luang Prabang and Laos because I do feel that my understanding is a bit lacking. I’m working on it, but I still have a long way to go. Anyway, with the museum gone, I headed back to the guest house and had a nice nap (the past few days finally caught up with me. After waking up from that, I started to walk around town and ended up at a sandwich place for lunch and then hit a few temples up after that. I followed that on by a trip to the coffee shop for a little internet. Then it was the night market where I spent more money than I was hoping to and then yet another nap before meeting Eric for dinner. Eric and I first headed to a really nice colonial hotel for drinks and then dinner at another restaurant in town. We had a nice dinner and a bottle of wine, both of which were good. We had good conversations and really enjoyed each others company. I think it was good for us both – we both understood the difficulties living in a foreign country and the challenges that presents. I think we both realized that we both wanted to have that social interaction and so we made it happen. I was glad to have met him and I think he was glad to have met me too. So, it worked out well. I hope to see him again.

More adventures in the Oasis

2007-10-12T13:19:00.000+07:00

My Buddha! Can this town be for real? Not only is it a pleasant and relaxing oasis away from the stresses and aggravations of SE Asian life, but it's also teaming with mounds of these mouth-watering taste sensations that have been absent from my life for so long - baguettes. On every corner one will find a street-side vendor with their mountain of baguettes. It's no luxury good here, my friends - it's a way of life. And for those of you who might think that nothing good has come out of France, I beg to differ and will publicly declare my love for the French for bringing baguettes to Laos. My restaurant of choice this morning was the Scandinavian Bakery where I had a great breakfast sandwich on a freshly baked bagel. It was heaven. Yuuka joined us there and after talking with Eric, we headed up to the temple on the mountain to enjoy the views and the sights while we waited for Eric to arrive. We climbed up Phousi hill, the mountain/hill in the center of the city, saw the views of the city from the top and climbed down. While on the mountain, I looked out at the path that our plane must have taken two nights before. You could visualize exactly what happened. It was a bit surreal to be looking up at what I was looking down on, only when I was looking down I was a bit more nervous. The views from the top were spectacular. We wound our way back down and ended up running into more folks from our flight. This happened over and over again - we had friends all over town. I felt like I was a part of Cheers - everyone seemed to know my name. One the mountain, we encountered our first war relics in the form of flower pots made from the back of a rocket.

After conquering Phusi Hill, we went to meet Eric. Eric was going to take us out to the waterfall outside of town. We met him in front of our guest house and took off. It was Eric and Peter in front, with Yuuka, Piachang and I in the back. The conversation again broke down like it had the night before and a mixture of Swedish, English and Thai ensued. We got to the waterfall and walked up to the animal sanctuary that was located near the waterfall. They’ve got quite a few rescued Asian bears and a tiger on the property. Eric had been several times before, but hadn’t seen the tiger. We split up to walk around the pen. Peter saw him first and gave a shout. We came running down only to see his tail disappearing into the jungle. Then a bunch of water buffalo in our direction started making noises and he came running back! He was a very impressive looking creature. We then wandered over to the waterfall. There are several different levels and at the lowest level you can jump off a waterfall which is about 4 meters high into a pool down below. There was also a rope swing. After playing around in the water there for a while, we went up to the second level which was smaller and didn’t have as large of a pool at the bottom. You couldn’t jump off, but you could climb under the waterfall and have the water falling on you head and kind of disappear into the waterfall. Finally, the largest of the waterfalls. This one was by far the biggest and was gorgeous. We walked up the waterfall, first emerging about halfway up and eventually came out on top of the waterfall. There was so much water that the trail had become a river and there was water pouring down it. It was muddy and wet and absolutely amazing. At the top, there was a swampy looking area and a flat pool of water along the edge and it just dropped off straight down. Looking out, you saw the water and then the view off in the distance. It was like someone just took to pictures and placed them together – they didn’t seem to fit together. We sat up top of the waterfall for a while taking different pictures and hanging out and then made our way back down towards the car. We then drove into town and had a Laos sandwich made on the baguettes that you find all around town. The sandwich was amazing – yet another variation of the sandwich that I approve of. Eric had to head off at that point so he dropped us off at a Spa where we all got a Mystic Laos massage. We arrived all dirty and sweaty after having been hiking and swimming all morning, a shower before hand was needed and after changing into the nice clean clothes they provided for the massage, I felt like a new man. The massage was wonderful. It was similar to a Thai massage, but had less stretching and bending. They focused more on putting pressure on certain places and working those pressure points. I enjoyed it. It’s hard to say which is better – they both have their strengths. It just depends on your mood and what you’re looking for. After that, we sipped our tea and felt incredibly relaxed. From there, we walked back into town through the night market, doing a little shopping along the way before finding our way towards dinner. Dinner that night was a more traditional Laos dinner. The food tasted okay, but wasn’t great. It seemed to lack a lot of flavor. I’m not sure why. But the meal wasn’t as good as I thought it would have been. We then headed to one of the bakeries in town and had some cake for desert, split up and headed back to our guest houses.

An Oasis!

2007-10-11T13:18:00.000+07:00

My god! Is there any place as so serenely peaceful, clam and surreal as this city of Luang Prabang? I'd heard nothing but good things about Luang Prabang from many people but I never quite expected this. It's simply an oasis in SE Asia - far removed from the images one conjures up when they think of Laos (or SE Asia). The city resembles Malacca in Malaysia in many ways. It's more true in Malacca, but these cities have a far more colonial or European air than they do Malay or Lao. There are hints of it. And maybe it's because we tend pick out what's different - and from my perspective what is different is the colonial/European influence while for others (who have only just come to SE Asia) it's far more Asian than what meets my eye. Anyway, beautiful city. Anyone in Laos must travel here.

The company I've kept while in Luang Prabang has been on par with the city itself - stellar. Back in Vientiane, I had chatted with various people in the group that I had spent roughly 24 hours with in transit from Chiang Mai. The group of us had become close – closer than most normal traveling companions. There was a family from Australia traveling for holiday and a family (and friend) from the US (and the mother was from Finland). Then there was the Japanese woman and her mother. She was studying in Thailand and had to come to Laos for her visa. She is going to start the sustainable development masters program at CMU in October. We started talking and she was actually more comfortable talking in Thai than in English so we talked in Thai. It must have been a strange site for any native Thai – an American and a Japanese conversing in Thai. And she kept translating for her mom. Our conversation continued and I’ve exchanged phone numbers with her and hope to see her again in CM. And then there is Yuuka, a woman from Burma who is now living and studying English in Chiang Mai and the man from Korea, Piachang. Yuuka and I hit it off and spent most of the time in Luang Prabang traveling together along with Piachang and Peter (I'll get to him). Yuuka is from Burma, born in Shan State. Her father is Japanese, currently living in Malaysia. She speaks Burmese, Shan and Thai fluently and can converse in Lao and English very easily. There are a few other languages she speaks, but only a few sentences. She’s currently studying in Chiang Mai at AUA and has come to Laos for a visa. At the airport, I met Peter. Peter, who is from Sweden, is working in Laos for two weeks and now has a few days off to travel before he goes back to Sweden. We were trying to figure out how to get into town and he proposed that I join him to share the costs and it’s all history after that. We got into town and since it was raining, we decided to get a bite to eat first. He was also waiting for a friend of his to call and tell him if he had a place to stay or not. We ate along the Mekong and chatted. He’s a wonderful and intelligent guy, and I’ve really enjoyed spending time with him. He works for an environmental consultancy firm, who is contracted by the Swedish government who then sent them to Laos as a part of their equivalent of the USAID program. He’s an engineer of sorts working on hydroelectric power plants. Fascinating to here him talk about some of the things he has worked on. Anyway, we finished lunch and he didn’t have a place to stay so we went and found a place.

We then started wandering around town. It was still rainy, but only slightly so we kept opening and closing our umbrellas as the rains changed. We ended up running into Yuuka and Piachang on the street as the rain started coming down harder. The streets turned into rivers – somewhat like Mexico where there only flood control system was the streets. People raised their businesses a foot or so off the main street and when it rained everyone had riverfront property. In our wanderings, Peter and I had seen a sauna and decided that a hot steam seemed like a really appealing rainy day activity. And so it was that on this day in October, I had my first Laotian Steam. It was quite the experience. It was in a very classic, wooden house. The sauna was upstairs and underneath was a huge wood-fed boiler. There were piles of wood and this giant barrel which has smoke coming from it, which I assume was the boiler. We changed into our sarongs (little pieces of fabric that you wrap around your waist) and hit the sauna. We were lead up the stairs, all of us careful how we walked – afraid we might reveal too much of ourselves. The owner opens a door, throws back a curtain and ushers us into the sauna. We can hardly see. Groping along the bench and wall we file in. Sitting down, we can’t help but start to laugh. Here we are, this hodgepodge group of travelers whom we'd only just met, sitting in a little wooden room half-naked while it rained outside. Plus, the smell was terrible. It smelled more like smoke than anything. There was a slight reprieve when the owner threw in some herbs or something but that faded quickly. After several breaks and the obligatory pictures, we called it quits. But the whole time, we enjoyed each others company and the steam. Over tea, we would chat and then hit the steam again. We finished up and were all sweaty and stinky so a quick shower was in order (Laos style - throwing buckets of water over yourself) and changed. It was dark and time for dinner after we finished. We found a neat little restaurant settled on the bank of the Mekong and had dinner. At dinner, we were joined by Peter’s friend, Eric, who works along the same lines as Peter in Luang Prabang. He joined us for dinner, and over a few Beer Lao, we had a fantastic time. It was great to chat with some very intelligent people and converse with them about different things. It was good to meet people who weren’t on the backpackers circuit and were here for a different reason. The conversation would change from a round table conversation, in English, to different smaller conversations between Peter and Eric in Swedish and Yuuka and I in Thai and of course everyone would stop to listen to Piachang when he spoke. I’ve loved this man. He is so quite because he can’t speak English and so he sits and so whenever he speaks people listen (and half the time is doesn't even make sense). His sentences are jumbled but we understand, if not the first time, but some time. We had a blast and after several Beers later we called it a night (since they were trying to close up the restaurant). Yuuka and Piachang headed home and Peter, Eric and I headed out for another beer and a walk around town. We walked and talked, with Eric explaining a bit about the town as we went. We wandered outside the tourist center and found ourselves alone on these dark roads. He took us through a temple, and in the light rain, it was very serene and peaceful. We continued to chat and learn more about each other, walking slowly through the town at night by the light of the street lamps and the moon. We ended at a pub, had a beer, and were ushered out of the pub as they closed a few minutes later. It was then time for bed.

The One Hour Flight (or so they said)

2007-10-09T12:34:00.000+07:00

Sabai dee from the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. My journey from Chiang Mai to Laos was much longer and more tedious than expected. For starters, I boarded a flight bound for Luang Prabang and ended up in Vientiane. No, I didn’t get on the wrong flight, but my flight was re-routed due to weather over Luang Prabang. Not only did I end up in the wrong city, we were delayed to begin with. I was originally scheduled to take off at about 3:00 but didn't get airborne until 7:30. In Chiang Mai, we were waiting for the plane - they said there were 'technical issues' and that it would be arriving shortly. It was raining in Chiang Mai when we left – the rain was coming from the tropical storm off the coast of Vietnam - but it wasn't too bad. After about 45 minutes in flight, they announced that we were going to be landing in Luang Prabang. We started to descend and the landing gear was put down. I remember looking out the window and seeing the landing gear illuminated by the flashing beacons from the bottom of the plane. It was definitely an eerie sight. The plane was a prop plane and the landing gear came out from under the prop. As we descended, the plane began to bounce around we were hit with a good bit of turbulence. It was fairly intense, but I don’t think that it was too bad - I figured the extra bouncing could be attributed to the small size of the plane. We continued to descend and the city came into view. I saw the temple in the center of town which sits up on top of the mountain. There was a green light coming from the temple and in the stormy light, it looked very (again) eerie. We were very low over the town when all of a sudden, I felt the plane start to climb and bank sharply. After a few minutes, it became apparent that we weren’t on approach for landing anymore. Shortly after the cabin lights were turned on again, another sign that we weren’t going to be landing. At this point we hadn’t heard anything from the crew yet. Finally, they informed us that we were going to be re-routed to Vientiane instead because of the weather. It took about 40 minutes to get to Vientiane and we finally landed at about 9:40. We took off at about 7:30 for what was supposed to be a 50 minute flight. We were supposed to take off at 3:05. It was a long day. And it didn’t end there. We walked off the tarmac and entered immigration still unsure as to what was going to happen. We weren’t sure if we were going to be left to our own devices or if we were going to be flown to Luang Prabang or what. We all went through immigration and I got my Laos visa and stamp and then walked out into the baggage claim hoping to see my bags but saw only an empty room. There were no bags waiting or helpful airline personal. I walked out without my bag and through customs, which was empty. I found the Laos airlines office and they started to explain what was happening and told me to not worry about customs – it was taken care of. We were booked onto a flight for the next morning and then were bussed to a hotel where they put us up for the night. After the waiting and confusion earlier in the day, we were finally being taken care of. We checked in and I bought a few cans of Beer Lao, promptly consuming those and fell asleep. I wasn’t in Luang Prabang, but I was in Laos – finally.

Three down

2007-10-03T09:08:00.000+07:00

Morning,

And after a long last week, another semester has finally come to a close. I put the finishing touches on my grades this morning and sent them off and that officially means that my duties are completed and I'm not going to be held accountable for anything until October 24 when the second semester starts up. It's a wonderful feeling to have these next three weeks spread out ahead of me with absolutely no plans.

This semester was unique in several ways. As I've mentioned before, it was a repeat of what I did last year in the sense that I've taught it all before. I wasn't struggling with the material and organization like I did last year. This year, the challenges lay in honing my methods and trying to create a more efficient and effective way of teaching. I've also been able to develop the relationships with my students more and so that presented its own rewards and challenges and at the same time I had to develop new relationships with the incoming class. And on top of all of that, I had to play host for almost five months. It was a busy time. But it was a wonderful semester.

But the end of the semester, particularly the last few weeks of the semester, was particularly frustrating. Towards the end of the semester, I was getting the feeling that I was burned out. I was burned out on teaching. I was tired of doing the everyday chores and dealing with the everyday hassles of teaching. I was also burned out on traveling. I was tired of always being on the move and being hassled by people. I didn't want to travel, I simply wanted to be at home and be with my friends but everywhere I went, despite my considering it my home, I was perceived to be a visitor and was hassled. I can understand why. I'm white. I'm not from here. But after a year and a half, and the increased intensity of my travels over the past five months, I had gotten tired of it. It was a hard experience to get through. For the first time, I lost my patience and just wanted to wear a sign that said, "I know what I'm doing. I live here. Don't bother me." and be on my way. It made me long for the comforts of home and the relative simplicity of a day in the life. Those frustrations, which until then were tolerated, simply became too much. For a period of about two weeks, all of the little things which used to not bother me, suddenly were too much to handle. During many of the initial interactions I have with Thai, they often times attempt to speak English even through they don't really speak English at all. And in the process, they mumble this incoherent mess of words which I can't decipher. I usually follow that mess up with the simple statement that I do, in fact speak, Thai. We then have a conversation and sort out the necessary details and we go happily on our ways. Though sometimes, people refuse to speak to me in Thai. It happens more often that you would think. But recently I was at a local pub with some friends and we were wanting to order some beer and get come change for the pool table. We've been to this pub many times before and they know who we are and what we are doing there. We ordered some beer and asked for some change and nothing happened. The guy who took our order came back and we asked him about it, in Thai, mind you, and he simply stood there looking at us trying to figure out the English words. He attempted to explain in English and motion with his hands in an attempt to convey the point, which he couldn't. He simply refused to speak Thai. He had this deer in headlights look about him. I normally don't mind this and would attempt to encourage him in English, but for some reason it just rubbed me the wrong way that night. He would come and go several more times before he was able to communicate the problem (and in the end there wasn't a problem to begin with) and it took about 20 minutes for our beer and change to arrive. Generally, I brush that aside, have a laugh and go on with my life, but at that point in time I was longing for the simplicity of life back home and got frustrated. I found that for about two weeks, the little things finally got to me.

These lapses in patience have shown me that I've chosen wisely. I'm glad that I'm not on my way home right now, but I am glad that I have finally set a semi-solid date for my return home. Going back to the realization that this is my last semester, I'm now able to brush aside some of those lapses in patience and continue to enjoy this place and these people knowing that I will be home soon. It's got me in the unique of being able to really enjoy the present and look forward to the future simultaneously. And so those weeks were frustrating, but they helped me adjust and get my priorities back in line so that I can enjoy the next eight months.

In addition to having set a semi-solid date to head home, I've also bee exposed to home a lot this semester. Between my sisters visit, my families visit, an Joey's visit, I've had some connection to home in Thailand for most of the past five months. It's obvious to see why I've thought of home more often as of late.

Anyway, I guess that sums up the end of the semester. And now, on to the more exciting things!

It is semester break! I've now got three weeks ahead of me with nothing to do so, I do what everyone does and I leave the country! The plan, and it's a very rough plan is to go to Chiang Mai soon (as in a few hours) and spend a day there before catching a flight to Luang Prabang, Laos. From what I hear, Luang Prabang is a wonderful city, and is well known for their baguettes and Beer Lao so I reckon tomorrow nights dinner will be baguettes and Beer Lao. From there, I've no idea what I'll do or where I go. There are a few places I'd like to see in Laos and so I'll try to see them. I'd also like to stop at a few places in north eastern Thailand as well. So I think I'll be making a big loop and trying to hit all the highlights. I'll be sure to update the blog as I go along so stay tuned.

Take care,

Ryan

A Poltical Journey

2007-09-20T20:40:00.001+07:00

Waking up this morning one year ago, I got ready for school in the same fashion as the many days before. My routine was uninterrupted until I descended the stairs into the lobby of my apartment building and was met with the seemingly out of place question of why I was going to school. It was a school day and as I was a teacher, I thought the answer was obvious. In the few words of English that she knew (and refusing to attempt to explain herself in Thai), she attempted to convey to me the reasons why I didn’t have to go to school today. Out the jumbled mess of words which subsequently came from her mouth that I was able to understand, only a few words stood out. Piecing it together, I came up with the innocuous sentence of, “You don’t have to go to school today because all the banks and government offices are closed because of the government”. After deciphering that, I was left even more confused than I was only moments prior. Despite her insistence that I didn’t have school, I was unable to determine the reasons for this impromptu closure.

Trying to make sense of everything, I gave one of my fellow teachers a call. As the phone was ringing, I half expected him to laugh at me and my gullibility and could imagine him asking how I could possibly think that there would be a school holiday only days before the end of the term. Our conversation didn’t take that tone. It bore a strange resemblance to conversations from the movies and books and seemed out of place in my run of the mill life. In a surprised tone, he responded to my question of whether or not there was school with the ominous, ‘you haven’t heard yet….’ He followed on shortly with the point-blank statement that the previous night there had been a coup d'état. The army was now in control of the country and there were tanks and soldiers stationed in the streets throughout Bangkok. It was one of those moments of suspended reality. In the seconds after hearing this statement, I attempted to piece together all of what I was hearing. With countless thoughts spinning through my head, I tried to focus on keywords. Coup d'état, martial law, tanks in the streets, soldiers in control and military kept coming up. And those words didn’t fit with my own reality. My only understanding of a coup d'état came straight from my high school history textbook and more often than not the descriptions that accompanied these fleeting mentions usually consisted of an subtle mention of the coup itself and instead were dominated by the atrocities committed by the new military government. That, of course, didn’t leave a very nice feeling in my stomach.

So, school was canceled and I found myself with the whole day ahead of me. However, the first order of business was to get a hold of as much information as I could about the coup in order to quell my own concerns as well as the inevitable concerns of my friends and family back home. The irony of the situation was that my family had actually found out about the coup before I had. The coup had begun the evening before, long after I had gone to bed, and even if I had been awake, information wasn’t widely available (much less information in English). And so it was breaking news in America while I was sound asleep. It soon became obvious that the coup was peaceful. The coup had been completed with no violence. As people woke up and found a new military government in control, they, surprisingly, began venturing out onto the streets of Bangkok, not to protest, but to hand out flowers and food to the soldiers stationed throughout the city. For most, this was a surprising, yet not completely unexpected turn of events. It wasn’t the first time the government had been toppled by a coup d'état. It was, in fact, the 19th coup d'état since 1932, the most recent of which occurred 15 years ago. And so, while that nation waited to see what would become of this turn of events and, more importantly, the opinion of the King, I took advantage of the day off and headed up to the lakeside restaurant outside of town and had a relaxing lunch with a friend who happened to be in town. He also happened to have studied political science in Bangkok at one of the more politically active universities in the country (Thammasat University). Today marks the one year anniversary of the coup and that presents the ideal opportunity for me to try to bring you all up to speed as to the political developments of the past year.

The most important event as of late was the approval of the 2007 Constitution. The coup makers suspended the constitution that had been written and promulgated in 1997 and pledged to write a new constitution which incorporated many of the important parts of the so-called ‘People’s Constitution’ while at the same time addressing many of the structural deficiencies which enabled the former prime minister Thaksin to strengthen the power of the executive branch and use it to his personal advantage. The process was a lengthy one. There were many contentious issues and many protests were staged. The most impressive of which was a protest staged by a group of monks who marched on Bangkok on top of elephants with statues of the Buddha demanding that Buddhism be enshrined as the national religion. The most widely debated issues included the issue of religion, human rights, the method of selecting the Prime Minister, parliamentary representation, the format for the Senate and the election of senators, and amnesty for the coup makers. The constitution drafting committee, whose selection and purpose was also widely contested, deliberated for months on end and finally, in July, was able to release a finalized version of the proposed constitution. Shortly after its completion, a copy was mailed to every household in the county, including my own, for the people to read over before the national referendum scheduled for August 19. August 19 was a Sunday and the government declared August 20, the following Monday, a holiday so that people could travel back to the provinces that they were registered in to vote. The days leading up to the election were somewhat tense as most people were still undecided as to what direction the country was going to take. Throughout the previous months, rumors of coups and counter-coups were flying and the impending election did nothing but increase the number of rumors. When the day came to vote, the day passed as peacefully as the coup and in the end the constitution was accepted by 57.8% of the people. The passage of the constitution has paved the way for elections, which are now scheduled for December 23. This will mark the final transition from a military government back to a democratically elected government and for most people that moment can’t come soon enough. It is my belief that most of the ‘yes’ vote for the constitution came from people who simply wanted nothing more than to see a return to democracy or the removal of the military government from power. In theory, the approval of the constitution and the elections will accomplish just that, although, there are people who will disagree with that statement.

The announcement of elections has begun an almost frantic rearrangement of political parties and politicians. Everybody and their uncle seem to be jockeying for a position of power and are trying to ensure the greatest chance for success. There are alliances being formed and political parties are defining their positions but one of the most disheartening aspects of the whole process is that is appears to simply be a recycling of the ‘old horses’ of Thai politics. There are few new contenders for these positions of power and it seems that every political party, new and old, has recently elected a former prime minister or governor as party leader. Should that party take a majority of seats, that person is the most likely candidate for prime minister. Even the general who staged the coup, who subsequently pledged to stay out of politics, appears to in the races. While he formally denies that he has any plans after he retires at the end of September, he has yet to promise that he will not run for office.

The impending general election and political party activity has dominated most of the headline news recently, but just prior to the referendum many of the claims of corruption against the former prime minister had finally been processed and accepted by the courts. Several months ago, the courts asked the former Prime Minister Thaksin to appear before the court and defend himself. After submitting that request several times, they issued a warrant for his arrest. Thaksin, who was in New York at the time of the coup, has spent most of the past year in London. He refuses to return to Thailand to argue the charges until he believes he will receive a fair trial and only after power has been restored to the people. While in England, he did what everyone does while in exile and bought himself a premier league football team. This not only assured himself a place in the media in Thailand given Thailand’s love of premier league football, but it also makes him a more difficult person to extradite. Since his arrest warrant was issued (and a second one has subsequently been issued for a different case), Thailand has begun the arduous process of extraditing him. Thailand and England do have an extradition treaty but they first prove that the laws broken are laws in both countries and, more importantly, that the charges are not politically motivated. There are steps being taken to being many of the charges of corruption to trial, but it is a lengthy and time-consuming process.

Of the reasons stated in the so-called “White Paper’ released by the coup makers after the coup, Thaksin’s mismanagement of the restive south was one of the prominent justification for the seizure of power. The interim government has taken significant steps forward in acknowledging that there were mistakes made and have attempted to reach out to the different communities in the southern part of Thailand. There have been significant attempts to repair the political and social relationships with the government of Malaysia and progress has been made. However, the violence continues to escalate and there seems to be no end in sight. It appears as though this is a problem that a simple change in government cannot solve.

One year after the coup, I believe most people will still agree that the verdict is still out. The interim government has made several significant blunders and the validity of the new constitution and the impending elections is questioned, and rightfully so. Only time will tell if the actions of the past year will result in positive change or if Thailand will fall back into the cycle of coup, constitution, violence, elections and hope only to be subjected to yet another coup. It is hard to imagine breaking the cycle when Thailand has had nineteen coup d'états and eighteen constitutions and, more importantly, when there are no new politicians on the horizon bringing change and new ideas. In the end, Thailand is in the same position as many nations. Despite wanting change, the method of achieving any change is so deeply engrained in the tradition and culture of politics that most have given up hope of obtaining it. Those who are in the position to change the system –those who are in the position of power - after having fought so hard (and spent so much money) to obtain that position seek only to preserve the status quo. Maybe Machiavelli was right when he said those who we wish to have in a position of power, have no desire for that power. Positions of power are inherently occupied by those who seek only to perpetuate their own power and position.

Changing Landscapes

2007-08-28T21:36:00.000+07:00

About a month ago, a significant change occurred. Within a few weeks the entire landscape had been altered. The views from the roadside changed from those of fields overrun with weeds to fields with neatly planted rows of rice as far as the eye could see. These changes came in several stages and will continue to evolve over the next few months. These changes, which are an annual event, are an essential part of not only the Thai landscape, but also the Thai culture.

The rainy season brings with it the yearly influx of water. In a country were rice is a staple crop and a significant source of income for nearly 60% of the population, these monsoon rains are essential. Most of Thailand’s rice is grown in rice paddies. Rice can be grown on dry land, but most rice is cultivated in paddies. However, by taking advantage of rice's ability to tolerate high levels of water, it is more commonly grown in paddies which helps with weed control and increases productivity.

One of the first things that I noticed when I arrived in Thailand for the first time almost two year ago, were the rice paddies. When most people think of Asia, one of the first things to come to mind is rice. Rice, like 7/11, is ubiquitous in Thailand. However, when my family arrived in June and throughout their stay, while rice was a significant part of their diet, it wasn’t a part of the landscape. My family arrived towards the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet season. The monsoons hadn’t arrived yet and my family was rewarded with very mild weather - we only had rain for a few days they were here and it wasn’t particularly intense rain either. Well, that all changed a few weeks after they left and soon the fields had become inundated with water. That wasn’t solely a natural change as it was also aided by the opening of different canals, sluice gates and different irrigation systems utilized in order to prepare the soil for planting. That change was almost imperceptible. Had I not been living along several rice paddies, I might not have noticed the change. I did, however, begin to notice patches of green sprouting up in different places. These patches of green, located in the newly flooded fields, were what would become the seemingly endless expanse of rice. Rice is a tricky and labor-intensive crop to grow. Unlike some crops, it isn’t just sown straight into the ground. Rice is actually planted in two stages. The first stage occurs in these little patches of green. Here the farmers sow the rice seed. It is scattered about and grows up randomly with the different plants growing very close together. After the rice has germinated and reached a certain height, it is pulled from this small field and moved and spread out amongst many fields across a large area. However, before that occurs they must plow the fields. Traditionally this was done with water buffalo and plow but most of the water buffalo have been replaced with the ‘iron buffalo’ or the tractor. The fields, after having been left fallow since the harvest (which occurred in roughly November or December), have become fields of weeds and grass. During the dry season, these fields become havens for cattle and it's impossible to not spot a herd of cattle somewhere in the distance grazing on top of what once was a flooded rice paddy. The plowing happens in two stages. First, the grasses and soil is turned over and the soil is shaped into neat rows by the plow. After leaving the field for a few days, it is plowed again this time using a flat plow which serves to level out the field in preparation for planting. Flowing that second and final planting, the rice shoots are transferred from the nursery into the fields. This is all done by hand and over the course of several days working in groups of a dozen or more, they slowly fill the fields making sure that the rice is arranged in nice neat rows. What follows is a long period of waiting and tending the fields as the rice matures. Once the rice is ready for harvest, which happens in about November or December, these groups will again descend into the fields and harvest the rice, again mostly by hand. I'll maybe add more about the harvest come December (and add some pictures as the rice around my house is harvested) but until then I'll bring this post to an end.

I just thought that it would be interesting to write about these changes and record for posterities sake what I'd seen happening in the fields around my house and around town as well as what I'd learned over the past few years.

Here are a few photos of the fields behind my house.

The rice season begins with the plowing of the fields. The grass that had been growing there for the past few month is turned over and flooded.
This picture shows a little of every stage of the planting process. The central plot has yet to be plowed, except around the edges. They will start along the edge of the paddy and work their way into the center turning over that thick mess of grass. The plot in the back right has already been plowed. The back central plot which is the darkest green spot in the picture is where the rice seeds are sown and grown before they are transplanted. Finally, the plot in the back left has been recently planted.

After the fields have been plowed, the rice is planted. The seeds are sown in a more protected field and then transplanted by hand into the newly plowed fields.

In a matter of weeks, the fields overgrown with grass take on a new appearance. The neat rows of newly planted rice stretch on as far as the eye can see interrupted only by the edges of the rice paddies.
This last picture shows the whole process.

Until next time,

Ryan

Hong Kong Part III

2007-08-09T09:31:00.000+07:00

I've come to realize that I'm in the middle of telling several different stories. I haven't quite yet finished the recounting of my time in Hong Kong nor have I finished sharing my family's visit. I've also realized that I have left you hanging and haven't finished Taryn's visit and our time together before the family arrived or (and I let out a sigh) the conclusion of Peter's trip. I'm going to try to take care of one of those sagas this morning.

I last left off at the end of my second day in Hong Kong. The following morning was D-Day for Taryn. She was subjected to three exams each lasting two hours throughout the day. What that meant was that I had the whole day to explore by myself. My first night in Hong Kong we rode the bus to the top of Victoria Peak and were rewarded with some incredible views of the city at night. I wanted to catch the same views but during the day. I also wanted some exercise. I took off at about 7:30 am and began the trek uphill. I mentioned earlier that for a large city, Hong Kong has a surprising amount of forested areas. Victoria's Peak is one of those places. Only a few minutes out, I entered into a very thick forest and began to wind my way up the hill. This was no little hill and it was pretty much uphill for a good 45 minutes. But I was rewarded with some incredible views of the city, Kowloon and the harbor. The next step was to take the old tram back down the hill. While some may be scratching there heads and wondering why I didn't take the tram up and walk down, there is a simple explanation. I started out about halfway up the hill. Taryn's room is located in the mid-levels and so in order to get to the tram I would have had to go downhill. Plus the tram was a good 45 minute walk (or more) from Taryn's room. Not to mention the second item on my list was the Bank of China building which just happened to be at the base of the tram. Being a bank, it wasn't open at 7:30 am. So there was logic. Plus, I also wanted the satisfaction of knowing that I had climbed the tallest mountain in Hong Kong. Anyway, I soon found myself climbing again however this time it was in an elevator inside the Bank of China building. If you can picture the Hong Kong skyline (I mean, who can't?), you might make out a very cool looking building with neat angles and roof lines which look like the tops of the towers were sliced off leaving a slope. Well, that's the Bank of China building and I really like it. So I decided that I wanted to go up to the viewing platform on the 43 floor. After accomplishing that, I headed towards Kowloon. Hong Kong SAR is made up of several different areas mainly Hong Kong island (and a good number of other islands), Kowloon (the land just across the river/straight between Hong Kong island and mainland China) and the New Territories (which are simply an extension of Kowloon into mainland China). So I crossed the body of water (I've yet to determine exactly what that body of water is called...straight, river, harbor, stream...I've no clue) and ended up in Kowloon. After gazing back at the immense city rising up out of the water at the foot of Victoria Peak, I headed towards the the History Museum to brush up on my Hong Kong history. I'll spare you most of the details, but Hong Kong has a very interesting history. A point of note though is that only recently (on July 1 actually), Hong Kong celebrated its 10th anniversary as a part of China. There was a huge celebration and my family actually was in Hong Kong and was able to witness it. If you have any questions, please direct them towards them as I'm clueless. Aside from my current state of mind, the museum was interesting and enjoyable. Plus it was air conditioned. I then spent the next few hours wandering in different areas of Kowloon and eventually made it into the New Territories. Historically, the British claim to mainland China ended with Kowloon and the boundary was rather artificially drawn up. A ruler was simply place on a map and a line was drawn. The boundary is meaningless today, but where the old boundary lay now lies Boundary Road (I wonder who thought of that?). A few markets and temples later, I was ready to head home and meet Taryn. Her exams were about the wrap up and it was soon going to be time to hit the town and celebrate. I returned and soon after that so did Taryn and in her brain dead stupor (6 hours of law exams in 10 hours...who can blame her?) was able to recommend a place for dinner and off we went, accompanied by several of her friends of course. That was shortly followed by drinks and more lively conversation at a classy pub. Now, this was an evening that I enjoyed. It was absolutely wonderful to get back into the world of academia. Here I was in the company of a handful of bright and interesting individuals who have spent time doing a variety of things (including study law in Hong Kong). It was a reminder of what I enjoyed so much about my stint at university and whetted my appetite for my eventual return to campus. Our discussion were lively and the consumption of alcohol made us all funnier and the inclusion of a Connect 4 game fulfilled all of the criteria needed for a memorable evening. And that was my last night in Hong Kong.

Seeking to put an end to this of the adventure, I'll quickly add the highlights of the following morning and my eventual return to Thailand. We awoke early the next morning despite our late evening in order to get Taryn packed and moved out and talk to the parents. We hit the streets and tried to take in the last few sites of Hong Kong. We were unsuccessful with the exception of the Noon Gun. I honestly can't tell you much about the gun other than it's fired everyday at noon. There's some reason for it, but I was too sleepy and hot to retain any information whatsoever so we returned to the comforts of a coffee shop shortly after noon and there we remained until I needed to head out to catch my flight. A few hours later, I was back in Thailand and on my way back to Lampang. 9 hours later I was home. My weekend trip to an international destination was complete and so is another blog entry.

Until next time, fair reader.

Ryan

More family fun in the streets of Bangkok

2007-08-06T19:41:00.000+07:00

And I'm back! The adventures that my family and I had have gone untold for too long and I'm sitting down tonight with the intention of sharing a few more of them. I don't know how far I'll get. I get the feeling that it'll be a long process documenting their trip.

We woke up on our first day in Bangkok fairly early despite not falling asleep until roughly 4 am. I was awake sitting in in bed and I heard a faint knocking at the door and opened it to find my mom standing out in the hallway in her pajamas. We roused the rest of the troops and headed out for breakfast. Our breakfast that morning began one of my dads favorite meals - chicken-on-a-stick (and fruit). Outside the hotel, there were several vendors selling different things and we decided to have some grilled chicken, various assorted fruits and sticky rice. Awhile later, making our way to the river taxi, we headed off towards Taryn's office. Taryn, the lucky girl that she is, had to work that day and was at the office already. We went up into her office, met some of her co-workers and then went to lunch near her office. Taryn went back to work and we did what all families would do if they could - we got a massage while we waited for her to finish! I introduced my family to the wonders of the cheap Thai massage. A little shopping and walking and it was back to the hotel for a dip in pool, dinner and then we hit the sack. We all were pretty exhausted (setting a trend fr the days to follow) and slept well that night. The next few days were spent in Bangkok exploring and getting to know the city. I found out quickly that I had to change my tried and true method of exploring a city as my family (my father in particular) weren't diggn' it. What I'll do is simply wander around a city until I've seen everything that I've come to see or run out of time. I'll look at a map every now and then but for the most part I'll simply wander. We started out that way. I led the way and we were off. Our objective that morning was the Queen Sirkit Snake Farm. Located near (maybe even within) Chulalongkorn University, this is a research institute dedicated to snakes and, in particular, developing antivenoms for snake-bite victims. We walked there (it looked closer on the map) and got lost (because a road was missing) and were all hot and tired by the time we got there (but, as I like to point out, we were on time and did, in fact, get there). They have a daily snake show at 11:00 followed by a 'milking' of the snake. The snake show was interesting. They had a good variety of snakes and the presenter had a very good personality. The milking of the snake is an important step in making the antivenoms. They'll essentially force the snake to release its venom (hence 'milking') and bottle it. The antivenom is created by injecting a small amount of the collected venom into an animal such as a horse, sheep, goat etc. The animal will then have an immune response to the venom and will begin to produce antibodies which can be collected and stored to use in case of snakebites. After we got there we continued our adventure towards the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American who served in Thailand during WWII and eventually settled down in Bangkok after the war. He is said to have created the Thai silk industry, which was steadily declining when he set up shop, and opened Thai silk up to the world and received a tremendous response. He established several factories in Bangkok and was on his way to the top. He designed a house (he was educated as an architect) which was modeled on several different styles of Thai architecture and had it built in Bangkok. During a trip to Malaysia, he disappeared and was never heard from again. Jim Thompson Silk is still some of the best silk in Thailand (and was used for most of the clothing in The King and I) and his house is now a museum. The house is located in the heart of Bangkok and so is very convenient. I've wanted to go for ages now and hadn't yet gone and so when my family expressed interest I jumped on it. I've been meaning to go for so long (and with several different people) that I actually bought several postcards and sent them to the people I had previously discussed visiting the house with declaring that I had finally gone. We then had lunch at a little street-side restaurant and climbed on board the BTS (the elevated light rail system in BKK) and headed to the weekend market. The heat and the large numbers of people made this a rather low point for the day and we quickly turned around and headed back for the cool and inviting environment around the pool. A lazy evening and dinner found us ready to call it a night.

I haven't yet really talked about our meals. I have to say that the meals that I shared with my family while they were here, despite their being fairly mundane events, were some of my favorite moments. I've always enjoy meals with my family and they've been a large part of our time together (we actually eat three of them a day!). Growing up, we always had Sunday dinner together. I remember one Sunday when Taryn and I were enjoying the freedom of her newly acquired drivers license and came home late (missing dinner of course) to a very angry family (mother and father in particular). They usually prove to be very entertaining and stimulating. Our conversations are vast and varied and there is usually at least one joke about how old Dad is (while he may be getting old, joke about his age never seem to). Right before I left, we took a trip to Hawaii and the same can be said for that experience as well. The most vivid memories that I have from the trip are mostly connected to different meals that we shared. So while I may gloss over the meals, they were a significant and meaningful part of their trip.

And that's enough for tonight (or at least for now). Maybe I'll sign back on and knock another day off the list...who knows. Anything can happen. And pigs fly too.

RM

If only we were smarter...

2007-07-30T17:55:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-29T16:32:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-26T08:11:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-13T16:06:00.000+07:00

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)

2007-07-08T08:55:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-07T20:02:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-05T22:45:00.000+07:00

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

2007-07-03T21:25:00.000+07:00

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!

2007-07-02T19:30:00.000+07:00

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.

No Bananas in Monkey Town!

2007-06-11T16:19:00.000+07:00

Many would say that this is a strange title for this post - I would offer little argument except that I was present throughout this weekend away with my sister and after such an experience, this title seems to fit. I feel I should provide a bit of a back story in order to provide sufficient context.

This weekend was my birthday weekend. I thank all of you who sent me birthday emails, SMS messages, messages in general or phone calls. One's birthday is a wonderful day to be reminded of all of the people around the world who you call friends and to be reminded that all around the world one has friends who care enough to send a message. My birthday conveniently fell on a Saturday and so I had the weekend free to celebrate. This birthday was unique for several reasons not to mention it being my first birthday outside of the country. It was also the first time that I was in school for my birthday. My birthday has always fallen during the summer. In school growing up and in university, my birthday always fell outside of the regular school terms. Last year, my birthday came the day before graduation and while some may argue that I was still in school, I would disagree. This year however, I was in school. I was in class on Friday and I was in class on Monday. I wasn't a student, and some may argue that this is an important detail, I however don't like to pick nits.

For my birthday, I wanted to do two different things - have a great meal of real lasagna and red wine and travel with my sister to some place we hadn't been before. Given that I'm 9 hours by bus from my sister and the nearest decent Italian restaurant, this proved to be a bit difficult, but wasn't an insurmountable task. I ended up flying from Lampang to Bangkok on the small little plane that departs from our small little airport twice daily and arrived in Bangkok about an hour later. Lampang's airport is a one room airport with one small runway and services about 60 people a day. It's in the middle of town and about 10 minutes from every part of town. Flying into Bangkok, I landed at the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport in BKK. While I have been here before, flying straight from Lampang provided an interesting contrast. In Bangkok, I taxied for about 15 minutes as compared to the 30-40 second taxi in Lampang. There are many other contrasts and comparisons but they all fall along the traditional modern vs. rural city juxtaposition. I made my way into the city which proved to be arduous as it was Friday and there was traffic. I finally reached Taryn's apartment and we headed out. The one thing that kept me going was this intense desire to eat lasagna. We did finally get to a great little Italian restaurant and I had my lasagna. It was positively wonderful. The house wine was a Cabernet and tasted just fine (it didn't hurt that it's been a while since I've had any wine).

The next morning, my actual birthday, I woke up to several text messages from friends (one actually called at midnight and woke me up to say Happy Birthday - it was a bit annoying at the time, but the thought and gesture is appreciated) and headed out. Taryn and I were off to the train station to catch the train to Lopburi. After fulfilling my desire for Italian food, we set off in search of a town neither of us had visited. Lopburi fit the bill. Lopburi is well known for two things - being a former stronghold of the Khmer empire and a powerful city during the Ayudhaya period and their monkeys. There is a troop of monkeys that essentially live in the city. There presence is tolerated by the community and even encouraged. They came to inhabit an old temple in town after their native habitat was over-run by the expanding city. With no place to relocate them to, they were simply left to inhabit this temple. It's now developed into a tourist attraction of sorts - there is even a festival in February where the town puts together a celebration/feast for the monkeys and every one gorges themselves (monkeys included). We took the train and arrived in the early afternoon and headed off to eat lunch after finding a place to stay. We then headed out to find the monkeys and check out the ruins. We came across the monkeys and found exactly what we had expected - monkeys inhabiting an old temple. We walked in and the person at the entrance handed us a bamboo stick. I assumed that it was in case the monkeys tried to attack you, but in reality it was a toy that the monkeys really enjoyed playing with. They would climb up on the stick and you would spin it around. There was quite a bit of commotion when one started to play - all the others wanted to join in. We spent the day walking around and then headed to dinner at a little place called the White House and no, we didn't eat at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We then started out in search of a birthday cake. Now, Thailand isn't known for their baked goods and while you can find some good cake in BKK, it's hard to find it elsewhere. Instead of suffering through bad cake, I went Thai-style. By Thai-style, I don't mean what Thai's will eat for their birthday (they'll suffer through bad cake), but what I would considered to be the equivalent of a cake/dessert that is delicious which is found in Thailand. There is this dessert called roti which is a thin pancake or crepe like thing which sometime has bananas, egg, chocolate, fruit or other assorted things inside with sweetened condensed milk and sugar on top all fried together. My favorite is filled with bananas. We found a roadside stall which sold roti but alas there were no bananas. This led to the interesting observation that in Lopburi, a town well known for their monkey population, there were no bananas (hence the post title). We had a bit of a laugh and then ordered a plain roti, bought some candles and ice cream and proceeded to have my birthday cake. I took some pictures and I even took a video which is hilarious (and I'll try to post them today or tomorrow) for you all to see. It was wonderful. The next day we finished up sightseeing and then I headed back up to Lampang and Taryn headed back down to BKK and that was the end of my birthday extravaganza.

Bye!

RM

Interesting Fact

2007-06-08T08:25:00.000+07:00

There has been a lot of interesting political activity in Thailand recently and I'm not about to summarize it all (I'll attempt to do that at a later point), however, I have come across an interesting fact.

Interesting Fact: King Bhumibol (the current King of Thailand) has seen 24 prime ministers, 18 coups and 17 constitutions during his 61-year reign.

That puts a lot of the recent political activity into perspective. There has been so much fuss and debate and protesting over the current draft of the new constitution, the new prime minister and the coup that I can't imagine having been around for more than one or two of these political re-shuffles. But it has been interesting.

The lady selling fruit said what!?!

2007-05-29T11:59:00.000+07:00

This is a simple post but it follows a theme that has endured throughout my time in Thailand. There have been numerous incidents over the past year where I have either overheard or simply been told something that people think I can't understand. It is normally something that they would not have said if they knew that I understood. There are too many instances to recount many of which are very humorous. The most recent occurred as I was driving home from teaching an extra class the other day. I stopped at the fruit stand along the road and bought some lynchees from the lady there and I was paid her and was getting on the motorcycle to continue on my way she made a comment about how hairy my legs were. I looked back at her and smiled. I don't think she knew that I understood what she said and I drove off. Many times, that how it goes and they're none the wiser. But on occasion I like to let them know I did understand what they said with some subtle comment or indication that I speak Thai. It's quite fun. But I'm sure it's been done to us as well. We (meaning people I speak English with) sometimes speak like we think nobody understands us. I guess it's a universal thing.

RM

Embarrassment

2007-05-25T08:38:00.000+07:00

I went to class with my fly down today. I didn't realize it until about halfway through class after it seemed like the entire class couldn't stop talking in hushed whispers and laughing. That's the thing of note to write home about today.

Fruit

2007-05-24T20:59:00.013+07:00

One of the reasons I love Thailand is for the fruit. There is an abundant supply of fruit throughout the year and in such a tremendous variety. From mangos and rambutans to lynchees and pomelos and other fruits whose English name I don't know, I'm constantly able to eat delicious and fresh fruit. It's wonderful. As most Thai's do, I have developed that habit of eating some fruits after my evening meal. After you finish the meal and most of the plates have been cleared away, out comes the fruit. It's usually the fruit that's in season at the moment, but that can be nearly anything. This evening I partook in a few lynchees after dinner and was just about in fruit heaven. Lynchees are a wonderfully tasty and juicy fruit and I can't seem to get enough of them. They are just coming into season and are already climbing the chart on Ryan's Favorite Fruit List. For those who are interested, at the top of the chart is the mangosteen followed by the banana and the pineapple which are threatened by the new contender, the lynchee. The salaa (that's the Thai name...I don't know the English name) is also up there. Go FRUIT!

Speaking of fruit, when Taryn, my sister, was in Lampang this weekend I gave her a fruit tour and showed her all the different fruits in the fruit market and told her how to eat them. It was great fun and we bought a lot of fruit which is always a good thing. Even now, after almost 16 months in Thailand, there are still fruits which appear seemingly out of nowhere which I am then obliged to find out about and taste. We encountered several at the market the other day.

ผมรักผสไม้ (pom rak pom-la-maai) or I love fruit.

RM

Another small world revelation

2007-05-21T20:40:00.000+07:00

I have to go through this process of getting a criminal background check. The Thai government recently changed the standards and requirements for foreign teachers after the whole ordeal with John Mark Carr went down. So I made a call to my friendly neighborhood US Embassy and inquired about the process. It's simple enough - a few fingerprints here, a few forms there and the obligatory processing fee and it's taken care of. I was chatting with the guy who answered the phone at the Embassy and told him that I need a background check because I was a teacher and one thing led to another and it was soon revealed that he is from Lampang and a graduate of none other than Bunyawat Witthayalai School. It was neat.

RM

Earthquake Part II

2007-05-18T20:38:00.000+07:00

As the impacts of the earthquake are felt, the world media actually picked up on the earthquake. It turns out that vibrations were felt as far away as Bangkok and Vietnam and some buildings in Chiang Rai (a city in northern Thailand) were damaged. I've come across two articles which talk about the earthquake if you're at all interested. The first one is from the Bangkok Post and the second is from the BBC. Click on this link to go to the Bangkok Post article and this link to go to the BBC article.

Take care.

RM

Earthquake!

2007-05-17T17:06:00.000+07:00

So I felt my first earthquake yesterday. I was sitting in the office working and all of a sudden we felt the building shaking slightly. During the earthquake, P' Aoy (the office assistant) and I looked at each other to confirm that it wasn't just us who felt the vibration. Soon after, a bunch of students came down and were asking about it since they felt the earthquake too. We got online to the USGS site and were able to find the epicenter. It turns out that the quake was centered around a point in northern Laos, north of Thailand and south of China. I figure that the epicenter was roughly 300 km from Lampang. Within an hour, the USGS website had information about the quake and said that the quake had a magnitude of 6.3. While looking, I came across some neat graphics that they have created and thought that I would show them as well. I'll think I actually use these graphics this year when I teach plate tectonics again in the winter. But here is some more of the information that I found.

Here is a map of where the quake was. If you see the dark green area towards the bottom of the map, look halfway between the top of that area and Chiang Mai and that's about where I am.This next map shows the vibrations from the quake. You can see the where the epicenter is and the vibrations radiate out from there. Lampang is marked on this map and you can see that it shows light vibrations in and around Lampang. This last map I found to be really interesting. It shows the fault lines in the area as well as the location and magnitude of all of the earthquakes in the past 10 years. Very interesting.

And that's that. I've now experienced an earthquake and have learned a bit more about what the USGS does.

One very interesting last tidbit before I go - all of this information was recorded and complied by U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center World Data Center for Seismology located in none other than Denver, Colorado, USA. Yet another example of just how small the world can be. Pretty darn spiffy if you ask me.

Peace,

RM

(all images were taken from the USGS website http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007ckan.php#maps).

My Sister!

2007-05-16T09:49:00.000+07:00

My sister has arrived! I finally met her at the airport in Bangkok at about 2 am after she had been traveling for about 26 hours and after I had been traveling for about 12. It was a wonderful reunion. It's been about 11 months since I've seen her. As I mentioned before, she has an internship/job in Bangkok for 6 weeks and so I made my way to Bangkok to spend a few days with her before she started working and before I started back up at school (which, by the way, started today...more on that to come). I made it to the airport at about midnight and so I had about two hours to kill in this beautiful new airport of ours. The time passed by without much of note happening save the constant barrage of people asking if I need a taxi. Taryn arrived and we found the driver that the law firm had sent to pick her up (yup she had a driver with a sign standing in front of the gate...you know you're a lawyer when...). We made it to her apartment by about 3am and proceeded with a little unpacking, gift exchanging and catching up before we succumbed to our bodies desires to sleep and fell asleep at about 4 am only to wake up 2 1/2 hours later to get Taryn to work on time. Taryn, the darling sister that she is, brought me several little gifts from the US. My first gift was the taste sensation of the south (or something like that...she said it much more elegantly) in the form of pecan pie. It was fantastic and a wonderful surprise. That was followed by my camera. Now this wasn't a surprise as I had picked this out and had racked my brain several weeks prior trying to figure out which one to get. My current camera was on its last leg. After surviving and performing superbly during all of my trips abroad (yes, this camera and my passport are the only things that have been with me to every country I've visited), my camera had reached the end of the road and was starting to succumb to the constant beating that it's taken the past few years. Granted, I took care of it as I traveled, but there is only so much you can do when you're out on these adventures. But despite all those adverse conditions, it's performed wonderfully. So, with that in mind and my desire to move from the realm of point-and-shoot into more advanced photography (and more zoom), I'm the proud new owner of a FujiFilm FinePix S6000FD digital camera. I should also note that it's a birthday/Christmas present from my parents and sisters and for that I'm very grateful. Needless to say, my few days with Taryn are well documented as I had a fun new toy to play with. Taryn had to be at work the next morning at 9 am. I couldn't believe that they were making her come and predicted that they would send her home as soon as she arrived (I wasn't wrong). We met up with another intern, Carlos, and had breakfast. Now, this provided me a wonderful opportunity to embarrass myself. One wouldn't think that breakfast would provide such an opportunity, but it did. I had it all planned out. I knew exactly what Taryn and I were going to eat for her first breakfast in Thailand. We were going to eat one of my favorite meals, khao man gai (rice with chicken topped with a pepper and ginger sauce). It was going to be perfect. We were walking to find a restaurant and Taryn asked what was in it and I told her rice and chicken. She then reminded me that she was a vegetarian. I looked at her all cockeyed and suddenly realized that I had completely forgotten that she was a vegetarian. My brilliant plan came suddenly tumbling down all around me. I tried to save face and make up some silly excuse but to no avail. All she could do was shake her head at me with that, "you silly boy" look on her face. We found something else to eat that morning. Our next stop was the law firm where she'll be working and made a few rounds to meet the folks she needed to meet and then as predicted they sent her home. We went home and promptly fell asleep, Taryn in the bed and me, in heaven, on the couch. Couches are a rarity in Thailand and a soft couch is even rarer (they are usually made of wood) and Taryn's apartment was equipped with a brilliant one. It was simply brilliant. We stayed in those positions for the better portion of the morning and early afternoon and after the daily mid-day rain shower we headed out to do a little shopping. Nothing more to write home about there. That evening saw us trekking across town with the inspired goal of catching a glimpse of the King as he left the Royal Ploughing Ceremony. There was no actually sighting, but we did see his car and the long procession preceding and following his car. Dinner and a trip back to the apartment rounded off the rest of the evening before we called it a night. Tonight, I was also the lucky recipient of a collection of short stories and mysteries from the Outer Banks of North Carolina (a childhood vacation destination) and the first season of the TV show Scrubs and two chocolate chip cookies! Bed. Taryn had to go into work so I went with her to the office before coming back to the apartment for more quality time with the couch. I was lucky and found the Royal Ploughing Ceremony on television and watched that (more to come about this later). After it was over, I promptly fell asleep and didn't leave until long after the mid-day rain shower (PS we are in the transition period between the hot season and the rainy season. An umbrella has now become a permanent addition to my daily attire). I tried to get into the National Science Museum but was unable to because it was a holiday so I spent my time taking random pictures all across the city. You've gotta love new toys. Taryn came back and we headed to dinner at the night bazaar. Dinner and more gifts - tonight I received a box of heaven aka Nerds candy and a Duke t-shirt - then bed. The next morning, Taryn headed off to Phuket with the law firm for a weekend away and I spent more time with the couch and my camera gallivanting around the city taking pictures. I met up with a bunch of friends from Bangkok that evening and started out at the night bazaar in the beer garden drinking a wonderful beer over dinner and ended at a little club nearby. That was the second night in several nights that I was up until 4am. Then it was the long bus ride back home and that rounded out my weekend in the Big Mango. Taryn is planning on coming up to Lampang for the weekend and so we'll have a wonderful time in Lampang. I'll be able to show off my town, my house and my cooking skills (not to mention my motorcycle skills) and be a tourist in my own town which will be a wonderful change of pace. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Over and out,

RM

A Happy Birthday note and something to ponder...

2007-05-05T13:09:00.000+07:00

Today is a day of celebration. Today my sister, Sara, turns 19 (Sara, if you happen to take a break from your busy college schedule and read this, happy birthday). Today is also Cinco de Mayo so those of you who can drink a margarita, please do in celebration of that holiday. And finally, today is Coronation Day in Thailand. The current king, HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, had his coronation ceremony on this day in 1950. In celebration and recognition of this event, there is a ceremony of sorts in Bangkok.

Now on to that little thing I wanted to ponder. I've come across a little fact of sorts that I find very interesting and have wanted to share with the world for some time now, but haven't. It is now that time. If you are a member of my family, you know that April 6, May 5 and June 9 are all special days. April 6 is my older sister’s birthday. May 5 is my younger sister’s birthday (see above if you didn't catch that earlier). ;-) And June 9 is my birthday. It just so happens that every one of these days is also a national holiday in Thailand and I find that fascinating.

April 6 is Chakri Memorial Day and commemorates King Rama I, the founder of the Chakri dynasty. Different dynasties have ruled Thailand and the current dynasty (the one that HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej is a part of) is known as the Chakri dynasty. The Chakri dynasty has ruled Thailand since the founding of the Ratthanakosin era in 1782 after King Taksin (the only King to rule during the preceding dynasty of Thonburi) was declared insane. Now, they celebrate this dynasty and their achievements on April 6, which also happens to be my older sister’s birthday. May 5, as I explained earlier, is Coronation Day and is also my younger sister’s birthday. Finally, June 9. June 9 was the day that HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej ascended the throne in 1946. This past year, as he celebrated his 60th anniversary on the throne as the longest reigning monarch in the world, the entire country celebrated this anniversary during the days leading up to and following June 9 the day of his ascension to the thrown. June 9 is also my birthday.

I've come to realize this after spending time here and celebrating these holidays right along side everyone else, but I couldn't help but notice that those important dates were very connected to important dates for my family. I'm not going to read into that at all, but I do find it fascinating.

And with that, I'll call it a day. But before I go I just wanted to say that my older sister is going to be here in four days! She has an internship/job with a law firm in Bangkok for 6 weeks and will be arriving on Tuesday! It's been just under a year since I've seen her and I can't wait! And despite how excited I am about all the little things that she's bringing for me (Nerds candy, a new camera etc.), I'm publicly declaring that I'm more excited to see her than recieve all these little gifts.

Later folks.

Ry

A very historic town and two tremendous towers

2007-05-04T10:18:00.000+07:00

Morning.

I realized the other day that I had yet to write about the last few days in Malaysia before heading home and decided to finish that entry and wrap up my trip so here it goes.

I last left you as I was leaving Borneo and heading back to peninsular Malaysia. The plan was the stay in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for a few days with a day or two day trip down to Melaka for a visit before heading on home. I arrived in KL in the morning and began the arduous process of getting into the city. The airport is about 75 km outside the downtown area but there are lots of forms of transportation and so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I arrived and was welcomed by swarms of people who had come to see the Malaysia Grand Prix. The place was packed. I arrived on the first day of the Grand Prix and sure enough accommodations were booked all across the city. I was tired from climbing a mountain and traveling and after a few unsuccessful attempts to find a place to stay I left. I was near the bus station and the stress of the city was getting to me and so I just left. It was good I was near the bus station and it was good I had a destination - the quiet port city of Melaka. I arrived in the afternoon to the setting sun and quickly found a place to stay. The downtown area is full of incredible buildings built during either the Dutch, British or Portuguese periods and had that "colonial" feel to them. They were all painted red and the colors were really brought out by the setting sun. The weather was cool - it briefly rained cooling the city down and freshening everything up perfectly. I wandered around for a while just simply soaking up the atmosphere which Melaka had plenty of. the next morning I hit the historic sites. Melaka was the center of the world for a while as the point of contact between the East and the West. Much like Singapore, Melaka was a place where the monsoons met and so it was used as a place to exchange goods and wait for the monsoons to change enabling the different parties to return home. It has a long and fascinating history starting with its establishment as a city by an Indonesian prince and the ensuing colonization by the Dutch, the British and the Portuguese and then independence. There were old remnants of Dutch forts, British administration buildings and churches which had all been restored and turned into museums and they all provided a good overview of the history of the area. But after several museums, I was ready for something else and went to China Town. I was staying in China Town and so I took the opportunity to explore the city. One theme of the trip has been the presence of Little India's and China Town's in every city I go. The Chinese immigrants that have come to SE Asia (specifically Peninsular Malaysia) over the past centuries have developed a new culture and have called themselves Straights Chinese (for the Straight of Melaka) or Baba or Nonya cultures. After getting my fill of China Town, I headed off for dinner and then a trip to the mall before heading off to bed. The next morning I went to the sights that I wasn't able to get to yesterday and then headed out to the bus station ready to take on KL.

I got to KL and quickly found a place - the race was over and the fans had left. At this point, I was ready for the big city and soaked it up. The hustle and bustle that had only a few days ago rubbed me the wrong way was now exciting and new and I was glad to be back in this environment (at least for a few days). I decided to just start walking and see where I ended up and actually created quite the perfect afternoon. I passed by one of the most beautiful mosques - not as elegant as the mosques in Brunei, but it was nestled in a grove of palm trees along a river and was very beautiful. I passed by the National History Museum and of course stopped in to catch up on my history and then walked out only to find an incredible view of the Petronas Towers. These towers, the international landmark for KL, dominate the skyline. I saw them as the bus came into the city - it's impossible to miss them. Despite their dominance, I find myself searching for them trying to catch a glimpse of them whenever I can. And they do reveal themselves at different points as the skyline gives way. I never got tired of looking at them. As I was starring at the skyline a man approached me and wanted to take a picture of me with him and his two sons. So we stood there and his wife took the picture. He had come to KL on vacation. He was from Sabah (the state that I had just come from in Borneo) and was excited to see a foreigner. We talked for a bit and then they moved on. I was soon approached by another man who was undoubtedly watching this other man get his picture taken with me and worked up the courage to come over and talk to me. It turns out that this man (we were eventually joined by his friends) were from Burma. They are working in KL for 5 years. Their government allows them the chance to work abroad for 5 years and then they must come back. One of the men in the group was heading back the following day and so they were out to celebrate and see the city for one last time and they thought a picture with an American would be just wonderful. I obliged them and chatted for a bit about Burma and their histories and was fascinated. Burma is so close and I have been on the border of Thailand and Burma several times and am resisting the urge to go. I'm torn as to whether or not to go. But this conversation was wonderful. We parted ways and I wandered until I found a good place to eat and then hit the night market in China Town near my hotel. It was a bustling market and didn't have much charm to it at all. It was dirty and people were pushy - it's a far cry from some of the markets I've been to and had gotten used to. I left quickly. My hotel was just off the market and my window actually looked down on it. It was noisy for most of the night, but I got a good picture of the market from above. The next morning I got up and it was Monday. Monday's for most people in Malaysia are holidays and many mosques and things are closed (including the Petronas Towers). So I walked. There was a park and some interesting points of interest outside the city a bit and so I made my way there just enjoying being in the city outside of the downtown area. I loved my little walk in the part and ended up at the National Museum. I went in hoping for a reprieve from the heat, but the air con wasn't up to standard and neither was the museum and I soon found myself walking again. I needed another escape from the heat and so Internet cafe it was and one of the blog entries that you've probably not yet read was written then. As I write this I realize that my evenings have become very uninteresting. I've been getting up so early to avoid the heat that by the time the evening rolls around after a day of walking, I'm beat and end up getting dinner and then calling it a night. So, I'll skip that uninteresting part of the day and move on to the next morning. I guess this entry isn't very interesting either as I'm not really in the mood to write and it lacks any sort of pizazz.

The next morning was an exciting morning. It was the day of my visit to the Petronas Towers. I got up early and went to the towers to stand in line to get a ticket and ended up getting one of the first tickets. I hung out in the little informative display in the lobby waiting until my assigned time. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I had a revelation about the towers that made me feel real stupid. I've known the towers were the Petronas Towers forever. I've also know that there is a gas station in Thailand named Petronas. I've also seen that same company in many different places in Malaysia. But it wasn't until I arrived in KL that I put 2 and 2 together and realized that the towers were built and owned by Petronas, the Malaysian National Oil Company. It all made sense now. In my tour of the towers, I found out that the three floors on either side of the Sky Bridge (the bridge connecting the two towers) are home to the Oil and Gas Lounge. The tour was really neat and it was cool to be in the towers as they are such iconic symbols of Malaysia. As I walked out of the towers, I looked skyward and started snapping the obligatory photos of the towers and as I was taking those few photos I saw a familiar face. We recognized each other at about the same time - it was the Thai couple that I had met in Brunei about a week earlier! We had managed to cross paths again. It was very bizarre. But we said hello and chatted for a bit before parting ways again. We also realized that we were on the same flight from KL to Chiang Mai and would be traveling together as we made our way home. The towers rise up from a rather large structure (which doesn't look very large situated below the towers, but actually is) which contains a huge mall. Inside the mall, in addition to shops and restaurants and such, there were two galleries sponsored by Petronas. There was the Art Gallery (which they sponsored and provide free entry) and the Science Center (a hands-on, thrilling, science center for kids...this was not free). I wandered through the Art Gallery and saw a wonderful photo exhibit and a really neat statue collection. 2007 marked the 50th year of independence for Malaysia and so they are celebrating the achievement and so the display was a collection of photos from the past 50 years showing different moments in Malaysia's past. It was a very neat stroll through time. The sculptures were made by a Japanese engineer turned artist and consisted of pieces of metal arranged in ways so that their movements were in part controlled by motors and magnets and in part by kinetic and potential energy. Their movements were controlled chaos. They never quite did the same thing twice but they always operated within a defined boundary. They were stunning. I hit the mall and got nice and chilled before venturing out into the heat and finished my tour of the city. At this point, I was tired of walking. But I couldn't bring myself to go back to the hotel since I wanted to get some pictures of the Petronas Towers at night so I dragged myself back to the mall and went to a movie. I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Malaysia under the Petronas Towers. I would have liked to have seen Entrapment, but that would have been too complicated. I had dinner and I had killed most of the afternoon and the sun began to set and I got my pictures. I headed home, packed, slept and was off the next morning bound for home.

And that concludes my summer travels (at least my excursions out of Thailand). I'll be sure to add to the blog in the next few days and complete my attempt at updating things.

Until then,

Ryan

One rainy day

2007-05-03T20:07:00.000+07:00

The weather is changing. For the second day in as many weeks I've found myself waking to the sound of rain falling on my tin roof and the grey skis of a stormy day. Last time this happened, I had nothing planned and spent a wonderful rainy day engrossed in my current book, several movies and my lunch and dinner preparations. Today, however, proved to be a different story. There were two private classes to teach and several errands to run and I roused myself out of bed at 7 am and headed for the shower. My dreary mood was replaced when I walked out the door and was hit the smell of rain and the newly wetted rice fields, the sounds of the insects and frogs, and the mountains shrouded in clouds and mists off in the distance. My dreaded ride to work became a pleasant ride through the rice fields soaking up the crisp and fresh air that the rain brought with it. Teaching wasn't as relaxing but it was enjoyable. I met several students on campus I hadn't seen in a while as well as several teachers and the reunions were wonderful. It put me in the mood to go back to school. The afternoon ushered in more rain and it waited until I was on my home to start and so I took refuge in a local coffee house. I had put my book in my bag as I walked out the door and soon enough found myself curled up on a couch drinking a caramel coffee and reading my book while the rain fell outside. Not a bad unplanned afternoon activity. The rains subsided and I headed home to grab the necessary materials for my next class and off I went. Ajaan Ryan's class for this rainy Thursday afternoon was a lesson on directions. What better way to teach that than with paper airplanes and make-believe trains. With my three 5-year-old students, I taught them "right", "left", "top", "bottom" and of course "fold" and "un-fold" and we proceeded to make paper airplanes. We then walked to the end of the classroom and proceeded to learn "throw", "straight", "near" and "far". This lesson involved lots of coming and going as they threw their airplanes across the room following my commands but it was also full of smiles and laughs as their planes did unexpected things. The rains came again shortly after I had arrived home and I heated up the remains of my culinary creation from yesterday (an eggplant parmesan casserole of sorts expect with parmesan and it wasn't really a casserole since I don't have an oven) and now that's brought you up to speed.

For those who are interested, the book I curled up with was Kerouac's On the Road. I've been captivated by Kerouac and haven't put the book down for more than several hours since I started reading. Kerouac's always been an iconic figure of the "beat" generation (I don't know exactly what that means) and a popular author of friends of mine, yet I hadn't picked up a copy of any of his books until the other day. On the Road has been intriguing and has stirred up my desires to hit the road and proceed with unabated enthusiasm and without a care in the world and simply go. His visit to Denver was a surprise but their adventures there and his descriptions of my hometown were appreciated. They gave me a nice warm and fuzzy feeling and made me long for the streets of LoDo.

Cheers.

RM

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

2007-04-19T13:15:00.000+07:00

Hey folks!

As promised, here are the pictures from my trip. I divided them up into country groups and so they aren't exactly sequential (I was in Malaysia then went to Brunei and the went back into Malaysia) but that's okay.

Here are the pictures from Singapore.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Here are the pictures from Malaysia.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

And here are the pictures from Brunei.

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

I hope you enjoy the pictures and the last blog entry for Malaysia should be up sometime soon!

Have a wonderful day!

Ryan

An all-American dinner

2007-04-18T19:23:00.000+07:00

Hi!

I've added two new addition to my house in the past few days. I am now the proud new owner of a blender and a grill. I have thoroughly enjoyed buying blended drinks from the market and have also taken advantage of the abundant supply of fresh fruits and eat fruit after nearly every meal. I also have an ready supply of ice too, but that's less important. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and am now able to blend my own fruit smoothies from the comfort of my own home. In the past few days I've made at least eight smoothies from pineapples, bananas, mangoes and oranges (and several from a combination of those fruits). I've also realized that I can buy ice cream, milk and chocolate sauce and given that I'm the owner of a blender I can make milk shakes!

The grill was more of a spur of the moment buy induced by my desire to have a bake potato. Ovens are hard to come by and I thought a grill might work. As soon as the idea popped into my head, my mind went crazy and all of these other culinary ideas emerged and soon I found myself needing a grill. So today, on my way home from school, I bought one and some charcoal. I was going to grill tonight. The menu was this: a grilled honey pork chop, roasted potatoes and corn-on-the-cob. It was fantastic. The whole process was wonderful. I got the coals going right about the time the sun started to set and so as I was cooking the sun was setting. The weather was perfect and the birds were chirping and the smells were wonderful. It was so perfect and felt so American (and I was proud of myself) that I took pictures. It took about an hour to cook everything and then I enjoyed the fruits of my labor and it was incredible. It never felt more like summer and this will happen again in the near future. Oh and I was drinking a banana smoothie while I was grilling. :-D

Later!

RM

P.S. I then had a milk shake for dessert.

Very secure security

2007-04-16T16:49:00.000+07:00

This post is follows a somewhat different thread than most. I've recently found that my secure online accounts (i.e. online banking, credit cards online etc.) are so secure that I can't even access them. I don't know if others are experiencing this, but I've found that most of this institutions are adding an additional feature to their security - a password and user name is no longer enough. You must now answer a security question that is randomly selected. Now, besides the added inconvenience of having to go through this additional step (which isn't that inconvenient), I've encountered another problem - I can't remember my answers. I've now been locked out of my checking account online access twice and my credit card account once because I can't remember the exact answer that I gave when I originally answered the questions. I find myself asking if the answer to the question about my first car was simply the make (Impreza) or if I included Subaru too. I just find myself at a loss coming up with those answers. Some are easier than others. It's these tricky ones that I get hung up on and then have to go through the whole ordeal of calling the company and proving that I'm who I say I am and then they open the account. I hope they don't keep track of how many times you're unable to access your account because I have a feeling it's going to happen again. I guess that's the beauty of living in an electronic age.

Until next time,

RM

I'm home

2007-04-13T20:28:00.000+07:00

Morning.

I'm home. I've returned from my trips around SE Asia and and now back sitting in the comfort of my own home. There are still a few stories to share from the last few days of the trip and of course there are pictures to post, but that'll come in the next few days. For now, I'm off celebrating the Thai New Year and will report back on that sometime soon.

RM

The Sun. The Moon. The Mountain

2007-04-10T11:39:00.000+07:00

As I sat down to write today I thought it interesting that I ended my story of climbing a cliff with a cliffhanger. I hope you all found that as funny as I did.

After reaching the lodge we literally didn't move further than 5 m the rest of the night (that is until we went to sleep). We had a wonderful table right next to the buffet dinner. Yeah, they had a buffet dinner which was incredible. It was expensive and the food wasn't that tasty, but after hiking all day it sure hit the spot. Perspective - this buffet cost 33 ringgit while a normal meal costs in the vicinity of 5-6 ringgit. However, all of the food that I've been eating in the price range of 5-6 ringgit wasn't hauled up a mountain on the backs of porters and then cooked in a kitchen that was brought up that same mountain in pieces on the backs of porters in a building that was built from material hauled up the mountain on the backs of porters and helicopters. I didn't mind the little surcharge as I had just climbed that mountain with a small 1 kg pack and wouldn't like to do it again much less with a 20 kg pack strapped to my back. Our conversations and dinner carried us through the afternoon late into the evening or at least that's how it felt. By about 6:30 we were dead tired and struggling to stay awake but forced our prideful selves to stay awake until at least 7:00. We did and then crashed. The morning came quickly enough sure enough a 7:00 bedtime doesn't seem so early when you're awake at 2:00 am. It had been rainy and quite dreary in the evening and there were rumors of rain in the morning so the first thing I did as I popped out of bed was stick my head out the window and check for stars. I was greeted with the most brilliant sky I could have imagined and having prepared myself for the worst, I was overjoyed by this sight. Putting on all the clothes I had (and that wasn't much), I headed to the dinning hall for a quick bit to eat before venturing out into the 5 degree Celsius weather. It was cold and crisp, but the moon was full and the stars were shinning. I couldn't have asked for more. We set out and initially had donned our headlamps but as soon as we came out of the trees they were quickly stored away and we walked along the granite face of this towering mountain by the light of the moon. It was truly an incredible sight. The moon was bright enough that it lit up the clouds and the mountain peaks making for a breathtaking view. And know I know why they tell you to give yourself plenty of time to make the hike in the morning - it's not because it's dark or that you might be tired or that there is rough terrain, but that you will spend more time taking in the vistas than actually climbing. The landscape could vaguely be described as a moonscape with us literally walking across a granite slab. They same that this is a mountain where trekkers are able to feel like mountaineers and I agree with that statement (just wait until you see the pictures and you'll agree as well). We timed our ascent perfectly and right as the first rays of light appeared on the horizon we were on the summit. It was frigid. The temperature had dropped several degrees and there were the ever-present winds which reduced the temperature further but we had only one things on our mind - the rising sun. The sun cast its rays across the summit illuminating the paths we had just walked across and slowly the landscape changed. Crossing this barren landscape in the dark reduces your overall picture of the place to rough outlines - shapes in the distance. The suns light cast a new perspective and the clouds ceased to glow in the moonlight and began to pick up the pick and orange hues of the rising sun which shot out across the horizon. The sun rise had occupied so much of my attention that I neglected to turn around. A need to change my position to a more comfortable one saw me swing my head around away from the sun only to be greeted with yet another incredible sight - the setting of the moon. And there I stoop, 4095 m above sea level with the rising sun over my left shoulder and the moon setting over my right shoulder. I hardly knew where to point my camera. There are few words which can express this event and the sights that I saw without evening beginning to mention the personal satisfaction one felt after conquering this beast of a mountain. It was truly a unique moment. I sat there savoring the moment for as long as I could before beginning my decent. The sun had fully risen into the sky and it's ever-changing position continued to illuminate different parts of the mountain revealing more and more of the mountains secrets which it had concealed in the moonlight. Even though I was retracing my steps back down the mountain, each step was a new one and each sight one which until that moment my eyes hadn't set sight upon.

The descent took no time at all and before I knew it we were back at the lodge. We ate some more breakfast and took a rest before heading out to conquer the final leg of this mountain. We headed off and re-traced out steps down the mountain. Any one who has done any hiking will agree that the ascent is more challenging mentally, but the descent is much tougher on your body. Until I started down that mountain I was fresh as a daisy but once I reached the bottom I was dead tired. We reached the headquarters and headed straight for the restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful lunch and then climbed aboard a bus and headed back into town. I should add that the last kilometer or so I walked with several young girls from the UK, Simon (also from the UK) and Cori and Matt and we talked about candy for a good 30 minutes or so recalling out favorite childhood candies and comparing which ones were available in the US and/or the UK.

I reached KK and hobbled into the guest house and checked in and ran into Greg and Marilyn. We had know that our paths would cross again in KK and it was good to see them again. The four of us (Greg, Marilyn, Simon and I) had dinner and then Simon and I crashed. The next morning I was out the door early in the morning to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur and that's the subject of the next entry.

RM

Land above the clouds

2007-04-09T14:49:00.000+07:00

I promised that I would write again soon and I have fulfilled that promise - however, the hot weather and the promise of an air-conditioned internet cafe was more of a motivating factor than any other.

My trip up to the top of SE Asia should first be recounted in short simple sentences (as I feel that adds to the significance of this event). I climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the tallest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea making it the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia. It stands at m 4,095 m ( or 13,435 ft). In 24 hours I hiked 18 km with an elevation gain of just over 2000 m (and elevation loss of 2000 m on the way back down). I feel that suffices.

My journey began in the morning as I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. I left my larger pack at the guest house and without it weighing me down I bounded across town. I reached the bus stop and boarded a bus grabbing a window seat and settled in for the 2 hour trip up into the mountains. I feel it's appropriate to mention that at this point my altitude is roughly 0 m above sea level. Of we go and the first part of the journey passes without anything of interest. I'm drifting in and out of sleep when I open my eyes and catch a glimpse of something which appears out of the ordinary. I sit up and peer out the window for a better look and as we come around another corner this huge mass rises up in front of me apparently out of nowhere. I follow this mass skyward and see it disappear into the clouds. I continue to arch my head backwards and shortly I see this massive object reappear above the clouds. Finally, I saw the top. I was a bit conscious of my lack of exercise the past several month and while I didn't doubt that I would make it to the top, I wondered in what state I would be in when I did. This image of a mountain piercing the clouds did nothing to boost my confidence. We stopped at a small little rest area complete with food stalls and a view of the mountain where I purchased my lunch and took in this impressive giant. Arriving at the national park headquarters at the foot of the mountain, I jumped out and began jumping through hoops. There was a substantial list of things that one must do before climbing the mountain: purchase a entrance ticket to the national park, make a reservation for lodging on the mountain, pay for insurance, pay for a climbing permit, find a guide etc. All in all, it took about 30 minutes and 232 ringgit to jump correctly through all the hoops. I had found my guide (and two other people with which to share him) and we were off. My group consisted of myself, Victor (the guide), Kim (a girl from S. Korea) and Simon (a guy from London). I had my guide, my insurance papers and my bag of M&M's so I was set and we headed off. The national park headquarters is at about 2000 m above sea level and so it was 95% uphill. I had a spring in my step (and surprisingly that lasted until the last 2 km) and bounded up the trail and before I knew it we were halfway to the lodge. The atmosphere on the trail had to add to my enthusiasm as there was the overwhelming sense of camaraderie. People going up would encourage those they met and people on their way down would provide bits of encouragement and insight into the climb as well as relate how beautiful the sunrise on the summit was. Hiking filled the day and what a wonderful day it was. As we climbed up into the mountains and gained elevation, the vegetation changed and it got significantly cooler. I had anticipated a very sweaty climb and had bought several kg of water and was pleasantly surprised to find that while I worked hard climbing, it was cool enough to keep my body temperature at the perfect level (i.e. no sweat). Along the way we even saw the famous pitcher plant (think a flower shaped like a pitcher which catches bugs and insects in that pitcher) and as we climbed high enough we mingled with the clouds and were refreshed by their cooling mist. Climbing on we reached 3600 m and the lodges. I stumbled into the lodge at about 3:30 and checked in. As I was on my way to the room I spotted some familiar faces. I had run into these Americans from Alaska when I was in Brunei. We had traveled out to this mosque separately and where stuck out there waiting for a bus. We ended up getting a ride back to the city from a nice man passing by and went out separate ways. But our paths crossed again at 3,600 m up in the mountains of Malaysia. Matt and Cori where there names and once Simon arrive the four of us along with a scattering of other folks spent the afternoon and evening shooting the breeze in this lodge which was very reminiscent of a ski lodge.

I'd love to continue, but I've hit my hour mark and feel I should leave. It's also much cooler outside now and the streets of Chinatown are beckoning. I feel bad leaving you in the middle of the story especially with so much more to tell, but that's what I'm going to do.

Until next time,

Ryan

A short note...

2007-04-08T14:36:00.000+07:00

It's finally coming to an end. My month of traveling is almost over. I've reached my final destination (Kuala Lumpur) and am here for a few days before heading back to Chiang Mai and eventually Lampang. I could tell you that the time has passed by quickly but that would be an understatement. I could tell you that I've learned a lot but that would be presuming too much (one can only hope I've gained small nuggets of wisdom on this trip). Anyway, the trip is not over yet and there are still many stories to recount and many more to be had. That being said, I don't at the moment feel up to the task of recounting my expedition up Mount Kinabalu and my recent trip to Melaka. I've successfully passed an hour here in the Internet cafe out of the oppressive heat of the city and am ready to venture back out and explore the wonders of Kuala Lumpur. I'm sure I'll find myself in here tomorrow during the heat of the day and will begin to recount those adventures then.

Until then I hope you have a Happy Easter Sunday as it is Easter Sunday here. I had forgotten about that until someone mentioned it not too long ago.

On a similar note, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my sisters. Kali turned 17 on March 27 (I called her and tried to talk to her but she wouldn't answer her phone...but I did send a card) and Taryn turned 23 (oh my!) on April 6 (yesterday). I tried to call Taryn too, but couldn't find a pay phone compatible with my calling card. And I'm realizing that the details surrounding my calling my sisters is of little interest to anyone (including them) and will again wish them a Happy Birthday and move on.

Bye.

Ryan

Alcohol and chocolate

2007-04-07T13:58:00.000+07:00

Hi!

I last left off on my last day in Brunei. I awoke that morning and savoring the last few precious moments in the Sheraton, I ended up leaving the hotel late and got to the bus station a half hour late. But I had all day to travel and nothing was lost. I got to where I had to go without any trouble (partly thanks to a friendly man from Brunei I met the other day) and while waiting for the bus met Mah. Mah is from Malaysia and had come to Brunei on holiday for a few days. He is originally from penisular Malaysia but is currently living in Kota Kinabalu. And so, seeing as that was where I was headed, we spent the day traveling together. He is a dentist specializing in oral surgery and is working off his required three years of government service. In exchange for a degree, he gave them three years - not a bad deal. But they can place him wherever they like, hence he is far from home in Borneo. We got on the bus and headed to the ferry. The trip was divided into three parts - bus to ferry, ferry to Labuan, ferry to Kota Kinabalu (from now on referred to as KK). Labuan is the connecting point for this journey and is a part of Malaysia so I went through immigration in Brunei and again in Labuan. Labuan, being an island and a semi-autonomous region, is a duty-free haven. Alcohol and chocolate are sold at very cheap prices and as a result many people flock here to purchase them and there are stores selling only alcohol and chocolate on every corner. Labuan is also a historic city of sorts as this is where the Japanese mounted their invasion of North Borneo during WWII and where the Allied forces began their campaign to liberate Borneo. Mah and I headed to a WWII memorial and graveyard on the island and spent a bit of time there. I've written about the war on several occasions and have spent hours reading about the events and stories from that time period. It's very interesting to be in these places - places which have such significance yet are seemingly unmentioned in American classrooms and seem so far from reality. But there is something very real in walking through a graveyard passing by the graves of Australians and Britons, many of whom were my age or younger. It was also interesting to speak with Mah about WWII and his impression of thees events in Malaysia and throughout the world. He said the Japanese invaded Borneo because of its vast oil reserves which were necessary to sustain a larger invasion of the Pacific.

Coincidentally enough, Mah had a friend working in a government clinic across from the hospital. He had mentioned that he had a friend on the island (one of the advantages of being placed by the government at different clinics throughout the country - you have friends throughout the country) and was surprised to see that the cemetery was across from the clinic. We met his friend and got a tour of the clinic and then had lunch together. Mah's friend gave us a ride into town where he bought a few bottles of whiskey and I some chocolate. I was tempted to buy some wine, but given that I was on my way to climb a mountain I thought it better to go with chocolate. Plus, I'd been resisting the urge to by M&M's for a while since they were so expensive but here they price was reasonable so I indulged. We boarded the ferry and 3 hours later I was in KK.

Mah gave me a lift to the hostel and we made plans for dinner the following day and then I was on my own to explore yet another new city. I checked in and hit the streets running. I ran across some kids hanging out on the boardwalk along the harbor and after returning their shouts of hello struck up a conversation and ended up spending about a hour just hanging out on the boardwalk with them. They would try to show off in which ever way they could. Some would showcase their dance moves while others their diving skills (several of them were swimming in the harbor and were jumping off the boardwalk) and others would continuously speak to me in English. It was a blast. Before I knew it the sun had set and I was starving and they had to run home so we parted ways and I had dinner on the boardwalk at a little cafe. Night market walking and an ice-blended fruit juice finished out my night and I was off to bed.

The next day came and went without too much to write about. I spent the morning at the museums in town and the afternoon at an orangutan sanctuary outside of town. I could write about the orangutans but I've lost my motivation and there isn't much to tell. As Borneo is developed the orangutans are displaced and many young orangutans find themselves without parents or lost and are rescued and brought here before be transferred to the larger sanctuary on the other side of the island.

I did have dinner with Mah and he drove me around town showing me all the sights. As we were driving I saw a sign for the Observatory Tower and thought that would be neat. We went and the "tower" turned out to be a patch of dirt alongside the road where you could park your car and have a view of the city. And that's it. I'm sure more interesting and exciting things happened, but at the moment they are eluding me and for that I apologize.

RM

A Birthday Celebration like no other

2007-04-03T18:09:00.000+07:00

Evening.

I'm behind. It's very simple. I am about 3 days behind in writing about my trip and while I wished to be on top of things I'm actually quite surprised that I'm as caught up as I am.

On the morning of March 31, I woke up and jumped out of bed and headed to what can only be called a stadium (it resembled a stadium in several respects but in others was quite different). As I arrived thousands of others were poring into the stadium to celebrate the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. This was a treat. I didn't realize that this was going to happen until I arrived in Brunei and to be in a predominantly Muslim country for this celebration was just a wonderful coincidence. I arrived and found the most colorful gathering of people I've ever seen. The stadium was mostly full of men and boys - there were few women to be seen and I don't know where they went and why they were not there. The men were dressed in their more traditional dress with long flowing clothes of various colors with a sash tied around their waist. Only pictures can do it justice as I'm not a master of description so again you'll have to wait for those. The Sultan of Brunei was present as were many members of the government and royal family and they led them in several religious chats and rituals and then the Sultan led the group in a 4 km long walk around the city. While the ceremony was occurring there were large breaks and there were many people milling around and it proved to be an excellent time to meet people. I met an older gentleman and we chatted about the holiday, it's meaning, what was happening and other assorted things. I then ran into a group of kids and had a blast with them. We just chatted and talked about soccer, sports, school, life and just laughed. This group had to run and get ready for the parade, but they opened the flood gates and I was then bombarded by group after group of kids wanting to chat and take their picture with me. This lasted until we heard a tremendous explosion - it was the cannons being fired. We stopped horsing around and went to watch the cannons being fired. Pretty neat. Then the march got into high gear and I peeled off and headed back towards the hotel to catch it as it passed. There isn't much to describe except that it was just a massive wave of people matching along the road. I then headed into the hotel to beat the heat and emerged later in the day to go to a shopping mall outside of town. Now, this is an interesting transition. Prior to living in Thailand, I would have avoided malls while traveling for the simple reason that malls and malls and don't tend to fall into the category of new and exciting cultural adventures. And while they aren't new and exciting cultural adventures, they do provide insight into the culture. My time in Thailand and my going into malls has allowed me to begin to create an understanding of this relationship and so I'm trying to extended that in Brunei and Malaysia. Plus it's the only place where you can walk around in air-con. I bought some DVD's which will be a treat to watch when I get home (The Pursuit of Happyness, Click and Happy Feet). I then wandered over to the second famous mosque in town (again, I stopped at the mall because it was near the mosque and gave me something to do during the heat of the day). Getting to the mosque proved a bit tricky as it involved crossing many lanes of traffic during rush hour with no pedestrian crossings, but again, my time in Thailand has prepared me for such a task. The mosque was beautiful - very different from the other one (much larger and more ornate, but less visually stunning). Getting back into the city I grabbed dinner and called it a night - but not before I took a dip in the pool.

The next day I headed into the jungle. Well, not really, but that's what I like to tell people. Brunei is steps above other SE Asia countries in preserving their forests and one of their states, Temburong, is considered by many people to be wholly covered by jungle. While that's not true, it's not too far from the truth. The best way to get there is by boat (which adds to it's appeal and remoteness) which winds through mangrove forests. The ride was the highlight of the day. There is a national park in Temburong that attracts many tourists, but it involves several methods of transportation and is quite expensive. So I headed to a park just outside of town and went for a hike and came to a lookout where one could see off in the distance a tiny peak standing above the rest - that small, tiny, insignificant mountain is the 4,100 m peak that I'm climbing tomorrow. It doesn't seem that small any more. I made my way back into town and while I was buying my ticket I met a man. We met and spoke English. We chatted and found out about each other and once he found out that I was living in Thailand he started to speak in Thai. So for the next hour or so we spoke in Thai. Now, this man isn't Thai. He is Malay who grew up in west Malaysia and has since learned to speak Malay, English, Chinese and Thai (and he speaks all fluently). We just chatted about lots of different things switching between English and Thai. We got back to the town and he offered me a ride back into town and I accepted. He found out that I was going to Malaysia the next day and insisted on stopping at the bus station and finding out everything I needed to know about catching the bus to the ferry and so we did that and he dropped me off. He was a very nice and very impressive guy and I'm glad I met him. I hit the hotel and then the Royal Regalia Museum which needs no explanation and that was my night. I packed and watched a movie and hit the sack.

And that wrapped up my time in Brunei. It was a good stay - not what I expected but it was good. The vacation part of this trip dominated my time there but since I was staying in the Sheraton I felt that was okay. It's been interesting balancing traveling and being on vacation as they sometime contradict each other, however, I feel like I'm done a decent job. I've got to catch you up on my journey to Malaysia and my day today, but I'm running out of time. As I alluded, I'm climbing a mountain tomorrow (Mount Kinabalu - the highest peak in SE Asia) which should take two days and should be a blast. I'll report in when I get back.

Later,

Ryan

7-11

2007-04-03T10:58:00.000+07:00

Okay, I know that I've been in Thailand too long when I find myself longing for a 7-11. In Thailand, they are everywhere - you can't go anywhere without finding a store located conveniently on every street corner. I go there to buy snacks, drinks, top up minutes for my phone and I go nearly everyday. Now, while I've been traveling there has been a severe lack of 7-11's and I find my convenient store needs going unmet and I have to search out places which sell drinks and the like. It's terribly discomforting (both that I have to look and that I'm missing 7-11). Any who, just had a minute and thought I'd share that.

I'm out to explore and should be on later to continue the stories from Brunei. Hope all is well.

RM

Oil, Surpised Thai's and Luxury

2007-04-02T19:03:00.000+07:00

Well hello again.

Greetings from Malaysia. I'm now back in Malaysia after a short stop in Brunei. My trip from Kota Bharu to Brunei was filled with the typical hurry up and wait pace. I got up in the morning and quickly went to the market to buy several things before going to the airport early to check in and wait. I boarded my flight (which was an hour late) and then hurried through the airport to catch my connecting flight to Brunei. I was presented with an expensive obstacle as my flight were in different terminals and the only (quick) way between them was a 50 ringit taxi ride (now 50 MYR is more than most hotels for the night). I raced between the terminals and to the check in counter only to wait for an hour as this flight was also delayed. I then flew to Brunei and got out of the terminal and raced to catch the last bus into town. They stop at 6 (my flight was supposed to land at 5:00 but didn't arrive until just before 6) and I just missed the last bus so I had to catch a taxi which was 25 Brunei dollars (again, more than a night in a hotel). But at long last I arrived at the Sheraton and was stress-free for the rest of my time in Brunei. It was a wonderful reprieve from the previous week and a half traveling and the confines of my house. It was carpeted and it wasn't until I step onto the carpet in my bare feet that I realized I missed carpet (my house is tile). The bed was imaaculate (I have a nice bed, but nothing like this and far above the flea-biten mattress I slept in the night before). There was a TV with HBO and the Discovery Channel. And the pies de resistance was the little love seat and chair. In Thailand, these are made of wood and it's darn near impossible to lay back and relax in one of these. It was hard to motivate myself to get out of the room (but of course I did venture out as there were many things to see). I did spend more time in that couch that I care to divulge. Simply wonderful. Again, I have to extend a big thanks to my parents for this wonderful treat.

I hit the town running the next morning and was off to the Brunei Museum to brush up on my knowledge of Brunei and Borneo. I didn't exactly get what I was looking for. The museum was fabulous - a worthwhile trip, but it didn't provide much context (or did it?). The museum has two galleries - an Islamic gallery and a Oil and Gas gallery. Now, looking back on it I realize that this is a wonderful synopsis of the county, albeit a narrow and simple view of the country, but an accurate one. The Islamic gallery was amazing. I was introduced to Islamic calligraphy in Singapore and was stunned by it's brilliance and beauty. The Q'uran was transformed into a work of art and each passage was written in a beautiful script and the pages were decorated with incredible drawings. It far surpasses any Chinese calligraphy I've seen and the Chinese are widely known for their calligraphy. The Oil and Gas gallery was much less stunning, but just as informative. It talks about the history of the oil and gas industry in Brunei and the methods of extracting oil as well as it's formation and location in the country.

I had taken a bus out to the museum and was waiting for the bus to pick my up and a car stopped and offered a ride. I was waiting along side the road with a couple and we got into the car. A few minutes later, the couple started to talk and I understood what they were saying (and it wasn't in English). They were from Thailand (Chiang Mai, actually) and were on vacation. I turned around and struck up a conversation and despite their quick reply to my initial question you could tell they were very surprised to hear Thai coming out of my mouth. We got out near the center of town and had lunch together at a little market and chatted for a while before parting ways. It was a simple and ordinary meeting and it just so happened that I spoke Thai and we had a wonderful conversation. It's hard to describe the sensations that I felt as I was having this conversation but the easiest way to describe it is one of disbelief - that I could be in a country that speaks mostly Malay (which I don't speak) and be able to hold a conversation with someone in a language other than English and the widely spoken language. I don't know. Maybe it's not that special - I have conversations like this all the time in Thailand, but there was just something different at that moment being in another country that made it all that much more special.

I spent the afternoon walking through the famous water villages. Brunei historically developed along the river in villages that were built above the river on stilts. Many people have moved inland, but there are still numerous villages and communities that exist wholly above the water - schools, mosques, homes, stores, fire stations etc.. I wandered through one on the boardwalk and it was very neat - a village above the river. It was wonderful to explore and I met several children who followed me through the village and led me to their school. The sun started to set and I made my way back into town to watch the sun set on the beautiful mosque in the city. It's golden domes reflected the sunlight and it was stunning. I don't think any of my pictures do it justice, but they at least convey in part the incredible scene (those will be posted as soon as I get home). The sun set and then I wandered around the mosque at night and took more pictures of it illuminated. Again, a very stunning sight. A stop at the night market for dinner and I headed home to my heavenly bed and HBO.

I fear that if I go on, I'll put too many of you too sleep. I guess in some respects I miss having a 30 minute limit - it made me much more concise. There is still more to write about - I had two more days in Brunei and more adventures and stories and then a wonderful day today, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Until then,

RM

At the sound of the buzzer and other stories

2007-03-30T15:14:00.000+07:00

Selamat petang

I'll begin my blog entry for today with one of my traditional greetings, albeit this time it's in Malay and not English. Selamat petang is the Malay translation of good afternoon, for those of you who didn't catch on ;-). However, that might seem a bit confusing since I'm no longer in Malaysia. I'm currently in Brunei, however, they still speak Malay here (as well as Chinese and English). I wanted to wrap up my time in Malaysia before moving onto Brunei.

I finished up my time on the beach and began the trip back to Kota Bharu for a day and night there before catching my flight to Borneo. The ride back was much more pleasant than the trip out and I was thankful for that (I was dreading the boat ride...really, I almost didn't get back on the boat). I got into Kota Bharu and hit the town running. I had a day to soak it all in and hit the museums first. I went to several and several turned out to be a bust. One (and only one) stood out and was very interesting. It was called the War Museum, however, it touched on much more than that. Kota Bharu was one of the main points of attack during the Japanese invasion and the start of WWII. At the same time that they bombed Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked Malaysia at Kota Bharu. This northern state has traded hands several times since then and I'm going to have to look into this regional history more closely later. Thailand was neutral during WWII and had allowed Japan to launch attacks from her territory and construct the Thai-Burma Railroad. In exchange for this, following the invasion of Malaysia, Thailand was given several of the northern states of Malaysia. They were returned following the Japanese surrender, however, it's a part of the history I'm unfamiliar with and is interesting in light of the current issues facing the south of Thailand. There is much more to tell there and there is much more still to learn, but I'll move onto the more exciting part of the day. I found my way into a market and was shopping around and was looking at the batik shirts. It's a traditional type of shirt and the batik is the way in which the designs are added to the shirt. It's a combination of dyes and waxes and such and to be honest I have only a patchy knowledge of the subject and will have to fill that in later as I wasn't given a real clear description. However, it's beautiful. I looked around and eventually bought one the following morning before leaving. At the market, I ran into Greg and Marilyn and we headed to the cultural center to watch the free (wonderful) shows. There were several different shows and the first one was a type of dancing/fighting. I'm at a loss to describe it (I took several videos and hopefully will be able to post them once I get home) but it's a combination of dancing, theatre and fighting all blended together and set to music. It's really neat to watch and every position (including the hand and finger position) is highly choreographed and full of meaning. The facial expressions and showmanship that the performers has was wonderful to watch and made it very entertaining. After this we moved to a different part of the center and were shown a traditional Malay game called striking tops. There were 5-6 people participating and they all had pieces of wood the size of a large bowl in the shape of a top (the kind you spin) with a piece of rope wrapped around it. One person would throw the top and get it spinning. In a wonderful display they would start these large tops spinning by throwing them. More impressively is that they had to get it to start spinning within a certain area no bigger than a welcome mat. After the top was spinning, another person would use his top to knock the other top. It seemed like there were several objectives. First, you wanted to hit the spinning top and knock it away and second (and the most prestigious result) is to knock the other persons top away and start your top spinning on the welcome mat at the same time! We saw this happen only once, but it was impressive. Next we saw them play a traditional instrument, the coconut husk drum which made an impressive sound but doesn't give much to write about. Lastly, we played featherball. For those of you who know takgraw, it's similar to that. For those of you who don't what they do is they take a piece of leather and make a springy base. To that they attach a handful of feathers. Then they take this contraption and play hacky sack with it and kick it around a circle. All parts of your body are game except you hands. Again, very similar to takgraw. I partook in a little game and then headed off to dinner.

Now this is the story that I've been waiting to tell. Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country. As such, most people are supposed to pray 5 times per day. Helping to enforce this and prevent distractions, the government (or someone) closes the evening market from 7:00 - 7:45 every day so that the people working in the market can go pray. Greg, Marilyn and I went over to the market at about 7:40 and were greeted with an empty market. However, there was one man with a megaphone sitting in the center of the market and several others milling around the edges. We decided to wander around the market and just try to get the lay of the land and the man with the megaphone sprang into action and prevented us from even entering the market! We were told to wait outside and to come in later and he would also us anywhere near the market. So we retreated to the edges of the market and as the minutes ticked by more and more people surrounded the edges of the market. At 7:45, the man with the megaphone sounded a buzzer and the market was re-opened and in an instant the market was transformed from a barren and empty lot into a buzzing center of activity. Literally instantaneously people began selling and buying food. It was incredible. I wish I could have captured it on video. Following the re-opening of the market, we descended upon the food stalls and ate our fill. I hadn't eaten much that day and my stomach was huge and ready for anything and so I gorged myself with delicious Malaysian food. After dinner we went back to the cultural center to watch a shadow puppet play, but it proved of little interest and we called it a night. On our way back into the city we passed by a A&W's and Greg hand a hankering for a root beer float. Now, that's not something I would have thought to order or crave but once he mentioned it I was sold. And so at 10:00 (right before the store closed) we had a good ol' fashioned root beer float. And that was my day.

Fill in your own title...I couldn't think of one

2007-03-28T17:12:00.000+07:00

Well hello!

It's been a few days since I've reported in and I blame that on the lack of infrastructure on the Perhentian Islands, but I wouldn't have it any other way (in fact, I prefer it that way). I set out early in the morning and boarded my shared minivan/taxi and set off for the pier. I was riding in this shared taxi with a family and it turns out that they are on a family vacation. Now that's not the interesting part. What's interesting is that it is the first time that the father has come back to Malaysia since he spent five years here teaching. His family gifted him this trip and is now accompanying him throughout Malaysia. He was a science teacher. It's absolutely uncanny that I meet two science teachers in two days and I was astounded. We were able to spend the hour ride to the ferry talking and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to chat with him longer for his stories were fascinating and given the circumstances, I just simply wanted to pick his brain for those little bits of information and wisdom that he picked up along the way. I hoped on the boat and little did I know I was in for the ride of my life. This little speed boat plowed it's way through the sea and would careen off the waves and as it hit the water again I would feel my spine compressing a little bit more each time. I reckon it's about as close to bull riding as I'll ever get and I was grateful when we pulled into the harbor. I've never been so jostled around in my life as on that boat. I would literally be picked up out of my seat and flung back down only to have that repeated over and over again for the next 30 minutes. Next time I'm taking the slow boat. I arrived on the island and found a place to stay right on the beach on Long Beach. It was a decent little place with a nice view and was relatively pleasant (that is until the sun set and the makeshift disco next door started up). I spent the day on the beach reading and relaxing and then wandered next door for dinner. This place looked swanky and was the fanciest place on the island, but it had a decently priced restaurant attached to it. I treated myself to a pan-fried blue marlin with tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, a real green salad and a glass of white wine. I think that's as close to heaven on Earth as I've been in a while (well, since my Singapore Curry Crab and my wheat beers before that...). It was wonderful and I nursed that meal well over the two over mark and throughly enjoyed every minute of it. I head home and went to sleep not to the sounds of the waves crashing on shore, but the throbbing beats of the disco this fancy establishment next door had created. I changed guest houses in the morning. Long Beach is one of two developed beaches on the island and is know to be the louder and more crowded of the two so I headed across the island to Coral Beach and found the perfect place. Nestled up off the edge of the bay in the rocks was Senja Resorts. One would think that the beach front bungalows is what I desired but here, the rooms perched up in the rocks overlooking the bay and the beach is where I headed. It was a great little resort for a decent price and I spent the next three days there. The next few days passed with little to report home about. I read and sat on the beach. I swam and snorkeled. I ate food. There's little more to write about save the couple I met. Little side note - can you tell I've just been reading an English author? I finished Sherlock Holmes the other day and am speaking and writing with a bit of a British twist and I find that 'save' has become a part of my regular speech as it was a part of Holmes'. As for reading, I read Holmes and then moved on to Mark Twain's Roughin' It, which is wonderful. I sure picked perfect travel books, the only downside it that I've almost finished both and am less than halfway through the trip. The couple I met - I met this couple on our snorkeling trip, Marilyn and Greg. They are a husband and wife traveling duo in there mid-50's who are spending six months traveling around SE Asia. They've gone through about five months as of late and are working on their eighth country. We hit is off and spent the entire trip chatting away about this, that and the other thing. A wonderful couple and it's been really nice to have someone to chat with and reminisce about SE Asia, my time in Thailand (both as a teacher and student). We had dinner together that night and the next and have traveling back to Kota Bharu together since our schedules coincided and are going to hit the Night Bazaar together tonight. Our paths will diverge tomorrow, but it was wonderful to have met them.

So far I've been enjoying my time away. It's been really good for me and despite my initial hesitations about leaving and becoming a traveler again, I have really enjoyed it and I feel the flames being fanned. Singapore was fantastic. It was a great first stop and I'm glad that I was able to experience that. I exhausted my resources there and saw most all that there is to see in Singapore (I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but it sure felt like I was everywhere). I also indulged in the culinary experience that is Singapore. There was Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Western - you name it, they had it. I even found a wheat beer (see earlier entry). Fantastic visit (and the country, people and culture were good too :-)). I'm becoming more and more Thai when I judge a country by it's food. Malaysia has also been wonderful. I feel I haven't done it justice yet though as one can't call a beach/island resort a typical cultural experience that differs from country to country. The beach was good. But I've done the beach and this was nothing spectacular. Glad I did, glad to have moved on. So I feel like I've just gotten to know Malaysia and am moving on. I will be back (and in the end I will spend more time in Malaysia than any other country) but that all comes after my time in Brunei. I am excited to go Brunei. But the more I read about Malaysian Borneo, the more time I want to spend there...I'm only seeing a minute amount of it. Alas, isn't that always the case. If only every county were as small as Singapore... Tomorrow is a travel day and then I'm rewarded with a nice four night stay in the Sheraton. My parents booked it for me...living the life of luxury (thanks again Mom and Dad!). I picked up some beautiful watercolors this afternoon (you know me and art...I'm a sucker for it) and will try to get a Malaysian botik shirt (wax painting on silk) tonight (fingers crossed).

So that's life in a nut shell out here. I'm enjoying it and the refections one has while traveling are all a part of this trip and at some points were overwhelming. Thinking is good, but my curse is that I think too much. But my journal has done wonders for me and it'll be good to look back on.

I've taken to treating myself and am spending my alloted budget each day...I fear I should have set my budget lower and limited my spending a bit more, however, I've enjoyed it and it's been nothing extravagant (okay, except for the 200 baht glass of wine I treated myself too...twice). Hey, it was the beach and I was eating amazing fish and it just fit. That's about on par with my 1000 baht crab lunch...absolutely unheard of in Thailand, but somehow I found myself able to justify it in Singapore.

And with that my hour of internet comes to an end and I'm signing off. I'll talk to you later from Brunei.

RM

Jungle Trains and Science Teachers

2007-03-23T21:26:00.000+07:00

Greetings from Malaysia!

I've spent the day traveling from Singapore across the whole of peninsular Malaysia up to the northeastern corner. I'm currently in a town called Kota Bharu and I'm leaving tomorrow for the Perhentian Islands. The train was wonderful. I hopped in a taxi at 5:15 am this morning and was off from Singapore at 6:00 am. I spent all day on the train and only arrived in Kota Bharu a few hours ago at about 8:30 pm which made for about 15 hours of traveling today. But it was a nice break from the walking, I was able to enjoy the beautiful Malaysian countryside, I met a wonderful Malay science teacher and was able to watch the many different types of people come and go as the train snaked it's was through the country. We started out in Singapore under the pre-dawn light and the skyscrapers and made our way into Malaysia where the differences where almost immediately apparent. Despite their proximity, it was very easy to tell where I was. As soon as we had left the city we entered into what were the first of countless oil palm plantations. Malaysia (along with Indonesia) is one of the world's largest suppliers of oil palm and judging from the seemingly endless rows of oil palms along the railway, the produce a significant amount. Now, that's where my knowledge on the subject abruptly ends and is yet another academic endeavor I will embark upon once I return home and will surely relate my findings to you. However, I again want to reiterate the sheer number of trees I observed. They were a consistent and dominant feature throughout the 14 hour ride. There was a short reprieve from the monotony of the oil palm plantation as we snaked through some absolutely beautiful limestone cliffs and formations. The area was scattered with towering limestone cliffs and dotted with caves and each one seemed more picturesque than the last. Unfortunately, no good shots could be had from the inside of a moving train through the trees along the tracks. The train, called the Jungle Line, did seem to be enveloped during several stretches and the amount of light entering the train was significant reduced as if we were going through a tunnel and so the train lived up to its name. About halfway through the trip a man sat beside me and after riding together in silence, we began a conversation that would last most of the trip. He was a teacher at a school about halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu and is from Kota Bharu. He is a science teacher at a secondary school and so we had much to talk about. He was very kind and shared with me, very frankly I might add, many of the finer details of the Malay education system amongst other things. He was a very kind and insightful man and I was grateful for his company and his insight into Malaysia. I might add that for him this eight hour ride was a twice weekly event. As I mentioned he is from Kota Bharu but teaches 8 hours from there. The Malaysian government can (and does) re-locate teachers all around the country and does so without many complaints. The lack of higher educational infrastructure means that those who get degrees but can't obtain a high paying job due to the lack of them find that they are only able to get a job teaching and so in contrast to the US there is a surplus of teachers and so the threat of replacement if you don't oblige the governments request is real. And so that is why on Friday afternoon, my friend rides 8 hours to his family and then returns by bus every Sunday night. Between him, the views and my Sherlock Holmes stories it made for a wonderful and insightful trip.

And next time I'll be reporting in from the beach.

I'd also like to wish a Happy Birthday to my Dad. I know that I'm a bit early seeing as his birthday isn't until tomorrow (March 24) but I thought I'd put that out there seeing as I might not be on tomorrow. So, Happy Birthday Dad and for those of you who know him, be sure to send him your best.

Always,

Ryan

Singapore Curry Crab!

2007-03-22T15:09:00.001+07:00

Afternoon!

I'm hitting the Internet earlier today as it's my last day in Singapore. Tomorrow I head out super early in the morning to grab a train from Singapore all the way to northern Malaysia where I'll spend a night before headed across the straights to the Perhentian Islands and 5 days of relaxation on the beach! The train ride is also known as the Jungle Train and supposedly goes through some beautiful and rugged country in the heart of Malaysia. I'm stoked and will be sure to let you know how it is once completed.

As for today and the subject of the post, I ate Singapore Curry Crab. As my last post mentioned, I was incredibly beat after walking for days and spent the day just relaxing. I took Sherlock Holmes down to the Singapore River and read along the river and then found a restaurant and treated myself to local favorite, Singapore Curry Crab. It was amazing! I've fallen in love with crab since coming out here and this solidifies crabs place in my heart. Fantastic. The price was less fantastic and was about 1/5 of my monthly rent back in Thailand and made a dent in my wallet but since it was a relaxing day without any activities or admissions fees that was my activity for the day. And an activity is was getting at all the wonderful deliciousness that it was. I was a mess and now understand why bibs are usually associated with eating crabs (much less a curry crab). Then a bit more wandering and shopping and I'm back re-packing and reading and getting ready to go.

I'm off now and this might be the last post for a few days as I'm not sure what the infrastructure is like where I'm headed so until then I hope you're all well and I'll be in touch soon.

Ryan

Exhaustion

2007-03-21T19:39:00.000+07:00

I am exhausted! After spending the past few days walking throughout Singapore and loving every minute of it i finally hit my breaking point this afternoon. My entire body aches and there are muscles in my legs which ache that I didn't even now I had. I'm at the point where a Thai massage sounds perfect, but alas, I'm not in Thailand! I can't believe it! I guess I just have to get several when I get back.

Yesterday I finished without writing about Sentosa. I had mentioned that it's a magical island resort which in some ways in similar to Disney World, but also very different. I took the monorail across to the island and wandered a bit. There was a observation tower, a huge Merlion, a 4D show, the Images of Singapore only to name a few. What was on most interest to me was Fort Silosa - one of three British forts on the island from the colonial period and the only surviving one. I took a tour of that which gave a me a better understanding of WWII in Singapore. This is only one of the fascinating chapters of Singapore's history. While I have an understanding of the war in the Pacific, at least the American version, I am not very familiar at all with the British experience or the battles for SE Asia. I've enjoyed this opportunity to expand my understanding of that and added to that today as I visited the prisoner of war facility in Changi. Continuing with the evening at Sentosa before I get into today, I then wandered along the beach watching the sun set. Just like my first impressions of Singapore from the air, as I looked out onto the water all I could see were boats as far as the eye could see. I slowly made my way to the southern most point in Asia and had my Singapore Sling. Following that I headed to the Magical Fountain show which was a laser and light display with fountains which was neat and then began the trek back to my hostel. As I'm staying in little India, I decided to have Indian food last night and enjoyed a plate of steaming hot Indian food and an Indian beer. At the end of the night I realized that I had consumed a significant amount of liquor that day....but all worth it. Then I hit the sack.

This morning I took off and hit the last remaining sites near the river and headed out towards the northeastern part of the island and the Changi Museum. It was a former POW camp and has been converted into a museum. After just having come from Kanchanaburi and the bridge over the river Kwai and the Death Railway it was interesting to see the numerous mentions of that. This POW camp was the source of much of the POW labor which was sent northward to work on the railway. I then made my way into Changi Village where I met a fascinating man. We just happened to be on the same bus headed to the village - but with different purposes. I was simply visiting a site for the first time while he was returning to the sight where he met his first love while he was stationed on the island while he was a member of the Royal Air Force. We got to talking and pretty soon were engaged in a fascinating conversation about his experiences here and life. He actually has written a book about his time here, A Singapore Rose, and had just come from a book festival in Hong Kong. We had lunch together and continued to chat and he continued to fill in wholes I had about Singapore's history and told me all about his life. He then wandered down to the beach where he had met his girlfriend - who he describes as his first love (she is the main subject of the book). Fascinating man, wonderful afternoon. He had to head back into town for a meeting and I continued to explore and actually took a boat to another island and rented a bike and rode around for a while where I met some other folks. However, my time is up and I have to call it a night.

Until tomorrow,

RM

Wonderful wheat beer!

2007-03-20T20:54:00.000+07:00

The title of this post says it all. Wheat beer is amazing and I love it and it's not too be found in Thailand, but (and this is a wonderful but) it is to be found in Singapore! I came across a brewery/restaurant this afternoon and ate there solely because they had a wheat beer. It was amazing. The last time I had a wheat beer was when Peter brought one with him when he came to visit in October. Since then I've had nothing but mediocre Thai beer. Well that all changed today. I sat down and ordered a pint and a pork tenderloin (which also was very nice...but I have to say I enjoyed the beer more). That first sip was magical and I thought I was in heaven. It was a great setting - a brewery located right along the Singapore river and the boardwalk along the river. It had rained earlier that morning and had cleared up and the sun was out and the sky was blue and I had a nice cold pint of wheat beer in my hand. Oh man, I love Singapore.

The feelings of love continue as I continue to explore the city. My wallet was loosened today and I really treated myself like I was on vacation and while I can't continue to do that everyday I do have several more days like that in my budget. Following my early morning breakfast and stroll across town I came across the famous Merlion - the national symbol of Singapore. It's half lion, half mermaid and shoots water out it's mouth into the Singapore River. It's a silly little statue and icon that the tourism authority created in the 1960's as the icon for Singapore. While the relationship to Singapore is insightful (Singapore literally means Lion City and being situated by the sea myths about mermaid are inherently present) it is merely a created icon. After the obligatory visit to that I headed towards the other historical sights along the river. The river, historically, was the main trading artery for this bustling port town. The ports have since been relocated and the river re-developed, but many of the historic buildings remain. They are classically European and, in part, this architectural style contributes to this uncanny feeling that Singapore could easily be every place I've ever visited. I don't know if I've mentioned this or not but I've had the sensation that I've been in China, India, Mexico, North Carolina, England - every place I've ever visited - since I've been here. There is a logical explanation for this and I by it, but it's very strange but wonderful and that contributes to my growing love for this city. Following my little stroll through time, it started to rain so I thought a trip to the Asian Civilizations Museum would be wonderful and thus promptly entered. Now this was a wonderful museum. It was dedicated to the nations of SE Asia, West Asia, East Asia and China and provided a fantastic overview of all. It was neat to learn more about this region and re-learn many of the things that I've picked up during my travels around Asia. It is a museum like this which reminds me of both how much I know about Asia and how much more I still have to learn. I loved it. The museums here have so far been a highlight and are vastly superior to Thai museums and even American ones. Following that information overload, I killed those newly acquired brain cells with two pints of beer and a plate of pork over lunch. After lunch I booked my ticket for the next part of my journey which I've actually bumped back a day since I love it here so much. Next, I'm off to the Perhentian Islands in northeastern Malaysia via a train through the Malaysian jungle. There is still a story to tell regarding my visit to the fabulous Sentosa Island, Singapore's own island resort but that'll have to wait until tomorrow or sometime in the future as my 30 minutes are up again. But I will leave you with this. As the sun set, i found myself sitting in Singapore at the southern most point in Asia sipping a Singapore
Sling on the beach. Lets not mention that the drink cost more than a night at my hostel and it made for an incredible evening.

Signing off,

RM

Fabulous Singapore!

2007-03-19T20:07:00.000+07:00

Hi!

So as the title might suggest I am in Singapore. I am taking advantage of one of the perks of teaching and am taking a holiday during the summer. I wrote a while ago about my tentative plans, but nothing was solidified until just the other day. So, here I am in fabulous Singapore on the first leg of my little trip. I left this morning at 9:00 from Chiang Mai and arrived at 1:00 pm. Singapore was impressive from the moment I caught a glimpse of it from the air. We flew in over the Straight of Mellaka and the entire coastline and ocean was full of boats - big boats, little boats and tankers. It was an incredible sight and gave a very visual illustration of the importance of this passage way. It's the life-blood of this little island city-state and without it Singapore wouldn't be around and East Asia would be cut of from Europe and India. It's an incredible historic and contemporary trade route that is globally significant. And that's before I even landed. After landing, I jumped on to their super modern MRT (or subway/light rail) and made my way into the city. I decided to stay near Little India in a little guesthouse. One of the first things that jumped out at me once arriving is the incredible diversity here. It is definitely a by-product of its location at the crossroads of continents, but it is truly amazing. While on the MRT, I heard at least three different languages and judging by people dress, habits and accents was surrounded by people of at least half a dozen different ethnicities. The city oozes diversity and I'm loving it. After finding my guesthouse, I wandered. It's been fabulous to escape the confines of my own restrictions in Thailand. Does that make sense? Today it has been made abundantly clear that I spend much energy on ensuring that I do not look like a tourist in Thailand, whether I'm in Lampang or Bangkok. I live there. It's my home and I feel the need to at least act the part. Here, I'm officially a tourist and it has been wonderful to let loose. Now while there has been little actually change in my behavior, my mental state is miles away. I feel much freer and at ease. It's an incredible transition and sensation. It's also something that I didn't exactly notice while I was in Thailand and is something to keep in mind once I return. Anyway, I wandered the streets and ended up at the National Museum. I've read several articles about the museum and how it's incredible and was just renovated so I stopped by and checked it out. Plus I felt bad because I really didn't know much about Singapore and felt like I needed an introductory course. But more importantly, I just enjoy museums and this one was fascinating. Just as I felt like I was gaining a handle on Thai history I come and am introduced to this which is just as fascinating and complicated and I have a whole new challenge ahead of me.

Well, I've now used the 30 minutes of free Internet they have given me with my room so I'll sign off for tonight and catch you up tomorrow and fill you in on the rest of my travels. Bye!

RM

Field Trip with BWS

2007-03-15T18:05:00.000+07:00

Hi!

So, I figure that it's about time I uploaded the photos and stories from my recent trip with Bunyawat. In brief, I took a trip with about 10 teachers and 120 students and we headed out on a sightseeing tour of south-central Thailand for five days.

Day 1 - We arrived at school in the afternoon immediately following finals. I spent the morning grading finals and imputing grades and then left school to go home, pack and get my hair cut before meeting the students at school. We climbed aboard three tour busses and were off. The teachers were mostly in the lower level of the bus (the buses have an upper level where most of the seats are and a lower, more private level. The students were upstairs and the teachers were downstairs (for the most part...there were three teachers upstairs). As soon as the bus left, the men downstairs started to drink. It was as much of a vacation for them as the students and that continued the entire trip. I amused myself by chatting with the students and teachers, watching Palmy (a Thai singer) in concert on the TV, reading and otherwise trying to pass the time. We stopped about every two hours for bathroom breaks and such so it was hard to get much sleep.

Day 2 - We arrived at our destination at 4:00 am and went straight to the market to by breakfast before heading to the train station to catch the train. Our destination, I should mention, was Kanchanaburi - home to the famous Death Railway and Bridge over the River Kwai. On our way to the train station we passed several allied cemeteries from World War II. The railroad was built by the Japanese during WWII as a means to connect Bangkok to Burma and southern China. It was mostly built by allied prisoners of war and Thai and Burmese conscripted labors. The railway crosses some very difficult terrain and was difficult to complete and was consistently a target of attack by allied bombers. It took many years to complete and it's said that it cost one life for every railroad tie. So, after a little history lesson we boarded the train and headed off to cross the bridge. The bridge is just outside the city and is surprisingly hard to see from the train. Any attempt to get a picture was foiled, but we did cross it. The ride was wonderful. Since we had boarded the train at about 6 am, we were greeted with the sunrise over the mountains and through the fog. It was really beautiful and made getting up so early worthwhile. The ride was pretty standard at first. We crossed through many rice and sugarcane fields but as we wound up into the mountains it became clear why this railroad was so difficult to build. With steep mountainsides on one side and a river on the other, the railroad was perched up on elevated tracks right up against the cliffs. You could almost reach out and touch them. We wound up into the mountains and got off at the Waterfall station but then ran into bus problems and had to wait for a replacement bus...we ended up scratching the waterfall in order to save time and headed off to Muang Singh Historic Park. This is an old city that now consists of ruins scattered in a beautiful part. It resembled Ayudhaya, but possessed its own unique quality. It was much smaller, but was still wonderful to visit. Here I spent most of my time taking photos of the students and acting as their photographer as they toured the small city. Despite the overnight bus ride everyone was very energetic and excited to be on vacation and away from school and we enjoyed the opportunity to spend time together outside of the class and joke around a bit. After the park we headed to a temple in the neighboring province and continued our southward journey. The two highlights of this temple were a floating nun and a cave. As I translated the itinerary prior to leaving I had translated an attraction as the floating nun and wasn't sure what that meant. Even P' Aoy in the EP office didn't understand exactly what it was talking about. But sure enough, it there was a floating nun. At this temple there is a nun who is very overweight who climbs into a pool of water and floats on the surface and does a sort of meditation while floating in this pool. They charged 10 baht a person to come sit in the little arena around the pool and watch this nun float for a few minutes. It was a bit strange, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I guess it even made it onto a TV program at some point. The cave was a much better sell in my book and was a pretty typical cave with the entrance filled with Buddhist icons and symbols. It lead back into several small chambers which then after a climb up a ladder through the exit put you just outside of where you entered. After enjoying those two sites and a few popsicles we headed off to see a very large chedi. The chedi is the center-point for the temples and is a large bell-shaped structure which houses Buddha images or relics underneath. Typically people will circumambulate the chedi three times during their visit to the temple. This chedi was enormous. They are typically striking and a famous one outside Chiang Mai is covered in gold, however this one was simply huge and dominated the temple. It's being huge made walking around it a bit more challenging, but there were many people do so. After a quick stop there we headed into our last province of the day and stopped at a market to grab dinner before heading to the hotel. Upon arriving, I showered and crashed into bed watching Back to the Future II on TV. After that was finished I headed over to Laura and Dan's room (Laura is another foreign teacher from Bunyawat and Dan is her brother who came to visit) were we ate sticky rice and mango (amazing!) and drank a few beers while watching the Fantastic Four. It was definitely summer vacation at that point it is was just what the doctor ordered after a long semester and a long day.

Day 3 - We woke up early and hit the buffet that came with the room and gorged ourselves preparing for the long day ahead. The first stop on the tour for the day was the floating market. Now, when I first found out about this I was thrilled. I've wanted to go to these floating markets for a while now thinking that they would be really neat. I wasn't wrong. These are pretty much markets along a system of canals where the shoppers are in boats floating along the canals and the stores are perched alongside the canal or on other boats in the canal. It literally is a floating market. It was wonderful to float through the market shop from a boat...it puts a whole new perspective on shopping. That was thoroughly enjoyable and after that we stopped in a little shop and had the famous old-fashioned coffee and "boat noodles". Climbing back on the bus we headed toward the beach and our ultimate destination of Cha Am. We stopped for lunch at a little beachside market which had a wide assortment of seafood. I ate my fill of squid, shrimp and these little seashell sea critters of some sort. This market was named after them and everyone was eating them so it seemed appropriate. And they were tasty (which isn't always the case in situations such as these). After that we headed to Cha Am where we checked into our bungalow and were given the afternoon/evening to play in ocean and do what ever we pleased - most all headed straight to the beach. We played in the water and the sand and did all your normal beach activities. One unique feature of Cha Am is the banana boats they have just off shore. You hope onto a long air-filled tube which is pulled by a jet ski and as it careens through the water you cling to your little tube and hope you don't fall off (which you do...it's inevitable). After falling off, you climb right back on and do it again. It's wonderful fun and since the tubes hold 5-7 people it's a great thing for groups of friends to do. I was sought out to be the anchor on the back and went for a ride with several students. It was funny because most people in Thailand (especially the north) can't swim. I asked the students before we left and they all said that they had done it before and could swim but as soon as we fell off they were clinging to me and asking me to help them back to the raft. I was definitely sore after several trips on the banana boats. After that excursion we showered and grabbed a seafood dinner at a little restaurant on the beach and called it a night after sipping a few beers on the porch. Another long day, but it was great to be back on the beach again.

Day 4 - Again waking up early we headed off to a large statue of a monk. Much like the chedi, it dominated the surrounding landscape and was very imposing. It appeared like the monk's eyes would follow you as you approached. Other than looking at this imposing statue and paying your respects, there wasn't much to do so we meandered back to the bus and bought some amazing guavas. They take the guava and soak it in sugar syrup and it makes the guava so tasty. Guavas are good to begin with, but add a green apple or strawberry flavored syrup and it's amazing. So we snacked on that for a while as we waited for the rest of the students to return. From there we headed to an aquarium on the ocean. It was a neat aquarium and provided some interesting information about southern Thailand, but other than that it was your basic aquarium. Our last stop of the day was at a border town market. The border towns near Burma are known for their cheap goods and there are several in the north that I've been to and those were actually much better than this one. It was a very small market and mostly had gems and the like so there wasn't much to do there. The neat thing about the market is that it is located at the narrowest point in Thailand. Thailand gets real narrow there as it moves down the Isthmus of Kra and some of that territory is shared with Burma and so at this point, Thailand was at its narrowest. There was a sign. It was neat, but that's just me. We headed back to Cha Am for another afternoon on the beach and after our full on afternoon the other day, this experience was much more relaxed and laid back. We had dinner on the beach and I got more seafood...I'm falling in love with fresh squid and crabs. What'll I do once I'm back in landlocked Colorado? Then we called it a night.

Day 5 - Our last day was filled with a trip north to Bangkok and a day at Dream World (an amusement park in BKK). We drove for about five hours in the morning and arrived at Dream World at about lunch time. After a quick lunch, we hit the park running. I had been to Dream World before when I came to BKK with the Project Citizen group and Yui and so it was neat to go back and the thrill wasn't lost. We hit Snow Land again and that was a blast as we got in several snowball fights with different groups of students. In Snow Land, I was taking lots of pictures and the students wanted their pictures with me and so we were taking lots of pictures. It appeared that several other people thought that I just a nice guy and was taking pictures with just anyone (since they didn't realize that I was these students' teacher) and asked to take pictures with me. For a moment, it seemed like I was more popular than the reindeer. Oh boy. But after a few more snowball fights and a trip down the little sledding hill we moved on to the Grand Canyon Adventure and then on to the roller coaster. We would join up with different groups of students as we say them and hit different rides with them which were fun. After riding most of the rides, we tried our hand at the carnival games. I really have never tried any of those and it was fun to try, but like I thought it's a waste of money and addicting as you think it'll be easy, but always alludes you. We then headed back to the bus and drove to Future Park. Future Park is just a shopping center near Dream World and on the way back to Lampang and so we stopped there for a few hours for dinner and to kill time so we didn't arrive back in Lampang in the middle of the night. We ate dinner and did a little shopping and then headed back to the bus. At this point, I split off from the group. I headed into BKK to get a guesthouse and take the GRE the next day. I grabbed a cab and called it a night once I arrived and then took the GRE on Wednesday and grabbed a bus back to Lampang on Thursday.

Oh, funny story. I was in line to buy my ticket to go back to Lampang and there was a mom and her daughters in front of me. They were buying a ticket for the mom to go back to Lampang since she had come down to visit her daughters who were studying in Bangkok. While we were standing in line, they were talking about me and when I bought my ticket they told the person to sit me next to their mom. I had a few minutes to kill and then wandered to the bus and sure enough I was sitting next to the mom. I sat down and she started a conversation and eventually told me that her daughter told her to ask for my phone number. I gave it to her and she called her daughter and told her and then we proceeded to have a conversation while on the bus using her mom's cell phone. The whole thing was entirely innocent - she just wanted to talk to a foreigner and all that but it was nonetheless funny and weird for me. I've still not gotten used to all the attention that I get here. It started in Phrae with the parade and continues. It's just not something that happened back in the US.

Anyway, I'll wrap up that novel and put in the link for pictures here. So, if you want to check out picture click on the pictures and it'll take you to the website. Enjoy!
This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog

Thanks for reading!

Ry

Just a pretty face

2007-03-14T20:17:00.000+07:00

Hey!

As many of you know, it's the end of the school year. Several weeks ago I accompanied my director and several students on recruiting trips to several off the primary schools in Lampang trying to recruit new students for our M1 class next year. These trips were very informal but were at the same time very formal. There was little preparation or organization on our part, but we were received very formally by the schools we did visit. The first day we visited two primary schools and brought along six current students. The entire grade 6 class (what will become next year's M1 class) was gathered in the school outdoor auditorium seated on the floor. We introduced ourselves and then the guidance counselor from Bunyawat took it from there bringing up students as she needed them. It was funny listening to her presentation as it was revealing as to the true selling points for the English Program. The two most important points that she made during the presentation was that the class sizes were 25-30 students per class instead of the typical 60-70 student and that the classrooms were air conditioned. She did mention that the courses were taught by foreigners and that your English skills would improve, but the biggest selling points was the class size and air-con. I guess I should have expected that, but it didn't hit me until then. When we went to the different schools we were sure to bring along alumni from those schools and we would always point out that there are students from this school in the English Program right now and that you could join them next year. The whole thing was a bit strange and I felt like I was brought along simply to be the pretty face (hence the title) as I didn't really say or do anything. But it was interesting. From the recruitment trips we had 70 applicants for 30 spots and then this week we had our parent/student orientation meeting. The director of the school and several other high level administrators made an appearance (as did the pretty foreigners) and the students received all the forms and such that they needed. I guess this is as good of a place to talk about the school system briefly. There are several different levels of school (like in the US). Here there is prathom (primary school or grades 1-6) and matayom (secondary or grades 7-12). There are also numerous technical schools which start after grade 9 or 12 and then there is university. For each school, the students have to test into the schools and be accepted. Bunyawat is a secondary school and so all of the new M1 students must take a test at the end of grade 6 prior to the summer holiday (meaning the students just took that test). The students take the test at the school that they wish to study. If they pass, they can study there. Bunyawat is a very famous school and so many students want to test into school here and so the examination period last several weeks. Following their admission into a school they have secured a place for the next three years (until grade 9). After grade 9 (or M3), they have to test again at their school of choice. Most students continue to study at the same school, but others will go to different schools, technical schools or other more specialized schools. But at each school, there is an entrance exam that the students must take and pass. Then after complete M6 (grade 12), the students test again in order to be admitted to university and to graduate from school. So, at those different points in a students life, life becomes very stressful for them as they often have one shot at it - you don't test for more than one school. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent, but I thought it was appropriate. It relates in that before being accepted into the English Program the student had taken and passed an entrance test to Bunyawat and then passed an entrance test for the English Program. I guess I'm glad I only had to go and be a pretty face ;-)

Ryan

Paying rent

2007-03-08T15:41:00.000+07:00

Evening folks!

Well, it's that time of month and the other day I headed over to the owner's house to pay my monthly rent. The owner of my house is a really funny guy and a real nice guy. He's been wonderful to me and I can't ask for a better place to live, but our interactions are interesting and I thought that they were deserving of an entry on the good ole blog. I wish I had a picture of him (and I'm sure I'll eventually get one) but he's a very cheery looking man. He has a nice belly and a great smile and whenever he speaks to me he speaks in Thai/English and I can't hardly understand anything he says. So, our conversations are drawn out because he insists on speaking in English and I speak to him in Thai and we sometimes go around and around, but that's part of the fun of it. He's married and his wife is really sweet and very different from her husband. She is often times over here watering the plants and taking care of things and is always asking me about school and were I am traveling to over the weekend. They also have a young son (who I would guess is about 8 or 9 years old) and is already taking after his old man in terms of the belly department. Anyway, I've paid rent several times and now have developed an understanding of what exactly this whole process is. You might be thinking that this is very simple. I pay him. He says thank you and I'm on my way. Guess again. Thais are world-renowned for their hospitality and service and nothing is done simply. After being caught in a awkward predicament the first couple times I paid rent, I prepared appropriately this time. You see, paying rent is a about a four hour process that inevitably involves several beers, peanuts, us laughing at something that really isn't that funny and general conversation that seems to go in a big circle. But despite all of that, I really enjoy it (that is, if I don't have anything else I need to be doing). You see that was the predicament I found myself in the first few times I paid rent - I had other things I needed to be doing and he wanted to chat and socialize. One time is was school work and the other was dinner cooking at home. So this time, before I paid rent, I cleared my schedule and made sure I had the whole night free. I headed over and was greeted by his wife who ushered me into the living room where I the owner with a towel around his waist sitting on a stool in front of the TV with his son. We exchanged the necessary pleasantries and asked the inevitable question if I wanted a beer. Now, to be more precise, he asked me if I wanted a Leo (Leo being a type of beer here). He is under the impression that is my favorite beer and as such always offers it to me. So, having previously cleared my calendar I accept and we begin the evening. Conversation shifts from school, extra classes and my general life to his son, work, the gardens around my house and other extraneous topics. After a few beers, the amount of laughing increases not because we are drunk but because as the conversations evolve away from those easy topics into harder, more complex topics we laugh to cover up the fact that we don't know exactly what the other is saying. But, hey, that's why it's fun. And so that's how the evening goes. Us shooting the breeze with him in his towel and his wife and son watching Harry Potter in the background. Several hours later, we call it a night and at this point I finally accomplish what I've come to do and pay my rent and I call it a night and feel a strange sense of accomplishment.

You look thin

2007-02-28T16:12:00.000+07:00

Hi!

In the past several months I've been greeted by several people who I haven't seen for a little while with the comment that I look thin. One of my friends in Lampang has commented on this twice and during my weekend visit to Chiang Mai, one friend and my host mother both said the same thing. Now, I don't know how exactly to take this. I haven't really had anyone comment on my weight in the past - it's never really come up. But in the past few months, several people have commented on it. Now, I haven't lost weight. After these comments this weekend, I went to one of the scales they have in the shopping malls and weighed myself (just to be sure) and I haven't really lost or gained weight. Maybe it's my shirts or some other factor, but I guess that there is something that, on occasion, is making me look thin. The second day I was with my host family, my host mom then mentioned that I didn't look thin that day. Which I guess was reassuring because I wasn't thin anymore, but then at the same time what exactly does that mean? Oh boy...

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and thought that someone out there in the electronic world might find this slightly humorous.

Until next time,

RM

Translating

2007-02-26T14:12:00.000+07:00

I mentioned a few entries ago that I'm going on a school trip with some of the students. This is going to be a really neat trip and should be a blast. Last week, when I found out I was going, I was given a schedule and guidebook for the trip which is absolutely wonderful, except that it's all in Thai. So, being the studious and proactive person that I am, I have taken it upon myself to translate it! Now, before any of you start thinking that I'm fluent, let me tell you that I am not. My writing and reading abilities are not anywhere close to fluent, but I've been working on them for a while. I've tried to translate children's books and other things for a while, but haven't really gotten into it. I decided to to this and really got into it and spent about 7 hours this past week translating it. I've finished about a page of it (and there are many more pages to go), but I've really enjoyed it. I'm learning a lot of Thai and sentence structure and so on and plus I now have a schedule in English. The guidebook also has information about the different places that we will go to visit, so I'll be able to learn more about those places as well. But, it's surprisingly fun for me translate. The first night I stayed up until midnight translating because I was so excited that I was actually reading Thai. Anyway, it's just one of those silly little things that I got excited about and felt the need to publish on the Internet for all to see. Oh, it's also something that I can do instead of studying for the GRE and still be productive and feel like I'm doing something worthwhile...so maybe that's the trick.

RM

And a little postscript. It's raining here. It hasn't rained since October and this means that the seasons are changing. It's no longer cool and wonderful weather and it's starting to get hot. It's in the 35-38 degree Celsius range this week (which is is the 90's Fahrenheit). The air-con has been off since about November as well and it's been on in the afternoon for a while but today marked the first day that we turned it on in the morning. I can't imagine what it'll be like in April when it is at the hottest.

High School

2007-02-24T14:00:00.000+07:00

Greetings!

The last entry that I wrote was about the last day of school and I wrote about that day because something stood out about it and at the time I couldn't place it. But as the day wore on, I began to realize what it was...it was reminding me of high school when I was a student. At university, there wasn't that same concentrated euphoria when school was out. People finished at different times and just went on there way, but in high school, you knew when school was out and summer had started. Walking across the campus here brought me back to my last days in high school and it was a strange feeling to be back there again. The atmosphere was the same and so was the weather. The only difference was that this time, I was a teacher (well, and I'm in Thailand). But it was an interesting feeling and I guess one of the side effects of being a teacher.

The end of the year

2007-02-23T11:27:00.000+07:00

Greetings!

Today marks the last official day of class for the 2549-2550 (2006-2007) school year. As of 3:20 today, I have officially completed my second semester of teacher and will not teach again until May 14 when the school year starts up again. It really is just now hitting me that this is the end of the year. Earlier this week, I was frantically putting together my final tests. I have to create six different tests for the students to take this week and next. Half of the tests are knowledge-based tests (i.e. a test of what the students have learned this semester) and they will be given next week and half of the tests are reasoning tests (i.e. a test of how the students think scientifically) and I gave those this week. I have learned a lot about creating tests in the past year and am proud of my final tests, particularly the reasoning tests. For those of you who can remember the ACT, there was a science reasoning section and my tests are very similar to that (in fact, I adapted several questions from a sample ACT problem). I have already given these tests to the students and they did really well. I was worried that they would get anxious and worried since they couldn't use a dictionary or study for this test (and many were), but in the end they all did great. The class average was actually higher on this test than on any other test of the year. And I've become sidetracked again...the point of this post was the end of the year. So, today is the last day of classes and I've spent the past few days reviewing with the students and so today was simply our last day together. This morning I spent time with my M3 students. In Thailand, the students are grouped into classes and they stay with that class for three years. They become a class during their M1 year and that class stays together for the next three years. So my M3 students have been together for three years. After the M3 year, the students are rearranged and the classes are changed. Some students will leave Bunyawat and go to technical colleges and others will go to more rigorous specialized schools for math, science and technology and others will continue their studies at Bunyawat. And so the classes are reorganized and after spending three years together, these students will no longer be in the same classes. A tradition has developed here that is similar to the yearbook tradition in the US. About a month before the end of school, the M3 students start to create a scrapbook of sorts. It's their own creation and they can include whatever they want. Mostly it's a chronicle of their time spent at Bunyawat over the past three years. There are pictures and drawing, poems and stories, and of course a section for their friends to write messages and notes. The books have been floating around for a while, but this week they have come out in force. Today during class students had me write in the books and others had brought in their school uniform and were having students write messages on their uniform. So I spent about an hour this morning writing in books and signing uniforms and it finally hit me that the year was over. The atmosphere in the classroom and the school was very light and celebratory...you'd almost forget that the students had exams next week. But for the moment that didn't matter and they are simply enjoying being at school and being with their friends, and I was happy that I was included. And so the students are here and simply enjoying that before going home and having to get back to work and study for their finals. But they all know that after Thursday of next week, they are done for the summer. As for me, I will head off with a group of students for an end-of-the-year camp to different parts of Thailand. It really is simply a sightseeing tour and we'll see some really neat things (more to come on this) and that'll take place from March 2-6. After that, I will take the GRE in Bangkok on March 7 in preparation for my eventually return to graduate school. The following week (March 12-16), I'm back at school and am teaching the incoming M1 students a week of summer school. It's designed to get them used to us before classes actually start and should just be fun and relaxed. After that, I'm free. There are rumors that I have to stick around until the end of March to sign in each morning, but hopefully can get around that and then I'm off traveling to who knows where until I have to show up for school on May 8. I'll be sure to keep you posted as to where I end up.

At the brink of yet another transition,

RM

Valentine's Day

2007-02-16T11:52:00.000+07:00

Hi folks!
Well look at this...it's only been two days since Valentine's Day and I'm already writing about it! I think that is a new record. As you all know, Valentine's Day was this week and it was celebrated over here in Thailand. There was little leading up to it, but the day arrived with a bang! I got to school in the morning to see numerous rose/flower vendors lined up along the street across from school and hundreds of students walking around with flowers. I thought back to my days in middle school and high school and don't remember that many flowers on Valentine's Day - there were some, but not this many! Everywhere I looked there were students with flowers. Some students brought them to give to their friends and other brought them to give to their significant other and some even brought them to give to their teachers! Yup, us in the English Program office received several roses from students ;-). Later in the afternoon there was singing and poetry reading but the day passed by without too much activity. Later that evening was when the party really started. I was driving through town and the entire town had turned into a red, white and pink party! There were balloons, lights and flowers in every restaurant and shop and people all about dressed in red and white. It was quite the sight. I spent the evening with some teachers from work (my director and several other teachers) and while that was not the ideal Valentine's celebration, it did have its perks. First, we were treated to dinner and drinks and second, we drunk cognac. I'd never had cognac before, but enjoyed it. If only the Thai's weren't so fond of drinking everything with water it would have been fantastic. Cognac and water...whiskey and water - I just don't really enjoy that. But, I was rewarded with yet another opportunity to see how many people my director does know. After 30+ years of teaching at the same school, he knows quite a few people and those who saw him at the restaurant came up to say hello. One even gave us chocolate. And that marked the end of Valentine's Day and in the end it was just another holiday. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.
RM

How do you say "whoops" in Thai?

2007-02-13T15:15:00.000+07:00

Hello folks,
Well, if you're in need of a laugh, then please continue to read about Ajaan Ryan's most recent adventure here at Bunyawat Witthayalai School in Lampang. I made a small little blunder today which caused me a little embarrassment and I thought that I would share that with the world and make it public knowledge - that'll be my public service for the day. At school, we are gearing up for the end of the semester. In less than three weeks we will be finished with the second semester and finals are looming on the horizon. For the M6 students (12th grade), this is also a time for exit tests and other tests which impact their future. Those tests began this week. So in a effort to keep the noise levels down and since the M1 students share many of the same buildings, the school cancelled all of the M1 classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. As a M1 teacher, I was impacted by that decision and when I first heard the news I was disappointed because that meant I wasn't able to do several neat things to wrap up the end of the year, but having now taught here for a while, I knew to expect these sorts of things and moved on. I came to school today with the knowledge that out of my normal four hours of teaching, I would only teach for one hour. I sat in the office and worked diligently (well, I sort of worked, but also chatted online and read the news) and did other productive tasks until my hour of class. Because of the altered schedule, my Tuesday took the shape of my Thursday where I don't have class until 1:30 in the afternoon. As I wasn't teaching and being a creature of habit, I ideally sat by in the office as the hours ticked by until 1:30 and off I would go to teach. I even mentioned my 1:30 start-time to several colleagues in the office. At 12:40 or so I walked downstairs to head to lunch and was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by several of my M2 students (those student I was to have in class later that day). The first thing out of their mouth "You forgot to come to class!". And I was shocked. I didn't forget to come to class, I told them. I have class with you at 1:30 - I have my lesson all prepared and ready to go. As I told them, they continued to insist that I had in fact missed class. As I began to put the pieces together, it suddenly clicked - I had forgotten to go to class. On Tuesdays, I teach at 11:50 not 1:30 as I had thought and had thus missed class. It was not Thursday, but Tuesday, and Ajaan Ryan was a delinquent teacher. I struggled to save face (something one does when in Thailand) but to no avail and the students (and rightfully so) gave me a hard time. I don't expect to hear the end of it for a long time. And with that, they headed off to their next class (which hopefully has a teacher who doesn't forget about class) and I continued on to lunch as per usual, only with my cheeks a bit more red than normal. And so it was on February 13, 2007 that Ajaan Ryan did not show up for class and asked himself, "How do you say 'whoops' in Thai?"
RM