English Camp (unabridged)

It has now been over a month since my last (real) blog entry and there is much to write about and it’s now become a very daunting task trying to write about it all. I first wanted to finish writing about my adventures with Peter. I promised that I would come back to English Camp and write about my time there and what better time than now to do that.

From Bangkok Peter and I traveled to Pattaya with Global Link Education to work at an English Camp that they were putting together. Global Link is the company that Peck and his friends started and run, so we spent the weekend with them helping them out. Essentially, English Camps are 3-day retreats where students get to travel to some fun destination with the intent of speaking English for at least some of the trip. It’s really just a way to get students excited about speaking English and give them a chance to spend some time with English speakers in a more casual setting.

We met up with the staff in Bangkok early in the morning and began the trek to Pattaya (it’s about a 2 ½ hour drive from Bangkok). We arrived at the hotel (the camp was hosted by a hotel/conference center) and checked in. The whole morning we spent getting to know the rest of the staff and figuring out what exactly we were expected to do at this camp. I guess a quick run down of the staff is in order – most of the staff consisted of Thai university students from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The rest of the staff consisted of Peck and his colleagues, Boy and Sign – all of whom work at Global Link Education. We were also joined by one other person, Yui, who is a friend of Peck, Boy and Sign (they all studied together at Thaamasat University).

The students arrived at about 11 and we met the in front of the hotel and ushered them in and got them registered and checked into their rooms. We had lunch shortly after and this marked Peter’s first attempt to create a conversation with the Thai students. There is only so much these students can talk about and you have to phase questions in a particular manner or else they don’t understand. You can be asking the same question, but using different words or word order and get those blank stares back and after a while you just hit a wall and can’t think of anything else to ask. You can only talk about their families, hobbies and classes for so long before they run out of answers. But it was interesting and hopefully Peter was able to get something out of the weekend and his conversations with the students. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the students playing games and teaching the students about the different English speaking countries in the world. Peter and I ended up teaching about America and it was nice that Peter had just come from there as he had several different denominations of the dollar which we should the students and taught them about the presidents and the building in D.C. It also was convenient that Peter had brought a baseball bat, baseball and football with him from America. Hans, a teacher at Bunyawat asked if Peter could buy and bring these with him for him to have out here, so before Peter made it to Lampang to give them to Hans they were used to teach students about baseball and football and the traditions that go along with those all-American sports. At one point Peter and I were singing “Take me out to the Ballgame” and had the whole room watching us! That evening the students attended an etiquette dinner and were taught the finer points of western etiquette. It was a treat for me to see the students struggling as they attempted to eat with the fork instead of the spoon. That may seem mean, but after having learned how to eat like a Thai and gone through the same process the students were going through, I had a special appreciation for what they were feeling and going though as they merely attempted to eat their dinner. Lessons on which fork to use when, how to fold the napkin, the proper way to signal for attention amongst others were taught throughout the meal. That evening we entertained ourselves by dancing a Greek dance called “sutagi” but before that began we had to kill time and Peck looked to me. I told him I would try to fill up the 30 minute hole, but I didn’t know if I could make our trivia game last that long. 50 minutes later I was about to wrap up the game and couldn’t believe my ears when Peck told me that I had just spent 50 minutes playing that silly little game. I guess I’m better at killing time that I thought…I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. We then started dancing this Greek dance which Peck had picked up during his time in Europe and the students had a blast. It’s apparently the same dance that they do in the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and involves putting your arms around your neighbor, getting in a circle and moving your feet along with the music which gets progressively faster as time goes by. We had several rousing rounds of this before the kids (and staff) were exhausted from the day and the dancing and we called it a night (at least for the English Camp part of the night). Once the students were in bed the staff decided to hit the town and headed into downtown Pattaya. Pattaya has a reputation of being a popular destination for a particular type of tourist and in addition to the numerous night clubs, bars and restaurants there are plenty of the more illicit and exotic venues and they are mixed in with everything else and very visible. We found ourselves a decent club, bought a bottle of tequila and kicked back for a few hours dancing and chatting. Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped for food and a round of waters and made it back to the hotel at about 3 am with about 3 hours to spare before we woke the students up for morning exercise.

The next day was almost surreal. You may be thinking this had something to do with the lack of sleep, but trust me it didn’t. I’m going to attempt to elaborate and provide sufficient context, but this story is one that must be told in person for it is far too ridiculous to be told only in writing. My only regret is that I have no pictures. We awoke early for morning exercise and breakfast and boarded a bus headed for our first destination of the day - the local military base to take a tour and play some games. Prior to boarding the bus, Peck pulled Peter and I aside telling us, in a very nonchalant way, that foreigners weren’t allowed on to Thai military bases. Before we could say anything in response, he said, “but that’s not a problem, I’ve taken care of everything”. Peter and I looked at each other and at Peck and he continued to reassure us that the officer he had been working with knew we were coming and was prepared for us and that our entering the base was no problem. “Ok”, we said and we were off believing that everything was taken care off. We reached the base and were stopped at the gate and as the solider walked through the bus he spotted us and asked us to step off the bus. Now, I feel the need to remind you at this point that Thailand had just recently had a military coup and the entire country was being controlled by the military and martial law was (and still is) in effect. We are asked to step off the bus and are escorted by this solider towards an office back towards the gate. We meet Peck and he again reassures us that everything is under control and the man we are supposed to meet is on his way. At this point the bus pull out and leave us behind standing at the gate with Peck. A few minutes pass and Peck tells us that we need to go somewhere else to meet his contact. We walk through the gate and out of the military base around the corner and wait along side the road. Peck’s contact, an officer in the military, arrives with his truck and we’re told to get into the cab of the truck in the back. We do so. Peck sits up front and we begin to drive. As we drive away from the front gate, the officer hands us two baseball caps and instructs us to put them on. We do so and Peck tells us those are our disguises. He then instructs us (as per the instructions of the officer) to duck our heads and avert our eyes once we enter the base. We enter the base through a side entrance and are meandering out way through the residential part of the base making our way to where the students are. We wear our caps, avert our eyes and keep our heads low and we make it to the busses. As we exit the truck we go to give the caps back to the officer and he instructs us to wear them all so we “blend” in and “look Thai” and were quickly brought inside out of view. Eventually we have to go outside to lead the games with the students and make our way out into the parking lot (cap and all) and begin to play our games with the students. We’re out there for a good two hours and despite our wearing of the hat (surprise surprise) we attract the attention of every solider who walks by. The games were fun and the students had a blast and after lunch we boarded the bus and made our way back of the base (through the front gate and all) without incident. So, it appears as though we were snuck onto (what turned out to be) a navy SEAL base in Thailand less than a month after a military coup.

From there we went to another military facility (not a base…not sure what it was but we were allowed on) which was home to the militaries sea turtle recovery effort. There were numerous tanks all which held sea turtles of various sizes which had been bread by this program and would eventually be released. It was an interesting project and was even more interesting since it was run by the military (not a institution know for their conservation efforts). Nevertheless, it was neat to see all the turtles close up. From there we headed to a ship yard where several battleships were docked and the students were able to tour them. Peter and I were allowed to look at them, but alas weren’t allowed on. We did however watch a group of monks board the battleship which was a very interesting sight. Moving on we had dinner at a nice restaurant on the beach and then boarded the bus for the next (and last) stop of the day – a night safari. These are the new thing in Thailand and several have opened recently (the newest in Chiang Mai opened when I was there last year). It was essentially a zoo tour at night on a trolley. You’re driven around and a spotlight highlight the different animals that you can see and so there’s that added thrill of not knowing what you’re going to see next and the fact that it’s dark which is neat. At the end of the ride, you have the chance to walk through several different sites house different lions and tigers (maybe big cats is a more appropriate describer). The students really enjoyed it and had a blast but as soon as we got back on the bus (at about 10) they crashed and the bus was silent as we made our way home. A long eventful day in Pattaya came to a close.

The next day was much less eventful. We woke up, had breakfast and then the students had a few hours to go to the beach, relax and swim in the pool. After our time on the beach we began the process of checking 90 students out of the hotel and getting them on the bus packed and ready to go. From the hotel we headed to our last destination, the Yellow Submarine. Now, many of you now immediately thought of the Beatles song as soon as you read “Yellow Submarine” and that’s what both Peck and I thought as soon as we found out about this and so…throughout the weekend we taught the song to the students and sung it as we traveled places on the bus. Anyway, back to the real Yellow Submarine…this is a contraption (a submarine) that takes a group of people underwater to see the fish and such and it just happens to be painted yellow. Peck had arranged for all the students to get a ride on the submarine and initially we were going to ride as well, but in the end weren’t able to due to capacity restrictions. So, alas I can’t claim to have ridden on the Yellow Submarine. Nonetheless the visit was fun and we ended up just hanging out with the staff in the lobby and walked up to an overlook and looked out over Pattaya and ate ice cream which wasn’t a bad substitute. From there the students head back home, the staff headed back to Bangkok and Peter and I headed to a guest house to spend the night before heading to Ko Chang. Our adventures there have already been documented, so if you’re interested go back a few entries and enjoy!

Thanks for reading! I know it’s long, but…anyone who knows me knows that’s how I tell stories!

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

RM