Goodbye Until....Who Knows When?

One last blog post for Thailand. It seems so odd that my time here is finally drawing to a close. As I signed into the blog today, I was a little surprised to see that this will be my 35th post--they just sort of crept up on me. While I've been at the Cavanaugh's, I've realized upon telling these stories how many experiences I've had here and how much I've gotten to see and do that I never expected. Elephant rides, trekking in the mountains, teaching, watching a tribesman smoke some opium, bus rides to nowhere, bungy jumping, chasing down taxis, cooking class, the whole Burma smuggling experience, countless temples and festivals, and so much more. How did it all fit into just 5 weeks?

I find myself at a complete loss as to how to say goodbye to this country knowing that it might be years, if not decades before I see it again. Thailand has taught me again and again: you just never know.

In my own typical style, the next trip is already in the works (mentally only, of course). I'm toying with the idea of a round-the-world tour of the 7 World Wonders. It seems like something that would be good for the first summer after I've been teaching. Need some time to let the 'ol bank account recover from its Thailand thrashing. Speaking of which, don't know what I would do without Mom's incredible homeland support--my stupid bank account was charged twice for an ATM withdrawal and a panicked 3am call from me sent Mom to the bank the next day to work it all out, which of course she managed to do, no problem. Amazing. I've often wondered how much money I could have saved in haggling with Mom's supernatural bargaining skills.

Ah. I'm excited to get home. I have so many pictures to print, gifts to distribute. It's going to be good. I'm really nervous about checking my luggage, though. With the suitcase I'm borrowing from the Cavanaughs, I'll have two checked bags and then my backpack, pillow, and one sounvenir to carry-on. I really don't trust the baggage-checking system at all. I wish I didn't have to put any of my souvenirs in the checked bags, but I'm afraid it's become impossible to carry them all on. Plus, I just found out from Debbie that all images of Buddha leaving the country have to be carried out. Also, they don't let any statue bigger than 1 meter leave the country (not that I bought something that big). I guess the ones that do get out are smuggled, probably.

I got stung by a bee yesterday. How retarded is that? With all the exotic bugs and snakes here, I get stung by a bee. Stupid.

Well, getting ready to go to Bangkok this morning. My flight leaves at 7:20pm, so 7:20am Central time. I get into LA at 11:30pm. Man, it seems longer when you think that when before all of you wake up tomorrow morning (sunday), I'll be on the plane, and I won't land until after you've gone to bed (1:30am Central time). Ouch. Then a quick sleep in the lovely Radisson, and two more flights on Monday.

Goodbye Thailand! It's been fun.

Health Land

I have a new love. After dinner last night at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms, I was introduced to the mecca known as Health Land, spa & massage. Um. Hello. We all got foot massages, and I have to say I thought that was good, but then today Health Land surpassed itself: the aromatherapy massage. Heaven. Bliss. Utter, total contentment. I don't even know if that's a word, but it seems to be the only accurate description of what I am feeling right now.

Today was pretty much a day full of relaxation, in the pool, hanging around the house, and then the wonderful trip to get massages. I think I entered some kind of alternate reality--a place between consciousness and unconsciousness that I never realized existed before. I would stay and write more, but I think I need a nap before dinner. Yes. I am in that place right now.

The Cavanaugh Grand

Well, I made it to Pattaya. It took awhile, because my first bus dropped me off on the side of the road in Chonburi, and before I could even work out where I was, where I was going next, or how I could get to a pay phone to call Debbie, there was another bus already pulling up to me, and two manic Thai guys jumped out, one trying to round up more passengers along the street in front of me, and one who grabbed my suitcase and threw it into the hold under the bus. I was busy yelling at the guy loading my suitcase, asking him where the bus was going, and he just said "Where you go?" as I was herded onto the bus by the other guy. I said "Pattaya," but I think I could have said Russia for all the difference it made to these guys. I was getting on that bus, no matter what, it seemed. It turns out they were going to Pattaya, but what I didn't realize at the time was that they were also going to every school and two-bit bus stop on the road the whole way.

I had been shepherded right onto a local bus, on which I was almost cheated out of a bunch of baht, and though I made the guy give me some of it back, I'm sure I still paid probably 20 baht more than the locals did. It took me 2 hours to get from Chonburi to Pattaya, a trip that should have taken 50 minutes at most. It was so awful. Definitely the worst bus ride I've had here so far. Those two guys jumped off the bus nearly every time we made a stop and tried to herd more people onto it. They were really annoying, I'm surprised they've never been punched in the face before.

Once I made it to Pattaya, I was once again kicked to the curb in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. I made my way to a payphone and called Debbie, who tried to figure out where I was by having me describe what I could see around me, which wasn't much help, probably, but she figured it out anyway, and by asking about a dozen different people, I made my way to the air-con bus station, where she and her driver, Kunwitchit (sp?), found me. Side note--while waiting for them, a motorbike taxi driver actually asked me if I needed a taxi, and I had to laugh, I was pulling along a ginormous suitcase, where did he think he was going to put that?

We arrived at Hotel Cavanaugh Grand just a few miles later, and what a grand place it is. Not only are Kenny and Debbie two of the most absolutely welcoming people in the universe, their house is gorgeous and full of "treasures," as Debbie puts it. In the front hallway, two pieces from atop an ancient wat flank the entrance to the large sitting room that opens into the backyard and pool area. The guest room I am staying in is decorated with gorgeous elephant-motif bedspread, screens, and paintings from the elephants themselves. It's kind of like staying in a palace. This morning the very friendly Pat came and graciously took my dirty clothes to wash them, so I'll have clothes that have actually been in a dryer for the first time in more than a month--luxury!!!! There were even mangoes available for breakfast because Debbie had read my blog and knew I liked to eat them. What did I ever do to deserve hospitality this good?

Debbie and I went to the Dusit hotel this morning to work out, she doing water aerobics and me on the treadmill and various other machines. It felt really good to do something active, and I was pleased to find that my stamina is still peaked from the trekking--I managed to run a mile more than I could have before the trip (yay!). Then of course, I got an iced vanilla coffee that came complete with ice cream on top, so I was really glad I managed to squeeze in that extra bit of distance :)

Now I'm heading out back to laze by the pool for awhile, it sounds like a good plan.

Karma, Dharma, and the Unexpected

It's becoming clear to me on this trip that I am slowly evolving into a different kind of traveler, possibly a different kind of person: the kind that is content to throw the itinerary out the window. Yes, this may come as a shock to my past travelling companions (Stacey), but the more I find myself just going with the flow, the more I am surprised and pleased by seemingly random turns of events that end up better than what I could have planned in the first place. Let me explain.

There have been several instances where I've had something in mind that I wanted to do, then was disappointed to find I couldn't, only to have something even better shoved in my face. For example, this morning was bright and sunny, and I really wanted to find somewhere to go snorkelling. Much to my dismay, however, in the low season the boats that go snorkelling and diving leave only once per day, at 8:30am. I had missed all of them. So I decided to go further up the island to see if I could find a company that was still heading out in the afternoon. Once again, I could not locate a taxi, and once again, I found myself on the back of a motorbike with yet another Thai man. It turned out to be so lucky, though. On the way up to Kai Bae beach, we ran into a dozen monkeys in the road!

They were just hanging out, eaten fruit (ramboutin--sp?), leaves, and playing on the electrical wires. Now, had I been in a taxi, we would have blown right by, but this guy stopped and I stood around taking pictures and watching them for awhile. Apparently this is not a common sight on the road so near the beach, because the Thai people had gotten out their cameras, too. There were even two little baby monkeys playing around.

After I had watched my fill, we got back on the bike and stopped at a scenic point where you can take pictures just a little ways up. So I got to do that, too, all for the same price as a taxi would have been. Granted, riding the motorbike was smellier (deodorant, anyone?) and more dangerous, but hey--for some monkey shots I think it was worth the smell.

I got into town, grabbed my favorite 7-Eleven drink: Puriku cool white crysanthemum tea, for 12 baht, and went down to the beach, where I walked along for a long time and had the entire coast to myself. Not another person in sight until I got all the way down to the private resort's bay, where it started to rain, so I turned back. Didn't rain long, though.

So in conclusion, a day that began with disappointment has turned into a plethora of opportunities seized, and it's only half over. I wonder what will happen this afternoon?

Village Over Peaceful Waters

Yesterday was still overcast, so I decided to visit Bang Bao, a fishing village on the south end of the island. Getting there was easier than I had thought it would be--I started walking down the road, and within 50m I ran into a group of Thais sitting in a circle on the floor of a store nearby. When I asked them when the taxi would be coming, one of them volunteered to drive me there on the back of his motorbike for 30 baht. Sweet deal.

The village (pictured above as seen from the lighthouse at the end of the pier), consists almost entirely over the water, with the stores, restaurants, and guest houses bridging out from the pier itself. There are numerous fishing and touristy boats hanging out on the sides of the pier past the village, and a lone white lighthouse stands guard at the end, inhabited only by a handful of Thai fishermen finished with the day's work.

Me on the lighthouse.

It was cool to see the stores suspended over the water like this. Here I tried to get a shot of it so you can see.


Today it is actually sunny, though there are still some clouds. I tried to see about snorkelling, but apparently the trips leave at 8:30am and are gone all day til 5pm, so I literally missed the boat this morning. I don't believe that they are all like that, all day, so I'm going to go up the island to try to find something else to do, or just go back and hang around on the beach. I'm so used to having an itinerary that's jam-packed that I have this weird, fervent, guilty feeling right now, like I should be doing something that I'm not. Yesterday I had to tell myself to relax, that it was okay to lie in a hammock like 3 times. Curses on my incessant need to overschedule myself. I'm considering renting a motorbike to just cruise up and down the island, but the drivers here are pretty scary, I don't know if I want to do that just yet. Well, I'm off to find the next thing!

Fishing boat at the end of the pier.

Paradise Regained

I have found paradise, and it has taken shape in the form of Bailan Bay, Koh Chang.

On my front porch at sunset.

Yesterday was an exploration of Bangkok's public transportation system: I got up and took the #49 bus from in front of the 7-Eleven near my guest house. That took me to Hua Lamphong station, where I connected to the 'tube' and rode underground a ways to Sukumwit station, where I made yet another connection to the skytrain to get to my final Bangkokian destination, Ekamai bus station. This hodgepodge of connections was actually rather easy, impeded by my large suitcase though I was. I have to say, the tube in Bangkok is much cleaner, pleasant, and more quiet than the tube in London. My bus to Trat was five hours, and the attendant on board looked like he couldn't have been older than 13 or 14. I wondered whether he was a refugee, orphan, or something similar. I couldn't think why he wouldn't be in school at that age. He was very good at his job, nevertheless, and was constantly offering all of us drinks, snacks, or the like.

Once I got to Trat, I was dropped off at a taxi stand where I bought my ticket for the Koh Chang ferry. I should mention that at this point (3pm), all I had eaten all day was six donut holes from Dunkin' Donuts at the Ekamai bus station at 8am that morning, and I was beyond starving. I had attempted to get food at the Pattaya bus station 2 hours before, but was thwarted when the conductor re-boarded our bus, and, panicking that I would be left behind, I sprinted across the parking lot to the bus, leaving my fried rice in the wok where it was cooking and I'm sure a very annoyed chef behind me. At the taxi stand, I had to choose going to pee or getting food, and as I had had about four bottles of tea and water on the bus, peeing won out--by the time I got back to the street, they had already loaded the taxi.

The ferry to the island was quick and smooth, as I was on one of those giant car/truck ferries. I saw the other, smaller one being buffeted back and forth by the waves and was really happy that I had gotten on the big one. I took yet another taxi once landing on the island to my first choice of hotels, The Mangrove, which much to my dismay appeared closed and deserted once I arrived. It was very Canada-esque with the bungalows in the middle of the woods. I was kind of happy that it was closed (even though now I was virtually stranded with no car on this very deserted, hilly, and long road), because you couldn't see the beach from any of the houses, and that wasn't what I had wanted. Thankfully, my taxi driver had turned around somewhere up ahead, and I flagged him down as he came past again. He waved me on toward the next group of hotels, which mercifully was only 100m or so up the road. I saw Bailan Bay Beach, and that was it.

My bungalow. It's so nice and welcoming.

Inside--everything is spotlessly clean, and very stylish.

Oh yes--the view from my front doors.

(The white part is ocean, you can't see it, for some reason)

700 baht/night for air-con right on the water! I LOVE the rainy season! I have to think that these bungalows would go for 2,000/night during the high season. Not only that, but upon further exploration, I found that I have the whole place practically to myself! Only one other bungalow is occupied. AND---the food is amazing. I had paneang curry chicken last night for dinner and wow. It was good.

Above is the view from in front of my house.

Thoroughly enjoying the air-con!!!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

In Bangkok for the night. I'm making my way southeast to see Koh Chang, the Cavanaughs, and possibly Cambodia. Not sure I'll make it there, though. Relaxing on an island for three days just sounds too good to pass up in favor of a 6 hour one-way bus trip. Hmm. Decisions, decisions. If it's rainy like this, though, then the decision-making process with get correspondingly easier. The guest house I'm staying in here is actually really nice. Now that it's raining and cooling down a bit, it will be perfect. Nice wood floors, wooden walls, with good decor and everything is spotlessly clean. It's called the Tavee Guest house, and surprisingly was not in Lonely Planet. I must let them know.

Night food market, Bangkok.

Well, I've seen approximately two streets in Bangkok. Not exactly a well-rounded view of it, but it seems like any other big city from what I can see. I did manage to avoid being ripped off by my taxi driver, and I was pretty proud of that. He tried to charge me a flat 450b fee instead of running the meter. It ended up being 360, thank you very much. Ha. HA! I showed him. That's such total crap, though, because a taxi from the airport to my guest house is 360 baht in Bangkok, whereas my entire bus ticket to Mae Sot last weekend was 307 baht, and that was a 6 hour ride. Poo.

Canal in Bangkok at night...can't really see much.

I'm really tired, and it's only 6:21pm here. That is sad, my friends. Sad. I did get up early, I guess. Had to finish packing. I was really worried about my luggage being overweight, so I purged a lot of unnecessary items, like my almost-empty shampoo and conditioner, hydrogen peroxide, some sunscreen, all of my socks except the ones I'm wearing (they were gross anyway), a tank top, and finally parted with my overworn and fallen apart but much-loved BareTraps sandals. As I laid them ever so gently in the trash can I couldn't help but feel they deserved a grander send-off. They've been with me for so long and through so much. They've been all around the world now--Europe, Asia, North America. I suppose it's fitting that they were laid to rest in a far-off land, albeit in a trash can. I'll always remember those sandals. They never gave me blisters, no matter how far I walked in them. They were a good 'ol pair of shoes, they were. I took a picture of them so I can email BareTraps and ask them if they still sell them. Obsessed? Possibly. In love? I plead the 5th.

There's a little kid in this internet cafe running to the door and then to the back of the store as fast as he can. Oops-he just fell down. And now he's back up, running to the door. Touch the door, run to the back. Down again. Back up. How long can this possibly be entertaining? Okay, now he stopped.

Bah. Yesterday was so adrenaline-filled, today feels so tame after that. Anything would feel tame after that, I suppose. Every time I think about falling off that platform, my heart starts to race again. It just felt like there was nothing attached to me at all, it was unlike anything I've ever done. Coolness. Hm, I'm going to look up bus times for tomorrow. More later.

Took the Leap

I didn't think I would ever utter these words: I WENT BUNGY JUMPING!!!!!!

Yep. Took the plunge. Hopped the bridge. Paddled the 'ol canoe. (ok, not that last one so much, but you get the point.) It was the scariest, coolest, most all around awesome, heart-pounding adventure ever. I thought my heart was going to crack a rib up there right before I leaned forward off the platform and then began falling. SOOOO scary, but in a really, really good way.

How did this come about?, you may ask. Well, we decided to rent a red truck taxi for the afternoon, and split between 6 of us, it came out to 86 baht each, which is roughly just under $3, which is awesome. This guy drove us around for 5 hours. You can't get that in the States. We went to the Mae Sa elephant camp first and watched the elephants put on a show, where they played soccer, played harmonicas, painted pictures with real paints and paintbrushes, and acted really cool. I almost bought one of the elephant paintings, but it was 2,000baht, and it was either that or bungy jumping, and I think we all know which of those I did. :)))))

My new friend, Mikey.

Our next adventure took us to the Tiger Kingdom, where we were able to interact with the tigers and basically lay all over them. They were really, really much bigger than I remembered them being. I chose to see the big tigers and the lion cubs. You could choose which age range you wanted to see, and that seemed like a good mix. The tigers were thrilling to be with because even though people do this all the time, there was still a wild sort of aura around them, and their power seemed to pervade the space every time I got close. They're definitely the most "regal" or "majestic" animals I've ever had contact with. Though one of them wasn't quite so regal when he sprayed one of the girls petting him with pee. She wasn't too happy.

The lion cubs were cool, too, but they were sleepy. It was neat that I got to see them on my own, though. It seemed that everyone else had chosen to go see the tiger cubs instead. It was weird being able to touch such wild animals.


The coolest part of the day, as I have already hinted, was the bungy jumping. My housemates, Neha and Jackie, went yesterday, and their raving about it made me want to try it out as well. The bungy jumping apparatus was housed on the grounds of the X Center for Extreme Sports. It's basically a giant crane that takes you up in a little platform, and let me tell you--50 meters is much, much higher than it looks while standing on the ground. I got up to the top and almost died. The way they strapped me in was by wrapping my ankles and calves in a big, neoprene wrap that went around my legs two or three times then velcroed shut. That was to cushion them from the flat nylon rope that attached me to the bungy cable. Then I sat in the platform cart thing and rode to the top with my instructor/photographer. (I have pictures, but I can't load them right now as they're on a dvd. I'm trying to upload video to youtube as I write.) Once we got up there, he took some pictures of me before I jumped (can't wait to see those--I look terrified, I'm sure), then he counted "One, two, three, bungy!" and I just leaned forward off the platform--enter the scariest three seconds ever--and fell, fell, fell, screaming. My mind was a total blank. Couldn't have probably told you my name in those seconds. Then the cord bounced me back up and I flipped over so that I was almost vertical again, right side up, before falling once again. I bounced around up there for awhile before coming to a stop and being lowered down far enough to grab the really long bamboo pole they used to pull me over to the side of the pond. It was such a rush! I know I've been skydiving, but this was scarier. I guess because the ground was closer and fear of death was more intimate. It was really cool, though, what a sensation. If you want to do one or the other and you're kind of a chicken, I would definitely recommend skydiving before bungy jumping. Man, it was scary. My housemate who went with me today, Fiona, had to ask the instructor guy to push her off. He seriously pushed her over, because she was too scared to let go. It was really funny.

Grr. My video is still uploading to youtube. If I can't post it, I'll be really mad. Technology over here is not all great. It's so hard to get pictures and video online. In fact, I haven't yet succeeded in getting video online. Also on my plate tonight: packing. That will be a challenge. I fly to Bangkok tomorrow afternoon and then I'm heading to Koh Chang, Kanchanaburi, Pattaya, and possibly Cambodia (to see Angkor Wat). We shall see. If Koh Chang is awesome, I might skip everything but Pattaya ( to see the Cavanaughs) and hang there. Grrrrr. Why aren't my pictures online yet? Double grr.

I had the best last day of school I could have hoped for. We had the 6th graders for two hours, and after we spent the first hour teaching them how to tell time, reviewing the clothing vocabulary, and going over "please," "thank you," and "excuse me," we said they could pick a game to play for the second half. They'd been talking about musical chairs for awhile, but after about two minutes of playing that, the game fizzled out into something much more fun: Thai dodgeball. It's similar to regular dodgeball, but instead of the teams being on two sides, one team stands on the two sides and one team stands in the middle. Also, if you catch a ball thrown at you, you have the option of bringing one of your teammates back in or you can save the extra life for yourself. We had one kid who caught so many balls that he was like the invincible player.

It was really nice that all the kids came out to say goodbye, and I got temporarily waylaid on the stairway because I was being mobbed as I left. They also gave me a certificate. They're so nice. I promised the kids I would write, so I think I'm going to send them a postcard first before I even leave Thailand. I only have the 2nd grade teacher, Oye's, address, so I suppose all of the mail will go through her. She won't mind. She's the funny one who tries to force more food on all of us at lunch. "One more! One more!" And when we protest, she points to her own stomach and says "I have two babies on me--you only have one baby, one more!" She's quite hilarious. We went out last night with her daughter, Kare, and her friend.

We went to Riverside Bar & Restaurant, which was really nice, I can see why it's so popular. I had the best Shirley Temple of my life last night, no joke. It was awesome. I may have dreamed about it.

Mmm...Unbelievable!

I look so professional.

Ladies and Gentleman, I can cook Thai food. Oh yes, I went to cooking school today. It was awesome. I got picked up at 9:00am, and after we had everyone in the truck, we stopped at the market and finally, I had all of the weird-looking fruits and vegetables explained. There are so many vegetables here that I've never heard of, and I'm pretty sure they have a couple not even Whole Foods would carry. There are 3 types of Thai eggplant, for example, that I had never seen before this trip. Also, the pumpkins look weird and strangely enough, the Thai word for pumpkin is the f-bomb. That's right, people, the f-bomb. Our teacher was so funny, he made jokes all day long. It's really clear that he loves what he does.

Me and Gary, from England.

I started off with tom-yam soup (or hot and sour) soup. It was more hot than sour--my eyes were watering like crazy--but it was pretty good. I would eat in again. It paled in comparison to the paneang curry that came later, however. That stuff was so good. It was a curry that was orangish-yellow in color, and it tasted really, really great. I ate more of that one than anything else. I also made sweet and sour vegetables, pad thai, and the whole class made papaya salad, spring rolls, and mango with sticky rice. The papaya salad was the only thing all day that I didn't like. It's not the kind of papaya you're thinking. The young papaya is green and tastes like a cucumber. I'm not a fan of what results when the whole papaya salad thing is mixed together, though. It's popular here--I just saw a man ordering one on the street while I waited for my smoothie.

The mango and sticky rice deserves its own paragraph. Man, that stuff is good. It's not dessert how we think of it, but it is yummy. I did not know this, but sticky rice is actually a whole different kind of rice from non-sticky rice. Go figure. You have to soak it in water for at least 4 hours, and then you steam it over a pot of water. I had no idea. It's cool, but I only like it in the dessert--I'd rather stick with regular jasmine rice for eating with other foods.

I would definitely list this day of cooking in the top 3 things I've done so far in Thailand. The other two would probably be trekking (for the experience, not because it was pleasant), and seeing the demonstration for Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. The best part of the class is that I got a cookbook with all of the recipes we did and twenty more we didn't do, as well as pictures of all of the vegetables and fruits with their names in English and Thai, so I can just take it to the market and point at what I want. I made a lot of notes in the book as we went along so I can remember what he said as well. God, it was so fun. I got a little carried away at one point smashing my garlic, though. It looked like a particularly hard clove, so I brought the side of my knife crashing down on it on my cutting block, and I sent pulverized garlic flying everywhere. Oops. At least I didn't cut off my hand or something.

Cooking the sweet and sour. BIG FIRE!

Holding my sweet and sour vegetables. The last dish.

Still In the Dark

Just got out of school for the day (it's 1:44pm here), and the new volunteer, Jackie, and I are sitting in Mokador coffee shop to escape the sauna that is our house. We are still without power, which is causing quite a problem as we still can't go to the bathroom, shower, or use the fans, the combined result of which makes our house unliveable. I don't know what the holdup is, here, electricity people. "Thai-time" must be it. Curse thai-time.

School today was really fun. We gave the kids a little test today to review some of the vocab we taught them in the last couple weeks before Robbie and Maggie give them the real test next week. We wrote things like "1. Boy, blue shirt, black pants, hat, shoes" on the board, and they had to draw a picture of what was described. We ran into slight issue in the 4th grade class when the table of girls wanted to draw girls instead of a boy, but they did it alright once we told them #2 was a girl.

Of course Bee, in 5th grade, was way above the curve, as usual, and wanted to make up her own description for #4. So we let her do it, and she made a really good one: "girl, purple dress, red slippers, green socks, orange glasses." It was a hard one to come up with, and she did a great job. It's kind of funny to me how proud we have become of the students when they surprise us like that. What felt really weird was that we marked/graded their work today. They all brought us their notebooks as they finished each assignment, and we graded them with a check or check-plus (nearly everyone got a check-plus if they tried at all), and it felt strange to do that. I guess I'd better get used to it.

The boys in the 5th grade class finished early and somehow began match after match of arm-wrestling with Robbie, who obviously destroyed them all. They had a lot of fun, though, and once beaten in arm-wrestling, moved on to be beaten in thumb-wrestling by Maggie. I think we've created the new sport-du-jour: I'm sure we'll be seeing them doing it all the time now!

Lights Out

Yesterday brought a surprise in the form of lack of electricity. We came back from school at noon to find that not only would our lights and fans not turn on, but we had no water. No sink, shower, and most unfortunately, toilet (reference Everybody Poops entry). Everyone else headed out to do various things like the pool, Doi Suthep, or internet--I, however, decided the time was ripe for a little nap. I woke up an hour and a half later completely drenched with sweat, and decided that the time was ripe, in fact, for a little Airport Plaza. Packing my bag, I quickly made my way out to the street, flagged down a taxi, and stepped into air-conditioned bliss at the Airport Plaza mall. Sweet, sweet air-conditioning. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I watched Night at the Museum 2, which was really entertaining. Also, I saw the Harry Potter trailer--cannot wait for July 16! Though we'll probably be able to get a black-market copy here next week.

Returning home at 6:45 to get ready for our group dinner imparted the worst--our electricity was still off. Everyone was sitting in the dark, grouchily waiting to ambush our coordinator the moment he stepped through the door. Thankfully, he had organized a guest house stay for the night for us, and while the guest house looked awful at first glance, it was actually very comfortable and clean. I was one of 2 out of 6 who actually stayed overnight in the guest house--the rest booked air-conditioned rooms in the hotel whose pool we've been swimming in. Kind of jealous. But I did sleep really well last night, so can't really complain. The other girl who stayed, who was also named Steph, came to breakfast with me this morning at a new find, "Coffee Lovers". The strawberry smoothie and banana pancake I had for breakfast should qualify as a sort of modern-day ambrosia. Sooooo good. I saved half that pancake for a tasty mid-morning treat. mmmm.

Though a rough-looking Dalmatian attempted to waylay us on our way back to the dorm to catch the morning truck, do not worry, my friends, we prevailed. With the help of a Thai woman who rescued us and shouted at the dog. But hey--he was big. And mean-looking. He meant business.

And so, off to another day at school.

Erasers and White-Out are the Enemy

Today at school, I had the pre-school, 1st, and 2nd graders. They're always good for a laugh, but it comes with the price of utter and sheer frustration at times. They don't know how to write/read Thai words yet, so they certainly don't understand when we try to teach them the English words.

We brought with us some tracing sheets for the pre-schoolers (ages 4-5) to work on that we had drawn up yesterday. They were the letters "F" and "G". As long as we provide them with a faint outline of each letter on the page, they are able to trace it, erasers always at the ready. This happens most often with the older kids, but we sometimes even see it in pre-school and kindergarten: they will erase an entire page of work and start over if, at the end, they deem it not perfect. Thai children are absolute perfectionists when it comes to handwriting--my 4th teacher, Ms. Pengov, would be so proud (she was a stickler on penmanship). I think it must be because their characters/letters for their alphabet are so numerous and intricate that if they make a mistake, it would be unreadable, but sometimes we are forced to confiscate white-out and erasers just so they can get through the class.

After we had them work on the sheets we brought, we had them get into a circle and played some duck, duck, goose. It was the first time we'd played that with them, and they positively screamed with glee every time someone ran around the circle. We had some pretty harsh looking wipe-outs, but no one seemed too badly hurt, and the games continued.

My patience was tested most today with the 1st graders. We had decided to try to teach them how to sound out words, so I wrote Cat, Bat, Rat, Sat, Fat, and Pat on the board, and explained this in as logical and simple a way as I could possibly think of. I guess it wasn't simple enough, though, because I drilled them over and over on the words, pointed out "at" in each word, enclosed the "a-t" in boxes to show the similarities, and painstakingly went over the sound of each letter multiple times. They still didn't get it or wouldn't say they got it. I could tell I was getting frustrated, and I was angry with myself for not being able to explain it in a manner they could understand--it made perfect sense to me the way I was doing it. At one point, I irrationally told myself they were being stupid on purpose. Obviously not true. Anyway, Maggie could obviously tell after fifteen minutes of this that I was too frustrated to continue, and took over, sadly, to no success. We gave up after another five minutes and gave them a color worksheet we had on reserve in case of just such a situation.

Second grade was easier because we had decided to have them make name tags. It was difficult to understand their names and write them correctly in English, as their accents make it hard to distinguish "r's" from "l's" and "d's" from "t's" or "p's". We got most of them, though, in the end thanks to a helpful boy named "Junior." He sorted out several mistakes I made with the kids sitting around him. There's usually one or two kids in each class who are ahead of the game in English, at least from 2nd grade on. Pre-K through 1st are usually free-for-alls.

I came to the Airport Plaza this afternoon to see a movie and be in the air-con for awhile. The power's out at our house, which means we have no fans, no lights, and worst of all, no toilet or shower. I'm not sure why we have no water but I guess they're both pumped in using some kind of generator. That will be a definite problem tonight.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Today was my third and final day in Mae Sot. I had fun last night, went to dinner with a dozen people from the guest house I was staying in, then I went to "Cool Bar" with Maxime and Lesley, two very cool people whose philosophies on life I admire very much.

Our conversation jumped from topic to topic, but we were all in agreement that everyone has a different path to happiness and if we aren't trying to find our own, what the heck are we doing here?

We decided this morning that we wanted to get up, go to the market for breakfast, then bike to the Myanmar border to witness a demonstration that was to take place at 11:00 to gain support for the freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi, a woman who I had never heard of before yesterday. As I understand it, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She is currently under detention (house arrest), with the Burmese junta (military dictatorship) repeatedly extending her detention. According to the results of the Burmese 1990 general election, Suu Kyi earned the right to be Prime Minister, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, but her detention by the military junta prevented her from assuming that role. Incidentally, it was also the junta military group who changed the name "Burma" to "Myanmar" as it is today.

Her house arrest was to be over this year, but an American crazy man swam across the border, broke into her compound, and wanted to talk to her. She refused to conference with him, as the military had forbade her to have any visitors, but even so, she was once again arrested and her sentencing is to take place tomorrow. The Burmese refugees and Western supporters organized the peaceful demonstration today to publicize this matter which has, in my opinion, been seriously ignored. Maxime, who is French Canadian, says he thinks it's just America that has been out of the loop in this news, and I have to say I probably agree.

Even though I wasn't holding a banner today, just being there felt like I was part of something. I admire the people who have the courage to stand up there and say "this is wrong, and I want to do something about it." Did you know there are more than 1 million registered Burmese refugees in Thailand, and countless unregistered ones as well? These people have spent 20 years in refugee camps on the border, in constant fear that they will be sent back to Burma by the Thai government. The Burmese military are attempting to fully take over the country, and have resorted to tactics such as burning villages and forcing the former inhabitants into farms set up by the government and run by a wealthy Burmese "owner" who resides in the military's front pocket. This way, not only do they control where the people are, they also control the food and water supply. Not to mention the power of fear.

It's really hard for me to accept that I've been blind to such an enormous problem. It's much easier to refuse to believe things are that bad, or to try to wish it away. I recognize that I've done that before, but it's much harder when you are riding in the back of a pickup truck next to a five-year-old who is holding a baby brother, who probably hasn't had a "fun" day in her whole life. I'm afraid that I will forget when I come back to the states. A few days of my comfortable bed, my fun little zippy scooter, and my healthy dogs (I can't even begin to describe the street dogs here--I saw a puppy hit by a car on the road yesterday in Burma), and I'm afraid I won't remember how I felt today, standing in front of all of those people who were begging the world to help them restore their country to a place to which they can return.

I want to remember that. I think it's important.

Joyhtun

21: The number of people I shared a sawngthaew (taxi truck) with to the Burmese border.

That alone should have set me up for the way this trip over the border would be. First of all, I didn't even find the taxi on my own. I had stopped this morning at Oasis Cafe to get a fruit drink, and the owner, who is American, sent one of her Thai shop-girls with me to get me a taxi. We had to go through the market, and she held my hand the entire way. I rather felt like a little kid who got lost and couldn't find the way home. But she got me there and I knew I was going to pay the right price with her doing the talking. I laugh now because I remember how incredulous we were on our adventure trek last weekend when the tour guides wanted to pack 13 of us into a truck. Um. No. This was far more entertaining. Other than the fact that, like this morning, I was the one and only foreigner, so of course everyone stared at me. I felt kind of like Harry Potter after everyone starts thinking he's the Chosen One. Oh yes, I made that reference, Stacey.

The truck dropped us off at the border, and I was immediately (duh) picked from the crowd by this old, wizened but exuberant sort of man who pointed out the way to immigration. First I had to be "discharged" from Thailand, and then I could set off across the long bridge into Burma. I think the Thai immigration officer was surprised that my visa wasn't close to running out. He gave it a double take than looked at me more closely. Once he was sure that I really wanted to proceed, he gave it back with a smile and then warned me to be careful. At this point, I still hadn't shaken off that guy who pointed me over to immigration--he was waiting outside the office. I tried to ask someone if he was okay, but no one understood me and I thought it best not to act like a crazy person in front of a billion police officers who don't understand what I'm saying. I had the intention of shaking him off at the immigration office on the other side of the bridge, so I walked over with him, and found out that he speaks English well because his grandfather was an interpreter for the British in WWII, the river forms a border between Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) for I think he said over 1,000km, and that Burmese people are "very nice, no murder, no terrorists". I laughed at that one.

Joyhtun at the market with his grandmother.

Got through immigration. They take your passport and give you a receipt for it--foreigners are only permitted to stay in the town until 4pm without a visa, so the passport is a guarantee that you'll come back, I suppose. By now I was starting to feel iffy about this guy who had latched onto me, so it was a good thing that I ran into an older American couple who were just coming back on their way back into Thailand. Basically, they said I could hire a guide for 100 baht/hour who would drive me around and show me everything, and I was like, well, I think I already have one. Sure enough, when I got outside immigration, I was met with cries of "you come here, you sit, you sit" and was ushered into what can only be described as a bicycle push cart. But not one of those bicycle tuk-tuk things, it was like an actual cart with a wooden bench on it. I sat down in that cart and officially put my life in the hands of the driver and my crazy, crazy guide: Joyhtun.

The "lucky stone" at the first temple. You have to touch it to your forehead 3 times.

It weighed about thirty pounds.

We set off first for a temple a little ways down the road. The first thing I learned about Joyhtun was that he really, really loves pictures. He was completely obsessed with my camera, and insisted that I take pictures of absolutely everything, and then that he took pictures of me with absolutely everything. "You take photo, you take photo! Ok, I take photo of you. Check picture!" He actually gave a great tour of the temple, telling me about all of the different spirits, customs, and statues. Buddhist people pray 3 times per day, and there are 3 different types of statues of Buddha: sitting, standing, and reclining. I may have misunderstood, but I believe the sitting Buddha represents meditation, the reclining Buddha represents illness or death, and the standing Buddha represents--hm, I forgot that one. I'll have to look it up. Also, there are four stages of life. 1) young life is until 25-30, 2) mid-life is around 55, 3)old life is the rest, and 4) death, or I guess, afterlife. He said there was something like 28 kilograms of real gold painted onto the temple and the biggest Buddha statue.

Next, we visited a monastery and meditation camp. The building was really cool--it was huge and the floors were gorgeous wood with intricate paintings all along the tops of the walls. He said 3,000 people fit in there to hear the chief monk praying. We had to drive up a hill to get here, and I was feeling really bad about the guy driving our cart thing, because he started breathing pretty hard and Joyhtun had jumped off the back to help push, so I jumped out and helped them push it up the hill, and you should have heard the protesting that went on after that: "I pray you, I pray you, sit down please!" You would have thought it was the end of the world. I told them I didn't mind in the least, and actually I would have felt really bad if I had just sat in the cart while they struggled to get up that hill. I guess women don't really do things like that here. I told the driver guy that he works too hard.

The "reclining Buddha" statue.

Okay. Here's where it got scary. After we left the monastery, Joyhtun pointed to a temple not very far away that he said had really great views of the border and of the mountains so I was all for it. We had gone a ways away from the immigration site at the border at this point, and it seemed like we were on the edge of town. There also wasn't very much traffic other than some scooters and these bicycles. But that's not the scary part. Other than the fact that people in Burma did not look nearly as friendly as people in Thailand, against Joyhtun's numerous protests that they are (not that I ever argued this point with him). They stared me down every single place I went, and some of the men looked angry, but maybe that's just how they look, I don't know.

The boys who wanted their pictures taken.

So we walked up a short distance to this temple, and he was right, the views were fantastic. There were seven or eight boys running around and they all came up to us, wanting to say "hi" and wave at me (they were probably nine or ten years old), so I got out my camera to take a picture and they all got really excited, so I had Joyhtun take a picture of me with them ("I take photo for you!). Then we walked over to the edge of the temple, which was elevated on a hill and he was pointing out Mae Sot, the village nearby, etc. and I was taking pictures of everything, when he pointed right below us--literally, like twenty feet away--at four covered buses with a bunch of people milling around them, and goes "smuggling." I flipped a freaking shit. My first thought was "holy crap, holy crap, I'm taking pictures in full view of the smugglers, they're going to come up here and kill me." Pause the panic--had to get a really quick one of the smugglers, because in case I survived I knew I would want the evidence. Ok, panic back on, full force. What's the one movie you should probably not watch the night before venturing into Burma? Um, I think the answer would be Rambo 4. What movie did I watch the night before going into Burma? Yep. Rambo 4. Robbie, I will shoot you when I get back. Here I am, having visions of being stabbed, raped, or worse, and Joyhtun over here is still whispering to me about how the smugglers hate Americans, the British, the Norwegians, and the Swedish because we have something to do with the NGO and we don't like the militaristic government. I apologize for the loose transcription of that particular conversation, I was too busy HAVING A HEART ATTACK to pay attention. It's really a shame, too, because that temple was exquisite, probably the most unique I've seen so far. All I wanted at that point was to get to the market, which I knew was full of people and away from the American-hating smugglers.

The smugglers.
(I couldn't resist a picture, even in full panic mode)

Just to give you a sense of Joyhtun's personality--here we are, talking in whispered tones (ok, he was talking, I was catatonic) about these vicious smugglers hating Americans, and then after telling me to not talk about it loudly to anyone (duh) he says again in his normal voice "you safe here, I be your bodyguard--no terrorists." At this point, it dawned on me that much like stupid people feel the need to say "I'm not stupid," only a person from a country riddled with terrorism would feel the need to say "No terrorists, no bombs, no murders here." Yeahhhh, not really buying that.

He did seem to get the drift that I wanted out of there ASAP, because he didn't push it when I refused yet another photo op in front of the meditation tree (which incidentally would have been an excellent photo op), but I made a promise to Stacey that I wouldn't die on this trip, and lingering next to the smugglers seemed like it would throw that into question, so off we went.

At the market, I was introduced to what seemed like every member of Joyhtun's family, including his ancient grandmother (who had to be at least 100 years old, because he's pushing 70 himself) to his daughter (who's my age). Of course they all wanted pictures, so I have lots of photos. After the market, I was pretty keen to get back to the border, but I got Joyhtun's phone number, and I'm going to recommend him to Lonely Planet as a guide. Aside from his flippant attitude about smugglers who hate Americans, he was a blast to spend the afternoon with, and was very knowledgeable about Buddhism and the town itself.

My favorite Joyhtun quotes:

"Sometimes the Thai women, they poor, they like to marry the foreigner. Then they rich."
"I take photo for you!"
"I pray you, I pray you, please sit!"
"I be your bodyguard"
"No terrorists!"
"You take photo everywhere but not police. You no can take photo of police."
"Mind your step. Ooooo! Mind your step." (I almost fell down a billion times at the temples--it's been raining and I was barefoot.)