Being the backpacker...

April 29th, 2012

Well, here I am again, packing my bags.  I have one more night in my apartment in downtown BKK.  It's been over year since my first post, and I can still remember that morning when I woke up in Phuket, Thailand.  In fact, I feel like I can remember this entire experience in such vivid detail.  I came, I taught some English to wonderful Thai students, I learned some Thai, I trained some Muay Thai, I motorbiked in six different regions of the country, I met a lot of good and interesting people from all over the world, I tried a lot of new delicious food, got too many tattoos, I saw beaches and mountains, I saw different kinds of animals, I relaxed, I cooked, I canoed, I hiked, I sweat... in short, I was steeped in the intercultural shit.  And yeah, a few bad things happen here and there: flooding, food poisoning, motorbike accidents, general chaos.  But it's been a true reward for me to be here.  My character is the stronger for it.  I'm happy to be going home to see my family, and I miss them terribly when I am gone, but they also give me the strength to get up and go see the world without fear.  Maybe it takes a certain kind of character to be a traveler.  Perhaps I need to admit that it's not for everyone.  But I wish it was.  I wish everyone would travel - and in many ways, everyone does.  But it's the cultural exchange I value most behind family and education.  Cultural exchange is education.  Travel is an opening of yourself to something new, something mysterious.  And when you spend a year of your life in the thick of it, the unfamiliarity of it all disappears.  You adapt. You change. You learn. I truly believe anyone can do that, just as anyone can learn a language.  People fear what is different.  But put yourself in the difference and see what happens.  Instead of fearing, you understand.  This year for me has been the most incredible crash course in Asian culture, and I will never know everything, but I can keep studying, and now it's not so foreign to me.  It's a part of me. Cultures are different, but everywhere I go, people are the same.  They all love and fight and fuck.  As the Thais say, "Same same, but different."  :)

Where did that five months go?

Written a long while ago…

Stream of consciousness, disclose, dismiss, kiss the sky, let the zeppelin fly, no more motorbike rides, I have to drive my mind, adventures of an altogether dissimilar kind, surfing circles of alternate design, pulling me closer to the city shrines, pillars supporting such spirits divine they pass from old worlds into new times. 

This country is wet with muggy intent, smell the sweat sent on breezes, the scent hard work squeezes from sewing rice fields in hot seasons when the swell is high, and the walls might bust to let the river run by, as it will, and it must, trust the hot sun, hot rains, mosquitoes eggs hatching in drains, street cats complain with groans like a baby, crying out in the night, screams sharp as the piercing light of morning sneaking inside, sneaking around, sneaking and creeping the mud-slathered ground, crawls like a snake without a sound, belly bottom, river-bound. 

Iced coffee stands and ice-cream carts, an engine starts and stalls next to the rounding walls ready to fall with the weight of water.  Humidity makes everything hotter, and clusters of mud line canals, the valves force open.  A monk sits smokin’ in orange robes probing the scene like a dream you foresee in some empty midnight reverie. 

Written a little less than a long while ago…

DIFFERENT DAY, MO CHIT.

Oops, I slipped into one of those no writing phases, kind of forgot about this here blog, crazy how life sneaks up on you like that.  I might consider myself a real writer if I had the discipline for it, to really write everyday and work that creative muscle inside. But it’s a work in progress, building these so called talents of ours, isn’t it?  These days I am spending more time strengthening my physical body and focusing on refining my Muay Thai technique.  I started about three years ago, have been training off and on, not really considering competition, but the opportunity to actually train in Thailand is one of the coolest experiences I’ve had, and there comes a time when practice is over and skills must be tested in performance.  I think it’s interesting that I’ve never had a real fight my whole life with anyone, and now the first one I am going to have is actually a real fight, referee, ring, spectators, lights, music, red corner, blue corner kind of real fight.  And the bell, BOOM, POW, comic book style.  My trainers taught me the traditional pre-match Thai dance today, so hopefully I don’t screw that up.  It could be culturally insulting if I do.  I wonder if people will be taking bets on me...

Written soon after a little less than a long while ago…

The Past:

I show up to training and they tell me the fight next week is cancelled but I could fight the next day.  I said ok.  They taught me the Wai Kru dance that day and had me practice until I got it right.  I just learned a very basic approach.  It was easy to learn, but it can be very complex when you see it performed by seasoned professionals.  Every fighter has a personal style.  I show up the next day, on time, outside of this Asian urban mall where they have built a ring outside next to the Skytrain.  People on the street gather around and some are above watching down, as the traffic goes by on the road.  There are some cheap white tent roofs off to the side – one of the promoters recognizes me and has me register, and points at the Thai girl I will be fighting, who was a few steps away.  I was thinking,  “Hello, well I guess we are about to fight, this is awkward.”  He gives me the uniform, I go into the mall bathroom to change. Also kind of awkward.  In typical Thai style, my trainers don’t show up for another 35 minutes.  I’m not sure what to do, I’m kind of jumping around, trying to find ways to warm up in my flippie floppies on cement outside this mall where people are walking by and staring at me or taking pictures of me.  When they arrive, they wrap my wrists, and rub my whole body down with this syrupy orange liquid that feels a lot like tiger balm, and they rub it deep and hard into all my muscles until I feel tingly all over.  I’m all oiled up and then they rub some other stuff on my face, not sure what that was.  By now I have everything on, I’m warming up, people are taking pictures, I’m freaking out, and its about to start.  Next thing I know, it’s over.  All I can really say is, I got tired much faster than I thought I would, I suck at blocking continuous wild punches, and lucky for me she gave up right at the end and just kind of let me knock her down.  The whole thing was really surreal, it was actually a bit difficult to focus on the fight, my mind was all over the place.  I was pretty happy when it was over, some random people came up and told me good job or wanted to get a picture with me – which always feels a little strange.  But it was a fun and interesting experience.  Still trying to figure out how I feel about it, and if it’s something I want to pursue further or not. 

The Present (actually semi-recent past)

Wake up just fine, a few birds outside, wash my face and dress.  The clouds are bright, the day is as cool as tropical gets.  Head out the door to meet a friend, cross the foot bridge, turn the corner to Rangnam and find my favorite motorbike taxi stand.  They hang out near the gas station / grilled salt fish restaurant.  Their bright orange jackets are easy to spot.  Sometimes they are all busy and I have to wait.  But usually, when I walk up there is a group of them, some wearing face masks to protect themselves from the sun and pollution, but personally I don’t know how they stand to wear so many clothes in the heat.  They don’t speak English. I don’t speak Thai.  So our communication is special.  One guy wants my watch so he always points to his to indicate that some trade should be made.  I want to give it to him, but my mom gave it to me at the airport right before I left and I wear it everyday.  Too much sentimental value.  But they always know exactly where I want to go, I don’t have to say anything, same spot every time, a 10 baht ride down the road to the skytrain/shopping mall area.  That’s about 35 cents to save 10 minutes of walking.  Everybody uses motorbike taxis here.  Thais are kind of lazy when it comes to certain things, but not all of them, of course.  I have seen people load up entire food stalls and three loads of laundry on a single motorbike.  And unfortunately, none of the drivers carry around spare helmets, so most passengers have to ride without. I sure don’t want to carry a helmet around all day for the 1 minute motorbike ride I take in the morning, and nobody else does either.  Technically, yes, it’s not legal to do that here.  Does that mean the law is enforced? Hell no.  Traffic here is pretty much a free for all, muck like the Twisted Metal video game, people race however they want.  Accidents will happen.  If I am going to work, I might be wearing a skirt, which means I have to hop on the back of the bike and ride side saddle.  I always hold on tight – sometimes they can stop so abruptly because traffic is crazy and so many drivers here are idiots.  Yes, it still scares me.  But it’s also kind of fun.  They have made me want to learn how to drive a motorcycle.  Or maybe I will start with a dirt bike.  And always wear a helmet.  Seriously, it’s an issue over here.  I wish I could implement more helmet wearing here, but it’s just not the Thai way. 

I buy a dollar ham and cheese croissant from some place in the mall, eat it as I wait for my friend to arrive and return some movies he borrowed.  Then he has to rush to work.  I down some water, and walk back the way I came, stop at a nice little coffee shop with tables outside and order a hot Americano with milk and sugar.  She brings steamed milk, regular sugar and brown sugar.  I sit and read several chapters of Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, a very strange and kind of morbidly interesting novel so far.  I like it.  My Kindle battery is exhausted, so I pay for my coffee, and start walking.  I pass through some street stalls and restaurants, loads of Thai people sitting at cheap square tables set up right there on the road, outside the 7/11s and sunglass shops.  The smells can be irresistible.  Garlic, pork, chillies cooking in oil on the giant flame of a rather small, highly portable propane stove.  And the cook is using a large, well worn wok to mix the ingredients, adjusting the heat as necessary, cleaning it between orders, and then throwing in the foods prepared for him in little cups by another lady.  She takes orders and chops vegetables and lays out the right foods for each order.  The stall has about 2-3 cooks just cooking non-stop.  Easily one of the few situations in which I’ve observed Thai people sweating.  I have to be careful as I walk through, the sidewalks are made from square foot stone slabs that have caved in here and there, some are loose, you have to watch where you step.  Every now and then the ground will be wet with hose water, or old dish water, spit, there could be crushed cockroaches, living cockroaches, piles of trash.  You kind of get used to all that stuff, and you just step over or around it.  You get used to the good and the grotesque juxtaposing.  I go to the post office right down my street and buy a big box and take it home. 

Normally on this day I would go to train at the gym, but my ankle is still sore from the fight, and I want to give my knee a good rest – I strained it last week and I cant afford to hurt my knees since my ACL surgery so many years ago.  It still haunts my dreams.  Taking care of my knees is one of my highest priorities.  But if I were going, I would walk about ten minutes to the north, on a back soi past a temple, soup stalls, grilled meat and seafood stalls, fruit stalls with fresh bananas, pineapple, coconuts ready for drinking, rambutan, papaya, watermelon, everything.  I go past the steak cart, to the main road, cross the footbridge to catch the number 92 bus to my gym.  When I get off I have to cross an even larger highway foot bridge and take a small songtheaw, a little truck taxi, all the way to the gym.  I warm up with lots of jumping rope, pushups, situps, lunges, squats, shadowboxing and stretching.  The gym has a roof but no walls, so it’s sort of like being outside in the shade. It gets hot. You have to drink a ton of water.  They keep it in a cooler and have to continuously add big blocks of ice.  The trainer will come and wrap my wrists after I warm up, in a very specific way, and each trainer does it a little differently.  But they all double up the padding on the knuckles, and wrap it between each individual finger for maximum tightness and protection.   After this I would go into the ring and do some padwork with my main trainer Berm (pronounced Bum).  We do about 4 rounds of 3-5 minutes, as much kicking and punching and blocking as I can handle.  During breaks he will put a cup of water up for me to drink, because the gloves are tied on tight, and pour water over my head, shoulders, on top of my head.  Sometimes he will massage my arms, stretch out my legs and arms, and sprinkle water on the mat for better traction, as we are barefoot.  After that someone else comes in the ring to go rounds and I continue to do a battery of exercises: curls, pushups, situps, squats, lunges, leg raises, kicks, leg blocks, sometimes I get on the bag and practice knees, practice clinching, or punch the giant tire.  I always finish with lots of stretching, a little light yoga.  I take a shower, and catch the bus back.  

On other days I go to work.  It takes me as little as 30 minutes to shower, dress, and do my makeup before I take my daily motorbike ride to the vans.  Recently I am obsessed with buying breakfast at Mr. Bun, where I can get these little coconut buns, or vanilla Mexican buns with chocolate chips, or little sausage croissants for cheap.  I wash them down with an iced green or black tea sweetened with condensed milk.  I hop on the minivan, throw on my headphones, and chill for about 40 minutes until it stops in Rangsit at the Future Park/Major Cineplex area.  My workplace is very nice, small, charming, very clean, all the walls are glass windows, white and blue, clean cut, air-conditioned.  It’s a great environment for staff and students.  Teaching at a language school is completely different than working at a Thai high school.  Administration is in overdrive, it’s American owned and operated, the marketing department is one of the largest sectors of the company.  It is a well organized educational service lending provider.  I am not even a teacher, my exact position is English Consultant.  The method of teaching here is both uniform and flexible, sometimes easy, other times challenging.  I love my students, they are all between the ages of 15-50 something.  I meet some very interesting people and get to have funny conversations while evaluating their English and giving them feedback.  It’s a pretty sweet gig, and it pays a lot more.  I have to work weekends, but it’s a lot of fun and I don’t really mind, and I don’t have to grade any papers.  I’m quite happy with my decision.  I really enjoy the people I work with, and I seem to be having a lot more great days than bad days these days.

But today, I just do about an hour of Yoga, pop in the video, follow along and breathe.  You can’t forget to breathe.  Tonight I have a skype date with a great friend and Sushi with more awesome people!

FUTURE (actually more recent than the present semi-recent past)

I am returning state side in three and a half months.  I’m in a really great place over here right now, but the benefits being what they are, I just don’t see it as a spot to settle down and make a life.  Not for me.  Not yet.  I’m excited to go home and hold still for a little while, and I am so proud that I came here, and that I made this crazy journey, that I threw myself into a totally different experience.  I learned so much, I have so much to keep and remember.  The world is beautiful, and ugly, and big, and small, and everything, and nothing. Traveling is a character building passion of mine, but it’s hard to be away from all the people I love the most.  Knowing that I’m leaving makes me appreciate my time here as often as possible.  Here is a list of things, so far, that I will and will not miss. 

I WILL MISS:

Easy to find, cheap variety of massages.

Authentic spicy Thai food on the street for a dollar.

99% of Thai people, who are so generous, relaxed, and always smiling.

My job and my students.  Teaching here has been so fun, and lately, so rewarding for me. 

The mass availability of products and shopping, both real and knock-off.

Iced drinks, especially iced black tea topped with condensed milk, or chai dtam nom yen.

The climate. I love being warm all the time, but it doesn’t stop me from complaining about sweating through my clothes before I get to work. 

Baby elephants.

MOTORBIKES!

Dtuk dtuks, and general ease of cheap transportation

Giant urban shopping malls that are actually cool to hang out in. And well air-conditioned.

THE BEACH

7-11s.  They are life and death over here. 

Not having to tip, usually.

Chunky adorable Thai and/or Chinese babies – this should probably be higher up on the list, do not underestimate my affinity for adorable chunky Thai and/or Chinese babies in little Thai or Chinese clothes.  They are so effing cute I can’t even stand it.  Seriously considering adopting if and when I’m ready for kids.

I WILL NOT MISS:

Food that contains bones, or seafood straight from the sea, eyeballs, antennae and all.

Complete and utter disorder in almost all departments of daily living. 

Being scammed, or generally charged more for things for being white / farang

Seeing so many homeless and poor.  It’s important and necessary to see, but it makes me sad. It also makes me feel thankful.  As poor as I feel in America, is how rich I feel out here.  The range between having and not having is enormous, but I’ve also seen a lot of happiness in this land.  Materialism exists alongside a world of spirits, the convergence of ultimate and trivial.  Thai culture somehow escapes logical deconstruction.  The longer I am here, the less I understand it. 

COCKROACHES!

MOSQUITOS!

ANTS!

POLLUTION.

TRAFFIC.

Dirty beaches.

The trash situation in general here. Kind of gross. 

Which brings us to, RATS!

Crappy beer and liquor.  Also, you might pay $20 for the worst dirty martini you’ve ever tasted.  When you ask for more olive juice, and they say they don’t have any, leave.

The sidewalks lined with tile that become slip n’ slides when it pours rain.  Not as fun as you might think. 

Grease face.  Side effect of humidity. 

Brand spanking new entry (actually written just now, midnight, March 16^th 2012)

I leave in two months. Why haven’t I posted any of this crap yet? What’s the point of blogging if you only post like six pages every two months?  This blog was kind of like a test run for me, to see if I like it, if I could keep up with it.  I think I’ve failed.  I fell out of the habit.  I don’t know, I just stopped writing when the floods happened.  And a lot of things happened during that time, and they stopped a lot of other things from happening.  Everything just sort of slowed down, and I didn’t want to write about it, because I didn’t know how to explain it.  And there are a lot of complicated factors at work in my experience during that difficult time in Thai history, and I’m not really qualified or at liberty to discuss my opinion of the politics involved.  I can say that it was a sad, difficult time for so many Thai families displaced by the water.  It was hard on everything.  And I can say that I wasn’t feeling my best those few months either. I had nothing in my apartment yet, and nobody I knew; I had a job but the school was flooded, nobody knew when we might start again.  Couldn’t train, couldn’t take Thai lessons. With the flood, new city, few friends, trying to conserve money, volunteering and seeing the damage, I felt down and alone every night when I went home. The volunteering was not well organized, sometimes I felt a bit useless with nobody handing me tasks to help with, and I don’t speak the language.  But there were so many people and they were helping with smiles on their faces, and everyone was glad to be there helping, even if it wasn’t the most efficient use of each person’s abilities to assist in a speedy recovery.  It was incredible, and uplifting, yet sadly not enough of a relief effort for what the people needed.  For what they still need.  The flooding needs to be controlled. 

Anyway, I was keeping all this crap so I could go through it, and edit it, and organize it.  And of course that’s not what you do in blogs.  You just have to write whatever the hell comes to you at the time it comes, and post it.  That’s why a blog isn’t a book or a poem.  It’s super fresh, up to date, new ideas, new commentary on the spot.  I don’t know if I work like that.  It’s hard for me to post without mulling over what I’ve said, and if that’s really what I want to say, and how I want to say it.  I’m a bit obsessive when it comes to my writing.  And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, but I can get caught up in perfecting instead of producing.  Quality counts, but a blog is more about producing.  Have I produced what I set out to?  I don’t know.  It’s been a year.  Have I told the story of my year teaching and living in Thailand?  I don’t know.  It all seems so barely there – just touching the surfaces of what it’s like.  There’s just so much more to this experience than I could ever write, let alone write well.  There always is when you live your life.  All the personalities, the parties, the music shared, the jokes born, the bonds made… in the words of KT Tunstall, “You change every day, you change every day…”

Kerouac Attack

The light of the downing sun flickers palm tree shadows on the wall in the shapes of twisted bar windows, giant banana leaves sweeping in the breeze, in this moment I am peace, so peaceful with my lonesome traveler, Jack Kerouac on the top of Seattle mountains and the Avalokiteshvara bear there beside him, invisible, invincible, and yes I am there too, with the coffee boiling black and bubbles dark brown, I am there, in the scraps of torn wet books shredded by mountain mice in the pouring rain.  I am there, in the fresh buckets of snow and chilled morning sunlight.  I am there with my family in Colorado watching them sleep, watching my father toss and turn in perpetual dream, I am there under the Midwestern American skies watching the stars shine so clearly, not a cloud in sight, on Kev's birthday I am there to sing. Listening to Moby, In my heart, in my head, earbuds spread the tune, I am there with the wisdom of the bright moon, the pale sliver of peace hanging night light of the world, I am there with T.S. Eliot’s yellow smoke curled about the windowpanes, the oyster shells, yes, the coffee spoons, yes I am there, measuring my life, biding this precious time digging for seashells and calling mermaids to sing to me dreams of the Disney undersea, I am there with Robert Frost digging his son’s grave, listening to blue birds and babbling broken brooks fade into forests, and I am there with him in the night, when he walks alone looking into other people’s abodes and wondering, I am the youthful face he turns to, and I am there that visionary, that luminous clock the moon waiting for him in the black bedroom.  Yes, in my heart, in my heart I am there, I am all of these things, I am a fresh spring air William C. Williams come to share new life, I am there, I am everywhere as God and God is within me, that feeling free, loving just to be, being just to love, and prayers for the luck floating just above each move I make, constantly directed, not knowing which path to take, but just the option of so many paths, so many people to love, so many things to have, magic two hands and fingers, and I am there with Benjamin in his pornographic pieces of me, Marquis de Sade decipherings, I am there with his big bear arms, his strong charm enchanting, I am there with all the raging and ranting, political rallies coasting east, police forcing mase on wallstreets, I am there too.  I could be you, could be so Van Goh blushing blue or mossy Picassy green, dirty or clean, anything, I could.  I am.  There with the wine-red blood that Christ bled, under the tree enlightening Buddha, I am Moses parting the waters, I am the epic poet plotters weaving the loom, I am every sailor reading the moon and stars to tell us where we are. It’s in my heart, in my heart.  Working together, whether alone or apart, oh Frost I am there. Oh Eliot, my air, prelude to a thousand gold-flecked stairs, walk me up the pinnacled temple to share spectacular views, we can stare for hours, absorb the potent peace powder, then go home and snooze on the couch, like my little brother, mouth slobber one eye slit barely open.  I am every wrecked and reborn lover, I am turning into my mother and it makes me proud.  Downward dog, the yoga mat, I am the mad hatter’s purple hat, the caterpillar smoking sheesh, the mushroom cap, ecstatic release, I am that perfect peace.  I am the visionary.  And you are with me there, you are with me here, Dr. Suess trees everywhere, Shel Silverstein streaks in my hair.  I am there. I am there.  I am there.  So much literature I can hardly bare to let it go.  Hardly know how to breathe when the magic sneaks up on me like this.  How filled I am with the people I miss.  How twisting it is, this traveler’s business, this seeing the globe, this longing for home.  How twisting.  How, oh lord, am I even existing? 

Books and Floods

I’ve not written in quite some time.  I suppose I have been on a reading spree lately.  Here is a list of all the works I’ve read in the last few months: 

Bangkok Noir short story collection

Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

Tom Robbins- Jitterbug Perfume

David Sedaris- Naked

Adrienne Rich- Poetry and Commitment

Kahlil Gibran- The Forerunner

Willa Cather- My Antonia

The Watchmen graphic novel

The Sword comic book series

Michael Chabon- Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay

Cormac McCarthy- All the Pretty Horses

Lander- Stuff White People Like

Bangkok: A Cultural History

The King Kong Effect- Paul Adirex

Demo comic book

Less Than Zero- Bret Easton Ellis

John Irving – The World According to Garp

Maxine Kingston- The Woman Warrior

All of those books are now forever locked in my heart.  It’s no use going through which ones are the best, because so many of them are simply incredible stories by magnificent storytellers.  I think storytelling is the coolest, most important job any culture can have.  My dad is a great storyteller.  I have some of his stories recorded in mp3 format and I listen to them whenever I get homesick. 

This week was the start of finals.  I can’t believe we are already done with our semester.  The time here plays tricks on you.  Sometimes it seems so slow, like a camel walking drunk and exhausted through the desert, or a river lazily meandering the countryside.  Other times I look at the calendar and it has swept by as swift as an afternoon monsoon. 

I will miss my kids.  But I grow tired of this small town.  Tired and restless.  Ready for the next adventure in the big city of Bangkok.  These past few weeks have been a tedious preparing for job interviews, endless applying, editing and further editing of my resume and curriculum vitae, making sure I have all the proper documents.  Nothing makes me feel as much like an adult as looking for work.  Even teaching, while I am an authority, affords me a playful environment where I get to be silly when I feel like being silly.  I tire of having to work for a living at all.  But then again, money doesn’t buy happiness, and I am hard pressed to admit that I would be the same person had I been born into wealth and worklessness.

We’ve been warned that the damn in the big river may not hold if it rains tonight.  We’ve been warned to be prepared for a flood that may move two or three feet high through the house.  We are watching and preparing accordingly.  The older teachers showed us pictures of a flood that happened here in 2005, before the tsunami in the south.  It was a proper flood, the water level halfway up to the air-conditioning units installed in the walls, furniture inside the office floating around.  I must admit, it is quite scary.  I don’t have much, but the things I do have are so important to me (computer, journal, technology, music, kindle, maps and books) that it is nigh impossible to imagine having them destroyed before my very eyes.  And then again, could I climb a palm tree if I had to?

A word to the wise: backup backup backup.  Everything technology related you can at least find free or cheap ways to backup online.  And then if the internet crashes all over the world, I suppose we are all fucked.  It’s kind of sad and scary how much of our cultural memory is now stored in digital form, how technologically dependent most of us are.  What would happen to the modern world if the system went down?  Chaos perhaps, a kind of time travel back to pre-industriality.  Then again, being in this particular part of the world, even with internet access (most of the time) and all my kids having two cell phones, I still feel an old world feeling that seems to seep into everything.  A world where spirits and back breaking labor and hunger are still the mainstays of the everyday pattern. 

In other news, I have been learning Thai for about a month now.  It’s a pretty laid back deal, the guy just moved here from Bangkok and his English is fluent.  He was looking for someone to practice English with, so there is no money involved, just a linguistic exchange.  I suppose, however, that I have the better end of this deal, because not only do I get to learn the most difficult parts of the language for free (the script and the tones), but his mom is a great cook and always cooks for me. 

The first time we went to his house, I brought my roomies, and she made us Massaman curry.  The other times I have gone alone and was able to experience homemade green curry, tom yam gung (spicy shrimp soup), and some other things that I wish I could identify better: gourd mixed with egg and spicy sauce, some other exotic vegetable in a sweet sauce – yeah, I will have to ask again.  The dishes here all have a specific name, so it’s never just “gourd with egg” because they probably have five other dishes that use “gourd and egg” too. 

Ok well I think I am going to take a drive and check up on this “flood.”  

In Love with Kanjanaburi!

Last weekend I went to Kanjanaburi, a small city about 3-4 hours west of Bangkok.  It was a gorgeous town with a lush, mountainous backdrop above the River Kwai, famous for the bridge built by American POWs during WWII.  That particular story was made into a movie with Alec Guinness (the original Obiwan Kenobi from Star Wars) in the 50’s – we tried to watch it before we went, but it was a lot of dialogue and we got bored. 

The second day was perfect weather for our planned hike up the waterfalls at Erawan National Park.  Because of the holiday, the park was full of Thai and European tourists, the latter being a constant source of amusement with their overly revealing speedos and ghost-white skin (not to mention the rolls of fat I would rather have not seen).  But at least there were quite a few side paths you could take to escape all the people and really enjoy and appreciate the amazing nature. 

The jungle here is so thick with tall trees and thin, twisting vines, or huge round trucks that lay dead and fallen over the river.  The water was as blue and clear as I have yet seen in this country, where most rivers and canals near the cities are brown with mud and pollution.  It was so refreshing to cool our bodies in the splash during the hike.  I was worried I wouldn’t have the right shoes, but most people had flip-flops or went bare foot. 

I had my first real monkey sighting there!!  There was a whole pack of the light brown furry creatures jumping from tree to three, and on my way down, one of them stopped with her baby, and the father came down too and tried to take the baby monkey while it was sucking on its mothers teet.  I tried to get a video but was too late.  I thought it was cool, but there are a lot of people I have met who have had horrible monkey experiences, and are quite afraid of them. 

On Sunday we rented a scooter and went driving around the town.  We saw a pretty cool cave, and also spotted some bats and shrieked in terror.  We are such girls when it comes to those things, also ants, spiders, snakes, and giant river lizards.  We ate lunch at a floating restaurant and realized that the last bus was leaving soon, so we had to pay our bill in a hurry and make it to the bus station, only to wait on the bus for another hour before it finally left.  Next time I come here, I am going to ride the elephants and swim with them, and then I want to go on a safari and feed the giraffes and pet the tigers :) All in all it was a fabulous weekend, I lived like a queen and only spent $87 on everything.  Here is what I got for that small amount of money: 

Transport to and from Suphanburi and Kanchanaburi

A few random taxi rides

Two nights at a backpacker’s hotel

The best fried beef in oyster sauce of my life, with rice of course

Several bottles of water

Several bottles/cans of beer

Two ivory and turquoise bracelets

A small hand purse

A magnet

A Spiderman hat

Six postcards

A mediocre Fish Spa experience

Beef pepper steak with mushroom sauce and a salad

Several 10baht shots

Scrambled eggs with cheese, baked beans and toast

Transport to and from Erawan National Park

National Park entrance fee

The most delicious Pad Thai of my life

One-hour traditional Thai massage (better than a chiropractor)

Massaman curry and rice

Winecooler

More 10baht shots

More bottles of water

Fried banana rolls with ice cream, chocolate sauce and honey

Coffee

Scrambled egg and cheese sandwich

Motorbike Rental

Cave Entrance Fee

Not very awesome Cat Fish dish at the floating restaurant

It’s amazing how far the dollar goes here!  Safe travels my friends, and chok dee!

Lazy Summer Days

The dark gold cross-legged Buddha rose as high as a two story building inside a Chinese-influenced temple in Ayutthaya, less than an hour north of Bangkok.  Peeling flakes of gold foil fluttered on the stone faces of the surrounding statues.  People of all walks walked around bare foot, a giant rectangle of tubes temporarily housing the traveler’s shoes.  They sold amulets and books like any other museum.  In the market just outside, aging Thai vendor voices drifted ceaselessly across the thick wet air.  Various scents floated up and commingled in different combinations, an earthy base, like bark, seafood frying somewhere in hot oil, trash grown pungent in the sun, sweet coconut pastries, jasmine incense.  With clouds overcast, it was a perfect day to explore the inland island by bicycle.  As we were unchaining the bikes from the metal, a full-grown elephant and two of its passengers walked directly past us. 

            Elephants are thick in this area, and each of them dons a red and gold throne or small gazebo on its back with room enough for a few people.  There’s nothing quite like witnessing an elephant walk up close.  Their feet, in rolls of heavy elephant flesh, press down and become perfectly flat with the land, as rooted as a tree trunk.  Wrinkles riddle the entire body, giving large elephant eyes an old and wise look.  The tusks, too, are noticeably magnificent, strong ivory a relic of their prehistoric quality.  Never before found myself thinking of elephants as magical animals, but then again, I never saw them like this before, living somewhat freely among humans, going about their day jobs. 

           

            Everyday I fall more and more in love with my kids (my students).  They are so friendly here, they make it really easy to get attached, and that will make it very hard to leave at the end of the semester.  I thought about sticking around for the full year, but there is too much country to see and not enough time to see it.  I feel I must challenge myself to teach in different places to expand the whole experience and really get a few different senses of Thailand, the culture and people.  And this town is so small I may go crazy without my amazing roommates, both of whom are going back to the States in October. 

            On a motorbike ride the other day we discovered our local floating market completely by chance.  We took lots of pictures and ate ice cream out of coconuts, watched the women make soups or little sweets.  Everyone loves the opportunity to practice their English with us.  We ran into some wonderful students shopping with their families.  I am getting used to life here, the crazy traffic, the dingy, semi-unsanitary conditions, I no longer recognize the spiders and ants in the house as intruders, but friendly companions looking for food and shelter.  Life is swell, and moves at a leisurely pace.  Almost every afternoon is filled with trips to the market, hot yoga sessions, good food, and fun movies or sitcoms, as well as the refreshment of ice cold bubbling beer.  Yes, I’m getting used to this.  

3D Birthday Shibang and Room Service

Next week is my golden birthday, I will be 26 on July 26th!  I've been looking forward to this my whole life, and last week was a big holiday weekend for Buddhist Lent and we celebrated as hard as we could.  On Thursday night the roomies and I went into the city and stayed at the same wonderful hotel with a rooftop pool.  We also got upgraded for no reason at all, and our suite was huge and luxurious!  The next day, we met up with our long lost friends who teach about 9 hours northeast of us, and we ordered room service by the pool, went on a very successful shopping venture, saw the last Harry Potter in IMAX 3D (my first time ever seeing a 3D movie), went back to the hotel and got all dolled up, had a wonderful Italian dinner with a great group of friends, and then finally we ended the night at a stellar karaoke bar with our own private Dreamgirls themed room and a balcony!

It was absolutely epic - I still can't believe how perfectly everything fell into place that day.  On Saturday we slept in a bit, had a delicious breakfast buffet, and then hopped the Skytrain to Victory Monument where we proceeded to search for the correct minibus to Hua Hin.  After about three hours and a lengthy gas stop, we arrived at what basically amounted to a two bedroom two bath apartment in Hua Hin!  It was amazing.  The hotel was so nice, room service was good and prices reasonable.  You walk out into the pool area and you are gazing at a wide, empty beach and the blue ocean beyond, complete with banana boats and jetskis.  Needless to say, we got a lot of good quality sun and beach action, and the photoshoots to prove it :)  We've all been home for a few days now, but we are definitely still in vacation mode, as this is a four day week, and reason enough to celebrate, as it still counts as our birthday month! :0  Who would have ever thought that for my golden birthday I would be having so much fun on a random beach in Thailand with a bunch of strangers I've grown to love?  Certainly not I.  This last week has surpassed all my expectations!