Chiang Mai

I traveled by VIP bus from Sisaket to Chiang Mai, after a very sad good-buy to the teachers at the school. For those considering traveling in Thailand, the VIP buses are great, lots of leg room, blankets and food and movies. But they are (at least at night) unbelievably cold! I actually used the winter jacket I brought to help stay warm on the bus (though it was a bit heavy).

I slept most of the way, but woke from time to time to see a completely different countryside. Where PK and surroundings are very flat (Jacob's joke from the Netherlands applies to the south of Issan, too: if your dog ran away, you could still see it a week later! Except that the trees would get in the way a bit). The north has hills! -- Its a strange topography really. Very flat (flatter than I have ever seen. Flatter than the Midwest, for those who think the Midwest it flat!) and then suddenly hills! Up thrusts or something from ancient tectonic activity. --And because it was so much further north, and so much higher up in elevation, the weather was much cooler! At least in the early morning I was comfortable for a few hours (in PK I was all sweaty at 8am, before the day had hardly begun, in CM I didn't get too hot until about noonish).

Chiang Mai is a very touristy town. But still small enough to manage on your own. And much more laid back, they tell me, than Bangkok. It was so much more hectic than PK or Sisaket, that I didn't notice that aspect of it. It is also full of temples! Tens, if not hundreds, of temples within the old city wall (which enclose about one square mile).

My first full day there I went on a trek. I had wanted to go on a 4 day trek, but one had left the morning I arrived. So no go. Instead, I went on a two-day, one-night trek. The driver and group leader picked me up and then went to collect the rest of the group: two British couples, and two German dental students. The seven of us drove up to a waterfall and splashed around for a bit. It was very beautiful, but full of Farang watching the Thai people bathing, fully clothed (as is the Thai style). Then off to a hot springs -- very hot water! My poor white legs were very pink from soaking in the pool! though it felt great, once I got used to the heat. The water was warmed from geysers a little way up the hill. We met some monks coming down as we went up, and me in my American-Thai manner struck up a conversation with them. All about Thailand and the differences between here and home. And specifically Issan and my time there!

Then we hiked, through the forest, into the hills. We stayed the night in a Hill tribe village. Not really interacting with the Hill people or each other very much. But enjoying being out of the city. It was very strange for me. Hard to get used to being surrounded by Farang, and eating Farang food, after 6 weeks being Issan Farang and living with, and as, a Thai person. Also strange, but cool in a disturbing sort of way, was the fact that the people were burning the forest. Before planting the tradition is to burn the fields. The burnt vegetation clears the field and acts as fertilizer. But the fire also burns the low underbrush of the forest. Creeping along as a low red flame down the hills until it eventually stopped at the river that separated us from the forest (an in which we had bathed earlier that evening).

The next day, we woke up early and had TOAST! for breakfast. I think I ate 6 pieces! plus two eggs (scrambled with tomato!) and pineapple and a banana. I ate everything in sight! Everyone else hardly touched their food (for the entire trip actually) while I ate like a horse! Mook would be proud of me! (she was always telling me to eat more.) After breakfast we hiked "up and down" until we reached a town with elephants and bamboo rafts. We sat and watched the make the rafts while we waited for them to find and round up the elephants. The raft making (as with everything else that is made here) fascinated me. They tie the rafts together with strips of ... Bamboo?... starting at one end and working their way to the other. But as they go, the other end gets more and more "cattywompus" with poles sticking every which way. So that the final lashing of poles takes much more talent than the first end (as far as I can tell). But all fascinating!

The elephants are amazing, too! They look so sad, in a way. Very sad eyes, I think. They clearly have personalities and characters, and are curious about these tiny little people who clamber on their backs and necks and ride them for a while. Elephant backbones stick out from their backs -- which I never knew -- and so the seats are very well padded (on the under side) to protect their spines. And their skin is very strange too. Very dry. With bristly hairs sticking out every inch or so. I rode with the two German girls. At first I sat in the seat, but about 2/3 of the way through we switched places and I got to ride on the elephant's neck! All of it was an experience of a life time! Riding on the seat was great. It felt a bit slippery, but also very POSH. The neck was amazing! I want to say it was like riding a horse, but it wasn't. The neck is much fleshier than I thought, and rocks back and forth, from side to side, as the elephant moves! A bit unstable! The elephant kept flapping it's ears. Which would come back and hit my leg with a "whap!" Occasionally it would turn it's head, pinning my leg in place with it's ear. All in all, amazing. I have always appreciated elephants, but that appreciation has grown even more after this!

After the elephants, we floated down the river on the bamboo raft. It rides just below the surface of the water which was nice as it kept us nice and cool. And the park we floated through was beautiful! High green hills rising on either side. Wow!

Back in the city I spent most of my time just being lazy and wandering around from temple to temple. I actually spent a lot of time talking to the student Monks. They have what they call "Monk Chats" in the afternoons at several temples. It is a great opportunity for the Monks to practice their English and for the tourists to interact with, and learn about, Thai people.

One day I rented a Tuk-tuk and rode up to Doi Suthep (a beautiful temple on the hill) and the Kings Palace (full of the smell of roses! I wished I could have bottled it and saved it to smell any time I wanted it. My favorite, though, was the rose they called the Chicago Rose (Beautiful! Though I loved the fact that it named after my home.)

Another day I had a bit of an adventure! The guide book talked about a town about 20km away that art (history) enthusiasts would not want to miss. No public transport there though. So I rented a motor cycle (as recommended by the book). It was Great! Though a bit scary as the last time I rode a motorcycle (excluding the half hour or so Jacob spent teaching me on the running track at PK) was almost twenty years ago! (Man do I feel old!) But off I went. I got out of CM with only one minor incident (when my helmet flew off my head!) and actually enjoyed cruising down the beautiful tree lined road in the country. I made it to the temple and back alive. As did all the Thai people I encountered. I have to say this, though, for anyone considering a similar adventure: The rules of the road in Thailand are really just suggestions. Motorists (mostly motorcycle riders, but also cars) will slow down, and even pause at red lights. But if there is no one coming, then they go again, without waiting for the light to turn green. And merging into traffic requires a great deal of faith that things will go well. Actually, in the two months I've been here, I've only seen one accident (though I have heard of about 3 or 4 more). It reminds me a bit of what I have heard of driving in the US in the early days of the auto. The early cars did not have rear-view mirrors and very small back windows because drivers only worried about what was in front of them. They let the people behind worry about themselves! I would actually recommend renting a motorcycle and cruising around CM on your own in the first day or so that you visit. And it would be the thing to use to go up the mountain to Doi Suthep and to get around the zoo.

I stayed longer in CM than I intended. A full week (though two of those days were on the trek). Very restful in a way. And totally different from PK. A good break I guess. Ironically, on my last day there I met up with two future traveling companions. So I guess that is why I stayed -- to meet them!

The East

This should really be before the Leaving Prangku entry as I went to the East of Thailand with the Mayor of PK, many of his staff and their families and some of the teachers from the school. But, as it is too much work to change it now, here it is, out of order.

The trip to the east was somewhere between Great Fun and Hell!

We started on Monday night. All of us (not quite 50 people) loading into a double-decker, air-con bus. And the Karaoke started. At full volume! The karaoke continued (always at volumes that made my bones, and the organs in my chest, vibrate) every time we got in the bus! (which was from about 8 or 9am until 4 or 5pm, Sometimes later, for 4 days!) I have a great appreciation for Thai music (most of it is love songs as far as I can tell). And some of the singers had wonderful voices. But I'm not sure, though, if the bus ride increased or decreased my tolerance level.

The East of Thailand (which is actually south of Issan) is very different from where I had been living. There are much more hills, for one thing. And the land is much greener. I tried taking photos from the bus, but they didn't work.

Because it was a tour hosted by the Mayor for the workers in the Municipality, it was something of a working tour. A "bus-man's holiday" I believe is the phrase. Everywhere we went we were greeted by the local "head of state" and shown some of the highlights of their community. Lots of it is very cool and I wish I understood more Thai to understand what they were doing. A lot of the projects we saw were environmentally based. Land reclamation and restoration of habitat along water ways especially. Very cool! We also visited a local mine. A strip mine that reminded me of some of the mines we visited on College Geology Department field trips. (I didn't manage to collect any samples, but did take lots of photos!)

We traveled along the coast, more or less. Stopping at three resorts. I went wading three times. And I got to see lots of things that most tourists don't get to see -- the mines for instance. And the Mangrove forest. And fish hatcheries. And I missed most of the tourist things. Visiting Pattaya, for instance, all I did was wade (and get soaked!) and then off we went to hang out at the house of the cousin of one of the men on the trip. -- Pattaya, for those who don't know, is the sex capital of Thailand. Lots of Farang men go there to "meet" Thai women. It reminded me a lot of Las Vegas -- about 30 or 40 years ago (not that I was there 30+ years ago, but...). It has a strip. Lots of neon lights. Dancing girls. Endless buffets. -- The dinner at the cousin's house was great fun. Lots of food. And singing. And drinking. And general good cheer! The tradition in Thailand, I was told, is that once you start drinking, you don't really stop. Drinks are, in my experience, a cap-full of Thai whiskey in a glass of ice and soda water. So it takes a while to get a good buzz going, but you can maintain it for hours. (And the Thai people do. Once they get drunk, they stay drunk for days! Literally. They started drinking on Tuesday afternoon and continued drinking, all day and all night, until I left them on Friday night.) And dehydration isn't so much of an issue because of all the water and ice. No one's glass is ever allowed to be empty so it is a good steady, low grade, buzz. Good stuff.

The best part, though, was hanging out on the beach. I have never been to the tropics and was amazed that the ocean water is WARM! its like bath water! I come from a country where all of the water is cold. Even Lake Michigan is cold -- though I have been delighted by how "warm" it gets in October. But here, I went wading in the water, expecting it to chill my feel and cool me down. But no. It is Warm! Refreshing, but warm! I can't quite rap my mind around it. Even now. Warm ocean water! Amazing!

Leaving Prangku

Leaving Prangku and all the friends I have made there was very hard! I miss them all very much (in the American sense -- I think it means something else in Thai) and will treasure them and my experience there always. I hope, in fact to see them all again before I finally depart from Thailand, though I don't know if it will happen. (This is not the best photo of me ever, but a nice one of most of the other people!)

I am having a hard time adjusting to being a tourist after living in PK for so long. It is very strange to be surrounded by white people again. Nice to be able to speak to them, but they look very odd. And I miss the real Thailand. After six weeks I feel most at home in the back streets and restaurants and markets where the Thai people go, rather than where the tourists go. Except for the fact that I don't speak Thai! (though I have been going to Monk Chats and talking with the student monks who are all very helpful and are dedicated to working on my vocabulary! (One of them even gave me a Thai name -- I now have two!)) The tourist life has a directionlessness to it that I find disturbing. I am reminded of the title "the unbearable lightness of being."

More about my continuing adventures soon! Tourist life, here I come!

Ponglang

Thanks, in part, to that day at the parade (and in part to a wild night of dancing in the band room), Ponglang Nick – the Ponglang band teacher – invited me to be join the Ponglang dancers.
Ponglang is the name for the traditional Esan (or Isan or Isaan or Essan – in all cases meaning the NorthEast of Thailand) music and culture. It is very cool! (Nick has given me a CD of the music and I will play it for anyone who wants to hear it when I get back). The traditional instruments are made of wood and reads and are very romantic sounding (I think). There is also a lot of percussion -- skin drums as well as a set of wooded tubes a bit like a xylophone but bigger and hanging -- I've forgotten the names of the instruments, I'm afraid. The band also augments the traditional instruments with an electric guitar strung with bicycle brake line! All or most of the instruments are, or can be, make by Nick and his students! Very Cool! Along with the traditional music, there is traditional dancing. A band is mostly (only?) boys. The dancers are mostly girls. Most of the dancers dance in front of the band, in unison and very formally, but there is one dancer, the Jars Dancer, who dances by herself off to the side, free style. That is what I was invited to do. So I did. I have to say that being part of the band was one of the absolute best experiences I had in Prangku. A part that I will treasure always!

My professional dancing career with the Prangku School Ponglang Band (and I was a professional because I got paid! (a total of 200Bht -- about $6US) -- though I did also get a 20Bht tip from a man in the crowd!) was for a total of two performances.

The first was a celebration for the completion of a local temple. Nick (and I really don't know what he was thinking, except that he was thinking in Thai time) told me to get up and be at the Ponglang room at 4am to start getting dressed. I made it there at about 4:30, to find the dancers asleep on the floor. They didn't wake up until 4:45 or so. The dance teacher showed up around 5:30, and the band about 7:30 or 8:00am. Mrs. Amporn spent about an hour working on my face, hair and costume. Trying to turn me from a Farange into a Thai dancer. With some success. I have the hair, the clothes, and the make-up, but not the face! But, thanks to her efforts, I looked great! (even if I do say so my self!) My hair was pulled up off my face and around a bit of padding to make it round and poofy, then hair-sprayed and Bobby-pined in place (so much hair spray in fact that when I took the padding out, my hair still poofed up!) I wore a tight red bodice on top and lots of jewerly (silver, because gold is for the royalty). My skirt and the rest of my top changed during the performance -- between sets, in public, though discretely. (tangent here, it was a bit odd to me to be changing clothes out in the middle of a field surrounded by all the other students (boys and girls) and roadies and Nick -- but to do it in a way that no one, not even me, saw anything!)

We arrived at the temple, a little early and got to wander around a bit before we were fed breakfast -- one of the conditions of having the band play is that you have to feed them! The temple was all decorated with string with gods-eyes and other decorations hanging from the sky. Very colorful and festive!

And then I danced, for the first time, with only one formal lesson! Nick was kind (?) enough to record it with his video camera, so you can see that, too, if you ask nicely! I don't know how to describe Jars dancing. I stood behind the jars and pretended to pluck them in tune to the music. Moving my feet and my head and my hips also in tune to the music and smiling all the time! I danced a total of 3 songs. Two together, and then a third one later. The first two the people loved! They laughed and applauded. A monk videotaped the performance. A man came up and gave me a tip (and all the other dancers as well). And I totally messes up polite Thai behavior! Forgetting to thank him properly before taking the money! oops. Major faux pas.

After the performance (about 10 songs total, though they prepared about 20, we cut it short because some of the students had to go back to school for exams) we ate again. Wonderful food! and desert of green beans in ice cold, sweetened coconut milk! Kaek (one of the teachers at the school and a participant in the wild late-night dance parties in the Ponglang room that inspired this adventure!), Mrs. Amporn and Mrs. Kannika (the latter two are also Ponglang teachers) and I wandered around the temple, made merit by making offerings inside the temple, got blessed by holy water and put bits of gold on the cannon-ball like things stationed around the temple and rang all the gongs -- all in celebration of the completion of the new temple!

It was great fun. And the Thai people at my school loved the video! Laughing at me the whole time! Nick assures me that this is a sign that they appreciated my performance.

My second (and final) performance was at the Lamdaun Festival in Sisaket (the annual three day festival celebrating the history of the town and the blooming of the lamdaun flowers)! We arrived early, again, and had time to wander the stalls and such before getting ready for the performance. I had a wonderful time walking around with Nick who told me all about the history of Sisaket and Buddhism and all kinds of stuff -- I will miss his stories about Thai culture and comparisons between his country and mine. My dance performance went off wonderfully, even if I did dance only one dance, instead of the two that I was supposed to dance. I think, though I don't have confirmation of this, that my dancing was much better. Everyone in the audience laughed. And took my photo -- as a warning to their daughters what not to do, I think! And again I got treated like a star!

After my abbreviated performance, I joined Pe Ad for her birthday party! But soon slipped away to take advantage of my "performer" status to sit in the very front row (basically on the stage) and watch the rest of the performers. It was Great! A huge spectacle! There were many local performers dancing all kinds of different dances (though only we had live music!) and a troupe of dancers from Cambodia danced several very funny and very formal dances (a tiny bit like the dancing in the King and I for those who want to get a feel for what Thai and Cambodian dancing is like). Then, after all the dancers had finished, there was what Nick calls "Light and Sound" a play, of sorts, depicting the history of Sisaket! It started with the very early days and went all the way up to the creation of the Sanctuary near by. Very cool! Though I didn't really understand any of it. It ended with a fireworks display!

Wonderful!

On a final note, Nick tells me that a lot of people payed attention to the band because I was in it -- he hopes that my presence will help bring attention to Ponglang music and traditional Isaan culture! (Me too!) And inspire his own students to be even better dancers! And now I'm trying to get him and his band over to Chicago for a performance (maybe I'll even dance!) -- Folk fest in Feb seems best, though cruel to subject the Thai people to a Chicago winter -- so I'm taking suggestions!

Mook's Village

One of my favorite weekends was the one we spent in Mook's home village. It is tiny and rural. On Friday night, we had a wonderful dinner, Thai style, sitting on the floor, each with our own bowl of rice. In the middle are many plates of different foods, curries and soups and fish (that still look like fish) out of which people take a spoonful of food at a time and put it on their plate. The food is then mixed with rice and loaded onto the spoon with a fork and eaten. The spoons and forks are both very thin and made from aluminum (I think). Knives are more like machetes and are only (mostly) used when cooking. All the food is served, more or less, bite sized. If it is too big for one bite, it can be cut with the spoon, or broken with the fingers. And it all tastes wonderful! Even the things I was skeptical about at first I have grown to really like.

In the morning Mook (my host) took me to the local Forest Temple (there are two kinds of temples forest temples which are a bit stricter and village/town temples – for example forest monks eat only once a day, while town monks eat twice). It was a Monk's Day and she went to "make merit." (I think Merit is a bit like the Old Catholic idea of "Indulgences," where you buy your way into heaven by making contributions and doing good things for people. Gifts and acts to temples, monks and people socially higher than you are worth more than those to people lower than you – I think. And temples often seem to have a place where you can buy incense or flowers or a little square of gold leaf that you can rub on a statue of a monk or a Buddha to make merit. When someone dies, the merit you make can be sent to them to make sure they go to heaven (rather than hell) before they are reborn. I'm still figuring it all out.) Mook got up early and cooked then came to pick me up and the two of us rode on her motor cycle (still in the clothes we slept in) about one km out of town to the temple. There were already a bunch of people there (some from here village, but many from another village). The food was put in a dish and arranged beautifully and then carried to the temple (in this case a wall-less wooden building with a wicker floor about a foot off the ground and a low thatched roof that housed the statues of the Buddha) where it was presented to the monks (two of them). The monks took a spoonful from each dish that was presented to them and put it in a huge silver bowl. After they had accepted food from everyone, they covered their bowls with a cloth and said prayers to the community. When the monks finished, the people collected all the left over food and took it to another "room" of the temple, sat together and ate it. Mook and I went home to our own breakfasts and morning baths.

After resting quietly, clean and fed, Jacob and I journaled waiting for Mook. There is a bit of a hurry-up and wait aspect to my experience here (or rather, wait, wait, wait, and then run!) I don't know if it is Thai culture, because I completely miss out on the planning stage (not speaking Thai), or the people I associate with (Mook defiantly has the Mother or Big Sister approach to things – telling me it is time to go to bed, or checking that I have taken a bath, or repeating things 6 times to make sure I know the plan, or yelling out "Beck! Let's Go!" To which I reply "Ba, Ba!" (this means "Go. Go!" -- or somthing like that -- in Thai.) She does this to everyone, and they all tease her about it, and laugh appreciatively when I call her "Mother Mook" – the humor here is much, MUCH less PC than in the States. People are teased for being fat or bald or gay or having big ears, or what ever strikes the teaser's fancy. And the teachers laugh at the students and call them buffalo (stupid) when they don't know the answer, or slap their hands with rulers or kick them or hit them with a rod on the bum! It is very different from the US.). It could be all three.

So, after a quiet morning, Mook's cousin got tired of waiting for her and started to take us on a tour of the village. We got to see her sister's house being built – they are taking apart the old one and using parts of it to build the new one. Then Mook (who caught up with us at this point) took us to see rice noodles being made! Very cool! Mook caused a bit of a catastrophe when she lifted the sheet of plastic to show us the dough being mixed and didn't put it back properly -- it was held in place by the tiny plastic clothes pins that are everywhere. The same kind of clothes pins that I use to hand out my laundry every couple of days. The plastic bag slipped into the mixer and we had to try to untangle it from the huge metal bar around which it had got firmly entangled! (the mixer is a bit like a giant Kitchen Aid). After that fiasco (at which everyone just laughed!) we followed the process of the, now liquid-like, dough from slurry to noodles. The most amazing part, I thought, was the process of actually turning it into noodles. The dough is sprayed though a shower-head type thing into a vat of water which instantly cooks it and turns it into noodles! The noodles are then shuffled from one vat of water to the next, gradually cooling down to a point where human hands can wrap them up and put them, in bundles, into the leaf baskets that hold them until they are used. (I love the fact that foods are wrapped in leaves and bamboo stalks and stuff! In fact a lot of things are packaged in "natural" or "recyclable" materials. And then a lot of stuff isn't -- and there are plastic bags and bottles and who know what all lieing in the grass all over the place.) Mook, in typical Mook fashion, encouraged us to help sort the noodles and put them into the leaf baskets. Jacob declined, but I helped (and got to taste fresh noodles in the process). I pity the poor person who got the package of noodles I helped prepare!

After the noodles we got to watch and then practice weaving Thai silk! The looms are strung up under the house in the "cool" and are entirely made of wood and string! Amazing! The poor woman Mook fast-talked into letting us work on her cloth tied a string around the bit she had woven so it would be easy to pull out our amateurish contributions. I took a weaving class in College and actually got relatively good at it -- nothing professional of course, but OK. But these looms were much bigger and the threads much finer. And it is not as easy as it looks. I managed to send the shuttle either only about half way through the threads (and so had to dig it out and try again) or flying out the other end so hard that everyone gasped! It was a fantastic experience! One so much bigger than I can describe.

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out, relaxing. We drank a lot of coconut water from fresh coconuts, made Thai sweets, chewed on sugar cane, snacked on various spicy Thai salids (sum tum I suppose, but made with cucumber rather than mangos). Wonderful! Perfect!

Go Everywhere

There is so much to say in this post that I don't know where to begin. (except as a note to say that most of my photos that should be posted here, got shipped (literally) home. You will have to wait until the ship arrives and I am in Chicago to see them-- if all goes as planned, that will be October?! oops.) My hosts here (because often many people act as host to me here) are very committed that I go everywhere and see everything and get a real feel for the culture (for which I am very grateful!). I made a list this morning of all the places I've been and things I've seen and it is hugely long! I have driven 600 km in a pickup truck with 8 other people to Laos; woven silk; watched noodles being made and sorted them into baskets; helped make Thai candy; participated in a boy- & girl-scout bonfire; watched the girls win 3:0 in a socker/football game; sung karaoke; had dinner with the Governor of the province (sort of); watched a lesson in how to make sandwiches, participated in the local parade (dressed as an ancient Thai Queen); spent the night in a forest temple; been blessed by a monk (with holly water); begun learning to play Ponglang music and dance in Ponglang style; touristed in Bangkok (the Royal Palace and shopping at Kow San Road) and Ayutthaya; had several Thai massages (Wonderful!); eaten German food (Thai style); and danced with the school band at the celebration of the completion of a local temple! And many more things that I can't think of at the moment!

I can't talk about everything, so here a few (and only a few) highlights to give you a taste of what I am experiencing.

My first weekend here (while I was still suffering a little from jet lag) we crammed ourselves into a pick-up truck (much more common – and practical – than cars, though not as common as motorcycles) and drove 600 km (about 400 miles I think) to Laos. We traveled in Thai style, which means that there were 5 or 6 of us in the cab and another 4 or 5 in the bed of the truck (9 of us all together) with the bags and various packages we were taking to or from visiting with our driver's family. I don't know what to say about our visit. It seems like it happened so long ago! It was a very long and complicated process to get a visa to get into the country (a process I have to do again this weekend so I can stay in Thailand for another month) and we spent a lot of time standing in lines waiting. We spent the afternoon dashing from temple to temple, monument to museum. It was all very beautiful and wonderful, but it felt like we were always running late! The only slow times were when we sat down to eat. I love eating Thai style. Not only is the food wonderful and plentiful, but the Thai style seems to be to just sit and relax and eat slowly, enjoying the company of the people you eat with! Perfect!

This trip was the beginning of my experience with Buddhism. It was the first time I "respected the Buddha" – This is done by kneeling before the multiple images that form the focal point of all Wats (Temples), and then bowing (I bend forward and put my hands to the sides of my knees) three times. -- It was also the first time I "made merit" by offering incense and candles and flowers to the Buddha. Money and food are also commonly offered – sometimes every day (I think).

On Valentines day (called Valentine day – which both Jacob and I kept hearing as "Volunthai" – I wonder if that is where they got the name?) Jacob and I were invited (with some of the teachers) to a party hosted by the Governor of the province. In many ways it was like any other party. There were booths set up around the edge of the park that provided food. There was music (first a violinist and then a big band), played very loud (Thai style – everywhere there is music, it is played so loud that I have to lean in to hear what the person next to me is saying!). There was dancing! (I danced Thai style for the second time in my life! The first time was at the boy/girl-scout (required for all students in M4-6 (aqua 10th, 11th, 12th grades) camp bonfire. I have since performed with the school band at a festival celebrating the building of a temple!) Jacob and I got our photo taken with the Governor and his wife. Then we went home, three computers richer! (part of the reason for the party was to give away about 20 brand-new computers donated by the Red Cross to the schools in the province.

Jacob and I also drove and drove and drove to a forest temple in the middle of nowhere, near the Cambodia border (stopping at a local fruit orchard to discover strange and delicious new fruits on the way). Refugees had passed through there 20 or 30 years ago and had been massacred. And the monks had built a temple near-by. It was beautiful and very peaceful. But the story will have to wait for another day.

Finally, and also very briefly, I got to walk in the town parade. It was a celebration of the life of Buddha, before he became the Buddha. Many of the teachers and other big-shots of town got dressed up in ancient costumes. We were dressed in silk and gold. Everyone looked amazing (!), though it took so long to get us all ready that the parade left about 2 hours late!) Everyone in town laughed and applauded to see the faring dressed as a Thai. There were elephants, and the first horse I've seen here. People carried stacks of golden hoops on tall poles and banners that fluttered in the breaze (or when they walked anyway) and god's-eyes that looked like mobiles. When I saw them being made, I asked Mook about it, and she said they were to make the parade look like Heaven – which it did. We walked about one, maybe half, a kilometre to the temple in the blazing heat (the hottest day to that point) being offered water and cotton soaked in menthol or eucalyptus to keep us "fresh." It took us nearly an hour! I had a great time!

Prang Ku

My school is in a very small town called Prang Ku (or Prangku).
It is not as small as some of the towns I've been to, but it is small.

I arrived here on a Thursday, after spending the night with the parents of the founder of Volunthai -- getting briefly acquainted with Thai food and life -- and a bus ride that began at 4am and arrived in Si Sa Ket (or Sisaket) at about noon.

My host, Mook, and another teacher from the school, Ju, took me to lunch (where I had noodles -- basically a thin broth with noodles in it and various other things, this time various fish and animal parts -- I was trying not to think about what I was eating), and then to buy a yellow shirt! I am now prepared to teach on Mondays. (I have since acquired about 4 more yellow shirts, so I basically can wear the same thing day in and day out! It is restfull having a uniform! I am a large or extra large in this country by the way -- as opposed to a small or extra small in the US -- I'm on the tall side for a woman, too. All of which is a bit strange to think about.)

When we arrived at the school, we went to the canteen to eat again and meet all the teachers. I have never been good with names, and having a bunch (I mean about 10 or 15) names like Nit, and Nan, and Nun(Naung), and Et (or Ed (actually Ad)-- who is a woman) all at once was a bit over whelming. I recognize everyone, but am still sorting out who is who. I also met Jacob -- another volunteer, a Korean from Canada, who is here teaching English, Korean, and doing chiropracticy on anyone who needs it. He and I have been hanging out a lot, as the two English speaking Farange (foreigners). It is very nice to have someone that I can talk to at a normal rate and not have to struggle to make myself understood!

The rest of my first day was spent settling in to my room and meeting people, the head of the English department, the Director and Assistant Director of the school, etc. I took a nap, still being jet lagged from the flight 4 days before. That evening they had a party for me where I got to meet the rest of the teachers. Very nice, though again, a bit over whelming. Then on Friday, I stood in front of the school (about 1000 students) and introduced my self on the PA. I've never really spoken into a Mic. before, so it was a bit daunting. Everyone laughed, so I guess it was OK. On Monday of last week I started teaching. I have basically one lesson that I use over and over again. I'm a bit tired of it, but it works very well for all levels and the kids seem to enjoy it.

The school is very different from NNMS. For one thing, it is huge! There are about 1000
students in 6 grades (from ages 12 to 18 or so). We have a morning assembly every day where they raise the flag and sing and hear announcements. After the flag rasing, the students crouch or sit on the ground. The teachers are much more laid-back about arriving to class than I was in the US. Jacob said that when he first arrived, he would show up early or on time to class and no one would be there, so he took to showing up about 5-10 minutes late. I have adopted his stratagee and it seems to work -- though a couple of times I have walked in on the teacher starting to teach the class. Oops! At the end of class, the bell rings, and the teacher keeps them for a few more minutes, so I guess everything balances out in the end. But it is very strange to me. My first day went well -- the first class was great, the second was rough, and the third was also great! So 2 out of 3 is not bad. The students are much noisier than I am used to (banging things and talking to each other) and I don't know how much of that is because I don't speak Thai, or because that is accepted in Thai culture. There is a lot of talking during the assembly and no one seems to care very much. Another major difference is that while the classrooms are enclosed, nothing else is (the hallways are open, as is the canteen, and the auditorium). Also, the students take off their shoes before entering the classrooms. One of the perks of being a teacher is that I get to continue to wear shoes, even inside. Though, being raised by a southern mother I love going barefoot and often take my shoes off under the table anyway.

I'm staying in a teacher house on campus, which is much more primitive than my US homes, but not so much more. The bathroom is very different, of course. The whole room is for taking a bath (which is done by scooping water out of a huge ceramic vessle with a small plastic dish and pouring it over myself). And there is no flush toilet (or toilet paper), but there is running water that gets "warm"(meaning just a few degrees above "cold") so bathing in the morning is not too bad. And as the weather gets hotter, the cold water feels wonderful! We do dishes out the window (there is a table just out side and we lean out of the window when we wash the dishes). The stove is connected to a gas cylinder rather than the wall and is only a single burner, rather than a stove-top and oven (I have yet to see an oven, though there is a teacher here who likes to bake, so they do exist here). So far my host, Mook, has prepared all my meals for me, so that is very nice! (though I miss western style food! -- Jacob and I periodically indulge in fantasies of bread (me more than him) and milk and other western foods.) Last night we had a dining adventure: Fried crickets as a before dinner snack (actually very tasty, if I didn't think about what I was eating -- the fat ones are best) and then I cooked morning glory which we ate over red rice. Very good if I do say so my self (though to be fair Mook helped a lot). We are having an English Club/Department party on Thursday. All the teachers are making "American" food -- I'm eager to see what that turns out to be. Jacob and I decided to make something together -- so we are making spaghetti (Thai style).

It doesn't seem all that much different, here. Not really. Except for the food. The food is very strange. LOTs of fish and things that I've never eaten before (and some of which I am trying not to think about). The teachers and students all wear western style clothes. Ride bikes and motorcycles and cars. And there is a TV (two of them in my room) and a DVD player in the English Department and computers and cell phones and all kinds of other western things, so most of the time it doesn't feel all that much different. For better or worse.

I'll leave you in suspense now, and hint at my overnight visit to a Buddhist Temple, a "Valentine" Party with the Governor of the province (Si Sa Ket or Sisaket), a weekend trip to Laos, and me (possibly) showing off my (limited) Thai dancing skills at the festival this Saturday.

Bangkok

My trip around the world, or at least off the North American continent, started with a shock! Checking in I handed my passport to the man at the counter who checked my bags and all that. He handed it back to me saying, "Your passport's not valid!"

What?! It has to be ... I'm leaving now!

"You forgot to sign it."

Huge sigh of relief!

My flight from SD to LA was uneventful. It was a tiny commuter plane, three seats wide. And the flight time was only about 25 minutes.

In LA I dashed through the airport to the international terminal to check into my flight and get a seat and a boarding pass, etc. Then dashed to meet Max and Cynthia for dinner at a very swank restaurant called Encounters. A bowl of soup and a salad -- both delicious -- cost $20! After dinner I dashed back to the international terminal and stood in line a lot. When I finally arrived at the gate (or actually the area where we caught the shuttle to the gate) I heard my name on the PA. Not a very reassuring start to my trip, especially after SD! But they had only forgotten to remove the ticket itself.

The plane was beautiful! Orange and pink and purple seats. Our own purple pillow and blanket. Water bottles waiting for us. I felt like I was in first class, even in the way back of the plane! They fed us real food, on real dishes, with real metal silverware and glass glasses. Gave us wine at dinner and an after dinner drink. An in-seat TV monitor where we could choose from about 40 different movies, or play games, or learn languages, or watch the plane travel around the world, or ... Swank! I either haven't flown on enough international airlines or Thai airlines is spectacular! Or both. Part of what made the trip so wonderful was that the plane was more than half empty. At least where I was. So I had two seats to my self and could "stretch out" and lie down when I wanted to sleep. The strangest part of the trip though was flying the whole way in the dark. I have never experienced a whole "day" of night. Every time I looked out the window it was pitch black outside. Not much to look at. Though I did enjoy seeing the cities of China lit up in the dark. And the reflection of the moon on the ocean below.

The airport in Bangkok was no problem. Other than the fact that I got confused about weather or not I needed a visa -- wound up not getting one, which was just as well (more on that later). And I managed to find a taxi to the city, and my hotel, even without knowing a word of Thai! This international travel stuff is a breeze!

My hotel was in the tourist part of the city (Kow San Road), but behind a temple, so a bit quieter than other areas. I have to admit it was nice to be surrounded by other tourists. It didn't feel quite so unsettling as being surrounded by people who I can't understand at all! The hotel it self is nothing special on the upper flours. Clean (which is a lot) but that's it. The common area, though was fab. Very tropical and exotic. Open air dining area and bar covered with colorful shades where tourists sit and write in journals or drink tea all day. I felt very much like the rich luxuriating tourist!

My first day I wandered around. I arrived on a Monday, and was surprised to see that almost all the locals were dressed in yellow shirts. Often with black pants or black skirts. Everyone. The taxi driver, the street sweeper, the businessman, girls, boys, women and men. It was like a uniform. (I am ironically wearing a yellow shirt and black pants now). A man on the street approached me and told me the reason -- Monday is the King's birthday. Every Monday. So all of Thailand honors the King (They LOVE the King) by wearing yellow on Monday -- and many other days of the week as well. I then proceeded to get scammed by a tuk-tuk driver (despite the warnings). I decided, though, that it was all part of the fun -- and I didn't actually wind up spending any money, only time driving around the city -- which is more or less what I wanted to do anyway.

That night I met up with a German woman, Mareike. She had a tick in her shoulder and together we went to the dermatologist to have it removed. Very strange experience to be surrounded by people waiting to have botox or something and try to explain to someone who speaks limited English about the tick. I'm still not entirely sure we all understood each other completely.

Mareike and I had dinner and then hung out again the next day. It was my first full day, and her last day (she got on a bus to the airport that evening). We had breakfast at the hotel and then took the tourist boat (unlimited rides for $100 BHT -- about $3 US) up and down the river. First to Wot XXXX to see the reclining Buda -- Truly spectacular! I took a zillion photos of the temple grounds. We also bought into the local tourist (and some locals) custom, of dropping $1BHT coins into 100 metal dishes. You drop one in each dish and it is good luck.


We had lunch on the street (soup) and then headed up to the tourist district for a snack of coffee and cheese sandwiches on croissants! (her first in months and my last) Then back down to the flower market where we wandered the streets looking at a world that is very different from the one I am familiar with in Chicago and the rest of the US. There were fried grasshoppers, and grubs of some kind (I was later told that they are silk worms). HUGE buckets of garlic, pepers, and all kinds of crazy foods. The flowered were even different -- the flower part sometimes wrapped in paper to protect it, other times very decoratively arranged.

We took our last boat ride back to the hotel and while she figured out how to get to the airport, I met with a woman from the volunteer organization (Volunthai) to figure out how I was to get to the bus to the town where I would have training and then to the school where I would work. Marike and I had one last dinner together and then, after she headed home, I hung out with the tourists and then went to bed -- still a bit jet lagged. -- Thailand is 12 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US 15 hours ahead of the West coast!

Next day, I wandered the streets, taking pictures and then headed to the bus station. I met Amy, the other volunteer, at the bus station and she and I (the only white people on the bus) headed to training.

Gone!

Heading to the airport in a matter of minutes!

Nervous. Excited. I hate leaving at the end of the day. Plus dealing with airplanes and schedules, etc. Yuck.

I don't know what access I will have to internet in Thailand. Maybe lots. Maybe none. I'll try to keep this up, but I may not be able to put photos on or update regularly. Keep checking. I will be in touch. And think of me, over the next 20 hours, as I travel from here to there.

Love!

Going, Going...

I suppose I've left you all in suspense long enough.

I bought a ticket to Thailand. One way. I leave on the 27th and, 24 hours later, arrive (very jet lagged, I'm sure) in Bangkok on the 29th. (Yes, it really is the 29th and not the 28th). I will have a day or two in Bangkok, and then I'll meet up with someone from the program, get on a bus (!) and go north to spend a month working with Thai students on improving their English language skills. When school ends in March, I'll either move on to another volunteer program (working in a national park maybe), or come back to the states, or have some other adventure of some sort. I'll let you know how it all goes.

It is very exciting now that the decision is finally made!

There is also a possibility that I will come back to Chicago for the AAM (American Association of Museums) conference in May. But that is still months away and I have only just managed to make a decision about February!

(Just a little bit of symbolism in the photos I've added this time)

The Future ...

By now I bet you are all wondering if I am ever going to leave the country! (or at least get off the continent)

And the answer is...
I've been accepted to a program (actually two programs) in Thailand. One is to teach English and the other is to work in a national park or on some sort of Eco-Tourist program.

I have to admit I'm terrified!

But I think I'm going to go! Ironically, just as I am getting ready to go, things here in San Diego are picking up. There are a lot of (possibly paying) positions working in education and/or exhibits in the S.D. museums. I'm torn!