Merry Christmas…Thai style!

I should begin by explaining the phrase “Thai style,” as it is one of our favorites. Most important is the pronunciation, which is: “Thai styyyyy,” since Thai people almost never pronounce the final sound in English words. Anyways, it simply means something that acts, looks, or actually is Thai. Anything from architecture, to the way one dresses, to the adding of spicy powder to my dinner can be “Thai style.” At first we thought that Pan coined this phrase, but when we visited our friends in another province they were also saying it, after hearing their teachers use it. Most often we hear the phrase in regards to our clothing, and receiving a “Thai style” comment has become somewhat of a contest, as we try to see who can receive more or who can guess when one will be given out by Pan. Pan is very unpredictable though as there will be days when we’ll wear something that we bought in Thailand, obviously expecting a “Thai style," and we won’t get it. Then some days we’ll wear random clothes from America that don’t look in any way Thai to us and Pan will surprise us with an “Ohhhh, Thai styyyy”. When I’m desperate I’ll just flat out ask Pan if I look Thai style, that’s pathetic though and doesn’t count. Emily and I have inserted this phrase into our vocabulary and overuse it on many occasions. So anyways, Christmas this year was Thai styyy, because we were in Thailand, of course.

When Emily and I found out that the Teach in Thailand program was from October to March one of the first things we realized was that we would be gone for Christmas. We were expecting it to be a lonely holiday as most Thai people are Buddhist and because it would be the first time we would be celebrating without our families. It ended up being quite the opposite, helped by the fact that it is in the 80s here during the day and we did not hear any Christmas music or see any decorations unless we were in a big shopping mall, and therefore weren’t constantly reminded of the holiday season we were missing. We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that our school does celebrate Christmas, by canceling classes and filling the day with various fun events and performances.

Emily and I got to school bright and early on Christmas Day to talk with our families on Skype before the day’s festivities began. We had been put in charge of directing both the English Club in singing two songs and the 7th grade class in a performance of the nativity play. As for English Club, each semester the students pick one academic club to be a part of and on Tuesday afternoons they meet for two periods. Students pick English Club because they think it will be easy and require little effort on their part since the foreign teachers (Emily and I) just play games and sing songs with them. Therefore, picking English Club does not necessarily mean that a student loves learning English and it definitely doesn’t mean that they want to sing English songs in front of their whole school. This made practicing with them a bit difficult for us. The two songs to be performed were “Que sera, sera,” which all of Thailand has become obsessed with because it is played in a new television commercial, and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. We had been practicing “Que sera, sera” ever since the first club meeting, so the students easily had that memorized by the time Christmas came. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” was introduced only a few weeks before Christmas though, and the students were expected to learn both the lyrics and hand motions (that Emily and I made up). The song was a bit tricky for them as some of the lines are a mouthful and the CD version we had was pretty fast. Their stage performance on Christmas Day was mediocre at best, since the 12th grade students (our best English speakers) did not show up and somehow English club sprouted several new members that we hadn’t seen since the first or second meeting. Emily even swears that one girl sang that wasn’t even in the club at all. We also didn’t have microphones and some even sung with their heads down (“OMG, singing with English Club is sooo embarrassing!”). During “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” somehow every student forgot the hand motions and had to look backstage at Emily and I to mimick our motions, meanwhile turning their backs to the audience. Good try English club!

As far as the nativity play, I would like to point out that there is no drama club at our school, full of students who enjoy acting. Therefore, we had to randomly pick a class to be our cast, forcing students, who never volunteered themselves as actors, onto a stage in front of their peers. We weren’t asking too much of the students though, as Emily narrated the entire play and the students just had to act out what she read, but it is very hard to get 7th grade boys who don’t like drama and don’t speak English to cooperate. They spent most of their time using their props to hurt each other, as I looked over at one point to see one of the shepherds using his staff to put the angel Gabriel in a headlock…very respectful. We also only had time for 2 or 3 short practices, and sometimes half the cast would be missing. Overall, we lacked the ingredients for a successful play, but we tried our best, and since the students are only in 7th grade anything they do is pretty cute. So even though the students turned their backs to the audience the entire play, the baby Jesus, which was actually a stuffed frog wrapped in a blanket, had to be handed on stage because Mary forgot it, and our music wouldn’t play, the audience still clapped at the end and everyone was smiling…and we were just happy that it was over! Here is a video link to some excerpts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUIsjDBdOHs

Throughout the rest of the day random events went on in celebration of Christmas and New Years, although with some events we couldn’t really see the connection. For example there was a Korean fashion show that concluded the day. Thai students are obsessed with anything Korean. They love their fashion and their singers and think that Koreans are very beautiful, supposedly because their skin is lighter and their noses are smaller? Anyways, a bunch of students dressed up like Koreans and showed off on stage while the rest of students voted for a winner. Emily and I also cracked up at a random poster we saw that said “Merry Christmas from Koreans” on it along with pictures of Koreans pasted on.

After school Pan picked us up to begin phase 2 of the Christmas Day celebrations which included going out for dinner and then going to the club “Highlight." Yes, Pan is 51 years old and she has been talking about going to this club with us on Christmas Day ever since October when she bought the bottle of whiskey for the event. She brought us into town and dropped us at a guesthouse, “The Mansion,” where we would stay the night after going out, since no one would want to drive us all the way back to the Jungle House. Pan then went home to get her daughter, Poon (side note: I love Poon), before scooping us back up to bring us to dinner where we met Sutham and Janwit, a member of the school board (he was also the leader of our Thanksgiving field trip). We went to a place called “Log Home,” which looks just like its name and is a nice restaurant with an expansive menu of both Thai and American fare. Poor Poon had to endure the obnoxiously American dishes we ordered to share, like French fries, fried chicken, and spaghetti. She ate everything without complaining but then had to order a Thai dish after we were done so she could actually eat something that she liked. This was the second time we had been to Log Home with Pan, and the last time we were the only ones there so we had sung karaoke. Pan decided that we must sing again, but this time we were not alone, and were instead seated next to a party of about 10 people, that included a few Thai VIPs, like a well-known doctor, aka too important to be annoyed with our bad American karaoke singing. Pan was therefore turned down by the waiter when she asked if we could sing, as his boss apparently didn’t want to lose the VIPs’ weekly business forever. But once the doctor heard we wanted to do karaoke he waved his magic wand and we were able to. Our song requests went ignored and instead they played Christmas song after Christmas song for me and Emily to entertain them with. The doctor even sang a Thai karaoke song in between…because everyone in Thailand loves some good karaoke no matter how important they may be. Our singing certainly didn’t bother him and his friends too much though because when we were leaving they told us we were invited to join with them at Log Home every Friday...score!

After dinner it was time to drop Poon back off at Pan’s house, because although she is old enough to go out she had absolutely no interest in doing so. I guess she didn’t feel up for watching her Mom dance to Thai pop music in crowds of people 30 years younger than her...understandable. Sutham also took a pass on the invite to Highlight, so that left Pan, Janwit, Emily, and myself. Pan made poor Janwit be the designated driver, saying that it was his duty as a member of the school board. We told her that we had a hard time believing that part of his job description said “Designated driver for Farang and Pan whenever they may need one,” but we were thankful nonetheless. To describe Highlight, it has both an outdoor and an indoor section. The outdoor section is more of a restaurant and has a live band until about 10pm, which plays nice slow Thai songs and caters to older Thai people. The inside is basically a club, with high tables and no chairs and live bands starting around 10:30pm that play fast Thai pop hits from the radio. It is hard to find anyone over the age of 30 inside, as it is a place where Thai young adults go to dance, drink, and hang out with friends, so we were surprised that Pan had agreed to come with us. She had said that she had been once before though, so we assumed she understood what she was volunteering for. Once she asked if there were chairs inside to sit down we realized that she must have only been to the outside section. The inside was going to be a little too loud and overwhelming for her and Janwit, although she did come in a few times to do some hilarious dance moves with us that included lots of “spirit finger”-like hand motions. The rest of the time her and Janwit acted as our babysitters as they sat outside while we were inside enjoying the band. It ended up that the only free table was right by the windows, directly across from where they were sitting, so they were able to see our every move, ready to pounce if any funny business went down. Pan had also invited the secretary from the front office of our school, Camp, after we mentioned that last time we had gone to Highlight we had run into him. We had previously thought he was a student teacher just helping in the office, maybe 20 years old or so, but it turns out that he is actually 27. I still have trouble believing this, but this may be due to the fact that he has braces. Anyways, Pan got to send him into the club with us, so she didn’t have to endure it but she knew we weren’t alone in there. He ended up being a hoot. He looooved to dance and was teaching us the moves that go along with the popular songs. He also taught us that the first verse to the Thai version of “Jingle Bells” is translated as “Jingle bells, jingle bells, cats eat fish.” I guess the Thai weren’t too impressed with the real words and made up their own instead. It should also be pointed out that Camp could have won an award for best smiler, as he smiled the entire time we were at the club…a very precious boy indeed, our new Thai BFF.

All in all, our Christmas Day in Thailand was more jam-packed than we could have ever imagined, and we certainly weren’t lonely. We did miss the traditions we are used to, but just this one time we felt ok being away from home, as it gave us the chance to celebrate the holidays in a totally different and fun way.

Chula-bots, Borders, and Biting Insects

Hello followers, (and all those who read regularly and are afraid to become a follower). If you can’t tell from the title, this weekend was yet another eventful one!

Two weeks ago when we visited Jessie in Chiang Rai, her teachers repeatedly mentioned the English Camp that would be taking place on the 17th, and how much they are in dire need of native speaker teachers. We politely declined at the time, due to the fact that we weren’t planning on making another trip to Chiang Rai (about 4 hours) and we were nervous taking more time off from teaching. Turned out that things got desperate over at Rong Rian Chulabborn, and native speakers were bailing right and left, so enter Kru Erin and Kru Emily to save the day! (Plus we got an official letter from Chulabhorn for an excused absence from Hangchat, and our bus tickets paid for!)

We arrived back at lovely Chulabhorn on Thursday evening and had a chance to visit with some of our long-lost CIEE program-mates, (whom we had never met before!) and some of Allison’s fellow Fulbright Scholars, nine Americans all together who would be working at the camp.
The English Camp was for Matayom 2 only, (8th grade) because they are the only class at the school that doesn’t have the pleasure of being taught by a native speaker regularly. After a 7 am breakfast (pork and vegetables over rice . . .Yes that’s right, dinner for breakfast is typical in Thailand, Gilman) we had a chance to get a look at the kids over in the meeting hall. If I wasn’t impressed by these kids before, I certainly was after that encounter! As each of us introduced ourselves to the group, (a simple, ‘Hello, I’m Emily,”) the kids applauded and shrieked wildly in absolute glee. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. At Hangchat, when Erin and I say “Good morning’ to the kids, we get occasional glances in our direction, completely laughed at, maybe a smile and a very quiet ‘Good morning teacher,’ as a response. The Chula-bots were in utter ecstasy to be in our presence. (I call the Chulabhorn students Chula- bots, because they are so incredibly smart, well-mannered, and eager to learn, as if they have been programmed for success by the Princess herself).

We spent the day on Friday manning a station, and doing our assigned activity with each of the 8 groups. I should add that the genius theme for English camp, that Jessie and Alison came up with, was the Solar System, so each group was a planet and each game involved something Space-like. The Cha Cha Slide became the “Space Boogie Station,” so cute and clever. Erin baked in the sun while playing shooting star hopscotch, or something similar. I baked in the sun while hosting a constellation game show, or something similar. If the game show finished early, I would ask the kids to sing for me (a common theme in my life these days). Here’s a clip of a Thai song and dance that all the kids are doing these days. We heard the Hangchat kids sing it a few weeks ago on Sports Day. Here is "Venus" singing on command. Love those mutant ninja turtle headbands!

Friday night we took all the kids to the Night Bazaar, to ‘practice their English.’ In reality, the kids shopped and got their BB guns repaired. A few completed their assignment of interviewing “Farangs” at the market, asking where they were from, etc. ‘Where are all the Thai teachers,’ we were wondering at one point. Look no further than the food stands, great supervision. When the kids left at 8, the Americans stayed, took in a Gateuey show (a ladyboy spectacular-spectacular extravaganza,) ate roti (Thai fried dough, most likely my favorite food here) and had a few drinks. Then we went to listen to some reggae at Peace Bar. It’s all about the reggae here in Thailand, and I’m sort of loving it!

On Saturday we watched and judged the kids’ skits. They were really weird. Many involved some really awkward young teen slow-dancing. Others involved lots of baby powder, used in lieu of a fog machine. One had Michael Jackson in it. All involved lots of shrieking and swooning. All in all, it was sort of like being asked to choose in which manner you would prefer to die – all so painful, how do you choose?

Then we got presents, a phenomenal buffet lunch at a fancy hotel (complete with both cake and ice cream,) and some hugs from the Chula-teachers.

Saturday night, we met up with yet another CIEE-er, (Wow! Reunion!) and made our wonderful return to Teepee Bar and then back to Peace Bar. Erin met some British teens (19, but still, some of our students are almost 19!) and she liked to pet their heads and call them ‘her little nuggets.’ We all did our fake British accents and disgusted them with our crass American ways. At some point during this very eventful night, I was attacked by some sort of demonic breed of insects. I’m going to have to blame it on Teepee Bar, just because that place is violating more health codes than exist, and we were sitting on mats on the floor. The next morning, I woke up with approximately 75 large red bites covering my calves and ankles. I will spare you a photo, but I will say that they are getting grosser and itchier by the day. Thank you Teepee, for the lovely souvenir.

Sunday, (after some banana pancakes of course,) Erin and I hopped a bus to Mae Sai, where Thailand borders Myanmar. We were told that we must visit this town because of the unbelievable shopping opportunities. Although the town itself isn’t all that scenic, the shopping was something to experience. Market upon market was lining the streets selling everything from transistor radios to cashews to kiddie pools. I got to practice my bartering, (“Pang ma! Lok noy ka? Nitnoy? Mai dai, Sawadi ka!” Shut down!) and we got a killer view from the top of a mountain Wat (temple). When we came down from the Wat, a random man made us smile for a picture, first one of Erin, then one of the two of us, far away shots, then close-ups. If only my students were so captivated!

Before the journey home on Monday, we made our way to Sop Ruak, (after a broken sandal emergency, during which Erin saved the day by running across the street and buying me the ‘ugliest flip flops she could find’). Sop Ruak has become known as the center of the Golden Triangle in Thailand. The Golden Triangle is really a stretch of thousands of kilometers of land covering Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, where opium harvesting and production was most prevalent in Southeast Asia. Now Sop Ruak is basically not much more than a tourist attraction, although there were some cool Disneyworld status statues, a somewhat interesting museum, and again, some more great scenic views across the Mekhong River. And I have finally found a circumstance where being a Farang has its benefits. In our Sarng tao-ous (taxis) and buses, there were frequent police stops and drug checks. All the Thai people had to show their ID cards and papers, to ensure there is no illegal border hopping going on. Erin and I are white, obviously not Burmese, so they didn’t give us a second look. What if I was transporting drugs across the border? Maybe I was adopted by a Burmese couple . . . come on guys, cover your bases!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Erin and I will be celebrating by drinking Johnnie Walker at the club with Pan and ‘some math teachers.’ Unconventional, yet unforgettable I’m sure. We’re missing everyone a lot, go outside and make a snow angel for me.

Pai in Love

This past weekend we continued our travel outside of Hang Chat by visiting the town of Pai, which is a little over 4 hours northwest of us, up in the mountains. To get there we had to take a bus to Chiang Mai and then a van from Chiang Mai to Pai. The road from Chiang Mai to Pai is famous for its 762 curves…meaning Emily and I were crammed into a 13 passenger van speeding around 762 sharp turns on narrow, steep roads for 3 hours. We had read online that the trip often causes passengers to get sick…and we were so very lucky to witness this in our own van. The girl was very dainty and Thai about it though, because I didn’t even notice it was happening. In any case, Emily and I kept our eyes closed for most of the trip to avoid doing the same.

Our trip started off on the wrong foot when one of the seats we bought for the van to Pai had also been accidentily sold to another person. Of course since we are foreigners we had to be the ones to wait and take another van. After the two hours we had to wait for that van, we had to wait another two hours to get on a van with available seats. We were saying that if the same situation had happened in America, both of our tickets would have been refunded and we probably would have been given free tickets to ride the bus in the future. In Thailand, you get one of your tickets refunded (which only saved us about $2 each) along with a big smile and apology...fine, we’ll take it.

To set the scene…the best word to describe Pai is “chill”. Everything and everyone is extremely relaxed and it’s a bit hippiesque. It’s also small enough that you can walk just about anywhere and it seems to exist entirely for tourists, with the downtown full of shops and restaurants all geared towards visitors. Most people were extremely friendly and everyone seemed to know one another, even if they’d only been in town for a couple of days. Emily and I quickly found out the truth in this when, after just one night in town, we started recognizing people the next morning while we were walking around. The man driving by on the motorbike was the guy who had played guitar at the bar the night before and the girl dancing by the stage had previously been our waitress. It became almost comical as we found ourselves waving to people and had people coming up to us asking us if we were going to be at a certain place again that night. It was certainly a very homey place. People are so at home, in fact, that many even wore sweatpants and ski hats to the bars…where you sit outside on pillows by fires and listen to live music under the stars. Perfection.

When we finally arrived in Pai it was already dark and we still hadn't found a place to stay. The other couple weekends that we have traveled we have called the guesthouses listed in Lonely Planet (our Bible) the day before we arrive, but when we tried this for Pai they all said that they were full. We decided we would just have to walk around when we got there, guesthouse by guesthouse, asking if they had room. We quickly realized why it was so impossible to find a room…the town was completely packed! There were so many people squeezed in the streets that our van could hardly get through. We got dropped off randomly on the side of one of these busy streets and started looking for a place to stay. It was a pretty pathetic scene as we got turned away, one place after the next. We were informed that Pai only became so touristy, especially with Thais themselves, two or three years ago when two Thais films were made there, causing a lot of people to want to visit (“Pai in Love” was one of these movies, hence the blog title, and the fact that we fell in love with Pai!). Long story short: we ended up staying across a river and up a dirt hill will no street lights (thank goodness for my new flashlight purchase) in a little village of “bungalows” aka camping 5 feet off the ground. It was not what we were hoping for, but we had no other options unless we wanted to sleep on benches.

For all our trouble getting to and finding a place to stay in Pai we rewarded ourselves with cheeseburgers for dinners. We usually try not to eat Western food as it is more expensive and kind of pathetic to do while you’re in a country with such great local food, but that night it was necessary! After dinner, we stopped for a quick drink at a bar with a live band full of random old Thai men. They happened to be on their last song when we arrived and ended up talking with us after. Somehow the lead singer, Nong, who wore dark glasses even though it was dark, scheduled Emily to sing a song with the band the next night. He was just our first of many new Pai friends.

On Friday, we woke up early in hopes that we would beat other travelers to the guesthouses to find a more suitable place to stay for the next two nights. Luckily, after a hearty breakfast of banana pancakes with honey (which seems to be the only thing we order whenever they are on the menu), some good luck came our way and we found a lovely guesthouse called “Mr. Jan’s” that happened to have just one empty room. We almost jumped on poor old Mr. Jan we were so thankful to have found a nice place without much trouble. The funniest part was that when we arrived, a sign was hanging up that said “FULL”. Thankfully, we decided to check just to be sure.

Next, we decided to take a trip out to the hot springs we had read about. I did some Wikipedia’ing upon return home and I found out, if anyone is uninformed like we were, that hot springs are like any other natural spring, but the water in them is heated deeper in the Earth’s core than the water in cold water springs. The deeper water seeps into the Earth’s crust, the higher temperature it reaches as it comes into contact with hot rocks. Ok, enough science for one post. There are no traditional taxis in Pai, but instead motorbikes that are driven by people with yellow vests that say “Taxi”. It made for a thrilling ride as we drove about 15 minutes up and down hills that were surrounded by beautiful fields and mountains.

We ended up being the only foreigners at the springs, which meant we were the only ones in bathing suits. For some reason, Thai people refuse to buy bathing suits. It may have to do with their modesty, but they take it a little far…they won’t even wear shorts and a tank top but usually don long pants and shirts. In any case, the hot springs were super relaxing. It was just like being in a big hot tub. We even saw a Thai family using the springs as an actual bath, bringing soap to clean their naked toddlers.

The next activity on the docket was Yoga with “Mama” (pictured above). Holy cow was this lady on another planet, but she was certainly entertaining. She was in her 60’s, a half Thai, half Indian wonder, with a weave of long hair down her back and anklets that jingled as she walked. We entered her “studio” to find it absolutely covered in tchotchkes, beads, and tapestries along with dozens and dozens of pictures of herself from her younger years when she was a model (her glory days). Her age didn’t hold her back from doing some pretty impressive yoga moves, though. It was a two hour session but half of the time we were supposed to be meditating, during which time Mama would mysteriously disappear, probably to finish some household chores. Mama’s cat was also participating in the yoga, occasionally sitting in our laps and rubbing up against us while we were twisted into pretzel positions. After yoga, it was snack time. It had been advertised on the signs Mama hung up around town that her lessons came with a free Indian meal. We may have to report her for false advertising as all we got were Thai rice cakes and oranges, but she did make up for it with her bizarre life advice. Some of her topics included: how to get rid of a hangover, a.k.a. “how to make bad day into good day” and how we shouldn’t slouch because not only will we develop bad backs but we are also causing the fat in our stomach to put pressure on our internal organs which will make us ill (questionable logic…).

That night we made sure to go back to the bar Emily was scheduled to sing at. As a warm-up, she sang “Jolene” with a younger English guitar player, and it sounded just lovely. I did my non-karaoke-loving friend duty by taping all of her performances. Her first song with the band, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, also went well, but three songs in one night up may have been pushing her luck, so as Emily said about her rendition of “Country Roads, Take me Home”, “We only watch that video without audio”. Emily demanded we leave the bar after that, although I told her no one seemed to notice she wasn’t exactly in tune…c’mon, it’s Pai, no worries!

We continued to bar hop and met lots of interesting people, we even busted out our Thai dictionary to entertain some locals with our horrible pronunciation, the word “superman” being our favorite as its Thai translation is “poo-mee-um-nahd-lae-kawhm-sah-mahd-nur-ma-nood”. Riiiight.

The next day was an early one as we were going “white water” rafting. I feel like I’m always using quotation marks when describing things here, but this is due to the fact that almost everything we do ends up being totally different than what we were expecting. Translation: we thought we would actually be seeing some “white water” on our trip. To explain, Thailand has a wet season that lasts from June to October, and for the other months of the year it almost never rains. Therefore, since it has been 2 months since the rainy season ended, water levels in the rivers have gone down by about 6 feet. White water rafting quickly turns into paddling yourself down a river in a raft. During wet season, the trip, which is a 25 mile stretch, takes only 4 hours to complete, but it took us over 7 hours because the current was so much slower. This meant it was up to Emily and I, the Thai couple with us, and our guide, Taka, to paddle almost the entire 25 miles, give or take a few small currents that pushed us along. Although near the end of the trip there was some action, with faster currents and some small drops. Overall, we were taken by surprise at how much of a workout we ended up getting. We decided that if we were ever asked if we had been white water rafting, our response would be: “We thought we were going this one time in Thailand…”

That night we continued making our rounds. At first, we tried randomly choosing places that we thought looked cool, but they were all empty. Then we started talking to an American girl around our age who informed us that everyone goes to “BeBop” to start the night off and listen to live music until 1:00 AM and then moves on to “Bamboo” until whenever they can’t stay awake anymore, as it doesn’t close until the last person leaves…supposedly. Once we went to the bars in the Pai nightlife “line-up” we actually began seeing other people and making more friends to wave to around town. At BeBop, Emily got to sing yet again. This time as a back-up singer with a couple of Thai girls who Emily said were hogging the mic, rude. The band she sang with had a lead singer with an awesome voice…he is supposedly semi-famous in Australia.

Overall, our weekend in Pai was very busy. We left on Sunday morning after another banana pancake and hugs from all our new friends who told us they would be awaiting our return. As Emily put it, “People were sadder to see us leave Pai after 3 days than they were to see us leave America...", a bit of an exaggeration, don’t worry, we know you miss us, but it was a good, relaxing weekend with some very friendly people. If you made it this far, God bless you for reading this super long post!

Chiang Rai Styyyyyyy(le)

This past weekend we embarked on a true Northern Thailand adventure. We thought we had Monday off from work, for the King’s Birthday. Turns out Hangchat Wittaya chose to observe the holiday the following Friday, to create a more extended weekend for themselves. Did they inform us of this change more than 4 days before? No. Tough cookies. We’re skipping school and going to Chiang Rai.

Chiang Rai is in the far north of Thailand, very near the Burmese and Laotian borders. Sadly, we didn’t make it to the golden triangle. I think another trip to Chiang Rai is in the cards. We had heard that this city was sort of a smaller version of Chiang Mai (which we love). Plus, our wonderful friend Jessie from the CIEE program is teaching just outside the city. Who wouldn’t want to visit!?!

After a 4.5 hour bus ride, Erin and I arrived in the city, grabbed lunch, and took a TukTuk to Princess Chulaporn School, ‘Rong Rian Chulaporn,’ school for robots, to meet up with Jessie. Her school really couldn’t be any more different from good ol’ Hang Chat Wittaya. At Hang Chat, students don’t pay attention and have quite an aversion to speaking and learning English. At Chulaporn, students read and discuss racial issues in Huckleberry Finn (in English!) At Hang Chat, students motorbike off campus asap, and skip class whenever possible (when the Farangs are teaching). At Chulaporn, students live on campus, and are almost NEVER allowed to leave. In fact, when our TukTuk dropped us at the main gate, three handsome young students came right over to us and said in perfect English, “Excuse me, can I help you?” Yes, you can help me. Clone yourselves and come join my classes at Hang Chat Wittaya.

We were quickly introduced to Alison, Jessie’s lovely roommate who is in Thailand through the Fulbright Program, teaching these little Thai Einsteins, Thai-steins. After we dropped our bags at their jungle house, we rode into the city for some shopping and eating. The market is open every night and offers tons of clothes, crafts, jewelry, chotchkies, etc. I bought some ‘play-pants’ which are actually Thai ‘fisherman’s pants.” I call them play-pants because the students wear them on any fun days at school (when they can be out of uniform). They are actually pretty ugly and VERY Thai, but probably the most comfortable things ever. Erin bought LOTS of jewelry, and got scolded at by a merchant for not trying to barter. Stupid farangs. After shopping, we sat in the open food court area listened to music, chatted over a beer tower, and ate lots of tempura fried food. AROY MA! We’re talking fried carrots, fried broccoli, fried green beans. Heaven. Then we venture to "TeePee Bar." Another story for another day. Too much for one post.

The next day we set out for our trek, which was organized by the Hill Tribe Museum (thanks to Jessie and Alison for a great find!) The Hill Tribes are a group of native people who live in the mountains, and are really removed from the rest of Thai society (generally speaking). They are not able to become Thai citizens until they are 15 years old, prior to that, they have a “Hill Tribe Card” that gives them access to certain things. In the past they were sort of on the fringes of society, but apparently the current king has done a lot of work to better their conditions and opportunities. We were led by our guide Pooh, who basically didn’t want to be there (we think,) but there were no other available guides. But Pooh was awesome and we were lucky to have her! In our group we had John, from England, and Walter and Witska, a dating couple from the Netherlands. I think John was frightened by how loud our voices were and how much we liked to videotape things. Walter and Witska were just very large and blonde.

The trip is best explained through pictures and this handy video I made, but here are some highlights:

Boating down the Mekhong River . . .gorgeous scenic views!

Elephant trekking . . .Yes that’s right. We rode on elephants yet again! I’m becoming more comfortable on an elephant than in a car! Also, I was on an elephant with Jessie and our mahout basically forced her to ride on the neck for two reasons (we think). 1. So that he could get a good grasp on her behind when he pushed her up there. 2. So that he could go on an elephant riding first date with me, during which he liked to touch my knee (but then would get nervous and take his hand off). Also during our elephant trek, our mahout and Walter and Witska’s mahout made an interesting sort of discovery. They found something on the ground then started laughing and counting it. I think drugs. Not sure.

Hiking . . .Holy Toledo, I will never be a hiker. But I tried my best, and that’s all that matters (that’s what I tell the students, after all). On the second day, it was a pretty grueling uphill hike for a good 45 minutes. It was a near death experience, I’d say, and I had to force the group to take a couple of extra breaks at my expense. Holy lung capacity. Plus I’m clumsy to begin with. I trip over things in my bedroom. Throw in some roots, thorns, rocks, and a narrow mountain path and you’ve got yourself a train wreck. As Erin said, “I can’t walk behind you because with each step, I feel like I’m watching your death.” But in the words of the old civil rights activists, “We Shall Overcome.” Our trek leader was an elderly Akha man who wore flip flops (on the first day, at least) and carried bags of bread and food in his hands. He carved us some awesome bamboo walking sticks. He was never out of breath and never broke a sweat. He’s probably been hiking that path since the womb.

Akha Village . . . Really amazing! They had some electricity (on porches and in bathrooms, not in bedrooms,) but it was still a very primitive village of about 200 people. Most villagers can’t even speak or understand Thai, and only speak their Akha language. The older women in traditional gear loved selling their wares. Those hats can weigh up to 8 pounds! Some of the most interesting customs include the fact that the women and men live separately, and the men can have multiple wives (maybe 5?) Also, twins and flowers are taboo subjects (we read that on the sign, not so sure of the reasoning on the flowers). I bought a bracelet and got a free blessing with it, hopefully not for a baby like Witska got. We had some delicious food cooked by Pooh and some of the village women, green curry chicken and Thai spaghetti sauce with pork over rice, and the freshest pineapple I’ve ever eaten! We even got to take part in an Akha Welcome Dance around the fire, joining hands and dancing (Walter was not a fan, and Erin struggled to keep him in line). We ‘slept’ in the village overnight, as much as we could with crowing roosters inches from our heads, before finishing our hike on Sunday.

Overall, a once-in-a-lifetime weekend, worth the near –death hike. I felt like I had jumped inside my Cultural Geography textbook. Great stories for the grandkids. Enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD32dJvkuD4

Pai this weekend :)

Happy “Thanksgiving”

Ok, so we are a little behind considering Thanksgiving was almost two weeks ago, but better late than never…and we experienced our most unusual Thanksgiving to date this year, which always makes for a good blog post! Thanksgiving Day happened to fall on one of two “Sports Days” at our school, which are similar to “Field Day” in America. Although in America, at least at our school, we only had a half day for such events, while in Thailand they apparently need two full days without classes to get all their sports in. Since we had no classes to teach and we didn’t serve much purpose at the event (although I did wear my sneakers and a sporty outfit hoping someone would let me join…didn’t happen...boo!), Pan decided we could take a half day and go on a “field trip” with her in the afternoon. The reason “field trip” is put in quotation marks is because, usually, a field trip indicates a trip with some sort of exciting destination… maybe a zoo, or a foreign food restaurant, or at least a decently interesting museum, but our Thanksgiving field trip was to, drum roll please…a Thai power plant!!! I know it sounds thrilling…our reaction exactly, but we didn’t ask any questions and just went along with it, because you never quite know what is going to happen on an adventure with Pan.

I should note that one of the members of the Hang Chat school board, Mr. Janewit, is also a head honcho at the power plant, so he had told us we should visit, so it wasn’t totally random that we were going…I guess. Anyway, the power plant is enormous, as it serves all of Central, North, and Northeast Thailand. It is located in the district over from us on acres and acres of land. The scenery surrounding the plant was actually very beautiful with green rolling hills and little lakes, which we found out later were all manmade…takes away from the beauty a little bit, but we took a lot of photos (with Pan’s camera) anyway. Janewit held a personal photo shoot with me and Emily, having us pose in front of various trees and halfway down hills, hiding between flowering plants…he had me and Emily cracking up with his dead serious instructions: “Ok, now go into the flowers…no, further in”.

After the photo shoot we were taken to the power plant museum where tours are given about the history of the plant and how power is made, etc. We jumped in on a tour that was leaving just as we arrived…unfortunately it was for a group of Thai nurses and therefore was conducted in Thai. After a few too many videos in Thai and getting shut down by the tour guide when we tried to watch an exhibit in English, we moved on to the engineering building…try to contain your excitement! Here, we had a bunch of nerdy (no offense) Thai engineers explain things to us that we wouldn’t have understood in English, and therefore definitely couldn’t understand in their broken English…for example, how water is heated and cooled in different machines to produce energy…? We visited a few “work stations” (think men resting and a suspect bottle of liquor spotted) and looked at a few boards with lots of switches and lights...you know, very important-looking things.

Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the best part of the day occurred after the power plant tour was over, on our “coffee break” at the golf course clubhouse. This “coffee break” turned into a whole lot more than drinking coffee, that’s for sure. I think the golf course just happened to be on the power plant’s land and isn’t necessarily associated, but Janewit said he was “boss” and we would could have anything we wanted at the golf course clubhouse…wait, did someone say KARAOKE? Of course, it was Pan! Pan is obsessed with karaoke but tries to play it cool and pretend that the reason she asks anywhere and everywhere we go if they have karaoke is because she knows Emily loves it…which is also true. Since day one, everyone here has known about Emily’s love for karaoke, and I always like to quote her: “Once, I even won a karaoke contest…I got 50 bucks!” It had been a month and she still hadn’t gotten to show her skills…but the time had finally come! So at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, on what happened to be Thanksgiving Day, at a Thai power plant, in a golf course clubhouse, we ate steak, french fries, and various other delectable treats while singing karaoke to an empty house with two 50 year olds (for anyone reading this that is at or above this age, you are not old, don't worry...just saying).

Most restaurants in Thailand have the same karaoke system which includes a computerized database full of many Thai and English songs…you just type the artist or song title and it pops up if they have it. Emily would probably like you to know that most of her go-to karaoke songs are not available, so she has to be creative…this sometimes forces her to pick songs out of her range, but she always makes it work, even in less than ideal karaoke settings…what a trooper! Once you find a song you like you can just press enter and it starts to play. Or if you are Pan you can find lots of songs you like and select them so they play one after the other. Emily thought Pan would sing one song and then she would go, and they would switch off…but just as Pan’s songs would end and Emily would go to take the mic, another of Pan’s songs would start to play and she would keep right on singing. At one point, I think she sang four songs in a row…it was too funny. I took many videos of both Pan and Emily singing, they put on a great show for their audience of two (Mr. Janewit and myself) with their dancing, hand motions, and facial expressions, but they were on Pan’s camera. Curiously, they were not included in the email she sent with all the pictures from the day…maybe she didn’t enjoy the fact that I was bursting out laughing in the background while taping her singing old American love songs?? I would also like to note that prim and proper businessman, Mr. Janewit, even grabbed the mic to croon for us. We thought he was just saving Pan from singing alone, but then he started singing solo ballads and we knew it was more that that. Yes, I also sang a couple songs, including a duet with Emily to “Summer Loving”, obviously necessary!

Just your typical Thanksgiving Day in Thailand…we hope everyone else’s was just as eventful!