A Reminder of Tourist Season

In addition to the flood of people continuing to flow through Khao Lak, an experience I had this morning signaled to remind me that it is definitely tourist season here. Eit and Jay, the new V-STAY project managers who are here to do some errands and update us on the project, hitched with Carrie and I to school this morning. A guy in a car with plastic covering all of the seats picked us up, dropped the guys off at Chow Tai Mei School before taking Carrie and I less than a mile further to Ban Lam Pi. When we were exiting the car with “kob kun ka’s” (thank you’s) for his generosity, he blurted out “300 Baht”. Even more upsetting than this being a ridiculous amount to charge us (a taxi ride to the school would only be around 40 baht) was the fact that he didn’t say anything about paying when he picked us up, in which case we would have waited to catch another ride. No, he waited until he was dropping us off to let us know that he wanted us to pay for the ride. We called Eit, who is Thai, and asked him what we should do. While he and Jay walked over to help resolve things, Eit told us to have the English teacher talk to the guy in order to “shame him” out of making us pay. Seeing as how our “English teacher” doesn’t speak the languag he supposedly teaches, we called Eit to talk to the teacher after failing in our attempt to communicate via hand gestures and small words. The teacher walked out to the car, and instead of telling the guy that he was trying to screw over volunteers, Mr. Non-confrontational whispered two words- probably “’’tao rai”, which means “how much”- and gave the guy in the car 200 Baht.

We were all bothered by how the teacher decided to handle the situation despite the conversation Eit had just had with him. Interestingly enough, he wouldn’t allow Jay and Eit to reimburse him when they arrived.

This is the first time someone’s ever tried to rip me off by charging me for a ride in Thailand after they’ve driven to the destination without mentioning pay…It must be tourist season.

The rest of the school day…

Fourth and fifth grade were frustrating to teach because it seems they’ve forgotten most of the alphabet and letter sounds, which they appeared to be retaining last week. There is, however, always comic relief in at least one of the classes to help get us through such a challenging day. Today, this took place in fourth grade. We were making a circle when the girls, including myself, began to scream after noticing a spider nearly the size of my entire hand crawling up a wall next to one of the girls. One of the boys began kicking the spider, eventually knocking it off the wall. As soon as the spider landed on the ground, the rest of the boys joined in, smashed the spider, and began to play soccer with it, passing the spider to each other’s bare feet, and ultimately scoring a goal by kicking it out the classroom door.

New Pool Tournament Champ

I got sick again (just a head cold) on Friday, so I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with the pillow I don’t have this weekend in an attempt to dream the illness away. I also treated myself to an aromatherapy massage. It wasn’t very good- they should probably stick to Thai massage- but it did remind me that I want to take massage classes and become a certified masseuse. This in turn led me on a train of thought about other classes I’d like to take for fun- singing, music theory, ceramics, glassblowing, painting, cooking, and yoga instruction. Oh, and can’t forget the foreign languages- German, Italian, and French for the near future.

New restaurants are continuing to open and pop up all around. There are too many now to keep track of which ones have the best pad thai or fried mixed vegetables. Some of the restaurants are having a free dinner for volunteers as their grand opening. After trying out one of these new restaurants last night, a group of us went to the Marlin Bar to watch an English Premiere soccer game.

There is a pool tournament every Saturday night at the Marlin Bar. I felt like playing a game, so I joined in the tournament for 50 Baht (~$1.25), not expecting to play more than 1 game. Well, check out http://fishing-khaolak.com/marlin_bar/ to find a picture of the first female pool tournament champ in Khao Lak. Although there was one very good game, I must say it was mostly luck because each game was ultimately won by the competition doing something wrong with the 8 ball- scratched, sunk before the other balls, or sunk in a pocket different from the one called. Check out the website before next Saturday because there’s sure to be a picture of a different pool champ after the next weekly tournament.

Thanksgiving in Khao Lak

So I’ve been hearing today is Thanksgiving…hope you all are enjoying it back in The States. I’ve been invited to an “Americans ONLY” Thanksgiving celebration tonight, but I don’t plan on going. I don’t want to be part of something that excludes people of other nationalities just because they decided to have it at a small bungalow and they’re afraid of not having enough turkey for everyone.

Last night was Quiz Night at a local restaurant. I helped score the different teams’ answers and am still so intrigued by the massive amounts of random trivia people have stored in their memory. Quiz Night has become a great event to encourage unity and interaction among volunteers in the area. It’s also probably the highest sales night for Jai’s, the restaurant we patronize every Wednesday.

After Quiz Night, there was a brief bonfire before the rain came. A bunch of us huddled around a mini acoustic guitar and sang. Sebel, a kewl Australian girl I met just the other night, has a great voice. I wish I could sing like her. We had a great time taking turns playing the guitar and singing Jewel, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Counting Crows, etc. together.

Sebel leading us in song next to another chill beach bonfire

To keep a little Thanksgiving tradition, here are a few of the things I am thankful for:
- a loving, caring and giving Mom
- a Dad whose wisdom and integrity never cease to amaze me
- a forgiving brother who seems to have taken on several of Mom and Dad’s character traits
- loyal friends who have been there for me and helped me work through challenges in life
- music, dance, and other art forms- what a great outlet for expressing the spirit inside!
- the opportunity to teach and participate in yoga classes here in Thailand
- mentors/people who I admire- Zach, Steve, Weaw, Ben, Emma the list goes on…
- the opportunity to travel, to live abroad and to have such a wide array of experiences
- the people I’ve met in Khao Lak with common interests, allowing me to enjoy things I haven’t done in a while with them
- the serenity and joy that nature’s beauty provides me, and....

...Tofurkey! (not really, wouldn't touch the stuff any more than I'd have the real thing)


A view from where we did yoga this past Tuesday

Singapore and An Extended Vacation...

Next day, we went to Singapore. You have to get on and off the bus a couple of times with your luggage in order to go through customs and get your visa stamped. Singapore reminds me a lot of a big city, perhaps San Francisco, except it's emaculate compared to SF. The Inn Crowd hostel is the place to go. Only S$18/night and there is a pool table, fooseball table, books, TV, bar kind of area to hang out in, guitars lying around just waiting to be played, and a ton of friendly people from all over. Posterboards cover the walls with announcements for shows, plays, bars, and various events taking place in Singapore.

Jess and I met up with Ben, a friend from Thaikea who had a job lined up in Singapore, a few hours after arriving at the hostel. We all watched the Australia v. Uruguay soccer game at a bar with a bunch of Aussies who were just as entertaining as the game, which went into overtime and a shootout- the Aussies won and are now going to the World Cup.

We walked around Singapore, through Little India, China town, and along the river, briefly seeing a mosque and a temple during our walk. We had to catch a bus back to Johor Bahru (JB), Southern Malaysia for our flight to Borneo at 6p, so our time in Singapore was unfortunately very limited.

The monsoon that booted us out of Taman Negara must have followed us to Borneo. Once we arrived at the Mt. Kinabalu park, we walked around for about 20 minutes before experiencing terrential downpour for the rest of the day. This meant no hiking, and without much else to do in the local area, we jumped back and forth from a lodge to a cafeteria, read our books, watched a little soccer and bought a deck of cards to play with. It was the first time I had been cold since arriving in Southeast Asia.


Mt. Kinabalu Park

The next day we were blessed with decent weather for a few hours, so we decided to try a hike. About 3/4 of the way through our hike, it began to rain and as we came to the end of the trail, we discovered we were about 5 km from the entrance to the park. One guy tried to charge us a ridiculous amount to take us back, so we started walking in the monsoon and eventually got a hitch back. I definitely want to return to Borneo when the weather is better. There is an overnight hike up Mt. Kinabalu that sounds spectacular. And, one of the world's 4 orangutan locations is in Borneo.

Jess and I missed our flight from KL to Phuket. We had arrived too late to catch any transportation from JB to KL the night before, so we slept in a ghetto for a few hours and then got up early to catch the first bus available to KL. We couldn’t get to the airport until 20 minutes before our flight left. They wouldn’t let us check in, so we had to buy a new ticket for the next flight (same time, next day). We returned to our fave Number Eight Guesthouse and took some much needed time to ourselves in KL. When I returned to the hostel that night, I saw 2 volunteers from Khao Lak, Scottish Chris and Phil. They were both passing through for a few days before leaving for Australia. So random running into people the way I have been in Southeast Asia.

The Number Eight Guesthouse...Home Sweet Home

Overall, a good trip. A lot of traveling, but a lot to see and learn. After catching our flight to Phuket and hitching home, I was exhausted and glad to finally be back in Khao Lak.

Monsoon Season in Malaysia

Jess and I are about half way through our 10 day trip to Malaysia and Singapore. We met a German guy named Chris (I think I've met a Chris from every continent besides Africa in the past 2 months) at the Phuket airport in Thailand and have been sharing our traveling experiences with him ever since.

We stayed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, and saw the entire city at night from atop the Menara tower. We walked around a lot and took pretty much every form of transportation you could think of- taxi, boat, bus, train, light rail (monorail), subway/metro, and plenty of our own 2 feet.

We missed the National Mosque, but walked around the beautiful Lake Garden nearby. We also missed free tickets to the Petronias towers because they only hand out 1,300/day and we arrived several hours after the ticket office had opened.

No making out in Lake Garden

Next we went to Taman Negara, a beautiful national park northeast of KL. We did a lot of hiking, almost went in a cave, but were too scared of the bats, slippery rocks, and snakes, without a guide. We enjoyed meals at different restaurants on the river, and took a boat to a hiking trail near which was living an aberigine tribe. There are 39 members of the tribe. Two of them spoke enough English to show us how to make fire and shoot through a blowpipe. We took off that night and were completely soaked by a monsoon that rushed in right before our departure.

In the aberigine tribe

We are now back in KL, attempting to see what we missed before- tickets to the Petronas towers, the National Mosque (surprisingly plain/empty because they don't pray to an idol or any thing), and possibly Times Square (a large shopping/cinema building). A lady explained some of her Muslim religion (Islam) to us- 1 God (Allah), you are closest to Allah when your head is touching the ground during prayer. Inside the main prayer room of the National Mosque can fit 3,000 people. Outside, the mosque can hold 12,000. Every Muslim has to pray in a mosque on Fridays. They pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca as a symbol of unity. Jess and I had to wear robes and handkerchiefs to cover ourselves before entering the mosque. After visiting the National Mosque, we walked through India Town and enjoyed eating with our right hand at a delicious vegetarian restaurant.

Reflecting at the National Mosque in KL

Another Fun Day & Night in Khao Lak

I played guitar with Scotish Chris today, taught him how to change a string, and recorded him performing Wonderwall. The best recording, though, I must say was English Chris singing part of Under the Sea from the Disney classic, The Little Mermaid. He sang loud enough in the shower and the acoustics were great, so it’s a pretty good recording, and of course it’s hilarious.

Quiz night was moved to Jai’s, a better restaurant with quicker service and lower prices. I am amazed at the trivia a lot of people know about various topics, such as world culture, world geography, Thai culture and movies scenes.

A cochroach almost the size of the palm of my hand landed on me at Quiz night. Seth (old friend) tried to flick it off, but dug further into my pants and it started hissing when he missed. I begged someone to just grab it and take it away. I freaked out, but I guess it wasn’t as big of a show as I thought because no one noticed the noises I was making except the people sitting directly around me.

After Quiz night, I was going to go home and get some sleep, which I will probably think I should have done when I wake up tomorrow. However, I had a fun time playing fooseball with my talented Spanish partner, Joaquin. I am so glad to have the opportunity to practice speaking Spanish with him.

I got some email addresses tonight because I leave for a 10 day trip to Malaysia this Friday and a lot of the people I’ve met recently will be leaving before I return. I am so grateful to have met Trish, Dianne, Joaquin, Melissa, all the Chris’s, Ashleigh, Stuart, Kathy and Lara.

Left side: Joaquin, Me, Melissa. Right side: Ashleigh, Kathy, Chris

More pictures of these new friends to come…

Cultural Observations 2

Peace and Quiet: There is none of this while you are eating at any of the events I’ve been to. Instead, there is always a guy on loud speaker talking during the cooking and eating of the food. I’m glad it’s in Thai though, because I think it’d be more annoying if they were saying the same things in English.

Body Hierarchy: The head is superior to the feet here. I discovered this in Bangkok, when 4 of us squeezed into the back seat of a tiny cab and I was laying across the other 3 people. I put my feet up toward the ceiling at one point and the Aiesecer that was with us told me not to do this, especially in a vehichle with a Buddha hanging from the rear view mirror. I have also heard more about this characteristic of Thai culture since I’ve been near Khao Lak. It is rude to point to anything with the feet. It’s ok if I sit with my knee to chest as long as the bottom of my foot is facing down toward the ground. However, I often catch myself and other foreigners sitting with one leg across the other, bottom of the foot facing out toward the side. This is considered rude.

PDA Forbidden: I have not seen more than 1 couple holding hands in Khao Lak since I arrived. However, it is culturally acceptable for girls to hold hands with other girls and for guys to hold hands with other guys as a sign of friendship. If a Thai woman is seen holding hands with a foreigner, she is often assumed to be a prostitute, something I’ve read (“Thailand Fever”) is very common for both foreign and Thai guys to partake in. Supposedly, Thai women know that their men will have Thai girlfriends, even when they are married. Yet, these women are supposed to remain monogamous. Can we say double standard?

Hand Placement Shows Respect: Where you place your hands when you nod your head or bow to someone indicates the level of respect you desire to show. Placing them around the throat/chin is normal to say “Hi”, but when saying “Thank you”, the hands often go up to the mouth or higher. Monks and other very respected community members often receive an even higher level of respect, with people’s hands coming together at the forehead.

In-Your-Face Advertising: Cars and trucks with loud speakers often drive along the main highway yelling things that of course I’ve never understood. I thought it might have been a way for them to communicate some of the news, but apparently it’s usually some sort of advertisement. They announce deals on produce at nearby markets, or for products they have in their truck.

Out in the Open: Trucks and motorcycles drive around with the flames on their stoves on and with their vegetables out in the open, uncovered on the highway where exhaust and other pollution is very prevalent.

Sending Fire and Worries into the Sky

Tonight all of the TVC projects got off work a few hours early so that they could opt to go to Nam Kem, a town about 30 minutes drive north of Khao Lak, for a celebration put on by some Swedish people. I believe these people lost friends and/or family in the tsunami, but this party was to celebrate new life and to let go of troubles from the past. They had a ton of freebies, which included food from nearby hotels and foot, back, and hand massages. It was incredible to sit back and get a food massage with Tiger Balm lotion after playing soccer the day before. A rainbow appeared and I enjoyed paradise with several other volunteers who were partaking of the free foot massage as well.

The celebration had tents with vendors and was similar to a typical festival for the most part, with music, dancing, singing, modern dance performance, and a beautiful sunset. I went into a room and found people making “ratongs” (sounds something like that) to send floating out into the ocean later on in the night. We used parts of banana trees to cover a cylindrical base with green leaf designs and flowers. Everyone had 3 sticks of incense and a candle sticking out of the base as well.

Making my "ratong"

These “ratongs” are symbolic of past troubles, fears, worries, etc. in life. I believe the actual date for this festival is in about a week, so I’m not sure exactly why the celebration and ritual took place last night. In any case, it was an incredibly unique tradition, unlike anything I have ever witnessed or participated in before. It’s difficult to describe how we looked and how people felt walking down the street to the river together with our candles and incense lit, letting our “ratongs” go in the river, and hopefully releasing all of our burdens along with the “ratongs”.

Letting my "ratong" go in the river

As we were walking back from the river to the main festival area, I noticed some fiery UFO looking things soaring slowly through the sky. Turns out they were lighting a small version of a hot air balloon into the sky. It was fun to try this, and to watch others try to release their miniature hot air balloons. Some fell to the ground and caught fire, others went up a little and then came back down and threatened to fall on people’s heads, a few became tangled in the palm trees above, and several floated up into the night sky, creating a beautiful image to observe. It was an unimaginable end to a night for beginning anew.

Letting homeade hot air balloons into the sky

Bonfire Day

Yesterday was Bonfire Day for the UK. It’s when a Scottish (or Irish- I always get the 2 confused) man by the name of Guy Fox tried to bomb the British houses of parliament. He was caught before he was able to commit this crime and he was burned on a steak as a result. The English here have told me they celebrate this day with huge bonfires and fireworks all over.

Celebrating Bonfire Day at Khao Lak beach

TVCers celebrated here by having a bonfire on the beach last night along with a scarecrow replica of Guy Fox, which was later tossed onto the bonfire. Matt, a guy from Alaska, brought little candles to stick in the sand, which created beautiful circles of people forming one huge circle around the bonfire- very “hugge” (Danish term for a warm, relaxed, comfortable kind of atmosphere). We had 3 guitars and several guitarists/singers, which of course made my night. The music was amazingly unifying, especially when all 3 guitars were strumming the same songs (Wonderwall and Imagine ) and everyone was singing along. The Monty Python acts put on by the Brits were hilarious. A few people said that last night was the image they had pictured of being in Thailand before they arrived.

I am feeling much better, good enough to play soccer today!


An Old Friend

Soccer was fun. We had a few new players, Swedish Chris (so named because there are about 5 Chrises in town at the moment) split his big toe open, and I have plenty of bruises from being tripped by Eddy, a very good English player.

Playing soccer in Ban Niang

We all met at the Marlin Bar before 11p to play a fun Irish card game called S*!% Head and to watch the Manchester Untied v. Chelsea game. It was a great game. Man U won 1-0 with a beautiful goal with a cross over from Ronaldo and a perfect header from a difficult angle that went right over the goalie and a Chelsea defender.

Here’s a crazy random story…Two people from Mercy Foundation gave Jess and I a lift into Khao Lak for dinner earlier. We started the usual conversation…What volunteer work are you doing? Where are you from? Etc…Well, I didn’t see the guy in the passenger’s seat, but the driver said he was from California too. I asked what part and when he said Fresno and turned around, I was so surprised to see Seth Reid, a guy I haven’t seen for about 8 years. He used to go to Mt. Hermon family camp every summer the same week I went with my family. How random is that?!

Not Feelin’ Too Well

I haven’t slept much since Halloween, which I hope is the only reason I haven’t felt well today. Last night I had a sore throat and today I felt a little achy, so I left work early and slept all day. Hopefully, sleeping a lot tonight will leave me feeling anew tomorrow…I really want to go elephant trekking in the morning and to play soccer in the afternoon.

It’s good to see that the tourist season has begun in Khao Lak. Over the past two weeks, the number of people in this area seems to have doubled- a lot of German tourists. More restaurants, bars and shops have opened, hopefully providing the locals with a sufficient source of income now.

Another positive note- I got to practice conversing in Spanish last night. Juaqim is a TVC volunteer that arrived from Barcelona this week. He was just as excited to have someone to speak his native language with as I was to be able to practice my Spanish. I can’t wait to find a job in South or Central America!

Laughter at School

School was hilarious today. We played a game where we taped pictures of vocab we had taught the kids before the break to the walls, divided each class into 2 teams, said a verb + noun (i.e. swim in the sea), and then they would race to the picture and act out the verb. Well, “B”, one of the big girls in 4th grade had a false start from the front of the class. When we told her to come back, she quickly turned around and without any help fell with a huge thud on the ground. Not too long after that, she was being loud and Carrie kept telling her to be quiet. She wouldn’t, Carrie got fed up, and pretended to hit her lightly on the head with a stick. If only it hadn’t actually hit “B”…Carrie cracks down on the kids. What can I say?

In 5th grade, one of the boys who didn’t want to lose, but didn’t know his verbs or nouns would follow hit opponent to the correct picture and then begin to act out a plethora of verbs at once.

Then in 6th grade, after saying “swim in the sea”, I saw a girl act out swim, so I pointed her out and almost said “no point” for the team, but I suddently realized that it was one of the younger kids that roams in and out of our classes sometimes. How brillant that she understood the word “swim”.

We gave stickers as a reward for the winning team in each class. Thanks mom for sending these motivation materials!

Pouring Blessings

There was a pool party at a beautiful and cheap hotel room on Saturday. I had fun playing the a similar game to 3 flies up with a bunch of big guys who I strategically beat by letting them all jump up and wrestle to catch the ball and waiting for it to pop out of the madness somewhere.

I also finally met some people I easily feel really comfortable around and connected to this weekend. I got to play soccer with some of the guys from TVC and had a round robin with about 30 Thai players that showed up a few hours later. After soccer, I tood a lovely dip in British Chris and Christian’s pool, had dinner with them and the rest of our soccer team, and watched Legally Blonde 2 and Hitch with British Chris.

Last night there was an awesome Halloween party in Khao Lak. I witnessed some great last minute costumes, not including mine, which consisted of dressing normally and telling people I was a supermodel. My favorite costume was a chicken cooking in the microwave. This guy, James, wore a latex glove on his head and wrapped himself in aluminum looking stuff from a survival kit. He also had a whistle around his neck, which he blew every so often to let people know “the chicken is done”. There was much better music to dance to than the last party at the Eurasia bar, although they began repeating songs way too many times at the end.

We used someone’s toga outfit as a limbo stick and jump rope, and I had a great time dancing with people in a joyful spirit.

Today was first day back to school after the break. The 5th and 6th grade classes went well, but I got so frustrated with 4th. I felt like a bad person getting upset, but they just would not pay attention. This evening was better…

I taught the yoga class for the first time tonight. It was a great experience, very different being the teacher and talking the whole time. There was a lot going through my mind and I wasn’t able to pay attention to everything. I was so busy thinking of how to explain the postures, reminding the class to breath and demonstrating some of the postures that I didn’t keep track of time for each pose and I mixed words up a few times. Still, most everyone seemed to really enjoy it, or so they said. I’d like some more constructive feedback, so I’ll ask Peter and the others at another time.

After yoga, I went to dinner Stewart, a 18 year old world traveler who was born in South Africa, and has lived in the UK and then New Zealand. We joined a big group at a table, and for the first time I felt sincerely comfortable in the situation and easily joined in conversation. I am so grateful for this recent turn of events.

After dinner, we went to the beach and joined in the bonfire and fire twirling, minus the fire for me. I’d really like to learn how to do it, but I think I need some help because without any guidance I kept hitting myself with the ends of the chain and returned home with black marks all over. We went to Fisherman’s too and played fooseball. Swedish Chris was my superstar partner, who won all of the games for us.