So alot has been going on in the last two weeks....
First were the protests. These were blown so far out of proportion. Thais as a society and culture don't deal with confrontation well. They avoid it most of the time. One of the protests were going on near our street. They basically were having a big party in the middle of the street which shut down the streets. The state of emergency thing was completely unneeded. There were 2 places that were any trouble at all. Even if you look at some of the pictures, police would be chasing the red shirts (protesters) and people would be on the side of the street watching it. I was as safe as always during this time.
Next was Songkran, the Thai new year. It was one of the best things I have ever been to. There were two places where everything was shut down and people were walking the streets. There were so many people for about a mile the streets were full. Everyone just walks around and sprays each other with water. We bought water bottles and other people had water guns. There is also this powder they use. Just white powder that they rub on each others face. It was great cause everyone was just having fun acting like kids having a big water fight. The whole city was celebrating. Foreigners are big targets, and being a big foreigner I was an even bigger target. They will put powder on you and say "Happy new year" or "welcome to Bangkok". It went on for three days. We went for 4-5 hours the first day, took a break the second day, then went out for 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night on the last day. At midnight of the last day, the police come and clear the streets and restore somewhat normality. But it was a great festival for everyone. The only thing I want to do that might compare is the Tomato Fight Festival in Valencia, Spain.....
After Songkran we decided to go to Cambodia, to get our visas renewed and to visit another country. We left at 11 pm and got to the border at 6 am and got to Sihanoukville at around 9am, a fairly easy bus ride. In Cambodia, we drove on the right side of the road again (opposed to left side in Thailand). We found a place to stay for $6 a night. They use the US dollar. I was expecting Cambodia to be alot like Thailand. It looks the same, but the culture is very different. We went to the beach and found a place to eat and layout. They all had chairs for free as long as you got something to eat. From the moment you get to the beach people (mostly kids) are trying to sell you stuff. The older people women are carrying big buckets of lobster, carrying treys of fruit on their head, or trying to sell you a manicure/pedicure, massage, or hair removal, which they did by using string to remove hair. Then the kids would walk around selling bracelets, scarfs, fruit, and basically anything. This is where the difference in cultures in very apparent. Thai people and especially kids are very shy. The biggest reason they don't know English is cause they are shy and scared. They don't try cause they don't want to mess up. All the Cambodian kids (ages approximately 8-14) spoke very fluent English. They were all hustlers and the best ones I had met. From the moment we sat down there were at least 4 kids around us for about four hours. First it's hard to say no to a kid trying to sell you a bracelet for a dollar when you know they are poor. Then they sucker you in. They give you a "free" friendship bracelet which makes you feel bad if you don't buy another one. They do other things such as offer to play a game against you like tic-tac-toe. If you say no to buying something, they ask "why not?" and continue to ask questions and keep suckering you in. If they finally accept the no, they will ask "maybe later". Then they will make you pinky-promise to only buy from them. And if you see them another day, they do not forget you. I ended up buying $15 worth of stuff including some fake Ray-Ban sunglasses. But I didn't need to spend this much on junk, but they got me. Then we had to deal with the tuk-tuk drivers. Thailand is very strict against drugs, but in Cambodia there are not many laws. Every time we passed a tuk-tuk they would offer us first a ride, then other substances. I have never used the word "No" as much as I have on this trip. Every night we went to the beach where we would eat just a few feet away from the ocean for $3-4 a night. Everyone sold the same thing, barbecued chicken and fish. It was actually pretty good and a good break from Thai food. We went out the first night to this place on the beach. We met these beautiful Cambodian girls, then soon after found out they were prostitutes, so we had to leave that place. The next day we went and rented motor bikes for the day for $4. It was alot of fun. I almost crashed a few times, especially starting out. I got the hang of and it was awesome. I think the best way to see a country or city is to get a car or bike and just drive. We got to see so much. We went through these little villages and then went to this other beach that was more secluded. There were just like 3 restaurants. The waves there were huge and went and body surfed for a while. That night we met two American girls, one from Queens, NY and one from Scranton, PA. They also live and work and Bangkok and the one from Pennsylvania is working at the school Shaun is working at. This was about the same odds as hitting the lottery. There are hundreds of schools and Bangkok and only two foreign teachers work at this school and it was the both of them. It was good to hang out with some Americans though. We were there for five nights. Cambodia was a cool place. The culture is different but the people are awesome and very nice, even though they are trying to get something out of you. We booked our bus home that was supposed to take 9 hours to get back. We left at at 7:30 in the morning to the bus station. Our bus left at 8:30 and on the way the air conditioning went out. We ended up at the border for a couple of hours because the travel company messed up the next part of the trip. We were supposed to take a minivan to Bangkok from there. They overbooked or something and we had to take a minivan to another minivan. This new minivan then went 3 hours out of the way to another city before returning to Bangkok. The driver was going between 90-100 the whole time in the rain. It was pretty scary. But we made it home at around 10, not quite 9 hours but not as bad as it could have been....
I am now trying to figure out what I want to do next. I love Thailand and living here. However, I don't know if I want to teach here. Most people who teach her do not like the teaching part. You cannot grade students, you have to pass everyone. There is alot of bull crap that goes on with scheduling and other things. Also, there is no discipline for the kids. It's not a place that I want to work. However there is an opportunity here that I'm very interested in. We are thinking about starting a business with the woman we worked a camp with. She works for the US Embassy and has all the connections we need. English camps are big in Thailand. They happen on weekends, holidays and summers. There are many agencies that offer this service. However there is not one that is focused on American English and American culture. Thais like Americans better for learning because of our culture and clearer accent. Also, if it is based in American culture we might be able to get funding to start it from the Embassy. This is something I would love doing. I would be working camps every weekend with kids that are wanting to learn English. Most of the camps here are all about money and they do not do a good job interacting with the kids, so I think I could be very useful in this, while enjoying my job. So this is very, very interesting. I also am thinking about coming home for a month and then going to work at Camp Unique again. I would be the only counselor back and they want me to come back to help them with whats gone on and the past. I am talking to the new director soon and then I will make my decision. After camp I would probably come back to Thailand if we could get this business going...
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
April 12th 2009
I thought our last trip was pretty bad, but it doesn't even compare to this one. We left Monday night to go find a train, but it's thai new year and everything is booked, so we had to get a bus for Tuesday. So we left on Tuesday at 7pm on a 14 hour bus ride (combination of 2 buses). They played an American movie that had subtitles in English, that had been translated to Thai and back to English. It was awful. We were on this first bus for about 10 hours, almost 10 minutes away from our stop, when a policemen pulls us over. There are 3 people working, 2 bus drivers and another guy. Both the bus drivers got arrested for who knows what. We had to wait on the side of the street for about 30 minutes and wait for another bus to come pick us up. We took this other bus to the bus stop. Here we had to take a 20 minute ride in the back of a truck to our other bus. There people were trying to sell us rooms, but we already knew where we wanted to go so they put us on another bus which turned out to be the local bus. It made stops every few minutes. We were miserable by this time. We ended up in our destination of Phuket town at almost 3 the next day. We spent almost 20 hours traveling on a bus! And i can't sleep sitting up on buses. We found a guest house in Phuket town for 500 baht a night, which is about $15, split three ways.....
Phuket is an island and Phuket town is in the center of this island. From there you can go to all the beaches, so we went to a different beaches everyday. It was mostly older Sweedish people. The beaches were really nice, but over crowded. The sand was clean and the water was clear. It was pretty expensive for food and things because of the foreign tourist. We spent three days here and it fairly uneventful. We just hung out on the beach and played frisbee or whatever. We had to book another bus back to Bangkok, but this time we found it for 1 bus, 12 hours and half the price. So we get in the bus and they start playing Thai music as loud as possible, and Thai music is probalby the worst music I've ever heard. They then played some movie dubbed in Thai, that in English was probably pretty bad. I had some woman in front of me leaning back into my lap and another person behind me laying down in his seat with his feet in the back of my seat, kicking me every 30 minutes. We did get there in a little under 12 hours, but it was still the worst traveling expierence of my life. I want to stick to trains and stay away from buses....
I want to add that Uncle Mark would be in style here. Almost everyone wears Chuck Taylor's and every shoe store has tons of them. But right now it is Thai new year, called Songkran. One of the top 10 festivals of the world. I'll tell you about it after it's over.
Phuket is an island and Phuket town is in the center of this island. From there you can go to all the beaches, so we went to a different beaches everyday. It was mostly older Sweedish people. The beaches were really nice, but over crowded. The sand was clean and the water was clear. It was pretty expensive for food and things because of the foreign tourist. We spent three days here and it fairly uneventful. We just hung out on the beach and played frisbee or whatever. We had to book another bus back to Bangkok, but this time we found it for 1 bus, 12 hours and half the price. So we get in the bus and they start playing Thai music as loud as possible, and Thai music is probalby the worst music I've ever heard. They then played some movie dubbed in Thai, that in English was probably pretty bad. I had some woman in front of me leaning back into my lap and another person behind me laying down in his seat with his feet in the back of my seat, kicking me every 30 minutes. We did get there in a little under 12 hours, but it was still the worst traveling expierence of my life. I want to stick to trains and stay away from buses....
I want to add that Uncle Mark would be in style here. Almost everyone wears Chuck Taylor's and every shoe store has tons of them. But right now it is Thai new year, called Songkran. One of the top 10 festivals of the world. I'll tell you about it after it's over.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Apr 6 2009
We worked again at another Muslim school. It was about 45 minutes from our apartment, so they got us a hotel for four nights to stay at. The camp was very cool again. We were treated like rock stars again. I really don't know if these kids have seen Americans before. They are really shy at first, but then they get comfortable and ask alot of questions. One of the boys even started asking me about the economy and politics, which I tried to explain the best I could. We were both using a translator. One of the things we did was make pinatas. The kids went crazy. They had never seen pinatas before. So we made them and then busted them open on the last day. They were all running for the candy and falling over each other. Some interesting things happened though. It was a very religious school. All the kids wore the religious scarfs or hats. They prayed at 12:45 everyday Remember, these kids have very limited English. So one of the girls was talking on the phone and I asked her who she was talking too. She said her girlfriend. I said, "oh your best friend?", trying to help her English I though. She said, "No, my girlfriend. I'm a lesbian." So I met a lesbian Muslim, which until now I didn't know existed. At the camp I was in charge of sports everday. We had frisbees, but they got tired of that very quickly. They said they wanted to play monkey in the middle. They loved that game. We probably played for 30-40 minutes and they never got tired of it. I've never played that game that long. We also had a talent show and somehow I got up on stage to do a traditional thai dance with some of the teachers. I made a fool of myself trying to copy what the other teachers were doing, but it was fun. In Thailand, everyone has a nickname, either given by yourself or a friend. The students decided to give me one. I told them I thought some actress here was pretty and they named me Nonkhuntong after her actor boyfriend. We ended the camp again by going to cheesy Dreamworld. Here a group of about 10 Muslims asked me if I was American, and then asked me to take pictures with them, which of course I did cause it was fun and an ego boost. This has happened three or four times already. I wish we were still working at camp. The kids are awesome. They really want to learn and are very respectful. I wish we could run the camps more often...
I have learned some of the Thai langauge. I have learned numbers 1-6, how to say yes, no and hello. I can tell the taxi how to get back to the apartment. I can say good, bad, and serious with variations of these words. I learned high-5 and a joke that goes with that. And then I have learned a few phrases. I'll sound them out in English even though they have different characters. The first is Pom Shu Mike (my name is Mike). Kutouy thai rump pow (are you a ladyboy). Ben fan gan mi (will you be my girlfriend?). Shwauy Ma (your beautiful). And most importantly Mi si pak (no vegetables). Haha, I guess a good start learning the important things....
I have also learned a few more things about Thai culture. I thought most people here were gay at first, including the students. Alot are, but overall Thai culture is very immature and very feminine. The boys like little toys and are very dainty. It's very weird and I've yet to figure out why. They are also immature. The 14-15 year olds are very into cartoons. Not superhero comics and cartoons but little kids stuff. For example they like teletubbies. Also the high school students are very into High School Musical. I think everyone just matures slower and the boys are not taught to be tough.....
It is also amazing how much people love Barack Obama and hate George Bush here. I have a feeling that is how it is all over the world from meeting alot of foreigners. I just finished Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope". I like him alot better now. That doesn't mean he's going to change the economy, but it was good to read his thoughts on the country unfiltered by media. One thing is clear though, he is restoring respect of the USA to the world. The US was not respected under George Bush anymore, but that is coming back now. The people view the US in a strange way here and probably in much of the world. They do not like them and alot of the things they do. However, everyone wants to go live there and be apart of it. But I really haven't every known how great it is to be an American til I came out here. It's amazing the oppurtunity and freedom we have at home. For example, one thing I have learned is that if you say anything against the Royal Family of Thailand, you will be put in jail for 15 years. This is also the only law in Thailand that you can make a citizen's arrest on. Just one of the freedoms we enjoy at home. But we just got back from Phket, a beach town and I will write about our trip in a couple of days.
I have learned some of the Thai langauge. I have learned numbers 1-6, how to say yes, no and hello. I can tell the taxi how to get back to the apartment. I can say good, bad, and serious with variations of these words. I learned high-5 and a joke that goes with that. And then I have learned a few phrases. I'll sound them out in English even though they have different characters. The first is Pom Shu Mike (my name is Mike). Kutouy thai rump pow (are you a ladyboy). Ben fan gan mi (will you be my girlfriend?). Shwauy Ma (your beautiful). And most importantly Mi si pak (no vegetables). Haha, I guess a good start learning the important things....
I have also learned a few more things about Thai culture. I thought most people here were gay at first, including the students. Alot are, but overall Thai culture is very immature and very feminine. The boys like little toys and are very dainty. It's very weird and I've yet to figure out why. They are also immature. The 14-15 year olds are very into cartoons. Not superhero comics and cartoons but little kids stuff. For example they like teletubbies. Also the high school students are very into High School Musical. I think everyone just matures slower and the boys are not taught to be tough.....
It is also amazing how much people love Barack Obama and hate George Bush here. I have a feeling that is how it is all over the world from meeting alot of foreigners. I just finished Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope". I like him alot better now. That doesn't mean he's going to change the economy, but it was good to read his thoughts on the country unfiltered by media. One thing is clear though, he is restoring respect of the USA to the world. The US was not respected under George Bush anymore, but that is coming back now. The people view the US in a strange way here and probably in much of the world. They do not like them and alot of the things they do. However, everyone wants to go live there and be apart of it. But I really haven't every known how great it is to be an American til I came out here. It's amazing the oppurtunity and freedom we have at home. For example, one thing I have learned is that if you say anything against the Royal Family of Thailand, you will be put in jail for 15 years. This is also the only law in Thailand that you can make a citizen's arrest on. Just one of the freedoms we enjoy at home. But we just got back from Phket, a beach town and I will write about our trip in a couple of days.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Mar. 31 2009
Shaun had planned a basic trip for us. He had been to the islands many times before but not to Malaysia and Singapore. All we had booked was a train ride down to the islands and then our flight back from Singapore. The first part of our trip was a 14 hour train ride from Bangkok. The train left at 10:40 pm. We took the subway from our apartment to get to the train, but it took longer than expected. We got off the subway at 10:35 and had to run through the station around the block to the train station with our big backpacks on and carrying all of our stuff. We didn’t think we were going to make it, but we got there right at 10:40. We were supposed to get a sleeper train; which has beds so you can sleep for through the night. Because of the language barrier I guess we booked the wrong train and just had regular seats, not very fun for 14 hours. It was a bad start to the trip. But we made it to our stop and then took a 1 and a half our taxi ride to the boat we had to take. Then there we took a 2 and a half hour boat ride, with standing room only, to the island where we were staying. A lot of traveling, but this place was worth everything we went through. The island is called Koh Lipe if you want to look up pictures. I lost my camera on the beach so I won’t be able to take anymore. A canoe boat with a motor like a trolling fishing boat picked us up 
from the other boat and took us to the island. They dropped us off on the wrong side of the island and we had to walk about 15 minutes to the other side to find a place to stay. We found a hut to stay in that was on the sand. It was about 20 yards from the ocean. It was very basic. It had a bed, with a bug net, one light, and a fan. There was a door to the outside with and a shower and toilet enclosed by a fence. There was no hot water and not much water pressure. You basically had to use a bucket to fill and up and then pour on you head to wash your hair. This same bucket was used to flush the toilet. You had to fill up the toilet bowl with water to get it to flush. I had never seen anything like this but it was kinda cool, because it was so simple. This place cost 500 baht a night, which is $14, which was split by two of us. Outside our hut was a little stage and bar. In front of th
e stage were tables on mats with pillows on them. This is where we hung out every night playing cards and listening to music. We met a lot of people from everywhere, but a lot of people from Sweden, not many Americans. Every night they had music, mostly island reggae, with fire shows. There were 2 batons, a guy with 2 stings with tennis balls on the end, and a girl who hula-hooped, all these items were lit on fire. One night they even had a local band play that was surprisingly good, because most Thai music is pretty bad. We ate most of our meals sitting on the beach staring at the water and the stars. Our first full day there we went snorkeling. I had never been before and the first 30 minutes I swallowed a ton of salt water learning how to do it. But once I did it was amazing seeing all of the colorful sea life. We swam around about 1/3 of the island. I got burnt bad even though I wore 50 sun block. Every day at 4 we played volleyball. It was far
ang (foreigners) vs. lady boys. The lady boys could play too. But it was decent volleyball and we met a lot of people there. It also rained once a day for about 30 minutes. There were some awesome lightning storms too. The lightning was moving horizontally instead of vertically. The other two days we just hung out on the beach and checked out different parts of the island. We then decided to go to Langkawi Island in Malaysia…..
from the other boat and took us to the island. They dropped us off on the wrong side of the island and we had to walk about 15 minutes to the other side to find a place to stay. We found a hut to stay in that was on the sand. It was about 20 yards from the ocean. It was very basic. It had a bed, with a bug net, one light, and a fan. There was a door to the outside with and a shower and toilet enclosed by a fence. There was no hot water and not much water pressure. You basically had to use a bucket to fill and up and then pour on you head to wash your hair. This same bucket was used to flush the toilet. You had to fill up the toilet bowl with water to get it to flush. I had never seen anything like this but it was kinda cool, because it was so simple. This place cost 500 baht a night, which is $14, which was split by two of us. Outside our hut was a little stage and bar. In front of th
e stage were tables on mats with pillows on them. This is where we hung out every night playing cards and listening to music. We met a lot of people from everywhere, but a lot of people from Sweden, not many Americans. Every night they had music, mostly island reggae, with fire shows. There were 2 batons, a guy with 2 stings with tennis balls on the end, and a girl who hula-hooped, all these items were lit on fire. One night they even had a local band play that was surprisingly good, because most Thai music is pretty bad. We ate most of our meals sitting on the beach staring at the water and the stars. Our first full day there we went snorkeling. I had never been before and the first 30 minutes I swallowed a ton of salt water learning how to do it. But once I did it was amazing seeing all of the colorful sea life. We swam around about 1/3 of the island. I got burnt bad even though I wore 50 sun block. Every day at 4 we played volleyball. It was far
ang (foreigners) vs. lady boys. The lady boys could play too. But it was decent volleyball and we met a lot of people there. It also rained once a day for about 30 minutes. There were some awesome lightning storms too. The lightning was moving horizontally instead of vertically. The other two days we just hung out on the beach and checked out different parts of the island. We then decided to go to Langkawi Island in Malaysia….. We took a 3 hour boat ride to Langkawi. It was raining for about the last 30 minutes. Then we had to wait at some hotel for about an hour while they got our passports stamped. We then took a taxi to Cenang Beach which was the cheaper part of the island. We couldn’t find anything for a while and then we found a guest house for 500 baht a night, with a living room with a tv, a kitchen, and two beds in each room. It was run by a man, from Iran who had studied at UCLA and worked for NASA, and his Japanese wife. They hung out and talked to us for a while. It was about half the price of anything else on the island. It was probably about a two block walk from anything else on the beach. We went and got some food and found a pizza place that actually had good pizza. All the pizza in Thailand is not even worth eating, they use very little sauce and a different kind of cheese that is not very good. Malaysians speak very good English. Everyone we came in contact with could easily speak with us. They are a Muslim country; it was really different seeing all the women with the veils over their head all the time. One time we even saw a group of Muslim women go into the ocean with all their clothes and head dresses on. Th
e next day we got up and decided to rent a car. It was tiny. It was a manual with the steering wheel on the right side and you had to drive on the left side of the road. We went and checked out some waterfalls. At the waterfalls there were monkeys all over the place. They were stealing stuff from local shops. One woman was using a sling shot to shoot at them. We were watching one and he came at us for a second trying to steal our chips, but Shaun growled at him a
nd he backed down. We then went to the cable cars. It takes you high up in the jungle to this place where they built a bridge to walk across with an Amazing view. It was scary but a cool experience. The next day we drove to the nicest beach on the island we were told. We found a Four Seasons hotel and decided to sneak in and walk around. I have never seen anything so nice. The pool and all the villas were incredible. We walked around for about 45 minutes before people kept looking at us, knowing we shouldn’t be there. This was about halfway around the island so we finished the drive around the whole island. We stopped at a couple of markets and other things before getting back to the guest house. The next day we went to a fruit farm. You pay like $3 and get a tour and get to try all the fruit they had. Most of it was gross, but they had the best pineapple I had ever tasted. We had to get back to return the car before two. We hung on the beach for the rest of the day. The next day we got up and went to the beach where they had a beach soccer tournament going on. We watched for a couple hours before we had to leave. We took a ferry to the mainland. It was like an airplane as far as seats go. They played a movie and everything. It took about two hours and then we took what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur. It was miserable. Our bus driver took a couple of wrong turns and the bus smelled terrible. It took about 8 hours. We got to Kuala Lumpur at 7:30 in the morning. Our flight left from Singapore in 3 days so we decided to book a sleeper train so we didn’t have to pay for a place to stay in Kuala Lumpur. We walked around a little bit. We went to the park and laid down because we were tired, but the police came and made us sit up. There was no sleeping in Kuala Lumpur. We went and watched a movie because we were tired and saw the twin towers. We really didn’t see a lot but I would like to go back; it looked like a cool city. Our train was an 11 hour ride to Singapore and it left at 9pm….
I passed out as soon as I got on the train. I got woken up at 7 to go through customs. We had to get out and check our bags and then get back on the train for 30 more minutes into the city. We walked around til we found a place for about $12 a night. It was a one bedroom place with a loft on top of the bedroom with two mats on the floor. It was in the morning and we didn’t know where we were staying. We ended up in Little India. The hotel was nice, but Little India was awful. Indians everywhere and at about 6 o’clock it turned into the ladyboy red light district. Obviously we didn’t hang out there at all. However there was one cool place. At one restaurant they played wrestling videos 24/7. Literally every time we walked by they had wrestling playing. Singapore is an incredible city. It’s very strict and so there’s not much crime (which is one of the reasons we were surprised about the place we stayed). The subway system in incredible and get you anywhere in the city. We went to a central place in the city and walked around. At one point we were in a mall and sat down against a column. The security came over and told us we couldn’t sit down. We were shocked, but we went and ate somewhere and I found mountain dew. It was literally the only place I have found since I have been here with it. No other place in Singapore or the rest of Asia has had mountain dew. At night we went to this big Music Theatre. They had free outdoor music every night. Some Japanese rock band was playing that night. It was on the water, almost like river stages. It was a very cool place. Everything in Singapore shut down between 12 and 1 am. So we went back to the guest house. We somehow got a crazy taxi driver (all are crazy but this one was over the edge. On a small one way street, he honked his horn and tried to go around another taxi, almost crashing into him. The other taxi honked his horn back and our driver became extremley mad. He decided to follow this guy for a few minutes, trying to run him off the road. It was kinda scary and kind of funny. Finally the other taxi stopped on so do our driver. He was ready to get out of the car and fight, but he just said a few words and then drove off. This is a little extreme, but not much above the norm of a taxi driver. The next day we went and looked around before our plane left. I wish we had more time and money for Singapore. It is a lot more expensive than the rest of Asia. They had a beach, a night safari, and a lot of other cool stuff we didn’t get to see. San Diego has been my favorite city in the world so far. But, Singapore may have taken it over. There is a casino finished being built in a few months. When this gets done, and if the beach is good, Singapore would probably become my favorite city. Everything is very nice and they have everything you could want in a city. They even have an indoor snowboard and snow ski facility. It so easy to get around everywhere, it’s very safe, and people besides Little India are all nice. They have a wide variety of restaurants and it’s very easy to travel all over Asia from here….
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Mar. 10th
We just finished working the camp. It was incredible. Today we went to a theme park. It was pretty bad, but to the kids it was Disney World so it was fun. Later on they took us to a restaurant with a sky view of all of Bangkok. It was amazing. I learned so much about the culture through this camp....
We were treated like rock stars. As bad as it sounds, the two most important things in Thailand are 1. money and 2. skin color- the whiter you are the better. For example, the kids told me and Joey (both white skinned) that we were very handsome and told my friend Shaun (darker skinned he's mexican) that he was not very handsome. They really don't care about other features, just skin color. In all the advertisements only light skinned actors are used. One woman that worked with us was Filipino. She told me how she use alot of skin whiteners to try to look more white. She was telling me that her salary was about half of an English person's salary. She has a degree and is a hard worker and good teacher, but none of that matters. So anyway, whatever we did and wherever we went they were always taking pictures of us. Teachers, kids, whoever were always taking tons of pictures. They could communicate very little but loved us. It will be so hard to go back to a camp in the states after working here. Teachers/counselors are very highly respected. It was/is a great feeling. Even outside of camp, everywhere we go people are staring or will whisper and giggle after we pass....
Thais are also not politically correct. They do take things serious. Like when I said they told my friend Shaun he was not handsome, they were serious in saying it, but it just wasn't a big deal. At the theme park one of the kids told one of the Thai teachers he was too short for the ride, he then told the chubby girl that she was too fat to ride it. At first I thought it was awful, but the more I thought about it, it is much better to things like this alot less seriously....
We worked at a Muslim school. But Thai Muslims are alot less strict. Some girls would wear their head coverings one day and decide not to wear them the next. The society is just very very relaxed....
The women we worked for works for the American Embassy using a grant. She really liked us and thinks she can help us get one and would allow us to start our own business basically. We would submit a business plan for them to decide if they liked. The three of us have done many camps. We all are involved in sports. The other two guys are also very into art and photography. So we could try to start a camp based on teaching English through the arts and sports. We could do this all over the world. The US does this to try and show the world that we are still a positive influence around the world and that we are not a hateful culture, especially towards Muslims (looks like we need to be doing this at home too mom). This would be another option for us rather than teaching in a classroom...
We are headed to the south tomorrow so I will probably be without a computer for a couple of weeks, but go watch the movie "The Beach" cause that is where I'm going. Then we will be in Malaysia and Singapore after that.
We were treated like rock stars. As bad as it sounds, the two most important things in Thailand are 1. money and 2. skin color- the whiter you are the better. For example, the kids told me and Joey (both white skinned) that we were very handsome and told my friend Shaun (darker skinned he's mexican) that he was not very handsome. They really don't care about other features, just skin color. In all the advertisements only light skinned actors are used. One woman that worked with us was Filipino. She told me how she use alot of skin whiteners to try to look more white. She was telling me that her salary was about half of an English person's salary. She has a degree and is a hard worker and good teacher, but none of that matters. So anyway, whatever we did and wherever we went they were always taking pictures of us. Teachers, kids, whoever were always taking tons of pictures. They could communicate very little but loved us. It will be so hard to go back to a camp in the states after working here. Teachers/counselors are very highly respected. It was/is a great feeling. Even outside of camp, everywhere we go people are staring or will whisper and giggle after we pass....
Thais are also not politically correct. They do take things serious. Like when I said they told my friend Shaun he was not handsome, they were serious in saying it, but it just wasn't a big deal. At the theme park one of the kids told one of the Thai teachers he was too short for the ride, he then told the chubby girl that she was too fat to ride it. At first I thought it was awful, but the more I thought about it, it is much better to things like this alot less seriously....
We worked at a Muslim school. But Thai Muslims are alot less strict. Some girls would wear their head coverings one day and decide not to wear them the next. The society is just very very relaxed....
The women we worked for works for the American Embassy using a grant. She really liked us and thinks she can help us get one and would allow us to start our own business basically. We would submit a business plan for them to decide if they liked. The three of us have done many camps. We all are involved in sports. The other two guys are also very into art and photography. So we could try to start a camp based on teaching English through the arts and sports. We could do this all over the world. The US does this to try and show the world that we are still a positive influence around the world and that we are not a hateful culture, especially towards Muslims (looks like we need to be doing this at home too mom). This would be another option for us rather than teaching in a classroom...
We are headed to the south tomorrow so I will probably be without a computer for a couple of weeks, but go watch the movie "The Beach" cause that is where I'm going. Then we will be in Malaysia and Singapore after that.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Mar. 7 2009
We have been working the English Camp and it has been alot of fun. They respect their teachers alot here. They are always giving us things or cleaning up for us at lunch and it has only been two days. The other teachers at the school invited us to play basketball after camp. They are not very good, but all the students came and watched, there was an mc and alot of people cheering in the audience. We won by like 20 but it was alot of fun. The gym was really old too. They kept score with big signs. Everyone was taking pictures. A teacher even offered me a job after the basketball game. We also played footsal. Alot harder than soccer but alot of fun. We also bought are tickets for the train south and are leaving Monday.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Mar. 1st 2009
We haven't done too much the last couple days. We have just been hanging out and seeing some of the city. But I will put some of apartment pictures up. There are no dryers in Bangkok so we have to hang dry our stuff. Also some thai girl called me fat today. I think that may be the first time someone has called me fat. I have lost 5 pounds since I've been here; it's not like I haven't gained alot of weight. The bathroom is all in one. You can literally do the 3 S's (shave, shower, and poop) all at once. It was kinda weird at first, but now I like it. Except everything gets wet when you have to go in there later. I also now know why Asians have been stereotyped as bad drivers. Here there are no such things as driving lanes. It's just an approximate line. People just drive wherever they want to, it's crazy....
We got offered another job today. An islamic school is going to pay us 6x what we would make at the other camp. We are going to work the camp for four days and then head to the south. I can't wait to be on the beach for a few days.
We got offered another job today. An islamic school is going to pay us 6x what we would make at the other camp. We are going to work the camp for four days and then head to the south. I can't wait to be on the beach for a few days.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Feb. 23 2009
Yesterday we got up and went to this big market. Alot of people selling alot of stuff. Then there was a second hand section. All kind of stuff like polos, shoes, and even jerseys on sale. I found 2 Titans Jerseys, Lendale and Griffin. I was really surprised. Wherever you go there are alot of street performers. At this market we found a bluegrass group, dressed in western clothes and everything, but they weren't very popular. I tried to get people to line dance and hoe down with me but no one would. They had another street performer that was a little kid playing soccer. He was probably 11 years old. He was just juggling; I didn't see the ball bounce once. He was doing all kinds of things. Balancing it on his head, then on his neck and do pushups. Then he balance on his head on top of a water bottle. It was all pretty amazing. Everyone is doing whatever they can to make man. We went back and went to play basketball with some of the locals. We went to this "park". It was under the train tracks and had a couple of basketball courts, a footsal court, and Takrow courts. Takrow is an awesome game to watch. It's volleyball with your feet and takes incredible skill. The basketball goals were a few inches short so it was easy to dunk. The thais thought it was cool cause none of them can do it. The people were all very friendly and offered me water even though they didn't have alot of money to buy it for themselves. Even without being able to speak, it is fun to communicate with them.....
Today we went to another interview. This one is for enlgish camps. It is like a normal camp in the states except here you will teach enlgish an hour each day. They are three day long camps throughout thailand. You go with the kids to a hotel or national park and run a camp. It sounds like fun. We only make 900 bot (around $25) a day but all food and housing is paid for. We start in a week. We will work alot of these in March and then take a trip to the islands on the south and on to Malaysia and Singapore.....
There are no trashcans here. It's crazy cause there's not a big trash problem but there are no trashcans. We walk around forever and there is only one before you go into the trainstation. If I eat or drink something I have to carry around the wrapper or bottle for a long time. Also the city has smells that change from block to block. Every few steps I take I will smell something incredible, like fruit or fried chicken, or terrible like the smells in the airport. I have also hit my head on so many things. I have to duck everywhere I go. I see people stare at me all the time. I walked around by myself some and people stare more when I am alone. It's cool to expierence what a minority expierences. Some people love and are intrigued by you and others are scared of you. And I know some people were wondering about ladyboys. I have seen many. Some are very obvious and some look somewhat pretty until you get close enough or hear them talk. I try to stay from them though. I'm starting to get to the town and be comfortable with walking around furthur and furthur from my apartment.
Today we went to another interview. This one is for enlgish camps. It is like a normal camp in the states except here you will teach enlgish an hour each day. They are three day long camps throughout thailand. You go with the kids to a hotel or national park and run a camp. It sounds like fun. We only make 900 bot (around $25) a day but all food and housing is paid for. We start in a week. We will work alot of these in March and then take a trip to the islands on the south and on to Malaysia and Singapore.....
There are no trashcans here. It's crazy cause there's not a big trash problem but there are no trashcans. We walk around forever and there is only one before you go into the trainstation. If I eat or drink something I have to carry around the wrapper or bottle for a long time. Also the city has smells that change from block to block. Every few steps I take I will smell something incredible, like fruit or fried chicken, or terrible like the smells in the airport. I have also hit my head on so many things. I have to duck everywhere I go. I see people stare at me all the time. I walked around by myself some and people stare more when I am alone. It's cool to expierence what a minority expierences. Some people love and are intrigued by you and others are scared of you. And I know some people were wondering about ladyboys. I have seen many. Some are very obvious and some look somewhat pretty until you get close enough or hear them talk. I try to stay from them though. I'm starting to get to the town and be comfortable with walking around furthur and furthur from my apartment.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Feb. 21 2009
The flight was awful. I basically traveled for 48 hours. I am so tired. I did watch movies and play video games on my personal tv but it was terrible, so much worse than driving to california. Japan and Taiwan's airport smelled terrible. I'm just glad it's over....
We got picked up at the airport at 2 a.m. local time and went back to Shaun's apartment. We dropped off our stuff and went to eat some food of the street. I think it was wanton soup; it was ok but i really didn't like it. There were tons of people on the street selling food and all kinds of stuff. People were selling frog legs, locusts, and fried scorpion. It's kinda like mexico but it has a vibe where you feel safe. I think you have to be here to know how it feels.....
We then went to check out some of Bangkok. We road the skytrain. Bangkok is really wierd. There is tons and tons of shopping, mall after mall, but not many people by stuff. You feel like your in America. There are all the shops we have plus like market type vendors where you can negotiate prices. We went and played video games for like an hour for a couple of dollars. Then I hate at Mcdonalds and it's just as good as back home. Then we went to get a thai massage, 1 hour for $6. It was my first massage. Some stuff was cool and some hurt bad. They stretched me out though and were making fun of us cause we were to tight....
We went to the interview and it's in a very shady place. But the guy was really nice and had alot of good information. He basically offered us our pick of 3 teaching jobs. I will make $1000 a month with housing paid for. I will only need around 600 a month to live here comfortably. I can also make money tutoring and working english camps on weekends. When we came back from the interview we got an apartment for 3 months. It cost $500 for all 3 months split between me and Joey. We then went and saw a movie. It is just like an american movie theater except it was $6 for a movie ticket and popcorn and drink. At the beginning of the movie there king had a video and everyone stood when it was showed til the end which was about 3 minutes. Then we just came back and arranged our room which is like a college dorm room. 2 beds, bathroom and a couple of dressers. It's small but all we need...
Today we went and played some basketball at the outdoor courts with a bunch of americans and then all went to subway. It was very hot and i got sunburnt. We then went to Khao San Road. It was a cool expierence. People from all over the world all in one area eating, drinking, shopping and hanging out together And alot of thais offering us alot of "shows and services". We came back late and ordered Mcdonald's 24 hour delivery, absoultley amazing...
Bangkok is such a cool city. The people here like americans and like to try out there english. They are also very non confrontational. Everything is so relaxed, but they are very unorganized. There is tons of public transportation and people everywhere at all times of the day. There are no sidewalks really so there are all kinds of taxis and bikes coming all the time that you have to watch for. Everyone is on the grind. Not alot of beggers, but alot of people living in poor housing and selling anything they can on the street. Very safe, police are everywhere and not much crime or drugs. It's so hard to explain the vibe here but it's awesome. It's very sureal cause I don't comprehend that I'm in Asia. Being a minority and having people always stare is different, but kind of fun. So far it's an incredible experience.
We got picked up at the airport at 2 a.m. local time and went back to Shaun's apartment. We dropped off our stuff and went to eat some food of the street. I think it was wanton soup; it was ok but i really didn't like it. There were tons of people on the street selling food and all kinds of stuff. People were selling frog legs, locusts, and fried scorpion. It's kinda like mexico but it has a vibe where you feel safe. I think you have to be here to know how it feels.....
We then went to check out some of Bangkok. We road the skytrain. Bangkok is really wierd. There is tons and tons of shopping, mall after mall, but not many people by stuff. You feel like your in America. There are all the shops we have plus like market type vendors where you can negotiate prices. We went and played video games for like an hour for a couple of dollars. Then I hate at Mcdonalds and it's just as good as back home. Then we went to get a thai massage, 1 hour for $6. It was my first massage. Some stuff was cool and some hurt bad. They stretched me out though and were making fun of us cause we were to tight....
We went to the interview and it's in a very shady place. But the guy was really nice and had alot of good information. He basically offered us our pick of 3 teaching jobs. I will make $1000 a month with housing paid for. I will only need around 600 a month to live here comfortably. I can also make money tutoring and working english camps on weekends. When we came back from the interview we got an apartment for 3 months. It cost $500 for all 3 months split between me and Joey. We then went and saw a movie. It is just like an american movie theater except it was $6 for a movie ticket and popcorn and drink. At the beginning of the movie there king had a video and everyone stood when it was showed til the end which was about 3 minutes. Then we just came back and arranged our room which is like a college dorm room. 2 beds, bathroom and a couple of dressers. It's small but all we need...
Today we went and played some basketball at the outdoor courts with a bunch of americans and then all went to subway. It was very hot and i got sunburnt. We then went to Khao San Road. It was a cool expierence. People from all over the world all in one area eating, drinking, shopping and hanging out together And alot of thais offering us alot of "shows and services". We came back late and ordered Mcdonald's 24 hour delivery, absoultley amazing...
Bangkok is such a cool city. The people here like americans and like to try out there english. They are also very non confrontational. Everything is so relaxed, but they are very unorganized. There is tons of public transportation and people everywhere at all times of the day. There are no sidewalks really so there are all kinds of taxis and bikes coming all the time that you have to watch for. Everyone is on the grind. Not alot of beggers, but alot of people living in poor housing and selling anything they can on the street. Very safe, police are everywhere and not much crime or drugs. It's so hard to explain the vibe here but it's awesome. It's very sureal cause I don't comprehend that I'm in Asia. Being a minority and having people always stare is different, but kind of fun. So far it's an incredible experience.
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