There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket, Seventeen times as high as the moon; Where she was going I could not but ask it, For in her hand she carried a broom. "Old woman, old woman, old woman," quoth I; "O whither, O whither, O whither so high?" "To sweep the cobwebs from the sky, And I'll be with you by-and-by!"
Being back in my apartment means a desire for fresh fruit. This morning I found a vendor who sold me fresh pineapple for just 10 Baht. It made an excellent breakfast but I knew I wanted to go to the market in the evening to get something more exotic. The market sells everything... food prepared or unprepared, clothes, electronics, cutlery, footwear, religious items, toys, shower-heads... seriously anything. Mostly it sells food and clothes. The night markets near my apartment differ from the ones in Hua Hin in a few ways... first of all, they are in big vacant lots instead of narrow streets. Second, they are less of tourist traps and more functional. Third, they are way less expensive. I bought myself some dinner for 12 Baht and dessert for 10 Baht. Then I went in search of fruit. Fresh yellow mangoes were only 25 Baht a kilo. Langsat were 40 Baht a kilo at the cheapest booth. Good deals all around. My hands are still sticky and smell of the tangy Langsats despite my washing them. Tomorrow I will take a mango to B's for breakfast. She has a bigger menu now that school has started so I will be having lunch there if the cafeteria is not running yet. She also has peach iced tea now.
At school I finished my bulletin boards today and made an icebreaker worksheet that is designed like a celebrity interview from a Teen magazine, except the students get to be the stars. I thought about playing Human Knot but Thai people have a lot of etiquette around space-bubble issues so I thought maybe it would not be so wise. I thought I was meeting my students today but it turns out it was only Kindergarten start. Tomorrow my students will come. Many of the Kindergartens were bawling downstairs while I was working on the bulletin boards. And it was funny to watch them all in a line with their hands on the railing going down the stairs. That is a lot of stairs for such small children. Hopefully by the end of the week they will be settled into the school routine.
I realized in the market today I needed to learn a few more Thai phrases, so below are the words/phrases I will be working on this week:
Sa-wa dee, hello. Back in Bangkok. It is important to stretch out the syllables in Thai because as a farang (foreigner) they have difficulty understanding you. It is one heck of scorcher out there today. I am hoping it decides to rain soon to cool it down a bit. Rain is inevitable but not always convenient. Rain hardly ever lasts long than 20 minutes in one go and it often comes out of nowhere. I am feebly trying to grasp on to some Thai phrases to ease transactions at the market and the 7-11. You may think 7-11 is an odd place to go when in Thailand but the 7-11 will save your life... seriously. There is one about every 2 blocks usually. They usually have an ATM outside and are willing to give you change for big bills that the street vendors can't handle. They also sell the 2 liter bottles of water I am always talking about, and as a farang in Thailand you should never go anywhere without your giant water. If you dehydrate you get all sorts of weird ailments you can't even imagine. I felt like I had pins and needles all over my body for a day and a half and then broke out into a rash on my belly before I managed to get enough water back into my system. It is advisable you drink 2 big bottles of water every day. I am lucky now I'm back in Bangkok that I have a free refill station and I can save $1+ CAD a day on water purchases. Big bottles of water range from 13-20 Baht depending on brand, which averages at $0.50 CAD per bottle. On top of the need for hydration you must intake enough salt to counteract the sweating for someone who watches their diet as closely as I do back how this is not easy. I have to intentionally buy junkfood in order to get enough salt. I find I do not like a lot of the Thai junkfood because it is too salty or too sweet. I bought orange juice at breakfast today and it was seriously like tang with added pulp... and I think the pulp was actually orange rind. They sometimes even sweeten fresh fruit, although it usually doesn't need it because it is so fresh compared to what I am used to in Canada. After purchasing something you should say kob-khun-ka (if female) or kob-khun-krab (if male), which means thank you. That is sadly about the extent of my Thai so far. I can definitely sympathize with immigrants to Canada who have to learn English. It is very overwhelming to be immersed in a new culture and language all at once and try to figure out how to do everything associated with moving on top of learning to speak to people around you and not do something that offends someone. It really is terrifying, and excited, and sometimes it is just too much and you can't take the over-stimulation. Tomorrow I will meet my class and finish decorating the bulletin boards (hopefully).
So today I thought it would be nice to kick back and relax... but of course I have little practice in that area and turned out not to be any good at it. I decided to go looking for some butterfly gardens that were supposed to be across the street from the King's palace... shouldn't be too hard to find right?! Well I found the King's palace no problem but after wandering around in circles and asking people, who tried their best to be helpful, I decided it was a lost cause. The King's palace is heavily guarded and there is supposed to be a viewing area for tourists... I couldn't find that either, or the supposed temple nearby. Hot and bothered I stopped at a nearby shop for some cold pineapple-guava juice. I then began the long walk back into town. I knew I had managed to sweat off most of my sunscreen and was burning but the sun was nearly directly overhead and there was nowhere to go to hide from it. When I finally got back into town I was starving and needed to find somewhere cool and shady to sit. I also needed to replace some salt so I headed for the local McDonalds. Now normally I don't condone eating at McDonalds, even in North America but it was an air conditioned building and I wanted to take a picture of the wai-ing Ronald McDonald. In Thailand a wai is a sign of respect. There are huge etiquette rules about who wais first and how low, etc. In the afternoon I walked down to a used bookstore. The owner is a Kiwi and he is quite an interesting gentleman. Being the intellectual sort we hit it off well and he invited me to join him for sushi after he closed up. I was very sad to decline because I already had another dinner obligation. At 6pm a group of students from my University headed down to the pier for what turned out to be an absolutely wonderful meal. My mouth is burning just thinking about the spicy squid and sea mimosa salad I ate. It came in a little bit spicy, medium spicy, or too spicy. I really like spicy foods but the medium spicy was even a bit much for me. I thought the roof of my mouth would break out in blisters any moment. After dinner we road up the glass elevator to the 17th floor of the Hilton hotel, the fanciest hotel in Hua Hin. There we sat in the outdoor bar overlooking the city. The view was spectacular. The margaritas were okay, but not their specialty. There was a weird guy walking around performing some sort of acrobatic stunts with a teapot... the teapot had the longest spout I have ever seen. He then poured tea out of the pot he had practically been juggling! It was something to see. Finally, we finished off the evening at a little gelato bar. The lady did not like my 500 Baht bill even though she clearly had enough change in her cash register. I did not have any smaller change so she took it grudgingly. The coffee flavoured gelato was truly excellent but I think nothing can beat the goat's milk gelato I had in Kelowna when I went on the wine tour with my friends. Tomorrow afternoon we head back to Bangkok and Wednesday I will meet my class!
Yesterday I went on an elephant ride. It was 1000 Baht for the morning, during which we also visited a temple and fed giant catfish. The transportation to and from our hotel was included, as was fish food, and a snack of water and pineapple. Of course they still sold us a basket of bananas for 100 Baht to feed to the elephants and the professional photos of us on the elephants were 200 Baht each. They tried to sell us two different ones but I only bought one. The elephant ride was thrilling. Most of the time we sat on a sort of saddle-seat but we were able to ride it bare-back for photographs. It is very scary when elephants walk downhill... it feels like you will come toppling off. The tour took us through the farmstead of our guides. It was hard to see how they lived, in pieced together shacks with no walls. As we walked by on the elephants I was able to see a baby sleeping in a hammock, and a paddock full of cattle that were all skin and bones. They had chickens also and there were many dogs because there was a dog shelter nearby. I even saw a white cat sitting on a rock. There was lots of construction going on to fix the statues of the nearby temple. One statue had all scaffolding around it. After we trekked out of the farmstead we went through the jungle. I saw some bright red beetles and some trees with huge thorns on them. We walked down through a pond. When we went to see the catfish some were 3 feet long and there were other fish too. Some were really ugly. There were turtles and a lot of hungry street-dogs which we fed some of the fish-food to.
Today I decided to go see the monkeys at Monkey Mountain. I was given bad directions but a motor-taxi picked me up and took me the 8km. The motor-taxi driver was crazy. He drove in the wrong lane to get around traffic and laughed like an adrenaline-junkie, which probably was not too far off the mark. Still, it is safer than the van-taxis and makes me less motion-sick. I am yet to ride in a Tuk-Tuk (3-wheeled taxi). The ride was pricey but still a good deal by North American standards. I spent about 2-3 hours taking photos of monkeys and visiting the 2 temples on the mountain. I then began the long and arduous journey back to the hotel. The motor-taxi driver had suggested I go along the beach, but I was unable to find a way down there. It is about a 7-8 km hike back to the area of Hua Hin where my hotel is, much confused by the fact that the sign will claim that 5 streets in a row are all Road 88 and the like. I need to get to Road 46. The heat was intense and I stopped at a 7-11 (which are plentiful in Thailand) and bought a 2 Liter of water. The whole trek took about an hour and a half and caused me lots of looks from the locals. Normally someone like me would take a taxi, I guess. The roads were quite safe except that some of the power-lines hung down low over the sidewalk. I was relieved when it rained for a bit, but soon it was hot again. I thank my SPF 60 for only getting a sunburn the size of a loonie on my arm where the sunscreen must have worn off because of my watch. My feet are very sore and I am thinking tomorrow I will check out the used bookstore a few blocks down or perhaps get a massage.
The night markets in Hua Hin are amazing. You can buy anything from toys to music to clothes to ice cream shaped like eggs and you can haggle on the prices of anything that is not already marked. I finally found postcards for 5 Baht each. I hope I bought enough. I didn't do a thorough job of counting. I can always go back and get more another night. I also bought a pair of fisherman's pants to wear to the temples and a turtle shaped bag for the beach and for hiking to Monkey Mountain... I have also heard it called Monkey Island, which is hilarious. My plan was to hike to Monkey Mountain tomorrow. There is supposed to be a Buddhist Shrine and also a place that gives wonderful massages. And there are lots of monkeys. However, perhaps that is a plan for Sunday because a group of us is headed elephant riding tomorrow! We are getting up bright and early and busing to the riding location. More details to follow! This morning I oriented myself with the town. It is relatively small but busy and touristy. The beach was decent. My understanding is you need to watch out for jellyfish. I did not swim today because I had not brought my swimsuit down to the beach. There are also horses to rent, which might be fun. I spent the midday heat indoors, gecko-watching and lazed around by the pool until dinner. We went to a small restaurant called Bam Bam. It doesn't look like much but the seafood is superb.
There is an expression in Thai, "Mai Pben Rai" meaning "It's all good" or "It's okay." This expression can be frustrating to foreigners because it becomes more than an expression, but a lifestyle. It was explained to me as follows: In Thailand there is an abundance of everything. People do not have to work hard to get food or water or any necessities. As a result there is little need for schedules and things are quite flexible. Plans change unexpectedly and people adapt easily to any situation. Westerners get frustrated when plans continuously fall through but there is no use being angry because Thai people do not know how to act if you get angry and it will not get you any results. If you get angry with a Thai person they will probably laugh it off. It will be a nervous laugh, but you will get nothing for your efforts except more frustration. When a Thai person laughs like this it means they have lost face and they are trying to come to terms with it so they will be embarrassed and beyond that not respond to your criticism. There is no reason for them to change a system that has worked well for them up until when you came along. Don't be offended. Thai people are some of the nicest and most friendly people you can meet anywhere. I have had no trouble at all here. They are wonderful and gracious hosts. But you need to work like you are on vacation all the time. Things take longer than expected. Plans change like the weather. Mai Pben Rai.
