Now that Em and I are posting separately and boasting our living conditions, I guess I should submit something about my new home. Well, the new home (as in structure I sleep in) is not quite up to the contemporary luxuries of Em's. I live in a bamboo thatched bungalow consisting of an ~80 sq ft bedroom/living room which is attached by three stairs to my very own concrete bathroom w/traditional Thai toilet and western shower head. It is better than fine (maybe just wish I didn't get to see those granite counters in Em's place) and does boast a great covered deck with table and chairs made of tree stumps.

And my new home (as in every day living) is truly fantastic. I feel very lucky to step into an organization that receives well-deserved credit throughout the local communities. I have heard from more than one local how indebted they feel towards NATR for granting them renewed livelihoods. I look forward to contributing to our efforts to feel some of those rewards. Thus far I have been getting acquainted with where we came from, what we are doing today, and what we want to be doing in the future. I have also been looking into some marketing strategies for our community-based tourism (CBT) programs. Ya, look out, I know this role (marketing) may make everything I say from here on out seem suspect. We are hosting a large conference this Friday which has taken lots of our staff's time so I've been pretty independent. Looking forward to next week where I will begin to visit the villages and do some "voluntourism."

While the NATR crew shares a passion to work hard for our cause, we also share a passion to enjoy life. A day does not go by where I am not invited for some extra-curricular activity...whether going for a swim in the river, viewing the current Vegetarian Festival, playing Snooker, a quick trip to Phuket for a local friend's birthday party, a visit to a local family's home to celebrate the end of Ramadan, or one huge celebration for Gordy's (a current volunteer's) birthday.

This celebration began with most of the NATR staff leaving work for the beach. We made it there just in time to see a large red sun falling into the Andaman sea. A few of us went for a quick swim before joining the watermelon baseball game. No real outs here...swing the cricket paddle at half a watermelon and try to run around the bases without getting hit by one of the obliterated pieces of watermelon the opposing team is throwing at you. The crew then migrated towards the fire that Erik had created, had some beverages and ate chicken and roti. Before we left the beach, some of us went for another swim and enjoyed the most incredible phosphorescence experience of our lives. Some swimmers had never seen it before, and those of us who had definitely had never seen it that intense. Besides the bright illumination made in the water when moving around, there were shining particles left glimmering on arms and bodies for a few seconds after removed from the water. The party was then transported back to town to Jep's place where we helped setup an industrial size disco ball and then it was dance time.

As we are focussed on community empowerment, the majority of our staff is Thai and fortunately they also partake in all the fun, giving me a chance to learn the language. Sure enough, a word I've gotten pretty good at using is ting-tong (crazy).

Labels: Kuraburi, sustainable tourism, Thailand

It's been a busy week... We made it down to Hat Yai ok on the train - not quite as smooth and comfy as the Indian train system, but not at all bad. We spent a couple of days getting to know the city a bit better, and then Sudarat (my new boss) and Jeen (her secretary) helped us find an apartment for me. I love my new place! I'm on the north end of town on a relatively quiet street, but with good access to transportation and food. It's in an apartment building that can't be more than a couple years old - a secured building you need a card to get into, with a minimart, laundry, and copy center right downstairs. There's even a couple of exercise machines in an open-air room on the top floor. The apartment is all tiled, with granite countertops and a nice bathroom (with hot water) and airconditioning, and a nice little balcony. I already bought some plants. Hopefully internet will be connected in the next few weeks.

Before Trevor headed north to start work, he got to come with to see my new school. As promised, it's a little private school half an hour out in the country. They're growing (their enrollment has crept up from 1 class per grade toward 2 classes per grade) and in the process of buying land to build a new school sometime soon, if I understand correctly, which is not a given. No one there really speaks English at all, so all my information is filtered through Jeen. While they're waiting for the new school, the rooms are a bit cramped, and I think some of them were intended as temporary structures. The students are all on holiday right now (most Thai schools take all or part of October off, then most of March and April) so the school seemed pretty empty without them. It will be nice to see it full. There's a new temple being built right across the street, which gives the area a nice feel.

I've also met my Thai teaching partner - Pitt (pronounced more like Pete). She's been doing a great job of showing me around the city, and we're zipping around running errands today (between her private tutoring sessions). We're both really excited to get started planning lessons, and she's been a teacher in regular and bilingual Thai schools for about 7 years, so she should be a great source of ideas and inspiration. Yesterday we spent the day shopping with her sister - buying the aforementioned plants among other things - and the three of us spent a long time browsing through all of the English workbooks in the store. Pitt and I bought some to use for our classes, and her sister bought some for her kids (Pitt is their tutor - handy to have an English teacher in the family!).

The other night I walked over to the closest market to my new place. There were mountains of all kinds of farm produce - about half of which I recognized - along with huge piles of meat, an endless variety of fish and seafood, big baskets overflowing with hardboiled eggs (some dyed pink for unknown reasons) and the occasional crate of ducklings or sack of live toads. I stuck to the basics: bananas, apples, cucumbers, and these 3-ft-long green beans that are equally tasty raw or cooked. My kitchen isn't much of a kitchen yet, but it's really nice to be able to slice up some fresh things to snack on, or eat with breakfast. It's not all that common for an apartment here to come with a stove, fridge, etc., so eventually I'll probably pick up a rice/veggie cooker and an electric frying pan (the usual solutions) and maybe even a grill for out on the deck. For now it's so easy to pick up really healthy food from all the restaurants and vendors right around the corner.

I think we're having a barbecue in the park tonight with Pitt's family. I have a tough time keeping up with the plans, but don't have many of my own right now, so it's easy enough to just go with it. Her niece is a big fan of spaghetti, and apparently pretty excited to have a real live foreigner on hand to cook it. I tried to tell them I'm Norwegian, but that didn't seem to make much difference. They're a really nice bunch and it should be fun.

Labels: Thailand

We are packing things up and boarding a train southbound tomorrow. I will spend a few days in Songkla Province helping Em get settled in before heading up the Andaman Coast to Khuraburi.

Em has had three weeks helping the TEFL school by observing and providing feedback to trainees and teaching a couple kids’ camps. The observing appears to be less work (less hours, less demand). The camps have activities going into the evenings (limbo & karaoke!) and require her full attention all day, but do provide more rewards such as the periodic smiling student. She has also been looking over many lesson plans from some colleagues to help put together a good library of resources.

Dan and I had a very mellow visit on Ko Samet, which was exactly what he was looking for, and it was easy for me to bask in some tourist luxury knowing I will be working hard soon. Most every night we would visit the nearby Naga Bar where the employees had the best energy (DJ and bartender constantly dancing) and a friendly scene where the travelers mixed best with local resort workers. While we are quite social, we still never quite got into the hard-core partiers’ schedule – some of whom started their day at dusk, went to Naga in the evenings for a liquid breakfast, then danced at Silver Sands until three before ending their day at some after-hours bungalow or the beach just before dawn.

Em had a three day weekend while Dan & I were on the island and came down to relax with us on some white sand. She brought with her the most sunshine we saw during our 10-day visit on the island. While it is the rainy season, Em and I feel very lucky as we have had mostly good weather prior to the last few weeks. The seasons are changing as we are now in a smaller northeast monsoon season that ends in November and then we supposedly see nothing but sunshine until May!

During Dan’s visit it was great to hear stories about the hill, most of which were very positive, some of which were quite juicy! I’m stoked for everybody as the momentum continues to thrive. And of course I am more than excited to see the Alpental plaza progress into something very special. Nice work all!

We did a quick stop in Bangkok just before Dan flew out. We stayed in the Sukhumvit area, aka “New Bangkok.” Hmm...”new” to me that’s for sure. I was a little bewildered walking around the streets seeing so many westerners. We visited the biggest/nicest sports bar I’ve been in since leaving the US and while the venue was fantastic, the crowd was not exactly for us. We concluded that there was not one Thai man in the place. But the crowd was 50% Thai. Yes, all the women were Thai and the one hundred or so men were westerners with a couple Africans and Indians thrown in.

We walked around a bit, visited a canal where we saw Thais (no “new-Bangkok” crowd here) using long wooden boats to speed from one part of town to the next. The boats are a great option relative to Bangkok’s congested streets where motorcycle taxis play frogger around stop-and-go buses. While the boats seem efficient, Bangkok does offer a sophisticated transportation system that links their Skytrain (elevated light rail) with their Metro (underground light rail). I used both to get to the train station to buy our tickets south and was impressed with the level of sophistication and ease in this system. With all the “developing” infrastructure I’ve witnessed the last 9 months, it was refreshing to use a modern transportation system... yet disappointing to accept that it is, and will be, superior to ours in Seattle.

Labels: Bangkok, Koh Samet, Thailand