Friday, July 27, 2007
Trails, Tests, and Tranny Talent
Final Visa Run
A couple weeks ago I finished my last visa run to Penang, Malaysia! Ahhh, this still brings an extended exhale of relief. While Em has had an official "work visa" since November, I have been conducting regular "border hops" with the periodic trip to Penang for a tourist visa. On this last visit, I finally got to the long sought after "Penang Hill" and hiked along a trail I heard was the "real deal." Considering I was more tired and sore after this 8 mile jungle walk than I was after climbing and skiing off the top of Mt. Rainier, I concur that it was the real deal.
Midterms
I, and my students, seem to have survived midterms. After colleagues looked over my test, I was a little concerned that I made them too difficult...what, me have high expectations? It is easy to relate to my best students and perceive that any signs of boredom in class are because the lessons are too easy. I was in Malaysia while my first classes were tested and returned to comments from the substitute that they were hard and direct quotes from students such as "this is difficult." Yes, I was happy to hear that they were using such good English to complain. So, I was immediately thinking of extra credit opportunities and excuses to tell the administration in a country that does not fail students. But after grading them, it seems their whining was exactly that. Sure, 90% of the students did not get As but most of them did well and I was happy with the range of grades.
Seven Falls
I recently hiked at Ton Nga Chang, a nearby tourist spot boasting seven levels of waterfalls. With an entrance fee and well maintained pathways (at the beginning of the hike), I figured it would be a simple walk around a nice stretch of waterway. But sure enough, it satisfied some wilderness craving as after the fourth falls the trail connected with stretches of rocky river bank and demanded some jungle route finding. The irony was I was only able to get to the sixth falls as after that point, I explored dense forest and steep embankments without finding any sign of a route progressing further upstream to the seventh and final falls. I enjoyed some quiet time at the sixth falls listening to the sounds of cicadas and gibbons radiating from the jungle around me and cooled off with a dip into the pool (which is probably how I got the leach bite on my chest I discovered hours later in our apartment) . I also visited with a rather large millipede as shown in the photo (that's my finger in the bottom right corner of the picture).
Nightlife
There is a new hot spot in town we visited last Saturday night with Pitt, P Nutt, and P Nutt's clan. We had appetizers and drinks outside before entering the swanky flavored interior. Due to P Nutt's local respect, we were treated well all evening and had a nice stretch of tables near the band. It was my kind of dance atmosphere as there was no dance floor but rather the move your shoulders around a bit while holding a drink standing by your table dance scene. I got a little loose and soon enough was throwing around my famous "surfer" dance.
Towards the end of the night some expensive talent entered exposing more skin than cloth. While we are pretty certain they were all born men, they still successfully won repeated looks from all genders. Most likely out of the clientèle's league, or simply too intimidating, there weren't many folks approaching them. One began venturing around and soon enough was over dancing between Em and Pitt (likely because Em was one of very few present who could really dance). To my blind regret, I learned later from Em that the first few seconds she was dancing with us, she had both breasts fully exposed.
Next...
Tomorrow morning we're heading for Railay Beach in Krabi to enjoy a little vacation over the four day weekend.
Labels: Hat Yai, Thailand, visa
Monday, July 16, 2007
"OK" is almost always the right answer
A couple weeks ago my school started talking about a teachers' trip to Surat Thani. And by "talking about" I mean in Thai. "Teacher - go to Surat Thani" is about the only explanation I got. So, what the heck - "OK". (pictures)My school's Kruyai (literally "Big Teacher", but basically the principal) speaks a little bit of English, and a couple of the older teachers have tried to talk to me... But most of the teachers at my school are under 25, don't speak much more English than I do Thai, and are mostly caught up the school's fairly clique-y teacher scene. I thought, if nothing else, I would end up talking to someone in the course of a two-day trip.
After getting up at 3:30, we rolled into Surat late Thursday morning, parked, and I still didn't know what was going on. It turns out we were at a huge school expo. Sixty schools from all over south Thailand had endless rows of booths displaying all kinds of projects their students have been working on. There were books, origami, beadwork, string art, paper and cloth flowers, ceramics, mini ecosystems, melons carved into flowers, paintings, etched glass, fossil replicas, and much more - all made by students. Big display boards in each booth gave extensive information (in Thai) so that other interested teachers could find out more about the projects.
By 2:00 we'd all had enough of the heat and the crowds. That's when they told me where we were headed next: "Teacher, go Koh Samui." Koh Samui is a big tourist island with lovely sandy beaches. "OK." Unfortunately, after driving the hour to the ferry, we found the boats were full. So we eventually found a place along the shore with a perfectly nice beach. After a full day of having little to no idea what was going on, where I was going, or what was being said, it was nice to just sit on the sand for a while. There were a few minutes there when I was wondering what on earth I'd been thinking to agree to this little outing. I'd spent the day mostly hanging out with Kruyai, and the other teachers still didn't seem overly friendly (maybe because I was hanging out with the boss like some kind of pet poodle?). But before dinner folks started warming up. It turns out the older 6th grade teacher actually does speak some English, she's just really shy. And her friend - the older kindergarten teacher - offset that by not knowing much but being very willing to try. Between that and my really basic Thai, I started to feel more a part of the proceedings. And as dinner and the evening went on, even some of the younger teachers seemed more friendly.
After getting up at 3:30, we rolled into Surat late Thursday morning, parked, and I still didn't know what was going on. It turns out we were at a huge school expo. Sixty schools from all over south Thailand had endless rows of booths displaying all kinds of projects their students have been working on. There were books, origami, beadwork, string art, paper and cloth flowers, ceramics, mini ecosystems, melons carved into flowers, paintings, etched glass, fossil replicas, and much more - all made by students. Big display boards in each booth gave extensive information (in Thai) so that other interested teachers could find out more about the projects.
By 2:00 we'd all had enough of the heat and the crowds. That's when they told me where we were headed next: "Teacher, go Koh Samui." Koh Samui is a big tourist island with lovely sandy beaches. "OK." Unfortunately, after driving the hour to the ferry, we found the boats were full. So we eventually found a place along the shore with a perfectly nice beach. After a full day of having little to no idea what was going on, where I was going, or what was being said, it was nice to just sit on the sand for a while. There were a few minutes there when I was wondering what on earth I'd been thinking to agree to this little outing. I'd spent the day mostly hanging out with Kruyai, and the other teachers still didn't seem overly friendly (maybe because I was hanging out with the boss like some kind of pet poodle?). But before dinner folks started warming up. It turns out the older 6th grade teacher actually does speak some English, she's just really shy. And her friend - the older kindergarten teacher - offset that by not knowing much but being very willing to try. Between that and my really basic Thai, I started to feel more a part of the proceedings. And as dinner and the evening went on, even some of the younger teachers seemed more friendly.In the morning we tried for the ferry again, with no luck, so went to plan B: "Teacher, go temple." "OK." We went into the town of Nakhorn Si Thammerat, to Wat Phramahathat. Then we continued south into Phattalung province, and Wat Khao Hor, which has a nifty cave and a small shrine on top of a limestone karst.
We were all starving when we left the second temple, and the principal assured me that our lunch destination was only ten minutes away. With a name like "Ban Thale noi" (translation: small lake sea, or something like that) I was thinking seafood, so was pretty surprised when it was only mediocre vendor food along the lake shore. But after lunch I found out why we were really there: "Teacher, go boat. Birds." Definitely "OK." Thale Noi is a large freshwater marsh, with endless stretches of lillies, lotus, and water grasses - and tons of water birds. (I didn't have my camera with me, but someone's put up a very nice article and photo gallery on AsiaExplorers here.) We spent an hour and a half in a red-white-and-blue painted wooden boat, gliding amongst the blooming lotus, getting up close and personal with purple swamphens, pygmy geese, purple herons, little cormorants, brahminy kites, egrets, and little grebes. Fantastic birds. The big excitement for the principal and teachers that came with (only six of us) was snapping off the lotus flowers and seed pods as we went, but they seemed impressed by the birdlife as well. Not a bad way to end a very interesting two days.
We were all starving when we left the second temple, and the principal assured me that our lunch destination was only ten minutes away. With a name like "Ban Thale noi" (translation: small lake sea, or something like that) I was thinking seafood, so was pretty surprised when it was only mediocre vendor food along the lake shore. But after lunch I found out why we were really there: "Teacher, go boat. Birds." Definitely "OK." Thale Noi is a large freshwater marsh, with endless stretches of lillies, lotus, and water grasses - and tons of water birds. (I didn't have my camera with me, but someone's put up a very nice article and photo gallery on AsiaExplorers here.) We spent an hour and a half in a red-white-and-blue painted wooden boat, gliding amongst the blooming lotus, getting up close and personal with purple swamphens, pygmy geese, purple herons, little cormorants, brahminy kites, egrets, and little grebes. Fantastic birds. The big excitement for the principal and teachers that came with (only six of us) was snapping off the lotus flowers and seed pods as we went, but they seemed impressed by the birdlife as well. Not a bad way to end a very interesting two days.
