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
