Thai Odyssey

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Suratthani Revisited

We had a short holiday in good ol' Thailand.
It was odd coming into the new airport -
half finished and without any public transport.

In a way though,
it felt like coming home.
So many good memories.

Stayed one night in Bangkok,
Just off Khao San Road.
We went and got street food at two am.

Despite the coup, Taksim's plan of having everything shut by one.
See the remnants of the recently closed pubs and clubs,
reminded me why I didn't spend much time around here.

The next day we were on the night train to our old home of Surat.
Unfortunately, because of the public holiday we only got third class seats.
In a carriage designed for about 60 there would have been over 120 people.

Getting up for the toilet had to be a calculated manoeuvre.
Stepping and jumping over bodies left, right and centre.
We made it down to the dining car and drank until they threw us out.

We were lucky to get our seats back.
There was no sleeping on this train.
By about four I was considering jumping out the window and hitching the rest of the way.

We made it all the way however,
Lucky my old boss gave us somewhere to have a shower and recuperate.
For that, and the use of a motorbike, I will be eternally grateful.

We arrived at an interesting time.
Most of those who we knew had left,
Those that we knew well were in the process of leaving.

Surat town itself hadn't changed all that much.
The foreshore was better developed and it seemed a bit bigger,
but apart from that it seemed the same.

The trouble it the south may account for the increase in size,
people would much rather move up to Surat,
than deal with the bombings.

We were straight on the nightboat,
off to Kho Pang Nang for a gathering.
Sean, Tara, Sharon, Simon, Willy and ourselves.

Willy had a big bungalow near the little fishing villiage at the top of the island.
Here we had many good times, Shongkran celebrations and duty free cocktail creations.
We went swimming and snorkeling during the hot lazy days... good times.

But it was time to make move.
For new adventures in a new land...

Taiwan

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Songkhran Fireworks

Friday, December 29, 2006

New Thai Odyssey Site

Hey All,

Thought I might bring the work of all my other blogging sites under one server to make it easier to get around.

It also allowes me to put up all the photos that have been bumped from the flickr site.

Oh well, enjoy.

Take it easy

Saturday, March 4th, 2006 2:54 pm

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH...

Farewell beautiful Suratthani,

You truely are the place of good people.

Also to all the people who made the experience so wonderful.

To all the vendors of amazing food,

To all the great places,

To my superlitive employers,

To my many great friends...... till next time,

stay brilliant.

Stay in touch.

All my love

Monday, December 25, 2006

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 4:16 pm

Soi Dogs

More than the police or criminals, it is the dogs that run the streets of Suratthani. You are very much in their space.

There are two types of dogs here. The lap dogs who are pampered beyond belief – ride in the baskets of motorbikes, wear little jackets, have elaborate hair dos and live inside; and then there are the real dogs. The latter are the ones of which I speak.

They usually hang around a certain area. One assumes near their “owners”, but dog ownership is very much a communal concern. Everyone feeds them. It seems to be a very Buddhist practice to feed animals – be they soi dogs, pond fish or the birds. It is hard to tell who belongs to which dog.

They run in packs feeding from the trash and where ever else they can, drinking from the little ponds of fish that people keep outside their houses and shops. No one seems to care. I have been bailed up by these bastards on more than one occasion. Charging at them and yelling while getting ready to whip them with my keys seems to have kept me safe. Another method is to bend down and touch your toes. The theory being: that years of having stones thrown at them has taught them to stay away from people bending over. I was very surprised when I first tried it, to find dogs running for cover.

I have also had them chase after me while I ride my motorbike. Doing some “soi exploring” one free afternoon, I was greeted by a dead end and a pack of angry animals. A quick u turn and I was off. Lifting my legs to avoid getting bitten, I shot off, first gear revving out as I could not put my foot down to change gear – much to the amusement of the locals.

I know a few people who have not been so lucky and been bitten by these creatures – both Farang and Thai. Usually a long course of rabies injections is the result. It is worth while. I am not sure how common rabies is but some of these animals look as if they are in a pretty poor state of health. Open sores and loss of hair are frequent conditions.

For example: “Ugly”.

Ugly was in residence on our soi since I arrived. His name was derived, from his appearance. It would be hard for me to give you an accurate disruption. His breed is unknown to me. A medium sized dog with dark fur, his eyes were cloudy with cataracts – I am pretty sure he was nearly blind, his hearing was not up to much either. His most noticeable feature, apart from a broken foreleg that never healed properly, was a giant lump growing on his back. The thing covered maybe a sixth of his back right flank and extended out maybe as much as three inches.

This animal would limp around taking refuge in our front yards and getting his sustenance from the local s who would put food out for him.

It seems cruel to keep this bugger alive, but putting him “to sleep” is not really acceptable in Thai culture. Apparently it is not a service offered at your local vet. Thai Buddhists take “thou shall not kill” very much to heart. You never know, that might be one of your ancestors.

We complained to the management of the school, but our Thai boss said to keep out of his way and he will disappear to die of his own accord soon enough. I do not care what your religion is: if you ever see me walking around in that condition, put me out of my misery.

Unfortunately, he did not disappear, things got worse. For months he limped around. He spent all day gnawing at that huge lump on his back. Eventually it burst open into a huge rotting wound.

Soon after, the flies got in and the thing was a turgid, festering mass of maggots. I could not look at the poor bastard. I would walk down to my house putting my hand out to block his view. I was amazed at how life can continue under such conditions.

Eventually, the ex boyfriend of one of the teachers on the soi came through. Listening to people’s complaints he decided to take action. He paid a tuk tuk driver 1000 B to take him away.

I would like to think he was taken to temple – this being the usual practice for relatives, animals and children that you can no longer look after. I fear that more likely, his last vision (if he had any at all) was a brick, the inside of a sack and the bottom of the Tapee River.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: watch out for the dogs when you visit Thailand. Most of them are really cute, but every now and again, one will bite you in the arse.

Rubbish

Suratthani has very few bins. If you have rubbish that you need to throw away, the common practice is to just drop it. People are employed to come around and pick it up. How convenient! At the same time it does not stop the crap from making its way out into the jungles and rivers.

It is not uncommon to go to the most amazing places of natural beauty and find chip packets, beer bottles and cigarette butts. Yuk!

One theory I heard about this was that: up until recently most foods came wrapped in banana leaves. Therefore it was fine to drop them just anywhere – organic biodegradable packaging. Since the introduction of plastic the required disposal methods have not been adopted. The tradition of lighting fires to dispose of your rubbish is still alive and well. It is quite common to find to find people, even in urban areas lighting little fires then stacking it full of plastic. Every now and again I would return home to find my house filled with the fumes of burning plastic.

What do you do with your household rubbish? You just dump it at the end of your soi (street). Every now and again a truck comes round, with about half a dozen guys (and gals) hanging off it, and pick up the bags and boxes. Even if it is collected it only gets taken to a giant smouldering hole in the ground just outside town – allot like home.

Of course, with all this little hanging around, it attracts wildlife. Street dogs and rats the size of rabbits, abound feeding off the tasty morsels found in these piles of crap. Walking down the street late at night, it was my policy to steer clear of the piles of carp as you never knew when you would disturb some rabid rodent that would come flying out in your direction.

It is fairly common to be sitting in a restaurant and see rats running here and there. Every now and again you will see said rats skinned and hanging in the restaurant’s cold display cabinet, right next to the pork, chicken and frogs. Always the best places to eat.

When you are on the river or on a ferry over to the island you will see people just throwing their plastic and cigarette butts straight over the side without so much of a thought. There are no fines for littering outside Bangkok and even there is not all that common.

As I explained to my kids: one cigarette butt can kill a three hundred year old sea turtle. I encourage them to go and explain this to anyone they see throwing stuff off the side of the boat. Hopefully, through education we, can change this but it is going to take a long time.

2:13 pm Thai Education

Thai children get to school early. As early as 6.30, well before they are required to be at the morning assembly at 8.00 am.

There are some 3,400 children at my school, Suratpittaya, a government school in Suratthani. Every morning they all line up in their class and years, and sit on the concrete in the sun before a small stage.

If you are late, you stand in from of the school and they make an example of you. They make you do star jumps or they will examine your hair. If it is too long, they will take you aside and give you an impromptu haircut with a pair of ordinary paper scissors.

Each morning, I am told, they get a lecture on being a good student. They also have prayers or meditation and sing the national anthem. They all stand as the flag is raised. This goes on for about 45 minutes with the early morning sun beating down on them.

It is quite a sight – three thousand kids all in matching uniforms with matching haircuts, repeating the same words.

The uniforms change with the days of the week. For my kids: Monday and Tuesday, normal school uniform; white, short sleeve shirts for the boys with navy blue shorts white socks and black shoes; while the girls have a white short sleeved blouse with a navy knee length skirt, white socks and black shoes.

Wednesday, is scouts day. There are several types of scouting uniform. For the boys there is the brown, blue and navy; denoting scouts (or army), air force or navy. For the girls there is light blue, dark blue, another type of blue and green representing nurses, girl scouts, air force and community services.

Two days a week they wear their sports uniform. It is a blue and yellow track suit that they wear for the whole day.

The Thai teachers also have uniforms – Monday it is the "desert storm" uniform. This is a brown military type number with epaulettes and ribbons denoting rank. I asked the head of the English department whether the medals were for the number of children she had killed. She laughed but did not deny it.

Tuesday and Thursday teachers wear Thai silk, usually suits of their own choosing. Wednesdays they also wear a scouting uniform. There is something slightly disturbing about seeing a forty year old man wearing shorts and long socks. Friday is Hawaiian shirt day – also the day when students clean the school from top to bottom… a brilliant idea.

I know of at least two teachers who augment their uniform with a long bamboo stick. With 48 kids in their classes, this is often required for crowd control. “Magic Stick” is written long one teacher’s stick. I have borrowed it on occasion and it truly is magic.

With that many children in a class learning is mainly by rote. They are not really interested in understanding but copying. Put anything on the board and they will write it in their books often without reading it. You will say “What is your name?” and they will reply “What is your name?” Then you move onto “I am a monkey” You will have 48 kids repeating it. If you put an information gap activity on the board, they will copy everything but not put in the answers until someone gives tells them or it is time to mark.

The kids are generally allot more interested in making things look pretty. If you give them a project, they will spend ten minutes on the English and two hours on the pictures. Pretty is important in Thailand.

This is demonstrated anytime there is a holiday – Hallmark or otherwise. Xmas, Valentines Day or the King’s Birthday they will decorate the notice boards with Santas, love hearts and pictures of the King - all with colourful paper flowers.

As with the rest of Thai society (from what I have seen) the women do all the work while the boys do all the goofing off. Thai classes are not streamed either, so there might be two or three kids who do the work/homework and the rest will copy theirs. You will find that one desk of students will all have the same answers.

Thai teachers earn significantly less money than the farang (native English speakers) and work allot harder. They arrive earlier and leave later. In addition they are required to get involved in the numerous extra curricular activities – camps, exhibitions etc. It is no surprise then that you will often find them asleep at the back of the teacher’s room.

In the English department, very few of the teachers studied English at a tertiary level. Communication can be a bit hit and miss, but their English is allot better than my Thai. They also regularly bring local delicacies for our pleasure (or their amusement as with durian and jack-apple – the foulest smelling fruit known to man).

A primary teacher in Thailand is called a Kru but a high school teacher is known as Ajarn. Students call me Ajarn Alan (Alternatively, Aj. Obe-won). The closest term to this in English would be professor. The Ajarn hold a high status in Thai society and can also apply to your Buddhist monk teacher.

At the start of each class, the leader of the group calls “Stand up please”, they all stand and repeat in unison “Good morning Ajarn Alan”. They will keep standing until I tell them to sit. Oh the power!! If you ask them a question they will stand to answer it. When you are marking their work, they will stand on their knees before you. I am not all that comforatable with this. If they want to enter your class they ask from the door “May I come in please”.

At the end of the class they all stand again and say “Thank you Ajarn Alan”.

When a student passes you in the halls or even in the street they are required to wai you. A wai is the Thai greeting but also shows respect depending on the level of wai. To wai press both hands together as in prayer and bow your head keeping your elbows by your side. A casual wai will have the tips of the fingers below the chin. The highest form is the royal wai – reserved for the royal family, is performed on the knees and base of your hands are held over your forehead. The most I get is the tips of the fingers touching their nose – unless they are groveling. The teacher does not wai back, just nods their recognition – or you would be doing it all day with over 3 000 kids.

At the beginning of the school year there is a ceremony called Wai Kru or Respect to Teachers Day. Here students pay respect to the King, the monks, the academic hierarchy and their teachers. Students walking on their knees present garlands of flowers to their teachers before the whole school. The monks play an active role in education attending this and other celebrations throughout the year. During the monsoon season, when the monks are confined to the temple (a tradition originally designed to stop monks walking through and destroying the fragile rice crops), students arrive with steel canisters containing food for the monks – as they cannot do their usual rounds of collecting alms first thing in the morning.

Speaking of food – the school canteen puts those that I have seen elsewhere in the world to shame. There are about twenty different stalls where students can get noodle soup, rice and three choices of meat or vegetables for 15B (AU$0.50). For afters there is a great range of local, fresh fruit. The only downside is the provision of watered down Pepsi and “Nestle” water.

Above all, the school is supremely disorganized. Classes will be shortened by ten minutes to make way for a longon eating contest, a visiting band or beauty contest. Alternatively, all your classes could be cancelled with less than ten minutes notice. On more than two occasions during the monsoon, we surfed our way to school, down streets that had turned into rivers only to find the school locked and barred with no one on hand to tell us that everything was closed for the day. I could go on, but you get the idea.

My impression is that education in Thailand is not so much about the acquiring of knowledge or determining a career path, but as indoctrination into society and social control. Therefore, not much different to the system in which I was raised.