Monsoons

with my favorite Elephant Building in the distance

The rainy season came late this year, but boy, is it here now. We have been experiencing huge thunderstorms every afternoon and some flooding around the city. 

The term is coming to a close. Today was the last day that the students will come to school until after the term holiday. The rest of the week will be spent finalizing grades before school mark checks on Friday. I am in dire need of a break. This week feels like the first time I've gotten to relax a bit in my office all year. Although the Thai teachers are all busy with meetings planning the next term, there isn't too much that the farangs can do. Lately we've been into crossword puzzles and ginseng coffee.

Vegetarian Festival

This week is Tesagan Gin Je, the Vegetarian Festival. Although from Chinese Taoist orgins (called the "Nine Emperor-Gods Festival" 九皇爺), the practice of abstaining from meat for nine days during the tenth Chinese lunar month has carried over to Thai Buddhism as well. Although the biggest and most famous celebrations take place on Phuket Island, Bangkok goes all-out as well. You can find certified vegetarian food all over town this week, clearly marked by yellow and red flags with the word เจ (je).

Family Mart

 The school lunches have been vegetarian this week. The yellow flags are everywhere, from my local Family Mart to the neighborhood street market across from my apartment.

neighborhood market

Even Starbucks is getting in on the actions with their vegetarian-friendly soy latte.

 And Tops Supermarket has gone all out with marketing fruits, vegetables, and tofu dishes.

80:60

the current headmistress (left) and the school's original headmistress (right)

The last final exam finished at 2:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and in the following hours the assembly hall was transformed from an examination room into a banquet hall. Friday was the eightieth birthday of our beloved Ajarnyai (headmistress). The school also celebrated her birthday last year on the day before the term holiday. It was an afternoon party in the outdoor student canteen with lots of food and celebration. This party was more formal, as this year also coincides with our school's sixtieth anniversary. The assembly hall was decorated in banners bearing the slogan "80:60," along with a beautiful newly commissioned portrait of Ajarnyai. It was a very special day.

Geoffrey, our de facto leader, arrived in the assembly hall early to reserve a good table for the three remaining ajarn farang - James, Ryan and me. The most important table, the place of honor, was near the stage. This is where the "Four Yings" would sit - the Ladies Thanpuying and Khunying, four ladies at our school with the highest two titles of nobility that the Thai monarchy bestows upon women who have done a great service to the kingdom. At our school, there are three Thanpuying, including our headmistress. This is the highest title in Thailand and is something like Lady. Our assistant headmistress is Khunying, the second-highest title in the kingdom, which often translates to Dame.

"cha yen" - Thai iced tea 

After several speeches the food was served. At least a dozen stalls were set up outside in the kindergarten canteen area and around the school swimming pool serving everything from fried oysters to noodles to the ubiquitous orange Thai iced tea. While everyone was eating and having a good time, some teachers and students put on a song and dance show that ended with the YMCA before we all went home.

Finals

M1 finals in the assembly hall 

It's that time of year again. Friday marked the last day of instruction, and today was the first day of final exams. The students will come to school to take their tests on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are study days. The students will stay home on those days and we will have an awesome and low-key day at work grading exams and marking "blue books." Proctoring exams is tedious and boring. This morning I was assigned to the M1 class, which meets to take their exam downstairs from my office in the school's assembly hall. There wasn't much for me to do since there were five Thai teachers there with me (two teachers are assigned to monitor each class, but the three M1 homerooms take the exams together). On the upside, the school supplied sodas for the teachers while we waited.

working on a blue book

In the afternoon I began calculating my grades. Not all of my classes have taken their finals yet, but there is still plenty for me to do. I didn't used to like blue books. It's a little frustrating that we don't use computers to record our grades, but in the past year the ledger-keeping has grown on me. There's a process that we have to go through to finalize our grades. First we have to transfer our own class grades from our personal grade books to the official departmental blue book. After that we will have a departmental mark check. During that time all of the English teachers will trade blue books and check each other's calculations to make sure the grades have been summed correctly. Next week we will have the official school mark check, where every teacher meets in the teachers' dining room to check the blue books of the other departments.

We will still come to work next week, but there won't be much to do besides finalizing grades. This semester has felt much more rushed and chaotic than last year. I'm not really sure why, since I feel like I know way better what I'm doing this year. I'm teaching a more rigorous schedule with harder classes this year. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this term holiday. Last year I went to Hong Kong. I've got something special planned for this break as well.

Mae Sot II: The Road to Bangkok (3/3)

coffee in the mountains

We left Mae Sot after breakfast, just as the 8:00am national anthem was playing on the radio. After an hour and a half or so of driving we stopped at a scenic rest area up in the mountains for a morning coffee. We had stopped there before last year, and I had been looking forward to it again because the view there is incredible.

scenic reststop

We had been in a hurry on our drive to Mae Sot since we needed to visit the school and clinic, but we were in no particular rush to get back to Bangkok. It wasn't a holiday, so the traffic back into town wasn't bad. This afforded us time to make several stops along the way. After finishing our coffee we parked just down the road to walk through the Hill Tribe Market. The vendors were selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables, but it seemed that the big crop right now is young bamboo.

Hill Tribe Market

A short while later, we stopped again to rest at Phra Ruang Hot Springs. The resort there would be a nice place to spend a night or two during a drive across Thailand. It was quiet there that Sunday afternoon, but there were a few families soaking in the hot water or paddling boats across the pond.

the hot springs

There was an old farang guy there who caught our eye as he looked so out of place. Geoffrey went over to talk to him; the farangs in Thailand seem to gravitate towards one another. The man didn't really seem to understand what Geoffrey was saying, but he managed to explain to us that he was from Berlin. I got the chance to practice my German and had a short conversation with him that went something like this:

(In German)

-"I studied German at university, but it's not so good."

-"Don't worry, I can understand you. You live in Bangkok?"

-"Yes, we are English teachers."

At which point Geoffrey (who doesn't speak a word of German but heard me say "Englisch") cut me off to explain that in fact only he was English and I was from America.

Anyway, it's nice to be able to use my German once in a while, even for just some simple smalltalk.

near the hot springs

Back on the road we entered into Khampeng Phet Province. We didn't have the time to stop there, but we drove past the Khampheng Phet Historical Park. This protected area is home to ruins from the Sukothai period (the kingdom that ruled Thailand before the Ayutthaya Period).

Khampeng Phet Historical Park

Of course we couldn't make this drive without stopping near Khao No in Nakhon Sawan to visit Geoffrey's little "friends."

For just a few baht we purchased small bags of peanuts to feed to the monkeys. When they see someone with food they come running, but as soon as the bag is empty they just disappear. They are greedy little guys, and really funny to watch. Some of the females had tiny babies that they carried around their necks. The baby monkeys were really cute, but I wasn't able to get a picture of any.

The rest of the drive passed quickly. We stopped for lunch just outside of Ayutthaya, and Geoffrey had dropped me of at my apartment by 4:00. I had to do a few loads of laundry before work. I was exhausted on Monday, but luckily this week is not a hard week. We are preparing for our final exams now. 

Besides getting to help out the refugees I'm happy to have gotten the chance to get out of Bangkok for a few day and to see some new things in Thailand. I haven't really gotten to travel around Thailand much since the new school year started. The 14+ hour round-trip is a hard journey to make on a normal weekend, but I feel really good about it. At least the weather was nice and nobody got Dengue Fever! I call that a success.

Part 1/3: Skyblue

Part 2/3: Exploring the Northwest

Mae Sot II: Exploring the Northwest (2/3)

Business taken care of, we left the school. After a short stop at a small refugee clinic to deliver medicine and supplies donated from our own school's clinic, we headed to the border. Although the morning had been cool, the early afternoon was hot, especially at the border market. Looking across the river into Burma, we could see trucks driving along the Friendship Bridge. A year ago I remember thinking how Burma seemed so close yet unreachable. All that separates the two countries is a muddy little river.

looking over into Burma

Since we only had a short time in Mae Sot, we tried to see as much as we could. After the border market we went to see a waterfall not far away. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the waterfall is really tall and impressive.

Next we drove to Pracharoen National Park to see another waterfall. Mae Sot is up in the mountains, and the terrain here is very different from what you can see in the south of Thailand. 

There was a short walking trail to the waterfall. The trail passed a shrine on the way. There was nobody praying there, and in fact there didn't really seem to be many people at the park at all. It's not a holiday weekend, so very few people were out traveling.

The trail ended with a nice view of the waterfall. It's smaller than those at Erawan, but it felt really relaxing to stop there in the shade for a few moments. It had been a hot and busy day and we had been going non-stop since hours before the sun rose.

Pracharoen National Park

The day ended back in town at "KFC" - King's Food Center (actually called Khaomao Khaofang). Geoffrey calls it KFC as a joke. It's actually a very nice open-air restaurant that serves delicious upscale Thai food. It's sort of a tradition to come here and eat after wandering around the garbage dump all day.

Khaomao Khaofang - "KFC"

Part 1/3: Skyblue

Part 3/3: The Road to Bangkok

Mae Sot II: Skyblue (1/3)

I've just returned from my second visit to Mae Sot on Thailand's northwest border. I would say this trip went more successfully than the last one because 1: we didn't get bogged down in a muddy garbage dump, and 2: I was not suffering from Dengue Fever.

My boss, Geoffrey phoned me at 4:45 Saturday morning telling me that his rental car had been delivered and that he was on the way. I was ready to go, and we were on the road north by 5:00. By 11:00 we had turned west at Tak. After clearing three military checkpoints with no trouble (the soldiers didn't even look at us), we were in Mae Sot by noon. The last hour to Mae Sot is a harrowing high-speed drive along a one-lane winding mountain road.

We checked in to our rooms at the Erawan Hotel (nothing like the one in Bangkok). It has simple facilities, but the large, clean rooms are everything you need for a stay in Mae Sot. I was booked in the same room that I had last year. We didn't stay long at the hotel, and after dropping our luggage off, we were off towards the school.

I've talked about this school before. I won't go into too many details because I don't want to just repeat what I said last year. Skyblue School is situated at the outskirts of Mae Sot near a landfill. Most of the students are Burmese refugees, and many are orphans. At the school all of the signs were in Burmese and English, not Thai, and the principal and English teacher whom we met both wore longyi.

Skyblue School

Since it was the weekend, the kids were not at school. We delivered the money and supplies to the headmaster and looked around the simple schoolhouse. It's very different from where I work in Bangkok.

a classroom

Leaving the school, we walked through the housing area. I've written about this before, but it is still shocking to see people living their lives in an actual garbage dump.

There are dozens of little shacks cobbled together from whatever the families can find sitting amongst the garbage. What amounts to a path winds its way through the "village", and Geoffrey and I trekked along the loop.

the camp

This year has been drier than last, and although we did have to jump over a few puddles and do some creative pathfinding around disgusting black ooze, we managed to avoid the muddy mess that we got ourselves into last time. Again, I found myself wondering "how can people live like this?!". I know they have no choice, and it really makes me feel amazingly grateful for what I have. I was wearing the same shoes that I ruined last year, and I still felt irritated each time I stepped in a little mud. The children we saw for the most part had no shoes on at all.

someone's home

The people seemed a bit surprised to see us; two farangs wandering around must be a strange site to see even if they have met Geoffrey before. No matter, the people smiled and waved and cheerfully greeted us with "mingalaba" (Burmese for "hello").

One thing that I noticed was that even the crudest shack had its spirit house. No Thai home would be complete without one, even if it's made from old wood, discarded metal, and some cardboard.

spirit house

As Burma opens up Mae Sot is going to continue to develop. It's the main border crossing between the two countries. The Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge is opened for business, although at the moment it's only possible to get a one-day border pass to Myawaddy on the other side. Still, it's becoming a bigger route for shipping. This development of course has both its positives and negatives. Mae Sot, once a mostly forgotten border town, is in the process of undergoing a superficial makeover. Part of the landfill had been landscaped and turned into some sort of reservoir. That wasn't there last year. Unfortunately, with these developments, the refugees who lived on that land have to move. They don't want to move into the official government refugee camps, because they are afraid they will be stuck there for the rest of their lives. Even the school is in some danger of being forced to close as development increases in the area.

As he does every time he visits, Geoffrey brought with him a thick stack of twenty Baht notes. It's not a lot (about $0.60), but he hands them out to the kids that we see. It's amazing how such a small gesture can bring a big smile.

Part 2/3: Exploring the Northwest

Part 3/3: The Road to Bangkok

Baiyoke

Baiyoke Tower

Just before 8:00 pm on Tuesday night, my taxi pulled up in front of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel Tower, the tallest building in Thailand, and the tallest hotel in Southeast Asia. The occasion was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival.

Although the full moon (and therefore the official holiday) had been on Monday, my Chinese friends had chosen Tuesday to celebrate due to schedule conflicts, invited me along. Every student at the school studies both English and Chinese, and the Chinese department (as representatives of the Chinese government) are really good at promoting Chinese culture. On Monday morning the school held a special assembly organized by the Chinese teachers in which the students sang traditional songs, recited poetry, and performed a play acting out the legend of the Mid-Autumn festival.

special morning assembly

At lunch that day the school served rich durian and salt-egg mooncakes, a Thai twist on the traditionally Chinese 月饼 "yue bing." The mooncakes aren't big- just about the size of one's palm, but they are so dense and heavy that you can only eat a small slice of them. It's a special treat, since mooncakes are difficult to find in Thailand at other times of the year.

mooncake

The international buffet restaurant at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel is on the seventy-seventh floor and gives a great view of the bright lights of Bangkok at night. Even after more than a year here something about this city at night really amazes me.

Bangkok

The price of the buffet includes a ticket to the revolving open-air deck at the top of the tower. We stood outside on the eighty-fourth floor of the building, watching the glittering city slowly turning below us. High above, the nearly-full moon barely peeked out from behind clouds. "She's shy," one of the Chinese teachers told us.

Chang'e looking down to us

There are several legends of the Mid-Autumn festival, but the most famous one involves a beautiful woman named Chang'e who took a magical elixir which caused her to fly up to the moon, where she has had to stay ever since, separated from her husband. 

Bangkok - my city at night

On Thursday the M5 Chinese class made 饺子 "jiao zi" dumplings. Their teacher invited me to come and join the class since I'm a Chinese student too! It was fun getting to hang out with the students in a different setting than I normally do, and getting to practice my Chinese with them. Making dumplings isn't easy, and I learned that there are many different ways of preparing them. Even if the filling is the same, each folding style and technique has a different name. I'm not very good at making them, but I was best at folding the little round ones. They remind me of Chinese tortellini. After folding them, we boiled the dumplings, then ate them with a spicy soy and vinegar sauce. I got to take home some of the leftovers for my dinner.

four different style dumplings... I made these

Farewell to Yangon

Yangon Taxi

As my time in Burma drew to a close, there were still a few sites that I didn't want to miss in Yangon. While I had originally had planned on heading out of town for two days to the Golden Rock, one of Burma's most important holy sites, I had to change my plans due to flooding and stayed in Yangon the whole time. In the end I'm glad, because if I had gone ahead with my original plan, I wouldn't have gotten to see much of the country at all because I would have spent the whole time traveling.

After lunch at another one of Yangon's ubiquitous tea houses for a hot bowl of Shan noodles, Xin and I took a taxi to the Bogyoke Aung San Market. During British days it was known as Scott's Market, and like the Burmese equivalent to Bangkok's Chatuchak, it's the place to find just about anything. It's huge and chaotic, and packed with people from all over the world. I noticed more westerners here than anywhere else during my time in Burma, and I was particularly interested in overhearing an obviously incredibly wealthy and well-spoken Indian family examining gold jewelry while being lavishly catered to by eager shopkeepers hoping for their business.

Scott Market (AKA Bogyoke Aung San Market)

I didn't need to get anything. but it was very interesting to wander along the clean and fairly well-organized market. My friend Xin wanted to buy a traditional Burmese outfit, and was able to talk the shopkeepers down to a decent deal by repeatedly asking them "can it be cheaper?". She got exactly what she wanted in the end!

traditional Burmese dress

While we waited for the tailor to sew up the longyi, we looked around at the other wares offered nearby. Most notably we saw Burmese style slippers (the sturdy waterproof sandals, that along with a good umbrella seem as much a part of the national dress as the longyi), jade, gold, carvings, and lots of food.

waiting for the tailor

Xin departed up-country to Bagan the next morning, and I was on my own to explore during my last day in Yangon. Taking a taxi back downtown, I decided to walk to the Botataung Paya. Yangon's third most famous golden pagoda is much smaller and outwardly less impressive than either Shwedagon or Sule had been.

This slightly shabby riverfront pagoda would have been a bit of a letdown if it wasn't for the feature that makes it so unique. Unlike the other pagodas, which are also built to house a holy relic, Botataung Paya is hollow, and worshipers and tourists alike are welcome (after paying the k3000 entry fee) to enter the glittering golden maze inside. Entirely gilded from floor to ceiling, the amazingly intricate interior of the pagoda is centered around its relic.

I overheard several Thai tourists speaking, but I couldn't think of anything to say to them. There were lots of people inside the pagoda taking pictures and talking excitedly, but that didn't seem to disturb the crimson-robed monks who were sitting in odd corners, deep in meditative prayer.

a monk meditating in a golden corner

I'm told that the name Botataung refers to the 1000 generals who are said to have escorted the Buddha hair relics from India to Burma 2000 years ago. Whether the legend is true or not, the center of the pagoda which can only be viewed through a small opening in the golden wall, holds what is said to be one of the relics of The Buddha's hair. This is the reason that people come to this paya. Unlike the others which are all solid, Botataung gives the faithful a chance to get as close as possible to what they believe to be a true relic of Siddharta Gautama himself.

the relic

Blistered, tired, and still in quite a bit of pain from my fall several days earlier, I returned to my hotel in the early afternoon. I spent the remainder of the day on the covered rooftop reading the history of Burma in my guidebook while the monsoon stormed around me. My hotel arranged a taxi for me the following morning at 5:30, which I split with three other travelers who were also heading to the airport. My flight was uneventful, and I was back in Bangkok just after 9:00.

"home sweet home" during my stay in Yangon 

I won't forget Yangon, and I'm eager to return to Burma again. After all the hassle and headache I had to go through to obtain the visa, I've learned that starting yesterday (1 September 2014) the government will begin allowing online visa application. This is a step which will significantly speed up the process and will probably lead to the beginning of the real first wave of tourist influx into the country.

I'll be interested to return someday. I'm eager to see how this previously mysterious and closed-off country continues to develop. I would like to see the temples of the ancient city of Bagan, the beaches in the south, and Burma's other great city Mandalay before they become completely overrun with tourists. More than Cambodia, more than Vietnam, Burma was one place where I had absolutely no idea what to expect before I arrived. I was greeted by friendly people and a beautiful culture in a country that is ready to engage with the world for the first time in a half-century.

a mural at the airport