Fun times and a little culture

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Well actually I lied because I meant to say that I would do one other post to catch everyone up to today. This will be about thing done since I have arrived and a bit about the culture.

So thursday then. No water. Tom took me around the school and showed me many of the buildings - where he had class, where he studied, etc. Also got to eat in the cafeteria and really enjoyed the food. Weird though, they eat nearly the same kind of food for every meal. At home we are used to having distinct types for each meal but here I cannot tell the difference between any and all include rice. It is however a very healthy kind of eating. Rice is the base for all and of course lots of spices, vegetables and typically sea food as well. Besides ice cream (which is not as rich) there is no dairy products and very little sugar or sweets. Water would be the primary beverage of choice. Smoothies are a staple and it I am really getting used to this idea of a mango or banana-pineapple smoothy after a meal, mmm.

I used the computer lab for a while during the hot time of the day. Tom took me on a motorcycle ride to see the countryside for quite a while and visited a few of the resorts as well which ate up most of the late afternoon. The cafeteria was closed by the time I got back and since there was still no water, the student center was closed. For dinner we went to the maintenance building where a staff members wife had a little restaurant setup. We ate there and it was delicious food. This is a common thing, it seems that nearly all of Thailand is self employed. Everyone has little restaurant, street stand, farm, shop, market booth or whatever. So there are uncountable little hole in the wall places to eat and all are great. It seems odd that an institution would let anyone setup their restaurant on their property (like the school in this case) but that is common. You could see they were also putting together to go boxes on the back of the motorcycle to take down to the dorms. There is really no regulation on health standards but they all seem clean despite the fact that the pots are old as the hills and the shops are thrown together out of bamboo sticks and corrugated metal.

Still no showers and to go to bed without one was not appealing. So we hatched a plan we sneaked down to one of the fountains on campus and dove in for a bath. Not so sure it got me any cleaner and given the algae at the bottom I think it was the opposite but it cooled me off and made for a lot more pleasant evening. By morning we had water again. Friday was quite uneventful but we ended the day at the friday outdoor market in the little town nearby which was my first view of that scene. Here everyone just throws up their wares in little makeshift shelters at a field near an intersection. The restaurants get their ingredients here just as everyone else. I bought a towel. I was intending to have been in Bangkok by now and have gone to the big markets so when I stared this trip I had everything in one carry on bag intending to by clothes when I got here. So I do laundry often and soon will buy some proper clothes.

Saturday, the weekend at last everyone could sleep in. Oh wait not Drew because he wakes up at 7AM every morning remember? Yup still happens. So I laid around for a while. Went to church which is always an interesting lesson in culture in a foreign land. Everyone was a bit more formal with many of the girls in traditional asian dress and the umbrellas, first time I have ever really seen that. Music was terrible. Remember this is an english speaking school and since it is very international, English is the anchor language that everyone has in common no matter how poor it may be. So of course singing was also. It wasn't that the words were wrong but singing in an asian accent is not a pleasing sound to say the least 😊

Afterward we went to the waterfall. I wasn't expecting what I saw. It is a national park close by and when you enter there is a strip of local vendors with their food offerings. We were with Toms girlfriend Toon who speaks Thai so she knew what she was doing but I was along for the ride and didn't know what was going on. We got our food in to go containers and continued down. There were hundreds of inertubes for rent next but also grass mats. We rented one for like 10 cents and continued on. Now to the river. There isn't really a waterfall as we would think but it is a section of river with long pools and maybe at most 6 foot cascades. Hundreds of people were out playing in the water, floating on inertubes and playing around (not swimming as the Thai can't swim). We crossed a bridge and walked down a trail until we found a spot she though suitable. We rolled out the mat and had a Thai picnic by the river with many other families. This was really cool, one of the highlights of the trip so far in my opinion. People would come walking around with various food they were selling and I bought some sweet corn on the cob all nice and warm. Hadn't even thought about corn on the cob but man is it good here. Surprisingly it is sweet. This would be equivalent of super sweet golden jubilee and it is all tender and delicious, the kind that is even hard to grow in the garden let alone try to buy any. I wanted to go swimming so bad, everyone else was but the rain had come earlier, the water was muddy and dirty and my intense fear of snakes kept me out, this is the jungle after all.

One of the reasons I had stuck around for the weekend is that the business club had planned a trip to Hua Hin beach and resort area about 6 hours away. The cost was only about $15 and it would be fun to go with a group of semi locals. The bus was to leave at 11PM so we could travel by night and arrive the next morning. Of course we should have known that this was Thai time and so we waited. After tremendous disorganization and mass confusion concerning who was on what bus, we were on our way... at 1AM. About 75 people went and that was 2 large buses. This travel was not terribly relaxing and after we finally arrived we were on our own but it is nice to run into people you know and be able to leave stuff with those you trust while swimming. This was another Thai fun spot with no tourists but there were tons of people. Very nice long beach with street vendors for breakfast and umbrellas and chairs for rent on the beach. There were also tubes for rent since nobody swims here. They have jet skis and pull long inflatable for about 6 people behind them which looked fun but we didn't mess with it. At first I didn't notice but the jet skis are different. They are home made out of plywood and fiberglass, have bicycle handlebars for steering and and outboard motor as on a boat. I had a good laugh over that. Anyway, back on track. Instead of riding, it was fun to walk the beach, chat and go swimming yes real swimming. It was funny to see how everyone else was afraid. The Africans kept asking if we could still stand up before they would come out any further. It was kind of stormy and the rain came but the water was the temp of a bathtub, quite from the snow and hail of Walla Walla just a few weeks ago.
The afternoon we took the same buses to downtown Hua Hin, just maybe 20km away but it took us over an hour to get there since they kept getting lost. Picture 2 huge greyhound size buses flipping u turns on a street and you get the idea. We were dropped off at a big ritzy shopping center which does not appeal to me so about 5 of us walked to the beach and had a dinner on the sand before walking back and braving the rain which came, you guessed it, right after we started. The rain prevented walking anywhere but the shopping center and so people watching, chatting about culture and learning Thai was all we really did until it was time to go. This was a short trip and we were back on the buses by 8:30, asleep again, dog tired, until we got back at like 2AM.

You have probably caught the drift that since day one I have been really doing my favorite thing to do, being away from the typical experience. Basically I have yet to do a single popular or written up thing to do in this fine country and have learned far more because of it. The places I have gone have been in the countryside mostly and all have been Thai spots. I have gotten used to being the only white person around and only hearing Thai spoken. We were looked at kind of funny especially at the waterfall for 2 reasons. First was because we were at a spot not known of to the tourists and second because we were 2 white guys with 1 Thai girl (Toms girlfriend). It is not the reason you think. They have no problem with the foreigners and seeing them with the Thai girls but they are used to seeing it the other way around - a foreigner with 1 or 2 Thai girls, what Thailand is famous for. I had nearly forgotten about that since I had yet to hit the tourist scene and see anyone else like me but was reminded by that when we went to Hua Hin. Here there were still few tourists but for the first time I saw them. Acting rudely, the ugliest men America has to offer, usually at least 50, with a young pretty Thai girl on their arms. I think it was more of a shock to see it now than had I just stepped off the plane because I now had learned of the culture and knew the people on a personal level. These girls are not prostitutes in the way it is back home. There is more to it and to them usually. It is a way of life and a necessary one often, they take the sacrifice to support their family back home or perhaps a child of their own. Often it is more than one night. The girl will accompany the older foreigner with him during all or some of his travel to Thailand. Sometimes they fall in love, sometimes real sometimes not and he will bring them home. No more time to explain. I have learned quite a lot on that subject and if people are interested perhaps I will write more about it later. I will see much more before I leave as I have yet to go into the tourist ghettos.

It is time to sign off. I will be gone for the next 10 days. A friend here (pictured in the Friday market photo) invited us to go to Chang Mai, the northern city. He has lived there for some time and wants to show us all that his city is to offer. We leave on a train this morning to Auttaya, for a quick tour and then the 14 hour train ride to Chang Mai. As a bonus we will be there during Song Kran which is a celebration of the Thai new year. It is known as the water festival and and supposed to be amazingly fun. It is similar to our Thanksgiving in that everyone goes home to be with family but it is a 3 day festival in which everyone is very excited and happy and throws water at each other. We plan to go to the markets, to the highest point in Thailand, on a river cruise and more. We don't know what he has planned for us but Tom and I are both very excited as this is a fantastic opportunity to see the place once again in a different way than the typical tourist.

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Photos

The beach
Note the jet ski has an outboard motor

Comments

[Brenda Van Donge]

I'm sooo jealous!
Your adventures are fun to read; thanks for the blog. I'm especially interested as I've been reading a series of books set in Laos, Vietnam, and touching on Thailand by Colin Cotterill. I've a flavor of the culture from his stories and find it facinating. The pictures are fantastic to see and I'm sure we'll be treated to a lot more; maybe a family and friends potluck night viewing of those that don't make the blog. Looking forward to more in 10 days. Brenda

[Steve Dickerson]

Thai Swimmers
Hi Drew, I don't know who told you that Thai people can't (or don't) swim, but I'm sure you'll find out soon that they do. In Bangkok, for example, you'll probably see little kids swimming in the dirty water of the Chao Praya River.

[Drewster]

Swimming
Yea I've learned that now, I guess it was just the group I was with.