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Parade
Me in the back of the truck!These last few days have certainly been a whirlwind of activity! Beginning with Thursday night after I last wrote...
One of the Thai teachers at the school has been telling me since I came that there is a famous Buddha image in her hometown that she wanted to take me to see. So it was announced that Thursday afternoon was the time to go. However, she didn't have a car and so Pee Anothai had to pick her up and Pee Orathai came too. Neither of them looked very thrilled about having to drive this older lady to her hometown to show me a Buddha image. Added to that, it is a Thai custom when visiting relatives to bring a gift of fruit and so the trunk of Pee Anothai's car was full of smelly durian. I don't know if I've told you about this fruit before... it is huge and spiny and smells like urine. Most older Thais love it but the younger generation and foreigners can't stand it.
So along the way we stopped at all of her relatives houses, we had to get out and give the durian gifts, wai everyone involved and go through long
Buddha
From left to right: Grandmother, Pee Orathai, me, Thai teacher introductions, and then we were asked to sit and drink water with them. I found the whole experience fabulous and I loved meeting all these elderly Thai people... it also made me very happy that I had read "Culture Shock Thailand" because it made me aware of the little cultural oddities and taboos that otherwise I don't think I would have noticed.
For example, it is considered rude to be above anyone else, so when walking past someone who is sitting, the walker must stoop so that their head is at the same level as the people sitting. For me this was very hard! Some Thais will even go onto their knees or crawl past if the people are sitting on the floor. Also, the threshold of a house is sacred and so it is necessary to step over it instead of onto it. So there was a lot of wai-ing and crawling and thanking each other that went on this day. The Thai teacher's grandmother was so beautiful and it was so cool to meet her... she took my hand immediately and didn't let go of it until it was time to go. She kept stroking my arm
and earnestly telling me stories in Thai (the others had told her that I didn't understand much and to speak slowly, but she ignored them). Several times Pee Anothai and Pee Orathai tried to step in and translate a little but the grandmother looked very annoyed at this and preferred just to talk to me. So I nodded encouragingly a lot and smiled and tried to respond based on her facial expressions.
The grandmother led us into their old-style wooden Thai house - up high on stilts and with cracks in the floor so that you could see the ground far below! We had to pay respect to her Buddha image first, and this was quite the procedure. Upon entering the room, we had to go down on our knees and lean down until the nose and hands were almost touching the floor, then back up again, and down three times total. Then we listened while she said a lengthy prayer and then we had to put coins into a container and make a wish.
By the time we reached the temple where the famous Buddha image was (the point of our journey) it was dark outside! The
Thai hair
Back of dress and my hair temple was closed, so we had to find a monk to come and let us in, turn on all the lights, and pay respect to this Buddha image. It was huge and gold coloured -- certainly something to respect, and well worth the journey!
Then back home again -- it was late when we got home. On Friday classes were cancelled (they seem to take every possible opportunity to cancel classes here!). In the morning as many students as could fit into the back of Pee Ong's pickup truck piled in and we went to a nearby temple to help with tree planting. When we got back (at around 11am) everyone was busy preparing for the parade in the afternoon to celebrate this weekend being the weekend for the Wax Festival. They were decorating a truck with ribbons and flowers and fabric and candles where apparently the "beauties" would ride.
I was helping a little with some flower arranging when Pee Ong came up to me and innocently said, "Dawn, can you help us please? We really need some help..."
I sensed scheming and so I said warily... "Yes... with what?"
And she said, "Well, we don't have
At the Temple
A group of teachers; Pee Orathai is on the left in yellow. a beauty to ride at the front of the parade!"
I laughed. I'm still not sure if they had been planning this all along or the option really did come up just then. As per usual, I agreed!
That was when the craziness started. Pee Ong took me in her truck and said, "Okay, the parade starts in only 2 hours. We have to find you a traditional Thai outfit to wear, get your hair done, and your makeup, and then get back to the school. Can we do it?"
We went to the beauty shop and I was instructed to pick out some of the dresses that I liked to try on. They were all stunning, and I found a pretty green one and also a blue one that I liked. I tried them on... too small. I tried on every dress in the entire shop, and there was none that would fit me, the incredibly large farang that I am! The beautician thought maybe she had one dress that she could take out the seams a little on... so she ran to the sewing machine to try. The dress was orange and I look terrible in orange but when I tried to voice this opinion they pretended not even to hear me.
They finally made the dress as big as it would go and I squeezed into it, feeling very very fat. Then they asked me to sit on the chair so they could do my hair. I was sure that sitting was not an option because the dress was so tight, but they said, "You're going to have to sit in the parade, and you will have to look beautiful and elegant doing it, so you must sit!"
So I sat. Pee Ong told me to please hold in my stomach because it wasn't ladylike to have a big "balloon," as she called it. So I sucked it in. After a few minutes I forgot, and she reminded me again, and this went on for the rest of the day. Soon it got so all she had to do was say, "Dawn..." and then make a sucking in motion, and I sucked in.
The beautician seemed rather annoyed at my hair which refused to go up into the sleek and elegant Thai-style updo, though she used about a gallon of hairspray in the effort. But she was ecstatic about the makeup -- she said that they sold makeup in bulk with one of each color and she always ran out of brown and tan and had never before gotten to use the whitest shade (and she never thought she ever would!). I asked about the possibility of using the toilet, and they said, "Hmm.... you'll have to wait until after the parade is over." So I held it. I asked about the possibility of food (it was about 1pm and I hadn't eaten since the morning) and they looked shocked that I would even consider eating when it might make me look fatter. Okay, okay! Nevermind!
When we got back, the entire school was outside in parade formation, waiting only for me to climb into the float at the very front of the parade. Since I had no shoes that would go appropriately with the beautiful dress, I had to go barefoot and it was sooooo hot on the ground! With much difficulty I climbed into the back of the truck and sat in the lawn chair there. As we started and then drove through the whole town, I practiced being queenly. I sucked in my stomach, waved to the crowds, and at first tried to put a lovely Mona Lisa smile on my face. Then Pee Ong came up behind me and hissed "Smile!" and I remembered the Thai way of smiling, full teeth, no matter how many teeth you have!
We arrived at the temple where there was a flag ceremony and some dancers and that was it! For all that work and everything, less than an hour! Back to the beauty shop to take off the dress and makeup and take out my hairdo. And then I was back to normal again instead of a queen... it was kind of sad. It reminded me of opera.
Then that evening, we went with the director of the school up into the hills near the border of Cambodia where the subdirector had a fruit farm. It was amazing!! So many trees laden with fruit I have never seen before. We were instructed to eat our fill, so I did! I have never eaten so much fruit in one sitting in my life. I was certainly hungry though, because after the parade we went immediately to this farm.
Then yesterday we spent most of the day in Si Saket. Pee Anothai goes to classes in this city on the weekends because she is trying to get her Masters Degree while teaching English during the week. She dropped Pee Orathai and I off at the market centre where we were supposed to find me something to wear to a wedding party that evening. We poked around and eventually found something sort of boring for me to wear. The wedding party was surprisingly uneventful. I was expecting it to be a sight to behold, and considered myself very lucky to have the opportunity to observe Thai culture in action at a wedding. But it was like any other wedding... speeches, food, some people dressed up fancy and some in jeans. Rather a letdown.
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Yay Dawn! You are a beauty! You always manage to have the most amazing experiences ever! Anyway, I'm glad you were representing the parade evening though you had to endure much pain! You looked wonderful!