School’s in again in far northern Thailand

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So I’ve just completed my fourth annual cycle of volunteer English teaching for the Sem Pringpuangkeo Foundation, covering one week in Chiang Mai and another week further north in Chiang Rai. Classes proceeded more or less consistently with those in previous years, so I won’t bore you with those details, given they are outlined in several of my earlier blogs (last year's reports are after the Pattaya blog). Suffice to say that the one difference this year is that now I have been formally trained in English teaching, and had the benefit of using teaching material adapted from the texts I teach at Macquarie English School in Sydney, it made the whole job just a little less stressful.

For those that don’t know Chiang Mai, despite its hilly surrounds, the main part of the city is totally flat and is based around a grid of four major streets forming a square, not dissimilar to Adelaide, if my memory serves me right. Each side of the square is around 2-3kms long, with the two sides of the road separated by a canal (formally moat?) and the remnants of an extremely old city wall. From the looks of it, that wall would have some stories to tell! On the east side of this grid lies the Mae Ping River, and virtually all the traditional tourist facilities, such as hotels, restaurants, travel agents, tour operators, massage parlours and girlie bars are all situated between the eastern road and the river. My classes at Chiang Mai were once again held at the temple, Wat Phra Sing, over on the less fashionable west side, where I was also staying, so once again, I virtually didn’t see another ‘farang’ all week.

Sunday, I took the bus for the 3 hour trip north to Chiang Rai. Again, classes are at Mae Lao, which is a 40 minute motor bike ride from my hotel. Once again the Foundation were kind enough to loan me a bike for the week, and once again that bike was the notorious ‘not the World’s Fastest Indian’, the subject of my blog of last year. As if travelling on a bike that looks as though it came out of the arc was not enough, my ride home on the first day was quite an eerie experience. Shortly after I left school around 2pm, it started to get incredibly dark. There was clearly a storm brewing, and I appeared to be heading straight into it. Within about 10 minutes, it became so dark, you’d swear it was nightfall, and the trip had all the sensation of entering into a very deep, dark hole. When the first drops of rain appeared, I drove into a factory on the side of the road to seek shelter. The factory produces soap, but at the sight of this dopey farang taking shelter, they all dropped tools and came to check me out. However, in a very short time I was showered with coffee, fruit juice, cookies etc, as though I was a guest of honour. Maybe they mistook me for PM Rudd! I ended up staying there over an hour, while seeing out the mother of all storms, and the remaining trip home was like travelling an obstacle course, with the road half flooded and strewn with branches. But at least I didn’t get a wet butt! I’ve only had a similar experience once before, many years ago in Chennai, when I was on the beach and a huge storm approached from way out at sea, and you could actually see this distinct black line travelling over the water towards us as the storm approached. When it finally hit, we all but drowned! Those that live in tropical climates are probably ho-hum about such incidents, but they have been interesting sights for this city kid.

Sorry the last couple of weeks has not given me much of excitement to report on, but don’t give up on me yet. Tomorrow, I cross the border into Burma, and god-willing get a flight from the border town of Tachileik north to Mandalay. I say ‘god-willing’, as I understand about one of these flights in three never actually eventuates, and trust me, Tachileik is to Burma about what Tijuana is to Mexico - not the sort of place you want to get trapped for several days. I’ll keep you posted, that is if e-mail even works in Burma!

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Photos

Luxury Meal
Your choice of cockroach, caterpillar or beetle!