Blind Inspiration

     Sawadikap! I would like to start off today by apologizing for taking so long to repost. I have been quite busy since my last time back here as you will soon read. I also am sorry that I have been slacking on my photography since we've come back to Bangkok. I will certainly be making an effort to do so as time and opportunity permit.

     So first off on the long list of catch-up.... School. The primary reason I have been lacking the time to keep my blogs up to date is that I recently started a Master's program in Social Psychology online. To properly keep up with my courses I spend around 16-20 hours a week, after work and on weekends, completing various readings and writing assignments, as well as participating in different class room discussions. So far I have been doing well and my studies have been a very interesting parallel to my experiences here. Overall, these studies have been a great use of my 'free time' and I hope to maybe enter a Ph. D. program in psychology when I return to the states.

      Work has also been rather interesting over the last few weeks. I'm getting to know my students better all the time. Everyday, when I walk around, many of my students say hi, good morning, and other simple greetings. Mostly, the students will wave and smile, many will even call out from across the way yelling "Hello teacher." In general, the students use the title teacher before addressing us so around school, my name is "Teacher Jeremy". I like it a lot more than the potential "Mr. Sutton". There are also many food stalls where both teachers and students can get lunch each day. I frequently eat at the same stall and I enjoy the little conversations I have with the lunch ladies. They always teach me new words about food and give a please smile and laugh when I mention their food is "aloi ma" or 'very good'.

     I have a total of 23 hours of in class instruction every week. I also only see each class once a week. This means I have quite a few students.... approximately 800-900 per week. The grades that have been assigned to me are Matiyom 3-6. This basically means 9-12 grade back in the states. About half my students are what we would call 9th graders. They can really be a handful at times and have the largest level of variability in their overall English level. Some classes are quite excellent and can speak very well. This is because even though my school is funded by the government and is 'public', students who's parents pay more can be put into "English Intensive classes". Students in these classes speak much better and likely have extra English instruction outside of school, or perhaps even their parents speak. In Thailand, being able to speak English and Thai is almost a guaranteed ticket to a high salary job. Another benefit of being in these English intensive classes is usually access to a room that has an air conditioner, fewer students, nice projectors, and even large hd tv's.

     There's sort of an interesting tendency here that is rather akin to more ancient times in the states and Europe. There is a strong correlation between students who are in the intensive classes, have access to new gadgets such as iphones and tablet PC's, and are overweight. It's basically a sure thing that if a student is overweight, they come from a rich family. The school where I'm working is full of rather well off students in general, but there are certainly different levels of stratification. At the end of the day, there are students both well off and poor in all of my classes, and in all of my classes there are students with ipads and what not. It's just interesting noticing tendencies throughout the school's population.

     Also, in several of my classes, I have individual blind students. There is really no specific schooling for them apart from regular instruction. I wasn't even informed there would be blind students in my classes until the students pointed it out to me after assigning some board work. These students read and write in braille, although I'm not sure how that differs in English and Thai, and they have presented me with an interesting challenge as a teacher. Most of my lessons are created from my mind and because I see so many students each week, I almost never use hand outs. That being the case, most of my lessons are generated using the whiteboard and having the students create something to match in their notebooks. In this way, the students are making their own English lesson books as we go. With the blind students however, I must continually find ways to prompt proper class responses both verbally instead of with purely visual clues. I do a lot of call and response that requires students to intuit which response is appropriate. This helps them with pronunciation while making them speak under time constraints. In this sense, my English class is not so different from music lessons. (I read recently that doing things 'in rhythm' helps people build neural connections more quickly than simply responding).

    This last week, I found myself particularly inspired by one of the blind students in one of my Matiyam 4 (10th grade) classes. She is a very good student and speaks quite a bit better than the other students. The hardest part about this particular class is that it is the last period of the day every Friday. This of course means that the 48 students in that class are practically jumping out of their skin, they are so ready to go.... During the last 10 minutes of class, I asked them to practice what we had gone over in paired conversations, usually I go around and listen to how they are doing and help them with pronunciation. This day however, they were particularly wild and I sat down to have a conversation with this particular blind student. She told me about how she likes to play the violin and sing in her free time. She also studies German and Japanese apart from speaking Thai, and her English is quite good compared to the rest of the class. Most striking, she told me about her interest in books. She primarily listens to them on audio in either English or Thai. What struck me most was when I asked about her favorite type of books. Excitedly, she told me she likes books about Thai history, but she loves books about space and the universe... I'm pretty sure she's been blind her whole life, but I couldn't help but speculate on what it must be like for her to contemplate the vastness of space having no visual reference. I mean really, the universe is so large that not one can actually comprehend it completely. The closest star past the Sun is so far away, it takes light about 26 years to make the trip. That is our galactic neighbor and already we have to measure it in an abstract term that we can only understand conceptually, and that distance is akin to a mere point considering the vastness of the whole universe.... That being said, her comment made me think that maybe her interpretation is even more accurate than our visually conditioned counterpart. Having never had the limitations of sight to establish boundaries in her mind, perhaps her thought patterns more directly reflect the openness of the universe. Mostly, her comment made me realize an overlooked assumption of my own thinking: that one must be able to see to appreciate the wonders of this universe. So as the saying goes, on that day, the student truly became the teacher. For that, I am especially grateful. It's experiences such as this that keep me motivated to continue learning and experiencing this world to the best of my capability.

     And that is where I'll leave you all for today. Thank you for joining me here. I promise to make an effort to get back to the posts more frequently. It can certainly be difficult to juggle the various parts of life but I will continue to do my best. Wherever you find yourself, I hope you're finding the opportunity to continue to learn and grow as well. Take care.

Sensitive Stomach: Time to Teach

     Well hello again to anyone surfin the big waves of that even bigger internet ocean to my little secluded cove here in cyber-Thailand. This last week I had the misfortune of coming to know just what others mean when they say be careful with the food in other countries. The oddest (and in one particular way STUPIDEST) thing of it all is that it came from a rather unlikely source and clearly could have been avoided if a particular individual.... this guy writing you all.... would have heeded the advice of his oh so loving girlfriend, who took care of him all the while anyway.

     Just to clear up any worries for would be travelers about the food here I think I owe a small explanation. Ryoko often brings some food home from her school where she works. It's a Japanese school and generally has quite good meals. At the end of the day, extra food is bagged up for any teachers that wish to bring it home. That on its own, would have been fine... I however thought it might still be okay several days after the initial preparation. It had been refrigerated, but apparently in areas of the world where preservatives are used less frequently, a few days is a few too many. To make it worse, Ryoko tried one little bite and said, "No, I think it tastes funny..." Now, I rarely break out the "stupid" word... but I took a sniff and indicated no real problem, and proceeded to eat. It wasn't a whole lot, but it was too much. A few hours later, my intestines worked themselves into a knot for the following 24 hours (with another 14 hour echo).... so I'm going to have to play the stupid card on that guy who seems to follow me around in all those mirrors....

A view of a small part of city... from someplace still in the city, out of the center.

     On the more positive side, I learned another life lesson. It struck me this week that before now, I've always eaten like a guy who's never been made sick by what he eats... imagine that.

    Continuing on the positive side, Ryoko and I moved into an apartment. We are now living with an interesting, friendly, lively and intelligent individual who is also from Japan. He's working for a Japanese company in Thailand. They do something along the lines of providing internet and digital TV for Japanese expats who live and work here. His company recently moved him into a fairly large apartment. We actually met him a little over a month ago in the very first hostel Ryoko and I stayed at when we arrived. As we were looking for a place these days and he some roommates, we managed to work something out. Our location is just a short walk from the BTS (a local sky train) which can drop me off not too far from where I work. Ryoko takes it a few stops in the other direction each day to find herself in a similar situation, and Moro actually works in the building where we live so it's pretty nice for all three of us.

     Also, this week I started work. The school is quite large with around 1700 to 2000 students. The exact number has not been expressed to me so that estimation is based on a rough assessment made during the morning assembly. Each day all the students sit in the main open corridor before the day begins. Its rather impressive to see them all lined up and seated out in the open. Uniforms are the policy here and also there are strict regulations on hair length for students. Guys must keep there hair no longer than an inch or so max, certainly not over their ears. Girls must maintain their hair somewhere between the bottom of their ears and their shoulders. (I've been making sure to keep mine tied up close to my head for these first few days and nothing has been mentioned to me directly as of yet.) The hair situation of the students creates a unique affect while observering them from near by, a large see of bobbing hair and heads, all of the same color and length. Teachers then pace the rows, taking morning attendance, and occasionally whacking any students who are "out of line".

     There are a total of five foreign English teachers, all guys. It's a little like a foreign boys club in the middle of a Thai ocean. In the foreign language teacher's room, there's the five of us native speakers and three Thai teachers. Our desks are pushed together, facing each other, conference style and we all have 2-3 hours between classes each day so there are some interesting conversations that go on during the breaks. Everyone is a character and it's quite fun to see how the dynamics change as the cast shifts in and out. It makes me a bit curious to know what's going on when I'm not around, but some things are better left unknown.

     Anyway, this will be a pretty regular situation for me over the next time period so I'll stop here for today. Over the coming months, I'm sure there will be plenty of time to get to know these guys, the other teachers, my students and the sort, with plenty of anecdotes to follow. Thank you again for joining me here. In the near future I'll break out my camera at school to see if I can't capture what there is to see. I'd like to keep a low profile for a bit before I become a full time photographer at work. There is very little direct oversight for us, but either way, it's always good to get a feel for a place before stepping on too many toes. My own are sore enough from my poor steppin' this week, not to mention my stomach..... So as I mentioned before, thank you for reading along and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Playing in Penang, Malaysia

     Welcome back everyone. I apologize for the time between my posts. I still have a bit of catching up to do but as of late I've been pretty busy. Recently I became certified to Teach English as a Second Language. The last week of the course was primarily dedicated to applying what we learned. Two days we spent teaching a group of 40 police officers in training and one day was spent teaching a small group of students at a temple school.

     This post however will be dedicated to recapping the final leg of the trip that Ryoko and I took in early April. When I left off, we just were finishing up with Krabi and starting to head to Penang, Malaysia. Just getting there was an adventure in itself. All the direct buses were booked for several days and we were on a schedule so we had to get a little creative in how we made the trek. Normally, the trip from Krabi to Penang would take only 6-8 hours but we managed to extend it a bit. 

Near our hostel in the City

     Since all the direct buses were booked for several days, we asked around and were told that it would be possible to get there by first taking a short trip to a town a few hours down the road and book the rest of the trip from there. However when we got there, we found that all of those buses were booked as well. So we took another minibus (large van really) to the boarder crossing where there is another town. There again, we found all the buses to Penang booked up for the next two days so we took the old shoelace express across the boarder. We had to walk not much more than half a mile or so with our bags. Once there, we took a taxi 45 minutes into Malaysia to the nearest bus terminal. We thought we would have to spend the night there, as it was getting a bit late, but we were pleasantly surprised to find there was actually one more bus leaving in 20 minutes or so. We hopped on that and an hour and a half later we found ourselves at the city center. After that we took a 15 minute fairy ride to get to the section of town where we were staying (a fairly large island just off the coast). After another shorter taxi, we finally made it to our destination, only 6 hours later than we had hoped, but as far as I'm concerned, all that matters is we made it safe and sound.

     We had three days to explore Penang. This is an interesting region because it is really a diverse melting pot of cultures. The city is bright and vibrant. There's clearly some money floating around this city, made apparent by over the top luxury and sports cars from various decades that occasionally pass by (they stand out quite drastically among the grand majority of clunkers). The architecture and beauty of the location is what really makes it stand out. There are heavy influences of Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist, Western and Muslim cultures. The city went through bombing during World War II so on the same street you may see buildings from the 20's, 50's and 90's all side by side. Each era has its own unique style. Many travelers mentioned to me that parts of the city had a very European feel. I'll have to take their word for it seeing as I lack any European experience for the time being.

     As I mentioned before, there are many cultural influences in this city and there is a diverse number of temples to showcase this, coming from all of the cultural heritages I mentioned before. One day, Ryoko and I rented a Moped and spent the whole day just cruising around in the sun, checking out the sites. Although one can hear bells five times per day, indicating time to pray for Muslims, Buddhism is the most wide spread philosophy for the people of Penang. Buddhists generally value complete acceptance and openness to all other "wisdom" traditions (some refer to as religion) so this is a primary reason for the diverse number of practices observed in this region. The same is true for Thailand as well.

     The largest temple in the city is in fact Buddhist but is a perfect example of its acceptance of other cultures. It lies on a forested hill side overlooking the city. It is called "The Temple of 1000 Buddhas" (or maybe it was 10,000... I lost count somewhere around 489 ;-)  ) Its' predominant feature is a statue, perhaps 70-100 feet tall, of the goddess of Mercy. Also, the influence of Chinese culture is very apparent there. There are statues of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, a small Chinese style shrine near the foot of the aforementioned statue. Not to mention the architecture is more Chinese than Buddhist. In front of the statue are two temple guardians that I'm pretty sure are traditionally of Japanese origin as well.

     One of the Chinese temples we visited had some especially interesting art. There wasn't a single painting in the place. Instead, it was adorned with stone carvings that tell a myriad of stories. Personally, I have rarely seen that level of craftsmanship even with wood. It's hard to imagine how much work must have gone into all of the images, so perfectly sculpted.

     Later, we took our bike up a long winding road around to the North part of the Island where there's a national park. Once there, we took a 20 minute boat ride around the bend to "Monkey Beach". We hung out for a short bit in the shade near the sand before snapping some pictures and hiking back through a jungly beach side trail. It was a hot day, not much different than any other day since we've been here, so we enjoyed the tree's protection from the Sun. They couldn't, however, fend off the humidity. As we returned to our bike, we enjoyed an ice cream before heading back to the hostel. Even with the beautiful temples and scenery, I think my favorite part of the day was just cruising around with Ryoko on windy roads overlooking the water. Everything seemed to be either green like the trees or blue like the sky and ocean, two colors that I think put us naturally at ease.

     Our last day, we took it rather easy before catching our afternoon flight back to Bangkok. We haven't been in South East Asia long, but Bangkok was already a familiar location to us and we couldn't help but have the feeling of returning home. The trip to Paneng from Bangkok took more than 28 hours split between a number of days and vehicles, traveling at all hours of the day and night. The two hour flight back seemed more like teleportation than traveling... seriously... "Beam me up Scotty". Overall, this initial journey was an amazing way to start our experience down here. I daresay our future adventures will be a bit less diverse but increasingly intimate with this region of the world as we become more fluent with the language and location. Thank you again for joining me here. I wish you all the best adventures wherever you find yourself on this journey. I hope to hear from you soon!

Tiger Temple, Krabi Cont.

     Thanks for joining me again. When I left off, we had just made it through a full day of climbing and a tsunami scare. The next morning, Ryoko and I slept in and enjoyed a slow start. After eating breakfast and organizing a bit, we left for a very special place called Tiger Temple that is located just a short trip outside of Krabi. We took a local transport (a truck bed with a bench running down either side and a canopy for shade) and made our way.

     Tiger Temple is specifically located at the top of a large steep hill. This whole region is known for its jutting limestone high rises. It will be flat as far as the eye can see in one direction, then out of no where, several of these rather large features present themselves. On this particular rise, someone has been kind enough to lay a cement staircase that zig-zags all the way up to the top. There's exactly 1237 steps in total if I'm to believe the sign at the bottom. The steps are a bit taller and skinnier than we are accustomed to back home which means it must be over a 1000 foot climb at least.

     The trek to the top is really amazing. Its sort of like ascending into a higher state of awareness as you continue up. At the bottom, there's all sorts of things going on, firecrackers, travelers, monks, Thais, kids, adults, food, fountains and more. So as one starts the ascent there can be a lot on the mind. As I continued up though, my mind became focused on the climb. It was hot and humid, too much so to hold a discussion even when traveling in pairs. After a 1/4 of the way up or so it becomes sort of an inward journey. The scenery was spectacular and I coldn't help but just try to absorb it. Each time we would stop for a break, many were required, we would turn around and reflect on how the ground just kept moving away like a distant floor. At the same time, there was never much of an indicator as to when the top mind present itself, so we just kept moving. Apart from the beautiful foliage, there were little monkeys all the way up. We read before hand that they can get a bit grabby. Some say they've been jumped and had their earrings or other shiny items taken but we just kept a respectable distance, when possible, and they never bothered us.

     By the time we were close to the top, my mind was nearly silenced. Step, step, step, step, I just tried to focus on my balance and I make sure not to skip a single step up or down. I figured they were there for a reason and I wanted to be sure to experience it fully. Looking past the hand rail to the extremely steep hill side made me thankful someone before me had laid the path. More than once I felt a little shaky in the knee and was happy I had something to hold onto. I got the impression that a fall down may require less effort than continuing up.

     Finally we made it to the top where there was a water cooler with some of the best tasting water we've had in a while. There were several statues of the Buddha in various postures, including one that sat more than 15 feet tall, overlooking the countryside from his seat atop an enlarged blossomed lotus. There were incense stored away near the foot of various statues that one could remove, light and place in the holder next to the hundreds of others. Their sent was everywhere. The view was incredible. A few hundred yards away were the top of several other similar growths of limestone Earth, still rugged and untouched yet similar to the pillar where we found ourselves. Beyond them you could see the ocean and the area where we were just the day before. One couldn't help but take a seat in the shade and reflect. Reflect on the amazing scenery, reflect on the work that must have been done to create such a place, reflect on the imagery of the statues that were both beautiful and perfectly placed, reflect on life, the experience and the seemingly natural energy of the location.

     On the bottom level of the temple was a prime clue as to how the temple must have been constructed. Bags of unused cement, awaiting a future repair or minor alteration sat stacked in a pile 9 wide and 5 tall. Each must have weighed 40-50 pounds and surely arrived there by none other than man power. No beast of burden or any machinery would likely have been able to assist their arrival, and hundreds, even thousands, must have been used for the initial project. Of course there were easier places to build such a thing, but I think the labor involved really shows the dedication of the people here to work towards states of awareness that expand beyond one's self. The experience for me could be likened to walking through a filter of consciousness that helped strain out some of the impurities. Perhaps I'll have to make the voyage again someday.

     As some ominous clouds began to move in, we decided our stay was just long enough. The decent proved to be a much quicker trek and soon we found ourselves at the bottom with ice cold freshly blended real mango  fruit smoothies. It was a satisfying end to an experience well worth the effort.

     Thank you again for joining me here. Believe it or not, Ryoko and I had a couple more nights in Krabi, and yet another novel experience during the event of Sankran (Thai New Year), but that I will have to share with you on another day. I truly hope all is well for you wherever you are, and that this life is being as generous to you as it has been to me. I appreciate you spending your time here with me and please feel free to send me a message/update if ever you feel so inclined.

Climbing in Krabi.... A Real Adventure

     Hello and welcome back. These days I'm writing you from a small hotel in the north of Bangkok. We're in a residential area outside of the main city area. The reason I'm here is I'm getting certified to teach English abroad. The course is going well and I'll be here for another couple of weeks but that's not what I'm here to write about today.

     I left off leaving Phuket which was not quite what we were looking for. Krabi, a smaller city, almost townish, located a couple hours further South offered us just what we were looking for. Beautiful beaches, adventure (a little more than we were hoping for at times) great food, cultural experiences and a genuine taste of Thailand.

Routes around the bend

Now that's a climb...

A look from the other side

     When we first came into Krabi, we arrived at a little Japanese travel agency where we were introduced to a nice couple from Japan, Dai and Machiku (Machi for short). I actually brought my climbing shoes on this trip in hopes that I might get lucky enough to use them and indeed I did. As it turns out, if you're looking for sport climbing in Thailand, Krabi is one of the key places to visit. We made our way to the rocks on our first full day there.

Headin on up

     After visiting the morning market to pick up some fruit and other treats to hold us through our day, we met Dai and Machi at 7 to head to the rocks. From there we took a taxi to the beach, then a boat ride to a more remote beach, followed by a 15 min walk around the bend, and there we found ourselves at the first rock. The wall had routes between 35 and 60 feet tall and was made out solid limestone. The rock was overall perfect. There were a great range of routes, this particular wall had about 20-30 posted. I'm told that the area has approximately 50 walls, including some pillars rising straight out of the water and many, much taller ones, overlooking the beach. On the day, we ran about 5 routes ranging from a 5.6 to a 5.10b. I was certainly out of practice and shape but no complaints with climbing like that. There are actually some hostels and guests houses very near that first wall. I would love to stay out there for several months just exploring the rock. Needless to say, I would highly recommend visiting this little area if you have any interest in climbing, beautiful jungle scenery, or outstanding beaches.

Leaders of the pack

     While the climb brought us adventure on the personal level, overcoming the route and our pushing past personal doubts, the decent more than topped off our adventure tanks for a while. We were just coming to the beachhead where all the taxi boats hang out, walking past the little restaurants and what not when we noticed the urgency of several of the shop keepers. They were shutting down a bit early and a guy from the States who runs a little climbing shop informed us of the cause. There had been an earthquake of magnitude 8.6 off the coast of Indonesia and there was a tsunami warning for the coast where we were. You know, that term never felt so significant before, but all of a sudden it had taken on a whole new meaning.

Machi knockin out a 10.b

     There were only about a third of the taxi boats left on the beach. Many were heading back to the main shore. Dai called his travel agency, it was about 4 in the afternoon and we were told that if there was going to be anything, it wouldn't be until after 6:30 at the earliest. If we didn't leave now, we were going to get stranded there overnight, possibly without a place to stay, so we jumped on one of the last boats and headed back.

I'll give it a go

     The trip was a tense 20 min sprint through rough water on a long "banana" boat, back to the main wharf where they were to park the boat. We were all a bit nervous with one eye on the horizon as we rode along. Trying not to stew too much on the situation, we all road in relative silence back to shore. We got there to greet a relative empty beach. There were several truck like taxis, trucks that have bench seats and a shade covering in the bed of their truck, but they wouldn't pick us up, apparently waiting for some travelers attending their hotel to come back. Later we saw them pass us with no one in the back.

     Luckily, we saw a truck heading out slowly. We ran up and asked if they could give us a ride. It was an amazingly generous Muslim couple. They told us to jump in the bed, we did graciously and we took off. There were many cars on the way out, creating a mini traffic jam. Krabi town, where we were residing, was a ways off. We took a notable turn in a direction we were unfamiliar with. Five minutes later, we pulled into a very secluded area, surrounded by palms and two little buildings. The couple had brought us to there house. The man, Ae, told us we would be safe there and that after the warning, he would take us wherever we needed to go. His English was broken but understandable. We could see his family at the other building, then his extended family started showing up. We met a couple of his cousins, nieces, nephews, sons, daughters and brother. Seeing everyone else taking refuge there took the edge off a bit. Then we waited.

     Two more times Ae went out to look for another family he knew was on the beach somewhere. His kindness was pretty incredible and personally inspiring. As we waited, he offered us coffee and tea. About this time, a storm rolled to audibly express what was on everyone's mind. The lightning was bright and tangible, the thunder was loud and frequent, the rain hard. An all out attack from Mother Nature, with a potential water assault from both sides. For me it was an all too real reminder of how small and fragile we really are in the big picture.

     That evening, Ae approached us again and said, "You must be hungry." This was after locating the family he had been looking for. They gave him a call once they found a save place with a phone. His wife and his or her sister began preparing food for us. I almost couldn't believe the generosity of this family. They had done more than enough up to this point, but to top it all off, the meal that they prepared was hands down the best food I've had in Thailand. He invited us to take a seat at the dinner mat. I say mat because it was litterally an ornate woven mat where he placed pillows for seats. Shortly after sitting, six different types of food were placed before us. For each type of food, there were two or three plates of it. Curry, fish, vegetables, soups, and two more stir fry dishes, each with its own unique sauce. Everyone received a plate with a scoop of rice, while three more large plates of rice sat waiting had we the need for more. The meal proved to be more than the nine of us could handle (that nine being those who went climbing with us and the other family). Apparently Ae's family ate either later, earlier, or somewhere else. Given the choice I would eat there every night... As it was placed before us, Ae took the seat next to me, and I had to fight back tears as I took it all in. We all ate to our hearts, and stomachs, content. Dinner was followed by a dessert that we got to participate in preparing (cain sugar cubes, covered in sticky rice powder, rolled into balls and boiled till ready).

     Over all it was just an absolutely incredible experience, and one that I can never forget. After taking us home, we offered him some money, he tried not to accept but we insisted. I just told him that someday I would pay it forward. I don't know when or where but its certainly a promise I intend to honor.

    This was our first day out, and there was more to come. Fortunately it was a bit LESS adventurous. That, however, I'll write about in the days to come. Thank you so much for joining me again. I hope everything is lovely wherever you are. Hopefully, I can share some of this sun your way, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Ae and his family - Thank you for everything!

Sun in the South, Phuket

      Sawadi kap, thank you for joining me here. Much has happened since the last time I was able to make it to the keyboard. So much, in fact, that I'll have to add it segments, starting here with our trip to the south of Thailand. It seems these posts are destined to engage in a game of catch up. My last post I wrote from our hostel in Phuket, and now I'll recap what actually happened there.

     For visa reasons, Ryoko and needed to enter Thailand on the 17th of April. We originally arrived on the 2nd of April so we "had to" make a trip to a neighboring country. We decided on Malaysia which lays directly south of Thailand. Along the way we made stops in several beach cities, making sure to take in the sun along the way. With our new friend Kanami, our first stop was the ever popular Phuket, a tourist trap if there ever was one. Also, the launching destination for anyone trying to get to Phi Phi island (the very island featured in the movie "The Beach" with Mr. Dicaprio)

Ryoko and Kanami on our ride to the beach

     Each morning I woke up a bit before my travel-mates. I would walk across the way and enjoy a relaxing read and some breakfast before they arose from their slumber. One morning, Ryoko caught me mid meal...

  
     I've read that nearly half of the travelers to Thailand are single men. To me, this first stop seemed to be a sort of sin city for the traveling European man.  The general motif was restaurant, followed by pub with pool tables and a constant stream of European football, souvenir shop, bar with dancing polls, beach lined with chairs and umbrellas (over priced), another general Thai souvenir shop, 7/11, over priced jet ski and banana boat rides, endless hawkers pacing the beach, 7/11, other bar with dancing polls, night club, travel agency, Western style shopping mall, over priced seafood restaurant, DQ and McDonalds, other bar with pool tables, and a giant buddha statue on the hill, facing away from the beach, and many Thai women very done up, hiding behind a strained smile and a bit too much make up...

     Despite the general excess presented by the city, we managed to find some peace of mind and more than our fair share of rays on the beach. Our first outing took us to the main strip of beach. After passing the first 30 chair hawkers, we found a small bit of shade on the back of the beach where we could lay out our blankets. We spent just a few hours in sun, but that's all that was required for Senior Sun to take its toll on my shoulders. The water was nice and inviting, but it felt good to make it back to our air-conditioned room until the sun set.

     Like everywhere I've been in Thailand thus far, the food did not disappoint. Everything is quite tasty usually very spicy. For that reason, we've learned to respond "nip noi" (little) when they inquire about the spice of our food. Often, nip noi tends to be a few degrees hotter than we were anticipating, but our guts are getting stronger everyday. The freshly blended fruit juices are always a favorite. Only now can I speak of a country that has mangoes to rival those of Paraguay. Not to mention the watermelon is always sweet and seedy, at least this time of year.

 
     After spending the next day or so hiding from the sun, we took another day trip to a beach 20 minutes up the road and around the bend from the main strip. While this beach also had a similar chair situation, we found the vendors to be less aggressive and the food just as tasty and cheaper. After working out a deal, we took up three seats under the protection of an umbrella and waited for the sun set.

     I took a walk up the beach with the camera, leaving my shirt and hat on for protection this time. On my walk, I came across a beautiful statue of a dragon overlooking the water, decorated with different prayer flags, scarfs and small figurines.

    Kanami took to the sky via a para-sail just as the sun began to rest itself on the water. While it seemed a bit pricey to me, I got the impression that she didn't regret it for a second. Her expression upon decent said it all.

     The sunset was especially beautiful here. It was easy to see why so many travelers take up Phuket as a destination. On one hand there's so much natural beauty and everything one looks for on a beach adventure. On the other hand, there's vendors of every vice imaginable and a general disregard for this location that lent us its' serene setting. Consequently, I couldn't help but feel a bit dirty taking part in it all. Overall, Phuket presents a living picture of how a lack of awareness and caring paired with self indulgence can blemish even the purest of people and places.

         After about 2.5 days, we decided we had gotten our fill of this particular site and it was time to move on. Krabi, our next destination a mere two hours down the road, proved to be what we were really looking for on this particular journey. So that's where I'll pick up the adventure on my following entry. Thank you for joining me here, I hope to hear from you all soon.