Funny uses of the English language: May

Always remember to:

On the outside of a song thaew (pickup truck designed to transport people).

These strange proverbs are everywhere in my school.  Most of them almost make sense.

Hua Hin grocery store aisle:

Soda Cracker box:

I'll admit that my taste has been in need of companionship lately.

Incase you can't read the fine print on the right side of the broom I bought:

"Fancinating and modren design" is my favourite.  Oh and I pretty much bought it because I was somebody with "new life style".  It seemed appropriate.

World of Warcraft

(I am aware that there are many of you that will not understand the following reference; don’t worry about it – it is exceptionally geeky).

I can't explain quite what went through my mind when I saw this wild boar in the distance.  All I can say is that it’s a good thing I didn’t have my mace on me at the time…

Which gelatin would you choose?

I thought I might loose weight while I’m in Thailand but there’s just way too much random food to try for that to happen.  At the rate I'm going, I wouldn't be surprised if I put on twenty pounds. 

Jen and I conquered the market near our place tonight and also brought some food back to enjoy on my balcony.  (Below:  Photo of Jenn making fun of my ridiculously small chairs that "didn't seem so small when I bought them" while eating some pork on a stick (lots of meat comes on sticks in Thailand)).  

This market is about a ten minute walk from our apartment, and is about the size of a Safeway parking lot.  A single food item costs between 3 baht (10 cents) for meat on a stick to 20 baht (60 cents) for 6 spring rolls/half a pineapple/mango and sticky rice as well as a lot of things that I have never seen a Winnipeg equivalent of.  The fact that you can try so many different foods makes the excursion much like going out for dim sum…Except cheaper, far more crazy and quite a bit more colourful. 

Because we were stuck there during the daily storm (we've had one/day for the last week or so), we couldn’t help but gorge ourselves on delicious (and some not so delicious) Thai treats.  Although there were some things that were more delicious, these gelatin desserts were certainly the most visually appealing.

 And the unidentifiable green goop (in the video below) was one of the most random for tonight.

Sepak Takraw = Thai Volleyball

Just when I thought that I was going to have a predictable night of going out to the market for some food, and maybe a walk through the park, I came across this group of guys in the park playing this mind-blowing game, which we've been since referring to as "Thai volleyball".

The rules of the game seem to essentially follow those of volleyball -except that your arms are the only part of your body that are NOT allowed to touch the ball.

For some reason, I imagine that if Colin Kelly would have been there with me, he may have wanted to join in…

A few small differences

Some things are similar here, but different.. Other things aren't the least bit familiar...

More often than teens, it’s the dogs who loiter at the 7/11s. 

The cows are very skinny.

I’m taller here.

Ronald Wai’s the customers (a classic Thai greeting that signifies respect).  

Oh, and among the strange menu items, the McDonald's pie flavours are (rather than cherry and apple), pineapple, taro and corn.

The eggs are never refrigerated (not even in a grocery store).  And some are bright pink. (?)

You can buy water at the grocery store by the glass.

Our “Big Bite” (the classic hotdog that 7/11 sells in Winnipeg) has somehow been converted into a wiener salad…

At 6:00pm every night, supermarket parking lots everywhere host aerobics (see video below).

Where I live

Some have been asking about what my accommodations, etc are like.  So here are a few photos of my place and area.

My apartment: Super nice, amazingly clean, washing machine in the building, and best of all I took this first outside view of my apartment building (below) from inside my classroom.  How awesome is that? :P

This is definitely one of the nicer apartments in this area of Bangkok.  I feel very well-off and therefor out of place sometimes.

View from my balcony of the main security guard (there’s one on duty 24/7, this is the night guy).  I love this guy, he doesn’t speak any English really, but he’s so very considerate towards all of us.  It's hard to explain the bond that you get from seeing certain people every day and even harder to explain how such a bond can develop without any real conversation... I suppose this photo is one of the few that I've posted mostly for my own benefit.  "Where I live" wouldn't be complete without him.

 

My school:

 My Classroom:

Day 2 Chiang Mai: Elephants and white water/bamboo rafting

After reluctantly leaving Daniel, the folks from Israel, and the village behind, we trekked back down the mountain and into the elephant camp.  

Because I’m still not sure how well the elephants are treated at these camps, I stayed behind while the rest of the group went on the 45-minute elephant ride.  I instead chose to spend most of that time feeding and interacting with the elephants (as well as playing a couple games of checkers with some of the elephant trainers back at the camp). 

Time to state the obvious:  Elephants are REALLY big. 

They’re also magnificent creatures.  It was great to finally meet one in person.

We ended the day with some exhilarating white-water rafting and then some relaxing bamboo rafting.  The former looked pretty intense, but turned out to be a lot of fun.  I would recommend either type of rafting to anyone who gets an opportunity to try it out.

Overall, best weekend so far.  Chiang Mai was amazing.

No more Monkeys Curry!

I finally figured out how to add the comma. I hope you're all happy. :)

Chiang Mai: The Village

Again, not to sure what to expect, I knew that on this two day tour, the plan was to hike up the mountain in order to spend the night in “the village”. 

I was initially apprehensive about the inclusion of this part of the tour as I like to avoid places that are designed for tourists who like to pretend that they’re not tourists.  The way this place was set up, however, made a lot of sense. 

The people that live in the village recognize that tourists have money and also have a desire to see and experience new things.  One family in this village takes advantage of this by opening up their house to foreigners who pass through every weekend.  They treat this like a business opportunity.  

They had a room set up with bamboo mats and mosquito nets for all 9 of us to sleep in, they cooked us a delicious curry chicken dish, and then welcomed us to sit around the fire while one of them played some songs on the guitar.

Much to my surprise; I think they seemed genuinely excited to have us there. 

I went for a walk just to see what I could that wasn’t “set up for tourists”.  There was no electricity, but there was running water.  They grew vegetables in their gardens, and raised pigs and chickens for food (we woke up to the sound of about a dozen roosters at 4:30AM).  

The children don’t go to school.  There is no doctor or medical help within two hours of this village and in speaking to our tour guide, many children don’t survive their first two years up here. 

I had read that, in Thailand, daily tasks are only worth doing if they’re fun.  Rather than seeking out things that are “more fun to do” as we do in North America, I'm constantly encountering people here who make their existent lives more fun by joking around, playing games, singing, and laughing.  Although the village wasn’t particularly poor, they were far from well off either and the people within this village seemed to have a lot of “sinuk” or fun.  They made all of their daily chores seem enjoyable.  Although their lifestyle would be very hard for most of us to adjust to, their outlook is very inspiring.

Chiang Mai: I’m pretty sure I just climbed a mountain

I should have probably looked into what “trekking” meant before going on this tour, but in the end I’m happy I did it.

Ashley and I signed up for the tour because it seemed like the best way to cram the most of Chiang Mai into one weekend.  I’m not sure how far we walked, but it took almost 5 hours and was all uphill (note the direction the trees are growing in the previous picture).

   

I don’t think anyone has truly lived until they've walked for 5 hours uphill in +34-37 degree weather.

The sites along the way were phenomenal.  For a good portion of the trek we were walking right alongside a stream, which eventually led to a beautiful waterfall where we took our break.  

The forest was filled with the sounds of rushing water as well cicadas, which I initially mistook for a far away chainsaw.   

Our tour guide, Pan, was very knowledgeable, and his English was very good.  He does this trek once/week with tourists and has a good sense of humour (“watch out for the crocodiles” was one of his favourites). 

The other 7 who had signed up for this same tour included two from Bangkok, four from Israel, and one awesome fellow, Daniel, from Scotland (who at one point on the trek broke into a Barenaked Ladies tune!).  All in all it was a great group and it was nice to get to know some different people.

None of these pictures will do this trip justice.  What I saw, smelled, heard and experienced was absolutely exceptional and will be undoubtedly be one of the most memorable weekends of my life.

Chiang Mai: Snake Charmer

The main event of this stop on the tour was to watch a “snake charmer” (much like a lion tamer) do a bunch of tricks with a variety of different venomous snakes including cobras. The whole thing was pretty cheesy in my opinion, but it was interesting to see some of the snakes.


The cobras really do sit right up and watch you while you walk by – very creepy.


Because I was one of the few to react calmly to the site of a large python out of its cage, one of the workers decided that I would also like to wear it around my neck. Although I didn’t really know what was happening until the weight of this enormous snake was draped around my neck, I really enjoyed the experience – very cool.

FYI for any of my fellow reptilian lovers (David? Don?) cobra's skin feels amazing. It doesn’t even compare to that of a python or boa. The whole cobra felt like the underside of most snakes but even smoother and with more of a lacquered quality.