Dinner and a Show

After enjoying the previous two weekends in Bangkok, I left school Friday with a mind to have a nice quiet, stay at home kind of weekend. I had agreed to meet my new Thai friend, Thanawat (nickname: Sam), for dinner, and then would retire early to bed. Or so I thought. When I arrived at Sam’s apartment, he informed me that he wanted to take me to a nice restaurant near Bangkok with a live entertainment show! Count me in!

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when we arrived at the restaurant. It’s a giant building on the side of the main drive to Bangkok, a familiar sight from taking the bus there and back the last few weekends. The place is called: Holland Beer. I’d only seen it from the outside and wondered as to the name. My best guess was that they served Heineken, which is actually widely available throughout Thailand anyway. Well it turns out they actually serve three different types of Holland-imported beers, and none of them Heineken. They also serve bratwurst, in addition to a normal Thai menu. The inside of the building and the friendly, ever present wait staff feels like a giant version of Texas Roadhouse—seriously, I kept checking the table for peanuts! At the end of rows and rows of tables is a big stage for the performers.

The food: delicious! We ate a couple of my favorite Thai dishes: shrimp salad with cashew nuts, and red curry with ostrich and pineapple!

The show: interesting, and I have to say, pretty entertaining and overall, pretty darn good. The costumes changes were particularly entertaining, switching between traditional Thai outfits to funny lady boy costumes, and then switching again to modern fashion. The song list was composed of traditional Thai songs that strike the cultural chord, mixed with modern Thai rock, mixed with dance music, with an occasional Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga song sprinkled in (both artists are huge in Thailand!). As it seems to be a signature of the Thai performing arts, there were a few lady boy songs.

Sam described the show to me as like a Broadway musical, and then I later heard his friend (who joined us there) comment something about “Thai musicals.” I couldn’t really follow a consistent story line thread, but that may have been the whole not understanding Thai language thing. Or, the show might have been a variety show, with no start to finish story, but a bunch of songs unrelated to one another. Either way, and even without understanding the language, I really enjoyed the show and the food, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with some Thais. Sam and I will be having dinner every week (probably not at Holland Beer every time) so I can help perfect his English and he can teach me Thai, and so we can be buddies J

He is a very nice guy and speaks English very well already; he was even so gracious as to deny my attempts to help pay for the dinner, which was not cheap by Thai standards. Next meal is on me!

One final tidbit: check out this Thai singer rocking the red, white, and blue!

Thai Bicycle

What is the added significance of this blog posting? It’s the first one posted from my home internet! That’s right, after a few delays and minor snags, high-speed internet has finally been installed and I can blog and skype every day! Well, every day that I’m not going out and exploring Thailand to bring back materials for this blog…

Last week introduced a new aspect to my adventure: bike riding in Thailand. I’d had plans to buy a bike next month, after receiving my first full teacher’s paycheck. Well, those plans were literally taken by the handlebars and steered another direction.

Last Tuesday, some of the teacher’s invited me out for a “going away” party for one of the Guidance Counselor’s. We went to a local Thai restaurant and I graciously sampled everything they ordered. There were a few dishes that had pre-warnings and post-follow ups to them: fried duck feet, and soft bone from pork. The teachers warned: “Sean we don’t think you will like,” and then followed up with me the next morning to ask if “anything happened to my stomach.” Both dishes were actually tasty and had no bad side effects; the feet were a bit weird and didn’t have much meat.

Back to the pedal: the teachers offered me a ride home but I said I was going to walk over to shop at the market. They didn’t want me to walk, so they drove me there and asked what I would be buying. I had no plans to shop, just to browse, for bicycles to get a good idea before next month. When they found a bike shop, they parked the truck and four teachers piled out with me into the store. They asked me which one I liked and, when I found a real beauty, they immediately they started asking questions and negotiating prices with the sales lady. They worked out a sweet deal that was, admittedly, hard to turn down. But I was resolute and told them that I would wait till next month, just wanted to browse around and get a good idea. That’s when Teacher Chanida decided it was really too good a deal to pass, and she offered to buy the bike and let me pay her after the paycheck. I didn’t feel it was appropriate to accept such generosity, and I spent several minutes giving my best reasons to wait. I wanted to check the big mall too, I said. But Chanida assured me the deal they arranged would be better than everywhere else. So there I was, with four, female Thai teachers nodding at me, telling me to get the bike. I began to realize that denying her helpful offer would be the ungracious thing to do. We bought the bike. Loaded it into the back of the pickup. They arranged a lock to be thrown in for no extra cost, and extra light reflectors as well.

Next, we spent a good twenty minutes at two different stores picking out the perfect helmet (see picture). My roommate commented later that night that my helmet was “far too cool for a mere bicycle and would look more appropriate with a rocket or unicorn of some sort.” I agree.

One of the Thai’s who helped pick the bike is close to my age and the other teacher’s kept giving us a hard time, trying to arrange a date. But she is the Guidance Counselor who’s going away party it was. Nevertheless, she was very nice to drive me in her truck and to help pick out the bicycle.

The other three Thai’s that helped me do my shopping were all about my parent’s age and all very, very good shoppers. The way they mothered over the whole shopping experience, they way they negotiated and knew all the places to look for deals—I think I’ve found my Thai aunties! (editor’s note: when I get back home, I know my real auntie’s will have better food options than pork bone and duck feet!).

Field Trip to the Hospital

Don’t worry, I am fine and still in perfect health. Just as my work visa required a trip to Laos, my actual work permit required a blood test and a physical at a hospital. So on Tuesday last week, Michael, Meredith, and I took a trip to the government hospital. This is a busy, busy place! There were people everywhere, including some not so happy looking people on stretchers in the waiting room. We checked in (with the help of some instructions for the medical staff that our school had written down for us) and then we were led to the blood drawing room. We were quite the spectacle! Everyone in the room ran out to grab other associates to view the show. We had about a dozen people watching, talking and laughing in Thai, while we covered our eyes and had blood drawn. One lady took pictures with her Blackberry! We think they were expecting our blood to be a different color.

They told us the doctors weren’t available to do the exam and that our results would not be available for 24 hours anyway, so we each set individual appointments to return. Mine was for Wednesday and, even though I had been there just the day before, I still managed to get twisted around and a little lost wandering around the hospital on my second trip.

I finally handed my patient card to someone and they had me sit down. Sure enough, they began all the trappings of a physical: took my temperature (thermometer under the armpit), checked my heart rate, etc. Then they asked me: “what are the symptoms?” I quickly informed them that I was OK and that I was not sick! That confused them—so what was I doing there? Luckily for me, at about this time a nurse from the day before recognized me and came to the rescue. She had me go to another room and I met with the doctor briefly. He spoke great English and asked a bit about my medical history. He only asked about five questions, it only took all of three minutes, then he told me I was healthy and sent me on my way. Blood tests all came back clean of course. Believe it or not, my short physical was actually more in depth than my roommate’s, Michael’s. The doctor simply asked him: “are you healthy?” And he answered “yes.” That was that. Altogether, the cost for the blood work and expedited physicals were only $3.30 USD. The second trip was much less of a spectacle, probably because we all went individually instead of as a group of foreigners. And the second trip was also a little more grisly: I saw two different patients in stretchers with stitches along the top of their head, and the hair shaved away in funny patterns to allow the doctors to do those stitches. Bad enough they were in pain, the poor fellas also were stuck with a bad haircut for the next several months! From the looks of it, these patients had not been wearing helmets on their motorbikes. In the words of my momma: “always wear your helmet!”

Editor’s Note: The health care system in Thailand is actually quite good. This fact was first brought to my attention by Ivan’s parents in Vietnam. Both of them work for the US State Dept. and told us that, when foreign nationals require good medical attention, they are flown either to Singapore or Bangkok. The quality of medical care they spoke of us was confirmed to me when I visited my local friend, Thanawat, at Ekachai Hospital. He works in the Pharmacy of Ekachai, a private hospital. This was practically an isolated island of America in a sea of Asia—the hospital looked and felt just like hospitals back home! Well, except for the food in the cafeteria, which was my purpose for the visit. We shared an English conversation and a tasty lunch together in the hospital’s canteen. The food was, you guessed it, traditional Thai food. We talked about cell phones, tv, and hospitals in Thailand. Clearly, there is a big difference between the government hospital and the private hospital here in my city. If I ever have the bad fortune to get sick, I know which hospital I’ll be visiting.

Easter in France

This post is a little bit out of order on the calendar...but it's a good memory and I don't want to skip over it, even if it's out of place time-wise.

I landed in Paris, France, Easter morning. Spent a few moments on internet at an airport McDonald's (did not buy the food!). Took a bus into the city center and had my first French crepe with berries and chocolate. I had some time to spare before my train ride, so I took a look around. And by that I mean: I took a 40 second elevator ride up to the 56th floor of the tallest building and enjoyed the full panoramic view of the city. Saw the Eiffel Tower, saw Notre Dame, saw some building that my big sis would later inform me is where Napoleon was buried, and read some interesting information about the city that is available for the tourists.

From Paris, I took the Eurorail out to La Rochelle, a port city two hours away. It took me some time to get my bearings of the city and find the youth hostel, but I made it! Dropping my stuff off, I stole away to enjoy a nice, sit down steak dinner. Boy, do I miss steak, and I don't trust the beef in Thailand yet...Afterwards, I was back in a McDonald's and skyping to my brother's droid phone (which is really my phone on loan), and talking to the family. They were all gathered at Aunt Sheryl's house for Easter brunch. I really appreciated getting to say hello to everyone on the holiday. I miss the holiday food, to be sure, but I miss the family time more!

Happy Easter!

Just Another Weekend

This weekend took me from Bangkok across the border to Vientiane, Laos, and back again. I had to make a standard practice “visa run” across the border, but more on that later. Saturday morning began at the local foreigner favorite, Bantoon Coffee, where I enjoyed my American Breakfast and made a skype call back home to ma and pa. It’s always so good to see their smiling, loving faces!!! Having started my day off right, I then caught a bus to Bangkok for lunch with my friend, Kym, at our favorite vegetarian restaurant called Ethos. I greedily devoured a mango and banana pancake with coconut cream and honey on top, then went on to eat a healthy serving of falafel and hummus in pita bread. Delicious! After our foodfest, we caught a bus to the weekend market. It was there that I bought my first pair of sunglasses in Thailand. This was a milestone moment because my mother and two sisters have nagged me about getting sunshades since…well, ever since I left ;-) I also drank down some of my new favorite tea: chrysanthemum. It’s very floral in taste.

On Sunday we explored a mall in the northern part of Bangkok, had some delicious mango, and then went to the mall theater. On the big screen: Hangover 2. This was a significant movie because it was filmed in Bangkok, so we just had to see it! We definitely recognized some of the locations, buildings, and of course, all things Thailand. The movie was entirely in English, and though not as funny as the first one, it was worth the $4.75 to get in. An interesting thing at Thai movie theaters—after the previews and before the movie begins, every theater plays the King’s song to a short video clip featuring pictures of the King. The music and the Thai lyrics are pretty, and the video is interesting. Everyone stands during this, then sits down again for the movie to play. Also- Asian movie theaters have assigned seats; when you purchase your ticket, you get to pick out where in the theater you would like to sit from the chart of remaining available seats. Can you imagine assigned seating movie theaters in America?!?

Sunday night I met up with my other friend, Kate, also from teacher training, who also needed to make a Visa run. Both of us were in the process of getting our tourist visa switched over to a business visa, which unfortunately sometimes involves the added expense and process of leaving the country. And even though Malaysia is closer geographically, it’s much more expensive than Laos and is not as easy a process. So we signed up for a visa run service by what we were told was a reputable company which our placement companies (the companies that arranged our jobs) had referred people to in the past. We loaded into a van full of other “farang” (Thai for foreigners) and left Bangkok at 9pm. The ride would be approximately 9 hours. We made three stops total, all for the purpose of getting out, stretching, bathroom and smoke breaks for the smokers. Not once did the van need to re-fuel. It was a diesel engine, and apparently got great mileage! I nabbed a few hours of sleep, but only as much as you can get in a noisy van on a bumpy road. At one point, I woke up to the van’s engine shutting down unexpectedly. As the driver fought the key to turn the engine, I couldn’t help but notice that we were in the middle of nowhere! After a few more tries, and killing the A/C and music power, the van roared back to life and we continued on. Thank goodness!

We arrived on the border of Laos at about 5:30am and began the process of clearing customs to leave Thailand, clearing immigration to enter Laos, and then visiting the Thai embassy to submit our passports for visa approval. Passports can be dropped off in the morning, but not picked up until the following afternoon. The vans took us to the hotels (part of the visa run package) and we were fed breakfast. I ordered an American breakfast, again.

For the rest of the day, Kate and I teamed up with a brother/sister combo from Arkansas who are doing Christian missionary work in Thailand. They were an interesting duo and nice people. We hired a van from the hotel to take us to the nearby tourist destinations. We saw a couple of wats (temples), a reclining Buddha, an archway, and did some shopping.

I bought what I will from now on call the ultimate “Laos Army Knife” which will be an incredible tool for ongoing home maintenance. Uncle John will be so proud!

We returned to the hotel and were entreated to a lovely buffet dinner, featuring Asian dishes from the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. We sat with a group from the Philippines who were all doing the same thing we were doing: living in Thailand and teaching English—their English is good enough to teach. They asked us questions about America and then one of them got our email address so we could stay in touch through facebook.

The next morning, Kate and I took a final walk along the streets of Laos. One thing we noticed was a strong presence of Veterinary facilities, something we had not really seen in Thailand. We went into one and found the place busy as a beaver! The people of Laos really love their animals!

Then we performed the ‘immigration hustle’ in reverse of yesterday: cleared Laos customs to leave, cleared Thai immigration to enter, and moments later I was officially legal to work in Thailand. We loaded our bus at about 2pm, ready to go home. That’s when things got a bit uncomfortable.

You know, when everyone on the bus speaks English fluently, and when all of us are living in country where few others speak our language and we don’t speak theirs, you would think that such a gathering would be full of chit chat and general English conversation at the joy of sharing something in common with a stranger, yes, but someone who is familiar in language. You would think so, but that is not the case! I felt like I was on a nightmare episode of Survivor! Two guys almost got in a fight over who would get the front seat. This wasn’t really resolved; one of them just took to the back of the van but promised the other “he’d steal the seat at our first stop.” Then two women who had sat together on the ride up to Laos found their seats had also been taken; when they asked some of the guys to shift around so they could sit together, no one was nice enough to do so. No one else on the bus came with a buddy either, and they weren’t friends sitting next to one another. In the words of one of the Americans who responded to the Europeans request, “it ain’t my problem!” I was sitting next to Kate, but even if I did the gentlemanly thing to give up my seat, the girls still would not have seats next to each other. So they were split up and had to sit next to the guys who didn’t want to cooperate. The two guys who almost fought had both mellowed out by the first stop, and the rest of the van slept soundly for our ride back to Bangkok. I listened to podcasts on my iPod and watched the Thai countryside roll along. I saw plenty of Asian cattle and saw several small bungalow villages where the farmers must live.

We arrived back in Bangkok at about 11pm. Too late for me to catch a bus back to my town—they stop running much earlier. So I stayed with Kate, hopped on an early bus at 6:30am, and made it to school in good form at 7:15am Wednesday morning. What a weekend!