Making Pad Thai

After teaching kindergarten last Monday, the teacher gave me a bag of these:

Khap koon Kha! Thank you very much! I took them to my desk and puzzled over what they were and what I should do with them. My co-teacher Chrystal told me that they were tamarinds, the fruit that is used to flavor pad-thai. Clearly this was a sign that I should finally try my hand at cooking some Thai food. First step: break the tamarind pods open, pull out the fruit, remove the seeds and tough pulp, and force the rest through a strainer:

I clearly was unable to do this without making a mess. But eventually, the mess payed off and I had a plate of tamarind paste:

Eww. Not very appetizing, right? But after that, it was simple. Stir-fry the paste with rice sticks, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and shallot, veggies, and egg. Top with crushed peanuts. Voila!

It turned out a bit mushy. I think I need to do the stir-frying a lot faster to end up with perfect pad-thai. Also, broccoli and carrots are not authentic pad-thai vegetables. But mai pben rai. I was pretty happy with my first pad-thai attempt. In the future, I think I will just buy the tamarind paste and forgo the messy stage. But given a random gift of tamarinds, it's worth the effort. Mmmm.

Motorbike and Temple Fun

Richard and I have been wanting to rent a motorbike since coming to Thailand. It's really the cheapest and most efficient way to get around. It may also be the most dangerous, but what's traveling without a little danger, right? It was a bit terrifying. People on motorbikes in Thailand don't so much follow traffic laws. Lane lines and speed limits are seen as little more than suggestions. It is also not unusual to see whole families of up to four or five people on one motorbike, as in the picture above. Helmets? Who wears those? The worst is when you see parents and kids on a motorbike and only the adults are wearing helmets. At least put your kids in a helmet! Despite our objections to some of the principles of motorbike travel, we had a lot of fun. We saw places around Hua Hin that would have cost a fortune to get to otherwise. We went to a park with a lookout point over Hua Hin, and we went to the Wat Huay Mongkol, which is one of the most popular wats in the area. It has a huge statue of the monk Luang Por Thuat, who is famous for performing miracles.

It's definitely more impressive in person. So we had a fun weekend. I also had the chance yesterday to observe a unique ceremony. Every Wednesday, some of the students at my school walk to the local temple to donate food to the monks. Yesterday, grades four and six were going, and I got to come along. All of the kids brought food from home, and most of them had these really cool tiered lunchboxes. We got to the wat and they arranged the food for the monks.

Then there was some chanting.

And then kids brought the food to the monks and the monks ate. Apparently lunch is a pretty significant meal for monks because they're not allowed to eat anything at all until the next day. Life for a monk is full of rules like this (227 to be exact). It's not an easy life. After the monks ate, the students cleaned up, and then we got to eat! Delicious as usual.

Mai Bpen Rai

Sorry I haven't posted much recently on the blog. I'll use this opportunity to explain the title of it. The phrase "Mai bpen rai" is the third most common phrase you'll hear in Thailand (right after "Sawatdee" (Hello) and "Khop Khun" (Thank you)). It functions as "No problem", "Don't worry", "You're Welcome", "Whatever", "It's not my problem", etc. It's sometimes called Thailand's unofficial motto. And what a great motto, eh? A lot of foreigners get frustrated with the Maibpenrai culture of logistics, bureaucracy, or just the fact that any given meeting time could mean anywhere in a two hour or two day span. I am thrilled by it, and I would like to warn any future employers that this will be my slogan in America as well.

I'm amassing pictures, and I will do a school specific post soon to match Laura's. Watch out! My school is way cooler than hers.

Pajamas!

One of the cutest sights we regularly see here on slightly cool evenings is Thai kids, out and about, dressed in their pajamas. It only ever gets cold here at night, so all kids seem to own at least one pair of warm pajamas. Other warm clothing is perhaps too much of an investment? Maybe. For whatever reason, whenever it gets a bit cool, we see Thai kids dressed in their pajamas, all over the place. Especially babies, but sometimes older kids too. I've been wanting to get a picture of this, but couldn't figure out how to do so without being creepy. Finally, I just succumbed to being creepy and took a picture of this kid in the supermarket down the road from our apartment.

More Craziness

Don't insult the Thai royal family.

Seriously.

Some Unpleasant News

While I'm talking about Thailand's treatment of the "sea gypsies" I might as well mention some recent news. Thailand has been accused of sending migrants who have washed ashore back out to sea, many of them to their deaths.

Here's a New York Times article about the events.

It sounds like Thailand gets a lot of immigrants fleeing the oppressive regimes of surrounding countries, and doesn't always handle refugee situations very well (to say the least). I'm glad these problems are getting some international attention. Thailand is a country that cares about it's reputation and seems to actually respond to international pressure.

Mu Koh Surin

Richard and I were expecting to have to work this weekend. Friday is Teacher's Day, so it was supposed to be a day off, but Hua Hin decided to have English Camp for all of it's 4-6th graders this weekend, and we were expected to work there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was going to be a long two weeks with no break. But then...surprise! Somehow the budget didn't come through for English Camp, so we suddenly had a three day weekend. Hmm, what do do on a three day weekend when you are a mere bus ride away from southern Thailand? Visit an island, of course! After we finish teaching, Richard and I want to travel around northern Thailand, so this was looking to be our one island trip. And we wanted to do it right. So many of the Thai islands have become completely built up and turned into gross, expensive tourist traps, but we learned about the Surin Islands in the Andaman Sea, which are protected by national park status. One of our friends from our program went there and raved about his trip. Everything about the Surin Islands looked perfect. So, away we went.

After work on Thursday, we took an overnight bus ride to Kuraburi, the town where you can catch a boat to the islands. It was uncomfortable and long, and we arrived in Kuraburi at around four in the morning. The "bus station" there was a couple benches outside a little office that was closed. We were a little bit worried for a moment, but within three seconds, a songtow pulled up and a woman got out. "You want to go to Surin Islands?" She opened up the Sabina Tours office, which was right next to the bus station, gave us coffee and a brochure, and then booked us a spot on a boat to the island. We still had to wait around for a while, but then they gave us a ride to the pier, where we were able to get breakfast and check out the park information center while we waited. At nine, we got on the "big boat" that took about two and a half hours to bring us to the islands. When we first got on, everyone was given life jackets, but no one bothered to put them on. About halfway into the trip, though, the waves got pretty rough, and we often felt dangerously close to tipping over! No one was too cool to wear life jackets anymore.

We finally reached the islands and pulled into one of the little bays. We got into little long tail boats, and were brought to the pier at the park headquarters. I could not handle how beautiful it was there. Clear water. Blue skies. Mountains. Beaches. Little fishing boats bobbing in the water. The pictures I took do not come close to capturing it. Richard and I rented a tent, some bedding, and some snorkeling equipment and got down to the serious business of Having Fun. There was a nature trail leading from our beach to another beach with a reputation for good snorkeling, so we set off. The trail was only 2 km, but it was pretty rough. We crossed at least a dozen rickety bridges and did a bit of climbing. The whole way, we could see the water through the trees on our left hand side, and there were several lookout points, and even a few empty beaches. It was a great little hike.

We got to the other beach, which had a similar campground to the beach where we were staying, put on the snorkel gear, and went exploring. There are coral reefs all over the island, and there was quite a bit of coral at this beach. The water was pretty shallow, so we could see the coral really well. It wasn't bright and colorful like coral you might see on the travel channel, but it was filled with all kinds of fish. I'd never been snorkeling before, so I thought it was pretty awesome!

After that, we lied on the beach for a while, hiked back to our campgrounds, and got ready for the night. The camp headquarters ran a little restaurant, so we got a great dinner, and then crashed super early. I think we fell asleep by 8:30. Taking night-time buses can do that to you. We slept well enough, got up, sat on a rock by the water and ate crackers for breakfast. We played some frisbee on the beach and then decided to go on a tour to see the Moken tribe, an indigenous group that has settled on one of the islands. We took a long tail boat to the island. When we got close to shore, we could see a bunch of the Moken children playing in the water with little homemade rafts, many of them naked. It looked like a pretty fun place to be a kid.

We got out of the boat and waded to the shore. The village was really cool. All of the houses were on stilts, right on the beach. The people were friendly. They're definitely used to tourists, and a bunch of people were selling bamboo handicrafts and little boat sculptures. It felt a little weird to just be wandering around their village. The indigenous tribe tourist industry is pretty established in Thailand, especially in the north, where it's really easy to go on a trek to visit various hill tribes. I don't know how comfortable I am with the whole system. On the one hand, it's pretty exploitative. A lot of people profit off of this tourism, and you can't really visit an indigenous tribe without severely altering their way of life. On the other hand, the tribes generally get some benefit from it too, receiving a cut from the tourist companies and getting a chance to sell their handicrafts. It's also hard to feel comfortable with the situation of the Moken tribe. Their traditional way of life is to live as "sea gypsies," living off their boats and traveling from island to island, only settling on land during the monsoon season. However, it seems that the Thai government has forced them to live in permanent settlements. At the same time, perhaps it's pretty nice of the Thai government to let them live on national park land at all, which is technically supposed to be free from settlement. The moral implications of all this are a little too complicated for me to sort out. I enjoyed visiting the Moken tribe, and I hope taking part in this tourism isn't something I need to feel too guilty about. Here is a picture of the village, and of some girls that sold me a bracelet.

Another interesting tidbit about the Moken: their village was destroyed in the tsunami, but no one was killed because they knew to get to high ground before the wave hit. Pretty cool. After visiting the Moken village, Richard and I only had a little bit of time left. We hit the water one more time, did some last minute snorkeling at our beach, packed up, ate some lunch, and caught a speed boat back. The trip home was long and tiring, but we made it by two in the morning, and we have all day today (Sunday) to get ready for the week. It was a wonderful trip.

My School

There have been so many holidays here that every post has been about something unusual, so I feel like it's time for me to describe my everyday life here. I work at a school called Tessaban Baan Bo-Fai. I take a fifteen minute songtow northward every morning, and then walk for five minutes once I reach the Bo-Fai village. Sometimes one of the other teachers will see me waiting for the songtow, and will stop and give me a ride on her motorbike. I need to be at school by eight for the morning assembly. The assembly is (obviously) in Thai, so I usually space out. They play the national anthem and raise the flag, make some announcements, and then do aerobics. Aerobics! It's hilarious.

After assembly, I wait for kindergarten to finish their milk break, and then I teach either K1, K2, or K3. I lead them in a rousing rendition of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or I review colors or the alphabet. Then I help them fill out their English worksheet of the day. They are always tons of fun, and indescribably cute. Sometimes I wish I could teach Kindergarten all day long. During the rest of the day, I teach one to three other classes. Our school goes from kindergarten through grade six, and I see each class about two times a week. I have a very vague syllabus to follow, and the kids have books, and there are tons of picture cards that I can use, so I'm actually pretty well supplied with materials.

Class usually goes pretty well. I have a co-teacher. Her name is Chrystal (she was born in America, hence the American name) and she teaches English. The picture at the top shows Chrystal and me with some of the students. Most schools in Thailand have a Thai English teacher, but they really like to bring in Farang teachers because we have fluency and desirable accents. Sometimes Chrystal helps to translate when the kids don't understand my instructions, and she also helps with classroom management when the kids get a little crazy. This is how classroom management works in Thailand: the kids are getting a little noisy. If it's first or second grade, a handful of kids have started getting out of their seats or are hitting each other. The teacher grabs a stick and bangs it on the desks until the kids shut up and sit down. If there are still problems, then the kids get some smacks. The teachers at my school don't hit the kids a lot, but they do occasionally, and at some other schools it happens all the time. Julia, one of the other girls in our program, asked her co-teacher for help with the first-graders, and the co-teacher told her that she just needed to hit them. Luckily, at my school, no one expects me to hit the kids, and usually Chrystal is in the classroom to help out. When Chrystal isn't in the room, I do my best to use various methods of positive reinforcement, but it can be difficult when the language barrier is so huge. I have no way of explaining to my 45 first-graders, "if you get five stickers, then you get a prize!" In general, things are going well, though. I try to keep things as interactive as possible, and get the kids talking. It's hard because they know a lot of nouns, but can't really construct any sentences. Hopefully I'll help them make some progress.

Outside of class, the kids couldn't be sweeter. Everywhere I go, "Good morning, teachaah!" "Good aftanoon, teachaah!" "How are you, teachaah?" That's about all they can say, but I appreciate it. The kindergarten kids see me and yell "Koon Kru Lala!" ("kru" means teacher) and then they wave and giggle a lot and run away. I get called "Lala" about as often as I get called "Laura" since the "r" can be hard to pronounce.

I'm usually done with school at 3:30, except on the days when I am teaching an English class for teachers. This is supposed to happen once a week, but has only actually happened once so far, since people are always making excuses and then not showing up. My co-teacher and the school director are the only teachers at my school who speak English well, so I often get frustrated with my inability to communicate. I'm working on my Thai, but I have not gotten very far yet.

So that's about it. I enjoy my job. Friday was another unusual school day because Saturday was children's day, so we had a bunch of games for the kids. Then on Saturday, there was a big celebration at the Sip Go Rai park. I was voluntold to emcee a performance of the chicken dance at the celebration, and that was pretty fun. Every school had a student performance, and our coordinator, Amy, runs a Saturday school for learning English, Chinese, and Thai. Her students did a Chinese dance, then sang the John Lennon song "Imagine" and then danced the chicken dance. It was entertaining. Yay Children's Day!

:(

The only way I've been able to cook in our apartment was with a crappy rice cooker we bought from the Tesco Lotus, the Thai equivalent of Wal-Mart. I was able to make quite a variety of things in there, from spaghetti to scrambled eggs. But lo and behold, I try to turn it on today and find that it has melted itself to the top of our mini-fridge. I guess this is the downside to living in a tiny apartment with no kitchen. I hope we can get it unstuck...

Sawatdee Pee Mai!

Richard and I have had five days off for the New Year holiday, and it has been wonderful. After having to work on Christmas, it was a needed break. There have been lots of fun festivities in Hua Hin for the new year as well, so we've been enjoying ourselves. On Tuesday, at my school, we started the day with a donation of food to the monks. Monks from the nearest temple came to our school, and everyone gave them bags and baskets of food to take back to the Wat. Then we spent the rest of the day deep-frying various food items in the classrooms, stuffing ourselves, and exchanging presents. Pretty fun, in all.

For New Years Eve, Richard and I went to the celebration at Sip Gao Rai, a park in our neighborhood. There was a huge carnival, with rides, games, lots of food, and a band. We failed to win any prizes at the dart and slingshot games, but we gave it our best shot. After the countdown, there were fireworks, and monks spraying water at the crowds. I'm pretty sure that I got sprinkled with holy water, so that has to bode well for the new year.

On New Years day, Richard and I went to the Kaeng Krachan National Park. Our coordinator's sister runs a resort there, so we were given a free stay. We got really excited about staying at a resort and hiking in the park, so we packed our laptops, swim suits, and hiking shoes. When we got there, we realized that "resort" actually meant "camp ground." We were staying in a little bungalow with hard mattresses and nothing resembling internet access. And then we learned that we couldn't actually access any hiking trails or sights in the park without a car or motorbike. Our national park vacation was looking a little less exciting. But we had lots of fun! Ally, or coordinator's sister, let us ride the staff motorbike around the camp grounds. At first she was going to let us ride it to the park, but then she saw our shaky motorbike skills, and changed her mind. "My staff can give you a ride to the park, I think...." But we totally got better! Pretty soon we will be motorbike champions.

The next day, we went to the park and walked around its outskirts. There's a large dam at the entrance to the park, which has created a huge lake with mountains rising out of it. Tons of Thai families were camping around the lake. We were able to get an hour-long boat-ride around the lake. It was beautiful. Then we crossed a swinging bridge to a little island and walked around it. So, we got some hiking in. Maybe a whole half-mile! Maybe. We also saw monkeys.

Back in Hua Hin, there have been outdoor concerts at the same park. Two nights ago we saw a band called Sweet Mullet. Which is definitely a sweet name. Before the show, they brought audience members onstage and had a death-metal-scream contest. I was very worried about the music we were about to witness. But the show turned out to be great. The death-metal -screams were not overused, and the music was fun. Last night we saw another band called Black Vanilla, which is a totally teeny-bopper, hipster-pop group. They were also awesome. The coolest thing about the show was that Richard and I walked up to the stage when the band came on, and were easily able to get within ten feet of the stage. And these were free concerts featuring some of the most popular bands in Thailand! Their videos are all over the music-video station. Had I been just a little more aggressive, I could have been amongst the throngs of teenage girls screaming and trying to touch the band members. Maybe next time. Here's our favorite Black Vanilla video.

There was also a takraw game going on at the concert. Takraw is awesome. It is like a combination of volleyball, soccer, and acrobatics. More on that later. Happy New Year!