This Trip is B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Last week, our friends asked us if we would like to go with a group of people to the Monkey Festival in Lop Buri. How can you say no to a question like that? Our only response other than, "of course" was "there is a festival for monkeys?".

Yes, there is a whole festival dedicated to monkeys here in Thailand. Some genius Thai businessman discovered that if you encourage monkeys to hang around your city, you will very quickly see an increase in foreign tourists who think monkeys are adorable and hilarious. Since this was such a sucess they have a festival every year to thank the monkeys for the prosperity that their town enjoys. They tell the story of Hanuman the monkey god and feed the monkeys a giant monkey buffet.

However, even when monkeys are offered a giant buffet of fruit, vegetables and other monkey delectables, there is one thing monkeys like even more. Vendors had set up tents at the edge of the ruins where the festival is held to sell drinks and such to the festival goers. Monkeys, as it turns out, prefer pepsi to dragon fruit. They monkeys were skulking around casting dangerous looks at anybody who decided to have a drink and if one was silly enough to doubt the monkeys' seriousness they would leap from the ground onto you. It was smarter just to put down the beverage. Shane was monkey mugged in this way carrying a nearly empty water bottle around, the monkey looked at him, looked at the water, and made a threatening step forward. Shane is no idiot so he dropped the water bottle and stepped back.
(Picture below is from a palace/temple ruins in Lop Buri)

 Another sweet Lop Buri surprise was the performance staged in another set of ruins the night before the monkey festival. We were walking around looking for a place to eat when we chanced upon the area and were drawn in by the music, lights and crowds. Inside a performance of what can only be described as people-puppetry was going on. This traditional form of Thai dance features one person as the "puppet" who is attached to strings or poles, marionette-style.  The dancers at this performance were incredible and we stayed to watch for quite a while. They also had some high-school aged children performing and playing who were quite good given their respective ages.

 Monkey drinking out of a small water feature... this picture was taken while we were having breakfast at a little cafe.

 The monkey food pyramid!!!

 Mommy & Me -monkey style.

 Monkey to the right enjoying a coke and the monkeys in the foreground are enjoying a delicious Thai iced tea (milky and sweet, really delicious!).

 Sunflower fields! You can see the mountain where the temple was located in the background.

Lop Buri is not only the home of the monkeys, it is also home to other attractions like the sunflower fields and various temples and such. On Saturday we explored some beautiful temple ruins (sooo peaceful in busy, noisy Thailand) and on Sunday we rented mopeds and hit the open road for a tour of the area, stopping to take in Sunflower fields, a temple on the mountain and a somewhat disappointing lake. The views were beautiful, the driving was fun (except in those crazy traffic circles! yikes!) and all in all an excellent adventure was had by all.
Monkey video -An overview of monkeys in Lop Buri!

Shane also got a chance this weekend to try out Sepak takraw. Youtube this for more information! It is basically a form of volleyball played with the feet and is really wild to watch. We stumbled upon a team practicing at night and after they took a break they allowed Shane and a friend to give it a go on the courts.

Chicken Loom

Yikes! Sorry about the long delay between posts this time... it has been pretty crazy around here.

One of us (Shane) got quite ill with some sort of food poisoning (but with the help of lots of bedrest and antibiotics is now feeling much better) which made for somewhat less adventuring on our part. It was also the first week back to school for the primary classes and was therefore very busy with lesson planning and such.

Junior kindergarten is, as expected, completely adorable. The kids refer to Hannah as "Teacha Na", an oversight which is in the process of being corrected. One trait of Thai speakers is the tendency to put the emphasis on the last syllable... something which we are trying (and failing) to not aquire! For example: copY this off the board or simply when saying Hannah's name "hanNAH". Currently in Kindergarten and grade two we are learning the rooms of the house, you know, your usual bed loom, bath loom, living loom and chicken loom... We are trying our best to pronounce kitchen with the utmost clarity (and actually at this point we are winning!).

This past weekend was the Thai festival of Loy Krathong, a beautiful festival where Thais apologize and give thanks to the river gods for all of their sins of the past year and float krathongs down the river with lit candles to symbolize wiping the slate clean. The longer your candle burns, the more luck you will recieve in the coming year. We were unable to make it to one of the bigger river festivals because of Shane's food poisoning but luckily our condo complex had a smaller version of the festivities so we didn't miss out entirely.

We have also moved into our new apartment! Apart from some minor hiccups while we get all the logistics sorted out we are really loving the new place. Pictures will come once we have everything settled and maybe some decorating done!

Debauchery and Weekend Adventures

Another exciting weekend in Thailand! This weekend we ventured down to the MBK centre to check out what a mall in Thailand looks like. Parts of it are very similar to a mall back home, and then there are floors that have more in common with the market we visited last weekend with huge crowds of shoppers, narrow aisles and cheap knock-offs of brand-name goods. After some shopping we decided to head to the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre where we were told that if we stuck around until six thirty there would be free food, wine and entertainment to celebrate the opening of a really wild art exhibit of crocheted trees! Very reminiscent of The Lorax...

The wine and food were excellent, the entertainment... well we'll let him speak for himself. Here are a few clips of the musical entertainment we saw on Saturday night...

After the performance we went to an open-air food court near the Victory Monument in Bangkok and had some Kau man gai (rice with steamed chicken and a delicious ginger-chili sauce) and a couple of drinks (supplied of course by the local 7-11). Not feeling quite ready to head home yet, we started brainstorming about what we should do to close out our Saturday night... Since we had a friend with us who will not be in Thailand long we thought that we should try to get the most experience out of Bangkok possible, and therefore the only logical choice was to visit Soi Cowboy, Bangkok's seedy red-light district. One can easily imagine what goes on in Soi Cowboy, so we will leave it up to you... if you can't imagine I am sure that Google has a great deal of pertinent information. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. After feeling like we'd had our fill of the underbelly of Bangkok it was off to bed... after a short encounter with a crazy cab driver (drove much too fast and laughed when we asked him to cha cha ... slow down). Another interesting weekend in the land of smiles.

Our School

Our school is wayyyy out in the country in a rural town called Sam Khok. It is very different from some of the other schools our company works in (for example the Sacred Heart Bangkok which is 11 floors with an olympic sized swimming pool on the fourth floor ) and is therefore very different from schools we are used to back home. Here is one of the classrooms. Notice that the windows do not have any glass in them (therefore no air conditioning) and instead just have wooden shutters. This can make things pretty noisy if the band is practicing outside!

 

 The picture above is the courtyard outside the Ideal office. Some of the kids hang out here between classes (or during classes when they decide to show up late) or for lunch. There are several stray dogs who hang around this area hoping to get treats from the students!

The picture below is one of the ground floor open air classrooms. These classrooms don't have windows of any kind, let's hope it doesn't rain!

This is the beautiful temple beside our school. Inside there are peacocks, flowers, fruit and of course monks. We are told that one of the monks can tell your future! One of our co-workers wants us to go and ask if we can have our future foretold.

This is a picture of Hannah's school under water. We will have to post a picture this week since we are finally opening the school on Monday (at least that was the hope last week)!

Mixing business with pleasure...

Thus far we have established that Thailand is a beautiful place, full of lots of crazy and exciting things. However, one of the hardest things to get used to is the squat toilet. We have differing strategies on how to approach this bathroom beast, with Hannah's being to develop a bladder of steel for fear of slips, trips and falls.

Those of you who have had the chance to trip out to Asia before have probably encountered one of these before, but for those that haven't let us explain. The toilet shaped thing on the right hand side is indeed a toilet, but instead of sitting down as you would on a Western comode, you put your feet on the two grooved footprints and squat, like camping. The problem arises from the fact that the whole thing is made of porcelain and therefore slippery as an eel wearing a banana peel. You best be careful to avoid a fall into the business end of this porcelain potty... The pleasures of the squat toilet compound with the B.Y.O.T.P. theme (bring your own toilet paper) and the bucket on the side, used to help gravity wash away any traces of your visit and to keep the porcelain nice and slick for the next sucker.
Traditionally, the left hand was used, along with the water in the basin beside the toilet, to clean one's self (some bathrooms have now upgraded to the aforementioned ass blaster) and hence all eating was done with the right. Thais have now generally shifted towards eating with fork and spoon, but no notice on whether the other traditional practise prevails. 
Apparently it's not so bad once you get used to it... yup, that's what we tell ourselves every morning in the cold shower too haha.

Shane Nearly Kills a Guy...

What a busy first weekend in Thailand! On Friday night the company that owns and manages our apartment complex held a " Your Dreamland 2010 Party" for all their "foreign" guests. It was basically a photo op for them so they can sell condos and apartments using our shiny white faces... However, said photo op came with free food, booze and traditional Thai dancers... and the traditional Thai pastime of Karaoke.

Although cheesy and slightly strange (as is everything about where we live... more on that another time) this provided an excellent opportunity for us to get to know some of the other local farang. The Dreamland party finished at ten and we all took the party elsewhere... to the sidewalk by the 7-11 to be exact!

Yes, not only can you buy beer at the 7-11 in Thailand, but the clerks actually have bottle openers behind the counter, just in case you want to drink while you browse the fine selection of merchandise. They obligingly opened our beverage and we went outside to the sidewalk where we hung around with a crowd of folks before deciding what to do. We ended up going to sit on some benches outside by the Arc de Triomphe where Hannah got eaten alive by mosquitoes (and Shane got ZERO bites) before deciding to head to "The Clink" a local bar. The bar was a bit of a bust but the night overall was a great success as we met some new friends and got a chance to check out the local area.

The next morning we met up with our new friends to head down to the Chatuchak weekend market. This is the biggest market in Thailand with between 5000-15000 vendors (depending on your Internet research lol) and where around 30 million baht per day are spent on cheap knockoff goods (say hello to my new fake Lacoste wallet), pets, appliances, electronics.... basically anything you could ever want can be found at the Chatuchak weekend market. It is a wildly crowded place full of locals, tourists, and the occasional palm reader wearing all black with a sword strapped across his back. We spent several hours shopping and being generally overwhelmed by everything and came out with a small number of purchases.

After a quick bite to eat we started to head out but were waylaid by the sweet melodious sounds of a Thai guitar player singing various English alternative covers. We sat down and had a couple beers while listening before heading home.

And as for Shane almost killing a guy, have we mentioned the madness that is Thai motorcyclists? Let's just say, next time you see a movie with a wild motorcycle stunt in it, the stuntman is probably somebody's Thai grandma out for a Sunday drive... These guys have no concept of rules or regulations on the road, a fact which Shane learned when he almost killed a motorcyclist opening the door of our cab. Trying to exit the cab (on the curb side I might add) Shane had barely cracked the door when it was hit at full speed by a flying Thai motorcyclist who then performed a stylish quick dismount from his bike before getting up, shaking his wrist and glaring at Shane, and then continuing on his way... just another day on the outskirts of Bangkok. Needless to say, we have now learned to LOOK BEHIND before opening any door of the vehicle. Just because you are on the sidewalk, doesn't mean you're safe.

Our Temporary Apartment

So this is the new digs until our new digs are ready... Fairly similar to a Canadian bachelor apartment except for a couple of slight noticeable differences... First of all, there is no proper kitchen. We are making do with a hot plate on a cabinet... Also notice the lack of food on the shelves. This is because we HAD a brand new bag of rice, unopened which apparently had a tiny hole in it. When we got home from work there was a trail of ants from a crack in the ceiling, along the wall, into the bag of rice. We aren't sure what they wanted in there but there were so many ants in the rice we had to throw the whole bag out. Now all food (including cereal and other things that do not need to be refrigerated) is in the refrigerator. Also noteable, everyone here seems to drink predominately instant coffee. We don't have a coffee maker or pot so got some for ourselves but soon realized that it was commonplace here...

 This is our breakfast nook! This is not really different from an apartment in Canada but is pretty cute.

 Our bed :) They must think farang are huge fat foreigners because King sized beds are common in our apartment complex (which houses many foreigners). Also, for some reason Thai people do not do the whole top sheet thing. When you buy a set of bed linens you get a fitted sheet and pillow cases and you can get a duvet but so far nowhere (including the hotel) has had a flat top sheet.

 The toilet and, as we affectionately call it, the "ass blaster". Since our apartment building caters to farang, our bathroom features a western-style toilet and toilet paper roll holder as well. To the left of the toilet is the shower, this is fairly normal except for the lack of hot water. Yes, all showers in Thailand (except perhaps in hotels which cater to foreigners) are cold. This will be refreshing in the warmer season but currently makes for a brisk pick-me-up in the morning.

"I don't understand 90% of what is going on around here"

Today Shane recieved an email from his brother asking if we had found a good place to get suits yet... This is a difficult question to answer because things are not like they are in Canada. For instance, in Canada if one wants to buy beer, one goes to The Beer Store and if one wanted a suit one could probably find a clothing store with some smartly dressed mannequins and make the correct assumption that suits would be inside. In Thailand you might have a store with a 90-year-old woman on a sewing machine at the door, a 14-year-old auto body specialist in the back and some sort of food vendor serving out the front. Can you get a suit here? We still aren't sure...

Teachers also fill a different role here, at least the Thai teachers. For instance, today if you were walking around the school you would have noticed many children with a stripe shaved in the back of their hair cuts...

You might think that this is simply a new fashion trend in Thailand, but you would be wrong. Apparently one of the Thai teachers decided that the children were letting their hair get too long, and in retaliation attacked them with an electric rasor. Take that Thai hippies!

PS. Dear Tim and Ian, this is my first webcomic attempt. I hope you are happy. One day I might learn how to add alt-text for you too :)

Lesson 2: supporting the Thai economy

Our second day in Thailand was all about trying to get ourselves settled into a new place. Thai apartments are different from your typical Canadian place, in part because they largely do not feature kitchens. Perhaps cooking is considered a thing that only families do, or perhaps it is merely because food for a single person is so amazingly cheap here, but whatever the reason most apartments do not come with a stove or a fridge... or a kitchen sink. Luckily, the local carrefour is brimming with excellent home appliances, groceries, and other supplies.

A carrefour is basically your local walmart on steriods. FULL of people, groceries, electronics and other goods it is a store where you can get just about anything. They also have a 5oclock mandatory Carrefour dance (hated by the staff but beloved by our employer's 19 month old son) which we sadly missed out on.

After driving back home with our purchases crammed into the tiny vehicle it was time to set up house and then go out for a late lunch. This is where we discovered our new favourite restaurant and favourite Thai lady...
The restaurant is just a little place in the Champs D'Elysees complex where we live. The food is excellent and dirt cheap (roughly $3 for our entire meal) and the owner is a lovely woman who not only helped us order but taught us how to say we wanted something spicy (or not) in Thai and how to say that the food had been delicious. Then she brought us out a plate of fruit as a complementary welcome to Thailand gesture. We now never want to cook anything again... good thing we got that hot plate.

The jet lag is still pretty harsh in the evenings once it starts to get dark (it gets dark around 6:30 here) so luckily we have our pal the Louis Lotus... our King sized bed (aparently they must think all farang (foreigners) want a king sized bed as these come standard in every apartment we looked at). We sleep so far apart we are nearly in different time zones. For your viewing pleasure, a little bit of Thai/English translation...

Lesson 1: Crossing the Road

We arrived in Thailand at 10 AM, Saturday October 30th. Our employer picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel. We were immediately struck by just how different everything is over here! For one thing, there are no real "rules" of the road over here, more like suggestions. People drive anywhere they want, at any speed they want... for example a 3 lane highway could become 7 lanes if there was a lot of traffic. We quickly decided that driving was probably NOT one of the experiences that we needed to have here in Thailand. The award for unsafe driving for that day goes to a lovely family of four all riding on one motorcycle...

After a whirlwind day of looking at apartments (you have to move fast here, your potential abode could be gone before dinner time) we went back to the hotel for the night. We decided that we would go for a walk before dinner to get the lay of the land and were quickly surprised by the fact that although there are crosswalks here, that does NOT mean cars will slow down or stop for you to cross. Crossing roads is generally done by running and dodging oncoming traffic, even by real Thais. By this time the jet lag was really starting to hit us so we ended up getting room service and heading off to bed!