The Full Windsor: January 2007

The journeys end

It took a train, taxi, plane, bus, boat, and then finally another (this time overpriced) taxi to get us to Samui. Then a few days later it was a 16hour boat and bus trip back to Bangkok, exhausting stuff.

But finally after all that we were able to collapse into our spacious hotel room 41 floors above the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Our one year anniversary was celebrated with a walk thru heated humdity to the big Siam centre, a massive shopping mall in the centre of Bangkok, and not far from where we were staying. We've shopped too much on this trip, instead we went and watched 'Black Dahlia' a great Noir film, full of mystrey, complex plot and a sly femme fatale. For dinner we dined on a seafood buffet, 79 floors above Bangkok, in one of the tallest towers in the city. It was a dinner worthy of the occasion, great inexpensive food, amazing views over the city sparkling with a thousands lights, and most importantly the beautiful company of my wife, Emily.

Today we fly home, an overnite flight that will touch us down in Melbourne at 10am local time, eager to see everyone again, and already getting exciting, but also apprehensive about the approaching first days for me as a primary school teacher, with my own class to take care of.

Pineing for home in 'Paradise'

White sand beaches, refreshing but warm waters idling rolling in, shimmering a cool blue green, beckoning us to wade out and cool our sweaty, overheated and sunburnt bodies. Behind us the palm trees and jungle garden of the resort. Our little bungalow tucked away among the others in a leafy tropical Eden. Breakfast (and other delicious and over priced meals) is had in an open air dinning room that looks out West over the calm waters of the sheltered bay, in the distant humid haze is Samui, the larger island in this cluster of holiday escapes. Its hot here, the sun beats down through thick humidity, thankfully there is the refreshing waters of the ocean, airconditioning in our room and the pool to give us comfort from it.

On our second nite there is a party out on the sandbar. We waded out between lanterns in the water to the sandbar, where lanterns mark out a circluar area, where there is a drinks bar, food, a bonfire and later fire twirlers. The next day we set up a volley ball net on the sandbar and played until the sun set behind us, coloring the waters in deep purples and reds.

We spend another day poolside, reading and occasionally dipping in the refreshing cool of the pool. But despite all this we are weary of Thailand and think of home. Its been a long stay here, and sure we've had some great days relaxing here, but its time for home. Rain this morning, a canceled boat trip (which would have taken us to the 5th best beach in the world) and some travel complications have made us want home even more.

This island of Koh Phangan is small and overrun with tourists and expats, an escape for many, some never going home. Everything costs just that little more than you expect. And I am sure you can get anything here for a price.

Bernie a South African ex-gangsta (or so he says) who came here 7 months ago, took a group of us out to the local cinema, (a little room with teired benches with cushions, mattresses and a phone to order food) where you can watch any movie you like. In the power outage during the film he told us he could get us anything we wanted, from pot to ladyboys (there's already three of the latter at the resort). So I gather this island offers more than a holiday to many, I think perhaps it is a haven or an escape for those who don't want to go home. But for us, we are now all too ready to make that long trek back to Down Under.

Teaching English

Over the last week and a half I have been teaching English at a local school right next to Mckean Hospital where Emily is doing her medical elective.

The school has 800 students and the class sizes are huge. I haven't had a class that is smaller than 35 students, the biggest being just under 50!! In the first few days there I discovered so many things that broke from the teaching conventions I'd learned back in Australia. For starters the classroom sizes, way to big to have any real education occuring. I think the perfect ratio is one teacher to 15 or 16 students. Then they use rote learning, okay, in some cases it may work, but basically its relying too much on the collective intelligence of the class not the individual students knowledge. So too many students slip through the cracks, especially in huge classes of students. I was also shocked by the public shaming of students when they didn't know something, if a student couldn't answer the teacher would get the whole class to tell him "what he did wrong". I also saw physical manhandling of students and one teacher had a cane at hand ready to use. She didn't use it but told me it could come in handy if i needed it.

Okay its not all bad, the children are lovely, altho in one class they were literally climbing the walls (its no wonder the teacher called them little monkeys- to their faces too!). But almost all are very polite and cheerful and get excited having a new teacher in the room. And most are receptive to learning and playing the various English games I have managed to remember.

The English (or Engrish as they say-confusion of 'l' and 'r') knowledge here is extremely varied, in one class you could have a kid who knows nothing and another who is nearly fluent. I also find it strange to see the teachers giving them words that as a class they can say but individually they don't have clue what the word is. They are using terrible American text books that have no relevance to their lives at all. Have also discovered some amusing Thai mutations of English, e.g. "heeling shoe". Can anyone guess what this might be? I discovered this one on the "3th" of January, another little amusing Thai English-ism. They also have trouble with "Seth", the "th" sound being difficult for them.

The teachers here are great, and the Principal is a lovely cheerful lady with great English who trys to teach me Thai words. She says amusing things like during lunch when she heaps chilli onto her food "Chilli makes me sexy!". Today she put her arm around me and said "this is my son". She has also taken a liking to Emily who came and helped me teach (Em's a natural teacher). She sent me home the other day to look after Emily who was sick, and gave me the next morning off to make sure she was okay. I have also befriended the high school English teacher Narin, a great little Thai man, the same age as me and with great English. We get along well and i hope to stay in contact with him.

Tomorrow is my last day. While its been fun it'll be good not to have to do the long 40 min ride (early in the morning!) it takes us to get there. We have to get through crazy Thai drivers, pollution and some bad roads. Em almost got totally bowled over today by a girl on a motorbike who didn't notice us at all! She didn't even stop to see if Em was okay.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is a much bigger event in Chiang Mai then the virtually non event that Christmas day was. The main sqaure of Chiang Mai was filled with stalls selling food, crafts etc, a huge stage, lighting rigs, cameras, big screens and a VIP seating area. Through the evening they had various performances; dances and singers and various people getting up to say things. But it was all in Thai, and the screens didn't have subtitles, so we watched some of the dancing but mainly chose to wander the stalls that filled the streets in the area around the square. There seemed to be no real countdown, and through out the night people set off their fireworks and lanterns. The latter; large paper hotair balloons, filled the sky as people let them go "sending off all their good wishes for the year" as is the tradition here. At roughly midnight the sky was a blaze with the "offical" fireworks, set off from various hotels etc. We sat on the old wall just above the gate and had own little countdown with Americans around us. Then we enjoyed the splendor of the fireworks, and they were magnigicant, exploding right overhead in amazing vivid greens, reds and blues. Not as brilliant as Syndey or New York, but still fun to watch.

Jewelry Class

I attended a jewelry class, while I didn't learn heaps I was able to make this for Emily, as a one year anniverary present.

The Jewel:
Eve made a choice, but within that choice, where she rebelled from God, lies our rescue from the punishment of that choice, Jesus' death on the Cross, giving us Salvation.