When I was living in Tokyo, the thing I always hated about vacation was that it ended, and the prospects of going from laid-back SE Asia back to the hyper-paced concrete jungle of Tokyo was rather depressing. Which could be the best thing about working in Bangkok - when your vacation is over, you get to come back to Bangkok. It's almost like there's no end to the vacation, in a way...
Hua Hin has a rather nice beach, and it was nice to chill there for a couple of days, drink the juice out of coconuts and eat super-fresh seafood. Unfortunately, one could rent jet skis, sailboats, banana boats, horses, and just about every other kind of transport on this beach, but kayaks were not to be found. So it goes. I may have to head down to Krabi the next time I have a few days off (which will be in less than two weeks) just to get my fix...
One other thing I forgot to mention about my trip to Sangklaburi was that on the bus, there were only six people, including the driver and conductor. There were more on the way back, but the interesting thing was that Thai Immigration and military authorities boarded the bus twice and checked everyone's documents (except for mine.) Looking for undocumented migrants, it appears. It's like seeing my thesis in action. Interesting...
One of my co-workers was so drunk a week or so ago that he passed out in front of 7-11 and used a stray dog as a pillow. Thankfully, I was not on that expedition.
Hail progress!
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Thursday, July 28, 2005
And I'm not talking about those stupid car insurance commericals...
As I write this post, I find myself back in BKK with my tail between my legs, to a certain extent at least. Last Monday found me in Sangklaburi, a little town in Thailand's wild, wild west, only about 19 km from the fabled (or at least it sounds to me like a place that would be considered fabled) Three Pagodas Pass (Phra Jedi Saam Ong in the local parlance). However, in the 24 hours or so that I spent in Sangklaburi, which has a population of about 10,000 or so of mixed Thai, Mon, Burmese, and Karen ethnicity, rain did not cease for even one minute, at least that I was aware of. You can get a sense of the scene from the photo below. As I was fighting off a sickness (I received some anti-biotics from the first doctor whom I've ever seen that I've suspected is younger than me at the ER in Kanchanaburi), and spending a day on the Burmese border in the pouring rain didn't sound like a great way to recover. The Three Pagodas pass has been there for centuries - it will still be there when the rainy season is over.
Also, there was a bus between Kanchanaburi and Sanklaburi. This is a good thing, as learning to drive a motorbike on this steep (yet spectacular) mountainous road in the pouring rain would've almost certainly been a great way to have a massive disaster. It was a beautiful drive, by the way, and I'm looking forward to seeing it sometime when the visibility is somewhat better than it was when I was there.
In Kanchanaburi, there is a temple that has live, wild tigers living inside of it. They are all orphans whose mothers were killed by poachers. While a noble idea, I decided not to visit this temple, where one can have one's photo taken with an actual wild tiger, pet them and so on. I decided that one of two things is happening in this case. Either a.) this is a plan to have a massive disaster or b.) these tigers are being drugged. I don't want to be a part of the former, and I don't approve of the later, so I decided to stay away. Wise or otherwise, I don't know. But it could have been interesting...
In other news, I've just lost loads of respect for Willie Nelson, due to his appearance in the Jessica Simpson video which is playing as I type on MTV Thailand in the internet cafe where I am typing...
So now for the title of this posting. On my first night in Kanchanaburi, I went to bed in my guesthouse at about midnight. The bed was tremendously uncomfortable, with a very thin matress and a massive ridge in the middle of the frame. In addition, I heard a variety of noises, from boats passing by on the river to all sorts of noises from the creatures of the night in the city surrounded by jungle. At one point, I was sure that I heard some sort of creature crawling throug the wall. Hearkening back to my experience at 1029 Jennifer Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703, USA, I was certain that I was hearing rats running through my walls. Naturally, I could not sleep, as those creatures put me off like nothing else does. So, after a sleepless night, at about 6 am I decided to have a walk about the city. I had heard a calle of "gee-koo" once or twice during the night, but didn't really think anything of it. As I was getting ready to head out into the city, I looked up at the wall and saw the guy in the picture below. For an appreciation of how long he was, those are average-sized cinderblocks. I tried to go around the other side and snap a better picture, but he scurried down into the wall. Anyway, despite the uncomfortable matress, I slept much better the next night knowing that rats weren't in my walls, but instead a rather large gecko was eating all of the cockroaches in there.
And by the way, the early morning walk around the city was spectacular. I could not have pulled off such pics of the bridge at any other time, as it is usually crowded with tourists...
Hail progress!
Also, there was a bus between Kanchanaburi and Sanklaburi. This is a good thing, as learning to drive a motorbike on this steep (yet spectacular) mountainous road in the pouring rain would've almost certainly been a great way to have a massive disaster. It was a beautiful drive, by the way, and I'm looking forward to seeing it sometime when the visibility is somewhat better than it was when I was there.
In Kanchanaburi, there is a temple that has live, wild tigers living inside of it. They are all orphans whose mothers were killed by poachers. While a noble idea, I decided not to visit this temple, where one can have one's photo taken with an actual wild tiger, pet them and so on. I decided that one of two things is happening in this case. Either a.) this is a plan to have a massive disaster or b.) these tigers are being drugged. I don't want to be a part of the former, and I don't approve of the later, so I decided to stay away. Wise or otherwise, I don't know. But it could have been interesting...
In other news, I've just lost loads of respect for Willie Nelson, due to his appearance in the Jessica Simpson video which is playing as I type on MTV Thailand in the internet cafe where I am typing...
So now for the title of this posting. On my first night in Kanchanaburi, I went to bed in my guesthouse at about midnight. The bed was tremendously uncomfortable, with a very thin matress and a massive ridge in the middle of the frame. In addition, I heard a variety of noises, from boats passing by on the river to all sorts of noises from the creatures of the night in the city surrounded by jungle. At one point, I was sure that I heard some sort of creature crawling throug the wall. Hearkening back to my experience at 1029 Jennifer Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703, USA, I was certain that I was hearing rats running through my walls. Naturally, I could not sleep, as those creatures put me off like nothing else does. So, after a sleepless night, at about 6 am I decided to have a walk about the city. I had heard a calle of "gee-koo" once or twice during the night, but didn't really think anything of it. As I was getting ready to head out into the city, I looked up at the wall and saw the guy in the picture below. For an appreciation of how long he was, those are average-sized cinderblocks. I tried to go around the other side and snap a better picture, but he scurried down into the wall. Anyway, despite the uncomfortable matress, I slept much better the next night knowing that rats weren't in my walls, but instead a rather large gecko was eating all of the cockroaches in there.
And by the way, the early morning walk around the city was spectacular. I could not have pulled off such pics of the bridge at any other time, as it is usually crowded with tourists...
Hail progress!
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
On the Banks of the River Kwai
As I write this, I have arrived in Kanchanaburi town, which is about two hours out of BKK by bus. Looking forward to touring about tomorrow. I delayed my departure by a couple of days as I have not been feeling that well, and I thought a day or so to rest would be useful, and it was. So here I am, looking forward to getting up to the fabled Three Pagodas Pass in a couple days' time. It looks renting a motorcycle may be the only way to get there. Considering I've never driven a motorcycle in my life, nor have I driven in a country like Thailand where traffic moves on the left, this could be interesting....
Last week I met a friend of some of my friends who has lived in Bangkok for seven years now. We met in the Nana area, which I've talked a bit about in previous posts, to have some Indian food and a few brews. Nana is an intersting little neighborhood, which you can say about a lot of places in BKK, but I would say Nana is above and beyond. As I stated before, it's a hub for sex tourism, with one or two sois lined with brothels and go-go bars. Also, paradoxically, it is home to what may be considered the "Little Arabia" section of our fair city. So you see women in full Burkhas, which are the robes some Muslim women wear that reveal their eyes and nothing else, you see men in full-length white robes with the piece of cloth on their heads and the cord around it, much like you see the royalty of the Gulf States wearing when they're on the news. Meanwhile, they're brushing shoulders with transgendered hookers, sleazy European tourists looking for some "fun," and loads of other tourists, workers, and so on. It's the type of scene you can only see in Bangkok.
Other than that, looking forward to cruising around Kanjanaburi. Hail progress!
Last week I met a friend of some of my friends who has lived in Bangkok for seven years now. We met in the Nana area, which I've talked a bit about in previous posts, to have some Indian food and a few brews. Nana is an intersting little neighborhood, which you can say about a lot of places in BKK, but I would say Nana is above and beyond. As I stated before, it's a hub for sex tourism, with one or two sois lined with brothels and go-go bars. Also, paradoxically, it is home to what may be considered the "Little Arabia" section of our fair city. So you see women in full Burkhas, which are the robes some Muslim women wear that reveal their eyes and nothing else, you see men in full-length white robes with the piece of cloth on their heads and the cord around it, much like you see the royalty of the Gulf States wearing when they're on the news. Meanwhile, they're brushing shoulders with transgendered hookers, sleazy European tourists looking for some "fun," and loads of other tourists, workers, and so on. It's the type of scene you can only see in Bangkok.
Other than that, looking forward to cruising around Kanjanaburi. Hail progress!
Sunday, July 17, 2005
The Cush
I've begun to realize just how cushy of a job I've landed. It's almost ridiculous, and if it wasn't so sweet, I'd be rather embarrassed by it. First of all, as mentioned before, I only work three days a week. those are a full three days, and when you include the commute time I'm going for ten hours per day on those days. But still, it's only three days per week. I work Monday and Tuesday, and then I have Wednesday and Thursday off, work Friday, and then have Saturday and Sunday off. So I have two weekends. In addition, every six weeks or so I get at least two weeks of fully paid vacation. We have to proctor exams during the testing period, but we can pick our days and have them all at the end so we can maximize travel time. In addition, housing, insurance, and travel to and from Thailand are all part of the package. It may not pay the best, but if it weren't for the massive student loan debt I've accrued, I'd consider doing this forever...
Played a fun trick on my students the other day. I did a listening task with them, where I wrote a few questions on the board and had them listen to answer them. The song I played was Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," and I asked a few questions such as "when is he leaving?" and "What kind of city does he want to live in?" However, instead of playing Sinatra, I played this 1991 heavy metal song by a band called Ministry. The song is called "Jesus Built my Hotrod," and 95% of it is incomprehensible gibberish. The looks on their faces were indescribeable. I said "just joking," and then played Sinatra as promised, which they responded quite well to.
Hail progress!
Played a fun trick on my students the other day. I did a listening task with them, where I wrote a few questions on the board and had them listen to answer them. The song I played was Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," and I asked a few questions such as "when is he leaving?" and "What kind of city does he want to live in?" However, instead of playing Sinatra, I played this 1991 heavy metal song by a band called Ministry. The song is called "Jesus Built my Hotrod," and 95% of it is incomprehensible gibberish. The looks on their faces were indescribeable. I said "just joking," and then played Sinatra as promised, which they responded quite well to.
Hail progress!
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Stinkin' Rich
So how rich are the kids running around the campus at Assumption University of Thailand? Well, this is how rich they are: Yesterday and Monday, BMW had a booth set up on campus so that students could test drive the newest models of their cars. Keep in mind that this campus is out in the boonies and is completely cut off from the poor people living in their huts of corrugated tin surrounding it, and there are no parents at all there. BMW was targeting the students directly. On the campuses which I've been fortunate enough to attend back in the US, GM would occasionally hand out flyers with some sort of deal to buy a new car after graduation, but there definitely weren't test drive booths set up and it definitely wasn't BMW. Stinkin' rich indeed...
In other news, I have twelve days in a row off starting one week from today. I'm heading north, first to Kanchanaburi, where I will see some tigers, smugglers from Burma, and the infamous death railway of WWII where the Japanese military worked thousands of Thais, Aussies, British, and American troops to their deaths and immortalized in the old move "The Bridge over the River Kwai." I also hope to make it to the fabled Three Pagodas Pass in that province. Then I hope to head to Tak province, to see some waterfalls and mountains.
Hail progress!
In other news, I have twelve days in a row off starting one week from today. I'm heading north, first to Kanchanaburi, where I will see some tigers, smugglers from Burma, and the infamous death railway of WWII where the Japanese military worked thousands of Thais, Aussies, British, and American troops to their deaths and immortalized in the old move "The Bridge over the River Kwai." I also hope to make it to the fabled Three Pagodas Pass in that province. Then I hope to head to Tak province, to see some waterfalls and mountains.
Hail progress!
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Tom and Dee and all the rest
Apologies for the delay in posting, but due to a massive volume of papers I need to correct which I’ve made but a dent in, I’ve been spending my free time doing that type of thing.
One of the more interesting events of the past week was the 4th of July picnic put on by some American Expat group, actually held on Saturday, 2 July. This picnic was held on a soccer field at an international high school in Central BKK. It looked like any 4th of July Celebration, really – loads of BBQ, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Buttwhiper (er, Budwiser,) Miller Genuine Draft, and Ice Cream from Dairy Queen. However, a glance at the crowd quickly revealed that we were indeed far from home. First of all, the Thai Army Band was entertaining the audience. Without looking at them, however, one would guess that they were any other cover band anywhere in the US entertaining at such an event. They were covering such classics as “La Bamba” and “Zombie.” Secondly, the mix of revelers was perhaps the most interesting aspect of this gathering. There were loads of older Western men, younger Thai women (many of whom had almost certainly been hired away from Nana Plaza, one of Bangkok’s sex tourism districts not far from this international school,) and Eurasian children running around. There were games at this picnic as well. Some guy from UW Madison’s law school I had met (wearing my Badger hat always makes me friends,) and I managed to reach the final four in the egg toss. At the end of the day, they had fireworks, which were exploding directly over the crowd. Therefore, we were showered with bits of the rockets that were being shot into the sky, some of them still rather hot. All in all, it was a good time.
I’ve promised a blurb on the differences between gender perceptions in Western and Thai society. Here it is. The concept of gender and sexuality in Thai society is rather interesting. It’s not the simple plus/arrow dual-gendered conception that the West and most of the world espouse, but multiple shades of grey. For example, in many of my student’s notebooks, they have an area where you can check a box by your gender. Listed are Male, Female, Gay, Tom (from the English term “tomboy,” meaning a butch lesbian,) Dee (from “lady,” denoting a more effeminate lesbian than the “tom,”) Tootsie (perhaps the most interesting of these all, the Thai Ladyboy (gatoey in the local parlance) is a transgendered male. Some times you can tell, other times, you can’t,) bisexual, and all of the above. What is really interesting is that this blurring of gender and sexuality was even more commonplace prior to the 1800’s, when European influence first reached the Kingdom of Siam. In an effort to appear more “civilized” to the Europeans and thus take away any excuses for colonization, Thai society begrudgingly adopted the dual gender concept of the west, at least for legal purposes, along with a host of other changes, such as silverware and the Western calendar. Despite this dejure dual gender society, as discussed above, for defacto purposes, it’s more ambiguous. This difference between defacto and dejure practices really highlights the divide between what is “Western” and what is “Thai.” At the University at which I work, along with most of the other Universities in the country, which are all modeled upon Western Universities and thus embrace western scientific and gender models, the students wear uniforms. In an effort to enforce western gender conceptualization, all female students wear skirts as part of their uniform, and all faculty and staff are required to wear skirts or dresses at all times while at work. A woman wearing pants in a western institution such as a university may allow for the “Tom” identity to develop, which the University would not want. Interesting…
One of the more interesting events of the past week was the 4th of July picnic put on by some American Expat group, actually held on Saturday, 2 July. This picnic was held on a soccer field at an international high school in Central BKK. It looked like any 4th of July Celebration, really – loads of BBQ, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Buttwhiper (er, Budwiser,) Miller Genuine Draft, and Ice Cream from Dairy Queen. However, a glance at the crowd quickly revealed that we were indeed far from home. First of all, the Thai Army Band was entertaining the audience. Without looking at them, however, one would guess that they were any other cover band anywhere in the US entertaining at such an event. They were covering such classics as “La Bamba” and “Zombie.” Secondly, the mix of revelers was perhaps the most interesting aspect of this gathering. There were loads of older Western men, younger Thai women (many of whom had almost certainly been hired away from Nana Plaza, one of Bangkok’s sex tourism districts not far from this international school,) and Eurasian children running around. There were games at this picnic as well. Some guy from UW Madison’s law school I had met (wearing my Badger hat always makes me friends,) and I managed to reach the final four in the egg toss. At the end of the day, they had fireworks, which were exploding directly over the crowd. Therefore, we were showered with bits of the rockets that were being shot into the sky, some of them still rather hot. All in all, it was a good time.
I’ve promised a blurb on the differences between gender perceptions in Western and Thai society. Here it is. The concept of gender and sexuality in Thai society is rather interesting. It’s not the simple plus/arrow dual-gendered conception that the West and most of the world espouse, but multiple shades of grey. For example, in many of my student’s notebooks, they have an area where you can check a box by your gender. Listed are Male, Female, Gay, Tom (from the English term “tomboy,” meaning a butch lesbian,) Dee (from “lady,” denoting a more effeminate lesbian than the “tom,”) Tootsie (perhaps the most interesting of these all, the Thai Ladyboy (gatoey in the local parlance) is a transgendered male. Some times you can tell, other times, you can’t,) bisexual, and all of the above. What is really interesting is that this blurring of gender and sexuality was even more commonplace prior to the 1800’s, when European influence first reached the Kingdom of Siam. In an effort to appear more “civilized” to the Europeans and thus take away any excuses for colonization, Thai society begrudgingly adopted the dual gender concept of the west, at least for legal purposes, along with a host of other changes, such as silverware and the Western calendar. Despite this dejure dual gender society, as discussed above, for defacto purposes, it’s more ambiguous. This difference between defacto and dejure practices really highlights the divide between what is “Western” and what is “Thai.” At the University at which I work, along with most of the other Universities in the country, which are all modeled upon Western Universities and thus embrace western scientific and gender models, the students wear uniforms. In an effort to enforce western gender conceptualization, all female students wear skirts as part of their uniform, and all faculty and staff are required to wear skirts or dresses at all times while at work. A woman wearing pants in a western institution such as a university may allow for the “Tom” identity to develop, which the University would not want. Interesting…
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