Enjoy…..
My first weekend in Hat Yai was pretty chill and relaxing. Saturday night, I didn’t do much, just kind of sent out some e-mails and finished getting settled.
I went out to grab dinner around 11pm and stopped by this bar/restaurant on the way home that has a big stage with a live band and a couple of “lady boy” performers.
Lady Boy performing
It was pretty interesting and fun since everybody there was having a good time. It was really packed, but the only bad thing was that it was kind of expensive. You have to buy a minimum of one drink to come in, so I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was a small Heineken for 90 Baht. It only comes out to about $2.75, but when you’re used to paying 30 Baht for a small beer, or 75-80 Baht for a 22oz Heineken, then 90 for a small bottle is definitely over priced. So I milked that baby for an hour or so before heading back home. I also saw an elephant just roaming the streets around midnight, so that was pretty interesting.
On Sunday, I had to figure out where to do my laundry. I had been looking around for a Laundromat, but there was nothing, I asked my landlord where I could do it, and he told me the neighbor washed his clothes for 500 Baht a month. I had asked her and she told me she charged 10 Baht per item, and I thought that was ridiculous, but I figured for 500 a month it would be worth it. So I went back over there and after trying to determine how much it was and whether it was going to be 500 Baht or not, I just decided to leave my clothes since I had minimal options and needed my clothes clean ASAP. It turned out to be 500 Baht/month for a maximum of 70 pieces (Socks and Underwear are free). I still thought it was a little too much, but hey, like I said, my options were limited. I finished up, went to dinner and came back to my neighborhood since there was some type of block party going on down my street. I thought it was just a daily event because I had seen them there all week, and I was pretty excited that there was some sort of live outdoor music going on every evening, but it turns out that they were celebrating a monk’s departure to monastery. I hung out for a couple of hours having a couple of cocktails and meeting my new neighbors. A few spoke decent English, so I was able to communicate a little. It was a fun gathering, with many of the neighbors getting drunk and singing Karaoke. They loooooooove karaoke out here. There are karaoke places everywhere.
Monday I started my first full week of teaching and it was pretty interesting trying to get to know ALL of my students.
The morning assembly under the blazing sun
I kept the first lesson simple just to try to get them to use their nicknames (which makes it much easier for me, even though I doubt I will learn many of their names) and gauge their conversation level. Monday is also my long day with 6 periods. The other days I have 4 and on Friday I have 5. That same day, the 2 guys from the placement agency, Dol & Dalton, took Craig (the South African teacher) to another school so he could interview. Apparently he had been complaining tremendously to them, and the school had been complaining about him also. So they tried to get him to another school before bigger problems arose. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well and they didn’t want him, so he’s stuck at my school.
Picture of the only classroom with working fans and a whiteboard
The weather has been pretty consistent throughout. It actually reminds me of Costa Rica, where it rains really hard for an hour or so, and then clears up the rest of the day. But even when it rains, it’s still 80-90+ degrees. It actually rains in Rattaphum (where my school is), or on the way home, but then when I get to Hat Yai it stops. So when I got into town, I headed straight to the Tourism office to see if I could get a map of the city and the surroundings so I could better acquaint myself. They closed at 4:30, so I wasn’t able to make it. I walked back home, through downtown, which has a lot of little stands and shops with pretty much everything you could think of. There were even some really, really nice Lacoste shirts for about $14.00. They looked pretty nice, and if I needed shirts, I would probably buy some (even though the gator looks like a mix between a frog and a dinosaur...hahaha). I also saw some guys playing Futsal on a court right behind the train tracks about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, so I planned on stopping by on Tuesday to see if I could play with them. I went to go eat and found a place that had some good fried rice with seafood for 30 Baht, or about 95 cents. Delicious. I went off to find some dessert and found a dessert cart with all kinds of typical Thai desserts. They eat a lot of jello textured desserts made from a flour base. I tried a couple of them out, but wasn’t very impressed. Out of the 4 small pieces that I tried, I really only enjoyed one of them, and that was more of a bread pudding type dessert. I got home and organized my lesson plans. I started typing out a summary of my lessons and what I go over in class so that I can keep better track of what I teach in each class since I have so many. I’m pretty much teaching the same context, just at a different pace for different levels. Even though 1 or 2 classes that are level 2 can keep up with some classes that are level 4 or 6. The other quite intriguing aspect of my school is the bell to begin and end class. It is the tune of “Yankee Doodle”. I was a little in shock the first time I heard it, and it still makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
On Tuesday, my second class was a little troublesome since it was difficult for them to focus. After lunch, I played ping-pong with the students a little bit. These kids are damn good. They play with pretty much anything they can find if they don’t have a paddle. I’ve seen them play with pieces of tile, pieces of wood, bricks, with their hands….pretty much anything. After my last class, I went back downstairs and played a little more ping-pong. At first, I was getting worked, but after I warmed up, I held my own and might have won a couple of short games….maybe. Well they played 3 points some games and 5 points other games, so I was kind of confused on the scoring, so I’ll go with: I won a couple of games. :D
Around 3 o’clock I realized that Craig and I were the only people pretty much in the whole school. There was 1 or 2 other teachers walking around, but for the most part, the school was a ghost town. I asked one of the teachers and it turns out that they have faculty meetings every Tuesday, but since it was the first week of school, there was no meeting and all the teachers left. That was all I needed to know, and so I also went on home around 3:20. I got home around 4 and ran over to the Tourism office. I got there about 5 minutes before they closed and they gave me a bunch of maps and information about activities within the region. On the way home, I stopped and bought some handkerchiefs to help out with the heat, and an umbrella for the rain. Then I stopped by the futsal court and played for about 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up some of my laundry because it wasn’t all finished yet. I went out and had some Pad Thai (Fried Noodles) with shrimp. I also bought some ant poison because there was a couple of little ant trails in my apartment. Unfortunately the Pad Thai did me wrong because my stomach was in massive pain the next day.
On Wednesday my classes went well, although my stomach was struggling all day. It was probably the worst stomach ache that I’ve ever had. That’s definitely the last time I’m eating at that restaurant. My classes were over by 1:30, so I just sat at my desk for the last 2:30 hours trying to sleep away the pain. I took off around 3:45 went home and just went to sleep. I did happen to pass by a car that had been totaled and my neighbors were trying to salvage every piece of it (eventually they were able to, it only took them 5 weeks, but they made this thing completely disappear).
My neighbors salvaging every single part of a totaled car
I woke up around 7 ate some chips and a Sprite for “dinner”, and picked up some more of my clothes. My stomach started feeling a little better, but I went to bed early, like around 11.
On Thursday my stomach issues started improving, although it was still struggling. It was a real bummer, but thinking that it took 4 weeks for me to get sick isn’t all that bad. I ate my usual breakfast which consists of a couple of slices of papaya, Kirkland instant oatmeal, and a glass of orange juice. I’ve never really been a fan of papaya, but being out here, something happened and seeing as it’s such a healthy fruit, it makes it taste even better. I created a questionnaire for my classes; a kind of “get to know you” worksheet with such topics as favorite color, movie, sport, team, animal, music, etc. Since the students are pretty good at reading and writing, I thought it wouldn’t be so difficult, but I was mistaken. Only a few of my classes have been able to understand it. It is alright though, because it will be fun to see them present it in front of the class. One of the teachers offered to give me and Craig a ride that day because although he usually carpools with other teachers, that day he had brought his own car because he was running late. So that was nice that it saved me the 25 Baht ride home, and I got home a little faster also. I got home and one of my neighbors made me sit at his stand and gave me one of his desserts (a crepe styled substance with egg yolk inside topped with condensed milk and sugar. I later learned it’s called “roti”). It’s actually quite tasty, although I’m sure not the healthiest. He also gave me a glass of tea since apparently his is the best in town. It was pretty good, although I would have preferred it cold seeing how it is no less than 90 degrees every day out here. I tried to pay, but he would not accept any money, so that was nice of him. I changed and ran over to the Futsal court and played for a good 45 minutes. I walked home and picked up another load of my laundry. I know I had a lot of clothes, but I definitely did not expect for it to take as long as it did, but I have been getting used to “Thai time” so it doesn’t really affect me all that much. I didn’t really have dinner again because I still wasn’t 100% confident in the ability of my stomach to maintain it, so I just ate a yogurt and a Clif Bar for dinner. I packed up my stuff, since I was going to head out straight to an island on Friday right after work, and went to sleep. A few of my friends that live in Satun (a town about 2 hours away) decided to go to an island for the weekend, so I had to find my way to Pak-Ba-Ra which is the “port” town where all the boats/ferries leave from. The teacher that gave us a ride, Pairote, stopped at the minivan station and found out for me that it costs 100B to get there and the minivans leave every 30 minutes with the last one leaving around 5:30pm.
Friday I was told that I had to complete a “unit plan” for the semester stating what topics I would be teaching the students. So I figured I’d do it during work hours, rather than take it home for the weekend, especially since I’d be relaxing on an island. Unfortunately, I forgot my USB drive with all my updated lesson content, so I had to pretty much wing all of my lessons that day. Also, my last class is an activity class where the students actually signed up to be in that class. So there are 14 students, and the department head asked me if it would be alright if some teachers from other departments sat it on my class. I told him I didn’t have a problem with it, so 6 or 7 teachers showed up, although I feel that it did make the students a little more uncomfortable and might have been a bit intimidating for them. They are the youngest level, and I think that they’re so used to being punished, or yelled at when they do something incorrectly that it has an effect. The only reason I say this is because they were a lot more outgoing and not afraid of speaking the first day, as opposed to this day. Hopefully they’ll be able to open up a little more and not worry about the teachers in the class. So I took off at 4 o’clock and called my friend Matt (from Akron, Ohio) who was supposed to meet me at the minivan station at 4:30, to tell him I was on my way. I got there around 4:30, and he still was not even close to the station. He was getting a ride, and since we’re in Thailand, punctuality isn’t a strong point. The guy at the station also tried to charge me 120 Baht, but I told him that it was 100, and he just kind of nodded his head. They see a farang (foreigner) and always try to make an extra buck. So I waited for him and thus missed the 4:30 van but was able to get on the 5 o’clock one that left around 5:10. We got to Pak Ba Ra around 7 and met up with John and Christy (a couple from Atlanta), and Kate and Tamsin (2 girls from the UK). We immediately got on a longtail boat that John and Christy had set up for us. Apparently this weekend was the beginning of the monsoon season, because no boats were going out to the islands. The boat ride was one of the most peaceful and amazing trip of my life. We had clear skies and were able to see hundreds of thousands of stars everywhere. It seemed like shooting stars were just traveling all over the sky.
Boat ride to Ko Bulon Leh
Along with that, the water was phosphorescent all the way there and because of this, we saw flying fish jumping in and out of the water the whole ride there. It was truly one of the better experiences I have enjoyed out here. Some conversations on the longtail did attempt to hinder that trip, (such as believing Einstein and Frankenstein was the same person, or believing that space or the universe was not real) but for the most part I was able to ignore those and just focus on the beauty and peacefulness that nature provided. It took us about 2 hours to get to Ko Bulon Leh, and the longtail just dropped us off and told us he’d pick us up at noon on Sunday. So it took us about an hour to find a bungalow, but we got 2 bungalows right on the beach for 500 Baht each. Since it is Thailand however, we negotiated it down to 400 Baht each per night. Kate, Tamsin, Matt and I all piled into one of them, and John and Christy took the other one. That made it come out to about 100 Baht/per person/per night. Not too shabby at all. We had dinner there and finished the Thai “rum” that we had brought over from the mainland.
The group, sans photographer
We ended up crashing out around 1 or 1:30, and it wasn’t too difficult since the power went out at 12. Fitting 4 people in a queen size bed was a little difficult, but somehow we made it work. The mosquito net that came with the room also was extremely useful as we saw tons of them flying around everywhere. It was also quite odd to see that many ants everywhere (inside and outside of the bungalow). They really ran rampant on that island.
On Saturday I woke up around 9 or 10 because you get to a point where it becomes uncomfortable to sleep with the heat. We took a dip in the water and then went to go look for the “town” and “explore” the island.
Our isolated beach
It turns out that we were the only non-residents on the island. There were no other people renting out bungalows or any tourism whatsoever on the island. Apparently the monsoon season really detracts a lot of tourists, and on top of that, apparently many of the ferry operators have stopped taking people to this particular island.
It was fine with me, because it made the whole experience much more relaxing and enjoyable. There was only one other place open on the island, where they sold beer. It is a very Islamic community, and therefore very difficult to find alcohol. There was no rum or liquor of any kind anywhere on the island. But we did luck out because the only place/restaurant that served food was particularly the place that we were staying at.
Our bungalow
It is a family owned and operated resort and they were really friendly, helpful and extremely attentive to us. No matter what time it was, they were there to cook us breakfast, lunch or dinner, or there to allow us to get some snacks from the market on the resort. After lunch, it was low tide, so Christy, Matt and I were able to get around the island pretty easily and check out the awesome rock formations all along the beach. I was almost able to make it all the way around the island, but I forgot my shoes, and the rocks started getting sharper, and more slippery, so I had to call it quits and head back.
Beach at low tide
Unfortunately I also forgot my camera, so I was unable to take advantage of some cool rocks and scenery shots. On our way back, we decided to try to build a bonfire at night, so we collected some firewood and threw it in a pile near our bungalows. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how high the tide would come and all of our wood got wet by the time we got back from dinner. The six of us went back to the small market that sold beer and they actually sold Thai whiskey also. Well what they call Thai whiskey was a very disgusting alcohol that seemed to me like a variation or mix of Sake and Everclear. It was horrible. We tried to mix it with everything, soda water, coke, juice and nothing seemed to help. We drank about 3 of the bottles (some of us more than others….I quit after a few drinks-the taste was just unbearable) and after dinner the girls tried to get the bonfire going and went out and got some more “dry” wood.
Me on the beach
Amazingly, they weren’t very talented gatherers and grabbed some pretty green branches that were never going to light. So we just hung out until about 12 when the lights went out.
Sunday I woke up around 9:30 and immediately jumped in the water. I had an omelet for breakfast and then went back in the water. We settled up since all our food and snacks they had just put on a tab. It wasn’t too bad at all. For the room, all the food, we each put in 650 Baht….almost $20. The round-trip boat ride alone cost almost as much (600 Baht). Our longtail captain was hanging out, waiting from about 9 or 10am, so finally around noon, we headed on back to Pak Ba Ra. We got back to Pak Ba Ra at 1:30 and had some lunch. Matt and I took off and headed back to Hat Yai around 4 and got home around 5:30.
Picture of the fishing boats in Pak Ba Ra
I even got to take a longer walk back home because I didn’t know how to tell the minivan driver to stop, and since I was in the back of the van, I couldn’t do what I usually do, and tap them and say OK while pointing. Luckily 2 guys got off about 3 blocks past my stop so I was able to get off too. Unfortunately for Matt, the last minivan to Nathawi (where he lives) leaves around 5, so he had to stay the night in Hat Yai and catch the minivan in the morning. I got home, took a shower, had some spicy Som Tam that I was feeling the effects of on Monday (even though I requested not spicy….I have come to the conclusion that they’re not allowed to make Som Tam without spice) and went to bed around 11:30 to get ready for the next work week.
Well that’s a summary of Week 4….like I said, I’m definitely going to try to keep them coming more regularly, at least 1 or 2 a week until I get caught up. These next few weeks might be difficult for me since my parents are going to be here for 4 weeks, but I’m definitely going to do my best. I’m really excited to get to see them and hang out and travel with them. They get here on Thursday night, and on Friday we are going to Krabi until Monday and then to Malaysia until Saturday. It’s a holiday weekend until Wednesday, so I’m taking advantage and taking Thursday and Friday off so that I can spend a whole week with them.
So I hope everyone is doing well and feel free to e-mail me and let me know how you’re doing. I would love to know how life is out in your parts….I’m sure not everyone’s life suddenly stopped because of Michael Jackson’s death, right…..??
Until next time…peace and love.
