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Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire

23-26OCT2002 So, with my fireball obsession firmly in mind, we crossed the border back into Thailand.  We traveled 40km or so down the Mekong following two Dutch falangs on the back of a motorcycle.  I figured they were going to see the fireballs.

We stopped at a pleasant place by the river with a thatched hut and spent a few pleasant hours chatting, reading, ands drinking beer.  Then came the fatal decision.  The fireballs were better just a little way down the river according to the locals.  So, we motored down the road and followed the crowd to a parking lot in a field by the river.  We trudged across a plowed field and took up our position near the river.  Nee and Wat went looking for something and came back with a great picnic dinner complete with straw mats.

I figured the first rumbles of thunder were fireworks, but then I saw distant lightening.  A dark, threatening thunderstorm was several miles to the north and another to the west.  Surely, it would just blow over...not.  After a few drops, the rain became more intense.  A family nearby was kind enough to share their shelter with us.  We spent an hour huddled under canvas while the rain poured down and the darkness became inky black.  After it let up, we waited for the fireballs.

Oooh, said the crowd.  I strained to see.  Nee said she saw a fireball.  I saw nothing.  Then we waited for another hour in the light rain and no more fireballs appeared.  I set a deadline for the natural phenomenon.  It came and passed.  I gave the fireballs a few more minutes.  Nothing.

Then we slogged through the slick red clay mud to our motorcycle and entered the "mother of all traffic jams".  A two lane highway had become a six lane snarl.  You see, in Asia, lanes are more like guidelines.  So, if you're going down a highway and the traffic stops, then you just pull out into the passing lane.  The problem is if people going both directions do this you end up with major gridlock.  

We were able to proceed in the motorcycle lane.  The motorcycle lane is any space of more than one meter width anywhere in the traffic jam.  We traveled on the shoulder in the mud.  Sometimes the going was so treacherous that one of us would get off and walk while the other took the bike through the rutted mud.

Two hours and 15km later, we arrived at a side road and were told, Udon Thani, no problem.  So, off we went.  Another two hours and 60km later we finally arrived not at Udon but at Nong Kai still 60km from Udon.  An hour and a half later, wet and chilled to the bone we arrived back at our hotel in Udon.  The next day I heard that the news crew captured the fireballs on the late news.  I didn't see that broadcast either.

On the 22nd, I arrived for my interview with the chairman of the department and her associates.  The interview went well and I had hopes of an offer.  On the 25th, I got a call confirming their desire to hire me to teach English at the Rajabhat Institute for a year.

I celebrated by buying a laptop computer.  So, now I'm typing this journal from the comfort of my room.  

26-31OCT2002  On the 27th I met with Dr. Bancoab for the official signing of the contract.  He was then kind enough to give me the grand tour of the university.  He teaches and is also in charge of several departments including payroll and maintenance.  We ended up at the Language Center and there I found my desk. 

The facilities are good.  I share a room with eight other teachers.  It is air conditioned and has hot water for coffee and tea and a toilet with western style seating.  There are 3 computers with internet connection and several other computers with printers for offline work.  The other teachers are friendly.  The Language Department includes six mature gentlemen farangs, four Americans, one Canadian, and one Dane.  There are four young Japanese ladies who teach, of course, Japanese but speak pretty good English.  The rest of the department is staffed with Thai teachers. 

My mentor is Supatra.  She has been very kind and patient.  She is helping me through the process of getting a work permit.  Nothing to it really:

1-30NOV2002 I've been so busy with teaching and living that I've let my journal slip a bit.  I'll try to hit the high spots and try to stay more up to date in the future.

I have three classes and three English conversation groups each week.  English Literature is a true challenge.  I found it difficult enough to engage students in literature when I taught high school back in the 80's.  It is even more challenging to teach students who rarely encounter English outside of the classroom.  The textbook includes a selection of 17th-20th century English and American poets.  Poetry is loaded with cultural references.  It is hard to explain a transcendental moment caused by the silence of a snowy night in the woods to students who have never seen snow.  But, it's fun to try.  And the students are delightful: polite, friendly and respectful.  

I teach two sections of scientific writing.  These students are science majors not English majors.  Since the goals of the course are aimed at writing not speaking, I spend lots of time at the blackboard.  One class session was memorable.  The unit we were studying was process writing:  to describe the steps and sequence of a process.  I created an exercise where small groups designed a paper airplane, wrote instructions and then passed on those instructions to another group.  The other group used the instructions to build the paper airplane described.  I kept the prototype under my desk for comparison.  Then we flew them from the fourth floor window of the science building.  The closest to the lake won.  I think the students had fun and learned about writing at the same time.

I went to the Loi Krathong festival.  Every year during the full moon of the twelfth lunar month Thai people gather at rivers and lakes and launch small rafts with candles.  This offering is made to thank the mother of waters and to apologize for the pollution.  After lunch with several farang ajarns (foreign teachers), I was returning to the Language Department.  We ran into a parade:  floats, bands, marching units, the works.  I grabbed my camera and started taking photos.  Marching units of every age from 5 to 60 were dressed in colorful costumes costumes. Some krathongs were small enough to carry and some were so big it took a truck to transport them.  

That evening, just at dusk, Nee and I took the motorcycle to the lake.   I took some really great photos (you'll have to take my word for it because I accidentally erased them.  There were hundreds of small stands selling krathongs for 10-30 baht (less than a dollar).  We bought one, lit the candle and launched it.  Then we grabbed a chair for the beauty contest.  Forty contestants were paraded onto the stage and a winner was named.  There were political speeches and awards were given for best krathong.  There was a fireworks display.  All in all, a great evening.  

The room becomes more and more comfortable.  I bought an armchair with a stool, an electric hot water maker, a toaster oven and some eating and cooking utensils.  Nee is able to cook really good food using these basic tools.  So, when we don't feel like going out, we don't starve.  

I bought a laptop computer.  A Dell Latitude Laptop (P3/500 128mb ram) and arranged for a line from my room.  I've tried a couple of service providers.  Their rates are reasonable at $5 to $10 for 30 hours.  Then I found out that I could get free service via the Rajabhat.  Great news!  It is a local call (8 cents) not a 1222 call at 25 cents.  And, it is usually a faster connection.  When I'm at work, I can connect directly to the LAN.  The speeds are okay sometimes reaching 145 kbps.  I "upgraded" to Windows XP mainly for the way it handles digital photos.  Unfortunately, during the "learning curve", I managed to loose some photos of the Loi Krathong festival.  I've had some excitement with the cd-rom player, but the shop, Khon Kaen  Notebooks has been really good about supporting their warranty.  

Last Saturday night, Nee and I were invited to Bill's wedding reception.  Bill, a fellow teacher at RIUT (Rajabhat Institute Udon Thani), married Na.  About 250 people gathered at a local hotel to celebrate.  We had food and entertainment.  They cut the cake and toasts were made.  A very pleasant evening.

Yesterday, Nee and I went to Tak An Tho on the motor bike.  Duan, Nee's partner in Ko Samui is back home for a few months to help with the rice harvest at the family farm.  The weather in Ko Samui is rough now and not many tourists are around.  All three of us got on my tiny motorbike and went about 30 kilometers to Duan's family farm.   After an exciting, slow-speed spill in the loose sand we arrived at the family work shelter.  The family has a house in the village and another more basic shelter on their farmland.  They farm about 40 acres of sugarcane, 10 acres of rice, papaya, and they have a small truck garden.  We had lunch with the family and then I helped harvest rice (for about 5 minutes).  Using a small hand sickle, I grabbed a bundle of rice stems, cut them and placed them in the pile with the other stems.  This kind of work is very hard.  The sun beats down and it is necessary to bend from the waist.  During the harvest season the members of the family will spend 10-12 hours, 7 days a week getting the rice in.  It only takes a few minutes for me to realize how easy my life is.

Next week is the King's birthday.  As government employee, I get the day off.  I'll rearrange my classes to create a long weekend (5 days) and return to work after Constitution Day.  I think we'll take a tour by motorbike around the Isan Region (Northeastern Thailand).  

I Love Phu Kadeung So Much

The first night of our tour we stayed at Tim Guest House in a small river town named Sri Chaing Mai.  It's right across the Mekong from Vientiane.  The room was a bargain and breakfast included a French baguette.  The next morning we headed west along the Mekong.  In search of a waterfall, we ended up at a small wat in the mountains.  Then we found the waterfall and took a stroll.

That night we stayed at a resort at Kaeng Khut Khu.  I got up a dawn to take a few pix.  We headed for Loei.  Not a tourist destination.  The next day we set off for Phu Kadeung, a mountain in a national park and a favorite destination for students.  The climb was torturous.  With an altitude gain of 1250m in 4km the grade is 25%.  Puff, puff.  The Lonely Planet says it's an easy walk with stairways on the really steep parts.  Hah!  My old legs were singing by the time we reached the top.  Surprise, the accommodations were still another 3km away.  Nee and I limped down the road until we arrived at the campsite.   Because of the school holiday we were accompanied by about 20,000 other campers, mostly students.  

Our accomodation at 200B per night reminded me of a chicken coop.  Every time I went in, I made appropriate chicken sounds.  We had to spend another 80B to rent bedding but we slept warmly and soundly (except for a brief session of leg cramps).  The next morning we began the trip down.  Down was at least as hard as up.  By the end my big toe was purple from hitting the front of my shoe.  Ouch, ouch.  After a long ride we arrived back at the Mono Mansion in Udon.  Nee said, "I love Phu Kadeung".  Could there have been a touch of irony in her voice?

A few days later we decided to go house hunting.  Clem knew of a rental in his neighborhood for 5,500B per month.  We looked at it, but felt it was too large.  The next day Clem suggested that we move into the spare room in his house and split the expenses.  This would save about 3,000B per month and Clem is a diplomaed chef.  He taught German/Swiss style cooking in hotels around the world.  So, we moved our growing pile of possessions in Bill's pickup and set up in the spare room.  There is even a bath tub and a microwave and a washing machine.  

The farang teachers planned a Christmas Eve party at Clem's place and everyone chipped in some food.  We had roast turkey, stuffing, ham, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, etc.  After dinner there was a surprise;  a birthday cake for me and for Na (Bill's new Thai wife).  My birthday is on the 24th hers was on Christmas day.  I tried to call my Dad in hopes of catching Heather who was visiting.  Cursed answering machine.  

I have become re-addicted to Civilization.  This version, Civ III, is not as much fun as Civ II but it will do until my old friend Phil can send me a copy of Civ II.  Everyone thinks I'm crazy.  They are right.  A game can take up to 100 hours.

I took a break from Civ to take a trip with several friends to Chaing Mai.  We shared the cost of a rental van with driver and after a thrilling 12 hour trip arrived at our hotel.  Because of the holiday, rooms were scarce.  Part of the group stayed at a guest house and some of us stayed at The Best motel in Chaing Mai.  Normally the rooms are rented by the hour and the only English channel on the TV had very simple dialogue like, "Oh yesss. Oh, Oh, Oh, yes, yes".  But the water was hot and the bed good.  

Our first stop was Burger King.  A good American style whopper with cheese was hastily consumed by all the farangs.  Our Thai friends couldn't figure out why we were so excited.  We drank a few Leo beers while watching a Thai dance show and called it an evening.  

The next day we visited a hot springs where we soaked and cooked soft boiled eggs and strolled through the gardens.  On the way back to Chaing Mai we stopped at an umbrella factory.

On the 30th, we headed for Mae Sai, a town on the border with Burma.  We had planed to spend the day in Burma but when we arrived we were advised to skip it.  On the way to Mae Sai we stopped at the King's Mother's Palace (along with 20,000 other tourists).  There was a monumental traffic jam which was so bad we got out and walked the last 2km to the top.  We also visited the Golden Triangle, a place where you can see Burma, Laos, and Thailand at the same time.  

On New Year's Eve, we went to Phae Tae gate in Chaing Mai.  We joined a crowd of about 50,000 people (30% farang) for a big party with fireworks and music.  At midnight 10,000 baloons were launched into the sky as the fireworks were shot off right over our heads.  Quite a party.  Happy 2546!

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