Getting My Feet Wet

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I am pretty sure that I have done more in the past three days than I have done this entire year! I almost don’t know where to begin.

So I’ll start from when my plane landed in Bangkok. Someone from home was nice enough to mention that they had a relative living in Bangkok, and after talking to her, she offered to pick me up from the airport (at around 11 at night, no less!) and let me stay at her house. We got back to house, which was a very nice and comfy place tucked into a quieter corner of Bangkok (if there even exists such a place) and she even had some pizza waiting for me.

The next day, she took me out to buy my train ticket for the next day, and we stopped by Wat Pho (pronounced without the ‘h’). With the help of my Thai host, I managed to sneak in without paying. To my credit, I didn’t really realize that I had to pay though. This is the time to mention that I don’t exactly know how to upload my pictures to this computer, so the images provided will be found via google image search, just to help illustrate my little tourist adventures. The temples (wats) in Thailand are unlike anything I’ve seen before, so beautiful and painstakingly crafted. I got to watch painters renovate tiny intricate little details that cover the entire temple. What looked painful though, was when one painter was doing his job, as he was sitting, his feet were tucked underneath him the whole time! It’s considered incredibly rude if you have your feet pointing toward Buddha. I don’t think that I’d be able to put up with sitting like that for a long time, but you do what you gotta do, I guess.

Wat Pho is home to a very large Reclining Buddha. Very, very large.

Hopefully I’ll have pictures with me next to the Buddha just to illustrate how huge this guy was.
Anyway, the buildings around it, as per usual, were intricate and beautiful and gold leafed and encrusted in mirrors.

After meandering through Wat Pho, we headed to Th Khao San, which is a famous tourist street in Bangkok. Khao San is probably also the only place I’ve been in Thailand where white people were the majority. The whole road was kind of cheesy, but I’m sure it’s one of those things that I had to done, just to say that I’ve been there.

The next day my host’s daughter was back from spending the year as a foreign exchange student in Springfield, and we three headed to see Wat Phra Kaew, home of the famous Emerald Buddha), and the Grand Palace.

Two things about the Emerald Buddha: 1) He’s not very big. According to wikipedia, he’s 45 cm tall. 2) He’s not even emerald. He’s jadeite.
It’s still pretty impressive though.

And the things in the surrounding temples are no less impressive! There was a miniature Angkor Wat (which I hope to visit the real one at some point this summer), weapons museums by the Grand Palace, the ashes of Kings Rama I-IV (the king might deserve a whole separate post at one point), and different Chinese- and Thai-style statues. I even sat and watched the changing of the guards outside the palace.

Even though it was really only one place, that was about all of the touristing I could do for the day. The heat in Thailand can wear you down like nobody’s business. We went back to the house and I showered and got packed and ready for my train, leaving that night from Hua Lamphong station. My train was an overnight train, leaving at 8 and arriving in Nong Khai at around 8:30 the next morning. My hose thought it was best if we left at six, just to give us time if any delays should happen.

And, believe it or not, delays did happen. Our taxi driver was kind enough to tell us that there were protests in front of the railway station, causing a traffic jam. We went as far as we could, and then we had to take the Skytrain, an elevate train that looks and functions like a subway but rises high above the streets of Bangkok (like the name would suggest — note sarcasm). So we run up all of these stairs and go through gates, all with my stuffed-to-the-brim backpack and suitcase in tow. Little bit cumbersome. After getting off of our stop on the Skytrain, we then have to take the subway to Hua Lamphong, also a cumbersome process. I made it though, with time to spare.

I had a comfy, second class sleeper with air conditioning, and because of my busy day, I went to sleep earlier than I had in probably 4 or 5 years, by at least 10. I woke up around 6, ate an overpriced breakfast, and made it into Nong Khai by around 8:30 or 9.

Kirk, the guy who runs Isara, was nice enough to pick me up from the train station. He managed to fit my suitcase and myself on his motorcycle, and we went back to Isara’s house and learning center, in the middle of Nong Khai. I’ll have to take pictures, but to vouch for this place, it’s by far the nicest place I’ve volunteered at. I’m totally used to the spartan accommodations of mission trips, but here, I have my own room, a real mattress, a desk, a couch, an armoir, and a fan (very important).

I got to go to a local college today and sit in on a talk (in Thai) that Kirk gave about helmet safety. Apparently four girls from the school had recently died after fitting four people on a bike in the rainstorm. I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but one of the teachers of the school kept coming up to me and telling me about her recent trip to Canada. Because I am white, people have also been telling me that I am very beautiful. It’s a little awkward, but apparently it’s part of the culture.

We drove past the Immigrant Detention Center, but I couldn’t see much. Just that the space the Hmong refugees have is incredible small for 158 people, and windowless. Hopefully I’ll get to go by tomorrow.

After that, I spent the afternoon and early evening helping with and observing the English classes. There are three classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, split into 5 and 6 year olds, 7-12 year olds, and then everyone else. The ‘everyone else’ spent their class time practicing speaking by asking me questions. Helping with teaching was pretty fun, but exhausting. I’m going to help get the new classroom ready this weekend so we’ll be able to teach classes there on Monday. After that, I spent the evening taking a mini-bike ride around Nong Khai to get some food with Ming, who’s from Nong Khai, lives at Isara, and teaches some of the English classes. I got phat thai, again, from a little restaurant that I might’ve passed by otherwise. There were some large, crunchy bits in the pad thai, and Ming told me that it was fried pig skin! I ate it happily though. Food here is goood and cheap. My pad thai cost me under a dollar.

All of this, and only my first day in Nong Khai! I’m pretty tired, but I’ll try to keep you updated on the decorating the classroom, teaching, refugee work, and so on.

Until later- Sawatdee Kha!

Isara
Petition for Hmong Refugees

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