Sunday, June 29, 2014

Whatup Future Weg. Still not dead, in fact, I'm officially old now.

So, what have I been up to? Not really that much unfortunately. It seems every weekend there's something going on in terms of get togethers, which are amazing, drunk, fun, but not usually all that noteworthy. Although one did have Mexican food with Chinese karaoke - two things that definitely go together. Man, can't remember the last time I had an enchilada that good. And it seems a lot of my free time actually, has been spent around food. I've really taken to cooking quite a bit here, and have made a few amazing curries this month. I'm continuously trying to get the taste to be as good as possible while having the cost as low as possible, and I think the key to all of that is coconut milk. It's cheap here, and makes things taste magical. So, future Weg, remember about coconut milk. It's awesome.

At school we had something called Wai Kru day, which is some sort of big ceremony where the kids present their teachers some sort of gift. It's cute, but I felt that I didn't deserve any sort of gift considering the short amount of time I had been there. And I didn't receive much except some flowers, which was sweet. Some teachers got some pretty amazing flower arrangements though. Check out the photos - mind blowing stuff the kids worked really hard on. Also there was a fat, cross dressing mermaid. I don't understand this country.

Which actually, let me talk for a little bit about school. Thais really don't take it seriously. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but just about every week I have classes cancelled at the last minute because of some sort of nonsense thing. To make flower arrangements was one. To organize a school World Cup. To see a play. To see a concert. To make a banner to appear on the news. These are just some of the reasons, and while it is refreshing to get away from the ultra-regimented school system of East Asia, their priorities are all messed up. Education seems to be an after thought here that nobody really cares about past superficially. As long as the white person is in the room, they're happy. Doesn't matter what he/she teaches - in fact, nobody has ever checked up on me since I started. I'm flattered they trust me that much, but honestly I could be going into every class and taking a nap and I don't think anyone would know. But i'll tell you what is serious - pens behind your ear. As I learned one day, because it's a super convenient place to keep a pen. Unfortunately, it's so unprofessional and a big deal the director of the high school needs to get involved. Oh, and something was thrown away in a teacher's private waste bin instead of the public one, which triggered an intense investigation.

Like, seriously? I swear, this can be a nation of children sometimes.

Your priorities are all messed up Thailand. These are the things you should not care about. What is being taught to your kids is something you should care about. Anyway, enough of this silly country.







Last night was my 30th birthday party, which was a small but very memorable get together. We had some drinks at a dive, then moved onto another bar to see the football game, then to a club to boogie the night away. Also, there was ice cream cake, so, awesome? Actually yeah it was awesome.

Now on hangover Sunday, I can sit around and contemplate my 3 decades on Earth. Which, I don't want to dwell on too much. I think it's safe to say when I was 20, living on Kalmia Avenue back in Lexington, I wouldn't have imagined my life would be like this. If you asked 20 year old me where 30 year old me would be, he would say that I'd be living in Lexington doing some sort of IT thing. And if you asked 10 year old me, back in Taylor Mill during 4th grade, he'd say I would be an astronaut pilot doctor working at Nintendo. It's an interesting trade off that I've made, living overseas. With each passing year, I'm starting to feel more about news stories from back home are in the "well, that's not my problem" part of my brain. The line between home in America and home in Taiwan, for example, is becoming more and more blurred by the day. Which unfortunately, that also means losing touch with friends. Of course I've made a lot of friends over the past 3 years, more so than I would have in America I'm sure. But given the time difference, there's a small window of opportunity you have to talk during the day. Often times you miss it, just due to life. And each time you do, it becomes easier to miss it again. I'm not throwing a pity party for myself, honestly everything is great here. I think I've mentioned it before, but Dan recommended a movie to me a while ago called A Map for Saturday. It's basically about this guy who's travelling for a year, and how every day feels like Saturday. But the thing I took away from the movie, is that he said when you're travelling, you get really good at saying goodbye. Which is depressing, but the thing he doesn't say is that you also get really good at saying hello. And while every day my life is fresh and exciting, sometimes it's nice to not have to do either.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?

I've heard from a lot of people lately in regards to the coup, and the whole military junta thing. So, just to be clear, it is not a problem.

Seriously. It is not a problem. The media, especially western media, is making it out to be bad news. The sentiment is the opposite here. The opinion is more that this is a good thing, and is long overdue. Or at the very least, "So what, it doesn't change anything". And even the most skeptical are right. My day-to-day is exactly the same, everyone else's, and every tourists' is exactly the same. Nobody is killing each other in the streets, it has not become a dictatorship, and the police are just as useless as always. The situation does not factor into anyone's plans, nor should it yours.

Right, now with that out of the way, things are more in full swing at work. I'm starting to settle into my regular life now, and after an annoying immigration process I am now a Thai resident... almost. I still have to get my work permit to become a permanent resident. Actually, the process was a bit funny. 4 of us needed visas, and they decided "Hey, it would be good if we sent two Chinese teachers that don't speak English to help the foreigners." So, the process was, the the immigration workers speak in Thai, the teachers translate it to Chinese for me, I translate it into English for the others. Because that is definitely the most efficient way to do things. We had a massive amount of paperwork as well. The first 2 guys went through no problem. Then the guy before me was okay as well. They finally get to me and realize we only have "copies" of our employment contract, and not the originals. Oh my buddha, the world is ending! So after stamping 3 passports, they decide to not stamp mine. After some pleading they agreed to process it and if we showed them the original contract they would give me my passport. So, the Chinese teacher went back the next day to do that. Completely absurd. I gave her some chocolates as thanks.

Now, as exciting as dealing with Thai immigration is (Yessssss!), I had another adventure, this time to Kanchanaburi. Known mostly for the expensive Tiger Temple, where you can snuggle up to drugged and possibly mistreated tigers. I already got my obligatory tiger experience at Nong Nooch, so I'm good. Instead Kinaree and I headed further to Nam Tok. Nam Tok is the site of the infamous "Death Railway", where the Japanese worked a lot of POWs to death in WWII to build a railway to Myanmar. Mostly Australians, Dutch, and British, but some other nationalities as well, including 5 Americans. It was a bit interesting to me that all of the people that died are still buried at Kanchanaburi in a massive cemetary, except for the 5 Americans - the families chose to have them sent back to the US.


Anyway, we did a package tour through Thai Rail. It started at 6am, and stopped at Nakhon Pathom, to see Wat Phra Pathom Chedi. These words likely mean nothing to you, and they mean nothing to me. I am tired of Wats. I don't care about Wats. This was a Wat. It had a buddha, who I am increasingly becoming sick of. The only reason I am mentioning it is because of hilarious muscular Thai guy. He stands in front of the wat all day and lifts up the traffic gates behind him for exercise. Kinaree showed me a Thai website with lots of pics of this guy, so apparently he's there a lot. He was super friendly, and I thought that was hilarious. Hey, gotta get the tourists in somehow. Ladies?
Alright, next was the Death Bridge itself, where you could get out and walk around for a bit. Certainly exciting, right! Eh, it was a bridge. Neat enough, but nothing revolutionary. After a short look around it was back on the train to cross, and then on to the very end of the line, Nam Tok. Nam Tok has a waterfall, Sai Yok. It was an alright waterfall I suppose, I was more interested in the old locomotive at seeing the train tracks end. It's unfortunate that Thailand doesn't continue the railway into Myanmar like it used to. Kinaree and I went to see the water source at this cave to kill time, only to find out it was closed. Argh. So, 2 hours wasted, back on the train to our hotel.

The hotel was actually pretty cool. It was a "resort" floating on the Kwai River. I use "resort" in quotes, because I don't know the criterion for when a hotel becomes a resort. I do know one of these criteria is that there are temperature controlled showers, which this place definitely did not have. And I'm okay with that, but it doesn't sound very resorty. Mostly there wasn't too much to do there except eat at the numerous buffets (woo!) and dip your feet in the river. The current was quite fast, and any swimming involved being pushed downriver, swimming to the shore, walking back up, and jumping in again. At night there was a firework and light show. The light show was accompanied by narration (in Thai) from the railroad tracks visible across the river. It was pretty cool, with sound effects, various different lights and whatnot telling the story of the railroad. And then all of a sudden, Star Wars music.


In what I am sure is completely licensed and approved by 20th Century Fox, "Here They Come" from Episode 4 accompanied the narration for the liberation of the railroad. And then after this victory, somber reflection of the terrible things that happened here. Quick, cue more Star Wars music!


After that hilarious exchange, we went to see the fire show, which wasn't much of a fire show. It was more like "Lets stand around the campfire and play silly movement games." They were designed to trip you up, and if you failed you had to stand in front of everyone so they could laugh at you. I was determined to win because it would otherwise bring shame and dishonor to my country.

The next day was a pretty lazy one. We went back across the river to check out some cave. There was a buddah in it. SHOCK! We also walked on the railway tracks, which was pretty cool. After that and a big lunch, it was back on the train to Kanchanaburi. We hopped off to see the museum, which was a bit small but overall interesting. But it was mostly a lot of plaques telling the history, and not much actual historical things, so I didn't find anything really picture worthy. At last, we took a minibus back to Bangkok to end a very lazy weekend. And there's not too many more places I haven't been in Thailand! Perhaps the next one will be to Hua Hin, a beach resort town that the royal family likes to visit.