Travels so far.

Here's a map of our route so far, click on it to show more detail. click between satellite and map and back again if it is showing up blank

Tour of Chaiyaphum

So we’ve been in Chaiyaphum for almost a month now, but it feels like we’ve been here for a week, and its strange to think were already ¼ of the way through our placement. We are really getting to know the town and have our “go-to” restaurant, “Mama’s” which has been catering to the farangs for many years. The weather has been cool, in the mid 50’s at night and around 75 during the day with a surprisingly new England fall-like breeze. Last Tuesday we had a significant amount of rain that left about 10 inches of rain in the streets. This obviously made for a fun ride to school in the morning, trying to dodge the spray from trucks, and hoping that we would not get caught at a red light. Yesterday we went for a walk around Chaiyaphum center and tried to snap some photos to get a feel for what we are seeing. The album is in the photo gallery to the right, and here are a few pictures from it. It’s weird to think we will be missing Thanksgiving; but we are working on finding some turkey, and well be celebrating it 12 hours before you do.

Our School, Muangpayalae

Phi Mai Race

Video from the race

Phi Mai

We got back from Phi Mai last night, and it was well worth the journey. We went with promises of a long tail boat race, and a laser light show. We took a 2½ hour bus ride to Korat were we stayed on Friday night. We stayed at the “Tokyo Mansion” which was far from what the name implies, but the A/C worked and the beds weren’t too hard. Korat is a fun city, and it is claimed to be the second largest city in Thailand. After an entertaining night meeting up with friends from the Phuket, we hopped on a bus Saturday morning to Phi Mai, and arrived around noon. We found our living arrangements to be one room with 12 tatami mats that needed to sleep 16 people, but it was cheap and we didn’t care. We set down our bags and headed to the river where the boat races were taking place. We were surprised to see a large stadium-esque lake with three racing lanes, and large boats with over 40 people in them barreling towards us at the finish line. We sat on the dock area and shook the racers hands after their races congratulating them for their victories. After a day filled with some exciting races and even a few rounds of bumper cars we found ourselves enjoying a cheap dinner and making our way to the “laser light show” which turned out to be inside one of the oldest temples in Thailand and did not include one laser. Instead it was a massive display of Thai history through interpretive dance and fireworks. We went out with our crew of 23 pharangs after the show and shared stories from our first two weeks of teaching. We finished the night off by piling 16 people into the small room that reminded me of camping. Woke up the next day and made our way back to Chaiyaphum in a stifling local bus

Bangkok Pictures

Pictures from Bangkok are now up on the link on the right.
They include pictures from a canal boat trip and a few from the Temple, Grand Palace and Kaoh San Road

loy krathong

Last night we went to the celebration of the water festival, or "Loy Krathong" it’s a huge festival that pays respect, and apologizes to the water for polluting it by sending out small boats with candles made of Styrofoam that literally pollute the water, it’s a little ironic. There was a large fireworks show, which ended with a concert and the lighting of hundreds of balloons made of rice paper. There are many different concerts and most Thai people take the event very seriously, others use it as an excuse to get very drunk.

First Day at school

Our first day is done, and with much surprise it went very well, we showed up at the school at 7am to greet our students at the gate, who mostly gave us no response. We waited at the morning assembly and watched the Thai flag rise and the anthem played. We then took a leisurely walk with our head of English department “Pi-Chu” to our teacher’s lounge where she handed us our schedule. I looked at my schedule and was surprised to see that I had a class in one minute. I stumbled into the class with the expectation that my students would barley know vocab, as we were told. However these students were perfectly capable of forming sentences. I quickly restructured my lesson plan, and got back on my feet with some basic, “what’s your favorite sport?” questions.
I have heard it before, and I will see it all semester that Thai children are very competitive. Give them a dialogue, and they may not pay attention, however give them a dialogue and throw a game of tic-tac-toe into it and you will have every kid begging to be called on.

In Chaiyaphum!

We have arrived in Chaiyaphum (Chai-Ah-Pum) and it is quite a change from Bangkok and Phuket. Basically NO-ONE here speaks English besides hello. Even so, the people here try to be really helpful, and everyone from the lady at the drink store to the tuk tuk drivers want to get a bartered English lesson in exchange for drinks/food/rides. Within the first hour we were here, we had signed a lease, rented a moped and been given a tour of the local hotspots, the night market, the Korean barbeque, and Tesco Lotus. (Think Wal-mart plus 3 stories) All with the help of one of our fellow teacher from the Philippines named Joan. Walking through town we may as well have a sign on our head. If people aren’t staring or calling us pharangs (which means foreigner in Thai), he children are tugging on their parents and pointing at my white legs and blonde hair. We’ve been asked to be in many pictures, and even offered free food and drinks from local restaurant owners.
Chaiyaphum is not the small town that everyone makes it out to be, I would estimate it to have nearly 50,000 people, there is a great sense of community, especially at the night market, where you can feed yourself anything you want for around 20 baht, and get anything from a watch to a fake polo shirt for around 100 baht. The town even has
a driving range.

The Contryside just east of our apartment.

Our school is about 3 miles from our apartment, so the motorbike is a must. And its great for visiting all of the natural parks and waterfalls that are nearby. As well as ride out into the rice paddies, which feels strangely like New England. The climate here is also nearing the winter months, which during the day its still in the 90’s but at night its much cooler, and should get down to around 50 by the end of December.
There are 3 high schools in Chaiyaphum our school, Muangpayalae being on the smaller end with 1500 students. It includes an Olympic sized swimming pool with a three-story stadium, (something you don’t usually see in an American school), plywood doors on the classrooms, holes in the wall, and birds constantly flying through.

Our apartment is also very nice and spacious. It has a living room, a bedroom and a back balcony and the view looks out towards a pond and some palm trees. It’s a brand new building, and the landlord is incredibly nice and hospitable.