Humble Abode

It has been a while, hasn't it.  Over two weeks to be exact, and yes I am to blame.  Jessica has tried to get me to update the blog, but to no avail.  Finally though, I bring you our new house in Sam Pran, Thailand.  The house isn't the end all be all, but it is such a comfort after being in a single room for over a month at the hotel, Sam Pran Mansion.

We have air conditioning in our bedroom, and the house cools off quickly in the evening after the windows are opened.  Ants and mosquitoes can be a problem, but by keeping the food put away and the screens closed around dusk there really isn't that much to deal with.  They have this fun to use zapper device here.  It looks like a tennis racket, but instead of strings it has electrified wire.  It can't be that safe, and I've heard it really hurts if you touch it.  However it is extremely good at killing bugs and it gives you a satisfying zap sound when you get them.

Here is our place, starting with our main room:

Our bedroom:

Our guest room/storage room:

Our flushable toilet bathroom:

Our warm shower/non-flushable toilet bathroom:

Our kitchen:

(The sink is off to the left)

The motorbike that comes with the house, all 125cc of it:

Here is a picture of the entrance to the house:

Our backyard, which has a canal, a banana tree, and a small orchard with Chicken's across the way:

The road down to our house:

I hopped you like the tour.  I will work on updating the blog regularly, but I am not promising anything.

The Bangkok Zoo, and Animals in Thailand

So two weekends ago, before we moved into our new house, we spent a weekend in Bangkok, and ended up at the Bangkok zoo (basically we got tired of so much traffic and noise, so we took out our map, looked for the largest green area and pointed at it for the next taxi driver). The Bangkok zoo is in the Dusit area of Bangkok, near the king's house. We were not suitably attired for a visit to the king, so we decided to visit the zoo instead. The first animal to greet us when we arrived was the giraffe.

It was living with a few zebras. Bangkok, even in the cool season, rarely gets below 80 degrees. And although it was afternoon, the temperature was probably hovering around 90. So although we were feeling a bit warm, the animals seemed perfectly comfortable. I've always felt sorry for the animals at the SF zoo, because most of them are so far from their natural habitats.


They had a whole island devoted to birds. Some of the colors are just incredible! A few of the larger more exotic birds were in cages, but many were just walking around the island. It was nice to see animals who were in a zoo but still had a little bit of freedom.






Speaking of birds with freedom, this white bird was outside the zoo. Evan took this shot. I think it's an egret? Mom?
Here are some of the other animals at the zoo. It's not as large as the San Francisco zoo, and it's a longer walk between animal enclosures, with arguably more places to buy food in between (but it's a tough call). Still, they have some amazing animals. Some seem cooped up, but a lot of the enclosures are fairly generous in size.






This monitor lizard (? not sure) was one of many walking around wild around the zoo. I guess they must be indigenous and not very dangerous. They like water and seem to move pretty slowly, but were not interested in being close to humans.

Also, here in Thailand they have a few flavors of potato chips we don't have back home. We didn't try the double cheese pork burger flavor, but Evan tried the spareribs one and said it wasn't half bad. I think it's amusing it has the Statue of Liberty on the front. I mean, I guess that's what we are, a nation of ribs eaters.



And here are a couple of non zoo random pictures: iced drinks on the street at night, and a kitten who lives at the school. Evan says I'm not allowed to take it home, but we'll see.


That's it for now, expect a post from Evan about the new house soon!

Loy Krathong, More Nakprasith and Sam Phran, Plus Various Food Musings

Okay, okay. I know.

It's been two weeks, and you are foaming at the mouth, champing at the bit, straining the traces, desperate for news from Thailand, and more importantly, from us. Sorry, we've been a bit busy, what with life and all.

Okay, so we will start with about a week and a half ago. In Thailand once a year they have a festival called Loy Krathong. Everyone makes or buys a 'krathong' (basically a little platform made from banana leaves and stalks, with flowers and a candle on top), lights it, and then floats it down the river. Before you float your krathong, you are supposed to apologize to the spirit of the river for all the damage humans do to it. I think, anyway, I'm not completely sure I understood correctly.

Here is a picture of Evan with our krathong, and a close up of the krathong:



It was beautiful to see them floating down the river lit like fireflies. There are also krathongs built like small hot air balloons of paper, which are lit and then rise until you can't see them any more. Apparently, sometimes these krathongs fall down and light people's houses on fire. But they are very beautiful to watch ascend.

We went to Loy Krathong with Jeremy and two of the Thai teachers who teach with us at Nakprasith, as well. We bought krathongs, floated them, apologized to the river and made our wishes, then ate some noodles and ambled home. It was a nice evening.

Okay. Now on to what I think you all have been most curious about: the school. And what it is, exactly, that we do there. As I said before, the school is called Nakprasith. It has about 5000 students, from kindergarten until the equivalent of the end of high school. Evan and I both teach 25 hours a week in one hour blocks, and Evan teaches from first to sixth grade, while I also teach some of the high school classes. The kids are very well behaved for the most part, and super cute especially at the younger ages. I don't have any pictures of them yet, but I will post some later. Here is a picture of Evan in his uniform; we have to wear these blue polo shirts every day with black pants.

The kids don't know much English, but they are willing to try for the most part to learn. All in all, the job is going pretty well. Here is a picture of the front of the classrooms we use:


All right, now on to the food musings. It continues to be difficult to find good vegetarian food, although the one restaurant we've found still makes very good food for me. Most other places though, seem bemused at the idea, and aren't really sure of the definition, evinced by serving me meat or fish multiple times. Today we move to our new house, which has a kitchen! We'll let you know how it goes.

Visa Run to Laos

Well it has been nearly 28 days since we arrived in Thailand, which means it was time that we renew our visa. We had a couple of options, the first was to make a quick run to the Cambodian border and walk across and back in. A quick run means a four hour van ride each way, and this option would allow us to receive another 30 day Visa. Thailand immigration law states that you may only receive three 30 day visa's in each six month period. The second option would be to go to Laos, which is quite a bit farther away. Laos is almost nine hours each way by van, including stopping for quick breaks. The benefit of going to Laos is that we would be able to receive a 60 day visa with an option of extending it another 30 days without having to leave the country. Jessica and I decided to go to Laos as it made much more sense to get an extended length visa to save on the hassle of traveling back and forth out of the country. We ended up going with http://thaivisaservice.com/ for the visa run. They weren't all that great, but they did get the job done. The worst part was that they spoke no English once you left the meeting point in Bangkok, which became very frustrating why trying to figure out what was going on.

We left at 9:45p and arrived just before 6:30am. There were probably 5 break stops, nearly all of which were really annoying as they kept waking us up from sleeping. We then walked across the border and out of Thailand. Next a bus took us across the Friendship Bridge and we purchased a 30 day visa for Laos. For the next step we were drive to the Thai Consulate in the city of Vientiane. There we waited in line to turn in our passports and visa application form. In line we discovered that we could apply for two 60 days visa's at the same time, which we ended up doing. Next we had to wait in a very small room with nearly a hundred people in it. Their was one lady calling up people to pay for their visa's, and she was calling up people by sticking up their very small passport pictures in a glass window. After that ordeal was finished the visa service company took us to a hotel that ended up being very nice. From the lack of sleep the night before we took a quick nap and then off to do some exploring. For dinner there was a buffet which was also very good.

The next morning Jessica and I walked through the central market area of the city and then meet back at the hotel for transport back to the border. Keep in mind at this point that we still do not have our passports back as they were collected by the Thai Consulate. Our service went back to the Thai consulate and picked up the passports and brought them to us at the border. After more waiting we finally made our way out of Laos, followed by more waiting on the Thai side of the border until our passports were processed. All told we left the hotel at 12pm and got back on the vans at 3:55pm. After that it was another long trip back to Bangkok, and we arrived just before 1am. Another thing to mention is that the drivers of these van had to be driving nearly 100mph at times going in and out of traffic. It was absolutely nuts at times.

Here are some pictures we took during our trip:

A smoke filled field in Vientiane, Laos.


Hand prints on a wall:


Homemade intruder discouragement at the top of a wall:


Alleyway where we found the wall:


Building construction:




Random Picture:




The money is called the Kip. This 9000Kip bill is worth about 30cents.
Front:


Back:

Food

Food in Thailand is generally delicious. When we were staying in Bangkok and looking for jobs, the food near Kao Sarn road was plentiful, cheap, and varied, with menus in English and enough vegetarian options for me. We ate Tom Yum, Phad Thai and green and red tofu curry almost every night, with delicious Thai iced teas to wash it all down.

At this restaurant the rice was shaped like teddy bears when they brought it out.

That's green curry, rice, and a noodle dish. So far, the Thai food here tastes like the Thai food at home. Some of the Thai food at home was even (gasp) better.

And you can't really get roti very often at home, whereas here they're on every street corner. There are several different options with roti: plain, which is like a plain crepe, cut into small squares and drizzled with condensed milk and then sometimes added sugar (the Thai are not afraid of too much sugar); then you can choose banana or egg to go inside, or both if you are feeling decadent. This one is drizzled with chocolate, but I think that's just for the tourists. I haven't seen that option anywhere else.


Here (Sam Phran) the options for vegetarians are more limited, although we have found one place across the street from where we are staying that can make me a couple veggie dishes and some meat for Evan as well. On our first night here we went to an all-you-can-eat restaurant where you fill a plate with raw meat and then cook it over coals at your table. Here's a picture:

In the foreground, the shrimp and other meat stuffs cooking, in the background on the right Jeremy, a fellow new teacher from Napa, of all places! On the left is our new boss, Sam, head teacher at our school. After dinner was over, Jeremy won a pig playing darts.


That's it for now! See you all again soon.

Nakprasith School and Sam Phran Elephant Grounds

So last week Evan and I got jobs at a school called Nakprasith which, in case you're wondering, is situated in Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom, and is about 50 km outside of Bangkok. For those of you still using that tired old system of measurement called the mile, that's very roughly thirty miles. With traffic, it takes about an hour to get in or out of Bangkok, which is perfect for weekend trips, although we're so new here that we haven't taken one yet.

More about the school later, and more about Sam Phran later too, because this post is about the Sam Phran Elephant grounds, and our excursion there last weekend.

The Elephant Ground doesn't have only elephants:



Yes, that man is sticking his hand into a crocodile's mouth. And not only into, through the flap at the back of the mouth, and into what I can only presume is the throat. There were three guys doing this at the crocodile show, and they all seemed fairly comfortable putting their heads and hands into the crocs' mouths (very carefully), but when they weren't doing this, they were pretty wary of getting to close to the biting end.




Not just crocodiles either:






But also, plenty of elephants.












They had an elephant show with mock battles, and simulated soccer games, which were very entertaining to watch, although of course the issue of how they are treated does come up. I think they don't lead great lives, but they don't seem appallingly mistreated. I was still glad to be able to see them up close and touch them a bit.