Cu Chi Tunnels

The Cu Chi tunnels were exactly as I expected. Scary, narrow, long, and dark. At first I thought the whole area was too developed and touristy. As we walked down the tunnel to get into the jungle area the walkway was machine made, wide, and well lit. We did see some openings in the ground where the jungle was in the 70’s but fairly unimpressive until I actually went into a tunnel of about 40 meters. I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get in and then had to wind my way around walls clutching and grabbing to find my way out. How the Viet Kong made this with no equipment and then lived in the tunnels for years on end is truly amazing.

I only went to the first level of about 4 levels which each level getting narrower and more harrowing.. The Viet Cong had been building the tunnels by hand for about 10 years before the American War which went all the way from the 17th parallel around Danang to just outside Saigon. Each tunnel had two exits. One to the American landing zone area and one to the Saigon River. Some of the tunnels were never discovered by the Americans because of the jungle and the camouflage. Looking at some of the booby traps the Viet Cong created and hearing the rifle range a few hundred yards away took my imagination to l972 and the fear the GI’s must have felt in the jungle in the middle of the night.

Today, the Vietnamese tend to hate the French much more than the Americans surprisingly. They feel that the French exploited them when they were here, not letting them have an education and keeping them in low paying jobs. The Americans, on the other hand, who came in 1954 once the French moved out made sure the Vietnamese got an education, gave them jobs and so on, according to our tour guide. Unlike the French, they left the women alone and were good to the South. The north, on the other hand, naturally feels differently because they were bombed daily, with the first bomb being dropped at beautiful Halong Bay which we visited a few days ago.

We also visited the War Remnants Museum, a name to satisfy the American sensitivity. It was organized in a very interesting way. In the first gallery, there were excerpts from world journalists who had been killed but wrote or photographed some horrible scenes. The worst or most disturbing gallery was the one showing the effects of agent orange. There were two embryos in a bottle that were deformed and another picture that stays with me is an American soldier holding up a dismembered head of a Viet Cong. Many people left the gallery crying, which was, of course, the purpose of the exhibit.

Saigon, as Sylvia says, is pulsating. The traffic never stops, the horns are incessant, but surprising we can somehow cross the street. There are no stoplights but for some reason the motorcycles stop for you when you cross the street. We just tend to follow some Vietnamese family and wind our way through the traffic. I imagine traveling on the Mekong river tomorrow should be calmer, but who knows? I will let you know once I try it.

King for a Day

Have you ever been to a cyber casino? With nothing to do last night in the Imperial City of Hue, we went for a walk and passed a 5 start hotel with a casino. What we found inside was quite different to anything I have seen before in a casino. Like all Asian places, there were about five people to serve each one of us and watch for our every nuanced request. I told them I wanted to play blackjack so they led me over to the ‘tables.’ There was actually a dealer, sort of, and she frankly spoke to us quite nicely. I liked the first dealer the best because she had a great smile, but the other dealers were not so bad really. They all spoke sexily, were complimentary and quite efficient. The only different thing about them, really, was their appearance. They appeared on a screen and were cyber dealers. However, they were as good as any dealer I have ever faced in Las Vegas and were as good as Vegas in taking my money (and Josh’s).

Gambling was certainly something I cannot get in Bangkok.A friend’s wife was arrested in her own house for gambling in Thailand. Another difference between Thailand and Vietnam is the clear Chinese and French cultural influences. China ruled over Vietnam for a 1000 years, so until the French came there was Chinese writing or characters. It wasn’t until after the French came that the Roman alphabet was introduced, even though you pronounce words at your own peril because the accents tell you whether to go up, down or sideways and like Thai, it is a tonal language. Every Vietnamese word only has one syllable which makes things somewhat easy. Viet nam, for example, means south of China and Han oi means between the rivers.

In Hue, we saw the tombs of three emperors constructed during the Chinese period and today we saw the imperial city or walled city which reminded me very much of the Forbidden City in Beijing. A lot of it was destroyed in either the French War of the American War and we certainly saw bullet holes and crumbling brick to prove it. However, the ‘city’ itself was quite fascinating with its beautiful Chinese architecture.

Hue is quite an interesting but peaceful city. I think we have seen it all in the last few days. We even went to Ho Chi Minh’s house last night but there was no electricity. Some old man, who said he was Ho’s uncle lit a candle to show us around the meager two or three rooms. He collected rain water in a big barrel from the eves trough, I guess for drinking and bathing.

Hoi An was a quaint little town south of Hue which most people visit for shopping, I guess. It was virtually untouched by the American War and no matter which taxi, cyclo or store you go in to, they all have a cousin or sister or parent who runs the best tailoring shop in Ho An. Josh and I had shirts made with monogrammed cuffs. I don’t care if the shirt falls apart after one wash. I just loved the concept of buying a tailored made shirt with monograms for $15. Josh also had a jacket made which was delivered to us in Hue ( three hours away) that very evening and it fit perfectly.

Yesterday, in Hue, if you look at my pictures, we had pictures done for $1 dressed up as the imperial king andQueen. These pictures were delivered to my hotel a few hours after taking them. Amazing really.

Now I am just sitting in a departure lounge waiting for our flight to Ho Chi MInh city, ( Saigon) and I can’t wait to get back to the heat!

Christmas Eve Hanoi Style

It happened again. It was Christmas Eve and it seemed everyone in Hanoi was out walking around the lake in the centre of town or riding their motorcycles to the main square around the church. There were thousands, if not hundred of thousands, of people milling around in front of the church and the surrounding area. Josh said he had never seen so many people in his life. We were simply being pummeled by the crowds and everyone seemed to want to go into the church where something was going on.

As usual, Sylvia had to go to the bathroom and since we were outside the church and there didn’t seem to be a bathroom for miles around she asked an older gentlemen who understood English whether she could use the bathroom inside the church through this side door. Both of us were ushered into a chapel where there was a toilet behind the alter. When we were in the hall coming out of the church the man asked us if we wanted to see the ‘performance’. We said sure, but our son was outside. He said he could also come but when Josh tried to get in he was blocked by the priests acting as guards because everyone, and I mean everyone, was trying to make their way through. There was one particular older woman who insisted on getting in but was being blocked at the door by the priest and she was howling in anger. Somehow, Josh managed to find his way in and the fun began.

We were taken down a hallway and ushered into the auditorium through a side door in the very front row as honoured guests, sitting in front of the nuns, in front of the parents of the kids performing and in front of a group of priests. It was absolutely unbelievable to see this grandiose performance from the very first row when thousands of people outside were watching on short circuit TV How does this keep happening to us? Thousands wanted to get in and there we were in the best seats in the house.

There were hundreds of little girls dancing, professional singers, a wide screen with excerpts from the Passion of the Lord, Internet excerpts, a mass choir and various dancers. It was truly something very special.

It was certainly quite a change form Halong Bay which was remarkably peaceful, considering how many boats set out at the same time as us. We had a four hour cruise in the morning in our own private boat. Josh asked my why I chartered such a huge boat for ourselves, but in truth, I just bought a package tour that was laid out for us and didn’t even check the itinerary.

The Bay was really spectacular as we meandered our way through the limestone islands and went into a cave. The meal, which was served to us by a white gloved waiter started with shrimps and crab freshly caught and then really got serious with about enough food to feed 10 people.

The only negative was that every other tourist was in some boat or other having the same cruise and it reminded me of our Sunday canoe ride on the Dordogne in France a few years ago where we were restfully floating down the river with about 10,000 of our closest friends.
Today we take a plane to central Vietnam, the northern part of the temperate zone and I can’t wait for the heat. Just bring it on!!!

Instant Millionaire Status

I punched out 2 million dong last night from an ATM in Hanoi and still had money left in my account. I guess I have finally made it to the millionaires club!

I have been looking forward to this Vietnam trip for a long time. I am sure that if it was my first time in Asia I would be blown away by the noise, sounds, smells and incredible number of people but frankly, after living in Bangkok for the past 4 months, it is not such a big deal. However, there are differences between the two countries. As Joshua’s tailor told me a few hours before I left Bangkok, he said Vietnam was the Thailand of 25 years ago and now I see what he meant by that. As we drove through the countryside, I saw open pit coal mining, harvesting of rice by hand with no machines, and not much infrastructure to support tourism. In fact, our guide told me that tourism counts for 5% of the Vietnam GDP but something like 40% of Thailand’s. In Hanoi, the airport was like a small Caribbean island airport as opposed to one that supports a population of 4 million people with 2 million motorcycles. Every one of these motorcycles, by the way, takes it as a point of honour to honk their horns at least once every 5 minutes leading to a cacophony of noise. The whistles Thai doormen use to usher cars on to the street now sounds melodious to me.

I was also surprised that the women do not seem to take as much care as Thai women in how they dress. In fact, a women in an art gallery was wearing pajamas. The prices of goods are cheaper in Vietnam, which I guess is another difference.

There are also some Asian similarities. The respect and veneration for parents especially dead parents. As our guide told us, even though 80% of Vietnamese people are declared atheists, they definitely venerate their parents and on the 1st and 15th of every lunar month pay their respects to their parents by lighting incense in their house and putting food on the alter or shrine of their deceased parents and perhaps grandparents. .One of the reasons it is so important to have a boy child is that it is the boys that set up the alter to their dead parents. If you only have girls you will not be officially remembered since it is the woman’s duty to support her husband in ancestor worship or respect. It is the woman’s brother that would set up a shrine in his house.

The markets are similar, although prices cheaper, but the haggling the same. People are equally friendly, I think, and take great delight when you try to speak their language, which comes from Chinese, I think, so it is a tonal language. However, there is only one syllable in every word so Han oi, for example, is two words. They use a Roman alphabet because of the 80 year influence of France until 1954.

Last night we drove down to Halong Bay which looks like it has wonderful shaped limestone islands which I am looking forward to seeing tomorrow. The weather is very cold for me at 20 degrees, but it should be the last day of the excruciating cold and then we fly south to Danang and China Beach.

Looking forward to the perpetual summer again..it really is not that hard to take!

The Jewish Santa

I bet you think it is easy dressing up as Santa and trying to get crying babies to sit nicely in your lap so that their Japanese mothers can take their obligatory picture. How hard can it be just sitting there and smiling you ask?

Have a look at the pictures of me starting out with the long underwear, putting on multiple layers of clothing and then finally putting on a beard and hat- I am the one who should be crying! Try smiling at the same time as you are constantly adjusting your beard and making sure your hat stays on, all in forty degree heat!

When the management of my apartment asked me when we were going away for the holidays, I told them the 22 of December. Good they said, we will make the Christmas party the 21st so I could be Santa Claus. How hard could that be I thought. In l969 I was the Santa at Bayview Secondary when I started teaching and high school kids sat on my knee and I gave them presents. None of them were Japanese and all of them could speak English. To-day, none of these kids could speak English and for sure they didn’t want to sit on my lap. Just look at the pictures of the crying babies. As you may or may not know, I live in a building and an area that is about 90 percent Japanese.

Being Santa just topped of my day.Unfortunately, I had a meeting with the director of the school earlier in the day and she asked me to be the principal of the Bangna campus since the incumbent had just resigned. It was actually a no win situation for me since what do you say to the boss when you are asked such a question? Actually, I did have an answer and asked it politely”: is there anyone else you had in mind?” Only you she replied. I had no more questions..

I guess the advantages of taking the job are that being a principal is the only job I have not had in teaching so it will round out my career nicely and I am sure I will learn why all principals tell me they would rather be in the classroom. Secondly, it is the principal’s who get the presents at the end of the year for simply sitting in the office and doing their jobs and thirdly have the big retirement parties at the end of their careers. I guess I also like the fact that principals have signing authority to witness a passport application even though there will not be a big run on my signature since we are no longer in Canada. But truthfully, there is some prestige, rightly or wrongly, with being a principal. A small taste at the end of my career hopefully will not be bad.

On the other hand, I will have to spend two hours a day in a cab since the school is at the other end of the world, all of my present friends will no longer be my friends once it sinks in they have to suck up to me since I am the boss and thirdly, like every other principal on this campus in the last few years, I am sure I will end up resigning. I just hope I can feel good about myself at the end of the experience and not make too much of a mess of things left in my wake. I know I am good at certain things like human relations but not so good at timetabling and so on. In fact, I have no interest in those things so I hope someone on staff is interested and would be willing to do it. I guess the first thing I will have to do is figure out how the timetable works and when the periods are.

To-day we are off to Vietnam and will spend the rest of the year there. I will take my computer but who knows if I will get a chance to use it. The tour looks to be pretty heavy.We have organized a private car and tour guide and will be traveling from the north to the south over the next 10 days. Hopefully, I can let you know how we are enjoying it if any of the hotels have Internet.

The tale of the red shirt

If you have been reading this blog, you may remember the night I bought my pink king's shirt and took off the red Roots shirt I was wearing so I could wear the new shirt I just bought. Unfortunately, I left the Root's shirt in the car of my new friends and assumed I would never see it again, like the tale of my black pants.

However, last night I got my red shirt back! Our new friends invited us to supper and returned the red shirt left in their car. Eat's oldest friend, a lawyer and candidate in the upcoming election had rented his house on the Chay Prayo river to a restaurant that is now famous in Bangkok and Josh and Sylvia and I had the privilege of eating there . The lawyer gave us a tour of the house, taking us to his bedroom ( now filled with dinners), showing us where they lit the kratong candles to float in the river at the lo kratong celebrations ( again, filled with diners) and where they used to play...in the kitchen. Not sure the chefs appreciated us waltzing through their kitchen or the diners for that matter.

The food was great and the advantage of going with Thais is that they order for you and everyone shares in the meal. I ate food I would normally not eat or in fact, ever dream of eating. The Thais have a very specific way of preparing to eat their food. For example, the dumpling that we had for appetizers had to be put on a bed of lettuce with spices, then a very specific sauce was liberally sprinkled on top and then eaten in one gulp. What was great, as we were eating the various dishes, was to know which sauce or spice went on which dish. Sylvia and I passed on a few dishes but Josh was very adventurous and ate everything.

The conversation ranged from the election this week-end to Karma and the 10 principles of Buddhism. The politician/lawyer had just gone to a fortune teller who told him he was going to win the election, so I guess I now know a member of parliament. They have a proportional voting system, so if he does win, he will simply be a number in a coalition government. It is very hard for any one party in a proportional voting system to win a majority.

We also had a chance to discuss colours and days of the week. Apparently, every day of the week has a different colour and every Thai person knows what day of the week and time they were born. In fact, the names of the days of the week correspond to the names in the solar system i.e. sun, pra-a-tit, is the name of the sun as well as Sunday when you use a different prefix-wan

The Thais also know what time they were born and with the day of the week and time they can predict their personalities and they did quite a good job describing Josh because we happened to know the time and day of the week when he was born.

To-night, I am playing Santa Claus for a bunch of Japanese kids in my building who probably never heard of Christmas or Santa Claus and tomorrow we are off to Vietnam so the next few days should be quite the adventure.

Bangkok Jungle

It's hard to believe,but a 25 second ride in a long boat across the Chayo Prayo river lands you in a world so far removed from Bangkok you can forget where you are. There is literally a jungle on each side of the narrow road only wide enough for a bicylce or footpath with homes growing out of the foliage.

I had previously read about this area called Bang Ka Jao in one of the guidebooks and I had intended to take this bicylce tour many times but never seemed to get around to it. Yesterday, a number of teachers rented bikes and told me how to get there from the school, and it only seemed to take them 15 minutes , so Josh and I dutifully rented bikes today and off we went. Admittedly, it did take longer than 15 minutes by the time we found the little pier where we literally walked through a hole in the fence to rent the skiff but it was well worth it.

On the one side was the city of Bangkok which I am so familiar with. The soaring towers of Sathorn and grand apartment buildings of Sukhumvit. Literally within seconds we were hoisting our bikes out of the boat and into an area that was filled with trees, lagoons, flowers, houses growing out of the ground it seemed and most importantly tranquility. One of the things I truly do not like about Bangkok is the noise pollution. There is hardly a time I do not hear motorcycle's, cars or buses on the street. This was different. Momentarily we were surrounded by lush greenery and tranquil streams. If you look at the pictures, you will also see great flowers growing on the banks of the lagoon. The roadside stands, on the 'main' street sold fruit and water and the kids were great. About every kilometer there were even narrower roads leading to a few houses on each road with the obligatory sleeping, fleabitten dogs in our path. Come to think of it, I should take a shower before I change clothes for dinner.

Josh has arrived and for the first few hours anyway seems to be having a good time. Last night, we took him to a staff party and he may be reconsidering his academic path. Maybe being a chiropractor was not the place to meet beautiful young women. Perhaps teaching fits that bill. He was also measured for a shirt and pants we pick up tomorrow and had a heydey at Chatachuk market. I would ask him what his other highloights are, but he is out taking a massage at the moment so I can't ask .

The 'Almost' Birthday

When I woke up this morning, Sylvia wished me a happy birthday but for some reason it did not compute. I guess one of the reasons was that it was 6 am and I am not a morning person but the most important reason was that it was sunny and hot outside and it just did not feel like a December morning. It is all so surrealistic. My December 12 birthday is usually cold and clear with the emphasis on cold! How do I get my head around a December 12 that feels like July?

Secondly, I carried on with my normal routine, which is not so normal considering what I have been doing for the past 60 years of my birthdays. I started by going to school and having my usual Thai lesson with my taxi driver for an hour…not my normal December 12 thing at all. Because Thai is a tonal language; it seems like they have about a 100 words but each word can be pronounced in at least 5 different ways so even though you may be saying the words, no-one knows what you are talking about because you are saying the words incorrectly. I spend my mornings listening to the cab driver correcting me and not being able to hear the difference between what he is saying and what I just said! This morning was no different as I repeated words in my book 10 different times trying to get him to understand and failing hopelessly.

At ten, I went to a meeting at another school and, as usual, I was chauffeured in a 10 seater van with just me sitting in one of the back chairs with my TV panel, water and crystal glasses and a driver who does not understand a word of English. Again not my normal birthday thing. I have been a teacher all my working life so being treated like some executive is certainly not my usual thing. The driver waited while I had my meeting and drove me back to school. In Canada, I would be lucky if the driver even remembered I was at a meeting.

I forgot to mention that in the morning, I had I organized a golf demonstration by the Thai long ball champion who was easily hitting the golf ball over the swimming pool which was 325 yards away as measured by a laser. Josh called to wish me a happy birthday as I was picking up golf balls after the demonstration. How does this compute in my brain? Here I am walking in our frankly too hot schoolyard, just after the morning flag raising ceremony and speaking with Josh thousands of miles away in a snow covered country on my cell phone. Even the cell phone blows me away, never mind the weather, the long-ball champion of Thailand, the chauffeur driven van and so on.

After school, Sylvia and I went to play on a night lit golf course with our caddies (which I am used to already) and had a delightful evening playing golf. Why doesn’t this compute to my usual December 12 activities?

A week-end in Hua Hin

We decided to go to Hua Hin for the long week-end because it was the only place we could get a guaranteed hotel reservation on this long week-end. December is great in Thailand with the King’s birthday, Constitution day and so on. They even seem to celebrate Christmas (or the commercial side of it anyway) even though less than one percent of the population is Christian

As you can see from the pictures, the hotel we did stay in in Hua Hin was intimate and cozy. The room was great and opened up to the small pool. The weather couldn’t have been better. I bet it went down to 24 degrees or so but Sylvia still found it way too hot. I imagine it will take her a few days to get used to this heat. I am actually cold when it goes down to the low 20”s

We decided to go golfing because where else can you golf in December ( other than half of the world)? What Sylvia would have to get used to was playing with a caddy and having an intimate group of 8 people watching every shot. The four players and the four caddies. As we made our way around the golf course Sylvia’s caddy, the only man I have ever seen as a caddy, helped her with her posture, positioning, club selection and placement of ball. On the green, he set up the ball with the writing facing the hole and all Sylvia had to do was hit it. ( that was exactly the challenge). It took her about 10 minutes to get used to a caddy and will probably never play without one again. Do they have caddies in Canada?

We went to Sofitel across the street from our small hotel and looked at the car show with older model cars in remarkable shape and went for a walk along the beach. The water was too cold for Sylvia so we did not go in, but apparently the week before there was not even a beach there because of the tides. Actually, I do not like the sand in Hua Hin and even though it is probably the most popular beach resort near Bangkok the sand is so much nicer on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. It probably has lots of very posh all inlcusive resorts with yoga, massage and all the other amenities but the town itself and the beach that I saw were not that great. I did love the little train station though, which looked so much like the train station my parents got me when I was 5 years old!

When we got back to Bangkok, we went to eat at a very nice European style restaurant run by Thais and had what I considered a delicious meal. I think Sylvia is going to start her own blog so it will be interesting to get her perspective on things. I am back at school and will post this now and see what adventures Sylvia gets in to the next little while. Josh is coming Thursday and we will be off to Vietnam. Should be fun!

p.s you may remember a picture I took in Kuala Lampur with Cambodian and Laotian labourers being rounded up as illegal immigrants and being put in a paddy wagon. To continue the story, I was reading the Bangkok Post yesterday and apparently the war on illegal immigration to Malaysia is next to its war on drugs. They collect the labourers or illegal immigrants, whip them and then send them to the border and let them get in trouble with their own governments. Apparently they employ thousands of special soldiers to do this.

It reminds me of California. When they need labourers to pick the grapes in , they open the borders and let the Mexicans sneak across. When the season is over, they round them up and send them home so they don't have to pay for school and medical and so on. Why can't we just allow the free flow of labour where it is needed in the world? Unfortunately, the answer is only too clear!

King's Birthday-December 5

Imagine Times Square New Year’s Eve, Trafalgar Square any Sunday, Red Square at New Year’s and you still won’t be able to imagine Bangkok on the King’s Birthday, unless you put all those people and all those squares together. It was an amazing and awesome site at the same time.

Were you ever in a wave of people just pushing you along with nothing much you could do about it? I was outside the palace at about 3 pm when the King was just arriving for birthday ceremonies and the crowd was rushing to see his Royal Highness (I was more interested in the car frankly, but all I can tell you is that it was big and white!) .

Surprisingly, no-one was killed or trampled and I found a safer spot, I would like to say on higher ground, but there is no higher ground in Bangkok since it is built on a swamp. However, across from the palace there is a huge park with lots of room ( you would think) for wandering about.

Now fast forward to the literally millions of people assembling at night around 8 when the official ceremonies at the palace were over and the King was leaving with his entourage away from the palace. When his car passed, the night sky was lit up with flashes and there was an audible gasp from the legions of Thais who revere the King and came to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Can you imagine a million people, period, but a million people all dressed in yellow shirts, Monday’s colour, since the king was born on a Monday. In his old age, the king seems to be playing with us and is dressing up in all sorts of bright colours. When he went to visit his sister in the hospital a few weeks back he wore pink and by the next morning, every corner stall was selling pink shirts. He has also worn both red and purple recently but for some reason, that trend did not happen overnight, but perhaps by the end of the month.

At precisely 7:02, the time of his birth, everyone lit a candle and sang national songs. I can’t imagine this happening like this quite anywhere else in the world. There were huge screens set up around the park and palace and people were watching the ceremonies, singing and quite enjoying themselves. I had to get Sylvia from the airport at midnight and feared I might never get there if the fireworks and festivities kept up for much longer. I negotiated with a motorcycle for 50 baht to take me to the nearest BTS, no mean feat considering the millions of cars in the way, but as he weaved his way through the traffic, scraping my knees and his own on the buses and cars he scooted between I yelled at him that if he went cha cha, slowly slowly, I would give him 100 baht but there was so much noise, he did not hear me and I am still shaking from the experience. In a ride at the exhibition, you know that although you may be scared, you are going to survive it. I was thinking what would happen if I got killed and Sylvia was waiting at the airport for me at 12 at night and I did not show up?

As you can see from the pictures, Bangkok is also a city of contrasts. As I waited for the fireworks and king's exit from the palace I wandered over to Wat Bowouniwet and saw a Buddhist ceremony which you can see from the pictures. It was a sea of tranquility compared to the crowds milling around the Grand Palace. This sort of stark contrasts has become the norm for me in Thailand, especially Bangkok.

Maybe next year I will watch the festivities on television, but for this year, it was an experience not to be missed.! Off to the airport to pick up Sylvia. Hopefully her flight will arrive on time. Guess I better check.

It happened Again!

I was just walking around a night market at Ramkahaeng a friend told me about and a lady stopped me and asked where I was from. I usually say Sukhumvit “si sip gow”
(where I live) but she seemed so sincere I didn’t want to shock her so I said Toronto. It turns out she works for the Ministry of Education and wanted to practice her English. She asked what I was doing here and so on and I told her about my background. She works in the department of innovation and I told her I had very clear ideas about where the Thai education system should be going. Who knows where that contact will lead in the long run, but certainly in the short run she invited us to a Thai wedding on December 18 at the Erawan hotel, which is the poshest hotel in Bangkok. I imagine it should be absolutely great.( as well as costly!). Apparently Thais have huge weddings.

The reason I was at the market, is, of course, all about pants. Can’t remember if I gave you an update on the pants situation since I mentioned I left my black pants in the taxi but here is the story. I decided to have pants made for me and went to one of the 10,000 tailors on Sukhumvit. I clearly chose the wrong one and have been back with the same pair of pants about 5 times. I asked him the last time:” do you have anyone who pays a deposit but doesn’t pick up their pants?” He said sure and runs upstairs to bring down more pants. I can’t resist a bargain and bought two more pair ( neither of which fit) which led to 5 more visits. Needless to say, we are on a first name basis, but we both hate seeing each other.

What an ordeal and what stupidity on my part. This is why my colleague phoned me to-night and told me he was at an outdoor Thai market where they were selling Dockers pants for about $5.00 and all kinds of other neat stuff and I should get out there. I bought a pair of casual pants and read the label: “Assembled in the Dominican Republic” What a story that must be about manufacturing, marketing, transportation etc. Would love to explore that route from design, to assembly and purchase of raw materials, to shipment, to sales and how it ended up in an outdoor market for $5.00 in Thailand! I bet Friedberg could write a book about that.

Sylvia and Josh are coming next week so things should be a little different around here. In preparation, my owner bought me a new air conditioner which sounds like a 737 staring up, a new fridge which just appeared when I came home from the week-end down south and God knows what else. Will have to go and look as the country is gearing up for the King’s birthday this Wednesday. Should be a blast…literally. There are fireworks and concerts every night so lots to do.

The Pink shirt

The king wore si shampoo ( a pink shirt) to visit his sister in the hospital a few days ago and all of sudden everyone has to have a pink shirt ( including me). I decided to visit Victory Monument to-night since I had passed it a number of times but never really explored the area. The good news is that I bought a brand new pink shirt with the king's logo making me look like every other Thai ( sort of) but the bad news is that I lost my red Canadian shirt that I was wearing that Eva gave me before I left ( sorry Eva if you are reading this).

As I was walking around Victory circle and seeing all the shops and bustling people going home, I happened to ask two people in front of me what the flashing lights were on the building. The girl ( a dental student) told me it was to celebrate the king's birthday next week. I started talking with them ( the mother manages the mall at Victory Plaza) and before you could say 'copkunkup', I was in their car seeing the night lights of Bangkok.

This has been so typical of my experiences in Thailand. The people are genuinely warm, caring and friendly and the term sanuk or joy really applies to them. As you can see in the pictures, they took me to all of the major hot spots in Bangkok...the Grand Palace, the king's palace, the key wats, Ratchadampern road all lit up for the birthday and so on. Not only that, the mother stopped the car right in traffic and insisted I get out and take pictures. In Toronto or certainly New York, you would hear horns blaring. In Bangkok, cars simply go around the immovable object which is so Thai. Getting upset is a sign of weakness.

When I asked them about what is going to happen after the king passes away ( it is his 80th birthday we are celebrating on the 5th) they simply refused to discuss it and I have found this with all Thais I ask that question to. There are two things you do not discuss with a Thai, the king or Buddhism.

Needless to say, I am really looking forward to December 5. There will be celebrations everyone and if I can get Sylvia out of bed...she arrives in the early morning hours of the 5th, we should have a great time.

Hopefully, we will also get a chance to meet up with Ead and Aim. After all, I have to get my red shirt back which I assume I left in their car!

Loi Krathong Celebrations

Last week, my insight was that, in my opinion, Jesus overreacted to the Temple fair atmosphere he witnessed in Jerusalem. It was only people congregating around the most popular place in Jerusalem doing their thing. This week, my perspective is that human beings have more in common with each other than differences.

Yesterday in Thailand Lois Krathong or the Festival of Lights was celebrated around the November full moon. Everyone from babies to grandparents made or bought a krathong consisting of banana leaves, incense sticks and a candle or two and went to the nearest source of water, meditated with their partners or family and floated the offering down the river, just as Jews do during Yom Kippur at the full moon as we wash away our sins and I am sure Hindus do in the Ganges at various purification ceremonies.

The fascinating thing is that I was invited to our American Thanksgiving party with turkey and all the trimmings in a colleague's house. As you can see from the pictures, the house was spectacular and we were all having a good time singing karaoke, eating turkey and trimmings, drinking beer and playing music. When I left the party about 11 and went to the Chaao Paraya River with two friends there were literally thousands of people walking down to the river in couples or with families with little babies and grandparents in tow. Bands were playing, people were drinking beer and eating insects ( I even had a nibble) and buying or putting their own krathong in the water. The river was covered in sparkling lights as the krathongs floated away, either together, which meant the couple was going to have a good year, or separately, which meant the couple might not be a couple in the future. As you can see from the pictures, both events, the Thanksgiving party and the Loi Krathong Celebrations were both a lot of fun and human beings from the west and east both celebrated in virtual the same ways.

It is also amazing to me how all religions like Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism have similar celebrations obviously originating from the same pagan beliefs popular in Biblical times.

During the day, if you are trying to figure out what Condoms and Cabbages sign is you see in the pictures, I decided to walk around my Sukhumvit neighbourhood and see what there was to see during the day. I do go out every night but the day was suprisingly different. This main street, like Yonge street, had such a different flavour. I found a beautiful soi or street, #12 which had two great restaurants, Condoms and Cabbages and Crepes and company. I chose Crepes and Company because of the leafy airiness, to say nothing of my yen for crepes. It is amazing that in this Asian city you can get absolutely anything you want, even served by the French speaking owner in a restaurant completely peaceful and quiet immersed in an urban jungle of flowers and trees!

As I continued my walk, as you can see from the pictures, I saw everyone preparing for the evenings festivities either making their krathongs or shopping for their parties and family gatherings. They were also busy cleaning their cars, pools and houses for the evening's celebrations.

Today, I am either going to pick another area of Bangkok to explore or play golf. Talking about golf, Friday I was playing with some beginners and playing a par three course. Even though the course was clearly short, I had a perfect game going into the 9th hole where I unfortunately hit it over the green into a river and took a two over. I can't ever remember getting 8 pars in a row and hitting the green on every shot. It's a nice feeling.

We also have very interesting times at school which are probably inappropriate for me to discuss on a public site, but just as in any institution, there are so many politics and intrigues it makes for many fascinating days. Luckily for me, because I am working literally for the fun of it, I have such a different perspective than colleagues who are depending on the job to put 'khao' on the table at night.

The weather is absolutely great if anyone wants to visit. The water in my pool is even too cold for me and I think we go down to about 27 degrees at night. Apparently the next three months will be gorgeous.

Speak with you soon.

Finally!!!

After two weeks failed attempts and frustration trying to figure out how to get to Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing I finally got there, but not without angst. When I got into a cab at my apartment and told the driver I wanted to go to Wat Suthat, he asked me why and told me he would drive me to much more beautiful temples. I told him no many times and finally got him to stop bugging by jumping out at the BTS station and taking a train to the nearest station. I was then besieged with tuk tuk drivers asking me where I was going and offering to take me the two miles or so for 200 baht ( what a deal, when a cab would probably cost 40 baht) without the noise and pollution of the motor cycle taxi. Finally a taxi arrived, thank God, I thought and because I had a map in my hand ( a lethal mistake) I discovered, he told me he would drive me for free if I visited his cousin in the tailor shop! I absolutely refused and got out of the cab. Finally, finally, finally I got a cab driver that knew where it was and actually put on the meter and took me there. What a relief.

As I walked up the soi ( or alley) to what he told me was Wat Suthat but was actually the Golden Mount, there were food and candy stalls, clothes, trinkets, rides for kids and so on. I felt like Jesus Christ walking around the Temple of Jerusalem and getting ticked that it was so secular. I figured out that if the temples are where the action is and everyone congregates there to pray, why not have massage, candies, clothes stalls and so on. I am sure this is exactly what the Temple Mount must have looked like to Jesus and you know what, it is not such a bad thing. Jesus should have relaxed a bit. At least it gets people to congregate where some good could come out of it.

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures the Golden Mount was actually quite spectacular and you can see all the bells, an absolute irresistible urge for me to ring them all ( which I did!). Inside and a few floors up, people were praying and meditating. They were actually shaking their incense sticks in a red jar and if I didn’t know better I would swear they were playing dice, sitting on their knees in a group. Fortunately, there was a giant Budha in front of them and they were praying or probably a more proper term would be mediating.

As I left the golden mount and walked towards the Giant Swing where brave men would swing up to great heights to catch a bag of gold coins in their teeth hundreds of years ago, I saw the swing was no longer there, just the structure. I guess too many men missed the gold but found their reward otherwise, if you know what I mean. Beside the Swing, I discovered the real Wat Suthat which was really spectacular. I went inside the prayer room and there were two monks, both on ‘thrones’ I think discussing scripture. All the Thais were seated with their legs tucked beneath them, (something I can’t do) and laughing their heads off as one monk would chime in, probably with some kind of witty remark as the other continued his observations or sermon, not sure, but I do know that with my feet projected out in front of me I was really being rude and thought I better leave before I got kicked out. Actually, the Thais are much too polite to kick anyone out of anywhere.

As usual, just when I could get some really interesting pictures, my battery ran out but I did fall into a Thai soccer game in the National Stadium as I was trying to find my way home. Thailand was playing a small Arab nation in one of the elimination rounds for the Asian representative at the 2010 world cup so it was a very big deal. Outside the stadium, hawkers were selling everything from head bands to food to crazy hats. Scalpers, or at least one, were pushing tickets and since I could not find the ticket booth I bought a ticket for twice the face value. Believe me, I will not have to take out a mortgage to pay for it. Luckily, I sat in the cheap seats, exactly where I like to sit and had a ball. Thailand won 1-0 and the fans were delirious. At the end of the game, there were fireworks and handshakes all around. During the game, the fans did the wave, yelled at the referee (I thought with good cause) and could have been in Toronto or anywhere in North America.

The differences were the place in the stands at midfield where the royal family sat and decorated accordingly, the number of women (probably equal to men), the urinals
(there weren’t any), just a trough, no food or drink hawkers but the same excitement and passion we would see in North America.

This week I am back at work, what else is new, with lots of meetings and teaching. I am going to spend a lot of time in a grade two class because the teacher had to return to America for a week but since I survived nursery, I am sure grade two will be a breeze. Wish me luck.



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Earning my "Cow Pat"

I have been quite busy the last few days actually doing professional development! Today about 400 teachers met for a conference at the Bangkok Teachers Network. Because I was on the organizing committee, I felt I better do a few workshops, which I did. It was kind of fun and thinking about it, I learned a lot.

First of all, teachers are alike the world over and want to do the best job they can. I was quite impressed with their professional attitude and the way they articulated their goals and dreams. It was also quite a bit of fun to work with teachers from all over the world, even though they all spoke English, thankfully, because my Thai is still not what it should be.( either was theres’) I also learned that no matter the subject, I certainly have a lot to offer all teachers and the facilitation skills to pull it off. For example, in one workshop I had some Taiwanese teachers who taught Chinese language, a senior physics teacher and a kindergarten teacher all in the same workshop and I believe I offered each of them something to take home and think about in my workshop on cooperative learning. I have the ability to think on my feet and give examples from a variety of grades and subjects. Being able to give concrete examples since I have taught so many classes this year was really helpful.

Coming to Thailand and actually teaching ( sort of) has given me a wealth of information about the nature of teaching and learning and frankly, I can’t think of better training for any teacher to have to teach all subjects and at different grade levels. I just wish I could begin my career again knowing what I know now, but don’t we all.

Thursday I did a workshop for the staff of my school and what I learned from this was that both context and physical facilities make all the difference in the world. The last time I gave a workshop on this campus the room was too small, the projector did not work and it was impossible to create groups because of the cramped quarters. This time, there was lots of room and good acoustics and it went swimmingly.

Because I stayed in Bangkok for the workshop today, I have to decide what to do to-night and tomorrow. A bunch of colleagues were going down to the beach but did not want to play golf tomorrow so I declined that offer. I guess it will be back to the guide books and see what I have not seen yet.

Getting Lost

As you may recall from yesterday, I had planned to visit the Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing since I always see pictures of it and looked forward to seeing it. I had decided that the simplest way was to take a taxi so I had no chance of getting lost. What a mistake this was. After about an hour in the cab (roads were blocked… I will tell you why later) I saw a pile of people and cars heading into what I thought must have been some fabulous park. I asked the cab driver if it was fun to walk through and he said yes so I jumped out of the cab and followed the crowd. Unfortunately, after paying for my ticket I found out it was the zoo which I have already visited but it was a back entrance so there was no signage. Not to worry, I thought, how far away could the giant swing be so I walked all the way around the outside of the Zoo looking for the ephemeral Wat Suthat.

As I mentioned, all the roads were blocked because the the military forces were literally out in force as you can see by the pictures. They were practicing for a performance for the king’s birthday on December 5 and I will describe what I saw in a moment, but on the way I passed the Parliament buildings. Like Kuala Lumpur, which was also a Sunday, I believe, I could not even get close to the building. In a quasi totalitarian state, things like Parliaments are not open to the public and public debate and discussion are not welcome, especially if you cannot even get inside the building or anywhere close to it. I am constantly reminded how lucky we are to be living in Canada.

Not being able to go inside Parliament, I continued walking and saw about a thousand soldiers in army gear, some wearing ornamental red hats, some in marching fatigues, low slung cars and a bad playing in a huge parade ground, all in preparation for the king’s birthday. I know this because a fellow who played the French Horn told me in English. I guess there is some correlation between playing a musical instrument and speaking a foreign language. The skills that the brain is called upon to make are probably very similar.

Anyway, even more interesting, in the military parade grounds there was a scene from the Middle Ages. There seemed to be a green team and a red team of little pixies and they were sword fighting, soldiers in medieval armour were riding horses around with lances and flags and others were wrestling and engaged in military combat of some sort. I tried to take pictures but was stopped twice.

As I continued to walk towards Wat Benchama Bophit, everyone was engaged in painting the road and fences, sprucing up the neighbourhood and doing a good job of getting ready for the big day. Soldiers were roaring up and down the empty streets in their motorcycles, probably never in their life having a street so empty where they could really open the engine.

After seeing this very peaceful wat ( there was no-one there but me and the monks), probably because all the roads were blocked because of the parade practice and I was walking, I followed a sign for the royal turf club which I saw in the taxi coming up and but could not find again. Instead a fell in to a university graduation which was really interesting and probably nothing like we have in Canada.

I got a bus home, paid my 10 baht and was asked for more ( the bus was air conditioned) and stayed home for about 10 minutes before I went to play golf at the Windmill, just a spectacular course. To-night I played with a Bangladeshi business man who said he only paid $25,000 to join the course. What a bargain! He owned about 10 business but found Bangkok way too expensive and even though he owned a few homes here he preferred Calcutta because things were cheaper. He said, interestingly enough, that he preferred living in a country poorer than Bangladesh because his money would go further.

I guess this week I better get down to some work since I have a seminar/workshop to prepare for the Bangkok teacher’s network next week-end. When am I going to get a chance to get away for the week-end again?

Sukhumvit Fair

The Sukhumvit Fair, as you can see by the pictures, is a really big deal at my school. It has been the focus of attention for all the faculty, students and staff at both campuses since school started. Money is raised for charity which this year happened to be a home for the blind. Don’t let the picture fool you. There are sighted people on my campus. I’m sure we raised a few million baht for charity.

I did notice a few interesting things. It is amazing how a few “fairy tale” lights can really transform a basketball court into a nightclub but more importantly reminded me why I am finishing my career at a school. The energy of the kids, as they run the fun booths, perform, dance and have fun, is almost palpable. There is nothing equivalent in the university sphere (except maybe graduation). It is just fun to be associated with such an event. We are kind of lucky to be teachers and be associated with kids all the time. One girl was selling her book, “A teen helping teens”. As I watched them dance and sing I could certainly appreciate how much talent they have in so many areas yet teachers cannot seem to realize this when they can’t do their math work. Perhaps, if teachers could just get their heads around the fact that they are dealing with human beings who do have tremendous talents in many areas, it may change their approach to how they teach. ( I can’t imagine this ever happening)

There were differences from Canada, of course. The food that was served was obviously very different from anything we would see in Canada, with the emphasis on Thai and Indian food. Duvali was yesterday and there were a lot of Indian booths. In addition, drinking is absolutely the norm and beer was served throughout the night for anyone who could pay for it. Same gendered couples walked around holding hands, the norm in Asia.

I also noticed lots of middle aged ‘American’ men (who could have been from anywhere in the world) with Thai wives and probably new families. I think this is probably a common phenomenon but it was certainly clear to me here that it is probably a fairly large subculture exists since we are obviously teaching the kids of their mixed marriages. Usually I see the wives bringing the kids to school so it was kind of strange for me seeing the ‘American’ fathers. For some reason, it reminds me of parents’ nights I have attended when I was shocked by parents of kids who did not speak English when their kids spoke so beautifully. I should not have been shocked and by the same token, I guess I should have realized there were ‘mixed’ marriages. It is sort of funny seeing some men my age toting a baby on his shoulders and holding the 5 years old’s hand.

Afterwards, a bunch of teachers took me out to their favourite haunts and as usual I am blown away by how much of Bangkok I do not know. There is just an unending number of people out on the streets at all hours, the music is so loud it can perforate your ear drums and people, as usual, are eating night and day. Can you imagine being on the streets of Toronto at 1 in the morning and being able to buy a t-shirt, eat an outdoor meal and/or be in a pedestrian or car traffic jam?

Today I am planning on visiting Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing. I will tell you about it later. Hopefully I can go golfing to-night with a little swim in between if all goes according to plan!

Kuala Lumpur-Envisioning the Future Conference

I said I would comment on the conference so I would like to be true to my word! Since the conference is for administrators, (which I am apparently), I get a chance to look at things through a different lens. For example, I just attended a workshop on using”tablets” ( computers where you use a digital pen to write and you can import all kinds of neat stuff on it). Every student is getting one in January at my school and instead of worrying about how to program it or how to use it most efficiently, I have to worry about the technical details like leasing or buying, insurance, educating teachers and parents, planning for the future for a new cycle of buying, marketing the plan to parents and so on. There is a whole new dynamic which I have not really thought about before. As a teacher, department head, consultant I could really look at curriculum in a pure and unadulterated way. As Alana would probably say, I have to now act like a grown up.

As an aside, I am learning so much about technology and am much more comfortable with it now then just three months ago. I used a whiteboard, as you might recall , in a parents’ demonstration, given workshops and keynote addresses with powerpoint slides and now will be in charge of the new pilot using computer tablets. Even though the school is smaller in numbers than I am used to with very little in what I would call traditional materials, there is wonderful technology and when it works it is a joy. Certainly I am very comfortable with it and am very anxious to explore more ways of using technology. I guess from a selfish point of view this is great. From the Asian point of view, it is important to look good and anything that improves the image of the school is very important.

I am also learning a lot about Asian students. Apparently they do much better than their North American counterparts in standardized tests. Is that because there is a genetic difference or cultural differences in the way they see education? I think it is the limitation of our standardized tests which only measure lower order thinking. If all we are testing is declarative or functional knowledge, of course the Asians will do better but if we are testing creativity (which we are not) I believe North American kids would do so much better.

I see this everywhere, even on the golf driving range. Typically I see a father with his boy or girl drilling the use of one club with one set swing practicing for hours. I would love to be able to do this, but I practice for five minutes and I am so bored I can’t wait to play. At least my entertainment is to buy supper and watch them practice.

What are the implications for teaching Asian students? This is the challenge I face every day as the curriculum coordinator. If their strength is rote learning, how can I use that to our advantage in teaching higher order thinking and mental development? I have no idea, frankly, but when I do figure it out, with the help of this conference and speaking with colleagues, you will be the first to know.

Kuala Lumpur-a city on prozac

I met a backpacking couple last night and they were just starting their Asian journey. They plan to spend about 6 months backpacking throughout Asia. What a great place to ease your way in to Asia, I thought. There really are sidewalks, the downtown is perfectly safe, it is absolutely clean, everyone and I mean everyone speaks English and the stores, clinics, hospitals, restaurants are modern. You can also get any food you want. The Philippines boasts it is the second largest English speaking country in the world after the United States, but frankly, compared to KL they do not speak English as well.

I am at an EARCOS administrators’ conference which started yesterday and we had the day off from the conference today so the principal, Simon, and I hired a great cab driver and saw all the major tourist sites. Since we started off at the Batu caves I learned a lot about the Hindu culture. If I came in three weeks, he said, the roads on the way to the caves would be crowded with Hindus performing self flagellation to atone for their sins. Apparently they take this quite seriously and insert sharp objects into their bodies. In Singapore, Simon told me the same thing happens. The Batu cave is a huge limestone structure and the inside is one giant Hindu Temple. You can see the pictures if you care to look.

Our driver was a Moslem, and he said he was rebellious as a child. When I asked him what appealed to him about Islam, he said it provided him with answers to all his questions. Hinduism, on the other hand, had idols which he said were not meaningful to him and even though his grandparents were Chinese Buddhists, he said the philosophy was too ambiguous for him. I know Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and perhaps the providing confortable answers is the key to its growth.

Interestingly enough, he said the Malays were very tolerant of each other and absolutely respected and befriended each other. When I asked him, as I had to, why Malaysia refused to recognize the state of Israel, he said that was politics, but certainly Jews from the United States or Canada would be welcomed and everyone lived in harmony.

I am inclined to believe him. Certainly I see women with Hijabs as well as modern dress. I see ladyboys, Indian men with turbans with wives in Saris and a dot on their forehead. All seem to intermingle with each other in every part of the city.

There is an Indian section where they sell a lot of carpets and tailor shops yet I saw Chinese here and Indians in China town. There does seem to be a mix everywhere you go including our hotel that employs different ethnic groups. Perhaps it is harmonious and a great introduction to Asia.

Tomorrow the conference starts in earnest and I am quite anxious to see if administrators behave like teachers at conferences. I certainly know university professors have a different notion of what a conference should be like. I will let you know.

Manila, A City of Contrasts

My final impressions of Manila are actually quite similar to my first impressions as I passed by on my way to northern Luzon. I initially saw wide boulevards, sidewalks… sidewalks of all things, beautiful museums and parks. I decided to spend the last few days of my vacation in the capital and was not disappointed.

Unfortunately, just when I got to see some “photographical” stuff my battery gave up the ghost. I did bring another battery to the Philippines, but did not have it with me so you will just have to be satisfied with description of Intramuros or the walled historical city. There are the two oldest churches in the Philippines dating back 400 years, one still in operation and one just a shell. It was Friday afternoon and I actually saw a huge wedding in the church taking place which was kind of fun to see. I also saw a beautiful university and Japanese gardens, which have an interesting story. During the second world war, Phillipino’s were held prisoners within the walls and because of flooding many lives were lost. The Japanese built this beautiful sculpted garden as a memorial. As I walked through the garden and literally climbed up the walls I saw something that was truly amazing. Just outside the walls of the old city there is this neat little golf course. Can you imagine? Playing golf looking up at the parapets just outside of the walled city and between the old city and the Pacific Ocean. Wow, and I didn’t play. I am just sitting in a departure lounge in Manila waiting for my Air Kuwait flight to get back to Bangkok and sort of hoping the flight will be cancelled so I have another chance to potentially play the course.

The major park in town, Luneta was a wonderful respite. I went Thursday night and saw dancing in the park, lovers holding hands, people talking and playing cards ( in public). There was also two or three huge casinos which I did not get in to because I was wearing shorts. After all, there is a dress code.

Having said that, I read in the newspaper that something like one in three people in the Philippines are unemployed or underemployed. Taxi drivers told me they have to pay 1600 pesos a day for the cab and make about 600 pesos on a good day ( about $12). One guy told me his apartment rent was 2,000 a month, about 45 dollars but he was not able to pay the last two months because he simply did not have enough money. He has two little babies and he has to make some tough choices. I passed whole streets with squatters and one driver told me he was even afraid to even drive in the area. He told me he has been robbed 3 or 4 times right in his cab and another driver corroborated this. On the way to the airport, little kids kept coming up to the cab begging and apparently snort some kind of solvent. Apparently, when they get high it suppresses the feeling of hunger.

I also walked through a neighbourhood in a poor part of town called Valenzuela. I do have these pictures which you can look at. You walk through a rabbit warren of streetsand streets only wide enough for the trykes to get through, and that is with the kids scattering everyone. There were tons of kids playing on the streets, getting their pleasure throwing a ball on the roof and watching it roll down. You will notice the picture of the guy cooking on the floor of his house, a cigarette in one hand and the spatula in the other. Cooking is a major time consuming task when you have one hotplate and have to cook for so many people.

Everyone I spoke with said how corrupt the politicians were yet there were girls wearing political t shirts, a band coming down the street with its loudspeaker blaring advertising the next best politician and posters everywhere. I suppose the supporters were getting paid because when I spoke with people in the market no-one seemed to be particularly political or seemed to care. They were more interested in getting their picture taken. If I would have known how easy it was to make conversation with a camera, I would have bought one years ago.

Everyone seems to be on the take. Even at the airport, when we entered, the guard asked for a bribe from the taxi driver before he let him into the airport proper. This seems somewhat commonplace.

One thing that sort of shocked me though was the ticket agent who told me to take anything valuable out of my suitcase because it might get stolen by the baggage handlers. That is sort of disturbing when it happens at the airport and everyone knows about it but obviously nothing can be done but tell the public not to pack anything valuable!

On a side and final note on golf in the Philippines. What I did not mention was the last time I played golf my caddy we played well in to the night and could not see anything. When the caddy was cleaning the clubs, he noticed the cover of the 7 wood was missing. I told him to forget about it but he insisted on looking for it. Can you imagine the scene of these two crazy guys roaming around the last two or three holes of the golf course in the dark trying to find this stupid cover…which we did by the way.

Next week school and then Kuala Lumpur for a Conference. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it.

Actually Daniel, I met another American working in Iraq and he told me he made 160,000 as a medic. Wars are good, for the conquerors.

Bangkok to Manila

One of the millennium goals established by the United Nations was to reduce poverty and especially child poverty. According to an article in the newspaper, the Philippines are making great strides to reduce poverty, especially in the major cities, but I have not witnessed this first hand, by any means.

Let me give you a few examples of what I have witnessed. I take a jitney everyday to play golf and I have never seen anyone buy a full pack of cigarettes when the vendors approach the jitney. They always buy one or two cigarettes and the vendor automatically reaches in to his pocket for a lighter. Drivers probably don’t have one, I presume.

My caddy,that I have played with the last three days has 4 or 5 old clubs that must have been left around over the years since they are all different. His four wood still has the string wrapped around it like golf clubs were made 30 years ago. Needless to say, he hits a mean ball and I would wonder how good he would be if he had a modern set. If there is anyone reading this who has an old right handed set they want to get rid of, I have his address. It did take him two days to give me his address because he said he did not know the number of his house. I guess when you live in a shanty town made up of tin shacks, it is hard to have an address. However, he did give me some address today and I do plan to send him some clubs, but my old ones are left handed.

I did talk in my blog yesterday about whole families with no-one working except maybe for some cousin or two riding a tryke. I presume they kill their own chickens and pigs to eat. Kids followed me around the golf course for the last few days trying
(and succeeding) to sell me balls. My question is, why aren’t they in school during the day?

Pawnshops are as frequent in the Philippines as tailors or massage parlours are in Thailand. Perhaps they are also in Thailand and I have just not noticed because I do not read Thai…yet.

Clearly the Philippines is a very poor country. I thought Bangkok or Thailand was poor but it is an economic powerhouse in Asia apparently. However, there are differences between Thailand and the Philippines. For example, I see churches everywhere since it is such a Christian country. I also noticed a few cemeteries and mortuaries which do not exist in Thailand to my knowledge. Buddhists, I assume, burn the bodies. I will have to ask when I get back what they do with the ashes to see if there are cemeteries. There are also quotations from the Bible everywhere here, including taxis, jitneys, shop signs and so on. There are also mottos at the beginning of each town encouraging such things are hard work, friendship etc.

Just had a haircut for 60 pesos, about 1 dollar. For this I got a head and shoulder massage, haircut and shave. The barber has to pay the rent, overhead and other costs. He also has to stay open 15 hours a day. Just further proof of how destitute things must be. I gave him twice as much as this, but it certainly will not help in the short or long run, I can’t imagine.

Manila looked like it had sidewalks, wide avenues, sewers, dogs in cages, beautiful museums and parks. Can’t wait to get back there tomorrow to see if my first impressions pan out.

I also can’t wait to return to the Philippines to experience diving and the beaches. In spite of the poverty and absolute destitution, the people are warm, friendly, empathetic and helpful. Maybe we could use a bit of poverty in North America.

The Joys and Travails of Travelling Alone

As I left the Bilibago Casino looking for a restaurant, I thought how nice it would be to have company for dinner. I eventually found a Chinese restaurant and felt right at home with the food which looked like and tasted like any Chinese-Jewish restaurant in Toronto. However, sitting alone in a crowded restaurant full of people laughing and talking made me feel somewhat uneasy and I couldn’t wait to eat my chicken sai goo or whatever it was called, pay my bill and get out of there. Restaurants are not for single people.

As lonely as that experience is, there are compensating joys. I am staying in a small town, Dau or Bilibago, depending on the bus you take. It is or they are both on Luzon Island. The hotel is great, everyone knows your name and you are treated like a king. I have breakfast every morning and the same waitress serves me. Over the two or three days we have exchanged information about children, country and so on. I told her on Monday I was going to see something new and travel to Subic on Tuesday, I thought about 2 hours away. She told me it was her day off and her child lived there so she offered to take me. What a bonus. For those of you reading my blog regularly, I felt another Ayuttaya experience coming on and how right I was.

We took every kind of transportation possible. We started out from the hotel where she picked me up with a trike which looked like what the Toronto police used to ride in the 1950’s. We then took an intercity bus that blew such cold air I will probably catch pneumonia. When we got to Alongpanga, about 2 hours away, we took a jeep past Subic, unfortunately, because I really wanted to go there, to a small town called Marcellino. We then got into another trike and rode into the residential part of town. I noticed she did not pay the driver. When I asked her why, she said it was because it was her cousin! More on this to follow.

If you want to get a feeling for what I am about to talk to you about, you should look at the pictures which really did not capture what I saw, but will give you some idea.We went down some dusty roads, formed in a perfect grid pattern, past each house surrounded by bamboo poles and foliage to demarcate their territory. When we got to her house, in about five minutes, the scene will remain with me forever. There were a bunch of toothless men on their haunches working on a motor, the women playing cards and the children running around playing (or scratching in the dirt with sticks). There were chickens and hens running around, the sound of a pig coming from somewhere and a goat eating the foliage. On the one property, there seemed to be about three homes for the different familial groupings, which I never did get clear. There seemed to be grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles and myriad children.

The waitress took me into the house and we walked through the living room to the back kitchen. In the outer part of the kitchen, outside the house, she scooped up some rice and offered it to me. At that stage, I was rather sorry I did not have breakfast that morning. They were so apologetic about their meager surroundings and food. They offered me coffee which I turned down and then tea. Foolishly I said yes to the tea ( iced) and continued talking with the gay cousin, who was flaming and having a great old time. Homosexuality, like in Thailand, seems to be absolutely accepted. The aunt told me one of her little boys is gay but doesn’t know it yet. Anyway, back to the tea story. About 30 minutes later the aunt came back with the iced tea, which she had bought from somewhere. Since this was a weekday, and not a holiday that I know of, I don’t think anyone worked, since they were all there playing cards and fooling around. I have no idea where she would get the money to buy the iced tea and I really felt badly I put her to such expense.

As the day progressed, they offered to let me sleep the night in one of the two bedrooms. I have no idea whose room it was or who I would be displacing but the room had no electricity. as I tried laying on the bed I could touch the ceiling and God knows how I would navigate to get to the outhouse. I politely declined and left by myself (the waitress stayed for the night.) I did take them for supper, at a restaurant of their choosing. They picked the equivalent of Mcdonalds and I noticed ordered too much and had it packed away to take home.

On the way back (and I had to take a few buses, naturally getting lost, which is my wont). I did not expect to be travelling on my own and was not really paying attention on the way down. Anyway I one of the buses I was on, I met a distributor from Coca-Cola going to Manila who offered to show me around. I will take him up on his offer Thursday. His wife has just bought the franchise for Aldo shoes, he has honed the distribution for all of the Philippines by hiring cheaper labour he told me, and all his relatives live in California. It should be a different experience than yesterday!

Now I am off to play golf. My caddy has his day off today and hopefully I can lose a bit of money to him. He told me he has a four wood, about three clubs and putter. I think he told me he was 77, or maybe 67 and has a handicap of 7. It should not be hard for me to lose a few pesos to him!

Just got back home and tried to straighten out the picture. No idea how. Anyway, the caddy was up by three going into the last hole and he was such a great guy I know he muffed four shots to make sure I would win. That's the Philippines for you! The people are truly unbelievable.

The golf lesson

My game has been exponentially deteriorating since the first day. I still remember, with fond memories, my first shot off the tee in front of my new friends, when I hit the ball straight down the middle, put the second one on the green and two putted from there. Now this is nothing but a hazy recollection. I literally can't even hit the ball off the ground and my friends, who I used to raz, are now razzing me. For example, I wore a golfing tie yesterday as I was doing a workshop for the staff and one of my "buddies" put up his hand and asked where the water was on the tie!



Luckily, one of the woman on staff has a son who is a pro golfer and she arranged for me to have a lesson from him. It turns out he is a terrific fellow and a great teacher. He told me the obvious, that I was not turning my shoulders and gave me some tips on how to do this and left me on my own.



As it happened, there was a guy beside me in the next stall who I happened to make eye contact with him and I gave him the thumbs up after a particular hit. ( He was not very good). Somehow, non-verbally, he asked me to help him. He was swinging way too hard and too fast and throwing his balance off and not doing allowing his body to do what it would do naturally. I told him to "cha" "cha" which I think means slow, slow and it seemed to work for two reasons. He slowed down his swing, on the one hand, and got in to a cha cha rhythm on the other hand which was great. He balls started to work.



However, he kept looking at me in a kind of pleading way asking me to give him more help. I literally went over and demonstrated raising his back heel to encourage the twist. He did this and kept looking so I continued with body "swing". Without belabouring the point, paradoxically I spent a hour with him teaching him teaching him how to golf and we met with a lot of success. I say we because his balls went further and straighter and I received the "nachos" of watching my student succeed. There is no greater feeling in the world.



It was a hoot using non-verbal and 'taxi 'Thai communicating with him . I know I am a good teacher and I think understand the basics of golf. The point of the story is that I got way more enjoyment teaching this guy than I did playing or receiving the lesson myself.



I remember the same thing happened to me on the range in Canada with a little old Chinese man ( who was probably younger than me). He had a towel under his back arm to remind him to keep his arm in. The first thing I did, when he asked for my help, was pull the towel away, throw it on the ground and talked my own smack. I loved that also and still remember it.



As I walk around the campus, I realize I would rather be in one of those classes teaching the kids rather than sitting in my office creating some meaningless paper work. Teaching is such a wonderful thing to do and a gift to be able to transmit information in a meaningful way. As I ask excellent athletes for help they can't do it. Teaching is something that one is probably born with.



We finally have a week off of school and I am headed to the Philipines with no plans in mind other than to sleep in and play golf. Don't even know where I am going after I hit Manilla but I do have some contact names from teacher friends who I presume will show me around. I only bought the air ticket last week, but after my experience two days ago I think I would just rather go the range and find someone who wanted my help.

Rainy Day in Bangkok

As I was lying in bed reading and contemplating what I was going to do on this Saturday before the big Thanksgiving Party, I heard and saw the skies open up and it poured for I would say 30 minutes. It was magnificent as I lay in bed watching and hearing the rain. I can't remember if I ever slept in on a Saturday before so this was quite a special treat.

After the rain stopped, I planned to finally go downtown and I was determined to find Pratunam wholesale clothes market and Pantip, the electronics super centre I want to call it but it would be a complete misnomer since when you see the picture you will see it is not like a mall per se, but rather a series of storefronts like everywhere else in Asia ( with the exception of the 10 or so super plazas that are better than anything in Toronto in terms of size, pizzaz and quality)

Back to the story. I got dressed and went outside to try and get a cab. Even though it was not raining,getting a cab was impossible since the streets were covered with water. The infrastructure of Bangkok cannot handle water runoff and traffic slowed down to a crawl. When I finally did get a cab we went through the back streets, which was probably a mistake, and I would say we were driving through water over the tires of the taxi. It didn't take too long for the taxi to actually grind to a halt stranding me in the middle of nowhere. As I waded through the water looking for a main street I passed over a bridge (roadway) and peered underneath to see a squat little abode. It had nothing, but you can be sure there was a TV. Cars were roaring, well hardly roaring, but cars were driving on their roof, but they had the charcoal fire going and the tv, all that is needed to keep people happy it seems.

By the time I got to the plaza, after walking, it seemed, for hours, I was so exhausted I took a quick look and came home. I always find it fascinating to see wholesale to retail in one place. I walked down dark hallways in the wholesale clothes market and literally saw people making dresses and so on on single sewing machines, pressing them in the horrific heat and still smiling as they work about 15 hours a day. There were naturally cockroaches as well as babies sleeping on the floor.

In the electronics "mall" I can't believe any normal techno-geek would not love it. There were more stores selling the same thing than I have ever seen in my life. You could buy software, movies, machines that did everything except sing and computers "stuff" By this time, I was so tired I had to leave, but I am determined to go back and by the digital clock I saw where if you clapped your hands the colours of the clock changed. Loved it.

Tomorrow is Sunday and there is loads of things I have not seen or done in Bangkok so the adventure continues. Have to read the guidebook to see what I am going to do! Talk to you later.

4 year olds

One of the great things about this job is that not only do I get a chance to organize conferences, play with computer equipment I couldn't even imagine a year ago but also work with age groups that I just never had the opportunity to work with in Canada. In general, four year olds scare the pants off me yet I did voluntarily spend the day with a nursery class giving their teacher a professional development opportunity elsewhere. I must be a saint or a fool.



By the end of the day, as you can imagine, there was nothing left of me but a few drops of sweat, but I learned a lot. When a colleague mentioned in passing that all I did was glorified baby sitting, he obviously had no idea about cognitive development, the importance of play to the imagination or learning styles. As I reflect on the day, unfortunately, I believe I can anticipate the whole educational career of every student in the class. I say unfortunately because without the proper invention, some kids will be doomed to failure.



For example, one of the first things I did during the day was teach them a little lesson on sequencing. We took different shapes like cars, balls and different objects and formed a pattern with them as we put them together. The pattern could have been a plus b or a plus b plus c. The key was to repeat the colour twice or three times in succession. It was either too complex for some students to see the pattern or they were too bright and could not believe the task was simply to repeat the colour and it was so easy. When the teacher's aide explained the task, I really did not fully comprehend until we did it a few times but the boy I worked with simply never got it. He would rather just play with the cars and watch them role along. I was that little boy a lifetime ago and had my mother not intevened and got me a private reading teacher God knows where I would be. ( Probably a salesperson of some kind making oodles of money).



Having said that, school is all about discerning patterns and the sooner children can understand patterning the easier and more successful school will be for them. I also observed the little boy that simply was not willing to play the good little boy game. He daydreamed, wondered around, refused to focus on his work and generally spaced out, yet when I gave him some 'play' time he drew magnificent art of the board for 30 minutes straight. I also remembered reading about giving kids options so when he was walking around during reading time and not sitting on the floor I gave him two options: " Sit down with your legs crossed or sit down and leave your legs straight out" When it worked and he sat down, even I was astounded.



You noticed that these two children were boys. We all know they develop more slowly or differently than girls. There was the girl who was the perfectionist. When she wrote her name or traced letters, she continually rubbed it out and did it again because she was not satisfied. Everyone else did 10 lines for every one of hers. Is perfection a worthy goal?



Others could cut with a scissors without a problem yet some students could not hold a pencil. Early childhood educators deserve the "gold medal" for what they do and the best ones, I believe, have the ability to change lives by doing so much to ensure future success in school. I know I am not up to the task of teaching such little tykes but have the utmost admiration for those that can and do such a great job.