Site Seeing in Mandalay

Wow, I forgot how tiring site seeing can be. Since I have been working for six days in a row( if not more), I decided to take today off (Sunday) and tour Mandalay. I hired Ujo, my driver, for the day and me, Nyein, the registrar and Sim, the counselor, went off on our adventures. What was nice was that we could go at our own pace and did not have to climb off the bus and visit every tourist trap this side of New York City as other tourists do who take the large tour buses.

As you can see from the pictures, we started at a shop making gold leaf. What I could not get over, and was frankly transfixed by it, was the manual labour involved. Two guys were literally hammering away at the gold to make the leaf, each beating in syncopated rhythm. They used a timer to let them know when they could take a break. The timer was a jug with a little hole in it placed in water in a bucket. When it sunk, they could take a break. They do this literally back breaking labour for at least 8 hours a day I would presume.

We also went to another craft areas where they were chiseling marble statutes of the Buddha or weaving or making wood carvings. It was all the same, using manual labour to do the work that machines could probably do better ( maybe) and certainly less labour intensive. Having said that, when you are probably paying the labour about $1 a day, it is probably better than buying an expensive machine and having to worry about electricity in a land where electricity powers off about as often as I have to urinate from all of the water I am drinking in this 40 degree weather (and this is almost the cool season!)

We had to rush to get to the Mahegandahayon Monastery by 10:15 since all the monks have their meal together at that time. As you can see, they stand obediently in line and walk up separately in silence to receive their portion of rice (covered with flies or maggots just seconds before). They eat in silence and then get back to their studies. They certainly learn obedience, self discipline, and humility, all probably good things. I bought a little book on meditation so I should be an expert by the time I read and practice it. I realize though that it is probably impossible for a westerner who has very little of the virtues mentioned above to practice meditation.

At this point, we went to the ancient city of Innwa and as usual, when something really spectacular comes up, the battery of my camera responds inversely and gives up the ghost, so you will just have to let me paint a word picture. We had to cross the Irawaddy river by barge, to get to the other side. Once there, we had to take a horse drawn carriage for transportation since there was no other way other than foot to travel. We started at a monastery that could have very well been used for “Raiders of the Lost Arc”. It was cavernous inside with huge pillars and birds literally flying around in the belfry if there was one). It was interesting to see the classroom in the monastery where the tables and desks were affixed to the floor and I could almost hear the choral chanting of the students even though there were no classes because today was Sunday. Interesting enough, since Myanmar is on the lunar calendar, Sunday is not necessarily the Sabbath. The Sabbath does happen every seven days but not necessarily on the same day each week.

We then took our carriage to what can best be described as the Leaning Tower of Myanmar. It was a watchtower that literally leaned to one side and I am surprised it still remains standing after all these years. The piece de resistance though, was the castle, or so it seemed, of the Queen who tried to do her husband in but was found by the king and executed by having an elephant that step on her. The pagoda was really beautiful and if I can get Sim’s pictures ( her battery did not run out), I will post the pictures later.

I have to go to sleep since I am going to Yangon early tomorrow. I have that math workshop after school that I have been putting off preparing it. I wrote two blog entries instead of working on the seminar, but sooner or later, and obviously sooner, I have to get at it.

Meeting People

Let me tell you why working is so exciting. In short, it is because it is not really like working at all. I stay at the best hotels, meet a ton of interesting people and develop policies and educational material for my company.

Last night, for example, I flew into Yangon from Bangkok for a meeting on developing some software for a course Vicky and I created, and flew out right after the meeting. They held the plane for me (just kidding) and I flew to Mandalay. Imagine flying from one city to another for a meeting? When you work for a public school board, you are lucky to get taxi fare to go from one school to another!

Last night I had dinner with a wealthy entrepreneur from Yangon and two university representatives from Singapore who also happened to be ethnic Chinese women from Indonesia and Malaysia respectively. We had a chance to discuss politics, education, the state of Myanmar and the state of Singaporean women as the government encourages marriage and childbirth with various incentive programs. All this while music from Dr. Zhivago was playing in the background ,a movie I saw when I was in second year university. I couldn’t help but think of myself as a twenty year old again seeing Dr. Zhivago with his whole life in front of him. Now, here I was talking smack, as Joshua would say ,halfway around the world with people actually seeming to care what I was saying. with One could say I have come a long way but if truth be known, I am still the same guy I was 40 years ago. That is probably the sad part.

Now I am writing this because I am trying to avoid rereading the Singapore math curriculum. Next week I promised to give a series of workshops on the curriculum which to make an understatement, is grossly unfair to the teachers listening to what I have to say. Math was never my strong suit. Anyway, got to get back to my work. Speak to you later.

It is now later…I am in Mandalay avoiding writing another workshop I am presenting this Saturday on outcome based education and learning theory. Actually, it should be quite a lot of fun, but I do have to fiddle with power point a lot to-night which I am not looking forward to. I left school early to-day to play golf and went right behind my hotel. Last year, I walked up to the top of Mandalay Hill and you may remember seeing pictures of the sunset from the top. This year. I was playing golf at sunset from the bottom looking up at all of these fantastic pagodas each more impressive than the other as you climb your way to the top.

Today, I had a chat with the Singaporean ambassador to Myanmar who was visiting the school and asking the Singaporean teachers how they were doing. I asked if he cared about an honorary Singaporean just visiting Mandalay for a few days .He laughed. At some point it may not be a laughing matter.

OK, back to the power point. Nice chatting but I must work!

Here I am again with another story. Last night, the Yunan association in Myanmar had a graduation ceremony for their students who took Chinese. There had to be a thousand Chinese people in the hall in the Yunan community centre. I was very happy to be invited as a representative from my school and slink around the back seats. Instead, I was ushered up to the front row with the Counsel-General of China and the President of the Yunan Association. Can you imagine? The ceremony took about two hours and for about 90 minutes I had an urgent need to go to the bathroom. At little bit intimidating considering I would have to walk out through all these people!

At dinner, the women and graduates sat at different tables and the big shots sat at the head table. What on earth was I doing there? They served me first because I was probably the oldest and the only Caucasian but how do you set aside the food you do not want to eat when everyone is watching you?

Tomorrow I do the tourist thing. I am putting myself into the hands of my driver and telling him to show me what I have not seen yet. It should be quite relaxing not having to represent Jhanada in front of everyone. See ya!

My Bangkok Routine

I remember being shocked last year when I asked second year teachers from American what they were doing on the week-end. They invariably told me they were going to watch a movie at home, cook, or go to some boxing class or other. I couldn’t believe it. Here they were living in a city of 16 million people and about as many wats, markets, shops, sites and sounds that could entertain them for life. Watching television? Were they crazy?

I have now been back in Bangkok again for a week and can finally relate. I have seen every wat ever made by a Thai, and then some. I even saw wats made by Khymer (I think). I have spent my days at every market from Chatachuk on the week-ends to floating markets to markets I just fell in to around Silom when I went to get my ticket for Yangon.I am leaving tomorrow for two weeks so will not be in contact, probably. Internet, electricty and other modern conveniences do not exist in Myanmar.

When I am in Bangkok I take pleasure, believe it or not, in enjoying the museum I live in, taking walks down the street on Sukhumvit and helping tourists pouring over a map (not that I can read a map, but I can generally direct them to where they want to go). I also just go and sit in the park and watch people. There are always tai chi classes in the morning and at night, picnics and volleyball Thai style. They hit the ball with their feet or head! I discovered this great swimming pool in the park literally beside where I live that I could not even see until I was on top of it! I joined for the year for one dollar and for that they needed a copy of my passport, a police check, health report etc. Luckily I had it all so no problem. The women in charge told me I did not have the right bathing suit. (I have three bathing suits which are the shorts types) and I will be damned if I am going to go and buy some Speedo when I already own three bathing suits so I pretended not to understand her whenever she speaks Thai to me or points to my “shorts”

This year, I am actually eating on the street and I am still alive to talk about, playing golf and getting there by motorbike. I have discovered that you can sling your clubs over you back and they rest nicely on the motorbike…so far anyway. As usual, I have had fun meeting interesting people at the golf course. One Korean guy would not let me pay for anything and wanted to play 36 holes. Since I had already made dinner arrangements with friends, I actually turned him down.

As I prepare to go to Myanmar tomorrow for two weeks ( I have to be there October 4 to represent my company in a golf tournament..that could be embarrassing) I am thinking of what I did for the last week in Bangkok. Nothing really, sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Yangon-My first official assignment

I just got back from my first official visit as "Dean of RV academies" We have a small school in Yangon Myanmar so it was a good test to see how things would work out. I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised at how I was treated. The school is in a posh hotel and as I came in they welcomed me back by name. Do you think that would happen at the Royal York? The bellmen and front desk personnel certainly remembered me from last April.

We now have a library and computer lab. As I was visiting, the librarian would not let me open a door by myself. The same thing happened in our office where we have about 20 people diligently working away at various and sundry tasks. Although it was difficult to be treated this way, I finally got used to ( about 5 seconds, I surmise)

The Myanmar kids are fantastic...respectful, possess very good English skills, enthusiastic and hard working. Nothing has changed on that front since I visited last spring. However, now that I have the title, the principal had me speak to the parents. It is amazing how adept I am getting at making power point presentations on the fly. I ran around for a few hours taking pictures of kids and teachers and then incorporated them into a slide presentation to talk about the school, the strengths and the challenges we face in the coming year. I love having a translator because it gives me time to think and I can watch the audience reaction. It also lets me know how many colloquial expressions I use all the time. For example, I said to the parents we had to pull our socks up. The translator certainly had no idea what I was talking about.

The questions the parents asked were hard hitting and to the point, but because I am a male, white, with gray hair, they seemed, at first glance to be accepting of what I have to say.

I also had to deal with a difficult parent in a private meeting at the principal's request. This was interesting since I was the one historically who usually caused the problems for principals, not solving them. Hopefully I succeeded. When I left Friday, no kid had dropped out yet so I guess I survived unscathed and hopefully did some good.

Whenever I met with or heard business people talk about travel, I have always been quite envious. Now I see what Daniel was talking about. I rolled out of bed in the hotel, went downstairs to the school, worked until 5 or 6 and then had supper and went to bed. I was in Yangon for a week and did no site seeing. I did walk around the downtown which is one big market but that was it. I did not play golf, visit any Temples or travel anywhere. Next week I go to Mandalay and I will be sure to book it over a week-end so I can do some visiting.

I am now back in Bangkok, getting ready to interview some teachers tomorrow and give them an orientation to teaching and our program. What is great about this job is that I have a diverse number of tasks which is fun. I know I will never be bored.

The Museum/Art Gallery

These pictures are not taken from some gallery downtown. They are all taken within a few steps of where I am typing this blog entry. Not really knowing my schedule this year, I decided to sublet an apartment for a few months rather than renting for a year to see if it was even worth paying rent for an apartment in Bangkok. I do want to have a place where I can hang my hat, but is it worth the money if I am only going to be in Bangkok one week a month or so? I do believe it is psychologically important to have my own place as opposed to a hotel, so I looked up Craigslist on the Internet and found this sublet which I am getting for about the price I paid for my apartment last year.( except my apartment last year could probably fit into the living room of this apartment)

It is right down the street from Emporium, a fashionable mall 5 minutes away. As an aside, I have never seen anyone buy anything in the mall (because the Gucci prices are way too expensive) but man, the Thais do dress well and parade themselves around the like they owned the mall. I guess they are out to impress and find some ‘farang’ with a fat wallet. Little do they know the prices are way too high for foreigners as well who will shop at MBK (like Wallmart, but way cheaper). I inquired about a tie at Hermes yesterday and quietly retreated from the store when she told me it was on sale for $250.

Anyway, back to the story. I got a place for three months from a fellow Canadian who is travelling. For some reason, he wanted someone in the apartment and wanted a little money to defray his costs of his travel. To give you some idea of this place, he pays $3.000 rent a month where the average Bangkok apartment probably rents for $300 or less. I never met this guy and only talked to him a few times by e mail but I took the apartment because I knew where it was and the price was right.

When I walked in yesterday, my jaw dropped. After deactivating the alarm (a huge stressor for me with all those buttons) and then taking time to find the light switches deftly hidden behind huge plants I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At first, I thought I was in a movie theatre. The T.V. was probably as big as the screen in Emporium or so it seemed at first blush. It will be great when I can figure out how to turn it on. He told me he has very high end audio equipment so he has a million gadgets and I have to try and figure out which gadget controls which machine and which button on which gadget to push. I think Walter would even be challenged by this one. I invited the computer teacher from my school to show me how to open the T.V. and even he could not figure it out, making me feel a little better. The living room is filled with books, DVD’s, movies and so on so it will be good if I can figure out how things work…if it is possible. Maybe the whole idea is that it is not supposed to work, just look good.

Walking down the hallway I discovered lots of bathrooms, bedrooms and an office better equipped than our head office in Singapore. I am going to have to take pictures of some of this equipment to ask Daniel what they are for. The computer screen that he uses is more the size of our television at home and here I am not exaggerating.

I think the apartment is probably larger, in square feet, than our house. I feel like some kind of imposter living here and imagine this is how the rich and famous must live…except I am not rich or famous!

The Adventure Begins

I am really excited about my new job. For those of you wondering which job I took when I took my leave last June, I decided to work for the Singapore company that has schools all over South East Asia. I am called the Dean and am responsible for curriculum as well as teacher development. It is right up my alley so it should be fun.

Last week I flew to Singapore to see the head office of the company and met the senior staff. We held strategic planning sessions all week and I also had a chance to meet Ministry officials from the Vietnamese Department of Education, lawyers and bankers, Cambridge officials, Singapore teachers and so on.I think my learning curve will be steep this year.

Last night I flew into Bangkok where I will be staying for the week-end before I head to Myanmar for the week. Frankly, I will be doing lots of travelling which Daniel says I will tire of in a big hurry. He might very well be right…we shall see. I did rent an apartment in Bangkok which I will tell you about in my next entry. It is more like a museum or art gallery than apartment.I am absolutely terrified of touching anything!!!

What can I say about Singapore after 10 days? Josh, it is still freezing. I don’t know what it is about Singaporeans, but they love to keep their air conditioning up to the max. I was really cold every time I went into a mall or restaurant. Speaking of restaurants, I can assure you that with my new boss I will be eating well this year. I have had noodles, poached eggs, an American hamburger, fish boiled at the table in our own pot overlooking the Singapore river, Subway, lots of Chinese dishes, to say nothing of our tea breaks which remind me more of a sit down meal than a break. In fact, I think I gained five pounds during the week I was in Singapore. Thankfully my boss is going to Vietnam for a few weeks while I am in Myanmar!!! Not sure my stomach could survive otherwise.

Singapore, although small, is very much like Toronto. As I was sipping tea in the café of our downtown office building and looking around at the buildings and people, I could easily have been on Richmond Street or Adelaide in Toronto. The infrastructure is there, everything works and the people speak English. A gentle way for anyone from North America to experience Asia.

Singapore is also very much like Toronto in its’ multicultural nature. There are Chinese (65% of the population), Malays, Indians, and Eurasians. It is actually written in their passport what nationality they are. The people certainly seem harmonious ( low murder rate, intermarriage, interesting cuisine, strong school system and so on). Actually, very much like Toronto in a way. And, like Toronto, there is a little India, China town ( which I really liked!), Arab street and all the rest. Certainly not assimilation, but perhaps integration at its best like Toronto.

When you look at the pictures, you will see I saw all of the requisite sites…Sentosa Island which is like something from California but without the American pizzaz, a very restful Botannical Garden with the magnificent orchids you see and China town, which I absolutely loved. I am going to Singapore a number of more times so I will no doubt see the night safari at the zoo as well as the butterfly garden which I look forward to.

I am now going to venture out into the Bangkok night for supper and a look around. I will let you know what changed tomorrow.