Oasis of Tranquility

Since I was going to a spagetti dinner party at a staff member's house near the airport, I chose to go to a Botanical Gardens in that general direction for the afternoon. Once you have been in Bangkok for a while, it is hard to imagine anywhere that is not busy, smelly, treacherous to walk and noisy! But I am here to tell you that I found it to-day. It is not in any guidebooks I could find and frankly, without the help of my massage lady who made the suggestion yesterday, I never would have even heard of it.

If you look at the pictures, at first glance it could be High Park or Hyde Park until you look a little closer and see the spirit house, the ladies with umbrellas for sun protection, the food that people are eating with their picnic, the unrelenting sun which you may be able to perceive in the pictures and the perfect charm of the place. It took me a little while to figure out that we were in a magical place. Even as I write this, lying in my bed on a Sunday night, I hear the cars and motorcycles charging along my street and the interminable whistles that doormen love to blow to usher out cars...except for my doorman who won't even open the gate for a taxi until we honk about three times since he is busily writing in his notebook. I have never even seen him look up and have no idea what he looks like. I wonder if he is alive?

The park had a lake with paddle boats, a Chinese botanical area, actual toilets with running water, lots of benches, and not many people. What could be more pleasant on a Sunday afternoon. ( I will tell you). It got so hot, I opted to go to dinner 3 hours early and spent the three hours in the pool with a pair of shorts at least three sizes too big. What a pleasure to be in the water. The last time I remember anything feeling quite that good was jumping into a pool at a golf course after 18 holes in what I used to think was a hot day.

I spent the evening with teacher colleagues having dinner which I am beginning to think really improves the working atmosphere at the school. Next week I got roped into hosting a Canadian Thanksgiving party by promising I would not have to do anything but show up and make sure my door was unlocked.

Tomorrow night I am playing night golf which is really charming. I may convince Daniel to give it a try the next time he is here in December.

Thai Health Care

If you have to get sick, I think Thailand is the place to be. I had this notion confirmed when I went to the dentist this morning ( Sunday morning) for those that may be reading this some time in the future. You read it right...Sunday morning. Last week, I did something incredibly stupid...ate a soft boiled egg and part of my molar feeling fell out. You may remember from my last blog I got to see a dentist immediately in Pukhet but since he told me I needed a crown I said I would wait until I got back to Bangkok.

When I met this dentist today I asked him if he ever took time off since he was working Sunday. He said he did take off two days a week. When I asked him what he did on those days he said he prepared his lectures and wrote his columns. When I asked him what he prepared his lectures on, he said his speciality which was facial reconstructions. He apparently lectures widely on that subject. He also writes movie reviews for both Thai and American papers and cleans up the house for his wife. When I told him he would certainly be included in my blog, he said to link it to his impressive web site www.rudsooparb.com. Here you will find his moview reviews and so on. When he did get to my tooth, he used the same vocabulary as well as instruments that my dentist uses at home.

When I asked him why he returned from Thailand from practicing in the United States where he actually earned more money, he told me the usual story...he needed to be closer to his parents as they were getting older. I heard the same story from my massage lady who comes from Issan. She lives on the floor in her apartment without running water, yet supports her sister at school, has bought three buffalo for her parents, chickens and a car. This is a very common story in Thailand and one I believe to be true. The sense of family is overwhelming and permeates every aspect of society.

Later on, once I upload some pictures, I will show you what I did in the afternoon, post filling. p.s. I do not need a crown and my filling cost 2000 bhat...about $60. Try getting a filling in Toronto for $60 from a dentist that does movie reviews!

Daniel's Visit

The first thing I noticed when Daniel and I went for a walk is that Daniel walked at Daniel (Toronto speed) and I walked at Thailand speed. There is a difference when it is 35 degrees in the shade! I wonder how long it would take Daniel to slow down if he lived here? Probably never, I suspect.

This was the first time in two months that I have had to discuss eating, what time to go to sleep, what to see and so on and frankly, it was just very natural. I guess it helps when the person you are making decisions with is your son. For example, last night, Daniel said:” let’s go for a walk”. Now you have to understand that Thailand has no sidewalks or lights so when you walk, you do so at your peril because you could break your ankle falling into a huge crack or even worse, get hit by a car or motorcycle because you are walking on the wrong side of the road (or the right side of the road for that matter!). I would say we walked for a mile or so up some mountainous road and it was only afterwards that I realized this is what I do all the time -every night in fact). I go down soi’s that are not well lit, discover all kinds of interesting activities and see what most tourists never see. Last night, Daniel and I discovered a whole street set up with tables and what looked like card games going on at each table. I told Daniel that gambling was illegal in Thailand so we must have been delusional. However, to get back to my point, only my son would want to do something so crazy as walk where it clearly was not safe and I realized I do the same thing all the time.

It reminded me the first time we played golf together. Daniel hit his first shot ever (150 yards straight down the fairway) and then ran after the ball. I never saw anything like that on a golf course before. That is because I can’t see myself!

It was certainly interesting seeing Phuket through someone else’s eyes. For example, last night walking on Bangla Road in Patong Daniel saw all kinds of ladies of the night with foreign sex tourists. Frankly, I either didn’t notice or am so used to it that it did not leave an imprint on me. He was also petrified in our rented car because we were driving on the wrong side of the road. By this time, I guess I am used to it, but it is interesting seeing “myself” as I must have been only 2 months ago.

Because it is the ‘rainy’ season’ there is a tremendous undertow in the ocean and you are apparently not supposed to swim. Daniel told me this after we spent the afternoon in the water. Apparently they lose 6 tourists a month who go into the water, get swept out to sea and can’t get back in. Daniel told me there was a red flag by the lifeguard station .I certainly did not see the lifeguard station or the rid flag.! That certainly is one difference between Daniel and I. There is nothing he does not notice….ever.

We are staying at Surin Beach in a 5 star hotel. The difference between where I usually stay is night and day. In some of the places I have stayed in when I ask for a towel, they look at me like I am from another planet. Soap in these places was absolutely out of the question. In this hotel, they even turn down our beds at night and the swimming pool, I am sure is more than Olympic size as it winds it way down a palm studded alley. Anyway, Daniel is getting up so I am off to our scrumptious breakfast. Catch you later!

The meal was great and today we are off to Bangkok. Can’t wait to see how Daniel reacts to where I live and what I do. Maybe he will write the next blog. I now I will certainly miss his company but he is coming back in November when we will see the rest of the Thailand! Last night we went around Bangkok a bit and even though I have lived here a few months it is not surprising that Daniel gave directions and showed me around.What else is new?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

What do you do when school is cancelled and you have a day to spend by yourself without a worry in the world.? Go for a ride on the river, of course! I sort of felt like Ferris Beuller because one of the campus’ was closed and even though I work on both campus’ I took advantage of my situation to ‘fool around.’ I decided to see some of the major tourist attractions of Thailand which happened to be centred around the Chao Phraya river..

When I got to the ferry, by way of the BTS or overhead public transportation, I took the all day pass to ride the river and that is exactly what I did. I started out at the Temple of Dawn. As you can see from the pictures, it is really beautiful and a well known landmark in Bangkok. I had always seen the obelisk structure from afar but I was surprised by the stone whimsical characters I saw. I was also delightfully surprised by the fact that I could use my school identification to get in free. In Thailand, there are two prices for everything….farang and Thai. Now I can get the Thai price, at least in one place. The Thais make no bones about this differentiated policy. In the Wat Pho, which I visited next, there was a place for the Thais to leave their shoes ( which was a lot more convenient that farangs) and a separate entrance to the reclining Budda.. Fair enough, I guess. They went directly to pray or meditate and we simply went to gawk.

At Wat Pho, they have the world famous massage school. All the massage places in Bangkok seem to have a licence from the city or country to operate and they all seemed to be trained at the Wat Pho. I do find my massages consistent and the routine identical no matter which massage outlet I enter. It is almost like yoga with the very specific positions the massage person has to go through to give a proper “Wat Pho” massage. I was going to get a massage there but it was way too expensive, surprisingly. As you can see from the picture, it is not so surprising tha they practice on each other, I guess like Josh practicing on his colleagues. Proabably not that great.

After I finished looking around the Wat, I got back on the river, always filled with monks waiting to get on the boat and went to the famous Oriental hotel. By the way, there is a separate entrance for everything for the monks. Since the river has all the important Temples, you will see from the pictures that they are everywhere. To get on the boat, you have to enter a line from the left, unlike Canada where we enter everything from the right.Because I find it hard to break the habit, I keep looking the wrong way when I cross the street and certainly entering the dock area walked down the wrong gangplank reserved only for the monks which happened to be on the right.. What an embarrassment as they were all standing there ( as you will see from the pictures) as I was being yelled at.

Anyway, back to the Oriental hotel. I had heard that it was the most elegant hotel in Bangkok, if not the world. Frankly, I was rather disappointed with it, at least the part I saw. It was very ordinary, in spite of the 950 bhat tea service, which did look elegant, but I preferred my iced tea from a street vendor, who spent about 10 minutes making the hot tea, cooling it in a glass of ice, squeezing in about 3 limes, stirring in the sugar and so on. And believe me, the price was not 950 bhat. I also went to the next street vendor for a banana crepe.for 10 bhat. The street ventors have a little motorized bicyles with the stove attached and it is actually quite amazing to see them pick up and move from location to location. Not quite the same as the Toronto hot dog ventors who bring their cars and attach the stand to the car!

After the Oriental, I tried to go the Royal Barge museum but it happened to be closed. However, I had to walk through a hospital and it was like a little city. There were 30 thousand doctors, nurses, patients, cleaning staff etc and according to some German medical students I talked with, it was a great hospital. When you visit a hospital in Bangkok, and I occasionally eat in the one beside my school, it is more like an elegant resort than a hospital. I think Thailand is the place to get sick, even for the Thais.

My next stop along the river was Banlampu and Khao San Road where all of the tourists hang out. I was so proud of myself again in my bargaining abilities. After spending about 15 minutes at a clock store buying an alarm clock and spending full price, 500 bhat, I went next store to another clock store and saw the same thing for 350 bhat. I returned to the first store and told them I saw the same clock for sam lois or 300. The woman wanted to give me back my money and let me go next store to get it but her husband yelled at her and she gave me back 200. When I was leaving Khao San road there were two people trying to get a ride to the BTS and negotiating with a tuk tuk driver for a decent fare. He wanted to charge them somthing like 300 bhat. I told them to come with me, jumped in a cab, spoke in Thai, or some relatively close facilime and got us to the subway for 50 bhat. They were backpackers from England and New Zealand. She was working on her Ph.D in Asian movie studies and he was a doctor taking some time away from his practice. I can see that if I was actually traveling alone it would be quite easy to meet fascinating people by simply going to the famous tourist spots and simply start talking. I presume that is what Josh just did in his recent Greece trip which I can’t wait to hear about that trip in December..

To-day, I am not going to check my e mail or answer the phone, in case the owner of the school or someone tries to get hold of me. I am just heading for the airport and getting on a plane for Phuket, a few days early but can’t wait to see Daniel again. He is in Hong Kong doing some business, but we are going to spend the week-end together. It should be great. Stay posted for the pictures! draft by Michael 5:46:00 PM Delete

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Making it happen

Throughout my professional life, I have organized conferences, workshops, fairs, simulations etc and I have always been "accused" of coming up with the idea but delegating the details to others who made it happen. To some extent that is true. My modus operandi was to get a team together, develop the concept and work out the implementation details. It always worked for a number of reasons. There were usually detail people, conceptual people, artistic people and so on and synergistically we created something none of us could have done alone...and it is true that I did not do all of the detail work because I did not want to and there were always people who enjoyed that aspect of whatever program we were working on whether it was creating a web site or promoting a Canadian heritage fair.

About a month ago, the Superintendent asked me to spend our professional development day working with the staff on assessment and evaluation. I can't remember whether he gave me the topic or simply the task of working with the staff of both campus' I did what I always do, which was put together a team of staff members who I have worked with in the first few months, met and outlined an agenda, got their input based on their own experience, outlined who was going to do what during that day and gave them their marching orders. One person volunteered to open the conference with a task, another created a activity which he did with the group for the first twenty minutes and all of them prepared workshops. Not a problem. Everything worked according to the pattern I have established all my working life. Get a team together and make good things happen.

The divergence to the pattern happened in the next few weeks. I had no-one to pass the ball to in terms of the myriad details that traditionally a detail person would have been delighted to do such as creating name tags with group numbers on the back and workshop numbers on the front,negotiating with the boss for the appropriate facilities, deciding on what to serve for snacks and lunch and when to serve it, ordering and then testing out equipment, making sure rooms were open and equipment put in rooms, figuring out how to print out my power point with the lines where people could write, indeed even making a power point with fancy "do-dads" and detgermining where to set the podium for maximum exposure. I did sort of key a keynote address with presentation, table talk, presentation.

I knew the content...that was not a problem and I knew I could deliver that. The question was...could I make the conference professional in all the details?

Obviously, or I would not be writing this, the conference did run in a really professional manner without a hitch. I received tons of positive comments. I have no idea whether the content challenged the participants but I do know the details were professional and everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do.

As an aside, what is good about my job is that I am the in house consultant. Normally when you go to a conference, you might try out a few ideas as a teacher but when they fail you simply give up. In this particular case, they have me around all the time for follow through.

Anyway, back to the main point. I guess I even had a nagging doubt in the back of mind whether I could do the details and guess what...I did. So, the moral of the story is, it is not preferred style for sure, and the details are what caused me tremendous stress this week in all my presentations, but I proved to myself that when I have no-one to pass the ball to, I can do it! Nice feeling.

By way of celebration, what do you think I did...play golf or have a massage? If you guessed play golf you are right, but here is the twist. There is a golf course with lights so we could play in the dark. In fact, we finished at 11 pm. I assumed the golf course would be a mickey mouse par three which suited me fine. However, it was probably the most challenging golf course I have ever played. There was water on every hole, tons of sand, huge trees, monuments sticking out of nowhere and challenging greens. It was really target golf. What was beautiful is that with the lights, the huge banana and coconut trees were silhouetted against the night sky making for a surrealistic feeling. All the dots did not connect and you could forget momentarily where you were or why you were there.

This morning, I am off to a seaside town called Pattaya, where the owner of the school has decided to take us on a bonding trip. Should be fun so I had better feel my knapsack with my bathing suit and shorts and get going. Not quite what would happen at York or in public education. This is a week of firsts for me...giving a presentation on the white board and depending on the technicians to make that board work in appropriate moments, doing all of the details of the conference myself and not taking a trip paid for by my boss. Can life get any better than this? O yea, and playing golf at night. I have done that before, but never with lights. It makes it easier.

Techno Wizard

Who would have thunk it! I had to give two parent presentations on curriculum and I decided to take pictures of classes in the school and talk about curriculum through actual events in the school.The picture part was easy.I went to visit various classes, developed themes in my mind that I wanted to talk about and uploaded to picassa. That was the easy part.

I assumed I could download all of them to powerpoint at once and do some cutting and pasting or something. Not so. I discovered, to my chagrin, you have to download one picture at a time which is a real pain, especially for someone like me who has no patience.

I asked a computer teacher to help during the day and he kindly did so. In fact, at the end of the day he asked how I did and when he saw I was stuck in the mud he took it home, worked on it, put labels on all the pictures and rearranged them and virtually did my presentation for me. All I had to do was speak!

Believe me, that also was not as easy as it looked. Last night, we had a "white board" where all I had to do was the tap the screen with my wand and it went to the next picture. Great you say, exept that the white board had to be calibrated and the choir was singing first and we had to move the screen out of the way so the parents could see the choir. When my name was called I had to tap dance for a while until the screen was calibrated and ready to go.Good experience, standing before a 100 parents with nothing to say until the slide show was ready. Don't exactly remember what I said but it must have worked.

I know I did a great job, considering most of the parents spoke little English so they really appreciated the pictures. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and asked me if she could take my picture. Wow, I didn't realize I was that powerful a speaker! Unfortunately, she spoiled it by telling me she loved the tie and wanted a picture of it.( my 50th birthday present)

After my experience last night, which I celebrated with a hamburger, fries and coke, I was set to rock and roll today for my "show" at the other campus. I was so confident I even left things for the same day and spent the morning taking pictures. I thoughtI would spend about an hour arranging the pictures, resizing them, putting on labels and putting them in an order but guess what- nothing is ever as easy as it looks. The presentation was at 4 and I just finished with moments to spare, and I mean moments.

What did I learn? That I can actually figure things out ( more or less) without Daniel. I also learned that pictures are extreme entertaining for an audience and makes everyone feel good, especially when they see their own son or daughter in the pictures. I tried to mention every teachers' name and highlight the key curriculum thrusts at the school. I know I did well, pleased the boss, ticked off a few teachers who did not get a mention and celebrated with golf and dinner at the driving range.

This was no ordinary driving range. As usual, you could order dinner and drinks as you were practicing, but what was different was the size. There were about 15 stores in the driving range all specializing in some aspect of golf, be it clothes, clubs, etc. It really was quite amazing and I shall return.

My next challenge, other than hitting a golf ball properly, is to make sure a large conference I am running on Friday actually works. It the past, I have had lieutenants do the grunt work like ordering materials, projectors, making name tags, arranging furniture, taking care of all the details. This time, I will do it all tomorrow and hopefully no teacher will ask me for any help so I will have time to work. With luck, I will get everything arranged and be ready to rock and roll for Friday.

This week-end, the owner of the school is taking us to Pattaya which, I am sure, will prove interesting. Stay tuned for the next episode.

Hua Hin

We had a good week at school. A few kids got sick in kindergarten and rather than risk infecting other students the school was closed for a few days...yippee!!! I took a long week-end and went to Hua Hin. I figure if it is good enough for the king ( this is where he hangs out apparently) and the Globe and Mail ( there was an article there a few weeks ago)I figure it must be good enough for me.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I better use my words carefully to paint a picture. Hua Hin is a beach side town where I believe a lot of Europeans and wealthy Thais come for short breaks. There seems to be a boom in real estate beach side condos and every second storefront is pushing some new properties with private swimming pools in your own secluded villa. I would even buy one if the price were reasonable but at a few hundred thousand dollars, I passed.

Frankly, I was quite disappointed with the beach and sea. As I walked down to the ocean there were a million stalls selling beach paraphanelia and when I got to the beach after about 100 yeards all I saw was a sea of umbrellas and chairs. The reason, I found it, is that no-one was going in the water because of the sea urchins and the sand had sharp coral so people came to sit under an umbrella and drink beer and eat. I decided I could do that at my hotel pool( minus the beer). I sat underneath an umbrella and read my learning Thai for idiot book but I am such an idiot I didn't realize the umbrella was just covering my top half and got my first Thai sunburn on my legs.

Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of playing golf on a new course just outside of town. Just my luck that I got a Muslim caddy. It was the second day of Ramadan and she had to take the job because it was her first caddying experience of the week but it was about 36 degrees and she would not drink the water I bought for her. By the second nine I was even carrying my own bag as she was wilting on every hole and spent a lot of time curled up on the grass while I hit the ball. I felt so sorry for her but this is so typical of Thailand. People work such long hours for so little remuneration. The security at my building, for example, seem to work for 24 hours...the same person!The van driver drove me to Hua Hin ( about 3 hours), loaded up with 10 more passengers and off he went without even a ten minute rest.

However, I should have counted my lucky stars for getting such a lethargic caddy the first day. Yesterday I played at the first golf course in Thailand, royal Hua Hin. The course was created in 1924 once the railroad was built and Hua Hin was a stop over place for travellers going south. The course was absolutely fantastic. I saw a sign in the office saying Thai and expats 1,000 bhat. I was wondering who else could possibly play there until I was asked for 1,500. When I asked why she said I was a farang, not expat. I explained I worked in Bangkok and she was quite please to let me play for 1,000 if I had a card. Believe me, I am getting a card printed this week!

Anyway, back to the caddy. She was extremely bossy, not letting me hit the clubs I wanted, telling Thais they had to play with me, holding my stick when I had the wrong angle etc. She wouldn't even let me go home alone and insisted on driving me home on her motorbike. She was 51 and had been divorced for many years...I wonder why?

Actually, I had quite a good time because this was the first time I actually played with Thais. Usually I play with people at school. On the second hole, one of the Thai guys asked me what my handicap was after he saw me hit a bad shot. I think he wanted to bet with me but I said no, not knowing Thai culture. Who knows, I could have lost the farm if they were big betters. However, on the next hole, a par three, he it one out of bounds after I had put mine of the green. I took out a 1000 bhat and offered to bet on this hole. Everyone else in the group seemed to see the humour and laughed uproariously....all he did was grumble. Lucky for me my caddy made me pick up my ball and move to the next group who only had a twosome.

In short, hua Hin had nice golf courses but that was about all. Even if I had my camera, other than the train station which was remarkably small and cute, I don't know what I would have taken pictures of.

This will be a big week for me at school. I have two evenings of parent presentations and a big conference I organized this Friday so I am looking forward to some stimulation. Next week-end I will deserve a break. The boss wants to take the staff to "Pattaya" for a bonding experience. Since it is Yom Kippur I am not sure I will go. Time will tell.