Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Bangkok and beyond

Hello again,

When I left you last I was preparing for my first trip to Bangkok. About two hours by bus from my current abode (Singburi), Bangkok (of which I only saw a small bit) appears to offer immense amounts of night life and shopping which my town lacks. As one of the mysterious authority figures in my hostel told me, "Bangkok is great, you can get anything you want.. I mean anything." I took this advice with a grain of salt but after my first night, I sort of got an idea of what he was talking about (and kind of a creepy vibe as well).

In one area, where I spent most of my time, street vendors and cab drivers fill the streets during the day time, begging (sometimes aggressively) each passing tourist to come purchase their goods/services. The same occurs at night, only instead of street vendors and cab drivers, it's prostitutes (both female and transgendered) and 'ping pong show' promoters (the most inappropriate thing you could think about involving said title). However, to be fair, I only explored one small segment of the giant metropolis, and I also heard that these scenarios are rather unique to the particular area I was in. The club scene was also a sort of culturing experience, filled with heavy trance/techno music, strobe lights, and sweaty individuals (of which I was one) until 5am.

I also got my first Thai massage while in Bangkok, something which in my opinion definitely lived up to its hype. For 230 baht or about $7, (me and a couple friends haggled the price down from 250 baht [a difference of about 65 cents] in just under 20 minutes of intense negotiation) you can get a professional and high quality massage for 90 minutes. The food in Bangkok was also something that had a lasting impact on me. I ate a couple of meals in nicer restaurants (maybe $6 a plate) which were good, but I was most impressed by the noodle stands and street meats (which to the surprise of some of my traveling companions, have yet to have an effect on my health). All in all, my first trip to the big city was enjoyable but I think for future trips I will seek out less touristy areas which I assume will be less flooded with aggressive salesman and night walkers.

Yesterday marked the end of my two week teacher training/certification period, of which I have little to report other than the countless hours I spent translating the lesson plans from Thai to English with the help of James, my English-speaking Thai superior, who insisted that the lesson plans include sentences/concepts which make little if any sense in English (i.e. something about "children collecting the knowledge", and how human organs are affected by touching/contact and sunlight?). We'll see how it goes if and when I actually get to spend a substantial amount of time in front of the students (who are a terrific group of 6 and 7-year-olds) but as of now its fair to say I'm less than impressed with my job description (in addition, I'm one of three English teachers in the same classroom, which makes me seriously question my purpose).

There's now a three week end of term break (thank God) before my formal teaching term starts, so I've planned a trip to do volunteer teaching up in the poorer/northern region of Chiang Rai. Nick's off to Australia for these three weeks so I'll be up on my own, but I'm confident after reading the brochure and talking to the program organizer that my teaching situation will be a lot better than it has been thus far (at the very least I will be the only English teacher in my classroom). I'll try and update you all next week from the jungles of northern Thailand (I'm told I'll have internet but we'll see), and sorry for the long gap since my last entry. I miss you all and please fill me in on any exciting developments occurring back home.

Best,

H



(Below is a link with pictures and info for where I will be for the next three weeks and some of my own pictures from Bangkok).


http://www.akhahill.com/10_1publiction.htm






No comments:

Post a Comment