Bugs!!!

The first time I saw the fried bug vendor at a festival was when I stumbled onto an event at Saphan Hin Park. Jackie was out on a girls' night that Saturday and I had nothing to do. Too restless to spend yet another night at the house I headed into Phuket Town in hopes of finding a snooker hall. As I was aimlessly putting along on my scooter strings of lights, carnival tents and a huge stage appeared (at the time I didn't know that it was Saphan Hin Park). Dismounting near the water and lights show I made my way towards the main stage. The first stall I passed was a variety of fried bugs, I was tempted to snatch a plate full of them immediately, but being a bit of a media whore and not having a camera I passed.

Giant water bugs upfront

 Just look at that selection!

My general philosophy  for food is try it at least once, and do your best to join the Clean Plate Club mother was always going on about. This has backfired several times, most notably in Ghana when I passed by a an old woman grilling bats next to the zoo. I had never tried bat, so despite the trees above that were heavily laden with the flying rats I bought one of their crisped bodies.

With the red pepper sauce smothered on it, the bat ended up looking more like an aborted fetus than any kind of food I was aware of. I was only able to pose with it in my mouth for a quick picture, though I did make a half-hearted attempt at nibbling on one of its wings.

Here in Phuket, I was ready to give the odd foods of the world another try. I have heard of bugs in chocolate and might have even tried a couple chocolate ants in my time, but fired up bugs served a la cart was going to be something different I was sure. They were bound to taste like bug and not so much like chocolate crunchies.

The fried bug vendor at Patong Carnival last week was my ticket. I had actually passed on the chance to gobble down some insects Lion King style on several different occasion by then, but that night was different -- Jackie and I had a camera!

Though bug eating is supposedly popular in northern Thailand I had my doubts about its deliciousness. The bamboo worm aka "train worm" especially didn't seem too appetizing.

That is no tiny giant water bug between my chopsticks.

Yes, I know people really don't eat anything like that, but I was already six or so bugs in: big crickets, small crickets, bamboo worms and larva. I wasn't sure I could handle breaking through the tough oil slick wings of the giant water bug and really getting to the"meat" of the matter. 

The bugs won this one. After shoveling as many of them into my mouth as I could handle I ended up spitting out the remains of the cockroach and ditching the rest of my 50 baht bug meal. Luckily, Jackie was willing to split a beer with me, because I don't think I could have handled the oil bug flavor for much longer.

Christmas Thai Style (Jackie)

One of my favorite aspects of Thai culture is the unsurpassable joy and energy Thai’s put into every holiday, even the most seemingly minor holidays such as national Sports Day, which was celebrated with a day off and a 2,000+ person parade. Even though Thai’s seem to celebrate absolutely everything I was still not expecting more than a sliding acknowledgement of the existence of Christmas.  Rarely have I been more wrong.

Granted, my experience of Christmas was skewed because I celebrated it at an international school where 15% of children are foreign, but here, in a 90% Buddhist country, I celebrated Christmas at a school for the first time ever. Classes were cancelled and a half day was given. 50% of classes the day before were cancelled in order to decorate all of the classrooms and school with colored lights, garlands, snowflakes, Santa Clauses, and Christmas trees. The result was stunning. Even the atrium housed a 20ft beautifully decorated Christmas tree with an array of perfectly wrapped boxes beneath it. 

(Not the tree I was referring too but another nice one :)

                               (Teachers relaxing after the kids left for the day)

On Friday, all 1,800 students showed up in red and green clothing, Santa suits, frosty the snowman outfits, Santa hats, and Christmas dresses to play pin the tail on Rudolph, sing Christmas carols, preform Christmas dances that had been practiced for weeks, write letters to Santa, make Christmas ornaments, and do gift exchanges. Kids were caroling in the hallway and even some ESC kids that barely can speak English in complete sentences could do a fairly good rendering of ‘Jingle Bells.’ Food was provided for Christmas parties and desks were pushed together in long tables that the kids in each class sat around. Looking through the glass windows it appeared to be a proper Christmas dinner.

                                               (Can you find Frosty?)

      (Most classes put on some type of Christmas show for the rest of the school)

As I watched tiny Thai kindergarteners dance to ‘Silver Bells,’ I couldn’t help but to laugh at the absurdity of a 90% Buddhist culture celebrating every aspect of Christmas except the Christ part, while back home in a 80% Christian society we desperately avoid any mention of the holiday in school, even the non-religious aspects. We are trained from a young age to refer to Christmas break as ‘Winter break’ and Christmas parties as ‘Holiday parties,’ decorating the school with secular blue and white snowflakes instead of Santa’s in order refrain from making anyone of another religion uncomfortable, even though a few red and green paper chains has little chance of offending anyone.

                                          (Making Christmas ornaments)

                                           (Writing letters to Santa)

                                          (Making Christmas ornaments)

  When I asked some of my caroling students if they celebrated Christmas at home they laughed and said ‘no,’ but that they loved decorating and singling the songs… and of course, the gift exchange. My first thought was ah, of course, they ignore the heart of Christmas because the religious connotations conflict with their own, but adopt the fun celebration aspect. Then I had to laugh at myself because that’s all I celebrate too, through the entire decoration process, the school’s Christmas party, and my own celebration at home, I never once thought of Christ and the origins of Christmas. I celebrate the same aspects of the holiday as Buddhists, the fun ones, even though I consider the holiday ‘mine,’ and an integral part of my culture and therefor who I am. Still laughing….

(Taking a break from cleaning to play with our new Van de Graaff generator)

                                                    (The science team minus 1)

About Joe

December 5th was His Majesty the King's Birthday, which means it was also Father's day, as HM the King is seen as the father of all Thai people. In the features section of the paper we run two bios of fathers on the island. One was a well-to-do expat who was making personal sacrifices to spend more time training his athlete kids. The other was our beloved "Joe".

The interview with Joe was my first attempt to conduct an interview with an individual who was far from  fluent in English. 

We sat down on the steps of the 7/11 in Rawai and slowly tried to talk about what it meant for him to be a father. From time to time he would have to get up and put a batch of customers skewered foods into the deep fryer. I would just turn the recorder off and enjoy the coolness of the night air as I tried to figure out how to move the conversation forward.

My interviewing skills were horrendous to say the very least. Constantly I caught myself asking very leading questions, things that maybe he could just say "yes" or "no" to. I could see that my own preconceptions of Joe and what little I knew about him had already formulated "his" story. Sadly I seemed to be just trying to get him to back up my story instead of letting him tell me what his story really was. 

I know I'll get better about these things, it's embarrassing to think about running such an unethical interview, even if it was from a lack of experience and language barriers. Nonetheless, when I sat down to write the story about him I tried my very best to be honest to what he was saying and steer clear of some of the leading questions I had asked him.

Here is the story as seen in the pages of the Phucket Gazette:

Thongchai Photiwong  [Joe] Photo: PG

"Thongchai Photiwong is a father of two. He runs a fried food sidecar outside of a 7- Eleven in Rawai. His wife, Monluedee, who he has been married to for six years, is currently living in Chiang Rai with their two children.

Thangchai explains that he moved to Phuket because he could only make 2,000 – 3,000 baht a month in Chiang Rai. Now he sends money back to his family every two weeks. Thangchai explains that he works everyday of the week, usually from 2pm to 5am.

'I only work – everything is for the children,' he said. 

His daughter is five and talks to him on the phone when he calls home, while the newest member of Thongchai’s family is a six-month old boy. 

He hopes that both the girl and boy will attend law school. Sometime this December Thangchai will be returning to Chiang Rai to bring his family to Phuket.

'I think they will be happy here. A family should stay together, not separate. Separate is no good,' he said. Thangchai explains he will have to work on the King’s Birthday, December 5, but he will get to talk to his children on the phone." -- Phuket Gazette

Absolutely nothing brilliant and perhaps even a little sloppy at points, but I thought some of you might enjoy a peek into Joe's life, since he keeps popping up on the blog. (When I was typing up the story I had to ask one of our Thai reporters what "low school" was. It sure didn't seem like the right expectations for someone to have for their children. After a little brain storming and re-listening to the interview it turned out that I had completely misheard, Joe had said "LAW school".)  Unfortunately I've still not figured out a way to get Tongue Dog to give me an interview -- not even leading questions will help me on this one. 

Dive Column 1

Here's the first article for my dive column! I'm supposed to be turning this out once a fortnight.

All the writing is in the article: http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/phuketlifestyle/2011/article11676.html

Five moments in Thailand

The long work hours at the office (I had 15 day last week setting the paper to bed Wednesday) plus the commute have made it hard for me to get on a computer and get up as many blog posts as I would like, so in addition to working on some reasonably sized posts I think I'll start putting out five small moments from Jackie's and my life here in Phuket, Thailand.

1) Saturday after work and checking in on poor Jackie I snuck out of the house to catch a sunset at Nai Harn beach. I rarely get out of work in time to enjoy these little treats, so I really didn't want to miss the opportunity.

Out in the flat calm ocean, facing shore with sun setting behind the sailboats at my back I watched a school of minnow jump form the water a dozen at a time, as they were chased by bigger fish. Each time they went airborne their tiny bodies looked like drops of white gold as they caught the setting sun, I was entranced. I probably could have spent a life time watching the fish flee from the large fish just below the surface, however the aged-potbellied Russian's in their skimpy bathing suites wading out toward my like a sexy girl should in wet-dreams brought me back to reality. Luckily their bulbous bodies didn't ruin the real magic of the setting sun and the frantic fish.

2) There is a massage parlor not far from our house, well I should say that there are dozens of massage parlors not from our house, but there is a specific one that is staffed by the blind. I would like to say that I visit this one solely because I have no interest in a "special" message or a "happy ending" or for that matter just because I want to support the blind, however the real reason I visit the parlor is because it is the cheapest around at a 150 baht ($4.87) for an hour. The only place cheaper just opened up in Phuket Town and staffed by female inmates with good behavior records that got trained as masseuse. The idea of the blind work as masseuses is not a very new one. Both Japan and Vietnam I believe have actually set aside that field of work for blind people, because it is one of the few jobs that their handicap doesn't have a huge impact. The other major job that the blind in Thailand have is selling tickets for the national lottery (I still have no idea how that whole thing works).

The masseuse's hands began to work on my legs as I lay on my stomach and then there was a fascinating moment as his hands ran over my left shin (which has a huge deep scar -- it looks like someone took an ax to my leg). I could feel him take several passes over the scare, there was a tangibility to his curiosity. He didn't necessary linger on it, but there was something in the way that he touched the spot that you could tell that he was piecing out the image in his head.

3) A rainbow that turned into a double rainbow (never got to the triple rainbow -- so no tears of joy) appeared over Thailand's flag. The rain was coming down hard and there it was, perfectly framed outside the window by my desk.

Photo by: Chaiyot

4) Ate at a Korean buffet and all you can eat sushi restaurant at Tesco Lotus with some co-workers Thursday. Hot water was poured around the tables grill and two pieces of fat placed on top. A multi-colored conveyor belt brought plate after plate of food by, vegitbales, mushrooms, fish , chicken, pork -- you name it.

Photo by: http://www.bloggang.com/data/littlesquidy/review/images/chuanchim_3_41_2.jpg

They brought me a seat to sit at the end of the booth and I must admit that I felt huge in the tiny chair. Like a ten-year-old boy trying to squeeze into a baby's car seat. The vegetables were placed in the hot water around the grill and slowly made a soup with all the grease and delicious flavors dripping off the thinly sliced cooked meat that we were grilling. Between the chairs and everyone speaking Thai I admittedly felt a little uncomfortable, but the soup we were making was delicious as was all the food so I ended up having a great time. I just never knew what pieces of meat I could pull of the grill. It was a communal thing, but if someone was tending a piece of meat of flipped it over to cook the other side was that them laying claim to it? Would it be rude to snatch it for myself? I had no idea. The meal conculded as every good buffet should: with ice cream. Savor chocolate and cappuccino sure beat the soft serve at the China Buffet back in B-town.

5) Passing through Central (the big mall in Phuket Town) I had the delight of passing several magazine and newspaper distributors. There next to our competitors news paper (The Phuket News) was my front page. Chris got violently ill on Wednesday and left me to layout our front page and there it was. Yes, there were two typos, but over all I had to admit that there was a special pleasure in getting to see "my work" right there. (I really shouldn't take too much credit for it as Chris told me what stories were going to go where on the front page and Neil an Mark proofed the page, however very proud). Riding the escalator up (something I still treasure from my childhood) I did however have a twinge of dissapointment when down below me I could see some farang browsing The Phuket News instead of the Phuket Gazette.

(Eyes are too tired to edit this further-- sorry)

Mister Doughnut 1, Jackie 0

Friday night I got food poisoning from a food court doughnut. I’ve always loved street food and in years of traveling have never gotten sick from the array of grilled mystery meats that I sometimes suspected were freshly pulled from the road, fried odds and ends served in month old newspapers, or the soups that I can’t find a single recognizable vegetable or meat.  Now I will never avoid these delightful treats (or suspicious consumables) because it was not any of these cheap eats that made me sick. It was a snack from a chain shop in the mall food court.  Because of that mediocre snack I spent the next 15 hours puking. I couldn’t even stand up without vomiting or feeling like I was going to black out.  After an hour I couldn’t even keep down a few sips of water. Not to mention that this was also my birthday weekend. Isaac was incredible and took care of me just like my mommy would have, getting me water and juice and yogurt in case I ever felt like eating or drinking again. When I finally stopped puking the next day I felt like I had been run over by a truck and had to cancel my dive trip with Toei and Morgan as well as my birthday festivities. I slept all day and most of the next before I finally got up to eat and look at the sun from a safe distance. I realized tonight that even days later, my collar bones hurt and I’m pretty sure my tendons are still tight enough to play nursery rhymes on. EVERYTHING aches.  The funny part is that aside from ruining my awesome birthday plans, this bout of food poisoning was still a pleasure compared to what I had in Benin.

(Have to mention that mister doughnut also makes 'sushi do' which are doughnuts that look like sushi!You see why I caved...)

Movember gets the cut

"Remember, remember, the first of Movember,

The barber's chair and shop

I see no reason why the colon cancer season should ever be forgot . . ."

Phuket Gazette staff at the end of Movember

What my right hand will do tomorrow when it no longer has a moustache to stroke -- I do not know. This month has been the first time in my life that I have made even the most wispy attempt of growing facial hair. I was against it in the beginning. Given where I am in my life and where I am . . . Phuket, Thailand -- infamous for sexpats and sex tourists, I really had  no desire to look like a pedophile. However, I bit the bullet, because all the boys at the Gazette had signed up to donate 50 baht to a charity at the end of the month and to "raise" awareness about colon cancer with our moustaches. (Mind you that there is nothing in our contracts forbidding us from having facial hair, so we were safe.) So, on Movember first we started the day with freshly shaven faces. There are a series of rules that must participants must abide by: http://www.movember.com/

I have no idea why all the farangs ended up in one group.

I have no idea why the Thai guys all ended up in one group.

An entire news office of mustached men runs the line of creepy and hilarious, usually depending on if you are in or out of know. Lunch at the "Cheapy" up the street was always a smile as four to six moustached men gathered around the dinning table in plastic lawn chairs. It's still hard not to laugh about the bit of vanilla ice cream caught in the corner of Chris's moustache after we picked up ice cream cones on the way back from lunch. (Ice cream is a standard after lunch occasion.)

To balance out my own upper lip hair, I went ahead and let a soul patch grow. I have become surprisingly found of the look. I found myself constantly fiddling with it and was pleased to be compared to Guy Fox on more than one occasion, perhaps it is a look I will come back to. But as it stands tomorrow evening my moustache is headed for the barber shop's floor. Hair cut, a shave and a massage (cost: $9) are all on the books to celebrate my first full paycheck and the start of my four day weekend.

Questioning Home (Jackie)

After a month here I was hit by a sudden, staggering thought that unnerved me and made me realize how much I had unwittingly sacrificed by moving across the world on a whim.  What I realized, very quickly after coming here was that I had always built my ‘home’ within people, not out of brick or wood. 

All the warm fuzzy feelings associated with ‘coming home’ were chilled in a moment when I failed to picture a single home to go back too. My past homes were just a flip book of colored siding, yards and neighbors, speeding through my mind like a roulette spinner that never settled. Even the house I grew up sparked no feeling of comfort.  I even realized that I would be more at home living by myself than in my parents house. While everyone else here was speaking longingly of returning to their home abroad, hanging out with their friends, reliving old times, my mind was shooting through all the houses, neighbors, roommates, and friends I’ve lived with during the last 6 years. The last 3 Christmas’s spread out around the world, 6 of the last 7 Thanksgivings spent with families of friends . Every year in college I lived a different place, with different combinations of people, except for 2 years in the Mitchell house. Two fantastic years but when I walked out of the house and threw the last load of stuff in my car I wasn’t sad.  A house is always just a house. It was always my friends that made Bloomington home for me.  It was the perpetually unlocked doors at the Mitchell house and always coming home to see different friends lounging on the couch between classes and always having someone to share moments, stories, and life with that made it home.  

The worst part was to realize that many of those people who made life so bright and wonderful will not be there when I come back, and some have already gone.  That in itself is not a new epiphany, it happens every year during college. It’s always sad to have friends leave home, but it’s usually only one or 2 at a time and while they can never be replaced, it is not too difficult to find 1 or a few people that can fill the void they left behind. It is one thing to struggle to find a new running partner or someone who loves dancing, it is impossible to even conceive finding alternates for everyone in your life. When I moved I left behind the closest friend group and best friends that I ever had in my life.  I had cycling teammates and margarita rides, a stellar rock climbing group, dance fiends, party friends, physics partners, lab mates, co-workers, winos, foodies, road trippers, spontaneous adventurers, concert kids, book club folks, old friends, new friends and all the acquaintances that aren’t in any particular group but make life better by being around at the right moment . And most of all it is hard to even pretend to think about the possibility of finding anyone who can replace the incredible people who go beyond any group and are friends every day, all the time.

It’s frightening to realize that when I decide to leave Thailand, it won’t be to go home. Going back to the US still would mean starting life over from nearly scratch, just like any other country in the world. It makes perpetual travel pretty enticing.

That may have been a tad overdramatic. It’s just a lot to realize suddenly and exhausting to think about.  I enjoy my life in Phuket and think that after a little more acclimation and time I will love it. I’ve already made some new friends here and am starting to feel more settled. I have one fantastic friend who I have  more in common with than a lot of friends back home, despite being from different continents, and we have a blast doing everything from having coffee, teaching, snorkeling and  partying to full out vacations.  I also have a few good friends from an array of countries that I can count on for fun and support, tennis partners and scuba friends who I am growing closer too as time goes on. And I absolutely cannot take for granted the strong friendship that Issac and I still share, the countess dinnertime chats, weekend explorations, and finding strategic solutions to all the random issues that arise with learning how to survive in a foreign country.

I also still talk too many of my best friends back home on a regular basis and can’t put into words how happy and soothing it is to see your familiar faces, hear your voices, and laugh with you over the sometimes ridiculous, sometimes boring stories of our lives. It is always a highlight of the day and I am so appreciative of everyone who has been taking the time to keep in contact, even with the 12hr time difference!  Your endless support has helped me stay sane and even happy through a really difficult few months. Much love especially to Jessi, Kurtis, Kaitlin, Steph, Rob, Kara, Michele, Glenn, Marcia, and Tom. You are all incredible people and it’s wonderful to know I still have great friends to come back too, even if you are all spread out around the US and world J

 I love you all!

Loy Krathong- The Festival of Lights (Jackie)

Imagine a star-filled night sky, gleaming pinpoints of light in the darkness. Now  imagine dozens of large, brightly lit lanterns drifting in long chains over a lake and into the distant stars . People of all ages stand by the water, laughing, writing wishes on tissue thin lanterns, trying in pairs or groups to light the flammable ring within without setting the delicate lantern flaming.  More and more lanterns join the winding chain while bad wishes or unlucky winds send other lanterns to wither and smoke in the branches of trees or to crumple slowly into the water. The moon is bright and full and can be seen between the trees, shining brightly white among the cheerful yellow glow of the lanterns gliding past. In the water are hundreds of Krathongs, exquisite boats of intricately folded banana leaves and flowers, each lit with a candle and sent into the water along with any grudges kept from the year.

The krathongs are hand-made and exceptionally beautiful, and are made lovingly by people of every age, from little up. The porous trunk of the banana tree floats and is used as the base of most krathongs, which are then pinned with banana leaves and an array of colorful flowers.

While I did not make my own krathong this year, I watched as all the young children spread out on benches and on the floor of the school cafeteria  to make them, much more skillfully and creatively then I ever could have. Watching all the tiny hands cut, fold, and pin the leaves, delicately place flowers, and add multiple layers to their once plain piece of trunk astonished me and I couldn’t stop smiling and admiring their handiwork. Even my kids, the middle and high schoolers, who generally distain any and every school activity, worked in groups to make large and complex floats to enter in a school contest. Many of the girls preformed in traditional Thai dances and were painted up in heavy make- up and brightly colored clothing for the schools Loy Krathong event. Walking through school that day was like being on a Disney set, where every boy or girl was a prince or princess.  

Loy Krathong is a rare type of festival with a seamless intertwining of tangible beauty and emotional significance. It is unlike any festival or holiday in the States because it is a very personal celebration, though it is shared with family and close friends.  The idea of the festival is to let go of any grudges and receive forgiveness without having to admit or confess anything to anyone.  The symbolic gestures of releasing delicate lanterns into the sky or sending off bad feelings on a boat captures the essence of the celebration perfectly  as the grace and simplicity of the motions mirror the supposed ease with which forgiveness and inner peace is attained.

 Even though the celebration is much larger and more impressive in the North, Loy Krathong instantly became my favorite holiday and I’m looking forward to bringing it back Stateside. I’ve always loved watching the lanterns drift along at concerts and random night events and I have to admit that I was more excited about this holiday than I am about any of the upcoming American holidays. If you can find any large lanterns at home I would highly recommend letting one go with friends or loved ones, it’s beautiful to see and it feels surprisingly wonderful to make a wish on something, even if it is a drifting lantern.