I don’t like goodbyes

Does anybody still read this? Well just in case…

I’m done with classes forever, as far as I can tell. I guess I feel good about it but these things take time to sink in for me.

There was a farewell party last Friday; it was nice. Tonight all of us just got together and ordered pizzas and hung out for the last night we’d all be together in Hong Kong. I’ve had a great time with these guys, but all good things come to an end and that’s life.

So, goodbye. You’re an amazing bunch.

I’m not quite done with Asia yet, though. I’ll be back May 8, and will update you then.

Teaching in Shantou

Well the past few weeks have been long, but I made it. Last weekend some of my good friends and I took a bus to Shantou, a city in the southern province of Guangzhou, China.

I don’t think CUHK properly prepared us for this trip. We signed up for a program to teach high school students English, so they put us on a bus and off we went. We arrived at around night time and some guy met us at the bus stop who was like “Hey you guys are from Chinese U right? Right this way to my sketchy looking van with the tinted windows…” Anyways we didn’t die and that’s what matters.

Shantou is a pretty developed city, and we noticed some gorgeous apartment complexes there. The school, however, was outside of town and very poor. When we arrived they made us a really nice, big Chinese dinner. We were fed very well that weekend.

We lived in special rooms in the student dorm area. Nothing too shabby, but the windows wouldn’t close so the mosquitos really had their way with us at night.

Saturday was teaching day. The school has a special program that some kids are in, and it’s kind of like an English major but in high school. The students (mostly girls) were divided into two groups. Group 2 had more developed English skills and we taught them in the morning first. Some of them were quite interested in us and some couldn’t be bothered. I didn’t blame them; it was Saturday. We showed them photos and videos, which they liked, and played some games which were rather hit or miss. Except Telephone, everyone loves Telephone!

During the break I joined a few students for a game like hacky-sack, except it was with a birdie-like thing with feathers.

Group 1 was less responsive, as we expected, and it was after lunch so everyone kind of stopped caring. It wasn’t so bad, and I had some interesting conversations with a few of them. Most of them like to play video games and shop in the city and read. We gave them some magazines from the US but I think they just looked at the pictures. They asked us if we had girlfriends or boyfriends. They also asked us to show them how to dance, which I really hoped Stephanie would but she wimped out. They got bored so I taught them how to play Spoons and I think they had a lot of fun.

So I guess we expected them to be more curious about us and the States, but maybe that was just us being American and thinking everyone cares about us when they really don’t. After all most of them haven’t been outside of Shantou and just wanted to do their thing and hang out with friends. It’s cool that they’re learning English though. By the end of the day they kept calling us “teacher” and wanted to take pictures with us, especially Steve. They liked him.

That evening we were sitting around and a girl working at the school offered us some gong fu cha, which literally translated is Kung Fu tea. It’s a very concentrated tea that is taken from tiny cups. She kept pouring, and we couldn’t say no, and it eventually killed my sleep.

That night I covered myself with the sheets as well as I could, except my hands were really hot and itchy from the bites the night before. So I eventually gave up and stuck my arms out, again at the mercy of the damn bugs. On the way back home the next day I counted 17 bites on my hands and arms. Still, a small price to pay for a fascinating experience.

Thailand Part 3

On our last day, we took a guided tour to a few temples and the Grand Palace. See all the yellow? The king of Thailand was born on a Monday, so many people wear yellow every Monday to honor him.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, and our guide told us the country has over 33,000 wats, or temples. Most of them have at least one Buddha figure, and some have hundreds.

The Buddha in Wat Traimit is solid gold.

Wat Pho (pronounced “Po”) houses the famous Reclining Buddha. He’s huge! He has funny feet.

The Grand Palace of Bangkok, which up until the 50s was also the residence of the king. The architecture of this place was unbelievable. We almost didn’t care that we nearly melted from the heat.

There’s a huge mural painting on the inner wall of the palace showing historical battles. The people and chariots are made of gold flakes.

The temple of the Emerald Buddha, who’s actually made of green jade. He has three outfits for the three seasons: summer, winter, and rainy. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the inside so this is the entrance.

The residential side of the Grand Palace.

And then we went home. Here’s some of the things I ate that weekend:

My first Pad Thai, of several. Stickier and with a different kind of noodle than I’m used to, but still very good.

The spiciest and limiest Tom Yum I’ve ever had. Delicious PAIN.

Tom Kha Kai via room service! Coconutty and mild.

Some mango sticky rice to top it off.

A short but great trip. Go Thailand!

Thailand Part 2

Saturday morning we took a taxi van to Pattaya. It’s about a two hour ride south of Bangkok and Thailand’s best known beach resort. Our hotel was very nice, it just looked like a clean and sunny beach room, and within a block from Jomtien Beach.

Walkin’ along the beach road. That’s some raw squid in 90-degree heat ready to barbecue.

Here is Jomtien beach, it’s fun and packed with kids playing in the piss-warm water. The water is not clean, actually it has so much seaweed floating in it you feel like you’re wading through hair, but we didn’t swim much. We rented a few beach chairs and just lounged there all afternoon.

In Thailand, shopping comes to you. We barely left our seats, but had the following to choose from: drinks, fruit, fried seafood, ice cream, baked bread, jewelry, clothes, rugs, sunglasses, coconut oil, hats, pedicures, massages, henna tattoos, and hair-braiding. It was such silly fun.

Here’s my attempt at “miles away from ordinary” with some Thai beer.

We wanted to get some real swimming done, so we went back to the hotel and took a dip in this loveliness.

The sun disappeared behind these thick clouds and mountains; it was awesome. Looks like kids playing in the sea while the world comes to an end. I like sunsets.

Pattaya is notorious for its very sleazy nightlife, which it owes to the fact that it was once a hangout spot for bored U.S. troops. So we went, and it was what I expected: a bunch of shady-looking old expats and their Thai girlfriends/wives. After about a few hours here, you really do see expats everywhere. It’s probably best not to think too much about them, but suffice it to say, it was pretty sketch.

This is Walking Street. Lots of seafood, lots of go-go bars, and not much of anything else. We were lucky to find a pretty normal club with some good live music.

There really are Muay Thai fights at go-go bars in Pattaya. This is the view from the street; we didn’t even have to go inside. For bar fighters, they were pretty damn good.

We hopped onto some random pickup truck to get back to the hotel. That was about it.

The next morning we went back to Bangkok, lazed around, did some shopping and finally made our way across the city again. We got to the Chao Praya river, which runs throughout most of the central area of the city, and took an express boat from the North to the South end. It was fast and the timing was perfect; just about dusk.

We then took the skytrain to the Asia Hotel to watch the Calypso Cabaret, known as Bangkok’s best. Also called “ladyboy shows,” Thai cabarets are cast with transvestites and cross-dressers dancing in extravagant costumes and singing (lip-synching really) popular songs. It was hilarious and surprisingly cultural. Most of them you can tell are not women, but some had me seriously scratching my head. Their bodies would make any woman jealous.

I had to take a picture with one in particular (the one in the white) because she looked so natural. Then as I left she said thank you in a husky, low voice that made my blood run cold. Very weird, but great entertainment.

Thailand Part 1

I just got back from Thailand a few days ago. It was a blast!

We definitely knew Bangkok was going to be hot and humid. For most of the weekend it was in the upper 90s, and the air was thick. When we stepped out of the plane it was hot, but not as bad as we expected. Then we realized it wasn’t even ten in the morning yet. I suppose that’s how it goes in Southeast Asia.

Driving through the highway and the streets wasn’t anything too different; there was some development in the area near our hotel but not much. It actually wasn’t unlike the streets of Taiwan, except more disorganized and with more of a touristy vibe.

This is a tuk-tuk, it’s actually a (supposedly) licensed form of taxi but without a meter. If you look anything like a tourist the driver will pull up alongside you and beckon for you to hop on. I’ve heard they were a ripoff so we avoided them for most the trip.

Our hotel was nice. People in Thailand must love durian because hotels here find it necessary to prohibit them indoors. Durian, if you didn’t know, smells really bad.

After getting rejected by several taxi drivers who refused to drive in the city traffic, we finally got one and headed to Khao San Road, Bangkok’s “backpacker’s ghetto.” It’s a short wide street and sells touristy things like any other market, but also has travel services and guest houses and bars and stuff. Very chill, almost hippy traveler feel to it. I kinda liked it and wouldn’t mind sitting around there if we had more time.

Internet. Bar.

There’s also a ton of fast food joints in the area. Curious now about multicultural McDonald’s, I went to see if they had any special menu items. Nothing Thai (no durian cakes, damn) but I did find something that I added to my Royale with Cheese post.

Ronald doing his thing…

We headed out around rush hour. I knew traffic in Bangkok was bad, but this is without a doubt the worst traffic I’ve ever seen in my life. We were stuck at one intersection without moving for about 20 minutes. Finally the light changed and we moved into the middle of the intersection where we were stuck for ANOTHER 20 minutes. I was flabbergasted. I noted that Thailand needed a traffic market, and like I was some genie people started coming to our windows with offers of deep-fried bananas, which are really good by the way.

You can find a taxi in literally every color of the rainbow in Bangkok. There’s purple, orange, green, blue, and even hot pink. With spoilers!

Thailand is famous for massages, and you can find parlors almost anywhere. Being way too tired to go out, we reserved ours at our hotel. It was 1 hour for about $15 US, insane. Some of my friends finished theirs and came out looking completely wiped out. Being kind of a wimp when it comes to massages, I asked, “How was it?”

“It was… interesting.”

“I didn’t know I could bend like that.”

“You have to relax or it’ll definitely hurt.”

Goody. Well it ended up being amazing! I was contorted, cracked and stretched beyond what I thought was physically possible. Afterwards I felt so limber and relaxed, it was unbelievable.

That made us totally lazy but we finally went to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. It’s basically a giant night market, with a huge area for food and drink where we watched a Thai boy-band sing and dance Justin Timberlake. The place was so big that we did about a fifth of the shopping area and called it a night.