Shoes and Construction

I had lost (misplaced) my purple flip flops and today I found them...at the gym. You need to take your shoes off to go into the locker room so I guess I went home in my running shoes. I love that they were still there 3 days later. The stories of items being returned here is amazing....cell phones left on busses, scooter keys left in ignitions and guarded my the scooter taxis. Really nice. Mine are too big to fit straight on the rack with the the regular sizes

People ask why I carry my phone when I run and I think it is 10% safety if I get lost and 90% to take pictures.

It was so hot and I was running solo with no money for extra water and 30 minutes in my water that I had left was about 35 deg C and there wasn't much of it. I was looking for an excuse to turn back and thought I had it when my klong path suddenly ended. I then realized that they are rebuilding which will be nice. It's a main route so should be done quickly.

 I found that i could go to the other side. I really am not a fan of the "narrow klong so let's install a pipe on it and make it smaller" idea but it does bring treated water in to all of the people who live on the canal. It was pretty rough but short and I was happy to not be on my bike.

They actually build on top of the other one and it will be wider.

Our "2nd mosque" on the way to Sammakon,  a as in "turn right (or left) at the second mosque"

I posted about this before. When we got here it was beautiful tress etc and is now going to be built upon. Most of the building here is on swampy land and is sinking...so is Bangkok.

A view form the other end.

On the home stretch...

This little place amazes me and must be what the entire area was like 20 years ago (or less). He has a complete little farm right beside the klong and each area grows something specific.

I made it back to the gym where I started and drank a ridiculous amount of water. I was so hot I almost fell into the pool but we had a dinner date so decided against it.

The National Anthem and Student Names

I had read about this but never seen it. I went to the market on Saturday morning and heard music which was as little unusual. We often hear the muslim "call to prayer" but this was different. Then I kind of recognized it from somewhere, then I noticed that nobody was moving and THEN I realized that it was the national anthem that is played weekly in our assemblies and when played in public you are expected to stop what ever you are doing. So, I did. Everyone, looked like they had frozen mid-step, except one guy who pedalled straight down the middle...and a Thai man at that.

On a cultural note, the kids here all have names that are really long so they get nicknames. Some are quite interesting so I figured I'd give you a few examples from my class.

Prim, Plankton, Air, Poon, Boon, Pao Pao, Play Play, Pou Pee, Jumbo (brother is Elephant), Mint, Atom, Radar, Neck, Milk, Ohm, Internet, Last...anything goes.

I went on a solo mission after school to find a physio (fail) and the link to a nice bike ride that we found on the weekend (sort of successful).

It required a shortcut of riding down the main road in the opposite direction of traffic. I followed these two who were selling lotto tickets and figured the might deter the cars. It's actually easier than it looks.

I didn't find what I was looking for but I did find goats in a gravel pit.

And what I least expected.....hydroponics!

...and a Santa.....the first one we've seen. 

I made it back in time for pizza and before it got dark. I am on the overpass which I have to haul my bike over. I guess it makes up for having no hills to ride.

November Green

As the temperature drops back home, we continue to have some milder temperatures, in fact it got down to 29 C the other day... Well, Sunday is often golf day, so this morning I woke up at 4:45 to head to the Pak Soi, with my bike and bag to meet the other guys. We plan to get a taxi and take the 45 minute ride to the The Pine golf course today since we have a 6:20 am tee time.The taxi will cost us around 5 dollars!  We are first on the course so we won't be slowed up by anyone!

A quick ride gave us time to take a couple of puts.. actually we had to putt some because the sun was not up yet. But at 6:15 we teed off to a great round, the first 9 holes took under 2 hours. Here are a couple of shots of the course. Lots of water around so you had to play smart.. or just kill it !.. A respectable score today after starting very poorly on the first three holes... I may have been tired from fishing yesterday, but that's another story.

Here I am taking my stance at the 18th T... what water?

 Of course every golfer needs their own caddie. On this course they were yellow and of course are all female. They are covered with large hats and towels, long sleeves and pants just to protect themselves from the sun. They do not speak much English but are supposed to give you some direction around the course. Each one has a number ..since you can't understand their name anyway!

 Some very nice terrain and did I mention there was plenty of water!

 A typical scene on these courses, the caddies carry the clubs, balls, tees, water, umbrella and mark your ball etc... pretty easy golfing, especially if scoring is not your focus.

 Yeh and there is some water too.. :)

More water...

Three Gals vs The Klong

Two friends and I went out today to see if we could figure out how to ride our bike downtown via the klong (canal). There is a wide open part near the city and we made a valiant attempt to find the end near where we live (the green arrow). It is the waterway which follows along above Thanon Ramkhamhaeng. The bottom half is our regular route that we know quite well and we did follow the klong for a while until it came to a dead end. We could see it continue on the other side but never made it. It's funny to see our back and fourths down many dead ends. We headed home with more info than before and ready for the next adventure.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/407962085

This lady was trying to help us but it didn't really help. Although we seemed to be attracting a lot of soi (street) dogs.

We came across this Chinese temple which we had seen way back when on our first klong excursion. The colours are stunning and the tall "pole?" became a good landmark for us.

This is what it looked like then....a mere 3 months ago.

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Cookie Sales

This is one of my favourite stories.

Kids came into my class on Monday and 3-4 of them had identical plastic bags which stood out as white with green polka dots. When I asked what they were I did not expect to hear "cookies". Here's the story and these are the cookies.

Prim, in grade 7 takes orders from kids who want to buy cookies which she sells them in "sets" of three. Once enough orders are taken, she delivers.  Here's the funny part.....

Some of the grade 7 boys are too scared to talk to her because she's a girl so the brave boys buy extra and sell them to the other boys for 2-3 times the price. By the end of the day, no price was too high.

I think she got busted on this one...but not sure.

 One of the resident cats at RIS....her 3 kittens scattered pretty quickly when I came by.

We had the pleasure of going to an event last night hosted by the British and Australian Chambers of Commerce. This is Vince watching 3-D TV.

Loi Krathong Festival

Sunday was Loi Kratong which is celebrated all over Thailand...and I think a few other countries. It happens on the 12th full moon of the year, which happened to be Sunday. We headed down to "Perfect Lake" because we had heard that the celebrations were fun to watch. 

I just like the golf cart parked right in with the cars.

The official stage.

These are the kratong which are made out of flowers and banana leaves....plus anything else you can imagine. They all have a candle and the custom is to light them and set them afloat on the water.

Perfect Lake at sunset. The celebrations are taking part on the left and the people on the edge are getting ready to set their kratong sailing.

Land-locked kratong.

The main drag.

 Floating kratong. Some places, like Chang Mai in the north are known for setting lanterns alight that float into the sky. It's beautiful but sometimes has dire consequences. 

The "Perfect Walkway" at night. This is a new boardwalk that they recently constructed but only special people are allowed in the room on the end. It's beautiful-looks like a living room but out doors. The pool at the fitness center comes right up against it which is really nice if you are swimming.

I continue my once-in-a-while pictures of the construction beside the fitness center. I was told it was a pool but really have no idea. We are all hoping it's an addition to the complex...would be nice.

Getting around in Bangkok

We continually adjust to travel in Bangkok as our adventure for a scooter has not been a success to date. We are still comfortable on our bicycles, however the frequency of flat tires is beginning to be annoying. I guess cheap rubber is part of the experience here.

Travel to and from schools is my biggest concern without my own set of wheels to rely on.
The scooter taxis are getting to know me and now come to pick me up in the Villa as I am walking to the street. They give me a ride to the Pak Soi, which is where our street meets the bigger highway and often charge me only the local rate. There I grab a taxi or two! If I get in a taxi and give the driver directions in Thai and they just stare.. I get out, they don't know where I need to go. I may try 2 -3 taxis before I get a knowledgeable driver. I usually look for the older drivers as they are likely to have been around. In most cases my GPS enabled phone, will lead us to the correct destination (again this morning!!)  with my directions, since close is not good enough! I know enough Thai now for turn left, turn right, straight and stop.

I forgot this picture in my last post.. One day I walk across the entrance to the hotel in Penang and there is nothing, at noon there was a guy drawing in chalk and then late in the day this design appeared. I had to look closely to see that is was made entirely of different colored rice!

Work as a way of life...

As Bridget has been picking up the scripting most often it is high time I added to the scroll of our life in Thailand. However, as many of you are wondering how little I may work, this post will give you a glimpse on the inside of my world.

As a educational consultant for developing international school websites, including Australia and New Zealand, I do have the opportunity to travel not only to schools in Bangkok, but also conferences and schools in other countries. This post is an accumulation of some of the highlights for my work!

Back in August, I visited Melbourne for a few days for an education conference. While there, I took this shot of the bathroom in the casino across the street. When speaking to educators this was an important image in my talk..what do you notice?  I did write about my casino experience here.

A month later I flew to New Zealand for a conference and some school visits. I visited this open classroom of 80 Maori students all working in their own space, while the teachers floated among the students to assist them on their projects. I was struck by the concept of having each student on their own personalized learning plan and working to fulfill their own goals in this state sponsored school. The school was located in a research facility and linked to a local university as well.

 

The next day I went to a conference at one the top school in New Zealand, perhaps the covered tennis courts gives it away. A great school and one where we shared great learning adventures.

I have always longed to visit New Zealand and the 9 hour plane ride from Bangkok was the only negative aspect. Once in the car and driving the coastal road and up through Auckland I did get  a glimpse of the countryside and water....... I will be back.

October is the biggest month for conferences, the first was in Penang, Malaysia which were the days following the Bali trip. Meeting and presenting to school leaders is a challenge but  as in any business it's a good story they want to hear so using that pretense I have been socializing and mixing it up in this spot for a few days, and it was a great location for conducting business...

This is a great place to visit when I want to relax!. With this view of the beach mid-day, it was not very busy at all as most people appear to be by the hotel pools. 

Bangkok 1/2 M....A Trip to The City With Friends

Friday afternoon and I had the pool to myself.....which is good because I am swimming with only my left arm these days and I swim in circles. 

Today (Nov 17th) was the Bangkok Marathon, 1/2 Marathon, 10 km and 8 of us were participating in one race or the other....2 first-time marathoners, 3 half-marathoners (myself included) and 3 running the 10 km. We have a nice group of runners and we get together 1-2 times per week after school and go 5-14 km depending on the day and person.

One upside of running here is that water is easily available since there are 7-11s and markets along any route you take. We all travel with money for a taxi home and money for water because we always run out.

There are protests in the city and although I missed the photo of all the police I did get this one of the guards with pretty mean looking guns. Four of us took a taxi down to find the registration place and get our bibs etc. We figured we could check into our hotel and relax a bit since the race starts were early. Marathon was 2 am and half was 4 am.......I was asleep by 8 which I thought was pretty good.

Of course there is a market at the registration.....so funny.

 Hey look, apparently I am not 50 after all!!!

The view from our room...not the nicest part of the city. We were right beside China town and for some reason also in the land of gun shops.

One gun shop after another.

We took a walk on Saturday afternoon to see the start line and they were building full on flush toilets.....okay...so a bucket of water and squat toilets but still, amazing that they excavated for it.

This building was actually a gigantic market. Everything in fairly run down in this area.

.....including our hotel. However, it was close to the start line which was very convenient. 

Jennifer, Caroline (my more consistent running buddy) and me just after Caroline finished running her first full marathon. Jenn and I ran the 1/2 M. SOmeone told me the shirts would be small so I ordered an XL. It was so ridiculous that the guy figured there was a mistake and gave me one that actually fit. It's the white shirt on the left.

The bummer is that we found out through our tracking devices that the route was 19.9 km instead of 21.1 km which explained why our times were all better than we thought.

So, time to plan the next race which will be Dec 15th in the historic city of Ayutthaya which is 1 hour north of Bangkok. It is supposed to be a beautiful race through the city and by some beautiful landmarks.

Good to have support...at 6 am. I wore a hat, completely forgetting that it is dark at 4 am.

Vince was directing our taxi driver home which is always entertaining. It's a gigantic city and the older guys know it quite well...the others are learning.

Vince and a friend took advantage of us being downtown went to the golf mall that is 4 floors of discount golf stores and bought this great purple shirt so he can be seen from huge distances. We came home and went off to find a grocery store that we heard about that does not require crossing 6 lanes of traffic. I rode the whole way there feeling tired then realized I was riding on a flat tire...haha.

Found it....much easier. We buy 90% at the market but every couple of weeks we head here to get things like tea and peanut butter.