Thai National Swim Meet

All dressed up Canadian style for the Olympic Hockey Finals...a while ago but forgot to post it. We made it all the way downtown with friends, watched skiing etc up to the game......and then the game wasn't televised. Oh well.

I swam in the Thai Masters National Swimming competition this weekend. There were 4 of us from RIS and a few foreigners from another school but for the most part the competitors were Thai.

The event was held at Ramkhanghaeng Universty which, I have discovered, has some great facilities.

Torie and I made up the female squad. 

Hanging out on the pool deck. I love the way this guy brought his bed.

Open air pool with a cover which is good because I think we would have burned to a crisp otherwise.

 The other end....

A successful day. Kevin and Tori, a husband and wife team are lifetime swimmers and water polo players were the ones than suggested I go. We all won our races and Kevin and I got a record.....Torie already has three from last year. Torie is the person way back when, who reached out and showed us the main routes on the klong so we wouldn't spend hours lost...again. They are off to Senegal next year which sounds very exciting.

Four Girls, A Khao Yai National Park and a Couple of Road Races

A couple of months ago we started looking for a road race and we had 7 takers. Two had an accident on their scooter (ok, but one with a broken elbow and the other broken collarbone) and one got the flu so we were down to four. 

The destination was Khao Yai National Park, which is 1-2.5 hours north on Bangkok depending on which part you are going to. We were fortunate enough to be lent a house by one of the parents which came with two scooters.

Team #1: Megan and Colby

Team #2: Darcy and Myself

The House.

The tree-house next door which we cooked in.

Spirit house in their yard. We see lots of these.

The guard dog.....not too scary and so ugly he's cute. 

The hotel/condos being built beside the house which upsets the owners for obvious reasons.

We got in Friday evening and on I got up early on Saturday and went for a bike ride to check out the area.

What a back drop!

There were some very unique themed places which look very new like this one called The Castle.

This sign made me laugh though. What is a test run?

Saw 4 elephants chained to trees as people paid money to feed them and I imagine ride them also. Easy to pass judgement with a Western perspective but the riding etc is being reduced more and more. It was interesting because a conservation area is nearby. Maybe they were from there...who knows.

Glad to see that they are prepared for us.

This is how you ride a scooter at night when you don't have a headlamp that works. Iphone flashlight to the rescue.

We took the scooters to the registration area which was also the entrance to Khao Yai Park so we decided to take a drive in and check out a couple of trails.

Park Entrance and also Start/Finish line.

We barely made it up some of the hills on the way to the Visitors Center (17 km) but we got there eventually. The way back was way faster. 

 Relaxin' 

By process of elimination we decided that this must be the waterfall.

Ouch! 

Safety does not seem to be an issue.

A few animal warning signs.

Beautiful view into the valley.

Monkeys are menaces

Our day ended at a winery which we thought was local. We were incredibly under dressed but they ushered us in anyway. We were actually the only customers and we felt very civilized eating fantastic italian food and sipping wine with a view of the gardens. 

This is what we were there for.

The logo....

Us posing as the logo.

Each race has the usual exhibitions that we have in N. America only they are outside. Great deals are to be had and we popped in for a bit. We were looking for matching shirts for our group of runners and we were successful!

Here we are, post-race in our new shirts. Four farangs (foreigners) in matching shirts make for many photo ops.

Megan and I ran the 1/2 Marathon which started at 5:45 which means that you get to see the sunrise on the way back to the finish. It is really very dark at 5:45 am.

A little bit of interesting information. This is the 1/2 M which I ran in December in Ayutthaya....came 2nd in the 50+ (running is not the same caliber here).

Take a look at the picture from this run....I came 3rd this time but two of the women in the top 5 are the same. I guess the running group here is small but it's fun seeing the same people.

I realized afterwards that they had recognized me.....and wanted pictures. I guess I'll see them again and perhaps a little fun rivalry. 

The post-race food that we are used to in N. Am. is bagels, bananas, oranges, yogurt etc. Although, there were bananas, I cannot get used to....

Noodles

.

Deep fried dough dipped in hot sweet soy milk. Although, the soy milk is good.

That's the weekend......

Mumbai is Slumdogs and Millionaires!

Well after some business trips to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC,  I had to settle in Mumbai for the last few days.  These conferences bring together school leaders and decision makers that may be in the market for what my company has so I get to travel and share stories.

Everyone of  us has heard of Mumbai, likely through the movie SlumDog Millionaire, So I was intrigued as well for my first visit to Mumbai. I landed at 1 :30 am in the new international airport which opened two months ago  and is certainly state of the art, with 10 levels in a massive structure near the edge of the city.  Before I exited the baggage lounge I was searched and luggage was scanned again. The people waiting for their family are outside the building and there were hundreds of them, even at this time in the morning. Leaving the airport, I certainly got a taste of modern and new versus slum life as the new road winds it's way through the slums, you can see what was left of some homes on either side of highway, still under construction with guards every so often. Funny enough, for those of you in Eastern Townships...there were hundreds of granite shops along the way as well!

Arriving at my modest accommodation, the 547 room Hyatt, the Hyatt limo which drove me from the airport to the hotel was stopped at the gate and searched, with dogs, and a mirror to check the under plate of the car... man I thought this is real security. After a few minutes, I was in front of the main door. As I got out they ushered me through the body scanner and placed my bags through another scanner to enter the hotel. Did I mention security is tight here, what I did not notice till my walk this morning is that there are hotel plain clothes security officers on each end  of the street.

So here  is my cozy digs.. 

A view from my hotel window... this is not the rich part of town.

Well a short walk down the street  and of course you get a better glimpse of life of some of the local residents.   Very small shacks tin roofs, lots of garbage around and lots of manual processes like washing clothes and themselves.  On my trip to the school, I saw people washing with buckets in front of these shacks, wash clothes, sewing etc... but really notice that there is junk everywhere!  And this is the clean areas of town.. I did not venture to much further on my own...

Do you see the satellite dishes... life in a box!

 This space seemed to have many families under this roof... with space to hang their clothes.

 I had to capture the boys crossing the street..they were so cute said hi, and then just walked across a busy road. There are crosswalks to slow traffic..just walks across !

Roads are wherever there is no junk, like old dead cars, and the traffic rules are non-existent.  While I was in one of these he just turned left into five lanes of oncoming traffic and everyone honks, brakes turns, wheels around.., bikes, cars, rickshaws coming at you and pedestrians crossing the street..simply chaos. You just close your eyes!! and hope that you make it... just have to live it to believe it.

Of course, I did see some other parts of Mumbai as well, with the tall skyscrapers and evidence of modern growth of the city. We took the bridge over to a nice restaraunt and this contrast was evidence that there is progress in some areas. Apparently, one of those towers is a 10 story building one family built to live in... for 2 billion USD.  

Well a few last words on the school I visited here. It was certian the safety and security agian were evident, as we had to sign in to the school and bag was searched on the way in. There were several guards outside and there were three guards on every floor on the six story building. More interesting though, is that each floor has a male and female bathroom attendant standing outside... periodically they go in to clean the bathrooms, to keep the air clean!

Next stop... Shanghai.