Matt's Town: Paknam, Samut Prakan

By Matt

After saying goodbye to Shelly and the other teachers, I piled my luggage into a cab and set the coordinates for 35 kilometers south of Bangkok to my town of Paknam.  The other new teacher, Alyssa, rode with our school “representative”, Kai, another English teacher from the States that has been at my school for over a year. 

Our journey took about an hour to the townhouse.  We pulled up and I immediately realized that the area/townhouse was nothing like the photos provided on the website.  (I had prepared myself for this already, but I think Alyssa was overwhelmed).  The neighborhood was dark, dirty, and smelled like the inside of a tuna can. 

We walked into the townhouse and were immediately greeted by a Thai family in the kitchen.  I wasn’t sure if these people were the live-in maids or we were picking up the keys to our place from them, but it soon became clear that the older Thai guy was actually one of our roommates.  Interesting.  We proceeded upstairs to check out the available rooms and Alyssa and I flipped a coin for the room with windows on the 3^rd floor.  I won and schlepped my bags up to my new digs.  The townhouse has four floors, 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, and a living room with satellite TV that even gets ESPN, Fox, etc in English.  Schweet.  There is also a "roofdeck" that has been inexplicably closed off with a roof and a mosque next door.  The call to prayer five times a day has been an adjustment, but the Muslim food nearby is a welcome addition.

The clever sign above the door reads "Home Sweet Home"

View from the "roofdeck" towards the next door mosque and Bangkok in the distance.

My new pad

Dinner was at the pork noodle soup stand on the corner, which also happens to be on the 2^nd busiest street in town.  The pollution, loud cars, and stray dogs did nothing to help Alyssa’s concerns, but I had a feeling that seeing everything in the daylight the next day would help. 

The next morning, we joined up with Kai and Richard, a 45-50 year old Brit that has set up camp in Paknam for the last 18 years.  Richard arrived in Thailand on an around the world trip and was planning to spend a week teaching at my school (his family is friends with the school owners).  18 years later and he’s still at the school performing various functions while running a web design company on the side.  It’s rumored that he is partially responsible for getting the internet setup in Thailand and after viewing his websites and blogs, I wouldn’t be surprised.  We headed off to check out the riverfront area a few blocks away that also serves as the welcome point to Paknam.  There is a small replica of Big Ben next to the adminstration buildings and a short walking path along the Chao Praya River, the same river that flows through Bankgok to the north (see pics of both below).  We then headed over to the local Tesco/Lotus (think Walmart, but nicer) to buy school supplies and housekeeping things for the townhouse.   




Little Big Ben, brought to you by Seiko



I'm pretty sure most of the fish in this river have two heads.

There is a night market filled with great street food options (see pic below), and a brand new gym three blocks from the townhouse with a 25m outdoor pool.  The gym charges almost $70 USD a month, but the rich folks in the area have no alternative…..exercising outdoors here is a one-way ticket straight to lung cancer.  Other pluses include the short commute to school, a driving range, and the nearby proximity to Bangkok.  There is a nearby crocodile wresting farm and the “Ancient City” which is a large park with replicas or actual relics from Thailand.  I’m told calling it a miniature park is unfair.  Shelly and I will have to check it out in the near future because I understand it’s one of the few, if not only, green spaces nearby.



The night market in central Paknam has lots of great food options such as....

a tough call between the steamed crap and shark-fin soup.  this menu was actually made by one of my 7th graders for our food lesson.  and yes, you can unfortunately find shark-fin soup here.

There is little else to say about this place.  Thankfully, Paknam is much less scary in the daylight after our first impressions.  However, this is still a fairly poor and industrial area.  Shelly clearly has the better location in my opinion and we’ll attempt to spend more time in her little town....

Her Arrival to Phanomsarakham

By Shelly 

We returned from Kanchanaburi to our orientation hotel to meet our school coordinators.  My heart fluttered nervously at the prospect of meeting my coordinator for the first time and parting ways with Matt and my new friends.  I went to the table where my coordinator, Ajarn Patchara was sitting with the current farang teacher *Elster, and my fellow new teacher, Clay.  Ajarn is the Thai word for ‘Teacher’.  Upon sitting down, Ajarn Patchara informed me that my house was not quite ready so I would be living in different accommodations, not far from the school, in an apartment.  She had brought along some photos of the apartment that contained a simple, cute presentation of a studio with a king-size bed (sweet!), mid-size refrigerator next to a table with two chairs, a TV, and a bright open bathroom where the shower was not separated from the rest and my toilet had a seat but no flusher.  This meant that I would be flushing the toilet with the large bucket that sat next to the toilet.  I really didn’t mind!  It was kind of cool to get a more authentic Thai experience.  J   The walls of my apartment were painted a pretty lilac color with sea green marbled tile floors.  The tiles of my bathroom contained periwinkle butterflies.  I couldn’t wait to see my place!  After chitchatting for a bit, we decided to head out, collecting our luggage and hopping into a van with another teacher, Ajarn Pinu and her son.  We were almost instantly offered a type of Khanom (a sweet snack), which consisted of coconut, rice flour, and sugar all mixed together which was wrapped and grilled in a banana leaf.  Mmm.  SO GOOD!

 As we made our way out of Bangkok heading northeast to the province of Chachoengsao, the space opened up as buildings and houses spread out across the landscape.  As we entered Chacho, things became slightly more congested again, though incomparable to that of Bangkok.  Dusk had just arrived as we drove on a bridge over a large river (name of river) and made a right turn into what was a jet ski rental place and loading dock.  Next to it was the restaurant we ended up going to for dinner, which was outdoors and right on the water.  We each got a Chang beer and proceeded to eat a delectable display of Thai food including coconut chicken soup, fish cakes, ground pork, rice (of course), and something that reminded me of my mom’s egg fu young.  As soon as our plate was empty, the Thais at our table would offer more food until we obliged.  Haha.  This is also where I learned to say “Im Lao”, which means, “I’m full”.  As we rode the 30 minute drive after dinner to my town of Phanom, the space again opened up but this time did not change much upon entering Phanom.  The first thing *Elster pointed out was the miniature Eiffel Tower all lit up on top of the building next to Tesco (a shopping mart similar to target) that served as a radio tower.

Phanomsarakham's very own Eiffel Tower

Apparently, they also had a wide selection of Paris t-shirts with the Eiffel Tower and writing in French on them.  He told me that the town was for no particular reason obsessed with Paris, which I found particularly ironic, given my desire to live in France.  Not far from there, we turned left three times; first onto a sub main street, then to a short side street and a back street where we turned into my apartment complex.  Everyone helped take my luggage up and I was directed, key in hand, to apartment number 99, where numerous Doraemon stickers adorned my door.  If you do not know what Doraemon is, it is the most famous cartoon in Thailand – a robotic cat from the future who steals things.  A criminal mastermind with magical pockets adorned my new apartment door.  Haha. 

My Doremaen toilet complete with water source and bucket to flush with.

My (cold) shower that has no separation

As we stepped inside, what I saw made me the happiest girl alive.  There, sitting on my bedroom floor, was a brand new Turbo charged bicycle…with a basket on the front and an extra seat on the back.  It was EXACTLY what I wanted!!!

They had also bought various things to get me started, so my bed was freshly made with new sheets, a brand new set of lime green bathroom towels awaited, along with a bright green Baby Pooh bath mat.  Hahaha, it was too cute what they had picked out for me to get me started. J  They showed me the coffee, orange juice, and luxury crackers they bought for me to have for breakfast the next morning.  As I bid them goodnight with plans to be picked up and toured around the next morning, I slowly unpacked my toiletries and put a few clothing items into my wardrobe, all the while smiling to myself about how happy I was to be having this experience.  Once I laid down, my eyes immediately closed and I fell fast, fast, asleep. 

*Some names have been changed at the request of the individual 

Bangkok Orientation Week

By Matt 

It should be noted that the above date reflects the fact that Shell and I have travelled back to the future and are now in the year 2554.  This isn’t because we travelled here at exactly 88 miles per hour, but because Thais rely on a Buddhist calendar that started 553 before sweet little baby Jesus was born.  Too bad some of the usual American creature comforts haven’t caught up yet, most notably seat toilets and toilet paper….but I digress.

Lots to cover in this episode, so I’ll try to stick to the major highlights.  After a full day of sight-seeing in Bangkok (Shelly has previously written about this) it was time to buckle down and figure out what we had gotten ourselves into.  Before we started teaching, there were five days of orientation with 35 participants, all of whom had teaching assignments throughout the country.  Those assignments ranged from the extremely lucky (one girl within a stone’s throw of Chiang Mai and beautiful mountains near the Burmese border) to the rather unfortunate (those of us stuck in more “industrial” areas).  More on our respective locations to come in a future post. 

Our first day was a combination of teacher training, a crash course in the Thai language, and info on cultural norms/major no-no’s to avoid along our journey.  One of those major no-no’s includes pointing with your feet or touching anyone on the head.  One of the worst possible things you can do is touch someone on the head with your foot.  Our orientation hosts pointed out that backpackers often make this mistake by tying their shoes to the outer section of their backpacks, which might hit someone in the head.  Definitely one of the weirder rules I’ve ever heard of, but maybe it’s for the best since I’ve already had the urge to throw a shoe at some of my students.  On a similar note, teachers at my school don’t teach with their shoes on in the classroom.  Nor do you wear shoes/sandals inside anyone’s house. 

Day 2 of orientation included a group field trip to see the Grand Palace.  For those interested, the Grand Palace was built for the official residence of the Thai King (at the time of building this was Rama I.  Thailand’s current King is Rama IX and has been so for the last 63 years making him the longest current standing monarch in history, which is three years longer than Queen Elizabeth II) and as a place of worship. 

The palace still includes the former official residence of past kings, although Rama IX moved to a different location.  There are other noteworthy structures, but two of the more interesting include the gold “Chedi”, of which there are many throughout Southeast Asia.  Each Chedi is alleged to contain a small piece of Buddha’s remains, or at the least, symbolically contain his body.  The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) contains a small statute of Buddha chiseled out of jade.  The obvious disconnect here is that it was initially believed the Buddha was made of emerald until it was later discovered that the stone was jade.  There is an extremely detailed history that I will spare you, but my friend Wikipedia has plenty more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_the_Emerald_Buddha. 

This pic has the gold Chedi in the background and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha with the multi-tiered roof on the right:

Monks outside the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (no cameras were allowed inside):

Some of our new friends on the Grand Palace grounds:

The Thai Kings former residence:

Many of the orientation crew headed out for a Muay Thai boxing match in the evening, but we took a pass this time as a ticket was running $70+ and we’re making a grand total of $600 a month.  Instead, a smaller group decided to stick with what we’re good at: drinking.  We found the backpacker section of Bangkok, Khao San Road, and downed some mixed drinks out of beach pails.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Days 3 and 4 focused on more intensive teacher training (all of which I was to throw out the window upon arrival at my school) and one session of not-to-miss travel spots whilst we live in the Land of Smiles.  The “Land of Smiles” name is spot on as Thais will smile in all situations, especially when they don’t understand what you’re asking them or if you happen to slam into them with a grocery cart at Tesco.  We wrapped up our Bangkok orientation with a local puppet show that is beyond explanation.  However, I’m told is an important part of the culture.

The last 24 hours of orientation were spent in Kanchanaburi, the site of the Bridge over the River Kwae.  The correct pronunciation is “Kwah”.  Japan had numerous army bases throughout Southeast Asia during WWII, including neighboring Burma.  In order to transport POW’s, Japan needed to build a railway system, which crossed through Thailand.  The bridge was destroyed by the Allies at least once and re-built by POWs.  There is a POW cemetery a few miles south of the bridge to remind you that about 13,000 POWs died during the construction of this railway along with ~100,000 civilians.  Pretty sobering stuff.

We then took the bus back south towards town for dinner.  Yup, more Thai food.  But, when we arrived we realized that our restaurant was actually a floating house complete with a wait staff and DJ.  The restaurant was pulled by a tug boat along the river and we ended the night catching what might have been the best sunset I’ve ever seen.  The Lady Gaga soundtrack really tied the whole evening together. 

Friday, May 13^th was the last day of orientation.  We spent it enjoying an elephant ride and then some bamboo floating down a river.  The elephant ride is even cooler than it sounds.  Pretty hard to describe the feeling, but I encourage anyone who finds an elephant walking around to try and ride it. 

The only thing I could have done without were the “tricks” the elephants perform after everyone was done with their ride.  Two of the elephant handlers asked for volunteers to have the elephants step on them with one of their legs.  You know, to see what it feels like.  If you were a girl, you get to lie down on your stomach.  Guys were, inexplicably, laid on their back and the elephants seemed to know that if they hit you repeatedly in the groin they’d be getting some fruit as a treat afterwards.  Lesson learned.

We then boarded the bus back to Bangkok.  Upon arrival at our original hotel; we would be meeting our school coordinators and heading to our respective schools from there.  So, it was time to say goodbye to our new friends, the helpful Overseas Education Group staff, and go our separate ways. 

Cultural, er, Adjustments

By Matt 


Food: It’s been a slight adjustment for our stomach to process the significant change in diet since arriving.  Thankfully, neither of us have had major problems.  However, the once simple task of ordering food has become a long process of trial and error: pointing and smiling are often involved.  If you get the wrong thing, you still eat it.  Most of the food dishes are very, very good so it’s hard to go wrong.  And if you do, you’re only out 30-40 baht, which is roughly $1 USD.  Street food is the norm here in Thailand and few Thais eat in sit-down restaurants Americans are accustomed to.  There are a few American chains that are common everywhere including KFC (Thais love fried meats), McDonalds, and Dunkin' Donuts.  There are also a few Starbucks but I haven’t seen a single Thai person buy something there since a latte will set you back the equivalent of 4 or 5 dinners.  Thais are also obsessed with taking photos of their food (pictured below are the Som Tam Shelly has mentioned along with a plate of grilled chicken and sticky rice):

Weather: The best way to describe Bangkok weather is to imagine being in South Florida and adding in some more humidity and pollution. 


The King: With the current political situation, we’re advised not to speak about the King, the royal family, etc in any forum (not worth being thrown in a Thai prison).

The Wai: Thais have a cultural custom that requires you to “wai”, which is a combination putting your hands together and bowing to meet your hands just below your chin, at the tip of your nose or between your eyebrows based on the social standing of the individual you are greeting or speaking with.  For images of Buddha, the King, or monks, Thais kneel, bow, and meet their hands at their eyebrows.  For those that are your elders, you must bow and meet your hands at the nose level.  Both Shelly and I do this every-day to each teacher at our schools as a sign of respect.  We also have to combine the wai with a smile and greeting of “Sawatdee Kaa/Khrab”, which means Hi/Hello/Good Morning/Good Afternoon, etc.  It’s a catch-all greeting that saves us from learning more words we probably can’t pronounce properly either.

The Land of Smiles, Crazy Drivers and Fish that Eat Your Feet

By Shelly 

Ah, finally got into Bangkok at approximately 11:55pm on May 6.  Going through customs and then making my way to the luggage carousel, I felt someone grab my shoulders.  My heart leapt to my throat and I whipped around to find a very familiar congenial face.  It was Matt.  After chastening him for scaring me in such a foreign place, we collected my luggage and ventured out to find a cab to take to our orientation hotel; Louis Tavern.  Riding in the back of the cab on the slightly crazy roads proved to be confusing and not just because we were driving on the opposite side of the road.  There are motor bikes everywhere weaving in and out of traffic and our cab would all of the sudden be driving on the right side of the road (the opposite side) and would then make a turn and would be driving on the same side as America.  SO confusing.  I decided I would NOT be attempting to drive in Thailand. J

At some point we got off the main freeways and started taking small, poorly lit roads that felt like we were driving through alleyways.  Matt and I exchanged nervous glances wondering where the cab driver was actually taking us and as Matt started asking the cab driver how close we were to the hotel, the cab took a left into a driveway with a sign for the hotel.  WHEW! *deep sigh of relief*  Exhausted, we trudged up to our room where the staff met us with our luggage and one Ambien taken, I was out within minutes.  Goodnight!

Good Morning Bangkok

We awoke Saturday morning well-rested and feeling great.  Making our way down to the “American” hotel breakfast, we found it not exactly American.  The hot breakfast area consisted of hot dogs, thin slices of ham, fried rice, plain white rice, a cabbage and cauliflower mixture and rice porridge referred to as “Juk”.  Ah yes, and there was a chef making fried eggs and omelets.  Definitely not a breakfast either one of us was accustomed to.  They also had salad fixings in case you wanted a salad for breakfast with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and shredded carrots.  Hm.  But then I saw the fresh fruit:  pineapple and watermelon (Tang Mo).  Now this I’m accustomed to!  But just in case you were wondering, I did have rice for breakfast.  J  The only other people in the breakfast area were a Thai couple at one table and four farang at the other table.  Farangis what Thais call foreigners.  We were later told that because Thais have difficulty saying their ‘r’s and ‘s’s, the way they ended up saying foreigner was simply farang to eliminate the “ers” at the end.  Hehe. 

We finished breakfast and made our way to their table to introduce ourselves and see if they were in the OEG (Overseas Educational Group) program.  They were!  Alexa from Santa Rosa/Hawaii, Meridithfrom Boston, and two Midwesterners from Wisconsin; Michelle and Nina.  We decided to all go out into Bangkok together to explore.  Alexa was a bit more experienced since she had spent one full day on Friday in Bangkok already being the first to get there, so she guided us to the bus station where the bus ride cost 8 baht (~25 cents) and we got off to get on the Sky Train (40 baht) which looked and felt much like BART in the Bay Area...except these trains were clean.  From there we got off and boarded a ferry on the river to take us down to a marketplace and along the way passed the Grand Palace and Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn.  See pic below.  It was a beautiful day and although hot and humid, I felt extremely temperate.  Matt might feel slightly differently since his body temperature runs a couple degrees higher than mine does. J 

We found bottled water for 5 baht and proceeded to meander through the marketplace admiring the food and cute clothing and trying on hats.  Both me and Alexa ended up bargaining for hats we loved.  “How much? 150! 75? 150! 90? 120! 100? 120! Okay…”   I was quite satisfied walking away with a hat that cost me 4 USD.  Continuing walking, we came upon Som Tam and both Alexa and Matt purchased some.  Som tam is the very popular Thai papaya salad.  They received lettuce leaves and coconut rice with it so you could do the lettuce as the ‘plate’ and put the rice first and then the papaya salad on top of that and eat it like you would a lettuce wrap of any kind.  It was very AROI!  Delicious. 

We collectively decided that a Thai massage would be ideal to get that day so went on a search for that, lunch, and an internet café to let our families know we got to BKK safely.  From the boat to the sky train to the big mall Siam Paragon, we ate an incredible lunch (each of us got some variation of noodles) and found an internet café where we were all able to do just that.  From there, we left the mall and wandered across the street where we found a Thai massage place where all 6 of us could be massaged at the same time and had an incredibly invigorating yet relaxing hour long massage.  There was talk of places in Thailand you could go where fish would eat the dead skin off of your feet, so not 2 blocks down from where we got our massages, we found a “Fish Spa” where the fish do just that!  Going three at a time, we sat on this bench with our feet in a water tank filled with what had to be hundreds of about 2-3” long fish.  Each group had one person that all of the fish almost immediately went to.  The first group it was Alexa, the second group was me.  I guess we had a lot of dead skin on our feet. J 

When there was just a couple of fish nibbling at our feet, it tickled more than anything.  When a large number of fish were on my feet, it literally felt like I was wearing a vibrating sock.  Such a cool experience!  I’ve been told that you can find those fish in the gulf of Thailand in certain areas.  Full body exfoliation for free?!  Sign me up! When we got back to the hotel, about ten more people had shown up for our program.  It was an early night since orientation started nice and late at 8:30am.  YIKES!  Lights out.

Goodbye San Francisco…

by Shelly on May 6, 2011


…Hello Ambien?  Not yet :)


My plan to get onto the plane and take an Ambien as soon as I got into the air is quickly dissipating.  Flying Cathay Pacific for the first time, I am excited about the movies, toys and food available on my flight.  Maybe I will attempt to stay awake through all flights and instead eat noodles and drink the Reisling and Cab (no joke, 2 of my favorite wines) available while catching up on Modern Family, The King’s Speech, Another Year and Hereafter.  There’s even a plug for my computer!  This excites me.  Let’s start this awesome day from the beginning…

After staying up until nearly midnight packing (mostly playing a game of balance the 2 bags to get one under 50lbs), I was finally ready with one backpacking backpack set at 36lbs and one large suitcase at 49.5lbs, not to mention the carryon suitcase and large purse.  Successfully we packed Kristin’s BMW with both Matt’s AND my luggage (an amazing feat) and took off to BART where we said our goodbyes’ to our wonderful hostess.   Taking BART into the city from Walnut Creek, I bid Matt farewell at the Powell Station - he continued on to his flight where I hope he’s at least half as comfortable on his United flight. :) 

On to breakfast with 2 of my favorite people I am leaving behind, Stef & Meg!  (Lunch smells incredible btw)  I wrapped up my time in SF on Fillmore street in my old neighborhood with the best chai latte in the city from Royal Grounds and my favorite Raison Custard Swirl at La Boulange.  The weather was an incredible 70 degrees – just how I like to leave San Francisco – warm. J  After a sad Goodbye to Megan, Stefanie carted me in the Mini Cooper to SFO, listening of course, to Florence’s “Dog Days”.  Ah, San Francisco, how I will miss you and all of your people! 

Enter, SFO.  As I was checking in, Stef went to park the car and spend my last hour in SF with me (aww ).  She got there right in time for them to tell me that my two checked bags were fine on weight, but upon checking the weight of my carryon, was told I need to check the bag for 170$ or figure something out, because it was about twice the weight that it should have been.  Hm.  This, I had not anticipated.  But Stefanie’s travel experience came to the rescue.  “Let’s go over here, we can DO this.” And she was right!  My backpacking bag which I thought was packed to the max was somehow magically able to expand in ways I didn’t know possible to encompass the additional weight in my carryon.  WOW.  Crisis averted.  Thank you Stefanie Jones and goodbye :(.  Security? Check. Got to my gate with 5 minutes until boarding? Check.  Battery low on cell phone? Check.  Call family members I had not talked to that morning to say ‘Goodbye’? Check.  Last phone call as my phone was beeping at me of its impending death to Verizon cancelling my phone service as the plane started taxing the runway?  Check.

I love each and every person who has made my experience in San Francisco incredible.  Make sure it stays sunny on the days when the weather is not.  We will miss you!!! :)