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:
Some of our new friends on the Grand Palace grounds:
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 13th 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.
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.
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