Last Words

My Thai language class at WardtawanPattayaLanguageSchool has sadly ended - we spent one hour in the "upper room," squeezing in all the last-minute lessons our Kruu (teacher) could manage.  She said it bothered her heart that she did not teach us all that she wanted.  But we were all very happy with the class.  It was well organized, and we gained an amazing amount of knowledge in those thirty hours.  What we will not miss is the lingering unpleasant odor in the upstairs classrooms that never got cool, despite the air con being turned on full blast.  Some speculated the odor was due to a dead mouse in the air con.    Management claimed the air con had been serviced, but the odor remained.  Other than that, it was a great experience.  Thank-you, Wardtawan School!

The second hour brought the class down to the main lobby, where it is blessedly cool, compared to the upstairs.  Nearly everyone brought a dish to share.  I baked homemade brownies, my first time to bake in our little condo.  I found our kitchen here to be lacking in equipment - no mixer, mixing bowl, cooling rack, spatula, etc., but made do with what was on hand.  I pictured my own utensils sitting unused in my kitchen in Michigan, and realized that as much as I am under-equipped here, I am equally over-equipped there, having accumulated many unnecessary  things over thirty-plus years.  I did bring a 9 x 13 baking dish from home when we were there in April - don't think I could have managed brownies without that.  They turned out pretty well - I substituted some plain yogurt for some of the butter, and that made them nice and moist.  The vanilla I bought here has a somewhat overbearing scent, which I thought affected the taste a bit.  But reviews by my classmates were quite favorable.

An abundance of fruit and goodies graced the lobby area, and Mika brought some of her delicious home-made bread and some little casseroles.  The management sprang for pizza and drinks.  We ate and socialized, then it was time for singing and dancing!  We'd learned two Thai songs in class (I use the word "learned" loosely), and our Kruu said she would teach us some Thai dancing if we sang them on the last day of class.  One of the songs we learned was the traditional song of the Loy Krathong festival, the festival of lights that takes place in the 12th lunar month of the year.  This was the festival we stumbled upon the day we arrived in Thailand.  The traditional Loy Krathong dance is more about hand and head movements, with simple, small walking steps for the feet.  The woman dances in front, and the man circles behind her from side to side. Here's a video of Thai's who know what they're doing: Loy Krathong Song and Dance  As usual, most of the men begged off this activity, so the ladies took the lead.  It was a lot of fun, as long as we didn't care how ridiculous it looked!

Kruu and Me

A few of us agreed we wanted to continue the classes, although this time will not be free.  I think we will have a group of just three or four, and hope to begin again in August.  Just enough time to forget everything... I mean, study everything!

Tim was away for the week, so after class, Mika and I hiked back to her condo, which was just a ten minute walk.  We enjoyed some refreshments and the view from her balcony until her little one came home from school.  The three of us went out for a real Italian dinner at a little place called Da Cionso.  The charming host, Peppino, only spoke Italian, and Mika impressed once again with her amazing language skills!  I enjoyed a plate of Macchiaroni Da Cionso along with the Italian conversation.  We had a nice, relaxing evening, then my dinner companions hopped on the back of a motorbike taxi to head home.

All Creatures Great and Small

Critters.  I have never outgrown the childhood urge to observe a busy line of ants or a nest-building bird for a glimpse into their worlds.  Many critters in our part of Thailand bear a striking resemblance to the local Michigan fauna, while others are literally a world apart.  Some are pleasant, some not so much.

Bob Barker (and Drew Carey) would be distressed to find the lack of spaying and neutering that goes on in this country.  Wild dogs populate every street and lot, and many of them have obviously given birth recently.  Thankfully, the dogs are quite docile, and seem to coexist with humans without much problem.  But they often appear dirty or underfed.  Many are strikingly similar in appearance - they are a skinnier version of my sister's dog, Maisie; a medium-sized dog with short hair and pointed ears.  All related, no doubt.

Closer to home, I saw a dark shape on the bedroom floor early one morning.  I thought it must be a big bug of some kind.  I had flashbacks to the time I worked as a bookkeeper at the now defunct Boston Sea Party restaurant in Madison Heights.  I would go in on Sunday mornings when the place was closed, and when I turned on the lights, great scurrying ensued, the skitter of cockroaches everywhere.  Unless, of course, they were crunching underfoot.  Good times.  Anyway, this experience taught me that turning on the light might send the critter scurrying.  So I left the light off, went and got a plastic bowl, and slowly crept up on the intruder.  I was able to trap it under the bowl, then turned on the light to see what I'd caught.  It was a huge cockroach!  I was happy to have it trapped, but the floors in our condo are planks of wood with grooves of tar(?) in-between, so I worried that the thing could escape through a groove.  I managed to slide a piece of shirt cardboard underneath, then stacked a big bottle of lotion on top - who knew how strong that menace might be??

Tim was on the phone with his family during this whole escapade, and when I showed it to him, he first thought it was just a cicada.  But when he kindly took the creature out of the condo for me, he realized it was indeed a cockroach.  Adios, Cucaracha!

The little cat that hangs around the pool seems to be a bit less timid now.  Make that a lot less timid.  I think the thing would happily hop up on my lap if I let it - which I won't.  Sorry, cat people.

It looks like the White-vented Myna's that have been so busy in that poolside tree must have hatched some of their eggs.  The remnants of a couple of eggs were lying under the tree the other day.  Amazingly similar to a robin's egg.

Yesterday I went down to talk to the condo manager.  No one was there; well, no one except this beauty.  It was bigger than my hand!  I have never seen a bug of this magnitude outside of the zoo.  Really a magnificent specimen, and big enough to ride a child's scooter, or so it would appear!

The tide continues to go waaaay out every day.  I suppose after the rainy season it won't go out so far?  We noticed when we were out last weekend that the water level goes way down at our end of Pattaya, and at the north end of Beach Road; but when you get to the south end, the water still comes right up to the beach.  We saw a boat beached at the north end, out of service until the tide came back in.  (Don't worry, I'm going to tie this all in to the critter theme.)  More and more locals are appearing when the tide goes out, looking for crustaceans in the now-exposed rocks.  It must be fruitful work if more people are coming.  Hard to see from up above what they are actually finding.

Saved the best critters for last.  My Thai class finishes at 3 p.m.  That barely gives Mick time to drop me at home before heading out to pick Tim up from work, if Tim leaves at a reasonable hour. Sometimes he has a small window of time to travel home before tying in to teleconferences with North America or other locations.  Otherwise, he may be stuck at the office until 8 or 9 at night.  Last Wednesday he was at the other plant and wanted to try to get back before his evening meetings.  So we went straight from school to pick him up.  It is nearly an hour drive, but the scenery is always interesting.

Once Tim was in the car we were on our way back to Pattaya.  Tim was in a meeting by phone the entire ride, so I had to keep quiet.  But I could not contain my excitement when we saw an elephant walking along the road.  And not just one elephant, but four elephants.  I shouted, "Chang!" (Thai word for elephant).  Oops.  Tim says occasionally that he's seen an elephant on his way to work, and I am quite envious.  But this was the first time he'd seen four.  Seeing elephants is considered "chock dii," or good luck.  We had big chock dii that day.

sorry for the blur - shot from a moving car

Here is one more shot from the road - two water buffalo crammed into the back of a small pickup truck, while the driver does what he does best - passing on the right:

our car receives a fresh blessing of flowers every week

In other news...

I enjoyed the FIFA Women's World Cup Finals.  It was on television here starting at 6 a.m. Monday morning, so I just caught the second half.  It was a bit frustrating to watch, as they rarely showed the score or the time or any information of any kind, and the color commentary was in Thai.  I'm afraid my Thai classes didn't help me much there.  Here are the color commentators we were "fortunate" to have:

Can't you just sense the excitement??

The Night Circus (loved this book!)

Open markets are plentiful in Pattaya, and I think in all of Southeast Asia.  Some are ongoing, but most are open only at designated times each week.  My friend was telling me about one such market that she visited, open on Tuesdays and Fridays.  I said I'd be interested in seeing it with her.  But our astute driver overheard, and added his two cents.  He said this market was not very good, but that a much better market existed in south Pattaya that was open Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

With Tim in India for two weeks, I would be spending the weekend alone.  This would be a good opportunity to check out the night market.  My friend and her little three-year-old agreed to go with me.  Mr. Driver told us the market opened around four or five o'clock, so we arrived around 4:30. Vendors were just beginning to set up their stalls and nothing was really open yet.  It was quite hot in the afternoon sun, which tested the patience of our little companion.  So we walked down the road to the Outlet Mall where we could grab a bite to eat while we waited for the market to get going.  I was happy to see another Maesriruen, a Thai food place Tim and I like with a location up in our end of Pattaya.

The air conditioning felt wonderful, encouraging us to linger over our tasty Thai dishes.  Our little friend entertained us with things she was learning in school, like performing a wai while saying, "Good morning, teacher!"  I am impressed with how much English she is learning here in Thailand.  She speaks a little, but clearly understands a lot.  She's one smart cookie!

We finally accepted the fact that we needed to go back out into the hot and humid evening air, and hiked back to the market.  Now things were picking up, with lots of local Thais and a few farangs strolling between stalls.  Wares of every kind were in abundance, especially t-shirts and knock-off bags.  We wandered here and there, eventually making our way to the extensive food aisles, where we enjoyed a fresh fruit smoothie.  Some food vendors take such care to arrange their wares beautifully.  I was fascinated by the fish vendors who had whole fish roasting on rotisseries, and the booths where everything was wrapped neatly in banana leaves.

We took a stroll down the pet aisle - puppies, kittens and rabbits, as you might expect, along with a few more unexpected creatures, like hedgehogs, some kind of tiny squirrel, and bats (ew).  Just what would one do with a pet bat, I wonder.  Moving along, I was amused by the fact that one vendor had "Michigan" banners across the front of their display, and Mika was the one to notice it, not me!  The market got busier as the night wore on, and we soon headed back to the car.

I felt like there was more to see, so I returned the next night after "temple."  I found a pair of earrings I liked for 20 THB (about 60 cents!), a couple of nice bags and a cover for my phone.  You find phone cover vendors everywhere you go in Pattaya, so I have been looking for a good deal.  (We have two phones at home that differ only by size, so I thought this would help to distinguish one from the other).  For some reason I found a ridiculous number of "Lilo and Stitch" covers - no thanks.  I finally found an inexpensive one with London landmarks; I figured that would be appropriate, in honor of our upcoming trip!  I also indulged in a nutella crepe - aroi (delicious).

I'd forgotten my glasses at church, so I stopped at one of the eyeglasses vendors to grab another pair.  I was so excited that I was able to converse with the woman in Thai; it was fairly rudimentary, but I was able to get my point across.  That was the best part of this visit to the market - using what I have learned in class to speak with the locals, and seeing their surprise when a farang spoke to them in their own language. I was also able to tell the church lady the following week about my lost glasses, and I was happily reunited with them.  (Mick gave it a 20% chance that I would get my glasses back - hah!)

With Tim gone and all this free time on my hands, I have been observing the local fauna.  I noticed that a small lizard (gecko, chameleon?)  appeared on the wall of our balcony each night exactly at sunset.  So one night I stood at the ready with my camera and saw it emerge from a hole in the ceiling and skitter across the wall to the opposite balcony.  It was not as sure-footed as I expected; in fact, it half-skittered, half-slid, with its tail careening behind, much like the back end of a car on an icy road.  I wonder if they ever fall?

Yes, I know...too much free time.

What I'm Reading:  Just finished The Tender Bar by J.R. Mohringer, a memoir of a young man essentially being raised by the denizens of a local bar in Manhasset, New York.  It is full of colorful characters, but his young life was full of frustrating missteps.  Well-written.