Sawatdee ka! (Hello). I'm starting to learn some Thai... Today, Da, the woman who I buy breakfast from everyday taught me "Sabai dee mai?" which means "how are you?" Boosadi, the woman who sells coffee, taught us how to order- "ga fay yen yai" (large iced coffee). I'm obviously on my way to fluency with all the essentials. My repertoire also includes pad thai gai (chicken pad thai), kop kun ka (thank you), and mai pet (no spice). Again, since Thai is a really simple language with just 5 tones, I am confident that I'll be fluent in no time. But actually, despite my inability to speak the language, getting around and order food, etc. has not been too difficult. Nearly every sign is in English and Thai and most restaurants have English menus or menus with pictures. There are also lots of Thais who speak English and are more than happy to help. Pida also writes things down for us in Thai to show people (such as cab drivers). It is made even easier by the friendliness of the Thai people - I know the names of the woman who cleans the bathroom near our classroom, the woman who I buy my soda from at lunch, and the woman who I usually get my lunch from, all because they asked my name (and remembered it the next day), just like Da and Boosadi did.
Back to what we've been doing around Thailand. After our trip to Hua Hin and our presentations on Monday, we went back to regular class...or so we thought. On Wednesday, we headed to Ramathibodi hospital where we learned about disasters and the health system's response with several medical school students. We did several simulations and stations with them which was a really cool experience. I was surprised to see them wearing school uniforms as med school students but then again, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised considering the emphasis on uniforms in Thailand. Every student that we've seen, from the youngest pre-schoolers to these medical students, wears a uniform. The only reason that we aren't required to wear a uniform is because we are here for such a short time and they don't want to make us buy them for 5 weeks. After our trip to the hospital, we headed to Khao San road for dinner. Dylon, Michal and I were able to fulfill one of our goals - ride in a real tuk tuk. After eating dinner and hanging out for a while, we found a tuk tuk who was willing to take us all the way to Salaya which is about 40 minutes because of all the traffic. It was quite the ride.
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| Tuk Tuk |
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The next day, we went on another field trip to "Empower" which is a foundation that helps sex workers. We were all pretty surprised because Empower is not the typical organization. Rather than attempt to get the women out of the industry, it tries to help them get protection and provides them with resources such as English classes, condoms, and a place to meet other sex workers. It views sex work as a legitimate job, which is obviously not the most common opinion. While we were there, one sex worker came in and talked to us. She even gave us a demonstration of her pole dancing technique on a table in the foundation with poles that is used by the women to teach each other tricks of the trade. Carla and Larry even got up and tried it out which was hilarious. As we were leaving Empower, we passed a night market being set up by dozens of men all wearing "I love the king" tank tops. Later that same day, I was running around the track when I witnessed another display of patriotism - a trolley pulled up near the track and began playing the national anthem. Everyone within earshot immediately stopped and stood at attention for the duration of the song, including the full soccer game being played on the field inside the track.
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| The group at Empower |
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| Word wall to help with learning English |
Friday was one of our most tiring days so far. We headed into Bangkok in the morning to see the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute Snake Farm where we saw a venom extraction in the morning and then walked around looking at snakes. I think we might have been more entertained by the dozens of little Thai children in adorable uniforms than we were by the snakes. Next, we walked over to Siam Ocean World where saw a shark feeding and lots of cool animals (plus more adorable Thai children in uniform). We then headed back to the Snake Farm to see the show and hold a huge snake (a facebook picture opportunity that we couldn't pass up). Our last stop of the day was Jim Thompson's house where we were able to see beautiful Thai art and architecture and hear about the unsolved mystery of his disappearance.
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| Adorable. |
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| Just holding a snake.. |
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| Jim Thompson's House |
Saturday night was one of our most entertaining nights yet. On the suggestion of our dean at MUIC, we headed to a place that would apparently give us the real Thai experience with traditional music and dancing. He didn't give us too many details but just told us to be sure to be there by midnight. We arrived at 11:30 to a dark club filled with dozens of Thai people sitting at small tables as western dance music and rap blasted from the speakers. We were led to a table directly in front of the stage on the edge of the dance floor. As we walked in, most eyes were on us, clearly not locals. Once seated, we quickly made friends as one guy our age asked my name. He also asked me if I spoke Thai and when I shook my head, his entire table started laughing. Maybe that should have been our first hint that something was up... At midnight, several Thai men and women with sequined costumes emerged holding a picture of the king... no surprise there. They sang some songs and there was some dancing. Moments later, two Thai men dressed in drag came out and performed about 20 minutes of stand-up... entirely in Thai...with many gestures towards our table that were followed by laughter from everyone else in the bar. It was somewhat awkward but also hilarious. After the comedy routine, there was much more dancing and singing. As the performers were finishing their acts, people would come and drape ribbons around their necks with tons of 100 baht bills stapled to the ribbons. Eventually, the dance floor cleared of the performers and the people at the bar began to dance. After a few minutes, we were up and dancing with them. Some of the performers came and talked to us and one even taught us a few dance moves. Although they had probably been laughing at us earlier during the standup routine, everyone at the bar was incredibly nice and welcoming. They would pull us out of our chairs to dance and teach us how to dance to the Thai music. By the end of the night, we were all dancing and had made a few new friends. Even though most of them didn't speak English and our Thai is pretty useless unless we're ordering iced coffee, we had a great time enjoying good music and entertaining dances.
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| We love the King. |
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