Top Ten Lists - Our Observations SO FAR

This will be the first of several Top 10 Lists to come in the near future.  Other future Top 10 Lists to include:

*  Top 10 Shopping Experiences

*  Top 10 Yummy Foods to Eat While in Thailand

*  Top 10 Things to Avoid While in Thailand

*  Top 10 Wish List of Places to Go in Thailand (and why they're on our list)

If you would like to see one list before another, please post a comment and we'll try and get that list out first.  :0)

10. There is low suction in the toilets (in the locations that actually have a toilet bowl and not a squat toilet) so when one wipes themselves, they then put the toilet paper in the wastebasket.  Then they use the scooper in the bucket of water on the side of the toilet and put a scoop of water in the toilet bowl to flush naturally.  (This is in the more rural areas.  Generally the airport and nice restaurants have toilet bowls or toilet bowls AND squat toilets.)
9.  They have Amazing Race Asia on TV here.  The prize for the winners is $500,000 and they travel throughout Asia, not the world.  The host is a cute Asian version of Phil.  There is also the Asian version of The Biggest Loser.
8.  Thai guards, police, etc. like their whistles.  They blow them all the time to direct you in traffic, even when you are not moving.
7. If you learn to say in Thai that you don’t speak much Thai, the lovely Thai people will start a conversation in Thai because they assume if you know enough to say you don’t know much, you know Thai.
6. Grow thick skin. It is common for someone to tell you that you look fat today or your hair does not look as beautiful as normal. One day one of the IAs at school was talking about what she was going to wear to this formal dinner that we were all going to. She was telling a friend of mine that she might have a dress for her. She didn’t want me to feel left out so she said, “I’d love to bring you one of my dresses but I don’t think we are the same size.” Yeah honey, I’m twice your width!
5.  We’ve been told that this is the rainiest, mildest rainy seasons ever.  Our take is that someone is trying to give us more time to acclimate to the warm temperatures.  Regardless, it is still HOT.  Going from the bottom floor to the top floor of our apartment feels like we are entering a sauna.  But our skin is doing GREAT!
4. If a man feels the urge to empty his bladder, he just pulls over to the side of the road and pees in a ditch.  It is common to see a man on the side of the road with his back to the road and a stream of pee going into the ditch.
3. It is not uncommon to see an elephant walk down a busy street in a Bangkok suburb.
2. Washington has its spiders.  Australia has its cockroaches.  Thailand has its geckos.  Geckos line the ceiling and walls of the walkways where we live.  We also have a 2 inch gecko that likes the inside of our home.  He's never in the kitchen.  Just on the walls and on the living room floor.  He's cuuutteee - something I wouldn't say about spiders or cockroaches.
1.  Most mornings, I choose to curl my hair with a curling iron.  I do this because I think it smooths out the friz.  The other day I decided to ride my bike to school instead of taking the van.  I have to say that my hair looked FAB!  I got to school and walked by my reflection in the window – FRIZ BALL!  Moral: Why bother?!? 

Momma's Falls

I feel like I need to write this because Amanda and Caryn always seem to get such a kick out of my lack of gracefulness. It all started about 5 years ago when I slipped on a tater tot at Costco.  Where the tater tot came from, I don’t know.  But it WAS a tater tot.  Amanda and Caryn were with me and laughed so hard when I fell that they almost wet their pants.  I went a couple of years without any major mishaps. Then the first day in Bangkok when I decided to try out my new bike, I was riding next to Amanda and Ryan and was approaching a small incline. I didn’t judge the incline well and pretty much just fell off my bike, right as a taxi was going by.  It just so happened that in the taxi were Troy, our new friend, and Anthony, my friend from Kent.   Amanda said that it was the most graceful fall she had ever seen from me.  My latest “falling” incident occurred as we were walking down a path towards the river at Sai Yok.  I managed to slip and fall on the mossy path down to the river.  According to David, it was a graceful fall worth a total score of 9.6.  I did get a squeal out of the woman behind me and then some giggling from the entire group because the Thai people always laugh WITH you so you don’t lose face. So I guess I can be happy that at least in my falling incidents, I am becoming more graceful.  

Nagoya, Japan

The Nagoya Countryside

Professional Development – Stephanie Harvey Workshop:  I was fortunate to be able to use Professional Development funds to travel to Nagoya Japan to see Stephanie Harvey, a pioneer in the field of reading comprehension.  David came along for the ride.  The conference was wonderful – Stephanie was inspirational, dynamic and down to earth.  She validated much of what we are doing at ISB as well as made me start thinking about some things we should consider exploring.

I Can Wear My Jeans!:  In the 2-1/2 months we have lived in Thailand, I have put my jeans on only once to enter a wat in downtown Bangkok. I almost passed out from the heat. Every other day of the 2-1/2 months, I have either worn capris, shorts or my bathing suit.  As we prepared for our trip to Nagoya, I checked the weather and learned that it was quite a bit cooler there than here in Bangkok.  My initial thought was “OMG!  I’m going to get to wear my jeans!” This may seem a bit petty.  Let me explain.  If you come from the pacific northwest, you enjoy wearing a cozy long sleeved shirt or a worn pair of jeans for a good part of the year (much to the chagrin of many PNW residents).  So far here in Bangkok, it has been warm every day, even if it rains.  Some have said that it has been uncharacteristically cool.  I think the powers that be are helping us to acclimate to the weather.  So I enjoyed two days of wearing long sleeved shirts and jeans.  This could end up being the first and last time I do so this year.  :0) 

Inuyama Castle, Nagoya, Japan

Inuyama Castle:  We arrived in Nagoya, Japan in the morning and ended up with half a day to play.  We decided to jump on the JR train line and head for Inuyama Castle, the oldest castle in Japan.  It was beautiful.  David ventured the many flights of stairs to get to the top floor of the castle.  The castle is located on the top of a hill overlooking Inuyama, near Nagoya.  The grounds were gorgeous and the architecture of the castle was beautiful.  We can imagine how gorgeous it is throughout the seasons of the year. 
As our dear friend Jimbo says, “It’s all about the food!” We were anxious to try out some Japanese food on our short visit to Nagoya.  We tried the local burger joint, Mos Burger.  The burgers were good – I’m not exactly sure what they were made of because we couldn’t read the menu, but they were tasty.  One night we ate at a sushi restaurant.  We went in and everyone shouted greetings to us – at least we think they did.  We don’t know Japanese. We had sashimi, sushi, soup, fried fish and a big mug of beer.  It was great.  Our other beautiful meal was on our way to the airport.  We stopped at a Japanese BBQ restaurant.  We BBQ’d a variety of proteins on a BBQ in the center of the table.  Between the grilled veggies and meats, the soup and rice dishes, we were in 7^th heaven.

Japanese BBQ

Exploring the Sai Yok Area

David and I at Phatad Waterfall

We hit the road early the next morning after brekkies and headed north to Phatad Waterfall - it was BEAUTIFUL! Because we are in the middle of the rainy season, there was plenty of water cascading down multiple rocky faces.We hiked around for awhile and then headed for the local hot springs - Hin Dad Hot Springs.  When we arrived, we learned that for 40B each ($1.25) we could gain access to a natural hot spring.  There were four hot pool areas - three were filled with locals mostly in shorts and t-shirts.  The fourth was for monks.  The hot pools were situated right next to the rolling river, so once you became too hot in the pool, you could cool off by sitting on the man-made steps on the edge of the river.It was quite refreshing.  Besides a couple of Germans, we were the only farangs (foreigners) there.  There were a couple of locals running around taking pictures that you could purchase as you exited the hot springs (kind of like a Disneyland ride).When we crossed over the bridge and through the exit, of course we had worked up an appetite and had a delightful time purchasing a variety of edible delicacies from food stalls that lined the exit (what a surprise!).

The beautiful Thai Countryside

   Our last stop of the day was to Sai Yok National Park.  The park is located along the river, which is lined with houseboats – not like the houseboats many of us might be used to.  All sides of the houseboats were open air with no tables or furniture to sit upon.  Everyone sat on the floor. There appeared to be one small, enclosed area/room that we assumed was the toilet. Each houseboat had probably 15 – 20 people on it – families and groups of friends. These groups would hire a long tail boat (long narrow boat with a motor on the end) to tow the houseboat to the location of their choosing. The long tail boat looked so fun that we hired one to take us up and down the river to see the four waterfall, the beautiful riverbank and diverse rock formations.
    We ended our evening back at our floating hotel room.  We booked a couple of massages that came with the room and spent the evening hearing it pour, watching an amazing lightning show and listening to the thunder seemed right outside our room.

Long Tail Boat towing a houseboat

Hin Dad Hot Springs

Herding Brahman cattle on the side of road on the way to Sai Yok

 

Venturing to the River Kwai

   It was our first three-day weekend of the school year and we were set for our trip to Kanchanaburi! This is where the Bridge on the River Kwai is located. David flew in Thursday night and rented a car. For those of you who know David, you know he does not hesitate to take risks. I believe that renting a car in Bangkok is taking a risk (see David’s Indiana Jones post).     We headed out of town Friday morning with a guide book/map in hand (although this doesn’t matter much when there are no real road signs and if there are, they’re in Thai.  I love it when we drive by a sign and David says “What did that say?” “Hello, I speak Thai only nit noi (very little) and don’t read sanskrit!”) Luckily for us, there was a taxi driver out front waiting for someone else and we started talking about our trip. He set us on a route that took us on a much more picturesque drive! David skillfully maneuvered through the Bangkok suburb traffic and before long we were on country roads leading towards Kanchanaburi. We had eaten breakfast before we left but, of course, we started passing carts and you probably know the rest (similar to, “if you give a mouse a cookie,” but instead, “If you pass a cart on the side of the road, then David will have to stop"). We stopped at this cute little place on the side of the road.  No one spoke English and, again, we only new Thai nit noi! We ended up getting THE best duck soup with noodles and veggies. We are still talking about the tastiness of our lunch.
   Next stop was Kanchanaburi to see THE bridge. It was really interesting and in an amazing setting.  Of course there are now so many tourist type activities surrounding the area, but it wasn’t difficult to imagine what it might have looked like in 1943. There was still much vegetation. I started humming the song from the movie as we walked across the bridge.
   Next, we drove to where we would spend the next couple of nights –a lovely room in a lovely hotel built on a raft, floating on the river. If you took 6 steps through the sliding glass window, you would walk right into the River Kwai. We had some snacks and spent the rest of the evening watching the DVD, Bridge On the River Kwai.