After I returned from Thailand, “Halloween” was the buzzword at school. The spider gel gems are up on the windows, the pumpkins are out, and after each class, the staff members remind the kids and students that Halloween is coming soon and they should wear a costume to class! “Ehhhhhhhh????” grouse the students. Halloween exists […]
Month: October 2007
What’s Grosser than Gross?
The other day, a student told me that he feeds his 9-month old baby gruel. Had I not lived in Japan for 9 months and already come to realize that the Japanese use the oh-so-Dickensian term “gruel” to signify rice porridge – a popular breakfast food here – I might have been taken aback. Nope, […]
Overheard in Thailand
During training, one of the trainers asked each of us what we were interested in doing while we were in Japan. When it came my turn, I said I wanted to travel around Asia – that I was dying to go to Thailand some day. “It’s beautiful,” agreed the trainer. ” … but it’s not […]
Oh My Boy!
In Thailand, the sea life is infinitely ungrateful. It is well-fed by tour guides, fiercely harbored by environmental groups, lauded as the subjects of countless worshipful travelogues, documentaries, photographs and paintings … and yet it only seeks to harm. Witness: several bleeding fellow tourists, their flesh shredded by the soft coral lurking beneath the aquamarine […]
Down with Ko Phi Phi
We arrived in Krabi on Sunday afternoon and shared a taxi to Ao Lang Beach with a couple of German travelers who were staying on the nearby Rai Lay Bay. That night: On Monday there was the aforementioned slow-to-start tour of the Ko Phi Phi islands – famous for providing the setting for The Beach. […]
Khao-s
There were only 2 nights in Bangkok so – apart from a brief jaunt to Chatuchak Market – I spent most of my time on Khao San Road, what wikipedia calls “a backpacker’s ghetto.” In a nutshell: More budget hotels, street booths, restaurants, hair weavers, filthy backpackers, internet cafes, lithe stray kitties, 24-hour tailors, transvestites […]
Un-Thai-mely
Thai time is not Japan time. At Suvarnabhumi Airport, an unsmiling woman at the desk told me that the bus to Khao San Road would arrive in “half an hour.” After half an hour had passed and there was no bus, I asked another lady outside if the bus was late. “6:30,” she said. It […]
Out of Hot Water
Last night we stayed in a hotel that cost us about 375 baht each. There were no blankets on the beds – only thin towels. This made us laugh. After two rides on tuk tuks that we are certain caused the strange coughs and tickles we’ve felt in our throats this evening, we scoured the […]
Two Nights in Bangkok
Here now in Bangkok, where it is warm and balmy without being wet. There are angry Buddhist statues dotted between handicraft or hair extension booths and restaurants; lavish makeshift shrines graced by earthly leavings such as a three quarters-full Fanta bottle and skittish, darting geckos haunt street corners. There are so many foreigners I am stunned and […]
Sockfoot
Today, while I was setting up for class, two of my 7 year-old students stole my red shoes out of the kutsu bako, leaving me sockfooted and stranded in the carpeted classroom when it was time to go into the school’s lobby to shepherd my straggling little rapscallions into class. It was Miho who finally […]