Cow or rabbit?

Sunday is a great day for relaxing! We slept in, puttered about, and eventually got out the door for another walk / bike ride. This time the girls rode while we walked. We went by some small fields with water buffalo in them and then we came across the creature in the picture below. Check out his ears! Wonder if the poor fellow gets teased a lot.

Other than our morning bike ride which ended in a trip to the super market, we really didn't do too much. The girls played and did some more biking close to our house where the streets are quiet and Nadim and I did some reading and some further planning for the European leg of the trip. It was really a relaxing day, which is a bit strange considering the chaos happening in Bangkok and India. Time to count our blessings I guess.

CM

Morning Market

In the morning, and particularly on Saturdays, there is a market. We decided to check it out, but we were a bit late getting started as we slept in a bit and then were busy with webcams and phone calls with the folks back home.

By the time we got there it was after nine o'clock and things were beginning to wrap up. None the less we browsed through the various stalls. First we thought it was only meat and produce, but then we found some more stalls across the street with clothing and other goods. We came home with a couple of poncho shirts for the girls and some new Croc type sandals for Yasmin. We think a dog made off with one of Yasmin's old shoes because we could only find one. Teach us for leaving our front gate open and shoes outside!

This afternoon we headed over to the school. A group of junior high boys meets there on Saturday's with Goli, but today she had a funeral to attend and asked if we would go. So we played soccer, and did a couple of other games and things with those kids. They taught us one where there is a murderer who kill with the wink of an eye and you have to guess who it is before he gets you.

The girls had fun riding the bikes along the school driveway. The bikes are much too big for them, but they can still manage. They rode up and down several times and were happy for a bit of freedom.

CM

Hot water

You really don't know how much you enjoy hot water until you have to go without it. The water here is heated through a heater on the wall. You set the temperature and it heats it as you go. Well a couple of days ago ours broke. Ahhh. We had to manage with some cold showers, but today the repair men came and replaced the unit. Yay, we have hot water again!

Thought I'd share a funny shower related story.... Last week Nadim had finished his shower, but the door handle broke! I was trying to open it from the outside, he was trying to open it from the inside, we were sliding butter knifes, and other makeshift tools under the door... The kids thought he was going to be stuck in there for life. I was laughing quite unsympathetically and thinking God, I hope we don't have to call a repair man! Eventually we managed to get the door open and Nadim in all his glory was rescued.

Today was spent helping out with English classes and doing some home schooling and this afternoon we got anther bike so now we have two. The girls rode on the backs of the bikes and we got a bit better view of the town. Next time we'll have to remember our camera and take a few pictures of the streetscapes!

CM

Fun & Games

This morning was our two hour English lesson with one of the grade five classes. We switched our home schooling schedule up a bit so that we could go to the school in the morning. Naiyana was meeting with someone in her office when we stopped by and sent us along to the class saying that she would be there shortly....

After some songs and warm up activities a messenger came saying that there was some other emergency that Naiyana had to attend to. So we ended up teaching the class on our own! There were a few rowdy boys, but for the most part the kids were pretty good. I think they aren't used to speaking English so much. We had speaking practice by dividing the class in two and each of us took half and interviewed them about favourite seasons, animals, sports, etc. We also taught some new songs, and sang some that they already knew. We played a game. We even got around to doing a quiz and doing some work from their workbooks.

On our way back to the house to get to our own work, we bumped into another teacher. She invited us back later in the afternoon to interact with her students. We got through most of our studies and returned to the school. Two classes had been combined for one reason or another and so they were playing in the field instead of doing English class. We chatted with some of the kids, and then began to play.

They wanted us to sing and dance, so Nadim started up the "Chicken Dance". The kids thought that was pretty fun, especially as our "music" (Nadim and I tried to get the tune going) got faster and faster and the hand movements, arm flapping, and bum wiggles got faster too. Roya drew hopscotch and the kids had fun playing that too.

CM

Trouble in Bangkok

Today Nadim and I were all prepared to teach our first English class solo, but as we opened the door to Naiyana's office to retrieve supplies, we were surprised to see her there. She told us that she wasn't going to Bangkok, because protesters had shut down the airport and her contact in Bangkok advised her not to come. She will wait until things settle down a bit.

The feeling up here in the north is that they just wish this would go away. They seem to feel that it is a problem only for Bangkok. They have no desire to protest or cause turmoil. It's really a shame, because the protests will have huge impact on tourism and with the economy in the state that it is, this just adds additional pressure.

We're not too worried as we don't plan to be in Bangkok area for another month, even then it will only be for a short stay. We won't be going through the airport until mid to late January, so I'm pretty sure things will have calmed down by then. If not plan B will be to fly out of Chiang Mai.

So we had Naiyana there for the English class, but Nadim and I and the girls were put to good use. We divided the class in two and Roya and I took one half and Nadim and Yasmin took the other half. We then asked them questions about the weather, which seasons they preferred and why, and what was their favourite animal. The kids are pretty good with reading, but speaking is harder for them, so this was great practice. We spent most of the class interviewing the kids. We plan to do the other game about the past, present, and future the next time we see this group which will be for a two hour session.

Last week Nadim and I did some Mr. Fix-it work on the play structure. The slope of one of the slides was too steep so we raised the bottom up a bit. You can also see the tires at the end of the structure. We attached those as well. Looks like the kids are enjoying it.

CM

English Class

We found out today that Naiyana has to go to Bangkok for a few days. She asked us to take over her English classes for the rest of the week! Ever brave, Nadim and I agreed without hesitation.

There are two grade five classes. Tomorrow we have an hour long class in the afternoon, and Thursday and Friday we have morning classes that will last for two hours. The kids are learning how to say something happened in the past, present, or future using phrases like last year, this week, or next month. We wrote out a bunch of sentences and Yasmin and Roya helped hand them out to the class. Then each kid had to read them and stick them on the board under the headings "Past", "Now", or "Future". Next they had to write their own sentences. This mixed in with some songs and practice questions made up the hour long class.

We get to repeat the lesson tomorrow with the other grade five class. Hopefully it goes smoothly! Nadim and I are thinking of games and songs and some speaking exercises to do with the kids during our two hour sessions later in the week.

They have a hard time to hire English teachers here. Nawarat related a story about doing an interview with a teacher who had majored in English, but when they started the interview in English, she shook her head and asked to do it in Thai. He laughs and says, he wasn't too sure what she was planning to teach the kids!

CM

School Evaluation

Today the school was being evaluated for recognition at the provincial level. The teachers had spent all weekend preparing. There were displays for the various elements that they were being evaluated on and tables spread with binders of written material to back up their claims.

The school was decorated with swags of colourful fabric along the front concrete wall lining the street and along the eves of some of the buildings. There were pictures of the students harvesting rice, doing gardening work, participatng in gym class, swimming, and much more.

The committe members were treated to coffee and cake in the morning, and as the evalutation meeting ended around lunch time, they were given an amazing luncheon. The school presented the evaluators with gifts. They sang. Apparently part of Thai culture is to sing kareoke style. Even the head of the evaluators sang!

The school was very proud and from what I understood the evaluation seemed to have gone quite well. They were only the first school to be evaluated so we will not know the results for a while. I wish them success.

As for Nadim and I and the girls, we smiled and did the wai (hands pressed together like in prayer and bow to the person you are greeting). The language of course was an issue, but the school is proud of the international volunteers it brings in, so we were able to be part of the proof of that.

After our busy morning and early afternoon at the school we headed back to the Volunteer House to do some home schooling. Tonights agenda includes going to the Big C. It's a new department store that just opened a month ago. We're hoping to get some of the things we might find back home so that we can make a Persian stew for some of our new friends who will join us on Wednesday evening.

CM

Feast at Goli's

This weekend we were busy with house cleaning, helping at the school to prepare for a visit from the King's representatives. The school is being considered for an award and they are going all out with setting up a room to display the school activities.

On Saturday night it was time for the Baha'i Feast. It is a gathering that takes place every 19 days and is composed of three parts. First is devotions and prayers, a feast for the spirit., next comes administrative discussions, and lastly comes the social part which typically involves food. Saturday's feast was great. Some of the young girls sang prayers in both English and Thai. There was harmony and solo parts. It was so beautiful that it moved me to tears (that's not so hard to do, because I really am a sap).
After the administrative portion, we ate together. We had hot pot. It's a fun way to eat. You have a pot of boiling broth and just keep adding vegetables and meats to it. We had all sorts of different mushrooms in the pot. There were golden needle mushrooms that were long and skinny, there were white mouses ear mushrooms which were flat and white and there were some other mushrooms, more typical of what you see back home. Lots of tasty sauces and there were shrimp and pork too. Delicious!

After the meal, we played a game. The kids really liked that and wanted more, but as there were no more games planned, we had a little sing-a-long. It's surprising that so many of the Baha'i songs that we know are also well known here. They seem to often sing the English version and then have a Thai translation with the same melody. A lovely evening.

CM

Baha'i Volunteer House

Some of our friends and relatives are asking for pictures of where we're living, so we thought we'd dedicate a post to describe our temporary home. We're staying at the Baha'i Volunteer House. A couple of posts back, you saw a picture from the outside.

As you can see it is a long and narrow townhouse. The living room is quite spacious, but it is very sparsely decorated compared to our crammed houses back in the west. Thai living seems to be quite simple. In fact many homes don't have living room furniture, but instead use cushions for sitting on the floor.

As you can see from the picture, the dining area has a simple folding table and plastic chairs. It's certainly functional, but has none of the luxury of some of our friends' homes. I was on the webcam with Kim recently and she was in her dining room. In the background I could see the gorgeous print of a tulip, that I've always loved, and I could well imagine the softly painted, spotless walls, the gleaming wooden table, and padded chairs. For a brief moment I missed the niceties of home. Then the moment passed, and I was back into my hippie happiness.

The kitchen is nothing like the ones at home. There is one set of shelves, rather than the numerous cabinets that you find in most Canadian homes. There is a small sink for washing hands, but the dish washing is done outside. We don't have a dishwasher, microwave, toaster oven, or oven for that matter, no coffee maker, grinder, food processor, waffle iron, or four burner stove. Instead we have an electric kettle which is well used for making tea and instant coffee or hot chocolate. We also have a toaster used each morning. We do have a fridge, although it is about half the size of the one at home, and we have a gas burner. I haven't been doing a lot of cooking, because it is so convenient to go to the market and pick up rice and curries. We have done some cooking at home, but it takes a little longer as you can only cook one thing at a time. We end up setting things aside with a plate over it to keep warm while we prepare the next item.


We don't have air conditioning, but we do have several fans. Surprisingly we are remaining quite comfortable. The house cools down in the evening when the temperature goes down to the mid-twenties, and then seems to stay cool for most of the day. It's been around thirty in the shade. We're checking the temperature as part of our home schooling exercises!

In the back, outside, there is a covered porch. We have another set of shelves there with glass doors. We use it for extra pantry items. We use the porch to do dishes and to hang our laundry out to dry. We don't have a clothes washer either... Well, I guess we do. His name is Nadim! There is no hot water except in the washroom that is just off the kitchen so we haul the water from there for dish washing.

This is where the infamous frog story took place. We haven't seen any more frogs since that first day. The house hadn't been lived in for six months, so I think the creatures had started to move in.

We've adapted to the no frills and are really enjoying it here in Yasothon. We are walking to get to various destinations as we don't have any vehicle. We may soon be able to borrow some bikes, which would help us to explore just that much further.

We live across from a little farm with chickens and roosters (that seem to cock-a-doodle-doo in the middle of the night), and some water buffalo and goats as well. Today we walked down a street with rice fields on either side. It is harvest time for rice. We "talked" with a farmer for a few minutes. It was kind of interesting to see rice as a plant, much like wheat growing in our Canadian fields. As you break the grain from the stem you get a little pod and with a bit of difficulty you can open it up and sure enough you see a raw rice kernel.

CM

Dinner at Goli's

After a full day of home schooling and helping out at the school (I'll have to tell you about some of the work we're doing in a future post), we went out to Goli's house for dinner. She was the Baha'i that picked us up at the train station.

We had a wonderful meal prepared by different families. It was Thai food, of course. There were a couple of different curries, a hot chili paste, soup with coconut milk and chicken, skewers of chicken and pork, and for dessert warm bananas in sweetened sauce from coconut milk. Everything was really delicious, but the girls' favourite was the meat skewers.

After dinner we had an impromptu game of identify the Petshop. The girls had brought their Littlest Petshop animals, and so we lined them all up and Yasmin and Roya would have to say the name of a type of animal and the other kids, with some help from the adults, would pick them out of the group.

That led to other games where the kids and their parents were blindfolded and the kids then had to feed a banana to their parent. Nadim and Yasmin came in second. Roya kept feeding the banana to my chest and neck! I guess she thought I was a little shorter than I am!

We finished the evening playing a game of shrinking boats. We started with a large sheet of newspaper that our family could all stand on quite comfortably, but we kept having to fold it in half and prove that we still fit, by balancing for 5 seconds. We ended with a piece of paper the size of one foot. Lots of fun, and lots of laughs!

On another note, you can also see Goli's living room in the picture above. There were no chairs. We sat cross-legged on thick square cushions on the floor. The kids quite enjoyed this and almost started a pillow fight with some of the other kids... oops!

CM

The School

The director of the school, Nawarat, and his wife, Naiyana, are an amazing couple and we enjoy their company. They took us out to dinner 2 nights ago, and we had a great time chatting about the school, the town, their daily life, etc.

Santitham School was established in 1967 and has grown to about 700 students, from junior kindergarten to grade 6. The school charges very low fees to enable the poorer children from the surrounding villages to attend. The school motto is presented in a big sign in Thai and English at the entrance: "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."

It had been established by a Baha'i woman who put her life savings into it. I believe it was quite successful initially, but had fallen into disrepair about 15 years ago. There had been a high turn over of principals and the school was in desperate need of someone to inject life into it. This is when Nawarat and Naiyana come into the story.

Nawarat heard of the school's need and convinced Naiyana to commit to one year as a Baha'i service project. They talked of clearing some of the school grounds that had turned to jungle over the years and cleaning out an old administrative building which had become a storage area. They were operating with a very small budget and were really in the red. After one year, Naiyana tells of Nawarat's plea... "We've only planted the seed Naiyana! We must ensure it grows." and so they decided to stay one more year. More cleaning, more struggle, and more children too. By the end of the second year Naiyana says Nawarat convinces her with, "Naiyana, it's only a tender sapling...", and by the third year " Naiyana, we must see if it will bear fruit." After that, Naiyana says she didn't bother to ask Nawarat if their one year of service was finished. They have divided the years as principal of the school for the past 15 years!

They say that the first five years were the most difficult, but after that they began to break even. At this time they are even able to support a Hill Tribe dormitory project in another part of Thailand. They attribute their good fortune to many prayers. She says Baha'u'llah has given whatever she asks for. She prayed for funds and the Baha'is of the world donated. She prayed for the school to be recognized and the students and the school received numerous awards. She prayed for teacher and volunteers from all over the world have come. She laughs and says she's afraid to pray for anything more!

It's a pleasure to help where we can in such a great environment.

NM + CM

Frogs, lizards and bugs, O My!

The Baha’i volunteer house is a row townhouse, very close to the school. It has a small, gated front yard and an enclosed back porch. As is typical here, there is a sink in the back porch for washing dishes, a big tub for washing clothes, and a clothesline. We don’t have air-conditioning, but there are fans upstairs and downstairs. We also don’t have a washing machine, so we will be washing our clothes in the tub outside. The house is pretty big, and it is great to be able to put the kids to bed upstairs and enjoy a cup of tea downstairs. Also, the kids are enjoying the space and being free to run around and play upstairs. We gave the whole place a good sweeping and mopping yesterday, and we’re good to go. The Baha’i friends here had made the beds and put some basic food items in the kitchen for us, which was very nice.


We are meeting some of the local “wildlife” too: there are lizards, crickets, frogs, goats, dogs, buffalo, etc. We saw some goats being chased up the street by a couple of dogs earlier today. Yasmin saw a baby lizard on the floor in the kids’ room yesterday, just walking around. She tried to give it a toy to climb, but it ran away!

We also found a frog in the sink outside when I went out to do the dishes! Amid shrieking and laughter, we tried to shoo it away and make it go out, over the half wall, but it kept jumping around and we finally let it stay on the ground, but kept an eye on him.

A different frog was sitting on the washed pot this morning! We couldn’t see inside the pot, so we weren’t sure if there was another one lying in wait there. The kids looked into the pot through the kitchen window and said there was nothing in it. So we brought out the big pail and held it under the pot to catch the frog just in case it jumped down. It stayed right on the side of the pot as we lifted the pot and brought it close to the concrete half-wall and wire fence above it, to make him go outside. It would not go out though, and we were banging on the pot and shrieking and laughing at the same time. It just hopped on top of the half wall and we tried to poke it with a stick to make it go outside. By this point, he was a little upset and started puffing himself up. So we let him be for a while, but kept checking on him from the window. After a while he jumped on the clothesline, and was getting ready to jump back into the sink, so I tried to knock him to the fence again. He managed to land on the ground and went in the corner. Later on, we found him on the side of the big pail and we lifted the pail and banged on it to get him to jump on the fence. After a bit of harassing, we managed to make him go outside. Phew! We haven’t seen him again, but we are watching our backs!! We did not have an issue with frogs in Bangkok because we were on the 6th floor. Here, we are on the ground floor, so they have better access to us.

Lizards are actually our friends because they eat the bugs, so we leave them alone. It is a little eerie though to have one near the ceiling in the shower! We always turn on the lights, and look around to make sure the coast is clear on before entering the rooms. You never know if a little creature is going to land on you from above! The excitement never ends!

NM

Living the Thai life!

We arrived safely in Yasothon. We were picked up at the train station by some local Baha'is. It was very generous of them because the train station was an hour and a half from Yasothon.

The Baha'i volunteer house where we are staying is quite nice. It has tile floor everywhere. It is the custom to remove shoes before entering, so tile is easy to clean.

The house has two bedrooms upstairs and two bathrooms. The living room is large with chairs that are a bit older, but functional. The kitchen has a fridge, but no microwave. It also has a gas burner and an electric kettle, but that's about it. We'll be living a fairly simple life for the next month or so.

No Internet in the house, but there may be the possibility of having it hooked up. We'll see. It certainly would be nice to have Internet as it really is our access to everyone at home.

CM

Stocking up

We didn't feel like going into Bangkok today and we had seen pretty much what we wanted to see in the city, so we stayed in Nonthaburi. We headed off to the shopping centre to buy a few things for our trip. We had run out of tea and peanut butter (and chocolates!) so we thought we should get some before heading to Yasothon. G.S. note that I found Toblerone here too!

Yasothon is a town of less than 25,ooo people. I don't think there will be much sight-seeing for us in the area, but hopefully we will be kept busy with Baha'i activities and helping out around the school. The school goes only to grade one, but it is well attended by about 500 students.

We take the train tomorrow night. It is a 10 or 11 hour ride, but we have first class tickets so we will have two cabins and freshly starched sheets, towels, soap, etc. (according to the seat61 website anyway!). The tickets are very reasonably priced as well. Hopefully it will be better than the Vietnam train experience, which was pretty grungy.

We went next door to the Baha'i Centre again this evening. We had supper with all the kids. Sunantha had taught them how to cook and they had made a delicious noodle dish with chicken. They even served it out to everyone. Afterwards we had some devotions and then there was a story in Thai that we didn't understand, but it had a fox and a lion in it. We then helped the kids make oragami fox puppets. It was great fun!

CM, NM

One night in Bangkok...

We headed back into Bangkok late this morning. Today we went to Wat Saket, which is also known as Golden Mount. The building wasn't so impressive, but the view was pretty nice. There were also large bells that you could ring. Of course the girls had fun with that!

In the same area there was "Monk's Bowl Village". It's really just one little street now, but it is known for the families that moved there when the capital changed from Ayuthaya to Bangkok. Those families brought their trade skill with them and they still make the Monk's bowls (for collecting alms) in the same way. We watched them hammering and polishing for a bit and then headed off to the train station where we had to get tickets for our trip to Yasothon in north-eastern Thailand.

We then went down by the river to watch the sunset. It took some searching and some wet feet, because the river has flooded some of the smaller streets, but eventually we found a small restaurant on the river bank, with a great view of Wat Arun (a.k.a. Temple of Dawn). We had perfect timing as the sun was just going down.

It was pretty impressive to see the lights come on and the scene above slowly transition to the scene below. Really beautiful.

After supper we went by the Grand Palace and saw the wat and palace buildings all lit up. We couldn't go in but the view of the peaks of the buildings from over the edge of the wall was still good. It was really busy in front of the palace, because people were paying their last respects to the king's deceased sister, who has been lying in state for a while and will be cremated later this week. So we got a tuk tuk out of the busy area to one of the main bus terminals (Victory Monument) so that we could catch our express bus back to Nonthaburi.

We're all tired now and are thinking of a more relaxing day tomorrow.

CM, NM

Taiwan Beach

Today was a Baha'i holiday to celebrate the birth of Baha'u'llah. We took the day off school and went with some other Baha'is to the beach. It was a bit of trip to get there. We all piled into a minibus (there were seventeen of us, mostly kids) and drove for a little over 2 hours. That took us to Pattaya and from there we took a boat to a little island with some lovely beaches with white sand.

It's the end of the rainy season for Bangkok, so the beach was full of waves. The water was like bath water. I'm usually a chicken when it comes to getting into the water, but it was so warm that even I could walk straight in.

We all enjoyed the beach and the waves and headed back to Bangkok late in the afternoon. It was pretty cramped and crammed in the minibus so I was really happy to get out. It was a great day, and we're all happily tired now. Time for some tea and then early to bed.

CM

Snakes!

It was a little cooler today, which only means that it was hot, but not as unbearable as it has been! We went into Bangkok to the snake farm. It is actually an institute where they do research on venomous snakes.

We were too late for the morning show where they actually milk the venom from the snakes, so we looked around at the snakes in their cages and then at the very educational displays. We came back for the afternoon snake show where they showed us some of the many snakes they have. The handlers were very calm and one even caught a King Cobra with bare hands. I was a little nevous about it, but the girls enjoyed and even held a Python at the end of the show.

While we were waiting for the afternoon show, we had headed off for some lunch (pad Thai from a street vendor) and a trip to Lumphini park which was nearby. At the park we saw these strange reptiles that were swimming in the water and would climb up on land sometimes. They looked like iguanas, but not as spiky.

While at the park, I saw a little green snake drop from a tree. I told Roya to wait, but when she started to move, it slithered away up a tree. It kind of freaked me out, especially after having just visited the snake farm!

We got back to Nonthaburi and cleaned up and then rushed back into Bangkok to the Baha'i Centre where they were having a Birth of Baha'u'llah celebration. We enjoyed the delicious food, prayers, activities, and especially talking with the other Baha'is. It's a rather late night and we are heading off to the beach tomorrow with some of the local kids who have taken the day off to honour the Baha'i holiday. We are supposed to get an early start to beat Bangkok traffic... we'll see.

CM

Grand Palace & Wats

We skipped school and headed downtown today. First stop was Wat Phra Kaew (a Wat is what they call temples here). This Wat is part of the Grand Palace complex. It was really incredible. There were all kinds of buildings, one more ornate than the next. They all seemed to have a golden glow to them and many of them sparkled as if they had gems in them. On closer inspection it is gold paint, mirror, and coloured tile and glass. It really was spectacular.


We then visited the Grand Palace. We couldn't go in, but we had a good look at the outside. It was sweltering hot and we felt pity for the poor guards dressed in their heavy uniforms.


While in the area, we decided to take in one more wat - Wat Po. It houses one of the largest reclining Buddhas in Thailand. It was huge! From the picture below you can see the gray toes of the Buddha and at the other end you an see a full sized door next to the head.

After Wat Po we were all feeling the heat and so we headed towards a market in hopes of finding some ice-cream. We found Old Siam Centre and looked around a bit in the air conditioning. We got our ice-cream and by then it was time to head back.

We got a tuk-tuk to the pier. We all thought it was quite funny because before arriving in Thailand we had only ever seen a tuk-tuk at Children's Museum at the Museum of Civilization back home. It was pretty funny to ride one for real.

We came home on a boat. It was quite a long ride, about an hour and a half, but it was a nice way to see the river and Bangkok from a different perspective.

CM

Elephants and more!

This morning we went out for a real Thai breakfast with Vaughan. We went to the morning market and had rice with fried chicken and sweet and sour sauce. We also had some sweet sticky rice with banana in the middle and some freshly squeezed orange juice. Over breakfast we talked about our plans to visit Dusit Park, but Vaughan said that there were still demonstrations going on near there as it is close to the palace and government buildings. The demonstrations have been very peaceful, but you never know... so we decided to alter our plans for the day.

We went west of the city to Samphron Elephant Grounds instead. The main attraction there was the elephants. There was an elephant show that described some of the history of elephants in Thailand complete with re-enactments of an elephant hunt, a parade of royalty, and a battle. They also had some tricks and stunts that the elephants could do.

The girls wanted to do the elephant ride. Unlike the rides around the circus ring that you might find in Canada, this was a 20 minute ride around a wooded park with man made lakes and gardens. It was a lot of fun and we all thought the awkward sway of the walking elephant was really neat. We had to stop a few times as the elephants kept pausing for a snack. I hope those flowers grow back quickly!

Another attraction at the park were Mr. Oil and Mr. Lift. We had our picture taken with them. It was a bit scary. I'm sure in Canada you couldn't have you picture taken with a tiger that close, let alone holding its tail! Nice kitty, kitty, kitty!

They also had a crocodile farm and croc show. We were amazed to see them pulling these beasts by the tail, and then putting their hands and even their heads in its mouth! I could hardly look. I'm such a chicken. Speaking of chicken... Yasmin and Roya fed some of the crocs. They got a bucket of chicken parts and used tongs to drop them into the enclosure. The crocodiles, which are normally almost as still as statues, went crazy for the meat.

By the end of the day, I think we were all thankful for the demonstrations near Dusit Park. I think this was much more memorable!

CM

Hello Bangkok

Everyone's feeling better and we were ready for venturing out. We headed off to an International Day celebration at Magic Years Kindergarten. The kids were a bit younger than ours, but it was still fun. The girls enjoyed painting an elephant at the Thailand booth, stringing beads at the Americas booth, making a star at the Israel booth, and having their hands painted with henna at the India booth. There was also all sorts of ethnic foods, which of course was Nadim's favourite part!

It was extremely hot today. We had planned to go downtown to see the Grand Palace and some temples, but we spent a little more time than intended at the school celebration and with the heat we decided to take in a movie at one of the luxury IMAX theatres and do a little shopping in the air conditioned centres instead.

From where we are, just north of Bangkok, it takes about 45 minutes by bus and sky train to get into town. Bangkok is another huge city, but it is much easier to get around in than those in Vietnam. I was afraid that it would be less organized and structured, but the bus and train systems are great. The prices in the department stores are better than at home in some places, but in others you can find dolls that are the equivalent of $400 Canadian! We thought we had the conversions wrong, but we asked the clerk, and we were right! OMG

CM

Day by day

Yasmin's fever was finally down today, but she was still having some stomach cramps so we stayed close to home for most of the day. The picture below is from the balcony.

It was another scorcher today. We eventually did make it out to the shopping centre down the road. I needed a hair cut, so that was our mission today. I'm fairly pleased with the cut, but it is a little shorter than I had intended - not bad though.

This evening we went to the Baha'i Centre next door. They had a little prayer meeting and then had some games and stories for the kids. In the picture below you can see Sunantha telling a story to the group. It's really very special what they have done with this after school program.

We're planning to go to a nearby international school tomorrow morning, if everyone is up to it. They are having a small fair and one of our new contacts invited us out. I hope it will be fun for the girls to meet some more kids.

CM

Missing the park

Another day at "home". Yasmin started the antibiotics last night so hopefully things will improve, but she was up a few times in the night with stomach issues - poor thing. This morning she was still not feeling great, but by afternoon she seems to have improved.

We couldn't go too far today. We walked to the 7-Eleven for some bottled water, but that was as far as we made it. When we suggested going further, Yasmin asked, "Will there be washrooms there?", so we decided that maybe we wouldn't go after all. There doesn't seem to be any parks nearby, so we are feeling a bit stir crazy in our room. The girls built a fort in the bunk beds, but Roya really needs to burn off some energy at a park.

I'm glad we didn't book any of our travel within Thailand because now we can be flexible and a few sick days means that we'll just delay our plan to travel north until we're healthy and have seen what we want to see here in Bangkok.

CM

Getting better

This morning we did our school work, but by mid-morning Yasmin's fever was back and she really wasn't feeling great. Nadim and Roya went out to run some errands while Yasmin and I stayed around here and had a nap and read our books a bit.

We went back to the hospital to have the dressing changed on Yasmin's burn. It's looking very good and we don't have to go back anymore now. While we were there we saw the doctor again because the fever wasn't gone yet. They did a little blood work to confirm that it was NOT some tropical disease. It seems it is a throat infection. More antibiotics and hopefully Yasmin will be on the mend.

It was a private hospital so we had to pay $20 for the blood work, doctor's consultation, antibiotics, and other medications, but we were in and out in about an hour including blood work and waiting for about 20 minutes for the results. They were very professional and the hospital was spotless.

We had an evening in and watched a movie together. Now the girls are off to bed. I'm hoping that we can get downtown tomorrow. There's so much to see in Bangkok, and here we are having to stay put for a few days. I guess I should be thankful for the rest.

CM

Sick Day

Yasmin still had a low grade fever this morning and my stomach is still not 100% so we decided to take a sick day. We had planned to go into Bangkok to see the Grand Palace, but we opted out of that. We didn't even do any school work.

We took it easy in the morning. It ended up being a rainy day so it was a good day for lolling about. The kids read their books and Nadim and I did a little getting organized around what to do in Bangkok. We also did a few loads of laundry. It's amazing how quickly things dry here in comparison to Vietnam with its extreme humidity.

By afternoon, we were getting bored and I decided that the floor could use a good scrub. It had been swept and probably scrubbed before we got here, but it's a bit old and had a few spots that could use some elbow grease. I started scrubbing and before you knew it the whole family was into it. We have a dish washing counter and sink out on the balcony, that seems to be the norm here so we had some of us scrubbing with brushes, others wiping up with cloths and rinsing them at the balcony. We all seemed to actually enjoy the bit of work.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the hospital to change the dressing on Yasmin's leg. It's looking very good, and we could dress it ourselves, but they have a special cream to put on it, so we thought it was worth coming back for.

We stopped by the Baha'i centre where there were kids in a bit of an after school program. It really is a refuge for some of them as their home lives are not ideal. The girls coloured and did puzzles and other little activities with the other kids for a bit. It was quiet but enjoyable.

We just enjoyed a nice supper with Vaughan. We went to a restaurant not far from the apartment building. The price of food is so cheap, only about a dollar or at very most two for a whole meal!

Hopefully everyone will feel better tomorrow and we will be set to tackle school work and site seeing again.

CM

Temples & Elephants

We arrived safely in Bangkok last night. We were greeted by Vaughan Smith and a gaggle of Thai children. Vaughan explained that many had never seen the airport and were quite excited about a trip out to pick us up. Apparently they were also rather shocked to see foreigners kissing in public! Quite the experience for these kids. In any case it was great fun to be greeted by so many happy faces. We all piled into a big van and headed to Nonthaburi where Vaughan lives.

We have a room that was used as a dorm. It's pretty simple, but quite large and the beds are comfortable and clean, so that's what counts. We've got Internet access from the room, and another bonus is that Vaughan and his wife Sunantha are just down the hall.

This morning we slept in a bit to account for the late arrival. We started school work after breakfast (there is even a toaster here, so the kids are happy!), and then headed outside to find our bearings and make our way to Ko Kret, a small island which has no roads and has some temples and pottery villages. We took a bus down to the pier and went in search of the ferry to Ko Kret. After a few wrong turns, we found the ferry terminal with the help of a local.


It turned out that the island was pretty flooded (it's now the end of the wet season here), so we did not get to visit the pottery villages. Instead, we stumbled upon a couple of temples. An older gentleman saw us hesitate and motioned for us to go in. Inside a couple showed us how to light incense and wave it about, we then had to say a prayer with it held between our praying hands, then we could go into the temple, say another prayer and then shake a can filled with numbered sticks. We then selected a stick to find our number which matched us to a fortune. We all got different numbers and different fortunes. Really quite interesting.

At the next temple we saw there wasn't incense, so we went in and looked around. It was really quite beautiful and very peaceful with no tourists around.

On the way back we spotted a grocery store, but much more exciting were the two elephants just outside the entrance doors. There was a large elephant and a baby elephant and we bought some bananas and sugar cane that we could feed to them! The elephants were quite nosey and kept trying to put their trunks in our bag of treats for them.

The food is very inexpensive here. We bought two rice and curry dishes for the equivalent of a dollar and had them at lunch time. A bit spicy though!

Tonight we went off to a Baha'i gathering. It was great to hear some prayers and be in the company of so many friendly people.

By the end of the evening we noticed that Yasmin was running a low grade fever. We were concerned because she had a minor burn on her leg from where she had touched a hot motorbike exhaust pipe a few days back. We were afraid that the fever meant that she was getting an infection, but after a quick trip to the hospital, we were assured that the two were not related. We still came away with antibiotic pills just in case. They cleaned and bandaged Yasmin's leg and said several times in answer to our concerns that it was not infected.

Hopefully Yasmin will be feeling better tomorrow.

CM

Health & Beauty

This morning we headed off in search of pedicures and massages. We found a nearby hotel that offered both, so the girls went for pedicures and Nadim went for a back massage. We ended up getting manicures too. The girls felt very proud of themselves and thought it was pretty cool.

We're now about to head off to the airport. We're heading to Bangkok where we'll be staying with a contact we've made through the Baha'i Faith. Off we go to a new country again! Thailand here we come.

CM

Saigon

We arrived in Saigon at 5:30 this morning. We decided to take some risk and not book a hotel before arriving! We had some tea and juice in the railway station and picked up a map. From there we grabbed a cab to Pham Ngu Lao, a street that is supposedly known for budget hotels. We were dropped in front of a nice enough looking hotel. It was raining, but there was an overhang so I stayed with the bags while Nadim ran in to check the room and rates.

They wanted us to stay in their largest room for $60 a night, but Nadim said it was out of our budget and could they perhaps recommend another hotel (hee, hee, hee)... They quickly found us another room, slightly smaller, but still plenty enough room, clean and comfortable, but for the price of $30 a night! Gotta love Nadim and his bargaining!

We settled in and cleaned up and then headed off to see the Reunification Palace or Independence Palace. This is the palace where the north Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates in 1975 to force the surrender of the south and end the war. We had a great tour guide and learned fair bit about the Vietnamese history, particularly the Vietnam War, or as they call it the American War.

The orignal palace was built during French occupation, but it was partially bombed and they rebuilt the palace in the 1960's and you can really tell! Gold carpet, orange curtains, lime green chairs! It was kind of odd to step back in time and see where the president would have conducted affairs. I got a kick out of the command center with its paper maps, old mobile radios, and rotary telephones. We've come a long way!

It was steaming hot here, so given our lack of sleep we decided to spend a quiet afternoon at the hotel. My stomach has been a bit uneasy again, so it was good to just relax.

CM