Erika's March Letter

I occasionally write notes to remind myself what to put in these monthly letters. (I don't do it enough or you'd have a much more comprehensive idea of Thailnad and my life here by this time.) When I sat down to write this letter, the first subject I'd noted was "Thai". Since I am surrounded by things that could be described as Thai, it took some thinking to remember that I wanted to tell you guys about the language--Thai. Made sense in the end!

Let me start by saying that anyone who's lived in a country for six months should have a decent grasp of the language, at least, it seems to me. Unfortunately, I do not. I admit that this is largely my fault and I won't make excuses for not working harder. However, I would like to submit a description of this language, in my defense.

Thai is a phonetic language--it uses an alphabet that is really beautiful. It is also really hard to learn, partly because they aren't real big on spaces so entire senctences look like one word and you have to deduce word breaks. Neither my friends and co-workers who have taught me not Kristen's language teacher ever attempted to teach us reading or writing.

That was alright with us because we had plenty to do learning to spoken Thai. It is tonal so the same word could mean five different things, depending on whether you use a regular, high, low, rising or falling tone. For example, the word 'mai' (pron. my) can be a negation word, a question word or the word for wood. I don't know yet if it uses the other two tones.

The 'mai' used to negate is a really important word to learn because the Thais don't have separate words for 'no' or 'bad', etc. They say 'not-yes' or 'not-good' and so on, instead. I can tell you, I've spent a significant amount of time wondering how a culture develops without coming up with a word for no. It seems bizarre to me but it does make cultural sense. As I've said before, you are not supposed to just say no here. Instead, you should figure out "polite" ways to not say yes to requests.

One day, my sister went to her Thai lesson in great frustration because she'd been studying so hard but she couldn't get any of the vendors in the market to unerstand her when she asked for a new ingredient. They just started ignoring her when she kept asking. (This is more polite than attempting to understand. They would both lose face if they tried and failed to communicate. They are trying to spare Kristen embarassment. Unfortunately, she wants ground pepper.) Her teacher comforted her by telling Kristen that the language is so different from region to region that lots of Thai people don't understand each other. She said that people, especially those who relocate (even from a little ways away), find one person to buy stuff from--someone who understands them--and they stick with them.

I figure that if people who are native to this country have a hard time communicating, I shouldn't feel too bad about struggling so much.

It's true that the language varies greatly regionally. In fact, northern Thai is 50% different from Central Thai. The words are completely different. Most people here speak both, so I don't even always know if I should understand what someone is saying!

Language is so variant for several reasons. For one thing, Thailand is pretty ethnically diverse. I realized the extent of the diversity on our recent travels throught the country. In the north, there are 6 major hilltribes, in the far south there is a Muslim majority who are largely ethnic Malays and the large part of the middle and upper classes is ethnically Chinese. Language is mixed and switched frequently. I am not going to try to sum up the social situation that creates. I'm going to leave it for another letter. Don't worry, I'll leave a note!

Well, since I mentioned our trip south, here's a rundown on the past month.

We met our friends, Judy and Sam Palpant, in Chiang Mai at the start of the month. They were in town at a medical conference. We took them on a tourist's day out like we haven't been on yet. We went to a snake farm, a monkey show and an elephant campt. Look at the pictures on these blogs to see some great pics of us and basketball playing monkeys/painting elephants, etc. We had a great time with them and it was wonderful to see some friends from home.

The next week, we went down to Bangkok. It does not make my list of favorite cities but we spent a couple of days seeing a few sites and sweating. You would not believe how hot it is down in the south. For relief, we went to the beach in Hua Hin, a town straight south of Bangkok. We were planning to visit some beaches further south but it didn't work out the way we'd anticipated so we went to see the historical sites and wild monkeys running around town a little bit further north in Pretchaburi. (This town, incidentally, made my list of top 10 friendliest towns. Kristen and I went to a cave outside of town and found ourselves forced to walk back until a lady gave us both a ride on the back of her motorcycle. Then she smiled and rode off in another direction.)

After another day in Bangkok, spent at our new favorite hotel, we went to the old capital of Ayuthaya and saw some amazing ruins. Look at the pictures because it's hard to describe ruins. It was beautiful. Ayuthaya was the capital from 1350-1767, so not that long ago, but the Burmese totally sacked the city and then everyone moved out so ruins are really all that's left to show what a great city it once was.

We're back in Chiang Rai, enjoying our pool and trying to get some stuff in order before our next trip to Malaysia and Vietnam. I hope you all are well,

Erika

The south of Thailand

Dear All,
Well, there's quite a lot to cover.
I'll start at the beginning of the trip when Erika and I took a night bus down to Bangkok, the trip itself wasn't so bad but arriving at five in the morning was rough! Instead of going anywhere or doing anything, tourist attractions are hardly up and running at that time, we sat at a cafe and had a coffee.
Our first day there we stopped at the Vietnamese embassy to send our passports out for our visas then found a guesthouse in Chinatown and took a nap. It is so amazingly hot in Bangkok, and all of the south, we were soon to find out, that just walking down to the attractions or trying to see the sights takes it out of you. We had a nice ride down a river bus and decided to skip most of what we had planned to see and instead walked through a well shaded cultural park that we stumbled on. That night we decided to treat ourselves and went out to a French restaurant where we had some of the most delicious crepes I've ever tasted.
The next day we got out again and had a better day going to Dusit park where every other building had a/c and we got to see everything from the kings photography to a teak mansion and the old royal elephant barns as well as two throne halls and several museums. From there we took a taxi down to an area of town near a restaurant we wanted to try and shopped around for a while before starting out to look for the restaurant. After walking and feeling lost for some time and my foot getting dunked in mud up to my ankle we decided to take a taxi, only that didn't work and we ended up in the wrong place altogether. We tried again and took yet another taxi only to find that we were lost beyond control. So approximately three hours, three taxi rides, and several hundred baht later we decided to give up and had hamburgers at McDonald's. It sounds funny now but it was anything but at the time.
After Bangkok we took a train down to HuaHin where we got a small room in a cheap guest house and enjoyed our time in a beach resort town. It was hard not to be jealous of the middle class Europeans and Americans staying at the huge and impressive Hilton when you knew it cost as much or less than a regular hotel in any city in the States and knowing we couldn't afford it but while our room didn't have an ocean view the shared balcony of our guest house did. We spent most of our time at the beach and managed to get pretty burnt.
After two and a half days on the beach we took the train up to Pretchabury where we were supposed to be able to hire a motorcycle and get to a national park known for it's waterfalls (E loves waterfalls!). That didn't work out but we got to see several caves full of Buddha images and tons of monkeys; when I say tons of monkeys I'm not kidding. There were whole monkey families and monkeys that ran at us with angry faces and baby monkeys, they jumped around and swam and stole bananas right out of peoples hands and were absolutely adorable. Somehow, the whole time we sat around watching them I was reminded of my brother and sister back home.
We also went up the hill in town that is full of stuppas and Wat's and an old royal palace which now is a museum. It was super hot and we had to stop often for drinks and time in the shade, I cannot describe the heat of this place.
From there we went back to Bangkok where we were spending one night in a hotel we had read and heard about a lot, it's called the Atlanta and had it's hey day back in the 1950's, according to the signs nothings been changed since then. It's easy to believe to when you walk through the door and the lobby has '50's furniture with writing desks and a library and tall, dramatic staircases that lead to rooms that are sort of disappointing after the grandness of downstairs but we had a suite for the night (an expensive decision that E had somehow been sweet talked into without even realizing it.) with a/c and a sitting room! We had access to a pool surrounded by jungle with a dining area by the water and hammocks under the eaves, there's a big white wall behind the pool where they used to play movies at night and we were very disappointed that they didn't do that anymore but it was fun and crazy to be there. Just before you go into the hotel you see two large signs, one reads; This is the place you are looking for, if you know it. If you don't, you'll never find it.
and the second reads; Sex tourists not welcome!
The owner of the place is Dr. Henn who works hard to be a mysterious personality and though you can find quotes of his all over the place from cup holders to informational booklets in the lobby he rarely ever introduces himself to guests and is seemingly unavailable to talk to. Ever. I like him already.
After our night in Bangkok in which we honestly didn't leave the hotel, we took a bus up to Ayuttaya where we surveyed all the ruins of the old capital. It's interesting to think of Thailand's past actually, and realize that what we were looking at; ruined Wat's and stupas, old palaces and elephant grounds. Were all alive and well, at the same time as the U.S. were declaring Independence or China was booming.
Because they've never been ruled by westerners there's a certain uninterestedness in everything western and there's a certain arrogance, like their history is better or more interesting when really it's just more simplistic really.
After our whirlwind trip we've now been home for about a week (we got home earlier than expected) and have been mostly laying out at the pool on our new raft (we got it in HuaHin for the ocean). Now we have a good number of our pictures printed and we are starting work on scrapbooks which might take forever and we're not exactly looking forward to.
Next we're off to Malaysia and from there Vietnam!
Thank you all for your letters and your comments, Kristen Rose

Chiang Mai

Dear All,
This is going to be a short letter as I have to run home and pack.
I wanted to tell you about our wonderful trip to Chiang Mai and all we got to do and see while we were there but since I'm in a hurry it'll be the abbreviated version.
We got in Friday and spent that night with a woman and her three children who are missionaries that are supported by our church in Colorado, our parents really wanted us to meet them while we were over here so we scheduled to have dinner. It was fun and interesting and good to add people to the list of people we know here in Thailand.
Saturday we met up with old friends of our family who were in Chiang Mai for a medical conferance that they were teaching part of. They had the day off and we went and did the entire tourist package, renting a Song Tiaw to drive us out to first the monkey show where they had monkeys kissing E on the cheak, sitting in our friend Judy's lap and pulling Sam's watch out of a pool of water, these monkeys play basketball and recognise numbers and are overall amazing. They live and work in conditions that no one would really approve of if they took the time to worry about it but somehow you let it slide when you're passing through and are on vacation.
Next we went to a snake show that did more to gross out and worry than entertain as a man put a python in his mouth and kissed snakes, swam with them and waved them around your face. E and I both had a water snake twisted up and put on our heads like a crown- not a very pleasant experience.
And then to the elephant camp where Sam and Judy rode an elephant (we passed as we had already done that at a much cheaper price) and watched the elephant show where they played soccer, painted and showed off. It was amazing! My favorite was the painting, we looked through a book they had there and you could see these elephants all had their own style and technique- who would have guessed? They do dots and stripes and flowers and trees and all sorts of stuff. We were disapointed we couldn't afford a painting but we got a pack of postcards. Ha.
We ended our day with our friends at the Mexican food place that we have already grown to love in CM, they were surprised to be eating Mex while in Thailand but were kind enough to indulge us.
Sunday we were supposed to go on a rock climbing trip with a company there, E had set it up the week before and we sent them a note telling them where we were staying as they were supposed to pick us up at our guest house. We waited and waited but htey never came so we went out to the Sunday walking market and around to the umbrella painting, wood carving and thai silk factories outside of town.
Overall it was a great trip and we enjoyed ourselves.
Now we're leaving tonight on an eleven hour bus ride to Bangkok to travel the south for a couple of weeks before flying to Malaysia. Keep us in your prayers, Kristen Rose

Ready to Leave

Dear All,
This last week has been an interesting and busy one as we worked to see friends and do things for the last time before E's school holiday and have been getting ready for the traveling we'll be doing during the holiday.
Tomorrow we're leaving for long weekend in Chaing Mai where we'll be going to the elephant camp there with friends of ours from the states who are in Thailand for a while and going on a rock climbing trip with a company in town. Then we're leaving for Bangkok and time down in the south of Thailand, spending some days on the southern beaches. We have to return to Chiang Rai for E to be paid by the school before we fly to Malaysia where we'll be traveling for about two weeks, getting our scuba diving certificate and going to one of the large Natl. forests called Taman Negara where they have a tree top walk where you can see monkeys and whatnot in their natural habitat as walkways stretch between the trees, it should be interesting as I'm slightly afraid of hights but I'm looking forward to it.
After our time in Malaysia we'll be flying on to Hanoi in Vietnam for ten days, we're looking forward to our time there as we'll be taking a kiaking tour which sounds absolutely amazing! After all that we'll be returning to Chiang Rai and getting ready for E to teach one more month of school before we fly out of Bangkok on June 14th.
It's a busy schedule and odd at times but we feel we have everything worked out by now, at least the large scale plans and we're looking forward to it.
We're already rather tired after this week. Last Sunday E and I went down and hit some balls at the driving range with our friends Allen and Tricia, our instructor, Barry, wasn't there so we all took turns telling her what she was doing wrong and how to improve and giving her all the hints he had given us. I had my last Thai lesson last Monday and promised my teacher I would contact her when we're back if only to have lunch together, she's a neat girl who I've enjoyed getting to know.
Tuesday we had lunch with a missionary friend of ours, returning three seasons of Scrubs which they lent us and filling up on Mexican food at a great restaurant we've discovered outside of town before returning to have dinner with our friends Allen and Tricia who will be returning to Scotland while we're off traveling. Our time in CR would have been very different if we hadn't met them and they sure made a lot of things more enjoyable and interesting. Yesterday E had a party at school celebrating a teacher who was retiring and herself and the students had a chance to thank them for everything and vice versa. Then that evening we went out to dinner at the night bazaar with a bunch of teachers from the school and one of Erika's classes, it was great fun to see how close some of the kids have gotten to different teachers and how E interacts with them. It was one of her favorite classes and they gave her a bunch of gifts and thanked her again for the time she's spent with them and everything, it was neat.
Tonight we're having our Filipino friends over, their cooking us Filipino food and we're doing our nails before we head out dancing! One of the Filipino's, Fred- a loung singer in one of the upscale restaurants, doesn't get off of work until after midnight so it will probably be a late and interesting night but we're looking forward to it. We're heading to CM tomorroow but have three hours on the bus to sleep whereas Mary and Malou have final tests and exams they have to give at school tomorrow but they are determined.
Thank you all for your letters and for your prayers as we've dealt with our Nai's death and the way this very different culture mourns and grieves, we really do appreciate it.
Hopefully my next letter will be between our trips to CM and Bangkok. Until then, love you all and miss you,
Kristen Rose

Erika's February Letter

This month started out interestingly as Kristen and I became full-blown adventure tourists. We thought that we would take a nice weekend bike trip to a waterfall 34 kilometers or so from town. We would bike out one day, hike around the waterfall and come back the next. It sounded easy and enjoyable. The first day, we had a lovely trip for the first 28 kms. The last 6 kms were insane. We went up and down the steepest roads we’ve ever seen. All on heavy one speed bicycles. It took us over 4 hours to do those last 6 kms. And then we had to go back the next day. The waterfall was stunningly beautiful but the surrounding circumstances were a bit traumatic. However, we did learn how much endurance we have and how tough we can be! Another plus: we found an amazing restaurant where I ate the first good steak I’ve had since coming here. It was a good reward for hard work.I am really excited when I find a place that makes quality western food but only because an American girl gets a little tired of rice after a while. The truth is that the food here is amazing. Thai people really love food. They eat all the time. It’s very important. If you meet a friend on the street, they say, ‘hello’, ‘where are you going?’ and ‘have you eaten?’ Here is a rundown on food that I love here:I am a big fan of the fruit. There is one fruit called mangosteen. The Thais say that it is the queen of the fruit. It has a hard deep purple rind that you crack open to see a sectional white thing. It looks a little brain-like. I’m really not sure how to describe this taste. It is mellow and mildly sweet. It’s delicious. I also really like tamarinds. I don’t know if we can get these in the states. I’ve heard the name before but I don’t think I’ve ever tasted one. It has a great citrus-y sour taste but is also sweet and fun to eat as you peel off the shell and bite off each of the seed coverings. And then there are oranges and pears (much crunchier here) and bananas (dozens of different types), etc.
I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)

I also love the noodles. Thais often sit down to a bowl of noodles even if they have just eaten. People are obsessive about them. (Every day in the cafeteria, I see the same old man eating a bowl of noodles—no matter what time I go! I think he sits in that one spot and eats all day long.) Kristen and I have tried bunches of different noodle restaurants. Fortunately, our favorite one is right next to our favorite dessert stand. It is especially heavy on the garlic (not the dessert, our favorite noodles!) You can get thick white rice noodles, round yellow noodles, thin white noodles (in the states they call them glass noodles) or round green noodles. (There are more. That is the beginning of your range of options!) On birthdays, one eats ice cream (either coconut, which is OK, or green herb flavored, which is disgusting) with glass noodles in it. Because you want a life that is long--like a noodle!Our favorite dessert is actually an Indian thing. It’s called roti (which means ‘flying dough’, I think). Our roti lady is a marvel, a master at her craft. With no unnecessary motions, she flattens a piece of dough and throws it at the counter several times until it is thin and pizza sized. Then she fries it; we get ours with banana, chocolate and coconut milk. The other dessert we really like is bananas in coconut milk. This involves mountains of sugar and we make it at home a lot.I’ve realized in writing this that many of my favorite dishes are things I will probably not be able to find at home. I often stop to eat fried noodles or rice dishes which are much like Thai food at restaurants in the US. And I can cook a lot of those dishes. But the food items I love the most will disappear from my life in a few months. Why did I do this to myself?I don’t know how to introduce this subject so here it is: a friend of mine (she was the head receptionist at the school and a member of the family that’s adopted us here) died on the Chinese New Year this month. She had a brain aneurism burst and was in a coma for a few days. It’s been a difficult time. I was thinking as I walked home from the hospital one night how na?ve it is to leave your own country to “get away from reality”. The truth is that reality is inescapable. Here I am: working, worrying about money, getting sick, misunderstanding expectations and encountering the loss of a friend who has taken care of me for 5 months. I don’t remember thinking that I would be in a constant state of bliss but I didn’t anticipate this, either. Well, here’s the comforting counter to all of this—if death and friction is one constant in reality, so is the love of Jesus who died so that we could join in the life of God. (And of course, reality on earth is not all bad—there’s a lot of great stuff happening everywhere, too.)
I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!"

I finished my last week of classes on the 23rd and am leaving to start my travels on the 2nd. I thought it would be best to send this out to you now. Next month, you will hear about my visit to the south of Thailand—Bangkok and the beaches. Thanks all for your friendship and correspondence,ErikaFunny language note: I am picking up a lot of words but communication is still more than sketchy. For instance, I was trying to tell someone about this cave I want to visit the other day. The real name is pretty complicated but everyone calls it ‘monkey cave’ (a nearby temple feeds and protects a group of monkeys, it’s a big draw). I thought that I’d said ‘monkey cave’ which in Thai is ‘tham ling’. Apparently, it sounded more like ‘theo ling’, which means women’s underwear. That led to an interesting discussion!