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October 27, 2005
Koh Payam
I've been here on Koh Payam for a while now, but a) have been busy working with Animal Care Payam, and b) Internet connections here are scarce, unreliable, and expensive. But whatever. Tomorrow is my last day of work. Afterwards I plan to kick back here, post some blog entries, go swimming, get some sun, read some books, and generally enjoy myself.
Oh, and Pam is not so happy about the last post so I'll either have to edit it or maybe post some flattering pictures. :D We will see...
Posted by stu at 01:33 PM | Comments (2)
October 19, 2005
Heading for Koh Payam
Tuesday afternoon most of us at Child’s Dream departed for various destinations—Koh Payam for myself, Hanoi for Pam, back home to Hong Kong for Gene (Pam’s friend), and I forget where for the rest. Pam, Gene and I were all heading to Bangkok on our first legs of our journeys, so we took an overnight sleeper train together down south. At Marc and Daniel’s suggestion, we picked up three bottles of wine, various cheeses, and a box of assorted crackers. It was also Gene’s 33rd birthday so Pam organized a cheesecake complete with candles, Christmas balloons, and a ‘Happy Birthday Gene’ sign.
Once the train got underway Pam and I pretended to hit the restaurant carriage while Gene grooved on his iPod. This is where the fun begins. Pam couldn’t blow up the balloons so I had to do that while she tied them to a piece of yellow thread. The wind in train carriage was strong so we could not light the candles. But it was all worth it as Gene was genuinely surprised as we greeted him with the cake, balloons and a weakly sung ‘Happy Birthday’.
Then we started on the cheese cake and broke out the wine. We had to compensate for a slight oversight: no plates or utensils. It is quite a messy affair to eat cheesecake on a bouncing train with only a Swiss army knife and shreds of cardboard substituting for plates and spoons. But it was certainly tasty! As were the three bottles of wine, one white and two read, which went very quickly.
(Picture removed because Pamela threatened my life.) By the time we did finish the wine off, we were the only people on the train having fun. The Aussie couple forward of us ignored us so much that they resisted taking a picture at our request. After Gene and I got into a little political debate about the Bush administration, the two French creeps just stared at us in amazement until I toasted them with my wine glass and smiled. Pam started off with a small wine spill on her shirt, followed through with a few slashes on me and the floor, dropped her hair bungee out the train window during a stop, and finished up with two major spills onto her own legs. Then she broke out the brie and got really messy with it—eating the cheese like a two year old without a bib.
More booz was definitely necessary, so I headed down three cars to the ‘party carriage’ where the katoey barmaid begged us to come hang out down there. “We need to stay near our luggage� was my defense making a quick exit after buying a bottle of “Piper 100� (the label actually reads “100 Pipers�) and three cokes. After one round it became clear our dear sloppy drunk Pamela was finished for the evening after she hurled out the train window.
Gene was the gentleman in this case, and held her at the window, patted her back, put her in bed and gave her sympathy. I played the insensitive bastard role by just taking a few photos.
With the Piper 100 only a quarter gone, Gene and I retired to the smoking lounge (aka: the space between two carriages) to discuss politics, Hong Kong, and other interesting tidbits. In his drunken stupor he offered to let me stay at his flat the next time I’m in Hong Kong (November). I certainly hope he remembers! Once the whiskey was finished we headed for bed. Pam woke us up at about 0600 with ‘Are we there yet? It is almost six!� The train was due into BKK at 0605. My connecting train was at 0745 and Pam’s flight at around 0845. It was going to be tight for them, but I was surely fucked.
Pam and Gene got off at the airport and I certainly hope they made there flights. An hour later I pulled into the Bangkok train station at 0915 with a hangover, heavy beard growth, and no tolerance of sunlight. After exchanging my ticket for one tomorrow I headed for the Ambassador hotel to catch some much need sleep. Blah.
(Somehow I think Pamela is going to demand that I edit this blog entry a little heavily, so enjoy it while you can!)
Posted by stu at 05:53 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2005
Mae Sot Trip: Day Three
Last Friday morning I woke up feeling lots better. Once again, we headed off to Casa Mia for breakfast where I had the fruit, yogurt, muesli. I also purchased one of the painting that were on display for my father by ‘Oliver’. A local artist and photographer, Tim, organized a series of art classes for six of the local migrant schools and final competition. He hopes to expand the program soon to include more schools.
Afterwards we headed of for the new Hsa Thoo Lei Orphanage School construction site to check on it’s progress. Things are going quickly, belly man kicks ass. Then we headed out of town to Huay Nam Khun Nursery School to deliver clothing and toys. This was by far the most entertaining part of the trip—the children were lots of fun and we took many pictures which you can see in the picture gallery.
Needing to get an early start for ‘home’ because Daniel does not like to drive the Volkswagen in the dark on the Thai highways, we left shortly after noon for Chiang Mai. Along the way there was a farang VIP bus that we took some pictures of. He he he. The people on the bus were pretty funny about it all. At sunset I also took some interesting, blurry pictures.
Posted by stu at 05:41 AM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2005
Mae Sot Trip: Day Two
Last Thursday we woke up somewhat early and headed of for breaky at Casa Mia. I noticed my appetite was a bit weak and did not devour my café latte as usual. A bad sign, but we headed of anyways first to the Mae Tao Clinic where Child’s Dream had build a children’s ward. This cut little kid really wanted his picture taken, so I cheerfully agreed. Daniel commented that, as we passed the ‘Reproductive Health Department’, Burmese women sometimes will get their husbands drunk and take them to the clinic for the free vasectomy.
Next we were of to the BMSOH Migrant School (Boarding Middle School Orphans Hostel), another Child’s Dream construction project that was finished just a few weeks ago. 
There the students were taking their semi annual exams. We were a bit of a distraction and I hope no student suffered because of our presence. Many of the students had this yellow pasty substance painted onto their cheeks. This apparently is half art, half sun block. In fact, we saw many people all over the city with this yellow sunblock painted on.
Because of the sensitive and political nature of an event that occurred, I can’t get into details, BUT at the school was an involved anti-Myanmar military army officer who is somewhat at odds with Daniel and Marc and spookily knew we were going to be at the school and showed up himself to ‘discuss’ the situation with Daniel. We did not know who he was until two-thirds they way through our stay. For a while the man thought I was Daniel! Yikes!
After an hour of talk we headed off for lunch at a local Thai place. It was becoming apparent that I was definitely ill—headache, fever, and a general queasiness.
So the gang dropped my off at the guesthouse where I slept most the afternoon and evening with a fever that reached ~103F (39C). The rest of the gang went out to visit other projects that we are involved with. That evening I was feeling better and requested a cheese sandwich, a bag of crisps, and a pretty red head to nurse me back to health. I got salty crackers and rice soup. Hmmm…
Posted by stu at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
Mae Sot Trip: Day One
Last Wednesday Daniel, Ursula, Tai and I jumped into the Child’s Dream Bus and headed for Mae Sot near the Burmese boarder. The itinerary included delivering 100 doses of Coartem donated by Novartis to local doctor, visiting three Child’s Dream sponsored projects for meetings, and delivering clothing and toys to a nursery school and boarding house.
The drive there was a little too exciting for my tastes. Even after popping 5mg of Valium, I was still freaking out in the back of the van while Daniel recklessly yet skillfully maneuvered the old Volkswagen around mountain highway bends at 140+kph. I even had to keep the malaria medication, which was on ice, in between my feet to prevent spillage. Very nerve racking.
Our first stop in town was the Hsa Thoo Lei Orphanage School which we are funding construction of. The foreman, know as ‘the belly man’, was organizing and overseeing the construction of the school by a few dozen migrant (illegal) Burmese construction workers. There was a blot hole in the wall for them to flee if the police showed up, but since the foreman’s (known as “The Belly Man�) brother in a copper himself this should never be a problem. The school’s students will come from the old Hsa Thoo Lei Orphanage down the road which we dropped by next to meet with nice woman who runs everything. She let us choose one card each that was hand made by one of the kids there.
Later on we checked in with The Green Guesthouse, which in located near an immigrant detention facility, a police station, and a swine slaughter house that operates after dark. Very quaint. Next stop was dinner at Casa Mia, a local culinary venue for Mae Sot-based NGO people. The plan was to meet up with an Irish woman who has been teaching for the past year in the refugee camp outside Mae Sot and is extending another two years. Unfortunately, she is still recovering from Dengue fever so we did not speak long. Daniel either knew or was introduced into every single farang group of people there on each occasion we found ourselves at Casa Mia. That first night I had two servings of the Tortellini Pomodoro, a fresh spinach and ricotta cheese delight with a tasty marinara sauce.
After dinner we, much to Ursula’s relief, went to drop the malaria medication at Dr. Elizabiza’s house, an Italian physician . (En route, Daniel backed into and toppled a concrete post leaving a scratch on the Volkswagen.) There Daniel, Dr. Elizabiza and her partner, a British physician, spent an hour or two catching up with each other and discussing Mae Sot NGO politics, the state of the refugee camps, the Burmese and Thai political situation, and other miscellaneous but interesting topics. I didn’t really contribute much, but it was very interesting to observe.
At 2300 we made our way back to the guesthouse, where Ursula later had to put in ear plugs to block out the sound of squealing pigs on their way to slaughter…and Tai’s notoriously load snoring.
Posted by stu at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2005
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday was a big Child’s Dream night out: Mark, Daniel, Ursula (CD’s Treasurer from Zurich), Heidi, Pamela, Gene (Pam’s visiting American friend) and I all went out in the Child’s Dream VW Bus for a nice Thai dinner at Baan Raai.
Afterwards, we headed for our favorite starting point, SanS-O’s which was very crowded with farangs. We quickly made our way to Warm Up where we ordered our first liter of Piper 100 whiskey and chatted about all sorts of stuff. After two or three rounds of drinks it was time to hit Rodeo, a wild club that has live cover music by the house band and singer acts until about midnight when then the tunage switched to a respectable ‘90s and later dance stuff. When the music switched, “the Golden Girls� (as a friend of Marc’s remarked) Heidi and Ursula went home with the rest of us staying on in full party mode. Rodeo’s cliental is very interesting. There were two other farang guys there (separately, apparently), our little mixed group, and the rest were local Thais. The fascinating aspect was the broad spectrum of masculinity to femininity in the guys and the shear number of katoeys in various states of transformation—-all getting crazy. This one katoey with big, fake breasts was dancing on a table and showing off her silicon wonders to the crowd with pure joy. At 2am, the end of legal drinking in Thailand, the club closed up so we headed of for a small, illegal karaoke joint called Relax. We were finishing off our second bottle of Piper 100 by then and really started to get sleepy about 4am. Time for bed.
Posted by stu at 04:20 AM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2005
Veloland Thailand
So we’ve decided to start from scratch regarding Pamela’s scooter lessons. Saturday afternoon, after the Terry Fox stroll-a-thon early that morning, we met at my guesthouse and found a bicycle rental-and-clothing tailor shop that let Pam a small mountain bike at 20 Baht (US$0.50) for two hours. We then walked the bike to the back sois of the new town just south of Tha Pae Gate Road. After our first twenty meters or so some Western guy walked by and clapped in admiration of either Pam (for learning how to ride a bicycle) or me (for having the resolve to teach a grown woman such a task.) Within ten minutes she was riding by almost confidently herself, proving the old saying “once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget�. 
Twenty some minutes later we took a review break and had some coffee, juice and a cake at the very Germanic Bake & Bite Bakery on Loi Kroh Road. Thinking Pam was fully in control, and more importantly that my latte needed my attention more than she did, we agreed that she should set off around the block by herself. After about fifteen minutes I became worried and stepped outside to wait for her. Five minutes later a torrential downpour started and I became a bit more panicked. A few minutes there after and I grabbed a tuk-tuk to drive around the neighborhood looking for Pamela—unfortunately, he did not speak much English and we had to stop and ask a ladyboy buying some food at a concession stand for translation help. A full trip through the ‘hood saw us back at the bakery where we found Pam. Whew—another trip to the Lanna Hospital Emergency Room was averted!
So, we head of in search of a few beers to debrief and organize her next steps. The plan now is to get her out on a long bike journey (2 hours or so) at some speed (20kph.) I’m thinking then we’ll move onto a scooter, but something more like a 50cc model rather than the 125cc we started out with.
Cross your fingers.
Posted by stu at 01:55 PM | Comments (2)
Terry Fox Walkathon
Saturday morning, bright and early, Pamela, Heidi and I head for the 2005 Chiang Mai Terry Fox 10k Marathon/ 2.5k walk. For 200 Baht we entered the ‘race’, got a free T-Shirt and were potential winners of some enticing raffle prizes. Heidi quickly half forgot about us as she met up with some Swiss friends. That left Pam and I to stand about waiting for the start of the race watching people do calisthenics. 
At one point a young girl from approached and interviewed the three of us for a public radio station in Canada. Some how I don’t think our less than enthusiastic responses from an American, a Swiss and a Singaporean are going to make the cut.
So, after what seemed like ages, the 10k race got underway. Very shortly after our walk-a-thon starts. Pam reminds me of the story she tells of her first and only marathon experience: the trailing ambulance picked her up saying that they could not follow her any longer as they needed to finish things up. This would later turn out to be very close to the truth for our walk—Pam and I were the very last two people to finish the walk, sans the five children holding up a Terry Fox banner and the ambulance. The leading contestants in the 10k run actually finished before we did! 
Whatever. It was for charity and we have the T-Shirts to prove it.
And the Canadian ambassador was there!
Posted by stu at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2005
Emergency Room Visit
My new colleague Pamela asked me to teach her how to do 360s and double cart wheel jumps on the ever popular scooter. The first day she was ready for lessons, Pam was wearing a slinky dress and flip flops—not exactly stunt girl material. So the next day, with Pam dressed more appropriately in her best NGO outfit, we had our first lesson. Thinking it would pretty straight forward, as Pam is a sophisticated, knowledgeable, and confidant woman, we set out during our lunch break for the unused (because of some likely corruption plagued construction) portion of the Lampang Super Highway just north of Chiang Mai near our office. The plan was to keep it simple. Pamela was to stick to just a few controls: the steering, throttle, and brakes. After confirming her helmet was secure I gave Pam the thumbs up to mount the bike.
Before even grabbing both handlebars, before getting her bum on the bike...she injured her self.
Pam was mounting the scooter from the right side when her left leg pressed into the burning hot muffler. She yelped, quickly stepped back and then touched the newly inflicted wound with her finger. The skin slid away like the frost on the side of a newly poured beer in an ice cold mug. Truly, one of the most revolting sights I have ever seen. After conferring with each other, we headed back to the office for the sure-to-exist, later to-be-disappointed-in first aid kit and advice of our workmates. The first aid kit was old, dirty and mildly incomplete. For the most part our coworkers were unconcerned. Daniel even showed us his several year muffler burn old scar that was still visible. We all agreed that the wound needed cleansing so Pam washed it down in the shower and I poured Iodine on it and then placed some gauze pads on it secured by three different sizes of Band-Aids. It was then I noticed how large it was and suggested that we make for the hospital. Against the rest of our team mates advice, we sought professional help.
As we pulled in I realized that it was only 500m from where the burn actually occurred. Pam registered with the Lanna hospital, who knew her from a previous visit--they even gave her a hospital ID card in anticipation of seeing her again. We waited for a few minutes and they took her vitals—blood pressure and weight. Pam asked me very quickly to step up and see if I though the scale was reading a few kilos too high. "Oh, yea, it seems to be reading two kilos too high" I say. "I was thinking it was more like three kilos" she replies. I keep forgetting never, ever discuss body weight with women. Never.
Next we waited in the Emergency Room waiting area for a short time before being summand into the actual ER by a nice doctor. Pam recites the story of her injury with a few technical interjections by my self (I am, after all, the first responder…making me more qualified than Dan Brown to lead FEMA me thinks.)
A nurse cleans the wound, the doctor inspects it, and then Pam is wrapped up in new bandages. The doctor points to a nasty scab on her knee, which was injured a few weeks ago during a fall down some stairs in Egypt, asking about how that is going. The scab is sort of a light moldy green color but Pamela says "oh, just fine."
Pam then introduced her swollen ankle and inquires about its seemingly slow healing process. "Don’t worry, it will be fine soon" the doctor says.
Out we go, after much thanks, to the pharmacy/payment seating lounge. Fortunately, we move through there very quickly. After exited the hospital, we realized that our moped was gone! "Theft!" was our first though…but apparently I parked the scooter in the wrong place and the coppers moved it. Whew...glad we didn’t have to explain that to Marc and David back at Child’s Dream, who loaned me the bike.
After only about two hours we get back to the office, have lunch, and recite the hospital story to everyone. Laughing all around, everything is OK. But now Pam gets serious about starting her lessons again in the evening--got to give her credit her.
So at about 1830 we head back out for the Super Highway construction zone and restart the instructions. Trying to keep it simple for her, the bike is in second gear (hard to get a jerky start) and we focus on just a straight journey. I’ve got my camera out ready for some funny pictures and was thinking it would be sort of care free. Ooops…I’ve completely misjudged the situation. For a moment it was almost inevitable that she would plow quickly into the curb and sparsley vegetated dirt mound behind it. At the end of our 15 minute lesson, I’m pushing Pam on the scooter (engine off) with the idea of getting her comfortable (at a minimum) with the steering and rear brake. (Note the bandages on Pam's leg.)
No go.
Pamela then suggests that we try to start the lessons off with a bicycle. I think training wheels are going to be difficult to find here. Seriously! There are 7 year old children zooming about on scooters here! Slight burn induced emergency room visits are not the norm in Chiang Mai, let alone training wheels on bicycles and mopeds!
Anyway, we head of to review the day’s events at a bar near Pam’s flat called SanS’ O which we both like—outdoor deck area, great view, and nice staff. Pamela seriously wants to continue so I’ll be there to help...and report the likely follies.
Tune in next time!
Posted by stu at 08:21 AM | Comments (3)
October 03, 2005
Child's Dream
So far, so good with respect to working with Child’s Dream—the NGO that was a big part of my motivation for this trip. After a week of getting to know my new colleagues/friends Marc and Daniel (founders), Heidi, Tai, and Pam things are going really smoothly. Specifically, I’ve been able to actively and positively contribute something (which is really important to me), we all get along well enough, and everyone has helped me keep a varied diet for lunch. (Bad joke: I've had the same damn thing for six days in a row.) The team is also highly motivated and focused yet easy going and relaxed. Six/eight weeks are probably not going to be enough.
For the most part, we get about town on mopeds (first choice), tuktuks (second choice amonsts us volunteers) and as a last resort CD’s 1970 VW Bus. While taking pictures of the flooding near the office Tai, Heidi and I met on the road.
Helmets are madatory and if you are caught without one (as a Westerner) you are subject to a 'fine'. TBT500 seems about middle of the road (pun...ha ha) but if you know a bit of Thai then TBT100 would be reasonable. If you an arrogant prick (E.g.: injure teh cop's face) about it all, then you could expect TBT1000 or even a trip to jail.
Posted by stu at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2005
Floods and Fools
So we have had some flooding over the past few days. We got warning of them Wednesday, saw the sandbags go up and water rising sharply with some flooding Thursday, full on flooding Thursday and Friday, and receding waters Saturday and Sunday. In the picture gallery there are many photos. Friday night I ventured out to the Night Bazaar area of town near my hotel. It was still as much as 1m underwater. For the most part people were in good spirits and very cheerful. These merry lads were walking down the main Night Bazaar drag.
Saturday I stayed away, but Sunday morning seemed like a great time to check out how things were going. So after heading down towards the flower, etc. market along the River Ping I was stopped by a big pool of water just north of the Iron Bridge. Many cars, trucks and mopeds were going through the water so it seemed safe to do so myself. Ooops. Halfway towards dry land my Honda died in about 25cm of water. After pushing it the rest of the way, trying to let it dry out, and attempting to start it back up I was getting desperate. That is when people started to help out.
Within 30 minutes there were maybe five people inspecting and tinkering with my moped. Within 45 minutes there were over a dozen folks, including a traffic police man, working on my bike in the middle of the street—only one of which spoke English. Finally, after over an hour and a new spark plug, I was on my way…of course following deep bows and “thank you�s from myself. Some day I’ll figure out how to pronounce it properly in Thai.
Moral of the story: 1) Thai people are really nice-n-helpful and 2) one should never drive their scooter through deep water if they don’t know how to fix it.
Posted by stu at 02:25 PM | Comments (1)