I arrived in Bangkok at 7:30 am, and
my next plane didn’t leave until 2 pm, so my first experience with Thailand was
a prolonged stay at the airport. That was alright with me, I was so glad to
just be one plane ride away from my final destination, and in my final country!
The airport in Bangkok was very pleasant, quite different from the one in
Qatar. While I have no complaints with the airline, the flight attendants were
polite and the food was fair for planes, the airport had an oppressive air. It
was brand new, and gorgeous. But it felt empty. There was a train shuttle that
wasn’t finished yet I suppose, for it sat eerily empty. We were scuttled along
through massive hallways with marble or granite (I can’t tell the difference)
pillars and impossibly high ceilings, hardly seeing anyone else except airport
ushers. Then we came to a kind of crossroads, which looked like a main plaza in
a mall, with high-end shops and escalators. In the center was a humungous teddy
bear, probably a couple of stories high, underneath what looked like a
gargantuan salon-hair-dryer. No explanation.
Bangkok was much more welcoming. There
were high windows so you could see out on the airport and the surrounding
environs (you couldn’t see Bangkok proper from there) and pleasant little shops
and cafes on the lower floors. I had my first taste of Thai food here, first
two meals here. The first was at a little coffee shop, modeled after Starbucks (they
had one of those two, filled with tourists. I tried “Thai iced tea with milk”
and some sweet bread with an even sweeter dipping sauce. I thought maybe it was
sweet for the tourists, but it seemed excessive even by American standards.
Later, I spotted a sort of plaza with a garden in it, so I went to walk through
it. It had well tended tropical plants with some kind of shrine, Buddhist I
think, in the center. To the side, there were model golden long boats.
Protruding at random intervals were poles least a story high with golden birds
of some kind at the top.
To one side of this garden was a little cafeteria. I
went in, thinking I could get more authentic food here. It looked like the
place were the airport workers commonly ate. I had no clue what to do, and they
didn’t speak much English, but finally they made me to understand I was
supposed to buy coupons and then pick out what I wanted from the array of
choices and pay with the coupons. I played the dumb tourist and got them to
give me what I guess they thought I would like the best, chicken with bean
sprouts and some kind of fried thing. I thought it was a dumpling, but it
turned out to be a boiled egg. Then I tried some iced coffee, and that was when
I realized that the sweet wasn’t for the tourists.
When I finally arrived in Krabi, I was
greeted by the Projects Abroad employee, May. She took me to the office in the
back of a truck that had been covered and had benches in it, apparently the
“bus” of the area. This one was owned by Projects abroad and would come pick me
and any other volunteers up everyday to take us to our school. I was surprised
by how un-touristy the town looked, I didn’t see any shops or hotels that
looked like they catered just to tourists. At the office, she introduced me to
two other Projects Abroad workers, one of which would be helping me get ready
to work in the schools. After picking up some documents, we headed to meet my
host family.
I’m staying on an island right across from the town, entirely populated
by Muslims. You get to it by taking a little long boat across the bay. The
pilot sang as he motored us across and didn’t complain about hauling my big old
suitcase across. It is very quiet, only a few little shops and a Mosque and a
couple of restaurants. There are no roads, just something like a wide sidewalk
that people ride their motorcycles on. The houses are all unique: some of them
are entirely raised on flats, some of them are grounded with tile floors and
large front porches, some a mixture of both. There are many different colors
with lots of flowers planted around. They are fairly well spaced apart and some
have landscaping around them. The house I’m staying at has a mixture of raised
and tiled floors. There is a large shaded porch with a tile fish pound out front,
then a lower floor where I and the other volunteer sleep, then a raised kitchen
and family quarters. I have my own room and bathroom. The bathroom is quite
unlike anything else I’ve ever experience. No hole for a toilet, I’m very glad
to say, but you flush by pouring water down the toilet. There is no separate
shower, the little room is tiled and off to the side is a shower head you can
take off the wall to use. Only cold water, but that’s just fine because it’s so
humid and sticky here. Very clean and not at all unpleasant. I have a double
bed which is very comfortable and a bookshelf and wardrobe.
The family is very welcoming. The
mother cooks for us and she showed me how to wash dishes and the like. She even
lets me play with her adorable baby. She also has three other children, two of
them grown, and one older elementary school girl. The father works in town and
probably speaks the best English.
Last night, the girl taught me a card
game to help me stay awake, something kind of like war, and she taught me to
count to three in Thai (Nun, Song, Sam, I think) and thank you. I got to meet
the other volunteer staying there, Trevor, an undergrad from the states. He
arrived on Thursday but has already had the chance to go on a jungle tour and
to visit a beach. He filled me in on the way the project will work.
Today, May is taking me around town
and getting me settled. I got up early with Trevor to have breakfast and get
used to the schedule. I’m not experiencing jet lag too badly, yet. We had a
delicious breakfast of some kind of fried eggs with a sweet dough and a kind of
fried bread. I also had a cup of coffee, sweet of course.
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