5.27.12/5.28.12

I think it’s Monday.

However, this entry starts on Sunday.

After packing everything up and getting my suitcases downstairs, I headed to the Coconut for one last breakfast. Didn’t even have to order. I walked in and sat down and Tum, the lady boy who works there, said to me, “Muesli yogurt, yes?”. I had two bowls.

I expected the rain the night before to create an even more muggy day. Not the case. It was so nice and mild that I wasn’t even sweating while I sat and ate my breakfast.  They were kind enough to let me use their laptop at the Coconut to check my email. For some reason, their network wasn’t showing up on my computer or my tablet. Nothing new on the interwebs.

I headed back to my hotel to wait for my ride to the school. We were to have a quick meeting before starting our long, long journey to Bangkok and then Hat Yai from there. We were looking at about 18 hours of auto travel. yay.

Met the other teachers. Tom, Steve, and Patricia. Tom and Steve from The States and Patricia from Queensland, Australia. Steve was backpacking around S.E. Asia and started running out of money, so he decided to start teaching. Tom was kicked out of China (long, long story) and decided to teach in Thailand instead. Patricia came here to teach for the sake of teaching. Refreshing. I think we will get a flat together in Hat Yai.

The drive to BKK from Ban Phe was actually very pleasant and scenic. Took longer than the drive to Ban Phe, but I think we took a different route. I was ok with that. It was beautiful. Palms and jungle as far as the eye could see.

We took a VIP bus when we got to BKK. I was worried that it was going to be one of the eyesore and earsore buses that had been driving through Ban Phe for the couple of days I was there. Double-decker charter buses with something ridiculous like Lilo & Stitch or Winnie the Pooh or Spiderman painted on the outside, blaring awful dance music. Fortunately, it was not. It WAS double-decker, but it wasn’t a tour bus. Phew. Very comfortable with reclining, spacious seats and blankets. And A/C, of course. Patricia and I found some supper at the bus station. I don’t know exactly what I had. They weren’t Pad Thai noodles, but not quite Pad See Ew noodles either. Mid-size rice noodles, let’s say. I asked for not spicy, but they were pretty spicy. Had pork and papaya. They were tasty, but I didn’t handle the spice very well and I have been filling up pretty quickly these days. Chased it with ice water and headed back to our platform to wait for our bus.

We departed at 8pm. The trip was slated for about 13 hours. They had the TV blasting in the bus. I don’t know if they thought we were deaf or what, but I can sleep through just about anything. I attempted to go to sleep right away, but kept getting woken up by the “waiter”. Instead of bring us our snack all at once, he brought us the chicken pocket. I put it aside and went back to sleep. Then he brought us the peanuts. I put them aside and went back to sleep. Then he brought us the juice box. Seriously?! I’m sleeping! I don’t care about snacks. I don’t even know what time it was at this point. Around 12:30am, we stopped at a VIP bus station. Our ticket gave us free food here, but I just wanted to sleep so I passed. I did get my travel pillow out so that I could get some good rest, though.

I slept until about 3am at which time I really had to use the restroom. Of course, I was sitting in the window seat. I really didn’t want to wake up the guy next to me. I kept hoping that we would hit a really big bump and he would wake up on his own. I knew I should have used the restroom when we stopped earlier… Finally, around 4:30am, I couldn’t take it anymore. Fortunately, he woke up pretty easily and didn’t seem upset by it.

Went back to sleep after and woke up right at sunrise. The first sunrise I have seen my whole time here (my room at the Diamond had a western exposure). It was breathtaking. We were in the jungle and mountains at this point so the sun was rising between two peaks. Golden light illuminating the mist over the jungle. I’m glad I woke up for that. Then I went back to sleep.

If this area was indicative of what the vegetation and scenery would be like in Hat Yai, I thought I would be happy with it.

Hat Yai.

I could tell when we got in that I would like it. It was nothing like Bangkok and even nicer, I thought, than Ban Phe. There was no garbage lying around, not even in the gutters (in fact, there was a woman at the median with a broom and a dustpan cleaning out the gutter). Plenty of shops. Actual sidewalks so you don’t have to walk in traffic. Took a tuk-tuk truck for the first time.  That was fun. Not something I want to repeat often, however. The exhaust, ugh. We didn’t have far to ride to get to our hotel, but it would have been worth the long ride. A five story, beautiful hotel with an atrium. Found out later that it is NOT a hotel, but a mansion. Wangburapa (sounds like “wang-buddha-pan”), and “wang” means ‘palace’ in Thai. I don’t know how much this place costs per night, but it’s worth every baht. Big, en suite bathroom. Balcony. Mini fridge. Furnishings. Looks like a hotel room in the States. Other than the fact that the shower is still just a recessed area in the floor to the side of the toilet. But I kind of like that.

We arrived at our hotel, sorry, mansion, at around 10:30am. We had a few hours to kill before we had to be at the school to meet the directors and Thai teachers and take our tour. Took what I believed to be the world’s best shower to date. It was such luxury. After Patricia and I relaxed for a bit (couldn’t get online yet because the internet had an “accident”), I thought it best that I have a meal since I hadn’t eaten anything real in more than 12 hours.

Headed down to the little restaurant in the “lobby” (which is really just the entire first floor of the building) right in between the mini mart and the scooter parking, across from the snooker room and the long koi pond.

The whole menu was in Thai. I just asked for Pad See Ew with pork. Hadn’t found that since I had been here. And, bless, they had Thai iced milk tea., which has been surprisingly difficult to come by. When we got our food, it was exactly what I expected. I was thrilled. We ate with enjoyment and I finally finished a meal. First time since I have been here. And the check for me was 70 baht ($2.27) for everything. Brilliant. I wouldn’t have any qualms about spending another couple of nights here while we get our housing sorted.

Headed to the school. Very new. Very modern. They are still getting the landscaping done. It is about 3 years old, but the mayor’s wife took over ownership about 3 months ago. We met the directors and their assistants and the Thai teachers. This is a vocational school so they teach marketing, accounting, computers and tourism as well as foreign language. They showed us our shared office and let us choose our desks. They gave us our schedules (I will have 12 teaching hours a week for this semester, but the rest of it is office hours and training the Thai English teachers). I will still need to be at the school from 7:45am to 4:20pm Monday-Friday. We have an orientation on the 31^st at one of the huge parks in Hat Yai. It is mostly orientation for the students (who are between the ages of 14-19), where we will be introduced and do some games with them. Then we have to be at the school on the 4^th to pick up syllabus and curriculum. Classes start on the 5^th. Eek.

Side note: I have to buy shoes. They don’t take their shoes off at this school and they don’t allow flip flops. Great. Upshot is that I don’t have to buy work clothes because we will get polos with the school name on them.

The mayor’s wife has been so accommodating. She asked us about our housing and made some calls on our behalf to find some nice flats close to the school. Patricia and I decided to pool our housing allowance and get a nice place together. I will be happy to have a roommate. And a nice place to live. Tired of the suitcase thing. Wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t having to haul around everything I own all over Thailand. Methinks that suitcase will become storage until I move back to the States…

We were invited to dinner with everyone that evening. A “really nice” seafood restaurant in Songkhla, next to the sea. When we got there, they let us know they had ordered (we were eating family-style) and that they got the food not spicy for us. The seafood fried rice was delicious. I think I ate squid. I can’t be a hundred percent sure because I didn’t ask but there were some tentacles in the rice and it had the right rubber band texture. There was also fried sea bass (which I did not partake of. I have a phobia of fish bones and things with the head still on), cashew chicken, prawn cakes, spicy seafood and vegetables, and Tom Yum. Now, if that Tom Yum was ordered “not spicy”, I am scared to think what spicy would have been. I must have had at least 4 glasses of ice water throughout the meal. But it was delicious. For dessert, we had some sort of fruit, akin to a lychee, that was pitted and in bowls of ice water. They were delicious. They don’t linger over coffee here. Once it was decided that the meal was over, everyone stood up and left as one.

During dinner, I got to sit next to the mayor’s wife. We talked about her sons. Her youngest actually just graduated high school in Colorado and is starting School of Mines next month. It’s a small, small world. Her oldest just moved back to Thailand and is starting university in BKK. She said he moved back, not because he missed his mother, but because he missed his girlfriend. The look on her face when she said this was priceless.

After an hour’s drive back to Hat Yai, we settled in for the night (fortunately, the internet had stopped having an “accident”).

Tomorrow, house hunting. Yay!