A journey worth taking the temple of Angkor Wat

Cambodian children herding water buffalo across large river at dusk

Cambodia river children from stilt house village

CAMBODIA-LAND OF MANY VIEWS

Cambodia was a pleasant surprise. So many years of fighting,& Po Pot, "THE KILLING FIELDS" movie tells it sadly but well. Then many years of UN and NGO folks coming in to lend a hand. I would not say it is now a democracy or under a strictly communist regime. It is a blend of numerous factions. Who is doing the best job I do not know. As in all, 3rd world countries, the masses are just trying to exist & give their children a normal life, that many of them never had a chance to have. The school system does seem to be trying to give this generation a chance for all but the poorest to attend school. I have found in all the 3rd world countries parents have to pay for uniforms & books. That usually means the lowest 15% or so of the population has no chance at even attending primary school. Due to the huge amount of orphans caused by the war there are many children getting a decent education in the orphanages. Some of the older ones return to help teach the younger. Often as a result of the damages of war the parents do not live long enough to raise their kids. The average life expectancy here is 58. I saw very few old Cambodians.I saw many victims of land mines, & often cried at the huge amount of damage we Americans have caused w/ the landmines we dumped here. an International Mandate was just overwhelmingly passed recently. It states all landmines left behind must be clean out after the war etc by the layers of those mines. The US, Russia, & Isral & about 2 other countries were the only ones who refused to sign. Sad but interesting. We refuse to take responsibility for our actions that cause so much pain to others. Most of these victims are men & boys. They play in Khmer traditional folk bands to earn their keep. Their music is lovely.
On a lighter note Cambodia has some real plus's. Their population is very youthful. There is a big push to learn English &/or Korean. The majority of tourists I saw here were Asian. Folks Asia is in the drivers seat economically. The middle class in S. Korea, Japan, Malaysia, & China is a huge tourist market. Unlike Americans, they do not suffer from the economic turndown. The 2 beautiful pictures I downloaded of Cambodia are the islands off the SW coast. Each one so pristine. Unfortunately they have all been sold to the Chinese for luxury resorts they will be building shortly. Cambodia, especially in the NE, still has a chance for ecotourism w/ a lot of wildlife that is almost non-existant in the rest of SE. Asia. Hopefully they do not sell out to the Chinese in some additional ways on this frontier as well. They have already let them deforest large chunks of land that wildlife need to survive. Our ranger by the islands I toured, earned $30 a month from the government. I am sure our tips help him personally, but on a larger scale he said the poaching can not be stopped due to lack of man power.
Angkor Wat is considered the 8th wonder of the world. It is a multitude of temples, temple complexes, & cities covering 77 sq. miles approx. At $40 a head, & w/ 2,000,000 visitors a year the government does maintain the area well. Many countries have adopted a site & are working on preservation. Some more than others. The French had their own folks on site training the Cambodians. They were doing the right thing well. Most educated Cambodians to survive had to flee the country. The Khmer Rouge killed so many that when the time came for peace there were very few left to train the rest. I got a 3 day pass, standard, & spent as much time from dawn to killing heat time, enjoying the many temples, etc. An Aussie gal & I shared a day & went to villages along the river & lakes completely build on approx 15 ft tall stilts. The water level changes that much w/ the seasons. We saw, pigs & chickens being raised & pulled on their own little barge pens behind some of the house boats. The children have to learn to swim at a young age. Most land folks here ride bikes or motorcycles. The rural people travel by boat & sometime by oxen. The diet is mainly rice, & fish based. I took a Khmer 3 hour cooking class. I wanted to learn some of their great recipes. The fish amok wrapped in banana leaf was among my favorite.
I now prefer Cambodian food to Thai. Less fried foods & not as spicy. I hope to continue learning their recipes. I would say the best food I have had in SE Asia has been in Cambodia. yum yum.
I have not had good luck w/ my health since I have been in Cambodia. Got a very bad chest cold & some other stuff, very weird. It is very hard to get good Western med.care. I am hoping all the tourism will help raise the medical standards.
I broke a tooth another one, shortly after arriving here. My Thai visa had run out so I thought it was a good time to visit here. Well its a frontish tooth & I can not go back to the states looking like this. I am going back to Chiang Mai tomorrow. Another visa,another fun border crossing. Then back to my great DDS there. My friend Janie went to the US to help care for a dying sister. I am paying her to stay at her very, nice convenient condo. Hopefully will have time for more writing. I really miss all in the States so when the dental is completed I am back to the good old USA.

As beautiful & peaceful as life should be

CAMBODIA-- ISLANDS OF TRANQUILITY

LEAVING THAILAND BEHIND

After my erratic beginnings with the University outside of Chiang Rai I finally began teaching 3 days a week the beginning of July. My boss, I refer to her as Dragon Lady, was never easy to deal with. Seemed to always want a little more & not good at keeping her word. I really enjoyed the students, even though the class sizes, of up to 49 students, was a bit overwhelming. The fellow language department staff was delightful. Very hard working & dedicated. I was told often by seasoned Western ESL teachers from around Thailand that their Thai counterparts were expected to work harder & were usually paid less than the foreign teachers. How they stayed cheerful, often on 1/2 the pay we received, is beyond me. My favorite staff member was an ex Buddhist priest. He quit the monk hood after 17 years to help his aging parents. So on the weekends he would travel to their small farm to do the heavy lifting.

(Thailand is the wealthiest of the 4 SE Asian countries I visited by far. Yet all these countries are basically rice crop driven. the majority of these populations raise crops & have a very subsistence existence. Thais are the best educated & the cleanest, so their poverty is less widespread and not as obvious.)

After not receiving my pay for the few days I worked in June I asked Dragon Lady when I would be getting paid. She said I wouldn't. If I worked 3 weekends in a row as her special guest ESL teacher for staff, a total of 30 hours without pay, she could then see her way to paying me. I laughed very hard at this & said no to her request. My July check did not come at the same time as the other teachers got paid & seemed not due for weeks. I figured the price she would ask for that would be even greater so I quit. I had just received an offer from a friend in Chiang Mai to help with ESL students at the new school she was opening. I would be paid weekly. The choice was not a difficult one & I relocated to Chiang Mai the 5th of August. I was offered the house they were moving out of. It was in a gated country club type community. One I had never been able to live in State side. I had a cute 3 bedroom cottage, quiet, safe, & furnished. I joined the pool/gym a whole $30 a year membership. I got a cheap little blue bike with a bell and rode to the pool many a hot day. The reason there were so many days to be care free & swim is my co-worker got very ill. Dengue Fever had hit Chiang Mai with a heavy hand. The hospitals were filled to capacity. No known vaccine, & a 30-50% chance of death if medical care was not received. My friend was unable to work for almost 4 weeks. As a result she lost many of her students & was unable to use my services. She never got nose bleeds but with the Fever had to go to the hospital because of excessive bleeding. Being I had no way to protect myself from this disease I became very concerned, with my history of serious nose bleeds, about staying in the area. I emailed a friend who was doing one of the many volunteer NGO jobs in Cambodia. He said no Dengue Fever to speak of in Cambodia. This also was not a hard decision to make. Angkor Wat in Cambodia is considered the 8th wonder of the world. I originally said i would not leave SE Asia without visit it. So with no job in Thailand and very tired of the job hassles there I decided rather than putting my health at risk I would leave my luxury house lifestyle at under $300 a month. I failed to mention, I had Wi-Fi at the house, a true luxury in Thailand. So after 5 weeks in Chiang Mai i was off to the very poor & wild country of Cambodia.

I have to say Thailand was not my most pleasant travel experience. Thailand was like a beautiful but shallow man. Great to look at, smell. taste. It never quite delivered. I never really got to enjoy its wilderness. Hard to get to & often to hot with lots of poisonous critters. The Thais are very cordial but hard to really share with or get close to. The westerners are mainly men married to Thai women. I had a very hard time meeting Western women in my age group. The job search, with the age discrimination became far too much work. So I was able to experience the feelings, etc of being an expat in a very different culture, for longer here than anywhere else i have visited. It was very enlightening. Was it fun? Not really. It became the loneliest experience of my life after about 4 months of not much job success or real travel pleasure within Thailand. I also know now I can never live that far away or for longer than about 4 months from my many loved ones. I did accomplish part of my dental goal, and have enjoyed all these very different cultural aspects from all the countries. The people in Vietnam & Cambodia, having the worse recent history, are so much more alive, & communicative than the Thais. I was only in Laos 4 days but they seem very poor also, but very much the up & coming as well. The passion these 3 countries feel for living, there expressiveness, motivation to learn etc. was astonishing to me. The movie the Killing Fields, which won many awards explains much of what Cambodians went thru. In these 3 countries there are still many walking wounded but they are also seizing the moment. As individuals, & within each country they are moving forward with hope, gratitude,passion, & joy, unlike many Thais. I am glad I got to meet & experience these brave souls.

LAOS A VERY QUICK TRIP

A miracle happened--I got a job. The Chiang Rai Technological University hired me to teach beginning mostly conversational English 3 days a week. Most students in Thailand start learning English in Elementary school, often preschool. They often have excellent reading & writing skills but little practice in speaking. These are a very shy people. How they manage to reproduce is beyond me. I think all the Western men coming here & marrying Thai women has really saved their butts (cute) in that department. Anyway we are mainly doing a lot of listening & speaking in our classes. I was told I had to get a 3 month B non-immigrant visa to get the job to show I would be able to stay the semester which ends the last day of September. This was just what I needed to stay longer. My visitor visa was only good till 7-7. I needed to stay longer for phase 2 of my dental work. This way I had one of the few ways to extend my visa easily. I was very happy about this but learned I had to leave the country to get this kind of visa & a trip to a Thai Embassy in another country was the way to go. Vientiane, the capitol of Laos, was the closest that I could do by bus & keep my expenses & time taken to a minimum. I had wanted to go to this city anyway as I heard it was delightful. It was going to be an 8 hour overnight trip, then another bus 2 hrs to the border. Then a Tuk-Tuk across the Friendship bridge into Laos. Then a taxi after all that going thru border checks, visa, customs, etc. into town. About 18 hours from Chiang Mai, Thailand, my departure point to Vientiane, Laos. It was exhausting but there are always some interesting travelers, & their interesting stories found along the way. Mine were in the form of Lise, a 1/2 Jewish gal, who was very reminiscent of Beth Midler. Her hubbly 8 years her junior, was named Chevy & he acted quite a bit like Chevy Chase. This was a similar senario in some ways to one of Chevys famous travel comedy movies so I knew I was in for fun along w/ the exhaustion. Chevy was 1/2 Thai & 1/2 India- Indian. Both were Americans, but Chevy was fluent in Thai. A really big help in doing all the border paperwork with less aggravation, since someone actually knows what is going on.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon. We had to wait till Monday morning for the Thai Embassy to open. So we had some pleasant meals together. On my own, I went to the National Museum. I always do this to get a quick course in local history, culture, etc. Also to see how they portray us Americans. In this country we do not look too good. We dropped so many bombs and caused so many problems in this "undeclared war" that we deserved the bad publicity at their museum.

Laos is not as cheap as Vietnam or Thailand but they know they have a good deal w/ all their wilderness, huge variety of plants, birds, animals, etc. They attract a lot of Asian tourists. China alone is creating a large tourist market in S.E. Asia as their middle class rapidly expands. I really enjoyed the bit of French charm combined with an understated quieter sense of Laotian beauty in architecture as well as many handmade items.

I bought material for 2 traditional Shins as their skirts w. hand woven borders are called.

All of one skirt of is made of handwoven silk w/ the border added. the borders often signify, scenes, locations of where the women are from, & god knows what else. The 2 handwoven scarves I got to match the skirts are very ethnic looking like the skirts. I have decided to get one traditional outfit or 2 from each country I visit. the tailors here are so reasonable that I can get handmade all the way for about what I would pay store bought in the U.S. I may look more like a refugee than an American upon my return. I am old, I can wear purple, I will follow my passion to dress ethnically that I could never afford to do in the states.

The Embassy lines and fees were ridiculous but I did the passport drop off Monday, got all back Tuesday, & my friends & I were on our way back, within 72 hours after arrival. I would have loved to have stayed & seen more of the country. It is not so easy to travel into & I was already there. the University wanted me right back to resume teaching they said. I scurried back. I was told due to my age and my coworker, a Brit named Peter who is 65 was told the same, we could not go back to work right away. We had to wait till more paperwork was done to qualify us oldsters for working there. Thais are really big w/ the paperwork scene. So now I was told do not come to work till 7-5. I could have seen more of Laos, easily, cheaply, I am so pissed. I will probably never go back.

The upside of my life here is shortly after I arrived in Chiang Rai I learned of this place called the Condotel. I left my name around & got a call on a vacancy 2 weeks ago. I loved it all but especially the very large clean pool. There is a low cost gym attached. I will be getting a punch card for that shortly. I have almost a full kitchen, lovely fully furnished furniture, granite counter tops, nice tile work, & wooden cabinets. I'm on the top (12th) floor w/ a great view from my deck. Lots of other goodies, like, fan & A/C all for $200 a month. Water & electric, my only other costs in this quiet safe neighborhood are maybe another $30 a month. I feel very secure here but feel that way anyway in Thai as it is a country with a very low crime rate. So I hope all goes well w/ the University job. It does include a guest house fully furnished for my use. It is too far for me to come home nightly so I will stay there a few nights a week. It is in a lovely area but it is still jungle all around here. . I will have to be careful on my walks as there are lots of Cobras & other scary things around. I may mainly use the bicycle available to me to get around the large campus, come to think of it.

FORBIDDEN CITY ANCIENT ORIGINAL WORKMANSHIP

HMONG MOTHER & DAUGHTER IN VIETNAM VILLAGE

HALONG BAY VIETNAM

YES THATS ME IN MORE THAN ENOUGH SCUBA GEAR

NORTH COUNTRY--- VIETNAM JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER

After leaving my brief journey into the world of Asian fashion at Hoi An i hopped back on the bus to the ancient capital of the Vietnam empire - Hue. The high point of this city is the ancient Forbidden City. It is a huge Citadel surrounded by a moat. Inside this large enclosed area, which contained the many government offices of the time, is the Forbidden Purple City. This was the Emperor's private quarters and contained housing for his many concubines, servants, and eunuchs. To give you an idea of size. I spent at least 2 hours, mainly in pouring rain, with my little poncho on, just walking the ruins of this somewhat restored area. Unfortunately the Americans bombed much of this complex. the Vietnamese are not very good at restoring with authenticity. I felt fortunate to stumble on, in this huge complex, the only remaining building not bombed. The workmanship of tile work, inlays, carving etc was amazingly well done. It took several more hours to explore some of the temples, offices, etc in the Forbidden City-that surrounds the Purple Forbidden City. I did not even scratch the surface in terms of miles covered. The massive walls, moats, etc over such a huge area was almost incomprehensible to me given the hand labor that it took to build this complex.

I spent only 2 days in Hue partly due to the heat. I was back on the bus for an overnight sleeper to HaNoi (the way they now spell Hanoi here). I was finding the Vietnamese people so happy to meet an American. The Vietnamese are louder, more expressive, and it seemed more fun than their Thai neighbors. They are much poorer but seem very hardworking and positive about their future. They were at time quietly critical of the government with me. For example--"you tourists get to take hot showers-we Vietnamese are not allowed that, you can go into out casinos, we are not allowed to gamble." The power grid was often not working well. I found out I had to get on the Internet about 7 AM if i did not want to download at dial up speed. I asked my hotel gal about the power situation. She said "oh we are lucky here in this quarter of HaNoi where the tourist hotels etc are. Most of the government big shots etc. live here too so we lose power much less than the rest of the country. Some smaller rural communities only get power for example twice a day to cook their meals, or every other day." so when I say Vietnam is very 3rd world this is one example of that.

Another example is the in cities the transportation infrastructure is terrible. That's why all the motorcycles and there are few stop lights. I literally would run for my life in Saigon & HaNoi. After 1 very close call, I went to the nearest restaurant & ordered a strong drink. I decided I had to save my ass somehow. I would wait for a Vietnamese to cross and literally walk shoulder to shoulder with them. When you have 3 lanes of mainly motorcycles going each way and no crosswalks desperation sets in. My fellow walkers understood, would often laugh and some would even take my arm. They do treat elders very well in these Asian countries. I really do not mind being treated like a little old lady, just get me across this damn street safely--please.

Just wanted to give you some takes on life here. Some of the upsides i enjoyed were I was usually not the shortest person in a group shot. No teenager ever back talked me in English anyway. I could get a large load of laundry picked up, washed dried, folded, for $1. Some downsides were, the very low toilets about 10 inches off the ground. I weigh more than most of the older men I related to. Its really hard to get good cheese, ice cream or gelato here. Thank God Ritters dark chocolate can be found universally.

HaNoi is much like Saigon in the level of noise, crowding & sometime sad levels of poverty. It was cooler up North here which was so nice and made exploring the city by foot, which I usually do a much more enjoyable experience, especially after 11:00 AM. Since I have been in S.E. Asia I am often grounded between 11 & 5 due to the heat. I do my large meal, my Internet and all possible Air Con stuff then. When in HaNoi my hotel gal and I negotiated for 2 tours. (I found out by the end of my tours here I always had the cheapest rate of any one on the tour. I think knowing I am on a strict budget, understanding their profit system and being firm on how high I would go really helped. I found out I got the same service as those often paying 2 or 3 times more than I did. They still made a decent profit and realize not all have deep pockets. I felt they respect a tourist who will take the time to negotiate and think the ones who don't are kind of lazy or stupid. Heck you can't blame them for trying. Some tourists think paying more is always better. Not so in Vietnam at least.) I got a tour booked here for Halong Bay. I know you have seen pics of the area. Huge rocks, unusually formed often & lots of foggy, areas. Large boats with beautiful sails. I got a 2 day trip, all meals included and over night on the boat all for $35. I had never kayaked before so our tour leader went with me. We went round the bay in the morning mist. I did not tip us over and I want to do more kayaking in the future.

I met some interesting folks on the tour and we also got to tour a really huge series of limestone caves, which the area is also know for. Took about 1/2 hour just to walk those. Travel when your able to folks. There is lots I was able to do on this trip. Lots I could not due do to risk, age, skill level or all three.

Went back to HaNoi and the next day went to the far north mountains of Vietnam. A very rugged forested, and occasionally deforested area north of HaNoi called Sapa There are lots of ethnic folks here. The H'mong, and Montagnards, many of whom we helped immigrate to the US due to all their help during the war, were very abundant. This was off season, and we were able to tour their villages, trek, and visit with them a lot. They are usually not educated, but bright and caught on to English quite quickly. Needless to say I bought a number of hand made goods from them. At the steepest, muddiest, most slippery parts of the treks they literally grabbed my arms & walked me over the worst areas. I loved them, their great sense of humor, compassion, and the great way they hang on to their traditions for the most part. Their handiwork is very well sewn and they wear their native clothing with pride. I only spent 2 days there but wished I had stayed longer. With an overnight train both ways this tour was a little pricier but the experience was worth it. the town of Sapa is so laid back, cool climate, lots of good restaurants - oh so nice, for a Colorado gal.

I would actually like to go back to Vietnam some day & perhaps teach in one of the cooler mountain towns. They seem less age prejudiced than the Thais. When I do not need dental work done like I do now it might be possible. Now, with my dental needs I need to stay in Thailand and get that done at their great prices. I googled a lot and could find no place with better qualified DDS, and lower cost of living. I have to stay at least 4 months. So here i am building up my private ESL business. Since the Thais think I am too old to employ me I have started own teaching business. I already have 2 students and they pay me a fair rate for private lessons. Much easier than the standard 40 to 50 student classroom size that is typical here. I did not want to teach under those conditions anyway. So just call me the Lemonade Kid.

VIETNAM'S COASTAL JOURNEY NORTH

After cooling off in Dalat I was ready to get back on the open bus ticket ride to my next destination which was Nha Trang a premier diving & coastal area. As most tourist areas in Vietnam, it seemed to be more prosperous and had more English spoken here type of shopping. I loved their long very well manicured beach area across the fairly large city. Except for the mountain areas, most of Vietnam tends to be fairly crowded, as there are about 85 million folks in an area about the size of Italy. I also stand corrected on my remark about motorcycles. I do think about 90% of the middle age range in most cities such as Nha Trang probably have motorcycles. After seeing more of the poor countryside I think owning a cycle is a lot less affordable for the average rural person. Many more of them still ride bicycles. Along the river edges in Nha Trang, the Mekong Delta & many other waterways in Vietnam many peoples main means of transportation seems to be boats. The boats are often like a large canoe, & women are often running them with a little outboard motor. The women haul produce the men catch and haul fish. the Vietnamese are very enterprising. The large wide cone hats gliding along often with oars in hand, make many scenes here very timeless.

I got a 3/4 day snorkeling trip for $12 with snacks & lunch included. We had 2 long snorkeling stops in very pristine water. The cruising around the large bay was on an azure sky day that showed so clearly the huge variety of coral & fish below. Having learned there were some stinging jellyfish in the area I requested a full length wet suit & got it. To get it to go over my hips, in this yet another hip less world, I had to wear a large men's size. It was only over a foot too long for me. The other passengers, tried not to laugh to hard. but it worked. The only place a jelly fish could have gotten to me was on my hands or cheeks, face ones. After getting stunk really badly by one in Mexico in "81" I take no chances. After 2 days here I was ready to go to my 3rd bus pass stop, the city of Hoi An.

Hoi An is famous for its very intact old city. I stayed in one old merchant house turned guest house just to see & feel the very ancient presence around me. Some of the hand carved furniture was mother of pearl inlaid. In the center area of the house was an open courtyard. I was amazed that the house still could use the water from the well dug hundreds of years before. No, I did not drink the water from it. But the house did feel a little spooky. Many generations had lived and died there. Hoi An is also known for doing some of the best tailoring & sewing in the world. I did try to resist but the little desk clerk, at the most ancient guest house, convinced me to check on prices across the street. Yes, you can pick out the fabric, get pure silk, have 2 fittings, get it done in 24 hours and spend less than buying it off the rack. You are aware from a previous log my great larger than large luck. I knew this would be much quicker than shopping around, more fun, cheaper and less humiliating. I went for it. Two pair silk pants, with matching Vietnam style dress to wear over the pants. a spare blouse for each pair of pants as well. for much less that $100 total. I needed clothes to teach in. What a win win. the fits were excellent. My 1 day of fittings & visiting historic Hoi An was delightful.

Vietnam--the up and coming New Kid on the SE Asia Block

It was a hassle getting a visa to Vietnam but definitely worth it. Vietnam is much more a country of contrasts than Thailand. Some Thais I spoke with feel if Thailand does not make some serious changes Vietnam will have a better GPA in 5 to 10 years than Thais. In reference to the other S.E. Asia countries I have been told Burma, Laos, and Cambodia are all so poor there is no competition there.

I took the advice of some Kiwi friends who had just returned from Vietnam and bought a cross country bus pass. It was $40 on generally a nicer bus & was good for 5 stops. First I will share with you about before the bus experience begins. When I landed in Saigon, also called Ho Chi Mien City it was so huge, hot and overwhelming. I hooked up at the airport with a darling Russian guy & a tall blond Italian girl. We decided due to the overwhelm we would hang together for a day or 2 or more. It worked out well. We went to the hotel together, got our rooms, dinner, & the owner booked us a 2 day, all meals, & overnight home stay tour group of the Mekong Delta for $18 bucks. We had a great time. The Delta is full of very poor rice farmers. How our boys ever fought a war in an area of endless waterways, full of dense jungle is amazing. they must have felt they were little more than duck decoys i am sure. I had a very hard time emotionally dealing with the birth defects i saw caused by our dropping of agent orange. Our hotel manager was one of its victims. I finally got lectured by some young fellow travelers on not feeling the guilt and pulled out of that funky mood.

Our trip to many different cultural and business looks at the delta area was only marred by our very brash tour guide's rousing song in praise of Uncle Ho. Actually the only really overt sign of a real tribute to communism I saw on a personal level, thank god, while I was there.

After returning to Saigon, the 3 Musketeers split up and I began my 5 stop bus tour up the coast of Vietnam. I just wanted to get really cooled off after a month of being overheated & went to Dalat, as my first stop. It is in the refreshingly clean mountains in the S. Central Highlands. Until the 50's & before it was hunted out, big game hunters, especially from France bagged, tigers, Elephants, rinos, & much more in these woods. I spent 6 cool days here. The local transportation in Vietnam really sucks. About 90% of the adults own motorcycles. I was forced to go on my first ride on one in about 40 years. Every day my very safe driver, took me to another beautiful place in the area. I actually landed a job there but the thought of getting around that way for the next semester was beyond my comprehension. I am sure my poor driver had finger nail marks in his side at the end of each ride. They are called Easy Riders and haul tourists asses all over Vietnam. Cars, Taxis, are all rare in the land of the new status symbol here. Having your own Honda.

I was finding the Vietnam people very friendly by this point. they are much noisier I discovered than their Siam cousins, much poorer, but loving Americans. I was so grateful they were so forgiving. The fact that about 2/3's the population is under 35 & has no recollection of the war helps a lot also. While I was in Hanoi they had their independence day celebration. From guess who--the end of the American War as they refer to it.

Well my next stop is a very interesting experience but I will continue with that soon.

clothes shopping in Thailand is not for those with hips

I had to share this story because it is all, sadly enough true, but so funny. I had gotten to the point where my wardrobe was no longer attractive to say the least. I could buy tops cheaply from local vendors, who had no dressing rooms available. Just pop it on over what i was wearing. Pants were a different matter. I needed a proper dressing room. SoIi found out where the AC shopping center was, a big plus when it hits 100. I went into Central which is a huge very middle class Department store. One whole floor was just womens clothing. The sales girl cold not understand my request for capri pants so she called for a translator. She knew minimal english but i did get across I want pants on sale since some of their prices were much higher than I would have paid in the states. I knew right off after a quick survey of the sales racks i was in trouble sizewise. Totally different sizing system. So the translator, I shall henceforth refer to her as T, and I agreed we would start w/ a 28 waist. Well the Thais have very skinny legs, i have thunder thighs. I could not get them past my knees. So we tryed different styles & progessively larger sizes. Finally she had the other sales girls helping her look as i could tell I was a real challenge for her. Like get this foreigner fitted & make the sale.

It was not easy. Imagine a huge department store floor. You have about 6 very small women running around yelling lage, then exta lage. At this point i mentioned to T, not that she cared or probably even understood that I, of course had never been a large or certainly not an extra large in the U.S. I guess she understood a little as she eyeballed my hips and said you no lage, you no exta lage, you exta, exta lage. Needless to say i had no response. Looking around the huge floor filled with very tiny thai women I was the largest woman on it.

Unfortunately I never found anything that fit there. I did find a pair at another store. It was marked LL. I can only assume it meant larger than large. It fit, i took it. The pitying eyes of the staff was beneath the drive to make a sale. No one cared that i wear size 10 petite in the US. No one cared i was under 130lbs. In the land of no hips, skinny pencil thin legs & thighs, you are lucky to find a LL.

Eventually i found, as I was leaving the Mall hidden in the basement a store for LARGE folks. I guess i know where i will start my cloths shopping next time in thailand.

Thailand is an elegant country

There was a long lull in my blog postings. I had many, business, family, and social matters to tend to. I flew back to Denver and had to find a new renter for my house. Lots of other stuff to take care of there. Then my daughter had a major life change and as i had not visited in almost 2 years, I flew out to help her out for a week in S. Carolina. Then off to Sacramento to see if my sis Sue need any help with clearing out my moms belongs or with any home or yard work that might need to be done.. She said she didn't need any help so I spent some great moments with my dear friend Mirea, my cousin Linda and her family and my cousin Carol. Got a few visits in with other loved ones as well. Then off to Thailand which was my first visit to S.E. Asia. Some friends i had met in Panama convinced me that Thailand was a great place to find work as an ESL teacher. Since they said the Thais were wonderful folks to visit and the cost of living was so very low i thought it was a good idea to go.

I arrived in Bangkok exhausted after a 30 hour all night er from the time I had left Sacramento. Bangkok is a city of extremes. So many very poor and traditional folks. I believe the Red Shirts are make up of this group in large part. The Thais respect their right to descent and the demonstrations took almost 4 weeks before getting more violent. There are also a lot of very educated cultured folks that are very Western in their attitudes. Anyone anywhere near middle class has their children study English. Unfortunately for me, they also want the teacher to be young & pretty. One online add even stated their school hired no one over 50. So my very dedicated job search in N. Thailand has not been very fruitful. I believe as it gets closer to the semester starting in early May I may be getting more offers. A few schools have been interested that have women over 50 running them. We old gals have to stick together. I really like the town of Chiang Rai the best. I put in at least a dozen resumes there.

I came back to Chiang Mai, a much larger town, to finish up my job search here. The old part of town, like in the 1300's it was laid out, is where i am staying in a great guest house. The old town still has part of the brick defense wall and the 4 gates, one in each direction. A wide moat goes all around the outside of the partially restored wall. Fountains, lilly pads, and kids swimming in it.

Since i am still unemployed I thought why not visit & job hunt in Vietnam as well. I heard they need teachers more than in Thailand and they paid better. So i got an online visa, a real hassle, and i am off to Vietnam in 2 days. It also has a very low cost of living. I figure after 2+ weeks there if i have not landed a job I will return here & take the best offer i can get. Its also a good time to leave Thai as this is the beginning of a big holiday week for them. Everyone runs around shooting water pistols, dumping tubs of water off roof tops etc. Its what they may have added to the water that concerns me.

I was able to visit 2 awesome sight before my 3 day limit on Bangkok was up. (self impossed). The National Museum huge, & a great view of Thai through the ages. I think The King & I was not too far off . Also the Emerald Palace complex was sooo large. I took me hours just to walk around part of it. Since leaving Bangkok I have visited a few sites in these 2 northern towns but there is much to see. Being a history & archeology buff I hope to see some of those sites especially upon my return. To be a tourist and say you have seen Thai in 2 weeks would be like saying you could be seeing most of Colorado that quickly. I now know that most cultures have so much more to offer and show us than we can ever dream of.

Well I have more to share including a very funny story. Hope to keep this blog more current now that i am on the road again abroad.

It's been a very Siam experience inThailand

GLAD TIDINGS PANAMA STYLE

New Years Eve has been pretty typically American for me my whole life. This year in tiny Boquete it was very amazing & beautiful. The moon seemed full, and the town was so full of life. All the towns kids seemed to be out, safely at midnight. The amount of firecrackers and related pyrotechnics they set off was amazing. The church bells all rang at midnight. The bombardiers, as the fire department is called, set off a noisy serenade with their fire truck horns and sirens. The surrounding mountains I am sure rang with New Years cheer as well.
Xmas Eve was somewhat similar. The church bells all rang at Midnight. the fireworks went off like crazy for hours. At midnight they were the most intense. I was staying in this beautiful hotel next to a rushing stream. Nature was intensely pushing in on me all around. From the cascading music of the creek outside my bedroom window next to the huge bushes covered in many kinds and hues of flowers. The women & girls I envisioned quietly praying in the town churches while the men and boys were setting off their beloved rockets of fire. A lot of the folks here are of Indian background the Ngobe-Bugle being the most prevalent. They come to town dressed up & very much ready to celebrate around the town square. All are included even the infants. They are nursed openly at need and are very abundant. The women wear bright traditional dresses the men Western attire. they all carry little bags they hand weave.
So for me the contrast of the poorer indigenous, the wealthy expats and Panamanians, and the middle class worker bees from local & foreign cultures makes for a blend of great diversity and fun. This and the outdoors that is so overwhelmingly beautiful makes up considerably for what some would miss in terms of cultural amenities.
So I am still in the Chiriqui province of Panama. Going to Boca del Toro on the Caribbean with a friend next week. Still looking for that job teaching ESL in Panama. I am disappointed with their long awaited interview process. I may go back to teach in Matagalpa again. I do miss my wonderful friends and co-workers there. FELIZ ANO NUEVO and may America get its shit together this year.