A White Tiger

The other day went to on a Night Safari trip just south of Chiang Mai. The usual stuff was there, deer, lions, rhinos, hippos, hyenas etc. and although I'm not keen on zoos and caged animals, these animals looked well cared for and had decent runs to live in. Did you know that a lion sleeps around 20 hours a day, which did not impress me as a normal teenager and student does as well.
The amazing animal they had which I never knew existed is a white tiger. It lives in South East Asia, has a pink nose, creamy skin and chocolate stripes and is an endangered species. This is a photo which is not very good as it was taken at night but hopefully you can get an idea of what is is like. Incredible animal. For more information have a look at Wikipedia.

Amazing Orchids

I visited an orchid farm recently and saw something I have never come across before. Although its not easy to see from this photo there is no earth in the pot and the roots are just hanging down sucking in moister and nutrients from the air - amazing.

The 3 classes I taught English at Wat Don Chan School

Year 7
















Year 12

















Year 9

Update from Chiang Mai 25th June

Wat Don Chan Finished

My spell at Wat Don Chan School has now come to an end. For those just reading this entry I coached football to 15-18year lads and this school is an orphanage with kids from the hill tribe families - they are very poor. They are expecting me to go back at the end of July but I will not - no real reason just want another challenge. In the last week I did 3 x 1 hour English teaching sessions which I thoroughly enjoyed. The sessions were to years 12, 9 and 7 and the students responded really well. I'm sure a lot of that was me being a bit of a novelty. I took in various day to day objects and created sentences with them. A very well tested method of teaching English, but it worked and was fun. Everyone at the school seemed to appreciate what I did for the month I was there, particularly on the football front as illustrated by Mai, one of the teachers, giving a nice speech before I went. She said they had no money for a present but thanked me for everything I had done. The speech for me was as good as a present. I do have a couple of grievances though.
In the last week a male teacher who is in charge of the girls dormitory stopped the girls from playing football on the grounds that they are should not be mixing with the lads. On top of that he inflicted corporal punishment on them by making them do a number of press ups. I was extremely angry about this, as I hope you, the reader, are and expressed my anger to Thai and Mai, 2 of the teachers who helped with the training. Football is all inclusive irrespective of gender, age, ability, race or disabilities and this was the core of my argument and anger. In England we have many, many faults but this behaviour the teacher would not have got away with under the sexual discrimination act and likely he would have been bought under the full force of the law with the punishment meted out. At least in the UK we have this one right. Thai and Mai did agree with me and a few days later there was a compromise that the girls could do some training first and then the boys. I just hope that the male teacher was shown the error of his ways. My method of showing him the error of his ways would have been to punch his lights out. Not a traditional way of dealing with grievances maybe, but boy it would have been satisfying.
My other grievance was that as the lads came from poor hill tribes they do not have any ID cards. This has prevented them from entering a local schools football tournament which they were very disappointed about. I don't blame them and what nonsense discrimination is at work here. My theory is that the posh, snobby schools were too afraid that Wat Don Chan may have beaten them. That would have been like some Hollywood script where kids from the wrong side of the tracks who have nothing beat the upper class kids who are privileged and have everything. I, like a lot of people I'm sure, like to see the underdog win out. Two of the lads have a real talent for the game but there is no way they will be able to progress as they are from poor hill tribe backgrounds and do not have the ID cards. What a shame and I will be trying to see if there is anything I can do to push them on. The class system at work.

Chiang Mai fashions

I feel quite pleased with myself. Some of you will know I have always been a dedicated follower of fashion (if you understand that statement you are showing your age) and think there are things that people should not do eg. wear brown with black - awful, wear shirt and tie with jeans - never works, wear shirts with shorts - aaarrrgh even worse, wearing baggy cargo pants - so 1990's. Last year in Thailand everyone was wearing plastic crocs but I stuck to my espadrilles, I like my espadrilles. This year very few are wearing crocs and espadrilles have become de rigeur. Having a quiet smile to myself.

Changed my Mind

I have changed my mind about Thai people having a healthy diet. This was brought about after a discussion with the English teacher at Wat Don Chan and the grandma of the orange juice lady I go to most evenings. The average life expectancy of Thai people is between 60 - 65. The factors include smoking and their food preparation. They use a lot of salt and sugar, even though the basic content is healthy, rice, noodles and vegetables when smothered in salt and sugar it negates the goodness of the food. Also, apparently farmers spray with pesticide's in the morning, will pick and eat their crops in the afternoon. A lot of the meals are fried and that has long term consequences especially for poor families who cannot afford decent oils. The class system at work again. Cancer is very prevalent amongst Thai people. Having lived here for a few weeks I can see this problem. All the meals in the cafes and restaurant's do contain a larger proportion of salt and sugar than we westerners are used too. Probably not as much as when they prepare their own meals and I've even seen a Thai person put salt into fresh orange juice. yuck. So maybe this is why you do not see old people around (see previous blog) there just aren't any. Also, with young people eating unhealthy cakes, sweets burgers and drinking coke they are storing up even more problems for themselves.
This may also be why you often see beautiful young Thai girls with older western guys - they do not believe the westerners are over 60. No, who am I kidding its because they think all westerners are rich. I've even met some Thai girls who are deliberately on the lookout for a western guy as they see that as a passport to a more affluent lifestyle - which unfortunately is probably true.

Off to Laos

I have discovered that a tourist can only stay in Thailand for 1 month before needing to get their visa renewed. Plus, tourists can only stay in Thailand for a total of 90 days out of every 6 months. I have been here for about 6 weeks now and have decided to split my time between here and Laos. I want to do some scuba diving in Phuket and the best time is August. So I will return to Thailand from Laos at the end of July which means I do not have to leave again until mid September. I will be leaving Saturday (28th) taking a 3 day, 2 night leisurely cruise down the Mekong River from Northern Thailand to central Laos and from there have a trundle around and possibly slip into Vietnam. Just see how the mood takes me.

Beggars

The other night a beggar came up to me for dosh and I was looking in my pocket for coins when he produced a lighted fag and took a drag. I indicated in no uncertain terms that if he stopped smoking he wouldn't need to beg. He left in a huff. Now, was I being unkind or realistic. My conscience has got to me since this incident as I do not know this man's history and maybe smoking is the only pleasure he has in life and who am I to be so smug and make assumptions about his history and fortunes. Any comments!!!

Plaza

This is one for the football fans. The other day I was in a plaza and came across these computerised machines that people can play football on using some form of PlayStation which, not being 10 years old, has completely passed me by. The football icons displayed on one machine were Robbie Savage and Philip Senderos. Not wishing to underestimate these 2 players talents are they really the type of player that should be displayed as being what football is all about. Not for me anyway.


Storytelling


As a lot of you know I have a love and passion for storytelling. I have not heard or told a story for about 7 weeks now and I am missing it. Maybe I should start a storytelling club in Chiang Mai as the Chiang Mai branch of Shaggy Dog Storytellers. Apologies to those who will not understand this last statement.

Gauntlet

I'm now becoming recognised as a local. People stop and say Hi Alan hows it going? I do not get stopped much when running the gauntlet of market stall holders, tuk tuk and taxi drivers on my way to the food centre for a nosh. That's nice and makes me feel part of the community.

What's In A Name

I visited a butterfly farm recently and found these specimens and was bowled over by the names - not sure if they are from Thailand or elsewhere but incredible names.



The Red Spot Sawtooth














The Malayan Tree Nymph - for me the best name













The Chocolate Tiger

A Red Bus

a red bus as mentioned in previous blog

Me and the Girls

2 of the girls who played football at Wat Don Chan - their names are neem and meen - again not sure of spelling but this is the pronounciation

Me and the Teachers

With Thai and Mai teachers at Wat Don Chan - not sure I have spelt their names correctly but this is how they are pronounced. Mai speaks decent english and Thai is the PT teacher and full time Thai boxer

More From Wat Don Chan

the Wat Don Chan players


















me at Wat Don Chan relaxing before a training session

Wat Don Chan Pictures

some of the lads showing their skills



not just the lads, the girls are very capable as well (note the girl playing in bare feet - no problem for these kids)

LIFE CONTINUES IN CHIANG MAI

Red Buses

One nice feature in Chiang Mai are the red buses which are small vehicles seating only about 20 people. The deal is you stop one anywhere, state your destination and the driver decides if he/she is going that way and then you negotiate on the fare. Imagine doing that on the 134 from Potters Bar to the Post Office Tower or any bus from Piccadilly, Manchester. They are very cheap as long as you don’t mind a half hour detour to get to your destination.

Old People

I’ve found some old Thai people – see previous blog. On the above mentioned buses there are loads of over 40’s. Perhaps their families stick the oldies on the bus in the morning to trundle all over the city until the evening when they are let back into the family home. Just a theory. The other place is in the post office. I visited the main post office and all the staff, post people, counter staff, cleaners etc all looked over 40. So that’s what happens to Thai people over 40, they are either on buses or joined the post office.

The serious thing is how healthy and young looking Thai people are. I have been constantly surprised at the ages of the people I have asked. My regular tuk tuk driver has no lines on his face a very smooth neck and soft hands and the only thing that gives away his age is a full head of greying hair and he is 47 but looking 30. Perhaps us westerners do not need youth pills but just follow the lifestyle of Thai people – and indeed all Asian races – which is a good diet, drink plenty of water and lead a stress free life. Easy isn’t it. Why do we think that pills can make us look younger when by following a certain lifestyle means it is naturally achievable. We know that the large chemical company’s do not want us to realize this.

Losing Weight

The diet over here is wonderful for losing weight. Thai people generally are very slim and very healthy and I’m developing in the same way. The other day I was walking down the street when I realised that my shorts had slipped down, nestling on my hips. I looked like one of those street kids with their trousers half way down their bottoms revealing designer underpants – Calvin Klein, Joe Boxer etc. If this continues I’ll have to shop for a complete new range of underwear. Seeing Designed by George at Tesco’s or Army and Navy Stores doesn’t really cut it. Seriously though with the womderful diet over here and the fact that being hot means food intake is less than in the UK, my waist has declined.

However, I am concerned about the next generation of Thai people as a large part of the advertising is about how young peoples lives will be improved and how cool it is to eat sticky, sweet cakes, burgers and other wholly unhealthy food plus drink coke and coffee. Why should Thai people be so slim and healthy – lets make them fat and obese like a lot of westerners must be the message from the food corporations. Then we can fill them full of slimming tablets and other tablets to prevent the health problems caused by a bad diet, say the chemical company’s.

Language Difficulties

At Wat Don Chan school where I’m coaching football there is a teacher called Boy (I’m certain this is not the Thai spelling). Anyway, Tie (another teacher), said shall we arrange another friendly with Boys friends. Of course, my thought was that Boy had boyfriends meaning he was gay. The conversation with Tie became amusing when he was trying to say that Boy had friends who are a football team and I was trying to get past Boy being gay. I couldn’t share this humour with Tie as I’m sure he would not have understood. Made me smile though.

Weather

Currently the skies are cloudy and its very humid with it being the rainy season. Most days there are heavy showers. However, in a few weeks the rainy season is over and its back to sunny warm days. Wouldn’t that be nice if it happened in England.

New Business

I’ve worked out that there are very few good bakeries here in Chiang Mai and there are only a few places that supply good European type bread. The bread here is white, tasteless and full of sugar – horrible. So, if anyone in England can bake decent bread and fancies a career switch to Thailand let me know. One of the only cafes that does good bread is always full of tourists.

Mae Rim

Took a trip out into the mountains on the 12^th June – so good to be out of the city to an area called Mae Rim. The tuk tuk driver is like most people here , he thinks I want to see elephants, monkey’s and snakes in farms doing tricks to entertain the tourist. I do not. I want to see beautiful countryside, lakes, rivers, forests and animals in the wild (where they should be). It was a constant battle with the driver to get him to show me the countryside. One thing though are the very beautiful butterflies that live here in Thailand. They all have very bright, vivid, sharp colours and some are small but others are massive. I have heard that in Victorian times in the UK it was possible to see clouds of butterflies in the summer flying overhead. That’s all gone now but not here. It is possible to see hundreds of butterflies playing, darting and whizzing around. Also, it means that Thai people farm organically and are not killing the wildlife and themselves with pesticides, fertilizers etc. Yaabooh to the chemical company’s on that one.

Pictures say more than words

Garden of Mai Ping Riverside Hotel where I spent hours, reading, chilling and chatting with other visitors. Nice spot















Kalare Food Centre where there are a variety of wonderful dishes and you can have your fill for 80-100 baht (64 baht to the £)















Girl performing at the Kalare Food Centre