Con Thai Jai Dee means Thai people have good hearts.

Lom Sak is a very nice small city. After we arrived, we took a stroll around Tang’s neighborhood and visited the nearby Buddhist temple. In Thailand there is always a Buddhist temple nearby and they are all very beautiful in their own way. Here is a picture of three young monks cleaning up the leaves around the temple. We spent an enjoyable evening chatting with To, Tang and Tang’s father.

Saturday, January 20th we met up with Due and his parents. We went with them to Phitsanulok to take part in a festival there. The drive between Lom Sak and Phitsanulok is very scenic. The mountains are beautiful and in some ways reminded Karl and I of the Rocky Mountains from our home town in Utah. The banana trees growing on the mountainside ended that comparison but it was nice to see mountains after being in flat Florida for so long. This area also boasts many waterfalls, but we were on an express trip and had to get to Phitsanulok and back to Lom Sak in a single afternoon. We will make plans to come back for the waterfalls. We spent a lot of time on this express trip to Phitsanulok chatting with Due. It was good to see him!


In Phitsanulok, we visited the temple Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat which contains the Chinnarat Buddha. According to our handy tourist guide to Thailand this is the second most important Buddha in Thailand. Because of the Festival the temple was very crowded with vendors set up all around the temple walls. There was only one area of the temple that visitors were being allowed. This temple is actually quite old and we were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t see more of it. This second picture is of Due and his mom inside the temple. We also stopped by a lesser known temple across the street Wat Nang Phaya. This temple had a much more peaceful atmosphere and it was also a good place to rest before the drive back to Lom Sak. We did stop at a restaurant in the mountains for dinner. It was a beautiful location, but Karl and I were not prepared for how chilly it gets in the mountains. Fortunately, the food kept us warm. It wasn’t too spicy for us and had wonderful flavors. We also had some enjoyable company as we got to know Due’s parents a bit better.

On the lot next to Tang’s parent’s house is her aunt’s house and since her aunt was going to Bangkok on Saturday, Due and his parents were invited to stay at the aunt’s house. It is an example of how generous the Thai people are. We stayed up watching Thai soap operas (they are quite amusing when you can’t understand what the characters are saying) and helping Tang set up a blog of her own. Before the drive back to Wangpikun on Sunday we got pictures of us, Due and his parents and then us, To, Tang and her parents.



On the way back home, we stopped at To’s parent’s house and met his grandmother, mother and older sister. To’s house is built after traditional Thai architecture and everything is solid wood. We had lunch with To’s family and the finished our trip to Wangpikun. Upon arriving at our house, we realized that we were locked out. We didn’t have a key to the padlock on the front door. Fortunately, Tang and To seem to have been in this fix before because they quickly broke the lock and let us in. We just had to buy a new padlock.

This week at school was a scouting camp Thursday and Friday. We were invited to join the kids and go camping but Karl and I aren’t much for really roughing it. We taught at Wangpikun School Monday through Wednesday and then taught at a nearby school Thursday and Friday. Karl took this picture of some boys at Wangpikun while they were preparing for the camping trip. This week we taught a lesson on ordering food from a restaurant and for fun we had a matching game the kids could play at the end of class. Karl really doesn’t have too many problems explaining the game to the kids because he can explain it in Thai. I’m learning to rely heavily on pantomime techniques. “Hey, kids! Do what I’m doing!” Once they understand how the game works, they really enjoy playing and learning at the same time. Here are some pictures of Karl and me teaching.



All week I’d been having some pain in my shoulder. It’s an occasional thing for me and usually a trip to my chiropractor will fix me up. With my chiropractor half a world away, I asked about getting a Thai massage. Wednesday afternoon, one of the teachers at the school took us to see an old lady who does a traditional Thai massage. She is a sweet grandmother with really strong hands! After Karl explained the problem, she went to work on my shoulder and soon it didn’t hurt any more. After my shoulder she massaged my legs, feet, arms and hands and really left me feeling good. For over an hour she only charged 200 baht (about $6)! Sorry Dr. McVay … you’ve got some serious competition here in Thailand! Here is a picture with me and my new best friend!

Thursday morning we were introduced to the English students at Srimongkhol Wittayakom School. This is a very small school, only about 150 students in all the grades. They were very happy to have us teach if only for two days. Karl taught the younger students on Thursday and I taught the older students. On Friday we switched. Thursday during a break in classes, the principal of this school and the English teacher took us to see a watermelon farm. We also stopped by the watermelon market where the farmer’s brought their watermelons to sell. We got to do a bit of taste testing which is always fun. We had a lot of fun teaching at this school as the children were very enthusiastic and helpful. The first picture is of us at the watermelon farm with the principal and his friend. The next picture is Karl with a group of students from his class and the last picture is nearly the entire Srimongkhol school body with the principal, English teacher and me. I’m holding a certificate the school gave Karl and me with pictures of us at the school. The principal of Srimongkhol school would really like to have volunteers to teach english at his school. Anybody interested? It's a great experience!




Thursday and Friday evenings we were invited to have dinner with the family of the lady who did my massage. Thursday’s invitation wasn’t planned. Karl likes to go to the market to take pictures and he stopped by the house to say hi. Before he knew it we had been invited to dinner and one of the daughters brought him by our house to pick me up. We had a student staying at our house for the weekend (to make sure we didn’t get lost) and we left the student a note about where we were going. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the note and called the school principal when we didn’t come home before dark. Everyone was concerned that we had been “stolen”. Well the thieves couldn’t be a nicer group of ladies who fed us well and invited us back for Thai-style spaghetti. The confusion about what happened to us was cleared up and in Thailand a misunderstanding is always forgiven with “Mai Ben Lie” which means never mind, don’t worry about it, forget about it or all of the above depending on the situation. We did return on Friday for the Thai-style spaghetti. It was really good! It didn’t taste like ketchup and it had a bit of kick to it. Turns out one of the ladies used to be a cook in Chiang Mai and fed westerners all the time. The picture is of our new friends and the baby in the picture is only about two weeks old … so cute!

Saturday morning, we had a bit of drama at our house. We had planned to go to the “super market” and we were running a bit late. In our hurry we turned the lock on the door knob and shut the door. The reason a padlock is used on this door is because no one has a key to the door itself, so we were locked out again. Only this time, we couldn’t use the trick we had learned earlier in the week. We did find a weakness and pried open one of the shutters on the windows. These houses don’t have glass in their windows so prying open a shutter was all that was necessary. After gaining entry into the house we unlocked the door, ensured that we wouldn’t get locked out again and then locked the padlock in place. The “super market” here is just a larger version of the nightly market. There are more vendors and a larger variety of products. There is even some entertainment. There were two baby elephants wondering through the market with their handlers. The handlers sell you a bag of elephant food for 20 baht and you have the good fortune of feeding it to the baby elephant. These not so little guys can be quite demanding and will help you take the food out of the bag if you are not fast enough. So here is a picture of me doing my best to keep up with the elephant.

Sunday we went to church! There is a small Christian church just down the road from the school and one of Karl’s students invited us to go. It is a small congregation of about 20 to 30 people and they were very welcoming. I’m not familiar with this particular denomination but I would classify them as Charismatic Christian. It was a bit different than what we are used to but different is what we came to Thailand for and it was an enjoyable service. After the service, everyone stayed around for lunch and we chatted with a couple who were visiting for the day. The lady is originally from Wangpikun and attended the school about 20 years ago. The picture is of us with Aranya (Karl’s student) and her parents. There are only about three students at Wangpikun who are Christian.

Also on Saturday and Sunday, I spent a little time trying to take pictures of some puppies. The house that we live in came with a dog. Her name is Dang which means red. Dang has three puppies that are quite shy. We have been feeding Dang and she is always happy to see us. So, this Saturday and Sunday I took Dang some food and stayed around. Soon her puppies would emerge and if I was lucky they would follow Dang as she came over to sit with me. I think the picture below is the best one I was able to get. The photo isn’t great but it was fun to sit and watch the puppies.

This last picture is for my dad and brothers. You guys need to get one of these tractors!

Let’s Party!

We had a very nice time visiting Chiang Mai over the weekend. We went to the World Flower Festival or Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006. The festival is to celebrate the King of Thailand’s 80th birthday and his 60th year on the throne. The Thai people are very proud of their King and will tell you how much good he has done for the country in the past 60 years. We didn’t have time to see everything at the festival so we picked a few things that interested us. The first was the Orchid exhibit where they had some amazing and rare orchids on display. They also had and orchid garden competition and orchid plant competition. There were some very beautiful flowers. In the pictures, I am standing in front of my favorite orchid garden competitor and an example of the incredible colors that were found in these gardens.


We also went to the Royal Pavilion which was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the King. Below the temple was a bit of a museum telling about all the accomplishments of the King. After walking around that we wandered through the international gardens. Many countries were represented there from the Netherlands and Spain to Qatar and Bhutan. Unfortunately, the US did not have a garden there. Actually, Karl says the US was represented because the whole festival was a bit “Disney-fied”. To exit the park we had to walk a gauntlet of venders who were selling everything from “Long Live the King” T-shirts to souvenirs from Kenya, India or other countries that had gardens in the park.

We also visit Ba Song where they paint paper umbrellas and Doi Suthep the Buddhist temple on top of the mountain. Both were very much the tourist traps we aren’t crazy about. Doi Suthep was very crowded because so many people were in Chiang Mai for the Chiang Mai University graduation ceremonies. We had to walk up 300 steps to get to the temple and we were almost shoulder to shoulder with others visiting the temple. So much for the quiet monastery that Karl remembers from his visit over 20 years ago. It is a beautiful temple and has a spectacular view over Chiang Mai city.

Back in Wangpikun this past Monday we taught our first English classes. Karl’s classes went much better than mine. He had the distinct advantage of being able to explain the lesson in Thai. Fortunately, I had some patient Thai teachers supporting me and giving me some tips to help the students understand what they needed to do. The tip I get most often … speak slowly! I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t get the hang of teaching through the language barrier but as the week went on things have gotten better for me.
Tuesday and Wednesday there were no classes. Instead there were parties! First on Tuesday was the Teacher’s conference for the school district. The conference started off with a very long ceremony directed by the local Buddhist monks. There were lots of prayers and a hymn for teachers. After the ceremony was lunch and we quickly learned that a buffet table in Thailand functions a bit different then the ones in America. There is no orderly line where each person waits their turn. People would just go directly to the table and take what ever food they wanted. I was quite surprised that there were no hard feelings when one person would reach over another person to get something. Lunch was followed by Patong (a game with balls that is similar to horseshoes) and soccer tournaments. We went home for a nap and then returned in the evening for the big party. Dinner was a catered affair with many courses of various Thai food (much of it spicy). There was ongoing entertainment of singing, dancing and a raffle. It was a lot of fun. In the first picture, you see us at the Teacher’s conference with many of the teachers from our school. The second picture is the students who were playing for the ceremony with traditional Thai instruments. The last picture is some of the people who shared a table with us at dinner. The two ladies teach at our school and the gentleman is a principle from another school. He was trying to get us to come teach English at his school as well.

Wednesday’s party was to celebrate the school’s birthday! The day started with flying kites which the students had made themselves. Some kites flew beautifully and reached amazing heights. Others only left the ground when the students threw the kite into the air. All the kites were beautifully painted; you could tell that the students had spent some time on the pictures they painted on the kites. Just before lunch there was a ceremony directed by the monks and the monks were given donations made by the teachers and students to help develop the local temple. The buffet lunch with the students was a bit more orderly. The teachers were allowed to get their food first and then the oldest students. As each grade took turns at the buffet table one teacher was on the loud speaker calling out instructions to keep things in order. I didn’t understand any of what he said but he often elicited lots of laughter from the students. After the students finish cleaning up the lunch area, it was time for the entertainment. This included karaoke, crazy contests among the students and a raffle of gifts bought by the teachers for the students. Because we are guests, we were “encouraged” to do karaoke. Fortunately, they had a few in English as I can’t read a bit of Thai and we tortured the students with our off-key version of Jingle Bell Rock. After some additional cleaning around the school, the students went home but we came back later in the evening to have dinner with the teachers. The leftovers from the buffet lunch and the karaoke machine were brought out and the party continued well into the night. Karl and I called it quits about 10:30 and went back to our house. Thursday morning there were a few teachers that looked as though they needed to find a dark corner to take a nap. In the picture, Karl and I are making our donations to the “money tree” that goes to support the local temple.

Thursday we actually had to teach. We had some difficulty getting out of bed because we hadn’t gotten to bed on time two nights in a row. We managed some how and got to school just before the national anthem. My classes went very well today thanks to some of the tips I received from the Thai teachers. The students understood what was going on and actually seemed to enjoy the class. Of course as with any class, you have the class clowns and the students that would rather be sleeping but they are the minority. Thursday evening, at the request of some of our fellow teachers, I attempted to make spaghetti sauce with the ingredients found in a Thai market. They really don’t have tomato sauce only ketchup and if you ask for tomato sauce you are given ketchup. Needless to say the spaghetti sauce had a distinct ketchup taste to it but the teachers seemed to enjoy it.

This weekend we are headed to Lom Sak where we will meet Tang’s parents and spend some time exploring the mountains and waterfalls there. Due and his family are also coming to meet us there so we will get to spend a bit of time with Due.

School Days

We’ve made it to the school where we will be teaching English. We got a bit of a surprise when we arrived because the school was not where we thought it would be. We were told that the school was in Bueng Sam Pham in Phetchabun province. Since we couldn’t find Bueng Sam Pham on any of the maps of Thailand that we had, we just marked Phetchabun as our destination. Bueng Sam Pham is a small town and to get there we had to go to Chaiyaphum first. We stayed overnight on January 9 with a very nice family in Chaiyaphum (their daughter and son-in-law are the founders of VolunThai). The next morning we were on a bus to Bueng Sam Pham through the mountains on some winding roads. It was an interesting ride. They drove with the bus door open and many times the person that collected the bus tickets was on a jump seat right in the doorway. There was one time when the bus had to serve and we wondered if the poor guy was going to fall out the door! There were also several stops and a couple of times the bus really didn’t come to a full stop. The new passenger just ran along with the bus and then jumped on!

The surprise came when we arrived in Bueng Sam Pham and met Tang and To. They are two teachers from our school and the surprise was that the school is not in Bueng Sam Pham but in a village 20 minutes away. If Bueng Sam Pham is hard to find on a map than this village will be impossible to find on a map! The school’s name is Wangpikun Pittayokon which is also the name of the village. This small village is a very nice farming community and we have felt very welcome here. In fact the picture is Karl standing next to a sign at the school that says “Welcome”.

We are staying in a small house on the school property so it is very easy to get to school on time. We share the house with two other teachers and it is one of several houses that the school has for teachers. We are very well taken care of as the other teachers make sure that we get lunch and dinner. We are on our own for breakfast but they stocked us up on soy milk and the Thai version of Ramen noodles!

On January 11, there was a parent-teacher conference at the school and we were introduced to the parents. The following day we were asked to say a few things to the students at the morning flag raising ceremony. That was interesting, I was supposed to speak in English which isn’t a problem but I had to keep what I said simple and speak slowly. That was the challenge for me. I survived and Karl translated so if they didn’t get it in English they got it in Thai. Karl said a few things and then we were glad to be out of the spotlight. In the picture, you can see the principle of the school, Chira Thatsanasiri, is standing with us.

Today we are in Chaing Mai for a weekend visit. One of our house mates Tun is completing her Master’s degree at the university here and has class on the weekend. We came along for the ride and hope to go to the “World Flower Festival”. There should be some beautiful flowers there and we expect to share a picture or two on our next post. On the ride here, we stopped at Tun’s parents’ house for dinner. They have a lovely home and in addition to Tun’s parents we got to meet her sister, their two dogs and two cats. This picture is of Tun and her puppy also called Tun. The puppy is blind in both eyes but gets along quite well. He was very happy to see Tun and would run to her when she called. He didn’t recognize our voices so he just barked whenever he heard us talking.

We start teaching on Monday and will be taking some pictures of our students to share. We aren’t sure when our next post will be; the internet connection at the school is currently down.

We have arrived!

After 30 grueling hours of traveling including a 13 hour long flight from Chicago to Tokyo we have arrived. Getting to our destination is one of the things we really don’t like about traveling. The American airplanes are cramped and the food is barely edible (if you are given any food). Thai Airways did have more leg room and better food. We actually were able to sleep on Thai Airways. Karl and I decided that next time we fly halfway around the world we are paying a bit extra for a flight with less stops along the way. We would appreciate the shorter travel time.

Anyway, we are here in Bangkok for just a day before we go to Chaiyaphum for orientation and then onto our school in Phetchabun. We spent the afternoon wandering around some shops that were near our hotel. Karl had fun talking with the locals and I just tried to keep up. I catch a few words in Thai that I recognize but it seems that people are talking faster than my brain can process. Karl got a picture of me buying some peanuts from a street vendor.

Note about Anonymous Comments

This is just a quick note to let folks know that when you select Anonymous as you are submitting your comments, I won't know who you are. Sometimes, I can make a guess but sometimes it's hard to tell.

I can understand that you may not want personal information posted on the web. A first name would be enough for me to recognize you. Also, you can indicate in your comment that you don't want it published.