Guess Who I Ran Into on the Beach Today......

I did walk along the beach today and just killed time relaxing. Around one curve in the beach, however, I came across an elephant. The owner wanted about 50 cents for a photograph and I obliged him. Thai elephants are descendents from Indian elephants and are generally much smaller and more docile than African species. This one was a tusk less female which probably means she is too old to work anymore so now she just wanders around the beach getting her picture taken. Elephants are common in this area, however, and it is a growing problem that when the owner can no longer take care of them they lead them into Bangkok and abandon them. Last time I was here one had been abandoned and had panicked running along the sidewalk tearing up vending stalls and scattering the locals. Sounds funny but the police had to shoot and kill that one.

The tsunami several years ago that devastated Thailand only caused very high tides here but further south it destroyed entire villages and I remember seeing photos of the elephants being used to walk out into the water and retrieve bodies. They are still used for heavy moving and were very useful after the tsunami in removing trees and collapsed buildings to retrieve survivors and even recover victims. This old girl today looked bored with it all but probably doesn’t have all that rough of a life.

These jobs with private transport companies are usually very rewarding and it’s sometimes kind of sad to wrap them up and this was particularly a good job so it was mixed feelings when we finished today. I had three transport drivers and one translator and all four went to great lengths to make my stay a good one.

I arrived on Saturday and on Sunday one of the students and the translator (I found out later she was his girl friend) picked me up and we drove to an island off the beach and visited a Buddhist temple. There was also a Chinese temple on the island and I’m including a picture of the two of them in front of it.

I am working the next two days for a company called Air Products and they picked me up after class today and drove me nearly two hours further south to Rayong which is also on the beach and it an industrial, not tourist, location. Like in Sriracha, the hotel here is first class and almost out of place in the city which is mostly run down and dirty—a typical industrial port town.

I do two days work here and it will be refresher work with the students I had in Pattaya a year and a half ago so I will know them and it should be fun to see them again. Then, Thursday night it’s back to Bangkok and Friday morning I fly back to the States…..

Traveled Two Hours South of Bangkok Today…

…..and will spend the weekend here and work two days before going even further south to Rayong. The week in Bangkok went well and the American Embassy job went reasonably well for working with the U.S. Government. I stayed at the Conrad Hilton about two blocks from the embassy and each morning I walked to work along sidewalks filled with Thais; street vendors with the hot, spicy smells; Asian music blaring from the taxis—and it was easy to really just get absorbed in the experience of being over here.

I had five students—three Thais, one from East Timor, and one from Hong Kong who spoke almost no English. We got along well and on Thursday took a break and visited one of the temples here. When the week was over everyone seemed to have become friends and it’s always a little sad to wrap it up.

I've just learned the job in Cameroon has been approved so I'll be leaving a couple of days after Thanksgiving and returning four days before Christmas. I've really got mixed feelings about this job--Cameroon is not a fun place to spend nearly a full month. I was thinking about this past year this afternoon and got to calculating--I will have spent 4 1/2 months overseas during 2007. From October 26 through November 26 alone I will have visited five Continents (Asia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa). And while I'm really looking forward to the trip to Peru next month, I'm also very tired physically but all this travel has really enriched my life in ways I never dreamed possible so I'm deternined to keep doing it as long as I can and I still enjoy it.

I took a taxi to Sriracha this morning and the hotel here is nice, but certainly not as luxurious as the Hilton in Bangkok. It is a fairly large town located right on the coast and this afternoon I walked around the beach. This is not a tourist area and is very industrial—I’m working with a trucking company here this week. It is much like Pasadena or Freeport in Texas but more seaport oriented—ship building, salvage, ferrying, etc. While it’s not scenic, it’s interesting because I’ve not seen another Westerner here all day. The hotel seems to have a lot of Japanese here and the Thais do not speak very much English—some don’t speak any which suggests this really is off the tourist path.

I ate supper at the hotel tonight and the food here is authentic Thai—nothing watered down but red hot with those deadly little Thai peppers. I love my food hot but I have to be very careful here but still, I ordered off the spicy menu and loved everything they brought me.

While I was walking around this afternoon I wandered over a bridge to a small island that has been turned into a park and it was filled with families—again with the music, food and smells. The small island is actually a rock protruding from the ocean and at the top of the rock, a small mountain, there is a Buddhist temple. I walked around the island but didn’t climb the mountain since I didn’t know if it was allowed due to being a religious temple. Still, it was a fun trip and this evening I went to a night bazaar across from the hotel. It’s evidently a weekend thing and is lit up like carnival. It was packed with people shopping but there wasn’t anything I was shopping for—there really doesn’t seem to be a tourist trade here at all.

Tomorrow I meet my contact here—an Australian and he should be able to give me some suggestions on things to visit and see the short time I’m here.

I'm including here a picture of the famous, or infamous, Thai taxi that's affectionately referred to as a tuk-tuk taxi. They are literally everywhere and Bangkok has them on every corner. This photo was taken here today and you can see they pack them full of fares. To wrap up this blog entry I'm attaching a short video of the infamous Bangkok traffic when the light turns green....

While We Were on the Road Today.....

.....we stopped at one of the many Buddhist temples here in Bangkok and walked around. I know, I was getting paid for it, but somebody has to do it. Anyway, here are some photos I shot of the figurines which I think the Thais are especially good at creating:

This is a Little More Luxury Than I’m Used To……

I made it back over here basically ok but somewhat worse for wear…the trip was 31 hours—air and airport layovers—and I’m still shaking off jet lag on Wednesday. The Conrad Hotel here is probably the best I’ve ever stayed at…..compliments of the U.S. State Department and the toilet seats may have actually cost $250 at this place. The class is going ok with some major language problems but good students. Three are from Thailand, one is from Hong Kong and the fifth is from East Timor and none really speak English very well.
I’m really comfortable riding the overhead transit system here and have been going out every evening to find a place to eat. This afternoon I went over to a nearby area and visited the Erawan Shrine which isn’t very large or impressive but is one of the oldest “spirit houses” in Bangkok. Located in the banking district and surrounded by towering chrome and glass skyscrapers, it looks so out of place but is very important to the Thai people. A Hindu shrine, it is also worshiped by Buddhists and tradition has it that the shrine should be respected by dancers and worshipers around the clock so there will always be a small dancing group there. In the early morning hours it might only be a single dancer but somebody will always be there. These are not professional dancers or musicians—they are volunteers and while the quality may not be that great the tradition of 24/7 is something very unusual and today I shot a short video clip. Click twice on the triangle in the lower left corner—the volume may be high but can be adjusted on the right lower corner. I haven’t figured out yet how to reduce the volume on my camera.
The Thais are normally a very laid back, peaceful people but they take their king and their religion very seriously. A couple of years a man thought to have been mentally deranged attacked the shrine with a hammer and the crowd stomped him to death before the police could get there.
I also visited the Victory Monument located in the middle of a huge traffic circle right at rush hour so I didn’t get very close but it represents a past victory over Cambodia and is obviously very important to the Thais.
This weekend I travel to Chon Buri to the south of Bangkon on the seacoast for two days work with a transport company then travel even further south to a village called Rayong to work with Bangkok Industrial Gas. So far it’s been a typically great Thailand trip……

Looks Like the Year is Going to Finish With the Throttle Wide Open…...

I've been home from Scotland nearly six weeks now so it must be time to hit the road again and I leave October 12 for a two week trip to Thailand. I'll be working one week for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok then moving to the southeast at a coastal town named Sriracha to do a two-day job with a transport company and finishing up with a two-day job even further inland at a village named Rayong. As it's panning out, this will be a two-week job.

The medical mission trip to Peru is ticketed and the itinerary is set--very subject to change. We are basically a Texas-based group this trip and will meet at Houston for a flight to Lima on November 3. There are seventeen of us and I understand I'm not the only first-timer so we will basically be meeting at the airport for the first time. From Lima we will be flying north to the city of Piura near the Bolivian border and will be spending the week at a hotel there then commuting each day to the small village of Vivate. At Vivate they will convert the local school into a medical clinic for five days and we will be providing medical, dental and optical services for the villagers. I don't know what I'll be doing but it may involve assembling eye glasses, cleaning dental instruments, maintaining crowd control or any number of other things. I really anticipate this will be a meaningful week and am looking forward to it.

After we close the clinic we will be flying back to Lima where about half of us will stay over and catch a plane to Cusco, high in the Andes Mountains. From there we will take a train to Pisac, a Peruvian village in the Sacred Valley on the Urubamba River with a famous craft market. From there we will spend a day at the Machu Picchu world heritage site before returning to Lima and Houston.

In December, I am tentatively scheduled for a 3 1/2 week job in West Africa in Cameroon to work with the Cameroon-Chad Oil Transport Company (COTCO)--a company I've worked with in the past both in Cameroon and Chad. I will be located in Douala and from my past experience, it’s a hardship location, but at least I'll know what to expect this time. As it's scheduled right now, I would be leaving immediately after Thanksgiving and returning three days before Christmas. There's an outside chance the job might be postponed until January but either way, it will be the end of a very unusual year work wise…..