Long-tailed Boating
Life on Thailand's waterways
One of my most enjoyable purchases here in Thailand has been my long-tailed boat – ‘ruhr-harng-yao’ in Thai, which means ‘vessel long-tail’, and which by interpreting the term in relation to our own organisation of adjectives and nouns gives us exactly what it is.
Carried away by modern waves
A Thai minority group struggling to adapt to formal education
They lived simple but hard lives. Moken caught fish and seafood with spears and hand-made nets, and they had no need for electricity or piped water. They informally learned to make nets, carve boats, gather wild plants, preserve fish in the sun and salvage fresh water for drinking. Their traditional knowledge included where to find seafood and how to navigate the flow of the seas. This education was a curriculum of survival.
The big black hole
Thais and e-mailing
I have one customer – God bless her – who checks her email between 8.30 and 8.45am every morning. If you send her an e-mail at 8.46, she won’t actually read it until the following business day. Send it at 8.46 on a Friday and she’ll deal with it after the weekend. Then how long it takes her to respond is anyone’s guess.
Bangkok getaways - Petchburi
An historical park on a hill, lots of temples and some monkeys thrown in
I went on this overnight trip to the scenic town of Petburi a few months ago. Tourist maps and road signs often refer to this city as Petchburi or Petchaburi but the believe me, the correct way to pronounce it is definitely Petburi. Unfortunately, transliteration of Thai script into the Roman alphabet is often neither clear-cut nor logical
Rocky but real relationships
thoughts on western entertainment
Western entertainment, when viewed from the perspective of living in the East, is unintentionally hilarious and makes me feel more than a little sad for Westerners. Asia, due to various cultural differences, has a far more fluid attitude to the sharing of pleasures.
Goodbye Thailand
It's definitely time to leave
So the question remains why? Why leave Thailand, the Land of Smiles, the best country in the world if Thais are to be believed? The short answer is that I didn't have enough reasons to stay.
North Eastern woes
Postbox letter from AN
How does a school that's 'out in the sticks' attract decent teachers?
Thai teaching assistants
Angels from the planet Xerox or Satan's snitch?
They are as much a part of a teaching package as subsidized health insurance, the occasional sports day and possible unpaid test-marking. We want to hear about yours. When asked to make photocopies does she say "coming right up oh great white-skinned one" or does she beat a path to the dean's door to remind him that slavery has been abolished?
Thai culture course experiences
How to scam, exploit and demoralise foreign teachers
Here's a complete breakdown of my time spent on the Thai cultural course. Actually I've decided that it was nothing but a teacher's council money spinner. It had little to do with improving a teacher's performance in the classroom and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the foreign participants were given an impromtu dance class.
Back to school
A brief overview of primary and secondary schools in Thailand
There are three main kinds of schools in Thailand: government schools, private schools and international schools. Internationals schools are the most expensive, with average yearly fees ranging from 200,000 to 600,000 baht, depending on the quality and reputation of the school.
