Chang Meets Chang

In Thailand everyone has a nickname or a chue len. One of the first things that someone will ask you if you are living in Thailand is “have you gotten a Thai nickname yet?” Sometimes a nickname is just the short version of their name same same in America, for example; Ben for Benjamin, Jake for Jacob, Tony for Anthony. But, many times in Thailand someone’s chue len is not related to their real name. It is just a random object/animal/adj. For example, some common Thai chue len’s might be bird, lion, rain, lotus leaf, bamboo shoot, jasmine flower, cricket, and so on. Haha, there are some pretty funny ones. I know a director whose name is Mr. Happy and there is a set of twins at my school who’s chue lens’ are Neung and Song, or One and Two.

So by now I’m sure you’re wondering if I have gotten a chue len yet. Yes I have, and if you haven’t already figured it out by now from the blogs title, my chue len is Chang. Chang in Thai is elephant. It’s actually a pretty good one compared to some of the others names that the volunteers have gotten. Elephants and viewed as big, strong, and handsome and are very well respected because of their role they have played in this culture through out history. On a side note, Chang is the name of my favorite beer here in Thailand. That same beer company is also a sponsor of my favorite EPL team and thus Chang is written on the front of my favorite soccer jersey with two elephants as its logo. It’s funny how things work out.

The last time I left you I was in the middle of my second week of teaching. Wow it feels like that was yesterday, not three weeks ago. I can’t believe I’ve already been here 2 months! This year is going to go by faster than a chocolate cake at Rosie O’Donald’s birthday party.

Haha anyways, I’ve done some pretty cool stuff the past few weeks. The weekend of the 19^th-21^st , was very interesting but long. That Friday, the princess of Thailand was coming to Nakhon Phanom City (NKP) to visit the high school. The princess sponsors a country wide school competition called “To be Number 1”, and so this year she came to NKP to show her support for the program. As usual I have no idea what to expect or what this thing really was. The only thing they really told me was that I would not teach classes on Friday and that we will leave in the morning.

Friday morning roles around and I am told to catch a ride with one of the teachers named P Rote. We leave my school around 10 o’clock and so we get to NKP around 10:30. I was pretty excited about this day for a couple of reasons. First of all I was going to get to see the princess. Second, I was going to get to unwind from a long week of teaching. I was going to hang out in the city at a river front café, I was going to read my book, and I was going to drink a much needed cold beer. It was going to be awesome. Third, I was going to meet up the other volunteers so we could head to Surin together.  But sure enough, second thing did not happened at all.

As I said earlier, we got to NKP around 10:30. So I assumed that this thing would start around noon or 1 o’clock, oh but how wrong was I. After asking a couple of people, thinking that the first couple of people misunderstood me, I learned that this event wasn’t planned to start until 6 PM!!! Why on earth would we get there at 10:30 for something that starts at 6?!? Mai pen rai, there’s not much I could do about it. There were a few activities for the students throughout the day but none of them involved any participation/supervision by the teachers so there was really no point at all of us being there the entire day. I had to remind myself that is just how things work here in Thailand. Same same my trip to the temple where we just sat around all weekend and did nothing.

Just as I did at the temple, I was going to read to pass some time. Also, at the end of the week, I get pretty exhausted of trying to communicate so it’s nice to have some alone time and read. But, every time I would go off by myself to read, some one would come sit with me and start talking or would take me back to sit with a group of people. In Thailand people don’t have the same sense of privacy/ alone time that we have in the states. Thai people are never alone at any point. And so when they saw me sitting by myself they naturally tried to give me some company not realizing that’s not what I wanted at all.

Haha I was getting pretty frustrated because I think I only read about 6 pages the whole afternoon. I had to keep reminding myself to relax, enjoy, and accept the situation. So I did and I just laughed it off. When you are in a foreign culture, “mai pen rai” is the attitude you have to have. You have to be able go with the flow even if it’s not what you are used to. If you can do that your time abroad will be much more enjoyable. Lucky I’ve already been blessed with a laid back attitude/mai pen rai attitude, and patience that Mother Theresa envies and so I’ve been able to hold my own so far in this foreign culture.

Teachers from my school and myself at our booth

6 o’clock rolls around and so everyone gets in their spots and waits for the princess to come. There were about 9 schools that were attending this event. Every school that was there had to set up and decorate a booth for the princess. Each booth had a bunch of flowers, ribbons, and pictures of the princess. When the princess arrived, she would go to each booth and sign a large photo of herself for each school. So the students, faculty, and myself sat right in front of our booth so we would get a good view of the princess. But, typical “Thai time” (Thai’s are known for being very late/ showing up really early; never at the correct time), the princess didn’t show up until 8 o’clock!

Yes, this is a recent photo

Finally, after waiting around for nearly 9 hours, the princess was here. She walked through the school campus while hundreds of students waved their little Thailand flags. She walked past each booth signed her picture. When the princess got to our booth, she was only a few yards away from me so it was really cool getting to see her up close. Sorry, no picture. No cameras aloud. And no guys, she is not single. Trust me, I asked. She is actually a very beautiful woman, definitely a cougar, even though she is 60 years old. She has had many plastic surgeries from what I hear so she only looks about 40 and she dresses very hip. I would certainly have tried to hit on her if I was at a cougar bar and I saw her (haha not saying that I frequent cougar bars or anything, just that she looks really good for her age). See for yourself à

9 o’clock roles around and I am told it’s probably going to be another hour of waiting around until the princess finishes making her rounds. I finally had to put my foot down and told them that I had to leave. I had only agreed to go to this because they told me it was going to take place in the early afternoon, not late at night. So I did not get to enjoy reading my book and drinking a beer at the river front café like I had planned. So finally I left and went to meet up with the other volunteers to begin the next adventure of the weekend... The Surin Elephant Round Up.

All of the WT volunteers met up in NKP that night and of coarse I was the last one to arrive. Mai pen rai because all the volunteers went out and grabbed a beer and so I finally got my ice cold beer and all of my worries/stress melted away. Well let me back up a little bit, not ice cold beer, I meant to say iced beer haha. Beer is rarely served ice cold so they always give you ice to put in your beer. When I first got to Thailand, I was horrified when they told me to do that. Put ICE in my BEER! Hell no I thought. That will ruin it! But I have now calmed down and I have accepted it, and I am used to it. It’s really not that bad and its better than drinking it warm. Anyways it was fun to see the other volunteers because it was the first time that all of us were together since orientation so we got to catch up with each other. Everyone had a few horror/war stories to share about our first couple weeks of teachings but we were all able to look back at them and laugh’em off. Over all everyone is very happy with their schools and they way things are going.

After a few drinks, we went to meet up with our vans that we had rented for the weekend. We departed NKP around 12:30 AM headed towards Surin. Surin is a province about 5 hours South of NKP. The area surrounding Surin, historically had many wild elephants. People would capture the elephants and domesticate them or train them to be war elephants. Thai Kings won many wars thanks to the elephants that came from Surin. So now every year in Surin, there is an elephant round up festival  to honor the elephants. This festival was our destination and adventure number two for the weekend for me.

The opening ceremony when all of the elephants marched out together

We arrived in Surin around 6:30 AM. We could not check into our hotel rooms but the hotel was kind enough to allow us to leave all our stuff behind the front desk so we would not have to carry it around all day. The main show didn’t start until 8:30 AM, so we just walked around and grabbed some breakfast. There were already a lot of people walking around and all of booths were open. It was apparent we were not in NKP anymore because we were not the only farongs walking around. A farong is what the Thai’s call all white foreigners. In NKP, we are typically the only farongs around because it is not a tourist city. So we were all in a reverse culture shock in Surin when we realized that we were not the only farongs.

The show started around 8:30 “Thai time” (9:00 real time). It was a really cool show that lasted nearly 3 hours. I won’t go into much detail about the show because you can see the pictures for yourself.

The big battle reenactment 

Footbon

Hoola hooping 

walking over farongs

Painting

o

throwing darts

All and all it was a very cool show, and I doubt I will see so many elephants like that again. After the show, you were able to ride the elephants, pet the elephants, or feed the elephants. A few of the volunteers rode the elephants but there was no set price so two paid 50 baht each while the other two paid 300 baht each. Haha mai pen rai. Once the crowds dispersed, the elephants roamed the streets all evening while the masters tried to get you to buy some food to feed his elephant. I do wonder how well the elephants are treated. I feel like there is probably a lot of exploitation and abuse, which is something that nagged me the entire show. Hence why I doubt I will see that many elephants again, it’s because I probably won’t go to a show like that again.

closing ceremony

 After the show, we walked around Surin and later on went out for a couple of beers. The city of Surin was a pretty typical Isan city so nothing to special about it. We woke up the next morning, after a long night, and headed back to NKP. Once in NKP, we said our goodbyes and dispersed to our villages. For me though, my weekend was not over yet. I still had another adventure to partake in.

Thai’s sure do love their festivals. I don’t know if there has been a weekend yet where some sort of festival wasn’t going on, and so Sunday evening just happened to be Loy Kratong. Loy Kratong is a very big festival in Thailand where you put a kratong (a small float that is ornately decorated and has a candle on top) in some body of water, usually a river.  I am not exactly sure of all the meaning behind the kratongs but it has to do with something about praying to the river gods.

Me, Pii Yu (my pii sao/ big sister), Pii Don

On Sunday evening, after an amazing two hour nap, my pii chai (big brother/ Pii Don), some students, and I rode the schools bus/truck carrying a giant kratong up to the Loy Kratong festival. The festival was located at the end of a dirt road far from the main road. This was not a place that you would just stumble upon as a tourist. The fact that there were no tourists there at all, just locals, made the whole experience. It was not just some tourist trap. I felt like I was really getting to experience their culture the way it has been for hundreds of years.

As we drove up along the lake, there were cars lining the road on either side. We could see hundreds of kratongs, with their candles lit, already in the water. The seen looked familiar, just like any community festival in America, it had many food stalls lined up, a couple of moon walks for the kids, adults standing around talking to each other, kids running around enjoying little parental supervision, and of coarse a local beauty pageant. Even though the atmosphere was similar, there were many new things going on that were much different than in the states. The food was different… but better, the people looked different, people where putting their kratongs in the lake, people were lighting fire lanterns and releasing them into the sky, and the girls in the beauty pageant had on traditional Thai dresses.  The giant kratong we brought was just a ceremonial kratong. We did not actually put it in the water. We brought it because there was a contest, among the surrounding local schools, for the best kratong. Very similar to our high schools in the states, for example; decorating floats for a town parade. We did not win but it was cool to see all of the kratongs. Its pretty amazing what they can make.

Wang Gra Sae's (my high school) kratong

I loved every second of this festival. This is what I came to Thailand for, to experience a culture at the purest level. None of that commercialized junk or tourist traps. Just local people having fun doing what they have been doing for hundreds of years. There was a real sense of community that reminded me of home. Even if some customs might be exotic or seem strange, and the scenery is different, people are people no matter where you are in the world. People will always get together with close family and friends to celebrate together as a community. It made me a little home sick thinking about all of the family holidays, family and friends’ bday parties, homecomings/ class reunions… and so on that I would be missing. So yes I do get a little home sick.

Zack (WT volunteer), ? haha, me

I was hoping to blend in a little bit and so I had on my traditional Thai shirt, but that didn’t fool anyone for a second. Everyone would stop and stare (staring is perfectly acceptable in Thai culture and nothing I am not used to already) because they were wondering why a farong was there. Children were fascinated by a farong lighting a kratong. When I got to light my kratong, I imitated the ritual that Mr. Cho Chan did, said a prayer, and put the kratong in the river. It was a very cool experience that made me feel more connected with the culture.

My kratong 

my kratong on the left, sorry bad photo. there are hundreds more lit just out of view

As the night went on, the beauty pageant became the main focus. It was cool to see all the traditional Thai dresses but, it was still just a boring beauty pageant. And being a Thai beauty pageant, they have to make it drag on and on and on. The worst part was that we had to take the giant kratong home and we could not take it until the damn pageant was over.

Just before midnight the final winner was announced and we were finally able to leave. We went home, and went to bed thus ending my third and final adventure for the weekend.  It was a long weekend, but it was worth it in the end because I got to see so much of the Thai culture that I came here to see. I am fascinated by it all and so I can’t wait for my next adventure.

Mai pen rai

Muskrat

Disclaimer: The views in this blog are solely mine and not WorldTeach’s