The beach...continued

On Tuesday morning, my friend Linda went back to Bangkok to be part of the real world again and to get some work done. I continued lounging, napping, and reading. My student, Pat, arrived the same morning with her mother who had come to discuss the hotel business with the family. Wednesday during breakfast they invited me to go out on a dolphin watching expedition. We waded out into the aquamarine water and climbed into a wooden boat that had a huge motor on the end of it. The ocean air, the weathered boatmen, the sun--all of it reminded me of my dear friend Mickey and I found myself wishing he could be there with me to enjoy it. Sigh. Pat's uncle handed me a sun hat (I had neglected to pack my big floppy hat so I had to sport the baseball cap) along with the snazzy life vest. I watched Pat put on her life vest like she was already drowning and I asked her if she could swim. She said she could but not well.

On our trek, we saw about five dolphins. They weren't exactly jumping out of the water the way you see at Sea World, more like skimming the surface with their backsides. I saw squid floating in the water and schools of shrimp jumping on top of the waves along with hundreds of other little fish flying through the air. Actually, a couple dozen of them flew right into the boat. They were small, no longer than three inches each, but there were so many of them it was like it was raining fish for a few moments. They floundered on the floor of the boat and we scooped them out and into the water, laughing the whole time.

Before we had gone out on the boat, Pat's family ordered lunch for us so when we made it back to the shore, a feast was waiting for us. Neptune's bounty was brought out to us several dishes at a time. It is pretty common in Asia for everyone to eat family style. This is bad juju for the picky eater but it allows me to try all sorts of entrees I would never order. I was a little nervous because I have only recently expanded my diet to include seafood other than hush puppies. I can do shrimp (although I prefer it already peeled), I like crab (but I usually buy it already picked for cheesy crab dips), and I only eat fish that I know the name of. This was going to be a challenge. Laid out before me was a crab curry with glass noodles (whole crabs), fish head soup (don't know what kind of fish), the biggest grilled shrimp I have ever seen (with the head and eyes still on), a fried fish in a pepper honey sauce (more fish eyes), a salad with fried shrimp and cuttlefish tossed in a tasty hot hot hot lime pepper dressing, and fried battered squid. I tried everything, even the fish head soup which was...different. I loved the salad although it 'bout near set my mouth on fire. The part that amazed me most was that all the seafood came right out of that glittering body of water a few paces off to my right. I don't think I had to eat for the rest of the day.

Now, I don't want you to think that my vacation was perfect in every way. It almost was, but there were a couple of creatures that marred the experience. Just a tad. If you don't know already, there are lizards everywhere in Thailand. I see them at school all the time--running and scurrying or stuck to the walls, waiting. I understand that lizards are a part of nature and they have their place. But I don't think that place should be in in my hotel room or anywhere near my canopy bed. I never saw a lizard in my room but I saw evidence of them in more places than I would like. And I heard them. Often. Geckos are loud little buggers. In the middle of the night I would be awakened by the loud sound of "gecko gecko gecko gecko gecko." Ugh.

The other creature was a little more traumatizing. Remember the Brady Bunch episode when one of the Brady boys wakes up and there is a tarantula on his chest? I used to not be able to go to sleep if that image even crossed my mind. So, here I am, in my cozy little lizard infested resort, taking a shower, and something large and dark lands on my face. ON MY FACE! My first thought was that it was a clump of hair, the kind you find on your drain after the shower. I don't know if I was thinking that the shower head was spitting up hairballs or what; that was just the first thing that crossed my mind. I casually batted it away and then looked at the floor to see that it was a humongous spider! HUGE! It reminded me of George that used to live in Jessica's bathtub in New Kent County. It was probably five inches in diameter. Paralyzed with fear, nekkid, in the shower with an arachnid that has obviously had a steady diet of miracle grow, I didn't know what to do. Times like this a strapping young man would come in handy. Or a lizard. A Gecko. "Here gecko gecko gecko..."

The beach

I don’t really know much about the Chinese New Year. I know that the Chinese/Taiwanese population wears red. It is the year of the pig. Kids get red envelopes with money in them. And most importantly, I am out of school for a week. Over a week, really. At 3:10pm Thursday afternoon, I was a free woman for ten days. God bless Thailand.

For this respite, I chose to have a genuine rest. A no sightseeing adventure. Fly in, check in, and vegetate. One of my students recommended her family’s resort, Rachakiri, down south on the Kha-nom beach. First question: do I get a discount? Actually, that was the only question after she gave me an affirmative answer. The luxury of a resort and the benefit of a discount—what more can a teacher ask for?

I invited a non-teacher, female friend to join me (a further guarantee that I could rest without being mired in work related conversation). Linda is an expat over here; she ventured over here twelve years ago with her husband’s business and had expected to only be here for two years. How quickly two years becomes five, ten, twelve. Her daughter, Karen, attends VCU and I believe she and Justin are in the same program (though Karen is studying in London this semester and has an internship as a fashion forecaster). It is a small world.

I wish there was more to report, but there isn’t. Kha-nom is a relatively quiet place which is like a mist of refreshingly cool, jasmine scented water on your face after living in Bangkok. Mainly European families and couples vacation here. They are taciturn (unlike their neighbors across the pond) and the femme counterparts don’t give a second thought to going topless. Believe it or not, this is a very UN-Thai thing to do, despite the flourishing flesh trade.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and spent some time at the pool. Sunday morning after breakfast we walked up the beach and took the road back to scope out the local scenery. It couldn’t have been an hour total and my back and shoulders were burnt. Crispy. Red. Infernal. I hadn’t thought to put on sunscreen because we were just going for a short sea shell searching expedition along the sand. (I found four small but unbroken conch shells.) It is two days later and I still haven’t dared go out uncovered.

Don’t worry though; there are plenty of places I can sit and enjoy the shady breeze. I go swimming after the sun goes down. I read during the day, talk with Linda, take naps. We discovered a nearby restaurant/travel place/bungalow rental/internet café called One More Beer, named after a joint in Dallas, Texas. The owner, Boyd Butch, is from Las Vegas and before that Chicago, an interesting guy who seemed starved for conversation with fellow Americans. He took us for a night time tour of the nearby “towns.” Yesterday we had massages at his place. There is a spa at Rachakiri but a massage there is six times as much as what I pay in the city. I had my first oil massage. Holy moly. I thought my first massage here was somewhat…intrusive, but the oil massage is way more intrusive. Maybe because you strip down to your panties and get baby oil slathered all over your body while the lithe little Thai lady straddles you. Once I got over the fact that I was more or less naked on a bed with a woman and a bottle of baby oil, I supremely enjoyed myself.

Linda left this morning; back to the city to do some work. I finished my book yesterday and started a new one today. I’m on a memoir kick. Tender Bar by J.R. Moeringher was AMAZING; read it if you get the chance. Today I started The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I was going to grade a set of papers before I began a new book but I AM on vacation…

It's all Greek to me

Hera and Zeus, the life of the party

Ares, god of war
Athena
A nymph
A Ruben's-version of Aphrodite posed with Posiedon, or is it Dionysos?
Echo, a nymph (her maid stitched up those awesome wings)

Oceanus (those are lobster claws on his head; ingenious)
Eros, a.k.a. Cupid
Hermes, the messenger god
Apollo, god of the sun, standing with a Greek citizen

Thanotos, god of death, making the peace sign; ironic?

Ahtena (check out her cool arrow-carrying case)
Goddessess of Ancient Greece
Hercules--check out his six pack
Hades, god of the underworld, looking more like the grim reaper

For the first time in my teaching career, I had the opportunity to teach Greek mythology. Boy, did I learn a lot. I didn’t know that Aphrodite was born of sea foam and the cut up body parts of some man thrown in the ocean. Or that Athena was born from the cracked open head of Zeus. Such violence and chaos; maybe that’s why my seventh graders loved it so much.

In order to impress upon them the legacy of the Greeks, we had a Greek Festival complete with the gods, goddesses, Olympic games, and Greek food (well, kind of). The students brought the food which means we had Kraft-like singles for cheese; apparently this is the only cheese my students are familiar with. While shopping, they had looked at the cheese I suggested (cheddar namely) and they all said the same thing—cheese is expensive! I ended up bringing some cheddar and brie (I couldn’t spring feta on them at such a tender age) and by day’s end, it was all gone. As I was slicing it up, they asked me what it was. I do love educating children about CHEESE! I imagine the rest of their lives they will have to think of their lives in two parts—before cheese and after cheese.

PS-I must thank Mr. Massey and Ms. Robinson for having a medieval banquet when I was in the 6th grade. Without that, I don’t know if I would have thought of doing something like this.

A birthday picture

Way back in December, my students threw a birthday party for me. This is a picture from the party, back when I had hair. Sigh.