Thailand Part 3

The last part of my vacation in Thailand was wrapped up on the beautiful and tourist-y Phi Phi Islands. Nothing short of a commercialized land mass in the middle of the ocean the Phi Phis were well lined with hotels and restaurants, taking away from their natural beauty. The islands are also pronounced “Pee Pee” so you can imagine the countless jokes that we made up and encountered while visiting. One such crack up we had was when we saw a sign to the bathroom that said “This way to Pee Pee Island.”

After taking an hour long ferry ride from Phuket Island to the Phi Phis we landed on the main island in the chain and signed up for a snorkel tour. The tour would take us to various locations and Monkey Beach. Monkey Beach is a small island inhabited by spider monkeys that are just as curious as the tourists who visit them.

As you can see from the pictures the Phi Phi Islands were a tropical paradise and a great way to end such a vacation. I did not have much to write about from this part of the trip but instead attached a few pictures. I did, however, summarize my trip and experience below:

Sawasdee was the first word I learned how to say in Thai. Come to think of it, ni hao was also the first word I learned in Chinese. I wonder if hello was the first word I said in English.

It seems when learning a new language the first three phrases anyone learns are hello, good bye, and thank you. In my case, during my visit to Thailand those were the only three words I learned.

Thailand was my temporary host culture for one week. For our spring break last week I decided to take a trip to Bangkok and Phuket Island. I did not really have much of an interest in Thailand before I visited nor did I do the proper research about their culture. All I wanted to do was see another country in Southeast Asia and how their customs differed from China’s. So I basically looked at some flights and Beijing to Bangkok was the cheapest, so I booked a round trip and planned my visit to Thailand. I sought out differences in culture and that is what I found.

Saying hello to Thailand was quite the experience. I got off of my plane and stepped into the first cab I could find. I sat down and saw a steering wheel in front of me. Finding this odd I justified it by thinking it was a student driver car. The taxi cab driver looked at me funny and went around to the other side and said, “OK, so you drive.” I did not realize that in Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road! I laughed and apologized and got in on the “proper” side. To my surprise this was the most English I would hear in Thailand. In a land of such a strange and isolated language I was amazed how little English was spoken. I assumed because Thailand was a tourist destination English would be almost as prevalent as their native tongue, but I was dead wrong.

This trip turned out to be much more frustrating than I bargained for. I was not culture shocked by the fact that Thailand was so different from America, but rather that it was so different from China. There is a lack of cleanliness in the cities and a far greater number of people trying to rip you off. It seems like crime is more common and rules are, at times, nonexistent...which brings me to Songkran, the Thai New Year festival.

In Thai years it is the year 2554. Songkran celebrates the coming of the New Year by staging a three day water fight throughout Thailand. Nothing says “surprise!” like a water gun to the face the second you step out of the cab. I went for the next three days being wet, but I was thankful for the 90 degree weather so the wetness was refreshing. Sadly, in Bangkok alone there were 160 deaths and over 1,700 injuries due to traffic accidents caused by the holiday. This is where the lack of rules is apparent.

After a week of madness in Thailand I was more than ready to return back to familiarity. I never thought I would call China a “familiar” place but it was so nice get back to a country where I can speak the native tongue. In Thai, “good bye” is also sawasdee. I was pretty quick to say sawasdee to Thailand and ni hao to China.

The Chinese phrase for “good bye” is zai jian which translates to “again see.” I cannot really say zai jian to Thasiland because I never really plan on going back, but when I leave China at the end of May zai jian will carry its full meaning.



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Jordan J. Foley
傅力波

Thailand Part 2

After a few days in Bangkok it was time to hit the beach.

We arrived in Phuket early Tuesday morning and went straight to the beach. After enough city landscape in Bangkok it was nice to see the beaches of Phuket Island. The air was remarkably cleaner and the water was warmer than bath water. Each day the temperature was in the high 80’s and there was not a single day of rain. The previous week parts of Thailand experienced massive flooding, and some are still damaged by the excessive rains, which is part of the reason we needed to fly to Phuket instead of taking a train. After we got settled in Owen’s friend’s house we planned a tourist-y day. The next day we would go to the Phuket Zoo and then visit the port district which features the famous Sino-Portuguese architecture only know to that area.

The zoo was pretty hands on compared to other zoos I have been to. I mean that there seemed to be a lack of safety and little protective barrier between the animals and the people. We saw some interesting animals, but the coolest part of the zoo was the snake show. The snake handlers performed fearless tasks and would parade poisonous cobras around the audience. There was also a neat part of the performance when a guy was dodging the bites of a boa constrictor. After the zoo we went to the port district and viewed some of the architecture. The buildings had a Chinese feel, but with Western influence. The windows and doors had a feeling of old Ming and Qing construction, but the arches and balconies were distinctly Western. I took pictures of some of the buildings I liked the most. After a full day of exploring we returned home and took a nap on the beach before we would go out to dinner and then to a local bar. 

Dinner was delicious as usual and was a 129 Baht (~5 dollars) all you can eat buffet of fresh Thai seafood. After eating until we were stuffed we walked to a small bar street with beachside bars and hammocks. We sat down and had some of the local Thai beers like Singha and Chang. Next to us was a Belgium guy who started a conversation. It was mostly small talk until he asked us if we knew what tomorrow was. We said, “Wednesday?” knowing it was probably the wrong answer. He said, “No, tomorrow is the start of Songkran!” I had to ask what this was and he replied, “Songkran will be the craziest time of your life. The whole country literally turns into 10 year-olds for three days. The holiday was originally a welcoming of the new year, and, according to the Thai calendar, it is year 2554. The Thai people pay their respects to elders and bring food to monks and monasteries and all that…” I interrupted, “That does not sound too exciting, man.” He replied frankly, “F***ing wait, I’m not done. Now the tradition is to just play in the water for three straight days, and I mean have water gun fights, soak people with buckets, and smear this white paint all over everyone’s faces. I don’t understand it at all, but it is the best time I have ever had in my life. This country goes crazy for three days and you will too, just wait and see.” We still were skeptical and unsure about Songkran, but we did not really care, we planned to hit Rao Wai Beach the next day and lay out. As we walked out of the bar at half past midnight a truck came flying by the street and three people in the back of the lorry soaked us with supersoakers. That was only a small taste of the battle to ensue…

The wake-up call the night before prepared us for Songkran, and we knew we needed guns of our own. We bought two supersoakers and asked a taxi driver to take us into Rao Wai where we heard things were going crazy. It was like being dropped off in the center of a full scale revolution. There was anarchy and chaos with water guns. The taxi driver made us get out quickly to avoid getting his interior getting wet and we immediately loaded our guns with water and began blasting away. There were giant black vats of water spaced every block. These were refill stations and the government actually ships these in for the people. In addition to the vats, each bar and restaurant will have giant vats of water to attract thirsty Songkran patrons. It was like I was 10 again and the fire hydrant was turned on at the end of the street. It was the largest scale water gun battle I have ever seen! Over 20,000 people were packed on this little street just spraying each other all day. The music was blasting and cars were driving by throwing buckets at those on foot…like I said it was anarchy. I had my camera for some of the time, but the water was just too much for it and it got destroyed, so I was only able to take a few pictures.

After getting a feel for the battle we started planning our own operations. We targeted smokers and those eating. When we saw a smoker we would snipe his/her cigarette and yell, “NO SMOKING!” Because of the nature of the holiday everyone just laughed and lit another one…which we would promptly put out which would result in less of a smile, but still humorous nonetheless. After a few hours of walking up and down the beach street smokers would recognize us and hide when they saw us come by. One guy actually put out his cigarette when he saw us coming to avoid getting wet!

We stayed at the beach for over 8 hours playing water guns and at the end of the day passed out back at home. It was a day of swimming, running, and shooting all in fun. It has been so hard for me to describe the craziness that was Songkran, but you can imagine two more days of such shenanigans that was what it was. This was now the third new year celebration I have been a part of this semester. First was the real new year then the Chinese New Year and then Songkran. I will have to see if any other culture is celebrating its new year before I head back to America.

The second part of the week in Phuket we planned to visit the beautiful Phi Phi Islands…


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Jordan J. Foley
傅力波

 

Thailand Part 1

After six weeks of class spring break was much welcomed.  I am now at the half way point in the semester and a recharge in a country other than China was exactly what I needed.  Spring break in the Kingdom of Thailand is not the ordinary for me, but since I was in the area I thought I would stop by.  If you are surprised by the full name of Thailand including Kingdom then you are not alone.   I too was astonished to find out Thailand had a king, but that was only the first of many new things I found out about this oddly shaped country in Southeast Asia.

I went on this trip with my friend Owen who I met during the January semester in Beijing.  We both had an interest in seeing Southeast Asia so Thailand was our decision for a few reasons.  One was because the flights from China to Bangkok are so cheap and two is the fact that Owen’s friend lives in Phuket, so we could stay with him for a few days.  Owen and I also decided on getting ridiculous hair cuts for our spring break.  He settled on a mullet as you can see from the picture and I bleached my hair...which I will be shaving before I come home so no worries anyone. 

Owen is currently in Shanghai and we planned on meeting in Bangkok at the hotel we booked called Sawasdee.  Sawasdee is also how you say “hello” in Thai.  One of the three Thai words I learned in a week.  I did not really even bother learning some Thai before my trip because I thought that most of the people could speak English due to the fact that Thailand was such a tourist destination.   I was wrong…another surprise.  There was little English spoken and those that did pretended not to so they could try to exploit money for cab fare and tourist trips. 

When leaving the airport for the hotel I jumped into a cab in the line up outside.  The driver was out of the car but I just went to the passenger side and threw my bags in.  To my surprise a steering wheel was right in front of me.  Not missing a beat, I thought to myself, “Oh, this must be a student driver car.”  The driver knocked on the window and gave me a confused expression.   In Thailand they drive on the opposite side of the road.  I did not know this prior to coming so once again I was culture shocked.  My first cab ride from the airport was 400 baht, but later I found out a legitimate cab ride to the airport from my hotel was only 190 baht.   I know I usually complain about people in China ripping me off, but Thailand was ridiculous.  I was overcharged for nearly everything I did, which strengthens my newly discovered theory of when going on vacation estimate how much the whole trip will cost you and then multiply it by 2.5 and that will be closer to the approximate cost...but still lower.

We spent two days in Bangkok before flying down to Phuket Island.  Owen and I took tours to the Bangkok markets where many cheap clothing items were sold.  This set up was similar to the Silk Market in Beijing except bargaining was nonexistent.  A fundamental difference between Thai vendors and Chinese vendors is their unwillingness to go lower on prices.  The price was set and if you did not like it then you could walk, whereas in China they will come running after you and grab your arm to get you to come back and buy their product.   The Thai people could not care less if you walked away.  I even tried bargaining for 5 baht, which is approximately twenty cents, and they would not budge.  I bought some shirts and spices, but other than that Bangkok market shopping was not as fun as it is in China. 

The next part of the tour was a visit to one of the King’s Palaces.  You can see the beautiful architecture and high roofs from the picture.  Along with a trip to the palace we got to see the river slums of Bangkok from a longboat.  It was a nice social contrast that only a tourist could appreciate, but anyone living in the conditions would despise.  Despite the poverty and problems in Bangkok I realized that people absolutely love the king.   They almost worship him as a god, which adds to their communal sense of religion and Buddhist ideals.  Thailand is a very religious country and makes sure to venerate its gods by practicing traditional Buddhist customs such as hanging flowers over doorways and burning incense.

Another traditional part of Thailand is its delicious food.  The most common dish served in America is pad thai which is fried rice noodles covered with scallions, peanuts, and shrimp.  Not to disappoint, Thailand really made its famous dish right!  I took a picture for some visualization but I wish I would have had my camera when the chef cooked the dish in front of me.  I ordered the shrimp pad thai or like every menu translation in Thailand has, “Pad Thai with the Shrimps.”   At the restaurant we got to pick our live shrimp with tongs and stun them in ice water.  After a minute the chef would take them from the ice water and cook them into the noodles.  It was indescribably delicious.  Thailand also has the best fried chicken I have ever had.  They fry the pieces in a small frier attached to their street carts and serve legs, breasts, and basically every part of the chicken including claws to you right there, piping hot!   See picture for deliciousness.

After a few days in Bangkok it was time to hit the beach…

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Jordan J. Foley

傅力波

Leave to Thailand

I will be in Thailand for the week.  I start out in Bangkok and then travel down to Phuket and Phi Phi Island for some snorkeling and time at the beach.

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Jordan J. Foley

傅力波

Adapting

I have been adapting and becoming a six month citizen rather than just an exchange student. I believe this is a key aspect of cultural immersion, and I wish I could have been able to fully realize the benefits of such a transition earlier. It is very easy to live in your dorm, eat at close by establishment, and hide from the culture as long as you have your laptop and some DVDs. But why would anyone want to do this during such a great opportunity?

Frugality has never been my forte and when it comes to money I still spend like a teenager, but this trip has made me much more aware of the value of money when living on my own. For example, I have stopped just settling on going to restaurants and started grocery shopping and making my own food. I know it does not seem like much of a step to some of those who are more mature, but for me someone making my food has always been a part of my life. I am finding the cheapest prices at stores and looking for the freshest food. It is a growing up experience that I am not able to have at the Academy. I also have a bike that I ride around to get to places that are close. I no longer take taxis or subways and because I know the area so well now I am able to take the bike lanes to where I need to go. It is truly a funny sight to see when I am biking alongside a bunch of Chinese people heading to work and I head to the other campus for class.

I have also continued to contribute to the community and I teach English to kindergarteners at a local school. This particular school employs (I don’t get paid) people like myself with no teaching background, because it is a school for children of migrant workers. Due to the fact that these children and their parents are not Beijing residents they cannot attend Beijing schools. The school set up for them consists of makeshift classes and have little to no funding. I teach the kindergarten level because the other teachers speak no Chinese and those that do are not a fluent as I am. My Chinese is probably the best out of all the teachers at the school, so I was assigned the youngest class of children.

In addition to being a student, citizen, cook, teacher, and midshipman, I now consider myself a Beijing-er. I assigned this title to myself because I truly feel my culture shock has disappeared forever. I admit the first few months were filled with frustration, but now I am truly assimilating into the Beijing culture. I can have long conversations with taxi drivers, order dishes without looking at a menu, drink Chinese rice liquor like a champ, and I am now able to used the swear words in my sentences quite fluently when I am in company that allows for it. I know it seems vulgar, but I feel that a part of assimilating and making foreign friends is talking as they do. There have been nights when I go out with only Chinese speakers and spend five hours at a bar without speaking a word of English. Actually, I have a rough time recalling if conversations were held in English or Chinese anymore. I feel like I am able to get out or at least say whatever I want to say in Chinese and it is not a huge deal to speak it anymore. Listening is still difficult, but I feel like I am getting there.

So what did I just tell you in this entry? Basically, I admitted I curse like a Chinese construction worker and live like I am a Chinese citizen, but that is not all. This entry was to show that no one should have to be confined to being just a foreign exchange student. No one should be confined to the words used in text books or the friends in the dorm. When abroad go out and make real friends from the city, use words the young kids our age say, go on adventures, buy a bike, and live like a citizen! Culture shock is inevitable but it is not indefinite. Right now I fear the culture shock of returning to the Academy more than anything because I have become so accustomed to this lifestyle.



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Jordan J. Foley

傅力波

Wang Fu Jing Street

I finally visited the notorious Wang Fu Jing Street in central Beijing. A famous shopping district consisting of Zara, D&G, Polo, and many more designer shops lined along a high pedestrian traffic plaza make up what is referred to as the “Shops at WFJ.” If you recall the Jasmine Revolution a few months ago, this was the place that the Twitter post said to meet. WFJ is not only heavily traveled it is heavily traveled by foreigners making it a great place to get the word out about democratic reform. I am being careful not to make this post into a politically charged rant, so I would rather like to change the subject and talk about deer testicles.

Yes, deer testicles. The one thing I did not mention about WFJ and the reason why I referred to it as “notorious” is the snack street that is located on the side of the shopping district. I took many pictures of the odd food served down this snack shop lined street and some of the places cooked delicious food like scorpions, grubs, and starfish…all on a stick. A short list of some of the weirdest cuisine I saw on WFJ sticks were sea urchin, whole baby quails, snakes, and, yes, deer balls! If you are wondering to yourself what these looked like just skim through my pictures and see if you can pick out what is what. If you are also wondering if I ate anything just let me tell you this, it was not the sheer strangeness that turned me off. I have tried some very weird dishes while I have been in China, exempli gratia duck tongue. The thing that actually turned me off was the smell. Not the smell of deer balls on a stick, but the smell of deer balls on a stick that might have gone bad…three days ago. I have been to fish and meat markets and I know the smell of raw food, but this was the smell of food that has turned…violently. If there is a revolution on Wangfujing Street that revolution is coming from all the food on Snack Street that has gone bad and “turned,” metaphorically of course. Call me a wimp for not trying if you will, but the last thing I need is to see scorpion coming back up again. I am generally cautious about Chinese food, and I am not about to be eating some pig kidney on a stick that went bad last Friday.

WFJ is definitely a tourist trap, but it has some pretty delicious treats as well. I had a whole coconut to drink while I ate fried taro flavored ice cream and grilled corn on the cob. It is almost like eating carnival food in the States. The pictures of WFJ do not really do it justice, because I really feel like in order to actually have the full experience you need to smell it too. One second you can smell delicious dumplings being made and the next you are hit with a whiff of squid that has had the pleasure of sitting out in the Beijing Spring heat for six hours.

Tourist trap or not, WFJ is a must see in Beijing and a great place to play a game of who can eat the grossest stuff without throwing up. First prize: deer testicles on a stick!



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Jordan J. Foley傅力波

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