The national day of la Suecia

Look! A swedish boomerang!

First impressions

This is what I first saw that morning in late march when I stuck my head outside.

Nong Khai was flat, Xalapa was among other things not.

Quiztime!

Q: I don't feel so good. Why?

a) Because I missed Shakira live in Mexico City.

b) Because I have a habit of eating streetfood from places with questionable hygenical standards.



Winner gets a Taco. A clean one.

¿Dónde estoy?

The first couple of days I felt like I was in some kind of twilight zone. No, tuk-tuks, no rice, no buddhist temples and no Singhas. Instead, taxis, tortillas and Coronas. Crazy traffic was however one thing that didn't change just because the continents did. When planning this little escape from Suecia-07 trip, I'd first decided to go to Tijuana. After having discussed it with the T2T staff in Mexico and a former volunteer, I changed my mind as late as a couple of weeks before leaving Thailand and decided on Xalapa instead. This meant a lot less time to mentally prepare for the new place (don't know if that mattered though) and I was pretty confused in the beginning. The lack of sleep and fast paste of my last few weeks in Nong Khai surely contributed to that feeling, and I started my time in Mexico sleeping up to 15 hours a day and having problems constructing more advanced thoughts than "I'm hungry", "Where am I?" "What day is it?". Nonetheless, I had been given a schedule for my teaching and other activities and just as in Thailand it started right away with some three hours of "teaching training" and preparations for my projects that took place not even 12 hours after I'd arrived in Xalapa.

Poor traveling me

I was pretty much sick and tired of traveling as soon as I got off the tuk-tuk 15 min after I got on it. Unfortunately it didn't bring me all the way to Mexico, instead I had a considerable amount of time in planes, airports and buses ahead of me.

First stop, Udon Thani Airport, where I was informed that my bags were very much overweight (which they weren't), and therefore a pretty large sum of baht were requested of me if I wanted my bags (or myself) on that plane. I didn't make sense at all for a number of reasons, but I had no intent trying to bargain or argue with them. So I complied with their demands, and payed while giving them the evil eye which I'm sure terrified them and helped matters a great deal.

I had another pleasant surprise and another battle with the airport staff waiting for me in Bangkok, but this time they actually had good reasons for giving me a hard time. It seems that nowadays in the war on terror age we live in, more than ever are great measures taken in order to keep track of people traveling by plane. No surprise there, but the fact that showing up with a bunch of one-way tickets instead of a carefully plotted travel-itinerary could, and would, bring me so much problems I had no idea of. They weren't really satisfied with me not being able to show a valid return ticket from Mexico to Sweden, and they certainly didn't seem to like the fact that I had planned a visit to the United States prior to my return back home. My only weapon in this fight were my sad puppy-eyes and constant reassurance that I had no shady intentions whatsoever. After having "consulted" with some people unknown to me, and made some "phonecalls" they finally decided that I could get on the plane.

Next stop, Seoul, South Korea, where I spent the first 5 of my 10 hours there asleep on a very comfortable bench I found in the transit hall.
After that it was time to find a computer and a printer, since I had to print out my own bording pass for the flight from Los Angeles to Guadalajara and then to Mexico City. Failing to do so would result in me not being granted permission to enter the United States for my transfer to Mexico I had been told in Bangkok. No printers worked anywhere in Nong Khai, therefore I hadn't been able to get this done before I left. My first plan was to take care of it in Bangkok, but since explaining my travel route took up most of my time there, I had no choice but to do it in Seoul. A super modern airport with everything one could ever expect, an abundance of luxury and hi-tech gadgets everywhere, but no f*****g printers! I now know Seoul International Airport better then the architect who designed it, because of all the running around I had to do. I finally hit jackpot and found a printer, without ink. The girl in charge of the computer was asleep next to it, but there were no time for politeness so I abruptly woke her up and explained that she simply HAD to get that thing working, which she did.

No more unpleasant adventures but of course the plane was a little bit late, so I think I set a new LAX record in covering a lot of distance in a very short amount of time. The security controls were endless, and took forever, which I had expected. Actually worse than a couple of months after 9/11 at JFK in New York. With no shoes on, half of my stuff in my hands instead of in my bag I reached the gate approximately four minutes before it closed and took off heading for Mexico.

Changed planes in Guadalajara, bought a coke, and then got on the flight to Mexico City. Upon arrival I took a taxi to the busstation and after that I had a 4-5 hour busride before I arrived in Xalapa around three in the morning, somewhat confused and jetlagged.

Naranja

It's more fun to play with colors than to actually write here.

Thailand Days Re-Revisited

So...the last two weeks were fun, although exhausting. Schools were closed for summer holidays or something, so the week before the Chiang Mai trip I'd been assigned to teach the teachers at my school together with 3 other volunteers. Kind of a different feeling all of a sudden having 20-something teachers and other faculty members in front of you in the classroom. At first I was under the impression that we were only supposed to teach the english teachers and perhaps a few more, but the whole thing seemed to have been pretty popular with the staff, hence the big attendance. If the students were shy, quiet and unwilling to speak their minds, the opposite can be said about the teachers. Especially the assistant director, also known as "crazy coconut lady" due to the fact that you would always end up with more "burned coconuts" than you could carry whenever she would drive you anywhere. She had a way of "taking over the class" when given the opportunity, so you had to make sure there wasn't any questions about who's boss! Well, what's thirty years of teaching compared to 6 weeks of volunteer work anyway, huh? Luckily, Lacy had just the right kind of booming teacher voice needed to get the job done, giving the rest of us the chance to sit back and enjoy the coffee and cookies we were always served during class, best cookies ever...mmm. On my last day they arranged a day trip for all of us, and some students too, including a forest temple, an archaeological site and...a winery. Not what you expect on a fieldtrip with a bunch of teachers and students, but lots of fun. Especially since they all bought a few bottles for the songthaew ride back home which were passed around while the teachers entertained us with something that was apparently "bad songs". I couldn't have gotten a better ending to my teaching experience in Thailand and I really enjoyed the school and all the people there.


As for the rest of the time, new volunteers kept coming, old ones leaving, and after a while one had gotten sort of numb to all the new faces, names and people to get to know. Goodbye parties were mixed with the introduction to the intricacy of Nong Khais nightlife, both held at Surreal and Bar-Nana and with the newly established coffee-ritual in class every morning, there was always one or two more beers at night. New friends were made, both thai and farang, and old ones were said goodbye to. There was always something going on at night. During my last two weeks the downtown area was occupied by the annual Nong Khai Fair, with everything found at the regular markets multiplied by 100, as well as rides, games, exhibitions and live music.
Trying to make the most of my final weeks in Thailand, I slept on average 3-5 hours a night between teaching, running back and forth from the Fair, and the rest of the time trying to spend as much time as possible with the people I probably won't be seeing again anytime soon. Don't know how it worked out, but I guess when you're having fun anything works even though some days are a bit sketchy. I've got the days a little bit mixed up, but I clearly (well...) remember a BBQ some days before I left.
On my very last night Mark had arranged a buffet and some special cocktails at Surreal and as always, a great time and then off to Bar-Nana. The night ended not so early in the morning in the hammocks at Meechai Dorm. Probably my best night in Nong Khai and the perfect ending of my time there.
Of course I hadn't packed at all and and the next morning, with a brain not working on full speed I surrendered to the task of locating all my stuff and trying to squeeze them down into my bags about two hours before I had to leave for the airport. Don't know how I managed not to forget half of my stuff and especially not how I got to the airport on time. With my bags packed, I eventually succeeded in hauling what must have been the slowest tuk-tuk in Thailand, and after some quick goodbyes I left my friends at Meechai Dorm in a cloud of dust traveling at the speed of a lawnmower.




Bye bye Thailand, thanks for everything.