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.

Regreso a Xalapa

It turned out to be more like 22-23 hours on the bus, most of which were endured listening to the deafening snoring of one of my fellow passengers. The beaches however, were nice...

Vamos a la playa

No updates for a while, I'm off to Playa del Carmen tomorrow. Around 18 hours on the bus, but still definitely worth it. Back in about a week.

Back on track

OK, so about two weeks prior to my departure we took a weekend and a few days off to explore Chiang Mai. Being the second biggest city in the country it has a lot to offer, but still nothing in size compared to Bangkok. It's usually said that Chiang Mai has all the good stuff that one can find in Bangkok, but none of the bad. Traffic is a lot better, it's obviously less crowded which makes it easier to get around, but the best part was the cooler and more pleasant climate. Nice and warm, but without the humidity found elsewhere in Thailand.

The only thing we had planned was a jungle tour that started the next day, so upon arrival after a freezing 12 hour busride from Nong Khai we were happy just walking around in the sun checking out what the city had to offer. We ended up at the Chiang Mai Zoo, which was pretty cool. They had pretty much all you could expect from a Zoo and my personal favorite were the tigers. Not just normal ones but the black and white (forgot the name...zebra-style?) tigers. I kept running back and forth between the tigers and the leopards like an excited five-year old trying to get some decent pictures while my fellow travelers became increasingly annoyed and wanted to check out the elephants. All the girls seemed to like elephants better for some reason. We compromised and decided to pay a visit to the Pandas. Not too exciting, they just sit there and eat, but not too bad either.

At night we wanted to check out Chiang Mai's nightlife, but all we could find around where we lived were the kind of shabby bars with young thaigirls and old western men you really don't want to go to. After a while we stumbled upon a club that looked really cool, only one problem though, no foreigners allowed. Luckily, it seems to be an universal rule that rules in bars seldom apply when applied on girls. Bouncers can always be persuaded and it helps to have a thaiguy magnet in the shape of a dutch girl with you. Five minutes later we slipped passed the line and spent the rest of the night partying with the locals. It saved the night and we had lots of fun.

The next day it was time for the jungle tour, which started out with some elephant riding. I thought they would just carry us around on a plain field for a while, but instead we went on some really steep paths which made you wonder exactly how much trouble you'd be in if the elephant slipped, sprained a leg or whatever. Being really nice guys, Hampus and I also made Yvette sit on the elephants head with those big ears as the only thing to hold on to, brave girl. She did fine though, and after we were done with that, we started some five hours of trekking along the side of a mountain that would eventually take us to the place we would spend the night at.

My camera ran out of batteries just as the trekking begun, so I unfortunately just have one picture of the jungle, and none of the hilltribe village we spent the night in, or the things we did the next day. The village was very nice, and we had a great time with good food, some local performances and whatever they call the moonshine they served us in small hand-carved mugs. Feeling a bit too brave, we also agreed to try some local cuisine made up of...raw meat drenched in the spiciest sauce I've ever tasted. I won't try it again.

More trekking followed the next day, and on the way to the white-water and bamboo rafting we met a crazy danish couple who accompanied us for the rest of the day. We stopped and swam in a really beautiful waterfall, much nicer than the one on the road to Chiang Khan. Again, too bad I don't have any pictures of that. The white-water rafting was fun, but could have been better if it hadn't been so dry. High season for any kind of activities on the river is the rainy season of course, and since we were there in the warm season there wasn't much water in the river. At lunch in a little hut next to the jungle, the danish guy all of a sudden requested to sing karaoke(?!), much to the locals delight. Just a little hut, looked like a toolshed, no running water, some basic stuff for cooking....and a super-modern karaoke machine. Anyway, the rest of us sat there confused out in the middle of nowhere while this guy had us endure his interpretations of various songs until our guide declared that if we wanted to make it back in time, we (he) had to get going. Some nice, peaceful bamboo-rafting later we headed back to Chiang Mai and got ready for another night out.

The girls had decided to get tattoos. It's a bit of a cliché to get tattoos in Thailand, I know, and so did they, but nevertheless they were determined to get it done that night. We found a place that seemed professional enough and while the girls got more and more anxious, I got more and more relaxed drinking beer, looking through the various photos of the tattoo-artists work, contemplating whether I'd looked good or not with a giant "Thailand 4-ever" tattoo on my back...

After the girls were done we celebrated by playing a few games of pool where we all got our butts kicked by some local guy, had some cocktails and later moved on to this huge club we'd heard about the other day by some of the people we had met at the "no foreigners place". Entrance was not cash, but a bottle of SangSom whiskey in true thai style, and the place was indeed huge, but of course...no real dancefloor. There the people would not only dance by their table, but also on them or wherever there was an empty spot. Crazy but fun.
We did some temple sightseeing on our last day and of course checked out the markets of Chiang Mai. The temple we went to was Wat Doi Suthep, definitely worth a visit and the climb up the stairs leading up to the temple. Not much more to say, another 12 hour busride took us back to Nong Khai, but this time the A/C wasn't on full power all the way which made it a lot nicer than on the way there.

Köttfärslimpa & linguistic patriotism

Once upon a time, in Spain, I watched Meatloaf being interviewed on TV. His name was translated into Cache Carne. Wonderful.

Having said that, does anyone know what Smashing Pumpkins are called here in Mexico?

-Puré de calabaza . I'm serious.

Chiang Mai

Trying to remember...

Jaha.

Eftersom att Nils har outat mig kanner jag att jag plotsligt maste borja ta detta lite mer seriost. Eller ocksa inte...

Nightlife

If sitting down, having a beer and a nice conversation at Surreal didn't meet you expectations of a "night out", there was always the option of going to Bar-Nana. Bars and nightclubs usually have stupid sounding names kind of like racehorses in Sweden do, but Bar-Nana? Most likely made up by some humorous thai person very aware of most thais problem with the R-sound, and therefore the name . Bah-Nana, Baahh-Naana. It took me a while to figure out the actual name of the place, and it made me stop my pronunciation exercises with the locals. "No, it's called banana, the fruit you know?!" Anyway, it was a nightclub. Where you not only could, but were supposed to bring your own alcohol, except beer. They had no license to sell anything stronger I guess, so instead they would provide you with anything you would like your beverage of choice to be mixed with. Let's say you're in the mood for Gin & Tonic. You bring the Gin and they bring you Tonic. We didn't care for that fancy western stuff and stuck to SangSom thai whiskey which I'm sure.....must have been the same as what we used to fill up our scooters with. It looks, smells, tastes(?) and cost about the same as that stuff. Just a different label.

Nightclubs in other countries have this thing called a dancefloor, not in Thailand. A DJ? No, coverbands all night long. Occasionally a clown on stage? Yes. People would dance right where they were standing and that's pretty much all you could do since the music was way too loud for any type of conversation. Lots of people dancing by their table and pretty crappy music, that's a night at Bar-Nana (or Hollywood, same same, but different). You either hate it or love it, and some nights I hated it and some nights I loved it. Depends on how much scooterfuel I drank. There was also thaimassages offered in the mens bathroom. Maybe not really offered, you would just feel a pair of hands around your neck as you're washing your hands and before you know it you've had your back and neck cracked and your arms massaged by two other guys. The first time it happened to me I thought someone was trying to strangle me, but you quickly got used to the little guys attacking you as soon as you entered the bathroom. I didn't have any money to tip them at one point, so I went and got some volunteer girls for them to massage, seemed to have been just as good as hard cash.

Surreal

After dinner on my first day in Nong Khai, everyone seemed to be heading in the same direction, this place called Surreal. I had no idea what kind of place it was nor did I understand why people freaked out when they discovered that it was closed that particular day. What's so special about one bar? There were plenty in Nong Khai. I would have the same feeling later though, and to say that Surreal became almost a third home, a third dorm is not an exaggeration.

There were a lot of bars along the Mekong but most would have the same crowd and atmosphere, old dirty farangs with young thai women, the kind of things you unfortunately can't really miss if you go to Thailand. Squeezed in between all those places were this little bar with a completely different vibe and no dirty farangs in sight. Run by the married couple Mark & Jane, it felt more like stepping into their livingroom than a bar. Most of the time the crowd would be dominated by people from Travel to Teach, local thai people and friends of Mark & Jane. If you were looking for someone, they would either be at Meechai or Green dorm, or at Surreal.

It became a natural thing to stop by Surreal almost every night either for food or drinks, or just a game of pool and a cup of coffee. Every weekend spent in Nong Khai would be spent at Surreal and every going away party or special occasion would be celebrated there. Great fun, great people, great times. I've always wanted to have my local bar where I knew everyone and where it only took a subtle movement, nod, or eyecontact with the bartender to get "the usual", and in Surreal I found that place. A place where everyone knows my name...

Mark did not resemble Ted Danson in any way though.

Happy birthday

The next weekend I found the balcony outside of my room being decorated with palmtrees, coconuts, carpets and a variety of other things in order to make the place look as good as possible for that nights celebration of the 4 year anniversary of Travel to Teach. About 400 balloons later the place was almost unrecognizable but looked really nice. Too bad we couldn't keep it like that.Later that evening everyone somehow connected to the organization gathered for a night of food, drinks, speeches, traditional thai dancing and music, and of course.....karaoke. A party in Thailand isn't a party unless someone brave steps up to the mic and takes it away. An unexpected phonecall saved me from having to give my own interpretation of ABBAs "Dancing Queen". Nevertheless, It was a great night that ended around 5am with some cigars on the balcony under the full moon.

Roadtrip

Back in Nong Khai, suffering from a slight post-beach depression and missing some of my friends who'd left Thailand at the end of our trip, it was nice to hear about the plans some of the others had of renting scooters and taking a little roadtrip along the Mekong. I didn't have any plans that weekend and hanging out by the pool seemed a little bit...pointless. So, initially it was me and seven others who went looking for a place crazy enough to rent scooters to a bunch of farangs embarking on a 150km drive to the sleepy little town of Chiang Khan. It turned out to be a lot harder than we'd thought, and as we kept walking around to different places asking the same questions, getting the same answers ("no, crazy farang! you only drive in city!"), more and more people dropped out and eventually there were only three of us left. Finally we found a british guy who had just bought a bar down by the Chinese Market and who couldn't care less how far we were going as long as we brought the bikes back in decent shape. Just what we thought too, so on a Saturday around noon, Yvette, Sophia and I took off heading for Chiang Khan and some supposedly beautiful waterfalls along the way. The roads were surprisingly good and traffic wasn't bad either which made the drive a very pleasant experience. Relaxing, with some beautiful scenery along the way and a comfortable temperature as long as you weren't going too slow. The first waterfall wasn't that exciting, since it didn't meet the most important criteria of a waterfall. It had no water. The second one was a major improvement, even though it wasn't exactly the Niagara Falls, we were excited to just see water running, and it still had its charm and felt like a place you could spend a lot of time doing absolutely nothing at. We still had more than a few hours to drive so we wasted no time, except for a quick swim in the water, and got back on the road again. About an hour or so from Chiang Khan in the middle of nowhere, Murphy showed his ugly face and Yvette & Sophia had a flat tire leaving us standing on the side of the road with only a short time till sunset. Since we hadn't seen much traffic for a while and the only passing vehicles were other scooters, we didn't have much hope for a happy ending. Sometimes it feels great to be wrong though, and we were extremely grateful for the help we got from a guy with a pick-up who stopped and gave the girls and the bike a ride while I drove ahead trying to get to Chiang Khan before it was completely dark outside. It required some unsafe driving at speeds not intended on those roads, and a severe amount of swallowed bugs, mosquitos and whatever else flying around, but it was worth getting there and getting the bike fixed before it was too late.

Chiang Khan was an old-fashioned, quiet and traditional little village/town by the Mekong with basically only two streets with a few guesthouses, restaurants and shops. A short walk around town, dinner, and then a few beers by the river and we were pretty much done for that day. The next morning we continued our drive out west and went up to a big buddha statue on a viewpoint overlooking the river. Great view but unfortunately too cloudy that day. We didn't have any specific plans but instead we started our drive back towards Nong Khai and figured we could stop by the waterfall again and maybe stay a while longer this time. It actually turned out to be more than a few stops along the way and when we finally got to the waterfall we realized that we weren't going to make it to any guesthouse before dark. No problem though, we just needed some food and drink and then we could always sleep outside in the jungle next to the waterfall. We couldn't find any food but with plenty of beer, crackers, cookies and anything else eatable that we could find in a little shop a bit further away we had our dinner. Bamboo doesn't provide the best firewood though, so after about an hour in front of the fire there was only the stars and the moon left to light up our campingplace. It's pretty cool how dark and silent it gets in the jungle and sleeping on the ground wasn't a big deal at all, except for all the rocks where we'd decided to make our bambooleaf bed. No mosquitos either and we were so excited that we wanted to go back some other time but then bring sleepingbags, proper food and try to get a real fire going. Three days on the road and a night under the stars was great, and definitely one of the highlights of the time in Thailand.

Holiday...

I guess a trip to Thailand without going to the beach would feel like a visit to the Empire State Building and taking the elevator...to the basement. Possibly nice, but with a feeling you might have missed out on something. I wasn't the only one with that feeling, so after little over a month in Nong Khai I joined Jodie, Rani and Marcella on a 12 day trip including some beach-time, crazy Bangkok nightlife, and a bit of cultural/historical sightseeing in Cambodia.

First out was Bangkok, and some temple sightseeing. They've got a whole bunch of them there, but we concentrated on the big ones within walking distance. My personal favorite is Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Big things are always cool and you can't really go wrong with a 46 meter long and 15 meter high golden Buddha image. I had been there before but it's always amazing to walk in to the temple and see that huge statue.
No visit to Bangkok and its temples would be complete without a visit to Wat Phra Kaeo, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Not the biggest one, but the most important buddhist temple in Thailand and the Emerald Buddha being the most important icon for thai people. No pictures were allowed and like all other buddhist temples it had a calm, almost soothing atmosphere with the Emerald Buddha centered around various different buddha images and sculptures.
Located withing the grounds of the Grand Palace is not only the temple, but a large number of amazing buildings, temples, stupas, museums and even a small scale model of Angkor Vat. It's easy to spend a whole day walking around inside those giant walls admiring the beauty in which the thai's reverence to the buddha manifest itself.
Also the one place where it's required to cover your knees and shoulders at all time, with stuff to borrow for those whose clothing didn't live up to the dresscode, like me. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a pair of very stylish purple silk pants, slightly oversized, resulting in a tourist/clown look I felt very proud to display for the thousands of others who planned ahead that day and wore long pants. No pictures were allowed (by me) of them either.
After a few days, having seen some cultural sights, the huge weekend market and the rest of the time spent inside giant shopping malls due to the extreme heat and humidity, we decided to take on Bangkok's nightlife starting with the circus that is Khao San Road. Lots of cheap cocktails, a visit to Bangkok's not so nice areas, and some tuk-tuk adventures later we were pretty much done with the city for that time and couldn't wait to get out of smelly, hot, crowded Bangkok and enjoy the beaches of Koh Chang.





Thailands second biggest island after Phuket, Koh Chang, has surprisingly not been overrun by tourists yet and still has a nice relaxing atmosphere with cheap bungalows on the beach and the feeling of a backpacker paradise discovered not so long ago. There's not one big beach stretching for several miles, but instead there are many small beaches on the island, contributing to the feeling that it's your own little paradise that only you and a handful of fortunate others have discovered. I'm sure it will all change in a few years, and there are places that are even more desolate and untouched, but for us it was perfect. First night was spent on Paradise Beach on the northeastern side of the island, but after having discovered that the tide basically made almost the entire beach disappear until in the afternoon, we took our stuff and headed down south for a better place. The island is pretty big and can offer other activities than just spending time at the beach. There's a national park that offers elephant rides, trekking and swimming in waterfalls. We thought about doing something like that, but once we saw the beaches we pretty much knew were we were going to spend most of our time. And since going back and forth between places can be both expensive and take some time, we wanted a place we could spend the whole week at. The roads in Koh Chang are apparently some of the most dangerous in Thailand, so we gave up the idea of renting scooters and exploring the island. Scooter adventures had its time as well...




We found the perfect spot a bit further down and got a really nice and cheap bungalow. So, what do you do in a place like this? Apart from the obvious things such as relaxing, eating good food, enjoying a few drinks on the beach, a snorkeling trip to four small islands surrounding Koh Chang was however one thing we took time out of our otherwise so very busy schedule to enjoy. Great fun, apart from a pretty nasty sunburn but otherwise perfect. There's not much to say really, I've could have gone crazy with the pictures and posted about a hundred postcard pictures of this paradise but I won't. Everyone who's ever been to a place like this know pretty much what it's like and what you do there. Enjoy beautiful sunsets, avoid getting killed by falling coconuts and wonder why the hell you were born so close to the arctic circle.....The only thing we didn't get to experience was the fullmoon party that had taken place the weekend before we got there. Good reason to go back though...



At first our main goal of the trip was just the beach, but since Cambodia didn't look too far away on the map, we figured we might as well cross the border and check out Angkor Vat. The way things looked on the map and the way things were in reality were however completely different. The province of Trat, where you take the ferry to Koh Chang is pretty much right on the border to Cambodia, kind of like Nong Khai and Laos, but if you're not Thai or Cambodian, you're referred to one of three border crossings available to foreigners. This meant we had to take a minibus up north to a place called Aranya Prathet, get our visas, and then cross into Cambodia.
I'd heard some other backpackers describing the Cambodian side of the border and the city of Poipet as hell, so I figured we had something unpleasant waiting for us on the other side. Personally I didn't think it was that bad though, but I guess if your used to how things operate pretty smoothly in Thailand and the friendliness and respect for foreigners, you're in for a bit of a culture chock. The whole time it was just and endless wait for either buses, people, getting your passport stamped or...the mysterious six people we kept hearing about but that never showed up. Most likely just a lame excuse from the Cambodians to handle the growing frustrations of the people waiting to get out of Poipet.
Once on the bus, we had the pleasure of enjoying an eight hour ride on the bumpiest dirt road known to mankind, in a bus that had seen better days. There were plenty of things to keep one occupied however, dodging flying suitcases and giant backpacks, trying to find a position to sit in that didn't hurt too much, or trying not to pass out from heat-exhaustion were some of the options available as entertainment along the road. We arrived in Siam Reap, the city were the temples of Angkor are located, around 1AM, having traveled since 8AM that day. Sleeping had never felt better...


Next day it was time for the small tour, and with our personal chauffeurs (tuk-tuk drivers) we headed out to the temples. The area itself where they are located is huge, so you need transportation to get around. We saw some brave tourists on bicycles but that must have been pretty hard considering the heat in Cambodia were just as bad as in Bangkok, it just didn't smell as bad.
Walking around the temples was pretty amazing I must say, and the only thing missing was a little more background information about each place. Instead the place was jammed packed with tourists and Cambodian children selling postcards, t-shirts or anything else visitors might be interested in. It was sad seeing all those poor children, some of them not older than 5-6 years old, running back and forth constantly trying to make you by something with their parents always a few steps behind ready to collect whatever money their children (mostly girls) where able to earn.


Last stop on the first day was Angkor Vat itself, the biggest and most well preserved of the temples. It's always an amazing feeling seeing something you've read about and seen tons of pictures of for yourself, and Angkor Vat was no exception. Gigantic, rugged and the largest religious monument in the world built in stone, it was a cool experience climbing its steep steps to the top and looking out over its great surrounding walls.
Next day we started where we left of, getting up early to catch the sunrise over Angkor Vat before heading out on the grand tour including Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple as highlights of that day. All the temples had its special atmosphere and vibe, but I've got to admit that after two days of nothing but tons of sculptures and temples it all started to get somewhat tiring, and on the third night we were more than satisfied and couldn't wait to get on the bumpy roads that would take us back to Thailand.

A day in the life of...

If there were any normal days they would always start pretty early, on weekdays because of school, and on weekends and days off because it wasn't possible (at least not for me) to sleep once it started to get hot.

School would last from 8AM to around 1PM. There would be two classes, each two hours long with a 5-10 min break in between, and after that we had lunch. Back in Nong Khai there would be some time to relax in the afternoon, do some emailing, read, just hang out with the others or go downtown for a visit to the market or to stop by the Green Dorm. Once a week the afternoons were spent at the orphanage, trying to avoid getting crapped on, and later on an addition to the afternoon volunteer activities was made when we started helping with the renovations of the Meechai School, just next door to the dorm.

Evenings were twice a week spent teaching either the monks or the university students, each for about an hour and a half, and it would start around seven or eight. After that we went out for dinner and if it was your free night, it often meant waiting for the others to finish teaching so that as many as possible could eat together. Usually since eating took place pretty late, we weren't finished until around ten o'clock, after which there was always the option to either go out for a few beers or head back to the dorm and get some rest.

The weekends were the time to travel, check out what the surrounding areas had to offer, or just hang out by the pool and prepare for a big party night. Most of my weekends were spent elsewhere and I can only remember a couple of weekends were we/I didn't have anything planned outside or away from Nong Khai. Most of the others did the same thing, leaving the city almost empty of volunteers sometimes, except for maybe a few who volunteered in Phon Phisai or Namsom, little villages where there really wasn't anything to do and therefore would visit Nong Khai during the weekends.

The Dorms

Meechai Dorm

Located on Meechai Rd, one of the three major streets/roads the city was built around, was this old house which provided accommodation for up to 10 volunteers at a time, including me. The house itself was pretty big with five bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, computer room, a common area/TV-room, one big balcony and a terrace. We all shared rooms with someone, even though I had my room for myself the first week I was there before two other guys moved in. It was pretty basic, a mattress on the floor and a fan next to it. Nothing fancy, but all you needed. It was only a place to sleep and store your stuff, maybe the occasional nap if there was time. Otherwise it was probably the place I spent the least amount of time in. It was on the top floor, which meant a lot of running up and down stairs, which, considering any physical activity would result in an enormous amounts of sweating due to the heat and humidity, sometimes made it kind of pointless going down to take a shower, when you felt like taking another one as soon as you got back to your room. That was pretty much the case with any activity in Thailand more exhausting than picking your nose, and the feeling of being nice and clean was a luxury that would only last from turning off the shower to closing the bathroom door on your way out. On the upside though, was the huge terrace just outside of our room where you could hopefully find some place in the shadow to relax, or watch the sunset over the park. Probably my favorite place in the house.



Green Dorm

The Green Dorm was smaller than Meechai, right in the city center between two of the main roads. The location was definitely better than the other dorm with walking distance to a lot of nice little restaurants and markets, and because of its closeness to everything it became the meeting place whenever there was something going on. There wasn't much more in the house than bedrooms, a balcony and an outdoor kitchen (a good place for BBQ's), but the balcony surrounded by palmtrees always provided a nice oasis in the shadow, also the place we had our thai-lessons at. There were hammocks at the green dorm, which we didn't get until the week before I left, and there was always the battle between which dorm was better than the other. We had more space and our computers, they had their nice location and their hammocks on the balcony. I guess it was a tie between the both, and they complimented themselves in a good way which resulted in people spending times at both dorms instead of just isolating themselves in one place. It brought the volunteers more together and made it feel like one, instead of two groups living in different places.

Visa run

After almost one month in Thailand it was time to cross the border and get my visa renewed. It was Jodie, Rani and Martin and I who all came to Nong Khai the same day who went to Laos together. Since the Mekong being the only thing separating Thailand from Laos, it's possible to just cross the friendship bridge and back again within a couple of hours. We figured like many others that since we're so close we might as well check out what Laos has to offer. After a somewhat chaotic experience at the border where I was squeezed into a bus with what felt like 400 others and alone had to keep track of everyones bags (long story), we got to the Lao side. We took a taxi to the capital, Vientiane, in what by far is the crappiest car I've ever seen. It made those old american cars on Cuba look like brand new Bentleys. However, it did its job and got us to Vientiane, which I must add, has to be the most boring capital on earth. I guess a few decades of communism kind of brings down the vibe a bit. After one night and one day in Vientiane with some temple sightseeing , and a visit to the local market, we headed north for Vang Viang, a backpacker place in the mountains about four hours from Vientiane.

Vang Viang was a small town crowded with backpackers. Guesthouses would attract customers by showing the Simpsons, Friends and Seinfeld and pretty much every popular sitcom and also having the option to lie down while eating your breakfast/lunch/dinner watching TV at the same time. Pretty much all my prejudices about backpacker hangouts were confirmed, and when we got there at night it was hard to tell why this little town had become such a popular place. The next day when woke up and saw the mountains and beautiful surroundings it made more sense.

The town it self didn't provide much more than a place to eat sleep and have a few drinks, instead people go there for trekking, tubing or any other nature experience that could be offered by the many places organizing tours for the visitors. We didn't have much time so we decided on a one day tour including some trekking, tubing through caves and kayaking along the Mekong with a stop along the way for some relaxing and the option to swing into the river, very fun I must say.


The next day we just took a little walk, took some pictures and then it was time to get on the bus back to Vientiane and later head back to Thailand and Nong Khai.



Laos was a lot different from Thailand with a lot more poverty, fewer smiles on peoples faces and infrastructure that had seen better days The country seemed more quiet, and people more reserved than in Thailand, but still had a nice atmosphere. It was interesting to see though and even if we didn't have much time it was a different and new experience and we all had a great time.

Stray dogs vs The Banana Pancake Lady

I remember Jessica, the international program coordinator, telling us during our introduction weekend that one thing she still hadn't gotten used to after all the time she'd spent in Nong Khai were the gangs of dogs roaming the streets at night ready to scare any poor farang who ventured out into the dark. During the day they would just lie on the sidewalk looking more dead than alive, but as soon as it got dark they immediately took every chance they got chasing whoever they say not holding a thai passport. That's what confused me, how could they tell we were foreigners from a long distance and start barking and running, whereas thai people could basically step on them and they wouldn't move! Do we really smell that different?! Some gangs were worse than others, and some dogs were really bad. They tried to jump and bite you as you were biking past them, and I particularly remember one little sidestreet, where some evil little furry thing made a really good attempt at taking a bite out of my leg. I wished for a second that I'd taken the rabies shot before I left, but fortunately he missed and I was gone with the wind. The same thing happened to a volunteer friend of mine, but that dog actually managed to rip a hole in his pants. After that it was war. Different methods such as waterguns, bb-guns and other things were discussed as options to keep the little (the little ones are always the worst) devils away. What turned out to be the best solutions was to always keep a handful of pebbles, or any kind of gravel with you ready to throw at the ones who got to close. I, on the other hand tried reverse psychology on them and would just bark back and start chasing them instead. It worked pretty good but resulted in some suspicious looks from thai people, so I stopped.

If the dogs represented Nong Khai's dark side, the Banana Pancake Lady definitely represented the good. Every night she would stand on the sidewalk on Prajak Road opposite Dee-Dee's, making her beloved pancakes. They were so popular among the volunteers that I suspect at least one or two dutch girls had to go through some kind of rehab to handle the loss once they got back home...
I wasn't that addicted though, normally I'm not a huge fan of sweet things after I eat, but I got to admit they were good. One whole pancake easily filled you up more than any thaifood would, so I'd stick to the small ones. When I came back from Koh Chang and Cambodia, she asked me where the other girls where, and I told them they already left Thailand. She asked me when I was leaving and told me I'd get a free one before I left. She actually remembered the week I was leaving even if I was to stressed to realize it, and sure, I got my free pancake.

cultural clash in the classroom

Very strict hierarchies is one thing that I personally think screws up not only a students ability to learn, but is a limiting factor in many peoples life in general. That is one of the factors you just have to accept when visiting a new culture, but it is far more frustrating when it has an impact on what you are there to do. In the west, I guess, we are taught critical thinking and questioning authorities as a way of learning and understanding. In Thailand it's pretty much the opposite. What anyone with a uniform, a higher rank or whatever tells you, is the law. And in the classroom teacher is God. That might sound pretty nice, and it was in the beginning, but it made the actual teaching a lot harder since it was almost impossible to get the students to ask if they didn't understand or work independently . There would also always be one or two smart kids who would do all the job and the rest would copy. Happens a lot everywhere, I know, but there it was completely accepted and out in the open. Not even the thai teachers would care, instead they would just openly declare to the rest of the students how stupid they were and that they had to work harder. I heard stories from other volunteers of how teachers sometimes would hit the kids, and I'm glad none of that took place in my school.

It didn't seem to make a difference whether it was a primary school, college or even monk university, asking questions was almost always seen as a sign of weakness and it was much better to just stay silent. One of the monks told me that even during their lessons at the university asking questions was pretty much like asking for trouble. This was one of the things I had most trouble understanding in a country where the people in any other situation always smiles and acts very friendly to one another. I had many long discussions with the monks on this topic and even though they claimed it was good for maintaining discipline and creating structure, which I can agree on, they also felt it was sometimes holding people back. In the end I guess it's one of those differences you just have to deal with and try to be a bit more creative in certain situations.

travel to Teach

Eating bugs, hanging out by the pool or trying to figure out how to use the bathroom was all good fun...but the main reason I was there was to teach. I was assigned to a school called Udon Thani Business College for Tourism and Administration (C-BAT), and it was located in between Nong Khai and Udon Thani, a city about twice the size of Nong Khai about an hour away.

The school had about 900 students in ages 17-21, most of them girls. At first I felt a bit insecure and intimidated about the whole thing and wished I had requested to teach primary school or really small kids instead of not making any requests at all, but that quickly changed and now I actually prefer teaching older students. The first week of teaching I was accompanied by another volunteer who had been at that school for almost two months. That helped a lot as far as getting to know the school and the way things worked around there.

The first thing that caught my eye was the students behavior towards the teachers. I guess problems with discipline in schools is a common problem in many countries, but not in Thailand. They would actually bow to us even in the hallway or cafeteria and sometimes even bend their knees so that they wouldn't be taller than any of the teachers when standing next to , or passing them. That didn't happen to me a lot, even though I'm no giant I'm still a head higher than most thai people, especially girls. The reason for this was not only the general politeness and respect for elders that most thais show each others everywhere, but also the fact that teachers in Thailand enjoy a higher status than both doctors and lawyers and many other professions.

Officially the volunteers are supposed to "assist the thai teachers in their lessons" or something like that. Unofficially the thai teachers either leave after five minutes of the class, or don't show up at all, which means you have the whole class to yourself. Scary? At first of course, but after a while if the thai teacher actually participated it became almost annoying not to have total control over the lesson. Control freak issues maybe...

The students' level of english wasn't nearly as high as I'd expected from a group of 17-21 year olds hoping to one day work in tourism or hotel managment, but it was better than most other thai people. That meant starting with the basics, but not as basic as the alphabet, bodyparts or something else we did in third grade in Sweden. We (I later when I was teaching alone) tried to focus on conversational english in situations they might encounter later in their careers. Hotel and ticket reservations, dealing with food drinks in different ways, stuff like that. It was a lot of fun, especially having them memorize cocktails as homework. What's in a Long Island Iced Tea...? Grammar wasn't much use trying to teach them, mostly because that required a thai teacher who could actually explain it to them, but also because their textbooks were filled with grammatical errors to begin with. One week I was feeling extremely confident in my teaching abilities (ha!) and tried teaching them about irregular verbs...didn't work at all.

They were also very fond of games, no matter what kind of game as long as there was some kind of competitive side to it they would go crazy. Hangman was a big favorite, tic tac another. It was also really fun for us to watch the transformation a group of shy, quiet students can go through once you say the word "gametime!".
The morning routine was another highlight, where the students would line up each morning in front of the school to listen to the teachers and sometimes sing the national anthem. Due to the fact that our driver usually was a little late we'd often miss the lineup and had to go straight to class, therefore this picture is from another volunteers' school. Looks almost like at my school though.

Even though we, or I, didn't get much assitance from the teachers (to their defence, they were pretty busy), they were still extremely helpful in every way and made a big effort trying to make us feel welcome at the school. We would always get the best table in the canteen, students or teachers would bring us food, sometimes with a little surprise to it, and they seemed genuinely happy about having us there. Overall, the school was more modern and felt more like a high school in Sweden than what I had pictured a thai school would be like, even though there are some huge differences when it comes to teaching techniques.

Things to do in and around Nong Khai

Thai people love their markets and you can find them anywhere. Nong Khai was no exception and the biggest one open everyday was the Chinese market down by the Mekong. It was a pretty big semi-indoor market with anything you could possibly need. Another one was the Sunday Night market open only on Sundays between 6-9PM. A little smaller but a better place if you wanted to find real bargains, or eat some bugs. Quality products might not be the word that comes to mind when I think back at some of the stuff for sale, I must have bought at least 3-4 pair of cheap sunglasses that lasted about one week each. Even so, the thai markets provided a nice atmosphere and it was always fun to stroll around in the middle of their organized chaos.

What definitely put the city on the map was the sculpture park, SalaKeawKoo. Located about a 10 minute tuk-tuk ride from central Nong Khai was this very surreal area filled with buddhist and hindu sculptures. Founded by a Lao native named Luang Poo, who's mummified body still can be found in the main building in the park, it depicts over a hundred sculptures from both Theravada and Mahayana buddhism , as well as hindu sculptures and snakes in various forms and shapes. I wasn't too excited when I first heard about it, but when I got there and saw it for myself I changed my mind. Some of those statues are huge! The pictures doesn't really display either the size of the sculptures or the atmosphere of the park, which is a shame, but I guess you had to be there. Or have to go there.

Recreation and thai aerobics

There was a big park pretty close to where I lived. For some reason I don't have any pictures of it, which is really a shame, since it was pretty cool. Kind of the central park of Nong Khai, a place to get away from the not so crowded streets and the pretty slow-paste life that most Nong Khaians (my own word there) experienced every day. Around five o'clock in the afternoon, there would be aerobics in the park. The whole thing was very odd but fun to watch. I remember a lot of people in bright colored jumpsuits jumping along to music I've never heard before. The whole thing was lead by a ladyboy,-kind of the 3rd gender i thailand, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much. When there wasn't aerobics there were always people jogging and doing various kinds of healthy activities, and I actually started jogging too, but my newly bought (used) running shoes didn't hold together for more than a couple of runs. Besides, It was too hot to do any exercise anyway and I was pretty lazy. So, I blame it on the shoes.

Thailand can get pretty hot, especially for a Swede coming from a cold, snowy Sweden in January. Since there wasn't a beach anywhere close, and swimming in the Mekong river was neither safe nor healthy, we had to go elsewhere to play in the water. There was a very nice pool that belonged to the Royal Mekong Hotel, a 20 minute bikeride away from the dorm, and we would go there a lot in the afternoons if we had time. The only problem was that whoever built the hotel and pool must have missed that around 3PM the sun would set behind the hotel and that basically meant time to go home. I'm not an architect, but even I could figure out a better location for the pool, or the hotel. Either way, it became our little oasis in the heat as the seasons changed from cold to warm, meaning temperatures constantly over 30 C. Around 90-95 F i think.