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MY SURREAL TALE OF THAILAND

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Even though I am away, I found a group of foreign teachers that decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in their own way. Well for the most part it was a typical dinner: a turkey, potato salad, rolls, stuffing, etc., but one thing that I was not expecting was loads and loads of booze. I have to say that it kind of reminded me of a frat party in some aspects ;-), but hey I had a blast and I enjoyed all of their company.

Now on to Thailand. I have to say that the trip was perhaps one of the best trips I have ever taken. Everything that I did in Bangkok seems like a dream, and I often have to look at pictures to remind myself that it all was real. So..... it was Saturday night around 6:45p.m. and I was in a taxi cab heading for the airport in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. My plane was scheduled to depart at 8:15p.m. so I guess you can say that I was running just a little behind schedule. I spent most of the day teaching and my last class ended at 6:00p.m. so I had to rush home to gather my belongings, then flag down a taxi to the airport. Fortunately, the airport is only 30-35 minutes from my home so I was able to get to the airport with a little time to spare.

After departing Kaohsiung, I arrived in Taipei (capital city of Taiwan) about an hour later. I made a quick transfer there, then arrived in Bangkok, Thailand at around 1:30a.m. ( Bangkok is an hour ahead of Taiwan). This is where the adventure really begins. I am assuming that most people, especially when traveling to an international location would have booked a hotel in advance, but not me. Of course I have to make this situation just a little more exciting, so I exit the plane, gather my luggage and begin to exit the airport ( I was carrying a list of a few hotels with directions, so I wasn't completely lost). As I approached the door a man in a suit approached me and to my surprise spoke English. He must have sensed the confusion from my bewildered expressions, so he asked me if I was looking for a hotel. Wow, now this was too good to be true, not only did he speak English, but he knew exactly what I was looking for. Although, I was ecstatic to hear his question, I was also extremely skeptical. After talking with him for a prolonged period of time ( just had to make sure he wasn't a scam artist ;-)) he was able to find me a reasonably priced hotel very close to my testing site. Just to remind you all, the GRE was the only reason why I needed to take this trip, so with that in mind I agreed to his offer.

Once I arrived at my hotel called, The Royal Nana ( nice name, huh) I headed directly to bed because I was exhausted. When I opened my room door, I lost my breath once I caught the site of my facilities. The room was gorgeous, and it was equipped with a kitchen, big screen tv, and a huge bathroom. I definately felt like I was royalty, and for only 60US dollars a day I was not complaining.

The next day began with the desk clerk calling me to tell me that the hotel wanted to offer me a complimentary tour of the city. Now I was a little hesitant to accept this deal because I was planning on spending the day studying, but then I thought to myself, "How many times in your life will you have the opportunity to see the city of Bangkok for free?". It didn't take long for me to decide to take them up on their offer. I then quickly got ready, and headed to the lobby. There, I was greeted by a petite woman with a big smile on her face. She said, "Hello" in Thai and English ( btw, I picked up a little Thai while I was there, and boy is it fun to speak), and then proceeded to escort me to a black luxury looking car. Ok, so this was a little peciliar, I was expecting to ride around in a small bus filled with tourists from all over the world, and this was in no means anything of the sort. I asked her where everyone else was at and she told me that I was the only one for the day. I thought to myself, "Is this really safe?", traveling in a car in another country with people that I don't even know. The answer of course was, "No!", but hey that didn't stop me.

First on the tour was an elaborate buddhist temple called Wat Pho ( temple of the reclining Buddha). This place was unbelieveable, it felt as though I was a part of this emaculate movie-set stationed in some remote Hollywood studio. Tourists were permitted to enter all of the temples without wearing their shoes in order to show respect. Lavishly decorated towers filled the outside of the temples and I was told that the kings of long ago are buried underneath. The bigger the tower the more powerful the king was, much like the pyramids in Egypt. Anatomical drawings aligned the inside of one particular part of the temple and I was told that before the time of public schools, learned men would travel to the temple to read the writings and study the drawings of the human body. I guess you can say in some ways it was the first unofficial school in Bangkok. In modern times the temple is still used to educate, however, students now have the previlege of learning from a teacher by which are all monks of the temple. I was able to witness a couple of classes in session and I have to say that from what I observed, the structure highly resembled that of American schools.

Ok, I feel now is a good time to stop for now. I will continue my story in the next blog, and believe me if you thought this blog was fascinating the best is yet to come.

NEXT TIME: PART 2 of MY SURREAL TALE OF THAILAND