Got up yesterday morning ready for a day of “relaxing” Thai style.  I decided to eat my salad for breakfast since I’m sure breakfast will not resemble breakfast.  Noi told me “No.  There’s breakfast”.  She left for breakfast pouting.  I went down later to get coffee.  I had some toast too.  I was right though. The choices for breakfast were toast, boiled rice or fried rice.  I’m still just shocked at the amount of rice consumed here.

The resort we are staying at is pretty.  It has lots of little statues everywhere.  I think this is a common Thai thing.  Some of the statues should be re-painted or trashed as they have fell into great disrepair.  This seems to be a common Thai thing too.  A lot of things seems to not have the proper cleaning, upkeep, repair or maintenance.

After breakfast it was photo fest.  Photos on the stairs with the sheep.  Photos by the phone booth.  Photos photos photos.  When you take a photo, you have to have everyone in it if you can.  Then you have to know what to do with your hands. When I got to Thailand, the thing was to do the peace sign next to your face.  That is still an acceptable pose, but isn’t the “in” thing anymore.  Now, it’s tiny hearts.  You put your first finger and thumb together as if you are holding a tiny heart by the point.  Or, at least that’s what I think they mean by tiny hearts.  And jazz hands seems to be making a comeback.

We got into vans and went up Doi Inthanon.  Doi Inthanon is Thailands highest mountain.  The top is at 8415 feet elevation.  Our resort was near the base of the mountain.  There were many flower sellers at the gate to the park.  You could buy flowers to give as offerings at the temple at the top.  It cost 300 baht for foreigners to get in and 50 baht for locals.  The van struggled going up.  Everyone in my van opened the windows to feel the cold.  They were oohing and ahhing at the cold which wasn’t actually cold yet.  Then we came upon a heavy mist.  Then the temperature dropped.  The temperature at the top was 48 degrees and the mist never let up.  I was soaked by the time we were done with the photo shoot up there.  The top was had a gift shop, a small shrine and a walkway.  Then we drove a short distance to the temple which was two pagodas and some gardens.  I think there was a great overlook too, but there was too much mist to see anything.  More photos. I’m angry with Teva.  They use to make the most wonderful shoes.  This last pair I bought has tried to kill me so many times.  The slightest wetness and they become so slippery.  I barely made it down the pagoda steps.  Your prices went up, but your quality went down – shame on you Teva.

After Doi Inthanon, we went to a market that had some fresh food, but mostly dried fruit.  Then it was off to The Royal Agricultural Station.  It is this huge complex of mountain side greenhouses and farms.  A very small part of it is like a botanic gardens that you can visit.  It was beautiful.  The temperature was still cool and the sun was shining again.  There was a cool breeze.  It was peaceful.  I took a ton of photos of flowers.  Can I just live here?  I don’t want to leave.  But, I didn’t have a choice in the situation so we took the vans back to the resort to get on the bus.  Next stop was another market.  I’ll call this one pork rind market.  More pork rinds than I thought physically possible.  There were also vats of things that looked pickled but smelled like death.  I stayed at the market for 2 minutes tops.  I couldn’t handle the smell.

Then we went to the previous School Director’s house for a party in honor of the teacher who is retiring.  As the bus turned on to the tiny road it took down at least 5 powerlines and just kept driving.  Local Thai roads are called Sois and are the width of an alley.  I couldn’t drive a bus down one of these.  This was one of the nicest houses I’ve seen in Thailand and it still had an outdoor kitchen.  It was small by USA standards, but the nicest place I’ve seen since I’ve gotten here.  People were already singing karaoke when I got there.  They couldn’t have gotten there more than one minute ahead of me.  They must have made a bee line for the karaoke.  Yes, it was karaoke on the bus up to the party too.  The only time there wasn’t karaoke was during the speeches and photos.  There was a tray of hors d’oeuvres brought out.  One of the items was sliced century eggs.  I’ve read about these and seen them at the market.  I haven’t had the nerve to try them.  Now they were sitting in front of me.  Now was my chance to try a slice and not be committed to the whole egg.  The preserve the egg for weeks or months in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls.  The white of the eggs turns to a dark brown translucent jelly.  The yolk turns black, brown and orange.  I stared at them for a least a half hour.  In the end, I chickened out (pun intended).  I did not eat the century egg.  The dessert was the one where they put jelly, fruit, pinto beans and ice in milk.  I don’t get it.  Someone asked if I wanted a whiskey – yes.  They kept my glass full.  Noi had 2 glasses and was all red faced and said she felt tipsy.  She couldn’t figure out how I seemed normal when I had 3 glasses.  I laughed.  I’m sure I had at least 8. Granted, they are the smallest glasses known to man and she’s half my size.  It just made me tired.

There was an awkward conversation where one of the teachers asked me why I wanted to leave.  How do I explain that I am tired of living in that house when hers is probably not as nice as mine?  How do I explain that I’m tired of being left in the dark about everything?  How do I explain that there’s nothing to do and I have no social life?  I tried to explain that I worked all the time and was lonely.  Not sure if that was a good enough explanation.  If I had felt more welcome back in February, maybe things would have gone differently on that subject.  I don’t feel unwelcome here, but I don’t feel part of the community either.  Yes, I enjoyed the weekend, but come Monday I know it will be back to working constantly.  And the next time they get together to have a meal or watch tv or do whatever it is people do here, I won’t be invited.  What do they think I do in the evenings – hang out with my other 40 friends?

Back on the bus – karaoke all the way home.  I think we probably had 8 hours of karaoke today.  I know why I dislike Thai music.  It all sounds like karaoke music.  Thai music and karaoke sound like a 13-year-old just got electronic keyboards for Christmas and composed 400 songs.

Today I had been invited to go to another district to watch teachers set up for some conference.  It was going to be all day and evening.  Tip had also invited me to hang out with her.  I decided to do laundry and hang out with Tip.  Then when I contacted Tip, she was busy doing homework.  So, what did I stay home for?  I would have been exhausted if I had gone to the set up thing, but I still wish I had gone.

Ok, here is only a small selection of photos:

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore