Life in Tak

Friday 11/12/15 3:00 PM

The view from our porch

The last week or so in Tak has been great, and I am really starting to feel settled in. Last weekend we stayed at home and had some friends come visit on Saturday night. We all went out for dinner and drinks Saturday night and it was a blast. This weekend we are going to a small waterfall near Tak, but will mostly be hanging out around here. Next weekend we are heading back to Chiang Mai for a Loi Kratang festival. Loi Kratang is one of the major Buddhist holidays here. Each city has its own way of celebrating, but they all center around the release of lanterns. In Chiang Mai they will release hundreds of floating lanterns into the sky. Here in Tak many lantern floats will be released into the river later that week. Since we have been taking it easy lately I have decided to dedicate this post to information about what the daily life is like here in Tak.

A typical day here starts with me waking up just before 7:00 am, getting ready, and making the 5 minute bike ride to the school. In the morning Molly and I typically have breakfast at the school “canteen” where meals can be purchased for 20 baht (roughly 60 cents). The food there is delicious; there are 14 stalls that all sell different Thai dishes. You can get chicken with chilies, rice with a huge variety of stir-fries and curries, fried eggs, noodle soups…I could go on forever. And it’s all made fresh everyday by people in the community.

The stands on the left all serve cheap food!

Teachers sit on the stage with the fans

After breakfast I usually have about a half hour of downtime before first period. The students all have a morning assembly during this time, complete with a marching band performance (yes, every day) and speeches from teachers and staff. I use this time to finish checking worksheets from the day before or to check in on my fantasy football teams, which might I add are in first and second place. I teach 18 classes a week: four on every day except on Friday when I only have two. I teach the equivalent of 7^th 9^th and 10^th graders with most of my classes coming from 7^th and 9^th grade. Right now I am working on decimals, inequalities, and functions with my classes. Molly teaches 16 classes a week. She teaches two gifted classes in grades 7 and 11 called MEPs (Mini English Program) and are kids who have really high levels of English proficiency. These are fun to teach because she can do more advanced projects and activities with them. She also has two other 7^th grade classes, and 12^th graders at various levels.

I have found that in teaching here, each class is really different. Since the students are organized into classes by grade, skill level and even further by special programs their parents can’t opt to pay for, they really vary in their abilities. Some of the groups of students are quiet and eager to learn while some are loud in class and more difficult to get through to. Some can read articles in English and discuss them with you, others you have to teach basic vocabulary. Most days I will have two classes in the morning before meeting Molly at her office to grab lunch during 4^th or 5^th period. Her office is across campus from mine as she is in the English building. After lunch I will teach the remainder of my classes. Math classes start with me reviewing the past week’s material and presenting the day’s lesson. Then I have a worksheet I help my students complete; if they complete the worksheets quickly we play a math game at the end of class. It is really fun to play games with kids; they tend to relish the competition! During my free periods I am either lesson planning, or checking worksheets. The days tend to be pretty busy.

Molly on the way home from school

Molly and I usually get home around 4:30 or a little earlier on some days. There is about an hour of downtime before we head across town to a local sports complex. The complex has a small weight room, a basketball court, a mile-long loop to run around, and various other amenities. I try to make it over there 5 times a week if possible. If we are travelling on the weekend that number drops to 3-4. After the gym we grab dinner at a local spot. We have been trying many different places but our favorite thus far is a small stand that serves amazing pad Thai for only 20 baht. It is right next to the local river, and about a 5 minute bike ride from our place. When we get back we usually read, make travel plans, or watch Netflix until it is time to go to sleep. Molly is also working on submitting her law school applications right now so she can be busy with that. The weekdays can be tiring but we do usually find time for activities like a Thai massage, exploring town on our bikes or hanging out with the other foreigners sometime during the week.  And that is a typical day of life in Tak.

The "Welcom To Tak" sign on the way to the gym

Two of the strays that live by our apartment (front: Swaggy P. back: Tom Haverford)

Tak can be somewhat simple but it’s a really nice, peaceful place. I am really enjoying it and am grateful for our placement. Being away from any tourism has allowed us to really immerse ourselves in Thai culture. I feel like I am really learning what life here is all about: the go with the flow attitude, a focus on people and relationships, kindness and friendliness…it’s a really great place to live. I have had a lot of fun playing basketball with the locals and getting to know the town. I feel like I am starting to figure out good ways to teach here too. I have lots of help from my Thai co-teachers, they are all such great resources for school and life in Thailand in general. Living with Molly and getting to spend so much time together is incredible. All in all life in Thailand has been everything I wanted so far!

Phu Chi Fah and Chiang Rai

Tuesday 11/3/15 3:00 PM

We have only been in Thailand for three weeks but it feels like it has been much longer because of everything that we’ve done. So far we have been to five major cities and a remote mountain on the northwestern border. Last week the work week was cut short because of a college entrance exam that was taking place at our school. On Tuesday we learned that class would be cancelled on Thursday and Friday, and that we would need to come into work on Sunday for an “English camp” for one group of students. Molly and I decided that the three days off were a perfect opportunity to visit a spot that we had heard was one of the more beautiful sights in Thailand: Phu Chi Fa.

The sunrise view at Phu Chi Fa

Phu Chi Fa is a mountain on the border on Laos. We were told that it was amazing to view a sunrise from the summit, as the neighboring peaks would form islands in a sea of fog below. The closest major city to Phu Chi Fa is Chiang Rai. Another major pro to making the journey out there was that many of our friends from orientation were stationed near Chiang Rai and others had planned to visit the city over the weekend. Melanie, another American teaching at our school, arrived in Tak last week and decided to come with us on our trip across the country. This was my first experience travelling in a truly Thai style: we booked nothing before arriving at the bus station to depart. We arrived at the bus station Wednesday afternoon after school and asked when the next bus leaving for Chiang Rai would depart. After being told that the bus would arrive at 7:30 we grabbed a bite and waited for it to arrive. We then spent around 5 hours travelling to Chiang Rai. We arrived in the middle of the night, unsure of how to get to the hostel we intended on staying at or where exactly it was. Luckily we found a tuk-tuk driver who took us to a street with many options for places to stay. Our first choice had no vacancies, but we quickly found another hostel and slept soundly.

The next day we awoke and headed to the local bus terminal where we took a bus to the small town of Thoeng. This is the closest bus stop to Phu Chi Fa. From there we took a Songtow, which is basically a pick-up truck that uses the bed as a miniature bus, up into the mountains. We met a group of Thai students from Chiang Rai University who split the ride up with us. They were very helpful in organizing the trips up and down the mountain, and having a larger group made the ride much cheaper. It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but I enjoyed the stunning views as we meandered our way up the mountain. We arrived at a plateau where there were several small guest houses where we could stay. We spent the afternoon and evening wandering the mountainside. The little village had stunning views of the surrounding countryside. There was a quick storm in the middle of the afternoon so I got the chance to stand out in the cool rain and enjoy the scenery. 

 Left: Me enjoying the rainstorm     Right: The view from the village near Phu Chi Fa

My view with a brew at dinner near Phu Chi Fa

The next morning, we got up at 5:00 am to see the sunrise atop the mountain. It was as beautiful a sight as I have seen in my life, and was definitely worth all the buses and travel time it took to get there. The view really does speak for itself.

 The Sunrise View

 Molly, Melanie, and I after the clouds rolled in

Molly and I with the Phu Chi Fa sign

Later Friday morning we travelled back to Chiang Rai where we checked into a hostel and then got Thai style foot massages. They were amazing and left us feeling refreshed even after the extensive travel we had gone through. That night we met up with many friends from orientation and had a blast going out to local bars near the city center. We even found a place that served American style beef burgers. They were delicious and worth every bit of the 120 (four dollars) baht they cost. Because the average meal in Tak costs us 20-30 baht and is some of the most delicious stuff I’ve ever eaten, this now seems like an extravagant amount of money to spend.

 Left: The clock tower in Chiang Rai             Right: The burger stand we all enjoyed 

Saturday morning, we met up with another Molly and Hilary who are stationed in a rural town outside Lampang. We all went to a modern Buddhist temple called the White Temple that was about 20 minutes away from downtown Chiang Rai. Its construction began in 1997 and the entire compound won’t be finished until about 2070. It was an unbelievably ornate structure. The message of the temple was that one must experience suffering before achieving nirvana and that hedonistic lifestyles are what lead to evils in this world. In the mural inside the main structure the artist uses images of the world trade center attacks as well as popular figures from western pop culture (Darth Vader, minions, the hulk, Neo, Michael Jackson etc.) to drive this point home. Seeing such a tragedy for our nation displayed in a religious temple was more than unsettling, and I don’t really know how to feel about it. I do know that it is not meant to be offensive although it has offended some western visitors. With that being said, I am so glad I visited the temple as it is a building straight out of a Halloween movie, and it was October 31^st after all.

 Molly, Melanie and I at the White Temple

After visiting the temple, the three of us headed back to Tak since we had work on Sunday. The bus ride took much longer on the way back, but we made it home with plenty of time to rest up for the coming work week. Despite travelling across the country to a remote mountain, staying three nights in hostels, spending money to go out and paying for small trips around the city, the entire weekend still came in at under 3,000 baht or under $100. It is truly amazing how far money can go here. Everything seemed to work out last weekend: we found a good place to stay every night, we didn’t know how to get up the mountain but we found a Thai person who majored in English who was going to the same place as us, the view in Phu Chi Fa was even more stunning than I expected, and the list goes on and on. It was an incredible weekend in a beautiful place with awesome people!

On Sunday, we helped run an all day English camp that featured fun English games to help the students develop more confidence in their English skills and to teach them a bit about western Halloween. It was fun to be with kids and watch them bob for apples and play “pin the hat on the witch”, but it was a tiring day. Today I finally am feeling like I am finding a bit of a routine and a rhythm here in Tak. We have travelled so much that it has been hard to really settle in, not that I am complaining; I have greatly enjoyed all the trips thus far. Teaching here is disorganized but it is a great feeling when you feel like you have helped a group of students improve, even if it is just a little bit. I am looking forward to becoming a better teacher and truly developing a routine here. Next weekend we are staying in Tak and may even have a few visitors. There is a waterfall about 30 minutes away we are planning on visiting. Life is good and me and Molly are feeling really happy!