ira on September 21st, 2003

Phnom Penh
I’ve threatened long enough to tell about our trip to Cambodia from 08/29-09/2/2003, so–belatedly– here goes, and it’s definitely out of chronological order.  We visited Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. back in late August, early September.

For us, the highpoints around Phnom Penh were the loathsome Khmer Rouge killing fields, the cultural and historical sites in the city, and glimpses of daily life. 

The streets of Phnom Penh weave among buildings that range from modern to dilapidated and are teeming with  motorcycles, tuk-tuks, tall cyclos, Japanese cars and pickups.  The central market swarms with activity, and even amid visible poverty, you get the feeling of hope for the future. 

Two of our friends in Bangkok do business in Phnom Penh.  They set us up with a driver (whose education one of them is helping support) who made sure we got a complete tour.  We also spent some time with a fellow student from Ban Phe, Tim Grimstone, who is teaching English in P/P.

There is considerable development along the riverfront with an esplanade that overlooks the merging of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers.  Here, modern cafes and coffee bars provide respite and great views for foreign diplomatic and NGO types and tourists like us.  Behind this narrow block are smaller businesses, one of which Tim introduced us to.  Friends-The Restaurant is run by teenage men and women drawn from the homeless community and trained in English and the food service business.  It was a neat, optimistic place with great kids serving good food.  Nearby city sites included the following interesting places: the National Museum, the Royal Palace, and the Silver Pagoda with its silver floor and elegant grounds.

But, you are never far from reminders of the dark years of Pol Pot’s regime of terror.  Ira has written some of his impressions of this period in the Cambodia Journal. 

Siem Reap
We were surely ready to leave Phnom Penh when we caught the plane to Siem Reap, where during the Angkor Period from the 9th to the 15th century “the Khmer empire reached its greatest territorial limit and its apogee in cultural and artistic achievements.” (reference on request).  The national Angkor Archaeological Park is enormous with dozens of temple ruins and monuments.

We spent lots of time in Angkor Wat, “the city which is a temple”  and got up at dawn one morning to watch dawn break over it.  We visited many other temples in various states of rescue from the jungle.  Had it not been for the enthusiastic prodding of our driver, we might have given in to temple fatigue. But we didn’t and were glad to see each one of them.  One favorite was the site Ta Phrohm, a location for part of the movie, Tomb Raiders I.  Have a look at the pictures.  Judy and I hope to go back one day and see the whole area again.

We also drove out to Lake Tonle Sap and took a boat tour.  During the rainy season, the Mekong actually reverses course and fill this lake, which after the rainy season washes back into the Mekong.

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ira on July 19th, 2003

Since the last update we’ve moved into a new apartment and have changed our daily routines.  We are eating in neighborhood storefront restaurants, including one that the Bangkok Post rated tops in the city for its renown Thai chef and …..for its hamburgers! We’re getting out to movies occasionally and seeing more of Bangkok and meeting people.  We’re in language classes too and have joined a gym.  Last weekend we attended the annual meeting of the Neurosurgical Association of Thailand at a beach resort in Cha’am.  So, we’ve firmed up our rather amorphous pursuits of the earlier days.  I can’t tell you how much we’re enjoying this time in Thailand.

First the new apartment.  Our new digs are in The Victory Executive Suites, an older hotel that shifting patterns of taste and traffic have bypassed over time. So the Victory is a bit down at the heels and undergoing renovation.  But it is gracefully funky in its faded glory.  An elegant marble entry opens into a huge lobby with a granite floor beneath a high vaulted ceiling, the walls wainscoted with blondish wood. Adjacent to the lobby is an old-fashioned reading and social area, also huge, where crimson chairs and couches surround low, granite top tables in conversational groupings.  No one bellies up to the curved bar anymore; it is closed. An assortment of newspapers hangs on wooden rods, and there are some shelves of old magazines and paperbacks.  Just a few people are seen wandering through, and most of these head for a solitary computer next to the bar to check e-mail.  But, you can still sense better days gone by.  And we are literally only 7 minutes walk from the Skytrain which you can see in the picture at left, taken from our window.

Picture this: Judy and I setting out for the day, descending into Soi Lertpanya, threading our way among the food stalls and buzzing motor bikes, headed for the Skytrain. We have Fitness-First packs slung over our shoulders and a woven nylon brief case containing our school supplies and collapsible umbrella in hand.  Grinning.  Are we ready, or what?  Maybe the scent of jasmine is too strong? 

Having gotten increasingly tired of having to ask Thais to speak English to us, we’re taking steps to change that.  We’ve  already completed a 20-hour course in the Thai language at Pro Language, a school located on the famous Sukhumvit Road in the Times Square building.  Our language experience was great at Pro Language. We had a wonderful teacher, Khun Eid, and a good time.  Our fluency ranges from non-existent to stuttering at this early stage.  But, we’ve begun to recognize words in conversations and on the TV. And we find ourselves wondering aloud, “Why didn’t I say ya da da? I know that word,” in some language encounter or other. So we have some basics, but we definitely need to practice and continue studying  to get to the next level.

We’ve also joined a pretty swanky gym, Fitness First, located in the Landmark Hotel, about five minutes from our language classes.  Several times a week we mosey down Sukhumvit to the gym.  No, you don’t have to shinny up the lobby palms or take the escalator to get in.  You take the elevator. 

This a first-class fitness facility.  The rows of treadmills and elliptical walkers face banks of TVs or look down on the lobby below.  To watch TV, you just punch in the channel you want to listen to and plug in your headset on the attached keypad, and set out on your walk. Fitness First provides these headsets and 3 introductory sessions for new members and performs a physical assessment with all the embarrassing measurements.
The exercise machines are top-of-the-line and designed to ensure independent motion of the extremities. No moans of stressed metal, no squeaks, or out-of-order signs are anywhere to be heard or seen.  The free weights are rubber clad, preventing noise and floor damage.  Booming music drives vigorous stepping or kickboxing in the aerobic rooms.  More music issues from the spinning room, whose door is always open to dissipate the heat that riders generate as they chase Lance Armstrong or race up and down hills.  Stretch classes, medicine ball and Latin dance also tempt members into group activities.  Men’s and women’s saunas and steam rooms, fresh towels, showers and lockers, are there to assuage the aches of abusing workouts and to pamper.  There is a reading room in the gym lobby with the daily papers, coffee, tea and water.  Fitness First is definitely not your dark and sweaty kickboxing gym. There is one thing I would really like to see: the awe that a couple of giants like Robert and Eddy Khayat would inspire if they stopped by for a workout. 

What is there to do on weekends?  Well, how about going to the movies.  One Saturday night, we we stepped off the Skytrain into the MBK complex with a hotel, department store, and 6-floor shopping mall topped by a 7th-floor multi-screen movie with large comfortable seats and dry, non-sticky floors, surrounded by restaurants.  There are also long rows of gaming computers on this floor, choked with players.  Our buddy, Dr. Bob, would be right at home there, but it seemed that many of the players were frazzled from combat and in a daze.  I didn’t realize that computer gaming is such a huge phenomenon.  We chose a Vietnamese restaurant and had dinner before the movie.

The playbill featured The Hulk, Charlie’s Angels, Twin Effect and some lesser productions.  We were looking forward to Jackie Chan action, but Twin was in Chinese with Thai subtitles.  So as not to miss nuance or subtle interplay, we did want to see a movie in English and purchased tickets for Charlie’s Angels, the epitome of subtlety.  They later offered free T-3 sunglasses for purchasing tickets for Terminator 3 early but we held off.

Now here is a real highlight.  Last weekend, we attended a meeting of the Neurosurgical Association of Thailand as guests of Dr. Chaiwit from Khon Kaen.  It was a high honor and privilege.  We met Dr. Chaiwit through Dr. Thomas Flynn of Baton Rouge, who has long supported neurosurgery in Asia.  Dr. Chaiwit is an energetic and committed neurosurgeon, who almost alone, has served a population of several million for many years.  Judy and I look forward to spending some time in Khon Kaen in the fall.  At the conference, we also met other top neurosurgeons in Thailand, including the President of the Association, and professors from Bangkok and Chiang Mai. 

It was also exciting to met some of the younger generation of doctors, including Drs. Wanarak and his wife, Dr. Kung, who just successfully completed Neurology boards, and Dr. Tanat.  They work in Chiang Mai, at the university.  We will spend some time in Chiang Mai visiting the NS department later this year.
Almost incredibly, one doctor introduced himself as a former neurosurgery resident from Morgantown, WV.  He had completed his residency at WVU hospital two years before I came on staff.  When I heard that, I realized that this encounter was less a small-world phenomenon than proof of the extended influence of career teachers, such as Dr. Nugent, on whose shoulders we all stand.

The meeting was held at the Regency Hotel and Resort in Cha-am, a seaside town on the west coast of the Gulf of Thailand, not too far from Bangkok.

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ira on June 25th, 2003

I’m getting some more pages up while we still have a fast connection, because, as Judy writes below, we’re moving at the end of the week.  We’re excited about our new, off-the-beaten-path location, off-the-beaten-path relative to commercial and touristy stuff.  But, we’ll still be on the Skytrain route and can beat our way back to Sukhumvit anytime we need a western fix.  Close enough and far enough away, you might say.

Last weekend Judy and I joined the Rural Area Medical Aid (RAMA) Foundation on a trip to the Sukhothai area.  For 20 years, the RAMA Foundation has pursued its mission to aid rural populations and goes to different areas of Thailand every two months.  Dick Williams, M.D., an American and 15-year member of the organization, kindly invited us.  So Saturday, we joined a mix of 70 dedicated dentists, therapists, doctors, nurses, and administrators who came from Bangkok.  These professionals traveled overnight from Bangkok by bus, slept on the floor of the school where the patients were seen and then returned on Sunday, led by a police escort with sirens wailing.  1860 patients came to be examined and to receive treatment or medicine as appropriate.  Talk about appreciated, these volunteers truly are.  It was a privilege to be involved with them.

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judy on June 18th, 2003

Other great news is that we’ve officially started Thai lessons and LOVE our teacher. We are taking 20 hours of semi-private lessons (i.e. just the 2 of us) for a jump-start and then, starting July 15, will begin a series of intense classes that meet 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. We just decided that we had to get with it!! The class that begins July 15 will have a maximum of 12 students. The school is one of the well known ones where missionaries come to learn Thai, so we expect to have a class of serious learners!!

We are beginning to be able to say a few things and, as you know, every time one can say something and be understood in an Asian language, it’s a major triumph. Our new neighborhood will be good for improving our Thai as there aren’t so many farangs (foreigners) over there. Consequently, we should have a better environment to practice and use the Thai we are learning.

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judy on June 18th, 2003

Ira and I are really enjoying ourselves these days. We have finally decided where we’re going to live until December 16. Not only have we decided that we’re going to stay in Bangkok, but we’ve found a very nice fully furnished apartment that only costs $500 (21,000 baht) per month and has one bedroom, a living room, a separate kitchen, and a bath (and a little balcony). Also included are linens, TV (even HBO on the cable), and daily maid service, with the sheets and towels changed 3 times a week. The building has a swimming pool and an OK workout room, along with a nice lobby and lounge area.

We think the location is going to be great. The apartment is literally a 5 minute walk to the Sky train (as opposed to our current 20 minute walk) and is in a nice neighborhood that is quieter than our present one, but still lively. We figure we can always hop the Sky train and come down to Sukhumvit. Our new place is in the Victory Monument area – in fact, our apartment is called The Victory Executive Residences. Despite the posh name, the building is actually just right. It’s not at all pretentious and still very comfortable. See the link below: http://www.realestatethai.com/apartmentthai/ServiceApartment/victory/victory.htm

Our unit is called “bedroom B” on the web. Also, we got a better price than what is listed on the web (28,000 Baht) because they’re having a special ;>).

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ira on June 18th, 2003

Finally, SARS is beating a fast retreat, according to the WHO, thanks to intense public health measures.  That is the biggest news in Asia.  And it’s happening none too soon: SARS has reeked havoc on the lives of thousands and crippled the Asian economy.  Thank all of you who have expressed concern for our personal health.

Judy and I have recently visited Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai.  We have seen temples, ridden elephants, and even watched a patient in an elephant hospital receive acupuncture.  We have also trudged miles throughout Bangkok, locating a long-term apartment.  It’s been great!

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ira on May 31st, 2003

That’s today’s big news.  Judy and I–along with 13 other great “native English speakers”–are walking off with certificates that attest to our status as TESOL teachers.  We’ve studied grammar and phonemics and done eight hours of practice teaching.  It was a great experience!  But we most remember the people, the other students, and the excellent teaching staff.  You can meet most of them in our photos: either on a Songtaew (covered pickup truck with benches) en route to teaching practice, at Olivier’s World Cafe, or on the beach. 
There are also photos of the school with its flora and non-student fauna. As to the fauna, guess why we held geckos in such esteem. I named the one in my room Orkin.  We debated whether the rats appeared before or after the snake fried itself across a circuit breaker with a terrific bang, and decided they were there all along.  I really enjoyed the street dogs.
Judy and I were very impressed with the hugely energetic (and younger!) students. They don’t seem to be as buffeted by events as we are.  They crank up their CDs, put on their flip-flops, do their jobs well, and keep on moving.  Mighty enlightening. 
Judy and I weren’t the only Americans at the school.  There were a couple of guys from Texas, a Minnesotan, a Floridian, and a New Mexican.  The rest were basically from the UK, and some tall ones came from Australia.  Two other women students were there in addition to Judy and two women instructors.  The group was highly compatible.
Sorry for the gaping hiatus since the last update.  As we set out for Ban Phe, Judy and I envisioned the romance of a remote seaside village, of giving ourselves over to sun, salty air, and the bounty of the sea.  Yeah, we might have to do some grammar and stuff for a certification course. But we definitely didn’t expect an ongoing grind and a strong academic and practical experience.  So much for illusions.
The academic director, Dave Hopkins, was serious and demanding and wanted us to do well.  He’s been involved in teaching language-learning in countries on five continents since the 60’s, and his teaching and course materials speak the language of experience.  The two other instructors were also superb, but they have since left. The opportunity for student teaching was exceptional at Srinagarindra School in Rayong.
Since students pay western prices in a Baht economy, prospective ones should consider the level of services as well as the academics.  Our group gave thumbs down to the services controlled by upper management.  We were disappointed the school’s indifference to reasonable support requirements. Don’t expect western services at TEFL International or buy into the excuse, “This is Thailand; what do you expect?”  Caveat emptor is worthwhile advice: There are other reputable TEFL (TESOL) schools in Thailand.

We’re in Bangkok at the moment, thinking back on the month in Ban Phe and the fabulous people who made up the class.  And we’re planning what to do next.

One thing is certain  We’re going to update the web over the next few of weeks.  So, check in off and on..

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judy on May 31st, 2003

Well, after an intense month of school in Ban Phe, Ira and I are now certified to teach English as a foreign language with TEFL/TESOL certification. (Please, no snide remarks from the peanut gallery about Southern accents. There are lots of interesting accents — our class had 7 Americans, 2 Australians and 6 Brits. ) As some folks have pointed out, there have not been any journal entries or major photo updates from us since we arrived in Thailand back in April. This is true and the reason is that we have worked really hard and full-time as students. Our course was very rigorous, with classes from 9 – 5 every day and then with homework!! And, of course, there was a student hangout across the street that needed visiting on a regular basis in the evening, after hours.

We also went to a Thai high school in Rayong 8 different days for 7 sessions of practice teaching along with one day of observation. During that time, every morning at 7:15 am, we headed out in a Songtaew, a pickup with a cover and bench seats in the bed, for our 50 minute ride to the High School. Our classes there were over at 12:00 so our trip back was usually quite warm. But with no sides you can catch a breeze — which is a good thing as temperatures were in the 90s. That was a trip to say the least!!

We will write up all our experiences to date; we had a very interesting group and enjoyed our classes and classmates enormously. And, there are lots of pictures.

Our course was over May 23 and we have been in Bangkok, getting squared away and touring around ever since.

Bangkok is great. We have taken a serviced apartment for a month while we decide what to do and where to go next.

Our NEW address (until the end of June) is:
Admiral Suites
38, 38/14 Sukhumvit Soi 22
Apt. 304
Bangkok 10110
Thailand

The apartment building’s phone is 66-2-663-4000 and we have voice mail on that line I believe. Also, our cell phone is 66-9-025-5723 and we definitely have voice mail on that.

We are going to Chiang Mai to look around up there for a few days. One of our fellow students, who is half Thai and half American, is in Chiang Mai and we met her parents when they came to Ban Phe. They have retired from Florida to Thailand and really like it in Chiang Mai and are encouraging us to consider working up there instead of in Bangkok. So, we thought that we would check it out. It’s in the mountains and is supposed to be beautiful. So, we’re excited. We are going by express train in the morning and are looking forward to seeing some of the countryside (it’s a 12 hour trip).

When we get more info and pictures up on the web, we will let everyone know.

Hope all is well with all of you.

Judy and Ira

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ira on March 26th, 2003

Yesterday, Judy actually confirmed our enrollment in TEFL International, a school in Ban Phe, Thailand, for a one-month course toward certification in teaching English as a foreign language.  Bolder yet, she also scheduled our flight; so the trip is on.  We’ll arrive in Bangkok on April 24 and return in mid December after a journey long in distance and time and large in adventure and reward.
We still feel vigorous enough physically to venture forth and want to take advantage of this good fortune.  You be the judge of our sanity. 

TEFL International is located in Ban Phe, Thailand, a seaside village, southeast down the coast about one hundred twenty-five miles south of Bangkok.  We’re going there not to learn English, obviously, but how to teach it to non-native speakers, whose language we won’t understand.  We believe that the TEFL certification will open opportunities for us to explore in other Asian countries over the six months following the course. 

We’ll be posting pictures and comments on this site during the journey.  The most up-to- date pictures and journal entries may not have made it onto this web yet.  These will be posted first on our associated Group sites, which are reached with the links to the left. 

 Check in from time to time.  And please e-mail Judy or Ira.

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