I lived in Thailand for two years and three months, from 2013 to 2015, where I worked as a Primary Teacher Trainer as a Peace Corps volunteer. You’ll find Thailand travel tips, culture explainers and my personal experiences in these posts.
Earlier this year I started using this really neat app called One Second Everyday. Basically, it allows you to pick a second of a video or picture of everyday and then you can export them into a longer video. I thought this was super cool and so I’ve been trying to do this throughout the year, similar to my sentence a day for last year. Here’s a video summary of August!
In my village, I don’t have many people that I would consider my peers. There are elderly couples, couples in their late 40s to early 50s, teenagers and young children. Young adults are very rare in my rural area, and when talking to other Peace Corps volunteers, this is not an anomaly.
People in my generation are leaving the villages more and more to find work, or sometimes education, in the larger cities. But, unlike in the U.S., where the age of a first time mother is rising, Thais still get married and start a family comparatively young. New numbers from a study that was supported by UNICEF are showing that a large proportion of these kids are left in the villages with their grandparents, with some concerning results.
A quick search of the Internet for top vacation and retirement destinations will frequently turn up Thailand. A jaunt over to Amazon to find some books about Thailand will inevitably return numerous guidebooks and works of fiction written by white men who have either moved or vacationed here. There is not much fiction written in English by a Thai author. Which is why I was excited to find “Sightseeing” by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, a collection of short stories about Thailand.
You may have heard of the TED conference and even watch some of the TED Talk videos. There are also independently organized TED events that take place around the world. One of those was held here in Thailand recently. Jon Jandai is a farmer in Chaiyaphum, a province that is not far from me, and he gave a talk asking why we make life so difficult, when it’s really easy. Check it out.
Thailand has been experience some political turmoil over the last year. It began with protests, which lead to the government dissolving. The protests continued and new elections were held, though the election was declared void. Then, in May there was a bloodless coup d’etat, and the junta has been promising to make strides back towards democracy. Recently, they’ve created an interim constitution and appointed an interim Prime Minister.
more “An Interim Constitution and Prime Minister for Thailand”
Vincent: Yeah, baby, you’d dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same s*** over there that we got here, but it’s just…it’s just, there it’s a little different.
Like Vincent Vega rhapsodized about in the Quentin Tarantino film “Pulp Fiction,” here too, in Thailand it’s the little differences. And I know you are sitting there, like Jules, asking for an example, so here are five examples of the little differences of Thailand that I now find jarring when I see them in the American shows that I watch.
In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
On all of my bus trips to and from Bangkok, I’ve passed a large, gleaming, white temple. I’ve always been curious about the temple, but never curious enough to try and go on my own. However, at a recent training, we scheduled in a trip to the temple, which I also built a lesson around. Interestingly, it isn’t a temple dedicated to the Buddha, but rather a monk. Check it out!
When I write about things here in Thailand that have Thai names, I try to include the words written in Thai alongside the transliteration of their pronunciation. I’m sure many readers completely skip over the inclusion of those words and their eyes head straight to the familiar Roman alphabet attempt at how these words sound, and I do not blame them.
These strange lines and loops and tiny plus signs can be pretty impenetrable. During pre-service training, we focused mostly on being able to listen and speak in Thai with a little emphasis on reading, but not much. But now, after 19 months of being surrounded by these strange new symbols, I feel as if I have been transplanted into the shoes of the Kindergartners that I taught in the States who would express utter delight when they could recognize a written word and try so hard to decode the words they couldn’t.
In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
Last week was Mother’s Day weekend, so I took the opportunity to travel to the other side of the country, which has piqued my interest for quite some time: Kanchanaburi. I had heard stories of beautiful national parks and of the storied history of the provincial capital’s key involvement in World War II, and so I packed up my tent and headed west, all the way to the Burmese border.
It seems like Thais are always looking for an excuse to party. (Not that I’m complaining!) A lot of these celebrations, like monk ordinations, include everyone in the village parading through the streets and dancing. The music is supplied by a vehicle that is stacked with speakers and a DJ blaring music. Having trouble picturing it? Here’s an excellent video showing it. Bonus, it includes some great Thai folk music.