The Golden Triangle

Chiang Saen is located in the very north of Thailand – right on Thailand’s border with both Burma (Myanmar) and Laos.  This border region is the infamous “Golden Triangle” that used to be where most of the world’s heroin came from until Afghanistan took over.  The Golden Triangle is also where the Ruak River and the Mekong River meet, with the Mekong River serving as the border of Laos and Thailand and the Ruak River serving as the border between Burma and Thailand.

This picture is taken from Thailand.  On the right side of the river is Laos...on the left is Burma!

The DEA's legacy here in the Golden Triangle

The Thai tourist industry has also appropriated the term Golden Triangle for their use as a tourist attraction. The Golden Triangle we visited is a small town, mostly a tourist trap, located about 10 km from Chiang Saen.  During one visit there last Sunday we saw more white people than we’d seen the past three and a half weeks.  However, Golden Triangle is also home to an elephant research facility - we have met some of the people who work at the facility, and are planning a visit to see the elephants soon!

Jammin' with the Thais

Some things are truly universal. Friday, we were invited to visit the music room after the music teacher, Moo, found out we both played instruments.

Jon started jamming with some of the kids and Moo, and the result was truly amazing, the highlight being Moo on guitar and Jon on bass as they played Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman".  Some of the students joined in, the rest simply enjoyed the show.

We might not all speak the same language, but we can all enjoy good music together. 

Cheering for the Beetles! Chiang Rai United Football Match

             Chiang Rai is the closest “big” city to Chiang Saen.  “Big” meaning that it has about 200,000 residents (compared to Chiang Saen’s population of about 10,000), a football team, a mall, a movie theater, and American food!  Needless to say, whenever we start feeling homesick we will take the one dollar, hour and a half bus ride to Chiang Rai!

            

             After visiting the White Temple discussed in the previous post, we headed to Chiang Rai stadium for the match.  One thing people all around the world have in common is their love for football, and we were happy to experience football in Thailand when we attended this match between Chiang Rai United and Army United, a team from Bangkok. Both of these teams play in the Thai Professional League.   As with everything in Thailand, we were also pleasantly surprised with how inexpensive this experience would be: each ticket was 80 Baht, less than $3.00.  

Us with Peter in front of the Chiang Rai United beetle

The Chiang Rai United mascot

            The first thing we noticed when we arrived at the stadium was that everyone was wearing their orange Chiang Rai United jerseys.  We’d already seen Chiang Rai United bumper stickers all over town and heard all about Chiang Rai United from our students, but we were still impressed by the energy and spirit we witnessed at the stadium.

The game was very exciting.  We sat in a section right by Chiang Rai United’s fan club, so that made the game even more fun to watch.  Several different guys stood up front and led cheers throughout the game, our favorite being an adaptation of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” song.  Luckily, we caught it on video, watch it here!
 Sitting in this spot also meant that we were right behind the goal, with no safety nets up to protect us…this led to the most exciting moment of the game, when Jon got hit by a soccer ball that missed the goal!

One of the Chiang Rai United cheerleaders

The only downside of the game was that Army United scored in the final minutes of the first half and eventually won the game. 

A Modern Take on Buddhist Tradition: The White Temple

            One of the most extraordinary places we’ve visited here in Thailand, the Wat at Rong Khun, also known as the White Temple, is one artist’s modern take on a Buddhist temple.  This temple is located in Chiang Rai, which is about an hour and a half from Chiang Saen.  Peter took us here before we went to the Chiang Rai United football match, but the temple is also easily accessible through local transportation. 

The artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, wanted to build the most beautiful temple in the world, while also featuring modern Thai Buddhist arts.  The most striking difference between this temple and the rest in Thailand is the use of the color white – most temples in Thailand are golden.  The use of white makes this temple truly distinct, and the whole temple is truly extravagant:  twisting white spires- some covered in glass, a field of outreached hands and skulls, and a bridge that you have to cross to reach the actual temple. 

Perhaps the most interesting part of the temple was on the inside, where pictures are not allowed. A beautiful mural covers the wall that shows the struggle between the Buddha and the Mara (demon). Intertwined with the demon are American cultural icons:  Spiderman, Angry Birds, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Chuck Taylor shoes, and so on.  Most notably, George Bush and Bin Laden are painted inside the eyes of the demon.  Chalermchai Kotsipipat did this to represent the evil he sees in the world, and the fact that there are no superheroes or material goods that can save the world from this evil, people must do it for themselves.  To make this experience even more memorable, a monk was meditating in the temple while we were visiting!

This temple is still a work in process, Kotsipipat plans on spending the rest of his life working on, and he is currently training people to complete the temple after his death.  Kotsipipat oversees every element of The White Temple and its grounds, and his devotion to his temple reminds us of the story of Gaudi and La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

On a lighter note, another highlight of visiting this temple was the golden bathroom, also known as “the most beautiful toilet.”  Unlike most public restrooms here in Thailand, this bathroom is free of charge – so everyone gets a chance to use and admire it.  

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

Muay Thai

Last Sunday we went to a Muay Thai boxing match between Burma and Thailand right by the river in Chiang Saen. This was SUPER intense. The fighters in Muay Thai tape up their hands a little bit and wear a mouthguard..but that is about it. We were also really close to the ring so we literally watched the bloody saliva fly out of the fighters' mouths.  The first fight was particularly vicious and the Burmese fighter definitely lost at least one tooth.  Although it was hard to watch, it was really exciting to witness and the energy around the ring was crazy...  I'm definitely glad we had the chance to see this.

Our first week in Chiang Saen

After we got our official schedule from the head of the language department on Monday, we turned up for our first class on Tuesday and were told by the teacher that she actually didn't need us in there that day...we then went around to the rest of the teachers and basically our entire schedule was changed.  Jon and I are serving as supplemental teachers - so we basically take over a class period for the Thai English teachers, so they each have a different way they want to use us.  Two of them, Daniel and Rainbow, have been the most open to us - so those are the only two teachers whose classes we have taught.  I'm hoping the rest will come around though as I know Jon and I can have a huge impact here - many of these Thai English teachers speak VERY little English - even basic communication with them is a challenge... so I know Jon and I can really help them!

We taught two separate classes for Daniel, both for Mattayahom-1, which basically means 7th grade. These students were very low, many of them do not even know the alphabet.  They were very excited to learn though, and I think we can help them a lot in the coming months.  In Rainbow's class, we will be teaching the same class of students on Thursdays and on Fridays.  We are very excited about this as with most of the classes we will only get to see once a week...given that there are about 40 students in each class, it is already hard enough to get to know each student.  Rainbow's students are in Mattayahom-3, or ninth grade, and are also a lot of fun.  They are also at a much higher level of English, so I think it will be really cool to see how far we can take them.

A treat Rainbow brought to school for us to try

One of the highlights of the teaching experience so far has been the students' English nicknames...each child has an English nickname that we use in class. I have NO idea where these nicknames came from, but they range from standard names like Andrew to video game characters like Max Payne, to random English words like Bread, Bad,  and my favorite, Spray.  In the last class we taught I started phonetically spelling the students' Thai names in English for them to use as their nickname, and I think this is the route I will try to push most students towards... I'm thinking it is more useful in the long run, although maybe not as hilarious.

Jon and I introducing ourselves at the school assembly

This weekend has been pretty exciting as Chiang Saen has been celebrating the Queen's birthday, which also serves as Mother's Day in Thailand.  This has meant lots of fireworks (sometimes coming dangerously close to onlookers/trees/buildings/cars) and some special events Jon and I have been lucky enough to watch.  Friday we had a school-wide celebration with music from the marching band, lots of Thai speeches, and different student groups presented a picture of the queen with floral arrangements they made.  Everything was very formal and very cool to experience first-hand.  

Celebration for the Queen's birthday, at our school

Some of the floral arrangements made by the students

Saturday we went to a play/musical/reenactment of the last 750 years of history in Chiang Rai province...also very exciting.  A lot of our students were the actors in this, and it also involved fireworks - including some that definitely set a tree on fire. 

Other than that excitement, we've also had the chance to get to know some of the different people in town.  Jon delighted a bunch of the students by playing basketball with them, and we had one student stop us on the street when we were out Friday night and serenade us with Adele's Rolling in the Deep on his guitar.  We also went to dinner a couple times with Katie, the Fulbright teacher that has been here about 10 months... it is nice to be able to tap into her knowledge and her Thai is pretty good so that is an inspiration to us!  We've also met a couple girls from the U.K. who are here as research assistants at an Elephant Research Camp that's in Golden Triangle just a couple miles away.  They cooked us dinner at Katie's last night, and we will probably go to their research camp next weekend for a tour and see the elephants!  It's nice to know that there are a couple more people to hang out with here.

We're all moved into our new place and it is feeling more and more like home. We're sharing the place with a lot of geckos - most of them just a couple inches long, but we saw one last night that was GIANT - maybe a foot long.  They're a good thing, though - they eat the bugs and are harmless...but it was still kind of unnerving to come up the stairs and see this giant lizard staring at you. We haven't seen it since though...

Better late than never...Starting our blog on Thai time

I’m embarrassed to say that the only obstacle to this blog being up and running has been disagreement over its name.  Jon rejected names like “Every Border is a Temptation” and I rejected “Shirt and Thai Required”.  We have finally settled upon our name, so the next few posts will be a combination of emails we have already sent and pictures/videos that have been posted elsewhere.  However, I believe that seeing them in conjunction with each other, as well as being able to go to one place to find both pictures and stories, will improve the telling of our time in Thailand. Every day has been filled with precious, unforgettable, ridiculous, moments, and I want to do what I can to capture them all both so that our family and friends can share this experience with us, and so that we can relive them time and time again.

We miss and love all of you, and hope that you enjoy our blog.