Observation #2: Road Rules DO NOT Apply

Driving in Thailand is quite interesting and different. And I do not just mean cause I am not driving in a car, and I am now driving a scooter. It seems as though the rules for driving are just 'guidelines' really. To be honest, I am not even sure what the rules are, or even what the speed limit is on any road. But it doesn't really seem to matter.

The speed limit may be posted. But I haven't even noticed if it is. You will have people going really slow (mostly bikes, or cars if there is traffic or if they are trucks with things piled high on the back) and people speeding through (also mostly bikes weaving through traffic and going between cars). Then you have people going what feels like is probably the proper speed limit. I choose to go as fast or slow as the traffic around me for the most part, going slower on u-turns, turns and bends, due to my accident around a bend and the desire not to repeat it. The best part about it all is, I couldn't even tell you how fast I go, as my speedometer on my rented scooter is broken. Good thing it has no relevance to driving here anyways.

Most roads here in Chiang Mai have one, two or three regular lanes, and then a paved shoulder or a bike lane up the left hand side (they drive on the left like the aussies and such). Now, there are signs posted for bikes to stay to the left and for the most part many do, depending on traffic and speed. I choose to stay to the left hand side of the lane that is farthest left, not the shoulder. The shoulder is often bumpier and sometimes has sand or rocks on it. Many accidents are due to accelerating on sand. No thank you. I am a vehicle and I choose to go in a proper lane and cars and such can easily just go around me. It is not as though they would ever not just go in the right lane, into oncoming traffic, to get around anyone else going too slow for their liking (even around bends when most would think it was dangerous). Bikes/Scooters seem to be allowed to drive wherever on the road they choose, and drive between vehicles stopped at a light, just to get to the front. At a red light you will see a line of bikes/scooters, then cars, and perhaps some scooters scattered between the first few cars at the light too.

Many of the roads here have dividers between the right and left lanes. Because of this, one must often go past their destination, to a designated U-turn and turn around and go back towards where they came from. This also causes many to do u-turns at the light, which they will do whether the light is green, red or yellow. I am not sure they even have 'no U-turn' signs here, but I imagine if they do, no one reads them anyways.

Red lights, one would think this means stop. Which it does, I think. But alas, if there are no other cars around, it is merely treated as a stop sign (mostly at night). Or if there is a green light for traffic that does not cross paths with you (aka the opposite traffic coming straight with no right hand turns) and a red light for you, people choose to stay to the left but go through the light. What baffles me is that this happens quite often at a certain light I travel through to get to work, where there seems to be a traffic cop stationed at a little hut. Not really quite sure what the point of him is, perhaps he is not a traffic cop at all.

Another little tidbit; signals seem to be optional. Bikes/scooters weave through traffic without signals for the most part. Many cars/bikes do not even put their four ways or signals on when parked at the side of the road at night (also why I choose to stay away from the shoulder of the road for the most part). Also I have noticed many people forget their signal is on when riding a bike, cause you have to turn it off yourself on a bike/scooter. I am guilty of leaving mine on a couple times, in fact I am pretty sure I had it on for a bit today.

Parking is quite random here. Scooters and bikes seem to be allowed to park pretty much wherever they please.; on sidewalks, pathways, in front of stores, in between cars, etc. I am not sure what a no parking sign looks like here because people park everywhere. Anywhere a curb is smooth and allows for one to drive up it, someone will park if they need to park.

I am sure there is a lot more to be said about driving in Thailand. Perhaps I will do another post with more on the subject in the future. But that was just my two cents for now. Aside from my minor accident at the start, I feel as though I am adjusting to the traffic. You just have to have your wits about you and always be aware of the cars around you. You never know what they are going to do.

Day Trip Around Chiang Rai: Hot Spring, White Temple, Golden Triangle, Oh My!

Prior to the weekend, I had been asked by Leah, another teacher at the school and my friend, if I wanted to go to Chiang Rai for the weekend with her and some others. At first I was all for it, but after some consideration over money and future traveling plans, I declined the offer. On Friday when Leah mentioned they were only going for a day trip on Saturday now, and for 800 baht ($25 CAD) we have a van taking us around to the things to see in Chiang Rai and lunch. With that I was in.

I decided to take it easy Friday night, as my students had been begging me to come to their talent show at another international school that night. I hopped on the school van after school with another teacher and friend, Anna, and we headed to the show. After meeting a few parents and seeing a few students, we took our seats. It was actually quite entertaining. The talent some kids have is incredible. I was fairly jealous. I always love to see singing and dancing performances, and was so proud to see two of my students get up and sing solo songs. In the end, first and third place were held by our school's jazz band and dance crew respectively. We were impressed. What I wasn't impressed with, was getting home after 10pm when I had to be up early the next morning. 

I woke up at 6 the next morning and dragged myself out of bed. I headed to the girl's place at 640. Linh came down and let me in, and said I didn't have to be there quite so early. I had to head back to grab a swimsuit (which I inevitably did not even need) and met her at 7/11 where the van (which the other girls would already be on) was meeting us. After they picked us up we were on our way towards our first stop: the hot spring.

When we arrived, we got off the bus and headed straight to the mist coming up from the ground at the front. We took some pictures and then Alyssa and Linh bought some eggs to boil in the hot spring. I shared with Alyssa, as they give you three eggs and neither of us were going to eat 3 hard boiled eggs each. After waiting around as they boiled, with the ladies asking if we wanted to take them out numerous times, we finally took them out--they could've used a little longer. Then we took a quick foot soak in the other part of the hot spring and we headed off to our next destination: the White Temple.

Boiling eggs in the hot spring!

Soaking our feet in the hot spring.

The White Temple

When we arrived at the White Temple I was in awe. It was the most beautiful temple I have seen in my life. The amazing way it seemed to sparkle in the sun took my breath away. Walking around and through it, you come to find out just how different this temple is from the rest. At the entrance to the grounds of the temple, were scary heads hanging from ropes. Then on the way up to the main temple building, there were hands coming up from the ground, a few holding skulls. For some reason, I thought of my sister and how much she would enjoy this temple. Strange. As I was posing for a picture at the entrance a loud speaker was going on about not stopping, but we did anyways. As you walk into the actual building, there are amazing murals painted on the walls that were stranger than even the skulls and hands. Spiderman, superman, angry birds, hellraiser, the creepy character from Saw movies, Michael Jackson, the twin towers... Definitely depicting all that is wrong with society, funny how it was all Western images.  I tried to take pictures but there were no photo signs inside the building. I snuck a couple attempts on my iPhone. After we wandered, it was off to the next stop: the Golden Triangle.

Heads hanging from trees

Reaching for the hands.

Western evils

Twin towers, angry birds, randomness

The Golden Triangle was incredible. Not so much the actual look of everything we saw but the pure fact that during our boat trip we went from Thailand to Myanmar (Burma) to Laos and back to Thailand, stopping in Laos for a quick shopping trip. I was in three countries in one day. Pretty amazing when you think about it. We got on the boat, and it went over to the Myanmar side and we saw the casino that is at the coast there. Then the boat took us and we stopped at a dock in Laos. There we got to walk through a small market with everything from handbags to alcohol with interesting things fermenting inside. After Bridget, Linh and Leah had gotten a Laotian beer, we wandered around. Picked up a couple souvenirs and then went over to the alcohol. Leah decided to try a sample of the alcohol. First shot she had was the one with the tiger penis fermenting. I decided that I may as well try one too. After a shot of the snake alcohol I was done my taste testing. Leah tried a couple more. There was everything from scorpion to armadillo. After a few pictures with the snake, we headed back to the boat. After that it was onto a buffet lunch, where we then headed to the Myanmar border.

Island in centre of Golden Triangle

Welcome to Laos!

Leah and the snake

Making faces at the fermented snake!

 At the Myanmar border we got to visit the most Northern part of Thailand, while one of the other passengers on our van was renewing his visa. Now I have been to the most Easterly point of Australia, and the most Northern part of Thailand. After we got our photo op, we wandered around the shops and I found something cute for my niece. Then it was back to the van and our 4 hour journey home. Once we got back at 8pm, I came straight to my bed. It was a long, but fun, day.

most Northern part of Thailand

Chiang Dao (and the couple days after)

I meant to write this on Sunday when I got back from my weekend away, but then I got lazy. Finally getting around to it now. It's hard to keep up with a blog sometimes when you work all day, go do things after work and sometimes you just want to come home and relax. I have to be in the write mood to open this up and type about what's been going on in my life. I am in that mood now, so I figured I shouldn't waste the moment and should tell you all about Chiang Dao.

Chiang Dao is a small town about an hour and a half north of where I live in Chiang Mai. My friend Megan won a voucher for 1000 baht for a 'hotel' (actually bungalows) called Nest to stay at in Chiang Dao. When she announced her plans to go, she was going alone and I had plans to go Bangkok with my roommate, he was going to meet up with his sister who was in Thailand. Alas, my plans to Bangkok changed, due to the fact that I had already been there once, will be going again in May for a weekend, and really didn't like it enough to do it three times. Not worth the money for me. So once that happened, things kind of just fell into place to spend the weekend away in Chiang Dao. Less money, due to the fact that we rode our bikes (scooter for me) up there, and she had the voucher and it wasn't too much more than 1000 baht for the two nights. I was in!

So Friday afternoon, we headed out just after noon, as we had a teacher's work day and didn't have to be there to teach. We took the ride up there, going at a speed we were both comfortable with. Around bends, which there were many of once we started going through the mountains, I took my time. I am a lot more confident now since my accident, but bends I just feel more comfortable going slower. Thankfully Megan didn't seem to mind. After about an hour and a half, we got to Chiang Dao and Megan, who was leading the way, drove by our turn to the street to get to Nest. To turn around she turned into a rocky parking lot. Now my instincts told me to just turn and park on the side of the road in front. But trying not to be too paranoid I drove in too. We discussed quickly turning back and such, and next thing I knew my bike had fallen on me. So here I was trapped under my bike, scratched up my leg that wasn't too damaged from my accident, and re-bruising my almost healed leg. Clumsy as per usual. A guy rushed out and helped. And I cleaned my wounds at the bathroom where he was. Thai people are so friendly in these situations, must happen a lot. Stupid farangs (foreigners) always falling on their bikes. So after that excitement we headed to Nest.

Once we got there it was beautiful. Little bungalows with beautiful mountains almost all around. We checked in and hit up the pool, which was located at Nest, we were staying just down the road at Nest 2, for a little bit of sun before it disappeared. Unfortunately the pool was mostly in the shade due to trees and mountains. But we relaxed and read for a bit anyways. Then we headed back to Nest 2 to grab some dinner. After a delicious shared meal of spring rolls, green coconut curry buffalo and cashew chicken and rice, with a dessert of chocolate cake, we went back to the bungalow and just relaxed. Saturday morning we had a lovely breakfast (finally had bacon, as I hadn't eaten any since I left home) and went to the pool for a couple hours to relax and read. Again the sun didn't hit the poolside very well, so we moved our lounges to the grass, but eventually there was just shade. I got plenty of sun anyways.

Nest 2 Restaurant

View from restaurant

Sitting area outside the bungalow

Out bungalow

View from pool

Front of Nest 2

Poolside

Aroi maak (very delicious) spring rolls

Cashew chicken

Green coconut curry buffalo

Afterwards, we had a quick snack at our bungalow and headed to the Chiang Dao Cave down the street. The cool thing about this cave is that it is also a temple. So I had to wear a scarf to cover my shoulders, as I hadn't packed a tshirt or anything other than a long sleeve shrug to keep covered respectably. We wandered through the lit part of the cave, for 100 baht more we could have had a guide with a lantern take us through the part that isn't lit. But we were fine just doing the part we did. It was pretty cool to see how they turned it into a temple and just be there. Afterwards we wandered the grounds outside, taking pictures of the cool temple buildings and statues of Buddha and such. As we were about to head back, my only pair of flip flops (black havianas I am pretty sure I stole from my mum) broke. I walked a bit without it, but asked one of the people at a shop where I could find a pair to buy. He pointed me in the right direction. 30 baht later (like a dollar Canadian) I had new flip flops, throwing out the broken ones). And we headed back to Nest 2.

Me at the entrance to the Temple/Cave

The stairs to the Cave

The start of the Chiang Dao Cave

Temple parts of the Cave

Hanging out in the cave

Dangerous, or danqerous as they wrote, if you go to the unlit area.

Inside the Cave

Me in Cave

Me chilling with Buddha

Temple building

Temple and mountain in the background just outside of the Cave 

We attempted to go to Nest for dinner this time, but the prices were higher and I was not really liking much on the 'Western' menu, so we headed back to Nest 2. There we shared spring rolls yet again, and a papaya and king prawn in a tamarind curry, and some pork dish. All quite delicious. Followed by mango coconut stick rice for dessert. Afterwards we retired to our room to read and sleep. In the morning we woke up, had some tea/latte and breakfast and we headed home. That ride up and home was just lovely, through the mountains and on the winding roads. I quite enjoyed it. Aside from the fact that my bum was numb like 30 minutes into the drive.

Green tea with breakfast

Papaya & King Prawn with Tamarind Curry

Pork dish

Mango sticky rice

Stray cat enjoying the view while we ate breakfast

Sunday after getting back I relaxed at home, watched SNL from that weekend, as my favourite, Zooey Deschanel, hosted, with Karmin as a musical guest. Monday night I headed over to the Rim Ping market to show Leah the lovely things there, with Megan as well. I found a few cute items that I just could not say no to, especially for the price.

Seafoam Green and Purple striped shirt

Blue heart polka dot dress <3

long sleeve striped with a bow and crocheted neck line

plethora of earrings

Dinner for 25 baht (80 cents)

The day after was the day of student track meet, and also Valentine's Day. I think Valentine's Day is a joke, personally. But thought it was cute that my students sent me flowers and gave me chocolates. I had a lot of fun being at the student's track meet. About half of grade 6 went, so I went as a supervisor and the other Grade 6 teacher stayed behind with the kids who didn't go. I was dreading it a little beforehand, but it ended up being a lovely day. Getting to encourage some of my students who felt nervous and watch them do high jump and shot-put. It was a nice day away from my classroom and desk.

Vday presents from students

My student Ehu doing high jump

My student Anne doing shot-put. She was so nervous.

So that concludes my long post with lots of pictures. Sorry about that.

Observation #1: The Grass is Always Greener

I decided that every week or so I am going to pick something that I have noticed here (mainly differences about Thailand to back home in Canada) and write my observations about it; I am sure my opinion will be in there a little bit as well. This week I felt like sharing my observations about skin colour. There is something fascinating I find about the difference in skin colour here, and the perceptions of skin colour...

First off, it seems as thought the closer people live to the city in Chiang Mai, the whiter their skin is. I discussed this a little with a Thai girl at dinner last weekend, as she was admiring my skin and we compared arm colour. She was whiter. She said that she doesn't get as much sun living in the city. Which I started to think about, and it made sense. Of course people who live in the city and/or work in the city, aren't exposed to the sun as much those who work outside of the city, which more than likely means they work outside often. Therefore I have seen a great mix of fair and darker skinned Thai people in my daily life here.

Eucerin: White Solution w/ SF 7

Second, it's not only dependent on whether they live within the city or outside it, there are other factors. One thing I found interesting was that when shopping for beauty products, particularly lotions, you have to make sure you read the labels. Why? And what does that have to do with skin colour? Well more often then not the lotions here contain skin whitening in them. Even my brands I use at home (Eucerin) for dry skin, here I could not find one without skin whitening when I saw it. Here is a culture who would prefer their skin to be lighter, where I come from a culture of tanning salons and self-tanning lotion. They have the sun and want to be exposed to it less so as they can be whiter, whereas we don't get the sun much and we long for it to bronze our skin.

I guess the saying 'the grass is always greener on the other side' is pretty accurate. Or in this case, the skin is always nicer?

flat tires are super lame

As for the rest of my weekend, it had its ups and downs. Saturday morning we had to be up early to go into the school and participate in International Day. All the teachers had to sign up to lead groups representing different countries. My students wanted me to do Italy with them, and I got Kyle and Leah to come in the group with me as well. I ended up leading the group pretty much, organizing the meetings, handling the money we were giving to buy things such as food, and all that. Thankfully the students took the reigns, getting their parents to make the food and getting all the work done over lunch periods leading up to it. I even showed up Saturday morning and the booth was fully decorated; they had done after school on Friday. I was dreading being at the school, but once there I had a lot of fun. All the elementary students performed the song "We are the World" and there were performances by lots of students representative of the country they chose. So many great performances. My favourite was my student Katie who sang Someone like You by Adele. It gave me goosebumps. She always sings in my class, and though she has a lovely voice I have to remind her that it is Language Arts and not music. She was phenomenal. The best part was all the delicious food. I tried lots of stuff from the different booths. Indian was my favourite, the samosas were delicious.

Poster Boards for Italy

My students in their Italy jerseys holding the flag

Scotland Booth

Indian Food. Yum.

Adorable child playing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Rice Ball - Japanese

Face Painting

My student in his Korean attire

Korean girl with Italian flag painted face in Thailand ;)

Some students from my class :)

After the morning ended, a few of us went to a bar close to school for a few beers. I was wiped and needed a nap. Headed home to get some rest, ended up skyping with a cute drunk boy, and having a power nap. Wish I had a longer nap, but preferred the Skype chat more. At about 630, Kyle left to go pick up Leah and head to Duke's for Megan's bday dinner, and I left shortly after to head straight to Duke's. As I turned off our street on to the 121, I felt the bike was off. I kept driving a bit but it was very wobbly so I pulled over. I called Leah and told her. I said I would try again and call her back. I tried another 20 seconds and pulled over again. I called her back and her and Kyle came to my rescue. Leah tried my bike and then stopped and noticed the flat tire. So because I am not a seasoned driver yet, Leah road my bike slowly back to my house, and Kyle took me. Then we left it there and went threesies on Kyle's bike to dinner. After dinner, we headed to North Gate Jazz (the bar the guy from the band Megan and I talked to the night before owned). We stayed there for a drink (well everyone else drank, as most know I don't participate in that all that much) and then headed to Zoe in Yellow and the reggae bar. I love this place, mostly cause there are like a cluster of bars on a little street that you can walk between with your drinks and they are each different. After some dancing and fun, we headed home somewhere around 2am.

Sunday was awful. I woke up in a mood. I wanted to fix my bike but had no way to get to a mechanic cause Kyle was out all day and the bike rental place didn't even answer their phone. I wanted to go to the pool with Megan like I had planned, but my bike was my priority and I didn't even get it fixed. When Kyle got home he said no mechanics were open anyways. Should've got Megan to pick me up and went to the pool. Oh well. So to get out of the house, I tagged along with Kyle to the night markets and it cheered me up. Between the delicious banana pancake roll with chocolate and the amazing back and shoulder massage for 60 baht (like $2 CAD), I was happy. Not to mention the cute things I bought for cheap too. I love markets too much. 

Mmmm banana pancake roll.

Could've fallen asleep after this.

New notebooks <3

New FakeBans (or fake Raybans)

So today I went into school with Kyle, and on the way home we stopped at the mechanic to see what they could do about my bike. We told them I had a flat tire and couldn't drive it there, and even showed them a picture. So they had two guys follow us on their own bike, with a side cage, to our house not too far away. They took my bike in their side cage. Now Kyle and I asked what time we could pick it up and how much. He didn't really really understand but he said 6. And they left. Next thing I knew, at 5:50pm, I heard them drive into the driveway. I went downstairs and they had brought it back for me too. All fixed up. And it costed me 180 baht ($5.80 CAD). Never would anything ever cost that little at home, or be that good of service. Needless to say, it made the awful situation seem like it wasn't as awful as it could've been. Let's hope this is the last time I have a problem with my bike. Though everyone here has their share of bike problems, I swear it's not just me.