Thai Time

Less than a month before I leave Thailand. I have only one more formal week teaching. The following week I am reviewing for final exams. I will also be tackling an enormous pile of paper work, unit tests, and grading. It’s a little bitter sweet these last few weeks. I really have some awesome students that I am going to miss. I also have some students that I am excited to never see again, haha.

Me and a few of my second graders on Children's day.

Sunset at the Wat near my school. Taken on one of my evening walks.

The past few months in Thailand. I have experienced “Thai time.” I had been warned about this by my TESOL agency. With all of the “Thai time” situations that I came across previously, I was able to casually go with the flow. However, as the new year started and I started thinking about my next steps for my career and general life, the “Thai Time” really got the best of me.

“Thai time” is western jargon for how Thai people go about getting things done. It is basically just a lot different from how us western countries operate. It’s not necessarily wrong, its just not the way that I am accustomed to handling tasks and it becomes frustrating. Mainly because no one continues to communicate about the issues. As a westerner, you think they are not getting done and you don’t feel like a priority.

A recent Thai time example, was between myself, agency, and school. I asked my agency to talk to my school and get me a date for when I could starting booking plane tickets to officially leave Thailand. I give final exams on February 22nd and then I have a English camp on March 5th. After waiting and checking in with my agency, hearing “we will talk to your school tomorrow” several times, with no avail. I decided to approach the director of my school and ask for specific dates.

The director asked me when I wanted to leave. I told her March 8th seemed appropriate. We even looked at the calendar and agreed that I would have 2.5 weeks to turn in all of my scores, plan, and participate in camp. I went ahead and booked my flight tickets. Two weeks later my agency tells me that the school should not have told me March 8th. I cannot leave till the 22nd of March. I felt like I had asked and made the appropriate conversations with all parties. It also seemed like my agency was blaming my school. Yet, I know from my previous conversation, that my school was fine with me leaving. It really all came back to my agency being unorganized. It’s also unknown, if I say an extra month, if I will be working. I would most likely just be waiting to report to the school incase they had any questions about my scores. I feel like this communication can be completed over email. Booking my plane tickets almost a month later would have been more expensive. I didn't want to wait around in Hat Yai when I could take this time to be traveling. I kindly told them, I would still be leaving on the 8th. I most likely will not be receiving my last months salary. I accredit all of this unnecessary stress, to Thai time, I needed something to operate quicker. It’s just one of those things that comes with living internationally.

Another Thai time example, my bathroom sink had a terrible leak. The leak from my sink would drain onto my bathroom floor. I don't have a shower. I have a cold water hose that is attached to the wall, in my bathroom, that serves as my shower. So the sink draining, went directly into my shower drain. Which wasn’t a problem except for my bathroom floor was always wet and a little smelly. I would wake up in the middle of the night and almost slip and fall because the water had collected. I had a few moments where I thought to myself. “So this is how I die.” The leak was actually causing a lot of damage to the downstairs bathroom, and since it took about 3 months to fix the problem, more damage downstairs occurred.

I told my agents about it, they called a Plummer. The Plummer was unable to come and fix the leak for about 2 months. One day he miraculously showed up, unknown to me, and tore up my entire bathroom tiled floor. This coated my entire room in a layer of dust. Including my bed. This dust, I cannot get rid of it. I have cleaned, cleaned, and re cleaned my room. It was becoming frustrating because the Plummer would show up on Monday, dust my entire room (even though I took measures to cover my bed). Then he wouldn't return till Thursday. Therefore I was constantly deep cleaning my room, with no idea when he would be back to dust it again.. excuse me, “do plumbing activities.”

I know this sounds petty, because of this infrequent dusting. But somehow after breathing in a certain amount of it I progressed into a full blown, upper respiratory infection, that turned into pneumonia. I had to go through two rounds of antibiotics and a trip to the hospital. I think this sickness was mainly due to the Plummer dusting but also due to the smog pollution in Hat Yai. My doctor said it was allergies. But lets be honest.. this was all because of THAI TIME! Just finish fixing the bathroom.

I was informed recently that my bathroom was finished. The owner of the building even came and took a gander. The Plummer personal still have a good amount of their tools in my room, as they have the downstairs bathroom to complete. This weekend I promptly moved everything downstairs. Including a large bag of dust, it’s like tile cement. Which is terrible for me to breath and can cause cancer. I am continuing to mop and just waiting till the end of the month when I can move out.

In other news. This morning I opened the fridge downstairs and a cockroach scurried across my leg. Gross.

Apart from all the “Thai time”, dusting, and cockroaches. I am still living in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I am enjoying taking my motorbike out for a few last spins. The rainy season is over in Thailand, and the weather is PERFECT. Its not beastly hot and muggy yet. I wish motorbikes were more popular in NC. I found a great cafe that serves cappuccinos with cats.

Hey Kitty!

Jovanna and I took a trip over Chinese New Year! We went to an island off Trang called Koh Mook/Muk. The bus ride there was full on “Thai Time”. Schedules operate different then in the U.S.A. They wait until the bus is full. Therefore, there is no specific schedule for when the bus will leave. You can get to the stop early and be lucky enough to only wait for a few minutes. Or you can settled down into a concrete seat in the hot dust of the bus terminal.... for hours.

I felt extremely awful for a lot of the “Thai time” we experienced that day, because I arrived at the bus station 20 minutes late due to a taxi mishap. Totally my fault. The first bus had already left. Jovanna and I waited for an hour and the second bus showed up, already full, except for 2 tiny seats in the back. Jovanna clawed her way to those seats and we set in the back of the bus for 2 hours. Catching every bump, trying not to get motional sickness, and holding our legs into our chests due to the 0% leg room. Jovanna looked at me at one point and said “just go to a happy place, in your mind”. When we arrived at the bus station in Trang, we had yet another 2 hour wait. Which I think only expired because I kept nudging and pointing to my watch, for the bus driver to take us.

Waiting at the bus station.

I was determined to get better seats for this hour long journey to the Koh Mok dock. Someone on the bus was transporting three dirty styrofoam coolers. Yes, my mind went straight to “black market organs”. I of course with my “brilliant luck” had to sit beside the coolers. I asked the bus driver who didn’t speak a lick of English “what was in the coolers”? Another women replied “clothes”.

And onward we went.

The gross "clothes" coolers.

This bus ride, despite the coolers, was much better. We arrived at the dock and took a long tail boat to Kok Mok. Things were starting to get better.

We arrived at our hotel to find it looking nothing like the pictures. Also, our reservation could not be found. They ended up placing us in a room with a broken shower, king bed (we asked for two twins) and a bathroom door that closed with a rusty nail and string. Jovanna and I were too our limits. After waiting for 20 minutes to talk to someone about fixing the broken shower head. We saw a glimmer of a beach down a jungle road. We just followed it. The road took us through a tiny village that opened up into one of the most beautiful beaches. We saw a restaurant in the side of a mountain over looking the water. We went there. Like two starved zombies after the apocalypse. We ordered the most random smattering of food. It included chicken and rice, vegetables and rice, French fries, a honey pancake, two bottles of water, a coke, an iced coffee and a glass of red wine. The server giggled and quickly delivered the food. She could tell we were hungry. The food was amazing. Also, the wine. ACTUAL WINE. Not the cheap watered down sugary stuff. In addition, they had no idea about the “3 finger pour”. So I was served wine in a lemonade glass. Full to the brim. My life was getting better.

View from the restaurant with the wine in a lemonade glass.

Jovanna and I spent the next two days seeing the island. We took a snorkeling tour, on a private long tail boat. A Thai man, his son and his son’s little boy, were our long tail guides. The little boy was adorable. He was about 3-4 years old. He had a unique way of sleeping on the boat and enjoyed eating chips. When I jumped into the water he threw some chips nearby. The fish swarmed around us to eat the chips. I even had a fish swim into my ear. But I did get some cool unclose photos of fish. Later in the day, we went to the sister island Koh Kradan. Koh Kradan had beautiful pristine beaches, the water was so clear that thousands of tiny minnows collected on the shore line. I walked down the beach and felt like I was in a tropical music video..

Cute boat kid sleeping and his dad.

The underwater camera is holding up!

The swarms of fish looking for chips.

This is how i pose for photos

This photo describes our friendship. Jovanna is blinded and my ass is just up in the air.

Koh Kraden

Made Jovanna take about 20 photos of me before I found one that I liked.

Later that day we went to the Emerald Cave. This is one of the top places to see in Koh Mok and only available to get to by boat and swimming. On our journey back to Koh Mok, our long boat pulled up to a rock wall in the ocean that was on the far north side of the island. Our guide motioned and jumped into the sea. (in typical fashion us westerners communicate with Thais in a form of charades). Jovanna and I decided against life vests and we dove in after him. We swam up to the side of the massive rock wall to find a small underwater cave.

Swimming into the Emerald Cave

The beach inside the Emerald Cave.

The cave had about 8 feet high and wide of breathing room, so we could comfortably swim through. Our cave swimming took about 2-3 minutes. It was completely dark. Our guide wore a headlamp and pointed at bats in the top of the cave. I couldn’t help but think. “Well here comes the bat poop”. The cave slowly turned and you could see light at the end of the tunnel which had a green aura. Then the cave opened into a beautiful lagoon beach. This cave and beach had formed because it was once the inside of a volcano. The soil inside the inactive volcano was so rich, lots of green vegetation grew on the rock walls jutting up high into the sky, I really could see an emerald aura. Apparently, you can walk to the very top of the cave and look back down into it. However, since Trevor (my boyfriend) and Uros (Jovanna’s boyfriend) were not there we decided that we didn’t want to put ourselves through that extreme hike and didn’t have too.

Our journey back through the cave.

On Koh Mok, we went to several restaurants. We realized that chocolate pancakes and honey pancakes taste exactly the same. The food portions were also massive.

Our room never got any better, it was really just very old “resort” (I am not sure if I can use that word). It felt more like camping in the woods with a bucket flush toilet. The staff were kind and did move us to another bungalow that had a working shower. We sat out on the beautiful beach we found when we arrived with a cocktail and watched the sunset and the assortment of hermit crabs that were crawling by.

Sunset on Charlie Beach

These kayaks were calling to me.

After two days on this blissful island we returned back to Hat Yai.

My Koh Muk adventure will be my last mini vacation in Thailand. I will be leaving Thailand on March 8th for Nepal. In Nepal, I am doing a 2 week volunteer eco farming. I will also be teaching English at an orphanage in Chitwan. Only a week ago Trevor decided to join me. Which after countless research and talking to several friends that have toured India. I feel much safer having a travel buddy. After Nepal, we will go to India. Then I will solo travel onto Rishikeshi, India . Where I will be for a month, training to teach yoga. Then its back to America in early May.

Check on the new snaps and sketches on the drop down tab.

With love Felicia!