May 10, 2005

Disco taxi, Bangkok

“There's been a load of compromisin'
On the road to my horizon
But I'm gonna be where the lights are shinin' on me
…doo doo do do doo do”

This will probably be my lasting memory of the last day we spent in Thailand. We managed to pick the disco/70’s rock taxi to take us to the airport. This entry was really just an excuse to put in the image of our taxi driver on the way to the airport.

Posted by jon jack at 10:25 PM

May 9, 2005

Southern Thailand and Ko Samui

So it’s all been a bit of a blur since Frank arrived, lots of playing pool and lots of drinking beer and cocktails. Three points for guessing what cocktails I’ve been having - so predictable I know White Russians. It’s pretty touristy down here, but the scenery is great. We have dinner sitting on the beach each night; you pick your food from the iced tray of seafood then it goes on the barbeque.

We’ve spent a week down here, but it’s been too hot and too expensive to do much. We did hire a jeep and drive round the island. I foolishly decided to train with the local Muay Thai gym down here. Was good but very tough, someone elbowed me in the face and I now have the obligatory bruised shins. The southern peninsula of Ko Samui is cool, very quiet with virtually no tourists anywhere. Chaweng on the other hand, is a carnival. Every other shop is a 7 eleven, you can get your Starbucks, your Pizza Hut and your traditional English dinner, if that’s what you’re after. Can’t help feeling that it’s not really Thailand at all – the signs are in English, the shops are American and the waiters are Burmese. It’s good for the partying though.

Well we’re at the end of our little jaunt round South East Asia. It’s going to be strange going back to a western culture. Will we get reverse culture shock? Anyway we’re off to Sydney on Tuesday to meet up with Chris our friend from Whistler. Looking forward to going to Australia. It’s a bit strange though as we have to ditch our warm weather clothes, no more sandles/jandles/thongs for us.

Posted by jon jack at 9:59 AM

March 28, 2005

Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp

We spent a week in Mae Ra Moe, the ‘Club Med’ of the Karen refugee camps. The location is breathtaking; it’s in the middle of the jungle with a river through the middle of it and, compared to the other camps, pretty spacious. We were there with the Karen Education Partnership, a group of teachers who come out to Thailand every year from Newcastle to deliver a week’s teacher training programme. This year, Abby was teaching community development in a women’s school in a different section of the camp. This meant walking up there every morning, an amazing journey along the side of the river and over a ‘suspension bridge’ of sorts that we were surprised to see was actually still there each morning. The journey back was by boat as it was too hot too walk.

The week flew past – teaching, swimming, and playing with the children. It was a bit disturbing to see how much the kids had been influenced by the fighting going on around them. When they were drawing, most of the boys drew guns, bombs and soldiers in accurate detail – it’s maybe inevitable in this sort of situation but still hard to handle. The general atmosphere is immensely positive though and we were made to feel very welcome.

On the last day of teaching we had a party for the students. It was excellent, though a word of warning when planning party games in flimsy bamboo huts – don’t try anything that involves jumping around with balloons between your knees.

Related links
karen womens organization
Inside Burma with the Karen - from BBC
UNHCR
UK Refugee council

Posted by jon jack at 7:09 AM

March 19, 2005

Mae La Oon Camp

This last week, we were apart for the first time since leaving home. Jon stayed in Mae Sariang to box and work and Abby went into one of the refugee camps to carry on teaching students who’d had to return to camp to be counted by the UNCHR.

I had a great time in camp as usual. I’d been to a different camp a couple of times before in previous years but this camp, Mae La Oon, is only a year old. It was interesting to see how much had been established in just a year. The site’s a pretty bad one – incredibly beautiful but impossibly impractical. It’s situated on a river with steep, densly-jungled sides. At first, huts were slipping into the river and still do during the rainy season. They’ve managed to build houses, schools, hospitals and clinics and are building and developing further.

This time, I was the only Westerner in camp which was quite a different experience from before. It meant that the students loved to parade me around the camp, to be seen with the ‘gollowah’, and were keen to show me absolutely everything. It was great as I got to see around but had to learn to curb my enthusiasm about visiting every single place they suggested as most ‘points of interest’ seemed to be at the top of a hill and the temperature was pushing forty degrees. I did want to see the Karen Buddhist temple though and was taken there (forgetting that like most Buddhist temples, it too would be at the top of a mountain). They have three monks, one of whom greeted me with betelnut, a kind of local drug which has a similar effect to a strong cup of coffee. He was intrigued to see whether I noticed any effect. Well, I could feel my heart pounding, was dripping with sweat, felt a little dizzy and my breathing was shallow – impossible to tell if that was from the betelnut or the combined effects of the altitude and the climb in the heat.

It was good to see the students in camp and fascinating to see them using skills I didn’t know they had – lighting fires, building rafts, fishing with spears. They looked after me really well. I had to get used to odd situations. On the last morning, one of my students burst into my hut whilst I was getting dressed and said “teacher, now we will go to visit the goats.” There’s never a possibility of hesitation so the next thing I knew I was on a bamboo raft before breakfast being paddled across the river to, sure enough, visit the goats, several chickens and the old man who looks after them. I wasn’t quite what to say but made some appropriately enthusiastic comments and was then taken back across the river.

Posted by jon jack at 4:39 PM

March 15, 2005

Carabao Concert

Carabao are the biggest thing in Thai music since, hmmm well since hmmm, anywayyy. Was quite a big deal for these guys to come and play in Mae Sariang. Carabao are the one of the most popular bands in Thailand - they’ve been on the go for around twenty years.

We heard reports that the kids can go a bit crazy at Carabao concerts, maybe something to do with the fact that they are sponsored by Chang Beer. Was good fun, the only worrying thing was kids wandering around carrying huge water buffalo skulls. It's the band's logo I think. We were well looked after though, it felt like we had our own police guard; one of ninety police officers there took it upon himself to follow us around and the Thai army were also standing by. I’m not sure what they were expecting. By all accounts this is the first big concert that’s been held here in Mae Sariang certainly the first carabao concert, and there looked to be around four thousand people. Not sure though. Was a good night, drank way too much beer Chang, singing along in Thai, oh dear.

Click to have a listen (to Carabao not me singing in Thai).

Posted by jon jack at 7:20 AM

March 9, 2005

Thai boxing Update

“Small, small,” the Muay Thai trainer says to me while gesturing wildly and pointing at my beer belly. The why or how are not important but somehow I’ve managed to sign up for a month of Muay Thai training, 5 days a week. So I’ve just finished my first week and have bruised shins, bruised knees, bruised elbows, cut hands, blistered feet - in fact it would be easier to list the parts of me that are not injured. It’s not so bad though. It’s one-on-one training for one hour, then sparring and lifting weights for another hour.

It’s tough as the trainer and the rest of the students don’t really speak English so well and my Thai is, well, pretty ropey if you don’t count ordering beers and counting to ten. Most of what is taught is demonstrated. Injuries and throwing up from over-exertion aside, it’s great. It’s interesting to spend time with local Thai people; Muay Thai is predominantly practiced by I guess less ‘well off’ kids. But they are so respectful of their trainer and me and of Abby if she comes along at the end. There’s a very strong bond between boxer and trainer in Muay Thai and a lot of respect.

Related links
Muay Thai News
World Muay Thai Council
Fairtex site - lots of good info
Muay Thai (Thai boxing)

Posted by jon jack at 2:05 PM | Comments (1)

February 17, 2005

Burma border crossing

Last Friday we visited Burma. We needed to go for our monthly ‘Visa Run’ so we went down to a town called Mae Sot on the Thai/Burma border. The population’s officially forty thousand, but unofficially a lot more. Renewing your visa is a bit of an ordeal - first you have to leave Thailand, cross no-mans land in the form of “The Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge”, then you reach the Burma border. Once you have handed over your passport they check your name in their books. Like borders in Africa, everything’s manual, no computers in sight and to be honest, it’s a lot easier. They have books for each country it seems with lists of names in them. They’re supposedly looking for any threat to Burma i.e. journalists, human rights workers, people working with refugees that kind of thing - basically anyone who doesn’t agree with the regime, anyone who’s a free thinker. ‘Fortunately’ in this case we don’t’ qualify so we just handed over our $20 and were offered the chance to look around Myawadi (the Burmese side of the bridge). We declined.

That was us done, another month in Thailand. Crossing the bridge, looking over the side you can spot people casually strolling across the river. One guy had what looked like an antique cabinet strapped to his back which seemed a bit odd. However, after looking round the stalls in Mae Sot you find they are filled with the most amazing artifacts. Abby spotted a field telephone from 1941 that we would have loved to have brought back but the thing was so heavy, we could never have got it home.

Posted by jon jack at 4:02 PM | Comments (1)

February 9, 2005

Muay Thai (Thai Boxing)

Friday night and it was off to the Thai boxing taking place in a nearby village. Shoichi, one of our friends here, trains at the local Thai boxing school. There were people everywhere when we arrived, it was more of a festival than purely boxing; there were food stalls, singing and, bizarrely ‘Techo Bingo’ - bingo which seemed to be accompanied with very loud techno music, very strange.

“No one trained in any other martial art has been able to defeat a ranking Thai nak mauy (fighter trained in muay thai) and many martial art aficionados consider the Thai style the ultimate in hand-to-hand fighting. On one famous occasion, Hong Kong’s top five kung fu masters were all dispatched by knockout in less than 6 ½ minutes.” (Lonely Planet, Chang Mai and Northern Thailand)

The ring was pretty crazy - it was constructed out of oil drums and sheets of wood with household light bulbs suspended above. So every time fighters were on the ropes the whole thing looked like it was going to collapse. The first couple of fights we watched were pretty tame; the first one was a couple of young kids. The second one started better with ram muay (boxing dance) a series of gestures and movements performed in rhythm to the ringside musical accompaniment of Thai oboe (pii), and percussion.

As the night progressed the fighters level increased, with knockouts the order of the night. Shoichi keeps asking if I would like to train, but the full contact sparring kind of puts me off. I’d end up with a broken nose on my first day.

Related links
Muay Thai News
World Muay Thai Council
Fairtex site - lots of good info
Thai boxing update

Posted by jon jack at 11:46 AM | Comments (3)

February 2, 2005

A Karen wedding

“70mph. No, maybe 80” said the guy next to me when I asked him how fast we were going. We were sitting in the back of a pickup hurtling past banana trees, rice fields and blurred little villages. Just to make us feel more at ease we were told “we had a crash with this driver a month ago, and almost died.” Fantastic. We’re never sure how much of what we’re told is true – sometimes we’ll look horrified at something and then people will be pointing and laughing at us and finding it hysterical that we fell for it. Other times we’ll look disbelieving (“I was shot and the bullet just went right through”) and then realize that it’s been said in all seriousness.

It took about thirty minutes huddled in the back until we reached our destination. Abby and I had been invited to the wedding for the daughter of a prominent member of the Karen community.

The bride and best man were dressed exactly the same, and the bride and maid of honour were identical also. Kind of weird; we thought it was a double wedding of some sort. I’ve never seen such a nervous couple of people, they looked terrified. Happiest day of your life and all that. It was a cool ceremony with a jovial priest, and all their friends and family singing and passing guitars round. It ended with a meal of rice and curried dishes with the odd chicken foot or two. Karen weddings only last the morning; I think they maybe have a party at the parents of the bride that evening.

The journey back was worse, instead of six in the back of the pick up there were nine of us being flung around like sacks of tatties. Then it was back to work for Abby and I. Our typical day just now is: get up, have breakfast, lounge around for a few hours, email, do some lesson plans, marking, that kind of thing. Then it’s teaching from one till three. Then we come home and chill out during the hottest part of the day, read, sleep. Then before you know it it’s dinner time. We go out almost every night for food – it makes sense - £1.50 gets you a good meal for two and it’s much nicer than things that we try to make ourselves. We’ve noticed a distinct absence of the Thai fishcakes so prevalent at home – ‘a taste of Thailand’ should really mean a plate of boiled rice. Friends come over or we visit friends, watch a film maybe. It’s a nice way of life for people working here.

Posted by jon jack at 10:19 AM | Comments (3)

January 27, 2005

Burns Supper in Northern Thailand

“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!
Aboon them a' yet tak your place,” (Robert Burns, To a Haggis)

I was greeted with vacant looks after my shaky rendition of ‘To a Haggis’. To be fair, I’m not really sure what half of it means myself. “Sonsie Face” - what the feck does that mean? Our home made Thai haggis went down well, a couple of people even had second helpings. There were eight of us for dinner and one wee yin (Luca is two years old). Everyone had a good time; we had beers and “100 Pipers” whisky, Thailand’s answer to Scottish cooking whisky (Bells, Teachers that kind of thing). Got a bit of a sair heid the day though.

I’m sure everyone can’t wait to try out our Veggie Haggis recipe.

• 8 small onion, peeled & finely chopped


• 15ml/1tbsp olive oil


• 4 carrots, very finely chopped


• 1 ½ cups of yellow beans (kind of like lentils)


• 3 large cups Quaker breakfast oats


• 600ml/1 pint stock


• cup of ground peanuts


• cup of ground cashew nuts


• 2tbsp (soy sauce)


• Juice of 2 limes


• 2 spoons of ground black pepper


• dash of chilli sauce


• Bunch fresh holy Basil (thai)


• A generous shot of whisky

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C, 375F or Gas Mark 5
2. Sautee the onion in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the carrot and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Now add the lentils and three quarters of the stock.
4. Add the nuts, soy sauce, lime juice and seasonings. Cook everything, well mixed together, for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Then add the oatmeal, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, adding a little extra liquid if necessary.
6. Turn the mixture into a lightly oiled 1lb loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes.
7. Serve with mashed neeps and tatties.

Posted by jon jack at 2:55 AM | Comments (3)

January 23, 2005

Mae Sariang

We spent a couple of days in Chiang Mai, wandering round the night bazaar which seems to be the thing to do. Our hotel in Chiang Mai was great with a rooftop pool and bar. After a very bu-u-u-um-m-m-p-p-py bus ride we got to Mae Sariang, home for the next four months. Scott is not around until mid February, so we weren’t really sure what was happening when we got off the bus. We eventually found the house, but no key. Thankfully there were people there, not really sure if they were there to meet us or just there to watch the TV. It’s a good place like that – people constantly coming and going so we’ll never be stuck for company.

It’s been a frantic couple of days since we arrived, meeting different groups, organisations, individuals. Abby and I have the use of a motor bike while we are here, so we had a thorough ten minute lesson on how to drive it yesterday, all good though.

Well, work starts on Monday, Abby at the school and me kind of all over the place. I’ve got four web sites to build, three interns to train, networks to set up, PCs to fix (Craig if you’re reading expect an e-mail any day soon). Can’t really say much more about what we will be doing, due to the nature of our work. Everyone has been great since we arrived, very hospitable.

Seeing as it’s Burns Night on Tuesday, we’ve decided to have a Burns Supper. I’ve been all over town trying to find ingredients for a vegetarian haggis, with minimal success. Not so easy finding rolled oats and pin head oat meal in northern Thailand. Never mind, the old ‘ply them with whisky’ trick never fails, nobody will have a clue what they’re eating anyway. I bet you can’t wait for the recipe.

Posted by jon jack at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)

January 21, 2005

Monk Chat in Chiang Mai

“do not work for money, only work in something you enjoy.” This was the reply I got from a Buddhist monk, when asked “what’s the key to a happy life?” well there you have it.. I cant agree more. I’ll rewind a bit here, in case you think I accosted some poor monk in the street. Wat Phra Singh (wat means temple-monastery) at this temple in town they have something called “Monk Chat”. It gives novice monks a chance to practice their English and visitors a chance to learn about Buddhism and Thai life.

Posted by jon jack at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)

January 18, 2005

Bangkok and the Khao San Road

“The only downer is everyone’s got the same idea, we all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check into somewhere with all the comforts of home. And you you’ve got to ask yourself, what’s the point.” (Alex Garland, The Beach)
That’s the Khao San Road. We got into Bangkok early morning after an over night flight from Johannesburg. Bit spaced out from lack of sleep and jetlag. Between Jo’burg and Bangkok, someone stole my leatherman multitool thing and my new beard trimmer my Mum gave me for Christmas. I’m walking about looking like teenwolf at the moment.

Bangkok is busy, hot and humid. It’s overwhelming. Too much to take in - the smells from the road side food stalls, the noise from the traffic, the colours of the silks and fake designer gear on show. I like it here, sitting on the kerbside having our 15 baht noodles for dinner, drinking a White Russian at the roadside Volks bar (a converted VW camper that is driven up at night and turns into an impromptu cocktail bar). Everything moves at a hundred miles an hour, everything and everyone feeding off everything else. The dude on the street takes you to the boat trip guy, he gets his cut. The boat trip guy takes you to the women with the little boat selling beers on the river, he gets his cut, she gets the custom. Its costs you to get off the boat. It’s a chaotic place that seems to function well, everyone doing their bit to get their cut. Like business at home no? Everyone does everyone favours, at the right price of course.

Everything is dirt cheap, but the problem is that you buy lots of every thing. DVDs, Diesel jeans, Ralph Lauren shirts, Stussy t-shirts, Rolex watches, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Celtic, Man United shirts, you can buy it all.

Posted by jon jack at 11:02 AM