I finished my first massage course at Wat Pho massage school here in Bangkok. I really enjoyed it. It was also a good chance to practice my Thai since most of the other students didn't speak English. It was a 5 day 30 hour introductory course. We went through 5 steps of a full body Thai massage. If done properly the massage could last up to 2 hours. Our exam was a full massage in front of the instructors on the final day. After a lot of practice everything was smooth and I received a little certificate. I'll probably try to take the foot massage course next.
It seems like the universe is pointing me in the direction of body work, namely, massage. Considering the fact that I've been interested in natural health for a while now, this would be a good fit. I wanted to study naturopathic medicine, but I can't justify the $30,000 per year for 5 years. Massage would be a good stepping stone if I do eventually want to study natural medicine, school is cheaper and shorter, the pay is decent, I would still get to help people, I'm already a Reiki initiate, etc. . . .
The school I'm looking at is called East-West college. Although the most marketable type of massage is the traditional Swedish, I'm more interested in eastern types. Things like Shiatsu, Acupressure, Thai Massage, Qi-Gong, etc . . . . I've found a couple of places to study Thai massage over here, so I plan to do a brief course here before I repatriate.
I guess this means I will have to do a lot more massage research!!
This has absolutely nothing to do with the Thailand Reds, and EVERYTHING to do with the brilliant 80's action/drama starring Patrick Swayze, RIP, and Charlie Sheen. If anyone hasn't seen it, the plot goes something like this:
It's the 80's, RAD! Uh oh, it's an alternate less rad 80's with a big (read actual/realistic/etc.) commie scare, bummer. Somewhere in the Midwest those damn commies drop in on a high school and take it over. Everyone knows Midwest high schools are basically the same as fortresses. Too bad the reds didn't plan for a Swayze-Sheen beat down 'Merica style, FREEDOM!! The kids find guns and fight off communism, hooray!!!!!
SOOOOOOOOO, lately I've been thinking about how the normal Afghan citizens must have been feeling for these past 9-ish years of occupation. I'm guessing it's a lot like those kids in middle America felt when the reds dropped in.
After reading "Where Men Win Glory - The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" by Jon Krakauer I think about all of the harsh realities of war. If anyone hasn't read the book, do it. Bottom line is that since WW2 over 50% of all US wartime fatalities have been from friendly fire. On top of that, it seems like just as many innocent civilians are being killed in Afghanistan as terrorists. It has also been reported that of the people killed in unmanned drone attacks, 30% are civilians.
I liken this terrorism crackdown to an alternate reality of my own creation. Imagine it's the 90's. It's exactly the same as the one we experienced, and because of that a young man named Michael Fay decides to spraypaint a wall, in Singapore. The punishment in Singapore for graffiti is "caning", a brutal spanking with a bamboo cane. What if instead of just caning Michael Fay, Singapore sent caners into America and tried to find all of the troublemakers who might potentially deface their walls. The problem is, teenagers in the states all tend to dress alike, and look alike, and talk alike, so they end up caning some straight A students and other good kids. Kids who would have otherwise never thought twice about Singapore. Now those kids HATE Singapore. They got caned for no reason! Maybe Singapore would have been better off if they had just spent all of that time and money patrolling their own streets instead of making new enemies. . .
What happens to a chicken when you cut off it's head?
Apparently the body runs amok and lights stuff on fire!
The reds have been camping in various popular Bangkok districts for over 2 months now. There have been quite a few of them, at times around 20,000. You can see how this would wreak havoc on a city. Streets have been shut down, entire malls closed, areas enclosed by razor wire. Initially all they wanted were new elections, for a fair shot to get their leaders elected.
One of the problems with this was that these poor protesters from the north were paid to protest. Paid by a corrupt politician, Taksin, who has been in exile for 4 years. Although he did good things for the poor, he might have come about his power by shady means (not unlike many powerful elite in Thailand). He was ousted in a military coup in 2006. Since his entire party (the reds) wasn't allowed to run during the following election the current government has been deemed illegal by the red party.
Back to the present situation. A few weeks into the current red protest/sit-in/occupation the government offered talks to try and reach an agreement with the reds. They were offered elections in 9 months. The red leader walked out of the meetings without even attempting to compromise (the history of bartering has shown that he could have at least talked them down to 6 months). After that there was a large water festival holiday looming. In an attempt to remove the red shirt protesters from popular tourist areas the military was called in. They were supposed to use rubber bullets, but a few soldiers missed that memo and some protesters were killed/injured (along with a soldier or two). Military vehicles were subsequently turned over and burned, not necessarily in that order.
A few random grenades, RPGs, and bombs later the government offered elections in September. That's half the time they offered initially! The reds seemed happy with this solution. The government only asked that the reds abandon their block party and head home to return Bangkok to the status quo. This is when the reds shot themselves in the foot. They made a list of new demands, ordering that the general in charge of the April water festival chaos turn himself in. This is when the Prime Minister and government grew tired of the games. The military began a full scale operation against the reds. They gave fair warning and told them to disperse unless they wanted to deal with bullets. Most of the women and children complied. Buses were arranged to take the fleeing red shirts home.
Not all complied however. Young, poor, angry men were left. With the military closing in they rounded up all of the homemade weapons available to them. This happened to be a lot seeing as the reds had been hoarding tires, gasoline, bottles, and bamboo sticks for months. Tires (or tyres) were lit on fire and rolled towards the military. Red leaders were sniped. Petrol bombs were thrown. More militant youth were sniped. As the army closed in, the red leaders realized they had no chance.
That brings us to today. 2 holidays and 37 deaths later the red shirt leaders have admitted defeat. They turned themselves in and everything seemed on track to be resolved . . . . . but . . . . . . There is still an angry mob of "reds" running through the city center. I wouldn't call them actual reds. I would call them angry young men who want to start a fight. Rioters and mob are words that come to mind. Since their leaders gave up, the fires in Bangkok have tripled. Entire department stores and movie theaters are going up in flames. An 8 pm curfew has been imposed. Bars are closing early!!!
What we see here is the actual motivation of a large part of the crowd at the red shirt protests. I'm not saying that the reds drew these malcontents in there. I'm sure any protest would have done the trick. Without mentalities like these and stubborn leadership I believe all of this could have been peacefully resolved. It's a shame really. The heart of Bangkok is on fire as I write this. I've stocked up on food and beer. The current mob has started setting fire to news stations and supposedly threatened to shoot any press they see on site. This is what happens when the angry mob loses it's leadership. When you threated the press you lose credibility. All of the empathy from the rest of the world has left the table.
There's a TV channel here that is simply a webcam that records everything Lin Ping does 24 hours a day. EDIT: Sorry about that second video. I thought it was just the "Sexual Harrassment Panda" stuff from South Park.
I've been slacking on learning Thai lately. I'm posting this to gently remind myself to do better. These are the words and phrases that I use the most right now:
"All Numbers" - A must when bargaining.
"Turn Left/Right" - Can't get home without this.
"Go Straight" - See above
"How Much is it?" - Another bargaining must.
"A little" - My response when asked if I can speak Thai.
"I don't understand" - My response when taxi drivers talk too much.
"I'm hungry"/"I'm full" - Fun at a restaurant.
"Very Good" - Subtle praise.
"I like it" - To express myself.
"This/That" - Another shopping phrase.
"Can/Cannot" - More self expression.
and many more.
I want to learn some more conversational stuff. I also want to get better at Thai grammar. I guess I have at least another year for that.
"Hello/Goodbye" - Useful at the end of a blog post.
Dear Manny, Chris, Dan, Dave, Dave, Justin, et al . . . .
That's Ching. He is one of the owners of the "Memories bungalow resort" in Khao Lak, Thailand. The bungalows (that's them in the back) are set in the forest that opens up to the beach with 3 awesome things: A: A consistent beach break which is fun for beginners, out of shape surfers, or old pros. B: A sweet bamboo bar and restaurant with great cheap food and drinks.
C: kick ass sunshine and dogs and hammocks . .
OK, so that's more like 5 things, but you get the idea. The bungalows are a bit of a camping experience. There are shared toilets and showers and no air con, but if a group of us took the place over for a week or so it would be loads of fun! The waves roll in around 8:30 am and at 5-6ish at night. 2 sessions per day!! We can entertain ourselves at the bar/beach in between. Oh yeah, the bungalows cost about $10 US a night, the food is around $3 a plate (Thai curries, fried rice, with some western options as well), and the bus trip there is around $30. Apart from airfare and time, everything here is really cheap.
There's another reef break a few K (kilometers, this is Asia) up the beach that is more consistent and bigger. The waves died down when we were there so we never got to check it out but Ching was itching to take us. Khao Lak is on magic seaweed now!
If we get tired of surfing one of the owners is a guide for the Ancient Tropical Rainforest that's about 70 km away.
You can hike in to the reservoir that's surrounded by crazy jungle full of wild elephants, tigers, and bears (oh my!). We didn't see the big three on our day hike, but there were plenty of monkeys, lizards, and bigger lizards.
Dan almost stepped on one of these on the path!! It was HUGE.
It's hard to say what's going to happen over here with the reds and the government clashing. The reds don't want to compromise, no one but them wants Taksin back, the yellows are now threatening to take matters into their own hands. I'm not sure if anyone know how this thing will play out.
On a lighter note I just got back from holiday round one up north in Fang, Chiang Mai, and Pai. Round 2 involves me relaxing at home in Bangkok. This will be promptly followed by surfing and island hopping down south.
I've been teaching summer school for a couple of weeks now. It's a very relaxed atmosphere. I've been teaching Science to grades 8 and 9 and Math to 7, 8, and 9. None of their grades for these summer session classes actually count so it's just a lot of supplemental knowledge that should prep them for the next term. The hard part is motivating them, but I guess that's always the hard part of teaching.
The Red party here in Thailand has been camping out on the street in Bangkok for 2 weeks now. They were supporters of the last Prime Minister who was tossed out in a military coup about 4 years ago. He's a crook, but their points are valid. They want the current government to be dissolved so they can re-instate the ex PM (Thaksin). There was a lot of fear at first, and there have been a few random bombs outside of Bangkok (no serious injuries), but all in all it has been peaceful.
I have another holiday coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm going to go up to the jungle and stay in a treehouse with Oi during songkran. Songkran is like a Thanksgiving holiday, except instead of everyone eating too much we just have a huge waterfight on the streets!! It's one of the best holidays anywhere ever.
Finals and vacation are coming up. I'm super excited. Dave and I are in charge of teaching 10 4th grade students to play air guitar to the song "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper:
It's for the end of the year assembly coming up in a couple of weeks. Our art teacher: made them wooden guitars.
After that I'll go down to Phuket to do more research. I've agreed to sign on at my school again so I'll be here a while longer. Also I'm trying to find a cheaper place so I can save some $$$$$$$. OK, time to expand some minds in first period. We finished our math book so we've been watching this movie:
So I've recently been nerding out everywhere but on my blog, which is where it would seem most fitting. I changed my hard drive and operating system and totally forgot about my blog.
Recently I've been working on stuff related to starting a guesthouse here in Thailand. I'm currently working on web design stuff, so I'm super-duper UUUber nerding out.
My brief visit home was fun, it was great seeing everyone. It was waaaaay tooooooo cooooooooold though. I can handle a winter with temperatures ranging from 70-90 F.
That's about as much update as I have time for, gotta learn CSS web design!!!
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