Team Farang

We are still enjoying the simple life in Bahi, although today we are in Sakon Nihkon in order to do some Christmas shopping (food and gifts) and because there are legitimate Internet cafes here in the big city. The closest Internet cafe to Chris' house is a 30-45 bicycle ride away and is unreliable at best. In case you didn't notice, though, I was able to upload pictures from our time at the beach - they are in the first Thailand post.

The last time we posted we were leaving for dinner with Chris' host family at a Korean barbeque. The barbeque is a bucket of coals with a metal bowl seated on top. Cooking the meat and vegetables is up to the customer - kind of similar to a Mongolian grill, the food is presented in an all you can eat buffet line. Your choice of chicken, pork, fish, squid, and other unidentifiable tentacles is brought back to the table so you can cook it on your own grill. I think it was difficult for Nicole because the same chopsticks used for handling the raw meat were used to eat the cooked meat. The method for 'cleaning' the chopsticks off was to dip them in the boiling broth in the metal bowl....the same metal bowl used to cook the raw meat. The food was great and we experienced the truly amazing eating abilities of Thai men and women. I have always prided myself on being able to eat with the best, but I was put to shame by 80 lbs Thai women. The picture below isn't great, but you can see the grills in the middle of the table.
I say that we are living the simple life, but we have been surprisingly busy meeting Chris' friends and being invited out to dinner and lunch. It's tough...we have to wake up at the crack of noon in order to make it to lunch on time (joking, we're up at about 7 every morning). The little things seem to add up quickly - laundry and dishes are all done by hand and showers are without heat or water pressure. The picture below is of Chris' bathroom. The large vat of water on the left is for showering using the pink bucket. The smaller vat of water is for flushing the toilet seen on the right. The two spigots provide water, but they are only pressurized for a few hours in the morning and evening. Chris also has a clay barrel outside with it's own spigot to use for laundry and mopping. The only problem with this method of showering is the lack of heated water. Normally it's not much of an issue, but this time of year is pretty chilly and it becomes a psychological battle to overcome the fear of the initial splash. Otherwise, it's a pretty efficient way to shower and not much different than taking a "Navy shower." Going to the bathroom isn't bad either and you get a bit of a work out holding the squat position.



The last couple days has consisted of eating and helping Chris teach English to grade school children. Wednesday after lunch we went to the local elementary school (shown below) to help with a lesson about directions. Nicole and I took turns with blindfolds while the kids yelled out "turn left" or "go straight" in order to direct us to a chair. Since neither of us speak Thai the kids couldn't cheat...very much. After the blindfolds, they lined up to ask each of us a question (What is your name? or How old are you?) and we gave them chocolate for each question. Chris also taught them a couple Christmas carols - we sang a rousing rendition of Rudolf, Jingle Bells, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Nicole played volleyball with some of the kids after the class - shown in action below. The kids had a lot of fun playing with her - Chris and I almost had to leave her behind.


After dinner we went with Chris to another English class in the village with a different group of kids. This time I dressed up as Santa Claus while Chris and Nicole donned antlers. Several kids were waiting outside Chris' house - eagerly waiting to see what the farangs were up to. Farang is a Thai term for all westerners - pretty much anyone with white skin. Just biking through the village created a commotion. The lesson was basically the same as the morning class, but Chris also held a Q&A session between me (acting as Santa) and the kids. I felt a little awkward pretending to be Santa (some of them honestly believed), especially when they asked me if Thai children could get presents and chocolates and what they had to do to get them. I didn't really know what to say, but we ended up giving them chocolate in the end so I don't think they were too worried about the details.

Yesterday, Thursday, we were treated to our second meal with Chris' friends. This time we were taken to a seafood restaurant about 20 minutes from Bahi. The food shown in the pictures below was only part of the two and half hour lunch. Before the platters shown below were brought out, we had two curry soup dishes (one with shrimp, the other with fish) with rice. After the soup, two plates of crayfish and a fish covered in cashews, vegetables, and peppers was delivered (shown in the pictures). I couldn't believe they were serious about eating all of the food - I could only imagine that they were planning on taking left overs. Not only did we eat all of the food, but the women ordered a second fish!! And 'we' finished that as well. The food was delicious and spicy and their company was wonderful. We spent most of the lunch asking each other how to say different words in each language. Inevitably, I suppose, we were asked what worst swear word was in English. And, of course, it had to be repeated several times to make sure the pronunciation was perfect. Hearing three perfectly polite and proper Thai accountants calmly repeating,"Fuck you" was hilarious.


After lunch we went to a temple, Adjohn Fahn, dedicated to a monk famous for forest meditation. We also fed the fish protected in the river near the temple. The fish were huge - we spent about half an hour tossing fish food into the water and watching them swarm.


We made it home from the temple at about five and finished decorating the house - managing to use every last decoration, the house looks pretty festive. Hopefully we'll find some good farang food in town this weekend and cook up a good holiday feast. Until next time....