Good Times in Trang

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Koh Sukorn was the destination for our last weekend trip last weekend. It is an island in Trang Province that is known for its atmosphere and not its beaches. One of the bungalows on Koh Sukorn, Koh Sukorn Beach Bungalows, is very well advertised in Trang with beautiful posters of the grounds and bungalows and there office is located across from the train station in town. I did my research on the price of accommodations and the trip to the island. It looked like it would be 1.5 hrs to the island in a songthaw (a pick up truck with benches) and a longtail boat. The transportation would be around 200 baht per person ($6) and we could get a room for three for a little over 1000 baht ($35). Niamh, Patrick and I were in, so we left Saturday morning for one night on Koh Sukorn. The songthaw took over 45 minutes to get out of Trang. We stopped all over town for the people riding the truck to run errands including a 20-minute stop at Tesco (the local Wal-Mart). We nearly bailed at Tesco because of the heat and frustration of having spent 45 minutes on the truck and still being in Trang, but we powered through and ended up at a pier somewhere. We had already been traveling for about 1.5, so I did not think the longtail boat ride would take long, but we spent 1 hour on the boat crowded with all sorts of supplies including ice right below Pat and Niamh. From the pier on Koh Sukorn we had a 20-minute motorbike taxi ride to the hotel. After such a long and painful trip I was convinced that the hotel was going to be a dump and that we would have a miserable last weekend trip, but the hotel was beautiful! The landscaping was beautiful with bright flowers blooming all over the place. The staff sat us at a table and brought us pineapple juice. One of the owners talked with us and gave us a discount on the room and explained an easier route home for Sunday (that would take closer to 1.5 hrs). Our room was nice enough with a third mattress for the floor. The beach was not to pretty with dark sand, but islands out at the horizon were beautiful. Niamh found herself a place in a beach chair in the sun and Pat and I got massages for $6 for an hour. Towards the end of Pat’s massage there was a massive downpour, the first rain in 2 months, which was beautiful and relaxing. The massage table was outside under a cover that looked over the beach. The massage was lovely and included a menthol butt rub down, which was unexpected. The sunset was absolutely incredible and we could watch it from our dinner table. The food was good and not too expensive. The island was quiet with little to do, so we found ourselves in bed early reading ourselves to sleep. In the morning we enjoyed a breakfast by the beach before heading back to Trang. The motorbike taxi was at most 15 minutes to a closer pier, the longtail boat ride 15-20 minutes. On the mainland we waited a bit for a songthaw, which took us to a taxi stand in Yantakhao (a 35 minute ride) and then we took a taxi from Yantakhao to our house (20 minutes). The trip was much less painful and we experienced the local taxis, which is a new form of transportation for us.


Last week Pat finished up teaching and prepared for his final, which will be Monday and Wednesday. I thought I was finished Monday when I turned in my final grades, but a two-hour discussion with my boss (which was not too pleasant) informed me otherwise. Because I failed some students (around 45 out of 450) I had to do something to allow them another opportunity so that they would not in the end fail. My boss had proposed a two-day workshop that would include 6 hours at Tesco (the local Wal-Mart), but I had no desire to allow students who have been skipping class all semester and failing their work a two-day workshop that would erase all that and allow them to pass. I asked her if they were allowed to make up all their work every year with a two-day workshop, what would keep them from skipping class the following year. She did not respond to that. I wanted my students to have a consequence for not coming to class and therefore failing my class work and exams, but she wanted a way to have as people pass as possible. She said that the students were afraid of me and therefore did not come to class. And she used an instance when I saw a snake on campus as a comparison, but I quickly pointed out that I was not required to look at the snake, but that the students were required to come to class even if they were afraid of me. In the end, I said that I would let the students retake the final if they came to me, so she had me come to school Thursday and Friday (all day). In two days eight students came to retake the exam, four passed (which is over 50%) and four failed. Interesting…


Over the past few weeks Pat and I have become regulars at the sports stadium in town. Around 5:30pm as the temperature begins to drop from 30 or 35 and the sun is not as intense, the stadium starts to fill up. The basketball courts, soccer field and any piece of pavement large enough to play a game of soccer fill with Thai guys between high school age and probably mid-30s. The soccer field is bordered by a track and the women gather there with speakers, sweat bands and spandex for outdoor aerobics. Stray dogs recline between pumping feet and toddlers try to mimic their mothers well off beat. The youngest kids gather at the pool, on the sides of the basketball courts or riding bikes on the loop around the stadium. The middle age men tend to stick to the loop around the stadium running in circles with their short-shorts and sweaty shirts. Pat has found his crowd at the basketball court meeting other guys in their 20s. They play game after game of 4-on-4 until well after the sun goes down and the stadium lights fail to illuminate the dark basketball. While Pat passes and shoots with the others I tend to run and walk with the middle-aged men getting the regular stares and shouts of hello. Sometimes I keep the same pace as other runners and we keep each other silent company as we lap the stadium. They recognize me and give me a thumbs up or a smile. The days when I am too tired to run I walk and get a few jabs of “Run! Run!” from some of the regulars. Yesterday while I was running, distracting myself with music on my iPod, I had a man shout “Slow! Slow!” I pulled out my earbuds as he caught up to me. He quickly explained that he was 72 years old in broken English. I was impressed at how well he kept pace with me. He asked how old I was and he mentioned that his daughter was 34 and lived in Bangkok. He said he saw me at the stadium every day. Our conversation was limited but we ran together for one lap and then he slowed up to join his friends, one of which reminded me that he was 72 years old. So one of my nameless running buddies is an impressive 72 years old.


Through basketball Pat has met several locals including two guys, Joe and Hok, that we hang out with on a regular basis. Joe is around 26 years old. He studied in London as a high school student, he has worked in Bangkok at a hotel and he is heading to Switzerland in April to study hotel management. His English is incredible! Hok is 31 years old and is a civil engineer in Trang. His English is okay. After basketball, we sometimes go to a nearby coffee shop for cocoa yen (iced cocoa) and water and some dinner. Other nights we have headed to other restaurants, Joe and Hok taking it upon themselves to give us a food orientation or maybe disorientation since we are leaving in a few weeks. Last week we went to a restaurant by the bus station where we had eaten with Daniel and his parents. I had been craving coconut curry (gaang gati gai), so in addition to the curry we ordered fried chicken (gai tod grateam) and Joe ordered fried grated catfish (yam blah dook foo), which we had not had since Bangkok. The food was incredible!! Maybe we were just hungry from running and playing basketball, but the curry was delicious, the fried chicken the best I had had with some black pepper in the breading and the catfish was some much better than the fried hairball we had tasted in Bangkok. Hok had brought a Thai dessert with him with coconut milk and water chesnuts. After dinner Joe took us to a dessert stand that he knew of and bought us a couple sweets to take home. While dinner was incredible, the sweets were worth trying but not good enough to find again. Most of them were jelly based which seems to be a Thai favorite. The next night Joe took us to one of his favorite restaurants and Joe and Hok took care of the ordering. We started off with pork sate with peanut sauce and cucumbers in vinegar, honey and limejuice. Delicious! Dinner included a seafood soup that ended up being a bit too spicy; a pork dish with coconut meat, citrus juice and peppers; a chicken and yellow curry plate; and chicken wings with a plum sauce and some sort of beans. After dinner Joe led us to a famous roti stand near his house where we enjoyed roti dipped in sweetened condensed milk and sugar along with cocoa yen. Since then we have met Joe and Hok for a few more lunches, dinners and evening drinks.


This weekend we have already had a fascinating weekend and it is only Sunday morning. One of Pat’s friends from basketball, Yut, is becoming a monk for three months and his initiation was Saturday morning. So yesterday we woke up at 6:15 and 6:45am to meet Joe and Hok (two other basketball friends) for a “real” Thai breakfast. We met at Joe’s house at 7:15 and went to a café down the street. From a tray we picked a few plates of pork fried in different varieties: fried pork, fried toast stuffed with pork, and fried pork spring rolls. Next came the steamed dishes. A stack of bamboo bowls came to the table revealing a variety of steamed pork. Steamed pork dumplings, fish tofu with pork, shrimp and pork balls, mushrooms wrapped in bacon, etc. Due to the early hours we all clutched a coffee or a café yen (iced coffee) to keep our eyes open. The breakfast was a great experience, but the food is nothing that I would rush to eat again. We followed each other in a line of motorbikes to the temple, where we found Yut dressed in white with his family standing behind him. The family ushered us over with the normal Thai downward hand motion and they handed us gifts for Yut that he would need in his monk hood. We walked around the temple three times following Yut and then found a place on the ground in the temple to watch the rest of the ceremony. Yut’s head was completely shaved including his eyebrows. He started out wearing white with a gold headband, but during the ceremony he was ushered outside and changed into the orange robes of a monk. I was able to take pictures throughout the ceremony and I was able to get some good ones. We were not able to really follow the ceremony, but it was fascinating to watch. After an hour, Pat, Joe, Hok and I left. We went into town to see about selling our motorbike back to the dealership, which we will but we have to wait for a final price until the day we will actually sell it. We watched a little TV at Joe’s house before returning to the temple to eat lunch with Yut’s family, girlfriend and her friends. After lunch Joe took us to a restaurant on the far side of town that serves Khao Soy, our favorite noodle dish from the North. It was delicious!!! Exhausted from the early morning we headed home for afternoon naps and slept until it was time to head to the stadium. After basketball we picked up some satay chicken and fried chicken and went to a coffee shop for cocoa yen (iced cocoa) and our snacks. Last night we took Niamh to the roti stand (because she LOVES roti) and enjoyed some roti and tea.


We are definitely settling in to life in Trang just in time to start our Southeast Asian travels. We are having a lot of fun and enjoying some great food with our new friends! Our last weeks will definitely be our best and we are finding that we will miss life in Trang!