Thailand Newsletter #7 - March 18, 2001

The Other Side of Thailand

   The rain has ended; the heat has returned. We left by bus on Wednesday afternoon for Bangkok, then caught the overnight train to Lampang…about 1.5 hours south of Chiang Mai. Our train was over an hour late leaving the station and made multiple stops for traffic before clearing the city. At one point, Norbert, waking up from a snooze, commented on how smooth the ride was. He didn’t know that we had been stopped at a major highway crossing for 20 minutes! Six of us (Lori, Maxine, Tom & Sarah) were on the train, but only Norbert and I had 1st class (Nurse Malee’s orders). The others shared a four person sleeper compartment and were quite content and comfortable there. All of us had air conditioning. After Lampang, we went our separate ways by bus.

  Our destination was another hour up country to visit Britt Nielsen. She is a 28-year old volunteer from Vermont who has been here one year. Her mom sells real estate in Vermont. Her brother Christian lives in California, and her dad spends most of his retirement in Arizona with occasional visits from his wife. After a tiring trip, we walked to the school administration office in the rain, bags in hand, asking for her in our broken Thai. They proceeded to tell us she was not there. Finally, we understood they would take us to her at a nearby school. Britt explained that the schools were doing a two-day self-evaluation workshop It seemed that a French UNICEF volunteer was coordinating the training as part of their “Child Friendly Schools” project. Since she thought we would prefer to rest and wouldn't get much out of the workshop, she took us back to her house. She got back around 4:30 and we had to chance to visit all evening.

  Friday, we had hoped to visit her office, meet her co-workers and see some of the schools, but the workshop was still going on. Unfortunately, I had a relapse of my medical problem and returned to the house before we ever left the administration building. Norbert went on but returned at noon because he couldn't follow the Thai and he was concerned about me. With all of this Britt was also coming down with a cold. Because my problems were worsening all day Friday, we decided to leave early and go on to our next destination…Uttaradit, our future site (well served by fast – 8 hour – trains to Bangkok). Either at Britt’s house or on the “songtau” (covered truck with benches) I managed to lose my shoulder bag which, besides money, held my driver’s license, AT&T Visa and Schwab cards, Thailand ID card, and copy of my passport!! Great!

   The day was not going well! Our one-hour drive to Lampang was hilly. Everyone had told us what a beautiful area it was so we were surprised to see so many dead-looking trees and such little underbrush. It was not at all what either of us expected for “hilly jungle.” Villages we passed looked very poor. We caught the 10:15 am train from Lampang to Uttaradit. It was another 4-hour ride through similar terrain and several tunnels. Three sunburned women in our car seemed to be from Sweden. There was also a couple from Germany. The man kept saying to his girlfriend that their next hotel would be OK if only it was clean. Out of curiosity Norbert took a look outside and discovered that this major South-North route between Bangkok and Chang Mai was only one narrow-gauge track.

  Britt’s copy of Lonely Planet Thailand informed us that there were two hotels in Uttaradit that were middle range in price. They used to be the best in town until Friday’s Hotel and one other were built. Since Friday’s price range was in the 1500+ baht ($35.00) price range (Peace Corps only reimburses 250 baht per person) we decided to try for an air conditioned room at the mid-range Vivat Hotel. A taxi driver offered to take us for 30 baht (80 cents, a fair price). Our room is only 350 baht ($9.00) with air conditioning (that rattles like it is breaking for about 15 minutes every hour), clean sheets, and warm water in the shower that actually sprays (it is more than a dribble!) into a tub instead of on to the floor. We haven’t seen any roaches, only carpenter ants that seem to be doing a job on the doorframe to the bathroom. Of course, we were welcomed by our resident lizards.

  We have yet to meet with our human hosts from the Tessaban schools. (These are run by the municipality instead of by the State Department of Education as most schools are.) We are to call someone at the education office on Monday morning and will be picked up at the hotel. Until then, we have been exploring Uttaradit. It is a fairly large city that reminds us a little of the Bronx. There is a nice view of the distant “mountains” giving the (false) impression that there is cool air somewhere out there. The only cool place we have located so far is a small two-story department store – super market – mall attached to that more expensive hotel, Friday’s. There is in Internet shop here with speakers blaring war-game programs. There is a nice restaurant and a food court selling strange looking sea creatures along with equally strange looking noodles. The fruit is recognizable! The supermarket offers plenty of “Western” options from shampoo to olive oil to Snicker Bars. Both the supermarket and the clothing store have these loud, obnoxious speakers blaring music and “blue-light specials” announcements , K-mart style but louder. Sometimes this country seems so noisy, we are surprised everyone isn’t hearing impaired…or maybe they are! We noticed that the restaurant on the second floor offered pizza in addition to typical Thai food. With a staff of four attending to us, we ordered beer and coke, then worked for 15 minutes to clarify exactly what we wanted on the pizza – ham, pineapple, onions, mushrooms, a few peppers. 10 minutes later, the headwaiter returned to tell us they didn’t have any pizza. We settled for the usual – cashew chicken and stir-fried veggies on rice. I know it sounds good but it does become a little tiresome after 7 weeks of the same or almost the same. Oh what we’d give for a Big-Mac or a really big Taco Salad.

  The Nation, an English newspaper from Bangkok, reported that Pizza Hut would be opening about 20 new stores here (but when?) KFC just isn’t the same as in the US. It serves really greasy chicken and it is difficult to find the meat under the breading and skin. I don’t know why I bother talking about food. Every time I eat, I feel sick. It is about time to give Nurse Malee a phone call. Anyway, during our stay here, we are supposed to meet our co-workers, visit schools, look at houses, and open a bank account. We already have our tickets on the overnight train back to Bangkok Tuesday night.

  Sorry there are no photos this time. We didn’t bring the computer with.

Love Carol & Norbert

   P.S. We just received an e-mail from Britt. The Songtau driver found and returned Carol's purse to Britt's neighbor who passed it on to Britt. She said people in village have "jai dee", kind hearts. If this would have been Bangkok we could have kissed the purse goodbye.