Japanese High School Robot Club

Other than the Thai stations, cable TV in Thailand offers of a wide variety of stations from around the globe. While surfing I usually click to the Japanese station, which is mostly broadcast in English. I watched an interesting documentary about a Japanese High School robot club. To the best of my recollection this was their motto.

Change your mind and you can change your actions.
Change your actions and you can change your habits.
Change your habits and you can change your character.
Change your character and you can change you destiny.

Change

Making the transition from the northern hills of Thailand to one of the largest cities in the world requires time. Time to adjust to the culture of the city.

It is virtually impossible to go anywhere outside the Thammasat University campus without embarking on a major, and usually cluttered, highway. While this is by no means unordinary by Bangkokian standards, it is a bit unnerving to a Farang (Westerner) who, for the past few months, spent much of his time riding around in the sparsely inhabited mountains and valleys of Northern Thailand.

A long time ago, while bartending in Flagstaff Arizona, an old-timer told me that the key to success in life is one must be able to accept change. Everything changes. He had lost his wife, moved several times for business around the country, and at that moment was newly retired. Whether it be self-imposed, or simply a product of life, change is inevitable. They key is the ability to adapt to this change.

One of the beautiful things in life is change. Without change life would simply be one day ticking past the next with no real means of measurement. Even for the Buddhist Monks of Thailand, living only in orange robes and on the handouts from the lay-people, living in the same monastery year after year, days are measured by change. The goal is to change the mind. It constitutes years of effort to change the mind from discontentment to contentment, no easy task. It is about change.

So, from the days of building log homes in the rural mountains of Colorado, climbing around on the massive trusses in the crisp cold clear air gazing at the snow-covered peaks, to teaching English amidst the buzzing smoke-belching highways of Bangkok, once again change has come. From my twenty-something days to my forty-something days, change has come. And for the handful of people that read this blog, I know change has come – I hope everyone is adapting well.

Sand Temples

The Songkran Festival celebrating the Thai New Year is not just a one day event, it lasts nearly an entire week. If you don't like getting wet, you won't like Songkran. Everywhere you go, I mean everywhere you go, people will douse you, and your scooter or car, with water. From high powered squirt-guns to full garbage cans, the various modes of drenching spares nobody.

Songkran is also a festive event at the temple. Many, like this one in rural Northeast Thailand, have "sand temple" competitions. The temple parties last most of the day and well into the night. Oh yea... you may get wet.

Thammasat Rangsit University

Thammast University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Thailand, smartly purchased the entire site of the 1998 ASEAN Games. The large campus sits on the northern outskirts of Bangkok adjacent to the main highway which runs north to Chiang Mai. This is my 125cc Honda Wave in front of the main football (soccer) and track and field stadium.



Two of the nicer buildings at Thammasat Rangsit University.




To deal with the searing sun and tropical rains, covered walkways connect almost the entire campus. One side is a walking lane and the other a bike lane.



These twin indoor stadiums held several events such as badminton, volleyball, basketball and ping pong. Students now mainly use them for badminton and ping pong.

Ordinary Average Guy

Why do so many guys wait anxiously for the yearly Bangkok International Motor Show? To see all the latest models, of course.

Sky Train

How does a foreigner get around in a city estimated over ten million people? Mass transit. The BTS, or "Sky Train", can take you to most of the key centers around Bangkok, Thailand's capitol city. The Sky Train links to many of the major subway and bus stations. With a good map and an adventurous spirit you can explore a concrete culture that is unique to the world. A city where you can experience world class shopping and dining in a modern high-rise, and just around the corner see tin shacks littering the banks of the many canals. You can meditate in a ancient Buddhist temple, and then walk down the street to a brothel touted as a Karaoke Bar. Ahhhh... Bangkok!

Laos and Language

The international bus from Mukdahan to Savannakhet takes just under an hour. The two towns sit on the Mekong River directly across from each other. A couple years ago the new “Friendship Bridge” was built to connect Thailand and Laos. Someone described Laos and Thailand as having a brother/sister relationship - Thailand seeing themselves as the big brothers.

It seems Laos, colonized by the French, has gotten the short end of the stick in Southeast Asia. Alongside Cambodia, the people have mostly endured hardship in the recent past. But around 1000 years ago, before the colonial borders were drawn on a map, the area that is Laos today was part of the Angkorean empire that dominated much of the Southeast Asia peninsula.

Today, Laos may be on its way back due to a growing tourist industry and relatively improving economy. Many young backpackers and travelers now chose to visit Laos in order to escape the engulfing westernization of today’s Thailand. Many describe Laos in comparison to Thailand 30 to 40 years ago.

I was applying for a visa in Savannakhet when I met an interesting young lady. She had a small photo shop set up in a ramshackle structure taking visa-size photos for people who were passing through the Thai consulate. I wasn’t very confident when she sat me down behind the thatched bamboo divider to take my picture, but it was going to be an easy transaction since she spoke clear English.

After the third take, in three minutely different positions, she was finally satisfied. I walked up to her aging computer to take a look just as she dropped the picture into Photoshop. In a matter of a few seconds she adjusted the colors and tone, took the shine off my sweaty face, artistically removed the strap from the bag over my shoulder, and moved me around in the frame to a perfectly centered position. Now I was impressed.

I asked her if she was from Laos, and yes she was. I asked her how she got so good at speaking English, and she insisted her English wasn’t very good. She told me she was much better in French and Vietnamese because she couldn’t write well in English – Thai was easy because it is very similar to Laotian. She spoke five Languages, now I was even more impressed.

While my six passport-size pictures were printing, She told me she looking to get out of Laos. I asked her where she wanted to go? Vietnam. There is much more money to be made in Vietnam she told me. Her sister was in Vietnam and she was going to join her soon, hopefully. And truth is, even for English instructors, there is good money to be made in Vietnam.

She was happy. She was talented, especially in language. She had many people around her shop that day and her small business was doing well. There are so many talented people in the world; this is just one fine example.