Cabana boys are definitely all they're cracked up to be

Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand 1/30

Yesterday Megan and I decided to head out to Patong, the busiest and most touristy beach on Phuket. All of the beaches on Phuket have three rows of deck chairs up and down the beach, covering each square inch of sand. Heaven forbid the tourists don't have any place to sit. It's 100 Bhat to rent a deck chair and a beach umbrella.

Patong was by far the most crowded beach we had been to, but we found two beach chairs right up in front and sat down. I was pretty sunburned by this time, so I wanted to stay completely in the shade. We really picked the perfect place to sit, because the people who worked our little section of beach didn't even make us get out of our chair to move our umbrella. At exactly perfect intervals, when the sun had creeped up the deck chair about a foot, the cabana boy would be there, readjusting the umbrella so we'd stay in the shade. Talk about pampering the tourists.

So today, I was really too sunburned to go outside. Megan decided to go off on a tour since she didn't want to sit around with the sunburned gimp. I decided to go back to Patong and back to the same deck chairs because I liked that they moved the umbrellas for me. We had also finally figured out the bus schedule and I didn't want to risk paying 500 Bhat for a taxi back to Phuket town. So I got to Patong and went in search of my little deck chair spot. When I got near, the Cabana boy spotted me and jogged down to offer me a deck chair right up in front. The kid, I'm not going to lie, was damn cute. He noticed that Megan wasn't with me this time and asked me where she was. I told him that she had left me to go on a tour, so I was by myself today. He flashed me a dazzling smile and said "It's Ok, I'll take care of you while your friend is gone." When I pulled out my towel to set it on the chair, the kid took it from me and spread it out perfectly so I wouldn't have to do it. We sat and chatted for a few minutes before he headed back to work. He told me next time I came to Thailand I would have to stay on Patong so I didn't have to go back to Phuket Town so early (the last bus to Phuket Town left at 5). If only...

I was sad I didn't get to see him before I left the beach. He must have been off doing something else. If only I could go back to Phuket right now... just to see the Cabana boy. Damn.

Sporadic Thailand posts, not in any particular order

I havn't been writing in my journal, but I want to get some of my experiences down, so I'll write them in journal entries as I think of them. So they aren't in chronological order like they normally are. So:

Bang Bao, Ko Chang, Thailand 2/5

Megan and I are sitting in an internet cafe in Bang Bao, a fishing village on the southern end of Ko Chang. Ko Chang is a small island in the Bay of Thailand on the eastern side. It's a lesser developed island than Phuket, which means there are less tourist traps. It's really nice. We wanted to come here for a good amount of R&R, a blessed relief after visiting Bankok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket, all really big tourist areas and really expensive.

We're staying in a little bungalow on a lagoon farther up the western coast. The lagoon empties out onto one of those beautiful beaches that you think to only see in pictures. You don't actually believe they exist. Or if they do, you don't know where. I read in one of the Lonely Planet guidebooks that though Thailand is small, it manages to snag most of the world's beautiful picturesque beaches. Our bungalow is kind of cute. It's one small bedroom with a fan and an attached, open-air bathroom. The real high point is that the porch is directly over the water of the lagoon, and you can see the cerulean blue ocean while sitting in the hammock that's strung between two of the deck posts. Megan and I have really just enjoyed sitting on the porch and reading.

Today I went out onto the beach and did a little suntanning, against my better judgement. The sunburns that I got on Phuket (I don't think I've been that badly burned since I was in Acapulco in Mexico my Jr. year of HS) have finally faded into a tan, but unfortunately have started to peel. Kind of disgusting, I know. I don't know if the tanning did any good though. I think I'm just a darker shade of pale.

I always thought I would never really like living on the ocean. All of the oceans I've been to seem dark and cold, and smell like fish. I have a really sensitive nose. But sitting on the beach here on Ko Chang makes me wish I could have a little villa overlooking this sea, with the mountainous jungle at your back. Think Swiss Family Robinson. The ocean is so beautiful, the sun is bright, the ocean is calming, and I could sit on the beach for hours with a good book and never feel like leaving. So long as there weren't 8 zillion tourists wandering around destroying my view.

We just got done eating at a little seafood restaurant out on the water in Bang Bao. Megan and I both ordered crab, but neither of us has much experience eating it. It was a rather...messy...experience. Luckily I had the bright idea to bring along wet wipes, which I was really thankful for. Unfortunately, it seems like no matter where we are on Ko Chang, the sun is always setting behind a piece of land. I think we just need to go out on the furthest island to watch the sun set. However, we watched the sun set when we were on Phuket, but it really wasn't as spectacular as I was hoping. Anyways, we watched the sun set over the mountainous island while we had our fingers buried in a small crab. Bang Bao is nestled in a small harbor, so there were no waves, creating a quiet, lazy atmosphere, and quiet music wafted across the bay to where we could hear it. There is something about this island that just seems so peaceful.

If I ever come back to Thailand, this will be the first place I go. I'm hoping that tourism doesn't take hold here for a few more years, so the national park that is protected on this island stays exactly the same.

Edge

So my good friend, Edge came to vist right at the end of the semester. Yay!

I really had a lot of fun while he was here. I showed him all of my favorite places in Chengde and Beijing, and I even took him to campus to meet my students. He got the real Chinese experience because he was able to capitalize on my four months' experience.

I took him to Donkey restaraunt, Hot Pot, Korean BBQ, New Red Lantern, and Summer Mountain resort here in Chengde. He also got a taste of the BCD and KTV. He met Winter, Arwen, Vince, Ted, and Michael, along with all of my students. Oh, and Mr. Lei and his son. Edge is an incredibly social person (I wish I could be as social as he is), and he had no trouble getting along with everyone he met.

In Beijing, he got to see the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall, an Acrobatics show, and some other cool stuff. We also got to hang out with Paul, Sarah, and Amit, whom I hadn't seen in a really long time. And we even made a day trip to Tianjin, where we saw a Chinese history museum and went roller blading.

All in all, I'm really glad he came. It's nice to have such a good friend come and visit so you can show them all that you've been experiencing. If you really want his true experience, I know he made a video of his adventures, and it's probably rather entertaining, so you should ask him for it.

Christmas

Another late post.

Christmas wasn't that bad this year, despite it being the first time I have ever missed being at home.

On Christmas Eve, five of us went to the Korean BBQ to get good food and french toast like we said we would. It was AWESOME as usual. I naturally wasn't drinking cuz I was on antibiotics and didn't want to screw anything up with the intestinal inflammation finally dying down. But we all had a good time. And I was able to talk to the 'rents and everyone else who was home on Skype, so it didn't seem like I was that far away.

Christmas Day I quick packed up all of the stuff for making the roast (which Rosie's husband, Ming helped me buy), grabbed the oven and headed off to Shijuan and Megan's apartment to start the cooking. Me, Megan, and two of Megan's students spent all day cooking, and I must say we turned out one heck of a Christmas dinner. We had the roast, mashed potatoes, honeyed carrots, green beans and mushrooms, fried pumpkin, rolls, and a few other miscellaneous items that everyone enjoyed immensely. Oh, and a HECK of a lot of beer. There wound up being ten of us at dinner, but only 9 ate since one had eaten earlier. After dinner, we all sat around drinking beer (minus me, antibiotics) until the students had to leave at 10 for curfew.

After the students left, there were five of us that participated in a gift exchange. It was basically a white elephant gift thing that you couldn't spend more than 20 qui on. I bought this hideous pillow with a giant face on it that was really soft. Hideous, but functional. Chris loved it immensely. I wound up getting this awesome pair of slippers with a giant pink pig on it. Yay pink!

Of course, getting home was a problem. The busses stop running to Shijuan at 7 pm, and we didn't leave until 1 am. Bad idea. There weren't even any taxis waiting outside the school gates. We (Me, Zach, and Matt) had to walk 3 miles in the freezing, biting cold carrying a guitar and an oven to even find us a taxi to take us the rest of the way back into town.

The next morning I was able to chat with the family again on Skype and watch them all open gifts, including the ones that I sent home for everyone.

All in all, it was a pretty memorable Christmas.

Chinese Hospitals really aren't that scary

This was supposed to be posted at the end of December, sorry about that.

Chinese hospitals really aren't as scary as they sound. But let me start from the beginning.

I woke up Sunday morning (the Sunday before Christmas) with a horrible stomach ache. I was pretty nautious and my stomach was sore. It was painful just sitting there. Because I have an overactive imagination, I started thinking it was probably appendicitis. So I called my trusty family doctor...i.e...my sister Erin. I told her why I was calling and she did some quick diagnostics over the phone. Basically when I jumped up and down it made the pain worse, and when I pushed on my stomach and let go really fast, it really hurt. So even though the pain was on the wrong side for appendicitis, I decided it was probably a good idea to go to the hospital. Yikes! Chinese hospitals! *bites fingernails* Nobody hears anything good about Chinese hospitals! Or was it Chinese prisons?

The first person I called was Zach, because I figured he would want to be in on this and it would be nice to have there with me. Of course, it's 8 am at this time, and Zach had been out most of the night before. I'm pretty sure his thought process when he picked up the phone for my call was "what the F*** are you calling me at this hour for?" Of course, once I told him what was going on and what I was planning, he was in my apartment in less than five minutes. Yay Zach!

Then I called up my good friend, Mr. Lei. I figured he would be the best person to go with me to the hospital since a) he is the most well-connected person I've ever met and b) he's experienced with medical terminology having studied in Australia for 7 years and writing a book about English-Chinese medical terms. Mr. Lei was naturally worried when I told him what I though the problem was and he told me he was going to make a few phone calls because it was Sunday. A few minutes later, Mr. Lei calls me and tells me that he has called the VP of the hospital, and is on his way to pick me up. He then shows up in a taxi because he doesn't want me to walk the two blocks to the Affiliated Hospital of CDMC.

So we get to the hospital, and despite the fact that there is a bunch of construction going on (and not behind closed curtains, I might add), the hospital is actually quite clean. It looks pretty much like a hospital in the states would except with a bunch of Chinese people running around and no carpet. Oh, and no waiting rooms, and everything is called the something something ward.

For the next few hours, I proceeded to be poked and prodded by at least four different doctors. And there is no privacy, so no matter where I was, people were doing double takes past whatever room I was in and then would walk very slowly so they could point and stare. I had an ultrasound done, to which I pointed out to my sister that if anything showed up on an ultrasound, it would be another baby Jesus. I had to take a piss test (just to be sure there was no baby Jesus), had some blood samples run which showed high on the WBC and a few other things, and ran a CT scan, just to be sure. They then called in the head of surgury to come look at my CT scans on his day off. We also took the staff elevator, so we didn't have to take the crowded public elevator.

All in all, they ruled it "intestinal inflammation," and sent me home with a round of antibiotics. The total cost was just over 500 CNY, which translates to about 80 USD. And that includes the antibiotics and maximum strength painkillers. Oh, and Mr. Lei got my bloodwork done for free because he knew the nurse working and the blook counter.

So my ruling on Chinese hospitals is this: they aren't scary if you go to the good ones, and you have Mr. Lei to accompany you. And hey, you might just get the royal treatment.

November 9th 2008

Not much has been going on here. It's been super busy, but not really exciting. Zach and I got our schedules changed around for the zillionth time, but at least now we only teach English Nursing students who actually want to learn English and for the most part, speak it reasonably well. Our schedules haven't changed, they just made some of our classes smaller, which is nice.

I guess one exciting thing has happened in the last few weeks. A bunch of us dressed up on Halloween and went to the OK Bar for some drinks looking pretty rediculous (me as a cheerleader, Zach as English Man, Matt as Fidel Castro, Megan as a cat, Chris as Justin Timberlake, and Jimmy and Lotus as basketball stars). We had already been there for a while when suddenly two foreign guys walked into the bar! We stared at them and they stared at us for a few seconds before Zach and I looked at each other and said "foreigners!" and went over to talk to them. It turns out that Adam and Ramtin were on a humanitarian mission here in Chengde for a few days repairing cleft palates at Chengde North Hospital. They were really cool guys who hung out with us for the rest of the night, including the 3 AM pitt stop at McPerkins. And the poor guys had to be up by 5:30 to go to the hospital! We wound up hanging out with them the rest of the week, going with Ram to Mountain Resort, having drinks with Ram and Adam, hanging out with the other doctors on the mission, going to multiple KTVs, and spending a lot of time at the OK Bar (they really love us there). We gave all the doctors their first taste of Baijou, which they thought was...interesting. I wish we would have had more time to hang out with them. They were a fun group. Mostly from California, where a Rotary club raised the money for them to go. Adam and the anesthesiologist, Allen, and three from Canada were the only people not from Cali. Adam was from Philly, Allen was from Phoenix, and as mentioned before, the others were from Canada.

Funny story about Adam and Ram: the night of Halloween, the guys hadn't been in Chengde for very long, so they didn't know the city very well. We passed their hotel on the way to McDonalds, but it was almost four when they headed back. They apparently couldn't remember how to get back to their hotel, so they hailed a cab. They got in and showed the driver the card for Chengde Binguan. The cabby laughed and literally drove them around the corner to their hotel! They were two blocks from home! We had a good laugh about that one. Luckily, I think they got the one honest cabby in the city who only charged them 2 qui for the ride instead of the normal rate of 5 qui or the American rate of 10 qui.

Zach and I have started coming up with a "You know you've been in China too long when..." list. It starts off with "...when you stop and stare at foreigners as much as the Chinese do." It's funny how being foreign is reason enough to strike up a conversation with someone in the supermarket, which is how we met Dave from the Rotoplast mission, who we later found out was Ram and Adam on the same trip, and who has some...interesting...stories. You'll have to ask if you want to know.

Anyhoo, I'm going to hope my internet comes on soon so I can post. It hasn't been working for the last four days and I'm going CRAZY!

This is a video of Zach showing off his Kung Fu skills one drunken night at the KTV with the comfort girls looking on...

October 18th, 2008

Grrr! I'm really confused about this election. I've watched all the debates, and now I feel more confused than ever. Do I vote for the Republican whom I don't agree with on the subject of the economy but agree on Foreign Policy and hate the VP (who scares me, actually), or do I go with the Democrat, whose FP scares me but whose economic plan seems more palatable. At least I like the choice of VP. Grrr!

But enough of that. it's been an exciting past few weeks. Mr. Lei took us to Hammer Hill and Frog Rock last weekend, which was gorgeous! The fall colors were starting to emerge and it was sunny with temps in the mid-seventies. It makes me glad I'm in Chengde.

Kirk came to visit us this week and that was a lot of fun. We went to a banquet for lunch (we had no idea it was a banquet, we thought it was just a lunch), and then took Kirk to the school where he sat in on one of our classes. We wanted to introduce him to Mr. Lei, but he left before we got out of clas. We then went out to dinner at Serena's BBQ (AMAZING!) and then got dessert at the western restaraunt before heading to the KTV for some karaoke! So much fun! I can't wait for people to come visit.

We decided to go to OK Bar for Jimmy's birthday last weekend and we met some really cool people there. There was an American visiting from Pennsylvania and was travelling with his Chinese friend from Beijing. Mike Li (the Chinese guy) spoke very good English, as he apparently has relatives in Alabama. We sat and drank with them for a while, and the next time we go to Beijing we will call him to show us a good time. Exciting!