Summing up bangkok

You may notice that this post looks startelingly similiar to ones I have done over the course of our stay in Bangkok. You may even have an even more starteling revelation if you have been going to THIS website.



But if you havent thats ok. But for those of you who want a little more I have added a bit more personal stuff that I couldn't add to the more public version. And I promised a story of a guy giving me language advice and that is what Im going to do.



Im getting some printing done at this place near the Uni. and the elderly Thai gentleman serving me picks up a conversation with me when he finds out im from NZ etc. He speaks pretty good english. I apologise that I can't speak as good thai. He then goes "Find Thai girlfriend, best way to learn language... Of course it depends on mans ability to find girlfriend. Some aren't very good." I laugh and tell him Ill seriously take it under consideration. Me and Jay leave the place laughing to ourselves. How forward of him.



The other Day it was raining hard out, and flooding in the streets just appeared out of nowhere. I was inside for this extraviganza but the others were wadding along the street to get to McDonalds at the time. In NZ we have such pussy rain compared to here in Thailand. In NZ it cant make up its mind, and its sorta sprinkles us with water. In Thailand the clouds are like "Alright, Im busting to take a leak." BOOM! Lightning,thunder, torential rain. You get soaked in Seconds.



The Crocodile poking is after the paragraph about the ancient city.



Hi everyone *puts hands together and bows slightly* Sawadi Khap from Izak Flash Man and Jay.

A lot has happened here in the past 2 weeks (?) wow time flies. We’ve been teaching English at the hostels we have been staying at in Bangkok. It’s been a learning curve for all of us. Trying to teach something that’s challenging, understandable and at the same time answering all the tricky questions they have been firing at us. “WE DON’T KNOW WHY ENGLISH BREAKS ITS OWN RULES. Sorry.”

There have been a few unfortunate misunderstandings within the groups. Which is a staple diet when the two parties come from separate cultures that can’t speak each others language very well. It seems as though if you pronounce someone’s name in a slightly different pitch or tone it becomes a completely different word, words that generally don’t bear repeating. Much to their amusement, and much to our embarrassment, and they never tell us what we said until one of them quietly takes us aside.

Church over here puts all us westerners to shame. 6 Hours of church. It starts about 9 in the morning with a bible study. Then jumping into a regular type service which we all know and love. Glory church (One of the few churches in Bangkok) has a very multicultural group with Thai, Korean, Americans, and the Occasional Oceanian. So during the sermon you will hear the whispering of translators all over the room. After the main service they have lunch together and then go hard for a few more hours with a sharing time. Their passion is revitalizing to see. Continue to pray that this energy will continue to flow out of the little hall and out into the community.

Josh and John turned up at the Beginning of the week. Josh is a gapper from last year who’s now a missionary in China. The group he works with can’t meet in groups in China, so they had to jump the border and do the conference in Thailand. Johns his mate who’s on a holiday. They were a good temporary addition to the team.

When we find the time in-between preparing classes Emma treats us with giant ice cream. Hah. I wish. But her, Mark, and Emma-lee do take us to some pretty rad places. For example the ancient city.It’s a park in the shape of Thailand. With real and replica buildings from around Thailand, placed in relation with where they would be in the real deal. So its as if Thailand was shrunk and the buildings stayed the same size. It still takes a bike to get around the whole place, and a couple of days to fully appreciate everything. Bikes are half the fun of the place. They have racks and racks of the run down little things. Hazards include, rust, wobbly wheels, seats designed for aliens and brakes (If your lucky enough to even have breaks) which slip. Jess and Beth, being the special children they are, decided to take a tandem. I was rather impressed with their actual skill in riding it. I’m not so sure about Josh’s skills though. He talked his way into riding shotgun with Jess on the back. They churned off ahead in what appeared to be an attempt at breaking the land speed record on a tandem bicycle. It was going good until they went over a bridge.. Half way over the bridge. From our point of view it looked as though they just disappeared. When I got close enough the bike and Jess were sprawled out over the ground. Josh was already on his feet, asking why no one was asking him whether HE was ok.


After that we traveled in our nice air conditioned Van to the Crocodile farm. They have a lot of crocs. Its more like a petting zoo than a farm. They have camels and leopards and tigers that you can sit on and take pictures with. The girls were inraptured with the baby monkey though. It had a nappy on and you could hold it. I have to say it was uber cute. While it was getting its picture taken with Jess it took a bit of a widdle though. The show with the crocodiles was rather stressful to watch. Girls screaming on either side of you every time the guy whipping his head out of a quickly decending pair of jaws can really get to you. People would throw money down for them. I don't know how the notes survived floating around in the water though. Some people thought they were funny by throwing the money amongst a huge pile of crocs so the man had to attempt to get it out of all of em.

Another treat was taking us to the red light district. Well, when I say treat, I don’t mean.. Digging myself a hole. We went and visited the Rahab missions house. They’re a group which work right at the gates of hell it seems. This is made immediately apparent by the directions we are given. ‘Just the place under the sign “Super Pussy” ’ Paul and Margaret MacGregor, Two awesome New Zealanders from Tauranga run the show. They help the woman that work in the area get out of the situation they are forced into. It’s an unfortunate epidemic in Thailand and it’s good to see that there are people with a heart to change things. They teach the girls alternate ways of earning money, making jewelry and such. Rahab also provides free education to the girls. Afterwards the girls (and us guys) chipped in by getting a bunch of the jewelry to take back home as gifts. Woops, maybe I shouldn’t have typed that.

We also helped Paul and Margaret with the New Zealand night they had planned for their English class. Now this is an amazing coincidence. They didn’t know we would be coming to Thailand, and they had no control over the date of when the night would be held. Now what were the chances of us coming at a time which was so convenient for all of us? And on top of that, how could we have ever planned that was the same night Josh and John came. That’s an answer to prayer. Pauls prayer that Kiwis would come and help the program along and then our prayer that God would have full control over our program. Who needs to PLAN stuff when you got God on your side. I mean apart from the fact we wouldn’t know what’s going to happen next but oh well.

The girls have been connecting really well with the Thai girls in their dorms. Many a time have we heard stories of them staying up to the wee hours of the morning having a blasty blast. Or going to the night markets and “eye” shopping. Since there aren’t windows to look through. They have also done a lot of singing together, swapping lyrics with each other, so now our girls can sing the songs in both Thai and English.

Us guys on the other hand valued sleep a bit more. It was fun going to the stadium and playing soccer though. The guys are really into their soccer. I actually think it’s a national thing. When you head down to the stadium it’s full of make shift Soccer fields. There is little to no grass, but what they do have is a wide concrete expanse. It didn't feel weird at all, playing soccer on the landing of the huge steps up to the stadium, with a few chunks of concrete (Taken from the side of the road and used as goal posts) with no shirt on. You can just stand there and excrete water like a sieve… a sieve full of water. It’s amazing to see how hard out they get into their soccer.

One thing you learn about the Thai’s, “No half measures*”
Everythings an extreme. Luxurious condominiums stand looming over squatty brown shacks. People with pristine hair and unwrinkled brand labeled clothing push past small children begging on the side of the road. Temples are gilt with gold and intricate designs while the average wage is about 70baht a day. (about a $1.80)

In a few hours we will be getting onto the overnight train and chuff our way to Chaing Mai. So we now have a choice on whether or not we should do spelling corrections or we should go out and have fun.... WOOHOO! *Jumps away from the keyboard and runs down the road pretending to be in the music video.*

*No half measures is a sentence copyrighted by the CocaCola company. Don’t worry they wont sue us because I copyrighted the letter ‘A’ in both upper and lower case.

The forbiddens

Sorry, I got no time to post a proper update. But this is just to say, We have reached our last day in Bangkok. This afternoon we jump onto a night train and go steaming of to Chang Mai!

What to expect when I get more time:

The ancient city.

Crocodiles being poked with sticks.

Jess falling off a bike.

A store owner giving me advice on how to learn the language. "Find a Thai girlfriend."

Huge flooding on the way to McDonalds.

Teaching our students to become Infomurcial hosts.

And J dropping a heavy pot of Punch on his head.... No Im not going to do a bad joke about how it was a heavy hitter... Jeeze. I have my honour to think about.

Getting around.

Zac, Me, and Jo. woop woop.

Well Its been about a week since I last posted. I guess its time to lay some cards on the table. (Double or nothing)


I got a DS! Woohoo! For all of you who don't know what that is, well don't worry because you wont care if you do figure out what it is. I got it from this huge mall. Which I swear is dedicated souly to electronics. Us guys were prime targets. Everyone was screaming at us to buy games. Which I must admit were uber cheap. 4 bucks at most places. Ds games were about 2$. So I got ten. lol


We also went up the tallest tower In Bangkok, even way up 77 stories you couldn't see were bangkok ends. It just continues to spread out like a beautiful ulcer on the face of the planet.


Today me and Zac found a McDonalds. Their burgers actually look like the picture. Unlike in NZ, where it looks like they punched the burger before putting it into the box.


Over the week some of us have been assigned rolls. Jo was the leader, I was the prayer warrior, and Beth was head photographer. The prayer warrior basically does all the main praying for the team, before we go places, for people, for the start of the day. It was really good. I enjoyed it eminsly. Quite an experience initself. And whenever prayers are answered its like "WOOT! You totally actually wanna listen God, cheers so much."





Today is Kings birthday or something, so all the stores are closed, meaning we can't photocopy our teaching resources for tonight. Were so screwed, lol, Oh well. We have been making our class write stories, to help them work on their grammer and terminology. Its pretty fun to read their stories.

new pixs

yay, Thankyou zac, for hosting the pictures which now adorn all the thailand posts so far. Their all a little out of context with whats being posted, but thats ok, their only meant to be eye candy while you read the funnies. Oh yea, the computers at the dorm have flash, so I was able to create a new background image. enjoy. And have a nice day. or night, depending on what sorta person you are. If your a morning person I hope you dont get killed by the cranky night people. Because while their waking up and being noresponsive, your trying to talk to them and have a deep and meaningful, and they don't appreciate that. So leave them alone. hint... hint.

Apparently this morning Beu, one of the guys in our room was having a dream, he spazzed out and woke everyone up. He was like kicking and stuff. lol?

Today Me, Jo, and Zac went and bought a pizza. It was totally made from scratch in front of us. It took forever to get, but it was worth it, there were these nice sofas to sit on while we waited. Really relaxed ai... Now I gotta find a pic to put on THIS post.. dang it..

Boom, done.

English Lessons

Woo. Just finished doing the english lessons tonight. It totally wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm so glad I have Beth. She. Is. AMAZING. like a natural born teacher. unlike me, whos more like a test tube grown teacher... which went wrong. lol
Some of the Others screwed up in some funny ways. At one point I was like "So what do you, as thai, do as a family?" This was meant to be preping into a new lesson. They were like "...nothing." "oh... Are you sure?" "...Yes." ".. Crud."
Jess was trying to pronounce one of her girls names. She said Tui, which means dog. Then she said Tui in a slightly different pitch and that meant water buffalo. Lol. OF course, in thai, T comes out more like D. so it was really Dui. Anyway. Ill catch ya'll up. we used up our internet time. Sorry for the short post.

Church Thai Styles

This isnt a thai church. Its the Kings palace. So if anything its a buhdist temple. Very buhdist.

So I spent my first night at the hostel. It was... Uncomfortable. Not because of the hard beds that sound like they are full of hay and plastic bags. their fine. them being hospitable and turning on the AC above my bed, that was great to! They know how much it fries in a cramped room with four dudes in it. Waking up to said AC freezing me like a bag of black bananas on the other hand not so much. And then the toilet filling back up in the background. It took me all night to figure out it wasn't an electronic wine. It was just water going through a very small hole or something. lol
ah well. Woke up at 7.. Lay in bed for ages. We walked to church and helped set up at about 9. Geu, our main host (He's been to Teowmutu!) translated the bible study for us. I haven't seen revelation being taught in a church before. Very cool. Their worship songs are just as cool as ours. Sorry Chris, its mostly hillsong, sung in thai. So at least you wont hear the theologically wrong lyrics. lolololol.
They have a cool style of prayer over here. I know they do it in a few other countries to. Its so awesome. Everyone just prays at the same time. And then fantasmically everyone just quietens down at the same time and someone finishes up the prayer. so cool. We should do it more often to. Its a lil awkward at first but you'l get used to praying over each other. Don't worry, God can hear you at any volume.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Their church services go till about 4 in the afternoon. So we spent all day at church. It wasn't that bad actually. We had all sorts of people there. Koreans preached in english, while A thai translated. It was crack up. the speaker kept going into korean by accident. Or it may have been Thai. Who knows.
Later on all the guys (Me, Jason, Zac, and the crew from the dorms) all went out and played soccer outside the huge stadium in bangkok. There are tons of people all just setting up goals all over the place. It was great. It didn't feel weird at all, playing soccer on the landing of the huge steps up, with a few chunks of concrete (Taken from the side of the road) with no shirt on. Oh yea, It was so good being on the no shirts team. Just standing there made water want to evacuate from every pore in your skin.
Tomorrow we do lessons. heh heh.
Mood: apprehensive.
Currently Listening to: For the moments I feel Faint - Relient K.

I NEED TO GO!

Dont worry. The title isn't as urgent as it seems. Let me explain.. using copy and paste, from an email I sent but moments ago!
We were coming back on the train earlier today, from Lop Buri to Bangkok. Getting into the taxi we had no idea what was about to happen and the events that were about to unfold..... (Fortunatly I had my trusty hat.)

.... Oh man, me and zac got lost again. Our taxi didn't know where we were going and took us to the train station instead of the university. He was desperatly running up and down the road looking for an english speaker. And just to make it more frantic I was desperate to go toilet even before we got in the taxi. Ema rang up and said we were going in the wrong direction. That was the moment I dispeared and was like "ILL NEVER MAKE IT!" zac: "Youl make it dont worry!" "Oh no I won't, im busting. Driver, excuse me, toilet! Toilet? bathroom? Do you know what I mean?... No... oh man oh man oh man." I even took off my belt and was ready to ditch out onto the road and run into a park. the driver was getting very worried. He was like "five minute. only five minute." and Im still panicing going "I don't HAVE five minutes!" XDBut I made it! I begged my way into a seven elevens toilet. Thank goodness they knew what I meant. They were all cracking up at the distraught big falang going "Toilet toilet TOILET TOIlet toiLET. toiiiiiileeeeet."phew.. thats my High tention story for you today. =).

The girls are just down the road in the girls hostels, us guys are hanging out in the guys hostel now on the computers. Im a little freaked out. Monday we start our english lessons. It'll be the first one. Heres hoping I don't mess up!

p.s. I found this bottle of colouring lotion just now. Its so thai can look more western by having lighter coloured skin. But this is what it says under the logo in a small font. "Being born again into attractive woman in the sea." .... You be the judge.

shop keepers

Man, this internet cafe is located in a sauna or something I swear. Theres one fan, and its pointed at the desk in which the owner parks himself. Its rather amusing to see the way shop keepers act around here. Youl peer into their dinky little store and they'l be lounging around somewhere totally random. Unlike New Zealand where we hang out behind the counter they just go wandering.
It seems as though everyone has a shop here. They were like, whats the lounge for? We'll just rip out the front of our house, sell a lot of one object, and call ourselves a shop. They then go on about life and just hope they notice people when they go wandering into their house.
Its friday here at the moment. Everyones get on the booze it seems. Doesn't look to be a safe night.

Catch ya'll around. Leew pop gun maih! (Phenetically correct but dont quote me ok.)