Buddha Pose 1

During our visits to so many temples, or wats (what?) in Chiang Mai and Sukhothai, we became quite expert on the various poses of the Buddha statues and their related meanings.
The seated Buddha, representing him in meditation, is the most commonly found in Thailand.

This version, which is very widespread, is called Bhumisparsa Mudra (calling the earth to witness). Left hand upturned in the lap; right hand fingers resting on the right knee and pointing to the earth. The posture represents the Buddha resisting temptation and overcoming evil with good.

Royal Visit

This morning I set off for work on my motorbike as usual. As I approached the main highway, I was stopped by a policeman who asked where I was going. I was heading just down the road to one of the villages on the outskirts of Mae Sot, only a few minutes on the motorbike, and he waved me on. As I rode along, I realised that there was almost no traffic at all on the highway, which is usually busy at that time of the morning. Then I noticed that there were policemen stationed at the side of the road at regular intervals. Just as I was approaching the point where I would turn off to go to the village, one of these policemen flagged me down and prevented me from going any further. I told him where I was going, but he insisted that I pull my bike right off the road and wait, together with a few other people whose journeys had been likewise interrupted.
At this point I phoned my coordinator to see if he had also been caught up in whatever was going on, and if he could throw any light on it all. He had already arrived at the centre, but he told me that the princess was coming to Mae Sot today, which is why they were clearing the road of traffic. Sure enough, after several minutes, the first cars in a long motorcade came along the road at high speed and with lights flashing. They were followed by the royal cars themselves, several minibuses, an ambulance, an army truck full of soldiers and various other assorted vehicles. Once they had passed we were allowed to proceed on our way.
I have not discovered the purpose of her visit. Apparently she comes here about once a year. I have heard reports that in the past when there was a royal visit, the local authorities went round "eliminating" a significant proportion of the dog population before the visit. Whether or not that is true I do not know, but I don't think I would be sorry if the streets were suddenly and mysteriously dog-free!

Life's little mysteries

#1: Why can I never find a pen in my rucksack when I know that I always have one in there?
#2: Why is my rucksack so heavy?
#3: Is it possible there is a connection between #1 and #2?

This afternoon when we got back from the centre I emptied out my rucksack in a bid to solve these mysteries and, more to the point, to find my pen! This is the pile that appeared on my desk:

• Laptop
• Laptop lead
• Phone
• Phone lead
• Purse
• Year planner
• 2 copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1 English; 1 Thai)
• Notebook
• Scrap paper
• Folder with miscellaneous resources
• Stapler
• Staples
• Glue stick
• Masking tape
• Half a dozen paper cups
• Half a packet of drinking straws
• Bottle of water
• A selection of home-made percussion instruments (metal pan lid; metal spoon; plastic bottle; plastic spoon; yoghurt-pot-rice-shaker)
• Half a dozen bulldog clips
• Indoor school flip-flops
• Scarf (the morning bike ride is a bit chilly now)
• 4 bananas (afternoon snack - they are only small!)
• Tissues
• Mini 1st aid kit (plasters; wipes; painkillers)
• Insect repellent
• Throat sweets
• Chewing gum
• Hand gel
• Comb
• Length of string (for tying up my rucksack when I am carrying my ukulele)
• Pocket knife
• Small notebook

PLUS - a pen and a pencil!!

The presence of some of the more unusual items can be explained by the creative week we have been having this week, with the topic of butterflies. I had planned activities over a period of four days to try and illustrate how the teacher could do things slightly differently, even within the constraints of a large class. I am not sure how much she appreciated my efforts - she definitely didn't think much of my approach to creative activities (i.e. letting the children do their own thing with the materials).
The percussion instruments were for a movement activity in which the children acted out the stages of the butterfly life cycle, with a different percussion sound for each stage and full music for the final stage of the butterfly (Chopin's Waltz no. 14 in E minor).
Later we had a butterfly party, in which they wore hats with the paper butterflies that they had made earlier in the week and drank "nectar" (orange juice) with their "proboscis" (drinking straw) from a "flower" (paper cup with flower-shaped lid). I can't claim credit for the idea - I came across it when searching the internet for butterfly resources. The children loved it, though, and I think it is something they are likely to remember!

I left the teacher with some broad suggestions that we had been illustrating during the week with the activities we were doing:

• A shift from whole class teaching to working with half the class or smaller groups when appropriate
• Using open questions and giving children many opportunities to talk about their ideas and activities
• Providing a wide range of activities that children can do independently
• Allowing children to make their own choices and decisions in creative activities
• Giving children the opportunity to act out their ideas and learning in a physical way

These are the same points that keep coming up for all the centres, so we will explore at least some of them again when we do our next workshop in January.

And to finish:

 The Welcome Committee

My arrival in the mornings seems still to be a cause for a certain degree of curiosity and amusement. Perhaps it is the outsize motorbike helmet!

Better late than never

Finally I am getting around to posting an account of my week away in Chiang Mai and Sukhothai. I must confess that most of the pictures are courtesy of Antonella. She is a very keen photographer, with a proper camera, and I am afraid I was rather lazy and hardly took any photos at all. (That also explains why she is in so few of the photos!)

Saturday 30th November
The holiday got off to an inauspicious start when my flight from Mae Sot to Chiang Mai was cancelled and the airline laid on a replacement minibus service instead. A normal bus trip to Chiang Mai takes about 6 hours, with several stops. This driver got us there in 4.5 hours, with just one stop. I tried hard not to think about how fast he was driving.....
I met Antonella and Alessandro at the guesthouse - they had arrived earlier in the day on a flight from Bangkok

Sunday 1st December
We hired bicycles and spent a relaxing day exploring the old city of Chiang Mai.
Quote of the day:
"Shall we visit this Wat?"
"What?"

 

At one of the temples you can participate in "monk chat" - a fascinating insight into the life of a monk

Monday 2nd December
We took a songthaew up to Doi Suthep, with the intention of visiting the temple and then walking in the surrounding national park. This turned out to be more of a challenge than we had expected, as no-one wanted to give us any indication of where the trails were. They prefer to take you to a few pre-selected destinations, for a fee, of course.
Quote of the day:
"Excuse me - do you have a map of the national park?"
Alessandro never found a proper map of the park, but his persistent search resulted in us meeting some other intrepid explorers intent on doing their own thing - a Dutch couple and two Italians - so we all joined forces and found our way to some waterfalls together.

 Feeling sick after the songthaew ride

 Anyone home?

 

Antonella makes a rare appearance!

 "Don't you dare take a photo of my bottom disappearing under this tree..."

 

After a few moments debating what was the worst that could happen to us if we ignored the sign we carried on anyway

 

 And then there were seven

 

Finally made it - and without the aid of a map!

 

A well-deserved dinner back in Chiang Mai

 

Tuesday 3rd December

We spent the day doing a Thai cookery course on a farm outside Chiang Mai. They showed us around the garden where they grow their own herbs and vegetables that are used in the recipes, before launching into the day's cooking. I chose:

• Thai vegetable soup
• Green curry with tofu
• Stir-fried tofu with cashew nuts
• Fresh spring rolls
• Bananas in coconut milk

It was all very tasty, and as I was cooking it myself I was able to have full control over the amount of chilli in it (i.e. hardly any!) The lady who was teaching us was full of fun and energy and had us laughing all day.
Quote of the day:
"Good for your man!" (referring to many of the plants grown in their garden!)

 

Wednesday 4th December
We met up again with the people we had met on Monday and went to Huey Tueng Tao Lake outside Chiang Mai. We spent a very relaxing day wandering at a leisurely pace around the lake and eating lunch at one of the little outdoor restaurants.
Quote of the day:
"No pressure, but we've done 0.2km in 40 minutes! (From Antonella, who was tracking our snail-like progress on her GPS gadget)

Thursday 5th December
The King's birthday and a public holiday. We spent most of the day travelling by bus to Sukhothai. After several hours of suffering, Antonella came up with this simple but effective solution to the relentless cold blast of the air conditioning:

The very pleasant guesthouse where we stayed in new Sukhothai - little individual bungalows

Friday 6th December
Another very relaxing, leisurely and enjoyable day, exploring the ruins of the old city of Sukhothai by bicycle.
Quote of the day:
"What does this Buddha pose mean?"
Closely followed by:
"Shall we visit this Wat?"
"What?" (The old ones are always the best!)

 

 

 

Saturday 7th December

Sukhothai to Mae Sot via Tak by minibus.

Quote of the day:

"How much further?" (From Antonella, who, despite the fact that we had the most careful minibus driver in the whole of Thailand, found the bumps and bends of the road from Tak to Mae Sot rather a challenge...)

 

Sunday 8th December

We explored some of the sights of Mae Sot together (of which there are more than the guide book would have you believe), including a couple of temples, the Rim Moei market at the border, the Reclining Buddha and the Burmese market)

 

Monday 9th December

I went back to work and Alessandro and Antonella went on a day trip to visit a gibbon sanctuary. We had planned to do a yoga lesson in the evening at the guesthouse where they were staying, but the teacher was sick so the lesson was cancelled. We asked if we could use the room anyway, and Antonella gave me my first yoga lesson! We had dinner together before finally saying farewell - they were continuing on for the last week of their three week break.

Quote of the evening:

"Where shall we go tomorrow?"

(They had still not decided by the time I left, but I have since heard that they went back south to Phuket and met up with the Dutch couple that we met in Chiang Mai.)

 

It was a wonderful break, and so lovely to meet up with friends from back home!

Seasonal signs

I have been appreciating not being surrounded by all the usual commercial trappings of Christmas. In fact, with the seasons here being so different, I have lost all sense of the passing year, and have been almost oblivious to the approach of Christmas and the end of the year.
That all ended when I went to do some shopping in Tesco yesterday. The first thing I saw when I walked in was all the checkout staff resplendent in Santa hats, and the pillars decorated with tinsel. Ah well, I thought, serves me right for shopping in Tesco in the first place!

Today I indulged in some decoration myself. A colleague from WE was going to get her nails done, so I said I would go along with her and get my toes done - first time for everything!
It was a very pleasant and relaxing experience - full pedicure and foot massage, followed by the nail-painting itself. I chose my favourite colour, of course, so now my toe nails match many of my clothes and accessories!

Something weird has happened to the weather today. It has been cool and overcast all day and now we seem to have returned to rainy season, with heavy rain setting in all afternoon. I hope it stops before evening. I'm planning to go out to the film, and I've got out of the habit of having to wear my poncho. I'm simply not psychologically prepared!