I am back in Malaysia for a week and feel good and back about it. Good, because I have some very fond memories of my time in Malaysia and I look forward to visiting my daughter Jaime who is teaching at Sunway College. Bad because I was only there for a couple of hours and a former spouse dissed me with an ugly eMail to welcome me back.
My time in Malaysia was life changing for me and I am not one to look in a rear view mirror. I was also a person who spent way too much time worrying about the future of the principal of CPU was just telling me a friend of his family just dropped dead of a heart attack at 30 years of age. I now spend much of my time living in the present and treating life as a merry-go-round where you only go around once. This brings me into conflict with many of my Thai friends who believe in reincarnation and therefore not a second chance, but many chances at life. They have a refreshing view of life and pretty well live in the present and are very similar to B.C.'s Potlatch Indians as they would give you there last dollar and would expect the same from you.
Then again we have North Americans, a me kind of culture, replete with 'dinks' (dual income, no kids) and similar 'taker', not 'giver' types. You only go around once, so who ever dies with the most toys wins. Substitute shoes, clothes, phones, cars, biggest house, whatever.
I think I have mentioned before that I have found the happiest people in the poorest countries.
Oops, have to head out for a beer and some eats, the present calls, TTYL,
Jim
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Back in Thailand
It has been awhile since I posted and I am now on the other side of the planet. I flew out of Vancouver to Seoul Korea on my way to Bangkok. Whoa, from an average high of 6 degrees to 36 degrees plus in less than 24 hours. I am still adjusting after one week!
I am at the American School of Bangkok, working with teachers on utilizing technology in the classroom. I have 2 workshops on Kubbu this week. If you have not looked at Kubbu, take a look as it is a nice piece of online software that has a free edition as well as a very inexpensive pro and ultra editions. The company is based out of Poland so kudos to the Pollacks (you can see I am as politically correct as ever).
My drink of choice in beers is now San Miquel Light with a bit of lime for beer and the pub scene, and RedBull and Vodka for the bar and pool hall scene. Bangkok is as much fun as always but the ladies don't seem as beautiful as my last visit. I must be becoming acclimatized or jaundiced.
Next week is a school holiday and John McGrath and I are heading off to Laos to explore part of that country as neither of us has been there before. I have not done the guy thing for a while so I am looking forward to it.
I have a week in Malaysia coming up for April 23rd and then back to Bangkok for a week and then my return to Vancouver. I hope Vancouver will have warmed up by May.
This time around in Bangkok, I have purchased a month gym membership to keep in shape and keep the weight off. I tend to drink and eat more in Asia and John attributes that to the heat but it is more likely the availability of the social life than anything else.
My pool hall buddies welcomed me back with hugs and had wondered where I had disappeared to for the past 4 months. Properly chastised, I promised I would tell them when next I depart and for how long. My pool game suffered somewhat but is steadily improving :-)
TTYL,
Jim
I am at the American School of Bangkok, working with teachers on utilizing technology in the classroom. I have 2 workshops on Kubbu this week. If you have not looked at Kubbu, take a look as it is a nice piece of online software that has a free edition as well as a very inexpensive pro and ultra editions. The company is based out of Poland so kudos to the Pollacks (you can see I am as politically correct as ever).
My drink of choice in beers is now San Miquel Light with a bit of lime for beer and the pub scene, and RedBull and Vodka for the bar and pool hall scene. Bangkok is as much fun as always but the ladies don't seem as beautiful as my last visit. I must be becoming acclimatized or jaundiced.
Next week is a school holiday and John McGrath and I are heading off to Laos to explore part of that country as neither of us has been there before. I have not done the guy thing for a while so I am looking forward to it.
I have a week in Malaysia coming up for April 23rd and then back to Bangkok for a week and then my return to Vancouver. I hope Vancouver will have warmed up by May.
This time around in Bangkok, I have purchased a month gym membership to keep in shape and keep the weight off. I tend to drink and eat more in Asia and John attributes that to the heat but it is more likely the availability of the social life than anything else.
My pool hall buddies welcomed me back with hugs and had wondered where I had disappeared to for the past 4 months. Properly chastised, I promised I would tell them when next I depart and for how long. My pool game suffered somewhat but is steadily improving :-)
TTYL,
Jim
Songkran
The past 4 days has been the Songkran holiday in Bangkok. Basically 12 million people start throwing water at everyone else via pail, bucket, water guns of every sort and size, fire trucks, etc. City officials are hoping that the death toll will be less than last year's 600+. You may wonder why it is so dangerous. The target of choice is anyone riding a motorcycle and there are probably 6 million of them in Bangkok. getting a jet of water across the eyes while moving at speed can be very dangerous, as are the slick wet roads. Of course, not everyone likes to get soaked so sometimes fights break out.
John and I decided to travel to the part of the city that has the most water fights but discretion won out over valour as we witnessed the carnage from the SkyTrain platform and hopped back on the SkyTrain. Imagine half a million people with water flying everywhere!!!
The past week has been a school holiday and John and I headed over to Laos to visit that country. As always, the happiest people live in the poorest countries and John and I had a great time, touring the Mekong by boat, and the countryside by rental motorbikes. Pictures can be viewed at:
https://plus.google.com/
The official beer in Laos is LaoBeer and comes in the 'Prescott' quart size.
After Laos, John and I headed off to Pattaya for a night. Pattaya is probably the number 1 bar scene in all of Thailand. Not much I can share here in print, but next time we head out for a beer, there are stories to be shared :-)
I am back at school now for a week, then a week at Taylors in Malaysia, and then a final week in Bangkok, and then back home to Vancouver.
TTYL,
Jim
John and I decided to travel to the part of the city that has the most water fights but discretion won out over valour as we witnessed the carnage from the SkyTrain platform and hopped back on the SkyTrain. Imagine half a million people with water flying everywhere!!!
The past week has been a school holiday and John and I headed over to Laos to visit that country. As always, the happiest people live in the poorest countries and John and I had a great time, touring the Mekong by boat, and the countryside by rental motorbikes. Pictures can be viewed at:
https://plus.google.com/
The official beer in Laos is LaoBeer and comes in the 'Prescott' quart size.
After Laos, John and I headed off to Pattaya for a night. Pattaya is probably the number 1 bar scene in all of Thailand. Not much I can share here in print, but next time we head out for a beer, there are stories to be shared :-)
I am back at school now for a week, then a week at Taylors in Malaysia, and then a final week in Bangkok, and then back home to Vancouver.
TTYL,
Jim
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