#009 Thailand Update: It’s A Jungle Out There, So Let’s Go Swimming

Well, I started to write this on Sunday morning, but never finished it. So, now it is Monday morning (your Sunday night) and I am on my way to work. Now you get a whole weekend in one update. I hope you are comfortable where you’re sitting, because this one is gonna be a long one…

The Over-Nighter: Update
I pick Esaiah up after his over-nighter, anxious to get some details on his little outing.

“What did you guys do Esaiah?”
“Not a whole lot really. We went to the range
and shot guns.”

I have to remind myself that Esaiah is not the same person as me. He is not one to take a very small detail and expand it into a large update. However, this was simply not going to do. I pressed a little more and discovered that he had made a few new friends. He has a new Japanese friend named Joon, a friend from Switzerland named Ryan, and friend from Tennessee (Arrested Development song rolling through my head) named Chase. His friend Jaz didn’t go because he’s not a new student. Apparently, this outing was for new students only. Knowing that made me even more impressed that it took three double-decker buses to transport all the kids. Lots of new kids starting at ISB this year.

After we picked up Esaiah, we head toward the Sheraton to visit with our friend Atiporn (P’Aur). Tangent: In Thai culture, you designate someone older than you with “P” and if they are younger, “Nong.” P’Aur would refer to me as Nong Roger. The “Aur” is Atiporn’s nickname.
Atiporn works at Microchip in Chandler. She is Thai (as I’m sure you’ve already deduced), and invited us to go with her, her little baby Giovanni, and her Mom to the Zoo. This sounded like fun, plus the opportunity to spend time with a friend from Chandler just couldn’t be passed up. She tells me we’re going to Busit Zoo. I tell my driver, and he has no idea what I’m talking about. Atiporn tells me it’s right by the Grand Palace, so I mention that to him. Still confused. Oh well, we’ll figure it out on Saturday.

We arrive at the Sheraton and then speak with the concierge to see if he can help the driver find Busit Zoo.

“Do you mean Dusit Zoo?” He shows me on a map the Dusit Zoo. Yep. There it is, right by the Grand Palace. As soon as my driver hears “Dusit Zoo,” he knows exactly what I’m talking about. No more issues. Busit… Dusit… what’s the difference?

Lunch
After picking up Atiporn, we head to Central shopping center for lunch. Once we get there, we have to decide what to eat. The kids want pizza, but Livonia didn’t want to fly across the world and eat pizza. We settle on a place that served primarily Thai food, but also served pizza. That was a pretty interesting meal. The younger kids had cheese pizza, Esaiah had a seafood medley, I ate Tam Kha Kai (coconut curry soup with chicken) and Tempura, Livonia had some type of spicy chicken dish, and Atiporn and her Mom ate a vegetarian plate. Talk about variety! We finished with lunch at around 2pm and headed for the Zoo.

It’s a Jungle Out There
After lunch, we head for the zoo. Dusit zoo is very nice. It is quite tropical, and has many different types of animals. Something different about the zoo are the cages. For some of the animals, all they have are wooden bars (simulated to look like branches) that separate you from the animals. This means you can actually touch some of them. Either that, or it puts little kids’ hands within the bite range. It depends on how you look at it.
My favorite animal was the hippo. We watched a couple of them as they milled around their water cage. At one point, one of the hippos stuck his face out of the water and lifted it just inches from my camera. Of course, I couldn’t miss this photo opportunity, right? I took a few shots of that one, all the while thinking “he’s going to spit on me, splash water on my camera, bite my arm off, or do a host of other very bad things.” Luckily, it was none of these things. He just ate his cud and smiled at me.

The monkey cage was fun to watch as well. A couple of monkeys, which we’re guessing were siblings, were fighting with each other. It seemed that that the smaller monkey (let’s call him Christian) would continue to harass the larger monkey (we’ll call him Esaiah). Christian would climb to the top of the cage, wait until Esaiah wasn’t looking, and then jump on his head. Esaiah would put up with this for a little bit, but would then get irritated and grab Christian. Christian would squirm out of Esaiah’s grip and run off, only to return again with more tormenting. Christian would keep pestering and pestering. He was relentless. My, my, my… this sounds all too familiar. Who is this reminding me of?

We walked through the big cat cages and as we came out of one of the caves, we heard this very loud sound. It scared a couple of the boys. Upon further investigation, we realized it was a couple of lions roaring. Man, they are loud! It seemed like the lioness was roaring a lot more than the male lion, so I think I got the gist of the conversation:

Lioness: “Why don’t you pick up your socks when you take them off? How come you
don’t tell me you love me? What are you thinking? Do I look fat in this fur?
Ugh, I hate that I’m shedding right now. I cannot keep this cage clean with all
this fur lying around. I’m tired of doing all the hunting and gathering all day,
and caring for your cubs. What do you do? Hey! Are you looking at that other
lioness?”
Lion: “I’m sorry honey. I didn’t hear you. Sportscenter is on. Did
you say something?”

It was very hot that day. All of us were feeling it. After going through the big cat cages, we were exhausted. We made a quick pitstop at 7-Eleven (they had one in the zoo), and I noticed something rather wonderful in the refrigerated section. On one of my other trips here, they sold cold washrags, in individually wrapped bags. The trick is to buy these, and then rub them on the back of your neck and face. They were only 10 Baht each (25 cents), so I bought eight, one for each person. When I came out with them, I was the hero of the day. It felt very good. Shortly after that, we headed back for the van and onto home. I took a few pictures, which I’ll be attaching to this email.

Our new Church Home
One of the things we have been worried about on this trip is finding a new church home. All of us really love our church back in the US, and finding something to get us through the next 4 and a half months had us a little worried. In the Nichada Thani area that we live is a big white building with a cross on top. We discovered this was the church. In Arizona, we attended a church called CCC, or Chandler Christian Church. This church was also called CCC, or Chaengwattana Community Church. Hmm… maybe we should investigate this happy coincidence.

We go to church and find things are very similar to what we’re used to. They had a worship team up front that opened with the song “Come, Now is the Time to Worship,” and then they sang many songs we were familiar with (Better is One Day, You Are Worthy of My Praise, The Potter’s Hands, etc.) It felt very familiar. As I walked in, I saw sign-ups for Small Groups, so I signed Livonia and I up for two. I figure, we’ll test drive both of them and see which one we’re better suited for.

One difference between this church and my home church is that they have the kids remain in the congregation until the pastor has a talk with them. Then, they leave and go to Sunday School. I thought that was pretty neat, because it gave the kids a chance to sing the worship songs. Of course, Esaiah is not a “kid” anymore, so he stayed with me.

This church doesn’t waste ANY time trying to get people plugged in. They do a lot of testimonies with people in the congregation that detail how important it is to get involved. It was very nice to hear how God is working in many of their lives. It was interesting to hear one woman’s perspective that had been there for over nine years. She said it wasn’t her husband’s job that brought her Thailand, and that God just used that as a way to get them there. Funny, I heard something similar to that from one of my pastors. Sound familiar, Don?

What I did notice is that the church is like any church. It needs volunteers to help it grow. I pray that my job will not be so consuming that I can’t find something to do to help out. At the very least, I could help them write a newsletter (smile).

The Nightmare of Shopping
We finally did it. We finally made it to the pool. I couldn’t have two weeks go by without a visit, right? However, before we went we had to stop by the store and pick up some swimming shorts for Christian. In the US, that seems like a rather simple task, right? All you do is go to Target, hit the boys section, and voila! All the swimming shorts you can imagine, in all shapes and sizes.
Silly me for thinking this would be the case in Thailand.

We get to Lotus, which is fast becoming our favorite place to shop, and we make a pitstop at McDonalds. I know, I know, say what you will, but sometimes nothing beats the good times and great tastes of McDonalds. Ah, just like back home, only we have the additional options of the fried chicken extra value meal, the emperor pork burger, or the spicy Thai sauce that is a replacement for catsup. Other than that… just like home.

After lunch, we head upstairs to the supermarket. One the way up, we hear this very loud crash coming from the down escalator. If you recall from one of my previous updates, the escalator going down is a ramp that locks the cart in place, right? Apparently, this cart did not get the memo. We ran over with the rest of the lemmings (What? Noise? Where?) to assess the damage. Yup. Overturned cart. Okay, so now we know the ramp is not without it’s flaws.

Noted.

We get into Lotus and I start shopping in a very non-male fashion. I’m looking at everything. I came with a single focus: pick up shorts. Only now, I’m looking at everything. Oh look! Comic books in Thai. I’ll pick some up for the kids. I know they can’t read them, but they have cool pictures. What? A remote control car! That would be great on our tile floors in the apartment. Hmm… 798 Baht. Maybe we should wait on that one. Okay, so now I need another power strip, an S-Video cable so we can watch DVDs from my laptop, Audio cables, pillows for the van (yes, more pillows), a little bit of this, a little more of that, and… hey. Wait a minute. What did we come here for?

Oh yes, the swimming shorts.

I head to the boys section. Hmm.. no shorts here. Well, they have “shorts,” but not any of a swimming material. We continue to walk around the store. Nothing. Well that’s strange. Maybe we didn’t see it the first time. We’ll try again. Wow. Still nothing. Maybe if we continue to walk around the clothes in a constant loop, eventually swimming shorts in Christian’s size will magically appear. Hmm… that doesn’t seem to be working either. Livonia calls to ask us what’s taking so long, and to remind me that I need to pick up a long-sleeve shirt for Christian. Okay, no problem. I hang up the phone and start looking for a long-sleeve shirt. Hey look over there. Umbrellas! We need umbrellas. Oh wow, and they have the Peanuts characters on it. I’m sure the kids will love those. Oh, and Esaiah, check out these Q-tips. They have this nice easy to dispense container. Let’s get three; one for each bathroom. Wait a second! Why are we here again? Oh yes, swimming shorts and a long shirt for Christian.

We find ourselves unsuccessful, so I go to ask help. The lady cannot speak English, so I use my best sign language possible. I grab my shirt sleeve, and then make a hand motion indicating the sleeve goes all the way to my wrist. I then grab Christian to indicate I need that shirt for him. She looks like she acknowledges me and understands. I look over at Esaiah, beaming at how smart I am (all pride aside, of course). She walks through the kids section, and returns with her head shaking in the incorrect direction. No long sleeve shirts. I call my wife and report the bad news, and then we both question why his school would ask him to get a long-sleeve shirt in a country like Thailand. Why would they even carry long-sleeve shirts?

I continue my search for swimming shorts, and find shorts with that material in the man’s section. A men’s size small will have to do. We find the only pair that has an inner lining and the shorts hang down his ankles.

Next!

We try another pair. No lining, but they only hang down to his calves. These will have to do, because I have now grown tired of shopping. My male tendency has now kicked in, and I am ready to get the heck out of this store. We head for the counter. While I’m waiting, I smell something that resembles air fresheners and turn over to see… air fresheners. I pick one up to look at it, because it’s got a gel inside and I haven’t seen that before.

Big Mistake.

Turns out, it’s a display, and the display girl comes by to tell me all about all the wonderful scents available in this type of air freshener. Many different scents are now getting wafted by my nose, sending my sense of smell into a downward spiral. Of course, she is telling me this completely in Thai, and doesn’t seem to care or notice that my eyes are glazed over as she’s talking. I let her keep talking, making note of visual cues in her body language, so I know when to raise my eyebrows, look amazed, or smile. In the end, I pick up a “lavender” scent because I know my wife likes purple. That seemed to make the lady happy, and she went on her way.
Anyway, that was our Lotus shopping experience. We headed back to the apartment and all of us went down to the pool to swim.

Livonia liked the air freshener.

Olympic Status, I Am Not
We get down to the pool, and I notice the pool is quite long. It still maintains the kidney shape of most pools I’ve seen, but it’s rather long. I decide to do a few laps to limber up. I dive in and begin to swim to one side. I’m like Mark Spitz in the water as I carve my way from one side of the pool to the other. At least, for the first 30 seconds. After that period of time, it becomes obvious to me that I haven’t worked out in quite some time. My mind is going full boar, but my body is saying “Are you kidding me, tubby?” So now, my mind shifts down into reality mode and focuses on getting to one side of the pool. Which I did, thank you very much. Now somewhat winded, and on the opposite side of the pool of my family, I begin the slow swim back to them. By the time I get back, I’m thoroughly exhausted, but don’t show it. After all, I can’t LOOK LIKE I’m that out of shape, right? I tell Esaiah to swim to the other side with me, and we both start out together, but he gets too tired and has to stop. Yes! I’m in better shape than my 13 year old! Ok, it was a silent victory at best, but I was still elated, none-the-less.

Even still, since none of you are here to see the size of the pool, I am free to embellish at will. The pool must have been at least a quarter mile in length, and it had a current to swim against. The current went both ways too, so you were constantly swimming upstream. Now how impressed are you?

We swam for a bit and then started exploring the area. We found a room with lots of gym equipment. Oh good, now I have a room to feel guilty about. We also found an outdoor table tennis table (“table tennis table”; does that even sound right?), and a ping pong ball. Hmm, no paddles. Oh well, let’s improvise. I mean, they have handball instead of racquetball, right? So, Esaiah and I play. The advantage of using your hands instead of a racket is that racket cannot grip the ball like a hand can, so there’s a definite advantage to using your hands. We had a reasonably good time playing this. Perhaps I should invent a new sport. Either that, or we’ll pick up a set of paddles next time we go to Lotus (along with the myriad of other items I’ll find when I go there again).

Later that day, we watched China take out Korea in the Olympic games in table tennis. How ironic, huh? Even more amazing is that we were actually watching an Olympic match on table tennis. Oh, to channel this excitement.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures
Since our focus yesterday was the zoo, the focus of these pictures will be the same. I took pictures of lunch and of the other times in the day, but they are not quite as interesting.

Until next time…