Mai Pen Rai

Well the last two days have been very busy. I haven't been to the local park for 4 days as we are busy at the school getting ready for final exams next week. Well, I thought they were next week.

I was told yesterday that I would have to test 4 of my 6 classes outside the test timetable, so that means that I had today, tomorrow and Friday to test these classes. One class I was only teaching one more time before exam week and that was today so I had to sit down and spend a lot of time on the computer getting the test finished. The other problem was there are two Matayom tests to prepare in 2 days and they take a lot more work than the Pratom 2 maths class. So it was a late night last night and again tonight getting them ready. I have one half finished for tomorrow, First period.

When I was told about the changes and then came the apologies and I just said "don't worry, no problem". I am used to only 1 or 2 hours notice before something is changed so to get 1/2 a day was a blessing. This is how things happen in the Thai school system. Things change at the last minute all the time. Was I a little angry? Yes, but it is no point yelling or jumping up or down as it changes nothing and you only get stressed. The students don't get to do as much revision as I would have liked but hey they can't fail anyway, so what does it matter!!! The good students who have listened and done their work pass the tests easily and the clowns who are just there to be fools fail (pass, they can't fail).

So I have to go and finish this Matayom test and print it out ready for tomorrows big exam. After revising with the students today i am hopeful that maybe 40 to 50 % of the students will actually get a pass grade (much better than last semester when 21 out of the 30 failed the test).

So remember "Mai Pen Rai" TIT (This is Thailand) and you will go on living happy and sanely.

Russians Killed Pattaya

Well the latest updates are.. A gang of foreigners did it (maybe) known as "The Chopper Gang".
Well it's good to hear that they may have some sort of a lead in the case (if not they can just frame someone like they usual do). They have said that they have footage of an Asian man shooting the women but it is really fuzzy. Does that mean that the local Chair Concessionaire is now ruled out from the earlier paper report??

They say the girls were only tourists and were not involved in any business aspects in Pattaya or anything else so it is really hard to explain why they had been shot. The person didn't steal from them, the camera just shows him shooting them and then fleeing. This is some of the senseless things that happen in Thailand. There has to be a lot more to the story you would think, that may came out at a later date or may never depending on the police and if they think it is important for the media to find out.

It's good to see the massive reward offered for the capture of the gunmen (100,000 baht) about 3,000 US dollars. Yes, it's a lot of money for a Thai person and I am sure there will be some bounty hunters around trying to get the reward but for me I will just work for 2 months and make the money the hard way and be safe. I am not into that hero stuff.

Well if we stay tuned I am sure there will be more exciting twists and turns in the case in the coming days and you never know the police could still rule it a suicide yet! The girls shot themselves over their asian boyfriend as he had left them for a Thai girl and he was really trying to stop them shooting themselves or something along that line anyway.

Stickman Bangkok. It's so boring now.

I was a big fan of stickman's website. I used to get a great read out of some of the stories that were published on the site. Lately (I hadn't read it for a while) it has been the same post after the same post just different names and different places. Tonight I read the first 4 posts and they were so boring because it's the same thing I have read a thousand times before.

I met this lovely girl in Bangkok, Pattaya and on and on and she told me this and that and we stayed together for 2 weeks and we had a great time blah blah. Then it turned to crap, we started fighting blah blah, how bloody boring. These guys who write these posts must be total Neanderthals. If they have read stickman's website they would know all this. How could any of these insane guys talk about spending 20,000 baht plus in two weeks on a bar girl!! absolutely insane!! One guy wrote the whole sob story that his girl had a 2 year old daughter who was really sick (how many times has this been written about on stickman's site) and in the end it comes to she didn't have the sick daughter and left him for the Thai boyfriend!! SURPRISE, WAKE UP SMELL THE ROSES!!

Another guy writes "I married a Thai Whore" What a heading and he talks about his jealousy and the fights and arguments and also bashing her up once (really good stuff) and he is still married to her. Haven't these guys got the smallest amount of common sense. I have not one bit of pity for these people and the thing is they will write the same post again in a few months or years saying the same thing but with a different girl and happened at some other place.

I hope that somehow the content of the posts improve on stickman's site as I really enjoyed reading them and i am sure their must be a lot of other people out their feeling the same. I used to enjoy his comments to the readers as well but even they are few and far between now and don't have the same bite or wit to them they used too.

Hopefully the break he is taking will recharge his batteries and he will come back with a bang and things will get back into shape on his site. Fingers crossed.

Thai Teenee.com

I have a hard time believing that this website is aimed at teenagers because of it's content. It borders on pornographic with the images of some of the girls and it also crosses over into the macabre by showing the pictures of dead people. When I first started at the school where I work the students from the EBP department used the computers during their lunch breaks and would look at this website and others and speak to anyone on MSN chat or Yahoo.

One day I seen some Matayom 2 boys looking at some very risque shots of some famous superstar model who was wearing as little as possible and showing as much cleavage as she could. When I asked what they were looking at the quickly closed the page. I simply went into the history of the computer and there were heaps of photos they had looked at from Teenee.com that were all very revealing. I brought this up with the head of the department and was told the students could only use the computers to search for work they were doing in their classes. So this ruled out all ten students.

I started to be a pain in the ass to these kids, every time I walked in the computer room and seen any kids logged onto any chat rooms, Thai websites I kicked them out. They were all really starting to hate me. I didn't care because it was very peaceful in the computer room.

Then one day a matayom 1 student and his friends got caught looking at pornography, I didn't find out until later. The funny thing is they were all gathered around the computer 6 kids speaking Thai and there was another Thai teacher in the room who hopped up from her computer walked over and nearly fell over when she seen the computer screen.

Of course this couldn't get out it would be bad news if parents or outsiders found out about it so it was dealt with in house (the parents of the students were not even told about it). I from then on stopped any students using the computers, unfair? Maybe, but it is a pain in the backside when you are trying to do work and watch 10 computers to see what the students are looking at.

When the good students (you know who good students are) come and ask to use a computer, I let them. But if they stuff up and start chatting on a chat site or writing emails then I ban them from the computer room. It might sound hard but when I see the content of these sites I don't believe kids under the age of 18 should accessing this content anyway.

It is easy to see why Thai boys and men (most not all) treat the Thai girls the way they do, when these girls are portrayed as meat on these sites and you also understand why you see some of the girls dress they way they do when they are copying their superstar hero's. It's sad and I don't think it will change in a hurry, worse luck.

Thai Television. God Help Us.

Thai television is really driving me nuts. I don't watch it (very rarely) but I can hear it as my girlfriend and her sister and friends like to watch it very loudly. It is the same thing over and over again. Thai women screaming at Thai men or other Thai women in the most annoying of tones. Thai women and Thai men fighting with each other. I always have the music on in my computer room to drown out the terrible noise coming from the television. I will sometimes watch a DVD when I get to use the television, around 10:30pm each night when the Thai dramas finish. I have sat down and watched them sometimes and they are absolutely full of crap but the young Thai girls love them and sit glued to the T.V. from early in the evening until they finish.

I don't have UBC or Cable television I think it's a waste of money, but for the 350 baht a month for Cable I am seriously thinking about getting it, just so i can hear some English dialogue and make my girlfriend watch it by telling her it's good for her for pronunciation and will help her speak better English (hope that will work).

I thought some of the terrible soap operas they had on television back in Australia were bad enough but they don't rate anywhere near the ones here and sometimes I wish I could turn on Neighbours or Home and Away and watch some good Aussie crap because at least the actors aren't speaking in the most irritating of tones that make me want to throw the television through the window and into the bin. What do you think??

Tourists Killed Pattaya

These are the sort of headlines that Thailand doesn't need. With all the crap going on down South with the insurgents (terrorists) we have people being shot in popular tourist destinations.
The scary thing here with Thai men is that the only way they know how to solve any sort of conflict is through murder. Shooting, stabbing, bashing and the list goes on and on.

Witnesses say they seen a Thai man flee on a motorcycle and the police believe it was the local Beach Chair concessionaire !! It might have been a disagreement over a conflict of interest in the sex industry!! This is a problem that the government and the police have to stop all throughout Thailand. So many people get killed over the smallest of quarrels, business disagreements or loss of face. The value of a persons life here just doesn't seem important.

For Example: A motorcycle rider is hit and killed instantly by a drunk driver (the guy could barely stand up or talk) As the crowd gathers to look and stare at the body (this includes parents who have little kids who would only be 4, 5 or 6 years old. You see people in the crowd pointing at the body and they are laughing and you here young people making jokes and laughing. This happens all the time.

If Thai people put a bigger value on life and realized how precious that it is, maybe that would make someone think twice about shooting someone else in the head because they lost face to them in public or that their wife left them for another person so she/they had to die.

When you look at the amount of "Farangs" that commit suicide(what the police usually say) in Bangkok when one of their little bar girls does the dirty on them and they leave a note in the hotel room and jump from the 20th floor. I know that i don't believe these reports for 1 second the most likely thing that happened was the girls boyfriend was sick of sharing her, and the Farang was tight so it was time to get rid of him, out the window a messy written note and that makes suicide. End of the investigation.

I have only had 2 or 3 confrontations in Thailand over some silly reasons but I have stood my ground in them but would never do something that the other person would lose face over as you don't know what the reprisal would be, a late night bullet in the head or your house burgled and burnt.

I have seen Farangs standing toe to toe with young guys in different places and would love to go up to them and just say "walk away" but I don't want to get involved. Like when you see a guy he looks down and out and he asks if you can you speak Thai, I always say "No" as it probably has something to do with a girl and I am definitely not getting involved there.

I live a very happy and most of the time peaceful life in The Northeast of Thailand. But if the government and police force could clean a few things up it would be such a better and safer place to live.

Bomb Warning Bangkok!!

Does this guy actually know that there are people in Bangkok who are going to bomb places or is he just taking a wild guess??

Sourced from the Bangkok Post:

Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas warned Thursday that Muslim insurgents from the deep South might expand their attacks to Bangkok.

Gen Boonrawd said the ministry discovered that insurgents were wandering around universities in the capital."It is possible that the insurgents will expand their attacks to Bangkok, because we have learned of their movements in various universities where they conceal themselves in uniforms of students," he said, adding that it was difficult for authorities to differentiate between the separatists and innocent people 100 per cent.

The Special Branch police unit had earlier said it was closely monitoring Muslim student groups in Bangkok.

How did they discover this information?? It's hard to identify the insurgents (terrorists). REALLY!! I thought that they would all be walking around with grenades strapped to the foreheads and guns over their shoulders, how dare them try and hide. And we wonder why nothing is done well in the Thai government.

They might introduce a curfew!! On 18 and 19 February 2007 a series of 38 bomb attacks and around 26 arson attacks took place in Yala. Over 1,900 people have reportedly been killed and many more injured, including a number of foreigners, since the level of violence began to increase in Thailand in the southern provinces in January 2004.

What are they going to wait for?? A chemical bomb, another few years and another 2 or 3 thousand people dead. Get heavy handed, introduce a curfew, have the military set up road blocks everywhere, give them orders to shoot anyone who disobeys. Is this too harsh?? I think this bloodshed has gone on too long in this beautiful country.

Thank god where I live I don't have to worry about any of this (touch wood). I am so happy being in the Far Northeast and have none of these worries. I can go to the local shopping centre, restaurants and not worry about being blown up by some insane terrorist who believes that this is what god wants him to do. How can Allah be a good god if his people kill for him and he rewards them. Sounds like an insane religion to me!!

Well i hope that none of this comes to fruition and that Bangkokians are safe and tourists will be able to travel and not look over their shoulders every 10 seconds.

Need Teachers for Private School

Well today i found out that 2 of our current teachers are not going to renew their contracts. I think that they have finally had enough of all the rubbish that goes on behind the scenes. If you are like me you can let this not effect you and simply do the job you have to do and forget about the rest of the things happening/or not happening around you, then you will be fine. I have come to learn now if I am told 5 minutes before a class is about to start that your class has been cancelled as the students are going to do some ridiculous rehearsals because some important people are coming in 2 weeks to visit the school or every afternoon the students are going to practice their cheering for sports day in 2 weeks time. I just go no problem, no worries.

It is a shame but that is the attitude you need to survive being a teacher at any school in Thailand, if you cannot do that you will drive yourself insane and will end up with grey hair early (if not already). I did it to myself for the first 6 months and then with some help of my colleague of 5 years experience I came to understand the system and I am fine with it now. Yes, I still get frustrated sometimes but now I know when it is worth trying to get something changed or done as it is a 50% chance of happening and when there is something that isn't worth mentioning as you could light a fire and jump up and down and no one would take any notice or do anything about it.

It is a great job teaching Thai kids the majority of them are really nice (it's like this in every country not just Thailand). There are some really crazy things that go on but if you take it with a grain of salt or as the saying goes "water off a ducks back" then teaching could be a great job for you. You need a degree of some kind it doesn't have to be English involved or if you have previous experience from somewhere this also helps. Ubon is a great place, clean fresh air, country side all around, great friendly Isan people, fantastic food and cheap cheap cheap.

The pay starts at 29,000 baht a month plus extras (extra class teaching) and there is always private tuition as well. You can make a very good living up here and he lifestyle is great. I love the Far North East of Thailand.

Hotel accommodation Northeast Thailand Ubon Ratchathani

If you are heading up to the far Northeast then don't worry about booking accommodation (unless there is one of the Festivals on) there are many places here that you will never find on the Internet that are really clean have all the modern day things. Depending on your budget you can stay in one of the nice hotels for 1,000 to 1,500 baht per night but if you take the time to look around a bit there are bargains to be found everywhere.

Example: places they call mansions you can usually get a room for the night, a week or a month, prices start around 400 baht a night up. There is a place that my parents are going to stay at for a week. It is only 2 years old the rooms are fully tiled have nice big bathrooms (yes, even hot water) cable T.V, Air, Fridge and so forth.. 400 baht a night it's a steal. (That's for the whole room. Up to 4 adults. There are 2 bedrooms)

Most the mansions monthly rents are around 2,500 and up to 4,000 depending on the facilities and how new they are. You can rent a brand new 3 bedroom house only 5 to 10 minutes from Ubon for 2,500 baht a month. I don't know how the people can repay the loans doing it so cheap.

So if you are coming up this way and and worried about finding a place to stay there are so many places, (you can get rooms for 150 baht a night at some places) Don't worry and take an hour to search around when you arrive and you will find a place no problem to suit your budget. I guarantee it.

If you have some time for the upcoming Songkran Festival come up this way it is a great place to spend it. You won't regret it if you do.

Young Street Hawkers Thailand Isaan Country

I went out for dinner tonight to a BBQ place with my girlfriend, her younger sister and her sisters friend. We went to our usual place only 150 metres away from our place ordered our food and sat down and waited. Well before we had even had our plates or drinks brought to the table the first young street hawker came up to the table, he would have been 7 or 8 years old dressed in dirty jeans and a really dirty red or orange t-shirt and he had no shoes. He was selling green mango and peanuts. Now don't get me wrong i feel sorry for these kids (i am gullible). So we bought (i bought) 1 tray of green mango and a bag of peanuts. That was 20 baht all up. 15 minutes later the second one arrived this time a young girl who would have been the same age the first boy dressed in a long dirty white dress. When i spoke to her in Thai she had trouble speaking and when she did reply she spoke Laos. She was selling the same as the boy and yes, i bought another tray of mango and a bag of peanuts (lunch tomorrow at school).

The in quick procession two young flower sellers who were very determined for me to buy from them but i told them politely, No and one of them stood at the table for at least a minute bowing and Waiing to us. After ignoring him he finally left.

This is a very familiar sight when you go out to eat and i don't blame the kids it's the parents. Where are they? Don't they care about their children? I already know the answer most the time. Dad is a drunk, he doesn't work. Mum is a card player and so on. I know too many young kids around my place who are being brought by their grandparents or aunts and uncles because dad took off when the kid was born and mum has gone to work in the city or abroad. There is one boy i know he is 5 and i have never meet his mother in 2 and a half years. I am told she is working in Laos for some big company but that remains to be seen.

These poor kids shouldn't be out to all hours of the night selling (begging) for people to buy things to usually help their family. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of really hard luck families out there doing it really tough i know that. I know a few baht makes a big difference here from going hungry or eating.

I have respect for the people who i see out walking the Soi's selling from their carts. Most the time they are older people walking kilometres each day selling their product pounding the pavement and i say good bloody on them. That is why sometimes when i see these people who look healthy to me walking around the weekend markets with kids begging for money, i don't give them anything. I might buy the kid something to eat or a drink but do not give them money i feel better is i know the kid is having something to eat and that mum and grandmother isn't taking the money to the card table to gamble it away. Well that's my rant anyway!! What do you think?

Teaching in Thailand. Another Crazy Thai School Day

Well today was Graduation Day for Matayom 6, Matayom 3 and Annabarn 3 students. Even after seeing this 2 times before i am still amazed at the amount of crap they go too. First, they set up the grandstand seats from the sports oval for the parents and family to be able to sit and watch their children get their graduation certificates. Yes, i can understand Matayom 6 (year 12) but matayom 3 they haven't even taken their final year exams yet (as i said in an earlier post Thai students cannot fail). They have there final exams in 2 weeks time and again there are those students who have been in the EBP programme for many years and cannot read English well, cannot understand the most basic of the grammar points but then it doesn't matter they get their automatic pass grade.

Today there was these tiny little kids from the kindergarten who will be in going to Pratom 1 (grade 1) next year in graduation gowns receiving certificates and flowers from their family and then the traditional 100 photo's (what is it with Thai people and photo's). well this started at assembly at 8:00 am in the morning and there were still students after 1pm getting photo's taken by friends and still receiving flowers. Now it's good for the flower sellers out the front of the school and also the school as the students have to buy their graduation gowns and photo's but i really can't get my head around these 5 and 6 year old students going through this. But then again as the saying goes T.I.T (This is Thailand).

Well only a few weeks left anyway and then it is holidays to recharge the very depleted brain and hopefully coming back next semester totally relaxed and ready for anything that the school can and will dish up for the teachers for the new school year. You have to laugh hahaha

Safe travelling in The Far Northeast of Thailand.

I am really glad to say that living up here in Ubon Ratchathani is great. When i go out through the day or night i don't have to worry about a bomb exploding in the middle of no where and killing me or my girlfriend. What is going on in the south of Thailand?? I have seen the violence get worse and worse over the last few years and it makes me feel sick in the stomache that these terrorists are not attacking political targets who they have the grudges with, they are attacking everyday poor Thai workers. Day labourers, postal workers, marketstall holders and the list goes on and on. Just a little while back they put bombs in banks where people were taking their children in with them. These terrorists have no soul at all if they are thinking killing innocent kids is going to get their message across.

It makes me hate these people so much more, I don't get involved in Thai politics as it is too dangerous, you don't know who you might upset and what they might do if you do upset them.

For example with Thaksin Shinawatra The Ex Prime Minister. Do i think he was corrupt? yes!!
But if a Thai person asked me i would just say i didn't know as i didn't follow Thai politics. People here in Isan country loved him as he gave thge everyday Thai battler a lot of extras and they thought he was great. When ever i went to my girlfriends village i would never get involved in any political conversation with any of the men there (mostly because the guys were usually drunk and also i was scared i would say something wrong and upset them).

The goverment really has to get serious with this situation in the South of Thailand and if that means being extremely heavy handed then so be it. They are going to lose a lot of tourist in the near future with the bombings in Bangkok and people will start to worry about their safety and i don't blame them at all.

Thank god i don't have that worry here it is all good. Yes, there is crime and there is murder up here but nothing on the scale down South. I sleep at night safely knowing that someone isn't going to try break into my house or steal my motorbike (touch wood, not in the last 2 and a half years). Like i said it's great living up here.

Thai school kids cannot fail their tests

Well it was another crazy day at the private school where I teach. First it started out as usual the Thai lady who is the Head of E.B.P (English Billingual Programme) didn't know what was going on. We had asked about the upcoming holidays and when they were starting (the question had been asked many times before this). She informed us that she was going to speak to the Director of the school to find out.... Still waiting.

Then she told us about the upcoming exams and suprise we couldn't give fail marks to the Pratom students (minimum 60% pass) and that Matayom was a minimum 50% pass. I remember a few years ago when i first started working at the school and i was told about the system i laughed as i thought they were joking. They weren't, A very nice man who has worked at the school for over 5 years now explained everything to me and i was left open mouthed and trying to comprehend what i was being told.

I remember (and still have) one student who's father is a judge and his son is special (very very special). When i first started teaching him he would say things i didn't understand stand up to walk around the classroom and do more really strange things. I found out that he had been in the EBP programme since Kindergarten (Annabarn) and he was now in Pratom 4, so he had been studying with a foriegn teacher for 6 years and he couldn't read anything. Not the word "he, she, dog" and the list went on and on. I was shocked but then i found out that he couldn't read Thai or write Thai either.... Why is he in this school??? Because of his dad. Why does he pass every year?? Because of his dad. It is so simple as everyone already knows that money talks in Thailand, it can do wonderful things.

At the start of last years school term we had a lot of new students in the Matayom 4 class. There were a few girls who couldn't do the alphabet (not joking, I swear) There were others who couldn't count to 20. How does this happen?? It's all about the money, getting seats on bums and not worrying about the students education. Yes, we the teachers tried to have things changed but that is like trying to move a herd of elephants from a banana plantation. As the saying goes way too many times here in Thailand (Mai pen rai) It doesn't matter, Don't worry.

I wish i could bring sweeping reforms to the education system in Thailand but that will not happen in this lifetime or my childrens, I am sure of that. Until then i have to sadly sit back and go along with whatever the Thai education system serves up and try and make the best of it for my students..

Forget Bangkok and Pattaya bargirls. Isaan girls are best.

Why is it that you see so many guys complain and write about how they are being ripped of by girls (bargirls) in Bangkok and Pattaya and so forth. Why don't they realise that this is what the girls do there!!

The girls have been brought up to do and say anything they have to to be able to get money out of their "Farang". Again and again I see these pitiful stories of how she said this and that. She said she loved me!!!! Oh god wake up smell the roses.

A classic tale is a fellow Farang teacher who came to teach at the school where i teach in Ubon Ratchathani, he arrived broke, needing a loan and full of hard luck stories from Bangkok, Pattaya and Kho Samui Etc.. He had only known me for around 3 hours when he asked me if i could loan him some money!!! What the?? I politely said i didn't have any spare money just a small lie. I told him to ask the Head of the English program if he could get a advance on his first wage to set things up here.

Well he told me a story of this girl at Kho Samui had taken him for 200,00 baht and blah blah. It was like hearing a broken record.. Not even a week later he was bosting about how he had met this great girl in a bar/restaraunt and that they have hit it off so well.. (Hello, Wake upI felt like saying). He is mid fifties and she was early 20's (Don't get me wrong my girlfriend is only 20 going on 21 and i am 35). Well to cut a long story short it didn't last long as she was interested in going shopping and eating at restarunts and having him meet all her friends at bars while he payed the bill. (He advanceded 20,000 baht of his first wage and spent it all in 3 weeks on nothing)

I have lived in Ubon Ratchathani for 2 and a half years and i have meet plenty of girls who are gold diggers but never dated one up here. I am wise enough i did my time in Bangkok when i was younger. The people (isan) are really great and amazing people. The majority of them don't try tp rip you off and don't see you as a walking ATM.

I actually have Thai friends up here who ask you to go out to dinner and they don't expect you to pay the bill. Please i urge any of you guys who think all Thai women are trouble and money hungry to come to Isan territory and see some really lovely people and meet some really nice girls.