06/06/09 Birthday Celebration

Here are some pictures that others took of my birthday last weekend at Pattaya. First is another look at our hotel. Remember to click on a picture if you want a closer look.







Ronald McDonald is offering a hearty HELLO or SAWATDEEKAH and wai (the prayer-like gesture).












Out on the town before the surprise party.








And to think, only 27 years old.











Here we are: T, Nun, Pampim, Barb, Malin, Daow, and Ant. Ant took all of these fabulous pictures. She just graduated with her PhD in Biology from ISU.








Telling Tom about the surprise birthday party complete with chocolate cake and red wine from Australia!

Working by day and playing by night

I'm teaching 2 classes (3 hours each!) every day. The students are 3rd year university students in the leisure / hospitality management program, which is housed in the International College. The entire program is taught in English and the students' command of English (both written and spoken) is impressive!

There are 48 students in the classes. After the first class we all get our lunch at the university canteen. I order the same thing everyday: noodles. By now the Noodle Lady recognizes me (the farang) and whips up my bowl with a smile. It costs me all of 60 cents. I eat it with chopsticks and a spoon. It is spicy and sweet at the same time.

Here we are meeting with Dr. Napaporn, another wonderful administrator at SWU. We talked about the significance of their program as it relates to the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Yesterday Panpim invited her staff and I to a lovely restaurant on the river Chao Phraya. It took 90 minutes to get there during rush hour. We took a motobike taxi, the Skyway, the water taxi in the river, and a short walk.

Here we are zipping through a small alley. My female Thai friends ride side saddle and barely hang on.

Pagoda on the river.

The International College Staff

We then went for a drink at the Dome at Lebua. It was an open air bar and restaurant 64 stories high.

Pattaya, Thailand

We had a retreat at Pattaya, Thailand. US GIs put Pattaya on the map from 1959 as they set out for fun and frolics along the coast. While today Pattaya is trying to change its image to a more family-friendly destination, it is still well known for its sex tourism.






We stayed at a neat hotel called Z by the Zign. Our hotel rooms had glass floors that looked down into the pool. It took a while to get used to walking on it.

Thailand is a seafood lover's paradise. There is some jellyfish on this plate. It tasted crunchy. I also ate fried pork intestines and the stinky durian. I preferred those foods over the jellyfish.






The woman on the left, Lillipan, started the sustainable tourism management program 13 years ago. She is 73 now and she accompanied us to Pattaya. Thais show great respect for their elders. When walking from place to place, the group walks at the same pace as the oldest person. We arrived in the rain, but the group didn't abandon her to get out of the rain. Everyone stayed together. She was a ball of fire and she loved speaking English to me.

Bird of paradise?










This picture shows a western man sitting next to a Thai woman at the beach. This scene is also common with much older men and very young women, or same sex couples, and the list goes on.






Prostitution is illegal and prosperous in Thailand. My former graduate student, Malin, told me she thinks the industry is getting worse. They took me to see the red light district and it left quite an impression.






About 100 years ago, the Chinese came to Thailand to do manual labor. They are still here, but they quickly moved into business ownership and are well positioned today in Thailand. Manual labor nowadays comes from Burma. These are some Burmese fishermen.





The bright colors of the fishing boats.










Turtles relaxing.












We took an afternoon trip to a Buddest Temple in the eastern part of Thailand near the Cambodian border. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside temples. Eastern Thailand is known for its fruit, especially durian. The lovely people I was traveling with bought 2 durians. The fruit stand owner sliced them up and double-wrapped them in plastic. The plastic wasn't very effective, though.


Roadside fruit and vegetable market.










Our group is sitting at the 2 tables you see in the picture. The bottom picture shows the durian eaters who moved downwind from the other table.

VPs, Campus, Tailor, and Food

Meeting with the VP of International Relations to discuss the wonderful relationship between SWU and ISU over the past 30 years.







SWU is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2009.

My tailor.









My first meal was Chinese roast duck and shrimp. We also had tofu, rice, chicken and noodles, and much more.








This man is cutting durian, a spiky-shelled fruit that is a pungent delicacy in Southeast Asia. It smells so bad that it is banned from airlines, buses, and hotels. I didn't try any (yet).

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Sustainable Tourism team and farang (foreigner).

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Panpim, who makes the continued relationship between ISU and SWU possible. She earned her doctorate from ISU and is now Dean of the International College.

Bangkok, Thailand

I arrived in Bangkok at 11 pm last night. Daow, Malin and T were there to collect me and off we went into the city.








After a 30 minute drive we arrived at the Srinakharinwirot University visitor residence. Here a few pics of my digs.







TV, frig, microwave, you name it!









They provided a laptop and a cell phone to use!







My apartment has a door that leads to an outdoor sink and a view of the street below. The university is located in the main business district of Bangkok called Sukhumvit.







This is my view.









Hum...what she is selling? My attempts to learn basic Thai were weak at best. At this point, all I can say in Thai is "Hello", "Thank You" and "The cat is next to the car."

Spring on the farm

This picture illustrates farm-style entertainment at its best. It is unclear who is doing the tormenting, the dog or the squirrel. Click on the picture for a closer look.






Here is Dan receiving his 8th grade diploma from PC. A perk of being on the school board is getting to present the diploma to your child. Dan informed me in no uncertain terms that there would be no hugs or kisses during this moment. To the right of my head are the relatives in the bleachers!



Tyler, Stuart, Josh, Kyle, and Dan















Tom cut down that awful tree in the front yard. I'm not sure what I've gained, however, because he created a throne out of the stump.

Keeping up with the Jones, farmer-style...

There has been a lot of rain this spring. By now, Tom would probably like to have his corn crop in the ground and be getting ready to plant beans but it has been too wet. When we go places he is always on the lookout for dust in the field (which means someone is out there planting or tilling or something). Today he heard a tractor engine going by. He had to relocate to the porch to try and figure out who it was and what he was doing. If you enlarge the picture, you can just see the red tractor pulling out of site.


Dan is a day shy of his 14th birthday in this picture. 







Here is my grandfather: Vincent Nathan Elwood.