Tum dee, tum di          Give good, get good    Thai golden rule

We took the ferry out to Koh Samet yesterday about noon. These ferries are the ricketiest looking things - remember one sunk in the Phillipines about 2 weeks ago?- and they squish about a hundred people on them. So what's the harm? I can swim, right? Except that half way through the 30 minute ride ($1.50 btw) the captain (?) stops the boat dead and says that there are too many people on one side of the boat and some must switch sides to balance the craft. Yeah, that'll help.

Then when you get to the pier, the ferries are double parked, so you jump from your ferry to the next one, hold on to the second floor with your hands and crab-walk along the first floor hand rail. I did some serious Hail Marys and made it without falling into the drink or, worse yet, losing my possessions.

Ji showed me how to sneak past the park rangers to avoid paying the fee. Since the island is a national park type thing, Thais pay about 50 cents to enter but falangs have to pay about $5! Outrageous! So you casually walk up the street from the pier to the beach, wait for them to stop a songtaew (remember those pickup trucks with a bench on each side, holds about 14 people), while they are busy collecting the songtaew fares (they're captives and can't escape), you slither by the opposite side. If by chance they ask for your money, Ji will tell them that we have been staying at one of the many guesthouses , just walking to the beach as we do every day. I am to pretend that I don't speak Thai or English.

It works. There's really no organized system for anything here. Americans would have tattooed you paid the minute they saw the green of your wallet.

We ate a lovely beachfront tiki type place, I swam but nobody else did. I don't think Thais are big on swimming. Curious. I seriously considered parasailing but it got too late too fast.

Ji and her boyfriend stayed overnight on the island, I returned with two thai girls who work for TEFL. Got some water and yogurt drink (they're all over the place here, for the digestion) at Tesco-Lotus (which looks suspiciously like an Asian Walmart) and came home.

They also have scads of Red Bull -type energy drinks in tiny cans and someone said since there are no standards here, they are seriously stronger than at home. On the same shelf they have little (maybe 3 or 4 ounce?) cans of beauty drink and one to build collagen. Lord knows, I'm tempted.



A lazy Sunday today. I walked the length of the town, bought a paper and some postcards , read, that's about it. Ji and I will meet for dinner soon.

I had a long Skype talk with Diane Dein     which was nice. And Joe also, although we run out of things to talk about. I plan to get a web cam soon so Diane can see me as well as I can see her.

I need to find a copy shop to get some cv's printed out but no luck yet. Very few people understand what I mean. Ji says there's one on the parallel street , up there , turn there, you know where the buddah shop is.... Ji's directions are never very good.

I did find the Blue Moon book store behind Christy's bar that she told me about. You buy used books and sell them back at 1/2 price the next week. but since I have my Kindle, I don't really need any.

Some lady from Andrew Bigg's Language school in Bangkok called me for an interview. Although she spoke Engrish (I think) I could not understand one word she said. So I pulled my classic trick - "Please explain to my friend so she can tell me the directions."  Then I hand the phone to a Thai girl, who listens intently, says "ka, ka" several times, then writes the info down in English for me. I must say I'm kind of proud of myself - since Thais so gracious and helpful, they system never fails.

I read online that Andrew Biggs is sort of a local celebrity - radio host, writer, etc., and lo and behold, there in the Sunday paper was a funny op-ed piece by him about getting a Thai driver's license. Once again, I'm not sure if I want to go the language school route, the hours are long, the curriculum is canned.

I will take the 6 or 7 am bus to Bangkok on Tuesday , go to the Indian school interview first, then the Andrew Biggs interview, stay over and return Wednesday. I'm hoping to take the night train to Chiang Mai maybe next Monday/Tuesday and check out some schools there. If apples are apples, I'd prefer to teach up north.

Or maybe not teach at all. I mean if the best they can offer me is 30k baht, maybe I should just take my show on the road.