Hello Most Excellent Ones,
I have been on the go since the holidays started. A lot has happened, but I will spare you all the details and focus on the highlights. I spent four days in Keiping, China on a missions trip with the school. Keiping is a good five hours straight west of Hong Kong and is not touristy at all. Over forty kids and ten adult supervisors went on this trip so it was a big undertaking. We visited several schools and churches and everywhere I went I was told that I was, now brace yourself, because this might be big news, VERY TALL. Kids wanted to get pictures with me all the time. I felt like a celebrity. But in reality a tall, white guy is obviously not seen a lot in Keiping.
We also did some home visits. My group went to a very poor home. It was a cement shed really. My apartment in HK is tiny, but I live in opulence compared to most people in China. It made me very grateful for what I have.
It was orange season and you could get tons for a very good price. It was while buying oranges that I had a once in a life time experience. The Chinese are very gracious people and I have never once experienced any racism directed towards me. But just after buying oranges a Chinese man on a motor bike roared by and cursed me out with a very mad face, and a shaking fist. Yikes. He must have thought I was American. I bet if I told him I was Canadian or wore my hockey Canada teeshirt nothing would have happened. It was a strange experience being the object of racist scorn. Very dehumanizing and it also made me kind of mad.
On the last day of the trip I went with two of my students to visit a grade 7 class for their Christmas party. Grade sevens look the same all over the world. Kind of an awkward cross between kid and adult, they are all kinda geeky looking. This particular group of kids were all rather pumped about the party and they had a program for us. Games and singing. Weird though, when a kid won a game he/she had to sing a song to the class. In Canada that would be considered a punishment. Yet the strangest part of the experience was that there were 56 kids in one small class. 56 grade 7's in one class! Are you crazy? But wait it gets better. There was no teacher supervision. I guess he went out to the teacher's lounge for a nap or something. So I was the only adult amongst 56 Chinese kids who hardly knew English. And I certainly was not planning to supervise! Yet remarkably the 56 students managed themselves very well for over an hour. No problems whatsoever. The student leaders ran the class beautifully. That would/ could never happen in Canada. Leave a class of grade 7's alone would be grounds for dismissal. Yet, maybe the reason why China is becoming a world power is that the kids take education seriously and teachers don't have to waste time disciplining them. Hmmm. That would be great speaking from a teacher's perspective.
After my China trip I took a day off to relax and pack and then it was off to Bangkog, Thailand. I thought Hong Kong was crazy busy, with crazy busy traffic, but Bangkog wins. The city is one big traffic jam. Unreal. They also don't bury their cables. Kind of scary to see it all hanging all over the place.
The Thais really love their king, Rama 9. His picture is everywhere. There was one picture where he was holding a camera. I don't know if this is really accurate, but Rama 9 kind of reminded me of a guy who is king of 1315 Frontenac. Glasses, dark hair, hmm.
One morning while I was doing pushups in a park near my hotel I heard music coming on and then a whistle. I looked up and witnessed one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Everyone in the park had stopped what they were doing and stood at attention. It was kind of surreal. Obviously the national anthem was playing. When the music stopped there was another whistle and everyone unfroze and carried on with what they were doing. Interesting. By the way I stopped doing pushups and stood at attention. No use going to jail for wanting to do pushups during a national anthem. Gotta respect the king! There was also an outdoor weight room at this park. Pretty primitive, but you would not want to tell that to the rather muscular men manning those weights.
On my second day in Thailand I went on a tour to an island well south and out of Bangkog. On the way we stopped for snacks. Crsipy squid was offered. Crispy squid? My appetite ended in a hurry after seeing that. On the way to the island I did parasailing for the first time. It was a rush. Great fun. Then I spent the rest of the day swimming and snorkeling.
On my third day I went to a river island, in Bangkog, called Koh Kret where mercifully no cars are allowed. The island is known for its pottery. It is also a very rural place and there was evidence of the flooding that took place earlier in the year. Otherwise I did not see any other signs of flooding anywhere. Koh Kret was peaceful, interesting and I saw an alligator/crocodile plunge into the water. Hmm. Now that was kind of interesting.
The next day I went on a Buddha temple tour. Quite frankly I think Buddhism is wrong. That a religion would be ok with widespread poverty and the exploitation of Thai women by western men is disgusting to me. The temples were impressive though, I have to admit, and the reclining Buddha was amazing. About a hundred feet long, solid gold, it weighs 5 tons! Ridiculous! I could not help but think, and sorry if this might offend anyone, that a lot of the unnecessary suffering that so many Thais have to endure due to lack of proper shelter, food, and clothing could be easily taken care of if you just melted that Buddha down. Five tons of gold could help a lot of people have a better life. After the reclining Buddha I went to the King's old palace. Very impressive. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. So much wealth surrounded by so much poor. Drives me crazy.
After a decent sleep I headed for the bridge over the river Kwai. This was made famous in a movie. Check it up on line. I am too lazy too fill in the details about it. The Japanese made their prisoners build a bridge and a railroad while basically starving them. The worst war museum in the world near the bridge gave a more detailed account of what happened. I say worst cause it was dirty, disorganized, and the junk they had was covered in dust! There was also junk tossed here and there like a kid's messy bedroom. The cement models they had of soldiers and world leaders was absurd and poor. Since when was Hitler's face green? The Thais need some German consultants to get a war museum done right. Talking about Germans ze vere everyvhere as well as several thousand fat and white Russians who when sunbathing on the beach looked like those Elephant seals basking with the penguins on Georgia island. The Americans and Canadians were in short supply. I guess they are all in Mexico or Hawaii now.
After that "interesting," experience my tour gave me an opportunity to meander down a river on a bamboo raft and have a twenty minute ride on an elephant. The elephants took us into the river. One of the elephants had her baby chained to it. The poor little guy did not want to enter the river, but when it got yanked in by mom it had fun going underwater and fooling around. Typical kid. Always saying no and playing around.
After gorging on Thai food, its great by the way, and cheap, I slept well for a night and then I headed to the floating market. Land around Bangkog is very low, its a flood plain really, and it was interesting to travel through canals and by homes right up against the water to the market. The market itself was kind of fun. I floated around for about half an hour in this little dugout, did not buy a thing, but took great pictures of people.
Then finally on my last day in Thailand I took a sweet train trip to Hua Hin and rode the waves for a few hours. There was a lot of people doing this para surfing thing. I did not have enough money to try, but next year I think I will give it a shot. Looked like fun.
Well now I am back in Hong Kong, I still have a few days of R and R. I will check in again on the weekend of January 7-8.
Happy New Year and God bless you all.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
I have been on the go since the holidays started. A lot has happened, but I will spare you all the details and focus on the highlights. I spent four days in Keiping, China on a missions trip with the school. Keiping is a good five hours straight west of Hong Kong and is not touristy at all. Over forty kids and ten adult supervisors went on this trip so it was a big undertaking. We visited several schools and churches and everywhere I went I was told that I was, now brace yourself, because this might be big news, VERY TALL. Kids wanted to get pictures with me all the time. I felt like a celebrity. But in reality a tall, white guy is obviously not seen a lot in Keiping.
We also did some home visits. My group went to a very poor home. It was a cement shed really. My apartment in HK is tiny, but I live in opulence compared to most people in China. It made me very grateful for what I have.
It was orange season and you could get tons for a very good price. It was while buying oranges that I had a once in a life time experience. The Chinese are very gracious people and I have never once experienced any racism directed towards me. But just after buying oranges a Chinese man on a motor bike roared by and cursed me out with a very mad face, and a shaking fist. Yikes. He must have thought I was American. I bet if I told him I was Canadian or wore my hockey Canada teeshirt nothing would have happened. It was a strange experience being the object of racist scorn. Very dehumanizing and it also made me kind of mad.
On the last day of the trip I went with two of my students to visit a grade 7 class for their Christmas party. Grade sevens look the same all over the world. Kind of an awkward cross between kid and adult, they are all kinda geeky looking. This particular group of kids were all rather pumped about the party and they had a program for us. Games and singing. Weird though, when a kid won a game he/she had to sing a song to the class. In Canada that would be considered a punishment. Yet the strangest part of the experience was that there were 56 kids in one small class. 56 grade 7's in one class! Are you crazy? But wait it gets better. There was no teacher supervision. I guess he went out to the teacher's lounge for a nap or something. So I was the only adult amongst 56 Chinese kids who hardly knew English. And I certainly was not planning to supervise! Yet remarkably the 56 students managed themselves very well for over an hour. No problems whatsoever. The student leaders ran the class beautifully. That would/ could never happen in Canada. Leave a class of grade 7's alone would be grounds for dismissal. Yet, maybe the reason why China is becoming a world power is that the kids take education seriously and teachers don't have to waste time disciplining them. Hmmm. That would be great speaking from a teacher's perspective.
After my China trip I took a day off to relax and pack and then it was off to Bangkog, Thailand. I thought Hong Kong was crazy busy, with crazy busy traffic, but Bangkog wins. The city is one big traffic jam. Unreal. They also don't bury their cables. Kind of scary to see it all hanging all over the place.
The Thais really love their king, Rama 9. His picture is everywhere. There was one picture where he was holding a camera. I don't know if this is really accurate, but Rama 9 kind of reminded me of a guy who is king of 1315 Frontenac. Glasses, dark hair, hmm.
One morning while I was doing pushups in a park near my hotel I heard music coming on and then a whistle. I looked up and witnessed one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Everyone in the park had stopped what they were doing and stood at attention. It was kind of surreal. Obviously the national anthem was playing. When the music stopped there was another whistle and everyone unfroze and carried on with what they were doing. Interesting. By the way I stopped doing pushups and stood at attention. No use going to jail for wanting to do pushups during a national anthem. Gotta respect the king! There was also an outdoor weight room at this park. Pretty primitive, but you would not want to tell that to the rather muscular men manning those weights.
On my second day in Thailand I went on a tour to an island well south and out of Bangkog. On the way we stopped for snacks. Crsipy squid was offered. Crispy squid? My appetite ended in a hurry after seeing that. On the way to the island I did parasailing for the first time. It was a rush. Great fun. Then I spent the rest of the day swimming and snorkeling.
On my third day I went to a river island, in Bangkog, called Koh Kret where mercifully no cars are allowed. The island is known for its pottery. It is also a very rural place and there was evidence of the flooding that took place earlier in the year. Otherwise I did not see any other signs of flooding anywhere. Koh Kret was peaceful, interesting and I saw an alligator/crocodile plunge into the water. Hmm. Now that was kind of interesting.
The next day I went on a Buddha temple tour. Quite frankly I think Buddhism is wrong. That a religion would be ok with widespread poverty and the exploitation of Thai women by western men is disgusting to me. The temples were impressive though, I have to admit, and the reclining Buddha was amazing. About a hundred feet long, solid gold, it weighs 5 tons! Ridiculous! I could not help but think, and sorry if this might offend anyone, that a lot of the unnecessary suffering that so many Thais have to endure due to lack of proper shelter, food, and clothing could be easily taken care of if you just melted that Buddha down. Five tons of gold could help a lot of people have a better life. After the reclining Buddha I went to the King's old palace. Very impressive. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. So much wealth surrounded by so much poor. Drives me crazy.
After a decent sleep I headed for the bridge over the river Kwai. This was made famous in a movie. Check it up on line. I am too lazy too fill in the details about it. The Japanese made their prisoners build a bridge and a railroad while basically starving them. The worst war museum in the world near the bridge gave a more detailed account of what happened. I say worst cause it was dirty, disorganized, and the junk they had was covered in dust! There was also junk tossed here and there like a kid's messy bedroom. The cement models they had of soldiers and world leaders was absurd and poor. Since when was Hitler's face green? The Thais need some German consultants to get a war museum done right. Talking about Germans ze vere everyvhere as well as several thousand fat and white Russians who when sunbathing on the beach looked like those Elephant seals basking with the penguins on Georgia island. The Americans and Canadians were in short supply. I guess they are all in Mexico or Hawaii now.
After that "interesting," experience my tour gave me an opportunity to meander down a river on a bamboo raft and have a twenty minute ride on an elephant. The elephants took us into the river. One of the elephants had her baby chained to it. The poor little guy did not want to enter the river, but when it got yanked in by mom it had fun going underwater and fooling around. Typical kid. Always saying no and playing around.
After gorging on Thai food, its great by the way, and cheap, I slept well for a night and then I headed to the floating market. Land around Bangkog is very low, its a flood plain really, and it was interesting to travel through canals and by homes right up against the water to the market. The market itself was kind of fun. I floated around for about half an hour in this little dugout, did not buy a thing, but took great pictures of people.
Then finally on my last day in Thailand I took a sweet train trip to Hua Hin and rode the waves for a few hours. There was a lot of people doing this para surfing thing. I did not have enough money to try, but next year I think I will give it a shot. Looked like fun.
Well now I am back in Hong Kong, I still have a few days of R and R. I will check in again on the weekend of January 7-8.
Happy New Year and God bless you all.
Love adios and peng on,
Dirk
