Diving with the Sharks.

I'm notorious for being late, and for those who haven't noticed, my blog is no exception.  As I mentioned in the last entry, my time in Bangkok is quickly coming to an indefinite end.  Many things have happened since my Nepal and India trip... A whole semester of school has almost passed in fact!  So over the course of the next few weeks I will post some entries that were typed, but never published because of the India/Nepal blogathon.

The first event, and probably the most exciting thing to happen in the past few months was the shark dive.  I've become a huge fan of diving over the past few years.  Unfortunately, all of the best dive sites demand at least 3 or 4 days away from Bangkok.  The solution?  Diving in SE Asia's largest shark infested aquarium!  At $150, it wasn't cheap, but a similar experience in an American aquarium would cost at least double.  It was a huge tank, but I still had problems maintaining buoyancy and found myself swimming into the walls for the first few minutes.  Knowing how incredible the ocean feels compared to the tank kind of made me feel bad for the animals inside...  Empathy turned into a shallow fear with one glance at the rows of teeth in the sharks' mouth.  I knew they weren't hungry, but being so close to something so potentially dangerous was an awesome feeling.  My friend and his wife came along for the experience and took pictures from the viewing area.  He is also a diver and he let me borrow his underwater camera... the experience resulted in the following video:

Food for Thought.

Some people like to drink their bad days away;  I stuff mine with food, and well, today, I've been gorging.  I don't want to complain because I hate complainers- unless I agree with them.  But I feel like my blogs usually give the impression that I'm living in the land of milk and honey when really it's just the land of Honey (who might be coming to America w/me).  Anyway, it certainly has its downsides and today's blog is just a notice that yes, sometimes things here are horribly irritating.

Stress has been creeping in unnoticed with each passing day, and today it stopped hiding.  As some of you know, I will be leaving Bangkok indefinitely in 4 weeks. Aside from the emotions that come with leaving a place I've come to call home, there's a laundry list of other things clogging the highways in my head; all blasting their horns demanding attention:

-  How to get all my belongings home.  Moving down the street was hassle enough- moving across the world is a logistical nightmare!
-  Filling out the correct paper work so my shipments aren't charged a tariff when they arrive in the U.S.
-  What do to with all the crap I'm not moving.  Sell, trade, give away... I dunno.
-  Test papers (hundreds) to grade.
-  Reports to write on all of my students.
-  Travel budgets and itineraries for all my stops on the way home.
-  Deciding where I am going on the way home (and how to get there).
-  Transferring money from my bank account here to my account in America without losing a lot of $$$ in the process.
-  Budgeting enough time to see all my friends in BKK before I go.

Of course the biggest stress factor is how to smuggle the monkey head back home without customs seizing it and/or arresting me.  

Actually, the biggest source of stress lately has been work.  There is currently a large amount of legitimate "good-teacher" paperwork which inevitably causes some stress, but there have been a few recent bureaucratic policies that have rubbed me the wrong way.   Here they are:

#1 - The Late Policy
Each time you accrue 5 late clock-ins you are deducted 1 day's pay.  We have to clock-in by 7:30 each morning, and as most of you know I am both a procrastinator and someone who really enjoys his sleep.  Needless to say, I've been late 15 times and have lost 3 days' pay.  It sounds horrible, but each day I was only late by a minute or two, often clocking in at 7:31.  Now, I live 5 minutes down the road from the school- there is no valid reason for me to be late... it's totally my fault and I agree there must be consequences for tardiness.  The annoying thing about this is that I've only missed 2 days of work in 2 years; both times I was legitimately sick.  I've never missed a meeting, a class, or ANYTHING even remotely relevant because of my fashionably late arrivals.  Meanwhile, I've covered numerous classes for coworkers who have called in "sick" after a crazy weekend out on the town or simply didn't feel like coming in.  To each his own... I don't care what other people do, it's their business.  BUT, a system that punishes tardiness more than absenteeism is faulty and should be changed.  Something is definitely wrong when you can call in sick rather than clock-in late and come out on top. 

#2 - The Bonus
This one is a great source of recent frustration.  Upon the completion of a contract, teachers are given a 40,000 baht ($1170) bonus.  Teachers who come in during the mid-year break are given a pro-rated bonus of 20,000 baht at the end of the year.   What does Joey get for leaving in the middle of the year?  Nothing... absolutely nothing.   Not one-half, not one-third, zilch.  It's in the contract so the school is technically right not to give me anything for working 1/2 a year.  However technically right and morally right are two very different things.

- The first semester is longer and harder than the second, however teachers leaving after the first get zero bonus while those coming in for the second get half.
- The contract is written like it is so that teachers have an incentive to finish out the year and encourages them not to bail out on the school in the middle of a contract.  I get it.   However, I've been with the school for 2 years now and my resignation is hardly a surprise.  In fact, it was agreed upon that I would only work for a semester before I even signed my current contract.  In a sense, I am very much completing the verbal contract we all agreed upon. 
- One of the main reasons I stayed on for even another semester was because my boss found my resume online last year and asked me to stay.  I was on my way to a 6-month stint at a language school.
- Earlier this year, a teacher was fired and given severance pay.  I have been a good worker for 2 years and am getting a pat on the back. (Which is appreciated, but it sure isn't $600)

I don't want to come across as a pessimistic Paul, because there are some things I absolutely love about work. However, I wanted to go out on a good note feeling happy about everything, and that isn't quite how it's shaping up.  I was in such a bad mood today that my kids will probably be thrilled to see me go.  I suppose things could change in a month.

Nepal: Everest

I woke up early and the pit in my stomach should have let me know something bad was about to happen.  I brushed aside the subtle clues, passing them off as early morning aches or anticipation for the upcoming adventure.  I rushed down the hotel stairs and caught a taxi to the airport.  Something still wasn't quite right, so I foolishly downed a cup of instant coffee in full support of the "early morning aches" theory.  After half an hour, we walked onto the tarmac and my stomach melted onto the asphalt.  I knew the plane for the Everest flight would be small, but I wasn't expecting a turbo-prop.  Many of you know about my previous fear of flying.   Well, it's essentially a thing of the past, but these odd, Flintstone planes bring out the worst in me- like the time Katy and I almost died coming back from NYC a few Christmas Eves ago during a severe thunderstorm.

To my delight, the plane took off quickly and there was zero turbulence.  The windows weren't as clear as my camera was hoping for, but they were alright.  The mountains were in view within 10 minutes and we were back at the airport in 40.  The hostess called us to the front  individually to get a "cabin view" - I was lucky and stepped into the cockpit just as we passed Everest.  To say that the view was better than from on the trail would be a lie.  But this was a very close second.

Nepal: Killing a day in Kathmandu

Two days left in Nepal and I found myself wanting to sit in the hotel and be a lazy bum.  I also found myself wanting some Momos (basically a wonton stuffed with meat), and fortunately, after an hour or so, I then found myself wandering the city's dusty streets stuffed with momos and in search of something exciting to see.   I unfolded my large, inacurrate map and set my sights on the Pashupati temple.  The idea of seeing yet another temple didn't set off any emotional fireworks, but I had given up on finding another snake charmer and it certainly beat hanging out near the tout-infested area beside the hotel.

The fact that it took over an hour to walk to the temple was more of a surprise than an annoyance.  And, despite having to use such a horrible map, I only got lost once: at the very end.   It was quite sad... not that I was "lost", but that I still felt a bit weird asking someone a question in English hoping they would understand.  I decided I would test my luck with a vendor nearby.  After purchasing a bottle of water, I asked where the temple was.  I felt failure coming on as his face contorted in confusion.  After a long pause, his eyes got big and in perfect English he said, "ohh you mean the Pashupatit temple, right?"  Apparently I had mispronounced the name.  He gave me good directions and a good feeling inside- it makes me happy to hear non-native speakers spit out some decent English.  I guess that's what teaching does to someone.

The complex was huge, covering a large area of land complete with many temples, monuments, hills, and even a river.  It was so large in fact, that I almost walked away when they demanded a $5 entrance fee because I could only see a small portion of the place in front of me.  I paid the money simply because I didn't want to walk back to the city in the searing sun.  It was the best $5 I've ever spent.  

A Cow meandering past an old temple.
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A pig idol facing a tomb (I think).
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A courtyard full of the pig idols... and homeless dogs.
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A temple at the top of a ravine.
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Cliffside homes of holy men.
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This guy was cool (because he didn't want money to take his picture)
And his staff reminded me of Ursela in The Little Mermaid.
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More tombs.
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I think this was a house for the holy men.  I know,  I shoulda "splurged" for a guide.
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This chubby little white girl was drinking this orange juice until the monkey decided he would take it from
her.  She cried like it was the only box of juice she'd ever get.  To make matters worse (funnier), the
monkey ripped open the box and poured all the juice out, using it only as a toy.
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Holy men.
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I hate paying for pictures, but this one was too cool to pass up.  He
initially wanted $15: after we both stopped laughing I took one for $1.
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This was the most fascinating part of the complex.  It was also the saddest and most thought provoking.
It was here that families prepared bodies for cremation.  The rawness of it all was bizarre.  In America
dead bodies are prepped to look peacefully asleep and layed into a fancy coffin.  Here the bloated bodies
were being washed in the river before being set on fire.  There appeared to be hired mourners, and even
someone to swipe the flies away from the body.  Ashes are swept into the river.  In this picture you can
see the body underneath the fly swatter wearing a blue shirt.  In the left corner you can see a group of
workers shoveling ashes into the middle of the river.
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Smoke from the cremation site floods the temple complex.
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