Pak Se, Laos

Arriving in Pak Se

Joi, one of the teachers at Ban Kumuong school in Ubon, Thailand, accompanied me on my weekend trip to Pak Se, Laos. As an Ubon native, she spoke Lao, so she had no problem communicating with the locals. The hard part was communicating with each other — I speak only a few words of Thai, and her English is basic.

We pulled into the bus station in Pak Se, and as soon as we got off the bus, several people hurried up to us to take us to a hotel — not necessarily one we would want to stay at, but one which would pay them a commission. Surprisingly, Joi was ready to go with them, and although since she is more of a native than I, I would usually defer to her, this time I didn’t. Instead we got a songtau (small jeep-like vehicle with a bench on either side) with a French couple and headed into town. Aidan had suggested that we look at the rooms before agreeing to check in, and he was right on. The Lonely Planet guide suggested the Pakse Hotel, so we started there. I looked at the rooms, and wow, what a neat place. $23 for a very nice room, including buffet breakfast. Humble but beautiful decor too.

The Falls

We hired a driver to take us around town — at least that what I thought we hired him for, until we arrived at the waterfall park. No worries, it’s all an adventure. The falls was quite nice, although not up to my expectations, having heard that it was the largest in Southeast Asia (or so I thought I heard). After a short visit we returned to the town.

A Chinese Restaurant

We stopped off at a Chinese restaurant on the way back for a late lunch. To my amazement, they did not have noodles! We ordered a chicken dish, but I didn’t much care for it; it was as if they just hacked up the chicken, because it was served in pieces that seemed to contain more bone than meat. The other dish was quite good though — a mix of delicious fresh vegetables.

The Lao currency, the kip, sells for about 9,000 per U.S. dollar. Above is a photo of the menu showing the astronomical prices. There’s Chinese on the left and Lao on the right — Lao script is related to Thai script, but different. Lao temple architecture also is related but different.

Lao Massage

Then a one hour massage, and then back to the hotel. I suggested karaoke, and Joi agreed. Again the transportation negotiations — we wound up paying about $10 for a songtau driver to take us to four places until we finally found a suitable place, and to wait for us and drive us home.

Karaoke

I sang an American song and Joi sang a Lao and a Thai song. It was early and we were the only customers in the place, but soon the place started filling up with eighteen and nineteen year olds. They had some really good singers there.

I had been looking forward to trying Beer Lao. Someone had told me that it is the best Southeast Asian beer. I thought it was pretty good but not great.

Up on the Roof

We were pretty clear about not wanting to spend the whole evening there, so we left in time to catch dinner on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel. Our waiter was extremely polite and friendly, and even seemed excited to hear that I was American. Given our history, I thought that was very generous of him. I have heard on two different occasions that Laos is the most bombed country in the world, mostly by the U.S. Here is a photo of part of a story about it in the Vientiane Times.

Returning to Thailand

Going back to Thailand, there were many tour buses parked at the border crossing. Many have wildly colorful and creative images painted on them. Here is a sample.

Weekend’s End

It was an interesting weekend, but Pak Se was a sleepy town. I look forward to visiting more of Laos someday. Luang Prabang especially interests me. It is said to be a beautiful city with a mix of French colonial and Lao influences.

Ubon Ratchatani, the English Crazy Club, and Ban Khumuang School

Ubon Ratchatani

Ubon Ratchatani is a small city in northeast Thailand, about an hour from the Lao border.

English Crazy Club

During my pretravel research I learned of Ubon’s “English Crazy Club” (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/english_crazy_club/), a group of university students in Ubon dedicated to promoting the study of English among the local population. They organize English camps for periods of one to several days where children can have fun and learn English at the same time. English speakers come to volunteer from other countries, even non Anglophone countries such as Germany. In addition to the English camps, the club coordinates volunteer teaching of regular English classes in local schools. Although these schools would be thrilled to have long term help, any amount of time is greatly appreciated.

Aidan

Aidan Curley, originally from Ireland, has traveled and lived in many countries all over the world. While visiting Thailand he came to Ubon a year and a half ago and met the English Crazy Club. Impressed with their energy and cheerfulness, he wound up staying there. Aidan’s a brilliant guy and a people person to boot. He loves the children and manages to make English fun for them. He speaks decent Thai in addition to several European languages.

Although he has been modestly compensated for much of his work, he has foregone more lucrative opportunities elsewhere and donated much time gratis out of his fondness for the Ubon community. He was recently asked to head up an English program, and the organizer wanted to include his photo on the program literature. He has been offered leadership roles on more projects than he has time to do. Aidan is an example of someone who has done well by doing good.

Ban Khumuang School

Ban Khumuang School is a public school outside of Ubon. To be precise, it’s in Khumuang township, Warinchomrab district, Ubonratchatani province, which in Thai is โรงเรียนบ้านคูเมือง ตำบลคูเมือง อำเภอวารินชำราบ จังหวัดอุบลราชธานี, unless you don’t have Thai fonts installed.

The school spans grades kindergarten through nine. The local community consists mainly of poor rice farmers, but they nevertheless contribute additional funds to the school for the sake of their children. The school is beautiful and clean, with many Isaan (northeast Thailand) objects on exhibit that give the school a museum feel as well.

I volunteered at Ban Khumuang School for a week. I’ve taught English informally before, but this was the first time I did so with children. The kids were very cheerful and respectful. Thai students, and probably Asian students in general, are quite different from their western counterparts. They defer to the authority of the teachers and administrative staff, and show great respect for their elders.

I met a British man in Khorat who teaches English to high school students in Shenzhen, China, and was in Thailand with his Thai wife on vacation for the Chinese New Year. He is in his sixties and told me he could never teach in the West — he could not handle the stress, because “western students make sport of harassing their teachers”.

I was privileged to share lunch every day with Aidan and some Thai teachers. It was pot luck, and everybody brought something. Since I can’t cook, I brought pastries and fresh fruits I bought at the Tesco supermarket. It was my favorite time of the day.

The students take responsibility for keeping the school clean and helping the teachers. During lunch they served us water and washed the dishes. I like that. In the West one might criticize this and other unscholarly activities as being unrelated to the school’s mission of bestowing on the children an academic education, but here the school’s mission is understood to be more than academic; it’s a general preparation for adult life as well.

Aidan told me of the time he asked the students to say (in English) the profession of their fathers. The first one said “he is a rice farmer”. As he went around the room, every single student said the same thing. He thought they didn’t understand the question, or were just copying the first student, but it turned out that every single student was from a rice farming family. These children are expected to help out on the farm. They have substantial chores to do in addition to their schoolwork. They learn from the beginning that giving and receiving are inseparable, and don’t complain when asked to help out.

During the morning crafts period, the children learn lots of practical skills they can use to make things that they would otherwise have to buy. You can see them sitting on the ground in groups involved in such tasks as knitting and making sunhats from recycled milk cartons.

On my last day at Ban Khumuang School, I decided to make a modest donation to the school, since it is in large part community supported, and they provided for me such a gratifying experience for me the whole week. They made a big deal about it, and had me present the envelope to the school assistant director in a ceremonious manner at the school assembly. They took photos and presented me with a Thai good luck amulet, a charm, and a sunhat made by the students from milk cartons. There is so much more to life than working in an office…

Bangkok Barcamp, January 2008

27 January 2008

Yesterday was a great success at the Barcamp (http://www.barcampbangkok.org). It was all in all a great day, starting with a very pleasant half hour walk in the morning cool along Sukhumvit Road to the restaurant where the event was held. It’s quite a place, a large, expensive Indian restaurant (lunch was great, by the way). You can see pictures of it at http://www.indusbangkok.com/.

There were about 150 people there, of which about 15 were Indian, European, and American, with the rest Thais. Presentations were about a half hour each. I presented “Unix Command Line Productivity Tips”. We wrote our prospective subjects on papers which we affixed to the wall, and then voted on them.

I also chaired a discussion on “Software Development in Thailand”, not to offer any information, but to learn and facilitate discussion. At the Barcamp I attended in Charlottesville, a similar discussion had been one of my favorites. It was a fascinating exchange between the foreign business owners/consultants and the Thais, most of whom had been out of school for only a few years and were junior in the field.

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There are problems here. An American pointed out that after three years of programming, an employee is promoted into management, guaranteeing that the programming labor base is inexperienced. Another problem is that most of the work here is grunt work sent here for low cost maintenance by western countries. Employees don’t grow in their skills, and the brightest get bored. One enthusiastic Thai developer explained how this led him to leave his job and start his own consulting company. Given the fact that most Thais live at home before marriage, they are in a very convenient situation, able to endure low incomes while they grow their careers.

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Trivia Point: Reuters, the British news service, is the largest IT employer in Thailand. They do software developement, much of which is sent here by other countries. The news service comprises only 20% of their business in Thailand.

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There was a session on the Adult Video business (referred to as “AV”). It is widely believed, though rarely spoken, that the porn business fueled the dramatic growth of the Internet. This would have been a fascinating window through which I could view (dare I say “peep”?) into this world. Unfortunately, I had to miss it because it coincided with the discussion I chaired. I lamented to a colleague, “I’ll just have to delay my new career in the Adult Video world a few years…as a programmer, that is.”

We were in sessions until 6:00, when we left for dinner at a very inexpensive but pleasant patio restaurant. The mosquitos enjoyed it too — I mentioned this to an expat, and he said that although he was used to it, I could ask the waiter for some deet spray. I did, and the problem disappeared.This was a fantastic way to get to know some of the very interesting folks in this community, some of whom have lots of experience traveling and living all over Asia. One told me he only spent a month visiting Vietnam because he was “in a rush”. These expat guys, from the U.S., Europe, and India have an interesting perspective on life and culture here in Thailand and in the world. Many of them have Thai wives, have been here for several years, and know the Thai system (culture, language, government, business) quite well. Although realistic and reasonably critical about the problems here, they seemed to share a fondness for the Thai people, wanting to do their part to help the nation overcome its problems and succeed in the world.

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I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before; I still had jet lag, having arrived one and a half days before the day started. So at 10:00 I reluctantly left the restaurant. This time I took the Skytrain home. I took a much needed shower and walked down the block for my first massage since arriving. The prices have gone up since my last visit — $14 for one hour. (Note: Three weeks later I am paying only $7-10 nearby.) I love Thailand.