We moved into our new house! One thing we must tell you if you ever wanna live in one of these Thai wooden houses.. it’s beautiful, but it is very hot during the day. Best to hang out underneath the house, with A LOT of mosquito spray on. It was nice having my dad come and stay (and help us put up some shelves and hanging space) on our first weekend in the house. He even babysat Mali one afternoon. Yes, we have a spare room for visitors.
After having lived in share-houses as a couple since 2007 (London with a Japanese girl called Masumi, West End with John & Lizzi, Highgate Hill (with combinations of Tom & Anna, Gav & Mel, Olivia + Dylan&Ethan, Natasha, Arnie) & back to West End again (with Liz & Andrew)), it is kind of nice to be in our very own private bathroom, kitchen, loungeroom.. and even outdoor space. Although I did feel pretty bad going to a colleague’s house for lunch and seeing how many people live in an old studio apartment.
My friend Saw Lar Hay pretty much keeps me sane at work (check the video, he’s the cool one with the cap). I’m starting to settle in at the clinic. I don’t get lost anymore, which is nice. I still feel awkward rocking up on my bicycle with a helmet on, but at least people have seen me enough that they don’t freak out anymore. I’m beginning to remember the faces of staff in various departments (we don’t really uniforms at the clinic, which suits me fine) and I have even found a few other thai speakers to chat to. There is an amazing Thai lady called Kanchana who created the Burma Children Medical Fund, a brilliant organisation that takes sick kids (and a few adults too) to Chiang Mai and beyond for advance and usually expensive treatments that the clinic cannot do. She started off like me, an AVI volunteer from Australia. Inspiring stuff. It’s also awesome to meet Karen-Thais who are working amongst Karen-Burmese. I am very slowly learning Burmese (and a tiny bit of Karen) but it is nice to speak some Thai at work sometimes.
At this point, can I just say once and for all that I REALLY HATE MEETINGS? I do. I’ve never had so many in my life. And that is saying a lot, because I was involved in church for over a decade. So far at Mae Tao Clinic I ran away from one after 45 minutes (Thank God, because it went for 4 hours), and had one with all the volunteers where the only comment from the local medics was ‘we have enough doctors’ (that thing they say about Asians being indirect?.. yeah.. not always true!). So earlier this week when my boss was worried that we didn’t have enough of an agenda for a department meeting the next day I assured her that it will be awesome. The meeting went for 15 minutes. We got what we wanted from our 2-point agenda. Quick is good. It CAN be done!
But enough about work. Let’s talk about family. Mali has been to daycare for 5 days in-a-row and loving it. They only speak Thai there, so we’re hoping she will learn really quickly to speak Thai too. I was her age when our family moved from Melbourne to Bangkok and I don’t even remember speaking English when I was a baby, so yeah, see what happens. She has also made some friends. There’s an Aussie family with 2 girls on the next street, a little French boy on another, and half Thai-half Aussie boy from way across town. She goes swimming 3-4 times a week in the arvo, is still crazy about Peppa Pig, and still loves rice/noodles/pasta/bread and all carbohydrate-based foods. She has also decided she is a big girl and gave up nappies entirely.
Getting across town is always fun. We ride everywhere because Mae Sot is very flat. Rachel’s bike now not only has a child seat in the back- it also has a massive basket attached to it behind the childseat. I wonder what the locals call that bike.. ‘The-crazy-family-bike’? Hey, when it costs 100 Baht everytime you call a motor-tricycle taxi (even if you’re going somewhere like 1km away) you don’t really care what people say.. you get on that bike and peddle. This town is cool for a lot of things, but not public transport.
Our first trip out-of-town was to check out the closest waterfall, Pun-Cha-Roen. We found the Songtaew (a ute with two covered benches facing each other and a roof) that goes uo that way and experienced the most uncomfortable ride in Thailand so far. There was no legroom. Well, there normally would be, except they filled the space in-between the benches with boxes of tomatoes, eggs, flowers and chicken feet. Then we kept picking more people up along the way. Oh we also changed a tire and filled up at the petrol station before heading out of town. That, along with stopping every police check points possible on the way (Immigration Police are very active in these parts of Thailand) turned a reasonably short trip to a near-2-hour journey. And the waterfall was rubbish. The water was full of red dirt even when it was flowing. (Apparently it gets clearer at other times of the year) But still we really enjoyed getting up in to the mountains a bit where it was cool and the air was clean. A
fter lunch there we were heading out to find another Songtaew when I tried very un-confidently my thumb on hitch-hiking. And it worked! So we got to sit on the back of an open ute (don’t tell my mum) and NOT stop at any police checks and also find out that the trip really only takes less than an hour.
Anyway, it’s a good life. I work from 9am-4pm weekdays, with an hour lunch break. It takes me 5-10 minutes to ride to work. We hardly ever cook because it’s so cheap and delicious to eat out. We don’t know many people and so it seems like we’re hardly ever in a rush. It’s a different pace. Although it’s Thai New Year this weekend so stay tune for footage of folks going nuts..it’s the water festival.. it’s one massive water fight!
Click here for our 2nd video
Oh there’s a quick video too, with music by our good friend from Brisbane, Aaron Nebauer. I love this particular song because it somehow reminds me of a health insurance ad with a happy family running in the hills or something like that. In a good way. Enjoy. Savour the flavour.
