A Little Traveller

Jet Loves Tuktuks: Vehicles, and How They Are Featuring In My Life (written 19/09/2009)

2010-01-27T15:37:00.000+07:00

About two weeks before we left Melbourne, Jet started pointing out cars. That is, whenever we went for a walk, he would point to every car he saw and say "car". Eager to help along his developing vocabulary, I would confirm his suspicions and say " yes, it's a car." For he wasn't just stating that it was a car, but testing out his language skills and wanting affirmation.
I taught him more vehicle words, and soon he was pointing out trucks, bikes, vans, trains and boats. He was especially excited about planes and helicopters, and every time we waited at a bus stop, he would yell "bus!" at every bus that drove by in the hopes that each would be the one to stop for us (and he always looked a little disappointed if they didn't).
The whole thing could be vaguely annoying, especially when we were on a busy road, but I knew it was just phase and once he knew all the words well enough, he would quickly lose interest.

Well maybe it is a phase, but it's one that's not over yet, and it's fueled, I am sure, by the frequency and variety of traffic here in Chiang Mai.
Every morning when we go out to Wildflower Home, we get a lift with the CCT driver, Ben. Jet and Ben have become great friends. Jet loves Ben because he drives a car, and because when we're stopped at a service station Ben lets Jet clamber into the front to sit on his lap so he can pretend to be driving (also, just once, while we were driving along a backroad).
Jet plays his transport-naming game out the window of Ben's car for half an hour every morning and every afternoon. "Car, bus, car, bike, bike, car, van, bike, truck, car..." repeat ad nauseam. Sometimes there's too much traffic for him to keep up with and all the vehicles run together "car, bike, bikecarbiketruckcar".
Jet plays it from the window of our apartment too, watching the traffic in the street below. Sometimes he'll hear what sounds like an interesting vehicle, a truck starting up or the jingling bell of a vendor's cart, and will drop what he's doing to sprint across the room and climb up onto the window seat to get a look.
Jet keeps constant vigilance, and I get a running commentary of every vehicle that passes by.

He has also added some local colour to his vocabulary, mainly 'songtheow', 'samlor' and, of course, 'tuktuk'.
Songtheow, meaning 'two benches' in Thai, is a pick-up truck that has been converted into a taxi. The tray is usually covered to protect the passengers from sun, wind and rain, and there are two long bench seats that can fit a surprisingly large number of people. When the seats are full people can always hang off the back.
Samlor means 'three wheels' in Thai, they are three-wheeled bicycles with a shaded seat on the back, just big enough to carry one or two people. in nice weather they are a quite pleasant way to travel short distances.
Tuktuks are the motored version of samlors. They have a two-stroke engine and a little open aired cab and backseat.

The tuktuk is Jet's favourite mode of transport. Oh man, does he love tuktuks. He had already enthusiastically learnt the word long before he got to ride in one. So last Sunday when I asked Jet if he would like to go for a ride in a tuktuk, his answer was to run straight for the door to our apartment and start banging. Yes he wanted to ride in a tuktuk and he wanted to go right now!
The day before, we had gone on a trip up to Doi Suthep, and I'd spent the whole day carrying Jet all over the mountain, my arms nearly falling off in the process. So I was very much in need of a day spent relaxing. But it turns out that our apartment is a bit too small for us both to be inside for an entire day without at least one of us going a little stir crazy. Besides, Jet had spent Saturday being carried about like a prince on a rickshaw and he was quite refreshed.
So I decided that since we had to go out to get dinner anyway, we might as well go to the Sunday Market. And since Jet was so bored, I would treat him with his first tuktuk ride.

We got together our shoes and bags and off we went.
"There's a tuktuk!" Jet yelled almost as soon as we left the apartment building, he was pointing at a tuktuk that was driving past already carrying passengers.
He'd spotted at least five more by the time we'd walked down the road and and across the moat so we could get one heading in the right direction. With each one Jet saw he grew more impatient that they weren't stopping for us, but finally I flagged us down an empty tuktuk and we did get in.
Jet was not disappointed, he spent the whole of the short trip patting the seat beside him and saying "tuktuk, tuktuk". Yes, I agreed, it's a tuktuk.

Sorry About the Silence

2010-01-27T13:37:00.000+07:00

It's been so long since I blogged.
A couple of weeks into our stay in Chiang Mai my laptop stopped working and despite intentions to go and get it fixed almost every weekend, it never actually happened.
So here we are, back in Australia, for now at least. Sorry about the silence.
But it doesn't mean I won't get it all down eventually. I'll now start writing about our Thailand adventure. Maybe a bit late, sure, but with extra perspective and hindsight.

Wildflower Home

2009-09-12T11:09:00.005+07:00

We've been in Chiang Mai for a week now, and I've just finished my first week of working at Wildflower Home.
Wildflower Home is a shelter for single mothers and pregnant women who have no jobs or financial security. It's a place where they can get back on their feet, learn vocational skills and rebuild their self esteem before heading back out into the world.
I found out about the Wildflower Home volunteer program through and organisation called Cultural Canvas Thailand, who work with a range of volunteer-run programs in and around Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, right up in the north-west corner of the country, and Wildflower Home is about 30 minutes drive out of Chiang Mai city.
I've rented an apartment in the city, just over the moat from the city centre near Chiang Mai Gate. So every morning we've been driving out there with the CCT driver and another volunteer, an Irish woman named Sarah. There have been some other volunteers working out there as well, four Dutch and two Americans.
Jet and I go to the nursery in the morning. There are usually eight kids there, including Jet. At nearly two years old, Jet is one of the youngest, and the oldest is about four. The woman running the nursery is a Thai woman nicknamed Nop. I help her out for the morning, and then after lunch when all the kids have a nap I teach English for a couple of hours, and then go back to the nursery until four when I finish work and we go home.
Our first day at Wildflower Home, Jet was very clingy. Understandably too, since we'd been travelling and meeting countless people for a week, staying in a new place every couple of nights, and he had no real way of knowing if this was just another stop on the road or if this was a permanent thing. He also refused to eat or sleep with the other kids. The second day he was better, played with the other kids a bit, at lunchtime when the place of rice and soup was put in front of him he cried and asked for a sandwich, but when no sandwich appeared he ate a bit. At naptime he refused again at first, but after I left to teach my classes he slept for a while. The third day was easier again, he threw no tantrums, played happily and ate and slept well. So by Friday he seemed pretty well adjusted, and has even picked up a few Thai phrases.
Friday was the last day at Wildflower Home for Nora, one of the Dutch volunteers who has been working mostly in the nursery. She has been extremely helpful to me over the past week, showing me the ropes around the nursery and explaining things that Phi Nop didn't know how to say in English (thanks Nora!). As a fun activity for her last day at the nursery, Nora brought along fabric paint and plain white t-shirts for all the kids, so they could paint their own t-shirts. The activity went really well and they all had heaps of fun. Then they all wore the t-shirts for Nora's goodbye gathering.

(left to right: Phen, Fai, Nora, Phu-Pha, Phrajan, Jet, Phreewah and Narna.)

So now it's our first free weekend in Chiang Mai. We're going up to Doi Suthep later on. It's the beautiful golden Wat that looks down on Chiang Mai from the mountain beside the city. I can see Doi Suthep form my balcony, so I've already been marvelling it for a week.

Jet on Samet

2009-09-11T07:01:00.004+07:00

We arrived in Bangkok on a Tuesday evening, and after spending the night in a hotel, got on bus to Ban Phe (pronounced bun-pay) first thing the next morning. Ban Phe is a small fishing village a few of hours south-east of Bangkok, and is a fairly unpleasant sort of town, mostly because of the putrid brown water that is floating with rubbish and human waste, and the smell of foul squid that lingers over the town.
This dirty little town, however, is the gateway to a stunningly beautiful island of emerald green jungle, fine white sand and clear turquoise water. Koh Samet.
I first fell in love with Koh Samet in 2003 when I did my gap year in an international school in the falang-filled Pattaya. Koh Samet is not too far from Pattaya, close enough to visit every weekend, which is exactly what we gappies did to escape the expats and red light bars of Pattaya. We quickly made friends with plenty of the locals, and many of us have kept going back even all these years later. I still don't think I could come to Thailand without visiting Samet at least once.
Needless to say, with Jet along for the trip, this visit to Samet was very different to usual. I forked out for nicer accommodation than the usual backpacker-hole, went to bed at seven each night and didn't consume a single alcoholic beverage the whole time I was there (that island's seen quite enough of me drunk anyway, I would say).

The first stop when we got off the boat, was my friend Gai's house. He runs a tattoo parlour in the village, not far from the pier, so his place is often my first stop.
This time when I walked up his front steps, he saw me coming and came out to greet me, he waved his hand at me as if to say "Pfft, you again", and turned to Jet with an enthusiastic hug. This was pretty much the reaction Jet got from all my friends. He has been instantly loved.
Once we'd caught up with Gai and recovered from the trip from Bangkok, Gai asked his neighbour to give Jet and I a lift down to the beach on her motorbike.
It was Jet's first motorbike ride, and it's pretty safe to say his expectation didn't let him down. He sat wedged between me and the woman in front, occasionally looking up at me with an enormous grin on his little face to tell me "bike". Yes, I agreed, we're on a bike.
We stayed at Ao Pudsa Bungalows. At 800 baht a night, it's more than twice what I'd usually pay for a bungalow on Samet. But the bungalows are nice and clean with hot water, and beach is quiet, no motorboats or cars (no road, in fact) and no loud parties at night. Ao Pudsa is a couple of minutes walk along the path around the headland from Ao Phai (where Silver Sands is). Best of all, our bungalow was literally right off this path, so the beach was about five metres from our front door. I can never sleep better than like I do when the sound of the waves is right outside my window.
The next day, we walked around to Ao Phai right after breakfast and went swimming. It was the first time Jet's really been swimming in the ocean. In Australia the water was always too cold for him and he'd cry and refuse to go near it. But here he loved it. The water was warm and there's almost no waves. So we spent the whole morning swimming and playing in the sand. When we finally went back to our bungalow to sleep, we were sandy, salty, burnt and exhausted.
Jet didn't eat much all day, he was still getting used to a new place and unfamiliar food I guess. But he probably ingested enough sand and saltwater to fill him up. He also discovered that he couldn't get enough of the bamboo tubes of sweet black sticky rice that is sold by vendors patrolling the beaches.
Up at sunrise again the next day, we hung about and I caught up with old friends in the morning, then it was back on the boat, back on the bus and back to Bangkok.

Getting Ready To Go

2009-08-22T12:00:00.000+07:00

Hi and welcome to the blog about myself, a 25 year old single mother, and Jet, my almost-two-year-old son. I'll be writing about our travels.
Just over a week from now, we will be embarking on our first (of many, hopefully) overseas trip together.
It's an easy one to start with, we're going to Thailand.
I spent a couple of years living in Thailand in my late teens and early 20s, so I know a bit of what to expect. All the same, being a single parent can be difficult at the best of times, and I'm expecting a steep learning curve as I discover what it's like to be the single parent of a travelling toddler.

So here's the plan, after arriving in Bangkok, we'll spend a few days travelling about and visiting some friends. Then we'll fly to Chiang Mai, find somewhere to live and settle in to do a three month volunteer program with Cultural Canvas Thailand, at a single mothers' shelter called Wildflower Home.
I've got some more travelling plans for after the volunteer program is finished, but nothing is finalised yet, so we'll just see how it all goes.
The first challenge to overcome of course, is the nine hour flight from Melbourne to Bangkok! Jet is a pretty active little kid, he's not usually so keen to sit quietly on my lap for very long, so I don't think he'll like the idea of doing just that for nine hours straight. Hopefully a good supply of snacks and some movies will keep him busy for most of it. I usually really enjoy flying, so I'm a bit disappointed that my days of relaxing plane flights are over. At least it will be a relief when we finally arrive in Bangkok.
Other difficulties that I'm anticipating, are cold showers, the constant muddiness of the wet season (although I suppose Jet will actually enjoy that) and saying goodbye to our pram, which is staying here in Australia.
Overall though, I really hope it all goes well, and turns out to be something we'll want to do a lot more of.