Tall Tales From A Short Canadian

WARNING ! ! ! Politically-incorrect cultural judgements to be passed below…

But first: if you want to see my photos at their best, please visit http://flickr.com/photos/stevenhorr/ . I don’t think I’ll waste much more time loading them to blog.com as it just takes much longer and flickr has a far superior photo layout.

I cannot help but pass judgement on aspects of the culture currently hosting me. I am incapable of refraining from relating everything I experience here to my own frame of reference. Can’t do it! In turn, I try to remind myself that peeps is peeps, and that every culture and every individual has something precious to offer the world. But what follows are my observations regarding Korean parenting, Korean kids, and Korean adults, especially men.

Korean parenting is different than anything I’ve seen. Of course, I know that some parents are better than others, in Korea as in Katmandu as in Kelowna. But I also know that one can safely make generalizations based on real experiences and observations. That is what I do! Today, I had a Korean kid, with whom I’ve had heaps of headaches, spit in my face for taking his ball away (following two warnings). Not just once, but thrice! I’ve done everything I can with this rotten apple… talked to him, disciplined him, given him extra attention, ignored him, treated him like a baby and an adult, and I just can’t figure out the code. Teacher training would come in handy here, perhaps. As it turns out, his mother has a lot of trouble with him too, but has recently called my assistant teacher and told her that they would prefer that he isn’t reprimanded too severely in school because they don’t believe in punishment! After all, he’s special. When I told my Korean assistant that V___ had just spit in my face, she said “Okay” and went about her task of tidying the room in the wake of the children’s uproarous departure. She didn’t want to have to deal with it.

In Korea, the kids make the rules. Why? Well, for starters, because the parents rarely do. Kids here eventually realize the leverage they have at school. When something doesn’t pander to their rapidly developing little egos, they cry to their mommies (oma! oma!). Then mommies gets on their haendupones and call the school. Basically, they usually insist that their child’s demands be met, their wishes fulfilled, and that “special” treatment be bestowed upon the child. After all, everyone’s child is special at these hagwons for Korea’s affluent families. The requests are sometimes ridiculous. One child, because of his mom’s countless phonecalls, has been relocated within my seating arrangement into every possible position, because so-and-so was smarter and he felt intimidated sitting beside him, or he didn’t like so-and-so, or once even so that his name would appear at the top of the class list (no shit). Our director gets calls because a kid feels he was treated unfairly when he/she got an X beside his/her name and so-and-so didn’t. I generally pay no heed to these unreasonable demands, but our Korean teachers invariably do as suggested by the mothers. Why? Because the bottom line is $$$, not education, and certainly not teaching ethical behaviour to these little punks. No, if junior isn’t happy, if his or her specialness isn’t acknowledged and upheld by the faculty, then mom threatens to pull the kid out, take him/her to the fancy new hagwon down the street, money is lost, and job security is threatened. The wallet is the only thing that ultimately carries any weight at all in the hagwon fast-food pseudo-education industry. It becomes much more difficult for a teacher once a child has caught on to this. I refuse to give in to foolish and unjust demands, however. Perhaps that’s why I was wearing kid-spit this afternoon.

My co-teachers recently watched this same child, screaming maniacally, yanking his young mother into a candy store. They said she resisted briefly, and then eventually crumbled, went inside, and fulfilled the kid’s wishes. Kids here (not all, but in my business, most) are beyond spoiled. They get what they want. They have to work hard, no doubt, but essentially, they rule Korea. The dads here are often too busy and/or too drunk or hungover to discipline their offspring, and the moms almost glow with pride when their kids, especially boys, misbehave in public. “Hatshima!” Korean moms scold, feigning severity, but their eyes say: “That’s my boy. Ah, boys’ll be boys, won’t they?” Boys here are sort of encouraged to misbehave, I think. I believe that the same ancient Korean god of social behaviour that frowns upon a husband helping his wife clear the table at home (pussy!) says that boys should not be meek and polite, especially to waygoogins, and double-especially to female-waygoogins!

Alas, I’m venting again. I’ve had some great students, a few that were even remarkably polite, compassionate, and respectful. Before I went to Thailand, I even had a class of eleven-year-old students buy me pizza and throw a surprise party for me, complete with personalized goodbye cards, decorations, balloons, and all of that jazz! Oh wait, but they were almost all girls. And still, they were very much an exception to the rule. Well, having had these job-afforded insights into the making of Korean adults, from the very beginning, I begin to understand why this country has so many mama’s boys. Following childhoods involving much ego appeasal, no need to work or earn a living until married,  little discipline, and very little parenting of the hard-love variety, a good percentage of Korean boys grow up to be the incessantly whiny, pouty-faced, chain-smoking, disrespectful, brand-name wearing, girlfriend mistreating, David-Bowie-hairstyle-wearing wannabe hip-hoppers that this country has far too many of. The things I’ve witnessed here convince me that in hagwons where the students’ dads bring in lots of dough (after all, not all kids in Korea are privileged enough to fit my description), the children are truly spoiled… I mean spoiled as in something rotten, ruined, possibly beyond correction. It’s sad, really. I’d have received a licking nearly everyday if I acted like many of these kids do.

I’m done.

Paying massive student loan interest by working in a foreign land so as to help support the empires of the richest and occasionally feeling pissed about it,

suteebun

xoxoxoxo

Finally!

This page will probably take a while to load, so please take your time. I have so many more Thailand photos, but have tried to select a small handful to represent the first half of our travels.

For the sake of simplicity, related commentary will follow the picture(s).

Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui

We spent our first night at the Bangkok Airport. It sucked. But we were excited.

We enjoyed our first bottles of Thai beer as we waited for a ferry to Koh Pha Ngan.

It seemed fine at first, but this boat ride became a little too thrilling for all onboard. For awhile, I sincerely thought it was to be my last. See recent Thailand in Words blog entries for details.

Our remote beach on Koh Pha Ngan, where we swilled watermelon juice and starved ourselves for a week.

This was the biggest spider I’ve ever seen. We made many creeping friends on Haad Tien, including a scorpion that fancied my denims.

This pic was taken from the back of a ferry as we headed back to Koh Samui, refreshed, tanned, and a collective 20 lbs or so lighter.

Another friend, this one mangy. I pitied the poor chap. I gave him psychic affection, but nothing hands-on.

Nic poised for relaxation before our bungalow on Haad Lamai. I believe we reintroduced beer to our diet that day.

We had a mellow stop-over in port-town Nathon before we would board a bus to Bangkok. I sat on our hotel balcony and took pictures of scooter mayhem and sleeping dogs below.

Bangkok

Our first day in Bangkok, Nic decided to dress like a monk on a Buddhist holiday, just to fit in. And to follow, several pictures of the Grand Palace and surrounding temples. The place was so ornate, overwhelming, and overblown that I aimed more at photographing details rather than trying to squeeze everything into the frames.

We ripped it up on the canals for a break from temple-seeing.

The reclining Buddha of Wat Pho was enormous and incredible. These pics do nothing to capture its true grandiosity. For that, it must be seen, felt, and experienced in person. Goes without saying, I guess. It was awesome.

This was taken at the train station enroute to Chiang Mai. The monks are playing with their cell phones.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a great little city, with a moat and a crumbling wall bordering the older inner-city, an unreal variety of cheap international cuisine, flowers, markets, ruins, temples, and Buddha Buddha Buddha everywhere you look.

At Chedi Luang, the temple ruin of the preceeding three photographs, Nicole freed a family of captive birds for a mere three dollars, making Nic, myself,  an old Thai lady, and several birds terribly happy.

One of many fun scooter shots I took during our travels, this one was taken from a tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled variation of a taxi). Three dogs, two people, and groceries for all on one scooter. Very impressive.

Chris and Lane were fellow fasters we befriended on Haad Tien. We hooked up a few times in Chiang Mai. Here they are, looking much happier now with sushi and Singha in their bellies.

The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, full o’ farang (foreigners).

Doi Inthanon National Park

Here’s a view from the highest point in Thailand. These mountains extend down from the Himalayas.

Our one couple shot of the trip. We’re waaaaay too cool for touristy couple photos, mostly.

This is the Queen’s Supta on the top of the mountain. They revere royalty here nearly as much as the Buddha himself.

One of two waterfalls we saw on the tour.

A Karen weaver at work, producing beautiful textiles, a couple of which Nicole purchased.

These textiles were probably a lot more work for a lot less money than the opium trade used to earn these hill tribe people, but tours like the one we were on help to keep (clean) money coming to their doorstep.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these pics. This scarcely covers half of our trip, but I will try to downsize in order to fit the rest of our trip on one more page, which should be about the same size as this one. I will post it in early February. I daresay the next ones will be better, as we saw more ruins, monkeys, and ocean sunsets during the latter half of our trip. Please check back!

xoxoxo

suteebun (& nico)

PS The books on the side are ones I read while traveling. All were good, but I would especially recommend Crime and Punishment, perhaps the best novel I’ve read, to anyone who hasn’t read it.  

Hey.

This should probably be the last or second-to-last time I fill valuable space on my blog with boring itinerary details. But I will type it out so that I don’t forget the highlights upon my return to the Korean Peninsula. We absolutely loved Chiang Mai, and ended up staying there for four or five days. We rented a scooter one day and headed up the mountain to a temple called Doi Suthep, which was crowded with national and international tourists, monks, bells, Buddhas, kids playing traditional instruments, and little markets and foodstalls. Again, some of my best photos to date… Thailand is damned photogenic. We also did the all-day tour of Doi Inthanon Park, visited the Hmong and the Karen hilltribes, where Nicole bought some beautiful textiles from the tribeswomen as they worked their looms (I kind of wanted to stay with them, so ultimately chill and egrarian was their lifestyle), saw some falls, and enjoyed a great panoramic view.  Some new friends, fellow former ski-bums from Jackson Hole, met up with us in Chiang Mai. We visited the Night Bazaar with them, which was a huge, sprawling, ultracrowded good-time, and we found some more of the wares irresistible (although I am now lugging around about 8 books, two statues, and 2 lbs of spices in my backpack!). Fortunately, I packed extremely light in the first place. Chiang Mai had an exceptional array of inexpensive international food options, so we did some sampling, and with four other farang one night, went for the most amazing Indian feed I’ve ever been to… with wine and beer for about $5 a person. Incredible.

Next, we went to Sukhothai, rented some mountain bikes, and peddled around a Unesco historical site in the scathing heat, taking photos of ruins. This was a big highlight for me. I would describe it here, but I ’ve taken several photos that will do a better job than my clumsy wording of conveying the details and atmosphere of the place. Sukhothai gave us our best glimpse to date of rural life in Thailand, as we biked through a mellow residential area. We spent a boring and eventless night in Phitsanulok, and are now in Lopburi. We came here specifically to see monkeys. Sections of this historical town are literally overrun with monkeys, and these things are brats! They hang all over the telephone wires, eating garbage, trying to shit and piss on people (I swear!), tossing garbage around, stalling traffic, and just generally wreaking havoc. While I’m sure the residents and shop-owners must at times loathe the little bastards, rumor has it that the monkeys bring in enough tourist dollars that no effort is being made to get rid of them. We went to an old temple ruin that was crawling with them, and took heaps of pictures. This blog will see a sampling in 2 weeks or so. The monkeys were a ball! One of them stole Nicole’s stick (they arm you at the entrance as monkeys occasionally attack), and I had one leap up on me at one point. But mostly they just rolled around, picking lice and scratching themselves, occasionally making faces for the photographers.

Today, having a bit of a hang-over from too many Heinies at the Come On Bar, we are boarding a bus to go to Ayuthaya, another modern city among ancient ruins. We are cancelling our intended visit to Angkor Wat this time around as we are, frankly, getting a bit bored of ruins and temples (that sounds lame, but it is true). Having about 8 days left to play with, we’ve decided to make for the coast again, with a stopover in Bangkok, for another 4 days or so of swimming, sunning, snorkeling, and hammock-swinging. My next entry will include photos, so help me God.

be happy,

suteebun

Hi,

We dropped into Bangkok, hopped a cab to the big tourist area Banglamphu, ran into a friend from Koh Pha Ngan who knew the ropes and got us pointed in the right direction, and ended up getting settled into a cheap but clean hotel for two nights. Try as we might, we just didn’t have the partying spirit. We were surrounded by something of a party our entire stay there, and we partook of a couple chillies on patios, to be sure, but generally maintained a pretty healthy lifestyle and headed to bed each night at about 10 PM… grandma and grandpa Griswald! On December 31st, Nic and I tried to pack the main Bangkok tourist attractions all into one day. The result: hundreds of keeper photos, some splendid memories, heatstroke and fatigue. We started with the Grand Palace, and a temple containing the emerald Buddha, an item terribly prized by the Thais. The wat (temple) was so packed that we were squeezed through the place like meat through a grinder. Worth it, though. After that, we wandered to the river, and jumped on a longboat for an hour long tour of the city. After that, we walked to Wat Pho, a temple complex which contains an enormous reclining Buddha. This was the highlight for me, although I had to fight for positioning to get good photos of the monster. After this, we headed back to Khao San road, famous international rodeo street, drank a gin, and tried really hard to stay awake for the big New Years countdown. We made it till about 9:30! It turns out that it was a good night to pack it in early, as the next day we discovered that bombs had been going off throughout Bangkok, killing a couple of people, and injuring 30 or more others. This news was unsettling, to be sure. However, we were not about to pack it in just yet.

We are now in Chiang Mai. We took a night train, which was pretty cool as they served us food and beer, and then set us up with beds for the night. I don’t know what they want from humans, but cockroaches the size of handphones crawled under the blankets with us. Following this discovery, we slept with the our blankets pulled so tight around us that nothing could get that intimate with us again! Today, we got a swanky little hotel room at a place with a pool, restaurant, tours, and internet (right here!) for about $10 a night. Earlier, we rented crappy bikes with baskets for 50 cents a piece, and toured the town. We must have stopped at about six temple sites, two of which were absolutely incredible. We took lots of photos, and I am so itching to share them. A couple we met at the Sanctuary is dropping in to town tonight, so we will hook up with them. We plan to go to a nearby national park called Doi Inthanon tomorrow or the next day, visit some hill-tribes, see some waterfalls, and go to Thailand’s highest peak. Fun fun fun.

Thailand is pretty damn A’ight! The people are so mellow, generally happy, and hospitable. I feel bad, in a way, that we can afford to live so well here, but I in turn envy the Thais that they can live here on a fulltime basis. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the relative value of money thing. I mean, 25 baht for me is about 75 cents… pocket change… and for a little old Thai craftsperson, for example, it’s a hard-earned dinner. We have been doing our best to support crafts-people at the tourist sites without spending our money too foolishly. Expect lots of knick-knacky late Christmas presents!

peace unto y’all,

suteebun