UNPACKING the PACKING....

International Meeting Street (where all the "fun" begins!)
Mini Me! A smaller version of me at the beach!
The walk of death towards the heavenly beaches on the island!
Pattaya City's infamous Beach Road!
My t-shirt models and I (Ratanna and Noi)

Song for the Day : Incubus "Dig"

I got home safely back to Canada about 3 weeks ago. No drama with airport sercurity this time! It goes to show, that when you least expect something, it happens! I think perhaps that is one of the themes of my whole experience. Since I got back I've been trying to get myself back in the Toronto mode. Back to the hustle and bustle of things, and more importantly trying to deal with the cold. I came to a conclusion, that I am not made for Canadian weather!

For the first few days after my arrival it was quite overwhelming seeing friends and family and celebrating the holidays. I was so happy to see everyone again, but at the same time I felt sad and kind of depressed to be back to reality. Or at least, back to my Canada reality. To see a whole new world, and live in it for a couple of months really made an impact on me. I feel like I look at things in a totally different way and I feel like I can't think or act the way I used to. Yes, I think I am losing my gangstarism ways. It didn't work in Thailand so I just dropped it cold turkey. I guess before I left for Thailand, I passed the gangstarism jibberish to some unlikely characters and it is kind of scary. I apologize for that! Anyways, with that all said and done there is a lot of UNPACKING that I need to do regarding the final few days before my PACKING ... out of Thailand.

During our volunteer stint we saw so much sadness, so much corruption, so much dirt the City of Pattaya had to offer, and we found ourselves drinking a lot to numb the pain and make things "feel" better. That or go to our happy places and just eat our hearts away to fill the void we felt and get major rub downs from our ladies at the Siam Massage. We were so caught up with the negatives that we didn't see or appreciate the positives. So when I made the decision to leave and pack it up, Reena and I decided it was time to REALLY GO ALL OUT, ENJOY OURSELVES TO THE MAX, REALLY PUSH OURSELVES to see THE SEEDIEST of places despite the constant warnings from the Big J.

I'd continue writing more, but it seems that some people (you know who you are :P) can't handle too much litterature...sorry to keep the others in suspense and to leave your knickers in a wad!

My corn lady...Mmmmmmm!
One of my favorite restaurants!
Motor Bike Taxi men
A local Loco Farang (Crazy Westerner)
My best friend...SPY CLASSIC

Christmas Eve by the beach
Christmas in Pattaya
Happy place at night
On Santa's sleigh with Simon, Jim and Reena
Simon and I...Reunion after 3 years!

One of my happy places...over looking the beach
$6 dollar shoes anyone???
Jomtien Beach at sunset
Fresh fruits
Christmas Eve by the beach

Ladies of Siam Massage (Phi is mine (in orange) and Pan is Reena's (2nd from Right)
Jomtien Beach
One last island day on the eve of Christmas Eve
Reena and I at the CANDY SHOP
Chillin on Santa's sleigh

Sadness...

Little girl from Thepperasit slum...yes it is a girl!

The water well at Thepperasit slum

Makeshift homes surrounded by garbage

Lady we lent money, so she can start her little restaurant at the slums

Song of the Day : Collective Soul "The World I know"

This morning I walked to the closest International telephone booth at 6am so that I can book an early flight back home. I've never been up that early. It was actually rather pleasant. It was quiet. The sidewalks were clear of slow walking pedestrians, so there was no walk rage for me! People slowly setting up their food stands. No sounds of the hundreds of motorbikes/scooters whizzing by. I heard about this but never thought about actually waking up to witness it....but there were so many monks walking the streets. It was a sea of orange! Early in the morning they would walk the streets and people would give them food. It was so unreal and very lovely!

I almost got attacked this morning by a little dog. As I approached the phone booth he started barking. The dogs here don't usually attack people and I never feared the stray dogs. So I continued to walk towards the phone booth. Then the little pup got up and started running towards me barking. As he approached I could see that his eyes meant business. So I slowly started to walk backwards, ready to kick him if he jumped on me. He kept running towards me so I turned around and made a mad dash. Luckily for me, he was tiny so I was able to out run the damn dog and walked another few meters to the next International phone booth!

I was finally able to reach my travel agent and book an earlier flight back home. We've been playing phone tag for days. I knew the day was coming, but to actually confirm the date makes it official. I feel really sad to be going home. Especially after hearing it's been the worst winter yet. It's like I will soon be going to the major extreme from HOT! HOT! HOT! to Cold, dreary, snowy and depressing. The funny thing, is that when Reena told me that her mother will be flying from the Philippines to Montreal on Christmas Day I thought it was totally unheard of. That it would suck BIG time to fly alone on Christmas. The funny thing is....is that I will be flying solo on Christmas Day! We are 12 hours ahead so in reality my flight at 6:40am on X-Mas day is really 6:40pm X-mas Eve. The good thing is that I will arrive on X-Mas day but at 7pm.

It's funny because it's been over 2 months here and we are finally discovering so much about the city that we haven't due to our weekends of laziness. So now I am totally dedicating the little time left I have here, to live it up. Reena and I will hit the bars tonight to see "our" girls and to finally pull an all nighter. Da Big J encouraged us to do an all nighter to really see what the city is all about. We will be stepping into the darker side of Pattaya. We also decided to pay for a girl's bar fine and really unpack her. So last night Reena walked around Walking St in search of a GO-GO SHOW to tap. Reena wants to find the worst of the worst. I don't know if I can handle it. I am still traumatized about the first GO-GO Show where we encountered Laht!

Reena also has this fixation of re-visiting our "Mangirls" (Girls who want to be Boys) Mike & Goon. I don't know if you recall but they were the ones we thought were young men so I decided to practice my picking up skills on them, but we later discovered they are girls! Anyways, as much as I do not want to see them it will be fun to take pictures with them so that y'all can see what we were dealing with.

Walking the streets is kind of sad and hard because I am slowly telling people I am leaving. I don't want to tell them all in one BIG BANG coz I know for sure my "ALLERGIES" will start. I miss the tightness of the community and I feel even sadder thinking about the people in the slums. There are 2 little girls that I sooooooo would love to adopt but I know for sure my mom would give me 2 swift kicks in the arse because she claims I am not "responsible" enough. I can only agree with her 40% so I guess the timing ain't right to start adopting kids. I would still love to do what I can to continue helping the slum project, even if it means coming back again within the year (hahahahahaha!).

So with that all said and done, I will get on off of this chair and enjoy what Pattaya has to offer! I still can't believe I traded my beach shorts for snow pants! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Trading In My Beach Shorts For Snow Pants!

(Left to Right) Mita, Reena, Wanna, Ratanna, Me!
(Left to Right) : Ben, Matt (Mita's husband), The BIG J, Luke

Song of the Day : Janet Jackson "Rhythm Nation"

I've been so bored these past few days, that I actually caved in and went to work yesterday. As a matter of fact I am in the office right now! I won't go into detail about the internal issues going on but I know for sure I let the "team" down for going in. Let's just say the once happy OPENaid family is now divided! So when I say "team" I mean, Wanna, Reena, Mita and Luke. I feel bad for going in despite our lengthy times of UNPACKING and agreeing we will no longer go to the office. The only reason why I went in yesterday was because Ratanna had invited me to visit and I couldn't say, "no". That and I wanted to also say goodbye. Yes, I am thinking of packing it up and packing it in. I find there is so much work that needs to be done here, that 1 or 2 extra months won't be enough. In order to be a volunteer for this organization, 6-12 months is more ideal to make the work more effective. Right now, I am not mentally or financially prepared to do so, nor able to commit for such a longtime. Perhaps in the future, but right now it isn't possible.

Yesteday I talked with the Ratanna and the new girl Noi , just to get information about what is going on and what not. Then they asked if I wanted to go to the slums with them. We went to 2 of them. Many tourists and even Thai people do not know about the slums because they are usually hidden behind the bushes. When we explain to people what we do, they look at us strangely and ask, "There are slums in Pattaya?". There are a total of 38 slum communities in Pattaya which consists of 30-80 people per slum. I think on the outside Pattaya looks good. The miles and miles of beaches, the newly constructed condos and homes and shopping malls, but deep in the bushes there is a lot of sadness and poverty.

While I was there I felt enlightened and realize that what is going on internally does not matter at all because the cause is so great. It was really sad being at the slums. I really do not know how they do it. To live amongst the trash. No electricity or running water. To top it all off, one of the slums we visited is right by the go-kart track, so you can hear the roaring of the cars as they whizz by. The houses in the slums are made with a mix of materials mainly of cardboard, and scraps of cotton material. The more "prominent" homes are made of tin, slabs of wood with cracks in between to cover as much ground as possible, and with broken glass as windows. There was one old lady who was in her late 80's who is paralyzed and hasn't moved from her "bed" in 15 years! The family can not afford to take her to the hospital for further examination. Only recently was she able to lie on a mattress that OPENaid has donated. It was hard to imagine she was lying down on an old carpet used as a mattress on a wooden plank. When we said, "Sawadee!" (Hello) She cried. She had tears rolling down and Ratanna told me she is thankful for the mattress. I felt bad because as soon as I walked in, I took a deep breath because I was exhausted from the heat and my eyes started to water and I felt like hurling. The old lady hasn't bathed in I don't know how long so she reeked. Again, I blamed my tears on allergies. I tried so hard to hold it in, and to calm myself so that I don't hurl. I was told that everyone in the community takes turns keeping her company. Talking to her. Giving her water. Turning her over to prevent getting bed sores. Her "house" consists of a tin roof with no walls. They used plastic tarp as a wall to shield her from the elements. The other side of her home is open.

We also met up with a lady named Jintana who has HIV. It was sad to see her frail body, but she was smiling offering us water and snacks. The new girl Noi felt uncomfortable being around her. She comes from a rich and educated background and think it is a poor person's disease. Many people in Thailand are not educated about AIDS and HIV. They think if they touch someone with the disease they will be affected. Hopefully, Noi will soon learn and understand that it is ok to touch someone who is affected. Ratanna said that Jintana feels sad many times because when she tells someone she has the disease people run away or say mean things to her. So to lift her spirits whenever we visit we always hug her, shake her hand, touch her arm so that she doesn't feel like a monster and that not all people are ignorant.

For a moment yesterday and even today and I guess from now on, I will only think about the cause and not about the internal bull-ish. I think what OPENaid does is amazing. I like the fact that they support the needs that most organizations here don't bother with, or even think about.