Wednesday
Today was a pretty quiet day. After spending the afternoon and evening sick on Tuesday, I had to redo Wednesday with everything I was supposed to have done on Tuesday. Basically this meant that I would spend the whole day doing laundry. I went to class in the morning and then came home to heaps of laundry. We started around 9:30 and finished at 3:30, just in time for our evening classes. It started to thunder so we expected it to be followed by rain so instead of letting all of our hard work go to waste we hung all of our laundry around our room. There we clothes hanging from everything imaginable.
I also thought this would be a prime time to clean the fridge out, including defrosting the freezer. Leaving the fridge unplugged, and putting a bucket underneath to attempt to collect all of the melting water, we were off.
Our evening classes were pretty quiet as we are still in the process of testing our students. I forwarded the results on to our boss and a decision will be made in the next week or so whether or not we will be sending some students on scholarship. I am also happy to report that Dew will be leaving for Canada in July!! They figured it would be better for her to go to summer school in Canada so she will have time to make some friends before school starts.
In the evening Misty and I went to the Night Bazaar so that I could purchase some of last minute things to bring home. Instead of purchasing things throughout our time here, I have kept things in mind and got an idea of the price so I would be really sure of what I try to stuff in my suitcase to take home. We have both found that when you first come to a new place you are amazed by everything that is different. However, after being there for a while a lot of that stuff becomes tacky dust collectors that you would get tired of at home. I have become sick of seeing stuff that I once thought was unique because it is everywhere. Therefore we figured that if we left our purchasing to the end we would like what we end up taking home. I know we are so smart.
We came back in the evening to our messy room, and spent a while cleaning it. We were informed when we were at Mercy in the evening that someone was finally going to come to look at our broken toilet in the morning, so we had some major cleaning to do (it has been broken for nearly a month).
Off to bed.
Thursday
This morning we woke early in order to get to the On Nut Tesco for 7:30 am. We were off for our second and final visa run. We went with Claudio’s company again, as we had a great experience with them last time.
We left earlier than usual and had a full van. On the way to Cambodia, Misty and I enjoyed the company of an American named Richard who has been living and teaching in Thailand for the past 6 years. He told us about his experiences of getting his visa extended on Koh San Road. There was a place that advertises for you to get a visa extension, and since it was a few feet away from the police station, Richard thought it would be legal. Although he had a funny feeling about it, he felt a little reassured when he saw the pile of passports that they already had to process. He left his passport and off he went. A month later it was ready and he picked it up; around the same time he was due for his next Visa Run. He went to the border in Cambodia with his passport in hand. However, when he arrived the officials noticed that the stamp was a little different than the one they use (it was so hard to tell, but along the border of the stamp they were 3 less numbers or something). He soon found himself sitting in a Thai detention center for 3 days, where he was joined by over 25 others in a cell that was no bigger than the width of 2 vans. Everyone sat in the same spot for three days, barely able to move. On his lap sat an 8 year old Cambodian boy who was arrested for smoking some kind of drug. After three days, if they did not have their papers they would be moved to a Thai prison. Three days had passed and Richard’s lawyers were still trying to work things out, but he was still forced to move to a Thai prison. Thankfully here, besides the embarrassing strip search he was treated with respect. The prison workers kept the farangs in a separate place where they were treated better and ate slightly better food because the officers knew “they were not criminals.”
Thankfully all of the paper work was sorted out and Richard was released after a day in prison. After two years of fighting with the court system, and thousands of Baht later, things have finally been resolved. As for his fellow farang who spent 6 months in prison, he was sent home. After being in prison for 6 months they know you do not have the money or family to bail you out so they give you the option to stay or go home.
Over 8000 people were scammed by this company on Koh San Road in a two week period. This company is still in operation.
We arrived at the border around 11:30 where we lined up to officially leave Thailand. The officer questioned me a few times as to my purpose for being in Thailand and where I was living. Finally he stamped my passport and off I went. Our passports were then given to our driver to sort out while we went and had lunch on the Cambodian side of the border. About 30 minutes later we were handed back our passports and had to wait in another line to officially enter the country of Thailand again. This time the officer was much nicer but he did get me to pronounce Khlong Toey over and over again. I think he was just making fun of my Thai accent, right Misty?
Today there were not as many children begging as there was the last time we went. Most of the children go to school around 1pm. Also, because it was a weekday, not as many children were out. As soon as you enter the Cambodian side of the border they follow you until you pass through the gates towards the casino “Madame, money.” Richard also translated their “Papa, Money for Real Thing, really food.” They followed us back out to the van where they looked in the windows until we pulled away. When given something all of the children ran towards it, and the one who actually got something ran away with it quickly. Claudio used to bring them milk but they just got very difficult to manage as they basically attacked you. It is hard to watch and imagine what their lives must be like. Sadly most of them are likely forced to be there by their parents.
I do not know what really happened on the ride home as I curled up and slept most of the way. I know it rained for most of the trip. They also played two movies. We arrived back in Bangkok around 5:30pm.
All in all today was a nice relaxing day.
P.S. We have a clean room and a functioning toilet, I’m a happy girl.
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