Last Days of Wangnoi: In, Out & About/Cast of Characters

Most of the adults in this town work in the many area factories. What a better treat then to be delivered to those factories, by law far from the main highway roads, via colorful tour buses with strobe lights and blasting music? Huge “disco” buses, often covered in unlicensed Western cartoon and comic book characters, deliver hundreds of factory workers to and fro on a daily basis. The MTA should try this.

Aloha, Mr. An, the Wangnoi volunteers’ designated tuk-tuk driver. What is a tuk-tuk? Imagine boarding an antiquated bumper car at a carnival, one with an extended but still miniature cab. Now tear that sputtering piece of machinery to a main road and use it as your everyday transport. Riding in the tuk-tuk is enjoyable to me: the noises, the smells, the exhaust in my hair. Aaah.

This is a teacher/administrator at the school I’m volunteering at. Though her English isn’t the greatest, she has strenuously, yet effectively, communicated small talk and many occasions. Everyday at lunch I sense her taking note of what I am eating. There is nothing vegan served at the school so I began bringing my own PB&Js. Any awkwardness my American sandwich provokes is far more tolerable then eating plain white rice for lunch.

No matter how many times I see this I still chuckle. It makes me think you are in Thailand… maybe more than any other detail I experienced here so far.

It is hard to see in the haziness of this picture but in my wandering around the roads here yesterday, I discovered the construction of an interesting roadside attraction. The kind I’ve been known to travel far for (e.g. muffler men, the world’s largest ball of yarn, etc) back in the States. A huge Buddhist monk, still under construction. I attempted to take some closer shots of it but wild stray dogs started barking and running towards me. All the stray dogs here scare the heck out of me. They’re not like the canines back home. They’re unpredictable, often vicious and, I think, all mentally retarded.

This is Line and Sita, two of the other volunteers staying here at Wangnoi. They are freshly graduated from high school in Denmark. In Denmark, high school includes the first 2 years of college so they’re a bit older than you’d expect. They are smart and resourceful and will do well out there traveling independently after their teaching stint is over.

This is Julie, the other American here at the homestay. She’s a sweet girl from Boston, 19 years old to the bone, whose travels abroad delivered a Thai boyfriend to her lap. She was also my co-teacher at the school.

Mr. Kai (translates to Mr. Chicken) is the program’s designated driver and semi-tour guide. Most of the time I spent with him was in his car, maneuvering to some Bangkok tourist attraction or another. Through rush-hour traffic in Bangkok, the chaotically disorganized highway interchanges and the curving a swerving of auto, motorcycle, bus, sidecar, vendor cart and tuk-tuk, Mr. Kai was the lone driver who displayed a bit of New York attitude. The only car horn I’ve heard sound here in Thailand.

Jaeb, my host sister here at Wangnoi, was the most consistent Thai in my life during these first two weeks. She took good care of me while I stayed in her home. Tried vegetarian cooking for the first time because of me. Our communication was strained as her English was as good as my Thai.

Thong is Jaeb’s younger sister and giggles more than any person I’ve ever met. It became our communicative form. In the morning, when I wandered around the kitchen at the crack of dawn like a cockroach, we’d laugh a hello, how are you?. Our other encounters were usually food-related, involving my grandiose spectacle of thanks for hot plates of jai food, which I embellished to make her laugh. A more refreshing form of small talk.

I managed to snap a picture of Sukanya, the manager of the volunteer program who taught me so much last week, just moments before my departing Wangnoi. Also pictured is her legacy, a bag of vegan foods and goodies she left for me a few days back. Oodles of dry noodles, soy and mushroom paste condiments, bags of chili crouton and a flyer of the health benefits of vegetarianism which listed the extensive number of Nobel winners, influential scientists, geniuses and wizards who chose a vegetarian lifestyle. She also stocked the placed with plenty of the Chinese Thai sweet buns (tarot root or pineapple in the middle) that I told her I loved so much. It feels nice to know I made as favorable an impression on her as she me. For a vegan, food accommodation is a high compliment!

Good bye, Wangnoi!