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I arrived in Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport with nothing extremely noteworthy happening on the flight here. Viet Nam Airlines still leaves a lot to be desired–just so-so food and absolutely no in-flight entertainment. (They said that the system had a mechanical/electrical failure of some sort.) Mostly the cabin attendants were polite and attentive, but one guy was having a bad day. A couple of older Korean guys sat in the seats in front of me, and they seemed a bit goofy to begin with. The attendants handed out Viet Nam immigration forms to fill out at the beginning of the flight and, a bit later, one of the Korean guys tried to hand his passport and form to the aforementioned attendant, for what purpose–who knows? The attendant waved him off and went about his duties. About ten minutes later, the fellow again tried to give his papers to the attendant, who got a bit perturbed and told him (if hes gestures and tone of voice were any indication) that “I don’t do this–You
do it! Don’t ask again.” The Korean guy didn’t.
Then, one of the female attendants handed out lunch menus and about 30 minutes later our previous male attendants came along with the meals. Only then did the two Korean gents open their menus and proceed to discuss the choices with each other. I imagine the conversation was something like:
“How about the fish?”
“I don’t know. You hungry for fish? The beef might be ok?”
“Maybe. What does the beef come with. Let’s see . . . hmmmm.”
The attendant was really getting impatient by this time.
“C’mon fellas. Order already. Why didn’t you look at the menu before? I only got about 150 other passenger to serve. And look, the bald-headed guy behind you is laughing at ya.”
It was humorous, I thought, but I wasn’t laughing out loud. Really.
The Koreans finally ordered their meals and even managed to choose what they wanted to drink after only a little hemming and hawing. The attendant was surly the rest of the flight.
The Sky Cafe in Noi Bai looked the same as last Christmas. See the post below. (I wonder if they keep the decorations up all year round.) However, the rest of the transit area has changed.
I posted previously about the construction at Noi Bai. It’s finished and they opened up some of the usual duty-free shops–Tobacco/Liquor, Confections, Watches–and the rest of the ample concourse went to souvenir shops. But, every . . . single . . one . . . of them is selling the exact same stuff at the exact same over-pricing. What a waste. Another restaurant or two would have been nice; perhaps an Internet Cafe, bar or whatever would have upped the interest factor, but as it is, nobody used any imagination. Ah, well–on to Vientiane.
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I’ll keep updating on my trip to Laos and Thailand, probably at least once or twice weekly, and this notice will stay at the top of the blog until I return to Korea. Just scroll down to read the rest of the story.
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So, our spring semester ends today and the teachers have 3 weeks off, until July 6th. Hmmmm, I wonder what I should do, where I might go . . . ? I know, how about a trip to Laos and Thailand? Great idea!
Yeah, I’m leaving tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. from Seoul, flying to Bangkok, where I have a 6-hour layover at the airport there. Then, it’s on to Laos, the flight arriving in Vientiane around 9 p.m. tomorrow night.
It’s rainy season there right now, so I probably won’t get a lot of sun, but there’s usually still enough that I won’t get waterlogged. Should be fun despite the wet weather. I’ll try to keep you posted. At any rate, I won’t be obsessed with watching baseball for a while. I’ll also be leaving behind my disappointment that the Yanks lost 3 more games to the Red Sox, making the team 0-8 this season against the Boston guys.  Sheeeeesh! More later.
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One last posting before I leave the Dominican Republic in a few hours. It’s been a bit sad saying goodbye to all the staff and players at the baseball camp even though I’ll be returning in a few months. Everyone has been very kind here, making me feel right at home. I wish all the players luck with the Dominican Summer League and with their careers. No doubt that this is the last time I’ll see some of them, but when I return in October for the Instructional League, most of the faces will be familiar.
The flight leaves Santo Domingo at 10 this morning, and I’ll arrive in Great Falls at 10:35 tonight, with stops in Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul on the way. I brought along a book to read, one that I read several years ago while I was in the Peace Corps. It’s titled “Perfume, the Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind. Excellent book, which I couldn’t put down the first time I read it. (Thanks, Rusty Duncan, for recommending it to me.) You can read a review here.
That’s all for now. The next post will be from hot, hot Montana, “the good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise.” More later.
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Only two weeks left until I return to the U.S. for a while, and then it’s on to Thailand, Laos and Singapore. I’ll be fairly busy here, getting things together, filling out forms and reports that are necessary for the completion of the current contract and for the start of the next. I’m also preparing a workshop to give for teachers in Samana, in the northern part of the country, as soon as I return in the second week of October. The tough part about that is that most of the English teachers there speak no or very little English!! I’ll have an interpreter when I need one, but it’s still going to be a difficult task. It should be very interesting, if nothing else.
My teaching schedule here at the Yankee camp is winding down. Friday is the last day for my regular classes, although I’ll be teaching some classes next week to some of the new players who will be signing contracts on July 2nd. I’ve given them a few classes already and they’re a pretty sharp group of youngsters, aged 16 to about 18. They’re very charming and polite, and, as I’ve found out with most of my other students, they actually know more English than they think they know (if that makes any sense).
In the other classes, to avoid going into a chapter that I know we wouldn’t finish by the time I leave, I’ve been showing some excellent English language videos about baseball, especially about old-time Yankee teams and players, which the students enjoy. It’s fun and it’s English! To check their listening comprehension, I ask questions afterwards and lead a discussion about who is better; e.g., Babe Ruth or Alex Rodriguez? (Babe Ruth, by a mile.)
Anyway, like I said, I have a lot to do, including getting everything packed. I never have made a practice pack yet, but I have to do one this weekend in order to see how much room I’ll have for souvenirs going back to the ‘States and for class materials to bring back to the D.R. When I go into Santo Domingo for the Ambassador’s 4th of July Fiesta, I plan to do some souvenir shopping earlier that day and the next. Actually, from looking at the U.S. Embassy website, it seems that there is not an official ambassador appointed to the D.R. at the moment. The Charge d’Affairs, Mr. Roland Bullen, appears to be the Chief of Mission at the moment. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong.) The party will be at his residence, I assume, and Rex Moser tells me that it’s a great affair. I’ll let you know in a later post who of influence and power I end up rubbing shoulders with. 
My Laotian friend Nai is in the hospital with malaria. He sounds ok over the phone, but I definitely am worried about him. I told him that if he was still sick when I got to Laos, I would take him to Bangkok to find a GOOD doctor to help him out. I’m not sure that I trust the Lao doctors or their health care system, an unfortunate drawback to living in this charming but impoverished, Third World, Communist country. (Sigh) More later.
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A few things of interest lately . . .
This past Monday I got to meet the CEO, Kevin McClatchy, and the General Manager, Dave Littlefield, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are looking at building their own camp and were touring the campus to see what the Yankees had done here. The CEO could be equated as the George Steinbrenner of the Pirates, more or less.
Lots of new palm trees are being planted around the fields, along with many new flower beds. When all this new landscaping is completed, I’ll get some photos posted.
The two teams, Bombers and Yankees, started playing some exhibition games yesterday, against the Dodgers and the Devil Rays. Today, both teams go on the road to take on the Devil Rays again and the Diamondbacks. The Dominican Summer League begins on June 2nd, I hear.
The big league club isn’t performing very well right now. Hopefully, they’ll get their woes out of the way soon and pick up the pace.
I bought my ticket for Thailand online the other day. I’ll be leaving Missoula on the 23rd of July and returning on the 24th of September. I’m leaving from Missoula, rather than Great Falls, because I want to retrieve some items from storage there that I want to take to Thailand; then, I’ll drop them off in Missoula when I come back. No sense renting a car and driving back and forth between the two cities. Seven weeks and counting until I return to the States. More later.
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Well, there hasn’t been much going on here lately worth blogging about, just a steady rhythm of classes to teach and weekends spent at the beach doing lesson plans for the upcoming week. Not a bad rhythm at all. But, I did get exciting news this past week–the project has been renewed for another 10 months, meaning I’ll be working here again next year!
This year’s contract finishes on July 11th and the new one will probably start at the beginning of October and finish up next August. What am I going to do between July 11th and October, you ask? My tentative plans are to fly back to Montana on the 11th, do a little visiting and then fly to Thailand and Laos around the 23rd of July. I’ll stay in SE Asia for a couple of months and then come back to Montana around the 23rd of Sept. I want to visit my old haunts in Glendive before coming back down to the Dominican Republic. So, those are tentative plans, subject to change, but I’ll probably go online to buy my air ticket to Thailand very soon. Right now the fare is around $1600–that might go up or go down, but I’ll do a bit of exploring to see if I can’t find a cheaper price.
Now, as far as the Yankees are concerned, the team is off to a very bad start, losing 5 of 6 to the arch-rival Red Sox. (Karen, I can hear you chortling with glee all the way from Massachusetts.) But, bad starts aren’t all that unusual for the Yanks, so there’s no need to push the panic button, yet. The team’s getting most of their injured players back in the next week or so, so things should start to turn around soon. Hopefully. Wishfully. More later.
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It was interesting to get out of the Santo Domingo area and head north to Santiago. The trip takes about two hours as the bus journeys through the green foothills of the Cordillera Central. To the west, the cloud-clogged peaks loomed over orange groves, pastures and croplands–this is the breadbasket of the Dominican Republic.
Santiago itself has about 500,000 people, and it seems much more tranquil than Santo Domingo, which Forbes Magazine named one of the world’s ten densest cities, citing in particular the terrible traffic. The Instituto Superior Agricultura (ISA) lies on a beautiful campus. Since the 700 or so ag students need experience and research opportunities, the institute has many crops, animals and flowering plants. The buildings seem fairly new and are interspaced with luxurious, well-maintained grounds. ISA has ambitious plans to diversify the student population, opening up majors in business, engineering and technology. They hope to expand from 700 to 10,000 students over the next 10 years and want to make the English program an important part of that expansion. I’ll be staying there from Jan. 2 through the 5th, conducting a series of workshops for the few English teachers. It should be a nice relief from SD.
The Forbes article doesn’t lie about the traffic; it’s horrendous. On the return trip the skies opened just outside of the capital, a torrential downpour flooding the streets. On top of that it was during rush hour, and it took the bus 30 minutes to travel about 4 or 5 miles. It kind of reminded me of the huge jams in Seoul, Korea, which was also cited in the article.
Two more days until Christmas. I was going to buy a Butterball turkey breast, but I don’t feel like shelling out $20, so I’ll probably fix up some chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and dinner rolls (I’m a traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners) in my tiny kitchenette; luckily, it includes a fair-sized oven. I won’t be able to post again until after Monday, so once again, Happy Holiday to everyone, whether it be Christmas or Hannukah or Winter Solstice or whatever you might celebrate this time of year. More later.
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Not much to report lately. Tomorrow I’m traveling to Santiago, in the northern part of the country, to talk to folks from the Agriculture Institute about setting up an English program, something they really want to push. I’m going to the bus station right after posting this to buy the ticket. It’s about a 1 1/2 hour ride, not too bad, and Rex told me that the bus system is very good, very modern. I’m coming back on the same day, around 7 at night.
Then, it’s a 4-day holiday, more or less, with Christmas coming up. I’ll probably take a few strolls along the Malecon and maybe spend some time in the old Colonial Zone. I want to take some photos, something I haven’t done in a while.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas to everyone.
P.S. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. I was walking back from the Malecon last Sunday, and I had to use a restroom pretty bad. I decided to stop at the Hispaniola Hotel and use the facilities in the casino (there are lots of casinos in the D.R.). When I got there, I found that someone had fallen in the entryway and she was surrounded by hotel staff. I didn’t know what to think–maybe she was ill and had fainted. She looked like she was going to be ok. I walked further and when I got to the entrance doors of the casino, I noticed there were lots of people milling around and the lights inside were off. Something was going on! As I stood peering through the doors to the inside, I noticed that the lights were on in one room towards the back end of the casino, but there was a lot of smoke billowing into that room. Fire!! Strangely, people, mainly staff and security, were going in and out of the main casino as if there were no danger. Perhaps the lady who was being cared for in the entryway had taken in some of the smoke. Security finally closed the doors, but only after calling in a few more of the staff who had been waiting outside. I walked out of the hotel and continued my journey to my apartment, noticing that a fire truck had arrived at the other entrance and that most of the patrons had been evacuated to that side of the building. I didn’t hear anything about what might have happened–I suspect a grease fire in the kitchen. I’ll probably walk by the hotel soon to see if it’s still standing. I did make it to the apartment in time to use my own bathroom. 
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Well, I’m back in Bangkok, trying to avoid getting soaked by participants in the Songkran Festival. I went to one such water throwing ceremony in Vientiane at the home of Suwon, one of Nai’s friends. Everybody there got drenched by small pails of water being tossed around and got either a face blackened by soot from one of the cooking pots or got “lipsticked” with colorful patterns. Most of us opted for the lipstick, since the soot looked very difficult to remove. Quite a lot of fun, really. Yesterday, though, I went back to Nongkhai with the intention of staying dry. The only clean clothes I had were the ones I was wearing, plus I had my baggage, including my digitial camera bag. Unfortunately, and somewhat to my anger, we got doused quite heavily by the mostly well-meaning Thais. I think some people carry this ceremony to the extreme and there have been calls for moderation. I’ve read, and Nai has told me, that quite a number of accidents happen, and deaths occur, when motorbike riders get whapped with waves of water coming at them. It’s all in good fun, but, unfortunately, many people get carried away. Hence, I’m avoiding the water in Bangkok by riding the subway, skytrain or taxi, instead of taking a motorbike.
My flight back to Africa leaves on the morning of the 16th, but I don’t land in Casablanca until the morning of the 17th. I’ve got a 13-hour layover in Doha, something I’m not looking forward to. Knowing beforehand that I’d have this long wait, I brought along some texts with me to work on a few lesson plans for the classes I have in the week of my return. Amazingly, it seems, I’ll have two weeks of lessons when I get back, then the students go into the schools for 2 weeks, then come back for the final two weeks of lessons with me, if my memory of the schedule is correct. I’ll be finished in Morocco about the middle of June. I’ll be plenty busy looking for a new job, and if I get one in Korea (very possible), I’m going to try to get my return flight back to the States changed to go back to Thailand instead, spending time on the beach, which I didn’t do this time around. Hopefully, if I can get it changed, it might mean a free flight to Thailand and then a short and fairly cheap journey on to Korea, if that’s what pans out. But, everything is subject to change, so I don’t really know where I’ll be in a few months.
Meanwhile, after I return, I’ll write a more extensive journal of my travels recently, including photos. More later.
P.S. I wrote earlier that my webhost service was going to shut down my photo gallery until I could get it updated, but I just noticed that I can still access it, so perhaps I won’t have to upgrade after all, at least not right away.
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