Thailand-Day 4-Khon Kaen

My day started with a fantastic lunch of stir fried pork with veggies (mostly green peppers, green onions, onions, and peppers) and a cold beer Chang to cool down my mouth that isn't quite strong enough for the spicy Thai food. I don't know what lottery I won to be able to wake up at noon during my paid vacation, but I'm glad I turned in my ticket. I later found out from John that I had unknowingly eaten one of the main dishes of the Isan region-so apparently I just naturally seek out the local treats. Ha. I then wandered around an old and very interesting temple: Wat Pho Ban Nontan. The old temple is set on semi-wooded grounds that are very accesible, but a few blocks from any busy or wide streets, so it was a nice place to relax and catch up on some journaling and write some postcards. The ornate temple seemed to hit par for the course as Thai Buddhist temples go-lots of gold and red and unmatched ornateness. An adjoining meditation hall strangely covered in sculptures and sculpted murals of various animals in a jungle setting. I'm a big fan of tigers (born in the Chinese year of the tiger, played for the Valley Tigers in high school) so I was stoked at the placement of a fierce, growling tiger above the main entry. I'm not going to begin to ascribe any meaning to the sculptures except that the looked cool. I don't really know that anyone needs a better reason.

After a delicious Coke slurpee from 7-11 (whose presence in Thailand defines ubiquity), I met up with John Thao and checked out Khon Kaen University. This is where John's study abroad program was based when he studied in Thailand, so he knows it pretty well. It is one of the biggest and best schools in Thailand, and is the main university for the entire northeastern part of the country. It was crazily huge and spread out. I say crazily because the distance between faculties and between buildings within the faculties defies all logical and reasonable definition. It's not as if there isn't room to grow, there was empty field upon empty field during the 25 minute sorngthaew rides between different parts of campus. I don't know if they are expecting some never before seen rate of growth in the near future, or it's some sort of sorngthaew driver /gasoline marketer conspiracy cast upon the students and faculty, but it was nuts. But it was a nice enough campus and nice to mentally compare and contrast it to JTUT.

We wrapped up the day having dinner with John's boss/advisor. He is the chair of the NGO that supports the education initiative John works for (information and link in earlier post). He had an extensive career of social work as well as work with various NGOs in Thailand. We had an invigorating, at times impassioned and fairly serious talk about education, society, and the government and corporation's role in both. He held some very strong opinions about these issues. As he had brought over dinner and I being a guest in his country, I did my best to be polite. Yet, he seemed very interested in soliciting my opinions, and was often very accusatory; so I was honest and direct with him. He had no trust and considerable disgust for both government and corporations; which I don't hold, this was a sort of sticking point, as he really wanted to have me agree with everything he said. As the founder and director of the NGO, I tend to think that he is used to having his employees, volunteers, and disciples assent to his ideas. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed talking with him, exchanging ideas, and offering what little I could based on big limits to my life experience and knowledge. It was a cool experience to sit on the floor, eat noodles, sugary banana pancakes, and discuss these issues with an experienced Thai man with a withered face and long flowing hair coming off the back of his half bald, heavily tanned head. Certainly offered some variety to my time as a tourist.