Sim City Mae Sai
In only three months of not being here, this town has undergone rapid development. It was only yesterday that I was riding on the back of someone's bike that I noticed what was off the sides of the roads: posh looking stores with irredescent lighting and paints selling gourmet teas exported from china, frozen foods that were not available 3 months ago (I've yet to check it out) and a now a small amusement park with a toddler carousel and inflatable slide. Right now I'm sitting in a new internet cafe. It's two floors tall and they serve various beverages and cake. The chair underneath me is shaped like a hand and it is neon green and feels like velour. It looks like it should be in a museum of modern art. All of these things are novel for Mae Sai. I won't say that I don't like being in a comfortable internet cafe where there is wireless internet. I will say, though, that it's a little sad that everything that looked authenticly Thai and rustic along the back roads of Mae Sai is slowly disappearing in the midst of this overwhelmingly growing development.
Among the new developments are the new houses built further east of Mae Sai. I'm actually looking into one right now to share with one or two of my friends here, Dtii and Duan. My current single house rents out for 3000 baht a month. We just put a down payment on a house with two bedrooms for 2,300 baht. My share of the rent will be $25 US a month. That's 1/3 the price of my current house with more space.
At work, I haven't embarked upon the fundraising position full time. All the foreign representatives have been sharing it. We're each taking a funding organization to write reports for and it seems to be working really well. No one is getting burnt out and we all have the leverage to interact with the kids, teach, play games and dj over the radio with this flexibility. Amy will be working at a different centre in a few weeks at which point I'll probably be taking on more administrative work, but for now, things are very good in the work place. The only thing that could be better is if I had a day off. The community learning centre is now open for informal education on saturdays and sundays and I'm now on that time slot. At least it's only a few hours on the weekends...and this also makes me feel justified doing things like update the blog while it's still a Friday morning.
posted by Jamie @ 8:15 PM
3 Comments:
Wow! You go away for a couple of days & they change everything without asking you! It's like Hollywood -- they strike the set before you're even finished saying your lines! I say you better get to all those authentic-looking Thai places & start taking pictures with all your spae moments. then you can post nothing but pictures -- no explanations.
It's not progress; it's just Western Civ taking over the East (& the rest of the planet). But it's hard to tell people with nothing (running water, electricity, appliances, etc) that. I love you. And am excited aboutyour new place -- will we see pictures?????
I am soooooooo! glad you will be living in a different and (one hopes) better place. Will you at last have an honest-to-god kitchen? Tell us about your roommates. Don't forget to take your vacuum cleaner with you. Will the same lady still do your laundry? And whatever happened to Gary?
jamie i miss you why did you have to go back!! I'm sure it's well worth it, despite all of us who suffer in your absence. In response to Lindas comment, it's hard to argue that the influence of Western Civilation on the East (less developed, rapidly growing economies) is not progress, to some extent at least. I hope to remain anonymous, but I'll give you $20 if you guess who this is! Adious Muchachos.
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