The ants go marching one by one

I've never before regarded ants a foe, at most a pesky insect that has a knack for disrupting picnics, yucky in mass but generally not too bothersome. I have on occasion, thought of them with curiosity and maybe even admiration. These creatures are industrious and incredibly strong. I am impressed by their ability to carry weight that far exceeds their own and to do this while scaling the vertical objects of the world. There are countless varieties of ants and their nusiance-factor varies depending on its kind. The common sugar ant, that you might find on the kitchen window sill, not so bad really, your run of the mill ant used as bait by childhood Timmy for antlion dens (see here), you could almost call that utilitarian. Also worthy of mention are the red fire ants that build mounds in the pastures of Mississippi ready to swarm and devour any unfortunate cow and then there are those exotic African ants that you see on the discovery channel, defoliating entire forests in a swathe. In any case it is only recently that I have developed a potent distaste for the tireless ant, particularly the miniature Thai variety.

We've adjusted to our life here in Thailand quite well. We've learned to use the toilets, shovel with the fork, eat from the spoon, cope with fifty kids in a classroom, and accept extremely late notice on most important events. I'd like to think that most of the people that we work with and know could attest to our adaptation. We can order food at a restaurant without too much laughter or subsequent shock at the result when the dish arrives with tentacles, we can wear a yellow polo shirt to work five days a week (well okay four, five is just too many) and we've knocked off two scorpions in the kitchen. We have even triumphed over our two greatest obstacles to comfort, cold water showers and poor Internet access. So it was in their attack of these precious comforts that the ants became public enemy number one.

There has been an invasion of such scale that even as I write it, I know that I will not be able to convey its magnitude. We have had ants, spiders and lizards in the house since we moved in and up until now we have been able to live in relative peace. Most of the resident spiders look like daddy long legs (which I've never been afraid of) and hang out in the corners on the ceiling, all other spiders spotted indoors are promptly smashed, usually under Tim's flip flop. The lizards keep to themselves and kindly eat undesirable bugs, for this I sweep up their little turds with minimal complaint and am generally thankful for their presence. The ants on the other hand have on more than one occasion been a force to be reckoned with. They will descend from the ceiling in a line and march to their destination in droves.



One troop has persisted in their desire for the kitchen sink ( I have agreed to share this territory as they can come and go without interfering with clean dishes and counter space). Others march straight into our hot-pot that we use every morning to make coffee. This area I would like to be able to put up a fight for but they find it every time and some of them die in the hot water which simultaneously urks me and brings me joy. Dirty dishes are an obvious target and we try to minimize dirty dish loitering but we can't seem to get out of bed any earlier so sometimes the dishes get put on hold.


*Dramatization* Tim fleeing with the hotpot.

One afternoon, I heard a yelp coming from the bathroom where Tim was taking a shower. The troops crossed the line when they started invading our towels. Tim called for my help as the ants were biting and crawling all over him. They caught me off guard one time and I payed for my laziness with a bite to the eyelid. We relocated the towels to our extra bedroom which worked pretty well except for when we forgot to grab it before getting into the shower. Running, dripping wet, for a towel after a warm shower, it's just a downer. Who knew that ants liked cotton? Anyone? Well, they do, and they have invaded bath towels, hand towels and even our jar of q-tips!

We tried reaching out to the experts. At the lunch table we would mention ants and try to see what the Thai folks did to keep their towels and q-tips ant-free. It seemed that no one understood us, or maybe they didn't believe us, we couldn't tell. "The little animals, they are a problem for you?" we were asked. "Yes, the little animals are a problem." Definitely a problem.

After hanging out with Jen and Ringo in Bangkok, I learned from Ringo that if you put soap in the ant path they won't cross over it. I have encircled a slew of ants with dish soap, it of course doesn't put a dent in their numbers but it is satisfying to have at least a few prisoners of war.


Lisa crazed and holding dish soap

The only solution we were getting from the Thai folks was to spray them or put chemical chalk lines around things we wanted to be ant-free. Neither of us was interested in spraying or sprinkling poison in the house so we continued negotiations and peace talks. The obvious problem is that ants are quite unreasonable. Frankly, I don't think they have any intention of compromise.

The ants eventually found the towel in the extra bedroom, that along with my closet of clothes and drawer of socks and underwear. Now, if there if one place an ant just cannot be, it is in one's underthings. This particular attack strategically took place the night before we were leaving to travel for the weekend; Ant intelligence may be more advanced than we previously thought. It was scary leaving the house undefended. They keep sending more and more troops on a daily basis, the peace talks are clearly failing. We had visions of a total ant take-over in our absence. Before we left the house we took everything out of my closet (good thing I packed light) and hung it outside to de-bug and then relocated them into Tim's closet for temporary (we hope) shelter as there is little room for the refugees there.

Ants then started to mysteriously appear in piles on the floor on our extra bedroom some dead some aimlessly wandering. We would sweep it up and if we stuck around long enough we could watch them reappear. They were falling from the ceiling. (Anyone remember the flying ant nightmare in the basement of the High St. house? At least these ones don't have wings). It took us a bit to figure out what was happening but we finally discovered that the ants were getting onto the fluorescent light where they were getting electrocuted or roasted by the heat of it and falling to the ground below. The strange thing was that it would happen whether the light was on or off.

For this we called in Pei Oh. She seemed a little puzzled about the pyre under the light but we were finally given a Thai confirmation that ants will get into towels, clothes and bedding. We were given the same advice as before, spray um.
Tim was not ready to give in (I, on the other hand, was losing my will for a clean fight, I wanted to spray them all with poison and let them curl up and die). He instead diligently took the light bulb out wiped away any potential ant attractions ( fried bug parts and such) and took the bulb outside to let the ants disperse. But they persisted in whatever it was that they were after none the less. Pyre after pyre, we swept them away. At least some were dying but I was afraid that the survivors on the floor would wonder over to the spare bed and start a three pronged attack.

As for the towels, we have rigged a system to keep them clear of ants, though not original it is supreme in design. Our inspiration was the food cabinet and it works like a charm. The four legs of the drying rack are sitting in small bowls of water, a mote the ants can't swim across to wallow in their most beloved towels. Suckers! This does means that the towels are in the kitchen now but hey, the territory is impenetrably ours. ha!





Tim and Lisa one, ants....well whose counting?

--- The Last Straw ---

Most recently we came home to two ant pyres under two different lights, one in the living room and the other in the hallway. If you need a refresher on the girth of the hallway please review pictures posted on The House," its not what you could call wide and the lights is of course nearly in the middle. In order to pass the ant grave without stepping on them and more importantly in attempts to keep your head ant-free you had to sidle up to the wall and mindfully shimmy by. Agrr. Those stupid ants! What in the world do they want with the light?

Again, we took the lights out and put them outside to allow the pests to disperse. That night as we were setting up our computer to watch a movie I hopped, freshly showered, into a bed crawling with ants.


*Dramatization* Lisa finds ants in bed

That's it! I had had it! This means war!

I was put out about the eyelid and genuinely mad about the underwear but the bed, that's just going too far! I lost it and began ranting about the ants and my ant woes. Tim managed to keep his cool (I think it's because he wasn't the one to lay down in them) reigned in my useless ant insults and carried the bedding outside, as always, to let the ants disperse. I began to hunt out the ant path. I wanted to know where they were coming from so I could massacre them. It took a while but I eventually discovered their route from the ceiling, down the door frame, from there they crossed over onto the wall near the light switch and headed behind the vanity onto a chord that was touching the wall and acted as a bridge, onto the vanity. They marched from one side of the vanity to the other, down to the floor, over to the bed frame, through the mosquito net and onto our bed. Those monsters! I got the soap from the kitchen, doused the door frame and tried to cut them off at a few different passes. They eventually found a way around it as they usually do. I had no choice but to wage chemical warfare, the ants have made me crazy! Tim obliged. For the last few nights I have had ant nightmares all night long. I wake up thinking that they are crawling on me. You might think that it ends here, with the ants in the worst possible location is the house, but as you may have noticed Tim has not yet had his breaking point and I wouldn't want to come off as a hysterical woman that can't handle the "little animals."

They cracked Tim's thick candy shell the morning after operation "Bed Infestation," when we discovered the ants had invaded his lap top. I promise that I am being conservative when I say that there were at least 600 ants in the computer (some estimates have been as high as 1000). Tim unplugged the computer and moved it to the kitchen table (this would not have been my location of choice but it was not a good time to point that out) this was my chance to be the partner of reason. I watched as Tim picked up the computer and moved it to another location on the table leaving behind about 20-50 ants. He continued this same pattern of moving the lap top from one spot to another on the table, each time leaving behind an unbelievable quantity of ants and ranting about his loathing. "They'll disperse," I encouraged him, "they always do."


*Dramatization* It took a moment for Tim to decide how to combat the ants that invaded the computer.

The key we've discovered is to separate them from their destination, if they can't deliver to the queen they will eventually go. Where they go, I'm not exactly sure, probably back to their evil lair to plot more evil ant attacks.

For now, all is quiet on the eastern front. I am typing this e-mail on our lap top under the light in the living room and there aren't any ants in the computer nor are they dropping on my head so things are looking up. Maybe they will call a truce and we can all sing karaoke together with the neighbors and if not we can always just spray um.

Sanook

“Sanook,” means fun in Thai and it is an integral part of the culture here. People love to have fun which makes life, well...more fun.


Fire extinguishing training.

Here are Thai teachers having fun with fire. As we were leaving school one afternoon we were taken aback as we watched a teacher pour gasoline on the ground while another lit it with a flame ball on a stick. The teachers were hamming it up as they took turns extinguishing the fire.

Fun in class

We taught a lesson on how to ask for things politely. Here a student had asked to borrow Tim's camera and took a picture of his friend.


Students after the “polite request” lesson. You can see one of the students had asked to borrow Tim's sunglasses.
I was impressed that after a week of students asking to borrow my money that in the end I got it all back. Thai students are the coolest.


Fun at the food table. Everyday the teachers gather around the food table to eat, joke and gossip. Tim likes to put himself right in the middle and make the ladies laugh at his pigeon Thai.

When Mike found out that we washed our laundry in tubs on our front porch, he insisted that we use his machine. Mike is an older man from England (who married a Thai woman) that lives near us and volunteers at Srithani. That offer has evolved into someone in their household washing our laundry for us once a week. So, one afternoon we were driving by to pick up our laundry and Yai Wong, (the grandma of the house) who doesn't speak any English, let us in the gate and gestured us to our bag of clean laundry. She then disappeared into the house, and returned with a giant vegetable and asked “Ow mai? Alloy” Translation: “Do you want it? It's delicious.”
We had no idea what is was or how we would cook it but couldn't refuse the kind offer. We laughed as we rode home on our motorcycle with a big bag of clean laundry that she wouldn't allow us to pay for and a giant mystery gourd. The kindness and generosity of the people here amazes us daily.
We decided to give it to our neighbor Pei Oh, she'll know what to do with this thing.


Me and the mystery gourd or is it the mystery gourd and I?

Turns out that the “vegetable” was really fruit, a ripe papaya. Pei Po had us over for dinner and shared it with us and it was indeed delicious.

I came down with the flu over Christmas. So it turned out I had Christmas day off after all, home sick, while Tim went to work. We went on a tea hunting mission one afternoon to help sooth my sore throat. After sometime in the corner shop we decided on Chrysanthemum tea. When we got home I decided I felt more like a cup of coffee but Tim wanted to try the new tea. After he had poured the hot water over his tea bag my eyes caught something funny in small print on the packaging. “Indication: Laxative”



We had unknowingly bought an herbal laxative. We of course had a good laugh and got out the camera to document the moment and then Tim proceeded to drink the tea! I laughed at him and told him he would be sorry. But he approached this as he does many things, that is, he likes to find things out for himself.



And at 4:30 the following morning he did indeed discover first hand that the indication was accurate.




Simple pleasures...as promised earlier, a picture of the best ice try ever. I think this fits into the sanook category. All you do is turn the two handles and the ice falls into the tray perfectly every time, no twisting, no banging, no stress. Maybe it's just me but all the ice trays in my life have been noticeably sub-par, they're reluctant to let go of the ice cubes and ultimately they end up cracking so that water leaks all over the place as one foolishly continues it's use. Do you think customs would stop me if I tried to bring it back home? Hmm. And yes, that is ice cream, which it's not as good as ice cream back home but that never dissuades us.


Tim helping to install the neighbor's new instant hot water heater for the shower. He considers this "fun."

For New Years we had school celebrations the Friday before. We taught the first three classes of the day and after that we had a lunch with the entire school, staff and students, followed by games, relays, and dance performances. For several days leading up to this day Tim was being prepped for the eating contest that he and Ajarn Jit would be in. “Tim, Tim, do not eat too much in the morning. We will have a contest. You and Jit, eating.”
The eating contest turned out to be a three legged race where Tim and Jit were tied together and had to complete a series of tasks in attempts to beat the other contestants.


Tim and Jit eyeing their upcoming task.


The guy running in front of team TimJit had just finish set up which included opening about 10 bottles of Pepsi with his teeth.


On your mark...


Great action shot. Tim and Jit just finished bobbing for a coin out of a plate full of flour.


Task #2: Eat three sugar powder Chinese candies.


Task #3: Drink a Pepsi. (Everyone cheated on this one)


Task #4: The reason Tim was not supposed to eat a big breakfast. Everyone had to eat two bananas and an orange.


Task #5: Thread a needle. Look at the concentration fixed on his face.



Task #6: Light incense and a candle.


Final Task: Blow up a balloon filled with flour until it pops.


Jit's balloon just exploded.
Now, that's fun.

Close to Home

Ajarn Dangue and here husband offered to take us sight seeing to some of the neat things we have not too far from home. About 10 kilometers from NonSung there is an archaeological dig sight in Ban Prasat. This sight is free to visit and is surrounded by a small village of people that live and work in unbelievable proximity to it.


-The sight is protected by this structure and on the walls in both Thai and English, is an account of the work done and speculations on time and origins of the people buried here. The burial sight is about 30 feet deep at its deepest and maybe 1000 square feet. It is close to the size of a volleyball court.


-You can see the burial sites are at different levels and are likely an indication of time. What amazed Tim and I was how well things were preserved. It seems like in such a wet climate and ground the bones would have deteriorated. You can see the wet ground in the far end of the picture.



The items found in the burial sight included pottery, jewelery of bronze, beads, stone tools and part of a loom.


-Homes are literally a few steps away from the dig site.

Also near our village (about 30-40 kilometers) is Phi Mai, famous for it's ancient architecture built during the 10-13th centuries by the Khmer Empire ( it is what you would find in Cambodia).


-Ajarn Daang walking on the Naga bridge into the ruins




-Us, looking like a couple of tourists.


-A view from the inside.


-Ajarn Daang's husband in the corner. A view of the largest structures.


-Scale check.


-Picture of the temple wall.


-A view after walking through the central structure.


-Close-up of carvings that are on most mantles.


-Pi mai

We had been to Phi Mai once before in the evening for a festival. Ajarn Tak (pronounced talk) and her husband took us to see an elaborate stage performance that was translated in English, Chinese, Japanese and German and performed right on the ruins. We were given complimentary ear pieces and tuned in to the English channel. Local drama teams danced and acted out the mythology of the Hindi the Buddhist gods.

Phi mai and Fireworks!


I love fireworks. This really was a treat for me.

We were also taken to see a Banyan tree that is said to be 350 years old and covers about 35,000 square meters. Inside of the tree there are walkways, benches, shrines, and fortune-tellers. It's a terrific place to escape the heat as the temps are a bit cooler under its canopy.


-Flowers decorating the main trunk of the tree.


-Tim and Daang under the tree.


-The outer layer of the tree.


-Fighting a famous Muay Thai boxer from Phimai.


Weekend Getaway with Ajarn Tak and her Husband Taw

Vacation time is not something that we always have advance notice on, despite our best efforts to acquire the information. Thai's are not exactly planners, but somehow things still get done and it all works out in the end. The teachers will tell us, “It is the Thai way.” So, we learned of an upcoming three-day weekend when we were approached by Ajarn Tak the youngest, and best dressed, teacher in the English Department. She invited us to visit her hometown for the long weekend.

She grew up in Buriram (about a 3-4 hour drive from NonSung) near the Cambodian boarder. Buriram is home to Thailand's most famous Khmer temple, Phanom Rung.

We arrived late Friday evening and spent the night in what we have voted Thailand's most comfortable bed and indulged in a really long and hot shower. Tak arranged for us to stay in a bungalow near her house because she said we would be more comfortable there. Oh, we love her for that.


-Our bungalow, site of Thailand's most comfortable bed.

The next morning before Tak and her husband arrived to take us to her parents house, Tim and I went for a walk to see the surroundings. We found ourselves in a rural farming village.

We headed down a road lined with houses and were greeted with an enthusiastic “hello” by almost everyone that saw us often followed up by “Where do you come from?” Others just stopped to stare. When we came to the end of the houses the land opened up in beautiful rolling hills with tall trees and big farming plots. Right at the start of this opening there was a group of children running around chasing each other and climbing up into a tree. We said “hello,” as we passed and they all screamed and squealed and scrambled into the tree. When we were a “safe” enough distance, they climbed out of the tree and came out to the road and began to shout all the English phrases they knew. My personal favorite, “I am a boy!” was very emphatically yelled out by a boy with toothpick legs sticking out from his little shorts. I replied by telling him that, “I am a girl.” The kids giggled like crazy and yelled their English at us until we were out of ear's range.

We enjoyed a breakfast which was something like a 5 course meal, ice-cream included, at Tak's parents house. They run a restaurant, known here as a “food shop,” so her mom is an amazing cook and we gratefully indulged in all they offered us.
After breakfast and some time in the hammock (funny hammock story later), we drove to see a lookout where you can see into Cambodia.


We climbed a look-out tower and Ajarn Tak wanted to know if we could see any Cambodians taking a bath in the river through the complimentary binoculars.

-Tak and her husband

No Cambodians were to be spotted but it was the first time our eyes had laid sight on Cambodia and the surroundings were a delight. It was a bit like being in the foothills of Colorado in early fall. The air was crisp and fresh and the surrounding trees were tall with outstretched arms.

-Tim and Tak

After spying on Cambodia, Tim inquired whether there were any tall stones he could climb since he'd noticed some big rocks in the area. So, we were driven to a quarry whose entry was flanked by two large rocks, one of which Tim climbed to the top. I'm sure you can imagine what a spectacle that was, and I'm sure you can also imagine Tim's contentedness after showing off for a cheering crowd of Asian tourists that had just piled out of their double-decker bus. Tak declared Tim the “winner” and took us back to her parents for another round of eating. After lunch we went to Phanom Rung.


-Ah, bouldering in rural Thailand.


-The "winner"


-Lisa getting in on the fun


-Tim is surprised to find just how much water is inside a coconut.


-Lisa is tickled when Tak informs us that she thinks Tim is “too fat” to snooze in the hammock. Lisa must document this with a photo. Come on, I may have put on a few kilos (76 kg, roughly 170 lbs), but can you blame me, they feed me five times a day!!
(Please note, the chair Tim is in was brought out just for him and his big belly)

Phanom Rung would serve handsomely for either of these uses: a site for the coolest of weddings or as the setting for the climactic showdown of the next James Bond movie. In any case, the temple is built upon an extinct volcano and you have to climb a bazillion steps to get to the top, so it's impressive even from afar.


-Lisa and Tak at the start of a bazillion stairs.


-Tim and Taw looking really GQ. Tim is demonstrating the proper way of posing for a photo in Thailand, this gesture lets all viewers know that you are a smart and handsome person. ha.


-Monks walking from the temple.


-Yep, more steps


-The stonework on some of the spindles, murals, and frescos in the temples are amazingly preserved (some have been restored).


-This is a fun juxtaposition of the old and the new(er) in Thailand. These jalopies are used by farmers and vendors in rural provinces to cart around hey, rice, animals, food, supplies, the family, you name it... Their top speed is maybe 15 mph and they make a putter-putter of small explosions as they chug along the roads.




-The grounds around Phanom Rung are full of flowers and trees that are being climbed by a snake-like vine-cactus ( sorry botano-nerds that's the best I can do)

After visiting Phanom Rung, we returned to Tak's family home for.... yep, you guessed it, more eating. But instead of eating at home, we went to a nearby lake where we were treated to spicy somtam (papaya salad) and canoeing.


-Enjoying the lakeside dining and the giggling children playing in the water. Look as those noses will you? I fear for our children.


-These children just moments before where splashing and laughing and shouting out “Hello, what's your name? Do you speak English?” and the like, until we asked to take their picture, then we got their serious sides.
When I asked, "Do you speak English?"
They replied, “No! No!” giggle, giggle and then proceed to yell out more English phrases.