KO KRET

A little ways outside of Bangkok there is an island on the Chao Phraya River called Ko Kret. There's no question that it's an island, but the river isn't that big, so it's more like the river splits into two for a while and then rejoins, leaving a big chunk of land in the middle... if that makes any sense. But considering the island is only a three minute boat ride away, it is noticeably isolated from it's metropolitan surroundings.

Ko Kret holds one of Thailand's oldest communities of Mon people. One of the things Mon people are historically known for is their pottery, a tradition that is still upheld on the island. They use local clay to make their hand-thrown ceramics, and a number of old and dilapidated brick kilns can still be found. There are no cars on Ko Kret, only bicycles and motorbikes, and all of the little paths and walkways branch off of one main road that circles the island.

Mac and I rented bicycles for a little more then a buck and took a spin around the island. At a leisurely pace the ride took a little more then an hour. There are a couple of small towns on the island at which the road narrows and becomes lined with little shops and restaurants, many of which sell the local pottery. Even though there are no cars on the island, Mac and I still encountered a traffic jam when school let out and the narrow path became full of kids in uniforms all doubled up on their bicycles. After a nice lunch on the river, Mac and I took off to meet our friends to go fishing. It was a good day trip.

TINY DANCERS

It's almost like the Thai version of the child beauty pageants in America, but not really... I mean, it's just like a lot of makeup for such little people. I think it's pretty cute though...

THAI DANCE

I have all of these little ones in class. I got a kick out of this performance, it was real cute. I didn't even recognize any of them at first with all of that makeup! This was on Thursday at school, they were even more done up for the big celebration on Saturday! I always think it's funny to see little people dressed up like big people.

FESTIVITIES AT SCHOOL

The 3,000 students at my school are split up between four buildings. The building where I teach all of my classes is brand new and was completed just before I started my job. It's six stories tall and holds all of the kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms, along with a bunch of other stuff, like a computer lab, a library, and an awesome indoor playground that puts any McDonald's PlayPlace to shame. Last week we had a couple of events to celebrate the official opening of the new building.

On Thursday we had a festival for all of the students, there were a bunch of fun activities for the kids, tasty snack foods, and a number of entertaining student performances. School was cancelled on Friday in order to prepare for the real celebration which was held on Saturday. Thousands of people attended the event which started at 8AM and ended around 3 o'clock. There were things going on all over the place, student performances, live music, and a traditional Thai opera... all at once! There was a lot to see. However, Mac and I spent most of the day at the front gate, sort of just standing around greeting kids and parents as they arrived. I think they kind of just wanted us to be visible, having foreign English teachers at our school is kind of big deal I guess. So I missed a lot of the action on Saturday, but luckily I was able to see some cool things on Thursday.

One of my favorite performances was put on by the Taekwondo Club, they ran around performing martial arts to cheesy techno music and broke boards and bricks and stuff. This one kid even busted out some nunchucks, it was pretty sweet. The picture on the top right is of this kid running up the backs of a few kids on his way to karate kick a board in half that is being held by a kid sitting on top of another kids shoulders, quite impressive. But what really got me was the traditional Thai dancing that some of my little second and first grade girls performed...