Observations

Today's song is: I Don't Want to Live Forever .. Zayn and Swift

It is Chinese New Year and a walk about town did result in my seeing a larger number than Chinese tourists than normal. The other interesting observation was these Chinese tourists were not on tours, but were travelling on their own. They also appeared more world savvy and hi-so.

On another note, we had a call from Thavorn's mom that Tai, Thavorn's oldest daughter was beat up by her classroom teacher and had a bruise on her head, bruises on her back, and a bloody nose. Thai teachers (female in this case) do not fool around. Matter of fact, many Thais have very short fuses and go ballistic when something sets them off. In this case, Tai's teacher thought she called another classmate a 'buffalo' and that was enough to set her off.

This is an interesting article on a non Thai teacher's experience in a normal Thai school. A good read.

https://matadornetwork.com/abroad/so-you-want-me-to-hit-you-corporal-punishment-in-thai-schools/

and this web article explains the lawfulness and accountability of corporal punishment in Thai schools:

https://thaiteachers.wordpress.com/the-law/

At first we were ready to jump on the bus and go get the teacher fired, but after some thought we just sent Thavorn's mom in to talk to the principal and teacher. There is only one grade 4 class so transfer into another class was not possible and getting good teachers in rural Thai schools is not easy. It turns out the devil you know may be better than the devil you get, especially if their is a letter of reprimand and concern on file (my suggestion).

There is a new web site in Bangkok that is very similar to Grab Taxi or Uber. The diference in this case, is you request a 'working' girl after previewing who is available in the next 4 hours, and then you get to track her position online and anticipate her arrival.  You also get to rate the experience which the web site suggests should guarantee a good performance.  Could this be the end of 'bricks and mortar' beer and gogo bars?        

www.smooci.com

I also noticed that there appears to be two type of tourists. Those out to accumulate (buying stuff) things and those out to experience things. However, experiencing things may be accumulating memories so maybe there is only one type of tourist. So much for that observation.

The weather in Bangkok these days is absolutely wonderful. High 20's with blues skies and no humidity. January and February are definitely the best months to visit Bangkok!

The family is finally over the cough and cold that has been hanging around us for the past 3 weeks. I don't know if it is making the rounds in Canada but many people have caught it in Bangkok.

TTYL