The Talking Traveller

I'm in the middle of my 3 week trip to Thailand and CambodiaI spend my first day exploring Bangkok with another south-african friend. Bangkok is absolutely the most hub-bub of backpacker accomodation and friendlyness I have ever seen. One road KoaSan, is entirely devoted to supplying cheap "everything". he first night I spend on the overnight bus to Chiang Mai. Overnighting in a bus does have advantages like saving on accomodation, but arriving 5am in a city does need some carefull planning to make the most of the long day ahead.Spend the first day exploring the city's temples and some local craft industries including jewelry, umbrella's, silk, carpet, fans etc. Very interesting, I met my transport casually at my first stop. He came to introduce himself and revealed that he is a private person that will take m on a personal tour for only 100BHT (3USD). The system works that the goverment proviudes hiom with a coupon for every tourist he transports to a certain spot. Ended up having a very interesting day. The nest three days I did a trek through the mountains, that also included elephant riding and bamboo rafting. The last 2 days in Chiang Mai I visited some tribes, did whitewater rafting and also visited a national park. Everything is cheap and for about 30USD per day. you can afford good entertainment, accomodation and travel. I am in Cambodia,Phnom Penh, at the moment and will be travelling by boat to Siem Riep tommorrow. I spend the day exploring this City. Transportation is either by Tuk-Tuk ( 3-wheel motorcycle car) or by a motorcycle taxi. I had a contrast of sights from the golden National Palace which has a golden Buddha Statue wioth 2098 Diamonds to the killing fields were I saw skulls and mass graves. Will upload some nice pics soon and more news.  

The travel bug has bitten me again and I am in the process of planning a 3 week trip to Thailand. Flying from Taiwan is really cheap and after a busy semester the 'ol body and mind is screaming for a rest and some adventure. I'll be landing in Bangkok the 1st of Februarie and returning on the 23rd. During that time I hope to travel to Laos and Cambodia as well. My research so far shows that backpacking in Thailand is very very cheap, the cheapest I've seen so far. If anyone has travelled there I would like some tips. I'll be updating this site again soon. TT

I would like to wish everyone a happy and blessed Christmas!


Last Friday I played the role of, you know who, at a school play and afterwards I had between 40-50 little children on my lap telling me their wishes and recieving a small gift. In Tawain, today is not a public holiday and last lnight I still had chinese class at the university where we learned chinese versions of Silent Night and Jingle Bells. I am working today, but I am wearing a hat and I'm oh so jolly!

Sheng dan jie kuai le! Merry X-mas! Geseende kersfees!

Yesterday I enrolled myself in a splendid day in Taipei ( which is actually pronounced Tai Bei…) I took the bus from Hsinchu, the city I live in, for a cheap fair of 100NT ~ (R20, 3USD, 1.5 GBP, 2EUR) and arrived at Taipei Main Station 1hour 15minutes later. The very convenient underground trains (MRT) allow very easy and fast transportation within the city to all major attractions in all directions. My first stop was the Sun-Yet-San memorial hall. This is a large public park and museum portraying the life of a man that is said to be the founder of modern china.

From there I strolled to Taipei 101 (2^nd tallest building in the world) clearly visible from almost anywhere in the city. On the way I took a snap of a family of four also enjoying a day in the city. Speeding past the all the expensive-brand-high-class-shops I spent a few hours in a PageOne, a large and spacious bookshop that holds the largest collection of travel books that I have ever seen. It also has a good selection of books aiding those who wish to learn mandarin chinese, I would highly recommend this shop to any bookworm. My next stop was the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall dedicated to Taiwan’s one-time dictator. Unfortunately the copper statue has been removed due to some political jazz and the name has also been changed. But nonetheless I enjoyed the museum and especially the Big Bulletproof Cadillac that he owned. An artifact that really caught my eye was a microscopic carving on ivory of Dr. Sun-Yet-Sun’s will and platform for national reconstruction in a portrait of Late President Chiang.

 

My religious site for the day was Longshan temple that dates back to 1738. I am very proud of this snap I took of the artificial waterfall outside the temple. I entered the temple and was overwhelmed by the smell of burning incense combined with a assortment of red and cold colors on columns and carvings. A short walk from the temple I visited the Snake Alley night market where old and young trade in everything from tea, peanuts, foot massages, fruits, sweets, meats and yes, even snakes and amphibians. This most famous market was very cheerful and lively and yet not too crowded at the time I visited. (6-8 pm).

Another definite exciting site recommended for any traveller

Yesterday I visited the National Palace museum. This museum located in the heart of Taiwan is said to hold the world's finest collection of chinese art. It has four floors filled with assortments of paintings, ceramics,metal and jade artifacts. My highlight was to see the works of Guiseppe Castiglione(1688 -1766) .He was an italian painter in China during the Ching dynasty. One work that caught my eye is "One hundred steed".It is a 7m long scroll painting of 100 horses, a definate must see.Here is the stamp version.


I have been chosen to play Santa in a school play and looking forward to do some acting :)

I have finally set my heart and mind on a new mantra that is most applicable in my current state of mind.

As you will see it reads “Learn to know what to do, and then do what you know”.

 

Many times I catch myself thinking “I don’t know what to do!” “I don’t know what to do with my speech, I don’t know what to do with this word, I don’t know what to do with this situation, I don’t know what to do with my finances, I don’t know what to do with these two spare hours I have in front of me, I don’t know what to do with this relationship, I don’t know what to do on this trip, I don’t know what to do with this extra day I have free, I don’t know what to do with my life! Etc. etc.”

The trick that my mind is playing  is that it creates the illusion that there is an absence of knowledge or positive experiences. This is of course false in most cases. My mind does this maybe out of lack of confidence, concentration and maybe because it is a habit?

I believe that by asking a different question I gain different results. I now ask “Am I doing what I know?” which indicates that I have in the past successfully handled a similar situation, and I need only to concentrate in taking the correct action.

Thus a new recipe:

1. Find out what you need to know.
2. Study it, learn it, practice it.
3. Use it to gain a positive, successful outcome.
4. Keep doing it to form a habit.
5. If you find after some time you are slipping back into the old habits and thinking “I don’t know what to do ……boohoohoo” --> go back to step 1.

Just a quick report on an incident I had a few moments ago. I went to our local convenient store to pay some bills and also add credit to my mobile phone. I approached the situation quick confidently and formulated the sentence in my head. With my best effort I said (in Chinese) “I want to pay this bill AND I want to sell a mobile phone credit”. After the initial confusion on the poor cashier’s face she handed me the book of mobile phone vouchers so that I could choose the one I wanted. It was at that moment I realized that I had said “sell” and not “buy”. The phonics of these two words are identical “mai” but the tones differ. Sell – mai having a downward tone . Buy – mai has an down-up tone v. I started laughing at myself and entered into such a giggling state that I forget to utter the well rehearsed line “Sorry, my Chinese is not very good”. They say that a healthy person is one who can laugh at himself and his own mistakes. For 15 minutes today I was in a very healthy state of mind :)

As you can see I am tinkering with new options of control the blog website admin has granted it's users. It is not final yet so you may see a new adjustment on every visit. Good news is that I got a score of 94% percent on my first Chinese semester test and if I had not made little, almost undetectable to the untrained eye, mistakes with some character strokes I would have had even more!! The test also included an oral section and it went quite well. Some anticipation anxiety beforehand and a few stumbles during, but no major uncontrollable mouth jerkings.


I am in the process of finally deciding my plans for next year. At this stage they are leaning towards staying in Taiwan until end May 2008, backpacking Europe for 3 months, and then returning to Taiwan or another Mandarin speaking country for 1 semester and then visiting my own country again. These thoughts change everyday, but at least this is one option.......any ideas!?
If there is anyone in the UK that can offer me a four month (April-June) temp job, please let me know. Come back soon for some photo's, ok?

Not more than a fortnight ago I celebrated my 26th year of existence. It was celebrated on the roof of a building in a foreign country with new found friends that I have made since my stay here. We had a BBQ and afterwards I had my first and last visit to a late-night club in the city (not my scene y’all). I received my most eccentric birthday present yet in the form of a very alive crab. Yes, a six legged one fresh from the sea. It voluntarily hibernated in my fridge for half a day before I boiled it to a light pink color and then together with my roommate enjoyed its crabby taste.

My last month and a half has been filled with growth in a multitude of dimensions. The most obvious to anyone who will lay an eye on me would be the unusual abundance of facial hair around mouth and chin area. My Chinese vocabulary and grammar knowledge has expanded due to my night classes at a university. This has enabled me to engage in a few simple conversations on the street where some laughter, confusion, and a certain amount of understanding was produced. I am totally fascinated by the Chinese Language and in particular their writing system. I am currently devoting a big amount of my time in studying this and, although very hard, I enjoy the immediate results I achieve from 5 minutes of study when I recognize a character on a sign post, in a magazine or on TV.

I still continually challenge my speech by, as previous stated, attending Chinese class at a university. As it is a language class there is a fair amount of speaking involved. It is a challenging scenario as many of my old fears and memories from High-school and previous varsity atmosphere triggers me to block. Although I do often struggle upholding perfect technique, I do not hold back in speaking, asking questions or making comments(or jokes!) . And I am proud of that. The fun and excitement of the class completely overwhelms the silly amount of fear that is trying to get into my system.

My teaching skill has also grown and I’m enjoying it more and more everyday. I have nearly 25 hours of teaching every week now, and I find that I am becoming less and less conscious that I am a person recovering from stammering when I teach. I am working to carry this feeling/skill over to more social situations also. I still have much work to do in non-teaching (one-to-one) speaking situations. I haven’t made serious contacts in a long time but will continue to count again when the time comes.

Through all this physical, intellectual and psychological growth I have grown a belief that I would like to share with all chronic, recovering and out-of-control PWS (people who stammer) out there.

No, you cannot ignore your stammer, that will be stupid. But please realize that you are much more than your stammer, don’t let your stammer overgrow the beautiful person that is inside of you. You have a responsibility to share who you really are with other people, “you cannot grow in isolation” ( quote from Bruce Lee). Do this, work hard, work smart, and I believe, yes I BELIEVE, that the stammer will grow old, grow bored and die.

TT

So Mr. Talking Traveller, you’ve got us coming back to your page only to see no new updates during this last month! What’s been happening? Are you losing your way?

Ahem. This last month has had quite some prominent events that are quite worth mentioning. Imagine yourself sound asleep in your bed, drifting somewhere on a pink cloud when suddenly your dream starts transforming into something with rhythm. It is a rhythm that is not really scary or overwhelming but it does arouse some fear that creates a tight feeling in your chest. The reason for the fear is because the rhythm is uncontrollable. It is external to your locus of control. Your mind frantically starts searching for reason to end this confusion and creates ideas and vivid pictures of you experiencing a series uncontrollable muscle spasms, a white dog humping your leg, a monster under your bed, a stranger or lost loved one shaking you awake. Then you suddenly enter a more conscious state due to that fact that your bed is tapping against the wall. You greet the reality and realize that you are in Taiwan and you are experiencing your first earthquake! Within a few seconds you and your half-asleep roommates are standing in doorways giggling at the sight of each other. Fortunately the earthquake did not cause any damage in or near to the area that I live in, so I’m ok, it happened about a week ago.

It is the start of a new semester. Six months has past since I first started teaching and I have gained some valuable experience and self-training. This semester I have been given much more working hours and greater responsibilities. Payday for August passed a few days ago and I caught myself sitting in my room, cash in hand, staring at the biggest salary I have ever earned. I realized that I earned this without having to perform any serious intellectual of physical labor. No sweeping of floors, carrying furniture, selling food or pulling of weeds. No studying of datasheets, doing calculations or figuring out how to program the right protocols enabling a certain electronic signal to resonate with a certain frequency at a certain time. I earned this by performing emotional labor. I earned this by controlling and creating emotion in myself and children through clearly spoken words and actions.I earned this by creating emotion and confidence in myself to speak out words in a very articulate way and controlling my emotions not to get upset or angry when there is too much talking and too little discipline. I create emotions of confidence, understanding and joy in children regarding their competence of the English language.

In terms of speaking challenges, I started my Chinese classes at the university this week and it is a wonderful feeling not be overwhelmed by the fear of speaking while sitting a classroom awaiting your gauranteed speaking turn. We have an excellent teacher that only uses Chinese to teach Chinese! We have to perform homework assignments and will be writing a mid-semester and a final exam. Another “upgrade” it that one of the classes that I teach is at a senior high-school. Definate not the kindergarten or the elementary students minds that I’m used to. Neatly dressed, with a warning of “no physical contact” hovering in my mind I teach without having to be a clown or worry too much about discipline.This enables able to direct all my focus on explaining comprehension and pronunciation, and keeping students awake!!

Keep watching as I will be changing my mantra and blog face soon. And some new photo’s and more posts on “the stutter” will be uploaded in due time. Thank you. TT