Top Secret Assignment – Final Day

Posted on 21 June 2010 by christao408

Agents E and C concluded their four days of top secret assignments on Father’s Day. We went out to a nice brunch at another hotel to celebrate and while waiting for Uncle Tawn to show up from yoga class, they completed their last assignment, a “final report” to headquarters.

To verify their identity, though, they had to complete the following puzzle to prove that they are the actual secret agents to complete the mission. After all, there were a lot of double agents out there and more than enough subterfuge to fill a bathtub.

The only hint you should need is that they stayed at the Windsor Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 22. The rest you might be able to figure out on your own. I’ll print the answers tomorrow.

After brunch I drove to the secret agents and their father back to our condo where they started running some loads of laundry in preparation for their trip to China the next day. Meanwhile there was time for a few hours of playing around in the pool. I’ve concluded that young people will pretty much enjoy any vacation so long as there is a pool to play in. Which begs the question, why bother to travel halfway around the world?

While the agents were showering and changing into fresh clothes after their swim, I baked a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. Thankfully, there were a few people willing to taste test them. Meanwhile, Tawn took Donna to the Jim Thompson outlet for some silk souvenir shopping.

As the afternoon progressed, we broke out a deck of Uno, playing with modified rules that made the game much more competitive. Whenever someone plays a “zero” card, for example, all players pass their hand in the direction of play. So you end up having to change your strategy again and again while playing.

As dinnertime approached, Agents E and C were pulled into service, helping prepare salad and grate cheese for pizzas.

Then they learned how to press out their own pizza dough from a batch of dough that I started the day before. Each of them created their favorite type of pizza – ham and pineapple for Agent E and olive and pineapple for Agent C.

It turns out that the top secret agents also have some cooking skills. Agent C, left, had tried to arrange her toppings in the shape of a cat’s face, although I think it is hard to tell the eyes and the whiskers apart.

We enjoyed a nice home-cooked dinner to conclude their visit, complete with some more oatmeal cookies and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The next morning, bright and early, I picked the Clevelands up from their hotel and drove them out to the airport. After checking them in we snapped this final picture. As we were checking in, Donna told me that Agents E and C didn’t want to leave Thailand. But I’m sure they will have a great time with their schoolmates on a three-week excursion in China.

Top Secret Assignment Day 4

Posted on 21 June 2010 by christao408

Agents E and C continued with their last major assignment, a reconnaissance mission to scope out the markets and wildlife of central Thailand. Their destination: the Samphran Elephant Grounds and Amphawa Floating Market.

We drove about an hour west of Bangkok to Nakhon Pathom province, home of the Samphran Elephant Ground and Zoo, a popular sightseeing stop both for foreign visitors as well as Thais. I guess we could invite the animal rights experts to debate the merits of this type of attraction, in which elephants and other animals are on display and put through their paces in shows. The upside is that it gives people a chance to interact with and, hopefully, appreciate these creatures and why it is important that their habitats be preserved.

Agents E and C didn’t have any particular assignments at this first stop, other than to feed the elephants. It is easy to be awed by how strong and how smart these animals are. They are also very playful. One of the adults liked dancing in her pen to the rhythm of the music playing from the magic show in the nearby stadium. She was doing this on her own, with no guidance from her mahout, or trainer.

Agent C got on well with one of the baby elephants…

…but I think she got a little “carried away” by the baby’s mother!

A unintentionally psychedelic photo when I had the wrong setting on the camera and twisted it while taking the picture.

One of the babies (nine months old, in fact) hoped to borrow my camera.

Even Tawn got into the act, getting a big hug from one of the elephants.

In the elephant show, we learned about the history of elephants in Thai culture, including their use in logging, an occupation that is pretty much extinct, leading to the problem of too many elephants and too little designated land where they can roam wild.

We also learned about elephants’ role as weapons of war, featuring a silly little skit complete with low-tech pyrotechnics to simulate the Thais’ victory over the Burmese. Actually, at that point in history it would have been the Siamese’s victory.

The park also featured crocodile pools and a show with two “croc whisperers” who perform all sorts of feats with the large and lazy reptiles. No doubt the water is kept at a temperature that fosters a sedate mood, lessening the chance that one of the handlers loses a hand…

…or a head!

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from Agent E and C’s visit is that it is the small things that really provide young people with the most fun. A half-hour spent paddling around the lush landscaping in an aged paddle boat provided an adventure for them and a respite for the adults. The swan looks like it has had some plastic surgery, maybe a beak job.

After the elephant grounds, we hopped into the car and drove through a small rain storm on our way to the floating market in Amphawa, Samut Songkhram province. Along the way we stopped at a roadside cafe that I used to frequent in the days when I volunteered as an English teacher in this province, so as to enjoy several types of fried rice.

Because there were a lot of other events going on this weekend (including World Cup) the market was busy but not overcrowded as sometimes happens. As the sun was setting, we rented a long-tail boat and took a tour along the canals and river for a chance to see what country like along the water looks like.

Along the way, we were able to find many trees and bushes along the banks that were full of the fireflies for which this area is famous.

Back at the market, everything was bustling as people ate dinner and snacked on local specialties, including grilled prawns and squid that are among the freshest you’ll ever eat.

The bulk of day 4’s assignment was to try new fruits, foods, and desserts, of which the market has plenty. We went from vendor to vendor, looking at the many different items for sale, trying to guess what they were, and sampling many of them. Above, Agents E and C, along with their father, try some fresh young coconuts.

Uncle Tawn picked up several types of fruit for them to try. By the end of the evening, the agents had fulfilled their assignment and had tasted (although not always enjoyed) many new edible items.

We headed back to Bangkok that evening with full stomachs, heavy eyelids, and many new memories.

Top Secret Assignment Day 3

Posted on 19 June 2010 by christao408

Agents C and E, the 8- and 10-year old children of my visiting childhood friend Brad and his wife Donna, continued their top secret assignments, learning more about Thailand while gathering intelligence for Agent X back at headquarters.

While Agent C was concerned that the integrity of the operation had been compromised when pictures of it appeared on my blog, they decided to continue with Day 3’s assignment: to do reconnaissance of the transportation infrastructure. This involved taking at least five different types of transportation and then drawing pictures of each type and describing them in a “report.”

The assignment started with another code breaking exercise to discover the destination of the trip: Mahachai in Samut Sakhon province. Last month, my friend Bill and I took a day trip by “the train to nowhere,” a two-part line disconnected from the rest of the State Railways that runs to Samut Sakhon and then on to Samut Songkhram provinces. Link here. I decided that this would be a fun opportunity for Agent C and E to see what life was like outside of Bangkok.

Our first mode of transportation was walking – one common to many people in Thailand – but thankfully we only had a short distance to cover before we could switch to an air conditioned mode of transportation: the Skytrain. Part of the code-breaking had included unscrambling the names of key stations on the Skytrain line as we connected in Siam and then continued across the river to Wongwian Yai.

From there we took a taxi – transportation mode #3 – a short distance to the Wongwian Yai railway station. While waiting for the train, we were able to look at some of the different foods available from the vendors, to get an idea of what Thais eat for breakfast. We snacked on something not too exotic – grilled toast with a little condensed milk on it.

We bought our tickets then boarded the train – mode #4 – which ended up being pretty full. The ride was an hour long and along the way, the two secret agents and I walked the length of the train to see what we could learn about the people who ride it.

One thing we learned is that crossing from car to car is pretty scary, especially when the train is moving! Thankfully, there are rails to hold onto and you’d be hard pressed to actually fall onto the tracks. But it as still thrilling. We were able to go to the engineer’s cab at the back end of the train and see the controls they use to drive it.

Along the way, we met some interesting people. There were lots of vendors moving their wares to market, families traveling with children, and older folks getting from place to place. They seemed fascinated with Agents E and C, and had lots of questions about them. One man, seeing my camera, wanted to pose with Agent C for a picture. It was a little strange being the center of attention when you’re on a covert mission, but Agent C handled it with grace, flashing a big smile at everyone.

When we arrived in Mahachai an hour later we returned to the walking mode and visited a local market and the city pillar shrine, where preparations were underway for a large festival, before heading to the Ta Rua (“Boat Pier”) restaurant on the edge of the river. While Agents E and C aren’t big seafood people, they bravely tried several new things while we sat on a shaded outdoor dining terrace and enjoyed the cooling breezes.

Two hours later we were back at the train station, grabbing our seats for the ride back to Bangkok.

Before trying our fifth mode of transportation, we needed a little pick-me-up, so Agents E and C (and their father) tried some coconut ice cream served the way street vendors have been selling it for years: in a sweet bread bun.

For the final mode of transportation the five of us crammed into the back of a tuk-tuk, the noisy little three-wheeled vehicles named after the sound their motors makes as they run. We drove around a large traffic circle and five minutes later were deposited next to the Skytrain station for our trip back to the hotel.

After all that transportation, Agents E and C were ready for something new: Thai foot massages! What a relaxing way to end their assignment.

The Clevelands Arrive

Posted on 18 June 2010 by christao408

My childhood friend Brad and his wife Donna arrived Wednesday with their two children, E and C.

We’ve been running around the city and surrounding area, seeing as many sights as we can while keeping in mind that jet lag can be especially disorienting for children. The first evening we were out at dinner and E and C both fell asleep at the table. It was all we could do to wake them up so we could take them back to the hotel.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I prepared a series of activities for E and C designed around a top secret agent/spy theme. When they checked in at the hotel, the clerk gave them a folder with their names on it with “Top Secret” stamped on it. They opened it to discover a mission overview and their Day 1 assignment.

Agents E and C:
You have been selected for an elite mission.This mission is strictly top secret, although you can use your parental units to support your mission objectives, if needed.
Your goal is to gather intelligence about the language, culture, transportation, and markets in the Kingdom of Thailand and send it to the headquarters of the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or USNGIA for short.

It turns out that the USNGIA is real but I went ahead and used them since their cool looking logo is readily available on Google. Agents E and C were assigned Thai cover names: Pi Chai (Big Brother) and Nong Saao (Little Sister), respectively.

Agents Pi Chai and Nong Saao had an initial assignment that involved looking at a map, located their hotel, and answering a few questions about the surrounding area: Where is the nearest park? What is the name of the street their hotel is on? Etc.

Their assignment for day 1 was to learn a few words of Thai, which Agent Nong Saao had already done as part of a school report she did on Thailand last year. “Yes”, “No”, “Hello”, and “Thank You” were enough to prepare them for their visit… er, secret mission.

Day 2 dawned after a good night’s sleep with nobody waking up too early. The top secret agents had another envelope and another assignment waiting for them:

Your assignment is to gather intelligence about the culture of Thailand and to report it back to headquarters.Complete the following information and include it in your report.
Your destination Thursday is the most important cultural and religious site in Thailand.It is a complex of buildings on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards.It is also where the Temple of the Emerald Buddha is housed, the most holy Buddha statue in Thailand.

There was a word-scramble (er… “code to break”) that listed the name of the destination: The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

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As part of the assignment, they used pictures to identify some of the mythical creatures represented on the grounds of the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. By asking questions of their guide and listening carefully, they would learn what all these creatures were and what they represent.

The creatures include the ones holding this golden chedi, or stupa, above, as well as the towering giants like the one below, that protect the entrances to the temple.

Another two mythical creatures they needed to learn about were the garuda – the bird-man holding snakes in the center of the above photo, and the multi-headed snake called a naga, which line the edges of the roofs of temples and palatial buildings.

We saw these mythical creatures represented again and again, such as in these temple murals.

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We also saw an artist attending to the fine details of the temple, keeping the paint fresh and bright.

The Clevelands posting with a royal guard at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Does the cloud in this picture look like a chicken? Tail on the left, head on the right, with two claws on the bottom. I think it does and even though I didn’t tag the photo as a chicken, when I uploaded it to Xanga, the Google ad at the top of the screen was for a company that will help you grow your own chickens in the backyard. It’s a sign, I tell you!

We saw the changing of the guards, who must be very hot in those outfits!

As the secret agents and their parents started to wilt under the strong sun and high heat, we wrapped up our Day 2 assignment, headed out for some lunch at a nearby air conditioned restaurant, and then took the boat back down the river to the hotel for some swimming… and to await Day 3’s assignment!

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Tag Archives: Clevelands

Top Secret Assignment – Final Day

Top Secret Assignment Day 4

Top Secret Assignment Day 3

The Clevelands Arrive