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Michael Allan Charles

Way to Avoid Jet Lag

6/27/2015

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Jet lag seems to be a major challenge for most people but as long as I have been travelling and working in Asia I don't seem to have a problem with it  travelling either way. There were times when I got off the plane and was in a school giving a workshop within two hours.

Similarly coming home to Canada I immediately spend time with family at dinner or breakfast or whenever I happen to arrive in Canada

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Why? That is a good question and I think I at least have a partial answer. I do not wear a watch ever, either at school or at home. When the bell rings, like a trained seal I simply go to the next class. On the plane, even though I generally have to change planes at least three times, I often do not know what time it is or even what airport I am in. I simply get off the plane, trudge with the next person to the the transit area and do the normal stuff like taking out my computer from the bag and taking off my belt. I do not know what time it is or even the day. I just know I am heading to the next plane wherever they tell me to go. 
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ON the plane, I eat when they bring food, watch movies and walk up and down the plane for hours. There are usually other old guys like me in the galley chatting up the stewards on the plane and gaining valuable information. For example, on my way to Singapore I found an apartment to rent from having a conversation with the steward. Don't forget , they are as bored as the passengers and when they are not serving food are anxious to chat. 

I think of the trip as one long cocktail party. I get a chance to meet so many people form all walks of life and have great snacks and drinks. By the way, I do not drink alcohol any time but especially not  on a plane because it tends to dehydrate you I have read. 

I guess what I am saying is have fun on the plane, talk to everyone and enjoy the company. They will be as anxious to talk to you as you them, although it is not advisable to wake up your seat partner to start a conversation!

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One word of caution. I wanted to change my ticket but I was told over the phone by the airline that I had to go through my travel agent where I bought the ticket. When I called them they told me it would cost about $800 to change the flight. 

When I got to Bangkok, I went to the airline office and when they told me again I had to go through my agent I just smiled and asked them to "work with me on this one"  This line always seems to work and two hours later was walking out with a changed and better ticket for $60 and a flight that only took about 20 hours s opposed to the one  closer to thirty hours. 

Moral of the story? Book through the internet and not a travel agent. Much easier if you want to change the ticket later which you will invariably do. 


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Enjoy your colleagues!
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Wet and Dry Season

6/18/2015

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This is what you are going to have to get used to if you live in south east Asia if you stay  for a full teaching year.There are two season in Asia....the rainy season and the dry season. I got so wet the other day my clothes were sticking to my skin and even though my windows were shut tight the rain just came pouring in to my apartment. Everyone has a rain coat as this lady has and life carries on. What else can you do? Luckily I have a car but even with a car I have to get to it.

I guess the key is to have patience. It does not rain for more than about an hour and frankly when it stops there is no evidence that it even rained it dries so quickly.
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Then there is the dry season when the waterfalls dry up and you are always looking for shade. You can always find a coconut tree but I would be careful about sitting underneath one. A coconut missed me by inches the other day as it came crashing down. Just drink lots of water and stay in the classroom. One trick you might try is to freeze a bottle of water the night before and take to school and sip all day. 

At least you will not have any snow which is guaranteed. 

I am just going home to Canada in a few days and thinking of giving this site a bit of a rest until I return to Asia in October. Is there anything further you would  like me to write about? Any questions you have about living in Asia or working? Any questions about where to buy the book?

Again thank you for reading It All Started In Mandalay and sending me your wonderful comments. They are much appreciated. Get your friends to buy a copy for themselves....don't just pass the book around....ok?
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The real story behind bar girls

6/10/2015

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I had no idea how accurate I was when I made reference to bar girls in my first novel, It All Started in Mandalay, . In the novel I talked about the "farang lottery" where a girl from Issan met and married a foreigner from a western country and was well taken care of for the rest of her life.


How true this is I found out yesterday when I went for a hair cut. My barber said she had a friend she was going to see in Patong who had just come from her same village who was going to work in a bar, and not any bar but the bar where everyone comes to work from this village. Apparently this bar is frequented by a lot of Australians and there are many tales of marriages where the ladies end up going to live in Australia after they buy their parents a house back in their village. 

Apparently there are all kinds of stories in this town of women who have come to Phuket, hit the farang lottery and llived happily ever after in Australia ( after getting a house built for their parents in Issan). 

When one of my friends lived in Pattaya he used to go to a bar where the women were following instructions from a book on writing to their boyfriends with the introduction page telling them to say how much they missed them, then the next page writing about what to write a few weeks later if the men wrote back and so on. It is just like any other business, I guess. 



Kind of takes the magic out of dating..doesn't it? But these are the things you learn about as a foreign teacher.

As well as learning how to surf!!!
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Four Jobs for Four People

6/4/2015

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How would you like to be siting in this boat ready to slip into warm clear water on the beaches of Thailand? 
The Kajonkiet family of schools in Phuket has got four jobs right now.
  • grade three
  • grade six science
  • a secondary subsitute teacher
  • a physical education teacher

If you can see yourself in this boat, write to hr@kajonkietsuksa.ac.th and tell them "Mike sent you"


Good luck!

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Malaysia Reconsidered

6/1/2015

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Some of you may recognize this picture as Kuala Lampur from the central square downtown. I was at a Food Fair here this week-end and quite enjoyed the vibe I was getting from this very modern city. When I went to an EARCOS conference here a few years ago, I do not remember the city being so cosmopolitan but I guess when you are working somewhere is is quite different than being a tourist! 

I stayed right by China Town and the Central Market and was close to everything a tourist might want to see. I went to look at the towers and got lost going through a wonderful park just beside the towers and which led to a residential area that was purported to be the most expensive in Asia. When I asked a guy walking his dog who lived there he said banking guys,oil guys ( although they are a lot fewer now) and expats of various sizes and stripes. It was close to Bukit so quite nice. When I walked through the Bukit area there were loaded with restaurants and markets which were upbeat and interesting. The people, with the exception of a cab driver who never said a word to me and dropped me off on the other side of the street from the hotel, were unfailing polite. Frankly it was very much like Singapore and I was quite surprised at the friendliness.

The next day I took a bus to Penang, a rouristy island similar to Phuket but bigger. I was also impressed with the colonial feel of the buildings and you could not  mistake the British architecture of the court house or the Anglican church across the street. So many people were riding bicycles in inverse proportion to their age.. I love the feel of the island and spent the day just walking around.


If you want to travel and work in Asia,  I am quite confident that there would be loads of teaching jobs in Malaysia since every second person seemed to be an expat and if you look at some of my earlier posts you can see exactly where you can find many many jobs. If you like the heat and street food, you would be hard pressed to find anything nicer than Malaysia.

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    Michael Allan Charles is the first time author of It All Started In Mandalay

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