Thailand

Where to next? 

Thailand wasn’t on our itinerary when we started our journey in November. It snuck in when we saw Kathmandu had inexpensive nonstop flights to Bangkok, and Abby realized that the United World College (UWC) in Phuket had a K-12 program. Hundreds of UWC students had become Global Citizen Year Fellows so we had a sense of the extraordinary students that came from UWC, but I knew little more than that. When UWC Phuket said they were open to a short term enrollment for Rio and Luca, we went for it. 

For grades 11-12, UWC operates a unique model where exceptional students from around the world are selected by their national committees for a full scholarship to one of 18 UWC campuses. The 500 students at UWC Thailand came from over 90 countries. I’ve never seen anything like it. 

For grades K-10, UWC Thailand operates as a private international school. Parents pay roughly $18,000 USD per year for bespoke instruction in small classes with heaps of individual attention. Walking into the school for the first time, we passed through the parking lot filled with BMWs, Mercedes, and Porsches, which we hadn’t seen since Dubai. Students badged in though electronic gates while security guards looked on, as if entering a Google office. Inside, we strolled through an oasis of shaded paths, manicured courtyards and immaculate play structures. 

It was quite a contrast to our experience in Nepal. Whereas the boys had sat on an outdoor concrete slab to have daal bhat at Kopila Valley School, UWC’s air conditioned cafeteria offered Thai and Western buffets, with a selection of tropical fruits for dessert. Rio had liked the food in Nepal but said the UWC food (and air conditioning?) made him feel more healthy, energetic, and better able to learn. 

On the other side of the cafeteria, the school shares resources with a five star resort with gyms, dance studios, tennis courts, smoothie bar, and olympic sized swimming pool. All students had swim classes there. If Kopila was the lotus of Surkhet, UWC was the Beverly Hills of Phuket. 

The classrooms, too, were totally different. They didn’t  have desks in rows like Nepal, in fact there were no desks at all. Instead, there was an assortment of learning areas, including couches, white boards, art materials, and iPads for everyone. It would be hard for the teacher to stand at the “front” of the class, as there didn’t seem to be one. Instead, the kids spread out across the room for project work in small groups. Rio embarked on a report about someone who inspired him (Alex Honnold), using an iPad for research and mind-mapping tools the teacher provided. Rio said the physical space and assignments made him feel independent– something I had not heard him say about any school experience in the past. 

Several times per week, the teacher provided parents with photos and videos of our kids during the week via a custom app. I was simultaneously delighted and also felt a bit guilty that so much attention was being lavished on our kids relative to what likely happened in the government schools in the same neighborhood. 

Immersion 

On Luca’s  classroom wall, there was a chart of where his classmates came from. The largest portion were Russian, followed by Chinese. Only one student was from Thailand. The boys’ main teachers were Canadian, British and Irish. We were definitely getting a cultural immersion, but it was not in Thai culture. I was surprised to learn that outside the classroom, there are almost as many Russians as Thai people on Phuket.

On Luca’s first day of school, the kids shared stories from the weekends. One little boy had flown to another country– though he was not sure which one– to stay at a Star Wars themed hotel. A gaggle of girls met up at a spa to have their nails done together. Others spent the weekend on their yachts. These weekends had been unimaginable to us in Nepal, just a week before. Rio had a similar experience in his classroom. After school, Rio asked us if the students in his class knew they were rich. I appreciated the question and what it implied about his own evolving understanding. Do fish know that they swim in water? What might I be immersed in so deeply that I cannot even see it? How would I even know? 

We later learned that a significant portion of UWC parents, mostly in their 40’s, had come to Phuket to retire. This helped to explain why I saw them at the sports club or on the beach during the school day. I was right there with them. These were the well worn tracks on the expat circuit, and everyone was a little surprised if we deviated from them. When our family had “Thai Pizza” on the side of the road (video below) for $3 (for the whole family), locals seemed genuinely surprised. When we sat down at beachside cafes,  saw borscht on a Russian menu, and realized everyone spoke Russian at the tables around us, no one seemed surprised except us. 

In other countries we visited, I think I had a sense of what I was about to be immersed in. I could guess something about the language, food, and music. Phuket did not fit the pattern. I spent a lot of time focused on the mismatches between what I expected and what I saw. I then found myself setting aside my actual experiences as “inauthentic” as I searched for the "real" Phuket that was, ironically, exactly what I was experiencing. Now that I am back in California, I imagine myself as a fish pulled from the water, only now able to look back and see that what I was immersed in was authentically and truly (expat) Phuket in 2023.

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