January 1, 2014
We landed in the mid-mountain town of Chiang Mai, Thailand yesterday at about five, after a seven hour drive from Phichit. Went over several mountain passes on the way here and saw many beautiful sites.
Tom and Amy live in a neighborhood called, of all things, "Land & Houses." Yes, that is the name of it, and the sign is in English. We walked to Sriwalle Restaurant for an early New Year's Eve dinner.
Like almost everyone else in Thailand, Tom and Amy own 125cc motorscooters which are so much better at getting through traffic in the downtown area. After breakfast at the World of Breakfast in downtown Chiang Mai (inside the moat), we motor-scootered over to Tom and Amy's campus to see where they teach at an international school:
Teacher Tom Bell
Teacher Pattarapan Pothong
Last semester Tommy was the head coach and Amy co-coached the U-12 (girl's under 12) basketball team. Here are the champions, the C-Max conference runners up:
Taken in early December, here are the Chang Mai U-12 Athletic Conference Runners-up and their coaches, Tommy and Amy Pothong Bell. They made it to the championship game after a triple-overtime thriller against the conference tournaments favorites, but then lost 9-12 to a more rested team.
"WHO ARE YOU GUARDING?"
—Coach Tom Bell's most repeated phrase