Thailand -- January 2007

Snorkeling!

2007-01-22T23:16:00.000+07:00

Today we went to Coral Island which is off the east side of Phuket. It was fairly good snorkeling and a nice, uncrowded beach. The water wasn't the clearest, but fish and coral were still numerous. I thought it was interesting that the fish looked pretty much like Hawaiian fish....I also parasailed, which was a bit different than Hawaii because there wasn't a winch to wind us back into the boat, instead it was done from the beach and to get back down at the end you had to "steer" the parachute by pulling on a marked line. It was really fun though and I'm glad I did it. I got a bit sunburned today, but only on my left side oddly enough....But then again that was the side that was facing the sun for most of the day.

Tomorrow we leave Phuket in the late afternoon for Bangkok...only three days left!

Tsunami Recovery in Phang-Nga with ETC

2007-01-21T17:33:00.000+07:00

Yesterday we drove a couple hours north to the mainland to see the areas worst hit by the tsunami on December 26, 2004. Our host for the day was Reid Ridgway, an ex-pat from California who has lived in Thailand for the last five years. Following the tsunami he wanted to find a way to help, and saw an opportunity to assist young adults in rebuilding their livelihoods that had been destroyed by the tsunami. He established the Ecotourism Training Center (ETC), which trains local young adults in English, Computers, and Scuba diving. After the nine month program, the students are able to get a job that pays about six times what they could make without the training.

After a brief introduction, we went to the most devastated area. There are now rows upon rows of basic concrete homes that house the locals. The wave in this area was about 5 meters tall. In this photo, where the trees are cut off is how high the initial wave was. In the same area, the wave turned what used to be a white sandy beach into a vast sea of coral rocks that stretches as far as you can see. This police boat is about 2 kilometers inland. Tragically, it caused many deaths as the wave carried it out over the people who were trying to escape. It is going to be a permanent memorial to the victims in the area. There were many other sights we visited, but you'll have to look through my photos on zenfolio to see them.

After the tour we went to a local beach with the ETC students and then out to dinner as well. Many had only been learning English for about three months, but still did a pretty good job communicating.

Today was mostly a lounge-around day and tomorrow I'm going to Coral Island which is supposed to have fairly good snorkeling.

Patong Beach, Phuket

2007-01-19T22:55:00.000+07:00

For the last two days I've been at the Amanta Guest House on Patong Beach in Phuket. This beach town is pretty much like any other beach town except that there are only a few large hotels/resorts, most are smaller this this guest house. The beach is big but crowded and the sun is really hot...it is about 90 degrees all day long and about 85 at night. I spent all day at the beach (except for a 2.5 hour break for writing my paper for class and eating lunch) and have a nice, healthy tan...Yes, i used sun block and was in the shade for a lot of the day. My birthday went well, although it's hard to believe I'm 20 now! We are doing class activities tomorrow, and on Monday are going to go on a snorkeling trip...it's supposed to be pretty good on the surrounding islands.

Thai Cooking Class

2007-01-17T23:13:00.000+07:00

So today I went to a Thai cooking class with the other sophomores...and it was some of the most amazing time of the entire trip! We made fried rice, papaya salad, spring rolls, red curry, and fried bananas...and what I made actually tasted good! I finally loaded pictures on Zenfolio and you really should take a look at the ones from cooking class...i look pretty hilarious in a bandana and apron.....We're about to leave Chiang Mai but we'll be on the beach tomorrow!

Back from the Karen Villages

2007-01-15T19:49:00.000+07:00

No matter what I say, there is no way I'll be able to capture the significance of my experiences over the last three days. For now, I will provide basics and will work on putting the actual experience into words.

The group was divided into two smaller groups of 8 students each for our trekking experiences. My group left our guesthouse in Mae Hong Son at 8am on Saturday morning in 4x4 Suzuki "jeeps." Our destination was the Ban Huey Hee village within a national park about 30 km from town. Although the distance was short, the trip took almst two hours because it was constantly up and down mountainsides on a road that was only paved about half of the time. Four wheel drive was definitely a necessity, and because it is the dry season, the roads are in the best shape they are all year right now.

Once arriving at the village we were met in a "community center" where we had lunch and our Thai leaders figured out in which house we would all be staying. The significant aspect of this type of trek is that it is Community Based Tourism (CBT) where the entire village shares the benefits of tourist revenues. The majority of tourism in this area (mass tourism) only benefits one or two households of the "headmen" of the village who always accomodate the tourists. Anyways, so we met our hosts and then were taken home to get settled. My roommate for the night was Deng, one of our local Thai guides who owns his own tourism business as well as works with REST (Responsible Ecological and Social Tours) the operator of our tour. It was a huge benefit to be rooming with a translator as I was able to learn a lot more from the family. They had two kids, Ving Rapan (5 yr boy) and Sotedah (7 yr girl). (Note that because they don't use a roman alphabet, there names are simply my phonetic interpretation of how they sound...and most of you know how good I am with phonetics ;). The kids were both very personable and we played for a while. They really enjoyed taking pictures with my camera. In the afternoon we climbed the mountain over the village, Doi Pui (the village was at 1040 meters above sea level and the peak of the mountain was about 1800 meters). From the top the views were breathtaking and we could see Mae Hong Son as well as across into Burma...You'll have to see the pictures! Then we went home for dinner and had a meeting/chat with a bunch of the townspeople (the villages had about 28 households) to ask questions to each other. The night was cold....no heat, drafty walls, right around freezing outside, just lots of blankets!

In the morning (Sunday) we visited their farming area and then got back in the suzukis for another two hour drive to the next village, Huey Tong Kor. The road was even worse for this part of the drive...Most of it was at least a thirty degree incline either up or down! This village was about the same size and we followed the same basic day plan except that instead of climbing a mountain we only climbed a large hill through their community forest. This night was even colder than the first, and we were provided with less blankets...but I survived and in the morning (~730) went outside to join the family around a fire to warm up (monday morning).

Today (monday) we drove all the way back ( a little over three hours...i think a little more of it was downhill). The Karen people number about half a million throughout Thailand, and are mostly in small villages. Their tradtional way of life is hillside farming and the government has been harrassing them for destroying the forest ecosystem by using "slash and burn" techniques. In reality, it is more of a crop rotation than simple slash and burn, but they are still struggling to maintain their traditional way of life. Anyway, I've written enough for now....More about it in person!

Leaving Chiang Mai

2007-01-12T09:56:00.000+07:00

This afternoon we are leaving Chiang Mai for Mae Hong Son (Thai Airways #194), a small town of about 8,000 up by the border with Burma. We will be returning to Chiang Mai on Tuesday, the 16th, on Thai Airways#193. The first and last night of the stay are in Mae Hong Son, while the middle two night are homestays in Karen villages, coordinated by REST tours (Responsible Ecological and Social Tours). Chiang Mai has been nice, the air is a lot clearer except for the exhaust along the roads. I'm definitely looking forward to being up in the jungle!

Oh yeah, I finally added a couple of back posts from Jan 4 & 5...I'll write again in a few days!

Chiang Mai

2007-01-10T22:46:00.000+07:00

Last night we took the sleeper train from Bangkok and after almost 15 hours finally arrived in Chiang Mai. It was actually nice to have a long ride as I was able to get a full night's sleep and get some reading done as well. On our last day in Bangkok we ate lunch at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. The short story behind the name is that the proceeds go to support social development programs. The owner/creator of the restaurant (there are actually many C&C resorts throughout Thailand) was instrumental in pushing for sexual disease and pregnancy awareness. I bought his authorized biography and i think it will be a good read.

Anyway, back to Chiang Mai. After arriving on the train at about 1030, we went to our hotel, the River View Lodge. After lunch I and a couple others decided to rent bicycles for a bit of an authentic Thai experience. For four hours the bikes were 25฿ a piece (about 80 cents). We rode about four miles to the Chiang Mai zoo and I definitely trust Thai drivers a lot now because I'm still alive! It is really up to the car and truck drivers to be aware and courteous to the bikes and mopeds, and this keeps the two-wheel crowd alive. Riding in the lanes like we did here would be suicidal in the U.S. where drivers are much less attentive and more rigid in their driving style. Its hard to describe, but everything just flows smoothly here. Bicycles, mopeds, cars, trucks, and buses all share the road fairly equally...The only really tough ones are making right turns (like a left turn in the U.S.) But I survived and my only scarring is from the heavy exhaust fumes. The zoo was on a par with most in the U.S. and it is nicely situated at the bottom of a large hill/small mountain in a very jungle-like area. Oh yeah, by the way it is so nice to be somewhere where the majority of the air is clean and blue sky is visible!

Tomorrow we are going to the Doi Sutep temple complex and the following day we fly to Mae Hong Son to prepare for the homestay. And unfortunately I don't think I will be able to upload and pictures while I am here, the connections are all just too slow. Apparently it is actually a lingering result of the earthquake two years ago.

Monday

2007-01-08T18:11:00.000+07:00

So we just got back to Bangkok from the Mekong river delta area. It was a great two days and I ended up with a lot of awesome pictures. Last night we went to a floating market and had the most amazing food! (fried prawns, fish cakes [looks like buffalo fish salad], steamed clams, thai iced tea...just to name a few things I sampled at the market)...and no, I didn't get sick! The Thai people in this area still live in traditional houses on stilts and use canals as the main mode of transportation. In the morning as I was sitting by the canal the guy in the picture came by in his long boat and waved and when i held up my camera he reached in his pot and held up this delightful creature.... Tomorrow we are taking the overnight train to Chiang Mai.

I have photos to upload to zenfolio, but I have to do it from my own computer so that will have to wait a couple more days. I am at a cafe and it is faster than the hotel (i can actually load blogspot). I wrote a couple more entries for this blog (my first!) but forgot them at the hotel so I will try to add them in from Chiang Mai...hopefully I will be able to get online with my computer in Chiang Mai so that I can add those posts and put up some pictures as well.

Overall the trip has gone great so far...it seems like I've been here a lot longer than five days!

The Grand Palace and Wat Pho

2007-01-05T21:00:00.000+07:00

We went into central Bangkok for the first time today. The Grand Palace is a wonderfully ornate complex and a main tourist spot. After that we had lunch in a small cafe in the area before continuing to the What Po. At the What (temple) we were led by a guide that sort of spoke English, but you had to try really hard to understand him. The most intersting part was to be able to listen and watch the monks do their evening prayer. Remarkably, we were even allowed to take pictures of this, though it hardly seemed right to do so. For dinner we took a river taxi to a Thai restaurant called Harmonique and had some very tasty food. Particularly the pepper flavored pork and fried bananas were amazing!
It's hard to believe I've only been here a day and a half. It seems like so much longer. Tomorrow we are going to go to the weekend market, it should be fun!

Central Shopping Mall - First Experience

2007-01-04T22:56:00.000+07:00

Once arriving in Bangkok I took a taxi to the Avana Hotel. The hotel is in the general vicinity of the airport and this only took about 20 minutes. I was immediately surprised by the sense of order everywhere and was pleasantly surprised to find a seat belt in the taxi. When I arrived at the hotel I showered and then set off for Central City which I saw on the ride in. It was only about a 20 minute walk, though the road was very busy and the exhaust fumes were almost too much to take. In the mall there were shops of all kinds but from almost any point in the mall I could see at least one American chain store. One surprising example was Auntie Anne's pretzels. To kill some time I went to a movie, Blood Diamonds. It was in a very modern theatre with the one surprising thing that the showing I went to was in a "VIP" type theater where every seat was a plush recliner and they provided a pillow and blanket. Quite a way to watch a movie! Even more surprising was the tribute to the king that took place right before the show started. Everyone suddenly stood up as a song played, I'm guessing it was the national anthem. For dinner I ate at Black Canyon Coffee, which claims to be the largest coffee house brand in the country. It was really good, although I learned that Thais will never bring your check to you without asking. It took me almost 20 minutes to figure this out! After the dinner I took a taxi back to the hotel and slept for a few hours before the rest of the group arrived.

Taipei, Taiwan

2007-01-04T08:54:00.000+07:00

For breakfast I had a delicious hot ham and cheese croissant here in the Taiwan Taoyuan Airport. I'm waiting for my flight to Bangkok and just noticed a sign on the wall that reads "WARNING: Drug trafficking is punishable by death in the R.O.C." They're apparently not playing around!
It feels very humid here...I think they are always in a rainy season. It's interesting as I look around the departure lounge I notice that the vast majority of the people here are white while in the rest of the airport it was very much the opposite. Only three more hours and I'll be there!

Over the Pacific

2007-01-04T05:35:00.000+07:00

It takes a long time to de-ice a big plane. We finally got off the ground at 4:30 am, more than an hour and a half late. By then I was soo tired. I slept for the first five hours of the flight or so (missing school for scoundrels) and then awoke feeling much better. The China Airlines cabin crew is one of the most courteous I have ever seen. They are providing a great service without any of the grouchiness that is often evident with American carriers. Right now it is 12:35 pm Alaska time, 5:35 am Taipei time and we are somewhere over the East China Sea with about two hours left before Taipei. The beginning of twilight can just barely be seen out the window.

The last couple of days have been pretty nerve-racking as I prepared for the trip. The New Years bombings in Bangkok added to this stress, especially because they were an external force that I could not control. Everything else (packing, etc.) was within my control. I am definitely excited now and know that I will have a great experience.