Jen's Thai Travels

Finally getting around to it!

2008-07-11T08:29:00.008+06:00

Blog #50: finale
It has only been four months.......
Time does get away - and I've felt the need to keep busy.
Boy, I found leaving Chiang Mai to be traumatic. Sad to say goodbye.....

I've "adapted" back to Aussie life very easily really, helped along by settling in back at work with very few changes, and being able to board with a good friend in the country town I work in (loving all the household creature comforts!). I love working in the Aussie environment again. It's been great catching up with so many people again, including my cousins for the first time in many years. My brother recently announced his engagement - seems to be a season of engagements, weddings and pregnancy announcements. Also 11 new bubs in the 12 months I'd been away, 9 being boys - crazy!

So back to me: spare time at bike classes, replaced for winter with a paying gig, pruning at a local vineyard. Not sure what the next "big" things would be in my life, and not applying the pressure either for the moment.

Get to remininsce about Thailand every time my work screen saver comes on, and the Chiang Mai poster has a pride of place on the wall. I've done a powerpoint presentation at a couple of churches now, have helped some friends learn some "survival Thai" for their 6 month volunteer stint ("put pasa thai nit noy"), did an official handover with the next FORRU Aussie volunteer, and had fun with some friends concocting an Asian feast. I'm loving the asian grocery stores at Cabramatta and can make a pass-able Pad Thai now. I'm very much looking forward to having a good friend from Thailand stay in Oz over Christmas. Don't quite have the energy yet to think about photo albums....

My main "perspective" on my year in Thailand is that I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to be there for the year. I feel extremely blessed to have had the many meaningful and rewarding experiences that I did. I would love to continue an involvement in overseas work in the future in some form, and am very much looking forward to a ReachOut conference next month to start the "dreaming and scheming" phase again. Not too restless yet for overseas travel, but ask me again once I hit my 30's......

I'll be leaving this blog on the internet for now. Thanks for keeping tabs on me. If you've happened to randomly come across it and something has sparked an interest to find out more, look to your right for my email address. Meanwhile if you are planning a trip to Chiang Mai, are reminiscing like I have been, or are just interested in what Thai cities look like, head to this website for a look around: http://www.mapjack.com/ . I even found my house on it!

God's blessings,
Jen :)

My last 2 weeks in Thailand - the inevitable departure

2008-03-12T10:08:00.000+06:00

My last two weeks in Thailand consisted mostly of goodbyes. No wonder I was a bit glum getting on the plane! Lots of fun experiences to close the final chapter on. Lots of new buddies to try to keep in contact with.

Captions for this jumble of a photo collection:
the girls at english teaching; Super Tuesday Team at the radio station; friends at bible study group; Pastor Rupert at Chiang Mai Community Church; tie-dyed Thai kids from Baan San Faan on an excursion to the FORRU research nursery; newly on foot with friend Emily, having returned the motorbike (sigh).

I jetted out of Chiang Mai on Monday 11th March and arrived back in Sydney with no issues. A long battle with the Thai flu has forced me to lie low and near death by boredom. When my headspace is together again I'll wrap up with some "perspectives" of this big year away.

A busy 3rd last week

2008-02-24T20:43:00.011+06:00

The countdown is on, and I'm packing it in!
Starting with last weekend:

I climbed Doi Luang Chiang Dao again, this time with a full pack, from a slightly different route, and with friends Marcus, Liz and Shirley. Nice and cosy in my own winter sleeping bag this time. We had a great time, but the haze is getting worse. And it's getting hot. Back to the gym in Oz.

The big work event for this week was convening an International Edible Insects conference in Chiang Mai. It was great to be involved in such an unusual event, and I was keen to learn from the experience as much as possible - including sampling all of the goods. And some weren't bad at all! Edible insects are generally highly nutritious and are a vital dietary component for many societies. Funny that we have no problems eating prawns etc. that are detrius feeders, eating all manner of unmentionables on the ocean/pond floors, yet we squirm when vegetarian insects are on the plate. It's an interesting comparison of cultural opinions. Eating insects is very environmentally friendly.....ask me more!

Very interestingly, I met another Schabel at the conference - a retired german-american University Professor named Hans. I've only met one other Schabel in my life, and that was Dad's cousin. We had a lot to talk about - there could be a distanct relation connection. 8 generations ago my forefather Hans Schabel moved to Denmark and started a locksmith business. Funny!

Following the conference Hans and a fellow american David (who started an edible insect educational business) were interested in seeing more of northern Thailand for 2 days, so we hired a car and headed north west, to a cave lodge 15km from the Burmese border. The karst scenery is spectacular (I headed here on my MHS motorbike adventure) and we visited Tham Lod. We saw thousands of cave features, thousands of bats, a couple of 2,000 year old teak log coffins and cave paintings. The absolute highlight though happened when we left the cave at dusk: 300,000 (odd) swifts flew back in the cave in large spirals to roost for the night. This nature spectacular lasted for almost an hour (black specks in the twilight photo below). We stayed in a bamboo bungalow and went for a valley walk the next morning, stopping frequently to seek out bugs and discuss other natural science phenomena. I learnt a lot!

Lovely Laos

2008-02-10T20:25:00.001+06:00

Just a month till I'm back in Oz.....I've arrived back from another visa run to Laos, this one involving a 5 day trip to catch glimpses of it while the tourist industry is still in its infancy (has only been open for about the past 10 years).

I followed the tourist highway, for sure though, after flying in to the UNESCO-world heritage listed city of Luang Probang in the north, busing it to backpacker-central in Vang Vieng, then on to the capital Vientiane. Laos was a french colony for about a century, influencing it's architecture, cuisine and multi-lingual abilities. It is also the poorest country in south-east asia, and the most bombed during the war. We passed ethnic minority villages high on steep mountain slopes, with widespread deforestation leaving them (Jen concludes) with little ability to earn an income except for collecting grass seed heads to make into brooms. And this was on the main highway - probably the situation is ten times worse in remoter areas. World Vision is one of many NGOs active in the country.

So Jen's take on the tourist scene: most tourists seemed to be posh-nosh europeans or the heavy-drinking young backpacker variety. You could tell the aussie lads: beer lao t-shirts and aussie board shorts. Not sure what the locals make of this new invasion - it seemed that if you were able to sleep off the hangover on the bus between the main stops, you could avoid any culture (Jen was on her own for this trip so had more time for reflection perhaps - back in her box). I did actually meet some pretty nice people and kept seeing the same faces pop up at each town along the way.

Apologies for the formatting issues - will try to avoid them by not including photo captions......

LUANG PROBANG

The Mekong River; french influences; many wats and alms processions; coconuts; river life

DAY TRIPS FROM L.P.
Beautiful Krung Si limestone waterfall, and Pak Ou cave (with 1000's of buddha shrines); bird-release sellers; whisky distilleries

VANG VIENG

This small town is surrounded by some beatiful limestone karst scenery. It has a huge number of pubs and you can watch "Friends" reruns and have pizza and beer in the many cinema-style restaurants. Very Byron Bay (or Pai in Northern Thailand) - like. I only spent 22 hours there, but managed to get a fair bit in: cycling out to some nearby caves (most of the way chatting with a cycling group from southern Thailand), getting a lift back to town after dark with some locals (preplanned!), and going on a half day tour to tube through a cave (which ended up being a personal motorbike tour). Fun! Left town before the aussie-organised cross dressing tube race hit the river......

VIENTIANE
The capital city was a quick stopover before my flight back. A pretty quiet city! Caught the sun setting over the Mekong river, experienced a Laos oil massage, and some live music.

Excitement at the Ellie Park

2008-02-03T21:24:00.000+06:00

Soooo many photos of elephants. This was my Christmas present: a weekend stay at the Elephant Nature Park on the Mae Taeng River. No logging, no street begging, no rides, no artificial performances: just elephants allowed to do their thing, build new family units, and heal the scars of years of mistreatment (the customary "breaking in" of elephants in this country is torture). With some friends I'd sponsored a baby ellie called Tong Jan as a wedding present last year for a friend, so it was time to go and visit.

schmackers all round (with bread rewards); check out my bungalow's view!

There has been a sharp decline in the number of Asian elephants in Thailand, particularly after the logging ban in 1989. There aren't many left in the wild either - habitat loss and being the target of farmers losing their crops has seen to that. This park stands out as a haven for some elephants, a "re-learning" centre for humans, and the face of an emergency medical unit, the Jumbo Express, which also provides support to hilltribes.

THE SERIOUS STUFF

blinded Jokia; a landmine victim; severe deformity from a broken leg and pelvis

THE FUN STUFF

baby mud pool; lazying in the river

eating in the scrub; dirt application for sun protection

our walk to the river; happy elephants left to make mischief

THE ARTY FARTY STUFF

the lunch box; trunk detail; mountains of leftovers (to avoid pesticides)

I met a volunteer who is starting up an Australian charity link to the park - let me know if you are interested! I think Great Outdoors were filming here last week, so keep a look out. It was a fun weekend - some solitude once the day trippers had headed back. Lots of rescued cats & dogs to befriend too.

BTW: Yes, Jen won't be riding elephants no more.......

Australian Day shenanigans

2008-01-26T19:46:00.000+06:00

It's been a busy week!

I ran FORRU's first overnight camp for 30 private school students (year 5) at the national park village: environmental programs, catering and sleeping in tents. Making Aussie damper with the help of some other Australian teachers was particularly fun! Exhaustificating

The little cherubs; roasting damper on sticks at the evening campfire

The next day I backed that up with an Australia Day party. Funny how patriotic one gets when away from home! 5 aussies and 7 aussies-in-training for the day, from America and Canada. I made booklets of Aussie lingo and sayings and we donned the green and yellow zinc cream. Grub included meat pies and sausage rolls with sauce, pavlova, vegemite on toast (gaining at least one american convert), scones with jam and cream, twisties and tim tams. Also some Aussie beer. We had a long game of backyard cricket, with lots of local Thai interest from the sidelines. Rounded it off with some "Man from Snowy River" watching, and belting out the well known Aussie hits with the assistance of instrumentals from the internet. The party must have been good: little baby Ike had his first ever giggle. Headed home and watched some Kath and Kim on YouTube. Best Australia Day fun ever!

Some of the new cricketers, and friend Em with the make-do cork hat

Curious locals, and the Aussie tucker spread

I have spent the last 30 min trying to fix this formatting and have now given up. Grrrh Blogger.

Anyone free to come over?

2008-01-21T19:56:00.000+06:00

Mountain climbing in the north

2008-01-13T18:22:00.000+06:00

More chasing scenery. I spent the weekend with some friends from Sydney on a hike up the limestone massif of Doi Luang Chang Dao, Thailand's 3rd highest mountain, at 2240m. Hot winter weather in the high 20's/low 30's, followed by frost on the tent roof in the morning - hard to thermoregulate!The sunset and sunrise views were spectacular. Sore muscles.

A motorcycle gang, police escort and an ambulance.....

2008-01-06T20:03:00.000+06:00

But all in the name of a good cause: the inaugural Chiang Mai Charity Motorbike Ride. Buddy Zach, and my postie bike helmet and I, joined over 200 hardcore harley motorbikers (and other modified bikes - some very impressive machinery) for a police-escorted ride through the city, then on a 100km mountain circuit, finishing at the local reservoir for a party (& beer).

It was an exhilarating ride, but understandably with my 100CC "beep beep" bike, I was overtaken a fair bit by the 1500's.

at the start; police escort through Chiang Mai, past a moat corner (it's ok - I wasn't on my mobile at the time...)

Some of the toys for disadvantaged children in and around Chiang Mai

the partaay

I'm pretty proud my 100CC got to 100km/hr but!

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T11:38:00.000+06:00

New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai was a case of deja vu - it was just like Loi Krathong!

Lots of fireworks and hot air balloons being launched all over the city.

Some other aussie volunteers came to town

to party, so it was

a great time for

catchups and some

fun!

merry christmas

2007-12-24T12:46:00.000+06:00

Merry Christmas everyone, and blessings for 2008. I hope you have the opportunity to spend the day with family and friends.Here's a Thai decoration, made by HIV-AIDs sufferers at some friends' handicrafts store:

celebrating with the short term mission team,
in the traditional sala of friends Lee & Lyn

The leadup to Christmas

2007-12-22T12:48:00.000+06:00

Yep, the leadup to Christmas has been quite strange this year.

I'm sure out in the rural areas of Thailand it would be very easy to miss.

However I am living in the 2nd largest city, with a huge western expat population and a similar-sized tourism market, so this has not been the case. Most larger shops have decorations, the american children christmas singalong soundtracks (arrhhhh!!) and in the big chains such as Tescos, all the servers wear santa hats. All the Thai kids here seem to know about Santa and presents.

I've been to a few christian christmas celebrations over here though, which have been fantastic. A 200+ person interactive nativity re-enactment was great: as too, some Christmas interactions I've had with students in the urban slum I've been teaching in. The Sunday School pageant was darling and we are going carolling tonight.

The biggest event to have happened in the last week has the arrival of some friends from Sydney, who are leading a short term mission group from Chatswood Baptist church, to visit their supported missionaries, to help run Christmas activities, and to understand Thailand culture better. The photos below are from Friday, when we organised a tour to cover all of the important local tourist activities:

bathtime in the river at an elephant centre

my first bamboo rafting experience =sedate; on the Mae Taeng

my weekender out in the bush (do they sell floorplans?) and oxcart riding

New and old friends from Chatswood Baptist Church, and local friend Emily and her mum from the U.S.A. both in pink

Christmas for me will involve taking the day off, midnight and morning services at the church, lunch with some lovely new friends from Australia, and running a special Christmas broadcast on the local Thai radio in the evening.

Let's compare election leadups

2007-12-16T19:31:00.000+06:00

If you are still feeling a bit sore about the annoyance of Australian election campaigns, this comparison with Thailand's may help give a bit of perspective.....

There were Chiang Mai mayoral elections a few months back, with the numbers of the candidates on posters, COVERING the city.
Thailand is having parliamentary elections on the 23rd of December (finally they are moving on from military rule since the coup).
- There are more than 17 candidates. Our mailbox overflows each day with advertising material.
- You can't travel very far without being deafened by a ute with massive speakers, cruising around town blasting out campaign promises.
- Everyone must return to their home town to vote - kind of like the first Christmas census!
- Corruption is rampant. The ethnic minority community that we work with has been bought off by a candidate. Apparently if anyone in the community does not vote for that candidate, they lose all of the money (what happened to a secret ballot?!?).
- And possibly the most interesting: no alcohol can be sold during the weekend of the election, or for the weekend BEFORE the election.

They are a pretty tolerant bunch over here!
Here is an interesting report about the elections: http://au.news.yahoo.com/071218/19/15au2.html

I can now report that there are at least 23 candidates for prime minister, and during the last election there were heavy floods, so some votes from remote villages were transported on elephants through the flooded waters to be counted :)

Motorcycling to Mae Hong Son

2007-12-12T12:18:00.000+06:00

I've earned my motorcycling stripes this week! I travelled over the mountains in north west Thailand with a group of friends to visit a buddy who lives in beautiful Mae Hong Son and works in refugee camps on the border.

The road to Mae Hong Son has some notoriety - more than 1600 bends. It's a very challenging ride, but much pleasanter and scenic on a motorbike cutting the bends than trying to keep breakfast down, on a bus. I spent a lot of time chugging up hills in 2nd gear, but can't report on the downhill sections because the speedo wasn't working ;o)

Took this pic on the way back; buddy Zach kept me company on the road

Our first overnight stay was in Pai, a backpacking paradise. Unfortunately the Constitution long weekend attracted lots of Thai travellers as well (mega amounts of Bangkok yuppies with big cameras and gray minivans), so after 2 hours of fruitless accomodation searching, we "resorted" to an out of town resort and shared a 6 bed dorm. Major school days flashback.

Friends Leonie, Dave, Zach, Quynh and Ian, at Pai

On the way to Mae Hong Son we stopped in at Tham Lot - one of the longest known caves in caves in mainland Southeast Asia (2km). Hordes of tourists were there and all of the bamboo rafts were booked up, so feeling adventurous we headed in with an inadequate torch, and paid an enterprising local lad to show us around. The caverns were massive, and so active, with huge stalactites all over the ceilings. This area probably contains more caves than any other region in the world.

Tham Lot entrance - found the mud in the dark, no worries

After some wonderfully windy mountain & forest roads we arrived in Mae Hong Son near the Burmese border - the nicest town in the country, by my reckoning. The population is predominantly Shan (Shan state is adjacent in Burma), but as with the surrounding region, there is a huge diversity of ethnic minority (hilltribe) groups, with lots of traditional dress worn on the streets, adding to the interest factor.

Mae Hong Son lake in the afternoon and alfresco eating at night

We spent a rest day in Mae Hong Son, enjoying a massage, having a soak at the local hot springs, visiting the lookout at the nearby temple and spending time at a residential school for young Burmese students.

View of Mae Hong Son town from Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu in the late afternoon and early morning (enforced exercise=excellent)

The Wat stupas pre-dawn; unwinding at the local hot springs

We also drove west in search of nice rice paddy vistas, and ended up a km or 2 from the (occasionally dangerous) border zone.

Typical rice paddy view; crisp winter mornings and beautiful deciduous views

The 6 hour trip back to Chiang Mai was long, and my muscles aren't behaving very well today, but I'm champing at the bit to "hit the road" again for some more country riding - the northern mountains are on the wish list, maybe in January.

Kraziness of Loi Krathong

2007-11-24T22:33:00.000+06:00

Where do I start with this one?!? I feel like a war-time correspondent, reporting back from the front line. Crazy, krazy business. But riveting.

journo Jen

The modern version of the Thailand Loi Krathong festival seems prevailingly to be all about fireworks. Fireworks thrown en masse by drunken crowds into the river (and amongst the crowds, throughout the city, and I suspect across the country) for 3 days non stop. The ones not far from our place have been launched well into the wee early hours, and the electricity keeps going off when the inevitable happens.

Thousands and thousands of fun-seeking tourists have descended on the city for this massive festival. Quite a number are sporting head bandages.....

Loi Krathong (Jen consults her local guidebook) "may have evolved from the Brahmanic rites to honour the dead as well as local rites to bring an end to the rains. Now people generally believe that by releasing floats and small hot air balloons they get rid of bad luck and give thanks to the water and heavenly elements".

The Ping River becomes filled with small floating "krathongs", with flower, incense and candle offerings, the sky is filled with the balloons (we're talking about hundreds of thousands of each) and there are nightly elaborate parades. It's officially a 3 day (night) event but the bungers have been going off haphazardly for at least a week and there still seems to be lots of supplies that couldn't possibly be kept till next year...... happily I'm heading on a work roadtrip this week (will miss the tailend of the festival) and am looking forward to the comparative serenity of village living for awhile.

I've been right in the midst of the festival, watching the enjoyment of the local families and dodging the teenager pyros. I'm looking forward to seeing my videos. Here are some pics:
An elaborate parade float at Tha Pae Gate; local ladies float a hot air balloon

Krathongs at night; the aftermath next morning on the river

A more sedate festival scene; bungers on the river bank - HEADS!!

Yes, thankyou water and sky elements. Here are thousands upon thousands of pollutants to show our gratitude.......Jen shudders.

Longboat to Laos

2007-11-20T21:20:00.000+06:00

Saturday night involved lots of pumpkin, and cherry, pie at a Thanksgiving pie fest........

........Sunday and Monday involved another 2 day visa run, couldn't quite coordinate my holidays well enough to avoid it, too bad.

This time I travelled on a bus with friend Quynh to the Mekong River 6 hours north east. We crossed into Laos for an hour, enjoyed indian for tea, then returned to Thailand. Excitement.

Lots more to see in Laos on a trip I'm planning for January or Feb, but for now, here's the proof (Beer Lao signs on the eastern bank):

Thai radio appearance

2007-11-13T21:12:00.002+06:00

Yes well there seems to be a bit of a theme happening here. I think I've covered all forms of local media now!
This story transpired when Emily, a friend from church invited me to a "guest appearance" on an english-learning community radio station here in Chiang Mai. I've been on radio a few times before, it can be fun, so what the hey - I tagged along. Here are the highlights:
- kicking off with a bit of Crowded House (yes, I explained the AUS-ownership of all good NZ music rule on air).
- describing the aussie dessert of choice: pavlova.
- fielding a question about Remembrance Day and the Melbourne Cup public holiday.
- having a song"You are the most beautiful woman...." dedicated to me by a mystery Thai male caller - I replied that I have a face suited to radio, but I'm not sure that joke crossed the language divide.
-promising to play a bit of Slim Dusty the next time I visit (strangely enough I have "The Pub with no Beer" on itunes).
Fun!

Thai newspaper appearance

2007-11-08T21:02:00.000+06:00

So I've just found out that pictures of the "tourists" on the planting day back in June made it into a couple of national newspapers. It is very fortunate that we weren't actually quoted, cause my Danish and American friends were busily concocting farming statistics and perspectives on environmental management in their own countries that could be a bit cringe-worthy out there in the free press!

some pics from awhile back

2007-11-04T20:41:00.000+06:00

University life

2007-11-02T21:21:00.000+06:00

Working on a university campus has it's fair share of oddities, which have become all the more apparent now that Semester 2 has started.
Hordes of students.
Hordes of students in uniform (all undergrads).
Hordes of students in uniform with big cardboard placard-like nametags around their necks (all first year students apparently need to be known by name and course for the whole year).
It's an interesting, insular place, a long way removed from anything resembling a corporate workplace. A bit too cruisey to be entirely enthusiastic about it for a whole year.

Being on Thai TV at a Wedding Extravaganza

2007-10-29T20:47:00.000+06:00

Just arrived back from a huge weekend down south.

I caught up with my country manager and some friends in Bangkok, living it up in a very swanky apartment of a boss of a friend, then on to some nearby towns to the north to witness the traditional Thai wedding of a fellow volunteer (in the process, appearing on Thai TV), and to do the tourist thing again amongst ruins, elephants and monkeys in Ayuthaya and Lop Buri with volunteer buddy Liz. Busy!

Danielle was planning her wedding from the very start of our assignments, so it was great to see her big day. It was the first wedding held at this particular Elephant Kraal, the community living at the park went all out and everyone had a part to play in the traditional activities. Colourful and Elaborate, I'm inclined to say, and there was a strong media contingent to capture the day.

The ceremony: monk chanting, water blessings, wrist strings, dowry gifts....
.....a village procession, & lotsa, lotsa elephants (including a day-old one)

Probably the craziest tale to tell would be about the phenomenal number of monkeys at a temple in Lop Buri, and being chased by one beady little rat-like one we named Clefty. The stuff of nightmares. There were some pretty mangy looking gremlins making mischief.

After all that touring around, we relaxed back at the central Bangkok digs - poor volunteers love freebies, and boy I loved that pool.

More from Chiang Mai

2007-10-24T20:50:00.000+06:00

Here are some more pics of Chiang Mai that I took when my friend Quynh was in town this week:

Ruins of the first site of the city (was flooded out)

the colours of the flower & fruit market at night

party time at english teaching

2007-10-24T16:50:00.000+06:00

Here's a pic of some of the cheeky teenagers I teach english to twice a week.

Lotsa mud and a Motorbike

2007-10-13T17:50:00.000+06:00

It's been raining all week! Getting cooler - at night enough to need a bed sheet, even.
I spent a pleasant day today back at the Mae Taeng river (for my last adventure there see "Lots of Planting and Going with the Flow" July post). I was there with some Bangkok teachers, planning a school camp for January.
Check out these muddy pics - quintessentially Thai.

negotiating elephant tracks; local rafters enjoying the view on the slip&slide road

returning to the scene of drama - the Mae Taeng in it's white water splender

Yes well the other news is that I joined the motorbiking community this week - I'm the only person in Chiang Mai (and probably all of Thailand) sporting a retro white aussie postie helmet. It's not a good look but is much safer than the $20 local helmet varieties. A little scary day #1, but now at one week in I've got my confidence & am loving the freedom.

reflections at halfway

2007-10-04T21:46:00.001+06:00

Well the first six months of my travels have passed pretty quickly.
Thanks for your encouragements over this time - I really appreciate it. I have posted some halfway prayer points in the green column on the right, towards the bottom.
Jen

Fun time with the folks

2007-10-02T20:48:00.000+06:00

My folks are travelling in Thailand for 2.5 weeks, and I've spent the last few days with them, catching tuk tuks and sampling local foods. We saw our fill of waterfalls up Doi Inthanon (largest mountain - my 2nd trip), and headed to my local church and english teaching gigs. It's been fun (a necessary comment, seeing my folks are reading these regularly ;) Here are some pics.

Vietnamese Vacationing

2007-09-25T10:57:00.000+06:00

Northern Vietnam is such a fantastic destination for a holiday.
Pity I was sick as a dog for most of it (but better off than the roasted ones in the markets....) A great time of year to travel: sunny weather after the end of the wet season; the rice harvest underway. Sooooo many photo opportunities. Fun withdrawing a million dong dollars a time at the ATMs too.

Hanoi in the north
Flying into Hanoi was lovely – a patchwork of ripening rice fields and villages, with lots of cathedrals. The frenetic motorcycle and bicycle traffic in Hanoi takes a bit of getting used to, but the French architecture, baguette stalls on street corners, the bicycles, colours of the fruit and rose vendors, iconic Vietnamese hats, French-style coffee houses and especially the chocolate éclairs made this a wonderful place to visit. The streets in the old quarter are named after the merchandise sold there – our hotel was on the shoe street. We (my travel friends Kate and Kris and I) scored the penthouse (5 storeys, no lift) with our own courtyard overlooking the roof tops. On the last day when we were in Hanoi a friend of a new Vietnamese friend I made on a bus (he works in community development projects in the northern mountains) took me for a motorcycle tour of the city, capping off a great stay.

old classy buildings; banana vendors everywhere

a tomato vendor; Hanoi streetscape

gigantic grapefruits and baskets of other fruits; rose vendors

a cucumber vendor

Halong Bay to the east

We spent 3 days in the world heritage area of 1996 limestone islets, cruising around on boats, eating big seafood meals and enjoying the scenery (and dodging the litter). We walked and kayaked through caves, slept overnight on the boat, rode bikes through island villages and enjoyed the sunshine. It was so lovely to spend some time on the coast. Luckily for me we headed back to Hanoi when we did because a head cold turned into an acute eye infection -not good but could have been worse.

local fishing boats and chinese-style junks in Halong Bay

taking it easy and enjoying the sunset on Halong Bay

thrils and spills from the top deck; kate the kayaker

nearby Ninh Binh to the south
We then headed south to a nearby town to visit "Halong Bay of the rice paddies" and were not disappointed by the scenery. We signed up for some daytrips of the local area, to see more limestone caves, more boating, some temples and pagodas, and a trip to the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre at Cuc Phuong National Park.

Rowing through the river grottoes at Tam Coc; group photo looking over the rice paddies

a local rower in a sea of boats at Tam Coc; a birds-eye view of the boats and scenery at Tam Coc

one of the extremely endangered locals at the Primate Centre

rural villages & rice harvesting
We picked a fantastic time to be in northern Vietnam. The rice harvest was underway, and the farming methods in the local villages are a lot more traditional than in Thailand. Every farmer has a water buffalo, and we watched the various stages of hand harvesting, machine threshing, drying of rice and hay on roadsides, haystacking and tilling for new crops. The locals were really friendly too - lots of smiles and greetings. Very memorable.

drying rice on the roadside for 3 days; water buffalo in action

the locals watching us watching the tilling - so friendly!

Last account to give, was that I saw my parents at Bangkok airport on the way back yesterday - our flights arrived at the same time. They'll be travelling in Thailand for a few weeks, and I'll see them here in Chiang Mai on the weekend. I had a very amusing account at the final screening desk at the airport holding an opened large jar of vegemite upside down to prove that it wasn't a liquid......had to be there for that one.

So now I'm back in Chiang Mai, still with a headcold, 3 days into the hard antibiotics and hoping I'm not developing an ear infection. Fun and games.

Seeking sunshine and sand

2007-09-13T23:27:00.000+06:00

Tomorrow I'm heading to Bangkok to catch up with some other volunteers, then on to Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam, to travel for 8 short days with a Sydney friend Kate who has been translating in Tokyo for a couple of years. Many adventures await! Hopefully including lots of boats on water in karst country (then it's back to work for a long while to replenish my leave days bank - not to worry).

Chasing round China

2007-08-31T16:35:00.000+06:00

Well, only around one province of China - Yunnan in the southwest.
For 12 days - visa runs are much less tedious with a holiday thrown in.
In Yunnan there are 25 ethnic groups, and I saw a lot of diverse landscapes, from the busy city of Kunming, to traditional Naxi farmers in the 4km deep Tiger Leaping Gorge, and Tibetan monks in Zhongdian, at 3300m altitude. Lots of travel too - more than 35 hours on buses......with travel sick locals, smokers, and "rustic" toilet stops as part of the course. And chasing men of all ages around the country side, as is apparent when you see the photos.
I spent 3 days travelling around Kunming on my own, and 9 days on an Intrepid tour (hi guys!), in good company with some avid photographers, so I've posted lots (incidentally major camera envy - impending SLR purchase on Oz return!). It was so nice to leave the humid tropics and head into the mountains for awhile.
Can't say I really learnt much more about the history while I was here, but some things reminded me of where I was. For example blogspot and news websites are some of many banned in China, I met a tourist who had his lonely planet guide confiscated at the airport, and found the subject matter in the national media to be... slightly off, shall we say.

KUNMING
Kunming is a bustling city with 3million residents, a good bus system, and manic drivers with major car horn issues. So many gawkers - OK, yes people, I'm not chinese. Only amusing for about 5 minutes - happily being neither famous nor beautiful I can now slink back to anonymity.
I was pretty brave on Day 1 - geared only with "Ni Hao" (when most people know hello as their only English word anyway), a sketchy map and a vague direction, I travelled on 8 different buses to get to see the Stone Forest and Dadieshui Waterfall. Eucalypts everywhere, with corn, tobacco, rice and sunflowers mostly. Lots of quarries. What did this place look like prior?!?

Diverse Kunming; dressed-up tourists at the world heritage Stone Forest park

impressive Dadieshui Waterfall from the cablecar

LIJANG
Our tour group of 16 met up and bused it north to the old town in Lijang, a major tourist trap, but very cute all the same. Lots of photo opportunities, taken. Getting used to toilets with no doors and leeches in the mornings.....

sights in and around Lijang

TIGER LEAPING GORGE
Big 1km vertical ascent on the first morning (confound this warm summer weather) provided it's rewards many times over on this 2 day hike. Absolutely phenomenal scenery. We ate our way through all the guesthouses, so it was a trek done in style. Our Aussie guide, Margo and pup were lots of fun, and we had remarkably clear weather, making for great views. Apparently stunning autumnal colour in October, and best seen before 2009, when a dam will destroy this beautiful stretch of rapids forever to form part of the 3 gorges dam system. We heard preliminary blasting taking place. So sad. So many local people up the Yangtze to be displaced.

I'll let these photos do the talking! They don't do it justice though

ZHONGDIAN
Regretfully leaving the gorge, we headed further north to the town of Zhongdian high up on the tibetian plateau. Once part of Tibet, the cultural landscape here is very distinctive to the other areas we'd been. Lots of solid tibetian houses. Think I had an altitude-related headache for a bit. Amusements included an incident with applying sunscreen in view of a curious bus driver, and chasing buddhist monks around the famous Ganden Sumtseling Gompa monastery.

pretty marsh scenery at the forced bus-sick stop (enter this jellybean-eating lady centre stage)

scenes from the Ganden Sumtseling Gompa monastery

DALI
We stayed in another old town, and filled in our time taking photos at a local market, and watching cormorants catch fish in the traditional fishing manner - a string around the neck prevents swallowing. A bit apprehensive about this practice, but the birds were well fed, happy enough, and obedient like hunting dogs. Very comical, likeable birds. A fun boat ride to boot.

From there we headed back to Kunming, said our farewells, and I spent the next 2 days walking and watching the locals in city parks and getting away from the city noise by walking in the Western Hills Forest Park and visiting Dragon Gate, a series of temples carved into a 300m cliff, with a stellar view across the massive lake and city area. A fun trip for the most part!

Gastronomic experiences - in a nutshell (haw haw)
- thousand year old egg
- yak steak and yak butter tea
- lots of yak and goat cheese
- lots of ginger tea with honey - fab!
- happily lots of banquet experiences in our group, so lots of local food - very fresh

Spending quality time with the siblings

2007-07-30T12:38:00.000+06:00

This last week has been very hectic but a lot of fun, with visits from my brother Graham, sister Alison, and good friend Amy. My brother was on his way back from a short term mission trip to Bangladesh with church friends, and the A&As were on their way home from a 6 week visit to friends in America, Canada and Dubai.

My brother and I motorcycled north to some caves for a day, then headed a few hours south for 3 days to visit some national parks and the ruins of the first capital of Thailand.

The biggest tree in Thailand

Ruins at Sukhothai, the first capital of Thailand

On the way home we visited an Elephant Conservation Camp (got a ride in) and had a soak in a mineral pool. A nice trip!

On Friday all of their travel itineries co-incided nicely - we were able to spend the afternoon in town and had dinner together.

Possibly our last sibling dinner for 2 years my bro & sis enjoying pineapple shakes

The A&A's and I went nutso and managed to cram lots into their 3 days. We went to another elephant camp (the elephants obviously enjoying themselves while painting, playing relays, soccer and darts etc. was magic).

We also went caving, saw butterflies and orchids, enjoyed a northern Thail traditional dinner and show, and spent a day stiring up a Thai feast (impressive flames included) at a cooking school, amongst others.

we had a refreshing drink at the 5 start Four Seasons chefs in training

Monday arvo: back to work!

odds and sods

2007-07-20T17:44:00.000+06:00

I'm thinking Australians have dropped in the Thailand people's opinion stakes at the moment: having beating them in the Asian Football Cup in Bangkok on Monday. They are very gracious though - I can't really see a difference (though the Aussie t-shirt stays in the cupboard!).

Here's a photo showing a Thai "dessert speciality". Yep, it's pumpkin. For dessert? Yeechhh.....

More of the same, really

2007-07-08T20:00:00.000+06:00

Just back from a weekend at a nature camp.
This week we planted on a 60 degree slope.
Here are some of the happy snaps!

Lots of Planting and Going With The Flow

2007-07-05T21:37:00.000+06:00

Not exactly what I’d anticipated as being low key ……..

On Saturday we had our pinnacle tree planting day in the National Park, in the hills above the Hmong hill tribe. I roped in a group of Chiang Mai buddies to help with the 10,000 tree task. We were joined by a lot of other volunteers, some villagers, an army group and a whole circus of journalists from Bangkok. Might have gotten an action shot and some quotes in the national English-speaking paper, we’ll see. Quite a fun day, and without a doubt the best soil I’ve ever planted trees in. Digging the holes was almost a pleasure.

Language class, aussie volunteer buddies and media at the planting day

And then on Sunday…….. there is absolutely no need for me to embellish this experience (not that I’m in the practice of embellishing my blogs mind you!).

It’s the start of the main white water rafting season and I’ve never gone before. A friend from Bangkok was in town - she’d been a rafting guide in Colorado for 2 years. She swinged an invite for us to tag along for a paddle with a world class rafter from the US and a group of his Bangkok friends on a nearby river called the Mae Teang. I ended up in an inflatable kayak with a local guide, tagging along with the group of solo kayakers. In hindsight my guide and I probably should have stopped BEFORE the grade 4+ rapids. Many of the kayakers did, especially one who dislocated his shoulder on the first one….

However my guide took a “may pen ray” (no worries!) kind of an attitude, who was I to argue the point, and so we continued. We cleared the first rapid fine – “THE MOST EXTREME KAYAKING RAPID IN THAILAND” I found out later, but on the second and much, much longer one we came unstuck (or stuck, I can’t remember) and bounced around in the drink for most of it. Found out there’s not a lot to grab a hold of on an upturned inflatable kayak. Lots of bruises, lots of swallowed water, but I survived. We regrouped. Guide confessed that he really didn’t like that 2nd rapid very much – yeah, thanks for that mate….

There were many more rapids that afternoon, with no more major spills, happily. Again, it was an extreme experience the usual tourist groups don’t get to have. Easily my most terrifying experience in Thailand so far (and, I hope for the rest of the trip) - I’m pretty proud I kept my cool throughout it.

I’m still paying the price for all this fun, in alternatively blue, black, purple, red and yellow splotches.....

Children kebabs, anyone?

2007-06-24T21:41:00.000+06:00

So I’m helping out a friend by agreeing to supervise a school tree planting day at the local reservoir. And not just any kids – some of the highly pampered variety from a UK international school south of Bangkok. The weather’s OK, we’re all set to go and then we get to the planting site and there’s a big “home-made” rocket festival happening on the adjacent field, a couple of hundred metres away........ What to do, what to do? The area’s not restricted, so we make a start. I’m trying hard not to think about relaxed Thai safety precautions and that most Thai rocket launchers are made out of bamboo. These were big rockets too – travelling hundreds of metres before whine-ing their way back to earth. I think all of the teachers were thinking up emergency evacuation plans just in case. Would a bus or a clump of bamboo save us if we were in the firing line? I wasn’t all that confident. And a few were pretty close for comfort. We soldiered on anyway, with no rocket-skewering-children mishaps. Would not have been a good advertisement for the volunteering program.... phew! Kind of made the pre-planting “OH&S Site Induction” about wasps and digging equipment seem a bit trivial........

Yesterday I saw what I’ll call a poignant moment. I was in the local shopping mall to escape the heat and see a movie, when in the distance I saw a hill tribe family confronting an escalator for I think the first time – causing quite a commotion. Casting an eye around the consumeristic westernised interior of the mall I could only imagine their bewilderment at this new world (a.k.a. locals experiencing culture shock). Such a highly divided country to live in – witnessing that really made it obvious.

Last week I went to see the English-teaching afternoon program in an urban “slum” area. I’ve enlisted as a substitute teacher – there are lots of willing helpers already which is great. The volunteers are lovely, caring people – all from America. Lots of expats here.

Today I planted some trees with kids at a Children’s Home. They are learning about gardening at the moment. They all knew me from last week’s lesson and are really sweet. I'll be taking a group of them up to the national park research nursery this week.

The kids with their "big people" gardening gloves Abby with her "weed flower" thankyou

I’ve been enjoying the cycle to work every day and went for a kayak up river in town with some friends last week. Been swimming a fair bit in the uni pool. Wish you were here......

The next few weeks are going to be pretty low key as I plan the itineries for my sibling’s visits – both at the end of July and intercepting long enough for a dinner somewhere – there’ll be lots of photos. Alison will be passing through for 3 days from a holiday mostly in America, and will be heading to work in the UK soon for 2 years. Graham will be passing through for a week following a short term mission in Bangladesh.

Rural Rovings

2007-06-14T08:49:00.000+06:00

FORRU runs a local education program that provides forest restoration support to 12 rural communities in northern Thailand.

3 of us education staff are just back from a visit to one of them, a 5 hour (jeep) drive away. We had a lovely homestay with the local coordinator, and crammed a lot of activities in.

We planted trees with some school group kids and visited the local group of senior citizens who are developing a bush foods & herb garden in the temple grounds.

We visited some of the beautiful (rustic) stilted teak houses, saw local biogas setups and traditional rural artifacts such as bamboo water mills and rice threshers.

The main activity was heading along with a group of Thai and Hmong villagers to the watershed forest about an hour away. There was a pig slaughter to thank the forest spirit for providing water, and then the following 2 hours involved chopping the pig up for a feast. On this occasion I managed to miss the big event by going on a challenging group hike up through the river to see some waterfalls. When I got back the cleaning of the entrails was in full swing. Sorry if the photos are a bit gory but it was a very interesting biology lesson! Traditional forest ceremonies are not available to the average tourist – this day was certainly an experience I should treasure.

One of the waterfalls enroute Our journey with the pig into the jungle

Feast preparations and lots of home brew rice whisky

Pork mince – just add chillies and you have yourself a delicacy Entrail stew anyone?

I was saddened by the amount of forest clearing I could see continuing to happen in the Pha Yao province, and especially the disregard for erosion and land degradation caused by planting maize right into drainage lines and on steep slopes. Also in maintaining traditional forest ceremonies while destruction of the watershed forest which is the sponge for the water source continues. Lots to ponder. How to kick off Landcare with uneducated subsistence farmers?!?!

Some all too common scenes of land degradation in the hills

Not two hours after writing this yesterday I found myself sitting in a sustainable agriculture conference run by an organisation called ECHO that provides support to Christians working in the agricultural sector in developing countries. How about that!

Also I should mention that I’ve actually been planting willows in the last week and I’ve changed my way of thinking and now believe that willows are an excellent plant choice for stabilising river foreshores (I’ve joined the dark side!). He he he…………

Thai travel is not necessarily confidence building

2007-06-13T08:07:00.001+06:00

Some amusing / brutal encounters this week:

- heading into a clothes shop and being greeted enthusiastically with “Come in, come in! We stock lots of Extra Large!”
- on a similar vein, having a few helpful “perhaps you could try slimming” comments from Thai friends

Thai’s can be as subtle as a brick when it comes to commenting about appearances. We were warned about it in the cultural training, and it’s surely true.

I just spent 3 days in a Thai farming village without seeing another westerner or hearing much English in that time. I kind of gathered that it was off the tourist trail with the amount of commotion made when I headed to a school planting event and down to the local market. Still feeling like I have the Thai conversational skills of a 3 year old. I was very privileged to be there though- I experienced what few tourists could. An account and some ripper photos to follow shortly.

Unfortunately the farang tendency to sweat a lot makes the task of planting trees a very muddy one. I've worked out that it's not only the weather that causes thirst. A 3 letter acronym: MSG.

I have 3 nights of Thai classes left. It’s been a very full couple of weeks. I’m in an all male class, so there’s plenty of Thai talk about beer and girls. And eating in toilets? Funny but perhaps not so helpful for work communications!

By the way the new FORRU website (developed by previous aussie volunteer) is up & running: http://www.forru.org/

Myanmar market mayhem and unfriendlies of the animal kind

2007-06-03T19:48:00.000+06:00

Just "freshly" back from a weekend up the north - about a 4 hour bus ride away.

The main purpose was to cross the closest border into Burma to get another 3 months on my visa - it was a great excuse to see some of the Chiang Rai district though. Beautiful mountains and river scenery.

I spent about 40min in Burma, walking through the markets in the border town - checking out the animal products on sale, looking at the different ethnic groups and steering clear of the children beggars and particularly the cigarette hawkers. Talk about pester value!

Myanmar border - bridge crossing View across to the Myanmar mountains

We had to stop at 3 police checkpoints between Chiang Mai and the border - lots of effort goes into making sure that refugees stay in their restricted areas. A doctor friend in Chiang Mai said that 12% of the population in the bordering Burma provence have malaria. Big problems there....

I headed back to Chiang Rai for the night, passing some terrific karst (limestone) mountain scenery - plenty of caving to do in the next trip. In Chiang Rai I learnt more about the 9 hilltribe groups in Thailand (6 main ones) - almost 1 million people at last count in 1994. I also headed to a nearby cave system to check it out. The picture below should indicate my adrenalin levels at being in a dark cave on my own with bats - no that didn't scare me - it had more to do with a close encounter with a couple of territorial alsatians on the way in.... Thai dogs can be scary, with about 6% of them at any given time being rabid.

Couldn't-quite-hold-the-camera-steady vs Chiang Rai street - minus adrenalin

Seismology and Stretches

2007-05-22T21:08:00.000+06:00

Last Wednesday we had a 6.3 richter scale earthquake! Definitely felt it, but more along the line of "wow, an earthquake" than "get out of the office" panic stations. And just as well - I don't think our 1960's concrete box-style building would have been built with earthquakes in mind (or in the budget). No major damage reported anywhere.

It's been a week of mixing it with the locals.
I've been the odd one out in large Tai Chi and Yoga classes on campus. Strange but fun. Unique.
On Saturday I headed by train to Lampang, a large town 2 hours away. I didn't see any other westerners for hours. It's evidently not on the tourist trail like Chiang Mai. I've been having some very random "I'm going to practise my English on you" moments. The Lampang ones involved an elderly monk, and a station master dressed in military-like attire. He quickly whipped out his English cheat sheet to extend the conversation. My Thai workmates want to have Thai days and English days. My progress continues to be slow, very slow.

view from the train in the Chiang Mai valley

Rentals, Work Ethics and Refugees

2007-05-13T13:37:00.000+06:00

Well, I've been in Thailand 2 months this Wednesday. Time seems to be flying along. As have I: I won't be letting on to the program about the amount of driving and pillioning on motorcycles I've been doing.....

On Wednesday a workmate and I hired a car for a morning's school program, and then spent the afternoon touring the mountain-top winter palace of the royal family (it was about the 10th public holiday since I've arrived). Nice gardens, with extraordinarily large insects...... they make them big here.

While I'm on this subject, I've solved the mystery of where those annoying cuckoo birds head to after an Aussie Christmas - I think they reside here for the rest of the year, and boy are they annoying! Almost as bad as the local cicadas on steroids (the rain seems to shut them up). Frogs have now come out in force, and the geckos continue to bellow throughout the night whatever the weather.

I also managed to drive around Chiang Mai a fair bit without having any problems. Having so many motorcyclists darting in and out in all directions requires a lot of extra attention.

I've been going to some evening studies hosted by friends I've made at church, and I've met up with the OMF Serve Asia team at their offices. I'll probably get involved by helping out with kids programs at conferences as I'd anticipated, but also might get involved a few afternoons a week teaching english to Thai children in an urban slum area. All this travelling around town has resulted in a few motorcycle lifts, and I'm now keen to make progress on the scooter (and helmet, and extra insurance) purchase in the next few weeks, so I can get around town easier.

On Saturday I rode a bicycle (am allowed to ride those!) out to the town reservior, where swimming is permitted, but only in full attire. The picnic hut set up there is extensive, very elaborate and scenic.

A perspective on Thai work ethics
Lots of Thais work extremely long, hard hours. On closer inspection though, most of the hardest workers are the Shan state labourers - once-refugees from Myanmar (Burma). They seem to work 6-7 days a week on building sites and live onsite in temporary, crude structures or crowd onto the back of utes to commute. Definitely there is a division of labour and financial status here depending on your ethnicity.
Lots of central Thai's seem to have very menial tasks and basically get paid to watch the clock tick. I'm surprised that many of them aren't more enterprising in finding ways to increase their earnings, but hey, I'm still a tourist and my knowledge about how things work here is pretty limited.

More details about the plight of the Burmese refugees
Some fellow Thailand volunteers are working for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Just as a snapshot, in Thailand there around 140,000 mostly Myanmar (Burma) refugees from a number of ethnic groups who live in nine government-run camps along the border. Myanmar has long been plagued by an oppressive militarised government, internal ethnic insurgencies, and refugee harassment.

The UNHCR has an interesting webpage I'd recommend having a look at:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/photos?set=thailand

A view of part of Mae La Oon Refugee Camp, home to approximately 14,000 people. The camp, which straddles a river flanked by steep hillsides, is plagued by landslides during the rainy season.© UNHCR/J.Redfern

Rainy Ramblings

2007-05-07T08:16:00.001+06:00

Well, the rainy season came early this year. 76 hours of basically continuous rain so far. I was about ready to build a boat in our 5m sq tiled backyard, but it's cleared up now. Temperature is much cooler & pleasant. It should hot up with afternoon storms for the next 6 months. August usually has 22 wet days and 225mm of rain. Really looking forward to that month. Sorry Goulburnites - would love to send some down to you. As yet I haven't been able to find real-time local radar imagery. HNCMA living has made me a meteorological nut. I'll confess to heading to the BOM website occasionally to keep track with how you are faring.

With all this rain I've been trying to find things to do and to get lots of my "to do" things done (though language classes will be next week!).

On (rainy) Friday night I met up with Alison Doughty whose mum attends Toonie Anglican. Alison teaches year 5/6 at Chiang Mai International School - originally established to teach missionary kids about 60 years ago. We went to the same high school, proving the world is small and getting smaller.

I spent (rainy) Sunday afternoon at a local Children's Home about 20km east of town. Cute kids, from 4-9 yrs old. I'd met the teacher, Averil at the ANZAC service. She's from NZ. There's a very good chance I'll help with their gardening and environmental syllabus while I'm over here.

There are some really good opportunities in Chiang Mai for me to seek out volunteer gigs and mission-related travel. I hope to use my time here to gain a lot of these experiences.

I've been reading a book about South East Asia's recent environmental history that leaves me very sad. It was written by an environmental reporter for one of the English newspapers in Bangkok. I'm part way through and up to the armpits in tales of mass species extinctions, government corruption, westerner arrogance and social inequality. I've read about Bangkok pollution, dam building, tourism encroachment in coastal areas and the now-illegal timber trade. Western cultures seem to have imparted technologies without the benefit of hindsight of the problems they can cause. The book is very useful in understanding what is happening up here, but leaves me feeling sad and unsettled.

Doi Inthanon weekend

2007-05-02T16:27:00.000+06:00

Last weekend I travelled to Doi Inthanon with a work mate and two of her friends. It's Thailand's highest mountain, at 2590m, and is about 100km from Changers.
We hired a red jeep with squeaky brakes and no power steering. I ended up driving up near the top - mostly in 1st gear, despite the good roads.
What an adventure we had. Started with having to pay 400 baht entry - the locals pay 40 baht. There is a fair bit of foreigner discrimination when it comes to paying for some things in Thailand...
Anyway, shook that off and headed to some great waterfalls, before heading to the summit, which in itself is a bit of anticlimax, requiring a 20m walk from the carpark. My workmate loves bird watching, so most of the weekend involved the use of binoculars, and for me, a camera.
I particularly liked the unique cloud forest, sphagnam moss and alpine savannah vegetation types near the top. We had fresh rainbow trout for dinner and stayed overnight in a very cute bamboo/palm leaf 3mby3m cabin on the edge of a Karen hilltribe village, surrounded by rice fields (currently empty). You just don't get that kind of experience anywhere in Australia.....

karen hill tribers gardening at a tourist stop off; The roof of Thailand

Daily Life – some details of the trivial.......

2007-04-26T18:10:00.000+06:00

THE WEATHER
It’s been about 36-40 degrees & really humid all week. Pretty much dripping with sweat 24/7. Not long till the six month monsoon season, and we had a taste of it last night. When it rains here it pours. Luckily we have good drainage in our street.

THE COMMUTE TO WORK
I travel most places in red Songtaews. These are little red trucks with 2 rows of seats in the back. Songtaews are not metered, and the drivers have no fixed destination. And often not much English. The 5-20 minute trip to work (depending on the traffic and the routes taken for other passengers) generally costs about 75 cents. Songtaews are everywhere, but it sometimes takes around 6 attempts to get one willing to go to the destination. Amusing at times, but I have always arrived where I’d intended.

I’ve mentioned before that it is very rare to see a Thai person walking anywhere. Generally they travel in Chiang Mai by motorcycle, or too often by huge 4WDs. The cost of petrol and electricity here is on par with Australian costs – hugely expensive for the average Thai. I’ve seen plenty of motorcycles with 3-4 people on them –today I saw a girl holding an umbrella, talking on a mobile and negotiating puddles on her motorcycle in a short skirt/high heels get up. Good luck to her.

EATING
The closest I have come to cooking a meal since I’ve been here is adding the boiled water to a pack of 2 minute noodles (which incidentally taste heaps better over here with the Thai spice sachets). It is such a convenience culture – costs a lot more to buy kitchen ingredients from the supermarket than to eat in restaurants. There are vendors and little open air eating areas every 10 paces. I'm hating the excessive packaging and rubbish. There's good recycling though - both times we've put bottles outside they've been collected by salvagers within 2 minutes.

I’ve heard that Thais consume more sugar per capita than any other country and I could easily believe it. Chiang Mai dentists do well. Sometimes I reach for a Pepsi as a low-sugar option, which is a real shocker. Wasn’t happy when I saw the quantity of sugar syrup added to my favourite drink – fresh pineapple ice shake. I found a small western supermarket that does not add sugar to it's bread - so good! Have been drinking about 4 litres of water a day in the heat.

CONFESSION
I headed to my “first in living memory” dawn ANZAC service on Wednesday. Oops for every other year I’ve missed. The service was great, and Chiang Mai is remarkably pleasant at 5:30 in the morning.

WORK THIS WEEK
This week I’ve headed up the mountain every day to run school environmental education modules at the research nursery and to conduct forest walks. It’s been great to spend so much time bush in this placement – so far at least. The 15km of intensely winding road to get there is not so exciting though. Best on an empty stomach.

WORK MATES
I work with a group of education and research ex-students, around my age group. They have fun nicknames (Thai names are really long) such as Dear, Joy and Gai (translation: chicken). My boss is English and has been here for 20 years. It's interesting to hear his views of the changing culture over that time period. 40% of Thailand forests have been cleared in the last 50 years. Not a nice legacy.

I'M JUST THAT KINDA PERSON.....
I made a 5 year old Thai girl cry this week. Just be being a farang. She was squealing loudly and her mother sent her off in disgrace. My workmate siddled up to me and told me what the problem was. I would have liked to have the opportunity to tell the mum that I'm much scarier to look at first thing in the morning.....

Happy Thai New Year

2007-04-18T14:09:00.001+06:00

Welcome. If I’ve posted this blog then it means that I have survived Songkran! Songkran is a one of a kind experience – the Thai equivalent of the running of the bulls or the tomato throwing festivals so famous in Europe. We live a few blocks away from the centre of the action along the moat. During the Songkran five day holiday there is a huge traffic jam in that area, mostly of utes with up to 15 people in the back throwing and spraying water from large bins. It's the iced water you have to watch out for! On the moat edge, buckets with rope do the job. It’s impossible to not get saturated. A bit of a departure from the original tradition of pouring water on the hands of your family elders to honour them..... At one point we passed through the middle of a road Rave Party with water cannons and Thai techno music - a scuffle broke out Thai kick boxing style so we hightailed out of there pretty quickly. Three volunteers working with the UN in Bangkok came up for the weekend, so the five of us walked the streets equipped with very small, inadequate water pistols. Lots of fun.

For a change of pace we spent Saturday up Doi Suthep mountain nearby. Most Buddhist Thais head to temples at New Year to make merit, and the Wat on the mountain top is the most sacred in the region. A very beautiful location and it was interesting to see their traditions. We then headed across to the nearby FORRU research nursery and on a bush walk back down the mountain, passing a number of waterfalls.

Yesterday I went to visit some Australian prisoners. Usually this requires a consular visit and safety checks. I found it quite straightforward: just a zoo ticket. I went to visit Simpson, Brian and Coco the koalas to give them news from home.

some of the locals

The week leading up to Songkran was great. I celebrated Easter Sunday at Chiang Mai Community Church, which has a very large and diverse multi-denominational congregation of around 400 – very dynamic with lots of different ministries. It’s across town but worth making the effort for on Sunday afternoons. I hope to make some friends and contacts through the church.

Last Wednesday the community nursery at Ban Mae Sa Mai was officially opened by the sponsoring organisations with great fanfare. Unfortunately the fluid concept of “Thai time” operated for the 6am traditional pig slaughter: my arrival at 8:30 was spot on. In between hearing the commotion and seeing the close up photos that the uni intern boys took I caught most of it. Moving right along.....there were some great moments of traditional Kmong tribal dancing along with ribbon cutting, tree planting, bird watching, and a trip up the mountain to see the planting sites (the 8 year old one has 60 different plant species regenerating under the 10m high closed canopy cover of the 20-odd planted species).

Some of the hill tribe kids at the nursery opening

This fortnight we’ll be busy running through socio-economic modelling with a guy from Uni of Qld, followed by four days of school education programs with an Australian international school in Singapore. Bit of an Aussie theme, but I don’t mind.
Sadly the timing of our home internet connection has coincided with the banning of YouTube by the Thai government due to a posting dishonouring the king. ABC on cable is sounding good.

Home Sweet Hovel and Hill Tribes

2007-04-05T08:37:00.001+06:00

First things first, we moved in on Saturday. I like calling it a hovel – it looks like a concrete cage from the street. Can’t beat The Hovel’s location for convenience. Minor problem of there being a very frustrated rooster cooped up in a tiny cage in the nearby “Museum of World Insects”(yeah, work out that logic) that’s been

crowing at all hours. Also in trying to communicate to the landlady that the toilet leaks, but we are making progress on that one.

Chiang Mai digs & new village nursery

Most of this week was spent outside of Chiang Mai. I’ve seen the two main FORRU nurseries. One is a research nursery up in the nearby mountain National Park in evergreen forest. The second nursery is in an agricultural Hmong hill tribe setting (in the same NP) about an hour north which will have its official opening on 11th April. I stayed at a basic guest house in the village with the education staff and 6 university interns for 3 nights. We ran environmental modules for an international school from Indonesia. Easily the highlight for me was spending time in the hill tribe community, particularly in being escorted by some enthusiastic village kids to see “the sacred tree” growing high up on the hill overlooking the village. Sounds like I’ll be spending quite a bit of time here in Ban Mae Sa Mai over the coming year. Drove past an elephant camp on the way back – a reminder that there are plenty of touristy activities I’ll have to make a start on.

FORRU Education Unit at new nursery, & hill tribe

In my job here I’ll be splitting my time with the researchers as well. Yesterday I headed an hour south, with 11 of us piled in a Ford Courier. Yes, it can be done, work friends. We counted resprouting seedlings in a burnt, rocky site in secondary deciduous forest. And it is hot over here – am very glad I didn’t come straight from a Goulburn winter. I’m scheduled to help GPS fig trees all over the national park near Chiang Mai later in the year – should be fun. The water festival has started already: we had water thrown at us 4 times on the way back to town – I wonder if the gleeful locals can keep up the enthusiasm for 2 weeks.

Everyone in the office (except for the English supervisor) speaks continually in Thai, so if I want to know what’s going on, I’m going to need to dedicate large amounts to memory – daunting. On another matter of adjustment, at the rate I’m going might be able to match the Windsor office boys in chilli-eating. Still getting used to chillies for breakfast.....

I’m looking forward to having a pretty quiet weekend and hope to get to a local church service and touch base with some local contacts. Maybe will even visit the famous Night Bazaar (street markets). Some other volunteers from Bangkok are heading up for the water festival next weekend, so it should be a big one.

I hope this finds you well,

Jen

Chiang Mai.....matters

2007-03-27T20:05:00.000+06:00

Hello from the hazy north.

It’s day 4 in Chiang Mai, and today I have good news to report.

David (fellow volunteer) and I have been slogging away in the heat, visiting real estate agents and viewing rentals over the past 3 days - not much range of places (for location/budget etc), and requiring the translation services of our Thai work counterparts has been tricky. But our persistence has paid off, and we have a townhouse very centrally located and safe (yes mum). Photos to follow in a week or 3. Fully furnished, pretty tastefully so, from our short experience. Very happy I wasn’t forced into a motel-room esq. studio apartment. Our place is very basic and not much to look at but should be comfortable enough, with space for friends. Phew. One less thing.

Also as a plus we’ve managed to see a fair bit of Chiang Mai during this search. The old moated section of town is very pretty. Puppy-eyed tuk-tuk drivers seem to love harassing “farangs” (westerners – word meaning guava, cause we are round and white on the inside has been the explanation) for rides and I don’t feel comfortable seeing crusty old westerners coupled with very young Thai women, but avoiding the main tourist areas should help with both. Caught my first “sawng-thaew” (converted truck taxi) today. Am finding saying “khoop khun kha” (thankyou) and very little else all day to be quite monotonous – motivation for hitting the language books again I spose.

Other main point of progress was my starting work this afternoon. And right into the swing of things. I’m based in FORRU’s environmental education section with 3 very friendly Thai women. My main task, particularly early on, is to coordinate the English-speaking school programs. International schools pay to see the community nursery, tree planting sites, and for other environmental activities, and these visits help to cover costs for local Thai school students in the rural areas to have access to the programs too. On Sunday I’m heading out to a hillside community for 3 days (stay-over!) to see it all in operation. Am hopeful the variety of work will give me a fair chance to see lots of the Chiang Mai area.

OTHER LOCAL INFO: Chiang Mai is a city of about 200,000 people. The recent air pollution problems you may have heard about are mostly due to the slash and burn agricultural practice in combination with an El Nino (bummer – I’m doomed to drought conditions – bring on the monsoon I say). There is a beautiful, very large mountain overlooking the city, great eating venues along the river, and in 2 weeks there is the Songkran Water Festival for the Thai New Year. It’s “celebrated with an enthusiasm bordering on pure pandemonium” (Lonely Planet ref.). A 5 day water fight, and Chiang Mai is the place to be, so I’ll have amusements aplenty to report on soon.
In the local shopping centre I found a massage parlour advertising 1 hour Thai massages for less than $7, as well as a mango & sticky rice vendor, so I’m set. It sounds like western movies at the local cinema are about $3 each (even better than the Goulburn deal!) and ice skating for a similar price (yep, I’m going to be doing it tough up here).

I’m still deliberating about forms of traffic. I’ve been warned against bicycles unless I have a death wish, and my predecessor got around on a scooter, so I’m starting to consider that as an option......not sure.....even crossing the street here should be considered as an extreme sport, so having a wee bit of muscle with a motor could be helpful.......

I’ve got a good internet deal now and wireless to my hotel room, so bring on the updates, and recommendations for scooter colours. Otherwise, stay tuned for more adventures. And thanks for taking the time to read this epic!

Jen

"Bustling" Bangkok

2007-03-22T17:34:00.000+06:00

(ignore these tragic illiterations if you like - small things amuse.....)

Hello there! I'm almost at the end of my week in Bangkok. I've been busy & bewildered - am starting to get my head space together enough to get some perspective.
The 12 of us volunteers have spent this week being introduced to Thailand by our manager, and for the 9 working in Bangkok, sorting their accommodation. I've been studying the language intensively - overwhelmingly so. Learning a 5 tone language with 44 consonants, 48 vowel combinations and gender distinctions has been intimidating and tiring to say the least.

Can't wait to head to Chiang Mai on Saturday. Bangkok is nice to visit but I had my fill about 4 days in. I'm about ready to cough up a lung from the traffic smog, and the shopping ain't all that great.

Being shown around by locals has been pretty full-on, with very diverse experiences from the rank poverty of slums to five star excess. Riding on a tuk-tuk for the one & only time (a rip off, dangerous & at exhaust-pipe level) was insanely fun. We've headed on the river ferry (trying to avoid the cesspool spray), visited a Buddhist Wat and viewed the skyline from the tallest tower, amongst others. I'll let the photos do the talking, though they tend to glamourise the experience a bit too much.

I'm making use of the phrases "character-building" and "coping-mechanisms" pretty regularly, though that'll be the cultural adjustment & fatigue talking. I'm doing well for week 1 though, it's all good.

Bye for now,
Jen

#2 Eve of Departure

2007-03-15T15:45:00.000+06:00

Hi all newcomers. Saa.wat.dee.kha
What a manic few weeks it's been!
Thanks for all your well wishes - I felt very special this week.
Generally it's all coming together - I head out Fri 16th @ 5.05pm on Thai Airways. I'm feeling pretty exhausted, so I'll restrict this message to some directions:
1. If you'd like to get in contact, you can post a message (I have them hidden but I can see them), or preferably email me at: jenny_schabel@yahoo.com.au
2. I've bought a laptop with a built in camera, and am quickly appreciating the benefits of free video (or normal) phone calls over the internet. You interested? Head to www.skype.com/intl/en/download/. You'll need to sign up and download the free software. My user name is jenny.schabel
3. Most importantly, I'd love to see some faces from home make it over to Chiang Mai this year - it's a very popular international tourist destination, particularly if you like elephants. Free accomodation and some sightseeing are guaranteed (just wait until I have that accomodation sorted!) I'll be spending the first week training in Bangkok, and will start at Chiang Mai Uni on Wed 28th. Not likely to post a blog till then (no news is good news).
Till then, me & my 30kg luggage are farewelling the country.
Jen

#1 Preparation with a capital P.

2007-02-11T06:42:00.000+06:00

Here's the yardstick first entry. I promise that the interest level will improve when I'm actually in-country.......

So it's all happening. 5 week count down & I'm flat chat with the preparations.
Lots of medical visits, work promo application, moving gear back to Sydney, Goulburn digs up for auction (the open house inspections are a drag but at least I won't be homeless).
And I won't elaborate on the lack of progress with language skills...
Just found out there are 12 volunteers heading to Thailand and there'll be 2 of us in Chiang Mai. We've got pre-departure training in a couple of weeks in Canberra.
Catching up with lots of friends around NSW in the last month has been fun.
I plan to post a blog again just before I head.
Any suggestions for my new website?
Jen