Seismology and Stretches

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

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

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

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.......

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

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

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

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

(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

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