Hello from Khon Kaen! We are currently in northeastern Thailand, making our way....north? east? south? We are really not sure. Kiley and I are together we have a ticket on Air Asia from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok on July 9th. It was part of an earlier travel plan that hasn't quite played out. So now we are trying to find out about changing/cancelling flights with Air Asia, which is just not easy with our limited and usually very slow internet connections. Today we will head either east to Mukdahan and cross into Laos and then onto Vietnam, or north to Nong Khai and into Laos to Ventiane, up to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, and then east to Vietnam, Hanoi in particular.
A valuable lesson we are learning is that planning planning planning is key! Before I do another trip like this I will definately spend more time planning a more exact route rather than one so general. Also, we will definately research visa's better! If our time frame was much longer, we would be doing great, but because it is short, we are losing a lot of valuable time in trying to arrange plans and visa's. However, I keep reminding myself that I am still in Thailand and it is still wonderful to be here. Everything we do is a challenge and never works out quite right, but that is the adventure of it. So long as we remain optimistic, positive, and keep our hearts cool (as Thai's encourage) we will be just fine, or better!
So you may be wondering who is famous in Ubon, and that would be me. On the day we were to leave, Friday, we headed off on a #8 saungthaw that would take us to Ba Na Muang Wat according to the city map I had. It was quite full and everyone was asking us where we were going. After about 10 minutes of the Thai's talking back and forth and us saying "Mai kau jai" (I don't understand) a lot, it was determined that we were heading in the wrong direction! They had us stay on until we passed a #8 going in the other direction, they shouted for him to stop and we jumped off and ran after our new #8 and boarded. In moments I felt I was missing something and after some frantic searching, realized that my wallet was no longer with me. We pushed the buzzer, jumped off and headed swiftly back in the direction we'd come from. I assumed I had dropped it or it fell out of an upzipped pocket in the saungthaw switch. We walked very far up the road and my wallet was not to bed found. I sat down on a corner and did a thorough check through all of my bags and pockets and then was overwhelmed by the planned trip ahead of us and the prospect of having no money, no way to get money, not even knowing our plan yet, and of course the general stress of negotiating your way through a foreign country where you do not speak the language but "nidnoy" (a little). I started to cry there on that corner and within moments local people were gathering, asking where I was going, "Where you go?" and I attempted to explain that the problem was not that I was lost but that I had lost my wallet. They understood the word "money" and with some skilled acting, I was able to convey the message. Suddenly several people were scanning the street for my wallet, or at least some money, depending on whether they understood me. One man spoke better english and got the whole story from me and brought me over to a food stand where they gave Kiley and I free roasted bananas while he called the Tourist Police. Thai people do not like to see someone in distress. They do not show these strong negative emotions. If you happen to get into a situation where you show them, you'll hear "Ja yen yen" a lot, which directly translates to "cool cool heart". You want a cold slow heart, not a hot fast heart.
Soon, the Tourist Police arrived, who are my new personal heroes. Two middle aged men stepped out in their tight fitting uniforms, of course, its the norm here for police men. They gathered us up in their air conditioned car after speaking to the nice man who had helped us, and off we went. Kiley and I weren't really sure where we were going, but it seemed like they knew what they were doing. It turns out, we were chasing our saungthaw. Apparently there are MANY #8s though, and we had no idea what one we were on. We began following the route, with the tourist police stopping every #8 to ask them....questions?? I really have no idea how they deduced which saungthaw we had been on, but maybe the fact that we were about the only 2 "farang" in the city of Ubon at the time helped. After about 30 minutes of driving around, they had determined that we were in Saungthaw #32. We drove to what seemed to be a rest stop for all the drivers and they had us get out and wait. They made a call to #32, and what luck! The woman who had been collecting money had found my wallet and was holding it for me. Now we just needed to wait for them and check to see if everything was still inside. This was important, as I had just made a withdrawal at the ATM and had almost 5000 Baht inside. While waiting, our 2 policemen began asking for emails and addresses, saying they wished they could come to California, and if they were able to, they would like to visit us. They had Kiley get out her camera and kept urging her to take more pictures of the scene. We were a little confused. So we took pictures and exchanged emails and they told us their names and that they could get us a room at a guesthouse if we wanted to stay in Ubon. They kept asking if we liked the city and when we were coming back. Finally, #8-32 arrived, and I laid eyes on my wallet again!!! Upon inspection, everything was as it should be and a rush of relief washed over me. But now it was time for photos! Everyone present was ushered over in front of #8-32, with me and the couple running the saugnthaw in front. We took several pictures of them handing my wallet to me and then I was requested to give them an "award" for their kindness. I only had 2 20B and then a 500 and 1000, so I just gave them 40 Baht, though I wish I could have given more, so I had been sure I would never see my wallet again. The policemen then said we had to go and we were back in the car heading.....? It turns out we were headed to the Tourist Police Station, where we found a newsman waiting to interview me for the news. We met the head of the station who shook our hands and thanked us a lot... for losing my wallet? It was all very surreal. Then the news man recorded our names and got copies of all the pictures from Kiley's camera, as did the policemen. Then they took pictures of us with the head of the station and the two policemen. Then one of the policemen asked me some questions on camera such as whether I like Ubon and would tell all my friends in California to come to visit. I of course said Ubon was wonderful and yes, I would tell everyone to come. Then they offered to get us a room to stay another night in Ubon, but we told them that unfortunately we really needed to catch the bus to Khon Kaen, so we were back in the car racing to the bus station. We pulled right up next to the bus we needed and felt very important all of a sudden as the bus station workers rushed us to the ticket booth and took care of everything and then rushed us onto the bus with first row seats, there was a lot of hand shaking, which is very very strange for thailand, and then we were off on the bus.
It was probably the strangest experience I've had in Thailand, but it is very nice to know that the tourist police can be so amazingly helpful. So if you're ever in Thailand, do not hesitate to call 1155 and you will have them at your service.
Now I need to do more research to find out where we are headed! I will post some pictures of us with the police as soon as we're at a computer that can do that.
Miss you all! Much love,
Katie
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Ko Samet
Hello from southeastern Thailand! I am sitting on Ko Samet. I have just uploaded a few new pictures from the island, so go check them out! You are going to have to miss all of my pictures from the last week or so in Phitsanuloke and several other events, as I burned those pictures to discs and left them in my suitcase in Bangkok. When I get home I can show you more pictures than you'll ever want to see though ;)
Tomorrow morning, we'll be leaving early to go back to Bangkok and hop on our overnight train to Laos. We got a sleeper car, so we should get some rest on the way, which is great. If I can update from Laos, I will, but no promises.
I hope you are all doing well, I miss you!
Cheers,
Katie
Tomorrow morning, we'll be leaving early to go back to Bangkok and hop on our overnight train to Laos. We got a sleeper car, so we should get some rest on the way, which is great. If I can update from Laos, I will, but no promises.
I hope you are all doing well, I miss you!
Cheers,
Katie
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Last days in Chiang Mai and trip to Mae Sai and Myanmar
Art, M and I at the Khantoke dinner at the Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center dinner show. They are wearing their CMU Graduate students Lanna shirts. Nalat!
Art, riding behind Ayk. Everyone here has a motorcycle!!! M and I
Clark and Mo (M and Art's friend)
The Mekong River. Over on the left is the Guesthouse where we stayed. Entering Myanmar!
At the market in Myanmar. Boy selling parrots at market in Myanmar.
Burmese monks. Art and i
chicken feet, mae sai...
where we stayed in mae sai (northernmost town in thailand). Wat Umong Temple in
Chiang Mai.
Its monsoon season :)
ryan's bike that i can lift with one finger. he's very proud of it.
M and I. Delicious thai fruits.
delicious bugs? mai aloi.
dragon fruit
. Buddhist sayings.
Moe and I, on way back from homestay in front of a "Hot Sping"
The wall around the old city.
The loved Thai king.
. Buddhist sayings.
Moe and I, on way back from homestay in front of a "Hot Sping"
The wall around the old city.
The loved Thai king.
flowers at Warorot Market
Everything here in Chiang Mai is going great!!! Last weekend we went up to Mae Sai, which is the most northern town in Thailand, and crossed the border into Myanmar, primarily to get our Thai visas renewed. It was a very interesting experience seeing the very north of Thailand and a very very small glimpse of Myanmar. There are a few pictures here. Also, I have been exploring around Chiang Mai more and getting to be better friends with the Thai students. Sadly, today is our last day in Chiang Mai!!! We are all wrapping up last minute things and then tomorrow morning we leave early to Phitsanuloke, which is near Sukothai. For the next 3 days, we will be exploring Sukothai and finishing up our class, which means we are taking the final exam and each group will give a presentation. We have been working on them alot, as all of the Thai students will have to give part of the presentation, so they need to get it down in English.
Saturday, we will say goodbye to our new friends and head south to Bangkok and then the gulf! I am sad to leave Chiang Mai, but very excited to do some relaxing on a beautiful beach, and of course some snorkeling and possibly diving. I am still checking into airfare to Vietnam to see if thats a possibility.
I hope all the pictures here don't slow down your computer! I will try to update again soon!
Cheers,
Katie
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Time Flies
Here's an email I just sent to my mom, it will be my update as well :)
I'm going to try to post some pictures right now, so keep an eye on my photo page if you're interested (see my earlier post for the link).
-------------------------------------------
Sorry I disappeared for a bit! Things have been so busy! The days just fly by before I realize it, and I'm usually not sure of the date! haha I'm having a really nice time though. I think I just had my toughest experience yet, and maybe for the whole trip, as we just got home from an overnight homestay in a small village called Phayao (Paa-yow). No one spoke any english and we stayed with families with our groups from class. My group is me and these two thai guys, M and Art (those are their nicknames--everyone here has a long real name and a short nickname that they go by). They are really nice and considerate, like thai people in general, but speak little english, and are shy about trying to speak english and making mistakes, which makes it harder. I try to use some Thai, but of course my Thai skills are VERY VERY limited. It would be really nice to stay longer and learn the language. I've already picked some up here and it seems easier than some languages to learn, except for the tones, which I'm sure I am always saying wrong.So for a couple days i was completely dependent on these guys to know when we ate, where to sleep, what water is okay to drink, and to translate between our hosts and know our schedule and everything. It was all fine, just very stressful for me at times. I will talk to you more about it later, I might write about it in my blog. I just feel like there is so little time here I have a hard time sitting at the computer for long! I am going to meet my friend Moe (Mo-ay) soon to hang out. She's from Japan and is studying here. Its been really fun to practice my japanese with her! And she said she'll show me around and i can stay with her if i end up going to japan, so that is nice. I have made friends with some of the thai students too. Thai people really are some of the nicest people ever. Even if maybe they aren't in other ways, they always treat everyone with great respect and are very considerate in making sure everyone is taken care of and feeling good. It you complain about anything, they will try to fix it, so sometimes we have to be careful not to just complain in just making conversation. An example is at meals, someone chooses to sit by the rice pot and they serve rice to everyone throughout their meal and if you are running out they will ask if you need more orjust give you more. They often don't even up eating so much because they are making sure everyone is taken care of. Someone else fills the glasses. If you don't want to have a lot to drink here, you have to drink very slowly! If you finish your drink and set it down, intending to just leave it empty for a while, it will be refilled without you even noticing. there are a lot more examples too. it is interesting, it makes me think alot about whether or not i am considerate to people and how i could be more so.
anyway, tomorrow they gave us the day off since we were just with the class doing activities alllll day 6am-late night on monday and then 6am-5 totday, when we finally got home. I am going to rent a bicycle and visit a couple wats (buddhist temples), a big market i haven't seen yet called Warorot Market, and maybe go up to Doi Suthep, which is a mountain just outside of time with the holiest wat in Thailand at the top. it is supposed to be a good hike or bike ride, but tomorrow i might just get a ride to the top to watch the lights come on when it gets dark because it is supposed to be very beautiful.
After that, back to class for a couple days and then over the weekend a few of us are going to Mai Sae (not sure if I'm getting that right), which is near the Burmese border and the Golden Triangle (where Laos, Thailand, and Burma meet). We will cross just over into Burma to renew our Thai visas, and then stay there for the weekend. After that, just a few days of class and then our whole class will go down to Sukothai (which is the historical capital of Thailand), and we will get to do some exploring, and then have our final exam there and do presentations on the interviews we just did on the fieldtrip. We (as in, the Thai students :) interviewed the family we stayed with about their occupation and relationship with the land in the area, and then we stopped on the way home and interviewed some Karen farmers. The Karen are a hilltribe people in Thailand who have been dealing with land and water issues between themselves and lowland farmers for several years now.
After that, its south to the beaches! I love Chiang Mai, but I am ready for some beach action. I wish some of the students could come with us, but they have other classes, as this is their regular semester.
I hope you guys are doing well, and I will try to call soon! I'm going to try to upload some pictures as well, but its getting very overwhelming as I have almost 1,000 pictures!!! I will try to just upload a few good ones. No one wants to look through that many pictures anyway ;)
I'm going to try to post some pictures right now, so keep an eye on my photo page if you're interested (see my earlier post for the link).
-------------------------------------------
Sorry I disappeared for a bit! Things have been so busy! The days just fly by before I realize it, and I'm usually not sure of the date! haha I'm having a really nice time though. I think I just had my toughest experience yet, and maybe for the whole trip, as we just got home from an overnight homestay in a small village called Phayao (Paa-yow). No one spoke any english and we stayed with families with our groups from class. My group is me and these two thai guys, M and Art (those are their nicknames--everyone here has a long real name and a short nickname that they go by). They are really nice and considerate, like thai people in general, but speak little english, and are shy about trying to speak english and making mistakes, which makes it harder. I try to use some Thai, but of course my Thai skills are VERY VERY limited. It would be really nice to stay longer and learn the language. I've already picked some up here and it seems easier than some languages to learn, except for the tones, which I'm sure I am always saying wrong.So for a couple days i was completely dependent on these guys to know when we ate, where to sleep, what water is okay to drink, and to translate between our hosts and know our schedule and everything. It was all fine, just very stressful for me at times. I will talk to you more about it later, I might write about it in my blog. I just feel like there is so little time here I have a hard time sitting at the computer for long! I am going to meet my friend Moe (Mo-ay) soon to hang out. She's from Japan and is studying here. Its been really fun to practice my japanese with her! And she said she'll show me around and i can stay with her if i end up going to japan, so that is nice. I have made friends with some of the thai students too. Thai people really are some of the nicest people ever. Even if maybe they aren't in other ways, they always treat everyone with great respect and are very considerate in making sure everyone is taken care of and feeling good. It you complain about anything, they will try to fix it, so sometimes we have to be careful not to just complain in just making conversation. An example is at meals, someone chooses to sit by the rice pot and they serve rice to everyone throughout their meal and if you are running out they will ask if you need more orjust give you more. They often don't even up eating so much because they are making sure everyone is taken care of. Someone else fills the glasses. If you don't want to have a lot to drink here, you have to drink very slowly! If you finish your drink and set it down, intending to just leave it empty for a while, it will be refilled without you even noticing. there are a lot more examples too. it is interesting, it makes me think alot about whether or not i am considerate to people and how i could be more so.
anyway, tomorrow they gave us the day off since we were just with the class doing activities alllll day 6am-late night on monday and then 6am-5 totday, when we finally got home. I am going to rent a bicycle and visit a couple wats (buddhist temples), a big market i haven't seen yet called Warorot Market, and maybe go up to Doi Suthep, which is a mountain just outside of time with the holiest wat in Thailand at the top. it is supposed to be a good hike or bike ride, but tomorrow i might just get a ride to the top to watch the lights come on when it gets dark because it is supposed to be very beautiful.
After that, back to class for a couple days and then over the weekend a few of us are going to Mai Sae (not sure if I'm getting that right), which is near the Burmese border and the Golden Triangle (where Laos, Thailand, and Burma meet). We will cross just over into Burma to renew our Thai visas, and then stay there for the weekend. After that, just a few days of class and then our whole class will go down to Sukothai (which is the historical capital of Thailand), and we will get to do some exploring, and then have our final exam there and do presentations on the interviews we just did on the fieldtrip. We (as in, the Thai students :) interviewed the family we stayed with about their occupation and relationship with the land in the area, and then we stopped on the way home and interviewed some Karen farmers. The Karen are a hilltribe people in Thailand who have been dealing with land and water issues between themselves and lowland farmers for several years now.
After that, its south to the beaches! I love Chiang Mai, but I am ready for some beach action. I wish some of the students could come with us, but they have other classes, as this is their regular semester.
I hope you guys are doing well, and I will try to call soon! I'm going to try to upload some pictures as well, but its getting very overwhelming as I have almost 1,000 pictures!!! I will try to just upload a few good ones. No one wants to look through that many pictures anyway ;)
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Thailand: Day 6!
Sawaddee ka!
It is Tuesday evening here in Thailand and I've just finished my homework and am looking forward to an earlyish bedtime for once. I have been very busy since my last post, having a lot of great adventures. On Sunday, we went and played with baby tigers, like I mentioned, and it was amazing! They were about 7 months old, and about the size of a large dog. It cost about $10 to play with them for as long as we wanted. There are A LOT of pictures. They take them for you and give you a cd. I wanted to post some but this computer is very old and slow and not really handling it. After the tigers, we went to the elephant camp. Clark and I took about an hour long elephant ride out to this village that we walked around. The ride was a lot of fun. About halfway through, there was a big crack of thunder and lightning and it immediately started pouring. Despite our guide's best efforts at getting us under an umbrella quickly, we were mostly soaked by the time we got to the village. At least its warm :) I got a nice video of riding the elephant in the rain. Later, we saw an elephant show, fed elephants, and played with a baby elephant. We headed home after that and rested, ate lunch, and then Dr. Sakda took us to the Sunday Walking Street. It is another huge market. I liked it better than the Night Bizarre, because it was a lot calmer. There were a lot more local Thai people there and the vendors weren't as pushy. Although, I did get tricked into paying this lady to release birds, but I'm supposed to get good luck in return, so it works out.
Yesterday, we had class for the first day, and met our Thai classmates. They are really shy about speaking English for the most part, so we have to work on that. One girl is very talkative and fun, and took us out to lunch today. She promised to take us to see some other places soon. We had class for a few hours in the morning yesterday, had a break for lunch, and then met again to head up Doi Suthep, the mountain outside of town. We hiked up this trail that is an old pilgrimage trail, about halfway up the mountain to a Wat that I cannot remember the name of right now. It was a beautiful forest monastery. We did an exercise on biodiversity and then got to explore. Luckily, we had just had a lesson that morning on proper behavior in a Wat, including how to pay respect to Buddha's and monks, so we were prepared. You could see out over Chiang Mai from the wat and it was a very peaceful and wonderful experience. I want to climb to the top of Doi Suthep soon as there is another beautiful Wat at the top, that is one of the holiest in Thailand. A little beyond it is the royal family's winter palace, that you can explore the grounds of, so Iwill go see that soon as well. After the hike, Kiley, Clark, and I went to the big commercial shopping center so Clark could get a cell phone. After spending a couple hours there and tiring ourselves out, we caught a tuk-tuk to the Night Bizarre and got a Thai massage. It was just what we needed and left us relaxed and rejuvenated. It only cost a little over $2 for 30 minutes, which means I need to really take advantage of more of that before coming home since I can never afford a massage in the states! After that we ran into some guys selling tickets for a Muay Thai Boxing match, and since we wanted to see that before we left, Clark and I decided to go for it. We jumped in a seaungthau (its like a truck with an open back with benches that you can get around the city in for about 20 baht) and headed to the match. I've never watched boxing before really, but this was quite entertaining, and no one seemed to get too hurt or anything. It was surprising though, when the first two fighters came out and they were about 10 years old! Apparently thats typical of Muay Thai though. We got home late and got some sleep before class again this morning.
Today, after class, the girl from class, I think her name is Poi, took us to lunch and it was a awesome. She ordered us all kinds of delicious foods to try and we wrote down all the names so we can order them again sometime. After lunch, we came back to the hostel and I finally cleaned up and organized my room. I got some colored lights at the market and candles and incense, hung some postcards and photographs on the walls and its really feeling cozy now. Then I went and sat at a little restaurant and worked on homework for a few hours before coming back here to the hostel. Its been a nice day for relaxation and reenergizing.
I better get off the computer, the mosquitos are starting to get me and I don't need that. I hope you are all well. I'll try to get more pictures up for you sometime soon!
Love Katie
It is Tuesday evening here in Thailand and I've just finished my homework and am looking forward to an earlyish bedtime for once. I have been very busy since my last post, having a lot of great adventures. On Sunday, we went and played with baby tigers, like I mentioned, and it was amazing! They were about 7 months old, and about the size of a large dog. It cost about $10 to play with them for as long as we wanted. There are A LOT of pictures. They take them for you and give you a cd. I wanted to post some but this computer is very old and slow and not really handling it. After the tigers, we went to the elephant camp. Clark and I took about an hour long elephant ride out to this village that we walked around. The ride was a lot of fun. About halfway through, there was a big crack of thunder and lightning and it immediately started pouring. Despite our guide's best efforts at getting us under an umbrella quickly, we were mostly soaked by the time we got to the village. At least its warm :) I got a nice video of riding the elephant in the rain. Later, we saw an elephant show, fed elephants, and played with a baby elephant. We headed home after that and rested, ate lunch, and then Dr. Sakda took us to the Sunday Walking Street. It is another huge market. I liked it better than the Night Bizarre, because it was a lot calmer. There were a lot more local Thai people there and the vendors weren't as pushy. Although, I did get tricked into paying this lady to release birds, but I'm supposed to get good luck in return, so it works out.
Yesterday, we had class for the first day, and met our Thai classmates. They are really shy about speaking English for the most part, so we have to work on that. One girl is very talkative and fun, and took us out to lunch today. She promised to take us to see some other places soon. We had class for a few hours in the morning yesterday, had a break for lunch, and then met again to head up Doi Suthep, the mountain outside of town. We hiked up this trail that is an old pilgrimage trail, about halfway up the mountain to a Wat that I cannot remember the name of right now. It was a beautiful forest monastery. We did an exercise on biodiversity and then got to explore. Luckily, we had just had a lesson that morning on proper behavior in a Wat, including how to pay respect to Buddha's and monks, so we were prepared. You could see out over Chiang Mai from the wat and it was a very peaceful and wonderful experience. I want to climb to the top of Doi Suthep soon as there is another beautiful Wat at the top, that is one of the holiest in Thailand. A little beyond it is the royal family's winter palace, that you can explore the grounds of, so Iwill go see that soon as well. After the hike, Kiley, Clark, and I went to the big commercial shopping center so Clark could get a cell phone. After spending a couple hours there and tiring ourselves out, we caught a tuk-tuk to the Night Bizarre and got a Thai massage. It was just what we needed and left us relaxed and rejuvenated. It only cost a little over $2 for 30 minutes, which means I need to really take advantage of more of that before coming home since I can never afford a massage in the states! After that we ran into some guys selling tickets for a Muay Thai Boxing match, and since we wanted to see that before we left, Clark and I decided to go for it. We jumped in a seaungthau (its like a truck with an open back with benches that you can get around the city in for about 20 baht) and headed to the match. I've never watched boxing before really, but this was quite entertaining, and no one seemed to get too hurt or anything. It was surprising though, when the first two fighters came out and they were about 10 years old! Apparently thats typical of Muay Thai though. We got home late and got some sleep before class again this morning.
Today, after class, the girl from class, I think her name is Poi, took us to lunch and it was a awesome. She ordered us all kinds of delicious foods to try and we wrote down all the names so we can order them again sometime. After lunch, we came back to the hostel and I finally cleaned up and organized my room. I got some colored lights at the market and candles and incense, hung some postcards and photographs on the walls and its really feeling cozy now. Then I went and sat at a little restaurant and worked on homework for a few hours before coming back here to the hostel. Its been a nice day for relaxation and reenergizing.
I better get off the computer, the mosquitos are starting to get me and I don't need that. I hope you are all well. I'll try to get more pictures up for you sometime soon!
Love Katie
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