Hey gang! I don't have long before I have to return to the hotel for a class discussion so unfortunately this will be brief and may contain some typos.
Chiang Mai was amazing! We left there yesterday after a great roughly two weeks there. Yesterday we were on a train for 12 hours. Uggg.
Highlights of Chiang Mai:
Beautiful wats (Buddhist temples) such as the huge Buddha in an open air section of Wat Suan Dok. Wat Chedi Luang was also impressive with an old ruin in the middle and a new hall being built for a recently deceased very famous monk. Wat Doi Suthep on a mountain overlooking smoggy Chiang Mai was beautiful and very packed with worshippers and tourists. Quite beautiful actually, glittering with gold and bits of glass in mosaics everywhere.
The Golden Triangle was very cool. It is called golden because it was one of the biggest areas for growing opium in the world and the farmers only accepted gold in exchange for the opium. But Afghanistan is the biggest area now, more regulation here. We actually went to a village on the other side of the Mekong River in Laos for about 15 minutes, so this whole month will have included time in three countries! hahaha.
Buddhist meditation center. Cool to learn about Buddhism and try meditation, but I would need many more days to figure out meditation. The walking meditation was interesting, especially when you are going so slow and concentrating so hard on what your body is doing that you lose balance sometimes!
Food. Chiang Mai has lots of awesome cheap food. And no, not too spicy. Except for papaya salad which I will avoid for the rest of my life. One tiny tiny bite and I thought my mouth, gums, tongue, all of it was being aimed at directly by a blowtorch. I was sucking on ice cubes and gobbling rice for quite a while. Other food, awesome. Especially pad thai. Yum!
Markets! Woohoo inexpensive awesome stuff! I had to buy a large backpack to help contain everything. Mom, you will be pleased with my silk purchases. The markets in Bangkok seem interesting as well, but I will have to express restraint so I can bring everything home! I absolutely love the textiles here, amazing craftsmanship and I am shocked at the low prices.
We briefly visted Bo Sang, the umbrella making village, as part of a touristy day. I took many pictures of these beautiful paper umbrellas, it's almost appalling how little they charge for these workers of art. I did not get an umbrella, too hard to transport, but I got a very nice wall hanging.
Overnight visit to a Karen village. It was not as primitive as I had thought, but electricity was scant, old oversize satellite dishes not hooked up to a TV at any point in their life where used for drying chilies and herbs, and the buildings were wood slabs, concrete, on slilts, with corrugated steel roofs. A very difficult life farming in the mountains, working so hard for conservation, of both the land and their culture. A very interesting time. Some good stories out of that.
Transportation. We have had adventures. These are best told in person. See lohs, tuk tuks, buses, trains. Any and all, we have had adventures.
Okay, Bangkok. We got in late last night (aroun 10 or so to the hotel). This morning we did a sightseeing tour and saw Chinatown (crazy busy with people buying stuff for the Chinese New Year in a few days), a small Chinese style wat, the tallest building in Thailand, 309 meters tall if I remember correctly, drove by the palace where the king currently lives, saw another palace built by Rama V to prove that Thailand is a developed country (1800's).
Bangkok is busy. So much activity, so much traffic, so much smog, so many foreigners. Chiang Mai was calm by comparison! It's very warm here too, hot actually, and humid. The smog gave me a mild sore throat already, yay for cough drops. But it's not as bad as I had thought here actually, smog-wise. Our hotel is very nice, not the character and nooks that Suan Doi House had, this one is pretty Westernized, but it's nice. And it has a breakfast buffet! Methinks I have gained weight here in Thailand. So much good food, I have become eternally hungry, and I'm always snacking on some tasty morsel that someone in the group has purchased and shared. Our group is great!
Tomorrow we will visit Bangkok University.
Day after, free day, I plan to visit Jim Thompson's House perhaps the National Museum, river boat cruise, we'll see about other things.
We have a lot packed into our Bangkok days, so I do not know how often I can write. I'm safe, having fun, and learning lots! And I can't wait to breathe in fresh cold air again in Minnesota. Ahhhh, refreshing to just think about it!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Alive and well!
Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't written since I left, I have been very busy and haven't had much access. First things first: Japan was absolutely incredible!!! There were a good number of times when I could almost feel heart palpitations because I was so overwhelmed and in awe. The gardens, temples, shrines, onsens, markets, restaurants, everything was great. I could go on and on but here are the highlights:
Hakone: seeing Mount Fuji!! Plus, that evening the friends of Jack's I went with took me to an onsen (bath-house, think spa). Ahhhh.
Kamakura: Fun shopping (I got a cool looking kimono for VERY cheap) and an absolutely gorgeous temple. Also, a very cool garden where we saw the sun set over the ocean. Breathtaking.
Making pumpkin pies with cute kids! And meeting Jack's crazy fun friends.
New Year's Eve! Went to Kawasaki deishi for midnight. Hoards of people. As in thousands to hundreds of thousands. The cauldron of burning incense, the beating of a massive drum, and the throngs of people gathering to pray and to try the various foods was very impressive.
All day hike across Tokyo! (Or at least almost all the way across Tokyo). Ginza, Tokyo Station, the Imperial Palace (we saw the Emperor and the Imperial family!!!), more crazy shopping streets (especially crazy was the one for teens, stores called AC/DC with pink frilly things, methinks the band would not be pleased), and Meiji Shrine. Beautiful mysterious garden in the twilight filled with more New Year's revelers.
Sushi! All kinds of seafood. Crab brain, tuna, squid, etc. And it was good. Very very good. I promise to post pictures.
Shopping in Asakusa. Lots of people and lots of really cool stores to poke around in!
Hanging out in Kawasaki (Jack's neighborhood). Re-visited the shrine, still tons of people, explored the backstreets.
There were plenty of other awesome moments (including our many viewings of Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog) but there are too many to tell and my time is short. Story time when I get back home! :D
On to Thailand! This is a very interesting, complex, and fun country. Our class has given me a good amount of knowledge and depth into the culture of this country. So far, here are the highlights:
Not falling of out any "see loh" (red truck) taxis. We crammed all 18 of us into one a couple of times. Oh togetherness.
Seeing the markets and older parts of Chiang Mai. There are ruins of walls and temples everywhere. You can hardly go 5 minutes, or not even, down a street and not see some ruin.
Our guesthouse. Garden paradise. I LOVE the library. Open air, wood, floor cushions, with a view of the gardens. Spectacular.
Visiting high schools and Chiang Mai University. One high school was an international school and was like any American high school. The other was public and was very Thai. 30 or more students crammed into a classroom, desks squeezed in up to the blackboard. The teacher using a "chalk and talk" teaching style of writing on the board and going over it word by word, almost all rote memorization. Yikes. Very enthusiastic kids though, very eager to meet us, and say a few words of English. Many calling out "hello!" as we walked by. The university was very interesting (30,000 plus students) and our guides were very nice and helpful. We saw some dorms, the gym, and some commons areas. Everything is a bit rough around the edges, but still pretty. We have dubbed walking on the sometimes-existent, often-not sidewalks "street hiking" because you have to always watch where you are stepping so you don't fall off or end up in a hole.
Muay thai boxing! We went to a dingy gym one evening to see 5 fights. It was very interesting, fun, and not bloody whatsoever. A very different way of fight, lots of "clinches" and knees and elbows. I have pictures and video.
The Golden Triangle! We were there all day yesterday, seeing a bridge to the Burma border, visiting tribal vilages (a mix of very depressing, unsettling, and interesting). If you buy something from the sad old women in traditional dress, you feel like you are promoting their self-exploitation. If you don't buy, you feel like a guilty miser who is not supporting their way of life. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I even felt bad for taking pictures. We took a speedboat to see the spot of the Golden Triangle where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet before going to the Lao side and buying some beautiful textiles at the tourist-oriented village there. I did not try the snake-in-the-bottle whisky. Too scary looking and it smelled really bad. I managed to take a picture before running away, I'll post that later. As we drove back on the bus, we saw the sun set over dry rice paddies and rough looking shacks. Somewhat picturesque but rather sad.
Today was our free day, so 7 of us went to an elephant camp! It was fantastic! I got ridiculously excited to see, feed, and ride on elephants. They are so dextrous with the trunks, it is remarkable. The ride was slow and relaxing as we went through forested hills, up a stream, and into the river. Elephants are amazing animals.
Tonight, I'll be going to the Sunday Walking Street Market. More genuine and cheaper than the touristy markets (especially the Night Bazaar). In the next week, we'll be spending more time in Chiang Mai and the surrounding area including spending a overnight in a tribal village, seeing an agricultural site, and spending an overnight in a Buddhist meditation center.
I hope to write when I can, but I have no idea how often that will be. I'm having a great time here, staying with a group at all times (but I feel pretty safe here generally), and really enjoying the food (except when it is so spicy that my nose runs and my mouth feels like a blowtorch is being aimed at the back of my throat (must avoid the payapa salad)). I hope you all are doing well, and I miss you! Feel free to write me notes here or email me: pladson@stolaf.edu. Sawadee ka!
Hakone: seeing Mount Fuji!! Plus, that evening the friends of Jack's I went with took me to an onsen (bath-house, think spa). Ahhhh.
Kamakura: Fun shopping (I got a cool looking kimono for VERY cheap) and an absolutely gorgeous temple. Also, a very cool garden where we saw the sun set over the ocean. Breathtaking.
Making pumpkin pies with cute kids! And meeting Jack's crazy fun friends.
New Year's Eve! Went to Kawasaki deishi for midnight. Hoards of people. As in thousands to hundreds of thousands. The cauldron of burning incense, the beating of a massive drum, and the throngs of people gathering to pray and to try the various foods was very impressive.
All day hike across Tokyo! (Or at least almost all the way across Tokyo). Ginza, Tokyo Station, the Imperial Palace (we saw the Emperor and the Imperial family!!!), more crazy shopping streets (especially crazy was the one for teens, stores called AC/DC with pink frilly things, methinks the band would not be pleased), and Meiji Shrine. Beautiful mysterious garden in the twilight filled with more New Year's revelers.
Sushi! All kinds of seafood. Crab brain, tuna, squid, etc. And it was good. Very very good. I promise to post pictures.
Shopping in Asakusa. Lots of people and lots of really cool stores to poke around in!
Hanging out in Kawasaki (Jack's neighborhood). Re-visited the shrine, still tons of people, explored the backstreets.
There were plenty of other awesome moments (including our many viewings of Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog) but there are too many to tell and my time is short. Story time when I get back home! :D
On to Thailand! This is a very interesting, complex, and fun country. Our class has given me a good amount of knowledge and depth into the culture of this country. So far, here are the highlights:
Not falling of out any "see loh" (red truck) taxis. We crammed all 18 of us into one a couple of times. Oh togetherness.
Seeing the markets and older parts of Chiang Mai. There are ruins of walls and temples everywhere. You can hardly go 5 minutes, or not even, down a street and not see some ruin.
Our guesthouse. Garden paradise. I LOVE the library. Open air, wood, floor cushions, with a view of the gardens. Spectacular.
Visiting high schools and Chiang Mai University. One high school was an international school and was like any American high school. The other was public and was very Thai. 30 or more students crammed into a classroom, desks squeezed in up to the blackboard. The teacher using a "chalk and talk" teaching style of writing on the board and going over it word by word, almost all rote memorization. Yikes. Very enthusiastic kids though, very eager to meet us, and say a few words of English. Many calling out "hello!" as we walked by. The university was very interesting (30,000 plus students) and our guides were very nice and helpful. We saw some dorms, the gym, and some commons areas. Everything is a bit rough around the edges, but still pretty. We have dubbed walking on the sometimes-existent, often-not sidewalks "street hiking" because you have to always watch where you are stepping so you don't fall off or end up in a hole.
Muay thai boxing! We went to a dingy gym one evening to see 5 fights. It was very interesting, fun, and not bloody whatsoever. A very different way of fight, lots of "clinches" and knees and elbows. I have pictures and video.
The Golden Triangle! We were there all day yesterday, seeing a bridge to the Burma border, visiting tribal vilages (a mix of very depressing, unsettling, and interesting). If you buy something from the sad old women in traditional dress, you feel like you are promoting their self-exploitation. If you don't buy, you feel like a guilty miser who is not supporting their way of life. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I even felt bad for taking pictures. We took a speedboat to see the spot of the Golden Triangle where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet before going to the Lao side and buying some beautiful textiles at the tourist-oriented village there. I did not try the snake-in-the-bottle whisky. Too scary looking and it smelled really bad. I managed to take a picture before running away, I'll post that later. As we drove back on the bus, we saw the sun set over dry rice paddies and rough looking shacks. Somewhat picturesque but rather sad.
Today was our free day, so 7 of us went to an elephant camp! It was fantastic! I got ridiculously excited to see, feed, and ride on elephants. They are so dextrous with the trunks, it is remarkable. The ride was slow and relaxing as we went through forested hills, up a stream, and into the river. Elephants are amazing animals.
Tonight, I'll be going to the Sunday Walking Street Market. More genuine and cheaper than the touristy markets (especially the Night Bazaar). In the next week, we'll be spending more time in Chiang Mai and the surrounding area including spending a overnight in a tribal village, seeing an agricultural site, and spending an overnight in a Buddhist meditation center.
I hope to write when I can, but I have no idea how often that will be. I'm having a great time here, staying with a group at all times (but I feel pretty safe here generally), and really enjoying the food (except when it is so spicy that my nose runs and my mouth feels like a blowtorch is being aimed at the back of my throat (must avoid the payapa salad)). I hope you all are doing well, and I miss you! Feel free to write me notes here or email me: pladson@stolaf.edu. Sawadee ka!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
