Lop Buri

    Five of us decided to go to Lop Buri for a weekend, because of all the stories we heard from the others about swimming monkeys that they had there and markets over railroad tracks that would move off when a train came be and then re-set up. But unfortuantely none of us did our research and Lop Buri was not where all the others went and the stories we heard were not from there. So instead of a weekend trip we made it into a day trip once we got there, and it was defintely worth going to see. There were ruins, monkeys, temples, monkeys, and more monkeys oh and food.

There were dead birds all around the ruins but i never found out why...maybe there was something in the air

Hand-written menu defintely a bad choice picking this place to eat

People donate certain foods and leave then at a designated feeding place two times per day so that the monkeys do not attack humans for food as often.

 Monkey casually reading. And no caption needed for the other guy.

Cooking Class

Today a lady named Pi Maa from the office of international affairs organized a cooking class at her house followed by a trip to Sanam Chandra Palace.

Everyone in my building met downstairs in the lobby around 8 am, but of course according to Thai time that meant our buses actually left at 9:30 am. We were first taken to a market where all the ingredients that we would use to make food later were purchased. It was interesting to see fresh coconut milk being made and the enormous amount of ingredients in take to make one simple Thai dish from scratch. Everyone grabbed some breakfast at the market and then we headed over to Pi Maa’s house to actually make lunch. Once we got there we all picked up little stuff to do cut up fruits, peal mushrooms, chop vegetables, make sticky rice, etc… then we all had the opportunity to make our own batches of Pad Thai. Pi Maa has a curry paste factory in her backyard and she provides the royal family all of their paste for their food (so it’s good) and we used it to make Tom Yum a really spicy soup with an array of different vegetables in it. For dessert we had mango sticky rice which is just a mango on type of sticky rice but very good. After we were all stuffed with food we sat around for a while and then got on mini buses to go to Sanam Chandra Palace.

Sanam Chandra Palace was built in the early 1900’s before the Brahman shrine; it was built by the prince who later became King Rama VI as both a vacation retreat and what would be his residence during his pilgrimage. It is a beautiful place, we fed fishes in the water and walked around its not very big and we were done with it in about an hour. We then got back on the buses to head back to Bangkok; unfortunately the bus I was on took a longer to get back than the other. Our tire blew out, and not that it is relevant but our FEMALE freaked out and called a pit crew to come rescue us off the road but before they got there me and Bruno a guy from France figured out how to use the funky not very safe jack and changed the tire ourselves. We finally made it back home and called it a day.

Thammasat Rice Harvest

      Every year the school I go to, Thammasat University harvest its own rice to cook later in the year in May for the new incoming students. We were told 10 exchange students could go to harvest the rice since we had to take the bus to the other campus 45 minutes away. It was first come - first serve for the sign up list, I didn’t think much of it and I signed up. I have to say it was a great experience but it was not what I expected at all. Harvesting rice is a very laborious task and I was extremely tired after chopping the stalks of rice out from the rice fields. I’m just happy they fed us after we provided labor to them free of charge… They had a fun little Thai band playing the whole time we were in the field too and the water buffalo that help harvest the rice were also roaming around while we were in the fields, here are some pictures:

Political Turmoil in the Making

Thai Politics is a very interesting subject and it is the one course I regret not taking while I am here. Some of you that keep up with the news might have heard about the building tension in Thailand leading up to February 26^th. It is kind of a complicated situation but Thailand has two opposing parties the “yellow shirts” and the “red shirts.” The Yellow Shirts represent The People’s Alliance for Democracy, and The Red shirts represent The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. 

Currently the Yellow Shirts are in control under the current Prime Minister Abhist and his supporters come from the wealthier parts of Thailand’s they want things to stay as is. Abhist is currently 45 years old and took office in December 2008 after the former Prime Minister Thaskin was deposed in the last military coup in Thailand in 2006.

Thaskin is supported by The Red Shirts and is now the reason for even more tension than usual in the Thai Political Arena.  The Red Shirts want to get rid of what they this is not a true democratic government and this is why they are seeking a revolution. After Thaskin was ousted by the military coup in 2006 and he has had many charges filed against him while he has been in exile. The one charge that is relevant right now is how he used his power while being Prime Minister to illegally gain wealth, this charge led to 76 billion baht ($2.2 billion US) in his assets in Thailand to be frozen. On February 26^th the Supreme Court of Thailand will hand down the verdict as to whether or not his assets will be releases or remain frozen or permanently seized.

This past weekend 3 pounds of explosives (C4) was found on the Supreme Court compound which happens to be 500 meters away from my school….. Also there were 2 separate grenade attack at a school (not my school) fortunately there were no casualties in any of the attempted attacks. Things might get a little crazy and security throughout the capital is going to be increased. I have already noticed more officers in uniform around school and I assume there will be even more by the end of next week. There is a protest planned for today, but often times The Red Shirts are more talk and less action, but they continually fight for what they want. As a result the added security will include the installation of about 250 security checkpoints throughout Bangkok and 4 to 5 thousand additional officers patrolling, and incorporating martial is a definite possibility if the situation warrants it.

There has been death threats in the past few days on everyone from the Prime Minister to all the Supreme Court Judges, they have all been offered safe houses and a few judges have asked to be relocated.  The Red Shirts are seeking a revolution and if they do everything needed in order to achieve their goal there will be violence in Thailand not only in the coming days but weeks and months to follow. The king usually is able to calm tension down by making a speech because he is so respected by the people of Thailand but he has been ill since before I even arrived in Bangkok and continues to be hospitalized right across the river from school, and the last time he made a speech to the public was on his birthday after that no one in the public has seen him or heard his voice.

I live in an area that is not in danger by any means because all the violence if there is any will occur around the government building which surround my school, so if it gets bad on the streets I will just stay home from school=] I also have an extended break next weekend which might mean going somewhere away from all of the commotion, I want to experience the atmosphere surrounding the politics of Thailand but if I go away for a few days I am sure protest will continue the rest of the time I am in Thailand. All I can do now is stay away from any avoidable danger and stay informed about any new developments that affect me.

Thai Military Camp

Over the weekend everyone was going to Pattaya, and I was tired of the whole beach thing so I decided I wanted to do something different. There was an e-mail we got about an “American Studies Club” having a camp over the weekend at a military camp it was very vague, and I did not know what I was signing up.  I just figured the worst case scenario was that I would have wasted a weekend  and 400 baht ($12 US for 3 days staying at the camp, meals, and activities) and missed the Chinese New Year celebration in Bangkok, but it actually ended up being one of the best weekends I have had in Thailand thus far. Last minute a lot of people decided to come to the camp instead of staying in Bangkok for the weekend so we had a total of 8 exchange students from my building that went to the camp.

The 8 of us walked and took the ferry to our campus (Tha Prachan) and then took a shuttle to the other Thammasat campus (Rangsit) to meet up with all the Thai students that we would be going to camp with. The Rangsit campus of Thammasat is very nice compared to the campus I am at because the Tha Prachan campus was built a long time ago and has a lot of historic significance in Thailand while the Rangsit campus was built recently. All programs from my campus are being moved to the Rangsit campus slowly, and now there are mostly only older students at the school I go to. Anyways we got on the bus and a few hours later we arrived at Chulachumklao Military Academy around 9 pm which is when we all got to eat the dinner that was provided by the camp (it was actually good unlike your typical camp food). We then got to all meet each other and learn traditional Thai dances similar to the Macarena in the States. 

We broke up into teams and made team names (I felt like I was in middle school again and at camp) after a few more activities we called it a night. The next morning we had to wake up at 7am to start one looooooooooong day. We took showers in a community bathroom but they weren’t actual showers just a little pool of water in the middle of a room with little containers to use to scoop water out with and shower. It was surprisingly refreshing. We then had a huge breakfast and headed to what they called a 2 hour “Walk Rally” on the poster advertising the camp, but it actually was a 4 hour long team building event that taught us how to learn from each other. One thing that is very clear in Thailand is that there is no sense of safety anywhere, so participating in everyday activities always involves risks because there are rules and regulations for show but no safety precautions are enforced. 

Anyways during the walk rally we  were told that we had to fit into nature so we had to put black paint over our bodies and then walk through trails with random fireworks going off while we were running through them and random little fires in our way at the beginning of the course. We had to crawl through a pipe and the crawl under barbed wire face up while is was a couple of inches away from our faces, the rest of obstacles were typical of any camp (rope climbing, getting everyone on a team over a point without touching certain things, etc……). 

At the beginning of the rally each team was given a metal container with around 6 eggs, instant noodles, rice, 2 cans of sardines and 1 bottle of water per person. So we had to cook our lunch on a fire we came across on the trail, it was interesting to see how the meal was cooked using nothing but a metal container and water which yielded cooked rice, hard - boiled eggs, noodles with egg, and sardines. All the Thai sergeants would give us advice on how to get through the rest of the course by working together but it was always in Thai and not everything could be translated so it was difficult to understand what they were trying to say at times. About 4 hours after we started we were finally done with the trail and the obstacles along the way. We then had another lunch waiting for us, after eating we went zip-lining off a tower and then we headed over to the shooting range. They explained safety features and how to use the different guns all in Thai….so the rest of us just had to hope for the best.  I got to shoot a few rounds on 2 pistols a 38mm and a 45mm, and the shot a round with a rifle. We then headed back to our rooms (which there were 2 of total one for all the girls and one for all the guys with mattresses and pillows laid out side by side in a long room). We all showered and then got ready for dinner it was the eve of the Chinese New Year so they had a special dinner with examples of tradition Thai dance from different parts of the countries and then there was a talent show where every team had to have a 5 minute show, followed by karaoke. The dinner ended around midnight and everyone showered and then we all sat around till 3 in the morning playing Thai card games and talking. We were supposed to wake up at 8am for a 9am breakfast the following morning but no one was able to get up until 9am, everyone had a quick breakfast and then we headed to the military museum which was pretty interesting. Then it was time for Thai traditional games, so we were in our teams again and learned traditional Thai “backyard” games and the losing team always had to do an embarrassing Thai dance…. Another way Thailand differs form the States is that there is no sense of competition it truly is about having fun instead. We had a kayak race as the finale of the games competition and then zip-lined above the water, went paddle boating to look at the scenery and then went back to the rooms to pack up and get onto the buses to head back to Bangkok. The weekend was a lot of fun, and I learned many things about Thai culture that I did not know before. I got to meet Thai students one on one in a different atmosphere than a classroom where they could actually be themselves, which allowed me to also learn a lot about their everyday lives and where they had come from. I am glad I choose to go to the camp, I met a lot of people during it that I am sure I will continue to talk too.

10 day break

In the western world we have spring break, but in Thailand they do not have spring break they just get a few days off for the Thai New Year, and instead have a 10 day “holiday games break” it’s pretty much kind of like a mini-Olympics betweens the universities in Thailand. All the exchange students wanted to take advantage of the long break so people broke up into groups to travel in and went to different places. Some went to Vietnam while others went to Cambodia, Malaysia, and even China I think. I went in a large group to three different Islands while it is still “winter” in Thailand because I figured it is going to get too hot to go later during the semester. The first chunk of the break was spent in Koh Tao, followed by a few nights in Koh Samui, and finally Koh Phangan…

Koh Tao is a pretty small island by the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand it is fairly new and wasn’t easily accessible until the 1980’s. It was the first stop of the break and I spent the first 5 days there, a long time was spent their because a group of 16 of us went to Koh Tao to get PADI certified as open-water divers and the course was 4 days long. We left Bangkok on Thursday night around 10pm and took a bus to Chumporn which arrived there at 5 am,

we the waited at the pier for the first boat to Koh Tao which didn’t depart until 7 am and we reached our final destination Friday morning at 9 am. At the pier we met a driver from the dive resort we had booked at and we got in the back of two pickup truck taxis which took us up to the resort.

We then filled out some paper work and figured out what time we would meet to start the first class, we decided on 5pm of the same day, and spent the afternoon killing time on the beach playing volleyball, frisbee and eating. At 5 pm we went to the classroom and had to watch a couple of long videos about scuba diving and were assigned some homework, after class we walked the island and relaxed in the rooms.

The next morning we had to meet at the resorts pool at 8am where we put on scuba equipment for the first time and learned how to do safety checks and got used to breathing underwater by practicing in the pool. Later we met again in the classroom to go over the previous night’s homework and to get a couple of more worksheets. Sunday afternoon we went to the ocean and dove down to only about 4 meters to learn the rest of the skills we needed to know in order to get PADI certified, once again we went to a classroom later in the day to take a few quizzes. On Monday we got to do our first two real dives, they were at different sites the first was White Rock where we went down to 12 meters the point of the dive was to learn how to control our decent down to the floor of the ocean and how to ascend slowly at the end of a dive. The second training dive was on a site called “3 rocks,” we went down to about 10 meters and learned and practiced additional skills that would help in possible emergency scenarios.

After we finished the 2 dives for the day we had a few hours off and then had to take the final exam for the course. The next morning was our last day in Koh Tao; we left early in the morning for our last 2 dives. The first dive of the day was 20 meters (about 65 feet) at “Shark Island” and the second dive was at “Hin Ngam,” because all of the dives were training dives we had to learn additional underwater skills during each dive. After the dives were done we returned to the resort got lunch and packed up our stuff, while the instructors filled out paper work to get everyone officially certified. We then left for the next destination; Koh Samui.

Koh Samui was the most developed island I have been to in Thailand, and was also my favorite it’s unfortunately I only got to spend 2 nights there. We took a boat from Koh Tao to Samui; there were already people from our group in Samui when I arrived because they had left Koh Tao early because they didn’t want to go diving. So they had taken care of getting everyone rooms, the group was split into two different places. After putting away our bags everyone went walking around the island, everyone had different taste and I ended up at a Brazilian steak house with a few other guys. The meal was the priciest meal I have had in Thailand but it was worth every penny and it was still equivalent to only $25.00 =]. After eating we spent the night on the beach. The next morning we went looking for cheap motorbike rentals, we ended up finding a place that would give us 10 bikes for 1600 baht for 24 hours. So it ended up cost $5 US per person plus gas for 24 hours….not too shabby.

Around 13 of us headed out on bikes to go to a water fall, on the way up one of the guys slipped on some dirt and scratched up his foot. But if you ever come to Thailand you will realize that the sight of a little blood is a huge deal to many Thai people, a local person around where the guy fell called an ambulance up the mountain to take him to the hospital to get checked out. Everything ended up being ok the hospital just bandaged up his foot, and gave him drugs for pain, the grand total for an ambulance, bandaging up his foot, and drugs was about 450 baht ($14 US)……gotta love Thailand. Obviously the guy could not ride his bike back to our hotel so I parked my bike on the side of the rode and drove back his bike along with another guy and the rest of the group continued on to the waterfall. I then came back on the back of a bike and got my bike, so then me and Geoff (the other guy on the bike) were left without a phone or a camera but decided to ride around anyways.

 First we went to go to another waterfall and Geoff’s back tire went flat so we had to get it fixed and then it was starting to get dark so we were going to head back but kept riding around and then we stumbled across a awesome statue it was “Big Buddha” we looked at it and “Laughing Buddha” that was a few blocks away and decided that we would wake up early the next morning and come back with cameras and the rest of the group.

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn because the bikes had to be returned by 11am, we made it back to the statues took pictures and explored some more and then headed back returned the bikes and packed up our bags to catch a boat to our last destination of the break Koh Phangan……

Koh Phangan was the finale of the 10 day break and we were there for 3 nights, which is a definite overkill for this island. None the less it was fun, Koh Phangan is infamous for its full moon parties and that is why we were there. The full moon parties are at Haad Rin beach but accommodations are pricier there so we stayed at the next beach over and found a room for 400 baht a night and spilt it between me and a guy from Germany; David. The only problem was that since there were 20,000 extra people on the island for full moon the taxi’s would inflate their prices so it would cost 100 baht down to the beach and 100 baht back…it was a rip-off so once again we rented motorbikes 300 baht for 2 days and saved on taxi’s.

The 3 nights were crazy and all I can say is that I did not sleep much but the days were just as tiring but fun. The first day I got split from everyone and no one’s phones were working on the islands, so I went riding around and ended up hiking 2 km up to a viewpoint once again with no camera with me. I eventually ran into a few people at Koh Ma which is kind of like an island off of Koh Phangan but there is a sand bar which allows you to walk across to it. And then we all went to Malibu Beach. After the 3 nights were over there was a long journey back it started around noon by boat and ended by bus in Bangkok at 5 am Monday followed by class at 9am. Great.