Iron Chef Nathan

9/25/2006

This morning I had a Thai cooking class, which was great. 7 people in my group went to the cooking school in the morning. The school is run by a lady named Yui at her house. She was very nice and has a website at alotofthai.com. We cooked 3 dishes, which were pad thai, hot and sour prawn soup, and green curry with chicken. The place had individual stations for all of us. Basically we watched Yui prepare a dish while she talked about all the ingredients, and then we went to our individual stations to reproduce the cooking with some help. The pad thai that I made (see picture) was excellent. I didn't really like the soup, but I think that I did make it correctly. The green curry was also very good. One thing that I did learn was that it is very important to wash your hads thoroughly after working with chiles. I touched my nose, which immediately began to burn. Later, while I was watching my face, my eyes started to sting. In addition, after cooking we went to a local market where Yui told us about all the different incredients, including everything from stick rice desserts to fried chicken heads. I don't think I'll be doing much more cooking in the future, but it was a great experience.

I spent the afternoon doing all of the blog posts up to this point. I basically just summarized the stuff I've written in my journal.

I don't think that I like Chiang Mai as much as the other parts of Thailand that we have been to so far. It's much more touristy than the other towns, and it seems like every step you take you are being hassled by someone to buy something or to take a ride. I probably don't like it as much as other people might because I'm very cheap, and much of the city is dedicated to shopping. Nevertheless, Chiang Mai is a bustling city and thus shows an important facet of life in Thailand thus making it interesting in that respect.

Tomorrow morning we leave Chiang Mai and Thailand to go to Laos. I probably won't have access to computers too much, so I'll try to update this blog when I get a chance. Please let me know if this is at all interesting or if I am completely wasting my time.

Nathan

Wat Wat

9/24/2006

This morning I woke up early to visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep with Scott and several other group members. A wat is a temple. We had to take a 30 minute songtao (I've been spelling it wrong before this and don't feel like changing it) up a mountain to get there, and I saw some people cycling, walking, and even running up the mountain. I miss exercising a lot, but not enough to do that. The temple was to me just a bunch of buddha statues. Pants were required, so I had to rent some for 10 Baht. There was a monk there who "blessed" us by splashing water on our heads, and he gave us a thread wristband for good luck. I guess once that band falls over we're in trouble. One intersting thing is that monks are not allowed to touch women. I think they have to repent a lot if they do, so it's probably not a good idea for a woman to go up to a monk and touch him as a joke. That would be funny, but probably a bit too cruel.

After getting back to the guesthouse, Richard and I just wandered around the city for a couple hours. After lunch, we had the Chiang Mai Challenge, which was basically a scavenger hunt around town organized by Scott. We had to go all around town using the public transportation in order to do things like going to a wat to find a leaf fallen from a bodhi tree, have a picture taken with a policeman, find out the prices of specific goods at specific restaraunts, and various other things. My group didn't do very well since the other two group members weren't feeling very well. One of our tasks was to buy an interesting item under 50 Baht from the Wororot market, and I chose to get fried bamboo worms (kind of salty, not very good). Other things I could have gotten included fried roaches and grasshoppers. I really wonder if the Thai people enjoy these things.

Mae Sot to Chiang Mai

9/23/2006

We left Mae Sot in the morning and arrived in Chiang Mai after a 5 hour ride in air conditioned vans. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand. After checking in to the guesthouse in Chiang Mai, we all went out to have Thai massages. Thai massage is a bit different from other types of massages in that the person giving the massage pushes very hard on your muscles and pressure points and stretches you into pretzel positions like a gymnest. At least this is what I understand being that I've never had a massage. The Thai massage that I had felt very good while it was going on (lasted over an our), but I didn't feel much different once it was done. Maybe they just didn't push hard enough.

After dinner we walked around the night market, which basically consists of little stores selling silk, t-shirts, shoes, VCDs, wood handicrafts, lamps, jewelry, clothes, candy, art, etc. Since I'm a very cheap person and have no desire to lug stuff around for the rest of the trip, I decided not to buy anything but rather to wait until going back to Bangkok to buy gifts.

Elephant Trekking

9/22/2006

Have you ever ridden an elephant? Well, now I can say that I have. After breakfast we packed up our gear and rod out of the Karen village atop Asian elephants. These elephants were massive, and we sat in baskets on top of the elephant behind the driver, called a mahout, who sat toward the head with his legs behind the beast's floppy ears. We travelled two people per elephant (in addition to the mahout), and the mahout had to have the elephant crouch down in order for us to climb aboard. The terrain was incredible muddy, but the elephants handled it with ease. They were even able to ford a small river that was 4 to 5 feet deep.

Of course, an elephant is not the most comfortable ride. After the first 30 minutes, I think most people were over it. Toward the end it was downright painful due to the lack of padding between the wood basket and my back and under my legs. Nevertheless, I can now say that I've ridden an elephant, which I think is quite unique. After elephant trekking, we had lunch and then took another 5 to 6 hour tsongtau ride back to Mae Sot. At the guesthouse I was able to take a much needed hot shower.

Wonderful Waterfalls

9/21/2006

Today was probably the most impressive day of the trip so far. After breakfast we hiked for about 45 minutes to this incredible waterfall (or collection of waterfalls). As you can see in the picture, this was immense and quite unbelievable in person. The even better thing was that we were able to swim anywhere we could get to. There was nobody supervising us and no delineations telling us where we could not go like there would be if this was in the USA. If you could climb to a certain point, then you were free to go there at your own risk. It was amazing how much power these waterfalls had.

After hiking back to the camp, we trekked for 3 hours to a very rural Karen village having a population of about 150. The trekking was extremely muddy. It was pretty funny when people slipped and fell. Once we made it to the Karen village, we unloaded our bags and walked to another spectacular waterfall for a swim. I didn't bring my camera, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures. This waterfall was not as massive as the other one, but it was still great. There was even a little cave that you could walk into and feel the huge stalagtites. These waterfalls are the types of things that I would expect to see in movies.

Coup d'etat

9/20/2006

Scott had an interesting piece of news for us at breakfast this morning. Apparently the Thai military had staged a military coup to depose the prime minister earlier that day. We were told that it was peaceful and welcomed by the king. The Thai people seem to have unconditional love for their king, so it seems that they would support anything the king supports. Scott had all of us call our parents on his international cell phone to assure them that we would be safe since it was not violent and since we would just be out in the jungle for the next 3 days.

After drybagging all of our gear, we began adventure with a calm raft ride down the river through canyons and the jungle. It was somewhat repetitive, but it was impressive to see how untouched the terrain was. After lunch, we trekked for about 3 hours to the camp site. I learned that the difference between hiking and trekking is that hiking is a one day event during which you end at the starting point, while trekking is a multi-day event during which you sleep in different places before reaching your destination. The first half of today's trekking was uphill and thus very good exercise. I was surprised that there was very little wildlife. However, I was pretty happy that I didn't see any snakes. After reaching the camping spot, we went swimming in a river and then had dinner and just hung out for the night.

Sukhothai to Mae Sot to Umphong

9/19/2006

Today was a travel day for the most part. After breakfast, we had a 3.5 hour drive in air conditioned vans to a relatively small town called Mae Sot. There we met the trekking company we would be using for the next 3 days. The guy playing the guitar in the picture is Jack, one of the trekking guides. It's not a very good picture, unfortunately. After lunch, the trekking company took us to an even smaller town called Umphong, which was a 5 hour tsongtau ride from Mae Sot. It was mostly uphill. After unloading our gear at a guesthouse in Umphong, we had a nice family style Thai meal. The place we ate had a karaoke machine, which served as the post-dinner entertainment. It was strange since all the music was played as if it had been made using a synthesizer, but it was still fun. I didn't sing anything, of course. Brendan was quite good.

Buddhist Biking

9/18/2006

This morning we took a tsongtau to the Sukhothai Historical Park, which is basically a collection of Buddhist temples. A tsongtau is a pickup truck with the rear equpped with two benches and a cover. Like a taxi, it is a common form of public transportation throughout Thailand. We rented bicycles to ride around the temples, which was a very good idea. One funny thing was that a Thai guy also on a bicycle decided that he would lead some of us around the park. We couldn't communicate with him at all, but he seemed to really want us to follow him. We followed him for a while, and Richard gave him a small tip. The strange thing was that he had a rented bicycle just like us. It is interesting to note that tipping is generally not done in SE Asia.

After getting back to the guesthouse, some of us went back to the swimming pool we were at yesterday. I feel like I've adjusted to the time change, but I'm waking up at about 6 am and going to sleep by 9 pm. This is likely due to the noises in the morning and the lack of things to due at night in Sukhothai.

The Arrival

9/17/2006

We arrived in Bangkok at about 2 am local time. Amazingly, all checked bags arrived as well. We met the group leader Scott and the last group member Ellie, and then we all went to a hotel near the airport for 3 hours to shower and nap before catching another flight to Sukhothai. The flight to Sukhothai was only about an hour long. Since we did not reach a very high elevation and since the skies were clear, it was easy to get a good aerial view of Bangkok. I was surprised how developed it is. I have to admit that I don't really know much about the places we're visiting on this trip; I'm just along for the ride.

Sukhothai is a relatively small town compared to Bangkok. After landing, we headed to our guesthouse where we would stay for a couple nights. The guesthouse had several small bungalows and several larger houses (see picture). It was very nice. Scott led us in a trip orientation, and after that we wandered through the town, which basically consisted of a lot of specialy stores and people selling food on the streets. We saw a few monks wearing their orange robes. The Thai people are extremely nice. They always seem to be smiling, and they really enjoyed it when we butchered their language trying to say hello and thank you.

Thailand is incredibly cheap. The conversion is about 36 Bhat to 1 US dollar. For lunch I had a ham and cheese sandwich and a pineapple fruit smoothie for 80 Bhat, basically 2 US dollars. The whole group had dinner together at a Thai restaurant, and I split a green curry, massaman curry, Burmese curry, and pad thai with three other people, and my contribution was a whopping 85 Bhat, just over 2 bucks. That include the 2 bottles of water I had (all the water we drink is bottled water).

We also were able to go to a local swimming pool, which was a nice way to cool off. To my amazement, there were tennis courts. I didn't think I'd see a tennis court this early in the trip. I didn't get to play, however.

Meeting the Group

9/15/2006

Today I had a flight out of LA scheduled to leave at 5:30 pm. However, I first had to meet the members of the group at the airport a few hours before then. While I was waiting for the shuttle to the airport, I saw another person with a massive backpack, so I couldn't help but ask if she was going on the same trip. It turned out she was. That was Danielle, or Dani, who is a junior at the University of Maine. After waiting a while at the airport, I met the other members of the group. The group consisted of 13 travellers as well as one group leader. They're names and descriptions to my best accuracy and in no particular order are the following:
Travis- graduate from University of Wisconsin Lacrosse; went on the Australia/New Zealand trip in 2005; has been working for the national parks service in the USA
Emma- junior at University of Oregon; from Chicago
Richard- 18 years old; just graduated from high school in Chicago; loves karate; going to Middlebury College in the Spring
Michal- born in Israel; goes to college in Montreal
Lindy- from California; just graduated from high school
Rebecca- from Baltimore; just graduated from high school; headed to Colorodo College in the Spring
Jocelyn- graduated from University of Wisconsin Madison; plans to teach English in Korea for a year after the trip
Carolyn- graduated from University of Wisconsin Madison
Brendan- junior at Carleton College; plays on varsity tennis team; economics major; just finished studying abroad at Cambridge
Dani- junior at University of Maine
Laura- from Tennessee; just graduated from high school
Ellie- to meet in Bangkok; from Philadelphia; graduated from Haverford College; spent last 2 years teaching English in Japan
Nathan- ???
Scott- group leader; from New Zealand; has led the Pacific Challenge SE Asia trip for 6 years

The first flight was from LA to Taipei, and it was incredibly long (14 hours). We flew EVA Airlines, and the airplane was 2 stories high and had 4 different classes. Ours was the economy class, of course. The service was excellent. The would not stop feeding us. I think we had snack, dinner, snack, breakfast, snack, and lunch. Fortunately, I slept on and off for about 8 hours. This was good since the time change is about 11 hours ahead of the east coast in the USA. After landing in Taipei, we switched airplanes to go to Bangkok on a 3 or 4 hour flight.

We basically skipped September 16, 2006, due to the time change.

I'm Off

9/14/2006

After spending most of the day doing some last minute packing, I left with my mom and dad to go to the airport to catch my 6:55 pm flight, at least that's what I thought. When I checked in at 5:30 pm at the Delta kiosk, my plane was now supposed to leave at 5:55 pm. I initially thought I'd just try to change to a later flight, but it looked like there were no later flights to LA, so I asked one of the Delta workers to help me. She thougth that I would be able to make the flight, and she had someone rush my bag to the plane. Skeptically, I jogged toward security, which had a very small line. To my surprise, I made it to the gate before the last boarding call. I called my mom to ask her why we didn't know about the change in flight time, but she said that Expedia hadn't updated it when she checked earlier that day. Nevertheless, I made it to LA and stayed in a hotel for the night.

First Post

Hello everyone,

Right now I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I figured it might be easiest to communicate what I'm doing by setting up a blog rather than sending out mass emails. I'm not sure how frequently or thoroughly I'll post, but I'll give it a try. I'm going to try to post what I've been doing before this.

The organization that runs the trip to Southeast Asia is called Pacific Challenge. Their website is http://www.pacificchallenge.org/.

Feel free to comment on my posts to tell me what types of things I should write about. I'll probably just write about what I'm doing, which is probably a bit boring (but I'm sure my parents would like to read about it). If you want more details or an analysis of something, let me know. I'm sure that there will be plenty of spelling and grammatical errors, and usually as most of you know I would not find this acceptable. However, I don't have enough time to edit these posts much, so remember that I probably know how to spell the word even if I typed it incorrectly (heh).

Nathan