Yaniv's Trip to Southeast Asia

Krabi

2009-07-25T19:02:00.001-04:00

After returning to Bangkok from Cambodia, Kathleen and I left for a seven day vacation in the Krabi Province, a coastal area in Southern Thailand along the Andaman Coast and the Indian Ocean. Krabi is known for its limestone cliffs that border long, sandy beaches. The horizon is always scattered by a number of small limestone islands surrounded by white beaches. Needless to say, Krabi is a beautiful place. The coast is split up into a number of beaches, most of which are only accessible by boat. Kathleen and I stayed at Ao Nang, a relatively large beach town with a number of restaurants, bars, and tour companies. We also visited Ton Sai, East and West Railay, and Ao Thalane, all of which are very small but pretty. For the first three nights, Kathleen and I stayed at this budget guesthouse that was about 300 meters from the beach. We got a really good deal on the room (about $7 a night with A/C and hot water). When we arrived, there was a little puddle of water under the air conditioning machine that the woman told us is really rare but happens occassionally. Unfortunately, that pool of water kept getting bigger, requiring more and more mopping, and on the third day the water started coming out of the wall in the opposite corner of the room, soaking a lot of Kathleen's stuff. We also were frustrated by the fact that our toilet had no running water and required us to dump water into it to flush it. After three days we moved to a slightly more expensive bungalow ($10 a night) that had no leaking water and was in almost the same location.

Krabi is primarily an activities place. While the beaches are beautiful, there are so many adventure sports to partake in that it was rare for us to spend much time on the beaches. Kathleen and I went sunset snorkelling at a couple islands, elephant trekking through the jungle, sea kayaking through mangrove swamps and limestone canyons, and rock climbing on the limestone cliffs. We also rented a 150 cc scooter and explored the area, discovering various undiscovered beaches, towns, markets, and events. The sunset snorkelling was really pretty even though the visibility was poor because at night one can see the phosphorescent plankton - what appears to be tiny green flashes of light all around you in the water whenever you move. I also really liked the rock climbing and got to climb 100 feet on a cliff on the ocean and look across to see the sun set behind islands. On the last day, Kathleen and I discovered a beautiful undiscovered beach about 30 minutes from Ao Nang that had only three people on it within eyesight. Also, the seafood was phenomenal. It was a great way to wrap up the our time in Thailand. After we returned to Bangkok, Kathleen flew out and I left the next day. We are both safely back in the United States now. This summer has been a wonderful adventure and I thank you all for following along as I experienced it. This is probably not the last blog post, but until I can load more pictures online, thanks for staying posted on my summer!

Chiang Mai and Cambodia

2009-07-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

Hello all - I am sorry for not posting sooner. I have been travelling continuously and without internet access, so I hope that the next couple posts will catch everyone up.

On June 30, Kathleen arrived from India and the next day we left for Chiang Mai, a moderately sized city in Thailand's Northern region. Unfortunately, Kathleen got sick the day after we arrived and we didn't get to do much in Chiang Mai. I was able to go to a evening Thai cooking class, which I thoroughly enjoyed. For those who are wondering, the secret ingredient in Pad Thai that American Thai doesn't use is Tamarind juice, and it makes all the difference.

After we returned to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, we spent a day or two getting Kathleen well again. We then took a bus to Damnoen Sudak, a small town two hours away from Bangkok and home to Thailand's famous floating market. Once there, we hired a boat for an hour and perused the miles of canals, looking at souvenirs, eating coconut pancakes (made on a boat), and passing by various longtail boat vendors.

We returned to Bangkok for the night and left early the next morning for a strenuous trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Angkor Wat is a famous town that is home to hundreds of 10th and 11th Century Angkor Temples, known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We began our trip by taking a 5:55 AM train to Aranyaprathet, a Thai town on the border of Cambodia. The train does not have A/C and the windows are simply cut out from the walls of the train. Also, the ride was about 7 hours and we arrived at around noon in Aranyaprathet. From there, we took a Tuk-Tuk (open three-wheeled taxi) to the Cambodian border. We had to buy a Cambodian visa but got cheated by the border police into paying with Thai Baht, thus overpaying by $10. Once we crossed the border, we were in the Cambodian town of Poipet. The guide book told us to hop on whatever transportation is available to get to the transportation depot and take a bus to Siem Reap, the town next to Angkor Wat where everyone stays. Immediately upon crossing the border, there were about ten men who were telling us to get on the free "Government Bus" (which had a company name and logo on them) to the bus station. Everything in my body was screaming scam, but we simply had no other option and everyone told us to get on that bus. We asked taxis around and they even told us to go on the bus. The bus took us about 5 minutes away to a "bus station" which was really the office of this company. The station also had an extremely overpriced store and a money exchange office with terrible conversion rates. At this point, Kathleen and I were almost sure that it was some sort of high priced monopoly scam. We walked out of the bus station and asked a share taxi (another form of transportation to Siem Reap) to take us, but they all refused - a very unusual occurrence. So we grudgingly went back and bought two bus tickets for $10 each with the company.

At this point, it was 2:30 PM and the bus company told us the bus would leave in 5 minutes. Also, they said that the drive is about three and one half hours (the trip is 140 KM - about 90 miles). We boarded the bus to discover all foreigners (another ominous sign - Kathleen and I were the only tourists on the $1.50 train in Thailand). The bus ends up waiting another 45 minutes before leaving, and then stops 15 minutes into our trip to tell us that we are going to wait for more people. We wait another 30 minutes until two more passengers arrive, and then they tell us that they are going to switch buses, which takes another half an hour. We finally are on our way when the driver finds reasons to stop about three or four times, including hitting a truck in front of him, having to use the restroom, and things that they staff couldn't even really explain. We then take a one hour stop in a town 50 minutes from Siem Reap to eat and use the restroom. We arrive in Siem Reap at the guest house owned by the bus company (unsurprisingly) well after dark.

This is a classic bus scam. Aside from charging us about double of what it should cost, the goal is to make the trip as unpleasant as possible so that the passengers don't want to venture out in a new town and stay at the appropriated guest house. Kathleen and I were nothing short of furious and knew exactly what was going on, so we got out of there as quickly as possible and went to search for a place to stay. This part of our journey was really aggravating and unpleasant. However, Kathleen and I did not realize the extent of this scam until we spoke to our share taxi back to Poipet, which cost $7.50 each, was a private car just for us, and took one and a half hours. Our driver told us that the company that runs the bus scam/monopoly was run by the Cambodian Mafia (nonviolent). The reason that the other taxi drivers refused to pay us is because if they circumvent the mafia, they won't get any passengers anymore. Also, the mafia takes about one third of the profits. They really have a well-run monopoly and ensure that anyone who bypasses the system will not be able to make money in the future.

Once we arrived at Siem Reap and escaped from the bus scam, things immediately got much better. Siem Reap is a really nice town with friendly people, good food (although Cambodian food isn't as good as Thai food), and interesting street vendors. Kathleen and I were angry, exhausted, and frustrated. We went to the guest house that we chose in the guidebook but it looked pretty bad for $14 a night. We then went to another two that weren't great either, and found ourselves at another nice guesthouse that had drilling and power machinery construction outside all night. Upon driving into Siem Reap, we had noticed at least ten extremely pretty, luxurious hotels that all were completely empty (it is the low season right now). We noticed a couple of these close by and decided that we should ask how much they were. Most ranged from $50-70 a night, which was too expensive for our budgets. However, combined with our new discovery that one can bargain over hotel costs, Kathleen and I landed a Mediterranean style villa resort called the Terrace Des Elephants for $100 for 3 nights. The rooms typically range in the hundreds of dollars, but we bargained down to $50 a night plus buy two nights and get the third night free and free breakfast. The room was simply incredible. We had a full Angkor style fountain in our room that emptied into a large moat, with a Angkor style bridge that leads over the moat to the shower. We had satellite TV with two CNN's, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and HBO, not to mention the atypical amenities of air conditioning, hot water, toilet paper, towels, blankets, and a flushing toilet (all of which we have had rooms without). The room was on par with a five star hotel, and it will probably be the nicest room that we can afford for a long, long time.

For the next two days, Kathleen and I explored the Hindu and Buddhist temples and ruins of Angkor Wat. Each was more stunning and elaborate than the next, and it was absolutely magnificent. We hiked through ancient temples that weren't much more than ruins, left the same way as when they were discovered hundreds of years ago. We also had some great food and some not so great food. One Cambodian dish, called Laab, stood out particularly. Laab is a stir fry of a meat (we chose chicken), sweet basil, chillies, lemon juice, bean sprouts, and garlic. It sounds really good, but unfortunately each flavor was so overpowering that it made the food almost inedible. It tasted like someone stir-fried chicken along with half a can of Lysol. Once again, Kathleen and I decided that our favorite food was the street food.

My overall impression of Cambodia is much more positive than I first expected. However, it still is a developing/third world country and contrasts starkly with Thailand. The roads are pretty bad, the border guards corrupt, and land mines still abound in the countryside. For as much as the sex tourism in Thailand is overt, the sex trade and child sex slavery is underground in Cambodia. I found it really hard to think about what occurred in the country in the past 40 years. During the Vietnam War, the United States repeatedly carpet-bombed Cambodia. Driving around, it was weird to consider that we bombed this country a couple decades ago. Furthermore, the Khmer Rouge tormented the Cambodian populous for years. We unfortunately did not have time to go to Phenom Penh and visit the killing fields, but it is something that I want to do in the future. The legacy of the Khmer Rouge remains. One of our waiters, who eventually told us a little about the war that he had lived through in Cambodia, told us that he was very old (he was 28).

Our return to Bangkok was much easier and pleasant than the trip to Siem Reap, albeit 12 hours. We had a day or two to relax and then we left for the Krabi province of Thailand, which I will leave for another post.

Pictures of the trip to D.C.

2009-06-25T01:43:00.003-04:00

Just a couple small notes about my trip to D.C. The flight that I took from Seoul to Washington D.C. (and back) required us to fly straight up from Washington D.C. over Ontario, crossing the Hudson Bay, and then over a substantial portion of the North Pole, only to come down over the East Siberian Sea, Russia's Siberian Mountains, over China, and finally arrive in Seoul. It boggled my mind for awhile about why we would take this route when I looked at a flat map. However, the Earth is round, and therefore the shortest distance from those two points is not a horizontal trip but rather going over the areas with the shortest diameter. It was a beautiful trip (albeit 14 hours) and I really enjoyed taking pictures out of the window of the airplane. I uploaded some pictures so feel free to take a look: link here.

Thoughts on Thai Culture

2009-06-24T04:51:00.000-04:00

Primarily due to the language barrier that I face daily, I have not been able to understand the intricacies of Thai culture to a degree that is satisfying. Because of the language barrier, I have relied mostly on observation to detect cultural differences.

One thing that I noticed relatively quickly was that more umbrellas were out during the sunny, clear days in Thailand than the rainy ones. In fact, many people walking around Bangkok and Lam Plai Mat walk under their umbrellas when there is no cloud in the sky. In Lam Plai Mat I asked a teacher about why many Thais do this (we were at a market and I saw someone walking around with an umbrella in the sun) and she responded that maybe the person felt hot. Upon further inspection and what must have felt like an interrogation to the teacher, I was able to discover that it actually is all about skin tone. A darker skin tone in Thailand is associated with farmers and other "low-class" jobs that require the person to be out in the sun all day doing manual labor. Therefore, people use umbrellas to hide from the sun and maintain a pale complexion.

Another interesting cultural difference occurred when I first began spending time with Thais at Lam Plai Mat. I would go out to eat with the teachers and headmaster and they would order 6-8 dishes for 4 people. While I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity and abundance of food, I always feel bad wasting food and thus would engorge myself by eating as much as was humanly possible. On one occasion, the headmaster took me out for dinner and ordered four dishes - a whole fish simmering in garlic and chillies, a deep fried fish, chicken with Thai basil stirfry, and shrimp with Chinese and Thai vegetables in an oyster sauce, and steamed rice (of course) - and he ate a spoonful of each dish and half of the deep fried fish, leaving a feast to me. I could barely finish half of the food in front of me and we ended up leaving a lot of food on the table. This happened at pretty much every meal I attended at a restaurant and I couldn't understand the reasoning. As it turns out, Thai culture dictates that the more food is left on the table, the more generous the host is. Also, one should never clean his or her plate because then it gives the perception that the host did not provide enough food to the guest. While I do wish I had known this before I stuffed myself to borderline sickness at every meal, I can't say that I didn't enjoy the feasts.

Finally, I have noticed that Karaoke is a very popular pastime in Thailand. While a majority of Thais are really surprisingly good at singing, one can always get the occasional dud that is quite painful to bear. Beer and karaoke also tend to go hand in hand. Just a note of caution to beer enthusiasts: the Thais serve their beer at room temperature (which in Thailand is 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and then put ice cubes in it, making an already light lager particularly watery. You have been warned.

I also would like to highlight a recent Economist article about Thai politics. While I am not near fluent in Thai politics (particularly the 17 coups in the last 37 years), I did prepare myself to be able to understand the general political scene of this nation. In Kenya ethnicity dominated politics, and the two combined dominated conversations and culture. In Thailand, I have yet to hear one person speak about politics (although if the conversation occurred in Thai I would completely miss it). I find the absence of political discourse around me surprising for a country that has seen so much political unrest in its recent and immediate past. I really would like to know more about what the average Thai thinks of politics, both past and present.

Update

2009-06-24T04:49:00.001-04:00

This week is my last week of teaching at Lamplaimat and interning with PDA. It has been a relaxed but rewarding experience. Yesterday I asked the 6th grade class (which I have spent the most time with) what they learned in the past two weeks and they listed off about 100 words - I was impressed and proud of the improvement that I have seen.

I forgot to mention that at the Pickering Fellowship orientation I had the opportunity to meet and briefly speak with Ambassador Thomas Pickering. I also had the great opportunity to speak with Paul Jones, the Deputy to Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. I really cherished the opportunity to speak with someone at such a high level about the current situation of Afghanistan and Pakistan, what I consider to be the most challenging current foreign policy issue.

On my trip back to Lamplaimat I was in the bus with the founder of the Somaly Mom Foundation, an organization that works in Cambodia to rescue sex slaves. I thought that the founder looked familiar - sure enough, she actually was on a panel at the Clinton Global Initiatives University meeting that I attended in Austin, Texas. It was pretty cool to meet her again half way around the world.

Along the way we stopped at a local family that was harnessing the PDA microcredit program. It was really impressive to see the real effects of microfinance on a small scale. The woman was on her second loan and used the first $800 loan to expand her farm, giving her a yearly profit of over $1200 (talk about cost effectiveness).

Next Tuesday, Kathleen is flying in to Bangkok and we will spend the next three weeks traveling to Chiang Mai (Mountainous region in Northern Thailand), Krabi (Southeast Asia's best beaches in Southern Thailand on the Andaman Coast), and Angkor Wat, Cambodia (a large area of ancient Khmer Temples).

I have enjoyed a couple more great books since I have been here. I have read two books by Thomas Ricks (The Gamble and Fiasco), a Washington Post reporter who writes particularly well about the strategic and tactical challenges and mistakes of the War in Iraq and the surge. I highly recommend Fiasco to anyone who wants to learn more about the massive mistakes that the Bush Administration made in the planning and during the war. I am also reading Steven Coll's Ghost Wars, a book that highlights the influence of intelligence agencies in Afghanistan and the roots of Al Qaeda and the Taliban until September 10, 2001. It also is a fascinating read. I also have occasionally looked at American Lion, Jon Meacham's biography of Andrew Jackson.

Another book that I am thoroughly enjoying is Blood and Politics, the History of the White Nationalist Movement by Leonard Zeskind. It is a fascinating, compelling, and intricate historical narrative about the roots of the White Nationalist Movement (including the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and the radical Christian right wing). I highly recommend it. One of the most interesting insights that the book highlights how politicians from both parties (some mainstream and some not) utilized apparent ambiguous language to clandestinely recruit White Nationalists to their campaign.

That's it for now - I hope to take some time to be able to compare my experiences in Kenya to my experiences in Thailand, but that deserves another post.

Bangkok, D.C., Bangkok

2009-06-15T08:26:00.008-04:00

After four flights totalling 46 hours, 6 hours of layovers, 4 cab rides, and time in the airports of Bangkok, Seoul, and D.C., I made it back and forth for the Pickering Fellowship orientation. It was a really exciting event and I got a taste of how incredible the program is. Each day, orientation began at 6:30 A.M. with breakfast at the hotel, and the rest of the day was spent at either the State Department or the Foreign Service Institute, the training center for the Foreign Service. We got to tour the State Department Operations Center, where all current global events are processed and reported to the Secretary of State. The Ops Center is located on the 7th floor of the State Department building, approximately 100 feet from the Office of Secretary of State.

We also had a significant portion of our time dedicated towards filling out forms for the security clearance process. We had numerous forms to submit, as well as fingerprinting and other random documents. We also essentially signed away our freedom for the next eight years in a legal, notarized contract that outlines our debt to the U.S. Government. I also had to give up being an RA because of the Pickering Fellowship (explanation is complicated) and now must find a place to live in Chapel Hill from Thailand. Please let me know if you are aware of a 1 bedroom apartment that is walking distance from UNC.

However, there is no doubt that the Pickering Fellowship is nothing less than a dream come true. They cover an incredible amount of the expenses (almost all) for the future of my education. Next summer, we have a 7 week academic program at the University of Maryland or Princeton, studying a bunch of different topics. We also have one domestic and one overseas internship with the State Department in any department that isn't a hardship post(i.e. Iraq, Afghanistan). While we are required to get a masters in international affairs, almost every Pickering Fellow goes to one of the top schools in the country, such as Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, or Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. After receiving our masters, we go through an abridged version of the Foreign Service hiring process.

The other Pickering fellows are all very impressive. Every one of them is doing something interesting this summer, from interning as a CIA analyst to studying Arabic in Morocco. The group is a wide variety of people from every walk of life and interested in every major global issue in the world.

Today, after returning to Bangkok, I decided to scope out a place to have some suits made. I googled "best tailor in Bangkok" and discovered a tailor that has been around for 43 years and is very popular with U.S. government officials in Thailand. They have made suits for both Bush presidents and many more. I definitely will be getting a suit from there - the quality is very very good and the price is quite affordable. Given the need for suits expressed at the Pickering Fellowship, this will be a valuable investment. As I was in the store, I saw two tall older American men and ventured a guess that they worked at the US Embassy. Of course, they did. I told them that I was a Pickering Fellow and noticed little reaction and random questions (signifying that they probably had no idea what that was), so I asked them what they did. They said they worked for DOD (Department of Defense). I asked what part. They responded with "that other branch of DOD." They obviously were in the intelligence community. Sure enough, upon receiving their cards, they were DIA.

I have one more day in Bangkok and then I will be heading back to Lamplaimat for two weeks. After that, I will be returning to Bangkok and Kathleen and I will be travelling to Chiang Mai, Krabi, and Angkor Wat (in Cambodia), as well as exploring Bangkok.

20,000 Miles in 5 Days

2009-06-08T06:24:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow I leave for the Pickering Fellowship Orientation! I will be traveling about 10,000 miles each way (taking about 24 hours) and have three days in D.C., then return to Bangkok and Lam Plai Mat. It is an exciting but exhausting trip.

Everything here has been going well minus a 20 minute stint of food poisoning. I am still enjoying teaching and am impressed by the aptitude of the students. Also, I have been quite impressed by the teachers and their knowledge of education theory - they really know how to engage students and ensure learning.

On Saturday I learned how to cook Tom Yam soup, one of my favorite Thai dishes. It is surprisingly easy with the right ingredients, but I know that when I return to the US that whatever I attempt will taste nothing like it should, just like my attempts at African cuisine.

I have uploaded a couple more pictures in the Lamplaimat album so feel free to check it out.

A Local Thai Delicacy

2009-06-05T04:10:00.003-04:00

Today I tasted a local Thai delicacy at lunch - a short story that I think deserves its own post. As I went to the buffet for lunch after teaching two classes, I went through each meal with a teacher and she told me that none of them had pork in it. I then went back, got a plate, got some sticky rice, and went straight for the fish soup. As I am about to put the serving spoon into the dish, I notice some black dots floating around. As I look closer, I discovered ants with wings floating at the top of the soup. I joked to the teacher that in America this would mean that the meal is on the house. She laughed and told me that ants are a delicacy here, high in protein, bitter and flavorful, and more expensive than pretty much any other food around here.

I have been saying no to a lot of food, primarily because it has pork in it, but also to things like chicken feet, shark, octopus, and liver. I also realized that I haven't even tried anything all too new, so in a spur of the moment decision I decided to try one ant. I have two witnesses for any nonbeliever. I ate it with a good amount of sticky rice so I could barely taste it, but ants taste almost exactly as one would expect them to.

I know that it sounds weird to eat an ant, but here it was nothing special - I tried to brag to people and they didn't understand why I was telling them that. In rural Thailand there is little protein and people make do with what they have. Westerners may find this attitude "gross," but food isn't wasted here - something that is very common in the United States and an attitude I appreciate. Nonetheless, I think that this will be the extent of my "adventures" in the culinary world of Thailand, leaving the truly adventuresome to taste rat, dog, cat, snake, spider, and flash fried scorpion.

On another note, I taught my first full class today completely by myself. I taught English to the 5th graders for an hour. Back to Bangkok and the U.S. on Tuesday!

Teaching

2009-06-05T04:07:00.000-04:00

Monday was my first day of teaching and work at Lamplaimat Pattana High School. I am assisting in two to three English classes a day, primarily for grades 1-6 but occasionally for Kindergarden as well. I have now taught every student here at least once and it is a pleasure to do so. The students are for thge most part quite attentive and interested in learning, and they soak up information. I am really keen on working on their pronounciation, which due to the fact that their English teachers are Thai, is not standard American pronounciation. I also have played soccer and basketball with the students every day during their and my free time. Since I only teach two or three classes a day, I have plenty of free time to read, an opportunity that I really have enjoyed.

The Lamplaimat Pattana School is on the side of a two lane road and 8 km from the nearest village 500 residents, Lamplaimat. Therefore, I am extremely limited in what I can do in my free time, unlike in Bangkok where the possibilities for exploration are endless. In my free time I can either go online, watch some movies I brought, walk around the school, exercise by myself, or read. So far I have spent almost all of my free time reading. I realize that it sounds strange that I traveled 10,000 miles just to spend time reading in my free time, but it is a leisure that I value greatly and rarely get to do during the year. I'm plowing through books at about 100 pages a day and learning a lot.

I do, however, spend a lot of time with the teachers here. While they do not speak particularly good English, it has been really fun to have them show me around. They laugh at me for not being interested in eating things like snake, scorpion, spider, shark, and chicken feet, but I think that the criticism is by far the better option.

One of the things that the headmaster of the school does is train teachers from all over Thailand and Cambodia. Every couple days there is a new group of 15-30 teachers that are here for training. I went to one of these trainings and the person that spoke before the headmaster was the politician responsible for all the students in this province (one of 76 in Thailand). Being a young college student who knows tedious lectures, I have the apt ability to recognize when people are bored out of their minds. This politician bored 200 people for 45 minutes. However, I was particularly impressed at the headmaster's skill in engaging the audience. For one and a half hours, the headmaster kept every teacher at the conference engaged - everyone appeared to be learning a lot. However, I have absolutely no clue what was said during the entirety of that event because it was all in Thai, but I was nonetheless impressed.

On Tuesday, the headmaster took the 30 trainees, me, and four teachers from the school to a barge on a river/canal for dinner. I didn't realize it yet but the barge was to be pulled by a Thai motorboat and we were going to spend about four hours going through 7 km of an incredibly beautiful Thai river. There were two grills on the barge, made out of a oil-sized barrel split in half, and we had a feast on the barge while making our way down the river. There were at least 12 whole grilled fish (which were delicious) and a bunch of grilled meats and ground meat products that had pork in it. There were also two TV's hooked up to a computer that puzzled me as to their presence... until I began to hear an older trainee singing what I assume to be a famous Thai song and missing every - karaoke. After eating, however, I sat at the front of the barge, sipped on a beer the Thai way (with ice in it), and watched the sun set as we meandered downstream.

When traveling in new places, I try my best to go with the flow and make the most of the opportunity at hand. Occasionally, however, I stop for a minute and think about experience that I am having. As I sat at the front of the barge and watched the sun set, I had one of those moments. I thought about how incredible it was that I was standing on a boat on a river in rural Thailand, 10,000 miles away from home. These type of experiences really make one appreciate how large and diverse the world is - not only geographically but culturally. Anyways, some of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken occurred on this outing, so please make sure to check out the Lamplaimat album (the list of links is on the right hand side of the blog).

I am still killing bugs left and right in my room. It is still incredibly hot here. And, the food is great. I cooked my first Thai meal consisting of a Thai omlette, som tam (spicy papaya salad), and some fresh fruits and vegetables. There are literally dozens if not hundreds of fruits that I have never tried before, and I am slowly but surely making my way through them. I have eaten Durian, Mangosteen, green mango, green papaya, jackfruit, a lychee-like fruit with "hair" (see pictures), and a couple fruits that I have no clue what they are called. There are also over twenty types of mango here so I am trying to learn the varieties of my favorite fruit.

In a couple days I am returning to Bangkok and flying to D.C. for two days of Pickering Fellowship orientation, and then flying back to Bangkok. I am flying through Seoul, South Korea, so I am hoping that the latest tensions between the Koreas do not escalate.

A Little Summer Reading Got Me Thinking....

2009-05-31T08:16:00.006-04:00

On a completely unrelated note to my trip this summer, I have just finished a book that was recommended to me by my favorite professor. I have to say that besides tourist adventures in a foreign country, almost nothing beats returning to my air conditioned room after another hot and humid day to read a captivating book.

I just finished The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, one of the best narratives I have read on Al-Qaeda and 9/11. Wright starts the narrative at the beginning of modern Islamic Fundamentalist ideology and masterly describes the evolution of Al-Qaeda and similar organizations. The last 150 pages are dedicated to what the U.S. government knew about Al-Qaeda (or didn't know), and more importantly what went wrong. I read the last 150 pages with that sickening feeling that one gets when you know exactly what is coming. Lawrence Wright really goes to such depth to describe the intelligence known about 9/11 and the massive bureaucratic politics, political infighting, and secrecy between CIA, FBI, State, NSA, etc. that led to no agency piecing the puzzle together. The role of the CIA in keeping information secret (sometimes illegally) from FBI's John O'Neill and Dan Coleman is particularly troubling because, according to Wright, it could have led to the detection of the 9/11 plot and hijackers on U.S. soil. The story told reminds me almost exactly of the Pearl Harbor intelligence failure that my Intelligence Operations class at UNC studied. The reasons for the failure were almost identical.

I bring all this up because upon reading the final pages of the book, it hit me that I will eventually be working for the State Department and may find myself working in similar topics as described by the book. On the one hand, it is intimidating, but on the other hand, I am deeply excited and inspired by the important work that I will get to do in the future. The stakes could not be higher, but I am thrilled that I will be involved in such meaningful work around the world.

Lamplaimat and Bangkok

2009-05-30T05:39:00.006-04:00

At about this time last Saturday, I was getting ready to board a plane in Charlotte to leave for Bangkok. I found myself adapting relatively quickly to the large city of Bangkok, even finding my favorite street food vendor to go to twice a day for $1 meals. On Wednesday night, I met up with a friend of mine and a couple of his friends to see the nightlife of Bangkok. We went to a restaurant and then bounced around town sampling the Thai beers and looking for the Manchester-Barcelona soccer game. I was pleasantly surprised to find Bangkok extremely safe and well lit at night, as well as much, much less hot. The average temperature here is 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit plus 50-80% humidity, making the shade feel like 100-110 degrees every day.

On Thursday, I took a boat ride in a very small and hidden canal to a place which ended up being nothing special, so I returned to MBK center and bought two polo t-shirts for a total of $13.

Yesterday (Friday), I arrived in Lamplaimat, a small village of about 500, approximately 100 km from Cambodia and 300 km from Laos. We left from the PDA office to pick up the architect for the secondary school in Lamplaimat, one Mr. Tay Kheng Soon. Mr. Tay is a Singaporean architect and is extremely well read; we had many interesting conversations on the way to Lamplaimat. He is on the front line of many new initiatives, including using algae as energy and a rural/suburban development planning model he calls "rubanization." I believe that the Indonesian Government has allotted 200,000 acres to Mr. Tay to pilot rubanization and I am interested to see the results.

My room in Lamplaimat is certainly less accommodating than the one in Bangkok. While they have all the same amenities (A/C, bathroom, beds, electricity, warm water), this room's A/C is not even half as strong as my last one, and also my room has a significant population of insects and animals in the room. Let there be no doubt; my room is not for the squeamish. I have a gecko family of four (three small ones, one 6 inches long) living in my room that feast on a host of ants, beetles, and mosquitoes. Last night I rolled over to hear a crunch inside my pillow: a beetle had found itself under the pillowcase and eventually beneath my head. Ultimately, it is something that one gets used to very quickly - but there must be an emphasis on adjusting. I am eternally grateful for whoever "Ben" is - "Ben's" is the company that makes my 99% deet insect repellent that I have found myself spraying on everything of value or importance.

Here in Lamplaimat, I have found myself more challenged than ever by the language barrier. I depend entirely on the teachers and headmaster of the school, but they only speak rudimentary English and attempting to communicate is an exhausting task after a couple hours.

However, I have been taken from feast to feast. When we arrived, we ate a dinner worthy of kings: two whole fish with red curry and sliced ginger and garlic; two dishes of shrimp stir fried in sliced lemongrass and chillies; two bowls of green curry with shrimp (my favorite), two dishes of mixed vegetables, two egg dishes, and more that I cannot even remember - all for seven people. Today, some teachers took me to a restaurant at 8 in the morning - we ate again at 10:30, 12:15, and 3:30 (and dinner is pending at 7). Believe it or not, it may actually be too much food for me! I have tasted a lot of different types of food that I have never eaten before, including three types of algae, at least 10 different types of mushrooms, fish cakes, and a delicious dish called "som tam." Som tam is a spicy green papaya salad that is served literally hundreds of ways. It typically includes almost shredded green papaya, lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, fish sauce, and chillies. The som tam I had today literally burned my mouth for half an hour and could easily serve as a substitute for pepper spray.

Working with PDA has been very interesting so far, even though my actual work has been minimal. PDA is a monstrous non-governmental organization that could best be described as a national conglomerate. It utilizes businesses to raise funds that go directly to the NGO/humanitarian organization and runs dozens of hotels, restaurants, and resorts. It was started by a former politician and activist, Mr. Mechai, in the early 1970's as a family planning NGO and has taken off to be the largest NGO in Thailand. Mr. Mechai is famous for addressing the stigma of family planning and HIV/AIDS and is nicknamed "Mr. Condom." There are over 18 PDA centers in Thailand and tons of other initiatives, including a school that I am working at and a major program called the Village Development Program (VDP). VDP is an initiative that PDA is pioneering in 150 villages in Thailand and Cambodia that is the final product of thirty years of PDA's trial and error in the development world. VDP works at the village level and harnesses its population for microfinance, urban development, planning, and more (Mr. Meechai actually started microcredit before Muhammad Yunus). VDP is just beginning but aims at being a sustainable and comprehensive model to fight poverty that can be scaled up very quickly and easily. I personally do not believe that it is the end-all solution to poverty, but there is no doubt that it is extremely helpful and an excellent method to really fight rural poverty on a large scale in Southeast Asia.

Tomorrow, Mr. Mechai is arriving at Lamplaimat and I am looking forward to meeting him.

I am rethinking the plans that Kathleen and I have laid out for traveling around Southeast Asia. Everyone here has told me that Krabi, a beach town in Southern Thailand, is the place to go - one can lounge on the beach, scuba dive, snorkel, rock climb, sea kayak, etc. Also, I haven't heard much about Vietnam, but I have heard that we must go to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We definitely are still going to Chiang Mai, though. The logistics are difficult so I have start redrawing our plans - we only have three weeks to do everything.

As always, stay posted for the latest in my adventures!

Bangkok - Day Two

2009-05-26T08:06:00.005-04:00

Today I got to see firsthand what 5-10% annual GDP growth rate translates into. I started out the day by returning to the general area near MBK (the seven story shopping mall/food court) to explore. Caddy corner to MBK is a monstrous and luxurious six story building called the Siam Paragon. I read in my guide book that despite the upscale nature of Siam Paragon, the food court is inexpensive and really good. I entered the shopping mall to discover another monstrous food court serving every type of food imaginable for about $2-5 a meal. The entire food court looked like a luxurious restaurant with modern white chairs, fish tanks, and blueish lighting. Attached to the food court was a gourmet grocery store and incredible bakeries.

However, my true shock came when I walked around the shopping center further. The luxury of the food court paralleled the most upscale restaurants in the United States. However, the rest of the six story complex held every designer label imaginable. The mall like nothing I have ever seen in terms of luxury and fanciness; there is nothing even close in the U.S. and one could easily spend $20,000 on one day's outfit. I probably walked around with my mouth half wide in shock. At the top of the mall was an iMax and regular movie theater, and the basement held a full aquarium where one can scuba dive with sharks.

After leaving Siam Paragon, I walked another block and was shocked to find another one of these luxury shopping mall complexes! In fact, there were two more within another two blocks, albeit less luxurious. The rapid economic growth combined with a lot of foreign investment and international consumerism has really made Thailand boom. I can say with certainty that one can get anything here that is available in the United States, but the opposite is not true.

I also had a meeting with the Vice President of PDA to get acquainted with the organization and talk a little about how I can be the most helpful. He actually got his Master's in Public Health at UNC, so I was comforted by a local Tar Heel. PDA is one of the largest NGO's in Thailand and is extremely well established. They have both domestic and international programs that run on a really large scale. Beginning as a HIV/AIDS prevention organization, the World Bank estimated that seven million lives were saved from HIV/AIDS through the intensive public education and prevention program designed and introduced to the public through PDA. Now PDA does everything, including corporate social responsibility and rural microcredit. I will be heading out pretty soon for Lamplaimat, a rural town close to the border of Cambodia to work in a school set up by PDA and help local organizations with sustainability and fundraising.

After my meeting, I decided to walk and explore the opposite direction that I typically have been going and came across another small albeit extremely luxurious shopping complex. On a spur of the moment decision, I bought a ticket for Angels and Demons.

Upon returning, I decided to give street food a try. There is an abundance of street vendors everywhere in Bangkok, but tourists face two challenges in regards to street food. The first is that the food is sometimes kept out longer and more likely to give an unaccustomed visitor food poisoning. The other problem is that it is extremely difficult to actually know what you are getting. The street vendors market to locals, so there typically aren't menus and the vendors don't speak much English. But, I found a place close to my room that offers a variety of dishes for about $1-2 per meal. It was actually much more flavorful than some of the other meals that I had and less than half the price. I definitely will be going back soon!

Bangkok Day 1

2009-05-25T04:58:00.004-04:00

After 25 hours of flights, 6 hours of layovers, and bouncing from Charlotte to Los Angeles and Tokyo, I finally arrived in Bangkok, Thailand at around midnight. On the flight I was thinking about how lucky I have been to be able to travel so much. Last summer I had the privilege to travel to Africa, and in the past 48 hours I have been in Tokyo, flown over Vancouver, Anchorage, and the Bering Strait (although I still cannot understand why that was the route the plane took). It really is a privilege to be able to experience so many different cultures around the world.

Upon arriving at the airport, I hired a cab to take me to the Population and Community Development Association office. All I had was an address and my taxi driver did not speak any English. He dropped me off in a side street where a sign said PDA, however I could not figure out where I was actually supposed to be. I ended up walking in the rain up and down a side street in Bangkok at 1:30 A.M. for about 30 minutes. I then eventually made it back to a main road with my luggage and found a cab driver who spoke enough English to understand me and agreed to only get paid if and when he dropped me off at my room. We drove around the same block for about 30 minutes asking every security guard possible where I was supposed to be and eventually found it. Quite an adventure for my first night.

My first impressions of Bangkok were largely positive. I was impressed at the substantial infrastructure and advanced technology that was everywhere in Bangkok. There is the Skyrail, skyscrapers, bridges, and tv screens everywhere; quite a contrast from Nairobi. Furthermore, there is such a large Western influence. There is a 7-11 convenience store, McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks on literally every other block. However, a different side of Bangkok hit me immediately from my cab ride to the airport. We took a turn onto a side street and there were approximately thirty young women, in scantily clad clothing, standing out in the rain. Thailand remains the sex tourism capital of the world, but it also the focal point of sex slavery.

On my first full day in Bangkok, I hit the city early after a brief meeting with PDA staff. I started off by walking to MBK, a seven story mall in which each level is the size of a smaller U.S. mall. You can literally buy anything you want there. The top three levels are dedicated to food, with hundreds of restaurants serving anything you can imagine. After lunch consisting of passionfruit juice, tom kum kung soup, and a mango waffle, I took a Tuk Tuk (three wheeled hybrid between a car and a motorcycle) to the Grand Palace area. I wasn't dressed properly to enter the Grand Palace but I did enter Wat Pho and saw the Reclining Bhudda. I then caught a boat to China Town and walked around for a long time there. I was planning on eating lunch in China Town but I simply was too full from lunch, so I returned to my area.

I also have a cell phone number here so please feel free to contact me if you are willing to bear a high phone bill. My number is +66870314809 (international) or 0870314809 (domestic in Thailand). I also have uploaded some pictures which you can access by clicking here. There is so much to explore so stay posted for more updates!

Four days and counting

2009-05-19T14:57:00.008-04:00

Hello friends,

Thank you for following my travels! I am leaving for Bangkok on May 23 and will be arriving in the middle of the night on the 25th. I will be working with the Population and Community Development Association until June 30 and spend most of my time in a village in rural Eastern Thailand with a brief return to D.C. for the Pickering Fellowship orientation in June. On June 30, Kathleen is meeting me in Bangkok and we will be backpacking through Northern Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam for three weeks.

Please feel free to check back for weekly (or daily) updates to this blog or sign up to receive email updates as I post them! I also will be posting pictures on Facebook and links to the public albums here.

It will be an incredible adventure!