Updates from N and S Thailand

I've been behind so I'm devolving to list format updates to catch up:

• The 2nd week of volunteering in Singburi (3/23-27), we taught at an English camp. A French guy and I signed up to help teach "The Planets" and were put in a class in front of 30 or so ~10 year olds. After waiting a few minutes for the main teachers to show up, we realized that that was us. The first day was a little rocky, but we hit our stride and had an amazing time teaching. Unfortunately, the language barrier prevented me from telling the story of how, when we pointed Hubble in a direction that we thought was devoid of anything, the long exposure came back filled with thousands of points of light (each representing a new galaxy).
  
• I spent a day at an elephant sanctuary near Chiang Mai around 4/1. I would highly recommend this to anyone going to Thailand. Highlights included washing the elephants in the river and seeing aspects of their social relationships with each other.
  
• My last few days in N Thailand (4/2-4) I spent in a small town called Pai, which is a little like Eugene, OR. I rented a motorbike and cruised around the countryside and worked/stayed at an organic farm.
  
• Yesterday I made it down to Ko Phi Phi Don. Phi Phi is a tropical island paradise, and has been in a movie w/. I've done some kayaking, snorkeling, and rock climbing here. To escape the island's main downside last night (the drunken hordes of spring-breaking Europeans), I went to sleep early. Then I woke up early this morning and hikes around the woods, eventually stumbling on a few Thais who squat in tents on a ridge overlooking the Andaman sea. They offered me some pumpkin rice dish (accepted) and hits from their bong made of bamboo (declined). Tomorrow morning I think I'll go up there for the sunrise and bring some fruit as thanks.
  

The heat-lightning storms at night here are enthralling, better than watching movies on the big screen.

On Fri, I'll be taking a boat to Hat Rai Lay, where there are beaches, caves, and some world-renowned climbing.

The Eurokids are getting rowdy, time to go to bed.

PS More pics up on flickr

Chiang Mai

I'm passing a couple lazy days in Chiang Mai right now. I took the 9+ hour bus ride on Sat from Singburi after the volunteer program wrapped up. On Sunday I wandered around the moat-encircled old city of Chiang Mai, ate at an Indian place, a veg place, and dropped into an orphanage for some volunteering. I didn't know what to expect from the orphanage, but it turned out to be a great time. When I showed up, the kids (about 20 of them, between ~16 and 30 months) were sitting around a table and stopped whatever they were doing to stare at me for awhile. I tried asking one his name in Thai, but that illicited no response. I began to worry a bit that they would be too scared of me, but we soon switched rooms to a play room, many beach balls were unleashed, and I was swiftly appointed as a human jungle gym. We moved to the playground after awhile, and I juggled some clubs for them, which completely blew their 2-year old minds. An American family with a translator/guide was also visiting and the mom kept saying how much she wanted to take some of the kids home to Chicago with her, and something about understanding Angelina Jolie now.



After 2 weeks in Singburi, Chiang Mai seems very diverse, cosmopolitan, English- and vegetarian-friendly. I'm picking up a few history tidbits- it was founded in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna kingdom, some buildings date back to the 1200s, it was sacked by the Burmese in the 1700s (moat fail).

Oh, I also got a Thai massage yesterday (1 hour for $5). It turns out to be 50% assisted yoga (ex. the masseuse putting you in a body twist then putting her weight on you to add to the stretch) and 50% muay thai (Thai boxing, ex. punching you in the top of the head, putting you in a headlock and twisting your back, elbowing you right to the side of your groin). I like it.

Today I visited a temple and talked to a Buddhist monk for awhile as part of a program they call "monk chat". They practice Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, which is the oldest branch, which Mahayana came from (the monk compared the relationship between the two to that of Catholicism and Protestantism).

Tomorrow- overnight stay at an elephant sanctuary, then 5 more days in Chiang Mai or Pai, perhaps with a rock climbing day trip/lead-climbing class in there. Then, a week from today, I'll fly to Phuket in S Thailand and hit some islands, snorkeling, rock climbing, etc.

Singburi Week 1

A little background for those I didn't get a chance to talk to before I left- I managed a month of unpaid leave and decided to spend the in Thailand. The first half of the trip I'm volunteering in a rural area north of Bangkok (via the IVS) and the other half I'll be traveling around, hitting an elephant sanctuary, maybe some islands, rock climbing, national parks, whatever sounds good at the time. For the photo version of this blog, here's my pics.

Now the update- I met up with the volunteer group on Monday morning in Sing Buri, had an intro day that day, then Tues, Wed, and Thurs working in a school (mostly on tiling a classroom floor). The volunteer group of 9 consists of 4 people from France, 2 from (French speaking) Belgium, and 1 each from Toronto, Germany, and Portland (me). French tends to be the default language and it's fun to listen to that and pick up a little bit of that and Thai too. There are a couple other volunteer houses a few miles away, and we run into them from time to time. There's a bar by one of the volunteer houses that looks like a lemonade stand, but they serve Thai beer and whiskey, we've had a couple debaucherous nights there already.

The work in the school is a nice mix of manual labor and playing with the kids. The kids are super friendly (actually almost everyone is in Thailand) and though they have no language in common w/ any of the volunteers, we find ways to communicate using sign language, soccer players' names, and gibberish. Next week we'll be teaching them English, let me know if you know of games or other tools that are good for teaching when the students and teachers don't speak the same language. I've got a couple simple riddles in mind, juggling, and duck-duck-goose of course.
We've got this weekend off and I'm either going to head to a beach or a national park. I want to see some monkeys.

Rental Pants vs the Emerald Buddha

I arrived in Bangkok late last night and found my way to my hostel about 23 hours after leaving my house in PDX. It seems the political situation here is less than stable right now, but the protests seem like they'll be peaceful- http://www.bangkokpost.com/

Tonight I'll hit the juggling club in Bangkok and tomorrow I take off for the volunteer program in Singburi. I'll try to get some pics up before then as I may be offline for a couple weeks.

For my fellow map aficionados- right now I'm approximately here.