July 4

This post spans the past week since I went to Khao Sam Roi Yot.


Class resumed as usual, with my LCA class on Monday. Our first assignment will be due in two weeks, but it will probably require a significant amount of time to complete.

Actually my other two classes this week were postponed until after the Buddhist holiday. So, I was left with only Thai language class this past week, several games of frisbee, and leisure time to read and hang out with friends.

On Wednesday on campus during lunch, there was an H1N1 rally? It was really odd and pretty funny, many college students were banging on drums holding up signs and chanting. The only words on the signs I could understand were H1N1, so it must have just been about awareness. I understand the severity of this pandemic, but seriously if we spend this much effort on some flu strain that has killed a relatively small number of people worldwide, why can't we spend more efforts on simpler problems like AIDS. So many more people suffer from AIDS and many cases could easily be prevented. This doesn't make sense to me.

My friend Raley, who I will room with in the Spring at UNC, is in some international organization at school that hosts conferences where you meet a lot of other students from around the world. Two years ago, he met Ning from Thailand. Then he went to Thailand last summer through UNC's SEAS program and met up with her in Thailand, while she showed him around Bangkok. The other week I received an email from her, because Raley told her I was in Bangkok, and she wanted to meet up and so we exchanged a few emails. We planned to meet at Sirikit Station on Thursday, and Ricker and I both were down in central Bangkok anyway, just wandering around, so then we met. It was really fun and it's really hard to imagine that you might randomly have a friend or know somebody on the opposite side of the world. That's crazy. We ate dinner together and then rented bikes in an urban park. Ning goes to Chugalongkorn University in Bangkok, which is the oldest University in Thailand and well-known internationally. She is studying English Literature and it's incredible how well she speaks English, but I mean what would you expect for an English Literature major. She is a bachelor's student as I am, which was also cool since everyone at JGSEE is older because I am taking Master's classes.

From biking-ning

All of the UNC students had high hopes for the Fourth of July, only to be dissappointed by going to a ridiculously over-the-top America festival. After about 30 minutes at some 4th of July party at the "American School" in Bangkok, we had enough of the hamburgers, hot dogs, barbeque, and other American things. The whole place was just really expensive and hot and pretty similar to America. If only we had our own grills, I think it would have been a better party. We could have stuck around our apartments and kept it low-key, but I will admit it was interesting to observe how July 4 is celebrated in a foreign country. Basically the festival was some sort of corporate fair where a lot of American companies gave away promotions and then food was really expensive. We were told there may be a party at the US Embassy in Bangkok, but when we walked to the Embassy after the fair, it was very quiet and there were only Thai guards who spoke little English and effectively said the embassy was closed from July 3-6. Without a fourth of July party, we were all pretty tired anyway and just went back to Ban Suan Thon (our apartment complex) and played cards and then went to sleep.



















We had to get up early on the 5th, becuase JGSEE was sponsoring a cultural tour for us to travel to Ayutthaya. This trip fulfilled our lack of Fourth of July fun because Ayutthaya was awesome. Our school rented out two vans and eighteen people went to Ayutthaya. Eight UNC students, several Indonesian students, a Nepalese student, and then three Thai students went to Ayutthaya. We went to a former palace of the king, ruins, and some Royal Project.





Christina and I in front of one of the former palace's many sculpted elephant shrubs. We were standing at the wrong end, haha.




















<--The JGSEE group (The school bought a poster to prove that they paid for this trip, so the joke was when were we going to take the stupid picture in front of the sign)


Ayutthaya, visually, presented one of the most unique places I've been. However, it is hard to imagine that all of the ruins are born from destruction. It was sacked by the Burmese in 1767, being the former capital of Thailand, and then it was a bustling regional center. Many Thais kept their home and businesses in this city once according to some scholars as large as Paris. Now it pales in comparison to Bangkok, the city which effectively replaced Ayutthaya and hides among the greater reaches of the Chao Phraya river.

From ayutthaya ruins

From ayutthaya ruins

There is a Buddhist Holiday this week that the Thai government mandated for many people to close schools and take off work in order to create a mini vacation. Usually the holiday is not significant, but the government wants to boost tourism and stimulate the economy by giving people a chance to travel. I have class on Thursday. Some of the UNC students and I may try to go to a national park close by tomorrow, or just hang out around our apartment.

Cheers
Noah

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/opinion/29krugman.html

Yesterday mostly consisted of laziness, the highlights of the day included breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's the simplicity and importance of such meals in Thai culture that is the most accessible to a foreign observer like myself. Time is defined by eating. The most common greeting, gin kow reu yeung, means literally Have you eaten yet? Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter and there's no way you would ever think otherwise. Rice pervades every meal, every snack. Breakfast may consist of fried rice, fruit, or sticky-rice engulfed fruit. Also Thais will often times fry eggs (sunny-side up style) and serve them as a side to dishes. If you are feeling nostalgic for some Americana you could ask for sai kai neung tii, which is a side of a fried egg, probably accompanied by rice. However, people will look at you inquisitively and doubtless ask why. I typically find a happy medium between traditional Thai breakfast and American style by eating some fruit in the morning. This could be banana, coconut, rambutan, lychee, mango, pineapple, watermelon, papaya. But don't worry if you like coffee, Thais drink it plenty, just in the iced form.

In the afternoon after going to the UNC office at the university Neung called and asked if I would like to eat some lunch. We went to get crispy pork at a special place further away from my apartment (had to take the equivalent of a bus). This was tasty I ate Pak See Ew moo krawp. Neung ordered a considerably spicier (phet mak mak) dish, which I tried. I like spicy food, but I do have the tendency to tear up pretty easily, which has happened on numerous occasions.

The big plan for the day, though, was to go to a Thai Buffet for dinner. Neung, Ricker, Christina, and I partook in this adventure. This was the first buffet I have seen in Thailand. All-you-can-eat captures the theme and you could tell this restaurant was more than it's name. This was no meal, it was an activity, especially since you could tell families spent hours at this place just eating. The all-you-can-eat part has no catch, but the difference between American and Thai style buffets is that you become the chef. The buffet contains all sorts of meats, seafood, shrimp, crayfish, crabs, vegetables, and fruit. Each table houses a cooking contraption--a charcoal grill with a hot plate on top encircled by a moat-like area to boil anything. We pour water surrounding the hot plate that comes to a boil and then drop in shrimp, vegetables, tofu, spices, crabs, and anything really. The outer ring creates a soup like dish and then chicken, beef, and pork were grilled in the center on a metal plate. We spent 2-3 hours cooking/eating/talking. In contrast to America though, we weren't just stuffing ourselves as fast as possible, each item came slowly and there were many breaks. I probably didn't eat too much more than a normal dinner, we just spread it out over a long period of time. Many restaurants in Thailand, including this one, lie under roofs without walls. It gets so hot during the day, that it makes sense to just have fans going, and it rains often. Well, this restaurant was no different. Because of the rainy season, last night in the middle of dinner the rain came with thunder and lightning and quite a storm lasted for about 15 minutes. The preparedness for any type of precipitation is remarkable, you almost feel like you are traveling on a sailboat and someone is yelling bar down the hatches. And ten people pop out from around the room and start unreeling mats that serve as walls during the rain. It's a spectacle.

Unfortunately all the coconut ice cream melted, so no dessert.

Today I may venture into central Bangkok and meet up with my friend Sadie before she catches a flight back to NC tonight. Tomorrow I may meet my friend Raley's friend Ning who goes to Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. We shall see what transpires.

Khao Sam Roi Yat National Park and Wai Kru

The past weekend was quite exhilarating, mostly because of my decision to leave on Thursday for a weekend excursion. I had a makeup class on Wednesday because Friday's class would be canceled. This led to an unexpected long weekend, that Ricker and I took advantage of because we were the only UNC students without a Friday class. Thursday, though we had to get up early and dress nicely for "Wai Kru" day. This means Teacher Appreciation day in Thai and it's a much bigger deal than whatever lack of Teacher Appreciation Day we have in America. I don't understand why we don't do things like this in America, but I guess it says something about how we value education. Anyway, we are supposed to give our teachers garlands, but the school bought us flowers to give to our teachers to make things easier for us. Neung instructed us to get to school thirty minutes early because we had to learn a song in Thai that we needed to sing. Things got interesting, especially when you get 8 UNC students without a clue, any idea of the melody, or a lick of Thai to sing this song:

From khao sam roi yot

Following our introduction to the song a Nepalese student gave the Powerpoint presentation and introduction to Wai Kru that segues into the Director of JGSEE's speech. The surprising part about this part of the ceremony was that all the Thai students were so loud during everyone's speeches. Seriously, it was really weird and a little funny becuase it's supposed to be a respectful ceremony, but they were just talking in the back the entire time. We presented our garlands to the teachers and kneeled before them as they said some kind words and gave advice. The teachers tied string around our wrists as some sort of symbol of good luck. After the ceremony all of the teachers and students went camera-crazy and took probably 10 of the same group pictures, which got to be pretty excessive. After Wai Kru, I had a meeting with my capstone group teacher and students to lay out a plan for the next 3 weeks. I have a lot of information to read and then give a presentation to the rest of the group about what I learn. There is no shortage of pdfs to read in Thailand right now.

After my meeting finished around 12, I called my friend Sadie who goes to NC State to tell her I probably wouldn't be able to meet up with her that afternoon, becuase the meeting did last a lot longer than I expected. But, we met up on Tuesday night and had a good time and I will probably see her again once before she leaves on July 1. It's neat to see someone random and familiar among so many Thais. I am pretty sure Bangkok is ethnically 80% Thai at least and then probably 10-15% Chinese. The school though is well represented with students from Laos, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Miami, Nepal, Tanzania, and Canada. This allows for interesting pre-class conversations, just because of the eclectic mix.

Ricker and I didn't have too much of a plan for the weekend, but decided to head out around noon to Hua Hin. Many of the lonely planet guides recommend it as a beach within a reasonable distance from Bangkok. So we took it's advice. The other students were tentative about coming and it was nice to travel with a small group of 2 for a change.

Ricker and I were confused when we were literally the only people on the bus from Bangkok as it was pulling away from the Southern Bus Terminal.

From khao sam roi yot

But along the way we picked up more people and things made more sense. We got to Hua Hin just as the sun was setting, so we didn't get to see much of the beach at night. We found a nice place to stay and it was about $5 a night. After paroosing through the night market and around Hua Hin, we didn't really find much to see or do. The beach was okay in the morning. We knew that Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park was relatively close by, so we actually just decided to get up really early in the morning and catch a bus to Pranburi.

All of our travel guides said the park was difficult to reach unless you had your own car. They were right. But they failed to mention the difficulty in traveling between areas of the park because it's not continous like many parks in the US. We got on a bus to Pranburi, struggled to communicate with some people there to figure out where our supposed bus to Bang Pu (a small village that you can hike 1 km to the park entrance) would arrive. That bus/songthaew didn't exist, so we had to hire a taxi to take us. After mulling over the cost, it was definitely worth it because the scenery on the ride was really awesome. We arrived at Bang Pu, everything was gravy, and then we hiked up a limestone cliff.

From khao sam roi yot

Then we explored this really large cave with a shrine to an old Thai king from 400 years ago. After hiking up and down a couple mountains, attempting at swimming in the beach (the park lies along the Gulf of Thailand), except the water was too shallow, we were hot and tired so we rested for awhile. It was about 2 pm when we decided we should find a place to stay for the night. Hat Laem Sala (the beach of our current locale) rented tents for camping for very cheap. We also read that we could sleep at Khao Deng which was another cave site and campground. It didn't look far on the map so we started walking along the beach. But then, we realized the beach didn't exactly continue and we couldn't get around one of the points several kilometers away from Hat Laem Sala. We had to turn around and reconsult the map. The park map makes it look like everything is connected, when in reality, it may be but there aren't trails to hike between certain parts. This is why the book recommended having your own transportation.

From khao sam roi yot

We didn't realize until later the name of the park means three hundred peaks, so that could explain the discontinuity of the park itself. We talked to the park ranger and he said we had to either hire a taxi or boat to go over there. The boat is the more expensive way so we decided to take a taxi. This is where you may or may not want to keep reading depending on how you feel about hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. We walked to Bang Pu and there were only 2 people we could find. They were very nice and then we asked them how to get a taxi, but they kept motioning for us to just climb aboard their truck filled with water that they had to deliver. So we climbed aboard their pickup truck and rode for 5k to the main road where they dropped us off, probably no better than when we started. We saw the sign for the Khao Deng which was 9 km from where we were. I think we figured we had a couple hours until sunset and we would see what happens. After 5 minutes a truck drove by and they rolled down their window offering a ride in the same direction. Unfortunately there was a large communication barrier so they stopped the truck at Sam Phraya beach pointing for us to get out because we would later find out there would be camping supplies at this area, but we insisted that we were trying to go to Khao Deng, because the lonely planet guide said you could rent stuff there. They dropped us at a park entrance 14 km away from where we started. There was a park ranger there so we tried to ask him for the camping supplies. He spoke very broken english, but basically told us that Sam Phraya rented supplies not where we were. This is 9 km in the direction of where we came. But no worries, we figured we could just hitchhike back up there and get there between 5-6 pm. Our only worry was they might stop renting campsites at some point, so we felt pressed a bit for time. We started walking and were unsuccessful in finding a pickup truck driving in the correct direction for about 15 minutes. We had to cross this bridge and there were probably about 50 monkeys lined across the road. We waited until a couple motorcycles passed by so that the monkeys would clear the road since they are quite the opposite of cute and fuzzy. They are vicious and really strong. If you have something loose dangling they will grab it from you or if you have some fruit they will definitely attempt to steal it. So we did a bit of repacking and then quietly crossed the bridge, no problems. Finally a pick up truck drove by and we hopped in the back. This was embarrasing because I was wearing a hat and for some reason I left it on my head. It flew off after a couple minutes and then I said, don't worry about it (mai pen rai), but this one Thai guy sprinted 100m to get it. I felt bad, but it was pretty funny and nice of them. Then they handed me a cell phone with someone who spoke English on the other line. I said "hello" and the other line said "hello, where are you going?" I said "Sam Phraya" They said "okay, okay". I guess it just takes two people, because Sam Phraya is the same in thai and english, but whatever. They dropped us off in front of the road to Sam Phraya which is about 1 km long. We thanked them a lot and proceeded. There was a huge lizard that we saw, at least 3 meters in length scurry across the road. It was quite a sight. Then luckily we met two workers at the campsite (maybe park rangers, but they didn't have uniforms). We were just relieved to have made it and have a tent and campsite. But they were so nice and the lady was impressed with my Thai and then she came back to the site 30 minutes later and gave us pillows, a mat, and a blanket (not that we'd need it considering it was at least 90 farenheight).

From khao sam roi yot

We were the only people there. And it looked like the only people that had come for a long time. Then she told me kun ja pai gin kow leew (you are going to eat dinner at 7). Shocked, we were really happy that they were going to open the "restaurant" for dinner (we thought it was closed). Basically we had brought a couple snacks at 7 am at a 7-11 in Hua Hin and already ate them all, so we were unsure about dinner. She cooked us tom yum gung (a spicy and tangy shrimp salad in a soup form) cow pat (fried rice). There were a bunch of herds of cows that kept walking around the beach, so it was amusing to watch the guy chase them. By 8 we finished eating dinner, it was pitch black, and we had nothing to do. The rangers left and then turned on the lights to a bathroom, and around the campsite. We read a little and then went to sleep early. Another group of Europeans came and pitched a tent further down the beach around 9 pm. In the morning there were new rangers, but they were equally nice and then we ate breakfast and set out walking to Sai cave. The map suggested it was about 3-4 km. Basically we hiked there although we had to walk along the road instead of a trail becuase the beach wasn't connected. We made it to the cave and randomly right before we walked in saw the same lady from the night before who was working at Sai cave the next day. This was cool, she offered to watch our stuff in a locker for free so we could explore without lugging around all of our stuff. I took out my wallet and some stuff just to keep on me. Then we saw a really cool cave. But, we were exhausted from hiking and then climbing up a steep ascent to get into the cave. At the mouth of the cave you are supposed to rent lanterns, but the guy was busy showing other people the cave so we sort of just tagged along behind them using their light. Also we had cell phone lights, which came in handy. This area was awesome to explore. We came back down, ate lunch with that lady who offered to drive us to Pranburi for a lot cheaper than getting a cab. Pranburi was about 35 km away. She also gave us free pineapples after our lunch. We got to Pranburi and headed back to Bangkok.



The trip was probably the coolest place I've been to so far, because the area was such an awesome place to explore. Also, since we camped and saved money on other things it was pretty cheap especially compared to last weekend at Ko Samet.

This week I have classes and meetings, but then on Saturday or Sunday one of the teachers at JGSEE wants to take all the UNC students to Ayutthya the ancient capital.

Long Awaited Update

I've been really busy the past few weeks because Rich came to KMUTT and I feel like every weekday I have either been in a class or a meeting and then Thai language class and then on both of the past weekends I did a bit of traveling around the area.

Some highlights include:

More environmental chemistry lectures than I ever expected were possible, especially crammed into like a 2 week window. Rich is the coolest professor though and even when he's deriving ridiculous differential equations to model ozone formation in the troposphere, it's really entertaining to watch his mannerisms and the every-five-minute side note in Thai that nobody understands except for the three Thai students. They just the "what the --" look because Rich is crazy and school is a pretty formal affair in Thailand, so to see a teacher jest around like Rich becomes an odd occurrence to say the least. We conducted a remote experiment on Rich's smog chamber in Pittsboro, NC and it was hilarious to watch him explain what we would do because he started dancing like a robot and making gas pipe sounds "pssshhhhhht" and the Thais were just probably confused to the nth degree because the chemistry was really crazy and then Rich started acting wild. It's such a sight. The experiment was cool though, we waited until sunrise in North Carolina and via the world wide web opened some valves, pumped in NOx into our fake atmosphere, the combustion by-product of cars and industry and the sun in North Carolina reacted with NOx to produce free radical hydroxyl groups which create ozone. This type of ozone is in the troposphere and is synonymous with smog, as opposed to the "good" ozone in the stratosphere which protects humans from dangerous ultraviolet rays from the sun. So, that was a fun experiment. Then, Rich has this really old computer model (it's in DOS) that he has tinkered with to model the chemical mix from cars in Bangkok and then we can change certain concentrations of chemicals and see how it changes the levels of ozone. This is really neat and has a lot of practical applications for finding ways to reduce smog. Not everything is as easy as one may suspect, if you decrease a lot of the NO2 but nothing else, you may actually increase smog becuase other free radicals can consume more free oxygen and all this weird chemistry stuff that I don't really understand completely. The cool part though, is that it made me question some of the ways decision makers create legislation.

For instance, a 20% biodiesel blend is required in government vehicles in Thailand, which will likely cause a lot more air pollution and not to mention land use change in Thailand, because many of the government vehicles will not change their engines, so the 20% blend mix makes some cars sputter a bit and not run as well as they should. In theory, it seems like a good idea, but when you look at what the implications of such a mandate are, the logic is flawed. It's tough though, especially for Thailand whose energy situation is very similar to the United States: dependent on foreign imports and trying to find alternate ways that will insulate their economy.

So, too much chemistry, is the point of all this...

We played several games of frisbee, met a bunch of Thais. One friend took us to this floating market last Saturday in a rural province outside Bangkok, which was a lot of fun. Even though I don't particularly enjoy shopping too much in the US, it was fun to walk around the floating market. I bought a lot of fruit and we ate a lot. Sunday, Neung came with a couple of us into Bangkok and we went to Wat Arun and the Chatuchak Weekend market, which you can probably find anything you would ever want for only 3 dollars.

Our other classes resumed, and we had many meetings with university people and other friends of Rich. The next week, classes were pretty much everyday for some reason, and then I had some free time and I finished reading one of the books I had started at the beach two weeekends ago.

On Friday we traveled via bus to Ko Samet, an island in the Gulf of Thailand with an amazing beach. We didn't arrive to Banphe (the mainland port) until like 10 pm, so we ate some food (chicken soup) and then chartered a probably illegal speedboat across the water to the island. It was a pretty fast speedboat ride and then we didn't have to pay the entrance fee to the island because the guard wasn't there at 11 pm. Apparently though, it's pretty normal if you arrive past the ferry hours to do this. There is absolutely nothing in Banphe, it's a pretty mundane place and the only good part about it is that it's close to Ko Samet. So we got to the island at night, my friends from UNC Ricker and Christina booked us a cabin in advance (they came earlier than me and others because they didn't have Friday class). The bungalow we stayed in was pretty cheap and pretty neat. It cost 150 baht per night (roughly less than 5 dollars). The cabin contained a double bed enclosed in a mosquito net. The forecast called for thunderstorms all weekend so on the bus, we were a little anxious. But it didn't rain at all the entire weekend! The water was blue and green and the picturesque white-sand beach fits the travel guides descriptions as one of the best beaches along the Gulf of Thailand. It was awesome, we traveled south on the island away from all the tourist trap stuff near the pier on Saturday and spent the day on a secluded beach. It's the rainy season (read: off-season) so nobody else was there. We brought a frisbee and all of us got sunburned even after applying lots of sunscreen, pretty much because all of us were pale and we are 13 degrees north of the equator.

That reminds me of my solar energy where our professor is obsessed with the sun and calculating "solar time" and other funny things, but the neat part is he can pretty much quantify how much sun energy is hitting Thailand at all times and then convert that into how much solar electricty one could theoretically create. His figures present a fairly compelling case for solar power.

The next day at the beach Pai and I rented a kayak. We were out in the sea for about an hour and then it got really windy. I am usually fine with motion-sickness type things, but the waves were too much and I felt pretty sea sick. So despite our two-hour rental time, after an hour, both of us were very dizzy and nauseated. The kayak was fun, but the weather wouldn't permit. There aren't many waves though, as the largest wave we saw was about half the size of a wave at Wrightsville Beach.

We ate a lot of food at the beach and it was all delicious. Everything was really cheap. Then we came home Sunday evening. Monday we had class, met with Rich for the last time, and then traveled into Bangkok to meet the director of Kenan Asia. This is a UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School affiliated non-profit seeking to aid sustainable development in Southeast Asia. He gave us a really interesting presentation on Thailand's history and culture and proceeded with a current analysis of the economic and political situation. It was one of the better presentations I had seen in a while and we all learned a lot and came to a lot of realizations. He said the presentation is best during your first week, but I think since we had been in Thailand for a month already, a lot of his observations were more relevant to us and we had a better feel for what he meant. Some of the cultural differences we observed in our interactions with Thais that we may not have had if we had met with him 3 weeks ago. He also may provide a good network connection for our project later this semester.

I probably forgot about some other cool things over the past few weeks. But, I think this weekend we may head to the beach again (Hua Hin). Our Friday class was moved up to Wednesday so we have a long weekend. The best part about Bangkok is the proximity to a lot of cool areas and travel is cheap. So far we have worked really hard during the weekdays, and then gone to some neat places on the weekends.

So long for now

Bang Saen

After completing many of the requisite inner-Bangkok sights listed in the various guide-books we all brought, last week breezed by mostly filled with bus trips from our apartment in Bang Mod to Siam.

Siam was the former name of the Kingdom of Thailand until after World War II when they changed the name to Prathet Thai which reflected a growing sense of nationalism. I know Dad asked about this earlier, so there is really no political reason, except just to reassert the pride that Thai people have since their country was the only one in Southeast Asia to not become colonized. Now, Siam represents the thriving commercial center of Bangkok, with four of the largest, most extravagant malls all within walking distance. It's like Southpoint on crack, but all indoors, eight stories and air-conditioned. Probably the air-conditioning provides the main incentive for people to just hang out at the malls in Bangkok, it's not something I would do in America, but I understand why Thai teens/families come to the mall as if it were Central Park. We walked around and saw some wats that just happened to be located among rapid development areas. So there is a nice new luxurious five-star hotel and a fairly old, Buddhist shrine to Buddha on the same block. It's very apparent the transition of Thailand.

Our UNC professor and director of the program arrived on Friday night and Saturday morning he took us to Bang Saen, probably the worst beach in Thailand. It was a lot of fun, but it was quite amusing telling our Thai friends where we were going because everyone just gives you a look of puzzlement and semi-disgust and asks Why??? There was a UNC student who was studying in Vietnam last semester and was traveling through Bangkok and somehow got a hold of Rich, so she tagged along our beach trip as well, which was neat. We took the bus to the beach which was near Chonburi if you look on a map. The bus ride took about 2 hours, but it only cost 80 baht which is like 2.50 american dollars. We stayed at a beach bungalow. Randomly our Thai TA, Neung showed up unannouced which was fun, because we weren't expecting him to join us. That was fun, so we all hung out on the beach, rented a tandem bike, ate loads of seafood, and passed out from all the heat and such from the beach. I went swimming along with Ricker, Matt, and Neung, but there was trash everywhere, dead fish, and I felt pretty grimy afterward. It is pretty sad what happened to this beach, but it's not their fault at all. It's all trash from Bangkok and so what was once a glistening beach, is now a sort of run-down tourist trap for Thais. Although, it will probably be the only beach we go to without seeing any farang (white-people) of all the beaches I hope to see while I am here. Immediately after getting out of the water, we took a shower, which consisted of taking bowls of water and dumping it on ourselves. We rented a three-seater bike and rode around which was fun, even Rich biked with us. The hotel was the first time I had watched television since I arrived and it was funny to see Popeye dubbed in Thai and outrageous to see that the only American channel broadcasted was Fox News. Mostly though, there was a mix of British and Thai media. We ate dinner, more seafood, and then mosied about the town, trying to find things to do. The next day we went to several Buddhist temples, one of which was a shrine also to King Rama V. One of the temples was extremely peculiar, surreal, and possibly anglicized. Many statues depicted "hell" and what would happen to humans if they committed certain sins. Apparently, Rich has never seen any other wat like this, so it was very unique, although morbid. I took some pictures that can better describe the eternal damnation. It was funny at first, but after ten minutes of walking through bloody statues, I got the point. Then we traveled to a high point (elevation wise) and saw some monkeys, who are vicious and a decent view of the coast and rice paddies. Some of the girls wanted to shop around, and I got a snack. We traveled to a glamourous Chinese wat, which was amazing in how detailed and fancy all the architecture and shrines were. Everything was gold and silver and probably cost a fortune. There, we ate a free vegetarian lunch, which was neat. At that point the heat got the better of us and we came back to Bangkok. The van we took to come back to Bangkok didn't have working air conditioning, so we were sweating profusely upon arrival.

Classes began, Life Cycle Assessment is with Shabbir, who made a really good first impression. I'm excited about this class. We then had a lunch meeting to discuss our research project, which apparently is supposed to start earlier than the group last year. Their procrastination and excessive free time made the professors this year very anxious for us to start our projects on time. We were presented with several options, all of which sound fine by me, except I am not as interested in modeling the effects of biodiesel on air quality in Bangkok, because of all the chemistry. It gets really specific into aldehydes and such and I would rather do a project on solar energy implementation. We will have more meetings in the next couple of weeks to learn more about the possibly projects. The one I am excited about involves figuring out ways for rural areas of Thailand to build photovoltaic solar cells on their rooftops as part of the initial building phase, rather than expensive modifications as a retrofit, and perhaps may include some optimization of when, where, and how to best create solar electricity in rural areas. This is a pretty rough sketch of what may turn out to be a large project, but it's difficult to say at this point what I will end up doing, or if that is the direction of the professor's project.

There is a chance I may venture into Cambodia in the near future??

Our UNC advisor sent us this link, which is pretty interesting

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05152009/profile2.html

One of my classes in Thailand is Life Cycle Assessment, which if you didn't know what that meant or entailed, the interview does a pretty good job of what my class will discuss, fyi. My first LCA class will be on Monday. All of the classes in Thailand are once a week, but for three hours, and I went to a class today to see if I might take it as an option. All of the UNC students fell asleep and the teacher called the class off after a little over 2 hours because she could tell we were all in another dimension. It was pretty funny, but I'm going to have to figure out a way to pay attention for 3 hours. The longest classes at UNC are 1:15 and last summer I took a class at NCSU for 1:30 during summer school. We shall see how it works. At least the 3 hour class usually includes a 15 minute + break.

Perhaps after next weekend I can upload some more pictures, as I don't have many up but I'm very excited because our teacher is coming this weekend and taking us to Bang Saen, a beach where he did Peace Corps work in the seventies. It will be a neat experience, while the beach isn't known for the aesthetics as much as many of Thailand's other beaches, it has a personal appeal to Dr. Kamens which will be interesting and neat to learn about and hear about its progression. A friend that goes to NCSU is in Bangkok also, and she contacted me about getting together and potentially we may travel somewhere.

this is where i live

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Pracha+Uthit,+Bangkok,+Thailand&sll=37.579413,-95.712891&sspn=41.029563,93.164063&ie=UTF8&cd=2&geocode=FagU0AAdXYn9BQ&split=0&ll=13.652566,100.490162&spn=0.006203,0.011373&t=h&z=17

First week of school- No classes!

I've never made one of these before, but I think it may be easiest to link some photos with a Picasa album. Here are a few pictures from the first few days, hopefully I'll take some more pictures later.

http://picasaweb.google.com/noahkittner

Classes were "supposed" to start this week, but so far everything has been pushed back to next week, which was expected. Over the past couple days I have made a lot of new Thai friends, aided by having a cell phone. There is a city park really close to the apartment complex which has cool trails, fountains, and is the place where many locals do aerobics in the morning. During the weekend I met some kids who wanted to play basketball which was a funny story because they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Thai. They had a basketball and were walking around and we said hello, and then the kids came up to us with a phone so I answered the phone in English. The other end said "Hello, How may I help you?" Nobody knew what was going on although we could infer that the kids wanted to play basketball with us. After a lot of laughter on the phone because of utter confusion, we followed the kids across the street to a basketball court, where there were about 10 other people playing pick-up basketball. Ricker and I played for awhile and it was really fun. We went out to a bar on Saturday night in the area with Pai, our TA. Then on Sunday we ate food and it rained a lot, so then Pai and Neung invited us over to their apartment to play some video games. All of their video games are Japanese bootleg copies, although neither the Thais nor us could speak Japanese, but they were fun nonetheless. This trip is so much different from any other foreign country I've previously been to because there is no rush whatsoever. I don't feel like I have to cram in every single thing to do in one week to experience the country, I have plenty of time. Especially since our classes provide for a lot of free time, I will be able to do a lot of traveling on weekends throughout the semester.


Transportation in the area is so much easier than anywhere in North Carolina. There are skybridges to cross the street safely due to the erratic traffic and the combination of buses and converted pick up trucks with seats in the bed which cost 5 baht to go wherever you want make it simple. There is no waiting and it's efficient, whereas before I came to Thailand I was working in the Plant Ecology Lab in Chapel Hill and taking the TTA bus every day which I had to wait up to 30 minutes sometimes just standing around.

Yesterday we wanted to buy some chairs and additional seating for the apartment at Tesco/Lotus, and we initially knew where to go and had the right idea, but then we decided to ask somebody to make sure. Since they couldn't speak English, they actually just confused us more and we followed where they pointed which was a bad idea. We ended up at a convenience store version of Tesco, which is not the large store that would sell chairs all the way across town. Neung luckily helped us out and we found our way to the large Tesco in Thonburi, a section of Bangkok across the Chao Phrya river. We bought a stool and a mop and then ate some lunch. The rest of the day we explored some of the area within walking distance of our apartment. Then, we came to campus and played ultimate frisbee with some of our fellow Thai friends. They were introduced to frisbee by former UNC students on this program and hadn't played since the last group left, so it was a big deal for them to play frisbee again. About five minutes passed, and most people realized how out of shape/tired they were so the game turned into a pretty slow paced friendly game which was still fun. Then Pai showed us an organic food store across the street from our apartment, and the owner was very welcoming and spoke English well. I talked to her for a couple minutes and bought some small plum-like fruit native to Thailand and juice. We thought we would have class today, but we don't so most of us will head into some of the areas of Bangkok that are touristy, just to do it. We may see the Grand Palace or Emerald Buddha.

Also, the other day the apartment owner came and brought us some welcoming gifts such as a fruit pronounced ngo and mangosteen. She offered to show us around Bangkok in her boat on the Chao Phrya river which would be awesome, but I am not really sure how serious she was. It might be weird, too, to ride around in a boat with our landlady. I'm sure she is great, but it was pretty funny.

Another observation is that in Thailand I am a farang (foreigner), and pretty noticeable. If a Thai person came to America, nobody would really notice, but in the incredibly homogeneous Kingdom of Thailand, all eyes are on white people.

Some of the UNC students and I talked about going to Khao Yai National Park in a couple days and then we head to the beach with Ajarn Rich (our UNC professor and Director of the program) when he arrives on Thursday night.