The Final Post

Field Studies is all over. This is the final post of my excitingly named blog 'Thomas' Field Studies in Thailand'. I have now been back in the UK for nearly a week and I have started doing some ad-hoc hours at work, which is most exciting and of course I am back with my girlfriend Eleanor. I got back to the UK fine, except that when I arrived at Leeds Railway Station because of what I am calling the Yorkshire Monsoon (BBC News). So after going 1000s of miles on 3 planes (Chiang Mai to Singapore, Singapore to London and London to Manchester), it was the last 20miles from Leeds to Harrogate that meant I was delayed.

Well anyway, Field Studies is all over and so is this blog. However, I can't forget about it because I have to write my dissertation based on it over the course of the next year.

Goodbye

Thomas

The Last Week

I have not updated this blog for a while, because I have been so busy with the final project of Field Studies. As I told you last time I spent my project in the Akha village of Doi Chaang. This village is very famous because it has been successful at growing coffee and has become an internationally known brand. The project that I completed wanted to examine what impact this 'economic' success had, had on the identity of the people and whether this had changed the culture of the village.

The project went very well and will provide a really good starting point for my dissertation. One of the most interesting parts of the project was that I used an usual method that as far as I am aware isn't very commonly used particularly in developing nations. I basically asked the participants to take photographs of things that are important to them. This worked quite well but there were some limitations. If you want to know more you can read my dissertation that will be published on 29th February 2008.

Here is the low down of what happened in the rest of the final week.

Wednesday

Returned to Chiang Mai from Doi Chaang.

Thursday

Project Write Up.

Friday

Project Presentation
In the evening was the Farewell meal with the Thai Buddies.

Saturday

Coach from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai
In the evening, I went to shopping at the Night Bazaar

Sunday

HOMEWARD BOUND

Photos

Chiang Rai Orientation http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136562&l=1ded4&id=61201497
Chiang Rai Project http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2140081&l=8fbce&id=61201497

STILL TO COME ON MY BLOG:
MY RETURN TO YORKSHIRE

Off into the Hills

Today I am leaving the relative comfort of Chiang Rai (TV, Air Con, Comfy Bed, Shops, Restaurants & internet). OK, I am getting ready to leave the comfort of Chiang Rai to make my way to a Hill Tribe Akha Village. I will be staying in the Doi Chaang Village and examine how the village has changed since the village started to grow coffee and become very successful. I am going to examine whether this new found wealth has changed their identity. This work will form the basis of my dissertation and is the main reason why I came on this trip.

Because I will be in the village this blog will not be updated until the end of the next week.

Friday 15th June 2007

Today was spent writing our project proposal for our week in the hill tribe. This actually only took us a couple of hours, so it was quite nice to have the rest of the day of and relax before the work starts tomorrow.

All Along the Border

Hello and welcome to the 'All Along the Border' edition of my blog. This blog covers the four day orientation period in the far North of Thailand, that is meant to give us inspiration for our final and biggest project. Even though this is 'GE3230a Field Studies in Thailand', this period saw us entering three different countries, 'Thailand', 'Myanmar (Burma)' and Laos.

All of the photographs from Chiang Mai are now on my Facebook and you can view them at ADD http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136562&l=1ded4&id=61201497

Monday 11th June 2007: Baan Thoed Tai Village & Khun Sa

The first day of the Orientation saw us leaving Chiang Rai and going up into the hills first of all to Mae Salong. The Rough Guide (2006) describes the road leading to Mae Salong as a rollercoaster. The area is a stronghold for the KMT (Chinese Nationals) who for two generations have fought against communism in China. The Thai government allowed them to stay in Thailand during the Cold War, just because they were fighting against communism. The area use to be very famous for growing opium but due to a royal project they have started to grow tea, which is very nice. We went to a museum (which was basically propaganda) about the Chinese martyrs (KMT).

After lunch we made our way to have a look at one of the many tea plantations before making our way to Baan Thoed Tai Village traveling across very hilly terrain as can be seen in this photograph. This use to be a stronghold for Khun Sah who at one time was the US' most wanted drug criminal. However, he wasn't just a drug criminal who was trying to make money. He was fighting for an independent Shan State. Shan is an area within Burma, which has long wanted independence but has never received it. We stayed the night in BTT village.

Tuesday 12th June 2007 Maesai & Entering Burma

Today was one of the most exciting days so far on Field Studies. We drove from BTT to
the border post of Mae Sai. However, instead of taking the direct route we took the road that went right along the border between Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand. Along the way we went past a Thai Army Post and we actually got an opportunity to have a look inside. This first photograph shows the trench that they have dug to protect themselves from the Burmesse.

This next photograph shows why they need protection. This is a photograph of the Myanmar Army post that was only about 100metres away.


After this excitement and the realisation that borders were a completely stupid and arbitrary thing we made our way to Mae Sai. This is one of only two border points along the whole border between Myanmar & Thailand. We had a couple of hours to kill so we thought we would pop across the border into Tachilek in Burma. This photograph was taken by me as I crossed over the river that separtes the two countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly Burma wasn't very nice. The town on the other side was full of people trying to sell you dodgy cigarettes, bootleg DVDs and dangerous drugs. So, it wasn't too long before we turned back into the safety of Thailand. In the late afternoon we had a Dr. Carl lecture all about the exciting geo-political issues of the area.

Wednesday 13th June: Golden Triangle & Entering Laos

The Golden Triangle in the past referred to the Opium producing area of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. However, in an effort to attract tourists the authorities have tried to change the meaning of the Golden Triangle so that it refers to the single point where the borders of the three countries meet. With the help of the useful text I added to this picture you can see how the three countries are sperated by the mighty Mekong River. After a lecture and photo taking session we went to the House of Opium Museum where we learned about the area's opium history.

It was now time to leave Thailand again and make our way to Laos via the border point at Chiang Khong. This time there was no bridge so we had to make our way across the river in = little boats. This photograph shows is arriving in Hua Wiang, the small town on the Laotian side of the river. To be perfectly honest the town was quite boring, but most travelers use it merely as a stepping stone to the rest of Laos.

After Dinner there was quite an exciting activity. Because half the group was still across the other side of the river we took part in an International Firework and Lantern Show. This was quite spectacular as both groups set off their lanterns from their side of the river.

Thursday 14th June: Phouvantai Village & Back to Chiang Rai

This was the final day of the Orientation. Before we left Laos we made our way to Phouvantai, which is a village about 30miles from Hua Wiang. This is a very interesting village because the Government of Laos forced the residents to settle here and stop their nomadic habits. There is a possibility that I will be doing a project here, so if I do I will tell you more.

It was then time to travel back to Chiang Rai, which was easier said then done. The roads in Laos weren't very good and the vehicles (Tuk Tuks) were were traveling in struggled to go across the terrain. It then took about 15minutes for the Lao authorities to check us out and on the boat ride back across the Mekong one of the boats broke down, started drifting down and had to be rescued. Then, the Thai Customs were really slow as they had to check that everyone had flights booked out of the country, even though we were all in one big group who had a single booking. We were then worried that we would miss the last bus to Chiang Rai but luckily we managed to get to the Bus Station just in time to catch the bus. Then it was a nice relaxing two hour journey back to our hotel in Chiang Rai.

NEXT ON FIELD STUDIES........

The Final Project
Farewell and Back to England

Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai

Welcome to the first blog entry from Chiang Rai. The final photos from Chiang Mai are now online at http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497. Also the photos from the first two days of Chiang Rai Orientation are online at http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136562&l=1ded4&id=61201497.

Due to lack of internet this blog is running a couple of days behind, but I will update it more tomorow to bring you all of the excitments of Chiang Rai Orientation.

The T-Shirt

On Saturday we all received our official Field Studies T-Shirts. These T-Shirts are a little bit unusual because I am going to have to explain what it mean because itas designed by someone quite clever who made it a little bit complicated.

F é A = Forget the A (as in the A-Grade)
Let it B = Whatever happens in fine.
You Will C
Field Studies D (this Thai symbol is pronounced D) = Field Studies Good.



The back of the T-shirt is a little bit easier to understand. It is a road with 'Field Studies' written at the bottom and a Thai Mini Bus driving off into the distance. 2550 might seem like a random number, however it is the year 2007 in the Buddhist Calendar.

Saturday 9th June 2007 Continued: Chiang Mai Farewell Meal

I was wrong in saying it the Chiang Mai farewell meal was at a Korean BBQ restaurant. I don't know where I got this idea into my head from but it was actually even better. It was a Steam Boat Restaurant and you had to cook your own food on little BBQs as shown in the photograph. You helped yourself to the raw food from the buffet and then went back to your table to cook it. Great Fun!

Sunday 10th June 2007 Onto Chiang Rai

The alarm went of just after 6AM, yes it was another early start on Field Studies. The reason for the early start was because we were catching the 8AM bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours, so it wasn't as bad as the 15hour long bus ride from Krabi to Bangkok.

So, I arrived at the Diamon Inn Hotel at around 12Noon. The Hotel is quite nice but we didn't have long there because we had to head down to Chiang Rai Rajahbat University where we to meet our 'Thai Buddies'. Our 'Thai Buddies' were students at the University, who might be able to help during our final projects in Chiang Rai projects. We played some silly games with them for a couple of hours and then went back to Chiang Rai to have dinner. A couple of the students from CRU came with us to the Night Market to have dinner where we got the excitement of seeing a lady boy show.

Fat White Men on Motorbikes

Welcome to the latest edition of my Thailand blog from Chiang Mai. Quite a big one today, enjoy.

Thursday 7th June 2007

Today was mainly project work. So, as you may guess it wasn't that exciting. By now we had collected most of the data that we needed, so it was basically down to writing up the project. This basically involved sitting around the hotel all day writing up a report. We had a break for lunch and because I know you're dying to know what I ate, I shall tell you. I ate Chicken Hor Fun and because I know you all really care, if you look left you will see a photo of it.

After lunch we returned to Sri-Pat Guesthouse, where we continued to work. At about 6PM we left Sri-Pat because we had one more piece of fieldwork that we wanted to complete. This basically involved standing outside two Mosques and counting the number of people that went inside and making note of their ethnicities. Sounds exciting, doesn't it. We will repeat the process at two other Mosques on Friday, during the main lunchtime Friday prayer session.
In the evening we went to Jerusalem which is a Israeli restaurant. It was really nice (but a bit overpriced). I had a delicious pita bread with lovely fresh crunchy vegetables.

Friday 8th June 2007

Today, we continued working on our project. You can see a photo of my group on the right. This included our brief field work visit to the other two Mosques to observe the 'types' of people who attended the main prayer session. Because of a lack of food places around the Mosque, we had to resort to McDonalds for lunch, which take it from me is no better than McDonalds in other countries. The afternoon and evening was pretty much all taken up with writing up the report. But, at least we finished it by 10PM, when we printed it out. In the evening I had dinner at a roadside stall and had Pork with Garlic & Vegetables.

Saturday 9th June 2007

We had finished the project last night, so it was nice to have a relaxing morning with very little to do after a busy week of work. It was also a bit of a chance to explore the city of Chiang Mai and have lunch at a nice cafe. At 2PM we had the group presentations. It was actually quite fun, because all of the 11 presentations were only about 10minutes each and most of them were funny. Tonight we are having the farewell Chiang Mai meal at a Korean BBQ restaurant, which should be delicious because I love Korean BBQ food.

Another Random Thought

You may be wondering what is with today's blog entry title. This is connected to another 'Random Thought' I had this morning. Large, Fat, White Men look really stupid when they ride little tiny motorbikes. It is so funny.

Photos

The Complete Chiang Mai Photo Collection is available here:
http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497

The Official Field Studies Photo Collection is available here:
http://www.rainmuse.com/fs

Coming up Next on Field Studies

Tomorrow we are leaving Thailand's second city to make our way to the smaller city of Chiang Rai which is nearer to the Myanmar/Laso border. This is going to be our final base for Field Studies and we will spend the last two weeks of Field Studies in this area. We are going to complete one more project and also hopefully be able to enter the country of Laos. Because I don't know what the internet situation will be like in Chiang Rai, it is unclear when I will be able to update the blog next, but keep on checking back at http://www.thomasinthailand.blogspot.com or http://www.dur.ac.uk/t.c.jackson or my Facebook for updates.

Photo Special 1: Krabi & Khao Lak

Random Thoughts from Chiang Mai

Today in this blog entry I am going to do something a bit different.......

Baby of the Group

Not, only am I the only non-Asian member of Field Studies (apart from Dr. Carl), I am as far as I am aware the youngest member of the Field Studies. I have completed my second year of my degree and here I am the youngest even though there are fresher year students on this trip. Some of the girls are the same age as me, but because of the way the academic year work, they are all born earlier than me. The guys on the other hand are a ll at least two years older than me because of Singapore's National Service. I don't particularly enjoy being the youngest to be honest.

Cinema

I didn't make a comment about this in an earlier blog, but the cinema I went to see Shrek the Third, was by far the nicest cinema I have ever been to. The seats were so comfortable and you had so much leg room. This might sound all very nice, but the best bit is that it only cost 1.50pounds.

Moat

The beautiful historic city of Chiang Mai has a moat that goes all around it. In centuries gone by this was used to defend the city. This is all very nice except that the area is in the tropics and we are about to enter the rainy season. In the last week and a half we have been in Chiang Mai there have been a couple of relatively mild tropical rainstorms

Iced Tea

I have been very unfair to a beverage during the last year. I do like to drink tea – hot with milk and sugar. I use to think that the concept of Iced Tea was at best disgusting and at worst morally wrong. However, this is actually wrong and Iced Tea isn't actually that bad.

Wednesday 6th June Project Work

Well that's enough of my random thoughts. Now it is back to my boring diary thing. It has been commented upon that all I seem to talk about is what I have eaten. So here it what I have eaten so far today.
 Breakfast: Fish Ball Noodle Soup & Beef with Rice
 A Crunch Chocolate Bar
 Lunch: Japanese Food – Curry Noodles with Pork & Chicken.

So there you know what I have eaten today. Today, was another day of project work, which is quite boring to write about, but I just want to say the project is going really well and we are about to start the writeup.

Start of Chiang Mai Projects

Projects have now begun. Here is today's blog.

Monday 4th June 2007 Project Approval & Shrek

Today was the day that our project proposals were handed in, assessed and approved. The project that we're going to do involves investigating the ethnic economies of two Muslim enclaves in Chiang Mai. We spent much of the day discussing with our group as well as the lecturers our ideas for our project.
The evening was slightly more exciting because we went on a trip to the Airport Plaza Shopping Centre. Here we first went to the food court, where I had Korean Food. After this we all went to see 'Shrek the Third', which was a very funny film.

Tuesday 5th June 2007 Start of the Project

Today was the start of the fieldwork for the project. The first thing we did was to have a chat with our translator about our needs for translation over the next couple of days. We then headed of to our first field site near the centre of Chiang Mai City. We managed to secure an informative interview with representatives of one of the Mosques who were able to tell us a lot about the Muslim population in Chiang Mai, including why the different centres of Muslim population had developed. After this we went to a small Chinese cafe, where I had Chicken Rice & Lemon Juice.

The fieldwork was not over yet because we had to visit another Mosque. It was about ½hour walk to the Mosque. Here we got to visit a co-educational madras (which is a Muslim School) where we were able to have another interview with one of the teachers at the school, who told us more about the Muslim population in the city, especially with useful information about the school. We found out that even though there are many different Muslim areas, with different ethnic groups living in different areas there is only one Muslim School. Therefore, this school contains Muslim of all the ethnic groups, and they come from all over the city. After we had finished this interview we headed back to the Guest-House so we could go on the internet to do some more research for the project.

More photos at http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497

Project Formulation in Chiang Mai

A short blog entry today, but here goes. I can't believe how fast Field Studies is going because today is already the half way point, only three weeks more to go.

Saturday 2nd June 2007 Continued: Evening

After the Environmental Workshop it was time to think about Dinner, we went again to the nearby roadside stalls where I had Chicken Noodle Soup. It was the time to start to consider what we wanted to do for our Chiang Mai projects. So, my group met in my room to brain storm some ideas for what we could do for our projects.

Sunday 3rd June 2007: Project Formulation

Today was spent formulating our ideas for the big Chiang Mai project. The morning was spent discussing the ideas with ourselves and the lecturers. In the afternoon my group went to a Muslim area of the city to view a potential field site because we had an idea that we could examine the economic and social flows within the Muslim enclave of Chiang Mai. We had lunch here at a Muslim Western owned by a cool guy called Mr. Jo. After that we went to explore the massive Sunday market and then came back to the guest-house where one of the participants of Field Studies had cooked everyone dinner, which was a very welcome surprise.

This is an ancient style ice cream, complete with a paper cup to stop it dripping onto your hand – genius.

Photos EXTRA

This is a view of the moat that surrounds central Chaing Mai This is the street where we are staying in Chiang-Mai

More photos on Facebook at:

http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497

Villages & Environment

Hello and welcome to another thrilling blog entry from Chiang Mai.

More photographs from Chiang Mai are on Facebook at .

Before today's blog entry here is one last photograph from Bangkok, showing a beautiful double rainbow taken on the last day in Bangkok.

Friday 1st June 2007: Ban Naam Sum (Hmong Thai Village) & Night Safari Village

The start of a brand new month, and Field Studies continued at its blistering pace. In the morning we went to Ban Naam Sum Village about 45minutes away from Chiang Mai. This is a village of the Hmong people, who have assimilated well into Thai culture. The village was interesting because many of the people have moved away from subsistence agriculture into making clothe materials such as bags, many of which we saw being sold in the markets of Bangkok. This hill tribe is actually quite developed, which was shown by the fact that they had electricity and satellite television. The area has and remains Buddhist despite the fact that Korean missionaries have tried to convert the area into Christianity. They built a church in the village, but this remains underused. The hill tribes are often negatively stereotyped in Thai society, but from our exploration of the village, this seems unfair. We then drove to Chiang Mai University where we had lunch.

The schedule for the afternoon has Night Safari Village, written down on it. We were all very excited because we thought that the afternoon we were going to the zoo. However, this is a Geography field trip, so it was not the case. In fact we went to a village that was affected by the development of the Night Safari and not to the Night Safari itself. The afternoon did not go exactly go to plan, because we were unable to interview the locals as we had wanted to because officials for the 'Royal Forestry Department' were present. Therefore we couldn't talk about the controversial issues that we wanted to discuss with them. However, instead we went on a walk through the forest up to a waterfall, which was nice. For dinner we went to some roadside stalls near the hotel and had Beef Noodles.

Saturday 2nd June 2007: Environmental Workshop

Today was a weird day for Field Studies because we spent the whole day in a classroom at the Chiang Mai University. We had two interesting lectures about the Mekong River Delta which stretches from China through Thailand and eventually to Vietnam. The second lecture was all about cultural/social issues facing the people of Northern Thailand. We then watched a video and then we split into groups to discuss various different environmental scenarios and decide as a group what we would do to solve the environmental problem we were faced with.

Wats, River & Museum

Thursday 31st May 2007 Wats, River & Museum

Today was our first full day in the Northern City of Museum and we spent the day going around many of the sites orientating ourselves so that we could start to find ideas for our projects that we will be doing. The day started at 9:30AM (they gave us a bit of a lie in because we were all so tired from the train).

First of all we made our way to Wiang Kumhn Complex. This is an ancient site that is spread over quite a wide area. We looked at many different wats (temples are called wats), some of which date back to the thirteenth century and considered some of the geographical issues that applied at the places, e.g. Who owns the land and what effect does the constant stream of visitors have on the locals. The origins of the modern city of Chiang Mai are found in this area and they are still uncovering new sites to this day.

After lunch we made our way to a site along the Ping River. The Ping River is a tributary of the Chao Phraya River which runs through Bangkok and talked about some Physical Geography issues including the effects of the almost annual flooding on the area. After this we went to one more Wat – Wat Ku Padem, which has famous sites including a wax monk (see below). After this we spent a couple of hours in the interesting Chiang Mai Museum, where we learned more about the history of Chiang Mai.

By this time it was after 4PM and we headed back to the hostel. It was also rainy, so some of us decided to patronise the Guesthouse's Kitchen instead of venturing out to get food. I had a delicious Pad Thai for only 25baht (about 40pence), yum yum. After Dinner we then ventured out to Central Shopping Mall where we went shopping for a bit and then got Swensen's Ice Cream.

Links

First Photos from Chiang Mai on Facebook: http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129415&l=4da80&id=61201497
Chiang Mai Museum Website: www.chiangmaicitymuseum.org

And onto Chiang Mai

Tuesday 29th May 2007: Day off in Bangkok & Train to Chiang Mai

After the hectic finishing off of projects the previous day, today was a relaxing day, because in the evening we were catching a 15hour train ride to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. After packing and checking out of the hotel me and some friends made our way again to the MBK Mega Mall. We spent most of the afternoon here looking around all of th every cheap shops. I actually made a couple of purchases of a belt and a new pair of shorts.

In the evening we had to meet back at the Suk 11 hostel for the transfer to the train station. We arrived at the train station in plenty of time to catch the train at 10PM. The first thing that hit when we boarded the train was how hot it was especially since we were all carrying our heavy bags onto the train and we were all soon dripping in sweat.. As there was no air conditioning on the train it did not start to get cool until the train started to move out of the station.

That night I did not get much sleep because every time the strain stopped, or changed speeds or went around a corner my eyes opened. I think I finally managed to get some sleep at around 4AM and even then it was not very good sleep.

Wednesday 30th May 2007: Arrival in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

When I awoke light had already filled the college and the morning had already begun. I was very tired because of the lack of sleep I had, had the previous night but I couldn't sleep on the train because the ride was very bumpy. However, it was only 5hours until we arrived in Chiang Mai. During this time, I had the chance to finish my book, Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights and also read a substantial portion of my second Bill Bryson book, 'Down Under'. I had already finished reading my first Bill Bryson book, 'Notes from a Big County' earlier in the Field Studies Trip (well I have to be loyal to my University's Chancellor).

We finally arrived into Chiang Mai, pretty much on time at about 1PM. I quite enjoyed the trip, but it was no where near as long as the train ride I went on with Eleanor in Vietnam which was over 35hours long. We then took a short transfer to the hostel, who had laid on a delicious lunch which was very quickly dispensed on. The rest of the day was allocated, R&R (Rest & Relaxation).

Coming Up on Field Studies

The next stage of the Field Studies, is a period of Orientation around the Chiang Mai area, to give us inspiration for our Chiang Mai projects.

Thursday: Wiang Kum Kham & Ping River with a walking tour around Chiang Mai in the afternoon.
Friday: Hmong Thai Village or Lampang Community Forest with Night Safari Village in the evening.
Saturday: Environmental Workshop
Sunday: Work on Project Proposals

The website of where we are staying in Chiang Mai: http://www.sri-patguesthouse.com/

Check back at http://thomasinthailand.blogspot.com, www.dur.ac.uk/t.c.jackson or on Facebook for updates.

Projects in Bangkok

Welcome to another exciting edition of my Thailand Blog.

You can visit the website of Suk 11, the hostel where we are staying by clicking HERE. If you're ever staying in Bangkok and want a reasonably priced place to stay here, stay here.

Friday 25th May 2007: Going to the Airport

Today's main activity was to go to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is about 25km. I had been here before when I came to Bangkok last year. However, this time I was not catching an aeroplane, I was in fact going to observe economic flows taking place at the airport. This was part of my group's cunning plan to make ourselves look good by travelling a long way out of the city in order to get a photograph for our project. It took about an hour and a half to get to the airport, we spent about an hour there including having lunch and then made our way back to Central Bangkok.


On the Bus to the Airport

Saturday 26th to Monday 28th May 2007: Project Write Up

After collecting all of the photographs, these two days were actually quite boring, because it basically both days involved writing up the project. So, in reality I was pretty much lying when I said it was an exciting edition of the blog. However, at 4PM on Monday we handed the project in, which is a relief of everyone's minds. Only two more projects to go and also I need to decide what I am going to do my dissertation on.

Coming up Next in Field Studies

Tuesday 29th May: Today we're leaving Bangkok and making our way up North to Chiang Mai for the next stage of Field Studies.

Wednesday 30th May: We start exploring Chiang Mai project.

So stay tuned!

More from Bangkok

Photos

All of the photos from Krabi & Khao Lak are HERE.

The first photos from Bangkok are HERE.

Wednesday 23rd May 2007: Bangkok – Slum City

Today was a day that I didn’t really enjoy because we had a visit to some of Bangkok’s numerous slums. We visited the Duang Prateep Foundation which is a Non-Governmental Organisation that aims to improve the lives of the people that live in the slums including providing kindergarten services, English language education, providing library and computer services, elderly help as well as providing disaster relief. The organisation helped with the 2004 Tsunami relief effort in the same way TVC did. We had a tour around the slum area, which was at times quite disturbing because it brought it home that people actually lived in a place like this. I felt very uncomfortable whilst on the tour of the slums because I felt that I was invading their personal space and that I had no right to be there. After the tour the foundation provided us with lunch of Chicken Rice.
In the afternoon we were meant to be having a lecture at the Chulalongkorn University however, this had to be cancelled because the lecturer’s baby was sick. So, this meant that we had the afternoon off and we took this opportunity to have an explore of the MBK Mega Mall, where I excitingly bought nothing. Then after this we went to ‘A&W’s’, which is an American Fast Food Restaurant (not my choice).

Thursday 24th May 2007: Khao San Road & Feeling Ill

This day was originally meant to split into two halves, with the morning being a visit to the Khao San Road Backpacker’s Enclave. This was a trip to have a look at the farang (foreigner) landscapes of the tourists. It was actually quite interesting having a look at a backpacker’s area wearing the hat of an academic instead of being a tourist. When you look at the landscape in fine detail you notice much more than you would ordinarily.

After we had finished with the tasks we had to do at Khao San we made our way to the China Town area of Bangkok to take some photos for our Bangkok project. At 4PM we were meant to meet Dr. Carl to have a lecture all about the Monument Landscape of Bangkok. However, I suddenly started to feel very early (well actually I had been feeling quite ill all day) but then all of a sudden I became very ill), so I had to go back to the hostel and rest. I won’t go into the details of how ill I was but I was. (I am feeling better now).

Stayed Tuned for more as I start my Bangkok Project

Field Trips in Bangkok

Monday 21st May: Orientation around Bangkok

Today was our first full day in Bangkok. After a week of travelling around Southern Thailand and no time to do washing, the first item on my agenda was to get all of my clothes washed. After this my friends and I had some time to explore the area around where we were staying.

It was not until late afternoon that I had my ‘academic work’ for the day. The work was basically an exercise in ‘reading the landscape of the area’, e.g. seeing how the tourist landscapes are taking over the more traditional Thai landscapes.

In the evening we went to have dinner at a Middle Eastern place before heading to the Suan Lum Night Market, where I bought the Thai royal family – yellow T-Shirt that all the locals wear on Mondays (because it was the day the king was born on). After that it was back to Suk 11 (the guesthouse where we are staying) because we had to eat my birthday cake that we were to tired to eat on the day itself.

Tuesday 22nd May: Polluted Khlong Project Work

Today was a very busy day as we were starting to prepare for our projects in Bangkok. However, before this we had a fieldtrip to see a Polluted Khlong. A Khlong is what the Thais call canals. When we arrived at the canal the stench of raw sewage was so powerful that it actually almost made me feel sick. The area was disgusting with a major road next to the canal, shanty towns on the other side and a motorway above us. However, it was very interesting to find out that people actually lived in these conditions, what caused the horrible conditions and how little was being done by the authorities to sort out the problems.

In the afternoon, the work was not done because we had two lectures to attend. Firstly, there was one on Positionality, Critical Reflexivity and Ethics and secondly one about Research Design. These were very geographical lectures, so I won’t bore you with the details. After that it was time to start working on our Bangkok projects with our groups. The project is basically a photo essay where we have to take 16 photographs of Bangkok on different topics, e.g. Cultural landscapes, social geography, physical geography, etc and then write a half page report explaining why we choose the photograph and what this tells us about the Geography of Bangkok. The projects will mainly be completed from Friday to Sunday because we have a couple more days of field trips around Bangkok first.

By this time I was feeling very tired, so I decided to get a quick dinner of ‘Chicken Rice with Chinese Sauce’ and then returned to the hotel. Good Night.

My Birthday and Journey to Bangkok

Saturday 19th May: Volunteering Day II

This was actually quite a boring day because it was basically the same as before, more volunteering. So read on for a slightly more exciting day. I have only included this day for consistency.

Sunday 20th May: The 20th Anniversary of My Birth & The Bus to Bangkok

The day actually started a day the day before because the night before my friend’s kept me awake to Midnight just so that they could present a cake they bought for me and sing Happy Birthday to me. This was all very nice except after two days of manual labour we were all very tired.
My birthday proper wasn’t a day that I was looking forward to because it was the day that we were going to be taking a 14hour bus ride from Khao Lak to Thailand’s capital, Bangkok. The bus was leaving the TVC at 9AM and I cannot say that I was that upset to leave the TVC because it had been a couple of days of really hard work. The bus was very slow but it meant that we had plenty of time to watch DVDs. My 20th Birthday ranks as the day when I watched more films on a single day than ever before.

• Adrift – even worse than it appeared on the trailer.



• 300 – actually quite good



• Employee of the Month – ok, a reasonable comedy



• Mr. Bean’s Holiday – seen it before



• Little Miss Sunshine – very good



• Kill Bill – quite a good film



• The Beach – we were in Thailand after all.

All of these films made the coach ride a lot more bearable than it might have been and it made the journey seem a lot quicker than 14hours.

We eventually reached Bangkok at about 11PM and found our way to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel (which is very nice), the lecturer’s had another birthday surprise for me because they too had bought me a birthday cake. This one was a very posh, chocolate one from a very nice hotel. However, by this time we were all so tired that I decided that we didn’t have the energy to eat the cake so we saved it to the next day.

All the photos from Khao Lak including the journey to Bangkok are now available here.

Keep on checking back for updates to Bangkok.

And onto Khao La

Photos from Krabi are now available online on Facebook and can be viewed by clicking here.

Left: View of Ao Nang Beach, Krabi Province

Thursday 17th May: Journey to Khao Lak & Tsunami Area Orientation

The day started early as the buses were leaving the hotel for Khao Lak at 8AM. Khao Lak area was one of the areas worst affected by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. After a quick breakfast in the room it was time to head for the buses. Khao Lak was about a 2hour bus ride from Krabi, so it wasn’t as far as some journeys will be that will take place later in the trip.
So, we arrived at the Tsunami Volunteer Centre where we will stay for the next three nights. The TVC was set up soon after the Tsunami to help the local people to rebuild their lives both physically and socially. They do work including rebuilding villages, retraining local people e.g. computer skills, teaching English and much, much more.

My Hut at the TVC

After lunch which was Chicken Rice we headed out on the first Field Studies Orientation Tour to visit the areas that had been affected by the Tsunami as well as some of the projects that the TVC were helping with. Much of the area by the coast was devastated and 1000s of people lost their lives on Boxing Day 2004. Some of the things that we saw were amazing including the ship that has been named the ‘Blue Angel’ (pictured below). This ship was carried 1.5km inland by the force of the tsunami stopping just before it hit the building. As well as this we also had time to visit the Ban Naam Khem Tsunami Memorial Park where a permanent memorial has been built to remember the lives of those that died.

The Blue Angel

After the tour we headed into Khao Lak city where we had lunch. As we had, had such a busy day when we came back to the TVC we almost immediately went to sleep

Friday 18th May: Volunteering Day 1

Again it was a very early start, in fact much early. Our alarm clocks woke us up at 6AM because we had to be at Breakfast at 6:30 in order to start work at 7:30AM. We worked all day and the work was very hard because of the hot and humid weather, so we had to make sure we drank lots and repeatedly put on insect repellant. The aim of our work was to make the TVC nicer, so that in the future the site can be turned into a Disaster Education Centre. Therefore our task was to concrete all of the sand paths to make them stonger so that they don't collapse in the rain. It was really, really hard work because we had to carry all of the materials up the hill in the hot Thai weather. After a couple of hours break we are going to go and have dinner.

We will be staying here until Sunday and on Sunday we will make the 12hour long coach trip to Bangkok (on my birthday).

Adventures in Krabi

Krabi is the first stop on our tour and we're only here for a couple of days before heading for the Tsunami hit Khao Lak three hours away.

Day 1: Monday 14th May

We arrived at Krabi at about 7:30PM and got straight into the mini-buses and drove to the Krabi Sea View Hotel. The name is rather ironic because from it you cannot view the sea and in fact the sea is about half an hours drive away. However, you can see the river estuary which is very pretty. The thing on everyone's mind was getting food. Therefore, we headed pretty much straight away down to a nearby street market to get food. After the excitement of dinner we went back to the hotel and played cards for a couple of hours before retiring for the night.

Day 2: Tuesday 15th May

The first full day in Krabi. We got up bright and early and headed down into the town to grab some Breakfast - I had a very Thai, Jam and Toast with a cup of Lipton Tea. After Breakfast we went back to the hotel to have the first Lecture of Field Studies which was all about issues facing Southern Thailand including recovering from the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2005 and the violence in the far South. As the second half of the group weren't due to arrive until that evening, the rest of the day was free, so we headed down to the tourist town of Ao Nang where we walked along the beach, examining it very Geographically (even though there weren't any lecturers there). Once the second half of the group arrived it was time for the 'Field Studies Welcome Meal', with free (already paid for) food! The food was very nice and included fish, prawn and chicken. After Dinner we headed back into the town because we had to get breakfast for the next day as it was going to be an early start the next day.

Day 3: Wednesday 16th May

We awoke up early because at 9AM we were going to have a three hour boat tour of the mangroves (which in the end lasted 4hours). The tour was very good because we got to see close up the mangroves and also got to have a look at a cave, shrimp farm and even saw a box fish. The rest of the day was free (because the second half of the group was going in the afternoon). We therefore had time to have a relaxing lunch and explore the town.

Photos of Krabi will be added soon.

Tommorow morning we are leaving to go to Khao Lak.

So Here It Is

At long last Field Studies proper is here. I am currently sat at the Budget Terminal of Changi Airport getting ready to board my flight to Krabi, Thailand. It is with a lot of sadness that I am leaving Singapore because I have really enjoyed my time here but hopefully I have still got loads of fun to have in Thailand. It is just under a two hour flight to Krabi where we will spend the first week before catching the so called VIP bus (just how important they're going to make me feel remains to be seen) to Bangkok. In Bangkok we will be doing our first project.

Hopefully the trip will be fun and I am now really excited about it getting going. So here goes - six weeks of travelling across Thailand!

Welcome to the First Blog Entry

Welcome to My Blog

Introduction

Welcome to the very first blog entry. This blog is going to document my experiences as I travel across Thailand as part of the National University of Singapore's Field Studies in Thailand module. The module will start properly on Monday 14th May when we fly out from Singapore to southern Thai province of Krabi. From there we will travel up to the capital Bangkok and then to the Northern areas of Chiang Mai followed by Chiang Rai. In each of these three places we will conduct a group project. One of these projects will form the basis of my dissertation next year!

I am writing this blog so that all my friends and family back in England can read what I am doing (if you're interested), so that I don't have to send out loads of emails.

The First Week

Whilst I have said that the field studies starts on Monday that is not technically true. This week there has been a week of preperation including me attempting to learn a bit of Thai, which wasn't very successful given my totally lack of skill at learning languages. This week we also formed our groups for each of the projects. All of the people that I am going to be working with seem really nice, so that bodes well.

This blog will be updated throughout the six weeks I am in Thailand, so keep on checking back.

Where This Blog Will be Posted

This blog is hosted at http://thomasinthailand.blogspot.com. It will also be imported automatically onto my Facebook and to www.dur.ac.uk/t.c.jackson.