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.