Northern Field Trip

Here’s another week long update for you, but this time it’s not because I’ve been putting off writing. I’ve been traveling around northern Thailand on a field trip, and haven’t had access to the internet. I took a TON of pictures and you can check them out through the link here on the blog.

We left AIT on Saturday morning and having been packing in as many things as we could during the last seven days. At some points it felt like we were rushed to get through one site and on to the next, but I am happy with all of the places we were able to visit and the experiences we had. I’ll try to keep things brief because I don’t want to drag it out for you all.

Saturday was full of driving. We filled up two vans with the nine of us students, our advisor from MSU (Oumatie), one advisor from AIT (Mr. Vituhn), along with one of his PhD students (Om) and his daughter (Pat), and of course our van drivers (Nu and Odd). We arrived in Sukhothai in the afternoon. Sukhothai was the first capital of Thailand. The park was expansive, and we were only able to see a few of the ruins in the amount of time we had. After visiting the ruins we checked in to our hotel, got some dinner in town and called it a night.

Sunday morning we drove to Lampang Province to visit the Elephant Training Center and Hospital. We were so excited to be able to ride elephants and possibly help bathe them. The Center ended up being more touristy then we expected, but it was also very accommodating at the same time. Because of AIT’s relationship with the Center we were able to tour the hospital and see the baby elephants. They also kept their shops and elephant rides open later for our group so that we would be able to fit in everything we wanted to do. We weren’t able to bathe the elephants, but we did get to see the mahouts do it. I bought some art that the elephants painted. One of which is done by my favorite elephant artist—Jo Jo. He’s one of the biggest elephants at the Center, and he knows how to balance, as well as turn around, on a log. After the elephant center we drove to Chang Mai and ate at a “Khan Tok” dinner reception. There was good food and cultural dancers.

Monday morning we visited an OTOP village where we saw women weaving blankets and we shopped around for a while. Then we went to Doi Su Thep—the temple on the mountain. (A little more Thai for you…“doi” means “mountain”). The temple didn’t take long to go through, so Lauren and I toured a Jade jewelry store/factory. Side note: sales associates here are creepers. They follow you around everywhere. Sometimes when I go into a shop, I don’t even plan on buying anything I just wait for them to start following me, and then I try to lose them by weaving in and out of the aisles.

After the temple we continued our journey through the mountains and found our way to our community homestays. The homestay was probably one of my favorite parts from the field trip. Four of us girls stayed at a woman’s house with her children and grandchild. She cooked for us and shared her photo album of all the international visitors that have stayed with her before. The other group members were in other houses in the community. The homestay was a great way to authentically experience the lifestyle of a northern Thai.

Kelly and I woke up early Tuesday morning and hiked up the mountain to see a beautiful waterfall. It was totally worth giving up sleep for. We got back to the house in time for a good breakfast, and then we met up as a group to explore the surrounding area with a community guide. Later that afternoon we visited another Royal Development Project Center. There was an exhibit going on, so the place was packed. Most of the stuff we had already learned about at our previous field trip the week before, but there were still some new projects to see. That night we continued our journey north to Chiang Rai which is pretty much as far north in Thailand that a person can get.

Wednesday we visited the Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities Center (DEPDC). It’s an organization that is focused on the prevention of child trafficking, so they offer a free half-day school, long and short-term stays for children that are at risk, and many other services for the surrounding communities. The stories and statistics the staff shared hurt my heart. I just feel so strongly about child trafficking, especially sex trafficking, that I left the DEPDC with a heavy heart. After lunch we moved onto the Hall of Opium near the “Golden Triangle.” The Hall of Opium was a museum all about the presence of opium in Asia, and included the history of the East Indies Trading Co. and a bunch of other information. I have to say that it exceeded my expectations. It was very high-tech, and I learned a lot of things about not only opium, but other stuff as well.

We finished up the day with the “Golden Triangle” which is the area where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet. Each of the countries are divided by the river, but we were able to take a boat over to Laos and look around for a while. I even got to send out a postcard on the island so it’ll have a Laotian stamp on it.

Thursday we left Chiang Rai and started to make our way back down the country. Before we left the province we visited the Princess Mother’s home. The King’s mother died back in the nineties, but her home is still kept up and used for various occasions. She loved to garden, and even though I’m not much of a flower person, I LOVED her garden. In an odd way it kind of reminded me of a McDonald’s play place with a structure to climb up and look out over the whole garden. It was pretty sweet. After that we also stopped to see the White Temple, which probably holds the title for my favorite temple yet. You can check out the pictures and see why. It reminded me of the Ice Queen’s castle or something.

Friday was full of driving. We did make one last stop to visit another temple. It has a reputation of holding the most beautiful Buddha in all of Thailand. To be honest, I didn't really notice a difference, but I took some pictures anyways. We arrived back to campus around 3, and I was very much ready to be back home. AIT has become "home" to me, and although i had a great time on the field trip, I was ready to be back sleeping in my own bed and eating meals at unscheduled times, and not waking up at 6:45 am.

The past couple of days have been very relaxing. I've slept in, layed out by the pool, and gone to the grocery store. I finally broke down and bought some cereal and milk. I had my first bowl of cereal this afternoon in over a month!! for those of you who know of my love for cereal, i bet you find it hard to believe, but it's true. i was kind of leary of drinking the milk here, but i found some at the tesco and it doesn't taste exactly like meijer or qd, but it's still tastes like milk. plus, when you pour it over sugary cereal, you can't even tell the difference.

tomorrow is a national Thai Buddhist holiday, so i'm going to enjoy another free day before life gets crazy with internship work. Oh! internship update: i am going to be moving to Lam Plai Mat on friday (feb 13th) to start work there. originally the plan was to make a site visit to the village next week, but i received an email while i was up north telling me that they want me to go and help teach english in the primary school there for a couple of weeks. i'll be sure to keep you all updated as i get more information. i'm not sure what the internet access is going to be like there, but i'm hoping i'll be able to get some wi-fi at a coffee shop or something like that.

hope you all enjoyed the heat wave! spring is coming soon so hang in there. i'll try and send some sunshine your way.

love you all!