life, travels and bangladesh

Switching to Wordpress

2009-03-07T06:57:00.002-05:00

Hello lovely followers,

Today, I'm picking up the ball I dropped, oh, roughly in October? I'm switching to a new blog host - wordpress.com - because they've got more options for posts, pictures and additional features. And this isn't a bluff; I will be updating this more often in the next 5 months, especially more than I have been in the past 5...

I've even got a few posts waiting to have pictures added! keep checking back for more updates.

And the new blog address is...

www.katemeehan.wordpress.com

Enjoy!

Mutiny over

2009-02-27T05:05:00.002-05:00

Late yesterday evening we received word that the mutiny had ended. Guns were laid down, and some of the mutineers even tried to escape as army tanks rolled into Dhaka apparently.

We were not affected in any way, and Chittagong has weathered the incident with little to no apparent consequences. What this has reinforced for me, is that Bangladesh is a country where - because the sheer number of people, its history and the divides between many stratas of the population - small incidences can quickly escalate to dangerous situations (a good thing for someone like me, who has a low sense of self preservation...).

And luckily, this was used as a 'dry run' for any potential future situations requiring safety procedures, for WorldTeach and AUW.

Here are some stories following the end of the mutiny and what's happened since then (the BBC article also addresses the reasons why it was started):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7914071.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jWHK1_e5aHDizUpee0x6O-h7TiTwD96JQNHO0

military worries in Dhaka (not chittagong!!)

2009-02-26T01:12:00.003-05:00

Entries about term 3, my trip to thailand, Chittagonian fish markets and the Chittagong Hill Tract region of Bandarban are forthcoming. However, for anyone who's actually checking current events about Bangladesh, here's a NYT article about the current military situation between border guards and army officers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/world/asia/26bangla.html?_r=1

and here's a website specifically covering bangladesh news: http://bdnews24.com/beta/

We heard about the situation yesterday morning, and luckily have staff members who have made sure all security precautions are being taken. Because the AUW is in Chittagong, we're not directly affected right now - other than having to limit our mobility as a precaution - but people are keeping an eye out for any continual flareups.

Don't worry about me or the AUW, as we are well taken care of. I will definitely keep updating as news comes forth.

"bishtare bishtare jaam jaam"

2008-10-09T06:13:00.012-04:00

meaning: "slowly, slowly, let's go, let's go"

which was exactly what we needed. Last week I returned to Chittagong from 8 days in Nepal - 4 of which were spent trekking in the Annapurna mountains. I can't say enough about how beautiful and absolutely breathtaking the scenery was, not to mention the hospitality and warm welcomes we received throughout our stay.

Thanks to the first protest since the new government took power, our plans were slightly altered. rather than starting our trek from a little town, hiking two days to a nice hill to watch the sunrise and then heading back out the same way...we ended up almost doubling the distance, trekking for a full four days (covered roughly 75km), and seeing some of the most gorgeous mountains i've ever seen in my life. we also, thanks to the different route, got to walk though dense jungle, climb waterfalls, literally climb down into a valley and right back up again (that was a tough day), and walk through rolling, terraced hills of rice and soybean paddies. picturesque doesn't even begin to describe it.

Our guides and porters were incredible gracious, inspiring and helpful (even lying to us when absolutely necessary, "Yes, just 10 minutes more, you are almost there!" "Do not worry, just gradually uphill..."). After about a day, they began telling us about their personal lives - regaling us with stories of their families, teaching us Nepali and trying to teach us Nepali dances. I think we were a slight oddity for them...there were 9 of us teachers, very excited to finally be outside of our building for an extended period of time - in the beautiful, pristine, healthy mountains of Nepal, no less - and we were determined to carry our bags for as much of the trek as we could. At first we all refused their help, by the end of the trek they had quite a number of bags on the trail - but nowhere near the amount that other porters had to carry. Our guides kept joking that we were giving the porters a holiday.

Getting to know our porters and guides gave us a small glimpse into Nepali culture. All of them were pretty young (I think the oldest was late 30's), but had been married for almost half their lives. Two had arranged marriages, two had love marriages (and received quite the hoots and hollers from other Nepalis upon such proclamations). One of our porters, who seriously looked like he was probably 15, was actually 34. He'd been married at 17 (love marriage), but his wife began having children right away. HIS 17-year-old daughter was just married (arranged), and she's pregnant. MEANING, he'll be a grandfather at 34. Which blows my mind. Also why we nicknamed him grandpa for the rest of the trek - a name he proudly wore as we continued through the Annapurnas.

The last night on the trail, in Ghorepani, our guides found some musicians and coaxed them into our tea house to play music and dance with us for a few hours. While we were all a little more sore than usual the next morning (at 4:30 am...we woke up early to hike to catch the sunrise), it was an amazing end to our trekking journey. Not to mention that our guides and porters let loose - were singing, dancing and playing music more passionately than anyone else in the tea house. I don't think it's often they get such a group of laid-back, twenty-something, female volunteer teachers.

Back in Kathmandu we did a little sightseeing, but mostly spent our time searching out good food (plentiful throughout Nepal, so that wasn't difficult) and catching up on sleep. Trekking was my favorite part of the trip - save the wonderful visits we got to go on the day before we left. We'd been in contact with Anjana, the Nepal Country Coordinator for the AUW/Access Academy and had asked if it would be possible to get together with some of the parents of our students --- we wanted to be able to bring things to their parents, and bring packages back to Bangladesh with us (it was the least we could do, they were pretty torn up that we were going to their home and they couldn't come with us).

After meeting Anjana, she took us to a school on the outskirts of Kathmandu proper. The second we walked into a large, sun-filled room the parents started buzzing. Obviously we were put in the front of the room, in a line, and introduced ourselves and which students we taught; the families did the same. And once we asked for questions, hands shot up, "how is my daughter's behavior? Is she causing trouble? Is she doing well in classes?" --- they were all about how their daughters were doing academically in the classroom, all asked with the expectation that we would have negative things to say.

just the opposite, actually. I think all the teachers have found most of our students very well-mannered and well-tempered. The problems we face aren't usually behavioral, but situational, students upset at the structures of the Academy, or not equipped with the time management skills to take on a heavy course load and additionally, extracurriculars. And so that is what we told the parents. We were taken, one by one, and placed with parents of students we personally had. We exchanged packages with them (we left with many more to bring back to bangladesh) and shared what we could. There wasn't too much too tell - so much of what we know are those, "well, you just had to be there" stories - but I think just getting to see us, in the flesh, helped to calm the parents' fears. Although, a few of us were crying at certain points, and I think that might have scared a few of them...those crazy westerners...

That night we were personally invited to one of the students' homes to meet her family and take tea (read: massively large meal less than 90 minutes after Anjana took us out for a gigantic lunch...the westerner conundrum...i don't want to be impolite but i honestly can't eat a single bite more...). The minute we showed up we were rushed into the living room by her parents and 4 sisters, shown family photo albums, told stories and fed. and fed. and fed and fed and fed. welcome to nepal, please eat.

Getting to meet our students parents was, by far, one of the most touching and memorable experiences of working at the Access Academy. As a teacher, with a small amount of savings and a monthly (plus some travel) stipend, i've been dealing with a bit of guilt about going away on vacation during the term breaks - especially when i visit the home countries of my students. It's difficult because our students are really homesick, most of them have never lived away from home before now, and would give anything to go home for just a few days. Unfortunately they don't have the money or resources to be able to do that. Since getting back though it's been lovely to see how our Nepalese students have responded to our love of their country - they continually thank us for going there on vacation. If every country I visited was as welcoming, beautiful and friendly as Nepal...well, I probably wouldn't ever stop traveling.

The trip was absolutely amazing, so amazing in fact, that there are multiple teachers that have looked into jobs in Nepal post-Bangladesh. While I don't know if I'm ready to move there right away (I think i've promised family and friends 6 months in the US?), it's definitely on the list of countries I could easily move to. easily.

The view from the top of Pun Hill (45 minutes above Ghorepani), at sunrise. yes, there were hundreds of other tourists there sharing the moments with us. very romantic.

Some candles lit at one of the temples in Durbar Square

The Pokhara Valley (day one, 1 hour into our trek)

angela capturing the sunrise at Pun Hill

Pohkara Valley at 5am. Day one. Thanks anti-maoist government protestors.

Beggar in Durbar Square

The group at the top of Pun Hill

beautiful, beautiful mountains (day two)

view of Fishtail (day one)

Durbar Square

*more pictures to come. the internet's been uncooperative in loading them onto the blog*

grameen

2008-09-15T11:24:00.002-04:00

At one point during our visit to Jobra, I had a quick premonition (luckily unfulfilled) of headlines reading, "american teacher comes to bangladesh and ruins grameen bank"...like everything i've encountered thus far in Bangladesh, nothing is written in stone, except those things that are, unless you're with the right people - so they're not, unless the 'right people' you're with aren't the right people after all - and so they aren't not...and the cycle continues. thus was my monday last week when i went with my class to Jobra to interview borrowers. we didn't go through Dhaka, the head office, because we had some personal connections and we didn't necessarily need to get to interview the bank officers.

apparently grameen wasn't down with that. after about two hours of calling people, who called on our behalf to grameen, we were given official permission to speak with officers, see the main branch office, see transactions taking place, the whole gamut. and it was fantastic. more info to come, plus examples of my students work. first, though, here are a few photos i took while we were there. i don't have many of the borrowers themselves because it's Ramadan and most of the women didn't want to have their picture taken as a result. but i did get a few pictures during the day.

one of the greatest quotes from the day was from one of my students who turned to me, after speaking with a few borrowers and with a bank loan collector, "if it's THIS HARD talking to villagers about personal issues like this now, how hard must it have been for Muhammad Yunus 30 years ago?"

oh teaching.

i'm off to nepal tomorrow, but i'll be back October 5th, so expect more updates then!

where it all started...

2008-09-13T07:31:00.006-04:00

Grameen Bank that is. yup. in that little brick house. backstory: 6 weeks ago i was on a train to dhaka with Angela (roommate/fellow teacher) and Peter, who was visiting for 2 weeks. i HAD assigned a 'thursday project' (a project to worked on throughout the semester, every thursday) but was re-reading Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, and i had an epiphany. literally.

fast forward to class that week. i told my class that i recognized we'd already started one project, but i had this idea...if they were interested...and we could scrap everything we'd done thus far and start fresh...

well, my class is awesome. i think these 12 girls have gotten used to my spontaneity, even in the classroom, even when maybe teachers shouldn't be as spontaneous as i am. the project we've been working on is based on Banker to the Poor. In a few weeks the AUW will have it's official opening in Dhaka, and Muhammad Yunus is our keynote speaker. He's been a friend of our founder for a long time, and has been involved with the university as it's grown. I thought it would be great if my class could read the book, read some critiques, do a simulation, meet some borrowers and end up putting together a presentation for the rest of the school on microfinance/Grameen before we go hear Mr. Yunus speak.

THEREFORE, yesterday (Friday) we got to go to Jobra, the original Grameen village. Mr. Amar Hossein met us and gave us an overview of Grameen and his experience with it --- he was one of Yunus' students when the project was started, so it was a firsthand account of how everything progressed. i had a complete 'teacher' moment when i was watching my students take film, take photographs and ask this guy questions. They were so interested, so well spoken, so in control and made a fantastic impression.

We're hopefully going back later this week to watch transactions and get to interview borrowers!! exciting!!

In other news i had hoped to give you a glimpse into the life that is here...via a movie i made while walking down the alleyway next to our building. i constantly call the children that live their my little saviors, because they re-instill my faith in humanity, and children, every time i walk through the alley (it's our shortcut to the main road behind our building). however, the movie's refusing to upload, so you'll have to settle for some photos.

Not only are they ADORABLE, but they are genuinely excited when we see them. they yell out "HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI! HI M'AM!! HI M'AM!! HI HI HI HIHIHI!!!" when we started speaking to them in the little little little bangla we know, they got even more excited so now it's more of a flurry of basic bangla greetings, 'hihihihihihihi's' and attempts at english phrases "how you m'am?!"

compared to the countless beggar children we confront any time we walk through the streets around us, they are, literally, a breath of fresh air.

2008-09-10T14:10:00.001-04:00

latest article on the AUW - pretty exciting stuff

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/09/09/the_education_of_kamal_ah_mad/

mea culpa. i have returned.

2008-08-14T15:31:00.007-04:00

Mid-August...
Dukito. (sorry)

I never meant to completely ignore my blog for almost three months. It kind of just happened, out of necessity and in the interest of staying sane. As a result, my mom’s been bugging me to update my blog quite consistently, because apparently people really do read it – thanks, by the way.

I’ve mentioned this to some people but part of the reason that I’m keeping this digital account is purely personal; I rarely get time to write in my journal, so the attempts to keep a written account of my 18 months in Bangladesh are faltering. THEREFORE, before I get swept up in the next big hullabaloo of the Asian University for Women Access Academy, more on those later, I figured I’d write a brief (I swear I’m going to try) synopsis of the last two months…(and obviously, by synopsis I mean the first three major events are written about in rhyme because what else would be better than that?)

On the 19th of June, there was a surprise
We teachers were told to arrange a ride
To the Muslim Hall, not too far away.
And when we arrived, there on the stage
Was a band of punk rockers with a banner behind
With the names of the 8 bands that had felt so inclined
To entertain the crowd of fans through the night
(the crowd was all men, therefore no need to fight
to reach the front of the small group crowded at the stage
the headbangers easily parted – females, apparently, don’t normally engage)
we had a great time, the performances were okay
although it was slightly ironic that most bands chose to play
Creed, an American Christian rock band
In the Muslim hall of Chittagong, an Islamic land.

The next week was my birthday, my golden 23
My students arranged a midnight party during which they happily
Fed me cake, played blind man’s bluff and sang the birthday song…
The next day was their final, so it all felt slightly wrong
Thanks to everyone who left me birthday wishes
I missed being at home in the US, but had a fantastic time nonetheless.

Not 4 days later I was on my way
To Dhaka, then India! With lots of time to play
Katie Trumbull was working on the West Indian coast
Doing research at a hospital, which acted as her host
Mangalore hospital – children’s dental clinic – Bombay
We spent our week together in the most exciting way
A full three days in Mumbai was all the rest I needed
Which worked out well because in the end that’s all that I received.
We saw the Gateway to India, Haj Ali and the hindu temple,
The ghandi museum, the shopping district and the local fabric shops.
It rained three days straight, but it did not get us down
It gave the excuse to stop in coffee shops while we were seeing the town.
Only upon my return to Bangladesh did I realize that
How exhausted and tired my body was from all the overnight rides.

*this is the first time that Katie and I, who have birthdays just two weeks apart, in the five years we’ve known each other, have been together around that time. It’s amazing how life works in mysterious ways – and it was SO nice to see a familiar face, especially of one of my best friends, after months of settling into Chittagong.

Since my return at the beginning of July, the Access Academy, and the AUW in general, has undergone quite a few changes…resulting in a very hectic, very impromptu schedule. We have a new academic dean, our former executive director took a different job under the auspices of the university (versus the access academy) and our new executive director arrived only a few days ago – we’ve been eagerly awaiting her arrival to Chittagong.

July and August seem to be the months of visitors; we had a young girl come to live with the students for a month doing a documentary on the AUW/Access program. Another student from the US has been with us for 5 weeks writing for the AUW Support Foundation newsletter, a woman from Goldman Sachs taught a two week course on effective communication, a Harvard student from Bangladesh has been running an introduction to Model UN for the past month which will culminate in a Model UN full day conference next week, a professional Bangladeshi photographer was visiting for 3 days to do a photo essay on the school and yesterday we had a GRAND event for Marina Mahathir, a Malaysian HIV/AIDS activist who also happens to be the daughter of the prime minister.

If none of that made sense, worry not. I just wanted to illustrate the large number of visitors we’ve had lately. As teachers, it’s getting to the point where we are starting to wish that there was another way to fundraise and increase the knowledge of the AUW to the local and international community without the students missing so much class...there is obviously the need to incorporate guests and make available the students and their talents to eventually attract more international attention, and hopefully funding, for the University itself. Somehow, however, the bulk of the visitors for this term ended up all coming within the same 3-4 week time period…making for some very stressed students. Everyone is looking forward to this weekend because we have a holiday and thus, THREE days we can catch up on sleep, work and grading. More to come later...

punk rock show

backstage at the punk rock show

backstage of the punk rock show

Clothes washers in Mumbai, India

food stalls along the queen's necklace

adorable indian children at a mangalore dental clinic

mosque in mumbai

washers!

mumbai train terminal...we spent a loooong time there.

trumbull and me outside the mosque

pigeon feeding outside the gateway to india

gateway to india

the beach in mumbai

awkward marriage recognition ceremony we were invited to. all the effort to dress up

in saris and we were there for a total of 30 min...

me and selena. decked out sari style

hey roomie!

oh man...

2008-06-13T15:36:00.004-04:00

this is what i'll be wearing tomorrow during our talent show - there are 6 of us teachers performing with some of our Sri Lankan students. let's just say they're not the most flattering...hopefully we'll grace the audience with our dancing and they won't be looking at the particulars of our costumes...

y'all are making me miss home...

2008-06-13T15:16:00.003-04:00

So yesterday, Thursday June 12th, I got a package in the mail from one, fabulous, Arion Moser...in it, along with chocolate and music and pictures were FOUR Riley's tshirts...

for the first time in, um, about 23 years i won't be at the bay this summer. Bangladesh will certainly keep me busy and i am definitely starting to find a routine and love my life here, but i miss everyone at home, and at the bay, LOTS and hope this summer is only the greatest one ever. Arion, you're incredible!

foy's lake: round 2

2008-06-06T14:50:00.007-04:00

On saturday June 7, my two roommates and i decided to head to Foy's Lake (the crazy ridiculous amusement park in Chittagong) to get out of our building for the early afternoon and take a break from work. Within about 5 and a half seconds of walking into the park we heard, "Miss!! Miss Kate!! Miss Angela!! Miss Mahmuda!! OVER HERE!!"

We'd heard that three students were going to Foy's Lake with another teacher, and had hoped we would run into them, but instead we were faced with about 14 students, the siblings and cousin of one of the Bangladeshi students, no other teachers, however there WERE guards to accompany the group while they went through the park (this one student's father hooked them up while he was in Chittagong, staying next door to Foy's Lake...connections here are endless...). So, we jumped on in...bumper cars was hysterical not only because they operated as if they were approximately 30 year-old-bumper cars, but because most of our students have never driven cars, any type, real or bumper.

We then headed to the water park --- it's a bit hot over here at the moment --- to check it out. meaning we hoped on a boat to be driven through a maze of rivers to eventually end at the bangladeshi/chittagongian version of Sea World...

What's Sea World without it's own ridiculously large sign out front?

None of us had brought a change of clothes (the girls were heading to a nice lunch afterwards and had come dressed in their best to begin with...), but no worries - you can rent tshirts and shorts. too bad they're all probably a girl's size 10 since most bangladeshis are teeny tiny!! In the end we decided not to rent clothes, more because we thought it would be fun to go on the rides fully clothed.

Here are some of the students riding down the gigantic water slide in the middle of Sea World (which, btw, consists of this yellow water slide, 2 tube slides, 2 'luge-type' slides and a wave pool...not too shabby)

Mahmuda was the only one who didn't go in fully clothed...she opted to stay dry (a decision that would reward her with comfort as we had lunch in an air conditioned room very soon after leaving the waterpark...after about 10 minutes the students, angela and myself were all shivering from being cold). that didn't save her, however, from getting huge hugs from angela and i when we were getting ready to leave.

pretty much - foy's lake, as cheesy as it is, is a nice getaway for the afternoon, and i love our students...they had so much fun running around the park. it's amazing to be with them during so many 'firsts' ... first airplane flights, first time in a different country, first time at the beach, first time seeing a pool, first time on the bumper cars...it definitely makes me appreciate everything a bit more.

friday night on the town

2008-06-06T14:29:00.003-04:00

friday nights are, normally, not a popular night to go out in Chittagong. in the few places where beer or alcohol is available, friday nights are the only night they will not serve you in a bar, and even some restaurants (as it's the holy day). most shops, if they are open at all, will not open until early afternoon. it's a nice, forced relaxation in a way.

however, 4 of the other teachers and i took the opportunity to try some more of the local fare for dinner and went to a small restaurant, dhaba, that we see everytime we drive away from our building. we had a lot of fun crossing the major road of traffic, almost getting hit by several rickshaws, CNGs and cars along the way, but were well rewarded for our efforts by the food. it was really fantastic - amazing nan (tandoori oven baked bread...delicious!) and other traditional dishes (a traditional potato/yoghurt/spices entree is featured below) and had an atmosphere similar to a small, hole-in-the-wall, lively pizza kitchen in nyc...complete with some countertop seating in front of a huge mirror. can't seem to get away from that setup anywhere.

after dinner we were attempting to cross the street back and heard music and announcements in bangla being blasted from a speaker...behind the speaker were thousands of white lights directing people to an entrance. we, of course, thought it was the entrance to a wedding party (which we've been informed are completely crash-able and that we would be welcomed wedding crashers, given our 'foreign status'). we wandered over, thinking we might have the gall to crash a wedding if it was indeed a reception, but alas - no weddings were to be crashed this evening. however there was a small, month-long outdoor fabric market, apparently in place for a month, until june 17th this year, and we spent a good amount of time wandering through, examining the fabrics and other wares for sale (honey, shoes, sparkly jewelry, etc.). i was able to find a replacement pair of sunglasses for mine that broke while i was traveling in thailand...i've been wearing them with a gigantic crack in the lens and frame for the past three months. when i showed selena, one of the other teachers, she said, "finally. you won't have to wear your broken glasses anymore," hinting that maybe i should have chucked them a while ago...

it feels really good that we're starting to get to know our local neighborhood a little better. it's taking some time, just because we don't get out that much with everything that's already planned for us (plus that whole teaching/work thing)...but i'm sure in the next few months we're going to learn much more about mehedibag (name of our neighborhood). and eventually i'll find a wedding or two to crash.

aloo tikki (traditional pototo/yoghurt/spices dish)...normally would be eaten with hands only, so obviously this restaurant was a bit more upscale than others...

outdoor fabric market. there were stalls upon stalls upon stalls upon stalls. it could potentially take you days to go through everything.

sri lankan dancing, guest speakers and lychees

2008-06-06T14:28:00.002-04:00

Thursday June 5th

this week's been a little nuts. not only have classes shifted into high gear (term 1 finals are less than 3 weeks away. yikes!), but we have a talent show next weekend and i'm one of 5 teachers that are taking part in a student act - a Sri Lankan dance performance. every night we practice for about an hour...and thank goodness because even with all the practice we're going to look incredibly awkward compared to the students. ha.

Today I also was the 'guest speaker' for our students. Every thursday, or every other Thursday (depending on availability), the administration arranges for a guest speaker to come for an hour right after classes end. Our students have had the opportunity to listen to some pretty impressive people so far, some that are rather important in Chittagong and Bangladesh. Us teachers, however, have pinpointed that our students lack the ability to manage their time effectively - so i put together a 45-min presentation on the basics of time management and study skills.

while i kept everything simple, and thought i might be insulting some students with just how very basic all my points were, i still had a lot of girls come up to me after the talk and since then in the hallways thanking me. it's one of those situations that's stopped me in my tracks. the students i have in class are pretty spectacular, and at times i really don't feel like i'mteaching them anything (just providing some entertainment...because they seem to think my facial expressions and explanations of terms and vocabulary is HYSTERICAL). Yet simple ideas like 'avoiding procrastination by using a planner' and 'prioritize your tasks and write a to-do list', ARE completely new to them. So that made me feel pretty good, at least i'll be able to do something for some of these students while i'm here - even if it is just to rub off my organizational skills (or the skills i know i should have/use).

in other news, and to make sure a picture can go with this post, in our Bangla class yesterday we learned that the season we're in right now (right before the rainy season/at the beginning of the rainy season) is called "modhu maash " in Bangla. Literally translated it means "honey month"...which pretty much means that every fruit that people love are in season and available EVERYWHERE. lychees have become my new favorite, and we can pick up 100 of them for 250tk (rip off, white person price...they're usually 200-220tk), which is about $4USD. most other fruits are cheaper - per pinapple, about 50cents, a kilo of apples, $2. it's rather fantastic, and as much as i'm looking forward to monsoons, i'll be missing the ridiculous availability of fruit in a few months.

this is how they sell lychees. in bunches of 50. according to local bangladeshis, you have to count them when you buy them because people WILL jip you. or miscount.

they're sold at market stands, or off the back of wooden carts on the street.

teatime!

2008-06-06T13:51:00.005-04:00

tea picker. in action.

Friday May 30 - Saturday May 31

This past weekend we got the AMAZING opportunity to go to the karnaphuli tea estate, 60 km outside of Chittagong, that has just recently restarted operations after the dry season (did you know from december through the end of march tea is not processed in bangladesh? well, now you do!)

On the way to the tea garden (garden, estate, plantation...they're all used interchangeably to describe where tea is grown in vast quantities) we stopped for a picnic lunch alongside the road, where we saw a small pond with steps. As we should have anticipated, the family that own the land and pond came to introduce themselves and invited us to their home for food and tea. this is so typical of the hospitality we've been shown in Bangladesh, and the locals tell us that it's the same everywhere throughout the country. it really is astounding when i think about everything we've been given, and the amazing hospitality we've been shown, just in the three months we've been in Bangladesh.

The tea estate, Karnaphuli, was recently taken over by BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) and covers 6.5 thousand acres. There are approximately 7,000 workers that live on the grounds of the estate, and according to the manager on any given day about 2,000 will be working. When we arrived, i immediately felt like i'd been sent back about 100 years to live on a plantation. we were staying in the 'guesthouse' which was a huge complex with high ceilings, room after room, and a HUGE veranda. Of course, within 30 minutes of putting our bags down we had flowers in our hair from local bushes and tea brewed right in front of us - strrrrrong stuff, but really really good.

Friday afternoon we took a walk once it got a bit cooler and i ended up talking/walking with the director of the Access Academy, who was accompanying us for the weekend. It was particularly amazing to split off from the group (in actuality they just walked quicker than we did ...) because once we did, our director would speak to the workers on the estate and ask if we could be shown around. therefore, i was able to see a bunch of the houses that are provided for the workers on the estate, and conversations were translated for me explaining the education level of the children of working families and how things were going. of course, i spent most of the time taking pictures of cute little kids and playing a version of hide-and-seek with huge groups of children...making them laugh hysterically at me and then promptly run behind their mother's saris. All the workers are provided with land, shelter and basic amenities (different amounts of food depending on how many people are in the family). the houses are either mudhuts, tin-roofed, or thatched, and it's luck of the draw when you start working on the estate and which type of housing is available.

The highlight of Friday, however, was after a fantastic dinner of freshly caught fish, a game of taboo (Mihiri - you're AMAZING!!! thank you for the box of games!!!) and conversation late into the night on the veranda, the heat broke and a huge, crazy thunderstorm started. as we sat, the storm got so loud we couldn't hear each other speak, and we were all forced to enjoy watching the rain and lightning, and listen to the thunder roll by. it was simply incredible. definitely how i would love to pass monsoon season.

Saturday we got a tour from the BRAC manager of a larger radius of the estate (thanks to their amazing 4-wheel drive vehicles) and then a tour of the production area of the tea leaves after they've been picked. it was AMAZING. i still almost can't believe our luck. check out the photos below. pretty incredible.

the inside of a fresh jackfruit awaiting our arrival :)

teatime! (i mean, what else would you do at a tea estate, really?)

the path in front of the guesthouse leading to the fields

an older woman and her son or grandson walking along the path home (the boy was playing with an empty syringe...)

baby tea plants! (the nursery) when the plants reach a certain height, with enough leaves to be considered healthy, they're moved into the fields

two of the children i met while walking. freaking adorable.

these two ladies are working tea-pickers, carrying the leaves they've picked that morning to another area they need to work on. while the labor's hard and intensive, there was definitely a camaraderie amongst the workers we met and were able to watch for a short time.

at the last stage of our tea factory tour we got to see the tasters brewing fresh tea and checking the quality of each grade. pretty incredible.

masquerade-ness

2008-06-06T13:17:00.003-04:00

Thursday May 29
Our recently elected student government planned their first event last Thursday - a masquerade ball. adding to the excitement was the fact that we only got word of this party on monday or tuesday, meaning everyone was scrambling last minute to find costumes...also because most of the students aren't used to having such events at school, myself and a few other teachers made it our job to be as EXCITED as possible, hyping it up.

my roommate angela had been doing a project with her class, learning a fairytale called "the paperbag princess", rewriting their own story, illustrating a book and performing it for other classes. it worked PERFECTLY because we then dressed up as the paperbag princess (Angela) and I was the dragon that takes her prince (who turns out to be a huge bum) on their wedding day. it was a huge hit (the party itself, and our costumes), which couldn't have been a better kickoff event for the student government.

Angela and some of our students (pretty impressive for last minute costumes, eh?...there were quite a lot of princesses, but what can you expect from a culture of gorgeous saris?)

elizabeth, the paperbag princess (angela), and the dragon (me)

my with two of my students, who came as the paperbag princess and her prince, ronald

fire drill?

2008-06-05T14:07:00.004-04:00

Wednesday May 28th

i've been through my share of fire drills, but today's 'run through' fire drill was the most crazy one i've ever been a part of. we had all the students, faculty and staff meet on our roof, where the local fire department was waiting, to instruct us what to do. they explained the process to the students, many of whom failed to follow the directions in the end regardless, and eventually the alarm started and everyone had to make it from our 10th floor rooftop to the ground floor (through the fire escape stairway. which is teeny tiny. gets narrower as you continue down. genius, really).

the highlight of the fire drill was the fire the department wanted to start to then demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher. our students still shriek when the lights go out at night due to load shedding in chittagong (happens at least 5-10 times/day on average right now), so i'm not even sure their first reaction would be to grab a fire extinguisher, but it's good for them to know...however the fire department thought it would be a great idea to have all our students stand in our enclosed parking/lobby area and pour gasoline onto cardboard right in the middle of the gate opening...thanks to one of the other teachers they realized that might not be the greatest idea, so they then dragged the cardboard with gasoline already poured over it to our driveway...proceeding to then demonstrate how to use an extinguisher to put out a fire. our students were enthralled and excited, no doubt.

however i'm not so sure that in the event of a real fire it would go as smoothly. never does, i guess. oh chittagong. oh bangladesh.

beware: chocolate will melt

2008-06-05T13:58:00.003-04:00

Monday May 26

i LOVE getting mail...and my aunt maureen sent me my birthday present...which is AMAZING, see my absolute excitement (because somehow, with packing for bangladesh, i forgot a daypack backpack, which was very silly of me) after getting my new dakane backpack :)

inside was a 72 oz. bag of chocolate (which will be WELL used since we finally got an oven for all the teachers!!). i loved it, especially because the chocolate chips melted together a bit (see picture for entertainment). i really wonder what the customs officials think of us crazy americans and the funny packages that make it through their office.

a day of play ...

2008-06-05T13:50:00.005-04:00

Saturday May 24th

one of the perks of being part of a very well-connected community is, apparently, full-day events at the swankest hotel in Chittagong, the Hotel Agrabad. One of the owners is very interested in the AUW project and was the guest speaker a few weeks ago, and invited all the students to swim, eat and dance for the day. They hotel went all out, even bringing in a magician and putting together a short cultural program for our captivated audience. The students were besides themselves with glee...

me and part of my class...ain't they adorable?

the banquet hall decorated for the day

the view from the rooftop garden at the Agrabad. oh chittagong.

i was doing so well...and then apparently fell off the wagon...

2008-06-05T13:27:00.002-04:00

so here is a barrage of posts with mostly pictures, a quick update on the last two weeks of my life...

Friday May 25th

some of us teachers were treated to dinner at a local family's house, and then with their daughter (who's a teacher at the best primary/secondary school in Chittagong) we headed to the 'riverside'.

there's a 'beach' nearby (that people don't really swim in), and on the way there's a stone wall protecting the road from rising water...especially during monsoon season, apparently. we got to hang out for about an hour, looking at the stars and the lights from all the ships on the karnaphuli river, and enjoying the continuous stream of vendors selling spicy hot pieces of crab, peanuts, tea and the like.

shuvo buddha purnima!

2008-05-19T12:52:00.003-04:00

happy buddhist new year!

thanks to our day off, my apartmentmates and i got some quality outdoor time, going through markets and walking the streets near our building. it was actually a nice day, humidity was down, so it was only probably about high 80's, low 90's - thanks to a crazy thunderstorm we had last night. our bangladeshi staff continues to tell us how terribly hot it is and how much better it will be after monsoon season. i have my doubts, but we'll see...

as we were walking along the street we saw this gigantic pink, white and gray mass moving towards us...as it got closer (and this was in the middle of a heavily trafficked road, by the way), we realized it was a rickshaw loaded with foam squares - for pillows? for cushions? for construction? who knows.

when i get home i will have clothes that were manufactured in China (as seen by above), sewn/tailored in Bangladesh, and worn in Asia and the United States...globalization at it's best/worst?

tomorrow is...

2008-05-18T15:13:00.005-04:00

buddha purnima! pretty much the New Year for Buddhists, celebrating the birth of Buddha. one of the other teachers had her class make traditional lanterns that are usually lit up and let into the night sky - so we will have a few to decorate our building tomorrow.

hopefully it'll help keep the girls' spirits up - it's midterm week - and tomorrow they get the day off. as they have said...."it's not really a day off, since we have to study all day"

the inside of a a ribbon/lace shop...

2008-05-17T11:22:00.004-04:00

now that we've been here a while, we're starting to get a bit more creative with our clothes...there are stores where, obviously, you can buy fabric...but there are also stores (or stalls) STUFFED with ribbons, lace, sequins, etc. there are also some that have, or mix on the spot, paints to use for handpainting fabric. thank goodness i'm surrounded by some very artistic people...

it finally happened...

2008-05-16T16:37:00.006-04:00

...i was pooped on. by a crow.

there are an INSANE number of crows living in Chittagong (lovely, i know), and I constantly am avoiding their aim, however, today that did not happen. so therefore i've now found another use for our scarfs...head/hair protector.

in other news...angela and i took a rickshaw today to get back to the Academy building in time for a newspaper meeting. and to beat the rain...

(us on a rickshaw. doesn't it look fun!?)

and APPARENTLY Chittagong, at one point or another, had a YMCA. craziness. that logo will probably never not be where i am in the world...

meridian dinner #2

2008-05-15T12:50:00.003-04:00

Last night (thursday) we had our second catered affair AT the restaurant that caters for us...meaning the other half of the students were able to come. they were slightly less excited than last week, because they'd be 'prepped' by their friends for what to expect, but they still dressed to impress and had a fantastic time nonetheless. here i am, flanked by one of my literature classes. absolutely adorable.

apparently it's not party season yet...

2008-05-14T14:51:00.004-04:00

or so we were told tonight when we attended the 30th wedding anniversary of one of our administrative staff members. after the monsoons, in October or November, the real party season starts to gear up...the weather is considered best for weddings and other festive celebrations at that time. The couple who was celebrating 30 beautiful years has been one of the most friendly, accommodating and generous; trying to help us volunteers transition to life in Bangladesh. They've arranged and accompanied us to Rangamati, planned dinners and invited us to join them on days off at the Chittagong Club (the only 'social elite' club that exists in Chittagong...many more exist in Dhaka...the Chittagong Club not only has a bangin' good restaurant but a bar, swimming pool, gym, library AND bakery. all in one. craziness). The night was full of meeting new contacts and getting to know our staff a bit better in a more relaxed environment. which was fantastic. and it was at one of my favorite restaurants in Chittagong - Ambrosia - which reminds me of restaurants you might see in large US cities - almost looks like a converted warehouse. very tastefully done.

Until the 'real' party season rolls around, our social calendars will have to suffice as is - packed full of meetings with other volunteers we've found throughout the city of Chittagong, personal invites to dinner parties and, the alltime favorite, barbeque/game nights with the rest of the WorldTeach/AUW staff. As lovely as this all sounds, I promise it's not all fun and games. we do work a good amount too...

it's the little things that inspire...

2008-05-13T14:14:00.002-04:00

As ms. julie elling mentioned in a conversation over gmail the other day, it seems i've recently moved to a 'natural disaster hotspot' zone...first the cyclone that has killed over 32,000 people in burma (with that figure continuing to rise), and then the earthquake that hit China, hard, just yesterday.

Well, two students of Access Academy asked to meet with a few teachers tonight to discuss wanting to do something for the earthquake victims in China. Talk about turning a bunch of development-obsessed, idealistic, 'let's save the world' types into proud mamas. not that we can take any credit for the fact that the two students began our discussion by showing up pictures, providing us details and explaining why they felt they needed to do something for the victims of the earthquakes and aftershocks; most of these girls/young women have made it this far in terms of education because of their 'go get 'em' attitude and their desire to change their surroundings. Regardless, to hear two students speak about how they felt especially terrible that many of the victims of the earthquake were students, in class, and how much they wanted to start helping in any way they could -- it was rather impressive, to say the least.

So, on Thursday, after our guest speaker of the week, we'll hopefully be having a minute of silence for the victims after the students explain exactly what has happened since the earthquake. Within the next few weeks, they want to have the entire student body write letters to hospital patients and prepare care packages with blankets and other necessary items.

There's nothing better than seeing others empowered by encouragement from just one person --- these particular two students, one from Nepal and one from Bangladesh, told us that they've never had teachers who would speak with them one on one, inside or outside of the class...i can't wait to see what else our students end up doing (right now there is a poster in our cafeteria about potentially starting an organization to work with street kids in the area, and ideas are being spoken of every day)...

i thought after high school i was done with student council elections...

2008-05-12T12:14:00.003-04:00

but no. not the case. i often forget that while this is a university setting i'm teaching in, it is set up very similar to a residential high school - we have the same schedule every day, the focus is on teaching study skills and habits, we encourage the students in and out of the classroom constantly, we run extracurriculars aaaand now we have an official student government. which we had elections for tonight. brought me back to the good 'ole days where elections were held in a huge auditorium, everyone packed in tight, administrators and teachers running around making sure people were quiet and respectful and everything ran on time. obviously, we held elections on our roof (the only space large enough for all the students, faculty and staff for over an hours), obviously we started 30 minutes late and obviously, we had to stop speeches for about 5 minutes during the call to prayer (did i mention there's a mosque less than a block from us? it took about 2 days to get used to the call to prayer and i usually don't even realize it in the background of everything nowadays).

it was AMAZING to see the students stand up in front of their faculty, administration and peers and speak to why they should be elected to student government. not surprisingly, our students have pretty stellar backgrounds - they are the ones who overcame huge obstacles in their home countries and made it to the top of their classes anyways. it was especially exciting to see some of our students who are less comfortable with speaking english get up amongst girls who have much more experience with english, and they really did a fantastic job.

there are always the worries about student government being a popularity contest, of course, but with a class of 131 students, they pretty much know everything about each other and that isn't going to change over the next 6 years they study together. Most candidates made some mention of 'our AUW family' or 'gaining 130 sisters' upon arrival. really inspiring. While many of the speeches were: introduction, experience, "vote for me!", a few students were able to identify concerns and issues that the students have - a great sign that they will use the student government ASAP as a sounding board for complaints and a springboard for change. As we, the teachers, have the most face time with the students, we've been hearing a lot about the problems they're facing...homesickness, inability to call home on a regular basis, the heat (many, like us, aren't used to the pre-monsoon humidity)...and while we're certainly sympathetic ears, the best way for them to learn leadership and problem solving is to lead the initiatives themselves for more computers, more free time, more activities, etc.

it's rather exciting. hopefully it doesn't interfere too much with their schoolwork?

hand-painted amazingness

2008-05-09T14:30:00.001-04:00

So there's this theory about culture shock that we were introduced to during out orientation (that we have, since then, introduced to our students as well), that separates culture shock into 5 stages...stage 1 "everything is great! fantastic! nothing can go wrong!!"...stage 2 "i hate my life, this sucks, nothing works in this country"...stage 3 "i'm starting to get more comfortable, really enjoying my surroundings, starting to feel like i'm part of the community"...stage 4 "why can't things be easier like they are at home?" and stage 5 "I don't want to leave!!!"

I think it's safe for me to say that I'm on a bangladesh high, firmly placed within stage 3 right now. I've started a running (jogging) club and this morning was our first 'run'...we walked to a nearby grassy field, stretched, walked/jogged for 10 minutes, and then walked back. There were about 20 girls who showed up, pretty amazing for a friday morning at 7am, and they all seemed to be happy just to be doing some sort of exercise.

After spending the rest of the morning working on my midterm...always a fun job...Angela, Jill and I had been invited to a student's house because we continuously admire her GORGEOUS clothes. Everytime we ask where she got them, she answers that her father handpainted the designs (did i mention her dad's a professional artist in Bangladesh and art teacher at Dhaka University?). This led to an invite for a private lesson --- typical of Bangladeshi hospitality we were fed the whole time we were there, and were invited back any time we pleased. Her father was amazing and not only showed us much of his work and many of his handpainting techniques, but he took the opportunity to teach us about bangladeshi designs and the art of handpainting. When he finishes the artwork, we're going to have the fabric made into tops. and i can not wait to show 'em off.

We had to cut our visit short to get back for meetings at the Academy and we had a dinner/game night planned with some of the Access Academy/AUW staff at the University's guesthouse. It'd been a really long time since i played a full-out game of taboo, and the addition of several bangladeshi players made it all the more interesting.

so i'm tired. and really happy. and loving bangladesh tonight.

a night on the town (meaning less than two blocks from our building...)

2008-05-08T12:54:00.007-04:00

today was the first, of hopefully many, nights we were able to have dinner at the restaurant that caters for our cafeteria with half of our students (the Meridian's dining room could probably fit the 150 or so students/faculty/staff...but for safety's sake the administration split the students into 2 groups for two separate dinner occasions. tonight was the first half of the student's turn (oh, did i mention that as faculty we're not invited, but expected to go to both dinners? turning down a meal out is not something i do normally. especially when the bill's already been paid...), and it was a huge hit. the students have been complaining a bit about the food - it's catered food, so a bit more of what you'd have at celebratory, festive occasions (meaning not as good for you...) as well as a bit different from many of the cuisines the girls are coming from...the cambodians say it's too spicy whereas the indians and sri lankans ask for more chilis. even the bangladeshis have started to complain about the repetition of dishes and more-than-usual-amount-of-oil used...but the administration and the caterer is doing their best to accomodate all the girls' needs.

angela, one of my roommates, and i are starting to sound a bit like broken records when we reply to complaints with, "at least we have food here...." but we're also the development junkies who have been trying to keep up with the food price/rice crisis of the world right now...

REGARDLESS. some of the girls had mentioned they'd never been to a really nice restaurant before. others haven't been out for a dinner since arriving at the academy. so most of the students went all out - they were in their best shalwar kameez outfits, decked out in their flashiest jewelry and had, of course, the matching heels. the fact that to get to the restaurant we resembled a kids camp jamboree (each class that was going tonight was assigned two teachers, a security guard and a staff member to walk with to the restaurant and sit with during the meal...and we had some of our security personnel posted along the way to help everyone cross the busy streets...) was totally overshadowed by the sheer excitement the girls had for getting a night out. they have a curfew of 6:30 when they have to be back in the building, even on weekends, so this was as close to 'breaking the rules' as they're going to get from the administration for the time being. and they were certainly excited at the thought.

it was a great dinner and i can't wait for next week's - not necessarily for the food but because it's great to see the staff, faculty and students all interacting in a much less-stressful mode.

as dinner was finishing up, the waiters from the Meridian (who usually bring the food to the Access Academy every day and wait through the mealtimes) came around with snack food for all the students - and they were especially excited to take it home with them...late-night study habits seem to be the same everywhere.

ever seen a square block of ice cream? the color fuschia? seriously, this picture doesn't do the color of the ice cream justice. BRIGHT pink.

me, surrounded by my students. they were all dressed to impress, for sure.

(it's also like where's waldo - where's the white face?)

a new fast food joint in town...

2008-05-07T12:46:00.004-04:00

i went for a short while with some of the other volunteers today - mahmuda and nancy had to pick up clothes they'd gotten tailored and carly and i just wanted to get out (as in outside. of our building). mahmuda and nancy had stayed behind in Chittagong last weekend while the rest of us went away and had discovered they similar obsession with shoes. so while those two went off in search of a few more pairs to dazzle and decorate their beautiful feet, carly and i were drawn into just a few scarf/fabric stores...i've never really been one to wear scarves that often, even in the winter, but they're a must here. not only do they add another layer of covering to protect women (and especially women that stick out like us 'bideshis' - foreigners), but we've found loads of other uses...they're great for wiping the sweat off your face in the heat of pre-monsoon season, they're fantastic for shielding yourself from mosquitoes, or swatting them away, they can help hide our most obvious foreigner trait (the white skin?) when we're out, and they're always just one more piece to an outfit that can impress even the most fashionable bangladeshis.

suffice it to say, we're all a little scarf-obsessed. carly and i were talking today about how we're already attached to wearing scarfs all the time, something we're not really used to at all in the US/Australia. besides the fact that shopping for scarfs and fabrics is a trip in itself. like the two pictures below show...there are limitless patterns, colors, styles and fabrics to choose from. the scarfs are usually all tied together on a bar or hook and hang length-wise for all to browse. the other amazing thing about shopping for things in chittagong is that most 'shops' are located within huge markets or bazars, and will be set among a ridiculous number of other stalls selling exactly the same items. it really is a lot of work if you're going to try and pay the lowest price - you have to price check at many places and then gauge which vendor will let you bargain the price down most...as long as you're in the mood, it's a lot of fun.

here's just a slight sampling of the available scarves at one stall. ps - tie dye is IN over here in bangladesh. maybe i should have brought my children's leaders shirts...

each shop will have at least one, if not more, small boys who (i'm assuming are related to the owners) help customers look for specific colors/patterns/fabrics, etc. carly and i were trying to use our little bangla by asking, "dam koto?" meaning "how much?" for a particular scarf and he replied "one twenty" (120 taka). carly, continuing to try, uttered, "ek show bisch?" (120?)...and he goes "yea, one hundred twenty."

so much for practicing our bangla.

ah, yes. and then, on our way back, we decided to check out Helvetia, a new "fast food and coffeehouse" restaurant that opened a few weeks ago. one of the deans of the AUW, during the first few weeks of planning/students arriving/classes, mentioned she'd seen a sign for a new coffeehouse opening in our neighborhood...and of course it turned out to be this helvetia chain restaurant (there's at least one in dhaka...don't know how many you need for a chain). our hopes were slightly dashed, but then we discovered the iced coffee (granted, nescafe, but still pretty decent iced) and soft-serve ice cream. perfect treat at the end of a hot day. mahmuda, carly and i stopped off for slushies...but this is what the soft-served ice cream comes in, byyyy the way. seriously? real glasses? it might be impressive except for the service and quality of food disappointing mirrors that of most fast-food places in the US...

oh, chittagong...

2008-05-06T13:14:00.002-04:00

this is how things are done in chittagong. bamboo/rope ladders are used for construction AND cleaning, apparently. safety worries? naaah.

rice paddies at sunset

2008-05-05T12:10:00.001-04:00

mama mahmuda and her fantastic samosas

2008-05-04T12:55:00.002-04:00

my apartment-mate Mahmuda, in her glory, taught the Access Academy culture club how to make samosas tonight. she said she doesn't know how to make too many types of fillings...but we're always up for a challenge (i mean, we're here long enough, might as well give it a try, eh?).

Mahmuda was an awesome sport letting me paparazzi the event and crack jokes during...i really do, however, think she should open her own bangladeshi restaurant upon return to the US and call it Mama Mahmuda's. it has a nice ring to it.

the new obsession of apartment 7C

2008-05-03T13:10:00.003-04:00

one word: HENNA
Mahmuda, our resident bangladeshi-american, was applying henna when Angela and I returned from our 3-day weekend getaway this evening...which means that most of our time tonight was spent thinking of different designs we could draw on our hands and then typing up lesson plans with our other free hand while the henna was drying.
by the time i get back to the US, i'll be a henna expert.

Angela henna'ing mahmuda's hand

angela and mahmuda's hands - drying

the palm of my hand en process...ps - once this stuff dries...it gets kinda itchy. i can only imagine what it's like for brides on their wedding day (it's tradition for brides to have elaborate henna applied all over their arms and legs for their wedding...eek)

the finished product

(i'll update y'all on my student's reaction tomorrow in class...)

quiet? in bangladesh?

2008-05-03T10:59:00.007-04:00

this past thursday we had YET another holiday (they soon stop occurring so often...unfortunately...but it has been really nice for slowly easing our way into teaching full time). Did you know that May 1st, or May Day, is still celebrated elsewhere in the world? thank goodness for such traditions. so, therefore, we had a fabulous three-day weekend and decided to travel to a missionary hospital, with attached guesthouse, that had been mentioned to us as a great retreat from the cityscape of Chittagong. it was absolutely amazing, we were able to eat some western food (mashed potatoes and roast chicken anyone?) and they had a pool open until 11pm - perfect for night swimming! i will be revisiting this and explaining photographs...but for now...i'm heading back to lesson-planning.

welcome to the neighborhood.

2008-04-30T12:36:00.003-04:00

literally, not 100 meters from the front of our building (ok, maybe ~200...but seriously, that's it). the cows are tattoo'ed with ink (?) with the owner's name and a number. just in case, you know, they wander off...?

peanuts anyone?

2008-04-29T11:36:00.003-04:00

what you'll see when you're walking the streets

2008-04-28T10:35:00.003-04:00

took this a couple days ago.

but to keep with the 'one picture a day' thing...

pure bangladesh. old, wearied man, carrying

his food for the market in baskets,

smoking a biri (local cigarette).

only in bangladesh...

2008-04-27T10:22:00.002-04:00

...would you hear music streaming in through your window, go out on your balcony and see a full-out marching band on a neighboring roof-patio. apparently there was a wedding today in the family and the band was just a small part of the celebrations. fantastic.

...aaaand the view from my window of the construction going on next door. one of the things i'm always fascinated by when i travel is seeing how different countries "do" construction (i know, such a travel nerd). let alone the lack of safety standards, it's really interesting to see how areas that don't have access to all the materials and machines available to western nations think "outside the box" to get things done. and i have a front row view as the building next door goes up...

rangamati

2008-04-26T13:57:00.005-04:00

On Saturday one of our amazing AUW staff members and her daughter took us to Rangamati, about 3 hours south/southeast of Chittagong. Rangamati is one of the districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, which is an area of Bangladesh with a population and culture completely different to anywhere else in the country. (for more information, especially about the tenuous history of the region, wikipedia it!)

Here are some of the pictures from the day trip -- I'll return to this in the next few days and add my lovely, verbose narrative to explain a bit more about the region and culture.

the 5th roommate...

2008-04-25T12:47:00.003-04:00

...and maybe 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th...

geckos!! this little guy was giving mahmuda and i a hard time today when we were trying to clean the kitchen. silly....

just some of the joys of bangladesh...

2008-04-23T11:32:00.005-04:00

there are just SO many...one of which is the frequent power outages...at least a couple every day lately. granted, this was one of those things i did expect coming here (knowing how iffy electricity can be in developing countries...in uganda i had to plan on no electricity after about 6 or 7pm at night), but we're really lucky that the Access Academy does have a generator so when the power goes off, we have basic amenities back on within seconds (air conditioners don't usually make the cut, but i'm alright with that). HOWEVER as we're heading into some of the hottest months of the year before the monsoon season, so i'm told, we're also heading into electricity problems. every year around this time, people expect the electricity to be especially unreliable because of the increase in usage, thereby overloading the system. holler. the girls are slowly coming to adjust to the AC-classrooms (when we have electricity) but the lack thereof in their dorm rooms...

some more fun joys...developing country = availability of glass soda bottles. love 'em. and don't think you're going anywhere because they want those bottles back...

oh, and the newest, latest of joys --- we got ID cards today. terrible pictures, awkward clip and embedded chip to get into the computer lab and ALL!

it's the little things you come to appreciate...

2008-04-21T12:53:00.003-04:00

Like getting teacher mailboxes for students to drop off work in. slowly but surely the school is looking pretty shnazzy...

Oh, and yes...of coures my mailbox (see below - with world map inside) is on the bottom shelf...i might be one of the shorter volunteers...but i'm right on par with most bangladeshi women...even considered tall in some circles! ::shock::

weekend trip: cox's bazar

2008-04-20T11:32:00.010-04:00

one of the more charming aspects of living in Chittagong is that there are many holidays, holidays that i've never heard of or celebrated. A lot of these holidays are based on a lunar calendar - meaning that our academic calendar isn't set in stone because it's not until veeeery close to some holidays that the exact date is decided upon.

we were SUPPOSED to have the buddhist new year this past sunday, but were told on Wednesday that the powers that be decided that it would be celebrated during the May full moon, instead of April's. As teachers, we raised a little bit of concern that we'd already told the students (and expected for ourselves) about the 3-day weekend, so the administration declared a day off classes instead of an official state holiday.

meaning that 2 of my roommates and i traveled to cox's bazar on friday morning for a 2-night, 2-day little vacay - which was absolutely amazing and necessary. just getting out of our building, and chittagong, for a weekend helped to refresh our energy levels and totally helped my perspective. With the first two weeks of classes under our belts, things seem to be going well on the academic side - but it's hard not to feel the stress to do the best we can all the time...and getting away was a great reminder that i do have 15 more months with my students to get them to a university level of English.

Besides getting out of town, getting to experience bangladeshi beach culture was another thing entirely...it's really interesting that beach culture across the world varies so much...and bangladesh is certainly the most conservative i've ever seen. Imagine lots of bangladeshi men with their girlfriends or wives and families, in one of two attires: boardshorts/swimsuit and a tank top, or a full out suit you'd expect to see them at work in (some, also, were in the traditional male dress of very long tunics, but not nearly as many). The women, on the other hand, are all decked out in a shalwar kameez, and go swimming in full clothing. There are beach chairs, that you have to pair for, lined along the shore and vendors with peanuts, water, sodas, etc. that walk around trying to sell you your latest snack. There are also smaller children who go around selling shell strands, necklaces and mobiles...obviously very poor children who don't normally get enough to eat during the day. Luckily Mahmuda, one of my roommates who's bangladeshi (and therefore usually acts as our interpreter), was there and is more of a softy than me...she came home with probably 8-10 strands/necklaces and two mobiles. She kept repeating what the little kids were telling her - that they hadn't eat lunch that day, or they were trying to sell enough shells to pay for school - and would eventually hand over the 5 or 10 taka they were asking for the shells. they inevitably gave her a few extra because she gave them more money than they were asking for...she's got a heart of gold.

we also had our first rickshaw ride! (a few, actually). they're a great way to travel in a town that's deserted right now, at least compared to the high season in the winter (apparently it's TOO hot for many people to vacation in cox's bazar right now). It was so nice to be able to walk on certain streets without bumping into a gazillion people or swerving every few seconds to avoid rickshaw drivers and fruit stands. we always had to pay a little more than usual because there were three of us cramming into one rickshaw. it was a tough balance of bargaining the price down and reminding ourselves that the driver was going to be pulling us behind his bike for a few kilometers.

On our way back to Chittagong on Sunday I realized one more thing that I'm super thankful for in the US - our exposure to traveling at early ages...whether it be cars, buses, trains, planes, etc. There were quite a few young children on our bus and by the end of the 4-hour trip back to Chittagong, all of them had gotten motion-sick at least once, if not more. I've realized this traveling around asia since january, and it's such a weird thing for many people to have access to these types of transport during their lives that it makes it even harder when they do...barf bags are a staple for most companies...at least, for most of the more expensive ones I've ridden. the cheap public buses forgo such shows of concern for their passengers, but also allow windows to be open when one gets sick.

all in all - great weekend - send along any specific questions you've got about cox's bazar...it IS the home of the longest continuous beach in the world, but we didn't actually make it there this time around. we know we'll be heading back quite a bit since it's literally only a 3 or 4 hour ride from our residence to the seaside (it's also quite close to the border with myanmar/burma, making for a large buddhist population, and apparently there's a burmese refugee camp nearby. so, obviously i'm looking for contacts and hoping to come back and help).

our lovely hotel...we didn't want to pay for AC so we were stuck on the 5th floor. we had a great view of the surrounding streets as a result...and quite a few cockroaches for roommates as well...

i liked their sign. fun colors.

one of the things i absolutely ABSOLUTELY love about bangladesh is the bright colors everywhere you go. the women are always dressed so elegantly, and their clothes are always bright, colorful and eyecatching. Women check each other out ALL THE TIME and are very quick to comment on what you're wearing...

everywhere on the beach there are guys walking around with old 35mm cameras, offering to take your photos...you can then find them in these smaller stalls later that day, or the next. the question is really, though, how do you know which stall to go to?

there was one section of the beach where poorer families were collecting shells to make into strands, necklaces and mobiles...while it was really sad to watch and know that the few taka each necklace cost was the result of hours of work in and out of the water, the children seemed to be having a fabulous time playing while working.

this one young boy was helping his dad set out nets to collect shells...

and this kid was a complete ham...the minute he saw my camera he ran in front of me, did a few somersaults, ended up on his back and posed for a picture. he does have a radiating smile, though.

one of the little boys who mahmuda bought shells from. he was so adorable...it's a good thing mahmuda's a bigger softee than i am :)

we spent saturday walking around the town of cox's bazar, checking out the two buddhist temples, a few buddhist stupas, the burmese market and the local water festival (we just happened to catch the yearly celebration). we passed one family as we meandered through a residential area who warned us to not go much further...and then offered their two sons as tour guides for a few hours, for a small fee of course. the two boys were studying english in school and were quite helpful in pointing out places to go - they took us to a few stupas atop a hill that had great views of cox's bazar, which was awesome.

sunset at the beach. notice the women in full shalwar kameez outfits, scarves and all.

one of the vendors on the beach - what else would you want as you're watching the tide come in but fresh fruit, right?

two young girls who were selling jewelry, visors, shell necklaces and other small souvenirs

for flynn jebb...

2008-04-17T13:23:00.002-04:00

One of the many pictures I owe you from the past few months...

for your piece on 'driver culture'.

So, i traveled with this girl named flynn jebb through thailand and some of laos. she has this incredible, AMAZING idea to write a paper (and should get paid to do this research, obviously) on the culture of drivers, how it differentiates between countries and what's similar throughout the world. therefore, i've become fascinated with watching drivers in every country i go to.

i think, flynn, you should also include what drivers learn while they're actually working...what pieces of gossip/information they hear because people always assume they can't hear/understand or don't care to listen...i feel like a lot of them are wealths of information. I know that our drivers here at AUW probably know more about western/american culture than they'd ever hoped, just from driving around 12 young women.

thanks flynn. enjoy the pic.

not all things in life are free...

2008-04-16T12:45:00.002-04:00

So, today, i received a package from my mom. it was filled with amazing goodness - coffee, chocolate, taboo, alba shampoo and conditioner - even a card from my Oma and Opa, which was especially great to get (because sometimes, all you want is a card/postcard/letter :)).

I must also explain that every box i've received since arriving in bangladesh has, obviously, been opened, looked through and repacked. The government/customs makes no secret about it, and even leaves a little note in bangla script that has everything in your box accounted for.

how nice of them, eh?

HOWEVER, apparently, they not only make people pay pretty hefty prices in the US to send packages (only 90cents for a card!), they also make the recipient pay on this end. I understand, to some extent, but please, for the love of all that is good in the world, do NOT list a "repacking charge". don't open the box in the first place, and then you won't have to repack it!

seriously.

in other news, for about an hour we had our electricity turned off (for one reason or another) this evening and so, with another volunteer, i went on the roof with some of the students to get some fresh air/see some lights...even if they weren't coming from our building.

after some talking, dancing and singing...they eventually made me pull out the camp songs. i can proudly say, now, that south asian women are quite the fans of "princess pat" and "'round the world, baby" - for all you silver bay'ers out there. so much so that they've asked me to type out the lyrics for princess pat. looks like i know what we'll be using as a warmup for classes from now on. i don't ever want to forget having to teach my students what a 'repeat after me' song is at 9pm at night, on the roof of a 10-story building in downtown chittagong during a brownout. even when it gets really frustrating dealing with administrative and communication issues, i can always count on the unexpected, amazing events, like tonight, to reinforce why i'm here and how much i do love being in this position.

AND i got to chat with chelsea frisbee AND bob knepp on skype tonight!! if anyone has a skype address --- add me!! kameehan --- do it. now.

WATERMELONS!

2008-04-15T15:04:00.003-04:00

right now - it's watermelon season. we can get them ridiculously cheap, right off the street. and Chef, our cook, makes sure we have watermelon with at least one meal a day. he also brings a large tray over when all the teachers are done with their lunch or dinner and encourages us, "eat more! it's just water! so good for you!"

how do you resist such logic, really?

the largest crowd i've ever been a part of...

2008-04-15T13:21:00.004-04:00

Today was Bengali New Year and a bunch of us teachers headed out to see the festivities. We didn't have to go TOO far in the morning (the holiday is mostly celebrated early in the day)...at around 8am a full-out parade passed through our neighborhood, right down our little one-way street. Much to my amusement at the end of the musicians and dancers, there was a giant paper-mache, blue peacock...not only not red or white (which are the new years colors), but bright blue with sparkles.

There is a park in Chittagong called DC Hill where we'd been told the chittagonian locals head to for celebrations. Alam, one of the drivers for the AUW, was kind enough to drop us off a few blocks away --- traffic was so backed up getting to the entrance of DC Hill that it would have taken about an hour to move 3 blocks, according to him. I trust Alam, he's lived in Chittagong most of his life. He also made sure we knew how to walk to the entrance of the park, even walked with us half the way!...we haven't managed to memorize directions in bangla yet.

In the crowds leading up to the park gate, there were vendors selling wares, pots and pans, furniture, toys - you name it, it was there, including any type of fried food you ever thought existed. and more.

We paid a whopping 10 taka each to have our faces painted by random people walking around with paint. The line extending from the park entrance was at least a block long...however, as we moved closer to the front to see exactly where the gate was (and try to figure out how long we would probably have to wait to enter the main attraction)...the police/guards saw us and ushered us straight through. Sometimes being a foreigner is actually rather helpful.

Not that it helped when we were IN the park. There were at least 10 thousand people in the amphitheater-like setting, and getting through the crowds was a bit harrowing, especially with a group of 7 people trying not to lose each other. we had a rather good system of creating a train anytime we tried to move anywhere. The biggest problem we faced while we were inside the park, while the cultural performances were beginning, was that if we stayed in one location too long, the crowds around US, watching what we were doing, taking pictures of us with their camera phones and digital cameras and, those young men bold enough, asking us questions in english (craziness). When these men started getting really annoying, one of the teachers would start speaking spanish, and only spanish, with them. it would take a few back-and-forths for him to get the message that there would be no more conversation consisting of, "where do you live in chittagong? can i have your number? your neck, it is so beautiful"...honestly? one of the girls was literally complimented on her neck and throat, "so lovely, miss".

in the afternoon we stopped in the local boutique we frequent and had a rousing conversation with two young bengalis on the politics of arranged marriages and the rice crisis at the moment.

aaaand then i spent all afternoon lesson planning for the rest of the week. the good news is, however, that next sunday we have another holiday! not as crazy of celebrations, we're told, but a day off of school nonetheless. it's been really nice being able to ease into teaching with 4 day weeks, not going to lie.

shuvo noboborsho! new year - where face painting is all the rage

me, niki, mahmuda and angela. dressed in our new years finest.

faces painted with the best of 'em.

remind you of carnival/fair/amusement park toys? because that's what i think of everyday when i see these vendors on the street...

the line into the park. like i said, pretty flippin' long (notice the absence of women?

they were there, just not in large numbers like the male population...)

like i said. large crowd. i wouldn't attend if you were claustrophic.

fried food galore.

two young boys who followed us around yelling, "paani! paani!" (water! water!)

i think we broke their hearts when we all pulled out water bottles.

beware of the red bangles...

2008-04-13T15:22:00.003-04:00

Shuvo Noboborsho! Happy Bengali New Year! We had known it was bengali new year --- people have been telling us for a week now to make sure we had a red and white sari or shalwar kameez to wear, along with glittering matching jewelry (always a must in bangladesh). What we didn't know, and most of us found out in class this morning, was that the 13th (sunday) was Cambodian, Nepalese AND Sri Lankan New Year! We're off from school tomorrow, which is amazing, but we kinda felt bad after the fact that a large group of students weren't able to celebrate their new years properly, and had to attend classes on today.

I shouldn't have worried, apparently, because some of the students took it upon themselves to rally the troops and plan festivities celebrating all 4 new years that spanned the two days.

6 of us teachers went out for dinner -- it was so nice to get out for a really good meal. We talked mostly about our students and our plans for classes, but it was still so great to get out of our building for the night. Most Bangladeshis eat VERY LATE, so as we were finishing dinner around 9:30, the dining room was just beginning to fill up.

We walked back into the building, and as we were climbing the countless flights of stairs (i exaggerate...there are only 10 floors, and i live on the 7th, so it's not really THAT bad. we do have an elevator, but it's usually broken, and i'd rather use the stairs anyways. makes me feel a little better about rarely working out), we heard loud noises coming from our cafeteria.

As we walked in to see what the commotion was about (we'd be told that there would be a new years celebration at midnight, and we were not only invited but EXPECTED to come), we were met with a gigantic herd of sweaty, grinning girls clapping and hollering loudly. they were obviously excited that their teachers had chosen to attend their gathering.

What they'd done was pretty impressive - we have a cafeteria that is literally 4 small rooms of a suite. the main room remained the caf line, and they'd gone out to get sweets and snacks for the celebratory festivities that afternoon. One of the side rooms had been decorated with balloons, signs, flowers and (eventually) the new years cakes. The other usable room (the 4th was way to tiny for party-purposes) was completely dark, all the lights off, with a computer hooked up to quite the sound system. music was blaring, and i felt like i'd been transported back to college...it was a bit reminiscent of dance parties throughout the years. We left soon after our entrance, promising we'd come back after we changed and got the food we'd bought for their party and well, the girls, they were floored when we actually came back and danced with them. They kept saying, "ma'am! you're such a good dancer! i cannot believe you are dancing with us!" Yet, they would say these things as they dragged us onto the dance floor from the sidelines...it was really quite adorable.

Midnight rolled around and the few ringleaders gathered everyone in the decorated room, had all the bangladeshis sing a song, popped all the balloons hung around the room, threw flower petals over everyone's heads (and onto the cakes as well - mmmhmm gotta love flowers with cake), and insisted that the teachers do the honors of cutting the cakes at midnight. Part of it is because i'm so fresh out of college, i'm sure, but i'm so impressed at the respect and admiration we've been given by our students, just because of the role we hold as teachers. I know that my lessons are far from perfect, and i'm just hoping that i'll be able to get my students to where they need to be by the end of the year - but it's amazingly inspiring to have such faith placed in you by complete strangers. a little intimidating as well. The party definitely broke some barriers between us teachers and the students and, hopefully, set a precedence for celebrating different cultures' holidays because it was sure one heck of a party.

some of the artwork done by our students for the New Year

Oh, yes. so the title of the blog post. We're supposed to wear red and white for Bengali New Year --- well, bangle bracelets are, like, the hottest jewelry item for women in Bangladesh. So, when i went shopping for New Years accessories, bangles were a must. these are some of the ones i got (24 of them for 50 taka...which is about 80 cents), HOWEVER, it's the end of the night now, and my lower left arm is completely red. therefore, beware of the red bangles. i'll have to ask next time before i buy if they have a tendency to dye the wearer's skin...

it's almost midnight...

2 of the many cakes the students bought for the new year celebration. their hard work really paid off --- everyone had an amazing time!

at war with the copier...

2008-04-12T13:13:00.006-04:00

i feel like i'm on office space. we have two copiers in our building...and the one in our office has been blinking 'error - paper jam' all day. of course, since it's the weekend, there's no one here to override the silliness of said copier...since there was no paper jam to be found.

and, of course, when i went down tonight to copy my activities for tomorrow at the OTHER copier...it jammed just as another volunteer was finishing up.

oh, the irony.

luckily i somehow tricked our copier back into reality, and it started pumping out copies on our last try.

a run outside, the beach AND a fair?

2008-04-11T16:00:00.004-04:00

I was completely spoiled today. This morning we got to go to the land the AUW owns, which will be the site of the actual campus in just a few years, and I actually got to run OUTSIDE. I was basically jogging in circles, on dirt, but there was a very tiny lake...probably less than 100 metres in diameter...next to the dirt field I was running around. Even more exciting was the fact that some of our students had been taken to the site to play volleyball, and a few are interested in starting a jogging club - i about DIED when they started getting excited about that, and potentially putting together a 5k in the future (most of them had never even heard of a "5k").

This is interesting --- on our land, there are many people that have put up pretty much shack-like homes, and live off whatever odd-jobs they can find in the area - which aren't much. Kamal, the head of the AUW Support Foundation and the guy who had the vision to start the AUW, has been in town for the past two weeks and was hoping to get a volleyball court built on the property before he left because some of the students were interested in playing. He, literally, got the court built overnight. He employed a large number of the massive population of willing and able bodies that live on our land and surrounding plots and it was done in one night. He shared today that it cost a whopping $150 USD for the entire operation, and I think that included buying three volleyballs. It's amazing how much CAN happen, quickly, if you have the money to pay people here.

After hanging out at the site, we got to accompany some of the students to the "beach" in Chittagong - called Pateng I think? The beach itself is a cultural experience, and it reminded me how different social norms are across the world. No one actually swims at the beach in Bangladesh (one, because the water's disgusting and would probably make you sick if you swallowed too much of it, and two, because you would never catch anyone in anything resembling a swimsuit. wayyyy too riske for this country. apparently women do sometimes swim at Cox's Bazar, a beach to the south, but will do so in their traditional dress - the shalwar kameez...pants and a long tunic-like shirt. talk about being weighed down?). there were plenty of people AT the beach, it's definitely a place people go to hang out for the afternoon, but mostly to walk and take pony rides, apparently.

WE caused quite a stir because about half the students with us were Nepalese, and had never seen the ocean before. They FLIPPED. Getting to watch them experience it for the first time was absolutely incredible, and something I won't forget for a long time. Even better, however, was the fact that a bunch of other students with us were from Sri Lanka, and they all stood on the beach, watching the Nepalese girls with huge, shocked faces...they tried explaining that usually beaches, and the ocean, is much nicer, and blue, and clear, to the Nepalese girls, but it didn't matter to them. It was their first time ever, and nothing was going to ruin it. And eventually they got their counterparts to splash in the waves with them. Ah, their smiles were SO big, so genuine. it was really incredible.

On the way back we passed probably 7-10 mosques, and it was the first time I've seen the daily prayer on Friday attended at mosques...it was something out of a movie. Rows upon rows of males, ranging from very young to very old, were kneeling in the direction of Mecca, following their prayer rituals. We would look out of our van and just see a sea of white caps and tunics. Half of the road was shut down in many places because there wasn't enough room in the mosque, on the sidewalk outside of the mosque, on the land around the mosque, and so people were spilling onto the streets. I hesitated to take photos, just because I don't want to do anything too offensive, or break the cultural 'faux-pas', but hopefully I'll be able to ascertain what's appropriate soon and share the experience via photo.

After getting back, i left again right away with some other volunteers because we'd been able to get tickets to the hottest fair in town, apparently. Chittagong Grammar School, which is a private school in Chittagong, one of the premiere English-medium institutions (costs quite a bit to send your kids there, but they're guaranteed a fabulous education), has a yearly fair to celebrate Bengali New Year (April 14th) - and we happen to be available for the event! 8 of us ended up going, and personally I really just wanted to see what a 'fair' would consist of in Bangladesh.

It was exactly what I had pictured...booths of carnival games, fortune telling, food, drinks, crafts, etc. There was even a cultural stage where the students performed throughout the day. Our favorite booth was "Ring the Duck"...it was a game you could play. We walked over envisioning small, plastic ducks in a pool of water...imagine our surprise when we found out that you, literally, tried to RING a duck. They had wooden hoops that you needed to throw at a pen of ducks, and try to get it around one of their necks...we asked what you 'won' if you were successful...apparently the duck you rung, for dinner that night.
Only in bangladesh. love it.

Tomorrow it's back to lesson planning and meetings, but today was a great decompressor, and i'd say i got some good cultural education :)

A local boy on the back of a pony, taking a nice ride along the water's edge

a view of the less-crowded end of the beach. Our crew of teachers are about to climb down the concrete square rocks (to break the waves at high tide)
at the beach

young boys. doing what young boys do. fooling around...poor horse.

a tried and true fair. and yes, literally called "ring a duck"

another teacher, amy, trying her hand at ringing a duck

the poor targets/prizes -- i'm sure our chef would have been really excited to see us come into dinner with a live duck...

A photo a day...

2008-04-10T13:10:00.002-04:00

...keeps readers reading? hopefully. There's this amazing graphic artist/writer who's a WT volunteer with me, and she's doing this photography project where she posts one photo a day. the idea is that after one year, there will be 365 photos, at least, to account for the experience.

So, here's day two. Around the corner we have a small boutique, called Bishaud Bangla, that was shown to us by one of the local women who works at AUW. it's a goldmine for us --- not only do they have amazing clothes and handmade crafts (all about bangladesh and made IN bangladesh), but they have a bookstore/room that actually has english books and subtitled dvds AND on thursday nights they have gatherings. Some weeks it's poetry readings, some weeks it's bangla discussions on political/social issues, other nights it's dance demonstrations. So, we've made friends with Alam, the owner, who lived in the States for a decade or two (NYC, all five boroughs, in case you were wondering). He invited us this Thursday for a demonstration of traditional Kathak dance. We arrived about 40 minutes late but no fear - in bangladesh nothing starts on time, especially if the power's been out for a good half hour. so it ended up that we were actually early! imagine that!

this picture is one of the young dancers that performed a solo dance as part of the demonstration. I was reminded a bit of my days of irish dancing...they had anklets of bells attached to both right and left, and much of the dance was built upon the intricate movements and stampings of their feet. This girl was SO nervous when she began to perform, she was obviously scared to set off-beat at all. The dance, overall from what i could make of it and the 90% bangla/10% english explanation afterwards, is a combination of fancy footwork that is done according to the beat of the difference music and the telling of stories through graceful movements - spins, little jumps and bird-like movements included. It was really impressive to watch how the dance school director, and head teacher, became one with the story she was telling. her facial movements never faltered, not once did i see her fall 'out of character' once she'd started.

and who told us there were no social events besides weddings for us to go to in chittagong?...

so yes. one picture a day. i'm going to try. day two - check.

this is my life...RIGHT NOW

2008-04-09T12:52:00.005-04:00

within two days i have fully, 110%, completely, entirely given into the 'stereotypes' of being a teacher. i came to bangladesh expecting few resources and having to do a lot by hand...turns out the University has given us a myriad of things - including office supplies, a copier, our own printer, and books to work with!
what does that mean exactly?
i spent two hours today trying to figure out how to photocopy the story i'm assigning my students to read this weekend. not only that, but we have the printer set up on the floor right now, so i was sprawled out all over our main office room, running around trying to troubleshoot the printer and copier at the same time. i had very weird flashbacks to "the Office" episodes (seriously missing those, ps).

tomorrow i'm also giving out notebooks and textbooks to my students. i haven't had time to go to the gym this week...but i guess it's alright considering i'll be lugging these around with me all of tomorrow...

classes started today!

2008-04-08T11:36:00.003-04:00

After much anticipation on behalf of the students and the teachers, we officially began Access Academy classes today. We all teach 5 periods, 50 min each. 2 of those periods are 'English/English Grammar', or as I like to call it - homeroom. The other three classes are determined by which group we've been placed in; computers, composition or literature.

I absolutely LOVE my schedule. I have my homeroom for the first two periods in the morning, then I have two literature classes, lunch, and then my final literature class. i'm done at 1:50 every day...at least with teaching.
We'll still have bangla classes 3-4 afternoons a week, in addition to leading extracurricular activities ... whenever those logistics are figured out.

My students are wonderful, adorable and absolutely fantastic! Talk about seeing everything through rose-tinted glasses right now, eh? Seriously, thought, they're really here to learn the english language better and are extremely well-behaved...due to having come from rote-learning backgrounds, and from cultures that expect a large amount of respect for elders and educators, almost all my students request permission to enter the class, they all stand up to speak when they're called on and they ask if they can leave the room after i've dismissed class...i'm sure it won't take them too long to get used to my much-more-western style of running a classroom...the biggest problem i THINK i'm going to have is people speaking in class when others are talking. i even had two girls today inform me that one of their favorite hobby is gossiping. sure enough, later in class, they were sitting right next to each other, leaning their heads together, chatting it up.

Overall, the first week (or three days) of class I planned is really laid back, and I feel like I'm right back into my silver bay counselor mode...icebreakers and 'getting to know you' games through and through. so, yea, next week the "real" work will start I guess (complete lie...we've already spent hours on our lesson plans for this week which is ridiculous. however, it's been a great intro for those of us that are new to teaching). I am really nervous about getting into the thick of it all, teaching the tough english components, but at least this time around I'll have a book to work from (as opposed to teaching 'survival english' ESL classes before i left...).

and, to leave y'all with an uplifting situation...(sense my sarcasm?)...here's a BBC story on South Asian rice price crisis right now...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7324596.stm

"...and our history starts today"

2008-04-05T14:04:00.006-04:00

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Welcome to Bangladesh - where every occasion is reason for celebration, and every celebration is treated as if it were the social event of the year.

After a roller coaster week in which 12 volunteer teachers were quickly morphed into test creators, copiers, collaters and proctors extraordinaire (all during the time we were supposed to be lesson planning for classes, mind you...and at least 1-2 teachers were in bed sick each day...a little run down, maybe?), we were all a little bit on edge. We'd be told that classes would be postponed two days to give the students, and the teachers, two days to relax after an unforgiving orientation schedule.
The students, who almost all endured pretty tiring journeys to arrive at Access a little over a week ago, underwent 9 assessment tests (5 math, 4 english) in addition to their regular orientation sessions (academics, extracurriculars, opening ceremonies, library tutorial, computer help, etc). Not only was I, along with the other teachers, a bit stressed about getting ready for classes on time...the students had barely had time to breathe - let alone make friends and settle in. Some hadn't even been out of the building for a few days!

While there was a bit confusion/miscommunication Friday night...for about 2 hours we thought classes had yet again been moved, this time BACK to sunday...i might have shed a 'i am freaking out right now' tear or two...but in the end we sat down with our administrators and figured out that it was in everyone's best interest to start classes Tuesday. It's somewhat become our mantra since arriving in chittagong, but we chalk a lot up to the fact that this is the first year of the program - of everything really - of the AUW, the Access Academy, WorldTeach's involvement, use of the building... pioneers have to be flexible, right?

So there was that little blip in excitement/fury last week, after days upon days of monotonous schedules. And THEN, oh then, on Saturday the Asian University for Women officially welcomed it's inaugural class.

We'd been hearing about plans for the Welcoming ceremony for weeks (we'll overlook the fact that finalized details were not passed onto us volunteers until two days prior...), and had been told it would be quite the event. I've been helping to document the students' arrival and first days for the AUW Support Foundation -- some of my pictures might have been on Bloomberg news the other night, and they grace the new AUW website, btw -- and had been told by the exec director of the Support Foundation (and the guy who is literally the brains behind the idea for AUW) that a lot of people with a lot of clout/money invested in this project were coming in for the big event. When word got out that the 12 of us volunteers were going to try and wear saris, the more formal/traditional dress for Bangladesh/subcontinent, staff and students were impressed and anxious to see us.

And let me tell you - you would have thought we were the entertainment/stars of the show on Saturday the way the students took photo after photo of, and with, us (mostly with really old film cameras or their snazzy new cell phone cameras, obviously). The director of the Access Academy arrived 2 hours before we were to leave for the theatre to help us get into our saris. i was the first ... and honestly, i couldn't really tell you how to put on or wear a sari to this day ... i literally stood there and was wrapped.

The ceremony itself was ridiculous. I arrived with my group of students (who probably have a secret vendetta against me because i was the proctor for all of their tests...absolute lie probably because these girls couldn't be nicer/more polite/happy to be in the program) about 45 minutes before the program was about to start. Our instructions, as volunteers, was to stay with our group throughout the entire pre-, during, and post-ceremony...however the second we arrived i was asked by 4 people to do 4 different things, the last of which was to stay with my students. The music wasn't figured out yet for the student performances, seats hadn't been roped off for the performers, the slideshow (which another volunteer and I put together) had to be manually reset when it came to the end, at both projection systems (two), and people were running around like crazies.

The ceremony itself was endearing, amazing, and typical bangladesh - during almost every student performance the music stopped, at least once; as the opening speaker walked up to the stage the curtains closed ON him; after he finished speaking the curtains opened and the backstage crew was still setting up the long table, flowers, glasses and water pitchers for the remaining speakers; and in the end there weren't enough seats for all the students, staff and invited guests...some people ended up sitting on the steps of the center (and only) aisle. It was a slight circus, but inspiring nonetheless. While some of the logistics didn't go off exactly as planned, the speakers and performers maintained their composure and did an amazing job in welcoming esteemed visitors, students and staff, and putting the University's best face forward. We heard from board members of the University as well as the Support Foundation, Bangladeshis and foreigners, staff and supporters. Over and over again the message was ingrained into the audience's minds that even though this was the first year of the Access Academy, success was expected and they had no doubt that the girls seated in the theatre were capable of achieving very high standards. "Our history truly starts today, with you, our trailblazers" was heard from many of the speakers. We (the volunteers) have officially decided trailblazers is a much more appropriate, and fun, term to call ourselves and the students, in comparison to pioneer (like 50% of pioneers in the US died from disease, famine and warfare, right?).

My favorite speaker - Jack Meyer - who gave the students 2 pieces of advice. (1) have fun, stay up late at night talking with friends, really enjoy the experience (2) help the University make itself a better place and (3) to take any opportunity they had while at AUW, not to turn anything down. What can i say...the advice hit home a bit.

While the speakers were great, the real stars of the show were our students. There was at least one performance from each country students hailed from, most were dance but one was singing and one was poetry reading. Ah, they were just absolutely amazing. The nepalese students went out with our student affairs liaison two days before the performance and returned with gold and pink paper...they completely transformed it into replicas of their traditional jewelry/costumes and lit up the stage while dancing. I was absolutely in awe of all of them and, with the rest of the volunteers, can't wait to start learning from THEM.

speaking of learning...classes start tomorrow. which is nuts. it's weird, but it didn't REALLY hit me (or I didn't let it really hit me) until today that i have contracted myself as a teacher for the next 16 months. For the past 2-3 weeks we've been working in our teams (computers, composition or literature - I'm a literature teacher for my classes other than homeroom this semester) to write a skeleton curriculum to use...tomorrow we finally get to meet and really get to know the students we've been conjecturing about for the past month.
Should definitely be interesting.

And on that note...i should probably go to bed. my goal is to update this much more frequently now that our schedule is becoming a bit more routine. and hopefully, after about 2 weeks of being holed up in our building for everything, i'll start getting out more and might have just a few observations about bangladeshi culture...
the one thing i will say is i haven't done TOO much research on the current rice price crisis hitting the subcontinent, especially bangladesh, right now, but on the way to the theatre for our welcoming ceremony we passed a government truck doling out cups of rice to ridiculous crowds of people, waiting with their bags or preferred forms of collection (whatever they could afford/find in their neighborhood, i'm sure). I really want to do some more research on the issue before i write about it, but y'all should look into it.

keep sending me emails, please, i LOVE hearing that time isn't only continuing to pass here in Asia :)

_____
We're in the news!
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/04/05/news0645.htm

Our esteemed speakers (remember...they were able to put that setup together in about 5 minutes...pretty impressive)

the "afterparty" -- lunch!

another volunteer, Carly, and I all made up in saris!

me. and, for the record, i did NOT look that put together by the end of the day...did i mention we hit up the local baskin robbins for some celebratory ice cream after the ceremony, still clad in sari-wear? we normally turn heads as white females...but especially drew stares that afternoon. it's slowly becoming slightly entertaining to see the reactions we get.

almost the whole group of teachers (minus one)...would you entrust your students to us? :)

after watching a good deal of a mini-photoshoot, trying to get one good picture of all 11 of us, some of our students wanted in on the action. aren't they adorable/gorgeous/the most colorful bunch ever?

be wary of emailing me right now?

2008-03-31T14:01:00.003-04:00

just an FYI --
i've realized recently that i haven't been receiving all my emails SO if you've sent me an email in the past few weeks and i haven't gotten back to you, it's probably not because i'm ignoring you. if you're suspicious...try sending it through again, or message me :)

i love hearing from everyone, please don't let this discourage you!

the 11th hour...

2008-03-28T12:57:00.003-04:00

27.03.08

as of midnight the night before the students arrived, there were still construction workers in our building fixing things up. To be frank, it's 4 days later now, and there are still staff members running around like mad fixing everything in sight. However, considering the university only actually acquired access to the building in January, things are looking pretty slick.

how things are delivered, bangladeshi style

our shnazzy signboard

our computer lab!

30.03.08

Starting on Friday, our students arrived --- Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Sri Lankan and Pakistani on Friday, Cambodian on Saturday and Indian on Sunday. I led a few tours of the building, back to the glory days :), and was able to get to know the students and their families. I felt slightly like I was back at UVA in my RA role, and can already tell I'm going to have to consciously draw the line between being a pseudo-mom versus strictly being a teacher. The line blurs a bit since we're living, literally, among the students.

Speaking with a lot of parents on Friday was really really inspirational - to hear mothers and fathers speak so highly of the university's facilities (they ARE rather swank...) gave a whole new perspective on the University and its mission. We even had one dad ask if he could enroll at AUW...his wife turned to him and said, "it's for girls ONLY" - amazing.

Just to paint you a bit of a picture...all the bangladeshi families turned out in their best outfits with multiple extended family members. A few of the fathers of families from Dhaka ended up giving me their business cards, insisting that anytime I went to Dhaka i MUST call them and MUST visit them and MUST stay with them. It is a very cultural thing to give out business cards and network anywhere you go. The hospitality we've encountered thus far has been incredible.

Saturday and Sunday I accompanied some staff members to the airport to meet the Cambodian and Indian students, to have a friendly face and to document their arrival...the poor Indian students ended up spending two hours going through immigration because of special regulations for Pakistani and Indian students arriving in Bangladesh. and then 8 of them were missing luggage...i'm not so sure they've even gotten it yet. ps, if you are flying within SEAsia, especially on the subcontinent, don't fly GMG. apparently they have trouble delivering all baggage.
The girls, and their Country Coordinators, were probably my favorite people to speak with --- once the students got over their initial shyness, they were especially excited to finally GET to the Access Academy. granted, usually the first question i got was, "how old are you?"

We can't wait to start to get to know the students better, they all seem to have incredible stories. i'll make sure to keep everything a bit better updated from now on :)

a few extra random pics...

the view from my balcony :)

The volunteers (minus our last arrival, Jill), on the future site of the AUW -- veeery exciting!

Venturing outside the Academy Walls

2008-03-27T15:57:00.008-04:00

25.03.08

Orientation has been...a little difficult. EXTERMELY, extremely helpful and informative buuut we were living in temporary housing for a week and a half and didn't really leave the apartment all that often (and as a result were going a bit stircrazy...), and even now that we're in our permanent digs, everything takes place in one building. Our building is simply AMAZING, but it does have certain unique quirks, like, um, locks ordered from China (thanks to our crazy landlord) that can't be copied in Bangladesh. Therefore we only have one key for every door. There are also three types of plugs found throughout the building, placed randomly throughout apartments and suites, so that having a converter doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be able to use your appliances. Oh, and did i mention half the lightbulbs in our buildings can't be found in chittagong - only dhaka? Oh, the joys of adjusting to the new accomodations and finding all the special features of the academy.

HOWEVER, Tuesday we got the opportunity to go visit a woman who has really dedicated her last decade to Bangladesh, and has made great strides in helping a local village community. Our (WorldTeach's) executive director met her previously and insisted we make time in our schedule to go visit Caroline and her school --- thank goodness we were able to, because i think we were all thoroughly impressed and inspired to start thinking creatively to solve the challenges we're about to take on. Caroline led us on a tour through a local village she fell in love with over a decade ago, and has now become a staple of the community. After settling down and building a small house within the village limits, she set to work on building a playground and, as she explains it, everything took off from there. Once they were building a playground, they wanted a one-room building to also lead classes or workshops or fun activities for the village kids. Then they were approached by BRAC to use their space for a school, so the building was expanded. Now there are daily programs the take place - 2 school sessions, computer classes, dance lessons, constant art workshops and a library where students can browse and take out books. And, of course, there's always the playground for any children to play on.

After we toured the village, Caroline's home and the Playpark/school building (not forgetting the fact that we stopped in a local village school and demonstrated the hokey pokey for the kids...which i think scared them more than we'd hoped), we went out to lunch at the GOLF COURSE right outside of Chittagong...yep. there's a golf course. it's owned and run by the military, has exercise facilities and a restaurant in addition to 18 holes, and of course there's a driving range too. Apparently Caroline and about 5 others comprise the total group of women who regularly play at the course, so she was hardcore trying to recruit us to take up golf.

Here are some pictures from the village. Most of my pictures, per usual, are of adorable young children...

my little friends who followed us around, with about...um...50 other children? At one point one of the boys ran up to me and pulled my scarf and then ran back to his friends who erupted in shrieking laughter. It was so awesome to be in that environment again.

schoolchildren at the local village school we visited...and sang the hokey pokey for. this was their reaction. fabulous, eh?

some of the village children

i absolutely adore this picture. a young girl had graciously demonstrated for us using the water pump, and then Caroline explained a bit more about the village...while the crowd was listening, these boys used the pump as a headrest...

RICKSHAWS!!!

2008-03-18T13:08:00.004-04:00

16.03.08
unfortunately, still haven't ridden on one (we travel in a pack of 12, at least, so it'd be a bit hard to coordinate taking rickshaws anywhere...especially since our bangla is still minimal and pathetic at best and we don't really know the names of places. we're getting there, however), BUT as a perk to our orientation we were taken to see rickshaw artists hard at work.

The first thing you need to know about rickshaws is that there are about a gazillion in chittagong alone. maybe not a gazillion, but the streets are packed. The traffic is topic for another day...suffice it to say traffic laws couldn't be followed even if they were in place. Apparently, in Dhaka, one in every five people depend on a rickshaw for their daily income. Chittagong can't be much different.
(http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/climate-migration/ --> really interesting oped in the NYTimes about bangladesh, where i got that 1 in 5 statistic)

Rickshaws are one of the most public, and widespread, art forms. Each one is decorated with bengali designs, made out of pieces of plastic sewn together - the hood of the vehicle, as well as where you put your feet, are hand-painted. Designs vary between cities, whereas Dhaka's rickshaws are commonly seen with scenes from movies or popular pop culture figures, Chittagong rickshaw art tends to be a bit more conservative and traditional.

One example of a rickshaw

A common street scene

We were able to travel with a local art teacher who'd worked with one of the local artists on a project recently, so we were also able to get a close up view of the hand-painting, in addition to seeing the shops where rickshaw owners can go and buy parts and pieces to assemble and decorate their rickshaws. It was fascinating to walk into an alleyway and see all these sewing machines set up with men stitching together pieces of plastic with SUCH precision and grace --- really impressive.

granted, the highlight of the day was turning around after listening to the shop owners for a full 2 minutes and realizing that a crowd of about 30-40 people had amassed watching us and trying to figure out what we were up to. we're not necessarily the most inconspicuous bunch with 12 white girls and one huge white van...

enjoy the pictures - i'll keep y'all updated on whether we actually ride a rickshaw soon...

the inside of a local rickshaw parts stall

one of the shop owners showing off rickshaw art for us

local artist who handpaints rickshaw art. absolutely gorgeous stuff.

intro to bangladesh

2008-03-12T12:40:00.007-04:00

9.03.08
Oh wow. It’s only been 4 days and I already feel like there’s too much to update y’all on…first, though – I made it safely to chittagong, Bangladesh – my new home for the next 18 months, last Wednesday!

While we were certainly sleep deprived, the rest of the volunteers and myself were all extremely excited to finally land in Bangladesh. For many of us, we’d been anticipating our arrival for months – I know I found out about my acceptance last May – so I’ve had a while to envision of what I was walking into (and, per usual in life, it’s very little what I expected…)

Anna, our field director, and a few other staff members met us at the airport. Thanks to some of the connections the staff members at AUW has, and the clout they have within the community (and, I’m convinced, the way they carry themselves – with a much-deserved self confidence), they actually met us at the terminal and were able to help us through immigration and customs. Immigration, which was a worry for everyone…we didn’t really know what to expect…went as smoothly as could have been expected and customs even smoother.

I think we all were wide-eyed and open-jawed as we drove from the airport into Chittagong…everything I’d heard about the city is true. Chittagong is a huge port, and there are shipyards full of gigantic tankers and container ships on the outskirts. Poverty is everywhere and rather abject. Beggar kids will come up to you, pull on your arms, bags and clothes trying to get your sympathy and money. The city itself is crazy busy – RIDICULOUS traffic – and rather dirty (the pollution may just be the death of me. Thank goodness for scarfs to use to cover our faces). Most of our group has started to feel the effects, sore throats and coughs that will last, apparently, until our bodies start to get used to the pollution that seems to be seeping into all that’s around us.

What has been the greatest treat thus far, for me, is finally getting to meet the WorldTeach and AUW staff that I’ve been speaking with for months – in person!

I think most people know my deal, but the quick 411 is as follows…
There’s this university called the Asian University for Women. It’s opening in 2009 and has an amazing cadre of people working for the betterment of women across South and Southeast Asia. The university, which has been in the works for over a decade, aims to provide higher education to women from all over the region, targeting that half their student population will be on scholarship, from rural, refugee and impoverished backgrounds.
The Access Academy is a program set up through the University that will provide the students from disadvantaged backgrounds with English, computer and math classes before they begin their university studies --- this is the school with which I’ll be teaching, and during this inaugural year we’ll be holding classes for 16 months before the students matriculate with the first class of the University proper (in the future, AUW hopes that this will constitute one-year of instruction, but things are very flexible right now). WorldTeach had been contacted about providing the instructors for the Access Academy, and that’s how I ended up in Bangladesh…obviously, it’s a real fairytale.

There are 11 other volunteers with me - 1 Canadian, 2 Australians and 8 other Americans, and we’re all the idealistic, “let’s save the world” types. Even in our sleep deprivation and jetlagged states we wanted to get to know each other right away.

Orientation has been planned for the next 3 weeks, and the students arrive on March 28th and 29th…classes begin April 6th…it’s all just so quickly falling into place. And, to be fair, I must mention that we’ve got a pretty sweet setup. We arrived, and we’re in temporary housing for the first half of orientation until our building is completed. Our temporary housing is a fully furnished 5-bedroom apartment and AUW actually wired the place before we arrived to make sure we’d have internet access here.
Our apartments – as we got to tour our future building (where we will be teaching, living, eating, sleeping and working out…10 floors. Possibility of going a bit stir-crazy…very good) – are AMAZING.

And to give the University their due, they’re doing a fantastic job in preparing for the first year of students and teachers. We’ve been supported thus far 110%, and their priority at the moment is to make sure we’re happy and comfortable. We’ve got a rather big task ahead of us…getting women to a university-level ability in English and math in just over a year…but we’re being set up for success. Our classrooms, which have between a 1:12 and 1:14 teacher to student ratio, are all air-conditioned and will be set up with multimedia capabilities. There will be a fully stocked library by the time we move in, a catered cafeteria, a computer lab, a floor dedicated entirely to space for our extracurricular activities, a gym and pretty swank accommodations compared to what we were all expecting. Our apartments looked amazing during our walk-through, and they hadn’t yet been completed. All the furniture is being constructed on-site, and looks beautiful, we’ll have internet in our apartments and air-conditioning in all the rooms…we all have spent a good amount of time in disbelief since arriving.

The view from our roof!

To quickly cover the highlights of orientation (which will give just a glimpse into the amazing culture I’ve thrown myself into), our second day we visited Foy’s Lake…which had been described in the Lonely Planet as a lake nearby our current location in Kulshi Hills, very scenic, you could rent a boat for a nice, leisurely ride, and walk to the top of a hill that overlooked all of chittagong…when we got to the gate, we were a bit surprised to see “FOY’S LAKE AMUSEMENT PARK” plastered above the entrance. Lonely Planet seems to have missed the amusement park aspect to Foy’s lake…although, in their defense, it could have been built up since 2004 when the Bangladesh guide was last published.
The first thing I noticed as I walked into the amusement park was the absence of beggar kids, who’d been harassing us since we pulled into the parking lot, and the immediate increase in women that were fully covered from head to toe. The entrance fee to Foy’s Lake wasn’t that expensive, I think around 100 taka (~70 taka = 1 USD), but obviously even that small amount means a large gap in socioeconomic standing and privilege. It was just a quick glimpse into the larger societal issues I’ll be fascinated with, I’m sure, for the next 18 months.

The entrance...

Saturday (by the way, Fridays here are holy days, so the weekends are Friday/Saturday…my classes every week will start on Sundays) we got to go shopping with one of the daughters of an AUW staff member who teaches English at an English-based school here in Chittagong. She was AWESOME in helping us pick out fabric for our new clothes. Being that Bangladesh is a muslim majority country, and that the standard of dress is very conservative, we’re all pretty keen on donning the local garb as soon as we can…it’s just more comfortable when we’re out in public to at least be in the accepted dress. The most common form of dress is the shalwar kameez – it’s a 3-piece outfit of pants, a long tunic and scarf. One of the first things we all noticed when we were driving into Chittagong was the absolutely gorgeous fashion of the women. The clothes are usually bright colors and patterns, and it seems like everyone has an eye for what will look great together and keeps up on the latest trends for necklines, embroidery, blockprinting, etc. So we were especially happy that once we bought our fabric we only had to wait a mere 18 hours before meeting with THE TAILOR…

searching through the fabric for patterns that catch the eye...

Oh, Bengali culture. There are some definite perks. For example, getting clothes made especially for you! The poor tailor showed up at 10:30, but had forgotten his books of examples and our choice of necklines…got back to the apartment around 12, and ended up staying past 5 to take the measurements and orders for 12 of us. Granted, the guy’s probably going to make a whole heck of a lot of money from getting 12 orders (about 3 outfits each) at once, but I still felt a little bad for him. The 20 minutes I spent with him laying out what I wanted, or think I want (probably more appropriate because we were all like, um, we don’t really know what’s going to look good or not…!?), gave me a very good idea of how personalized Bengali dress is – and might explain why we’ve seen many women really look other women up and down when they cross paths on the street…it’s not necessarily anything other than checking out their clothing, the pattern and decorations, and how it’s all put together. Apparently, I’m going to have to sharpen these skills while I’m here…

This is 'our' tailor, at least the only one we've been introduced to thus far and he's absolutely amazing and accomodating.

While he was still there we had our first BANGLA LESSON…we’re all feeling a bit overwhelmed with learning bangla (and luckily they’ve decided we’ll learn to speak first…write later, once we master the character alphabet down the road…waaaay down the road), but at least we’re all in it together. We also have a volunteer with us who’s originally from Bangladesh, so therefore she’s fluent in Bangla, and Mahmuda has been a lifeline thus far in translating for us.

Post-Heather, Pre-Bangla

2008-03-03T08:10:00.000-05:00

Friday February 29 – Monday March 3

It’s crazy that I’m leaving for Bangladesh tomorrow. I found out that I’d gotten the position with WorldTeach last May, and finally I’m about to arrive in the country that’s going to be home for the next year and a half. And while the past two months have been enthralling and exciting and amazing, I’m definitely pumped to be able to get Chittagong in less than 48 and start our WorldTeach orientation (such a nerd, I know).

The past few days, however, have been a bit emotional unto themselves…Friday, Heather and I spent much of the day taking care of last-minute errands, mostly shopping needs, before she flew to India on Saturday. You know, the usual, mailing things home, picking up more toiletries, buying heather’s wedding band (traveling in India alone as a female isn’t necessarily advocated without a few items to protect against continual harassment).

The huge finds of the day, however, were Thai flags for Heather to hang back at home (she’s said, since day one, that she wanted these flags and we’d been unable to figure out WHERE the heck they can be purchased throughout our 4+ weeks in the country – apparently in stationary shops in Krabi Town, ps) AND another King shirt for me. This one, though, is a bit unique…it’s of the bowling shirt variety…and don’t think it’s not embroidered with “Long Live the King” in gold, on the back. The next time we go bowling at a silver bay reunion, for all of you out there who know what I’m talking about, I’ll be rocking the King Bowling Shirt. It’s hot.

Saturday was miserable – as Heather and I had to say goodbye. The past 8 weeks went by so quickly, and I’m really going to miss having her as my travel buddy…and I realized within hours how nice it was to have another person to travel with as all of a sudden everyone was asking me, “are you alone? No one to travel with?” language barriers don’t always allow for extended explanations, so sometimes a simple, “yes, alone” had to suffice.

I’ve done ok for myself, and the hostel I’m at has quickly taken me under their wing. There aren’t many of us staying here at the moment because the International Youth Hostel of Chalong, Phuket is a bit far from the beaches, so anytime I walk through the reception area I have a nice little conversation with one of the two regulars who work here. They endlessly supply me with ideas for things to do, or recommendations for beaches/markets to visit. They’re even letting me store my bags here tomorrow, free of charge, and told me they’ll let me use the shower before I leave tomorrow night – even though I check out in the morning. The group of us traveling had found Thailand to be overly welcoming and warm to travelers, helping us whenever we needed it, looking out for us in many cases, and staying in Chalong has only strengthened that view.

Today I continued to feed my new, minor-obsession with snorkeling and booked a day trip to the two most well-known islands south of Phuket – Raya and Coral Islands.
And oh, it was a TRIP, to say the least.

The dive boat was a fabulous experience because it was so gigantic and had great views. The boat I was on today, courtesy of the Chalong Siam Sea Adventure Tour Company, or a name along those lines, was a larger speedboat that comfortably fit the 25 people I was to spend the majority of my day with. We had a 40 minute ride to get to Raya Bay, our first stop, and it was honestly one of the worst boat rides I’ve ever been on. Think – returning from Black Mountain in the thick of a thunderstorm on my family’s 18-ft SeaRay (those that were with me for that eventful trip – ps, love you dad) – times 10. The driver looked about 17, and certainly didn’t take the waves lightly…the 5 older Italians who’d also braved the front with me and a young Japanese couple, looked like they wanted to either throw up, or hit the driver, anytime we came off a wave and slammed into the water below.

So we were rather happy when we arrived at Raya Bay. It had some of the whitest sand I’ve ever seen, complemented by ridiculously clear, turquoise water in the bay. Perfect for snorkeling, with loads of fish and coral everywhere, and I was fascinated by the 15-20 minutes I was actually able to snorkel – seems I’d been given faulty equipment. Oddly enough, even though it was advertised as a ‘snorkel day’, many of the people on the boat weren’t the slightest bit interested in snorkeling…didn’t even take a mask and snorkel when offered. More so than Railay, Krabi and Ao Nang, Phuket and its beaches are definitely built upon the tourist population that come to vacation here – and the tourists themselves, for the most part, are primarily concerned with getting in full days at the beach under the sun. It’s a different world than I’m used to.

After about 2 hours at Raya, we got back into the boat for another bumpy ride to Coral Bay, for 3 hours of lunch, snorkeling and sunbathing…a cute French family, from Paris, adopted me for lunch. Stephanie and her husband (didn’t catch his name, unfortunately) did an amazing job of understanding my disconnected French, and translating for their two daughters who were very surprised I was going to be an English teacher…they said I looked too young…and then asked if, because I am going to be a teacher, if I had any babies of my own. They were ADORABLE and for the rest of the afternoon they would point fish out to me as I snorkeled around the swimming area.

We arrived back at Chalong Harbor around 3:30 and Joey, our guide, wished us well. Obviously, I’ve spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the “Amazon Café”, which happens to be attached to one of the 11 or so 7-11’s I’ve seen in a 2-mile radius, updating the blog…since they offer free wifi. For the price of a cup of tea, I can be online for as long as I want. It’s in these cases where I really see how ‘globalization’ has started to transform Thai society (as I’m sure is the same case for many other countries).

It’s a bittersweet night as I know I need to spend much of it repacking my bags to head to the airport tomorrow afternoon. Thailand’s definitely been good to me, as have Laos and Cambodia, but Chittagong awaits. The next time I write – it’ll be from “BAN-GA-LA-DEEEEEESH”…for those that have spoken to me in the past few months, you’ll recognize the pronunciation…one of my ESL students from the Fall was named Monowara, and she was originally from Bangladesh. Monowara wasn’t a stand-out student, unfortunately she had an incredibly difficult time picking up English. What she was good at, however, was pronunciation – and anything I said, she would repeat…including “Bangladesh”. And she would get so excited every time I referenced Bangladesh in class, she would hold her hands up in front of her and say, “BANG-GA-LAAA-DESHHHHHH”.

I’m really hoping that’s how the locals pronounce it. I’m doubting it, but I’ll let you know.

Finding Nemo (or trying to, in my case)

2008-03-03T08:09:00.000-05:00

Thursday, February 28th

First, let me start off by saying that I did write the typical middle-school paper about wanting to be a marine biologist when I grew up (I think my ‘slant’ was that I wanted to work out in the ocean, not necessarily at a marine park, like SeaWorld). I will add the disclaimer, however, that since that time I’ve never been overly intrigued by marine life. Fish have always grossed me out a bit…living on lake george every summer, 95% of my interactions with them were either fishing off the arcady docks, and catching (and recatching) only sunnies, or being brushed up against by larger fish, probably bass, out in the deeper areas.

But Southern Thailand’s changed my perspective a bit…

So, Heather and Tom went diving one day and I’m neither certified, nor was I in a good state of health to try and dive (sinus problems…not so great for scuba diving…), so I stayed behind in Railay. Apparently, I could have gone with them and snorkeled, but we didn’t know that at the time.

This time around, when heather and I landed in Krabi Town, we knew better. Heather, having her open water certification for Scuba, and being a bit obsessed with marine life, didn’t want to leave the area without a few more dives under her belt. So while we were searching for our caveman on Tuesday, we also looked at dive/snorkel options.

Thursday was the day --- we were picked up at 7am, bright and early, and we were on our boat by 8. Again, it was an experience, especially since I’d never been on a dive boat before. After getting on board, we had a full meeting to go over the ‘rules’ (about climbing the ladders to the top deck and using the toilets), our day’s schedule – with 2 dives, lunch between around 12, and the refreshments on board (soda, fanta, tea and coffee – help yourself if no one’s behind the bar). It was pretty laid back, and when all the dive masters (the really certified divers who work for the dive companies and lead groups of usually no more than 4 divers a day) were finding their groups to introduce themselves and go over the more technical stuff, I was surprised to learn that even us snorkelers (aboard mainly for the pretty sites and lovely breeze and, you know, we jump in the water for a nice little look-see once the divers are all set 80m below the surface) had a divemaster assigned to us.
I asked my divemaster, Chris, an Austrian whose only in his first season working off Ao Nang (coming from a few seasons in Indonesia, apparently), what he’d done to get stuck with the snorkelers for the day…he replied he didn’t know and must remember to ask when we got back to the office. Apparently, dry sense of humor. Which didn’t really let up all day. But I got him to crack a few smiles along the way. And eventually I learned that the dive masters have to take one day a week, usually, and snorkel instead of dive. Hard lives they lead...

The dive culture was fascinating to me. One of the first passengers we met in the morning was a retired Brit, who’d started diving because his kids took it up on their vacations and, as he put it, “couldn’t be left behind, you know?” He’d done the first certification, and was currently working on his second. Later in the day we were sitting with him and another british couple, and just listening to the two older men and Heather talk about all the places they’d been, or wanted to go dive, was energizing. I also realized what an operation I’d unsuspectingly found myself thrown into.

Back to the changing my life bit…I was expecting to get in the water at the first stop (Maya Bay – from The Beach with Leonardo dicaprio…yea, THE beach…love my life) and see a few fish and swim around and enjoy myself. Instead, I was absolutely enthralled, saw more species of fish and clams and coral than I’ve ever seen in one place – other than planet earth dvds – in my life, and returned to the boat absolutely intoxicated. I was a little jealous of heather, as her group had seen a sea turtle, and multiple nemos…I had to settle for a few of his cousin species, as well as cousins to Dorit, because I was just snorkeling and apparently nemo’s live a bit deeper in the seas.

Our second stop was a bit more interesting, mainly because a thunderstorm hit us as the divers were suiting up…pretty much it meant nothing except for a bit of a rocky ride back for the divers, but for us snorkelers, it meant we couldn’t get to the backside of the island we were at because of the waves and currents that were absolutely hasseling us. Unfortunate, definitely, but at least we got to get in and see some of the coral reefs around the island. The storm also quickly condensed our group from 5 to 3, as the other two women swimming with an older Swiss traveler, our dive master and myself opted to stay dry and untaunted by the waves this go-round. I, on the other hand, loved snorkeling during the storm - it was awesome to be able to retreat to under the waves, knowing that above the surface craziness was taking place. It was also really cool to watch how the currents affected the fish, especially the smaller ones, who were getting quite the ride as a result. We were also still able to see a good amount of cool fish, coral and clams – and I even saw an eel this time around.

Suffice it to say, I’ve started thinking about potentially taking a dive course on one of my school breaks while I’m in this region of the world. Anyone want to come along? Nice little week vacation to a tropical paradise? Any takers – let me know.

a few pictures to whet the appetite...everything will eventually be posted - promise!

2008-02-27T09:55:00.005-05:00

Heather and I indulged in being tourists...bought $3 Angkor tshirts. pretty sweet.

Angkor at sunrise...not to shabby, eh?

Sunset at West Railay

One of the caves that we kayak'ed through

In case y'all were wondering what a mangrove swamp looks like...

a date with a caveman...

2008-02-27T09:35:00.001-05:00

Wednesday February 27th

Heather and I have decided we’re living the “SEAsian Kim experience”. Tuesday we checked out of our bungalow guesthouse on Railay and caught a longtail boat back to Krabi Town…leaving the laid-back, beach worshipping culture behind and arriving, a little after lunchtime, back into seaside city life.

We wasted no time in dropping our stuff and searching for “Caveman Mel” – a kayaking day-trip guide who’d been recommended by Kim, Allyson and Chris when we met up with them for dinner in Battambang, Cambodia. Kim had drawn us a little map of Ao Nang and highlighted the restaurant this supposed Caveman worked at…but had also said that everyone knew who he was in the area, so we should just ask around.

Easier said than done. After asking in about 3 tour offices and getting blank stares, we hit the jackpot. A young girl was more than helpful…when I mentioned the name Caveman Mel (took a few tries to get the prononciation correct…) she looked up a number, called, got another number, called that one and was finally rewarded with the number of, supposedly, our Caveman kayaking guide.

Luckily – like I said – we hit the jackpot. What we’d been told of Mel was this;
He was a local guide, who catered to smaller groups interested in educational kayak trips. he worked in a restaurant and was against shrimp farming (huge plus for Heather) and was an expert on Mangles (what would normally be referred to as mangrove swamps by people, like me, who aren’t science buffs). I spoke with Mel on the phone, and he seemed legit, so we booked his tour for today. At 8am this morning, we were picked up by Mel, and proceeded to pick up the other two kayakers to complete our group of 5 for the day.

We pulled up and were immediately inundated with other tourists who were also spending the day kayaking in the mangrove swamps…with larger outfitters. We were confident that we’d chosen a good guide, and were rewarded by the fact that he was attached to no overhead operation. Mel’s apparently been leading trips for over 15 years – he was one of the first to lead kayaking tours in the mangrove swamps and nearby caves (hence – caveman Mel) – and he aims to have smaller groups that can focus on learning about what they’re interested in.
This guy was perfect for us, and we pretty much had all his attention as the other two with us were French Canadians, one of whom had a bit more trouble understanding everything Mel was saying.

Mel – well, this guy’s a character, as so many we’ve met along the way have been. Looking at him, you’d think he was a stereotypical beach bum. He showed up in fisherman pants, a floral Hawaiian-esque button down shirt, had long hair tied back in a half-ponytail, and rocked his Oakley style sunglasses, even at 8am. Throughout the day he’d switch into “caveman” mode, lower his voice and thunder “Attention please, if you want to stay lucky, follow me...welcome to my cave...ha ha ha” and launch into the history of the cave we were heading into or some environmental factoid about the unique ecosystem we were touring. To top it all off, as we were heading back at the end of the kayaking portion of the day (we still had to go to a freshwater stream for swimming and tea, obviously), he started singing Take me home, to the place, I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Momma, take me home, Country Roads…

Heather and I were rolling. Tom, you missed a good show – and we figured you would have thoroughly appreciated the throwback to leader’s school closing ceremonies, courteously of Mel.

We spent about 5 hours total kayaking and exploring caves in the area, had an hour for a banging good lunch, and finished off the day with a swim in a freshwater stream, reminding us of Lake George in its warmer months, before getting hit with a random late afternoon rainstorm. Heather and I were on cloud nine, especially me as this was the first physical activity, other than reading on the beach, I’ve done since getting sick. And to top it off, we were kayaking in the mangles of Krabi, Thailand…as we’ve done in so many instances, heather and I just kept looking at each other and saying how amazing everything was.

So, thank you to Kim, Allyson and Chris for the recommendation (and the insistence on kayaking with Mel above all others).

And don’t think I didn’t ask Mel for his autograph on his brochure at the end of the day. Apparently, I’m not the first to ask. Regardless…if anyone’s ever in Southern Thailand and wants to kayak among mangroves – I’ve got a guy for you to call.

Southern Thailand

2008-02-27T09:32:00.001-05:00

Friday February 15 – Tuesday February 26

Very rarely do I manage to get through a winter without getting hammered by the flu. This year, apparently, is no different (even though we’re in the tropics, mind you, boohiss).

On February 15th Heather and I took a 9hr bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand. I was sad to leave Cambodia, but excited to eventually get to Southern Thailand…and Heather and I were definitely anxious to get back to the land of King paraphernalia, thai iced teas and 7-11’s on every street corner. Unfortunately, I started running a fever as we left Siem Reap…and it still hadn’t let up by the time we flew to Phuket, in Southern Thailand on the 16th.

We were met at the airport by Jim Mielke, a friend from Silver Bay. After traveling for about 6 ½ weeks, it was great to see a familiar face, and even nicer - he’s a resident, so drove me directly to the international hospital to get checked out. While the final diagnosis was just a ‘really bad cold’, appropriate meds (read: strong antibiotics) were prescribed. 6 weeks in SEAsia and no health problems…apparently I’d been pushing my luck.

We stayed with Jim for 4 nights --- he’s in one of the few areas of Phuket that is still slightly deserted, happily situated far from the touristy, built-up beaches and Phuket town. He’s got an amazing view of a bay and nearby islands that have just recently begun to be bought up by developers. It made for an amazing place to recuperate (Jim, thank you so much), we just feel horrible that we managed to pass along the cold.

February 20th was the day we finally got to see a bit more of the infamous Southern Thailand travelers rave about. We took a scenic boat ride from Phuket to Krabi, another mainland beach tourist destination, and met up with Heather’s friend Tom who’s on his way back to the States from 6 months in Antarctica (talk about temperature change?). The trip itself was 2 hours of stunning ocean views…we couldn’t wait to get to the beach. The three of us caught a longtail boat to Railay where we stayed for a week – Heather and I further recuperating and Tom warming up.

There are a few specific populations of people on Railay…
Resort Beach-goers…while Railay itself it less built up than islands such as Ko Phi Phi or Ko Samui, it does have at least 4 or 5 resorts spread out along it’s 3 main beaches. Resorts mean that the restaurants cater to Western cuisine, there are minimarts around every corner and tourist offices are everywhere, offering limitless day trips and tour packages. If you can’t find one that fits your needs…they probably can. Or they’ll call a friend and set it up for you.
Backpackers…there are those of us that are traveling that are on a slightly tighter budget than one that would allow a resort stay, and there are a few budget places to be found. Ton Sai, a beach to the North, caters especially to backpackers --- specifically the climbers --- who are looking to live cheaply.
Climbers…Railay is known for its climbing, more so than its beaches, depending on who you talk to. There are actually more climbing operations than dive shops (an oddity for this part of the world) on Railay. Climbers can be lumped into the backpacker group, but also form their own community. Many whom I spoke to had been there for a few weeks…and weren’t necessarily planning on leaving anytime soon.
Locals/Rastafarians…for such a large crowd of tourists, there’s obviously quite the niche for restaurants, beachside shake stands, bars and tour agencies, all which are run by locals. Even the dive shop was mostly staffed by Thais – a contrast to what we would find in Ao Nang the following week. Rastafarians, many of whom spend their time off either listening to Bob Marley or hitting up their favorite climbing spots, are everywhere, and are the first to let you know where the party is that night, or what happy hour specials they’ll have later that day.

Obviously we had our share of entertainment for the week we stayed on East Railay (the beaches were as follows…West Railay = resort, Phra Nang = resort, Ton Sai = climber’s paradise, East Railay didn’t have a beach you could sit on, but was full of backpackers and smaller resorts). Heather and Tom went diving on our last full day there; I spent it on the beach, again. Not too much to share other than gorgeous photos…which will eventually be posted, once I’m in a place long enough to do so. Promise.

Capitalizing on Tourists (why not?)

2008-02-21T03:37:00.001-05:00

Tuesday February 12 – Thursday February 14

Thanks to Kim we were fully prepared upon arrival in Siem Reap as to where we wanted to go. I will say this before I go on; when I was in Northern Uganda I became disillusioned with NGOs and local organizations that spouted a great line but backed it up with little action on behalf of the people, so much so that I questioned whether or not I wanted to involve myself in such work for the rest of my life. Oddly enough, I found it comforting once in Siem Reap – I’ve had conversations with people since visiting about whether or not there’s ‘too much’ development going on (not necessarily too much, because you can never have too much attention to issues of poverty and war, but usually questions of how is money being used, are the organizations efficient, etc.) and there are definitely still problems. But I definitely found it a great sign that so much was taking place on behalf of the disadvantaged. There can always be more, there can always be more efficient means and actions, but the base interest is there, and it is nice to see. A huge part of the attraction of Siem Reap is Angkor Wat and with 2+ million tourists per year on record now, so the question has to be raised whether or not the money and aid would be there if Angkor wasn’t, but regardless, it was good to see some great organizations start to take root.

CHRILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Monday, after checking into our ‘flashpacker’ guesthouse, we headed to the Angkor Children’s Hospital – it was opened in 2000 by a Japanese photographer who had been to Cambodia and wanted to do something to help the children he saw in such destitute conditions. What came of it was the Friends Without a Border organization that funds the Angkor Children’s Hospital.

Wednesday I was able to go back and get a tour from one of the PR assistants, and ended up buying a book of photographs and captions from children helped by the Children’s Hospital (what can I say…slight sucker…). The hospital itself is an amazing entity. It’s right now the road from a Swiss-funded hospital, much smaller, but sees a much more disadvantaged population because their services are free. Wait, sorry, they ask for families that can afford it for a 1000riel donations ($0.25).
Not only do they have slightly under-100 beds for children that need to stay overnight/longer, but they have a dental clinic, ER and surgerical wing. They also have a kitchen where families can cook for themselves and extra food for the patient (who are provided with 2 meals/day).

Additionally the hospital has realized that many of the issues they deal with stem from ignorance or not enough education in rural areas so they offer classes for parents on healthy cooking and taking care of newborns.

They’re doing amazing things and you can check out their website at: www.friendswithoutaborder.com

TEACHING ENGLISH
Tuesday night we went and checked out Wat Damnak – it’s one of the central temples in Siem Reap and we’d heard they always accepted English-speaking volunteers to help with their classes with monks.

We were told to come back Wednesday to ask for Savoun, the monk in charge. Wednesday we had a bit of a hard time tracking down this Savoun but, no worries, by the time we found him and got set up (around 5:15), the class we were helping with was just coming in – yes, 15 minutes late. This is additional education in a developing country, just showing up to class is seen as effort.

We told Savoun we’d be more than happy to help with the two older classes at night, 5-6 and 6-7, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tren, the first teacher, had only 3 years of English instruction himself, and had us speak with the class the entire remainder of the time. The class had obviously just learned introduction questions because, in turn, they all asked us, “What is your name?” “What is your age?” “Where are you from?” “How do you find Cambodia?” “How big is your family?” etc.

The second class was far more of a surprise…Ravich, a monk, taught a more advanced set of students and had, himself, more English ability than Tren. He took a different approach when he found out we were volunteering – he literally turned the class over to us. He opened his book and pointed to the page he was going to teach that night, and sat down in the back of the class eating an ice cream that one of his students gave him.

So we went for it. We taught them about writing the date out, as well as with numbers, and the differences between the American way and the European way.

Night two went a bit differently – We sat in the front row with the students and told Tren and Ravich we wanted to see how they taught the students. We took over the last 15-20 minutes of both classes to help students with their pronunciation. The kids absolutely loved have foreigners in class, not only to practice their speech and get their ears used to ‘american english’…but also to chitchat about us and ask us if we were married. The first night we definitely provided more entertainment than education, but we did get some things through – I think.

Thursday morning we sat down with Savoun and Ravich to talk about Buddhism, biology (Ravich was very interested in picking Heather’s brain about certain problems he was having in his classes), and education. We spent a hour and a half hanging out with them, and I learned a lot about the education and political system in Cambodia as a result. We also were able to see the sewing school Wat Damnak runs for impoverished young adults --- they provide room/board/a sewing machine for a semester of classes for the students and they are continually supported after they leave Wat Damnak and return to their villages to try and make their own living.

Heather and I promised to try and send maps and materials…if you’re interested in sending materials, or volunteering if you’re in Siem Reap, the address is:
Wat Damnak 0211
Wat Damnak village
Salakomreuk Commune
Siem Reap, Angkor
Cambodia

and Savoun’s email is:
englishvolunteer@yahoo.com

LANDMINE MUSEUM

One of the greatest stories we heard while we were in Siem Reap was the story of Aki Ra and his landmine museum. We had been tipped off to this wonderful place by Beth and Jason Giersch last summer – and Tuesday morning, on our way to Banteay Srei, saw signs. Our faithful tuktuk driver, Mr. RaDa was only happy to oblige and drop us there on the way back.

Aki Ra himself has an incredible story. He was conscripted by the Khmer Rouge forces, and ended up planting landmines as part of his job. He was then enlisted by the Vietnamese when they were finally able to break through into Cambodia, and eventually fought for Cambodia itself (if I’m remembering all this correctly). Much of his work was to lay landmines throughout the countryside and after finally giving up being a soldier, he began the work that would consume the rest of his life: deactivating mines. Aki has now worked with UN forces and Cambodian government forces, as well as received international training, but says he prefers to go it alone. The photographer who took many of the pictures for his small, but impressive, museum said that in one day Aki could deactivate at least 50 mines.

His dream was to open a museum to show off all the different mines he’d collected over the years, and he did – but the government confiscated much of his stuff and opened their own museum in town. Apparently someone has been able to come in and help Aki, his family, and the additional landmine orphans he helps to provide for and put through school – or Aki and his wife have persisted and beat the system, because their museum is open again and sees a good number of tourists each day.

Again, it’s one of those situations where silence doesn’t need to be asked for – as your touring one of the three small exhibition rooms in the museum, not much talking is necessary. The photographs of the destruction of landmines to people and places is appalling, and for educational purposes and dramatic effect I suppose, they’ve labeled all the landmines in the museum with title, what their purpose is (how far their destruction is supposed to reach) and in which country they were made. It’s incredible that the US has continued to refuse to sign the Landmine Treaty that arose in the late 1990’s…

the website is: www.cambodialandminemuseum.com if you’re interested in more information SLASH heather and I have been sporting their shirts since we went there (we also indulged in the tourist faux-pas of buying, and wearing, Angkor Wat tshirts at Angkor, btw…)

Angkor WHAT?!

2008-02-21T03:34:00.000-05:00

Tuesday February 12 – Thursday February 14

For the sake of all the things we did while in Siem Reap, I’m splitting this up into two sections – Angkor and Siem Reap City (read: NGOs/volunteering/my dream come true)

And please, for those that know Ben Provan (or Ben Provan himself if he’s actually reading this…), know that every time we heard anyone make a pun out of Angkor Wat, or we wanted to make them ourselves, we thought of Ben and his profound influence on our lives…

Tuesday we found ourselves up at 530am to meet our tuktuk driver at 6, so that we could try and catch the early light at Banteay Srei – an outlier temple within Angkor, more commonly known as the Red, or Pink, Temple. It took about an hour to get to, including stopping to buy our 3-day Angkor pass (picture included – legit!), so we watched the sun rise as we drove along and arrived at Banteay Srei before most other tourists.

It was amazing to get to the temple before other tourists – we were literally exploring the pink sandstone, elaborately craved arched doorways and walkways with 6 other people. It was also a great first temple to see, it’s extremely well-known, and Heather and I both picked up on the vibe around the temples we would come to love…general awe and respect reigned among all tourists and guides. Most, not all, people we ran into were extremely conscientious of those around them, and tried to not ruin the experience for others (including not stepping in people’s pictures, which, at around midday is sometimes unavoidable).

Our tuktuk driver, Mr. Ra Da, then suggested we see a few of the smaller temples on the way to Ta Prohm – Heather’s most anticipated temple. We stopped at Pre Rup, which we had to climb veeeeery steep stairs at to get to the top – but were rewarded with a great 360degree view of the ruin complex. We then saw Banteay Kdei, but were told by Mr. Rada that we should first see Sras Srang, across the road. It was the remains of the base of a temple, or stupa, that was built on the edge of a lake. We had seen a lot of people up early, watching the sunrise over the water, and had wondered if it was anything special to Angkor – apparently, a pretty important site.

Here was where we started seeing massive numbers of tourists and being approached by tireless children, trying to sell us everything from books, to tshirts to bracelets. It’s sad that the only English they learn at an early age is, “Mister, please, one dollar, 10 bracelets” or “please, miss, buy book, family need food”. I’m sure Heather and I were easy targets because the look of pure pain on our faces as we walked by these malnourished and desperate kids probably screamed of sympathy, but we have been told my many people that once you buy one thing, or give something away, be ready to be swarmed.

And then, finally, we headed to Ta Prohm. If you’ve seen photographs of Angkor, you’ve either probably seen Angkor Wat, Bayon (the huge 4-sided face statues) or Ta Prohm (gigantic trees that have grown up, around, through and with the ruins.

When Angkor Wat was built, over a few centuries, there was very little vegetation around – the rulers of the era cut it all away and, I guess, preferred looking at their grand palaces and temples without anything in their way. Looking at Ta Prohm now, which has been allowed to ‘run wild’ with growth, I can’t imagine not having the natural habitat it does. Heather was in 7th heaven, having now found a combination of her two loves – nature and religion – and walked around in wonder, getting her picture taken within all the gigantic tree root systems on the grounds.

For me, the most interesting part of Ta Prohm was the large majority of rubble piles from the ruins. Huge stone blocks, obviously once part of walls, doorways and reliefs, were everywhere around the compound. Other temples have been ‘reconstructed’ at this point and are as similar as they can guess to the original structures – but it doesn’t seem like they’re in any hurry to reconstruct Ta Prohm. I liked the ruins having rubble around, it gave it a greater sense of age and ability to withstand time (because much of it was still intact).

From there we headed to Angkor Thom – an ancient city just north of Angkor Wat. The best known monument within Angkor Thom is Bayon, in which there are 216 huge faces of Avalokiteshvara carved onto 4-sided columns. While you stand along the outside walls of the complex, you’re a bit overwhelmed with everything to see…once you step inside, it’s a whole different story. I’m sure it gets a little creepier as the sun goes down and you have dozens of sets of eyes on you everywhere you go.

Interestingly enough, we’d run into a camera crew earlier at Banteay Kdei (I think that’s where we found them) with little monks and nuns in bright orange and white outfits running around. Turns out, the youngsters weren’t true monks and nuns, and the camera crew was either shooting commercials, photographs or both – because we ran into them again at Bayon in the afternoon. They had an entire entourage, full of flashy guys with safari vests (filled with film equipment, of course) and young adult interns who were running around trying to clear areas so that shots wouldn’t be ruined by the wayward tourist. The kids of the shoots themselves were absolutely adorable, but looked like they has as little idea as to what was going on as the tourists did (none).

After Bayon we explored a bit more of Angkor Thom’s monuments, but headed back around 3:30. The one thing everyone does say about Angkor is that it’s better to space it out – and not to overdo it. The days get very hot and the temples definitely lose their awe in the heat of the day after about 5 others so…we figured we’d be back the following two days to go back to the ones we really wanted to see.

Wednesday we woke up even earlier – crazy, I know…slash I think Heather wanted to hit me when I woke her at 5:15am – so we could get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. We were using bikes that our guesthouse had and thought maybe there wouldn’t be that many people waking up that early…little did we know that apparently seeing the sun rise at Angkor is a rite of passage for tourists. There were literally hundreds of people there for the event. We were walking on the bridge leading to Angkor and all of a sudden weren’t allowed to continue any farther because of photography reasons? Eventually we realized the same camera crew from the day before was photographing at Angkor for the sunrise and wanted the bridge cut off for the actual rising of the sun – turned out for some amazing pictures for us as well!

Angkor itself was incredible. We’d spoken to an Irish woman the previous day who had said she was a bit disappointed with Angkor, but Heather and I were anything but disappointed. It is an absolutely spectacular and inspired monument, breathtaking and awe-capturing to say the least. There are two bridges you walk across, the first is set across the moat that encircles the entire ruin complex, the second runs from the first entry corridor to Angkor itself. There are three levels to the central temple, originally built to honor Vishnu and serve as Suryavarman II’s funerary temple, and surrounding the temple are numerous squares and intricately interlinked galleries.

Words, literally, cannot do it justice. It literally is a man-made wonder, and to think that it’s one part of such a larger being, spanning centuries, is daunting.

After an incredible sunrise, we decided to bike the long way around to Ta Prohm…it ended up being a good 10-15km? probably more towards the 10km end. Regardless – the bikes we were riding were a bit dilapidated – heather’s pedals didn’t work that well, and I looked like one of the local kids who usually ride bikes WAY too big for them, I could barely reach the pedals when sitting. So by the time we got to Ta Prohm for another go-round, we were aching. And we still had to ride 6km back to siem reap. Oops.

Thursday we took the morning off of Angkor and instead spent much of the day at Wat Damnak and enjoying a bit of Aircon at a local café (read the next post for more info…).
However, at 4pm we’d planned on biking back to Angkor for sunset. We decided to treat ourselves (hey – it was Valentine’s day) and got a tuktuk to take us to Bayon first (the monuments with gigantic heads on all four sides) and then to Angkor.

We realized as we were watching across the bridge, and masses were walking towards us, that the sunset might not be visible from the inside of Angkor Wat. We needn’t be worried, apparently, because we caught the end of the sunset over the entryway to Angkor, along with several hundred other tourists. Talk about Valentine’s Day Date…Heather and I figure this one miiiight be hard to top (thank you, however, to EVERYONE that helped peter with his valentine’s day card --- it was amazing and I loved getting all your messages!).

We also figured having seen the sun rise at, and ending our 3-day pass with the sunset at Angkor Wat, was a pretty good way to end our stay in Cambodia.

Flashpackin' in style

2008-02-16T00:42:00.000-05:00

Monday February 11th

Ahhhh, Siem Reap. The city itself is situated around Siem Reap River – a little waterway that’s stagnant and muddy-colored – but has a bit of charm nonetheless. To me, at least...heather didn’t share my appreciation as wholeheartedly. I seem to be a sucker for little arched bridges though, connecting two sides of towns (I was a bit obsessed with Amsterdam when my mom and I visited in 2006).

Kim had told of us of a guesthouse run by the survivor of the Khmer Rouge, from which a portion of the room prices go to pay for school uniforms for impoverished kids. We were sold. We arrived at the guesthouse, Marina Villa, after a bit of a hassle finding the place (we didn’t have the name, we didn’t think, ended up that we did but were looking for another one…slight debacle that ended up working out fine).

And we were quickly ushered into a new lifestyle – Flashpackin’…termed by Lonely planet and backpackers all over the world, the population of travelers that do the backpacking routes but are willing to spend an extra few dollars for nicer guesthouse (mostly for the sake of air-con or hot showers). Usually, though, the higher end guesthouses will also offer a variety of services, and the women running Marina Villa set us up with an English-speaking tuktuk driver for the following day for Angkor, let us know there were bikes, free of charge, we could use whenever we wanted, and they could call places for us or offer ideas for other things to do/sites to see. While other guesthouses we’ve stayed in have offered the same services and we just haven’t taken them up on their offers, this establishment enlisted the help/employment of family friends and reputable people within the community (at least they claimed, and we were inclined to believe them). And while we weren’t able to sit down with the family for an extended period, apparently there’s a deaf girl in the family who can lip-read 5 languages, the owner is a Khmer Rouge survivor, and there’s a young boy of 5 who speaks English incredibly well. All of this information is thanks to Kim, by the way.

So we settled into our new flashpackin’ lifestyle, a bit away from the tourist strip of bars, restaurants, markets and guesthouses, and then went to explore Siem Reap…

By bus, by (bamboo) train, by boat

2008-02-16T00:37:00.001-05:00

February 9-11

I am absolutely taken with the country of Cambodia. I was in Phnom Penh, but more because of what we did while we were there and seeing the life and vibrancy of the people amidst the tragic history of the country. However, I can now say that the people we’ve interacted with on a one-on-one basis and getting to see a bit more of the countryside has only upheld my first impressions.

We ended up staying in Phnom Penh one extra day as Heather recouperated from a pretty bad bout of food poisoning. Oddly enough, we had the exact same dinner at a set-menu Bangladeshi/Indian/Halal restaurant except she got meat, I got veg…ridiculously unfortunate. Hopefully Bangladesh will, um, treat me a little kinder in the future. She slept the day away in our run down ‘floating island’ guesthouse while I spent the day walking around Phnom Penh and catching up on reading.

Even though Heather wasn’t 100% better she was a trooper and we woke up at the crack of dawn on February 10th to catch a bus to Battambang, the 2nd largest city in Cambodia after Phnom Penh, but with an entirely different feel. The bus ride itself wasn’t that bad, except for a bit of confusion when we arrived in Battambang as to whether or not we were actually there, and were immediately approached by a young man named Vat. He set us up with motorbike drivers to take us to a hotel in town to check out, we settled in, and then he was kind enough to offer us ‘a deal’ for an afternoon tour.

Worked out great, because then we were right back on track with getting 4 nights in Siem Reap.

So we hoped on his motorbike, all three of us (this is totally normal --- we’ve seen entire families of 5 or 6 on one motorbike throughout all of SEAsia..not necessarily the safest, but we put our trust in Vat. And it was cheaper, obviously).

Our first stop was Phnom Sampeau – We had a bit of a hike once we got there to reach the first temple on “Selling Boat” Mountain, but luckily, more than enough time for Vat to fill us in as to why the mountain was named “Selling Boat”. The older temple stands today in memory of those held inside and killed during the Khmer Rouge era. We weren’t to step inside the temple because the smell of human bodies still lingers.

Next to the temple was a path leading to a small cave complex – another place that was used to torture and execute prisoners. There is an opening at the top of the cave that people would be dropped from, apparently. As at the Killing Fields of Choung Ek, there is a memorial that holds bones and skulls of the found bodies. It is much smaller, but holds the same level of respect.

At this point, Vat began telling us about memories he has of being a small child and hiding from Khmer Rouge soldiers in the woods. As far as we could figure, he was born towards the end of the genocide period, but still would have been scarred growing up in the years to immediately follow. He didn’t say much, but what he did say was powerful with emotion. No surprise – but much of society is still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorders and similar symptoms as a result.

At the top of Selling Boat Mountain there is a temple as well as one huge gold stupa, and two stupas that are still being constructed (apparently they’ve been works in progress for years). ALSO, interestingly enough, the first thing Vat pointed out to us was a massive old German gun used by the Vietnamese during the war. It stands today as a reminder of the fighting, as is a great selling point for tourists.

It was at Phnom Sampeau that we also learned a little something about Battambang – a nice little tidbit (and yes, I’ve prepared myself fully for the inevitable making fun that is to follow this comment…). APPARENTLY Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox, her first child, Cambodian, from Battambang. Crazy. Her organization, the Maddox-Jolie-Pitt Foundation is located within the city. We found this out because Vat wants to apply for a position with them…he’d already unfortunately missed the due date to apply, but I’m sure more positions will open over time.

We then continued onto Wat Banan, termed a “personal pocket-sized Angkor Wat”, which happened to be located at the top of 359 stairs. On the way back down, I counted. They weren’t lying. It was a gorgeous ruin site and we got an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.
Which, for me, is why I love touring around on motorbikes – you get to see the little villages and outposts where people actually live their lives, not necessarily based on tourism or development.

On the way back we hoped on the ever-popular Bamboo Train…literally platforms (with small bars keeping you inside), that are powered by a motor, driven by a local, on the train tracks from the outskirts of the city into Battambang. Cambodia has a bit of a rail system, and we’d looked into taking it from Phnom Penh to Battambang (the bus was far cheaper, and far quicker, when all was said and done so we opted not to). Apparently though, most tourists only get to see a small bit of the rail system – by Bamboo Train.

Vat timed it perfectly and we were onboard just as the sun was setting. High Five to him (he’s a tourism/economics university student. Apparently doing well in classes).

We returned to our guesthouse to find a note from Kim – our friend from Luang Prabang (first met her while mountain biking) and Moung Ngoi. She was staying in the same guesthouse and gave us the name of the restaurant she was having dinner at with another couple, Allyson and Chris.

Things happen for a reason, I’m a firm believer, and we spent the night having great conversation and getting great advice not only for Siem Reap (Kim is probably the reason I loved the city so much in the end), but for Southern Thailand too.

Monday we, again, woke up at the crack of dawn to get on a boat bound for Siem Reap. It was a bit more expensive way to travel (versus bus), but Vat had insisted that you’ll get to see ‘real Cambodia’ by taking the boat, and that the road from Battambang to Siem Reap was dusty and full of holes. Weird that we opted for a 3-8 hour boat ride along ‘arguably one of the most scenic water routes in Cambodia’.

And it truly was a great way to see the country – a different style of life than we’d seen thus far. From reading about Cambodia’s history, watching movies and visiting tourist destinations in Phnom Penh and Battambang, I’d gotten the feeling that most of the population of the country were farmers. A large percentage, however, make a living by fishing and along the waterways that drain into the Tonle Sap Lake. We began the trip on one boat, a bit cramped, and passed many riverside farms where people had probably been at work for hours already (we left at 7am, ps). As we meandered further and further down the river, nearing the lake, we passed massive fishing net contraptions, individual fisherman and floating villages. At one point we pulled up to a dock and switched boats for the remainder of our ride, to a larger boat with a huge deck on top for laying out. Heather and I spent a good few hours, getting rather sunburnt in the end, napping and reading (and taking just a few pictures…), finally heading below deck as we approached the lake.

Arriving at the Phnom Krom dock was an experience in itself…when they say dock, apparently they mean lines of boats attached to each other --- and when you disembark yours, you end up climbing on/through others. When we finally reached land, there was a tuktuk driver with our name on a sign, but the scam is that they agree to ferry you the ~15km into town, as long as you hire them to be your driver to Angkor. This didn’t sit well with me or Heather, so in the end we paid the guy and told him we’d find our own tuktuk driver whenever we decided to go to Angkor…we held back from a lecture on the weight of a smile or kind word, or two, when speaking to tourists. The driver was overtly rude and upset we weren’t going to hire him. C’est la vie.

So within 36 hours we’d taken a bus, (bamboo) train and boat. Not too shabby, Cambodia, not too shabby.

And finally - Cambodia

2008-02-09T08:05:00.000-05:00

Thursday February 7th and Friday February 8th
Phnom Penh
It is absolutely amazing, when looking at a map of SEAsia, that over 2 weeks in Laos we traveled a good amount of distance, but slowly, and in an hour-and-15 minute flight we covered all the land, and water, between Vientiane, Laos and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a completely different country!

And we certainly arrived in style at our guesthouse for our stay, on the back of two motorbikes. Having been ushered through an exceptionally easy visa/customs declaration process in the Phnom Penh airport we exited the arrivals lobby and crossed the threshold into the chaos that is a major city’s airport parking lot. Immediately we were flanked by drivers of tuktuks, proper taxis and motorbikes – after a bit of back-and-forth with the motorbike guy, we figured out it would be $3/person, we could in fact fit our packs, ourselves and the driver on one bike, and we would have helmets.

So we hopped on. At the last second I asked the guy about helmets again…and he proceeded to take the helmet off my driver, and place it on my head. Talk about guilt in the case of an accident...

Our guesthouse. Well, it’s called the Floating Island and it’s in a very comfy, backpacker-friendly neighborhood adjacent to the most prominent of the city’s slums, apparently. There are countless number of restaurants, cafes, cinemas, etc. within a 400-meter radius of us, which is fabulous. We had chosen it because it’s on a ‘lake’ (read: body of water almost completely covered with plantlife at the moment which locals weave in and out of on boats searching for different pieces of garbage and potentially? fishing), and has a restaurant terrace overlooking it. We didn’t necessarily count on the gambling ring of locals at the entrance to our guesthouse (and I’ve counted limitless others in the neighborhood since) but, c’est la vie, eh?
Oh, and our room. We’re traveling cheap – remember that – we have linoleum lined walls, and bamboo thatched roof, we’re off a long, single hallway that proceeds over the water, and our floor is covered with fake tile wallpaper stuff. There’s definitely a hole in one of the floorboards in the corner, so we try to not tread there, and our adjacent bathroom’s sink comes out of the wall. This is, by far, one of the worst accommodations we’ve stayed in thus far – which just goes to show you how nice we’ve had it up until now, because it really isn’t all that bad…just a tad bit sketchy. I kinda like that it has a bit of character to it.

We arrived early afternoon, so we had a few hours to walk around --- we saw Wat Phnom, a small temple at the top of a hill in the center of the city.
We were psyched because it was actually open! and so we were able to see the inside of our first temple in ages…hopefully the ping starts accruing again. The 6th, also, was Chinese New Year, so there were crazy amounts of people at the Wat giving offerings and starting the new year off right. It was really great to see how everyday Buddhists practice their religion (in comparison to mostly monks we’ve seen thus far). most entertaining, however, was the band of monkeys that live in the trees surrounding this hill who wreak havoc on all those beneath…we saw a few with stolen waterbottles, pieces of fruit, and digging through bags.

We hit up the National Museum, full of both Buddhist and Hindu sculptures and relics. There was a lack of labels and explanations for many of the pieces, so I tried using my fledgling French to pick up on what the French tour guides were saying around me but, no dice. Didn’t help too much. Heather, however, was a fabulous help with the things that she knew, and we saw some pretty cool stuff. After the Khmer Rouge era, many of the sacred pieces from Angkor Wat and other important areas to Cambodia were ransacked and stolen, probably to be sold on the artifact blackmarket. I think in 2000, or around then, Cambodia printed a “100 relics lost” pamphlet with pictures and explanations of just 100 of thousands of lost pieces, and were able to get back at least 8 of them as a result.

Earlier upon our arrival, when our motorbike drivers took us down the wrong alley (things happen for a reason, eh?), I’d noticed a restaurant that was advertising itself also as a cinema, and apparently they were playing the Killing Fields that night. Later we learned they play the movie every night…but regardless, we went for dinner and stayed for the movie. I had really wanted to see it before I left and didn’t get around to it, so I’m super happy we were able to see it before actually going to the Killing Fields on Friday. It’s a great movie if you haven’t seen it – and it was especially fabulous that this restaurant plays it every night for tourists. Says a lot about how the local people are healing from the painful memories of the Khmer Rouge genocide.

And then Friday, oh Friday. Heather’s big thing is Buddhism – so she’s been loving the temple tour we’ve taken up (as have i). But most everybody knows I’m about the more recent history of countries, especially looking into massive human rights abuses, so being able to visit Cambodia and see firsthand the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Museum, was amazingly touching and moving.

We started at the Tuol Sleng Museum, more commonly referred to as S-21, which is a school that was turned into the largest and most deadly Khmer Rouge prison. Of the estimated 14,000 prisoners to have been brought there, 7 survived. Almost every victim ended up at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek after being forced to sign false accusations and ‘biographies’ written up by the prison guards after multiple interrogation sessions. There was a moving documentary on two of the prisoners whose stories are known – a husband and wife separated because of the war; the husband a Khmer Rouge officer, the wife sent to work in a rural village. The documentary was based off of letters they wrote to each other under false pseudonyms, and interwoven was the history of the Khmer Rouge, S-21 and the genocide. Interestingly enough, many of the prisoners were people from the Khmer Rouge army that officials no longer trusted. My impressions were that as time dragged on, the upper echelon of the Khmer Rouge became more desperate and trusted fewer and fewer people, eventually killing large numbers of ‘their own’ as a result.

The museum now displays all the photographs of prisoners that were taken upon their arrival at S-21, a haunting exhibit of the victims of mass, indiscriminate genocide. The worst to see where the children, some were only toddlers when they go there – and to know that they too underwent torture and were eventually brutally murdered – to put it mildly, it was an emotional day.

We then proceeded to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, which are 15km outside of the city. At the ticket booth there were rules posted, and it asked everything that enters to take off their shoes and hats and walk up to the standing shrine for the victims of the Killing Fields, and respectfully take a moment of silence. The monument itself is chilling – it’s rectangular box inside a larger buidling, level upon level full of skulls and bones that were excavated from the Killing Fields. Some had signs near that that would state the gender and approximate age of the skulls, others, you would just guess how they were killed based on bulletholes, fractures or crushed areas. At the base there was a huge pile of worn clothes, also found during excavation, that have since been deordorized and left as a reminder of the once-human aspect of what we were about to see.

Ironically, where the Killing Fields are used to be a tree grove, and once again, plants, trees and lush grass flourish. However, amidst the park-like atmosphere there are gigantic crater-sized holes in the ground. Some have shelters built over them, and information written about how many people were found in this mass grave. One, next to a tree, documented that all the remains found were from women and children – and it’s believed that the tree that now shadows the grave, was used to beat the victims against.

It was an absolutely moving experience to be there, and personally, I appreciated (so much so) the fact that these ‘tourist attractions’ were not only being used to correctly educate the tourist masses, but were built in such a way that they’re part of the healing process Cambodia is still going through. In S-21 there was a photography exhibit of 10 skulls, each photographed and then written about, in detail, the way the person was killed. There was note from the artist that originally the specific skulls chosen were to be displayed as part of the exhibit but because Cambodian culture believes that without proper burial spirits are not at rest, and that bones and skulls house these spirits, objections were raised about putting them on display, especially in closed boxes which would not allow spirits to enter and leave at their will. Therefore, the decision was made not to display the skulls.

That in itself is a testament to cultural values that lie at the center of the healing process for Cambodia. Both Heather and I have remarked on the great feeling we’ve gotten from walking around Phnom Penh (again, everyone thinks we’re nuts for walking…the crazy white people) – but it just feels so alive, which is exactly the opposite of what you would expect. Yes, it’s been decades since the actual genocide, but it’s impressive how well this city, at least, has handled it’s history – thus far, to us.

To finish off our emotional day, we were dropped off at the Royal Palace. We were able to see ancient Buddhist relics, the throne for past kings, documentation of coronations and the illustrious, and well-known, silver pagoda (the name may fool you…all the silver tiles on the floor are covered up to protect them…for a while we didn’t know if we were in the right place).

It was definitely a bit of a shock to our system to go from such an emotionally charged area to one of the most elaborate, expansive and wealthy tourist attractions in Phnom Penh, but it takes all kinds. Check out The Killing Fields if you get a chance – for serious.

Vientiane - City of...well, we're not so sure...

2008-02-08T07:11:00.000-05:00

On Monday, February 4th Heather and I started our day off right – meaning, we went straight for our last cup of iced Lao Coffee from our local Luang Prabang coffee guy. Yes, we were there long enough to find a coffee guy. His name is Lenou and we were very fond of his stand of freshly squeezed orange juice and Lao made as-you-like-it coffee (p.s. Lenou says hi Flynn and Sarah!). We had asked him the previous night what time he opened, as we were leaving at 7am, and he said 6:30! Mind you, he’s normally in the market until 9pm, so the guy works very long days. However, he loves inviting his patrons to sit on a bench next to his stand and striking up conversation as he brews each coffee, and hopefully we told enough people about him to increase his business. He even gave us special to-go cups Monday morning, large bamboo ones, that are usually reserved for hot coffee because he knew we were going straight to the bus station.

Our bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane was supposed to be 8 hours. Here’s a quick 101 on Laotian buses:
There is always a public bus (normally the cheapest option). This bus will, undoubtedly, pick up limitless numbers of extra people while going through villages and smaller towns that don’t have bus centers. These people, especially, have it hard because they usually are transporting bags and sacks of goods from one place to another, and because of the system, will end up without a seat, sitting on aforementioned bags of rice or peanuts, in the aisles.

Now, there are also VIP buses that are a bit more expensive (a little more than $1USD difference, usually), that are nicer buses, sometimes with air-conditioning, that are rumored to cut your trip by a few hours because they won’t be stopping to pick people up.

(and, fyi, ALL buses feature the hottest lao music, as well as some karaoke dvds if you’re so lucky…, so no need to worry if your ipod or mp3 breaks)

We ended up on a VIP bus to Vientiane. However, the trip ended up taking us 9 ½ hours with a few stops to pick up other passengers, a bathroom break, a lunch break, and a large stopover in Vang Vieng (a tourist hotspot) where about 75% of the white people on our bus got off.
So is life, eh?

We arrived at the Vientiane bus terminal and were ushered into a tuktuk that took us to ‘center city’…unfortunately, being as we were arriving around 7:30 pm, rooms were scarce and we were forced to take one that was a bit more expensive than we were hoping, which means it was $8/person rather than $4…to keep things in perspective (we were, however, able to move to a more affordable accommodation the next morning).

Like I said in the title of this post, though, Vientiane didn’t really ever measure up, or redeem our first night impressions.
Tuesday, February 5th we walked the city – literally – walked everywhere. We’re getting rather good at shooting tuktuk drivers looks and quips so they’re fully aware we will not be needing their services.

We first wandered to Patuxai, or, as Lonely Planet explains, “Vientiane’s haughty Arc de Triomphe replica”. As someone who has gazed at the wonder that is the Arc in Paris, it’s a stretch to say that this is a replica…it’s not very appealing to the eye. It’s mostly a concrete-gray color and while it has some nice fountains on either side, it’s just not very impressive of a monument in the center of the city. Granted, it apparently was never fully finished as the builders intended it to be, so maybe more plans for grandeur were in the works – AND we were able to climb up it and get a great view of the city. Ruining the historical value (or maybe ensuring that this does have some tourist draw) were several shops/stands selling silver, tshirts, various SEAsian country flag patches and miniature Buddha statues on each level.

We spent the rest of the day (in a heat we claimed to have missed, god only knows why, just a week earlier) walking the city…well, we meant to head to the national museum and somehow made a gigantic circle around it – signs seemed to only be posted on a few major roads and intersections in Vientiane. We did make it to the ‘beach’, aka, the Mekong during dry season --- there’s a large, sprawling area of roadside restaurants overlooking the river, but since ¾ of it is dry at the moment, right now they overlook a beach.

At this point, we really hadn’t gotten a feel for Vientiane – we couldn’t tell what the city was all about. So we figured we’d try bowling, which apparently is rather popular among locals and tourists alike. And while Heather and I succeeded in embarrassing ourselves compared to the locals in the lane next to us, we also had a fabulous evening (finished off with dinner at a nearby restaurant that was also hosting a british singer-songwriter for the evening, Billy Paige), of good ‘ole fashioned bowling. Yeeeet, not really what I would consider a traditional Laotian pastime. Weird, eh?

Wednesday held another day of motorbiking adventures, this time started off with the rental woman doubting Heather’s standard motorbike abilities, which, in the words of Flynn jebb – are “bangin’ good”. And I rode on the bike of the bike almost 30 km to Xieng Khuan, the Buddha Park, over bumpy roads, so I think I would know best. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon finding and exploring the Buddha park. It is literally a park full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, designed and built in 1958 by Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua Sulilat, described as a “yogi-priest-shaman who merged Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, mythology and iconography”.

Interesting, to say the least. Walking through the park, looking at the different sculptures – my favorite was a gigantic reclining Buddha that flanked one side of the park – it was amazing to realize how much religion is a part of the daily lives of most Lao citizens, and they certainly don’t shy away from it. Wats were around every corner in Vientiane and while every single one was closed, much to our dismay, they must stand as a daily reminder for all Buddhists about their faith. Running on Wednesday morning I passed an area where people were buying incense to offer at shrines all over the city – and it obviously made for a pretty good smell compared to the fish in tanks awaiting their end at nearby restaurants.

After returning the motorbike, we headed to the National Museum which shed a bit more light on why we weren’t able to pinpoint Vientiane’s character. The museum was separated into 16 rooms/exhibits, many of which were dedicated to the Indochina War years and the following “US imperialist and their puppets” period of rule and rebellion. While I personally thought the language was a bit over-the-top bordering on brainwashing, it makes complete sense in the context of Laos’ history. Vientiane also has, since the mid-19th century at least, been under the control of various imperialist powers or governments supported by the west. It was until recently that Vientiane was actually run by the popularly voted upon government, and even then, the city lacks much of the influences of the local indigenous village cultures that we came to love so much in the North of Laos. We also found it difficult to find an authentic Laotian-only-cuisine restaurant. Most had menus of ‘fusion cuisine’…choose anything from Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Western or French. It’s definitely a testament to the tumultuous history of Laos, as well as the individual history of Vientiane as the capital city, that we still, after having left Laos, can’t seem to explain Vientiane’s character as anything traditionally or uniquely Lao. We’re glad we went, for sure, and happy we were able to see as much as we did in 2 days.

We’re also, however, very happy we’re in Cambodia now. Laos was bittersweet, as we were unable to see as much of the North as we would have liked, and unable to visit the south because of time constraints. Which just means we’ll have to travel back there at some point in the future. Any takers?

Update: Laos

2008-02-04T09:58:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since the last post, partially because I’ve been a bit lazy in sitting down and writing everything that we’ve done in the past week, partially because for a good 5 days Heather and I were in Northeastern Laos where internet was intermittent at best. And knowing that I tend to be a bit verbose and detailed, rather than update day by day, I figured we’d cover the highlights of the past week-week and a half. ***i said i would TRY to keep it short...er...but wasn't very successful...each section has a different heading/date, so you can scroll if you don't have much time.

LUANG PRABANG – The City and Mountain Biking
Thursday January 24th, Friday January 25th

We spent all of Thursday wandering the city of Luang Prabang. There’s an enormous amount of wats within the city itself, as well as on the outskirts. WE checked out the more prominent temples, many of which had housing attached for monks and monks in training. It’s crazy that within a month of being in SEAsia we’ve gotten very used to seeing males between the ages of probably about 7 through 70 walking around in bright orange robes. Buddhist practices in this area of the world, and if I’m not mistaken almost all areas Buddhism is practiced, requires that women never touch monks, and try and stay out of their way. As conscientious travelers, and with girls who have studied Buddhism quite a bit, we’re aware of this and try to abide by said rules…even though they’re slightly sexist…and by slightly, I mean very.

We also hit up the National Museum, which was very nicely laid out with relics and antiques from the royal family who ran to the North when taken over in the 60’s or 70’s. However, most amusing to us was the last room which housed all the gifts that were sent to the crown prince and his family and the country of Laos on behalf of other benevolent nations…Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, China, India, etc. had sent over elaborate china sets, glassware, gorgeous wall hangings, and other gorgeous items. The UNITED STATES, however, had to be different (slash…we import a lot of those items anyways and those that are made in country don’t all follow one cultural style, I guess). There was a gold plated pen from one of our esteemed ex-presidents, a piece of the moon mounted with the Laotian flag and, our favorite, a toy model of one of the lunar landcrafts for the moon. No one can ever call the US non-inventive, that’s for sure.

On Friday, Heather Sarah and I had signed up for a mountain biking trek with a fair-trek company based in Luang Prabang called Tiger Tours. We met at 9am at their headquarters, unsure of whether or not there’d be anyone else coming with us for the medium-intensity trip (40km over the course of 6 hours, with a boat ride to a waterfall for lunch in between). To our surprise there were two other people who’d signed up – and they were both American! Mike, a southern Vermont chef, was an experienced cyclist, of the mountain biking variety, and had no trouble throughout the day. Kim, a West Coaster (most recently from Seattle) is traveling around the area for an undetermined amount of time and we immediately recognized a kindred spirit in her. She, like Heather and I, was a bit less experienced with mountain biking and I think the three of us kept a comfortable pace a bit behind Sarah and Mike for most of the day.

And by mountain biking, I obviously mean dirt biking. Within 2km of town, we hit dirt roads. These roads definitely had hills that could be interpreted as little mountains, but mostly were difficult because they had about 3-5 inches of dust/dirt/gravel covering them. I felt like a complete spaz going downhills, losing control of my back tire many a time, but luckily not ever wiping out (came close though). A bit before we stopped for lunch my back tire went flat…I wouldn’t necessarily recommend biking on a flat tire…it was a bit difficult. Luckily our second guide was with us for this very reason – he switched bikes with me and went off to fix the tire. My only regret is that he wasn’t able to meet up with us again for the rest of the day (although he seemed a bit happy to be able to leave…it was his first time on these trails as well).

We, obviously, had to cross a small river before the last few kilometers before lunch. This consisted of the 5 of us standing on one bank of the river (which was rather shallow and about 15-20 meters across) while our guide, Yord, sent some small children to fetch a boat from the other side. The first trip saw all 7 bikes piled onto a teeny tiny boat across the river…the second trip saw the 5 of us trekkers and our first guide, along with the boatman, across. It was a bit shaky and unstable, but interesting nonetheless. And I’m sure we looked hilarious to the locals that were washing clothes and playing nearby…5 americans with ridiculous colored helmets, still on of course, crouched down in a little little boat to cross a river about 20 meters.

Lunch was taken at a local waterfall attached to an elephant camp, which was a gorgeous backdrop for some great conversation. Our guide was rather surprised we decided not to go swimming, even though it wasn’t very warm out when the sun went behind the clouds. Apparently, during the hotter months, he can’t get tourists out of the water when it comes time to hop back on the bikes. That might be, however, because of the pain we were in when we did get back on the bikes. None of us had done such intense riding in a while…and our bottoms were rather sore. And we still had about 20 km to get back to Luang Prabang city. Luckily, the last 15 km were on pavement…however Yord had warned us of two big hills. The first was large, long and slightly steep…the second was CRAZY. The best part about it though was rounding out the top of the hill and seeing the very long downhill ahead of us into the city. It was an amazing ride, and we were thrilled to get to see such beautiful scenery by bikes – especially because it’s illegal at the moment to rent motorbikes AND bicycles as foreigners in Luang Prabang. There are two rumors as to why this is (it’s a new development, in the last few months or so)…there have been a large number of accidents involving foreigners and rented bikes OR there’s a tuktuk mafia which has enough clout/reputation in the community to be able to shut down all foreigner-renting operations so as to claim all the public transportation to areas outside the city center. There’s probably a bit of truth to both, we’ve heard people’s opinions go either way, but regardless – don’t think of renting a bike in Luang Prabang. The police round up foreigners every now and again and take the bikes and names of where they’ve gotten them from. Us falangs (foreigners or ‘white people’) aren’t in any sort of trouble, just used to figure out who’s renting illegally.

PLAIN OF JARS – PHONSAVAN
Sunday January 27

First, before I get into the specifics about the Plain of Jars (stunning, really), I feel a need to share a bit of the place we stayed while we were in Phonsavan.

One of the differences between Thailand and Laos is that there aren’t public telephones on the street, therefore, we’ve been showing up in towns/cities and then searching for a guesthouse with available rooms. We haven’t yet run into a problem with this method, probably especially because Laos doesn’t have quite the number of tourists that Thailand does yet.

Regardless, in heading to Phonsavan Flynn noticed that one of the guesthouses in Lonely Planet had a website. So Friday night I emailed KongKeo Guesthouse, inquiring about rooms. Saturday we’d gotten a response;
Dear Kate Meehan:
We have two rooms available. I will hold them for you. My men will meet you at bus station.
Mr. Kong

The best part was that we rolled into the Phonsavan bus station and there were two people there from KongKeo Guesthouse – one of them held a sign that said “Meehan, Pax 03”. Obviously, Mr. Kong knows how to impress travelers. There was an old jeep that about 8 of us slung our bags onto and climbed in to ride in style to Mr. Kong’s guesthouse…which happens to be at the end of an old airstrip on the outskirts of town.

Mr. Kong is an amazing character, and I hope he’ll be featured prominently in Flynn’s memoirs one day. He seems to know everyone in town, and has a hand in most deals done…a bit similar to the godfather, maybe? He had a buffet dinner for us ready within an hour of our arrival, played his guests a song on the traditional Lao flute before switching to Hotel California on his electric-blue guitar, had a fire going all night in a makeshift fire pit (read: old bomb shells attached together), and eventually retired to the indoor part of the bar where locals were watching/betting on a boxing match. Luckily, Mr. Kong was betting for the blue guy and he won, because he’d promised us free beers and a turkey/mashed potato dinner if we got 12 people for our tour the next day. Oh Mr. Kong…we got exactly 12. And were excited about getting turkey.

Our tour to the Plain of Jars was a full day – however we didn’t see the Jar Site until the end of our trip. We started off at a bomb crater site. It was literally a field in front of a small village that had gigantic pond-sized craters splattered across it. It was rather humbling, especially as an American, standing with a group of 12 listening to our tour guide explain the “secret war” that was waged throughout Northeastern Laos by the U.S. To hammer home the effect of seeing the destruction caused in this area, we then continued to a Hmong Village that uses bomb shells today for a variety of purposes – fence posts, house supports, fire pits, etc. There is one family, who apparently returned earlier than other villagers, who has an entire fence of bomb shells. Our guide, Okun, said that they’re planning on selling them for scrap metal one day.

I’d run into a lot of information/education about landmines while in Uganda, but the number of unexploded ordinances (dropped bombs that were not triggered upon their fall) and landmines throughout the world is shocking. Hundreds of thousands of people per year are hurt, killed or rendered disabled as a result of these UXOs exploding, years after they were dropped from planes. It was difficult to hear about, but Okun was very positive about the work that’s being done by NGOs in Laos to clear areas and decrease these instances.

We had lunch at a waterfall, and to return to our minivan we actually walked up the falls, crisscrossing the smaller pools multiple times. And at the top we were rewarded with heading to the Plain of Jars, site 1. There are 3 sites open to tourists at present, with site 3 being the largest. However, 2 and 3 are further away, so we were heading to site 1. As Mr. Kong had said, however, whichever site you see first will always be the best for you. It’s absolutely mindblowing to see.

No one knows how the jars got to be where they are. It literally is exactly what it sounds like - a plain full of stone jars. There are many myths as to how they appeared there, and Okun filled us in on the popular one to tell tourists…apparently the local people think that each jar belonged to one person - for their own Lao Lao reserve (Laotian whiskey…one of two alcoholic beverages found easily throughout Laos. The other is BeerLao, the official beer of the country). There’s also a cave at Site 1 with three holes at the top…which local lore attributes to three jars which must have been put there for LaoLao.

At the moment, archaelogists are studying the Plain of Jars, so many of them contain numbers on the inside. It’s absolutely stunning to see hundreds lined up on a random hillside in the Northeast of Laos, a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and clouds behind them.

And when we returned to KongKeo, there awaited us a turkey on a spit, Mr. Kong with local folktales to share and some of the best mashed potatoes we’ve ever tasted (random, I know, that it was in Laos, but these were – in the words of Flynn – “Bangin’ Good”).

Totally worth the trip, even if it did mean a 8 hour bus ride there, and a 15 hour bus ride the next day for heather and I to the next stop along the way.

VIENG XAI – PATHET LAO CAVES
Tuesday January 29

We were staying in a town called Xam Neua, and had seen a total of 4 westerners by the time we started out Tuesday morning to get to Vieng Xai. We’ve recently realized that the route we’re taking (or at least planned to take..more on that later) is not heavily trafficked by travelers. This results in many fewer people that speak English, and fewer fellow travelers to bounce ideas off of/travel with. From my perspective, however, it was a bit charming --- it’s nice to see people that aren’t bending over backward to dedicate their livelihoods to tourism. It might also just be that the demand isn’t there yet.

Regardless, we’d come to Xam Neua to see caves, but they’re actually not in the town of Xam Neua, but about 30 km further east in Vieng Xai. We had to get a tuktuk to the local, southern, bus station (not to be confused with the outside-the-province, northern, bus station) and then catch a larger tuktuk, called a sangthaew, to Vieng Xai. We arrived and headed to check in with the local tourism office and sign up for the 1pm tour.

There were 5 of us – Heather, myself, another woman from California, a Frenchwoman and an Aussie. All of us except the Aussie had to head back to Xam Neua for the night after our tour and were promised by the tour office that while it was advertised in their guidebook that the last sangthaew left at 3pm, it was actually 4.

So we had 3 hours to explore the caves with our guide, Sankhit. He’s a father of two who’s been giving tours for a couple months now, also an English student most of the year (but at the moment they’re on holiday), so his English skills were quite good. Which was great for us, because there was a lot of information about the caves.

As stated from our information brochure, because there’s no way I will better paraphrase this;
“Vieng Xai, Revolutionary Stronghold
In the 1960s the United States believed that Laos was a crucial area to stop communist expansion, and Laos was dragged into the war between the US and Vietnamese communists. In 1964, the US began intensive bombing of the Lao communist movement – Pathet Lao – base area in Xieng Khouang.”

The Pathet Lao Government moved into Vieng Xai and used a vast network of caves as their shelter/headquarters during the war. The first cave we went to had the largest opening, and there had been a stage/auditorium constructed within it. A constant reminder, however, of the reason for the headquarters of the Pathet Lao being in caves was the area which Sankhit pointed out housed an artillery post at the entrance. It was manned at all hours, pointed to the skies in case of an attack. Outside of all 5 caves we saw on our tour (there are 7 open for tourists), there were massive bomb craters.

Again, it was humbling as an American to listen to a Laotian recount a history that was so very much determined by US foreign policy. I must also disclose that I had just finished A Fortune Teller Told Me (a book about an Italian journalist traveling by any means except air for a year in SEAsia…and he recounts the ugly histories of many of the countries he visits…and especially highlights the opium trade that the US backed secretly for years) and the next day read First They Killed My Father (an account of the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot through the eyes of a 5 year old, again another conflict where US foreign policy dominated many decisions)...so I’m very pro-US foreign policy of the 60s and 70s right now…

The real adventure for the 4 of us returning to Xam Neua began when we finally realized that the tour office had either (a) lied or (b) made a mistake in telling us we could catch a bus at 4…because there was not one coming. The Frenchwoman with us was highly confident if we walked to the main road we could hitchhike back, especially as she’s “been very lucky with hitchhiking in her life.” She refused at first to pay $5USD per person to privately charter a sangthaew back…after about 30 minutes of no luck with hitchhiking, Heather and I met another tour guide for the caves who helped us get a ride back…for $4USD each. Luckily, both other women with us were willing to pay and thank goodness we figured out a ride when we did because within 10 minutes of getting on the road it started pouring again.

RELENTLESS RAIN – Nong Khiaw/Muang Ngoi /Luang Prabang
Wednesday January 30, Thursday January 31, Friday February 1

Heather and I had a 15 hour bus ride to enjoy the mountains of Northern Laos, and it didn’t start raining until about, eh, 8 or 9 hours into the trip. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop. We arrived in Nong Khiaw at 11:30 pm and had to wake up a poor girl to get a room at a guesthouse. We left to catch a boat to Muang Ngoi on Thursday at 11, crossing our fingers that the rain would let up by Friday. The hour boat trip was cold, but on the way we met Dana, a fellow traveler heading to Muang Ngoi, who graduated from Whitman a year before Heather – small world! We also ran into Kim, who’d gone mountain biking with Heather, Sarah and I in Luang Prabang once we we’d arrived in Muang Ngoi, and it was definitely nice to have familiar faces around.

We were ridiculously wet upon arriving and dumping our packs in our bungalow, and the rain continued all afternoon, and throughout the night. Heather and I made the decision to head back to Nong Khiaw, and then to Luang Prabang, and skip Northeastern Laos (as much as it pained us) because we had no idea when the rain was going to stop. We’d heard rumors as to why it was raining in the dry season, for such a constant, long period…
- potentially as a result of the cold front/storm that rocked southern china with feet upon feet of snow?
- potentially it was a ‘mango rain’ and the mango flowers wouldn't blossom without it
- just bad luck on our parts…we haven't seen as many temples in Laos, so we might need to up our 'ping' (merit...accumlates over a lifetime towards karma) soon?

Leaving from Muang Ngoi was an experience unto itself as every westerner to have arrived in the previous 3 days were taking the only boat back…which turned into 3 boats heading to Nong Khiaw at the same time (with about 20-30 people on each, with packs). There was a mass movement to get on buses to Luang Prabang once back at the Nong Khiaw dock as well, but we were lucky enough to find ourselves among a group willing to pay a bit extra for a private minivan.

We have obviously made it back to Luang Prabang, where it continued to rain all Friday and Friday night. Luckily Saturday was just a bit overcast, and yesterday (Sunday) was actually sunny and hot. We’re hoping that as we head towards Cambodia, a bit earlier than planned, we’ll also leave the rain behind…5 days straight rendered our packs damp and clothes smelling of mildew. It’s probably a good thing Heather and I both packed raincoats, although they can only keep you dry to a certain point.

We spent yesterday afternoon at the most visited local attraction, the Kam Sit waterfalls, at which we were able to climb up and around the waterfalls, stopping at the top to look down the numerous tiers falling into turquoise swimming pools below. Absolutely gorgeous, and it was good to see local Laotians there, partaking in swimming and taking photographs.

2 Days on the Mighty Mekong

2008-01-27T06:45:00.000-05:00

Monday January 21, Tuesday January 22 and Wednesday January 23

Heather wrote a fabulous update on the adventures of the last 24 hours we spent in Chiang Rai, and while we got a slightly later start on our way to Laos, we were still on a bus by 1pm. We had a 2 and half hour bus to the border between Thailand and Laos, then had to go through Thai Departures, take a ferry boat across to Huay Xi and then go through Laos Immigration.

Compared to other border crossings that we’ve been through (by plane and by bus), the feared Laotian immigration officials/process was relatively painless. We’d heard that it could be a nightmarish process, but the worst part was having to find a copy machine to copy our passports in lieu of a passport sized photo, and there was a significant lack of armed guards (in fact, we saw not one gun).

And to make us feel better about the robbery resulting in our belated start, as we were heading out of immigration to look into taking a boat to Luang Prabang, two couples approached us and asked if we would be interested in chartering a boat with 25 other people, for about the same price as the local boat. It was as if fate had intervened. However, fate could have done so in a way that was less stressful slash scary, btw.

Here’s the thing – there’s a public boat every day that starts the two-day, one-night trip to Luang Prabang around 11:30. During high season it always sells out the morning it leaves, and will have up to 80 people. Therefore, we were psyched that we’d been invited to charter a private boat…the same size boat, same exact trip, just with more room per person. However, we didn’t have a boat yet.

We found a guesthouse and dropped our stuff, and met up with the other 21 other boat people at a bar near the boat launch. Enter Mr. Funny and Olay, our boat owner and ‘tour guide’, respectively. And yes, Mr. Funny introduced himself that way, and Olay followed his introduction up with “Olay, like Ole, Ole, like the brazilian soccer fans”. Brian, an aussie slash the ringleader of the random hodgepodge group of chartered boaters, made sure there was actually a boat and confirmed it was ‘pimped out’ before we all put a deposit down. It ended up being a bit more expensive than the local boat, but well worth it in the end.

Tuesday morning we woke up, Heather, Sarah and I saw a Wat, and we were picked up by Mr. Funny’s private tuktuk service at noon. We arrived to find exactly what Brian had promised us; a pimped out boat. The seats were all from old buses or trains, leather for the most part, there was a DVD player which obviously had Thai Karaoke blasting within 10 minutes of launch, a stereo we hooked up to an ipod by cutting a few wires at a later point in the trip, a bar chock full of BeerLao (the only beer sold in Laos, ps), golden curtains throughout AND a sunroof. Absolutely ridiculous.

Please, also, let me introduce some of the cast of characters we found ourselves amongst for two days down the Mighty Mekong River…there was an American couple on their year-long honeymoon, a couple traveling together playing gigs, guitar + shakers, throughout the region when possible (Fantuzzi and Shoshona…ps when asked how long he had been traveling, Fantuzzi replied, “40 years”…I only hope I can say the same some day), an Aussie couple traveling after living in London for 5 years (also the brains and organizers behind the operation), an Aussie journalist living in Bangkok currently, Sandros – a young German entrepreneur who lists counting cards as one of his greatest talents, and memorable others. It was, literally, a cast of characters and we were happy to up the numbers of Americans on the boat, as we haven’t really met many along the way.

The first day was a 5 and a half hour trip to the stopping point for the night where we found a nice little guesthouse with restaurant attached. The cook thoroughly enjoyed all our questions, and tried to sell Flynn a canteen after one question of interest. We also met a little girl, related to the owners of the guesthouse, who apparently looks like an exact Laotian version of Flynn’s youngest sister, sass included. We were also offered marijuana on a number of occasions. Aforementioned restaurant, however, caused us to be late Wednesday morning getting to the boat and Heather and Flynn politely took a bow when they were given a round of applause for arriving late.

The second day, oh the Mighty Mekong was good to us. We had a 9-hour trip to Luang Prabang, and luckily people didn’t start drinking until noon. About an hour from LP, we stopped at a Buddha Cave, in which hundreds of buddhas have been placed over the years (this was great for the 4 of us because we had really wanted to see the cave, but didn’t want to have to spend half a day chartering a private boat to take us). The views we got from traveling along the Mekong River from Huay Xi to Luang Prabang were incredible, and there were constant rock formations that popped up along the river line. It was really interesting to see how much higher the water would be if we were traveling during the rainy season…slash we may or may not have wanted to travel along it during the rainy season.

We arrived in Luang Prabang about 10 minutes ahead of the public boat we chose not to get on, which was SUCH a blessing because it was like a backpacker frenzy to find cheap rooms throughout the town. We asked at one guesthouse, who were full, and luckily a random guy overheard us asking for a double room for 4 people. He introduced himself as Sai, and let us know “ahh, yes, I have a room for four. Hot showers too. Plus, I have free tea and bananas” We were sold.

The minute we began walking through the town, and you immediately see the French influence on the city. There are baguettes at every vendor, Lao coffee is on every menu and half the signs are translated into French as well as English. I immediately said that I could see myself living in Luang Prabang, it has a great small-town feel and the architecture is cute and quaint. However, it quickly became clear to us that the lasting French influence on the town was probably from the large population of rich French people that seem to vacation in LP, or even own small houses/apartments and spend their holidays in Laos.

Chiang Rai - City of Wonders (good and bad alike)

2008-01-27T06:39:00.000-05:00

Sarah and Heather here in Laos… Although Kate’s been doing an amazing job updating y’all on our travel adventures, or more aptly put “being attached to her computer whenever it’s fully charged,” we’ve decided to put our two cents in. We apologize now for our writing since all we’ve written in the past few years has been scientific papers, but we’ll try our best.

So as we said, we’re in Laos, halfway to Luang Prabang via boat on the Mekong at a guesthouse in Pak Beng, however the road into Laos had a few extra unexpected hurdles.

Our last day in Chiang Rai was absolutely fabulous! We all decided to split up and follow our different interests: Erin got a 2hr massage, Flynn caught up on her journal, Kate blogged (surprise surprise), and the two of us rented a motorbike (standard this time!) to explore the countryside and surrounding wats. We got a bright yellow, souped up Honda as advised by the savvy Thai businessman. After he pointed us in the “right” direction to get petrol and Heather took a couple of practice runs in the parking lot, we were off with the gas light on. After asking directions a couple of times, and hoping the locals didn’t run us over, or laugh too much at Heather’s newfound standard motorbiking skills, we found a gas station and filled up.

We headed south on the 1211 toward Wat Rong Khun or “The White Temple,” which was 13k away according to our trusty lonely planet. After driving for about a half hour along the same road with no white temple in sight (a guy from NC told us it’d be totally visible), we decided to ask for directions. We stopped at a motorbike repair shop along the side of the road and the guys started laughing, yelling to the girls across the street, and finally got one of their mothers to translate for us since they didn’t speak any English. She pointed in the direction we came from, which was the obvious answer to us but detailed instructions couldn’t be expressed in gestures and nods. So we hopped on again, did some exploring and gawking at the beautiful limestone hills and rice paddies before stopping at an information station, which was closed. But a little helpful restaurant owner, with a “long live the king” bracelet on (blast our inability to find them), drew a map for us on scrap paper. It was a blank road with another road branching off to the right with the name Pasaktong written at the junction. However, all the road signs were in Thai, and neither of us read Thai script, let alone speak it. We ended up stopping one more time, at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden we had this lovely, smiley girl leading us there on her motorbike! She drove us until we could see the blazing white spires of the wat and waved us on, all smiles.

We had heard that Wat Rong Khun was contemporary, but I’m not sure we were fully prepared for the “new agey” artwork and architecture of Chalermchai Kositpipat. The whole complex was made of white concrete with plain silver mirror tiles decorating buddhas, nagas (multiple-headed snakes), and protector demons, and a lot of buildings were still under construction. In order to enter the main temple we had to cross a mirror plated bridge flanked by the uplifted hands and faces of those who have been condemned to hells. An alms bowl was on either side as well. Once we got close to the temple doors and took off our shoes, we were floored by the detailed, golden artistry of the Buddha on the wall facing us. We attempted to take photos, but the security guard stopped us, gesturing that we could take photos from the stairs. This was interesting because a lot of old wats do not have regulations on photo taking – perhaps they are protecting the art of Mr. Kositpipat? Or, as we found out later, just wanting to make money off of his prints, although an exact replica cannot be found in poster form either. We walked into the temple, paid our respects to the Buddha images and were floored again as we turned around and saw a fiery depiction of modern day samsara (also known as life, “the realm of rebirth and delusion”). This samsara mural was fully modern and was literally out of this world: rockets, laser guns, a woman bending over in a thong giving the finger, genetic modification, Neo from The Matrix, and the Twin Towers getting hit on 9/11. Unreal – not like any other wat we’ve seen yet.

A bit buzzed by the craziness of the wat, we headed back into town to see some more traditional wats. By the time we were able to orient ourselves with the maps it was sunset, and monks were having their evening prayer sessions. We watched family walk up the steps to pray as well and the mother and daughters stayed outside while the father went in. During this time the temple is sacred male space. We then headed to a hilltop wat, and got a bit lost. It was getting dark and we got caught on a highway with lots of traffic. Heather zipped around cars and trucks and motorbikes, hopping across lanes, while Sarah was a fabulous navigator.

We finally made it back safe and sound, totally pumped about our exciting afternoon and went to ‘Cabbages and Condoms’ for dinner, which dear Katie Meehan will tell you about later. We all got back, packed our things up to head into Laos (minus Ms. Finkle who packed to head back to the US), and lay down for a restful night. Boy were we wrong…

I (Heather) woke up at 3:15 and noticed that the door was wide open. I was sharing a room with Flynn, so I quietly got up to close and lock our door. As I headed back to bed I noticed that my sling bag with all my important essentials (passport, debit/credit cards, money, paper tickets, ID) was oh so missing from its spot next to my bed. I went to the bathroom to flick on the light and started searching the room, with no success. Then I turned on the main light and conceded to waking up Flynn as a result. We both searched without luck, so I went to talk with the night watchman at the desk. He told me to search the room again, which I did, and then I started searching the grounds. The night watchman aided me with a flashlight and we finally found my bag near a low fence in a gated, staff only area by the road. Luckily everything was there, except my 300 baht in cash and travelers checks. What a relief that nothing else was taken and that none of us were hurt in any way!

Flynn and I headed to the tourist police around 4am and were told to return the next morning “8:30, 9, 10, like that” to fill out a police report to give my bank. A few more hours of restless sleep later we were back in the office filling our forms and found out that I was already one of three tourists to report an in-room robbery that morning. As a result, we had to head to the official police department, and were escorted there in the back of a cop car, laughing all the way with Flynn that we can now check it off our list of life goals. Everything went very smoothly, and thanks to our translator we were able to head to Laos the very same day.

King Shirts and Bracelets: On a hunt

2008-01-20T22:31:00.001-05:00

Upon arrival at the Chiang Rai boat dock (please look at the picture…priceless) we took a tuktuk to our guesthouse (a much nicer accommodation than we’ve been used to as a result of Erin’s mother’s generosity), took hot showers and eventually went out for dinner at the night market.

Chiang Rai’s night market is nowhere near as expansive as chiang Mai’s, but definitely had its own flare. There was live music in the square where all the food was sold, which was fabulous, and many of the local hilltribes wares were there for sale.

A little elderly woman who had been handstitching bedspreads and tablecloths at the Karen village/elephant camp we stopped at was actually at the Chiang Rai night market. Heather and I had absolutely fallen in love with some of her things and walked over saying this woman’s work looked remarkably similar…much to our surprise, the little elderly lady pointed to us and laughed, almost as if she was saying, “ha! You were looking earlier! Now you will definitely buy!”

I got an amazing bedspread for about $50USD…I was seriously debating but thanks to my lovely travel companions, I’m pretty sure it’ll be one of those ‘treasures’ I keep forever.

Additionally, and I haven’t yet really touched upon this which is surprising, we were on the hunt in Chiang Rai for two things: King shirts and bracelets. If you’ve every spoken with anyone who’s traveled through Thailand you’re probably aware of at least one thing: Thais are OBSESSED with their King. He’s the longest reigning monarch of the contemporary era who is still living (going on 60 years), and his face is plastered EVERYWHERE (see example below)

Additionally, a huge item for people to own are polos with the king’s symbol on it, AND just recently we’ve found the equivalent of livestrong
bracelets that say “long live the king” (orange color, btw) --- those are the two things that we felt we should leave Thailand with.

Apparently, the king bracelets were sold at 7-11’s throughout the country for a limited time only, so we were out of luck (ps 7-11’s are on every corner, open 24hours. Obviously), but Erin was able to pick up a King shirt. Therefore, Sarah’s the only one of the 5 of us that needs to find one before leaving Bangkok for her flight out to NZ.
(heather, flynn and i sporting our King polos)

Signing off for now – we’re heading to Laos tomorrow – blog updates will be few and far between, and probably multiple at once, while we’re in Laos and Cambodia – but please continue to leave comments and email us. We love hearing from y’all!

Boating Beautiful

2008-01-20T22:25:00.000-05:00

Saturday, January 19, 2008

The best move we made in our decision making process to leave Chiang Dao a night early was to charter our own boat from TaThon to Chiang Rai. By bus it would have been 92 km, a little over an hour bus ride, and much cheaper than our own boat…but we figured it was worth the extra baht to see the Mae Kok River and do something we hadn’t yet tried.

Our renaissance business woman (who, I don’t think I mentioned this, originally struck up conversation having passed us on her motorbike asking if we were looking for a hostel and immediately taking us up as her charity case…most guesthouses will give people a small commission if they bring travelers their way who end up staying a night or two...) was all ready for us Saturday morning. She had given me a map of the river and highlighted stops for us, pointed to our boat, helped our driver load our packs and wished us well…we had no idea what was in store for us. All we knew was that it was usually about a 3 hour boat trip but with stops could take up to 5 hours.

The first place we stopped was a village of the Lahu hilltribe and it was everything that we had hoped to avoid in our decision not to go ‘trekking’, as is ever popular among tourists following the route we are. It was a village, but set up to sell their wares to tourists while they gaze, stare, watch (whichever your choice of verb may be) at the local goings-on. There is something to be said about buying things from local tribes, cutting out the traditional ‘middle-men’ who would rip off the local villagers, but usually tour outfitters do receive a small cut. Additionally, while it is great that these villages can open themselves to become part of the tourism industry and increase their economic lot, it says a lot about the nature of globalism and the era of traveling which has skyrocketed to catastrophic proportions in the past few decades in comparison to the turn of the 20th century. Heather made a really great analogy, remarking that she felt uncomfortable, “like it’s the world fair all over again, this time, we’re coming to them”

Not that we were around when the world fair took place…but I mean, we’ve learned about it.

I think that our driver, Kaa (spelling?), picked up on our discomfort for having stopped at a village, and spared us stopping at the next one on the map. Or he just didn’t understand our boat outfitter’s directions. Regardless, we then stopped at a Hot Spring Park, which had little pools you could pay to bath in if you so chose. We had a nice little walk around, and got back on our boat and headed further downstream.

Our last stop on the river before Chiang Rai was an elephant camp. We pulled up and ‘docked’ (read: ran into the shore) and made our way through the numerous elephants that were hanging out near the shoreline to the local street. We found awesome khao soi for lunch (we’ll rate it about 2nd or 3rd best thus far, behind the random stand in Pai that Gaew pointed us to, and potentially after a roadside stand we went to in Chiang Dao) and walked around a bit to the local Karen streetside stalls. There were some incredible setups where women were handstitching quilts, tablecloths and tablerunners and clothing, and usually had old Singer sewing machines set up in a corner. (mom, you’d be proud, let the quilting bee know)

This river boat was an incredible trip, especially because we got to see a different aspect of Northern Thai culture – those that live on the water and make their living harvesting rocks for local cement? mills – this is complete conjecture on our part, we’re not entirely sure. The views were gorgeous, and the ride itself made us all miss boating on good ‘ole Lake George, ps.

The best part of our trip was the last leg, from the elephant camp to Chiang Rai boat dock, was the fact that we walk up looking for our boat and Kaa, our driver, and realize that all our stuff is in a different boat. No life jackets this time (although, we only used them for cushions in Kaa’s boat) and no driver. After about 5 minutes another man ran up and asked, “Chiang Rai? Chiang Rai?” We nodded, and he ushered us into his boat. All our stuff had been nicely moved from boat to boat and placed almost exactly where we’d left it. It was only about another 30 minutes more, and then we were in Chiang Rai.

Chiang Dao

2008-01-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Wednesday January 16 – Friday January 18, 2008
Thank goodness we’re flexible people. We arrived in Chiang Dao, found our hostel (which was right off a main road, which meant ridiculously loud nights. I think earplugs might be the next investment for a few people one the trip as we were all awake at random hours except sarah who slept soundly with bright little orange earplugs popping out of her head), and headed to café café, a little restaurant right next to where the bus dropped us off.

We were trying to figure out how to spend our full 2 days in the area…and had three options – elephant camp, chiang dao caves and thailand’s highest limestone mountain, dao luang. We decided to nix the elephant camp because it was in the opposite direction and we weren’t exactly thrilled to go see elephants in captivity…even though they are in their natural habitat.

We woke up early the next morning and grabbed a tuktuk to the chiang dao caves. It was an incredible complex, and our guide slash latern holder for the morning had a fabulous time pointing out rock formations that reminded tourists of certain things…such as fried eggs, lotus flowers, chickens, etc. She knew very little English, but luckily we had heather and sarah with us to explain a bit about caves in general. The photo below is from in the caves. there was a natural picture frame!

However, we thought that the caves were going to be a full day activity. They took about an hour and half to go through (very worth it though), but our tuktuk wasn’t coming back until 5pm. Miiiight have been why she looked at us like we were crazy when we asked her to come back 6-7 hours after leaving us at this little outpost. We walked to Chiang Dao Nest, a guesthouse/restaurant which has been rated in the top restaurants in all of Thailand…but they didn’t have much thai food. What we did get, mostly Western dishes, were incredible though, and it was a gorgeous area.

We then went on a hunt to find out about hiking dao luang. Considering when we asked at a streetside stall at the base of the caves about the mountain and hiking it in a day, we were laughed out…we got the feeling that this wasn’t as simple as Lonely Planet made it seem (although, in LP’s defense, they didn’t have much more than 2 sentences on how pretty the view from the summit was). A woman (the equivalent of our national park rangers, potentially?) at the Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary reinforcecd our greatest fears…Dao Luang couldn’t be hiked in a day. It was a two day/one night trip at least, if a guide would agree to push you that much. We called the Chiang Dao Nest owner and found out that most guides wouldn’t allow people to hike for more than 5 hours a day. Which is probably smart – the gradient was rather steep, and it does get ridiculously hot between the hours of 10-4, especially after noon.

To get back to the entrance to the cave complex, where we were getting picked up, we took a “2km nature walk” as recommended by the ranger we spoke to. I’m beginning to think that some people interchange km and miles for us foreigners…not realizing there’s a rather big difference. Though, in the end, it probably wasn’t more than 2 miles.
And it ended up being a nature walk through the woods…for forest monks, maybe. When we hear nature walk in the US, we think nice, flat trail. This was definitely a bit of hike. Regardless, we were excited to be ‘in the forest’ for a good bit.

So, as a result of having to leave Dao Luang without hiking the summit, we decided to change our plans completely. We left the following day, ridiculously early, and caught a bus to TaThon.
“catching a bus” in this case means standing at the parking lot we’d been dropped at and waving at all the buses coming down the road, hoping they were driving the route we needed. We actually had to take the bus to Fang, the furthest stop by bus, and then take a tuktuk to TaThon.

In the end, going to TaThon was completely worth it – one of the most interesting environments we’ve seen. We didn’t see many tourists there, but there was a HUGE wat, with 9 levels, for us to explore. We had wanted to kayak, as far up the Mae Kok River as we could, potentially getting to see the Burma border, but that was nixed by the inability to paddle upriver according to the woman who helped us find our guesthouse, chartered our boat for the next day, ran a local wares/convenience store and would have rented us kayaks (she was the definition of a thai renaissance woman – had her hand in a little bit of everything).

Wat TaThon was incredible. It was actually a series of different Buddha statues, Wats and Shrines in nine different locations. Apparently, TaThon is a big place for domestic tourists, and Wats/generous donors from Bangkok have poured money into Wat TaThon to make it a local Buddhist tourist attraction. Again, we decided to walk through this fabulous wonderment, and again, got stares from all the locals whizzing by us on motorbikes. It was a good walk through great scenery, we got amazing views of TaThon and the surrounding countryside AND we got to see over the mountains to Burma.

(for those that don’t know, Heather and I are slightly obsessed with Burma, and would try to fit that into our route if not for the political unrest). I’m hoping that while I’m in Bangladesh, things will settle down and I’ll get to visit at some point. Like I said, fingers crossed…

that's us - pointing towards Burma!

waterfalls, cookery and motorbikes

2008-01-17T06:06:00.000-05:00

while I would never dream of leaving y’all with just three words to sum up our 3 full days in Pai, if I had to, “waterfalls, cookery and motorbikes” would be a pretty good choice.

Sunday we started the day off with breakfast and coffee and gameplan-ing after we all finally got out of bed. We were anxious to spend a full day outside, after our bus ride the previous day, and knew there were waterfalls around pai – two of which are very popular destinations for visitors. We chose one because we figured, from reading our lonely planet, that round trip it would be about 18km. but we had all day, so we were confident that it would be a good experience.

We started down one road that according to Flynn would lead us to the waterfalls…however after about a mile or two a guy on a motorbike stopped us and asked if were heading to the falls. We responded that yes, we were going to the waterfalls. WELL, he informed us, we were heading in the entirely wrong direction. Apparently we should have taken another road out of town and there would be a sign for us to follow to the said falls…so we hung out heads and headed back into town. This hippie guy had suggested getting motorbikes, or hiring a taxi, but we were determined to get there by walking most of the way. Now, lonely planet also had said you could cut the trip by 5km by taking a bus headed to mae hong son and getting off at the turnoff for the waterfalls. Trying to explain this to the ticketing guy at the bus station was an adventure all in itself, but suffice it to say that we eventually got our point across that we only wanted to ride to the turnoff for the waterfalls.

Or we thought we did. He stopped the bus at a random side road and pointed out. This fully entertained the entire bus, locals who were intently watching our reactions. We crossed our fingers and started walking. About 2 hours later, we finally made it up to the falls, which we found out on our way back to town were 6km up the sideroad. It was all uphill after the first half-mile too. HOWEVER, we were very happy we did finally get to the waterfalls by our own volition and the way we’d wanted to explore a bit of the area. Funny story – the guy who’d told us to turn around passed us again and stopped, asking if we were the ‘5 lovely ladies’ he stopped before. And then he exclaimed, “you’re still walking!” as if we were crazy for thinking our legs could carry us all the way there.
And yesterday we did a little research and had we continued on the road we were on we would have reached the waterfalls. It probably would have just been a little longer…but at least we can read a map. We had gotten a bit nervous about that.

And at least we provided some entertainment for the locals along the way.

On the way back down the mountain, we found a restaurant that served Koa Soi, which had been recommended to Flynn by another friend who’d traveled in the region. It is AMAZING, and has quickly become one of our favorite dishes to look for on menus – more on that later though.

Suffice it to say Sunday night we passed out rather quickly, having walked more than 20km.

Monday was our cooking day. One of the things we’d wanted to do in Thailand was take a cooking class. They’re rather popular and can last 4 hours to all day. We had stopped by the Pai Cookery School on Saturday night to book for Monday, and when I’d asked Gaew how she was (the woman who runs the show, and teaches the class) she answered “hangover”. Mind you, this was at about 6pm. When we responded awkwardly her face broke into a huge smile and she said, “what? You ask me how I am. I am hangover”

touché, gaew, touché.

Needless to say, we were rather excited to see what we had in store with her for the afternoon. We showed up at 2, and she got us right to work, chopping vegetables and peeling garlic. However, the 5 of us (we were all by ourselves in class) are rather inquisitive and ask a lot of questions, and she was having none of it. She, apparently, was a bit ‘hangover’ again.

About 30 minutes into the class though, when we were starting to cook our pad thai (which is ALL over the country, ps, which I wasn’t expecting per the Q&A session prompted by my mom at our favorite local thai restaurant on what ‘authentic’ thai food really was) she all of a sudden launched into explaining everything and giving us orders while we were all at individual stations, resulting in laughs and misunderstandings.

After lunch of pad thai, we were taught how to make sticky rice with mango and we prepped stuff for dinner. When we made the reservations for class, we’d had the choice of three menus to learn, red, green and yellow (the color of the curry dish you’d learn, respectively). We’d decided that with five of us we’d try as many dishes as possible, so we were preparing all three curries.

For everyone that’s been around me the past few months, you’re aware of my aversion to very spicy foods and how I claim, and have been told, that I’m going to die in Bangladesh as a result. For the rest of y’all, well, now you know.
WELL, the girls I’m with all like a good amount of spice with their food and have decided to make it their mission to prepare my palet properly. And I think they get a kick out of making me try spicy foods and watching my reaction as I run for water. I lucked out with the green curry, which is the least spicy, but did eventually try all three.

The best part of the class, in my opinion was the trip to the market. Gaew has been running her school for 7 years, and teaches almost every day, so I’m sure the market stalls/vendors are used to her coming through, trailing white western tourists like little chickadees behind her. She had us try a lot of local dishes, so we feel way more comfortable eating street food now, knowing what more of it is. While we were at the market we ran into some of her alumni students from the previous week who were trying to recreate her class, so we got to see her set up their dinner in addition to ours, which was fabulous.

Upon our return to her open-air kitchen, we made a ridiculously large dinner of three dishes per person and attempted to eat as much as we could. Unfortunately we couldn’t eat two of flynn’s because the station she was at had salt instead of sugar in one of the containers…which did explain why gaew kept telling her to add sugar and water to make her dishes less salty and it had only succeeded in making it more so…but we had Gaew fix it and she happily added a few ingredients and about half a bottle of chili powder to get it to the right taste. A little on the spicy side for me…but I’m a bit biased.

We also talked about our adventure the day before finding the waterfalls, and walking there, and as a result learned the word for crazy in thai (as that was her response when we told her…haaa). Crazy is “bah” and a little crazy is “ting-tong”.

We were talking about our class later in the evening and while it was great to learn about the dishes, the most helpful part of the class was the actual cooking skills we picked up throughout the afternoon…such as cooking everything in a wok, just pushing things up the side when you don’t want them to be cooked, but will need them soon. It was also really cool to actually pound our chopped chilis, vegetables and spices into curry paste. Freakin’ fabulous, really.

We spent the night ‘walking the strip’ where all the restaurants and street stalls were. It was really interesting to see how much smaller the crowds were because it was a weeknight, versus when we arrived on the weekend. Someone had mentioned to us that Pai was a popular weekend destination for tourists, but it blows my mind because i very rarely know the date and time, let alone would plan trips based on week versus weekends.

And yesterday, oh yesterday. Flynn, Sarah and I left early to go rent motorbikes. We’ve decided that the equivalent vehicles in the US are probably Vespas because they’re smaller versions of motorcycles, but definitely legit vehicles that can carry up to three people (if one is small) and potentially transport street food stalls or wares to market.

To be honest, when we first arrived in Pai and saw the vast amount of motorbikes on the street, we scoffed and said we’d choose regular bikes over those any day, to get exercise while touring. By the time Tuesday came around, we could see why there was only one place to rent bicycles versus the countless places you could rent motorbikes.

And we decided to give in, especially when heather and I looked at each other one afternoon and said, “that would be really really cool to try out for a day”
We might also have been scarred by our 20km walk to the waterfalls as other tourists were buzzing by us, and usually passed us on their return ride while we were still walking up, on said motorbikes.

One thing we have taken issue with, and I insert this here just because I want to make sure to mention it because it’s a very good example of western culture differences from Thai culture (and many other countries, but at the moment I can only speak of Thailand), is that most locals won’t wear helmets. Fine, lots of bikers in the states won’t wear helmets either, although there are many more that do. However, the real surprise for us is watching parents, or families even, with at least one child on the motorbike with them, without helmets on the little ones. While we haven’t seen any accidents yet, other than our own (ha…read on…), it’s still scary how many young kids we’ve seen on bikes – none of them with helmets.

Off the soapbox. Onto our adventure.

So Flynn, sarah and I left heather and erin at the guesthouse saying we’d be back soon, and went and asked for 3 motorbikes for the day (which were 130baht per person with accident insurance…less than $5USD…love Thailand). They didn’t ask if we had licenses, but did ask if we’d ever driven motorbikes before. We responded with “no” to the chagrin of the girl we were talking with…5 minutes later, having taken our money and deposits for the helmets (optional, mind you)…our little friend motioned to three neon green bikes outside, and had the three of us hop on with three employees of AYA Travel Services. They took us to a backroad and gave us the 411 on the bikes…where the brakes, gas and kickstand were…and sent us down this road. I went off first, and my first attempt to turn the bike took me off-roading into a field; when I finally returned to the road I was about halfway down the road already. According to Flynn and sarah, the AYA employees were laughing hysterically at me, as they rightly should have been. I must have looked ridiculous.
However, Flynn and sarah followed and also had trouble turning at first, so I didn’t feel as bad.

Two runs down this road and they decided we were good enough to let us off on our own so they took us back to town, hopped off and wished us a good day.

Heather and erin were waiting for us when we finally got back, although they’d figured we’d gotten an impromptu lesson, and after a quick breakfast we headed towards the Ta Pai Hot Springs. Due to a rather expensive entrance fee, and our lack of desire to see said hot springs, we just continued driving around the backroads. We went and grabbed lunch to-go from mama falafel (there was a whole strip in Pai of Middle Eastern slash German slash greek slash thai restaurants. They even had schnitzel!) and headed towards another waterfall to picnic at it. We didn’t actually get to the waterfall by the time we needed to go back to drop heather off for an afternoon of deserved pampering (she got a body wrap of natural fruit, an oil massage and fabulous relaxation at a little family run spa-like oasis near the first waterfalls we went to…she came back feeling fabulous and looking refreshed. When I get to the state the rest of us were in by the end of the day, you’ll see how jealous we were). However, from that stop, we started out of town in search of yet another set of waterfalls. This set we found, and there was a sign from there that a few more were 5km further down the road.

One of things we’ve come across, especially in the more rural areas we’ve visited in Thailand, is that signs are more of an addition, an extra-special tip in the right direction, rather than a compulsory part of places tourists would be interested in. most seem to have been scrawled by a very nice thai person that had some exposure to English at one point. So we shouldn’t have been surprised when we’d traveled much further than 5km and still had found no entrance to another set of waterfalls. We did, however, “find Thailand”, in the sense we found the Thailand everyone is used to seeing in pictures and books and hearing about. As we were driving along dirt roads we would wind in and out of very small villages and right by rice paddies and agricultural plots that were in the process of being watered or harvested. When I mentioned this to Flynn and heather later they correctly pointed out that this isn’t the season for that and so these fields were probably being over worked which, in the long run, will hurt the land and the agricultural economy, but this is the way that people can make money to feed their families now so many people don’t feel like they have a choice.

These backroads were also where sarah, erin and I each took a spill. There was one particularly large hill, and since erin and I were riding together we’d been having a bit more trouble with large dirt hills than Flynn or sarah, that proved too daunting to make it up (and would eventually cause us to turn around to continue exploring other areas around pai). At one point erin fell while trying to get off the bike as I was trying to rev the engine to make it up a hill. A second attempt to get up left me on the ground under the bike (promise, mom, I walked away with the smallest cut on my finger and a bruise on my upper thigh). I really wish I’d been able to watch as the back of the bike took a course of its own and slid out from under me, causing the bike to slide across this dirt hill. It was just as it goes in movies. Erin ran over asking if I was ok and once she heard me laughing started laughing AT me. Punk. But it was absolutely hysterical.

Sarah fell in a similar fashion as she was heading down this dirt hill, after she and Flynn decided that it wasn’t worth trying to go further up. She, too, got back on the bike with only a few small scratches and a bruise. We will say, however, that those flippin’ bikes are way heavier than you expect when you have to pick them back up.

We headed back out to a place called “the canyon”. When we got there we realized that the key to my motorbike had fallen out at some point. We’d had trouble with it all day not fitting into the keyhole well, but I never imagined that it would be able to fall out without me noticing…hah. I stopped freaking out the minute we realized all the other keys could turn on the bike, and it could obviously run without a key in the ignition. Oh Thailand.

The canyon was a gorgeous spot, a kilometer walk from the road, that you could literally look out over all of Pai and the surrounding land. There were these ridges, much like fingers extending from a hand, that you could walk out on and get gorgeous views of the various valleys. The rest of the afternoon we just bummed around the various roads around Pai. It was totally worth it to see so much of the surrounding area, and I think all 5 of us thought at some point during the day that we wanted similar modes of transportation once we get back home.

For everyone that’s interested, as well, Sarah Robb can pull of the European, “I’ll wear my cute sunglasses and fashionable scarf and make riding this vespa look like the easiest thing ever” look very very well. She even went through the entire day while wearing a skirt!

After fighting with AYA that I shouldn’t have to pay 50baht for the lost key, considering it was their faulty key that fell out on the road somewhere and we’d paid insurance (which, they assured me, would have convered me completely if I’d come back with a key and no bike…sure), we picked up laundry we’d dropped off to be washed…contain yourselves…about $2USD per person and it had been washed, dried and folded…and headed out for dinner.

It had been such a spectacular day of seeing the area that we were all ridiculously excited to just talk about different things we’d all picked up on. And we did it all over the best khao soi in Pai. Thanks to Gaew, we knew where to get the best papaya salad, khao soi, falafels and drinks (her bar, obviously) in town, and she was right on with the khao soi. Flynn,, at this point, is now on the khao soi tour. Everyplace we go to we’ll get khao soi and compare it to everywhere else. We sampled a little bit of everything, as it was our last night in the food-lover’s, hippie-inhabited town of Pai, and by the end of the night I don’t think any of us could have squeezed anything else into our stomachs…and we’re still justifying our meals with our 20km walk the other day. Amazing.

Currently, as I write this, we’re on the bus from pai back to chiang mai, where we have to take a tuktuk to another bus station and catch an hour and a half bus to chiang dao, where we’ll be for the next three days. It’s said to be even more relaxed and off-the-beaten-path than Pai, so we’re excited to see what hikes we can find.

Welcome to PAIradise (horrible pun on a sign for local restaurant or guesthouse...)

2008-01-13T07:52:00.001-05:00

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Well, what I wrote about the bus not selling seats in the aisles or standing only was apparently wrong – well, it might have been correct about the bus station in Chiang Mai, but as we continued along on our 4-hour ride to Pai, we picked up more and more people that came onto the bus and either stood until they needed to get off, or sat in the front of the bus where it was sitting-on-the-floor room only. It made me nostalgic for the bus system in Uganda.

This bus ride, however, was one of the most gorgeous rides I’ve ever been on. About an hour into the trip we began climbing higher and higher, going up a ridiculous number of switchbacks to get us to the top of a mountainous area. It took us about another two hours to finally get to the highest point we were during the ride, and then we spent an hour climbing back down, via switchbacks, until we made it to Pai. The views from the bus were stunning. There’s no way to explain them in such a way that would do justice to the beauty we’ve found ourselves surrounded by, nor do pictures aptly capture the feeling that overtakes you, and leaves you breathless, when you come around a corner to see lush rolling valleys into the horizons with mountains on either side of you.

By the time we reached Pai, our excitement had built ten-fold to see what this town had in store for us. We found our hostel, one of the cheaper accommodations in Pai, but right on the River and right off the main strip. I was super excited to see a lawn area with multiple hammocks, and sarah and I get to share a queen sized bed with 3 blankets (note: the number of blankets provided by a hostel is a great way to gauge the local climate…Pai is definitely the coolest area we’ve been in – hot between the hours of 11-4 and FREEZING at night. We’re pretty sure it dropped into the 40’s last night. At least it felt like that. I’m sitting in our bed cuddled up in blankets with three layers on at the moment, and it’s 9:20am, if that tells you anything. I think I’m going to buy a hat today to sleep in the remaining nights we’re here)

We got settled, found some food, scheduled a cooking class for Monday and then took in the local scene. If Chiang Mai was the Disney world for backpackers, this is a combination of Pleasure Island (huuuuge bar scene) and Epcot (street vendors with food and crafts line the main strip). It’s also a huge place for Asian travelers, according to Lonely Planet, and I can only uphold that generalization. We were surprised to see as many Westerners here as we have, but apparently it is an up-and-coming tourist mecca, and we are traveling the very popular route throughout Thailand.

Sarah and I woke up this morning and went for a run, watching as the sun rose quickly over the mountains. It was BEAUTIFUL, and sarah didn’t completely kill me while running. We’re both now snuggled up under our covers hoping it’s going to warm up soon…but we know that we have to wake up the others soon and get on with our day. We’re heading on a long walk to an area of easy hiking and waterfalls, which we’re psyched about.

Welcome to Disneyland - Thai Backpacking Style

2008-01-13T07:50:00.000-05:00

January 12, 2008

The minute we arrived in Chiang Mai we knew we’d found the well-travelled backpacker’s haven – the train station is the “end of the road” and yet absolutely huge. It was a bit overwhelming walking off the train and having tuk-tuk drivers accost you immediately. Unfortunately our packs are like a huge, red X over our heads that screams “tourists. We need help”

After getting to our hostel, called the Smile House 1 (not done purposely, even though I did make our reservations this time around), we found a pub around the corner to sit and eat at and just watched the crowds walk by. Chiang Mai is an ex-pat’s paradise, and much bigger than we’d expected – bright lights all night long it seemed.

We woke up on Friday and took our time walking through the streets on our own “Walking Wat Tour” courtesy of Lonely Planet. We saw a Wat that was made of completely of intricately carved Teak wood panels. It was absolutely gorgeous and we all just stood staring in disbelief.

We THEN made out way to another Wat which had ruins from an ancient stupa that was stunning, and these two memorials to deceased, highly revered monks. HOWEVER, they had wax statues of these monks in their respective buildings that were the creepiest things I’ve ever seen, considering they were ridiculously lifelike and in glass cases. It seriously took me a few minutes to convince myself that they were in fact wax and not real monks that had to take turns sitting in a glass box for shifts throughout the day.
Oh, and then, aaaand then we went to our monkchat. A few temples throughout Chiang Mai had advertised times during the day where you could go and speak with monks – it helps them with their English conversation skills and enables them to answer questions about Buddhism you have. We sat down with Manit, a middle-aged man who’d apparently been ordained about 18 years ago. The conversation started out slow, but he was soon very impressed with our lovely heather and Flynn as they were asking pretty intricate, detailed and intellectual questions. At one point we had to rephrase one of the questions a few times before he understood and Manit looked at us and pointed at me saying, “she is good at explaining.” So maybe my teaching ESL for 12 weeks has helped a little…and I won’t find myself completely up a river without a paddle in March.

After our conversation came to an end, Manit insisted on taking pictures with us. Thai Monks though are prohibited from coming in direct contact with females so the pictures are priceless (and well as it having taken a bit for them to explain to me that I couldn’t directly hand my camera to the younger who was acting as our photographer).

Overall, Manit had a great sense of humor, provided Heather with the name of deity that she’s been looking for for weeks and was generally awesome to talk to. Very cool experience. AND as we were leaving he asked, “which one of you is going to Bangladesh?”…and then proceeded to tell me, “hope you learn to swim! I hear there’s lots of water!!!”

Oh manit.

However, the afternoon just got better. In our guidebook, there was a ‘quirky places’ section for Chiang Mai and one of the listed spots was the Women’s Prison Rehabilitation Services --- there was a spa (for massages and herbal therapies), a small crafts and goods shop and a bakery. Pretty much, it seems like the women inmates are rehabilitated through skills training that they can use after they leave the prison, and are usually given jobs at these locations to start over. So we decided to head over and check it out, and really wanted to get a massage and treats from the bakery if at all possible. WELL, the massage parlor was full for the rest of the afternoon, however, the woman at the front informed us that there was an affiliated parlor down the road that we could check out. She ran outside and let us know that she got a car to literally drive us two blocks. We told her we’d be fine, however, the police outside ushered us into this van while repeating, “free!free!”

Our thai massages from ex-convicts were fabulous and we all left saying that we felt great. It was probably the best thing we could have done for our bodies after a week of constant travel. We found some food (unfortunately the Women’s Prison Bakery was closed at that point) and then headed to the infamous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. There are literally thousands of stalls of people selling everything from “Chiang Mai Starbucks” shirts to small antique Buddha statues. The Bazaar spans the streets as well as inhabits several buildings within the Bazaar district. While I didn’t end up haggling with vendors for anything, it was amazing to experience. And I did get to watch the other girls fight with people as they pushed prices down --- they were very thrifty. And when it got down to the bare bones of everything, 10 baht here or there is equal to about 33 cents…and hopefully some cute little kids get a meal the next day because of it.

On the way back we got to see a bit of the night culture. A stand that we’d stopped by earlier to get Rotee from (flattened dough cooked with a large variety of options…for example – with egg, or bananas and chocolate, or bananas and honey, etc.) was rather busy when we walked back to the hostel around midnight. It was also at a pretty busy intersection with a large number of bars lining the streets nearby. There were huge numbers of ex-pats and college-aged backpackers crammed into the bars. We also saw a good number of transvestites in the general area.
Needless to say, we were happy that our hostel was set a ways away from this scene, and was a bit away from the closest main street.

We’re now waiting for our bus to Pai (pronounced “Bye” apparently). We’ve been shocked at the bus system in Thailand. It’s very orderly, runs on time for the most part, and unlike other countries we’ve all visited, only sells the number of seats that they have. In Uganda, in my experience, they would allow you to sit in the aisle or stand when all the seats are full, never wanting to give up a potential fare. Flynn said similar things of Sri Lanka and India. Apparently, though, Thailand is a bit different. We arrived at 9:30 this morning to catch the 10:30 bus, but it was full so we were put on the 12:30 bus. We’re excited to get a bit further into the country, away from the bright lights and crazed bar scene of Chiang Mai, especially with the prospect of hiking awaiting us.