welcome to cambodia!

So if you were wondering, i am indeed still alive and currently in phnom penh.

Left Bangkok with Kirk last friday on the 5:55am train to aranyaprathet. quite a lovely journey really, very scenic - and only 48baht! arrived there about 11:20 and took a saengtaew to the border for 10baht. there you get to wait in line to get stamped out of thailand and then walk across a 50 or 100m wide strip of land where all the casinos are, then pay a bundle for your cambodian visa and get stamped into their country. we were hassled much less then anticipated. just kept walking in the same direction that elliott did when he got his pickup. hooked up with this couple - Vern from S africa and Telli from canada and eventually a lone japanese kid looking for company who we just called 'Tokyo' never really found a proper pickup but one did eventually stop and say they'd drive us to sisophet for 50 baht each. however, i may not have mentioned this but cambodia is pretty corrupt place and the 'officials' at poipet had decided to make it illegal for foreigners to travel via pickup - only taxi or their crappy buses. so just on the edge of town at the police checkpoint, the correct amount of money didn't change hands. our truck turned around and drove us into town, but when it stopped it was at a motorbike stand. there they had us each get on a moto and get driven out of town past the checkpoint to meet the truck down the road. jumped in and we were off! sat in the back, very bumpy, the road probably hasn't been paved since wwI. lots of pothole dodging. but good company at least. our real problem came in sisophet where elliott said he didn't have to wait too long for a truck but for us there were very few. after waiting nearly 2.5 hrs for the truck we chose to keep finding stuff to load in the back we caved in and decided to pay $5 each for a taxi the rest of the way. all squished in, we decided that it had been a good decision as soon as it started storming. plus the road the rest of the way to siem reap was even worse - just dirt track really. for another 2.5 hrs or so. but we made it!

sat morning then kirk and i met up with the guide recommended by Alan and Joyce Welch. Ban Chantla did an excellent job - knew about everything and him driving us around kept us motivated to see all the main temples. Long days in the sun but Angkor Wat really is amazing! too bad tourism is really picking up. in a few years there will no doubt be regualations/limitations all over the place. Went all over the place, covered a lot of ground and learned a lot of history. on the 3rd day we spent half of it visiting the vietnamese floating village on the lake. interesting, but also a rip off. really most of cambodia is just trying to separate you from as much money as possible. the worst is that you have to work in 3 currencies - the us dollar, thai baht, and cambodian real (which is play money really) ah well.

so our last night in siem reap was monday. unfortunately i started feeling a bit under the weather but am recovering quickly. on tuesday, i set off on a bus to phnom penh with vern and telli while kirk flew back to bangkok to catch his flight home. its just been ridiculously hot and dusty here, so i admit i haven't moved much from the fans in the guesthouse. tomorrow i'm forcing myself out though to see the killing fields and the prison s-21. not exactly real positive but thats kindof how cambodia is. a bit depressing. a bit corrupt. thailand definitely wins in my opinion and hopefully not just cause i'm a bit sick (i was due - we figured out that every other american in our group had had something to take them out for a couple of days!) at any rate, i fly to bangkok on friday and home on saturday! see you all soon!!

Chiang Mai for mothers day and floods

So this last weekend was mothers day here in Thailand (ie the Queen's birthday.) Quite a big deal here as it is an official national holiday with it's own flower, symbol, etc. However, for us just an extra day off of work to travel! Just Hannah, Travis, and me on this trip - we left town about 6pm on Thursday on a super nice bus with seats that went almost all the way back. Unfortunately leaving so early meant that we arrived in Chiang Mai at the fantastic time of 4am...

Fortunately, since I'm the planner, I looked into a cooking class that provided accomodation outside of town and when I called on Thurs afternoon they even said they'd pick us up at the bus station at 5am. A nice lady from the office drove us out to where the cooking school is - about 20km south of town in a really quiet rural area (see http://chiang-mai-kitchen-cooking-school.infothai.com/ ) So we got there, found ourselves the only ones at the bungalow style accomodation and promptly went to sleep for 3 or 4 hrs. The owner of the cooking school Mr. Teng then woke us up a bit after 9am to take us to a market shopping for food. Nothing too new there as we've been to plenty of markets. There was a little girl there who was fascinated/absolutely terrified of me. Her mom kept holding her and trying to get her to say 'sawadee ka' but the poor thing must've thought i was a devil or something with my red hair - definitely a sight around here.

At any rate we returned to the school and started cooking. Just the three of us conveniently enough so we chose our own dishes - green curry, phad thai, fried bananas, sweet and sour chicken, and spring rolls. Cooked the first three just for lunch - definitely a full and intense day of eating! Luckily the last two we made in the afternoon and were able to wait to cook/heat up right before dinner time. The office was even able to arrange Muay Thai tickets for us so Friday night we were finally able to see Thai boxing.

A pickup drove us over to the stadium - plenty of farangs down front but more Thais showed up later in the evening. About 8 or 9 fights total starting with really young kids - maybe 6 or 8? Hard for me to tell the age of Thais correctly as they tend to be so small anyway. Anyway, they enter the ring, wai to everyone, and then as the live music (a drum, finger cymbals, and a recorder type instrument) played they would dance something they'd made up to represent their school. Most incorporated very similar elements but it was interesting to see dancing right before fighting. Then a very violent struggle - kicking, kneeing, and a standard left/right punch being integral. Weird to see little kids going at it like that, but just the next fight they seemed to be teenagers and able to choose such an activity... Most of the fights in the middle did end with one or both contestants bleeding. And that night was different in that a few farangs (foreigners) were actually fighting. One was finnish (looked ackward but had good reach) who won and the other lebanese (huge guy who forgot how to punch) who lost. Also the very last match was what seemed like a pretty old/skinny/ripped Japanese guy against a teenage thai about his size.... crazy.

Back to our bungalow in the country for the night and in the morning we were picked up by a group to do a trek. Trekking is really big and pretty standardized in the Chaing Mai area but we all had a great time on Saturday. 6 total in our group - one english guy and an italian couple were with us. First we hiked a couple of kms up to a Hmong hill tribe village, really a cultural center sort of thing. Wouldve been an easy hike but it had drizzled all day on Friday and kept going with stronger rain at times on Saturday. The trail was incredibly muddy and coming back down the hill was quite a feat! At any rate our guide was pretty good - gave us an overview of the tribe - originally from China, now Thai citizens mostly. Poor, but really seems like an okay life farming and getting money from tourists. Always seems better to be poor in the country then in the city. At any rate we got to wander around for a bit before the muddy/slippery hike down - only ended up on my butt once! After lunch then we went to visit a Karen village. Not such an exciting hike but interesting to see a different tribe - different style houses/different looking/same getting money from tourism deal. Next a hike up to a pretty cool waterfall - a good reason to visit in the rainy season I would guess. Then the standardized riding elephants/bamboo rafting bit which was actually really different from what we did in Kanchanaburi and better in lots of ways. The elephant ride - how can you complain about riding an elephant?? was awesome, throught the jungle and across a river. Then the bamboo raft, a long skinny thing, which we rode down a much faster river - with actually some minor whitewater sort of stuff. Definitely good times. It started absolutely pouring about halfway through, such an awesome feeling to be on a raft in a river in a jungle being drenched by a tropical downpour... glorious! Well needless to say we were pretty worn out and after finding a guesthouse in Chiang Mai the most we could do was find the Night Bazaar (rather infamous - 10 blocks long!) and finish our Thailand shopping.

On Sunday, Travis took off on another tour thing while Hannah and I had another girls day. Started out with a Muay Thai lesson. We'd gotten a flier at the fight on Friday night and decided to give it a go. We were the only 2 students from 8-10am. Met outside the place (really a conglomeration of bars with a boxing ring in the middle) by our teacher, a short, middle ages Thai guy who was obviously a former boxer himself. Basically the 2 hours were spent in training and conditioning. Not really any actually fighting. Started out jumping rope (don't laugh! I know i'm no good at it ;) ) then jumping on a tire, kicking over a stick, kneeing and kicking things, moved on to punching and kneeing the pads he would hold. Apparently I have a pretty good right knee - watch out! hehehe... Anyway by the end of the two hours I looked like I'd been swimming - just drenched in sweat. A quick cook down/stretch out and we had to run back to check out of our room at the guesthouse.

So feeling we'd earned it after a hearty lunch we walked around and chose at random a massage place (tons of them in Chiang Mai). Decided to go all out and got a facial scrub followed by a full body oil massage that in all took almost 3 hrs. Glorious! I'm getting way to addicted to these awesome less then $10 massages... Well after that, all relaxed and refreshed by some delicous homemade ice tea we wandered the old town and headed out into the new town to visit a market we'd heard about. Only then did we see the effects of the rain the previous days. Horrendous flooding of the river and canal. Apparently it hasn't been so bad in years and years. First thing everybody asked me when they saw me this morning was if it had effected things. We got to the bridge over the canal and found that the blocks between it and the river were completely flooded - waist deep at some points. So that but a limit on things. It poured a bit more so not too much happened after that. Dinner when Travis got back, and I'll admit I'm busy reading Harry Potter which Hannah bough and finished last week.

Got back into bangkok about 6:30am this morning and I gave up and came straight to work. So a long day most likely, little chemistry and probably plenty of stalling on this paper thing... bah!

Around town

Well this past weekend ended up being needed relaxation. On Friday night, I met up with Hannah and Kirk over by Lumpini night bazaar to check out Thai boxing - Muay Thai. Unfortunately, once we found the stadium we also found out they have a double pricing standard for foreigners. Voted too expensive by our group we headed over to the beer/food garden (described in an earlier post) phad thai and fruit shakes later we decided to see what adventures we could find wandering around town. Stopped on the way out of the night bazaar to pick up round 2 of Chang beers and walked along the park edge. Sat around drinking in the park till it closed and then headed to the busy/infamous Patpong area. The place was packed - up and down the street with vendors of all sorts and attacks from all sides from sleazy men asking us if we wanted to go see the ping pong show. By the way, I may not have mentioned that earlier but it is a common question from tuktuk drivers, etc - has become a running joke amongst us americans... After walking for a while and stopping at the ubiquitous 7-11 to try random thai energy drinks (apparently some are illegal in the US! so we thought it worthy entertainmetn) we headed back towards MBK and ended up seeing 'Land of the Dead' An absolutely horrible movie! Even our tolerant bunch couldn't stand it... Wandered back to the dorms, ran into Doug and Elliott and ended up staying up late chatting.

Saturday was glorious as it began with.... sleeping in!!! the first time in weeks! Hannah and I decided to have a girls day around town since everyone else was off on their own personal missions. Finally headed out around noon and walked over to China town - found the untoursity part of town and got catcalls half way there! At any rate it's a very interesting section... definitely a taste of China with the crowded streets and vendors selling everything from bandsaws to grapes to cigarettes they found in the trash - pretty authentic from what I'd say! We occupied ourselves for quite a while exploring before heading back to the dorm. On the return trip we found a street lined with coffin stores... plus one in the middle selling only ducks... We reconvened back at our rooms and headed to Pontip which is the electronics sales area of town. A crazy several story floor where you can buy mp3s pirated DVDs or a computer. Deals weren't as good as in China though so after browsing we headed south to Banyan tower - one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok. They have the tallest rooftop restaurant where we sat and sipped expensive drinks overlooking the city. A pleasant way to kill a couple of hours! Back home for a nap and when Kirk and Elliott got back all four of us headed to Khao San Road for an evening out. The place is crazy and entertaining but I'm very glad we can leave when we get tired of it!

Sunday I slept in again when Hannah went with Kirk to church. Our original plan called for us and Elliot to go to the ancient capitol of Ayuthatya in the afternoon. However when those two came back around noon we found out that both Hannah and I had to change rooms and move in together by 4pm! So that killed time and by the time we were finished it was a bit late for the 1 hr train ride each way. As substitute we headed over to the middle eastern section of the city by Nana skytrain stop. Different from any other part I've seen - signs in arabic, english, and thai. Had some great indian/pakistani food and when it started pouring we moved across the street to smoke a hookah for awhile. Got back kindof late and didn't end up doing much the rest of the evening.

Monday went with Doug and Elliott back to Khao San and their favorite vegetarian restaurant - I think they're converting me... that or the sketchy Thai meat. Tuesday was just gym, MBK, home, hall party and room shuffle as Doug and Elliott moved in together so that Hannah and I could have our own rooms (she gets up way too early! and the boys are just nice!) Then last night back to the vegetarian restuarant Mai Kaidee's to celebrate Doug's 22nd bday in style.

Well I'm feeling it's definitely time to get out of the city and tonight I'm headed north with Travis and Hannah to Chiang Mai! Be back on Monday...

Whitewater rafting and a foiled attempt to donate blood

So it's already August! The summer is almost gone... We spent this past weekend on a trip planned by the Chulalongkorn Thai students. Left incredibly early on Saturday and began what became almost a 6 hr minivan ride replete with flat tire to our destination near Pitsanalok.

Once there we checked into our 'resort' which actually was pretty swanky - bungalows with ac/tv/fridge/showers - everything! Hannah picked that time to catch whatever fever has been going around and that Kirk and Doug already survived so she was out for most of the trip. The rest of us were walked over to eat lunch and then get ready for the whitewater rafting. We all expected it to be tame floating down the river - considering most of the Thai kids can't swim and tend to get afraid of things.. but we were pleasantly surprised!

The group split up into 2 rafts. With full helmet/life jacket ensemble we figured we'd have to try to get hurt. The 5 of us that hang out were all in one raft plus about 4 or 5 Thai students. Most of the Americans took up rowing positions as all of us had been rafting before. Despite commands being yelled to us in Thai (sometimes was confusing whether we were supposed to row faster or stop and hold on for example) we showed up the other raft. About 3 people sat in the middle at a time and whenever the Thai kids rowed they insisted whoever was in the middle hold on to their life jacket during the rapids! The current was strong and the water pretty fast from recent rains. Half the fun at the beginning was dodging trees and tree branches which tended to be in the middle of the river indicating you can probably only raft during the rainy season.

After a few 'warmup' rapids we got to a series of 'real' rapids were actually pretty impressive including a couple of meter drops and 200m long sections of rocky whitewater. Definitely a couple of times where we got knocked around but we never lost a crewmember. Only once, after hitting suddenly a rock that came out of no where, we lost one of the 2 river guides who totally flew out the front. The rest of us mostly managed to get jarred into the person in front of us or into the boat.

At any rate, towards the end we had the obigatory jump out of the boat for awhile section. The current was still impressively fast so we had a good time even though the river wasn't quite as nice as the one in Kanchanaburi. Had a few times where floating thai students (they all did jump in!) would request a 'rescue' and one of us would grab the back of their lifejacket and kick them in closer to the shore. Hilarious! Just as we got out of the river and were rinsing off, it started pouring and wouldn't stop until late saturday night.

Needless to say the rest of the evening was Thai style vacation (ie eat, take pictures, relax, play cards, relax more). Good thing that all of us like to read! The almost ludicrous thing was that the only thing we did was eat and sleep and then eat and then endure another 5 hr van ride... ah well. such is life.

Sunday one van left early and got back into Bangkok about 2pm. Kirk, Travis, Elliott and I requested a drop off at the weekend market to finally complete some of the dreaded shopping! Even with a light drizzle the place was as busy and claustrophobic as ever. Three hours later I emerged exhausted, probably dehydrated but victorious in finding presents for all the crazy couples getting married and most of my friends. That meant I was free to return to my room, shower, and crash.

So since then, not too much has been happening. Trying to increase the pace here at work to have something to present and write about. Thailand is just not the right place for successful LDA chemistry! Looks like this friday we might go check out Thai boxing at Limpini and hang around a bit for the weekend. Time to recover and save money for the Cambodia airfares...

And i forgot the blood donation bit! On Monday everyone came in all excited since apparently there was a blood drive that was going to occur over in the convention center. We all headed over around 10:30am to attempt to be nice and give blood. Doug and Elliott got in fine and had a race with all of the army guys giving blood - totally beating them of course. Unfortunately I couldn't give since I'm on antimalaria medicine! Dangit! Most of the girls were out either for not weighing enough (that would be under 45 kilos!! hence my feeling like a giantess half the time) or being on their periods, so we waited around for the guys. Met a lady from the 9th floor (cancer research) who was super friendly to us farangs and even tried to adopt us and have us call her 'mama.' Absolutely hilarious - especially when she gave me all the free snacks even though I didn't give blood and some vicks vapor rub-esque multipurpose salve. (reminds me of kidnapper in Plovdiv, Bulgaria!)

Ko Tao scuba diving

So time to update after the long 4 day weekend (Buddhist holiday!) Left work early last wednesday to meet up with Hannah, Kirk and Travis on Khao San to hop a bus south to the island of Ko Tao, located near the more famous Ko Samui in the Gulf of Thailand. The journey there was impressively long. It took us only 12 hrs to get to Krabi which is technically further away but closer to 17 to get to Ko Tao. An incredible amount of just waiting around on the bus in Bangkok and then after getting kicked off at 3:30am in Chumphon at the bus station and then on the ferry waiting for it to leave. Arrived around 11am to find a super low tide such that the ferry couldn't get to the dock and a number of small boats had to be sent out to retrieve passengers. Residents on the ferry said they'd never seen it so low.

Once there we were met by a saengtaew from our resort booked in Bangkok - the Coral Grand. Hopped on and met a mix of fellow international travelers on internships with IAESTE. Turned out that one of them happened to be a mechanical engineer from Purdue! Bryan something who is gonna be a senior and an RA at Carey. In all my travels this is one of the least likely places to run into a purdue engineer..
Got checked into our rooms - pretty nice for the deal we were getting - then had a quick orientation session for the 3.5 day PADI open water course. Our instructor Paul, from New Zealand originally, was a great guy and had some absolutely hilarious stories. Finished with watching a video on scuba diving and then spent the evening chilling out on the beach.

Friday we had a morning filled with instructional videos and a couple of quizzes. I learned a few things, but I think overall they make it so that you'd have to have no common sense to fail anything. Our group ended up being the four of us plus a really nice Norwegian couple a few yrs older, Lars and Elizabeth. Afternoon was our 'confined dive' which most people do in a pool but we got to do out in the ocean! Admittedly we were only a few meters deep, but it was awesome to be learning the basics while fish were swimming around you. Learned all the gestures, mask clearing, buddy breathing and emergency surfacing techniques. Although I've scuba-ed once before it's so much better to know what's going on and control things like bouancy.

Saturday we finished up the classroom work before heading out on the first of our real dives. First about 12m deep at twin peaks and then 10m deep at Japanese Gardens. Incredibly awesome! My ears took too long to adjust, but it gives me good incentive to stay down once I get there. Hannah and I use up a lot less air then the boys so we could theoretically dive for much longer then the 40min each time our group was doing. It's hard to describe properly really, but being able to move in 3D provides a lot of entertainent. Saw lots of bright tropical fish, of which I know few names.

On Sunday we were up to get in our last 2 dives at 6:30am. First one was 18m deep at Liam Tien. That's nearly 60 feet underwater! Way too cool. Saw a great trigger fish that looked as if it would attack at any minute. Unfortunately no sharks... Surfaced to find a rain storm just coming that we rode out in the water since it was so much warmer then the air at that point. The next dive was only 14m deep at a site called King Kong. Overall scuba diving could be a very addictive hobby - just wish my ears didn't get quite so messed up from it. Back at the resort we had a mad rush to get packed, check out, take our final exam and fill out paperwork. But at the end all of us were open water certified!

The journey back doesn't need describing other then the fact that it was LONG! At least the bus was much nicer... except for the fact that at 3am it blew a tire. I guess the sparks and tire changing at least provided entertainment. Got back to the city at 5:30am, went home, went to work! A long day needless to say, but at least that evening I got to meet up with Alan and Joyce Welch with a last dinner before the head back to the states this Wed. Caught up on all their adventures and they were even nice enough to give me the name of a good guide at Angkor Wat... Only a few weeks away now!

THE BEST WAY TO SPEND $20 - Hannah and I had girl bonding time last night and went to a massage place near where we live. Splurged and got the 1 hr aromatherapy oil massage... freakin awesome. And that was only $18 - it's bumped up to $20 because we got dairy queen blizzards on the way back to the dorms. Bad addictions to go home with ... can't afford either there!

Pictures!

Weekend 1 - Grand Palace, etc: http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANGTFo5cuXDqQ

Bangkok miscellaneous: http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANGTFo5cuXDuA

Sorry for all the links but I don't know how else to do it!! Hope you can be bothered...
Enjoy

Big Dinners and a weekend at Military Camp

Summary of last week= lots of eating and sleeping. Mon and Tues were both go home, eat and sleep evenings. Then on Wed. I got an email from Alan Welch, a friend from the SOS at Purdue who is visiting Thailand with his wife Joyce. Ended up having dinner with them and their cousins - fellow Hoosiers and Boilermakers - at a great Thai restaurant not far from the skytrain. Really great to catch up on the travels of others out abroad and know that it's really such a small world. Thurs night, the whole CRI crew - about 10 of us - ventured across the street to Dr. Naporn's house for dinner. Picked up corn and fruit on the way. Then Doug, Elliott and I got inspired to contribute to the feast by cooking banana bread. Needless to say that it was interesting but considering we had no recipe, vanilla, or baking soda the end result was quite good! Just toss in plenty of bananas, chocolate chunks, and I think maybe pineapple just cause it was around. Definitely a hit with the Thai kids at least. Other then that we had all sorts of Thai dishes from phat thai to papaya salad to tom yum (hot soup which I generally avoid.) At least they've all realized I can't handle Thai hot!

On Friday we had our 2nd round of presentations at Mahidol University. Went relatively quickly. Still depressing to talk about my 'project' which isn't really going anywhere. I just run the same reactions over and over again attempting to get them to work - and this is just to make starting material! Ah well, I just try to keep calm and remember it's good practice for grad school. After that, our fantastic four - me, Hannah, Kirk and Travis went to see the movie of the same title. Hilariously bad but entertained. Topped off with American food and home to bed.

Saturday was the Mahidol planned trip, leaving at 6:30am. Due to communication problems none of us really understood where we were going or what we were doing there. Ended up a couple of hours north of Bangkok near the edge of a line of hills or small mountains staying at a military base/amusement park. Odd, I know... At any rate, checked into our housing and rented bicycles for the day to get around the base. Felt like part of a Beatles movie, all of us on bikes on paved, treelined lanes in single file. Once again, nice weather for the weekend considering it poured everyday last week. First activity was paintball. Most of us were new to it but not afraid to get killed. Most of the Thai students were entertained enough just watching us play for a couple of hours. And I admit we were probably pretty entertaining. One side gave a definite advantage so we switched each time but my team of Doug, Elliott, and Ann and San (2 Thai students) won the most! In full camo with winter vest type things and helmets we were sweating down our body weight while playing. At the end the guys took on each other and while posing for pictures afterwards Elliott didn't check the chamber and accidentally shot Kirk in a very sensitive area - of course providing further entertainment as soon as it was ascertained that he wasn't permanently injured!

From there we biked to lunch and after that to the shooting range - theme of the day = shooting. Rifles, pistols and semiatomatics. Travis is quite the sharp shooter and got a 99/100 winning him a Fanta. Next, shooting laser guns in a blessedly air conditioned building. Entertaining to watch as the sceanarios ranged from pumpkins on a fence to a motorcycle gang to snipers hidden in bushes. After that we all wanted to go swimming in the big pool with high dives that we'd seen earlier. Apparently not allowed so we had to settle for the community swimming pool with tons of kids in the shallow end waiting to be entertained. One thing I don't know if I've mentioned is the fact that it seems like very few Thais actually know how to swim... They may jump in but they generally wear life jackets and stick to the shallows. Very weird and it makes them seem even more like little kids despite the fact that all our students are older then us. That and their fear/belief in ghosts...
Anyway, a deep end and 2 very springy dive boards were good entertainment. Hurt ourselves doing all sorts of flips and what have you. Kirk is a pro at it and tried to be our coach. After a couple of hours we were all sore! Dinner, a bike ride and relaxing rounded out the day followed by a spectacular thunder storm around 1am.

Sunday we were up early, breakfast, turning in bikes, and then heading to nearby Sarika waterfall. A good hike up to the top where there was a nice cold pool of water. The Thai students again got their entertainment as most of us climbed up to the ledge to jump in. A 20 foot drop, but it was good times. Spent nearly an hour doing that, then down for lunch and back to the city

After getting back Hannah and I decided to have some girl time and go get Thai massages at Wat Po where there is a famous school. A bit of negotiating trouble with tuk tuk drivers followed by an odd amount of people trying to tell us the wat was closed we made it - thank goodness we'd heard of all the scams before. The 1 hr massage was great - partially because I was so sore from the previous 2 days. Somewhat more intense then a regular massage though - lots of pulling and stretching. Tea at the end and we headed home via MBK.

Met up with Doug and Elliott later that night and walked 45 min over to the night bazaar by Limpini park. A hot night -couldn't move without sweating even long after the sun was down. I've almost forgotten how to be cold outside. The bazaar was a bit classy/touristy for us so no buys. Instead we sat for awhile in the beer garden which was absolutely surreal. 50 meters of plastic tables/chairs surrounded on the edges by food court style stands. At the front their was a stage with 'musicians' probably lip synching with a giant TV behind showing the British open. Strung above the stands and tables was light irrigation tubing misting down water which wasn't enough to keep anybody cool last night. At any rate a good evenings worth of entertainment.

Back at work to day and my chemistry continues to fail miserably. Accidentally staying late to watch a PTLC. Hopefully that will make up for leaving early on Wed. to head to Ko Tao on our long weekend!

Krabi and surrounds

So I made it back from yet another incredible weekend. Hard to believe, but they really do keep getting better each time.

We took off work early on Thurs to make our way to the Southern bus terminal via bus, skytrain, water taxi, and regular taxi - only 2 hrs total from CRI which is pretty good! This city is insane for lack of organization and consistant public transport. ah well. This weekend's adventure included me, Elliott, Doug, Kirk, and Travis. Hannah's mom was visiting so they were together for the weekend and as usual the Texan couple were on their own somewhere. So we get to the bus station and somehow manage to haggle tickets for the 7:30 bus which gave us enough time to eat and hit up the omnipresent 7-11 for supplies. Doug bought what he thought was a beer until he pulled off the tab and passed it around. REALLY bad Thai whisky... the other people waiting for the bus got a hoot out of our reactions I'm sure. Our 12 hr bus ride was actually on a pretty swanky bus. big seats that leaned back pretty far, plus we had the whole back row to ourselves. They gave us water and a snack as soon as we got on and coffee in the morning. Slept as well as possible and we pulled into the Krabi bus station about 8am on Fri.

Our options were pretty open so we ended up heading to a beach area about 30km away via sawngtaow (pickup with seats in the bed) and then longtail boat. Gorgeous weather! We've gotten lucky with it being rainy season yet our trips always have sunny clear skies. The boat dropped us at East Hat Rai Lay where most of the budget accomadation for the area is. There are 3 or 4 beaches connected by trails on this small peninsula surrounded by huge limestone cliffs. Climbing came first of course. Elliott's been climbing for a couple yrs and Kirk for a couple months so Doug went with them and rented gear for the day. Since Travis and I were weaker links, we began by exploring the area and its paths. Hiked all over the 3 beaches we could access. Beautiful white sand and azure water. Out in the bays were other isolated limestone clifts overgrown by jungle vegetation. Wins the picturesque award for sure! We found a lookout 'trail' which was like a mudslide up one of the cliffs and hiked up it with a nice English couple we ran into. Pulling ourselves up by conveniently placed ropes it turned into quite the hike! Also got to hike down from there to a hidden lagoon - kept thinking of James Bond stories to go with it.

Then we succumbed to the urge to climb some of the cliffs and did a half day top rope course. Meaning a guy who knew more then we did lead the route and then belayed us from below. Definitely good since climbing isn't my forte. But it was incredible! Julie you'd be proud I hope! A couple of 5's and a 6a. The 6a absolutely killed me at the end. A good 60 feet up and hold that I couldn't reach! Got some good scratches and scrapes from that.

We met back up with the other guys for dinner watching the sunset on the West Hat Rai Lay beach. Then down to an isolated corner to watch stars - the most I've seen since coming to Thailand and a night swim in phosphoresent waters before camping on the beach.

Saturday morning Kirk, Travis, and I took a long tail followed by a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. The island is beautiful but the devestation suffered from the tsunami is still evident. It's basically 2 hilly islands connected by a low sandy area where the main town is - of course almost washed away now. We were looking around for a snorkeling trip and went into a place that was obviously very active in recovery work. The man in charge looked a little shooken up and said they were busy as they had someone picking up things that belonged to his parents who had died. I was the only one who saw the box marked 'bones - human remains, do not touch.' Draw your own conclusions as I already have... Brings a far off tragedy home.

We did end up going snorkeling around the southern island of Phi Phi Lay on which they filmed 'The Beach.' Clear water and swarms of colorful tropical fish made our afternoon! Plus I didn't even get sunburnt.. then...

Kirk headed back to Krabi and Travis and I set out to find the more isolated beaches on the other side of the island. You would think that would be simple enough on such a small island, but we never made it to the other side! Instead ended up walking in a couple of different circles. At least we found some good look out spots and enjoyed an isolated sort of jungle trek. Butterflies were everywhere which made it fairy tale like (plenty of mosquitos too unfortunately!)

Basically spent the evening hanging out on the beaches, and on Sunday morning to the ferry back to Krabi. Since our bus left at 5pm we didnt have time to go back to the isolated Hat Rai Lay area so we took a shared taxi to Ao Nang which is a beach near Hat Rai Lay but accessable by road. I'm sure it's packed during the high season but on Sunday there were only a handfull of tourists and more locals trying to sell them massages or necklaces. So we killed the day relaxing on the beach. Hard to complain about that sort of weekend! We did see a kid get stung by a jellyfish but figured our odds were good and indeed made it out without such an injury. Still I've got plenty of scratches and bruises to show as war wounds. If you ever visit Thailand this is one area you do not want to miss!

So an actual full week of work awaits before a planned trip... Back to the chemistry!

Kanchanaburi Province

So this weekend was a lovely trip out of town to a province about 2 hrs West of Bangkok, in fact Kanchanaburi Province borders Burma itself. There were 5 of us in the big group: me, Hannah, Travis, Kirk, and Elliot. Doug ended up sick and the couple went on their own as usual and for the best. The adventure began with us attempting to catch a taxi at Victory Monument, apparently the only place in Bangkok it's illegal for them to stop. Eventually we walked far enough away to get one to stop, then it was the excitement of Fri afternoon traffic. The skytrain is fabulous but it doesn't cover near the area it should - for goodnessake at least connect all the bus/train stations! So an hr later we made it to the terminal, and in true Thai style were immediately pointed in the correct direction by people who noticed our lost/out of place look. No other toursists on this bus so we knew we had a winner. All of $1.50 for the aircon ride out.

Arriving in town around 9:30pm we wandered around a night market near the bus station. After finding a vendor selling a buffet of bugs we decided it would be culturally inept not to try a few. I had a couple of crispy meal worms - they taste better at Purdue's bugbowl! Kirk and Elliott were daring and got the largest bug available - about the length from my thumb to forefinger - and devoured it... That's really why we keep the boys around, for entertainment purposes. Next we walked about 1.5km to the main guesthouse area in Kanchanaburi. Luckily we caught the travel service open and a nice lady named Mickey let us set up a 2day/1night tour before hooking us up with a cheap guesthouse down the street. Delcious food from a stand with tables sitting on the edge of the road and a beer or two before our mini slumber party.

Up early on Sat for our 8:30am departure. The minibus was full from the 5 of us and a few day trippers also headed out to Erawan falls which is one of the big attractions in this province. Our guide, Tree, was also there and we learned this was her first 2 day trip and she hadn't even been told before that morning! It was about an hrs drive out to Erawan natl park where we commenced the 2km hike up to the 7th and topmost level of the waterfall. On the initial path we got surrounded by another tour group of what at first appeared to be all women but we soon noticed were all men dressed as women.... Apparently you have to be careful of who is actually a Thai woman... They took quite a fancy to our boys and after not too long all 3 found themselves holding hands with the Thai transvestites. Hilarious!! Hannah and I were safe for obvious reasons but it was really hard not to laugh at the boys' ackward embaressment at their predicament. Lucky for them, we managed to loose that group at the first level of the waterfall. It wasn't too difficult a hike including stops for scenic photos. We even ran into a few monkeys - gibbons which didn't attack! Every level of the falls seemed like another version of a Disney-esque fairyland. After reaching the top, we all jumped in and swam for awhile before hiking down. Swam more at the 4th level where there were natural slip n' slides formed from some huge rocks nearby - just had to be careful of not being eaten by the fish.

From the waterfalls we had a huge lunch and then traveled further North to an elephant camp where we rode elephants for about 30 min - really rode! I just kept thinking that it would totally not be allowed in the US, not so many seatbelts/straps. Towards the end we even got to get out of the seat and ride bareback on the elephant's head! Plus we decided to do the option of giving the elephants a bath so after harness and seat were removed we clambered back on and each rode a separate elephant into the river to scrub it down. Totally awesome as they would almost completely submerge and then rise up a bit and spray you with water from their trunk... Hard to beat that! Afterwards we hopped in the back of a pickup to get taken up stream and ride back past the elephant farm on a bamboo raft. Actually most of the time it was swimming beside the raft as we went down the river. Absolutely glorious! The scenery was full of small mtns covered with jungle folage - out of any SE asian movie ever! Apparently scenes from the Deer Hunter were shot in this area, but I've not seen the movie.

Saturday night we stayed on a rafthouse on Kaom Laem resevoir. No other Western tourists in the vicinity, it was incredibly peaceful. The resevoir leads right up into Burma and apparently is a hotbed for illegal immigration. Sunday morning we had breakfast on a houseraft while being towed around the lake on a longtailed boat. No big town or city just a few huts here and there and plenty of rafthouses. From there we went to Hin Dat hotsprings which was discovered by the Japanese in WW II. Enough time to jump in the river, in the hottub temperature hot spring and back a few times before moving on to Hellfire Pass. Hellfire Pass is one of the deepest cuttings made during the completion of the "Death Railway" in WWII. Tens of thousands of British/Austrailian POWs as well as local laborers died making it - our cultural/historical part of the trip. On the way to Nam Tok we stopped at Sai Yok Noi waterfall - thronged over with tourists so we didn't stay long at all. At Nam Tok we ate lunch before boarding the last train back to Kanchanaburi. A scorcher of an afternoon, the 2 hrs on the train, even with all the windows open, were killer to stay awake during despite the gorgeous scenery. Got out at the Bridge over the River Kwai for a photo op. Just enough time for dinner and running to catch the last train back to Bangkok, although I don't think any of us would've minded missing it for another day out of the city. Tree ended up meeting up with us at the station and giving us a whole bag full of mangosteens, voted one of our favorite Thai fruits. It was great not having to worry about travel plans and have the 5 of us get carted around in our own private minibus with private guide.

So a short week of work on our request - leaving Thurs night for Krabi, a good 12 hr bus ride away!

Pictures at last!!

Well took awhile to find a decent connection, and then I had to use a new site but here goes:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANGTFo5cuXDg4

Good luck and enjoy!

Fireflies, food, and other things making Thailand awesome

So I've survived another working week (maybe got a reaction to work, did an aerobics class in Thai, and gave a presentation on Fri) and just returned from the planned weekend trip with our Thai students.

Oi and the other CRI students organized this trip, leaving hella early on Saturday from our rooms to minibus about an hour and a half west of Bangkok. First we checked in at Dara Resort where we were to spend the night. Traditional Thai style house with a big open space underneath to sit during the heat of the day. From there we traveled mostly by boat as we were in a region known for palm plantations and generally using canals for transport. We had a tour of the town and life along the river. The houses tend to go right up and into the water's edge on stilts. People were out cleaning dishes, swimming, fishing, and even bathing as our long-tailed boat drove by. It almost felt like an invasion of privacy but they seemed to take it in stride. Being only an hr from Bangkok, it wasn't exactly isolated but such a large group of Westerners was definitely noticed. The tour led then to the large floating market where the canal became clogged with boats selling an infinite variety of fruits, noodles, hats and other clothing. We got out to wander along the riverside and enjoy the chaos. Our students declared it was time to eat around 10:30, so noodles for everybody! Of course through some miscommunication I got the extra spicy... not a good thing in Thailand. Nothing like being so hot that you sweat constantly and THEN eating things that make you cry and your lips burn. hahaha... So from there we went to one local temple which was actually inside and completely hidden by a copse of trees - apparent protection from invading Burmese at some point or another. No tourists here really, just a few Thai people and monks running the place. Went inside and our guid showed us how to shake this can of sticks until one falls out and then use the number on the stick to get a fortune from a list. Mine was 'overall good.' (legal case is favorable!) Hahaha. Then our whole group headed to another temple with time enough to stop as an icecream boat went by. This temple was much larger and filled with carved wood murals of scenes throughout Buddha's life. The last stop of the afternoon was a park with traditional Thai homes and one that used to belong to their King Rama II. A short trip back to our tropical resort for the rest of the afternoon. A nap, some more snacking and wandering around the nearby coconut plantations and then it was time for dinner!

After dinner we headed to our second floating market which was much more local in nature. In other words we got a LOT more stares. Fair enough though, as I was able to find one of my favorite Thai sweet things - Chai-ling which is this iced, sugared, tea type drink. I've been using it as dessert since despite the high quality of Thai food I've found desserts lacking pretty seriously - almost always jelly/fruity/salty/or containing way to much coconut. Plus towards the end we found another quality desert which was basically mini doughnuts with sugar coating and bannanas inside... delicious! On the way out we found Chai-ling smoothies and ended up getting free ones since the lady selling them was running out of ice. Absolutely fabulous let me tell ya. So suitably high on sugar we all pile back into the boat and they take us to see the fireflies of the Mae Klong river. We're excited but skeptical at the same time since we haven't seen any yet. We eventually turned off the boat lights and there they were - like thousands of flashing christmas lights. Definitely cool looking, but these fireflies are only about 1/3 the size of the ones at home, so we win that one.

Back at the resort it turned out that the 6 of us Americans (Matt and Wendy, the couple, didn't come since they were sick), were staying in these really swanky bungalows while all the Thai kids were camping underneath the main house in mosquito nets. Crazyness! Some cheap Scotch later had us on the karoke machine (very popular here) and singing some classics. I think we suitably entertained with our dancing at least. It's great that we have such a good group! So shower and crashed.

This morning we got to sleep in before having some high quality rice and toast for breakfast. I went on a good 40 min bike ride and got absolutely drenched in sweat and tends to happen relatively instantaneously if I exert myself in this country. Everybody ended up jumping in the river despite having seen all the things floating in it previously. So hanging out eating more fresh grown pamelo (like a giant grapefruit) before returning to the big city.

This trip is absolutely flying by. Things are so laid back, inexpensive, and generally delicious here that having a good time is hard not to do! Speaking of - I'm meeting everybody for ice cream at Swenson's... now!

Ko Samet

So to wrap up my first week: Wed was another relatively non-eventful day at work except that I finally met my advisor and had a short talk with him. Apparently I'm synthesizing this natural product that hasn't even been biologically tested. Ah well, we can't all do exciting chemistry I suppose. At least things are laid back around here.

Thursday was our day long language and culture class held here at CRI. We led all 8 of us here and even got off at the right bus stop. It was defintely intense learning everything from the basic hello/thank you to counting and asking directions. I've absorbed enough to be polite and order things like chicken fried rice with water. haha.. After that we even got a mini-presentation from some of our advisors about our weekend trip to Ko Samet - they've been absolutely incredibly helpful in planning even looking up sites for bus and ferry times for us. Thurs night a bunch of us went to see Batman Begins at MBK. Before all movies here they play the national anthem and everybody stands while they show a bunch of pictures of the king. Very interesting. They have an incredible amount of respect for their monarchy system. I've only run across it once or twice but at around 8am and 6pm, public places will play the anthem and everybody stops what they're doing for a bit to stand. Other then that, a decent movie that caused our group at least to laugh a lot.

Friday was a hectic day as I actually did a reaction at work! Plus there was a seminar (boring!) then around 3:30 a camera crew showed up and we had to go to lab and pretend to work. Apparently they were filming for the news due to the fact that the princess' birthday is next month... Then we had to run out at around 4pm to head to the eastern bus station. From there it was pretty easy to get our tickets, connect with the other 4 students and get going to Ban Phe. Arrived around 9:30pm and with our large group were just about enough to justify a boat out to Ko Samet. A gorgeous night on the water with some lightening to the east. So nice just to get out of Bangkok! Wendy was sick so her and Matt kindof slowed the group down and it's likely that they won't be going on too many more trips with us. Walked from the pier about 20 min to the 2nd largest beach Ao Phai and luckily one of the bungalow places was still open with 3 bungalows. I shared with Hannah, Matt and Wendy had one as did Travis and Kirk. Doug and Elliott walked further down and pitched tents on the beach. Hannah, Travis, Kirk and I headed back out and just hung around on the beach for a few hours taking a night swim and just enjoying the water. To bed too late - mosquito netting and a fan saving the day in our bungalow! The thunderstorm started around 3 or 4am and it was a huge downpour. Doug got pretty soaked as he didn't put the rain tarp on his tent. Rained a little on Sat morning but slowed down by 8:30am

I wandered down the beaches with Travis and we found the boys' campsite. Scrambed on the rocks between beaches and were dripping sweat by the time we got to the 4th beach. Headed back up towards the bungalows and took time to swim out to a floating pier for awhile. The water was gorgeously blue and clear with white sand beaches that you could walk out from. The whole group met up again at 10am and headed south on our mission to find more secluded beaches. Took a taxi (pickup with seats in the back) all the way down to Ao Kai which was recommended. Turned out however that there was no longer affordable accomadation there - only 15,000b a night bungalows!! ridiculous. So Matt and Wendy took off back to the more toursity part of the island while the rest of us walked further south - basically rock climbing our way to the most southern beach. Not too much of a beach but the only reef on the island was there so lots of snorklers. Some bungalows but still over our cheap price range. However a restaurant and hammocks on the beach convinced us it would be a decent place to spend the night. We stashed our bags up in some bushes and took off swimming for awhile. Doug had decided to walk from our original beach and eventually we saw him get to Ao Kai so we decided to swim over there. Distances are deceiving sometime and it was definitely a good swim. Got there and all of us just chilled out for an hour or two under this great tree. Ao Kai was beautiful and no one was there since no sane person would pay so much for a bungalow (even one with a pool !) Then we had to swim back - against the tide. Kirk managed to step on a sea urchin and get spines in his foot and I managed to get pretty impressively sunburned despite the spf 45 sunscreen. So somewhat injured and pretty tired we hung about on the southern beach and had several meals at the outdoor restaurant. The people there were great - awesome food and they even helped Kirk's foot when we showed them what happened. The plan was to sleep in the hammocks which I attempted until about 1:30am when it started to rain. Luckily we had Doug's one person tent and Elliott's two person tent. So we managed to squeeze 2 people into Doug's, 3 people into Elliott's and Travis who was still up reading saught shelter underneath the restaurant roof until the rain stopped. Nothing like being sweaty/covered in salt/most of us sunburned... Means it was a good weekend!

Sunday we ate again before catching a boat from the beach all the way back up to the main pier. Doug and Elliott had to show the rest of us up by hiking all the way back (took them almost 3 hrs). The rest of us were injured by sun and just wanted to hang in the shade. Went to the main beach and found some chairs. Set up camp and timed our forays back into the sun carefully. Ran into Matt and Wendy who decided to go back a bit earlier then us. We caught a 3pm ferry back to the mainland and managed to get on the 3:30 bus! Back in Bangkok we stopped at MBK and put away some serious amounts of Swenson's ice cream before heading home for showers and recovery.

So overall awesome intro weekend! Can't believe I'm back at work again. Ran another rxn today. It's hard in lab sometimes with Oi as our conversations are somewhat limited and most of the time I can't quite understand when she's talking about lab stuff. She's so sweet though, wish I spoke thai! All the students and our Thai partners are taking a trip together this weekend to a homestay and firefly watching. Goodtimes all around

While at work...

So currently wrapping up my second day of 'work.' The Thai's seem to be incredibly relaxed about things and I've already started adding 10 or 15 minutes to any scheduled time. Showing up early is out of place!

So Saturday afternoon they had us all gathered together. Met the 8th guy - Kirk from Idaho goes to Western Kentucky, so Purdue definitely wins the big school catagory on this trip. They talked for a bit about logistics before taking us to the skytrain and to the weekend or J.J. markets. Thank goodness I got some market experience in before coming because this place was definitely sensory overload. The size of 5 football fields and completely brimming with stalls selling everything from clothes to illegal animals. We spent a couple of hours there. In my case mostly searching for work clothes. They don't bargain chinese style, I think they're overall too nice for it - and I'm basically guaranteed not the best deal since I don't speak Thai. Nonetheless things are CHEAP. I'm lovin the exchange rate. Picked up 3 skirts and 2 shirts for around $20. Not too bad. Headed back to the dorms sweaty and probably a bit dehydrated. We all ended up meeting to head over to MBK (the big shopping center about 2 blocks from where we live). The place is a life saver as it has everything you could possibly need. The cafeteria is on the 6th floor and you can get incredibly cheap food - around $.50 for a meal. Then back to our rooms for a welcome shower and some sleep.

Sunday morning we were all up and they took us via skytrain to a major pier on the river where we caught a river taxi to the Grand Palace. Definitely an interesting trip down the river, as old style huts and houses are crowded together on stilts. Bangkok has many canals and along all of them are delapidated shacks that teeter on the edge. Needless to say the water was none to clean... Thank goodness for malaria medicine! Apparently there have been quite a few cases of Dengue fever spread around by mosquitos as well so they've been telling us to watch out. The Grand Palace was absolutely incredible. Although it might not sound incredibly descriptive, the place was just so sparkly. All the buildings were covered in either gold leaf or shiny mirror pieces. Colorful to say the least. We wandered around and went into the main temple to see the Emerald Buddha. Lots of group pictures to prove to the NSF that we showed up in Thailand. Next was lunch before headed to the world's largest golden teakwood mansion. Interesting enough as mansions go I suppose. Built by their King Rama V around 1900, lots of European influence as he traveled there quite often. We did get to see a display of traditional Thai dance and fighting before taking the tour. After that we were all wiped out from the heat and headed back. Enough time to do my laundry and hang out with Hannah in MBK.

Monday was the first day of work and the 4 of us (me, Elliott, Doug, and Matt) who work at CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute - funded by Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn who got her Ph.D. in organic chemistry) were all picked up by Dr. Poonsakdi in a van. Finally met the american professor that helps with the program - Dr. Brauslau who is in Thailand for just a week. She came with us to the institute for the day. First we had presentations from all the PI's telling a bit about what our projects would be. I made the mistake of somehow having my advisor be one of the head honchos, so to date I have only met him 2x just long enough to say hello. At any rate, my Thai student 'Oi' (they all have really long names, but everyone goes by much shorter nicknames even amongst themselves) is really nice. After that they showed us around the buildings and our labs. A HUGE lunch, Thai style, where one person orders several dishes and they are just passed around the table. Definitely a good chance to sample everything from green curry to fishcakes to rice noodles and coconut ice cream. Back to the institute where I started reading Oi's masters thesis for background. Coffee/tea break at about 4 until it was time to go home. All of us had dinner with Rebecca to discuss and turn in paperwork and then basically gave up for the night.

Today was our first day to make it to CRI on our own. We have to take the Skytrain about 15-20min to Mo Chit where we get out and get on a bus or a taxi. Today one of the students Boon met us to show us which buses to take and where to get off. Traffic wasn't bad and so we made it to the institute (or at least the highway near by it) in about 20 min. Then you walk down the highway and across a railroad track to get to it. It's out close to the airport which could be convenient for friday evening flights.... So we got here about 8:45, coffee when Oi and the girls showed up at 9. Then I checked my email and sat around. Hung out with the boys - Elliott's PI was out sick today, so he didn't have anything to do either. Lunch at 11 down in the cafeteria. Definitely cafeteria food and will get very boring by the end. I'm not up to Thai level hotness by any means so that's going to be a problem as well. I just don't look forward to EVERY meal being spicy. Anyway, out of here by 5pm every day to miss traffic!

China Commentary from Thailand

Alright - I've made it to Thailand in one piece!

During our last couple of days in China, the weather was not at it's best but we attempted to see the remainder of the main tourist sites. On Wednesday, Ash slept in so Les and I walked south over to the Temple of Heaven where the Emperor used to go to pray for good harvests and whatnot. The grounds were twice the size of the Forbidden city, so we ended up wandering around in the park like area for awhile before finding the actual buildings. At least we ran across plenty of entertainment in groups of people doing Tai Chi, dancing around with paddles, and even singing in random spots. The group of buildings didn't seem incredibly impressive. The main Hall was of course closed for renovations and supposedly it's built without any nails, just a bunch of supporting pillars or somesuch. Took a break for lunch and then all 3 of us found our way to the Silk Market which basically a 4 story mall thats been converted to a marketplace. As soon as you step through the door you're surrounded by vendors selling Northface, all sorts of pearls, jade, watches, silk, fabrics, basically anything you can think of. It was way to easy to kill a few hours there since it was looking ominous outside. Both Ash and Les ended up getting fitted for suits! Hilarious, but now that they did it, I'm considering it for while I'm in Thailand. Not too much more excitement that day since it started to rain later on.

Thursday morning we made ourselves get up and head out to the Summer Palace which is quite a distance away from central Beijing. It was sprinkling off and on, but the palace and grounds were interesting. In the center is a huge lake and around are buildings used by Dowager Empress Cixi and her son or nephew who was emperor until she put him on house arrest there. If it had been a nicer day the place definitely would have been great for just hanging out and enjoying a picnic, but as it was we headed back to the silk market so they could have there last fitting for the suits. Then quickly to the hostel for lunch and before I knew it I was in a taxi to the airport. There in plenty of time and found there was no departure tax so attempted to spend the rest of my Chinese money before boarding the 4.5 hr flight to Thailand.

So before we get off the subject of China - a few random comments:

Driving - the place is ridiculously insane. No traffic laws at all as far as we could see. Basically just drive wherever/however you want. The problem is compounded by non coordinated traffic signals. True example: in a bus at an intersection, we had a green light to turn right, the cars on our left had a green light to go straight, and the bikes and pedestrians had a green light to go straight as well. This amounts to inching the vehicle forward, between bicycles and then merging with oncoming traffic.... Boston driving is tame in comparison.

Spitting - all the time everywhere. you walk down the street and here this big howcking sound and its just grandma spitting off to the side.

Toilets - apparently it's ancient chinese tradition to have squat toilets, so even in pretty nice places you'll have maybe one western style at most. At the Forbidden City, I used a restroom and found out that the 4star bathrooms have squat toilets with motion detectors! fancy!

personal space - or rather lack there of. Makes sense probably since there are 1.5 billion people in the country. Still very hard to get used to the constant push/shove/people walking between you if there was a space wide enough. The thing is you push and shove back and ellicit no reaction since it's normal.

Barbar shops - haircut = prostitutes on hand... just so you know ;)


So arrived in Thailand on Thursday night and was met by 2 guys whose names I can't really say. We waited for 3 others on later flights. Hannah - from NY goes to Lafayette University in PA. Dough - from PA goes to Evergreen University in Oregan. Travis - from N. California goes to school on the west coast but the name of the school escapes me. Spent most of Friday wandering the area around Chulalongkorn University, apparently the most famous Uni in Thailand. Tons of shopping centers and Siam square is full of vendors selling all sorts of things. Met Wendy and Matt in the afternoon who were in Malaysia visiting Wendy's family and who go to school in Texas. Elliott got in that evening from a week in Chaing Mai in the N part of Thailand; he's from South Dakota and goes to Nebraska. Still one more guy who has been here for a couple of days but none of us have run into him yet. We're all on the same floor of one of the university buildings. Pretty nice place to live - rooms with air con, our own bathrooms, a balcony, a tv that gets BBC as its one english channel. So this morning I'm wandering around a bit more before we have our official welcome meeting at 2pm and are then taken to the weekend markets. Tomorrow they're taking us to see some of the main Bangkok sites and on Monday work starts!! Hot and humid here, but I think I'm almost to the getting used to it point.

Forbidden City and the Great Wall

So to catch up on the past few days:

Sunday morning we headed over to one of the more famous Sunday morning markets whose name I can neither pronounce nor spell correctly. At any rate, the thing was basically the largest garage sale ever. 20 rows of vendors selling beads, at least as many each selling antique furniture, carvings, pottery, carpets, and tapestries. That doesn't even include the unofficial part of the market where people have small stands of whatever random items they've collected. Made a few buys but am finding it hard to spend over about 40RMB ($5!!) hahaha... we've all adjusted to prices here plus bargaining for anything and everthing. The rest of the day was mostly a wash as we were recovering from the train ride. Attempted and failed to find the CITS office for Les to get his Tibet permit and flights, then mostly sat around downstairs watching movies in the hostel - which ended up being a good idea when it started pouring in mid-afternoon.

Monday dragged ourselves out of bed and walked through the hutong (a crazy overwhelming place) up to Tienanmen Square. Right before we go there we ran into a big crowd surrounding some police tape so of course checked it out. There was a woman on the 4th floor of a building holding a sign out the window that we assumed was some sort of political dissent. No clue really but we took a picture! Inside Tienanmen Square, the place really is unimaginably huge. Walked around it and got plenty of photo ops before spending a few hrs and finally succeeding in finding the right place for Tibet permits. (Only after a taxi ride to a random gov't office that provides commericial permits and another cab ride to the other side of town where at the Tibet Hotel a travel agent made us wait before naming prices and demanding all the money up front.) At any rate, with that done, we went to walk through the Forbidden City starting North and heading South back towards our hostel. An incredible amount of it is under construction. We reckon to get it cleaned up for the 2008 olympics. It basically left only the center path and pavilions open when there are many buildings to each side. Definitely a grandious place. I wish we'd had time to watch 'the last emperor' before going. No longer forbidden, the place even has a Starbucks in it right next to the Gate of Purity. Crazy.

Since so much was closed off, it didn't take as much time as expected and after more photo ops with the picture of Mao outside Tienanmen Gate we headed south on the street on the West side of the Square. We had just about gotten to the People's Congress Hall when all of a sudden these military guys appear and push everyone who was walking by back North. We didn't know what was going on so kindof dilly dallyed, acted stupid, trying to see something. Ended up going under the street and over to Tienanmen where things looked normal and walking South to end up across the street from the Congress building. Out front the had all sorts of red carpets set up, a pavilion, and as we watched as 3 buses pulled in via the shutdown street, military band got out, warmed up and played a few numbers. They weren't very good either. Then all of a sudden they drove all these police cars with lights flashing into the square and angry sounding policemen with megaphones literally started clearing out Tienanmen Square. As best we could guess the government was planning a big public demonstration minus the public. They pushed the crowd south to the very edge of the square. This has been our first glimpse of the real communist (fascist??) government. We were told that the closer you are to Beijing the more control the gov't has, and that seems to be true. At the same time, as we were walking out of the square you just want to scream at the Chinese people around you - 'this is your excuse for a government?" It's hard to imagine any big rebellion or protest from these people. No wonder communism took root since for the past 5000 yrs they have been following the orders of one emperor or another. It's almost bred in to not question authority too much.

Made it back to the hostel without further incident and decided to make it our night to try Peking duck. Walked to a nearby duck restaurant where they serve everything from duck soup to duck intestines. Got the basic roast duck feast, and they brought out the whole roast duck and a chef carved it up. One of the servers showed us out to eat it correctly - seems a kindof combo of Chinese and Mexican. You take a 'pancake' (basically a thin smaller tortilla type thing) grab some of the sliced duck meat/skin, dip it in sauce and spread it on the pancake, add a couple of scallions, roll it up and enjoy! Actually very delicious...

Today was our trip to the Great Wall day. Met at 6:30am to catch the bus to Jinseling. 3 hours later we were dropped off the bus in a tiny village. It took a good 1/2 hr to actually walk up to the wall and we were already sweating by that time. Our hike took us about 12km from Jinseling to Simati great wall. Most tourists go to Badeling which is much closer to Beijing so this spot was nearly deserted in comparison. Still plenty of farmers wife's from Mongolia to follow us for the first 1/4 way trying to sell books, postcards, and tshirts. I really did almost feel guilty not giving the poor people money, but they might have followed us the whole way otherwise. Anyway, the mist burned off eventually, and most of the hard work was getting up to the High Tower which was about half way. Gorgeous scenery - mountains in all directions! This is what one imagines when one thinks of the Great Wall! It was a great hike for sure, I'll try to get the pics up when I get to Thailand. Made it to Simatai with plenty of time before the 3hr bus ride back. Now time to relax for the night!

In other news, my Thailand address is:
Vitayanivej House, Chulalongkorn University
Phaya Thai Road, Bangkok
Thailand 10330

Shanghai to Xi'an to Beijing

So we spent our extra day (Thursday) in Shanghai hanging out with Hannah Phares and watching our bootleg DVD's - I got to see star wars III which was actually a pretty good copy except that the script at the beginning was randomly in Greek or something.

So overnight train to Xi'an which took maybe 15 hrs or so. We had beds near each other in a 'hard sleeper.' In this sort of car there are groupings of 6 bunk beds open to a common corridor. Actually we found it to be quite comfy and when the lights went out at 10pm things actually completely shut down, got quiet. There were 2 Chinese men in our car that spoke English - 'Mr. Andy' and 'Mr. Sam.' Andy is a retired electrical engineer who taught himself English at some point but had never traveled out of the country while Sam was an aeronautical designer who had studied English at Uni. Definitely interesting to speak with them as they both seemed excited to practice their English. China is the first country I've been to with the exception of maybe Turkey that people really welcome you as an American. At least as far as the educated people we talk to, Chinese tend to like America. We even had Andy bashing Mao a bit at the end for poor decisions.

The countryside changed drastically overnight. We went from rice paddies to dry semiarrid looking land where the main crops are wheat and various sorts of orchards. It's been unfortunate that we are not supposed to eat raw fruits or veggies as I'd be interested to see what's growing. So we woke up and found ourselves in Xi'an, an old city with plenty of history. It was the beginning (or end depending on which direction you were traveling) of the Silk Road. The city walls are still impressive and about 14km long. After getting settled in at the hostel we walked downtown to the central bell tower and drum tower (bells in the morning, drums at night apparently). Gorged ourselves on dumplings for lunch and then wandered the area around the Great Mosque which was jam packed with food and market stands. Definitely a buyers market and a good place to practice bargaining skills. It was what one thinks of when trying to picture China - crowded streets lined with vendors and dodging bikes down the middle.

A break back at the hostel (it was hot but at least less humid then Shanghai) and then we went out again. Walked around the area of the Temple of Stone Tablets but didn't pay to get in figuring we wouldn't appreciate a bunch of tablets in Chinese. That area was packed with stands selling more artistic things - brushes, calligraphy, and the ubiquitous soapstone seals which you can get engraved with your name in Chinese. Then we hiked way the heck out to Little Goose Pagoda which was 1300 yrs old, but otherwise not incredibly impressive. Xi'an is considered a relatively small city of only 7 million, but still definitely gets hazy during the day. Dinner and hanging out back at the hostel before participating in a dumpling party and learning how to make and cook the things we've been eating.

Saturday we took a trip out to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Almost difficult to get out there and seemed to take forever. We were all a bit lethargic and blamed the beds at the hostel for being too nice and soft. The warriors were incredible to see in person - 3 pits full of half excavated artifacts. The first and largest pit has almost 6000 warriors in it, all with different faces. They keep the lights low in the buildings to preserve them and it creates quite a creepy atmosphere. After lunch we stopped by the Lingtong history museum which had some nice Chinese architecture but seemed kindof random. It was our first rainy day here. Not too bad most of the time, but it was good to have done our walking the day before. Back to the hostel to relax before a taxi to the train station. Perfect timing as we found the gate and walked to the train.

We had 'soft sleeper' this time and were split up with Ash and I in one booth and Les on one the next car down. We decided that soft sleepers are the Hilton of overnight trains - 4 people to a room that closes off from the corridor, plenty of headroom for both beds so that you can actually sit up, and a TV for each bed to watch a selection of Chinese channels. 2 random Chinese in our compartment but Les was with 3 Aussies on a holiday so we hung out and chatted with them till bedtime. A much faster train ride and we arrived this morning in Beijing at 7am. Our hostel seems in a rather interesting area, but we haven't explored much yet. We'll probably take it easy and walk around today before planning our trip to the Great Wall and which days we should allot to which sites. Hard to believe we're at our last stop in China!

Nanjing, Suzhou, back to Shanghai

Well to further the Huangshan adventure - after we hiked down the mtn and had been hanging around Tangkou, we were convinced to go visit the local 9 dragon waterfalls... What we didnt know is that it was a further hike up and down in the hottest part of the day. Definitely gets up over 90 most days and wicked humid. Good practice for Thailand. So completely exhausted, we got ourselves on the bus to Nanjing... A most HORRIFIC experience. Words can not describe the pain involved. A normal looking bus and whatnot but we had a 5.5 hr journey over what seemed like complete gravel roads. ridiculous! Every part of the bus was shaking and I was surprised that it held together for the whole trip. As for the 3 of us, we just had to hunker down, kindof try to hold on to our insides, close our eyes, and wish for the end - be it arriving in Nanjing or driving off a cliff...

So after all our adventures we splurged in Nanjing and directed the taxi driver to take us directly to the Hilton! Definitely worth the extra money as we got our first showers in about 3 days, air conditioning, and glorious sleep on real beds. The next day we went out on a walk, hiked up to the city walls (painfully) and decided to see the sights on Purple mtn just outside the walls. Well, as we have yet to find a map that is to scale while in China, what looked like a short distance was a mildly ridiculous hike that would could have/should have easily paid 7RMB for. We saw the 700 yr old Ming tombs and Sun Yat-Sen's masoleum before calling for a break. Just too hot to keep walking. Definitely took a taxi back and returned to see the 3rd main sight Laggu Pagoda. Much nicer outside after about 4:30pm and a great breeze up on the 7th floor of the pagoda. Good 'view' of the city too. View is in quotations because you can't ever really see very far. We had some clear days up on the mountain, but they were an exception. The vast majority of the time it feels like you either have an eye problem or there is veil over everything about 5 ft. in front of you. A country in the middle of the industrial revolution, the haze is absolutely horrible. everywhere.

From Nanjing a train ride (glorious after that bus!!) to Suzhou, the 'venice of the east.' A small town of only 5 million people... Yesterday we explored and visited several of the famous gardens. Hard to compare gardens with gorgeous natural landscapes though and I think that none of us were very impressed. Visited the 'humble administrators garden' the cities largest and the 'lion grove garden' which is full of weird shaped rocks and man made caves. During the evening we walked around all the shops and whatnot, bargaining for DVD's mostly. This morning slept in and caught a train to Shanghai. Ran into some other american's on the train - undergrads at MIT who teach in here in the summer. When white folks are so rare, it's nice to sit and chat with people from similar backgrounds. Our plan is a night here and tomorrow catching the 4pm overnight train to Xi'an.

We've finally gotten the hang of traveling in China - when you run into people who speak english, make them write everything/place necessary in the forseable future down in Chinese. Hand said paper to the taxi driver or the people selling train tickets and you'll be just fine. In fact, I think it would be quite simple to get around if any of us knew ANY chinese!

Catching up - Shanghai to Huangshan in 6 days...

Alright. Well apparently I can work this now. Arrived Tues evening, hung out in the airport for a couple of hours to wait for Les and Ashley on their Northwest flight. I was able to buy a phonecard from a random cleaning lady when the machine wouldn't take my 100RMB bills. (exchange rate is 8 to 1 or so) Then was asked to translate Spanish between an airport worker and a poor Spanish lady who couldnt find the friend that was supposed to meet her. Once they made it in, we managed to catch a shuttle bus and hike to our hostel (found it on the first attempt!) Definitely crashed hard that night.

Wed morning up bright and early and met Hannah Phares right outside the hostel!! I'd definitely been missing that girl. She took us around the area of her old campus where she lived back in January, fed us dumplings (very tasty), then took us to this marketplace where we learned to barter. It's a bit overwhelming at first being surrounded by people who want to sell you clothes, bags, and DVDs. But once you're used to them all yelling to get your attention it's really quite fun to bargain for cheap stuff. The trick being to always walk away. They have calculators so you can just alternate punching in numbers. Good times had by all. Then lunch at a nearby crepes place... come to think of it thats the last time I ate using real silverwear. I'm definitely getting mad skillz with the chopsticks.

Anyway, wed afternoon Hannah had classes and we wandered the city. First we took the subway across town to the Bund which is basically a riverside imbankment. Across the river is the Pudong or new district with skyscrapers far down the shore and Pearl Orient Tower. Walking south from there we found the old city and Lu gardens. It is somewhat touristy now with lots of mini stalls and people trying to sell you things, but it does have the traditional Chinese architecture with red wooden buildings and upturned eaves. Also the first place that people asked to have their pics taken with us. The obsession with white people here is absolutely incredible. Admittedly, theres not many of us, but the staring is just crazy. Everytime we pass a white person, especially now outside the 'big' city we feel like we should be high-fiving and saying go team! Hilarious.

Wed evening we met up with Les' school friend Tommy who is of Chinese heritage and comes over here in the summers. He took us up to the 87th floor of the Hyatt over in the Pudong district for a view of the city. Shanghai is full of highrises, but none even come close to that heighth. Up there you are above everything and can just look out and down on the crazyness. Then to a dumpling place for imfamous Shanghai pork dumplings which you have to eat by nipping the top, sucking out the soup, dipping in soy sauce, and attempting to devour the whole thing including pork ball inside without getting it all over. Then a Shanghainese restaurant where food is served family style. Interesting dishes included braised pork that had a layer of meat and a layer of very buttery melt in your mouth fat.... a delicacy apparently, and dates stuffed with rice flour and cooked to exploding. Met up with Hannah and girlfriends and went out on the town before crashing hard again back at the hostel.

Thursday we got up, packed, made our way to the train station (an absolute insane place where people just sit around outside) and caught the train to Hangzhou. There, a taxi to our hostel and we had some time to wander around. Apparently Hangzhou is kindof famous for its scenic location and is a popular chinese resort type town. It has almost a Lake Geneva sort of look, with the city on one side of theWest lake looking across the water to the beginnings of a beautiful mtn range. All around the edge of the lake are these beautiful landscaped tableaus made by some dynasty or another with names like 'oriels in rippling willows' and similar things that translate even worse. A very early night and we were up in time to walk around the lake more and see this huge pagoda before finding the bus station (an adventure that took us down some crazy back alleys - ramshackle huts on each sides with only bicycles and children and chickens running the streets) and catch a bus to Tangkou which is situated very close to Huangshan Shen, a famous mountain area.

Four hours on a bumpy bus through scenic mtns, with the shrill horn being used way too often, we made it and were dropped off in the village. The one guy in town who speaks English, Mr. Hu, found us quickly. Ran into some Dutch girls and a couple from the states and since they seemed fine and we didn't have many options we went ahead and helped his raquet. He did set us up at a nice place only 20RMB each and we even had our own bathroom. Although I think I have yet to sleep on an actual mattress here in China - only boards or boxes with sheets over them.

Saturday morning we began our hike up the Western steps. Literally steps up the entire mtn. Insane to think of the work that went into them as at no time during the entire hike did we walk on dirt - only stone, rock, concrete. We started at 9am thinking it would be a good 4-5 hr hike.... Took our first break at 9:20, absolutely dripping sweat as we realized this was going to be 14 km of steps up a mountain. We arrived at the highest point a little after 1pm, and after that at least there was some downhill movement. Found the hostel we were staying at at 3:30pm. What a hike! But it was definitely worth it for the absolutely gorgeous scenery. The one detriment of this entire trip were the chinese tour groups. They were everywhere, crowding, yelling, absolutely insane. It was ridiculous! I have no idea why they feel like they need a guide and to go in groups where yellow floppy hats just to walk up a mountain. Another thing, I have always kindof considered Chinese people as quiet- this is absolutely not true. They are as loud and perhaps even worse then the bad sorts of American tourists. It does not help that talking in Chinese always sounds like an argument and even when in coversation they have a tendancy to yell! Ack! too many people entirely... The hostel was one of the more ghetto I have stayed in, however we were able to pass the time by eatting a tremendous dinner at a hotel and then hanging out in the lobby for a couple of hours and using that bathroom before going up to bed.

This morning we were up around 3 or 4am to watch the sunrise which is the thing to do. We were there to get good seats and I must admit I have never seen one quite like this. When the sun comes up you can actually see the whole circle throught the mist of the mtns. Les was able to get some freakin awesome pics that I definitely plan to steal. After that it was just a hike down the mtn (only 7km or so) this time down the Eastern steps which are steps almost straight down the entire way. It felt so good to reach the bottom! Now we are back in Tangkou waiting for the afternoon bus to Nanjing where we are definitely splurging on a hotel room... I can't wait for a shower and bed!! Oh yeah and I only got a LITTLE sunburned!

Current plan - Nanjing, Suzhou, Shanghai for an overnight train to Xi'an, a few days there and an overnight train to Beijing....

testing from China...

okay, i wrote a whole little thing about what we'd done but apparently accidentally deleted it since i can not for the life of me figure out which of these buttons at the bottom means publish... so this is a test

Trippin...

Alright, so after an incredibly awesome party at our house last night (3rd times a charm), I'm now at a friends home in Indianapolis awaiting the flight out. I really thought 2 weeks would seem longer, but I definitely felt rushed to get ready. Ah well, bags are packed and I'm flying out tomorrow morning at 7am to meet Les and Ash at the airport before finding the hostel and more importantly finding Hannah in Shanghai! Then 2 wks to wander to Beijing before the work part of the summer starts in Bangkok. So I'll try to keep this reasonably up to date so my escapades can be noted... First real trip to Asia here I come!

Scripps Research Institute and UC San Francisco Trip

So even though very few people ever look at this.. here is another update!
I just finished up my first set of grad school visits. A little more stressful since both of these visits were actual interviews. Anyway, a week ago Thursday I headed out to San Diego to check the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Met at the airport by my grad student liason, Jeremy Mills, a third yr in the Shultz lab. Turned out there were about 6 prospectives on the flight mostly from further east (brown, colombia). A gorgeous evening, sunny and a bit breezy. I think they were amused that I got so excited about the sun. So anyway, stopped by the hotel up in La Jolla where TSRI is located overlooking Torrey Pines Golf Course and the ocean. We then proceeded to the group dinner at a Mexican restaurant with grad students and most of the prospectives. I headed out early to give George Murphy a call. He met up at the hotel and we had a drink at the bar while catching up on things. He lives much further south in a less pretentious area of San Diego. He really seems to enjoy it out there. Talked about the overabundance of rain that CA has gotten recently. Everyone there was freaking out since it is realtively constant sunny and 70 yr round there. Met my roomate who went to school at a small college on the north side of MA and had a very similar schedule to me for visits.
The next day we had actual inteviews. Definitely an intense experience of being 'on' for basically 12 hrs. I talked with M.G. Finn, Ben Cravatt, Joel Gottesfeld, Sheng Ding, Dale Boger (former Purdue prof) and Pete Shultz himself. A nice lunch in the middle sitting with the Dean Jeff Kelly, the head of the chem department and noble prize winner Kurt Wurthrich. Dinner with mingling lasted until about 9. I did get really practiced at my whole describing my research spiel. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Very layed back, supportive, no undergrads that you have to TA. But the big disadvantage is that you have to drive EVERYWHERE in san diego as it is very spread out. Anyway the next day we toured some of the facilities and SIMBio across the street. Amazing how many biotech companies are in that area. Most of the profs have there own companies on the side! Then the 1st yr students took us down to the beach for lunch and then splitting up to explore San Diego. I headed to the down town gas lamp area. We walked a bit and I was able to get in touch with Dan Curtis , a former bass drummer who is working out there nowadays. Then about 5, off to the airport and flight to San Francisco.
A bus ride to the Hotel. All in the dark so except for some awesome views of the bay and bridge, I didn't get a good sense of the city layout. On Sunday we didn't have anything till 11:30 when limos picked the 21 of us up and took us to the Mission Bay UCSF campus. A few presentations and we split into groups to go around the city. Unfortunately, it was POURING! My group took a taxi around, went to the bridge and walked out to it, getting soaked in the process. Then a roundabout sight seeing trip over to Heit and Ashbury. Where we just hung out and had a coffee. Then dinner. Yes the routine of these things is just talk, eat, talk, eat, walk a bit, eat.... Monday was a long day of interviews most of mine were before lunch. I talked to a grad student of Kip Guy who is doing interesting research but is leaving this summer for a department of his own in Memphis. The spoke with Charly Craik the head of the Chem/Chem BIo department. Then a random computational chemist followed by a professor working on parasitic diseases and finally Gott who is more on the pharmochemical side of things but definiitely cool. Plenty of eating and socializing in between. unfortunately it was an absolutely gorgeous day and we were stuck in side! But the Mission Bay campus is BRAND new so has really nice facilities and the whole areas is developing as a biotech center. More eating, got to chat with Kevan Shokat whose work on kinases is really cool and who came from the Shultz lab about the same time as my advisor Jean Chmielewski. Then a bus ride to the airport and home on a red eye via Las Vegas. Kindof interesting to see the strip from the plane at night. and then to run across 3 terminals to wait an hour for the plane to get fixed. Missed the earliest bus back to Purdue, caught the next one. Definitely an exhausting weekend.... 5 more to go!!