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!
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