Southeast Asia Program: Jessica's SE Asia Photos

Here are the links to all of my SE Asia photos so far:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.nicholas/SEAsia2008#

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.nicholas/SEAsia2008PartII#

Enjoy!

~Jessica

Southeast Asia Program: Luang Prabang to Hanoi

A mini summary since Luang Prabang: We had a full free day in Luang Prabang which is the day I called and spent a ton of time uploading photos. The next day we took songtaos out to a beautiful waterfall where we had a picnic lunch and climbed to the top of the waterfall to swim in the water just above it. The following day we flew into Hanoi and hung out in the Old Quarter until we had dinner at Bar 69 and took our bus to the train station to board the night train to Lao Cai (one hour drive up to Sapa). We got into Sapa at 7 am and had breakfast at the Cat Cat View Hotel while our rooms were made up then packed and rested for our trek up Mt. Fanspian the following day. We had 3 options for our time in Sapa so 8 people decided to stay at the hotel and do a mountain biking day trip, 3 went on an overnight village trek, and 5 of us hiked up Fansipan - 3143 meters. The first day of the trek we hiked 4.5 hours up to camp then hiked 3 hours roundtrip. The trek is pretty much straight up along a ridge with sheer drops on either side and cement bamboo banisters to help haul yourself up and over the huge boulders. I was really close to crying by the time we made the summit - due in large part to the torrential pouring rain which started 5 minutes into the summit trek. I have never been so close to hypothermia in my life - I couldn't feel my toes or fingers! No permanent damage though. The following day we trekked back down to Sapa, showered, packed, and took the night train back to Hanoi. We were picked up by Wide Eyed Tours and drove 5 hours to Halong City where we boarded our private charter "junk" for the 3 day tour. It was super swanky! It was 3 floors: the top deck filled with nice sun chases for hanging out, the middle deck had the dining room/bar/two cabins (including mine and Lauren's), and the lower deck had 7 more cabins plus the kitchen and crew quarters. We spent the next two days cruising around the islands, visiting limestone caves, sea kayaking, and jumping 30 feet off of the roof into the water! Our meals were 10 course feasts and our waiters wore vests and even folded our napkins like on a cruise ship! Yesterday we docked back in Halong City and drove back to Hanoi for the night (we went out for Glen's birthday but couldn't find the club we had in mind so just wandered around town and had dinner and drinks). Today Bobby and I went on a walking tour of the Old Quarter and then I took a taxi to the movie theater/mall to see Eagle Eye - really good! In a few minutes we are headed out to dinner and then to the Water Puppet Theater.

Southeast Asia Program: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Southeast Asia Program: From Loas to Vietnam

National Geographic Adventure 25 BEST NEW TRIPS

Look out for our New Zealand volunteer conservation trip in the November edition of National Geographic Adventure Magazine. The trip was chosen as one of the top 25 new trips in the world!

SE Asia Program: Jenn's blog & photos

You can check-out Jenn Feasby's Southeast Asia Program blog and photos at the following places: Blog: http://jennfeasby.blogspot.com/ Photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.th/jenn.feasby A a recent thought from Jenn about her trip...."The trip is going sooo well, much better than I could have anticipated... thanks for putting together such a good trip!" Thanks for sharing with us Jenn. Rachel

SE Asia Program: Vietnam Bound

Sabaidee from Luang Prabang, Laos!

The group has arrived from three days of remote river travel in the north western part of the country. We traveled the muddy waters of the Nam Tha River for a day and a half, slept overnight in our boat driver's village, and then joined up with the mighty Mekong River to bring us all the way to the town of Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang has a population of approximately 50,000 people within city limits. The town was given UNESCO World Heritage site status in 1995 in order to preserve the cultural and structural gems of this location. A day's walk will afford you many looks upon glimmering Buddhist temples or wats, ancient French colonial architecture with the pastel paint chipping away with the times. And while on the city stroll you can be sure to end up running into the local French baguette vendor. They'll slap on some Laughing Cow spreadable cheese and add a bit of fresh cucumber and tomato. The best afternoon snack for under $1.00 USD.

Tomorrow the group boards a short flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Hard to believe it's our third country out of four. A new language to practice, new cusine to explore, and many more smiles to exchange. Life is good here in Southeast Asia!

Sabaidee,

Mels

SE Asia: Welcome to Laos

Ok, a fast and gritty summation of our recent travels and experiences unfolds below:

Upon arriving in Luang Nam Tha in Loas we checked into a guest house, and crossed the street to enjoy food at a night market. I had a "chicken salad" which consisted of a halved chicken head, a partially developed embryo, some bits of neck, liver, stomach, and feet. Yuuuum. The following day we set off trekking in the Nam Ha river valley. Muddy trails led up the side of hills mottled with rubber plantations and wheat fields, then gave way to dense forest cut by mountain streams. We stopped in Kahu and Lihue villages where larger rivers had allowed access to the rugged landscape. One side of these villages was Kahu, the other side Lihue. Segregation between the two hill tribes exists due to religious difference, but the villages are joined due to common agricultural practices and the benefits of sharing work. We learned about the "Concoy", a mythical animal that some Loatians believe inhabits the dense forest. It looks like a monkey, only its feet have been turned around backwards by the Vietnamese, so that its footprints point opposite its direction of travel. When the animal approaches, one becomes disoriented, and then trees begin to fall. It feeds on human intestine. The only way to chase off a Concoy is to speak in Vietnamese, as the animal is affraid of Vietnamese because of what they did to its legs.

We dined on piles of sticky rice and jeow (a paste made of mashed herbs, spices, and chilli), pork, and fish, and spent hours amusing families with our digital cameras and Lao/English phrase books. After trekking we took a motorized canoe down the Nam Tha river to its confluence with the Mekong, stopping in a small village in route to sleep, play with children, and try Laotian jump rope whereby the jumper twists a rope around her ankle in one jump, then untwists it with the next. We also watched novices (young monks) practice writing in English as they spelled 'Colgate' in the dirt on the grounds of a Wat (temple). The boat down the Mekong delivered stunning scenery as karst mountains rose vertically from the river valley, riddled with caves and strewn with folliage. After a brief stop at Pak Ou caves to see thousands of Buddha figures stored within a limstone cavern, we arrived in Luang Phabang, a UNESCO world heritage site where hundreds of saffron robed monks collecting alms, are met by hundreds of camera flashes each morning as tourists seek to capture their commodified experiences on film as evidence of their travels. Today we head off to see a waterfall, and soon after we will be off to Hanoi.

We're all happy, healthy, and loving our experiences in SE Asia!
Glen

SE Asia Program: Laos Adventures

October 11: Today we started our two day trekking trip in the Nam Ha area. We left from the Boat Landing Guesthouse after breakfast. My group was doing the Nam Ha Valley Trek. We drove 15 minutes by songtao to the village of Ban Nam Lue where we started our trek. We hiked for about 3 hours, mostly uphill, to the ridge dividing the two villages land. Some parts of the trail were pretty muddy but overall not bad. We met a local woman along the trail with a huge bag of supplies carried in a sack on her head and a mesh bag with 2 kittens in it! They were to help keep the village free of rats - not for eating thank goodness! We headed downhill a short ways to a bamboo picnic table with benches where our guides laid out an impressive spread of local Laos delicacies served in banana leaf bowls. After lunch we continued downhill for about another 1-2 hours to the semi-abandoned village of Ban Na Lan Tai where we rested and played the "vegetable game." We continued about 40 minutes along the river to the new village of Ban Nam Koy - the government made the villagers relocate to be closer to outside resources. We left our bags in the visitor's hut and headed down to the river for a quick dunk to clean up. We spent the afternoon playing with the local children and watching the villagers prepare our dinner. The village is divided into two sections - one is Lanten, the other is Kahu (sorry on the spellings) - they have different belief systems but live alongside peacefully. There were tons of dogs, chickens, pigs, and cows milling about everywhere. We set out the mattresses, pillows, and mosquito nets on the raised bamboo sleeping platform and played cards then ate a dinner of sticky rice, tomato based joewl (Laos chili paste with spices), meat, veggies, and of course Lao-Lao (rice whiskey).

Trekking Day 2: We got up at about 8 am after an awesome 12 hours of sleep! We ate breakfast and filled our water bottles with "river tea" (boiled river water flavored with cardamom which tasted like smoked sausage - yuck!). We started trekking around 9 am and hiked along the river for several hours passing through an area infested with leeches! They were crawling all over our shoes and inside our socks - almost everyone had at least 1 bite. Leeches are creepy but pretty darn awesome. We reached the river with the bamboo raft around 11:30 am and swam, hung out, and ate a leisurely 3 hour lunch before crossing. After crossing we hiked another 3 hours through the jungle and rice paddies and creeks (by the end we had given up on rock hopping and just walked straight through the creeks). We reached the large river around 4 pm and were taken across in open wooden boats by young boys with long poles. We swam and drank tons of tasty regular bottled water (no more river tea! Yay!). We walked up the short bank to the waiting songtaos and the village children all waved goodbye. It was about an hour drive back to Luang Nam Tha along a dirt road cut into the hill high above the river. The road was VERY muddy with enormous ruts - I can't believe we made it through without getting stuck! We were dropped off at the Boat Landing Guesthouse where we showered, ate dinner, and had a short meeting about our 3 days of river travel before heading to bed.

River Journey Day 1: We had a lazy morning getting up, packing, eating breakfast, and exploring the street market. We loaded up our 3 open wooden boats around 10 am. I was in a boat with Zac, Bobby, Jenn, V, and Lea. We lay out our sleeping pads on the bottom/sides of the boat and made ourselves comfy for a day on the river. We passed countless villages filled with smiling, waving children (and others who did neither, simply stared silently at us passing by). We stopped at a small beach for lunch before continuing on to the village of Ban Khone Kham where we were staying the night with the family of our respective boat drivers. We dropped off our bags and were instantly surrounded by women selling sarongs in every shape, size, and color. We went down to the river for a quick swim in the gasoline/mud/sewage - ah, refreshing! We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children on the beach (duck duck goose, relay races, painting nails, etc). We had a simple dinner prepared by our boat driver's family and played cards for a couple of hours before squeezing into our 5 person sleeping area (there were 6 of us).

River Journey Day 2 (Oct 14): We got up at 5:15 am, packed up, and ate breakfast before leaving around 6:30 am. We spent the next 7 hours heading further down the Nam Tha River, stopping at what seemed like every village enroute for a minute or two to say hi or drop off items. We arrived at the confluence with the Mekong River around 1 pm. We switched to our large riverboat (coomplete with airline style seats that reclined fully, snacks, and a bathroom!) and cruised down the Mekong until we reach Pakbeng around 5:30 pm. Mels and Glen ran off to arrange accomodation and we guarded our bags fromt he locals eager to make some extra money by carrying them up the small hill to town. We lucked out and found space at the nice guesthouse. We showered and headed to the Indian restaurant next door for dinner. It took forever to get our food - over 2 hours but, hey, there were 16 of us - but it was really good!

River Journey Day 3: We left around 8:30 am after yoga and breakfast. We cruised down the Mekong all day sleeping/reading/listening to music/playing cards. We reached the Pak Ou caves around 3 pm. The two caves set into a limestone cliff along the river are jam packed with a wide variety of Buddha images/icons (over 4,000 at last count). We explored then continued the 25 km downriver to Laung Prabang, arriving just after 4 pm. We walked 10 minutes to the Xien Mouen Guesthouse and dropped off our bags plus had a quick briefing on the plans for the next few days. I spent the afternoon doing internet, researching Bali flights, and exploring the Hmong night market. For dinner we walked down to the riverfront. We ate at the Riverside Cafe. Today was the last day of Bun Awk Phansa - the End of the Rainy Season Festival and the end of Buddhist Lent - one of the two major holidays in Laos. All of the Wats were decorated with candles, streamers, incense, and paper lanterns. The streets were teeming with people eating, laughing, setting off fireworks, and generally enjoying themselves. Locals built large bamboo dragon shaped boats adorned with candles which they lit and floated down the river. Every street vendor sold Lai Heua Fai - hat sized paper/candle/flower boats. These were also lit and floated down the Mekong by the thousand. Truly an amazing sight! After dinner, we all stopped by the Hive for a drink, one of the two bars in town and done up quite swanky.

Luang Prabang- FREE DAY! I got up at 8 am and immediately headed out to the internet cafe where I booked Bali flights, called people at home on Skype, typed a massive email/blog post, etc. Lauren, Bobby, Shira, and I got all of our flights booked - now we just need to book a guesthouse in Kuta and one in Ubud. After internet, I went and got ice cream with Bobby, Lauren, and Jenn. They left to go bike riding to a local village with some of the others and I went across the street to Nazim Indian for some lunch. I then went to the Lotus Du Lao Herbal Spa and Massage for a 1 hour aromatherapy massage ($8!). I returned to the guesthouse and journalled/read until 5 pm when we all met up to go to the Wat Xien Thong, built in 1560 by King Setthathirat. We walked around the temple grounds and saw the tree of life mosaic and royal funeral chapel with 12 m high funeral chariot. Mels gave us a 30 minute talk on Buddhism (the monks were doing their sundown prayers inside the chapel - great ambience for our talk!). We all walked back into the main part of town to the Hmong Night Market - absolutely massive, at least 200 stalls selling t-shirts, textiles, jewellry, paper lanters, wood carvings, cobra whiskey, clothing, etc. I ate dinner at a vegetarian street buffet for 5,000 kip (about 50 cents).

That's all for now, folks. We are heading to the waterfall in a bit then we fly off to Vietnam tomorrow for some trekking and our Halong Bay trip before spending a view days in Hanoi recovering. Hope everything is well in your respective corners of the world!

~Jessica

SE Asia Program: A New Type of Fish Stick

I go out of my way to find the interesting, bizarre and tasty... which is
odd for a Wisconsinite, no offence to us, or our cooking styles. But the
only thing is culinarily (I think I made that word up) sophisticated is
the cheese, I wish I was lying, but my staple foods are meat and potatoes
(cheese is its own category), with salt, and maybe, if the chef is
adventourous, pepper. Our beer is cheap (shout out to Milwaukees Best and
Schlitz!!!) and the remaining food consists of cheese and sausage
platters, pasties, and fruit, only if it is sweet and, dare I say
pieified.

You think I am lying, go to a Mexican Restaurant in the upper midwest...
you will know... Now I realize that this may be a cultural exaggeration of
stereotypes (curse me if you will), but the only thing we do awesome are
the State Fairs. Now, I realize that my red neck is showing when I make
this statement, but in the Midwest, state fairs are a huge deal.

Food in Asia is like a gigantic State Fair. That is the only way to
describe it... A Culinary Extravaganza!

I just love walking through the night markets, not only are there a lot of
shiny, silky, and distracting goods, but anytime that I crave something
deep fried, on a stick, meatlike, or a combination of the aforementioned
tastes (which happens frighteningly often) a booth turns up selling these
goods.

Most of the time, I can't figure out what type of meaty, deep fried
goodness on a stick that I am getting, so I purchase it, and ask questions
later.

Tonight, I was wandering through the market in Luang Prabang, Laos,
resisting the shiny, shimmery, hand woven silk objects, cool containers of
bamboo, and exotic jewelry and gemstones on my way to the food booths.
Much to my joy, I came to the portion of the food boothes selling random
meat on a stick!

Eureaka!

There it was... right in front of me! It was a fish stick! And we aren't
talking the Vandekamps flaky fish sticks that I had to eat Fridays during
Lent growing up, I literally mean a fish, full fish, on a stick.

Anyone who knows me well enough should know of my recent (as in, right
before the trip) overcoming of my irrational fear of fish... I don't know
what caused this fear in the first place, but I have had it since second
grade, so much so, that I dashed out of our Summer Camp Water Emergency
Response training crying hysterically (at the age of 20 mind you) because
a 3 inch SunFish ran into my forehead!

There it was, fully intact, eyes, bones, skin, the whole shebang, on a
bamboo stick. Probably caught fresh from the Mekong River this morning,
and I thought to myself, what a better way to conquer your fears that to
eat them? I can't think of a better way to dispose of anything, including
things that I am not afraid of.

I bought that fish (named Fred) served on a banana leaf, and sat and
stared at his poor, grilled skin. He stared back at me, (as he still had
his expressionless fish eyes completly intact) not to eat him. I raised my
fork to his pale, skin, and started to shred him open mercelessly.

I stared at the pale flesh, took a large gulp, and chewed. My oh my, it
was the BEST fish I had ever had! And I grew up in a Great Lakes State,
where Friday Fish Frys are just what we do! Marinated, juicy and drippy
(no, it did not taste like chicken...) it was like heaven on a plate.

15 minutes later, all that was left of Fred was a few internal organs, a
spine, and a head (stupid staring eyes didn't comprehend getting eaten)

I would like to remind those of you who think fish on a stick is weird,
just remember that this year, at the Minnesota State fair, I had a deep
fried chocolate covered bacon.

Another fear conquered down to a pile of bone, in a nice, tasty way!

And I am still alive!

10 points for me!

Mandy

SE Asia Program: Muay Thai in Chiang Mai

SE Asia Program: Laos & the Mekong

SE Asia Program: Trekking the Nam Ha River Valley

Southeast Asia Program: Chiang Mai to Laos

Let's see, where did I leave off? On Oct 6, we had an early breakfast and then walked over to the Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures office where we were outfitted with climbing gear and loaded into songtaos for the 30 minute drive out to Crazy Horse Canyon. When we arrived we split into two groups (I was on Team Ahoy Ca-toi or Hello Ladyboy!!). My groups first activity was a casual walk through a couple of large caves including an introduction to cave formation. Then we practiced rappelling/abseiling on a small 20 ft cliff before our big rappel of 60 meters (almost 200 feet!). After our practice, we hiked 15 minutes up to the top of the mountain and then rappelled down one-by-one (some of us decided to "race" down the rappel - I got third place with a time of 1:48 behind Glen's 1:26 and Bennett's 1:44). After the big rappel we hiked back down to the base area and had our lunch of fried rice. After lunch we swapped activities with the other group so we did rock climbing. There were 4 routes set up and the hardest route was a 6A or 5.10. It was pretty difficult but 5 of the 8 people in our group did it (me, Glenn, Shira, Lauren, and Bennett). I climbed 3 of the 4 route before we returned to the base area, met the other group, and hiked 30 minutes through the jungle in the slippery, slimy mud to our camping area. Our four communal canvas tents had been set up already so we "showered" (a bucket with cold water) and stretched/yoga then ate dinner. After dinner the guides built a HUGE bonfire and we played "Birdie on a Perch" and roasted sticky rice.

The next day we had breakfast and drove back to the base area. Today the activities were caving and a Tyrolean traverse with free hanging rappel. Team Ahoy Ca-toi started with the Tyrolean traverse. We hiked up and into the large rappelling cave from yesterday but from a different side. Then we climbed to a spot overlooking the traverse 45 meters above the ground. Safety precautions were reviewed then we each went one-by-one across the zip-line like traverse and rappelled down. Most of our group did it twice, including Mandy and Sophea who were both hesitant at first due to the height - they were awesome! We headed back down to the base area for lunch then waited for the caving group. Everyone was totally, completely coated in mud so some of us swapped shoes as not to get another pair filthy. We headed off to the cave around 1 pm in helmets, headlamps, and thick knee pads. From the very start we were down on our hands and knees (and in some cases our stomachs) pulling, pushing, and squeezing ourselves through the muck. It took about 45 minutes to reach the "end" - a 25 meter crevasse that requires ropes and harnesses to cross. After a short break and mud wrestle or two we headed back out the way we came. We decided it would be funny to sneak through the woods and surprise the other group (they had chased us down that morning and given us all muddy hugs so we figured we would return the favor!). We were very stealthy sneaking through the woods but Zac spotted us and everyone ran for cover before we could attack! After showering with buckets and hoses we drove back to the camping area to rinse our muddy clothes then piled back into the songtaos for the ride to Chiang Mai. We showered (for real!) back at Mandala House then went to dinner at the Ratana Cafe before a much needed good night's sleep.

October 8: We had breakfast at the guesthouse before taking two songtaos to the Burmese Refugee Learning Center. Mr Sai, the founder/director who fled Burma 20 years prior, gave us a 45 minute lesson on Burmese history before we broke into volunteer groups. Half of us did English language skills while half of us did computer skills. I did computer skills but the student I was paired with was a 16 year old boy who had only been in Thailand for 4 months and spoke virtually no English. We looked at pictures on facebook, maps of various places (Thailand, Burma, Oregon, California), played an online video game involving shooting men in black suites with yellow ties, and then watched videos on youtube. We left at 11 am and had free time for the rest of the day. I walked to CMRCA and got a t-shirt since they ran out of my size yesterday. I had lunch at a juice bar/restaurant called Juice4U then walked all the way down Thanon Loi Kroh to the Apple store to see if they could fix my iPod that hasn't been working since the first day in Bangkok. Then, I went with V and Emily by songtao up to the Wat Doi Suthep high in the hills above Chiang Mai. The Wat has 306 steps leading up to it and was built on the spot where the royal white elephant carrying the self-replicating Buddha relic stopped and died. We explored the Wat and received a blessing by a monk. After returning to the guest house around 4 pm, I walked over to the Salon Loi Kroh and got a traditional Thai massage. Lots of poking and squeezing and pulling and stretching. The bruises and bug bites on my legs really hurt but the back/neck massage portion was great! At around 7 pm, I met up with V, Shira, Jenn, and Sophea at the Internet place and we went and got dinner. Then I met up with Glen, Mels, Lauren, Zac, and Emily at the guesthouse to go to a Muay Thai boxing match being held nearby. We paid our 400 bhat cover and walked down the row of bars to the ring in the middle, escorted by our very own Ca-toi! We ordered drinks and snacks and waited for the matches to start at 9:30 pm. There were 6 official matches plus the Ca-toi Cabaret Show and 2 bonus exhibition matches. The first weight class was only 100 lbs and the boys fighting looked about 10 years old. They boys progressively got older and bigger each successive match. The Ca-toi Cabaret Show included lots of spandex, feather headdresses, lip-synching, and plastic surgery! We stayed until the very end then stopped at a 7-11 for ice cream on the way home.

Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong: After breakfast and some last minute Internet, we left the guesthouse at 10:15 am for Chiang Khong on the border with Laos. We drove for two hours and stopped at a rest stop/restaurant/store called Cabbages & Condoms. Yep...condoms. They promote safe sex awareness and have some really funny condom souvenirs (their slogan is "Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy!"). We got some snacks and lunch then drove 3 more hours before stopping at a little roadside marketplace. We had coconut cream turnovers, thai iced tea bubble tea, fried bananas, taro, and various meats on sticks. We drove 30 more minutes to Chiang Khong and checked into the Namkhong Riverside Hotel. We all have wooden balconies overlooking the river and Laos across the water. We had a border crossing briefing then dinner at a local Mexican restaurant (surprisingly, pretty good if very slow). We also stopped at the Tepee Bar - literally a thatched tepee with cushions, music, and beer run by some nice but very strange characters. After dinner we returned to the hotel to pack for our border crossing tomorrow.

October 10 - Welcome to Laos! We had breakfast then took AC vans down to the river where we boarded small open wooden boats to cross the water. We disembarked in Laos in less than 10 minutes (it's a pretty narrow river). We filled out our Visa and arrival cards and paid $35 US for processing. We were met by our contact who led us up the hill to the waiting vans. V and I and Lauren and Mandy made it to the vans by 8:40 am and then waited and waited for the rest of the group. They started arriving about 9:30 am (they all got trapped behind a large group of European tourists). We exchanged money and bought snacks then drove 3 hours through the mountains to the town of Luang Nam Tha. We had lunch at the Boat Landing Guesthouse and broke into our trekking groups for tomorrow. We drove into the main part of town and the Zuela Guesthouse where we relaxed before dinner (a few people rented motos and drove out into the countryside). We met at 6:30 pm to go to the night market for dinner but the food didn't look very veggie friendly so several of us went to the Manychan Restaurant for dinner. Most of us got "lahb" for dinner, a Laos specialty of minced meat or tofu with cilantro, basil, rice, mint, lime, and chili - delicious!

More updates to follow soon.....

~Jessica

New Pacific Discovery website is live

We've just put the new Pacific Discovery website live!

It will take a couple of weeks to make sure everything is working ok before we officially launch the site. If you've just come here from a referring site like studyabroad.com, please bear with us as we re-link to the correct pages.

It's been months of work in the making and we are really happy. Enjoy taking a look through the site and send us your feedback.

Kind regards,
Scott and Rachel

Southeast Asia Program: Photos from Glen

That's it from me!

Glen

Southeast Asia Program: More photos from Glen

One more after this . . .

Southeast Asia Program: Photos from Glen

Southeast Asia Program: 10 Points for Me!

So, I have decided that I have a new goal for my trip to Southeast Asia: Live

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I have the coordination of…
well.. something without any coordination… (for example I have a scar on
my arm from running into a wall this summer) and can't walk a straight
line if my life depended on it.

Which probably explains my fear of heights… you know… falling into a
canyon or chasm really wouldn't be a surprise from someone who fell out of
the back of a stationary pick up truck on seven different occasions…

Here I am, a flatlander from Wisconsin, hiking what feel like straight
uphill for an eternity, only to strap myself to a rock wall and attempt to
climb up. For someone who has difficulty walking, this seems absolutely
ludicrous.

I was ok for the first 20 feet (out of like, 90 total feet). Then the
going got difficult, but I managed to get three quarters of the way
uphill, and then did a stupid thing… I looked down…

Nothing says insta-queasy like seeing that you are above the tree line… My
body starts to shake madly, but I continue to press upward. Then comes a
tricky section of rock, in which I navigate, well… not so much, as I fell
off the wall

I only fell about five feet… but when you feel your heart drop to your
knees and one of you biggest fears is coming into fruition, it feels like
you are falling forever. Not only was a sore, but the rock had beaten me,
so I came back down.

But I am of the stubborn type. I have tamed angry cornfields, mad cows,
and thousands of Girl Scouts… surely I can handle a vertical rock face? My
competitive will kicked in, and I vowed to return.

And an hour later, I returned, bent on reaching the top and conquering
that fear. Not only that, but I had a vendetta with that rock!!!

It took me 45 minutes the first time to reach that rock, but it only took
10 the second time. I was really determined to get over this ledge, my
legs and arms were shaking from the terror, I was holding on by one hand,
and the opposite foot, and my grip was slipping. My only hope was to
launch myself up and fervently hope that there was a handhold in the
vicinity.

I can't describe what happened when I let go, but a grabbed a rock
outcrop. When I pulled myself up, I was shaking so hard that I had to stop
climbing for the second. And I continued on to the top!

Then I turned around and looked out at the scenery (while maintaining a
death grip on the rock). There it was, a solitary rock between two
limestone mountain ranges, with the rice paddies extending through the
valley below. I couldn't tell whether it was the scenery or the fear that
took my breath away.

Vendetta settled, and I am still alive. 10 points for me!

Mandy

Southeast Asia Program: A new kind of BBQ

I am having a ball on this trip. The group is into short runs, yoga, and muay thai in the morning, followed by breakfast composed of tropical fruits and flavors seldom found in North America. They are challenging themselves physically through trekking activities, emotionally through the difficulty of interacting with those of different cultures, and mentally as they try to understand the history and languages of SE Asia. And through it all they are smiling and laughing.

This past week I especially enjoyed interacting with our Burmese guides on a short trek in Western Thailand. Our guides were Karen- which is a 'hill-tribe' of Thailand and Burma with different cultural and ethnic roots than those of the Thai majority (Tai). A memorable evening around a charcoal fire included fashioning cups from fresh cut bamboo using a leaf blade machete and trying frogs' haunches to one another to make them less mobile but keep them fresh before cooking them. I was one of a few on our trip who decided to actually eat the frogs, but I can honestly say that this was the best frog I have ever had (yep, I've eaten frogs before). The guides were amused.

After an appetizer of frog it was time to get the pig out of the bag. Three Karen men dressed in brightly colored sarongs held the pig down while it was killed with a knife and butchered. I have butchered only small animals, and was amazed by the skill of our hosts as the pig was gutted, splayed-out, and cooked on a spit over a fire. An hour later and those of us without dietary constraints were eating very fresh bacon washed down with the occassional glass of rice wine- suddenly much more aware of where our food actually comes from.

The next day we rode elephants out of the village and back to our songtaos (pick-up truck taxis with benches in the back) and wound our way out of the mountains and down to the former capitol of the ancient Lanna kingdom and the second largest city in Thailand- Chiang Mai. Here we are currently resting, getting massages, and taking Thai cooking class for a day before we begin climbing and caving tomorrow.

It's been an action packed and eye opening start to a great trip with some wonderful people.

Glen

Southeast Asia Program: Part 2 - Mae Sot, Umphang, and Chiang Mai

Ok, so to pick up where we left off: After spending the night in Mae Sot we got up early in order to go have breakfast over in Burma/Myanmar. We took a songtao to the border where we passed through Thai immigration, walked over the bridge that crosses the river dividing the two countries, and paid our 500 baht and left our passports at Burmese immigration (they make you leave the passports as collateral so they know you will come back!).

The changes were immediately noticeable - the streets seemed much busier and a bit less tidy (aka dirtier) plus most of the men wear sarongs (longhi) and the women all have on an all-natural sunscreen face paint applied in large circles to their cheeks and forehead. Our guesthouse owner had applied some of the same face paint to the females in our group so we were getting some pretty strange looks from locals. We had a line of push-cart/tuk-tuk drivers following us down the street wanting to give us a ride but we luckily encountered a very nice man named Zwa who offered to show us around. He took us down the main road and up a side street to a local bakery/tea shop. They brought us platters of burmese pastries and naan as well as herbal tea and another tea with sweetened condensed milk. We then headed over to the local Wat and bought small offerings to be given to the buddha (consisting of a flower, a paper decorative stick, a candle, and an incense stick). There are four main buddhas on the temple grounds - one for each cardinal direction. Our guide also showed us the altars dedicated to the 8 days of the week (Wednesday is split into morning and evening). Each day has an animal associated with it and, based on the day of the week you were born, it is said that you will share some of the character traits of that animal. On your birthday, you go to the altar and they dump cupfuls of water on your head (equal to the number of years).

After the quick tour of the Wat it was time to head back over into Thailand but overall it was a very eye-opening and worthwhile little side venture. After crossing back over into Thailand we met the songtaos, went back to the guesthouse to have the fried rice we had ordered for dinner, and then loaded back into the songtaos for the 6 hour drive to Umphang. We stopped enroute at the Pha Charoen waterfall and then again at the Umphang Hill Gibbon Sanctuary which houses over 50 animals rescued from the tourist trade where they are drugged up and put in bars to entertain tourists. They were very cute and some of the them let us scratch their backs! One even stole V's shirt off of her backpack and they had to fish it back out of the cage! After the gibbon sanctuary it was a long haul up to Umphang in the backs of the songtaos - we chatted and played games and tried not to puke.

After arriving in Umphang we had dinner at the resort, checked into our rooms (most of our accomodation has been very nice, these were definitely the worst of the trip thus far - we had trails of ants on the walls and cockroaches in the bathroom and the AC didn't work and the beds were rock hard planks), and packed our daypacks for the 3 day trek. We left the next morning after breakfast by launching 3 rafts into the river next to the resort. I was with Jen, Shira, Bobby, V, and Emily plus two porters in my raft. We rafted for about an hour through the dense jungle under the massive limestone cliffs, then stopped at a natural hot spring for a quick soak. We continued on for another couple of hours, stopping on a small beach for lunch. After arriving at the trailhead we hiked for 3 hours to the campsite (very steep uphill for the first hour but the rest of the trek was fairly flat). Once at the campsite, the porters set up our tents under the huge tent shelter on the concrete and cooked dinner while we went and bathed in the nearby river. After dinner we stayed up playing card games, drinking rice whiskey, and singing along to the Thai tourist with the guitar.

The following morning was October 2 - Happy Birthday Lauren! We ate breakfast then trekked an hour through the jungle along a raised boardwalk to the Thee Lor Su Waterfall, the sixth largest in the world (200-300 meters high and 5 football fields wide!). We played around in some of the slightly less powerful side cascades and pools for a few hours before returning to camp. We had lunch and continued our trek for another 3-4 hours to the Karen village of Kho Tha. The hike was fairly level but there was a lot of mud and several fallen log bridges to cross.

At the village we were greeted by a group of curious children and lots of pigs, cows, chickens, and dogs running about amongst the houses raised up on stilts. We stayed in the guest longhouse which consisted of bamboo mats on a raised platform covered by mosquito nets. We headed to the river for a quick swim then changed into our clean clothes (clean...yeah right) and went on a quick village tour. We saw the open-air school and soccer field and met with the village chief to ask questions about village life (through Moses, our guide/translator). Then it was off to dinner where they had slaughtered a whole pig in honor of Lauren's birthday (ironic since she's Jewish and doesn't eat pork but interesting nonetheless).

The following morning we ate breakfast and waited for the elephants to arrive. 9 elephants and mauhots (their handlers who live with them in the jungle) plus one super cute baby elephant arrived at about 8:30 am. We had two people to an elephant. Our packs were loaded into the basket on the elephants back and then we sat on top of our packs. Very cool! The trek through the jungle lasted about 5 hours and I got super muddy since our elephant decided to splash us as much as possible and run me into low hanging branches at every opportunity! At the end of the elephant trek we were met by songtaos for the 30 min ride back to the Umphang Resort. That afternoon, we took the songtaos back to Mae Sot, took some much needed showers, and ate at a very nice restaurant called the Bai Fern which had western and Thai food.

The next morning we loaded up into AC vans and drove 5-6 hours to Chiang Mai stopping at the Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, the oldest wooden Wat in Thailand from the 15th century. We checked into our guesthouse, the Mandala house (very very nice!!), around 3:30 pm then split up into two groups to go get our Thai massages. I got Swedish because I'm a wimp but several people got Thai and enjoyed it. After the massages we headed to the Night Market and the Kalare Center for some Thai style food court food. I bought several great gifts and then we all met up again at the Riverside Bar for some live music and drinks. And that brings us to today!

Happy Birthday to me! Yay! After breakfast we split up into two groups for the Chiang Mai Challenge Scavenger Hunt and Thai Cooking Course (I was in the group that did the scavenger hunt first). We had two hours to run around Chiang Mai taking photos and answering the various questions on our checklist. Now we have a couple hours to kill before our afternoon cooking course so here I am, typing the longest email ever. Tonight we are going to a falafel restaurant for dinner then out dancing. Tomorrow we get picked up early for our 2 day caving, rock climbing, rappelling adventure before returning to Chiang Mai for two more nights. Until then!

Jessica

Southeast Asia Program: Part 1 - First Few Days....

From September 30, 2008:

Hello from Mae Sot! We just got here a couple of hours ago after the 2 hour drive up from Sukhothai where we spent last night. To rewind a bit, I got into Bangkok right on schedule and met up with Mels and Glenn (our two guides). We waited for several of the other people to arrive (CC & Zac & Sophea & Bennett). We took a crazy little pimped out van to the guest house in western Bangkok (the New Siam II) and got to bed around 3 am.

The following day we took the local water ferry to see the Wat Pho, the largest and oldest temple in Bangkok (and home of the Reclining Buddha - he is 15m tall and 42m long BTW!). We took tuk-tuks back to the guesthouse and that afternoon after everyone else arrived we had a 2 hour trip briefing then hung out in the pool until going to a local restaurant for dinner.

The following morning we got up at 5:30 am and took the train to Phitsanulok (a 5 hour trip but we were in the Second Class car with AC so it was ok). From there we were driven in vans to our guesthouse in Sukhothai, the Lotus Village. We spent the afternoon at the nearby community center pool playing with the local children. This morning we did a 3 hour bike ride amongst the 70+ ruins at Sukhothai including a little briefing on Thai history. We had lunch at a little cafe then took vans up into the mountains of Mae Sot (on the border with Burma). We just went to a local temple where they have an herbal sauna. Tomorrow we are crossing into Burma for the morning to explore a bit then taking songtaos (trucks with bench seats in the bed) up to Umphang Sanctuary. From there it is 3 days of rafting, trekking, staying in villages, and riding elephants. I calculated and we will be in Chiang Mai for my birthday (Day 1 of the trip was Sept 27).

Jessica

Southeast Asia Program: Sawadee and welcome to Intensity!

I now proclaim the initiation of the Fall 2008 Pacific Discovery Blog! Whew, where to begin?

To be frank, immediately after stepping off the plane, we've all been propelled into an intensity of experiences. And it is only until now that I have had a moment to reflect on the past week. And what a week it was.

Most of us arrived on Saturday where we had our first team meeting and orientation at the guesthouse. Slowly we got to know each other through awkward introductions, anticipating future friendships that would inevitably come. Only, we didn't expect them to come so fast. But alas, thus is the nature of intense experiences.

On Sunday we took the train up to Sukkhothai and cycled around the beautiful and enchanting ruins. With the beating hot sun, we all enjoyed the cool breeze felt from the carefree ride. And from there, the intensity began. In the following days we traveled to Mae Sot, spoke with former Burmese prisoners, crossed over to Burma for a most unique breakfast experience, trekked through goopy mud in the rainforest, visited a Karen village hill tribe where we enjoyed a delicious dinner by candlelight, and rode elephants through the jungle. And we're only on day seven! I think my previous "whew" was an understatement! WHEW!

And now, with the time to reflect, I must say - what an amazingly unique and beautiful world we live in. With only experiencing a small piece of this corner in Asia, I am mesmerized by the beautiful smiles, the savory food and street cart delicacies, and the absolutely pituresque scenery. And on a whole other level, I am also amazed at the friendships that have already developed only one week into our south east Asia adventures. Camping with bare necessities and experiencing such raw cultural situations, it becomes nearly inevitable to get to know one another and to develop a deep commradery and support for one another.

I can't believe this much can be said for one week. But this doesn't even do justice for what we are all feeling in our hearts and minds. I can't wait to see what the next weeks hold for us. Stay tuned for future intensity in the posts to come!

- Emily