Farewell to Thailand

It's hard to believe that I'm leaving Thailand tomorrow morning and it's already been four weeks. I've made some good friends here and I've collected lots and lots of data. I measured 435 skulls and nearly finished measuring the entire collection. Data collection was finished on Tuesday and I spent Wednesday and Thursday working on my presentation that I gave. It turned out okay, the staff appeared to be really interested in my work. Today I'm taking it slow and not doing much except packing.

Last Sunday I managed to go do a little sightseeing so that was a lot of fun. I took lots of pictures during that day. There isn't many sights to be seen in Khon Kaen, but there's a large Buddhist temple (Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon) that overlooks the lake (Bueng Kaen Nakhon) in the city. It's all very pretty. A large rainstorm was threatening in the distance and it was quite ominous.
This is a view of the lake from the top of the temple.
This is a statue on the second floor of the temple. There are a total of nine floors. Nongnuch's daughter Plankton was with us that day and she and I have become quite friendly even though she doesn't speak English. I thought her how to play thumb wars and she's getting quite good. Can you believe that she's only eight years old??!! She's nearly my height.
I took a picture of the flooded streets when we were coming back from the temple, and some of the smaller cars were getting stuck. I couldn't believe that people on motorcycles would try to get across in the flooded streets since it was at least knee high.
I really enjoyed my time in Thailand, despite all the mosquito bites and the doxycyline doing quite a number on my stomach and the constant heartburn. I hope to return someday and see Dr. Panya, Nongnuch, Ann, Dewkey, and Plankton again. So tomorrow morning I fly off to Taiwan. Talk to you all there!

One more week in Thailand

Happy Independence Day! Hope you're all having a fabulous holiday with lots of picnic food and fireworks.

There's not much to report here, I think I'll finish my data collection Tuesday/Wednesday. That will leave me with enough time to work on my presentation on Thursday and time to relax on Friday. I have worked on my presentation but it's not up to snuff yet.

I leave for Taipei on Saturday morning and will be there for two weeks. I think I'll be done with my data collection in a week or a week and a half and my aunt and cousin are coming to Taipei for a couple of days while I'm there so I get to see the sights with them.

Nongnuch took me to the student night market here at KKU, which is an outdoor market with lots of food and goods vendor. There was so much food! It's not the most sanitary, but it was delicious. I had heard about all the night markets in Thailand and I was excited to go see one for myself. I took a couple of pictures of the market but I couldn't get any of the food.

I was excited about eating sticky rice and grilled corn, along with oyster pancakes and I'm happy to report all of it was delicious. I would have like to have dessert too but I was too full. They had a lot of ice-cream, dessert soups, sweet waffles, etc. They even had a sushi vendor that patrons picked the pieces they wanted and boxed it away.

Here's Nongnuch ordering a soup broth noodle meat dish. Much of the food was cooked there on the spot.There's a covered area with tables for eating and it's surrounded by food vendors.
There was quite a bit of people walking about even though it had just rained before and some of the vendors did not show up.Later today Nongnuch is going to take me around Khon Kaen so I can see some of the sights. I don't know where she's taking me but I hope to have some good pictures of it all. Have a good weekend!

Propositioned?

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile but I haven't had anything to write. But today something very strange happened to me. I got up a little later than normal since I was woken up by mosquitoes biting me in my room in the middle of the night and I had a hard time going back to sleep.

After breakfast I decided to go to the KKU Complex to get some souvenirs and conditioner. I was dressed in a tank top and a pair of bermuda shorts. When I was done, I waited for the shuttle bus back to the hotel. A guy also got on and stared at me, then proceeded to make small talk with me in English. He asked me my name, where I was from, etc. Then he sat down next to me and said 'I like you' and kissed my shoulder! Needless to say, I rushed off the bus and was a little freaked out. I wasn't sure if I was just propositioned or he was just a strange guy. I've seen plenty of women wear shorts, so I know that is culturally appropriate. My friend also wore a tank top the other day, so I thought that was culturally appropriate too. But apparently maybe not, so I will not be wearing tank tops here anymore. It's crazy what passes for appropriate dress here because I've seen some women dress in skirts that have thigh high slits nearly to their crotch! So after that experience, I'm keeping everything wrapped up.

Besides that experience, it has been a decent week. I've got lots of data and I'm chugging along. Although the doxycycline is still making me a little queasy. My interview with the nursing students took way longer than it should, but it was just part of their school project.

Dr. Panya told me that I would have to give an hour long presentation on my work during the last Thursday that I'm here, so I have to figure out what I'm going to say. I'm working on that today, my only day off of the week. I guess I have to come up with something to say.

I went out to dinner with Dr. Panya and his students on Friday night and it was really fun. I had so much to eat and it was all delicious (ah-loy). The waiter took a picture of all of us, Nongnuch and Dr. Panya is sitting next to me. Ann is sitting across from me and Ghee is sitting next to her.
I also took some pictures of the shuttle, the new taxi service here in Khon Kaen, and inside of the complex.
Look at all the motorbikes!I think that's all for now. I will try to take some more pictures and post when something strange happens to me. Have a good weekend!

Feeling Queasy

Not much new to report here in Khon Kaen. I was not feeling well last night since I think I inadvertently ate dairy within the two hours of taking my anti-malarials and may have ingested some insect repellent, resulting in a very upset stomach. I definitely need my anti-malarials since I've attacked by the mosquito population and I think I have roughly twenty mosquito bites so far.

As I'm sitting here in the hotel lobby typing out this blog post, I was just approached by a group of nursing students who wanted to interview me for some reason or another (they asked me where I was from and I told them USA, then they said something about why they wanted to talk to me). I told them okay, so they're going to interview me tomorrow. It's going to be interesting since they don't appear to speak very good English.

I think people are shocked that I'm from America and have decided to come to Khon Kaen since not many tourists come here. Last night I met a woman in the hotel lobby who was having trouble with her wireless so she asked me to help her. I tried to help her but her laptop was not cooperating. We got to talking and she told me that I looked Thai Chinese, hence her initial assumption that I was Thai. Her name was Pooh and she works for the Johnson and Johnson Company in Bangkok. Her English was quite good and she offered to show me around Bangkok (then proceeded to give me her phone number) if I was ever there. I'm not going to take her up on the offer since I'm not going to be in Bangkok, but I wonder if this is part of the Thai hospitality that I've heard about.

Tonight I managed to take a picture of the skin lightening washes I talked about last week. It's a UV lightening cleanser according to the packaging. I don't know what that means but it sounds painful.
That's it for tonight, I'll try to write another post in a couple of days when I get some new pictures. Have a good night!

Day Off

Today was my day off, so I slept in a little and decided to venture out around campus. After breakfast I went to the market/stores area right outside of campus. This area is just a little further from the Faculty of Medicine. Here is a picture of the road I walk along everyday to the Faculty of Medicine.

Here is a picture of the building that I work in everyday.

These are views from the overpass of the main road in Khon Kaen. The overpass sign shows a picture of the Thai royal family (I think).

Most of the stores were closed when I walked by since it was still early (10AM). I was able to take some pictures of the campus and the food stalls. Here is a picture of a fruit stall along the street. Khon Kaen and Thai people in general love their fruit, so you find many of these stalls along the street and in markets. They will cut up the fruit and put them in little clear plastic bags and sometimes serve it with a sugar and chili powder mixture.

Thai people are also very religious, so there are many Buddhist shrines outside of buildings. I even saw a monk today! When people pass by the shrine across my hotel, they wai or bow their head in prayer. Here is a picture of a small shrine outside an apartment complex (I think, but it could have been a hotel).

Here is a larger shrine outside of the hospital.

I was out for maybe an hour or two, and by the time I got back to the hotel, I was dripping in sweat. After I sat in the air conditioning for awhile, I went to the KKU student complex for lunch. It’s about a 10 minute walk to the complex and next to the complex is a small park. Here’s a couple of pictures of the park with little dinosaur statues. The guidebooks say that a dinosaur species was discovered nearby and the people have embraced the dinosaur around the city.
After lunch, I decided to have a little adventure on the KKU shuttle bus. I rode the bus around campus so I could see the different areas of the campus (I think the drivers thought I was crazy, since I think I took three different shuttles). I had to walk and wait around for the bus, so I managed to get a strange tan. As I was waiting/walking along the bus route, I took a picture of the local “buses” to the different areas of town. These are called songtaiw, which are just covered pickup trucks that go different routes. I asked Nongnuch about it yesterday and she said they are kind of scary to ride on. The guide books said the drivers weave in and out of traffic and sometimes they are so packed that people hang off the backs.

Yesterday Dr. Panya bought pizza and chicken wings for everyone working with the collection, which was really nice. I’m never going to go hungry in Thailand since everyone keeps feeding me! Thai pizza was like American pizza but Thai people eat it very differently than we do. The order of pizza came with a giant bag of twenty packets of ketchup and they would put a packet of ketchup on each slice of pizza before they ate it. We finished our impromptu meal with some DQ ice-cream, which was welcome on the hot day. DQ was the only recognizable fast food chain I’ve seen here so far, I wonder if there’s a McDonald’s close by so I can take a picture of it. I also had Pad Thai for the first time here yesterday and it was delicious. Pad Thai is more of a street food, found in markets and stalls. It’s not available at the hotel restaurant, so I have to wait until Nongnuch is around so she can order it for me.

Tomorrow I continue data collection, so I'm spending the rest of the day doing non educational things, like watching World Cup games or reading Harry Potter. Hope you're all having a good weekend and Father's Day!

Almost the end of the first week...

Hi all!

It's Friday night here and I am going to collect data tomorrow, so there's not much relaxing to be had. After five days here, I have collected data from nearly 100 skulls, and I think I will collect more data next week since I'm getting into my groove.

I think I may have shocked Nongnuch the other day when she asked me if I was religious and I told her I wasn't. She was flabbergasted. Then she asked me if I wanted to go with her one morning when she brings food to the local monks (a local Buddist tradition). I just told her since my parents weren't religious I wasn't raised to be and left it at that.

Then I proceeded to shock her again when she asked me if I had a boyfriend and I said no. I guess she was shocked at my spinsterhood, then she suggested I get a Thai boyfriend so I could improve my Thai. I laughed at her suggestion but it does seems like a good way to improve my language skills. I think I can currently say/identify 10-20 different things. Most of what I can say appears to revolve around food. Thai people eat a lot but they are really skinny. They kept commenting that I don't eat that much, and for anyone that knows me, that is so not true. They like to have a rice dish with meat and then fruit and dessert after each meal. It's a lot of food! Here's a picture of my dinner at the hotel restaurant.
I still can't get used to the crazy motorbike riders here. I forgot to get a picture today, but I will soon. It's pretty standard to see three or four people crammed on a motorbike on the roads here, but today I saw two guys riding a motorbike and the guy on the back was carrying a full sized ladder! If I was that guy I would be really tired.

Every morning in front of my hotel there are women who sit and sell their silk wares. They even weave silk cloths, purses, and other goodies while they sit. They are gone by the time I get back for the evening. One of these mornings I will look at their wares and buy some souvenirs. Here's a picture of them selling their stuff.
There is a shrine across my hotel that many students frequent before exams to pray for good luck. It's really pretty with lots of elephant statues in the front. I still have yet to see an actual elephant though. Here are some pictures of the shrine.
The food is really good here and really cheap. I just have to be careful not to order the spicy stuff, cause then it's REALLY spicy. I wish they had the chili pepper icons next to the menu like they do at Chinese restaurants back home. However, I now know the Thai word for chili so I know what to avoid.

One last note, one thing that really confuses me about Thailand is that their toilet paper is very strange. It's not a continuous roll, but rather square by square (if they have it). I haven't really adjusted to using this type of toilet paper, so it's a good thing that I brought travel toilet paper. The toilet at school doesn't have toilet paper, so I have to remember to bring my own everyday, so I'm learning to adjust.

Otherwise, life here is good, albeit a little rural for my liking. I really like my hosts and Dr. Panya is really sweet and funny. I'm collecting lots of data and I may be even able to finish the entire collection in a month! I hope that I get to see some of the sights before I leave, but it's work first then play later.

Internet access again!

Hi all,

My hotel lost power two nights ago and I haven't been able to access the internet since then. It was weird waking up to find my room pitch black and the air not working. Thankfully, the power was out during the night and by the time I was getting ready, power was restored.

It's official, I'm Thai. Yesterday, a woman pulled up besides me in her car and asked me for directions. I gave her a blank look and looked at the guy standing next to me also waiting for the bus to tackle that question. I'm not sure if she thought I was an idiot or rude. I really have to perfect my Thai so that I can say I don't speak Thai in Thai. Currently I can say four things: I'm full, I'm hungry, hello, and thank you. It's not the most useful vocabulary but it'll work for me. By the end of the month, I think I should be able to say a sentence or two.

I've managed to collect data from over 50 skulls, so I'm making decent progress, but not quick enough to go through the entire collection by the end of the month. The collection is pretty extensive, albeit a little gross since some of the beetle remains are still inside the skulls. It's weird to think that some of these people have been dead for less than a year. The collection consists of people donating their body to the school and they have died from various causes. There are also a lot of monks in the collection, which I find strange because I thought they would have buried them by the monastery.

Yesterday was my most productive day and I got 28 skulls measured. Whereas today, I only got 17 skulls measured. Dr. Panya requested that I go to the Graduate Student seminar today for the Department of Anatomy at noon. It's a weekly seminar where someone, either staff or student presents a paper entirely in English about their research. Today the topic was about Alzheimer's, which was interesting. After the speaker gave her talk in English, the floor was open to questions, which were mostly in Thai. I didn't quite understand what was going on, but I noticed lots of laughing. I even got to ask a question in English of course, which kind of stumped the speaker and I felt bad. Then Dr. Panya introduced me to the department and I had to say a few words. I asked Nongnuch why they have the seminars in English and she told me it was to strengthen their English skills for when they give professional presentations.Dr. Panya wants me to give a 40 minute presentation my last week here about both my Master's thesis and my work here at KKU. I guess I have to get to work on that since I have no clue what to say.

It stormed for the first time here tonight, so that was nice since it might cool things down here. It's been over 100 degrees everyday since I've been here. It's been unbearably hot and humid.

I thought I would take some pictures of the different types of snacks available here in Thailand since it is highly amusing to me. When I arrived at the Bangkok airport, I bought a bag of chips to eat. It was a bag of Lay's chips, but it was Nori Seaweed flavor and according to the bag, is the number one best seller. It's actually quite tasty and does taste a little like seaweed. Here's a picture of one that I bought here in Khon Kaen.
I also included a picture of the bags of chips that housekeeping leaves for me in my fridge in my room. From the picture, I can only deduce that it's crab or seafood flavored or it's made of crab roe?
I couldn't get a picture of the weird toiletries for sale at the Mini-mart next to my hotel. I had wanted to get some facial cleanser since I apparently didn't remember to bring any. However, the only cleanser the store sells are whitening products. I'm not kidding you, all the facial cleanser and shower creams had whitening or lightening products in it. At least, that's what the English name said. Now I'm not sure if this was translated wrong, or if they actually mean to lighten the skin. I'm very tempted to buy a bottle and use it myself, but I'm a little scared of what it will do to my skin.

I think that's all for now, in the coming days I hope to be able to take a picture of the college uniforms and the cheers they do, along with all the motorbikes in the campus.