Lasting Impressions

***check back in a week, photos to be posted***

This is my final day in Southeast Asia, after a full five months. I feel like I've truly done so much, that all I have on my agenda for today is to eat some street vendor pad thai and get a massage. Bangkok has grown on me to the point of becoming one of my favorite cities, first impressions do only terrible things for this city's reputation, but there's more beneath the touts, pollution, tuk-tuk traffic and all.

Wrapping up the excursion of a lifetime with pops I will recap our final week: From Hanoi, Vietnam we went to Yangon, Myanmar. Having visited the country under very different circumstances, namely for research into the plight of the persecuted refugee seekers, it was interesting to venture into the capital city. Guilt about spending any money in this dictator-administration made us pay close attention to the family run small guesthouses and Thai-based airlines. We have been told, and hold firm to this, that a little international exposure of what life outside this oppressive government can be like is good for the citizens of Myanmar/Burma/Bagan*.

*Myanmar is the name given by the corrupt genocidal government. Burma was the name of the country under British imperialism, locals have never referred to their country as Burma. So perhaps we should call it Bagan, the only original claim to unadulterated identity.

A small word on corruption: If you were to change money from USD to Myanmar Kyat at an official government run money changer the exchange rate would be 6:$1, however if you were to change on the illegal black market in the alleys of downtown you're looking at 1,150 Kyat to one US dollar. That is beyond ridiculous. And of course pity the fool who attempts to be official in this land and changes money "officially" they'll be spending nearly $200 for a cup a joe, that might cost 2500 Kyat. One dude who approached us with an itinerary for the day to all the sites and asked questions like, "what do you do for a living? What do you study in school? Are you staying in a big hotel or a guesthouse?" He told us he was the administrator official of something, and we quickly left him. Otherwise people were immensely friendly, invitations to homes flew at us, we were of course some of the only foreigners, and certainly two of the few actual tourists around.

Christmas Eve was spent in Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia. It was a riotous time of every Western holiday jumbled into one night (Santas everywhere, aerosol sprays to look like snow, red heart shaped confetti, roast turkey dinners at every restaurant, people in costumes: minnie mouses, reindeer, rabbits, crazy wigs, streamers and noise makers and partiers in the streets... truly a little of everything, pretty impressive for an Islamic Nation. The next morning we just missed our flight to Bali because I didn't realize it was an hour later time zone. Our only hiccup, and we were put on the next flight. Penalty: spending Christmas day in an airport.

We did make it back to Bali, beautiful beach weather, luscious gardens, ohmysoul fantastic food! And I got a moment to pop back to the clinic and give big hugs and kisses to my favorite midwives, Ibu Kadek and Ibu Agung Mas! It was a wonderful surprise reunion. Bali was good to us, as always. I can't wait to be back.

Lastly in Bangkok, and here I wrap up all. I will be back Monday night late. Looong flight awaits, and then snow and friends and family and classes and Godiva and American grocery stores and skiing and my own pillow (if Forest will send it back!) and so much more!

I can't speak Vietnamese

I love Hanoi. I will absolutely venture back to this country. I had the absolute hardest time with the language, which has only further justified my need to return... someday. I have been very proud of myself for picking up a surprising handful of words and phrases, everywhere we go. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not convince anyone in Vietnam that I was attempting to speak in fact, their language.

Some of favorite moments were:

Dad approached by a classic shoe shine boy who leans in close and says "Very cheap, I shine your shoes, only one million dollars."

Marvelous pho, though vegetarian is rather unheard of, so I'm still very much looking forward to that cozy spot on the Ave back home, as well as of course the Taramind Tree on Jackson (the Little Saigon of Seattle.)

And my best vegetarian moment thus far in all my travels...
(Dad and I are planning a trip to Hu Long Bay which includes a meal.)

I say: I'm vegetarian.

Our booker says: OK, no problem, if you don't like the seafood you can have beef.

Me: Oh, but I'm vegetarian, I don't eat meat.

He: Oh, absolutely, no problem. If you don't like beef, we have chicken.

Me: I'm sorry, but I don't eat chicken, only vegetables.

He: Absolutely, we have everything, if you don't like chicken we have BEEF! (my emphasis)

There are many other reasons why I loved Vietnam, but for now here is my little snippet. Still without photographs*, but too bad!

Well, Happy Merry Christmas Eve to those out there practicing, and Happy Whatever-else to All, where ever you are. I cannot wait for snow in Seattle, despite what everyone says.

*These were added at a later date. Photographs of old propaganda posters, still ubiquitous.

The Rundown

Brunei, not to be confused with Bahrain or Burundi (which is what dad's emailed itinerary said for a long time, and I thought, "wow we start out in sub-Saharan Africa eh?"), happens to be a tiny Islamic Nation on the island of Borneo, shared with Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo. On our flight there we were blessed by a reading over the PA system of the "Muslim Travel Prayer" which was translated into English on the screens. Oh Allah that he may deliver us in this vessel to other lands in his Great name, Praise Allah. Something like this, all in glorious Arabic monotone syllables trailing deeply at the end of each stanza. It is Federally prohibited by law to tamper with the smoke detector in the lavatories... or to eat pork. Once settled into the capital (which takes up a good portion of the country) Badar Seri Begawan, We promptly ventured into the jungles of Borneo. It was beautiful, a rain forest complete with steamy canopy of treetops. I've never seeped so much from my sebaceous glands in my life!

Our next stop required that we transit through Singapore (busy bustling city that we very nearly saw only through the metro system until we decided to visit the zoo where we saw beautiful enormous trees like I've never seen before and lush gardens, not to mention a stroll with the Dik-Diks and Zaboomafoo Lemurs) and on to Cairns, Australia for a slightly longer layover. Cairns, turns out, is prime Great Barrier Reef going, so we did. Yes indeed, I snorkeled yet again, and who wouldn't chuck their ictheaophobia to the surf at the old GBR? Dad did an introductory dive that in the end I wish I had done as well, but the experience was still amazing. Cerulean waters that can otherwise only be conjured with pallet-able acrylics. The fish were pretty freaky, but far enough away that I was not entirely threatened. One of our boat crew tried to point out a turtle and "inadvertently" chucked me overboard! He proceeded to entice me to swim around while he threw leftovers to the massive horrifying big ones with incisors, well, I did no such thing. Bizarre phobias like mine elicit everyone to attempt fish antics.

Port Moresby is notoriously one of the most dangerous cities around these days--so says guidebooks and everyone we met. Where do we sign? After a fitful rest full of terrifying nightmares shortly after we arrived, of people entering the hotel room and brandishing machetes and blowing up barricades, we ended up having loads of fun in Papua New Guinea. Fantastic folks, we never saw any machetes or rape or throat slitting that the area is known for. We were by far the only tourists, a few foreigners (Japanese and Australian) on business with oil, but no tourists. We met a coffee farmer, called Joe, who loves his half of the island (not caring so much for the Indonesian half) and showed us a great time.

From PNG we realized we were that close to the Solomon Islands, so why not? We paid a visit to Honiara, where again only NGOs and missionaries tend to tread. This was the spot where JFK washed up shore after his ship was torpedoed in WWII. Some of the Solomoners have amazingly contrasted dark skin with bright blond hair! Goes to show me (I can only speak for myself I suppose) how little of this world I can really know tucked away in our ethnocentric U.S. of A.

We had to return to Oz-tralia to the outback capital of Darwin, which despite my predisposed ideas, was nothing like cowboyland Montana. From there we took off to Dili, East Timor. Everyone kept asking if we were on the UN flight? Oh no, we said, we're on the earlier one, we'll make sure it's OK for them though. Dili was awesome. It was fun to try to speak a blend of Indonesian and Portuguese. We met several of the UN presence that were around every corner, and learned that they don't associate much with the locals, they (the UNers) seemed suspicious and pretentious. But I would definitely make my way back to Timor Leste someday. I'm also happy to have made it through the densest part of the disease-carrying mosquito territory for the trip (resistant malaria, hemorrhagic dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, blah blah blah).

Back through Singapore and onto Bangkok we have recharged for the remainder of the ride. With two shiny new visas in hand and after having finally found the movie theater where you sit in luxurious lazy boys and are treated to massage chairs and complimentary drinks all for $15, we are ready to keep going.

It's been a whirlwind to say the least and once-in-a-lifetime to say the most!

Must Use Words

I cannot yet post photos. I will at some point. But it makes me realize how much I rely on photography to capture moments and insights. Does a picture really tell a 1000 words, I feel like at least more words than I feel I can write (even I don't read really long blog postings.)

I think back on so many things I've seen that I did not capture (hahah, despite what many may think, I didn't spend the past 5 months behind a lens) Some of my favorite savored memories are the following (ones I wish I had a photo of, but will have to etch it into my memory instead): a gaggle of novice monks in Burma wearing vibrant orange all trying on faux gold Rolex watches, jostling each other, enjoying a taste of materialism. A well balanced toddler, maybe 3 or 4 riding a bicycle that was built for an adult, straddling the lowest bar, tippie-toe on the pedals and barely reaching the bottom of the handle bars to steer.

Ok, now let's see if I can describe the past two weeks and the six countries I have visited while whirlwind traveling with my dad...

***shoot! Ran out of time, hahahah, will post again soon!***

Heaviness

Dear all,

The above photo gallery goes like this: Village Spirit Man and grandson, Dorothy's ruby slippers in the hills of Northern Thailand, 85 year old traditional Lahu midwife, Three photographs of watercolor paintings from a book I bought depicting the illegal refuge seeking journey of the Karen people escaping Burma, A small girl crossing the road in a "floating village" in Cambodia, Myself with some new friends (one 5 months pregnant with the first of probably 7 children she said), and a somber face of Angkor Wot.

Since last posting I have been in a bit of a whirlwind of tragedy.

It all began very sweetly with a farewell to Forest, and then the entire group ventured off on our "educational trek." To the surrounding hills of Chiang Mai to spend some time with the hill tribe communities in northern Thailand. We were received with incredible hospitality in the home of the spirit man from the Lahu tribe. You can see him photographed wearing his toddler grandson on his back. We had a beautiful time even though I couldn't stop thinking about the difference between Thailand's Native communitites and North America's as far as brutality, oppression, and genocide. This kind of cultural observation tourism rightfully would never happen in the States--leaving me rather uncomfortable in this setting. Then, I returned Chiang Mai to devastating news from home.

With so little time to comprehend it all, I had to leave almost immediately for our site visit to the border town of Mae Sot. Kimberlee and I were conducting our research into the healthcare system disparities facing displaced persons escaping political turmoil and persecution in Burma. The currupt military Junta has been striving for massive ethnic cleansing and genocide since the 60s.

We visited a grass roots healthcare clinic that was started by a physician from Burma who escaped in order to help others in their plight for refuge. We also were invited to visit the medical director of the nearby refugee camp. Although we had previously attempted to gain official government documentation in order to enter the camp and were in constant contact with the Ministry of Interior, time was not on our side. We thought it was a lost cause. When we met with a French NGO working with the camp (AMI) we were told that it would be possible--if we were willing to follow specific instructions. Up for the challenge we were told to hop on a pick up truck heading to the next town (7 hours from Mae Sot), and to tell anyone who asks, that's where we were heading. We were to pass a police check point, followed by an army check point (if we passed another army check point we missed it). We would start to see a fence, sometimes bamboo, sometimes barbed wire. Wait to get off the truck until you see the end of the 4 km fenced off camp. Walk around until you see a hole or bent part of the fence and just walk through. Yikes!

Well we did so, but not before witnessing two women and their small toddlers get plucked off the truck at the army point because they didn't have identification. We were told that sometimes these patrollings result in imprisonment, and sometimes people are made to clean the army barracks and then are allowed to continue on. This was difficult for us to observe, women attempting to bring bags of rice and fresh vegetables to the camp for their families and roughly ordered off the vehicle by the same officers who smiled at the two of us, like this was a perfectly normal thing a tourist like us would see.

Inside the camp we wandered through slippery muddy narrow walk ways on precarious hills in the two feet alotted between some homes. Homes were bamboo thatch, but poorly-made, cramped and populated. We started asking for "hospital?" and a Karen woman called Rebecca left her cooking to walk us there. We met the medical director of the camp's main hospital and interviewed him for our project and received a tour of the stark concrete and tent structure, housing patients with Tb, cholera, psychosis, and run-of-the-mill myriad other illnesses including an entire unit dedicated to diarrhea. Apparently there was also an avian influenzae outbreak at the next camp north. We were incredibly moved by the dedication, determination and optimism of this man and the plight of his community; displaced, illegal, without access to sustainable resources and living in despair, many for nearly 20 years now. When we asked him what were his un-met needs, he told us they could really use stretchers to collect the patients.

I could go on forever about this single experience; one of the most profound moments of my life.

Back in Chiang Mai I presented another project on schizophrenia and then turned right around again to head to Cambodia for the extended Thanksgiving holiday. It wasn't until we'd arrived by train to Bangkok that we learned there had been a bomb at the airport. The anti-government protestors, who have been working hard at gaining some justice in their corrupt society for over 6 months, staged what was to be a very difficult and terrifying finale to the politic unrest here in Thailand. [I could go on and on, but let me get back to Cambodia.]

We travelled by land across the border into the far more corrupt, Communist government of Cambodia. We made it to Siem Reap, home of the ancient Buddhist ruins of Angkor Wat. We spent our few days surrounded by the beauty of the temples and the incredible humor and laughter of the Cambodians (all of whom are our dear friends now) while at the same time we took in all we could about the horrifying recent history of Pol Pot and the tortuous, insane massacres of nearly a 1/3 of the population by the Khmer Rouge.

Somehow we made it back to Chiang Mai (actually via a 15-hour freezing open air train, I'm just trying to block that out of my memory) in time to give our final culminating project on the story of the Burmese Refugees. Other group projects included child sex traffiking, methamphetamine abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Happy World AIDS day December 1st.

Now it is all over, even annoyed travellers can get to their beach getaway again. These are my final hours in my sweet Chiang Mai, tomorrow I make my way to find Dad. He has somehow also made it to Thailand afterall and together we take off to greater Southeast Asia until sometime around the holidays.

I'm sure I will let you know all about it.

Ps: At least I've plowed through some "uplifting" reading material lately: A Thousand Splendid Suns (rape, war and oppression in Afghanistan), A Child Called It (one of the worst ever recorded cases of child abuse), First, They Killed My Father (Genocide in the Khmer Rouge) and next up: A Long Way Gone (Child soldiers in war-stricken Africa), oh and Sophie's Choice.

***

My heart goes out to Nick Belles and his family & friends

To the people of Thailand right now as they hope/fight for justice, unity and peace

To the situation in Burma, and may refugees rights be formally recognized in Thailand

To the survivors of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, may you continue smiling and living fully

***

In memory of Leslie Green

Suay Siam Part Deuce

A rare experience both enchanting and excrutiating, here in Thailand. My mixed emotions were curtailed by the beauty of these magnificent cats.

Suay Siam

Beautiful Thailand...

The festival of lights is this week in Chiang Mai. The fire latern evening was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Yes We Can

For the first time in my small life, I am proud to be an American.

I am patriotic. I do love my country. I love my President elect. 

I will never forget where I was when my country made history... in a tiny computer study room full of fellow American students, at the moment displaced, but bonding like we never knew we could. Tears, and sweat in the heat of the day in Northern Thailand, as the American people and our Obama, made me proud.

Ohmysoul! VOTE!

There is such a thing as nursing student syndrome, a form of hypochondria.

Today in class we studied anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

So now I believe I am currently having a panic attack....

VOTE for you country! VOTE for your future! VOTE for your rights! VOTE for Obama!

Otherwise I may experience quite a serious nervous breakdown here in Thailand. This PTSD stems from the 2004 elections where I vehemently threatened to disown my American citizenship if Bush were re-elected, and then shamefully went back on my word when I researched and discovered that Canadian nurses didn't enjoy as many of the great privileges American nursing education offered. So here I am having flashbacks, please help me out and VOTE!

Poppies & Globalization

I like my cuppa tea now and then, but whoa...

So when the Dutch Empire began exporting goods from Asia, namely "exotic" teas from Darjeeling, India (where it had been used therapeutically for while already) back to Queen Victoria of England, there began an amazing story of poppies and globalization. Vicky's desires for tea quickly became trend and soon all of England was tea crazed. Tea was determined to be best consumed in porcelain, so thus began the rise in porcelain production--a minor note, but interesting. Of course, tea was significantly improved with a bit of sugar to enhance it's bitter flavor. Thus began the need to also create and export sugar. Thus began the slave trade to sugar plantations in the Americas (here's one more reason for me to boycott sugar... as if being diabetic wasn't enough) Tea was also implicated in the American Revolution, due to it's culpricity in the Boston Tea Party.

Ok, so fascinating chain of events, but stay with me here...

Meanwhile in, for the most part, unexploited lands of native communities in Asia, such as the Golden Triangle (where Burma, Lao and Thailand meet in the north), Turkey and Afghanistan, poppy fields were being harvested as usual for therapeutic and medicinal purposes (easing pain mostly.)

The East Indian Trading Company began to sell opium in order to pay it's tea expenses. Conflict quickly arose between commercially powerful Britain and opium controlling China. Thus began the opium wars. These wars ended when Britain forced unequal treaties upon China which left China with incredibly restricted export regulations and they had to fork over Hong Kong with a cherry on top for the subsequent 155 years to British occupation. China, depleted not only by Britain, but also by opium--economically and physically as so many of the population were addicted and severely ill (1 in 30.) China had a revolution, which lead to the modern Chinese power. China desperately wanted to stop opium traffiking because of the extensive damage.

The opium trading restrictions simply lead to a rise in sales and use/abuse in Siam (now Thailand) and its imports to the west. Thais were imposed by an unlimiting importation of opium. Later the American CIA covertly endorsed opium production in Thailand (specifically the area of the "Golden Triangle") the intention was to compete with and defeat opium efforts in Communist China, the American enemy. CIA endorsement of opium production was underway in Afghanistan as well, to fund and supply weapons to the Afghan people as allies to the American enemy, Communist Russia. In Afghanistan these efforts lead to its neighboring consumers, Pakistan, currently becoming one of the highest density populations of Heroin addiction in the world. 

Incidentally, opium is made for consumption by boiling the raw material from poppies to eliminate impurities, it is then reduced to a thick and beautiful molasses-esque batter. So intense in fact that critter-passers-by keel over dead simply due to the toxic fumes. Not just weak tiny bug respiratory systems, but big critters.. die. Anyway, the development of the more common powdered heroin substance came to be because of the ease of transport, particularly to America, where it was purchased from various mafia cohorts and sold with additives for bulking (powdered sugar or various other, often rather dangerous, substances.) This powder is typically snorted, boiled with water and injected, or boiled all the way to its original form and smoked.

Now, back to the impacts of mass, unregulated production of opium; in Thailand opium was so widely available that the degrees of addiction warranted grand intervention by the present royal family. The beloved King of Thailand made great strides in the illegalization and banishment of recreational opium, but because addiction is, well, addictive, a new drug simply took the lead. Methamphetamine, in Thai: Ya Ba (meaning insane medicine) became the drug of choice, particularly for Thai youth. Now public health measures are making a big difference in its rates of abuse and rehabilitation... and now alcoholism is on the rise.

Unfortunately, I'm sure, this will not be The End of the amazing story of poppies and globalization.

This has been a public service announcement from your friendly global nursing student. Thank you for listening!

Vast flood of information credited to the Hall of Opium in the "Golden Triangle" Chiang Rai province of Northern Thailand. Photo courtesy of google images.

Muay Thai Boxing is like Tap Dancing Recitals

It's an art. It's practiced, by generations, and entire families, in anticipation of a big performance. And yes, sometimes people get hurt. Ok, maybe not like the tap dance recitals that moi particiapted in per se.

Kai, in Thai, means "Chicken"

So it was rather appropriate, when we were leaving the cooking farm, to have Kai say "that's my face" as we passed a chicken farm on the side of the little dirt road in random outskirts Chiang Mai.

Peace Love & Mango Sticky Rice

Internal happiness is like dirty laundry, advises our organic farm Thai cooking instructor--already I feel like I'm going to be able to relate to this... "if you have a dirty shirt, you can't get it clean by adding clean shirts to it, it will just get everything else dirty. You must wash your shirt, wash, by hand, all the dirt off, and beneath will be what was there all along, your clean shirt!"

Roughly, but rather poetically, this means that happiness cannot be purchased with material things and wants and desires. Happiness is in there, and if it's not readily available to you, work on that a little, and soon enough, you'll find it.

Hmm, this reminds me of a joke:

What did the Dalai Lama say to the hot dog vendor?

"Make me one with everything!"

What did the hot dog vendor say to the Dalai Lama?

"That'll be two bucks."

The Dalai Lama hands the man a five, and waits.

...and waits, and says to the vendor "where's my change?"

And the man says to the Dalai Lama: "Change comes from within."

ps. Thank you to mom for so many rad opportunities together in Thailand on your visit, we did so much, and had a beautiful time--all three generations. I feel very lucky and truly happy--no need to wash any dirt off this happiness.

pps. Happy 57th wedding anniversary G & P and happy 75th birthday grammy!

Yum, I Love Pai.

Sawatdii Krap, followed by a flirty whistle is how we are greeted in Pai by the pretty talking bird at the gate of our beautiful bungalow. Pai is charming, it's a quiet and quaint mountain town four hours north of Chiang Mai [not an easy few hours mind you, thank goodness for ginger supplements, but it was well worth the wooziness!]

We cruised around the hills on a little motorbike for a few days, taking it all in... natural hot springs parks, a bare-back elephant jaunt, organic riverside restaurants and lounges, traditional Thai massage and medicinal herb saunas... it was soo delicious. We had a beautiful time.

Now, I am back to classes, and Forest has taken off again to meet Mike and head into Laos.