Blogs from Tak, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

My girlfriend Naitt was almost crying when we arrived at Thi Lo Su Waterfall. Last time she went there, it had taken two days of rafting and trekking, and was like discovering a new secret place with just four frineds. This time, there were hundreds of tourists. But the next waterfalls were awesome. Heading in to Thi Lo Su From our awesome hillside bungalow, we headed towards Mae Sot and took the turnoff towards Thi Lo Su on the "road of 1,000 bends". Apparently someone counted them one time, and there were around 1,219 in total. It's a pretty nice drive, if you are used to driving in mountains. But Bangkokers simply aren't. The only bends in Bangkok are the few off the expressways. I took over most of the driving because with so many Sunday ... read more

Trajectory, as wiki says, "is the path a moving object follows through space as a function of time." The word has been seriously innundating my world for the last two weeks. Popping up in dreams, conversations, pulling and pushing me toward what will probably result in me sequestering myself off in my room studying more about control theory. Nomad is the other word that's coming around a lot too. James and I were discussing the similarities and differences between nomad and vagabond. I'm a nomad. James is a nomad. I love being a nomad. What is it with trajectory and the percieved control we have upon it. What does influence or direct it? Do we, ultimately, if we're in tune with our soul...our deepest wants and desires direct it? If each of us is on a ... read more

All week the students had midterms. Thankfully that meant a break from teaching, but that also meant proctoring exams. Monday and Tuesday I co-proctored with none other than our landlady (she's an English teacher). I don't know what changed or shifted but the Thai teachers seemed more relaxed. Perhaps it was my blundering hula hoop display that broke down some walls. I'll have you know that P'Nid (my new aunt here) and I were both hooping with the best of them by midweek! It was so much fun to see them lower their guards and play. Wednesday rolled around and I was stuck proctoring outside for half the day. That was less than fun as I was pretty sure the flies were going to eat me alive. All of a sudden it was Thursday! That night ... read more

Which of these things does not belong? Mae Sot is a strange place. It seems like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, forgotten town, with a couple of dozen streets woven together haphazardly just a few km east of the Burma border. There are a couple of Buddhist temples, a main street lined with mundane shops, and a busy market heaped with vegetables, fruit, fly-buzzed meat, and fishy fish. One item for sale that I hadn't seen before were buckets heaped with a fetid grey paste - after some research, I learned that it's fermented fish paste, a staple of the diet of the Karen people (pronounced kuh-REN). Natives of Northeast Burma, tens of thousands of Karen are in refugee camps this area of Thailand, having fled political persecution and a gruesome, bloody rebellion against the SPDC (formerly SLORC), ... read more