Blogs from North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 9

Chiang Mai was our first stop in Thailand, but first there was the small matter of negotiating Bangkok Airport security. We think we have pretty much got the process well rehearsed by now, but Pip got stopped and her bag opened. The target was her fold away travel scissors, about an inch long. She told the guy that she had done 20 to 30 flights with them but the guy's response was "this is Bangkok" and away they were taken. Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand, is an old city surrounded by a moat with a large expanse of urban sprawl around it. It is famed for its wats (Buddhist temples) and street food, and outside the city for its elephant experiences - which get a very bad rap for their treatment of the beasts ... read more

Well, I don’t think I have too much to say about today. It was extremely chill. We started off the morning going to breakfast at BCNC and then headed over to the coffee shop nearby the school called Maliwan. We had past it many days and always got back to the school after its open hours. It was everything I loved: Ferns. Thai tea. Good conversations. Calm early mornings. Friendly greetings. Strawberry shirts. Sunshine. Cat figurines. Wooden tables with fine, clean lines. I could go on and on about how happy I was at this coffee shop. It seems so simple, but sometimes the smallest and simplest things bring us the most joy. After this I was able to go back to BCNC and have independent devotional time, which was most needed. During my devotional time ... read more

Yes, I’m a little delayed in my journal writing. Yesterday, was the 25th and our last day in Thailand. We spent the morning doing evaluations and talking with the staff about our time in Thailand. I thought that things came off harsher than I would have liked them to sound, and I felt slightly annoyed by the complaints that were being made, given that we had already talked to Debbie about most of them. I recognize that I make cultural mistakes all the time, but it is frustrating to me that people continue to push American ideas and reactions onto situations even after already talking about how to do things better and more respectfully. At least evaluations are over. I am hoping that next year goes just as smoothly as our year. I was extremely bummed ... read more

Thursday-Friday Today was really hard, seeing as we all knew it was the last day to do anything and everything. I savored every moment, saying "guys! this is the last time we'll be able to do this!" I'm pretty sure everyone hated me. Oh well, can't win them all. This morning, we headed over to the market at Nakornping Hospital. We all walked over and had to cross a pretty intimidating street. No one got hurt so all is well. The market is very similar to all of the other markets that we've been to. There were tons of tents and tables set up with different products that you could browse (I don't' know why I'm explaining what a 'market' is on the last day). I got the famous iced cocoa at my favorite coffee shop ... read more

Monday After a nice relaxing weekend and a day of travel yesterday, we had the morning to chill. I slept in until 8, which was amazing. And then I caught up on some blogging (I’m behind again). We ate lunch and then attended a nursing conference. BCNC hosted several different schools including Payap (a small Christian school located in Chiang Mai), Chiang Mai University, and about 5 different branches of Boromarajonani (I’m getting the sense it’s like Penn state). The different students presented on non-communicable diseases in Thailand, many of them being stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The students from Messiah talked about obesity in the U.S. After the conference was over, we took about 94 pictures with the different groups of students. We had dinner and then decided to go shopping at a market ... read more