Not Busy, Just Thai'd Up

In life you take the good with the bad.  And for this week, the bad came in the form of sickness…twice.  Monday night into Tuesday, I had a fever.  So I did nothing, and it went away.  Not so bad.  But Friday night, I had food poisoning.  After five hours of vomiting out what felt like all of my intestines and disgusting amounts of diarrhea until 3 AM, and then a butt ton of sleep, I got better (props to Kristina for taking care of me- thankyousomuchiloveyoualot!). Thank goodness.  So fellers, DON’T EAT AT THE ART CAFÉ by Taepai Gate! It might look snazzy, and it has good pumpkin pie, but really, the possibility of five hours of hell is not worth it.  Everyone who eats there ends up not feeling well, although not everyone throws up.

But NEXT to the Art Café is this most wonderful place to buy glasses! The people are really nice, and they even complimented my Thai J  but they speak English really well, so no frets if you can’t speak Thai.  They are also really bored- I feel like they don’t get heaps of business.  I literally walked into the place, said I wanted some glasses, and they kept piling frames on frames on frames on the table in front of me.  They had this sweet deal where I could buy a frame, and get the other frame for free if I just paid for the lenses.  To top everything off, the eye exam is free, and the glasses are ready the next day! Two pairs of glasses = $237.  All of that sweet business for a decent price? I say, getchoo some glasses dur!  I am through advertising.

Another amazing thing that happened this week: visiting the Healing Family Foundation where my friend Emily volunteers, also known as the place that I referenced in an earlier blog post (where I’m getting lots of souvenirs for yens guys! On another note, if you click on "Healing Family" at the beginning of this paragraph, it will take you to a YouTube video that my friend Matt made for Emily- it will give you a bit of insight into what happens at this place and how amazing my friends are. If you click on "Foundation" it will take you to their website!).  The Healing Family Foundation is a community for mentally and physically disabled people.  Here, they are taught how to weave in a Japanese wave style so that they can make amazingly beautiful things (did you watch the video to see what they do and how beautiful their work is????) like bags, shirts, coasters, hair clips, shawls, table runners, etc.  It’s a place where these people can come together and find a special community, a family, and great friends.  This place is amazing, but the people are even greater- they stole my heart.

I went with Emily on Thursday after class to hang out with them and see what she does.  We did a lot of arts and crafts with them: we made edible turkeys (BECAUSE IT WAS THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!) and other out of Oreos, pretzels, nasty licorice pieces, M&Ms and berry candies, and then we colored pictures.  They are really creative, and Emily is so great with them because she gives constant words of encouragement when they proudly show her each colored stroke.  My favorite part though was rehearsing for our dance on International Day (a Payap event) next week.  Emily is bringing some of the people at Healing Family to school so that we can all show off their work, and hopefully sell some of their products to support them financially.  They all LOVE to dance, and they’re really good at it. One of the guys, Tiang, choreographed both dances that they are doing- he’s really fun because he likes to change things up, and he gets super into it.

 

During my short time there, I felt a little uncomfortable because not only did I not understand what they were speaking (still not a master of Thai), but I also didn’t know how to communicate with them effectively the entire time.  But somehow, they accepted me into their little world for a short time, and we bonded on a level where we were all having fun with each other despite the barriers.

Another heartfelt moment this week was PIH Thanksgiving.  Now, they celebrated Thanksgiving on Tuesday, which was a little odd, but everything else made up for it.  I am a stickler for having my annual Thanksgiving foods- I get really upset when I don’t get my grandmother’s stuffing and pies, my grandfather’s turkey and mashed taters, Tom’s sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole, and my mom’s amazing can-opening skills to plop the cranberry sauce and olives in a bowl…but PIH did something amazing and so I wasn’t too heartbroken.  We had mashed potatoes, roasted chicken (turkey is too expensive), broccoli and cheese, cinnamon rolls, and salad.  It’s not my favorite annual meal, but it wasn’t Thai food.  It was really special and sweet because Thanksgiving is a totally American holiday, but they reached out to us and gave us a lil family and tummy lovin. 

After dinner, they blasted some American tunes, and my SEIAGS family scared the Thai people by getting a lil rowdy.  That’s right- gettin’ down with Miley to “Party in the USA” and “My Milkshake Brings all the Boys to the Yard.” Dinner ended in a little dance party- not to take all the credit, but I’m pretty sure I had a lot to do with it *brushes shoulders off*- all I had to do was get on the table mouthing lyrics to “Don’t Stop Believin’”.  #crowdpleaser (for some reason I got into the random hashtagging thing- someone please tell me if I’m doing this correctly- I don’t really understand it)

 

A second most excellent dinner that was eaten: flower food.  A group of food-experimental friends and I plopped into this really adorable hipster-looking restaurant, Saimok kab Dokmai, where flowers are not only decoration, but food.  I felt like a fairy.  We sampled a few dishes- the coconut soup with flower petals, the curry with flower petals, deep fried flower petals, flower petal omelet, and spicy flower salad.  We also got to sip on some roselle juice (my favorite) and some rockin blue-colored butterfly pea juice.  It was a little odd to see purple and white flower petals just laying around in my dinner, but they were quite tasty!  They tasted like herbal, perfumey spinach leaves. Now I just wanna go around sampling people’s gardens.

Now, for the most magical moment.  The Festival of Lanterns- YiPeng, a Lanna festival!  Saturday night, we all went out to Mae Jo University to watch hundreds of paper lanterns be let go into the air.  The festival is a northern Thai holiday meant to be a way to make merit, and it coincides with Loy Krathong, a celebration in which tons of banana leaf boats are released into the river (I’m gonna see it this coming Wednesday!!!!! YEEEEE!!!!!).  It felt like the Fourth of July and Christmas mixed all in one- I just felt like I was in a fairy scene.  We waited around for hours amidst thousands of people sitting on square pieces of plastic, and after the sun went down, Buddhist chanting commenced for an hour.  After two hours of waiting, we jumped at the cue to begin lighting our lanterns.  And before the mysterious signal that the man with impeccable enunciation referred to over the speaker, hundreds of lanterns were released into the air, floating into the dark oblivion of the night sky.  It was so beautiful- on my camera, they look like stars, but in person they looked like magical twinkling fairies. 

Matt and I tried to set one into the sky, but ours caught on fire.  He threw it to the ground, and tried stomping it out- this was a great idea until the fire exploded around his leg and singed his leg hair.  It was scary and hilarious all at the same time.  But we (more importantly Matt) got over it after deciding to just enjoy the scenery despite our failure.  AHHHH! My words and pictures just don’t do it justice.  Just. Come to Thailand during the end of November!

(I’d like to apologize for not finishing this and posting it in a timely manner- I was kinda feelin’ like a butthole with a fever. Butt I got better! I am now a firm believer that butt tons of sleep, not-productiveness, television, and good music and dancing are all keys to feeling better. Especially the good music and dancing part.)

Howdy y’all.  I got back from a four-day field trip to the north of Thailand and the Golden Triangle.  Basically, this field trip was a blur of long van rides and visiting random places that pertain to what we’ve been learning in class: the opium trade, international relations, ethnic hill tribes within Thailand, and the sex industry.

I won’t do a stop-by-stop description of our itinerary, mostly because I don’t remember the order, or the location of all of our stops, but also because I’m quite tired of talking about myself.  I will, however, give an overview of what I’ve been learning in tandem with some pertinent pictures of the trip.  Get ready to be educated.

Sorry for the diction and lack of exclamation points: I’m brain dead from attempting to write one of two long papers.  I love the research aspect, hate the actual writing.  Poop.

SO! Let us begin with the sex industry to continue with the theme of the last post.  We visited the main base for The Sold Project, an NGO that works toward keeping kids in school by granting scholarships and giving them a recreation area to be tutored and play.  By keeping them occupied with school and granting scholarships, this helps to keep the kids from being sold to the streets as unskilled laborers or sex workers.  The families no longer have to worry about balancing the burden of paying for their child’s education (the education is free, but things like uniforms, school supplies and transportation become financial issues).  This NGO has about 20 additional bases all around Thailand, and they are looking to expand.  The staff and volunteers tutor the children, make visits to make sure life at home is acceptable, judge annual scholarship applications, campaign for financial donations, and teach community members skills such as silk-weaving using the silk grown by silk worms in the backyard.  This NGO was started only a few years ago with a dream of an American doctorate who gained some motivation from an inspirational book, combined with the gratitude of a pair of Chiang Rai twins who were given educational support by a very nice benefactor.  It’s amazing what a bit of positive action can accomplish.  Basically, this little visit made me realize two things: I’m really awkward around children, and that anyone can change the world with a bit of oompf.

Another place of interest was the Hill Tribe Museum. Let me give you some background about hill tribes.  A lot of the countries in Southeast Asia are made up several types of people.  This is because the Western concept of territorial boundaries was forced upon the people of Southeast Asia by Western colonial powers way back when that was happening.  So, there are a lot of problems with ethnic discrimination, loss or falsification of ethnic identity, and statelessness.  Example time:

End Verdict: these ethnic peoples have some problems.  Now you are aware if you were not before.  Speaking of problems, this whole conflict between Israel and Palestine is getting REALLY OLD! If we could fast forward ten years into the future, and this is still going on, I swear I will attempt to join efforts to resolve this ridiculous issue.

Anyway, back to the museum.  The museum is run by an NGO that aims to help hill tribe peoples, promote the usage of condoms to prevent the spread of diseases, provides family planning services, and supports organic farming.  The museum is one way of internally raising money for the organization, the other is a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms.  Unfortunately, we did not get to eat here. L

 

(I wrote all of this two days ago and do not feel like writing much more on a depressing albeit informative topic.  Also, the field trip was lackluster in terms of excitement.  A bunch of temples, old and new, and some more museums.  Thoughts on the latter shall ensue.)

We visited the ‘museum’ (the term is used loosely because barely anyone visits the museum and it has a crap ton of cobwebs everywhere) for Khun Sa, who was the Opium Prince.  Basically, he was the voice of the Shan people, who were promised their own state, separate from Burma, after a ten-year period after gaining their independence.  This was organized by Aung San Suu Kyi’s daddy, but then the new regime under General Nu Win went and assassinated him and for some reason this makes that agreement null. That pretty much fueled the ambitions of the Shan people.

Khun Sa raised an army in the hills, and created a grand empire based upon the growth and sale of opium.  He basically became a millionaire on this whole trade and was able to create an army that aided his business transactions. Obvs, a great drug lord.  His reasoning for all this was that an army needs money, and money can be made with drugs.  He wanted to money for the creation of the new Shan state. The Shan don’t have their state, and Khun Sa is dead. History in a very crappy nutshell.

We went to the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia meet. Lots of trade, drugging, and gambling happen here.  My professor used the made up word “casinofication” to describe what’s going on here (I swear, he adds “ification” and “ization” to EVERY word he possibly can”).   If ya wanna gamble, do it there.  But I don’t condone it because all of this crappy development is harming the environment and the cultural richness of the area.  Migration patterns of the famous large catfish through the Mekong are being destroyed, and an entirely new material, cultural mindset is settling in over the people.

We then visited the Opium Museum.  It was the best museum that I’ve seen in Thailand- I’ve realized that lighting really makes for a good museum.  There were also short video clips, and creepy ass wax people. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, and I was also too freaked out to take a picture of this anyway, but here’s a short story: whilst watching a video about how drugs affect your brain, my professor said “hey Jessica, turn around and look at this!” he pointed at the ground and as soon as I looked, the floor lit up, and I saw people inside of a jail.  Oh my dear lord. It was the most awful thing ever.  I had not noticed it upon my entrance into the room, but the entire floor was glass, and underneath were two jail cells holding two wax figurines of drug addicts.  What the heck, museum. These wax things were everywhere.  Other than that, it was an excellent museum, especially if you wish to know every detail about the Opium Wars.

So, overall, the field trip was excellent! The best part though, was waking up at 5:30 am to walk up an infinite amount of stairs to watch the sunrise with some of my friends here.  It was beautiful, and it was lovely to see the valley slowly come to life.  Even walking in the dark before dawn, the streets were alive with people setting up their produce to sell later that day.  At the top of the stair mountain, at the temple, we heard a great chorus of roosters waking everyone up, and then, after the sun rose, there was obnoxious music.  It was amazing.  I highly suggest waking up to watch a good sunrise.  I promise, it sets a wonderful tone for the rest of the day.  And on that note, I end zis post.

Just kidding. Watch this, it's worth it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9tNGEt6rmE. Now, errbody, go out there and dance like the party animals I know you all are. I'll be right there with you, pulling these moves out.

This past week, the only truly exciting things that I did were to go rock climbing, finish watching the second season of Game of Thrones (OMG IT WAS AWESOME), get caught up in the Once Upon a Time series (I know it seems like I’m watching too much TV, but it’s just to get study breaks), and visit Wat Umong. 

On Tuesday, I went rock climbing with Ashley, Emily and Mickey (the master rock climber) at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures for Ladies’ Night where we got to climb the wall for free!  Rock climbing is a lot harder than it looks, and I fell down onto the mats when reaching for the top of the wall (I will one day make that red tape path MINE!), and that’s that about rock climbing. 

This morning, Emily, Kristina, and I went to Wat Umong because some dude from muay thai training (which I sadly have decided that I need to stop doing for several reasons) kept raving about during a warm-up run one morning. It’s actually really cool- everywhere, there are trees with signs posted everywhere.  The signs have a series of Thai and English proverbs that are very inspiring. There are also a series of tunnels (umong) through which you walk to worship some Buddhas, a Chedi, a library, and more!

But all of this is not what I’d like to talk about in this post.  Right now, I’m writing two research papers; one is about the roles of women in Thai Buddhism, and the other is about child prostitution in the Philippines for my Economics of the Sex Industry in Southeast Asia class.

I had the opportunity to go camping this weekend at Mae Hong Son (which I would highly recommend), but the fact that I have to have a bibliography for this paper turned in on Tuesday, convinced me that I needed to stay in and due crap tons of research.  Obviously, this was a depressing weekend.

Prostitution is a big issue in Southeast Asia.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in a previous post, but the sex industry is very prevalent in Thailand.  While riding through the streets of Chiang Mai in a songtaew at night, it has been difficult to ignore the florescent lights marking the location of a “karaoke” establishment, or serving as the backdrop for a series of scantily clad women standing outside of one of the city’s buildings.  When going out to clubs, I am constantly wondering which of the provocatively dressed girls are prostitutes.  There are also plenty of ladyboys (boys who dress as girls, or are undergoing surgeries to become girls) in the mix, and these are oftentimes the girls who are most proactive in hitting on our foreign male friends.

Nighttime Chiang Mai is very sexualized.  Why?  Well, for Southeast Asia, the sex industry has its roots during the Vietnam War when the American soldiers would take vacations in different parts of the region for a little R&R.  This included the opportunity to have paid sex with Asian women.  Unfortunately, the popularity of prostitution did not leave with the Americans after the war ended.  Some of these countries’ economies still depend on the sex industry, so the government turns its head, or has been corrupted. 

After the implementation of anti-prostitution laws and enforcement, many sexualized institutions have been forced to go more underground by disguising brothels as massage parlors, karaoke bars, etc.  A lot of sex workers are not known as prostitutes, but are called “bar girls,” “entertainers,” or “guest relations officers (GROs- can you believe they have an acronym for this? weird.) 

There is an entire tourist industry geared toward helping foreigners have sexual relations with prostitutes.  These old white men are easy to spot when they are sporting young Asian women on their arms, flaunting about as if she’s his girlfriend (younger men and Southeast Asians also pay for sex, not just old white men- there is no stereotypical 'john').  It makes dancing at clubs a little uncomfortable if I’m not tipsy enough to ignore it.    What’s worse is that a lot of these young girls are under the age of 18.  Why? Because of the demand for young girls.  Why?  Because there are perverts who are more sexually attracted to children, because impoverished parents sell their children to the streets, because it’s a way for the children to survive, and more.  Girls as young as 6 years old are being taught how to give oral sex.

Another reason for young girls- fear of HIV/AIDS.  Young girls, and especially virgins, are sought out because it is believed that having sex with a young girl will prevent the buyer from contracting the disease, or it will get rid of the disease.  Others believe it will make them more beautiful, more powerful, or increase their lifespan. Load of bullshit, but the dumbbums believe it.

No matter the age or gender, many sex workers are affected psychologically, physically, and socially.  They are beaten, threatened, viewed as a commodity, forced into a system that they may not escape from, and dehumanized.  Their culture tells them that they are dirty and not worthy- they will never amount to anything, never be married, never be respected.  They will not have a good reincarnation in their next life because they are bad people in this life.

The people selling them are pimps, brothel owners, family members, friends, and even themselves. But these people get away with what they are doing due to lack of law enforcement, aid from corrupt police and government officials, and the fact that this practice is normative in these cultures.

There are a load of NGOS and GOs that work toward stopping this practice.  But oftentimes their answer is rescue.  This isn’t the best answer in many cases- rehabilitation into society isn’t always effective, sometimes they return to prostitution, or they are unhappy with their lives inside of these institutions.

I have a lot more to say about this issue.  I’m still learning about it.  I know this is the most depressing post that I’ve written, but I’m sharing my weekend with you.  This is what I’ve been reading about for the past 48 hours (you can’t blame me for taking a lot of TV breaks now, can you?).  A lot of the world isn’t entirely aware of the extent that this issue exists.  Sure, there are a lot of issues in the world.  Sure, prostitution may be a profession that exists everywhere, and is a profession that has existed throughout history for a very long time.  But that doesn’t mean that a large population, women and children especially, should be forced into a profession that many of them don’t ask for and don’t want; a profession where they are dehumanized, treated as commodities, and are led to believe that they are worthless. 

The world needs some answers to this problem.  It starts with educating people.  No, not the sex workers, or the children of these nations.  Oftentimes they are too poor to pay for their education, and are forced to sell their bodies in order to pay for it.  We need to educate the people demanding these services.  We need to limit the demand.  We need to improve law enforcement.  And, we need to fix economies and ease poverty.  These are obvious solutions, but oftentimes, the solutions are simpler than we think.  It’s implementing the solution that is hard.  I don’t know what I’m expecting anyone to do about all this, and obviously things won’t be fixed overnight.   But, if I’ve made some of you fine folk a little more aware of the world that I’m very close to right now, I feel as if I’ve done something important.

Now, to lighten things up a bit.  I’ve been getting through my readings by taking TV breaks, but also by constantly listening to Korean Pop.  Please, listen to some and either A) dance or B) make fun of me.

4MINUTE

 Hyuna and HyunSeung

G-Dragon (from Big Bang, also very good!)

Korean pop is very popular throughout Southeast Asia. And after Psy's "Gangnam Style," it's popular in every goddamn corner of the world- except perhaps, the deep blue sea.  My friend from St. Mary's introduced me to Korean pop last year, and I've been toying with it every since.  Oh, by the way, the Thais aspire to look like Koreans, but that is an entirely different blog post for another time.

OKAY! Sorry that my post is like two days late.  Between sucky internet that won't upload my pictures, and doing a crap ton of other things, like doing research for my term papers (UGH I'M STRESSIN!), I had a hard time making my Monday deadine.  WOOPS! So, please, enjoy my new post on Humpday.  Also, Happy Elections! :)

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel like you felt like you grew into yourself a little bit more?  Ya know that feeling of surprise after you try on this really great pair of pants or a pretty shirt that you think would never flatter your figure…and then it does?!  That’s how this past week has made me feel.  I’ve had such an excellent week, it’s ridiculous.

Let’s start on the Friday before Halloween! Which is also the Friday after I got back from Vietnam.  That night, the International Community thing was having a Halloween party at some place called Mr. Yum’s- I wasn’t going to attend, but four hours before the party, I decided that I was going to seize the chance to dress up like a weirdo because I love doing it, but never have a chance in Thailand where I feel like everyone is judging me.  Laura and Maia needed a third bear for their Three Litte Bears costume group, so I hopped in as Baby Bear!  We perused around Big C to gather all of our items for Big C, then rushed back to campus to hurriedly get dressed.

Seeing everyone dressed up was really fun- some had incredibly clever costumes like “Same, Same, but Different”, or Jason’s Chad Micheal Micheals (from Blazing Glory) using clothing from the free clothing box, or a Sims character.  It’s really funny because for most of the Thai people, dressing up does not constitute elaborate clothing- but rather normal clothing and a Halloween headband or some zombie makeup. As always, the people made the venue- Mr. Yum’s was kinda lame, except for the free sodas and French fries, until the dancing started.  I danced for four hours straight, and the next morning, my entire body was sore.  I threw my neck out during the dubstep part.  The band played some songs by the Carpenters, and I just about died with happiness, and everyone attempted dancing to slow songs, or salsa dancing, and our mock version of square dancing.  It was lovely.

The highlight of the night though: LAURA, MAIA AND I WON BEST COSTUME! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I was absolutely certain no one was going to understand the reference to the Western fairy tale, and that we would not win, but WE DID! Our prize- a certificate, and a flask of rum J

On Monday night, it was Mickey’s birthday.  After a day of classes, and attempting to do research for my two term papers (omg I’m freaking out because I only have a month and a half to do research and write about 40 pages of intelligent sentences! Like really- I bit off all of my nails last night), about half of our SEAIGS groups went out to celebrate her birthday at this really delicious restaurant called Dash.  It has Thai food and Western food, including soup, salad, pizza, sandwiches, and pasta.  Holy crap.  Not only is the atmosphere beautiful (outdoors, candlelit, wooden furniture with colorful table cloths, and Christmas lights), but the food is absolutely delicious.  The spaghetti and the BLT were scrumptious, the Teak burger was juicy, the cheesecake with a mango sauce was to die for, and the brownie with ice cream was uncooked but slightly heaven.

The waiter was awesome too.  He spoke English in a manner that made him seem pretentious, but he’s actually a really weird and sweet fella.  He set up karaoke for us, and sang a few times- he was way too into it, but I loved it.  The night was filled with Disney karaoke, Gangnam style dancing, and embarrassing Mickey.  Check out the video that my friend made about the night (click on 'video')!  There’s nothing like great friends, great music, and great food all together.

"Hey Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, HEY MICKEY!"

 

Essentially, the same group of people went out to celebrate Cam’s birthday on Thursday.  We went to Sumo Sushi for dinner- absolutely delicious, and they work fast!  I learned that generally, women can’t become sushi masters because our hands are a warmer temperature than male hands.  So many people went to her birthday dinner, that some of us finished eating before the others even got their food, so Sam volunteered to go explore Niemanhamen with me in order to find Cam a birthday cake, but also to film me running down the street in pumpkin shoes.

Yes, I ran down the street in pumpkin shoes.  Why? Because Mischa Collins of the show Supernatural wanted me to.  How am I getting orders from such a man?  Through GISHWHES! Earlier this year, my friend asked me to join her team on GISHWHES, and I said YES! I kinda wish I hadn’t accepted because I have way to many other things to do and I’d been stressing about money and time conflicting with all of the other things that I want and have to do because this scavenger hunt is elaborate.  I will explain no further- you should just check it out because it’s worth it, especially if you are obsessed with Supernatural. 

During this adventure, we found a mini birthday cake that was presented to Cam at Sangdee Gallery!  Now, ever since the first night I went to Sangdee Gallery, I’d been wanting to perform.  I love to sing in the shower, I love to sing in my car, I love to sing while walking through campus.  Aside from the two times that I’d sung karaoke in Thailand, I had never performed for people.  That night, I set out to do so.  The timing was perfect because I could dedicate a song to Cam in response to all of the times that she has praised every person in our group, telling us how beautiful and awesome we are.  Lemme tell ya what.  Performing gives you such a high.  Such a high!  I felt liberated, and I felt like I grew a little bit, I felt as if I had made a lifelong dream come true. 

Now, the last main event of this past week was the weekend trip to Sukhothai, Siam's first Thai capital, founded in the 13th century.  We stayed at Sila Resort, which is this beautiful half hostel, half motel thing.  The walls were colorful, flowers were everywhere, and the room I was staying in had A/C.  The rooms were only 200 baht per night, which is excellent for the great conditions of the room.  The restaurant at the resort was delicious too!  They serve breakfast all day!  This includes muesli, yogurt, fresh fruit, pancakes, omelets, ham and eggs, and more!  It was amazing to have a light breakfast that did not involve over processed white bread.

We travelled through the ruins of the Old City’s historical park on the bikes that we had rented for 30 baht (HECK YEA I CAN RIDE A BIKE!).  Riding through the city through the ruins felt like we were travelling through history in a romantic way.  The trees gave wonderful shade, the manmade lakes glistened in the sun, and the light breeze was soothing as I pedaled past ancient buildings, eroding away with time.

The structures were impressive, and it felt so weird to be able to see and touch these buildings that have existed for hundreds of years.  The most exciting ruin to me was the Khmer temple originally built for Hindu gods, but converted to a Buddhist temple after it was discovered during the reign of Rama XI.  I was sorely disappointed that the siva linga and the statue of Vishnu laying on his Naga seat were no longer there.  Nearby, there was the most beautiful, reverential tree I’ve ever seen.  The roots twisted over top of each other, crushing the cement blocks in their grasp as if to give a fatalistic message to mankind, while also cradling statues of deities that the people gave to the tree in recognition of its sanctity.  I hugged it, but then I saw the red ants crawling over it.

The other awesome site was the giant Buddha.  He sat, in his ginormous glory, while a Thai family prayed to him, and a man with a tiny squirrel-ish pet added gold leafing to his elongated fingers.  I learned that one of the 32 marks of the Buddha is his long fingers; another is the flame that exudes from the top of his head as a symbol of his wisdom.

Emily and I marveled at how all of these sites made us feel.  Not being religious persons, we were surprised at how awed we were in their presence.  It’s the effort and meaning that people place on these objects and places that make them so inspiring.  I think about how much effort went into making these sites colossal, and intricately beautiful, because the people love their gods so much that they want to take the time, effort, and resources to pay respects to their gods in this physical expression of their love.  Others make a pilgrimage to see these sites and pray to the Buddha, admiring him with immense love and duty in their eyes.  Even though I am not a believer in any conventional belief systems, I cannot help but feel a tiny bit of the reverence, awe, and love for the Buddha, for Christ, for the saints, and any other sacred being or form when looking upon these stony embodiments of a people’s love, or watching people take the time to worship their gods.  This is why I like religion.

So, all in all, this past week has been a memorable one.  And there will be even more awesome weeks to come.  I only have a few more weeks left in Thailand, so I’m gonna make it count.