Friends make all the difference

I was in Bangkok by myself a week ago, since Jamie wanted to take a week long vacation to visit her friend in Phuket. I decided to get a much needed haircut at MBK, the huge mall in downtown Bangkok, which is where I met my great friend Da. She was my hairstylist and after my haircut she gave me her number to call her if I was stuck somewhere and needed a translator. I thought that was really sweet so I asked her on a girl date to dinner. We went shopping that night instead and a couple nights later I met her and some of her friends for Japanese food. Da loves sushi. A lot of her friends are musicians so I ended up going to a bunch of their shows with her for a week, which is how I met Bom. He plays the guitar and is damn good at it too. Da has a great condo in Bangkok, so I stayed at her place, which was incredibly generous. I am teaching them English and they are teaching me Thai. There is definitely a language barrier sometimes and things get lost in translation, but it somehow works out.

The day after I befriended Da, I went on a search for a restaurant I had read about in my Lonely Planet Bangkok. It was hard to locate so on the walk there I stopped at a small restaurant on the corner to ask them if they knew where the other restaurant was. They pointed me to it, since of course it was just across the street, but it was closed. I ended up eating at the place on the corner instead. The cook was super nice and he knew English really well since he had lived in San Francisco and there was a girl there who I thought was beautiful. She was also really friendly and they were all curious as to why I was traveling alone. She asked where I was headed for the day and I told her I was going to walk to find this bookstore. She said she had a free day so her boyfriend drove us to where the bookstore was and we went site seeing for the day. We needed a quick rest at some point during the day and some A/C so we stopped in a cafe and she treated me to cake, she would not let me pay! Her love for cake is equally matched with mine. ;-) That night we ate dinner in Chinatown since the Buddhist Vegetarian Festival was happening and we met a couple of her friends later at a quint rooftop bar. Isabella is one of the kindest people I have ever met.

Not sure if it is fate or luck or happenstance that has brought my new friends into my life, but that week in Bangkok has been the best in Thailand yet. On the way back to the house in Khao Yai I saw four wild elephants. In Thailand elephants are the symbol for good luck and boy, was I sure feeling like I had hit the jackpot.

Things and places become so much less important without people to share them with and I am so grateful that I have met some special people to share and enjoy this little part of the world with.

Also, great news! Jamie wants to stop her work/research 3 weeks early, which means I will finish work and leave Khao Yai on November 17th and head back to Bangkok. Khao Yai is beautiful, but I am ready to leave. I'll be in Bangkok until Beth, John and Dave arrive on December 23rd. I'm planning to take some Thai language classes and just enjoy the time.

Oh Boy, Bangkok

It is an incredible city. It has easily become my favorite international city. In the last 10 years an elevated subway system called the Sky Train has been built making it easier to get around. Even just twenty minutes in air-conditioning makes all the difference in a city with constant and intense humidity and heat. Of course, you can also take one of the many vibrant colored pink or yellow taxis, a tuk-tuk or a motorcycle taxi. My personal favorite is going by motorcycle. This is definitely a more adventurous and sometimes slightly dangerous mode of transportation as they glide through cars and swarms of people, but it's such a cheap, fun rush.

Where I live and in the nearest city of Pack Chong, my roommates and I are usually the only white people, therefore we get a lot of stares, huge smiles, and the children love to laugh and wave at us. When I go to Bangkok I find myself staring at the foreigners, and wonder what part of the world they all come from.

Street food and tiny fresh fruit carts that sell pineapple and guava or fruit juice are on every inch of sidewalk and down every alley. Freshly cut guava has quickly become my favorite snack. The girls and guys in downtown Bangkok are so stylish and hip. Fashion is definitely a forethought here.

My first weekend in Bangkok was unexpected. I stumbled upon a semi-pro soccer game and some teenage kids scored me a free ticket. It was almost more fun to watch the fans who never stopped singing or sat down once. The next night I decided to see a movie and harmlessly chose a random Thai film mainly since it had English subtitles. It ended up being a saucy erotica film. A lesson that when it says 18 and over only admitted, it does not mean due to strong language and violence.

The second time I went to Bangkok was to go with Jamie, since she needed to renew her visa. I ventured out on my own one afternoon while she rested in the hotel room and, oh boy, it turned into an interesting day. A gentleman from Iran asked me to go to the seaside with him for a weekend (he showed me photos on his cellphone of himself lounging on the beach), a Thai boy said he would wait for me to be my boyfriend and two men from Kuwait asked me to drinks. All were nice and polite guys, but I took the safer bet and opted to go shopping instead.

I am heading to Bangkok next weekend to renew my visa and am looking forward to wandering through a few of the big weekend markets. I can't believe I will have been here two months. Only two more months of work as a field assistant to go.

Thank you so much for the cards and packages I have received!! It really makes my week. "The loving are the daring", said the poet Bayard Taylor. Thanks to my friends and family who are constantly daring.

Bearific

I will have been in Thailand one month tomorrow and to celebrate I saw an Asian Black Bear today!! It was early in the morning and we had only been in the forest for 20 minutes. We heard loud noises and scratching against a tree close by. Chulum, our field guide, motioned that it was a bear and to come closer to where he was, since he had a good view of it. We watched the bear for about 20 minutes. We couldn't believe a bear that size could climb a tree and hold itself up there. It was half way up a tree and it was clawing at the bark apparently trying to get to the bees nest inside for, what else, but honey! The bear was beautiful and it was exhilarating to be able to see a bear in the forest up close, but at a safe enough distance away. Then the bear started sniffing around while climbing down the tree. We think it caught our scent so we got out of there. Apparently the bear lives in the gibbon group T's home range. We might happen across the bear again, since we are studying this group for a week.

Forest Life

I am starting to think like a Gibbon; thoughts of only food and sleep fill my head. We study the White-handed Gibbon, which is an ape. There are many species of Gibbon which live in SE Asia and three of them live in the national park. The national park that I live in was the first one to be established in Thailand by the King in 1962. It is as least 5,000 acres. There are Tigers in the park but they believe there are only 10 or so individuals left in the entire park, which unfortunately is not a viable number genetically long term. It is a tough balance between humans who live in or near the park and the wildlife. The animals are killed or displaced if humans are killed or injured. At the campground by my house this past week they have been capturing a few of the big male Macaque Monkey's. The monkey's know to come to the campground at certain times of the day to steal food but unfortunately that is because visitors feed them so some of the monkey's have become more aggressive. Instead of enforcing the law to not feed them though they are displacing the monkey's from their home ranges to other parts of the park. It's tough to see a wild monkey in a cage screaming and banging on the cage and the sound is even worse.

I hitchhiked for the first time ever. Hitchhiking in the park is common especially for tourists who don't have cars since there isn't public transportation in the park.

My neighbors last week were making their own charcoal in front of our houses. My neighbor JB is great. She brings us homemade desserts and food. She brooms cobwebs of the outside of our house (I forgot to mention that there are spiders everywhere, in every corner of the house!). I feel lucky to have such a nice neighbor.

Jamie and I can get a bit silly in the forest sometimes when we reach the six hour mark, and it becomes balmy and warm with a breeze moving high up in the tree tops and the Gibbons stop to eat some fruit, so we find a nice rock to sit on and wait. I like these times.

We saw two green Pope's Pit Vipers in one day. They arn't big and seem just as cautious of us as we are of them. I finally saw a few frogs - love frogs! I am hoping to see some forest elephants and an Asian Sun Bear but I have plenty of time still and patience. Next post - Bangkok!

Pictures!

I have posted pictures here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjoyharding/ More later!

Two Weeks Today

I can't believe I have already been here two weeks. I would be lying if I said there hasn't been downs with the ups. I finally, after two and a half years of a lot of hard and sometimes emotionally painful work, feel comfortable with being completely alone, in my own space, but of course that doesn't mean I don't get lonely. Living without relatively any distractions here is teaching me how to have patience and allots for much time to think and reflect. Just being is difficult sometimes, you know.

I had my first four days off and went on many walkabouts. I walked to the visitor center which took an hour the short way and an hour and forty minutes on the way back going the long way; remind me not to go the long way again. Another day Kazunari and I drove 23 km to the Haew Narok Waterfall, which was fierce and the biggest waterfall I have ever seen.

Jamie and I started back to work on Monday. A lot of the trails are overgrown and it makes it extra difficult when you are trying to follow Gibbons and find a trail. I decided to add trail maintenance to my work as much as possible, while Jamie observes the Gibbons. My arms and hands are so sore today from using the machete.

I finally had some amazing Thai food on Saturday just outside the park. It was right along the main road with an outside eating area and kitchen. You would pass right by it and not think twice. Luckily it's one of the field guides favorite places to eat at so he recommended it. The three of us shared a green papaya salad, green curry and a vegetable stir-fry. It had a lot of kick to it! The spice was so hot my tongue almost fell off, but it was worth it! It was only $3 for each of us.

If anyone wants to mail me burned copies of the latest seasons of Mad Men, Dexter, True Blood, Entourage or Breaking Bad, then I am sure you will have good karma for life. ;-) Hugs.

Crazy-Ass Insects

I know crazy-ass isn't the most intellectual term I could use to describe the following insects but I was in the forest, I was tired and hot, and that is the first thing that came to mind.

Terrestrial leeches. If you have never come across a terrestrial leech you are lucky. They live in tropical forests and come out when the forest is moist. They love our necks, mostly because that is the only skin that is exposed since you can't go out in the forest without pants and long sleeves. I now refer to their bites as leach hickies. Luckily I have only had one, so far.

Another insect, Jamie and I both despise, is a cross between a fly and what looks like a termite. It has the most painful bites and leaves a tiny puss-like welt which also hurts. Oh yeah, I am bringin' sexy back. The insect which amazes me here is the ant. There are at least 10 different species of ants here and some of them are as big as a spider. They love worms. Every day I see a group of ants attack a worm and then carry it off as food for later. A group of ants carried away a 13 inch worm yesterday! They are strong. I'll admit it's gross to watch but fascinating at the same time.

I was disappointed today after being in the forest for 9 1/2 hours and following the Gibbons for 7 of that. We lost them at the very end of the day when trying to figure out their night trees. They ran so fast Jamie and I couldn't keep up. I clumsily went through a huge group of ants and had hundreds of them all over me. Then she did the same. The day wasn't wasted though since we watched them grooming each other for the first time, which is pretty incredibly cute.

I can't really comment much on Thai food in general since the only restaurant I have eaten at is the one in the park and I use the term restaurant very loosely. It is basically an outdoor kitchen with wooden benches but Bahn makes a pretty wicked Pad Thai. I sure could use a Chef Salad right about now though or chips and salsa.