We've entered the stretch of the trip that is brand new for me as it was not part of the itinerary last year, and this program hasn't been to Ban Nam Hom in 10 years, so I can't make any predictions of what will happen over the next several days.
Before giving a brief intro to Mae Sot / Ban Nam Hom, I'll back up and describe our morning activity, which was our annual visit to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang, about an hour out of Chiang Mai. Elephant tourism is incredibly tricky in Thailand. There are plenty of elephant sanctuaries that mistreat elephants. And there are sanctuaries that provide a home to elephants who can no longer live in the wild as a result of habitat loss, injury, being transferred from other sanctuaries or zoos, etc. For these elephants, tourism dollars are incredibly important as they fund the facilities and resources--especially food--that are needed to care for these elephants. This article speaks to the drop in tourism during/post-COVID and its impact on the elephants. From the article:
"Elephants are expensive. An adult needs to eat 100-200kg (220-440lb) of food a day, and drinks up to 100 litres (22 gallons) of water. "
As a non-Thai, I don't think it's my place to tell the Thai people what their relationships with elephants should look like, but I will say that I think this particular elephant conservation center does a pretty darn good job of prioritizing elephant care and education. Getting to see the relationship between the mahoot and their elephant is really special. And it was also really cool to see some very deliberate changes this Conservation Center made to their "elephant demonstration" (formerly "elephant show") that removed any instances of elephants having to carry riders in howdahs (the box structures on top of elephants used to carry riders). They also removed a lot of the gimmicky elephant tricks (e.g. balancing on logs, etc.) and instead prioritized showcasing how mahoots and elephants relate to one another.
There's also an elephant hospital on-site to care for sick, injured, pregnant, or recently born elephants. Whatever your take is on elephant tourism, I personally think this Center did a really good job of emphasizing the cultural importance of elephants in Thailand and sent a strong message of protection and conservation.
Joe made a friend
Izzy also made a friend
Students visiting the elephant hospital
Mama elephant and her three month old behbeh elephant
Mahoots and their elephants
Mahoots washing their elephants
After leaving the elephant sanctuary, we drove another 3ish hours southwest of Lampang to Mae Sot, a small-but growing town that borders Myanmar. I've never been to Mae Sot. Given its proximity to the Myanmar border, there is a substantial population of Burmese immigrants and refugees. And it's a big trade hub, notably gems and teak, and also some illegal trafficking (paraphrased from Wikipedia...sorry :( )
Tomorrow, we'll be visiting Dr. Cynthia's Mae Tao clinic, which serves refugees and displaced persons. We also leave for Ban Nam Hom tomorrow, and I will not be bringing my laptop, so hopefully I'll share an update on or around June 1.
I wouldn't consider myself a "big city" person. I'm definitely a "mid-sized city" person. The most recent cities in which I've lived are Tallahassee (pop. 197,000), Athens, GA (pop. 127,000), and Salt Lake City, UT (pop. 200,000). I've loved all three. Athens was close enough to Atlanta to have access to a real airport and professional sports, and Tallahassee was close to manatees. SLC's access to outdoor recreation is pretty unparalleled, and while I was *convinced* that Utah had the highest number of Arby's based on population per restaurant, I was shocked to find out it didn't even crack the top 10 states. (Source)
But despite my incorrect Arby's assumptions, I still think SLC is pretty great. Sorry, Barkley and Shaq, you're wrong.
In the USA, Washington D.C. is the only "big city" that I genuinely enjoy, and I think it's because it's pretty navigable by bike or public transportation. And there's lots of green space and things to do. New York would be on the opposite end of the spectrum (sorry, Harry and Maggie!). I haven't been back to New York in about 15 years, so maybe now that I'm a more competent/confident traveler I'd like it more, but the few times I visited NYC in 2008 when I was working for the airlines, I...didn't love it. I do have a fun entry about my first time in New York if you want to know what 22-year-old-completely-oblivious-traveler-me was like.
That was a long-winded intro to basically say that I love Chiang Mai.
I think in my last entry about Chiang Mai, I gave some brief facts about the city, but just in case you *forgot* to read that entry, Chiang Mai is the second-largest city in Thailand (city municipality pop. 127,000; 1.2 million surrounding area) behind Bangkok (pop. 11 million). So, the city municipality population puts it squarely in the "mid size" city category, and there are things to do that fit anyone's interests: outdoor activities, shopping, museums, arts & culture, etc.
On our last two days, Han and I put out a ton of optional activities and excursions for folks to do. When we got to the hotel, we couldn't check in yet so Han and I immediately set out on foot (no student takers unfortunately) to have lunch at a roadside Khao Soi restaurant in the old city that was recommended to us last year by one of the drivers. I learned that "Khao Soi Khun Yai" roughly translates to "Grandma's Chiang Mai Noodle." It was 120 baht for the two of us, which is a little less than $3.50 USD.
Khao Soi Khun Yai
After lunch, we took a songthaew back to the hotel to check in, and a group of students and I hopped back in the van to visit the Alpine Outpost, one of two climbing gyms in Chiang Mai. It's the smaller of the gyms in Chiang Mai, almost exclusively bouldering, but it's in this really cool indoor/outdoor covered complex and is a little quieter/less crowded than the other gym. Granted, I haven't visited the other gym and would love to do so at some point on a future trip. It also looks cool. From an ease-of-entry standpoint, having our group boulder rather than faffing about with a top-rope belay clinic saved our group time and money on equipment.
The gym had undergone a pretty significant expansion since I was last there a year before--the expansions were super cool! It was the same staff member working the wall that was there in 2022, so it was cool to reconnect with him. The students seemed to have a great time, but I will say that this is a HARD wall for beginner and intermediate climbers. Lots of overhung panels, high top-outs, and not a lot of footholds. That said, one of the setters was working while we were there, and he hung out with our group for a little while giving us beta (instructions) on a route and was super supportive. Very fun!
The group goes climbing
The next morning (today), one adventurous group of students reserved a guided kayaking tour I think (?) on the Mae Ping River (I'll check with them when they get back this evening), while another group of students joined Han, Noi, Lek, the drivers, and I at the Wororot Market in Chinatown. This market is mostly Thai locals and has everything from clothing to consumable goods to gold. It also has a very cool yarn/embroidery shop, so we stocked up on thread before we go to Ban Nam Hom this week.
Look at all that thread!
Careful deliberations
Enjoying some smoothies at the Wororot Market
After leaving the market, a few students and I walked to the Chiang Mai Culture and Arts Center. I have a pretty extensive post from 2022 about this Center so I'll link it here. It was a highlight of last year's trip and it was definitely a highlight of this year's trip. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the students at the Center today.
Remains of tools from the spirit cave
More information on the Inthakin festival that we attended last week
We learned about a coronation ritual where the royal party was preceded by a man and a black dog. If the dog barked upon entering the city, it indicated that there were evil spirits present and the coronation would be postponed.
Afterward, the students suggested eating lunch at Tong Tem Toh (my favorite), so I didn't argue with that!
The rest of the day is "Treat Yo'self Saturday," so I enjoyed the hotel pool and sauna for a little while before Masami and I got Thai massages at my favorite massage parlor, The Artist Spa. It was absolutely dumping buckets when Masami and I left our massages.
This picture really doesn't illustrate how deep the rainwater was on the roads
That's pretty much it for Chiang Mai. Tomorrow, we leave for Lampang and Mae Sot before spending 3 days in Ban Nam Hom. I'll try and update tomorrow from Mae Sot, but wifi/electricity is questionable in Ban Nam Hom, so if I don't update tomorrow, it might not be until June 1 until I post again. Until then, cheers!
The second day at the school was spent priming and painting the classroom building that we prepped the day before. Painting projects are tricky when it comes to service work--as unskilled laborers, we (the Westminster group) don't want to do a bad job or create more work for our Thai hosts. As such, detail work (e.g. painting doors, ceiling lines) was mostly left to the school staff, and our group focused on rolling and brushing the main colors. Each of the 9 schools in this district has a signature color; we painted the building a bright yellow - the primary color of this school.
We only had one ladder and limited paint supplies, so not all of the group could paint at once. One of our students, Isabel, was generous enough to donate her 42 colors of embroidery thread so our students could work with the Thai kids to make bracelets. I have never seen so much thread disappear so quickly. Isabel, you really saved the day! The Thai kids also participated in a coloring contest, which was then later judged/awarded by our group. It was really nice for the folks that like kids to be able to spend their time and energy playing with the Thai kids while those of us (me me me me me) who are a little...less comfortable...around little kids--or all kids--to focus on the painting job.
That said, I did try and push myself out of my comfort zone to interact with kids as much as my signature brand of Kellie-awkwardness would allow. It's hard work, y'all. And these kids are like...definitely the cutest, sweetest kids on the planet. And it was still hard work.
Mad respect for K-6 teachers.
Joe and Kelsey were on kid duty for pretty much 3 days straight. Thanks! Photo credit: Masami Tadehara
Banyang School - Day 3
Once the building had dried, the Banyang School staff sketched out a mural for our group to paint. We joked that Noi saw our students' drawings the day before and felt that it was in the school's best interest to have their own staff create the design :)
The mural design
Our group working on the mural. You can see the new yellow and silver colors on the building.
The finished mural
After we finished painting, we had a field day of sorts with the Thai kids, playing sports, musical chairs, and a potato sack race. I have videos from the potato sack race, but they're a little lengthy so I may have figure out a way to compress the file before I post it.
We finished our time at the Banyang school with a celebration and ceremony with the Thai teachers and students. Our students were presented with beautiful Karin-style bags--very cool.
Today 5/25, we visited Omkoi elementary school in the center of the town. After visiting each class, students were paired in groups of 2 or 3 and asked to host a classroom for about an hour. Once again, this is a big ask of students who aren't necessarily the most enthused about kids (and don't get me wrong, we also have a fair number of students on this trip who DO like kids and are great with them!), but everyone really stepped up and did a fantastic job. Folks did art projects, folded paper airplanes and fortune tellers, learned new phrases, sang songs. By the end of the hour, everyone left their classrooms--Thai and Westminster students alike--with big smiles and hugs.
Leo, Isabel, and Masami's class
Joe, Makena, and Madi's class
Kelsey and Lily's class
Kate, Nhu, and Izzy's class
After a short lunch break back at the hotel, we ventured out again to visit the Banyang satellite school--a much smaller school with fewer students, teachers, and resources. Nevertheless, this school had wonderful energy. The teachers were incredibly welcoming and the students were very excited for our visit. Again, we paired off in groups of 2-3 to spend about 20 minutes in individual classrooms doing various activities with the kids. I even joined a team to assist with some activities (Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Row Row Row Your Boat, I'm a Little Tea Pot--which none of us remembered the lyrics to--the rainstorm sound activity, Macarena, and making paper airplanes--always a hit).
Next year, I will definitely DEFINITELY be reaching out to my colleagues in the School of Education for assistance with lesson planning for English as Second Language (ESL) instruction and/or art education. I'm really excited to lean on their expertise and I think it'll really help set our students up for success in future years!
Paper airplane mayhem
Limbo contest
The whole group at the Banyang satellite campus
The last thing we did before returning to the hotel was to visit a local cafe, where a few folks purchased some beautiful local Karin crafts (shirts, bags, dresses, spices) and some locally roasted coffee.
Nhu and Masami sitting with Noi, one of our Thai hosts who is the glue that holds this trip together!
Students at the cafe examining a bug
Tomorrow, we head back to Chiang Mai for a few more free days. Han and I have put together a host of optional activities that students can join (or they can do their own thing). I'm excited about the things that I have on my personal docket, which include a return to the Alpine Outpost climbing gym, Chiang Mai Arts and Culture Center, a Thai massage, and eating at Khao Soi Khun Yai. Stay tuned!
This entry is going to seem boring after my Sam Raimi-inspired post from yesterday.
Before describing today's activities, I'd like to first thank Isabel and Lily's grandparents for following along--I hope you weren't too grossed out by the post-leech aftermath photos.
Also, I've been known to tell a pun or two or 4,000 in my day. If you're wondering where I get it from:
While I appreciate the effort, let's be honest. That pun kind of sucked.
SEE WHAT I DID THERE??
I'm just kidding, Dad. It was a fine pun. I love you very much.
Moving on.
Today, we loaded into a very capable 4WD van and pick-up truck to drive to the Ban Yang Kaew school to start some of our service work. The Ban Yang Kaew school is located about 25 minutes outside of Omkoi--already a very small town--in the middle of the woods. Getting to the school is a challenge--particularly in bad weather because it requires travel on rough, unpaved dirt roads.
For many years, this program has had a focus on nursing education and practice. One of the things we do at the rural schools is to complete health assessments with the kids. We have a much smaller student group this year than in previous years, so rather than only having nursing students involved, it was very much all hands on deck. Some students took height and weight measurements, other students completed step-by-step assessments of things like skin, teeth, hair, etc., and another group of students helped wash and de-lice hair. It involved a lot of pantomiming and help (when possible) from our Thai translators.
Conducting a health assessment
Helpful list of Thai phrases while doing health assessments
I'm definitely DEFINITELY not a kid person, but I will admit that these incredibly sweet and well-behaved kiddos were like...kind of cute, and it filled my heart with joy to see our Westminster students--who do like kids--have such sweet and funny interactions with the Ban Yang students. Students played soccer, Sepak Takraw (it's like volleyball but with your feet!), and had a lot of arm wrestling contests today.
Playing Sepak Takraw
Joe had quite the entourage today
After breaking for lunch, we started work prepping one of the older class buildings for a big paint job. We'll start painting tomorrow, but today was spent washing the building and doing our best to scrape existing paint off the building to prime it tomorrow.
Prepping the building for paint. Photo credit: Noi V.
It dumped absolute buckets on us this afternoon, so work was halted for about an hour while we waited out the thunderstorm. We had a quick weather window to make a fast drive back to the hotel, but we still got caught in the deluge in our open air truck.
Waiting out the storm
We ended the night by re-connecting with Principal Choosak, who is the director of the main school in Omkoi that we'll be visiting on Thursday.
I'll probably hold off on posting for a day or two but will try and post one more Omkoi update before we leave for Chiang Mai on Friday.
If you've followed this blog during last year's trip to Thailand, you might have noticed that the itinerary has been fairly similar in terms of the who, what, when, where. The second half of our itinerary (as of today) will have some new locations and experiences, including today.
For those of you who don't know me (shoutout to Kelsey's family--thanks for reading!), I'm a professor of outdoor education and leadership at Westminster University (formerly College). As such, one of the new themes of this trip is responsible tourism/outdoor recreation, which means that we've had opportunities to include more hikes and national park visits in the itinerary. When we discuss "responsible tourism," one of the things that we try to emphasize is pursuing opportunities to hire local guides/companies. It's a win-win-win--the money we spend as tourists goes directly to the locals (no middle folks taking a cut), we generally get more authentic experience in relation to learning about Thai culture, and it helps us form relationships that we often get to revisit and rekindle in future trips. A great example of this was with Chef Perm and the cooking class--we can't wait to take another class from him in a future program, and we really enjoyed getting to learn about local Thai ingredients in an actual Thai market from an actual Chiang Mai resident.
Okay, so today, we had the opportunity to hike to Doi 360º Ban Mae Tho, a 360º viewpoint within Mae Tho National Park. In Thai national parks, going out for hikes (unless it's on a really really really established low-risk frontcountry trail) requires visitors to contract guides for safety reasons. The trail infrastructure is less developed than what we might be used to in certain parts of the U.S., and park operations (e.g. search and rescue) may have fewer resources. Our Thai host Noi was kind enough to set up a hike for our group today using 2 local guides and her friend Bright.
I do a lot of hiking personally and professionally, and I can say that today's hike ranks in the "top 10 difficult hikes" of my lifetime. That is not to say that it wasn't fun--it definitely was--but given the heat/sun exposure, difficult trail conditions (uneven terrain), elevation gain, and...critters (more on that in a second), this hike was not for the faint of heart. I'm also 3 months into recovery from ACL reconstruction, so I had to be really REALLY careful on my knee, and it was a little tough going into a hike without any prior knowledge on the terrain, elevation, etc. I'm really proud of our students for both persevering and for advocating for themselves. I think most folks found the experience to be worthwhile, but it was tough and I'd plan and prepare students a little differently in the future now that I know what to expect.
Our route and elevation gain on Doi 360º Ban Mae Tho
This was like...the one chill section of the hike :)
Hikin'!
We made it to the top!
Great spot for lunch
I don't remember if this picture was taken before or after the nightmare fuel...
One of our guides made us homemade Pad Krapow (pork chili basil stir fry) with produce from his personal garden
Okay, so the reason you're all here--the nightmare fuel. A few things first:
My outdoor education colleagues and I always stress closed-toe shoes on hikes--particularly if we are on unknown terrain. It is the outdoor education hill I will die on. My insistence on closed-toe shoes was affirmed today :)
I get a lot of good-natured crap from friends about the equipment I bring on day hikes (e.g. rain gear, first aid kit, trekking pole, etc.). Check out this skit from Portlandia to get a sense of what I'm talking about. Well, folks, I SURE AM GLAD I HAD A COMPREHENSIVE FIRST AID KIT TODAY.
Get the Gear!
I am also far from perfect and make plenty of mistakes when prepping for outdoor activities. For example, today, I deeply regretted not wearing pants with long socks, or even preferably gaiters (which I brought on last year's trip but left at home this year). One of my many Gerberisms in class is borrowed from Will Rogers: "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." Well, today' is an example of learning from a mistake that I will hopefully not replicate in the future.
Now really, let's get to the nightmare fuel for real. I can't decide if I want to post photos or not. My mom would probably lose her sh** so I may share photos upon request. To be clear, I am totally fine and everything is fine and it's all fine.
As I mentioned earlier, this hike was pretty tough. Really steep elevation gain, and we're not entirely convinced that Thai folks believe in switchbacks. We kept a pretty aggressive pace while hiking (something that I would change in future years), but the downside to stopping on trail was that we'd get ambushed by ******* if we stood still too long (don't want to spoil the surprise). We didn't notice them at first, but one of our guides pointed them out and would whip out his machete to 1) remove it/them from our clothing and 2) cut off its head. We thought it was like...kind of an intense reaction at first, but NOW I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND WHY.
So about halfway through the hike, I felt a rock in my shoe, so I did a few finger sweeps to make sure it was out, and I noticed that my foot felt a little painful (like, a .5 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being extreme pain, so minimally painful) and assumed it was the aftermath of the rock bruising my foot.
Cue the narrator's voice: "Kellie was wrong."
AN HOUR LATER, when we finally reached the top, our guides, who didn't speak any English, indicated that we should check our shoes. At this point, I figured I should probably double check that the rock was out of my shoe, so I took my shoe off.
AND HOLY SH** A TWO INCH LEECH WAS STILL ATTACHED TO MY FOOT ON THE INSIDE OF MY SOCK AND MY SHOE AND SOCK WERE FULL OF BLOOD EW EW EW EW EW.
I'll spare you the photos with all the blood :\ but Bright and I are working on post-leech wound cleaning and dressing.
The students said I was really calm through throughout the process of de-leeching my foot and cleaning/dressing the wound (thanks to Bright for her assistance! AND I'M REALLY GLAD I HAD MY FIRST AID KIT), but I was dying on the inside. It was so gross. I mean, leeches are like, objectively cool animals. Their natural anticoagulant/anesthetic meant that my foot bled a LOT but that it didn't really hurt. I can totally understand why they were and are still used in modern medicinal settings. They are useful. I just don't want them on my foot. Ever again.
Got the wound cleaned and dressed, and proceeded with the rest of the afternoon with a lovely lunch at the peak before a very steep trek down. Mom, my knee is fine. I took good care of it and went very slow and trekked with a pole. I love you and appreciate you.
After we finished the hike, we did a quick drive through the main entrance of Mae Tho national park, grabbed some refreshments at a local cafe, and then one of our guides invited us back to his house to show us his incredible garden--several large Thai restaurant chains (MK, Sizzler) actually purchase produce from him. It was definitely a highlight for our group and he sent us home with giant bags of bok choy and plums.
The group in front of the Mae Tho National Park sign
The group inside our guide's greenhouse
Inside the greenhouse
I think this was Thai spinach?
Izzy is *stoked* for bok choy!
We're back to the hotel and in for the evening. Tomorrow, we'll start our projects at the Banyang School.
