Welcome back to the blog! Or if you're a first time reader, welcome and thanks for following our trip.
For students, family/friends of participants on the 2023 Westminster May Term Thailand trip, I'm one of the faculty members (along with Han Kim) who will be traveling with 11 Westminster students for the next month. I do my best to update the blog every few days with the who/when/what/where of the trip, as well as some photos. And with that introduction, let's jump right into it.
We arrived in Bangkok around 12PM local time yesterday after a very, very long series of flights. The leg from LAX to Taipei was 14 hours and I'm pretty sure that every single person in a 10 foot radius of my seat watched Ocean's 11.
After getting checked into the hotel, our goal was to keep the whole group awake (which is no easy feat after 20+ hours of travel) until the evening so that we could adjust to local time as quickly as possible. We gave students a very brief walking tour of the local area and oriented them with the Terminal 21 shopping center, whose major highlight is that it has a LOT of very inexpensive local food options, so students were able to dive right into sampling local Asian cuisine. Some brave students have already checked durian off their list :)
Today was our first full day in Bangkok, and it was scheduled to be a free/exploration day for the group as people get settled in, take care of personal needs, etc. A group of students joined me for an "early morning activation" at Benchakitti Park, located a few blocks from our hotel.
After early AM activation, Han and I put some options out to the group, and most students elected to join us for a tour of Wat Pho, the second-most visited site in Bangkok behind the Grand Palace. Visiting Wat Pho also gave us an opportunity to practice using the local metro system.
Upon arriving at the Wat, Han treated the group (thanks, Han!) to a guided tour of the site, which was absolutely worth it. Our tour guide, Ton, has been a licensed tour guide for 17 years and teaches religious studies and philosophy when he's not guiding. Having the additional insight and context for our experience at Wat Pho enhanced our visitor experience so much. Ton taught us about the history of Wat Pho, explained basic principles of Buddhism and the historical/cultural influences of Theravada Buddhism (the predominant form of Buddhism in Thailand), and broke down the basic practices of Buddhist meditation. Ton provided us with a pamphlet that he wrote that explains these concepts far better than I could, so I will share his explanation instead (below).
Ton giving an overview of Wat Pho.
The group about to enter the Wat
After touring the Wat, we ate lunch at a riverside restaurant (Eat, Sight, Story) before doing a quick walkthrough of some of the flower markets near Chinatown.
Cabbages and Condoms is part of a larger unit of resorts, restaurants, and initiatives designed to help the Thai population minimize risk of HIV/AIDS transmission and improve family planning resources. It’s been incredibly successful. From their website (edited slightly for clarity):
“C&C operates restaurants, resorts, community-based ecotourism and training centers, and uses the earned income to support the development of quality of life and community. C&C is part of the Krabi Integrated Rural Development Center (BIRD-Krabi), a unit of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA).”
Students posing at Cabbages and Condoms
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