Adventures in Southeast Asia: First 3 days in Thailand

Sawatdee-kha! Hello from Thailand!

So it's been a long journey getting to Chiang Mai, but I finally made it and I am settling in just fine! This country is beautiful, and the people I have met are so friendly. Thailand is called 'the land of smiles,' and I have done plenty of smiling since I arrived!

There is so much to tell, I don't even know where to start.

Traveling went very smoothly, but it took a lot out of me. My flight from JFK was 14 hours, and I was stuck in the window seat with two Korean business men next to me who spoke no English. It was uncomfortable, but not too bad. We flew over the ice caps (incredible!) and over thousands of miles of mountains in Russia. It was beautiful. We gained 13 hours as we headed to Seoul, which was weird because I realized how time is pretty much irrelevant when traveling internationally. We had an hour layover in Seoul before boarding for Bangkok. Our flight was short (only 5 hours) and completely empty. I laid out across a few seats and slept! We stayed overnight in Bangkok in the airport hotel, which was lovely, and flew to Chiang Mai in the morning.

The first you can feel is the heat and the humidity. I have no idea how how it has been each day, but it's pretty much unbearable. I feel my body getting slowly acclimated to the climate, but sweating profusely has is starting to become normal. It seems as if Thai people don't sweat; many people walk around in long pants and shirts or jackets, even when it is very hot out. I have learned that one reason why some Thais do this is because white skin is highly valued in parts of Thai culture. Many lotions and deodorants have skin bleach in them.

I have not had much of an appetite, but the food I have eaten is WONDERFUL. A lot of travelers have difficulties adjusting to Thai food because the ingredients are so fresh and the microbes are very different from what American bodies know. Today was the first time that I felt sick, but I expected that to be a part of the experience!

Payap Mai Kao campus is located on the outside of Chiang Mai. There is another central campus right in the heart of downtown. Today we visited that campus and walked around the markets just down the street (pictures to follow in another post!). My dorm is brand new, but there is no air-conditioning and no hot water. It sounds awful, I know, but a cold shower three times a day is a perfect way to deal with the heat! The dorm is open-air, so there are lots of bugs (nothing a camp girl can't handle, right?) and it is just as hot outside as it is inside. I have two roommates, although I have only met one of them. The past 5 days have been a holiday for the Queen's birthday, so students are given a break. My first roommate's name is Seny. She is from Chiang Mai and she is wonderful! She is half British and half Thai and she is a German major, so she's more than competent in 3 languages. She is very kind and outgoing, and she was not intimidated to come out to a bar with a group of 9 crazy Americans on our first night! I haven't yet met my second roommate, as she has not returned from holiday. I expect to meet her tomorrow!

Yesterday, a big group of American students (some from St. Lawrence and some of my new friends from other schools) and I went into the city to explore. We walked around some neighborhoods and ate lunch in a street cafe. We stumbled upon two wats (temples) that were unbelievable! I'm quickly learning a lot about Thai culture and Buddhism. Here are some interesting things I've learned:

-Your head is the most sacred part of your body, and your feet are the lowest, spiritually speaking. You must never point the bottoms of your feet towards anyone, especially not towards Buddha in a wat. You bow your head to your elders to be polite, and towards people of status you 'wai'. 'Wai' is when you bring your hands together like in prayer (it is supposed to resemble a lotus flower) and place them so that your thumbs are by your chin, and bow your head. How far up on your face you place your hands depends on the status of the person you are wai-ing. Monks receive the highest wai, and they never wai back

-I was told that most Thais believe that foreigners smell, but they would never tell you. A lot of Thai people shower multiple times in a day and value being clean. According to one of my RA's, this is because there is a value in Thai culture of 'form over function,' meaning that it is more important for something or someone to look, feel, and act clean or kept up than it is to function properly. Thai culture is a hot-weather-culture, which means that indirect communication is valued over direct communication. Sometimes if you ask a question, a Thai person might not give you a straight answer because they are uncomfortable being addressed so directly. There are obviously exceptions to this rule, but so far I have found this to be generally true.

-I am learning a lot about 'going with the flow.' Many things in my trip so far have not gone according to plan, and the sooner I accept that they won't, the easier my life will be. I have not found it very challenging yet, but I think that I'm still in the 'honeymoon' stage. Everything is just so new and fun and exciting and different!

I'm exhausted because it's Sunday night and I begin school tomorrow. I have an orientation with the head of my program at 8:30 (the earliest I've had to get up for class since Freshman year!) and I still have a 5 page paper to write before morning. I have not yet gotten into school-mode.

I will close with some pictures of what I've seen so far, refer to Facebook for more pictures because I am updating them daily! You can click on them to see them larger.