What the Karst! Wasn't Hitler a Naxi?

Ladies and germs, I am back after an 11 day travelling expedition in the People’s Republic of China. The best way to wrap my blog around the trip is to give you a day-by-day play-by-play!
It all started with my good friend Andrew Tate studying Chinese in Beijing this summer, and with his program ending, we decided to travel around Southern China together before he went back to UNC. Although I didn’t have a break from classes or anything, I packed a bookbag and hopped a flight from Bangkok to Guilin. **Note: every single shop/restaurant/bus station had a tv with the Olympics on every channel. Loves it!**

August 11: After going to the Chinese Embassy (sa-thaan toot jinn) three times in one week, I got my Chinese visa (wee-sa) so I could fly. I arrived late to Guilin, and Andrew, having arrived an hour before by train, picked me up at the airport. We checked in at the Guilin Flowers International Youth Hostel and went exploring around town. We found an underground dance club and waltzed right in. We were the only foreigners and we ordered Coronas off the menu, to which we received a strange barely-alcoholic beverage: the Purple Godsend. Great way to start my stay in the Guangxi Province.

August 12: Early in the morning, Casey Yancey, our other travelling companion arrived and we seized the day. We spent the day at the Seven Star Park (Qixing Gongyuan) where we explored a mineral museum of the region, marveled at exotic plants, and spelunked the Seven Star Cave (Qixing Yan) which would prove to be one of my favorite experiences. We were entirely alone in the deep dank cavern, and it was the first time I fell in love with limestone. We also visited the matching Sun and Moon Pagodas in a lake that could only be traversed via underwater tunnel.

August 13: This is the day we climbed a Karst, and I began to love Southern China. A Karst looks like a mountain in a landscape, but rather than being form by tectonic uplift, it the result of limestone dissolution. The land is worn down by waters, and with subterranean drainage leading to magnificent caves in association, the karst is the limestone bedrock that has persisted while all else has dissolved around it. They reminded me of more massive, tree-covered hoodoos like I saw at Bryce Canyon in Utah. We climbed the karst (Fubo Shan), took in the exquisite views, then went below it to the Returned Pearl Cave (Huanzhu Dong) and the Thousand Buddha Cave (Qianfo Yan). These caves were more touristy and tampered with. The karst landscape and defines southern China is right out of a fairy tale. That evening we travelled by bus to Yangshou where we booked a room at Monkey Jane’s Guest House.

August 14: Yangshou is the most beautiful place on Earth. Bold to say? Yes. The karsts in around Yangshou were impressive and we had to explore. We woke up early and went on an excursion with the bartender Sally that we met the night before. We rented bicycles and travelled through rice paddies and dirt roads between karsts to arrive at Yulong River where we rode bamboo rafts for a few hours south. The day was an idyllic sunny one, and after the raft ride, we climbed Moon Hill (Yueling Shan). This karst was a showcase to the work of water on limestone with a giant moon-shaped crescent carved out near the top. We climbed to the top and the view was killer. Hilarious little Chinese women followed us the entire way up trying to get us to buy their water and juice, but for some reason they won’t take no (boo yao) for an answer! We followed up our sweaty adventure upwards, with a tour downwards to the Moon Water Cave. Hardhats and flashlights to boot, we explored this saturated cave and ended up covered in mud from head to toe before coming back out on the other side to discover a gorgeous rice paddy valley.

August 15: After a night of beer pong on Monkey Jane’s Rooftop Bar whereupon we met Monkey Jane herself, we got a late start. **Note: Monkey Jane is about 24, owns the hostel and bar, is scantily clad, a bitch, and always sloshed and belligerent**. With Casey worn out, Andrew and I rented bicycles and ventured to the north to a nearby village Xing Ping. Firecrackers abounded due to a holiday involving spirits, and we tried to order the local specialty of Rat, but we saw a rat in a cage the size of a medium-sized dog with price tag to boot and changed our minds.

August 16: Bus back to Guilin. Let it be known that Guilin is the 11th most populated city in China at 46 million people. 46 million yelling, spitting, wild people. We stayed another night to Guilin.

August 17: Just your average 19 hour train ride to Kunming! Welp, there goes August 17!

August 18: A 9 hour sleeper bus to Lijiang was less than pleasant. The train had bunk beds and room to move around, bathroom included. The bus was a cramped situation where I couldn’t even lay my arms by my sides without overflowing onto my neighboring passengers who were inevitably very Chinese, very grumpy, and a little smelly. Everyone smokes, even on the bus.


August 19: A 5am arrival in Lijiang, we found a very quaint almost Staunton, Virginia-esque cobblestone village. Not yet bustling in the early mist, we finally found the Pan Ba Hostel. Sleep-deprived but running on adrenaline after escaping the bus, Casey slept while Andrew and I planned to conquer a mountain. The area of Lijiang, the next province over from Tibet, is considered the foothills of the Himalayas. We took a bus to the glacier-encrusted Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We rented heavy jackets that came with baby-sized oxygen tanks and went exploring to the 4700 meter-high peak. The Spruce Meadow that we went to near the mountain was one of my favorite experiences. While we could not see the glacial peaks clearly through the thick, low clouds, the meadow itself had a mycological diversity that I have never seen. I’ve always loved mushrooms, but the fungus in the area made me scream! The oxygen tanks were an absolute joke so Andrew and I just sucked on them taking a cable car down the slope.

August 20: We experimented with the local indigenous foods of the Naxi culture (pronounced nahk-see, not like Nazi, which I had too much fun with at the time), and we were very pleased. **Note: Tibetan Dumplings are the best food ever, but avoid the Yak Butter Tea like the plague** We also visited the Black Dragon Pool which was an adorable park with a karst of its own, ripe for the climbing. Andrew and I scaled Elephant Hill and took in the circle of mountains around us. The foothills of the Himalayas I tell you! That night, I took a sleeper bus back to Kunming for my flight back to Thailand.

August 21: The day of my return to Bangkok. NOT!! I got to the airport bright and early and discovered that my flight did not exist. Andrew and Casey continued travelling to Dali in the Yunnan Province so I was alone with no Chinese speaking ability. Apparently Orbitz didn’t think a 24 hour change in my flight plans was worth notifying me about. Fuck you, Orbitz. I ended up getting a hotel, making friends with a cute Chinese girl in a coffee shop and buying a pretty dress, but I also was in the process of developing a pretty nasty allergic reaction to MSG.

August 22: Waiting the airport during what would have been my Climate Change Midterm Exam back in Bangkok, I ended up making it home. Met a really killer guy from Connecticut too on that flight who teaches English to Chinese kids. Either way, I made it home, found out I didn’t miss anything important in Thailand, and much fun was had by all.

Stranded in China

The lack of posts for the past 2 weeks is due to a trip to China. I decided to fly to southern China to travel with one of my best friends Andrew Tate, who had been studying in Beijing. I will give a more adequate update in a few days, but currently, I am stranded in China.
Andrew was with me until yesterday when I took an overnight bus to Kunming and a taxi to the airport to go home to Bangkok whereupon Andrew went to Dali to continue travelling. This lead to that and I discovered that my flight did not exist. Apparently Thai Airways rescheduled for tomorrow so I am missing a midterm exam and staying an extra night in a place where suddenly without Andrew, I am absolutely alone and cannot speak Chinese. My kingdom for an English speaker! Even Thai would be nice. Either way, I get back to Thailand tomorrow and things will be back to normal.

Sri Lanka... meet Guacamole

This past week involved 3 wonderful food parties. Also, the picture above is of my neighborhood!

Saturday night, we christened our house (The Farang Fortress) with a housewarming party. Our American friends came, as well as our Thai friends. Chang was drank, cards were played, even our screen doors were assembled! It was a fun mash-up of people, and now the house is modestly furnished and amazing. I wonder if our Thai neighbors see us walking through their street and go "uh oh, there goes the neighborhood".

Tuesday night, our Thai friend Jeum put together a big potluck feast in her office on campus near the soccer field. Several of her Thai colleages, 1 girl from Sri Lanka, 1 boy from Nepal, 1 boy from Vietnam, and several of us from America all cooked traditional dishes for this cultural event. From our group, Alana and Lauren made maccaroni and cheese, Sarah and I made pasta salad, Elizabeth Ruby and Angela made apple pies, and I also served up some of my (now world-famous) guacamole (copyright jenn richey). It was a big hit because Thai people love spicy foods. The night was filled with eating and silliness that was only topped off by several hours of kareoke. We taught the Thais the Electric Slide, the Macarena, the Soulja Boy and they taught us several fun dances and songs that I would be hard pressed to repeat the names of. Very fun though!

***Note to mom: huge wad of cilantro at the fresh market for 3 baht. that's less than 1 cent)***

Wednesday night, our Thai Language instructer "Pam" invited us over to her apartment and taught us how to cook traditional Thai dishes instead of giving us an exam (Thank you Pam!). Now I can say that I know how to properly cook: Kai Jeow (omelette), Laab Moo and Gai (an Issan dish of pork or chicken), Tom Ka (spicy soup with coconut milk). Apparently Thai cooking is absolutely reliant on THE FIVE:

1-oyster sauce
2-squid brand fish sauce
3-pepper
4-sugar
5-soybean oil

This picture here is the Winnie the Pooh stickers above my mattress on the floor that were so thoughtfully left on the walls by the last people to live in our house.

"Hello? หน้าของ ประเทศไทย... "

One of the funny things about Thailand: everyone answers their cellphone with "Hello?" then they proceed to carry on the conversation in Thai. It can be very misleading because I think everyone speaks English all of the sudden, but they certainly don't.

This weekend has been a huge celebration of the Tenth Anniversary for the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment at KMUTT. For the festivities on Thursday, ten monks came and sang while we sat on the floor and bowed to them. It was a beautiful but long ceremony, and afterwards I asked Pai what they were saying, but it turns out that Thai Buddhist Monks sing in Sanskrit, so he had no idea what they were saying. Just a blessing for more success for our graduate school.

Thursday evening we had a JGSEE dinner party at a restaurant near Central Plaza Rama II called "The Park". Our professors talked about the history of the grad school, there was a video, and to our surprise, Kareoke is a part of a semi-formal event in Thailand. Par for the course, we got up there too and sang "A Whole New World". The lyrics on the screen were in Thai, but luckily we've seen Aladdin enough to get through it. The highlight of the evening for us as well as the program, was a traditional Thai dance performance by myself and the six other girls from UNC. A team of Thai women and 1 fabulous Thai man took almost 2 hours to get all of us in the proper hair, makeup, outfits, and ready to go. We'd been practicing the dance for 3 weeks and it was a lot of fun! Our colleages were surprised how beautiful we looked in the traditional Thai garb (considering we're usually running around playing frisbee like good girls should not).

Saturday evening was another adventure with a four course dinner and speakers from around the world. One sip of your drink and they replace it! The menu of courses was as follows:

-Smoked salmon rose with green leaves, citrus vinaigrette peppered cold tuna carpaccio with balsamic syrup, tandoori chicken on salad raita dip

-Classic lobster bisque, crab ravioli and vegetable pearls

-Raspberry sherbet

-Baked snapper and salmon steak combination with a green asparagus salsa, served with a peppered sweet and sour sauce and glazed onions

-Chocolate iced souffle with apricot and spicy mango sauce

-Freshly brewed coffee or tea

News flash: I have a house in Bangkok. It's this little townhouse to the left here, 3 stories. There are six of us that just moved in and I will have more pictures later once we get more furniture and get everything ready for our housewarming party.

Regrettibly, I have learned that another one of my relatives has passed away back in America. My Uncle Peter was an amazing doctor who ate organic food, loved cars and photography, ran in marathons across the world, and has 3 beautiful daughters that I love more than anything. My sympathy goes out to my family and I am absolutely heartbroken that I cannot be there with you all.

Why Am I Rasta Man?: Full Moon Party

Perhaps you’ve heard of the legendary Full Moon Parties that occur in the Gulf of Thailand on the humble island Koh Phangan. I honestly cannot believe that these parties occur every single month, it was a blowout party of which the likes are unheard of worldwide (so I’m told by my travelling companions). About ten thousand farang show up from their backpacking adventures to this island, just north of the more recognized island Koh Samui. Due to a Buddhist holiday this past week, I had about six days to take the most amazing vacation ever! Ruby (<---check out her blog) and I took at a ten hour bus down the peninsula of Thailand to Chomporn where we then took a six hour ferry to Koh Phangan. While looking for a place to stay, a nice looking Thai boy drives by on a motorcycle: “Need bungalow?” Me: “sure, why not!”. I hop of his motorcycle and he takes me through the mountainous terrain to Hillside House on Baan Kai which is a set of beautiful wooden bungalows away from the crazy partiers up on the side of a mountain. The people who own the bungalows have a beautiful art studio on the mountain where they paint colorful Bob Marley and Jim Morrison all day. We spent a lot of time hanging out with them and drinking with them to their amazing selection of music. I spent the entire trip getting to know the island Thais who are so much more Rastafarian than Asian.
The first day, Ruby and I swam in the hot Gulf water and slept on the beach. By night we drank 40 baht Chang beer while challenging each other to a very creatively stimulating game of Scrabble (thanks to Linda for the going away travel game that has proved perfect). After a slow night, Ruby and I returned to our 400 baht-a-night bungalow with an incredible view and gigantic living space (that’s about six dollars a person per night).
Day two, Ruby and I seize the day and try to locate Kao Ra, the largest mountain on the island. We found our way to the center of the island via two taxis, then we hiked several kilometers to the largest waterfall on the island "Paeng Noi" which was not very intimidating. From there, it was all mountainous terrain to Kao Ra and we trekked for several hours uphill. Unfortunately we ended up losing the trail, but we ended up finding a lone Thai man with a shack on the top of a mountain with a little self-sustaining coconut grove. We also came across a very Twilight Zone-Outer Limits moment when suddenly in the jungle there was a cement factory-empty rooms with dogs chained up everywhere. Either way, we ended up walking several kilometers back into town with Chang in hand to make the heat bearable. We spent the rest of the day swimming, napping on a concrete slab near the water, and eating some delicious Thai food near the pier. I bought a really neat sarong and we ran into two friends from KMUTT, Joel and George who we thought were on Samui. That night we ended up running into our motorcycle friend from the day before, Karn. Karn was the sweetest guy, about 28 and he hooked us up with Muay Thai Boxing tickets which we spent the night watching while eating peanuts and watching a guy’s face bleed. Very raw.
Day three, we decided to check out a day-long boat adventure called the Reggae Magic Boat Cruise. The boat cruise was a traditional Thai longboat that went in tandem with the Snoop Dogg Boat Cruise which was just hilarious. I’m thinking about shooting an email to Snoop and telling him I loved his trip that I’m SURE he knows exists. The boat took us around an entire half of the island to beaches such as Bottle Beach and to an amazing waterfall where I climbed through this really cool creep cave. A spliff on a boat in Asia is not what I was planning. We watched the sun set over the island and spent the evening back at our artsy bungalow with music and our friends Joel and George. We played cards and our artists only charged us 30 baht per beer because they loved us (that’s less than a dollar). Joel and George stayed over with us which was quite silly and funny.
Day four, Ruby and I went to the beach Haad Rin for the day, laying out, reading, swimming, eating, sleeping, and I got a very amazing Thai massage. I can’t wait to get another one now! Full body hour-long massage for 6 dollars. Unreal. On the beach we met a cool Thai man named Bao that played Frisbee with us and just chatted with us for a while. That night, most of the UNC crew came to our island from neighboring Koh Tao and Krabi (where they filmed the movie “The Beach”), and the Full Moon Party was underway. Starting the night with a very western burrito, Ruby and I were pals all night in the giant crowd. Everyone drinks the very naughtily-named “Fuck Buckets” which was mixed drinks that you guy on the beach that are served in buckets. I may have partaken. Black lights and rave music and fire dancing and fluorescent body painting fought furiously against each other for attention among the crowds. Our friend Karn painted us for free (I got a KILLER scorpion on my back that will only live on in memory as a camera at this occasion would have ended up swimming with the fishes). After dancing and drinking, we ended up hanging out with Karn a lot and I spent several hours in very engaging conversation with a Danish boy that who was equally obsessed with Saturday Night Live! He was a doll, he’s working on his Master’s Thesis in Electrical Engineering in Denmark. He also loves John Belushi. Watching the sun rise is actually an experience I had never had before, and what a location for my first time. I went home to my bungalow to sleep from 9am to 10am, then the trek home of 16+ hours was so worth it.
Conclusion: Longest blog entry yet by far, but for the best adventure. I don’t know if I’ll be going back to that island, but our friend Karn will likely visit us in Bangkok before we leave. Most memorable night ever. You can’t see me, but I’m grinning ear to ear.

Satan Arrives in Time for Independence Day!

Satan, you ask? Well seeing as how everything over here in the Kingdom is so cheap, how could I resist a bootleg copy of Diablo 2 with the Lord of Destruction expansion included! All of this excitement was spurned by the much awaited (at least in my life) announcement of pre-production for Diablo 3. Nicholas boys, it's going to be a good reunion in about 2 years when it finally comes out.

But I digress. This past weekend was my first time just sticking around Bangkok, and what a great decision it was! Every year the American Chamber of Commerce (affectionately: AmCham) hosts a blowout Fourth of July Party. On the grounds of the Port Authority of Thailand, Americans came out of the woodwork for this super-patriotic abroad experience. There were American soldiers, the US Ambassador to Thailand, rock music, burgers, burritos, baby back ribs, Budweiser, face painting, and naturally, fireworks at the end of the day. I was able to register for my absentee ballot there, and for a small donation I received a "Bangkok for Barack" t-shirt (oops, I didn't mean to give away my affiliation). The festivities were a ton of fun, even when it came to overhearing the occassional "what up bro" which brought back a warm sense of nostalgia. ~*sigh*~

I should mention that I got AMERICA painted on my back with the ol' Stars and Bars and an Eagle biting the head off of a snake. We danced into the night, feasting, and causing quite a commotion.

Interesting sidebar: while getting my back painted, I ended up talking to an American man who has lived in Thailand for the past 30 years and has married with little half-Thai babies. I mentioned that I was doing a major research project for my university on Nuclear Feasibility in Thailand and I just casually asked this man for his opinion. Can someone say "can o' worms"? After much ado, this man made it very clear that if there was nuclear energy coming to Thailand "it would be reason enough to leave" and take his family with him. He was VERY put off by my even asking... this project will prove more interesting than I thought!

More later... I simply must kill the Countess before this day is through! Over and out!

You Say Potato, I Say Manfarang!

Potatoes are hard to find sometimes, but this morning I ate some sweet potatoes that were being cooked like streetmeat outside the park.

This past weekend I ended up going to Ayutthaya to meet up with a friend from Chapel Hill. I met Greg Smith last semester through some mutual friends and it turns out that he's volunteering at an AIDS hospital/temple in Lop Buri, about two hours north of Bangkok. We met up (after much ado on my part as I tend to starting shopping when I get lost) in Ayutthaya, one of the former capitals of Thailand in centuries past. Ayutthaya was the big trading mecca for th 14th to 18 Centuries until the Burmese Army sacked the city in 1767. The city is essentially an amazing location for ruins and temples, and it was quite the adventure. Upon arrival, without a map or fluency in Thai, I couldn't find my way around very well, so I ended up hopping on the back of a motorcycle taxi and finally arriving at our bungalow that Greg set up, Baan Lotus (home of the lotus). Infact, there were beautiful lotus flowers in the pond in the back.

Greg and I rented bicycles and rode around the city through traffic, but I didn't need a helmet because I had a beautiful new sun bonnet! We crossed a river by ferry and explored a temple and saw the Giant Buddha. We also went on a guided tiny bus tour with 4 other people from Baan Lotus that the littl old lady who owns it put together. The woman speaks perfect English, is about 4'8'', probably 75 years old, went to college in Tel Aviv Isreal, and is a retired medical scientist. Love her. On the bus tour, we went to some spectacular ruins, all of which are lit up beautifully at night by floodlights. We also went to an elephant farm where I got to see little baby elephants (chang). I finished off the night by buying Thai Fisherman Pants and drinking some Chang beer. Don't worry mother, the drinking age is 18. The following morning Greg and I could barely rise from our soft beds and oscillating fan after a night of much fun and conversation (sorry for waking you up Belgian lady), but we ended up biking across the city to find the afamed Giant Reclining Buddha. It was the coolest thing ever.

The rest of the week passed with classes, schoolwork, aerobics, and mostly as normal. However, during my Aerobics class on Monday morning, I was invited up on the stage once again to help lead class and it's the most exhilerating thing in the world. I've started an intensive Thai language class, and a traditional Thai dance class as well. Coming up soon: Americans celebrating Independence Day abroad...what will happen!?