Hello Juvenile Thornback Cowfish!

I took the photo above from the front page of the Bangkok Post. Seems pretty intense! Two were killed in police/protestor riots earlier this month, one from a car bomb he set off himself, and one girl killed by impact of a police shotgun fired canister of tear gas. Her Majesty the Queen attended the girl’s public funeral.

I spent the past 7 days in Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. This island is directly north of the island I previously visited in June, Koh Phangan. The week was very eventful because I took full advantage of my Open Water Diving certification for the first time since I received it in May in the Florida Keys. I went on a total of 6 dives which was about all I could afford, but I went to the following dive sites around the island: Aow Leuk North, Aow Leuk South, Chompon Pinnacle, Twin Peaks, Shark Island, and Southwest Pinnacle. Underwater visibility was variable and the currents weren’t bad except at Twin. My favorite dive was at Southwest Pinnacle though, a series of underwater rock formations that look like mountains but don’t even break the water’s surface.
To list a few of the species I was able to identify: Queenfish, Blue-ringed Angelfish, Black-and-white Clownfish, Scorpionfish, Jan’s Pipefish, Elegant Sea Slug, Scribbled Filefish, and Remora. Let me tell you a little story about a Remora that I came to hate with a dreadful passion. The Remora fish are known as “suckerfish” because they find something interesting and nibbled on it. Yes, it’s true, apparently I’m interesting. There was one Remora that wouldn’t leave me alone and even when I would bat it away underwater it would come back from more tastes of my thigh. Eventually I moved along and he stayed back, but lord knows I’ve had enough of that little guy.

My dive master Mel from Big Bubble Divers was a load of fun and we hope to keep in touch through email. Our whole trip, with Kevin, Angela, Elizabeth, and myself: our accommodation was a little bungalow 10 feet from the water for 6 nights for a total of about $35 per person. Mind you, that’s the total for all 6 nights and we got to go snorkeling with the Big Bubble boat for free if we didn’t want to dive. Controlling my buoyancy underwater was a lot of fun and we even watched Mel cut some fish net off of the reef and save a trapped crab.

We took one day off during the week from diving when Angela finished her certification dives and we rented 2 motorcycles to check out the rest of the island. Elizabeth hastily jumped off the back of Angela’s at one point and burned her leg on the spinning tire, but aside from that, it was easy going. I absolutely love driving the motorcycle. This was probably my last time though, don’t worry momma. We closed our trip with some healthy drinking at Bubbalo Bar on the beach with some friends we made from Austria. We smoked some shisha (we call it hookah in the US), and ate many an American-style breakfast for sure.

I will not update my blog for the next 2 weeks because: Nicholas Family Fun Tour 2551! My parents, brother, and his girlfriend are arriving in Thailand this very evening. My parents will be here 2 full weeks and my brother and his girlfriend just the first week, but I’ve got a lot of fun trips and adventures planned. I’ve done some vigorous planning so I’m very excited about going to places I’ve never been yet! This is the longer time frame in my entire life that I’ve gone without seeing my parents! I can’t wait to see their shining faces and get some jetlagged hugs and kisses. I can’t help but wish Philly Cream Cheese was hopping off the plane too…Enjoy the rest of the pictures from Koh Tao! Once my family leaves I will be off break and back into hardcore research. I have just under 2 months left in the Land of Smiles and I hope it doesn’t go by too quickly!

Obama, McCain or Numer Five???

This past Sunday, elections were held for the Governor of Bangkok, and the position went to the one and only: Number Five! Above is a campaign power of Number 8, all of which lined the streets of Bangkok wherever you went. Number Eight (former brothel owner) was the funniest and craziest, but also punched a reporter in the face last week for insulting his manliness.

These are my parents! They will be arriving in about a week for our adventure through the country. This coming week I will be going scuba diving in the Gulf of Thailand on the island Koh Tao. It will be my first dive since I was certified in the Florida Keys this past May; is there a better place I could have my first dive?
Wtih classes over, this past week was devoted to the visit of Dr. David McNelis from UNC who serves as my advisor for my big research project over here. He's the Director of the Sustainable Energy Department at UNC, and adjunct professor in Nuclear Engineering and NC State, and got his masters in Nuclear Physics. McNelis is one of the authorities on Nuclear Power in the United States and was involved in a lot of the nuclear bomb tests in Nevada in the 1960s. After working with us last week he is off to Japan to visit their nuclear reactors and give advice. Regardless, he's amazing and he is working with us on our final project here: Nuclear Power Feasibility for Thailand. He sat in on the meeting held by the Thai government this weekend on their current Nuclear plans, and reported back to us the official findings. When our report is completed mid-November we will be presenting our findings to the Nuclear Power Program Development Office of Thailand who is in charge of the official plans under the Ministry of Energy. Very legit. Let the work begin!

Also, this past week I went to Roadhouse Barbeque in central Bangkok to watch the Vice Presidential Debate. To quote my father, "Joe kicked ass", and I agree. Palin just isn't ready to be that close to such an important position. Everyone in the bar toasted and drank whenever she said "maverick", it was hilarious. After the debate I hit the town with my friend Rick who I met in the airport in Kunming, China. We went to a bar where the Thai waitresses were dressed as belly dancers and the bar was literally made of ice. Chilly!

Also, I've been reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire aloud at night to my roommates. They enjoy the story and I enjoy storytelling so we're all winners. Because I saw the musical a few years ago, I'm glad to finally have time to enjoy the book.

This is my brother Clay.

Park that baby in Neutral!

This entry is full of anecdotes and factoids that you will likely find amusing and informative!

1. As it turns out, every single person in Thailand parks in neutral. Parking lots are mobile. You see a lot of double parking and people blocking each other in down cul-de-sacs, but it doesn't matter because everyone parks in neutral so you can roll your neighbor's car out of the way and put it back once you've pulled out!

2. When it rains, it pours. No, it floods. Our neighborhood sometimes has a foot of water in the street if its been a horrible all day and night rainstorm. There are gutters but the water table is so high that they cannot sustain the floodwaters. It's monsoon season so it rains almost every night after 7pm until 4am or so, and because its so hot, evaporation takes care of most of the water before I'm out of bed.

3. Bed is a loose term. We all sleep on squishy mats on the floor. They were only like 12 dollars so they're pretty crappy, but its not bad because with our fans on the floor, we get the straight shot of air.

4. My advisor from UNC arrived last night and he will be intensely helping us with our research project. Professor McNelis is an authority on Nuclear power in the US and will be helping us with our Nuclear Feasibility report on Thailand that we will be working on until Christmas.

5. There are 5 Thai children in our house right now. They are all under the age of 8. The kids are always running around the neighborhood and now they've started to just walk right into our house. The Farang Fortress needs a moat. These kids are fun because their English is on par with our Thai. We covered our walls with paper and the children draw and paint on them when they come over. They like to listen to our music and dance around and giggle and learn words. Some of the parents want us to legitimately give them English lessons but its more fun to goof around. The ham of the group, Ken, is 8 years old and a total showboat. He puts on our high heels and dances around with hands over his head and moving his hips like an absolute stripper. He's hilarious and oblivious to the world. It's all fun and games until you try to convince them that they have to go home. Pai Baan dai mai ca? Can you please go home? Response: closing themselves into our bathroom. I wonder where they're parents are.

6. Korean influence is really popular right now in music and style. All of the Thai boys have these kind of metro mullets and spikey hair and very girly bangs. It's fun to see so many styles and whatnot especially because the undergrads where uniforms so their hair is a great way to stand out.

7. I will be going to Koh Tao in 2 weeks to go on my first legit scuba dive adventure in Thailand. I got certified right before I came on this program in May so I can't wait to check out the Gulf of Thailand's coral reef situation. YAY!

8. I am making my best friend Phillip register me for my classes in 2 weeks because I am so unfortunately going to be on a tropical island. My schedule will ideally involve:
-Political Economy of Southeast Asia
-Playwriting
-Electromagentics: Physics 117
-Statistics
-Groundwater Geology

9. Went to a really cool Iranian dinner last week and smoked Hookah for our Iranian friend Ali's birthday. He is studying with us at JGSEE and a really fun guy. He told us a lot about Iran and Persian culture. Turns out that you can still be arrested for dancing in public if you're a woman. They will take you to the police station and tell you parents are stuff but usually you won't go to jail... wild.

Bitch is the New Black

And Black is the New President! This title has been inspired by my discovery of the capability of downloading Saturday Night Live sketches online. Here's what I'm talking about: "Bitch is the New Black." The rebuttle to Tina Fey explaining that yes, Hillary Clinton is a bitch, but you have to deal with that because "bitch is the new black." Tracy Morgan responds in a later sketch that "bitch may be the new black, but black is the new president." Loves it.

This past week I had a very international dinner at a restauarant where you cook all of your own food at your table with a mini-charcoal hotpot. Aside from some UNC friends, we had Ali from Iran, Yurga from Ethiopia, and Rajesh from Bangladesh.

This picture is a painting that Ruby, Dan, and I created on this wall of our apartment. It is all of our friends in the house with cockroach bodies. I am the cockroach with the martinis and the computer mouse, duh!

Friday night proved quite the adventure as well. Democrats Abroad in Thailand as well as Americans Abroad for Obama aired Barack Obama's nomination speech over a great American dinner and cocktails at the Roadhouse BBQ Restaurant in Bangkok. Let's just say it had been awhile since my mouth had feasted upon a thick juicy BLT sandwich.

This picture is of a table I found in a garbage pile in our neighborhood. It was nasty rusted plastic, but I painted it neon pink and orange. Free hot bedside table!

It has also come to my attention that I never posted decent pictures of the Farang Fortress! The images are of my house! This one is of the wall above where I sleep. I have a map of Koh Phangan, a map of Thailand, and many pictures of people I like.

I also ended up letting my friend Angela put a mohawk on my head. We were both pleased with the results.

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.