Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Fairbanks to Seattle to Bangkok

Just arrived in Bangkok last night. I was here in 2000. It is fun because I still remember my way around a bit. I'm on my way up north to Mae Sod tonight on an overnight bus. I catch the bus at 10:30 PM and arrive at around 6 AM. Hope I can catch some zzzzz's along the way.

I haven't taken any photos yet, but when I do, I'll try to post them. I hope to capture some of the work that will be done while i'm here to install a micro-hydro electric project in a refugee camp along the burma border with Thailand. Should be a pretty neat project and will take approximately 2 weeks to complete. I'm excited to learn more about renewable energy.

Also, I just got to spend the weekend in Seattle with some of my favorite people around. It was a great weekend. Wish I could see those folks more often!

I had forgotten how there is so much crap in the air in Bangkok. You can walk around and see the air pollution. So many interesting, nice, gross, smokey, and food smells all at once. Overwhelming to the nose at times. The only thing to do is to try to isolate one of the smells and focus on it, cause otherwise, it's just too much all at once.

Also, just soooo many people. Maybe I noticed this is because I live in Fairbanks where there aren't that many people. But, really, I think there are just a whole lot of people here. I've enjoyed people watching and just wandering around. I'm getting excited for my next meal too. I've already eaten a number of my favorite things and am looking forward still to eating some pineapple, some curry, and some pad thai. I also remember a fried thing with bananas, condensed milk, and chocolate syrup that was pretty yummy, but I haven't been able to find that yet.

I hope to add photos soon.

1 comment:

Carolyn said...

I work for a non-profit, faith based group. We are trying to get our churches to sponsor refugees for resettlement in the US. Would you consider providing me with some photos of conditions in the Karen-Chin camps? I would reprint in our newsletter which is sent to the churches. I will credit the photos but they won't be sold or in any way commercialized.