Lampang

This past weekend all of the Rotary Youth Inbounds of District 3360 met in the city of Lampang for a welcoming orientation. Kru Dew and Kru Tim picked me up at about 9am. We picked up Joshua (Germany) and Eric (Taiwan) and went on our way. The hotel we stayed out was completely decked out with Welcome signs and Rotary Banners. The first few hours (Or two days actually) We grudgingly boring. The only thing we did was re-go over the rules and have a "Basics of Thai" Lesson. All of the lessons were in "English" so for those who didn't speak English, I imagine it was even more dull than it was for those of us who did. After the lesson they took us to a park and told us to "Run." I think they just needed something cheap for us to do for an hour and 1/2

Things picked up on Saturday when we headed to the Elephant Conservation center of Lampang. There was a caravan of Elephants when we pulled up. We went to an elephant show run by a family who had attended a three day camp to become certified elephant trainers (Yes family, when you visit we will do this camp) One of the trainers was an 8 year old from the U.K. riding a baby elephant, very cute.

Has anyone ever seen the movie water for elephants? Well, they really use those sharp, jagged training spears, and they have in the movie.

The elephants bowed and jumped and demonstrated traditional forestry techniques. After the show, it was time to ride! Two to an elephant, fellow American Sara and I mounted our Giant Grey beast.

In Thailand there are no seat belts, harnesses, or anything really, so riding an elephant is slightly terrifying. The majority of the time I was able to keep my balance, but at one point the elephant swam across a river, it started to get out right as we were headed into a waterfall. It started wobbling and as it stood up, Sara and I started to slid forward, it was a workout to stay on the elephant and not in the water. Surrounded by Mountains, it's truly a beautiful view from on top an elephant.

After gift shops and pictures, we went to the ceramic factory, it would seem dull after an elephant ride, but it was still fun. We toured the entire factory, from the molding and painting to the firing.

Lampang is one one the only cities in Thailand with Horse drawn carriages, just for tourists, but we all rode them to dinner.

Dinner that night was kinda like hot pot city, only everyone shared one wok/bowl type thing. Very fun, except that our pot ended up black and smoking :) I feel bad for whoever cleaned that up. Our bowl had Vegetables, Noodles, fish, Squid, baby octopus, and just about everything else, but that's what you get when two Americans, a Russian, and a Mexican all share a bowl!

We got back on the carriages and headed off to the Night Market of Lampang, at this point it was Pitch black outside, and the driver told me to leave the carage part and sit up front and the other two in the Carriage I didn't want to but the Rotarian told me to, so I do, then she left and we start to move. The driver put his hast on my head (Gross)

When we got there the two in the back got off and as I start to, the driver started going again . I start arguing with the driver in English/Thai to let me off, because at this point we have driven someplace else, it's just me and him, and I have no idea where we are.

When I'm finally able to hop off, I have no idea where I am, and I don't have anyone's phone number. About ten minutes later, I spot Sara, another American, and we are able to find our way to the Market.

We walk around, and people stare at us (Like they do everywhere) We headed back at a 1/4 to nine because the Rotarians told us to be back at the hotel by 9. The problem was that we came to the market from dinner, and did not know where it was in relation to the hotel. We walked for 45 minutes before we found a temple we knew was close to our hotel. We wanted to go across the temple grounds, but there was a funeral going on, so we had to go around, but it was a massive detour and got us even more lost. After some narrow alleyways, somehow we managed to make a gigantic loop and end up back at the market, where the sign for our hotel was, 20 feet from where we started. Somehow we managed to walk right passed it. It was alright though, because we were still some of the first back, and we had stopped in 7 11 to get some Thai candy, which ended up tasting like fluoride.

The next day we re-re-re went over the rules and listened to the Rotarians tell us how lucky we were to be in their district and bashed the other districts. Apparently all districts think they are the best because we had to sit through this in America too. They called me up to wish me a happy birthday (Attention on me = not good) They got me a cake and gave me some presents. Including a necklace and a mug from the Ceramic Factory.

Our host parents arrived at the hotel and had an orientation of their own.

We stopped for lunch at a noodle shop (Gloppy Brown Stuff) and went home.

Day 2, or 1 if you're only counting full days

August 12th in Thailand is not only the Queens Birthday, but is also mothers day. In honor of mothers day, the Rotary helping hands club set up a tent next to the river where they sold fish of various sizes to be released into the river, giving back life: Good Luck on Mothers Day. When anyone bought fish, before they would release it,they would say a prayer and make a wish. Thousands of fish were released into the river. (Apparently there were some left over though, because that night for dinner we had deep fried fish, the same we released into the river, eyes, tails, scales, and all, Yum)

We headed back to Dew's school (A tutorial English School) Where the students made paper cup like things in preparation for the celebration of the Queens Birthday later that night. We left the school with the paper cups (Which turned out to be hand protectors) And made our way to the Phrae stadium, where differant organization were lined up, at least 1,500 people. We spent about an hour sliding the paper cups onto candles, waiting for it to get dark enough to light. One by one, every organization took a turn walking on stage and offering a large decorative egg- like- thing in front of a massive picture of the Queen. The school band played the nation anthem (Veeeery Long song) and we all lit the candles, there were fireworks and lights and music. It was amazing to see 1,000's of flickering candles as well as the amount of love and respect the Thai people have for their Queen, A wonderful once in a life time sight.

Arrived in Thailand

After so much planning, I have finally arrived safely in Muang Phrae, Thailand. I flew with two other students to San Francisco where we met up with two others going to Thailand. We then flew to South Korea, meeting 28 other Rotary Exchange students on their way to Thailand. We all flew to Bangkok where all but two of us met with our host families. The Bangkok airport was CRAZY and took a very long time to get through immigration and figure out what to do. A girl from Ohio and I were picked up by a Rotarian who let us stay in her house in Bangkok for the night before returning to the Airport the next morning to fly to Chiang Mai.

Rotarians Dew and Tim (My "Sister" and my "Aunt") met me at the airport along with Rachel, a friend of theirs from Bangkok who went on Exchange to Indianapolis. They took me back to the hotel they had had the night before so I could shower and rest before meeting my host family (It's about three hours from Chiang Mai to my city so my host famlily could not meet me there.) The hotel was beautiful, all made out of Teak wood. The pillars were made by taking the entire tree (Huge trees with trunks 4 feet across,) and carving designs into it. We stopped in Lampang for Lunch about an hour in. The Restaurants in Thailand are all open. There are no walls, only a few pillars holding up a small wooden roof. Instead of Menus, there are little slips of paper on the table where you write down what you want to order, the white paper is for main dishes, the red is for "desert." Or you can just yell across the room what you want. There was a table full of little kids, and as soon as I walked in I heard "Falang! Falang! Falang! Falang!" (Foreigner) Lampang as well as my city are so far out of the way that tourists rarely make it that far, so Foreigners are rare. All the kids were giggling to each other, trying not to let me catch them staring at me.

Phrae is a small valley surrounded by mountains, so to get there from Lampang, or anywhere really, you have to go through a TON of switch backs and mountain roads, not good after eating what I think consisted of fish entrails. Finally we made it into Phrae the "City" I will be living in for the next year. My family consists of me, Pa Nut, Mae Ou, In, Yie, and Dtah. (Mother, Father, Sister who is my same age, Grandmother, and Grandfather) My first and third host families are relatives and live next door to each other, it's like one house and one family because of how comfortable they are with each other.

Thailand is Beautiful once you get past Bangkok. The farther away from the big cities you go, the more you get to see the REAL Thailand. I am loving it and can't wait to spend my year here.