Upon our arrival in Bangkok, we were greeted with flower bracelets by a volunteer who helped set up the Thailand portion of our tour. The flowers smelled lovely and made for an excellent make-shift crown. We grabbed our bags and got on the bus for a 15 hour bus ride. What better way to see the country than on a bus, right? We passed rice fields and temples and amazing cloudscapes before stopping for dinner.
Dinner was our first experience with Thai food. By that, I mean it was the first time someone mistook hot chili sauce for sweet and sour sauce. There were more than a few burned mouths. Mine took to it well, as I was pretty sure whatever sauce it was was going to end up hot, so I took only a small amount. After that it was back on the bus until 1:00 AM which is when we arrived to the temple. Did I just say temple? Oh right, a temple. We spent our first night in Thailand at a Buddhist temple. We woke up to the mind-numbingly loud chirp of the crickets and Erika and I went for a walk to check out the local area before breakfast. Breakfast began the chain of similarity when it comes to food. So far, 3/4 of the meals here consist of fried rice with egg, vegetables, and some kind of meat I don't eat (so I get it without). It's delicious, though monotonous.
Where was I? Right - the temple. We were greeted on our first real day in Thailand by the head of the monastery as well as some local radio personalities. Monks are very happy people. I want to take them home. The pictures don't do the temple (or the happy monks) justice, but suffice it to say the entire experience was beautiful. We also experienced luke-warm bucket showers and "squatty potties" at the temple. We were told to expect them in our host families, as well. I'm happy to say I lucked out on that front. My family lives in a nice house near the airport with a western toilet that flushes as well as a shower with warm water! They also speak English! These are all luxuries in the Up With People Thai tour. I'm living the big life.
Our first night, my 17 year-old host sister took me to a show. I had no idea what kind of show to expect, but it turned out to be a multicultural show put on by a local university. My host sister is friends with another family that's hosting, so Johan from the Netherlands was also with us. When Johan (as blonde-haired and blue-eyed as they come) and I walked in we were approached by the staff and told to "Wait here for VIP." We told them we weren't VIP and went to sit down with our host sisters. When we got to the row we were sitting in, another staff member came up and said "You can sit up front." It was then that we realized that we were the only non-Thai people in a crowd of about 1000. Needless to say, we stuck out. There were spotlights that would go around the whole room from time to time. Every time they came near Johan and me we were just waiting for them to stop and for everyone to look at us. Thankfully, that didn't happen until halfway through the show. We heard the emcees coming down the aisle saying "farang, farang," which I recalled from my Thai phrasebook to mean "foreigner." The spotlight came to a halt on our blonde heads in the sea of dark hair and we meekly waved to the crowd. I let Johan do the talking and just sat back and laughed. I'm finally exotic!
On Friday the group I'm with went to one of the local high schools to do some activities, teach some English, and perform a show for the students. It was well-received, though the students were very shy.
That brings us to Saturday. Saturday was our regional learning day. We started the day with an hour and a half boat ride down the river to our first site. One of the boats ahead of us hit a rock and got a hole in it, so we had to stop and wait for another boat to get there, as our boat had the only Thai/English speaker. As we neared our destination we saw them. They were big, gray, wrinkley, and beautiful. They were our rides. Each elephant had a seat on its back which held two people. We went on a tour of the area on our elephants (ours was a female who happened to be pregnant) which ended in the river to get back to the stand. My elephant date and I each got a chance to ride on the head of the elephant. It was quite bumpy, though the overall feeling was much like that of riding a pony. The elephant's skin felt really cool with all the bristly hairs on its head. Its ears kept wrapping around my legs like it was trying to protect them. It. Was. Awesome.
From there we got on another boat and headed to our next departure point. We were told to bring comfortable walking shoes, which usually means a fair amount of walking. We hadn't really anticipated what was about to come. After a grueling 45 minute hike in the 90+ degree weather we reached a hill tribe. "Great!" we all thought as we reached the village. Our guide then informed us that we were just stopping to let people catch up, that we still had another 45 minutes to the hill tribe that we were going to stop at for real.
We hiked another half hour and stopped again to wait for people to catch up. Two hours and buckets of sweat after we left our starting point, we arrived at one of the Akha tribe villages. We stopped to get drinks and then hiked the last ten minutes to our actual destination. We could hear the rushing water before we could see it, but as we climbed further and further in the jungle, we finally reached the WATERFALL! Hans, Mitch, and I were the first around the bend to behold the amazing sight. After some shouting and running about in feverish delight (90+ degrees, remember?) we hopped into the waterfall. It was glorious. I went to sit on the rocks right at the bottom of the waterfall and realized it created a natural massage. I stayed there while the others trickled in. It was very surreal, seeing my friends from all over the world climbing around on a Thai waterfall like water nymphs.
How do you follow that? With dinner, of course. We took the local trucks (pictures to come eventually) to an open air restaurant that was just for us. We had some time to relax and chat with each other as we heard the vocal stylings of a local artist. He sang everything from Aretha Franklin to Maroon 5 - all in English. There was even some John Denver thrown in. After that, we were treated to a local group of hill tribe performers. The group comes together as part of an effort for awareness and to keep tribal girls out of human trafficking. They were from a number of different hill tribes and each had their own ceremonial dress. Their songs and dances were very reminiscent of native American traditions, with a lot of natural influence.
I think I'll stop there for now. Happy reading.
~Molly
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Champagne showers and goodbyes
I leave for Thailand tomorrow, and by tomorrow I mean 3 AM. Our travel "day" is currently estimated at 53 hours. We'll fly from Dallas to Denver, Denver to LA, LA to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Bangkok, and then take a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Rai (which is essentially on the other side of the country). I'm not sure yet who my travel partner will be, but I better pick a good one.
I guess I'd better backtrack first. Last night was our last show in the United States. It went swimmingly. Unfortunately, it was our last show with our technical manager. She will not be joining us in Thailand, as she got a job working for Cirque du Soleil and has to leave on Monday. Also, in Thailand we won't have to set up or take down our set, so last night was our last night of striking the set. Upon finishing, we had a truck-closing ceremony as well as a goodbye to our tech manager. The tech crew climbed up on top of the truck, made speeches, and then sprayed us all with champagne. I must have been in the splash zone, because I got pretty wet. We will miss her, but are all really excited for her to be working with Cirque.
Tonight we'll be dropped off at our meeting point at 9 PM, where we'll have an education workshop then a party... until 3 in the morning. I know what you must be thinking. "But Molly, there's no sleep time in that schedule." Believe me, this small detail has not been overseen. We will have over two days to sleep intermittently, and I plan to take advantage of that. It is, however, quite exciting to have some party time with the cast. We're so often in work mode that we rarely get the chance to just hang out.
My host family in this city is amazing. Wendi is an alum from '92 and she along with her husband Derek are expecting their first child in early July. They're currently referring to it as "the mushroom" as they're waiting to see if it's a boy or a girl. Their other "child" is a husky named Nikita and he is one of the sweetest dogs.
Today my roommate Maiken and I went to a glass blowing studio owned by our host mom's parents. Her mom does fused or flat glass pieces while her stepdad does blown pieces. They have created pieces for corporations as well as individual patrons around the world. One of their more fun commissions was a series of glass cowboy hats for a man from Taiwan. They happened to have one left lying around the studio and, though stylish, it's not exactly practical for everyday wear.
Afterwards, we went to Snuffers for lunch. Snuffers was one of the originators of cheese fries. They're a Dallas staple for burgers and game day food. Once stuffed, we went to pick up some last minute items for Thailand... you know, a towel, bug spray, toilet paper. Oh, I didn't mention that they don't have toilet paper in the restrooms in Thailand? Well, they don't. We also stopped by Borders where Derek and I looked at inappropriate children's books. One gem was "The Mole Who Knew It Was None of Its Business". It's about a mole who, upon emerging from its hole, gets pooped on. It spends the rest of the book asking different animals about their poop until it realizes it was the dog. (Spoiler Alert!!) It decides then to poop on the dog's head, then promptly returns to its whole. Moral of the story...? It was lost on us as well.
Now I'm off to finish packing. Who knows when I'll have internet access again? I don't.
Happy trails!
~Molly
I guess I'd better backtrack first. Last night was our last show in the United States. It went swimmingly. Unfortunately, it was our last show with our technical manager. She will not be joining us in Thailand, as she got a job working for Cirque du Soleil and has to leave on Monday. Also, in Thailand we won't have to set up or take down our set, so last night was our last night of striking the set. Upon finishing, we had a truck-closing ceremony as well as a goodbye to our tech manager. The tech crew climbed up on top of the truck, made speeches, and then sprayed us all with champagne. I must have been in the splash zone, because I got pretty wet. We will miss her, but are all really excited for her to be working with Cirque.
Tonight we'll be dropped off at our meeting point at 9 PM, where we'll have an education workshop then a party... until 3 in the morning. I know what you must be thinking. "But Molly, there's no sleep time in that schedule." Believe me, this small detail has not been overseen. We will have over two days to sleep intermittently, and I plan to take advantage of that. It is, however, quite exciting to have some party time with the cast. We're so often in work mode that we rarely get the chance to just hang out.
My host family in this city is amazing. Wendi is an alum from '92 and she along with her husband Derek are expecting their first child in early July. They're currently referring to it as "the mushroom" as they're waiting to see if it's a boy or a girl. Their other "child" is a husky named Nikita and he is one of the sweetest dogs.
Today my roommate Maiken and I went to a glass blowing studio owned by our host mom's parents. Her mom does fused or flat glass pieces while her stepdad does blown pieces. They have created pieces for corporations as well as individual patrons around the world. One of their more fun commissions was a series of glass cowboy hats for a man from Taiwan. They happened to have one left lying around the studio and, though stylish, it's not exactly practical for everyday wear.
Afterwards, we went to Snuffers for lunch. Snuffers was one of the originators of cheese fries. They're a Dallas staple for burgers and game day food. Once stuffed, we went to pick up some last minute items for Thailand... you know, a towel, bug spray, toilet paper. Oh, I didn't mention that they don't have toilet paper in the restrooms in Thailand? Well, they don't. We also stopped by Borders where Derek and I looked at inappropriate children's books. One gem was "The Mole Who Knew It Was None of Its Business". It's about a mole who, upon emerging from its hole, gets pooped on. It spends the rest of the book asking different animals about their poop until it realizes it was the dog. (Spoiler Alert!!) It decides then to poop on the dog's head, then promptly returns to its whole. Moral of the story...? It was lost on us as well.
Now I'm off to finish packing. Who knows when I'll have internet access again? I don't.
Happy trails!
~Molly
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Mucho mas
So let's see... Again, I'm not here with too many real updates. I do, however, need to list things out again so as not to forget to write about them in the future.
San Luis Potosi
~La Familia - Lupita, MaPo, Princesa Jimonorosa, Hongito
~Cast Appreciation Day
~Travel back to Texas
~Police escorts
New Braunfels
~Arrival/swimming
~Abby
~Fiesta Texas
The Woodlands
~The Masterplan
~The ferret stole my toothbrush - Parts 1 and 2
~Momma
Plano
~Strangeheart
~Hunger Banquet
~Swedish culture presentation
Here we go, starting at the end again (well, with yesterday). We started the day with a walking tour of the Arts District in Dallas. There was nothing too note-worthy. We had some free time in which I walked around the Asian art museum. I loved the intricacies and delicacy of the art work. Other than that, the coolest part was the symphony hall. Unfortunately, we were only able to go into the lobby. It was gorgeous there, but I really wish we'd been able to go into the actual theatre.
Our focus for the day beyond that was poverty. When we returned there were some presentations from various nations describing what poverty looks like in their nation. We also got a look at the worldwide situation. That's where the demonstrations began. Our education team put together a Hunger Banquet, in which we were divided into three classes and given food according to our station. The poorest group (the bottom 50%) sat on cardboard boxes and had rice to eat and salt water to drink. The middle class group (the middle 35%) sat in chairs and had rice and beans as well as water to drink. The upper class group (the top 15%) sat at a well-decorated table where they were waited on by our road staff. They received a salad course, a pasta course, and dessert. That group, however, was not allowed to share with the others. Beyond that, any food that was left was tossed in a trash can in plain sight of all parties. Once the food started being thrown away, those at the upper class table rallied to eat as much as they possibly could. This resulted in many ice cream-filled stomachs as one of our staff members kept "accidentally" bringing out an extra cup of ice cream, just waiting to be able to throw it in the trash. After the sixth time this happened, the table gave up and sighed as the rest of the fixings were unceremoniously thrown away.
"How were we categorized?" you may ask. There was an activity earlier in the day in which hands full of pennies were tossed and the cast scrambled about trying to scavenge for as many as they could. On the first toss, I managed to grab three. On the second toss, I didn't grab any. In each of these rounds, we were told not to share any of our pennies. On the third toss, I happened to be standing near the front and by simply putting my hand up I managed to catch five, then I picked up one more for a total of six. The education team mentioned that you could share pennies this round if you so chose, however there was no one around me who was talking, so I just kept the ones I had. That, as you may have guessed, left me in the upper class.
To truly understand the reality of the situation, some context must be added. We were asked to wait outside until the food was ready. Upon returning to the room, it was clear what was about to happen. The lights were all dimmed and the walls were lined with pictures of poverty along with descriptions and quotes. There was a slide show portraying more images along with statistics. We were asked to keep silent as we listened to Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" and looked at photo after photo. We were then asked to take our seats. The silence continued for what seemed like hours, as we contemplated whether or not we could actually eat the food laid in front of us. Too many thoughts went through our minds as we realized there was no right way to handle the situation. The guilt set in long before those on the cardboard began to come as close as they were allowed and started singing "Sound of Peace." It was immediate. Welcome to the real world.
At what point does the situation lighten up? Well in the case of our demonstration, it was after we got in the car with our host family to go home. It was decided that a stop to Cold Stone was in the cards (please refer to aforementioned section on ice cream). Those who didn't have enough to eat during our hunger banquet were asked to go hungry for the night. As I was in the upper class, I figured it was my responsibility to take what was offered to me and pony up for some more ice cream. Mmmmm.
That's all for now. I'll try to get one or two more posts in before Thailand. Good night.
~Molly
San Luis Potosi
~La Familia - Lupita, MaPo, Princesa Jimonorosa, Hongito
~Cast Appreciation Day
~Travel back to Texas
~Police escorts
New Braunfels
~Arrival/swimming
~Abby
~Fiesta Texas
The Woodlands
~The Masterplan
~The ferret stole my toothbrush - Parts 1 and 2
~Momma
Plano
~Strangeheart
~Hunger Banquet
~Swedish culture presentation
Here we go, starting at the end again (well, with yesterday). We started the day with a walking tour of the Arts District in Dallas. There was nothing too note-worthy. We had some free time in which I walked around the Asian art museum. I loved the intricacies and delicacy of the art work. Other than that, the coolest part was the symphony hall. Unfortunately, we were only able to go into the lobby. It was gorgeous there, but I really wish we'd been able to go into the actual theatre.
Our focus for the day beyond that was poverty. When we returned there were some presentations from various nations describing what poverty looks like in their nation. We also got a look at the worldwide situation. That's where the demonstrations began. Our education team put together a Hunger Banquet, in which we were divided into three classes and given food according to our station. The poorest group (the bottom 50%) sat on cardboard boxes and had rice to eat and salt water to drink. The middle class group (the middle 35%) sat in chairs and had rice and beans as well as water to drink. The upper class group (the top 15%) sat at a well-decorated table where they were waited on by our road staff. They received a salad course, a pasta course, and dessert. That group, however, was not allowed to share with the others. Beyond that, any food that was left was tossed in a trash can in plain sight of all parties. Once the food started being thrown away, those at the upper class table rallied to eat as much as they possibly could. This resulted in many ice cream-filled stomachs as one of our staff members kept "accidentally" bringing out an extra cup of ice cream, just waiting to be able to throw it in the trash. After the sixth time this happened, the table gave up and sighed as the rest of the fixings were unceremoniously thrown away.
"How were we categorized?" you may ask. There was an activity earlier in the day in which hands full of pennies were tossed and the cast scrambled about trying to scavenge for as many as they could. On the first toss, I managed to grab three. On the second toss, I didn't grab any. In each of these rounds, we were told not to share any of our pennies. On the third toss, I happened to be standing near the front and by simply putting my hand up I managed to catch five, then I picked up one more for a total of six. The education team mentioned that you could share pennies this round if you so chose, however there was no one around me who was talking, so I just kept the ones I had. That, as you may have guessed, left me in the upper class.
To truly understand the reality of the situation, some context must be added. We were asked to wait outside until the food was ready. Upon returning to the room, it was clear what was about to happen. The lights were all dimmed and the walls were lined with pictures of poverty along with descriptions and quotes. There was a slide show portraying more images along with statistics. We were asked to keep silent as we listened to Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" and looked at photo after photo. We were then asked to take our seats. The silence continued for what seemed like hours, as we contemplated whether or not we could actually eat the food laid in front of us. Too many thoughts went through our minds as we realized there was no right way to handle the situation. The guilt set in long before those on the cardboard began to come as close as they were allowed and started singing "Sound of Peace." It was immediate. Welcome to the real world.
At what point does the situation lighten up? Well in the case of our demonstration, it was after we got in the car with our host family to go home. It was decided that a stop to Cold Stone was in the cards (please refer to aforementioned section on ice cream). Those who didn't have enough to eat during our hunger banquet were asked to go hungry for the night. As I was in the upper class, I figured it was my responsibility to take what was offered to me and pony up for some more ice cream. Mmmmm.
That's all for now. I'll try to get one or two more posts in before Thailand. Good night.
~Molly
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