Relaxing in the South with my Sister

After saying goodbye to everyone in the program, I stayed in Thailand for an extra week - my sister joined me in Bangkok, where she spent a couple days with me, and then... we headed off to Southern Thailand.

Specifically, we flew to Krabi, then took a minivan (provided by) to the resort we were staying at, SriLanta, which was on Koh Lanta (Lanta Island). It took us only about 30 minutes to drive to the port, then two ferry rides, and an additional 20 minute drive on the island to actually get to our resort, which, was SOO nice!

We were there at low season (meaning: since it's rainy season, it sometimes rains - but, very LIGHTly in comparison to Bangkok!- but the waves are definitely choppier and thus, the water is a little bit unfriendly to swim far in), and so were able to get a room for SUPER cheap (less than 1/2 the price of what it'd be in high season, which is around November-February)!

Basically, it was a honeymoon for ourselves. :)

In addition to the resort being VERY nice (and right on the beach!), my sister + I were actually the ONLY guests at the resort, so we definitely felt extra special to be there! The crew working there was very nice, and it was very relaxing, indeed. Although the waves were a bit too rough to really swim in there (apparently it's MUCH better during high season, so I guess we'll have to go back!), it was nice to just be able to lay down on the beach, do some fun-fictional readings, work on our tans, and sip on some fruit smoothies...

Since we were on the island for 3 days, we didn't want to spend ALL of our time on the beach, so we decided it'd be fun to go up and down the coast of the island to find something fun to do (since, because it was low season, there weren't any scuba-diving, snorkeling, or water sport activities available!). Although we were planning on getting bicycles in order to carry out our fun adventure, the island didn't have bicycle rentals!

Instead... they had... MOTORBIKE rentals!! For 100 Baht (less than $4!) a day, too!

If you know me, you KNOW that I've NEVER driven a motorbike before! And neither had my sister! So, we were very skeptical as to whether we would be able to drive the motorbikes at all.. but..

after practicing a bit, we kind of got the hang of it! Or, at least.. drove cautiously enough to not kill ourselves!

It was really fun, because we were able to drive down the coast of the island, and go beach hopping!

The views on this island were spectacular, and didn't seem TOO touristy (compared to AoNang, where we stayed at for our fourth night in Souther Thailand), so we will definitely have to come back!

Hey mama~

August 12th is the Queen of Thailand's Birthday, and as such... it is Mother's Day in Thailand!

After going to Khao San Road for some people to receive some DEEP-skin memories from Thailand (won't name names, haha!) and eating dinner at one of our favorite Northeastern Thai Noodle restaurant (followed up by dessert roti! mm!), we went to the grounds in front of the Grand Palace where there were a bunch of festival food stands set up, as well as a gigantic fireworks-display. We were given candles as we walked into the area, and waited for the evening to get darker...

After hearing some Thai songs (that all Thai people around us seemed to know, so were singing along) that sounded along the lines of a national song or tribute to the royal family, we lit our candles and held them up from time to time whenever the announcer/MC seemed to announce it (all of the narration was in Thai!!).

While we were hearing a song being played, though.. the fireworks in front of us SUDDENLY went off, just a few feet in front of us, and it was SO surprising because they were SO loud!! Not only that, but... we were SO close that I felt some ash get on me/ a tiny bit in my eye, but! The show itself was pretty awesome, and I'm sure that if the queen were watching (I dont' think she was actually at the fireworks show..), she would've been proud~!

Satisfied with the fireworks (which, I think made up for our lack of fireworks on 4th of July, ahha!), we then took advantage of the night and went to a jazz bar by Victory Monument, ordered quite a few mixed drinks (the menu just looked so appetizing!), and listened to some sweet, American Jazzy/Broadway songs.... so relaxing. Quite a night.

STUFFED

So, the title of this blog comes from a conversation I was just having with P'Jeek, a Thai graduate student in my lab, last week.

We were eating lunch, and instead of using the usual "I'm full!" or "I ate a LOT!" after our meal, P'Jeek tried using some new vocabulary that she learned, but... asked me, first:

"If you are no longer hungry, you are not stuffed, right?"

To which, I corrected her, saying how...

"No, no - If you are no longer hungry, you ARE 'stuffed,' because... you are full of... STUFF."

I thought this a perfect theme for today's post, since, because this is the last week of my program in Thailand, we have been trying to do as many 'Thai' things as possible, thereby... STUFFing our remaining time in Thailand with fun things!

1. Thai Dancing!

We saw a traditional Thai-Dance performance of the first part of 'Khon,' a well known Thai play about the first king (Rama) of Thailand, and thus, is kind of the 'origin' story of the Thai royal family. It's interesting because it has quite a bit of Hindu influence, as well - esp. with the gods that play a role in the story of Ramakien (also called Ramayana by some people, apparently). Also, just FYI: it is this story that is very artistically represented as a mural at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, at Wat Phra Kaew.

Basically, a demon who used to wash the feet of angels got tired of doing his job, since the angels always teased him. For help, the demon goes to a god (Siva?) and receives a magical finger that essentially has ZAP-ing abilities to shoo away the angels. However, Siva misuses his powers, of course, and is cursed by the gods, saying that he will be reborn into a multi-headed demon. The demon that says that once he is reborn, he will steal the wife of the reborn-version-of-the-god. The god then replies, asserting that once he is reborn, he will be a human being, but kill the multi-headed demon and then rule the entire kingdom. The two part their ways, and are reborn.

Another character of importance is Hanuman, a white-super-monkey (son of two gods), having diamond teeth. He is born in order to serve the reborn version of the god (mentioned above), and is told so by his mother of his duties. Coincidentally, Hanuman was on my telephone-points-card that I bought, so... you can see what he looks like, below!

Anyhow.

The demon is reborn as Thotsakan, king of demons and is 10-headed and 20-armed. The god is reborn as Rama. While Rama is in the forest with his brother (Laksmana) and his wife (Sita), Sita sees a deer (secretly, Thotsakan in disguise) and wishes for Rama to catch it for her. However, as Rama is trying to catch the deer, he notices the deer acting a little weirdly... But, in any case. While Rama and Laksmana try to catch the deer, Thotsakan changes into a human form, and tries to steal Sita away by persuading her to marry the oh-so-powerful Thotsakan. However, Sita refuses, angering Thotsakan to change into his ugly demonic form, and steal Sita away, anyways.

Sad that his wife has been stolen from him, Rama tries to search for Sita with Laksmana... and along the way, run into Hanuman - who realizes that Rama is the one he has been waiting all of his life to serve! Hanuman quickly gets into action, calling all of his monkey uncles and friends, forming the monkey/ape army for Rama.

A fighting scene ensues, with the monkey army of Rama vs. the demon army of Thotsakan... with, obviously, Rama winning in the end and regaining Sita, as well as power over the kingdom.

Anyways! So, that's the story! But, the play performance itself was really interesting!

All of the narration itself was in Thai, but... I think in ye-old Thai or just, very long, drawn-out-formal Thai, that was orated in a chant-y sing-y kind of way. It sometimes reminded me of old Japanese Kabuki-style performances. What was also interesting was that all of the words, including the dialogue of between the characters, were dictated by only two narrators (that took turns during the performance) that were standing towards the corner of the stage. The music in the background was provided by a small orchestra of typical Thai percussion instruments in the corner of the stage.

The dancing, too, was very interesting, since the emotions displayed definitely depended solely on the physical gestures given by the dancers. The faces of the dancers were STUCK with them either smiling or just having their lips pursed together the entire time (since, the narrators that I described, above, were saying everything). It was just so cool to see how 'constrained' the dancers seemed to be (compared to western dancing, or other modes I've seen), since the Thai dancers had such angular movements, walked with the feets usually in a wide, side-stance, used their hands (that could BEND crazy far!) to display emotion, and just.. ah! It's so hard to describe!

Anyways! I was just awed by the whole experience, since I love dancing in general, and loved seeing this type of dancing that just, was so different than anthing I'd seen, before!

2. CHEMISTRY.

For the past 3 days, I've been working non-stop on my research-findings paper, and... I am happy to say that, I finally finished it today!

It was my first time writing in ACS-style, so in addition to trying to write a good paper that made sense and was clear, I spent a large additional amount of time on just trying to get the ACS format right - looking at several different ACS papers for formatting examples.

Here's my baby!

So, it's a relieft to finally get it done.... and, now I can stuff myself with even more of Thailand!

3. Eating, in GENERAL!

After my last day in lab (this past Monday), my lab-mates from Chulalongkorn and I went to a Thai-bbq buffet place, which... was BOMB. It was so fun, having both BBQ's (pan of charcoal, with a metal rack on top) and hot-pot (more like, a shallow pan that has a hill in the middle, so you can both dry and wet cook things!) on the table... getting so sweaty because of the heat from the cooking appartuses and from the food, in general... grabbing as much food as possible from the buffet to just slap onto the grill... sharing the food with everyone... spending some quality last moments in Thai and English....

I stuffed myself silly. :)

This coming weekend is my last weekend of Bankok with my ThaiREU members, so we're going to live it up to its fullest potential!

My sister is coming to Bangkok, and then.... we're off to KRABI, which is in S. Thailand! Can't wait to explore as much Thailand as I can before I go back to Cali~!

Thai, Mai Thai

After 7 weeks of commuting 2 hour or sometimes 3 hour round-trips for work at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, setting up reactions and purifying the products, crossing my fingers in hopes that my NMR's came back confirming the identity of my (target compound!) products...

The end of my Thai REU program sponsored by the NSF is now drawing near.

How am I feeling? Sad that I'm leaving Thailand, but ecstatic about seeing my friends again in the U.S.

Anyhow! Yesterday (Saturday), we had our final presentations where each Thai REU member and a few of the Thai graduate students gave ~20 min. presentations covering all of our research findings.

P'Koy (my grad student for the past 5 weeks), Me, and P' Top (my grad student for the first 2 weeks)

Or... lack of?? Because our program was cut short two weeks, and since (ideal) results just always take a long time to actually achieve in chemistry, I think that most of us ended with the conclusion that we could have set up more reactions, collected more data, etc. had we had more time.

But, of course, all of us are so glad that the program actually took place, in the first place.

Although some people still message me from time to time asking me how things in Bangkok are, reminding me to be careful and TRY not to walk near bombs or red-shirts, I've almost completely forgotten that the protests occurred in the first place.

Of course, this is because I was not actually in Bangkok in May, when the protests turned extremely violent, shutting down businesses and forcing residents to become prisoners within their homes, wondering when things would return to 'normal' again.

The only memories that I have of the protests are the anxieties I had about possibly not being able to come to Thailand for my research internship in the first place, scrambling Plan B's in my head as to what to do with my summer, and having my brain feel like it was burning every single time I tried to call a United Airlines representative asking about whether I'd be able to waive the fee for having my flight be altered "due to the political crises in Bangkok that I have absolutely no control over."

What I can say, now, is that the city seems to be trying so hard to improve its image to the world. Bangkok residents have a severe dislike for Red-shirts and vow to never let anything like protests, that'll damage their beloved city, ever happen again. Shopping centres are blazed with sales, to promote consumerism. Every Thai person I talk to always remind me to tell my friends to visit Thailand, sometime.

In fact, most Thai people haven't really travelled outside of Thailand, not only because of how expensive it is in OTHER countries, but because apparently the government itself promotes Thai people to travel within Thailand for vacations, in order to promote the Thai economy and thus, keep Thai money within Thailand and help benefit their own country.

And with everyone saying how much they love the king, and the fact that Mother's Day in Thailand is the Queen's Birthday, and likewise... Father's Day is the King's Birthday... it's amazing just how nationalistic everyone thinks in Thailand.

But, get this:

The country was called 'Siam' until 1939, when 'Thailand' was then coined apparently to make Thailand appear more modern and sophisticated to the rest of the world.

'Thai' actually means 'Freedom,' and according to Wikipedia, "The Thai use the phrase "land of the free" to express pride in the fact that Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonized by a European power."

It just makes me wonder about developing countries and how much effort they put in to make themselves have a bigger respect and presence in the world.

Even when I was in Brasil, it always seemed like even the everyday people I talked to wanted to make known to the world that their country was great, and were reminding me (there, too!) to tell all my friends to come to Brasil sometime to expose more people to their country and spread the word that Brasil is, indeed, a developing and growingly powerful country.

sidenote - I cannot WAIT to take one of my classes this coming semester, 'Urbanization in Developing Countries' to hear the views of Professor Ananya Roy, reflect upon my experiences in Brasil+Thailand, and just, have my mind blown!

A common observation that I've had is, that, as nationalistic/proud citizens of 'developing' countries are to be a part of their own countries, they still seem to view the United States (even though we certainly have our own share of problems) as a role model for what to become.

Makes me wonder about my own loyalties...

Like, sure, I'm American, but... I actually used to have some personal resentments towards saying that I was actually American, a few years back. Well, okay, this was largely due to the president at the time and the fact that I did not want to associate myself AT ALL with him. Thus, I'd call myself just, 'Californian,' or 'from around Los Angeles.'

And, I find myself being very 'un-American' whenever I'm with friends who use references from American sitcoms, and I have no clue as to what they're talking about, forcing me to give the reasoning that "my mother is very Japanese, and I just wasn't exposed to things like fast-food, U.S. sports, or FOX/ABC/NBC that often."

Anyhow. I say all this, but I admit.

I cracked, today. I couldn't help it.

I just HAD to sit myself down at a hotel buffet where they served pancakes (even if they were SO tiny), maple syrup, waffles, sausages, and omelettes.

Aka... a pseudo-American Breakfast.

I got to admit. As much as I love Thai food, here, breakfast... is just best done, the 'American' way. And although I was able to get some satisfaction from mini-pancakes with syrup, I cannot WAIT to eat the REAL thing once I'm back in the states. And, while we're at it, I'll have a side of eggs with hashbrowns, please.

Two more weeks until I'm back in the states! :)

Switch it Open!

Proof that, indeed, I AM working in Thailand (and NOT just travelling around all the time!) doing science-y things!

LT^3BMD VIII -

Even within a few hours of working in a Thai lab, you start hearing a few funny English-Thai words, and can't help but chuckle.

"DichloromeTane" = Dichloromethane --> since, in Thai, all words spelled with "th" are pronounced with a hard T.

"Wacuum" = Vacuum

"Sigh-ringe" = Syringe --> Ok, this would be confusing to me, too, since the "y" isn't really pronounced the long "y" way!

There's one thing, in particular, that I let my graduate student say several times, but I finally corrected her this week (of course, the last week that I'm working in lab!) :

When using a UV-Vis machine to observe the absorbance spectra of my compound, she'd tell me to first,

"OPEN the computer!"

Then, when leaving the room after using the machine, she'd ask me to:

"CLOSE the power!"

First off. I know that we chemists can get around puzzles to synthesize various compounds and (basically, ahha!) do anything, but I don't exactly think that I have the capabilities of OPENING a computer.

Second off, power is not a physically tangible thing to me... so HOW do I CLOSE it?!?

So, what I finally told my graduate student was that, when it comes to energy/electricity, or something that you can't physically open/close, you use the words "ON" and "OFF." To make it easier for her to distinguish and remember this, I told her that if there's a switch involved, use "ON/OFF," but if you're actually physically opening and closing something, use "OPEN/CLOSE."

Apparently, in Thailand, everything (including electrical items) are described as being OPENED/CLOSED, so Thai people translate this directly into English, expecting it to be completely understood by English speakers!

Interesting, eh, that they have only one word to describe changing the activity/inactivity of an object?

The Elephant Isle, Koh Chang

This past weekend was our program's last free weekend together (since this coming weekend, we have to present our reseach findings, and then our internship program ends the following weekend!), so we again took advantage of our free time to take a trip!

Since we had already explored Thailand's Central, Western, and Northern regions, we decided to venture off to the East, in order to see another thing that we hadn't seen yet in Thailand... its BEACHES!!

To put it mildly, us Californians and Floridians in the group were SUPER excited to finally see ocean shores and catch some sun to help cure our awful tshirt and shorts tans that we've acquired in the intense Bangkok sun rays.

So, anyhow! We went to Koh Chang, which ended up being a 4-hour van ride from Bangkok to Laem Ngop Pier, then a 1/2 hour ferry ride from there to the island!

The way to Koh Chang~ Koh = Island. Chang = Elephant.

After we arrived on the isle, we saw that there was only ONE main road for the isle, windy and whanot... and served only by motorbikes and trucks that had seats in the back of them and acted as the island's taxi/bus service (a flat 50 Baht per person - meh, oh well!). We took this took our cute little hotel, BanPu, that was right on the beach.

Can you see the tiny crab in the bottom photo??! These things were TINY but covered almost the entire beach (if you looked closely!), and were basically putting sand into their mouths, to produce these small little clusters of sand?!? I wonder what the purpose is.. (Marika?? any clue?)

After having some drinks on the beach (Pina Colada in a coconut, mm!!), we took a walk down the beach~

Sorry. Words can't really describe beauty as well as an image, and even so... I feel like these photos don't do it quite justice. It was beautiful.

Had dinner on the beach~*