Monday May 26th, 2008

Well all, this is the end of my adventures here in South East Asia. On Wednesday night I will begin my long journey back to the other side of the world. This last year has truly been an experience, to say the least. It has been a time of transformation in my life, finding new paths to take and having the guts to follow them. I don’t think I can truthfully say I have much perspective yet on my time here in Thailand, but I think the reality of that will begin to set in shortly after the plane touches down in Boston. Today, I handed in field report to my fieldwork adviser and it was a moment of both excitement and sadness. I feel very lucky to have found a professor like Acaan (Professor) Phrek and therefore I am sad to leave him. I am slowly packing up my room wondering how I’m going to fit everything into two bags. Oye.
Anyways, I just wanted to thank everyone who followed my blog and if you want to learn more I’ll be living with my parents for the summer, so stop by and say hi. It’s been fun, I’m off. Much Love
SASHA

May 12, 2008

Emma and I arrived in Bangkok this morning after a boat/bus ride from Koh Samui (an island in the south of Thailand). In Bangkok we met up with my fellow CYITer Brad, who will be flying out on the same flight as Emma. It's crazy to think that my month long adventure with Emma is coming to a close and even more crazy that i will be coming back to the states in a little over 2 weeks. But I have decided to not think about that yet.

During the past week Emma and i were sun bathing on Koh Pha Ngan and Koh Samui. They were both beautiful islands but in the end we felt very mixed about our time there. We had a few too many bad interactions with the people on the island, who treated us poorly just because we were farang. We had many discussions about what tourism can do to an area, and both the negative and positive effects it can have on communities. In my eyes tourism has really ruined the south, both environmentally and socially. It was difficult to come from Chiang Mai, northern Laos and Siem Reap, where people were really nice to us and didn't treat us badly (to our faces), just because we are farang. To say the least, I'm very excited to be going to back to Chiang Mai in a day or so.

As for now, brad, Emma and I are wandering around Bangkok waiting for our flights home. Today we visited Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson is an expat from the US who moved to Bangkok and started a Thai silk company, lived in a beautiful teak house in the middle of Bangkok and was a collector of Asian antiques. In the 1950's he went to Malaysia and no one ever heard from him again, so the Thai government turned his house into a museum. Tomorrow we will continue to wander, maybe in search of some interesting markets or something like that. I will see you all soon.

May 4th, 2008

Hey All,
Emma and I are sitting in the Bangkok Airways lounge, in Bangkok, full of tasty treats waiting for our flight to Koh Samui. I know it has been a while since I have last written, so here is a little recap of where we have been... On April 16th we took a 3 day trip over to Luang Prabong, Lao. The first day we drove to Chiang Khong, Th; the second day we got packed onto a boat made for 40 people which was actually carrying 150 + for a 7 hour slow boat trip down the Mekong river. That night we stayed in a little village in the middle of nowhere which was put on the map by the slow boats and in my eyes has been ruined by tourism. The next day with took the same sort of boat ride for another 7.5 hours to Luang Prabong. The trip was incredibly long and i would never do it again but it was definitely an experience and the Mekong river is gorgeous. Emma and I spent 4 days in Luang Prabong visiting gorgeous waterfalls, getting attacked by leaches, mountain biking through the country side and exploring the french colonial city that is Luang Prabong. We then caught a bus to Vang Vien and spent a day floating down the Mekong in tubes with 2 Chileans we met along the way. The next day we headed down to Vientiane and toured around for 2 days. On the third day we caught a local bus to an ecolodge (Ban Pako) outside the city. At Ban Pako, we herbal sauna-ed, walked through the jungle and hung around on hammocks. There, we also met a french couple who warmly welcomed us to stay with them back in Vientiane at a beautiful house they were baby sitting. It was quite glorious. From Vientiane we caught a plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and this is where my story begins...

This morning we left Siem Reap after 4 days of touring the city and Angkor National Park, along with spending lots of time with the Ly family. A little background on our connection to the Ly family... Four years ago the Chenchilds (My uncle Joseph, my aunt Terry and my cousins Alissa and Daniella) visited Angkor national park and by luck, met Pon Heary Ly, who owns a guest house in Siem Reap and also runs a tour agency. A few years ago Pon Heary started a foundation dedicated to providing essentials ( uniforms, food, school supplies, new school houses, extra pay for teachers, etc...) to schools in the Siem reap area. As of now, she works with six schools and with the help of an American has officially created the Pon Heary Ly Foundation ( http://www.theplf.org/). My family has been involved with this foundation since the chenchilds first visit and in February I got to visit Pon Heary for the first time with my parents. When Emma and I first walked off the plane in Siem Reap we got to visit one of the six schools Pon Heary is involved with. The next day Emma and I got to go to a school with Pon Heary to distribute new uniforms to the students. There were many cute smiling faces and it was really great to see, first hand, where our donations have gone.

Emma and I stayed in Pon heary's guest house which is filled with her extended family. They were extremely welcoming, nice and they took us under their wings as if we were their own. There were also three of the most adorable children living in the guest house ( Pon Heary's nieces, Alice and YaYa, and nephew, Fee Fee). Emma and I spent a lot of time hanging out with them and rediscovering the small child within us. It was quite lovely.

Emma and i spent a good amount of time talking with Pon Heary about her experience growing up under the Khmer Rouge. She has an incredible story and history and her strength amazes me. Emma and I have had many conversations on this trip about the Khmer Rouge and the secret CIA led war in Lao. I'm appalled by the fact that I was taught about none of this in either elementary or high school, especially considering the US had such a large involvement in both the raise of the Khmer rouge and the war in Lao. I grew up in a family that talked a lot about the holocaust, my Babby has also written a handful of books on this issue, and I spent a lot of time at both my Shule and Camp Kinderland discussing the holocaust. We always say we will never let this happen again yet we ignore that genocide and thoughtless killing has occurred and continues to occur and we do very little to stop it. Many Americans do not know that 3 million people were killed during the Khmer Rouge (or that people involved in the Khmer rouge still hold office in the new government) and that Lao is the most heavily bombed country in the world (one bomb dropped every 8 minutes for 9 years). When speaking with Pon heary she told us that it is important to never forget what happened, to continue talking about it and to allow everyone to tell their story. I believe this is very true and I cant help but feel angry at the US for silencing the discussion of what happened during the Khmer Rouge and the CIA led war in Lao in our public school system. Visiting both Lao and Cambodia has been quite an intense experience but it has also sparked many important conversations. I feel very lucky to have had the ability to visit both countries and i hope some of you will be able to do the same in the near future.

Emma will be leaving Thailand on May 15th but before she leaves we will be spending sometime in southern Thailand exploring Koh Samui and Koh Phangyan. I will keep you all updated as we continue to travel and i promise to post pictures either before i leave Thailand or when i get back to the US. Much love.

April 8, 2008

Hello All,
I'm sorry it has been a while since my last entry but I have been busy writing the first draft of my paper (hopefully it will be done in the next few days)... Emma arrived in Chiang Mai last week and is currently at You Sabai, a cooking school next door to Pun Pun Farm ( the farm I went to Issan with)... Over the last few days, I have taken Emma to numerous wats in Chiang Mai, the hot springs right outside of Chiang Mai and to a handful of markets across the city. When Em gets back to Chiang Mai, it will be the beginning of Son Kran, the water festival in Thailand. The CYIT group every year gets to be in one of the parades in Son Kran, so em and I will get the chance to dress up in traditional Lanna outfits and walk through the city while people throw tons of water all over us. It shall be loads of fun.

On the 15th emma and I will make our way over to Laos and begin our excellent adventure. I will try to keep you all informed during that month but if I cant I will definitely write once I get back to Chiang Mai. If any of you have been to Laos, Cambodia or the islands of Thailand, please write and tell me about places you went and things I should do while I'm there. Talk to you soon.

March 11, 2008

The other day I had the realization that I only have about two and a half more months left here in Thailand. I know that sounds like a lot but I have been here for over seven months, so two and a half seems rather short. For the next few months I will be writing my final research paper; I have started working on it and right now the idea of finishing it in 2 months is a daunting task... Also, in less than a month Emma will be here, which means in a month i hope to have the first draft of my paper completed... We will see how that goes... If you don't already know, Emma and I are going on a month long adventure to Laos, Cambodia and Southern Thailand ( ie the islands). I'm getting really excited considering I have never been to Laos or the southern islands of Thailand and my time in Cambodia was rather short... By the way, if any of you have ever been to Laos or Cambodia and there are things there that you think we shouldn't miss please tell me about them. After Emma goes home in the middle of May I will have about 15 days or so to wrap everything up before I catch my plane back to the US, I will be leaving on either the 30th or 31st of May, so in reality I only really have a month and a half to finish my paper, oye.... Speaking of my paper I should probably get back to writing it but I just wanted to give everyone a little up date on where my life is headed. Much Love, SASHA

Sustainable Study Trip Pictures

Here is a link to my pictures from my Sustainable Study Trip ( The order is all out of wack, so start from the end and work up, sorry):
Pictures

February 27, 2008

Recently, I went on a Sustainable Study Tour to Issan ( The North East of Thailand) with a local farm ( Pun Pun Farm). Although this sounds quite cliche it was quite a life-changing and eye-opening experience. In so far, my view of agriculture has been quite market based, looking more at ways in which farmers can increase their income, which in turn we believe increases their individual welfare. After going on the Sustainable study tour, I'm not certain anymore whether focusing only on ways to bring farmers more money does in fact increase their well-being. On my trip, we focused on self-sustaining communities and individuals and the process in which they have been able to achieve this type of personal sustainability and in turn a greater well-being. Before I continue, let me give insight into what exactly the tour was and the history of Issan.

Pun Pun farm is located about an hour away from Chiang Mai, nestled against a National Park. The farm was started by a couple ( a thai man -Jo- and a american women -Peggy-). Jo grew up in Issan and had seen the effects of the Green Revolution on his family and himself. On a trip to the US, Jo found out about earthen building and brought it back to his family farm. At first people were taken a back by his techniques and didn't believe that his buildings would stay standing, but they did. Word got out about what Jo was doing and he then spent a fair amount of time touring around Thailand teaching earthen building techniques. Jo and Peggy started their farm, first as a place they could live subsistently and secondly as a place of education (focusing on earthen building, sustainable living and seed saving). On the Sustainable Study Trip, we visited an organic Fair-trade rice coop owned and started by farmers, a handful of Asok communities (subsistence communities based on Buddhist principles) and individual subsistence farm. Almost all of the places we visited had in some way incorporated earthen building (ie adobe, straw bale, waddle and dob). Almost all of the people we talked to, had once been part of the conventional agriculture network but at some point had reached a point where they could no longer depend on that systems to sustain them.

Issan, is by far one of the most inhospitable places in Thailand. The soil is very sandy, the weather is extremely arid and dry, availability of water is low and unpredictable therefore allowing only one season of rice growing (which in turn has made the people notoriously poor). All in all, Issan is a quite an inhospitable place for agriculture. When the green revolution came to Thailand ( about 50 years ago), it boosted production in Issan but quickly the effects of the chemical inputs were apparent. What that means, is that the Green Revolution Technology (ie conventional agriculture methods) was entirely unsustainable. Many farmers were in severe debt, some were suffering from illnesses which were products of chemical exposure, many were more or less starving and caught in a system of agriculture that pulled them into a downward spiral. The communities that we looked at, were a product of farmers and communities hitting rock bottom and remembering that although when they were children, they were poor, they were not starving and they were not drowning in debt. The organic and sustainable movement in Issan began out of those realizations of farmers, in many cases they banded together to create organic markets or individuals decided to live subsistently in order to escape the system that was only bringing them down. I felt empowered listening to the farmers we visited, hearing their stories and in many ways re-writing my view of how I believe we should be living our lives.

There is an underlying concept in this world that the only good life is that which mirrors the western world, that of consumption and monetary wealth. I have grown up in a very alternative thinking family but before this trip I didn't realize how stuck I was in believing that my happiness was rooted in the products of the western world and how unself-reliant my life is. It was almost as though a light went on in my head and I realized that so much fear in my life is derived from my inability to sustain myself and my lack of certainty that i will be able to create the comfortable life I have come so accustom to. I'm not really sure what my new found understanding means or how I will in fact incorporate into my life ( or for that matter if I have successfully communicated to you all about what is going on in my head) but I ask those reading this blog to take a moment and think about your own life and maybe only for one second question your own reliance on the western way and what it might take to make your own life or the lives that sustain you, more sustainable.

February 9, 2008

Yesterday, I came back to Chiang Mai after a four day trip with my parents to Siem Riep and Ankor National Park. To say the least, it was a very educational and breath-taking trip. Before leaving for Siem Riep, I knew very little about the Khmer Rouge and the history of Cambodia. Now after spending a little time there, learning about the history and seeing the current condition of the people living in Siem Riep, I am frustrated that there is such little education in the US on this topic. I will try to paint a little picture of what Siem Riep is like, to give you all a little understanding of why I feel this way.

Siem Riep is about 150 km from the Thai border, yet it is in a state that is completely the polar opposite of what I have experienced here is Thailand so far. First off, the stretch of road from the airport that leads in the city of Siem Riep is covered in fancy, beautiful, luxurious hotel complexes but mixed between these complexes is poverty. The city of Siem Riep is a place of contradictions just as the road from the airport is. Because of the large flow of tourism, the city itself (or at least the area I was in) was quite beautiful. Ankor National park is a 15 minute drive from the city and it was obvious that the tourist industry did all that it could to pick foreigners up at the airport, drive them to their beautiful havens, take them to see the ruins without ever having the see the actual city of Siem Riep or the people that live in or around it. Tourism in a city like Siem Riep is both a blessing and a curse, foreign money is being brought into the country but at what cost to the people who live there and to whose hands is the money flowing into? The US dollar is the main source of currency in the tourist industry because the Cambodian riel is worth very little (4,000 riel to 1 dollar). Later we also learned that most of the fancy hotels have been built by foreign companies and besides the jobs that they create and the small tax they pay to the government none of the money made in these hotels is seen by the Cambodian people. Things are also complicated by the fact that the Cambodian government is quite corrupt (some members of the Khmer Rouge still hold political office) and provide very little assistance to the people. It is also necessary to keep in mind that it has only been 10 years since the fighting ended and that Cambodia is only starting to find its footing. To say the least, this is a very complicated situation.

My parents and I stayed in a guest house in the old city owned by Ponheary and her brother Dara, both of whom lived through the Khmer rouge and afterward because they were able to speak English, were able to get a foot into the new tourist industry. Dara ended up being our guide for our tours to Ankor National Park and he was definitely an invaluable source of history and information both about Ankor National Park and the Khmer Rouge. We spent 3 days going around the park looking and exploring through gorgeous ruins, to name a few the infamous Ankor wat, Ankor Thom, the royal temple, Terrace of Elephants, etc...... Ankor National Park is definitely one of those places that one should see before they die. Although the national park was breath taking, it was also heart breaking because outside of every temple there were children and adults hassling you to buy little trinkets, post cards and guide books and they would literally follow you until you walked inside the temple and if you bought something then they would all flock to you. I’m not really sure why but it made me really uncomfortable and somewhat frustrated (at whom I’m not sure).

On a lighter note, Ponheary with the help of a foreigner started a foundation a few years ago, that supply, as of now, 5 schools with uniforms, supplies, and at least one meal a day every other month for every student and extra money for the teachers. The foundation has also raised money to replace school houses which were initially funded by the government and are now in desperate need of repair. On our last day in Siem Riep, we visited one of the schools and for me it was a very powerful experience because after 3 days of seeing a lot of people in need and feeling quite helpless to help them, it was uplifting to witness change and to see that there were people trying to change the situation of the people in Siem Riep and that there was a direct way that I could contribute.

On Wednesday, my parents and I flew back to Bangkok, and I felt oddly relieved to be back in Thailand.

Here are the links for some of my pictures:

Link 1

Link 2

January 24th, 2008

My mother has alerted me that some of my readers are afraid that I may have fallen off the face of the earth, I apologize. I will try to catch you all up as best I can as to what i have been up to for the past month.
On the 30th of December I met up Pat and Brad (two of the men on my trip) in Bangkok for a little new years trip to the South East. The first night, we caught a bus to Pattaya, which was less than enjoyable. A little background on pattaya, it is the sex business capital of Thailand and the main city is full of go go bars and dirty foreigners. Luckily, we had connections to the christian orphanage in town and got to stay in their guest house, far away from the grossness of the city.
The next day we hitched a ride to Si Racha, a small fishing village about 1 hour north of pattaya. In Si Racha, we lucked out with a clean, friendly hostel on a pier. Pat, Brad and I spent new years by the water teaching american card games to a few thai 20 somethings we met at our hostel, it was quite an interesting experience and I cant imagine having spent my new years here in thailand any other way.... Si racha was definitely a small sleepy fishing village and Brad and I were excited to get on a boat to Ko Si Chang on the 2nd.
Ko Si Chang is a small island off of Si Racha, it doesn't have the idyllic beaches of the south west but it's an island that a lot of thai's vacation to. The ferry ride over to Ko Si Chang was maybe one of the most terrifying experiences I have had here in Thailand. The water was extremely rocky, the ferry was taller than it was wide so when we rocked we rocked and to make matters worse we were weaving our way through huge ocean liners. Brad and I sat on the top deck, thinking it would make the trip more enjoyable, but after I almost fell out of the boat (ie the moment we realized our chairs were not secured to the deck), I realized we had made the wrong choice. After the boat ride, Brad and I found a really beautiful villa type guest house (we think we got the honey moon suite) looking out onto the ocean... We spent a day exploring the island, nothing too exciting but it was very pretty. The next morning we woke up to monkeys roaming around outside our window, not an everyday occurrence.
We got back to Bangkok on the 3rd, and to say the least I wasnt very happy about that because Bangkok is one of my least favorite places in thailand... On the day of the fourth, Brad and I spent an excellent day exploring bangkok by public transportation. First we took the boat bus ferry down the Chao Phraya delta, caught up to the sky train, took that across town and then caught another boat bus down another river which flows horizontally through the city and finally walked our way back past the palace and democracy monument to kao Sarn Rd (where we were staying).
That night we picked up my girlfriend Alex at the airport. The next day we all took a 12 hour train up to Chiang Mai. It was really amazing to ride through the rice bowl (ie central Thailand) but 12 hours on a train is kind of pushing it.... Alex and I did a whole handful of wonderful exciting things in chiang mai, ex. went to the hot springs, tons of temples, waterfalls, hiked up doi suthep, etc... Alex and I also went on a 5 day trip to the north west to Mae Hong Son and Pai. In Mae Hong Son, we rented a motorbike and just drive into the country side and explored (waterfalls, fish caves, mud baths, etc....). We then took a crazy bus up to Pai, I almost fell out of the bus door a handful of times but we got to see some of the most beautiful views I have seen here in Thailand, so far... Pai is an interesting place, to say the least.... It's a town in the middle of the mountains inhabited by foreigners (young and old), thai Muslims and native thai's. Much of the time alex and I felt like we could be in some hippy town in California, it was quite odd...
Tomorrow is my birthday (although it doesn't feel like it, ie weather etc...) and sunday my parents arrive, we will be touring around Chiang Mai and then we are off to Ankor Wat in Cambodia (extremely exciting!!!). When my parents leave I will be heading off to the north east for a trip focused on sustainability and organic farming, once back I will begin writing my final research paper. I have a lot a head of me and I will try to not to forget to write but if I do I am sorry and I will try to keep in touch as much as possible.