Thai ways

It has been a little over two months since my arrival in Thailand, and nearly two and a half since I left the USA. My adventures have been extensive and diverse. Since my last post I have been to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos,

and made substantial progress with my Honors Thesis. I will talk more about the trips to Cambodia and Vietnam later. For now let is suffice to say that floating down the Mae Kong River in a hammock while the beautiful countryside passed by for hours on end, walking through the Angkor Wat

(It is suprising the access a little extra money for a "ticket" will get you), and experiencing the Vietnamese

perspective of the war brought unparalleled expansion to my personal philosophies.




For my Honor’s Thesis I have been traveling out to various Royal Project farming sites around the Northern part of Thailand. So far I have visited three sites with another three planned before I leave. Each project site is situated in a region where one or more of the hill

tribes of Southeast Asia reside. They were initiated by the King of Thailand in an effort to assist the hill tribe peoples increase their standard of living, cease opium production (the main cash crop of earlier generations of the hill tribes and a major threat to boarder security for the region), and re-educate the farmers on environmentally friendly agricultural practices. At each site I conduct a series of interviews

with the site director, local farmers, and other individuals from the community. Dr. Ralph Brown, my research supervisor, used a portion of our grant money to bring along another student, Daniel, to Thailand as a translator. Daniel

accompanies me on our three day trips to each of the different farms. The title of my thesis is, “Paradoxes of Successful Sustainability: An Exploratory Analysis of the Royal Project Foundation of Thailand.” I am looking to discover the potential of sustainability of these projects after the King is gone and during periods of political unrest. … It seems my timing couldn’t be more appropriate here in Thailand.

As part of the program that Dr. Brown runs here in Thailand he has all of the students living with host families. I was living with three other students with a rather well-to-do family. Our host parents were two of the most non-thai like people I have met. Everything with them was business. The rarely let us into the house, they only spoke to us at dinners, and they apparently kept a table of what other students came over and what they ate. When Alex, our program director, came to pay rent for this last month our host mom presented her table to him along with prices she thought appropriate for all of the visits of other students. Alex couldn’t believe what had just happened. The next day he had all four of us move to separate apartments in the city. The two girls are sharing an apartment close to their NGOs while Daniel and I have separate apartments close to Alex and Ralph. I am sad that I no longer have the opportunity to live with a local family and the great food that they made for us, but I am glad to be out of a very awkward situation. This move happened Tuesday evening, and unfortunately only represented the beginning of a very stressful week.

Wednesday Daniel and I picked up the truck for our weekly project visit. This week we were headed close to the Loas boarder. Since the truck we rent is a stick shift I am the designated driver and have grown to love driving in Thailand. It is almost as good as driving in Brazil, but has the odd twist that everyone drives on the left side of the road like they do in England. It was surprisingly easy to transfer to the left side of the road. Having the steering wheel on the right side of the car also helps a lot. Unfortunately no amount of driving skill or experience could have helped with the surprise that awaited us Wednesday.

After a couple of hours on the road I needed a break and let Daniel drive. I woke up about 30 minutes later only to discover that we had gone in the wrong direction. As we went around an average corner the back wheels of the truck began to slide out. Daniel kept the truck under control and pulled over a little further down the road for a switch of drivers.

I stared driving and noticed that the truck felt a little off. After turning around I stopped and took a look at the rear wheels. Everything seemed to be in order so I started to drive. After another minute on the road I could feel that something definitely wasn’t right. I pulled over again and got out to visually inspect the truck once more. Everything appeared normal so I got back in and started to pull forward when the back end of the truck suddenly jerked and I lost all power. I got out of the truck and found that the passenger rear tire had vanished! One look into the jungle on the side of the road and I found my tire. Three lug nuts had come off while the remaining two had been completely shorn off. We were out in the middle of nowhere with no way to repair the truck and no cell phone service.

After awhile we were able to flag down a local farmer and eventually find a phone. We called the rental company and a mechanic. After a couple of hours the truck was good

to go and we were back on the road. We had missed our appointment for the evening and I was in need of a break after the last two days. I decided to drive back to Chiang Mai to sleep for the night and deal with the rental company the next day. I was tired, stressed, and extremely lucky. If the wheel had come off at any other time during the trip we would have flipped and the outcome would have been much different. God has constantly kept an every watchful eye over me for which I am extremely grateful for.

I have another two weeks of farm visits and then a half week in Loas before I begin my journey home. I wish you all the best and will write again before I return.

David