May 23, 2007

On The Road

It has been a wonderful week in Thailand. Melanie and I arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday and spent two nights there in a wonderful old little 6 bedroom inn in the heart of the old part of the city. Melanie drank her first 7-Up out of a questionably sanitary plastic bag, Eddie learned how to look right so not to get hit by oncoming traffic (Thailand drives on the left), and we both got lost trying to get oriented in the city with little help a map. After too much traffic by Tuk tuk and being overwhelmed by such a large city, we finished seeing the more popular sites and booked a sleeper car on the North bound train. 15 hours later we arrived in the city of Chiang Mai.


Chiang Mai has been an enjoyable city. It is smaller and more walkable than Bangkok, a little cooler(being situated father north and surrounded by hills) and full of good food and crazy markets. I have especially enjoyed the mangoes and lychee which are currently in season along with the many varieties of what Melanie calls "meat on a Stick".


One of the highlights was a cooking class Melanie and I attended yesterday by one of Thailand's most well-known chefs Sampon. After a walk around one of the markets in the morning, we spent most of the day in front of a wok and with the help of Sampon we both agreed it was the best Thai food we had yet eaten. (The two of Us with Sampon)



The Thai people continue to amaze me. They are some of the most genuinely friendly and smiley people I have ever met. Upon arrival in Bangkok people would come up and start asking Melanie and I where we were going, what we were trying to see and trying to offer us help in finding our way. While at first I was skeptical of ulterior motives during such encounters, it seems for the most part people here are just really friendly and happy to practice a little of their English with a white person. They ask where I am from, where I am trying to go, and recommend which Wat (temple) I should see. The same friendliness and hospitality has continued but not just with people one meets on the street but with the majority of all Thai people I have met so far.


However, to me, the most comical interactions so far have been with Thai's who begin by addressing Melanie rather than myself and addressing her in Thai rather than in English. Many a times she has been mistaken for my Thai girlfriend and she gets quite a few looks from both Thai men and women because of it. Maybe it's just because she is so pretty. She does recieve many compliments from the locals after they switch to speaking english recognizing thather blank stares means she has no idea what they are saying. Thankfully she has been a good sport about it and the idea has become a frequent topic of our joking and playful rambling as we wander the streets.

Tomorrow we are heading to Hanoi Vietnam and then on to Halong Bay. You can check out what looks like an amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Long_Bay

Peace and Love,
Eddie

May 18, 2007

SYDNEY

I escaped Vanuatu and am traveling through Thailand and hopefully Vietnam in the next
couple of weeks.

However not before I had 4 days of relaxation, ferry's, Starbucks and cool (70 degree) weather in Sydney.













Here are a few photos....They should be self explanatory.


Peace and Love,
Eddie

May 6, 2007

Pictures from the trip




Here are just a few last pictures from the Australia, Thailand, Vietnam trip

May 5, 2007

Bula Fiji

Last week my counterpart and myself received a last minute invitation phone call to attend a workshop with the GTZ (German Technical Corporation) in Fiji. GTZ (http://www.gtz.de/en/), is the overseas group currently working with Butmas and the grantor's of both the portable sawmill and the materials needed for the agroforestry and tree nursery projects. So with some quick peace corps approval I was off to Suva the capitol of Fiji 24 hours later. When we arrived at the workshop on Monday I realized that it was in no way applicable to my work here in Vanuatu (the workshop involved learning very basic software to analyze business viability and train business advisers) and so spoke with the regional GTZ boss about making the week more worthwhile for not only myself but the corporation that paid my way. Luckily he was quite flexible and I ended up having a week of daily trips to sawmills, nurseries, forestry research stations, eco-businesses and an entrepreneur working in bamboo technology. With this change in plans I also was able to spend my last day on a small island surf resort and got a full day of surfing at Frigates Pass, a world class south pacific reef. This wave was unlike any I had previously surfed in that it was 12 miles out to sea. We took a boat from the island and from the water could not see the mainland while surfing though we were surrounded by quite a bit of wildlife including jumping Marlin, Turtles, Schools of Tuna and the accompanying sea birds (Frigates) following the fish.

Fiji was quite a bit different from Vanuatu and I was impressed by the development in both the urban and rural areas. I believe that the lengthy colonization by the British helped greatly by providing much infrastructure for the country and also the presence of the Indo-Fijian population creates an atmosphere of competition within the country in both schools and business that requires the native Fijians to compete and thus develop/ grow so not to get left behind. Needless to say Fiji is many levels above what I witness here in Vanuatu. (Random Fijian Window Sticker)
Upon returning from Fiji I went and spent three nights with my original training host family on Lelepa island and had a few days of boats, spear fishing and sunshine. It was good to see my host family and again observe the other end of the Vanuatu village spectrum. I also shared my times in Butmas with the villagers of Lelepa through a slide show.
This week is our All-Volunteer conference and hence I have been in Vila for the last three days since coming back from Lelepa Island. Today all 84 or so volunteers head off to a resort where we will be for the next four days sharing stories, knowledge, and attending workshops/seminars and having a little break from island life. Then on Friday I leave Vanuatu for Australia where I will be meeting up with Melanie and heading to South East Asia, which I am looking forward to very much. So Until then.....Peace and Love from the South pacific