Around the world and more - Thailand and Cambodia trip

Here I am, sitting in my new home (for the next 7 weeks) in the chilly northern tier of Pennsylvania (stay tuned for more blogs about this new chapter of my life), reviewing photos from my most recent international experience in a much warmer location - Southeast Asia.

After a semester-long preparation course, I traveled to Thailand and Cambodia with 12 students and 3 chaperones for 2 weeks as part of the INTAG/HORT 499D course: Food Security Strategies for Smallholder Farmers in Southeast Asia (as it is formally called).

I am pretty sure this was the most exciting and unique international experience I have had so far... even though my summer in Costa Rica was the most life-changing and blessed? Either way, it was an amazing trip! The group of people was perfectly diverse and we got along very well, the locations were superb, and the learning experience was never ending! Plus, I took a BOATLOAD of photos with my new camera!

When you think of Thailand and Cambodia, what do you think of? Probably Bangkok and Angkor Wat. Yep, I think those were my thoughts previously as well. But, after spending 9 days in Thailand and 3 days in Cambodia, I have come to realize that we can never truly understand a place until we go there... and now I can say I understand Thai and Cambodian culture a bit more for having lived among it.

So what did we do? Well, considering the title of the course, we visited a fair share of farmers in both countries. But first let's discuss travel to Asia. This being my first time in Asia, I did expect a longer time in transit, but I think I've calculated approximately 90 hours of travel time with the group... that's almost 4 days of travel. Plus, the day on each side of the trip that I stayed in DC area, but that was with family, so not too difficult :) Even though we were on 8 airplanes for a total of 48 hours, it really wasn't that bad (especially with the quality of Etihad airlines, my new favorite way to travel). Maybe this is just a reflection of my passion for travel and ability/willingness to do so!!


Okay, back to SE Asia. Long travels = worth it. Nobody got sick or distressed or had any real problems, thank the Lord! We arrived in Chiang Mai on Monday, December 30 for a 2 night stay - New Year's included! Chiang Mai is famous for its New Year's experiences, so we were pumped. But after settling in, we just walked around the Night Market and grabbed some food before the extreme jet lag/no sleeping exhaustion kicked in.

Tuesday morning, we drove out to a cooperative organic rice farming community and learned about rice processing (but not rice growing) in addition to how the cooperative works/collects and distributes their product. Then we toured  the farm (after a delicious first authentic Thai lunch) and watched as the farmer demonstrated the rice husking/sorting and packaging processes. It was pretty interesting to see the finished product shortly after watching them work the machine that began the process!

Finished kilogram of organic rice

Passion fruit vineyard on the farm

Our group at the lookout of the community forest!

Tuesday was New Year's Eve, so when we returned, we had some dinner before heading into town and exploring the special New Year's Eve night market/festival along with all of the other thousands of international tourists... it was quite jam-packed. But nonetheless an incredible time, as we got to release a lantern with our wishes and goals at midnight!

Kate, Jess, Laura, Abe and I released a lantern at midnight!

The super packed New Year's Eve market

On New Year's Day, we traveled north into the mountains of the Chiang Rai province to stay at UHDP for 3 nights. UHDP is a Christian non-profit dedicated to working with the hilltribe peoples of Northern Thailand and greater vicinity to improve farming and agroforestry practices and other lifestyle practices in a sustainable manner. They have a center/headquarters in the mountains that holds several demonstration plots and gardens so that they can use it as an educational hub if farmers are able and willing to travel for training. During our 3 day stay with this great organization, we toured the facilities, participated in some workshops (see photos below), and visited some local villages. It was pretty nice to all be together in a rural location after spending a few days in the city - no markets, no TVs, and definitely no Starbucks! We got pretty creative with our down time... playing family charade games, bamboo sword fighting, and invented relay races, in addition to trailblazing through the woods and valleys next door! On our last day at the center, we visited with ECHO - Asia, whose regional seed bank is located at the UHDP center. ECHO is another Christian non-profit that mainly works with other agricultural NGOs in Southeast Asia to promote sustainable agricultural production. A seed bank is just one of the ways they do this. It was super awesome to see some on-the-ground cooperation between NGOs, especially ones devoted to pursuing the love of Christ in their work! These pictures should truly illustrate our experiences with UHDP and ECHO.

Chopping up banana plant stalks to make pig feed! 

Thai tractor equipment and a bit of rice paddy landscape - a view from our hike

Seed propagation workshop 

Using an Asian machete to harvest rattan palm heart for our home made lunch!!! (note the difference from Latin American machetes in previous blog posts)

Chopping up frogs for lunch :) They really did taste like chicken!

Wrapping seasoned ground pork in banana leaves to cook... yum.

One of the most impactful experiences I had on this trip was visiting the Palaung villages in the Chiang Rai province on Friday and Saturday of our first week. Not only did we get to see smallholder agriculture at work and learn from local farmers, but I got to play with village children (a huge dream of mine). I loved photographing them and they loved being photographed, so I hope you enjoy some of the pictures from the village (more to come on my photo website in the near future).

The first village we visited was a bit smaller, and most of the agriculture was viewed in backyard gardens/plots. People had small animals (pigs and chickens) and lots of cute kids!

A farmer showing us his very small farm plot behind his home

Climbing trees after villager kids :) 

Molly and I were teaching them how to play Rock-Paper-Scissors... a non-verbal game :)

This is our second village visit, which we traveled to after a morning touring the ECHO Asia seed bank. This village is also Palaung people, located about 2 miles from the Myanmar border. For this trip, we hiked through the mountains to see the agroforestry systems and different farms. It was probably one of the coolest hikes I've ever experienced! We came back to settle into our host family homes for the night, then had a wonderful dinner, complete with a discussion with some of the first farmers/men of the village who had experienced a lot of hardship to get to where they are. It was certainly eye opening to hear about the struggles people endure to simply have a home, let alone additional luxuries we often take for granted. 

One of the two farmers who led us around his agroforestry land

Upland agriculture - corn stubblefield on some super red (oxidized) soil that often washes away

Our host family home's living room. Note the small Buddha/spirit shrine and then our beds on the right 

The boys with their toys - tires and sticks. Roll it down the street and keep it up with the stick! 

My littlest host brother, Su-Cha, who gave me that flower :)

On our way home from the village, we stopped at tourist central - an elephant park. Yes, I got to ride an elephant. It was pretty cool, but the coolest part was getting to pet an elephant after our ride (which may have later been scolded by an employee who didn't see us walk up to the elephant).

This made the awkward bumpy elephant ride so worth it!

We spent one more day in Chiang Mai, seeing all parts of the city and the Sunday market, before taking another couple flights (45 minutes each) to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our first day was quite the flurry of farm sites and markets, as we had minimal time to see it all. But, the afternoon proved to be one of the most memorable experiences on the trip, as we visited the famous Floating Village of the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in Southeast Asia. This village and all of its buildings/homes/structures were constructed on stilts so that, during the wet season, the river/lake water can rise up to the foundations of the homes. In the dry season, the water level is much lower, but still causing most of the town to be "floating." Apart from kids playing in the water and boats simply everywhere, I won't soon forget seeing a pig pen... floating in water.

"The Floating Village"

The floating playground...

For all my animal science blog readers - who knew pigs could handle water so well!??

Siem Reap, where we spent 3 days, is a purely tourist town, devoted to the world-famous temple area and UNESCO World Heritage site - Angkor Wat. This collection of ancient temples (formerly Hindu, then converted to Buddhist) originated around the 12th century and have extremely diverse architecture. We spent a day biking around the area, getting a little lost, then exploring the 3 major temple sites: Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, and Ta Phrom (the one with the trees growing over the temples!). This was our last day in the country, followed up with a bit of a layover in Bangkok before taking the 30 hour trip home!! Even though I had some interesting sickness symptoms upon return, I have survived to the 10 day mark and am so thankful for the experience... Now that you have survived this super long blog post, here are some Angkor Wat and other temple photos to enjoy!!!

Tree of Ta Prohm temple area: Our biking group - Me, Robert, Dickon, Kate, Abe, Eric

The typical lake and Angkor Wat shot!

I don't think this was off limits?

As with anything, be sure to enjoy where you are. The Lord has you there for a purpose. And as with any travel experiences that you may find yourself encountering, please submit to this quoted truth by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt:

"Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively."