Ah! Here I am, on the day that my semester is
ending! Let me tell you about the past few weeks in the ocean. The first week
was spent in Ban Jao Mai, a Muslim village in southern Thailand; we spent two
days in Koh Lipe, one of the islands of the Adang Archipelago; and spent the
next week camping in Koh Rawi, another of the 22 islands that the archipelago
has. If anyone is doing math on how many days I was gone: this course was the
longest (20 days), but three of those days were traveling days. Here’s how it all
went.
Getting to Trang (the province where Ban Jao Mai
is found)
On
the first day, our whole group of 17 students (James, an Australian boy who has
grown up in Chiang Mai joined us for this trip, and he was in my group) took
taxis to the train station in Chiang Mai and eventually got on the night train
to Bangkok. This train ride lasted 16 hours, in which I got to see incredible
things just outside my window, hang out with the group, have a three-course
meal, and sleep. The sleeping was my favorite. You sit face-to-face with
another person, with just enough room for your feet in between; at around seven
or eight, after dinner, someone comes and kicks you out of your seat to make
your beds. The two seats become the lower bed, and a compartment on the top is
opened to make up the second bed. I had the pleasure of sleeping on the bottom
bunk, with the not-so-gentle rocking of the train but a fresh breeze coming in
through the huge window. It was awesome. Don’t worry, they gave you sheets, a blanket,
and curtains for privacyJ.
We arrived in Bangkok at
around eight a.m. the next morning, took the metro to Chatuchack Market (widely
known as JJ market), where the amount of people and things was quite
overwhelming, as were the amount of animals being sold everywhere: puppies,
cats, rabbits, hedgehogs, reptiles, birds, and fish. The whole point of going
there was to explore the fish section so we could see what kind of reef fish
were being sold, illegally, in the market. We found what we were looking for. It
was in the market that we bid adieu to Group B, who had an earlier train to the
Adang Archipelago (their trip started where ours ended and ended where ours
started), and I was left with Jonah, Silas, James, Hannah B, Nicole L, Nicole
B, and Emily, my group for this expedition. We left the market and hung out at
JJ Park, where we relaxed, ate snacks, and spotted a cool monitor lizard, our
first one yet! We walked around Bangkok for a while after hanging out, and got
to cross a huge highway on foot and see all the cool-colored taxis.
Later we returned to the
train station to take our second night train to Trang. This one was 14 hours
and not much different from the last one, except for we had half as many
people.
And just like that, we
arrived in Trang, were picked up at the train station, ate breakfast, and drove
for I don’t know how many hours to Ban Jao Mai. Something about this trip made
it feel like a vacation…
Ban Jao Mai
As
soon as we arrived, we met up with our instructors (did I mention we had been
traveling alone?), and made our way to the beach. I caught my first crab that
day. Yes, it was about one centimeter wide, but still I was proud and excited.
We took a longtail boat to see the mangroves that the village is near and
talked to Ma Teh, who basically runs the village and owns the one cool
restaurant where we hung out every day, and Bang Het, her brother. They were
both very knowledgeable about the mangroves, so we got to ask them tons of
questions. Oh, yeah, down at this village they use “Ma” for the women instead
of “Mae” and “Bang” for the men (Bang is more of an “uncle” term than a “dad”
term). We longtailed it back to the village, got ready, and met our host
families. We had dinner at Ma Teh’s restaurant, each with our own family. My
mom’s name was Mai, just like me. That’s still a cool thing today. My dad was
Bang Iat, Ma Teh’s son and whose longtail would be taking us everywhere. Nong
Lin and Nong Chok were my host brothers, nine and 12, respectively.
In
Ban Jao Mai, I would sit with Ma Mai on the floor for dinner and we shared
pictures, stories, and watched Thai TV. Ma Mai and I would cook dinner together
often, and that was our bonding time. Bang Iat, who a couple days later told me
I should call him Pa Iat, let me drive the longtail once, and that was fun. They
spoiled me, to say the least.
One of our activities in
Ban Jao Mai was a mangrove transect, in which we kayaked around the mangroves
and stopped at given points to observe trees, fish species, invertebrate
species, and substrate. Swimming around the mangroves was strange; scary,
actually, because it’s hard to see the bottom, and the roots of the trees poke
you everywhere. I learned there, though, that sea kayaking is fun.
Ma Mai and Pa Iat’s house
was only one minute from the beach, so I made my way down there to watch the
sunset many nights. Many nights P’Jonas and P’Am (my instructors) would join
our family for dinner, and P’Jonas constantly gave me ecology lessons on the
crabs, slugs, squid, or fish they were eating and P’Am updated me on everyone-in-Thailand’s
favorite soap opera. Many nights I also fell asleep to Ma Mai singing along to
songs in English when she thought I couldn’t hear (Westlife’s “My love” was my
favorite).
Breakfast in Ban Jao Mai
was called knom-chao; that’s like calling it “snacks” instead of “breakfast.”
And it was. I would drive over to a little shop with my parents every morning,
eat donuts (made seconds before I ate them), and drink kohpee, the strongest
coffee I had ever had (I later learned that the coffee beans are roasted with
sugar, then processed, hence the incredibly strong molasses taste). Needless to
say, I’m sure I gained a few pounds—truth, but I’m not ashamed.
One day we explored a
mudflat near Ban Jao Mai, where I found lots of hermit crabs, mudskippers, a
sea anemone, soldier crabs, and so much more. We had the afternoon free on that
day, so we had a beach day with the group. Beach days are my favorite days.
Another day we explored a sea grass area, where dugongs feed…we didn’t get to
see the dugongs, though. I got to observe shrimp and gobies in their little
houses, and that was pretty cool. This was also the first time I snorkeled
(outside of the giant pool in which we practiced before we left for the
course). On this day, P’Jonas taught me to body-surf. I can’t wait to try that
out on Lake Michigan this summer!
We swam through a cave to
get to a really awesome beach, seemingly untouched (although too many tourists
go there each day). It was such a peaceful place. On the same day we visited a
rubber plantation and learned about shrimp farms. Oh, and I can’t forget about
the fact that in Ban Jao Mai I got to help roast, break open, and eat cashew
nuts. So good!
Our last full day in Ban
Jao Mai was spent cooking and preparing for our party on that night. We helped
cut up a lot of the vegetables, make knom, and watched the slaughtering of the
goat they had been fattening up for us. I was a little emotionally attached to
the goat, not going to lie, as she lived in my garden and hung out with me as I
lay in the hammock in my house. They slaughter and butcher the goat in very
humane ways, so that made it easier. We also got to play Muslim Barbie. The
moms dressed us up in Muslim garments, put a lot of makeup on our faces, and a
veil on our heads. I was just happy to be able to provide some entertainment
for them. Our party at night was so much fun; we took pictures at the beach,
had a delicious meal at Ma Teh’s restaurant, got to publicly say to our parents
just how much we appreciated them, and had a dance party with our families. It
was a great way to end our homestay.
Leaving the next day was
hard. All the students and their families met up for breakfast in the shop,
where we thought we’d say goodbye to our families. But they came in the vans
with us on our three-hour ride to the port in Pakbara, where we’d be taking off
for the archipelago. They bought us snacks at a 7-11 during a bathroom stop
(regular Thais) and fed us before we boarded the ferry. My host mom didn’t make
it all the way there with us because she had a maternity check-up on that day
(did I mention she is pregnant?), but my dad and both of my siblings made it,
and they stayed until we could no longer see them as we drove away on the
ferry.
Koh Lipe
Two
days in a tropical paradise island for our midcourse seminar were pretty
incredible. We met up with the other group for a little over half a day, and it
was wonderful to see our friends and share this island with them. I spent the
afternoon working on my essay at the resort’s restaurant and we had a meeting
with the Urak Lawoi, the locals who live in Lipe, and learned about their life
style and how tourism had affected it. I later found a coffee shop to continue
working on my essay, but ended up singing “Wonderful tonight” and playing
maracas for multiple songs with one of the owners and some workers. I made some
friends that nightJ.
Needless
to say, I had to get up early to finish my essay, since the previous night
wasn’t as productive as I hoped. I went to watch the sunrise on the beach and that
was just the perfect way to start my day. It was just so beautiful!
In
Lipe, we got to walk around and shop and ask owners whatever we wanted to know
about the island; we had many interesting conversations. Our group got to spend
a lot of time together, especially at meals in town. We also met with the owner
of Mountain Resort, where we were staying, who was one of the first investors
to come to Lipe and works closely with the Urak Lawoi; interesting as well.
We
got rained in on our departure day; luckily, we were only crossing the channel
to the next island to hang out at the Adang Archipelago National Park for one
night.
Camping in Koh Rawi
We
were fortunate enough to have an incredibly beautiful camping spot in an island
near Lipe, Rawi. We camped just a few feet off the water at high tide, had a
neat place to set up our kitchen, a fresh-water stream just off the trail from
the campsite, and an incredible coral reef off our beach. We couldn’t have
asked for more.
We
had completed many of the activities for the course, so our week in the island
was mainly dominated by what we wanted to do—which is not at all how the rest
of our courses have worked. It was, after all, spring break, right?
One
of our activities was to go into the reef off our beach (which we all referred
to as “our reef”) and count the many different species of organisms that we
saw. Hard work, right? So we put on our masks, snorkels, rash-guard, and fins
and headed out to count amazing fish. No big deal. This was the first time I saw
a false clownfish (a Nemo, if you will). I found the anemone and swam to it. The
thing with clownfish, is that they swim toward you, and not away from you. So there
I was, in a coral reef off the amazing Koh Rawi, face to face with a clownfish.
I cannot tell you how many times I repeated this scenario in the following week.
If
I were to mention all the different organisms I saw each time I snorkeled in a
reef, the list would be endless and you’d get bored; so I will refrain. But snorkeling
in a coral reef is something that I never thought I would find myself doing, so
every time it was an incredible experience.
We
kayaked a few times to different reefs to do specific studies, but we also
spent a lot of our time hanging out and eating at our campsite. Most nights I slept
either right on the beach (yes, crabs did crawl on me at night), on a hammock
overlooking the ocean, or in a tent that also overlooked the ocean. I don’t
know how any successive camping experiences will be able to compare to this
one!
I know it seems like this was all fun and games, but I really learned so much on this course! We learned about the many challenges that tourism brings to pristine places such as the Andaman Archipelago. For example, 90 percent of the coral reefs in the archipelago are bleached (or dead, so to speak), which means that, throughout the years, many species have ceased to exist because their habitats are destroyed. We also witnessed trawlers just miles from the beaches, catching as many fish as they could in the dark hours of the night; we learned of the conflicts that the national park has when it comes to stopping illegal fishing (trawlers) and how much power to do so they actually have; heard the two sides to the conflicts between the national park and the Urak Lawoi; and witnessed just how terrible the problem of trash in the ocean is--among many other things.
Although
there are many more things to tell when it comes to this course, I will save
those for later, when I see you, perhaps? I have many details and stories left to share :)
Thanks for reading. As usual, all my love.
