Fishing!!!

One thing I love most about being here in Thailand is that I feel like I get to try a variety of new things. At least things that are new to me. I also feel like things happen spontaneously and that life is rarely dull. Another thing I like about my life here, is that I am around quite a few people every day - students primarily - and I find them interesting. I feel like I can learn a lot from them. It follows, then, that I like going out and doing things with students, which I got to do yesterday.

I have been here for five years and never gone fishing. I would hear about students going fishing after the fact, but I never got to go. Well, yesterday a small group of us went fishing up one of the small rivers near the farm. We mostly used a net, but one of the girls was an expert at using her hands to catch the fish. She would just reach her hand under the rocks and - snatch!

My contribution was throwing out the net a few times, dashing to hold down the net, and taking pictures.

The river we fished in.

Bancha dragging the net in.

Pulling the fish out of the net.

The initial catch.

Finding fish under the rocks.

Figuring out what was producing some big bubbles (a crab).

Learning how to throw the net.
(First time not so good - second time okay!)

We had maybe 25 small fish by the end. The students put them in soup that night for dinner. After this experience, I can finally see how fishing is a sport. We were all on the same team, against the fish I guess. And whenever someone got one we would cheer! Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Bangkok Jaunt

A few weekends ago I had the chance to go to Bangkok again. I actually had an informal chat for a potential job. That was Monday morning, so on Sunday, after getting off the bus around 6am, we took advantage of the day and wandered all over Bangkok. I was able to see several things I hadn't seen before.

The first seven pictures below are all located in the Dusit compound. Vimanmek Palace was very interesting and beautiful. It is golden teak wood and is apparently the biggest teak mansion in the world. Much of what we saw looked very European. What interested me the most were the exhibitions of King Bhumibol's photography and the local textiles. I felt like those were the most culturally significant. One because the King is so important here and his pictures captured areas of family, palace, and rural life. The textile museums were interesting because I was able to learn more about the different ethnic groups here in Thailand. The SUPPORT Foundation not only had textiles but wood work and silver work along with other handicrafts.

After leaving Dusit Palace, we walked on to some other sites. But first we were stopped by a group giving out free organic, vegetarian food. We stopped and ate, chatted with a female monk (who was Thai but lived in France) and found that people had been peaceably protesting the government but were taking a break that day.

We walked down to the Golden Mount, saw a view of the city, walked to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, took a tuk tuk to the Standing Buddha and the Marble Temple and then finally made it back to the hotel.

Vimanmek Palace
Photo credit: Tristan

Side view of Vimanmek

SUPPORT Foundation

Local Textile Exhibition Hall

Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall

Funny signs

Love at first...

Free food - and a peaceable protest - oops!
Photo credit: Tristan

Democracy Monument

Standing Buddha

Marble Temple (Wat Benchamabopitr)

Traveling companions and a tuk tuk
Photo credit: Tuk tuk driver!

The day after all of the site-seeing I had my "interview" (which I still haven't heard back from!) and then I met up with a couple of my former students at Future Park Rangsit - a big mall just outside Bangkok. After that it was back to Chaing Mai!

Trip to the countryside Part 2

Not content to see merely one way to do organic farming, we hopped over the river, and headed to Fair Earth Farm a few Friday afternoons ago (just a couple days after our trip to Pun Pun). Here was another awesome learning experience, if only because the owner has been able to do so much with just one acre. Most interesting to me was learning about the different plants, finding out new plants that are edible, and seeing how planting different plants next to each other can maximize benefit. From what I understand, this is agroforestry, meaning you plant things in what appears to be random order, but is much like the natural forest. Combining trees and bushes with crops. We also learned how the animals are integrated into the process. Fish, chickens, a turkey, a guinea fowl, all contribute to the health of the farm by both what they eat and their waste.

Sometimes the rice paddy

Canal with greenery along the side

Looking out towards the lawn

Chicken shade

Wild yam

Sorghum

Fish pond

Banana circle

Pineapple

Hopefully this gives more of an idea of some of the interesting things I am learning here, as well as some alternative ideas to mass production and chemically laden food.

Trip to the Countryside

Here's something for you. A little New York Times review of a restaurant not far from my school in Chiang Mai Thailand. A couple days ago I was able to visit the farm mentioned in the article - Pun Pun. Legacy is hoping to become progressively more self-sufficient, specificallly by growing food at the farm here. Any followers of my blog will know that I love to take farm pics! Well, I think with the help of a new teacher, Abby, the farm will really expand and have more of a process. Since I've been interested in the farm (but not knowledgeable about it) I am happy to play secretary and organize our outings to learn more. Through someone I met a few weeks ago, I was able to hear about several farms in the area that have a goal of being self-sufficient and/or improving organic farming practices. That led to our trip to Pun Pun. We hoped to go and get as much information as we could!

On the way there, we rode in the back of the veggie truck - not many veggies, though, actually.

The foreground is not the Pun Pun farm, the two buildings up on the hill are part of it.

We got to help peel a big bunch of garlic. They didn't grow this (it's difficult and molds easily) but they bought a massive quantity at once.

We also helped them collect seed. This is basil and I just had to pull the leaves off into the bowl. 

Here we are getting asparagus seeds.

A group of us went to another part of the farm and planted fruit trees. In the picture I am adding manure to the hole before I put in the tree. 

One really interesting thing about this place is that they make earthen buildings.

Here are the mud and rice husk bricks.

Here is one of the houses covered in mud and rice husks, but not painted.

On our way back we met with a fallen avocado tree that they tried to put upright to save the fruit.

The place had electricity but they did use solar panels for hot showers

This area had plants growing specifically for seeds. Seed saving is very important and many of the farms and organizations encourage it.

View from the top of the big earthen building pictured above.

Water tanks. They filtered their water through gravel, sand, and charcoal.

Cute coffee shop. They sell delicious shakes made from produce on the farm. 

The seed area.

We also walked about five minutes to a neighboring organic farm, Panyaa. We spent about 15 minutes there just looking and taking pictures. One thing that I thought was very innovative was the raised garden beds bordered by upside down bottles.

Upside down glass bottles.

There was a lot of information. Many of the specifics are fuzzy. But I do have a better understanding of how a place like that is run. I also am understanding more and more about different fruits and vegetables and learning the right questions to ask. A wonderful learning experience!!!