A brief hiatus. . .

Yes, I realize that people are typically informed of a hiatus prior to its occurrence, but then again, this is Thailand, and if you ever do find something out, it's usually after the fact. The last month or so was a little hectic given that for all of our courses we had 5 presentations, 5 papers, and 3 finals in less than two weeks. Not horrible if you know the deadlines ahead of time and haven't been lulled into a false sense of security given your previous "workload".

During that time I got a bacterial ear infection, attended a three day Franco-Thai conference in one of Thailand's most ace hotels, learned to entertain Thai kids from our neighborhood, and hosted Camille, a friend I met in India. And yes, the name says it all, she's French. In her defense though, she speaks fluent American. The picture at the right is one of my daily beard pictures taken while I had the ear ailment. The facial hair progression is posted online now.

Once classes ended we all split out for different locales. Half of the group stayed in Bangkok (contradicting my previous statement), while Dan and Ruby jetted to the Himalayas and Angela and I experienced the north of Thailand. No word yet from Duby (the collective title of Dan and Ruby). I'm just hoping their sherpa didn't strand them at the base of the mountains and drive off with their gear in his rickshaw. Duby has assaulted people for much less, so I'm not worried.

Angela and I enjoyed our travels to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Mae Sai, and Sobruak, seeing a million different wats, flooded caves, and opium dens along the way. After a train trip of 16 hours back to BKK, Angela hopped a bus to Koh Tao with Elizabeth, Hillary, and Kevin to SCUBA dive and I'm holding down the fort until my parents arrive in approximately 6 hours. The picture to the right is one taken during our train ride back to Bangkok. It never ceases to amaze me how lush the rice paddies here can look, only to turn out such an unimpressive, bland product. Don't get me wrong, rice has held its own in the region, but you'd hope for a little more out of such fertile fields.

A few things I've picked up over the past few weeks: (1) Burmese refugees will not hesitate to chase you down if they have greater numbers and children, (2) delicious hashbrowns (read shredded fried potatoes) do exist in Thailand and you have to look no further than a 16 hour train ride from Bangkok to Art Cafe in Chiang Mai, (3) Thais will not hesitate to take you to an attraction that you will be unable to fully experience, such as caves during the monsoon season, (4) the race for governor of Bangkok in 2008 was more exciting than any other election I will ever witness, look no further than here for evidence.

This last picture is a shot from the heart of the Golden Triangle in Sobruak. The confluence of the Mekong and Mae Sai marks the intersection of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. To the left of both rivers is Thailand, in between the two rivers in Myanmar, and to the right of the largest river is Laos. Impressive, but it still has nothing on the Four Corners in the US.