A lot has happened in the last few days but I've had really bad internet connection so I haven't been able to write...sorry about that.
First off another one of Matt's classmates arrived she is Dutch and a lot of fun. While we were eating at "our spot" a lady came up with a sack of some type of vegetable which I thought was really weird to do while we were sitting in a restaurant. Then I looked over and there was a friggin baby elephant!!!! So Matt and I both got to feed the baby elephant for what I think was about 50 cents each. I couldn't stop smiling the rest of the night. It was awesome!! We went to move the Dutch girl's things into her room and when we got there the "manager" was drunk off his ass and could barely walk...then before we knew it there were about 4 drunk thai guys in this little apartment and Matt and I decided that she would stay with the Irish girl until she got a better lock on her door. So that night was pretty interesting.
Yesterday we spend the day in Bangkok with one of Brooke's random contacts her name was Nila and her friend was Juan. They could quite possibly be the nicest people in the whole world. They not only took us around the Grand Palace, markets, and a few other temples but they also told us all about the Buddahism religion and how it pertains to the temples. It was great not to only appreciate the beauty of everything but learn about the tradition as well. We also took a ride on the long boat along the river and got a unique view of Bangkok and the Palace as well. Then instead of getting on a bus for the hour ride back to our place they were nice enough to drive us back, which took 15 minutes.
Brooke and I are going to go to ActionAID tomorrow and work a full day also just to see what they are all about, and little Matty starts school tomorrow. My mom has actually gotten me in contact with two people that live in Bangkok who seem like they could have a lot of opportunities for us as well. I am really excited to see what they may have to offer.
I know this may seem odd to a lot of you but we have yet to go crazy or do any real partying. We have seen a lot of the sights: china town, the biggest Pagoda in the world, the largest Buddah in the world, the Grand Palace, temples, and a breath taking oasis of lush green forestry that will no doubt serve as a terrific writing spot. We have yet to enjoy any clubs or bars in Bangkok or any of the beaches. The plan was to go to one of the most popular islands this weekend but Brooke and I will be working on Sunday for ActionAID so we may just go to a beach that is an hour away on Friday and come back Saturday. I'm sure I will have even better stories after the beach.
Everything is going great over here and we are still having a blast. I'm not feeling so good today so we are taking it easy and just getting ready for a big week. Hope all is well on your side of the world wherever that may be!
Here's to you,
Ryan
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Longchenpa(14th century Tibet)
Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.
Culture
I am incredibly tired today because that damn rooster wouldn't shut up and woke me up extremely early so I apologize if this post doesn't make a whole lot of sense:
Well we went to the embassy yesterday and they basically told me to do some border hopping in order to renew my visa but I will keep you informed. We spent the rest of the day in Bangkok and had a blast. We visited some emaculate temples which I do have pictures for and will attempt to get those posted. We also went to Chinatown and that was pretty interesting...very dirty and very crowded but it really looked like a scene right out of a movie. Everyone is very friendly but we noticed that they all have the same line "I go to USA next week" then comes the helpful directions to a store that they get commission for if they bring customers. We took a taxi from the embassy to china town for about 50 baht (little less then 2 dollars). Then we basically took a 2 hour tour on a tuk-tuk to 3 different temples and ending at Kosahn road total price was 30 baht. But we had to go fake interest in two shops that he gets commission for...we thought it was an even trade.
Kosahn road is a HUGE toursit street and basically you have a bunch of bars, hostels, and street venders. We got off of the tuk-tuk and within 4 seconds we had someone asking us if we wanted to see the ping-pong show...use your imagination. Throughout the few hours we were there we probably got asked about the ping-pong show 10 times. Brooke decided to go get a massage so inevitably Matt and I sat at a bar and people watched. With everything from Europeans to Indians, dirtballs to children it was pretty interesting. Then Matt overheard the guy at the table next to us bartering for the price of one of our waitresses it was very disturbing.
The pollution is pretty horrific in Bangkok and I don't think I could ever live there. We all felt pretty light headed at the end of it, I think we will be investing in hankerchiefs or something by the end of the day today. Another thing we noticed is that everybody drinks out of straws around here. We sometime wonder if we are being rude taking giant swigs of our water but nobody pays much attention to the farangs from Nebraska.
Matt was the first one to fall...he couldn'g get off the pot two days ago due to an interesting meal the supervisor of his program gave him while he was at the hospital doing his check-up (for insurance). So that was kind of a lost day for him, the nice thing was that we got to have pizza because of it. The pizza was delicious and we decided that if anyone gets sick that's when we can have pizza, a little taste of home.
There are packs of wild dogs around everywhere and they also have a lot of dogs as pets so their dynamic is pretty interesting. I will do my best to convince them to have a "talk" with my rooster so I can finally get some sleep but we will see how that goes.
Besides that we are just adjusting to life as it pertains to the dream, I will keep you guys updated and try and get some pictures posted soon.
Here's to you,
Ryan Michaud
Well we went to the embassy yesterday and they basically told me to do some border hopping in order to renew my visa but I will keep you informed. We spent the rest of the day in Bangkok and had a blast. We visited some emaculate temples which I do have pictures for and will attempt to get those posted. We also went to Chinatown and that was pretty interesting...very dirty and very crowded but it really looked like a scene right out of a movie. Everyone is very friendly but we noticed that they all have the same line "I go to USA next week" then comes the helpful directions to a store that they get commission for if they bring customers. We took a taxi from the embassy to china town for about 50 baht (little less then 2 dollars). Then we basically took a 2 hour tour on a tuk-tuk to 3 different temples and ending at Kosahn road total price was 30 baht. But we had to go fake interest in two shops that he gets commission for...we thought it was an even trade.
Kosahn road is a HUGE toursit street and basically you have a bunch of bars, hostels, and street venders. We got off of the tuk-tuk and within 4 seconds we had someone asking us if we wanted to see the ping-pong show...use your imagination. Throughout the few hours we were there we probably got asked about the ping-pong show 10 times. Brooke decided to go get a massage so inevitably Matt and I sat at a bar and people watched. With everything from Europeans to Indians, dirtballs to children it was pretty interesting. Then Matt overheard the guy at the table next to us bartering for the price of one of our waitresses it was very disturbing.
The pollution is pretty horrific in Bangkok and I don't think I could ever live there. We all felt pretty light headed at the end of it, I think we will be investing in hankerchiefs or something by the end of the day today. Another thing we noticed is that everybody drinks out of straws around here. We sometime wonder if we are being rude taking giant swigs of our water but nobody pays much attention to the farangs from Nebraska.
Matt was the first one to fall...he couldn'g get off the pot two days ago due to an interesting meal the supervisor of his program gave him while he was at the hospital doing his check-up (for insurance). So that was kind of a lost day for him, the nice thing was that we got to have pizza because of it. The pizza was delicious and we decided that if anyone gets sick that's when we can have pizza, a little taste of home.
There are packs of wild dogs around everywhere and they also have a lot of dogs as pets so their dynamic is pretty interesting. I will do my best to convince them to have a "talk" with my rooster so I can finally get some sleep but we will see how that goes.
Besides that we are just adjusting to life as it pertains to the dream, I will keep you guys updated and try and get some pictures posted soon.
Here's to you,
Ryan Michaud
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
...Proudly Stand Up Next To You
I believe I have found something to stand for, now it's just a matter of stabalizing my footing.
A call to action
I find myself in a foreign land sitting next to a Pakistani, Burmese, Irish, and two other Americans drinking Singha (tastes like Busch Heavy). These people have made the deliberate choice to travel to Thailand and dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of others...Human Rights. They will be writing their thesises on anything from Honor Killings to Starvation, Military Intervention to Women Rights. However it seems that is where the perverbial buck stops. They talk about awarness, books, and the good they can do about spreading knowledge about their respective causes. Now, these people are incredibly smart and had to go through a lot in order to even be accepted into this school. We all know that I am just some ex-salesman from Nebraska who has never claimed to be bright let alone have the warewithall to hold a conversation with these guys. Awareness is key to any cause which is a given (remember marketing major). But being aware of something does not change it, knowledge may be power but it is not change, this world is full of knowledgable authors what its missing is passionate actors. A thesis, a book, a marketing campaign is all great but in the end somebody has to act on your words...why can't you act on them?
The word hipocrite has a bad connotation to it but I believe that we are all hipocrites we are just to selfish to see it. I think of how many times I held the torch for the Omaha Children's Hospital: meetings, pamphlets, presentations, etc. all in the name of awareness of our cause at Dance Marathon. I remember being incredibly upset at family and friends for not giving or not giving enough to a cause that I was so passionate about. But how many visits did I make to the hospital itself (1), how many children did I bring a simple little present for, what good is words and money without a call to action. Letters in a book that accumulate into sentences and a supposed cause are about as good as me trying to order food from a Thai restaurant: I will eventually get my order in but who knows what they will bring me or what the outcome will be.
I will keep you updated on my travels, we are headed into Bangkok tomorrow to visit the embassy and to see what I can do about a Visa.
Here's to you,
Ryan, Junior, Husband, Brother, Michaud, Billy the Kid
The word hipocrite has a bad connotation to it but I believe that we are all hipocrites we are just to selfish to see it. I think of how many times I held the torch for the Omaha Children's Hospital: meetings, pamphlets, presentations, etc. all in the name of awareness of our cause at Dance Marathon. I remember being incredibly upset at family and friends for not giving or not giving enough to a cause that I was so passionate about. But how many visits did I make to the hospital itself (1), how many children did I bring a simple little present for, what good is words and money without a call to action. Letters in a book that accumulate into sentences and a supposed cause are about as good as me trying to order food from a Thai restaurant: I will eventually get my order in but who knows what they will bring me or what the outcome will be.
I will keep you updated on my travels, we are headed into Bangkok tomorrow to visit the embassy and to see what I can do about a Visa.
Here's to you,
Ryan, Junior, Husband, Brother, Michaud, Billy the Kid
Sunday, June 1, 2008
First Thai Post
All right, all right, I know I haven't gotten to post anything yet and all of you have probably given up on me...however I now have internet access in my room and will be able to blog all the time. And with the fact that there is so much to say because I haven't been on you can bet that I will blog much more frequent. I'll try and give you a quick recap...
We were delayed on our trip to Cali so we missed our connecting flight to Bangkok we had a good friend Jessica Schmidt come pick us up and we stayed with her for the night and hung out until our flight came the next night. She has turned me on to PinkBerry if you are ever in Cali go get one it is delicious. As far as the 17 hour flight is concerned Matt and I didn't sleep a whole lot (Brooke didn't have that problem) but we had a mean game of Pong going and watched quite a few movies. I was surprised how easy the flight was, Thai airways is the way to go!! After landing we took about an hour taxi ride to Mahidol university and decided instead of lugging all of our bags around we would just stay at the hotel on campus for the night until we found something else. Cost for one night in hotel: let's just say it was as much as it would be for 1 month's rent. We really got screwed there. After miles upon miles of walking the next day we found a place with 2 beds that was pretty clean for 4,000 Baht. As much as neither one of us wanted to do it it was looking like Matt Brooke and I were about to become really really close. However, we ended up finding an absolutely beautiful place with good security, internet, bathroom, hot water (which you don't need), t.v., etc. Those two are on the 5th floor with a great view and I am on the 3rd floor which doesn't have as good as a view but I can see the tip of the Pagoda which is kind of cool. And we can walk to campus which is a HUGE PLUS!
As far as the culture is concerned it is absoluely incredible: they are really big on cleanliness so everything is really clean and it truely is the land of smiles everyone is incredibly nice. It has been great learning just the little intracacies of this great place. The little things are what you have to be careful about as far as the traffic coming at you from the other side of the road, escalators going the other way, and they say you need to be careful with taxis but we haven't had a need for them yet. One thing I have really enjoyed so far is getting to know Matt's classmates he has someone from Pakistan, Ireland, and Burma which we have all gotten to be good friends (the rest haven't arrived yet). Just learning about their cultures and their incredible experiences has been such a joy. Even all of them have been eager to help me find a job or volunteer organization so I can get a visa.
It is insanely hot and humid here and the breeze is anything but cool. I have found that it is either the fact that I was a pirate in my last life or because I am a Parrot Head in this life that the heat and humidity hasn't bothered me at all, you just have to accept the fact that you are going to sweat all day and have a bottle of water in your hand all the time.
I know this is pretty broad but I will get into some stories and more detail now that I will be able to get on frequently. And of course I will be posting deep insights, quotes, and the like that will most likely be fodder for making fun of me when I get back...but to hell with you guys :)
It is by no means a vacation here but the experience is greater then anything I can imagine and I am looking forward to sharing it with you. I promise to have more frequent posts please keep responding. Thank you all once again
Here's to you,
Ryan
We were delayed on our trip to Cali so we missed our connecting flight to Bangkok we had a good friend Jessica Schmidt come pick us up and we stayed with her for the night and hung out until our flight came the next night. She has turned me on to PinkBerry if you are ever in Cali go get one it is delicious. As far as the 17 hour flight is concerned Matt and I didn't sleep a whole lot (Brooke didn't have that problem) but we had a mean game of Pong going and watched quite a few movies. I was surprised how easy the flight was, Thai airways is the way to go!! After landing we took about an hour taxi ride to Mahidol university and decided instead of lugging all of our bags around we would just stay at the hotel on campus for the night until we found something else. Cost for one night in hotel: let's just say it was as much as it would be for 1 month's rent. We really got screwed there. After miles upon miles of walking the next day we found a place with 2 beds that was pretty clean for 4,000 Baht. As much as neither one of us wanted to do it it was looking like Matt Brooke and I were about to become really really close. However, we ended up finding an absolutely beautiful place with good security, internet, bathroom, hot water (which you don't need), t.v., etc. Those two are on the 5th floor with a great view and I am on the 3rd floor which doesn't have as good as a view but I can see the tip of the Pagoda which is kind of cool. And we can walk to campus which is a HUGE PLUS!
As far as the culture is concerned it is absoluely incredible: they are really big on cleanliness so everything is really clean and it truely is the land of smiles everyone is incredibly nice. It has been great learning just the little intracacies of this great place. The little things are what you have to be careful about as far as the traffic coming at you from the other side of the road, escalators going the other way, and they say you need to be careful with taxis but we haven't had a need for them yet. One thing I have really enjoyed so far is getting to know Matt's classmates he has someone from Pakistan, Ireland, and Burma which we have all gotten to be good friends (the rest haven't arrived yet). Just learning about their cultures and their incredible experiences has been such a joy. Even all of them have been eager to help me find a job or volunteer organization so I can get a visa.
It is insanely hot and humid here and the breeze is anything but cool. I have found that it is either the fact that I was a pirate in my last life or because I am a Parrot Head in this life that the heat and humidity hasn't bothered me at all, you just have to accept the fact that you are going to sweat all day and have a bottle of water in your hand all the time.
I know this is pretty broad but I will get into some stories and more detail now that I will be able to get on frequently. And of course I will be posting deep insights, quotes, and the like that will most likely be fodder for making fun of me when I get back...but to hell with you guys :)
It is by no means a vacation here but the experience is greater then anything I can imagine and I am looking forward to sharing it with you. I promise to have more frequent posts please keep responding. Thank you all once again
Here's to you,
Ryan
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