For now though, this will be a digital log of my study abroad in Bangkok, Thailand this summer!
The past two weeks and the three that are coming will be spent traipsing around Thailand, co-leading music therapy sessions with other Thai and American students, and taking side trips wherever the busses take me to! Since I'm getting started a little late into the trio (oops...) I'll do a brief chronology of our first two weeks here based off of the personal journal I've been keeping here.
July 2, 2015- Mahidol University, Salaya
- Our first full day in Bangkok!
- After 24 solid hours of travel and less than two hours of sleep, the main thing I remember was the exhaustion.
July 3, 2015, Bangkok
- Time to be a tourist!
- Our main attractions:
- The Grand Palace
- The Emerald Buddha
- Wat Po (which holds the 3rd largest reclining Buddha in the world. WHAT.)
- Princess Sririkhat Institute
- And finally, we ended with a boat tour around Bangkok. And an impromptu dance party with some lovely Thai children that were on the boat with us.
July 4, 2015, Bangkok
- More tourist time! Probably at one of my favorite tourist destinations of the whole trip. This included:
- The Erwazan museum. This is a massive concrete 3-headed elephant in the heart of Bangkok; not only could we walk around outside of it, but you could also explore the inside of the elephant as well!
- In the afternoon, we took a tour around a place called the Ancient City. This was a (rather large) scaled down version of the entire country of Thailand. It was just big enough to ride bikes around, and to get off and walk around through some of the major attractions like the floating market, and some prominent temples.
- We finished this day by wandering around the Night Market, which is where the Thai's go when they want a good deal on just about anything. The shopping was fun! By far some of the most crowded streets I've ever seen. But you could buy a good pair of running shorts for just a dollar! They weren't kidding when they said everything was incredibly cheap here...
July 5, 2015, Bangkok
- First free day!
- A couple of girls and I went into town to wander another market.
- Chang (which is Thai for elephant) pants are the latest rage. I think we all got a pair that day.
July 6, 2015, Mahidol University, Salaya
- Lots of music making in the morning to prepare for the upcoming sessions.
- Lots of good conversations with new friends in the afternoon.
- Also had the opportunity to observe a music therapy session one of the Thai students was running. It's incredible how much you can pick up from a session where you barely understand what the therapist and the client were saying; without too much effort we could not only pick up on the goal and objective, but we watched the therapist skillfully navigate all of the hurdles the client threw at her throughout the session. Music truly is universal!
- Finished the day with dinner at TipSum, the place that INVENTED Pad Thai. How cool is that?!
July 7, 2015, Mahidol University, Salaya
- Our morning was spent learning about Thai classical instruments and music by sitting in on one of their ensemble rehearsals. The music is unlike anything I'd heard before, very beautiful and intricate! It's funny how the music reflects the beauty and intricacy of the setting. And culture.
- After listening to multiple pieces, the Thai students taught us how to play Chang (one of the children's songs we learned before takeoff) on their instruments. Let me tell you, some of those instruments are a lot more difficult than they looked..
- We spend the afternoon in the city getting a traditional Thai massage. 90 full minutes of painful bliss, topped off with some delicious balefruit tea. Yummmmmm
July 8-9, 2015, Mahidol University, Salaya
- These two days were very important clinically, and will take a lot of time to figure out how to clearly articulate what happened. I'll come back to these two later.
July 10, 2015, Krabi
- We got up at the crack of dawn (well, before dawn technically) to catch a quick plane down south to Krabi, Thailand!
- After the plane landed, we went to the Emerald Pond, the Blue Pool, and some local hot springs.
- You could literally see 6-8 feet deep in the Emerald Pond! I've never seen water that clear in my life.
- And you could make bubbles come up from the quicksand in the Blue Pool just by clapping!
- We encountered our first true Thailand monsoon on our way to the hot springs. Let me tell you, Midwest storms don't hold a candle to the downpours here.
- Off to our resort for the night, fully equipped with an outdoor bathtub and a rooftop pool. We're really roughing it over here. ;)
July 11, 2015, Krabi
- This day entirely consisted of island-hopping and bar lounging. Work hard play hard, right?
- I had my first taste of Thai whiskey!
July 12, 2015, Krabi
- We spent the morning traveling via tuk-tuk (tuktuk? TukTuk? I'm not fully sure) around an island that is rather close to our old resort.
- We learned about rice cultivating, traditional long-boat making, and textile painting.
- The island we were on is 95% Muslim and it's currently Ramadan, so the town was pretty slow and peaceful.
- That is, up until the afternoon monsoon hit in the middle of our tuk-tuk ride. Never in my life have I laughed so hard as riding this glorified go-cart down these tiny winding country roads with it raining so hard that it's raining sideways. Our driver was kind enough to pull to the side and bolt to a rain cover though, which helped us from getting entirely soaked.
- Then, a free afternoon and evening around our latest resort. This one equipped with an outdoor shower. (Part of me still doesn't believe all of this actually happened. Who leads that kind of life anyway?)
July 13, 2015, Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi
- Also a momentous day. I'll document this one later too.
July 14, 2015, Mahidol University, Salaya
- Back in the swing of class once again. At least, as much of a swing as we can get into here!
- Early morning Philosophy of Music Therapy class
- Life class with Russell Hilliard, one of Dr. Register's closest friends. He is an incredible inspiration to any student hoping to make their way in this profession, and a kind-hearted human being to boot. It's been very enjoyable getting to travel with him this past week.
- Afternoon of music-making and session-observing.
- A small group of us spent the evening at a Cat Cafe. Why don't we have one of these in Lawrence? If any of the coffee shops started up business and offered free cute cats to pet I ASSURE you they would always be busy. These cats were so funny! But what was even funnier was losing track of time sitting there and having to run not only across a major road, but through campus, into the music building, past a local rock concert (which happened to double as a jury), all to catch the bus that was running over 5 minutes late. Only in Thailand, I guess?
Okay. Now that's practically all caught up. I promise all of the other posts won't be so long or boring, and I'll do what I can to include pictures as available. For now I need to run and prep for my sessions tomorrow, AKA listen to a little Thai music and get a lot of sleep.
Sawasdee ka!
-Alyssa
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