Thursday, June 4, 2009

6/2/09

Second day in the field.  Team C (my team) worked on cleaning some previously-excavated bones from PTT 3 (the deep site I mentioned before).  Our new unit is PTT 4.  We cleaned bones from Burial 2.  It was actually really, really cool.  It’s so cool to be chipping dirt off bones.

 

We used bamboo picks that we made.  Some of the dirt came off fine, but some was stuck to it like cement.  It didn’t help that the bones were already extremely fragile.  I started on some vertebrae with Zach, but Scott Burnett (the professor from Eckerd) had us change because they were too fragmentary.  I cleaned a clavicle, some more complete vertebrae, and part of the skull.

 

It rained at the site for the first time today.  Since there are shade covers over the units, it didn’t stop us, but it rained.  We are so spoiled at this field school.  Amazing food, hotel, fruit slushies… Its great. 

 

For dinner, we walked towards downtown.  We ate at the place Morgan and Sally ate at the first night.  Cashew chicken and a beer for under $5.  Awesome.

6/1/09

Today was our first day in the field.  We left the hotel at 8 AM on one of the truck bench things.  A big one.  Shiny.  Like a schoolbus.  Our drive to the site is pretty cool.  Very flat except for a few small, sharp, rocky mountains.  Rice paddies all around.

 

The site is on the grounds of a Buddhist temple, so we have to wear pants, not shorts.  It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty nice.  We took a really short walk to acquaint ourselves with the area.  We saw a teak tree (huge leaves!) and a tamarind tree (mimosa-like with pods).  I’d seen plenty of them before but didn’t know what they were.

 

There is a 6x6m trench about 30 feet away from where we were to set up the new one.  It was probably 5 or 6 m deep.  There were 5 or 6 skeletons already exposed.  It was really cool to see them, but we’re not going to be messing with them.

 

First, we staked out a square under the shelter with string, divided it into quadrants, and cleared the surface debris.  We found a few pot sherds which were everywhere.  We dug down to the first level.

 

One of the Thai students, San, is going to be our lunch cook for the field school.  Based on today, I’m excited.  We had green curry with chicken and extremely sticky rice.  The curry was nicely spicy.  We also had whole tuna fish.  They were about 6 inches long.  Alpes (another student) had to show us how to split them with the spoon along the spine and tear half the body off of the ribs.  It was really tasty.  At around 2:30, they also made us a watermelon slushy that tasted like it had grenadine in it.  It was so good.

 

We had our first class with Thanik (the Thai professor) at 8 PM.  Before that, we got street food from across Tesco.  I had two fried drumsticks which were so good.  So greasy though.

5/31/09

We ate the buffet breakfast at around 7:20 AM.  French toast, fried eggs, pineapple, coffee.  It was all right.  After breakfast, we walked down the road.  There isn’t much near our hotel.  It’s like a 10 minute HOT walk to anything.  Food, too.

 

Kwang arranged a tour of Lopburi for us.  We went to several places of note here.  Narai, I think, was one of them.  One place was a residence of foreign ambassadors in the 1800s.  Somehow it was ruiny already. 

 

We also went to somewhere from The King and I.  The King of Siam or something.  That place was much cooler than the ambassador’s house.  They had a museum with cool archaeological stuff in it.  Many statues of “Buddha Subduing Mara.”  We had to take off our shoes to go inside.  I like doing that.

 

For dinner, we ate street vendor food with Kwant downtown.  It wasn’t awesome.  I think it was too many people for them to adequately handle.  

5/30/09

We left the Reno (and Bangkok) for Lopburi at 9:45 AM.  I could not eat my breakfast.  I have no idea why.  So I still had an hour’s worth of internet credit at the neighboring hotel, so I stepped in and gave the ticket to some random guy.  He was so excited!  I think he was American though.

 

We all took taxies to the Hualompong Train Station for our 10:50 train.  Of course, 10:50 is just an estimate.  It was about a half hour late.  The train was so old and rusted.  We all had more luggage than most passengers and we were all crammed in our seats.  The train actually broke down less than 5 mi from the Bangkok station.  They told us we would have to wait an hour for the next train, but they got it running before then.  We got a meal, surprisingly.  Sketchy, spicy, fishy fish and rice.  Wasn’t terrible.

 

We were supposed to arrive at Lopburi at 1 PM, but we finally got in at around 4 or 5.  We got assigned roommates and went up to our rooms.  Since Emilie went home, Emily is my roommate.  She is a grad student at ASU and did her undergrad stuff at NCSU with Troy.  She looks so familiar to me.

 

After we settled into our rooms, most of us rode the hotel bus to the downtown area.  Walked around, found something to eat.  The place we ate at was big enough that it wasn’t terribly sketcy.  Sarah got fried pork ribs which were delicious.

 

It is weird to me how many skin-lightening products there are.  Apparently it’s the opposite from the US.  Also I have noticed that there is always someone cleaning the floor.  Always.  They have nice clean floors here.

 

Its nice to be in a place finally with almost no tourists.  There are monkeys here!  I mean, I knew there would be, but it’s still exciting.  They hang out everywhere.  Buildings, ruins, power lines, the middle of the street…

5/29/09

Today we all met at 9 AM to visit some places here in Bangkok.  I dropped my laundry off, 55 baht per kilo.  We took the Sky Train to the River Taxi, 30 baht and 13 baht respectively.  We met Kwang there.  She is a (tiny) student at Silpakorn University here in the city.

 

We went first to Wat Pho, where the (largest?) Reclining Buddha is.  There was a lot of neat art stuff there.  Quite hot.  Spent about an hour and a half before we went to the Grand Palace where the Emerald Buddha is.  That was much more of a praying place than a photo op.  No shoes.  Pants.  Lots of shiny gold and an awesomely long mural.

 

Then we ate at S&P.  Not bad but somehow I never got my watermelon slushy.  Salted pork and fried rice.  The papaya salad/coleslaw was very spicy.


For our last dinner in Bangkok, we went to the food center at MBK.
  I tried Sukiyaki soup with vegetables.  It was very cabbagey and bland, and I didn’t know what to add to it.  I really wanted coconut blended with ice, but they were out.

 

We saw Terminator 4 at MBK.  There are so strange commercials before the movie.  Me, Bennett, Zach, and Robert went to see it.  It was very action-packed.  I was surprised to see Anton Yelchin in it because he was also in Star Trek. 

5/27/09

I guess I missed a day.  So on the morning after we each had our own rooms, Bennett slept in.  Until like 10.  We all had to meet up at noon as our first official group meeting.  Two girls (Rebecca and Samantha) got stuck in Tokyo for a night, but everyone else was there.  We got phone numbers programmed into our cell phones.  We got the phones for 1040 baht.  Long distance calls to the US only cost 1 baht per minute!  That’s crazy.  And we get to keep the phones.  Cheap ones, but even so. 

 

Zach and Robert arrived a day earlier than everyone else, so we hung out yesterday.  Zach goes to Eckerd in Florida and will graduate after this year.  Robert is about to graduate too, from NC State.  He looked familiar but I don’t believe we’ve had any classes together.  Bennett, Zach, and I watched Terminator 2 in Bennett’s room.

 

So all 15 of us walked to one of the Siam mall places and ate at one of the cafeterias that Bennett and I hadn’t found before.  Roasted duck with rice was really disappointing.

 

We rested in the afternoon, and Bennett looked up the Muay Thai fight.  Rachel and Petra came with us.  It only cost like 230 baht for Thai people, but the same tickets for foreigners cost 1000 baht.  It says that in the Lonely Planet, and it makes sense.  The stadium makes money off of the bets that the Thai people make, but foreigners are much less likely to bet.  Expensive, though.  Inside, there’s the boxing ring, ringside seats (mostly foreigners), 2nd tier (almost empty), and 3rd tier (all Thai except us and 2 Finnish people).  So many people were betting.  At first we were sitting in the bookies’ section, and the other Thais there made us move.  The third tier has no seats, but rather steps that you sit on and stand up as the fight gets exciting.

 

Our new location was near the Finns.  They were so stereotypically Scandinavian.  White blond hair and extremely tan skin.  They had been in SE Asia for 5 months and were leaving for Finland on Monday.

 

There were 10 matches, each of 5 rounds.  The boxers ranged from 90 to 138 lbs.  Some young’uns fighting.  No knockouts, and only one guy bled.  He was fine though and kept fighting.

 

It’s so cool that instead of unhealthy concession food, they sell fresh fruit.   20 baht for 3 slices of canteloupe.  The old man next to me  got some and only ate a piece and gave me the other two, which was incredibly nice.  Next time the fruit vendor came around, I bought some and offered him some, but he didn’t take any.  It was awesome though because we had been there like 3 hours without any food.  The entire thing went from 6:30 PM to 11ish.  Petra and Rachel left at 8:30 because they were tired.  Surprisingly, most people watching had left by the very last and heaviest fight.

Friday, May 29, 2009

5/26/09

Today we survived the ride back to Bangkok. At leats we knew what to expect on the way. We actually encountered the Canaian we met at the fish massage on our bus/van. Actually, we ran into the first pair of Canadians last night at the Angkor Night Market. The second Canadian, Janine, lives in Korea right now teaching English and paying off her student loans. That sounds like an awesome way to make extra money. She travels on her vacation months. Nice person.

So we drove on the big bus to the border then split into mini-buses. We understand that the buses stop at specific points to support what is likely their family members' shops. He made us stop for an hour at one place so we could all order lunch. We were all angry, and none of us ordered anything, which in turn made him upset.

We made it through the border fine. Just took forever in hot lines. Thai processing of passports is so nice: AC and honest officials. I missed Thailand when I was in Cambodia. So after we started driving in Thailand, our driver (who knew very little English) turns around and tells us Janine's passport is messed up. She started getting really worried, but when we got back, the Thai official just had to fix a stamp he messed up on hers. He accidently gave her a 2-month visa instead of a 15-day one. It would have cost him a lot if she'd stayed longer.

We finally made it back with some new German friends. So we ate some pad thai and saw Star Trek. It was really good! Gimmicky at some parts but what Hollywood movie isn't? I need to do some laundry.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

5/25/09

We decided not to visit any more temples today with the exception of one specific one. We're all templed out.

Oh, I just remembered how, when crossing the Cambodian border, they took our temperatures with an ear thermometer without cleaning it in between people. Wonderful sanitation, Cambodia. Nice.

Today we kind of vegged out. Woke up after 7am for once! We hung out in our rooms more or less and watched TV. Napped between 1 and 3.

The last temple we visited was one from Lara Croft: Tomb Raidrt (or at least that's how our hotel spells it). It's got crazy old trees in it. It's beautiful, and probably was my favorite temple to visit. Then again, the temperature outside was a lot cooler than it was yesterday and it was the least crowded temple. Those factors may have influenced my view of it a little bit.

But really, there's 300-year-old trees EATING the temple, which is mostly collapsed. It was kind of eerie at times. Lots of photo opportunities.

After we rode back, we were going to get more terrible American food for dinner, but we encountered the other group of Canadians who pointed us in the direction of safer food. We ended up eating on what essentially turned out to be Tourist Row, but it was really good. It was called "Easy Speaking" and it was next to a bar called "Angkor What?" which I think is awesome.

I ate chicken amok, which is apparently traditionally Cambodian. It's chicken coconut curry and tasted very similar to what I made at home a few months ago. Cokes over here are so delicious. I think they're made with real sugar instead of corn syrup. Together, 2 meals and 3 beers (between us) cost $9.80. Pretty nice.

Then we walked around the Night Market. Ran into those Canadians again. We both bought lots of stuff there. We also got a Dr. fish foot massage thing. They have this tank of fish that you put your feet into and they eat the dead skin off of them! It's the weirdest thing. It feels like a cross between a cat licking your feet and prickles from when your foot falls asleep. We also met another Canadian there who is either married to or dating an Irishman.

It's 11pm now, pretty late for us to be going to sleep. So far my stomach's been on edge. Just not quite adjusted yet. I'm really only eating half-meals. My view of Cambodia has changed a little bit after today. I feel a lot better about it.

5/24/09

Today we saw all the temples here. It was so hot. I put 55 SPF sunscreen on my face but I think I just sweated it off. Burned a little on my arms and face.

So, Bennett's girlfriend's parents lived in Singapore (or thereabouts in SE Asia) for 5 years, and they knew someone who could give us a nice tour of the temples. Bennett emailed him a few days before and he showed up this morning with a sheet of paper he had printed with "Bennett and Emma" waiting at 8 AM in the lobby are of our hotel. (The lobby area's outside. Everything is open-air except the room itself). The hotel's actually pretty nice compared to the surrounding areas. Nice floor and stairs. Sun Same picked us up in his Toyota Camry with heavenly AC. I swear I'm not obsessed with AC but when I feel sick, it makes me feel better.

He drove us to the place to buy our tickets for the temples. $40 each for 2-3 days. First up was Angkor Wat, pronounced Uncle Wat by Cambodians. It sounds just like that. The kings of Cambodia have flip-flopped between Hindu religion and Buddhism, sometimes believing in both. Angkor Wat was from a Hindu king built to honor Vishnu, the protector. That's why it faces west instead of east like most temples.

The temple itself is pretty big. There's a gate, a moat, two libraries, and the temple. Sun Same dropped us off there to explore for a few hours. Native guys in there will just start walking with you and tell you about the site and ask you for money at the end.

For lunch, we ate at a vendor that Sun Same knew. I had ginger chicken and rice. It was really good, and the best part was surprisingly the onions.

Before we left this first temple, we walked through the line of shops. These Cambodians are way pushier and annoying than the Thai. They walk up and pester you and don't leave. We bought some paintings there. We saw some elephants today too, besides the Elephant Terrace. It wasn't very impressive. Bayon temple was way cooler. I almost liked it better than Angkor Wat. Too bad I can't upload pictures. After these three temples, Sun Same took us back to our hotel for a rest from 1pm to 4:30.

He picked us up to see the sun set on top of another temple. You walk up a decent-sized hill and then you have to climb these crazy steps to the top. The same style of steps are in every temple, but there's usually supplementary added steps for tourists. Not here! Even so, a number of older people managed to make it up. The steps were probably 20 cm sticking out from the wall, if that makes sense. Even me with small feet had trouble. The sunset was pretty, but perhaps not spectacular. Climbing down in the semi-darkness was an adventure.

We also ran into a group of three people we'd met on the bus on the way over at the temples--the funny hipster Canadian and his Swedish friends. Additionally, we saw some monkeys.

We bought some tiny bananas for a snack. They were really good and really cheap. Very yellow inside. Tasted pretty normal. We gave the rest to a Cambodian guy sitting on a rock quite a ways away from us. It totally surprised him, but he accepted them.

For dinner, we had Sun Same drop us off at KFC, of all places. We really hadn't found anywhere that looked like it cooked safe food. We passed out by 9pm in our hotel.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

5/23/09

I almost don't even want to write about today! It was extremely stressful. I have a feeling the next 3 days will be just as hard. I'm so tired.

We woke up and ate breakfast and got snacks for the trip. The bus/van picked us up and we drove through Bangkok. Driving in the city is terrifying. First of all, they drive on the opposite side of the road, so you're already disconcerted. There seems to be a lot of people actually paying attention when they drive. Mopeds weave in and out of traffic like no other.

We had to change buses. There were 5 other passengers on our bus. We had to make frequent refueling stops. On one of the stops we all got out and bought fruit. The 4 people sitting behind us got us to try some new fruits, and we all started talking. One guy was from Minnesota who had been traveling all around the world for a few months already. He was definitely the travel-savvy one. Told us what the border procedure should be like based on his SE Asia Lonely Planet guide. I think his name was Dominic. The other two were from somewhere in Canada. Very cool, all of them.

We tried snakefruit and mangosteen. The snakefruit comes in 4-inch pods with dry stickers (not sharp). You crack open the dry husk skin and peel it off. Inside, there are 3 lobes of a light orange color that kind of taste like sour starburst and have a big seed in the middle that you obviously don't eat. Mangosteens look like black plums. You tear off the stem and tear the thick purple skin off. There's 4 or more white lobes inside. It's similar to persimmon texture.

The drive to the border from Bangkok was nice, seeing some of the not-urban areas. Cows were skinny, ribs sticking out. SO many tall trees with thin trunks planted in rows. Lots of rice paddies. We stopped at 11 AM and our driver and the guys at the stop wanted us to fill out visa forms and get them for $35. We knew they should only be $20, and we realized they were trying to scam us. At the border,w e went to at least 3 places wanting us to pay $15 extra. We finally found the right spot and got them. I was kind of worried for a few minutes because they took our passports into another room for awhile, but we finally got them back.

The Canadians bought us victory beers, which were not a good idea in the heat. We learned a lot more about haggling and how to be more travel-savvy from these guys. We learned not to book things in advance.

When we finally got to Siem Reap, the bus dropped us off with no choice but to take $2 tuktuks to town. We stayed at the Angkor Voyage Villa. Our tuktuk driver recommended it, which is usually a sketchy way to get a hotel, but it was a nice place. $12 a night for 2 people, near the night market. We tried to find somewhere to eat dinner because we hadn't eaten in 12 hours, but we ended up ordering too-greasy and cheesy pizza from our hotel. Not bad, but kind of made me feel sick.

On the bus ride from Cambodia to Siem Reap, it looked like the world had ended. It was so flat and so used for farming that there were hardly any trees. I would've loved to see it at night for the stars. I am so tired and it's not even 9:30 PM yet.

5/22/09

Emilie felt better but went to a hospital today with an American man here her parents' friend knows and got antibiotics. She thinks she might have mono. The three of us tried to take a taxi there, but he ended up way overcharging us and trying to take us on a tour of the city. So we jumped out of the car in the middle of Bangkok and got another taxi home to our hotel.

It's rained every day here, and it's not even the rainy season yet. So far it's rained after 4 PM. Yesterday our power went out for a half hour while it was raining. Good nap time. Our room is pretty efficient too because there is a key holder by the door that controls the electricity in the room. When you leave, all electricity turns off.

Today for lunch, Bennett and I got an enormous amount of fruit for under 2 USD. It had dragonfruit, kiwi, huge black grapes, regular huge grapes, wax/nose apple slices, and pear. The dragonfruit was disappointing . We also split a crispy shrimp omelet with rice. There's a spicy / sweet red sauce that I've decided is the Thai condiment equivalent to ketchup. The omelet was 1.50 USD and was more like a funnel cake fried omelet. Tasty. I also had a lemongrass and basil seed drink. The basil seeds were like tapioca. I didn't care too much for it. So it cost $3.20 for lunch for 2 people.

We ate in a food court next to a fish-tank. On the tank it said, "Knocking on the aquarium is a considerable disturbance for resident fish." It's so cool to see people eating with a fork and spoon. We made plans to go to Cambodia tomorrow. Emilie's flying back tonight. We leave tomorrow at 7 AM on a bus and should get there around 6ish. It was $63 for a round trip. We have to bring US money there. Apparently they prefer that to the Cambodian riel.

My legs are so sore from walking around so much. In MBK I keep feeling dizzy in some areas because the closeness of everything feels like I am on a plane again.

I've got to say, each day feels so long and full of activities. I can't believe it was still today that we went on the crazy taxi ride AND ate marvelous fruit AND saw dance teams in a competition in the mall. Awesome.

5/21/2009

(I'm typing all this from my travel journal a week late.)

So I made it to Thailand! It feels really cheesy to be writing in a journal, but Jo Mama gave it to me, and it's actually a pretty good idea.

The flights yesterday took forever. Dr. Case was on our flight to Washington DC, and Bill Wormsley (another NCSU professor) was on our flight to Tokyo. Bennett flew on American Airlines just to be spiteful. They fed us so much food on the Tokyo flight--2 full meals and over three snacks. Somehow I had the window seat on all 3 flights. The one to Tokyo was 14 hours of continuous sunlight, but they had us close the shades for a few hours.

The seats had individual screens where we could watch movies and play games. Oceans 11, Inkheart, Bride Wars, Yes Man, etc. There was also a mode to see where the plane was on its path. Very cool.

Emilie and I sat around 40 minutes waiting for Bennett and Dr. Case in the Bangkok airport, then we came to the Reno Hotel. The 3 of us are all in one room--1600 baht or around 50 USD a night.

Emilie's feeling sick (possibly SwInE fLu!!!11!), so Bennett and I explored MBK, a mall next to the Reno Hotel. They sell knockoffs of a decent quality for very cheap. It's HUGE, but so is every mall here. Like 6 cram-packed stories.

There's a lot of neat stuff architecture-wise. Enormous art sculptures, round buildings, raised walkways over the streets, Sky Train. Tuktuks are small 3-wheeled open taxis that are plentiful in the streets. In Thailand, they drive on the opposite side of the road. I feel like so far I'm handling the time change pretty well. I think it's like 5 or 6 AM in the US, and I'm not horribly sleepy.

Breakfast this morning was tasty --> scrambled eggs, toast with butter and strawberry jelly, coffee, and fresh pineapple. Bennett and I found a place that's like the awesomest Harris Teeter plus Fresh Market but Thai. Oh and we also had super delicious pad thai for lunch. It cost under 1 USD. We had the same thing but with a Thai iced tea for dinner.