like an entire month.
for info on all of the journeys.. well the majority of them.. during the period that i haven't written here, check out my other blog.
i'm just going to write a quick update on the current state of.. well.. life in thailand..
and then i'll update this better when i return from koh chang.
the pollution has dramatically cleared up. i have an almost perfect view of the mountains out of my window.. when it had previously been nearly impossible to tell that a mountain was there at all.
it feels like hell outside. it's at least in the mid nineties every day, and it feels much worse without that disgusting layer of smog hiding the sun.
it's songkran, the thai new year, a hell in it's own fun way. if you go out into the city, you automatically get drenched. everyone has buckets of water, usually from the mote or full of chunks of ice, so you're either being covered in filth or freezing to death. the actual water fight is tons of fun, of course. what's better than a city wide water fight? of course, we were all expecting to have dysentery from the mote water (this apparently is very common). i am glad to say i have yet to show signs. during the 7 days of songkran, more people die in thailand (due to drunken motorbike accidents, mostly) than any other time during the year.
if you've been reading the news, you probably know that bangkok is the land of protests. we're not sure exactly what's happening, though the latest news is that the protesters are giving up as i write this.
as i said earlier, my friends and i plan to go to koh chang (elephant island!) later today. this will require a flight to bangkok and then an hour taxi ride to a bus station. we're a bit worried about making it to the bus in time due to the barricades, though since we're traveling at night, we think it will be okay.
nothing has said it's too dangerous to fly into bangkok, and all the airlines are still flowing smoothly. we really don't feel at risk as we're not going to march in wearing red, yellow, or dark blue shirts. of course, there's always the chance that we end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. not going would be a good way to avoid the possibility of that happening. at the same time, chiang mai is home to the former prime minister, so honestly, it's probably safer for us to be on an island than here if anything further were to happen.
plus, come on, it's our only break, and we really need one!
after this week, we have about 3 weeks of classes, then finals, and the semester is over. it's gone a lot faster than i expected.
i will be making one more trip for my ipsl class next weekend. we're going to mae sot, a town on the border with burma, since we're studying border relations and human rights and such.
i will definitely post about that trip.
that's all for now.
in a
jumbled quick post.
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