As with my last post, I have to apologize for going so long between updates. Between working at Citylife and spending time with FFA friends, I have had zero time for anything else. The fact that I remembered to jot down notes of what I've been up to is impressive to me.
Let's backtrack to three Mondays ago, when Lindsey, my fellow magazine intern, and I went to the night safari outside of town to do some preliminary investigation on a possible story. The story didn't happen as there were other higher priority things to be done, so it really was just a trip to see some exotic animals at night. I felt bad that these animals were in confined places (relative to the amount of space they would have in the wild), but was kind of delighted by the sight of giraffes, especially when they walked over to the tram and stuck their heads in. Not surprisingly, the animals are completely domesticated and associate the night safari tram with food. I would post some photos, except my camera totally sucks in low-light conditions and all my shots were blurry. This entire trip has been great for exposing the weaknesses in my camera setup. When I get back to the States, I need to upgrade my body (possibly to the new Canon 70D) and my lens (to something with a longer zoom).
The following day, there were festivities in town for the king's upcoming birthday, which is a major deal in Thailand. All the Thais I've talked to really revere him; he's been the face of the nation while it has grown and become more developed and successful in recent decades. Honestly, I don't know much about the man or his politics, but he has a nice grandfatherly look, so, sure, I like him too. Plus, on the 1000-baht bill, there's a sketch of him with a camera around his neck, so clearly he's a good guy.
The parade had Thais from all walks of life, lots of traditional dress, lots of colors, and, oh yeah, a couple elephants in downtown Chiang Mai. No big deal. After the parade was the national anthem (also a very big deal here) and then a few hours of music and dance performances.
The next day was the sixth annual Smile Party, a late-night party by the lake that I'd describe as "Diet Full Moon". Some local bands played on the main stage, DJs spun for a crowded dance area, people lounged on the ground and smoked shisha, and, like any good outdoor farang party in Thailand, there was the requisite fire poi and neon face/body painting. Unlike the real Full Moon, no one got overly drunk or too shitty to the point of pissing in the lake or passing out on the ground. Maybe white people in Thailand are capable of partying responsibly!
The following day was the actual king's birthday, a national holiday in Thailand, so we all had off from work. After sleeping off the previous night and watching some of the birthday ceremonies on TV with the FFA staff, I grabbed my camera and wandered the city for a while. Normally, when I go to a new place, this is one of the first things I do so I can get my bearings and get a feel for the place, but with everything that was going on, I just didn't have time. During my afternoon ambling, I came across a unique place that a friend had told me about a week or two prior: the Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Institution. They have a cafe, shop, and massage center that is staffed by female ex-prisoners who are trying to re-enter society. The massage portion is so busy that you have to make a reservation, which is unheard of in Thailand. I was able to get the last spot of the day and treated myself to a very nice foot massage, made even better than usual with all the lights turned down low and a warm, fuzzy blanket thrown across me. The man next to me passed out two-thirds of the way through and started snoring; a woman behind me legitimately yelped (twice!) during the more active parts of her Thai massage, causing all two dozen people (employees and clients) to burst out laughing. On a serious note, it's a great place and a really worthy cause and I can't recommend it enough. Go early in the day though; I went over there yesterday around 2:00 and they were already full for the rest of the afternoon.
One last interesting note about the king's birthday: alcohol sales are prohibited for the day, so bars and restaurants can get in trouble if the "boys in brown" decide to pay a visit, unless the place pays off the police (don't forget, this is Thailand!). This whole situation is really funny to me. Aren't birthdays the days where you consume the most alcohol?! I was able to get a couple drinks at a cute guesthouse pub in old city because I was there around happy hour, but the bartender had to stop serving at 6:00 out of fear of the police.
After the usual Friday night activities, including some very aggressive fun at a bar on Loi Kroh that has beer pong (The Playhouse), I spent a good deal of my Saturday afternoon at CNXP, a tech/music/photo conference that will hopefully become an annual event in Chiang Mai. It was portrayed as a much smaller (and obviously much more Thai) version of SXSW and though I've never been to SXSW, I'd say that the description is probably apt. Highlights included seeing a homemade 3D printer in action and a filmmaker's drone that can produce some really stunning Hollywood-worthy HD footage. That night, I wandered back to the aforementioned cute guesthouse pub and spent about six hours with some new friends, eating, drinking, smoking shisha, listening to music, and talking about life while sitting on a patio under the stars. It's funny how often little experiences like that will happen here.
The next day I wandered the city some more before heading off to a Thai vegetarian cooking class. I've never had any interest in taking a cooking class because I wouldn't be able to eat most of the food, but once I stumbled upon May Kaidee's class on TripAdvisor I didn't have any more excuses, so I signed up. I know reading about food is not that exciting, so I'll keep it brief: I was the only student, we made 14 dishes in 3 1/2 hours, everything was incredibly delicious, and my appreciation for Thai food has increased immensely now that I see how simple and easy it is to prepare it. Given that I was the only student, there were leftovers for days. Also: pumpkin fucking hummus. I'm really excited about cooking lots of Thai food once I settle back down in the States.
The next several days were filled with going-away festivities for those volunteers who were leaving Chiang Mai, a very entertaining trip to a fish spa, another birthday celebration, more wandering around old city, going to the hospital to visit a couple friends who had some bad food poisoning, and another day off from work due to another holiday (Constitution Day).
One of the more interesting stories of the week was numerous sightings of a Hollywood movie shoot that has been going strong in Chiang Mai for a few weeks now. The film is called The Coup and stars Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, both of whom have been seen around town at various places (Owen more so). On Tuesday and Thursday night of last week, the production built a set and shot various action sequences on the streets around my FFA guesthouse. Some of the Tuesday night shots were directly in front of the guesthouse, so my roommates and I grabbed beers and watched from our balcony for a while as the cast and crew worked right below us.
(Editor's note: the film was later renamed to "No Escape", probably to avoid controversy since a real military coup happened in the country about five months after this blog post was originally published.)
The Thursday night shoot was a bit down the street from the guesthouse and more action-oriented. When I came back from the bars around 1:30, I was greeted by multiple takes of Owen's stunt double running down the street and out of sight with his on-screen family, followed by half a minute of muffled noises, followed by a gunshot, followed by a man yelling in pain. Around 2:00 I went to bed, but was kept awake by gunshots and the sounds of Pierce Brosnan's screams. If I had a dime, amirite? I finally dozed off, but a little while later, maybe around 4:00, both my roommate and I were awoken by a spectacular noise that sounded like an explosion, which I later learned was a car crash scene. Let me tell you, that's one hell of a sound to jolt you out of sleep. After that, the workers tore down the set while listening to loud Thai rock music, which kept me up even longer. It was definitely one of the more interesting ways I've lost sleep in my life, but I'll allow it this one time.
The weekend was filled with many more going-away trips to bars and restaurants and even a flag football game at CMU (this CMU, not that CMU). My one-month internship completed, I handed over the keys to the FFA guesthouse and moved into a new place by myself. Even though I had spent the first 3 1/2 months of the trip traveling by myself, it felt weird to be alone again after spending four weeks in a setting that felt a lot like freshman year of college. It might be a little while before I'm fully used to this style of traveling again.
Overall, the internship was everything I wanted it to be and I'm immensely happy I did it. I was able to contribute as a photographer (and work on my photo editing skills a bit) and also as a website consultant, though not really as a web developer. My responsibilities as a member of the web team ended up being more research-oriented and my biggest contribution there was researching various aspects of WordPress that Citylife will need to understand before overhauling their web presence. Though the internship is officially done, I will hopefully continue to contribute to the magazine and the website in a freelance capacity by submitting photos and/or stories as my creativity allows.
While reflecting upon my brief time working in Thailand, I realized that I had learned two things:
Let's backtrack to three Mondays ago, when Lindsey, my fellow magazine intern, and I went to the night safari outside of town to do some preliminary investigation on a possible story. The story didn't happen as there were other higher priority things to be done, so it really was just a trip to see some exotic animals at night. I felt bad that these animals were in confined places (relative to the amount of space they would have in the wild), but was kind of delighted by the sight of giraffes, especially when they walked over to the tram and stuck their heads in. Not surprisingly, the animals are completely domesticated and associate the night safari tram with food. I would post some photos, except my camera totally sucks in low-light conditions and all my shots were blurry. This entire trip has been great for exposing the weaknesses in my camera setup. When I get back to the States, I need to upgrade my body (possibly to the new Canon 70D) and my lens (to something with a longer zoom).
The following day, there were festivities in town for the king's upcoming birthday, which is a major deal in Thailand. All the Thais I've talked to really revere him; he's been the face of the nation while it has grown and become more developed and successful in recent decades. Honestly, I don't know much about the man or his politics, but he has a nice grandfatherly look, so, sure, I like him too. Plus, on the 1000-baht bill, there's a sketch of him with a camera around his neck, so clearly he's a good guy.
The parade had Thais from all walks of life, lots of traditional dress, lots of colors, and, oh yeah, a couple elephants in downtown Chiang Mai. No big deal. After the parade was the national anthem (also a very big deal here) and then a few hours of music and dance performances.
The next day was the sixth annual Smile Party, a late-night party by the lake that I'd describe as "Diet Full Moon". Some local bands played on the main stage, DJs spun for a crowded dance area, people lounged on the ground and smoked shisha, and, like any good outdoor farang party in Thailand, there was the requisite fire poi and neon face/body painting. Unlike the real Full Moon, no one got overly drunk or too shitty to the point of pissing in the lake or passing out on the ground. Maybe white people in Thailand are capable of partying responsibly!
The following day was the actual king's birthday, a national holiday in Thailand, so we all had off from work. After sleeping off the previous night and watching some of the birthday ceremonies on TV with the FFA staff, I grabbed my camera and wandered the city for a while. Normally, when I go to a new place, this is one of the first things I do so I can get my bearings and get a feel for the place, but with everything that was going on, I just didn't have time. During my afternoon ambling, I came across a unique place that a friend had told me about a week or two prior: the Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Institution. They have a cafe, shop, and massage center that is staffed by female ex-prisoners who are trying to re-enter society. The massage portion is so busy that you have to make a reservation, which is unheard of in Thailand. I was able to get the last spot of the day and treated myself to a very nice foot massage, made even better than usual with all the lights turned down low and a warm, fuzzy blanket thrown across me. The man next to me passed out two-thirds of the way through and started snoring; a woman behind me legitimately yelped (twice!) during the more active parts of her Thai massage, causing all two dozen people (employees and clients) to burst out laughing. On a serious note, it's a great place and a really worthy cause and I can't recommend it enough. Go early in the day though; I went over there yesterday around 2:00 and they were already full for the rest of the afternoon.
One last interesting note about the king's birthday: alcohol sales are prohibited for the day, so bars and restaurants can get in trouble if the "boys in brown" decide to pay a visit, unless the place pays off the police (don't forget, this is Thailand!). This whole situation is really funny to me. Aren't birthdays the days where you consume the most alcohol?! I was able to get a couple drinks at a cute guesthouse pub in old city because I was there around happy hour, but the bartender had to stop serving at 6:00 out of fear of the police.
After the usual Friday night activities, including some very aggressive fun at a bar on Loi Kroh that has beer pong (The Playhouse), I spent a good deal of my Saturday afternoon at CNXP, a tech/music/photo conference that will hopefully become an annual event in Chiang Mai. It was portrayed as a much smaller (and obviously much more Thai) version of SXSW and though I've never been to SXSW, I'd say that the description is probably apt. Highlights included seeing a homemade 3D printer in action and a filmmaker's drone that can produce some really stunning Hollywood-worthy HD footage. That night, I wandered back to the aforementioned cute guesthouse pub and spent about six hours with some new friends, eating, drinking, smoking shisha, listening to music, and talking about life while sitting on a patio under the stars. It's funny how often little experiences like that will happen here.
The next day I wandered the city some more before heading off to a Thai vegetarian cooking class. I've never had any interest in taking a cooking class because I wouldn't be able to eat most of the food, but once I stumbled upon May Kaidee's class on TripAdvisor I didn't have any more excuses, so I signed up. I know reading about food is not that exciting, so I'll keep it brief: I was the only student, we made 14 dishes in 3 1/2 hours, everything was incredibly delicious, and my appreciation for Thai food has increased immensely now that I see how simple and easy it is to prepare it. Given that I was the only student, there were leftovers for days. Also: pumpkin fucking hummus. I'm really excited about cooking lots of Thai food once I settle back down in the States.
The next several days were filled with going-away festivities for those volunteers who were leaving Chiang Mai, a very entertaining trip to a fish spa, another birthday celebration, more wandering around old city, going to the hospital to visit a couple friends who had some bad food poisoning, and another day off from work due to another holiday (Constitution Day).
One of the more interesting stories of the week was numerous sightings of a Hollywood movie shoot that has been going strong in Chiang Mai for a few weeks now. The film is called The Coup and stars Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, both of whom have been seen around town at various places (Owen more so). On Tuesday and Thursday night of last week, the production built a set and shot various action sequences on the streets around my FFA guesthouse. Some of the Tuesday night shots were directly in front of the guesthouse, so my roommates and I grabbed beers and watched from our balcony for a while as the cast and crew worked right below us.
(Editor's note: the film was later renamed to "No Escape", probably to avoid controversy since a real military coup happened in the country about five months after this blog post was originally published.)
The Thursday night shoot was a bit down the street from the guesthouse and more action-oriented. When I came back from the bars around 1:30, I was greeted by multiple takes of Owen's stunt double running down the street and out of sight with his on-screen family, followed by half a minute of muffled noises, followed by a gunshot, followed by a man yelling in pain. Around 2:00 I went to bed, but was kept awake by gunshots and the sounds of Pierce Brosnan's screams. If I had a dime, amirite? I finally dozed off, but a little while later, maybe around 4:00, both my roommate and I were awoken by a spectacular noise that sounded like an explosion, which I later learned was a car crash scene. Let me tell you, that's one hell of a sound to jolt you out of sleep. After that, the workers tore down the set while listening to loud Thai rock music, which kept me up even longer. It was definitely one of the more interesting ways I've lost sleep in my life, but I'll allow it this one time.
The weekend was filled with many more going-away trips to bars and restaurants and even a flag football game at CMU (this CMU, not that CMU). My one-month internship completed, I handed over the keys to the FFA guesthouse and moved into a new place by myself. Even though I had spent the first 3 1/2 months of the trip traveling by myself, it felt weird to be alone again after spending four weeks in a setting that felt a lot like freshman year of college. It might be a little while before I'm fully used to this style of traveling again.
Overall, the internship was everything I wanted it to be and I'm immensely happy I did it. I was able to contribute as a photographer (and work on my photo editing skills a bit) and also as a website consultant, though not really as a web developer. My responsibilities as a member of the web team ended up being more research-oriented and my biggest contribution there was researching various aspects of WordPress that Citylife will need to understand before overhauling their web presence. Though the internship is officially done, I will hopefully continue to contribute to the magazine and the website in a freelance capacity by submitting photos and/or stories as my creativity allows.
While reflecting upon my brief time working in Thailand, I realized that I had learned two things:
- I don't like doing photography as a job. I had already suspected this, but I wanted to test the theory and this internship was a perfect way to do that. I enjoy photography only when it's on my terms and I will keep it as just a hobby.
- I really enjoyed working for a magazine that has a significant "current events" flavor. I'm always interested in new places, events, and stories; with my friends back home and my new friends here, I often take the lead on finding new places to go or things to do. Working for a magazine that keeps its finger on the pulse of a city was a very nice match. I don't know if or how this will play into my future career plans, but it's definitely given me something to think about.
On a more personal note, it was really great to work in a foreign country to observe what was the same and what was different. Normally mundane details like commuting and communicating with coworkers were sometimes more difficult, but the daily culture exchange made it worthwhile. I will definitely be staying in touch with several of the Citylife folks for the rest of my time here.
And with that, the next chapter of Chiang Mai begins. I've got plans for some fun things to do here, but I'm also looking forward to having some free time for myself. I've been terrible about exercising and reading these last couple months and I'd like to get back to a point where I'm doing both regularly. I have lots of other things up my sleeves as well, so stay tuned!
Full photo albums:
Full photo albums:
