Minority Rights Training in Mae Sot: May 2 to 5 2008

Laura and I did a free agent human rights training session in Mae Sot, focusing on ethnic minority and indigenous peoples rights. It was the best thing ever. Teaching former rebel soldiers about human rights is WILD. Talking about rights to those who have just learned what a human right is after their people have been waging an armed rebel movement for decades. WOW. This is the classroom.

Teacher RA RA. Teaching the "Road Map of Oppression"



During break....breaking boundaries... girls don't squat with boys.

GUN TALK

Songkran: Thai New Year

For the Thai new year, which is also a country-wide water fight, Laura and I went to Chiang Mai in the north, then to the West, to Kampaeng Pet where my Thai boyfriend lives, then further west to Mae Sot, on the Thai Burma border. Here's a pic of the Pa-o temple (a minority in Burma) in Chiang Mai.

A shot of Kampaeng Pet by Laura. It is what Thais call "baan nok".... something like red-neck country life. Indeed. During new years these boys would get up at like 6: 30 am like it aint no thing and start drinking. drink all day. go to bed at like 2 am. Then do it again.

We went to this waterfall with boyfriend and family....I'm the small red-skirted one on the right.

This is Nee. She is the best thing ever.

During election times, trucks like these are used to go around and shout about various candidates. During off times, the trucks just go around blasting music, then they hook up the kareokee and its a rolling party. They start at 6:30 am.

In Mae Sot.... the water fight was in full force. Avoiding water barrages is impossible. I can't believe Laura managed to get this pic without getting douched.

New Room

We switched apartments but it is the same neighbourhood I've been living in for the last 1yr and a half...a Thai Muslim enclave.

Klong

Here is the shot of the canal (klong in Thai) by my old apartment. You can take a boat taxi or hang out with meth addicts.

Amazon in BKK

Sometimes I feel like an Amazonian woman in Thailand...huge and fierce compared to Thai girls. This is a shot by FORUM-ASIA's new office, but I no longer work there.

From the heart of Burma

He's back. He's alive. My friend who does human rights organising in both Thailand and Burma, was in Burma for five months. He suprised us at our apartment and we nearly died from excitement....what else were we to do but take him to the beach for the first time ever?

Thanks to all those who helped fundraise to help him along his way... helping conflict orphans and those in serious need of access to healthcare, virtually non-existent in the country.

MORE MORLAM

Laura and I went to Udon Thani in the North East for a four-day holiday. Luckily we met some gay boys at a bar called Drunk It, which of course we picked based entirely on its name. We showed up at the temple fair at 12:30 am and got to shimmy-it all night. The only thing in Thailand that goes to 5:00 am (if it doesn't involve old white men and Thai girls). There was lots of drinking and a heavy police presence, but all good fun.

Haze

Okay, I'll admit, Bangkok is smoggy and hazy. BUT, the smog ratings are often equivalent to Cambridge, ON. Not kidding.

Hood from Adam's Balcony

Shot of the mosque: I wake up to the muezzin doing the call to prayer. Love it.

New Years Eve 2008

For New Year's, Laura and I were supposed to be in Ko Lanta, but we decided to fly back to Bangkok early for work etc. So we ended up on Kao San Road, an international mash atrocity, filled primarily with Europeans. But on new years some boys from the country had obviously come to the city to party, dancing mor lam style to Euro-trance in the street. Hilarious! Frightening!

so these boys wanted to take pictures with us....their shirts are of old school punk bands, but they don't know their music. Bangkok has a huge indy t-shirt printing scene, many original, many rip-offs of old North American shirt designs. You'll see little old ladies wearing Exploited shirts..pretty funny. These boys are about as non-mainstream as you get in Bangkok. Not much of a alternative scene here, I think cuz people are more concerned with getting out of poverty than looking cool. The kids that are into Western music are largely spoiled brats that have access to that type of thing (through internet mostly). The dude's acid wash jean jacket made my night.

Krabi / Ko Lanta

Went to Krabi and Ko Lanta for the Christmas holidays. So fun. So spoiled.

the Restourant

The Restourant: a karaoke/gambling joint/ restaurant down my street. View from patio outside.



A tuk tuk.....a mini-truck....my main form of transport

Laos x 2

See the mounds of sticky rice? I think sticky rice (cow niao in Thai) is one of the best things in the world. Here we are eating by the great Mekong river. Sticky rice was see as a nationalizing force, an unifying aspect of culture, and was banned in Cambodia.

Buddha park....the brain child of a recluse Laotian....
Laos is still a communist state, but is more appropriately known as post-communist. They are "liberalising" their economy, following the lead of Vietnam, ie. opening it up to the international market. Any dissenting voices against the government, however, are still strictly repressed.

Kings Birthday # 2

Gathering and procession by the King's Palace.

After the ceremony, a huge Luk Thung / Mor Lam performance.

This is what we call getting "dirt pitted"...cuz it's just a giant open field and all the boys want to be your boyfriend...but they are so passive that they won't do more than grab your hand or tell you they love you.
After the show we watched a dude get a traditional Thai Buddhist tattoo. Painful.

Hood Morning

Here's my street. We live at the end of a road, beside a transport canal. Our apartment is on the left.
Here's the ice factory. Ice boys are hot, because they lug giant bags of ice around the city.

This is the migrant workers housing. It is a big complex housing about 500 people in a tiny little space. The majority are from Burma, working both legally and illegally in the country, usually in construction, an extremely dangerous and unregulated industry; even the legal ones have hardly any rights, but it is better than living in the conflict zones in Burma, where the military attacks ethnic minority areas, raping and pillaging, forcing the people to be slave labourers.
Usually, I buy bananas for breakfast. The ladies at this stall are particularly unpleasant.

Laura buys bbq chicken, from one of about five different sellers. We call this dude Happy, cuz he's always smiling ('cept here).
This wall encloses what we call the vortex....There's something weird going on it there...I almost got hit by a sliding motorcycle on that corner...

Corner of street to work, other side of vortex. Except now we moved offices and are in a real business district... :( I guess DeeJay Domination is the best DJ in Asia.....