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Friday, September 27, 2013

Sisters, Silk, and S'more Ruins

Over a month ago (sorry I'm so late)… Sheila’s sister - Cindy, and a few of her sister’s friends, came to visit her for a few days since this is Sheila’s last year conducting research in Thailand. We had lots of fun while they were here, and the highlight was making a trip to some nearby Khmer ruins known as Phanom Rung. Before that trip though, we had a good time hanging out with them in Sakaerat. Cindy and Bass both work in neuroscience research at a lab in Portugal, which means Sheila doesn't get to see her very often… so this visit was a real treat for her. Gul is also a neuroscientist, but she is based out of a lab in San Francisco. Cindy and Gul worked together in a lab at M.I.T. while Cindy was doing post-doc work there. So, needless to say… they’re all very intelligent, as well as extremely pleasant people. 
Sheila and her sister at Sakaerat
Later that afternoon, we took a trip to the market in Pak Thong Chai as we normally do on Wednesdays to stock up on fresh veggies and other essentials. But first we stopped at a couple silk weaving factories, so that our guests could get some silky souvenirs. Pak Thong Chai (the nearest city to Sakaerat) is famous for being one of the places that produced a huge quantity of Thailand’s exported silk in the 20th century. This fame was mostly a result of ex-pat Jim Thompson buying silk here to sell to fashion houses in Milan, London, and Paris. Today there are still quite a few silk factories in action within the city area.
Silk worms on display at Jim Thompson's house
Mike and I actually got the chance to visit Jim Thompson’s house in Bangkok before the field season started. It was a really interesting place with lots of lush outdoor garden space, traditional style Thai architecture, and many ancient works of art that Thompson collected throughout the years.
One of the many buildings within Jim Thompson's compound
This place reminded me a bit of Hemingway’s home in Key West. Both houses are set in a tropical location with elegant gardens, each of their owner’s chose to settle somewhere out of the ordinary to accomplish extraordinary things, and both places continue to attract hordes of tourists every day. Hemingway and Thompson were also both very different from the average American, with a deep thirst for adventure and a rich history of exploring… the allure surrounding their exotic lifestyles is just as enthralling as their extravagant abodes.
A small part of Jim Thompson's garden
For those of you who don’t know anything about Thompson, here’s a brief synopsis. He was born in Delaware in 1906 and was stationed in Thailand during WWII when he discovered silk and decided to try his luck at starting a business based on this treasured textile. He was very successful, largely because he paid close attention to what styles were desired, and he made sure the product was consistent every time. Thanks to his work, the Thai Silk industry was saved from extinction, and by employing local women he lifted many people out of poverty. To celebrate his success he acquired a large variety of art artifacts throughout his time in Thailand. His home was unique because according to my Lonely Planet guidebook, he “collected parts of derelict Thai homes in central Thailand and had them reassembled in their current location in 1959… and each wall has its exterior side facing the house’s interior, thus exposing the wall’s bracing system.” Our guide at the house told us that Thompson had many pieces of art that no one else in Thailand would want, because they were slightly broken or otherwise asymmetrical, which is considered bad luck in Thai culture.
Our guide telling us about some of Jim Thompson's art collection
By far the most fascinating part about Thompson’s life is the ending. He was on a vacation in the highlands of Malaysia in 1967 when he went for a walk and then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. Many theories abound about what could have happened… perhaps he was taken down by a tiger or a communist spy, nobody knows. I found this information to be very intriguing, and it significantly increased my appreciation for the house. It gave the whole place a captivating ambiance, as if there were still clues here waiting to be discovered.
Come on in...
Anyhow, please pardon that minor detour… I needed a good excuse to share some of those pictures. Now back to our visit to the silk factories in Pak Thong Chai. One of the stores we visited, Matchada Silk, actually had a woman out front weaving silk in the customary fashion which was neat to see. 
A traditional functioning silk loom
Check out this video to see the silk loom in action....


After our visitors had gotten plenty of scarves and other silk stuff, we headed to the market and then to the grocery store to replenish our supply of bread, milk, etc. This time though, while at the grocery store… Bass and Gul were attempting to buy a bit of alcohol for their time here. The thing is, Thai alcohol purchasing laws are very strange and you can’t buy booze between 2-5pm. Sheila was going to stop them, but then the check-out guy informed them they could purchase beer & liquor if they bought at least 10 liters of alcohol in total. So they filled an entire shopping cart with beer, rum, and vodka… and left the store fully weighed down with bottles. Later that evening, they cooked dinner for us which was a real luxury.
Our super supper
Gul is originally from Turkey, so she made some fried zucchini cakes with garlic yogurt as an appetizer… along with fried mushrooms and cauliflower heads. Bass prepared a sturdy concoction of rum and crushed mint leaves for everyone to drink. The main course was shrimp prepared in a typical Portuguese-style garlic butter sauce. All of it was fantastic. After dinner we played a very entertaining form of Pictionary known as "Telephone Pictionary," where everyone writes a sentence on a piece of paper and then passes it to their right and that person then has to illustrate that sentence to the best of their ability. Then they fold down the written the part, and pass the picture to the next person who then has to write a sentence describing that picture. The cycle continues, folding, drawing, writing, folding, etc until the paper reaches the person it started out with, and the result is always hilariously different from the original sentence. Good times!
Telephone Pictionary at it's best!
The fun didn't end there; Sheila’s sister had come bearing gifts… delicious edible gifts. Not only did she bring lots of tasty cheese varieties (a rarity here) and fancy chocolates… but she also brought the makings for the ultimate outdoor dessert: S’mores!
Stuffing my face with gooey goodness
When you’re half-way across the world, nothing helps you feel right at home like roasting marshmallows. This was made possible by the fact that Sakaerat hosts a “bug party” for all the visiting children, typically on Wednesday nights, where they shine bright lights on a white sheet (visible in the background of the above picture) to attract many different varieties of insects. Part of the party includes roasting corn and other treats over beds of hot coals within a series of grills, and then afterwards they lie down on tarps and stargaze.
This guy made an appearance at the bug party
So we simply snuck up to the bug party before the kids got there, and socialized with the women tending the fires while we roasted the marshmallows and gorged ourselves. Everyone knows if you have one, you gotta have S’more! Meanwhile the women prepared a sort of dessert over the fire that is kind of like a sweet, crunchy tortilla. We tried our hand at making a few, and one time later we even brought Nutella to spread on them which was incredible. We shared the Nutella with the Thai ladies, and they were very impressed. I don’t think they’ll ever be the same. After all, Nutella is life-altering.
DIY! (Photo by Tan Ming Kai)
We got plenty of S’mores material from Cindy… which meant we would be frequenting the bug party for many weeks afterwards. Usually we got out of there before the kids showed up, but one time there was an overlap. This picture is from that time… and it illustrates perfectly how popular it is here to wear shirts that have English on them, regardless of what they say.

It's S'more time! You're killin me smalls...
That night I went to bed extremely satisfied. The next day, we had a fairly relaxed schedule. Sheila booked some Thai masseuses for our guests… and so we decided to get a Thai massage as well, we just had to wait until the women were done with Cindy and crew first. The massage was only 200 baht (less than $10) and since I’d never experienced a Thai massage before, I figured I should get one while I had the chance. This was not exactly the kind of massage that you might picture, where someone is firmly kneading your shoulders while you relax. Instead, it was a bit like “someone helping you do yoga while you’re lying down,”… to quote Sheila. Basically, they contorted your body parts into different positions, from your legs all the way up to your head… “stretching” them out in ways I didn't realize I could stretch. Most of the time it was slightly uncomfortable, and occasionally I almost hollered out in pain… but I held it in. After all this woman was easily in her mid-40s or 50s, I couldn't show any signs of weakness. It really wasn't that bad, but it definitely wasn't very relaxing. As part of the process she stood on my butt, and then afterwards she used her elbow to “massage” my upper back… which reminded me a lot of a move I used to use on people while wrestling in high school to put them in extreme pain. Next she used a technique with her fingers to work on my shoulders, which could be compared to a little kid trying to test out his knowledge of pressure points on you. Anyhow, I’m glad I can say that I have experienced a Thai massage, but I don’t think I’ll be getting another one anytime soon. 
Thai torture, err... massage
Later that evening, Taksin took us all out to a restaurant in Pak Thong Chai that specialized in serving all things shrimp. They even had these gigantic river prawns that they grilled up which were pretty good. (Sadly, I've given up vegetarianism while here to experience more of the culture and to remain flexible… there are many times where meatless options aren't available or very few and I can’t afford to go hungry here.) They would also refill your beer glass when it was getting low without even being asked which was fantastic.
Jumbo Shrimp!
The next morning, we woke up early and all piled in a van around 10 am to head east for about 2 hours towards some Khmer Ruins. The plan was to visit Phanom Rung, as well as Prasat Muang Tam, both ancient monuments constructed between the 10th-13th centuries. This was one of the locations that Lonely Planet listed within the top 20 things to do in Thailand, so I was very excited to check it out. Phanom Rung is situated on top of an extinct volcano, and is advertised as the largest and best preserved Khmer Temple in Thailand. Prasat Muang Tam is a smaller temple located at the base of the volcano, only a few kilometers from Phanom Rung. We visited Prasat Muang Tam first.
Sara approaching the entrance to Muang Tam
This was an especially awesome experience that wasn’t RUINed by large crowds. In fact, we were almost the only people there – save for maybe one other couple. According to the sign out front, “Mueang Tam” (it is not uncommon to see the same word spelled 2 or 3 different ways in the same place – as there are no formal rules for translating Thai into English) actually means “the lower city” and was not the original name of this place. It was called this due to its relation to Phanom Rung, which was on top of the hill. The sign didn’t say what the original name was, but it did tell us that the entire complex was believed to be a shrine to the Hindu god, Shiva. The entire complex was surrounded by walls, and at each corner within the center there were four L-shaped pools – which were quite beautiful.
One of the many lily pad filled pools 
Guarding each corner of these serene ponds are miniature five-headed naga statues. A naga is a mythical serpent-like being with magical powers within the Hindu religion. We found very many varieties of naga depictions inside the different Khmer temples we visited, and most of them were pretty impressive. 
One example of a naga statue
At the center of the temple are five prang (a Khmer-style tower) designed to represent the five peaks of Mt Meru – the fabled home of the Hindu gods. This format is apparently also seen at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the mothership of all Khmer temples. Unfortunately, the chief central prang could not be re-built, but nonetheless the scene was still remarkable. The other lasting towers were constructed of brick, and inside they were very dark and cool – a stark contrast from the hot and sunny lawn surrounding them.
The four remaining central towers
On the above the doorways opening towards the center of the ruins, there were very meticulously sculpted depictions of presumably Hindu deities and other figures among ornate flora. The close attention to detail in such a large structure was very impressive.
A lovely lintel
Of course we snapped tons of pictures of each other, photo-bombed each other’s photos, and just generally had a great time. It’s impossible to take too many pictures in a place like this!
Good times!
Soon enough it was time to mosey on, so we piled back in the van to head over to Phanom Rung, the main course for the day. The drive between the two temples was less than 10 minutes. Before exploring further, we stopped for lunch at a small roadside cafĂ© just across the street from the ruins that clearly relied on starving sight-seers to stay afloat. They seemed to be doing quite well though, as most of the tables were filled with touring Thais. After a satisfying lunch of pad Thai, Cindy treated us all to magnificent Magnum ice cream bars. In the sweltering heat, they truly hit the spot. Then we crossed the road towards the temple, and headed down the long cobbled path towards the temple. Bass and Gul stopped for a smoke break for a bit, so Sala (how ‘Sara’ is pronounced in Thai), Rooney (another of Tesco’s nick-names) and I went on ahead. As we were approaching the temple, we passed a large group of school kids that were obviously on a field trip. We walked by them as they were getting a lecture from one of their teachers on a set of stairs leading towards the temple. Suddenly, the rocks began rattling and the lizards ran to hide. We turned around to see a screaming bunch of pink munchkins charging for us like the wildebeests stampeding towards Simba. 
Leading the charge (Photo by Sheila Poo)
We stepped out of the way to let the wave of pink pass by, and then continued peacefully on down the walkway towards the temple. The promenade leading to the main gate of the temple is the best surviving example of this type of typical Khmer architecture in Thailand. The laterite block paved corridor, flanked by sandstone columns with lotus bud tops, led us to a series of earthen terraces. Just like Muang Tam, this monument was dedicated to Shiva. The ancient hill and accompanying sanctuary here are seen as representations of the mountain Kailasa with Shiva’s pantheon, and it symbolizes the center of the universe. While approaching, it was easy to imagine ancient kings and priests parading down the passageway to pay their respects to Hindu deities in this holy shrine amongst the clouds.
The pathway to Phanom Rung
Before ascending up the terraces, we first passed through the primary “naga bridge.” This bridge didn't actually cross over any water; instead it was built to represent the connection between heaven and earth. Of course, the bridge featured more examples of naga statues constructed in the traditional 12th century Khmer style. Even the rails of the bridge were intended to be serpent-shaped. These numerous sculptures (16 to be exact) were facing in four different directions and appeared much fiercer than those at Muang Tam. Clearly they took their job of guarding the entrance to the temple seriously.
A fearsome figure
At the top of the stairs, just before entering the temple walls, we could look out over the rice patty fields far below. The view was truly spectacular. According to my guide book, the top of this retired volcano is approximately 200 m (660 ft) above the surrounding farms. In fact, the name “Phanom Rung” is derived from the ancient Khmer words, “Vnam Rung” which means ‘vast mountain’… an accurate description. The mountains seen in the background are part of the Dangrek Mountain range on the Cambodian border.
"Everything the light touches is our kingdom"
The main entry to the monument was surrounded by a wide grassy terrace with little rocky pools, surrounded by sandstone walkways. There was another Naga bridge here leading to the temple opening built in the same style as the first bridge, only slightly smaller. The central area of the ‘bridge’ was engraved with the eight-petal lotus motif.
The entrance to Phanom Rung
Above the doorway leading to the inner galleries of the temple is another detailed carving, depicting a Hindu hermit. Supposedly, the man is assumed to be an avatar of Shiva as the healer. It has also been referred to as the creator of Phanom Rung – Narendraditya, a descendant of the Mahidharapura dynasty and a possible relative to King Suryavarman II, the creator of almighty Angkor Wat.
A revered recluse
We passed through the doorway into the inner gallery, which was a series of celled-rooms that served as a wall to protect the main tower. A cell wall, if you will. On the inside of this wall, we came to another naga bridge which connected us to the main tower. Similar in design to the previous two naga bridges, these statues were even meaner looking than the first set.
A wolf-like naga head
The bridge led us directly to the main tower, the center of this ancient shrine. It was constructed with pink sandstone in the 12th century. Above the eastern facing door was a Nataraja, which is a depiction of the dancing Shiva. East is the primary direction associated with Shiva, which is why the temple was oriented in this way. The dancing Shiva is believed to represent both the creation and the destruction of the universe, the outcome depended on whether he was in a good mood or a bad mood while he danced. 
A dancing Shiva above the hall to the main tower
Inside the temple we found many more carvings celebrating figures of the Hindu religion, including a small kneeling bull figure designed to represent Shiva’s bull mount, Nandi. This figure was actually a replica of the original, which currently resides at the Phimai Museum.
Shiva's steed 
While inside the hallway leading us towards the main tower, the sunlight shone through the open windows and doors, creating an alluring atmosphere. Supposedly the temple was designed so that at four different times of the year, the sun will shine through all 15 sanctuary doorways at once. Unfortunately our timing was about a month off from this event, but the effect was still stunning. I can imagine the perfect solar alignment would be something truly spectacular to witness.
Rad rays
 On the northeast side of the main tower were a couple brick sanctuaries, well... the remains of them at least. These are the oldest structures in Phanom Rung, built in the 10th century. So please, don't climb on them! :)
Remains of an ancient brick sanctuary
On the left side of the main tower, was a small sandstone sanctuary... built in the 11th century AD. It is known as Prang Noi, or the "Minor Sanctuary."
The "Minor Sanctuary"
While wandering around, we encountered this guy standing stonily still. I stopped to chill with him for a bit. 
Rock on, man!
By far the most impressive part of these ruins was the main tower standing out beautifully against the baby blue sky and fluffy clouds. The blocks that formed the various depictions of Shiva and Vishnu reminded me of one of those puzzles where you have to slide the squares around in order to form an image. The result was striking. 
The main tower at Phanom Rung
To escape the heat for a bit, we wandered over to a laterite builiding that looked a bit like a large brick oven. This structure was known as the "Bannalai" which was a sort of ancient library that was used to store holy scriptures. Currently the only thing it was housing was cool shade and some bats that were also hanging out (haha) here to escape the sun's rays. For being built in the 13th century during the final period of Phanom  Rung's construction... it was in pretty good shape. 
An ancient library building
Soon enough it was time to head home, so we snapped a few final pictures and piled back in the van to go back to Sakaerat. T'was an excellent day ruined! Until next time, Peace Out! 


Monday, September 16, 2013

A Herpy Birthday

Yesterday, Sept. 15th, was my 24th birthday and it was without a doubt one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had! Interestingly enough, this year is the Chinese Year of the Snake – which was also the Chinese year when I was born, in 1989. “Your year” only occurs once every 12 years… and this was the first time I was actually aware of this, thanks to Sheila. I thought this was pretty cool, and especially fitting given that I am surrounded by snakes of all shapes and sizes out here. In fact the day prior to my birthday, a friend of Sheila’s and visiting researcher from Singapore, Mary Ruth, found and caught a few spectacular snakes that I can’t help but share with you. Mary Ruth is studying reticulated python populations in Singapore and has a bunch of snake-snagging experience. Appropriately, one of the snakes she caught to share with us was a baby reticulated python. A fearsome and impressive animal when they’re fully grown, the juveniles are no less magnificent and much easier to handle. Thanks to her elegant snake-handling expertise, we were able to snap a TON of fabulous photos of this cute creature. 
A sssssexy snake
We were basically like the snake paparazzi, snapping loads of pictures every time he moved. It was lots of fun, and after we had all gotten our fill of snake photos and loaded down our memory cards, Mary Ruth released the little guy not far from where she had found him so he could slither away in peace. Later that evening, just as I was bedding down for the night – Mike came in to wake me up and let me know that Mary Ruth had found another snake… this time it was a Blue Krait (Bugarus candidus)! These are easily one of the most dangerous snakes in the jungle… their venom can kill a full-grown man with no problem. Needless to say, I jumped out of bed and hurried to catch a glimpse of this warlock. 
One bite = death
Despite the Krait’s humble appearance, we all knew that this serpent was to be taken seriously. The snake team happened to be driving by while Mary Ruth was flushing the Krait out of the bushes, and they lent her some snake tongs so she could pull it out onto the road and we could snap a few pictures. This guy was a lot less photogenic than the python, and petting him to calm him down was not an option. Constantly squirming to get away, I didn't manage to get too many pictures that weren't blurry. However, I did capture this video of Mary Ruth bagging this snake like a pro. She wasn't just showing off, the snake team wanted to process it as part of their ecological communities study.


The next morning when we woke up to start our survey for frogs at dawn we were in for a big surprise. The upper dam pond, even though it only had a puddle in it, had recently become super active with frogs. Thanks to the girls deciding to go star-gazing one evening… they discovered that our frogs are in fact out in force at the upper dam pond, despite the lack of water. As a result, we have shifted our focus from the lower dam pond to the upper dam pond, and suddenly, we are up to our ears in work. Instead of only working from 4 -5:30 am, we are now waking up around 2:30 and working until around 8:30 or 9 in the morning, sometimes longer depending on the evening. Our new typical schedule involves getting geared up, driving up to the upper dam pond, searching for around 2 hours while catching any gravid (sort of the frog version of pregnant) females and then a male to match with each female we find. Then we head back to the lab where we set up the males and females in tanks and hope they reproduce. Any egg clutches that we find we’ll set up with a time-lapse camera to observe the female’s parental care behavior, the primary focus of this study.
A female hansanae tending to her eggs
The girls whispered “Happy Birthday” to me as they headed upstairs to hit the hay, while Mike and I donned our headlamps and boots. I whispered “Thanks!” back and then we headed towards the truck. Our commute is roughly 15 minutes up the windy road to the top of the hill... and always interesting. We keep our brights on and our eyes peeled for any creatures that we might spot on the roads. Not long ago, we came upon a barking deer … an animal commonly heard here (it’s called the barking deer for a reason) but rarely seen. Anyhow, we didn't see anything that particular morning. As we walked down towards the pond, I couldn't help but smile to myself. It’s not often that people wake up at 2:30 am to go to work and can say that they truly enjoy it… but I couldn't be happier. The frog chorus greeted us like a deafening stadium of fans cheering as their team enters the field. Definitely the most unique start to any birthday I've ever had. We ended up coming back with 11 new pairs, a new record for us. 
The backseat of our truck... filled with baggies of froggies
Only a few days ago, we only had data on 11 clutches that we've housed in the shed… throughout our entire time here. Sheila’s goal for her research was a minimum of 100… and with the field season more than half over, I was beginning to get a little concerned. However as I am writing this, we are presently up to clutch 46, and counting! There are many more frogs currently in amplexus (behavior where the male latches on to the females back so that he can fertilize her eggs as she lays them)… which means more clutches are on the way. We have so many frogs that we have run out of tanks to house them in individually and we had to dedicate two large tanks for holding males and females, separately of course. They are essentially on the waiting list for available rooms. When it rains, it pours!
A glimpse inside our lab... only a few days ago, most of these shelves were empty
Needless to say, my birthday was off to an exciting start. The only downfall of having so many clutches and therefore lots of work to do was that I missed a Skype date with my parents in the morning that I had scheduled about a week prior. At that time, I had expected to be all done with work around 6 am as we had been on previous dawn shifts. So I headed up to the internet porch to try to see if my parents were still awake, but was having trouble getting online. While I was there, Sheila came up to talk to me about plants and show me where I could find the ones we had been using for the tanks… since we had used up all of our previous supply on our new crop of frogs. So I wandered over towards the shed with her, and noticed the latch was undone. Since the shed can only be latched from outside, this usually means someone is inside. I didn't think too much of it though, and opened the door. 

The start to an awesome adventure
Much to my surprise… Sara, Tesco, Mike, and Mary Ruth were all standing there to greet me with a friendly “Herpy Birthday!!” (In case you don’t get it, or worse – think I may need to see a doctor… this pun is based on herpetology, which is the study of reptiles and amphibians.) I was really grateful that they cared enough to go through the trouble to surprise me. Little did I realize at the time, that was only the beginning!

 Sara smiled and said, “We have a letter for you!” I was expecting a nice card with everyone’s signatures and maybe some sort of corny joke…. since I’m constantly bombarding them with horrible puns. What I got was a million times superior. It was the beginning of a treasure hunt!! I can’t possibly imagine anything that I would have rather gotten for my birthday. As these guys know well, I love riddles and at the start of the field season I was constantly getting them to figure what happened to random dead guys with yes or no questions. So this couldn't have been more perfect. I haven’t done a treasure hunt for many, many years… and I was super stoked. The first "task" even rhymed! 

At first I was so stunned and pleasantly surprised that I didn't even realize that this message contained a clue. Although after standing there smiling stupidly for a bit, I reexamined the text (thanks to some helpful encouragement) and then slowly gathered I needed to return to the internet porch. Actually, the last line was a little more in depth than I originally realized (and also part of a silly inside joke) which eventually brought me to Taksin’s office. There I found another clue, and the adventure continued! Each hint was different, ranging from deciphering well-drawn pictures, to riddles in Spanish, and everything in between. I even had to climb one of the towers to get a clue! 

Learning my destiny from a lofty location
The initial note was not kidding about heading all over Sakaerat; I trekked all the way up to the top of the hill to find one of the messages. Thankfully I was able to unscramble the “Damn Doper Pup” clue into “Upper Dam Pond” in order to get one step closer to my prize. With every clue, I was more and more impressed with all the work that these three (Tesco, Sara, and Sheila) had put into making sure I had a special day. They confessed it was just as much fun for them to make it, which I completely believe – I've made treasure hunts for friends before and it’s always a blast. I could tell they enjoyed “watching me ponder” each hint and struggle miserably while my brain slowly kicked into gear, decoding lots of cleverly weaved inside jokes and cute illustrations. Nonetheless, I felt very honored to be on the receiving end of this splendid, extremely well-planned gift. 

 Each clue was even placed inside a miniature plastic Ziploc bag and firmly taped into location, so that this treasure hunt could withstand wind or rain with no problem. These girls were on top of everything. Despite the fact that we were very busy with data clips to analyze and other work, Sheila considered this mission of top importance... what a fantastic boss! If only there was a "RateMyFieldResearchBoss" website... haha. 
Where to next?
Eventually, I found my final clue… and headed towards the upstairs porch to unearth the treasure. When I rounded the corner, I was even more amazed. They had given me beer! But not just a bunch of the beer that we have access to every day at the grocery store, but select different beers from all over the world. WOW! How did they do it?? I was impressed, and absolutely delighted – to say the least.

I'm a very happy camper!
These guys have clearly gotten to know me well! Beer and a treasure hunt, it really doesn't get better than that. It’s crazy to think that I only met these people a few months ago, and yet they treated me like a member of their family… even if I am the crazy older brother that makes weird loud noises all the time and laughs like a maniac. They went above and beyond the call of duty, taking extra care to make sure I had a spectacular day. This really meant a lot, especially since I am on the opposite side of the world from all my other friends and family. And yet, I felt like a little kid again – running through my house looking for a little hidden piece of folded white paper while my neighborhood buddies trailed close behind. 

After asking more about how they pulled this off without me having any idea, they admitted that this project has been over a month in the making! WOW.  I never expect much from a birthday, and honestly I was pretty happy when I got this job and realized that I would be away for the entire month of September. That eliminated having to plan any sort of celebration… I could just go with the flow.

And so I did go with flow, but the whole time I was astounded with how much thought and preparation had gone into creating this lovely stream of events. The next stop on this lazy river of great times was a visit to the nearby local café for lunch, where we ate a delicious and relaxing meal.
Mary Ruth, Tesco, and Sala at lunch
After lunch, we came home and I took a short nap… after all, I had been up since 2 in the morning and running around during the treasure hunt had worn me out. When I woke up, I helped Sheila out in the shed for a few hours… shuffling around tanks to make room for more frogs and recording data on the frogs that we are currently housing. That took us quite a while, and meanwhile the others started cooking dinner, Massaman curry… one of my favorite dishes that I've discovered while here. This was the only part I was ready for, since Sara had asked me a few days ago what I wanted for dinner on Sunday. The meal was even better than I expected since she added lots of lentils this time, and the best part was I was able to pair it with a cold pale ale from Cooper’s brewery in Australia. This was the first time I’d tasted a pale ale (my favorite type of beer) in over 2 months, and it was absolutely out of this world… especially when wed with the slight spiciness of the curry lentils. I was in heaven!
Extremely fulfilling birthday dinner, complete with beer!
The icing on the cake to this fantastic day was, well… the cake. After dinner, Sara and Tesco disappeared for a while… and then returned with a plate full of five different slices of gourmet cakes, each adorned with blazing candles. Apparently they had snuck out yesterday, while I was napping, to go to a nearby restaurant and picked up these scrumptious delicacies. Once more, I was in awe of their dedication and thoughtfulness. Many pictures were taken, and then we all dug in! We each ate a few bites of all the pieces of cake, so as not to miss out on any part of this delectable dessert. 
I had my cake, and ate it too! 
We snapped a few “family photos” to commemorate the special moment. To tell the truth, I usually don’t like to make a big deal about my birthday. In high school I used to go the whole day without telling anyone – I just didn't like to make a scene. In general, I prefer to help someone else celebrate their birthday, that way the pressure is off on how you react to every move… and yet you still get to have fun and eat some cake. So with all that being said, I certainly didn't expect this much from friends that I've only known for a short-time. But clearly, these people are different – and after living and working together for a few months, we've developed an awesome connection and shared many, many laughs. It’s impossible to really express how grateful I am to be working with such great people. I am truly blessed, not only to have such marvelous new friends – but also because I know I have wonderful friends all over the world, and of course an extremely loving and supporting family at home. So thank you ALL, for an amazing day. Just knowing that so many people took time to think of me on my birthday is a fantastic feeling. Thanks for reading… and I hope to have a few more long-overdue blog posts published soon. Until then, Peace Out!
Family Photo
 P.S. If you are so inclined, please send some positive vibes towards my Uncle John (pretty sure I inherited my laugh from him!)... he is currently suffering from some severe health issues after taking a bad fall and also has cancer, so he can use all the help he can get. Thanks!