Thursday January 07

New Years Eve was too much fun. We all went downtown for dinner and then went to the park to light off our Kom Loi. Kom Loi is Thai for floating lamp and people light up hundreds of these things and they all fill with hot air and float pretty high up. It's an awesome sight to see. A few get stuck in trees and set them on fire but nobody really seems to mind. The whole city, including our field site is littered with dead Kom Loi. We spent the day before field work began exploring Chiang Mai and checking out Doi Suthep. It's a beautiful temple located in the hills that flank our field site. Myself, Randi, Lee and his family all got blessed by a bhuddist monk who outfitted us all with bracelets. Children perform traditional northern Thai music and dance all around the outskirts of the temple.


Field work has been getting smoother and more productive as students are getting more familiar with the different methods. This is my first time at a field camp too and it has been an interesting cultural experience learning with all the other students. GPSing the last few days has given me the opportunity to get to know some of the students in my group pretty well and exchange cultural questions. I had to fully butcher the Thai language today to learn my numbers through 10 but I think I finally got them down...so I got that going for me.


Here is a picture of Dylan and his surface wave crew getting their gear setup. The surface wave method is definitely one of the more interesting techniques. I'm eager to see the data next week and learn some processing. I'm especially interested to see the gravity data from the archaelogical site at Wiang Kum Kom and to see what's in the subsurface there.

Here is Jeff 'Givin Er' to send some data down the line for the surface wave crew.
I'd like to give a big shout out to Lee Liberty.

-Kyle

First ten days in Thailand

Now that our group has spent our first ten days in Thailand we have gained many cultural experiences. In total, we spent about 19 hours on three different airplanes to make it to Bangkok from Boise. We have been packing our time with different adventures and cultural experiences.

For the first three days we roamed the streets and temples of Bangkok. The city of Bangkok seems to be in constant motion. Even in the middle of the night you can hear cars honking and music playing from the streets. This picture is of one of the Wats (temples) in Bangkok. Each temple is beautifully designed with glass tiles and white and gold colored paint. Any time we entered a Wat we had to remove our shoes as a part of the Thai culture.


We then took a minibus to the island of Koh Chang and spent four days lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, trekking through the jungle, kayaking in a mangrove forest, and touring the island by scooters. This picture is from the top of one of the mountains in Koh Chang. Getting to the top required a hike through the jungle.



After the island, we made it to Ayutthaya (the ancient city of Siam) for a couple of days and explored the old temples, some of which were constructed in the 1330s. This picture is of a few of the numerous Chettis in Ayutthaya.



So far, our trip has been supremely educational and busy. The group has made it to Chiang Mai, where we will be for the remainder of our time in Thailand. The geophysics field session begins in only a couple of days. It is going to be a great experience interacting with the Chiang Mai University students and other students from various parts of the world over the next couple of weeks!

- Randi

We have made it to Thailand

We made it to Thailand last night around midnight. Today, we are off to downtown Bangkok to find our hotel for the next few days and start our adventures. The weather is warm and humid; complete opposite of Boise!

-Randi

With only a couple of weeks of equipment and travel preparation left we are getting very excited for our trip to Thailand! Over the next several weeks, a group of graduate and undergraduate geophysics students will use this blog to share our international experiences. The field session, which will be held in Chiang Mai, begins on January 1st, 2010 and runs until January 15th, 2010.

Many of us will be fortunate enough to do a little traveling in Thailand before arriving in Chiang Mai and as a group we will share of our adventures in Thailand through this blog. We hope you enjoy!

If there are any questions, please send them to: gwb.thailand@gmail.com.

- Randi Walters