Week 8; So much has been done....

water taxi traveling

Starting with the beginning of the week, Sunday, I decided to do some exploring where it is best if you do it solo; museums. Setting my sights on the National Museum and National Gallery, I decided that I would go way out tourist and take a water taxi along the river to get to pier next to the gallery. And wow, everyone else seems to have the same idea. Unfortunately the water taxis do not come as often as I had hopes (twice an hour) and as a result, the boat does feel more like a bus in the sense that you are standing and being jostled around, with the difference that you get the occasional spray of water. However, it was a lovely hot morning and the sights from the river made the trip.

The National Museum was by far the highlight of the day and had a little bit of everything. Joining me on my trip to the museum was about 200 Thai army cadets all in uniform. They were so super cute, like little kids in dress up, following around their commanders and listening to the tour guides. The museum turned out to be filled with ancient art and many differing Asian periods and styles and I enjoyed a morning to myself just wandering, sitting, eating pat thai with little army cadets. Luckily so, because the National Gallery, was such a let down. To give a comparison, it took me perhaps 3-4 hours to do the Museum and an hour for the Gallery, which was stretching it.
My take on Thai history from my day, is that it is not exclusively 'Thai'. If you look through pictures on facebook, you can see that there are many statues and others such relics that are from everywhere. Indonesia, Cambodia, India, you could see it all in this one museum and yes, all at one time had been found in Thailand. Although I would have liked to have seen more art-ish things, like frescos, etc, what was displayed was still impressive.

This week at work felt slow and was definitely hard to get into. A highlight was on Wednesday, when a group of us interns had to attend the safety and security debriefing at UN Bangkok Headquarters. After hearing rumors of the debriefing discussions and the amazing food at headquarters, I can say it is all true. The head of UN Thailand security, a large Jamaican woman scared the bejesus out of a lot of us by showing us photos of the past 10 years of UN (and other associated) buildings that had been blown up and of the personnel who were killed and how they died (most being "blown to pieces"). Also shown was the immediate dangers to us here in Thailand. I am 100% sure that although it is just part of the lifestyle of Thailand, I will never get onto a motorcycle taxi. Also I will never do; hold my purse by my forearm, always over the shoulder in front of you, ladies. As demonstrated by recent CCTV footage of a UN employee being mugged outside a 7-11. Although the woman was dragged along the ground for some meters, it was quite a tame mugging, and along with the fact that another intern in the APPEAL unit went through the same thing last week, the message definitely got through; don't wear your handbag on your arm.
On a lighter side of the trip; the UN building was pretty awesome and puts UNESCO to shame (along with the awesome employee canteen). Although it was not the point of the trip, it was still pretty amazing, with hidden nooks and crannies all through the courtyard, and the international vibe in the atmosphere was almost addictive. So many people from so many places discussing 'the big issues'.

On Friday, another highlight, and unexpected trip to the Quality Learning Foundation's (QLF) forum on Youth Unemployment (and therefore indirectly about development) and was great as I am hoping to do my thesis in these subjects. Although the conference was small, it was in quite an amazing venue, and I was given a translator ear piece that was connected to two translators in a little booth in the back. Listening to two voices simultaneously required even more attention than simply trying to take in the content. I even raised my hand to speak and give input (for some reason, nerve-wracking), and heard myself translated into Thai, trippy. I am glad for the experience though, the material was extremely relevant to my interest, in a general sense, but was happy to give it a contextual framework. Next week I plan on moving apartments to a little more nicer apartment and safer area, giving acupuncture a go, and looking at the old capital of Siam, Ayutthaya.