It’s hard to believe I’m writing this from my room at home in North Carolina and that a few days ago, the group was arriving at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok getting ready to depart Asia.

We found Bangkok to be quite different from anything we had seen yet, even Chiang Mai. We realized quickly that we had been spoiled by the (relatively) clean air, manageable traffic, and easy public transportation of Singapore. Bangkok turned out to be quite a confusing and hectic city, but our hosts from Mahidol University led us through our three day trip without one hiccup.

The first full day in Bangkok we visited Wat Po and Wat Pra Kaew, two huge temples in the heart of the city that were overwhelmingly beautiful and intricate. Despite the heat (and the dress code that did not allow for short pants or bared shoulders), we managed to cover a lot of ground, and we even got to see an emerald Buddha. The evening’s activities included a night bazaar and a fascinating puppet show featuring the story of how Ganesh, a Hindu deity, came about.

The next day was one of my favorite in Bangkok, because we got to visit a temple outside of the city that houses the only female monk in Thailand. Venerable Dhammananda was very welcoming and offered a very interesting and engaging discussion on Buddhism and women’s roles in religion. She had an extremely magnetic personality, and although everyone in the group comes from different backgrounds and religions, we all enjoyed listening to her speak and learning about her life. After our talk with her, we returned to Mahidol University for a cooking lesson, which turned out to be very hands-on and fun! Everyone pitched in to make green curry chicken, Pad Thai, cut fruit, fried rice, and dessert. It was quite the feast, and I’m looking forward to going back over my notes to try and recreate the dishes here at home.

On our last night in Bangkok we spent a lovely evening on a dinner cruise before we all went our separate ways. The next day, a few left early in the morning, and we parted ways with a few more around lunch time. Others we said goodbye to at the airport, and as we made each stop closer to home we lost a few more people until our group was whittled down to a tired bunch that made the final leg of the journey from Texas to North Carolina.

It’s hard to believe that I won’t be spending every single day with those 25 people, and it feels strange to look outside my window and not see tropical trees or the tiles of the PGP foyer roof. While I know that I will see my fellow travelers often at Carolina, I can’t help but think that we have reached the end of something truly unique.

We were all brought together from different backgrounds, with our individual ideas and beliefs and with our own preconceived notions about what we were going to experience. And in the end, our individual experiences became tangled up in everyone else’s, and no matter how different those experiences were, we all share a common bond. It was with heavy hearts that we said farewell to Asia and to each other, but I don’t think I speak only for myself when I say that this summer has left a lasting imprint on me. I am honored and thankful to have had the opportunity to meet so many exceptional people and to have shared the last seven weeks with them.

A big thanks to everyone who made this amazing summer possible: we couldn't have done it with out the support of our donors and everyone back home at UNC, Dan Gold, our professors Andy and Layna, our Singaporean guide Zhiqi, our NUS professors Dr. Quek and Dr. Lockhart, our "T.A." Sarah, as well as countless others who worked hard to help us make the most of our seven week tour of Asia.

Thanks for making this an unbelievable summer!

Olivia

With a change in our daily cuisine from Cheese Prata to Pad Thai, it was clear that we were no longer in Singapore anymore! Leaving Singapore last Friday was bittersweet for many of us, who had begun to call PGP home, and who had no qualms about hopping on the MRT and getting off wherever we fancied. While saying goodbye to our Singaporean friends was difficult, we were glad to put final papers behind us and enjoy traveling! After a few short flights and a bus ride, we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand at our beautiful hotel in the center of town. The Chiang Mai night market was about 100 feet from the entrance to our hotel, and it proved to be an excellent source of evening souveneir shopping, and sufficiently ate up all of our baht! After our first huge and delicious buffet breakfast, we headed to Mae Sa Elephant camp where we paired up and toured the countryside by elephant! The ride was rocky, muddy and quite fabulous, and we all got our fair share of elephant pictures, hugs, and snotty kisses. We spent the rest of the day sampling the various handicrafts of Chaing Mai, watching local artisans make silk, umbrellas, jewels and silverware, and we ended the day off with a dinner at a cultural center where we saw traditional hill tribe performers dance and sing.

The following day we visited the Chaing Mai Zoo and saw live panda bears about five feet away from us, separated from us only by a small moat. They sat casually on benches, munching their bamboo and many of us were surprised at how calm and indifferent they were to our presence. After the zoo we toured the Ancient Lanna Capital ruins and then had the evening to explore the night market. In Chaing Mai there is a special Sunday market, which contained a wide assortment of sights, from rows of people getting traditional Thai massages right on the street, to vendors selling hot green curry and mango sticky rice, which became my favorite Thai dessert!

The following day was my favorite day in Chiang Mai, as it allowed us to see firsthand many of the issues we had been talking about in class for the past six weeks! We started the day off with a visit to two Burmese migrant schools, one for older teens and adults where we listened to a presentation from the founders of the institution. They were very informative, and open to our questions and comments about Burmese migrants, Thai-Burma relations, and the overall Burmese situation. After the presentation we walked to a nearby Burmese migrant primary school and spent about half an hour playing with and talking to the kids with our limited Thai; “Sa wee dee ka (hello)” and “Sabaidee mai (how are you)” combined with the never ending entertainment of digital cameras made the time pass quickly, and many people left with hopes to return back at some point, or at least were provoked to think more deeply about the migrant workers’ situation. Following the Burmese migrant school visit, we heard a lecture at Chiang Mai University by Ajarn Aung Niang Oo, a Burmese political commentator and writer who is very knowledgeable about the Burmese situation, and lectured us on Burmese history, contemporary Burmese politics, and prospects for a democratic future. After discussing political and economic transformations of Southeast Asia as well as learning the history of some Southeast Asian countries that have toyed with the concepts of democracy to varying degrees, our time in Thailand helped us explore many of the topics outside of the classroom in a more hands-on environment, which was really beneficial.

Aside from our daily excursions, we had some time in the late afternoons or evenings to explore Chiang Mai on our own, take “tuk tuks” (a three-wheeled taxi meant for three, but often filled with more), feed the elephants roaming on the streets, and sample a wide assortment of Thai spices and flavors. Our time in Chiang Mai was brief, but packed full of adventurous and unique introductory experiences to Thailand! While Olivia is going to comment more on the Bangkok part of the trip, it would be remiss for me to not thank our hosts at Mahidol University for accompanying us in both the Chiang Mai and Bangkok portions of our Thailand trip, and helping us get a quick but thorough peak into Thai history, culture and traditions.

Our trip came to an end really fast, and our group of twenty five split up yesterday with most people heading back to the states, but Nawsheen off to Bangladesh, Leia back to Singapore for a week, Professor Reynolds to Nepal, Dan, Raley, Carlee and Elaina to Vietnam, and Angela, Elliot and I still strutting around in Thailand for another week! I am sad that our summer as a group has come to an end, but I cannot even begin to describe how much this trip has challenged, educated, and inspired me, and I can say with certainty that we all will return to Chapel Hill in the fall with more stories and experiences than we could have ever imagined.

Welcome to Chiang Mai, Thailand

Bidding farewell to Singapore and continuing reminscing on how much we will miss its chicken rice and prata, we soon found ourself in a new land, a new city: CHIANG MAI, Thailand!The plane does amazing trick, you just board on it, take a short nap, wake up and you are in a new land, new culture,new people and ofcourse new food!Frustrating over the long awaiting lines at the Chiang Mai airport followed by the SEASers excitement over the big size of our luxurious hotel room was a "Welcome to Chiang Mai" experience.
Elephant ride was the first thing we did in Chiang Mai. After the ride, we saw the elephants playing soccer and painting pretty flowers!Who wouldn't want to have a photoshoot with such great species?So the SEAser took pictures with these cool beings, posing differnt poses with them.
After the elephant ride, we went to visit Chiang Mai handicraft village where we visited unbrella making workshop, gems show room, silk and silverware workshop. At night we had dinner at Chian Mai cultural center where the SEASers danced traditional thai dance with thai dancers. We also got a chance to see traditional dances of different tribes of thailand, and all I can say about that is, it was amazing!You have to see it to believe it!

The next day we went to Chiang Mai temples and the zoo. We also visited the lost city!
My most favorite part of the trip was visit to migrant school for Burmese refugees. We went to migrant children's school as well as adult's school. We learned in class about Burma military regime and also about Burmese people. Having the chance to see them and talk to people who have gone through these situations was quite an eye opener. We got to spend arounf fifteen to twenty minutes with the children at the migrant school, but soon we made friends!
After every day trip, we always had time to visit the night market, right across the street from our hotel. And I also went to see thai boxing with Alyzza and Angela, and ask me about it,I have a lot to say.
Chiang Mai also introduced to us beggars and four year olds making living by selling flowers for fifty cents.

Chiang Mai has been a cultural experience for me. A brand new culture, really fascinating! I felt like a total stranger there, and thats what I love about immersion in a new culture!

Nawsheen

The Adventure that Never Ends

This week started off with a busy Monday, going from a quick trip to Haw Par Villa to a lazy afternoon in the Botanical Gardens. The picnic in the gardens, made me feel as though the whole group had just taken a journey into another world. The gardens show just how many different sides of Singapore there really is. This beautiful park is nestled inside of a bustling concrete jungle.

Every day I have done something new, and even more amazingly the others in the group have done numerous other activities. We have all taken advantage of what Singapore has to offer in some way or another. The variety of activities astounds me. At breakfast in the morning, eating prata in the bottom of our student hostel, I love to sit and listen to the things others have done during the previous day and their plans for the next. From concerts to gardens, Little India to the Port Authority the span of interests widen every day. Since our time in Singapore is dwindling down, it gets harder and harder to prioritize and decide on what to do. I have found myself most in awe when I roam through the different areas of Singapore with a small group of people. In Little India, Olivia and I, spent a day looking at the vibrant fabrics, smelling the fresh flowers and listening to the bustle of the afternoon streets. Plus, eating in a restaurant with friendly waiters, who get excited that we are interested not only in the food but in the culture as well. The evening was finished off by purchasing Indian pop music from a local shop. I couldn’t ask for a more fulfilling day. We went to the zoo and night safari, which was so much fun. With monkeys, birds and orangutans passing through the trees over head, it was an entirely new experience. Some even had up close and personal experiences with the lemurs, kangaross and monitor lizards. Sunday afternoon was spent watching the Dragon Boat races at the reservoir, sitting in the shade and cheering the teams on! After the races, Catherine and I went shopping and found ourselves taxiless during one of Singapore's famous downpours!

I continually find myself trying to fit more and more in, in fear that I will have missed some part of the city, or an event in one of the many theaters. My time in Singapore, especially within the last week has been a true adventure, and is coming to an end much too quickly. My hope is that the friendships made here in Singapore with our group and Singaporeans will last and that this experience will ignite the need for travel in others, as it has for me. So not to worry, the adventure will continue!

Until we meet again,

Carlee

Shopping in the rain.

A sunny day and dragon boat races.

Animals at the zoo. The peacock was bueatiful!

The view from the 40th story of the Port Authority, over looking one of Singapore's many harbors.

My Singapore has EvEryTHinG!!!!

So who would have thought there would be a jazz band in Singapore?

I must say Singapore has it all! I thought the chicken rice and prata were my major highlights, but I discovered an experience on Wednesday after our farewell dinner that reminded me of home! A few of us went to the second floor of the restaurant on Wednesday and tapped our toes and snapped our fingers to the familiar rhythms of jazz. My favorite part by far was when they played "Summertime" and the songstress began to scat along with the trumpet solo. It was a bit surprising to me because I didn't expect such music in Singapore. So, as I listened to her beautiful voice complimented by the smooth trumpet and subtle base, I thought about other things I misjudged or didn't realize about Singapore.

Singapore, despite my relatives beliefs, is not China! It is actually a place where you can find a little of everyone’s culture in some way. Walking along the river in Clarke Quay, we saw soooo many shops that resembled Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, British, North and South American culture. I thought it was amazing being able to see so many different outlooks on life. My favorite of all was, however, being able to see how Africans adapted to Singapore. Being an African American, a lot of times when I went places I was asked if I was from Nigeria, South Africa, and even the Congo. It was kind of cool because in America I've never been asked such a question. Being here for this the 6th week in Singapore has really changed my life as I believe it has done for all 25 of us. But in particular I believe the greatest lesson learned thus far from being here is that: "you miss out on things when you judge it". I never would have thought that Singapore would make me feel this safe and comfortable. I also never thought Singapore would have such a diverse group of people and places. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't been awarded this opportunity to go on this trip and see for myself just how great and unique Singapore really is. A lot of decisions can be made because of fear that it may be this or may be that, but I've learned to try it out and go with it because in the end you might be surprised and actually find something that is not so different, but something that reminds you a little of home. I have enjoyed this trip and couldn't possibly ask for a better way to spend my 2008 Summer. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible, especially Barb and Alston!!!!

-Monique Hardin

Singapore, How I WIll Miss You

As our fourth week in Singapore has drawn to an end and our fifth week here has begun, we have all started to feel a bit panicky about our quickly approaching departures. There is so much left to do and so little time to do it all. If you had told me at the beginning of this trip that I would be so reluctant to leave my little room in PGP, or that it would come to seem so much like home, I wouldn’t have believed you. We have all been rushing to see every corner of Singapore, while also getting our school work done and trying to somehow find a little time to sleep in between. It is always entertaining to leave class in the afternoon and see the little trashcan outside the door overflowing with our coffee cups.

Colleen and I have made our own list of things that we must do before leaving Singapore, and we have been working on ticking them off one-by-one as our time here winds down. On Saturday our whole group visited the island Pulau Ubin and enjoyed another afternoon of bike riding. However, to my relief, the bike trail was much milder and the bike seats much more cushiony than those from the Malaysia bike ride. The trip to Pulau Ubin marked our last mandatory activity in Singapore as a group, and now we have the remainder of our afternoons to squeeze in everything on our lists. I have spent many of the past days venturing out with just one or two other people, enjoying not attracting the attention that a large group of 25 Americans tends to receive, as we explored Arab Street, shopped in the markets at Bugis, and visited the Chinese Gardens. And of course, some of my favorite memories are the long dinners in hawker centers, just people-watching and enjoying one another's company.

We are constantly amazed at how much everyone has been doing for us, whether it is enabling us to come on this trip in the first place or planning picnics in the park and Karaoke nights for us. We appreciate it all!

Goodbye lah. (I’ve been working on my Singlish!)

Nisha

Pictures of our Singaporean Adventures:



Haw Par Villa, where we walked through the Taoist 10 Stages of Hell



The Buddhist Temple outside Chinatown



Enjoying one another's company and...eating (a Singaporean pastime)

What I've Learned (Outside of the Classroom)

We're in the home stretch now, here in the closing weeks of our Southeast Asian journey. Time has both flown by and crawled on. Even if we began the trip missing the States, we all know that we'll be missing Singapore soon enough. We have about a week to fit in everything we said we wanted to see here but haven't quite gotten around to yet... It's going to be quite the sprint.

We knocked a few things off the "must see" checklist this week, including the Botanic Gardens, the zoo, and the Night Safari. All of these were even better than we anticipated (and we had pretty high expectations). Since pictures speak louder than words about things like this:



Waterfall at the zoo.


Fire eaters at the Night Safari.


If I had to pick a theme for Carolina SEAS 08 so far, it might be wisdom. Everyone has gained at least a little of it by coming on this trip. We've shared wisdom in the classroom, but also in the Prata Shop, on the MRT, in the parks, and through the late-night conversations about life that just seem to happen around these kind of people. We've challenged each other on the wisdom we've grown up with, and watched what we thought we knew fade into the background of crazy new travel discoveries. We couldn't even escape wisdom in the middle of a mangrove forest in Malaysia:




So, stemming from the theme of wisdom, I thought I'd share a few things that I've learned during my stay here in Singapore:

The humidity here is ridiculous
Even if you don't think you have jet lag, you do
There is a swimming pool in the Singapore airport
Emus will eat cameras
You can get free mangosteins (tasty fruit) if the lady at the market is nice enough and you look pathetic and sweaty enough
Prata Man wants exact change
You can never have too many fried bananas
There is no such thing as a good hair day in Southeast Asia
Little children make everything better
Waking up with the sun in a foreign country is a lovely feeling
So is watching a sunset

Having a digital camera with a zoom feature means that you look slightly less like an awkward tourist taking pictures of random things
Ben & Jerry's ice cream is expensive everywhere
Any kind of food can be breakfast food
EZ Link cards (to use public transportation) really are easy
Karaoke is embarrassing in every language
Egg can be combined with chicken and it can be delicious
Thunderstorms here are INTENSE but refreshing
It is possible to eat a seven-course meal without being able to fully recognize any of the seven courses
Filling out paperwork for student visas is equivalent to the most confusing test you will ever take in your entire life
Bean curd juice is a bad idea
Sunscreen is a good idea
Umbrellas don't work if you don't use them properly and immediately
One temple can have three religions inside of it
Water bottles are essential
Birthdays parties are drastically improved by monkeys
Bowling is the universal ice-breaker

(Patrick can jump really high)
Being sick in another country is no fun at all
If you smile and say thank you, the man who sells duck rice at PGP will love you forever
Any adult in Singapore who is not one of your parents is called "uncle" or "aunty"
Bus rides with 25 loud American students will be deathly quiet at 6am
Mountain biking through a Malaysian jungle when you haven't been on a bike in 10 years is both the best and worst idea in the world
The effectiveness of bug spray entirely depends on the luck of the person wearing it
Street markets are the best place for people-watching of any variety
Otters (and people) can recycle if they are trained properly
Kaya is my new favorite flavo(u)r of anything
Regardless of location, no student will ever truly want to do their homework
Really really do NOT feed the monkeys. Really.



Seriously. Don't feed them.

I hope that gives you a little sense of the daily life we've gotten used to here, and have to depart from far too soon! Thanks to everyone who's been helping us out all along the way.

Peace, love, and durian.

-Maggie