fun with friends in february

after dropping liz off to the airport, i returned to our studio feeling that it was strangely empty and quiet. we have been living in quite close quarters the past ten days, and i haven't really had a moment alone, so it's easy to forget what it's like to be by yourself. it reminds me of college when people are moving out but you're still around, or after honors exams at swarthmore and not having ANY assignments to do.

liz has been *much* better about blogging through her thailand adventures, but i have semi-good excuses (work, etc.) so i won't try to go into as much detail as she did over the past week, but will try to capture some of the highlights.

movies:
we watched lots of them. some i'd already seen before, but some were new. in the theater, we saw Final Score, a movie that followed a group of 11th grade guys at Suankulab School in Bangkok the year before graduation (also the year of entrance exams). It was funny, realistic, and actually really good! I enjoyed it and am very thankful that we don't have to take entrance exams (of this magnitude) in the States....and happy that other things besides test scores count.
other movies we watched in the past few weeks: thank you for smoking, talladega nights, ice age 2, nine lives, monster house, cars, the breakup, a winged migration, and this film is not yet rated.

movie-like shows:
simon cabaret (see liz's blog for this one). i think phuket's is better, but it was still fun. going with the transgender/transsexual theme, we also saw part of a drag show contest/charity fundraiser titled 'Miss Queen of Chiang Mai' for Valentine's Day at the Night Bazaar last night.

national parks:
Day trip with Gig to Doi Inthanon (we also stopped at Baan Tawai, a handicrafts market similar to JJ weekend market in Bangkok on the way). Doi Inthanon featured beautiful waterfalls, two matching chedis and gardens built for the King and Queen's 60th birthdays housing relics of the Buddha, and the highest point in Thailand.

Weekend camping trip with Gig and Aum to Jae Sorn National Park in Lampang. Along the way, we stopped at Carrefour, ate at the food court though (buy 200 B, get 300 B free on the weekends), and drove through Bo Sang, the umbrella making district of Thailand. The camping facilities at Jae Sorn were great and we were able to camp in an isolated spot near a stream filled with frogs and have essentially our own private bathrooms. Like many other northern national parks, Jae Sorn featured hot springs, and we were able to get the guard to open a large public bath for just the five of us after dark. The ladies also enjoyed an hour-long traditional Thai massage while the guys soft-boiled eggs in the hot springs and set up camp. Camp food featured the ever-popular ramen (Mama), kao tom (Thai rice porridge with pork), omelets, & fried chicken.

On the way back from Lampang, we spent a few hours at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center and Hospital (the only one of its kind in SE Asia). We arrived right after a show had started, so had to wait for the next one. Gig was unhappy because all the food in the center was overpriced (and not very yummy); we tried to pacify him (and ourselves) by eating ice cream after a disappointing meal. Highlights of this trip included watching a traditional elephant show featuring elephants helping people log, elephants bathing with the help of their mahouts (or elephant handlers), and feeding elephants sugar cane. Because we were there so early, we also got to hang out and watch elephants eat and do their thing while waiting in open stables. I read some USMLE Step 2 Secrets, but need to get back into the groove of studying again since I haven't touched it since then :).

Farang food:

Liz and I enjoyed a Valentine's day brunch at Pie Sabai, a small outdoor garden bistro that Ben introduced Chris and I too last month. We attended the monthly 'Ladies Lunch Brunch' which I found out about through Chiang Mai Expat online magazine and it ended up being a lot of fun. We were the youngest people there by at least a decade or more, with most of the ladies in attendance being of retirement age (or close to it). We had a great Italian themed-meal, enjoyed tropical fruit punch, and had interesting conversations with other Americans, including an art history emeritus professor and author who was a Smith grad. On the way home, we also stopped for a 99 baht hourlong foot massage outside Wat Umong and explored the temple grounds. It was the first time I've been there when there hasn't been anyone else in the tunnels, and it was very peaceful and calming. I still would like to check out the informal Dharma discussions they have there one of these days as well.

work:

i was finally able to meet up with poo again about the crypto project and we're going to begin data collection this weekend. lots of stuff is actually kicking into gear, and hopefully i'll be able to start data collection at planned parenthood as well. at the last minute, i also decided to submit an abstract to the 2007 American Public Health Association meeting on access to second-line medications and compulsory licensing for Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) in Brazil and Thailand. exciting stuff, and i hope it gets accepted - it will definitely kick me into gear and help me finish a tangible product from my time at the WHO this past summer.

ive also been on an application kick lately, and finished two applications - one for an elective at Dr Cynthia's Mae Tao Clinic during my 4th year, and one for an HIV psychiatry elective for minority students run by the American Psychiatric Association. I'm really excited about both opportunities, and want to thank EVERYONE who helped look over all my statements!

I can't believe there's less than three months before I'm back in the US, see many of my friends graduate from med school, and start off my 4th year on a sub-i! For anyone who's interested, my schedule for next year (right now) looks like this:

May- Gen med VA sub-i
June - CCMU sub-i
July - Endo consults
August - Dr Cynthia clinic
Sept - HIV psych (if i get it), if not Community Psych
Oct - Cards
Nov- Contemporary Issues: Abortion
Dec- Vacation (and interviews!)
Jan - Advanced Therapeutics (yay online classes!)
Feb- Radiology
March- Henry Ford ER
April- Vacation!

Northern Thai food (aahan puen muang) and Talats (markets)

Yesterday Aum called me around lunchtime and said, “Gig and I are on the way to pick you guys up for lunch!” I hadn’t showered yet because I was lazing around but quickly got it together and was happy I did, because they introduced us to another famous Northern Thai restaurant. The lunch crowd was large and we had to wait a little while for a table, but it was worth it! We got a ‘set meal’ with Vietnamese-style wraps (rice wrappers, starfruit, cucumber, garlic, pepper, peanut sauce), fish egg roll, betel leaf pork wrap, spicy sausage salad (yum moo yaw) and some other yumminess.

Following lunch, we stopped off at Warorot Market, the largest market in Chiang Mai selling food, dried goods, fruit, clothes, bags, and basically anything you might need. Chris and I were here a few weeks ago helping my parents locate dried longan and nam prik goong (shrimp paste). During that visit, we also tried fried silkworms, which people love here. Chris and I weren't impressed though, but at least we tried them. Food wasn't our priority today though and we explored a back street with small shops selling fabric, hill tribe crafts, clothing, and food. My find of the day - blue elephant pajamas! Chris’s find – an amazing Thai broom for 50 cents! Liz's find- two cute shirts (one with a girl who supposedly looks like me on it -we'll take a pic later and post for your comments!)

Aum had to rush home for her Bangkok Hospital English interview, so Gig, Chris, Liz and I stopped for Swensen’s ice cream at Kad Suan Kaew, the mall across the street from our apt. It’s strawberry season here, so there are special strawberry promotions featured there. Chris and I always get ‘Strawberry a la mode’, featuring bananas, strawberries, three scoops of ice cream, and warm chocolate that you pour over it. We will be sad when strawberry season is over because they’ll change their promotions L and also because fresh strawberries won’t be available on the street anymore.

The rest of the day was pretty lazy. Liz took a nap, and then I wasn’t feeling up to Simon Cabaret (we are going tonight!) so instead, we ate dinner at Pasta Café, one of our favorite spots in Chiang Mai and watched Cars on DVD.

I also was briefly really stressed out about my scheduling appointment for 4th year. Mostly, I was stressing over whether or not to do a sub-I first, since Liz thought that the clinical experience helped out for Step 2. In the end, I signed up for VA sub-I in May, so now my schedule for when I come back is likely going to be:

May - VA Gen Med sub
June - CCMU (Medical ICU) sub-i,
July - Endocrine consults and likely Step 2
August - Dr. Cynthia's Mae Tao Clinic

We'll see what happens in the end though!

temples and treks (in the old city)

Yesterday we got an early start on the day with Liz frying up a breakfast storm (scrambled eggs, bacon, coffee). Chris took another Cisco voice-over IP test (three tests down, two to go!) in the morning while Liz and I lounged around waiting for him to come back. All of us then set off for the Old City.

We visited a number of temples and monuments in the Old City that Chris and I have never been to before, like the Three Kings Monument (showing King Mengrai, who founded Chiang Mai, consulting two other kings of different provinces in Thailand about the site of his new city). Liz and I are in front of the monument in the picture here. It’s funny how you live in a place for a long time but never go to any of the tourist stuff because you think there’ll always be another chance to visit that kind of thing and it’s not high on your priority list. Liz, armed with Let’s Go Thailand, was the impetus for us to get off our butts and move! You can visit her blog here.

One highlight of our daylong trip to the city included a visit to Wat Pan On, a temple next to AUA (where Chris takes Thai classes). We visited in the middle of the day and had a nice break on a part of the temple ground where they had a noodle cart and drink stand set up. I had Thai iced tea and Liz had water. She also captured this candid of us there:

In the temple, I introduced Liz to ‘siam sii’ or fortune telling. Originally derived from a Chinese practice, it entails shaking an open can of sticks with different numbers on them until one falls out. Once a stick falls out, you go to a shelf where you find your number and take the fortune corresponding to that number. My fortune (#16) was only written in Thai, so I had to have a friend read it later. It was a great fortune though, and corresponded with the fortune I had told to me by a local Thai fortune teller when I was just starting college in Swarthmore. The gist of the fortune was that I usually got what I wished for (ie if I put my mind to something, I was usually successful), was blessed with good health, and would have people who cared for me surround me throughout life. My sign, the sun, represents a bright future as well as how I bring warmth and happiness to those around me. Very good :) Maybe my projects will still work out after all.

Other highlights of the day included fish ball soup, an hour long Thai foot massage at the women’s prison in the city, vintage clothes shopping, and Thai dinner (and bread and chocolate!) with Aum and Gig. I also had this awesome online conversation with Gig and then we discussed weekend plans, so our trip to the mountains is coming together!

tanyaporn.wansom says: hello gig! how was pai?

gig_vitara says: hello. is ok.

gig_vitara says: we want travel with crist and porn,but ying and aum tell porn busy. my friend from bangkok.

tanyaporn.wansom says: gig! my friend from us is here

tanyaporn.wansom says: we want to travel too, this weekend?

gig_vitara says: Oh.ok

tanyaporn.wansom says: did you go to pai

tanyaporn.wansom says: last weekend?

gig_vitara says: yes 6 person.

tanyaporn.wansom says: oh :(

tanyaporn.wansom says: chris and porn never go to pai before

gig_vitara says: gig,aum,ying,pe,kea,maw

tanyaporn.wansom says: that sounds fun

tanyaporn.wansom says: you want to travel this weekend?

gig_vitara says: by car gig,

tanyaporn.wansom says: we can go however

gig_vitara says: gig tell aum,we want crist and porn with trip.

gig_vitara says: we can comeback again.

gig_vitara says: :)

tanyaporn.wansom says: go to pai again? or where

tanyaporn.wansom says: what you do later tonight

gig_vitara says: my friend from us.How many person?

tanyaporn.wansom says: 3 - porn, chris, liz

gig_vitara says: no plan.

gig_vitara says: ok.. we can travel.

Thai people are awesome hosts, so Gig helped us plan this cool weekend trip visiting a village in the valley of two mountains, the traditional Thai umbrella making factory (Bo Sang), an elephant camp and hospital, hot springs, waterfalls, and flowers. We’ll also spend the night in a tent at this campsite not too far(about 70 km) from Chiang Mai. Right now it’s just me, Chris, Gig, Aum, and Liz, but more people might be added from the MA house (we’d have to rent a van though, or take two cars). Thank God for friends with cars.

PS Liz taught me how to insert pictures in blogger with text wrap, so i added a few to previous entries - check them out!

reading list

Since the winter holidays, I’ve been on a reading-for-fun kick. After I read Haruki Murakami’s latest short story collection and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novella mentioned in an earlier blog, I remembered how much I missed reading. Recently completed books include:

• Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
• Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
• Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

Next up, Kite Runner, which Liz just finished and is letting me read. :)

Attending the conference ‘Responding to Infectious Diseases on the Border Regions of South and Southeast Asia,’ where panels examined the different borders of Burma and also touched on important public health issues in the region. During the conference, I learned a lot about health, politics, and funding around Burma. I also took opportunity of the freely distributed literature there and consumed some papers and reports, including:

• Licence (sic) to Rape: The Burmese military regime’s use of sexual violence in the ongoing war in Shan State
• Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma, published by the BackPack Health Worker Team (a group of trained medics that was started by Dr. Cynthia Maung that goes into Burma to provide health care and collect public health indicators – fascinating stuff!)
• Responding to AIDS, TB, Malaria, and Emerging Infectious Diseases in Burma: Dilemmas of Policy and Practice, published by my mentors Chris Beyrer and Vit S. (et al of course!) in PLoS Medicine in October 2006.

I also must admit my poor knowledge of geography was enriched when I found out India extended to Burma (I thought it ended with Bangladesh, but didn’t realize that there was a skinny part, kinda like an appendage moving eastward, going East). Another happy moment: I really like nagas, and was happy to hear that a province in India was called Nagaland (ok, maybe I’m a little lame, but it was exciting).

My parents also brought some Step 2 stuff, so I started reading Crush Step 2 & USMLE Step 2 Secrets. I’m hoping that I can take Step 2 early when I get back and then just do some sub-I’s and get residency apps out of the way before the fall.

Have you read a good book lately? If yes, let me know by posting a comment to this blog. :)

visitor-o-rama

chris and i are in the midst of visitor-o-rama. we are :) about it though and it's really nice to see people that we haven't seen in a long time. here are some snapshots of our visits so far:

1) my parents. i havent seen my parents since i left the US in August! (weird for us since i see them almost every weekend when im in med school back at Michigan). they came to chiang mai for my dad's annual TPAA meeting (Thai Physicians Association of America) so they were pretty busy. while they were here, we helped my mom buy some thai dried foods at warorot market, hung out with them at their hotel, and ate some yummy chinese food with them. now they are in bangkok carousing with family and friends.

2) nan and mon. nan and mon were my two bridesmaids from bangkok. they came up to see the royal flora ratchapruek (this three-month-long international floral expo held in celebration of the Thai King's 60th Accession to the Throne) and we accompanied them there one day. ben, the other fogarty fellow, came along too!

Flower Show with Nan, Mon and Ben

our faves of the exhibition were the orchids (there were orchid competitions of natural gardens, creative gardens, individual plants, and a showcase of endangered/rare orchids) and Bug World.

mon left early, but nan stuck around and satisfied her craving for farang (foreigner) food. we took her to some of our favorite places in chiang mai, including 8 inch, a local thai pizza place where you can get your own personal pizza for 89 baht (a little over 2 USD). we also visited wat phra singh, and learned that it maybe wasn't such a good idea to ride all together (3 people) on our motorcycle.

Chris and I paying our respects to the Buddha

Wat Phra Singh with Nan

3) chris b. chris b. is one of my advisors from hopkins who also was on the selection committee to bring me to thailand on the fogarty. he is the head of the center for public health and human rights at hopkins and totally supportive of students. i had an hr long chat with him about my frustrations with the year so far (i dont have a mentor, im not on an NIH-funded-project, etc) and he didn't make me feel like a failure for not having accomplished those things. we're working on turning the rest of the year around work-wise, and i'm really hopeful for the next few months. chris also helped me out by writing a letter of recommendation for the wallenberg fellowship to support a clinical elective at dr. cynthia's mae tao clinic during my 4th year (more on this later).

4) liz. liz is one of my best friends from med school (and also a bridesmaid!) she just arrived
last night and is crashed on the couch right now. we've been really chill so far, and have watched two movies that she brought with her, including This Film is Not Yet Rated (about how films get rated by the Motion Picture Association in America - fascinating stuff!) and The Winged Migration (a documentary about migrating birds). we've also discussed residency rank lists, eaten some yummy thai food, and just been enjoying each other's company again.

Liz's midnight snack