what's leslie been up to? a photo-update

A lot has gone down since I've last posted, but I thought it would be nicer to explain using pictures.

Graeme and Hridi(/everyone who participated in the poker tourney over the summer) donated money to the farm, and these new seeds and tools were the result. The guys at the farm were actually really happy, but were far too cool to smile for the photo.

Took a weekend trip to Pai, about three hours from Chiang Mai. It was all kinds of gorgeous, and I'm glad we went in the height of rainy season because although we did end up getting absolutely soaked twice, there were almost no other tourists there. During the dry season it's choked with tourists. This was the hotel. They had one of those neat pools where the water overflows the edges.

This was the view from the window I snapped just after waking up.


We rented a bike and drove for miles through the countryside. There was supposed to be a hike up the mountain as well, but being the rainy season the road to the trail head was underwater. We'd forgotten to bring trunks so we decided to give it a miss.

Also, I've started a second weekly Ultimate Frisbee game Wednesday nights 5PM at Chiang Mai University and it's been a huge success. You should drop by if you're ever in the area. I'm actually ON the poster (courtesy of the artistic talents of my buddy Ekk), I'm the silhouette in the middle of the triangle of guys on the left.

As you can see, football (soccer) is no laughing matter here. This was during a tight match between Man. U and Liverpool. This guy felt the need to remove his shirt in response to a Liverpool goal.


Oh, and I mountain bike now. I finally bought new bicycle tires and looked up trail maps. There are some really cool jungle trails a few kilometers from my place. Living at the base of a mountain definitely has it's perks. I snapped this during my first afternoon ride just before I turned around. Greg wasn't home (he's just picked up a bike as well, so we go riding together) so I went on my own. After about an hour I came to my senses and realized it had been a really stupid idea to go out solo, even though nothing happened.

The noble steed with the giant new tires. I love my bike and she loves me (although she probably wasn't loving me as much after my ride, things get pretty muddy, sand all over the gears and what not...I'm told bikes don't really like riding through streams, but she was a good sport nonetheless).

I have had some bike troubles though. I used to have a bell but it was stolen (as in someone took a screwdriver and unscrewed my bell...), and same with my bicycle headlight (they took the headlight mount as well). I've since replaced the headlight for safety reasons, but take it off and just leave the mount when I'm not using it. The light on the back remained untouched for some reason although it's given me it's fare share of grief as well. It isn't very secure and has fallen off while I'm riding 5 or 6 times, and when it does it EXPLODES (there are about 6 pieces including the batteries) all over the road. I then have to stop, go back and pick the pieces up, assemble them and put them back on my bicycle. This happened once on the highway, so here I was in the dark, running out onto the highway when there was a break in the cars to pick up pieces of my light. Miraculously nothing's broken yet, and it still works, although I've had to replace the batteries three times in the past two weeks. I think someone's been turning on the light at night when I'm not around and letting it run down. I have my suspicions about who's been messing with my bike, but no evidence so I can't really accuse anyone directly (*if this were a speech, I would pause at this point to stare accusingly at the building security guard who likes messing with bikes before continuing*) As of yesterday, I started taking the back light off as well. We'll see if this solves the problem.

There are definitely some talented graffiti artists around Chiang Mai (although I suspect this was stenciled)

Some home-cooked soul food. Panang tofu curry with fried morning glory and a fried egg to top it off. Serve over rice and enjoy.

The first time I saw these guys going through the garbage behind our building I thought they were cops. Further inquiry revealed that they're actually how garbage here gets recycled, even though there's no central recycling program. People go around, going through garbage cans and picking out the recyclables (if you look closely you'll notice he's got all the cardboard and plastic in the sidecar). They take the recyclables and sell it to the recycling plants. Not only does this niche provide jobs, it also means lazy schmucks like me don't have to sort their garbage.

I can't stress enough that weather here is ridiculous. I snapped this picture about 20 minutes before the one below it.

I live in a pretty trendy part of town, right by the university so there's a big student scene. I like this statue.

To introduce the unit on agriculture and natural systems, we took the students to the Chiang Mai waterfall. I hadn't been there before but it's only 20 minutes from my house and made for a great day. We basically wanted to get them to observe and take note of the components that make up a natural system so that they could start to think about how it might be possible to design an agricultural system to mimic nature. The day went well, and I took some really good pictures.

Biodiversity analysis anyone? It felt strange leading this activity considering I was doing the same thing in my Ecology course a year ago.


Of course we ended up getting caught in a downpour during the afternoon and had to take cover. Someone was keeping their pet beetle out of the rain. You see a lot of people with these giant beetles, they're tied to a piece of sugar cane, which I suppose provides food and a home to the bugs. From what I'm told, they're raised, traded and fought. Personally I would stick with roosters (if it wasn't for the fact that cockfighting is barbaric and cruel).