Thailand Trip

Dear Family and Friends,

    Attached is a picture-letter about our recent trip to Hong Kong and Thailand.  I hope you are all having a good year.  We are just finishing up our Chinese New Year and Spring Festival over here.  I think it's a lot more elaborate than it was last year, as the Chinese are setting of thousands of fireworks every day and evening.  It seems last year they kind of tapered off after the first couple of days, but we see sky-rockets and hear firecrackers popping on and off for hours every day and evening this week.  They set them off for good luck.  It must be working, as this year we haven't had the terrible ice and snowstorms we had last year!  Our nights still get into the teens and low twenties, days into the high 30's to 40's.  We're supposed to get a little rain this afternoon, don't know if we will.  We have set up a "Super-bowl" party for tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. at one of the member's home.  We're going over there for breakfast at 6:30, then will watch the game on his big-screen because he has a satellite dish so he can recieve it and we can watch it live!

  Well, we're off for our early Church meetings.   Have a great day, and remember that we love you!

Dondavid and ReNee.

Thailand Tour1.doc
Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Thailand Trip-Jan 1009

Shenzhen the entrance city for Hong Kong: We had a conference with the Kennedy Center in Hong Kong on Jan 14 . We had to enter Hong Kong through Shenzhen, passing through customs as you come and go. We spent the night in Shenzhen. The word Shenzhen means “a heart will always feel frightened,” so the airport is named Banyu; because, it means “always safe” and they want people to feel safe when they fly. It is on the border between Macau and Hong Kong. It was the only port open to the outside world for many years and was considered the southern gate. The people speak Cantonese instead of Mandarin. Most of the early Chinese in California were Cantonese and spoke Cantonese because this is where they immigrated from. Later when the country began to open 30 years ago (2008) Shenzhen was called “the window of China.” It was the window for foreign money. The guide said that it is easier to get a job here than in Beijing. In Shenzhen the first question is: “Do you have experience?” In Beijing it is, “Are you a Beijing citizen?” In Hong Kong the boys are arrogant, and it is expensive to live there. They have what they call the “Five C’s” that boys need before they get married. These are: condominium, credit card, car, cash, carat (diamonds). In Shenzhen there are only 3 C’s -- considerate, cash and cell phone. This is a young city with the average age 35. Many young people come to Shenzhen to work for 8 years and can save 500,000 Yuan, then return home to Guilin or other cities in the mainland, to live. There are many factory workers here, but parents marry in their home town, then come to Shenzhen to work, so they can send their child to college. Children can’t get free education in Shenzhen; because, they are not residents, so the child stays with grandparents and goes to school. China is trying to change this, so the child can go to school where the parents are. Farmers here are rich but don’t farm. They build a building on their land and then lease it to companies and are making a mint not farming. The government went in and bought some of these buildings so they can get the income instead of the farmers. One smart farmer figured out they were giving them compensation for equivalent of one floor. One flat or floor was sold at 250,000 Yuan. He refused to sell. They cut off his electricity, his water and still he wouldn’t sell. So huge buildings went up all around him and still he wouldn’t sell. Business around him didn’t like the eye sore. Finally, he got paid 5 million in compensation. In early days, people would try to get to Hong Kong to work, and they would be shot in the river and just left there; therefore, causing great water pollution. The water is getting better now.
We went to the “Splendid China” center that was based on the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. We were able to see the “Genghis Khan” performance again. It wasn’t as exciting as last year. I think they had some new riders who were in training. They also used saddles this year while last year it was all bareback. Still it was fun and impressive. We also saw a show that depicted the dances of various minorities. This show was beautiful and very professional. The Chinese really know how to showcase and perform professionally. That evening we saw a production about historical periods of time that was also impressive. I’m sure dad will send pictures.

Hong Kong: We went into Hong Kong the next day and did some wandering around. As a whole I really don’t like Hong Kong so much. It is big, noisy, crowded, and I didn’t think prices were great. It is more like shopping mall shopping and the prices were the same. We did find a few good side streets with better prices. Most of the other sites we already did last year.
Sights to see in Hong Kong include the Victoria Peak cable cars with a steep climb up the side of a mountain and ferries to the outlaying islands. Wealthy locals and tourists have used this trolley up to the peak for over 100 years. We took a trip to Stanley market in a double-decker bus with a beautiful view, Rode the Star Ferry which takes you from Hong Kong, to Kowloon and various other places, Mid-levels Escalator to Soho which is one of the longest outside escalator in the world. We took it up the side of the city. There were places where you could get off and shop, but we wanted to go to the top. When we got there, there was nothing--just some larger homes. I guess this escalator has transferred the more well-to-do people back and forth to work for years. When we got to the top, we found there wasn’t a “down” escalator, so we had to find a bus to take us back down. We found out that they run it uphill most of the time, but from 7-9 a.m. they reverse it so the people who live on top of the mountain can ride it down to get to work. Hong Kong is very hilly, it reminds me of San Francisco.

Shenzhen and Hong Kong do what is called “relocating the mountain.” Basically, they shovel up dirt from the mountains, fill in the bay and create new land mass. We were able to see some of this in both places. Very interesting.
We did really enjoy attending the temple and the association with church members. In our conference on Sunday, President Watson of the area presidency talked about DC 1:23 and the gospel being proclaimed by the weak and simple unto the ends of the world and before kings and rulers. He also talked about the words “strange act of the Lord” as it appears in Isaiah 21? (I could not find this here) Anyway, he says we may not understand the way of the Lord, but He does, and his work will go forth as it needs to. Reminded us not to become weary in well doing and then talked about the growth of the church in Hong Kong and the influence it is for the Asian countries. The church is organized in 17 countries including Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Cambodia, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan, and a couple of others I was unable to get. It really does revive the spirit and help you carry on.
We were in Hong Kong 5 days and then left on our trip to Thailand. The teaching conference kind of fires you up to continue teaching. We got a note from the Kennedy Center today though saying the economy seems to have affected people apply to come to China. Their applications are down and they are afraid that they won’t be able to fill all the universities where we have been working so hard to open and maintain. So if you know anyone who might be interested in coming, it is a wonderful experience and mostly cost free. You have some outlay before you come, but not much and the airfare is paid, living paid and you even have a little to shop for fun. Mention this to anyone you know who might be able to come.

Thailand Trip general information: Thailand was originally several countries that later united. It was originally known as Siam. The white elephant is the sign of the Light Buddha. It was considered sacred and for hundreds of years only the emperor could ride on an elephant (any color). In Thailand there is no pension if you work for the government, so you children must take care of you. Around the 11^th century the south started the use of writing symbols. There are 95 letters and 23 vowels. Architecturally, the stupa is a bell shape pagoda tower which comes from Sirlanka, the Thai style has the square in its architecture. 85% of the population in Thailand are Buddhist and are concerned with the harmony of the spirit. Young men who are 21 and virgin are encouraged by their parents to be a Buddha monk for 3 months during the rainy season. If the son does this, good blessings are to come to their parents now and in the future. One of our guides, Opel, (he named himself after his father’s car!) is 33 and he just finished 15 day training as a Buddhist monk. He says there are lots of rules you have to follow. Your whole body is shaved, not just your head, you must follow all the rules, which include not talking to people, not talking on the phone, not eating meat, getting up at 3:30 a.m. for morning prayers at 4, and many others. At age 21 you can decide if you want to become a monk for life, parents cannot influence your decision. He went primarily for his parents and appears quite liberal in his thinking. He thinks being a monk tends to make people lazy because monks are fed by the community. The community feels this is an honor. Our guide’s name was Opel though pronounced it “opo” because he drops all his l’s. Young people must also serve in the army. It is a lottery system, If you draw a red stone, you go in the army, if white, you don’t have to go--or your parents can pay (bribe) officials so you are sure to draw a white stone so don’t have to go. That’s what his father did for him, so he could finish his schooling sooner.
Tapioca, sugar cane, and pineapple are some of the principle crops here. Tapioca is taken from the roots of the tapioca tree. When the tree is 1 ½ years old it is harvested and the root used. The tree “uses up the land” (I think this means it depletes the soil) so it can’t be used to grow anything else for a long time. They have to let it lay fallow for several years before it can grow other crops again.
Thailand is a colorful country. The flight attendants wear traditional Thai dresses and serve airline dinners on trays with real dishes and silverware. There are bright blues, pinks, yellows, greens and their temples are also much more colorful, adorned with ceramic tiles, gold leaf, and gemstones. They are beautiful!

Day 1: Temples in Thailand are well maintained and lighter in style than the Chinese Grottos. They have a lot of jewels, gold, and color in their temples. There is more of an Indian influence here. The temples here are beautiful with a lot of gold mosaic. We visited the Wat Pho temple with the biggest reclining Buddha. The Buddha’s shape is a bit different here than the Chinese Buddha’s though both styles can be found here. The Chinese Buddha is the fat, rounded, happy Buddha. The Thai Buddha is more slender and represents the perfect man (shape) and light or enlightenment. The Buddha’s face is long and oval shaped and the body is slim and tapered. Thailand shipped some artifacts from China to build their temples and brought many statues (kiddingly the guide said it was to balance the ship) and the stylistic differences can be seen.

We then visited the Royal Grand Palace of the present Chackrie Dynasty and its architecture is from the 18^th century. It is famous for the image of Lord Buddha fashioned from one piece of jade. They use the snake in their architecture—much as the dragon is used in China. Naga means snake and is the only animal that could change shape. He represented animals and appeared to Buddha once. Buddha wanted Naga to promise to be a monk in his next life. Naga agree but there were two things Naga wanted from Buddha in return: 1. He wanted Buddha to become a Naga in his next life, 2. As a monument, Naga wanted to be in all the temples, so he would be remembered. (Interesting reference to the snake in regards to our beliefs) When building the temple, people can purchase tiles for the roof with their names written underneath, contribute money, build a family shrine or buy a bell to be hung and rung showing your good deed. There are thousands of bells around many of the temples, the size indicating your wealth and the amount of your contribution.
The temples are well kept. We were able to see one that was original in part to show how it was many hundreds of years ago. It reminded me a lot of pyramids in South America. When people come to worship they bring incense, food, and gold (money now). The people also burn money (fake) for their dead; because, they believe they will need money to pay the Gods that stand by the way and guard the way to heaven; this will help them hurry along. (Also interesting)

We went on long boats down the Chao Prya River for lunch in a river front restaurant. Thai food is mostly chicken, vegetables, and fruit. They do not eat beef. Some of the food is spicy, but not as spicy as the food in Southwest China. They use a lot of curry which I discovered causes my throat to swell and made me feel like I couldn’t swallow. Once I quit eating curry it was fine. The curry here is not as strong and intense as curry in the states. Many of the dishes have a sweet taste and lime is used in many dishes. One soup was made of cilantro, mushrooms and I think coconut milk—slightly sweet. Very good. We stopped off at a massage parlor for a Thai massage. It was wonderful. We were running late so they said we couldn’t get the sauna and steam room full two-hour massage. About half the people had feet massages but Dad and I and the Lowders did the one-hour body massage and it was heavenly, though my shoulder hurt for 3 days after because of the therapy she gave me. Still worth it! The people on the bus that waited for us were mad—we really didn’t care—they could have done something else besides sit on the bus, but didn’t. I did feel bad for our guide who had to listen to one couple whine the whole time though.
That evening we went to a Thai dinner where you take off your shoes and sit with your feet under the table with a trough to put your feet in. Many sat on cushions by small tables. Food was served in small dishes around your plate, and you dished up what you wanted. Each place setting was complete by itself-- no passed dishes. There was a program that night of traditional Thai dancing. This dancing is very stiff and stylistic. The girls appear to be double jointed at their elbows, fingers, and wrists. The Thai silks here are beautiful in brilliant colors. Most of the girls wear wrap-around skirts with border prints on them. I think they are really pretty, and I bought some to try! J

Day 2: Today we left early for the Damneon Saduak market or floating market. This is an area build around some 350 canals. People have their own gardens. Houses are built on stilts and people get around in boats, kind of like a tropical Venice. We saw local houses with interesting septic systems draining right into the canals. We also saw a woman washing her hair in the canal. Water pollution is a problem there, though it wasn’t as bad or smelly as Mexico’s black water. We did get out and do a little shopping here in the center shopping area.
We also stopped at the site of the sugar palm, where they make Samut Songkhram which is a coconut candy. When the coconut tree is about 3-4 years old, its spadices (a groove around the lower trunk) are cut so that farmers can collect its sweet sap. They simmer this over a fire until it becomes brown and dry. This makes a sweet brown tasting candy. The village where this sugar is made is called Tao Tan. We also saw the process of making coconut paper and Teak wood carving which was beautiful. They have teak wood, ebony, iron wood, cocoanut wood, and also some boxes made of buffalo horns.
We also saw the Solo salt drying farms. They pump sea water onto the land in big flat fields, much like rice paddies, let it dry in the sun, then rake it, shovel it and bag it to be shipped. This was fun to see and it is all done by local workers by hand.
Then we drove to Kanchanaburi (River Kwai) and had lunch on the river. After lunch we rode on the “Death Railway” over the River Kwai. This was the famous Bridge where 60,000 allied soldiers died building and rebuilding the bridge. It was bombed several times, but always rebuilt by the prisoners and was a supply line for munitions between Burma and S.E. Asia for the Japanese, who had conquered Thailand. We saw several American bombs that were taken from the river which had not gone off, took pictures of this famous river. We spent the night there in a beautiful river-front hotel, a far cry from the accommodations of the POW’s. There is a big war memorial there now and beautiful cemeteries maintained by the Dutch, English, Japanese, and others, to show respect for those who died there. There were only about 700 American POW’s who died there, and their bodies were all returned to the US to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. There were over 200,000 Thai and other Asian POWS that died there, but because of their beliefs they were either buried in mass graves or cremated. We visited the War Cemetery and the Thailand-Burma Railway Museum.

Day 3: We left early for the Elephant camps. We had a ride up and down hills and I loved the experience--both the elephant and the opportunity to be out in the sunshine and nature. There are two kinds of elephants The African elephant which is larger and wild, and the Asian elephant which is smaller and can be trained to work. Our elephant jockey, or bwanna, took pictures for us. He stopped and picked leaves and made a hat of leaves and flowers for me. At first my hat was too big and keep falling over my eyes. When he noticed, he took it and made it smaller. Dondavid and I were one of the few lucky ones who had an opportunity to sit on the elephant’s head. It is really hard to stay on and is worse than riding a horse. The neck and shoulder muscles are so big that when he walks, the elephant moves side to side as well as forward, his skin is loose and slips like Rufus’s (our Dachshund dog of many years ago) and it is scary. Dad rode that way quite a ways and then finally decided to climb back up on the seat. I lasted about 50 feet and returned to safety. I took off one of my sandal so I could feel the elephant’s skin. It is dry, and leathery. We fed our elephant bananas along the way. We crossed through a river and let the elephants have a drink. Going downhill is really scary. Our Bwanna sang jingle bells to his elephant to keep him going—funny. Of course, we sang along with him—After all, it’s only two weeks until the Chinese New Year’s festival! As we left the camp they took a picture of us on the elephant and then put it on a plate which we bought upon returning. Really a fun experience—one of the highlights of the tour.
We then visited a different war museum that was set up more like a prisoner of war camp with pictures of some of the conditions of the prisoners, heart breaking. I have trouble comprehending man’s inhumanity to man. We then rode the bus back to Bangkok and were too tired to go to the night market.

Day 4: We flew to Chiang Mai. We visited the Naga (dragon-headed temple) with 306 steps though we opted for the elevator up. It was interesting to watch the Monks sprinkle water on people to cleanse them. Rather sad that they worshiped with so much tourist traffic all around. Still it is the heart that matters. As this is a holiday time of year, people were offering incense, money, fruit, and lotus flowers and praying in front of small shrines. Some of the war memorials were here also, but I discussed them above). We went to various local handicraft factories. The orchid factory was beautiful—and they make jewelry from the orchid leaves, and I got a beautiful necklace and earrings. We had a cultural dinner that night with an older form of dance which actually was more graceful and spontaneous than the earlier ones.

After dinner we went outside, and they were sending hot-air lanterns into the sky that are really pretty. They float for miles before they burn out and come down.

Day 5: We went to more elephant camps here and rode through more jungle-like
country. We crossed a river and some of the elephants sprayed their riders. The guides weren’t as social as the first group but the ride was more interesting. We rode ox carts back to the village and had lunch. Then we went rafting down the river on bamboo rafts. They gave us coolie hats to shade our faces. I got to push the boat once and we had a fun race with our friends in the raft behind us.
We finished the factories we hadn’t seen yesterday. The umbrella factory was interesting. They make the handles from Mulberry wood, and use the bark of the mulberry tree to make the paper on the umbrellas and fans. They pound it into pulp, roll it out into paper, stretch it over the wooden skeletons of the umbrellas, then let it dry in the sun. They trim the excess off, then paint it with beautiful colors and designs. We were amazed at the amount of labor that goes into each umbrella and fan.
Part of the group then went to the silk and cotton factories and the rest of us went to the Burma village of the Long Necks. This was not on our itinerary but we talked our guide into taking us if we paid extra. This village had people from Burma who were like kind of imported for tourists. They cannot leave the village and food is brought in for them. They have a beautiful community, clean, family gardens and a community farm. Where they are living is so much better than what they had at home, they are content to stay here. Children however have no education, except for a small Christian school set up near the Lutheran church. After they have been here for 7 or more years, they are allowed to go to the local city once in awhile. They are very happy and content. The Long- Neck people put rings around their necks to make them look longer. It is now tradition, but originally it was supposed to protect them from the lions if they were attacked. They also put them on the ankles and legs. We got to hold one of the neck things, they are made of brass rod-stock, and are really heavy, like probably 10 pounds! The weight pushes the girl’s collarbones down which gives them a very long neck. I guess when they take them off their necks are weak because they are used to the support. They wear them all the time and sleep in them. One of the people in our group, a young RM from Rexburg, had a great time speaking to them in Mong, their native language, and they were impressed at how well he could speak!
This older lady in this picture is not wearing “hoop” earrings. They are cylinders that pass through her ear-lobes, and are the same size all the way, about ¾” in diameter, and1 ½” long.
We stopped to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and back to our hotel to bed. We got up a 4:30 a.m. to catch our plane back to Kunming in China, where we spent the night, then flew on into Tianjin the next day and got home late. It was tiring, but a very fun and rewarding trip. Of course, we have lots more pictures, but this is plenty long as it is! I think we’ll make up a slideshow program that you can watch if you want to see more.