Thailand, As Prescribed

What does a typical day look like in Thailand?

Hint: It's filled with new friends, good food, and lots of laughter.

This was the entrance to a temple that we pasted
while exploring the market earlier today

In this blog, Sam and Sarah will detail some of the experiences the group has had to date and talk about some of their thoughts, impressions, and ideas.

After disembarking from our third flight (making a grand total of 24 hours of traveling), our group arrived at the Chiang Mai EcoResort. We met our guides, Pi Peter and Pi Poad, settled in, and then went to dinner; which was at a the beautiful Riverside restaurant located next to the Ping River. Everyone agreed that the green curry was our favorite dish, it was mildly spicy and filled with delicious local vegetables and chicken. ISDSI Director, Mark, and his wife, Dana, joined our group for dinner, answering many of our questions about Thai culture and food. ISDSI stands for International Sustainable Developmental Studies Institute, they run several study abroad programs all throughout Thailand with a focus on teaching students to learn from their host families and culture.

Upon returning from dinner the group showered and went to bed in anticipation of a fun-filled and eventful day to follow.

Breakfast at the EcoResort was a blend of traditional Thai food and Western food. But the highlight of the morning was finding out that our partners at the ISDSI main office have a coffee shop on their grounds entitled Rx Coffee, Coffee As Prescribed (hence the title of this blog post). Pi Peter and Pi Poad welcomed us to the ISDSI complex, which is a montage of retrofitted shipping contains stacked atop one another creating a modern and functional office space. Included at the complex are several classrooms, an outdoor kitchen and seating area, and a library for students to use. Our morning consisted of learning about Thai culture, customs, and language; this orientation session was led by Pi Peter and Pi Poad. An important topic they covered was the emphasis on relationships in Thai culture, from this foundation comes the idea of "Pi" and "Nong." The Pi and Nong relationship is based on respect and guidance: the Nong respects his/her Pi, who in turns provides guidance and support. Pi is also used as a title of respect, hence Pi Peter and Pi Poad, our ISDSI field instructors. Pi Poad taught us 8 phrases in Thai that we can use to greet people, John has a leg up on all of us as he took it upon himself to learn some Thai before leaving the States. Fear not, we are all practicing and will soon be as good as John!

ISDSI main office

After exchanging money at the bank, our group spent time (and money) at a small local store. We stacked up on snacks, old favorites and new exciting ones; including the Matcha Green Tea KitKats recommended by Dr. M. Following this excursion we ate a traditional Thai lunch: Thai fried rice, soup, fresh veggies, and passion fruit.

In the afternoon we rode the Rod Daengs, or red trucks, to the open air market. We spent several hours exploring multiple floors of fresh fruits, handmade clothing, jewelry, craved wooden objects, and other knickknacks. Several of us bought the popular elephant style pants for wearing to the religious sites we will be visiting later in the trip. Our afternoon concluded as we returned to the EcoResort to rest and freshen up before dinner.

Hey guys, it's Sam.
I'm in love with the food here. Today we went to the market and tried different fruits. My favorites were the rambutan and the mangosteen. It was really cool to see the main office of ISDSI and have our first language class. My Thai is horrible but I'm looking forward to practicing and improving it. One of my favorite things we've done so far was getting to know everyone. After landing, we had a few hours to freshen up before dinner. We were instructed not to sleep so instead everyone piled into one room and bonded over a game of cards. It was nice hanging out with everyone and laughing with each other after 24 hours of straight traveling.

A Rambutan fruit, best enjoyed AFTER the spiky shell is removed

Hey y'all! Sarah here.
Ditto to what Sam said, the food here in Ah-mazing and definitely worthy of all the love! Thus far I feel like I've been living in a dream. Coming to Thailand always seemed so far away, but now we're here and my brain hasn't fully comprehended that yet. Even though we've only been here a short while I know that all the hard work I put into making this trip possible for myself was worth it (also S/O to Mom and Dad because they're the ones that REALLY made this happen, love y'all!). I'm hoping to challenge myself while here in Thailand. Previously the trips I've been on outside the United States have all been service trips, but Thailand is a different kind of trip and thus comes with new and different expectations and experiences. I'm excited to take part in new things, learn a little Thai, and eat A LOT of delicious food (expect me to talk about food all the time, I'm always hungry).

Make sure to bookmark our blog page as we'll be updating it almost daily while we're here. Thanks for reading and sharing in this journey with us!

Sam and Sarah