An American in Bangkok

See you next summer!

2008-08-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, this is goodbye -- thanks for following along! I'm home, safe and sound, and just working on one or two technical kinks with the blog before tying it up with the proverbial string and moving on to other projects. Sawa-dee-ka and maybe I'll see you next summer!

Closing thoughts: Two lists

2008-08-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

Woman selling fruit at Ampawa floating market.

Things I will definitely miss about Thailand

all the wonderful people I met here
the smell of incense at streetside shrines
Thailand’s lavish use of purple and gold in decorating
yummy Thai dishes, especially green curry, som tom, and mango sticky rice
the delicious (and cheap!!) tropical fruits, especially litchi, guava, papaya, pineapple, dragonfruit, passionfruit, and of course Thai coconuts
being greeted with cute bows and ‘sawa-dee-ka’ or ‘sawa-dee-khrap’ all the time
Buddhist monks in orange robes on the sky train and the side of the road
the beautiful tropical flowers growing even in the city
two words: Thai massage
that indefinable sense of adventure that accompanies even the simplest activities in a foreign country

Things I definitely will not miss

the humidity and mosquitoes
drinking pepto bismol every day
not being able to read nearly everything I see
not being able to communicate with most people I meet
having strangers take photos of me or with me just because of the way I look
feeling like my feet are smelly and dirty because of having to walk barefoot all the time in temples over the same sweat-and-bacteria-streaked floor as thousands of other people
not being able to rinse my mouth with tap water after brushing my teeth
being far away from loved ones

Flight home

2008-08-16T04:36:00.000-07:00

The island geography of Hong Kong,
as seen through my plane window.

Well, as I type this now, we have only about four hours left in the air! I guess that means I’ve been traveling for about twenty hours by now, but I think the way the layover was scheduled made the return journey feel less arduous than the first trip. We have been hitting all kinds of turbulence on the flight from Hong Kong to New York, and trying to sleep on planes is still one of the more miserable physical experiences I’ve encountered, but I will say again that Cathay Pacific is amazing. The staff are so sweet and attentive it almost feels unfair, and you are never far from fresh glasses of water, cups of tea, bowls of soup and packets of snacks (four kinds!) – never neglected in dehydrated darkness for hours at a time. Once 6pm EST (5am Bangkok time) rolled around, I began to I feel like I’m getting a second wind that will hopefully last until I get home around midnight tonight.

Closing in on Hong Kong -- the city from the air.

Three of the major things I had planned for the return journey – Skyping my family from Hong Kong,* buying a particular grape konjac snack at Muji, and getting work done on my final BIOCEP presentation – didn’t work out so well, but I’ve certainly been living it up with the extensive menu of movies, TV shows, and music that the airplane provides for entertainment. So far, I’ve built my own iTunes-esque playlist (classical Indian music!), kept tabs on the Olympic medal count (question: do we primarily rank countries by number of golds or by total medals? because if the latter then we are so kicking China’s butt), and munched on several packets of oddly-appropriate** Cathay Pacific snacks while watching The Other Boleyn Girl (Eric Bana looks less like Christian Bale in this one than in other movies), The Last Samurai (just as good as I remembered it being), and 21 (which had so many shots of Harvard/MIT/Cambridge/Boston I felt homesick!).

*couldn’t get the much-vaunted free wifi to work.
**because I ate Scottish shortbread cookies while watching Mary Queen of Scots being beheaded in the first, Japanese chocolate wafers and green tea while watching the second, and pretzels shaped like hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds while watching the last. And it wasn’t even on purpose!

Touchdown!

I also had a great time of it in Hong Kong. In addition to hitting up the ever-popular Muji store in the terminal that services Cathay Pacific, I broke the promise I made to myself last summer that I would never drink the foul-tasting variety of tea known as pu-erh tea ever again. I'm not sure what made me do it... I think I was seduced by the classy tea-connoisseur ambiance that surrounds many of the tea stores in Hong Kong into trying something exotic. I love buying tea in Hong Kong because they somehow combine the English fervor for elegant presentation of tea with the Chinese passion for unique varieties of green, white, oolong, and others. The rose pu-erh tea was miles better than the sickly-sweet iced pu-erh I'd reluctantly consumed in Taiwan, and made a nice prelude to the other Hong Kong snacks I enjoyed during my layover.

Rose pu-erh tea -- a risk that paid off.

Side note: I think posts like this make pretty clear that the amount of blogging that goes on is directly proportional to the amount of time I have to do it, rather than the amount of interesting things I actually have to say… Blogging this trip was a real challenge because of technological constraints – picture uploading was maddeningly slow when it worked at all, which was infrequently, half-written blog posts would be lost because the server connection was reset (or something like that), some posts just failed to show up at all – and also because of the ultra-packed schedule we had. I have no complaints about how busy they kept us. For a conference that only lasts two weeks (rather than six or nine), such business makes sense, and I think I might have been disappointed if we had been given more spare time. Still, it cut into my blogging and that made me sad, because one of the biggest kicks I get out of traveling is the thought that I can share it (in some small way) with the people I care about who aren’t there with me.

Final day in Thailand!

2008-08-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

The Bioethics Museum at UNESCO Bangkok.

Our last day in Thailand was bittersweet, as final days usually are. We began the morning with our last official BIOCEP presentation ever, at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Bangkok. For those of you who don't already know, UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and is an organization with branches operating in countries all over the world.

According to the website, UNESCO Bangkok promotes international co-operation, sets standards and disseminates information in the fields of education, the natural sciences, the social and human sciences, culture and communication in the Asia and Pacific region. The organization's mandate is the promotion of peace and human development through its operational strategies in education, science, culture and communication and information. UNESCO programs focus on promoting education for all; supporting the expression of cultural identities; protecting and enhancing the world's natural heritage; engaging in a new social contract between science and society at all levels; developing and promoting social policies; promoting the free flow of information, press freedom and the development of a pluralistic media; and strengthening communication capacities in developing countries.

A display about cloning, with models of Dolly and her clone.

The UNESCO representative with whom we met, a Dr. Darryl Mercer, is regional advisor in Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (RASHSAP) and an affiliated professor at teh UN University Institute of Advanced Studies in Japan. He gave us an excellent presentation, probably the most philosophically rigorous of the whole program, and one which I think would have been well-placed at the beginning, rather than the end, of BIOCEP. Oddly enough, I had had the pleasure of perusing some of Dr. Macer's books online before coming to Thailand, in an effort to prime myself on philosophy and bioethics in the East Asian setting. He lectured a bit on his own work -- particularly his effort to beat back the notion that "bioethics" is a modern invention rather than a pre-historic human concern, and his project of framing ethical impulses in terms of the imperatives of love -- and the work of UNESCO projects in the Asia-Pacific region, especially efforts to bring bioethics discussion and education to all parts of society in the region's developing countries. I really liked the way his talk described the multiple modalities of bioethics, emphasizing discussion-centered or collaborative bioethics (an enterprise that is neither wholly descriptive nor wholly prescriptive) that can take place outside the ivory tower and without extensive training in moral frameworks and advanced biotechnology -- a real need in areas like Thailand where the overall educational level is still quite low.

Hailing a taxi as we left the UNESCO headquarters,
we caught sight of a bunch of masked police officers
writing a ticket on a speeding (or illegally-parked?) moped.

After a quick tour of the Bioethics Museum, one example of the institute's work to bring bioethics to the children of Bangkok, and a wrap-up session with Brian and Coco covering our suggestions for future BIOCEP sessions, we were cut loose to finish up our papers and enjoy our final day in Thailand.

Bangkok Central, as seen from one of the escalators.

Our first stop was Bangkok Central, one of the city's biggest shopping malls. There was a big exhibition on green technology on the lowest level, which I was able to partly explore, sampling a variety of locally-produced snacks and drinks at a kind of "market" in the mall's center. However, the gustatory highlight of the afternoon was definitely lunch at a fancy restaurant on the seventh (?) floor, with snazzy blue-and-white decor and a nice view of the city below. There, I ate my final plate of my beloved som tum, and then was introduced the the ambrosial substance known as mango sticky rice. Why, oh why, did I wait until my final day in Bangkok to try this amazing dessert?? Janice and I split first one, then a second plate of the stuff. Expensive, but so worth it. I would go back to Thailand just for this dish.

Then we all took off for Starbucks, laptops in tow, and settled down to put the finishing touches on our respective papers/outlines/drafts for BIOCEP. Pantee and I had just a few more changes to make before our outline was done, though the internet connection at the mall was not great and I wasn't actually able to submit the paper until much later that night. After stashing my laptop in Pantee's car, we abandoned ourselves to one last wonderful afternoon of shopping for outrageous deals at the inexpensive Thai stalls in a nearby shopping center.

From left to right: Angie, me.

Having shopped up an appetite, the gang reconvened around six to pile into cars and meet up at a popular restaurant in downtown Bangkok. About halfway there, the heavens opened up and it began to pour, and a few minutes later the traffic slowed to a literal standstill. Still, five girls in a car will usually not find themselves at a loss for conversation, so we all chatted happily away as the car inched its way toward the restaurant and the rain pounded down outside, turning the lights of the city into neon smears of pink and green trickling down the windows.

The last dinner with the gang!
From left to right: Pao, Risa, Melissa, Me, Jen,
Yoon Joo, Sanchai (alias: Sunshine), Heny, Pantee, Janice.

We had, as always, a complete blast at dinner, joking and laughing and probably being too loud. No one wanted the fun to end, but most of us were leaving in the early hours of the following morning and still had packing to do. Around 10 or 11 we reluctantly said our goodbyes, then piled into one of the Thai students' cars and made our way through the puddle-strewn streets back to our empty suitcases in Salaya.

Boat cruise

2008-08-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Lights on the river.

Tonight was not the last night of the program -- indeed, we still have two days of lectures and hospital/lab tours to go -- but it was Dr. Loike's last night in Bangkok, so the BIOCEP crew definitely needed to celebrate.

Dr. Loike + me

We did so by taking a dinner cruise down the Chao Phraya River. After stuffing ourselves with the most lavish spread of amazing food I've seen my entire time here -- including the most heavenly taro ice cream ever -- we oohed and ahhed as the temples and palaces of Bangkok floated by, their glittering rooflines recapitulated in the water below.

Roomie love!
Jen + me

This would be such a cute shot if my
hair weren't all over the place.
My good friend Pao finally wore me down and
I did the Asian finger pose. Don't hate.

Mostly, though, we spent time with each other. Although we still had two days of BIOCEP left to go, a feeling of nostalgia pervaded the evening. This was accentuated by a mock "awards ceremony" we held on the boat's upper deck, as the "social crew" of Gwen, Liz, and Carrie listed superlatives for each member of BIOCEP (mine: "Least likely to look disheveled in a jungle in Thailand") and we all thanked Brian, Coco, Dr. Loike, and the Thai students for all they had done for us.

The "awards" are read out!
Gwen + Liz + Carrie

We took many pictures, hoping to capture the memories and fun we'd all had together during these two weeks in Thailand. I'll miss it!

Me + Risa

Liz + me

Mother's Day

2008-08-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!
From left to right: [back row] Risa, Kelly, Janice, Jen;
[front row] Pao, his A-ma (grandmother), his A-yi (aunt).

This Tuesday was the Queen's birthday, which also made it the day of the year Thailand devotes to celebrating mothers all over the country. Because of the holiday, our classes were canceled for the day, but we still had a full schedule planned with the help of our amazing friend Pao...

Pao's grandmother's street.

As you can see from the photo that tops this post, our first stop of the day involved stopping at Pao's grandmother's house in Chinatown to wish her a very happy mother's day. I had been quite interested to see Chinatown, but hadn't counted on the beautiful displays I saw through the window of Pao's car as we made our way downtown. The main avenue of the city was strung with thousands of tiny twinkling lights, and many storefronts had cleared their windows of merchandise, displaying instead large portraits of the queen and sprays of flowers and fruits. We had a nice time at Pao's A-ma's house, though communication was limited by the fact that she spoke Thai and Cantonese, while our (student) group spoke English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Hebrew (between the four of us). Pao served as translator.

My wish is finally fulfilled! A pink taxi at last.
On left, entering taxi: Janice.

We visited for a while, then departed for further adventures. Pao parked his car and we hopped into the first of a series of taxis -- finally, a pink one! Because it was the morning of Mother's Day, the street was crowded with flower vendors. These workers wake up hours before sunrise, pick up their flowers, and set up shop on the street stringing them together in garlands for sons and daughters to eventually buy to give to their mothers.

The flower vendors.

Our first stop of the day was Wat Pho, also known as the temple of the reclining Buddha. This is one of Bangkok's most famous cultural sites, and we were determined not to leave Thailand without having paid a visit.

Wat Pho.

Because of the holiday, the temple was relatively empty, which only added to the sense of serenity and peace of the place. This quiet and sense of space, taken in conjunction with the coolly overcast skies and fastidious cleanliness of the compound, made it one of my favorite temple visits -- one which retained the sense that it was once built (and for many still functions) as a place of worship and contemplation, and not simply as a colorful cultural artifact to be swarmed over by sweaty crowds.

Topiary at Wat Pho.

We walked from place to place in the serene grounds, admiring the traditional architecture (note the similarity to buildings at the Grand Palace). Not only is Wat Pho one of the oldest and largest temples in all of Bangkok, it is also home to one of the country's largest Buddha images: the Reclining Buddha. This Buddha is more than 150 feet long and nearly 50 feet tall, and the temple in which it is housed is not so much a building as a cage for this magnificent sculpture.

The face of the reclining Buddha.

One of the things I liked best about this enormous Buddha was (oddly enough, considering my usual aversion) his feet. While the Buddha himself is covered in plated gold, his feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, depicting 108 scriptural scenes in Chinese and Indian styles.

The sole of one of Buddha's feet!
Click this to make it bigger and look at these designs --
beautiful illustrations of stories from the Buddhist scriptures.

Having walked down one aisle, admiring the length of the Reclining Buddha, you round a corner by his feet and then proceed along his back. At this section of the temple, you can buy a small batch of ceremonial coins, which you drop one by one into little hammered bowls made by the monks with particular resonant qualities. When people drop coins in the pots along this hallway, it echoes softly through the temple and sounds almost like rain.

Row of hammered pots.

The other thing for which Wat Pho is famous is as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. Having paid our respects to the Reclining Buddha, we meandered through the grounds a bit more, winding our way closer and closer to the massage school and service area which still functions out of Wat Pho.

Some more of the grounds.

One of the neatest things we passed were a series of tiled chedi built to house the ashes of people in the community, whose names were inscribed along its sides. One was decorated with a fresh garland, so large it must have been custom-made that day. This, I imagine, was the way one person who could not spend the day with his or her mother nonetheless found a way of honoring her memory.

A custom-made Mother's Day garland adorns one of the
ceremonial chedi tombs at Wat Pho.

Before long, we had arrived at the massage school and were eagerly lined up in a quiet air-conditioned room smelling of eucalyptus and menthol. The massages here were more expensive than the ones on the beach at Koh Samet, but still far cheaper than massages in the US. And the quality of these massages -- wow. I have no words to describe how incredible it was. I felt like I was floating on a cloud for hours afterwards.

The massage area.

Sad as I was when the hour-long massage wound to a close, I was excited about the next stop on our list: lunch. My expectations were more than exceeded, as Pao ordered a delicious spread of dishes, most of which were vegetarian and none of which I would have known to order for myself. Jen, Janice, Risa and I were delighted.

At our fantastic lunch!
From left to right: Jen, Risa, Janice.

The fun wasn't over when lunch ended -- we were off for dessert at a nearby cafe.

The heavens open!

It's lucky that the cafe was so close, because on our way there, it began to pour! The rain that had been threatening all day came down in sheets as we scurried down the alley to the cafe.

Police motorcycles.

Along the way, we passed some police motorcycles. I paused too suddenly to photograph them, almost creating a collision with Risa, who was running behind me down the street also trying to dodge the rain. I couldn't help it -- I've always got my eye on the cops and nurses of whatever country I'm visiting, because I know they would be topics of interest to my mom and dad (respectively). The combination of police + motorcycles amped the dad interest factor too high not to stop and click away.

A tea selection to make my mother proud.

At last, we arrived. At the cafe, they had a lovely selection of Twinings teas that would have warmed my mother's heart. I had to take a photo of it for her, but my actual order was something rather different...

...tamarind ice cream!

Tamarind is a unique fruit, which grows on trees in crunchy brown pods. The pods are allowed to dry, then are cracked open to access the gooey, sour-sweet fruit inside. My ice cream was delicious, and I also sampled some of Jen's passion fruit sorbet and Risa's young coconut ice cream (which had been the other two selections I had most seriously contemplated). The cafe experience itself was lovely -- lace-topped tables in a cute and trendy setting which overlooked the city's main river as the rain sprinkled its surface.

The mall.

Eventually, the rain eased up a bit, and we picked our way back between the puddles to the main road, where we caught a taxi to take us to a mall by Pao's home. Janice, Jen, Risa and I had plans -- to get our hair done!

Now, those of you who've followed along since my days in Beijing or Taichung know of the disastrous hair-related decisions I've made when traveling abroad. I promised my sister before I left for Thailand that I would not succumb to the temptation to cut my hair while I was there, and I'm proud to say that I kept my promise. The stylist kept her scissors and her chemicals far away from my head, but Jen and I did indulge in a shampoo and blow-dry just to keep the other girls company. After that, we had time for a bit more shopping before dinner.

Group at the restaurant.
Left to right: Janice, Me, Risa, Jen, Pao.

Pao took us to a beautiful waterfront restaurant not far from the mall, where we all showed off our freshly-coiffed hair. The coolest thing about the restaurant experience -- aside from the food and drinks themselves, and the beautiful view -- was the Mother's Day ceremony that began about half an hour after our arrival.

Unflattering shot of me with candle.

Candles with little paper drip-guards were distributed to every person at the restaurant, and before I was sure what what happening, we were all on our feet with every table raising their voices to sing the Thai national anthem. None of us except Pao knew the words, so we were content to stand with our candles held high, watching as the tables of mothers and children around us hugged each other and sang.

Everyone stands to sing the national anthem.

Soon I noticed that we were actually all standing and singing in unison with a scene on the TVs mounted to the ceiling of the restaurant's main pavilion, which meant that pockets of people all of Bangkok -- and perhaps all of Thailand -- were at that very moment also raising candles and their voices to celebrate all the mothers of Thailand, and most especially their Queen. It was a pretty powerful moment.

The river at night, as seen from our table.

After the ceremony, all we had left to do was order our food -- which was fabulous -- and enjoy the scenery. The lights glimmered on the river as boats cruised by, filled with mothers and children out to celebrate the special day. I ordered a papaya smoothie (which came decorated with a purple orchid blossom), a plate of stir-fried water primrose with chili sauce, and a big plate of rice (which did wonders to blunt the extreme spiciness of the other dish!). A good rule of thumb in Thailand is to order everything with an emphatic "NO SPICY." This doesn't mean that your dish won't be spicy -- it will be -- but you might manage to come out of the experience without having burned your lips and tongue off entirely.

The official restaurant tuk-tuk.

When the meal ended, we reluctantly left the restaurant and were surprised to find the official restaurant tuk-tuk waiting to convey us back to the main road to hail the last of the day's taxis. I must say that while my tuk-tuk ride in Ayutthaya was nothing less than hair-raising, this one was actually quite pleasant. When I stumbled out of the last one, I vowed never to get back inside another one... which just goes to show that in Thailand (as everywhere else) you should never say never!

Tuk-tuk ride to the street!
Right to left: Pao, Risa.

Arriving back at campus, I fired off an email to my own mother, to wish her a very happy Thai Mother's Day. It was the perfect ending to a fun-filled day.

Thai puppet theatre

2008-08-11T10:13:00.001-07:00

The entrance to the theatre.
Note shrine to current Thai queen in upper right,
as well as glass box housing one of the Thai puppets at lower left.

Our activity for the evening was a trip to see traditional Thai puppet theatre in Bangkok's Pathum Wan district. After a bit of shopping at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar across the street, and dinner at a restaurant famous for its som tum (green papaya salad, which I ordered with a big plate of jasmine rice and a mango smoothie), we found the theatre and headed inside.

One of the puppet masks -- this one full-size,
to be worn by an actor.

Many masks and replicas of puppets were on display, and we were greeted at the entrance by one of the puppets! At Brian's urging, a couple of us stepped up for a photograph.

We are embraced by one of the demons. From left to right: Jen, Janice, me.

The performance itself was awesome. The play -- which recounted the Hindu legend of the birth of the elephant-headed god Ganesha -- combined elements of three distinct Thai puppet styles. The largest part of the action was depicted by puppets of the style known as Hun Lakorn Lek, a kind of performing art developed by Krae Sapthavanich, based on the older style of Hun Luang. These puppets are about three or three-and-a-half feet tall, decked out in elaborate costumes similar to those used on full-size persons in theater art performance and mask dance. The puppets are carved out of hard, light wood, made of different parts tied together by 16 strings. Each puppet in the show we watched was manned by a team of three puppeteers, dressed in traditional black clothing. The gender of the puppeteers was determined by the gender of the character they portrayed, though the voicing of the puppets (both male and female) was left to a panel of four men at the side of the stage. The movements and expressions of the puppeteers were exquisitely choreographed to reflect at all times the emotions and actions of their puppet -- it was true artistry, beautiful to behold.

The head of Ganesha.

The performance also incorporated elements of Thai shadow puppetry (Nang Yai), as well as traditional mask dancing done by a full-size actor (e.g., when one of the demons changed size). The careful and precise movements of the hands, head, arms, and neck were identical between puppets and full-size performers -- I believe this is because the puppets were meant to deliberately mimic the extant style of palace mask dancing back when the art form first developed, though I'm not entirely sure. Music was provided throughout by a small group of performers playing traditional Thai music at the side of the stage. When the ceremony ended, incense was lit at a shrine to Ganesha located where the voice actors had been sitting, and many in the audience filed up to the front to perform a kind of ritual worship. I went up to look but tried not to interfere with the people paying their respects.

A mask with many faces -- either a demon or a god.

Golden Jubilee Medical Center

2008-08-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Me with nurse at Golden Jubilee (note the shoes!
I totally wore similar ones when I was a candy-striper back in the day).

At Bangkok's Golden Jubilee Medical Center, we were treated to a stimulating lecture on Eastern versus Western modalities of medicine, as well as a tour of the hospital's newly-opened integrative and alternative medicine facilities.

Golden Jubilee prides itself on providing "holistic care" for the "whole person," including physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects. Rather than serving as a facility providing primarily alternative medical treatment, the hospital offers standard "Western" medical treatment supplemented by complementary and alternative therapies like mind-body interventions such as meditation, hypnosis, and music therapy; bioelectromagnetic therapy; manual healing methods such as acupuncture, cupping, massage, and moxibustion; energy therapy, such as qi gong, reiki, johrei, or intercessory prayer; and pharmacologic and biological treatments, including herbal medicine and other nutritional and dietary interventions.

What I found most fascinating was (naturally) our discussion of the different philosophical approaches to human life which underlie the traditional Eastern versus traditional Western healing modalities. Whereas conventional Western medicine tends to view the mind and body as essentially separate systems, with mind as only a secondary factor in organic illness, Eastern therapy conceives of mind, body, and spirit as fully integrated, with mind as a primary or coequal factor in all illness. Western treatments are often pharmacological or surgical, focused on treating symptoms of a disease which is typically characterized either as a malfunction in the otherwise functional machine of the human body, or as some invading foreign pathogen. By contrast, Eastern medicine views disease as a source of information about some imbalance in the body-mind complex which can often be addressed by less invasive means than surgery or drugs intended to kill off invading organisms (e.g. psychotherapy, diet, exercise, etc.). Eastern healing traditions often focus on the importance of balancing energies or energy flow within the body, and view the patient herself as the direct target of treatment rather than the disease or symptoms from which she is suffering. It was easy to spot the connections between the Platonic and Cartesian mind-body dualism that have probably informed Western philosophical debate, and the more fluid understanding of consciousness and personal identity at the heart of Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Daoism, and I personally would have liked to talk more about these connections.

However, I was also fascinated by the description of the actual complementary and alternative medical practices (CAM) performed at Golden Jubilee. Combining insights from Indian Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the therapies most commonly on offer at the hospital seemed to be based on the meridian system of energy flow within the body. Six yin (cold) and six yang (hot) meridian lines are traced throughout the body, and therapies intended to unblock the flow of energy along these lines involve stimulating the body in various ways: whether by penetration (acupuncture), burning herbs (moxibustion), reverse pressure (cupping), or manual stimulation (tui na, or traditional massage). We got to view (and in some cases experience!) these treatments first-hand when we toured the new CAM facilities at Golden Jubilee. Several of our members -- including Dr. Loike! -- were treated to cupping, acupuncture, and massage as the rest of us watched, trying not to choke on the smoke from burning herbs that filled the ward.

I really enjoyed the brief discussion we had after the talk over snacks (including super-sweet drinks and a dessert I had never tried before: yellow beans wrapped in a mochi-like sticky rice dumpling rolled in coconut flakes and sprinkled with a salt+sugar+sesame seed combination -- yum!) about the potential for integration and increased understanding between the two healing modalities. While providing CAM as an alternative or complement to the more standardly-prescribed Western treatments is a good policy, surely there is much each can stand to learn from the other. Clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of certain alternative treatments are few but growing in number, and explanations based in one paradigm to explain successes of the other (such as the so-called "gate theory" explanation for the efficacy of acupuncture in alleviating pain, or the studies on immune response after human touch) might help lead us forward to a point in time where these healing practices do not so much coexist but actually integrate.

Floating Market

2008-08-09T10:12:00.001-07:00

The view from the bridge.

This afternoon we traveled to Ampawa, home to one of Thailand's most popular floating markets. Slightly less famous than markets closer to Bangkok -- and therefore less touristed by foreigners -- Ampawa gives a more authentic picture of life in one of Thailand's riverside villages.

You literally couldn't move!

Of course, being less touristed doesn't make Ampawa any less crowded. Indeed, many areas were so packed with people (though nearly all Thai) that all you could do was sort of shuffle your feet in the direction you wanted to move as the teeming mass of humanity crushing in on you from all sides did the same. It was unreal.

Shot of the docks from above.

Part of this doubtless has to do with the inherent disorganization of the main activity at Ampawa: eating. Eating is a more complicated and haphazard process here because the main means of acquiring food is not by sitting down at a table and ordering it -- or even buying it at a stand and meandering along your way -- but by perching precariously at the water's edge and shouting to vendors floating in boats on the river what you'd like to eat, then having them row or motor their way close enough to you to make the exchange. You do this, as seen in the pictures above and below, at the same time about a thousand other people do the same thing.

An atypically neat area of the canal's edge. On the left are a series of flat wooden steps extending down and out over the water. This is where people sit and order and eat their food. On the right are a series of boats selling their wares.

Another shot of the floating marketeers crowding the shore.

A woman selling fruit along the river.

The food, naturally, is legendary, especially the seafood. I took a few pictures, which represent less than 1% of the variety and volume of food actually on offer at Ampawa.

Some sort of shellfish -- scallops? -- that the others ordered.

One of my favorite Asian fruits, pommelo,
which I was first introduced to by Mrs. Jwo years ago!

I have no idea what this food is, but I think it involves
grilling miniature bananas (right) encapsulated in bamboo tubes (left).

Brightly-colored confectionery.

More candies... can we tell what my favorite
kind of food at Ampawa was?

Grilled squid -- eek!

A gigantic pile of the makings of one of my most beloved
Thai dishes -- som tum, or green papaya salad.

There were also a variety of shops along the sides of the river which sold various non-edible things, which we shuffled through (pinned in by the river on one side, the stores on the opposite side, and by masses of other people on the other two). I bought an ice pop that I think -- after some inspired internet sleuthing -- was probably roselle flavored. It had an interesting flavor, quite sweet but almost a bit salty too, and a rich mauve color that made me very careful of drips!

Remove shoes before entering!

Perhaps the most interesting thing about these stores was that you had to remove your shoes before entering nearly all of them -- something I frequently forgot to do. (On the upside, being obviously foreign has its benefits when seeking forgiveness for unintentional transgressions.)

Plank walkway behind one of the stores.

We caught occasional glimpses of what it might be like to live, rather than simply visit, this place. I think it must be challenging.

Some dilapidated buildings along the waterfront,
away from the main tourist strip.

Not least of the factors making Ampawa a nice place to visit rather than live is the fog of motor fumes that hung over the river. In addition to all the boaters selling food, there are people manning much larger boats, which cruise up and down the river to give people a tour of the village and its surrounding natural and historical sights.

One of the "cruise" boats.

We were scheduled to take a tour of Ampawa in one of these boats, so around 6pm we all dutifully lined up, as the sun began to set and the sky turned dusky colors above the water. As we were all handed orange life preservers, I marveled at the size of the motor on the boat below us. We climbed down one of the sets of wooden steps at the canalside and the first students clambered over the edge of the boat. The boatman turned his key in the ignition, and the boat's motor sputtered to life with an oddly familiar sound. Almost... too familiar. Kind of like...

Blurry picture of the boat's motor.

...the sound my car used to make when I would start it up to leave for school in the morning. A large metal tube looking suspiciously like an exhaust pipe belched familiar-smelling fumes and a fine dribble of oil out into the water behind the boat. Could it be...?

Blurry picture of another guy cruising past
with one of these mysterious motors.

Gwen, the only Columbia student on the trip who is actually from Thailand, leaned in to me at that moment. "They're old car engines," she said, gesturing at the motor boats with a mischievous grin. "You're kidding," I said blankly. "Nope!" she giggled, then hopped into the boat.

The lights come on over the river.

We hadn't traveled more than 70 seconds before suddenly, with a loud juddering sound, the boat lurched sideways, ricocheting off a boat travelling in the other direction. After a few shouted words -- doubtless rather rude -- between the two boatmen, we were on our way again. I couldn't help thinking of how the iceberg that sank the Titanic actually struck it a glancing blow rather than head on. The ship cruised on away from the iceberg, which had peeled a large swath of metal off the part of the boat below the waterline, allowing a series of the supposedly airtight chambers (the very ones that had led the boat's sponsors to call it "unsinkable") to slowly fill with water as the crew sailed on, oblivious of the ship's peril until it was too late. Was our boat filling with water in the invisible area beneath our feet? We set off down the canal toward the open river. I felt anxious.

Were we motoring to our doom?

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. Feeling sick from the unfiltered exhaust fumes and having to shout over the sound of the engine (needed a muffler) were the worst I had to contend with -- and there was much to make up even for these discomforts.

Some kind of historical palace, monastery, or temple.
(Couldn't hear what our tour guide said,
for reasons delineated above.)

We saw some beautiful sights as night deepened over Ampawa. I couldn't really hear what anyone was saying about what we passed (I was unluckily seated right in front of the boatman and his car engine), but the beauty of the experience spoke for itself. The absolute highlight of the trip was getting to see the fireflies. Even before our trip, much had been made of these "fireflies" and how nice it would be to take a cruise along the river at night to see them. Now, I like lightening bugs as much as the next Long Islander, and spent many happy evenings chasing them in my backyard, capturing them and even transferring a few into carefully prepared jars (with grass and air holes) before releasing them the following morning. But the fireflies at Ampawa were another experience entirely. Rather than circling about, glowing greenish-yellow at random intervals in the night air, as the fireflies of my youth had done, these insects clung to a certain species of tree lining both edges of the Mae Klong River, glittering faintly yet rapidly with a silvery light that illuminated the delicate structure of the trees themselves. No photo could have captured that vision, so I didn't even try. It was magical.

Weekend Market

2008-08-09T10:11:00.004-07:00

Saturday in the park with friends. From left to right:
Janice, Pao, me, Risa, Jen, (Pao's girlfriend) Ju.

The weekend market in Bangkok, colloquially known as “JJ Market” for reasons I've forgotten (having something to do with the actual name in Thai sounding something like "jay-jay," maybe?) is one of the best places to find fun snacks and great bargains on everything from clothes to silks to indigenous plants.

Flowers for sale at the weekend market.

In certain ways, the market reminded me of the markets I used to frequent in Wudaokou, the student district in Beijing where I lived two summers ago. Stall after stall after stall jostle up against each other to form a structure composed at its edges of a maze of tarp ceilings above narrow cement pathways carved with canals to carry away rain- and waste-water. Toward the market center, however, linoleum replaces cement and a real roof appears overhead, with some vendors offering goods in clean and even stylish stalls.

One of the market artisans hard at work.

What else can I say about the weekend market? Three words: It. Was. Awesome. We shopped until we just about dropped, then shopped some more. We met up with Pao’s girlfriend and ate ice cream on the street. We clambered through the dripping stalls in the plant bazaar just to goggle at the mosses and orchids that seemed to hang from or cling to every surface (and perhaps also to enjoy a somewhat dank respite from the heat outside). We bought gifts for friends and family members. We reluctantly dragged ourselves away only because we knew we had to be back at the university by 2pm for a group expedition to Ampawa… and even then we barely gave ourselves enough time for lunch!

Meat on sticks -- one of the most
popular street snacks all over Asia.
(Admittedly, they have never been my thing.)

Lunch was curtailed by more than just shopping, however. When we finally emerged from the market and out into the blazing sun of the parking lot, I was shocked to see not one but two closely-parked lines of cars boxing in Pao’s car. Pao and Ju exhibited no concern at the sight as we drew nearer, but I was already fretting. How on earth were we going to get out of the parking lot in time to make the bus to Ampawa?

The parking lot.
Pao's car was parked in the row on the far left of this shot.

My question was soon answered as Pao calmly approached one of the nearby cars and began to push on it. To my horror, it began to roll – no emergency brake – the vehicle wasn’t even in park! “Can you go behind and make sure I don’t bump the next car?” he asked me, just as naturally as could be. Stunned, I complied, and before long I, too, was helping to roll the other cars in line, one by one, to clear a path for Pao’s car to exit. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

The bus! We made it with time to spare.

We did make it back to Salaya in time for the trip, thanks in no small part to my newly-honed car-pushing skills. I expected to come back from this trip with some new experience in international bioethics – now I can also proudly point to my expertise as a parking relocation engineer!

Ayutthaya Part VI: Summer Palace

2008-08-09T10:11:00.003-07:00

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, also known as the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace for Thai royalty in Ayutthaya had a certain degree in common with the Summer Palace for Chinese emperors and empresses that I visited in Beijing -- from the giant peaceful lake to the serene elegance of the gardens and mansions, right down to the assorted tourists taking pictures of me (and with me) instead of the infinitely more interesting scenery. (I've said it before and I'll say it again: there seems to be an odd pattern in Asia where visitors at monuments or historical sites are as interested in the other visitors -- especially tall approachable-looking ones with blonde hair -- as in the site itself, and have little compunction about photographing, or asking to be photographed with, them.)

On the other hand, I am awfully photogenic.
Just kidding!
From left to right: me, Heny.

Anyway, the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In dates back to the seventeenth century, pre-dating the establishment of Bangkok as the capitol of Thailand. However, the palace fell into long disuse and was only revitalized later in the 1800s, by King Rama IV. Today, the palace is only used infrequently, and then mostly for state occasions rather than as a royal summer residence.

The mansion roofline.

According to the official Thai Palaces site, the main residence is a modern reconstruction of the original building. Although the original building was supposedly constructed in the style of a Swiss Chalet, the modern building has a more "Paris Metro" art-deco feel to it.

Me in front of the main mansion.

Indeed, there were many western-style buildings on the site. Perhaps the most beautiful area was a large formal garden near the entrance we came in, lined with perfect white statues and bright flowers next to the faintly rippling waters of the complex's expansive artificial lake.

Row of statues.

From left to right: Risa, Alex, Angie, me.

One of the grounds' many Western-style buildings.

Still life by the artificial lake.

On the other hand, the palace grounds are also home to buildings in non-Western architectural styles, most notably the "tower of the sages" -- a kind of lookout tower shaped like a traditional stupa and painted with yellow and red stripes -- and a Chinese-style residence complete with a personal temple for the King's spiritual needs.

Twisty tree roots obscure the red-and-yellow tower.

I wish I had a clearer shot of the so-called "Sages' Lookout" (Ho Withun Thasana), because I'd like to convey to you all just how brave I was to climb to the top. (For those who don't already know: I hate heights.) However, this shot taken from the top might give you some sense of how high up I was, as well as showing another angle on the perfectly manicured grounds...

The view from the top of Ho Withun Thasana!

The "inner complex" of the Summer Palace is where you'll find the aforementioned Chinese temple and house, just a bit behind the Sages' Lookout.

The Chinese temple.

Believe it or not, the structure was actually built in China and given as a gift to King Rama V by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1889. The traditional architectural detailing, geometric forms, exorbitant use of red and ebony lacquer... I began to feel a bit nostalgic for Taiwan and China as I padded (barefoot, naturally) through the building's gilded halls.

A shot of the perfectly still water beside the temple.

Personally, one of my favorite things about the Summer Palace was the distinct bunny theme they had going on. First, we passed a little statue of a boy cradling a rabbit in front of the gazebo overlooking the pond.

Statue of child with rabbit.

Then, from atop the Sages' Lookout, I spotted a veritable warren of bunny-shaped topiaries!!! I pointed them out to everyone who happened to be up top with me at the time, then tried to take a closer photo of them with my friend Jen (foiled by our sudden recognition that it was not permitted to walk on the grass).

Bunny topiaries!

What's not to love about a place with topiaries like this?! The Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In was definitely one of my favorite stops.

Ayutthaya Part V: Wat Phananchoeng Worawihan

2008-08-09T10:11:00.001-07:00

Our final temple visit in Ayutthaya was Wat Phananchoeng Worawihan, located along the Pasak River. The temple was built in 1324 AD and actually predates the founding of Ayutthaya by King Ramathibodi.

Plant display outside the main bathroom building.

The temple has an especially strong influence from Chinese culture, and is still greatly revered and frequented by Thais of Chinese descent. The highlight of this temple is the section for Chinese fortune-telling, in which traditional methods of scattering sticks and wood shaped like bones yields a number which in turn directs you to one of two dozen numbered fortunes.

Carved Chinese panels inside the main temple area.

I got a pretty terrible fortune, filled with grim forecasts for the future. Thankfully, Oak informed me, one need not always accept the fortune that one is given -- I saved my paper and will burn it later this evening, as a sign to the gods that I do not accept this picture of my future and will work to change the karmic influences that led them to give me this assessment.

Shot of the temple grounds.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that, for me, the best part of Wat Phananchoeng Worawihan was the line of homemade snacks and other selections in stalls that lined the outer perimeter of the temple parking lot. We cruised up and down the row of shops, buying some unique snacks (including some deliciously sweet fried taro chips) and simply gaping at others.

Some of the snacks for sale -- don't ask me what they are!

We didn't have long at this temple -- just long enough for some lunch, some snacks, and a fortune -- because we still had one stop left to go before the long drive back to Bangkok. This was what promised to be the most glamorous and elegant site of all we had seen: the Summer Palace. I could hardly wait.

Ayutthaya Part IV: Elephant Ride!

2008-08-09T10:10:00.004-07:00

An elephant carries corn.

Our next stop in Ayutthaya was to meet and interact with Thailand's most revered animal: the elephant. The "white elephant" is the most treasured of all animals, having a historically close symbolic association with the King and royal family. Indeed, before the country changed its name to Thailand (meaning "land of the free") and its flag (to one bearing red, white, and blue stripes, representing religion, the state, and the monarchy respectively), the flag of the country bore a royal white elephant at its center. (Technically, historians speculate that during the Ayutthaya period a simple red flag was flown, with the elephant being added only after the Bangkok period was well underway... but the point about the significance of the animal remains).

A shrine built to honor elephants at the main site.

That's not to say that the entire experience was not without levity -- elephants are revered, but not treated as so sacred they are beyond having a little fun. Besides riding on the animal itself, my favorite part of this experience was watching as two younger elephants rose up and down on their hind legs, swaying their trunks and flapping their ears to as 80s eurotrash hit The Final Countdown issued tinnily forth from a set of speakers.

One of the elephants interacts with a keeper.

I'll admit that I was somewhat nervous about riding on an elephant... having packed only a summery white dress in an effort to be appropriately dressed for the many temple visits on our itinerary, I was aghast to think that I would either have to sit astride a massive, dusty animal, or give up what might be my only chance to ride a real Thai elephant. Thankfully, neither of these options was required of me, and I climbed into a wooden seat lashed to the elephant's back with only a little bit of trepidation.

Elephant ride! From left to right: elephant guide, Alex, Maja.

Someone I know has a picture of me and my friend Jen looking somewhat startled as our elephant departs from the loading platform, but it hasn't appeared online yet. I'll post it if and when it surfaces. You can get a sense of the setup by looking at the picture of fellow BIOCEP-teers Alex and Maja, above. We rode behind an elephant trainer who sat basically atop the elephant's broad head, jiggling its ears with his bare toes to direct it to turn left or right. The view of the countryside, dotted with still more ruins of the old Ayutthayan capital, was beautiful... I'll leave you with a few of the shots I took.

From atop the elephant:

Ayutthaya Part III: Wat Mahathat

2008-08-09T10:10:00.003-07:00

The ruins of Wat Mahathat.

Our first stop of the day was at one of the famous ruined temples of Ayutthaya. According to royal annals, Wat Mahathat was built by King Boram Racathrat I in the mid-fourteenth century to honor Buddha.

The day was somewhat overcast, which moved the temperature
from truly unbearable into just really, really, really hot.

After collapse of the main prang (a type of Southeast Asian temple spire) in the seventeenth century, reconstruction was undertaken during the reign of King Prasat Thang. Although much of the temple actually survived the raids by Burmese invaders during the fall of Ayutthaya, an earthquake in 1907 wrought further damage on key structures of the temple grounds during the reign of King Rama VI (of the current dynasty).

Nearly every statue of Buddha in the place had been decapitated.
(The darker gray stone in the left background is a head).

Although there was a certain loveliness about the derelict ruins -- a reminder that, as Sam points out in one of my favorite passages from LOTR, beauty can often be found in the most unlikely places -- the overwhelming impression this place left was one of sadness. The temple had been defaced by invading Burmese armies, with statues toppled and places of worship torched and sacked.

Bottom view of one of the main stupas.

Still, I am enough of an architecture geek to have been excited even by the thought of what had once been, and I loved seeing the distinct influence of Hindu temple structures on the Thai building style, different from the more modern Siamese style adopted in the new capital city of Bangkok. I took more pictures here than anywhere else in Ayutthaya -- here are just a few.

Me in front of one of the still-standing prangs.

Another shot of the ruins.

From left to right: [back row] Liz, Shirin, Maja,
Donna, Alex, Chan, Melissa, Jen, Oak; [middle row] Me, Risa,
Jen, Janice, Margarita, Tasha; [front row] Nini.

One of the few Buddhas who survived with head intact.

One of the decapitated Buddha's heads finds solace in an embrace of tree roots.

From left to right: Risa, Jen, Janice, Angie, Me, Pantee.

The Opening of the Olympic Games!!

2008-08-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

After the night market, we all piled into a hotel room to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games! Sprawled across two beds, snacking on Thai street food, we watched with rapt attention as the parade of nations strolled past on the screen (scanning for cute guys). Soon after we turned the TV on, the President of the Olympic council appeared on the screen and addressed the crowd in English. Then, the familiar face of (Chinese president) Hu Jintao appeared on screen. In a voice thick with emotion, he declared the opening of the 2008 Games!!!

I was a little surprised by how excited I was by the opening of the Games. I have so many ambivalent attitudes about the Chinese government and its policies, and have followed the questionable “Blue Sky Beijing” program and torch relay protests with such attention, that I nearly lost sight of the actual event at the center of this swirling controversy. In the weeks leading up to the Games, I had given a decent amount of thought to the question of whether or not the Olympics is or is not an appropriate occasion for protesting the policies or philosophies of the hosting government.

Yet in those incredible moments, as Hu Jintao’s voice boomed across that auditorium, all rational deliberation was swept aside. All I could think of was the pride shining in the eyes of my Chinese friends as they talked about these games to me three years ago, of all the trying and planning and sweat and wealth and time the country had poured into this undertaking from the second they got the green light, of the half-built stadium, aquarium, and village I had visited and explored at the Olympic Planning Museum back when no one was quite sure China was really going to pull things off… and when the announcer cried out “ZHU HE ZHONG GUO” a little part of me was yelling it too.

Ayutthaya Part II: Night Market

2008-08-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

After arriving in Ayutthaya and dropping our belongings in the hotel, it was time for dinner and some exploration of our new surroundings. We flooded out onto the streets and eventually found our way to a local night market. We browsed a typical selection of jewelry, clothing, and knick-knacks, and munched our way through a bunch of standard night-market food-on-sticks-style cuisine, including a kind of sausage made with rice that is apparently quite popular further north in Thailand.

This is what a Bangkok tuk-tuk looks like in broad daylight.

Before long, the vendors began to close up shop, and I suggested we head back to the hotel to see what we could catch on TV of the news from Beijing, since today was, after all, 08-08-08, the long-awaited date of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. We piled into a tuk-tuk that was far less modern and shiny than the one pictured above, and rumbled down the trash-strewn streets of Ayutthaya at what seemed to me to be far too fast a pace for comfort.

Inside the tuk-tuk. Left to right: Pantee and Yoon Joo put on brave smiles, Janice fiddles with her camera, Heny is obscured from view and Risa flashes the peace sign.

The general trend in Ayutthaya seems so far to be that things are several years older and several grades filthier than their Bangkok counterparts, and the tuk-tuk was no exception. I was thankful when we finally staggered out of the tuk-tuk's open back, coughing on the diesel fumes, and re-entered the hotel at last.

The view from the back of the tuk-tuk.
Good riddance!

Ayutthaya Part I: Long Bus Journey

2008-08-08T10:09:00.001-07:00

Some boys play soccer in the "street."

Ayutthaya is located about 3 hours north of Bangkok, though as our journey involved a stop at the AIDS hospice, the trip took closer to 6 hours total. I snapped a few photos of the countryside as we passed through, as the income disparity was quite visually apparent as soon as we left the suburbs of Bangkok.

Rice paddies.

Although there was much beauty in the countryside, the lack of basic resources and material wealth was painfully clear in many of the rural areas we passed through. I was lucky enough to sit next to my friend Pao for most of the journey, and we talked for a long time about the social and economic situation in Thailand in the more rural provinces, as well as the challenges this situation poses for public health and education out here.

Rural alleyway.

AIDS Hospice

2008-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

One of several statues at the hospice.

Our final academic stop for the week was at an AIDS Hospice located in Lopburi, Thailand, about two hours north of Bangkok, deep in the countryside. The hospice is actually a temple, called Wat Phra Nam Phu, a beautiful sanctuary-like compound home to several hundred people and families living with HIV and/or AIDS.

The entrance to Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu.

In the past, no medical professionals staffed the hospice and no drugs or medical treatment were used at all -- spiritual support was the only means of comfort available to people lviing out their last days, weeks, or months with the disease. Recently, however, things have been changing. In an incredibly controversial move, the Thai government ignored US and international patent laws and made one of the best treatments for HIV/AIDS -- the triple antiretroviral drug cocktail -- available through its national healthcare system. This means that the death rate at Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu has plummeted from 3-4 a week to about 4 a month, and many people are calling the temple a (slightly) more permanent home.

A row of the homes for patients and families.

The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in Thailand is still strong, though places like this one are working to fight against it. Many of the patients were taken for a "trip to the countryside" by their families, and then dropped off in silence at the hospice gates, or even thrown out of the backs of cars or trucks. Others come to the temple to escape the censure and scorn of the outside world. Many were former commercial sex workers with few skills who find their former occupation now barred to them and have nowhere else to go.

The temple of ashes.
Foreground: Pao, tourguide.

One of the most moving testaments to the power of this stigma was found in the simple open-air temple pictured above. The stacks of white pouches are each filled with the ashes of a victim of HIV/AIDS who was abandoned at the hospice to die. After death, the bodies of each person at Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu are cremated and placed into labeled bags to be claimed by their family members. Those which have not been claimed after three months are placed in this temple below a statue of Buddha. I think the size of the stacks speaks for itself in showing just how far acceptance of victims of this disease has to go in Thailand.

One of the other controversial elements of Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu is called the "Life Museum," a kind of mausoleum containing the dessicated bodies and preserved body parts of those who have died on the compound. The corpses are tacked up on wooden boards in the open air, with small placards beside them listing name, former occupation, age at time of death, and means of contracting HIV. Before coming to the hospice, I had been under the impression that this gruesome display was meant to serve as a moral lesson to those still among the living -- behave yourselves and don't become HIV positive! -- but in fact the message was slightly different.

Interspersed with the bodies (which I chose not to photograph) were large posters with poems and lessons from Buddha concerning the fluidity of consciousness, the cyclic nature of life and death, the need to renounce material connections, and the ephemerality of the body as a vessel that carries us through the world for just a short time. I copied one of these poems into my notebook:

There's No "Me" "Me" myself doesn't really exist, So where well you find "my wife and kids"? Not to mention "my wealth" or "my stuff" Because I don't even have a "self" of my own! If those are the facts then whatever is it that Excites and sends body-mind moving around? It's just body-mind, haven't you noticed? Don't you know that body-mind is not "self"? It's merely wonderful, profound natural change That thinks, feels, speaks, and acts according to causes Just ordinary blind aggregates and elements Don't foolishly assume that "Me" exists.

I also copied the self-proclaimed message of the Life Museum itself:

The Spirit of those who have died here teaches us
how to think about our daily life today and in the future. We understand that life is all around us. But sometimes we forget that we are connected to all of life. Death is a part of life and we forget to accept this truth. Death leads to the birth of new life. We invite all of you
Who come to this place
To be silent
As you experience what you see here. This museum has many bodies That shows how death affects all of us Leading us to the truth That in this life we must do good for others.

There was so much good on view here in this place -- the good of the monks who work at the temple, accepting those whom the rest of society cannot even bear to touch, the beauty of the surrounding countryside, the serenity of this place which had been created with such care to attend to the spiritual and social needs of an already afflicted and persecuted population, the strong faith of the monks in the Buddhist philosophy of life, the generosity of the local and international tourists who donate money to keep the compound functional, the joy on the faces of two HIV positive girls playing ping-pong on the side of the road as we passed in a semblance of normalcy that would otherwise have been beyond them -- but it raised some deep ethical questions as well, and I left the hospice feeling moved but also troubled.

So much of the resources of the area seemed to be directed towards display and tourism -- perhaps a necessary move given the way the hospice is funded, but some of what we saw seemed almost too set up for display. In particular, we were given the option of walking through the clinical ward, a tiny corridor of cramped beds with people in their last throes of life. I stood outside, having nothing to offer these desperately ill people and unwilling to degrade their dignity still further by making them a spectacle for my personal edification. There are enough questions about displaying dessicated corpses in the open air as a method of public education -- what are we to say about the similar display of living human beings? On the other hand, does the "deterrence value" or "public good" of unvarnished interaction with people ravaged by this disease outweigh the individual violations of their integrity and respect?

I also wondered about resource allocation at Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu. Why did it take so long before drugs were made available to the patients there? (The government healthcare system had previously funded other antiretroviral treatments before the latest patent-violating move). There are echoes here of an old and familiar debate about end-of-life care -- at what point do life-extending treatments simply extend the patient's suffering unnecessarily? what does it mean to die with dignity? how strong is the physician's duty to save life at all costs versus allowing for a more painless death? -- yet in a way I think here the case is much clearer. The difference between treated and untreated AIDS cases in this day and age is not the difference between someone dying slightly sooner with less pain and someone dying slightly later with more pain. The difference is enormous, enough in many cases to transform AIDS from a devastating terminal illness to one which becomes almost a chronic condition: livable for many years, managed with medication. If the temple had strong religious reasons to forswear medication, then why did it recently decide to provide treatment and employ a minimal medical staff? (Very minimal, by the way: one nurse for five hundred patients, according to one person I spoke to, though that figure might not be correct).

Why were donated funds spent on beautiful Western-style toilets for visiting tourists and the construction (still underway while we were there) of a magnificent staircase and brass bell on display? The answers, I suppose, are to secure more revenue by attracting and wowing more donors, and for the greater glory of Buddha, respectively, yet each one leaves me slightly unsettled. Why bother trying to pull in more money if you're only going to spend it on further cosmetic improvements instead of on patient care? Buddha is not like God, who might be pleased with your offering and help save your patients, so too much ostentatious religious display is also mystifying.

There is no question that the monks and volunteers who work at Wat Phra Bat Nam Phu do wonderful work and have created a truly remarkable oasis for people who otherwise have nothing to live for. Yet there are questions about the means they have taken to this end, questions which still nag at me now, days later. If you are interested in learning more about the AIDS hospice, there was a story on PBS with several of the monks back in 2002, which you can check out here. An article skeptical, like me, of the commercialization of the site and exploitation of its patients, can be found here.

Lopburi countryside, taken from the bus window as we drove away.

Weekend in Ayutthaya!

2008-08-08T09:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend we are heading to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand, located some miles north of Bangkok. I'll be out of town and out of touch for this time, but I'll be back on Monday with stories to share!

Siriraj and Yanhee: A study in contrasts

2008-08-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Statue of Prince Mahidol outside Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital.

Today we had the opportunity to visit two of Bangkok's largest and most important hospitals: Siriraj, a well-established and well-respected public hospital partnered with Mahidol University's Medical School, and Yanhee, a more recently established and rapidly-expanding private hospital specializing in cosmetic enhancements and medical tourism.

Flock of nurses at Siriraj.

Siriaj Hospital was founded by King Rama V to be the hospital for all of (what was then) Siam. It was at Siriraj that Thailand’s first medical school was established. Prince Mahidol was charged with administering both the hospital and the associated medical school, modernizing them and bringing them up to world class standards. Today, the hospital has more than 2 million patient visits each year.

Dean of Siriraj Hospital and personal physician to the King!

We were treated to a series of presentations from doctors at Siriraj and at Thailand's Department of Preventative and Social Medicine. We even got to meet one of the physicians who personally ministers to the Thai Royal Family! The presentations were excellent, filled with information about the country's national health insurance system as well as the myriad challenges, both ethical and logistical, faced by government organizers in public health and medicine here. Thailand has recently passed the threshold faced by many developing countries, suffering more now from non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and cancer than from communicable ones such as measles or diptheria. There was much discussion of Thailand’s unique healthcare system, which provides universal access to all its citizens.

Although the hospital is one of the finest in all of Thailand, you could tell from a simple glance at the packed waiting room and open-air conditions that the government still faces huge obstacles in providing an adequate standard of care to its population. Those with enough money to afford private health insurance, or to pay healthcare costs out-of-pocket will almost universally choose one of these two options rather than be subjected to the long wait times, crowded conditions, sub-par medications, and dismal doctor-to-patient ratios that currently plague Thailand's healthcare system. The strides they have made in recent years, moving from a fully-privatized system like the one China currently employs, to national coverage, are truly laudable, but much work still remains to be done and I do not envy Thai officials the burden they face.

At any rate, after a delicious lunch -- featuring not one but several vegetarian options! -- we piled back on the bus and drove to another part of the city, where Yanhee International Hospital serves quite a different clientele.

The gleaming corridors of Yanhee.

When I tell you that I didn't take any photos of the interior of Siriraj out of concern for the dignity of the cramped patients in such surroundings, perhaps that can offer some sense of the contrast between Yanhee and Siriraj. According to Yanhee's stylish website, the hospital was established in 1984 and has evolved since then into "a world-class health and beauty institution to meet the increasing demands of patients, both Thais and foreigners from all corners of the world. Facilities and medical personnel have been updated and constantly improved. Today, Yanhee International Hospital stands as [a] world-class healthcare facility, and one of the biggest centers in Asia for health and beauty."

Currently, the following medical service centers are available:

* Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery Center
* General Medicine Center
* General Surgery Center
* Obstetric and Gynecology Center
* Pediatric Center
* Bone and Joint Reconstructive Center
* Hair Center
* Permanent Cosmetic Tattoo Center
* Skin Center
* ENT Center
* Varicosity Clinic
* Physical Therapy
* Dental Center
* Psychiatry Center
* Detox Center
* Ophthalmology-Lasik Center
* Weight Control Center
* Sex-change Center

We were served snazzy petit fours and coffee, then treated to a lengthy tour of many of the hospital's clinics and floors, including the detox center and VIP suites and rooftop garden on the top of the building. Currently, Yanhee is undergoing construction to expand the building still further, from ten to fifteen stories, adding about 2oo new beds to the facility.

With one of the staff nurses.
From left to right: me, nurse, Janice.

While there, I simply had to get a picture with one of the nurses. The impression this picture gives is slightly misleading, as my own skirt was rather on the short side today. The nurse here is wearing 3 or 4 inch heels with a miniskirt stretching to mid-thigh. Now, I like miniskirts as much as the next person, but I don't think I'd care to see one on my medical health professional... but who knows; maybe that's just me. In fact, this uniform was actually one of several different kinds I saw there, including a yellow-shirt-hot-pink-miniskirt combo worn by the nurses on rollerblades (yes, you read that correctly).

From left to right: me, administrative staff assistant.

Yanhee also has "administrative support staff" whose job seems to be to operate the elevators and stand around looking tall, thin, and gorgeous. They have no medical qualifications to speak of, though many have had procedures done at Yanhee (eyelid surgery, dimple insertion, etc.) to enhance their own physical appearance. There is a "Miss Yanhee" beauty contest each year used for hiring purposes, to select these employees, some of whom have no education beyond a high school diploma. After leaving the facility, we had a lengthy conversation concerning several bioethical topics relevant to the work that goes on at Yanhee: medical tourism, the commercialization of health and beauty, the objectification of women, the redefinition of "health" and "normalcy," the income gap between rich Thais and foreigners and the afflicted poor we saw at Siriraj, etc. I'm glad we found the time to have this conversation, but I must say I think the images here probably speak more than any philosophical rambling I could offer on today's experiences. Draw your own conclusions... I'd love to hear what you think.

The Grand Palace

2008-08-07T07:39:00.001-07:00

The Grand Palace!

Foreground: the latest in my growing series of topiary shots.
I seriously have a thing about photographing foliage.

Today we visited one of Bangkok's oldest and most beautiful attractions -- the Grand Palace, a complex of buildings on the east bank of the Chao Phraya river in downtown Bangkok. The Grand Palace was the home of the King up until the turn of the twentieth century, when a newer, simpler palace was constructed (though the old Palace is still used for official government ceremonies). It is also home to some of the city's most elegant temples. Construction was begun here in 1872, and the place is still in immaculate condition... thanks to constant upkeep! Unfortunately, for precisely this reason, the famous chapel of the Emerald Buddha was closed for repair during our visit. The Emerald Buddha is "an object of national veneration" according to the official website: carved from a single block of jade, it is perched atop a golden altar meant to resemble the chariots depicted in Hindu myths popular in Thai history. Still, although we missed out on the Emerald Buddha, we were definitely not at a loss for beautiful buildings to explore!

Our completely adorable tour guide, plus students in the temple-appropriate clothing they are forced to wear if their original attire is deemed inappropriate (shorts, skirts above the knee, pants on women, etc.) From left to right: Alex, tour guide, Liz.

One of the highlights of this visit was our energetic tour guide, the tiny, eccentrically-dressed gentleman pictured above. After sweltering for a bit in the blazing sunshine, we met up with the guide and were on our way.

While we stood lined along the road, waiting for those
who were required to change into long sarongs in order to enter
the temple area, a phalanx of Thai soldiers marched past
in their crisp white uniforms.

We began our tour by meandering through the temple area of the Grand Palace. The first area we explored -- the Upper Terrace -- was really interesting.

One of the female chimera guardians of the temple area.

Topiaries, mini water gardens, fanciful and historical statues are sprinkled around a lineup of three religious monuments in distinct Thai architectural styles. The first, and perhaps most eye-catching, is the Phra Sri Rattana Chedi, a reliquary housing part of the remains of Buddha himself. The enormous golden chedi stretches high into the sky, and is visible even from the other side of the river

Closeup on Phra Sri Ratana Chedi.

The next building we examined was Phra Mondop, a library of sorts, which holds a mother-of-pearl cabinet used to display the palm leaf scriptures (important Buddhist scriptures) at various times of the year. We didn't go inside.

The tour guide explains the statuary decorating the exterior of Phra Mondop.
In some areas of Thailand demons are considered appropriate guardians
for important buildings, since they can frighten away evil spirits,
while in others, they are viewed as themselves evil and would
never adorn an important structure like this one.

Holding up the temple like the guardians behind us!
From left to right: Shirin, Ana, Miki, Ariana,
Jen, Liz, Margarita, Carrie, Risa, Jen, Melissa.

The final monument in this area was Prasart Phra Thep Bidorn, or the "Royal Pantheon" where statues of past sovereigns of the ruling dynasty are enshrined. Guarded by a ring of elaborately-carved monkeys and demons, the Pantheon holds statues of past Kings and Queens of Thailand. Again, we didn't go inside, but the exterior was breathtaking enough! Click on the picture below to admire the intricate detail on this temple entrance -- it's surreally beautiful.

Closeup on Prasat Phra Debidorn Temple.

Lastly, speaking of intricate detail, the Upper Terrace also houses a small-scale model of Angkor Wat, crafted at the command of King Rama IV.

Some of the crew in front of the model of Angkor Wat.
From left to right: Oak, Risa, Janice, Jen,
Shirin, Dr. Ruth Fischbach, Nini, me.

After all this reverence, it was time to return to the realm of the profane by touring the palace part of the Grand Palace.

Chakri Mahaprasad Hall.

The main palace area was built by King Rama V (1868-1910), and he lived there for much of his time on the throne. Today, only the reception portion of the building is now used by the Royal Family for state ceremonies. The central throne-hall now used for various purposes and was formerly the site of the reception of diplomatic envoys from England, France, China, and other important countries.

The long history of trade with China
(Thailand/Siam's first official diplomatic trading partner)
has left its imprint on the society's development,
and signs of Chinese cultural heritage are everywhere,
as evidenced by this set of statues and urn.

The Grand Palace is built in the traditional Siamese architectural style, featuring distinctive roof-lines and color scheme of vibrant reds, oranges, and greens, set off by flashes of pure gold and brilliant white. The uniformity of design principle just adds to the magnificence of the palace compound, and makes a beautiful sight when viewed from the river during the day or when lit up at night.

Another view of the main palace buildings.
(...including topiaries. Heh.)

Understandably, security at the Grand Palace was quite tight. In addition to the marching soldiers pictured above, there were soldiers on guard all around the palace buildings. Their stern faces couldn't stop us from having a little fun, though...

Ruth and I grin mischievously as Risa
and a Thai soldier keep guard of the National Palace.
From left to right: Risa, soldier, me, Dr. Ruth Fischbach.

One of the few departures from the uniformity of design in this area is the Borom Phiman Mansion, pictured below. The difference in architectural style is explained by the building's history: Phra Thinang Borom Phiman was purposely built in the western style in 1903 by King Rama V for the Heir Apparent, the future King Rama VI. Although it has been home to several Kings since then, the Mansion currently serves as the Royal Guest House for visiting heads of state.

Borom Phiman Mansion.

After all that exploration and absorption of Thai cultural and political history, the BIOCEP crew was sweaty and hungry. We gratefully climbed back into our big pink bus, blasted the AC, and drove off to find some lunch.

Neuroethics

2008-08-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Today, we were treated to a series of presentations on the exploding field of neuroethics, a subcategory of bioethics concerned with neurobiology and neurotechnology, in which issues of memory, cognition, pain, perception, personal identity, free will, personal responsibility, and a host of other topics find a home.

The presentation began with information from Dr. Pranee Fuchareon about science, technology, and research at Mahidol University, which is probably the most advanced university in Thailand in this area. I was interested to hear about the close link between research in the academic setting and broader social and political goals, a theme that was common in our classes in Taiwan, but is not often broached in the US. The language that’s been used to describe this so far has been quite vague: the university and the government have “shared resources and objectives” concerning this or that aspect of biomedical research or public health initiative, but how close these objectives are is somewhat vague. It’s not clear to me how much of this talk concerns actual government funding (and thus control) of research objectives, how much derives from an impulse on the part of the scientists themselves to do research in areas which are likely to be remunerative (whether from the government or from private industry), and how much genuinely reflects a spirit of civic responsibility that can be lost in larger or more individualistic countries.

After some words by Dr. Naphinic Kotchabhakdi, also of Mahidol University, concerning frontiers in neurotechology (emphasizing brain-machine interfaces, neuropharmacology, neurogenetics, and neuroimaging), we wrapped up with a great presentation by Dr. Gerry Fischbach, husband of BIOCEP organizer Dr. Ruth Fischbach and emeritus professor at Columbia. He spoke in particular about neurodegeneration and varieties of neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, stroke, prion diseases, ataxias, lipofuscinosis, Usher’s disease, MS, AIDS, and even brain trauma, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, alcoholism, depression), as well as emerging technology to treat them. I found this particularly interesting since Kevin’s research at Harvard dealt with the disease mechanism of Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative disease on which much discussion was focused. We watched a video of a woman undergoing something called deep brain stimulation, which shows promise in treating not just Parkinson’s but many other degenerative diseases as well.

We also spent some time on emerging stem cell technologies and the way in which they might be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases. What interested me most was the stress Dr. Fischbach placed on how much we still don’t know about stem cells: what determines renewal, what factors affect differentiation and potentiality, and which uses might be possible for direct therapeutic benefit. We also discussed – and here again I was thinking of the work done at Kevin’s old lab – different laboratory sources of pluripotent stem cells. The ones we usually think of are embryonic stem cells (ES cells) derived from blastocysts in, e.g., IVF clinics, but there are also ES cells created using somatic nuclear transfer with enucleated eggs, a process for which Kevin’s old PI was quite famous. The newest source, which has recently been garnering a large amount of press coverage, does not require the destruction of human embryos. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are created via the de-differentiation of adult cells (skin cells, cells from the lining of your mouth, etc.) to pluripotentiality.

IPS cells are the “new big thing” because they seem to get around some of the controversy swirling around stem cell research in the US. Opposition to stem cell research often arises from the idea that the destruction of human embryos is equivalent to the taking of human life, and with iPS cells no embryos are involved. However, according to Dr. Fischbach, there is still some opposition to the use of iPS cells in clinical research, either because the dedifferentiated cells still reach a stage in which one might possibly be able to form an embryo with the full potential to create a new human life (and one which is genetically identical to an already living person, no less), or because there is a fear that opening the door to let iPS cells through might generate a “slippery slope” in which biologists become greedy for new sources of stem cells and go back to using ES cells, which are still considered the “gold standard” in the field.

After that we had a large panel discussion in which both Drs. Fischbach and the lecturers from Mahidol took questions ranging from Josh Greene’s research at Harvard to the prefrontal cortex as “executive brain” to the ever-present spectre of determinism (lack of human free will) that haunts any discussion of the biological basis of human behavior. I am so impressed by the passion and intellect of the people who are participating in this program -- it was really an honor and a thrill to take part in the discussion today and I look forward to many more to come!

Shopping at Siam Paragon

2008-08-04T06:28:00.003-07:00

Our session with Phra Chainarong was far too short, but he had other obligations and so did we -- downtown Bangkok beckoned! We boarded the bus and rode it to the nearest BTS stop.

No travel blog would be complete without a picture
of me standing in some public transportation area
waiting for a bus, train, subway, or some other
method of transportation, now would it?

Bangkok is an extraordinarily congested city -- I got a small taste of the traffic on my (long) ride to the International House from the airport, and, judging by the fact that our packed schedule allows nearly three hours each morning to arrive at our first destination, I can just imagine how bad things get. The BTS Sky Train is one of the latest of Bangkok's many efforts to deal with this problem. Opened in 1999 by one of the Royal Princesses, the Sky Train is a clean, convenient monorail system that shuttles urban dwellers from place to place above the hubbub of the city below.

Me and Pantee in front of Siam Paragon.
Note her cute school uniform!

In almost no time at all, we had arrived at Siam Paragon, Bangkok's largest and most decadent luxury shopping mall. Siam Paragon is connected via elevated walkways to at least two other important shopping areas: Siam Discovery Center, which houses nearly every electronic known to man (in Dr. Loike's words, the place has more cell phones than there are people in Thailand); and MPK an upscale-but-not-outrageously-so shopping area that is a favorite of Thai locals. MPK is in turn connected to a maze of smaller, independently run shops, which blend seamlessly out into those jostling one another along the streets under the Sky Train.

Me and Tasha in front of Siam Center.

Tasha, Pantee and I roamed all these places in the time allotted to us, buying little but drinking it all in and making plans for our return next week.

Her Royal Highness Queen Sirikit.

A photograph of the queen when she was around twenty greets you at the lavish entrance to Siam Paragon, but things quickly become more up-to-date. (The queen was 20 in 1952. In fact, it will be her birthday next week, but more on that in a future post.)

One of the many beautifully designed shops in Siam Center.

The level of planning and design was equally up to anything I've seen in New York, DC, Hong Kong or Taipei. In fact, much of the experience reminded me of shopping in Taipei -- Siam Paragon had many similar brands to Taipei 101, while the Discovery Center reminded me of the technology section of New York, New York where I bought my much-beloved ideastyle laptop cover.

Lamborghini (!)

Still, it must be noted that while Taipei 101 has many other features to commend it, it does not have an entire floor devoted to luxury cars -- Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and many others I had never even heard of.

Heuer represent!

Of course, more standard high-end brands were also well-represented. When we passed a TAGHeuer store... how could I not take a picture? Note the ad featuring Tiger Woods in the background.

Heaven on earth.

Still, despite all the glamour and high technology of the shopping at Paragon and Discovery Center, my favorite stop (and the one where I actually made a significant purchase!) was at a tiny little stationery store along the street by the Sky Train station. Paradise!

Pink taxi!

By the end of the day, we were all pretty pooped. We grabbed dinner on the ground floor of Paragon, then lined up for a taxi to take us back to Salaya. One of the coolest things about Bangkok is how its taxis are all different colors -- each company has its own particular pattern and hue. One of the most prosperous companies has bright pink taxis. Although we didn't make it into a pink one tonight, I hold high hopes for that experience eventually.

Day One: Buddhism and Ethics

2008-08-04T06:28:00.001-07:00

The speaker with BIOCEP organizers.
From left to right: Dr. Ruth Fischbach (Columbia),
Dr. John Loike (Columbia), Phra Chainarong,
Mr. Brian Phillips (Mahidol)

Today's topic was an introduction to Buddhist ethics, and some of the main issues that arise in Eastern vs. Western bioethics. Our main speaker was Phra Chainarong, a Buddhist monk. He was awesome -- I'm not sure how any other lecturer is ever going to live up to the standard he set today!

Phra Chainarong was born into a Thai family, but lived in the United States for many years. He began training as a monk at age 8, and at age 20 decided to commit his life to the practice. Phra Chainarong is unique not only because he has a deep grasp of both US and Thai culture (as well as a perfect command of both languages), but also because he is a university student, a rare path for one who is already a monk to take. He gave an amazing presentation which provided an introduction to the main principles of Buddhism -- nirvana, karma, the four noble truths, the eight-fold path, the basic elements of Buddhist cosmology -- in a way that was clearly tailored to those used to a more Western worldview. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of these books I've read: clearly written out of a deep love and respect for Buddhist principles and teaching, but in a way that demonstrated conversance with other ways of thinking about the world and our place within it.

Some of the most interesting things we discussed, to my mind, concerned theology: the way in which elements of the Judeo-Christian God can be found (in disaggregated form) in Buddhist cosmology, the importance of karma as a principle of the natural universe, the things which Buddhism does and does not attempt to address. Phra Chainarong told us a great story to illustrate this final point. Once, Buddha was walking in the woods with a group of his followers. He bent down to scoop up a handful of sampasa leaves from the forest floor and showed them to his disciples. Comparing the small number of leaves in his palm to the vast numbers of leaves overhead and elsewhere in the forest, he proposed an analogy to his own teachings. The world is vast beyond comprehension, just as the leaves in the woods are uncountable by mere mortals like us. Buddha never claimed to understand everything about the world -- its creation myth, its eventual termination, etc. -- only a few topics, a number as small as the number of leaves in his outstretched hand. To followers, this not only demonstrates the Buddha's great humility, but also a fundamental truth about Buddhism: that it does not pretend to offer a comprehensive explanation of all facets of reality, but rather represents a philosophy for understanding and exploring certain parts of it.

We also spent, as you might expect, a considerable amount of time discussing Buddhist ethics and Buddhist perspectives in bioethics. I was fascinated to hear that there is a lively contemporary debate in Buddhist ethics as to whether it is best interpreted as an absolutist or consequentialist philosophy -- that is, whether its core principles (such as the prohibition on killing animals) are meant to hold in absolutely all cases without exception, or might sometimes be outweighed by other considerations depending on the details of the particular case. We also learned some very interesting things about the cultural standpoint of the Thai Buddhist laity from Phra Chainarong as well. For instance, there is almost no such thing as an advance directive or "living will" in Thailand, since decision-making about end-of-life care, as about all things, is much more collectivist than individualist. Moreover, Buddhist beliefs about reincarnation and the relation of spirit to body mean that organ donation (whether before or after death) and cadaveric donation are not only more common but even revered here. On the other hand, many take a dim view of animal experimentation, and respect for patient autonomy -- paramount in the Western framework -- plays a much less important role in decision-making and moral reasoning here.

The lecture was brilliant, and ended long before anyone wanted it to. We could have stayed there asking Phra Chainarong questions all day long -- he was funny, down-to-earth, and often had a better grasp of where our questions were coming from than many US philosophy professors I've known! It was an honor and a privilege to learn from him, and I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to do so.

Weekend on Koh Samet

2008-08-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

The beach!

Our first weekend of BIOCEP was a planned trip to Koh Samet, a tropical island off Thailand's (north-) eastern coast, in the Gulf of Thailand. It was intended as a time for us to decompress, sleep off our jet lag, and get to know each other in a beautiful setting before we began our rigorous two weeks of coursework and site visits.

The boat ride to Koh Samet!
From left to right: Risa, Alex,
Bao (awesome Thai student), boatman.

It was all that and more. Our journey began Friday morning, as we loaded up a big bus and began the five-hour trip to the coast. We boarded a small ship under stormy skies, and shrieked and giggled our way through one of the choppiest boat rides I've ever taken. The real surprise, however, was waiting for us at the end of this trip. As we pulled nearer into shore, I leaned out into the salty spray, unable to locate the dock. We drew nearer and nearer, and no place to disembark appeared. Finally, the motor cut out and we glided the last few feet forward until the bottom of the boat struck the sandy sea floor. Had we beached the boat?

Apparently the polite term for it is "wet landing."
Foreground: Shirin.

To my shock, two of the boatmen suddenly hopped out of the boat into the knee-deep froth, then turned expectantly back to the boatload of people, some of whom began gathering their belongings, removing their shoes, and hopping off the side of the boat into the choppy Gulf waters! Attired in a knee-length dress and ballet flats, and lugging a large duffel bag and a small purse with my camera and ipod inside, I was not well-prepared for a dip in the sea, but there didn't seem any other way to reach the island, so I dutifully pulled off my shoes, hiked up my skirt, and prayed that my electronics would make it ashore without disaster. They did, though I got pretty well soaked along the hem of my favorite dress.

The view from Jeb's.

We stayed at a place called Jeb's Bungalows, a sprawling complex with accommodations, food, and entertainment all mingling and eventually spreading right out onto the white sand at the water's edge. Jeb's is located near the junction of two of Koh Samet's most popular beaches: Hai Sai Kaeo, famous for its crystal white sands, and Ao Hin Khok, which is apparently well-known for its oddly-shaped rock formations (see photos below).

Some of the cabins.

Our cabins were nestled in amongst the island's thick tropical foliage, on a hill rising up above the shoreline.

Our cabin!

We shared cabins with our assigned roommates: mine is Jen from Columbia, a total sweetheart on her first trip abroad! She rows for Barnard, so I was able to draw on my old roommate's rowing experience to talk about races and whatnot. We had a great time together... a good thing, since there was only one bed in the tiny cabin! Our neighbors were Janice and Risa, whose departure we could always detect via the telltale bang of the door followed by long fits of hissing noise as they coated themselves in mosquito repellent.

Me with Risa in our almost-matching black bathing suits!

The first day dawned bright and early, although I missed sunrise, having slept (albeit discontinuously) for nearly 12 hours straight since 7pm the night before. This is the first time I have ever managed to sleep off jet lag like this, and I hope it is a harbinger of future events, because it was wonderful! We set off early for the beach after a huge buffet breakfast, armed with sunscreen and mosquito repellent and decked out in bikinis.

A bunch of us on the beach!
From left to right: Janice, Mickey, Risa,
Ana, Gwen, Ariana, me, Jen (my roommate).

I kept joking that I liked the white sand at the beach because it made me look tan, but now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm not sure any more. I do seem to be the same pearly hue as the beach. Sigh. At any rate, we floated in the water for quite some time, bobbing in waves that were much gentler and more serene than yesterday's. We were disturbed only once, by a figure attired from head to foot in dark rags, sweeping the shore with a metal detector. Only his eyes were visible, and those only slightly so. The really weird thing was that after passing us in one direction on the shore, he passed back walking almost shoulder-high in the water, quite near to our group! The Thai student, Pao, with whom we were swimming, told us that the man was likely covered as he was to avoid too much sun exposure since in Thailand as in much of Asia, white skin is greatly valued. I thought it was probably because he was a ninja, though no one seemed to think much of this hypothesis.

The metal detector ninja!

Eventually, we made our way back to shore and lounged on the beach. After reading and chatting for a while, being approached several times by vendors offering Thai massages and henna tattoos, I spotted the type of vendor I had been hoping for: fruit vendors! Laden with heavy baskets overflowing with tropical fruits, or sometimes with grills holding legs of roast chicken and cooked crabs, these men and women patrol the beach, bringing sustenance to lazy sunbathers. It was exactly what we wanted.

One of the fruit vendors.

I realized on the plane to Hong Kong that Thailand is famed for three of my most favorite things in the whole world: beautiful flowers, oil massages, and delicious tropical fruit. I'd like to think that I was partly the motivating force behind the enormous fruit feast we all shared for lunch that day on the beach, since I nearly tackled the first fruit-seller I saw and purchased an insane amount of fruit: thai coconut, guava, pineapple, and mini-bananas (note coconut and bananas in picture below). Others, inspired by the wealth of gorgeous fruit the seller revealed in his baskets, added to this abundance with pomelo slices and watermelon. Shirin turned up just a bit later, laden with green custard apples, jackfruit, and other exotic fare, which added to the big bags of santol and salaks which Gwen had earlier purchased and taken to the beach with us. I couldn't believe how few in our group had ever eaten guava (which I ate almost daily last summer in Taiwan), and I was thrilled to pass around slices of the firm green fruit and its little packet of chili dipping powder for all to try.

Thai coconut woohoo!

Later that day, Janice, Jen, Risa and I went exploring down the shore. The path along the coast wound through sand, mud, and water (thank goodness I brought my flip-flops!) and eventually delivered us to a semi-secluded stretch of shoreline I came to think of as "our cove."

The path along the beach.

For some reason I always seem to take many photos of paths when I travel... not too sure why I like them so much, but I do. Anyway, while traveling this particular path, we passed some other interesting sights along the way...

Typical small Buddhist shrine.

These mini-shrines seem to be quite prevalent in Thailand -- most of the houses in our neighborhood in Bangkok have one, and communal ones are often to be found on the side of the street between shops, or on the beach, like this one. They are always colorfully decorated with ribbons, garlands, and flowers, and nearly always house small offerings of water, fruit, and flowers in their center. I can't wait to learn more about how Thai Buddhist practices differ from those in China and Taiwan.

Crab hole.

The crabs would scuttle up along the beach and then disappear into tiny holes surrounded by perfectly cylindrical pellets of dug-out sand.

Obligatory shot of gorgeous flowers.

Come on, could you resist taking a picture of flowers as beautiful as these? Click on the picture to see the drops of water glistening on the petals... amazing.

We found a giant jellyfish stranded on the sand.

Finally...

Our cove!

Jen and I splashed around in the water while Janice and Risa re-applied bug spray and sunscreen.

Looking to sea from our cove.

Eventually, we decided to return, making plans for the evening and following morning. No sooner had discussion turned toward a common longing for one of the famous Thai massages available on the beach, than a group of four masseuses approached us and began offering their services! It was perfect. As I lay there in the sun, with the sound of the waves in my ears and the sweet smell of eucalyptus oil hanging in the air above me, I would have pinched myself to make sure it was all real -- if I hadn't been so blissfully comfortable!

Glowing lights at the Silver Sands cafe.

Later that night, the crew convened at the nearby Silver Sands cafe for dinner with Brian (one of the Mahidol University organizers) and the Thai students. The trees were strung with glowing lanterns that reminded me strongly of a certain series of chandeliers from the 2008 Ikea catalogue. After that, Jen, Risa, Janice and I set off with Yuji and Henni, two of the Mahidol University students, to a nearby nighttime festival. We played carnival games and ate the Thai version of a sweet Indian bread called roti as firecrackers dazzled the air overhead. Thai fire dancers twirled flaming orbs and sparklers on the sand, the dark waves seeming to catch glittering bits of fire on their surface.

At the carnival.

All too soon, it was time for bed and then the dawn of our last morning on the island. After another luxurious buffet breakfast, the girls and I headed back towards "our cove" for one last massage (this time, head and foot) before departure. It was time to head back to Bangkok to let the real business of BIOCEP begin.

Thailand at last

2008-07-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

A fallen flower I found and wore in my hair.

We're finally here!!!!!! It turns out that three other girls from BIOCEP were on my flight from HK to BKK, and I was actually seated next to one of them, so the last few hours of the journey were spent in a companionable sleep-deprived daze. We picked up our luggage, made it through immigration and customs, and found one of the Mahidol University organizers waiting for us when we left the arrivals area. After a quick stop for the others to exchange money, we were shepherded into a van that took us to the Salaya campus of Mahidol University's International College. The van ride took a lot longer than I expected, though I did manage to spend most of the time in a half-asleep-half-awake state that might have altered my perception of things.

Our dormitory!

In fact, tired though I was, I certainly didn't mean to doze on the ride back, since there was so much to see outside the windows. The airport itself was lined with beautiful murals and Thai art, and the streets outside were lined with new and fascinating things to see. We passed a big ceremonial gate to commemorate the King's birthday, countless tiny roadside stands, and every sign was written in the unfamiliar squiggles that I can't help finding both beautiful and bizarre. In Thailand, unlike in China and Taiwan, cars drive on the left side of the road, which I always find fun (so long as I'm not the one driving).

The street outside our dorm.

When we finally arrived at the International House where we are staying, it was all I could do to keep my eyes awake. We all removed our shoes before entering the house, which is beautifully furnished with dark wood, white walls, teal tiles in the bathrooms and teal-and-gold ironwork on the stair railings. The security guard helped carry my bag upstairs to my room, and I got my internet working in no time at all. A couple of the other participants happily availed themselves of it while I took a longed-for shower after a quick run to the local 7-11 for some water and iced tea.

I actually managed to sleep six hours last night, even making it through the dreaded 3-5am zone without waking up. I got up around 7, made some tea, and went for a quick walk around the neighborhood. We are staying in one of the wealthiest areas of Bangkok (no complaints here!), with lovely gated houses, bright statues, painted bridges, and carefully-cultivated tropical foliage everywhere you turn. As I walked outside, the streets were nearly empty of cars, but the neighborhood itself showed signs of life -- a couple walking their dog, a mother and child on her bike, a woman arranging cut flowers at her family shrine in the front yard. In front of several houses the Thai flag flapped in the light breeze.

Miniature Thai water gardens.

On my return, I met a friendly Thai student named Max who was very curious about who we all were and where we had come from. When he asked me what we were doing today, I suspect he found me rather disappointingly short on details: I know we are going to the beach (don't know which beach) for two days, with BIOCEP participants (not sure whether this includes the Thai students or not) for a "get-to-know-you" and intro session before the conference starts in earnest on Monday. I won't be bringing my computer to the beach, as I'm not sure what the internet situation is and would rather not have to carry it unnecessarily, so I'll be out of contact until Monday. I will, however, be bringing my camera, and will have lots of stories and pictures for you when I return!

The traditional feng shui ba gua, hung on someone's wall.
If you look closely (all pictures, by the way, are "clickable"
if you want to view them at a higher resolution),
you can see me reflected upside-down taking this picture
in the central mirror behind the white Thai script.

Quick note from Hong Kong!

2008-07-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hooray!! We have finally touched down in Hong Kong, giving me a few hours to breathe and blog before boarding the plane that will take me to Bangkok. After staggering off the plane and into another round of security checks, I made my way to an exchange booth and changed money into both Thai bhat and a few extra Hong Kong dollars. I still have yet to master the elusive art of actually sleeping on airplanes... but perhaps that too will come with time. For now, although I'm so tired my face hurts, I'm reveling in the familiarity of the airport and its objects for sale. It's funny, because when I came to Hong Kong after having spent several weeks in Mandarin-speaking Taiwan, it seemed to me like everyone was speaking Cantonese, and I found it very confusing. Now, however, with ears sharpened by months of immersion in English, I hear Mandarin everywhere, and even the Cantonese sounds familiar compared to the Thai I'll soon be hearing. I grabbed a few familiar snacks at Japanese mega-store Muji, then treated myself to watermelon juice at a place called "My Nosh" with my remaining HKD. (My waitress loved the pink flowers on my little apple computer. I must say, they did match the juice.) I am exhausted but glad to be off the plane for a little bit at least! Will post again once I can get an internet connection in Bangkok. Miss you already!

Blogging from the skies

2008-07-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

As I'm typing this, my personal in-flight computer screen informs me that we are cruising comfortably somewhere over the North Pole in a high-altitude cloudscape of brilliant pastels. Cathay Pacific is really the most wonderful airline I’ve ever flown on. I thought this on my flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong last summer, but since that flight took barely two hours, I thought my judgment might be a little unfair. Nothing so far has disconfirmed this opinion: the food is excellent, the stewards and stewardesses all speak English, there is ample leg room (not that I need much, ha), the seats themselves are comfortable, and we were greeted not only with our own pillows and blankets, but a little pouch containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, earplugs, socks, breath mints, and a washcloth! (Naturally, I brought my own, but still!) Moreover, they have three (!!) kinds of hot tea on offer, including good old English tea, which would make my mom very happy. :)

The most fun I’ve had so far with the luxuries of Cathay Pacific’s economy class is definitely the personal computer embedded in the back headrest of the seat in front of me. It plays music, TV, news, and a HUGE selection of movies, as well as containing information about the flight (including a satellite tracking map and live camera view from a lens mounted on the outside of the plane), information about our destination, a list of in-flight services (including in-flight phone calls and ramen whenever you want it), and a mini-DVD of “Inflight Exercises” you can do while seated to stretch and prevent leg clots. This is a far cry from the insanely cramped quarters of a certain airline that shall remain nameless, on which we were denied food, liquids, and permission to open the windows for a stretch of enforced darkness lasting nearly eight hours, plus subjected to not one but two showings of The Chronicles of Narnia dubbed into Chinese. Those were not good times. This, comparatively, is paradise, or as close to paradise as you can get on a 20-hour flight to the other side of the world.

We still have about ten hours until touchdown in Hong Kong, where I intend to use some of my leftover HKD to buy a snack, exchange some RMB for Thai bhat at my favorite exchange booth in the airport, and let the jangling sound of Cantonese wash over me as I listen to conversations I can't understand. Until then, I’m blogging, reading a bit of Charles Taylor’s latest book, recommended to me at the last conference I attended, and using the “Infotainment” section of my little computer to read up on my destination.

According to Cathay Pacific, Bangkok is home to more than ten million people, comprising fifty districts spanning over six provinces. It was created as the Thai capital in 1782 by the first monarch of the present Chakri dynasty. They present an impressive list of cultural attractions, as well as places to eat, sleep, and shop, plus tips on transportation and emergency numbers. (One thing I always find more interesting than I probably should: how “911” varies from country to country. In Thailand, it is apparently “191.”)

In a way I can't help but feel like I'm parachuting in blind here -- I can barely speak a word of the language, and have done almost no research on the city of Bangkok. I have only a vague sense of the historical and geographical contours of the country I am visiting, and still find the squiggly writing system and its diacritical-laden transliteration baffling. When I visited China (my first trip abroad ever), I had studied the language for nearly a year, and researched the city and culture for weeks beforehand with bibliophilic zeal. By the time I made my way to Taiwan, I had not only studied an entire semester of the island's fraught political history, but was en route with my very own Taiwanese guide, so to speak. :)

Faithful blog readers (hi Mom, Dad, Amy!) might view this lack of preparation as a good thing, since it's been brought to my attention that certain overly dense blog posts, with too much history and not enough pictures, can be off-putting for friends back home. This time around, I'll be viewing the country with the eyes of a blissfully (?) uninformed tourist, stumbling through a handful of memorized phrases, and snapping photos of pretty things even if I have no idea what I'm looking at. According to my internet research, which thankfully turned up a database of audio for Thai phrases, these might come in handy:

sah-what-dee-ka = hello [if you're a girl],
cop-coon-ka = thank you [if you're a girl],
ka-taut-ka = excuse me [if you're a girl],
choy-doy = help! [for both genders, I guess].

NB: I made all these transliterations up based on what they sounded like to me, they're not in any way related to the actual transliterations, which, as I mentioned above, are pretty confusing.

Beyond this, I'm rather shockingly ill-prepared to be a tourist in Thailand. Still, I'm only going to be in Bangkok for two weeks, and nearly all of my waking hours will presumably be taken up with conference meetings, trips, and lectures. Since my main responsibility in Thailand will be BIOCEP, with any touristing taking place on the side, perhaps this is actually best.

I’ll try to post this during my layover in Hong Kong, since apparently they now have wireless internet in all their terminals.

Preparations

2008-07-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

At this time (9:30am) in two days, I will be in JFK, preparing to board my flight! I'm first flying to Hong Kong (scene of past airport adventures) for a three-hour layover, then hopping on another plane that will take me to Bangkok. I've still got a few miscellaneous things to take care of -- locate my camera battery charger, exchange some money for Thai bhat -- but mostly I'm feeling excited and ready to go.

For the benefit of those who aren't quite sure what I'll be doing at this weird thing called BIOCEP, here is a bit more information, shamelessly lifted from the executive summary:

BIOCEP is a prototype for interscholastic cooperation designed to align students with modern international global issues in the area of bioethics. In this educational enrichment summer workshop, university students spend two weeks at Thailand with Mahidol University students engaged in lectures, discussions and on-site professional visits related to the challenges of bioethics and medical ethics. This comprehensive workshop is based on the extensive experience of Columbia University’s faculty in the areas of bioethics and public health education. This program focuses on how different cultures, religions, and governments respond to and resolve bioethical challenges including: emerging infections (SARS, avian flu, malaria), the integration of Western and Eastern medicines, medical tourism, stem cell research, abortion, public health, HIV, genetic testing, and reproductive medicine. BIOCEP’s interdisciplinary program aims to enrich students’ cross-cultural awareness and analytical skills concerning the ways in which different religions and cultures work to resolve complex issues in bioethics and Public Health. For the 2008 program, BIOCEP has opened up three slots for students from other American institutions of higher education. Students must have completed at one year of graduate studies to participate.

Thailand is an emerging country that is engaged in resolving a wide variety of bioethical issues. Thailand has a predominantly Buddhist-based culture that contrasts with the major religions that most students are exposed to in the United States. Both the United States and Thai governments recognize the value of biomedical research. Like Singapore, China, Japan, and Malaysia, Thailand has committed hundreds of million dollars over the next ten years to enhance biomedical research. These research funds will be provided to support stem cell research and combating major public health concerns such as malaria and HIV Thailand and the United States share common bioethical and medical ethical issues such as:

How to allocate limited funds to support biomedical research and clinical programs,
How to resolve bioethical issues related to stem cell research,
How to balance religious and cultural values with biomedical research and clinical application of new biotechnologies,
How to apply new biotechnologies in reproductive medicine within an ethical platform,
How to resolve public health issues such as sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, smoking, and unwanted pregnancies.

There are also many ethical issues that Thailand faces that are unique to that region. These include:

Medical tourism (cosmetic surgery, sex change operations, dentistry, and organ transplantation),
Developing detection, educational, and treatment programs for emerging infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria, avian flu and SARS,
The integration of Western medicine with traditional Eastern alternative medical procedures and medications,
Developing innovative educational and treatment programs for genetic based diseases such as Thalassemia.

Students will visit several biomedical research laboratories, private and public hospitals, public health clinics and rural medical facilities. These visits provide students with an opportunity to speak with researchers and physicians, and observe scientific research, biomedical research and health care in Thailand. Students will acquire first hand knowledge essential in understanding Thailand’s unique bioethical issues. For example, students would have the opportunity to visit clinics at Mahidol Institute for Tropical Diseases that has established sophisticated programs in the areas of emerging infections and controlling drug resistant pathogens. Students will also visit research laboratories such as the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Institute of Nutrition, “East meets West Clinic”, Thalessemia clinics, and malaria clinics. During the 2007 program many of the students were able to observe in vitro fertilization in Siriraj Hospital’s IVF clinic.

There's a whole bunch more information available here, if you're interested. I've been doing a bunch of reading on bioethics and biotechnology this summer in preparation for the trip (and, who am I kidding, for fun too). Recently, I found this great book online (do you love Google Books or what?) that was actually edited by a professor at Mahidol University, Pinit Ratanakul. I don't know if we'll be able to meet with him, but I certainly hope so. At any rate, the conference is shaping up to be a ton of fun!

Thai UN Ambassador addresses BIOCEP

2008-04-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

I just got this email from the director of the program:

Dear BIOCEP participants,

We have just received confirmation that the Ambassador of Thailand to the United Nations will be coming to speak to the 2008 BIOCEP participants. He will be at the Medical School on Thursday May 8th from 4:00pm until 5:30. We anticipate that the Dean of the Medical and other dignitaries will greet him. It is (to my knowledge) the first time an Ambassador has officially visited the Medical Center. Unfortunately we have limited space to accommodate everyone. If you are available- please e mail me as soon as possible so Ruth and I can select representatives. This is a very important event.

Good luck on finals,
John

How exciting is this?! Of course, I'll be down here in sunny DC cramming madly for my second qualifying exam on the 8th, so sadly I won't be able to attend. Even though I'd really like to be one of the "representatives" -- whatever that means -- I'm still really thrilled about this announcement because it's good news for BIOCEP that the program is growing so quickly and garnering respect from VIPs on both sides of the Pacific. Yay!

Here's a bit about the Ambassador, Anand Panyarachun, from this UN link:

In the international arena, Anand is a member of the Advisory Group of Anti-Corruption Issues for the East Asia and Pacific Region, World Bank, Group of International Advisors of International Committee of the Red Cross and of the Advisory Council of Transparency International (TI). He has also served as UNICEF Ambassador for Thailand since 1996.

Anand was in 2001 elected Chairman of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council.

During the course of five decades of his working life, Anand has been recognized both internationally and nationally for his dedication and work for the advancement of Thai society. He is the recipient of twenty honorary degrees from universities in Thailand, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan.

Anand has also been awarded a number of decorations, both Thai and foreign, including The Royal Cypher Medal (Third Class) ; Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand ; Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant; Knight Grand Commander (Second Class, higher grade) of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao; Order of Diplomatic Service Merit (First Class), Republic of Korea; Ringtang Jasa (First Class), Indonesia; Grand Officier de L'order de la Couronne (Second Class), Belgium; Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan; Honorary Knight Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE), United Kingdom.

Yeah UNICEF! That is my favorite UN organization by far, the only one I donate to, and the sole campus community service group to which I belong on any consistent basis (UNICEF - Georgetown). So bummed I don't get to meet this guy... but I look forward to pictures at least.

My first carbon-neutral flight!

2008-04-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Anyone with a pulse has probably heard about how disastrous air travel is for the environment. This graph demonstrates that flights like the one I'll be taking this July boast, on average, the highest emissions per passenger of any form of transportation known to man. What's a girl to do? Skip the trip? Spend the summer in a yurt, living off the grid?

Many feminist philosophers and activists include recommendations for actions to be taken in the "pre-feminist" present -- that is, our gender-skewed society -- that are different than the ideal behavior that would occur in the perfectly gender-neutral future. I've chosen to look at this challenge in much the same way. Until travel becomes more eco-friendly, or the harm to the environment outweighs the cultural and educational benefits of a program like BIOCEP, it doesn't make sense to forgo such an opportunity. However, lucky for me, there is means of assuaging my eco-conscience: carbon offsets!

According to this and this website, my round-trip flight to Bangkok will produce about 7.0 tons of CO2 gas -- per passenger. Ouch. However, with the help of the friendly people at NativeEnergy, I'm buying enough carbon credits to offset this rather large carbon emission. My credits will go toward something called "remooable energy," which collects methane gas from family-owned cattle farms (snicker snicker), and toward a program which helps small farmers purchase wind turbines to generate their own renewable energy. These offsets are certified and third-party verified, and go directly from an American company to American farmers, so will hopefully avoid some of the problems that international CO2 offset companies face, especially ones based on planting trees.

There are clearly many problems with carbon offset schemes right now -- the market sprang up so quickly that appropriate regulations are only just being put in place, and many of the earliest efforts appear to have mangled even well-intentioned operations on the ground. If you are thinking of purchasing your own carbon offsets -- whether for a big trip, or just for daily living -- do your research before you buy. The best programs are not those which pay poor farmers in third-world countries to plant trees, altruistic though this might seem, because research has shown that in practice such mechanisms are fraught with problems. (Farmers uninformed and misled, trees diseased or rotted, carbon reduction rendered ineffective, etc. -- listen to this podcast with Becky Milligan of the BBC's OnePlanet for information about one scheme in Tamil Nadu, South India) Your best bet is to look for credits from a reputable company offering ways to donate to established, verified alternative energy programs. In particular, look for offsets that are VER+ certified, meet the UNFCCC Clean Development or Voluntary Carbon Standards, and are in conformity with the Environmental Resources Trust protocol.

Happy flying!

First BIOCEP Meeting

2008-03-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

We had our first meeting for BIOCEP this week and it was fantastic to meet the other participants. Many of them are also graduate students, though I am the only philosopher. :) There is a very strong public health contingent, second only to the hard-core-science people, of whom there are quite a preponderance! Oddly enough, women dramatically outnumber men. After a year surrounded by fellow male first-years (and second-years), mostly male professors, and even a male roommate,* I can't say I'm too sorry about this new gender balance.

We swapped stories and gathered details about the itinerary and what we should do to prepare for our trip. I now have a pretty hefty stack of documents to sort through -- a handbook written by BIOCEP's founders, stacks of articles on bioethical issues particular to Thailand (like medical tourism, vaccination, Eastern medicine, genetic counseling, Thalessemia, etc.), as well as some notes on what to wear and what you won't need to pack.

After the meeting, a mini-crisis was averted when two of the other girls enabled me to re-charge Kevin's dead cell-phone battery by plugging it into the wall of one of the genetic research labs in the building! They were so sweet, and it made me so happy to think of having the opportunity this summer to learn with (and from!) such great people. I can't wait!

*All of whom, I should hasten to add, are wonderful people.

Medicine and Ethics in Thailand

2008-02-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

These days it feels like I'm acquiring international destinations faster than media outlets for them... This blog will be for a trip I'm taking this summer with Columbia University's BIOCEP (which I think stands for something like BIOethics Cultural Exchange Program) to study bioethics with students at Thailand's Mahidol University. More news and updates to come as the plans solidify; just wanted to claim this plot of digital real-estate while I still could!