Thai Housing

From bustling cities to thriving rain-forests, I’ve learned to see the beauty in every single thing. I told myself before coming on this adventure, that the one thing I want to take from this experience is the ability to see the world in a whole new perspective. Being in Thailand has not only opened my eyes, but it has also opened my heart. Back home I can work for a total of four hours a day, and make enough money to pay for my car and have a little to go out with as well. Here in Thailand these people hustle for endless hours a day and barely make enough money to buy their family dinner, all the while they still retain their happiness. Seeing the way these people live really puts my life in to perspective. It makes me realize all of the wonderful things I have back home, and how I take them for granted.

We live a few minutes away by foot from Ben Thanh Market, a tourist trap where you’ll find almost anything: flower arrangements, fish market, spices, jewelry, watches, clothes, souvenirs.

Nous habitons à quelques minutes à pied du marché Ben Thanh, un piège à touriste où l’on trouve quasiment tout: compositions florales, marché de poissons, épices, bijoux, montres, vêtements, souvenirs.

The big market where all tourists go.

At the market, Serene enjoys the smell of Vietnamese cinnamon.

Au marché, Serene hume de la canelle vietnamienne.

Serene smelling cinnamon in Ben Thanh Market.

In the scorching heat of Ho Chi Minh City, along the banks of the Saigon river, we rehydrate ourselves. The cream-coloured ”jar” is a coconut filled with coconut juice.

Sous la chaleur torride de la ville, au bord de la rivière de Saigon, on se réhydrate. Le récipient couleur crème est une noix de coco remplie de jus de coco.

Enjoying a very refreshing drink in the heat of Saigon, along the Saigon river.

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BONHEUR CHEZ LES TOUT-PETITS

En résumé, je dois me lever très tôt le matin pour être au travail de 7h15 à 13h. Il faut être tout le temps vigilant pour éviter que les enfants s’échappent de l’école. J’aime mon job. Et je pense que les enfants m’aiment bien. Le bonheur! (Du moins pour l’instant!)

So what does an average day look like for me? We do get out and do exciting stuff, but not every day. The majority of the group sleeps in, so I gladly join in and usually awake at around 9 or 10am. I read or spend time on the computer, shower, and munch on fruit until it’s lunch time. Then Jen, Serene and I ponder what to eat (Laurene is still at work at this point) and then pick a restaurant. The afternoon is spent hanging out and chatting, or going to the market, and I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the naps that sometimes find their way into the day. I have a 5:30pm class every day, so then it’s off to school I go. I’m home by 8pm and then we go to a restaurant for dinner. If anything’s happening that night, we’ll be there but that’s not every night. The evening is often finished off by checking out what awesomeness is on HBO or Star Movies before falling asleep around 1-2am (last night’s movie was Army of Darkness).

Of course, the routine varies. Sometimes I have morning classes and on the weekends I have afternoon classes, so that changes things up but the activities essentially stay the same. I’d love to be able to say that we work a little bit and then spend the rest of our time doing glamourous, crazy stuff, but the truth is that most people, when travelling, end up doing a lot of what they would normally do at home in their down time. We’re pretty mellow most of the time, but we’re hanging out in Saigon which makes the whole thing so much better. You never know what lies outside your door!

Warning: If you’re in Turkey, like me, the government has banned YouTube, so you might need kTunnel to watch the following videos.

Grocery shopping is exactly the same here.

Sometimes, you need an iPod to kill time.

A lot of life is comprised of meaningless stories and uninteresting tangents.

Our new friend Mina helps us to move Will’s flights.

Will takes a quick breather at one of the Hofs.
 
Will finds a friend!
Oh and it just keeps getting better.

Will takes another quick breather.

On night two we’re out experiencing traditional Korean culture (and drink).

I swear to you this was the worst Karaoke box on earth.  We ended up fleeing.

And the next Karaoke box was probably designed for people shorter than I am.

Will and his friend again.

Matt, a pig, and Will.
 
Finally we round out our staggering adventure with some dumplings, and then we all head home.

We hope you enjoy it. We know Matt sure did.

Friday May 1st, 2009

3 PM – Gathering at Yeouido

Friday saw a large gathering of protesters at Yeouido park in Seoul.  May Day is a classic day of protest and saw people gather under a variety of banners and causes, with the issues of the Yongsun Tragedy and criticism of the current president at the forefront.  Over 16,000 protesters gathered to listen to speeches, songs, and performances. 

5 PM – March

The gathering ended with the protesters march en mass through the main street adjoining the park, over the bridge, into down town and onto subways to meet for the next set of protests.  At this point we had yet to see more than a dozen police officers, but were told that in years past violence had flared when the protesters reached central gathering points.

6:30 PM – Clash at Jongno

As we emerged from the subway to rejoin the protesters we found a group of them shutting down traffic on Jongno, a major Seoul artery.  This act was quickly interrupted as police caught everyone off guard with an initial charge into the crowd.

Over the next hour repeated scuffles broke out between police and protesters.  The protesters would gather, chant, and march into the street blocking traffic.  The police would gather opposite them, and then charge full force into the demonstrators, scattering them.  After the third major break there were few protesters left.

10 PM – Myong Dong Riot

We heard that the protesters were gathering again at Myong Dong and we headed over to see what was happening.  By the time we arrived the police had been forced back to the main station entrance. They were being battered by a group of masked protesters who had broken up the pavement and were rushing forward in lines to assault the police.  Crowds of supporters, protesters and ordinary people out shopping on a Friday night lined the streets as police threw tear gas into the crowds.

The police continued to move in at this point, entering the remaining intersections as additional media showed up and ended up pinned between the police and rock throwing protesters.  At one point a journalist nearby us was hit by a rock thrown not by the protesters, but by police, and went down.

11:30 PM – Dispersion

The police blockaded the subway entrances and then eventually suppressed the last of the protesters around 11:30 pm.  The crowds left to take the last trains home and the streets cleared out.

Saturday May 2nd, 2009

Saturday was the one year anniversary of the vigil and protests that had consumed Seoul over the president’s decision to reopen Korea to US beef imports.  We had been told these would be much bigger than the previous day’s protests.

4 PM – Seoul Station Rally

The initial rally was at Seoul Station, a large shopping and transit complex near the government centers in Seoul.  This gathering saw a number of speeches, but not in the same numbers as the previous day’s gathering in Yeouido.  In addition the police deployed in staggering numbers.  For the majority of the rally the police outnumbered the gathered protestors.

Thi
s was a fairly peaceful section of the protest with only a couple of arrests a single seemingly unrelated brawl.

7:30 PM – Hi Seoul Incident

We moved to follow the protesters to the Hi-Seoul festival.  A cultural festival whose slogan was ironically “HOPE, LOVE”.

We watched as Buddhist performers mingled with protesters in a march down the central street.  At the end they arrived at a massive outdoor area where a techno remix of the Smurf’s theme song blared.  At this point the waiting police moved in and pushed everyone, protester, performer, civilian or otherwise off the street and into the main festival area.  Here the crowds mixed, danced, and waved flags until a group of front running protesters charged the stage.  The music stopped and the crowd went wild.

At this point the police swept in and started rounding up everyone they could see.  It was just shocking to see hundreds of police in black armor running into a crowd that had been dancing to a song from a children’s cartoon moments before.

Of the two days this is where we started to see a lot of police actions that seemed less and less justified.  One of the most poignant examples of this was a gathering of old people who were simply sitting around a candle vigil of protesters killed in previous events.  The police slowly moved in as people played music and sang until they could start grabbing people and start moving them out. 

The sweeps continued with the police grabbing more and more people who appeared to be simply young students or just regular civilians passing by or there for the festival.  Our translator told us again and again, “look, the police are grabbing normal people.  they’re saying ‘why are you arresting me, I have done nothing but stand here.’”

10 PM – Myong Dong Riots II

A number of the media recognized us from the previous day and came over to tell us that they had heard the protesters would be making a move to Myong Dong again.  Following their advice we headed over to arrive, once again, in the thick of a confrontation between police and protesters.

Again the protesters lobbed rocks, bottles, umbrellas, and anything that wasn’t nailed down at police.  Tensions seemed to be running especially high and we would see the police yell or throw objects back into the crowd.  Twice we caught caught in the middle as police charged a shopping mall filled with bystanders that had been shopping moments before.  It was horrific to see the wall of riot shields crash into the crowd and hear screaming.  Time and time again we saw the police round up what seemed to us to simply be normal people out shopping.

After hours of a back and forth with police chasing down protesters the intersections finally began to clear.  We started interviewing people involved to get a better grasp of what was going on.  Little of what we had seen made sense, but people were eager to share their stories.

We’re working to translate them now and will have them up as soon as we can.