Diary Entry: Day 6

Written by: Anthea Haryoko.

I’m not gonna lie. I dreaded the prospect of getting up this morning. Four places to visit, up at 8 am, back at 8 pm. Our busy schedules with keeping up with the blog didn’t help either and I even contemplated faking a ‘sicky’ to get out of it, but I pushed those demons out of my head as we headed to our first NGO.

We pulled up to Friends Without Borders, away from the tourist traffic. The organization utilizes main stream media outlets to spotlight the issues of refugees in Thailand. I thought the organization was relevant to many of us, since many of us come from Communications backgrounds and that main stream media holds the ability to reach out to a vast audience including many of the youth who have the potential to play a vital role in shaping social perceptions of refugees in the country. We were shown a touching film produced by FWB, about a Burmese refugee boy, Hongsa’s School Bag, whose dream of saving up for a school bag was beyond his grasp due to his stigmatized status in Thailand. My mere whims of wanting to get more sleep this morning were now so petty in light of his story.

After the ritual group photo in front of the FWB building, we headed to Wat U-Mong, a temple dug into the ground and of sprirtual reflections. At first glance it seemed an eerie place, orange cloth with writing were wrapped around seemingly random trees that lined the road. Later I found out that the writings held words of wisdom and deep inner reflections. We wandered about, feeding the cat fish with bread rolls which Jo, our student guide, kindly shared. Pigeons flocked to Cyren, our resident ‘bird-man’ and the man with the ice cream cart provided us much relief from the day’s humidity.

Lunch was an interesting experience and I think it’s worth appreciating local eating places, away from food made palatable to tourists. To get a sense of Thai food, one needs to eat where the Thai’s eat. And so Juree, our very outgoing student guide, led us to a popular eatery mainly frequented by many university students. She also introduced us to the Thai version of ‘Cin-Cau’. It’s interesting to note the many different countries around Asia have their own twist of the jelly drink. Thai ‘Cin-Cau’ adds evaporated milk to the black jelly and sweet syrup. Its popularity among our group was enough to say it was pretty darn good.

MAP was next on the list, an NGO who helps in the legal aspects of migrants workers. One of its aims is to bring justice to migrants who have been wronged, as well as to advocate their legal status in Thailand since many are forced to find their way illegally into Thailand. MAP also allows a space away from the fear and isolation experienced as a refugee, and into an area where they are able to discuss their feelings and experiences among other migrants across many ethnicities

EMPOWER was a great organization to visit and personally had the most effect on my perceptions of sex workers. As students who have explored the sex industry, we tend to look upon them with pity, as victims of exploitation and slavery. Sure there are many places where this may be the case, but EMPOWER was not one of them. I had noticed that the girls who worked there were very confident about themselves. They want to work in the sex industry by choice and they also know their rights as sex workers. They were a very outgoing bunch, teasing us about how beautiful they were and were quite cheeky about the trade. The bar was a wonderful place of learning and empowerment; education of safe sex practices and essential urban life skills. The stripper poles in the bar were also a hit among us. It made sex seem fun, with the knowledge of safe sex practices at the same time.

Last but not least, to tie up the day, dinner was held at a popular steak house and buffet. Jo chose the place this time. I also noted the many university students who frequented the eatery, which again like lunch, was a good experience to get a glimpse of Chiang Mai’s student culture that our student guides are also part of. A mellow atmosphere with a small live band (in Thai of course) allowed us to unwind from the long day, finally getting us away from the tourist circus, today we experienced a small window of Chiang Mai’s students culture, which we were fortunate to have glimpsed.