Yep, I live and work in the jungle. The insects are huge, there’s bamboo and creeping vines all over, and I spend my time in the forest listening for monkeys. Not their calls but rather the sound they make when they jump from tree to tree high up in the canopy. It is this sound that we follow when we are searching for the monkeys, or when we can no longer see them.
The first few trips to the field were mostly for orientation purposes in the forest. There is a network of flagged and mapped animal trails in the home ranges of our four groups of monkeys. These trails help provide a guide of where to walk when we are searching, but most of the following is done off-trail (unless we are really lucky and the monkeys are right on top of the trail).
Being in the forest is serene at times but stressful at others. Our study site is lower in elevation than the station, so it tends to be hotter. Also, the weather at Ban Ling may not be the weather in the forest- we have walked in to find evidence of heavy, recent rain when there was none up the hill where we live. Walking through bamboo is surreal and reminds me that I am in Asia, but then there are the bugs . . . At times the cicadas are so noisy that we cannot follow the monkeys by sound alone. There are leeches. They are small but plentiful and will attempt to scale your body and foil your leech socks. If they do latch on and you don’t notice, when they drop off you bleed for ages. But most of the time you can get them before they get you. My favorite tactic is to flick them off of my body and send them flying though the air, but you can also roll them up and flick them, cut them in half with a knife, or snap them in half with your fingers. We kill any we have left on us once we are at Baan Ling, otherwise they would breed there and become even more of an issue.
Getting to work is awesome. We motorbike. As of yet I can’t drive myself (standard transmission and kickstart are the obstacles, but I have a good handle on the kickstart and up to second gear so far), but it is great to ride up and down the hills before the forest work starts and to cool down after it ends. Over the next few weeks my motorbike skills will increase to include hills, riding with a full pack, and driving a passenger with and without a pack. One word: weeeeeeeeee!
Everyone wants to know if the monkeys are cute and the answer is yes, especially the young ones. The other day we were watching two juveniles with an older male and they really are a pleasure to watch. You get a big crick in your neck if you sit too close to the tree they are in, but we are already improving our skills at choosing a location from which to watch. This becomes trickier with the bamboo and one must take into consideration how much the monkeys want to hide. These monkeys have been habituated to people over the past several years, so in general they don’t run from us when we approach. However, the history of poaching in the area has necessitated that the langurs know how to sneak away/hide from people, so they can move very quietly through the trees when they want to. They also nap a bunch during the day, so it is hard to find them when they are resting.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Baan Ling
There are too many elephants living near our study site, so we live in TKM in a station called Baan Ling, the “monkey house” (no jokes, please). My living conditions are very comfortable considering I am living in rural Thailand. I have a spacious room with my own bathroom and shower, including a (manual) flush toilet in the Western style and cold running (filtered rain)water. I’ve got a nice corner room with a lot of light which is great because we only run the generator for electricity for a few hours at night. Plus, there’s a great hammock!
Others who live at Baan Ling include the rest of Team Langur (Carola, Zach, Richard) and some of the Thai rangers from Team Macaque (Piya, Aim and Tam). We all share a small lab, kitchen, and office. There’s an extensive collection of DVDs and a decent library here from former research assistants which I know will come in handy in the next few months. We also share some basic supplies like bread and ice, but there is plenty of room for individual experimentation with local foods! On the way here we stopped at a fruit market where no one spoke English and had the opportunity to choose fruits we had never seen before (nor knew how to tell if they were ripe). There is also a lot of unusual packaged food like seaweed flavored chips and dried fish strips that seem to resemble jerky. For the most part, trying new foods has been a rewarding experience, though Zach was not the biggest fan of the orange-flavored fermented milk. On the note of milk, many Thais are lactose intolerant so there are tons of soy products over here.
Others who live at Baan Ling include the rest of Team Langur (Carola, Zach, Richard) and some of the Thai rangers from Team Macaque (Piya, Aim and Tam). We all share a small lab, kitchen, and office. There’s an extensive collection of DVDs and a decent library here from former research assistants which I know will come in handy in the next few months. We also share some basic supplies like bread and ice, but there is plenty of room for individual experimentation with local foods! On the way here we stopped at a fruit market where no one spoke English and had the opportunity to choose fruits we had never seen before (nor knew how to tell if they were ripe). There is also a lot of unusual packaged food like seaweed flavored chips and dried fish strips that seem to resemble jerky. For the most part, trying new foods has been a rewarding experience, though Zach was not the biggest fan of the orange-flavored fermented milk. On the note of milk, many Thais are lactose intolerant so there are tons of soy products over here.
Greetings from Tung Ka Mang!
Tung Ka Mang is the name of the village where I live in PKWS. There are about 30 different posts throughout the sanctuary- most don’t have foreign researchers but instead are home to sanctuary rangers whose primary job is to combat poaching. There is quite a nice research community at TKM though; in addition to those of us working on langurs there are also two PhD students who follow Assamese macaques. Miranda is Dutch and is primarily interested in mating behavior, and Sebastian, a German, is focused on feeding ecology of females.
TKM is the home to a wide variety of wild and not-so-wild animals. In the former category, so far I have seen monitor lizards, barking deer, a porcupine, and some enormous insects (picture 4” long black/white/orange cicadas). At the station there are barking geckos by all of the lights and a house bat who comes to eat cicadas between the kitchen and office. In the latter category we have two saddle-backed jackals, hog deer, and sambar, a type of tame deer. Sambar are so tame, actually, that they like to come into the rooms if they can and stop by at least once a day to check that we have secured our trash in a deer-proof bin. The jackals are only slightly unnerving until you see how some of the Thais treat them like dogs. I had a close encounter with one earlier today and I think they are relatively harmless.
There are many important people in TKM too. Mr. Kitti is an assistant to the chief and is one of our major Thai contacts in the sanctuary. He helped design and build the station where we live and continues to be a useful resource for our concerns. Chet and Omnoi are our two Thai rangers. Both seem to be quiet, fun-loving guys (we had a BBQ last night and they demonstrated how to open a beer bottle with a single sheet of A4 paper- impressive!). Piya, Aim and Tam are three other Thai rangers who live in our station but work with Team Macaque. Krua and San cook for us, making them very important indeed.
TKM is the home to a wide variety of wild and not-so-wild animals. In the former category, so far I have seen monitor lizards, barking deer, a porcupine, and some enormous insects (picture 4” long black/white/orange cicadas). At the station there are barking geckos by all of the lights and a house bat who comes to eat cicadas between the kitchen and office. In the latter category we have two saddle-backed jackals, hog deer, and sambar, a type of tame deer. Sambar are so tame, actually, that they like to come into the rooms if they can and stop by at least once a day to check that we have secured our trash in a deer-proof bin. The jackals are only slightly unnerving until you see how some of the Thais treat them like dogs. I had a close encounter with one earlier today and I think they are relatively harmless.
There are many important people in TKM too. Mr. Kitti is an assistant to the chief and is one of our major Thai contacts in the sanctuary. He helped design and build the station where we live and continues to be a useful resource for our concerns. Chet and Omnoi are our two Thai rangers. Both seem to be quiet, fun-loving guys (we had a BBQ last night and they demonstrated how to open a beer bottle with a single sheet of A4 paper- impressive!). Piya, Aim and Tam are three other Thai rangers who live in our station but work with Team Macaque. Krua and San cook for us, making them very important indeed.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Want to get an email when I post something new?
I am working on the details of this, but it is possible for you to be emailed when I post something new on my blog. If you would like me to do this for you, please comment on this post with your email address included!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The great tuk-tuk adventure, a.k.a. “Beware of Wily Strangers”
Richard and I were free to have a tourist day Tuesday so we set out early to avoid the heat. Our first stop was the Wat Pho (“po”), a temple whose main attraction is the “Reclining Buddha.” The 150-foot long statue is made of plaster, covered with gold, and contained in a building not much larger than itself, making it impossible to take in as a whole piece. The enormous feet are inlayed with mother-of-pearl designs depicting the 108 auspicious signs of the Buddha. While this statue is the major draw of the wat, there are also ceramic tile-encrusted chedis (tiered spires that are often built over relics or ashes), hundreds of smaller gold Buddhas, multiple chapels decorated with mosaics, and guard statues of Chinese men and fantastical beasts. Wat Pho was a little hard to navigate without a guide or a guide book and it probably would have been worth it to be guided by a bilingual Thai. Which was what Richard and I planned to do next in the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace is just around the corner from the Wat Pho, but given the size of the palace, this is quite a corner to walk around. We calmly refused tuk-tuk (“too-k too-k”) drivers, saying we needed to walk for the exercise. I had been warned by guidebooks and Carola that these drivers will try to tell you that major monuments are closed and will offer to take you on a different tour which leads to gem shopping instead. In the back of my head, I also knew from the guidebooks and our map that you can only enter the Grand Palace as tourist from the northwest gate, on the side that faces away from the Wat Pho.
I thought that I was pretty well informed and resistant to the pressure of con-artists. At the first gate of the formidable walls of the palace we came to there were two men: a guard with a gun and an official military uniform, and a man with an official looking emblem on his shirt who told us he worked for the tourism office of the palace. He also mentioned that today there was a ceremony in the palace and that it would open at 1 pm. He was very helpful at pointing out other temples and attractions on our map at did not try to sell us anything. Armed with this information, Richard and I continued our walk to the northwest gate.
We made it to the northwest side of the palace and came to a gate, encountering two similar men: a guard and another dressed like the first palace worker. Here we heard the same story: no foreign tourists would be admitted until 1 pm out of respect of the ceremony. This seems reasonable: Thais have a lot of celebrations and a great respect for their monarchy. There also are a million things a foreigner can do to offend a Thai (including pointing their feet at people or sacred objects, and being too tall). So the nice palace worker showed us other attractions on the map, assured us the palace would be open from 1-5 pm, presented his palace worker ID . . . and offered to call us a tuk-tuk to take us someplace else in the meantime. This tuk-tuk calling business raised a red flag for me. It was also slightly suspicious that the palace worker would not give us the map he had drawn unless we let him call us the tuk-tuk. Once again, Richard and I calmly refused, opting instead to cross the street.
There’s just something about being a foreign tourist in Bangkok that makes tuk-tuk drivers gravitate towards you. There is also something (i.e. the heat, poorly-maintained sidewalks, lack of English signage) about Bangkok that makes it a very difficult city to see on foot. So as I tried to discreetly figure out where we could go to kill time until 1pm, we met a tuk-tuk driver who was the third to tell us the palace would open at one, and offered to take us to see other sights until then, promising to wait for us when we were inside and eventually bring us back to the Palace. This sounded like a good idea for a grand tour, even though that the second stop “Tourist Center” was unknown to me.
Away we went! Riding in a tuk-tuk has few similarities to other forms of transport. The three-wheeled open vehicle sounds vaguely like a chainsaw when it starts, for one. The sun shade/roof is nice, but sitting in the back it is too low to see out the front beyond a few feet of road. Richard and I toyed with the idea of sticking our heads out of the sides, but decided against it when we realized this was a good way to lose our heads to other traffic.
We did get to see the Standing Buddha that is over 100 feet tall at one Wat. But then it was off to the “Tourist Center,” i.e. shopping. We were reassured because we were told we didn’t need to buy anything, just stop inside. After a gem store and multiple tailors, we were told only a few more stops were necessary for the driver to earn the necessary petrol credit. After an hour of such shopping (including a Kasmir carpet store), we were back on our way to sightseeing. We went to the temple of the Smiling Buddha (though which Buddhas don’t smile?), only to emerge to find no tuk-tuk and no familiar driver. That left us on the north end of town, without any transport and with no desire to travel with another Thai who intended to rip us off. Later we learned that the driver had no need to take our money (we didn’t actually pay) because the drivers work on commission from the shops that they visit- visit 6 shops and the petrol is paid for.
Some walking, lunch, and a river taxi later ended us at the Grand Palace around 2:30. We walked further down the street north of the palace to find a very open gate, plenty of tourists, no “palace workers,” and a sign stating in Thai and English that without exception, the palace is open to the public 8:30 am to 3:30 pm daily. The sign goes on to warn that there are many con-artists about who will try to tell you otherwise, and at the bottom, in large capital letters, states “Beware of Wily Strangers.”
* * *
Richard and I decided against visiting the palace for just under an hour in favor of seeing some other sights on our own, including the Giant Swing (the seat of which was removed in 1932 because of the long track record of accidents and fatalities as Thais tried to swing high enough to tear open a bag of silver with their teeth), and the Golden Mount, which provides great views of the city if you are willing to climb 400+ steps. We have plans to visit the Grand Palace when we return for our JBE booster shot in three months . . . and will refuse to listen to anyone who tells us we can’t!
The Grand Palace is just around the corner from the Wat Pho, but given the size of the palace, this is quite a corner to walk around. We calmly refused tuk-tuk (“too-k too-k”) drivers, saying we needed to walk for the exercise. I had been warned by guidebooks and Carola that these drivers will try to tell you that major monuments are closed and will offer to take you on a different tour which leads to gem shopping instead. In the back of my head, I also knew from the guidebooks and our map that you can only enter the Grand Palace as tourist from the northwest gate, on the side that faces away from the Wat Pho.
I thought that I was pretty well informed and resistant to the pressure of con-artists. At the first gate of the formidable walls of the palace we came to there were two men: a guard with a gun and an official military uniform, and a man with an official looking emblem on his shirt who told us he worked for the tourism office of the palace. He also mentioned that today there was a ceremony in the palace and that it would open at 1 pm. He was very helpful at pointing out other temples and attractions on our map at did not try to sell us anything. Armed with this information, Richard and I continued our walk to the northwest gate.
We made it to the northwest side of the palace and came to a gate, encountering two similar men: a guard and another dressed like the first palace worker. Here we heard the same story: no foreign tourists would be admitted until 1 pm out of respect of the ceremony. This seems reasonable: Thais have a lot of celebrations and a great respect for their monarchy. There also are a million things a foreigner can do to offend a Thai (including pointing their feet at people or sacred objects, and being too tall). So the nice palace worker showed us other attractions on the map, assured us the palace would be open from 1-5 pm, presented his palace worker ID . . . and offered to call us a tuk-tuk to take us someplace else in the meantime. This tuk-tuk calling business raised a red flag for me. It was also slightly suspicious that the palace worker would not give us the map he had drawn unless we let him call us the tuk-tuk. Once again, Richard and I calmly refused, opting instead to cross the street.
There’s just something about being a foreign tourist in Bangkok that makes tuk-tuk drivers gravitate towards you. There is also something (i.e. the heat, poorly-maintained sidewalks, lack of English signage) about Bangkok that makes it a very difficult city to see on foot. So as I tried to discreetly figure out where we could go to kill time until 1pm, we met a tuk-tuk driver who was the third to tell us the palace would open at one, and offered to take us to see other sights until then, promising to wait for us when we were inside and eventually bring us back to the Palace. This sounded like a good idea for a grand tour, even though that the second stop “Tourist Center” was unknown to me.
Away we went! Riding in a tuk-tuk has few similarities to other forms of transport. The three-wheeled open vehicle sounds vaguely like a chainsaw when it starts, for one. The sun shade/roof is nice, but sitting in the back it is too low to see out the front beyond a few feet of road. Richard and I toyed with the idea of sticking our heads out of the sides, but decided against it when we realized this was a good way to lose our heads to other traffic.
We did get to see the Standing Buddha that is over 100 feet tall at one Wat. But then it was off to the “Tourist Center,” i.e. shopping. We were reassured because we were told we didn’t need to buy anything, just stop inside. After a gem store and multiple tailors, we were told only a few more stops were necessary for the driver to earn the necessary petrol credit. After an hour of such shopping (including a Kasmir carpet store), we were back on our way to sightseeing. We went to the temple of the Smiling Buddha (though which Buddhas don’t smile?), only to emerge to find no tuk-tuk and no familiar driver. That left us on the north end of town, without any transport and with no desire to travel with another Thai who intended to rip us off. Later we learned that the driver had no need to take our money (we didn’t actually pay) because the drivers work on commission from the shops that they visit- visit 6 shops and the petrol is paid for.
Some walking, lunch, and a river taxi later ended us at the Grand Palace around 2:30. We walked further down the street north of the palace to find a very open gate, plenty of tourists, no “palace workers,” and a sign stating in Thai and English that without exception, the palace is open to the public 8:30 am to 3:30 pm daily. The sign goes on to warn that there are many con-artists about who will try to tell you otherwise, and at the bottom, in large capital letters, states “Beware of Wily Strangers.”
* * *
Richard and I decided against visiting the palace for just under an hour in favor of seeing some other sights on our own, including the Giant Swing (the seat of which was removed in 1932 because of the long track record of accidents and fatalities as Thais tried to swing high enough to tear open a bag of silver with their teeth), and the Golden Mount, which provides great views of the city if you are willing to climb 400+ steps. We have plans to visit the Grand Palace when we return for our JBE booster shot in three months . . . and will refuse to listen to anyone who tells us we can’t!
My collegues
I was hired by Andreas Koenig and Carola Borries, a couple of anthropologists who are both professors at SUNY Stonybrook. Andreas and Carola have been studying primate ecology together for over a decade, and this current project was initiated in 2000. Carola is currently with us in Thailand, and will give us a 4-week “crash course” before returning to the States at the end of September. We will be on our own to run the project for a few months and then she will return in December. So far, I have had a great time with Carola. She is very caring and is really trying to make sure that we are adjusting to Thailand well. Plus, she knows the best place to eat near our hotel!
There are two other research assistants (RAs) who are being trained at the same time as I am. Richard is from England and just graduated with a degree in Zoology. He’s worked in Malaysia and Texas, and spent some time traveling in Honduras as well. He is a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor. Zach is from the US and has been out of college for a few years. He worked in Suriname studying primate behavior but more recently was assisting on a project on endangered birds in Texas.
There are two other research assistants (RAs) who are being trained at the same time as I am. Richard is from England and just graduated with a degree in Zoology. He’s worked in Malaysia and Texas, and spent some time traveling in Honduras as well. He is a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor. Zach is from the US and has been out of college for a few years. He worked in Suriname studying primate behavior but more recently was assisting on a project on endangered birds in Texas.
Initial impressions of Thailand: Bangkok
I’ve made it to Thailand! The first part of my adventure has been 4 days in Bangkok. Here’s a little bit of what I’ve learned and experienced so far . . .
Food: It is great, and since I am easily identified as a westerner, it hasn’t been too spicy! I’ve had pad thai (no orange noodles like Asian Café, Dori) where the little orange bits weren’t carrot slivers but rather tiny, whole shrimp; an amazing peanut and coconut milk curry, green curry . . . and these dinners that have set me back only two to three dollars each. There are lots of small vendors offering kebabs and fruit along the street, including durian, which I have yet to experience (it is reputably so smelly it is not allowed inside many buildings in Malaysia).
Transportation: The streets are packed with three vehicles: cars, motorbikes, and the iconic “tuk tuk.” As Carola (my female boss and the one who is with us now for orientaion) has said, “you just make room.” Which means that everyone changes lanes very frequently, no one signals, and there seem to be relatively few accidents considering this style of driving. It was a little stressful in the rainstorm that flooded the highway to the airport though . . . even Carola was wincing as we hydroplaned our way to pick up Richard.
The people: Thai people are famous for their smile, though apparently there are around 16 smiles that all have different meanings. You can smile to get out of awkward situations or instead of apologizing, which has turned out to be useful with the language barrier. For example, at the red cross station/snake farm where we went to get our Japanese B Encephalitis vaccines, there was some confusion of where the end of the line was, and I directed our group to the beginning, appearing to cut in front of a large group of Thais and a few westerners. Once the error was discovered there was lots of smiling all around and it became clear how we were supposed to queue. So far everyone has been very friendly and excited to hear me speak a little Thai (three phrases so far; don’t be impressed!).
The city: Bangkok is rather large and spread out. While our hotel is located at the geographic and commercial center of the city, near several large shopping malls (which makes giving directions to cab drivers who speak no English easier), we are not at the historic center of the city near the Chao Phraya River. There are hundreds of temples (wats) in the city, and images of Buddha abound. About 95% of the population is Buddhist so this comes as no surprise.
The weather: August and September are the second peak of Thailand’s rainy/monsoon season. It is hot, humid and cloudy during the day and it doesn’t seem to cool down much at night. Luckily we are staying in a nice hotel and can turn on the A/C. We’ve had two big rainstorms since Sunday. I have yet to hear thunder but when the rain comes, it is unbelievably heavy and pounding. Everyone tries to take cover, and Sunday the highway flooded.
I am in BKK until Thursday morning and will try to be in touch more once I get up to PKWS!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Thai Language
One of the things I am doing to prepare for Thailand is learning a bit of the local language. Although English is spoken in major tourist areas like Bangkok, I will be living in a rural area where English speakers may not be as common.
Learning Thai presents several challenges. First, Thai has its own alphabet. This is not a major issue in and of itself (being a Classics major I learned the Greek alphabet), except when you look at the number of characters in the Thai alphabet. There are 44-46 consonant characters. Although most of the sounds made by these consonant characters occur in English, there is also the tricky "ng" sound which can start a word (in English "ng" only occurs at the end of a word, e.g. sing; try saying nguu (snake) to see what "ng" is like at the beginning of a word), and "bp" and "dt" which are intermediaries between b and p, and d and t, respectively. Then add 20+ vowel characters, which are short or long, and can be written on either side, both sides, above, or below the consonant to which they refer . . . which is almost enough intimidation to put you off learning Thai entirely! Plus, everyone transliterates Thai differently into Arabic characters, making it hard to learn from websites/books that don't use the same transliteration system.
Another challenge to learning Thai is that the language is tonal, like Chinese. A syllable may be pronounced in one of five tones: middle, high, low, rising (like making a sentence a question in English), or falling (starting high and then going to low). Just as changing the vowel length can change the meaning of the word, changing the tone changes the meaning of a word. For example, you wouldn't want to confuse bpuu (middle; "crab") with bpuu (low; "grandfather"), unless you had a crabby grandfather with a sense of humor. Although there are certain accent marks to indicate tone explicitly for some words, sometimes you have to figure out the tone via vowel and consonant rules (I am not really at this stage yet).
Many of you have expressed an interest in visiting me in Thailand, so why not learn some Thai? Check out http://www.learningthai.com/speak_thai.html
for survival phrases, like mai mee dtung ("I don't have any money") and mai ow phet ("I don't want spicy"). http://www.learningthai.com/speak_thai.html
A native speaker will even say it for you so you can hear the tones! : )
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