Bangkok: Black and White Internet... who knew

First post from SE Asia, YAY!  I am going to make this a light one as I do not have to much to share yet.

I spent my first week in Bangkok exploring the city and meeting some other wonderful backpackers.  My first few days were a bit rough before I met some people and got my directions straight in the big city  but, I thinks that's normal. (Thai people never point straight.  I do not know why but whenever I asked directions they always pointed in a veer to the right or left ind of motion.  So odd!) 

Nonetheless, after a few days I meet a group of people a Niras Backpackers Hostel, a lovely little place outside of the over crowded and commercial Kho San Rd, who I spent my next few days in the city with.  Last night I left BKK* and took an overnight train to Laos.
Here is a list of what I did in the city,

• Saw a bunch of temples
• Walked my butt off
• Ate lots of street food and so much fruit! **Note to Arden**The variation of quail eggs the cook are amazing.
•  Discovered my black and white kindle gets internet... so cool
• Went to a Muay Thai Boxing  Match-see video
• Explored the largest China town I have even been to.

I know there was more but that's all for now folks

Whats next?I think tomorrow I will travel north to the capital of Laos, Vientiane.  I have few plans from there but hope to meet some new (and old) friends from the Chinese New Year at the start of February in Hanoi.

I promise my posts will become less mundane soon

So much love to everyone at home

Signed,

One happy Traveler :oD


*Bangkok

A Packing: The List for the Over Planner

So I know I am not the only girl who needs MONTHS to plan and pack for a trip.  I figured I would make this post for the overzealous traveler.  Here is my best attempt at a packing list.  I have arranged it by categories with links to my favorite sites for travel gear.  

Finding a pack:
This has been the hardest part of packing for my trip thus far.  Being small, many packs sit to high and push my head forward in this really uncomfortable manor.  Its sort of like forcing my head into a strange tucked position!  Either way, I had to search for the best pack and the best deal.  I have had many packs over time for backcountry backpacking trips.  However, hiking packs are pretty different as their functions are not the same.  When I hike, I do not mind having to pull out all my gear at night when I set up my camp.  However, I do not want dig through my pack each time I need a swimsuit or new pair of socks.  
Also, I didn't want a gigantic pack.  I think it encourages bringing to much and the last thing I want is a back I cannot lift myself (that seems to be against the point). Additionally, most stores only carry unisex packs and 80 liters packs which are enormous.  I believe 60-70 Liters seems just right as it leaves space for a few gifts to bring home.  I found a few packs that I think works best:

• The Osprey 65 Waypoint Women's - right now REI only has the 85.  I can only imagine how much that would way in the end!  This pack is nice as it has stiff interior skeleton.  It is almost like a hard suitcase with a nice Osprey strap and belt system.  The pack is pretty still but also very lightweight.  However, I found the length and stiffness of the pack combined were to tall for by small body and squished my head forward.

• REI Grand Tour 80 Women's- this pack is also way to large.  However, if you want to bring more weight the size extends out instead of up.  It also has a zip off day pack and the zippers lock together for protection.  They fit the TSA security locks which are always nice to cary a few extras.  The back has less structure but still opens from the front, sides, and bottom.  It has less pockets and I think the material is less sturdy than an Osprey or Gregory Pack.  It could just be because it is REI brand.  However, there gear is always nice since it can be returned. Additionally, the pack has a built in rainfly.

• Other Osprey Travel Packs- These packs are are like duffles with backpack straps thrown on the back.  Its pretty unstructured and not the best idea if you plan on using the bag as a backpack often.

• Gregory Deva 70/60 Liters - this pack comes in both a 70 or 60.  It was my favorite of all the packs I found.  Although not categorized as a travel pack, the font opens like the REI Grand Tour as well as full zip side pockets and bottom, top, and middle entry.  The zippers don't have locks but can still be locked together easily.  The fabric and seams are water proof.  The top loader can come off as a nice day pack as well.  I really like the interior pockets since they are good for hiding things like money and my kindle.  The pack sits shorter and comes in xs,s,m, and l sizes.  I got mine for a great deal on Amazon.  The blue is also a really nice color!  Since it is a hiking pack the shoulder and hip straps are a bit more comfortable as they are meant for long distances.  Pretty much my favorite option and it fit small me (5'2")

** Though I have posted the homepage of where to find these bags, I bought mine at alternative online stores.  I went into REI and other local outdoor stores and tried on the packs.  Once I found what I liked the best I searched online for the best deal.  Amazon is great as well as Campmore.  Most of the time you can find bags for $50-100 less!
*** Keep in mind that traveling in Asia (or most developing countries) can be tricky for rolling bags.  Most places are pretty rural and the streets unpaved.  Also, I would not want to carry a heavy bag over my shoulder as you never know how far you could be walking.  Traveling abroad has taught me to always be able to comfortably carry all my belongings at once up to one mile.  You never know if you bus may break down.

Choosing my next adventure

I Have A Ticket

For a few years I have been planning a huge trip for after college.  Sort of a reward for staying put and finishing school.  Well in May, I finished.  Being the over planning type I spent my last year of school shifting and changing my trip until I decided exactly where I wanted to go and who I wanted to travel with.

Its decided:
A few week ago I purchased a roundtrip ticket from Bangkok, Thailand!
I will be leaving early January and coming back mid May (just in time for Firedrums!) I will be traveling off and on with a few close girl friends.

Itinerary:
OPEN!
... well almost
I will arrive in Bangkok and spend a few weeks in Thailand.  Then hopefully on a moped trip in Laos.  Then time at some temples in Cambodia.  Hopefully a few weeks around the ocean with some sea kayaking.  Finally, I will say Au' Reviour to my friends and go to Taiwan.  In Taiwan I will spend a month working on a tea farm and studying tea with a tea monk in the mountain of Taiwan.  A pretty good trip I would say.

Either way, being to nervous prone type I figured I would begin to do some documenting of my trip now both to look back on and to possibly help others who are wondering about the preparation work for young women (I am 22) that is needed before traveling to SE Asia.

Rain and Muhammad Yunus

Today Daniel and I took an adventure to a real coffee shop. None of this powdered bullshit but real coffee from a proper machine. I sat down to finish my Muhammad Yunus book "Banker to the Poor" and the rain came... when I say rain I do not mean the Tacoma conventional drizzle that graces us every fall to spring but a true tropical torrential downpour. Needless to say, I will not be leaving this coffee shop for a while!

I really wanted to do this posting on the book I just finished. Yunus is my new political economical hero! He is the founder of micro finance and a Nobel peace prizewinner. Muhammad Yunus, the founding father of micro finance, created the worlds most profitable micro finance scheme. He began in his home country of Bangladesh. As a professor of economics with a PHD, Yunus saw the immense amount of poverty that surrounded his home community. He began experimenting with small loans to the poorest women. Creating such a successful micro credit structure was not simple. Besides starting slowly, Yunus had to gain trust of the Bangladeshi government, USAID and many more. Additionally he only hired people who would dedicate their entire lives to Grameen just as he did. Today his founding micro finance bank, Grameen, gives millions of loans 94% of which are women[1]. His idea has spread over the entire world reaching Asia, Africa, Europe, and north and South America. In his words “Micro-credit may not be a cure-all, but it is a force for change not only economical and personal, but also social and political.”

In my study of micro finance in Durban I have struggled to find a micro credit structure to that similar of Grameen Bank. This structure is a bottom up run program. The borrowers own the majority of the company and are its means to success. Without them loans could not continue to circulate and the company would never have sounds self-sustainability. Instead of a tyrannical system of loan sharks that bang on your door once a week, Grameen works on a group accountability basis. Groups of five, preferably women, join and are responsible for the pay back of all of their loans collectively. This program teaches business management as well as personal responsibility and accountability.

It teaches rural women that the door out of poverty can be in their hands. Yunus targets women because they are the poorest of the poor in our world. This pro-poor structure enables the micro credit sector to target a generally forgotten about group. It also combats gender inequality issues while elevating the “bottom 20% of the population in poverty”. His book has further stemmed my interest in women’s issues whether they be in micro finance or conflict resolution I believe I may have found my niche.

On a similar note, today I had an interview with the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (accord) www.accord.co.za. I am pretty sure I will end up spending my next summer working for them as an internship. They have just launched a new program on women in conflict resolution in Eastern Africa. If I do land an internship here, I will be on the committee for research in this section. Lets hope this will lead to a senior thesis idea and maybe future job!

Ok all for now time to enjoy my 20^th Birthday

and so it begins... again

Today is about the first official day of our independent study projects. We turn in our proposals tomorrow and hope they are approved by some official board. Last night we moved into our huge house for the next 5 weeks. This place is fabulous its an old farm house that is bright bright blue almost turquoise actually. 11 of us will live there together and hope it remains as fun as last night. we began our new home experience by making homemade calzones which were so fabulous thanks to Annie Schnieder and Josh Wronski.

So it has been a while since I updated and even longer since i have written in my mandatory journal!

Last week we spent a few days working at a women's prison. We joined Phoenix Zululand in there restorative justice program. I wish I had more to say about this program but I found it uneventful and almost an opportunity for the prisoners to leave there cells. The work was so emotionally advanced for people who are petty thieves and are only in for a short amount of time. not to mention few spoke english and non well enough to understand these tough emotional and justice concepts in a different language than their own.

To be honest the best part of this program was the one on one time we had to chat about what ever we liked with the prisoners. This seems like a big statement from a girl who spent so much time at an emotional growth program. however these work shops seemed more like power complexes than any insight type program (any monarch kids reading this????). I had a hard time not thinking of how our workshops were run and how there is always a power element in teaching people how to regulate there feelings and gain responsibility in their lives. I mean just look at Timothy Earl! I could rant for longer but I am running out of internet data on my 50mb of free time.

P.S. its almost my birthday!

Gateway

Lucky me...
I am sitting in the largest mall in the southern hemisphere right now and I feel like I am in Florida rather than South Africa. the contradictions of this country are incredible. this mall, full of designer shops and an imax theater, is in the home of a country with the largest HIV/AIDS rate in the world in the province with the highest poverty rate and highest HIV/AIDS rate in all of South Africa. Yet here I am, sitting in a large arm chair drinking purified tap water, working on my mac at Gloria Jean's Coffees.

I feel like an oxymoron all by myself. I have spent the past 2 hours looking up international development internships for next summer in both the US and Africa. As I am looking for these opportunities where I can help the worlds poorest develop banking strategies to help them grow in my bureaucratic, global, world bank run world I sit here comfortable because I am surrounded by familiar "white" faces in an environment that suites me because I am american and mall is my culture. Now i am aware that I am lucky enough to have been born into the world I live in and that I work hard academically so I can help others and achieve personal "greatness" but, I still cannot help but think how I call the kettle black and then realize I am the kettle too. Call it white guilt or what have you but I have spent so much time both in Africa and America mulling over this idea and no matter what I do I cant seem to change this nagging opinion that I ironic.

I dont know if anyone else feels this way but in South Africa you are confronted with contradictions from every corner. I can live in a rural homestead but you better believe that there one outlet for power in the house will be used to hook up there satellite television so they can be inundated with american culture that they believe is the best life to live.

Please send me comments on what you guys think about this post or any others. I dont now how to respond on blogger but I would love some on going conversations of relating to me agreeing with me disagreeing with me yelling at me laughing or whatever. I miss all of you incredible and this blog is not just to inform but also to keep in touch so keep in touch back with me

ok now I am going to see an American movie in this monstrosity of a mall



Poverty In Kwazulu-Natal
Size 92 100km2
Share of country -7.6%
Total farming land- 6.5 mill ha
Livestock farming suitability-82%
Arable farming suitability-18%

Total Population
Share of national population- 20.7%
Population growth rate-12%
Population in rural areas-54%
Black people-84.9%
Coloured people-1.5%
Indian people-8.5%
White people-5.1%

Working age population economically active-51.3%
Unemployment rate-45%
Average annual household income-R64 359
Adults with no education-12%
Adults with degree or higher-3.7%
Pupil to teacher ratio-36:1
Matric pass rate-77%

Proportion population HIV+-18.4%
Women at ante-natal clinics HIV+-36.5%

Source- http://www.afra.co.za/jit_default_975.html

SEND ME LETTERS!!!!

Lauren Sakin
c/o School for International Training
Postnet Suite 151
Private Bag X04
Dalbridge 4014
SOUTH AFRICA