NEVERLAND: YCAP Day 1

YCAP, Young Culture Ambassodor Program 2009, is a new program held by the Faculty of Agrculture of Khon Kaen University in Thailand. The office sent out invitation to universities from 8 different countries and asked for 20 participants to join the program held from 1/26 t0 2/4, 2009. So there I was, together with my classmate Hsiu, first passed the interview in our school, leaving on Chinese New Year's Eve for Thailand.

After approximate four hours flight, we arrived in Bangkok and took the shuttle bus to the domestic airport for the flight to Khon Kaen. There was a small incident during the bus ride because we thought the final destination of the bus was the airport but it wasn't, and we both overslept until everyone had went off the bus and the driver told us that we had already passed the airport. Fortunately, when we were dropped off at nowhere with our luggage, hopeless because no one could seem to speak English, a nice Thai who could speak a little Chinese called a taxi for us and told the driver our destination. Though it wasn't that smooth and easy for our first day in Thailand, but we were glad we made it there to the university and spent our first night in the hotel.

We had steamed bun hamburger and green tea for our lunch at the BKK airport. It was a Japenese fast food restaurant, and we were not surprised that different countries have their own style of fast food since we hace rice burger in Taiwan. We were eager to taste Thai style fast food but we didn't have the chance, though we did hear about Mac Som Tam, which is papaya salad.

Opening and welcome ceremony at the Faculty of Agriculture. There were total 18 students from 8 countries that joined the program, including Taiwan, Malaysia, USA, Japan, Vietnam, Bhutan, Lao, and Hong Kong. There were also 10 Thai students who joined with us and gave us assistance if we need. So in the morning there were introduction from both the school and the students, and we learned a little Thai such as Sa wa dee krub/ ka ( hello and good-bye, krub for man, ka for woman), Pham/ Chun chue Lisa ka ( my name is Lisa, pham for man, chun for woman), and Phom/ Chun pen kon Taiwan ka ( I'm from Taiwan)

In the afternoon we had a campus tour, and this is their library.

I was surprised that Thailand have as many motorbikes as we have in Taiwan, and almost every students have a motorbike as their transportation tools, much more common than bikes. The difference is that they are mostly motorcycles and we have mostly scooters, and it was common for them to overload with people and not to wear helmets. It was the first time I rode on the motorbike with two other people and without helmets when the Thai students took us to the agriculture fair by their motorbikes. A special experience, but not so fun at all.

My roomate for the first two nights, Quynh from Vietnam.

In the late afternoon we went out for a short city tour and we arrived at a majestic temple with a tower of 9 floors. Before entering the temples in Thailand, you must take off your shoes, and shorts and tank tops are not allowed. There are only male monks, and although they are not forbid to eat meat, they should have no body contacts with female.

On the ninth floor of the tower, front to back, Tung from Hong Kong, Quynh from Vietnam, and Hsiu from Taiwan.

A mountain of rice were piled up by the temple for the poors and strays.

A welcome party from the Thai students. I was shocked to learn that the 'girls' dancing beautifully were actually boys! But they were not the kind of transexuals or ladyboys we usually heard, they just wore the make up and dresses for the dance, although I still wonder why they didn't use 'real' girls instead.