Post 1

Time For Thailand
Zach Henderson

Unfortunately Its been difficult to maintain regular blog postings via a combination of several factors. The main protagonist of which is the discovery that my laptop's charging port is inexplicably missing a small metal ring that is preventing me from being able to charge, and ultimately use it for the remainder of my journey. Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic when I found out that I'll be hauling an utterly useless 6lb piece of expensive and delicate technology until January 19th (not including the fact that the majority of my books are stored on said laptop's Kindle library). Drinks were drank.

Regardless of my apparent insufficient sacrifices to the technology gods, I'm fortunate that the fellow participants in my  trip are kind enough to offer their laptops for my use from time to time so that I will at least be able to maintain some semblance of blog.

The foundation of this blog is to record my learning from PSY 3960. PSY 3960's target result is for students to be versed in the psychology and neural basis of wanting (craving) and liking (pleasure) from both a Western neuroscientific and a Thai Buddhist perspective. Understanding how this distinction relates to the roots of Buddhist philosophy, and how it impacts the history and culture of northeast Thailand through observation and meditation.

The toughest part of this blog is admittedly not my inability to type it, but rather that words seem to injustice everything seen, smelled, heard, touched, and most of all tasted. Even if words could be considered sufficient imagery to any readers, how could I begin to organize these into a chronological, and more importantly, insightful posting that related to the central ideas of PSY 3960? I suppose the best way of doing so will a dive to the beginning flight and mentally wander towards present day.

In order to initially get to Thailand, our trip consisted of an eleven hour flight to Tokyo's Narita airport, roughly 45 minutes of layover time, and another six hour flight to Bangkok where we would arrive at our hotel at midnight local time. Although both physically and mentally exhausting, the traveling went surprisingly well. There were the usual scattering of babies and other small children throughout the plane(s), but maybe their mothers had decided to lace their bottles with Prozac as they were all angels. There was the always questionable-looking airline menu, but the food proved unusually palatable, we even had the luxury of moist towels to clean ourselves up with. I was actually hoping to be able to grab some sushi while at Tokyo, more specifically the conveyor belt-driven "kaiten" sushi, but unfortunately we began boarding within 15 minutes of clearing security at the gate we arrived at (really, how on earth would we be able to smuggle explosives onto our plane after clearing US security? I suspect it was just for show unless they took a secret pleasure pouring out the duty-free bottles of booze travelers are drawn to buy). None of that really mattered after arriving at our Bangkok hotel, at which point I was either going to sleep immediately after hitting the mattress or die, both of which seemed almost equally appealing at the time.

I had previously thought that binge drinking is an entirely useless, if not destructive, activity. However, by possessing experience in falling asleep and conversely waking up at bizarre times of the day, jet lag proved to a minimal inconvenience, which is good because PSY 3960 hit the ground running faster than Rosie O' Donnell after a KFC wing. Waking up early, I stepped outside the hotel and realized that I had no idea where I had ended up in my zombie state of the previous night, we were in the heart of downtown Bangkok. Along with my roommate, we explored the surrounding blocks and saw so many new sights. One thing  we discovered early was that Thais love their malls, and I figured out why, they're the best on earth. At $1 per 30 Baht, you'd be surprised how cheaply everything is, and how delicious the food courts are. In comparison to the expensive slop served at US malls, Thai malls offer entire healthy, delicious meals for roughly $1, this is something I'm really going to miss. After exploring the malls, we spend the rest of the day bus-touring Bangkok, taking a river cruise, touring the imperial temples, and ending our night with a huge welcome dinner  served in a traditional Thai spread, I'm unsure If I've ever been that full. We decided to spend that night in Bangkok's Red Light District. This was an outrageous experience, which I will leave to the readers to imaging.

We next took our bus a few hours to the city of Ayutthaya where we would spend New Years Eve. After checking into our hotel we visited a temple in the hills, Wat Tham Krabok, where the author of one of our books (Opium Fiend) received treatment for his opium addition. Wat Tham Krabok could be summed in two words: eye opening. Never have I seen such an effective, if unusual, non-Western approach towards treating drug addiction. If Wat Tham Krabok sounds interesting, I would encourage you to read more about it, however, I'll briefly describe its' place in the detoxification world. Wat Tham Krabok began as an ordinary temple in a secluded part of the Thai hills. One day an opium-addicted man came to the temple begging for treatment, he knew he would die by morning if he did nothing. The abbot (head monk) had little idea what to do for the man, they certainly had no anti-withdrawal medicine at the temple, but he relented and blessed a lotus for the man who ate this. In the morning, the abbot was surprised to see the man alive and experiencing only mild withdrawal symptoms. At the end of the man's treatment, the abbot told them man not to tell others that the temple was a drug treatment center, to which he found many addicts suddenly arriving soon after anyways. That day, our experience consisted of a tour of the temple grounds, observation of some of the detoxification rituals by the current patients, and sit-down discussions with the actual patients themselves.

The entire detoxification process of Wat Tham Krabok could easily fill several chapters, so I'll only describe what we observed. After touring the grounds (which included an deserted Hmong refugee camp) we observed the vomiting detoxifications. For first five days at the temple, the patients gather each morning to drink a shot of herbal tincture (the recipe of which is secret), chug water, and promptly vomit for a solid ten minutes while the patients who have already completed their five days are gathered in a group behind them beating drums and singing a song which roughly revolves around the lyrics of "if you do not get rid of the toxins and addictions you will die", charming really. Otherwise, the patients are kept busy doing chores such as sweeping at 4am, undergoing steam rooms heated with citronella,lemongrass, and other herbs, and constantly drinking a bitter herbal tea which a patient lovingly described as "complete shit". The most interesting thing about the temple is that in contrast to Western rehab centers, every single patient wanted to be there and were free to leave at any point, although each person is given one chance at the temple, if you leave treatment and return in the future, you will not be allowed entrance regardless of how many apologies you give. Although this detoxification center is in a remote location of Thailand, there were 12 foreigners (or as the Thais say, farangs) who were patients during our visit and who talked with us. In particular, I met Luke from France, and Jason from New Zealand. What was even more surprising to myself, is that most, if not all, of the monks at this temple are former addicts themselves who decided to stay at the temple after receiving treatment. This approach towards a major problem of today's world was very interesting, why are we telling people using drugs to use different drugs to prevent them from using the original drugs? How effectively can somebody be cured with medicine when their problems are those of the heart and mind? Maybe this is why many rehab centers in the US are ultimately ineffective (the monk leading us estimated their success rate at %80).

Since Ayutthaya, we took an overnight train (using a squat toilet on a moving train is tricky at best) and have since been touring many temples around Chaing Mai, each one more majestic than the last. I feel confident that Thailand is the most beautiful country in the world, and their temples are the pinnacle of this. It's amazing that these temples are hundreds, if not thousands, of years older than our churches, but more than a thousand times more beautiful. In no particular order, we've had the privilege to experience Tuk Tuk rides, talk one-on-one with Buddhist monks, enjoy night markets, and sample an outrageous amount of fantastic food. To be honest, I had thought that during my experience in Thailand would leave me skinnier, but because the food is so delicious, and so cheap, I'm beginning to question this.

The best part about all these previously-mentioned experiences is that this is only the beginning of my travels and I have high expectations for the next 2+ weeks moving forward. Needless to say, there will be more learnings, and even more questions to come.