The weeks leading up to the symposium

MMN is hosting a large symposium in Bangkok from the 26^th of February until the 28^th. In addition the secretariat (including me) will be attending several internal MMN meetings in the days leading up to, and the days afterthe symposium. We therefore have a lot of planning and organizing to do, so the people at my office have been quite busy. I have been working on some logistical preparations, such as making a directory of participants, a registration form, nametags and name plates. In addition I have been proofreading the new resource book that MMN is in the process of publishing; “Border Economic Zones”. This has been very exciting as the material is interesting and I have realised how many things need to be in place before publishing a book. However there were a lot of changes that neededto be done and we were all pressed for time, so the editing was handed over toone of my Thai colleagues who has more experience working with MMN and their publications, and could better communicate with the publisher. In the end the book was published just in time for the symposium. Last but not least we havehad to do a lot of other preparations such as packing up books and materialsthat we need to bring to Bangkok and print programs and other documents to handout to participants. 

The two weeks leading up to the Symposium have not only been busy at work, I have also had visitors from Norway staying with me. Three friends from back home (Daniel, Hulda and Espen) who are travelling around South East Asia at the moment came to stay with me in Chiang Mai for a while. The first couple of weeks have been quite slow socially, so itwas great to have some familiar faces around, to have a laugh and experience Chiang Mai in a different way. We walked around the Old City for quite a bit and went to see the Saturday Market which was overwhelmingly busy. In addition we went to a temple at the top of the mountain Doi Suthep, overlooking Chiang Mai. I can see this temple from my bedroom window and I have wanted to go there for a longtime, so we decided to go. The temple was wonderful however the view was hampered by thick smog, making it almost impossible to see the city below themountain. Due to pollution and the burning of crops in surrounding areas,Chiang Mai experiences such thick smog every year around this time.

We also went to Chiang Mai Zoo where we sawa hippopotamus, pandas, flamingos, white tigers, elephants and giraffes. Therewas also a huge aquarium, with sharks and turtles and all kinds of fish, whichwe really enjoyed. 

Aside from checking out some of Chiang Mai’s tourist attractions we also tried out several great restaurants and a lovely Jazz bar with where local musicians come and play every Tuesday.  My colleague Jess has showed me lots of places to go for amazing food, and I have taken a strong liking to Burmesefood. It is absolutely incredible. The food is quite different from what I amused to, but it is really tasty. Some people say that it is a mix between Thaiand Indian, which can’t really go wrong in my opinion. Jess has been in Chiang Mai for 10 months and knows the city very well, so she has been very good to me showingme great places to go for food and drink. I am also very lucky in the sensethat I live only five minutes away from the busy Suthep Road. Every evening around 5 or 6 pm loads of small food stalls pop up, selling a large variety of street food. I go there almost every day as the food is really cheap and really good. 

So the past few weeks have therefore been really nice, I have learnt a lot and experienced more of Chiang Mai. Hulda and Espen have gone off to work on a farm in Chiang Mai Province, and Daniel is moving onto Pai. Next stop for me is the Symposium in Bangkok!

My colleague P Eid in the office

My desk

Plaii and Jess working hard in the office

I bought myself a new bike

Plaii and Jess, having lunch at Pun Pun

Me in the office

Daniel having a foot massage in the Old City

 Statue in the Old City

Wall of orchids at the zoo

Espen and Daniel at the zoo

Flamingos

Hulda and Espen feeding the giraffs

Daniel at the aquarium

Espen and me at the Aquarium

Eating a variety of streetfood from Suthep Road, in my room