Thailand

Floating down the river on six pieces of bamboo, tied together with a few strips of tire tubing, I had to pinch myself. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming – a sudden crash into the rocky bank told me I was awake and was not only soaking wet but that I was really in Thailand.

I went for a meeting, but we managed to sneak out one day to go river rafting and riding elephants. We rode elephants up into the mountains. Village boys rented out their “family” elephant for us to ride. Of course, they went along with us to tell the elephants where to go. It’s always weird to be on top of an elephant, when I am used to the much larger and wild elephants in Africa.

We spent most of the week learning new skills. We took these new media skills out in the evening and tried them out. One night we went to the night market. Some in my group learned how to shoot video, others pictures and still others learned how to capture digital audio. I was in the audio group. My assignment was to come back with sounds depicting the night market. I chose to capture all of the international voices and accents. I recorded people from 20 different countries – from all over Asia and Europe – as well as a Canadian and an American.

We took some more training opportunities at a traditional Thai dinner and dance. While we had fun eating traditional Thai dishes, we got down to work recording what was happening in a variety of ways. Dances in bright costumes danced and entertained us.