Corneli in Thailand

My Thailand adventure

The Journey:

Every good tourist does a fair amount of planning before a trip to be prepared for the broad array of peculiar situations one might find oneself in when travelling abroad. Being a researcher, I just couldn’t stop myself from digging into every bit of travel information I could find. This included everything from the best type of suitcase to travel with, what clothes to wear on a plane, customs and visa regulations, pre-travel health precautions and insurance, right through to transiting in foreign countries, cultural do’s and don’ts and of course sights to see!

All this research naturally led to the discovery of a lot of interesting facts and opinions. I will share the most important ones with you that ensured a smooth ride all the way to Thailand and back!

New Friends from all over the world!
New Friends from all over the world!

As mentioned before, I consider myself a researcher, but I am also a woman. These two don’t always see eye to eye. I will first give in to the stereotypical woman in me and share my thoughts on travel comforts… When it comes to suitcases: backpack beats duffle bag, suitcase with wheels beats backpack and convertible backpack with wheels trumps everything. I invested in the last mentioned accessory and didn’t regret it for one second. My particular bag could also expand through an extra zipped compartment, once again extremely convenient for the stereotypical woman who loves shopping, but also handy for a man since Thailand brings out the shopper in everybody! Bangkok is not renowned for its beautiful streets, they are fairly rough and uneven, so the bigger the wheels on your suitcase, the better!

The weather in Thailand is pretty hot and humid all year round and the summer school demanded neat clothes. Longer length skirts worked well for me opposed to wearing pants in the heat. Clothes that don’t wrinkle too much when packed in your suitcase are also advisable. Since I left South Africa in the midst of the Cape winter, I took the layering approach when choosing an appropriate outfit to fly in – lots of layers to take off when drawing near to the equator and lots of layers to put back on when returning to the snow-topped mountains of the Republic. I also had a small collapsible umbrella which served the dual purpose of protection against monsoon rains and equatorial sunburn!

I shall now move on to the important business. A South African citizen does not need a visa to visit Thailand, you automatically qualify for a 30 day stay in the country. When going on an exchange or a business trip, I would advise anyone to carry proof of your accommodation, reason for your visit and a return flight ticket as a safety precaution. These documents could ensure safe passage through most security checkpoints you might encounter. This trip was my first time travelling overseas, so I was quite concerned whether I’d be able to navigate through all the international airports, customs and passport control points. To my surprise I found it extremely easy to navigate my way, even through the bigger airports such as Dubai. There are very clear and easy-to-follow signs everywhere and even if your most basic English abandons you in a moment of foreign despair, just follow the pictures!

The last big question I faced before I left home soil was: malaria pills, or no malaria pills? I enquired at the University’s travel clinic and consulted several friends that recently visited the country. The only malaria areas in Thailand are around the densely forested borderline, so for the conference in Bangkok no medication was necessary. I didn’t need a malaria prescription or any other shots or serums before my departure. There are a lot of bugs though, so I always wore strong insect repellent when walking about at night!

Die kultuur:

Ek het dit goed gedink om hierdie webjoernaal in ‘n tweetalige formaat te doen aangesien die aantal diverse tale wat by die somerskool gepraat is, een van die dinge was wat my die meeste fassineer het! Ek sou graag ook ‘n stukkie Duits of Frans hier wou insluit, maar my gebrek aan Europese taalvaardighede en die moeilike “prentjieskrif” van Mandaryns het my daarteen laat besluit. Engels is maar as die goue middeweg gebruik alhoewel dit vir die meeste mense ook moeilik was om hulself uit te druk. Die meeste studente was baie beïndruk toe ek vertel het dat Suid-Afrika elf (binnekort twaalf) amptelike landstale het. Ek het amper skuldig gevoel toe ek moes erken dat ek net twee van hierdie tale magtig is aangesien daar mense was wat tot 5 verskillende tale kan praat. Ten spyte van die taalgaping het die wetenskap en die landbou ons steeds verenig in ons soeke na oplossings vir ʼn groener wêreld. Rys-gene, water-tekorte en sonkrag is immers dieselfde in Afrika, Japan en Indië!

Die grootste kulturele voorreg wat ʼn mens in ʼn ander land kan geniet is om saam met die plaaslike inwoners te eet. Om die een of ander rede vorm die etenstafel sedert die vroegste eeue die brug tussen nasies, tale, koningshuise en alleenloper-reisigers. Dink maar aan hier in Suid-Afrika waar feesvieringe, trane-troos of sommer net lekker kuier gewoonlik gepaard gaan met ʼn braaivleisvuurtjie, ʼn lekker pot kerrie-kos of soms net ʼn koppie rooibostee en ʼn stukkie beskuit! Ek het reeds tydens my eerste aand in Thailand hierdie voorreg geniet. Ek is saam met my Thaise kamermaat en ʼn klomp van haar Thai vriende na een van hul gunsteling plaaslike restaurante. Thai kos is egter nie vir die lig-in-die-broek eters nie. Ek het maar die vark-harte en vreemde seediere opsy geskuif en by die reis en noedels gehou! Ek het darem ʼn paar interessante soppe en eend-disse uitgetoets, maar ook een of twee keer my mond lelik verbrand, letterlik! Thailand het natuurlik ook absoluut heerlike tropiese vrugte wat glad nie in SA te vinde is nie en dan ook die oosterse ekwivalent van spanspek, waatlemoen en mango! Hierdie heerlike versnaperinge is oral op die straat by ‘n verskeidenheid van stalletjies te koop, hulle skil selfs jou pynappel vir jou af sodat jy dit net daar kan geniet! Die Thaise gasvryheid was waarlik iets besonders, iets wat ek altyd sal onthou.

Ons is in ons vrye tyd die geleentheid gegun om ‘n bietjie van Bangkok te ontdek. Daar is natuurlik baie winkels, maar ook ‘n magdom van tempels, museums en kunsgalerye. Een van die museums wat ek besoek het, was dié van Koning Chulalongkorn na wie die Universiteit waar ons ontvang is, vernoem is. Ek moes my skoene by die voordeur uittrek, maar het nie vir een oomblik getwyfel dat dit nie meer daar sou wees wanneer ek uitkom nie! Dié koning het op 15-jarige ouderdom in 1868 aan bewind gekom en vir 42 jaar regeer. Hy was ‘n man wat gestreef het na gelykheid. Hy’t alles in sy vermoë gedoen om die land op te bou in terme van infrastruktuur, vervoerstelsels en gelyke opvoeding vir almal. Verder was hy ‘n familieman en ‘n formidabele staatsman met internasionale bande in die Westerse wêreld en met sy Oosterse bure. Dit was vir my goed om te sien dat hulle ook waardes in ‘n leier koester wat vir my as persoon belangrik is. As ek dit moet vergelyk met ‘n wêreldbekende leiersfiguur op eie bodem, naamlik oud president Nelson Mandela, is die ooreenkomste voor die hand liggend. Dit was vir my verblydend om te sien dat ten spyte van die groot kultuur- en geloofsverskille tussen Suid-Afrika en Thailand (selfs die groter Ooste), die kern waardes wat die mensdom gegrond hou, geregtigheid laat geskied en vooruitgang bewerkstellig, steeds oor grense dieselfde is.

The academics:

The essence of my visit to Thailand was to exchange ideas and information on sustainability issues and solutions with bright minds from all over the globe. At the AC21 International Summer School we attended a keynote speech on some form of sustainable technology or agriculture each morning, followed by lectures given by academics from all over the world. I took part in the subdivision of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production.

The ultimate goal of sustainable agriculture and food production is to supply the rapidly increasing demand for food associated with a constantly growing world population, with the limited natural resources we have at our disposal. Globally, plant breeders, agronomists, entomologists and producers are working together to achieve disease and drought resistant crops, environmentally friendly alternatives to pesticides as well as higher production yields. All of these goals however have to be met while abiding to biodiversity policies and suffering pressure from uninformed consumer preferences.

As scientists we are aware of what needs to be achieved in order to ensure sustainable agricultural practices. The problem however is that the ideas lack the technology to support it. From a scientific perspective there are a number of obvious solutions for problems like soil conservation and insect control, but it is essentially the producers that need to make these sustainable choices because they are holding our natural resources in their hands. Furthermore, producers are unfortunately not driven by smart scientific results or biodiversity conservation; they are driven by the economy and by the consumers who buy their products. It is thus clear that sustainability can only be achieved through the collaboration of the endless number of parties involved – an intricate network of scientists, producers, economists and the broader public. Personally I think communication is equally as important as finding sustainable solutions, because one cannot make responsible choices if you are uninformed. This would involve educating producers, consumers, individuals from other sectors as well as promoting the collaboration of scientists on both a national and an international level.

Sometimes, only for a very few seconds at a time, I feel as if things in our country could do a lot better – education-wise, politically, economically and perhaps even agriculturally. But while sitting in a room with people sharing stories from Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh and a number of other countries, I realised that we are actually not doing too poorly. For every problem we experience, we have ten things that we can be thankful for.

I thoroughly enjoyed my brief international visit and I would definitely attempt an exchange programme or a similar summer school. People however often ask me whether I would go and work abroad, and I’m afraid that the answer would be “no”. The summer school made me realise that the majority of world countries have a lot of work that needs to be done, with regards to sustainability, but also in the vast majority of other sectors. I might seem idealistic, but I’d rather build up my own country, educate my fellow countrymen and make a difference where I am, than going abroad for personal gain. Who is going to help Africa if Africa doesn’t even want to help itself?