First few days

This is by way of a summary of the last few days - or rather my first few days in Thailand for my research at Kasetsart. Thought it was time to start a blog before the vividness of those first impressions fade away, so here goes ...

Sunday 29th June - arrived early in the morning after a 14 hour flight, a speed-fuelled taxi driver who zoomed across town and no sleep. Campus all very quiet but found RECOFTC where I have large gloomy and rather battered room, but it has AC and an intermittent wireless connection so I feel very fortunate.

Went staggering around the campus in a dazed state in an attempt to keep awake. Huge campus, with lots of mature trees, ponds, canals and gardens. Every faculty has its own set of food stalls, complete with pi dogs. Nearly everything was shut, which was good because it would have been even more confusing. My biggest triumph was to find the swimming pool where I churned up and down for over an hour. There is an Olympic sized pool, three kiddy pools and a diving pool. Found several interesting student hang-outs and some semi-decent coffee in the School of Management. The canteens were shut on Sunday evening so went off campus. Just outside the gate and over the footbridge crossing six lanes of Patholytin road there is a whole collection of outdoor restaurants. They are all geared to Thai students, so cheap and cheerful. I couldn't muster any Thai, and they certainly don't cater for westerners, so I just found a group of students with a lot of interesting plates and asked them what they were eating. They obligingly wrote down my order for the waitress who then brought me something completely different. My surprise dinner was greens in batter, a plate of chicken in eye-watering sauce and a random bowl of seafood which I certainly didn't order and I think was just going spare. Washed down with a very large bottle of beer the whole thing came to £2.50 - and I think half of that was the beer.

Monday 30th June - Today I met Som Ying, the head of the team, who is lovely. She has been working in rural development all her life and very knowledgable. She has a team of 10, some youngish blokes and some very smart girls. The Thailand Support Programme's funding is coming to an end at the end of this year, and she is very preoccupied with what will become of the team. We had lunch with her and Attjala, who is her right hand woman and frightenly clever. Bee, a graduate student, who works part time for them, is going to be my field assistant. Between us we worked out a plan. I am going to go with them on two of their regular visits to the projects, when they will introduce us and Bee and I will stay a few days longer. We leave for the first project on 11th - this will be a joint visit to two of the nearest Community Forest sites about three hours away (Chainat & Suphanburi Provinces). Then I'll be back here then it's off to the furthest north to see a project near Chiang Mai.

In the meantime I will work here in their documentation centre which has fantastic AC. I may well get a little flat down the road while I'm here. I like my gloomy room but every time I leave on my trips I'd have to pack everything up as it's not meant for semi perm accom - only for visiting guests. Ramida the secretary has sent me some possibilities which I will investigate tomorrow.

Tuesday 1st July - Got lost twice today. This morning I set off for some breakfast and finally got back here two hours later having made some great discoveries. Round the back of the forestry dept (out through the parking lot, turn left at the Ant Museum, past Diamond Back Moth research unit and Pesticides Research) there is a big canteen which does breakfast and lunch. By canteen they mean a whole load of foodstalls all under one roof, all cooking different things (a lot of them are fairly similar). At 7.30 it was rocking, mainly with workers who you can tell by their yellow shirts. On the way back I got completely lost, but found the Tuesday market where I bought a torch to go the villages. I got a bit fed up not being able to find my way back (it is hot) and staggered into Horticulture where I had a sit down and the best coffee so far. Conclusion: the best food is where the workers eat and the best coffee where the post grads go.

Wednesday 2nd July - A day of sorting things out. In the library all day. Have SIM card for my mobile phone so have Thai phone number. Also went with Ramida to look at a flat down the road. OK, great swimming pool in the complex but rather over-looked. Have heard of house share in central Bangkok which I will visit on Sunday.

Thursday 3rd July - started to get slightly worried that there is loads to read and can't see how it fits together. Spent the day working on the building's roof (rather than the library) and managed to pull some ideas together and start to identify what I don't know. Rang Babette at AIT but she can't see me until August, by which time I will be half way through, so will be mid-project review. I would like some confirmation thatI am setting off in the right direction!

Friday 4th July - planning meeting with Attajala. I think they're a bit puzzled about the focus of my research. The whole focus here is (naturally) on Community Forestry, whereas I have to see community-based resource management as the context in which women make decisions about migration. So - two different agendas. Having a bit of trouble getting this across... mailed Brighton tutor who suggested that emphasis on livelihoods could provide some common ground. Useful.