Friday we had our first class "field trip!" We took three vans (apparently we require a lot of teacher/TA supervision) to the Ratchaburi province, which was about a 3 hour van ride. We first went to a nature education center that was founded by the current crown princess of Thailand to emphasize the importance of nature and its resources to us. Everything had to be translated to us so it was a little difficult to understand exactly what was going on, but regardless was good to see a conservation effort in a more rural part of Thailand. Along with the center is a solar powered banana-drying building that produces dried bananas for sale (which are delicious!)...we got to sample the banana in different parts of the process. The picture to the side is a huge pot of hot banana "mush" being stirred.
After this we went to KMUTT's (the university I'm attending while here) new campus in the Ratchaburi province. It is definitely a lot smaller than our campus with only a few buildings and some still in construction, but Dr. Savitri (a professor at KMUTT) showed us a cool part of the building about 8 flights up with an amazing view. I took a few pictures of the view, and the panorama is courtesy of MK and the Panorama App on her iPhone! I tried to capture the flat farmland in contrast with sudden, rolling hills.
After another stop for clean energy "demonstrations" nearby, we went to the Amphawa Floating Market, which isn't as big as other floating markets in Thailand, but this one specifically is known for the "Firefly Cruises," where you take a motorboat along the canals to the mouth of the Mekong River and back around. There are certain trees along the canal which attract male fireflies because a specific enzyme they contain, and the male fireflies flock to these trees and light it up like Christmas lights! I couldn't get a good picture because it was so dark but the one I linked doesn't even give it justice! It was truly beautiful to the point it looked fake. Here's a few pictures of the actual floating market (vendors have their food on the boat with them and you tell them from the canal what you want).
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