Day 3 in Mae Chan: Water Resource Exploration
- BLUElab Thailand
- May 10, 2017
- 3 min read
Hey all, I’m Cassidy, one of the project leads for BLUElab Thailand. This is my second trip to Thailand and I’ve been super pumped to be back for three main reasons: the incredible opportunity to collaborate with the excellent folks at Chiang Mai University on a project, the amazing food, and the lychee fruit.
We started the day off at our favorite Mae Chan breakfast spot, Mae Chan Coffee. On the menu today was one of my favorites, pad gra pow, as well as green curry and massaman curry and another kind of soup. Ben, P’At, Wen, and I also took a quick field trip to the nearby market to grab some rambutans and fried dough while everyone started eating breakfast. It turns out massaman has peanuts in it but luckily Alex, who is allergic to them, is quite savvy when trying new foods and tested it before eating a bowlful. Crisis averted. Although we were a bit bummed that our original plan to go to the temple in the morning to make merit on Vesak Day got derailed by a storm it gave us some more time to hang out at breakfast. Dr. Paskorn spoke with the owner of the shop and asked if they would be willing to interview us on their experiences in Mae Chan. They agreed and we split off into two groups, one group to interview the coffee shop owners, Sombut and Tuen tue, and the other to explore the nearby area and talk with anyone who might be able to answer some of our questions. This is ended up being a very valuable experience that provided us with a lot of information, so perhaps the rain wasn’t so unlucky after all.
After the interview group left Mae Chan Coffee we met up with the rest of our time to walk through the bustling downtown market and take a look at the canal running through the center of the city. From there we headed off to visit a MIXKEY location on a bridge over one of the rivers. Ava and I had visited this particular site the previous year and noticed in that short period of time the river had changed its course to the point that the MIXKEY was no longer positioned over the water. This served to reinforce in our minds the extent of the power moving water has to change a landscape.
We continued our path upstream and uphill to see one of the sources of the Mae Chan river. After parking our van, the group got to exercise our hiking skills and trekked uphill on a muddy and rocky path for about a kilometer. Along the way, we ran into a rather interesting new, leggy, friend.
Upon a later google search, I found out the creature in question is called a Giant Centipede and can grow to be up to a foot or so long. They’re also incredibly venomous, really aggressive, and can deliver a bite that results in a probable hospital visit and pain for several days. I think I have determined why our friends at OASYS discouraged my attempt to bring my hand close enough for a size comparison picture. Crisis number two averted. Our trek ended at a beautiful waterfall where we spent some time resting before starting the trek back down. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any more gargantuan insects.
Our next stop was a local water treatment station which pumped water to provide for the neighboring area. One of P’At’s water quality stations was located there so he took some time to show us it in action. We also ran into the man who maintains that station and he agreed to answer some of our questions as well. While waiting for him to return from work we spent some downtime being shown videos from “The Masked Singer”, a Thai sing-off show, teaching our OASYS friends how to play Ninja, and badgering Ben into giving us a Muay Thai lesson. I think we all need a bit of practice on that last thing.
The day ended relatively early and we returned to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner. After dinner, we went to the market to pick up some fruit and mango sticky rice. The evening ended with a snack run to Tesco Lotus and a team meeting to reflect on the day’s events. We are excited about several prospects and I can’t wait to see what additional information we will be able to gather tomorrow.
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