DAY 14

"Ahmedabad-Rajkot-Jamnagar-Dwarka"

As usual, the bus came late almost 30 minutes. We all knew about it. Anyways, most of us was ready at 6:30 AM as schedule. This is what I like about American culture that people respect the meeting time.
On the way from Ahmedabad to Rajkot, I slept, as I planned, right after 15 minutes after the bus started rolling. I woke up again when we arrived Indubhai Parekh School of Architecture at Rajkot. This school is pretty new. It has been opened for just 4 years. For me, walking around the studios and its library. It most likely when I started my undergraduate level at KMUTT; I was in the 1st class. Yet this Indian students have better facilities than me. They have their own well-designed building. The Dean of the school took us around and stopped at the library. He said that they have a strong requirement of big amount of architectural books in any kinds. He asked for help from Nihal and us that he needs the disposable books and magazines shipping to his school. I really want to help him. May be I will donate some of my collection to them from Bangkok.
Then we departed to Jamnagar. We stopped at the main weekend market which surround the big pool with the museum and nice statue in the middle. As I told before, it's a weekend market and we were there on Saturday. Of course, there were lots of people walking around. When we were there it's like we are super stars. We walked observing around as a small group and they staring at us and keep say "Hello" to us. Even more, when we got together as a whole group the crowd get more and more around us. From my memory, there were more than hundred people surround us while we were all waiting for the bus. This kind of reaction from the local surprised us a lot.
When we arrived at the Hotel Devang in Dwarka around midnight. In a hotel room, I asked myself the how it would be if we were in some villages in Thailand. Will they act like this too?

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 11-13)

DAY 11
Wed 01/19/05 writing at 2:11PM in the CEPT studio, 01/21/05

When you start doing the same things again and again everyday. You will start seeing it as nothing. This is happening to me like now. I can't come up with anything that I think it's interesting. What I remember is that since we are having seminar class like this everyday, I need to speak up to make Nihal notices and gives me the participation points. I think back to the time that I first started the master program in Ball State, I had a real problem speaking and asking questions. I don't say now I'm good but at least I've got better.
Anyways, I think I don't have anything more to tell. See you tomorrow.

DAY 12
Thu 01/20/05 writing at 3:22PM in the CEPT studio, 01/21/05

Ahmedabad also fell into the fast food franchise realm just like any other cities and countries around the world. Today I'm gonna talk about my first experience with Indian McDonald. It happened to us because Nihal dismissed the class earlier than usual. Matt is the one who found it and he also brought an idea to get a lunch over there together.
The McDonald that we went is located on the Ground floor of the cinema complex which I can't recall the name. We were so excited to see what they will provide us on the menu, do they have the Maharaja Burger like Nihal told us? No, they don't but they do have the regular menu just like the store in USA. The only mere difference is the names that they put on each item. Oh..hey!! They don't have beef here, so they have only chicken and fish for the meat. The service was fine just little bit slow because of the language barrier. The store is clean. In fact, it's cleaner than a store in Muncie.
After the lunch, I had a chance to do a little shopping, yeahh..!! We went to the local souvenir store running by government. I was thinking about buying a Shawl, a piece of cloth in rectangular shape using to cover the body from the cold temperature, for myself several days ago. The weather in Ahmedabad was getting colder and colder everyday. In that shop, there are many many things to look around most of them are quite beautiful and authentic. I went to the basement to get a Shawl for myself and also for my girlfriend. It ended up that I got just one piece for myself. It's a very nice piece with more pattern and better fabric. Everyone keeps asking where did I get that Shawl. I feel bad that I couldn't get one for Nan but I tried already. The ones for women that a sale person showed me don't look nice at all. However, when we were heading back to school Emily showed a Shawl that she got. It's so so nice. I'll go back and get that one for sure.
Then we were back to the class. All the discourses in the class still go on but I can bear with it. The trip to Veraval is coming. We are looking forward for this trip.

DAY 13
Fri 01/21/05 writing in RM 217 Hotel Park, Veraval (10:33PM)

The days of my CAP Asia trip passed by. I don't wanna say that they are passing fast or slow. It doesn't matter. What matters is I learn new experiences everyday. Things have got busy after we came to Veraval. I have less time to keep track of what I did and the name of the places that we went to. Furthermore, I have less time to write this journal. Therefore, I think I can't maintain the same amount of writing as I did in those very first days. I will try to be more specific in what kind of data that I want to communicate to the reader.
Today is the last day before we go to Veraval to do our town planning project. Things seem to be wind down a bit. The discussion in the morning was not so intense. Instead, we put our focus into the preparation in regard to what we will do both on the way to and in Veraval. There are two parts of this trip. One is a field trip before the CEPT students join us, from Sat 22nd to Mon 24th, which we will travel in 4 different cities; Rajkot, Jamnagar, Dwarka, Porbandar, and Junagadh. Another one is a research part, which we have to do the 'Land Use' survey and 'Household' survey, from Tue 25th to Sat 4th of February.
After the class and meeting, I went to the Mint to check my email and clear out my internet stuff because I don't know that I can an internet access or not. Also I need to have a chat with Nan as well. No luck, she wasn't there. Anyways, I tried my best to make a contact with her before I left. Finally, I made it. I made a call using S.T.D., long distance call service. I had a good conversation with her. We were so happy to hear each other voice again. But..yeah.. who knows when I will be possible to contact her again during this trip.
I don't feel like having much thing to say. I remember that at that day I was happy to get out of Ahmedabad. I eager to go back to the flat for packing my stuff. Now it's time to use my Gregory backpack alone in the trip. I think it's worth for the price that I paid. Everything had been packed and everybody went to bed early because I need to get rolling very early on the next day. See you tomorrow.

(to be continued)

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 10)

DAY 10
Tue 01/18/05 writing at 2:00PM in the CEPT studio, 01/21/05

The new thing for me today is that I can travel alone in this city. Today I went to school, to Mint and back to the apartment all alone. It doesn't mean that I want to segregate myself apart from the group but at some points I need to go to do something at the specific time without waiting for another person to come together. I think it's very normal that when people go to the new place. It'd take sometime to adjust themselves and learn to familiarize with the place. Today, I was ready to go out by my own. It also depends on the place that you plan to go as well. I would be hesitate to go alone if I'm going to the place that I've never been before.
Moreover, to go out and walk alone on the street, it also answered the question that I asked on the very first day of this trip, when local people are looking at me, do they look at me because of the whole group? The answer is that they are looking at me because of myself. However, another question occurred. I wonder what do they think when they are looking at me? First of all, I'm not blonde and don't look like white people at all. Second, I'm asian but don't look like a typical asian. From the experience while I've met and talked with local people. No one thinks that I'm Thai. I heard that they call me 'Chinese'. Some people asked me that am I Japanese, Malaysian, etc.
Which category that I fit in? What exactly that I look like? Can I say that I'm Thai? Like Nihal said to me, it's nothing pure in this world. Everything has got influences from outside. We should look at things as a hybridity. Hybridity doesn't mean only two things combine together. It can be a lot of thing. Therefore, I consider myself as a 'Hybrid' as well.

(to be continued)

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 9)

DAY 9
Mon 01/17/05 1:53 PM in front of the studios

I'm writing this journal 2 days behind. After writing this thing for a week, I think it must be very boring if I keep writing in this diary based way. Therefore, I came up with an idea to just write on particular topics that I think they are important to me and also somehow to the others as well.
There were several things that strike me. First was the discussion about the readings in the morning. Second was the atmosphere and people in the bank. Third was the traffic in this city.
In the morning, we had a meeting, I think I should call it 'a class', at a new location. We moved to the plaza in front of the Art Building. It's better than the old place but I still have a feeling that there are something wrong with this place. Having outdoor class like this is an perfect example, Nihal always put this in the discussion, for an idea of 'Society and Space'. They are both shaping each other. Today we were discussing three reading. First is the Orientalism. Second is the Collecting and the last one is the Whiteness. Those are all about how western people looking in a critical and analytical way on the races and social aspects.
After the class, Shaun, Katherine and me went to the bank to do the money exchange. It was such a nice experience to me to see how the people in the working. They are quite lay-off. Nothing in a hurry here. It took us almost an hour to get the thing done. Talking about the bank, everything looks old and in a bad shape and seems very unorganized. Well, the business still go on. For the security system, they have one guard carrying the rifle around. The gun is pretty old. I don't know it's still working or not but it still can use to beat any bad guys, I guess.
Back to the class, we were trying to get ready before the trip to Veraval begins. The main purpose to go to Veraval is to get the information needed to be analyzed for the developing plan. We, as a joined student, are involving just in the preparing questions and getting information process. The CEPT will continue shaping the developing plan for Veraval city after we left. There were some difficulties along with several group. For instance, some member of the group don't show up, disagreement in the objectives and so on. For my group, everything is fine, lucky me.
After the class, on the way to Mint and back to our apartment was different. I noticed something for the traffic in this city. To see the traffic on this city streets for the first time, it's so crazy that nobody stop at the intersection and they keep honking all the time. Whatever things happen in front of the drivers, they honk. There is no crosswalk on the street and everyone does the jaywalking. Every car wants to be the first in the line. I can connect this to the situation when we were buying food at the canteen. Indian students always cut in front of us and make a crowd in front of the window. However, when I looked at the traffic carefully. I saw an amazing flow of the cars, motorcycles, three wheelers, pedestrians. They go together and when they hit the intersection, they merge together without completely stop. Most importantly, since I've arrived and observed this place, I've never seen any serious accident or heard the car cashing at all. This is quite an amazing thing to see, don't you think?

(to be continued)

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 8)

DAY 8
01/16/05 10:17PM in my bed/working room

Today is Sunday..yeah!! no class no group meeting nothing...!! I got up late around 9AM but who cares. I started the day by cleaning room and organizing my stuff. After taking shower, I was cleaning and checking my thumb and I think it's ready to get the stiches off. I'll ask Lu to do this job because she used to work as a surgery nurse. Without hurry or anything, time passed by 'til around noon. Robert and I decided to go to Mint to get lunch and get online again.
We went to apartment 1 to see what the others are doing. We met John and he's going to Mint as well. Anyways, John couldn't make it with us because he forgot to bright his wallet. So, just me and Bleech again. Today was a bit different to reach the place. The Ricshore driver that we got didn't where the Crossword is. It's so funny that we told him that "We wanna go to Crosswords, the bookstore" but he took us to another book store. It's by a hospital and name "Book Stall".. hahahaha!! Then we gave another try and AGAIN, the driver doesn't know where it is. Anyways, he stopped and asked to get the right direction. It's took us almost an hour to get to Mint..hurrr!! I looked at the bright side that at least we got to see a different street of the city.
After surfing the net and organized the hugh mess of my BSU and .Mac mailboxes, I was waiting to meet Nan online. Too bad she couldn't make it and Robert asked me to go to get groceries with him. Since we stay on the trip together in a different country like this, we have to hold a buddy basis. Well, our time depends on our partner. It's not quite comfortable but it's safe. We walked to the Hypermarket which is pretty close to Mint. It was considered a big and comfortable supermarket. I was enjoy shopping in this place. Then we headed back to our apartment. I started writing this journal for the field trip day. It has lots and lots of thing to write on that day. It took me almost two hours to finish it. Wheww.. I made it!! I keep telling myself that I will give a commitment to complete this travel log. I also keep posting this log in a daily basis but for some reasons the Blogger site doesn't show up my posts. It's been like this for several days already. It's nothing I can do just waiting and see what the webmaster can do.
Today is another lazy for all of us, I guess. Only me and Bleech left in the apartment. We didn't know what to do and don't know where to get a dinner. We ended up with the idea to go to Mint. Luckily, we met Matt J., Dave and Paul in front of the apartment. They were going the get a dinner in the market nearby. Without thinking, we joined them. All of us stopped at a non-veg restaurant named "NV restaurant". All the food are quite good but a bit pricey. Up until now, I don't feel regret to come to this trip. To get an experience in other countries and to stay 24 hours with nice American students, this is a once in a life time that not everyone can get.
I'm experiencing it. Thank you... all the Lords.

(to be continued)

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 7)

DAY 7
01/15/05 9:34 PM in my bedroom

After the hard day trip yesterday, this morning we had a class at 9AM with CEPT students. Chris and I went to school pretty late without a hurry..hahaha. When we arrived at the campus, we didn't care much, we had a short breakfast too. Eventually, we went to class at 10AM. There were several of us already in the class. It was pretty boring to listen a lecture about city planning calculation methods. I did pay attention only the first hour. After that I was writing the postcard to my mom, na moo, nan and ken. Still don't know how to send them though.
Then I went to Mint again. Today was a little bit different because I met nan online. That was the first time that we can actually have a conversation. Even though it's not a voice conversation, just chatting made us feel a lot better. We have never been apart without talking this long. I still can't figure out the way to make a call to her but I will. We chat for about an hour and a half which is pretty enough. Then I went back to the apartment to read and write some stuff.
In our apartment, Matt and Jeremy told us that the CEPT gonna provide a free dinner on the campus at 7PM and they wanna go to the Crossword bookstore first. So we all went down to that store and hopefully we can get to the campus by the time they serving dinner. Unfortunately, there was no free food. I bought a dinner from the canteen anyway. Since, there was no free food and nothing to do after that. Chris and I decided to go to Mint again. We were there quite late but tonight had a bit different. I think because it's Saturday night. So there is one big table having farewell party. The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty good. It's very lively. Moreover, tonight they had a live music. There was a guy who is a singer and also guitar player. He's very good. I'd say. He sang most the popular English songs and some pop local music. There were some customer in the restaurant went up and sang as well. They were all good. I liked it.
Then we decided to go back to our apartment. It was my lazy day. I didn't want to do any serious thing today. Chris got some DVDs from Matt. Therefore, I got an idea to hook up my PB to the TV to watch the movie. I picked the "Italian Job". At first, there were 4-5 of us watching. Then they went back to their room one by one until Catherine and me left watching the movie through the end. It's not a good movie. I don't like the way that they the story to perfect without the twist or excitement at all. Good night..!!

(to be continued)

BiGGa

CAP Asia Travel Log: Ahmedabad (Day 6)

DAY 6
01/14/05 (writing@Mint on 01/16/05 8.53PM, my lazy Saturday, sitting with John & Chris)

Today is one of a big day of the trip. CEPT provided a field trip of Ahmedabad city for the attendees of the conference. It started at 6:15 AM. I couldn't believe that I can pulled myself up that early. Everyone was ready on time but the bus was late for almost 45 min. This becomes typical thing that everyone has to admit that an appointment time in India is very unstable. Similar to Thailand I'd say, so it didn't bother me much.
We started with the "Heritage Walk". We walked from the big temple which I can't remember the name. It's bigger and more elaborate than normal temple that I saw on the street. It's a very first temple built at the very early period of Ahmedabad city establishment. I think it's also located at the original point of city development. An architecture of the temple is similar to "Wat Kheak" on Silom road. All the architecture elements such as columns, roofs, doors, and windows are decorated with colorful figures. Then we walked from the temple to the local residential community called "Pol". I think it's similar to the word "Village". Pol has a very interesting characteristic. It has a strong sense of community by having a very small street as a circulation path that spread around like a nerve system in human body. All the building have European influence in architecture elements. They all have 2-3 stories high with the balcony facing each other. When I walked on that little street in the Pols. I barely get the sun light because of the height and the arrangement of the buildings. It's like walking the the forest. According to an organic plan, it's very easy to get lost if you are not familiar with the place. As I mentioned before about a strong sense of community in this place, when I was walking around I saw all the activities of the people who live there. They are cleaning their cloths, reading newspaper, preparing to go out for work, etc. It'd be untrue if I don't mention about the cows. They are one of an important part of this society. They are like a dog on the street, dogs that have owners but the owner let them go out of the house, in Bangkok. I love the plan and organization of the Pol but one thing that I don't like is the hygiene of the place. If it's clean, it'd look a lot nicer.
Regarding a point of cleanness, I think from the outsider view they might look to this place very dirty but from the local perspective they don't feel a thing. I believe that if we clean the place, the local won't be happy for that. Moreover, from my observation, I think that there are lots of beautiful architecture and interesting places but with Indian people behavior they can not keep it clean and organized. No offend, I respect their culture and I think this is the way that they live.
Next stop from the "Heritage Walk", the hi-light of it was an old big temple which I don't feel anything interesting so I won't say about it, we were visit the first building built in Indian by Le Corbusier. This building is an office of a Textile Company. This is my first experience in Corbu's buidling. I was very excited about it and the building doesn't let me down. It was amazing to experience a space that had been carefully designed. The plan is so organic. It seems like there is no single corner in this building. The circulation is very flow but yet in control in a way. Nihal said this building has a volumatic space. I'm kinda agree with that, even though I don't quite clear about that term. The pureness of the material; exposed concrete, steel, glass, and wood very well represents the idea of Modernism. It seems like a furnishing part of the building had already been determined since the first design stage. Because I saw the benches and tables that are made by concrete and be apart, like emerging from the concrete floor, of the building. Also the building responses quite well with the context. I can see from the sun shading on the front facade and the void to see the lake view on the back. Just to see this building, it's totally worth for this field trip.
From the Modernist's design, we went to see the ancient Sultan's Tomb and Step well. They are both very historically beautiful. Just like in other countries that have their long history and culture, all the beautiful art and architecture were put in the temple and tomb. The very well crafted wall, column, window, doors, and even floor had been combined together with an essence of traditional Indian architecture. One thing in the tomb that caught my intention is a grid arrangement of the columns. It reminded me to one scene in the LOTR: The fellowship of the rings. The scene that they go pass underneath the mountain where the old mine located. Even the decoration on the surface of the column has a similar character. For the Step well, first I was kinda disappointed because I saw just a couple structure above the ground. But after I waked closer and closer, I was so stupid to make a prejudgement before seeing the whole thing. Underneath the ground, there is the amazing structure and beautiful architecture of the main stair and lead to the sacred well. They were made from sand stone with an overwhelmed religious related decoration.
After that we had lunch and attended one lecture about sustainability design at Environmental Sanitation Institute, ESI. It was a very good lecture regarding the concept design and the purposes of this center. People who has interest in green and sustainability design should listen to this. The sustainability design were involved from the land adjustment to building design until the maintenance process. Moreover, the speaker said this idea had been introduced by Gandhi.
Next place, we stopped to see another kind of European influenced architecture at Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India. For me, it's kinda like a Chataeu in France, just the scale and planning quite too big to be the house. From my understanding, this place is for a upper class student because it's very clean and very well organized with security system. Again, like I mention before, there are some spot in the building that shown the Indianess. I saw spit stains and disordering desks and tables.
Everyone agree that this is such a long long field trip. It's already 5 o'clock in the evening but we still have two more places to visit. Then we made to the Gandhi Ashram. It was a place that Gandhi spent most of his life lived and fought for the independence of India. NIhal told us to be more focus to observe this place to see how Gandhi live and design his own place in his own ideology which is related with the vernacular idea. I saw a Hollywood movie "Gandhi" before I came here. Therefore, it's inevitable to compare between the real and the movie. For me, this place really represent the Gandhi's ideology of simplicity of life. Since we had such a short time to visit, some of us will come back to this place again for sure.
Last stop, we visited Sangath, Doshi's architectural office, to see how Le Corbusier influences this leading Indian architect. It was very impressive at the first step that I walked in. Just like good architect should do, every single element of the project had been carefully designed. The approach to the building is leaded by a gravel path which is not go directly to the building. Instead, it took us to the rim of the site passing the beautiful garden. After few minutes past the garden, I saw the roof the office which is located just several meters above the ground. That means most of the building are hided underneath the ground. After one round of walk, I would say this building truly has Corbu influence but not like mimicking. I think the plan and circulation of the building that told me. Walking along the path of the office, it's very flow that I was so surprised that I was going outside - inside, above - below the ground without noticing. This is such a good experience. Again, we had a short of time and it's already dark. I will come back to this place again for sure.
Well.. that was the hell of the day. Such a toughest one day trip of my life. I know I complaint too much. I had another thought that comparing with what I could do in a normal day of my life in Muncie. Today, I have been through things more than a year in Muncie.

(to be continued)

BiGGa