kylekyle.com

Hello friends and family,

I’m in Bangkok at the moment, and I need to announce a sort of radical shift in direction. I am currently on a trip to Malaysia with the rest of my co-workers which I had already been confirmed for, but when I return, I will not be returning to the jungles of Phu Khieo. I’ve spoken with several of you on the phone about this already, but I’ll reiterate for clarity and those in the dark.

Basically, my job in the jungle was god awful. It was not what I wanted to do now, in the near future, or ever. It may have seeped into my writings before, but I I’ll say it clearly now: I hated observing those monkeys. I realized that if I wasn’t going to love it, or even like it, a year of it was a bit beyond optimistic. It was dellusion! I came to Thailand to gain future experience, gain life experience outside of my usual haunts, and see a bit of the world. I was very little of any of these things in the Wildlife Sanctuary. The animals were wonderful, and the Thai people were wonderful, but I saw more of Thailand from the hospital. A big factor was my discovery that in a years time I would get a single vacation of 7 days. By the time I finish with the project and have unlimited time for travel, I know I will be extremely homesick. I’ll end up returning immidiatly, negating the bonuses of a paid for ticket.

So I’ve made my choice. Rather than waste the next 6 months hating my job and growing bitter, I’m going to leave with smiles and handshakes, and find my fortunes elswhere. My thai ticket will not be wasted. For the next 4 days I will be in Penang, a small Island in Malaysia where I will update my travel Visa with unlimited re-entry, and then back to Bangkok. From there I will chart out a course, which I suspect will begin with the ruins of Ayuthaya, the city of Ketchaburi, and the “Bridge over the river Kwai.” I am very open to suggestions as well. I plan on going to Cambodia to see Ankor Wat, Myanmar to see who knows, and possibly Singapore just for the hell of it.

I guess you should know that I don’t regret this decision, even in the slightest sense. My boss even agrees. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong position. I can help my future along soon enough, I’ve helped it along for many many years up to this point

If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them when I get back from Malaysia. Until then, stay tuned, these letters are about to get more interesting.

PS: Tonight, on cousin Joey’s advice, I’m going to splurge a bit and go see The Transformers film on Imax at the Siam Paragon (The biggest mall I have ever seen)…. I’m excited!

Hello to everybody!

So it has been about two weeks since I have left, and I am firmly settled in the Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary. Today is my day off, so I have gone to the main office where an extremely slow internet connection is available, good enough for email it seems! The sanctuary here is gorgeous, and I will have pictures to send out in about 2 weeks time (I need to be in Bangkok to send pictures, elsewhere the internet is to slow).

I’ve settled in, and gone out into the jungle almost every day now for a week and a half. The jungle is hot, and full of insects that want to suck your blood, your sweat, or leave you with an unfriendly rash. However, seeing animals in their natural habitat rather than the zoo is pretty awesome. I’m pretty sure the Langurs we are studying are the ugliest monkeys I’ve ever seen, but yesterday a pair of gorgeous Yellow-Throated Martens ran across our path and that definitely made my day. The work is a little trying. It involves angling your head 45+ degrees into the air with binoculars and trying to discern whic  monkeys are doing what. Apparently it gets easier with time, but 7 hours of fighting off insects and straining my neck is not something I am yet accustomed too.  Other than that I am doing well, my coworkers and the thai rangers in the site are very friendly. They have been teaching me Takraw, a game that must be seen to be believed. It is a bit like soccer and volleyball crossed together. The rules are similar to volleyball, except the ball is small, woven, and hit only with the feet an  body (no arms allowed). The result is a spike maneuver that defies logic. Maybe there are videos on youtube, look them up!

I think I will end today with my updated contact information. I bought a satellite serviced cellphone in Chum Pae (2 hours away from our sanctuary), and it gets a bit of reception scattered throughout the main camp. I suspect calling me won’t often yield an answer, but I have a voicemail box setup, so you can certainly leave a message and I can try to call you back! To dial me I believe you have to dial 011661 first, the international code for a Thai cellphone.

My number is 0856070689
So in full add 011661-0856070689 to your phone books!

The address at which i can be written is as follows:

Kyle Tobener
Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary
PO Box 3
Amphoe Chum Phae
Khon Khaen 40130

Apparently the mail arrives here with decent speed, though my responseswill be incredibly slowed down because it seems I can only get to a post office once every 2 weeks at the most!

All my thanks to you all for the good wishes and excellent send off

Tommorow morning at 10 am I depart for Thailand! If I had more time this blog would be longer, but alas time is short! Check back here in the future though for stories!