DAY ELEVEN: SWINE RESEARCH STATION & THE WATERFALL

I woke up Friday morning with a bit of dread in my stomach. I knew we were going to a swine research station. I knew "making swine products" was on our itinerary. I knew seeing dead pigs wasn't exactly what I considered fun.

Firstly I was majorly distracted at breakfast when someone mentioned that it's year 2558 here!?!?! Their years are based off of Buddha rather than Jesus Christ. Isn't that interesting? I never thought about that. We talked about it in the car all the way to the research station.

We pulled up to the research station and people were already taking photos of us from the windows of the station (that really happens so much here - it scares me to think how much we're circulating the internet). First we just listened to a a presentation by the Tab Kwang Swine Research Station staff. It was pretty much a huge flashback to the animal science 1001 course I took my freshman year of college. I was unphased and actually enjoyerd the lecture.

Then we went to a santized work area where they deal with the pig products. There they taught us how to make sweet pork (I only had to pull apart pork). This process involved a TON of sugar, soy sauce, onion, and then the deep frier. They also showed us how they make the jerky, then everyone got to taste test while I peaked around the room. There were meat science students in the room with us (who of course Agent Jay knew). They're a big part of the station.

On our way back to the main building for lunch, we saw an incredible amount of monkeys. Dozens and dozens of them. They had long tails, and there were a ton of babies clung on to the mamas' bellies. We were transifxed. The animals started coming closer, so we decided to go inside and enjoy some delicious pad thai for lunch.

Afterwards we visited the pig pen. It wasn't too harsh. It was actually better than I expected. The pigs were in an open air enclosure. Each within a gate that was only a little bit bigger than the pig. A lot of the pregnant mamas were in here. They couldn't turn around or move -- only lay or stand -- but food and water was dispersed right in front of their faces. The males and breeding females were kept in larger enclosures next door. I couldn't believe how large some of those males were. One of them literally came up to my belly button it was so tall.

The coolest part about the pigs is that their waste was sent to a biodigester which is essentially this huge sack that lays on the ground outside. The pig waste is sent to the bag where it digests. The methane and other gasses is then captured and sent to a generator. That waste provided about a quarter of the energy needed to produce electricity at the research station. How cool is that? It is required here in Thailand. It reduces gas emissions and waste pollution. I don't know of anything like that in the US.

After we visited the pigs and cows, we went to see another buddha temple in the mountains. This hike was much shorter -- only about 200 steps. It led us to a cave. The temple was in the cave complete with a buddha, other statues, and a bed for monks to stay. We explored and found bats! Quite a few bats. It was incredible.

After our descent we visited the Muak-Lek Waterfall in Namtok Chet Saonoi National Park. Because rainy season is late, there wasn't much of a waterfall. It wa absolutely gorgeous though! We walked around just a little bit and took a treacherous, and extremely fun, climb across the river. I took so many photos. I'll try to post one!

After our hike, we headed back to KU Home, our home away from home, in Bangkok.