A Third Chain

Sometimes it almost seems like my life occurs as a string of blog-worthy events.  Saturday morning Markus came over at 8:00 so we could go on a bike ride, which we had not done for two or three weeks.  Strapping the bicycle rack to the back of the Nissan, we drove down to the visitor parking area to the bicycle parking.

As I undid my two cable locks, Markus said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you were using a third lock now.”  Which was when I discovered that someone had added a third cable lock, connecting the frames of our bikes.  Not sure who the (un)helpful person was – this type of prank-playing isn’t very typically Thai, but who knows?  I asked the security guards if they had a bolt cutter.  Unfortunately, the building engineer was not yet in, so they didn’t have access to the room where such a tool would be stored. 

Markus and I were able to load the bikes onto the rack and decided to head out and look for a bolt cutter.  The guard kindly wrote the name of the tool on a notepad for me and I drew a picture, and then we were off.  Thankfully we found a small hardware shop on Sukhumvit near soi 37.  I parked around the corner and went to the shop to see if they had a bolt cutter.  There were two choices: a smaller bolt cutter that might be insufficient for cutting the cable, or a larger one that was obviously well-used.  The owner wanted 650 baht (about US $18) for the used cutter.  Using my Thai, I asked if I could just rent it for ten minutes.  So we settled on a price – 300 baht – and I walked back to the car and cut the cable.

Returning to the shop with the now-cut cable, I tried the smaller bolt cutter and discovered that it was sufficient for the task.  Its price was only 250 baht, so I bought that one instead and the owner, happy to sell something so early in the morning, didn’t charge me for my rental.  So if anyone in Khrungthep has a bolt or cable that needs cutting, let me know as I have a bolt cutter I can loan you!

Delayed by about forty-five minutes, Markus and I headed out to Min Buri, a community east of the city and north of the new airport.  It is a largely Muslim community and one of its features is a very large 1.5-km stretch of road that was part of a larger project that has yet to be built.  So there is little traffic on this wide, 3-lane road as the only thing it connects to the desolate frontage road along the Rama IX expressway.  The only traffic we encountered on our 22-km ride was about three dozen other cyclists – all the serious road cyclists glad in spandex and aerodynamic helmets. 

The challenge was in figuring out how to get to this stretch of road as it is closed to regular traffic.  Using my map, there appeared to be a construction road but the large earth-movers on that stretch were imposing, as was the construction person waving a red “don’t go down this path” flag at us.  So we did find a nice stretch of concrete footpath running alongside a khlong, which is always a little iffy as sections are sometimes missing, branches hang low, and dogs at some of the houses along the way don’t care for strangers.  But the people were nice, saying hello to us – mothers lifting their children up so they could see the farang passing by.

Almost Loi Khrathong

Looking back to last November 18 and 16 (use the posting calendar in the lower left-hand corner of my Xanga webpage), there are two entries on Loi Khrathong, the annual festival expressing thanks to the water spirits and cleansing away wrongdoing and ill-fortune from the past year.  It is a beautiful event, thanks to the brightly coloured and candle lit floats, of khrathong, that are launched by the thousands into khlongs, rivers, and lakes across the Kingdom.

The festival coincides with the full moon of the eleventh lunar month and that falls on today.  So tonight after having dinner with a fellow Santa Clara University alumnae who has moved here recently, Tawn and I will go down to Chulalongkorn University to participate in the Loi Khrathong celebrations.

But the festival really gets an early start with a weekend full of events.  Friday afternoon on the concourse outside the National Stadium Skytrain station there was a pageant and competition with a display of beautiful, environmentally friendly khrathong.  Here are some photos.  Notice, especially, the ones made from carved wood.  They’re beautiful!

Extra mileage?

I received an email from US Airways Dividend Miles – their frequent flier program – informing me that I was at risk of losing my miles as there had been no activity on the account for such-and-such a period of time.  This is because once US Airways joined the Star Alliance, I simply used my United Airlines Mileage Plus account number instead.

Anyhow, I had just over 10,000 miles in my account.  Not enough for a free ticket but I didn’t want them to go to waste.  It turns out that US Airways as well as most other carriers, offers a free service whereby you can donate miles (in 1,000-mile increments in US Airways’ case) to various charities.  In this case, I selected Angel Flight, a non-profit whose volunteers arrange free air travel for needy patients and health care organizations.

This was good news because I, like lots of people, have several frequent flier accounts that I do not use very often so the likelihood of accumulating enough miles for a free trip is low.  These miles can be good for something, though.  Time to start investigating what other airline frequent flier accounts I can Robin Hood.