Bangkok Homes and Gardens Charity Tour

Posted on 31 January 2012 by christao408

On Saturday the Dusit chapter of Soroptimist International, an organization that concerns itself with issues surrounding women’s welfare, held their biannual Bangkok Homes and Gardens Charity Tour. We had the opportunity to visit three beautiful homes all located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. One was a prince’s home, another was a merchant’s, and the third was a nobleman’s.

I’ve compiled a very nice (if I do say so myself) eight-minute video. Instead of duplicating the information below, I’ll post some pictures with very brief comments.

Wanglee House

This Chinese house was built in 1881 by a rice merchant. The Wanglee clan owns it to this day.

The house is built according to the principles of feng shui, facing the river.

Designed in traditional Chinese courtyard style, the house represents a study of the Chinese culture brought to Siam by Chinese merchants during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Chakrabongse House

Pronounced “cha-kra-bong”, this house was built in 1908 by Prince Chakrabongse, the 40th child of King Rama V. While studying in Czarist Russia, he eloped with a Russian woman, bringing her back to Siam unannounced.

The house is now owned and lived in by the prince’s granddaughter.

There is also a small boutique hotel built on the property closer to the river.

We were provided a guided tour to the inside of the house. No photos were allowed so I have borrowed other photos that appear on the internet.

Praya Palazzo

An Italian-inspired mansion built in 1923 by a colonel in the customs bureau during an era in which Italian artists and architects were all the rage in Siam.

The palazzo is now a very exclusive 17-room boutique hotel, accessible only by boat. Very charming place.

The unseasonable rain finally caught up to us and the hotel staff rounded up umbrellas to shuttle us back to the pier. Made it back to the Shangri-La Hotel reasonably dry and appreciated the opportunity to get a peek at what life was like in Bangkok a century ago.

Covering Tawn

Posted on 27 January 2012 by christao408

It’s immodest to brag, but I just had to share this with you because I’m so proud. This is the cover of the February issue of Travel + Liesure magazine’s Southeast Asia edition. It features one of Tawn’s outfits and was taken at the Naka Island resort in Phuket during a December photo shoot for which Tawn was the stylist. I think it is beautiful.

Hopefully, within about two more weeks he’ll be ready to launch his brand and I can share the website and more photos with you. Tawn leaves this evening for another shoot in Phuket, this one for five nights.

Baked Donuts

Posted on 25 January 2012 by christao408

A few weeks ago a couple of friends came down from Chiang Mai and so I invited them over for brunch. Since they don’t have an opportunity to enjoy good old fashioned American breakfasts that often, I decided to make something special for them: baked donuts. (Recipe here at 101cookbooks.com)

Left: the dough about half-rised; Right: freshly-cut donuts starting the second rise.

Baked donuts start out very similar to their more common, Krispy Kremed cousins. They are a basic yeast dough that is allowed to rise, is rolled and cut out, and then allowed to rise a second time before cooking. But instead of going through the hassle of deep frying (and having your house smell for days afterwards), you put them into the oven. While you can glaze them, I opted for a brush of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar. The end result is fluffy and delectable – different from deep-fried donuts but still very enjoyable – and with the cinnamon-sugar, it has a classic element.

We couldn’t be bothered with a tripod so as to fit all three of us into a single picture.

For dessert, I thought it would be nice to do something refreshing and relatively healthy. It was a bit of a splurge to buy raspberries and blueberries, both of which are imported, but they were really sweet and juicy. Paired with a bit of natural yogurt and homemade granola, the berries made for a very celebratory parfait and a tasty concusion to a special brunch.

Hidden Dangers: the Bangkok Gem Scam

Posted on 23 January 2012 by christao408

Jenny Forster is a contributor at catandnat.com, another site where my writings appear. She recently wrote an article about gem scams, a type of deceit all too commonly propagated against tourists in Bangkok. Every guide book warns of the scam and locals caution their visitors to be aware, and yet thousands of people each year fall for this trap.

The end result is that you get taken for a very literal and unwanted ride. The tuk-tuk driver who was supposedly going to give you a half-day tour of the city or drive you to a special temple “because (insert name of popular tourist destination you were headed for) is closed for a national holiday,” ends up taking you to a supposedly government-owned shop offering special prices (“today only!”) on gems, or suits, or gold.

Whether out of foolishness, guilt, or a sense of intimidation, you end up buying items whose true value is a fraction of what you pay. Your avenues of recourse are dead-ends and your pleasant Thai holiday ends up leaving a bitter taste in your mouth.

Here’s a video that Jenny included in her article. It isn’t originally by her, but it is a very handy summation of how the scam typically works. If you ever plan on traveling to Thailand, you should watch this video and educate yourself.

Note that 99.999% of Thais are wonderful, kind, honest, and helpful people. But in the touristy areas, there are people who will seek to take advantage of you. By all means, come visit Thailand. Just say “no” to anyone who offers you a deal that sounds too good to be true.

Happy Lunar New Year

Posted on 22 January 2012 by christao408

Illustration courtesy our Singaporean cartoonist friend, Otto Fong – author of the Sir Fong series.

Baking Pecan Tarts

Posted on 20 January 2012 by christao408

Every time I visit the US, I make a trip to Costco and buy several pounds of pecans and walnuts. Nuts (with the exception of cashews, peanuts, and macadamias, all of which are grown locally) are very expensive here in Thailand and I enjoy adding nuts to salads, pestos, and of course desserts. Recently, I perfected a pecan pie recipe that makes wonderful two-bite-sized tarts.

The recipe started out from one contributed by an unknown source on the Food Network’s site. As such, they warned that the recipe had not been tested. Certainly not, as I found out after an initial mishap. Let’s put it this way: adding beaten eggs directly into boiling sugar syrup makes for sweet scrambled eggs – not a proper pecan pie filling!

Instead, I rewrote the directions and, after testing two batches, made some adjustments to the ingredients to reduce the sweetness and richness of the filling while adding some depth of flavor thanks to the use of maple syrup.

Pecan Pie or Tarts
1 stick butter (4 oz or 115 g)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup¹
1/2 cup maple syrup²
2 eggs plus 3 egg whites, beaten well
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (or 1 cup plus whole pecans to layer the top of the pie)
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell, or 12 small tart pans lined with pastry dough³
Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). In a saucepan, melt the butter but don’t let it brown. Mix in the sugar, corn syrup, and maple syrup and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Temper the eggs by slowly pouring the sugar mixture into them while whisking continuously. Stir in the pecans then pour the mixture into the pie or tart shells. If you want to decorate the top(s) with whole pecans, you can do so.
Bake 1 hour or until firm when shaken. Let cool before serving. If you are making the tarts in a muffin tin, you should carefully remove them to a wire rack after ten minutes of cooling, so they do not stick.
¹ Note that the corn syrup you buy in the store (like Karo brand) is not high-fructose corn syrup.
² I think the Grade B maple syrup, which has a richer flavor, is nice to use. If you have only regular maple syrup, that is fine, too. You can also substitute corn syrup if you do not have maple syrup.
³ Instead of tart pans, you can also use a muffin tin.

Pecan pies and tarts freeze beautifully after they are cooked. They can be warmed up in the oven for about 15 minutes before serving and they’ll be just as nice as if they were freshly-baked.

The Reason Why

Posted on 19 January 2012 by christao408

I owe you an explanation. Normally, I don’t time-stamp past entries back into the present. In this case, though, I felt the need to time-stamp the “Getting to Know Me” entry because I anticipated some new visitors after I participated Wednesday morning in a panel discussion about working overseas.

A few months ago, the director of the Santa Clara University career center contacted me. She was looking for alums who currently live and work overseas to participate in a panel discussion. I eagerly accepted the invitation, being a strong believer in the importance of networking.

This was to be the university’s first-ever panel discussion hosted via Skype video conference call and streamed live. It took a few practice calls for the director and the panelists to work out most of the technical glitches. The experience actually served to illustrate one of the challenges of living and working overseas: unreliable internet service!

The lush grounds of Mission Gardens at my alma matter.

The discussion itself lasted an hour and featured eight panelists: two from Thailand, three from China, and one each from India, New Zealand, and Nicaragua. An hour didn’t give us a lot of time but we were able to talk about what made our work-abroad experiences unique and what suggestions or advice we would give people interested in working abroad.

While there were a lot of different experiences, there were at least two common themes:

First, the importance of networking. Whether through your alumni association or just through informal socializing, when you live abroad, many of your best breaks will happen because of a friend-of-a-friend or an “Oh, I was just talking to someone the other day who is looking for someone with that skill” conversation.
Second, you really have to be patient and take the big picture view. Living overseas – and especially working overseas – involves a lot of challenges and uncertainties. Few things ever go the way you plan and even fewer go easily. Being able to put things in context and not let small things bend you out of shape will help save your sanity.

Near the end of the call, I shared my blog address as an additional resource for people who might be curious what life in Thailand is like. That’s why I anticipated some new traffic. If the first thing they saw was a picture of the emergency slide rafts of a Boeing 747, they might get the wrong impression.

If you are interested, you can view the recorded event here at Livestream.com. There were a few technical glitches but all in all, still interesting.

Getting to Know Me

Posted on 17 January 2012 by christao408

There’s a very ancient saying, and a true and honest thought, that if you become a teacher by your pupils you’ll be taught. As a teacher I’ve been learning – you’ll forgive me if I boast – but I’ve now become an expert in the subject I like most: getting to know you.”

from “The King and I” by Rodgers and Hammerstein

Perusing my feedback log, I noticed that there are a lot of new faces (or footprints!) on my blog. In fact, no fewer than ten new subscribers have signed up in the past eight days and 23 since the start of the year, bringing the total to just about 300. Yikes! Where did you all come from?

One of the things that’s always a challenge for me when I start following someone’s blog is understanding who they are. Much like entering the cinema halfway through a movie, joining a blog that is already in progress leaves a lot of questions unanswered. “Who is that person?” “What vacation is he talking about?” “What horrible illness happened two years ago?”

Matt suggested a few months ago that going back and browsing through earlier entries is a good way to round out your knowledge about a blogger. That’s a good idea but I’m afraid my back entries have a lot of chaff amongst the grain. To save you the trouble of having to winnow through my archives, I’ll give you a brief introduction of myself along with embedded links to interesting and relevant previous entries. That way you can do as much or little catching up as you wish to do.

Allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Chris. I’m an American citizen who was born in 1970 and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since October 2005 I have been a resident of Bangkok, Thailand (which I often refer to using its Thai name, Krungthep) where I live with my husband Tawn.

I started this blog a few months before moving here. Its initial (and continued) purpose was to provide my family and friends an easy way to keep tabs on what I’m up to and the experiences I have as an expatriate. A lot of what I write is about that experience.

Chris at the Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya province.

I’ve written about my thoughts about possibly moving back. I’ve written about what it’s like to live in Thailand. I’ve been studying Thai since moving here and now read, write, speak and even sometimes understand the language. Living abroad has a lot of challenges. For example, learning to cross the street without getting killed! Other challenges have included making friends in a strange land and dealing with fellow countrymen whose views on being an American rubbed me the wrong way.

Living here has provided so many wonderful adventures. I’ve done a lot of bicycling to explore the city and surrounding areas, resulting in some interesting and unexpected misadventures. For more than a year, I volunteered as an English teacher once a week at a tiny country schoolhouse ninety minutes outside Krungthep. I discovered the schoolhouse on one of my bike rides, had a great time teaching there, and concluded the assignment when the director of the school retired. They even included me in their Teachers’ Day ceremonies, which was a great honor.

My students at Bangkhonthiinai School in Samut Songkhram province.

Along the way, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s reign (the longest reigning current monarch in the world, by the way!). We had a coup. My parents and some other family members came to visit. Tawn and I bought and remodeled a condo. And we hosted a lovely poolside Thanksgiving dinner.

Watching the royal barge procession to celebrate the King’s anniversary.

Of all the writing I’ve done about Thailand, though, the one that has received the most views was one I wrote about the debate over teenage castration, a practice common in young Thai men who feel that they are transsexuals. For some reason, there are a lot of people who Google “teenage castration” and it seems my entry is pretty high up in the results.

As I mentioned, I live with my husband Tawn. We were married last August in the United States although we’ve been together for more than ten years. The story about how we met is a sweet one, deserving of a movie screenplay. After we first met, Tawn lived and studied for his master’s degree in San Francisco. Now that I’ve been here in Thailand for more than four years, I’ve spent more time living here than Tawn spent living in the US!

Tawn and I a few days after meeting in January 2000.

When viewing those entries, you might notice that Tawn is a man and so am I. While I don’t feel the need to make a big fuss about it, it seems that my being gay is a matter of fact that comes up quite often. For example, when we wanted to get married in California but couldn’t because 52% of the voters thought we shouldn’t have that legal right.

But this blog isn’t all about love and marriage and Thailand and politics. The real undercurrent of this blog is food. I’m a foodie. Not only do I enjoy eating, I love to cook. I particularly enjoy trying foods I’ve never made before, just to see if I can. Bagels, French macarons, pasta, baking bread – I’ll try cooking or baking anything just to see if I can.

My friend Ryan and I buying bánh mì from a vendor in Saigon.

In addition to food, I love travel and enjoy meeting new people. I’ve had the chance to meet several other Xangans both in their hometowns and here in Thailand. Tawn and I have been fortunate (not having children makes it easier…) to be able to travel a lot. We had a fun trip to Tokyo last spring, a trip to Saigon a few years back with a dear school friend, a trip to Seoul the winter I arrived in Krungthep, and a honeymoon in New York City, just to name a few destinations.

So that’s me in a nutshell. There’s so much more I could write and so much more I’ve already written. But I’m glad we’ve had a chance to meet and I hope you’ll enjoy reading my blog.

Which brings me to one more thing… one of the things I most appreciate in a subscriber is interaction. We’re all busy, I get that. But when people subscribe and never, ever leave a comment, it makes me wonder what interests them about my blog. It’s a little freaky, in fact. And when people send a friend request but have never commented even once? Well, that’s not much of a start to friendship.

So don’t be shy, people. I’m not asking for a lot, but a bit of interaction and an occasional comment means a lot for me and I think it strengthens the sense of community here at Xanga.

Best wishes,

Chris

Boeing 747-8 Emergency Slides

Posted on 16 January 2012 by christao408

Came across this photo that shows Boeing’s newest jumbo jet, the B-747-8, with its emergency slides deployed. What caught my eye is that the upper deck slides now have a built-in structural support in the form of an arch. Considering how far above the ground the upper deck is, I guess the arch provides support against gusting winds. Talk about a fun-house slide!

On a related note, here’s a short video showing the deployment of the upper deck slide on an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400, the previous generation of the plane. The slide’s support structure is less elaborate, but it is still interesting to see how it deploys. Let’s hope I never have to see one of these deploy in person.

Food in Bangkok: Samosa

Posted on 15 January 2012 by christao408

Normally I write about entire meals but there is one street vendor in one corner of Bangkok that sells a single item that is so good, that my mouth waters as I write this. The vendor, Raspal Singh, makes samosas, the deep fried Indian pastry filled with a potato mixture and served with a complementary sweet and sour sauce.

Mr. Singh’s stall is nothing more than a single cart parked alongside a wall in a small soi (alley) immediately to the south of India Emporium, a small shopping center in Pahurat (Little India) on Chakrapet Road. This is not far from Bangkok’s Chinatown and the Old Siam shopping center.

All day long he prepares batch after batch of the samosas (they also prepare tikki – which is the filling fried up without the pasty wrapper) and you can only get them to go. They’re so tasty, though, that eating them by the side of the road is perfectly acceptable. Why would you want to wait and let them get cold?

The filling is made of potatoes mixed with loads of spices. It is a great example of vegetarian food that has rich, satisfying flavors.

The secret to any successful fried food is that the oil has to be fresh and at the proper temperature. Too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks. Too cold and the whole thing becomes greasy. Mr. Singh is the master of the boiling oil-filled wok, turning out an endless stream of perfectly cooked, crispy but not greasy samosas.

If you find yourself in the heart of old Bangkok, craving a snack that will satisfy but leave you eager to return, you should head down to Little India and seek out Mr. Singh’s samosas.

Many thanks to Chawadee Nualkhair (www.bangkokglutton.com), author of Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls, for leading me to this gem.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Monthly Archives: January 2012