Visit from Mother-in-Law

Posted on 10 March 2008 by christao408

Sunday afternoon my mother-in-law, Khun Nui, stopped by the house. For the longest time she had never been over here, then when Elle did the photo shoot she came over. Subsequent to that, she has been a frequent visitor, stopping by whenever her husband is away.

While Tawn’s father is largely operating in extended “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode, Tawn’s mother knows what’s going on and seems pretty happy to have me as a son-in-law. Although there are occasional moments when I think she’s holding out hope that Tawn will change his mind.

She made a comment the other day about another member of the their extended family having a wedding and how Tawn wasn’t getting married, to which I responded that we could go ahead and have a wedding for the family. She shot me a look that was one part “you’re crazy” and another part “what are you talking about?”

Two summers ago, Tawn and his parents went to Italy to visit the family for whom Khun Nui had worked as an au pair for two years before Tawn was born. Khun Nui has remained in touch with Joanna, the Italian mother, and her oldest two children whom Khun Nui helped raise.

The oldest of these children will be married this July and the plan is for Tawn to take his parents back to Italy to attend the wedding, possibly extending it into a two week trip to see more of Europe.

This is a very Thai thing: older parents do not go off on holiday without their children accompanying them. Much in the way that in years past farmers gave birth to many children in order to have a supply of labor on the farm, nowadays Thai parents have children in order to have a supply of tour leaders, travel agents, and porters when going on holiday.

While we canceled our Spring trip back to the US because of cost overruns on the condo remodel, Tawn’s father will pick up his costs for the Europe trip, so it shouldn’t be much of a burden. With a few weeks free, maybe I should scrape up a few baht and fly back to the US and enjoy some peaches, nectarines, and beefsteak tomatoes!

Elephant naps in Minburi

Posted on 9 March 2008 by christao408

When it comes to Sunday morning bicycle rides, the earlier I start, the better. Sunday, I was up at six and arrived at the ride site in Minburi just before seven. Already, the sun was above the horizon and the day was warming up. There were still some hints of the overnight coolness, though. Wish I had arrived even earlier.

This ride site is a stretch of expressway that was a built a few years ago as part of a larger project, but was never connected to the other portions. Other than a handful of local vehicles, the road is used in the mornings primarily by runners, joggers, and families out for a ride with their children. It also attracts cyclists, often several dozen of them, in their fancy spandex racing gear with their fancy aerodynamic helmets and their expensive road bikes.

I shouldn’t use what could sound like such a derisive tone. We’re all brothers and sisters in cycling. Compared to most of these cyclists, though, I’m decidedly down-market. My spandex is hidden under a pair of cargo shorts, my helmet is functional, not aerodynamic, and my bicycle is a clunky hybrid. There are no potholes or rough patches of pavement that I fear!

Anyhow, Sunday I was out there earlier than most of the other cyclists and had the road pretty much to myself. The first stretch is actually a narrow side road that connects the airport expressway’s frontage road to this new stretch of expressway. It is a country road with small khlongs on either side (shades of Sukhumvit fifty years ago), a few small manufacturing businesses, and the occasional restaurant. Locals are up yearly, fishing in the khlongs. A tractor is preparing a rice paddy for planting. Someone is picking a bunch of bananas from a roadside tree.

Along this narrow street that lies under the approach path to the new airport, two small housing estates are being built. Both look like they’ll be targeted at the entry level home owners what can afford maybe at most a half-million baht for two bedrooms and no land. I’ll take more pictures as the development continues. It fills my heart with a little sadness to see another rural area being developed, rice paddies traded for cookie cutter houses.

The stretch of expressway I ride is about four kilometers long and bridges two other khlongs. Both bridges are built up with earth like highway overpasses in the US, affording nice views of the surrounding countryside. Early morning along the khlong you see more of the fishing-cooking-harvesting activities as people rise with the sun and have families to feed and work to do.

One of the stranger sites I’ve seen was captured in the photo, below. Next to one of the bridges is an open field, quite a large one. In the field there was a baby elephant wandering around, grazing. I’ve never seen an elephant out here and it certainly isn’t native to Minburi. Many times, the mahouts who are the elephants’ caretakers bring them into the city because there is no work elsewhere. Even though it is illegal, they bring the elephants right into the tourist sections of town, selling people the opportunity to feed the elephants and pose for pictures.

Perhaps this is where the mahout and his elephant are living. I didn’t see any fences or restraints, but perhaps elephants aren’t prone to making a break for their freedom. As I passed the field each time, I looked at the elephant as she wandered about. Finally, she settled down for a nap in the tall grass. Can you spot her?

Speaking of development, if I had panned about thirty degrees to the right and taken another picture, you would see a forest of mid-rise condo projects, all about eight stories tall, built about one kilometer away. If I had to guess, there are probably about two thousand units, all of which have sprung up in the past three or four years.

Different things to different people

Posted on 9 March 2008 by christao408

In the musical The Boy from Oz, Hugh Jackman (playing Peter Allen), opens the show singing a song titled “The Lives of Me”.

“I come in many colors, assorted shapes and sizes,
can adapt to your demands.
And if you smile at someone then I’ll just become that one,
and throw in all the others for free.
All the lives of me.”

Sometimes I feel that way about my blog. This is probably a feeling common to many bloggers. You start out writing the blog for one reason or another and over time, as it attracts more readers, it is easy to start feeling like there are different blogs being written.

There’s the food blog, the travel blog, the Thai cultural blog, the gay long term relationship blog, the airline enthusiast blog, the random quotes from showtunes blog… you get the idea.

Just like the character of Peter Allen in the musical, I feel like if you enjoy one particular blog, my blog will become that one and throw in all the others for free.

The blog started out because I knew I would be moving to Thailand and wanted to create a means by which my family and friends could stay in touch with what’s happening in my life. Many of those “target audience” member do read regularly although I’m always a little amazed at friends who, when we trade emails, express how out of touch with me they feel. No reason to be out of touch… you can get a pretty exhaustive recap just by reading my blog.

Along the way, I’ve assembled a fascinating and rewarding collection of readers. Truly, some very interesting and thoughtful people whose acquaintance I’m very glad to have made. I just hope that you weren’t misled about what this blog was and feel subsequently disappointed that there aren’t enough entries about food, travel, Thai culture, airplanes, showtunes, or whatever it was that drew you to the blog in the first place.

Doing a PR Polish for Ble

Tawn recruited me on Friday morning to help our designer, Ble. In advance of a feature article on him in the Bangkok Post newspaper, Ble (pronounced “bun”), was sent a list of interview questions. When he showed Tawn his responses, Tawn shook his head and asked, tactfully, how he could be such a good designer and yet such a poor self-publicist.

I was called in to polish his responses so bicycled over to his store at noon on Friday. We had lunch at a cute little place on Sukhumvit 16 called Kuppa, a cozy place that reminds me of a restaurant I’d expect to find in the San Francisco Bay Area. More about it on a future visit but here’s a picture of their tasty cherry pie, left.

The lunch proved to be a very good opportunity to get to know Ble better. We’ve never spent any time, just the two of us. Tawn has known Ble for several years and we’ve socialized, but never had two hours of solo conversation. In the course of essentially re-interviewing him, I learned a lot about what drew him to design in the first place. I tried to polish the answers to convey certain themes. Here’s a selection:

How did you become involved in Modern Thai Living?
As a child, my interest in design was already evident. I would spend hours drawing; I was fascinated by textures and textiles, fabrics and furniture. My playtime was spent exploring the markets. It was there – especially at Chatuchak – that my love for Modern Thai Living was cultivated.
What are your extravagances?
When I’m abroad exploring for beautiful objects for my clients and my stores, I have only one extravagance: no matter how remote the town, no matter how hot or dusty the markets I’ve searched in, I must conclude my day with a satisfying meal at a cozy, comfortable restaurant.
What advice would you give visitors to Bangkok?
Beyond the famous tourist sights, beyond the temples and the nightlife, Bangkok is a city full of hidden treasures. Every local has a favorite restaurant, a favorite shop that is his or her “hidden gem”. Make every effort to meet as many locals as you can and as you get to know them, they’ll share these treasures with you.

Hopefully that doesn’t sound too silly. What do you think? Hopefully the prose is a beautiful as his design work.

A House in the Country

Sukhumvit Road in modern times is very much a main artery in the City of Angels. It might be hard to imagine that not that many decades ago, the street was lined with two small khlongs and rows of trees. Well-heeled residents bought land along Sukhumvit and in the sois that branch off it in order to have country homes where they could escape on the weekends.

Of course, nowadays the idea of a home along Sukhumvit being a country home seems downright absurd. But amidst the condo developments, hotels, and shopping centers you can still find plenty of examples of the beautiful houses built in the distinctive styles of the 1950s and 1960s on gated compounds that feature generous gardens and a peaceful respite from the surrounding city.

Below are two photos of one of these houses. Facing Sukhumvit proper between sois 34 and 36, this house is a lovely example of 1960s tropical architecture. To the east of the building is a new condo complex that will tower some 30 stories above it, destroying whatever privacy the residents enjoyed. One day, eventually, the family or their heirs will finally cave in and sell the property to developers.

These days, the homes being built in the countryside are large developments, gated communities in which several hundred cookie-cutter homes are squeezed together on old rice paddies. No gardens of any appreciable size, no cross-ventilation, and a horrible commute into town. It is times like these when I wonder whether it is really appropriate to use the western definition of the word to measure Thailand’s “progress”, for this relentless suburbanization of the city hardly seems like progress. More like degeneration.

Bill’s Farewell for Now Party

One constant in your life if you’re an expat is the coming and going, the constant ebb and flow, of other expats. Francois left last week, gone home for two months to work. Russ will leave soon for a few weeks. Ken will be out of town quite a bit over the next two months, to say nothing of Markus, who is away more than he is here. Bill’s turn is next as he’ll be heading back to Florida on Tuesday for an indefinite length of time although with a desire to return just as soon as he can.

To celebrate his departure – or perhaps just to finish his collection of whisky – he threw a party on Saturday night. It was a collection of the usual suspects leading to the usual conversations and silliness. Right, Ken dances for Roka and Russ looks on.

Below, Tawn and Chai

Call me crazy, but if you throw a party beginning at 7:30 in the evening, wouldn’t the normal expectation be that you have at least a few real food items on the table? We ended up just with chips, dips, and other assorted junk food. Worse yet, Tawn and I contributed to it! We brought cupcakes. I know, I know… chicken satay would have been a much better contribution.

Yet, there was an ulterior motive. I’ll let you in on the conceit:

My elder niece turns five at the end of the month. For her birthday gift, I used Shutterfly to make a customized picture book telling the story of her trip to San Francisco last autumn with her uncles to attend a family wedding. It is 27 pages with pictures and a compelling story. On the final page, I wanted a funny picture of me and Tawn wishing her a happy birthday.

I settled on the idea of buying some cupcakes and staging a photo in which we ostensibly were presenting the cupcakes to my niece, but instead I’d be sneaking a bite of one while Tawn scolded me. We did a number of shots with Bill doing the picture-taking.

Wanting some nice cupcakes for our friends, we went to After You, a small shop in J Avenue on Thong Lor. After You has really cute packaging, right, and a very clever name.

You see, there is an upscale Japanese barbecue restaurant two doors down called Yuu and, like most Japanese restaurants, it doesn’t really offer much in the way of a dessert menu. I understand that in Japan, if you want dessert you go to a dessert shop afterwards. So after eating dinner at Yuu, if you want something sweet to finish the night you go to After You. Get it? Clever, huh?

Anyhow, here’s the picture we settled on.

Waiting for Fridays

Posted on 6 March 2008 by christao408

Much like some people are born in the wrong body, likewise some Thursdays are really meant to be Fridays. Sadly, there is no “day reassignment surgery” option. When we woke up Thursday morning, Tawn asked three times whether it was Friday. Sadly for him, the answer didn’t change.

But despite Thursday having to stay a Thursday all day long, it went pretty well.

Thai Lessons

For me, Tuesday and Thursday mornings are Thai classes with my tutor, Khru Kitiya. We meet at Bitter Brown, a small coffee shop and restaurant near the Asoke BTS station. Things are quiet there in the morning and we’ve been meeting there for the better part of two years – so long that the staff monitors my learning progress – so we usually have a comfortable space in which to study free from distraction. Class ends around noon or shortly after, at whatever point that the din of the lunch crowd makes it difficult for me to hear the subtle final consonants of the Thai words.

For the past several months, I’ve been using a well-known Thai book from the mid-1950s, Lai Chiwit (Many Lives), as my textbook. Written by a former Prime Minister and prolific author, M.R. Kukrit Pramoj (1911-1995), the book is a collection of short stories that chronicle life in Thailand in that time. Written in elegant prose, the stories not only give me a window into the past – a past which heavily influences modern Thai culture – but also give me the pleasure of exploring the beauty of the Thai language.

Right, the cover of the 1996 English language version of the book, translated by Meredith Borthwick and published by Silkworm Books.

Thai really is a very elegant language in which to write, at once both graceful and playful. Needless to say, I’m having a tough time wading through it since the more formal and prosaic language which Khun Kukrit used is more elegant to the ear than it is clear to the farang! But Khru Kitiya is infinitely patient and while there are days (Thursday) where we manage to wade through only two paragraphs, there are many more days in which the progress is measured in pages, plural, rather than fractions of one.

Interesting trivia: Pictured left is Khun Kukrit, whose “M.R.” (Mom Ratchawong) designation indicates he was the son of a prince, was a technical advisor and played the role of the prime minister in the 1963 film, “The Ugly American” starring Marlon Brando.

Unpretty Dinner

When Tawn returned home from work he suggested that we eat somewhere nearby. There is a local seafood restaurant on Thong Lor between sois 5 and 7 called Niyom Gotchana and it is the most unassuming place you’d imagine.

The storefront is open air, floors and walls are finished in an antiseptic look of white tiles, and the lighting comes from dozens of “cool white” florescent tubes which give the place the sterile charm of a county examiner’s office.

Right: Easy Thai – can anyone guess what is said in the blue field of the sign? Actually, if you know the English word, you should be able to work out what all of the Thai characters represent like a code-buster would.

That said, the seafood is fresh, of good quality, and inexpensive. Out in front of the shop are two baskets covered with damp blankets, each containing live crabs. A few had slipped out of one or the other of their bindings but, lacking the right evolutionary tools, could not undo their other binding and climb to freedom. So they sat there snapping and awaiting their fate. Ending up as a plate of curry or salt and pepper crab really is a pretty noble fate, if you ask me.

I was pretty punchy, having spent all afternoon staring at the computer screen, so after ordering the food I sat there making conversation with Tawn and playing with my utensils. Tawn was kind of punchy, too.

The food at Niyom is tasty, but they just have no sense of presentation. Each dish that came out looked quite “blah”, not helped by the icy blue cast of the lights. Tawn’s expression above was the actual response to the flat look of the otherwise tasty stir-fry of tofu, bean sprouts and onion sprouts. The dish was fine; it just looked lackluster.

Even our tod man goong, the fried shrimp cakes that were very fresh, moist, and not at all oily, looked kind of ho-hum. Now, I’m not one to complain, because the prices were good and the food was tasty. But I was hoping to bring back inspiring pictures that would make your mouths water.

We opted for fish instead of crab for the simple reason that neither of us wanted to do the work of picking apart a crab. Instead, we smartly ordered crab fried rice, letting the kitchen do the work for us. The fish was tasty, steamed and then served with soy sauce, ginger, scallions, and peppers. But the fish’s mouth was, once again, not pretty.

I have no idea why we ordered so much food – maybe because we secretly still hoped it wasn’t Thursday evening but was in fact Friday. After eating our fill the staff boxed up the leftovers and we walked back home, made the bed, and fell asleep waiting for the real Friday to arrive.

I’m Drowning Here

Posted on 4 March 2008 by christao408

For some reason, I’ve been caught in a tidal wave of work with more and more projects lapping over my head. After a late call Monday night, another late call Tuesday night, I have a third late call tonight with a contingent from the sales organization that wants me to write training for one of their positions.

Yeah, yeah… I know the corporate refrain: “Everyone is in sales.” But I’m in operations and my customers in the operations group have four or five “critical”, “must do right now”, “top of the list” projects that are already overwhelming me. What I don’t need right now is the sales organization to trying to drag me down under the sea like Ursula the sea witch.

Which makes me the Little Mermaid, I suppose.

Left: The sales organization. Right: Me

Tawn made it back Monday evening from Bali, where he said he didn’t have a very good time. It was a internal company conference with participants from across the Asia-Pacific-Australia region and Tawn returned with some interesting observations about colleagues from different cultures.

Despite his complaints of being overworked, Tawn’s colleagues from Japan and China showed him little sympathy when they explained that they were in the office until 10:00 most nights. Tawn is usually out the door by 6:30 or 7:00.

The Aussies lost points for being poorly dressed. They came to meetings in shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops, ditching the flip-flops and walking around the hotel conference room barefooted during the conference.

Interesting News: A flight search portal that rates “pain points”

From Air Transport World comes the news that Seattle-based InsideTrip, inc. will introduce this week a new online travel booking website that will add the quality of particular flights to the usual measuring sticks of price and time. Each flight will be assigned a “Trip Quality Rating” based on twelve criteria such as aircraft type, leg room, historical on-time performance, and historical load factors.

This strikes me as potentially revolutionary because in a highly commodotized industry, I’ve long asserted that people are willing to pay a little more if there is actually a difference in quality. The problem is, the average airline passenger has no way to effectively measure the quality difference. The method used by InsideTrip may well do it. We’ll see. Read the full news story here.

Okay, enough time spent writing a blog entry. I can hear the sound of the ocean, calling to me.

Bicycling Around Ekkamai

Posted on 2 March 2008 by christao408

Sunday morning I jumped back on my bicycle and went for a ride through the neighborhood. What interesting things there are to be seen!

I didn’t realize that I lived near a store that sells plastic models of food. Not only the ones you expect to see outside Japanese restaurants, but also ones for Chinese, Thai and Western cuisines.

What a perfect gift for someone for Christmas: a slice of cake that you can never eat!

Sadly, they were closed on Sunday morning so I couldn’t pop in for a visit. They would probably freak out if I started taking pictures inside the store, though. That seems to really be an issue at businesses here in Thailand.

I continued up Ekkamai Road, which is Sukhumvit Soi 63, and stopped at Ekkamai Soi 26 to take a picture I’ve long been meaning to take.

Someone, for reasons unknown, decided to post a street sign on the corner of the soi in the style of the signs that grace Parisian street corners. Interestingly, the person who made or ordered the sign decided to place Ekkamai Soi 26 in the 18th Arrondissement.

Perhaps there is a clue to be had from the fact that the 18th Arrondissement is Montmartre, the artsy residential district. Further exploration is called for but the fact that there is a frame shop below the sign might yield some answers.

My route continued north, crossing Khlong San Saeb, the primary east-west canal in the city and the only one that has any scheduled passenger boat service on it. You can actually take the canal taxis all the way into the old city, an efficient and inexpensive way to travel.

The khlong has pedestrian paths on either side and I have explored those before. In some parts of the khlong, nice houses back up to it. In other parts, the pedestrian paths cut through the shacks and shanties of some very poor families. Also, in the Thong Lor / Ekkamai area, there is a prominent Muslim community that lives near the khlong with one mosque near Thong Lor and another past Ekkamai. There are so many interesting communities here and you just don’t see them if you stay in a car.

Above: On Ekkamai flyover above Phetchaburi Road, there is an interesting Buddhist temple (gold pagoda on top) called Wat Ekkamai Pasi, literally, the “Ekkamai tax temple”. Next to it is the large Charn Issara 2 office building. Such a contrast! And in the cloverleaf formed by the ramps leading to the flyover, there is a small park that includes basketball, badminton, and football courts.

Beyond Phetchaburi Road is (below from left to right) the old State Railway line, the new Airport Express viaduct, and the maintenance facility for the Airport Express. To the left of the railway line is a small market and, with the red roof, the Khlongtan railway station. The track is currently used for commute rail services to the east as well as longer-distance trains that run to the Cambodian border and up to Northeast Thailand.

The maintenance facility is coming along nicely. If you look closely in the picture below you’ll see that the first piece of rolling stock has arrived.

How much longer until the Airport Express is running? Well, if you time your trip for late 2009, it should be running sometime around then. Meanwhile, if you arrive earlier, give me a call and I’ll come pick you up!

SF International Asian American Film Festival opens March 13

Posted on 1 March 2008 by christao408

As a reminder for those of you living in the SF Bay Area (or who might get yourselves to San Francisco for a good film), the 26th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival opens on March 13th and continues through the 23rd.

I worked with and for the festival for nine years, ending the year after I moved to Khrungthep. Even then, when I was in San Francisco last September I met with the executive and assistant directors to serve as a sounding board for some ideas, and attended last year’s Bangkok International Film Festival as an industry guest on behalf of the SF festival. They do such good work programming an incredible festival, as befits the oldest and largest festival of its kind.

Instead of recreating work that has already been done, let me direct you to Tony’s blog. Tony is on the screening committee for the festival and his entry contains a good summary of several of the highlights of this year’s festival. I hope you’ll have an opportunity to attend!

Critical Mass Recap

Posted on 29 February 2008 by christao408

Friday evening I pumped up my bicycle’s tires, changed the batteries in my head and tail lights, strapped on my helmet and started pedaling down Sukhumvit Road towards Siam Square. The last Friday of the month is payday in Thailand, jokingly called a national holiday. The roads are packed more than usual as everyone goes out to celebrate having money again.

It took me nearly thirty minutes to ride the six kilometers, weaving through traffic, riding a few very short stretches (slowly!) on the sidewalk, and ultimately arriving at Siam Discovery Centre just before 6:30. There I found more than a hundred bicycles parked on the sidewalk, a hundred bicyclists milling about, with more arriving every minute.

Not recognizing anyone, I stood about taking in the scene. As has happened before with Thai bicycling events, the locals are very friendly. The ones less confident about their English just smile and nod, and within a couple of minutes I was engaged in conversation with a married couple. The wife had done her undergraduate degree in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while the husband had been a high school exchange student in – are you ready for this? – Moscow, Idaho.

Oh, and especially interesting, the couple cornered the reporter from the independent TV station (public broadcasting) and had her interview me – in Thai! Talk about a challenge. Don’t know if I made the evening news or not.

About 6:45 the now 200+ people saddled up and we headed out on our ride through the city. The route was less than 20 kilometers and with such a large group we were not moving very fast, covering the route in about two hours.

Throughout the ride I continued to make new friends, some farang who joined the group and some Thais. There really is a vibrant bicycling community here, which you wouldn’t necessarily realize.

This was the first time a Critical Mass ride has been undertaken in Bangkok and it had its own Thai flavor, combined with just some “inexperience” in what elements have made CM rides successful in other cities.

Unlike the leaderless rides at other CMs where the people at the front of the group sort of create the group’s direction on an ad hoc basis, this ride had a route map, police had been informed, and there was one man at the front wearing his bambo pith helmet – I believe he is the founder of the Thai Cycling Club – who was leading the way.

Also, there were some things that could have been done to keep the group together. We were regularly split up by traffic lights and lost much of the group in the first twenty minutes. Had there been some “safety monitors” who would block traffic in an intersection and let the group get through, it would have been a bit more effective.

But, hey, it was the first time and there isn’t a right or wrong way to do a ride. Thai cyclists can make it their own.

One realization I had, though, is that non-cyclists have a lot of misconceptions about bicycling in this city. “The traffic!” they say, ignoring the fact that the traffic largely isn’t moving and that on a bicycle, it is easy to get around larger vehicles stuck in a jam. “The heat!” they say, fogetting that when you are riding, you create your own cooling breeze. “The danger!” they say, not realizing that Thai drivers are the most patient, accommodating, and polite anywhere in the world. Not a honked horn, not a waved fist, not a foul word.

Can’t wait until next month’s ride!

Happy Leap Day

Posted on 29 February 2008 by christao408

I almost forgot to mention: “Happy Leap Day!” Hope you take advantage of this extra day, a gift that comes to us only once every four years, to do something you normally put off but have been wanting to do.

Khrungthep on Foot

Posted on 28 February 2008 by christao408

It is a sunny and surprisingly cool Friday morning. As of 8:30 it was 25 C / 77 F, which for late February really is a cool start for us. As a very pink sun crawled above the hazy horizon, I drove Tawn to the airport where he is meeting some of his colleagues for a weekend business trip in Bali. Not a bad place to have a business trip, if you ask me.

This week has been mostly about some work projects, one in particular that has taken a large amount of time and as it involves a lot of typing and document formatting, is threatening to give me carpal tunnel syndrome. To spare my wrists, I did take a few breaks and got out and about. Such interesting things to see when you’re exploring on foot.

A Tale of Narrow Sois

As nearly all of the city was once rice paddies, the narrow khlong – canals – eventually were paved over and made into streets. To this day, these small streets (alleys?) called soi are still narrow and twist and turn, making a rabbit’s warren of choke points for vehicular traffic. Just in the course of two outings I observed several nose-to-nose confrontations between vehicles that had no room to pass.

Right, in Lad Prao Soi 19 there is a dog leg in the middle of the dead-end soi, construction of a new condo on one side, and cars parked all along the soi. The dog leg is sharp and, for drivers, makes for two consecutive blind corners. As I was walking into the soi there were two vehicles coming in that encountered two vehicles coming out. Interestingly, neither group backed up to a suitably wide passing spot. Instead, they inched past each other in a very slow and intricate dance right at the corner, missing each other by maybe the width of a hand. No horns, now waved fists. Just smiles and nods.

Things were not as equal when the red Thong Lor shuttle bus, which loops up and down the street connecting Khlong San Saeb with Sukhumvit Road, encountered oncoming cars in Thong Lor Soi 1, left.

The heavy duty Mercedes bus ended up the victor, forcing the taxi to pull into a restaurant’s car park (left side of picture) and the Honda Jazz and several cars behind it to back up into Sukhumvit 53, about ten meters behind. Still no horn honking but the bus driver wasn’t being very magnanimous about his victory.

Sights along Lad Prao

Lad Prao is a long, wide road on the north side of the city, stretching from the area around the Chatuchak Weekend Marked and Phaholyothin Road junction all the way across town to Ramkamhaeng Road in the northeastern quadrant of the city. Francois bought a condo there in a new lowrise development (with the blue banner on the side of it in the first picture above) on Lad Prao Soi 19. It is convenient, all of a three-minute walk from the subway station and then a eight-stop ride to Sukhumvit.

Walking around the neighborhood, I came to an intersection around Soi 7 where some interesting construction work is underway.

A khlong flows under the soi right where it enters the main street. It appears that a proper drainage channel is being built under the soi. What I found fascinating is the dam being used to hold back the khlong while construction progresses, which is made of sticks and stones. Additionally, it looks like the worker in the pink shirt, the one leveling the freshly poured concrete, is in there barefoot.

At the same corner there is an old, gnarled tree right at the intersection. Underneath it has been built a shrine including a spirit house (almost completely covered in garlands), a herd of zebra, and fresh offerings of flowers, incense and drinks.

While I know the tradition of spirit houses grows out of animist beliefs that have mixed with Brahman and Hindu ones over the years, I’m still curious about this particular shrine. Was this the shrine set up for a larger plot of land that has since been subdivided and developed? Even though the country is 95%+ Theravada Buddhist, those beliefs are overlaid onto many other ones, forming an interesting collage of beliefs. As it has been explained to me, you never know for certain which beliefs are the right ones so why not be safe by subscribing to all of them? Very pragmatic. Very Thai.

Here’s the pie shop, where’s the barber’s?

Just recently a new, small restaurant opened on Thong Lor 1. The Witch Pie Factory is associated with the Witch’s Tavern, a pub further down Thong Lor. I am assuming that this is in fact the place they make the pies served at the pub and decided to make the most of the space by including a retail and restaurant front end there, too.

It is a cute place with a bright blue exterior and room for a little cafe-style seating out front. Since it sits right on the soi that had the bus-car confrontation mentioned above, I’m not sure I’d want to be sitting outdoors watching that while eating my pie.

On Wednesday, Vic, Ken and Francois joined me for lunch there. Ken wittily referenced Sweeney Todd and asked whether there was a barber shop upstairs. Without a doubt, these are the British-style pies we’re talking about: individual meat pies that, along with a small side salad are meant to make a meal.

The interior really is cute, too. The walls are tiled with large, tidy white tiles with dark blue accents that remind me of bagel shops in Melbourne. There is a large mirror on one wall, reflecting the elegant and wholly out of place chandelier and an avantgarde painting on the opposing wall.

There is a loft area that has comfortable chairs, a cozy place for a spot of tea and a slice of something sweeter for dessert. The downstairs has a long counter and then a half-dozen rustic looking wood tables and benches. The fresh baked pied are neatly arranged on the marble counter under glass and the selections include several types of quiche and Thai inspired pies (Massaman beef curry, anyone?) in addition to the more traditional chicken and mushroom, and pork and mashed peas pies.

Above: Ken reviews the menu while Vic discusses his choices with one of the friendly workers.

I decided to try the chicken and mushroom pie along with a slice of the tomato quiche. Both were very tasty and the salad, while a little skimpy, was fresh and of good quality.

Given that pie pastry isn’t necessarily the healthiest source of carbohydrates in the world, at least there was a salad at all!

Being in a pie shop, one couldn’t very well not have pie for dessert. So I tried their coconut cream pie which is made with slices of fresh young coconut meat that had such a refreshing and delicate flavor.

To top it off, the pies are quite reasonably priced. Including the salad, most pies are only between 70-100 baht. Pricier than a plate of rice and two sides, but then also harder to find. Plus the place is so cute, I’ll pay an extra 20 baht just for atmosphere! No doubt you’ll be able to find me at least once a week at The Witch Pie Factory.

Next entry: how I’ve started swimming every day in order to burn off those pies!

Gratuitous cute photos

I’m very excited because my Grandfather has recently learned how to attach photos to his weekly email epistles. This may not sound like a big deal, but I’m impressed that in his 80s, he still tackles new technological challenges. He’s had a computer for a decade now, recently upgraded to a new Mac, and every week we receive an email that details the goings on of him and my Grandmother. I can only hope that in 50 years, I’ll be so active and so embracing of new technologies.

So here are the photos of my grandparents with my youngest niece, Ava. She turns two years old next week.

Cute, eh?