Posted on 7 January 2008 by christao408

Lots of visitors. Paul is in town. Daniel and Joe are coming to town. And yesterday I received a call from Claude, who, while being from New York, had found himself in Singapore about to board a flight to Bangkok.

“Can I crash at your place?” he asked.

“If you’re okay with a little Japanese style futon,” I replied.

As my aunt says, there’s always room for one more. Most of the time, Tawn agrees with that, but I’m not going to test him to see where the limit is.

So I picked Caude up at the airport. On the way there, sitting at the intersection of Thanon Ramkamhaeng, I noticed these interesting planters. The mayor of Khrunthep has made a lot of effort to beautify the city, planting more greenery. What I liked about this particular intersection was the clever (and Very Thai*) way that the people with the green thumbs had gone about overcoming the very tall concrete barrier.

First off, put the plants in trash bins. They’re large enough, there’s plenty of them around the city, so why not?

Second, if the bins aren’t tall enough, just keep piling on concrete footpath pavers until the plants can peer over the top of the barrier.

Waht I love about it is, it is such a practical and elegant (if not pretty) solution.

Claude was very thoughtful and bought us a bottle of Absolut Vodka at Singapore Changi Airport’s duty free. They are selling a limited edition “Absolut Disco” bottle, which is a regular bottle sold in a funky disco ball case. Very cute! There’s even a hole at the top so you can hang it from the ceiling on a little spinning motor. I’ve suggested to Tawn that we take down the chandelier and replace it with this bottle.

This morning, Claude went off to Koh Samed for a few days at the beach. We’ll see about reconnecting this weekend in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, it is off to Thai class for me.

* I’m thinking that I may start using this “Very Thai” picture to denote entries or observations that I find to be illustrative of Thai culture. The original book is by Philip Cornwel-Smith and is full of many “oh, now I understand” moments. I’ll try to contribute more of them along the same vein.

Posted on 6 January 2008 by christao408

As ruuduu naw (cold season) continues, there has been a whole lot of nothing going on. Errands, mostly. Seeing friends a bit. Watching the Iowa caucus results and reading the pundits. So I’ll just address some odds and ends this morning:

Regarding the bookshelves/china cabinets (left – see entry here), thank you to those of you who offered your opinions. Tawn was amused at the responses.

Ble, our designer, stopped by Friday with the original plans for the cabinets. Sure enough, they were built too large: 10 cm too tall, 5 cm too deep (both the upper and lower sections), and 15 cms too wide.

Additionally, the pattern on the glass was not done correctly. It was supposed to be etched with thin lines that made a diamond pattern, rather than being etched with diamonds themselves. The difference would be in the opacity of the windows. The idea is that we should still be able to readily see the contents of the shelves.

No explanation how the cabinet makers managed to mess these details up, but they did. Ble will work with them to either fix the current cabinet or, more likely, build new ones at no cost to us.

♦ ♦ ♦

Markus’ brother and sister-in-law are sister-in-lawthree weeks along with their two children, from Aptos, California. In addition to picking them up from the airport, I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with them.

One of these opportunities was a trip to the Ancient City, a park to the southeast of Khrungthep and not far from the new airport, that has recreated at half scale over 100 of the most important historical structures in Thailand. Built about twenty years ago, many of the structures now are surrounded by lush flora that more closely resemble the actual settings where these sites are located.

Additionally, some of the structures are built to show what they would have looked like at their glory. For example, some of the palace buildings that were destroyed when the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya is 1767 A.D. have been rebuilt (half scale) to their ancient splendor.

The pavillion I capturpavilion right isn’t the prettiest thing on the grounds, especially given that the workers were in the midst of repainting it. But I liked that it isn’t so typically Thai. Also, the purple color was unusual.

You can travel the grounds either by rented golf cart or on bicycle. With the weather sunny but not too hot, the bicycle proved a good way to go even though the bicycles were almost as ancient as the structures depicted in the park!

The only drawback was ruin and wat burnout. Had we purchased the guide book before touring the site, we would have been much better informed about the significance of the sites. After a while it began to feel like “yet another palace” and yet another temple”. I have a guide book now, which you’re welcome to borrow if you ever go to the Ancient City.

On the way home in our comfy Toyota tour van, we were stopped at a light in Khlong Toei and a friendly teenager on the back of a motorbike was smiling at us, so I took a picture, left.

♦ ♦ ♦

Roka had an interview at a language school on Thong Lor, so afterwards Tawn and I met her for lunch at J Avenue. I love J Avenue. The J stands for “Japanese”, and ostensibly this outdoor, upscale strip mall is aimed at the local Japanese expat population. True enough, there are several Japanese restaurants in it and there is a Villa Market, the grand-daddy of all expat supermarkets. But then there is a bowling alley, a Greyhound Cafe, an Au Bon Pain, and a bunch of other places that don’t have any obvious Japanese connection.

The center’s design is very good and if makes use of two huge old trees that were preserved right in the middle of things. They have used misters and good landscaping to create a cool (temperature-wise) central court that is very pleasant to sit in even on a sunny day. Best of all, it is within walking distance to our house.

Greyhound Cafe at J Avenue is much better than the Siam Centre location, because the service is organized and more attentive. For examples, orders don’t go missing. Here’s a selection of our dishes:

From Left to Right: Asparagus soup, lasagna salad, and Thai-style spaghetti.

♦ ♦ ♦

We also ran some errands to the Ratchaprop and Siam areas, parking the car at Gaysorn to avoid geting any more into the messy traffic. Here aregetting streets all within a three-minute walk of each other, to give you an idea of what traffic this weekend looked like:

Thankfully, we were walking on the pedestrian skyway so we could see the traffic rather than be a part of it.

Speaking of Gaysorn, this high end but nearly always desserted mall often features nice sculptural works indesertedntral courtyard area. A few months ago it was a giant splash (further below) and now it is this interesting grouping of lanterns.

In a country where public art is sorely lacking, it is nice that this mall makes the effort to support local artists in this way.

♦ ♦ ♦

Side Notes:

On Facebook, I’ve started a group called Adrian Wilcox High School – Alums of the 80s. If you graduated in the late 1980s from this venerable Santa Clara, California institution of secondary education, feel free to join!

As of this morning there are already ten people signed up as members. Some of these are the high school friends I’ve long stayed in touch with. Others are people I do not know or barely remember. Would you believe my 20 year reunion is coming up this summer? Aiee – so old!

Regarding the results of the Iowa caucuses, while I try to maintain a fairly politically neutral stance in this blog since that isn’t really what I want to write about, let me say this: I’m happy that Barack Obama (right) did as well as he did. Along with a lot of other Americans, I’m ready for a change in the tenor of our political debate.

I’m convinced that the “red state – blue state” depiction of the United States is an artificial one, designed by news organizations, politicos, and pundits to play up the drama of divisiveness. I believe that on most issues, the large majority of Americans can agree on many points, and do. We are desperately in need of leadership, both in the domestic arena as well as on the world stage, that can start from the large common ground and build outwards, rather than starting from one extreme and demonizing the other.

Have a good week!

Fireworks galore as we stay home

Posted on 1 January 2008 by christao408

New Year’s Eve was thankfully quiet. It is a public holiday here in Thailand, essentially giving people a four-day weekend. Roads were quieter than normal, car parks and malls emptier.

In the morning I drove to the Sukhothai Hotel on Sathorn Road, right. The sister of a friend was in town from Hong Kong and had a package to give me. I met her and her husband pool-side and visited for a few minutes.

Such an attentive staff and so gorgeous a hotel! When I arrived, I didn’t see Julie. Turns out that she had gone up to her room to get the package and since I hadn’t met her husband, I didn’t know what he looked like. The staff made a great effort to locate her and fortunately she showed up a few minutes later.

In the afternoon, Tawn decided it was time for him to do some cooking. Craving linguini with pesto sauce, he pulled out the blender and made some fresh pesto. We enjoyed a light lunch before he headed to his parents’ house.

I worked throughout the afternoon and then started preparing dinner as we had decided to spend our New Year’s Eve at home. The menu was a bit of a reprise from Saturday. I had leftover mozzarella cheese and ricotta and spinach mixture, so I bought some more mushrooms and made another vegetarian lasagna.

There was still some broiled zucchini and eggplant mixture, so that became a gratin. The flavors of the cucumber-mango salad were nicely melded by now, so that rounded out the trio nicely.

For dessert, the final two individual chocolate souffles were unwrapped from the freezer, puffing up nicely in the oven as if the batter had been prepared just minutes beforehand. All in all, a simple menu, but a delightful one and spent with the best of company: Tawn.

Shortly before we moved into the condo, I bought a bottle of Möet & Chandon Brut Imperial Champagne to celebrate. It has been waiting patiently and last night seemed to be the best time to open it.

To kill time waiting for the clock to strike midnight, we watched an episode from season two of “The West Wing” on DVD. I don’t watch TV and hadn’t really seen this show when it was on the air. Vic loaned me the discs and the series is really good. If all TV were like this, I’d be watching all the time. Heck, I’d even go out and buy a TV.

About three minutes before midnight some over-eager locals began setting off the fireworks. Limited in the US to only “safe and sane” fireworks or official public displays, it seems everyone in Khrungthep gets their hands on some pretty serious munitions. There was an excellent view from our balcony of a large display just up Thong Lo from us, complemented by a half-dozen adjacent properties setting off their own Roman candles and other more spectacular fireworks. For a quarter-hour there were bams and booms and howling soi dogs.

And thus we start 2008 (2551 in the Buddhist calendar).

Resolution for 2008

Posted on 31 December 2007 by christao408

Let us resolve to live each day of the next year
with humility for the blessings we have received,
patience for the challenges we face,
awareness that we always have more to learn,
and compassion for others, the planet, and all living things.

Best wishes to you and yours on this New Year’s Eve
and may 2008 be a year of peace.

Chris

I miss the NY Times

Posted on 30 December 2007 by christao408

When I lived in the States, one of my favorite ways to pass a Sunday morning was with a big pot of coffee, a pitcher of scalded and frothed milk, and the New York Times. Just the Magazine alone was worth the purchase price.

Sadly, the Times is not available here in Asia except as a special purchase at a newsstand that imports days-old copies. Instead, you can purchase the International Herald Tribune, which is the Times’ international coverage and a smattering of US news, combined with some local stories provided by a partner newspaper in each particular country. It just isn’t the same.

One of the things I like best about the Times is the quality of writing. I honed my appreciation for the written word by reading the prose in Times articles, which are written several grade levels above the average newspaper.

These days I read the Times online. The writing is just as good but the experience is not the same. Still, I enjoy the reporters’ clever turns of phrase such as this choice bit from an article about some notable people who died in 2007. This quote comes from an entry about former longtime Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton, the first running mate for George McGovern’s 1972 Presidential campaign, who resigned from the campaign after acknowledging his history of depression and mental illness.

The federal courthouse in St. Louis is named for him. Accomplished men and women have recounted how they were awed by his intellect, influenced by his humanity, inspired and enlisted by his passion. Thomas Eagleton was a giant of Missouri politics. But he was a giant bound by ties of his own peculiar design. He spent the first part of his career in the grip of a secret. Later, he was fettered to a question he answered countless times but never resolved.
“He was a man of decency, honor, humor, integrity,” George McGovern told me recently, rattling off Eagleton’s virtues until they veered abruptly off a rhetorical cliff, “with an incredible cover-up.”

Beautiful, isn’t it?

“Soft Opening” a success

Posted on 30 December 2007 by christao408

Entertaining friends at your home is not a particularly common feature of Thai living. Instead, people will meet at a restaurant, bar, karaoke, or bowling alley and socialize there. Tawn and I really enjoy entertaining and it was an enjoyable part of our life in the United States.

When we were planning our condo remodel, we made many decisions along the way that would help us maintain this aspect of our lifestyle. From redesigning the kitchen with a larger refrigerator to setting up the bedrooms so they could be used for socializing, we tried to build a space where we could host friends and family members in comfort.

After having a small brunch as the first test of our home’s ability as an entertaining environment, we were ready for the next step in the proving trials: dinner for a dozen. Actually, it ended up being sixteen or seventeen, but who’s counting. Below: Moments before the first guest arrives, the stage is set. The condo looks especially nice at night.

I began prep work for the cooking on Friday evening, while Tawn hosted a small group of his friends. Originally it was explained to me as, “Eddy and Jack are going to stop by to take a look at the condo.” It then became, “Eddy and Jack and David are going to stop by to take a look at the condo and maybe have a drink.”

It further progressed to, “… and maybe I’ll order some Italian food if we get hungry.” Finally, it turned out as Eddy, Jack, David, Sa, Job, Mon and Ton came over for several hours, drank numerous bottles of wine, ordered pizza, pasta and salad from Pizza Mania, and kept me from getting all the prep work done I had hoped to.

But that’s okay… it was nice to see them and I continued working while people floated into the kitchen to visit for a while, then floated back to the living room. The only things I couldn’t do involved sauteeing onions and garlic, which I thought might annoy the guests a bit.

When I lived in San Francisco, before Tawn and I moved in together, I lived in a 90-year old Edwardian house on Eureka Street, just above the Castro in a section of town known by longer-term residents as Eureka Valley. I had two roommates, Anita and Colleen (although both Holly and Nina lived there at various times, too), and we would have parties quite frequently. Usually, if they involved dinner they were smaller affairs – 8-10 people at the most. If they were just drinks and appetizers, the numbers would get larger.

I recall these parties as being pretty uncomplicated. Tidy up the house a bit, light some candles, turn on some Miles Davis or Morcheeba, and wrap a round of brie in some filo dough and pop it in the over.

Somehow, when Tawn and I host gatherings, it becomes quite complicated.

Some of it is the food, although we’ve been learning and applying lessons and the food we prepare is increasingly prepared in advance, requiring little work during the party itself. In fact, by the time the first guest arrived Saturday night, the cooking was done.

Some of the complication comes from the decoration. I think we put a lot of effort into arranging the house, decorating it, and making it like something out of a magazine. I’m sure the guests appreciate these thoughtful touches, but I suspect they wouldn’t mind or even notice if they were missing.

For example, we provided party favors for our guests last night: pairs of macarons from the Erawan Hotel bakery, neatly wrapped in a cellophane bag with a festive bow. Really cute and very thoughtful, but it meant a trip to the hotel, waiting for them to wrap everything, and then an hour Saturday morning tying the bows.

After our parties, Tawn and I debrief and try to see what we can learn to make our lives easier next time. Hopefully we’ll get a bit better at applying the lessons and not just learning them again and again, because we really like entertaining and want it to be an enjoyable experience for us, too.

With that said, let me now regale you with all the cooking that was done! It was a pot luck dinner but I wasn’t sure how effectively that would work. First of all, many of our friends have small or nonexistent kitchens. Second, I’m not sure if a pot luck is really a very “Thai” thing to do.

As a result, I over prepared and created two side dishes and extra appetizers in addition to the main course that I had promised to provide. That’s okay as I wanted to try the recipes and they were pretty easy to prepare. The menu provided by me included:

crudités with homemade basil and sundried tomato dressing
baked artichoke-spinach dip
Australian brie en croûte
mango-cucumber salad dressed with a green curry and rice wine vinaigrette
roasted eggplant and zucchini medley
lasagna two ways: hearty meat and mushroom-spinach

Right: Chopping roasted artichoke hearts for the dip.

Our guests provided many wonderful accompaniments: a large mixed green salad, fried turnip cakes, a spicy Thai-style sausage salad, and desserts and beverages. Pot luck is a successful concept here so that means less cooking for me in the future.

Below: Lasagna in three easy steps.

Above: The egglpant-zucchini medley. Below: The table is set with the appetizers.

We ended up with a nice mix of people. In addition to the usual suspects of the American expats and their partners, Roka, Prawit and Kobfa, Tawn’s cousin Paul and his wife Nicha made a visit. Tawn’s friend and ballet instructor Mae stopped by with her Danish friend, Daniel.

Vic also brought a volleyball friend of his, Kook, who recognized me and Tawn – it turns out that he works in the same building as Tawn for an advertising company that is under the same corporate umbrella as Tawn’s employer. Kook had seen us before at the Thailand Cultural Centre, and he and Tawn saw each other in the elevators at work but had never met.

Furthering the coincidences, we discovered that Ken’s partner Suchai knows Kook’s brother. Small, small world.

Right: Ken and Suchai in a rare display of public affection. Below: Russ, Bill and Vic fuss over the salad.

Above: The second bedroom/office makes for a nice separate seating area for guests in the background. Below: Tawn’s cousin Paul (center) shares a story about his experiences working in China for the Central Group of department stores. Bill is to the left in the group and Kook is to the right on the sofa.

In the end, it was a very good party. As people left, we sent food with them so that we ended the evening with only a small amount of leftovers. I think on my next trip to the US I’m going to Costco and buying a big box of those Gladware storage containers. We sent people home with some of my better quality storage containers and I hope I get them back as they’re kind of expensive!

We had our customary debrief while cleaning up: what went well, what could be better? Hopefully we’ll apply the lessons we discussed…

Posted on 27 December 2007 by christao408

Things have been slow, socially, the past few days. A lunch here, a Thai lesson there, but not much that is blogable. My cousin Kari’s high school friend Sarah arrived from New York with her husband and another couple in tow. We met them for dinner last night at Cafe de Laos and then drinks on the rooftop Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel. But the week was pretty unblogable. Until the bookshelves arrived on Wednesday.

Some of you may recall this sketch I did before the remodel started, showing what I had in mind for the living room. A pair of pocket doors with traditional Victorian bookshelves built in on each side. All along, I thought this was the basic design that Tawn and I were working towards.

Modified Living Room

In fact, the design had made a left turn some ways back but it wasn’t apparant to me. Somewhere along the road, Tawn showed me a picture from an issue of Martha Stewart Living (a woman whose name is starting to haunt me) and asked, “What do you think aobut this design?” I took it as a question relating to the china cabinet that we want to put near the kitchen and dining table. Not realizing that it was related instead to the design for the bookshelf, I said that it was okay.

So on Tuesday the cabinet makers arrive with the “bookshelves”. But as they go to put the top halves up, they discover that the entire piece is physically too tall. They’ve mis-measured and the ceiling is two inches lower than the height of the bookshelf. To top it off, they depth and width are both just about a half-inch to an inch too big to fit into the space. It seems that baseboards and window frames were not taken into consideration when measurements were made. (And the measurements were not made by us, I’ll point out.)

Below: Tawn discusses the options with the handyman (left) who installed our toilet paper hanger vertically because, he says, I told him to, and the general contractor’s son. Note the height of the top border on the cabinet.

The workers left the shelves, drawers, and doors behind and took the top half of the cabinet back to the shop. They returned on Thursday and installed the new, slightly lower bookshelves. Width and depth issues have not been resolved but we’ll see about that later on. Notice that the border on the top of the cabinet is now narrower.

The problem is, because the shelves are still so tall and weren’t built with the correct width and depth, the top corner of the door hits the light fixture when you open it! (Collective sigh and roll of the eyes.)

So what do you think of the shelves?

Personally, I think the design is nice for a china cabinet, which is what I thought the design was originally for. But as a bookshelf? I don’t know about that.

One of the biggest problems is that the shelves in the top half are made of untempered glass and I’m not convinced they’ll hold the weight of the books. Especially since they have no supports in the middle.

I also have mixed feelings about the glass doors and sides, which has a diamond pattern etched into them. If you’re going to have glass shelves, shouldn’t you have doors that allow you to display the contents? The whole point of glass shelves and doors is to show off your plates, platters and teapots, right?

There is a little pull-out drawer, a feature I really like as it makes for a good side table or console… on a china cabinet. But not for a book shelf.

Also, I really expected that there would be a gap of about 10 inches between the top of the shelves and the ceiling. That’s why we installed the little spot lights, to highlight the objets d’art we would display there. I’m not sure if it is realistic to slice off several inches of the cabinet, maybe all of those small drawers?

Another option, which Tawn isn’t as keen on as he likes the cabinets, would be to try to sell them on Craigslist and use the proceeds to build another pair of bookshelves. Or, should I say, “to build some bookshelves” as I don’t think these are bookshelves?

So just when things were seeming a bit na beua they became interesting again.

Posted on 24 December 2007 by christao408

Christmas is and is not celebrated here in Thailand. Christians comprise less than 1% of the population, yet the main streets and shopping centers are done up in holiday lights. A lot of this is for New Year’s, which is a big deal here, but Santa Claus and other imagery associated with Christmas (including trees) works its way into the decorations.

Monday evening we met a small group of friends – Doug, Roka, Suchai and Ken – for dinner down the street at Bacco, the more expensive sibling of Basillico on Sukhumvit 31. The food is significantly better, more creative and of higher quality.

We had papparadelle in duck ragout, a tuna tartare and pomelo appetizer, linguine with smoked salmon and vodka sauce, and a tasty arugula salad (right) and a variety of bruschetta.

The conversation and company were wonderful, more than compensating for the slightly higher bill than I anticipated. Oh, well – you cannot regret what you’ve already done, but only learn from those lessons for the future.

Afterwards, Tawn and I headed to Central World Plaza to try and take some holiday photos in what is the equivalent of Khrungthep’s Times Square. Last year the New Year’s Eve celebrations were dampened by a series of bomb attacks that killed three people and injured more than 40. With the election of the PPP government, whose Thai Rak Thai roots were decidedly harsh on the South, we may very well expect more of the same this year.

Thailand returns to democracy but the fun is hardly over

Posted on 23 December 2007 by christao408

Sunday, December 23rd the Thai people went to the polls to elect a new government, the first democratic elections since a military-led coup toppled the constitution in September 2006. The coup government claimed that the coup was held because Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai (“Thais love Thais”) party were corrupt and had undermined the nation’s democracy. After an investigation, a court dissolved TRT and banned 111 of its leaders from politics for five years.

From the ashes of the largely populist TRT, which despite allegations of vote buying in previous elections seems to legitimately have the support of a large majority of the Thai citizens, rose the People Power Party. With obvious connections to exiled Thaksin, PPP leader Samak Sundaravej has made clear that one of the PPP’s planks is to continue TRT’s popular policies.

Another plank is to let Thaksin return to Thailand and receive a fair trial. The implication is that the 111 TRT leaders could be cleared of all charges and return to politics.

How much do PPP members support Thaksin? This Bangkok Post picture, right, shows them at a rally wearing Thaksin masks. TRT/PPP has been especially popular in the North and Northeast sections of the country, with Khrungthep forming the crucial battleground for the elections.

The 72-year old Samak (left), a crotchety veteran of Thai politics known for berating “irreverent” female reporters, faces off against the rival Democrat Party, led by 43-year old Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva (right) who was described by The Economist magazine as handsome but ineffectual.

The Democrats, a historically conservative party that is royalist in nature that is the primary challenge to the PPP, has in recent years had a difficult time building any effective support beyond the urban middle class in Khrungthep and the residents of the conflict-torn South.

The Campaign

Thai election campaigns are more about parties than individual candidates. With the new constitution, each region of the country is given three representative seats so parties have promoted trios of candidates who are generally not notable with the exception of being from a particular party. We don’t need to know anything about them beyond their profession or the family they’re from. All we need to know is that they are a member of a particular party.

The party leaders, Samak and Abhisit included, have been the only point where there has been any policy debate. Most of this has been general and couched in elusive terms. “We’re for the country and happiness!” could easily be the slogan of any of the seven parties.

Campaign signs are generally dull. For example:

From upper left: “Please vote for all the team members” from the Democrat Party. Prachai Liawpirat, the leader of the Machimatitapai Party, an entrepreneur who is positioning himself essentially as a new Thaksin. Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana Party (“Thai Togetherness, the Nation Progresses”) puts forth a slate of multi-colored shirts with the slogan, “Choose as you think best, for the life of the Khrungthep residents”. Chart Thai (the #3 ranked party) leader, Banharn Silpa-archa, who is known by his nickname “Tung” referring to his passing resemblance to Mao Tse Tung. Tung actually is a key player here, which I’ll talk about in a moment.

The only campaigning that was really interesting was that put up by Chart Thai’s Khrungthep candidates, who are really emphasizing their youth and being part of a new generation, fed up by the past. Their posters, four of which I’ll explain below, are really funny.

Left: “We smell the bad smell of “polluted water” politics. Do you also?” The line drawing behind them show a crowd of people holding their noses, too. The expression nam naw refers to the polluted water that are underneath slum houses, for example along a khlong.

The expression is used idiomatically to mean someone or something that is overly dramatic for no purpose. For example, soap operas on television are called lakon nam naw – literally, “polluted water show”.

The funny event in all of this is that Tung, the leader of Chart Thai, was on a campaign stop in a slum area in Bangkok and the floor collapsed under him and he literally ended up in the nam naw. This led to all sorts of jokes that he, too, had been tainted by the bad smell of polluted politics.

The last laugh will be on Tung, though, because unless the PPP or the Democrats get a significant majority in the elections, they will need to form a coalition government and Chart Thai is running third in the polls. As was pointed out after the nam naw incident, Tung might be smelling bad now but after the elections, the other parties will be coming up to sniff his cheeks.

Left: “Choose the team of the new generation, for the new era of politics” featuring Apikiat “Bo” Janpanit (#10) as the “captain” of the team, a perfect allusion in this football-mad country. Center: “Time to take out the political tape worms” with an image of a tape worm medicine bottle superimposed over Apikiat’s face. Right: “Too many new political parties, but the old faces again? Young people get bored.” Despite #12’s looking like he isn’t part of the young generation, Chart Thai is trying to drum up support among the younger generation.

The Results

The polls closed at 3:00 in the afternoon and three different exit polls are indicating that the PPP has won the largest segment of seats in the new parliament, although by how much is the question. One poll puts their lead at 256 of the 480 seats, to the Democrat’s 162. Other polls show the margin narrower. If the PPP does get around that many seats, they may be able to form a government on their own. But if their margin is narrower, they will have to form a coalition, which could lead to instability.

Either way, there is no doubt that the political turmoil will continue. The current government was making overt efforts to discredit the PPP’s campaign before the election, including raising questions about vote buying and the inappropriate appearance of a campaign VCD distributed in the north with a message from Thaksin. This looks like groundwork to potentially invalidate the election results afterwards.

In the past two weeks, the King has publicly appealed to the nation no less than three times – a rare excess of appearances – asking for unity in this difficult time. It will be interesting to see if his subjects pay heed to his request.

One thing is certain: stay tuned over the months to come for more political uncertainty.

Another trip to Amphawa

Posted on 21 December 2007 by christao408

Friday night I drove Bill and his mother, Pat, to Samut Songkhram. Ken joined us. Bill is an American from Florida who has a Thai partner, Kom, and would like to move here. There seems to be some challenge in balancing his responsibilities back in the United States with his desire to live here. Right now, he’s in the midst of a several-month stint here of which is mother has joined him for one month.

Unfortunately – and not to disclose too much personal information but this is relevant to the story – on her first day here, Pat had a mishap with a water feature in the lobby of the Marriott Mayfair on Langsuan Road. Thankfully, the injury was not as severe as it could have been, but it has limited the amount of travel she has been able to do.

I offered to take them to Samut Songkhram province because there is an evening floating market at Amphawa. This is a much more local market held only on the weekends, and it has many fewer steps, is less physically demanding, and it is much less touristy. Or, at least, much less geared towards foreign tourists.

We met up with Ajarn Yai and then proceeded to the market, which was just getting started when we arrived about 4:30. Despite her unsteady legs, Pat agreed to a boat tour so we spent about an hour heading up river on the Mae Khlong and then turning in on a smaller canal that led back to the main market.

Unfortunately, it was low tide and our boat ran aground in the shallows of the khlong. (right) Pushing with a stick wasn’t sufficient so our driver had to roll up his pant legs and get into the water, which was knee deep. The theme to “Gilligan’s Island” kept playing in my head.

Along the way, Ajarn Yai recognized a colleague so we stopped for a few minutes and visited. Then, back at the market, we ran into one of our former students, Wanwisa, who had graduated sixth grade last year and is now a student at the secondary school located next to the market. We ran into yet some more colleagues of Ajarn Yai’s later in the evening, reinforcing that this really is a local attraction.

The market gets busy as the sun sets, with vendors serving mostly food and snacks to people sitting on the steps, above. There are also some khlong-side restaurants, which is where we set up for dinner and where I took the picture at the top of this entry.

Left: Ken, Pat and Bill standing along the canal after our boat ride.

There is no shortage of good food in Amphawa, although I think some of the dishes were a little spicy for Pat’s taste. That’s understandable, so we ordered a big plate of khaw pad goong – shrimp fried rice – to fill everyone up. Sorry, no pictures of that!

We strolled for a little while afterwards, looking at souvenirs and desserts. One Thai woman who spoke beautiful English – it sounds like she was educated in the UK or Australia – stopped me and asked where I was from, to which question I responded without thinking in Thai. Ma jag phratet America khrap. I am from America. Strangely, she said how she never sees any foreigners there. Strange, I say, because while there aren’t many, I had seen at least a half-dozen others over the course of the early evening.

Our finally stop before heading home: ice cream! The ice cream vendor (right) was busy, offering both chocolate and coconut flavors, in a bowl, on a cone, or in a sweet roll. You could have it with chocolate syrup, evaporated milk, corn, sticky rice, or beans.

And two little boys looked on, oh so eagerly. “When will it be my turn? When do I get my ice cream?” they seemed to ask.

Other random photos from the week

Here are some other pictures from this week in Khrungthep:

Above: The pedestrian bridge over Asoke Road along Sukhumvit has been put up. Still several months of work to do, but eventually we’ll be able to connect from the Asoke BTS station to the Exchange Tower building on the southeast corner. Below: Khruu Kitiya smiles for a photo after class.

Above: Two things that don’t mix, electricity and water, are mixed on the sidewalk here in Thailand. A bucket of water sits with an electrical cord running into it.

christao408

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

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Fireworks galore as we stay home

Resolution for 2008

I miss the NY Times

“Soft Opening” a success

Thailand returns to democracy but the fun is hardly over

Another trip to Amphawa