Taking Fu to the Floating Market

Posted on 8 November 2007 by christao408

You know it is a small, digital and virtual world when you start receiving guests who are friends of friends, when all the parties have met through the internet and, in the case of the friend and the friend of the friend, they’ve never met in person!

So it was this week as I had a visitor who was recommended to contact me by Curry. After completing five years studying in Hiroshima, Japan, Fu was traveling around Asia on his way back home to southern Malaysia. Nice guy and this is his first visit to Thailand.

Originally, Curry had recommended Fu contact me so I could take him to Pad Thai Ari. This ended up not being part of the plan as Fu was in his final days in the country and was interested in seeing the floating market. There are several floating markets but the only one that runs every day is the one in Damnoen Saduak (“convenient pathway”) which is near the school in Bangkhonthiinai.

I met Fu at 6:30 so we could beat the crowds and we arrived at the market just after 8:00. Things were still cool and uncrowded and I negotiated a two-hour ride in a dugout boat. Tawn suggested that I use this negotiation technique: after rejecting the original quote out of hand, I was to say “phom mai bpen muu” – I am not a pig, a reference to the slang term of someone who is an easy mark.

The lady running the boat tours thought that was funny and decreased the price a bit.

The two hours were nice, the occasional annoying buzz of a long tail boat (which are powered by old Toyota pickup engines) breaking the otherwise tranquil nature of life along the canal. Of course “life along the canal” means people who sell tacky souvenirs from shops in front of their homes. Each shop is the same as the next, some selling vaguely “Thai” souvenirs and others selling things that are totally incongruous.

Above: Sampling some khanom khrug – a rice flour pancake that is a little sweet and a little savory at the same time. Below: Along the way, I purchased a few bottles of local honey from this lady and her young daughter.

Above: Even Thais come to see the floating market!

By the time we were wrapping up after 10:00, the Russian tourists had arrived by the boatload and things were less pleasant. It was a good time to be finishing.

After taking some pictures from the shore, we headed to Bangkhonthiinai for a quick visit. I wasn’t sure if the school was back in session after their winter break, but everyone was there (except for the now-retired Ajarn Yai) and so we spent about an hour with the children, practicing basic questions and answers. Hopefully a good experience for Fu.

Of course, the grapevine works quickly and by that evening I had a call from Ajarn Yai, pretty much along the lines of, “You came to Samut Songkhram and didn’t call me?”

Oh, you can’t win.

In other news, our contractor Khun Guang assures us that we’ll have access to the house next Friday. Still some fixturing after that, but only small things. That should give us two weeks to get moved in. Below: Tawn test-drives some mattresses.

Chris hit by credit card fraud

Posted on 5 November 2007 by christao408

It took two years to happen, but almost as if to welcome me into my third year in Bangkok, I was bitten by my first case of credit card fraud. When I woke up this morning, I had a voicemail on Skype from my credit card company asking me to call them to verify some purchases. When I called in there were several purchases from high name fashion and cosmetic stores – the companies were based in France but I’ll assume the charges were made here in Thailand – totalling about $4,500 on Monday.

Who got the number? Hard to know for certain but I haven’t used the card in several days nor have any charges appeared until after I used it at the Food Hall at Zen department store at Central World Plaza yesterday evening. My guess is that there is some scam going on with the ladies working the check-out lines there.

I’m not certain whether I should lodge a complaint with their management or even inform the police. I do want to go back to Central World and see if the names on the list of charges correspond with shops there. Even to talk to the store managers and make them aware of the fraudulent activity.

Thankfully, Chase was on the job and spotted the unusual charges. Bless those spending algorithms.

Britishisms

Posted on 5 November 2007 by christao408

On a conference call Friday evening with colleagues in the US, Canada and the UK. My boss and my primary internal customer are discussing plans for their trip to visit the UK team next week. My customer asks the UK operations manager about some arrangements, to which Jim responds, “It’s all tickerty boo.”

“Hmm…” I think, “there’s an expression I haven’t heard.”

While still on the call, I send Jim a Skype message to clarify what the expression was. Sure enough, I heard correctly: tickerty boo – everything’s okay or in good order.

The good news is that even if one doesn’t have a British colleague, one still has the world wide web. Check out this entry about the phrase.

Posted on 3 November 2007 by christao408

Funny. We didn’t have much to do this weekend so we were going to go out of town. Then one item came up, stopping by our designer’s to discuss furniture, so our plans were canceled.

Saturday turned into a full day of errands for us, all house related, and the stop we made at our designers seemed to be – my opinion here – a colossal waste of time as there was no conversation about furniture, other than to learn that he had found a table that met our specifications but that it was staying at the vendors until later.

Perhaps the only really worthwhile aspect of all these errands (besides getting to spend the whole day with Tawn, of course) is that we stopped at a place that was having a new metal gate installed and Tawn spoke with the supervisor of the construction team, who confirmed that their company could easily design and build the Martha Stewart style bed (right, from the Turkey Hill collection), for about one-fifth the cost if we bought it at the store.

So there is a bit of a silver lining to the day (and the bed, for that matter).

In the evening, we met Ken, Chai, Russ, and Roka for dinner at the Paragon Food Hall then watched the movie, “The Kingdom”. Kind of hyper-violent and while it tried to speak in a timely manner about terrorism, it was ironic to me that the movie shows the FBI agents who are investigating the murder of US citizens in Saudi Arabia getting angry and “cowboy-esque” with their counterparts in Saudi Arabia, insensitive to their culture and values. Isn’t that part of what fuels the terrorists?

Anyhow, primary painting at the house is finished. Lights are being installed and other fixtures added. The countertops have been marked and are ready to be cut for the sinks and stove.

Above from top: Living room looking into the second bedroom/office; desk and closets in the main bedroom; back wall of the main bedroom – through the door to the left you can see the area of the living room that appears in the first picture. Kind of difficult to really see the floor color due to the dust and cardboard that is meant to protect it before a final finish is applied.

Not to Korat

Posted on 2 November 2007 by christao408

This was going to be the get-away weekend: the last weekend before the preparations for the move to the new condo got serious. So Tawn and I were going to drive up to Korat and Khao Yai, about two hours northeast of Khrungthep, visit some property that Tawn’s father owns up there, and explore the self-proclaimed “Gateway to Issan“.

So what would be the one thing that would stop us?

Our designer, who with his globe trotting travel schedule to far away places like Turkey and India, has summoned us to a meeting to discuss furniture. Since scheduling time with him has been so difficult, we must make ourselves available when he is. To be fair, he is a well-known Thai designer, doing many stores and boutique hotels. He’s doing our home remodel as a favor as he’s our friend, certainly at a discounted price, so these schedule challenges are a small price to pay.

Still, we’re not going away this weekend.

Friday night I met Tawn at Paragon to take a look at some furniture at the Martha Stewart Store. Actually, it isn’t the Martha Stewart store, but it is the only store in Thailand authorized to sell the Martha Stewart furniture collection, so the entire store is done up so that you wouldn’t know that it isn’t a Martha Stewart Store.

We go in there frequently to get ideas as it is a style we like. The store was designed by our decorator friend and dressed by him as well, as are many of the furniture stores in Paragon.

The lady who works there is so familiar with us, she just invites us in to have tea. We sit at a dining room table on display in the main room, drinking tea and nibbling M&Ms, like two life size mannequins.

While there, we looked at various catalogs, discussed different pieces of furniture on display, and considered the merits of ordering a US-sized bed versus a Thai-sized one. A king-size bed in Thailand is not a king-size bed in the US.

Khun Nirin – note the carefully crafted PR in this linked story – told us of an experience where two picky customers – a pair of women – spent a half hour lying in one of the beds (under the covers, even) in order to try it out before spending that much money to buy the mattress. It was the middle of the day, other customers were coming and going, and the women just lay there seeing if they’d be comfortable on the mattress for an extended period of time.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Most of us shop for mattresses by lying down for sixty seconds or less.

I ate Halal for dinner at my favorite vendor in the food court. The nice lady there prepares Muslim style food and they have a chicken roti-mataba that is just lovely.

It is a southern Thai dish that takes thin, crepe-like roti and stuffs them with a curried chicken (or beef or lamb) and shallot mixture, then fries it in a pan to crisp the sides a little. The mataba is served with a side salad or cucumbers, shallots and chilies in a rice wine vinegar sauce, along with a spicy green chili sauce.

Not feeling fully satiated, I went haram and ate some pork satay. That was tasty, too, although obviously from another vendor.

Below: Tawn took a dozen takes for this picture at a dozen different settings before coming up with something usable.

As there wasn’t much to watch in the cinemas, we headed home where I was early enough to participate in a conference call with work at 10:00. Which was kind of boring, actually.

Funny food pictures: Above: Ken and Roka clown around at a Japanese restaurant called Yayoi, part of a Japanese chain that is operated here in Thailand by MK Restaurants. They serve you tea in this fun, brightly-colored English teapots with these tiny pink teacups that look to be stolen from a child’s tea party set. Below: Last weekend in the midst of errands we stopped for dim sum at SK Park Hotel, at the Chinese restaurant that Tawn’s whole family frequents. We didn’t check in advance and lucked out that nobody we knew was there.

The Big 0-2

Posted on 1 November 2007 by christao408

As hard as it may be to believe, yesterday marked my second anniversary here in Khrungthep. Sure enough, on the evening of October 31st, 2005 I arrived on the THAI Airways nonstop from New York to begin the next stage of my life with Tawn.

What’s transpired since then?

I’ve had the opportunity to learn to read, write and speak Thai and, I’ll say with a mix of modesty and satisfaction, I’ve had some success availing myself of that opportunity. Many days it is a struggle and there’s plenty of times when I still don’t know what the heck people are talking about, but my confidence and skill is pretty high and – the best measure – I don’t hesitate to use the Thai I know.

I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer for a year as a once-a-week English teacher in Samut Songkhram province. While I’m very sorry the opportunity has come to an end, the experience has shaped me and the lessons learned will stay for a lifetime. I also hope that the influence I’ve had on the children has been positive and that the lessons they’ve learned will shape them, too. Also, I’m very thankful that I could share this experience with so many other people including Kobfa, Ken, and Markus as well as numerous visitors including Pat, Aaron and my family.

I’ve built the beginnings of a wide network of good friends. While they are predominately gay men – admittedly, there is still room for some more diversity – they come from a variety of backgrounds, countries, cultures and walks of life. In the first half year here, Tawn and I didn’t have much to do most evenings. Nowadays there is something going on most every night, to the extent that we have to excuse ourselves from participating in many of them.

I’ve started getting to know some areas of the city from on-the-pedal experience, gaining the confidence to navigate on two wheels and to explore stretches of the city and the surrounding countryside that you cannot fully appreciate from inside a car. I’m convinced that this is one of the best ways to see the real Thailand.

Finally, and most importantly, I’ve started to gain an understanding of Thailand, Thais, Thai culture, and “Thai-ness” in general. I say this with utmost awareness that the minute I say it, I’ll wind up getting bitten in the ass, and I say it with the awareness that I have taken but a single step on a journey that I cannot complete in just one lifetime. But from time to time, I can look at things here and “get it”. Those are fleeting moments, to be sure, but are a rich reward for the time and effort spent learning to “be” here these past two years.

Here’s to another year in this extraordinary adventure.

Below: For about five minutes yesterday afternoon at 5:50, the entire sky in all directions was bathed in an ethereal pink light.

Posted on 28 October 2007 by christao408

This entry would have been written earlier today, or yesterday, or even the day before. But I wanted to post some video that I shot and am having difficulties. You see, the nifty new camera I bought – a Panasonic Lumix TZ3, which I really do think is terrific – outputs video in a .mov format. This is an Apple-proprietary format that can’t be edited with the existing software I have on my Windows-based laptop computer.

I’ve been searching for a way to convert the files to something I can work with, but the freeware and shareware I’ve downloaded don’t seem to work correctly. So I caved in and went to the Apple website to spend $30 buying the upgrade to QuickTime Pro. My order is “being processed” and I don’t know how long that will take. I’ll probably end up having problems because my billing address is in the US but I’m connecting to the internet in Thailand.

Out of patience and not wanting my readers to think I’ve forgotten about them, I’ll go ahead and do the post the traditional way, with still pictures.

The big event recently was the dress rehearsal of the royal barge procession. Last done in June 2006 in celebration of the King’s 60th anniversary on the throne, this rarely-seen most of monarch transportation is being rolled out again next week for the thrice annual changing of the Emerald Buddha’s robes, in Wat Phra Kaew in the Grand Palace.

Using the barge procession to go 3 km down the Chao Phraya River is a whole lot of effort, especially since His Majesty is still in the hospital recovering from something stroke-like. The good news is, he is recovering nicely. Still, I think some other member of the royal family will travel in his place.

I’m quite surprised that the barges aren’t being used instead for something related to his 80th birthday in early December.

Nonetheless, I went with Roka, Ken and Francois to the River Mansion guest house, which sold tickets for seating on their poolside (and riverside) deck for viewing of the dress rehearsal. The view was spectacular, the weather cool, overcast and breezy, and there were only twenty people there viewing the barges.

Right: Chris, Francois, Ken and Roka, poolside.

Quick introduction for those of you who try to follow the cast of characters in my blog: Francois is a friend of Stuart’s, most recently from San Francisco but raised in Kentucky, who has bought a condo here and will be splitting his time between the Bay Area and Khrungthep.

We had a really good view and drinks and a plate of appetizers was included in the admission price. To give you an idea of the view and how close we were to the river:

We spent a good ninety minutes waiting and then the barges went past in about thirty minutes, a little more rushed than normal but this was their first dress rehearsal. They have two more before the big day on Tuesday. It was still very spectacular to see and amazing that they take more than 2,000 sailors to man the 52 barges and are able to control them so smoothly and gracefully, rowing to the stentorian chants of the Brahman priests.

Expect to see more monarchy fever in the next two eight weeks as we approach the big 8-0 on December 5th.

Posted on 24 October 2007 by christao408

Above: An interesting mixture of cultures as seen on a small soi off Sathorn road: a vintage car drives past a business displaying the Thai flag and symbols of the Chakri dynasty, next to images from Hong Kong juxtaposing a seated Buddha and Minnie Mouse.

Rainy season is coming to an end but the waters from further up country are heading our way. Reports are of expected flooding in Khrungthep. At the same time, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority has a construction project underway to rebuild and raise the sidewalk curbs along Asoke Road.

The curbs are raised 3-4 inches (10 cm) in most areas, stretching around into driveways and making an already inhospitable sidewalk even more so for those with mobility impairments. Of course, nowhere in this city is really hospitable for people in wheelchairs or who otherwise have challenges getting about readily.

Given how much flooding we had two Novembers ago, raised curbs will be just a bandage on a much larger problem as it was largely reported (somewhat sensationalistic) last week that Khrungthep is sinking.

Over the weekend, we ran more errands related to the condo, including going to Emporium to buy a new refrigerator. When we cleared the condo for remodeling, the current, older refrigerator was brought over to Tawn’s parents for storage.

Tawn’s father appropriated it, paying us a few thousand baht for the trouble, and now we need a new one. After much comparison shopping, we settled on a Mitsubishi model that will give us more space – 12.9 cubic feet – and lower energy consumption. Plus it is a three-door model, with the vegetable compartment being its own pull-out door.

Unlike refrigerators in the United States, all models of which are engineered so that the handles and door hinges can be swapped so the doors can open either to the left or to the right, all models sold in Thailand are designed to open one way only: left to right. That means that when open, the back of the refrigerator door will block the kitchen.

A small detail, perhaps, but if I have to physically walk out of the kitchen, open the door, close it, then walk back into the kitchen, that will take much more time when repeated thousands of time a year rather than just being able to lean from the kitchen, open the refrigerator door, and reach in to get what I want.

What about you in other countries? Can your door handles and hinges be swapped?

Exhausted from the refrigerator buying, we ate at the food court at Emporium. Top to bottom: bami ped yang (roast duck over egg noodles), pad thai goong (fried rice noodles with shirmp), and buttered Texas toast with ultra-sweet pandan leaf flavored frosting. That was for Tawn – too sweet for me.

Some additional errands were run including a stop by the condo. Left: Me in my new kitchen – still a few details to finish. Bottom: Tawn poses with a secretary he likes at a furniture store.

Ajarn Yai called and asked how the trip to the US was going. Kobfa and I offered to drive down and have lunch with her in Samut Songkhram. Ken, just back from his trip to Paris and Amsterdam with his partner Chai, joined us. We ate at a restaurant with cute little sala – pavilions – right next to the river. There was a good breeze and it rained on and off but we were well-sheltered.

Above: Kobfa thinks about what to order while Ken dishes up ice. Below: Me and Ajarn Yai.

Above: gang som cha-om chupkai (“orange” soup – tamarind flavored, with shrimp and omelet). Below: After some of the soup was served, the sterno started getting a bit out of control, shooting green flames out the top of the chimney and orange ones out the side.

Above: sanghaiyaa maphraw – an egg custard dish sweetened with palm sugar with pieces of squash inside, served inside a coconut. More commonly this dish is served inside the squash itself, and slices of squash and custard are served.

After the rain, the many flowers were glistening.

Starbucks offers free coffee to build health clinic

Posted on 24 October 2007 by christao408

While it is easy to demonize multinational American corporations like Starbucks and McDonalds, it is important to give credit when they do good things for their communities. Here is one such event:

In celebration of the opening of their 100^th store, all Bangkok-area Starbucks will be serving free coffee on Friday, 26 October from 1:00-2:40 pm. This includes all stores except the Suvarnabhumi Airport location.

They ask that instead of paying for your coffee, you donate an amount of your choosing to help construct a health clinic in the Huay Sompoi coffee community in Chiang Mai.

Sounds like a pretty good way to get your afternoon jolt of caffeine (or decaf, if you like) and do a good deed, too.

Posted on 21 October 2007 by christao408

Sorry for not writing an entry since Friday as the second half of the weekend I was, as they say here, mai sabai – “not healthy”. I’m going to attribute my illness to my niece, Ava. She had an ear infection at the end of my stay in Kansas City and as I noticed the first signs of an oncoming ear infection as I was flying home.

I tend to just try to soldier on through illnesses, relying on plenty of rest and drinking lots of water to get me back to health. Six days later, though, I was feeling much worse. Sunday morning I caved in and went to Bangkok Hospital to see a doctor.

After a thorough look at my ears, nose and throat (this was the ear, nose and throat clinic, after all) the doctor confirmed my suspicions: an infection of my left ear and the back of my sinuses. He prescribed a week’s worth of antibiotics, decongestant, and anti-mucileage medicine. The cost of the visit plus medicine: about US$80. Even with the falling dollar, that’s still a deal.

As of Monday morning I am feeling a bit better.

That doesn’t mean that the weekend was a total wash. In addition to a lot of house-related errands (look at water filters, purchase a fan and additional ceiling lights), we went to watch the Thai musical Banlangmek on Friday evening.

Ratchadalai Theatre at the Esplanade has installed LCD screens on either side of the stage, allowing them to do sub-titles for shows. This show had them in English, my only complaint being that they kept the letters so dim (presumably so as not to disturb the audience) that they were hard to read from the upper balcony. And I have good eyesight!

The story comes from a popular novel following the life of one woman as she goes from wealth and privilege to destitution and back again, all the while acting selfishly, using others for what she maintains is the benefit of her children. It isn’t until her old age, after the suicide of her youngest child whose love life she interfered with, that she finally comes to realize her actions as the selfishness they are and learns that true love comes in accepting others as they are.

There are a few catchy numbers in the show, although I’d be hard pressed to hum any of them right now. The Thai musical industry is growing in popularity, which is good, but the challenges are two-fold:

The first is that musicals written from original stories don’t find an audience. Instead, the theatre-going public wants familiar shows. The result is that most musicals are based on popular novels, and novels have story lines that are too complex for the musical theatre format (Les Miserables aside). Banlangmek was true to this fault and relied on a Greek chorus of singers to move the story line forward, even to the point of having to explain the conclusion of the story.

The second is that in order to get audiences (and perhaps because the ranks of musical theatre performers are so thin) the stars are often popular television and movie actors. Sadly, their singing skills are not always up to the demands of the stage. In this case, there was a direct correlation: the best-known performers were the least-talented singers. This included the main character, who was only able to hit her notes correctly when performing duets and having someone else to follow.

With the genre becoming more popular (evidenced by the building of the Ratchadalai Theatre, which opened earlier this year as the second stage in Khrungthep able to handle full-scale touring musicals), I’m hopeful that we’ll see more original musicals that emphasize the skills of talented stage performers rather than just pretty faces.

On the way out of the show, walking down the stairs, a young boy walking with his family stepped on the back of my feet several times. I looked back at him and then told Tawn what he was doing. The child then said to his mother, in Thai, “I know what the farang said! He said I was stepping on his feet!”

When we reached the base of the stairs, Tawn turned to the boy and said, in Thai, “Well, if you know what he said, why don’t you apologize to him?” So the boy, wai’ed me and apologized sheepishly.

This is along the lines with what what Ajarn Yai kept emphasizing with her students: the young people need to learn to be equally polite and respectful to farang, even if they don’t speak their language.

christao408

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

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