The following is a story from the Bangkok Post that apperared yesterday, Sunday 27 August.  Because the Post’s links go bad after a few days, I’m printing the entire article here. 

In the swirling media cesspool of the John Karr return to the United States on possible charges of murdering JonBenet Ramsey, publications across the globe, but especially in the United States, opted to use a hackneyed old saw as an angle to their reporting: Thailand a sex pervert and paedophile’s paradise.

While I’ve written about the “loser’s paradise” aspect of Bangkok, with Soi Cowboy, Patpong and other areas that are pretty openly selling sex to whatever pink, overweight westerner wants to buy it, I think that it is a disservice to the Thai people to report this angle while ignoring, or not bothering to report, on the efforts that have been taken to stem this tide.

So here is Erika Fry’s story about the way Khrungthep has been portrayed: 

Thailand under a familiar glare

The arrest of John Karr has revived depictions of Bangkok in the international press as a place where even the most taboo of perversions is easily satisfied, but in fact a lot of progress has been made in shutting down the child sex market in Thailand, writes ERIKA FRY

The way “Purple” is going to spend his five-hour layover at Don Muang Airport was up for discussion at InternationalSexGuide.com earlier this week. By the end of an afternoon his ambitious plan to get to NEP (Nana Entertainment Plaza) and get a girl in five hours or less, has drawn a handful of comments and helpful hints, and been resoundingly rejected by the ISG online community.

He has underestimated the delays of Bangkok traffic and Thai immigration lines, chides one poster. He has not allotted time for currency exchange or the 15 minutes it takes the girl to get dressed, says another. One fellow suggests he save time and just arrange for a girl to be at the airport hotel.

But the matter isn’t completely settled until Senior Member (32 previous posts) “Wolf”‘ breaks in with a post that says “Purple’s” best bet is to skip NEP, skip the pre-arranged tryst at the airport hotel, and skip on up to an MP (massage parlour) on the second floor of Don Muang, where, with a wink and the shucking of his clothes, he can get a girl without even leaving the airport.

That these matters are known, that these matters are discussed, and that these matters command the energies and attention of at least five different individuals on a Tuesday afternoon says something about the nature of sex tourism and the sex tourist in Thailand.

The Thailand file folder on InternationalSexGuide.com is stuffed full with 40,000 such posts (twice that of the next most-commented-on sex destination, China, and 40x that of most other Asian countries).

Who has this kind of time?

Yet as sex websites go, this one is incredibly benign. There are no naked pictures, no comments trying to lure young children into sex. There are even rules, asking vaguely for “general politeness” and strictly for grammatical precision (standard capitalisation and full spelling of the word “you”, a must). It is a comment board – a space for sex tourists to swap stories (some in tedious bar-by-bar detail) or simply share information on the best places to eat in Pattaya.

The monitor, a strict grammarian, but apparently not a strict linguist, calls the site somewhat redundantly, a “permanent archive of travel records.”

That there is the kind of interest to maintain such an archive speaks to the more-notorious-than-ever zeal with which some regard Thailand as a destination (or as for “Purple”, a destination between destinations) for sex.

Thailand has taken a lot of heat for this image in recent weeks. Ever since American JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect and paedophile, John Karr, was discovered to be living in Bangkok, foreign media has made much of why he had chosen to live in Bangkok.

In just several days, and in far more reports, Bangkok was branded a haven for sex tourists, and worse, a paradise for paedophiles.

2Bangkok.com, a locally run website, monitored the “bad news about Bangkok”and plucked and posted quotes from the worst of it. USA Today ran a story all about the “seamy side” of Thai tourism, Time held a quote from someone saying that “the way Wall Street is to finance – Bangkok is to paedophiles,” and an Associated Press story, now inescapable on Google searches, is headlined with mention of “lax laws.”

It did not help matters that Karr was a teacher here, nor that he had been previously hired by two elite Thai schools, nor that when he had been fired from one, it had been, for of all things, being too strict.

Little mercy was given for the fact that before Karr was arrested as a teacher and paedophile in Bangkok, he was a teacher and paedophile in America, Honduras, Korea and a handful of Western European countries.

That Karr was found here, in a city with a sex tourist reputation that often precedes itself, was enough to inspire reports that were unfair or uninformed in their dismissal of the past decade of progress the Thai government and a handful of NGOs have made in addressing the country’s child sex tourism and prostitution problems.

These efforts have been aggressive and extensive, and while accurate statistics are impossible to gather, experts believe the number of children being sexually exploited and the number of sex tourists exploiting them has fallen.

INITIATIVES AND COMMITMENT

“There is a definite commitment,” says Anthony Burnett, Information Officer with the Bangkok-based international NGO ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes).

“The situation has improved over the past 10 years because the government of Thailand initiated policies and legislation; introduced and made punishment for people who exploit children more severe, and strengthened protections for the rights of victims. At the same time…Thailand has moved the age for completion of secondary education to 15 years old, introduced education loans for students and vocational training for poor families, and is arresting and punishing tourists who offend.”

He says the government is also working to set up a trafficking database and is engaged in an anti-trafficking programme with other countries in the Mekong Sub-region.

Among a long list of other initiatives are efforts to better train law enforcement personnel in handling child sex crimes, to improve information sharing with foreign law enforcement agencies, and to rebrand Thailand as an up-scale and family-friendly tourist destination.

The Ministry of Tourism is also working with ECPAT to develop an Anti-Trafficking Roadmap that will work to stop trafficking and prostitution as they relate to tourism.

Meanwhile, much of the world has woken up to the issue of child sex offences committed abroad, and in recent years a number of countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, have developed laws to prosecute citizens that commit such crimes abroad.

To help implement and enforce these laws, foreign governments have begun placing agents overseas and in problem countries. Australia has around a dozen such agents placed in various locales in Thailand, the US has an active contingent working on Operation Predator within its Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, and a large number of other embassies have at least one officer assigned to child sex crime issues, says Luc Ferran, ECPAT’s Programme Officer for Combatting Trafficking and Child Sex Tourism.

The US has convicted nearly 20 people (a handful for crimes in Thailand) under the 2003 PROTECT law, while Australia has prosecuted four under its version.

These laws have also become the basis of a deterrence campaign by NGOs like ECPAT and World Vision that have created in-flight advertisements and billboards declaring “Abuse a child in this country, go to jail in yours.”

Even with all that has been done, Ferran says, “there is still a long way to go” to ending child sex tourism in Thailand.

And as evidenced by the spate of recent paedophile arrests, and in spite of in-flight advertisements, travel brochures, and cautionary posters hanging in hotels, foreign child sex offenders are still coming.

INFORMATION EXCHANGE NEEDED

It is relatively easy for paedophiles to travel to and through Asia undetected, living tourist visa to tourist visa and finding cheap sex to be had with children. It is also relatively easy, as further evidenced by the spate of recent arrests, for such offenders to come to Asia, find teaching jobs (with or without easily obtaining fake passports, teaching certificates and diplomas) and position themselves in a classroom with 50 children.

“There is a need for countries to exchange information regarding known child sex offenders,” says Burnett. He mentions that currently no such information is available, making it impossible for authorities to know when an offender travels into their country. Few countries restrict the departure of offenders to another country, he adds.

This makes the region an attractive one to offenders, who in the West are publicly registered, closely tracked, and often ostracised.

While Southeast Asia promises relative anonymity for previous offenders, it also provides comradeship through the huge community of other sex tourists and sex offenders.

Plus, Thailand is warmer, cheaper and half a world away.

But the draws for Thai sex tourism are hardly new – the lid having been lifted off this Pandora’s Box long ago, when the commercial sex trade was ushered in with American soldiers taking “R and R” in Pattaya.

It was not long after that Thailand’s sex tourism turned into the big, sordid, and lucrative business that it is, involving knowingly and unknowingly – and in addition to brothels, bars, massage parlours and sex workers – hotels, restaurants, taxi services, and tourism companies.

It seems natural, particularly in a lesser-developed country like Thailand, that a commercial sex tourism industry would eventually beget a child sex tourism industry. Children or parents, seeing prostitution as a means of survival enlist themselves or their children.

Meanwhile, sex tourists making use of these trades are, in the nature of tourists, more likely to explore and less likely to discriminate in their sexual encounters. Burnett says child sex tourists are often not regular child sex offenders, but “situational abusers.” In other words, these individuals are put in a place where they can, and so they will.

While Ferran says the correlation of the two vary country to country (Cambodia and Sri Lanka, he points out, have had strong child sex markets, while comparatively small adult ones), the existence of a commercial sex industry certainly has some implications on the existence of a child sex tourism industry.

Because of the aggressive efforts in the last decade to crack down on the problem, child sex tourism is not nearly the problem in Thailand that it once was. While it is still happens in places like Bangkok, Chiang Rai, the Patong district of Phuket, and most visibly in Pattaya, child sex tourists are more likely to go to Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, or Indonesia, where law enforcement is less strong.

But while child sex tourists may be engaging in activity elsewhere, Ferran says they often use Bangkok as their hub. “There are always a lot of them arriving,” he says. Thus, there is always a steady stream of child sex tourists coming, going, and circulating through the capital city.

FORCED UNDERGROUND

Children exploited in Thailand’s commercial sex trade are often trafficking victims from Thailand’s impoverished North (sold wittingly or unwittingly into prostitution) or from surrounding countries of Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and regions in China. Children in tribal and refugee communities are at special risk of becoming trafficking victims and child prostitutes because of their lack of citizenship rights, and the relative ease in which they can be exploited.

Other children, like those that Graham Tardif of the NGO, World Vision, works to rehabilitate, are street children that independently elect to work as prostitutes. These children will often mask their sex work by selling other items on the street, but will engage in activities when approached, he says.

Child sex tourists most often come from Western European countries and Australia, though there are an increasing number coming from Russia and East Asian countries, Burnett says.

Among the Asian tourists are “virgin seekers,” or men, usually from China and Taiwan, that are less interested in having sex with children than they are in having unprotected sex with girls that they can be certain are STD-free. The practise is particularly common in Cambodia, though Ferran says it is also happening in Thailand’s northern provinces and along the Cambodian border.

This experience almost invariably marks a girl’s initiation into the sex trade, and while Ferran notes that the virgins are sometimes over 18, this is exceptional and in general the demand for virgins is leading to younger and younger prostitutes.

Even so, “In Thailand it is more difficult than before if you are looking for 12 or 13-year-olds,” Ferran says. “Especially if you are coming in as a tourist without speaking the language, and not knowing the areas, it’s not a given that you’ll find places where a child is made available for sexual exploitation.”

Tardif echoes this, saying that because of past years’ brothel raids and the strengthening of Thai law enforcement, most of Thailand’s child prostitution has been forced underground.

Instead, Ferran explains child sex crimes are more likely committed by resident foreign paedophiles, like Karr, that move here and are often employed in education or childcare.

More often than that, child sex crimes are committed by natural citizens. Burnett notes that it is a minority of the country’s child sex crimes that are committed by foreigners.

Not that this, or the many measures Thailand has taken to rid itself of child sex tourists and child prostitution, is making its reputation as a child sex destination any easier to shake.

The coverage of the Karr case has left Thailand, however unfairly, in its aftermath, looking pretty ugly to much of the world.

What is doubly disappointing is this publicity (aside from that it was brought on by an American paedophile that Thailand never asked for) is that it perpetuates an image that Thailand has spent much of the last 10 years trying to undo.

While the government and NGOs will keep pressing on with those efforts, they will be getting help from the tourism industry as well. Encouraged by “The Code,” an initiative developed by ECPAT and UNICEF to promote a socially responsible tourism industry, a number of hotels and tourism companies have begun to train employees and adopt policies to become child-safe organisations. Ferran says there have been 230 signatories of “The Code” thus far, and that he expects that such policy will become a standard incorporation into hotel ratings in a couple of years.

Ferran adds that he senses a shift in the way the tourism industry handles such issues, and its nature as a whole.

“The customer is not always right anymore,” he says. “And that’s a good thing.”

You may recall that in my August 20th posting, I made mention of Tawn and I running into somebody in the elevator here at Asoke Place who recognized us from my YouTube videos.

Go back and read the comments for that posting, and you’ll see that this fellow, John, went back to do another search and the search results included this blog.  Specifically, they returned the entry in which I mentioned the encounter with John in the elevator!

Small world getting even smaller.

After bringing my digital camera to the Fuji service center several weeks ago, they finally finished repairing it from the water damage.  A new circuit board and new buttons, all for only 2600 baht, about $65.  Much less expensive than buying a new camera.

Tod went with me to the service center after a quick lunch in the Soi Ari area at a pad thai shop.  Right: Tod modeling for a test picture.

Saturday morning I was up early, working on my new computer (yeah!) and getting everything arranged and re-installed from the external hard drive.  Around 8:00 Markus text messaged me to let me know that he was awake and ready to ride, so I loaded up my bicycle and headed over to his apartment. 

From there we drove out to the new airport, Suvarnabhumi, about 35 km east of the city.  Not having driven there before, it was a bit of a guessing game.  But eventually we wound up on the right expressway.  New security measures put into effect after the foiled London bombing plot have restricted access to the new terminal building, even though it isn’t even open for flights yet.

Fortunately, we found that we could park at the Public Transportation Centre, where all passengers who want to take buses or taxis once arriving at Bangkok will have to transit through.  Certainly, that will be a mess as the only connection to the PTC is by a shuttle bus from the main terminal some 5-10 km away!  Maybe if they put a people mover system in, that would work better.

A security guard came over to see what we were doing as we unloaded the bicycles, but when I asked if it was okay to ride around he said it was.

We set off to the east, following a very nice, wide paved road around the airport’s perimeter.  The shoulder is wide enough for two bicycles to ride next to each other with plenty of room to swerve to avoid obstacles.  Heading into the wind, our progress was slow.  But we made it to the south side of the airport in about thirty minutes.  This was where the way became less clear.  Above: Runway approach lights are working, burning away during the middle of the day.

We deviated from the main paved road because it followed a bridge toward another expressway, and we didn’t want to end up on an expressway.  The maps I had read indicated that the perimeter road continued to the west, but the further we went the more the road degraded into just a construction track.

After a bit of exploring in the area between the runways where a lot of construction work is still underway, we found a large hole in the security fence near the end of the East runway.  The construction workers let us know when I had gone a bit too far.

So we rode back and tried the next road, which looked like it would continue around the property.  In a few minutes we were riding along a very wide (60 meters) patch of packed gravel that stretched for several kilometers.  Every 10 meters or so there were pipes sticking up through the gravel, like conduit pipe.

“What is this?” we wondered.  At first we speculated that it was a remote parking lot, the pipes being the locations of eventual light poles.  But as we gained a bit of perspective, it became apparent that this was the graded land for a third runway and the parallel taxiway.  It was kind of like standing in a large crater and suddenly realizing that it is actually a giant dinosaur footprint!

We rode the entire length of this future runway only to discover that it didn’t lead to a path that continued around the airport.  Turning around a second time, we rode back into the wind, back to the intersection of construction roads on the south end of the airport.

Trying a third road, we seemed to be making good progress around the West side of the airport.  The more we rode, the more degraded the road became.  Finally, we reached a checkpoint with two security guards, who told us that we couldn’t continue around that way.  I tried to explain that we had already ridden the other side of the airport.  Finally, the guard relented, saying we could ride on around but only this one time.

The further around we went, the less and less the road looked like a road.  Eventually it was just a dirt track.  But sure enough, it ended up back at the north end of the airport, although we had to ride through the construction site for the Airport Express train (right).

In the end, we had logged 41 km, at least 10 of which was the result of back-tracking.  But it is a good place to ride and it was fun to see the airport before it opens.

Saturday evening Markus had secured some tickets for a local performance piece titled “Linger.”  A Thai-language short play, it was performed by three students from nearby Thammasat University at a 20-seat art space above the Bali Bar on Thanon Pra Athit.  The whole scene reminded me of LaVal’s Subterranean Pizza Parlour and Theatre in Berkeley, CA.

The story is about three young ladies, each of whom is carrying a difficult situation in her life that she has not disclosed to her friends.  During the course of the play, which is meant to feel like friends talking in a cafe, they share their stories with each other.

While following the narrative was difficult because of my level of language comprehension, the acting was very powerful.  It was very hard not to believe that these were in fact three friends who were sitting in the cafe (given that the performance space is the second floor of a bar/cafe) and I was just eavesdropping on their conversation.

An interesting touch was the use of an overhead projector, with an illustrator who drew the images that the woman were speaking of, as they spoke.  The drawings were projected above the woman, as if they were their thoughts and dreams.

After the theatre piece, we caught a taxi to The Deck at Arun Residence, a Western/Thai fusion restaurant on the bank of the Chao Phraya River, directly across from Wat Arun – the Temple of Dawn.  The place is really cute, the food is very good, and the service is attentive.  And if you’re sitting on the deck or the rooftop terrace, the view of the wat is amazing.  Add this to the list of places to take visitors.

IT HAS ARRIVED!

• 25 August  10:45  Computer arrives at my apartment and I am home to pay the duty fees and collect it.

Now all I have to do is hook it up, reload all the various software, and try to connect to my employer’s VPN.

• 21 August  15:15  Clearance Delay – Bangkok, TH
  
• 21 August  04:39  In Transit – Package Availalbe for Clearance – Bangkok, TH
  
• 21 August  03:55  Arrived Sort Facility – Bangkok, TH
  
• 21 August  00:49  Departed FedEx location – Subic Bay Freeport, PH 
  
• 20 August  00:40  In Transit – Subic Bay Freeport, PH
  
• 19 August  20:53  Arrived FedEx Location – Subic Bay Freeport, PH
  
• 19 August  08:57  In Transit – Paperwork Available – Bangkok, TH
  
• 18 August  10:50  Departed Fed Ex location – Anchorage, AK US
  
• 18 August  07:26  Arrived FedEx location – Anchorage, AK, US
  
• 18 August  02:13  Departed Fed Ex location – Memphis, TN, US
  
• 18 August  01:03  Arrived FedEx location – Memphis, TN, US
  
• 17 August  17:39  Left origin location – San Francisco, CA, US
  
• 17 August  11:57  Picked up – San Francsico, CA, US

Okay, this is interesting.  The green highlighted lines didn’t appear on the FedEx website until today (Wednesday 23 August).  What was the delay in the information getting into the system?

Another Wednesday, another trip to Rongrian Bangkhonthii (Bangkhonthii School).  With week number four, I think the students, teachers and I are settling into a routine.  My presence isn’t a novelty and so we’re able to settle down a bit more in class and get more accomplished.  Also, I’m seeing progress in the children: increased vocabulary, ability to start responding to question-and-answer patterns we’ve discussed previously, less shyness.

The best news of all, my trouble child behaved this week, didn’t steal anything, and didn’t have to be flung over my shoulder and carried to see the principal. (Pictured to the right)  I spent some time working one-on-one with him and it is heart-breaking because the potential in him is very plain to see.  But I think he will never tap into that potential: lack of family support and finances, combined with teachers and peers having labeled him as a trouble-maker.

The principal and teachers do care a great deal and put a lot of effort into their children, but I think they reach a point where they feel they’ve put as much into an individual child as they can.  This dove-tails with the Thai Buddhist philosophy on karma and reincarnation.  Essentially, there is a thought in the back of most Thai’s minds that the circumstances people find one in in this life are a result of karmic actions from previous lives.  So in this case, while the others feel pity for this child, there also seems to be a touch of “What can we do?  That’s the way it is,” going on.

One project I’m working on is to have each child create an “All About Me” sheet, containing their picture, and places for them to write their name, age, favourite animal, favourite colour, etc.  (Sorry Americans: British spellings are the educational standard here.)  As part of this project I brought my camera and each child posed for a photo that I’ll cut and paste into the document.  (Left: Grades 1-3)

Bringing out a camera necessitates some candid shots, as Thai children are pretty big hams!

Above, left to right: (1) After lunch, everybody brushes at the communal sinks.  The boys have their own sink as do the girls.  An important part of the teachers’ jobs is instilling the children with behavioral, social, and hygenic standards.  (2) Faces washed and teeth brushed, it is time to strike a pose for the camera.  (3) The girls are more dilligent about their brushing – note that it is scouting day on Wednesdays.  (4) The younger brother of one of my other students wanted his picture taken khon diaw – by himself.

One idea I have is to save up these photos and then in the springtime, just before the end of the school year, to create a scrapbook on Snapfish or Ofoto and print up a copy for the school.  Maybe even copies for each child?  Each one could be personalized, right?

Tawn’s mother came by the apartment on Sunday late afternoon to visit, bringing along one of Tawn’s dogs.  I think this is a public relations ploy on Tawn’s part.  He’d like to have a dog in the apartment and I’m not keen on the idea, especially since I’m the one who would end up having to take care of it all day long.  By bringing one of his dogs over, I think Tawn hopes I’ll suddenly say, “oh, how cute – we need to keep him with us here at the apartment!”

Wow – that flash really made me look pale.  Where’s that suntan as a result of all the biking?

Sunday morning was the monthly day trip for the Thailand Cycling Club.  This ten-year old organization sets up day trips, longer weekend trips, and a bicycle recycling program to help underprivileged youngsters throughout Thailand.

Having found information about the club at a local bike shop, I had been eagerly anticipating the first opportunity to join them on a ride.

About 7:30 in the morning, Tawn dropped me off at Lumpini Park, Bangkok’s central park.  There were already about 100 cyclists set up around the statue of King Rama VI.  I quickly identified Bob – the Thai-language TCC brochure had only one line in English: “for English call Bob xxx-xxxx.”  Bob introduced me to the organizers and I signed up for membership, which is not mandatory to join a ride.

By 8:30 the group was up to about 200 people.  Young and old, children with parents, retirees, avid cyclists and recreational ones, all together to take back a small part of their city for a few hours from the many cars, busses, and taxis that make it less bicycle-friendly than it could be.  The group was almost entirely Thai, with only five farang joining in the ride.  Right: Bicycles in front of a Chinese Buddhist temple, being protected by a stone lion, part of our first stop in the six-hour, 12-kilometer ride.

We set out by crossing Rama IV Road and driving down Silom Road.  These normally-busy streets were a little quieter on a Sunday morning, and the leaders of the group employed Critical Mass-style tactics to block cars at intersections so that we could ride safely.

Along the way we made many stops: a Chinese community Buddhist temple, an Indian community Hindu temple, an Indonesian community Muslim mosque, as well as several other sites that showed the diverse histories of foreign peoples in Khrungthep.

A representative from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority was with us and served as a tour guide.  At each stop we received an educational lecture, learning more about the specific location as well as the community served.  For example, we learned that the Indonesian Muslims live in one of the poorest areas of the city and that local youths are affected by a chronic drug abuse problem.  One of the mosque’s biggest activities is to create educational and employment opportunities for the local youth.  Left: A stop at a small Thai Buddhist temple in the Charoen Khrung district.

Throughout the ride, several people from the group would make an effort to introduce themselves to me.  It is an amazing range of people, each of whom have their own reasons for cycling.  Later in the afternoon, I was invited by a young lady to join her and her friends instead of riding alone.

She is an English professor at Bangkok University and studied in Nashville, Tennessee for a year – the home of my cousins Scott and Kari, coincidently.  She started riding a month ago, in preparation for a move later in the Summer to Bristol, England for further studies.  Her English boyfriend, already in Bristol, is an avid cyclist and she thought it best to start preparing so she could cycle with him. 

She met her friends at a park down the raod from me, where they ride every weekday evening.  Interesting group.  Gave me another chance to practice my Thai.  Above: Me and two of my new cycling friends.

The final stop in the ride was along the banks of the Chao Praya River at a dry dock and shipyard originally established by the Tawai community in Khrungthep but now owned by Thais.  It was particularly fascinating for me as I’ve never seen a dry dock up close and it is interesting that the ship can balance on its keel so well. 

It probably shouldn’t amaze me, but it does.

All in all, it was a fun ride.  A little too much stopping and learning and a little too little actual riding.  But a good way to see the areas of the city that would otherwise remain hidden to me.

Video of the Bike Trip

In the evening, we were invited over to Markus and Tam’s house for dinner.  Markus’ cousin is in town from Germany and so there was a bit of a dinner party – quite elaborate cooking, actually.

Saturday morning started out on a bit of an odd note: Tawn and I stepped into the elevator heading to brunch, where there were already two passengers – a caucasian man and a Thai man, both older than me.  As the door closer, the caucasian man looked at us and said, “Wait a minute, you’re Chris…” then looking at Tawn, “and you must be Tawn.”

Tawn looks at me.  I look at him.  There is a moment of silence.

“Yes,” I responded, “we are.  I’m sorry but have we met?”

The man introduced himself and his friend and then explained that he had been on youtube.com and had searched on “Asoke Place” – the name of our condo complex – and received one hit, the short video clip I made about the painters rapelling down the side of the building to the tune of Mission: Impossible.

Once you view one video, you have the option to see the other videos a particular person has posted, so he proceeded to browse through my videos and now recognises Tawn and me.  Our fifteen minutes of fame.

After that little surprise we took a cab over to Crepes & Co – a cute little restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 21 – where we met Tod, Pun, Markus and Tam for brunch.  The occassion was that we had tickets for the matinee of Tawipop: The Musical.  I’d put a link there, but there isn’t really much to link to that is in English!  Right: In the outdoor terrace area at Crepes & Co.

Tawipop is a Broadway-style musical, completely in Thai.  It tells the story of Manijan, a busy young Bangkok professional with an unhappy boyfriend, nagging friends, and all the pressures of modern life.  On her way home, stuck in traffic, her mobile phone battery dies.  She parks the car and walks along a busy street, looking for a phone booth. 

She is strangely drawn to an antique shop, where a white-haired, stooped old man says that he has been waiting for her. 

In the shop is a beautiful mirror that seems to be calling to her.  Attracted to it, she purchases it and brings it home to her modern condo.  That evening, the mirror comes to life and she is drawn through it, finding herself back in the reign of Rama V (late 1800s). 

There she meets Luang Thep, a man from a noble family whose house contains the same mirror, only about 140 years earlier.  Over a series of trips through the mirror, she falls in love with Luang Thep and finds a way to be of help, using her skills at English and French to assist with neogitations with farang warships that want access to Siam’s waterways.

Her best friends are strangely unquestioning about this when she tells them, aided by a history book that mysteriously falls off her bookshelf, opening to a page that shows her photo and tells of her history in the time of Rama V.

Each time she travels through the mirror, it cracks further.  At one point she realizes that she will be able to make only a few more trips through the mirror before it breaks.  She tells Luang Thep that she will go back to see her mother and ask her permission to stay in the past.

When she passes through the mirror to return to the present, it shatters and Luang Thep fears that he has lost her forever.  Caught in a strange place between the past and the present, Manijan is able to see her mother and talk with her, and her mother gives her her blessing to return to the past, where she will be happiest with her true love.

So Manijan is able to step back out of this in-between place and into the past, where Luang Thep is waiting with open arms.

All in all, it is a pretty accomplished musical.  Good production values, good singing, etc.  It has been geared so strongly for a Thai audience that even if it were translated into another language, it probably would not do much business abroad without a significant reworking.  But it was an enjoyable afternoon.

There is a Thai artist named Thongchai Srisukprasert who has gained a fair amount of popularity for his arcylic and mixed-media paintings that are mostly abstract expressions of spiritual and religious themes.  He is a professor at Silpakorn University, Thailand’s premiere arts school.

I came across a series of nice greeting cards printed with his works on the cover.  They are really nicely-made, good quality paper, so I use them for the archival letters I write to my nieces.  Two of his works are below.  Left is Elephant in Universe.  Right is Universe in Elephant.  More of his works here and here.

Friday evening Tawn was home about 7:00 and so I prepared a nice, simple dinner of linguine with homemade pesto sauce and a ragout of tomatoes, olives and Italian sausage.  The was accompanied by a simple rocket salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, a small rustic baguette, and a bottle of 2001 Chateau la Tour Labrit Bordeaux.  For dessert we had Duc de Praslin Belgian dark chocolates followed by a sip of Amour en Cage Liqueur de Cerise de Terre – Ground Cherry Liqueur from Quebec, a gift from a friend in Montreal (who has some fantastic pictures of Spain in his flickr account, by the way).

Interesting picture from my drive up to Bangkhonthii this week.  Sitting at a stop light in a worn and faded tuk-tuk are a pair of monks, on their way to somewhere.  It makes for an interesting contrast as tuk-tuks in Bangkok are usually gaudily bright.

For being rainy season, we’ve had very little rain this past week.  I’m itching for a good storm to cool things down.

After the trip to the floating market and the biking this weekend (video below) Tawn and I went to a wedding on Sunday night.  One of his colleagues was getting married, the fourth “hi-so” (high society) wedding we’ve been to since I moved here. 

The wedding was held at the Hyatt Erawan Hotel, in a fantastically decorated ballroom.  The cocktail reception included small dishes of Thai and western food and cute little desserts.  The towering cake stood at the end of a runways and there was all sorts of ceremony including an honor guard of sword-carrying soldiers in their sharp white uniforms. 

Tawn’s colleague is an alumni of the same high school that Tawn went to, although a few years later than he.  Invited as guests were several of the khruu (teachers) from the school.  Tawn spent a lot of time chatting with them including one lady who he later told me had employed corporal punishment when he misbehaved.  She looks so friendly and harmless, though.  Who could imagine her whacking the back of Tawn’s legs with a ruler?  Ah, but it is always the ones you least suspect, right?

We spent most of the time visiting with Tawn’s colleagues, many of whom I know through visits to the office, weddings, and the trip to Seoul last December.  One of his colleagues, Mon, with whom he also went to school, just recently left the company and is getting ready for her wedding December 30.  Her fiancee, Ross, was in town and accompanied her to the wedding. 

After their wedding, Mon will move to London to join Ross.  Anticipating that a reception or some other ceremony will be held there in the Spring, Tawn is talking about making a trip over there to support Mon – kind of like being the ambassador for the Thai friends.  So all of you in the UK and Europe take note – we may be heading your direction the first half of 2007.

Above: Mon and Ross are on the right of the picture, nearly cropped out by an over zealous photographer.

After the wedding the weather was perfect so we visited the Erawan Shrine just outside the hotel.  This is a large spirit house, which is mistakenly referred to as the “Four-Faced Buddha.”  Not a Buddha at all, the statue in the shrine is Brhama or Phra Phrom.  People visit here day and night to ask for good fortune or to repay wishes that have been granted.

Amphawa Floating Market Video

Wedding Video

Erawan Shrine Video

Electricity?  What Electricity?

A few weeks ago I purchased a floor fan, one of those that oscillate back and forth (wildly, like characters in a song by The Smiths*) in the hopes that I can decrease our electricity bill by using only the fan during the day.  Since I’m just sitting in front of the computer working, there is no need for it to be 24 or 25 C (75-77 F).  Usually the temperature works up to about 29 or 30 C (84-86 F) but with the fan it is pleasant enough.

On Saturday around noon, our friend Jack stopped by as he was going to Amphawa with us.  I had the fan blowing but no air on.  This shouldn’t have been a problem because when we visited Jack’s house in Ayuthaya his mother only had a fan going, too.  However, apparantly the lack of air led Jack to comment about it to Tawn.  The rumour is now running around Tawn’s circle of friends that he is too stingy to let me have air.

*Tremendously interesting side note: while Googling for the Smiths Fan Club I came across the Yeardley Smith Fan Club.  Yeardley Smith, as you may or may not konw, is the voice of Lisa Simpson on the show The Simpsons.

And Finally, Throwing the Child Over Your Shoulder

Wednesday was my third day teaching at Bangkhonthii.  There is one young stuent in the Grade 1-3 section who is from a broken home, lives with his grandfather, and has all of the behavioural issues you would expect.  He is very bright but is so starved for attention that he acts up in order to get it.

Finally, after many attempts to keep him involved and focused, he stole the cap off a bottle of glue from another student.  When I questioned him about it (this occurred in front of me) he denied having the cap.  So I led him out of the room, telling him we were going to go see the principal.

He dragged his feet and squirmed to avoid this death march, so I finally picked him up, threw him over my shoulder and carried him down the hall.

Thankfully, parental lawsuits are much less common in Thailand!

Thirty minutes later, he was returned to the classroom with a glue bottle cap in his hand, an apology to the student from whom he stole it, and an apology to me.

We’ll see what next week holds in store.  One thing is for certain, the children view me differently now.  Hopefully not in a negative way, but there is no doubt both a cultural context as well as a “this is how children view farang teachers” context that I’m not fully aware of.

The rest of the children did seem relaxed and not aprehensive about me afterwards, so I think they don’t see it as a Rambo-esque move on my part.

The third-smallest province in Thailand, Samut Songkhram, is increasingly becoming the centre of my world.

Markus and Tam have two friends visiting town this weekend, not together but separately.  Jon is one of Markus’ college classmates and now lives in San Francisco with his wife.  David is a former New Yorker who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for the past six years. 

After deciding that a road trip out of Khrungthep might be a nice event for them, Markus was looking for suggestions of destinations.  I mentioned the nighttime floating market at Amphawa, the less-touristy counterpart to the early morning Damnoen Saduak floating market.  That sounded appealing, so Tawn made arrangements to hire a van and driver (1500 for eight hours, not including gasoline and tolls).

We set off about 1:30 Saturday afternoon, Tawn, his friend Jack, and I.  After picking up Markus, Tam, Pune (Tam’s sister), David and Jon we hit the expressway and two hours and eighty-plus kilometers later were in Amphawa, which is about 15 kilometers downstream from Bangkhonthii.  Parking on the far side of the Mae Klong river at a temple, we took a ferry across to the town itself. 

Right: Picture of Tawn and Pune.  Below: Tawn and me.

The floating market and its surrounding street stalls are notable for a number of reasons:

♦ Unlike Damnoen Saduak, where you generally rent a boat and float among the vendors, (although you can rent a boat at Amphawa if you wish) several sections of the main canal in the small town of Amphawa are lined with wide concrete steps leading down to the water.  About ten steps down to the water, they remind me of nothing so much as the seating in the Alcatraz Prison exercise yard.  Bonus question: can you spot Tawn in this picture?  Hint: he’s the only one in orange.

♦ The vendors have their boats pulled up alongside the steps and you can go down to buy food.  In some cases the vendor has someone working the steps to collect money and deliver food.  In other cases, money and food are passed from person to person in the crowd, the way that one buys a hot dog at an American football stadium.

Some vendors had a plastic basket on the end of a long bamboo pole, and would use it to reach the people sitting further away.  Left: notice the vendor with the “basket on a stick” in the yellow shirt, center.

♦ On both the water and the two surrounding streets, the many vendors offer a wide variety of (mostly) foods as well as a few other items.  There are no fake Louis Vuitton bags.  The selection of items is widely varied – very few people sell the same things, so browsing is quite interesting.

♦ The crowd – and it was crowded because Saturday was Mother’s Day (the Queen’s Birthday) here in Thailand – was almost completely Thai with very few foreigners.  The vendors were thusly organized, so as a tourist you felt more like you were being treated just like the Thai visitors.

♦ There is a very nice temple and park nearby that celebrates the birth of King Rama II, who was born in Amphawa.  It includes a restored traditional Thai house that is done up with antiques from the Rama II era.  This adds to the variety of things to do and see in the area, making for a full afternoon and evening.

♦ There are rental boats that can take you to see the fire flies (hing hoy in Thai – ask a Thai person to say “fire flies” three times fast) in the nearby tidal marshes.  Unfortunately, our boat arrangements were canceled by the boat operator who apparently received a better offer so had left well before we were scheduled to depart.

While we were disappointed not to be able to go see the fire flies, we had a fun time overall.  I’ll add this to the “take the guests to see” list.

All of us on the steps next to the khlong (canal).  From left to right: David (in blue), Jon, Markus, Pune, Tam, Chris, and Tawn.

It was so nice, why don’t we go there again?

Jon is a cyclist, so Markus had made arrangements with me to go biking on Sunday morning.  Before we had planned to go to Samut Songkhram on Saturday for the floating market, I had already considered going there for biking on Sunday.

We went ahead with the plan and did a 31-km circuit, using the schoolin Bangkhonthii as the starting point.  We travelled back down to Amphawa along the main road, crossed the bridge to the west bank, and then worked out way back up. 

Along the way we stopped at the Siamese Cat Centre, two of the more historically-significant temples, and then crossed back over the Mae Khlong River at the Catholic church.  It took about two hours of riding to do the circuit as Jon’s rental bike kept slipping gears except when it was in first.

It was a gorgeous day for biking, temperatures were pretty cool and there was a really pleasant breeze.  Hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to do that ride again in the future and explore some of the smaller side roads that cut through the coconut and banana plantations.