Tomorrow, Thursday, is my final exam for Module 4 at Union Language School.  Module 4, which I repeated, is the second half of the reading and writing program.  So, in theory at least, as I complete this module I have all the tools I need read and write Thai.  All that is left is to fukhat – practice.

Along the way I’ve had my misgivings about the school’s structure.  The instructors are very good, but the system hasn’t worked very well for me.  Essentially, I think the cart got ahead of the horse because I now know reading and writing but am far away from mastering the grammar and structure that were taught back in Module 2.  Taught, I might add, using the phoenetic language that was introduced in Module 1 and then started being replaced by Thai script in Module 3.

The net result: I can read a sentence and pronounce it reasonably well, but still not know what it really means.  Sure, I can identify many of the words, but don’t understand how they’re being used.

So after recognizing this “I don’t think this is working for me as effectively as I’d like it to” feeling for the past few months, I’ll finally take action and walk away from the school for a while.  Maybe forever.

In the meantime, so my investment in the language doesn’t melt away, I have hired a tutor to meet for twice-weekly, two-hour sessions.  She seems very good and I need to work with her to craft a way to go back and review the contents of Module 2, but to do it in written Thai rather than that nutty phoenetic language.

For all of you who are considering learning Thai (or any other language not written in Roman script): it may be tough at first, but learn the written language from day 1.  Do not, repeat do not, accept a phoenetic language as a substitute.

From Saturday dinner at Markus and Tam’s apartment, here’s a shot of Tam and his sister Poun, preparing some tasty Northern Thai-style dishes.  Actually Poun did the preparing.  Tam was just the dish-washer.

But dish-washing is an important way to contribute to the dinner, right?

After returning from my Sunday morning bike ride and resting for a while, I headed back out to ProBike to find a kick stand.  The bicycle rack at the apartment is not very high and is on a sloped floor, so the bike spokes lean against the metal rack in a way that probably isn’t good for the spokes.  The biggest challenge with shopping for bicycle parts here in Thailand seems to be that the selection of certain parts is quite limited.  For example, there is just one type of kick stand at ProBike and I would imagine at most other shops, too.

Tod’s friend Brian is in town from Vancouver, so I met up with them about 5:30 and we went for dinner at Big Momma’s, a small Italian restaurant across Asoke from us.  It is a nice, low-key place and we ordered a Tom Yum Gai spaghetti, which contains all the flavors from the spicy-hot Tom Yum chicken soup, but as a light spaghetti sauce.  It was fantastic.  Sadly, when I ordered their delectable chocolate cake for dessert, the waitress told me, Khaake chokolaat mote, kha – we’re out!

Afterwards, we drove into the old part of the city so Brian could take some nighttime photos.  We didn’t get there until after 9:00, so the lights of the Grand Palace were already off.  But the lights of the adjacent Wat Pho (temple of the reclining Buddha) were still illuminated so he took pictures of that.  Then we noticed that a small soi leading to the river offered a great view of Wat Arun (temple of dawn) which was illuminated, too.  There was a nearly-full moon right overhead and the usual humidity-induced haze had cleared off and a few stars were visible, too.

Monday is a holiday for many people in Thailand, although tomorrow is the official holiday – the beginning of Buddhist Lent.  So today will be spent mostly on the computer, working, as Buddhist Lent isn’t a recognized holiday in the United States, where my job is based.  Also, I’ll do some studying, too.  I’ve found that in the past week I’ve had more opportunities to practice speaking Thai and that it is a very good thing for improving it.

Some interesting shots that I’ve been meaning to share for a few days and haven’t:

Oishi (“tasty” in Japanese) is an inexpensive chain of Japanese (duh!) restaurants here in Bangkok.  The food is good quality and tasty even if it isn’t terribly fancy.  Best of all, it is very reasonably priced.

We learned recently that Oishi offers home delivery, free if you order at least 300 baht.  So we tried it out, each ordering a different bento box-type meal that included miso soup, rice, sushi, gyoza dumplings, salad, and the main course – plus a bottle of Oishi-brand green tea.  All this for only 380 baht, about US$10. 

Most fascinating was the packaging.  Talk about wasteful: the food came in a plastic tray that was then in a cardboard box.  The soup was in small plastic bags (very Thai style) which were then placed in plastic soup bowls with a plastic spoon, then secured with a lid and tape.  Another plastic bag contained salad dressing, wasabi dressing, chopsticks, napkins, soy sauce, etc.  Then all of this was in yet another large plastic bag.

So we face a delima: inexpensive, reasonably nutritious food that we don’t have to leave home for after a busy day working, weighed against the tremendous amount of waste it produces that may or may not get recycled downstream.  I’ve already stopped taking my lunch away from the local restaurants, preferring to eat there on a reusable plate with metal utensils instead of coming home each afternoon with yet another styrofoam container.  A friend from Kuala Lumpur who recently visiting challenged my thinking about the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle, arguing that as long as it all goes into landfill or dumps, that can eventually be covered over and becoe usable land.

I think that doesn’t capture the complexity of the issue.

Other news, Tawn is in Bali this weekend with his office colleagues as part of the annual company trip.  Each team of employees has to do a skit at tonight’s formal dinner, as do the managers.  So one of the skits that Tawn is involved in has a theme that requires Tawn to play an Indian Maharaja.  Friday afternoon he returned home after work carrying a bag from a local costume rental shop.  Here’s what was in it:

There’s also a full topless photo, but I don’t think Tawn wants me to share that.

Yesterday, Markus, Tam and I went to ProBike – the large bike shop adjacent to Lumpini Park – and went shopping.  Markus and I ended up buying the same type of bike, a TREK 3900, although he bought the 2007 model and I went for one of the remaining 2006 models. 

After purchasing the necessary supplies – pump, bike rack for the car, spare tube, chain lubricant – I spent about 15,000 baht, net a 15% discount.  Pricey, about US$400, but a good investment that should last many years.

To ensure that the bikes didn’t start gathering dust from lack of use, we set out this morning to get our bikes covered with dust from the trail.  A friend of Tam’s had recommended biking in Phra Pradaeng (indicated by the red circle on the map), the so-called “Lungs of Bangkok.”

It is a peninsular bend in the Chao Praya River, directly across from Khlong Toey, where the port of Bangkok resides.  Unlike the rest of the city around it, Phra Pradaeng is still a jungle and is much more typical of provinces further to the west of Bangkok.  There is a large park in the center of it with paved paths, lakes, etc. 

This was a good adventure for Markus and I, as we made the trip without the aid of any Thai-fluent partners.  Fortunately, I’ve discovered that when put to the test, my Thai is good enough to navigate.  Our first challenge was figuring out where to park.  The first thought was to park at the temple, Wat Khlong Toey Nok.  When we pulled in, we found much less of a courtyard than we expected and it wasn’t clear that we could actually park anywhere.  Finally, a monk indicated a spot where would could park: directly in front (and I mean right in front) of a standing Buddha statue about 2.5 meters tall. 

I looked around the wat but none of the chapels were open so there didn’t seem to be anywhere to donate money.  On the next trip I’ll have to search some more so I can contribute to the temple for their hospitality.

The boat pier was just outside the temple wall so we made our way there and took a small ferry across the river for 10 baht each.  Just behind the houses on the other side the river, a wall of coconut palms and other lush trees stood, a green demarkation between the progress of civilization and the tropical jungle.

Some of our time was spent on concrete one-lane roads and the park’s bike paths, but we quickly deviated off these onto the small elevated concrete pathways that have been added above the narrow canals.  Think of these as small alleys, except that none are wide enough for cars.  The picture below (taken from the travel report linked below) shows a typical pathway.  Some had railings on one side; most didn’t.

We passed small houses in the midst of banana and coconut plantations.  Friendly people waved, childred shouted, “hello, hello!”  Dogs barked.  A few very mean-looking ones did a bit more than barked and ran after us for a few feet before falling behind.  I have yet to decide how to best deal with angry street dogs when riding: one school of thought says to ride fast and hopefully tire them out.  The other school of thought says to stop and confront them as they will chicken out and go back.  A third school of thought would be to carry a weapon or some rocks or a slingshot.

We rode about 27 km, taking about two hours.  Because of the bend in the river, every direction we rode we ended up back at the river.  We visited three temples along the way, stopped a street vendor to buy some sweet roti, and then stumbled across something akin to a farmer’s market.  This section of a canal had been rennovated with wide sidewalks and actual vendor stands and it was very busy with many Thais shopping.  But it sold more than just the usual fruits and vegetables.  Instead, it had many desserts, specialty foods, prepared meals, and crafts.  There were no other farang there, but it looked like an event that attracted people from other areas; not just locals.

It was really interesting and we stopped to snack on some sweet dumplings with peanut and palm sugar filling wrapped in a very thin, steamed rice crepe.

We headed back across the river a little before noon and as traffic was light, I was home before 1:00.  All in all, a very successful first ride.

Another person’s travel essay on a bike ride in Phra Pradaeng.

Speaking with my family on Skype today (everyone was at Jenn and Kevin’s for dinner so they gathered around the computer much in the way that families gathered around the television back when it was first introduced), my father asked why I hadn’t updated my blog in a week.  Sensing that his may be a representative voice, I decided I must yield to the wishes of my readers and post another entry.

The reason for the delay was simple: I’ve spent the better part of the past week editing the video footage I took last Saturday during the dinner at Ja’s house.  Tawn’s friend Ja owns a cooking school with her mother, and from time to time she’ll host dinners for their group of friends.  So on Saturday, Tawn and I went over there in the middle of the afternoon and went with Ja to the local market.  We shopped for veggies, meats, seafood, and curry paste before heading home to chop, wash, slice, peel and cook the food.

The cuisine for the day: traditional Thai Royal Palace cuisine.  These are largely dishes that were at some point reserved only for the royal family and the residents of the inner court.  Tasty stuff.

At one point in the kitchen, there were three different curry dishes going along with some chili sauces.  The kitchen was filled with fumes and even the Mae Krhrua Yai (master chef), Ja was coughing, eyes watering.

Here are some pictures:

Left and below left: Tawn and Ja at one of the many vegetable stands, making purchases.  Ja goes to this local market almost every day, so she knows all of the vendors and is a tough bargainer.

Below right: Still life of the talat (market).

Right: Notice the spider in the upper right-hand corner of the picture, having spun a web in the corner above the lime vendor.  In accordance with Buddhist beliefs, the vendors do not disturb the spiders.

Above left: Chicken, chicken, and more chicken.   Above right: Fish, fish and more fish.

Left: Ja selects fresh river prawns, the bodies of each about 6-8 inches (15-20 cm), ready to be thrown on the charcoal grill.  The price: about US$1.00 a piece.

Above: Back in Ja’s cooking school kitchen, the entire gang is engaged in prep work.  From left to right: Tawn, Jack, Eddy, Pim, Sa, and Ja.  Below: Dinner is served!

Two videos below showing our adventure:

What else happened this week?  Well, some things.  But I’ll write about those later.  But not a week later!

Surprisingly, I received a call this morning from the lady at Orient Thai airlines and she had worked with her main office to secure access to another ticket on the special test flight they will run July 29th from the old Bangkok airport to the new one. 

See the entry below for more details.

So I walked on down to the ticket office to secure my ticket, ignoring the light spits of rain that were beginning to fall. 

By the time I walked back twenty minutes later, the light spits were a steady light rain and I was pretty wet.  But at least I have my tickets!  Yeah!     Picture right: me, wet and blurry.

From the travelblog.org website, you can create your own map showing the countries you’ve visited. 

There is also a map just for the United States on the douweosinga website, if you’ve not roamed quite as far.  

The boondoggle that is Suvarnabhumi, the four decades in the making new Bangkok international airport, continues its wobbly course towards its “if-and-when” opening set for September 28th of this year.  You may recall that last year at this time, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra promised that the airport would be open by September 29th (2005).  Construction delays, cracks in the runways, and other problems conspired to keep that from being a reality, although to save face the PM constructed an elaborate public relations event in which two plane loads of journalists and political luminaries were flown from the existing Don Muang airport to the new airport, where they landed, parked at a gate, and were given a tour of the facility.  Then, complete with souvenir suitcases, they were “checked in” for the return flight to show that all systems were working, then they proceeded “through security”, boarding their flights and being flow thirty minutes around Bangkok and landing back at Don Muang.

Behind the scenes, I suspect that hundreds of young army conscripts were personally running each bag to the gate and ensuring that the system was flawless.  Of course, two PR flights for the PM does not a functioning airport make.

So this year there has been our share of political intrigue and new dates have been set by different government officials for the airport’s opening: July.  No, August.  No, September for sure.  October, guaranteed. 

The airlines responded by saying something to the effect of, “Hey, how about we don’t open it until we know it is really ready and how about you give us about six months’ of advance notice so we can prepare?”

Finally, Shinawatra, who at one point supposedly stepped down and then didn’t and is supposedly a “caretaker” PM awaiting new elections in October, announced that all flights would start using Suvarnabhumi as of September 28th of this year.  Additionally, he announced that six Thai airlines would participate in various test flights in advance of that date.

Well, some details were finally set on the test flights and it turns out that on July 29th, each of the airlines (THAI, Bangkok Airways, Orient Thai, Thai Air Asia, and Nok Air) will operate two or three domestic flights out of and into the new aiport, flights that are not usually timed to carry passengers connecting to or from international flights.

One of the airlines, Orient Thai, offered a special package that includes a morning departure from Don Muang landing 30 minutes later at Suvarnabhumi, a fully airport tour from Airports of Thailand officials, and a return flight mid-afternoon.  The price is 1999 baht and all proceeds will be donated to one of the King’s projects.

So I traipsed down to the Orient Thai (also known as One-Two-Go here in Thailand) ticket office which is about a half-kilometer away from the apartment and waited patiently as an agent made all sorts of phone calls to secure a ticket for me.  Her computer was showing that the outbound flight was full, but the return flight had available seats.  However, the flights were only sold as a package so there was no way I could just buy the one-way ticket!

I would imagine that several of the seats on the outbound flight are being held for various VIP guests who don’t want to be bothered with flying back into Don Muang.

After about twenty minutes of exploring options she apologized and offered to take my name and number if anything came up.  Oh, well.  And here I was all excited at the opportunity to be one of the first to see the new airport and to get to walk around before it was fully in operations.

If any of you have connections with one of the Thai airlines, let me know!

Wednesday arrives and it is surely hump day.  My Thai class breaks down into sheer sillyness halfway through, our khruu trying to keep us together while laughing out our lame attempts at humor, mostly plays on words caused by the different tones in Thai.  Students often make silly and potentially embarassing mistakes.

For example, the word for “to ride” and the word for “excrement/dirt/ashes” is the same (khii), differentiated only by the tones.  Low tone is the first, falling tone the second.

So if you say “khii chaang” you could either be saying “to ride an elephant” or you could be talking about the elephant’s droppings… and not in a polite way, either.

Thais really like potty humor, I’ve discovered.

On an entirely unrelated note, Tawn was doing some yoga at home this evening and has discovered that he can do the splits now, but only on when side.  When he turns the other direction, he isn’t as flexible.  The benefits of yoga.

For dinner this evening I hollowed out some yellow tomatoes and stuffed them with a Thai-style chicken salad that I made a few days ago.  The flavors have intermingled very nicely.  The salad is from a recipe in the San Francisco Flavors cookbook compiled by the Junior League of San Francisco. 

It is a cold version of chicken larb that you find on many Thai restaurant menus, but minus the mint (which I was supposed to add and forgot!) and the toasted, ground rice. 

Very tasty when served on a bed of Boston lettuce with sesame dressing.

After several days of writing text, editing photos, and teaching myself some HTML, I posted my most recent trip report today.

This one covers my recent trip to Hong Kong and focuses on the aviation portion of the trip. 

For you aviation enthusiasts (you know who you are), you can find it at this link.

With no further trips scheduled, that may be it for a while.

Receiving the following paragraph in an email from a friend, it set me to thinking about the nature of boredom:

“I believe our souls gets bored eventually if the situation stays the same all the time. A healthy soul should have the yearning to want to learn more and more and don’t stop until we die. That is why we are always challenging for new experiences and environments, we have to, otherwise we are dead.  Well, at least for me, if I am not excited or inspired any more at one point of my life or another, I feel that I might as well die.”

What are the reasons that we open our doors, look out our windows, and seek new flavors, sights, and sounds?  What are we escaping from?  What are we afraid we might find if we instead turn our mind inwards and reflect on ourselves?

 

Perhaps each person has different motivations for their experiential materialism: disatisfaction with ourselves, frustration with circumstances, challenges in relationships, unwillingness to confront negative habits.  If we confront these things, we would probably experience tremendous personal growth and also achieve some inner calmness.  But confrontation requires (or at least on the surface it appears to require) much more energy than just filling ourselves up with distractions.

 

So the question is, how do we distinguish stimulation that is for the sake of learning and growth, from stimulation that is just a way of avoiding confronting ourselves?

Enough philosophy for a Sunday morning.  Discuss.

 

I’ll conclude with two pictures of fruit (pholamai in Thai) that I’ve taken over the past week.  On the left is a truck loaded with bananas.  On the right is a truck of rambutan, which look like hairy red golf balls.