I think it is safe to say that rainy season can arrive any time now and I’ll be perfectly happy.  The sun has been really hot around here.  This morning the grey clouds were piling up and by the time I reached school the evidence of a just-missed rain shower was all around me.  But a few hours later the sun was out and that evidence had evaporated back into the humid air.

Last night I drove Tawn to the airport for a business trip to Seoul.  He’ll be back on Thursday night and I suspect the time will fly quite quickly.  Between trying to get several projects done for work and trying to actually comprehend my Thai lessons, the time seems to get filled.

After class today I did meet Tod for a couple of bowls of kwuaytiaw – rice noodle soup – in the Soi Arii area.  That’s where he lives and I’ve told Tawn that I think it is an area we should consider buying in.  Much more Thai, many more food options, and it stays open later at night than our neighborhood. 

This is a picture of a so-called “aqua filter.”  It is an attachment that fits on the back of my Samsung washing machine, between the incoming water line and the machine itself. 

At one end is a fine mesh filter that traps the occasional stray particle that works its way into the Bangkok Metropolitan Water System.  At the other end is a chamber with a bunch of small, white spheres that I at first thought were some kind of water softener.  I’ve since struck that theory and have no subsequent ones to replace it.

So about two months ago, several weeks before I headed to the United States, this filter developed a hairline chip and when the machine was running, a thin but high-pressure stream of water would spray all over the machine.  So I removed the filter and embarked on a quest to find a replacement.

This is an abbreviated story of that quest:

• 
  
  First, I went to the source of all knowledge related to things hardware here in Khrungthep: Home Pro Plus.  This is kind of a Home Depot knock-off without the building supplies and with an abundance of helpful if not very knowledgeable employees waiting eagerly to assist you.  After a consultation between one of these helpful employees, four of his colleagues, and his manager, he pronounced that I needed to go to the Samsung Service Center, which was on Silom Road.  They all nodded in agreement.
  
  
• 
  
  So I went to the second source of all knowledge related to things Samsung: the Internet.  I visited the Samsung global website and then located the Thailand website.  Which, wouldn’t you know it, is in Thai.  And only Thai.  No English option.  Yes, I know that khon Thai phuut phasa Thai, but it seemed reasonable enough that there would be an English language version, too.  So I opened two windows, one with an English language website from the Australia and the first with the Thai language website.  And I tried to compare the two and navigate the Thailand website.
  
  
• 
  
  I determined that there were several different locations to choose from, one on Silom as mentioned and another at Siam Paragon.  Figuring that Paragon was closer, I headed off to the recently opened behemoth mall.  Sure enough, there is a Samsung center there.   But it is just a showroom for their latest products.  No parts or service available.  They, too, referred me to the Service Center on Silom Road.
  
  
• 
  
  So the next day I headed out to Silom and eventually, many blocks down the street from the SkyTrain station, found the Service Center.  Like the banks here, as you enter the waiting room there is a small machine that lists various reasons you might be there.  You push the button corresponding to the reason and you are assigned a number in one of several different queues.  I chose the “spare parts” button and received number 258.  “246” was flashing on the board behind the row of counters.
  
  
• 
  
  When my number was called, I went to the counter and proceeded to explain in half-Thai, and full English that I wanted a replacement for this particular part.  After several minutes of behind-the-scenes conferring, I was told that the part was called an “aqua filter” and it would have to be ordered.  Could I leave my number?  The part should be here in a week.
  
  
• 
  
  Having left Tawn’s name and number, a week went by with no call.  Then another.  And then it was time for me to leave for the US for the film festival.
  
  
• 
  
  When I returned at the beginning of April one of my first errands was down to the Samsung Service Center, where I repeated the process, was told it would take three days to get the part, and again left Tawn’s name and number.
  
  
• 
  
  Another two weeks went by.
  
  
• 
  
  So I finally headed down on Saturday, Tawn in tow and ready to play the unhappy Thai consumer (a contradiction in terms?).  After explaining that we had been there twice before, the agent went into the back office and returned a few minutes later with a new aqua filter.  It seems that perhaps they had actually ordered them and they had actually arrived!

All it took was five trips to a total of three places over the course of two months, plus 274 baht.  Amazing Thailand.

Call from Brad

Last week I received a call out of the blue from my cousin Brad.  Brad moved to Italy in January to be with his girlfriend, now wife, in a small town outside of Milano.  Before his move we had spoken a few times and I tried to answer his many questions about the expatriate experience.

So Brad was calling to say hi and to seek my advice on further matters.  And to tell me that he and Sylvia are thinking about coming here in July or August for a few weeks.  That would be wonderful.

All I need to do now is email Brad with some information about Bangkok and the rest of Thailand.  And start figuring out when Tawn and I are going to go to Milano!

Email from Aussie Craig

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge a very nice email I received from Craig, an Aussie who stumbled across my blog while reading my trip reports on airliners.net.  Craig writes:

“Just this January I left Bangkok and returned to Australia after living there for 2.5 years.  The coincidental thing is that I lived in Asoke Place for my first year, and by all accounts I understand that is where you guys live too.  I was on level 21 and had a view over Soi Asoke towards Sukhumvit. It was a great place and gave me my first taste of the characteristic placid, nonchalent manner of thais – played out perfectly by good old Khun Doi in the ‘Juristic Person’ office.  Reading your songkran entry, I also think I recognise the woman you photographed beside the phone box outside the framing shop.
…

In the months leading up to leaving Bkk, I really had enough of the place and couldn’t wait to get back to Australia….however now since being back in sterile, clean Australia, I’ve got a serious case of rue and regret wishing I was back there amongst it all.  

…
Anyhow, just a quick hi and a thanks for being so descriptive on your blog.  I love reading it and remembering.”

Isn’t the Internet pretty cool?  See, you can meet the most interesting people.  Well, many thanks to Craig for reading.  Yes, we’re here on the 25^th floor of Asoke Place, enjoying that same southerly view.  Sadly, during this time of year the balconies aren’t getting any direct sunlight and my experiment at growing tomatoes is failing badly.  Perhaps during the winter when the balcony does get sun.

So last week we had two days off for Songkran.  Actually, many people had three.  And then Monday of this week was still a holiday for many people, so traffic was still quite light.  And then Wednesday was election day for the Senate, which resulted in another day or half-day off for most people.

Add to that single day holidays on May 1st (Monday) and May 5th (Friday) plus two additional holidays in June to celebrate HM the King’s 60th anniversary on the throne, and we’ve just more holidays than you can shake a stick at.  Which would be considered a very rude thing to do, by the way.

The thing I always point out to my fellow students when they ask about my plans for whatever holiday we’re having this week, is that the US doesn’t observe those holidays so I get to spend my day working from home anyhow.  But maybe on one of the May holidays Tawn and I can take a three day weekend and go somewhere.  Luang Prabong (in Laos) or Myanmar (Burma) both are possibilities.

Sign Pollution

One of the most amazing things of this week was the proliferation of campaign signs leading up to the Senate elections on Wednesday.  I wish I had a clear picture that really captured the mess.  A little bit of scale: for the 18 Senate seats in the Bangkok metropolitan area there were something like at least 100 candidates. 

Their supporters would post placards with their candidate’s visage and number (names are too complex, I guess, so you just have to vote for the candidate by their number?) on bamboo stakes along the side of the road.  But the supporters didn’t have much restraint, so if there was a placard here, there had best be another one in the next fifteen feet or so.  The result, huge clusters of signs that in any given block would number in the hundreds. 

A thunderstorm and downpour in the early part of the week left many of the signs battered and bruised, but the very next day supporters were out to post new placards.

Thankfully, the night after the election the city came through with their own crews I trashed most of the signs, at least on the main roads.  So Thursday morning the walk to school was mostly clutter-free.

The election results?  Well, that’s another long story as the opposition parties claim that the Senate race should be voided as the lower house will likely be dissolved in the next few months after constitutional reforms are made.  But I’m not going to touch that with a ten foot bamboo pole.

Lunch with Paul and Nicha

In my summary of last weekend’s fun and excitement, I neglected to write anything about our lunch with Paul and Nicha.  Here’s a picture and then we can talk a bit about them.  This will require a bit of explanation, exposition and back-story so please bear with me.

One of Tawn’s many aunts (his father’s older sister) lives in Los Angeles and has for decades and decades.  For whatever reasons, possibly just because she lives outside Thailand, she is one of the more liberal members of the family.

While Tawn was living in the US (wow, I almost wrote “here” but it is “there” isn’t it?) he stayed in touch with his aunt pretty regularly and she invited us to come down and visit her family.  So when we took a trip to Los Angeles we made it a point to spend an afternoon and evening down in the Irvine area visiting Khun Ouraiwan and Dr. Surapol*, who have three sons (Peter, Paul, and Don) all of whom were born in the US.

*keep in mind that “Khun” is a general polite title for those older than you and, in keeping with Thai custom, people are addressed and refered to by their first name.

They were incredibly welcoming .  We had dinner at a great Chinese seafood restaurant, etc. etc.  Afterwards, Khun Ouraiwan insisted that if I was back down in LA even without Tawn, that I should give them a call and visit.

In fact, she would call Tawn from time to time on our home phone.  One time when I answered, she didn’t introduce herself and instead launched into the following dialogue:

Khun Ouraiwan: “Hello Chris… do you know who this is?”

Chris: “Um, I’m sorry, who is this?”

O: “I know you…  Don’t you remember me?”

This continued for several seconds and I got close to just hanging up when Khun Ouraiwan finally said, “It’s Tawn’s aunt!”

Anyhow, they are welcoming people and served as sort of a “buffer” for us in dealing with Tawn’s family.  Maybe buffer isn’t the best word.  But after our visit she called Tawn’s mother and I’m sure other members of the family and provided some positive PR for us, which I’m sure helped in the long upwards struggle to become integrated with that side of the family. 

So a few months after our visit to LA, Tawn received a call from his cousin Paul – who it should be noted had not been around for our dinner with his parents – who said that he and his Thai wife Nicha would be in San Francisco for the weekend and wanted to meet us for dinner.

We met up with Paul and Nicha at Timo’s, a now-defunct Spanish tapas restaurant in the Mission district, and they greeted us like long lost friends.  I guess that Khun Ouraiwan had thoroughly briefed them as they had extensive background on us!  In either case, it was really nice that they were so welcoming.

Paul and Nicha moved to Bangkok about a year and a half ago and we had lunch with them on a previous visit.  When Tawn saw them last shortly before I moved here, he promised that we’d call and see them regularly.  Last week while having lunch at Central Food Loft, we ran into Paul and there was no excuses to be made.  So we made plans for lunch on Saturday.

Thanks for bearing with the back story.

So we met on Saturday at Baan Kanita, a fancy Thai restaurant on Thanon Sathorn near the Banyan Tree and Sukothai hotels.  As it was Songkran weekend, the restaurant was largely empty and we enjoyed very attentive service.  The food was great.  And it was fun to get reconnected with Paul and Nicha.  Paul’s working as a VP at Central Department Stores and Nicha (who goes by the nickname Neung – Thai for “one”) is working with Standard Chartered Bank.

I’ve told Tawn that it is especially important to me that we stay in touch with Paul and Nicha as they are really the only connection we have as a couple to Tawn’s family.  And, I think as we move into the future, we’ll need those connections.

Wednesday morning, 7:00 am local time.  Looks to be a promising next few days, weather-wise.

For the first time since I arrived more than five months ago, I crossed the Chao Praya river (not counting the trips to Wat Arun which is just on the opposite bank) and entered Thonburi, the “other side” of Bangkok.  How to describe it?  In many ways, it is analogous to the relationship between Manhattan and the boroughs.  They’re both part of New York, but some people would be inclined to think of Manhattan as the “real” New York while the boroughs are just where the extra New Yorkers live.

Part of this perception of Thonburi is that there is really no good transit linking the sides, yet.  Only congested bridges and, if you can get to the waterfront, ferries.  Because of that, people on the Bangkok side of the river don’t have much reason to cross to the Thonburi side.  Plus, most of the “to do” things are on the Bangkok side of the river.

Some of this will likely change in the next year as when the SkyTrain was built, the elevated tracks were built across the Saphan Taksin (Taksin Bridge – named for the neighborhood, not the Prime Minister) and for several kilometers on the Thonburi side.  Stations were not built and the rails were not laid, but the rest of the infrastructure has been in place for six years.  Finally, late last year the Bangkok governor secured financing to complete that extension and it looks like five or six new stations will be open by the end of 2006.  As we drove past the tracks, work on the stations is already underway, so the estimate seems reasonable.

So my trip across the bridge was a chance to see how the real locals live.  One of the first things I noticed was that there were many more people out celebrating Songkran along the roadside, but that it was being done in a much more festive and much less violent spirit than on the Bangkok side.

What I mean by that is, what I saw over in Bangkok was people by the roadside who seemed to be trying to soak people who weren’t wet and maybe didn’t want to be wet.  On the Thonburi side, there were many, many more people of all ages who had set up shop by the side of the road, partying, splashing water on others – and when nobody came by for a while, on themselves. 

There were many more pickup trucks loaded with revelers on the Thonburi side, too.  And at each of the roadside encampments they would slow down and water would be splashed back and forth, then everyone would cheer and wave at each other, flashing the peace sign, and the truck would continue down the road.

To give you some idea of what we saw, here’s a 50-second video clip:

The real purpose of heading to Thonburi had nothing to do with hunting out the differences in Songkran festivities.  Instead, Tawn had arranged for us to spend a night at the Marriott Spa and Resort which is just on the south side of the city on the bank of the Chao Phraya river.  The hotels, even the really high-end ones, provide special promotional rates to locals especially on weekends, over holidays, and during the off season.  A night at the Marriott, which is one of their nicest resorts and would normally cost about US$ 200, was only $84 for the two of us including breakfast and 20% off dinner at any of the hotel’s restaurants.

The hotel is very nice, indeed.  It features three main buildings wrapped around a khlong (canal) and a central pool area.  There are palm trees and lush foliage and lots of riverfront footage.  Two restaurants overlook the river as does one bar and the central pool area.  The interiors of the buildings are done in a modern Thai style with lots of antiques and silk upholstery.  Our river-view room overlooked the pool.

We checked in mid-afternoon and enjoyed a stroll around the gardens.  The sky was overcast and threatening rain and as the storm front approached the winds picked up, breaking the heat, so we sat at the Riverside Terrace and had pre-dinner drinks.  Pink Europeans and bronzed Japanese booked on the sunset dinner cruise crowded beneath the covered walkway waiting to dart through the raindrops and down the pier to the good ship Manora Song.

After changing for dinner we proceeded downstairs to Trader Vic’s – the local branch of the tiki tiki dinner chain that originated in Oakland, California in 1932.  We had reservations for an outdoor table.  Even though the rain had stopped and the table was under the terrace, the wind was still very strong so we changed to an inside table right next to the window.  The restaurant was not yet busy but filled considerably as our dinner went on. 

Trader Vic is known for, among other things, creating the Mai Tai cocktail.  It popularized Polynesian food or, more accurately, the Americanized version of Polynesian and South Pacific food.  Taking it for what it is – namely, not authentic – the food is still really good and is very fun.  I started with a chevice-style fresh salmon salad, Tawn with a crab soup.  Then for a main course, Tawn had a fried duck and I had a jerk chicken.  All were tasty and a slightly sweet Riesling complimented the spicy richness of both the duck and chicken.

Dessert included a show-stopper: Crêpes Suzette prepared en flambe table side.  The accompanying Grand Marnier soufflé had no flash in the pan but was very tasty nonetheless.  

Dinner was relaxed, the pace leisurely as the attentive staff allowed us to have a long dinner spent mostly reminiscing about the trips we’ve taken and the memorable meals we’ve eaten along the way.  After dinner we took a stroll along the riverfront, digesting and seeing just a big of the Thai cultural show that is provided to diners in the family restaurant.

Sunday morning was a lazy one for us; we barely made it down to the breakfast buffet before its 10:30 closing.  The selection was wide and the quality good, especially the fresh fruit.  The restaurant was crowded and full of family and families, all having a good time.  The coffee was strong and we both had a second cup to fuel our final day of the long weekend.

After stopping for an hour long foot massage at the oddly western shopping arcade in the front of the hotel (with McDonald’s, KFC and the Pizza Company just in case any of the guests felt homesick) and then packed out bags and checked out.

From the riverfront of the hotel, we could see an unusual looking temple further down the river.  It looked more like a series of open pavilions.  Curious, as we left the hotel we continued down the left bank making a pair of u-turns after overshooting the rather obscure entrance to the temple.  The entrance was just an ornate gate set against an ordinary  residential neighborhood.  A small one-lane driveway snaked through the shops and houses until it spilled into a larger courtyard surrounded by temple buildings.

Everywhere around the temple there were elementary age novice monks.  Tawn explained that this was the equivalent of a summer camp, Songkran marking the beginning of Thailand schools’ summer vacation.  Sunday was visiting day and parents were seeing their children, mothers resisting the urge to hug their sons in respect of the Buddhist provisions not allowing monks and women to touch.

Unlike most temples, the main building was a nondescript three-story concrete block with offices and rooms inside and a steep staircase climbing up the side.  On the tiled rooftop were four different pavilions, the ones we had seen from the hotel.  Each contained various Buddha statues all overlooking a wide bend in the Chao Phraya. 

A dozen novices were on the rooftop mostly staying in the shade, playing, running, practicing kickboxing moves on each other and behaving in a generally non-monastic manner. 

Even with the breeze, the tile floor of the roof was incredibly hot and I descended, sweaty, ready to get back into the shade.  In a tent by the main building the signs of completed daily chores were stacked neatly: upturned aluminum dishes and saffron wrapped alms bowls had been washed and were drying in the afternoon heat.  A middle-age monk carted large bags of donated rice across the courtyard, each step a meditation.

We returned to the comfort of the air conditioned car and headed back on the road, crossing over Saphan Taksin and once again into the city.  Traffic was getting heavier, the millions of people who had left the city for the weekend slowly and reluctantly returning.

The long Songkran weekend came to a cool end, temperatures dropping Sunday evening into the balmy and comfortable mid 80s.  Having done all our housecleaning before heading to the hotel, we had an evening free and so spent it watching Failure to Launch, which was a bit better than I had feared.

Yesterday afternoon we had lunch at the Central Chidlom Food Loft, kind of a high end food court, with Tawn’s schoolmate Jack and Jack’s boyfriend David, who is visiting from Sydney.  Jack just returned recently from several years studying in Sydney.  David is looking at selling his house and moving here.  He seems like a nice person.  I’m having a hard time telling just how their relationship is set up, though.  I guess their interactions when I’ve seen them are different than what I’d expect from a couple who is going to shortly be shortening the physical distance between them.  But each couple is different, I suppose.

Since it was the first day of Songkran, or more accurately the eve of Songkran, there were people splashing water all over the place.  Whole families – mostly from the outskirts of town – would pile in the pack of pickup trucks with a 50-gallon barrel of water, and drive around town splashing people and shooting water guns.  Other groups would set up shop along the side of the road, especially aiming for motorcyclists who were driving by.  Needless to say, the fatality rate is quite high over this period.

When we were pulling out of the condo complex, one of our neighbors was standing by the street splashing passers by.  It was kind of sad, really.  She is Thai and has a child and presumably a farang husband although we never see him.  The child was nowhere about and she was just by herself at the side of Asoke, laughing and splashing people as they drove by.  Seemed like she was having fun, though.

As we were waiting for a break in traffic, I wanted to catch a picture so I asked Tawn to roll down the driver’s side window so I could get a clear view.  We didn’t turn down the volume of the stereo and so when the window lowered, the sound of the music attracted her attention.  Before we knew it, a bucket of water was headed our way, through the driver’s side window.  Left: A half second before the splash.

Tawn bore the brunt of the splash and his calm Buddhist patience was tested to the very last straw as he froze in shock for half a minute, not knowing what to say and just barely containing the rising anger.  Fortunately, he retained control and didn’t hop out of the car and “get all kung-fooey” with her.

We met for drinks at Eddy’s house, now supposedly haunted by a spirit from one of the antique mirrors he purchased.  More on that some other time.  We all went out for dinner afterwards at Sompong, the seafood restaurant on the outskirts of the Ekkamai-Ram Intra district that we’ve been to before.  Very good food, very fresh, and quite reasonably priced. 

Left: Chris, Tawn, Tao, Jack, David, Eddy and Ble.  Right: about 1/6th of Sompong restaurant.

Woke up this morning about 7:00 to light rain.  Unusual to have moring rain here in Bangkok.  Unusual to have light rain.  The whole thing was strange.  About twenty minutes later the rain had stopped and the sun came out and things started getting really humid.

Most of the day was spent on my computer working on several projects for work.  Tawn went out to Siam Paragon to hang out with Pim.  He bought a Lacoste polo shirt that he had ordered – 20% off from the retail price.  It is interesting how some people look at things from the perspective of how much of a discount they can get, while others look at the price of things from a “what was the final price” perspective.

Finishing up the twelth document I had to write, proofread, and convert into an Adobe PDF file, I looked out to my balcony and noticed that a portion of the floor was moving.  Turned out to be a small gecko that had nicely blended in to the tan pepples and concrete background. 

For dinner we joined Tod at Bella Napoli for pizza, pasta, antipasto and tiramisu.  He’s doing well and managed to stay dry over Songkran.  Word on the street is that his partner from San Francisco, Darrin, may be making it over for a visit later this year.  A first timer in Thailand… should be fun!

This weekend’s big purchase was a Philips combo waffle iron, sandwich maker, and George Foreman-style grill.  The waffle maker was the major attraction – who really uses those sandwich makers anyhow?  The best thing about it is that the plates are actually removable, making clean-up much easier.

So Sunday morning I cooked my first batch of waffles on the new iron.  Used a recipe for fresh ginger and applesauce waffles.  I substituted whole wheat for half the flour in the recipe, which made them a bit more dense than usual.  But very tasty.

While at Siam Paragon, the huge shopping center that opened in December, I was echoing a sentiment that Tod expressed, that it really has become the center of gay Bangkok.  The place is just swarming with family.  Tawn’s response was that on a Saturday afternoon, it is “filled with bridge and tunnel boys waiting for DJ Station to open.” 

Which I thought was incredibly funny.

“Bridge and tunnel crowd” is a Manhattan-centric term to describe people who live outside the city and come in for partying.  While there are bridges here, there are no tunnels, so the idea of a bridge and tunnel crowd in Bangkok is just really funny.  Even more so that Tawn picked up the expression.

There must be an equally exclusive Thai term to refer to people from the other side of the river.

Anyhow, after just two days this week we’re already at the weekend.  Songkran, the Buddhist New Year, is a 3-day holiday that results in a 5-day weekend this year.  I still have to work, but don’t have school so it is a quasi-holiday for me.

The traditional celebrations, which include washing Buddha images and lightly sprinkling water on the hands of your elders, has undergone a transition in the past generation and in more heavily-trafficked areas (Khaosan Road, Silom, Royal City Avenue) there is a great deal of partying and water fights.

Don’t know if we’ll participate in any wet t-shirt contests or not.  The nice thing is that a lot of the local population leaves the city to return to their hometowns in the provinces, so traffic is really, really light.  In fact, we’re considering looking for a deal at one of the hotels in town and just do an overnight vacation.

Friday was a holiday for me, Union Language School’s day late observance of Wan Chakri, so I was able to begin my work for IKON several hours earlier than usual.  This had the benefit of allowing me to finish work in time to attend the 4:00 pm yoga class at Prana Yoga. 

It has just been over a month since I last went to yoga class.  I brought my workout gear with me to San Francisco but found neither the time nor location to attend class.  But I did do some yoga poses on my own, so it wasn’t as if I had entirely abandoned the practice.

Getting back into the yoga groove was a good thing, giving my back a much-needed stretch.  Plus, for the first time ever, I attempted a headstand.  Headstands are a pretty intimidating thing in yoga and I was definitely stuck in the, “oh, boy there’s no way I could do that!” mindset.  Probably a good lesson to learn that in life, often the only thing keeping you from doing something is yourself.

Anyhow, the instructor – a short, blonde, Swedish woman with whom I had not taken classes before – said, “Well, why don’t you try?  I’ll help you.”  So she walked me through the steps:

Missing from this picture is, of course, the instructor standing right next to you to hold your legs steady and take some of the weight off your shoulders and head. 

This is where the farting comes in.  The instructor is about a foot and a half shorter than me and maybe 80 pounds lighter, so she was really struggling to hold onto me.  In the midst of her struggle she suddenly loses focus (I guess) and I hear her break wind.  While I’m standing on my head. 

Talk about your awkward moments: nobody said anything and we all just kept focusing on our headstands.

Then she helped me out of the pose and told me that I did very well for a first time and to keep trying.

Actually, it’s a wonder that there isn’t more flatulence in yoga class.  Between the extreme twisting, unusual poses, focus on your breathing, and relaxation, I’m surprised more people don’t lose control. 

While I was in San Francisco, I commented to someone that I hoped the political situation didn’t boil over before I returned to Khrungthep, so that I could be there to witness a coup d’etat first hand. 

Fortunately, the simmer did wait until I returned and, also fotunately, instead of a coup d’etat we just had a questionable election followed by the Prime Minister’s resignation.

Back story: Thaksin Shinawatra (the final “a” in his surname is not aspirated) had three years left in his second term as Prime Minister of Thailand.  Re-elected a year ago by wide margins, his Thai Rak Thai (literally, “Thais love Thais”) political party dominates the parliament and his position as PM was quite secure.  However, his popularity started sliding especially among the middle- and upper-classes of Khrungthep. 

The claim: his administration was chock full of the same corruption and cronyism that has plagued Thai politics for years and it had continuied to escalate.  The tipping point: Sinawatra and his family sold their 49.6% stake in AIS, the major mobile phone services provider, to Tammasak Holdings (the Singapore government’s investment arm), gaining a US$1.9 billion windfall – tax-free thanks to some questionable regulatory manoeuvering.

So a coallition of opposition politicians – including Thaksin’s political mentor – started leading a series of public rallies and protests demanding that he resign.  More covereage available here at 2bangkok.com.  These protests were plaguing the city for the past two months, with tens of thousands (and by some estimates as many as 300,000) of people blocking traffic and disrupting business. 

The protests had such impact on the city that the new Siam Paragon shopping mall closed its doors for two days as a weekend protest took place in the street outside.

In an interesting move, Thaksin called for snap elections – three years early – that were held on Sunday, April 2nd.  The three major opposition parties boycotted the elections and so in many electoral districts the Thai Rak Thai candidate was the only one on the ballot.  The ballot also included an abstention box, effectively a “no” vote against Thaksin.

While Thaksin’s popularity is weak in the Bangkok area and much of the South, it remains higher in the North and Northeastern parts of the country.  As such, TRT (and by extension, Thaksin) won the majority of the 364 seats in the election.  However, TRT received several million fewer votes than the last election, reflecting a significant drop in popular support nationwide.

Additionally and more crucially, in 36 constituencies (all in the South) TRT fielded the only candidates and those candidates failed to receive the constitutionally-required minimum number of votes, which is equal to 20% of the eligible voters in that district.  This means that parliament is short 36 members and, by law, the parliament cannot meet to select a new (or reaffirm the current) PM until all constituencies are represented.

(Take a careful look between the legs of the Thaksin charicature on the poster!)

And thus we reached a critical juncture in this saga…

Asking Tawn on Sunday evening what he thought might happen, he predicted, rightly, that Thaksin would wait for the election results, claim victory, and then make the magnanomous gesture of stepping down. 

Sure enough, on Monday evening after an audience before His Majesty the King (much speculation as to whether he had anything to do with this… most likely not overtly) Thaksin went on the nationwide television pool and announced that in a spirit of reconciliation, putting the intersts of the nation ahead of his own, he was resigning as Prime Minister.

His explained rationale: with the 60th anniversary of His Majesty’s succession to the throne less than two months away, it was necesary that all parties put aside their differences and come together for both the country and for the King.

So what does it all mean?  Well, keep in mind that TRT still won a large majority of the seats in Parliament.  Already, Thaksin has appointed his #1 deputy, Chidchai Wannasathit, as interim PM.  Thaksin will also remain a member of Parliament and the head of the Thai Rak Thai party.  As the headline in this morning’s Bangkok Post put it: “Total Break or Simply A Canny Ploy?”

It is not over yet…

Elsewhere, in other news, today is Wan Chakri or Chakri Memorial Day, celebrating the founding of the Chakri Dynasty here in Thailand.  April 6, 1782 was the day King Rama I ascended the throne after the death of King Thaksin.  The current King is Rama IX.  So today is a holiday in Thailand.  Businesses are closed.  Malls are open.  Malls are always open.  For some reason, Union Language School decided that instead of celebrating the holiday today, we would take tomorrow (Friday) off instead.  So I had to go to school today while Tawn stayed home and tomorrow I’ll stay home from school while Tawn goes to work. 

This is a holiday-filled time of year.  Next week we celebrate Songkran, resulting in a 5-day weekend for most people.  ULS is only taking a 4-day weekend, but then what should I expect?  More about Songkran next week.

Yesterday evening we had dinner with Tod.  It was nice to see him again and we were able to drop off all of the things that Darrin had sent back with me from San Francisco: toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, CDs, and an iPod optical digital output line.  The dental items were a thoughtful touch, but just so everyone is clear: you can buy Crest products in Thailand. 

Dinner was a Zen, an inexpensive Japanese restaurant on Soi Convent just off Silom.  After a lengthy and very fun dinner, we decided to go for foot massages, winding up at a second story massage parlor that was somewhat less than reputable.  While the foot massages are on the up-and-up (they take place at the front of the building by the windows so no worries about anything untoward occurring) you can definitely get a full body oil massage with (ahem) extra services at a place like this.  (Left: Tod and Tawn enjoying a post-massage cup of tea)

The massage was relaxing, although I think I prefer the familiar and more conservative environment of the neighborhood massage shop we regularly patronize.  Although the foot massage at the place we went to on Silom was perfectly good, the setting was a bit seedy.  And I miss the friendly masseuses who have come to recognize us and who think my slowly-improving Thai is quite funny.

Friday evening before I left we had a party (three of five if my count is correct) for Emily’s third birthday.  Not sure how she managed to get five parties out of this, but between parties at day care, “immediate” family, the rest of the family, the other side of the family, and her non-day care friends, it added up.  For dinner I prepared pizzas from scratch, mixing the dough in the afternoon and letting it proof before heading over to St. Luke’s Hospital on the Plaza to visit my grandmother, who had undergone some surgery to improve blood circulation in her right leg.  All is well there.

Returning about six o’clock, I consigned my mother to serve as sous chef and started prepping the topings, setting up a mean mise en place.  In addition to a salad of spring field greens, we had the following pizzas:

Emily’s Choice – olives, Italian sausage and cheese

Margheritta – tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil

Hawaiian – Canadian bacon and fresh pineapple

Sauerkraut and Canadian bacon – a tribute to my father’s parents, who introduced this combination to me when I was a child

Arugula Salad – Italian sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms with fresh arugula added after cooking

Zachary’s Special – spinach and mushrooms inspired by the Berkeley pie shop

We were joined by Pat Goodfriend, a long time friend of the family who may be visiting us in Bangkok this autumn. 

Above, Pat poses with the Margheritta pizza, the perfect Betty Crocker image.  Other pictures from the trip:

Zoe lazing about in the sun in Jenn’s dining room

Enjoying birthday cupcakes at Emily’s day care

Jennifer and her two daughters at Grandma and Grandpa Tebow’s house

Emily opening a (big) present from Uncles Chris and Tawn

Kevin and Ava catch a late-night nap

Just as I was getting acclimated to the cool weather of early Spring in North America (and, I might add, as temperatures were brushing 21° C (70° F) in Kansas City) my time there came to an end and I returned to find the hot season very much underway in Khrungthep.  Yesterday the high was 35° C (95° F) and the overnight “low” was 27°C (80° F).

My trip from Kansas City was smooth, other than a 110 minute delay out of Kansas City that effectively eliminated my layover at O’Hare.  Which isn’t really a bad thing, come to think of it.  The entire trip took about 30 hours from the time I left my sister’s house in to the time Tawn and I pulled into our apartment car park.  By the time I unpacked my suitcases and went to bed, it was about 1:30 Monday morning.  Left: a snack somewhere over Anchorage.

Six hours later I was at Union Language School to continue my Thai language studies.  Exciting!

Of the thirteen students who started Thai with me in November, four of us are still enrolled at ULS.  Two of us are in the same class, repeating Module 3.  Another (Chihiro) is now in Module 4.  And one more (Yoichi) is in Module 5, now pretty fully able to read and write.  Oh, well, they tell us that each module is equivalent to one year of language learning in the Thai primary school system so I’m at, what, seven years old now?  Realistically, though, I think my comprehension rate is more like a pre-schooler.

It is good to be back in town despite the heat.  My tomato seedlings are making slow progress; I think they don’t get enough sun.  Tawn murdered one of houseplants but the remainder of them are doing well.

Even though there is a computer and DSL connection upstairs in the Festival’s on-theatre office, getting there for long enough to do a weblog entry has been a challenge.  So to recap the interesting events of the past week:

Dinner with Ryan and Sabrina

Last Tuesday or Wednesday, so long ago now I can’t remember, I was able to meet up with Ryan (the high school friend with whom I went to Viet Nam a week before coming to San Francisco) and his girlfriend Sabrina.  Ryan picked me up at the Film Festival’s office on Ninth Street and then we met Sabrina at the restaurant, the Cuban tapas restaurant Cha Cha Cha.  Cuban food is one of those “not in Khrungthep” sort of things, so as many trips as I can make there this week, I will.  Sabrina is just really fantastic and it was so nice to meet her.  No pictures to post, unfortunately, but I think they’ll be attending the closing night so I’ll take some then.

Lunch with Bruce and Howie and Paul

On Sunday (or Saturday, perhaps?) Paul and I drove over to Fremont to meet up with Bruce and Howie at one of my favorite Malaysian restaurants, Red Kwali.  “Kwali” is the Malay word for wok and the restaurant specialises in authentic hawker-style food.  In Malaysia and Singapore, there are food courts called hawker centers where each individual stand is owned by a different vendor and his/her family.

The food was good, despite the third or fourth ownership change in the past two years, and it was especially nice to visit with Bruce and Howie. 

They’ve been incredibly busy, Bruce completing his MBA and Howie has finally received his green card!  Yeah, he can now leave the US on vacation with relative ease.  They’re talking about a trip over to Taiwan to visit Howie’s parents and then on to Bangkok this Summer.  It would be so fun to have them visit, so Tawn and I will keep our fringers crossed and hope to see them soon.

Slide Projector Stands

The week before the Festival, I was assigned the task of building stands for the slide projectors.  We use these projectors to show slides of sponsors’ logos and names prior to the start of the show.  Previously, the movie theatre where we operate used slides for their pre-show entertainment, so we could just put our own slide carosel on screen, instead. 

However, AMC went to an all digital pre-show program and the old slide projectors are gone.  The new digital projectors are bolted into place so we can’t move them, and the costs of going digital this late in the game were too high for the Festival.  So this necessitated finding a way to mount our rented slide projectors so they could shoot through the port window in the projection booth.

Digging back into my drafting roots from junior high and high school (thanks, Mr. Geraci!) I came up with a design and after pricing it out, worked with two volunteers to purchase and construct the stands.  The finished product is a bit rickety – I had to buy some additional 1×2’s to add structural support to the stands that are 5 feet tall – but overall they work just fine.

Opening Night

This year’s opening night film was Eric Byler’s “Americanese“, adapted from the novel “American Knees” by Shawn Wong.  Eric did last year’s indie success “Charlotte Sometimes” and is a promising young director.

The Festival uses the charming and historic Castro Theatre for our opening night film along with several spotlight presentations over the opening weekend.  It’s majestic 1500-seat auditorium complete with Wurlitzer organ is a great setting for big events.

My responsibility was to handle crowd control outside the building.  Opening night was sold out and we had a rush line outside (people waiting to see if any seats open up at showtime) and we also had some of the most torrential rain that I have ever seen in San Francisco.  It even hailed for about half a minute.  Yikes!  It turns out that the gorgeous canopy that hangs over the sidewalk, leaks.  A lot.  

In my nice suit with a radio and a secret service style headset, I worked the crowd, getting people inside in a timely fashion and starting the movie only a few minutes late.  And by the end of it, I was soaked.  My jacket was completely soaked, my shoes and socks and the lower half of my legs were soaked.  Wet, wet, wet.

Before heading out to the opening night party I stopped by Anita’s house (thankfully I was staying only a few blocks away) to change into dry clothes.  Otherwise, given the frightfully cold night, I think I might have caugh pneumonia. 

The party itself, held at the Asian Art Museum, was a grand affair spread between all levels of the building.  The galleries were open, so it was a nice opportunity to take in some art in between bites of food and sips of wine.  Housed in the former public library, a Beaux Arts-style building that graces the civic center plaza, the meseum is one of the most beautiful cultural treasures in the city.  Tired and exhausted, I didn’t feel very chatty and so chose to wrap up the evening pretty early.  Especailly since Tawn was back in Khrungthep.  Parties aren’t as fun without a loved one to share them with.

Interesting Festival Events

The Festival has run smoothly with a few interesting events.  Director Abraham Lim, who I got to know a few years ago when his film “Roads and Bridges” played at our festival, was back with his follow-up, “The Achievers“.  Abe’s in post-production, still tweaking this film.  So we had a Friday evening show at a few hours before we didn’t have a copy of the film.  At first, Abe was going to drive up from LA.  Then one of his producers had a backup copy on video that he was going to get to us.  Finally, three or four of his cast members pitched in and bought Abe a plane ticket, and he arrived about 15 minutes before the show with the copy of the film we were to show.

After the show, Abe went back down to LA and spent Saturday tweaking the audio soundtrack, not satisfied with various minor details that appeared very noticable to him but which I think the audience probably wouldn’t notice.  By Saturday evening I was on the phone with him, answering questions about ways we could potentially hook his iMac laptop directly into the video projection system and run a parallel audio soundtrack.

Sunday morning about 5 am, Abe left LA and drove back up to San Francisco, arriving at the theatre about 11.  He met with our video projectionist, discussed some more options, and then spend the next eight hours in one of the offices continuing to tweak and edit the soundtrack.  Our projectionist was getting a bit worried about trying something radically different without the opportunity to actually test it out.  So about thirty minutes before the second showing, Abe finally decided that we’d stick with the tape that was used Friday night.

No Sleep Til Shanghai

One of the more popular films was a documentary by director Todd Angkasuwan about rapper Jin Au-Yueng, perhaps the most popular Asian-American rapper, and his eight-city tour of Asia.  The crowd of young fans was disappointed that the rapper himself wasn’t able to attend, but during the post-movie question and answer session, Todd called Jin on his mobile phone and held the microphone up to the phone so everyone in the audience could hear.  And thus, Jin was able to be there for Q&A.

Don’t Book the Bangladesh Film Festival!

Last night we had a show of “Gaijin 2” an epic Brazillian film about the Japanese-Brazillian experience early in the 20th Century.  The print had been sent to us from the Bangladesh Intenrational Film Festival and didn’t clear customs until yesterday morning.  Upon building up the seven-reel film, another of our projectionists discovered that reels 5 and 6 were from other films.  Yes, not only did they mix reels (which as a former projectionist I can tell you takes a bit of effort) but those two wrong reels were from two different movies! 

Momentary panic ensued but by the time I arrived some sense of calm had been restored, as we had a VHS copy of the movie as a preview tape.  The decision was made to screen the film on VHS and explain beforehand that the quality was not as high as we wanted.  People were offered refunds or the opportunity to watch other films.  In the end, I think that nobody took that offer and everyone stayed and enjoyed this great movie. 

Tawn to Macau

In his first business trip in several months, Tawn arrived in Macau today for an HP press event, acting as chaperone for several members of the Thai media.  He reports that it is cool and overcast and that Macau doesn’t appear to have anything to see or do other than go to casinos.  Smartly, he booked to fly into and out of Hong Kong, which will give him almost a full day on Thursday to shop and sightsee.