What is Design?

Posted on 8 March 2009 by christao408

Two weekends ago Ben and Jason met us for breakfast and then stopped by the condo to interview Tawn. I recently mentioned their art cafe, Kiosk, located at TCDC – the Thailand Creative and Design Centre. Jason is creating a series of short videos in which various Thais are asked about design. The resulting clips will be edited together to show at the cafe.

After reviewing the questions and setting the lighting (don’t you like our professional stage lighting?) the ten-minute interview began. Questions including things like “What is design?” and “Should designer items command a higher price?” It was interesting to hear Tawn’s thoughts on these issues.

Had I not been busy taking pictures, I would have made note of Tawn’s responses. Maybe once they have a finished product I can get a copy to share with you.

The lead-off question is an interesting one, though. What is design? As an example, we have two fans in our house. The first one, which we bought a year ago, is made by Hatari and is a typical plastic fan. The second one, which Tawn bought last week, is handmade by a small shop in the old part of Krungthep.

The plastic fan is slightly larger than the metal one but they both operate at multiple speeds and oscillate.

So what is “design” in the context of these fans?

I look at design as being the intersection of form and function. Something that is very functional but completely unattractive is every bit as much a failure as something that is very beautiful but utterly useless.

The blades of the metal fan aren’t optimally curved so after about 10 feet, the air flow just dies out. The plastic fan has blades that have an ideal curve to them and moves air nicely throughout the room.

The metal fan has a nice “old-fashioned” esthetic to its design with oscillation gears visible in the rear. The plastic fan, while its lines are clean and modern, isn’t as beautiful.

So which has the better design? For me, sitting at home working on a warm day and trying to save money by not running the air con, the plastic fan wins. It looks okay and works wonderfully. Considering that it is out of my line of sight when it is running, that’s the winning design.

With the metal fan, I appreciate it just as much when it is off, since it doesn’t do a very effective job moving the air. And I save a few baht’s worth of electricity when it is off, too.

Sunday evening I made a simple dinner of homemade ham and bell pepper pizza, mixed green salad with tomatoes and shaved parmesan, and pan-fried orangi mushrooms with balsamic vinegar.

Wittayu and Ploenchit

Posted on 5 March 2009 by christao408

Speaking of movies, this picture I took at the corner of Wittayu (aka “Wireless”) and Ploenchit roads looks like a movie set, doesn’t it?

The corner pictured above is the upper left-hand corner of the property shown in this photo below – just to the right of the shophouses that are being demolished – originally posted in early December.

Please return your attention to the first photograph. There are several things that are very interesting and instructive about this photo. Bear with me and I’ll explain them.

A – Two things here. First, the building on the corner is a police box. Almost every intersection in the city has one. The signals, although sometimes set to “automatic”, are generally operated by a police officer sitting in the box. During rush hour, other policemen will come out of the box and assist with directing traffic. They use radios to coordinate the traffic signals. Whether they are coordinating with any other intersection is anyone’s guess.

The second interesting thing is to notice how narrow the sidewalk is on the corner. The area behind the box (covered by the new metal cage – more about that in a moment) is private land. The previous shops that stood there had outdoor restaurants along this stretch and it became a de facto public sidwalk, making moot the dangerous narrow pedestrian footpath in front of the police box.

It looks like the new owner/developer of the property has agreed to maintain that public right-of-way.

B – Obstacle course… er, footpath. Not only does this stretch of sidewalk (and pretty much every other stretch in the city) have vendors crowding, but you can see where construction work has been done and left in a perilous state. Large plastic conduits lie half-burried in the concrete, creating tripping hazards galore.

The conrete itself is actually a hopeful sign, though: previously, sidewalks were covered with individual pavers floating on a bed of compacted dirt and sand. This looked nice for about a week, but eventualy the weight of vendor’s carts and other traffic would cause the pavers to shift, resulting in a very unstable surface. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority is now pouring a sub-layer of concrete and then paving on top of that. We’ll see how it works. In the meantime, watch your step!

C – Nice, new footpath. The owners/developers of the new project – which I understand will be a mixed-use highrise – have rebuilt the quasi-public sidewalk so it is level, smooth, and – alors! – has metal posts spaced to prevent vendors and motorcycles from entering. It is so nice, you almost want to cry.

D – Safety cage. I’m not sure if the construction will be immediately adjacent to the footpath or not. Normally, they use plywood to create a solid barrier. This barrier lets in light and air but also any smaller particles that might fall to the earth. I’m curious to see how this works. Nicely, though, they built openings in the cage for the existing trees.

There’s your slice of Krungthep for the day.

United Dreams

Posted on 4 March 2009 by christao408

Last night I had a vivid dream that seemed to last a long time. I dreamed that I had the oppotunity to work as a flight attendant for United Airlines for a single flight. None of the other flight attendants knew that I wasn’t really a flight attendant and I’m not sure how I managed to get permission to work the flight.

Before boarding started, I couldn’t find my tie, so I had to borrow one from another flight attendant. The first borrowed tie turned out to be a scarf and I kept trying to tie it into a double Windsor knot, but to no avail. Then I borrowed an actual tie from another flight attendant and it worked better.

The flight was on a 747 and we were working a trans-Pacific route. But then, when we landed, people started getting out of their seats moments after we pulled off the runway. I was walking through the cabin shouting, “No, no – we’re not there yet! Please sit down!”

Once we arrived at the gate, the plane had somehow become a DC-9 and I was able to lower the rear air-stair (in the tail section of the plane) so passengers could disembark that direction.

Very odd, huh?

I suppose there is an obvious backstory I should share: I grew up as an airline brat. My father worked for United his whole career and I started flying when I was just a month old.

As a child, I was fascinated with airplanes. I had all sorts of interesting toys: a demo oxygen mask, safety cards, paper ticket jackets, etc. I’d play for hours: first using the sofa as a check-in counter, assigning tickets and checking luggage. Then I’d arrange chairs in two rows and play flight attendant. I even had a wine bottle box into which I stacked empty soda and beer cans – that was my beverage cart. I’d do the safety demo, serve food, etc.

My fascination with airplanes continued as I grew up. At the end of high school I started interviewing with United. I wanted to work as a customer service agent, preferably at San Jose Airport, which was just a few miles from my home. I interviewed with the station manager but never heard back.

Following up with the Human Resources representative a few weeks later, it turned out that the station manager had been fired and had never turned the results of my interview back to HR. She offered me a part-time position at San Francisco Airport working in Cabin Services – the group that cleans the planes between flights.

During the summer of 1988 I worked at SFO four hours a day on a rotating schedule, four days one, one day off. It was not exciting work – and I was working with a pretty rough group of people – but I enjoyed being on and around the airplanes.

At the end of the summer, though, a few weeks before I had to join the union, I decided to quit the job. It didn’t pay enough to cover the costs of gasoline, so I decided to stick with my nearly full-time job working at the movie theatre instead.

Had I landed the original job working as a customer service agent at SJC, I have no doubt I would have left the movie theatre instead. By the time all the layoffs occurred in 2002 (after 9/11) I would probably have had enough seniority to have survived them. Of course, with much less pay.

Looking back, it was probably good that I didn’t end up staying in the airline industry. It is a tough industry in which to work. But as someone who is extremely good with customer service – I’ve often been commended for my grace and calm under pressure – I think I would have been excellent at it. And being an industry that I am still passionate about, I think it would have been a career I would have really enjoyed.

Random Saturday

Posted on 2 March 2009 by christao408

For the first time this year, rain fell in Krungthep. After several days of increasingly hot and increasingly humid weather, the clouds built and the wind fell still. Then, on the way home from my Thai lesson, the wind picked back up and the temperature dropped several degrees. Halfway down the soi, riding on the back of the motorcycle taxi, the first drops fell on me. There was that smell: the first rain of the season evaporating on the oily, dusty pavement.

We have several ferns on our balcony, very pretty ones. Tawn and I are having a debate as to the cause, but about three weeks ago all the fronds turned yellow and fell off. In the following days a dozen new fronds sprouted and took their place. Tawn thinks that this is just the season when ferns drop their fronds. I think he overwatered (there was an inch of standing water in the saucer below the pots) and killed the fronds. Any fern experts available to help settle this matter?

On Saturday we went to the travel fair at Queen Sirikit Convention Centre. I tell you, if you have some free time in the next month or so, there are some amazing deals to be had. 25,000 baht to Australia on Singapore Airlines. 33,000 baht to London. All sorts of deals on resorts here in Thailand.

Unfortunately, our travel plans for the next two months are already booked, so we couldn’t take advantage of these deals.

We did, however, find some ninjas at the Yokoso! Japan booth. These were real Japanese and they even spoke Thai, too. Impressive, huh? Probably not real ninjas, though.

There is something odd about the stereotypes the Japanese tourism authority is trading in. But if it gets people to visit (like we are in April) then I guess it works.

Best “must-see” item from the brochures: the Ramen Museum in Yokohama.

Stuck on Thong Lo

Posted on 28 February 2009 by christao408

The north end of Thong Lor (Sukhumvit Soi 55) gets really backed up with traffic, especially on weekend afternoons. Lots of shoppers going to lots of shops and sometimes you end up sitting for several minutes. Yes, these moments of stuck traffic give me amazing opportunities to really see this fascinating neighborhood in which I live.

The street is about 3 km (2 miles) long with a Skytrain station at the south end. There is a special transit system, a fleet of aging Mercedes Benz busses that spew coarse black smoke, that run up and down the soi, picking up riders at the Skytrain station, several stops along the way, until terminating at the khlong (canal) pier on the north end of the street.

These bright red unairconditioned busses park at the north end of the street when they are not in use. While sitting in traffic, I watched as two men refueled one of the buses in the most ad-hoc manner: gravity-fed through a rubber hose connected to a plastic fuel jug.

The color and the composition both spoke to me but I was equally fascinated that the younger man was smoking while doing this. I wondered if I kept the camera ready, would I be able to capture a good picture of the explosion without losing my life in the process?

I never found out as traffic started moving and there was, to the best of my knowledge, no explosion.

Also along the street, which is known for its abundance of wedding boutiques, I saw a plant vendor pause in the shade in front of a window displaying a wedding gown.

Again, a wonderful contrast that exemplifies this neighborhood: it is called the Beverly Hills of Bangkok, but at the same time all segments of the socioeconomic spectrum are represented here, both living and working. That is something I really like about Krungthep: there is a huge gap between the haves and have-nots, but the gap isn’t physical.

KL The End

Posted on 27 February 2009 by christao408

And so, dear reader, the weekend in Kuala Lumpur came to an end. After walking around the city, finally exploring some of the sights, watching domes being scrubbed and taking in the majestic phallicness of the Petronas Towers, we returned to the hotel, freshened up, packed our bags, checked out…

and had two hours to kill before our driver was schedule to arrive.

Not wanting to get sweaty again and a bit hungry from our explorations that morning, we walked back to the Pavilion mall. Here is the outdoor dining area that I was talking about – “the catwalk” along which people stroll or sit and sip coffee, to see and be seen.

Ignoring all our Lonely Planet sensibilities – local food only! – we stopped at an Italian restaurant along the catwalk called, originally enough, Michelangelo’s. They had a reasonably priced set lunch and since our flight wouldn’t put us back into Krungthep until after dinnertime, a late lunch seemed reasonable.

Mushroom soup for me, Caesar salad for Tawn. A simple pizza to share.

A seafood pasta dish for Tawn (sorry for the lousy exposure) and a hearty ossobuco for me.

After some coffee, a short walk back to the hotel as the first drops of afternoon rain started to fall. Below, the thing I like best about KL: beautiful old trees shading the sidewalks.

We made good time to the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport, a gorgeous white elephant an hour south of town. Air Asia flies from the cheapskate… er, low-cost, terminal which is an additional 20 km drive from the main terminal.

Upon checking in we dealt with the challenge of explaining to the agent that while we had paid to reserve a seat (something new for Air Asia), we would like to pay the difference to the higher fee to reserve an exit row seat (250 baht versus 50 baht). She didn’t understand what we wanted to do, so we ended up sitting in our original seats. Not too bad, but legroom is tight so a few extra centimeters would have been appreciated.

Smooth flight back to the Big Mango as we watched a beautiful sunset over the Andaman Sea. Good to be back home.

Seeing the Touristy Stuff in KL

Posted on 25 February 2009 by christao408

I manage to make a three-day trip to KL seem like a month, don’t I? Here’s our final day in KL. We decided to actually get a little bit of sightseeing in, since Pong had driven us around the evening before and we had a better idea of how the city was laid out.

First, though, breakfast at a cute bakery called The Loaf, located in The Pavilion mall. While it wasn’t Tartine by any stretch, the baked goods were pretty tasty and the selection was broad. Here’s a look at what pretty things were on display:

From there we took the monorail several stops south into the city. This is a good way to see the city as it is elevated and views are largely unobstructed. We alighted at the Majarajalela station (I’m sure I mispronounced that when buying the tickets, but we got there alright) and then walked into Chinatown.

First we stopped at the Chan See Shu Yuen temple, which is a Chinese clan association building for, I assume, the Chan family. Pretty building with a fascinating bonzai tree in the courtyard, which sits upon an old Singer sewing machine base.

Continuing north a few blocks past the old chophouses, we arrived at Jalan Petaling, a covered street that looks a little like the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, minus the LED light display. The vendors and shops had the typical collection of things that you find everywhere in Asia.

We continued west along Jalan Hang Lekir, passing a few interesting boutiques including one called Peter Hoe, which offers textiles, home decor, and a nice selection of batik on the corner of Jalan Hang Lekir and Jalan Hang Kasturi. Cute place, worth a visit.

We stopped by the General Post Office which, according to my little guide, was open on Sundays. Unfortunately, it isn’t. So I returned home with stampless postcards and will have to mail them (once written) and some extra ringgit, to Andrew in Penang and ask him to post the cards for me.

This section of town, near Independence Square or Dataran Merdeka) has some fantastic examples of Islamic architecture, both in traditional forms as well as more modern ones.

Above, the dome of the Textile Museum is washed, its stripes reminiscent of the duomo in Siena, Italy. In the background is (what I understand to be) a former government building, although the government has relocated itself to a new city 30km south of KL, near the new airport.

What is fascinating is how the more modern building’s screens echo the lines in the older, more traditional building. These are motifs that are reflected again and again throughout the city.

We walked a bit further before catching the subway three stops to the KL City Centre area, home of the Petronas Towers. No longer the tallest buildings in the world, they are still very impressive, especially at night.

I had initially hesitated to come see the towers, even though Ken had told me there was a park at the base of them. For some reason I thought the space would be tacky but, other than the high-end mall incorporated into the base of the tower, the park is actually very nice and there are some great areas to sit in the shade, enjoy the fountains and take in the view.

We were quite sweaty by this point so returned to the hotel to freshen up before our 2:00 check-out. Tomorrow, I’ll conclude our visit.

Cafe Culture in KL

Posted on 24 February 2009 by christao408

For most of our trip to KL we ate, hung out at cafes and generally avoided the touristy must-see places. Had we done this in Krungthep, we’d think of ourselves as wasting away our time. But since we were on holiday in another city, it was quite alright.

Very close to our hotel was the Pavilion Mall. This very large, very high-end mall is equivalent to Paragon in Krungthep except that it has a very nice open-air space that is lines with restaurants and cafes. Lots of outdoor seating and – I swear! – the largest concentration of gay men I’ve seen anywhere in Southeast Asia. The area is apparently nicknamed “The Catwalk” for reasons that quickly become obvious.

Outdoor dining is something largely missing in Krungthep, especially middle- and upper-tier restaurants. Streetside noodle vendors are a baht a dozen, of course. There was a nice Illy “Espressamente” Cafe situated at the end of the catwalk.

The menu included a wide range of little bites from panini to olives to cheeses. From upper left, clockwise: olives, air-cured beef, and fresh cheese served with toasts; “arancita” fried rice ball with beef inside; a latte made with heart; grilled panini sandwich.

In the afternoon, we went to Central Market, a restored two-story market with many small vendors selling trinkets and souvenirs, some very local and others looking like the same things you can find at any market in Asia. Next door were some art galleries so we stopped in to see an exhibit.

Below, Icsse KHOR Chin Tin’s “Snow Falls in Malaysia? Who Knows?” – mixed media on canvas.

Mohd Iqbal Badaruddin’s “Unforgotten” – mixed media and silkscreen on canvas

CHIANG Lup Hong’s “Seven Deadly Sins” – ink and acrylic on paper

Detail of “Seven Deadly Sins”

Azmi Aris’ “Bersatu Padu” – acrylic

Hudri Hayat’s “Kepulangan II” – oil on canvas

Many thanks to Pong, Otto and Han’s friend, who introduced us to the gallery.

Dining on Jalan Alor

Posted on 21 February 2009 by christao408

This trip hasn’t included a lot of sight seeing. And we realized after the fact that we know a number of people here whom we forgot were here. So apologies to those we didn’t see on this trip. We’ll be back, though, as KL seems a comfortable and laid-back city, even if there aren’t a lot of must-see sights.

First off, the view from the hotel room. We could see one half of one of the two Petronas Towers.

The view itself isn’t super impressive. But the towers are and they really are amazing at night, visible from all over the city, popping up in the background when you least expect them.

On the advice of some of Tawn’s KL office colleagues, we ventured over to Jalan Alor (jalan = street), a long block of hawker centers and open-air restaurants that cover a wide range of ingredients and styles of cooking. In front of each restaurant are touts, holding menus and assertively selling you on why their restaurant is the place you should eat. Not unlike the touts you would expect to find in a red light district which, we discovered, is nearby.

After walking nearly the whole length of the street, we ran the gauntlet back to the beginning, settling on one of the first places we saw. There was a large selection of individual vendors, so we felt like the variety would be very good. We ordered a lot of food, too much for two people, and ate well.

Spicy squid served in a chili sauce. Not so spicy as to be intolerable, but with a nice kick.

Chicken satay with a tasty fresh peanut sauce. Juicy meat with a nice smoky flavor.

Eggplant stir fried with ginger.

Skate wing fried in banana leaf, served with lime and chili sauce. Never had skate wing before. Interesting texture as, like shark, there’s a lot of cartilage.

Fried noodles with seafood and veggies. We could have lived without this just because we already had so much food.

By the time we finished, the sun had set and the streets were filling with people. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a cinema to see what was playing, ending up watching Slumdog Millionaire, which has yet to open in Krungthep. Very nice film, well made.

Posted on 19 February 2009 by christao408

I headed down to Kuala Lumpur today, and easy flight at just over two hours long. Tawn will join me Friday and we’ll spend the weekend here. I took Air Asia for the flight, the “Southwest Airlines” of Southeast Asia. I’m not a big fan of the airline: 29″ pitch is a bit tight for me (I’m 6′ tall) even if the flight is only a few hours.

But the price can’t be argued with: 4300 baht including taxes versus 6900 baht on Malaysia and 10000+ baht on THAI. I don’t want to contribute to this race to the bottom by flying based on price alone, but a 50% premium isn’t justifiable for two or three more inches of leg room for two hours.

While I generally don’t find our new airport to be that attractive, I did find one angle from which is looks nice:

It was a very humid day in Krungthep and while boarding, the air conditioned air was condensing inside the cabin, creating a fog-like effect that was really funny. You felt like you were walking through clouds just to get to your seat!

The picture doesn’t do it justice, though. Please view the video below for the full effect.

While waiting to push back, an Aeroflot IL-96 pulled up alongside us. Aeroflot is the remnant of the U.S.S.R.’s sole carrier and the IL-96 was the last Russian-built plane they added to their fleet. In years since, they have bought aircraft from Boeing and Airbus. The 96 is an interesting bird: not a very long fuselage but huge wings. It is designed to fly long routes with medium passenger loads, although it not the most fuel-efficient plane out there.

Arriving in KL at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal, I was struck by how much outdoor walking they have you do. All covered walkways, but it was quite a hike to get to the terminal. Along the way, beautiful views of the airplanes. Of course, they are all Air Asia planes so it gets boring real fast.

I’m staying at the Novotel in central KL, quite close to the Petronas Towers. In fact, I can see one (vertical) half of one of the towers from my room. I can’t wait to show Tawn!

The area nearby the hotel is quite a popular stretch. Lots of outdoor seating at restaurants and cafes for cuisine from around the world. Very nice, actually. I don’t understand why Krungthep doesn’t have anything like this? KL is very similar weather to Thailand, so that’s no excuse for not having outdoor seating.

christao408

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

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