Pterodactyls sell condos

Posted on 25 March 2008 by christao408

I’m always amazed at how fear can be used to sell things. Sometimes subtly, sometimes quite obviously. A recent advertising campaign for a new condo complex promised you will be able to “Escape the Old City Living” – pre-sale available at Siam Paragon shopping mall from the 28th of March until the 1st of April.

If you look closely at this black and white collage of familiar Khrungthep landmarks – Victory Monument, the Rama VIII bridge, etc – you can see all sorts of interesting signs of urban “decay”:

Giant cobwebs on the bridge’s cables

Shattered windscreen on the BTS Skytrain

And of course, the true sign that urban decay has blighted the Big Mango is the flock of pterodactyls flying over the city.

Because we all know that before white flight from the suburbs really started in the US in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, there were many incidents of prehistoric winged creatures in the skies. One can only imagine what local sightings of these fearsome creatures portend for Khrungthep.

Fortunately, there are many options if you want a change from the “old city living”. The Bangkok Post today reports that there are no less than 17 condominium projects going up between Sukhumvit Sois 53 and 63 – the distance between exactly one stop on the Skytrain.

Here’s the fast progress being made in the large property adjacent the Asoke BTS Station. Formerly a Ford and Volvo dealership, it will become a large multi-use complex in the next eighteen months.

That was taken two days ago. Now there are twice as many cranes at work. We need a new city motto. Maybe, “Khrungthep: Things are always going up.”

Harry Swings in New Orleans… er, Bangkok

Posted on 19 March 2008 by christao408

Monday evening, St. Patrick’s Day, we enjoyed a huge treat. Harry Connick, Jr. and his big band came to the City of Angels to perform in support of his “My New Orleans” tour.

There were twelve of us in attendance and we preceded the concert with dinner at the Zen Food Loft. Tawn’s friend Fuyuko joined us – a too-rare pleasure, above – and in Ken’s absence we celebrated Chai’s birthday which is on Wednesday. I brought a candle and a lighter in my bag and then we put it in a slice of cake and sang “happy birthday” for him, below.

As for Mr. Connick, the 41-year old singer, pianist, and actor was making his first visit to Khrungthep and brought two of his three daughters with him. At one point near the end of the show, he called them onstage and did an impromptu interview, asking them about their impressions of the city. Both said it was their favorite place on the tour.

Mr Connick’s band is straight out of the Big Easy and many of the numbers they performed were classic jazz with a Dixieland flavor. Lots of brass, lots of improvisation, and everyone in the band was having a good time.

To top it off, in addition to being a talented musician and vocalist, Mr. Connick is a true entertainer. He interspersed songs with lots of self-depracating banter, knew a little bit about the local culture – the band even performed one of the popular jazz songs His Majesty the King had composed, and generally clowned around.

Early in the evening, his right contact lens came out and he proceeded to use the lens of one of the cameras as a mirror while putting it back in. Of course, that camera’s view was the one showing on the big screens so we saw a closeup of all this.

Afterwards, he joked that he had used the same hand to put in the contact lens, as he had used just before the show to pick the hot peppers out of his pad thai noodles. For several minutes there was an ongoing joke about him crying from only his right eye because he was only half sad.

It was a very fun time and the audience, seated in the Bangkok Convention Centre at Central World Plaza in a layout that was more appropriate for a business meeting than a jazz concert, warmed up appreciably as the night went on. By the finale of the concert, people were literally dancing in the aisles.

Even thought security checked for cameras, as usual they didn’t look very hard. Here are two short clips – 1:08 and 0:36, respectively – from the encore, just to give you a flavor of the concert.

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Sundays in the Park with Stuart

Posted on 17 March 2008 by christao408

It seems that things in the Khrungthep cycling scene are heating up, which has nothing to do with the coming hot season. It started with the first-ever Khrungthep Critical Mass on the final day of February. Then this past Sunday there was a 45-km trip around Khrungthep, about which I’ll write in a moment. It continues with a 160-km one way ride to Hua Hin this coming Sunday followed by the second Critical Mass the next Friday, and then a 70-km ride on March 30th that begins in Phra Padaeng on the southwest side of the river.

Crazy, huh? 160 km is way too much for me to do at this point as a one day trip. Maybe when the annual ride comes around next time. But I’m excited to see so much interest and enthusiasm in cycling in this City of the Perpetual Traffic Jam.

This past Sunday’s ride was a bit of a Tour de Khrungthep in the non-French sense of the word. About 150 riders met at National Stadium, which is just to the west of the Siam Square area. At 8:00 we headed out, stopping just a few minutes later at Hualamphong Railway Station for a tour – in Thai – from a docent. Hualamphong is a beautiful station and a good example of Thai Art Deco.

We then paid a visit to the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, a Red Cross-run “Snake Farm” whose primary purpose is to study and develop anti-venom serums for the many types of poisonous snakes found in the Kingdom. There is a fascinating and well-organized educational exhibit on snakes and you can see dozens of different poisonous and non-poisonous species.

Some people are really scared of snakes and other reptiles. I find them really fascinating. When I was in secondary school – I forget which grade, maybe seventh – we could check out a reptile for the weekend from our biology class. I brought a snake home and while it was interesting (I love the way they move), they really aren’t very fun pets.

Afterwards, we rode to Lumpini Park and on to the park next to Queen Sirikit Convention Center. This is where Markus and I often ride as it has a good 2-km dedicated bike path around the lake. Below, you can see the progress on the four towes of the Millenium Condo project between Sukhumvit 16 and 18. More on that in an entry here. Below that is an atist’s rendering of what the finished project will look like. Way, way out of scale to the skyline.

millennium_main2

After some pretty short legs, we finally started some serious distance riding, heading up Asoke Road to Ratchadapisek, cutting under the Rama IX expressway on a small local street, and then continuing up by the Thailand Cultural Center where we broke for lunch.

After lunch we continued up Ram Intra to Lad Prao, one of the main east-west arteries on the north side of the city, and then all the way to the very large and busy Phahon Yothin / Lad Prao intersection. Thank goodness we had a large group of riders still so we could command traffic as we made a series of turns to get to the far side of the de-facto traffic circle.

There we arrived at Railroad Park, a former State Railways of Thailand golf course that has been converted into a beautiful public park, below. Hard to imagine that this is in the teeming metropolis of Khrungthep, isn’t it?

By this point it was nearing 2:30 and the group was starting to thin out. People who lived on the northern side of the city headed home directly, while about thirty of us headed back towards National Stadium. This part of the ride took me through some areas that I’ve driven before but was not very familiar with, especially the frontage road that follows the railways tracks past Bang Sue station, parallel to the Rama XI expressway. It was good to cover this area on bicycle because now I know it better. It is also easier to navigate on bicycle because you can ignore the forced left turns that keep cars from using the frontage road as a raceway/shortcut.

Returning to National Stadium wasn’t really the end of it for me, as I still had to bike home. All told, the ride worked out to be about 65 km for me, the longest I’ve done since I moved to Thailand.

Fortunately, I was not alone for the trip.

Since Markus had church to attend, I drummed up another riding companion, Stuart.

He’s expressed interest in going for a ride before and this was certainly the one to give him a taste (a big, heaping taste) of what urban riding is like here. By the end of it he seemed pretty positive about the experience, so maybe he’ll be heading to ProBike and spending some money soon!

Stuart’s blog entry about the ride, along with a map of the route, is here.

Saturday Errands

Posted on 16 March 2008 by christao408

Almost all of our Saturdays get consumed by errands. Along the way, there are always interesting things to see. At least, things to see that are interesting to me. So I’ll share them with you and assume you’ll be interested, too.

A sign of the times

Part of a series of advertisements for the Noble property development company, announcing their new “Noble Reveal” condo that will soon begin selling. The advertisements use the same pitch: “Help reduce global warming; use cars less. Noble Reveal, new condo located close to Ekkamai BTS station.”

Each of the advertisements features a similar photo: sea lions huddled on an ice floe, penguins huddled on an ice floe, polar bears huddled on an ice floe.

The environmental claim is, of course, a bit questionable. While the condo will be located very close to the Skytrain, it will also be at one of the most congested intersections in the city and will feature an ample car park. Additionally, there is no reason to believe that anything Noble will do during the construction will be environmentally friendly, from the materials from which the condos are constructed to the disposal of paints and other chemicals that are used.

Worst of all is the other message sent by the pictures: you’ll be huddled together in a small space that is getting ever smaller. What a terrible way to sell a condominium. The rooms are small! You’ll be cramped together! You’ll be competing for an ever-diminishing pool of resources!

Yeah, sign me up.

Le Tour Eiffel in Central

Central Department Stores is having a “Europe” promotion. Their flagship location, Central Chidlom, has models of various famous European sights: Big Ben in the east parking lot, Arc de Triomphe (two of them!) at the main entrances, and in the escalator atrium, a 30-meter tall model of Le Tour Eiffel.

This must have taken a good bit of time to build. The structure is metal and the sections are bolted together. As you ride up the escalator you can get a pretty good look at the construction and you have to give them credit for a job well done.

On the various levels there are mannequins displaying famous European designer wear. On the ground floor underneath the tower, there is a l’Occitaine display where the employees are wearing very pink outfits reminiscent of provincial French farmers, complete with straw hats.

Thankfully, there are no mimes.

Need a Nikon?

Down the street at Siam Paragon there was a large event promoting Nikon cameras. They had dozens of models on display, especially the SLR cameras and some really big lenses. There was something going on onstage, there were beautiful girls dressed in short shirts and tight tops, there were giveaways and music. And lots of nerdy men who seemed more interested in the big lenses than the scantily clad women.

You need this machine!

We met Tawn’s colleague Meiji at Starbucks Siam Center and visited for a half-hour. Afterwards, on our way out, we stopped to look at the espresso machine that they have for sale. The “Barista” model has received pretty good reviews from different sources and we’re in the market to replace our rather crappy drip coffee maker that we’ve had for two years. Not sure that we need an espresso machine in particular, but we like the idea of controlled portions and greater consistency in the quality of our morning coffee.

The root of the problem might actually lies in our coffee grinder. We have a Krups model, which is supposed to be a good one. But I find a lot of variation in the resulting grind which of course leads to variations in the strength of the coffee.

We try French press and run into the same problem, plus the added one of the coffee cooling off quickly in the glass container. Our drip coffee maker is really inconsistent and one of the plastic parts is irreparably broken. We have a stovetop Italian espresso maker but the base isn’t steel so it doesn’t work on our induction stovetop. Back in the US in my sister’s guest room closet I have a really nice drip coffee maker, but I don’t know if it is worth the effort to bring it over here. Plus, I’d have to use a converter like I do with my Kitchen Aid mixer.

So we’ve been exploring options. When we showed interest in the model at Starbucks, one of the employees rushed over and offered to demo the machine for us. What followed was a very thorough 20-minute demonstration in which he made a latte for us using the machine, then allowed us to practice using it, too. End result, two free lattes – after the ones we had already purchased and consumed. Jittery.

The machine is very easy to use and the construction looks solid. Only a few parts and the design does not have any of the “awkward” elements that machines sometimes have. The only problem is the price. That’s a lot of money to spend for a coffee maker. Cheaper than some of the others we’ve looked at but more expensive than some, too.

How much for our morning cup of coffee?

Skateboarding at Siam

Despite the popularity of Siam Paragon, Siam Square and Siam Center remain much more the focal point of the Khrungthep youth scene. Between the two Siam Center properties (Siam Center and Siam Discovery Center) there is a plaza that is often set up with concerts and other events.

On Saturday is was home to a skateboarding demo. A hundred or so youth were hanging out, watching. A dozen skateboarders went back and forth, none of them doing any particularly impressive tricks. A DJ played music and the breeze kept spectators comfortable.

Viva Siam.

Saturday evening we met up with Otto, who is in town from Singapore, for dinner. It was very nice to catch up with him as on his last visit here timing was rushed and we never did really get a chance to visit. Dinner was at the food court at MBK, which tries to mimic the choices available at the Central Food Loft, but to poor effect.

But it really is about the company, not the food, right?

Right?

Visit from Mother-in-Law

Posted on 10 March 2008 by christao408

Sunday afternoon my mother-in-law, Khun Nui, stopped by the house. For the longest time she had never been over here, then when Elle did the photo shoot she came over. Subsequent to that, she has been a frequent visitor, stopping by whenever her husband is away.

While Tawn’s father is largely operating in extended “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode, Tawn’s mother knows what’s going on and seems pretty happy to have me as a son-in-law. Although there are occasional moments when I think she’s holding out hope that Tawn will change his mind.

She made a comment the other day about another member of the their extended family having a wedding and how Tawn wasn’t getting married, to which I responded that we could go ahead and have a wedding for the family. She shot me a look that was one part “you’re crazy” and another part “what are you talking about?”

Two summers ago, Tawn and his parents went to Italy to visit the family for whom Khun Nui had worked as an au pair for two years before Tawn was born. Khun Nui has remained in touch with Joanna, the Italian mother, and her oldest two children whom Khun Nui helped raise.

The oldest of these children will be married this July and the plan is for Tawn to take his parents back to Italy to attend the wedding, possibly extending it into a two week trip to see more of Europe.

This is a very Thai thing: older parents do not go off on holiday without their children accompanying them. Much in the way that in years past farmers gave birth to many children in order to have a supply of labor on the farm, nowadays Thai parents have children in order to have a supply of tour leaders, travel agents, and porters when going on holiday.

While we canceled our Spring trip back to the US because of cost overruns on the condo remodel, Tawn’s father will pick up his costs for the Europe trip, so it shouldn’t be much of a burden. With a few weeks free, maybe I should scrape up a few baht and fly back to the US and enjoy some peaches, nectarines, and beefsteak tomatoes!

Elephant naps in Minburi

Posted on 9 March 2008 by christao408

When it comes to Sunday morning bicycle rides, the earlier I start, the better. Sunday, I was up at six and arrived at the ride site in Minburi just before seven. Already, the sun was above the horizon and the day was warming up. There were still some hints of the overnight coolness, though. Wish I had arrived even earlier.

This ride site is a stretch of expressway that was a built a few years ago as part of a larger project, but was never connected to the other portions. Other than a handful of local vehicles, the road is used in the mornings primarily by runners, joggers, and families out for a ride with their children. It also attracts cyclists, often several dozen of them, in their fancy spandex racing gear with their fancy aerodynamic helmets and their expensive road bikes.

I shouldn’t use what could sound like such a derisive tone. We’re all brothers and sisters in cycling. Compared to most of these cyclists, though, I’m decidedly down-market. My spandex is hidden under a pair of cargo shorts, my helmet is functional, not aerodynamic, and my bicycle is a clunky hybrid. There are no potholes or rough patches of pavement that I fear!

Anyhow, Sunday I was out there earlier than most of the other cyclists and had the road pretty much to myself. The first stretch is actually a narrow side road that connects the airport expressway’s frontage road to this new stretch of expressway. It is a country road with small khlongs on either side (shades of Sukhumvit fifty years ago), a few small manufacturing businesses, and the occasional restaurant. Locals are up yearly, fishing in the khlongs. A tractor is preparing a rice paddy for planting. Someone is picking a bunch of bananas from a roadside tree.

Along this narrow street that lies under the approach path to the new airport, two small housing estates are being built. Both look like they’ll be targeted at the entry level home owners what can afford maybe at most a half-million baht for two bedrooms and no land. I’ll take more pictures as the development continues. It fills my heart with a little sadness to see another rural area being developed, rice paddies traded for cookie cutter houses.

The stretch of expressway I ride is about four kilometers long and bridges two other khlongs. Both bridges are built up with earth like highway overpasses in the US, affording nice views of the surrounding countryside. Early morning along the khlong you see more of the fishing-cooking-harvesting activities as people rise with the sun and have families to feed and work to do.

One of the stranger sites I’ve seen was captured in the photo, below. Next to one of the bridges is an open field, quite a large one. In the field there was a baby elephant wandering around, grazing. I’ve never seen an elephant out here and it certainly isn’t native to Minburi. Many times, the mahouts who are the elephants’ caretakers bring them into the city because there is no work elsewhere. Even though it is illegal, they bring the elephants right into the tourist sections of town, selling people the opportunity to feed the elephants and pose for pictures.

Perhaps this is where the mahout and his elephant are living. I didn’t see any fences or restraints, but perhaps elephants aren’t prone to making a break for their freedom. As I passed the field each time, I looked at the elephant as she wandered about. Finally, she settled down for a nap in the tall grass. Can you spot her?

Speaking of development, if I had panned about thirty degrees to the right and taken another picture, you would see a forest of mid-rise condo projects, all about eight stories tall, built about one kilometer away. If I had to guess, there are probably about two thousand units, all of which have sprung up in the past three or four years.

Different things to different people

Posted on 9 March 2008 by christao408

In the musical The Boy from Oz, Hugh Jackman (playing Peter Allen), opens the show singing a song titled “The Lives of Me”.

“I come in many colors, assorted shapes and sizes,
can adapt to your demands.
And if you smile at someone then I’ll just become that one,
and throw in all the others for free.
All the lives of me.”

Sometimes I feel that way about my blog. This is probably a feeling common to many bloggers. You start out writing the blog for one reason or another and over time, as it attracts more readers, it is easy to start feeling like there are different blogs being written.

There’s the food blog, the travel blog, the Thai cultural blog, the gay long term relationship blog, the airline enthusiast blog, the random quotes from showtunes blog… you get the idea.

Just like the character of Peter Allen in the musical, I feel like if you enjoy one particular blog, my blog will become that one and throw in all the others for free.

The blog started out because I knew I would be moving to Thailand and wanted to create a means by which my family and friends could stay in touch with what’s happening in my life. Many of those “target audience” member do read regularly although I’m always a little amazed at friends who, when we trade emails, express how out of touch with me they feel. No reason to be out of touch… you can get a pretty exhaustive recap just by reading my blog.

Along the way, I’ve assembled a fascinating and rewarding collection of readers. Truly, some very interesting and thoughtful people whose acquaintance I’m very glad to have made. I just hope that you weren’t misled about what this blog was and feel subsequently disappointed that there aren’t enough entries about food, travel, Thai culture, airplanes, showtunes, or whatever it was that drew you to the blog in the first place.

Doing a PR Polish for Ble

Tawn recruited me on Friday morning to help our designer, Ble. In advance of a feature article on him in the Bangkok Post newspaper, Ble (pronounced “bun”), was sent a list of interview questions. When he showed Tawn his responses, Tawn shook his head and asked, tactfully, how he could be such a good designer and yet such a poor self-publicist.

I was called in to polish his responses so bicycled over to his store at noon on Friday. We had lunch at a cute little place on Sukhumvit 16 called Kuppa, a cozy place that reminds me of a restaurant I’d expect to find in the San Francisco Bay Area. More about it on a future visit but here’s a picture of their tasty cherry pie, left.

The lunch proved to be a very good opportunity to get to know Ble better. We’ve never spent any time, just the two of us. Tawn has known Ble for several years and we’ve socialized, but never had two hours of solo conversation. In the course of essentially re-interviewing him, I learned a lot about what drew him to design in the first place. I tried to polish the answers to convey certain themes. Here’s a selection:

How did you become involved in Modern Thai Living?
As a child, my interest in design was already evident. I would spend hours drawing; I was fascinated by textures and textiles, fabrics and furniture. My playtime was spent exploring the markets. It was there – especially at Chatuchak – that my love for Modern Thai Living was cultivated.
What are your extravagances?
When I’m abroad exploring for beautiful objects for my clients and my stores, I have only one extravagance: no matter how remote the town, no matter how hot or dusty the markets I’ve searched in, I must conclude my day with a satisfying meal at a cozy, comfortable restaurant.
What advice would you give visitors to Bangkok?
Beyond the famous tourist sights, beyond the temples and the nightlife, Bangkok is a city full of hidden treasures. Every local has a favorite restaurant, a favorite shop that is his or her “hidden gem”. Make every effort to meet as many locals as you can and as you get to know them, they’ll share these treasures with you.

Hopefully that doesn’t sound too silly. What do you think? Hopefully the prose is a beautiful as his design work.

A House in the Country

Sukhumvit Road in modern times is very much a main artery in the City of Angels. It might be hard to imagine that not that many decades ago, the street was lined with two small khlongs and rows of trees. Well-heeled residents bought land along Sukhumvit and in the sois that branch off it in order to have country homes where they could escape on the weekends.

Of course, nowadays the idea of a home along Sukhumvit being a country home seems downright absurd. But amidst the condo developments, hotels, and shopping centers you can still find plenty of examples of the beautiful houses built in the distinctive styles of the 1950s and 1960s on gated compounds that feature generous gardens and a peaceful respite from the surrounding city.

Below are two photos of one of these houses. Facing Sukhumvit proper between sois 34 and 36, this house is a lovely example of 1960s tropical architecture. To the east of the building is a new condo complex that will tower some 30 stories above it, destroying whatever privacy the residents enjoyed. One day, eventually, the family or their heirs will finally cave in and sell the property to developers.

These days, the homes being built in the countryside are large developments, gated communities in which several hundred cookie-cutter homes are squeezed together on old rice paddies. No gardens of any appreciable size, no cross-ventilation, and a horrible commute into town. It is times like these when I wonder whether it is really appropriate to use the western definition of the word to measure Thailand’s “progress”, for this relentless suburbanization of the city hardly seems like progress. More like degeneration.

Bill’s Farewell for Now Party

One constant in your life if you’re an expat is the coming and going, the constant ebb and flow, of other expats. Francois left last week, gone home for two months to work. Russ will leave soon for a few weeks. Ken will be out of town quite a bit over the next two months, to say nothing of Markus, who is away more than he is here. Bill’s turn is next as he’ll be heading back to Florida on Tuesday for an indefinite length of time although with a desire to return just as soon as he can.

To celebrate his departure – or perhaps just to finish his collection of whisky – he threw a party on Saturday night. It was a collection of the usual suspects leading to the usual conversations and silliness. Right, Ken dances for Roka and Russ looks on.

Below, Tawn and Chai

Call me crazy, but if you throw a party beginning at 7:30 in the evening, wouldn’t the normal expectation be that you have at least a few real food items on the table? We ended up just with chips, dips, and other assorted junk food. Worse yet, Tawn and I contributed to it! We brought cupcakes. I know, I know… chicken satay would have been a much better contribution.

Yet, there was an ulterior motive. I’ll let you in on the conceit:

My elder niece turns five at the end of the month. For her birthday gift, I used Shutterfly to make a customized picture book telling the story of her trip to San Francisco last autumn with her uncles to attend a family wedding. It is 27 pages with pictures and a compelling story. On the final page, I wanted a funny picture of me and Tawn wishing her a happy birthday.

I settled on the idea of buying some cupcakes and staging a photo in which we ostensibly were presenting the cupcakes to my niece, but instead I’d be sneaking a bite of one while Tawn scolded me. We did a number of shots with Bill doing the picture-taking.

Wanting some nice cupcakes for our friends, we went to After You, a small shop in J Avenue on Thong Lor. After You has really cute packaging, right, and a very clever name.

You see, there is an upscale Japanese barbecue restaurant two doors down called Yuu and, like most Japanese restaurants, it doesn’t really offer much in the way of a dessert menu. I understand that in Japan, if you want dessert you go to a dessert shop afterwards. So after eating dinner at Yuu, if you want something sweet to finish the night you go to After You. Get it? Clever, huh?

Anyhow, here’s the picture we settled on.

Waiting for Fridays

Posted on 6 March 2008 by christao408

Much like some people are born in the wrong body, likewise some Thursdays are really meant to be Fridays. Sadly, there is no “day reassignment surgery” option. When we woke up Thursday morning, Tawn asked three times whether it was Friday. Sadly for him, the answer didn’t change.

But despite Thursday having to stay a Thursday all day long, it went pretty well.

Thai Lessons

For me, Tuesday and Thursday mornings are Thai classes with my tutor, Khru Kitiya. We meet at Bitter Brown, a small coffee shop and restaurant near the Asoke BTS station. Things are quiet there in the morning and we’ve been meeting there for the better part of two years – so long that the staff monitors my learning progress – so we usually have a comfortable space in which to study free from distraction. Class ends around noon or shortly after, at whatever point that the din of the lunch crowd makes it difficult for me to hear the subtle final consonants of the Thai words.

For the past several months, I’ve been using a well-known Thai book from the mid-1950s, Lai Chiwit (Many Lives), as my textbook. Written by a former Prime Minister and prolific author, M.R. Kukrit Pramoj (1911-1995), the book is a collection of short stories that chronicle life in Thailand in that time. Written in elegant prose, the stories not only give me a window into the past – a past which heavily influences modern Thai culture – but also give me the pleasure of exploring the beauty of the Thai language.

Right, the cover of the 1996 English language version of the book, translated by Meredith Borthwick and published by Silkworm Books.

Thai really is a very elegant language in which to write, at once both graceful and playful. Needless to say, I’m having a tough time wading through it since the more formal and prosaic language which Khun Kukrit used is more elegant to the ear than it is clear to the farang! But Khru Kitiya is infinitely patient and while there are days (Thursday) where we manage to wade through only two paragraphs, there are many more days in which the progress is measured in pages, plural, rather than fractions of one.

Interesting trivia: Pictured left is Khun Kukrit, whose “M.R.” (Mom Ratchawong) designation indicates he was the son of a prince, was a technical advisor and played the role of the prime minister in the 1963 film, “The Ugly American” starring Marlon Brando.

Unpretty Dinner

When Tawn returned home from work he suggested that we eat somewhere nearby. There is a local seafood restaurant on Thong Lor between sois 5 and 7 called Niyom Gotchana and it is the most unassuming place you’d imagine.

The storefront is open air, floors and walls are finished in an antiseptic look of white tiles, and the lighting comes from dozens of “cool white” florescent tubes which give the place the sterile charm of a county examiner’s office.

Right: Easy Thai – can anyone guess what is said in the blue field of the sign? Actually, if you know the English word, you should be able to work out what all of the Thai characters represent like a code-buster would.

That said, the seafood is fresh, of good quality, and inexpensive. Out in front of the shop are two baskets covered with damp blankets, each containing live crabs. A few had slipped out of one or the other of their bindings but, lacking the right evolutionary tools, could not undo their other binding and climb to freedom. So they sat there snapping and awaiting their fate. Ending up as a plate of curry or salt and pepper crab really is a pretty noble fate, if you ask me.

I was pretty punchy, having spent all afternoon staring at the computer screen, so after ordering the food I sat there making conversation with Tawn and playing with my utensils. Tawn was kind of punchy, too.

The food at Niyom is tasty, but they just have no sense of presentation. Each dish that came out looked quite “blah”, not helped by the icy blue cast of the lights. Tawn’s expression above was the actual response to the flat look of the otherwise tasty stir-fry of tofu, bean sprouts and onion sprouts. The dish was fine; it just looked lackluster.

Even our tod man goong, the fried shrimp cakes that were very fresh, moist, and not at all oily, looked kind of ho-hum. Now, I’m not one to complain, because the prices were good and the food was tasty. But I was hoping to bring back inspiring pictures that would make your mouths water.

We opted for fish instead of crab for the simple reason that neither of us wanted to do the work of picking apart a crab. Instead, we smartly ordered crab fried rice, letting the kitchen do the work for us. The fish was tasty, steamed and then served with soy sauce, ginger, scallions, and peppers. But the fish’s mouth was, once again, not pretty.

I have no idea why we ordered so much food – maybe because we secretly still hoped it wasn’t Thursday evening but was in fact Friday. After eating our fill the staff boxed up the leftovers and we walked back home, made the bed, and fell asleep waiting for the real Friday to arrive.

Bicycling Around Ekkamai

Posted on 2 March 2008 by christao408

Sunday morning I jumped back on my bicycle and went for a ride through the neighborhood. What interesting things there are to be seen!

I didn’t realize that I lived near a store that sells plastic models of food. Not only the ones you expect to see outside Japanese restaurants, but also ones for Chinese, Thai and Western cuisines.

What a perfect gift for someone for Christmas: a slice of cake that you can never eat!

Sadly, they were closed on Sunday morning so I couldn’t pop in for a visit. They would probably freak out if I started taking pictures inside the store, though. That seems to really be an issue at businesses here in Thailand.

I continued up Ekkamai Road, which is Sukhumvit Soi 63, and stopped at Ekkamai Soi 26 to take a picture I’ve long been meaning to take.

Someone, for reasons unknown, decided to post a street sign on the corner of the soi in the style of the signs that grace Parisian street corners. Interestingly, the person who made or ordered the sign decided to place Ekkamai Soi 26 in the 18th Arrondissement.

Perhaps there is a clue to be had from the fact that the 18th Arrondissement is Montmartre, the artsy residential district. Further exploration is called for but the fact that there is a frame shop below the sign might yield some answers.

My route continued north, crossing Khlong San Saeb, the primary east-west canal in the city and the only one that has any scheduled passenger boat service on it. You can actually take the canal taxis all the way into the old city, an efficient and inexpensive way to travel.

The khlong has pedestrian paths on either side and I have explored those before. In some parts of the khlong, nice houses back up to it. In other parts, the pedestrian paths cut through the shacks and shanties of some very poor families. Also, in the Thong Lor / Ekkamai area, there is a prominent Muslim community that lives near the khlong with one mosque near Thong Lor and another past Ekkamai. There are so many interesting communities here and you just don’t see them if you stay in a car.

Above: On Ekkamai flyover above Phetchaburi Road, there is an interesting Buddhist temple (gold pagoda on top) called Wat Ekkamai Pasi, literally, the “Ekkamai tax temple”. Next to it is the large Charn Issara 2 office building. Such a contrast! And in the cloverleaf formed by the ramps leading to the flyover, there is a small park that includes basketball, badminton, and football courts.

Beyond Phetchaburi Road is (below from left to right) the old State Railway line, the new Airport Express viaduct, and the maintenance facility for the Airport Express. To the left of the railway line is a small market and, with the red roof, the Khlongtan railway station. The track is currently used for commute rail services to the east as well as longer-distance trains that run to the Cambodian border and up to Northeast Thailand.

The maintenance facility is coming along nicely. If you look closely in the picture below you’ll see that the first piece of rolling stock has arrived.

How much longer until the Airport Express is running? Well, if you time your trip for late 2009, it should be running sometime around then. Meanwhile, if you arrive earlier, give me a call and I’ll come pick you up!

Critical Mass Recap

Posted on 29 February 2008 by christao408

Friday evening I pumped up my bicycle’s tires, changed the batteries in my head and tail lights, strapped on my helmet and started pedaling down Sukhumvit Road towards Siam Square. The last Friday of the month is payday in Thailand, jokingly called a national holiday. The roads are packed more than usual as everyone goes out to celebrate having money again.

It took me nearly thirty minutes to ride the six kilometers, weaving through traffic, riding a few very short stretches (slowly!) on the sidewalk, and ultimately arriving at Siam Discovery Centre just before 6:30. There I found more than a hundred bicycles parked on the sidewalk, a hundred bicyclists milling about, with more arriving every minute.

Not recognizing anyone, I stood about taking in the scene. As has happened before with Thai bicycling events, the locals are very friendly. The ones less confident about their English just smile and nod, and within a couple of minutes I was engaged in conversation with a married couple. The wife had done her undergraduate degree in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while the husband had been a high school exchange student in – are you ready for this? – Moscow, Idaho.

Oh, and especially interesting, the couple cornered the reporter from the independent TV station (public broadcasting) and had her interview me – in Thai! Talk about a challenge. Don’t know if I made the evening news or not.

About 6:45 the now 200+ people saddled up and we headed out on our ride through the city. The route was less than 20 kilometers and with such a large group we were not moving very fast, covering the route in about two hours.

Throughout the ride I continued to make new friends, some farang who joined the group and some Thais. There really is a vibrant bicycling community here, which you wouldn’t necessarily realize.

This was the first time a Critical Mass ride has been undertaken in Bangkok and it had its own Thai flavor, combined with just some “inexperience” in what elements have made CM rides successful in other cities.

Unlike the leaderless rides at other CMs where the people at the front of the group sort of create the group’s direction on an ad hoc basis, this ride had a route map, police had been informed, and there was one man at the front wearing his bambo pith helmet – I believe he is the founder of the Thai Cycling Club – who was leading the way.

Also, there were some things that could have been done to keep the group together. We were regularly split up by traffic lights and lost much of the group in the first twenty minutes. Had there been some “safety monitors” who would block traffic in an intersection and let the group get through, it would have been a bit more effective.

But, hey, it was the first time and there isn’t a right or wrong way to do a ride. Thai cyclists can make it their own.

One realization I had, though, is that non-cyclists have a lot of misconceptions about bicycling in this city. “The traffic!” they say, ignoring the fact that the traffic largely isn’t moving and that on a bicycle, it is easy to get around larger vehicles stuck in a jam. “The heat!” they say, fogetting that when you are riding, you create your own cooling breeze. “The danger!” they say, not realizing that Thai drivers are the most patient, accommodating, and polite anywhere in the world. Not a honked horn, not a waved fist, not a foul word.

Can’t wait until next month’s ride!

christao408

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

Tag Archives: Bangkok