Helping Abandoned Buildings Shape Up

Posted on 4 September 2011 by christao408

The skyline of Bangkok bristles with the skeletons of unfinished buildings. These ghostly structures, frozen in various states of incompletion, number in the hundreds and most are a result of the Asian economic crisis on 1997-8. Recently, though, I’ve noticed that some of these buildings are being incorporated into advertising schemes.

One that caught my eye was this pair of buildings that appeared to be on a diet. Viewable from the expressway, I had passed the buildings several times but wanted to get a better shot. Sunday morning, I set out early and drove around that area of the city, somewhere between Khlong Toei and Rama III, to see if I could get a clear view and a good picture. It took about an hour to narrow down the location, but finally I eventually found a great view from the front gates of the Colgate-Palmolive complex right where Ratchadapisek Road parallels the Mahanakorn Expressway. Veering left onto a frontage road that continues under the expressway before turning right towards the railway tracks, I turned on the emergency blinkers, pulled to the shoulder of the road, and hopped out to take a picture.

The advertising is for Naturegift, a Thai company that makes powdered beverages (coffee, cocoa, and ginger) as well as capsules that claim to provide various health benefits. The message reads something to the effect of “A Mission Well-Suited for Naturegift.” The buildings’ columns have been cleverly altered with the use of black paint and temporary set pieces to make it look like they curve in at the buildings’ “waists” – giving the buildings more pleasing hourglass shaped figures. The “belts” on the buildings are also temporary set pieces. The use of black and red for the two belts implies that Naturegift is good for men and women.

In addition to making good use of abandoned buildings, Thai advertising has a knack for being quite clever. In this 30-second ad for Naturegift, which ran for many months before movies at cinemas here in Thailand, we see the promise that Naturegift will give you confidence. The inside joke from a cultural angle is that the women depicted here, while all being skinny, don’t have what would be considered typical beauty in a Thai sense. But they are most definitely confident!

Funny Condo Names

Posted on 26 August 2011 by christao408

Sometimes I think I should have a series in my blog for funny condominium project names here in Bangkok. I see advertisements for them from time to time and wonder how a particular name was chosen.

Take, for example, Rende. It is located on Sukhumvit Soi 23, one block east of Soi Asoke, so its claim of being just 5 minutes from the BTS Skytrain and MRT Subway is probably accurate. But what does it mean that it is an “artistic condo for art lovers?”

And the name “Rende”? Did they name the condo after the city of Rende, Italy? If so, why? Rende does have two museums, but neither is particularly noteworthy. Maybe the developers named the condo after the city because the city has the largest mall in southern Italy. Or maybe they named the condo after the Dutch word “rende,” which means “trough,” “furrow,” or “ditch.” That doesn’t sound very likely, either.

Oh, well, file this under “I” for “inexplicable.”

A Weekend with the Kids

Posted on 25 August 2011 by christao408

We have several social circles in our life here in Bangkok. One of those circles is with Tawn’s high school friends, most of whom are married and are starting their own families. Many of those friends are making a concerted effort to involve Tawn and me in their children’s lives. Last weekend we spent two days with three of these families – a total of four children under the age of four – at a “family friendly” resort in Cha-am, a beach town about three hours south of Bangkok.

Both afternoons we spent time in the pool, which thankfully was located so that it was in the shade. The weather was pleasant with a nice breeze, and all of the children enjoy the water. The experience was interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which was a chance to observe some of the differences between Thai and American parenting styles.

Saa with her 10-month old daughter Jaeda (in pink) and Kiri, the 7-month old son of another friend. I debated for several minutes before posting this picture, one of a very few on this blog that show me shirtless. (And, I’m sure you’re hoping, something that remains a rare sight! LOL)

Saa and Kiri. The following afternoon, the weather was just a bit cooler and breezier and when we put Kiri in his inflatable rocket, you could tell he was cold because his upper lip was shivering. It was very cute, but kind of sad, too. Eventually he warmed up a bit. In the background, I supervise as 3.5-year old JJ pulls his little sister around the pool.

This photo is of Job, Saa’s husband, going down the water slide with JJ. There’s a bit of a story here that illustrates some of the differences in parenting styles. Of course, I’m making broad generalizations, but Thai parents tend to be much more protective of their children. For example, Jaeda and Kiri are both just at the point where they have the strength to stand and Jaeda can even take a tentative few steps if she is holding onto something. But they never have the opportunity to fall because someone is always holding them or reaching out to catch them if they lose their balance. The American style is more inclined to let them fall, pick themselves up, and try again.

Now, the first day we were in the pool, JJ decided after about 10 minutes that he didn’t want to wear his floatation devices and wanted to move from the 45 cm-deep pool to the 80 cm-deep pool. He is pretty comfortable in the water and even in the deeper pool his head was still well clear of the water, so that was okay. After about an hour, he decided he wanted to try the slide and kept riding with his father.

The next day, everyone else was still lounging about upstairs so JJ and I went down to the pool together. After a few times down the slide, he decided he wanted to go down by himself. I thought to myself, “Okay, I’m not sure his parents would like this…” but I waited at the end of the slide to catch him if he had any trouble.

By the time his parents came down to the pool along with everyone else, JJ was going down the slide again and again, each time on his own and each time with no troubles. Sure enough, Saa was a bit surprised, but to her credit quickly realized that her son was able to handle himself without any trouble, although she did have to lecture him about not cutting in front of people who were waiting for the slide!

Later the first evening we were at the pier for a seafood dinner and JJ fell down and (ostensibly) scraped his knee. I didn’t see any broken skin but he insisted on having a plaster with blue elephants on it, applied to the injury. Before the plaster, he was holding an ice cube to the injury and then had great fun dropping the ice cube down his shorts leg. His mother did not find this as amusing.

One recurring theme for the weekend was that every time we got Kiri and Jaeda near each other, Jaeda would crawl over to Kiri and try and hug and kiss him, although with her fine motor skills still under development, it looked more like a mauling. Kiri didn’t like the attention, which Jaeda found greatly amusing. Good for her, taking rejection lightly! In this series, Kiri’s mother, Tao, tries to wrangle the two for a group photo.

Eventually, Jaeda caught Kiri at an unguarded moment and was able to plant a kiss right in the middle of his face. That was the end of our attempts to get a picture of them together!

Job and Saa with JJ and Jaeda with Uncle Tawn in the background. Not sure why Jaeda was trying to raise the roof. JJ is currently attending an international preschool where the primary language of instruction is English. Nonetheless, he wasn’t very forthcoming in English and we communicated mostly in Thai until late the second day when he did start using some English.

P1160119

In attempting to set up the previous family photo, JJ kept laying down to avoid having his picture taken. So I rotated the angle 90 degrees and got this photo, which I think is kind of an interesting one.

Tao with her son Kiri. Somehow, I didn’t manage to get a picture of her husband Pai. Kiri took quite a shine to me, as he seems to like being lifted up in the air and then dropped down suddenly and I was the only one who would do that again and again and again. Have I mentioned that my left shoulder has been sore since last weekend?

Group photo: Tawn with Jaeda and Saa; me with JJ; Tawn’s friend Jaa with her daughter Nam Ing; and Tao with Kiri.

I’m glad we had the opportunity to spend more time with Tawn’s friends and their children. It is important for them to be exposed to a wide variety of people and while their parents all speak English well, having the opportunity to learn to speak with a foreigner is good for the children.

In fact, in the days since our return, Tao called Tawn to say that she’s enrolling her son in an infant swimming class and was wondering if Uncle Chris might like to come along.

Teaching Monks to “Cook Sandwiches”

Posted on 13 August 2011 by christao408

In the third floor classroom of Chiang Mai’s Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya University, the eyes of thirteen students registered varying degrees of confusion as I taught the first part of the English lesson: we do not “cook” sandwiches in English, we “make” them. Clad in the saffron robes of Theravada Buddhist monks, the students wrestled with this anomaly of English. “Will we make sandwiches today?” asked one of them, trying the new verb on for size.

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Chiang Mai was a morning spent helping my friends Ron and Kari teach English classes at the Chiang Mai campus of one of Thailand’s two monastic universities. Ron and Kari are a Texan couple about my age, whom I first met nearly six years ago at Union Language School in Bangkok. Most of the students at ULS are missionaries although other students are welcome. My answer to the common question I received from fellow students – “What brought you to Thailand?” – was usually met by bewildered silence.

Ron and Kari were the exception. They asked questions and were interested in meeting Tawn and over the years we have stayed in touch as their missionary work has taken them from Thailand to Kenya and back again. Now they are in Chiang Mai and one of their duties is to teach English classes to monks and novices attending Buddhist university. When they heard I was coming up, they invited me to be a guest teacher.

“The monks asked if we could cook sandwiches,” Kari explained. “You would be good at teaching them that.”

On Thursday morning, after spending an hour practicing the intricacies of telling time, Kari pulled out two loaves of bread, a half-dozen tomatoes, a jar of mayonnaise, a container of lettuce, and a container of bologna. First, we cleared up the confusion over which verb was appropriate. Since we don’t use any heat, we “make” sandwiches, not “cook” them. Next, we practiced the names of the ingredients. “Bologna” seemed too difficult, so I called it “ham.”

Finally, the fun began. Working in groups of three, the monks, who range in age from 18-44, came to the front of the room, sliced tomatoes, and assembled sandwiches. There were a few mishaps, such as the sandwiches which ended up with mayonnaise on the outside of the bread. But all in all, everyone seemed to have a good time.

An advantage of having me teach this segment was that I could work more closely with the monks than Kari can. One of the restrictions for Buddhist monks is that they may not touch, or even accept things handed directly to them from, a woman. Sometimes, like when a monk who has perhaps never sliced a tomato in his life is having problems, it is easier to get in there, grab the knife, and demonstrate. This would be complicated if a certain physical distance had to be maintained.

At the end of the class, everyone ate their sandwiches along with a banana for dessert. Who knows if they liked their food; monks are required to eat the food they are given without complaining or expressing like or dislike. But several students asked when I would come back and teach again, so maybe they enjoyed the sandwiches well enough. There were requests that we cook massaman curry next time, though.

While the class lasted only two hours, and I didn’t have much time to talk individually with the students and learn more about them, it was a fun experience. Several years ago, I volunteered as an English teacher in a small provincial primary school and teaching is something I enjoy. Maybe I need to make another trip up to Chiang Mai as a guest lecturer. At least I have the right hair style to relate to the students.

Buying Girls from Behind Glass

Posted on 24 July 2011 by christao408

Wikipedia

While in Los Angeles last month, Tawn and I slipped up to The Grove, a shopping and entertainment center near the Farmers’ Market located at Third and Fairfax Streets near CBS Studios. While there, we met with a pair of Xangans who were down in LA for the weekend, and also observed first-hand the disturbing trend known as the American Girl Doll.

The Grove is another of these recent developments built to approximate the feel of a real downtown, except with a Disney-esque sense of artifice. An electric tram runs down the middle of the “street” past big box stores that, if it weren’t for their elaborate façades, would look like any other strip mall. It is a nice space, much in the same way that Main Street, U.S.A. is a nice place, but I think I’d prefer to stroll down a real main street rather than a recently built recreation.

Borrowed from someone on the internet for non-commercial use.

Prominently placed on the main shopping thoroughfare is the American Girl Doll store. Have you heard of this trend? It simultaneously fascinates and disturbs me.

The roots of the American Girl Doll are generally impressive. Originally released in the mid-1980s, these 18-inch dolls represented 10-year old girls from a variety of periods in American history. They were dressed in period-appropriate costume and were accompanied by a series of books targeted to 8-13 year olds that brought the characters to life while addressing (in an age-appropriate manner) subjects such as poverty, racism, child labor, etc. In short, a compelling way for young people to identify with and learn about history.

American Girl website

In the mid-1990s, though, a “Just Like You” line was released, with dolls representing a wide range of skin tones and eye and hair colors, so that you could purchase a doll that looked just like you. A variety of accessories are available including matching outfits. (See the picture above.) The dolls, sans accessories, cost $100, a price that strikes me as ridiculously expensive for a toy targeted at pre-teens.

On the one hand, I can see a lot of positives about a doll that reflects the wide diversity that exists in our world. Certainly, any number of women of color have shared stories about not being able to find dolls when they were children that looked like them. At the same time, especially when you can even wear the same clothes as your doll, this seems to be furthering the growth of unhealthy narcissism. Not only are we gazing more at our own navels, but now we can have a dolls whose navels look like ours.

What was even more disturbing, though, was walking into the store and seeing two display cases containing rows of the identically-dressed dolls wearing numbers. Maybe this is just a sensitivity to the too-visible sex trade that exists in Thailand, but this image of women lined up behind a glass wall, wearing numbers and waiting for you to choose them, is especially disturbing.

I don’t know what to make of the whole thing. As I mentioned early, it is both fascinating and disturbing. Reading more about the American Girl Doll phenomenon, the company (now owned by Mattel) seems to do a lot of philanthropy and there are many opportunities for young girls to learn important lessons about the world and about issues they may not often hear about. The messages on the walls of the store – “A confident girl believes in herself!” – are potentially empowering. That said, I’m still a bit disturbed.

Courtesy Sheening

The best thing that came out of the experience was the opportunity to finally meet Piyapong, one of those Xangans who doesn’t blog often but whose posts are still interesting. Also met Sheening again, but he hasn’t blogged in so long on Xanga that I’m not even sure what his user name is anymore.

Great Eats in Bangkok Volume 3 – Thai Breakfasts

Posted on 21 May 2011 by christao408

Here’s the third video in my “Great Eats in Bangkok” series. In this chapter, Tawn and I head out for a typical Thai breakfast in our neighborhood, Thong Lo. While Thong Lo has developed over the years in the “Beverly Hills of Thailand” it is actually still a very local neighborhood with a wide socioeconomic range, various cultures, and everything from Mercedes Benz showrooms to sidewalk vegetable stalls.

Our breakfast consists of two things: jok (congee), a Chinese style rice porridge served with ginger, green onions, a fresh egg, and white pepper; and khao gaeng, a “curry and rice” shop that serves various curries, soups, and stir-fried dishes that you pick and choose from in a “Panda Express” sort of way, but much better. One thing that was interesting is that we ordered the jok at one shop, then carried the bowl down to the khao gaeng shop, returning the bowl after we were done.

Previous entries:
Vol 1 – Guaytiaw (Rice Noodle Soup)
Vol 2 – Khanom Krug (Rice Flour and Coconut Pancakes)

Brunch and Garlands

Posted on 16 May 2011 by christao408

This weekend we enjoyed a return visit by David and Chor Pharn, a Singaporean couple who make frequent visits to Bangkok and whose presence at our dining room table made for a very pleasant Sunday brunch and garland making exercise.

We met the two (Chor Pharn is on the left, above, and David is on the right) through another couple we know from Singapore. In fact, since I met my first Singaporean while in university I’ve learned that once you know one, you soon seem to know nearly all of them. Sure enough, once I met Yuen Ping, I met Otto, then Han, then David and Chor Pharn, and the list cascades from there. Not to mention another two strings’ worth of Singaporeans, most of whom seem to know each other or, at the very least, know of each other. It’s a small island, after all.

Having them over for brunch gave me a chance to try some new recipes, continuing to refine an easy-to-prepare brunch menu that doesn’t require me to slave away in the kitchen while guests are here. Above, a beautiful loaf of homemade bread.

As an amuse bouche, I prepared some homemade muesli, served with unsweetened Greek style yoghurt with a slice of canned peach and drizzled with some peach syrup.

Tawn insisted on using his ice cream goblets that he hand-carried back from Paris. The coffee was some of the 100% Kona beans I brought back from our March trip to Hawaii. Perfect for a French press.

From there, we enjoyed plates with a trio of room temperature tastes: a couscous salad with mixed vegetables, pine nuts, raisins, and homemade preserved lemon rind; over roasted Japanese pumpkin glazed with Canadian maple syrup and a sprinkle of black truffle sea salt; and a mixed salad of rocket (arugula) served with a rice wine vinaigrette, shaved Parmesan cheese, and cherry tomatoes.

The warm dish was individual baked egg souffles with sliced pork loin, onions, and jack cheese.

For dessert, we had khao niaw mamuang – sticky rice and mango. Mangoes are very much at the peak of their season right now. The garnish is na gung – a shredded coconut that is flavored with shrimp, palm sugar, and kaffir lime leaves. This may not sound so good, but once it is cooked it becomes the perfect, slightly savory counterpoint to the rich, starchy sticky rice and sweet mango.

After lunch, Tawn and Chor Pharn set up the table to try their hands at an activity that has caught CP’s curiosity: making floral garlands, called puang malai in Thai. (Literally, “bunched together jasmine”.) Used as objects of decoration as well as veneration and welcome – left at shrines or statues, given to teachers, parents, respected elders, and visitors – the puang malai are made of small, fragrant flowers threaded onto a string using a long and very sharp needle. The above image is taken from Sakul Intakul’s book Dok Mai Thai: The Flower Culture of Thailand. Khun Sakul is one of the masters of the Thai floral arts, an engineer turned floral arranger, and his book illustrates the beautiful designs he creates.

Tawn and Chor Pharn get ready to start, while David and I try to document the occasion and stay far away from the long needles.

A quartet of blossoms: in addition to roses there are, from the left, dok rak (love flower) which is a very sculptural form of jasmine, dok malik (the highly fragrant Arabic jasmine), and dok put (talk flower) also known as gardenia.

Tawn starts arranging the jasmine blossoms in a rotating pattern. After you get a group done, you thread it onto cotton string. Traditionally, though, you would use a thread made of banana leaf.

A close-up of the progress, with rose petals folded in half, speared by the needle, then trimmed into shape with scissors.

The work ended up being quite a bit more tedious that expected. When you watch the vendors at the side of the street you mistake their speed and dexterity for the task of making a phuang malai being easy. It turns out their speed and dexterity is a result of their skill and experience and they make an intricate art look deceptively simple.

Where to Buy Stickers in Bangkok

Posted on 12 May 2011 by christao408

From the innocuous “men” and “women” signs on restroom doors to the urinating cartoon Calvin on the back of many a vehicle, stickers and decals play a much larger role in the life of Bangkok residents than one may realize.

Two years ago I wrote about a taxi I was in that had the following information conveyed on its passenger door window through a series of stickers: No smoking, weapons, drinking, sex, durian, dogs, or water buffaloes allowed.

But where do these stickers come from? I don’t see sticker stores in the malls nor do I see sticker aisles at the local Big C hypermart. The answer turns out to be unsurprising: like most things of universal importance in this city of nearly ten million people, the stickers can be bought from a street vendor.

Up and down the streets, waiting at filling stations and stopping by the street food stalls where taxi drivers like to congregate, the sticker vendors drive these wagons powered by modified motorcycles, the panels of decals hanging like blinders, blocking their peripheral vision.

Upon closer inspection, some of the stickers tell a lot about the people who would buy them. There’s a popular cartoon of an Issan (northeastern Thai) boy with his pants dropped, peeing. The Playboy bunny is a popular brand here, even if the magazine is not locally available. And the classic Harley Davidson logo is popular even among the drivers of Japanese brands of scooters.

The Great Bangkok Songkran Bare Breast Debacle

Posted on 24 April 2011 by christao408

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year’s festival, a three-day holiday held each April at the height of the hot season. The meaning of Songkran has been subject to much debate and over the past many years it has evolved into something much different than it originally was. This year, however, Bangkok was caught up in a great Songkran scandal that, according to several local pundits, revealed the hypocrisy with which we choose to view “culture” and what is “appropriate”.

At its roots, Songkran is something of a harvest festival, a time of cleaning up after one year and getting ready for the next rice-planting season, which will begin when the rainy season arrives shortly after the peak of hot season. Water has always played an important part in the Songkran celebration, and traditionally the holiday was celebrated by performing the “rot naam” (pouring of water) ceremony.

In this picture I took three years ago, school children dressed in traditional Thai outfits pour water over the hands of their elders. This is a way of showing respect and blessing them.

In fact, this same ceremony is performed when a couple is married, as in this example from my Thai teacher’s wedding this past December.

Songkran 3

In addition to pouring water on the hands of elders, there is a religious aspect to the Songkran celebrations, where you pour water on the hands of monks and also over Buddha images, washing and blessing them.

So those are the traditional celebrations of Songkran. Given that Thailand is a hot, tropical country it is no surprise that along the way some amount of splashing about with the water also happened. So Songkran started to get a reputation as being “the water festival” and was thus stylized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. A little bit of playful, good natured splashing for the youngsters to engage in, if you will.

Somewhere along the way, though, it evolved into something more: a water war with roving mercenaries with pump-action water guns. This picture above is typical – families or young people fill up large tubs in the back of a pickup truck with water (usually with some blocks of ice in them) then drive around the city looking for revelers in other trucks or playing by the side of the road. An impromptu water fight ensues.

Often, though, it isn’t just the revelers who are involved. Anyone on the street – including those who are not interested in playing – are targeted with ice cold water. A favorite target is passing motorcycle drivers and as you might imagine, there are any number of accidents in which motorcyclists lose control and crash after being splashed unexpectedly.

In some sections of the city the celebrations turn into chaos, the streets shut down with people splashing each other with water and smearing each other with talcum powder. Needless to say, the partying is fueled by substantial quantities of alcohol.

Which leads us to this year’s scandal. Let me start by making clear that, while I don’t particularly enjoy the mess that Songkran has become, I also don’t have a bone to pick with it. I either get out of town during the holidays or stay indoors to avoid unwanted splashing.

The scandal began when video clips appeared showing a trio of young women – reportedly ages 13, 14, and 16 – dancing topless on a vehicle along Silom Road. Worth noting is that Silom Road is adjacent to one of the more famous red light districts in Bangkok where you can find things much more racy than this.

As you might imagine, there was a big fuss over this nudity and there were no shortage of pundits and officials tripping over themselves to proclaim what an insult to Thailand and Thai culture this was. In a statement, Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said, “the clip has negatively affected the image of Thai culture and that all parties involved with such behaviour should be punished, while asking police to give importance to this issue, for it destroys the country’s reputation.” (emphasis mine)

The girls surrendered to the police, were made to publicly apologize, and were fined 500 baht (about US$16) each, and released.

As for the hypocrisy that was pointed out by several observers? Well, that comes in two parts. The first is the “oh, that’s too damn funny” part. Reportedly, at the time of this whole scandal, if you went to the website for the Thailand Ministry of Culture, the following art was displayed on the page banner:

The picture shows some young Thai girls dancing topless in what looks like a water festival, right? This was quickly picked up on by the denizens of the internet who hooted and hollered, posting and tweeting about how the Ministry of Culture was both promoting and punishing topless Thai teens at the same time.

In no time at all – as one observer pointed out, on a Sunday, nonetheless! – the nubile nipples were replaced with this classical Thai picture which, if you look closely, also has some bare breasts displayed in it.

Several other commentators pointed out that the impromptu redecorating of the Ministry of Culture’s website wasn’t the real hypocrisy, though. They explained that the real hypocrisy is that Thai society has long treated women and girls poorly. The sex industry here, the vast majority of which serves Thai men, not tourists, is founded on the treatment of women as sex objects. Young women and girls are sold into sexual slavery and rape is often not reported or, when reported, the women are treated as the guilty party for bringing shame on their family by not keeping quiet.

Now, I want to make clear that I’m not singling out Thai culture for its hypocritical treatment of women. I’m just reporting on the controversy that erupted here. Plus, hypocritcal treatment of women is something that is too common almost everywhere in the world. But as a number of cooler-headed commentators pointed out about this event, the trio of topless girls aren’t the cause of the problem. They are the symptom of larger societal attitudes that need to be discussed and addressed. I wonder if this event will provide a catalyst for that discussion to begin?

Money Taxi

Posted on 1 April 2011 by christao408

On the way to the airport in Bangkok recently, I managed to hail the most interesting taxi. The entire front half of the interior was decorated with coins and currency, almost all of it Thai and most of it commemorative or collectible.

The driver, who has been working on this collection for more than a dozen years, started collecting both out of interest, but also for the “good luck” brought by having the auspicious images of Thai kings posted in his taxi.

This one-baht note comes from early in the present king’s reign. His Majesty has been the monarch for more than 60 years and these days a baht (current exchange rate, about 30 baht to the US dollar) is just a coin used for change.

These early one-baht coins feature the three-headed elephant known as Erawan, borrowed from the Brahmanist traditions associated with the royal court.

Even more unusual is this 50-satang note. A satang is 1/100th of a baht. These days we have 25- and 50-satang coins and you only receive those as the result of rounding because of tax. There isn’t anything in Bangkok you could buy for 25 satang.

Talking about small amounts, these extremely old coins, with holes in them, are one-satang coins (1/100th of a baht). They were introduced in 1908, near the end of the reign of King Chulalongkorn, known as Rama V. The current king is Rama IX. One satang!? I wonder what that bought back in the day?

While it is common to see taxi drivers decorate their dash boards, particularly with items they think will bring them good luck, I don’t recall ever seeing so extensive and interesting a collection.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: culture