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.

Food in BKK: Gastro 1/6 at RMA

Posted on 10 May 2011 by christao408

San Francisco, the area I come from, is a great place to eat breakfast. Since moving here more than five years ago, I’ve regretted the lack of good San Francisco-style breakfast places and if I had the money and free time, I’d probably open one myself. In the meantime, I’m glad to have recently learned about another candidate for my breakfast baht: Gastro 1/6.

Located at the RMA Institute, a gallery and art space buried deep in Sukhumvit Soi 22, Gastro 1/6 is just a small cafe, really. It is already busy on weekends and I suspect will become so popular that its charm will quickly wear off. That said, it is a charming place in a way that eludes most restaurants in Bangkok.

All the seating is in an outdoor, although covered, space that is thick with foliage and decorated with a motley assortment of chairs and tables. There is no table service – you order at the counter and pick up your own food.

The kitchen is a tiny, open affair with a limited selection of dishes. Pastries are available from Le Blanc, a local bakery that is improving the quality of baked goods available to us denizens of Bangkok. There are both breakfasty type dishes as well as specials more suitable for a lunch, making this an appealing place for brunch and those who can’t decide what they’re in the mood for.

The grounds are home to a friendly dog who greets visitors and generally manages things. We arrived at what we thought would be a bit late – about 10am – on a Sunday and were surprised to find things not very busy yet. Some other people breezed through, mostly it seemed for a quick bite and then on to whatever else was on their docket for the day.

Tawn had French toast with a side of bacon, which was very tasty. There’s a drop of syrup about to drip from the bacon on the right end of it. Caught it with the camera!

My breakfast came with a bowl of toasted bread, thin slices that definitely wouldn’t appeal to the Thai palate, which doesn’t seem to like crispy and crunchy. Perfect for me, though, who likes his bread willing to fight back a bit.

I had the traditional English breakfast, which was spruced up so nicely I barely recognized it. Scrambled organic eggs with fresh cracked pepper and sea salt, homemade baked beans and baked tomato, salad with a lovely dressing, homemade sausage, and some bacon. This was really tasty and just the perfect serving size.

Afterwards, relaxing with my latte as an English family with three adorable children decide what they want to order.

Tawn, fresh off his fashion show, looks so much more relaxed without the stress of an impending deadline looming over him.

My impression? Gastro 1/6 is a cute and satisfying choice for brunch or even pastries and a cup of coffee. Probably not the place to linger for a long time, but a good start to your morning. Cash only, closed Mondays.

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.

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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?

Great Eats in Bangkok Volume 2 – Khanom Krug

Posted on 22 April 2011 by christao408

As I promised, my “Great Eats in Bangkok” series is in fact becomming a series and not just a single video. Using my new wireless microphone that plugs into a Kodak Zi8, the audio quality is a bit better than the first time I shot the footage for this episode. I’ll have to keep playing around with the equipment in order to learn to master it, but hopefully each successive volume of the series will get better.

Photo courtesy yang1815

In this volume we explore one of my favorite Thai desserts, something called khanom krug. “Khanom” is the broad term used for snacks and nibbly type of desserts and “krug” refers to the half-sphere shape in which these tasty treats are made. You can loosely describe khanom krug as “rice flour and coconut milk pancakes”, although that description fails to capture what makes them so special and worth seeking out.

Here’s the 3-minute video.

Photo courtesy yang1815

The interesting thing about khanom krug is how it is composed of two batters, both made with rice flour and coconut milk. One batter is a little saltier and the other is a little sweeter. The sweet batter is poured into the indentations in the pan, filling them about 2/3 of the way. Then a few seconds later the saltier batter is added. Savory fillings such as corn, taro, or free onions can be added (but just as often, are not) and then the whole thing is covered and allowed to bake and steam for several minutes.

Once the khanom are fairly firm, but still a little molten in the middle, the halves are scooped out and paired together for serving. You have to be careful of a few things when eating them: first, they will be incredibly hot and the interior will decimate your tastebuds like lava flowing through a forest. Second, don’t let the vendor put the container of them in a bag. Steam is the enemy of these khanom and they will lose their crisp exterior very quickly. Third, solve that problem by eating them right away!

I hope you enjoyed the video. A third one is being edited now and the first volume, focusing on rice noodles called guaytiaw, is here.

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.

Old Houses of Sukhumvit

Posted on 17 March 2011 by christao408

The neighborhood I live in – Thong Lo – is part of the “middle Sukhumvit” area in Bangkok. Located east of the old city and not too far from the Chao Phraya River, fifty years ago this area was considered to be really far out in the countryside. Well-off families of merchants and civil servants bought pieces of land for their weekend homes along narrow sois (alleys) that led off larger streets that paralleled khlongs (canals).

Over time, their houses grew with additions for children and in-laws. Trees grew, too, providing beautiful shade and cooler temperatures even as the city and all its ill effects – noise, pollution, pavement, and tall buildings – crept into the neighborhood.

Since there are no annual property taxes (although they are being discussed by the legislature), there is little incentive to sell unused property. As these old homes were encroached upon by modernity, families often fled to other properties and some of the beautiful residences fell into disrepair.

Sometimes the family, or their descendants, will raze the old buildings and construct new ones. That’s happening next door to us as two older houses have been torn down, the adjacent properties have been combined, and a new house if being erected. Of course, this required the removal of some of the beautiful (and tall) old trees because the sons of the owner didn’t want leaves falling into their swimming pool. Instead of leaves, they will get to be spied upon by half of my neighbors.

Many of the older houses are built in a “tropical deco” style and were designed with the environment in mind. With wide overhangs and carefully oriented windows, natural ventilation kept the house comfortable most of the year and air conditioning was rarely necessary as the breezes and large trees worked in tandem to cool the house.

Not so much these newer homes, the designs of which are a mish-mash of styles, resembling nothing so much as a housing development in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Take the above house which is being built on Sukhumvit Soi 10. What is that deck-like structure elevated above the house? It couldn’t possibly be chimneys because why would anyone have fireplaces in Bangkok?

Sometimes the older houses, instead of being torn down, are turned to commercial uses either through lease or sale. Just down the street from us, this beautiful three-story home (a bit hard to see in the background) is being transformed into a new branch of Curries and More, a Thai restaurant operated by the popular Baan Khanita group. They are adding another building that is being built around the existing trees and it looks like the setting will be beautiful, complementing the style of the original house rather than competing with it.

Another example, just next door to our condo, is a house that was turned into Red, an upscale Indian restaurant. While the people living adjacent to the restaurant don’t appreciate some of the late-night celebrations held there, the owners have done a nice job using the original building.

Perhaps the nicest example is across the street and a few doors down from us, a company that designs and sells furniture including outdoor patio sets that are perfectly suited to the wide verandas featured in the house’s design.

It is interesting to watch how the neighborhood changes. What started out as weekend homes in the far suburbs has become condos, restaurants, shops, or just rebuilt homes in the vibrant heart of the city. All a part of the unique character and charm of Bangkok.

747 Graveyard

Posted on 13 February 2011 by christao408

Sorry that my posting (and reading and responding to others’ entries) has been slower than usual as of late. Many of my recent entries have required a lot more leg work. Here’s the latest:

Two Saturdays ago, as Tawn and I were driving along Ramkhamhaeng Road on an errand to the northeastern outskirts of Bangkok, we were taken by surprise when we saw the front third of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet propped up alongside the street.

This is neither an industrial area nor anywhere particularly close to the airport, so for there to be a pair of airplanes being disassembled in this neighborhood is downright strange. While there is a fence along the front of the property, there is no proper gate along the entrance.

Curious, we headed back early the next morning, arriving just after 7:30. A street sweeper sat in her small rest shack, more of an open-air stand, and Tawn chatted with her while I wandered around taking pictures and video. “Sure, go on in,” she said. “The workers won’t be up and working for a while still.”

The result of the exploring is a five-minute video. I think you’ll find it very interesting. I’m happy with the results. For those of you without five minutes to spare, here are some of the pictures:

The entire site is probably four acres (16,000 sq meters), adjacent to a school, temple, and canal. Condo towers and office buildings are visible in the distance and it is really a strange place to be disassembling airplanes.

The monk’s dormitory (robes hanging to dry) is visible next door. I guess this view reminds them of the fundamental Buddhist teaching about all things being impermanent.

There are two planes here, both from Orient Thai Airways, a local carrier that operates limited scheduled service and also does charters. I like how the top of this plane looks like a whale surfacing from the waves.

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You could be mistaken for thinking this was the set of an airplane disaster movie. Every area that has been cut by a welding torch is scorched black and there also looks to have been a few small fires set. Pieces are still very identifiable, though, provided you know your airplane parts.

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The vertical stabilizer (tail) of the plane, being cut into smaller segments for disposal. The red and blue color scheme, which was meant to represent the Thai flag blowing in the wind, has been deconstructed.

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There were hundreds of oxygen masks on the property, most still stowed in the overhead compartments that had ben removed and stacked.

Near the front of the property, galleys and lavatories, which are modular units, were standing about, stripped of carts and other supplies, although with the ovens still intact. Recalling his days working as a regional flight attendant for United, Tawn pretended to be setting the ovens to warm a meal.

Orient Thai had a fleet of about a half-dozen older model 747s. Their only scheduled international service was to Hong Kong and Seoul, and they used their larger planes mainly for charters, especially during the Haj. Note the lavatory signage in Arabic as well as in Japanese. This plane’s original operator was Japan Air Lines.

A two-door segment of one of the planes – basically, the front third of it – was intact and propped upright. The street cleaner explained that it was destined to be sent somewhere to become an airplane-themed coffee shop. “You can climb up!” she said. The homemade ladder had very narrow and widely-spaced rungs!

Inside, the ceiling, carpet, and seats had been removed but wall panels were still intact. This picture is taken from the nose section, the front of what would have been first class, looking back. The opening in the floor is the access hatch to the avionics bay. Looking at the wallpaper, I noticed it is identical to that which was on the Orient Thai 747 that I flew as part of an inaugural test flight from the Don Meuang Airport to the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in July 2006, about two months before the new airport opened. I wonder if this was the same plane?

I climbed the stairs to the upper deck. Used as business class for most airlines, both Japan Air Lines and Orient Thai had put additional economy seats up here.

The avionics had been stripped from the cockpit but it was still relatively intact. The flight engineer’s station on the right-hand side is a clue to the airplane’s age: at least 21. The last 747 with a three-person cockpit crew was a 747-300 built in September 1990. Since then, they have been flown by just two people, with computers handling the functions that the flight engineer used to.

After working up a sweat and shooting some 250 pictures and 30 video segments, I finally decided it was time to wrap up and head home. I felt a bit of nostalgia and melancholy, sorry to see planes that had been so technically sophisticated, and that had flown hundreds of thousands of people around the world, reach the point where their only value was for their scrap.

Edit: Found this link listing the history of all of Orient Thai’s former 747s. Looks like the plane that is completely scrapped was originally delivered in March 1979 to Japan Airlines and the one with the intact front third was delivered in December 1986, also to Japan Airlines. From that website I was also able to confirm that, as of this past December at least, the plane I flew on the test flight to Suvarnabhumi is still in operation.

Great Eats in Bangkok Volume 1 – Guaytiaw

Posted on 30 January 2011 by christao408

As Andy whirled into town for a three-day side trip from visiting his parents in Taipei, I had high hopes of producing this mega-video in which we would taste all the great things to eat in Bangkok. Sure enough, during the course of two full days we ate a whole lot of things that would qualify for the “great eats” list. But as I sat down to edit the video, I realized that I didn’t have enough footage to really address that many dishes.

Since I promised a video a few days ago, I’ve gone ahead and edited a first volume of what I expect will be at least a dozen (and probably more) videos that highlight various great eats in Bangkok. Volume One focuses on guaytiaw – rice noodles – and particularly the pink-broth fish soup called yen ta fo. It doesn’t provide as much depth on the various types of guaytiaw as I’d like, so I imagine a revisit of the subject will occur one of these days.

Before editing the next video, I’m going to shoot some more footage and do better advance planning so that I can make sure that future volumes provide you with the high level of quality that you deserve. In the meantime, you can visit Andy’s blog to see some beautiful pictures of the other foods we ate and the places we went.

Please share any feedback you have, let me know if there are any particular types of Thai food you would like me to address.

Thanks to Andy for taking the time and energy to visit. We had lots of fun and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Food in Bangkok: Grand Shagarila Restaurant

Posted on 21 January 2011 by christao408

In December, Tawn’s university friend Ko was married. Tawn and several of their close friends helped with various aspects of the wedding. For example, Tawn served as the emcee both in Thai and English, since the groom’s family are from Sweden. As a thank-you, Ko’s mother took the friends (and me) out for a very nice dinner at the Grand Shangarila Restaurant, an old-school Chinese restaurant in the Silom area known for their seafood hot pot and lobster sashimi.

Let me share our banquet with you:

A choice of sauces and condiments: kimchee, soy sauce, wasabi, and Thai style dipping sauce. Korean, Japanese, and Thai all in one row.

Look at the beautiful kimchee!

Newlyweds Per and Ko take pictures of the appetizer plate, while Ko’s mother looks on.

Can you name all the appetizers? From the back, clockwise: fried daikon radish cake; fried small fish; fried deer tendon with ginkgo nuts, and – anyone want to guess what item four is? Please see below…

If you guessed duck tongue, you would be correct. There’s a little cartilage spine in them after you eat the meat. Who knew? Tasty, though.

A lovely roast duck was brought to the table and presented to us, then the staff carved the crispy sweet skin off and wrapped the skin in these delicate crepes with plum sauce and green onion inside.

Close-up view of the crispy goodness of roasted duck skin.

The main course: lobster sashimi. Look at the size of it! Everyone is in awe…

Creature from the black lagoon…

The sweet meat, which we could either boil briefly in a broth and eat, or simply eat raw after a brush of soy sauce. In my opinion, raw was the better option as it was tastier.

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My goofy husband pretending to be impaled on the lobster.

Also served was a boat of sashimi dragon fish, a firm white fish that was boiled in another broth.

There were two broths, one made from some of the lobster’s blood and Chinese cooking wine and another from the fish bones. Don’t mix!

Also served with the lobster was a little bowl of – any guesses? A gelatin made from the lobster’s blood, with Sprite poured over it. Odd… didn’t understand the point of this. It is meant to be a chased to the lobster and the gelatin was pleasantly salty. But no idea why the Sprite was in it.

Shrimp balls served with a crab meat topping. Rich…

Fried soft shell crab with black pepper and salt, garlic, scallions, and chilies.

The remaining roast duck meat made its way back to the table as a stir fry served on a bed of crunchy fried vermicelli noodles.

Fried wide rice noodles with lobster head. Ultimately, the entire lobster that was first served as sashimi is consumed over several courses.

Dessert number one was a taro paste bar with ginkgo nuts wrapped in pumpkin seeds and fried.

Dessert number two is fresh young coconut meat and ginkgo nuts served in a light sugar syrup.

Needless to say, this was a pretty fancy – and filling! – meal. We were really treated wonderfully by Ko’s mother and went home with several containers of leftovers per person.

Outside the front of the restaurant, which is located just off Soi Taniya, the adult nightlife street that caters to Japanese tourists and expats.

Land Use in Central Thailand

Posted on 19 January 2011 by christao408

Why is traffic in Bangkok so bad? This is a persistent question that has been at the back of my mind for the more than five years I’ve lived here. As someone interested in urban design and land use, I always wonder: Is this traffic inevitable or could it have been avoided?

How does this…

While bicycling on the outskirts of the city last Sunday, I realized that part of the answer lies in looking at the historical land use patterns and how long, thin rice paddies that cut between canals have led to a network of roads that are insufficient to handle Bangkok’s more than six million residents.

Turn into this…

While this realization is the result of consuming other people’s writing and observations and digesting them, it wasn’t until I was riding through an area that is actively undergoing the transformation from rice paddies to development that it became clear to me.

And, eventually, become this?

The result is this six-minute video project, which I hope you’ll find interesting.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: Thailand