Loi Khrathong 2008

Posted on 15 November 2008 by christao408

Sorry for the delay in entry. We are up in Burriram province right now, in the northeast of the country about six hours by car.

This evening is the cremation ceremony for His Majesty the King’s sister, Princess Galiana Vadhana, who passed away in January. The highly formal ceremony, with its roots in Brahminism and Buddhism, started yesterday. The entire nation is watching or, in many cases, participating.

Temples across the country are holding a simultaneous ceremony with monks at these temples leading chanting for the late princess. Subjects are placing sandalwood flowers in a replica of the royal pyre that will be lit this evening in Khrungthep’s Sanam Luang, the parade ground adjacent to the Grand Palace.

Everywhere we go, the televisions are playing pool coverage of the events. It is unlike anything the country has seen since the passing of his mother in 1995. Something that exceeds the grandeur of Princess Diana’s funeral in both scope and breadth.

I won’t write about it any more here but there are photos available here at 2bangkok.com.

Last Wednesday we celebrated Loi Krathong at Brent’s riverside house. I’ve written about this holiday before here and there’s additional information here, so won’t go into a lot of detail about it now.

Here’s a two-minute video of it:

We arrived to find that Phrae, the niece of Brent’s maid, was there in traditional Thai costume. Right, she introduces Matthew to Trish.

Matthew is an American who with his partner Sean, operate a jewelry design company called MCL Designs. They sell at Nieman-Marcus and Bloomingdales and, coincidentally, they may be in Kansas City on business soon. That’s where Trish lives, so perhaps they will have the opportunity to meet again there.

Matthew and Sean spoke extensively with Trish, examining her business model and offering suggestions and thoughts. It turned out to be a very useful evening for her. Can you write off a dinner party at someone else’s house?

Loi Krathong occurs on the twelfth full moon of the lunar year, which usually falls in the middle of November. I was able to get a nice picture of the State Tower with its golden dome shining beneath the full moon.

There was a nice group of people present and we had the opportunity to make some new acquaintances. From left to right, Brent, Matthew, Anne (a bag designer – she and Tawn had a lot to talk about!), Sean, Trish and Tawn. The Shangri-La Hotel stands in the background.

In addition to the fine pasta dinner we were treated to a splendid view of the fireworks. The Oriental, Peninsula and Shangi-La hotels coordinate a fireworks display, launched from three barges in the middle of the river. Because of our angle, my pictures didn’t get as full a view as I’d like, but you get the idea:

Above, the Peninsula Hotel and the riverfront are blinded by a pair of explosions. Below, the barge in front of the Shangri-La Hotel.

There was a lot of smoke blowing downriver, which I think makes photographing fireworks difficult.

Afterwards, we headed down to the river, took a short cruise on the Peninsula’s shuttle, then launched our krathong – the rafts filled with a candle, incense and flowers. Below, Trish, Phrae and Tawn light the candles and incense.

Below, about to launch the krathong. Don’t fall into the Chao Phraya River!

It was a very fun evening and, I hope, a memorable one for Trish.

Thai Pile Driving

Posted on 1 November 2008 by christao408

I carry my camera with me just about everywhere I go, because you never know what interesting, blog-worthy things you will see. Case in point: as Tawn and I were driving down Soi Phom Phong (Sukhumvit 39) we saw a group of laborers driving piles for the construction of a guard shack.

No large pieces of machinery for these construction workers. No pile driver banging away with an incessant “clang”, “clang”, “clang.” Instead, the scene was all smiles and song.

I pulled the car over and walked back to take some pictures and shoot some video. Here, in 90 seconds, is a taste of Thai pile driving.

Neat, huh?

Caught up in the PAD march

Posted on 30 October 2008 by christao408

Despite Prime Minister Samak’s being removed from his post by the courts, despite former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra being convicted in absentia and sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) continues its protests.

It seems they will only be satisfied when the current government is disrupted and new elections are called – assuming they were sincere when PAD leaders recently dropped their demands for a parliament that was contained a majority of appointees, resulting in a government that would be (ironically, given their name) not democratic.

Another big PAD rally and march occurred today, heading down Phloenchit/Sukhumvit Road from Siam Square to Phrom Phong. (Come to think about it, this could be called the Mall to Mall March.) Originally, the march was to terminate at the British Embassy on Wittahyu Road but it looks like they kept on going, stopping only once heavy rains commenced.

As I left my Thai language class with Khruu Kitiya, the head of the protest was just arriving at the Asoke Skytrain station. Caught up in the excitement (and lack of policemen in their mob control gear) I decided to risk life and limb to bring you, my readers, the story.

Above, the head of the marchers, underneath the Asoke Skytrain station heading into the Asoke-Sukhumvit intersection. The crowd looked to be about 5,000 – 10,000 strong but the rains about thirty minutes later cut that to just a few thousand.

Above, looking from Asoke station eastwards towards Phrom Phong station (where Emporium mall is located). By the time the crowd had passed the intersection – a good fifteen minutes – the traffic backed up on Asoke reached a solid two kilometers to Phetchaburi Road and beyond.

Above, a close-up from the previous vantage point, showing the crowds already down several blocks,

After taking the train into town to pay my electricity bill, I stopped at Emporium on the way back for a bite to eat, where I caught up with a rain storm and about two thousand remaining PAD members, who sought shelter beneath the Phrom Phrong station, stopping traffic on both sides of the street, below.

Security guards at the BTS Skytrain and the Emporium mall watched nervously, hoping that crowds would not turn against them. All in all, the demonstration was very peaceful – other than causing massive gridlock in a city that already has terrible congestion.

Above: Here’s ninety seconds of footage I edited together so you could get a fuller sense of the scope of the protest.

Health & Cuisine

Posted on 22 October 2008 by christao408

As a public relations professional, Tawn keeps up his contacts with editors and reporters at various publications. These contacts are invaluable to help his clients receive coverage and attract press attention when media events are held.

Not only do these contacts scratch Tawn’s back: he also has the opportunity to scratch theirs. Especially with the lifestyle media, there is always a desire to find new stories, new people to profile, new angles to cover.

This summer, the editor of Elle Decoration suggested that the food editor of Health & Cuisine magazine give Tawn a call. Tawn has written for Elle and our condo was featured in an issue earlier this year. The editor of Health & Cuisine was looking for people to profile in his “Men’s Cooking” column.

Tawn not only provided some suggestions of names but also offered up his own, since in the PR business, some self-publicity helps build your personal brand and makes you more valuable to clients.

After two rounds of having our condo photographed, I was not too keen on yet another shoot and another layer of publicity. Tawn assured me, though, that the story would remain focused just on his professional profile and on a particular recipe he would prepare.

In the week heading up to the shoot, Tawn scrambled to perfect a recipe for salmon en papillote – salmon baked in a parchment paper pouch – as well as a recipe for an accompanying cous cous salad. We ate a lot of salmon and cous cous that week.

The photographer and his assistant showed up on a Thursday, which was a Buddhist holiday in Thailand. They worked quickly and within ninety minutes, the shoot was done.

After the shoot was over, the editorial assistant was chatting with Tawn about our kitchen remodel. Before I knew it, they were excitedly pouring through our drawers, looking at the different kitchen tools I have.

The assistant explained that they also have a “Cooking Tools” column and were running out of tools about which to write. Would I mind if they borrowed some of them for upcoming issues?

A couple of months later, I’m still without those tools. Tawn tells me they have been returned by the magazine editor and are sitting at his office. Maybe one day they will be returned to my kitchen drawers.

Two months after the shoot, our issue came out with a mango and dragon fruit tart on the cover.

The pictures turned out quite nice, I think. Much better than my picture of the photo shoot, below. The article basically reads as follows. Let me know if you want the recipes.

Urban Dweller’s Kitchen: Salmon Cooked in Paper
Urban living is marked by a busy schedule and a hectic routine, not leaving much time to focus on yourself and your well-being. But Khun Tawn is one of those people who doesn’t let the fast-paced life of an urban professional overwhelm him.
“I think cooking is a happiness that comes from sharing good things with others, hearing their delight when they try my food really adds spice to my life.”
The selected menu today is Salmon en Papillote with French cooking technique using a parchment paper pouch to trap the aroma and keep the fish moist. The side is cous cous salad with Mediterranean ingredients, something light and easy to modify with different ingredients of your choosing. Most importantly, these two dishes are simple. Just like Khun Tawn says, you can easily make them right after you wake up.
We can see that everyone has twenty-four hours a day of crazy urban living, but at the end of the day it is all about the choices we make: work crazy or care about your health.

Here’s my photo from the shoot:

What about those kitchen tools that went missing? Well, near the back of the same issue I found a familiar picture (left). Then the following month, I checked the issue and found yet another one (right). As near as I can tell, there is one left.

Do you know what they are?

Patrapa and Suriyon’s Wedding

Posted on 21 October 2008 by christao408

With all this recent talk about same-sex marriage, I thought I’d go old-school and write about different-sex… er, “traditional” marriage. You know, the kind with a man and a woman.

Last Saturday Tawn and I attended the wedding of his university friend Patrapa and her groom Suriyon. To avoid any confusion here in a Saturday Night Live skit sort of way, the bride is “Pat” and the groom is “Yon”.

Pat studied her postgraduate degree in the US, just like Tawn. In fact, she came and visited us in San Francisco but I was out of town on business.

Unlike every other Thai wedding we’ve been to, this was a Catholic wedding. For once, I felt more familiar with the ceremony than 95% of the guests. Quite a turn of events!

We started with the church service at 1:00 at the beautiful Assumption Cathedral, located on the same soi as the Oriental Hotel, around the corner from the old French embassy, in the Bangrak district. This was the first part of the city to have a paved road – Thanon Charoen Khrung (“New Road”) – and during the early 1900’s was the European quarter.

The cathedral is beautiful, done in clean lines with a brick facade. The interior is every bit as colorful as the Grand Palace but instead of Buddhist and Brahman mosaics there are paintings of Christ, Mary, and the saints.

There is no air conditioning but all the side windows are open-air and there was an army of fans agitating the heat. With the natural rainy season breeze, it was actually very pleasant.

Since it was an afternoon wedding, Tawn wore white and a hat. Sharp, huh?

When we arrived at the church, we ran into many friends including one of Pat’s bridesmaids, whose daughter was a flower girl. Doesn’t she look look just like her mother?

The service was, interestingly enough, conducted in English. As near as I can tell, this is the lingua franca of this church. Some instructions (the Catholic calisthenics – stand, sit, kneel, stand, kneel, sit, stand, sit again…) were given in Thai along with some explanation such as the ritual of holy communion.

Other than that, though, I was in much better shape, thanks to my Jesuit education, than most of my fellow attendees. Listening to the responses of the participants, it is safe to say that very few of them are Catholic.

I was thinking about the language issue and all of the Catholic weddings I’ve attended in the past twelve years or so have been in English plus another language: Ryan and Sabrina had a Cantonese-speaking priest and Liliana and Earl had a trilingual service (Tagalog, Spanish and English), for example.

Proof of the Catholic Church’s ability to insinuate itself into cultures around the world, I suppose.

Based on the number of photographers and videographers in the picture above, you might think this wedding was a big deal. And you would be correct. It seems that Pat’s father is a bit of a puu yai – “big person” – and was, among other things, a high ranking official in the finance ministry. In fact, that evening, the host of the reception was His Majesty the King’s personal secretary, who handles all of his charitable activities.

Chalk another one up for our “hi-so” social life. Ha ha…

As the bride and groom walked down the aisle and out the church, everyone showered them with rose petals as the press corps snapped pictures and shot footage.

That evening, we returned to Thanon Charoen Khrung for the reception, held in the ballroom of the venerable Oriental Hotel. On the way, we picked up another university friend, Fluck, who lives with his partner Bobby a few blocks away from us.

Jumping out of the car, who did we run into in front of the hotel? Otto and Han, fresh in from Singapore, meeting with several other friends. They were a bit surprised as were we! Thankfully, I was able to meet up with them a few days later.

The reception was amazing. More than a thousand guests with a live jazz band including a wonderful female vocalist who sang all the standards. Later on, the emcee joined in the singing, with his beautiful baritone voice.

Right: Me and Tawn at the evening reception. Blurry picture courtesy of Ko. Time to get her a new camera, Santa.

The spread of food was bottomless: tables set around the room’s perimeter offered everything from made-to-order Thai food to western roasts to soups, Japanese tempura and sushi, and Chinese dim sum. The center of the room was dotted with tables overflowing with appetizers and desserts. Waiters circulated like ferries on the Chao Phraya River, gracefully weaving around the guests, picking up your empty plates and glasses and discreetly handing you new ones.

While there we ran into six or seven other university classmates, several of whom I’ve met before. They are all very nice people, many of them with adorable young children in tow.

About ten o’clock we left the reception and headed to Silom Road to meet up with a group of friends who were celebrating one friend’s impending departure. After drinks, we returned to the Oriental to meet in the Bamboo Bar with a professional colleague of Tawn’s, an expat American who after twelve years in Japan came to Thailand to manage a retail group that has the rights to the Barbara Barry, Martha Stewart Living and Thomasville brands. There’s an interesting story I could share about our relationship with the Martha Stewart store, but I won’t.

This was the most social of evenings we’ve had in a long time. By the time we pulled into home at 1:00, we were exhausted.

The Dog Days of Rainy Season

Posted on 12 October 2008 by christao408

Above: an exhausted dog keeps watch (barely) over a table of local eggs for sale along Soi Rang Nam. The vendor was nowhere in sight. I was curious whether, if I wanted to buy some eggs, the dog could give correct change.

The final days of Bruce’s trip were lower-key. I had to get back to work and I think he was ready to just chill out and not see any more sights. We picked up his tuxedo, custom made at the same shop many of our guests enjoy visiting, so that he will have something nice to wear for his performance at Carnegie Hall in New York next April.

The final night, we went across the street to Extra Virgin, the cute new Thai-European bistro that opened a few weeks ago. The decor is very nice but Tawn and I were actually surprised by the food. All in all, much better than we had expected. Sadly, so many western or quasi-western style restaurants in Khrungthep are long on concept and short on kitchen execution. Not so in the case of extra virgin. Here’s a selection of the food we enjoyed:

Top row from left: Indian-themed appetizers with fried calamari and vegetable samosas; Thai-themed appetizers with a take on fried chicken and sticky rice served with a “som tam” style salad made of guava; rocket and pancetta salad topped with a very light balsamic dressing. Bottom row from left: seafood and vermicelli stir fry; a take on pad thai; grilled pork and sticky rice with chili dipping sauce.

My pictures of the western food did not turn out so well, but I thought the veal, which Bruce had, was nicely done and the coq a vin, while slightly less rich than I’m used to, was also tasty.

Below, Bruce’s plane taxis out to the runway after a full ten days in the Big Mango.

With Bruce departed, we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. Life returned to normal as we had dim sum with a group of Tawn’s school friends, Eddy, Sa and Job.

Sa and Job brought their half-year old baby boy, J.J. He has his mother’s fair skin and his father’s beautiful eyes and was the center of attention.

J.J. was pretty fussy when other people would pick him up to hold him, but if you picked him up and held him facing towards his parents so he could see them, he didn’t fuss.

Later on, Tawn’s friend Prince came by to get changed for a wedding. His back was hurting him so he asked Tawn to stand on his lower back.

Knowing how much Thais consider the feet to be the lowest part of the body (cultural note – you never touch another person with your feet, gesture to something with your feet, or put your feet up on furniture or objects while in public) you have to be a pretty close friend to be asked to step on someone!

Time to direct Prince to a chiropractor.

In short, things are returning to normal here at home. I’m able to work in my office again, we can wander around the house without regards for our state of dress, and I can enjoy the fresh air and cooling breezes with my windows open and balcony door ajar.

Tawn and I were talking about this: it is nice to have visitors, but we’re not very used to having visitors in our small home, especially for extended lengths of time. It is amazing how much it alters your normal routine. Something we’ll have to keep in mind in the future as we travel and visit others.

Bruce’s Visit – Part 2

Posted on 10 October 2008 by christao408

To recap the bulk of the rest of Bruce’s visit, we had a very busy several days as I played tour guide and tried to show him several different slices of our life in the kingdom:

Floating Market

After the year and a half of volunteering as an English teacher at Bangkhonthiinai village, I became very familiar with Samut Songkhram province – Thailand’s smallest – and especially the weekend nighttime floating market in the town of Amphawa. My debt of gratitude to Ajarn Yai, the former director of the school, is deep as she has been a gracious host anytime I have guests to bring to the floating market.

Ajarn Yai arranged and paid for a canal and river tour in the late afternoon, following a route that took us several kilometers down the Mae Khlong River and then cutting back through the smaller canals until we returned to the market area in Amphawa.

It was a fascinating opportunity to show Bruce “life by the water” – a fixture of central Thailand and an important cultural touchstone as so many references in language (and even driving habits!) can be traced back to Thais’ relationship with bodies of water.

Since Ajarn Yai insisted on paying for the boat ride, Tawn and I insisted on paying for dinner afterwards at a riverside restaurant. Not without a big fight, though: “I’m your big sister!” she protested, pointing to Thai custom that the puu yai – senior person – pay for dinner.

As I’ve explained to her several times, I can’t let her pay every time we have a guest in town; that’s not fair to her. Of course, “fair” is a very different concept in my mind than in hers. For Ajarn Yai, “fair” will be when we finally take her to the United States for a visit.

Road Trip – Ayuthaya

Long before Bruce arrived, we had discussed a road trip to Thailand’s wine country – Nakhon Ratchasimaa province, also known as Korat. Yes, we do have a small wine industry and as we found out, they produce some decent wine.

We started out in Ayuthaya, the second capital of the Kingdom of Siam. Located about ninety minutes north of Khrungthep, the city is full of ruins including a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our first stop was Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, above and right, on the south side of the city. Quieter than many of the other temples, it was famous as a place for meditation and still houses a large community of monks and nuns. The large chedi or stupa is still intact and you can climb it for quite a view.

After lunch and a stop at the Ayuthaya Historical Study Center, a decent museum that helps put the ancient city into context, complete with scale models of how the city looked before it was ransacked by the Burmese in 1767, we headed to see some of the ruins.

In the 17th Century, the city had a million inhabitants and strong trade relations with the Dutch, Portuguese, English, French, Chinese and Japanese. Many Western visitors remarked how illustrious the city was, with the temples and many palace buildings decorated in the same fashion in which Khrungthep’s Grand Palace is.

Back out into the warm pre-thunderstorm afternoon, we visited Wat Phra Si Sanphet, once the largest temple in Ayuthaya. This is the famous one with a trio of large chedis still standing in a row down the center of the park. The surrounding walls have tumbled down, whether a result of the Burmese cannon fire or just a matter of time and weather.

There were surprisingly few visitors and Bruce was able to film a lot of video footage on his new camera while Ken and I tried to remain in the shade of the magnolia trees. Afterwards, we stopped at a nearby market to watch the making of roti sai mai – a dessert popular among the Thai Muslim population with thin pandan leaf flavored crepes are stuffed with spun palm sugar – and, of course, to eat some.

Our last stop in Ayuthaya was the elephant kraal. North of the city, this is where the wild elephants were herded so ones could be selected for use in battle.

Today, it is where the elephants that visitors ride at the historical park are housed, bathed and fed. Run by a pair of farang women, there is a program where guests can stay several days in cottages and learn more about the elephants while helping out with the chores.

We arrived at feeding time, with a pair of elephants unloading pickup trucks full of grass and bringing it to the other elephants. For the most part, it looks like the grass is ground up before being served to the elephants, using a cement mixer as a gigantic food processor. The elephants that were doing the heavy lifting occasionally snagged a few blades as a snack, having to be urged back to work by their mahouts, or guides.

A baby elephant gets a shower while playing around and trying to drink the water.

Road Trip – Pak Chong

We continued to the northeast of Ayuthaya about two hours, arriving in the small town of Pak Chong shortly after dark. Pak Chong is the first city you reach in Nakhon Ratchasimaa province and serves as the gateway to Khao Yai National Park, Thailand’s oldest and second largest. Pak Chong at sunrise:

We found a relatively new tourist class hotel. It was clean and the beds were comfortable, so for 700 baht a night (about US$20) it seemed like a pretty good deal. This far outside of the big cities, I think our options are limited. The receptionist suggested a really nice restaurants that is located on the banks of a small river. Decorated along the lines of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, the restaurant served pretty good northeastern Thai food, although the grilled chicken was a bit tough.

Khao Yai National Park

Tuesday morning we started out early and drove the hour up to Khao Yai National Park. We were afforded gorgeous views and lots of lush foliage.

From a view point looking north back towards Pak Chong.

There is a lot of wildlife in the park, including a herd of 200-300 wild elephants. While we didn’t see any elephants, we did encounter several other animals including a few monkeys and deer.

At one stop, there is a salt lick that “Friends of the Park” – a volunteer organization – created so that animals would have a place to eat their minerals in good view of the road. The salt lick is shown above and below is the accompanying warning sight at the viewing point.

It reads, “Do not walk to the Salt Lick – you smell bad to wildlife.” Ain’t that the truth?

After stopping at the interpretive center we decided to take a short walk behind the center to see a waterfall. Our information was bad and we ended up taking the long way around.

Imagine, if you will, that the interpretive center was at noon on a clock face. We started walking along the trail, only to eventually discover that the waterfall was at the eleven o’clock position, which we could have easily accessed if we had walked the opposite direction!

The trail was overgrown and in places, completely veered off into uncharted territory. Along the way, we discovered a bit more of the local fauna than we wanted to: leeches. Here’s a view of the leeches we acquired and the larger ones we managed to avoid.

Mostly small but those things really have a strong grip. One burrowed through my sock and was pretty firmly attached to my leg. Five days later, I still have a purple welt from where its mouth was.

The further we went, the more precarious the trail became. To be certain, the forest there is beautiful and cool, but if we hadn’t heard the sound of a waterfall in the distance, I think we would have turned back.

We arrived at the waterfall and were terribly underwhelmed. There are probably several in the park that were much more spectacular, because this one was more of a large rapids than anything else. As waterfalls go, I think the Erawan Falls in Kanchanaburi province are much nicer, especially as I didn’t encounter any leeches there.

Sadly, Bruce was the most affected by nature, suffering at least a dozen leech bites and having to pull them from between his toes. Let this be a lesson to all of us: no shorts and sandals when you are in a national park. On our way in to the park, we saw several truckloads of tourists who had these leg warmer type of padding around their legs, even though they had long pants on. I thought perhaps they were protection for snake bites but realize now that they were designed to keep leeches off you.

Tough way to learn the lesson but glad we know that for next time.

After Bruce had had enough of nature we headed down the mountain to search out a pair of wineries. They were pretty easily found and, sure enough, as you get up into that region and drive down some of the two-lane roads, you could easily imagine that you are in Sonoma County, the Barossa Valley, or another wine producing region.

Above, vineyards at PB Winery. The higher-end shiraz was pretty decent, albeit pricey. The lower-end shiraz had the bouquet of molasses and was so young as to be nearly illegal. The drive is pretty, though, and it was interesting to see what this nascent wine region is producing.

By this point in the afternoon, we were hitting some rain and decided to make one last stop before heading back to the Big Mango. Our destination was Chokchai Farms, a large cattle and dairy operation near Pak Chong.

Left, traditional “old west” farm architecture amongst the tropical foliage.

Chokchai is the most modern and productive cattle operation in Thailand and ostensibly their cows get a lot of opportunity to pasture, although I wasn’t able to take the farm tour thanks to the monsoon rains that arrived. Instead, we hunkered up in the Chokchai Steakhouse and enjoyed a good steak lunch with inexplicably overcooked vegetables. Really, they were aiming for Midwestern US cuisine with frozen carrots and green beans that had been boiled to death. Only the steamed cabbage and daikon radish were fresh.

We returned to Khrungthep around rush hour, leaving unexplored many other parts of Nakhon Ratchasimaa province that I’ll have to return to in the future. In particular, the capital city of Korat, about which I’ve heard good things, deserves some exploration.

Bruce’s Visit

Posted on 8 October 2008 by christao408

As mentioned before, we’ve had a houseguest for the past week. Bruce came for a visit from the United States and I’ve been busy playing tour guide for much of that time. We have seen a lot of things and I’ve been so much on the go that I haven’t had time to properly update the blog – especially since the political unrest here in Thailand has increased recently and deserves some attention.

Let me begin with the political situation, since some of you have already expressed your worries and concerns.

To start off, rest assured that things are still perfectly safe here. Unless you decide to go wander through the middle of the protest area (which Bruce and I did on Sunday, before all of this boiled over), life in the city is proceeding as normal.

Sunday was a local election here and one of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD – the protesters) leaders was arrested as he came out of hiding in order to vote. Realizing this would happen, he gave his supporters a letter to read after his arrest.

Subsequent to his arrest, the protests swelled in size. They expanded to include the area around the parliament building, effectively trapping members of parliament inside.

When the police moved to clear the protesters, using tear gas and – some reports say – small explosives, there were dozens of injuries and two deaths. The autopsy report on one of the deaths indicate that the decedent died as a result of injuries from an explosive she had on her person, although I don’t know how that was established.

Among the injuries were at least two people with severed limbs, providing some of the most shocking early morning news footage I’ve ever seen on television. It is not clear how the injuries happened – do tear gas cannisters provide enough explosive force to tear off the bottom part of a leg?

Some level of calm has been restored, but the PAD has insisted they are the victims here and will remain in place until they have overthrown the government. In short, the cycle will continue.

Turning our attention back to Bruce’s visit, as I mentioned, we have been very busy. Some guests just grab the map, ask me to point them towards the transit system, and are off. Other times, I get the opportunity to revisit many parts of the city with my guests.

Bruce’s friend Fai, a Thai who lived in San Francisco many years and is back in town, was able to join us for dinner shortly after Bruce’s arrival.

We met for dinner at Greyhound Cafe and had a nice visit. While we haven’t met Fai before, he was very nice and reminds us of a friend in Hong Kong.

Left: Fai, Bruce and Tawn pose on the rain-slicked concrete in front of Paragon shopping center.

Unfortunately, Fai was heading out of town so there would be no more opportunity to visit with him. So I put on the tour guide hat – actually, Bruce ended up with the hat to protect him from the sun – and we set off. One of the first stops was the obligatory trip to the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha – a trio of sights that are really a must-see.

Down by the river, as we waited for the boat, we saw the funny sight of a lady washing her dog in the canal. I’m not sure which was cleaner afterwards: the dog or the canal!

Bruce brought his new High Definition digital video camera with him, able to record dozens and dozens of hours of sights and sounds. No doubt he will have a lot of editing to do when he returns!

With it being off season and a thunderstorm hanging over most of the city, we found the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha emptier – and cooler – than I have ever seen it. While Bruce did the audio tour, I sat on a marble-floored sala – a pavilion – and edited training materials for my job. With a deadline looming and still a lot of work to do, I had to squeeze every minute of work out of my time spent as a tour guide.

Passing through the Palace area, I snapped two nice photos of one of the main halls.

Truly beautiful architecture, combining Versailles windows and arches with a classical Thai roof line.

Heading over to Wat Pho – the Temple of the Reclining Buddha – we encountered several touts, helpfully informing us that the temple was closed and would we like to instead go see the giant standing Buddha. Of course, this was just a ruse to get us to go visit “gem” factories.

Visitors beware: Khrungthep is full of these shady characters. I noticed it much more this time than on previous visits to the sights and was, frankly, a bit perturbed by it. Tourism is such an important source of revenue for the kingdom that with the downturn in bookings caused by the political violence, they can scarcely afford to lose more tourists because of scams.

We were rewarded for our perseverance: at Wat Pho we saw some craftspeople restoring detailed painting along the windows and door frames. I cannot imagine the hours they must have spent, hunched over or laying on their side to add the small swirls and flourishes.

While at the temple, we stumbled upon a monk conference. Literally, it was a gathering of monks including visiting ones from China and Hong Kong. According to one monk with whom I spoke, there were 10,000 participants. They were sitting on mats surrounding the main wihan – chapel – of the temple, until the rains came and drove them under the eaves. The chanting continued, though, as more and more monks arrived by bus and taxi, streaming inside and finding their appointed places.

There is some video below.

That sums up our first day of hiking about town. There is more to share and I will try to post it as soon as possible. Meanwhile, hope everyone is doing well. I’m quite behind on checking and responding to others’ entries so my apologies if I have missed any important events.

Results of the Physical

Posted on 27 September 2008 by christao408

Saturday morning was spent at Bangkok Hospital, undergoing a comprehensive battery of exams, tests, pokes and prods. Hospitals here, in an effort to reach out to expatriates and more affluent Thais, offer a range of physical exams that include everything from blood tests to EKGs to chest xrays, packaged with spiffy names and discounted prices.

Tawn and I met jointly with the doctor, an affable man in his late 30s whose jeans and Hawaiiam shirt said “weekend shift”. We discussed options and agreed that a package that included an EKG and a stress test would be good, so that we can get a healthy baseline from which to measure in the future.

As for the chest xray, which seems less common in a routine physical in the United States, the doctor explained that because of the higher prevelence of tuberculosis here in Thailand, chest xrays are a standard practice to screen for the disease. Given that a single xray only gives you the equivalent of five to ten days worth of passive radiation, it seemed a small price to pay for the assurance that I do not have tuberculosis.

First off, the measurements: height, weight, blood pressure (which was initially high but a few minutes later we retook it and it was normal), and samples of various liquids including blood.

I remember when I was a child, I absolutely hated getting shots or having blood drawn. Then at some point in my life I decided that it wasn’t that painful – depends on the nurse or technician, though – and it was actually quite fascinating. So now I don’t mind at all.

While the lab work was being done, we changed into our scrubs for the stress tests. At first, I misunderstood the instructions and changed into the bottoms, too, but in fact only needed to change into the tops. Stylish, huh?

I’ve never done a stress test before and it was quite interesting. You get wired up with various monitors and a blood pressure sleeve. The wires all run to a box that is strapped around your hips with a velcro belt, then the box is connected back to a computer. Then you get on a treadmill and start walking.

Every two minutes the speed is increased and your blood pressure is taken. This continues until you reach the target heart rate, which is (I think) 90% of your theoretical maximim heart rate, based on 220 beats per minute minus your age. So I’m almost age 38, so my target was 164 beats per minute. After eight minutes at ever-increasing speeds and angles of incline, I reached my target. My blood pressure was taken again and then I started a three-minute cool down period.

The goal of the stress test is to measure not only how your pulse and blood pressure increases during exercise but how quickly they recover after the exercise is complete.

After we were done with that, we had an hour to wait until the lab work was done and we could review the results with the doctor. So we went to lunch at the cafeteria, starved after having fasted for nearly fifteen hours.

During our visit, Tawn was assaulted by the hospital mascot, who was handing out brochures for some new service. It turns out that there’s a man inside that nurse’s body, kind of a twist on what is more common in Thailand: a (female) nurse hiding inside some men’s bodies.

When we returned to meet with the doctor, the results were pretty much as I expected:

Kidney, liver, lungs, and heart all seem to be functioning fine.

Cholesterol is a little elevated (235, target is below 200), which is lower than it was five years ago but has increased a bit in the past two years.

Weight is a little high (102 kilograms, about 220 pounds) and the doctor suggests that losing about ten percent of my body weight would probably help with my post-exercise recovery, which is a bit slow.

Bottom line: start exercising more and stop eating as much of things like this quiche, which I baked on Thursday evening. Considering how expensive cheese is here, that would probably help my financial health as well!

Singing in the Shower at Alila

Posted on 23 September 2008 by christao408

After several weeks of particularly intense work in both our jobs, Tawn and I decided to take a weekend break in nearby Cha-Am. At a travel expo held at Central World Plaza a few months ago, we purchased a voucher for two nights at Alila, one of the newest luxury resorts in Thailand, at a great price.

Two hours south of Khrungthep, Alila is tucked away down a quiet road. The architecture of the seventy-room resort is modern with clean lines, sparse furnishings, and a lot of peace and quiet.

The six buildings are laid out surrounding a center complex that houses a restaurant, a spa, one of two swimming pools, a bar and a library. The complex is topped by a second restaurant that floats amidst a huge reflecting pool.

The walls of the complex are lined with steel cages containing rocks, making for a stark and dramatic visual, while the complex is flanked by footpaths that lead to the beach and a row of trees that contrast the hard and soft sides of nature.

The minimalist design is unfussy and extends to the rooms, which are spacious with very high ceilings and lots of light. They are also very high-tech with an Apple iTV in each room, loaded with your choice of movies and music – they actually contact you before your stay and ask for your preferences of genres.

Despite the stark design, there are many cozy touches: tea candles, incense burners, an essential oil diffuser, and several light settings from “welcome” to “intimate” so you can set the desired mood.

The highlight has to be the bathroom, with its large windows, stand-alone bathtub, and the shower, which is situated in the middle of the room, in the open, with water that falls from the ceiling like an April storm. We wanted to take some pictures to convey the fun nature of the shower and thankfully there were some umbrellas located near the front door.

After settling into the hotel, we headed to “Red” (the pool-side bar) for the complimentary afternoon tea. It was crowded so the hostess suggested that we might light to take our tea in the adjacent library. Shortly after the tea arrived, the hostess returned and said that a table had opened up and asked whether we would like to move.

After an early dinner of Thai food at “Clouds”, the open-air restaurant that overlooks the reflecting pool, we called it a night and tried to catch up on all the sleep we’ve missed out on over the past few weeks.

We woke up bright and early in the morning, ready to attend the one-hour yoga class taught around the heated pool in the sanctuary-like spa. It was a good workout and stimulated our appetites for breakfast.

Left, the stairway from the downstairs restaurant to the upstairs “Clouds”.

The misty, cool weather of our evening arrival had given way to a sunny and warm morning. There was a stiff ocean breeze, though, so the heat was tolerable.

Breakfast was a buffet, as it seems is normally the case at almost every hotel and resort in Thailand. The selection of food – Thai, Chinese, and Western – was extensive and the quality was very good. It turns out that the chef is a farang and one result of this is that the quality of the baked goods is very high. The croissants were magnificent and Tawn had sandwiches twice during our stay, just to enjoy the really good bread.

After our late breakfast – and a suitable period of waiting – I enjoyed the pool area for a swim. The water was very warm, so I didn’t swim that long, but the design of the area is very relaxing and peaceful.

We spent part of our day relaxing in the room watching some movies and reading. Then, when the sun had moved a bit more to the west, we went to the beach and enjoyed the sand and water. It started to mist lightly, which added a rainbow to our beach view.

We returned to the room for a mid-afternoon snack and another movie. This was a deconstructed caesar salad and a bowl of wild mushroom soup. Very tasty.

As sunset neared, we returned upstairs to Clouds, taking a sofa on the marble-clad deck to watch the water and sip some cocktails and share a club sandwich.

As the sun lowered towards the mountains that separate this narrow stretch of Thailand from Burma, they back-lit the dark clouds of the afternoon thunderstorm that approached us but mercifully swung to the north of us.

The mosquitos, which had largely been absent the night before, were out and several sprays of a lemongrass solution didn’t dissuade them so we headed indoors for dinner. One very nice thing was that the restaurants didn’t charge a corkage fee and we had brought two bottles with us to enjoy over the weekend.

From top left, clockwise: Mashed potatoes, breadsticks, T-bone steak with onion relish, a pair of fish sandwiches.

For dessert, we enjoyed a fresh fruit sabayon with crushed pistachio nuts on top, and a “floating island” with fresh berries on a vanilla pudding.

On our way back to the room, Tawn considered a late night dip in the pool. Thankfully, I was able to talk him out of it.

Here’s a video recap of the weekend:

We really enjoyed our stay at Alila and it reinforced that we should do more of these weekend getaways, as it makes for a wonderful mental break from our busy lives.

christao408

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

Tag Archives: Thailand