You may remember me sharing you pictures last week of the Massaman Curry that I ate for lunch. I bought this at Seri Center where I quite often go at the weekend. This week I bought gang gari gai otherwise known as Chicken Yellow Curry.You might be interested to note that "gari" is actually a Tamil word which gave us the English word "curry". Like before, I ordered this meal with a roti. A few readers pointed out that I should really call it a "Parantha" as roti is a single layer and is cooked without oil. That might be true, but Thai people still call it "roti"!

The main ingredients include: coconut milk, potatoes, onion, palm sugar, fish sauce and deep-fried shallots. You could also add cherry tomatoes which I quite like to do in my curries. The meat here can either be chicken or beef. The ingredients for the yellow curry paste include: red spur chilies, roasted shallots, roasted garlic, galangal, ginger, lemon grass, coriander seeds, roasted cumin, curry powder, salt and shrimp paste. This curry has a sidedish of cucumber relish which I told you about last time.

I was sitting on my back deck the other evening, reviewing my "Thai For Beginners" text (constant review of even the basics is essential if one is not immersed in the language). The sun had gone down about an hour ago, but it was still very warm out. The book was at my 10 o'clock, my writing tablet was directly in front of me, and there was an ice-cold bottle of Heineken sitting at my one o'clock. It wasn't a dinky little bottle, either. It was one of those big ones you get if you order a bottle for your table at any restaurant in Thailand (Heineken does in a pinch if you can't get your hands on a Chang!) Half of the bottle was gone, and the porchlight shone through the green bottle, casting an emerald glow on my studies. :)

My wife, Pon, was standing on the edge of the deck at my six o'clock (out of view, of course). She had just returned home from her ESL (English as a Second Language) class. A couple of weeks prior, she had discovered a cache of old fireworks out in my workshop. The stash consisted of firecrackers, roman candles, sparklers, and things that shoot straight up into the heavens with a whirrr when you light 'em. They had been out there in the shop collecting dust and spider webs for about three years, so I was kind hesitant to let Pon set them off. We finally agreed to let her just light the sparklers. I figured that if the accelerant in these things had gone unstable over the years, at least they had little chance of doing any damage if they went south, so to speak.

Pon had really taken to those sparklers, and she lit up a few every night when she got home from school. That is what she was doing on this particular evening as I sat at the table writing out my exercises. The half-consumed bottle of beer, coupled with the 4-mile run I had just completed an hour earlier, had put me in a very mellow and introspective mood. I was finding myself looking up and around my yard, more than I was looking down at my studies.

As Pon lit her third sparkler, I got a whiff of the strong gunpowder-y smell. I turned to look at my wife, who was standing in the shadows, out of reach of the porchlight. The light from the sparks cast her face in a yellow-orange glow. She was softly singing a song. I could not hear the words of the song, but I knew that a) I had heard it many times before; and b) it was, of course, a Thai song. All of these sensory inputs; the beer, the gunpowder smell, the lights, and the warm evening, the singing, instantly took me back to last year's Loy Krathong in Pon's village of Bahn Bong Chang.

Loy Krathong probably needs no introduction with this group of readers, but just a brief description for the uninitiated. This is how it is described in the 1999 printing of the Dorling Kindersley Travel Guide for Thailand.

One of Thailand's best-loved national festivals. Pays homage to the goddess of rivers and waterways, Mae Khongkha. In the evening, people gather at rivers, lakes, and ponds to float krathongs.


A Thai lady floating a krathong.

Now, I had been in Thailand during Loy Krathong before, but never had I spent the holiday way off the beaten track, with no farang (I can only assume) for miles. I had never seen another pale face while there, even when we went to the fairly large outdoor market that is only about 20 km outside of Chiang Rai. Pon had told me, on my first visit to her village, that many of the schoolchildren in that little hamlet had never actually seen a farang in the flesh. This little fact, which was kind of hard to believe, was corroborated whenever I went for a nightly run at the elementary school that is adjacent to Pon's parents' house. I had no sooner completed a lap around the grounds, when I was followed by about 8-10 boys (and some girls on bikes). Quite an oddity I must've been. After two weeks of nightly runs, and the same gaggle of kids following my footfall, my flattery at being a spectacle wore off a bit (for those people who fantasize of being famous, and being observed constantly, think twice. While my situation was nothing like that, I got the feeling that this must be what the paparazzi become like after awhile. Being famous probably isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I loved those little kids, and never showed even a hint of annoyance, but a quiet run to myself at the end of the day is like therapy to me. Quiet and lonely it never was in Bahn Bong Chang).

Anyways, I digress. It doesn't take a geography whiz to realize that Chiang Rai is kind of landlocked. Oh sure, there is a big river going by, and a small pond dots the landscape here and there. But for the majority of the people living in the countryside, there is no body of water in which to float your krathong. At least I never saw anything to prove otherwise. What they did have, however, was something else that floated in another way entirely. Here it is:

Forgive the blurriness; I tried to find the right setting on my digital camera, but it wasn't happening. What you're seeing is a group of people that have a large plastic silo-shaped balloon. The balloon is open at the bottom just like the hot air balloon that people ride in. These guys hold the balloon over an open flame and fill it with hot air. They then release it and it floats way way way up in the sky, with the fire trapped inside! It looks really cool. Especially if it floats past the full moon (which is always in the sky during Loy Krathong).

This picture was actually taken in Bahn Bong Chang on Loy Krathong. The moon is behind a tree.

Pon and I rode her father's motorcycle to the wat to watch everybody light off fireworks, and to see them raise those balloons. Unfortunately, there were a couple of people who had imbibed a bit too much of the local spirits. They took to shooting roman candles off at each other and into the crowds. There were also a couple of close calls with some boomers, which we call M-80s in the US. One, I think, even singed the hair off of my lower leg! So we hopped on the scooter and went back to Pon's house to light sparklers (thus the impetus for me writing this particular entry in the first place).

Back at Pon's house in Bahn Bong Chang.

It truly was a great evening. Everybody obviously enjoyed themselves immensely. I liken it to the 4th of July here in the States, but with a bit of a religious twist to it. Earlier in the day, we had accompanied Pon's father to an altar. He took a cooked chicked and a bottle of the village homebrew (akin to moonshine, I think). He put the chicken on the alter, along with a cup of the alcohol. He said some words and we prayed. Later on in the evening, Pon lit a row of candles in front of a small Buddha image in the house. Then we went to sleep with the sounds of boomers in the distance.

Isn't it amazing how just a few sensory cues can send you vividly back to such wonderful memories. I could close my eyes on my deck the other evening and almost relive last year's Loy Krathong as if it were happening all over again. I hope this entry evokes memories of your own speical Loy Krathong. Enjoy.

Many tourists visiting Bangkok have been to Wat Saket and the nearby Golden Mount. But, how many know details of its gruesome past? In a later blog, I will tell you about the elaborate ceremonies for the funeral and cremation of Thai people. However, in the old days, for the poor people, there was no such ceremony. They were taken to Wat Saket which was built especially for the cremations that were prohibited inside the walled city. For example, people who died a violent death, by epidemics, by suicide or by accidents.

The following is a narrative of a visit to this temple by Carl Bock in a book called "Temples and Elephants" which was first published in 1884. A little word of warning, although I have abbreviated and toned down much of the grisly details, it might not be a good idea to read this while you are eating your breakfast!

The first time I visited Wat Saket, as I entered the grounds, I met two Siamese coolies, carrying, on a bamboo stretcher, the dead body of a native pauper or criminal, followed by a couple of dozen of Siamese, some of them monks.

One or two of the group were dressed in white clothes, the national colour of mourning, with heads completely shaven in token of grief. The bearers of the corpse and the monks were the only persons directly interested in the last scene of all in the unknown history of the dead man. But, high up in the air hovered a dark group of aerial beings, who were to take a very active part in the proceedings. Circling directly over the heads of the corpse-bearers was a flight of vultures, eagerly watching the scene. When the coolies reached the selected spot they cast the dead man's body on the ground, and the next moment the air was darkened by the ghastly, greedy vultures, as they swooped down and stood in a semicircle around the body.

During a moment's delay, while an official, after sharpening a huge knife, approached the body, the vultures became impatient, hustling and fighting each other for a front place; once or twice they came quite close to me, and I had to keep them off with my stick. Then the official stooped down and cut the body open. The sight of the blood and entrails was too much for the filthy vultures, which began to flap their wings. A monk then advanced and chanted a few words, holding a fan and pipe in his left hand, and in his right a piece of bamboo which he touched the body.

No sooner had he uttered his last words than the vultures seemed to know their time had come, and, with a frantic rush and a horrible scream, swept forward and hopped and fluttered round the mangled corpse, each trying to get his full share of the feast. Not more than ten minutes had been occupied in this horrible feast, when the vultures retired a few feet, and the human "butcher" came forward a second time and cut the back open, followed again by the monk who performed the same actions as before. There was then a second feast for the vultures.

Eight minutes later and little remained except the head and the bones, which were collected together by the attending friends, whom I left gathering a few sticks with which to burn them.

Did anyone know that yesterday was "National Thai Language Day"?

Has speaking Thai become ‘uncool’? by Veenarat Laohapakakul

Do you realise that yesterday, July 29, was another important occasion for Thailand? It was “National Thai Language Day”. It might seem amusing to some that Thailand marks such a day on its calendar, but it does provide us with a stark reminder to reflect on how we are using the language. In a world where English has become the lingua franca, a growing number of Thais, especially Bangkokians, don’t really seem to care if they speak or write Thai properly, and even more alarmingly, they don’t seem to appreciate the ability to do so anymore.

Shhh. I'm actually in my computer class right now so I won't be writing a lot of comment just yet. I just want to post a link so everyone can read it.

Feel free to start your discussion!

I don't really make a habit of going to McDonald's in Thailand. I know a lot of tourists do. I usually stay away, partly because the price is a little expensive and also because there is so much good Thai food here at a fraction of the price. It is funny really, because back home McDonald's is somewhere you go for a cheap meal when you go out. However, in Thailand it is almost the opposite. As it costs more, it is prestigious to be seen in McDonalds! Actually, KFC is a lot more popular here in Thailand compared to McDonalds. But still, you will quite often see the place packed.

When I was backpacking across Asia, I made a note in my diary of the price of a cheeseburger in every country that I visited. I thought it would be interesting to compare. So, I did a bit of a McDonalds Tour of the World! From Pushkin Square in Moscow and on to Beijing and finally Bangkok. That was back in the early 1990's when there wasn't many around. But, now there are hundreds in each country.

I know we get quite a few students visiting our blogs who are doing projects on comparing cost of living and lifestyles between two different countries. So, today I will give you a rundown of a menu at McDonalds so that you can compare to your homecountry. However, the size of portions might vary. I believe the Big Mac here is a lot bigger than the one in the UK for some reason. Anyway, at present, US$1 is about 40 baht.

Cheeseburger (29 baht), hamburger (19 baht), Pork Burger (19 baht), Pepper Chicken burger (19 baht), Big Mac (60 baht), Filet-O-Fish (48 baht), McChicken (48 baht), Samurai Pork Burger (48 baht), Double Cheeseburger (60 baht), Crispy McD 2pcs (63 baht), Spicy McD 2 (63 baht), McNugget 6 pieces (39 baht), McSalad Shaker (32 baht), McFries regular size (19 baht), Coke small size (19 baht), McFloat (19 baht), Cone (9 baht), Pies (19 baht)and Sundae (19 baht).

If you are learning Thai, you might be interested in the conversations my students wrote a year or so ago:

http://www.learningthai.com/mcdonalds.htm

You will find menus, conversations and a lot more!

Related to my previous blogs, I found a great great links about the poet I presented to everyone here. Since I take translation class this semester, I usually browse the website called www.wanakam.com which is a community for Thai translator
*wanakam=literature.
I found a fantastic link of the collection of Thai literature that had been translated to english or even world literature that had been translated to Thai .
Here is some sample of the poems from the same collection with the one from my last blog.

You will defitnitely see through Thai culture by these wonderful poets...so it a must for you to read!!!!!

There's hope for beloved
Ayuthaya
So long as men are
In respect
Of old precepts,far
reaching
Into the soul,in effect,
of immortal siam.
*************************

Born men are we all
and one,
Brown,black by the sun
cultured.
Knowledge can be won
alike.
Only a heart differs
from man to man.
************************

So little yet so much
one knows,
Like a frog wich grows
in a puddle,
Knowing not ocean so
ever vast,
Become befuddled
by its small world
************************

and many more here
http://www.suphawut.com/translations/masterpieces/seni/index.htm

Wish everyone enjoy these poems:-)
Sawaddee krub
Jeep
PS. Today is my Birthday...Jeep is 23 years old now:-)
Choke Dee Krub

Steve has asked me in a previous comment on how life for me as a Eurasian has been so far. So, in this post, I will shed some light onto this issue.

I first heard the word ‘Eurasian’ when I had once asked my dad the ‘What am I?’ question. ‘Papa, if you’re white and mama’s Asian, what does that make me?’ and he took a moment to think before telling me ‘You’re Eurasian’.

I’ve lived in Germany up to the age of eight and went to school there only up to second grade. My father’s parents adored my brother and me very much, the reason, perhaps, had more to do with the fact of having their first grand-daughter. At school, I don’t think I was treated any different than my other [lighter haired] German classmates. I was in fact a German. But I always felt a bit outside of the circle for my own reasons.

(Above Pic: My brother and I with our two cousins)

In my very early childhood, my family had taken a few trips back to Thailand. I’ve read accounts from many other halfies, some, about feeling (some) discrimination and being looked 'down' upon. However, I can’t say that applies to me, not as a child anyway. But since I have not been to Thailand for almost a decade, people’s attitudes may vary the next time I go.

Most Thai people, if they know that I have Thai blood, will most likely consider me as one or treat me as a half Thai (or in their case ‘luk farang’), I still have my Western tendencies. When I was little, my mother used to dress my brother and me up in cute outfits which caught many people’s eyes. She always wanted her kids to look their best. Between my brother and me, I got more attention because I had the ‘typical’ luk kreung features; brown, curly-ends of hair, round chubby cheeks, fair complexion [and being a girl, lol].

There were a few memorable instances involving praise from other Thai people. One time, a cash teller noticed me walking with my mother and called us over, instantly complimenting me with words like ‘dek narak, suay maak’ (pretty child, very lovely). She even suggested for my mom to bring me back there once I’m a little older to become an actress or model. Another time, a bell boy at a hotel liked me so much, he joked about wanting to have me as his little sister if my mom was willing to give me away!

(Right Pic: My aunt with my brother and me)

In my mother’s family, there weren’t any problems with us being different either. We were kids after all and generally accepted. If there ever were any negative feelings towards us, I would not know about it. Even here in England, there are many Thai women with Farang husbands who have half children and it is not really an issue these days. Several times, there would be some Thai people conversing with me in Thai. I guess this could be considered a sign of acceptance but with that comes the first expectation to know Thai (as they have a school at the Temple where young children are sent to learn Thai). My uncle would also urge me to learn more so I can communicate with him better. :)

I do get some stares sometimes, the reasons could be varied. Perhaps because I’m already grown up as there are more young half children around. Whatever the reason, I don’t think it is a problem. I know Thais sometimes have a tendency to stare; it is more uncomfortable if I didn’t know why.

Admittedly, the only ‘not-Thai’ label I ever got was from my mother. Now, why would my own mother say that to me? Well, this probably wouldn't have bothered me if I weren’t into Thai culture. But it did hurt me to hear her say that especially as I was trying to make the effort of educating myself more about it. I understood that she thought about it more in terms of personality and appearance, not blood. I grew up abroad and knew little to nothing about Thai attitude or speaking. She had been discouraged from teaching us whilst we lived in Germany and convinced herself we would not need it anyhow.

My mother does regret not teaching us but in another sense I can’t fully blame her because our family was almost constantly moving and influenced by Western culture, particularly, when we lived in America. However, I can say that I’ve proven to her that it is not too late to learn, and pestering her on occasion for help did show my sincerity and determination to catch up. I think what was most important to me was for my mother to at least accept or approve of the other half of me, which, she gradually has.

Well, I could extract many more stories just from several points in this entry but I’ll leave that for next time.

Thai fans hold images of Real Madrid's English player David Beckham as they wait for his arrival at a hotel in Bangkok, July 28, 2005. Real Madrid is scheduled to play a friendly with the Thai National team as part of their Asian tour in Bangkok's Rajamangala National Stadium on Friday. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

What is it with Thai people and English football? It almost borders on obsession in some cases. The twelve-year-old students in my class won’t always be able to locate Phuket or Korat on a map of Thailand. However, they can name for you a dozen or so towns and cities in the UK that have a football team. They know the names of all the players. The seating capacity of the stadiums and who is presently on top of the league tables.

When you come to Thailand, you will be asked what your favourite football team is. (Americans please note, only a small minority is interested in American football – we are talking soccer here.) If you don’t have a favourite team, just say “Man U” or “Liverpool” to make them happy. Believe me, it is a major topic here. To have any street cred, you need to have a team up your sleeve.

Whenever a major European team comes to play in Thailand, you always see big crowds at the stadium. The tickets for the Man U match a few years ago sold out within hours. When Liverpool came to town, I only managed to get some seats underneath the scoreboard. I don’t have any tickets for Real Madrid yet, but I know someone who knows someone who might have a few.

So popular are footballers like Beckham, that you will also see their images enshrined in a Thai temple (see above). When I go to watch these matches, it is always a little confusing who the Thai people are cheering for. It is like they are cheering both sides. Although the national team has had some decent games over the last few years, hardly anyone here follows a national league. There is nothing comparable to European football. On big match days the streets are deserted as everyone is at home cheering their favourite team. Ask the same people about football teams in Thailand, the chances are that they have no idea. Hardly anyone watches them. Which is a bit strange for a nation of football lovers. Something is obviously going wrong here.

Stereotypes, so they say, usually have some basis somewhere in fact and if there’s one stereotype that proves this point it is that of the cynical complaining expat. Plop yourself down on any bar stool at any popular farang haunt in Bangkok (which will be the ones with the bar stools as farang alone seem to have a preference for sitting perched on these uncomfortable stools hanging over their beer) and you’re bound to be regaled with enough complaints about Thailand to leave you wondering at the end of the night if, in fact, you have been living in the same place as this poor afflicted creature.

Personally, I don’t regret my decision to come here for a moment, however if there’s one complaint I would raise it is that, from a writer’s standpoint, there is not exactly a brilliant literary scene here. I’m not slagging the comic books either. I was vaguely familiar with the graphic novels back home and can appreciate the punk nature of many of them (a great example is the fantastic “Sin City” film based on a classic series of graphic novels by Frank Miller of the same name) but in terms of novels, especially those in English, there’s just not much.

There are a slew of expat books written by the likes of Christopher G. Moore, Stephen Leather, Dean Barrett, and many others but if you’re looking for the rebirth of Graeme Greene in these you’ll be sorely depressed. “Expat lit” contains numerous “thrillers”, humour pieces and any other genre contrivance imaginable to work in a master’s like knowledge of this country’s bar girl scene (and there are ‘serious books’ about that too such as the awful Patpong Sisters). The title of a recent Dean Barrett book: “The Go-Go Dancer who stole my Viagra”, tells you pretty much what there is to know about the ex-pat lit scene.

On the Thai side, I’m sure there’s great stuff being written, but try tracking down an English translation and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything. When I asked the staff at my favourite Khao San Road bookshop where their Thai literature section was I was directed to a shelf of expat lit and antiquated stuff like “Fanny and the Regent of Siam”, (a follow-up to the banned “Anna and the King” tale).

While they may be a bit hard to track down, one novel originally written in Thai and translated into English, which I read recently and couldn’t put down, made me want to read more Thai-lit and perhaps brush my reading skills up beyond the point where I can just about almost navigate the book “Mr Rooster’s day at the barn”.

That book is “Letters from Thailand”, by Chinese-born Thai female writer Botan and translated by Susan Fulop Kepner, an academic on Southeast Asian studies from UCLA. The book won the SEAwrite award, was a critical smash and, if the publicity is correct, was actually (is?) used in the Thai educational curriculum to help Thais understand a foreigner’s perspective of living in Thailand in particular that of Chinese immigrants.

Botan set the book up as a series of letters from a Chinese immigrant living in Thailand to his mother living in China and it takes place in Bangkok from the early 1950s to the late 1960s. The ever-loving son sends dozens of letters to his mother (though they thin out as the years progress because she never responds) telling of his tireless attempts to attain prosperity in his new land, of the family he comes to have and the changing mores of society he is forced to deal with.

The book is well written, the dry humour of the narrator at times had me laughing out loud, but it offers a far from fawning picture of the land of smiles. The narrator in Botan’s book comes across all sorts of social vices that leave this boy fresh from the pre-cultural revolution countryside in China with his mouth agape in bewilderment and disgust.

These are the same social vices that plague Thai society to this day, some of which have been the subject of His Majesty the King’s birthday speeches, such as gambling, growing debt . . . even cigarette smoking among teens is dealt with here! Corruption is covered in an excellent sequence detailing the work of Bangkok’s immigration police during those days, fellas who no doubt passed down the secret ways of the job to their modern day contemporaries at Thailand’s borders.

Sex is wonderfully and carefully (remember he’s writing his poor aged mother in China) dealt with here. Without going into too much detail, a beach trip for the narrator to Hua Hin is ruined when on an evening stroll he happens upon a teenage couple…. enjoying one another’s company without the presence of a chaperone. Prostitution is covered – the narrator’s son convinces himself that he is in love with a veteran prostitute, and the family gives her a limited welcome, even with the narrator in a surprising turn saying that Thai society is too hard on these people. The results are hilarious.

With all of these social vices basically laid bare in the text and discussed frankly, Letters from Thailand requires a Thai reader, even an expat with a warm spot in his heart for the place, to have a thick skin. That’s the value of this book. When someone tells me only the positives on any given subject, to me they’re robbing that subject of its worth and I go into “uh-oh I’m being sold a crappy used-car” mode. No worry of that here.

This is the most jarring sample I could find of what I’m talking about:

“Yet people praise Thailand as a land of peace, of endless smiles and yellow-robed Buddhist monks; of people whose culture is deeply ingrained, and who follow the five moral precepts faithfully. Yet I have seen men kill and torture animals here in ways I had never conceived of before. They raise a kind of fish whose only reason for living is to tear each other to pieces before cheering spectators. The people love cockfights, ox fights, fish fights - any fight! They steal and gamble, and lie with each other's wives.

The famous Thai smile is only frosting on the cake; what the cake is like, only those who have tasted it know. Thailand's greatest admirers are those who have spent two days in the country, mostly foreigners who have no idea of what life here really is. They nod wisely and say that the Thai "really know how to live" and "know the value of an easy life". They do not guess to what extremes of laziness and irresponsibility this philosophy is carried, or how great is the disregard for order and civilized behaviour.”

Before I am driven out of Thai-blogs.com on a rail, I should add that the character in the book who comes out looking the best in the end is actually a hard working and intelligent young Thai teacher who refuses to take any of his rich Chinese father-in-law’s money, is deeply moral, and is committed to proving himself in a tough and changing world.

The narrator also is grateful for the prosperity that he has attained in Thailand and as he relaxes about guarding the old Chinese traditions he brought with him from his home village, he seems to gradually develop a guarded fondness for the country.

Towards the end of the book the narrator, possibly in an example of this growing appreciation for cultures other than his own, quotes another character, in what was a popular expression at the time after the birth of a new-born:

“Let my child have the diligence of the Chinese, the morality of the farang, and the heart of a Thai”.

-------------------------

You can buy this book online at amazon.com

"Hope soars!"

-shouts the Metro Express headline as I grab a copy and hurry into the station to catch my train. Once again American and the World is caught up to watch - held breathless- as mankind leaves the Earth behind. Despite dangers and risks and those that we have already lost the space shuttle Discovery finally launched again into orbit as we reach for the stars and endless dreams of what is out there.

Earlier this summer I took my Thai friend Bo and some of his friends from Bangkok on a tour of the monuments and museums here in DC. We got on the subject of the Air and Space Museum where I used to work among all the very cool and actual artifacts, planes and spacecraft that have made history. We even have a Space Shuttle on display now in the museum! I wondered out loud how long before there is a Thai astronaut.

Deep silence and strange looks passed between Bo and his friends before they started laughing.

What was so funny? The Japanese have had astronauts go into space with NASA and so has China. In fact both countries are almost ready to send spacemen into orbit on their own, why not Thailand?

"Thai people aren't into that" Bo said but the subject was dropped and changed to a chorus of "I'm tired" and "It's too hot" and "We walk forever where can we get a drink?" before I could ask why he said that....

Perhaps Bo and his friends 'twenty-something' generation may not dream of going to the stars when they gaze up in the sky at night but there is always hope for the next generation. Recently some Thai scouts for the first time for SE Asia got to talk by radio to real life astronauts on the International Space Station. Who knows what Thai boy or girl may be inspired today to reach for the moon tomorrow and one day actually land there.

Imagine what that might be like with Thai people in space. I can picture Muay Thai in zero gravity, those lethal punches and graceful kicks even more graceful and beautiful in slow motion like the space ballet scene from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also I figure if Thais know how to handle using a real Thai style toilet then when you have to go to the hong nam (ห้องนำ bath room) in space won't be a problem!

Actually many of you may be surprised to know Thailand has already made it into space and has in fact traveled beyond our solar system on a path that will one day leave our own galaxy! Wanna bet me?

The year is 1977 ...

NASA launches Voyager 1 and Voayger 2 the first space probes on a mission intended to travel to Interstellar space. I was 14 years old then and to hear that it would take 30 years for Voyager to leave our Soar System seems like a life time, and it was, but lifetimes catch up with you and before you know it 14 turns 41.

I remember the coolest thing about Voyager was the Sounds of Earth. A phonograph record put on each of the Voyager spacecraft. The recording was fitted on a 12-inch, copper disc containing, among other things "greetings from Earth people in 60 languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural sounds of surf, wind and thunder, and birds, whales and other animals. The record also contains electronic information that an advanced technological civilization could convert into diagrams, pictures and printed words, including a message from President Carter. (Courtesy NASA)"

A interstellar hallmark greeting card to anyone that might be out there listening! As you may have guessed one of the greetings recorded on the disk is in Thai which you can listen to here.

Of course I didn't know anything of Thailand back then I was just intrigued by the 'fully correct' drawings of a naked man and woman on the disk to show what we humans look like. Racy stuff! Hey, it was the 70's and I was 14 we didn't have Cable TV or the even Internet invented yet!

I wonder if someday another race finds that disk and plays it. Would they send it back if it also had Disco on it? It was the 70's back then kids. ;)

Would the aliens learn to speak Thai? Could they from one simple greeting? How advanced would they be? They would probably study to learn all Earth languages so they'd get lucky with at least one! Would they be intrigued in us enough to come here? Or maybe just intrigued in the pictures of us (hey maybe it gets reeeeeal lonely out there in space na) I also wonder what else would be different...

Would they need their own gender pronoun other than 'Krap' and 'Kha' to say hello? "Sa-wa-dee kruyynrxxx!"

Would they like Thai food? Would they prefer 'farang' phet (เผ็ด spicy hot), Thai phet (เผ็ด มากๆ really spicy hot!) or would we need a whole other category all together?

Maybe Aliens have already been here a long, long time ago before the first proto humans eyes would have seen them. I doubt we'll know for sure in our life time whether or not we're alone out here. After all this time Voyager is just now leaving our cosmic shores to begin crossing one very big intergalactic ocean. By the time another life form discovers our presence out there and they find their way here to say "Hello" "Sawasdee" or "Geuden tag" mankind could long since be turned to dust, the very material that makes up the stars and heavens itself. Our civilization long since disappeared, except for maybe Disco still bouncing around on radio waves out there. ;)

วทย์

FATHOMS DEEP THOUGH THE SEA
MAYBE'
MEASURABLE ARE THE SEAS
IN DEPTH.
SCALED CAN MOUNTAINS BE
IN HEIGHT.
IMMEARSURABLE IS THE DEPTHÁ
THE HEART OF MAN.

Isn't this poet sounds great...very philosophal:-)
This is one of my favorite Thai Poet(which had been translated to English).The original poet in Thai comes from one of the ancient Thai proverb that had been composed during the Kingdom of Ayutthaya Dynasty.
This english version comes from the book called "Interpretative Translations of Thai Poets(1978)
So if anyone would like to appreciate Thai Poets.I'd look for more next times :-)

I have to cut this short again. Jeep is busy with his Mid-Term exam
Choke Dee Krub
Jeep

Someone recently sent me an e-mail saying how much they liked seeing my Thai Food Blogs. They said it was whetting their appetite for coming to Thailand. However, they were interested to see what kind of food we served at school. They wanted to know if they would enjoy the food if they were a Thai student. The answer to that is probably "yes". I certainly would have liked these meals instead of the food we were served at school when I was a kid. What I will do today, is first give you a sampling of snackshop food. Then, over the coming week, I will take pictures each day of the lunchtime meal.

The first one here on the left is spaghetti with a meat (ham) sauce. Well, that is what they said, but the spaghetti looked suspiciously like the Thai noodles called mee-grob. This is a crsipy noodle, which I like to eat with “rat-na”. On the right is another of my favourites, quail eggs. They sell four of these eggs for 5 baht. In fact, all of the food on this page is sold in the school snack shop for 5 baht a dish.

Of course I like to eat bread, but the one on the left is a bit too sweet for me. The thick bread is toasted with a generous spreading of butter. This is then dipped into a bowl of sugar! On the right is basically dry noodles but everyone calls it by its brandname of "mama".

The final two pictures are a good example of how much Thai children like fried food. On the left you have a variety of different meats deep fried on a stick. For example, fish, pork, crab and chicken. On the right you can see our version of KFC at a fraction of the price!

And then she said, "food land and hospital for the villagers"

I was in Surin, Thailand, helping out as a facilitator for an English and Environment camp organised by Dekrakpha, a NGO(Non-Governmental Organisation) whose cause is forest conservation. Rin, who uttered the above line that blew me away, works as an activist trying to solve the problems of overflooding caused by dams.

My group comprised a good mix of individuals. Some of my team mates were English and Communication students at Ubon University and signed up for this camp because they wanted to practice their English. Others might not be able to speak English fluently. However, since they were working in various NGOs, they had a profound understanding of the environmental issues in their country, which we hoped to tap upon.

We were in the midst of an activity which required our participants to imagine them as members of a village intent on settling down in a forested area. They would then need to brainstorm how they would want to develop this plot of land. We distributed sheets of paper to our groups so that they could crystallise their discussion points and reflect their ideas on their sheet.

Now, being an urban kid, I had a slightly different view of forests. I learnt about the value of forests during my geography lessons but I kinda arrogantly dismissed it as paying lip service. I thought it a harsh foregone conclusion that forests must give way to industrialization if people wish to lead a better life. Who would be silly enough to reject the appeals of material comforts?

Evidently, this was not a view shared by my Thai friends as they didn't even seem to consider the option of demolishing the entire forest to make way for their needs. There was an unspoken unanimous agreement that they would only demolish the land area they would need to build their homes and farm land. In fact, Pi Jeab, who incidentally owns a Master degree in Agriculture, explicitly suggested that the community keep the north-west portion of the forest intact because it would protect the village from the seasonal monsoon winds, which blow from that particular direction.

Perhaps, it isn't too hard to withstand the lure of urbanization because as Rin astutely pointed out, the forest is a treasure chest of food and medicine. Nonetheless, I was impressed with how they didn't disdainfully disregard the forest as a primitive, unsophisticated source. Instead of blindly pandering towards modern remedies, I sensed their grounded attitude as they understood the value of medicinal herbs and appreciated how its importance doesn't just diminish with the emergence of new technologies. That was something that touched me.

Observing them excitedly mark out their prospective homes on the "map", I also noticed their reverence for the forest. They drew a spirit house on the edge of the forest and explained to me how the guardian spirits inside would protect the forest and the village inhabitants. Again, this was an unanimous decision as no one questioned the need for this spirit house. It was simply something that had to be constructed.

This was yet another refreshing perspective because my Thai friends exhibited a desire of paying tribute and showing gratitude towards their provider. This was humility and maturity at its best. Most people would have unrestrainedly exploited whatever they desired and taken their blessings for granted. Some might even justify their greed by thinking that the forest owes them.

I didn't know what I would expect from this activity. But I certainly didn't expect my Thai friends to display such a fierce conviction to preserve the forest and its advantages to mankind. Without this activity, I would never have felt the co-dependent relationship they share with nature, their love for land and their commitment to managing their forest resources responsibly. These were valuable insights an urban dweller like me would never have fathomed on my own.

I felt privileged to partake, albeit briefly, in their world and hoped that someday, I might develop this deep, abiding love for land too.

Going to visit sick people both at their places or at the hospitals is something depressing although the ones who you are visiting is getting better and better but still, you have to walk pass a lot of other tortured people..

Also, going to a funeral is something unpleasant at all.

Months ago, I heard that one of my mother's closest friends had a cancer ~ Well, she was married to one guy but never had a kid so she liked hanging out with my mum and some more friends who have kids. Right, I used to go out with them and we had a lot of fun :)

Since I got to study here at Triam Udom Suksa, I've been busy, drowned in the sea of homework and activities so I sort of stopped meeting her and going out with her for quite a big while but when I knew that she's got cancer, I felt guilty (Because I always denied when her husband called to ask when I'm free so we all could go tour somewhere).. so I went to buy paper and color.. and drew a picture of flowers ~ as a gift and an apology to her.

One afternoon,
"Hey! Bow! Quickly.. The club already started," shouted Phung one day.
"Alright~ Just a second ok!?"
*Ring Ring!!*
"Hello?"
----------------
"What?! You're kidding me..no..no..don't lie ~ do not ever!"
----------------
It was my mum. Her friend was already dead T^T.. I could tell from her voice that she was crying loads.

I skipped club activity that day then and quickly went to the temple in order to see her for the last time before she would be put in a coffin. I arrived just in time and could watered her hand ... I was shaking ..shedding tears ..couldn't believe it.. Lots of words come in my head "I shouldn't refuse her invitations" "I should have visited her more often when I had time."

There were so many "I should have" and "I shouldn't have" appearing in my head and my mind ..

At night, I was still there at the funeral for some prays ~ During that, somebody walked to me and my mum and handed us "the red ropes". My mum grabbed it right away but I didn't know what it was.. I was scared.. I assumed so many things about it .. I even thought it was some of her clothes' thread ~ I denied.. then my mum stared at me and said 'take it'.

I did and tied it around my left wrist and still wondered about it till I got home.. When I reached my home, my mum told me to keep it with something I respect so I tied it around my students' committees' emblem.. And mum said no more word about it.

Recently, I took a test to go to Korea to joy Asia-Pacific Youth Rally program. I was underaged so I was unqualified but I still tried and .. I got it..somehow :)

When I told my mum one night about it, my mum finally told me, "Last year, remember when you went to Singapore and Japan? It was after my friend's mum funeral and I got the red rope from there.."

"Once again, you can acheive your very own dream, the dream to go abroad.. it's after going to the funeral and getting the red rope.. so tonight, do pray to thank my mum's friend"

Ah... Now I get it.

The red rope is the sign for goodluck, it's actually not what Thai people believe but The Chinese instead but because most of Thai people have Chinese blood (since old times) so we do believe it, too.. and really, it's the rope full of luck ..

Tonight, am leaving for Korea to joy the program ..wish me luck people. Although you don't :p I know the rope will still protect me ~ because it's a goodluck rope :)

P.S. I've got a picture of what I drew but I'll edit later ^V^!!

Strange how one minute, I’m in the process of writing several blog entries at a time and the next, I have no idea where my time or concentration went. Anyway time to catch up.

On Sunday, 24th of July, it was that time of year again when ‘the Thai Restaurant Association and its sponsors presented London’s annual festival of Thai food and culture’. This takes place in London’s Battersea Park, for one day only every year, in which ‘over 40 stalls serve hot food, Thai drinks, souvenirs, crafts and fresh fruit and vegetables. Entertainment is provided by Thai musicians, dancers, martial artists and performers. Everything combines to bring you all the sights, sounds and flavors of Thailand’s distinctive culture.’

I was looking forward to this event since getting the flyer from the Songkran festivities, and also, because I had gone to it twice before. The first time was a few years ago which I vaguely remember. But last year, it was definitely nice because the weather was perfect for the occasion. However, I didn’t arrive with my family, instead my mother’s friend and her family took me along. I felt a little out of place without my family at such occasions.

This year, the weather proved to be the opposite of last year’s, pouring with rain instead of beaming with sunshine. I’d arrived with my parents this time and there certainly was security at the entrance. They would charge £2 entry fee per person. One guy checked my bag and said I was not allowed to take drinks inside (which peeved me) because this did not happen last year. Everything had to be bought and quite expensive at that, if considering the price in terms of Baht.

But this didn't stop anyone from buying and enjoying the food. There were still many people who were watching the Thai classical dance performance under a small stand, listening in huddles under umbrellas to the loud music and admiring other aspects of Thai culture on display.

"Beauty and the Bleach" headlines a section of today's Los Angeles Times. It's about how women in the Asian community are shielding themselves from the sun, and seeking refuge in cosmetic procedures to appear "whiter".

Just another visit at the topic of skin color from Richard's previous entry "A Black Face".

Dark isn't cool in Thailand. And it's not because the influence of the Western culture. You'll read in the article here at they mentioned a Western ideal of beauty is to blame for Asian whitening craze. It's not. It really has been based in the Asian culture. The light skin means you're not toiling in the sun and therefore of higher class.

Yep. White = high society = beautiful. It comes down to that.

White schmite! I'm going with the color my karma dictated which goes from what L'Oreal makeup counter calls "Honey Beige" to a little lighter than cafe mocha.

Everyone is beautiful in whatever color they're in.

I was hurriedly walking to school this morning in a very un-Thai manner. I could see it was about to rain again and I had neglected to bring my umbrella. I was so deep in thought about whether I would make it in time that I didn’t notice at first someone shouting out my name. “Ri-chaaard. Ri-chaaaard,” someone was shouting with the emphasis firmly on the second syllable. Had to be a Thai person. When I turned around I was surprised to be confronted with the sight of Wirat cycling towards me.

Now, my regular readers might remember this person as my local “khanom krok” lady. She is the one that never stopped talking and was always trying to be more than my friend. Bascially, her ex-husband had abandoned both her and her newborn child 15 years ago and now she wanted me to marry her. Of course I was flattered but then I later found out that she was proposing to just about anyone who would listen! Not that I minded my little chats with her. And, actually, I kind of missed her as she has not been selling khanom krok around here for several months now. We had all been wondering where she had got to. And then, here she was, cycling down Sukhumwit Road out of the blue.

Naturally, I shouted out to her “bai nai ma” meaning “where have you been?” She stopped and soon brought me up-to-date. She said that she had been disappointed with slow sales at the top of my soi so she now sells something different in Samrong! She then reached into a couple of large plastic bags and brought out some Thai desserts wrapped in banana leaves. “I now sell khanom thien, (ขนม เทียน )” she told me. “Here, try some, no charge!” She then proceeded to give me two bags full of these desserts. In one bag she put a marker made from a sliver of banana leaf. She told me “This one sai-kem with the marker and the other sai-waang. You might find the sai-kem one a little spicy.” If you didn’t know, “kem” means salty and “waang” means sweet.

I thanked her and wished her good luck by saying ‘chok dee”. I made a mental note to try and find out where she had set up her new stall. Samrong is about 10-15 minutes away by car. At school I decided to give away some of the desserts to other teachers. There was too much for me to eat alone. And anyway, it is Thai custom to share food around like this. I soon discovered that Thai people prefer the salted version much more than the sweet one which surprised me. I always thought Thai people had a sweet tooth. But, after I tried it, I could see what they meant. I like the “sai-kem” one much better too.

My helpful teacher went on to say that you can tell the difference between them even before you unwrap them from the banana leaves. All you have to do is squeeze them slightly. The softer one is “sai-waang”. In the picture at the top, it is “sai-kem” on the left and “sai-waang” on the right. The common ingredients between these two are white sticky-rice flour, black sticky-rice flour, palm sugar and fragrant water.

The salted one then has: mung bean, chopped red onion, crushed pepper, sugar, salt and oil. The sweet one has: shredded coconut, and palm sugar. As you can see from the faded colour of the banana leaves in the picture, the final product is cooked in a steamer for about 15 minutes and served when cold. As far as I can understand, these desserts are Chinese in origin and are used in a festival to honour dead ancestors.

They certainly have an interesting taste. But to be honest, I really miss my fresh piping hot khanom krok. I think tomorrow I will walk down to Paknam market to see if I can find anyone selling this coconut pudding.

“Why do you want to study this language?” seems to the first questions asked by the language class teachers in the first lesson. My then 12-year old son’s reason for studying French was to keep the elder sister company. But then he ended up studying it for 4 years in Alliance Française and left with a DELF diploma, after his sister retired after 2 semesters.

There are many reasons and the main one is that I like personal challenges, but not the type in business and work. Having spent more than 25 years in work is enough for me as a challenge. I too like puzzle and code. My collection of books includes "Da Vinci Code" and “Rule of Four” which I bought in HaadYai.

In many of my trips to Thailand, I felt depressed to be beaten by these Thai Codes of writing. If someone could break “The Rosetta Stone” http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/rosetta.html, I should be able to beat the Thai Scripts with modern technology, the Internet. There’s how I bump into www.learningthai.com and end up signing up for Thai Class.

Another reason is that I would like to do some volunteering works in Thailand. Having done some works in volunteering organization in Malaysia, I lost my faith in organized volunteering organization which tends to carry to much fat. The most recent case in Singapore is a classic example. http://www.petitiononline.com/nkfs/petition.html

I was approached by a pastor friend who runs an orphanage in Chiangmai. But since I am a GONE-again Christian for reading beyond the Bible and books sanctioned by the Vatican, I think it is not right for me to tell Bible stories which I personally do not believe. Teaching English to primary school kids in Thailand seems to be a good option.

The question about my reasons for learning Thai was asked by KitjarNaBangsar when I joined his Thai aficionados group for lunch 2 weeks ago. It is strange to have 2 Malaysians brought together by a Farang in Thailand, thanks to Richard. I was bombarded by so many questions that I have no time to reciprocate the courtesy accorded. The consolation is NOW I know Kitjar’s reason.

While we, non-native speakers, struggle to learn Thai, there are Thais giving up Thai Language. I had a manager in Kuala Lumpur/Singapore who is a Chinese Thai from Chinatown in Bangkok. After completing his secondary school, he headed for Singapore to study in the university and continue to work his way up in Singapore. Now he is big shot in a US Multinational company overseeing ASEAN business. He was married to a Malaysian and had some kids. Once, I met his family and commented that the kids are lucky to have the chance to learn all the languages and dialects of the parents. His reply is “It (Thai) is a useless language”. Economically, he may be right. But with Language, comes the culture and teachings (I don’t mean the teaching of knowledge and skills that we learn in school but the teaching at home on how to be a good person). Singapore kids are really smart – I once ask a cute 9-year old boy “Boy, what is your name? He replied “My father is XXX”. XXX was a rich and famous person who once owned an Internet company listed in SGX.

Link: http://www.kitjar.blogspot.com

My Learning Thai Experience

Every Monday night is my night out with Kru Da (Teacher Da) and my wonderful Thai friends. Surely, this is the only day of the week, when I can indulge in speaking, reading and writing Thai.

I have been learning Thai since 2003, and since then, I have learnt to speak Thai with a Bangkok (Krungthep Maha Nakorn) accent. You will not believe it, but when I was in Krungthep about two months ago, only a few people suspected I was not a Thai. In fact, I spoke Thai to almost anyone on the bus, taxi, song thaew and even the express boat.

At times, I was so tempted to take advantage of my language advantage, for instance of not paying entrance fees at Wat Pho, Vimarnmek Palace or even at Muang Boran (Ancient City at Samut Prakan). But, then, I was with my parents, and we were like tourists, with my knapsack and my totting camera. Seriously, I felt bad about cheating a Buddhist Temple, or even the Royal Household Bureau ---- it will eat up on my karmic points, which I may not have enough!

But why learn Thai? I have been asked this question many times before. A lot of things with me, begins with an academic interest. Besides my official career, I have taken a keen interest on Southern Thai Studies. Currently, I am in the process of writing and completing my dissertation on an economic project in Southern Thailand. Of course, this have meant, research stints in Bangkok. Isn’t it only useful to learn to know the local language?

Yet, sometimes it takes much more to learn a completely new language. I have been fascinated with Thailand for a long time. I feel, Thailand and her people are very captivating.

But deep down, there is also the other driving force ---a friendship with Vaninda, a Thai-Chinese girl from Assumption University. We first met in 2002 in Krungthep during a business event, but Vanida was so unlike other Thai people, she was well read, highly cultured and surprisingly appreciative of the arts. We have kept in touch, and when I am in Krungthep, I will try to make time for Vanida. Surely, the dinner and movie date with Vanida at Siam Square would be forever edged in my mind.

Well, in order to communicate with Vanida, I pushed myself to learn Thai harder. Although she could speak English and Teochiu rather fluently, nothing beats the way to a girl’s heart by speaking and understanding her own language, right? On my subsequent visits to Krungthep, she was surprise on my ability to speak Thai. But, somehow life is not always a bed of roses. How sad……………

Today, I see my ability to speak Thai as something unique. For sure, other than my Thai group of friends, I would have little chances to speak Thai in Kuala Lumpur. Sometimes, there is the need to speak Thai at Wat Chetawan or at a Thai restaurant in Malaysia, but that’s about it.

Perhaps, I can be a little optimistic. Who knows a Vanida or any other Thai girl, with her charming eyes, a good heart and of mutual academic qualities will come my way. Can I afford to be a little hopeful in life? Maybe I should, right? Chaiyo

PS: Please also check out http://www.kitjar.blogspot.com for a complete version of this post.

Sawasdee Krab Took Kon,

Welcome to my first official 'regular Monday blog' ..sorry no ribbon cutting or cake, this one is low budget but the best things are free right?

One thing I love from Thailand is Thai music and not just traditional music with classical instruments but quite a range of tastes' in Thai songs. Today I thought I'd share some of my likes and why 'Pom rak plieng Thai' or I love Thai music!

It's only been about a year since I started experimenting with Thai music. Today I have roughly about 212 Thai music CD's, VCD and movies (yes those are my actual CD's in the pic at top) compared to only about 30 CD's of western style music. When I do something I do it all out sometimes y'know.

When I discovered the website for learning Thai from Richards school in Samut Prakarn I also found links for listening to samples of a wide selection of popular Thai songs. From that website I found a link to buy music I heard. This was so cool!

My motto? "Have credit card, have internet access, will shop!" :P

Now I have a weird sense of knowing what I will like or not when it comes to music it all depends on how it looks. If the CD or band looks cool or appeals to me visually then usually I will like it. I have a 98% success rating on almost every Thai CD I have. I'll get back to you on the 2% not so good later.

My first time to order I picked out music by 3 bands and bought the CD and VCD of each album, so that 6 CD/VCD all total. The samples all sounded good so I whipped out the plastic and 'presto!' A new vice was born. :D

I could have bought more because each CD was so cheap! They were only about $8.50 US each including the shipping! Thai friends tell me I'm nuts to spend that much when a CD in Thailand usually only costs about 215 Baht or about $4-5 US but then I tell them how much an American CD costs here ($16-$22) and they are really shocked!

After I ordered my stuff for two weeks I was on pins and needles waiting for it to come in then finally..they arrived! I LOVE to get stuff so when I got my CD's I was like a little kid at Christmas haha.

I was so excited to open the box and finally hold in my hand what I had ordered ....

View It!

Having long been a regular reader of this site ever since Mr Stevesuphan first began his blogging exploits months ago and having been encouraged by that same Mr Steve to “quit writing under all those darned fake names (I confess to having used the occasional and varied nom de plume) and try writing a blog a’ yer’ own!” I thought I’d give it a go.

By way of a disclaimer, I am sure Stevesuphan would like to absolve himself completely of responsibility for the content of this blog or any in the future that are written by me!

I have been living here in Bangkok, the land of silicone noses and hi-so poses (final tip of the hat to Mr Steve), for close to three years and have spent the majority of that working in the media, mostly as a print journalist.

I thought it might be interesting then to send out the occasional blog about a bit of Thai media, be it books, films, Thailand in the news (this will be a great fountain wonderful stuff) and as in this opener, tear a page out of my trusty velvet-embossed BKK journalist’s notebook.

That is a thick book as I spent a considerable bit of time as a writer for a lifestyle publication geared towards businesspeople and in that time I met some people and had some experiences that, barring something horribly unforeseen, I'll likely never forget. From a social studies perspective perhaps nobody was more interesting than the photographers who went with me on every story to take photos of every primary source I interviewed for a story.

If sources were unlucky enough to be the subject of a profile piece they were obligated, after I had filled up my tape, to get their picture taken enough times to fill several thick catalogues, with the photographer telling them how beautiful they are the entire time he spent clicking away. "1, 2, 3, Su-way maak na khrap". This once got us an odd look from a rather prominent female MP who grew a bit frustrated at being told to smile a little wider and not to look so frumpy for the lens!

Another source who probably didn’t enjoy his Cecille B. Demille moment with our photographers was the president of a rather massive Japanese auto-parts company’s Thai branch. The bare hint of a smile that was forming at the corners of his lips when the photograph session began, was slowly overtaken by a disapproving scowl by the time the photographer adjusted the poor man’s tie and told him to tuck in his shirt for the final time.

I enjoyed the company of one photographer especially, we’ll call him Phom. Prior to every interview Phom would ask me how long it would take me to finish, and he would use this information to determine how long he had to take a nap. Having concluded a long and exhausting tour of a government IT project on one occasion, I was forced to wander the building that was by now mostly empty in search of my photographer friend. Both the source and I assumed that Phom had left early until we found him in a darkened corridor (further inquiries revealed that he had turned out the light himself ) sprawled out asleep on some small benches from which he had fashioned himself a bed of sorts.

Phom left journalism for good recently, having found himself a plum PR photography job for better money at another firm. I’m sure that one of our trips, this one to an air-conditioning manufacturer, helped ease the pain of parting for him. The head honcho of this air-conditioning company said that I would have permission to tour the plant to get a better idea of their production processes. Since my article was on an industry analysis, big-picture kind of thing, and also since I was somewhat pressed for time, I passed. He then suggested that Phom go to take photos of the whole works and so he did.

One hour later the interview is finished, I’m having a glass of ice-water, a cup of coffee, sharing some fruit and chatting pleasantly with the head of the company and in comes Phom, or the ghost of Phom as I thought at the time, pale, ashen-faced and sweating profusely after having had spent the past hour in the non-too-cool climes of that factory.

I had intended on writing about a recent excellent book English translation of a Thai novel that I had recently, but so it goes. That’ll be for the next time around. Look forward to hearing any feedback!

As a philosophy major student,besides western philosophy,I have to take classes on religion especially buddhism and I absolutely enjoy learning. Growing up in a buddhist country but honestly know very little about the fact of this religion. It's funny sometimes that Thailand as a buddhist country,very few people have been read the Buddhist Scriptures ( prá dtrai-bpì-dòk ).

I am so excited about my Mahayana Bhuddism Class. I've been wondered what the differences between the Theravada Buddism and Mahayana Buddhism as we all knows Thailand have been known as a land of Theravada Buddhism.

Since I have been studied about Mahayana Buddhism for a month and a half now. I found out that the essence of both is the same thing but the differences just came from difference opinion on the death of the Buddha which have been shown in the buddhist scriptures.

I am so sorry but I have to go to bed now.So ,I'll continue about it tomorrow and it will be Mahayana Class. So I think I'll ask my professor for more information and I'll explain more about what the differences of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism:-)

Sawaddee Krub
Jeep

Sawasdee Krab fellow bloggers!

He's baaaack so grab some snacks, go ahead and go to the hong nam now because it will be an hour to read this one for sure I bet hahaha.
Since our diligent webmaster Richard has been, as usual, hard at work of late making changes to Thai-Blogs.com so our home on the web for all things Thailand is even better, I’ve decided the time has come to really get serious about my own blogging, which I admit I had been a tad lazy about here and there, and really get with the program!

First thing needed was some changes and ‘upgrades’ myself and since my PC was out for a major overhaul/upgrade the past two weeks what better timing? I still kept up with reading everyones blogs and writing comments but I was having to use my older, clunky 10 pound, 2 gigabyte laptop and we have a mutual relationship it seems, we both hate each other! I swear getting that laptop to work was like wrestling with Satan!

So I am most grateful to have my PC back with a now much faster processor, way more expanded memory plus a lot of the accumulated junk on it thrown out and upgraded from basic Windows 2000 to Super Cool Windows XP Professional - cool! Thanks to my friend Mike who did all the upgrade and repair work for me gratis since he really loves doing stuff like this and does it for a living. Kinda like me finding the perfect job where I get paid to live and work in Thailand and share MY expertise on THAT. Nope that's not a hint to get paid for my blogging Richard lol. Anyway, always good to have your very own tech support guy on hand :P

While I was waiting to get back in the game and thinking how I could upgrade my blogging I came up with some good ideas so todays blog is about, well, blogging! :D These are some ideas for things I've changed and some that obviously are still in the works, everybody ready? Buckle yourselves in cuz here we go!

The Name Game

The biggest (so far) and most obvious, as you can see is, ta-da - my new name! Although I was quite fond of ‘Thaiphile’ and it was a pretty cool name it did have its share of problems too, namely trying to explain to some people what the ‘phile’ part meant. I guess you had to be a student of Greek to really get it but I won’t go into that. Let’s just say even after my best explanation sometimes I still got a ‘deer in headlights’ blank stare from some folks.
“A Thai what?”
Maybe it’s not the name that confuses some; maybe they just aren’t into Thailand as much I am. You think? Could that be? Naaaaah ;)

Actually I know Thai friendly folks and just plain Thai fanatics (of which I am #1 as you can see to your right), are a pretty special breed and I like it that way. We are all the more unique for our fascination and appreciation of Thai culture, people, arts not to mention food and anything else Thai that we like. Besides if everyone was into Thailand there would be no room on the net!

So I am at my favorite sidewalk café one day in my usual spot to watch people - especially cute, asian and,ahem, single walking up the street and thinking what would be a new name for me. The Blogger formally known as Thaiphile? Nope, too long and anything else I thought of that sounded cool was even more abstract sooooo ..I was stuck.

I was also working on writing some of my Thai homework and thinking how cool the language is to write and how much I like it (and unfortunately how much better I am at writing it than speaking it) and then *ping* ..light bulb goes on!

I am, in a sense, a writer. I love to write in Thai. Thai. Writer. THAIWRITER! That's it!!

View It!

Devotees carry a god cart walk through a bonfire of hays and charcoal during a worship for a Chinese goddess at a ritual procession at the Chinese community in the Muslim-dominated province of Pattani, southern Thailand, Sunday, July 24, 2005. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
AP - Jul 24 5:31 AM

Dragon dancing troupers dance through a bonfire of charcoal. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

[I will put more pictures up later on]

So, Brandon proposed in August 2001, outside the building where the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX.com), where we met and worked together, once was in Santa Monica.

If we could have it our way, we would probably have ended up in Las Vegas either in a Star Trek Experience wedding with a room full of friends and families, Klingons, and Vulcans; or at Excalibur where we could be a lady and a knight. Another idea that Brandon proposed was an old western wedding. You know, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid kind of old west.

We would have a great time at either one of those weddings. But we didn't think out folks would like that very much. Because both of us are the youngest of our families, Brandon being the last one to get married and I’m the first, we had to consider in our parents.

Not to mention that we were looking to them for money to throw the shindig. Heheh.

My parents didn't press on the subject of the dowry, bless their hearts. They understand that Americans don’t run to mommy and daddy for money to marry their girls like Thais do. Besides, “the money from Brandon is coming back to you guys anyway, why do we have to go through all of that?”

Brandon didn’t quite like the idea of the dowry either. He understood the traditions, but it didn't make him feel better. He felt that it was like “buying” me from my parents.

So both sets of the parents agreed to pay for the wedding as wedding presents for both of us. If we were under budget we can keep the rest.

Brandon and I agreed on a shortened version of Thai wedding at Wat Thai Los Angeles with families and close friends, No procession. No silver/gold gate. None of that stuff. Later on, we'd have an American reception back in Long Beach area with everyone else.

All of that with very limited budget and just about 5 months to pull it off. In American timeline, five months to plan a wedding is quite last minute.

Since I’m not a temple goer, I sought knowledge and assistance through Aunty Tim, a close friend of the family who has practically been my mom in the US since I got here. She was a big help in coordinating with the Wat. We didn’t have an auspicious date calculated like folks do in Thailand. First of all, it’s because we have to coordinate with the reception location, and secondly, we were pressed on time. Sunday, January 20, it was.

My mom did have the date we picked ran back home anyway, just to make sure that at least it’s not the ultimate unlucky day for our marriage. It wasn’t. Not the ideal date, but that’d do it.

Through the temple, we were able to secure the Thai florist/cultural cooridnator to prepare flowers for the offering to the monks and Buddha images, flower tray for the blessing, a Puang Malai, Thai garland, for me to use for bouquet toss later on, and boutonnieres for the attendees and parents to be used at both affairs.

It would have cost us $200 more if we were to order bride and groom Puang Malai as well. But my mother said she’d bring those from Thailand.

Huh? Flower garlands from Thailand, arriving a week before the event? Would they last?

Mom arrived with artificial Puang Malai’s made with scented soap. That’s right, folks. The beautiful “jasmine and rose” garlands you see here around our neck are made of soap. Each individual jasmine buds and rose petals are molded out of soap. Talk about something you can keep forever from your wedding!

Brandon’s Thai wedding suit was tailor-made in Thailand as well. We had the alteration people at the mall measured him and sent home the measurement. By the time the white silk suit with gold Thai silk sash arrived for the wedding, the waist line was a little tight. We also had to move the neck button so Brandon could breath. The suit fit alright, just a tad tight all around. Brandon was careful when he wai because he was afraid he was going to rip the shirt.

My fault. I fed the boy too well. Hahahaha.

As for my wedding costume, mom brought the one she wore at her own wedding. She did, thank goodness, bring a brand new blouse and Paa Toong (sarong skirt) just in case hers didn't fit.

Holy moly skinny mama!! Hahaha!

The only original piece from mom’s wedding costume I could wear was the Sa-Bai (sash)! I could barely squeeze into her shirt. And forget about the Paa Toong!! I have too much butt for that thing. Gosh. My mom was a stick back then!!

Many of the Aunties, my mom’s friends, sent along their wedding presents in a form of supporting wedding items. Our wedding rings were a gift from an Aunty. Our wedding favors were also a gift: the Lai Kram (blue and white) ceramic Paan (a tray with stem) with our names and the wedding date on them. Some jewelry I wore that day were also gifts.

That is one key thing that distinguishes Thai wedding from American: the gifts. Americans have a registry, pretty much a wish list of what they’d like as gifts from their guests. These items are usually fine china, glasses, pots and pans, linens, and other household items for the couple to start their lives together. Thais, by nature humble people, don’t ask for gifts. People would come to the wedding with envelopes of checks, gift certificates, or cash. Some people do give gifts of jewelry, gold especially. In Thailand, a hunk of gold bracelet is as good as cash. Take it in to a gold merchant, and voila. Although, the idea of that is for the bride to enjoy the jewelry and when the time gets really tough, she can sell them.

We didn’t have a registry. It did throw some people off. But our bridesmaids, groomsmen, and parents were instructed to let folks know we like to shop at certain stores. Although we ended up with a lot of standard wedding gifts (vases, George Foreman grill, etc.), we also had plenty of gift certificates and cash as well.

Back to the preparation for the Thai wedding. Once everything was in place and mom arrived, Aunty Tim took Brandon, myself, and mom up to Wat Thai to speak with the monk and the florist/cultural coordinator lady, and to do a mini rehearsal of the day. Since our guests would be consisted of mainly farangs, we wanted to make sure someone would be there to do a play-by-play translation. We were assured there would be someone there.

The day came. No such person materialized. But we’ll get to that in the next installment.

Brandon was taught to graab (prostrate), and we rehearsed the progression of the ceremony. First, we pray at the Buddha. Then we graab our parents and our senior guests. (Oh yes, senior honored guests or “Puu Yai”, meaning literally adult, but in this case the elders.) Then we’d go up to the monks. Wait. Or was that the other way around. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Someone would be guiding us through the ceremony.

Oh, and what a ceremony it was!

To be continued…

In Thailand we are blessed with a variety of curries such as green curry, red curry, yellow curry, massaman curry and panaeng curry. The two former curries are probably the most popular and what most people would label as genuine Thai food. The other curries are more influenced by Indian and Muslim food as they contain spices such as cassia, cumin and cardamon.

I usually eat these mulsim curries at the weekend when I go to watch a movie or do some computer shopping at Seri Center on Srinakarin Road. In the food market in the basement, there is a food stall run by some muslim ladies. They have four or five different curries for sale. You can choose to eat the curry with either rice or a fresh roti. I usually go for the latter just to make a change from the rice I normally eat during the week. This meal is relatively expensive at 40 baht (about US$1). I don't usually spend so much money on meals but these curries are really filling. And of course they are all really delicious.

Normally I would eat this meal at Seri but today I thought I would do it as a take-away so I could share it with you. I don't mean I am going to let you taste any. I just wanted to share with you the pictures of my lunch today! By the way, to take food home, you just tell them to "sai toong" which means put in a bag. So, they poured the massaman curry into a plastic bag and tied it up with a rubber band. The cucumber relish was put in another and then the roti in a third bag.

Thai Muslims of course usually eat this dish with beef. But today, I decided to eat gang masaman gai which is with chicken. There are different recipes for this dish, but some of the main ingredients include: coconut milk, potatoes, roasted peanuts and onions. It is seasoned with cardamon pods, cinnamon sticks, palm sugar, tamarind juice and lemon juice.

Of course, it is the massaman curry paste which gives it is distinctive taste. The ingredients for this include: red chilies, roasted shallots, roasted garlic, sliced galangal, sliced lemon grass, roasted coriander seeds, roasted cumin, roasted cloves, white pepper, salt and shrimp paste. This is all then pounded together to make the paste. Of course, you have a choice to do all this yourself or just buy a packet of massaman paste for about 5 baht! I bought some today at Foodland and will try to cook some massaman curry later this week.

This curry has a side dish of cucumber relish. You may remember me talking about this a few months back in my blog about satay pork as they both use the same relish. As you can see, this is made up with red chili, sliced cucumbers and sliced shallots. it is then mixed in a sauce of vinegar, salt and sugar.

If you like, when I go to Seri Center next weekend, I will buy you a different curry. Hope I am not making you too hungry!

Here in my hometown of Seattle, Washington, we have an event every July called "The Bite of Seattle". This festival is held at Seattle Center. Seattle Center is a large chunk of property right amidst the tall buildings of the largest city in the State of Washington, USA. It has carnival rides, games of chance, and large open areas, fairgrounds if you will, that surround a big fountain that spurts laser-colored water in time to the beat of classical music.
Everybody, all year long, looks forward to this festival; which the locals refer to as, "The Bite". As in...

"Hey, Ray, you goin' to The Bite this year?" (one friend to another in the line of the local Starbuck's, which are on every corner) The reply, more likely than not will be, "Yes".

A little background about "The Bite". It started several years ago. Not "several years" in Thai time; which would be about 200 years ago. I'm talking about several years ago in United States time (that would be within the last 30 years).
This event hosts local-area restaurants. All of these restaurants set up little booths on the fairgrounds, which have small kitchens in the rear. They cook some of their signature dishes and serve them to the masses for about $4-$5 a pop. This gets the name of their respective restaurants on the tongue tips of the public; and it exposes otherwise-fastfood-going-locals to prepared fare other than Mr. Ronald McDonald's.

A beautiful Seattle afternoon 'neath the Space Needle.

>
This lady carved miraculous things out of fruit!

A final product!

Every year there is a specific theme to this particular festival. Well guess what, folks? This year's theme was...drumroll please..."Amazing Thailand!" bum-ba-da-bum!! (my attempt at trumpets blaring). What this meant was that a lot of Seattle-area Thai restaurants (and there are a ton of them) got together in one corner of the fairgrounds. They had a large stage in the center of their respective booths. This stage was the scene of all sorts of Thai-oriented spectacles. There was a Muay Thai demonstration, a couple of authentic dance demonstrations, and a whole bunch of classical Thai music demonstrations.

She must have been hot. It was 90 degrees F today!

Long story short folks....it was a gorgeously hot day in the Emerald City, and I ate a ton of delicious Thai food while being subjected to sights, sounds, and smells that were truly Thai. Pon and I felt truly at home today. I've included some pictures from our afternoon.

P.S.-Just as Wit has extended his hospitality to anyone visiting D.C., Pon & I do that same for any of our "blog" friends that may visit our fair city. The door is always open.

This is that fountain I told y'all about.

Probably one of the most popular food sold by the mobile street vendors is the Thai sausage - sai krok ไส้กรอก . It looks a bit like our Western version, but don't be fooled. It has its own distinctive taste which you should be prepared for. You can buy either beef or pork sausages which would be sai krok nua and sai krok moo respectively. Other ingredients include glutinous rice, minced ginger, pepper and salt. This is then grilled over a charcoal fire. The vendor will also make up a small bag of vegetables as a side dish. This includes: slivers of fresh ginger, wedges of cabbage and green chilis.

It happened last year right on my birthday...29 of July 2004.
when Boston was full of the cops,TVs and protesters during that time as there was a Democratic National Convention going on by John Kerry the candidate for the US President Election.

After one month in a home of red sox,I decided to leave Boston on my birthday to San diego to visit other friends. The reason was a bit silly.Well,Since San diego is on the west coast while boston is the east coast,if I fly back to san diegoon that night,I could have more hours of my 29of July to celebrate with my folks in SD as time is different about 3hours between the west and the east:-)

My friend drove me to Boston Airport. We were both quiet since it was the last day for us..ok!! let's skip the cheesy scene... I said good bye to my friend,loaded my luggage...and then the fun time was about to start...

After the security checked my passport(with a picture of a dark-skin boy), a few minutes later, one big security guard came to me and said,

" Excuse me ,sir!!. Please follow me overhere.

" Sh** " ,I shouted out loud in my mind.

I was asked to leave the queue and sit next to the scanning machine,watching all the passengers who were going to take the same flight with me. Nobody talked to me or gave me a reason why I had to do and I was afraid to ask them "why".

So, I just sit there...and wondered what's wrong with me...I was very scared...hmmmm....what is going on here?

About 30 minutes later, I assumed that all the passengers were seated:as i'd seen nobody there). Eventually ,one of the security came to me and apologised. He walked with me to my seat. Finally,I decided to ask him the"W" word.

"I'm sorry ,sir. " Why did I have to wait that long? Do I look like a terrorist? ..

10 seconds with silence ,I realized that was a real mistake. Everyone stared at me and a security.

I started to laugh ridiculously, pretended it was my big joke.

"I was just joking",that's the best I could say.

"Oh my... this is stupid", I shouted loudly in my mind for a second time.

The security gave me a bad look as same as others.It was just a memorable birthday for me.

I told my frends in san diego about what happened. They all laughed at me and told me " terrorist" is a forbidden word for Boston airpot. He mention the 9/11 and the interesting fact about boston airport.

"Don't you know the flight that hit WTC building came from Boston Aitport",my best friend Brian gave me a big clue.

"Oh...". yes,that's all i could say.

Stupid thai boy!!... That 's really me...:-)

I am now back at my beloved country" Thailand".It's been one year already. No more "Jeep a terrorist"
For my birthday this year, instead of being a terrorist ,I 'll have exam right on that day.. and that terrified me a lot more!!!...lol

Sawaddee Krub:-)
Jeep

Tourists walking over the famous "Bridge of the River Kwai"

Well, just a short time back feeling rather bored with the repititiousness of my weekend holidays here in Suphanburi I decided to head out of the province and go relax elsewhere for a couple of days.

Suphanburi's location for onward travel isn't exactly the most ideal as apart from getting to Bangkok the only other means of inter-provincial travel is by the dreaded 'rot wan yen' or 'non air-conditioned big red looking buses' as we say in English. Just having had a shower before you got on you'll be completely covered however in dust from head-to-toe by the time you get off.

Well, not having too much choice, i yet again chose Kanchanaburi as me destination for a few days. Asking me why i still like it, i can only say that most of the tourist areas there haven't really changed over the years and some of the guesthouses are still looking exactly the same as they did when i first went there back in '91'. There's just one strip down by the river that has begun to blossom into the Khao Sarn Road of 'Kan' with a steady influx of travellers and ex-pats but certainly nothing to the likes of other busy touristy destinations in the country.

Living in Suphanburi, your blogger friend here 'Steve' has to make the unenviable voyage to the immigration authorites of Kanchanaburi every three months to sign a form that reads to the likes of "I Stevesuphan, as an alien in Thailand, declare forthwith that i am not dead but in fact still alive and residing at that same darned-address as before and shall continue to do so for the next three months".

As you could well have imagined, our Immigration buddies in the provinces aren't exactly the most over-worked of folk and enjoy passing the days playing match-a-card on their computers and should any Farang appear at the door for some visa regularities he or she will be delayed as long as possible so that the officers in charge will actually feel like they are doing some work. While enjoying your company of course. Should you feel perplexed to why the immigration officials need to ask you so many questions to the likes of 'Why you come Thailand?', 'When you go home your country?' or 'You can eat spicy food?' they are in fact just being amiable, getting a freebie English lesson and are totally oblivious to any kind of proper answer you may give!

Kanchanaburi has more than its fair share of tourist attractions including a few museums, a couple of wartime graveyards, a few shady rickshaw drivers and a bridge. There are also a few more attractions with absolutely nothing to do with the second world war and one of them is the 'Terrifying Tiger Temple'.

Just a few years back, one of the province's temples decided to look after a sick tiger and when it was seen that this feline was bringing the temple some attraction a few more tigers were brought in to boost tourist arrivals. Only after a few Farangs were seriously maimed and almost killed by a couple of the temple's hungry tigers was the temple forced to implement safety procedures and hang up a sign outside which read something like 'Enter at your own risk. The temple takes no responsibility if one of the tigers has an attitude problem and springs for your throat'.

Then, until a few years back, if tigers weren't your taste and you prefered a more tranquil sight, Kanchanaburi had its own 'Floating Nun'. For an entrance fee of just 20 baht the tourist could view one of the temple's nuns who spent her afternoons miraculously floating while meditiating on the temple's lake or whatever you want to call it. She passed away a while ago but a disciple of hers is apparantly keeping the 'foating fad going'. Once upon a time Kanchanaburi was also home to Thailand's most popular monk a handsome 'Phra Yintra' or something like that. But after it was discovered by the country's media that he had fathered a couple of children and spent his guest-trips to Australia boggying away in Sydney's discos rather than meditating at the temples he fled the scene for his own safety and now resides in cozy California.

When you are tired of visiting the sights of 'Kan' or anywhere else one can just do what i did a while back and get into some conversation with a few of the frivolous Farang ex-pats. I have to disclose a little secret of mine and that is i enjoy playing the 'Dumb Farang' at times ie. i can't be bothered telling any of the expats or local Thais working with the tourists that i've been living here for goodness knows how long and able to speak the Thai lingo. So, this time in Kanchanaburi i got chatting away to a couple of the expats there who proudly afforded me an insight into their triumphant business ventures in the province. Of course, they thought i had just arrived in Thailand as an ignorant traveller and so they enjoyed completely exaggerating their knowledge of the Thai language, people, culture and ways. I couldn't help but laugh under my breath at one of them who was sure his idea for a 'Turkey Farm' was great business in the province. "All the Thais will be eating my turkeys within three years". Sure, man!

I then asked their well thought-over opinions on this question "Since i just come to Thailand but you've been here for a year now, please tell me all about Thai women as you must know everything" My questions were answered with such wally wisdom that i almost fell off the seat in disbelief and dismayed to think how many 'real travellers' had been on the receiving end of such nonsense.

After these couple of ex-pats had downed a few too many beers and returned home drunk at the fine time of 6 in the evening I had the pleasure of next diguising myself as a 'English teacher wanna-be'. I was soon in conversation with this English teacher teaching in Samut Prakarn province which is co-incidently Richard's province. I asked him 'What do think of Samut Prakarn?' to which i had to listen to a barage of comments along the lines of 'Samut Prakarn is the most boring place in Thailand. The food is disgusting, the people are all unfriendly and that school of mine is like a prison'. Sounded like the guy hated the place, couldn't help but ask 'Don't you feel your comments are rather self-opinionated?'.
Bored of having to listen to such bar-stool Farang ex-pat talk i soon asked for the bill. And darned, they over-charged me! the cashier on listening to me for the past couple of hours had really believed me a 'Dumb Farang'. Could have seen the look on her face when i gave her a 'telling off' (in Thai) when i left.

Backpackers sunning themselves at the Jolly Frog Guesthouse

Kanchanaburi is great for one thing and that has to be it's dirt cheap worthy accommodation down by the river. Just before the main strip before you go up the hill(as mentioned above) there are lots of really quiet places where you can get a room with a view on the river for less than 300 baht a night if you want. You have to be careful though of the hellish disco boats that have plaqued the River Kwae for years on end. A few years back, having not listened to the warning of 'Don't stay too near the main bridge' i was forced to put up with these incredibly loud 'disco boats' that sailed past my hut 'til 6 in the morning. Of course i was absolutely furious, on having had a sleepless night, that the guesthouse staff had failed to inform me of such noise-pollution before I had checked-in. But i guess that's business.

Such discos boats still exist today but they've been banned from going up near the 'main' tourist accommodation area cause of the innumerable complaints received from elderly Farang visitors along the lines of "By jove, these owners have nay respect fir human life!" Probably even worse now has been the arrival of 'Karaoke Boats'. So, if you are incredibly unfortunate in choosing your riverside hut for the night you may have to tolerate an entire night of loud Bangkokian tourists blaring away into their microphones singing the likes of "And... I... did it Myyy way"

*Since I wrote up this blog a couple of friends asked me for for my advice on places to stay. I stayed at the newly renovated VN Guesthouse on the river run by the friendly K. Natdina (all the rickshaw/motorbike-taxis know it). In fact everyone knows it as it's been there for years and years. Great place and very clean and a bargain at just 250 baht a night (non air-con)

One of the tourist attractions in Bangkok is the giant swing made of teak wood and painted red. Over the past months there have been reports in the press of cracks appearing in the swing which was making it dangerous to the public. Apparently, restoration work, costing 3.39 million baht, has just been completed and extending its life for an estimated five more years.

The Swinging Festival used to take place every year but was discontinued after too many people died. The following contemporary account was written in the late 19th century:

The Swinging Festival usually occurs at about Christmas time. Processions bear the 'mock king,' who is an official of high rank, to the big swing. Brahmin priests lead him to a carpeted platform where he sits with one foot placed on his knee to observe the unfolding events. He is attended by four Brahmin priests, two on his right and two on his left, until the three rounds of swinging have ended. This can take about two hours. If he touches the floor with his raised foot before the games are ended, the Brahmins were allowed to strip him of his property and clothes and chase him through the streets. Nowadays, he has to pay a hefty fine to the Brahmins instead.

Four or five men, who are dressed in white with tall conical hats, mount the swing and urge it towards a bamboo pole on which a bag of money is hung. The nearest man on the swing tries to grab it with his teeth. This is somewhat difficult and dangerous as the swing supports are 75 feet high. The first set of swingers who succeed get twelve ticals, the second eight, and the third four. After the third set has proved successful the Brahmin priests then sprinkle water as a blessing, and everyone returns to the palace.

The origins of the swinging ceremony comes from the scriptures. Concerned about the end of the world, Uma Devi contrived a bet with Shiva. A serpent was suspended between Putsa trees on the river, swining back and forth between them. Shiva stood in its path on one leg with the other crossed. If the serpent struck Shiva and he fell, that would signify that the world would end. But Shiva did not fall, proving that the whole of creation was secured and strong. The Swinging Ceremony compares the swing to the Putsa trees, while the space between its posts is the river.

Sources: "The Must See Sites in Bangkok" (Bangkok Metropolitan Tourist Bureau), "The 1904 Traveller's Guide to Bangkok and Siam" (White Lotus) and "The 1894 Directory for Bangkok and Siam" (White Lotus)

While back on June 2005, The Nation had published article on Thailand’s Labour Shortages. Here is an exert from it. You can read the full article by clicking on THINK-TANK SPEECH: Labour shortages need fixing: PM

Prime Minister Thak-sin Shinawatra yesterday said Thailand might need to import talent such as medical doctors or software engineers to help increase the country’s competitiveness. Speaking at the annual meeting of the National Economic and Social Development Board NESDB, Thaksin said Thailand was facing two critical issues over the next five years – poverty reduction and economic restructuring.

To restructure the economy, the country needs to find a solution to its labour shortage, particularly for medical doctors and software engineers, Thaksin said.
“We have produced doctors for the United States, but we do not use foreign doctors. We require foreign doctors to pass a test in the Thai language if they want to work here. Why do we need to protect this career?” Thaksin asked a gathering of 2,000 people representing state officials, academics, business and civil groups.

He pointed to India, where universities are churning out herds of scientists and some 300,000 software engineers a year. Thailand cannot match this output.
Beggars and unskilled labourers from neighbouring countries freely enter the country, but rich people and highly-skilled labourers face several barriers to entering the Kingdom for work, Thaksin said. Thai authorities should remove all complicated rules and regulations that prevent the free flow of qualified people to work and live in the country.

He called on private companies to restructure operations in order to prepare for fierce competition as a result of trade liberalisation. The government bailed out private debtors and restructured their debt after the 1997 financial crisis and is not in a position to make any more bailouts, he said.
“Everyone has to leave their personal agendas behind. If we do not change today how can we survive in the next 10 years?” Thaksin asked rhetorically”

- Wichit Chaitrong, The Nation

I totally disagree with the PM’s ideas to solve Thailand’s labour shortage problem, particularly for medical doctors and software engineers. Thailand will eventually produce these individuals as near future. Sometime, I think that Dr. Thaksin tries to solve the problem too quickly to impress himself and his own political alliances.

Thailand has so much to offer to the world in our own way. Importing the best foreign individual from around the world is not the best way to proceed. First, they are not cheap labor to begin with. Second, they take away the job from local people. For Thailand to be competitive and sustainable in the future, we need to produce the home grow medical doctors and software engineers by ourselves. Thais are capable to perform this type of service.

We can do this by using our own Thai scholars, who have or currently have been living aboard to come home to train our own Thai individual in those fields. They have the right knowledge to do it due to experience and training from abroad. I do believe that Thailand has the right infrastructures and facilities to do this. All we need are these individuals to step-up to the place. Although, Thai might argue that they might not make the best money in his/her native land, so they need to export themselves to the foreign market. But sometime, Thais need to import themselves for the better of her country. Thais need to remember were they are come from. This would be the best trade off for the country.

No matter what countries you work in the world, individual need to know the local language in order to be successful in what you. When Thais go to the foreign land, they required to learn the foreign land local language. So when the foreigners want to do business in Thailand, we expect them to do to the same. Remove the language requirement for foreign to do business in Thailand would be a wrong idea.

All over the country today, Thai Buddhists have been going to their local temples to make merit, chant, listen to sermons and to take part in a procession around the main temple building. For tourists, there were two events in particular today which were of interest. These were the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani and the Tak Bat Dok Mai Festival at Wat Phra Phutthabat Ratchaworamaha Wihan in Saraburi Province. I want to share with you today the pictures I took at the temple in Saraburi.

This temple in Saraburi Province is famous for the Buddha's footprint which I will talk about another time. In the hills surrounding this temple there is a flower called hong hern which only flowers at this time of year. People believe that if they go and pick this flower themselves and then present it to the monks they will then make great merit.

In my pictures you can see just a small proportion of over one hundred monks that walked down both sides of the road to the foot of the steps leading up to the temple. Along the way people were lined up to give the monks flowers. The monks ascended the steps to the top where they paid homage to the Buddha's footprint.

The monks then descended the hill on the other side where more laypeople were waiting to wash their feet as an act of cleansing of the mind and soul.

It was just a matter of time before I’d find myself blogging about my favorite animal, the ‘elephant’ more specifically, the Asian (Thai) elephant. There is no doubt that elephants play an important role in Thai history and culture. Known to be nobly and faithfully, they served both kings and commoners in war and in commerce, therefore, they became symbols of both “power and peace”. I know Richard blogged about National Thai Elephant Day in March which I enjoyed reading.

However, it 'seems' that elephants have slowly been losing their stature over the years. Today, I want to share the story of ‘Pang Boonlong’ that was in the headlines at dailynews the other day.

(Pang Boonlong - AP dailynews.co.th)

Pang Boonlong (‘Pang’ because elephants are regarded highly), a female elephant of 3-4 years, still a baby at that, was being used by her mahout to beg for money from tourists and locals in Chiang Mai. She had been so tired and people kept telling them not to bother. Pang Boonlong became very tired, having eaten little, the mahout seemingly wanted to satisfy his own drinking habits. He had been riding her, possessing a steel bar and when he realised the police were after him, he started hitting poor Pang Boonlong over the head many times in order to get her moving. The baby elephant was in shock after he did this to her and starting rummaging around, crashing into two cars before shaking him off of her. 30 police had arrived but none were able to catch one drunken man as he got away while everyone was still shocked over a loose elephant. When the vet had gotten closer, they realised what a huge gash she had on her head, blood trickling down on her which made her cry. Yes, cry. Elephants cry. Pang Boonlong was in much pain. I think the police must still be searching for her tormentor.

When my mother had read and told me about this, I felt so sad and teary-eyed asking “Why? Why would someone be that cruel?” I’ve read many other stories about abuse in regards to elephants [and other creatures] which is very saddening. There were opinions on Pang Boonlong’s story and one man had commented that there are some mahouts that take their elephants into the city to sell sugar canes for the elephants to eat. People that buy the sugar canes will see that the mahout gives the cane to the elephant to eat but as soon as they turn their back, the mahout would hit the elephant on the head so it would spit the cane back out and re-sell it. He said to let more people know about this kind of cruelty and that if people were to give money, to tell the mahout directly that this money is FOR the elephant only.

Although, I can neither confirm nor deny this story, I wouldn’t doubt it. It is something to be aware of. Another question, why do I feel so passionate about elephants?

Well, the first time I came in contact with an elephant was when my parents took us to a zoo somewhere in Bangkok when I was 4 years old. A green blanket was placed on the back of a large tusked male elephant as my 3-year-old brother and I we were lifted onto him. In fact, I could still vividly recall what that was like. I was very excited but scared too. What if the elephant threw us off with its big tusks? I really held onto my brother who seemed just as excited. Eventually, the mahouts (elephant carers) would give us bananas to feed our large friend. My brother did most of the feeding as the large trunk reached over its head to grab the treats. For me, I could only sit and watch in awe as he did this.

My brother and I as kids on a Thai elephant

Ever since then, the elephant had always left a special impression on me. I didn’t know why, after all, all I did was sit on its back. Maybe, looking at the picture, it was its eyes or how calm it was? Still, whenever someone asked ‘what is your favorite animal’, I’d have to say ‘elephants’. There’s a supersition I once heard that said, touching an elephant is good luck. It is a heartbreaking shame (to me at least), that they are greatly mistreated. Hopefully, the next time I’m in Thailand, I can contribute something to elephant welfare programs or charities, and best of all, get back on a cute loveable chaang again.

PS: I’ve gotten questions from some which I’ve noted down and will address in future blog entries so if you have any, let me know and I will get to them na kha.

"We wish you a merry christmas..we wish you a merry christmas and a happy newy.."

"Shhh, teacher's walking here!! (Also it's not even christmas, it's June!)"

"Are you all ok? I've heard your sweet voice from my room over there for almost 20 minutes already," said teacher and she laughed.

"Anyway, do you know anyone from Art-Japanese program who is good at English?"
"Yeah, why?" I asked.
"Well, there's an exchange student's program to go to Singapore. So you know any?" replied the teacher.
Before I could say I knew a few friends from that program my friend pinched me and answered "Yes, we know. We'll let them know and meet you asap"

When the teacher was gone, my friend turned to me and "Isn't it you who has always wanted to go abroad?! Although you're not studying Art-Jap but who knows, you can beat them!"

I went for an interview that evening and it was me selected! :) Mum was amazingly excited coz it was going to be her very own daughter's first time abraod!!!

Then the day came, I flew abroad. I was so impressed with everything on the plane; the seats, the food (although lots of people have complained about it:p), air hostesses and stewards (so good looking!) and everything..it was so HISO up there and I was all eyes and all ears all the time!

When we (me and some more friends from other schools) arrived, we were welcomed by Greenview Secondary School's students and teachers ~ warmly :) And there I met my buddy, cute Alyssa who gave me my colorful name on little paper as the first gift:)

Then we all went to the camp. After some rest then we had to play some games al-together at night. It was so fun so we, Thai people ;p, kept laughing then we were told to be quiet :p because in Singapore, people need to rest and at night people have to be quiet.. if no, we could be reported to the police. I didn't mind that, so we kept playing in silence then :p

The next day, we went trekking.. jest kept walking and walking..for miles. I was sweating like a pig ~ ran out of water and we could rest for a few minutes only! But at last the present for our patience was yummy roti! I ate happily and learned one more thing; when doing something, do it the best you can, never give up easily because at last there'll be something greatly rewarding your effort :)

After a few days, it was time to go to stay with our own buddies at their houses. I came into the city then and saw so many tall buildings ~ I knew abruptly that I would be lost if I was dumped alone there :p then I learned that Singapore is a little country so people live in condotel instead of big houses because having not many spaces :) But as soon as I stepped into Aly's place ~ "OH MY BUDDHA!!!" so big and classy in there! I even had my own room there!! That was great. I quickly walked into my room to unpack my things acting like I was the place's owner :p then my hostmum came in and gave me a little bag as a gift with some more friendly welcoming words.. I was so touched. She even told Aly to bring me out to somewhere coz it's boring at home. She wanted me to have the most fun. And that's how I could spend my time out so late for the first time of my life!! :p We played games, did some fake hands (hehe), ate and bought some things ~ was so much fun!

And I got a chance to visit Greenview Secondary School. The first thing I noticed there was the school was like a fun park. All the buildings are colorful, I mean. Students there did give us, visitors, nice welcome. They came to greet and talked :) Then I attended the class. I learned one more thing; they study only half an hour for one period!!! Here's 50 minute up to an hour!!! So envy hehe! The students are superb, too. They kept answering and responding in class (although, the little boy behind me kept pulling my hair but jest one in the whole class!) unlike here in Thailand that students love being quiet including me hehe.

Soon, it was a night to exchange the cultures. We had some performance and I had to wear a Thai costume which has something heavy all over lol. When I came home and tried to undress myself. Something from my costume cut my finger. The mum came in right away and put a bandage on me..softly. She also told me to be careful next time. That almost make me shed a tear because my real mum never did that to me before.

As I was having fun, it's time to leave.. I tried to keep all the tears inside. I didn't wanna let anybody staying there sad when seeing my tears but it was my own buddy, Aly who cried loads! I cried, too .. My friend, Pee, kept crying till arriving Thailand - -" I so miss it there.. I still remember the first time I arrived and saw Al's smile and the last time I saw Singaporean's friends waving.. the last moment I saw their hands as little dots..

Although it was only 7 days for me being abroad but it was the best week ever that I'll keep all the memories inside..here in my heart and my mind. We're friends forever and soon, I'll step back there once again, I promise.

P.S. I found no dog's poo over there, too!!! So clean everywhere!
P.S.S. Thanks my friends who kept singing Christmas song for no reasons, my teachers who gave me chances, my mum who gave me "me", everyone in Singapore and everybody who's made me be able to grab this great opportunity! Cheers*

Another spin-off from SteveSuphan and SiamJai about Thais going to Farang Land, here's a link the archive my West of Campus articles about adapting to life in Farang Land, more specifically the US of A.

I know, it's not entirely true to a Thai-Blogs entry, but as a cultural study, you can probably learn something about the essence of Thai people from reading my advice to Thai students.

And yes, this is my random entry from work. (Kids, don't try this at home.) Slightly out of guilt after reading the comments on Thai-Blogs hightlights. ;-) Besides, I'm an equal opportunity slacker. If I'm taking my time to blog about the death of James "Scotty" Doohan of Star Trek, I should take the same time doing something on Thai-Blogs as well! Haha!

During July there are two important Buddhist holidays. First, tomorrow, it is Asaha Bucha Day. "Asaha" means the eighth lunar month and Asaha Bucha means the ceremony in the eighth lunar month. On the full moon day of the eighth lunar month, the Lord Buddha gave his first sermon and one of his followers became the first Buddhist monk.

The following day is known as Khao Phansa which literally translates as "the day of entering Lent". The Thai authorities call this three month period "Buddhist Lent" because many lay people choose to be strict about keeping the precepts and even refrain from eating meat. Monks are not allowed to leave their temple during this period which coincides with the rainy season. They are not even allowed to disrobe until it finishes in October.

As the next two days are public holidays, our school, and most schools around the country, took part in colourful parades to their local temples. They took with them a 1-2 metre high Lent candle which the monks will keep alight for the full three months. On reaching the temple, the students took part in a procession around the main building (bot) three times in a clockwise direction. In Thai this is called wien tien. They then went inside where they presented the candle to the monks as well as food, essentials and donations for the upkeep of the temple. They then took part in chanting and finished by listening to a sermon.

If you are in Thailand at the moment, then I would suggest you visit your local temple on Thursday where you will be able to experience many special actitivies. Two big events can be seen at the Tak Bat Dok Mai Festival in Saraburi and the Candle Festival in Ubon Ratchathani. More about these events later.

Customers shop at a religious store Tuesday, July 19, 2005, in Bangkok, Thailand, in preparation for upcoming Buddhist Lent. The tradition of Buddhist Lent dates back to early Buddhism in India when all holy men spent three months of the rainy season in a permanent building. Buddhist Lent calls for no unnecessary travel in an effort to avoid stepping on young rice plants. The celebration of the beginning of Buddhist Lent is marked by candles being presented to monks and other officials. Buddhist Lent in Thailand this year is set for July 21st. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

A Thai man spray paints Buddhist statues at a factory in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, July 19, 2005, in preparation for upcoming Buddhist Lent. (AP Photo /David Longstreath)

A traditional Thai drama performance during a cremation

It has been so nice to welcome so many new bloggers recently. It is really good to have such a diversity on offer. Hopefully some of them will become regular bloggers. I have always liked the idea of having weekly blogs written by different people. I think it would be nice if people picked a regular day and blogged at that exact time each week. Then that way I would look forward to that particular day each week in order to read their next blog. Just a thought. For the new bloggers, I have written a "How to blog" page with some useful instructions.

I had a few hours spare tonight so I thought I would make a start on producing a "Highlights of Thai Blogs 2005". It is by no means finished yet but you can see the work in progress here:

http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=18&disp=highlights

There are a lot of good blogs from the past which new visitors might be interested in.

In my first blog entry, I mentioned that it’s been just over 18 months since I became interested in Thai culture. Before that my interest was mainly Japanese, thanks to the world of ‘manga’ and anime that I enjoy, and still do, which led me to be further interested in Japanese culture listening to their music, learning the words and so on.

I was excited at being able to understand more Japanese and of course I happily told my mother about it several times but one day she came out and said to me “Why don’t you learn Thai?” That phrase had triggered something in me.

Wimbledon Temple Grounds

In my family, I knew we would sometimes practice the Buddhist ways, e.g. going to the temple, going to festivals, making merit, etc. But I thought about that more as ‘routine’ then, given that I was younger. Sometimes the monks would speak with my mother and ask about us (my brother and I). Another trigger was when some Thai people would speak in Thai to me but I couldn’t respond. I felt bad. I wish I could’ve at least understood them.

The third trigger that I consider a big impact on me was browsing through the TV channels one day and coming across a daytime talk show that talked about bi/multiracialism. I watched the remainder of it and found out about this online community about people with mixed heritage. Reading the many articles and other people’s experiences made me realize there was more to me than I thought and that it was time to get in touch with the inner ‘Thai’ in me.

I know it sounds cheesy, but ever since those times, I feel I’ve changed as a person. Sometimes, I wonder what kind of person I would be, had my mother never asked me that question or had I never watched that talk show. Maybe I wouldn’t have been as aware? But whatever the outcome of that, I feel it is a good thing that I am able to embrace my heritage, not only Thai people, but halves and foreigners can enjoy Thai culture alike these days.

I won’t say that I haven’t had my share of difficulty but I’ll keep that for another future blog entry.

A spectacular sunset in Paknam

From a well-known shopping mall located in Bang Krapi, I took a shuttle van heading back home. Watching through the window of the van, I still saw nothing pleasant for my eyes. I tried to look outside the van because I didn't want to see a couple playing sweeting nothing. They would drive me mad!

I didn't feel like getting home by then. 6:30 PM was too early for me. My day should have ended that soon. The van was about to pull up to drop me in. I thought to myself if I went further to Paknam, I didn't have to pay more fare. I changed my mind to explore Paknam for the first time. I got there around 7 PM. Walking on the sideways, I saw a glimpse of a spectacular sunset in the edge of the sky behind the buildings a long the street. I wandered around seeking a way to go to a bank of a river. It was the Chao Praya River, though. This was my first time to see a mouth of the river with a sunset. What a beautiful sight!

While enjoying taking some beautiful pictures of the sunset, I heard little voices around there. I looked around to see where the voice came from and my eyes caught with two little girls singing in their ways. Once they noticed me, they walked to my way and asked if I was a journalist. I wish I were. Being a journalist is one of my dream careers. One of the girls called me 'น้า' or Aunt. I was shocked right when I heard it. I couldn't believe I was that old but I had to accept the truth.:P I forgot how old I was. I felt like I was still 18 then.

Having a few words with the girls, I came to knowing that they were from the South. I tried to speak Southern dialect with them as though they and I were from the same area in order to make a closer friendship. It worked! They were way too friendly and talkative, teasing me that I was their brother's girlfriend. lol I couldn't accept their kindness. I'm afraid I'm going to have someone for that position soon.

Nan and Sai Rung

The two little girls asked me to photograph them before I left. I managed to put them standing on the right way, told them how to smile like this like that as if I was a professional photographer.:P Actually, I've just got my first digicam for 2 weeks.

It was time for me to go back home. It was a pity. I should have come to Paknam instead of wasting my hours in the shopping mall. I said goodbye to the lovely little girls and walked away. I headed to the main street with my half open eyes because I was dead beat of walking all day.

"My Sunday is not that bad but...," I talked to myself wearily.

Before I could end my sentence, I paused and burst out, "WHERE CAN I GET HOME?!? I don't live in this area and this is my first time in Paknam!?!"

"HELP! HELP!" This time I said to myself. :|

I'm back! So what are we up to now? Okay, let's go back to my dull Sunday.

That afternoon I decided to go to Seacond Square. Even though it is not so far from where I live, it took me about an hour to get there on that dull Sunday. There was nothing interesting. Everything was so boring to me. I watched couples walking by and they even made me feel blue because I was walking alone. Nobody loves me? My mom loves me! Mom and Dad ought to be the ones good children think of.

I thought to myself, "I'd better give my love and care to the right person who never hurts me, who never makes me cry."

Trying to comfort myself by thinking about my loved folks, I looked for a way out of this place which was full of brainless teenage couples (just a comfort for a single young girl like me...lol). I found a gate linked with a shop called "Just 25." Everything is 25 baht! How could I just pass it by? I didn't hesitate to go for a look inside the shop. Just 25 baht...

I walked inside, smiling to all shopkeepers as if I would buy all their goods and I thought to myself, "Okay, my budget is 50 baht." And I kept smiling to everyone in the shop, hiding my blue Sunday inside (from dull to blue now).

"Mom, Mom, Mom...," I muttered softly to myself. Walking around the shop for a while, I found something white catching my eyes. Something like a small bunch of white flowers. They were artificial jasmines! Suddently, I repeated the words "Jasmine-Mother-Jasmine-Mother-Jasmine-Mother" again and again. And "Mother's day" finally slipped off from my lips. This is going to be a good opportunity to impress my mom. It's been years I have never shown my affection to her even after finishing my university and spending some time with her. Then I decided to get her a lovely gift with the lovely words "I love you, Mom." on it.

I got one thing for my mom, then another ought to be for myself. :D I found a wooden photo frame which could put on 2 small pictures. I picked it with a thought that I would put one picture of mine and one of someone special on the frame. Perfect!

Holding these 2 things carefully after critically choosing the best ones, I walked to the counter to pay for them. I handed out a 100-baht bank note to a cashier and walked out of the shop happily with my gifts.

"Khun, Khun...50 baht kha! Your change," shouted the cashier behind me.

I picked up the change embarrasingly with a shy smile and hurriedly walked away from that area as fast as possible. My head went blank. It was not only my dull and blue Sunday, but it was also my bad hair day.

A shopping mall with brainless teenage couples


Everything is 25 baht


For my loving Mom

To be continued...

Tourists dressing up in hilltribe costumes to have their picture taken.

Here are some more Thai superstitions:

(1) Do not let your children play with shadows during the evening. The shadow guy will come and take them away.
(2) Do not pick flowers in the temple grounds. You will go to hell when you die.
(3) Do not walk with your face down. It will make your life shorter.
(4) Do not stomp as you walk around the house. You will scare the guardian spirits of the house.
(5) Do not walk heavily. You won't be able to save any money.
(6) Do not walk across any sharp objects. It will make them unsharp.
(7) Do not hit your parents. You will become a very bad ghost.
(8) Do not boil an egg in a rice cooker. It will make your life worse.
(9) Do not set up a spirit house in the shadow of a house. The owner of the house won't be successful.
(10) Do not cut your hair on Wednesday. It is bad luck for you.
(11) Do not cut your nails during the night-time. It will be like breaking the bones of your ancestors.
(12) Do not insult a Buddha image. You will go to hell.
(13) Do not get married on odd numbered months. It is a bad omen for your marriage.
(14) Do not spit or complain about the smell at a funeral. Bad things will happen to you.
(15) Do not take off your clothes or sleep next to the closet. A ghost will come to haunt you.

More Thai Superstitions: http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=5&cat=85

Final Part (30-31 August 2004) KanchanaBuri to SangklaBuri

Wat Wang Wiwekaram and the Three Pagoda Pass, my raison principale for visiting SangklaBuri, were the itinerary of the day.

This extensive temple on the southern outskirts of Sangkhla Buri edges on Khao Laem reservoir. The complex is constructed in an unusual mix of Thai, Indian, and Burmese Buddhist architectural styles. The pagoda is modelled on the Buddhagaya of India. Most of the time, my reason for going to wat has been looking around rather than praying for something, as most people do, methinks. I guess I have nothing else to ask for in life or may be I am an easily contented person.

The Wat complex look very simple

This golden color Pagoda can be seen miles away

Three pagoda pass is only a few miles away from the Wat. Disappointment were written on the faces when we reached the famous Chedi Saam Uong (Three Pagada).

From this picture, you may be thinking that this pagoda is really majestic

I was hoping that the one in front of my eyes were a replica and the real one was further away. With the Myanmar Immigration next to them, these had got to be the real one. Tourism Authority of Thailand ought to be commended for an excellent job of promoting this place.

Compare with other objects hereby, you now have a better perspective of the size

The tour guide told me that there are controversies on who actually built the Chedi, and how many times it was destroyed and rebuilt.

The Myanmar immigration officers, having reasonable good command of English to converse with us, allowed us to cross over to Myanmar side to take some photographs of the Dead Railway tracks. For Malaysian, we still need a Visa to visit Myanmar but I heard that things are changing and ASEAN citizen will be allowed to visit Myanmar sans Visa from 2006 onwards.

Myanmar Checkpoint with a section of Dead Railway Track

Shouldn't it be "Japanese Old Railway in Myanmar Thailand <1942>" like what American like to say "An American Canal in Panama"

Group Photo for the hero who reached the Peak. By now you will be able to guess which one is the author

The usual sight that is franking all border crossings is market selling cheap goods. There are a lot of Chinese products sold here beside the handicraft from Myanmar. I picked up a teak wood lantern for my home garden for about 200 bahts. There are too many souvenirs dotting my home now.

We headed for KanchanaBuri with a brief stop at a hot spring for a drip. From the bus station at KanchanaBuri, we took a bus to Bangkok arriving late in the evening.

Spending a night at a cheap but noisy hotel in Keosan Road, we took a NokAir flight the next morning to HaadYai and board another bus to Kuala Lumpur. That's the end of the story on my trip. Thanks for the following.

Firstly, a สวัสดีทุกๆ คนนะค่ะ (sawatdee took took kon na kha)! :p

It's been a couple months since I stumbled upon thai-blogs and I visit this site practically every day because there are many interesting stories to read from people who share a love of Thailand or anything in relation to it.

I'll introduce myself. My nickname is Jen, I'm 18 and born to a German father and Thai mother as we're currently living in England (the math title was a hint). I've lived in Germany, the USA, Thailand and more often than not, traveled and moved with my family for most of my life, which, in itself is a slightly complicated story reserved for a rainy day, lol.

Being "well-traveled" as some have put it, I've also come across many different but exciting cultures that have opened my eyes to the wider world. I speak German (first) and English fluently, but I've also had some of my share of practice in Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese and of course Thai.

But, can you believe that Thai is only my 6th language? Why is it not in the top five? Well, it was just over 18 months ago that my interest in my mother's culture started peaking. It's another one of those stories where a Thai marries a Farang, moves to a foreign land and forgets to teach her kids the "Thai" ways because we were to fit into the society we lived in.

But things have changed since the early days and so have I. I'll conclude my first post by saying thanks to Richard for allowing me to blog here. I think it'll be a good experience to share with others and hopefully I'll reveal more in future blog entries.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask. ยินดี่ที่ได้รู้จักทุกๆคนค่ะ (Yin dee tee dai roojak took took kon ka) Nice to meet you all :)

A dull Sunday in town

Having been stood up by a senior friend at work who promised to take me to Pratunam, Bangkok's shopping center for people from all walks of life, I felt that my Sunday was going to be so boring for me. You know women love shopping. So do I. For a window shopping most of the time, though. I'm not stingy; I just know the value of money I earn and just think over and over before I come to buying something. What should I do? I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth like my Prime Minister's children. But the pasted Sunday, I did intend to go shopping in Pratunam, not for a window shopping as usual.

I had planned with that senior friend to go shopping a week ahead. She was supposed to take me to Sum Peng and Paohurat as well. I felt happy deeply to have a guide to show me around Bangkok for free of charge since I don't know Bangkok well even though I've been here for 3 months or so. But the beautiful plan had to be put off just one day before the trip came.

I woke up around 1 PM with a headache because some cool movies on HBO kept me up all night. I slept in for a while and got up lazily to take a shower. It was such a dull Sunday, but my feet urged me to go out, say, I couldn't be a lazy arse sleeping in all day. I looked at my wall clock with my eyes open wide. 15 mins to 3 PM!!! How did my showering consume so much time?

"I still had some time. There was no hurry," I talked to myself wearily. I was dead wrong. Never say no hurry in Bangkok. You know why.

I am used to living my easy life in upcountries - from Phitsanulok to Uthaithani, Nakornsrithammarat, Buriram, Khon Kaen and Samuprakarn - where people do not struggle to live from hand to mouth much. Of course, poor people still struggle to live their lives, but I don't think they do hard like those who live in a big city such Bangkok. My life was so nice back then. My life has changed since I started my first career in Bangkok. Actually, in Samutprakarn. I have to get up at 5 AM every morning even though I go to bed after midnight as always. I'm a night owl!

I'll be right back. My boss is here.

To be continued...

My local temple in America

As most of you are probably aware in a few days Buddhist around the world will celebrate Asatha Puja, the day when the Buddha delivered his first discourse, gained his first witness to his enlightenment and the Gem of the Sangha appeared in the world.

This is an important day for me personally as having the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha) to take refuge in was enriched my life more than any other single thing I have experienced.

Here at our Wat in Northren California a small group of us will join our Abbot on Saturday night and practice meditation through out the night and on Sunday we will have our big celebration. Through out the time of the rains retreat some of us will meet every Sunday morning for chanting, meditation practice and a Dhamma talk.

The Dhamma talks should be interesting this year and I'm looking forward to them. Last year my Dhamma sister Thum, responsible for translating to me, more often than not, would look at me and laugh before giving me the readers digest condensed version. Phramaha Buasai was no better. The morning she was not there, after a long discourse in Lao to the grandmothers, he looked at me briefly, laughed, and said that he could not remember because he was being "mindful". My standard excuse for all infractions at the Wat now! :-D

You can see some pictures of songkran at my local temple during Songkran this year on page two...

Pages: 1 · 2

...gonna get ma-a-a-rried.

Bride and groom with the groom's family.

Since there are at least 3 gentlemen of Thai-Blogs getting married to the fabulous Thai ladies, I feel obliged to share my intercultural wedding experience.

But as I'm restricted for time this night, I'd go into all the fun details on coming days in installments.

Although, in short, we had 2 weddings.

First, we got married on paper by a friend, who is a non-denomination reverend through a mail correspondence course, at a local diner in November, 2 months before our actual wedding. We did it that way to help expedite our INS paperwork. That plan didn't work though as there were screw ups after screw ups, and I didn't get my work permit/green card until September.

In January, we had a shortened traditional Thai wedding at Wat Thai Los Angeles on a Sunday morning with families and close friends, followed by
a casual Thai lunch reception after we fed the monks. Later in the evening, everyone reconvened along with the rest of our friends in Long Beach for an American wedding reception with a little bit of Thai flares.

As a teaser ad, and an ode to SteveSuphan, here’s the Do’s and Don’ts list of Thai-Farang Intercultural Wedding:

DO, if you’re having many Farang guests, print some programs with explanations of Thai wedding ceremony. Just in case the interpreter that the temple promised you would be there to help narrate the shindig happens to not materialized. Our farang guests at the temple, which were the majority, and the groom himself, were in the dark through most of the ceremony.

DO go to the bathroom before sitting down with your new wife to be blessed by your guests. Having water from the conch shell trickling onto your hands when you have a full bladder isn’t fun.

DON'T run screaming from the temple when you are unexpectedly hit in the eye with the blessed holy water. Oh yes, DO warn your farang friends about that part of the blessing.

DON'T be surprised if the whole town showed up at your wedding. Thai style wedding reception rules is that you invite everyone you know. Thank god I had my wedding in the U.S., or else the citizens of the Big Mango would have congregated at our wedding reception!

Selected pictures from the wedding are on my Yahoo! Album along with other pictures. I'll put more, better resolution pictures up on my Flickr album as I write the storie.

Until next time!

There are many places in Bangkok with unusual beauty. One such place is the Siam Jusco at Laksi. A large and bustling shopping complex, it is crowded all through the day. But outside, it is very peaceful. It is at some distance away from the main road and in the image above, taken at about 11 AM, the complex looks deserted. A large number of cars are parked on the two bays, but no one seems to be around.

12 days after Pon's visa was approved, we touched down in Seattle, WA. A first time on US soil, foreign soil for that matter, for my soon-to-be wife. We collected our baggage and headed out onto the sidewalk to be picked up. Since 9/11, of course you cannot be met at your flight by family and friends. I had arranged to have my good Thai friends, Lex and Ahn, pick us up. I wanted Pon to have friendly non-Farang faces meeting her in her first minutes in this faraway place (more on that later).

..
Christmas Eve at Kuhn Lex's

One thing that I had hoped for, as we headed to the US, was for Pon to be able to see snow. She had never seen it! 26 years and the closest she had ever come to snow was when she watched movies or news footage on t.v.! In Seattle, we are always good for a couple of light dustings of the stuff, but seldom do we get a good dumping! However, if you want that, it is only a 30 minute drive into the mountains. Then you get all the snow you can handle.

I know that this is a blog post for Thailand, and Thai stuff, and this story really is a stretch for that topic, so I will keep it short. It was just such a kick to take a Thai person, who has never seen snow, up into a raging snow storm! What a way to be introduced to snow, eh?!!!
Here are some pictures of that day. Needless to say, Pon is addicted to snow now. She loves it! The look on her face..and that HUGE smile. It was such a huge treat to see her so happy!

She's trying not to look freezing!

Writing her name.

A picture really does say a thousand words!

Hihi! Have you ever seen the cute girl in this pic before? Took tong na khrab! That's Bow and Mike right there together in one pic. For 2 years we put eachother's pics beside one another and could only dream that one day both Bow and Mike could look back at us from a single pic.

Maybe you're wondering who I am. Well, I'm Mike, Bow's bf. Last October was the first time I had a chance to go to Thailand - it was the first time Bow and I could really be together. We've been 'fans' for 2 years, writing to eachother, talking and laughing on the phone, staying up late to talk to eachother online - and finally the only one wish that I hoped for could finally come true! This is my story ~ I'll write about my first day in Thailand next time so look out for my next blog!

* It's been more than 7 months already, but Bow, every time I close my eyes I think of you. *

Day 3 (29 August 2004) KanchanaBuri to SangklaBuri

As I am an early riser, I headed for the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery on the Saeng Chuto Road on a motorcycle. The cemetery contained the remains of 6,982 prisoners of war who perished during the construction of the "Death Railway". During the Second World War, thousands of forced laborers and Allied prisoners of war suffered and died constructing and maintaining the Burma-Thailand railway.

An air of tranquility exudes in this sacred place

It is sad to note that so many young men gave their lives during the war that had no winners.

The tour van came late. The tour guide, Chan, obviously had more drinks than he could handle the night before. Unshaven and dressed shabbily, I now have doubts whether we would be in good hands for the next 36 hours.

The first stop was at the Hellfire Pass Memorial. The Australian Government constructed the memorial in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand in 1998. Hellfire Pass is a 500 meters long and 26 meters deep section of rock that was dug out by Prisoners of War intended to allow the ‘Death Railway’ to continue its route from Bangkok to Rangoon. Soldiers were forced to remove the rock using no more than picks, hammers and their bare hands. Of the 1,000 Australian and British soldiers who took 12 weeks to clear the stretch of mountain, 700 died.

Hell Fire Pass Memorial Museum

Here I quote the information on one of the plaques of the Hellfire Pass. “The name Hellfire Pass relates to the awesome scene presented at night by the lights from the torches and lamps in the cutting (of the pass)”

A section of the pass which claimed so many lives

The next stop was the Erawan Waterfall, followed by the Sri Nakharin Dam. I managed to climb all the way to the top tier of the waterfall with another teammate, while the rest swam in one of the pools at the lower section.

On arrival at SangklaBuri, we checked into a Guesthouse. Run by SY, a soft-spoken and extremely friendly person, the Guesthouse gave us a sense of staying with friends and family. SangklaBuri is really a nice place to relax

The Guesthouse overlook the lake. Here everything seems to stop

We were transferred to see the Mon village nearby. Taking a motorized boat, we surveyed the coast and the Mon village. There is a Wat that was submerged after the dam was built and the place flooded.

Historical Treasure gives ways to development

Later, we visited a Mon village and tried some of the local food there.

Food here is very much Thai

In the evening, we went to a local eating shop (Ran-Ahan) for dinner. SangklaBuri in the evening is a DEAD quiet place as the streets were dimly lit and the market deserted. We headed back to the Guesthouse after dinner for drinks and chit-chat.

SY is a Mon refugee and besides working in the guesthouse, she volunteered as an interpreter for foreign doctors working in the refugee camps along the Thai border. I was told that the two boy soldiers of God's Army, a splinter group from the Karen Liberation Army (KNU) were staying near SangklaBuri. It would be interesting to visit them but it could be very dangerous.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/616772.stm

Refugees staying near the Thai border are a source of cheap labor for the Thai company operating near the borders. They were not covered by insurance and when they met with an accident, their livelihood will be jeopardized. SY who had a degree from a Burmese University was trying hard to master her English with the only resource she had - an old, torn and heavy Burmese-English dictionary. While some of us, me included, complained how slow the broadband is in downloading, there are people out there without access to basic information. On my return to Malaysia, I subscribed, via Internet, a year of Reader Digest for SY to be sent to the guesthouse. A little kindness brings a lot of happiness, month after month.

While we sat in the nice comfort of the guesthouse coffee house and complained about how lousy the food were in the Ran-ahan in the town, there were people out there in the refugee camp, struggling to get even the basic meal.

More pictures can be seen on page 2...

Pages: 1 · 2

DOS:

>Do arrive at appointments on time, Farangs don’t enjoy having to waste their precious time waiting for folks who turn up half an hour late every time.
>Do get used to being away from your family, you can’t live with your mother all your life.
>Do get in the queue, you don’t need an umbrella around your head if you jump in front of any old ladies.
>Do, even as a customer say ‘thank you’, Farangs are pretty polite in a variety of situations.
>Do get used to saying ‘good-bye I have to go now’ to people and not just walk off halfway through a conversation.
>Do, if you don’t understand some instructions tell the person straight, there is no need to feel embarrassed about such things in Farangland.
>Do, if you drive a car, obey the traffic laws, your influential uncle’s name-card is not going to work with the local traffic police there.
>Do, as a student or worker, ask if a question if you don’t understand something, you are not going to be sympathized with if you make quack-wack mistakes.
>Do get used to the hideous sight of hairy chests in the summer, the locals just love the sun!
>Do get used to the local food, you can’t live on ‘Mama’ noodles for the rest of your life.
>Do get used to the locals constantly complaining, it is their national pastime.
>Do, if you make a mistake say ‘sorry’, Farangs don’t give a darned about who is older than who etc..
>Do, if you don’t know where you are going, ask a local for the way, he will tell you straight up if he doesn’t know and not point you in the completely wrong direction like back home.

DONT'S:

>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘And how old are you?’, that’s his darned business and not yours.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘What’s your nickname?’, as they probably wouldn’t have a clue what you are talking about.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘What is your religion?’, such things are regarded quite personal in Farangland.
>Don’t ask the locals to the likes of ‘How much do you earn?’, you don't want them thinking ‘What the heck has that got to do with you?’
>Don’t ask your unmarried Farang lady friend ‘And why aren’t you married?’, she may not feel that she needs a man to survive in life.
>And certainly, don’t ask any black guys to the likes of ‘Where do you come from?’, you don’t need to be on the receiving end of a smack on the nose.
>Don’t take your skin whitening lotion with you, you don’t need to make a right mockery of yourself.
>Don’t use a fork to stick a piece of fruit in your mouth, such acts are considered completely uncivilized in Farangland.
>And don’t put your head halfway inside your noodle soup bowl when eating, Farangs can be quite sensitive about ‘their’ eating habits, just like you!
>Don’t bother talking any fish sauce with you, such things exist in Farangland too.
>Don’t even think about bribing the local authorities when you have done wrong, you don’t need to be made guest of the corrections department for the next three years.
>Don’t complain about the time length of having to wait for your visa, strict regularities have to be met since half your fellow countrymen have fled the scene and did a ‘Robin Hood’ on arrival before.

Well, it seems that we have been concentrating quite a lot recently on promoting Thai values to foreigners so I thought I would do a twist and come up with this. And since a lot of me Thai friends have been having a right laugh at the Farangs’ expense on some of me other ‘Do’s and Don’ts', I thought a little bit of medicine was called for.

As always, please don’t take me dos and don’t’s TOO seriously, just having a little bit of fun.

This is the tenth blog in me ‘Dos and Don’ts' series and I don’t know when they are going to end, the rest can be found in me archives.

Ploenta Patiyut holds up the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at a book shop in Bangkok, Thailand, Saturday, July 16, 2005. Thai Harry Potter fans lined up Saturday morning to be among the first to buy the latest installment of J. K. Rowling's fantasy series. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

This fried rice dish is called khao kluk kapi ( ข้าวคลุกกะปิ ). I must admit it is not among my most popular dishes. In fact, you don't seem to see it around so much these days. The big difference between this dish and normal fried rice is that the rice is fried with shrimp paste which gives it a brown look (see picture above). It is also seasoned with sugar and fish sauce.

In the picture above, you can see the lady adding some sweet pork onto the rice. To make this you fry the pork with shallots in a wok. You then season with fish sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. After adding the pork to the plate, she also garnishes the dish with shallots, thin slices of omlette, grated mango, chopped long beans, cucumber and lime wedges. She also had a jar of chopped green and red chilis. It is worth trying this as an alternative to normal fried rice. But the strong smell may turn off many people.

"Bangkok, oriental city....and the city don't know what the city is getting" (Murray Head--One Night In Bangkok; 1984)

I think that this might have been the first time that I had heard of the city of Bangkok. It was 1984 and I was just a young kid living in the suburbs of Seattle. It was a cool song, but I thought nothing of it. Just some catchy tune about playing chess somewhere overseas. I must admit though, those flutes near the end of the song kinda gave me goosebumps....

Flash forward 16 years

A view from outside of Pon's apartment building

Dateline Bangkok, Mid-March of 2000

A typical sight after the financial collapse

That previous photo is typical of what happened after the financial collapse of Thailand back in the late 1990s. Lots of highrise buildings were left unfinished. A myriad still unfinished to this day in 2005 (I can't remember which BTS platform it is; but on one of them you can see a partially completed skyrise just opposite you. All sorts of graffiti decorates the interior of that concrete husk).

Anyways, I got off the Eva Airways plane at Don Meuang in March of 2000. Being a Navy boy, I had traveled all about our blue orb. I had not, however, been to any place so exotic as Bangkok, Thailand at the onset of hot season. Folks, I would like to sit here and tell you that I was a well-seasoned traveler; but holy cow!....was Bangkok on another planet!?

Some typical Bangkok craziness

My girlfriend at the time, Jum, steered me about in my culture-shock-induced zombie state. I grabbed my luggage and followed her towards the sliding doors that led to the taxi stand. Ohh-ohhh-uh? Ummm....what the..? Did you see all those people..? and all those taxis waiting for the people..? (take my advice, friends..and, shhhh, keep it to yourselves. Ready? When you get your luggage..take the elevator up to the next floor. The taxis are dropping people off and they aren't queued up in a line. They aren't supposed to accept riders (so I've heard), but you'll never wait for a taxi at the airport again).

At the time, I didn't know about that cool little trick (probably now obsolete with the new airport and all), and neither, evidentally did Jum. We stood in that taxi stand for while and then got our taxi. We went for a very long ride to Bahngapi, where her grandma had a house (no A/C).

Looking back on it all, keeping in mind that it was my first trip to Thailand, I had a very good time (obviously, as I have kept coming back).
Could I have done things better? Of course I could have, which is why I keep coming back. I need to perfect my holiday! :)

Cheers!!

We talk a lot in these blogs and on the forums about how the farang (white faced foreigners) should adapt their thoughts and lifestyles in order to fit in with Thai society. The temptation of newcomers is somehow to "modernize" some of the Thai ways of life which they deem to be antiquated or demeaning. I must admit I have been guilty of doing this myself. I remember my early days of teaching when the students would come up to my desk on their knees or bow their body as they walked past me. I was quite shocked and uncomfortable about the level of deference they were showing me. I tried to get them to stop. I thought I was liberating them, but I only ended up watering down Thai culture so it became a mish-mash of Thai and Western cultures.

Now I understand more than ever how important it is to preserve Thai culture from the influences of the West. Things that might work in your home country just won't work here. The Thai culture is too deeply ingrained into their way of life. So, these days, I let the students get onto their knees when they ask permission to come back into the classroom. I allow them to stand up and say thank you to me at the end of my lessons. I understand now that the students are not necessarily showing respect to me personally, but to the position I hold. Teachers in Thai society are given a lot of respect. In my local community, a parent would tell their child to wai me even if they don't go to my school. They are paying respect to my profession, and as a teacher I need to act accordingly. I feel I have a responsibility to my fellow teachers not to let them down.

Having said that, you do see some Thai people abusing their position of power. They know that people should pay them the greatest amount of respect and they don't seem to care whether they deserve it or not. Like any society around the world, you will find Thailand full of contradictions which will confuse newbies. I am going to finish my blog today with a final extract from the excellent book "Thailand Fever". At the bottom of this blog I will let you know how you can win yourself a copy of this book!

High and Low: Superiors and Inferiors

How does it make you feel when someone is showered with respect simply because of his age, his job title, the wealth he inherited, or the family into which he was born? If you are like most Westerners, you probably won't feel that he deserves any respect from you unless you get to know him and find that he actually did something himself to deserve it.

How about when your boss at work, your teacher at school, a police officer, or your mother-in-law at home talks down to you, excludes you, or ignores what you say? Unless you're in the military, it probably annoys you whenever someone acts as if they are higher than you. It may even make you uncomfortable when someone else bows down and "kisses up" to you.

These scenarios, which Westerners like us might sum up with the negative terms, "blind respect" and "rank pulling," are perfectly normal to a Thai. In fact, many Thais believe they are part of a natural and beneficial system that holds society together.

Like it or not, the Thai universe is fundamentally hierarchical. Every person assumes a rank in that universe relative to other people or categories of people, albeit a fluid rank. From a very young age, Thais are raised to show gestures of respects to anyone in a higher category. For example, you bow to parents, older family members, teachers and monks - even ones you don't know - as a way to honour their role in raising their children, imparting knowledge, teaching morals, or otherwise contributing to society.

This sense of hierarchy is ingrained in Thai culture. The theme of "high" and "low", "superior" and "inferior," pervades the language and culture. It comes naturally to Thais, but you are going to have to get used to it, as it affects how you should treat your partner's family members, your servants, and even your children.

Source: "Thailand Fever" by Chris Pirazzi and Vitida Vasant

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Next weekend, we will be announcing the name of one lucky reader who will be receiving a copy of Thailand Fever. The competition is kindly sponsored by Thai Hypermarket. All you have to do is answer this simple question:

QUESTION: What does "nam jai" mean in English?

Send your answer to my email address by next Friday.

Link: http://nationmultimedia.com/search/page.arcview.php?clid=12&id=118309&usrsess=

Since I have tomorrow (Friday) off to compensate for attending the first of 4-Saturday QuarkXpress program courses, I figure I’d stay up late and rant.

Uh oh! OakMonster is about to post a rant about the plight of Thai women. Close the blinds. Hide your children. No one is safe!

What is the cause of my rage today? A relationship article in The Nation called A question of relationships: Angry, alone and writing furiously Click on the link and read the article first before you proceed.

The writer criticizes the new genre of books that recently hit the shelf in Thailand, the Angry Woman literature. I guess that would be a companion category to the increasingly popular Chick Lit(erature) in the US. So I hereby dub this Thai Angry Women stuff, the Bitch Lit.

Now that you know what you’re getting into, please, I beg of you, finish reading the entry before getting your panties in a bunch. Please.

It’s about gosh darn time Thai women show their anger in public! It’s about time Thai women voice their opinion on and their dissatisfaction about Thai men!

Of all the things Thai society presses upon us, we decide to pick raising our voices and expressing our anger in public as our grand scale defiance. And some guys apparently got bent out of shape about it.

The male-dominated voice speaks through this columnist at the Nation, condemning the Bitch Lit to nothing but emotional sewage spewing from women who are "First, all the female writers appear to be close to or over 30. Second, they are desperate. Finally, their lives are void of both love and dates."

This writer continues that the Bitch Lit writers "...can probably count the relationships they’ve had on the fingers of one hand and base their judgements on highly limited encounters with the opposite sex," and that they’re writing advice column about relationships. Well, duh, Sherlock. Who sets up the rule that the more dates/love experience the girl has would lessen her worth?

Brother, please. These are arguments befitting an over-confident 16-year-old pimpled boy whose proposal for a date was rejected by the cheerleading captain.

But if that is a representing voice of Thai men, then the article gives Thai women another reason why the Bitch Lit should continue.

This is the 21st century. With all due respect to other aspects of Thai cultures, the cultural view on women must change to allow women to be all that we can be.

We don’t want to stay at home to keep the house, or spend hours in the kitchen. (Not that Thai women these days have to, anyway.) We don’t want to be treated as soft, dainty object that should only be seen and not heard. We don’t want to keep our emotions bottled up so we can appear pleasant to you men at all time, so you would love us and won't go frolicking into the arms of another women. We don’t need to be married by 30 to be considered “successful”, or to have any value to our lives.

I must admit, yes, us women do have our flaws. We are only human. Then again, so do men. Now that Thai women are pointing things about Thai men out to the world at large, venting their anger in public, Thai men are not happy about it. In such a male-dominant society, hearing criticism from women seems to have blindsided men, shook them off balance, and lost control. Men, in general, don't like not being in control, and now they feel like they're losing control on the women. That really shakes things up.

Thai women today are smart and independent. They don’t feel the need to pine for men’s attention as much, and certainly they could easily make their own living. They feel they are entitled to their opinion, and their rights to have their voices heard. And they’d go out and do it. More than half of my graduating class is not married, and some of them couldn’t care less. Seriously.

There are definitely changes in the air. And some men think it just stinks. These are men who are not as open minded, who do not have the same respect for Thai women, who don’t think Thai women can be more than just the silent, pleasant, subservient fragile flower.

Tough luck, brothers. Tough. Luck.

A Thai male reader may just be saying, no kidding this OakMonster chick couldn't find a Thai guy. She's too damned opinionated.

Good riddance, dude.

My point exactly. This is probably also why many young Thai women these days went looking outside of the Thai circle. Thai men just don't appreciate the "modern" Thai women and their having an opinion and saying it up front and center.

Anyways. I digress.

Of course, not ALL men are like that. Better yet, not ALL Thai men are like that. Kudos to you “modern” men who are not afraid of my and younger generations of sass, who love us for our minds as well as our bodies, and who let us truly be ourselves.

My hopes lie with the younger generation of Thai men. I have already seen some changes with boys of my generation. You certainly can't teach old dogs new tricks, but the younguns are catching on.

There are real gentlemen out there in the world as well as I’m sure you lads on Thai-Blogs are. For that, I thank you.

And to all, thanks for letting me rant. Now I can enjoy my day off.

P.S. Thai and non-Thai sisters (and perhaps brothers too) out there who feel outraged about this article, I encourage you to write to the Nation at either relations@nationgroup.com or letters@nationgroup.com.

My First Thai Book

"How do you say...love?"
"Ruk"
"Ruk?"
"Yes..good."
"Ruk....hmmmm."

That was a snippet of conversation (as best as I can remember) that introduced me to the Thai language. Mid-June of 1990 at a state park on the Chesapeake Bay. Kim and I walking closely down a forested path; almost touching shoulders, but not quite. Let me explain....

I was a Navy boy. I was stationed in Norfolk, VA from March of 1989 until June of 1992. I had really never been out of Seattle before that time (I don't count two trips to Vancouver, B.C. when I was 8). My idea of a cool evening after work was to drive my 1982 Toyota Corolla to a nearby mall and hang out (I miss that Corolla, believe it or not).

Sooo, I go to the mall one evening. I saw a girl that changed my life. Her name was Kim. I was all of 20; she was a bit older (it's not polite to reveal a woman's age :)!) She said that she was from Thailand. Thailand? She's Taiwanese? She speaks Chinese (I know, laughable now, but..hey, I was 20!)?

We exchanged phone numbers that night at the mall. We spent a wonderful six months together..and then no more (that's for later).
In those six months, I engulfed that first Thai book. I learned the Thai alphabet forwards and backwards. To those familiar with the book, I learned about Thai nuns, monks, and rice farmers. I learned about bowls and tigers...shirts, and wood. Wow!

I still remember sitting in that Corolla outside of the laundromat on those hot summer days, waiting for my clothes to dry. I wrote the Thai letters from the book onto a pathetically thin little notepad I kept in my glove compartment. I still have that notebook, with all those chicken-scratch Thai characters that I wrote. There are also little notes from Kim. "Honey, I am here, don't leave without me!" she wrote and left on my windshield outside of the mall one day when we were supposed to meet. It still pains me to see those little notes.

Anyways, she introduced me to the Thai language. The minute I went to the library and opened up that book I was hooked. The written Thai language...how beautiful. How fortunate I was to stumble upon such a treasure trove of life experience to follow.

More to come

Drinking a Chang beer with a chang! Nov. '04


Well, it is an honor to finally write a blog on this webpage. I have been reading everyone's postings for about one month now, and I have to say that coming to this site to read blogs has been something that I have looked forward to each and everyday.


Since this is my first entry, I would like to tell everyone a little bit about myself. I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle to be specific). I made my first trip to Thailand in March of 2000. Ever since then I have tried to make yearly treks back, as it is truly the loveliest place on earth. The food, the people, the language...okay, everything!


I don't wish to get too specific on my maiden voyage into blog-land, so allow me the indulgence of rambling on a bit out of chronological order. My intent, later on, is to write about how I came to know about Thailand, and how I became enthralled with everything that is the Land of Smiles, and my ensuing adventures!


Back to a little introduction of myself. I recently was married (Feb. 14, '05) to a Thai woman. Her name is Sudaporn and she's the love of my life. I met her in Bangkok back in November of 2003. I was fortunate enough to meet her on the second day of my 30-day trip (my third trip to Thailand). We went everywhere together. It made my vacation, as Bill & Ted would say, "most excellent!"


Anyways, I made two more trips back to see her and to spend time with her family. Then she came back to live with me. I couldn't believe how smooth it was to get her Fiancee Visa. I heard all sorts of horror stories; but our saga went off without a hitch. She has been here in the States since December '04. We were married 2 1/2 months later. She's now in ESL classes at a nearby technical college.





Sudaporn (Pon)


Okay, so that is where I'm at now. Let me tell you where I'm going. In 12 years and 2 days (yep, it's that exact) I am going to retire from my job and move to Thailand to live permanently. My wife, I will now refer to her as Pon, bought some land near her parents' village and we are going to build a house there, hopefully as early as three years from now. It's a small village 31km outside of Chiang Rai called Bahn Bong Chang. It's a pretty cool place.


Pon's parents are rice farmers. They are lovely people and they readily accepted me as one of their own (a somewhat pale version of a Thai son, I reckon!) Pon has two siblings; an older brother and an older sister. Both of them have moved to Bangkok for a better life. Pon's sister is a seamstress and her brother is a manager at a disco.





Pon's dad headed for the fields!


I hope I haven't rambled on too much. Like I wrote earlier, this is my very first blog ever. I'm feeling my way around, so please bear with me. My intention is to not only tell you about my adventures, but I would like to write blogs that are subject-specific. My aim is to produce a blog that is thoughtful, entertaining, and at times, thought-provoking. Thank you very much!





On the river in Chiang Rai

The thai radio is great. I know this should probably in a forum, but I really wanted to add this to the blog. My wife is an American whom went to Thailand with me this past March. She could not speak a lick of Thai, but learned a lot while she was there. It burned a passion for the language and culture, where she was engulfed. She learned quite a bit in term of language. By the time we left (2 weeks and a half), she was able to understand a lot more in Thailand than twenty thousand parties of thai people for years. I play the radio every week, probably twice. She has learned a lot.

Thank you to Richard, and the other people supporting this website.

She is learning a lot. To be frank, so am I. I can converse in Thai, with a lot of effort. However, my days of the week were like an infant. With the radio, I can play it over and over till I am able to pick it up. I would advise anyone that is really interested in learning thai to pick it up. Or vise versa. I would imagine it would work.

Now this blog is not the normal blog one would write about cultures, activities, differences, similarities. Though its something a couple can do. My wife is American. Farang. She is someone whom never had pad thai till I met her. We are from Chicago, and she has never had a Gyros till she met me. (Gyros is a meat that is a combination of lamb and beef with a bunch of spices) Its fast food. Its almost the sal-a-bow of Thailand. (Sal-a bow; bar que pork bun) Any way, she does not venture out much in food. Most of her upbringing was as Americana as you can get. She is great. She is very intelligent. An amazing woman that has embraced Thai culture, and now its language.

So thank you.

Link: http://www.kitjar.blogspot.com

A disabled lottery ticket seller in Bangkok

First impressions are sometimes misleading. For example, landing at Don Muang International Airport, it feels almost like you have arrived at a third-world country.

What more, when the 30km drive into the city reveals further bizarre traffic jams, dusty roads and almost a gluttony of drab and monotonous buildings. It almost feels like Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Pudu or Chow Kit.

But, if you smell the air a little deeply, (provided the carbon monoxide and lead do not get to you first), Bangkok can be a very fun city. As a traveler, I have been to many places worldwide, but Bangkok is still my favorite destination. To me, nothing beats Bangkok!

The capital city of Thailand, Bangkok or better known in Thai as Krungthep Maha Nakorn (กรุงเทพมหานครฯ ), is the centre of the Thai cosmos. It is Thailand’s administrative, cultural, religious, and economic hub. No other city comes close to Bangkok. Even regional cities such as Chiengmai or Hatyai are at least 1/30 the size of Bangkok.

To cut things short, here are five things why I LIKE Bangkok!

1)Kwam Sanuk (ความสนุก ) - Enjoyment or Fun
Krungthep Maha Nakorn is a city of all possibilities. If you are religiously inclined, there is the highly-revered Emerald Buddha or the Santa Cruz Church, and if you like shopping, Jatujak is a shopper’s paradise. Basically, Krungthep is all about having fun. The city never sleeps, and having fun knows no time limit.

Even, if you decide to get a little naughty, there are ample choices for you --- Soi Thonglor for your beer binge, Soi Patpong for the girly shows, and also, Suriwongse for those brown tight muscular guys! Hey, it’s also bang-cock. At least Theravada Buddhism does not equate pleasure with sinfulness.

2) Mai Pen Rai (ไม่เป็นไร ) – Nevermind
Thais have few natural grudges. Easily contented, they lead a simple life and have few worries. When in Thailand, it is best for tourists catch the never mind bug. At least, you will be able to take things easily. If you are a jai ron (ใจร้อน hot hearted, direct translation), in Krungthep, it is only best to get jai yen (ใจเย็น cool hearted). At least then, everything can be a mai pen rai!

3) Jai Dee (ใจดี ) – Good Hearted
Apart from gem schemers, most Thais are good hearted by nature. If you are lost, Thais would go all out to help you find your way. This kind hearted nature is also extended to animals. Have you seen how the Thais take care of their soi dogs and cats (strays) --- they may not be very clean, but they are well fed. Even Nai Luang (King Bhumipol Adulyadej) is jai dee to adopt the stray dog, Tong Deang (Copper).

4) Raka Tuk (ราคาถุก ) – Cheap Prices
Where can you get a decent lunch for only RM2.00 (B20)? Only in Krungthep, that is a possibility. Whether you are in Samut Prakan or Sukhumvit’s upmarket Emporium, food and generally many other things come cheaply. My all-time favourite dish is Kao Gab Moo (Rice with Pork and Salted Vegetables), and all less than B25. Even for a Malaysian, earning a normal Malaysian salary, my ringgit stretches a little longer when I am in Krungthep.

5) Phoot Thai Dai (พุดไทยได้ ) Able to Speak Thai
I reckon what makes Krungthep even more fun is when you have the ability to speak Thai. With the correct Thai accent (Passa Klang), you will get VERY far with Raka Thai (Thai prices). Forget about paying the Raka Tang Chat (foreigners’ price). Hey, I managed to enter Muang Boran as a Khon Thai. Nobody suspected, I was not a Thai. Unfortunately, I did not abuse my ability to speak Thai. Well, at least not at Muang Boran.

At school today we celebrated our Golden Jubilee. As usual I got a bit click happy and took about 700 pictures which you can view in our online photo album. There are quite a few pictures I want to share with you over the coming days which nicely illustrate Thai culture. However, today I want to show you a couple of pictures of the school orchestra. The picture above is of a ja-kay and the one below is a kim. You can listen to these and other classical musical instruments in our sister web site at:

http://www.listen2thaimusic.com/classical/

An Oxygen Bar inBangkok where you can get a daily dose of clean air

After a quick series of shorty blogs posted this week, I thought I’d do the righteous thing and gives yous all, another one of those darned lengthy postings of mine. Looking through me notebook, it was pretty tricky having to decide on what to bore you with this week, and settled in the end to go back to one of me fave subjects of and that is the ‘Bafflement of Bangkok’.

Not long back, I mentioned the Thai ladies’ craze for walking around freezing cold department stores just to show off their lovely little babies to all the onlookers. Well, for all the childless ladies lacking such companionship they can always take a cute little mutt of a dog instead. We all know that women from all over the world can spend two hours in front of a mirror doing their make-up but here in Bangkok they spend another darned hour doing their pet-dog’s hair, tale and fur and not forgetting to stick in a big fancy bow on top of it’s head. All in order, the next stop is the nearest Mall where they can spend the complete afternoon walking around showing off their fluffy friend.

Well, the Bangkokians these days have gone for more than just a fascination for little dinky dogs. The Weekend Market is a haven for pet lovers wanting the likes of an enormous Madagaskar Cockroach or a Guatamalan Death-Witch Spider. As you could well have imagined the local authorities in charge have enjoyed arresting quite a few of these so-called pet-animal dealers and one was charged just last month for supposedly dealing in pet-tigers! Well, one of those would certainly deter any burglers!

There are plenty of energetic yearly events held in the country, we have the juicy ‘Miss Jumbo’ competition, the ‘As much as you can scoff durian’ festival’ and then we have just hundreds of big shows put on in the capital by the government aimed at supposedly helping the poor. Most of the nation’s male population however, wait in excitement, while dribbling at the mouth for none other than the ‘Motorshow!’ It’s that time of the year when all the men leave their loved-ones at home (of course their wives' think their off to dinner with some important customer from Osaka) and go to ‘check the quality’ of the Motorshow Promo Girls. It doesn’t matter whether the guy has little more than 10 baht in his pocket he can stroll around for hours talking to all the Promo girls about the cars on offer while admiring their shockingly revealing attire! Without of course having to buy them a drink.

Now, these Promo Girlies are popping up everywhere and if you would like to check for yourself whether they are ISO 14001 passable, you need only visit any old fancy shopping Mall on your weekend off. These Promo Girlies can be found just inside the entrance wearing a three-inch long skirt, knee-length boots with an eight-inch heel and standing at the height of 6 foot 2 passing out lots of brochures on ‘Dry Deo Deodorant’ or ‘Flashy fingernail clips’. Once I had one of the darlings, who on promoting AIDS prevention, stick a contraceptive into my hand and when on returning home I was on the receiving end of a right shouting at by my girlfriend then, to the likes of ‘You scoundrel, why are you carrying one of them around, I knew I could never trust you!!’. Now that’s pretty bad luck.

Every four years in the ‘City of the 7-11 and Starbucks’ the capital’s folks have the dreaded task of having to elect a Governor to listen to the whims of the Bangkokians and ‘solve all their problems’ (of course easier said than done). As most of the former governors who after winning the election decided instead of having to go to the office every day and walk around the slums of Klong Tery, go instead to play tennis, start a collection of imported wines and enjoy the sites of the yearly Motorshow.

As for one of the last governors, every plan of his flopped or ended up in the garbage can. Glad they did. As for probably the worst environmental cock-ups he accomplished had to be about two years ago at Loy Krathong when he asked all the Thais to use artificial foam Krathongs instead of the traditional ones made from the banana tree. On asked why, he replied that the so-called banana tree Krathong was dirty and caused eye-pollution. “Nevermind” he said “I will order the local Bangkok authorities to collect up all the garbage foam Krathongs in the morning so as they won’t all float out into the ocean”. Sounded great but of course it didn’t work and instead it was reported that tens of thousands of these artificial foam Krathongs floated away down river into the Gulf of Thailand and never seen again. The next year it was a return to the traditional ways.

That year too he invited all the city folks to float their Krathongs from under Rama 8 bridge where a big pompous party was also put on too. Stevesuphan went too and what a farce that was! The lacklustre governor had failed to realise the strong current of the river and so 90% of the Krathongs, when on being floated, did a backward-flip instead and sunk to the bottom. This former governor got so cheesed-off that all his plans failed, quoted to the press in his last year “I won’t bother doing anything this year, it’s a waste of time trying to get anything implemented!” and that’s exactly what he did do and became famous instead for his cooking skills which he enjoyed showing off to a stack of reporters on a weekly basis. Bored of politics, he’s now a TV chat show host.

Talking about the local authorities. One of the most splendid well-thought out plans by the capital’s police over the years to boost their spending powers has been to ‘sucker some cash out of the foreign tourists’. Of course they had to find a legal excuse and so for a darned long time they enjoyed catching and fining millions of tourists who had dropped anything on to the sidewalk, from a 7-11 receipt to a cigarette butt. Of course there were a few big warnings and the ones on Sukhumvit and Silom Road read in English ‘Litter Droppers will be Fined 2,000 baht or $100’. It didn’t take a degree in mathematics to work out (then 25 to the dollar) that you would have to be pretty stupid to pay in dollars!

They were hundreds of complaints when the Rangsit police, who on realising that a lot of the foreigners were getting to know about these fines went instead to catch all the dumb foreigners who had just arrived in the country. So, there they were just outside the airport arrival terminal fining all the foreigners who had just 10 minutes before got off the plane in need of a quick smoke before they got the taxi downtown! Welcome to Thailand!

Bangkok has many an awesome site for the foreign tourist to gaze at in a state of disbelief and two of those have to be the capital’s manholes and electric lines. I can’t imagine just how many drunk tourists have fallen down one when returning to their hotel room, only to be found the following morning 10 foot under by some office workers. It would only make sense to put a warning sign up but then the construction workers would say “It's your fault, you should have been watching where you were going”. As for the state of some of the electric cables around, many-a foreign tourist has had a right laugh at the cowboy-job of the capital’s supposed technicians who have arranged some of the cables to be hung just 3 inches above your head. Again, if you get electrocuted and drop-down dead, it’s your own fault for not keeping your eyes open!

And finally, to end my series on Bangkok, howabout the great BTS Skytrain. For all of you foreigners interested in meeting English teachers for some info on teaching in Thailand don’t even bother wasting your time contacting the likes of me and Richard, the skytrain is full of them. Its quite simple to spot the difference between a foreign teacher and a foreign businessman, just look at them. The Farang teacher usually wears a pair of trousers that are three inches too short for him, carries all his books in a Tesco-Lotus plastic bag, has a 6 baht biro in his shirt pocket and hasn’t brushed his hair for a week. As for the businessmen, they look respectable.

Then, there’s the bedraggled condition of some of the foreign tourists who look ‘even worse’. You can witness all the Thais step five foot-back when they see this big sweaty Farang who, on getting on the skytrain and reaching up to hold-on, fouls the air with natural body odour oozing from his armpits.

Link: http://nationmultimedia.com/2005/07/14/headlines/index.php?news=headlines_18026639.html

Street flooding. Ahh. The one thing I don't particularly miss about Bangkok. Then again, if the city doesn't flood, that means the country is not getting enough rain that year.

In my past post, I have mentioned my friends' and my mischievous attempts to get our school flooded. But man, did I hate wading the murky water home. The grease, the dirt, and God knows what else that was on the street are now happily steeping in the flood water.

And there we went in our cheap rubber flip-flops, slowly wading through the street, relying on our memories and instincts as to where the curbs end. Everyone in a while, we had to get on our tip toes, or hop up to avoid the waves created by passing motor vehicles.

As soon as we reached home, the race was on to clean our feet and calves with plenty of soap and water. Additionally, to prevent further itching, an ample amount of baby powder was applied. I don't recall having too much trouble after I rinsed off though.

One of the severe Bangkok flood back in the 80s, my dad, my brother and I had our little adventure out in to Soi Langsuan. At the time, the water would have come up to my waist so my nanny carried me out. I remembered the water was up over my dad's knees, up to my brother's thighs. Someone drove by in a pick up and sure enough my brother got his butt wet. LOL.

Flooding is just a part of the wonderful monsoon season we have. With it, traffic. Really really bad traffic. Yet another reason why this is the low tourism season other than a lot of rain, and crazy waves in the south.

But despite all of the inconvenience, I love the monsoons. And I miss it so.

Most nights I usually cook myself something to eat. I don't really do this to save money as it is quite often cheaper to eat outside. That is as long as you know where to eat. Take this dish as an example. It is called khao mun gai ( ข้าวมันไก่ ) which is basically chicken on rice. A normal plate like this, around the corner from me, costs only 20 baht (about 50 cents). For an extra 5 baht, called "piset" in Thai, you get some extra chicken. Not bad for a meal.

On the other hand, if you go to KFC, which a lot of Thai people do, a plate of Spicy Chicken Rice would set you back 49 baht. A Zinger burger would cost you 55 baht. Three pieces of chicken cost 87 baht. See what I mean? You are better off eating by the side of the road. Who cares about the secret recipe they have at KFC. If you like fried chicken, like they have at KFC, all you have to ask for is "khao mun gai tod" which is the same price! They even give you some cucumber and a bowl of soup!

Chinese Chicken Rice is quite easy to prepare. All you have to do is place the chicken in a pot, add water, salt and coriander roots, and cook over a low heat until done. Skim off any froth to get the clear broth. Remove the chicken, de-bone and cut into slices. Strain the broth and set aside. Then wash the rice, drain and set aside. Heat some oil in a wok, fry the garlic over medium heat until fragrant and golden. Add the rice, stirring well and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer to an electric rice cooker, pour two cups of chicken broth over the rice and cook until the rice is done. Spoon the rice onto a serving dish, arrange the chicken slices on top, garnish with sliced cucumber.

Source: "Popular Thai Cuisine" published by Sangdad Books

The above picture shows you the two different dips available for this dish. Actually, for the first timer it can be very confusing about which sauce or dip (known as "nam jim" in Thai) that should be used for each dish. If you go to a restaurant, it is quite normal to have a half dozen dips put on saucers on your table. Believe me, it takes a while to get used to which one is meant for which dish. This kind of thing is not taken lightly by the Thais. Remember I told you a few months back about my experience at one of the local "pork on a hot plate" places. Here you can eat as much as you can cook yourself for only 69 baht. These places are really popular and there must be at least a dozen within a 10 minute radius of my house. What makes or breaks these places is their secret recipe for their "nam jim". Forget about the ambience or range of meats on offer. Thai people are only interested in the dips!

Anyway, back to “khao mun gai” and “khao mun gai tod”. The dip on the left is for the former and the one on the right is for the latter! The brown looking one is made from soybean sauce, chili, ginger, sugar, vinegar and dark soy sauce. The red one is much sweeter. It is made up of sugar, red chili, garlic, vinegar and salt. I do like this one and have a large bottle in my kitchen cupboard. You use it for dips for food like fried chicken or fried shrimps.

Kanchanaburi and Sangkhlaburi Trip – Day 2

Day 2 (28 August 2004) Around KanchanaBuri

At 8 AM sharp the tour van was already waiting at the lobby area. I have a lot of respect for most Thais whom I have met for their professionalism. No matter how small a job they do, they always do their best. The van then picked up a Dutch family at Sam Guesthouse and 2 Japanese ladies from a posh resort hotel.

The Dutch family consisted of a farang father, his Thai wife, a girl of about 12 and a boy about 9. They are from the Netherlands and were back here for the holidays. All spoke Dutch while the Mae Farang could speak Thai. The kids too have some command of mother tongue Thai. I am not too sure if the Farang is the kids’ biological father. They are a very loving, noisy and cheerful lot and it was fun travelling with them.

The Japanese were a reserved lot. One of them was studying Law in the U and another one in Business Administration. It was fun too to have them. I am still communicating with one of them occasionally after sending her their digital photos. I used to work part-time for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the 80’s and could thus speak some Japanese.

And not forgetting the nice lady tour guide, Bee. Bee studied Tourism at the Maha Vithialai Songkhla Nakarin (Prince of Songkhla University – I hope I got the transliteration right). She also has a good command of English and a cheerful disposition. She’s good.

Our first itinery was an elephant ride in a village nearby.

Elephant Ride Station

The next stop was water rafting nearby. Everyone enjoyed themselves very much here.

Bamboo Rafting

The group was then transported to the NamTok Station, which was only one stop away from the famous River Kwai station. Here the view was spectacular.

Finally, the famous River Kwai was in sight.

Composite photo

The Train finally stopped at the River Kwai Station for the passengers, mostly tourists to get down. After the train had stopped, the station become chaotic with tourists walking on the tracks for photo sessions.

Bridge Over River Kwai

Before the end of the tour, we invited the group to join us for the SangklaBuri trip. We needed at least 8 persons for the tour company to agree to arrange the trip using the tour van. The Japanese had to go back due to work commitment. The Dutch, after some family discussions, accepted our offer to join us to SangklaBuri.

As Bee had done a good job, she deserved to be tipped. I could not remember how much we gave, but it was a generous one. Squeezed the boss on the tour fare and gave the savings to the tour guide as an act of social justice? Unfortunately, Bee could not take us to SangklaBuri.

The night was uneventful.

More pictures can be seen on page 2...

Pages: 1 · 2

As Pat and Rajanmenji were interested in the KanchanBuri Province, I will take you all with me on a virtual tour. I will go into as much details as possible for some of you planning to visit this part of Thailand. Day1 (27 Aug 2004) Kuala Lumpur-HaadYai-Bangkok-KanchanaBuri Why take a circuitous route, you may ask. Malaysian National Day falls on 31 August, and many Malaysians were taking additional off-days to extend their vacations. The AirAsia air ticket from KUL to BKK was naturally very expensive due to demand. I decided to take NokAir from Haadyai instead. Four of us took an overnight bus from Kuala Lumpur to HaadYai for about 300 Bahts per head. On arrival at the border, we realized that it may a bit late to catch the NokAir flight which departed at about 9:00 AM, if we to go on a bus. So we took a cab directly from the border to the HaadYai airport. It was a right decision. On arrival at the Bangkok airport, we took a cab to the southern bus terminal and took a bus directly to Kanchanaburi, arriving just after noon. We got on to a tuk-tuk and got the driver to take us around to look for a guest house along the Kwai Noi river. One of our team members was a bit more hygiene-conscious and was apprehensive. We decided to pamper ourselves and checked into the River Kwai Hotel for 1000 Baht per room per night. It was not too expensive, after splitting the cost for twin-sharing and with the breakfast thrown in. We stayed here 2 nights We went back later to Sam guest house to make our travel plans to Three Pagoda Pass bordering Myanmar. We were disappointed to find out that the journey was not as straight forward as we thought, and that we will waste a lot time taking buses. Renting a car was an option but as the road was hilly with a lot of bends, we decided not to take the risk. Anna from the Sam tours (if I am not mistaken) was persistent that we should take a day trip around Kanchanburi first, and then depart the following day, as there were 4 confirmed 4 vacancies. We considered the options. Dinner at the restaurant opposite River Kwai Hotel was not a particularly memorable one. We decided to take up Anan’s offer and I telephoned her to meet at the 7-Eleven near the market. There were 3 7-Eleven surrounding the market! Knowing that the tour van (Rot Tour) had to make the trip with or without us, we had the upper hand of the bargain. She had to make a few calls to her bosses on the offer and counter-offer. Finally, a deal was struck. How much? I don’t remember and it did not matter. But for the sake of practicing my Thai, it was fun. A deal was finally struck and a happy Anna writing a receipt What I'm sharing with you for now is that it was a VERY GOOD decision as we really enjoyed the trip and the company. And we would not have covered so much in so little a time. The night market was full of people and the food was definitely better than the dinner we have had. We tried all sorts of finger food. The ice cream was good. We also had a lot of beer before calling it a night.

As you probably know by now, I live in Paknam which borders the Gulf of Thailand. As you can imagine, seafood features quite heavily in menus at numerous restaurants in this area. Even the roadside stalls sell plenty of dishes which have seafood as their main ingredients. Today I want to tell you about a popular dish in this area called "nam prik pla too" ( น้ำพริกปลาทู ). This basically translates as Fried Mackerel with Shrimp Paste Sauce.

As you can see from the above pictures, the meal is served ready cooked. You choose your fish, which raw vegetables you want and even the spicy sauce. This meal costs 15-30 baht depending on the size of your helping. The "nam prik pla too" sauce is made up from dried shrimp paste, garlic, green chili, shrimp paste, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar.

An open vegetable market has its own beauty. It is timeless, because the oldest markets might have existed in the same manner that open markets exist today.

With pressure on land, these markets vanish and tall buildings come up. In MTT I, Chaengwattana road, there was a vegetable market, with elevated platforms, and outside the enclosed space, fruits and vegetables were sold by vendors. I used to buy guava from the vendors sitting outside the enclosed market.

This time I found the market missing. A large condominium has come there.

I certainly don't understand how my government can tell me that the photos I sent to them with my application for a fiancee visa do not constitute "evidence that we have met". Photos offering dowry, photos at graduation ceremony, photos with monks , photos with family and friends, photos in front all a plethora of Wat's, photos with hill tribes.

Now I feel good about being a pack rat because I'm going to send them about 8 weeks worth charge receipts, money exchange receipts, ticket stubs for boats, trains and planes (and one for my upcoming trip for good measure), passport stamps and my proudest souviner my fine for overstaying my visa! (I hope Thai customs lets me back in):-)

Hey I like the new look. Wahoo! I'm the number one Thai Fanatic! Yeah lol..Thanks Richard for making me number one..does this mean I get a prize? ;-)

(Sorry for the 'bullet blog' this time. I'm stuck using my laptop while my PC is being fixed and I think I would rather wrestle Satan..it would be easier!

More blogs in a few days so stay tuned..

Wit

we were greenhouse students
lucky enough to
have spent three weeks
with the personable Thais

heads bowed and hands clasped,
the villagers formed
a tight circle around us
their mouths moving in sync
with the priest
chanting prayers for us

praying that we return home safely
praying for longevity and marital bliss,
with kids to brighten our days

self-conscious laughter
stirred from our silent homage
perhaps we were amused
at their casual connection
of a good life with marriage
perhaps we felt uneasy
thinking about grown-up stuff
who knows how life would treat us?

after prayers,
they never ceased
tying yellow strings around
our waists for a long time
[for good luck, we heard]
we kept smiling hard,
as if cheerful mugs
could somehow convey
our swirling gratitude inside

their simple gestures
tanscended all barriers
their sincerity humbled us
their generosity
left me so bloated
on the balance scale of give-and-take
that I ached for
my lack of vision
in showing my love

A market in Thailand

Today I want to explain to you an important Thai concept which is crucial if you are planning on staying in Thailand longer than the average tourist. Actually, there are quite a few things which often lead to a misunderstanding between Thais and foreigners. However, today I want to focus on nam jai which is Thai generosity and sam-neuk boon koon which is honoring debts, Thai style.

Within the first few years I was in Thailand, I learned about nam-jai. It is an easy to understand concept. However, it wasn't until a particularly unpleasant incident happened that I found out about the repayment system called sam-neuk-boon-koon. There is a Thai person who suddenly one day became upset with me. They felt that I wasn't paying enough deference towards them and that I hadn't been one hundred per cent loyal to them. That person went on to remind me that it was them that had shown me around when I first came to Thailand.

At the time I couldn't understand why they would suddenly be angry. As far as I was concerned, I had said "thank you" to them at the time and the subject should have been closed. After all, many years had passed since. Anyway, I thought I had paid back my "debt" many times by helping them with their business - often in my freetime. I didn't really understand what this person's problem was or why they would be dragging up past history in this manner.

There is a recently published book called "Thailand Fever" that explains these concepts remarkably well. What is unique about this book is that it is aimed at both partners in a Thai-Western relationship. The book is written in both English and Thai so that both people involved can fully understand each other. We often talk about "do's and don'ts" for foreigners visiting Thailand. However, what is also needed is a list for Thai people who come in contact with foreigners. Maybe if there was one in existence before, then the above problem I experience wouldn't have arisen. This book helps explain this problem for both sides.

I will paraphrase the book here but I would recommend buying the book to read more. We will be giving this book away to one lucky reader later this week!

Thai Chili at the market

Nam Jai - น้ำใจ

You could say everything starts with nam-jai, literally "juice of the heart" or "flow of the heart". While independence is at the core of a Westerner's self-esteem and image, Thai judge themselves and others in Thai society primarily based on the degree to which they show nam-jai. Nam-jai is "generosity", a desire to give one's time, resources, and attention to others just for the good feeling it generates in both. A person who shows nam-jai will not ask for money or any kind of payment in exchange for her generosity. The Thais will even feel uneasy accepting a payment that is offered for her generosity, because this suggests that she did it for the payment instead of the good will.

Unless they are particularly cosmopolitan, the Thais you meet will assume that you are like them, and that you too must derive most of your self-esteem from your show of nam-jai. For example, your girlfriend is proud of you and wants to show you off as a generous person. Without asking you directly, she may give you opportunities to be generous. She may take you out to dinner with friends. She won't say "P' Bob, do you mind paying for my friends' meals?" Instead, she'll assume that you, as a person who has more money than her friends, will want to show your generosity by paying for all her friends.

We Westerners hate this type of behaviour. We see it as a shameless manipulation. Does she see you as her sugar daddy or what? Remember, from a Thai perspective, it gives people self-esteem to be generous. Your partner and her family are not trying to take advantage of you. They are doing the same thing they would do with a Thai man who they think might be able and willing to help the family.

In the common case where her family is poorer than you, you know that they will never be able to pay you back anywhere near the amount you've been shelling out to them. But the fact is that they will always remember your generosity. Many Westerners who struggle day-by-day over whether or not they are a "sugar daddy" suddenly let go when, one day, they are surprised to find themselves at the receiving end of nam-jai.

Thai fish at the market

Sam-neuk-boon-koon - สำนึกบุญคุณ

What makes a nam-jai based society able to survive is the boon-koon system, specifically the value of sam-neuk-boon-koon. Sam-neuk-boon-koon is the balancing element that makes the system work. To the same intensity Westerners are brought up to be independent, Thais are raised from childhood to Sam-neuk-boon-koon.

Roughly speaking, Sam-neuk-boon-koon means to repay favours that people do for you (to "honour your debts" in Western terms). But there's more to it than that. Suppose Lek, a manager at ABC Company, does a favour for his old friend Gung by finding him a job at the company. Gung was raised to Sam-neuk-boon-koon and so he:

1. makes a commitment and makes himself available to repay Lek's favour when Lek needs something.
2. appreciates Lel's generosity by showing Lek respect, deference, and consideration in manner and speech.
3. frequently reminds himself of Lek's generous act and his own commitment to return the favour to Lek.

Thai society is a cycle of nam-jai and Sam-neuk-boon-koon supporting each other. People do favours out of nam-jai and so they do not ask for anything in return. But then people who receive favours Sam-neuk-boon-koon and voluntarily make themselves available to help the giver in return. The system works, and society is stable, simply because the vast majority of people in Thai society do honour the system and return their debts.

One final example to illustrate this concept: Suppose Gung puts in one or two weekends of overtime work - roughly the same amount of time that Lek spent to write a recommendation for Gung and get him a job. Now, suppose that Lek needs Gung to come in on many, many more weekends. If Gung was like a typical Westerner, he might get annoyed. He might think, "Wait a minute! I've paid my debt - enough is enough. It's Lek's problem, not mine. Now Lek is taking advantage of me." But Gung is Thai. He would come in on as many weekends as he possible can, because he wants to show his nam-jai to Lek.

Source: "Thailand Fever" by Chris Pirazzi and Vitida Vasant

I did not expect to find any Malaysian tourist in Mae Salong. So, can you imagine my disbelieve in finding a fellow Malaysian from Kuala Lumpur staying in Mae Salong.

One morning, I took a Toyota pickup from Mae Salong to Mae Sai market just to walk around. By the time the pickup reached my pickup point, it was already full of people, and vegetables and goods. Being the only guy (where have all the men gone to, I wonder?), I had to take up the worst possible position. The road down from the mountain has countless bends and you can imaging what would happen to me if an accident were to occur.

Toyota pickup: I was sitting like this man in Checker Shirt

On arrival at Mae Sai town, I found out there is a Chinese-looking lady with a small boy in her arm. She was doing a Visa-run at Mae Sai, like many Farangs do. She asked me in English where I was from. I told her of my country of origin, my trip, and she related her story. Below is Madam X's story.

"X and her husband used to live and work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A few years ago her husband had nose cancer. After a few treatments, the growth was contained. But his condition did not improve. A friend told them about a paradise known as Mae Salong where the air are fresh and water is clean. It will be ideal place for him to recupurate. As the cost of living is low here, he can afford to stop work temporarily and live on their savings. They took up the offer, packed and came to Mae Salong with little knowledge of what to expect. They rented a small house for 1500 Bahts per month. They could even afford a domestic helper.

They have lived there for 2 years. During this time, the husband's health improved. She later gave birth to a baby girl (wonder if they named her after MaeSalong), their second child. She later told me that her husband has fully recovered and is now working in Hong Kong. She was planning to pack up and go back to Kuala Lumpur soon so that the kids can go to a Malaysian kindergarten.

I am sure Madam X will be missed by their neighbors, and similarly she will miss Mae Salong which is now part of her life."

Who knows, I may be the next Malaysian sojourning or retiring in this lovely place.

In the 19th century, King Rama V Chulalongkorn appointed a Penang Chinese, Khaw Sim Bee Na Ranong as the Governor of Phuket.

Sharing King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birth-date on Dec 5 is only one of the small factors that brought me closer to Thailand. Then, as a five-year old kid, it was a total surprise when I found out that my birthday is a red-letter-day in Thailand.

Much later, it was affinity that connected me with Thailand and her people. Although I have been to Thailand numerous times, on each visit, I am still able to have new adventures and make new discoveries.

But, it is Thai History that is my strongest affinity. As a quassi economic-historian, I find Thai history unique to Southeast Asia. It was the only nation to survive the onslaught of western colonialism.

Historically, Malaysia and Thailand have a very long traditional relationship. In the early 15th century, prior to Melaka ascendancy, much of the Malay Peninsula accepted Ayutthaya’s overlordship. In fact, until 1909, the Northern Malay States of Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis sent the triennial Bunga Emas (Golden Flower Tree) as a tribute to Bangkok.

This legacy is still visible in modern Malaysia. For example, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman has Siamese (but not Thai) ancestors --- so too can most of the Northern Malay royalty.

Today, there are at least 100,000 Thai-Buddhists in Malaysia, mainly, concentrated in states of Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan. Here, in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia’s capital), there are fewer than 1,000 Thais. Even with such a small community, there are three Thai-Buddhist temples, with Wat Chetawan as one of the few royal-sponsored temples outside Thailand.

What drives my research into Thai history is the people-to-people relationship between Thailand and Malaysia. For instance, do you know that Phuket’s early development was largely dependent on Penang? In fact, until 1945, Phuket’s elite families sent their best daughters to be married-off in Penang. It was people-to-people’s relationship at its best!

The Phuket-Penang connection is among the least-explored themes of Thai-Malaysian history. You would be surprised to note that in the 19th century, King Rama V Chulalongkorn appointed a Penang Chinese, Khaw Sim Bee Na Ranong (Phraya Ratsadanupradit) as the Monton (Governor) of Phuket.

It was in Thailand that Sim Bee made history. He was a bureaucratic tycoon and an appointed Thai Governor of Kraburi, Trang and later the Monthon of Phuket. His commercial and business skills in Penang were put to good use in Southern Thailand especially in tin-mining and shipping.

In the 1890s, King Rama V Chulalongkorn of Thailand named Sim Bee as Thailand's most successful provincial governor. Even King Rama VI Vajiravudh counted Sim Bee as a close family friend. Vajiravudh conferred Sim Bee with Thailand's highest honour, the title Phraya Ratsadanupradit Mahisornpakdi or The Grand Cross of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant.

In Penang, Sim Bee founded the Koe Guan Company Ltd, then one of the biggest shipping companies in British Malaya. He also pioneered the insurance business in Malaya with his Khean Guan Insurance Company. Sim Bee also had business interests in Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Co Ltd and Eastern Shipping Co Ltd.

However, Sim Bee's illustrious political and business career was cut short when he was assassinated in 1913. Known as the Trang Outrage, the tragedy marked the slow decline of the Khaw business empire. In 1922, the Khaws sold their interests in Eastern Shipping Co to the British.

Today, the vestiges of Sim Bee's legacy remain largely in Penang and Southern Thailand. The busy Jalan (Thanon/Road) Khaw Sim Bee in Penang was named in his honour, while in Trang, there is the Phraya Ratsadanupradit Monument – the only public monument in Thailand to be dedicated to a Chinese businessman.

In retrospect, Malaysians and Thais have a long shared history. Today, if you are in Phuket Town, you would be surprised to find how many Penang elements there are in the island. Similarly in Penang, in Wat Chaiyamangklaram, there among the largest reclining Buddhas in the world. Whether it is food, culture and language, it is hard to deny the Phuket-Penang heritage. Perhaps, Thais and Malaysian are alike in more ways than one!

hello all you fellow travellers and bloggers, allthough i have never been to thailand i wish to travel there in this august on a do it your self trip not hiring any personnel or a travel agent, well by the time i reach there its going to be rainy season and whoa i love rain one of my fantasies is to live the rest of my life in a rain forest any way thailand as i have seen and read is much more than an amazing land, and one of my best favoured are koh samui, phi phi, krabi and the inner part jungles and yes i would stay for some 3-4 days in bangkok but more for its floating market and not for the city life which is what i want to escape from here in new delhi where i live and work allthough i love going places mountains and beaches are closer to my heart ,,,,coming back to thailand i will have to be kicked out of phi phi or i might just stay there forever, my dear girlfriend who is in miami and working with the royal carribean cruise is most of the time sailins so she would rather not be on the beach all the time so will go further to the tiger park which i think is near to burma where tigers are raised by some monks i saw that documentary and was really surprised by the way all their lifes are led and the way the tiger is taken care of and how they are short of funds to manage all that,oh man i can go on and onand stop only when i reach thailand,,,,,,,,counting and waiting for the magic month of august to turn up.

A pair of rare dwarf Brahman cattle, Thong Khaow, left, and Thong Kham, right, are married in a traditional Thai ceremony featuring processions and a banquet for more than 2,000 human guests at a cattle market in central Sa Kaew province on Sunday, July 10, 2005. The owner of the bull, Thong Kham, offered a dowry of fresh grass, hay, maize and 100,000 baht (US$2,400, euro2,000) at the promotional event for the two rare animals.(AP Photo)

In between jobs (a nice way to say jobless) after a tough Beijing assignment, I decided to pack and head for Northern Thailand to take a break. To conserve my financial resources and to kill time which I had aplenty, I planned to go on a shoe string budget.

A friend of mine suggested that I visit his friend in Mae Salong, where I could use it as a base to visit elsewhere in the north. I had to do it solo as most people could not afford the time. Taking bus, train and bus again from Kuala Lumpur all the way to Chiang Rai was no fun. By the time I reached Phitsanulok, I had already covered 1840 KM.

Phitsanulok is 1840 KM from Kuala Lumpur.

A Chinese gentleman was kind enough to give me a ride from the junction to Mae Salong on his motorcycle. My friends’ friend, Mr. Mok was there to meet me at Ban Kang, half way to Mae Salong Town.

Mae Salong

Mok is a kind man in his mid-sixties. I was forewarned that I will have to lend him my ears to listen to his history starting from the days when he was a soldier with the Kuo Min Tang army, fighting the Chinese Communist army. I jokingly told him that if I had the patient to read the book "Roots" by Alex Haley, I would have no problem with him recounting his history. Breakfast and dinner times are when I had my "Mok-story".

I found Mok a man of contradiction. While he always spoke of Chinese traditions and culture, I found that his actions were not in lined as how a Malaysian Chinese would see it. Malaysian Chinese tend to be very patriarchal while I find the Thai more flexible, where a woman’s position in a family is sometimes more important than the man's.

Mok has a son, a daughter-in-law and 3 grandsons living with him. His daughter-in-law is from one of the minority races from Burma. The son is in his mid-twenties, who is not working and spent most of his time idling and playing with kids. Although the family kept a few pigs and chicken, the work of feeding the animals were done by the wife.

Mok has at least 5 daughters, mostly working in Bangkok and Haadyai. One of them has a 9-year old son who lived with Mok. I found out that the boy has 'Mok' as the family name, something Malaysian Chinese will find strange, as the boy's family name should follow that of his father, and not his grandfather on the maternal side, ie Mok.

Life is very simple and frugal for the Moks. The vegetables were grown and harvested from the hills nearby. Rice and meat were purchased from the market nearby. We ate almost the same food which was cooked the same way for the 3 daily meals.

We had our daily meals here

I stayed for 4 days with them, spending time in Mae Sai, Mae Salong town and also played with the kids in a school nearby. On one of the nights I went to Mae Salong town to have a drink, and it was there that I befriended a few Farangs from London. Before I left for Chiang Mai, I gave 1000 bahts to his daughter-in-law and another 500 Bahts to Mok’s youngest daughter who was bound for a university in Bangkok. When I reached Chiang Mai, I received a call from my ex-boss asking me to go back for a new contract.

Wat Sala Loi in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) which was built in 1967. Unusual because it has merged Thai style with a modernist viewpoint

Here is lesson one for learing some useful phrases for your holiday to Thailand. Today's lesson is "shopping". You should be able to see the link on the right for the radio blog. One of the students at my school recorded the phrases for you so that you can practice repeating after her. Below is the written text.

Don't forget, to be polite, men should say "krap" and women say "kaa".

How much is this? - ra-ka tao-rai
That is a little expensive - pang bai nit noi
Can you make it cheaper? - lot ra-ka dai mai
Do you have a bigger size? - mee ka-nat yai gwaa mai
Do you have a small size? - mee ka-nat lek gwaa mai
Do you have a different colour? - mee see eun mai
Can I try it on? - long noi dai mai
I am just looking. - doo yoo na
How much is it together? - tung mot tao-rai
Where do I pay? - jai ngern tee nai

I'm sitting hear trying to come down from my day which was filled with all sorts of adventures related to my Thai addiction. First, as is becoming a habit suitable for a junkie, I checked out Thai Blogs and the forums I am following and then dashed off to the post office to mail some packages to my fan and her mother. The post office closest to me is closed so I dash off to the main office in the next town ( trying to get them there in time for a wedding). There I carefully fill out the addresses in paa sa Thai and then stand in line for a half an hour until it they finally get to me. Oh! The man tells me that I can't send one of my packages because it is in a box that says express mail and I want global priority and no I cannot mark out the word "express" with the big black marker I begin waving excitedly around. He does sell me a new box, but no the post office does supply tape or ways to make the box functional. And, by the way, here are two custom forms you need to fill out for each package.

Great, I start trying to fill out one of the forms and, at least get one off today. It only took me four forms to realize that never in my life will I be able to cram that much Thai in that small of a space. Suddenly the light comes on and I hop into the car to run over to the Wat which is only 3 blocks away. I had left a bunch of packing material there for the monks and I am sure Ajahn Buasai can fit a bunch of Thai in such a small space. As I am repackaging my one present Ajahn ask me if I have another form. What!? "Oh, I made a mistake, do you have another one?" !!!!! Well, I have to give him credit for being a fast learner and having a perfect "poker face" while he's pulling my leg this time, instead of the usual ear to ear grin!

Back to the post office to mail the goods! Oy! Their closed, missed ay 5 minutes. Now is my chance to practice Dhamma. Anger, Anger, Anger, but wait this other door isn't locked and I see humans! "Sorry we're closed" I'm told as I walk in. At about this point my loving kindness has gone on vacation and I'm starting to ratchet up to a very un Buddhist like conniption fit when one of the ladies behind the counter says she remembers me and she'll mail them for me! Hurray!!! The Devas were with me today!

Grab some lunch, ok Mexican not Thai, and back to the Wat for my first Thai lesson after about a 6 week break. Ajahn tells me we'll have to stop at 6 o'clock and met with a lender about some property we're looking at buying so we don't have to rent anymore. No sooner do we open our books when some one shows up an hour early and we're off on "The Buying A Property Saga"
(Be happy I can't type well as this endeavor is worth pages and pages of lamenting)

A couple of hours of financial talk later and, Thank Heavens, its time to chant and sit in meditation. Refuge at last! Or so I thought. Big burritos, warm summer days and the soothing sound of my fellow practioners were a little to much of me tonight. I swear I didn't snore, I just got something stuck in my throat!

After our practice I recaped "The Buyinc A Property Saga" and prepared to leave. Ajahn asked me if I wanted to study Thai now and as I began to make sounds about being to tired I saw his "don't be lazy look" start to come on his face so I made some tea and had a fun hour
punishing my dear teacher with my terrible pronunciation. Bless his heart I really felt much better for getting that little lesson in after such a long lay off.

Now it's late at night and as I arrive home, happy and satisfied, I check my mail and THERE IT IS!!! A letter from The Department of Homeland Security (I choke writing that phrase). Three months of waiting and here it is, the response to my application for a fiancee visa. With trembling fingers I open the letter, ready to hear the good news that I am that much closer to having my loved one here with me no longer having to talk about and share our lives over the phone or waiting for an e-mail. NOT! "We need more proof that you have met your fiancee within two years of the filing of this application". :-( Oy!

So my dear friends out here in Blog land, the Devas have left me and this is my post office conniption fit! My daughter always like to point out what a unique shade of red my face can get! :-D

Thanks for listening and now I'M REALLLY HAPPY I bought that September plane ticket to Thailand!

I took my first step towards really picking up and going. I know this may sound silly but I am excited to report that I turned in my 60 day notice at my apartment complex and job. They know that I will be leaving the country for 6 months - 1 year and I have a list of vaccinations that I can't start getting till middle of next month. I still dont know where I will be working or living but that's ok. It's a little scary but all part of the adventure!! I did finally get a laptop and a digital cam gift certificate that I have to redeem so I will have pics of bangkok when Im there.

Here are some more Thai superstitions and old wives tales which have shaped Thai people today.

(1) Do not wear your amulet when you go to the toilet. If you do so it will no longer be sacred.
(2) Do not tap repeatedly with a spoon or chopsticks on a bowl of rice. Because you are inviting a ghost to come and eat with you.
(3) The same goes for the top of the rice cooker. You will upset the rice goddess.
(4) Do not kill yourself. It is a very bad sin.
(5) Do not taste food with a large serving spoon. It will make your child look ugly.
(6) Do not point your finger at a monk. You will lose your finger.
(7) Do not point your finger at a rainbow. It will make your finger fall off.
(8) Do not cut the wood for the stairs with a knife. Because the ghost will make you fall down the stairs.
(9) Do not place a plate on top of another while you are eating. It will make you unable to pay off your debts.
(10) Do not sell a needle in the middle of the night. Your shop will not be profitable.
(11) Do not smell the flowers that you are going to offer to the monk. Something bad will happen to your nose.
(12) Do not say bad things to your parents. It is a really bad sin.
(13) Do not insult or say bad things to a monk. In the next life you will be deaf and dumb.
(14) Do not insult sunshine, wind or rain because mother nature will make something bad happen to you.
(15) Do not let toddlers who cannot talk yet eat fish. It will make their gums bleed.

Source: Translated from "Boran Oo-bai" by Sanom Krutmeuang

Today I had a nice surprise at work. I work in a corporate bank building in Maryland and coincidently my boss is Thai! Her name is Nott and she is pretty cool. She's like this little ball of energy always laughing and happy and a lot of fun to be around all day in the office. I liked her from the start and I am sure I shocked the daylights out of her when we first met and I spoke to her in her native language ;)

Occasionally we will say a few words to each other in Thai but mostly we chat in English unless I have a question about a Thai word or expression. The past few weeks Nott's parents have been here visiting from Thailand and today Nott brought them to the office to meet everyone. I was so surprised when I turned around from my cube and was introduced to them. Without even thinking about it I shook her fathers hand then bowed and gave a deep Wai to them both welcoming them in Thai and we chatted for a bit. Not too long ago I would be so nervous to try and speak Thai I would break out in a sweat before I even uttered a sound :P

Nott had told her parents all about me and I am sure they were curious to meet this crazy farang their daughter worked with that knew so much about Thailand! I showed them all around my 6 by 8 feet cubical with my 'Suriyo Thai' poster on one wall and my lucite block 'statue' laser etched with an image of a Buddha on the shelf above my computer. They thought the Buddha was very nice and complimented me on Him because he is a very famous Buddha but I can't remember exactly how to pronounce his name at the moment :(

Nott's mom was so nice and she had a present for me. At first she gave me a wooden keychain of a little Hill Tribe girl and then she said she had something else too..money!

She reached in her purse and gave me a 100, then a 50 and then a 20 Baht note! That was so cool! Thai Baht looks so much cooler than plain old green US currency :P Recently we tried to get with the program and colorize our currency here in the States but I think it looks more ugly than anything else.

As you can see the 100 Baht note is in red with a portrait of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the reigning monarch and the Royal Initial Emblem of H.M. the King "Phor Por Ror". The blank space on the right is where you can see a watermark of HM the King

The back of the Baht note shows scenes of Thai life with monks and school children and a portrait of the monument of Their Majesties King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and King Vajiravudha (Rama VI), together with their Royal Initial Emblem

The 50 Baht note is my favorite because I like blue and it is very colorful. It is also cool because it's made of plastic! The clear window next to the Kings portrait has a polarized water mark of His portrait

I am not sure but I think on the back is a portrait of King Rama the III. The globe and telescope on the back seem to me to represent the period in King Rama III's reign when Thailand began to modernize by studying Western science and culture. Does anyone know for sure if I am correct? Please send me an update if I have anything wrong.

This 20 Baht note is an older version with the same Royal Portrait of His Majesty and watermark on the front

On the back of this note is a portrait of "Pra Chao Tak Sin Maharaj" พระเจ้าตากสินมหาราช- (NOT the current prime minister but our former king who won back indepedence from Burma right before King Rama I. His name phonetically in English is spelled like PM Thaksin but in Thai it's pronouced differently). During his short reign he established a new capital called Krun Thonburi กรุงธนบุร&#3637 but was replaced by the Chakri Dynasty (King Rama I) who established Bangkok as the capital soon after.

The 20 Baht note given to me is a newer version with the same, but updated portait of HM King Bhumipol Adulyadej on the front and on the back there is a picture of HM the King and some of his wonderful accomplishments like the new Rama bridge in Bangkok and His Majesty on one of his many walking tours in Thailand

My thanks to my friend Dew for filling me in on the information I was missing earlier regarding King Taksin Maharaj and his portrait

Nott's mom thought I would like the Baht notes to maybe put in a nice frame and she's right that would look cool on my shelf or on the wall. This was so nice that she gave these to me I was really thrilled to get such a thoughtful gift. Hard to believe I was never that excited about getting US money as a gift lol. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Ramakomud!

You can find out more about Thai currency from our sister web site http://www.thailandlife.com . My thanks to Richard for providing a better link and to Panrit as my source for more updated information on the Baht notes ;)

Till next time

ขอให้โชคดี !

วิทย์

The Phi Ta Khon festival, or Ghost Festival, is unique to the Dan Sai district in Loei Province and reflects the local Isan belief in ghosts and spirits. Held once a year, it is part of a grand merit-making festival known as the "Boon Luang" festival. This year it is being held July 8-11 with the main parade on Saturday.

The origins of the Phi Ta Khon Festival can be found in the tale of Lord Buddha's last great incarnation before attaining Enlightenment. In Buddhist accounts, it is said that when Prince Vessandara, the Buddha's penultimate incarnation, returned to his city, it was such a joyous occasion that the village spirits came forth to join the welcoming parade. This very colourful and vibrant Phi Ta Khon procession is the central focus of the celebrations.

In a lively re-enactment of the tale, the young men of the community dress up as "spirits" wearing long trailing costumes made from colourful strips of cloth sewn together.

The hideous-looking Phi Ta Khon mask which is made of dried sticky rice husk is painted in bright red, green or other colours, and features the characteristic long pointed nose. This completes the transformation. The clanging sound of the square cowbells worn around the waist announces the presence of the spirits who wield phallic-shaped long-handled swords decorated with red paint. The good-natured, fun-loving spirits mingle among the crowd, teasing and amusing all who take part in the procession. Spectators and visitors are welcome to join in the fun.

There are two types of "spirits" featured in the Phi Ta Khon procession namely the "Phi Ta Khon Yai" -- the supreme Phi Ta Khon, and the "Phi Ta Khon Lek", the ones that are commonly found. The making of the Phi Ta Khon Yai involves the performance of a sacred ritual to seek the blessings of the supreme powers before work on the Phi Ta Khon Yai masks can be initiated. It is also a task reserved exclusively for the descendants of families in which the tradition of making Phi Ta Khon masks has been practised for several generations. The Phi Ta Khon Yai is made of bamboo and is dressed in either in male or female attire.

Source: Tourist Authority of Thailand

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Unlike many aficionados of Thai Culture, my initial learning of Thai language was more of a necessity than my love for the language.

My dad runs a small road side store selling clothings in Penang road in Penang, Malaysia when I was young. Way back in the 60’s, many of our customers were Thais and it was common to see them coming in vans. My father was quite a "language genius", so to speak and I know he was able to communicate with customers of difference races and nationalities. Besides the Chinese dialects, he can speak Malay, Tamil, and Thai.

At the age of about 12, I had to help in the store during the school holidays. It was never too early to start working if you were hungry and in need of money to feed yourself. Child labor was never an issue at all then, and even now, if you care to look at your neighbours in the ASEAN region. Even now in the North East and Northern Thailand, you can see children working in the shops.

My first few lessons were counting from one to a hundred. Hundred was an astronomical figure for me. The Malaysian currency of Ringgit was called “rian” (I wonder if anyone out there knows the reason. Perhaps it is a short and distorted form of Rin sans ggit). Next I was taught how to bargain with the customers. Adjectives like good, best, low, lowest, cheap were to be memorized.

Well, without going into more details, some of which maybe heart-rendering issues for me, sufficed to say that these lessons on Thai and business, were an important part of my growing up. I become very street smart. I definitely could speak more languages than my father except Tamil. Like a chip of the old block, today, my son beats me with his command of the French language. The social scientist call this "social mobility", if I am not wrong.

Yesterday I shared with everyone the 4th of July cookout I had with my Thai and farang friends in the No. VA Thai Language Group here in DC. I was surprised that everyone who wrote a comment (all except one) wrote only about my brief mention of going to see Carabao the day before. I hope that does not say anything about my cooking! ;)

I wrote my blog out of order of the weekends events so I could collect the pics from the concert to add to it. It's on my 'things to do list' to finally get around to buying a good digital camera or at least a good film camera that I can have the negatives printed on a CD at the photoshop. I am missing too much good stuff to not be taking pics myself esp since I used to be a photographer in the late 80's and early 90's including taking pictures at rock concerts.

The night before my friend Vut called to ask if I wanted to go see the show at Wat Lao and asked me if I had ever heard of the Thai band Carabao. Now I am, dare I say, a Thai music fanatic with about 200 Thai music and movie CD and VCDs compared to about 30 western CD's of music in my collection.

My tastes are pretty well rounded too. I have alot of Thai pop and rock as well as some traditional Thai folk music with the traditional classical instruments, some movie soundtracks, and even new age music by Thai composers including HM King Rama IX who, among many things is an accomplished musician and composer himself.

Oh course I knew about Carabao and their style of music called Folk Life but I had never heard their music before so I was up for an adventure to try something new.

I met up with Vut in Virginia and after shopping for the next days 4th of July cookout we stopped to pick up Dew and Oop and some of his friends for the trek deeper into Virginia to get to Wat Lao. Now I should tell you that Wat Lao Buddhavong is not the oldest Thai or Lao temple in the DC/Virginia area but it is one of the biggest! The main temple building at the Wat (or Bot, more formally called the Ubosot) itself is about the same size as Wat Thai DC where I go for class but the first thing that impressed me was that it was built with the characteristic Thai single tiered, skirted and flaring roof as you can see here in this picture from the temple website. The Nagas and chofa that decorate the edges of the roof are really quite beautiful and I may write more about them and the history of this style in a future blog :P

What makes it so big is that the temple grounds sit on at least 26 acres of property donated to the Wat! The immediate grounds around the temple are huge and landscaped with a nice lake, complete with lilly pads, bridges and walk ways as well as several colorfully decorated statues and prize raffle and game booths just for the weekend and manned by monks (even a farang monk) that gave me the impression I was in a Buddhist theme park more than a solemn temple. ;)

The first thing we did once we got there is remove our shoes to kneel and and bow three times and pray before an outdoor image of the Buddha that you see below, yes I am a Buddhist but I am also a self-conscious nibbish too so I was nervous doing this in front of my friends the first time for sure I wanted to get it right!

After praying each of us also offered a wish by buying a wax image of the Chinese year you were born then melting it in a vat of burning wax and dipping the remains in this column as you can see I am doing in this pic so you will get whatever wish you make. I was born the Year of the Rabbit and I'll let you know if this works or not and I get my wish ;)

Behind the temple grounds is where the concert stage area is so we bought our tickets and went inside. For only $10 a ticket this was dirt cheap for entertainment. Of course you had to buy your own food and there were plenty of vendors there to choose from. We were starving so that was the first thing on the list. Everyone split up to find what they wanted to eat and then find a place we could all sit down to eat. I was craving Pad Thai and found someone making it but I had to wait about 15 minutes for a new batch to be made however it was worth it because it was soooooo good. Once we sat down together everyone could sample everyone elses dish so it was a cheap way to eat alot of food!

Carabao was to go onstage at 3:00 and another band was warming up the crowd with covers of other popular Thai songs so we milled around and checked out the shops. I had seen all the usual stuff for sale before so I didn't bring much cash on me or I would have been tempted to buy something I don't really need anyway. There was a huge turn out of people, many of them Laotian and darker skinned than many Thais there. The kids were having a blast, literally, shooting off fireworks! Nerve wrecking for some but the kids definately were having a good time. I even saw a kid with a top knot! Yet another time I wish I had a camera to take a picture.

Finally after several delays and closer to 4:00 than 3:00 Carabao took the stage and Ad Carabao asked if everyone was ready for 3 hours of music, no commercials. However my friends and I were standing in front of the main commercial, the booth where they were selling Carabao t-shirts, CD's and of course, Carabao energy drink :D

I didn't try the drink myself but several folks who did weren't impressed with the taste. I think I'll stick to Red Bull and be impressed with Carabaos music instead. Someone told me that their music is kind of a mix between Santana, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and Bruce Springsteen and I agree but growing up in Alabama, the Deep South, in the 70's I would have to add the music style of Lynard Skynard to the list too.

The music was great where it was slow and ballad like one song then hard rocking to the point of being heavy metal the next! I know many Carabao songs are stories about hard life and salt of the earth people. I wish I knew more Thai so I could understand the words better but even my Thai friends had a hard time following along because many songs were in a Northern-Issan dialect.

Needless to say the music was a definate hit with everyone there dancing and having the absolute best time singing along to just about every song, Vut pointed out this 200 pound, tall black guy, obviously not Thai or Lao, also singing along and he knew all the words too! That's a cool thing I like about Thai people they love to have fun and cut loose at a concert and don't care what anyone would think. Not like the uptight, image conscious farangs (like me I admit) but I caught my self loosening up and shaking it to the music. I was thinking about buying their new compilation CD set on sale there for $20 that came in a nice wooden display box. Not a bad price for that here in the US but my friend Dew told me not to buy it. She got a list of everyone that wanted it and said she'd have her friend in Thailand get them for us for about 215 Baht each when she comes to DC to visit. You got to love friends :D

Heres a great shot of me and Vut and me not looking at the camera

Now I am sure from the comments to my other blog yesterday some of you are eagerly wanting to know what, if anything happened, at the concert. Were there any fights? Any trouble makers? Well I think that part of Carabao's reputation followed them here because there were several Sheriffs Deputies patroling the grounds during the show carrying big sticks and I don't think they were there because the monks get rowdy on the weekend. But the worst thing I saw was the cops talked to some kids that looked like they might want to cause trouble and convinced them otherwise although the cops were all smiles and friendly about it. That's the south for you, laid back but still all business.

We definately got our monies worth and Carabao gave a lot for their show. It made up for the hour delay to start and they even played a couple of their songs that I had heard before but didn't know were Carabao songs! Unfortunately I don't know the names of the songs and I didn't ask :( Oh well guess I'll have to buy the CD then ;)

Finally the afternoon had gotten very hot and we stayed as long as we could till the end of the show before heading home tired but having had fun. It was cute toward the end this little boy I had seen early dancing and having fun on his dads shoulders. His dad and friends put him on the corner of the stage to dance and slowly he wound up dancing on stage in front of Carabao who joked about it and got several laughs from the crowd. He played the next song for the little boy and eventually put his guitar down and picked up the boy to sing to him. Talk about a photo op! Carabao roadies and the boys parents and friends where all taking pictures of their hero with the little kid including my friend Dew who took most of these pics you see here. Thanks Dew!

And thank you all for reading yet another monster blog from me. Once again till next time,

โชคดีครับ

วิทย์

I was in Mae Sot in November 2004 and witnessed the Moslem New Year celebration there. The scale of celebration paled in comparison with that in Malaysia as the celebration in Malaysia can last for 2 weeks.

It was not possible to get a low cost flight during this period as the Moslem New Year is celebrated nationally in Malaysia. We had to take a bus to Haadyai and thereafter take a NokAir flight from Haadyai to Bangkok to save cost. From Bangkok we took a bus to Phitsanulok and stayed there a night. After the sight-seeing at the market and the wat, we took a bus to Sukhothai and stayed there a night. Sukhothai has a lot of attractions and I am sure some of the bloggers must have written something about the attractions there.

Mae Sot is a really an outback place bordering Myanmar. It is however much bigger than Sangkla Buri in the south, another border town with Myanmar which is famous for the “Three Pagoda Pass” border crossing. Mae Sot is interesting in that there are more ethnic races and it is even possible to hear some Chinese and English spoken here. One can even find goods from Myanmar. I managed to pick up a Myanmar wall map there for 50 Bahts.

The first day of the New Year started with some prayers at the Mosque.

The street which the mosque is located at is full of people in their best clothings. I had the opportunity to take lots of photos, and even befriended a few people. To my surprise, some of them spoke excellent English, and we were even able to discuss intellectually on religions and politics.

Many of them have heard of Malaysia and some of them were curious how the Moslem New Year is celebrated there. They thought I was a Moslem.

Moslems are a united lot, even though the conditions in Mae Sot were not that perfect to practice their religion. These people were also very kind and generous, as I was even invited by one man who called himself Rahim to have lunch with them. During this festive season, unlike in many other countries, many of the shops were open to provide free food and drinks to the less fortunate.

There were even beggars and handicapped people lining up to receive donations from the shop owners. I even joined in to give some money to the handicapped.

The ladies were in their best clothings and make-ups. There was a general festive atmosphere. I was quite surprised that there seemed to be no one taking photographs. As such, I asked if I could take photos of them. They, especially the ladies were pleased to pose for the shots.

To thank them for their lunch and kindness, I sent their photos for printing at a photo shop at the corner of a street. The owner of the photo shop was Chinese, and even spoke perfect Mandarin. She was from Bangkok.

I had to leave early the following morning as one of my friends had hired a tour van (Rot Tour) to take us to Nakon Sawan. As such, I had to rush to hand the prepaid receipt to Rahim and asked him to collect the photos from the shop after 10:00am. I had also informed the owner not to delete the softcopies of the photos from the hard disk, in case Rahim and friends may ask for reprints or enlargement of photos. I hope Rahim’s family and friends will treasure the photos I took for them and remember this friend from Malaysia.

Moslem New Year in 2005 will fall on 3 November.

They say that English people always talk about the weather. That is probably because it can be so varied and so difficult to predict. Here in Bangkok, you can safely say that it is going to be around the 32 degrees Celsius mark for most of the year. December to January is the coolest and April to May is the hottest. At the moment, it is nearly 11 p.m. and the temperature has dropped to 29 degrees Celsius from a high of 35 Celsius. Humidity is only about 60% so it is not too bad here at the moment. We had some heavy rain at about 4 p.m. which helped to bring the temperature down.

It is now of course the rainy season for most of Thailand. Although it usually starts to rain around Songkran in April, the main rains don't begin until about June. This then peaks in September and October. By this time, the rivers are at their highest levels and floods are more prevalent. The rains slow down a lot by November and then December and January are relatively dry.

One of the most common questions that we get is about the weather in Thailand. Many people want to know whether it is worth coming to Thailand during the rainy season. They want to be assured that their holiday won't be spoiled by rain. Well, I can say that in the Central region of Thailand it doesn't rain every day. and also it doesn't rain all day. We usually only get an hour or so of heavy rain and then the sky clears up. Usually this happens either at the start of the day or the end. However, if there is a weather front passing through it can rain at any time during the day. As a consequence, the rainy season shouldn't spoil your holiday here.

I cannot talk with authority about the other regions of Thailand. However, I can say that northern Thailand experiences a different weather pattern compared to the deep south. Up in Chiang Mai the temperatures there can vary greatly between evening and daytime. During the cool season it can get close to zero degrees Celsius. It can also get hotter than what we have here in Central Thailand. In some ways they are luckier than us as the humidity is not so great there.

Down south their temperature doesn't vary so much during the year. They also have two different rainy seasons which splits the peninsular in half. The Andaman Sea side, which includes Phuket, has very heavy rains between May and October. If you are stuck in the monsoon there then all you have to do is cross to the other side that borders the Gulf of Thailand. This area is not so affected by the southwest monsoon. So, at this time of year it is better to visit Krabi and Koh Samui. However, their rainy season runs from October to January as a result of the northeast monsoon. Of course, all you have to do then is go back to Phuket on the other side!

There is no point bringing heavy raincoats as you will get more wet from sweat than the rain! Ponchos are good and cheap versions can be bought here. These are lightweight and can easily be packed away. However, I cannot remember the last time I wore a raincoat. When it rains hard I do like any other Thai person - I stand by the open door and gawk at the rain coming down! Usually it passes quickly. If I do have to go out then I just use an umbrella. Of course, these are also cheap to buy here and there is no need to bring them from your home country. Having said that, it can get quite windy at times and the rain goes almost horizontal.
When it is like this it is best just to sit it out indoors.

Sawasdee Krab!

Has anyone missed me? It has been a few weeks since my last literary opus (ha!) it seems there was always something getting in the way, including my own procrastination sometimes I admit, to sitting down and hammering out a new blog for the cyber masses. We've got so many new and excellent writers on here now for compettition, don't think that since I haven't been writing I've not been reading I need to hustle and get back in the swing of blogging or I could lose my place!

This time I want to share with you some of this past weekends adventures with my friends in the North Virginia Thai Langauge Group. Our core members are me, Vut, Oop, Dew, Tiffany and Tim and we had a great couple of get togethers this weekend in Virginia at the Lao temple there on Sunday Wat Lao Buddhavong and then back in DC to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday on Monday. At Wat Lao we went to see a true national icon of Thailand in concert, Carabao! I'm going to write more on them tomorrow when I get all the pics we took from the concert ready.

Instead today I want to talk about our other get together the next day to celebrate the Fourth and also one of my favorite subjects...thai food! As our dear Oakmonster would say you don't entertain guests without offering food (it's a Thai thing) and the same is true for many Americans you don't celebrate our nations Independence day without eating but at least you don't have to dress up like for Thanksgiving unless you decide to wear all red, white and blue for America or the same great colors for Thailand! :p

What would our countries birthday celebration be without hotdogs, hamburgers and BBQ on the grill? Well actually I wouldn't know since, yep, we went all out and did things Thai Style! I don't cook unless it's Thai food (it's a Wit thing ;) ) as you can tell in my pic here แกงคั่วสับปะรด anyone?

We had planned to have a potluck get together for awhile now as a group probably at my place since I wanted to cook for the everyone but I have this strange phobia about cooking in someone elses kitchen (lol) I like to know where everything is otherwise I am even more of a wreck when trying to put on a big meal for folks.

Since the Fourth of July was this month I had the brillant idea to combine the two and we could have an outdoor potluck. I would fix everything at home and then finally get to use my nifty Tiffin that I bought at the Thai market last year. Everyone would bring something and we'd have a nice eat out until time for the fireworks to start at least that was the intention.

However what is that expression? The road to hell is paved with good intentions? Well it certainly wasn't that bad but we did have a few misfires that almost sunk everything! It started Sunday ....

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I was attached to the Computer Center of Local University in Penang, Malaysia some 25 years ago (hope that I could boast I was a child protégée and started work at 5). There was a UNDP or UNESCO sponsored project to combine all the South East Asia bibliography into a single volume. There were no problems for Bibliographic materials from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Philippines because they all have romanized titles and cataloging information. However, when it came to Thai, there are Thai scripts as well and romanized text. I was assigned to transliterate the Thai script stored on computer tapes.

The project started with me visiting the Thai professor in the university to understand the Thai letters, how words are formed and pronounced. The consonants, vowels and tonal marks, their positions and how they affect the intonation. A proto-type transliteration program was written and presented to the professor for her reading pleasure. Like a chef waiting at the dining table for clues on how the diner enjoyed the culinary creation, I nervously waited for her comments. She started with a smile and a few seconds later burst into laughter.

After a few rounds of refinements with the professor, I was ready to travel to Bangkok to meet up with some officials at the Thai National Library. After many meetings, discussion and dinners (the latter being the part of programs I enjoyed most), I had to bid the host farewell and went back to writing my report and findings. A few months later, I left to work for a US multinational company, and my task was taken over by a graduate student.

On a smart fellow's recommendation, the key people in the project decided to buy a Thai Print Train that is able to print Thai Scripts along with Romanized text. Printing was a big deal then and it wasn't a matter of just getting another printer driver.

The transliteration was finally LOST.

I mentioned a few days ago about the cars seen on the road here in Thailand. Many of them are brand new though in the last few years I have seen a growing market for secondhand cars. Today I want to show you what the most popular cars are that are being sold in Thailand. These figures are for the period January-May 2005.

Total Sales:

Pickups 174,303 units
Cars 74,268 units
SUVs 16,539 units
Others* 17,366 units
TOTAL 282,476 units

* bus truck and van

Top 10 Car Sales:

1. Toyota (38,150 units)
2. Honda (19,294 units)
3. Mitsubishi (3,787 units)
4. Nissan (3,413 units)
5. Chevrolet (3,025 units)
6. Mazda (2,375 units)
7. Benz (1,915 units)
8. BMW (745 units)
9. Ford (582 units)
10. Volvo (298 units)

Pickup Sales:

1. Isuzu (66,389 units)
2. Toyota (59,402 units)
3. Mitsubishi (12,942 units)
4. Nissan (12,937 units)
5. Chevrolet (9,879 units)
6. Ford (8,172 units)
7. Mazda (4,582 units)

SUV Sales

(1) Toyota (11,970 units)
(2) Isuzu (1,326 units)
(3) Ford (1,185 units)
(4) Honda (765 units)
(5) Mitsubishi (378 units)
(6) Mazda (371 units)
(7) Sukuki (169 units)

The most popular vehicle in Thailand is Toyota with a 40.3% share of the market. Follwed by Isuzi (25.6%), Honda (7.1%), Mitsubishi (6.4%) and Nissan (6.2%). Last year, 626,000 vehicles were bought domestically and 333,000 vehicles were exported. The government hopes that by the year 2010, Thailand will be producing 1.8 million vehicles a year for domestic use and export.

Here are some price guidelines:

Toyota:
Camry 2.0 E A/T - 1,135,000 Bht
Camry 2.4 Q Navigator - 1,605,000 Bht
Wish 2.0 S Auto - 1,102,000 Bht
Corolla 1.6 J M/T - 685,000 Bht
Corolla 1.8 G A/T - 984,000 Bht
Soluna 1.5 J M/T - 467,000 Bht
Soluna 1.5 S Auto Sporty - 648,000 Bht
Land Cruiser Prado - 3,599,000 Bht
Crown - 3,800,000 Bht
Celica - 2,445,000 Bht

Related Link: WinThaiLottery.com
Related Link: ThaiLotteryResults.com

The idea of lottery goes back a very long way towards ancient times. People of Thailand are very fond of being a gambler themselves. Lottery is taken very seriously in Thailand as it is the only kind of gambling allowed here in Thailand. The system is very different compared to the western world. So, here is how it goes.

First, I would like to talk about the image of what a Thai lottery looks like.

As you can see, there is only one kind of lottery available, which is the top one. The other ones are recent, as I will talk about them a bit later on. This form of lottery has been used in Thailand for a long time. It is still paper-based material while many other countries have developed an electronic system to organise the lottery tickets. In Thailand, you’ll have to get lottery tickets from agents, which receive these tickets from retailers. Usually, lottery tickets are drawn twice a month, which are the first day of the month (the 1st) and the 16th. Every ticket costs 80 baht. This is the standard price. Each ticket has 2 parts, the top and the bottom part. It is not possible to buy just one part as they come in pairs. So, every ticket will still cost you 80 baht. However, if you win, your prize is doubled. Every ticket has 6 single digits, which you’re able to choose when you buy one. If for example, in England, the digits could be double digits up to 49 numbers which you would have to pick 6 numbers. However, the stake is so much more but it is much harder to win.

When the numbers are drawn live on national television, there are probably more than 20 drawn every time as they’ll have to draw all of the numbers according to the number of prize stated. Now, the prizes and amount of these lotteries are as follow

First Prize 1 number 2 million baht
Second prize 5 numbers 100000 baht
Third prize 10 numbers 40000 baht
Fourth prize 50 numbers 20000 baht
Fifth prize 100 numbers 10000 baht
Bonus prize* 2 numbers 50000 baht

* Bonus prize is for people whose first 5 numbers are correct but the last digit is incorrect by one number above or below. (For example, if your last number is "5" you can get the bonus prize if it is a "4" or "6".

Next, I want to talk about how to watch out for a fake lottery, which could be sold to anyone. Here are the steps.

A fake lottery has characteristics as follow
- different color from the original
- different paper
- no watermark

If you win a prize, you’ll have to go to the GLO (Government Lottery Office) where you will receive a cheque. However, if the prize is less than 20,000 baht, you can go to a local agent and he/she will give the money to you in cash. There is tax, which you’ll have to pay in order to get the money. The nominal rate is 50 satang (0.5 baht) for every one hundred baht. If you cash your money at a local agent, they’ll normally charge you about 2 baht for every one hundred baht.

Now, I would like to talk about the cheaper kind of lottery ticket which plays like the Irish lotto. A prize is drawn the same day as the national lottery. Here is what it looks like;

There are 3 prices of these tickets, 20, 50 and 100 baht. The first row is for 3 single digits lottery. The prize is set to a standard at 500 baht per one baht. For example, if you win the correct amount in the same order and your ticket is the 100 baht ticket, you’ll get 50,0000 for the prize. However, there’s a second Tote row, which the numbers shouldn’t have to be in order and you can also win. The prize of this tote row is 10 baht for every one baht. For this kind, there will be 4 prizes drawn every time. For the third row, you can choose 2 single digits and if you win, you’ll get 65 baht for every one baht. However, you can also choose the last row as it would be a reverse row and if you win that, you have halved the prize money.

I hope that every person who comes to Thailand they try out the Thai lottery. The chances are much better than the European and American lotteries even though the prize is much less. However, always be aware of agents who try to trick you and be aware of all kinds of theft.

Related Link: How to Win Thai Lottery
Related Link: Thai Lottery Results

You will see many English words written in Thai characters when you visit Thailand. This says "ice cream"

After mentioning ‘Tap Sap’ (Imported vocabulary) in my last blog I couldn’t help but sit back and write up a whole stack of notes on the issue and this is the end result. See below for the entire list I have put together

I’ve clearly noticed that a whole load of our foreigner readers out there are interested in learning Thai. Since living here, I can’t remember how many times now someone has asked me to the likes of “How do I go about getting started with learning the Thai lingo?” well, sure-a less, I’ve pointed them in the direction of ‘Tap Sap’, cause its darned easy Thai lingo to learn as of course it is in fact English in origin.

Since the Thais started playing around with the Thai language they have effectively made up a whole string of English sounding phrases that most foreigners wouldn’t have a clue to the meaning of and one of the ‘classics’ has to be ‘American Share’. This Thai-Eng lingo does in fact mean to ‘share the bill’. In Thai tradition it’s usually the elder that foots the bill (ie the one who is oldest or wealthiest). This phrase did in fact arise from the days of the American Gis. ‘American Share’ has certainly become popular over the years due to cultural development.

If you thought that Thai-Eng lingo was pretty absurd, nothing beats this one: ‘Working Woman’: I don’t know about your home country but in my hometown ‘Working Woman’ does not sound good at all!! And sounds instead like a stray woman walking the streets at night!! Here in Thailand, it means a woman who is pursuing her career ie, working for a company etc.. This phrase became so popular that a few years back there was even a TV chat show named ‘The Working Woman’. So lads, the next time you meet some Thai girl on ICQ that tells you she is a ‘Working Woman’ for goodness sake don’t misunderstand what she’s trying to say!

One of my fave Thai-Eng phrases has to be ‘Lip-sing’. Perplexed to the meaning? Well, don’t be as it in fact means ‘to mime’. Therefore, the next time when you are out with your Thai friends and they are egging you on to sing the awful likes of ‘Take me home country road’ or ‘Hotel California’ (for the ninety-fifth time!) just inform them that you prefer to ‘Lip-sing’ and so evading this gruesome chore. Next, we have the cute ‘awk date’ which actually translates as ‘go out on a date’, pretty popular phrase with the younger trendy Thais. As for Pattaya’s ‘Banana Boats’, the Thais just love them!!

Now, since the introduction of ‘Tap Sap’, a darned load of English words within the Thai lingo have in fact been corrupted in meaning and now mean something completely different to the English. The worst of all may in fact be ‘Coffee Shop’. Here in Thailand a ‘Coffee Shop’; means nothing of the sort and certainly not the kind of place to take yer girlfriend or old mum when she comes for a visit!! As for coffee, such establishments do serve such a thing but they’ll prefer you instead to be knocking back bottles of beer and buying drinks for a few stray ladies who will soon be appearing uninvitedly at yer table!!

As for a ‘Pub’, I’m not sure about you Americans but in England a pub is usually a dull, squalid place where for some mysterious reason half the customers stand at the bar being served by a couple of grannies. As for a ‘Pub’ in Thailand! You’ll soon be bopping away at your table and being entertained by some scad-looking girlie singers wearing as little as possible in some rather raunchy out-fit. Then for the female customers there are a set of fine handsome male singers wearing the latest Japanese hair-do to admire. Certainly beats having to stand at the bar in a pub back home having to listen to the likes of ‘Darned government cut me social welfare benefit again’. Then, we have the word ‘bar’, it may sound perfectly OK in English to say ‘I’m going out to the bars tonight’ but if you translate this to Thai it does not sound good. And instead means you’ll be looking for more than just a game of pool and a chat with yer buddies!! You have been warned.

Next, we have the word ‘Scotch’. If it’s a bottle of whiskey your after from your local shop to celebrate your new house-warming party, the shop-owner will be instead handing you adhesive tape! Of course ‘Scotch’ in Thai is actually an abbreviation of ‘Scotchtape’! Now a ‘Tour bus’, these in Thailand are any old inter-provincial air-con bus and nothing like the double-decker tour buses that rove around the streets of Paris.

Many words to do with the car are "tap sap" like this one, turbo, and also break, clutch and air.

The Thais certainly love ‘Tap Sap’ that has hailed from The States and ‘Camp’ is one of them. Originally coming here as a teacher I was bewildered when arriving at ‘Camp’ as it was in fact a modern funky place with dormitories to sleep in. To us Brits it is nothing of the kind, but instead a smelly camping ground where you sleep in a tent! Here, in Thailand, its camp this and camp that, I mean any darned location where the company staff or students go for a day or two and play nothing but silly games and ‘sing karaoke’.

Now we all know the Thai people have a plentitude of virtues and one of them has to be ‘nicely-cunning’, I mean they are pretty smart in regards to ‘Tap Sap’. Not only do they import a word from English but they then abbreviate it. Look at the English language, now what’s the point in saying the long-winded likes of ‘Basketball’ when you may as well just say ‘Bas’? Or ‘Badminton’ when you may as well shorten it to ‘Bat’. The Thais have certainly taught us a lesson in laziness of speech! ‘Air’ can mean either ‘Air-conditioning’ or ‘Air-hostess’. ‘Batt’ for ‘Battery. Then if you’ve just arrived at your office job after being sent out here by your company, don’t be perplexed if you here the likes of the workers mentioning “Soup, soup” all day. There aren’t talking about their favourite broth of course, but instead gossiping about their ‘Supervisor’.

Should you hear any Thais asking you “What is your ‘spec’ in a guy?” they are in fact asking you “What specifications do you look for in a guy?” ie. What kinda guy do you like? Then, there is ‘Mike’ as in ‘Microphone. ‘Down’ as in ‘Down-payment’ and ‘Film’ as in ‘Camera Film. Then, one that certainly gets on a lotta peoples’ nerves, and that is ‘Charge’. Not only does ‘Charge’ mean as in the sense to ‘charge a battery’ but it also means ‘Overcharge’.

Then we have the classic ‘Ver’ (Wer)!! ‘Ver’ is an abbreviation of ‘Over’ and can be used when seeing someone obviously making a fool of themselves. Yes, ‘Wer” means ‘Over the top’.

Once upon a time ‘Tap Sap’ used to compromise of only nouns as in ‘Helicopter’ and ‘Taxi’ etc… but a fair share of common verbs and adjectives are engraining themselves in the Thai lingo. Last time I told you about ‘Work’, ‘Get’ and ‘Take care’ but howabout the word ‘Show’. Geez, this word in Thai now has as many or even more meanings as the English equivalent. If someone likes to ‘Put on a bit of a performance in front of the room’ it means that person ‘Likes to ‘Show’. Then in regards to girls who enjoy wearing something a little revealing, she too also likes to ‘Show’. ‘Show’ can also have a negative meaning, as in ‘Show off’. Then if you feel a little injustice being dealt your way just say ‘Mai fair’ as in ‘It’s not fair’. Or if your not sure about something just mention ‘Mai sure’ as in ‘I’m not sure’. And…should you hear any Thai ask you to the likes of “What football do you cheer?” they of course means ‘Cheer’ in the sense of ‘Support’

And finally, howabout ‘Hit’. It certainly doesn’t translate to a ‘Hit in the head’ but it does translate to ‘Hit’ as in ‘Plaeng hit’ (Hit Song). Or just about anything that is in fashion. Then we got the latest of all the ‘Tap Sap’ - ‘Hot’. Not hot as in the weather but ‘Hey he’s a hot guy’ ie… he’s a bit of a stud!

As promised, please find below my whole list of ‘Tap Sap’. I decided to split the list up into three. The first list is of ‘Tap Sap’ that is now perfectly common in the Thai language and on some occasions, if there is a Thai word equivalent, it has now become defunct in spoken conversation. The second list comprises of ‘Tap Sap’ where even though there is a perfectly usable proper Thai word, the ‘Tap Sap’ is used just as often, or in some cases more. The third includes ‘Tap Sap’ that is used with up-to-date Thais and especially those who are students or have a decent job. Most of these ‘Tap Sap’ however wouldn’t be understand by your average farmer. For a more comprehensive list of these just listen to the next speech by our beloved PM. A speech of his in Thai goes alone the lines of “Blaaa blaaa infrastructure blaaa capitalism” etc…. of course half the upcountry population haven’t the faintest but who cares! He sounds ‘Brainy’.

I have not included ‘Technical’ ‘Tap Sap’ like ‘Bacteria’, ‘Amoeba’, ‘Alluminium’ or say ‘Malaria’ etc..

To be understood you’ll need to say the following ‘Tap Sap’ with the Thai pronunciation. Try them out!!

1) Visa, Hello (telephone), Free (as in getting something), Pump (as in pump/petrol station), Sexy, Townhouse, Cake, Battery, Notebook (as in PC), Jeans, Lipstick, Chalk, Check-in (hotel), Theque (discotheque), Sheet (paper), Chemi (Chemistry), Board (Whiteboard etc), Bow (hair), Plan, Microwave, Skateboard, Cheerleader, Cook (occupation), Cookie, Guide (occupation), Tour (go on), Stamp (letter), Motorcyke (motorbike), Shirt, Game, Honeymoon, Print, Poster, Check (bank), Ball (football), Giraffe, Gorilla, Chimpanzee (lots more animals), Volleyball, Ping Pong (Table Tennis) (lots more sports), Commission, Marker (pen), Suit, Coupon, Corruption, Tank (as in oil), Sofa, ICU, Lock, Lift (elevator), Seminar, Game Show, Cutter, Invoice, Liquid (Liquid Paper), Gel (hair), Stunt, Cartoon, Furniture, Tip (in a restaurant), Gym, Logo, Barber, DJ, Cream, Chat (Internet), Copy (fake), Guitar, Piano, Neon, Bonus (job), Spa, Jacuzzi, Rock (music), Yaught, Cashier, Skate (roller), Fuse, Cap (hat), Scooter, High-Lo (card game), Card (as in X’mas card), Part (as in part 2), Kilometre, Centimetre, Atnomat (automatic), Bingo, Buffet, Calorie, Clip, Franchise, Graph, Tissue, Khaki, Nawee (Navy), Lens, Champ (champion), Opera, Sauce, Chong Fridge (freezer), Starter, Clutch, Brake, Gear (Lots more vehicle words) , Helicopter, Com (computer), Condo, Flat (accommodation), Fax, Stereo, Remote (remote control), Cream, Pear, Plum, Peach, Cherry, Strawberry, Blueberry, Jam, Salad, Sundae, Vanilla, Ice-cream, Beer, Spaghetti, BBQ, Fast-Food, Macaroni, Steak, Mustard, Pasta, Custard, Punch (fruit punch), Wine, Toffee, Nugget (chicken), Chocolate, Donut, French-fries, Hamburger, Hot-dog, Ham, Cheese, Bacon, Mayonnaise and of course Pizza. Then my fave kind of ‘Tap Sap’ for cuteness, Choc-Chip (chocolate chip).

2) Happy Birthday, Bye-bye, Merry X’mas, Smart (as in smart-looking), Dic (dictionary), Charge (battery), Mini-Mart, Xerox (make a copy), Bakery, Bank, Passport, Chauffer, Program, Print, Motorshow, Casino, Office, Walkman, Footpath (sidewalk/pavement), Cologne, Promote, Promotion, Sales (occupation), Joke, Pick-up (vehicle), Bill, Star (as in famous), Queue, Technical, Ticket, Brochure, Bomb, Party, View, Inter (international), Club, Four-wheel, Select, Hero, Lotion, Hurricane, Romantic, Import, Export, Agent, Alien, U-turn, Classic, Curfew, Diet, Disc, Double, Popular, Serve (occupation), Lottery, Engine, Conversation, Menu, Modern, Plaster (sticky), Shock (surprise), Gap, Certificate, Lab (Labratory), Gift, Gift Shop, TV, Walkman, Tape, Projector and Switch.

3) Happy, Sorry, Good-night, Get (understand), Work (as in a plan), Support, Quality, Department, Store, Hotel, Mobile, Surprise, Edit, Police, Dinner, Perfect, Uncivilised, Refugee, Summer (as in camp), Sick, Dancer, Super, Stop, Check (inspect), Magazine, Shampoo, Drop (as in drop a course), Service, Inspiration, Delivery, Drink (both verb and noun/alcohol), Clear (verb and adjective), Holiday (as in day off), Effect, Action, Fit (corrupt usage of Tap Sap, means ‘tight’, as in a blouse), Mini (esp. mini-skirt), Boss, Basic, Advance, Quote, Centre, Save (money), Notice (as in notice board), Note (verb and noun), Size, Revision and finally Form (as in both ‘good form’ and the thing you fill-out)

And I know there are lots lots lots more!!

I do hope that you have found some of the ‘Tap-Sap’ in this blog helpful. I have decided to put together the most comprehensive up-to-date list of ‘Tap-Sap’ available. So, dear readers if you can think of any more ‘Tap-Sap’ pls do write a comment and tell me.

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AK880 touched down in Don Muang Airport on time, a rare feat of AirAsia. Thanks to Air Asia, I learn that the word "LaCha" means "delay" from the ground crew when I last flew on Air Asia. I have convinced my wife that I have done my home and Internet work well ahead to know exactly what to do and what to say in Thai, of course. My wife is a "packaged" tourist and is worried of any unplanned things. she is also a city tourist and just back from Osaka and Tokyo. A trip to outback country is something she would least want to try.

On hearing that I am going to AranyaPrathet on a bus from Mochit Bus station, the cab driver tried to persuade me to take a cab direct to AranyaPrathet for 2500 bahts. I told him that I could not afford "Mai mee gern". Nice try.

The meter in the taxi miraculously did not function. I had to convince the driver that I have been here and that I know how much to pay even though that the meter is dead. Well, I am supposed to have "senuok" (incidentally, the Malay word for fun is "seronok") here so I paid him 180 bahts he asked for the journey. The bus to AranyaPrathat leave exactly 10:30, 5 mins after we arrived at Morchit.

At AranyaPrathet, we took a tuk-tuk for 60 bahts to Cambodia border, exactly as posted in the Internet. Immigration is OK except I had to pull along my trolley bag on uneven road surface between the 2 immigration checkpoint.

Crossing into Poipet, Cambodia

Poverty is a relative term. If you said Thais in rural areas are poor, you have got to come here in Poipet and see for yourself what poverty really is. For a few Bahts, kids as young as 8-10 years old are paid to pull wooden carts full of luggage to Hotel.

Carts drawn by human power are frequent sights

We checked into HoWah Genting for 600 bahts per room night. HoWah Genting is a Malaysian-owned company listed in KL Stock exchange. Breakfast is included.

There are about 9 casinos in Poipet, I was told. Free flow of food is served to the patron of Casino. There are also many Toyota Camry around to ferry patron between Casinos. Generally the stake can be as low as 10 Baht. As we are no gamblers, we just opt for the easy-to-play Roullete to past time and have some cheap fun and thrills. Time are spent moving around the casinos, eating and drinking. The night ended with a foot massage.

The following day, we went back to Thailand side to shop at the border market and tried some Thai delicacies.

We spent another night in Poipet and lost 1500 bahts on the table, I guessed. As we are here for "Senouk", we gave trips generously to the croupier when we strike, just to make everyone happy. In Zurich, no one will pick up a one Swiss Franc coin in the street. Here, one Franc will bring a lot of happiness.

We met some Malaysian here and were given food coupons to dine at their hotels. We learnt from the Malaysian that there is bus to Bangkok for only 100 Bahts. It stopped at BangNa and also in the City.

The trip back to Bangkok is more pleasant and took only 3 hours.

In Bangkok, we stayed in Regency Park at Sukhumvit Soi 22 for USD30 booked through the Internet. Shopping at MBK is the part of trip my wife enjoyed most.

AK881 back to KL was a pleasant trip too.

Tourists exploring the ruins of Ayutthaya

I thought we would have a bit of fun today and let you read what it was like to be preparing for a trip to Th