There are many a job to contemplate doing as a foreigner here in Thailand. If you pick up an English language daily you may come across some fine job vacancy that reads to the likes of ‘Wanna make up to 300,00 baht a week in sales?? All nationalities accepted’. Before you know it you’ll be stuck behind a desk at some illegal back-alley broker company calling up potential muggo clientele in Australia selling them bargain price stocks and shares that don’t actually exist, that is before getting busted by immigration and booted out the country.

Otherwise, if illegal activity isn’t yer cuppa coffee you can head for the islands and string yer guitar at a banana-shake backpackers’ bar and earn just enough to live on and perhaps even get the odd-job teaching English. A lotta foreigners on coming to Thailand hope to get into the ‘writers scene’ but are soon bewildered to realize that there are hundreds more just like them hoping to do the same thing and so magazines here can get away with paying their writers the equivalent to tiddly-winks, better off writing at thai-blogs for free.

So, if none of the jobs mentioned above don’t exactly strike you as that exciting, then how about going for a real pish-easy job and that is writing a Thai Soap Opera. Yours in name here has had the privilige of acting it out on a few of the nation’s Soapies during his time here but has unfortunately lacked the time actually needed to write a story. So, for all you buzzing writers wishing to ‘getta job’ and write a Thai Soap Opera, here below is stevesuphan’s essential guide..on ‘How To..Write A Thai TV Soap Opera.

Firstly, when writing your story it is extremely important to examine the characters required, here is a quick list:

1. (statutory) A milky-bar-coloured seemingly-innocent leading actress. Please be assured that even if she is as thick as your copy of the yellow pages and has the acting qualities of an ostrich, that is not the point – but looks are.

2. (statutory) A squeaky-clean leading actor. This is Thailand and if you, as a foreign girl, think one of the dread-locked beach-bums you’ve dated recently on Koh Samui fits the type of ‘macho-man’ then you are definetly mis-judged. Thai TV prefers actors with skin as smooth and white as a baby’s bottom.

3. (statutory) A jealous elder sister. Again, looks are vitally important and a right bitchie look is essential. Advised to also have previous real-life experience in beating up her friends, family and former lovers (Farangs desirable)

4. (statutory) Extremely dangerous ex-boyfriend/admirer. Unlike the leading actor this guy is squeeky bad, even richer, a filthy womanizer, addicted-gambler, drunkard and a complete delinquent.

5. (statutory) Totally nasty ex-girlfriend/admirer. Siding with the leading actress’ elder sister she is also an entirely loathesome type. Spends here time spreading gossip about the leading actress, stealing money from her parents and getting stupidly-drunk every time she’s upset

6. (opitional) A powerful and possessive father-in-law. Will not be doing much acting besides shoving one of his big-guns in the leading actor’s face and swearing to the likes of “Just you stay away from me daughter or I’ll be cutting off yer thingy-a-jig and chucking it to the ducks, and that’s before I kill ya”

7. (opitional) A not-so-smart ladyboy. Not much is required to fill this part, as the writer, just keep in mind that the ladyboy casted will be one of the dumbest, ugliest and most foolish around, moreover she will have looks that would frighten even yer neighbour’s blind cat.

8. (opitional) An uneducated Isarn maid. Again, acting qualities are not highly sought after but hilarious features are. It is recommended that you write her in as having a really corny country-bumpkin sounding accent, be as horribly dark-skinned as possible, have big goofy buck-teeth, big rubber lips and two holes for a nose. She need only spend her time waltzing around and whistling while wearing one of those kinky-looking French chambermaid outfits.

9. (optional) A ghost. Should you wish to stick in a ghost, do bear in mind that the visual effects on Thai Soap Operas are not of the highest international standards. Any green monster thingy that you have envisaged will probably end up with a striking resemblance to Kermit The Frog. Feel no fear however, just have it say ‘boo’ and half the viewers will be dumb-struck with fear.

10. (statutory) Extras. Of course, every production needs extras, but it is normal in Thailand to find ‘freebie’ extras. Any street scene you have proposed in writing is great for finding a few street urchins to strutt their stuff for only the price of a bowl of rice. As for any restaurant scenes – well, darned having to pay for any hired extras the director will soon be filming in front of a couple of tables of ‘real’ diners while shouting over “Pls do not look into the camera”

Secondly, a plot has to be written. It is highly suggested that the Thai Soap Opera writer have an education of no less/or the equivalent of Grade 6. TV Soap Opera plots in Thailand are more or less all the darned same from beginning to end. Here below, are a couple of quickie examples.

PLOT ONE:

Our leading actress, on having lost her father is subsequently beaten and abused relentlessy by her mom’s new lover, the ‘scarfaced-all-powerful-stepfather’. Meanwhile, the leading actor has become the MD of his own company at the tender age of 24 and soon falls out of love with his former ‘nasty’ girlfriend and ‘in-love’ with the leading actress who happens to live just down the road. At the same time, the deplorable step-father is trying to set the leading actress up with some right vagabound who has promised dad-in-law a fancy under the table pay-back check if he wins his daughter’s hand in marriage. In the end however, the step-father and obnoxious admirer are arrested and charged for some unexplainable darned reason and given lengthy jail sentences. The leading actress and actor get married and live happily ever married.

PLOT TWO:

Our pitiful leading actress is a Chiang Mai beauty, a true damsel in distress with a cute sounding slow Northern-Thai accent (unlike the horrible sounding Isarn one) and comes from a relatively poor background. Our poor leading actress has come to the big city to sow her fortune but is soon befriended by dozens of abnoxious folk trying to take advantage of the unfortunate little girl. In the meantime, the leading actor is falling in love with the Chiang Mai damsel but his mother is going absolutely ‘off-her-trosh’ at the thought of her beloved son marrying into a family of uneducated uncivilzed buffalo-herders. Mother instead, sides by his former girlfriend an alcoholic American educated Bangkokian girl with a super-rich daddie. Family feuds erupt. But eventually, after his mother has a heart-attack and drops down dead the leading actor and actress get married and live happily ever after.

Additional Notes:

Do remember to keep your script pretty darned short. Even though one episode of a Soap Opera is scheduled for one and a half hours do bear in mind that at least one hour of that time is devoted to TV commercials. In the west you say TV commercial break however here in Thailand it is in fact called a TV Soapie break, ie… for every five minutes of TV commercials aired there is one minute of TV Soapie time. Then, for some whacko crackpot reason the same TV commercial is often shown ten times in the space of ten minutes. Promoting advertisement products during the TV Soap Opera is the complete norm here, so when writing the script do not forget to leave out scenes such as the Isarn maid scrubbing the bathroom or washing the dishes while advising the leading actress to the likes of “Ooh the floor is so shiny and spotless” while there is a camera zoom-in on the cleaning product.

One more reason for keeping the plot just a little short is the availabilty of the leading actresses and actors. It is common on Thai TV that the same stars are playing on 4-5 TV Soap Operas simultaneously. Should you not believe me, then just flick around a few channels in the evening and you will soon be seeing the same folks acting it out in each and every show.

Next, there is location to contemplate. Thailand may only be a developing country but it is essential that your story be set in one of the spankiest flashiest houses that Thailand has to offer. Even though your script says nothing about the families involved actually having any work to do – that is not the point. It is mandatory that the story involves at least one family that is filthy rich beyond belief. Looking like a pauper is not the objective of writing a Soap Opera but beauty is. Even though all the actresses are actually just hanging around the house they will be dressed up and made-up to the heavens as if they were off to some fancy ball. And if you notice closely, you will soon be amazed that even after a nights’ topsy-turvy sleep the leading actress’ hair will be perfectly in place when she gets up.

Now, no Thai TV Soap Opera can exist without a bounty of fights, shoot-outs and slappa-ze-faces. Do when writing the script, think up at least three big scenarios every episode. Most popular scenes of all include ‘step-father belting his pitiful daughter-in-law’ and ‘jealous elder sister giving baby sister a good thrashing’. The viewers just love such scenes and the more the better to boost the ratings.

And finally don’t forget! Absolutely no love scenes whatsoever. A quickie cuddle between the leading actress and actor is perfectly all right but as for any scenes of the couple actually kissing, such filming is strictly prohibited unless the couple has been married in part. This is due to the country’s Ministry of Culture, who after much timely and costly research have deciphered that such intimacies do not occur in Thailand outside of marriage. So, if you want to put any filthy un-thai stuff like that in yer script you had better go back to writing in Farangland.

Visit Steve's main page at Steve's Weblog

Old Patong [1980] when they still had shacks on the beach, just before
they tore them all down!

Leaving Patong Beach in July/1979, we thought of little else til our return in March/1980.

We were more prepared for the Land Of Smiles this time around, having purchased not only our International tickets to Bangkok, but connecting Domestic jet the following day, the first flight to Phuket!

We stayed overnight just across the street at the fairly new Airport Hotel, it was clean, delux, everything worked, they even had their own walkway across the wide & busy street in safey!

They brought a wheelchair over for me, since I had left my wheelchair back in the USA this time, there was little wheelchair friendly walks or roads and NONE one the dirt roads of Patong Beach then.

The hotel served us Mai Thais as we checked, we got out of our "stay warm on the long international flight" clothes off, into bikinis for a quick dip in their luxury pool, back to the room, a little curry for room service and we slept well, awaking to breakast just before we had to go across the street for the jet to Phuket Island.

I usually got a window seat in those days, I'd look down the entire flight, trying to make out the shoreline, mountains, temples, etc but it was a short flight as the jet banked eastward and we left the blue Anadman views behind us and decented into the greeness that IS Thailand.

Got our one bag, guitar and ambled to a tuktuk, driving at bns all the way to Patong Bay.

The tuktuk had somewhat more power than the smaller samlors, so we zoomed over the big hills before the beach easily.

The last right turn by the big Wat and we could see the blue Andaman Sea and the coconut groves of Patong Beach.

The tuktuk took us directly to Valentines, but they were FULL UP, so we drove to the end of the beach and got a room at SeaView Bungalow.

The barbed wire around their compound left a feeling of uneasyness, we had heard "rumors" the visit before about the "bandits" who had stormed in from the jungle and robbed the place, all its guest and taken the stereo too the year before, but...we had nothing but an easy afternoon there, eating papaya/pineapple/banana platter with a couple of icy Greenspots!

We got into our clothes du jour for Ao Patong: bikinis, and rarely wore anything else for the next 6 months, cept for the few times we went to town or the airport to renew our visas.

We slept easily that first night, the waves crashing on the beach were the perfect harmony for the crickets to sing us to sleep.

The next morning, we had breakfast at SeaView, then a tuktuk took us back to Valentines where Mr Singh greeted us with a warm smile, gave the the room right next to the room we'd had on our honeymoon at the "long term rate" of 20baht/day.

We wandered next door to a new cafe, Thai style, the front 3 sides open, the back to the kitchen, hognam & sleeping quarters for the crew, the place was called Thai Garden.

The big grizzly guy grinned as we walked up to a table, he said, you must be Patty & Gary! We had never seen this guy before and were puzzled, but said we were indeed Patty & Gary, he laughed a bellorous laugh, like Long John Silver and said he'd arrived shortly after we'd left last July and Margaret had told him all about us!

We told him we'd seen Margaret in the USA, and that she'd soon be in Patong also!

Dave could tell a tale or yarn INLESSLY, infact, he didn't shutup the entire next 6 months, but...never told the same tale over once!!!

We'd sit til the sun rose some morning, drinking his concoction "Thai Garden Lemonade" his secret receipe:

Mekhong whiskey
Sprite
Menow
Nam King

Daves place was a hit with the few travellers/tourists on the beach because he served great Thai food, along with most any type of Western food too, Dave was indeed a gourmet cook, but his girlfriend, little Dao, did all the cooking, with the help of her little sister Toi and the occassional other[many]relatives that we came to know as the years flew past.

Dave was the first person on Patong Beach with a VCR! He hooked his old[NEW]BetaMax up to a 21" TV, powered unevenly by a big generator on the side of the restaurant and we watched movies nightly. Daves place was soon the "HOT SPOT" on Patong Beach, within a few months, every place had videos going, but Dave had the very first!

We saw Margaret later that week, she had come down from the HillTribes in the north, where she'd been working at a Relief Camp for Lao/Cambodian/VietNamese refugees.

She told us talks of the north, the plight of the refugees, and that our mutual friend "3" had suffered a bad stroke just a few months before, was trying to get a cafe going on the beach and was having a tough time.

We went then wandered down the beach to the Half Way Cafe where "3" & Kangaroo Larry lived and worked.

"3" had a pronounced limp as she walked, watched me amble up on my forearm crutches, she grinned and yelled "you walk funny" as we got to her hut. We instantly became good friends, she even taught Patty her secret "3" sauce, MUCH better than just regular Prik Nam Pla!!!

"3"s curried crabs were simple the best food either of us had ever tasted!!! Patty would take her time, one crab=one hour with Patty, the nights she ate 3 crabs, well, we were singing folk songs with Guitar Noi and and expats well after midnight, while Patty sucked and nibbled each and every drop and morsel from those tastey crabs!!!

Half Way Cafe and Thai Garden took the majority of our biz, but we naturally tried EVERY place on the beach, some were very good, like Pee-yuns, she was the sweetest person on the beach, her kindness shown thru easily on her constantly smiling face, she'd was always busy, cooking something with one hand, while washing a dish or pot with the other hand at the same time! Her noodles were about the best on the beach!

too be continued...

Sometimes I manage to confuse people with my language skills and my ‘come from’ explanation and I think it’s about time to spill the soy sauce on me and the Thai language. In my intro blog, I mentioned the order of languages I had learnt or had some knowledge of. Thai was ranking #6 of my learning order.

It may seem surprising and some people wonder how this is so. I say I don’t know Thai well but I manage to write it somehow. It surely makes people wonder and they ask “But your mother is Thai, isn’t she?” with the impression that I should 'get it' so-to-speak.

What started me off was often going to ethaimusic.com and trying out the sample songs. My mother used to play old tapes of the late Pumpuang (a famous Thai country singer) and Bird Thongchai. I continued listening and singing along with the words, reading the Romanized lyrics or translation. But after a while, I thought “Hey, I can’t keep reading those, I should learn to read Thai script now”. So one day, I printed off a lyrics sheet of some songs and started looking at the words. The Thai lyrics on ethaimusic.com were not that hard to differentiate between separate words because they were for sing-a-long and had little spaces in between unlike normal Thai script where sometimes there’ll be one long line without any spaces. Of course I wondered how that could possibly be read. Where do you stop reading? How do you know what is a question, opinion or statement?

Anyway, I kept looking at the lyrics with the Romanized words while listening to the song and started getting the hang of which word was pronounced as what and where. So then I wanted to make sure I was doing it right and asked my mom and she said “Yes, that’s right, good”. My thoughts then were “Hey! This isn’t so bad. Here’s a fun way of learning it”. I could listen to music that I liked and try to read the real Thai words.

Several times before, I looked at learningthai.com and always read the intro of the ‘learn to read’ section that said exactly what I kept thinking “When most people see a Thai book or newspaper for the first time they are amazed and puzzled by the strange letters and no gaps between the words. Most foreigners think it is impossible to learn how to read. But really, after a short while all of the strange looking letters and no gaps between words will start to make sense”. I wondered how soon and what the secret to reading Thai is? But I could never find enough motivation of why I should really learn it.

I can’t remember exactly when but after a while, I got more interested in Thai music and eventually became a fan of different artists and wanted to know more about them and so forth. But I realized that most things were written in Thai. I could just stare at the words (or ‘noodle shaped alphabet’) or ask my mom each time to read it for me. I didn’t like the idea that I had to be helped each time I wanted to know something that was written. I realized that I should start making the effort to learn and do it myself because I really wanted to know what was being said for myself. That was likely one of my fuelling motivations.

It looks like this entry will be longer than expected. I will post the next part at a later time.

In mid 2005, I began my life as a blogger. To date, after some numerous postings online at Thai-Blogs and my own personal blog, I am still contemplating what it means exactly to be a blogger. Of course, I am still selective in what I write online and there is still the fine thin line that separates reality and the world of blogsphere.

My favourite inspiration for blogging has been Panrit "Gor" Daoruang’s of Thailand Life. For me, it is still hard to call Gor as Panrit, as I have always remembered him as Nattawud. His website used to generate more than 3,500 visitors daily and for almost a year, he was a columnist (Gor’s World) for Bangkok Post.

Thailand Life began in 1997 when Gor was only 12 years old. Then, he was a student at Sriwittaya Paknam, one of the most prestigious schools in Samut Prakan, which is about 30km from Krungthep. Today, seven years later, he seldom updates his website. Sigh……..

Gor may not the best English blogger online, but each of his posting tells a wonderful story of what it means to be a Thai living in a suburb of Bangkok. It can be simple everyday stories such as what he has in his pocket, or his challenges in life, such as his drug addiction or even his life as a butterfly boy. Of course, all this is told with lots of emotions, and at times with brutal honesty.

Of course, if you are a drug-addict, you would not tell the world, but Gor did exactly that. I salute him for his braveness! Thankfully, Gor had one of the best teachers, Acharn Richard of Sriwittaya Paknam. Somehow, Acharn Richard is also an inspiration for me to start blogging, especially at this community website.

Then, Gor was lucky. With Acharn Richard, he was able to finally stopped his drug habit and return to normalcy. But, Gor’s life is not at all about being plain or normal. Would you believe it, he is at least a decade younger than me, but he has more experience than I can ever have in my whole lifetime?

I was happy when Gor wrote about his girlfriends from school. It was so lovey-dovey when teenagers fall in love. Geez, I would have like that for myself, but coming from a very strict Chinese family, it was impossible.

Without doubt, Gor’s life makes an interesting blog --- and he indeed has an extra-ordinary life to write about. I recalled reading his blog on how he slipped into his girlfriend Tai’s house at night. All that night-time adventures make juicy blog postings, but I was totally shocked when his girlfriend, Tai got pregnant. That truth was a little hard to swallow.

Imagine being a father only in your teens? That sounds almost nightmarish. Being Buddhists, abortion is totally out of the question, as it meant taking the life of an innocent person.

Eventually Gor and Tai got married in November 2003 when both were in their teens. And later he did blogged about his challenges of falling in love with Tai, and how Grace (the baby) came to the world…. It was simply euphoric….. Grace is now growing up to be a very cute girl!

Gor’s blog made a very strong impact in my life. Every time, I am in Bangkok, I would think of making the trip to Samut Prakan. It is not that far away from Bangkok, but the traffic jam along the Sukhumwit-Bangna Highway can be really bad and it may take hours just to reach Paknam.

Yet, earlier this year, I did make the trip to Samut Prakan. I visited Gor’s most photographed theme park, Muang Boran or Ancient City. Without doubt, it was the most beautiful park I have seen in my whole life.

I was there almost the whole day, admiring the beauty of Thai architecture, and the various architecture differences of Thailand. It was like a Mini Malaysia, but it was really huge, you need to cycle to get from one place to another.

Besides Muang Boran, I also visited the Phra Erawan Shrine near Paknam, but it was already too late to enter. All did was to offer my prayers to Phra Erawan, and perhaps in my next trip to Bangkok, I would perhaps visit Samut Prakan once more.

It has been a long time since Gor updated his happenings in his life. I wonder what’s new with him? I hope and pray that Gor is doing well in his life. Maybe, my next trip to Samut Prakan would be a chat over drinks with Gor, and perhaps even with Acharn Richard.

The other day, when I was with Steve and Jit, I watched some villagers making a large batch of khao tom mat ( ข้าวต้มมัด ).  This is basically sticky rice, bananas and black beans wrapped in banana leaves. This is then steamed though it could also be grilled. You may remember me talking about khanom thian before which is quite similar. Though that one uses sticky rice flour instead.

To make khao tom mat you first dissolve some sugar and salt in a pan of coconut milk. You then add the sticky rice and stir slowly over a low heat until the liquid has dissolved. Next you need to tear up some banana leaves into lengths of about 8 inches long. Spread some of the sticky rice mixture in the middle and then place a halved banana on top. Complete the sandwich with another layer of sticky rice and press in a few black beans. Tie up the banana leaves with a long strip of bamboo. You then place it in a steamer, like the one above, and steam for about an hour or so. The results will look like below. Delicious.

Finally, my final exam has ended.. I feel so happy although there'll be other exams to come but at least, one semester has finished.

As soon as my friends and I finished our exam, we planned to do something right away. Ice-cream at first and karaoke - our decision.

Songs after songs.. three hours passed~ "Whoa, time to go home and give mummy a kiss!" So I went to take the skytrain and caught a bus as usual.

"The bus' coming!!! Please stop in front of me because I need to sit, am so tired!!" I wished in my mind and guess what?! It really stopped in front of me.

When I stepped on the bus, "Oh my, lots of seats to sit! ~ This' great!"

There were lots of seats, unlike everyday (I always have to stand up all the way home), too many that I couldn't decide.. I walked and walked~ passed lots of available seats and at last..there!

I chose to sit next to the middle-aged lady ~ When I sat, "What the?!"

I found sticky corn stick to my butt - -" but despite that corn, the seat was still fine so i kept sitting there..then the lady next to me started..

She took out cotton but. I was surprised coz I never saw anyone have it with themselves everywhere before. She cleaned her ears ~ ~" Then she kept it in her bag again. "Good, you don't throw it away on the bus!"

Then the lady took of her shoes and put her feet against the seat in front of her - -" "Good that the smell didn't come out!"

A while later she raised her right arm and started to scratch her armpit so hard - -" "Good that she didn't plan to get rid of her hair there!"

- - She sat still for a while after that ~ and I looked through the window.. (Since I had nothing to look at except the cute guy on my right). Then she stared back at me! "Well, I never meant to look at you..I just wanted to check out the view!" So I began to stare at the floor instead after that.."Hope she's fine with it :p"

And then that lady.. tied her hair..so hard that sometimes it hit my face~ so I leant my head out of the seat .."BANG!!" One guy walked pass me and hit my head - -"

At that time, I really wished I could disappear ~ I waited and waited for some other seats to be free so that I could change ~ I felt like it had gone too far unlucky :p and finally that lady stood up.. it was time for her to get out of the bus ~ I gave her space to come out and "BANG!" her ass hit me - -"

As soon as she got off, I really thought I could see the real rainbow after a big big storm :p .. I was so happy ~ then I zonked out - - -

"Holiday finally arrives ... I'll go shopping, I'll go for movies.. I'll ..I'll"
!!! I woke up and again~! I found myself passing my stop - -" So I gotta catch another bus back home and it was so late.. it was almost 9pm already..

But at last, I could really be at home.. safely

What a day!!

Teochew people originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province, China. They arrived in Chon Buri and Samut Prakan, subsequently dispersing all over the country and form the largest Chinese dialect group in Thailand.

Today, many Teochew people have become successful businessmen, and leaders in the local communities and in government, for example, the owner of the famous Chang Beer in Thailand and many Thai ministers. It has even been said that a Cabinet meeting can be conducted almost entirely in Teochew!

Nowadays, many of the younger generation in Thailand have little to no exposure to their Teochew language and culture. Some have lost the connections to their roots or have forgotten how to speak the language. However, despite the fact that Teochew-Thai has adopted a Thai life style and culture, many Teochew cultural practices still survive, though declining, in contemporary Thailand. One of them is the Teochew opera.

Teochew opera comes to the little town of Betong in September each year, organized by the Teo Chew Association of Betong, to celebrate the anniversary of the association. Though not many people are really interested in the opera, it is the norm of the association to organize the Teachew opera as a yearly event.

The opera attracted mainly children who came to watch for fun, playing around and then left. As the stage was set up at a busy road, some passers by would be attracted to stop and watch for a few minutes. Hardly any audience would sit there to finish watching the whole opera.

The Teochew opera use traditional musical instruments like the cymbals, drums and other string instruments which I do not know the names. The performers have very elaborate make up and elaborate costumes with breath-taking sparkling sequins and chiffon cloths. The Teochew opera usually has some very interesting storyline based on the Chinese folklore. Many of the shows are very emotional and audiences have been known to weep openly as they watched. However, nowadays most of the audiences can’t follow the story lines!

The opera performers in Betong came from North-east of Thailand. They travelled around Thailand and even been invited to Malaysia to perform during special festival. At first, I was amazed by the Teochew people for preserving such opera arts so well. However, I was then told that in fact the opera performers themselves are not Teochew and do not know Teochew. Sometimes they don’t even know what they are singing about. They learned and memorized the opera act so diligently just as a means of living...

The opera show

The opera show/The innocent kids

The young audience/Watching attentively

Yesterday I was telling you about my visit to Bangkrachao in Samut Prakan. This is an area that, despite being so close to Bangkok, hasn’t been developed at all. Look at the satellite picture above. The northern side of the river is Bangkok. This is the busy port area of Klong Toey. On the southern side is nothing but palm trees and banana plants. You can clearly see the lake in the middle of Sri Nakhon Khuankun Park (bottom middle of picture). Steve and his wife Jit live just north of the park. From here we walked along a narrow path to the river. After about ten minutes of waking we came out at a private jetty. Steve told me that you ring the bell here and someone would dash out of a nearby house and jump into a boat. Normal cross-river passenger ferries would cost you only a few baht but this one costs 10 baht. Not bad when you consider that sometimes you are the only passenger.

Jit suggested that we hire the boat for a while and just explore up and down the river. I jumped at the chance. I love exploring rivers. She then proceeded to negotiate a price of 200 baht to go down the river about 3–4 kms and back again. The boatman agreed and we jumped into his long-tailed boat (the propeller is at the end of a long shaft). The first picture above shows you the view looking across to the high-raised buildings in Bangkok. The buildings the opposite direction were very different in comparison.

Here is one of the first examples. The little girl and her dog live on this floating house which goes up and down with the tide. Well, I hope it does as she will soon be flooded out at the next high tide!

This house on stilts is more typical. Notice the sala-like jetty where they can get into boats or just lie down in the shade. At dusk members of the household would go down the steps to take a bath and wash their hair. On the left is a lean-to for their boat. You can see that they have electricity because of the electrical pole in the water. Looks like they also get television. On some houses I saw red post boxes. I wonder if the postman approaches from the river or land. I suspect by the river is easier.

I took several hundred pictures on this boat trip. Too many to show here. I will finish with this last picture showing the wake being produced by a big container ship. Ironically the name of the ship is “Smooth Sea”. Luckily this ship was on the other side of the river as it could have given us a pretty rough ride.

I wish to thank Steve and Jit for showing me around their area. It was a wonderful day out.

A few months back, I told you about a visit I made to a unique area close to Bangkok that seemed to be stuck in time. A large loop in the Chao Phraya River and a shortcut canal has virtually made this area an island. Indeed you can only enter it by bridge or by boat. Despite its closeness to Bangkok (see picture above) the area has hardly been developed at all. There are still many isolated communities surrounded by palm trees and banana plantations. There are no high-raised buildings. There are no factories.  More importantly, 7–Eleven hasn’t arrived. Well, not yet. They are starting to creep in from the opening in the loop.

I had been meaning to go back to explore the area more thoroughly, so I was really excited last week to receive an invitation from Steve and his wife Jit to come and visit them in Bangkrachao. Steve has been a regular reader of our Thai Blogs for a while and he knew of my interest in this area. Steve and Jit are on a six month sabbatical from their work in Alaska. They have been building a house on her family’s property and it was now ready to move in. Their house borders the Sri Nakhon Khuankun Park which I visited last time. In the first picture, you can just make out the large green area of the park towards the top.

When I arrived at the park, I gave Steve a call as arranged. He told me to wait by the inner gate and not the one by the road. I was curious about this as I thought we were going to his house first. Then a few minutes later he came walking out of the park with his wife. Apparently there isn’t any road access to his community yet and they have to enter through the park. However, this is not such a bad thing. How many people do you know who have a large beautiful park on their doorstep? Not that they need it. As you can see in the picture above, their community, to the north of the park, is surrounded by palm trees and banana plantations. There are interesting and quiet walk along the narrow paths in just about every direction.

This picture shows one of the main paths through this community. Jit told me that there were about 50 families living here. Some houses were next door to each other and some were more isolated as they were surrounded by small banana plantations. Steve told me to be careful of falling coconuts. Outside one of the houses, a group of people were busy making some candy. Jit explained to me that the whole community had been helping for the last few days to make this dessert. They were planning on using the candy to make merit to mark the end of the Rains Retreat early next month. Jit introduced me to her uncle who was busy ripping open a coconut. She then introduced me to various other relations including her father. At this point I decided to ask her what percent of the villagers were related to her. She didn’t seem to understand my question. So I asked her, how many people in the community were related to her. She replied, everyone!

It was really nice having Jit show me around as she was very knowledgeable about what was going on. She told me that the chewy candy they were making was made from peanuts, popped corn, sesame seeds, sugar cane juice and plain white sugar. It tasted really nice. True to Thai tradition, as soon as I had said how good it was, she gave me a whole bag full! Nearby, a steamer was busy cooking another delicious dessert which I will tell you about another day! After a brief stop for a delicious meal, we then set off on foot to the local jetty to explore the river by boat. I will tell you about this trip in part two.

 

In the meantime, visit Steve's blogs:

http://wanderinginthailand.blogspot.com/

Nagas in Isaan

As the end of the rains retreat is approaching, I thought there is still enough time to organise a trip to Nong Khai district in Isaan if Naga fireballs happen to fire up your imagination and curiosity. When I was around two years ago, I opted for the festival in Luang Prabang on the same day – definitely no fireballs there, "just" thousands of krathongs and thirty-odd huge bamboo dragonboats, plus the best festival atmosphere I have ever witnessed, including the days of preparation in temple grounds and streets, meritmaking, chanting, and tens of thousands of candles everywhere. So I cannot give you an eyewitness's account of the fireballs, just clippings from articles on websites....

According to Isaan legends, the underwater kingdoms of the Naga extend to all the world's rivers, lakes, and seas. In addition to being the keeper of the force of life stored in the waters, the Naga is also guardian of corals, shells and pearls and thus carries one in its head. The early settlers of the Mekong River basin believed that the King of the Nagas is the God of an underwater kingdom called "Muang Badan" who watches over the people living in the Mekong basin. According to ancient folklore, the underwater city of Muang Badan stretches beyond the Mekong itself and covers the entire area beneath Nong Khai province, with its the capital city located near present-day Kaeng Aa-Hong, the deepest point in the Mekong River.

This ancient belief in the communities bordering the Mekong River is very much alive, and the eternal bond between Isaan people and the mythical Naga is present in the fabric of the local culture, traditions and way of life. The tradition of floating illuminated boats on the Mekong River is one such act of worshipping the King of Nagas.

Not just a legend....

On a more scientific note - on September 28, 1996, US military personnel captured a huge freshwater creature that was said to be a "Phaya Naga". The creature was sent to the United States for research, but it died a month later. It was the longest freshwater fish ever found on earth – 23 feet long. Its natural habitat is believed to be deep below the surface of the Mekong River. The features of the Phaya Naga resemble the elements that have been depicted in the sculptures in front of the temples in both Thailand and Laos. According to various account, the creature had "7 skin colours and light green blood".

I haven't found a photo of this particular "naga", but apparently American military has been very much into wildlife in the Mekong.... It's been difficult to find reliable information on the species, but this photo is from the army archives.
(Click on this link for the photo – it is quite big, originally two separate files that had to be "stuck together", it did not make sense sqeezing them into the space right here, so I uploaded the file into my personal blog. Worth checking out!)

"The elongated body of the Naga is symbolic of the rainbow that links the human and divine worlds."

Well, that wasn't quite my first thought on seeing it.... anyway....

Naga fireballs

Known as the "Bang Fai Phaya Naga", the King of Naga fire-balls is a natural phenomenon that generally takes place on the full moon night of the 11th lunar month, the last night of the Buddhist Lent, which falls on October 17 this year.

The fireballs emerge from the water of the Mekong river. They are the size of goose eggs, and float up to 50-300 metres before they vanish. The total number of fireballs varies with each location. On some occasions, there are as few as 22, on other nights, hundreds or thousands. Some rise in straight lines at an angle, others are perpendicular to the surface of the Mekong River.

According to Isaan folk belief, caverns along the banks in this section of the Mekong River are in fact gateways leading from the underground Naga world to our world. It is also believed that prompted by the festivities of the illuminated boats and the fireworks launched in an act of worship to celebrate the end of the Buddhist Lent, the mythical Nagas emerge via these gateways to join in on the celebrations to commemorate the home-coming of Lord Buddha in his historical life. These beliefs are renewed by the fact that greenish fireballs have been spotted around Kaeng Aa-hong, the deepest point in the Mekong River, and by the existence of the deep underwater caves that line the shores.

Lord Buddha rose to the Heavens to offer sermons to his mother during the rains retreat. On the final day of the Buddhist Lent, he returned to Earth. For the descent, there are three stairways from heaven - made of crystal, silver and gold respectively. As the story goes, the King of Naga fireballs rise into the night sky to form the steps of the stairs by which the Lord Buddha descends from heaven.

A comprehensive article on the TAT site about the festival:

http://www.tatnews.org/events/events/oct/2367.asp

In Malaysia, the Malays are the largest ethnic group, accounting for over half the population. With the oldest indigenous peoples they form a group called bumiputera, which translates as sons or princes of the soil.

Though Malaysia is a multi-cultural and multi-racial society, the Malays, are shown official favour in education and government policy. This bias is an effort to strengthen Malay society to enable it to compete intellectually and economically with the, to-date, more successful minority ethnic Chinese and Indian populations. They enjoyed a lot of privileges like university entrance quota, discounted price for property purchase, bank loans and so on. In addition, mosques are built everywhere to cater for their prayer needs. All hotels have to provide halal foods.

Traditional Malay culture centers around the kampung, or village, but today one is likely to find Malays in the business and in pubic sectors. Their native language is Bahasa Malayu (Malay), which is also the national language of the country and all school children have to learn. The school children also learn from the text books about the different customs, cultural values and religious beliefs of different races, including those of Malays, like Hari Puasa, Hari Raya Aildilfitri, Songkok, their prayers and so on.

Crossing the border, the “fate” of Malays are very different….

Chatting in front of a mosque in Betong/The shy Kampung boys

Malay women/The happy Malay students

Most Thai muslims are of Malay descent. Though more than 80% of the population in Southern Thailand is Malays, they are still considered to be minority in Thailand, which accounts for 8% of the total population.

Most of the muslims in Southern Thailand are farmers and fishermen who are generally less well-off than their fellow Muslims elsewhere in the country. The economy in this region is struggling and poor in comparison to the rest of the country. As a result, the Pattani lead a subsistence type lifestyle. In Narathiwat Province, the per capita monthly income is 2,120 baht ($51), less than half the national average, which is always among the country's poorest regions.

For centuries the Muslims of Thailand have to defend their identity as Malays with a culture and history of their own against successive Thai leaders who sought to transform them culturally into mainstream Thais…

Islamic organizations in Thailand have been lobbying Thai government to give them funding and build Islamic schools. The lately good news is that the 1600 “tadika” or Islamic religious schools predominantly in southern border region are likely to soon be under the care of the Education Ministry, instead of the Interior Ministry so that they can better serve the interests of Muslim villagers and help preserve their customs and cultures.

Few months ago, I had an opportunity to follow one of the royal representatives with the police and army officers to visit a Malay kampung in Yala provinve. The villagers were gathered to receive the gifts (daily consumables) and to voice their requests. Most of the attendants were elders. When I translated their request, I was a little shock that their main concern were as basic as water supply which had disturbed them for long time…

Part of a Malay Kampung

(Pictures only for better visual, not related to the kampung visited)

Our 4th week on Patong Beach saw us getting brown from the sun, sleepy-eyed from the Mekhong, barely knowing what day of the week it was.

Monsoon was going strong, we still bodysurfed daily, dodging the big logs & all in the warm, almost hot blue Andaman Sea.

Papaya, banana, pineapple, coconut, bbq'd fish, along with copious amounts of Milo, Mekhong, Greenspot and sometimes a Singha kept us over norished and content.

Samai chatted with us briefly one morning about a trip to Laos, as he gleefully said "we go in, we go out, nobody know"...he would guide us to the Golden Triangle where we could "have a good time", all we had to do was rent a car and go there...nevermind that we had no Visas for Laos, Cambodia or Burma, Samai would show us clever ways to get around those things. We smiled as we declined his adventurous invitation, but we'd seen Midnight Express and just figured our luck in the Land Of Smiles would not hold out forever...

We later found out that Samai had actually talked a Brit into the venture, the last we heard, they were caught doing something that ended their freedom for about 40 years!

This last week we had met several travellers and expats with tales of easy wealth and visions of a life where they knew most everything and had "connections". We drank with them all, listened to their stories of petty thievery to grand larceny, smuggling,etc. We suspected the worst and were most often glad we hadn't fallen for Easy Street, every place on the Globe had these same villians and hustlers, but greed and small amounts of magic mushrooms can fool even the strong mind into thinking they know best. We were most fortunate and didn't succumb. Others were'nt so lucky...

Later in the week we rented a really bad running and handling jeep and drove south to Kata and Kata Noi beach, driving over the many hills to Kathu, then the edge of Phuket town, past the big Wat at Chalong and over another steep hill to the vistas of Kata, a truly beautiful little bay south of the much longer beach at Karon.

We drove south from Kata to Kata Noi, the end of the road, atleast in those days, the most perfect horseshoe shaped bay on the face of the Earth!!! Kata Noi only had a few very small thatched huts on the side of the north hill/cliff and Lenas cafe at the foot of it.

Lena had the beauty of Thailand in her eyes, she'd once been married to a US Army soldier, but that was long ago, now she just fixed bbq'd fish and took things slowly by the bay.

We played in the water, had a good bbq lunch with Green Spot and headed back over the many steep hills trying to keep the lousy Jeep between the ditches back to the safety of Patong Beach. Our driver, Eric The Red, a wild Scotsman keep the Jeep going, but we had to get out a few times and push it up the steep hills.

Back in Patong, Eric quickly went to his bungalow and brought back a crock of whiskey from Old Scotland, his eyes had a bright sparkle as he mentioned that only 50 gallons of the stuff was bottled per year, he pours us all giant water glasses full of the golden dew from the Highlands and we succumbed to its influence quickly, Eric succumbed quicker than we, I sipped my grog, it must have been 100 proof, but Eric gulped his down and poured another big glass. After a short time, we left him ranting and raging about nothing and went over to the restaurant next door, we'd look over occassionally and see Eric and his girlfriend Michell screaming at each other, we had seen this comedy/drama over and over this last month by many of the visitors, we had some delicious crab curry and a few Greenspots, all was well in the world or atleast at Patong Beach, that is,,,until Mr Singh pulled the gun on Eric The Red and told him that he must leave the bungalow, he pulled the trigger, but fortunately for Eric The Red and the rest of us, Mr Singh had bought cheap ammo and it just made a small firecracker sound as the bullet barely crawled out of the pistol and fell on the ground.

This seemed to be about all that was needed to completely put Eric The Red over the deep end, his mad laughter seemed to go some place out behind the bungalows, towards the rice paddy and jungle as Eric The Red ran away. We saw him several days later, he had sweet talked his way into 7 Seas Bungalow just up the road, where they didn't care much what happened as long as the 30baht per day was paid...

This was our last day on Patong Beach, we smartly had learned a great deal and refused to take the Baht bus or even the speedy Express Bus back to Krung Thep, we paid the extra $30 over the bus fee and FLEW on a very modern JET and landed in BKK, immeadiately checking into the Siam Intercontinental Hotel where we stayed for several days, shopped in town,etc until our flight to Kathmandu that weekend.

Leaving Thailand was sad for us even on our first visit and would be each time we left the Kingdom, but we were young, greatly in love and knew there were better adventures around the bend.

We soon found out that from that first trip evermore, we would compare EVERY places we visited to Patong Beach!

Our honeymoon lasted about a year, we visited many places in Asia, SE Asia, South Pacific, Aussie, NZ, and had a most wonderful time, but Patong Beach burned a place in our hearts that never could be replaced!

We'd tell our friends/family about this mysterious and beautiful Land Of Smiles, but you could see the look in their eyes, they didn't really believe anything could be that good, they just knew we were lying....:-)

We stayed away from sunny Siam til the following March, where we returned, this time with a double entry 90 day Visa!

to be continued...

It all started with a salad. When you start seeing eyeball to eyeball with 40 plus years of living and eating you start putting on a few extra pounds, but in my case just a few mind you. Seriously!

Like most people I've reached a certain age where it's easier to put the ounds on than take them off, so much so that I decided I really needed to watch more carefully what I eat. Hence I've started eating salads a lot which are actually pretty good even though they would by no means be mistaken for Thai food. That being said let's keep my salad munching a secret 'k? I've got my reputation as an all-things-Thai fanatic to think about!

I needed a few things from the store to make my salad so it was off to the Safeway. This was Saturday night so of course the place was packed and it's a small store so there is not much room to move anyway. The lines at each register were very long. I took my time getting what I needed then browsed some more until the lines got shorter so I would not wait long to pay and get back home.

When I finally got in line a lady was in front of me with a shopping cart. We were in the '15 items or less' lane so I counted my selections twice to be sure I didn't go over the limit. I'm kinda weird on the consideration thing that way. I didn't notice how much the lady had but I did notice the cart. I remember another couple was in front of this lady but not 5 feet away in front of our register was the corral for putting your cart when your done with it.

Imagine my surprise when this lady finished emptying her cart then instead of holding onto it until the couple in front of us finished so she could return it she started backing it out of the check out lane, turned it around and pushed it over into one of the food isles! She actually went out of her way to push the cart FURTHER away into everyone elses way than if she just pushed the cart over to where it belonged! How rude and inconsiderate! She got back in line in front of me and I just stared at her for a minute.

I know it's not a Thai way to start a confrontation but I couldn't just let this go without saying something. I looked at her and said "You know that's not where that goes don't you" to which she just ignored me but looked like a kid busted her hand caught in the cookie jar. "Well?" I prodded but still she said nothing. She knew she was wrong but she blithely just paid for her stuff then left. I said something to the cashier about it and he replied 'oh she's a regular' like that makes it ok!

Maybe I'm just a naive country boy living in the big city too long but things like this really bug the crap out of me. Where are peoples manners? What about being considerate of others? Am I being too uptight or have things really gone down the toilet here as far as we treat people? Someone get me to Thailand! I knew I needed to get a grip but I griped about that ladies rudeness all the way home with my groceries. I WAS being too uptight and I needed some stress relief. I needed Mai bpen rai!

View It!

Well I am leaving in, can you guess? 3 and 1/2 weeks!!! I had to have surgery on my sinuses on Sept 9th and I am feeling quite well thank you but due to some meds I had to take before hand I have not been able to begin vaccinations. I am a little concerned, I wanted Typhoid, Hep A, Rabies, and tetanus at least. Most places recommend starting 4-6 weeks but due to mitigating circumstances I couldn't.
Also getting concerned about visas. I can't apply for a non-immigrant visa until I have a company to back me and I can't find a company to back me till I have a work visa, makes sense right? Hopefully they won't even ask and I will make a visa run when I have to. Still working on this conundrum, will let you know what happens.
SO far got the passport, tickets, booked a hotel for a week while I settle and look for work, have begun collecting amenities like adapters and light clothing, and got a great digital cam and laptop ready to go! Still have a bit to do but at least a few things are getting crossed off the list now.

With the increasing prices of consumables, due in part to rising oil prices,the Internal Trade Department under the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has started the Blue Flag Saving Price (ธงฟ้าราคาประหยัด ) campaign. Under the project, prices of various products, mainly basic commodities such as eggs, vegetables, fruit, rice, canned foods, chicken and other meat products will be discounted for the consumers.

According to the Ministry, more than one million people who have registered their poverty with the government can avail themselves of cheap goods that will be set aside for them at a special corner under the designated blue flag at participating stores.

Other than this, the Ministry also held series of Friday Blue Flag Market in various provincial districts in Southern Thailand. The objective of setting up such Friday markets in the deep South is to boost public confidence after the lately leaflet campaign by militants that scared many shop-owners into closing down on Fridays.

The Blue Flag market has been extended to Betong last Friday. The market featured various daily consumer products at prices lower than the prevailing market price. Many people from all around Betong come to grasp the opportunity of buying cheap. The market was filled with excitement, with a large number of people queuing up to buy the items, in which products such as rice, sugar, cooking oil and chicken eggs were sold out quickly. According to my survey, 5 KGs of rice sold at only 35Baht, 1KG of sugar at 12.50Baht and 30 eggs for 69Baht which were indeed very cheap!

The market was held at a school football field. A lot of soldiers were stationed surrounding the market to safeguard the security. Despite the recent case of the two killed armies, I felt no tension in the air…

The long queue under the bright sun

Goats at 200Baht per KG/Chat while waiting for wives

Fear of lag behind/Busy packing the sugar

Soldiers and the people

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

Southern Thailand has always been a favorite holiday getaway for Malaysians in search for good food, value-for-money shopping, and sometimes instant-love. Since January 2004, the Malaysian arrivals in Southern Thailand have slipped sharply. Today, hotels in Hat Yai, Thailand’s southern commercial capital, are almost empty of Malaysian tourists.

Reason: On Jan 4, 2004, a dozen religious fundamentalists raided a Thai armory, killed four Thai soldiers and torched 18 schools. That event marked the beginning of the Southern Fire (Fai Dtai ไฟใต้ ) , which to date, resulted in more than 1,000 people losing their lives. Why are innocent civilians and even Buddhist monks losing their lives?

I have always been very comfortable traveling in Southern Thailand, especially Hat Yai and Songkhla. Being able to speak Thai, I would always arranged for a rented-vehicle and a driver to move around the south.

I love visiting all the Buddhist Temples in Southern Thailand, such as the Wat Phra Phom, Wat Matchimawat, Wat Chiang Hai, Wat Hat Yai Nai and the Shrine of Chao Meh Lim Ko Neo. My last trip to Southern Thailand was in December 2003, and since then, I have not make a return visit. It is now almost too dangerous be an independent traveler in Southern Thailand.

I am shocked to read the latest accounts of last week’s brutal murder! I am surprised how two Thai Marines, Sub-Lieutenant Winai Nagabutr and Petty Officer Kamthorn Thong-iad, were brutally stabbed by masked men and ordinary villagers at Narathiwat’s Ban Tanyonglimo (Kampung Tanjung Lima).

What have driven ordinary Thai Muslims to have such strong hatred with their Thai Buddhist counterparts? Is this the work of a select few fundamentalist groups who have totally brain-washed the Thai Muslims? I am shocked to read the developments of terrorist groups in Southern Thailand. It is most frightening where religion is sometimes distorted to serve an invalid cause.

The majority of Thai Muslims are proud to be Thai. I recalled speaking to an elderly Southern Thai Muslim in early 1996. He said, ‘Thailand is our heart and soul. I am a Thai first, and a Muslim second. I am most proud that both my son and grandsons are in the army serving His Majesty King Bhumipol.’

What happened to people like this elderly Thai Muslim gentleman? I am sure the majority of Thai Muslims bear no hatred to the Thai Kingdom. They have utmost love and respect for King Bhumipol Adulyadej, Queen Sirikit and Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who all make regular visits to the southern provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.

In fact, the royal family’s palace, the Thaksin Ratchaniwet Palace is located in the deep south of Narathiwat. Their Majesties have spearheaded numerous economic projects to boost economic growth in the south. The Southern Fire has saddened Their Majesties that they have repeatedly called for reconciliation among the Southerners.

Historically, there is little argument or basis over Southern Thailand’s self-rule or independence. Since the early 18th century, Southern Thailand has been in firmed control from Bangkok. Unlike the Malay States of Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis; Patanni, Yala and Narathiwat do not have their own Malay Sultanates in the 19th century --- these provinces are controlled directly via governors sent by Bangkok.

I may not be the right person to comment on Southern Thai politics, as I am not a Thai by citizenship, but I would like to highlight my thoughts as a student of Thai History. Having researched clearly on Southern Thailand, there is no question of Thai suzerainty. Even international documents of the 19th century such as the Original Correspondence of the Far Eastern Department, Straits Settlements Original Correspondence, and the Dispatches from United States Ministers to Siam and others, have all proclaimed Siam’s suzerainty in Southern Thailand.

The current Southern Fire should not be a question of political suzerainty, but how Bangkok can win the hearts and souls of the Southern Thai Muslims. Without doubt, it is time for Bangkok to come down hard on the troublemakers, but it should do this without alienating the majority of Muslim citizens.

As days becomes months and now even years, the economic conditions of Southern Thailand have worsens considerably. These days, both Thai Buddhists and Thai Muslims cannot even walk out of their homes without worrying for their lives. Are the Southern Thais paying too-high-a-price for the Southern Fire? When can peace and tranquility return to South Thailand?

I was quite excited recently to see three new food shops that had opened near my house. That kind of thing doesn’t happen that often. I had been watching this row of shophouses being built and then one by one each owner opened a food shop. At the moment there are three in a row. The ones on either side sell noodles. Nothing exciting about that because there are noodle shops everywhere. However, the middle one had a sign saying “gaeng gup khao” meaning curry with rice. I love curries. (You probably know that already.) The food shop opposite where I live sells curries and soup for take-away. It only costs 15 baht each but they are quite often disappointing. The meat is often miniscule or just bony. If I buy there I have to add my own meat.

So, this morning I set off down the road to investigate what curries they had for sale. I wasn’t disappointed. They had a really nice selection. The sign said 20 baht for one dish with rice and 25 baht for two. Very reasonable. I chose a curry and a chicken dish and indicated that I wanted to take it home by saying in Thai “sai toong” ( ใส่ถุง ). This literally means put in a bag. However, many people say “sai haw” ( ใส่ ห่อ )for when they want take-away. This means wrap in banana leaves which they used to do a lot in the olden days. Even though plastic bags and foam boxes are used more often today, people still stick to the old words. Thee two big bags cost me 45 baht baht. More expensive than the other shop, but just take a look at the picture below and you can see I got value for money. Aroy!

The dish I got was called stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts or gai pat met mamuang himmapaan ( ไก่ผัดเม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์ ) in Thai. Actually they didn’t have cashew nuts which would have made it a bit more expensive. So they substituted with normal nuts. They also added tomatoes which gave it a kind of sauce and sheen that dry versions don’t usually have.

This dish is quite easy to cook. As usual, I won’t give you the amounts because Thai people don’t usually measure anything. Fry some garlic in a pan until golden brown. Then add the finely sliced chicken and cook until ready. Add the onion, cashew nuts, fried dried chilis and spring onion. Stir well. Season with fish sauce, dark soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Garnish with some coriander and fresh red chili.

This is really delicious. I often order this dish when I go to restaurants to eat with friends.

Link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2005/09/24/opinion/index.php?news=opinion_18696896.html

Our guest writer Nal posted a question a while back on what constitute Thainess. Well, the recent Miss Thailand World shananigan brought up the topic again at the Nation:

"Defining this thing called ‘Thainess'".

Back in the 1996, "Cindy" Sirinya Vinsiri won Miss Thailand World title. She doesn't look Thai at all. I mean, the girl's eyes are green...or was it blue...or grey?. Doesn't matter. They ain't "black eyes". But she's born and raised in Thailand. Obviously she speaks, reads, and writes Thai. Take away her looks and she's as Thai as, well, yours truly. (May be I'm even less "Thai" that she is with my opinionated big mouth. I don't know her personally so I can only assume. Hehe.)

But seriously. What is a Thai? The article asks a lot of questions on that and it is indeed a subject to be explored.

I'm considered myself all Thai, but is my being "liberal/progressive" make me an American or less of a Thai? Is a Thai-Australian, raised in Australia, who could barely speaks Thai but won Miss Thailand World pageant Thai enough? Why is Tiger Woods considered Thai to us even though he counts himself more of African-American? Is Thai born and raised who has premarital sex and lives with a boyfriend Thai? Is Wit a Thai since he speaks Thai and loves the country? Could Master Bruce of Fong Naam be considered Thai because he pretty much is one?

A thought provoking Friday read, indeed. Now, back to work for me. :)

Whenever you hear the word “Siamese” most people will think of either “Siamese cats” or the “Siamese twins”. However, not everyone would associate that word with Thailand straight away. But, this is where they both originated. Today I want to give you an extract from a book called Children of Thailand, published by The National Identity Board. It tells you the story of the famous Siamese Twins.

The Siamese Twins

Undoubtedly the most famous of all Thai children, at least as far as the Western world is concerned, were the original Siamese twins, who in the 19th century became celebrities throughout America and most of Europe.

Born in 1811 to a hard-working peasant family, the twins were discovered one afternoon in 1824 by an English trader named Robert Hunter, then living on the river in Bangkok. "His eye was caught by a strange object moving through the water," says one account by the American missionary, Dan Beach Bradley. "It was a creature that appeared to have two heads, four arms and four legs, all of which were moving in perfect harmony. As Mr. Hunter watched, the object climbed into a nearby boat, and to his amazement he realized that he had been looking at two small boys who were joined together at the chest".

Hunter saw the commercial possibilities of exhibiting Eng and Chang, as the twins were named, and eventually persuaded both their mother and the Thai authorities to let them be taken abroad. They left on April 1, 1829 and never returned to their native land, though it was because of them that millions of Westerners first learned of the distant kingdom known as Siam.

Over the next 45 years the boys traveled extensively, appearing before enthusiastic crowds under various management, including that of the great showman P.T. Barnum. During this time they learned to speak and write English fluently and generally impressed all who met them with their charm and intelligence, not to mention the extraordinary co-ordination with which they performed athletic tricks. Medical studies were made, and several proposals were made to sever the thick band of flesh that joined them, but these were never attempted because of the unknown dangers involved.

The twins eventually became American citizens and, settling in North Carolina, married two sisters, Sarah and Adelaide Yates. The unconventional marriages were, by all accounts, happy; Chang and Adelaide had ten children in all, while Eng and Sarah had twelve. They lived in separate houses, a mile apart, and for 25 years alternated between the two, with the twins spending three days at each.

Chang developed severe bronchitis in January of 1874 and died five days later. Eng succumbed a few hours afterwards, before a planned operation to separate the twins could be performed. They were buried in the Baptist cemetery in White Plains, North Carolina, later to be joined there by their wives. One source estimates that the twins have about a thousand descendants still living in the United States, some of them in the same district where Eng and Chang spent their last years.

At the time the Siamese twins died, it was generally agreed that any attempt to separate them would have been fatal. Today, thanks to advanced medical knowledge, it would probably be possible; several Siamese twins have been separated in Bangkok and they are now enjoying normal lives.

A few years back I visited their birth place in  Samut Songkhram. About 4 kms out from the city center you can find this statue of the twins and a small museum. At the time I was there it was being renovated. Maybe it is finished now. I  have been wanting to visit this area again for some time. Maybe I should go down there during the October school holidays. Of course I will take along my Thai edition of “Unseen Thailand”. I will let you know later what I find.

The following extract comes from a remarkable book called "A King of Siam Speaks" by M.R. Seni Pramoj and M.R. Kukrit Pramoj. It contains many letters written by King Rama IV. Some of which he wrote himself in English. This king is known throughout the World as King Mongkut. He was made famous by the Broadway musical "The King and I".

When King Mongkut left the priesthood to take up the duties of kingship, he had to resume a life which he had once forsaken. It was a contrast in extremes, for the King went straight from his monastic cell to the Inner Palace or the Harem. The once celibate priest was now required to have as many wives and children as possible, for such practice was then regarded as being necessary for the honour and dignity of the Sovereign. During 17 years on the throne, Mongkut had 82 children. This, after 26 years spent in the monastery, was no mean feat.

The Inner Palace where the King took up residence was a veritable city of women, wherein no other males above the age of eleven were allowed, except on very special occasions when they were given permission to enter, accompanied by a number of muscular amazons who guarded the palace. In this palace lived the princesses of the blood, the ladies of the harem, and all their slaves and attendants. The administration of this city was in the hands of highranking lady officials of lower ranks, women who performed the duties of clerks and treasurers together with members of the guard of the amazons and women menials. The Siamese harem was different from other oriental harems in one respect: no eunuch had ever been known to be in employment. New members were given to the King or to the princesses by willing parents or relatives; others came of their own accord with the hope for royal favour or employment inside the palace. Young girls from noble and rich families were usually sent to the palace for a duration of time before they became marriageable, for the palace was the only place where they could be properly educated and obtain all the accomplishments and polish that were required of Siamese ladies of high birth.

King Rama IV and his son Prince Chulalongkorn (Rama V)

All these women were called "Nang Nai" or ladies of the Inner Palace, but only the royal wives and concubines and princesses of the blood were regarded as "Nang Harm" or the forbidden ladies. These latter were not allowed to marry except by the King's special permission, which was rarely granted. They were not allowed to be looked upon by any other male with the exception of the King himself. It is curious to note that nowhere else in the kingdom was the purdah practised but only inside the Royal Court and at the court of the Second King or the Heir to the Throne. King Mongkut was the first Siamese monarch to break this age-old custom by issuing a proclamation permitting those ladies to resign, though it must be said that the characters he gave to those who did actually resign were not as brilliant as they might have been.

Although the King of Siam held the Supreme Power in the Kingdom in which his commands were sacred and must be obeyed, his daily life inside the palace had to follow a routine prescribed by the palatine laws which had been handed down from the remote past. The daily routine of the King's life according to the law was as follows:

7 a.m. The King rose from bed.
8 a.m. He partook of a light repast consisting of rice gruel
9 a.m. He gave audience to the officers of the Royal Guards
10 a.m. He took his morning meal and retired again to bed
11 a.m. The ladies of the palace attended him
1 p.m. He went out on an excursion
2 p.m. He gave audience to his children and members of the Royal family
3 p.m. He presided over a council of his ministers and the high officers of the Realm and gave his decisions on affairs of state.
4 p.m. He went on an excursion
5 p.m. He went to the Royal Chapel
6 p.m. He decided on the affairs of the Palace
7 p.m. He studied the Art of War
8 p.m. He studied Politics
9 p.m. A meal was served to the King
10 p.m. He conferred with astrologers and pundits and discussed with them Religion and Philosophy
midnight Musicians and singers were brought before the King
1 a.m. Storytellers were brought before the King
2 or 3 a.m. The King retired to bed

This then was roughly the daily routine of private life which King Mongkut had to follow. It was known, however, that he preferred the company of his ministers to that of astrologers and pundits at night, when he would discuss official business with them. Instead of music and minstrelsy at midnight the King usually called for his secretary, pen and paper, whereby he would continue with his writing far into the next morning. With such a life and responsibilities, with so vast a conglomeration of women surrounding him, not counting the large number of his own children, and in spite of the complete lack of privacy in all things, King Mongkut succeeded, where men of lower calibre would have failed, in establishing some sort of intimate family feelings between himself and his numerous wives and children. Although his wives were never allowed to forget that he was their Supreme Lord of Life, they very often caught glimpses of his true love and tenderness. The letters he wrote to some of his wives were full of as much affection and kindness as any ordinary man could feel towards those dear and near to him.

Miss Komalwan taught us Thai language, in addition to her assigned segment of the management course. While teaching Thai, she took care to see that all the students enjoyed the classes. In order to prevent a pupil from switching off, she would ask questions very frequently. Once in a class I was asked to come up with a Thai word. Since I had to respond quickly, I came up with the word 'Sanuk'. In retrospect, I feel I should have come up with a full sentence.

While teaching a language, a good teacher often takes recourse to the cultural and historical context of the language. Miss. Komalwan had a deep understanding of Thai culture and history. She once presented us new archaeological findings indicating that in Thailand, very ancient human settlements had been flourishing.

She had also been our friend, philosopher and guide. Often in our trips outside, she would accompany us and as is normal with a lady, she would take care to see that we all ate well. I do not know what Komalwan means in Thai, but to me it seems that she was as perfect as a lotus.

On a cultural evening, she organised a food competition in which participants from Japan, South Korea,China, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Srilanka participated. She had cooked a very large container of fish with lots of gravy. After so many years, I still remember the smell of lemon grass and Kafir Lime leaves.

(1) Do not take off a ring from someone else's finger because you will be taking away the people they love.
(2) Do not spit in the toilet because you will have a mole on your lips.
(3) Do not spit towards the sky because it is a sin.
(4) Do not pluck your eyebrows during the evening because bad things will happen to you.
(5) Do not plough on holy days because the rice won't grow.
(6) Do not say to a baby that they are cute because the ghost will come and take the baby away.
(7) Do not break anything on your wedding day because it is a sign that your marriage won't last.
(8) Do not drop chopsticks during the Chinese New Year because you won't make a good living.
(9) Do not let a woman sit on a staricase for a long time because she will have a difficult labour.
(10) Do not sit higher than a monk because it is a sin.
(11) Do not sit on the big water jars because it is a sin.
(12) Do not sit on pillows meant for your head because you will get a painful rash on your behind.
(13) Do not count off the names of people that have died because you will be next.
(14) Do not keep anything belonging to the temple inside your house because a disaster will happen to you.
(15) Do not offer the same food to your dead ancestors and to the monks because you will then rot in hell.

“TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both …..”

Sawasdee Krab!

Robert Frost, my favorite American poet in high school. Also my favorite poem, 'The Road Not Taken', the perfect title and beginning of this weeks Thai 'fanatical' tale. Yesterday while knocking about and browsing the shops in my neighborhood I unexpectedly stumbled onto my blog for this week.

For days I had thought about, half written in my head, reviewed and discarded several ideas for my latest but nothing seemed to fit! For one reason or another several ideas were good (in my humble opinion) but could not be written yet because of timing. Trust me on this that timing always works best for me. One idea however kept coming back to me and had for several months but up until now I felt it was the one blog I could never write without giving Richard and some readers a heart attack!

Still the more I thought about it the more I saw a challenge to tell my tale without causing cardiac arrest. So what was this great but terrifying blog about? Nothing less than the true story of how Wit first met Thailand.

As an 'out' Thai Fanatic I run into the usual questions a lot. Someone sees the book about Thailand I am reading on the train and is curious. Someone at the coffee shop notices the strange language I am writing notes in and asks me what it is. A co worker stops by my desk and notices the Muay Thai background on my computer or the Suriyo Thai poster on my wall. Thus begins a short discussion about Thailand before they ask the usual questions.

Someone: "When (or how long) were you in Thailand?"
Wit: "Uhm, actually I have never been there before."
Someone again: *Curious pause* "Oh, so why do you like Thailand so much?"
Wit: "Well I like Thailand because (insert what pops in my head that I like about Thailand at the moment) ....."

Sometimes though someone will ask THE QUESTION which is not really why I became so into Thailand but HOW. Ah yes, theres a story for you but usually for time, and to protect the innocent, I brush over the question with a heavily censored Readers Digest version and let the subject drop.

Still I am the type of person that mai chop go hok (don't like to tell a lie) even when it's probably the best thing to do in a situation. I've wanted to tell the truth about how I found Thailand for awhile but for a long time felt that was a secret to be kept, well secret! Plus I just wasn't sure how to do it anyway I mean how do you tell a secret? You whisper it of course! So if it helps you dear reader as you embark on the rest of this missive just pretend I am whispering my secret in your ear.

I have a feeling that this blog will undoubtedly be controversial with some folks on here and for that I do apologize in advance. All I ask is just hear me out before you want to run my tail out of Thai Blogs on a rail!

View It!

Betong is a small town located in a valley surrounded by forests and rubber plantations. From September onwards, the weather gets rainy and cool during night time.

Betong is also known as “ town of swallows” . In the evening from September to end of the year, visitors will be amazed with flocks of swallows flying around the clock tower, which is the city landmark and the city center. It has become one of the remarkable symbols of Betong.

Look at the picture carefully, the dark shadows in the sky are the flocks of swallows flying around.

Like other birds, the swallows migrate to the warmer South during winter. Hundreds of thousands of swallows from Siberia migrate here every year to perch on the city's rooftops and weigh down the electricity cables. Years ago, Japanese bird specialists were stationed here for several consecutive years to do research on the swallows. They confirmed that the swallows were coming from as far away as Siberia.

I didn’t quite like the migratory birds initially in Betong because I had had a few “shit” experiences. Later as I found out from the books about the birds, I started to admire and tolerate with them.

According to a study, some of the Europe’s swallows head for southern Africa to escape the harsh winters of the northern hemisphere, covering about 11,000 km. The journey is particularly dangerous because they have to cross the vast Sahara Desert to reach their destination. The chances of both the members of a pair getting there and coming back safely are only about 20 per cent. By desert crossing these birds become so highly exhausted that they do not even try to fly away when anybody picks them up.

The swallows in Betong too have gone through a lot of hardship to arrive here. Just like myself, who crossed over the ocean and national boundary to pursue my life ambitions here too… :)!

Every morning, there will be lots of shits on the ground around the tower roundabout, and those parking spaces under the electricity cables, which are in fact very unhygienic. However, thanks to the municipality for washing the roads every day!

For the Malaysian tourists who come here to enjoy night life and women, the next morning when they go to get their cars parked under the electricity cables, it is not surprising to hear “oh shits” here and “oh shits” there! :)!

Swallows perching on the electricity cables.

The swallow nests.

Erawan Waterfall in Kanchanaburi

Hello folks. My apology for the long absense. I've been battling an eye inflammatory all week (looong story-see my personal blog), and my brand new video card has just arrived yesterday.

So, without further adieu, here's the final installment of the 99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand List from Thai Airways' Sawasdee Magazine.

[ Part I ] [ Part II ] [ Part III ] [ Part IV ]

81. Dusk at the Temple of Dawn :: Ironically, the best visul for Wat Arun, as known by Thais, isn't at dawn but at dusk, as the sun sets behind the temple if you're looking at it from Chao Phraya river. The temple was built in 1767 by King Taksin when he moved the capital from Ayutthaya down to Thonburi.

82. Skytrain and Subway :: The best way to get around the Big Mango and enjoy the view. The subway is possibly the best way to get you to Jatujak market (#59) from the middle of the city.

83. Southern Fried Chicken :: HFC = Hat Yai Fried Chicken. On the streets of the southern town of Hat Yai, Muslim-style crispy deliciousness is served up with crisp-fried shallots and sticky rice.

84. Secret Beaches :: Sawaddee Magazine wasn't about to "out" the hidden gems, but it did drop some hints. Rent a car and head to Pranburi, south of Hua Hin, and keep heading south along the eastern coastline of Prachuap Khiri Khan until you get to Chumphon. Recommended stop is at Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park which is only busy on the weekend.

85. Bangkok International Film Festival :: One of Oliver Stone's favorite festivals--I guess, he's ALWAYS here for it, isn't he? February 17-27, 2006.

86. Scuba Diving :: Day trip, schmay trip! You're in Thailand! Take a dive cruise on a dive boat where you can wake up and dive, have lunch and dive, and dive before you go to bed.

87. Thai Puppets :: The Joe Louis Theater is the world’s only example of Hun Lakorn Lek, traditional Thai puppets.

88. Nigh markets :: From food to souvenirs. Block after block for Hua Hin’s market, and the lively Lumpini Park night market in Bangkok is pretty kickin’ too.

89. Preah Vihear Temple :: The best Khmer site outside of Angkor Wat perches atop a cliff straddling Thai-Cambodia border, accessible only from the north. From the Thai side, a hike up steep stone stairways leads up to the temple originally built as a Hindu temple during the 11th-13th centuries.

90. South seas :: I don’t even have to explain, do I?

91. Pad Thai : Sawasdee Magazine recommends a hunt for the best Pad Thai every town you visit!

92. National Parks :: Elephants, tigers, waterfalls, mosquitoes the size of chicken, oh my! Nearest and dearest to Bangkokians, Khao Yai. Caving in Khao Sam Roi Yot. Hanging out at the lake at Khao Sok. ThaiParks123.com will get you there.

93. Soi Thonglor (Sukumvit 55) :: Restaurants and bars come in and out of business, and what’s hip today may not be next month! Cruise down this trend setting street to see what’s hot.

94. Thai Massage :: Snap. Crackle. Pop. Ahhhh. There are many places in the city where you can get this millennia-old art of traditional massage. But for a very traditional feel, I’d recommend the massage school at Wat Pho. The line usually isn’t that long, and even if it is you can go walk around and check out the temple. And epeaking from experience here, make sure you have a second appointment with your Thai massage therapist 2 days after your first one. Thai massage is a combination of stretches and pressure points. Although you’d feel relaxed and refreshed right after, the next day you may be a little sore, almost like you’ve been working out. So, get your therapist back to knead out those kinks and you’ll feel like a million bucks for the rest of your trip!

95. Pak Klong Talaat - Flower Market :: The floral market of Bangkok blooms from dusk till dawn. Also, around the corner from the flower market, there’s a night bazaar/flea market for bargain hunters—secondhand clothing, works of art and fashion design students, and other funky offbeat items. We drove by the area one evening on accident as my dad took a wrong turn, showing us the King’s Birthday city lights.

96. Waterfalls of Karnchanaburi :: In Thailand’s wild west, day-trippers enjoy at least a dozen waterfalls along the highway leading to the outpost Thong Pha Phoom. To name a few, the legendary Sai Yok waterfalls, small wonder of Krung Kavia, or the rocky Thung Nang Kruan.

97. Ayutthaya by Boat :: Many different packages to visit the marvelous ancient city from an affordable taxi up and down the river, to 3-day cruise on a luxuriously converted rice barge. I believe my mom said that the Oriental has a day-trip package of bussing up and boating back on a dinner boat. Brandon and I wanted to do that last year, but we ended up getting driven up with an Aunty instead. Still, a lot of adventures.

98. Hotel Buffets :: Thais. Love. To eat. And the hotels know that. Sawasdee Magazine talks about the Sunday brunches. Sunday mornings, many hotels offer international buffets that starts off with breakfast and ends with lunch. From cereal to build-your-own-eggs and build-your-own-boil rice stations, to oysters on half-shells to whatever noodles soup you’d like to carved roast beef. Hit up the Four Seasons for foie gras and vodka cocktails, or the Sheraton Grande for jazz. Of course, for the budget travelers, smaller hotels do offer more affordable pricing but still with a great menu. I'd also like to add the fact that the buffets usually are available any day for any meal.

99. Different time. Different trip :: As you are leaving the kingdom, you KNOW it’ll be a whole different trip when you come back next time!

That’s all from this series, folks! Thank you for your input and comments.

For my next trick, I’m going to recount my travelogues from my last few visits home. A few years ago, it was just me going home to visit. The trip was a lot different that when I took Brandon with me last year. So, it’s all things local v.s. all things tourist. I may be absent for a while to let my eyes completely healed (as I am now blind as a bat again as medication runs out of steam). But do not fear, the OakMonster shall return soon!

It’s been a while since I blogged but if you’re wondering about the title, it’s not about a match or anything. Well, not sports wise anyway, but the Thai way versus the Farang way of living and doing things in my family.

There’s the Thai side (my mom and me) and there’s the Farang side (my dad and brother). Often there happen to be clashes and sides tend to switch a lot.

For example, when it comes to food, my mother needs rice with most of her meals. In fact, she could eat rice with almost anything but without; she doesn’t enjoy eating anything meal-wise on its own. For my dad and brother, while they do like eating Thai food occasionally, they could not solely eat it everyday, they just like other (mostly Western) foods more. In my case, I could eat either, but I find that Asian food is much more interesting and delicious and possibly healthier even but considering that we live in the West, we pretty much tend to eat Western foods. I try and opt for Asian though.

So, Thais = 2, Farangs = 2

When it comes to religion, my mother is Buddhist, like most Thais, and she prays most ever other night and does Tawai Aaharn Phra (ถวายอาหารพระ) which is giving daily food offerings to the Buddha. While, my father is a non-practicing Lutheran (and my brother and me are supposedly also), I’d have to say that I’d consider myself more of a Buddhist believer and I practice like once in a while since I’m still learning about it.

So, Thais = 2, Farangs = 2

When it comes to temple visits, it’s always my mother and I that are keen to make the effort and go. No reason for it, it’s just what we do and like to do. My brother and dad, unfortunately, aren’t as interested unless my mother asks them to come also. Despite them not joining in, I think it isn’t too bad as long as they leave us to do what we want at Thai events.

Thais = 2, Farangs = 2

So, the score is pretty much even 6 -6 considering that those are just some examples of how the Thai ways and Farang ways tend to mix in my family.

Nagas in Cambodia

In Cambodian legends, the Nagas are a reptilian race who had a large empire in the Pacific Ocean region. The Naga King's daughter married the king of Ancient Cambodia, and gave rise to the Cambodian people. This is why, still, today, Cambodians say that they are "Born from the Naga". The Seven-Headed Naga serpents depicted as statues on Cambodian temples apparently represent the 7 races within Naga society, which has a symbolic association with "the seven colours of the rainbow". Cambodian Nagas also possess numerological symbolism in the number of their heads. Odd-headed Naga symbolise male energy, infinity, timelessness, and immortality. This is because, numerologically, all odd numbers come from One.

Even-headed Nagas are said to be female, representing physicality, mortality, temporality, and the earth – I haven't come across any of this kind browsing the net.
(I'm wondering whether the English words "odd" and "even" reflect an opposite perception of how many is odd and what is even in the world?)

Originally, Nagas came to Cambodia from India, together with Hindu religion, philosophy, legends and architecture. Naga cult is still part of Indian culture, and has even found its way into the Muslim communities in Kashmir. In Thailand, the Naga is usually depicted as a large crested serpent. However, at Angkor, the Naga loses its crest in favor of a more ominous multi-headed appearance reminiscent of the Hydra from Greek mythology. When visiting Angkor, the outer gates are flanked by seven-headed Naga serpents leading to the central temple complex.

Many fantastic abilities are attributed to the Naga, including the power to shape shift into human form and walk among man. (One of the questions at the ordination of monks inquires whether the applicant is human, just to make sure its not a sneaky serpent in disguise.) Buddhist scriptures describe a variety of killing methods available to the Naga, including a fatal poisonous bite, the strength to constrict its victims within its deadly coils, and the ability to spit a paralyzing venom.
What could be the trick of this one?!

Most ominous of all, the Naga is said to be able to kill simply by staring into the eyes of its victims. – I can fully believe that looking into these eyes!

- the last bit will be about Nagas in Isaan, including those fireballs -

One of my favourite hawker food snacks are the fried quail eggs. You don't always see them around. When I do I usually go straight for them. It costs about 10 baht for a tray. The vendor sprinkles some soy sauce on top and black pepper. You will notice on the picture below that she uses the same hot plate as for khanom krok.

By our 3rd glorious week in Old Patong, we had become extremely lackidazical. Often sleeping til 10am, the long all night parties giving us sweet dreams of pounding surf, folk songs, and bbq'd fish. We had it made!

During lunch at Chi-ans hut, we heard that Guitar Noi played every evening at the big Patong Beach Hotel. We all planned a trip there this evening.

As we walked into the hotel bar area, Noi was behind the big organ he played so masterfully, as soon as he saw me, he changed the tune to his rendishion of Neil Youngs Southern Man[Noi knew I was from Tennessee and he always referred to me as "Southern Man"], Noi asked me to join him on the stage and sing the song, we did our best and the crowd there gave us kind applause.

We sing and partied til the place closed around 10pm, this was still very early for all of us, so some of us went back 100meters to Nois hut, but Patty & I were sure that Cobras would bite us at every bush and step, so we bid all farewell and returned to our bungalow.

The next morning, Margaret & Chi-an told us of the fun they had at Nois hut, he played guitar all night long as they all sang, and Nois pretty wife Lek cooked fresh picked cashews and wok'd them!

Later in the day, we met a couple from South Africa, yawhtees, they had a Land Rover and offered to take us into town to see a movie, if we paid for the fuel. I had not left Patong Beach for 3wks and it was nice to see some of the island and a movie in town.

Can't remember what the movie was, some gringo action flick,but I do remember at the end of the movie we all stood while a Thai patriotic song played and pictures of the Royal Family were shown. I noticed a policeman looking inside our "english language" room to make sure we all stood. It was an honor to pay respect to the Royal Family, we had heard the King had been born in Cambrige,Ma and we were happy with this knowledge!

Returning to Patong was nice, we had to wear long pants, shoes, socks and long shirts in town, as we wanted to be viewed as not just "backpackers", but kindly by the locals, we meant no ill manners and always dressed if we left the beach, but..at the beach, we wore only bikinis, singlets, and a smile!

By now, it was near early July, we bought a mess of fireworks for our own 4th of July party. I still grin when I remember one of our Kangaroo pals just staring glassy eyed at the long sting of big firecrackers he'd just let and was holding on too! I quickly jerked them from his hand as the fuse was about to ignite the little bombs, they blew up inside a restaurant and a policeman came running up quickly, thinking a communist was shooting things up!

He asked us not to explode anymore firecrackers til Chinese New Year, but the goofy Aussie immeadiately let off another long stringer,but the policeman felt in a kindly mood because he knew most of the crowd was at a party and inebriated greatly.

He smiled and told us that we if didn't want to end up in "Baan Ling", we had better listen...we did!

The party broke up around daybreak,we all rambled and stumbled to our bungalows. Another perfect day in Old Patong...

The next morning at about 7am, Samai, the waiter at the restaurant came by to take us to James Bond Island, I had completely forgotten we booked a tour there, but it was much too early and we just told him, maybe tomorrow.

Well, to put a long story short, tomorrow never came, we never got up that early or would agree too, so we never saw James Bond Island. One of the tourist we met later that week told us we hadn't missed much at James Bond Island, they picked his group up at the big hotel at 7am, a long bumpy van journey to PhangNa, then an even longer, louder long-tail boat ride to the fabled island. Once there, there was little more than the promised seafood meal and some trinket sellers and then back on the ever noisy no muffered long-tailed boat back to PhangNa, then the journey back to Patong, all the tourists were dead tired by then...so, nothing ventured, nothing gained...oh well

I didn't see "The Man With The Golden Gun" until years later to understand what James Bond Island was really all about.

We did noticed that the numbers "007" were fastooned to most motorbikes and trucks at the time!

too be continued...

For you!

Thailand is home to a large variety of delicious fruits, seasonal such as durian, rambutan, mangosteen, longan, lychee etc. and all-year-round, such as papaya, guava, coconut, orange, banana, pineapple etc. In Betong, among the popular native fruits are orange, durian, rambutan, mangosteen and longkong.

Due to too many orchards and the overwhelming supply of fruits like durian, rambutan, longkong and mangosteen, the price has gone down tremendously. Furthermore, the safety concerns in Southern Thailand had caused a big slide in sales. To help the farmers in Southern Thailand, the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry had decided to buy the fruits like longkong, at certain guaranteed prices, depending on its quality.

The municipality of Betong had also arranged a meeting between the local orchard owners and a cooperative under the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority of Malaysia, hoping to learn from their experience and to open the door for fruits export and re-export. Though nothing solid had been arrived, the meeting was a fruitful start to exchange information and ideas.

The meeting

Last year I was too busy to “enjoy” the fruits seasons, so this year I decided to have a suburb drive. I was so excited to see so many different kinds of fruits so near to me, along both sides of roads. A lot of fruits were already ripen but the owners just let them be because cost of labor collecting out weighted the sales value. I wished I could fill up my car with fruits and drive back to Kuala Lumpur for my friends!

The fruits

I also visited one of the former communist leaders in the communist village. Though it was the first time I visited them, his son and grandchildren were so friendly and eager to show me their orchard just behind their house. There were durian, mangosteen, longkong and rambutan. The kids were so excited to show me around the different kinds of fruits. We just pluck and enjoyed the fruits right there.

Their simplicity and happiness impressed me and their smiles have infected and warmed my heart… Look at the pictures, hope it does the same to you too! :)

This article is written for them!

September, here in Thailand is usually a rather wet time of the year but this year, takes-the-biscuit. With the arrival of some typhoon from the South China Sea everywhere north of Bangkok has been inundated with monstrous rain for the past couple of days. For the first time ever in Thailand I was on the receiving end of a brutally heavy down-pour that went on for 36 hours non-stop. In fact, the world weather has been so freaky over the past year, that after watching ‘War of the Worlds’ I’m starting to get a little suspicious that our able-bodied green little friends from the planet ‘Starbucksy’ could well be involved.

Well, the only folks enjoying the rain yesterday at our school were the little kiddies who could be found prancing around in the school floods during the lunchbreak as if the Songkran Festival had come early. Even though the teachers spent their whole time screaming into the incredibly loud tanoy for the young whipper-snappers to get out of the rain and up to their classrooms their voices went unheard. Since the school director didn’t need the whole school coming down with a bad cold for the next week the place has been shut down today. Certainly, put a smile on my face after I woke up this morning to a bright blue April-like sky.

The last place you want to be during such rain storms is ‘The City of 3,000 7-11s’. For anyone who has lived in the capital for a while, will have been perplexed to why the local folks, who on seeing a spot of rain, make a dart for home causing the infamous Bangkok traffic jam. Even after 30 years of repeatedly doing this, most of them have still to realize that by the time they actually get home, it has stopped raining. A true Bangkokian phenomenon. Well, the rains of yesterday and the day before that saw traffic congestion, caused by the floods, so bad that it was reported that some drivers spent 6 hours getting home.

The governments over the past years have had many a problem to cope with and one that comes near the top of the list has to be the country’s floods. Each year we hear of brand-new well-thought over plans to curb the problem but alas nothing seems to actually happen. Even this year during a sudden morning pour-down in Bangkok, Parliament was put on hold after the compounds were well…flooded. On the news were the TV cameras zooming in on all the senators carrying their shoes in their hands with their trousers folded-up to their knees wading through the floods getting into the parliament building complaining to the likes of “If us, as the opposition were actually in power, such flood hazzards would have been eradicated donkeys years ago”. Oh yeah… too right. Our beloved PM himself has been reknowned for some eloquent quotes over the years and this is one of me faves. Just a few months ago while visiting the drought-ridden north-east, where he had been under a barrage of complaints concernings the area’s darned dams, informed the country “The drought problem ought to be over soon, while I was here today, it rained”. Very nicely put.

As you may have experienced, getting stuck in a Bangkok flood is far from enviable as all the sewers just pour out all the junk that has been clogging them up for the few months before. Walk in a Sukhumvit Road flood and you’ll be wading past dozens of panicking cockroaches floating around just waiting to run up the nearest hairy leg. Then, by the time you’ve arrived at yer destination you’ll find a three-legged gecko and a couple of cigarette butts stuck between yer toes.

Where I come originally come from, the rain is all part of a normal day and doesn’t really affect our daily routines that much, but here in Thailand and especially Bangkok it does. I can’t remember how many students (adults) that on me asking why they had missed the last class looked at me rather dumbfoundedly as if I were stupid and replied “Well, it was raining”. Given the weather forecast for Bangkok today, half the working population of Bangkok will be bunking off work, safely at home with their feet up scoffing down half a dozen vitamin pills and paracetamols so as not to catch the slightest cold. As for their kids, they’ll be running around in the rain playing ‘soak the dog’ and ‘drown the cockroach’.

The rain and traffic congestion are two excellent, great excuses, for those just too darned lazy to get to work on time. If on getting up late for yer first class at your new school, forget a shower and instead jump on a motorbike-taxi to work, run in to class and shout to the likes of ‘darned traffic police, they haven’t the foggiest on how to run a set of traffic lights – had me friggin waiting at the intersection for half an hour!” Suffice to say the rains over the past week have again been blamed for a whole variety of cock-ups and big business too enjoy making up a whole variety of farce excuses.

For all of yous currently holding passenger tickets for the shortly-to-become defunct Phuket Air, may God be with you. Just after the company declared that they were going bankrupt, Tokyo’s Nalita airport decided to hostage a couple of their planes after they had failed to pay the necessary taxes. To add to the company’s woes the media were alive with stories about their supposed wrecks that were flying the skys. Disgusted at such reporting the folks in charge of Phuket Air were scolding the press to the likes of ‘Our Planes and pilots are of the highest callibre’. That was until last week when another of their planes skidded of the airport at Mae Sot and almost hit the nearest petrol station. Asked to whether it was all due to pilot-error one of the big-bosses repilied “Don’t be so foolish! Can’t you see it was the darned rain, the landing strip was wet”. According to the passengers however, the pilot was supposedly have landed the plane half way down the runway.

Funniest story of the week (if you can call it that!) had to have happened on a speedboat between the islands of Samui ond Phang-ngan carrying 65+ banana-shake backpackers. The story reported to the Thai press went something like this: ‘Just yesterday a Farang saved the lives of 65 other frivolous foreign travellers after the inexperienced schizophrenic local boat driver frieked out and starting running around the boat screaming for his life after the vessle had been caught bobbing-up and down in a severly harsh rain storm. Having no-one to pilot the boat one of the Farangs ran to the front of the boat and managed somehow to steer the boat all the way to the safety of Koh Phang-ngan, a True Hero!”

One of me Grade 5 students a few weeks back stuck up her hand and asked this for a question ‘Khru Ka, does it rain in England?’ to which I replied ‘Goodness no! It just snows the entire year and when it does get hot, half the elderly population drop down dead cause of exposure to the heat’. No wonder half the kiddie population think it never rains in Farangland after they see zillions of Farang chucking water at each other during the Songkran Festival! Even the Thais can be rather embarrased at the unlimited eager enthuasiam shown by the Farang at the water-tossing event. Getting so meddled-up in the action, you would have thought they hadn’t seen rain for zonks.

Not every Farang or other foreigners welcome this saturating festival with such delirium. One of the funniest places to go to during Songkram is near the airport. Not all the foreigners on arrival can be bothered paying the 50 baht surcharge emposed at the airport’s taxi stand and walk out instead on to the main road to flag down a taxi. On arriving in Thailand half on them haven’t the foggiest that it’s the ‘Annual Water-Chucking Festival’ and are soon on the receiving end of a ‘good-soaking’. Fuming at the disgusting behaviour shown by the local kiddies, they are soon fuming even more when the taxi-drivers, who on being flagged down, roll down the passenger seat window and say “I no can take you, you wet too much”. Even stevesuphan here was blue in the face with anger once, when after being soaked outside the Eastern Bus Station hoping to go to Pattaya for a few days was told exactly this by one of the bus-hostesesses before being allowed on the the bus. He had to spend the next half an hour baking under the sun trying to just…. get a ‘little drier’

Talking about Pattaya, now that is a great place to witness Farang enraged by the water-chucking festivities. Just arriving in Thailand and dollying themselves as handsomely as possible in their newly bought fake ‘Polo’, shirts head for the bar beers to awe the girlies. Delighted at the attention bestowed upon them by the girls they are soon swearing at the top of their voices “Wait til I get me hands round yer necks ya hoodlums!” after they are completely soaked by a few kids rolling past in the back of a pick-up truck owning a massive water-chucking tub.

Just a couple years back, I remember the story of a young kiddie down there on Hua Hin beach who was on the receiving end of a ‘smack-a-round-the-face’ after he had tossed a cup of water at a Farang woman sunbathing on the beach. The mother on being distraught at such a swiping handed out to her son was soon down the cop station pressing charges. After the Farang sunbather was escorted from the beach and down to the station it was soon revealed that she was the wife of some European ambassador in Bangkok and was instead let out the door to an array of cops giving her a salute. As for the young whipper-snapper’s mother she was witnessed roaring angry to the press to the likes of “Darned Farang women, they got no respect”

I was telling you the other day about a recent trip I went on to Pattaya. As it is the main beach resort for people living in Bangkok I have been there many times. Some people go there as a day trip but really it is best to stay at least one night. On long holiday weekends, it can take you 2-3 hours to go there. Our nearest beach is at Bangsaen which I have talked about before. This is only just over an hour away. Pattaya has more of a nightlife and most people don't see it as a place to soak up some culture during a break from sunbathing. However, this is what we tried to do last weekend.

Wat Yansangwararam, 15 kms south of Pattaya

Our day started with a tour around the magnificent Sanctuary of Truth. From here we drove about 15 kms south of Pattaya along Sukhumwit Road. At the KM 160 marker we turned off to visit Wat Yansangwaram. It felt like this temple was in the middle of no-where and I wasn't expecting to see many people. However, this is one of the most important temples in Thailand as it is under patronage of His Majesty the King. Spread around its 145 acres there is a mondop which has a replica footprint of the Lord Buddha and a stupa with relics of the Lord Buddha and his disciples. There are also international pavilions with architectural styles representing half a dozen different countries.

From here we drove a short distance to Cheechan Hill. This is a famous local landmark which you can see from miles away. The 130 metre high Buddha image has been carved into the rock face with the aid of a laser. The effect is really amazing.

We next drove a short distance back to Wiharnsien which is an important Chinese temple. This is still within the grounds of Wat Yansangwaram. This temple contains many Thai-Chinese antiques and pieces of art. There is a 50 baht entrance fee but it is well worth it.

By this time it was already mid-afternoon and we were starving. We decided to head to the nearby Nongnooch Tropical Gardens for some lunch. This 600 acre garden has two man-made lakes and thousands of plants such as bonsai, cactus, palms, orchids and ferns. There is also a mini zoo. The tram tour of the gardens is well worth it. The highlight for many people is the cultural shows which take place three times daily. You can see traditional Thai dancing, ceremonies, martial arts and an elephant show. Entrance to the gardens is only 100 baht, but if you want to see the show as well you need to pay 500 baht. Thai price is 250 baht.

If you have been to Pattaya, can you suggests any more locations with a cultural theme?

When I was at Impact Meung Thong Thani (อิมแพ็ค เมืองทองธาน ), in 2003, I was shocked to see a sea of violet flags….. I was thinking to myself, the Thais must really like the colour purple. But why only purple, I asked myself?

It was much later that I found out that purple represents Saturday, and since Her Royal Highess Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was born on Saturday, her Royal Standard is a Chakri Emblem with a violet background. Interestingly, it was at Meung Thong Thani, I got my first glance at Her Royal Higheness ---- she was simply majestic…… Today, I still have her poster in my study room.

In Thailand, two more popular Royal Flags are the Yellow Royal Standard of His Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej and the Blue Royal Standard of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit.

But what about colours and what do colours represent in Thai/Indian Brhamanic culture?

Today Thais, especially of Chinese descent have a very strong believe for Feng Shui Colours (The Science of the Wind and Water), and each day is attributed to a certain colour as well as an auspicious planet.

Sunday Phra Arthit (Sun God) อาทิตย์ Red แดง
Monday Phra Jan (Moon God) จันทร์ Yellow แกลือง
Tuesday Phra Angkarn (Mars) อังคาร Pink ชมพู
Wednesday Phra Phut (Mercury) พุธ Green เบ๊ยว
Thursday Phra Pareuhat (Jupiter) พฦหัส Orange ส้ม
Friday Phra Suk (Venus) ศุกร์ Sky Blue พ้า
Saturday Phra Sao (Saturn) เสาร์ Violet ม่วง

Well, if you are born on Sunday, your lucky colour is Red. Thus, whenever, you have a special event, such as a new job interview, first date, etc etc, you wear the colour red. Seriously, it need not be a red suit, but a merely small token such a red pen, a red handkerchief, or even a set of red ear-rings.

Colour Feng Shui is now among the newest trend in the West, but it seems the Thais have long discovered how to use colours to enhance one’s luck. Well, if you are on a holiday to Thailand, you would notice how important colours to the Thais are. For example in Phra Tinang Vimarnmek, you would see an abundance of the colour pink. That’s because His Majesty King Rama V Chulalongkorn was born on a Tuesday.

If you note the colour black is missing from the Thai colour palette. For the uninitiated, the colour black represents the ‘middle night’ of Wednesday, when Phra Rahu (The God of Eclipses) edges out his brother Phra Arthit and Phra Jahn to rule the cosmos….. Thus, on Wednesdays it seems, there are always less parties in Krungthep Maha Nakorn.

There are special ways to harness Colour Feng Shui to one’s benefit. However, I reckon, it is best to consult a Thai Brahmin or a Thai Monk on how to best used Feng Shui Colour. Generally, the lucky colour depends on the day and time one person is born. And also the best day to make merit is on one’s day of birth, of if that is not possible, wear your birth colour when making merit!

Nonetheless of all colours, Thais have a penchant for red. There is this popular saying

จะถูกหรือแพง
Ja tuk reuh peang
Whether cheap or expensive

เอาแดงไว้กอน
ao deng wai gon
Take anything red first

PS Acharn Richard wrote a similar posting earlier, I hope I have not 'infringed' on his earlier writings

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, but its southernmost provinces are Muslim-dominated. There are about 6 million muslims in Thailand and the majority are concentrated in the provinces of Patani, Yala, Satun and Narathiwat. The others mostly reside in the central-southern provinces and the greater Bangkok area. Pattani province, once a semi-autonomous Malay-speaking sultanate, is the heartland of Muslim South Thailand. The Malays are not recent immigrants. Their descendants settled on this land centuries ago, yet most of them have never willingly assimilated and absorbed into the Thai-Buddhist mainstream.

The Malays in Southern Thailand, nearly all muslims, place a high value on social acceptance within their community. They live in close-knit communities called “kampung”. The original meaning of kampung was countryside or village but it is also often used to indicate the neighborhoods which stretch out in the back of the official roads, and maintain a village-like social structure.

Part of a kampung and a traditional Malay "long-leg" house

In Betong, there are religious schools called "Tadika" in the Malay kampungs. Other than going to the normal Thai school , Malay children also attend Tadika on Saturday and Sunday. In the Tadika, they learn Malay, Jawi, and other Islamic teachings from their religious teachers called ustaz(men) or ustazah(women).

We have learned that a common language is a bonding agent among people of different backgrounds. People sharing the same ethnic background tend to congregate but language often transcends ethnicity. People relate more by common language than by common physical makeup. According to a Malay friend of mine, in the Southern provinces with over 80% muslims, nearly all Malays are conversant in Thai. However, the Thai are rarely conversant in Malay, including those in the local administration.

Among Malays in the kampung, they usually speak their own language, Malay, with a Southern accent. What they speak are usually “bahasa kampung” (kampung language) and though many are conversant in Malay, a lot of them can’t read and write well, of which I am very much better :)!

Two of the Tadikas in Betong

Another Tadika and the beautiful Malay students

I was born in the year of the dragon according to the Chinese calendar (considered to be the luckiest sign), and in addition, it was a Saturday too, so the Buddha posture relevant to my birthday is the one sitting under the protection of the Naga. It is only natural that I have always found dragons and the related serpents fascinating and awesome. Even ancient Hungarian folk tales feature a scary fire-spitting seven-headed dragon that must be overcome by the hero: I guess it must simply belong to the "common subconscious" of the human race that dragons and snakes are looked upon with a strange mixture of respect and fear.

My personal journey over the past couple of years involved a lot of fighting and reconciling with my personal dragons living within me, and working with Chinese mythology and preschool children helped a lot to traslate my unspoken fears into feelings that could be dealt with more easily. The Nagas in Chiang Mai also captured me – I have a Naga-collection, dozens of photos, unfortunately, not in digital form. I'll make up for it next time I'm visiting the temples....

But here I am, digressing as usual.... initially, I set out to write a post on the topic of Nagas, not my personal experience....

As I started to collect legends and ideas from the net, I soon discovered that the topic was so huge and well-researched that it could easily provide material for a doctoral dissertation.... I have come across several comprehensive and professional sites, which I enjoyed browsing in the past two or three weeks, usually instead of a gruesome translation job, sure. This one is about Chinese dragons the wikipedia entry into European dragons has several good links, over here and an Asian summary

A Chinese dragon on a tombstone in Kenting, Taiwan

But let's just focus on Thai / Isaan culture and its roots, to keep it relatively short, but just as interesting, hopefully.

The Lord Buddha and the Naga

As the Lord Buddha went about his mission preaching to his disciples and followers, Naga, the serpent king watched in fascination and soon aspired to be one of the disciples of the Lord Buddha.

Having the power to take any form, the Naga transformed itself into a human and mingled in the group of the disciples, listening to the sermons. Evetually, it was ordained as a monk. However, shortly afterwards, when the Naga went to sleep in a hut, it accidentally returned to the shape of a huge snake, scaring the other monks as they woke up in the middle of the night. The Lord Buddha summoned the Naga and told it he may not remain a monk, and the disappointed snake began to cry. So it was given the Five Precepts as the means to attaining a human existence in the next life when he can be a monk, and it was also forbidden from entering temples until then.

So in Buddhist temple architecture, the Naga is either depicted coiled around the outer walls of the temple or along the stairs leading to the entrance to the temple.

A temple in Chiang Mai (it is unbelievably hard to find decent photos of Chiang Mai just browsing the net....)

However, the Lord Buddha had elicited such devotion from the Naga that in spite of the ban from monkhood, it continued to keep its vigil over the Lord Buddha, protecting him from harm. The statue of the Lord Buddha seated on the body of a coiled serpent and sheltered from the rain by the seven hoods of the Naga is commonly featured in the Buddhist sculptures of Northeastern Thailand.

It is said that one day while the Lord Buddha was meditating, Mara, the Evil One wanted to distract his concentration by starting a storm. The Serpent King, emerged from the roots of the tree where Lord Buddha was seated to offer protection from the rains and floods.

I chose this unusual modern sculpture, in Sala Kaew Ku, Nong Khai, it really scares me, I tell you, just looking at the picture....

- to be continued -

Sawasdee Krab! Welcome back everyone to this weeks blog, whew what a week! I have been so busy with work I couldn't get enough time with a capital 'T'! ;)

Just too much stuff going on but time for a (hopefully) short blog near and dear to this Thai fanatics heart. Since my recent blog on making Pad Gra Pao worked out well I planned to write this blog with more pics and less words. Like the Miller Light beer commercial with less filling (my yap, yap, yapping) but still have that same great taste (for all things Thai!)

There are few things that I will not turn down without question such as my quailty time (again with a capital 'T'), listening to my favorite Thai music, a good cup of coffee and last but by no means least a glass of that cool and sweet treat-Thai Ice Tea. Whenever I go out to eat at a Thai resturant here in DC I may not always order a plate of super-human spicy Pad Gra Pao (Thai beef and basil for blog 'newbies') but I always have to have a glass of Thai Iced Tea, or Cha Yen in Thai.

It's the first thing I will order but I am sometimes careful about ordering it in Thai since depending on the tone you use to say it 'Cha' could mean 'Tea' or 'Slowly'. 'Yen' in Thai means 'cool' so said correctly you will say 'Tea Cool' universally understood to mean 'Thai Tea.' If you say it with the wrong tone however you might say something weird like 'slowly cool' in which case your Thai waiter or waitress will just look at you strangely like your some beatnik poet with a thing for adjectives, trust me I know!

Fortunately for me however I have the answer to not only saving myself this embarrassment but also the secret to having Thai Tea anytime I want without annoying my neighborhood Thai resturant hanging around outside their door waiting for them to open just so I can get my Thai Tea fix. Since it is really simple to make I just learned to make Thai Tea myself at home, hence the topic of this weeks blog. This is the brand of Thai Tea that I use which I buy from the Thai market in Maryland I told you about before.

Most asian grocery stores would have Thai Tea leaves you can buy but if not then you can check out www.importfoods.com where you can order anything and everything online to make Thai food at home and have it shipped directly to you. I know this bends the guidelines a little to post a link to a commercial website but in this case I don't think our webmaster Richard would mind too much, I hope!

Once you have some Thai Tea leaves you only need sugar and water everything is simple just a bit time consuming. Once you get the hang of it you can have Thai Tea made in just about 20 minutes. Recipes and methods may vary but I'm gonna give you the low down on what works for me. Ready?

View It!

I have mentioned before that Pattaya is not exactly my favourite beachside resort. Apart from the sleaziness, the beaches are not my idea of tropical white sand and palm trees. Better to head further south to Koh Samet and Koh Chang. However, there are some locations in Pattaya which have a more of a cultural flavour. So, at the weekend, I was determined to fill my day with some alternatives to sitting on the beach.

My first stop was the Sanctuary of Truth. This is another massive structure constructed by the late Khun Lek. You may remember me talking about The Erawan Museum the other day. This wooden palace was his second project and was started way back in 1981. It isn't yet finished though it is already open to the public. The entrance fee is a steep 500 baht which I think is their way of keeping the number of visitors low. Luckily I was able to get in for free as I know the owners. I haven't been here for about two years so a few things have changed. The first thing I noticed was a horse and buggy ride which takes you from the car park to the top of the hill. Secondly, the family pet dolphins had now been trained to perform in a show. I guess they are trying to give value for money to visitors.

The Sanctuary of Truth is a gigantic wooden building. Maybe the biggest in the world. It is 105 metres high and 100 metres long. This is equal to a 20 storey building. Just about every inch, inside and outside, is covered in rich wooden carvings depicting various eastern cultures and religions. As the building is still under construction, your tour guide will give you a hard hat to protect your head. But, there isn't too much to worry about.

It is quite expensive to enter this place but it is well worth it. You will be richly rewarded. I must have taken nearly three hundred pictures here. There was plenty to look at in every direction you looked. Of secondary interest is the dolphin show. But, I didn't linger to watch. I am not sure how you would get to the Sanctuary of Truth on your own. It is in northern Pattaya at the end of Soi Nakula 12. It is rather out of the way. However, I did see some tourists arrive on the back of a songtaew. So, I guess you can hire one to come out here.

This is another of those places under the category of "Unseen Thailand". You won't find it in any foreign guidebook.

Go to page 2 for some more pictures....

Pages: 1 · 2

The 99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand List from Thai Airways' Sawasdee Magazine continues.

[ Part I ] [ Part II ] [ Part III ]

61. Seafood :: A plenty. Fresh. And cheap.

62. Ancient City (Muang Boran) :: A park in the shape of Thailand filled with more than 100 small-scale reproductions of the country's important historic, religious, and royal sites. Some are resconstructions of structures that no longer exist.

63. Party...all the time! :: You know about Sanuk, Thai notion of fun and pleasure. (See #72) So we celebrate every occasion we can get from Chinese New Year to Christmas, birthday to funeral, when it rains to when there's a drought. You name it!

64. Thai silk :: Traditional Thai silk. There's nothing like it.

65. Isaan and Southern Cuisines :: The northeast (Isaan) and the south are not only well known for the hot weather but also the heat of their foods.

66. Takraw :: National sport which players handle a rattan ball with their feet, heads, knees and elbows. Sort of like Hacky-Sack. 2 styles to play. One is with players on each side of the net. Feet volleyball if you will. The other is scored more for your fancy moves to get the ball to the basket hanging high in the middle of the circle.

67. Thai folk music :: Luk Thung (Child of the Rice Field) music is kind of like American country music--songs about love and loss, harsh life, and other more risque topics, backed up by a throng of sequinned and plumed dancers. Moh-ram (Dance master) is lavishly costumed and more traditional--I'd say more like bluegrass. You'll find those kind of music blaring in your taxi cabs or any Isaan restuarants. For a more rock n' roll field, it's the Plaeng Peua Cheevit--Songs for Life--very much true to the spirit of the 60s activist folk songs. You've read about Carabao on this blog before, and that's their kind of music. The joint for that is at the Tawandaeng.

68. Chao Phraya Express Boat :: A quick way to get through town and what a view!

69. Bird Watching :: More than 900 species, people. That's one-tenth of the world's species!

71. Sea Kayaking :: Paddle through and explore the limestone caves of Krabi and Phuket in one of these.

72. Sanuk :: Sanuk, although literally means "fun", is more than that. All night party is sanuk. Watching an action film is sanuk. Teasing your friend is sanuk. Laying out on the beach doing nothing can be sanuk. To quote the magazine, you feel it not when you laugh, but when you've developed this attitude, for better or worse, that things--including life itself--can't be all that bad no matter what the situation.

73. Koh Hong, Phuket :: Hong means room, and this island has plenty of that...built in limestone. Koh Hong is an island jutting out of Phang-gna Bay near Phuket in Krabi. It has a network of collasped caves and stone formations, and beautiful beach.

74. Bangkok (and all its adjectives!) :: Sprawling, delicious, traditional, overdeveloped, exotic, golden, infuriating, astonishing, pungent, ultra-modern, creative, tropical, hectic, contemporary, surprising, stressful, frenetic, hip , steamy, cheap, refreshing, frantic, spicy, smiling, sublime, historic, regal, air-conditioned, urban, atmospheric, fast-paced, mad, graceful, riverine, farcical, crowded, surprising, hungry, cacophonous, sexy, dynamic, confusing and aromatic. And. Much. Much. More.

75. Nightlife :: Although the curfew is now oh-so-early, there are still a lot of action going on from DJ sets to live indie bands. More festivals and private parties are catching on.

76. The Emerald Buddha :: He's small, green, and 500 years old. No, he ain't Yoda. The Emerald Buddha is 66 cm. high. His cloak is changed three times a year according to the change of the seasons traditionally by the King, now by the Crown Prince.

77. Sukhothai :: The capital of the first Siamese Kingdom (mid 13th to late 14th century), Sukhothai once extended south to Nakhon Si Thammarat, east to Vientiane and west to Pagu. The city is 12 km. away from Bangkok and well restored.

78. Kanom Moh Kaeng :: Sweet custard steamed to perfection in a square tin that is Kanom Moh Kaeng can only comes out of the palm sugar captial of Thailand, Petchburi. This is a pit stop town for people on the way to and from Hua-Hin and Cha-Am.

79. Mekong River :: Cruise a few kilos of the 750 km. length of the Thai border on Mekong, veering into Laos for a bit, up in the north and northeast.

80. The King's Birthday :: The best fireworks of the year is over Sanam Luang on the King's birthday December 5. Not to mention that the entire city is all lit up all the way through New Year's. Oh yes, it is also Father's Day.

We're almost there, folks. 19 more to go. I hope to get that in here tomorrow night. Given that I finish my homework AND baking cookies for my AIDS Walk fundraiser. ;-) See you then!

Many people have visited Kanchanaburi (pronounced gan-ja-na-boo-ree) and the infamous "Bridge on the River Kwai'. However, what most of them don't know is that this is a bit of a misnomer. It should really be called River Kwae which rhymes with "square". Not sure who made that mistake, probably the french guy who wrote the book in 1952. Anyway, another mistake is that the bridge didn't actually go over the River Kwae but rather one of its tributuries called Mae Klong. But then, in the 1960's, after the release of the popular movie, it was renamed Kwae Yai by the Thai authorities. That didn't exactly help to clear things up. But heck, should the Thai people be expected to rename their landmarks after famous movies? Oh yes, they did it for James Bond Island down south!

Another little puzzle is that why are people coming all the way to cross this bridge? In the movie, wasn't it a wooden structure? As you can clearly see in the picture above, the bridge that remains has concrete piles. So, Sir Alec Guinnes didn't walk across this structure. Actually, I should also point out that the movie wasn't made in Thailand but rather Sri Lanka. Little details I suppose. Anyway, if you look carefully at the colour picture I took, you can just make out the markings for the water level. Basically just white squares. Also, if you look further along the bridge you can see the spans that were bombed during the last war and replaced as they are a different style. The following picture shows more clearly the location of the wooden bridge that was originally built. This bridge no longer exists today though I do remember seeing some rails and wooden piles.

The following information comes from "The Railways of Thailand" by R. Ramaer

"The first bridge was a temporary wooden structure, begun in November 1942 and completed in just three months. The primary purpose being to allow line building to continue as rapidly as possible. When the line and the supply trains could pass on a temporary alignment, the building of the permanent bridge was started some 300 metres upstream. This was a far more substantial structure, resting on concrete piles and having seventeen spans, partly of steel and partly of timber. It took seven months to build this bridge, which was brought complete from Java, and it was opened to traffic in September 1943. The temporary bridge was then dismantled as it represented an obstacle to shipping. This was done during the early months of 1944 at the request of the Thai authorities, though some sources state that it was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid a few months later.

"The fourth, fifth and sixth spas of the permanent bridge were also damaged in a bombing raid and after the war these were replaced by two new spans of different designs that were supplied by Japanese industries as war reparations. At the same time, the six spans at the western end were changed from timber to steel by the RSR during its work to rahabilitate the line. The now sixteen-span bridge very clearly shows the constructional differences between the spans."

For the last hundred years, Thai governments have consistently stressed the homogeneity of the people of Thailand. The predominant government policy towards cultural diversity has been one of assimilation and yet, Thailand has always been an ethnically diverse place.

Though Chinese in Thailand has been assimilated very well in the host society, some of them still try to maintain their own culture and identity. One of the ways is through the setting up of clan and dialect or district associations. One of the main purposes of setting up the association is to pass on the legacy of the traditions and culture to the future generations. The association also serves as a meeting place and to create unity for members.

Each association has a certain committee to organize and manage the association activities which includes performing of ceremonies and rituals, celebrating of festivals, conducting of community services and so on. However, as the young Chinese generation has been assimilated very well and many of them are not conversant in their own dialect anymore, one of the biggest problem being the lack of successors.

In Betong, the scene is unique where many clan and dialect associations in such a small town, have their own building, which normally has a big meeting hall. Among the various Chinese associations are Teo Chew, Hakka, Kwang Xi, Fujian, Lee Clan, Leong Clan etc. Nowadays, the association has become a very popular place for karaoke practice, wedding dinner, and ...gossip too :)!

The various association buildings

Fujian and Lee Clan Association

A wedding dinner in “Ba Gui Tang”

Teo Chew and Kwang Xiu Association

Hakka and Kwang Si Association

Having written about enjoying the boogie-woogie of the country’s discos I thought that for this week I’d turn to a much more scandalous topic and that is the ins-and-outs of the country’s youth. Perhaps it’s the overcast cloudy weather of the rainy season but I thought that, just for a change, I’d try writing a blog of a more serious nature.

Well, teenagers here have a fondness for quite a few things and top of the list may be motorbike racing. Should you wish to join in the action or gather round to watch the starting line-up It’s advised to head for a rabbit-hutch Bangkok slum on a Saturday or Sunday night at around one-thirty in the morning. Sods having to leave Bangkok to race yer buddies, just do it on a public main road which is already littered with hundreds of stray cars and 12-wheel trucks, much more exciting stuff!

If you wish to honestly participate in such a dare-devil event you will need the following. Firstly, your bike has had to have been modified to make it as incredibly noisy as possible thus waking up any neighbourhood folk who have ashamedly not set their alarm clock for the glorious spectacle. Secondly, don’t even bother taking along a crash helmet, ya don’t need to be looking like a right dandy-boy in front of the other macho laddies. Next, if possible find yerself some young teenage girlie with a school uniform on who is as mad as yourself to plonk herself on the back. You want the outlookers to know that speed=brave=girls!

Well, just a few weeks back, the government (once again) asked the ‘brains’ of the country to put forward ideas on how to curtail this obviously dangerous (and illegal) sport. Well, the majority came forward with a plan to set up actual legal venues where the slum dare-devil riders could race their hearts out every weekend under supervision of the local authorities. The idea was hailed in the media as a ‘fantastic idea’ as if they dared killing themselves, at least us motorists or pedestrians wouldn’t be involved. I know I’ve had a right laugh on a few blogs of mine about our country’s leaders but there are times when I do pity them a bit. In fact, this was a pretty soundo idea as these racers have been plaquing the country’s main roads for years now and because the numbers involved are just so huge there is little the local cops can do unless they’ve had a tip-off beforehand.

Well, just when ya thought that a decent idea was actually gonna be implemented for once, mothers and religious groups were up in arms ridiculing such an idea as promoting 'monstrous behaviour'. Guess, they just prefer turning a blind eye as usual and pretend that such daily activities don’t exist. Ur-hum…

Well, if it’s moto-racing that isn’t yer cuppa tea then don’t despair, just sign up for attendance at a local technical college and you’ll soon be able to enjoy having a decent punch-up with a rival college every other day. As for actual attendance at such an educational institute, no worries, half the administration in charge don’t give a darned, just as long as you’ve paid the fees due. If mini brawls aren’t enough to quench your appetite for a ‘good fight’ then hop along with all your classmates to the nearest concert (with your uniform on) and you’ll soon be sparking a major riot.

Well, 'stevesuphan' here used to live in Pathumthani Town which is synonymous for techno college rivalry. There are two such infamous institutes in town called ‘Pathumthani Techno’ and ‘Pathumthani Technical College’( names sound rather similar?) where students have actually lost their lives. Once I was on the bus into town and at a bus stop along the way a gang of uniformed whipper-snappers got onto the bus and just started punching this other so-called ‘rival’ student while all the passengers just looked away as if they didn’t notice ( well..what could they do anyway?). Even though the bus was moving, though relatively slowly, they just kicked the pitiful lad off the bus (the bus had no door). Then on another occasion, while taking the air-con Pathumthani Town-Future Park Rangsit bus I was shocked outta me system when the bus was suddenly pelted by a barrage of stones/rocks which seriously cracked a few of the windows. Guess the rival college didn’t like the fact that a few of their rival’s college where on that bus at the time.

One respected academic not so long ago actually proposed arranging boxing matches etc.. between rival colleges as a way to ‘let loose a little steam’. Would have been interesting to see how that idea would have worked out but again certain groups were once again up in arms at regulating anything. As for the average bus passenger, they are left to fear for their lives every time they pop on the bus.

Well, just when you thought that such preposterous hobbies were only the pastime of the uneducated masses or bunches of thicko hooligan students let’s now go into that other great student tradition ‘The Freshie Party’. When the yobbos are creating havoc on the streets the supposedly ‘smart’ generation are preparing for a life of university at a respectable government university. A lot of the readers here I’m sure will have read about the raunchy goings-on at such parties, as heavily publicized by the press this year. The nation’s mother’s were ( once again) up in arms at such disgustingly ‘un-thai’ behaviour that their little darlings were ‘supposedly’ forced into and ordered severe action to be taken. Guess these folk didn’t notice that all their innocently looking-darling daughters involved in the scenarios were obviously looking as if they were 'having a grand time'.

Gimme a break, at least their exploits weren’t life-threatening. One story which co-incidently occurred at the same time but which hardly got a mention two days after it was initially reported was of a ‘freshie’ student forced into doing an acrobatic cheerleader’s stunt. However, since the girl in action had had no experience whatsoever in doing any such stunt before, soon died that day after she was accidently dropped on her head too many times. The only folks making a protest about that were the student unions after they were informed by the Education Ministry to postpone any cheerleader stuff for a while.

I can recall a couple of these deathly freshie parties off the top of my head and one vividly was of one a couple of years back in Rayong. Even though these student seniors were supposedly the 'brains of the future' their idea of 'great fun' at one freshie party was to get a few of the new girls drunk and have them swim out in the sea at two in the morning. I don’t even need to tell you what happened next.

At the end of day however, youths are youths, wherever they may be in this world and on many an occasion we can’t just sit back and put all the blame on the kiddies involved be they Thai, Indian, American or Brazilian. As a teacher cum civilian, I am often perplexed as to why the directors of these Techno Colleges hardly ever get into trouble with the authorities in charge. What i mean is, in actual regards to never being bothered to promote goodwill between colleges or re-inforcing school regulations. As for the moto-racers, since half the squallid scum kids have a petty criminal record it’s impossible for them to get a decent job as their backgrounds would be checked by any decent prospective employee. As for sordid or life-threatening freshie parties, the administrations involved are also partly to blame as they enjoy turning a blind eye to such happenings.

Finally pulled that blog outta the bag. Have surprised even meself there with that one, kinda feels weird. Hope you found it... well....a thought provoking read.

Being the project manager for the “Manpower Training 2005”of Betong Municipality, I had the opportunity to lead a troupe of nearly one hundred Tadika (muslim religious school) teachers to have a two days one night visit and seminar in Penang, Malaysia. Though Penang is just an hour and half away, the trip was a first time experience for most of them. Besides having two sessions of seminar, we also visited a Malay Kampung (village), state mosque, state museum and Malay Heritage center.

Qucik & simple lunch before praying and briefing about the kampung

During the trip, the women and men had no interaction at all. They moved about separately and sat separately during the seminar session. The women hardly smiled, even if there was a funny joke. A teacher told me that they were supposed to display dignified behavior which includes not talking to men freely, not laughing loudly, no close contact with men and so on. (However, I was also told that they were more reserved with men around. Without the men around, they would be more playful! )

The serious men The happy women without men around! :)

When I called for group photo, only the men came forward. At first I was puzzled but then I realized that women and men do not take a group photo together. And when it came to buffet, there is no such thing as “ladies first”, usually ladies were the followers. I also need to assure them that all hotel foods in Malaysia are halal (something permissible and lawful in the Islamic faith).

Basically, all aspects of muslim life are ritually prescribed. Their days are punctuated by five distinct prayers, their foods must be ritually prepared and their education must follow a strict religious guidelines in order for them to perform religious duties, and to behave correctly. If outsiders do not understand or appreciate these unique features of Islam, there will be more misunderstandings and violence...

Seminars conducted in Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language).

By the time Pattaya Beach had been crowded by the late 1980s, close by, Jomtien Beach was being developed in to a fashionable resort. Most of the buildings near the beach were new. By the marine road on the sands, sea almonds had been planted which were growing very fast.

When it is time for the dark green sea almond leaves to shed, these turn into colours of cream, yellow, gold and maroon and then waft on to the ground. Each leaf, so to say is a painters’ delight. The tree grows majestic and tall and branches spread out horizontal to the ground.

Here are some common names of the tree: tropical almond, Java almond, amandier de Cayenne, wild almond, myrobalan, Singapore almond, ketapang, Huu kwang, kobateishi, West Indian almond, amandel huu kwang, badamier.

Because the leaves are broad, the tree spreads its branches like a cool canopy. In 1989, the trees were small, but when I visited the Jomtien beach in 2002, most of the trees had grown majestic. One had to continue hiring relaxing chairs, but the umbrellas were not necessary. One could now surrender to the trees’ shade.

But by now Jomtien beach had also become quite crowded. Who knows, some where near by a new beach would develop, and we would get one more beautiful name?

The biggest tourist attraction in Samut Prakan now is undoubtedly the Erawan Museum (Chang Erawan). This giant three-headed elephant is an incredible 29 metres high and 39 metres long. If you count the building it stands on, then the height is 43.6 metres. A small window in the belly of the elephant gives you some fine views of the surrounding area. They started work on the structure back in 1994 and it has only recently been completed. You can't fail to notice this elephant as you drive along Sukhumwit Road on your way to Samut Prakan. It is truly an amazing structure. In fact, I think it is probably the only museum in the world where the building itself is far more interesting than the artifacts that it houses.

The inspiration behind the Erawan Museum came from the late Khun Lek. This successful businessman became rich as the owner of a dealership for Mercedes Benz. Instead of squandering his money, he decided to take an active part in preserving past cultures and handicrafts for future generations. Khun Lek was the man behind two other inspiring projects which are the Ancient City and the Sanctuary of Truth. More about these later. The three-headed elephant is the mount for the Hindu God Indra. Actually, the elephant is supposed to have thirty-three heads but as this isn't easy for artists to duplicate it is often abbreviated to only three heads. One of the original clay models, that they made before building the elephant, showed the God Indra mounted up on top. But, I believe this proved to be too impractical. So, they just built the elephant.

During the construction, about 3 years ago, a rumour started spreading about a woman that had made a wish to the elephant that if he helped her win the lottery then she would have his baby. Well, a short while later she did in fact win over a million baht in the lottery. She also became pregnant. By the time the national newspapers came to hear of it she was already in hiding. Not sure if it is true or not. Probably just an urban legend. But, enough Thai people did believe and a shrine outside the walls of the park soon became packed with worshippers. Lottery sellers do good business here on the 1st and 16th of every month when the winning numbers are announced.

There is another story that Khun Lek built the elephant in this location on purpose to block the way for a proposed outer ring road. While it was still being built, I heard from one of the family members that they were planning on donating the elephant to the King. A bit like the villagers that ordained trees to stop the loggers cutting them down. However, the outer ring road is now being built just north of the elephant. The ironical fact is that the family home was pulled down instead to make room for the road!

The museum is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The price is 150 baht for adults and 50 baht for children. If you just want to walk around the garden and not go inside the elephant then it will cost you only 50 baht. There is no two priced system here. However, if you wish to have an English speaking tour guide you need to pay an extra 300 baht. The guide we had actually decided to speak English with us though he didn't really want to say too much. It didn't really matter as I have been coming here since the early days of construction. I used to teach the grandchildren of Khun Lek and they used to let me in with my visitors. I took Joe Cummings here once when he came to stay with us. He has a new edition of Lonely planet Thailand coming out soon so hopefully he will update the Samut Prakan section.

The tours leave every half hour. If you are a little early then explore the grounds first. Make a wish at the shrine. Don't forget to offer something if your wish comes true. Popular offerings include sugar cane and bananas. Just don't forget to come back if your wish comes true as there might be consequences! The tour takes you first into the basement where many of the antiquities are stored. All of the information signs are bilingual so it doesn't really matter too much if you didn't pay extra for the English speaking guide. In this area you are not allowed to take pictures.

You next go upstairs which is truly amazing. This is the stairway to heaven with a beautiful stained glass window in the ceiling. The attention to details is astounding. Much of the walls and art work is covered with broken pieces of Benjarong pottery. These create a colourful mosaic effect. Some of these broken bowls are quite expensive ranging from 150 baht to 1000 baht. The whole place must have cost them millions. As you walk around the ground floor you will see four pillars with tin plated designs. Each pillar represents one of the four major religions of the world: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The latter is not finished yet.

After completing the circle you are then taken up the stairs to the first landing. From here you have a better view of the stained glass window. Now you have a choice of walking up the stairs which go up the back right-hand leg of the elephant. Or the lift that goes up the back left-hand leg of the elephant. I suggest you go up in the lift and walk down the stairs. As you come out of the lift you are in a small chamber which has a small window which you can use to look at the view. Mind your head! From here you go up some more stairs to the final room. This is like entering a temple with the celestial stars painted on the ceiling. You are now in the upper body of the elephant.

I strongly recommend you visit the Erawan Museum. Maybe do it as part of a trip to the Ancient City too. You won't be disappointed.

http://www.paknam.com/erawanmuseum.php

On page two I have added some pictures which give you a better impression of the size of the elephant.

Pages: 1 · 2

Our first week, we'd met some of the travellers staying at Valentine bungalows.

The 3 crazy and wild Kangaroos, silent Bill[later to be a major player along Patong Beach], and Margaret.

We met Margaret a the little open air cafe next to Mr Singhs bungalows. We were eating our usual morning[was it really 11am]breakfast of papaya, banana, pineapple platter along with a hot cup of Milo.

The mid 40's lady sat next to our table, silently reading, chain smoking and smiling.

We caught her eye and starting idlely chatting.

She was from Muir Beach, Ca, a school teacher and had been on the road for about 5 months since her husband had run off with his secretary.

Margarets swimsuit was the old style one piece, totally faded to a washed out blue from its once vibrant darker color. There was sadness hidden in her constant glowing smile.

She was living in the front bungalow, with Chi-an, he was across the street in his little hootch, already throwing a few coconut palm fronds into the fire, getting the wok going, we went over and joined him.

Chi-an was tall, maybe 6'1", his english was perfect, he'd gone to Chulakorn University[?] worked at some of the GI camps around Kon Kin years earlier, was in his late 20's.

We'd usually sit at his hut all day long, he had a wok, plenty of mekhong, some singha, a bong, etc, enough stories to fill a book!

In those days, you could eat about all you wanted at any of the 5 huts scattered along Patong Beach for about 20 baht, including greenspot! We never wanted 2nds, all meals were huge.

I couldn't drink over one of the large liter bottles of Singha without nodding off, it was just too much for me, but could nurse Mekhong & spite endlessly.

The sun was dipping into the deep blue Andaman, we were still there, it was difficult to get up out of those low-slung beach chairs, especially if you'd been inbibing since morning!

Along came Noi with his guitar! Noi was a cross between a Thai Bob Marley & Boy Dylan, gentle, kind, funny, and the best guitar player south of Soi Cowboy!

We'd sit around all night, singing folk songs, American oldies but goodies, Noi knew them all, from years of entertaining at the US Military R&R camps in northern Thailand during the recent Viet Nam conflict.

Noi was a rocker, a folkies, a jazz master, a bluesman and he did them all with style and grace!!!

Naturally I asked Noi if he knew "Stairway To Heaven", it was THE mantra of travellers and backpackers then. He picked out every note of the song as we tried to sing along.

A little later, we could hear the one loud muffler of the ONLY police man on Patong Beach, as he slowly drove by on his 90cc Honda bike, we put down the bong, and Noi taught us the first of many Thai folk songs. A little ditty that we sang each time the policeman drove by. Something about Lets go to the sea, lets go to the beach, but in Thai, it wasn't long, but we learned it well that month.

About 3am, Noi took a break from the guitar and told us about his bad motorcycle accident the year before, when the "coconut" tree had "jumped" infront of his motorcycle late one night...he smiled as he told us to look at how well his face had healed[about 1/2 of Nois head was a tad lopsided but we all readily agreed that they had put him back together well.

We learned about moving coconut trees and NOT sleeping or setting under coconut trees that night, a VERY valuable lesson!!!

The party finlly broke up 4am, none of us could lift a glass or barely walk, we stumbled off across the street to our cozy bungalow, with dreams of wild, menacing coconut trees, mellow folks song, and a sound of the blue Anadamn crashing onto shore...

to be continued....

When you eat noodles in Thailand, it is usually eaten dry or with a clear soup to which you add your own condiments. However, there is another noodle called khanom jeen which is quite different in look and taste. These distinctive white noodles are almost spaghetti like. They are made from rice flour and are best bought freshly made. I have never seen them being made, but they are apparently produced by forcing the rice flour through a sieve into a pot of boiling water. They are sold in nest like batches in the market.

The name khanom jeen is a little misleading. It can literally be translated as "Chinese pastry", however it is neither pastry nor Chinese. Some cookery books say that this dish comes from Southern Thailand. However, it would seem that just about every region of Thailand has their own version of this curry. When you are out on the street, you will see noodle shops that specialize in khanom jeen. The tables will be laid out with trays of vegetables which you can help yourself to. In the shop where I took these pictures you had the choice of four different curry sauces.

In the above picture you can see the sauces for three soups that go with khanom jeen noodles. The larger one on the right is "nam ya ga ti" which is sometimes shortened to just "nam yaa". It is the famous version for the central region. In the top left is "nam ya ba" and bottom left is "nam ngiaw". The missing sauce is "nam prik". The first two I mentioned have fish balls (look chin pla) but nam ngiaw is served with chicken pieces. The recipe does vary as you travel around the country but the following should give you an idea of the ingredients.

ขนมจีน น้ำยา - khanom jeen nam yaa

The fish curry sauce is made with fish, ginger, garlic, shrimp paste, shallots, galangal, lemon grass, peppers, coconut milk and fish sauce.

ขนมจีน น้ำเงี๊ยว - khanom jeen nam ngiaw

This curry is made with garlic, red curry paste, yellow bean sauce, diced tomatoes, turmeric, fish sauce, spring onion and coriander. You can use either chicken (as in the picture) or pork ribs.

The sauce is poured on top of the noodles. You then have a selection of vegetables which you eat with it. These include: basil, quail eggs, pickled mustard greens, shredded cabbage and beansprouts. It is a bit unusual but worth your time in trying them out. You can also eat khanom jeen with green curry instead of rice. Try something new the next time you are in Thailand!

The archives for this food blog can be found at http://www.enjoythaifood.com

Last week, for the first time in nearly twenty years, I went to the newsstand and bought a single English paper...it was the Nation....the first time I have ever left the Bangkok Post unpurchased on the newsstand.

I was deeply disappointed in 1992 when the Post left parts of its pages blank rather than upset the government of the day during the Suchinda government crisis. But I managed to put this shameful episode behind me and continued to read the Post until now.

But I can no longer attribute any credibility to a newspaper managed by journalists who cave in to pressure from major shareholders. Firing the news editor after 20 years experience because of one mistake was management overkill and totally unwarranted.

I realize the Chirativat family are terrified the SRT will not renew their lease on Central Ladprao (their most profitable store) due to their abuse of the existing lease by building a convention centre in contravention of their lease agreement.

It is a sad day, however, when the government of the day can pressure this family into firing two of the Post's most qualified journalists simply by threatening their other business interests.

Perhaps its time the family sold their shares in the Post since the ongoing pressure, hassle and general poor publicity, is probably not worth the effort of keeping this investment.

The 99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand List from Thai Airways' Sawasdee Magazine continues.

[ Part I ] [ Part II ]

41. Golfing

42. Street Foods :: Duh! Do I even have to go into details here? Sawasdee Magazine points to noodles of China Town, northern curries around Dusit area, southern roti on Phra Athit Road, and northeastern Thai BBQ chicken on every corner! My personal advice, look where the crowd gathers at lunch time and eat there!

43. Loy Kratong Festival :: Sing with me now! ./~ November full moon shines, Loy Kratong, Loy Kratong. (Yes, I know the English version of the whole song. Learned it for international camp gazillion years ago.) Usually on the full moon night of November, Thai folks take ther kratongs, an open-lotus shaped floating object, to the river as an offering to the river goddess. They light the candles on the kratongs, so the river is lit up by all these floating lanterns. Being a Thai festival, of course, parties and fireworks ensue nationwide! My mother treated Brandon and I to the extravangaza at the Oriental last year. Obviously, up and down the river at hotels and even restuarants there are celebrations. Even the inland hotels have them poolside!

44. Thai Talismans :: Ancient warriors wore them for protection and special powers. Today's amulets still have the same effects on believers. From miniature Buddha to ancient scroll and tiger's fang, head down to Chinatown for the city's oldest amulet market.

45. Old Town Bangkok:: Check out all the nooks and crannies of Chareon Krung road. Through each Soi, small street, you can find modern townhome next to 1920s architecture.

46. Thai Garlands - Puang Malai :: You've seen these on the dashboard of taxi cabs, at places of worship, used to welcome state guests by the prime minister. Jasmine garlands made fresh daily and can be purchased just about anywhere.

47. Thai Script :: Thai alphabets were invented over 700 years ago, and evolved since then to become what we have today. The first record of the alphabets were carved on the Sila Jaruk, a black stone pillar. I believe there's a replica at the National Museum in Bangkok.

48. Meditation :: Peaceful environment (outside the city and probably some patches in Bangkok) helps with meditation or perhaps outdoor yoga. When in doubt, you can always find a corner at a temple to sit and meditate. Tons of meditation camp/lessons are available anywhere you go.

49. Thai fruits :: Exotic and deeelicious! Richard has also blogged about the wonders that are Thai fruits. Please check his archive for your drooling pleasure.

50. Lampang :: Lampang is known as the friendly town. Up in the north, it's famous for teak houses reflecting Thai and Burmese influence, and home of the last remaining horse drawn carriages.

51. Koh Lanta :: 50 kilometers south of Krabi province lies an island of 2 seasons--low (wet) and high (dry). Not too off the beaten path, but still have stretches of quiet beach.

52. Local Ice Cream :: More than just the coconut ice cream served in buns topped with sweet fruits! Some other boutique joints offer more adventurous flavors like tamarind, basil, lychee, and mangosteen.

53. Climbing Phang-nga Bay :: Head south for some limestone face time.

54. Thai Elvis :: Elvis impersonator swivels his hips nightly at Radio City. As for Los Angelenos, you don't have to go far. LA has a Thai Elvis at the Palms Thai Restaurant in Hollywood!

55. Head Case :: This one will explain a lot about the whole head is sacred thing with Thai people. I'll type it word for word. For Thais, a person's body is a sacred temple, and the head symbolizes a crown of conscience that deserves highest reverence. It's disrespectful to pat anybody on the head, and it's a blasphemy to place your feet near or at the same level as another person's head, especially your parents. Observe how people take utmost prudence when dealing with other people's heads--it will be appreciated and you'll learn another reason why the country is so special.

56. Thai Spices :: Fresh herbs and ready-made chili pastes for all occasions.

57. Northern Food :: While in Chiang Mai, check these guys out: authentic and affordable Huen Phen, riverside Huen Soontaree along with the famous Lanna entertainer performing nightly, more rare recipes of the north at Rachamankha Hotel, flower in your food at Saimok Kab Dokmai. Finally, for the famous Khao Soy, coconut based curry with meat and noodles, try Khao Soy Samurjai.

The 99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand List from Thai Airways' Sawasdee Magazine continues.

[ Part I ] [ Part II ]

41. Golfing

42. Street Foods :: Duh! Do I even have to go into details here? Sawasdee Magazine points to noodles of China Town, northern curries around Dusit area, southern roti on Phra Athit Road, and northeastern Thai BBQ chicken on every corner! My personal advice, look where the crowd gathers, at lunch time and eat there!

43. Loy Kratong Festival :: Sing with me now! ./~ November full moon shines, Loy Kratong, Loy Kratong. (Yes, I know the English version of the whole song. Learned it for international camp gazillion years ago.) Usually on the full moon night of November, Thai folks take ther kratongs, an open-lotus shaped floating object, to the river as an offering to the river goddess. They light the candles on the kratongs, so the river is lit up by all these floating lanterns. Being a Thai festival, of course, parties and fireworks ensue nationwide! My mother treated Brandon and I to the extravangaza at the Oriental last year. Much different than the everyday-people way I've done growing up. Definitely more farangs present. ;-)

44. Thai Talismans :: Ancient warriors wore them for protection and special powers. Today's amulets still have the same effects on believers. From miniature Buddha to ancient scroll and tiger's fang, head down to Chinatown for the city's oldest amulet market.

45. Old Town Bangkok:: Through each Soi, small street, you can find modern townhome next to 1920s architecture. Check out all the nooks and crannies of Chareon Krung road.

46. Thai Garlands - Puang Malai :: You've seen these on the dashboard of taxi cabs, at places of worship, used to welcome state guests by the prime minister. Jasmine garlands made fresh daily and can be purchased just about anywhere.

47. Thai Script :: Thai alphabets were invented over 700 years ago, and evolved since then to become what we have today. The first record of the alphabets were carved on the Sila Jaruk, a black stone pillar.

48. Meditation :: We have clear water and clean air (outside of the city, of course). And plenty of places to learn to meditate and perhaps do some outdoor yoga.

49. Thai fruits :: Richard has also blogged about the wonders that are Thai fruits. Please check the archive for further drooling.

50. Lampang :: Lampang is known as the friendly town. Up in the north, it's famous for teak houses reflecting Thai and Burmese influence, and home of the last remaining horse drawn carriages.

51. Koh Lanta :: 50 kilometers south of Krabi province lies an island of 2 seasons--low (wet) and high (dry).

52. Local Ice Cream :: More than just the coconut ice cream served in buns topped with sweet fruits! Some other boutique joints offer more adventurous flavors like tamarind, basil, lychee, and mangosteen.

53. Climbing Phang-nga Bay :: Head south for some limestone face time.

54. Thai Elvis :: Elvis impersonator swivels his hips nightly at Radio City. As for Los Angelenos, you don't have to go far. LA has a Thai Elvis at the Palms Thai Restaurant in Hollywood!

55. Head Case :: This one will explain a lot about the whole head is sacred thing with Thai people. I'll type it word for word. For Thais, a person's body is a sacred temple, and the head symbolizes a crown of conscience that deserves highest reverence. It's disrespectful to pat anybody on the head, and it's a blasphemy to place your feet near or at the same level as another person's head, especially your parents. Observe how people take utmost prudence when dealing with other people's heads--it will be appreciated and you'll learn another reason why the country is so special.

56. Thai Spices :: Fresh herbs and ready-made chili pastes for all occasions.

57. Northern Food :: While in Chiang Mai, check these guys out: authentic and affordable Huen Phen, riverside Huen Soontaree along with the famous Lanna entertainer performing nightly, more rare recipes of the north at Rachamankha Hotel, flower in your food at Saimok Kab Dokmai. Finally, for the famous Khao Soy, coconut based curry with meat and noodles, try Khao Soy Samurjai.

58. 19th Century Phuket :: 19th Century buildings built by prosperous Chinese merchants on Krabi, Thalang and Dibuk Roads.

59. Jatujak Market :: There is NO shopping experience like a day at J-J! Thousands of stalls. 2 days a week. Everything from amulets, clothes to wear to work, food, to (shh...you didn't hear it from me...pirated movies) handmade paper and other handicrafts.

60. Khao Yai National Park :: Go camping in the lush jungle 2-hour drive from Bangkok. I was there when I was a wee child. We did drive out at night with our flashlights to see if we could spot wildlife. We saw some deer. And we found tiger paw prints in the morning too!

I took yesterday off as it was Labor Day for us here in the Yankee land. I have a project due on Wednesday (yes, taking classes again...A is for Asian, I tell you!) so you'll see me back with the list later this week with the next 20 of the remaining 39.

Sawasdee Krab! After a slight delay of 'technical difficulties' I am glad to be back in the blog saddle, with apologies for missing my usual midnight deadline. I let myself get 'pricked' by one too many 'prik' this weekend so to speak with some tasty pad bai gra pao and the combination of extra, extra spicy and my morning coffee ritual was just too much for me!

I had planned to go see the movie for this review yesterday afternoon but I had a much more pressing appointment with wallowing in bed moaning and groaning and swearing if I live I'll never utter 'kaw gra pao phet mahk, pom chorp Thai phet, mai chorp farang phet' again because I was pretty much 'mai chorp' life for a good while yesterday until I got the fire in my tummy and my tail end put out. ;)

All this week I've been debating what to write for this weeks blog since I have several ideas in mind but each idea depend on me finally getting off my arse to buy a scanner. My other option was write a scathing editorial on the debacle playing out on the Gulf Coast following the aftermath of Katrina since some neo-fob made the stupid comment of calling the flooding of New Orleans 'Our tsunami', as if there was any comparison to what happened on December 26th last year. I'm still tempted to write about that after seeing the city breakdown into total anarchy only two days after Katrina with lootings, shootings and rape. And this is America?

However you can rest assured Thailand that at least three of your countrymen are now safe. I was watching yet another newscast this morning when I saw three Asian gentlemen being rescued from the top story window of a hotel. I was surprised to see the first gentleman bow and wai his rescuers as he stepped into the boat. Oh my gosh they're Thai!

The other good news at least for me was the answer to my blogging prayers came Friday when I opened the local Metro Express paper to see a review for a new Thai movie called Tropical Malady playing at the local AFI theatre here in DC. Done! That's it, another blog in the bag, check please!

I read the review and immediately was intrigued. Tropical Malady is the fourth feature film conceived by director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and produced by his production company Kick the Machine. Despite so far avoiding the commercial success of other more main stream Thai films in recent release it has won a host of film awards such as the Prix du Jury, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It also won the Age d'or Prize, at Cine'de'couvertes in Belgium and Grand Prize in the Tokyo Filmex in Japan that same year. The film also picked up awards as Best Film and Special Jury Prize respectively in the XX International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Italy and Singapore International Film Festival, this year.

As a Thai friendly and gay friendly blogger how could I resist plus I read in the reviews that the film is so unusual that you can expect half the audience to 'get it' and the other half to walk out!

View It!

I am fascinated by historical photos. I can stare at an old black & white photo from turn-of-the-century anywhere for minutes on end. I look at the people or places depicted and try to put myself there. I look at the faces, the clothing..what was the weather like? Are those people miserably hot in their stiff century-old garb? What did they do after the photo was taken? What did they say?

Especially fascinating to me are the series of photos called "then & now". These pictures will show some area, landmark, or building from long ago. Next to it will be a photo showing how that area or building looks today. Usually the "now" photo is in color. My local newspaper does this every Sunday and it is the first page I turn to every weekend.

This brings me to the topic of my blog. As I was leaving Thailand back in 2001, I ran across a book in the airport duty-free shop. It was called "Bangkok: Then and Now" by Steve Van Beek (ISBN #:974-87616-0-6).
This book has loads of photos taken from 1900-1901 in and around Bangkok. Next to those photos are their modern siblings depicted in a modern myriad of colors. Some of the photos are depicting well-known areas or structures. Many are often more obscure (such as a sidestreet or narrow little klong).

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite photos from the book. Enjoy! P.S. My apologies; I couldn't fit these photos side by side. I don't think too much was lost by stacking them like this. The quality might have suffered a bit as well, as I took the photos with my camera from the open book.

Looking north from the top of the Golden Mount ca.1880 and today

Ti Thong Road ca.1900 and today

The intersection of New Road and Worachak Road then and now. I don't know where this is, but I thought it was cool.

Elephant masters blow the horns during a ritual ceremony at the opening of elephant polo in Hua Hin, southern Thailand Monday, Sept. 5, 2005. The 5th King's Cup Elephant Polo organized by a group of hoteliers and business sectors aimed at raising fund to help the elephant in Thailand which its population estimated at around 4,000. (AP Photo/Apichart Werawong)

Two teams representing Thai newspapers, The Bangkok Post, Kittipong Thongsombat (in black shirts), and The Nation, Alan ParkHouse (in white shirts), try to hit the ball during the opening match of the fifth King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Prachuab Khririkhan province, 280 km (173 miles) from Bangkok. The fifth King's Cup Elephant Polo attracted 16 teams from five continents and several horse polo players with 30 elephants. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

Plumeria, named after the French botanist Charles Plumier, is known all over the world as the pagoda flower or the wat flower. In Thailand, it is known as the Lanthom. This flower is also known as Frangipani after the 16th Century Italian Marquis and perfumer M.Frangipani.

The two main species are Plumeria Rubra and Plumeria Alba. At last count, it had as many as 184 varieties or cultivars.It is known as the Lei flower in Hawaii.The plant is hardy and can survive in dry conditions. At times the whole tree is decked with flowers when all the desiduous leaves are shed. Plumeria can also be grown in vases.

Known as Dok Champa in Laos, Plumeria happens to be the Lao National flower. In a Lao Magazine I found this beautiful Thai Poem:

Dok yoo khai kho chai mai soi long
Praw prasong champa maa chai gan
Muean khon dee yoo tee nai, khai phun sen
Kho mai when khon tam tham khao saan

Khun Tee Tum Mo’s translation runs like this:

Those blooms out of reach will be gathered by sticks
For Dok Champa are so useful
Alike good people though miles away
Will be sought after by many

The metaphor of out of reach flowers with “good people miles away”, seems very appropriate. I hope fellow bloggers in Thailand would post beautiful images of this tree.

Today’s blog will be delayed for a day. Those said difficulties namely because Wit here, while dining out at a new Thai restaurant last night, took on more prik kii noo in Pad Gra Pao than he could handle. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

I spent most of today in bed feeling sick instead of going out to get the scoop on my next blog. Tune in tomorrow for my latest on Thailand in the movies entitled Strange Love!!

See you there…

เจอกันพรุ่งนี้นะครับ
วิทย์

…now where’s my bottle of Pepto.... 

[ Read Part I Here ]

The 99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand List from Thai Airways' Sawasdee Magazine continues.

21. Italian Cuisine :: Thais have a love affair with Italian food. Perhaps it's the garlic and the chilli. Perhaps it's the noodles. Perhaps it's the similar culture of sharing food and eating with your hands. Who knows! But we love it. And there are plenty of good Italian joints all over town.

22. Cruising Southern Thailand :: Thai Airways offer a 4-day cruise in a traditional junk and sail through the seas of Phuket.

23. Koh Samet :: Island paradise 4 hours from Bangkok by bus and ferry.

24. Hill Tribe Jewelry :: Silver, beads, and polished stones creation for everyday people to fashionistas.

25. Coffee Culture :: We're not just talking Starbucks, but the Chinese coffee brewing stall on the side of the road. But while we're talking coffee, it's Starbucks everywhere in Bangkok. I counted 4 within 1 km radius around my house in Soi Langsuan. And it's packed all the time with Thais and foreigners alike. Yes. We love our coffee.

26. Village Fair :: local "temple fairs" (ngan wat) and carnivals are fun. Not just games and rides, but traditional reats like folk theater (likay), classical country music (look toong) concert.

27. Songkhla :: The southern province with amazing cultural and architectural blends of Malay, Portugese, Chinese and Thai. The Sino-Portugese style houses in the Old Quarter. The best collection of folk arts in the country at Songkhla National Museum.

28. Old Culture and Modern Life :: Catch the monks walking down the street for alms at the crack of dawn through the modern city.

29. Phuket Vegetarian Festival :: The Chinese Taoist extravaganza held in October features the test of their faith that is self-mutilation i.e. a guy threads copper piping through his cheecks. Beyond the thrill and gore, there's the wonderful vegetarian dishes in disguise. No, that wasn't chicken you just ate but the miracle that is flavored and textured soy protiens! I recommend the vegetarian lo-mein.

30. Khon Theater :: You can catch the Thai high art, extravagantly masked and costumed, Khon performance, recounting the tales of the Thai version of Ramayana, the Ramakien, at the National and Chelermkrung theaters.

31. Miss Jumbo Pageant (aka Miss Elephant Beauty Contest) :: Big is beautiful indeed where the prime qualification of contestant is for her to weigh in as close to 100 kg (over 200 lbs) as possible. No, it's not Thai people being mean to plus sized beauties but this is an event to raise money for elephant orphanage and rescue mission.

32. Thai Haute Couture :: Thai designer labels with a touch of culture and fashion sense of London, Paris, and New York. And priced to match!

33. Koh Chang of the East :: The granite island yields endless beaches, waterfalls, and best-preserved rain forest. Accommodates all from 5-star hotel to rental tents. Don't confuse this one to the east of Bangkok with the one near Ranong.

34. Edible Bugs :: Stevesuphan mentioned it a few blogs ago. Fried grasshoppers, silk worms, and other creepy crawlies sold on the streets for snacks.

35. Songkran Festival :: See Richard's extensive blog on the week-long, country-wide festival of water fights!

36. Prawn-zilla :: River prawns of the unusual size? They do exist and are served up in riverside restaurants in Ayutthaya.

37. Nan :: Nan is a quiet small province off the beaten tourist track in northern Thailand. Rich in history of the Lanna Kingdom, dated back to 14th-15th century, and cottage industry of cotton weaving.

38. Phu Chee Fa Summit :: Sunrise at Phu Chee Fa summit in Chiang Rai is unforgettable.

39. OTOP Products :: One Tambon, One Product program of regional arts and crafts provide you with endless options of local products to purchase.

40. Mango and Sticky Rice :: Succulent Nam Dok Mai mango and sweet and fragrant sticky rice cooked in coconut milk and sugar. Drooooool.

Don't you go away now. We still have 59 more entries to go!

There used to be a guy at the top of our soi selling khao mun gai. I used to go there quite often to buy my chicken and rice. He was always quite friendly and was keen to practice his English with me. Then, one day, he was no longer there any more. As this was at the height of the "bird flu" scare I guessed he closed his stall because of dwindling customers. Or, maybe he just wheeled it elsewhere because of the fierce competition from the "chicken guy". This is the muslim man I told you about before who sells fried chicken which not only tastes better than KFC but is also half the price.

Nearly a year has passed now and most people are not so worried about bird flu. You do hear reports about it in the newspapers every now and then, but people tend to ingore it now. After all, it would seem that the majority of people that have died had direct contact with the birds. Either they reared chickens or they were a butcher. So, I was quite excited last week to see a new food shop open around the corner. This not only sold khao mun gai, but also another of my favourites, khao mok gai. It is owned by a muslim family. Their daughter used to be one of my students.

This dish is similiar to the chicken and rice I told you about before. However, the rice in this meal has been coloured yellow with the use of turmeric. To cook khao mok gai, you fry some garlic in a pan until golden brown. You then stir in the rice, curry powder, salt and chicken pieces. You then transfer this mixture to an electric rice cooker. You add the chicken stock and cook for about 20 minutes. Quite simple really.

You don't really need to be able to read Thai to buy food on the streets. You can usually work out what they are selling by looking at the ingredients in the glass display cabinet. However, it wouldn't hurt if you could read! In this picture, the top line says khao mun gai tod and khao mun gai. The first one is fried chicken (tod means fried) and the second one is boiled. The second line says khao mok gai tod and khao mok gai. The last line is obviously telling you that a normal plate is only 20 baht (50 cents) and a bit of extra meat (called piset in Thai) is 25 baht.

I'm a relative newcomer to Thai culture and the Thai way of life, so, as I have observed my own reactions and opinions, I don't dare to be outspoken and critical yet. Maybe I am mistaken, maybe I haven't grasped enough of a certain aspect of a different lifestyle, maybe my impressions are misleading – I'd better just keep an open eye (or two). So often I just read others' writings and opinions, and try to form my views. There are quite a few things that I would have the same opinion about, but I just don't feel "qualified" to venture that far....

There is one topic though that I think I know a lot about: Asian air conditioning :-) Being the rare farang who can survive the scorching tropical hot season without the constant thermal manipulation of my body, I have grown rather cynical about the issue.... Even if I just have to go to a 7-Eleven store for a few minutes, I feel vapour is precipitating in my lungs both when entering and when leaving, and I start coughing heavily: my asthma just goes crazy. I have never had aircon in my apartment or guesthouse room, I prefer lukewarm showers and plenty of icecream for the purpose of cooling down a bit. And I thanked all the gods when using aircon in schools was prohibited during the SARS epidemics in Taiwan – incidentally, the hottest recorded summer ever in the country.

I can clearly recall my first encounter with the Asian fascination with shivering: the hellish experience (uhm, isn't hell expected to be HOT, though?) of an overnight coach ride to the south, and those two days spent recovering in Ko Phi Phi, coughing, with a runny nose, sore throat and all the trimmings.... I had been caught completely off-guard (as we have absolutely no aircon buses or public transport over here), in my light trousers and t-shirt, not quite understanding why the steward was handing out blankets – what, blankets in August?! You guys must be joking! And as the hours passed, inexperienced farangs lined up for extra blankets, while Thais were sleeping happily, covered in blankets from head to toe, wearing pullovers and socks, yet visibly cold.... and when they woke up, they enjoyed their cokes with an iceberg, while the farangs were dying for a cup of hot tea. I learnt the lesson thoroughly: now I don't travel anywhere without warm trousers, a pair of socks, a pullover, a bandanna (to minimise the effect of the freezing tornado on my ears), AND an extra blanket or sleeping bag of my own.... but often not even all this can save me from having a sore throat. My mother was laughing at me when we were first travelling together and I boarded a night coach with all that arctic equipment.... but now she has learnt too, after two days of intense coughing in Chiang Mai....

A Thai friend of mine, an architect, shed some light on the issue a few years ago. She has no aircon at her home in Prachachuen, way to expensive to pay the bills, she says, so she sleeps sweating in 35-40 degrees, under a fan.... and as the opposite extreme, she has to endure constant 18-degree temperatures during the day in the office near Siam square. It is automatic, can't be adjusted, and is considered elegant: she says the company wouldn't be taken seriously by potential upper-class customers if they didn't have nice cold offices, and employees enjoy being cold anyway, after being so hot at home all the time. What the.... ?! I mean, over here, where offices sometimes have aircon, the standard temperature would be nice and pleasant 23-25 degrees – same as with the heating during the winter. People don't like to be cold here. Thais seem to enjoy shivering, at least "mentally" if not physically – it seems to give them a sense of status: "I don't have to be hot any more, now I can work in a nice cold office, wow!" The colder, the more elegant, simply put. My Thai boyfriend, brought up in small village in Loei, commented that he doesn't like cold, although he thought he should. He was kind of ashamed of not being able to put up with freezing temperatures, as it was a sign of his simple, poor background. Is this healthy? Is this normal? And.... isn't this crazy?!

I was quite proud of myself when I figured out a way to survive my days at school: aircon can be a discipline method. I know this is not taiwan-blogs, but I guess it would work with Thai kids as well if you happen to have an aircon classroom. The trick is simple: I have NEVER seen kids (especially those aged 6-10) shut up and listen attentively as quickly and nicely as when I threatened to switch off the aircon in the classroom, the pretext being that it was way too noisy to manage a bunch of messy, noisy, naughty children. They could not possibly imagine a harsher punishment. Of course it can't be overdone, but it works miracles, they would do everything for the right to shiver. It was amazing to see their aircon lives: jumping from a cold apartment to a cold car or schoolbus, into a cold classroom, cold shopping mall, cold fastfood restaurant – and as a result, at the age of six or seven, sweating and complaining if it was above 30, and they had to be forced to go out to the playground and have some fresh air between two lessons of reading and writing. Urban Thailand is heading this way.... it seems to be a waste of money, by the way. About two years ago I read about a Thai government initiative to allow officials to take off their jackets at work and have slightly higher temperatures in the offices: I have no idea how it went down with the public, if anybody has taken up the issue of the huge electricity bills for excessive cold. And somehow it feels dangerous to me if a generation or social class is increasingly brought up not to be able to withstand weather as it is, living their lives at a constant artificial 20 degrees.... Parallel with white skin, shivering seems to become a status symbol, to break completely with the lives of previous generations and other social classes still toiling on the rice paddies, hot and tanned.

I lifted this list from the Thai Airway's in-flight magazine Sawasdee from October 2004. I'm going to paraphrase some, copy other, and interject here and there. It won't be the exact re-type of the articles, but you'll get all the good bits from it.

And of course, being 99 items in all, I will be doing this in installment of 20 at a time. Also, this list is not a ranking. #1 on this list doesn't mean #1 not to miss.

So here goes.

1. World's famous Thai smile

2. Boutique hotels

3. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiangmai :: Do you know that this is the temple featured in Rambo III?

4. Venice of the East :: Back in the days, Bangkok was called just that because of all the canals that connected the city. You can rent a long tail boat on Chao Phraya river for canaling excursion, or head south for some kayaking down Mae Klong River in Samut Songkram.

5. Kid's Vacation :: Where else on earth would you call to see if the baby elephant and its mahout are ready to take care of your kids for the next hour or three?

6. Pier-side cafes along Chao Phraya river :: Pull up the plastic chairs at local casual restuarants along the river is a great alternative to the 5-star joints of the Oriental and Shangri-La hotels. Kaloang has great seafood, Silver Spoon and Poh Tha Tien are good and cheap with sunset view, River Bar is trendy, and Good View and Baan Klang Naam way out of town.

7. Mae Hong Son :: The misty valley and green hills of Mae Hong Son was once only accessible by elephants. Now a hub for caving, rafting, natural hot springs, and elephant trekking.

8. Contemporary art scene in Bangkok and Chiangmai

9. Traditional Thai incense sticks and candles

10. The hills of northern Thailand :: A few of the countless trekking options include a visit to an unspoiled hill-tribe village, a home stay on an isolated river or a nature hike to study the history of exotic Himalayan flowers that thrive on remote Thai mountaintops.

11. Pachyderm Paradise :: 2 great ways to really get to know your Heffalumps. Live a live of a mahout at the 3-day course offered by the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, learning to take care of the elephants and stay in simple bungalow. Or upscale your accommodation at a similar program at the elegant Anantara Resort in Chiang Saen.

12. Jazz in Hua Hin :: Check out Hua Hin Jazz Festival, and Jazz Alley, a stretch in Petkasem Road to the railway station.

13. Fusion Food :: Thai-Western dishes at the Kalapapruek originated from the palace recipes where the very first fusion Thai food was born. For more upscale fusion food, try A Matter of Taste, Glow, and Maha Naga.

14. World class luxuary hotels and resorts

15. Jim Thompson House :: In the heart of Bangkok lies this traditional Thai teak wood house in a lush, almost jungle like garden. I went there last year. It was amazing.

16. The Similans islands :: Clear warm water and spectacular coral reef. Protected under Thailand's large national park system, the 9 islands are refreshingly underdeveloped and only one offers accommodation.

17. Spas :: Great fusion of Western style spa treatment with a touch of Thai.

18. Night cruise down Chao Phraya River :: Nothing like seeing the Grand Palace and Wat Arun all lit up at night from the river.

19. Rooftop Dining :: 2 hightest rooftop restuarants in the world await you at 200-meters up at Vertigo (seafood and steaks), and even higher Sirocco (Mediterranean)atop the Bangkok Dome over looking the river . Also at the Dome, the whisky bar Distil and Italian joint Mezzaluna.

20. Sales! Sales! Sales! :: Nobody EVER pays retail in Thailand. There IS always a sale in the department stores. Always!

You like all of that? 79 more coming your way! Keep reading.

In the 1990s, one of my farang bosses was concerned by the curious behavior that Bangkok taxi and tuk-tuk drivers had of making quick stops into little shops and coming back with a small brown bottle. At first he was worried that all of the taxi drivers in Bangkok were alcoholics and he declared that employees that need to travel in taxis must wear seat belts. Eventually, someone told him that the little brown bottles were not alcoholic drinks, but they were energy drinks. He was intrigued by these energy drinks and some of the girls in the office made fun of his interest, telling him it was a drink for taxi drivers, not high powered businessmen.

Maybe back then they didn't realize that a European partner would help make Red Bull (gives you wings!) a leading brand name in more than 100 countries and the Thai owner of Krating Daeng (Red Bull) would soon be included in every "world's richest" list. In Thailand, it was not only taxi drivers that drank this. Late night partiers mixed energy drinks with their alcohol, keeping them going all night (back when the bars were open all night). The energy drinks are also used by many Thais as a hangover cure.

These drinks are packed with a combination of vitamins (mostly B-complex vitamins), caffeine, and other ingredients that are known for boosting energy and mental alertness. I don't think that any of the ingredients are dangerous but I also believe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing so I am cautious about using energy drinks. I'm pretty sensitive to caffeine; a nice cup of green tea is enough to keep me happy.

The Temporary Bazaar
(Written 31 August 2005, National Day of Malaysia)

Due to the “isolated” location of Betong and thus higher cost of transportation, goods sold in Betong are generally more expensive (and limited variety too) than other places in the Southern provinces, Hat Yai or even Bangkok. For example, items like garments, furniture, computer wares etc.

As there is no proper shopping centre in this town, occasionally, the district office will set up temporary bazaar in Betong town which lasts from one to two weeks, with hawkers coming from various parts of the nation. The bazaar normally gets going from around 10:00am and continues until 9:00pm at night.

Currently there is an "OTOP Expo"bazaar started on 25 August and will end on 2 September. As usual, the range of products includes household accessories, handicrafts, clothes, tapes and CDs, furniture, foods, games etc. Most of the prices are fixed and no bargaining is expected.

The Bazaar

Though the bazaar are almost the same each time , regardless of whatever theme they have, they still draw reasonable crowds as there are no better places to go, especially after sunset. However, today the crowd is obviously less...because a bomb was discovered in front of a gas store adjoining the petrol station this morning…

Some of the boothes

The Popular food-grasshoppers, cicada and ...?!

After delving into a myriad of baffling beliefs in me last blog, I thought that it was time that I’d write something way off the usual stevesuphan topics and so, put together a piece on the ins and outs of ‘going out in Thailand’

Once upon a time not so long ago Thailand and especially Bangkok, was a paradise haven for partygoers wishing to boggie the night away before returning back to their crash-pads just before the infamous five-thirty in the morning traffic jams. However, since such behaviour was deemed ‘un-Thai’ our blessed ‘Ministers of Interior’ have advised that we should all be back in our cozy beds early and in a fit state to get to the office the following morning. Then, as for the foreign tourists, it was perceived that none of them were interested in coming to Thailand for the nightlife and so a one-in –the-morning closing was ideal for getting up early enough to set off for the Floating Market before visiting twenty-nine temples and three markets in the space of a day.

So, if its round-the-clock boogie-woogie yer after, you’ll have to go elsewhere to the likes KL or Singapore instead where such time enforcement laws hardly exist. As for the likes of meself, I’m not exactly much of a party-pooper these days and can usually be found tucked-up in bed before eleven.

Anyway, for any of you readers who’d care for a lowdown on Thailand’s nightlife let’s first start with the ‘Thai Disco’. Well… unlike in the west, a whole pack of guys can arrive at a venue looking as down-right shabby as possible, half-drunk, be vulgar to all the lady guests outside and still get a VIP welcome (just as long as they have money of course). In fact most Thai guys aren’t as bad I’d say as the average male Farang tourist who shows up, with a Beer Chang can in hand, cursing at the taxi driver while wearing flip-flops and a Beer Lao t-shirt. Actually, Thais can be so forgiving of some obnoxious Farang tourists that if it were a Thai guy he'd be given the boot out the door almost straight away.

Unless yer off to some flashy western-type disco down Siam Square or the early Sukhumvit Sois you’ll soon be finding out that a Thai-style disco is prosiacally different to what you may have got used to back home. Instead of a certain…DJ Jackhammer strutting-his-stuff, we in Thailand have the better view of a variety of awe-inspiring girlie singers wearing as little as is permissible by the Ministry of Culture. Then, if girlies aren’t your your cup-of-tea there are always a couple of hunky-dory male singers sporting a Doraemon-like haircut. Even so, you can’t beat some of the standard around and its been reckoned that Thailand is second only to The Philippines in the region for the standard of its ‘Live Music’. Then, for the foreigners who haven’t the foggiest to Thai music and think it ‘all sounds the same’ then most big disco bands will soon be playing their 5,673rd rendition of Hotel California and Another Brick in The Wall for your pleasure.

As for dancing, unless it’s some foreign-targeted disco, you’ll soon be finding out that your boogie-woogie space is limited to half a square foot. That means keep yer legs firmly still and just boggie the top half of yer body (at yer table) ie. authentic Thai discos come minus an actual dance floor. Anyway, who needs the sight of a whole stack of wayward drunken delinquents wobbling around the dance floor making a fool of themselves, when there is in fact, far better ISO 14001 passable quality to be admired singing on the actual stage? Guess the Thais have a better sense of visual beauty in that regard.

One other cultural difference to ‘disco etiquette’ is that you ought to spend the whole night only associating with those who you came with ie.. the people at yer table. As a foreigner though, the Thais prefer bending the rules a bit (especially the upcountry male ones) and enjoy shouting out some micky-mouse English along the lines of ‘Hey, where you come from?” to some foreigners just to show off to their their awesome langauge ability to their friends.

And so, you can imagine just how many foreign guys have run into the precariously dangerous situation after they have been spotted by some Thai guys, chatting up their girlfriends. Many years ago, I had a friend of mine that ended up with a gun to his head outside a disco in Chiang Rai after he had failed to realise that Thai girls in Thai-style discos are not the easy catfish catch as they are down say… Pattaya and certainly not willing to have a smoochy-slow-dance with any old Dick and Harry. So guys, you have been warned.

Well, for any those readers out there who aren’t exactly into the habit of going to a disco and getting completely sploshed out of yer head, then Thai discos are right down your street. Beers aren’t exactly that popular with our counterpart Thai disco-goers, but whiskey is instead. Don’t be frightened however about any heavy consumption of alcohol as the waiters/waitress adds as little whisky as barely possible to one glass before filling it up with soda and coke thus making the alcohol minutely detectable. You’ll be consuming so much ice and mixers that you’ll be leaving for home more sober than when you arrived.

Of course, our Thai friends have a love for cleanliness and that includes keeping the table clean and dry at all times. Just have a single nut fall off the plate and one of yer female acquaintances will soon have a tissue out clearing away the mess. Then, Thais have an ingenius idea for keeping the table dry. Just wrap a piece of tissue paper around the glass so it resembles a tissue holder. Unfortunately however the tissue paper used isn’t much different from that used in the lavatory.

On arriving at a Thai disco, it is advised that you locate your seating wisely and that means short distance from the toilets. Some discos in Bangkok are so darned massive and packed out that it can take you ten minutes just to get there. Unlike in the west where the toilets are a place to do yer business and get straight out of, Thai Disco toilets are a little place all of their own. If yer feeling a bit worn out there are a whole string of eager attendants waiting to massage yer neck and shoulders while you relieve yourself before throwing you a hot towel to sober you up a bit. This is Thailand and its not only women who have the rights to parade themselves in front of the toilet mirror for half an hour dollying themselves up, us men can do exactly the same thing. There are an array of combs, hairbrushes, gels and in some discos even colognes to get that perfect John Travolta look you’ve always wanted. Of course, not too many things are exactly free in Thailand and a tip is expected. In fact, these toilet attendants don’t even get a salary in these places as the tips can be often quite handsome.

And finally, this is Thailand and not Amsterdam. The authorities in charge along with the Minister of Interior have enjoyed ‘busting’ nearly every single Bangkok disco there is over the past few years and subjecting all the partygoers to a mandatory pee-pee check to make sure that they have not been indulging in any unwanted illegal substances before going out that night. Even though there are thousands of ‘scummy-type’ illegal discos in Bangkok they are no fun for the authorities to bust as the cop cells just aren’t large enough to accommodate all the druggies. Therefore, a fave destination to ‘do the bust’ is at the higher class ones which are frightfully popular with foreign tourists. Great for the tourism industry, the authorities in charge just love hassling all these well-to-do tourists just off the plane to the likes of ‘You take drugs? No, well show me yer pee-pee as evidence’.

At the end of the day however, i'll just have to say: I prefer Thai-style.

Ye-haa! 6 more days before I’m on the plane to Thailand! Yip-ee! In 7 days I’ll actually be able to gaze into the eyes of my loved one and hold her close to me as I whisper sweet nothings into her ear in my “southern drawl” limited Thai. Which will prompt one of the two usual responses, uncontrolled laughter or two hands firmly and resolutely placed over the offending orifice.
This is pretty meager blog material, I swear I have a couple on Word I’ve been working on at my blazing two finger frenzied pace, the Monks as well as my fan are amazed that they can type in English faster than me!
Things are hopping now! I believe my last couple of blogs were complaining about my government’s slowness in the visa process and now in the past month they’ve achieved an admirable rate of frenzy in world wide document transferals. My fan and I had been planning to go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat , a long standing dream of mine, but as she received her documents from the Embassy yesterday we probably will attend to as much of that business as possible. The blind leading the blind! Jeez, poor me, I may have to turn right around in another 3 months and fly back to Thailand if all the paper work and interview go smoothly!
Anyway I’m going to try and post some of this trip in a timely fashion as opposed to events that are from my last two trips. Beware though, they are saved on Word and there is a danger, however slight, that I’ll get them posted. Perhaps I’ll run into Khun Kitjar at the airport as he’ll be leaving shortly after I arrive.

In June, 1979, Patong Beach was but a half dozen small bungalows and the large Patong Beach Hotel about mid way on the stunning horse shoe shaped bay.

Patong Beach Bungalows were usually full of happy German tourist.

The big Patong Beach Hotel was mainly for bus tours/Nicorman-types,short stays, "see 4 countries in 4 days" folks. The ONLY place on Patong with air conditioning and hotwater!

Scandia Bungalows were always full of jovable Norse, they rarely slept during their "winter over" from the land of the Northen Lights. They were usually good natured and were just glad to be out of the cold.

The newly built 7 Seas Bungalow were a place to stay away from, mostly "northen" European lowlifes, daily fights and trouble was this place!!

Valentine Bungalows,run by Mr Singh was a complete garden delight! The "old chinaman" kept the place ship-shape, the gardens full of tiger lillies and birds of paradise. Although there were only 4 small bungalows, they were ALWAYS full. There was usually little or no problems at Valentines.

Bayshore Bungalows, just south of where Holiday Inn is now, were the backpackers choice. Similar to Valentines, but not kept up as well, but OK. If you stayed at Bayshore, you'd need earplugs, cause the crickets would chirp at about 100 decibles!! [for sure!!!!]. They had GREAT curry at their little cafe too.

SeaView Bungalows was at the extreme south end of Patong Beach, where the rice paddy creek let out into Patong Bay. We'd stay there only if none of the other bungalows had rooms. They were really far from , but they were clean, had a nice cafe.

Naturally every bungalow compound had their own "stories", mostly at the expense of the other bungalows...:-)

The expats, tourists and travellors made up the majority of people that stayed in Old Patong, atleast in the bungalows on the beach.

ALL women still wore sarongs in those days, their were only a few "working" ladies there, we became friends with both, one turned out to be the mysterious lady that looked like a cross between Mae West and Tina Turner, I'll just call her "Lydia", but anyone there then knows who she is. The other was a wild one, I'll just call her "3", any other talent in the area was imported from Bangkok, and of that, there were few.

I won't discuss what happened at 7 Seas, it was considered little more than a hognam serving Mekhong...

too be continued...

When friends and family members are planning trips to Bangkok and Thailand, they always ask me what the highlights are for the City of Angels. Of course, everyone will have different opinions. But, I feel that at the very least, people should experience these attractions on my list. Then, depending on time, visit others too.

So, from my own experience of showing people around, here is a top 10 list of places to visit in Bangkok.

(1) The Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Kaew

(2) The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.

(3) Long-tailed boat trips along the canals in Thonburi (also take the River Express Ferry)

(4) The Temple of Dawn at Wat Arun. A different kind of temple along the river. Can be missed if you have already seen others and your time is limited. If you like temples then also visit Wat Traimit for the Golden Buddha and Wat Benchamabophit otherwise known as the Marble Temple.

(5) Visit Jim Thompson's House for a fine example of Thai traditional houses. Suan Pakkard Palace is in some ways better but less visited by tourists.

(6) Vimanmek Teak Mansion is worth visiting not only because you get a free ticket after visiting the Grand Palace, but also because of its magnificence and examples of how Thai royalty lived in the past.

(7) The National Museum is a must for people who want to understand more about Thai culture and the history of the country. However, you can miss it if your time is limited and you are bored by museums!

(8) Chatuchak Weekend Market is always on the top of people's list for shopping in Bangkok. But, if you are not in town at the weekend then try out the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. For air-conditioned comfort try the shopping malls at MBK and others along the Sky Train route.

(9) Thai boxing should be experienced by everyone even if you are not so interested in sports. The atmosphere in the stadium is almost electric as the fights have musical accompaniments and people in the stands are frantically shouting out bets.

(10) A visit to Bangkok wouldn't be complete without at least one example of Thai traditional dancing. This is possible at various Dinner Theatres. However, you can also see some dancing for free at the Erawan Shrine.

At a later stage, I will do a list of "unseen" attractions.

For ideas for day trips and excursions from Bangkok, please visit our sister site at Bangkok-daytrips.com.