Window Cleaners

I was sitting at the computer desk at the condo looking out through the living room balcony at the Bangkok morning. The view was pretty much the same as any other day, maybe a little less hazy (from the smog) on this day.

I glanced at the tall building next door and quickly did a double-take - there was a guy on the side of the building!

This guy in the orange shirt was hanging off the building trying to be like Spiderman! Naturally this caught my attention so I sat and watched this guy for about 30 minutes. From my observation the guy was hanging by a rope that was attached somewhere to the roof of the building. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Eventually I saw that he was running wire along the crown-molding looking thingies on the building. There were two other guys stationed on the highest landing of the building just below the rooftop and they seemed to be guiding and instructing him. I get bored of watching him as I knew that he probably wasn't going to fall off the building nor was he doing some type of cool stunt. It turned out that he was changing/replacing the color of the neon lights on the building that are turned on at night.


The very next day I was at the gym on the 5th floor of the condo. The outer walls of the gym are nothing but glass so that you get a nice view of the city as you exercise. I was running on the treadmill getting a nice burn. I looked to my right and saw a guy on the outside of the glass slowly lowering into view. He was wearing a helmet and a body harness, and there was a rope attached to him that went up beyond my view. He was sitting on a wooden plank that had a bucket of water tied to it. He had a rag in one hand and a windshield wiper in the other hand. Somehow the window was wet on the outside and he was using the small handheld windshield wiper to clean/dry the window. As I finished my workout, he worked his way at cleaning the entire window and eventually lowered further down to clean windows on the floor below. I watched in amazement at how this 40-story modern looking building was getting it's windows cleaned. I simply assumed it would be done by a couple of people working on those platform things that have rails on each side and are lowered from the top. Nope, not in this case. It's done by a guy tied to a rope sitting on a piece of wood with a bucket of water and a squeegee! How crazy is that?! Is that even safe? I had to get a closer look, so after my workout I grabbed my camera and went outside to check it out.

I went to the front of the building, looked up, and saw two guys cleaning the windows.

Wow, this guy has a pole extension on his windshield wiper.

This is the guy I saw while in the gym.

I think he ran out of water and had to be lowered to replenish his bucket. What a job! I bet the view is great, but I just wouldn't feel very safe. I'm not sure if this method would meet OSHA regulations.

As I am about to post this blog, I look outside and see a whole crew of people on ropes washing the windows on a huge building! Check them out.

Look at them go!

So in two days I've observed people hanging off the side of tall buildings from a rope to perform routine work. I am surprised but not surprised at the same time. I am slowly learning that this is Thailand, not the U.S. Things are done a little differently here, but it's not just Thailand. Things are done a little differently in a lot of places that would appear non-conventional to a Westerner. These things range from driving and eating habits to work ethics and politeness. I look forward to observing more of these differences while living overseas.

Water is Cheap in Thailand!

Regarding the drinking water in Thailand, it is always highly emphasized to never drink the tap water and to always drink and cook with bottled water. Even the Thai people don't drink the tap water. Easy enough. This hasn't been a problem so far. What has surprised me is the abundance of bottled drinking water and the ridiculous price.

I thought that constantly buying bottled water would become a hassle. To some degree this is true. Yes, it is a hassle to buy water every week, but fortunately bottled water is just as easily available to buy in Thailand than in America or any other country I have visited. I can walk into any corner store, 7-eleven, or gas station and find plenty of bottled water.

I also thought that constantly buying bottled water would become an expensive, yet necessary, habit to incorporate into everyday life. To my surprise water is extremely cheap in Thailand. The picture below is a six pack of 1.5 liter bottles of drinking water. This six pack of water cost me 59 baht at the Shell gas station next door. At the current exchange rate of $1.00 = 35 baht, this comes out to only $1.68!

What an awesome deal! If my memory serves me correct, the cost of one of these 1.5 liter bottles in the U.S. would cost about $1.50 depending on the brand name and where you purchased it. I knew bottled water in general was a rip off, but seeing these low prices in a country like Thailand really drives the point that U.S. consumers are being screwed with bottled water prices. The cost of producing water can't differ that much from country to country, I'm sure the methods are very similar. The only other reasons I can think of for this price discrepancy is that perhaps the labor wages at the bottling facilities are so cheap in Thailand that they can afford to sell at a much lower price, or it is a simple function of supply and demand. The supply of bottled water seems to be about the same in both countries, but the demand is greater in the U.S. Everybody in the U.S. seems to be addicted to bottled water, almost as much as coffee or fast-food. Another idea is that since most Thai people buy bottled drinking water, the price had to be lowered (possibly forced by the government?) so that it would be affordable to all Thai people.

I'd like to believe that at least one of these theories are true, but I'm too lazy to do the research. Otherwise, the U.S. bottled water companies are basically getting away with robbery, making a crap load of money hand over fist just because they can (and we let them). It's no secret that convenient products will sell well to the typical lazy U.S. consumer, and evidently tap water wasn't convenient enough! I could go into tree hugging arguments about the quality of tap water versus bottled water (federal standard for tap water is higher) or excessive build-up of plastic bottles in landfills due to bottled water demand, but I won't bother. It's really the price difference that amazes me. If shipping costs weren't so expensive I'd make a killing exporting this water to America. Maybe if I said the water was blessed by a Thai Buddhist Monk I could make some money...hmmm...oh damn, this idea has already been taken!

http://www.holyspringwater.com/

Oh well, I can't complain. I'm happy that I can easily get water for these many hot days in Thailand.

Christmas Eve and Christmas 2008

I've always marched to a slightly different beat and celebrating holidays is no exception. Last year's holidays were spent in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. This year, Christmas was spent in Bangkok, Thailand. Even though 95% of Thai people are Buddhists, they go all out with the Holiday theme and decorations. This is especially true at the major malls and stores where there is Western money to be made. I quickly became annoyed with the cheesy Christmas songs they played at the grocery store. And I think it was out of place when I would hear the songs "White Christmas" and "Let it Snow" in Thailand - perhaps it will be appropriate after global warming occurs.

The morning started out as any typical Christmas eve would by cooking a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. Next, was a 30 minute car ride through the legendary Bangkok traffic to Amber's job followed by an hour and a half long car ride to the immigration office in the small coastal town of Sri Racha (pronounced 'see rah-cha') to get an extension of stay on my visa. Why go to the immigration office in Sri Racha instead of Bangkok? Apparently, it is much easier to get a work related visa approved in Sri Racha than in Bangkok. The way they see it in Bangkok, you can only get a work visa if you provide a service or skill that a Thai person can not perform. In other words, a foreign work visa is a way to potentially take away a job from a Thai person. Since Bangkok is a huge metropolis with many skilled workers, it is very difficult to justify getting a work visa in their eyes. However, Sri Racha is a small town with lots of construction work and not too many skilled workers, especially in the technical or managerial fields. Therefore, it was easier for Amber to get a work visa approved. As an expat spouse, I had to apply for mine at the same location.

Mind you that Amber and I spent over an hour at the Sri Racha immigration office the previous day. The small building (maybe 10ft by 20ft) had about 8 desks filled with stacks of paper and an army of stamps manned by Thai government workers donning their official uniforms. The waiting area was in front and contained about 30 chairs, which were always occupied. Each desk had two sitting chairs opposite of the government worker for the applicants to sit and show documents. It appeared that each desk had a different function and an applicant had to flow through each desk to show documents, get paperwork stamped, and move on to the next desk. Thankfully, Amber's company was kind enough to provide a Thai-speaking HR representative to handle the bureaucratic maze for us. During the previous day's encounter, Amber was able to get her extension of stay, but I was told that my 'documents' needed to be checked. I guess it took them less than a day to check my documents, and so there I was at the immigration office for the second day in a row. I noticed on both days that just about every applicant coming into the office brought a gift basket and presented it to the Thai government workers. There was a table in the back filled with baskets that overflowed to the floor! These weren't special Christmas baskets (as I mentioned Thailand is a largely Buddhist country) and the applicants bearing these gifts weren't denied stamps and seemed to have their paperwork processed faster. *Lesson learned* - bring a gift basket to the immigration office. Luckily, I only waited for 15 minutes this time and got my needed stamp for my visa on my passport. I'm positive that if we would have brought a gift basket during our first trip I wouldn't have needed to make another trip. Oh well, a trip to the immigrations office was an interesting way to start Christmas eve.

I was dropped off at Amber's job and we decided to have lunch together at the cafeteria in her building. The cafeteria resembled a typical food court at a mall with many food stands along the wall and tables spread about in the middle. The only thing was that everything was in Thai - the people, the food, and the menus. By method of pointing at pictures, we ended up getting some dumplings, a chicken plate with rice and cabbage for 2, bottled water, a fresh fruit smoothie, and a scoop of coconut ice cream for dessert. All this cost about $8 and it was delicious and filling!

I spent the rest of the day lounging about at home while Amber finished her day at work. When she got home, we went to the gym and worked out (thanks to my nagging). We were undecided on where to have dinner but we eventually settled on Moroccan food at Nomads. The restaurant also has a club that was hosting a salsa party. Cool, nothing like a little dinner and dancing. Unfortunately, the taxi ride took almost an hour! It should have taken only 15 minutes, but this is Bangkok where the traffic is unpredictable and a traffic jam can occur at any time of the day or night. We did drive by a guy walking his elephant. Pretty neat, how many people can say they saw an elephant on Christmas Eve? One of these days I'll have my camera with me to get a picture of an elephant on a busy street with a Seven-eleven or Starbucks in the background.

This was our second time eating at Nomads. The restaurant had the whole Moroccan theme going on, complete with hookahs standing among the tables. We chose to sit outside because the weather was great, probably low 80s F and we could hear the salsa music in the adjacent bar/club. We had a couple of cocktails and ordered fish, chicken, and lamb. They forgot about the fish, but were apologetic and brought another one for us. The food was good, better than last time. But I think that's because we chose better dishes this time. By the time we finished our food, the salsa party at the club was kicking. The dance floor was surprisingly packed. We found our usual group of salsa friends inside and danced the night away - all the way into Christmas morning.

After the music stopped, Amber and I sat at a table outside and ordered a hookah to be fired up for us. We smoked some very nice apple flavored tobacco and ended up conversing with the group of people next to us. The guy was an American who looked like Tony Soprano, except this guy could dance really well. He had two Thai women friends with him - not an uncommon site in Thailand. We ended up shutting down the place at 2am. We tried to look for another bar that was open, but they all seem to close at the same time. Interestingly, the food stalls on the side of the streets turned into make-shift bars. These bars consisted of a push-cart with various bottles of liquor and beer. After my visit to the hospital, I made a personal rule not to eat or drink anything from the streets. Besides, I'm pretty sure these booze are illegal. But so is prostitution - go figure. We didn't feel like spending time at these dodgy establishments and decided to turn in at about 3am.

I woke up around 11am on Christmas morning. I did my cardio workout at the gym while Amber slept in (Yes, I am a workout freak that will workout even during the holidays). When I came back, we exchanged our presents. Amber got me the adobe Creative Suite 4 package to support my growing graphic art interest. She told me that I didn't have to get her anything because me being there was a present enough, but I had to get her something. I ended up giving her the book, "Confederacy of Dunces". For brunch, we ordered Thai food from the restaurant downstairs. There's nothing like some good Thai food for Christmas! Afterwards, we watched the movie "Get Smart" and took a nap.

When we awoke, we realized that we had overslept. We had dinner reservations with a friend at 7pm - less than an hour! We quickly got ready and saw that we had 20 minutes to go. I looked out the window and could see the long line of cars backed up for rush hour traffic on the street leading to the restaurant. Should we take a taxi that could take 30 minutes or longer, or take the skytrain (above ground subway) and get a boat to the restaurant? We opted for the latter option. Good choice! The skytrain was not busy at all, and we got off at the last stop which was within walking distance to the boat dock at the river. The Chao Phraya River is a major river in Thailand that flows into the Gulf of Thailand and runs through the heart of Bangkok. Its banks are lined with 5 star hotels and condos, and further downstream it contains the Royal Thai Palace. Taxi boats, hotel boats, and dining boats can always be seen on the river, especially at night. This night was no exception. We were at a dock where the hotels sent their boats to pick up guests. After two boats came and went, our boat for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel docked. We hopped on and arrived directly at the riverside terrace restaurant in about 5 minutes. Whew! We made it on time.

The buffet style restaurant had a lovely view of the river. It was set up such that the tables were by the water and the various buffets were arranged by different foods according to the course. In the middle was a large island dessert station that featured custom made crepes. We were seated near the front of the outdoor stage where a spanish guitar player and a singer were performing soothing bossa nova tunes. Within minutes we met up with Mike, a co-worker of Amber, and we were on our way stuffing ourselves. In addition to the western Christmas traditions of ham, turkey, dressing, etc., the buffet also included foods such as tandoori chicken, lobster, hummus, fish, and pasta. I think I made 3 trips to the main buffet and 3 trips to the dessert island! It was certainly a feast. The food was plentiful, the wine kept flowing, and the music entertainment was very nice. Not a bad way to spend Christmas dinner.

For the after dinner entertainment, we decided to check out the hotel's 'Bamboo Bar'. We had been there before and very much enjoyed the live house jazz band. Sure enough, the same band was at it again. The bar had a classy yet tropical look to it, yet the space was small enough to give it a 'hole in the wall' appeal to it, especially with the jazz band occupying it front and center. The band consisted of an up-right bass player, a drummer, a pianists, a saxophonist, and a soulful lead singer that was engaging both on and off the stage between sets. Feeling a bit festive, Mike and I ordered a couple rounds of flaming B-52 shots for ourselves while Amber sipped on a cocktail. For the rest of the night we listened to jazz, drank, conversed, relaxed, and snacked on Durian chips (*see note below).

It had been a low key and relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas complete with a trip to the immigration office, traffic, spotting an elephant, Moroccan and Thai food, salsa dancing, hookah smoking, relaxation, and lounging around. This is the second year in a row to spend a non-traditional Christmas and I enjoyed them both very much. While it is wonderful to spend the holidays with lots of family and friends, for me it was almost as nice to get away from all the holiday chaos and stress. Regardless of how you choose to spend yours, I wish all of you happy holidays!!




*Note on Durian Chips
For snacks, the Bamboo Bar served fried chips that were hands down the best chips I'd ever eaten in my life. The chips had a silky taste to it that, to me, somewhat resembled pistachios with a touch of sweetness. The waitress told me that they were chips made from the Durian fruit. Known as "the king of fruits", this is an interesting Southeast Asian fruit that will get a blog of its own. The fruit itself smells like raw sewage but tastes incredibly good - the smell is so bad that it is banned in many public places and hotels!

My 'Welcome to Thailand' Moment

I'll try not to be too graphic for this post. There is no need to glorify or go into too much detail on this one. Nonetheless, this was a notable event that I feel should be documented.

Throughout my first weekend upon arrival in Bangkok I had periodic headaches and feelings of nausea in my stomach. I figured it was due to being tired from the jet lag in combination with eating new foods (mmm...curry). The feelings would come and go - nothing some Tylenol, water, and a nap couldn't handle. However, on Tuesday I was feeling especially bad. My headache was worse and wouldn't go away, and my stomach was more queasy than usual. I ate a snack in the morning with some water and Tylenol and took a nap hoping I could sleep it off like usual. I initially woke up from the nap feeling OK. My stomach was rumbling - OK, good, time to eat again and move on with my day. Unfortunately, these weren't rumblings of hunger. No, these were the type of rumbles that made my stomach churn and were accompanied by my mouth watering. Not good. I sipped on some water next to the bed, but it didn't help. My mouth kept watering. I asked myself if this really happening - am I about to yak? It sure feels like it. Sure enough, my mouth waters to a point where I have to run to the bathroom and out comes my morning snack. It's been so long since I've thrown up that I'd forgotten how much it sucks! The whole heaving uncontrollably thing really does sucks! It's one of those rare times when you are helplessly not in control of your body. Unfortunately for me, my problems didn't stop there. The stomach rumblings were worse now. I'm on my knees in the bathroom next to the toilet trying to recover from the vomiting, when my body abruptly instructs me to drop my pants and sit my ass on the toilet. I won't go into any more detail here, but you get the point that my body was purging itself in more than one way.

At this point I was feeling very weak, nauseous, and hungry so I went and fixed myself some soup and water to put something in my stomach. After only 5 spoons of soup I ran to the bathroom and repeated the same horrific episode. OK, this is getting serious. I can't even hold down a little bit of soup. I called Amber to see if she had any stomach medicine and ended up taking some Pepto we had, but she said my symptoms were similar to something her co-worker had and that I should go to a hospital. She decided to leave work and take me to the hospital. By the time she arrived I had thrown up again and was very weak and getting disoriented. She got her driver to take us to the emergency room at the nearby hospital. I could barely walk when we pulled up. They put me in a wheelchair and took me to the emergency room area. They immediately put me in a bed and within minutes a doctor was checking on me and asking me about my symptoms and what had happened. They took a blood sample so they could make a diagnosis, put me on an I.V., and set me up in a room saying that I would need to stay at least one night there. Within 30 minutes they determined I had some type of bacterial infection from something I ate. I was put on anti-bacterial medicine through the I.V. and a soft diet with electrolytes. By the way, I've never been hooked up to an I.V. They stuck me in a vein on the top of my left hand and left a big-ass catheter in me to attach the I.V. tube. That thing hurt like hell! On top of the ailment I already had, I was also stressing out about the acute pain in my freaking hand. I think it took about 12 hours for the pain in my hand and for me to get accustomed to the feeling of the huge catheter in my hand. Note to self: stay as healthy as possible so that I can minimize hospital visits and avoid getting I.V.'ed or having catheters inserted into my body!

For dinner it took me an hour and a half to eat a piece of toast! For those of you that know me, I eat my meals very fast. Can you imagine seeing me take teeny tiny bites of one piece of bread for over an hour? Each tiny bite made my stomach rumble and I thought I might have to run to the bathroom, but I made it unscathed. By the next morning I was still weak but feeling a little better. I was able to eat all my soup and both pieces of toast for breakfast, it only took 1 hour this time! I napped through most of the day, and by the afternoon I was feeling good, I had most of my energy back but still had a lingering headache. They let me out of the hospital and gave me more medicine to take for the rest of the week. It sucked when they pulled the catheter out of my hand, it left a huge purple raised bump that stayed sore for days. It took me three more days to get back to 100%. I would still get tired easily and the headaches would come and go, but after those three days of eating nothing but soup and bread I finally ventured out and had some great Tex Mex. I wolfed down the meal like my old self and everything was back to normal! The Tex Mex cantina, named Charlie Brown's, was hands down the best Tex Mex I've had outside of Texas (much better than anything I've had in Philadelphia or Delaware). I'll be dedicating an entire blog entry to this restaurant.

All the locals say this 'welcome to Thailand' moment will eventually happen to outsiders living in Thailand. A lot of Amber's ex-pat co-workers experienced the same thing as me, some weren't as serious while others resulted in hospital stays of days and even weeks. I do want to make a quick note that the health care I received at BNH Hospital was spectacular. The staff was very polite, prompt, and attentive to my needs. The nurse outfits were cute too. They wore the classical nurse uniform complete with the dress and little white hats - just like the Joker in the latest Batman movie. I wonder how long I would have been waiting in the emergency room lobby had I been in the U.S.? I still don't know what I ate that caused my infection. Amber and I pretty much ate the same thing for all our meals and we always drank bottled water. It could have been something her body was already used to since she has lived here over a year, but we'll never know. So within a week of arriving in Thailand I experienced my 'welcome to Thailand' moment complete with the first hospital stay of my life. Good times. I can't wait to see what other adventures life will throw at me.

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Elephants?!

I have visited Bangkok, Thailand twice over the past year and a half. These trips across the world were long (24 hours with layovers) but straight forward. They both consisted of taking a 14 hour long flight to China or Japan followed by a 7 hour flight into Bangkok. Let's make it clear that I don’t want to make light of these long flights. The things that got me through these hours of boredom and physical discomfort were listening to my iPod on my noise cancelling headphones (I highly suggest investing in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones for any trip, paired with my favorite tunes on my iPod. It works wonders against crying babies and kids that won‘t shut the hell up), watching several movies, reading a good book, pre-selecting my seats next to empty seats (when available) so that I can sprawl out, my super comfy neck pillow and travel socks (I got them both at Brookstone), and the abundance of (free) wine & alcohol.

So here I am readying myself for yet another long journey into Bangkok to live with my wife, Amber. I am due to leave after Thanksgiving and my plane ticket is already purchased. However, there is one slight problem - the Bangkok airport has just closed down because political protestors have occupied the terminals. They are literally preventing travelers from boarding their planes, and from what I understand some were even on the tarmac! They wouldn’t leave the airport until the current government stepped down and a new election was held. Naturally, the airport had to be shut down indefinitely leaving thousands of people stranded in the airport and in Bangkok.

OK, so the airport is still closed and it’s the day before I fly out. I figure my flight will be cancelled since the airport is still closed. The first leg of the flight is through Continental so I call them up and ask if my flight has been cancelled. They don’t know if the flight is cancelled because the second portion of the flight, which lands at Bangkok, is flown through Northwest Airlines. Fair enough. They give me NWA’s phone number and I call them up. NWA says the flight is still on schedule even though the destination airport is still closed. What kind of crap is that?! Their logic is that by the time I reach Japan and board the NWA flight to Bangkok, the airport might be open by then. Might?! Are you freaking serious?! The airport is closed indefinitely!! There are frickin’ people on the frickin’ tarmac and the government refuses to use force to move them out. This isn’t some picnic, of course the airport will still be closed before I board the plane in Japan. I ask them what kind of consideration or support they will provide if I end up stranded in Japan and they tell me that they cannot offer any help for cases of political/civil unrest. Well that’s just great! I’m expected to get on a plane to Japan knowing that I will be stranded there without any travel assistance until the Bangkok airport opens. I don’t think so. I end up cancelling my flight and getting a full refund. At least I was able to do that!

Well now what? How do I get to Bangkok without flying into the Bangkok airport? The other major international airport in Thailand is in Chang Mai, but this airport is also closed because they diverted all flights into Bangkok there. The only other feasible option is to fly into Phuket and drive to Bangkok, which is over 500 miles by car - roughly the same distance from San Antonio to New Orleans. OK, what about trains from Phuket to Bangkok? I check the train schedule and there are a few trains to choose from, most of them take 8 to 12 hours to get to Bangkok with all the stops. However, there is a problem. The flight arrives into Phuket at 1am and the next train out is at 7am. This leaves quite a long layover at the airport and/or train station. Oh well, I’ve slept on the ground in airports several times while backpacking Europe. I can handle this. My lovely wife decides that this is no way to travel (plus she wants to see me as soon as possible), so she hires a taxi to pick me up at the airport when I arrive in Phuket to drive me all the way to Bangkok.

So it’s set. I get up early the next morning and catch a 6 am flight from San Antonio to Chicago. I slept most of the time and had plenty of room as the plane wasn’t full. I check in at the Korean Air ticket counter in Chicago and get my tickets for the rest of the flights. The plane is boarding when I reach the gate. They serve some good meals on the flight and the wine isn’t bad either. I end up sleeping a lot, reading my book “The Game”, and watching a couple of movies including the new Batman movie and ‘Wanted’. Batman was good but a very long and drawn out movie. I liked the message in ‘Wanted’ but thought the movie could have been put together a little better. The 14 hours surprisingly goes by faster than expected. During the 3 hour layover in Seoul I have lunch at one of the food stalls. Nothing is in English, but they have pictures of the dishes. I pick something that looked like curry chicken with rice and soup. It is actually pork curry, but it is delicious! The 7 hour flight into Phuket is a bit more painful. The plane is full and there aren’t individual TV screens at each seat. We are at the mercy of whatever is playing on the big screen and few drop down screens. The movie is some kiddie movie I don’t care to see. The rest of the time they show clips from various variety shows - weird stuff like acrobatics, Korean funny home videos, stand up comedy in Korean, tap dancing, animal tricks, and tourism stuff. I am glad to finally reach Thailand.

My taxi driver is waiting for me after Customs holding a sign with my name on it and away we go at about 1am. The car is probably a mid to late 90s Toyota Camry look alike. I always forget that the steering wheel and pedals are on the passenger side and that they drive on the opposite side of the road than in the US. It always takes some time to get used to because you always think you are about to get hit during a turn. The driver speaks no English whatsoever but is nice enough to stop every four hours for a bathroom break and to get snacks at a seven eleven. The drive is long and I only take a few naps. After 11 hours we arrive in Bangkok and it becomes apparent that the driver doesn’t know where he's going. He calls like 4 or 5 people asking for directions. We back track and make several u-turns in the busy streets and freeways. What a mess! After all this traveling my taxi driver doesn’t even know how to get to where we’re going?! He accidentally enters a toll way and calls another person. At this point, I notice an exit sign in Thai characters and in English of the street for the apartment. I point at the exit sign and try to pronounce the street name. The street is spelled ’Sathorn’ but the h is silent. So it is actually pronounced ‘sattorn‘. Of course I don’t know this. So I say ’sathorn’ to the driver as I point to the sign. He repeats back ’sattorn’. I nod yes and say again, ’sathorn’. He nods again saying ’sattorn’. Whatever dude, this is the street we need to be on. He exits and motions to me asking which way to turn onto Sathorn. Luckily, I googled mapped the area a week before and have an idea where the apartment is relative to the river. I see the river is to our left so I point him to turn right. We go down the street trying to look for address numbers on all the mid and high rise buildings, but they don’t have any. Finally after a few more blocks I see the apartment building about a quarter mile down (I recognize the building from the picture on google maps). I try to point at the building to the driver but it is obvious he doesn’t know what I'm pointing at or why I'm pointing at it. He ends up taking a u-turn and driving away from the building. I keep pointing at the building but he pulls over and once again calls someone for directions. We are parked in front of the UOB bank building and he keeps repeating UOB on the phone. It is clear they have no idea where he is. After hanging up the phone, I convince him (with more pointing) to u-turn again. I keep pointing at the building until we finally pull up at the correct destination. Geez! I have a better sense of direction here in Bangkok than this guy does! I am finally here. Amber greets me in the lobby and I am introduced to the apartment where I take a much needed shower and nap. The journey had been a long and grueling one.

So here is a recap of my journey:

• 3 hour flight from San Antonio to Chicago
• 1 hour layover in Chicago
• 14 hour flight to Seoul, Korea
• 3 hour layover
• 7 hour flight to Phuket
• 12 hour taxi drive to Bangkok

My trip took 40 hours and consisted of 3 flights and a long taxi ride. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also drove for two and a half days from Delaware to Texas by myself during the previous week. I’m sure if the taxi would have broken down on the way to Bangkok I would have resorted to a bus or even an elephant to complete the journey! Elephants are cool. I rode one in Thailand before, and as long as you keep feeding them bananas they keep going. I knew that being in Thailand would be an adventure itself, but never did I think that getting here would be so taxing. Oh, and just to make me feel a little better about my trip, the Bangkok airport opened up the day after I arrived! Go figure. But as they say in Thailand, “Mai Pen Rai” (pronounced my-pin-rye) which loosely means ’no problem’.

The elephant I rode on during my first visit to Thailand

What is Thailand?

I suppose the important question to ask first is "where is Thailand?" before trying to figure out what Thailand is. Well, this South East Asian country is located south of China and borders Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia. The country almost has a heart-shaped top to it and has a long skinny part that goes south to Malaysia.


In case you are wondering, a flight from the U.S. takes about 24 hours to reach Bangkok, Thailand. I've taken 3 routes so far: 14 hours to Tokyo with a 3 hour layover then 7 hours to Bangkok, or 14 hours over the north pole to Beijing with a 3 hour layover then 7 hours to Bangkok, or 14 hours to Seoul, Korea with a 3 hour layover and 7 hours into Thailand.

Quick facts about Thailand:

• The former name of Thailand is Siam (hence, the famous Siamese twins were from Thailand)
• The king of Thailand is the world longest running monarch. He was crowned in 1950 and just turned 81 years old.
• Thailand is the world's 50th largest country in land mass - similar to France or California
• Thailand is the world's 20th largest country in population - similar to France or the UK
• The average yearly tempearture in central Thailand is 92F
• Bangkok’s official name contains 15 words and roughly translates to “Great City of Angels, Repository of Divine Gems, Great Land Unconquerable, Grand and Prominent Realm, Royal and Delightful Capital City Full of Nine Noble Gems, Highest Royal Dwelling and Grand Palace, Divine Shelter and Living Place of Reincarnated Spirits”
  

OK, so what is Thailand? Truthfully, I don't know. Before coming here, I associated Thailand with third-world poverty, elephants, government coups, Thai kick boxing, beautiful beaches and jungles like in the movies "The Beach" and "American Gangster", the tsunami, and wonderful food. In the few weeks that I've spent living here, I've learned that it will be no simple task describing the experience of living in this place to an outsider. Hence, the purpose of this blog, to chronicle and share my experiences of living in Bangkok and exploring the rest of the country so that I can answer my own question of "what is Thailand?".

First impressions so far - the city of Bangkok is unlike any other I've visited. It is a metropolis of contridiction - chaotic but happily content, ancient but modern, dirty but beautiful, obscene but fiercely traditional. It is also hot, rainy, spicy, and lazy. The Thai people are very nice and all the modern conveniences of the west are available.

I look forward to sharingthe new and exciting things to come and hope that my experiences will help anybody out there that will be visiting or living in Thailand.

View of Bangkok, Thailand from the condo