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Tuesday 22nd July 2008
To add to the list of life's imponderable questions, how does one drink coffee in the jungle? I think I may have found the answer to this question that has been baffling me for many years.
Not surprisingly, an open fire was used to boil the water. To get the fire started, the fruit of a certain plant was used. It is full of fat and burns very readily. I wouldn't have known this, of course, but I was in the company of experienced Thai forest guides. While the water for the coffee was boiling, I wondered how we would drink it. Would one large vessel be passed around for everyone to drink out of? Had our guides packed enough bone china cups and saucers plus, of course, a little jug for the milk? Long straws, perhaps?
It's not completely hollow all the way through. It grows in sections which means that as long as you cut it in the right place, it can provide perfect drinking receptacles. We drank our coffee from bamboo cups; using bamboo spoons to stir it with. I was impressed. I'm not a real 'outdoorsy' type of person but on TV years ago I used to enjoy watching Les Hiddins, aka Bush Tucker Man, using his outdoor skills to survive in the Australian bush with only his wits and whatever natural resources he came across. With every day that now passes, I am enjoying last Friday's experience more but - as I recall - upon arriving home on Friday evening with a body full of aches and pains it didn't then strike me as the most enjoyable day I had ever experienced.
Saturday 19th July 2008
You have to love the Thai sense of humour. The two Thais who took me out for lunch last week latched on to the fact I like wildlife and nature. As a result, I was asked if I would like to visit a waterfall yesterday. "Sure," I replied. I wasn't overjoyed with the start time but it's not often these days that I have to wake at an uncivilised hour, and I was pleased to have an opportunity to see some parts of Thailand I hadn't seen before. My alarm clock went off at 4:45am and my friend picked me up just over an hour later.
After I had taken a few photos, I thought we were going to get back in the truck and go somewhere else. I was wrong. There were some other people at the waterfall who seemed quite friendly and I thought they were there for the same reason, that is, just to look at the waterfall. Wrong again. Very wrong.
As a group, we started walking into the forest, and up the mountain. Five hours later, we reached the top. Fortunately, I was wearing shoes that were just about up to the job but proper walking boots would have been better - had I known what we were going to be doing. In fitness terms, I guess I am about average for my age. I don't smoke, don't drink, eat quite healthily, and walk to most places.
My camera bag isn't that heavy, but it isn't that light, either. I also had a tripod. After about three hours of walking through some very difficult terrain, we rested, and I wasn't sure if I had the strength to continue. The Thais sensed this and then helped me with my gear. It was still tough but I don't think I would have made it carrying the load I had on me. Several stages were 45 degree slopes. There were rocks and a lot of leaf litter, not to mention quite a lot of running water. This made the going slippery at times. Not only did my legs ache but I grabbed on to trees a couple of times to save myself from falling and almost pulled my arm out of its socket. Thus my arms and shoulders were also sore. I was hoping to see some birds but only saw a couple. For most of the time, my gaze was fixed on the ground two feet ahead of me because it was necessary to watch every step. There weren't as many mosquitoes as I had feared, but lots of red ants. Red ants bite, they're aggressive, and their bites sting.
I was told that some droppings we saw were those of some kind of mountain cat. I was also told that if you go far enough into the forest, there are tigers and elephants. However, the areas where they live can't be reached in a day and to get there requires sleeping in the forest for a night or two. Coming down was quicker; it only took about three hours. Whereas going up was tough on the calves, coming down was tough on the knees. I slipped once and landed on my rear end but no damage was done.
While hacking through jungly vines and creepers, it occurred to me on a few occasions that all I was lacking was a pith helmet and a very posh English accent. I can't describe the sense of relief I experienced after finishing the walk and I can't remember the last time my entire body has ached so much. I am writing this half way through Saturday and I am only just beginning to feel normal again.
Once home, I showered, ate, drank enormous amounts of water, and slept solidly for about nine hours. The other members of the group do this kind fairly regularly and asked if I wanted to go again. I told them I would think about it - kit gawn.
There were also two old ladies who go every three months or so to observe and record orchids. Their fitness levels put me to shame. One struggled more than I did but the other was an amazing lady. Most of the group were very much into flora. One young lad of fourteen who was with us didn't even break a sweat and his breathing remained unchanged throughout. When I told Iss today, she thought it was hilarious. As I started off by saying, you have to love the Thai sense of humour.
Friday 18th July 2008 Today is the first day of the waning moon of the eighth lunar month, otherwise known variously as the Buddhist Lent, or Kao Pun-saa, or the Rains Retreat. The end of the Buddhist Lent, or Ohk Pun-saa falls on October 14th this year. Traditionally, Thai men entered the temple during the three months of Lent. In the days before paved roads, the main reason was to protect rice seedlings from being trampled on. Various merit-making ceremonies take place in Thailand at this time, with candles being presented to monks so they have light during their time in the temple. Candles need to be big in order to last three months and some of the candles you see certainly are. They are huge. Most Thai men enter the temple to be ordained some time after reaching 20 years of age. However, not many spend three months as monks. It isn't unusual now for them just to spend a week or two in robes. This act is very meritorious for their parents and it makes them marriageable. I asked some of my female students if they would marry a man who hadn't ordained. With the exception of one girl, they all said no.
Thursday 17th July 2008 Today is the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month, otherwise known in Thailand as Aasaanha Boo-chaa Day. On this day, over 2,500 years ago, the Buddha delivered his first sermon in Benares, India. Do foreigners in Thailand complain too much? Arguably, they do at times. On more than one occasion, I've heard foreigners complaining that mayonnaise and other Western foodstuffs are too sweet. In one hotel review, posted somewhere on the Internet, an American guy was complaining that a Bangkok hotel had advertised breakfast sausages on its menu whereas they were actually frankfurters. "Don't they know the difference between sausages and frankfurters?" he asked. Well, probably not. It's a bit like Westerners abroad trying to please Thai guests by including some Thai dishes on their menus, and Thais complaining that the wrong kind of tomatoes were used in the som-tum, or the fish sauce was too salty. On the other hand, I've read comments from the 'I know everything there is to know about Thailand' brigade who maintain that foreigners only complain because of ignorance, and that if the foreigners had their superior knowledge of Thailand there wouldn't be anything to complain about. In true Thai Buddhist fashion, I believe there is a middle path. There is no point complaining about things Thais don't understand, or things that nothing can be done about. However, if you don't say anything when someone is clearly out of order, they will just walk all over you. I went shopping at Tesco Lotus today for a few bits, and in my trolley was a sealed bag of pre-packaged apples. While the checkout woman was scanning my items, she made a comment that the bag of apples had no barcode and put them to one side. When she had scanned everything else, she rung up the total and asked for my money. "What about my apples?" I asked her. "No barcode," she told me, "you can't have them." She asked for the money again. I quickly pinched myself to make sure the situation was real, and not just another stupid dream. It was real. Now, according to my books on Thai culture, I should have said, "Mai bpen rai," thanked her, smiled, and gone home sans apples, without making a scene. I like these particularly apples, though. They are red, sweet, extremely crisp, and I was quite looking forward to them. I'm sorry to admit that I began to rant. I did so in Thai because a rant in English wouldn't have meant anything to her. I asked whose fault it was there was no barcode, and went straight on to tell her it was their fault, not mine. Normally, when this kind of thing happens, they either call someone to find out the price or they get a replacement product that has a barcode. With her though, she did nothing at all to help me, simply telling me I couldn't have the apples. At this point - to my surprise - another customer joined in and came down firmly on my side. The checkout woman then contacted an assistant who found out the price. I got my apples but I wasn't very happy with the customer service, and all this messing around wasted about 10 minutes of my day. Not only do I not like to be treated like a doormat, but by making a bit of a stand I hope to let shop assistants know that they cannot treat customers the way they do. I also hope that Thais witnessing a stroppy farang might start to realise that sometimes complaining can be a good thing. It's no coincidence that countries where people are very good at complaining also tend to have the best levels of customer service.
Wednesday 16th July 2008 So, you've learnt your Thai vowels and consonants, and you venture forth into Thailand to start reading. Everything is easy now, right? Not quite. The first problem for many will be the fancy fonts that are commonly used. Beauty and appearance are highly prized in Thailand and Thais like to make the written word look as beautiful as possible. Unfortunately, what this means is that letters start looking nothing like they do in your text books. What's a back-to-front C; and why do they use an English 'S'? The next problem is consonant clusters and implied (unwritten) vowels. Many Thai words will be written just using consonants. It's up to you to insert the vowels, and to know the appropriate vowel sounds. There are some rules but, nonetheless, it isn't as straightforward as it seems. Many single syllables are written with two consonants and no vowel: ลด The two letters above are L and D sounds when used as initial consonants. However, they change to N and T sounds, respectively, when used as final consonants. To join them, an unwritten 'o' is used. In this case we get lot which means to reduce, as in discounting a price. พร These two consonants normally make a P and an R sound in English as initial consonants. The second consonant, when used as a final consonant, changes from an R to an orn (awn) sound. Again, there is no written vowel. Normally written Porn, it sounds like pawn. It's a common girl's name but unlike pawns, nice Thai girls rarely make the first move. Similarly: กร These consonants make G and R sounds as initial consonants but written like this, the word becomes gorn or gawn. This is an unusual word. My dictionary tells me it means hand or arm but the Thai words I know for hand and arm are different. I think it could be a royal word but my dictionary doesn't specify this, as it does with other royal words. In Thai, it is common that there will be more than one word for the same thing, be it a verb or a noun. These two consonants also form a very common consonant cluster. For example, there are pages full of words that begin with: กระ It makes a kind of 'gruh' sound. Watch out for another 'R' character though after the first one, because two of them together make a 'U' sound: กรรม This sounds like 'gum' and it can mean the object of a verb; or deed, sin, action, fate, performance, destiny, work, occupation. In addition to verbs and nouns having multiple words in Thai for the same thing, single words can - and do - have multiple meanings in English. This is something that makes trying to translate from Thai to English very difficult for me. If there's a vowel after the 'R' (remember that vowels can be written above, below, before, after, or they can surround consonants), the rules may change again. Here's the Thai word for 'please' (although it has other meanings): กรุณา The 'GR' stops being a consonant cluster and we now have to use an implied uh in between the 'G' and the 'R' - 'guh-roo-naa. The Thai word for this month (July) is another example. It has five syllables but only one written vowel: กรกฎาคม The breakdown letter-by-letter is G_R_G_D_AA_K_M. With only one long 'AA' written vowel, we have to know the sounds of the other implied vowels. It's an 'O' sound between the final two consonants but an 'UH' sound between the others, so something like 'guh-ruh-guh-daa-kom'. How do you know? As I said above, there are some general rules but Thais learn these words in the same way as English speakers learn the different ways to pronounce 'ough' depending on the particular word that letter combination is used in. They are also taught something at school referred to as sonti and samart which is related to this subject. I am in the process of trying to find out more and will report any findings here. Words consisting of just three consonants and no written vowels will often have an 'uh' as the first implied vowel, and an 'o' (maybe 'aw' or 'or') as the second: ถนน T N N = tuh-non = street. Many transliteration system also use the unnecessary (and confusing) 'h' just to confuse foreigners - thanon - but if you put your tongue between your teeth to pronounce this word, you will get it completely wrong. What about the Thai word for countryside? ชนบท It's another word consisting of consonants only, with no vowels - 'CH_N_B_T'. This one is pronounced chon-nuh-bot, so slightly different again. There's no quick way to learn. My students always want to know short cuts when it comes to learning English but there aren't any. It takes hard work and perseverance. Learning a new language, especially one that is so completely different to your native tongue, is not something for lazy people. It's relatively easy to learn to read Thai while living in Thailand, compared to living outside of Thailand, because you are surrounded with practice material and people to help you. The best way to learn (in addition to studying) is to try to read everything you see, and to ask Thais questions if you aren't sure of anything. Thai people love it when foreigners show an interest in their language and they are very willing teachers. Did I read this correctly? Six relief measures for the people All third class train services in every route nationwide will not charge passengers because the government will pay the fares on their behalf.All passengers? Foreigners as well? Can't be bad. Wasn't I saying just the other day what a fine chap that Samak is? This is getting silly now. Thai troops 'cross into Cambodia'. What next? Despite having some of the highest salaries, the quality of life for Britons is among the lowest in Europe. Spain ranks highest, and is followed by France according to this article. It's something I realised many years ago and, judging from the number of people leaving the UK each year, many others are waking up to this fact. My income these days is a fraction of what it was in the UK but my happiness quotient and my standard of living are far higher. Happiness has nothing to do with money - provided you have a sufficient amount - but that amount needn't necessarily be huge, depending where you live. If you want to change your lifestyle but are reluctant to because you are afraid of giving up your big salary, it is a huge mistake. In my humble opinion.
Tuesday 15th July 2008 How objective and unbiased can any of us be? It's a rhetorical question aimed at myself in light of recent comments about the Preah Vihear temple dispute. I would like to think I have a balanced and unbiased view but that is never the case. I'd also like to think I am above being manipulated into how I think, but sadly that isn't the case either. I'd never heard of the Preah Vihear temple until a few weeks ago, and now it is the biggest story in Thailand. I am in Thailand, so naturally what I hear is biased very much towards the Thai point of view. Not only that, but during a time of continuing political turmoil the issue has been massively politicised to discredit the government and certain politicians. I live in a region of the country where people have very strong anti-government feelings, so I am constantly exposed to an extra degree of bias. In an attempt to find out more, I came across details of the original 1962 case as judged by the International Court of Justice. In this report, there are some interesting facts that seem to have been completed omitted by the Thai media (from what I have read) because they do not support the Thai argument. According to Thailand now, the French were partly to blame for mapping out the area incorrectly but, according to this report, the Siamese government requested this because they didn't have adequate technical means to do this at the time. The maps (showing the temple in Cambodia) were presented to the Siamese who didn't react at the time, or for many years after. The Thais maintain they never accepted these maps, but they continued to use them, and further, when opportunities arose to raise the matter in an international arena, they didn't. Due to the complexity, it is completely beyond me to say who is wrong and who is right in this matter but that is not my point. The point is that for every issue we hear about, there are always many things we aren't aware of, and it is our governments and the media who decide how information is presented to us, depending on their personal agendas and political bias. I see that after yet more violent stabbing incidents in London, there is lots of soul-searching going on in the UK at the moment. At a conference last week we heard about how there is a sense of 'tremendous hopelessness' among young people. Similar to the 'hug a hoodie' campaign from a while ago, we are being encouraged to get out there and tell young knife-wielding gang members, "you are worth something, we love you, we want to help." Are these people really worth something? We all have choices in life and we can choose to do things that are useful to the wider society, or not. What have they done to be worth something? It's this crazy world we live in now where everything has been turned back-to-front and upside-down. What about doing something first to prove our worth, instead of expecting to be thought of as worth something before we have done anything worthwhile? It's the same with so-called respect. Occasionally you hear about violence because one person didn't 'show respect' to another person. Well, what did they do to earn respect? The other 'solution' we are hearing about is to use shock tactics by taking people caught carrying knives to meet the families of knife-attack victims. This is the kind of thing that might work with those of us who have a conscience but how much of a conscience can people have who carry knives with the intention of killing people in the streets? I can see the argument but I rather think that liberal politicians are missing the point. In this stupid era of so-called 'political correctness', we have forgotten that everyone is different and that different kinds of people need to be dealt with differently. It's not a problem that Asian cultures have. China has its own way of dealing with criminals and corrupt politicians, and Singapore would already have dealt with these knife murderers by now. And if they had committed their heinous crimes in Singapore, there wouldn't be people telling them, "you are worth something, we love you, we want to help." I wonder what the parents of the French students viciously murdered in London recently think of these latest UK proposals? I know this is a controversial subject but why should civilised people, who make up the vast majority of populations everywhere, have to live with this constant fear from a tiny minority that are out of control? If the truth be known, I didn't feel particularly loved as a teenager either, and those years weren't the happiest of my life. But instead of joining a gang and knifing people, I learned skills to make myself useful to society later on. It was hard work and I earned very little in those years but instead of blaming society, or having feelings of hopelessness or self-pity, I just got on with it. This is how things used to be for everyone. The trouble now is that no one has to take responsibility for their own actions. We can do whatever we want and then blame our parents, or our teachers, or our politicians, or society at large. One of the great truths of Buddhism is that we are all responsible for our own actions. Until that lesson is learnt in Western societies, and until those societies discard the culture of blame, the situation will never improve.
Monday 14th July 2008 What do Thais think about people of other nationalities? I was speaking to a very clever, Thammasat-educated lady recently and she asked me what I thought of Thai people. My stock answer to this question is that it is impossible to generalise (even though I do it here). Take any Thai stereotype and I can show you a person who defies the stereotype. It is the case though that over a period of time, you do notice behaviour that seems to be quite common among many people. The point to remember is that these generalisations don't apply to every single person in the country. She told me what she believed foreigners thought about Thais and it goes back to the days of King Rama IV; a time when foreigners in Thailand were rare. It was noted then that Thais liked the good life, and liked nice things, but didn't like doing any work. She wanted to know if foreigners still thought that. I returned to my previous point, telling her that although the description may apply to some people, it doesn't apply to them all. She went on to tell me what Thais think about certain other nationalities. According to her: Americans like other people, the English look down on foreigners, and Germans are stingy with money. Again, I know people from all of those countries and whereas the description may apply to some, it certainly doesn't apply to them all. Interestingly, she didn't mention the people everyone loves to hate: the French. Even the Thais - who hate no one - seem to have it in for the French at the moment. The reason for this is that the disputed boundary between Thailand and Cambodia, which is at the root of the Preah Vihear temple controversy, was mapped out by French officers when the French were colonial masters in Indo-China. On Thai TV news coverage of the dispute, the word farangset keeps coming up. I'm not sure how well cheese-eating surrender monkeys would translate into Thai. Judging from some jokey e-mails I have received in the past, this anti-French sentiment appears to come mainly from the US. I've always liked France, actually, and it is one of the few European countries I think I would enjoy living in.
Living in Thailand, I suffer from fairly frequent bouts of a quite debilitating form of fatigue. One minute, I feel fine, and the next I find myself lying down unable to do anything. It's a really horrible feeling because I like to be doing things. Yes, I know I'm getting old, but the climate certainly doesn't help. I called Iss a couple of days ago and she said she wasn't feeling well. When she described the symptoms, it sounded as if she was suffering from exactly the same thing. She's over 10 years younger than me, has lived here all her life, is used to the climate; but she still suffers. Thais do seem to sleep a lot more than most other people. When I was taken out last weekend, there were grand plans at the start of the day but straight after lunch I could see that my Thai companions were overcome with tiredness so that signalled the end of our day out.
A while back, I read up on dehydration and the symptoms of mild dehydration are very similar to what I have described. It only takes a minor amount of fluid loss in the body to start making us feel fatigued. I therefore started to drink lots of water, plus a glass or two of electrolyte each day, to make up for the fluid I lose through sweat. On the day that Iss didn't feel well, I called her again in the evening. She said she felt great. She attributed this sudden recovery to drinking something called Hale's Blue Boy. It's a sickly sweet syrup sold in glass bottles that is very popular in Thailand. The Thais have a sweet tooth and they use it on desserts, and to pour over shaved ice to make a sweet drink. It can also just be mixed with water. On Iss's advice, I have just bought a bottle to see if it helps. It comes in various flavours and my bottle is red. If it helps, I will write more here. Onomatopoeic words make so much sense. The Thai word for cat is exactly the same sound as that made by Thai cats. Unfortunately, the common word for dog is more like the sound made by a sheep or a goat (if you use a wobbly voice). Wouldn't it be great if instead of maa or soo-nuk, the Thai word for dog was woof? Confusingly, moo is pig (or pork). Think how much easier it would be for foreigners if beef was moo, pork was oink, duck was quack, etc. It's just a thought. แมว - cat (maew) mid-tone แม้ว - northern Thai hilltribe (normally written Meo) high-tone Incidentally, Meo (as in northern hilltribe) is one of the nicknames the Thais have given to Thaksin; and it goes without saying that they refer to his football club as Meo City. A little incident this evening reminded me of a few of the other stereotypes Thais, especially less-educated Thais, have of foreigners. In no particular order; all foreigners (without exception): are incredibly wealthy; love Phuket; drink copious amounts of alcohol; adore small, dark-skinned girls from Isaan. Not only are they incredibly wealthy, but they are also incredibly stupid. They know nothing about Thailand; know nothing about how much anything should cost; can't understand any of the spoken language; and they certainly can't read Thai. On the basis foreigners don't know what anything should cost, unscrupulous Thais have a perfect right to try to rip them off; and on the basis they can't understand anything, ill-mannered Thais are perfectly free to talk about foreigners right in front of them. They are also allowed to make any other assumptions they wish, whether these assumptions are right or completely wrong. For my evening meal, I fancied a change to the usual so wandered around one of those areas in which farangs very rarely venture. You can always find foreigners in the shopping malls and big supermarkets but it is unusual in this particular area where there are just traditional rice and noodle shops. It's also quite grubby, which is something else that deters many foreigners. You won't find anything written in English and it is unlikely you will meet any Thais who can speak English with any degree of proficiency. Most places there don't have normal menus; they just write the menu on a big board. As I was looking around, I stopped at one place to see what they had. Everything was pork and I stopped eating pork in Thailand quite a long time ago so I was about to move on. I had been looking at the board for about 20 seconds or so, I guess. Just as I was about to leave, one of the women working there told her friend I couldn't read, "aan mai ohk". I could have just let it go but I was annoyed. If a Thai was standing there, would she just have made personal comments about that person to her friend? I doubt it very much, but they do it all the time with foreigners because they assume foreigners can't understand anything. I was also annoyed because her assumption was wrong. I've been teaching myself to read Thai for about four years now. I don't claim I can read passages of text because I can't. The rhetorical style of written Thai is very different to the spoken language and it's a tough skill to master. But signs, place names, destinations, and menus are a breeze. It's no big deal and I'm certainly not the only foreigner in Thailand who can read basic Thai. I know foreigners who have contacted me through this site who can read, or are in the process of learning. Something else I get fairly often is being asked if I can read Thai after spending a few minutes looking at a Thai only menu. "No, of course I can't, but I just like looking at the funny writing." I could have walked off but I asked her, in Thai, who it was that couldn't read. Next, I proceeded to read her menu back to her. Was I being arrogant, big-headed, or showing off? Not really - I just had a point to make to her. I then asked her again who couldn't read. I made a point of speaking very politely, in order to make her feel worse. By this time, she had slunk off and was trying to hide behind her friends. She wouldn't reply, and she wouldn't even look at me. Big loss of face. Good. She deserved it - som naam naa. Perhaps next time she sees some foreigners wandering around she might think first and show some manners.
Sunday 13th July 2008 Last week, a friend invited me to go with her and some friends to a local waterfall today. I've been once before but quite a long time ago. It's a local beauty spot and fairly scenic. As soon as she mentioned it, I had doubts because of the dual pricing system. There's no way I'm going to pay Bt400 when Thais pay Bt40. Anyway, I gave it some more thought and decided I would go, but I would take along my Thai driving licence plus the card with my tax number, attempt to speak Thai, and insist on paying the local price. This strategy has worked for me in the past. The arrangement was that I would call her back if I wanted to go, which I did this morning. However, she told me the trip has been cancelled because ... wait for it ... the weather is too hot. Mmmmm. What was she expecting? If she had asked, I could have told her exactly what the weather would be like today. In fact, I could tell her exactly what the weather will be like every day for the next two or three months. Hot. It's always bloody hot! Paula Fisch from Channel 9 would be the ideal weather forecaster for southern Thailand. Every day is scorchio! You'd think that having being born in the south of Thailand, she might have realised this by now but apparently not. As I said yesterday, you have to do things here in spite of the heat. If you decide not to do things because it is too hot, you will only be active for about five days a year. Thais are so funny at times. The expatriate community in Thailand is certainly a mixed bag and noticeably different compared to somewhere such as Singapore. In Singapore, the primary focus for most expats is work. Of course, the lifestyle is what most of them are there for in the first place, but that is only achievable by being good at something and having a good job because it's an expensive place in which to live. You can't be a jobless bum in Singapore and expect to survive for very long. The difference in Thailand is that many foreigners are there primarily for the lifestyle; and work (if they work at all) is just something they are forced to do to enable them to live that lifestyle. I've met some fantastic expats in Thailand but generally they have all been very successful people. They were successful before they came to Thailand, and they are successful in Thailand. There's a 73 year-old professor working at the university who I sometimes eat lunch with. He and his wife have lived and worked on several continents working in various academic institutions; and they are among the most travelled people I have ever met. They are both very intelligent people, and good at what they do. He's also a very amusing guy and is never short of a humorous anecdote. When you talk to them, it is obvious they have worked hard to get where they are but they thoroughly enjoy what they do and there is no jealousy or resentment at all towards other people. If you can meet people like this in Thailand, you are lucky. There's another type of expat in Thailand that is very different. These are the single males who have never been successful in life. They've never had a decent job and were probably social outcasts in their home countries. They get a taste for the cheap beer and bar girls in Thailand and decide that's what they want. However, they don't really have enough money. Job opportunities for foreigners are quite restricted in Thailand and unless you have a unique skill that is in high demand, for most people it means teaching English. Some are incapable. Some bluff their way through but there is nothing more soul-destroying than doing something you can't really do, and doing it just for the money. Not having been successful in their previous lives, they don't have any other sources of income and find that what they can earn in Thailand is barely enough to get by on. They are very jealous and resentful of other foreigners in Thailand who are obviously more successful. The 'bitter and twisted farang' is not a rare species in Thailand. Mostly, they ignore other foreigners but there is a seething resentment under the surface. Go to any public Internet forum about any subject related to Thailand and you will see evidence of the 'bitter and twisted farang'. It would be good to include a forum or message board here, or to make my 'blog' into a proper 'blog' where people could leave comments, but it is only too predictable what would happen so those things won't be happening. I've seen what happens elsewhere once the bitter and twisted farangs get going with their poison keyboards. Sometimes this bitterness and resentment bubbles over into more personal attacks. About four years ago, I was walking along minding my own business and a farang I didn't know - and who I hadn't even made eye contact with - launched into one of the most abusive verbal attacks I have ever experienced. Quite shocked, I turned around to see the most hateful look I have ever seen in a human being's eyes. The guy obviously had massive psychological problems and I had just walked past at the wrong time. Had it not been me, he would have vented his anger at another foreigner. For some, the problems get so bad that they can't face life any longer. When they realise that abusing other foreigners, or trying to make other people's lives worse in whatever way they can, doesn't actually make their own lives any better, they throw themselves off tall buildings. This is a fairly common occurrence with foreigners living in Thailand. If you have a web site and write about Thailand, expect abusive attacks now and again from 'bitter and twisted farangs'. You just have to ignore it though and feel sorry for the people responsible because by now they could just be a splattered mess somewhere on a Thai pavement. What is a shame is that because there are so many mentally unbalanced foreigners in Thailand, I tend to be wary of all foreigners and sometimes I almost miss out on meeting good people. There's not a lot you can do though. Thailand, being the country it is, will always attract lots of undesirable foreigners. The good news is that the immigration clampdown that began almost two years ago has started to remove a lot of undesirables from the country. There's a long way to go yet, but the situation is gradually improving. And yes, there was another minor incident today, which is the reason for this little outburst. There was another great search engine query yesterday that resulted in someone arriving at one of my pages: "massage parlors in thailand that won't show up on your bank statement" Just pay cash, my friend; pay cash and your wife will never find out! She might notice those unsightly warts though so be careful where you dip your wick. STDs can be highly contagious and once in your body the HPV virus never leaves, so you will have the condition for the rest of your life.
Saturday 12th July 2008
The photos should also give an idea of my lifestyle. It's a lifestyle that seems to be different to the majority of foreigners living in Thailand but it is one I enjoy. As I have stated before, there is no way I could live in a major tourist resort area with thousands of other foreigners, and although Bangkok has a multitude of things to do and see, it is a little too chaotic for me these days.
The constant intense heat presents another quite significant barrier. Often, I want to go somewhere but just don't want to go outside when it is so hot. Not only does it make me physically uncomfortable but it also drains me of energy very quickly.
Yesterday, I went to Yo island near Songkhla. The island is joined to the mainland at each end by the longest bridges in Thailand and forms part of a major highway in the south. Lots of traffic passes through but very few people stop. If they did, they would discover that it is a pleasant and interesting little place.
At one end of the island is the Institute for Southern Thai Studies which used to be known less formally as the Southern Thai Folklore Museum. Set on top of a hill, it's in a great location and there are lots of things of interest inside.
The island is located near to some fairly busy places but you would never know it. It feels like it is a million miles away from city life and the peace and tranquility on the island is very welcome. It's also a bit like stepping back in time when visiting places like this in Thailand. The living is easy and there is none of the hustle and bustle of normal modern-day life. It's the kind of lifestyle that many Thais, Bangkokians especially, have already forgotten about ... unfortunately for them.
I fancied sweet and sour and asked the waitress which kind of fish would be best. She suggested bplaa ga-pong. This is a snapper but there are many varieties and I don't know what kind of snapper it was. Where's our fish expert, Samak, when you need him? Anyway, it was very good and there was a lot of it. I left the restaurant feeling quite stuffed. As you can see from the photos at the top of the page, I had the restaurant to myself and it was located in a very attractive setting on the edge of the lake. The girl in the photo is the waitress, not another customer. The food was good, the views were pleasant, and it wasn't expensive. Nutritionally, this kind of meal is also very good, with a plate of fresh vegetables on the side. It's not a bad life.
Friday 11th July 2008 So, Noppadon has resigned but it wasn't a big surprise after members of his staff were seen packing his belongings earlier in the week. Of course, he "never did anything wrong, and he only resigned because he loves his country so much, and national unity is far more important than his political position, and blah blah blah." Where have we heard all this before, I wonder? His position had become untenable and he was also desperate to get out of the firing line. Why can't Thai politicians just admit they screwed up - or got caught - instead of trotting out the same old lies and rhetoric? Thailand currently feels like a rumbling volcano that is about to go off with an almighty eruption. One of the staff where I work gave me a lift a few days ago and his radio was tuned into an anti-government demonstration in Bangkok. I have heard quite a few radios tuned into the same kind of thing. When Thais start talking about politics to me now, they look as if they are going to burst into tears, or explode in a fit of rage. While having dinner last night, I was watching TV in the restaurant and all I saw was news about the Preah Vihear temple. I had previously underestimated the strength of feeling that exists in Thailand about this issue. I have been told that people in Sisaket province are crying in the street about the UNESCO decision, and it is obvious that Thais are very, very angry. This is noticeable because anger is an emotion that isn't usually demonstrated publicly in Thailand. Jai yen yen - staying calm with a cool heart - is normally the order of the day but Thais are very much jai rawn (hot-hearted) right now. The timing is quite uncanny. Noppadon and Samak are not exactly the most popular people in Thailand right now, and this has all blown up just as Thaksin starts to face corruption charges. The three men are very closely linked, of course. Thaksin was refused permission to leave the country recently with court cases against him pending. Had he done so, I think he might have been quite reluctant to return to Thailand given what is happening now. Sword of justice hangs by a thread over Thaksin. In many ways, I am pleased about what is happening because certain people are starting to get what they deserve but there is something quite disturbing about seeing this level of anger in Thailand because it's just not normal. I love the non-confrontational aspect of Thai culture but it has often occurred to me that Thais don't have a very effective safety valve mechanism to let off steam. They put up with a lot and don't complain, but anger and frustrations tend to build up. What then happens is that when they reach their breaking point, the red mist descends. I've witnessed this a few times and it isn't pleasant. There are a lot of people baying for various other people's blood at the moment and they are whipping up a frenzy that could get out of hand quite quickly. It is difficult to tell right now what will happen next. The decisions against Thaksin in the coming months will be key. If justice isn't seen to be done, that will then be the catalyst for further problems. Whatever people think about him, the one thing that is undeniable is that he is probably the most divisive politician Thailand has ever seen. He has torn Thailand apart and that is as good a reason as any to make sure he can never again have political influence in the country. It just didn't happen after the coup two years ago. Even during a period of self-imposed exile - and while serving a five year ban from politics - he carried on exactly where he left off, except that he operated through proxies and nominees. He is the root cause for all of Thailand's political problems and he has to be stopped for good otherwise this political turmoil will never end. To add to Samak's current woes, he is also in hot water for continuing to host a TV cooking show for which he gets paid Bt80,000 a month. Even as a main source of income that wouldn't be a bad salary in Thailand but for him of course, as Prime Minister, it's just pocket money. I mentioned earlier in the week that I am no expert when it comes to fish. Samak, on the other hand, is an expert. For a long time, whenever I saw news items about him on TV he was wandering around traditional Thai fresh markets inspecting fish, fruit and vegetables. This is what he does outside of work, and when he is working he sits there making paper birds. This has to be one of those 'Only in Thailand' things. In the UK it would be like Gordon Brown popping up on BBC1 after Prime Minister's question time to host 'Cooking Highland-style with Gordon'. "And this week Gordon will be showing us his grandmother's recipe for haggis, neeps and tatties." "Och, Sarah, would ya mind passing the wee sheep's stomach?" If a trend is started here, we could even be treated to George Dubbya showing us how to prepare genuine Rocky Mountain Oysters on his Texas ranch. Then again, having these muppets run TV cooking shows while allowing people who actually know what they're doing to run our countries probably wouldn't be a bad thing. To be a true TV chef, Gordon Brown - like his fellow countryman and namesake, Gordon Ramsay - would need to learn to be more foul-mouthed, but that is not an area in which Samak needs any coaching. Included in the long list of criticisms against him are his combative style and abrasive language - the latter, especially, being something that Thais are very sensitive to. There's a fairly large woodland bird I see from my room quite often, known as a Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis). I know what it's called from my bird guides but what I'm not so sure about is how to pronounce the name. I have never heard 'Greater Coucal' spoken by anyone. Is the 'ou' in 'Coucal' pronounced the same as the 'ou' in 'soup' or the 'ou' 'loud'? What about the letter 'c', of which there are two. Is it like the 'c' in cat, or the 'c' in ceiling, or perhaps the 'c' in cello? Perhaps the two c's in one word are pronounced differently, as in 'cyclical' or 'cynical'? Brits like to laugh at Americans. Oh yes, where was I? Brits like to laugh at Americans for not being able to pronounce place names like Leicester and Gloucester correctly, but how do Americans know with such a dumb spelling system? Sometimes it's done just for snobbish reasons; to indicate that people who 'know' the special pronunciation belong to some kind of elite, inner circle. The Oxbridge colleges of Magdalen (or Magdalene), for example. Zzzzzzzzzz ..... In general, Thai is better in this respect but there are still a number of exceptions to the rules, along with some other difficult areas. Take the vowel -ำ For tone rule purposes, it is considered long but normally it is a fairly short -um, as in som-dtum. In the Thai word for water or liquid, however, it is a long 'aam' sound. น้ำ I asked one Thai girl about this and she told me it was because the second tone mark is used. However, the Thai word 'to repeat' or 'do again' also uses this tone mark and, as far as I know, it has a short -um sound. ซ้ำ Both words begin with low class initial consonants and use the same tone mark. The tone rules for both words are identical, and they should rhyme, but one is 'naam' and the other is 'sum'. The vowel เ is another example. It has a distinct ay sound in the Thai word for 'time' (way-laa) เวลา But more of an 'e' sound in the Thai word for 'play' (len) เล่น The biggest problem for me personally though, with regard to reading Thai, is implied vowels. With words that are spelt using a series of consecutive consonants and no written vowels, it is not always obvious if there are implied vowels, or not, and, if so, what sound they make. This is a subject I will cover here later.
Thursday 10th July 2008 Conventional wisdom dictates that the Thai hot season peaks in April. In the south of the country, at least, April isn't so much a peak as the beginning of a plateau. By definition, if it was a peak then the temperature would start to drop in May but that isn't the case. Today was very hot, and there have been several other very hot days recently. The rain does come occasionally to offer some respite but for some reason the temperature seems to rise before a storm. Coupled with the accompanying rise in humidity, this can be quite oppressive. I've taken to wearing a wide-brimmed hat whenever I am outside and it has helped immensely. The new glasses I have darken when exposed to sunlight, and that also helps. However, even with these precautions, I still get headaches fairly often as a result of too much sun. Southern Thailand isn't the hottest part of the country in the hot season but it is hot all year round and that can be quite tough to deal with. My gut instinct tells me that eventually I will move to somewhere further north that has a genuine cool season but now isn't an appropriate time to do that. I bought some headache tablets today and that brings me on to another area of difficulty with the Thai language - classifiers for nouns. English has classifiers. We don't go into a shop and ask for a bread and a milk; we ask for a loaf of bread and a bottle (maybe carton) of milk. These are classifiers. The only difference is that in Thai they are used far more extensively. Instead of 'two children', the Thai would be dek sawng kon (children two people). The classifier for packets of things is sawng (with a mid tone) which is similar to the word for 'two' except that the latter has a rising tone. If I ask for 20 packets of electrolyte powder - yee-sip sawng - this can sound like the Thai number for 22 if the tone is wrong. The headache tablets I bought today come in small packets but I didn't know the classifier. The pharmacist told me it was pairng. The book 'Thai Reference Grammar' (by James Higbie and Snea Thinsan) tells me this classifier is just used for packs of medicine. There's no quick or easy way to learn. The book I mentioned above lists nine pages of classifiers but I don't intend trying to remember them all. As with anything else, you tend to remember the ones that are used often but there will always be lots of Thai classifiers that I don't know. ซอง - sawng (classifier for packets of things) live syllable + low class initial consonant = mid tone สอง - sawng (two) live syllable + high class initial consonant = rising tone แผง - pairng (classifier for packs of medicine) live syllable + high class initial consonant = rising tone แพง - pairng (expensive) live syllable + low class initial consonant = mid tone I noticed that an additional warning has appeared on the packets of Nurofen I bought today. I can't remember seeing it on previous packets of the same medication. The regular wording on the packet is 'Relieves the Cause of Pain and Fever'. But underneath those words now is the disclaimer: '(fever not caused by Dengue Virus)'. Dengue has been a big problem across this whole region for a few years now, and even sophisticated Singapore hasn't been immune with deaths from Dengue occurring in Singapore, as well as in Thailand and Malaysia. I have encountered the species of mosquito that carries Dengue and they aren't pleasant. With their black and white stripes, they are very distinctive. Unlike 'regular' mosquitoes, they are active during the daytime and very aggressive. I've actually been chased by them. There were lots of Dengue related news stories last year but I can't recall hearing much about it so far this year. That was until today when I spotted a story in The Nation about Dengue in Ratchaburi province where four people have died so far this year. Tourists visiting the famous floating market at Damnoen Saduak might want to take extra precautions against mosquito bites as this is one of the districts that has been declared an emergency zone. After being in Singapore last year and seeing how serious the disease was being taken there, with lots of public awareness through advertising campaigns and punishments for people being careless by providing environments for mosquitoes in which to breed, I was critical of the general apathy in Thailand. However, also mentioned in this report is that residents in Ratchaburi have been instructed to remove all standing water from their properties, and that this ruling is being enforced with fines and jail sentences. This is more very good news. I'm not sure what's going on in Thailand at the moment but the way things have suddenly started to change for the better is very encouraging.
Wednesday 9th July 2008 The queries people put in to search engines in order to find information continues to be a great source of fascination for me - even if I can't quite figure out how they arrive at my pages. "How do young Catholic nuns relieve sexual tension?" (from an Internet surfer somewhere in the USA). What a fascinating question. I haven't got a clue but if you find out, please let me know. This one reminded me of the old joke about two nuns sharing a bath. "Where's the soap?" asks one; to which the other replies, "Yes it does, doesn't it." Someone else located in Chicago was interested in 'beautiful girls with big ears'. With the exception of one girl I know who has very large ears, Thai girls don't generally have huge ears. However, I've seen some Thai girls who have ears that protrude so much, they are almost forward facing. It's not at all unattractive though; on the contrary, I find it very attractive. This will be added to my mental list of things to get photos of.
Tuesday 8th July 2008 The Thai language can certainly be challenging at times. Shortly after I started learning Thai about four-and-a-half years ago there were a couple of things I noticed fairly quickly. The first was that after learning the Thai word for something, I would often discover another word in Thai for the same thing (both verbs and nouns). Secondly, Thai words that sounded identical (to my untrained ears, at least) meant completely different things. I can differentiate a little better now but it's still tough. Tones and vowel lengths are extremely important to get right but they can be very difficult to master. What's more is that similar sounding words can make sense in a sentence but give completely the wrong meaning. The classic example, quoted by every beginner, is the difference between the Thai words for near and far. ใกล้ - glai near (falling tone) ไกล - glai far (mid tone) Even now, I find myself using supplementary hand language whenever I attempt to say 'near' or 'far'. The vowel used in each word (which is the first character, written before the consonant or consonant cluster) is a different character but has exactly the same sound (ai) and function. The second letter (g sound) and the third letter (l sound) form a consonant cluster (gl), that is, there is no implied (unwritten) vowel in between the two consonants. The initial consonant of the consonant cluster is a mid-class consonant, and the first word (near) uses the second tone mark (of four) which is written above the second letter of the consonant cluster. A quick look at the tone rules for words that use tone marks tells us the word has a falling tone. If you imagine calling out someone's name from afar, and imagine how the sound will change as you run out of breath, that is a falling tone. The second word (far) doesn't use any tone marks so different tone rules are used. Syllables that end with the short vowel 'ai' are considered 'live' syllables, and a live syllable with a mid-class initial consonant results in a mid tone. Let's move on to a less-quoted example of the difference tones can make. Thai has four consonants that make an English 'S' sound: ซ ศ ษ ส And also: ท is a 'T' sound and ร is an 'R' sound But .... ทร as an initial consonant cluster also makes an 'S' sound. This may sound weird but it is no weirder than a P and an H coming together to make an F sound when you think about it. The adjective 'beautiful' is commonly used in Thailand. สวย = beautiful There are no vowels used, just three consonants that make S W Y sounds in English. It is pronounced something like su-waay with a rising tone. Just try to speak with an Australian accent to approximate a rising tone. The Land of the Rising Intonation. However, there is a very similar sounding word that has a less complimentary meaning: ซวย = unlucky, hapless, unfortunate, ill-fated You will be reprimanded (in a joking way) if you try to compliment someone on their beauty and get the tone wrong. Again, there are no recognised vowels, and the three consonants make S W Y sounds in English. Does this sound familiar? With no vowels and no tone marks, how do we work out the tone? For this, I will have to guess a little because my books don't quite cover this particular example. The long 'ai' sounds very much like a live syllable because I can continue voicing it. The 'S' consonant used in 'beautiful' is a high class consonant, while the 'S' consonant in the other word is low class. (Yes, in Thailand not only are there 'hi-so' and 'lo-so' people, but there are even class distinctions for the writing system!)
Live syllable + High class initial consonant = Rising tone The language is beautiful, especially the written language, but it also represents quite a challenge. On the subject of making stuff up (see yesterday's entry), some things seem so wacky in Thailand that I sometimes begin to doubt my own sanity. What is quite reassuring, however, is that my views are actually endorsed fairly often by Thais. Thais are quick to praise and slow to criticise. It's not often they are very critical of anything about Thailand but when they open up it can be quite revealing. I had an extremely interesting chat with a university lecturer recently and his views of the Thai education system were completely in line with my own. I may expand on this later. On another subject, while out and about last week I saw that the shop where I purchased a new pair of eyeglasses recently was covered in new banners advertising a big summer sale. I went in to see what this was all about (and also to use this as a feeble excuse to chat to the cute girls). "No," they told me, "There is no more discount than usual, the prices are exactly the same as before." I've tried to make the point many times that sales in Thailand mean nothing. Everything is 'discounted' every day of the year which means, in reality, that nothing is discounted. They probably do this to catch people out who are passing through and think they have encountered a genuine sale but what you realise when staying in the same place is that the only thing that changes are the banners advertising these pretend sales. The prices remain exactly the same. Japanese firm 'paid bribes'. Why doesn't this story surprise me? The good news is that I am sensing a strong cultural shift among Thais regarding this kind of corruption. For a long time, the concept of corruption didn't exist in Thailand. When the Thais did start talking about it, they had to borrow the English word. It went with the territory that people in high positions were entitled to skim the surface for their own benefit and no one questioned what they did. This was perfectly normal - and acceptable - and the reason why for so long there was such an apathetic reaction to corruption. But things have started to change. The case of the three lawyers jailed recently for contempt of court (with attempted bribery charges pending) sent out a strong signal. This latest case involving a Bt2 billion tunnel project for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in 2003 is linked to the current Prime Minister who was Bangkok governor at the time. This could get interesting. The other interesting story at the moment concerns the disputed Preah Vihear temple on the Thai/Cambodia border. Thais are furious about what has happened recently and their anger is all directed towards one man, foreign minister Noppadon Pattama, who they accuse of ceding Thai sovereignty. Before he took up this post, Noppadon was Thaksin's personal lawyer, as well as being Thaksin's mouthpiece and unofficial minister for propaganda. It beggared belief how Samak ever became PM and how Noppadon ever became foreign minister but the Thais do seem to like giving people enough rope to hang themselves. With a series of court cases lined up against Thaksin and his wife, who knows what will happen next as his top lieutenants continue to fall.
Monday 7th July 2008
I was therefore quite surprised to come across this today at, of all places, the university. It wasn't there last week. Thais are normally very laid back but there is one subject in the south that is guaranteed to stoke up emotions, and this is it. To be fair, it's not even graffiti. It's only chalk on the pavement and will disappear with the next drop of rain. I'm also not sure why it was written in English. My students are a rich source of information. Hopefully they learn from me, but I also learn a lot from them. In two separate conversations today I learnt things I never knew before. Having acquired this knowledge, however, I need to clarify a few things here. If I don't, there's a danger that people may think, "What is he going on about?" or "What's he smoking; and can I have some?" The impression that is starting to form in my mind is that I live in a particularly lawless corner of Thailand. Also, that as far as law enforcement is concerned, Bangkok is a lot stricter than elsewhere. On Saturday, I talked about a couple of local markets that sell all kinds of cheap goods as well as some nasty looking weapons. What I found out today is that the stalls selling these items are trading completely illegally. I also found out that these markets are well known throughout Thailand. The weapons are illegal to sell, as is the case in other civilised countries, and the foodstuffs come in from places like China but no import duty is paid. That's why everything is so cheap. What confused me was the manner in which the stalls operate, in that nothing is obviously underhand. These are not shops selling legal goods above the counter and illegal ones underneath. Neither are they selling stuff out of suitcases while someone keeps a lookout on the corner. Neither is it like Panthip Plaza in Bangkok where Thais approach people in a clandestine fashion asking if they want pirated goods but don't actually sell stuff openly. Everything is very, very open. I was told that the police do turn up occasionally but when they do, the shops close for half an hour and then reopen as soon as the danger has cleared. However, I've been many times and have never seen this. The other conversation was related to the lawlessness on the roads that I talk about often, and this also seems to be more of a problem locally than elsewhere. The person who told me said that when he is in Bangkok he doesn't need to be as careful while walking around on the streets compared to when he is at home. This would also explain why the recently introduced law making it illegal to use mobile phones while driving has made absolutely no difference in my neck of the woods. The nature of this 'blog' medium is that it describes personal experiences. I can only talk about what I see and experience. I don't make things up but just because something happens locally doesn't necessarily mean it is the case all over the country. That's probably an important point to remember. Also, that everything is just one person's viewpoint and, as such, shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Sunday 6th July 2008
I had lunch with a couple of Thai friends today and the photos show where we ate, plus a couple of dishes from our meal. The restaurant is on the edge of Songkhla lake. The fish, in Thai, is known as bplaa sumlee. I know very little about fish but I think it would be known as a Black-banded Trevally in English. It comes deep fried, topped with shredded unripe mango (the same as you get in som-tum), dried anchovies, cashew nuts, chillis, lime juice, etc. It's good; very good.
Everything is eaten with rice, naturally, and we also had barbecued squid (bplaa meuk yaang). The squid here is always very soft from being so fresh. This particular specimen was full of eggs but I'm not a big fan of any type of fish eggs. You can also see a plate of mixed vegetables (put puk ruem mit) which are stir-fried and come with a kind of oyster sauce. It is very common for vegetables to have some kind of meat included and these ones came with shrimp. As well as being tasty, Thai food is also balanced, healthy and - provided you stay away from the tourist areas - cheap. The cost came to a little over Bt100 per person.
Saturday 5th July 2008 I took a stroll around one of the local markets today. Nothing unusual about that. I've done it a hundred times and know exactly what is sold. But today was a little disturbing for reasons I will give in a moment. It's a typical Thai market, but not a fresh market; this place doesn't sell meat or any other perishable food. It's not as tacky as it seems at first. Among the cheap electronics and replica watches there are genuine goods, and the prices are lower than elsewhere. I've bought memory cards from there without any problems, and a friend of mine bought a Casio watch. If you are careful about what you buy you can get a bargain. This is also where pirated software, music, and movies can be found; not to mention some pretty hardcore pornography. There are also bargains to be had with the foodstuffs being sold. What is sold are such things as dried fruit, tea, coffee and biscuits. Most goods are sold in sealed foil, and are well within the expiry dates. I buy chocolate wafers from another very similar market and the price is about two-thirds that of the local supermarkets. Nothing very disturbing so far, you may think, even though some of the explicit graphics on the porno DVDs make me wince a little. As I mentioned a few days ago, I am becoming quite fond of dogs these days but the line has to be drawn somewhere. The other line of goods at this particular market are weapons. I watched a Thai guy today testing a vicious looking flick-knife. There isn't much that can't be bought: knives, swords, night sticks, knuckle dusters, high voltage stun guns, aluminium baseball bats, and all kinds of martial arts weapons. In the past, I've viewed these things with a bemused curiosity but in light of what has been going on in London in recent years (and seems to be getting worse), I felt very uneasy today. Only yesterday, I was reading about the young boy in London, Shakilus Townsend, who was beaten with a baseball bat and repeatedly stabbed by a gang wearing hooded tops and bandanas. So far this year, there have been, on average, about three murders of this type in London each month. Today, I saw the same kind of weapons with which the young lad was murdered freely available; for sale to anyone with enough money. Seeing them for sale is one thing, but realising there are people who will use weapons like this to murder other people is quite chilling. Thailand, thankfully, doesn't have the same black gang problems that London has. However, I would imagine that despite airport security measures, these weapons are inevitable smuggled from country to country, I know it's someone's livelihood but I find it very difficult to understand how these things are allowed to be sold so easily.
Friday 4th July 2008 It's Independence Day and there was evidence today that the considerate Thais were being culturally sensitive by acknowledging a foreign holiday. When my local branch of S&P finally stopped playing Christmas music in March, I thought Christmas had officially ended in Thailand. Today, however, while shopping for tea bags in TOPS supermarket, I was treated to a nice rendition of 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' over the department store PA system. 'Jingle Bells' is a popular year-round ring tone in Thailand and it's not unusual to hear it at this time of year when someone's mobile phone rings. Thais like Christmas tunes, apparently, and they also like Christmas trees and fairy lights, so these too stay in place long into the new year. So funny!
Thursday 3rd July 2008 I haven't talked about immigration matters for a while, so here is today's serving of paranoia, speculation, and conspiracy theories. I've just done my 90 day reporting and it was a formality. It should always be a formality but I had problems with one particular guy last year who did everything he could to be obstructive. This was the same guy that leered at and made racy comments to the secretary who accompanied me to assist with the paperwork for my visa extension. She was so offended by whatever he said that when it was time to go back again, she didn't want to, and I had a real task on my hands getting her to help me again. Anyway, he seems to have disappeared and the immigration officers I have dealt with on the last few occasions have been extremely helpful, courteous, efficient and professional. When I got my first one-year visa, I honestly didn't know about the 90 day reporting procedure. I got my visa in Penang and no one said anything about it there; neither did Thai immigration at the border say anything when I returned to Thailand. At some stage I contacted the local immigration office about something else and was told then that I had to do it. I've been doing it ever since. It's no big deal. All you do is present yourself with your passport and copies of the relevant pages, fill out a ตม47 form, and that's it. They give you a receipt which tells you when to go back again and there is no fee involved. Apart from passport and visa details, the main piece of information requested on the form is your address in Thailand. The language of communication these days appears to be Thai. I don't know if it's an official or semi-official policy, or whether it's just because the officers can't speak much English. One guy last year asked how long I had been in the country and then started ranting that I should be able to speak Thai. What he didn't do was check first to see if I could speak Thai or not, but I got the message and now I just speak to them in Thai. My Thai isn't that great but the standard questions are generally quite easy to understand and answer. The subject of the 90 day registration procedure is relevant (I believe) to my next point. I recently started teaching some postgraduate students and two of them are from the Middle East. The two Arab gentlemen were missing for the first few lessons and it transpires they were down in Penang trying to get student visas after entering the country as tourists. They had immense problems in Penang and ended up staying there for 20 days trying to get things sorted out. Eventually they got visas but only the three-month, single-entry variety. This means they will now have to get more letters written and deal with local immigration in order to get their visas extended so that they can continue their studies. They have the full backing of the university and they are probably bringing quite a lot of money into the economy but still, the Thai Consulate in Penang gave them a hard time. This is exactly what happened to me last year in Singapore. It always used to be the case that if you had a work permit it was easy to get a one-year, multiple-entry non-B visa. That, apparently, has changed. Armed with signed contracts and a fully valid work permit, I had to wait 24 hours just for the Thai Embassy in Singapore to decide whether they would give me any kind of visa at all, and when they did eventually, I only got a three-month, single-entry type. I too had to return to Thailand and ask my employer to write more letters before contacting the local immigration office for an extension. This got done but it was a hassle and the single-entry status didn't change. This means that if I want to travel outside of Thailand now, I have to pay for re-entry permits otherwise my visa gets invalidated. I was trying to understand why this kind of thing has started to happen and I think I know. It is well documented that many foreigners used to live in Thailand permanently on back-to-back 30 day border stamps. No one knew anything about what they did and whether it was legal or not, where they lived, whether they did legal work but worked illegally without work permits, or whether they paid taxes. The term commonly used is that they lived 'under the radar'. There were also a few high-profile news stories of paedophiles and a child murder suspect who had been caught living in Thailand as tourists, while supporting themselves financially by working illegally with Thai children as English teachers. But even with proper visas, it also used to be possible to live kind of 'under the radar'. A foreigner could get a visa from an Embassy or Consulate outside of Thailand and then not have any dealings with Thai immigration apart from at the border when entering the country. As I said above, when I got my first one-year visa there was no enforcement of the 90 day registration process and I didn't do it until I was told to, but that was only by accident. Had I not contacted the local immigration office about the other matter, I could have gone a long time without doing it. What seems to be happening now is that Thai Embassies and Consulates in neighbouring countries to Thailand (the rules are different for distant countries) are only giving out short term visas and then forcing foreigners to get extensions from their local immigration office in Thailand. And what do local immigration put a lot of importance on when granting extensions? The first thing I was asked for was my 90 day reporting receipt. This is important to the folks at immigration because it tells them where I live, and that's an important piece of information for them. I asked if it would be possible to get a further visa extension locally when my current extension expires, or whether I will need to go outside of Thailand again for a new visa. I was told it was possible to do it locally but the 90 day registration receipt was mentioned again as being a key document. This was good news. It all seems to be about wanting to get foreigners living in Thailand completely into the system; and everything is now very closely tied together. The details of my visa, my employment, my work permit, my tax payments, and my address are all linked. If they want to contact me for any reason, it is now very easy. It's a good thing, and nothing that other countries don't do already, but for some reason a strange situation existed in Thailand for a long time where foreigners could live there indefinitely, but they could do so without officially existing, and no one knew anything about them, or how to trace them. That is no longer the case as the net continues to be drawn in. Not only do I have no desire to return to the UK, but the thought of how much things cost there terrifies the life out of me. There was a time when I used to convert baht to pounds and think how cheap everything was in Thailand. That no longer happens. These days, I convert pounds to baht and say to myself, "How can anyone afford to live in the UK?" Take watching a football match, for example. I used to stand in the terraces at Upton Park in the late 80's and early 90's for around £10 (I can't remember the exact price). My first season ticket cost £180. For the forthcoming 2008/2009 season, that amount would not be enough for top price tickets to three games. £63 pounds to watch West Ham. At current exchange rates, that amount is Bt4,190 and of course a day out watching football doesn't stop at the ticket price. There are also no guarantees that a game won't be 90 minutes of boredom - I've seen a few of those in my time. Considering how much guaranteed pleasure can be had in the space of two hours in Thailand with Bt1,000, an Isaan massage girl, and a bottle of Johnson's baby lotion, it could be a while yet before I get to attend another professional game of English football. More good news as 92 young street racers get suspended jail term. Some of the kids arrested were under 15. This is another example though, of how there is generally more law enforcement in Bangkok than in the provinces. In provincial Thailand, the kids continue to race around and the police don't seem bothered. The Fast and the Furious was a cult movie in Thailand and it seems to have inspired a lot of young Thai males. As I have said before, most of the racing I see isn't about gambling; they do it purely for the thrill of speed and for their own amusement. Although there are a few cars involved, most of the street racing is done on motorbikes. Nonetheless, it is dangerous, highly annoying and extremely antisocial.
Wednesday 2nd July 2008 I seem to remember making a comment recently about how I had tried to isolate myself from external factors over which I have no control. The sad truth though, is that in a global economy none of us can be an island. The current global economic woes that began about a year ago just seem to be getting worse and almost everything that happens externally makes my life a little worse. However, I'm not alone; and there are many poor Thais suffering a lot more than me. Compared to this time last year, the pot of money I have invested in various stock markets that will supplement my retirement fund eventually is now a lot smaller. I check my portfolio at the end of each month and June 2008 was almost as bad as November 2007, but not quite as bad as January 2008. The monthly decreases have not been insignificant amounts of money. As the stock markets have crashed, so too have interest rates fallen, meaning that the interest I earn from my cash savings has also fallen. Just to make things worse, exchange rates haven't moved in my favour either, and the value of my UK property has continued to fall. Two useful airline services - the direct flights from Hat Yai to Singapore and Phuket - were cancelled last year and I see that more domestic routes have been cancelled as a result of increasing fuel costs. I can't wait for the opportunity to get up to Chiang Rai again, so was saddened to hear that Nok Air has decided to cancel its Bangkok to Chiang Rai route. The Nation also reported that several major airlines are cutting long-haul flights into Thailand next year. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has revised its estimate of visitor numbers for 2009 down by two million. The article I have linked to mentions the reason is because of 'political tensions' but if Thais really believe that, they are deluding themselves. Contrary to popular belief here, all foreigners don't have bottomless pits of money. For many normal people, a trip to exotic Southeast Asia is an expensive proposition and with so many people tightening their belts just to survive the current economic difficulties, I suspect that exotic vacations have slipped down their list of priorities. There is a lot of dependence on tourism in Thailand. It makes up a big chunk of the nation's overall economy and in certain areas it accounts for almost 100% of the economy. It's a strategy that has worked well up to now but it is risky. Another risky strategy was Thailand's attempt to become the 'Detroit of Asia' in the field of vehicle production and assembly. With increasing oil costs and increasing concern about the environment, that market is also likely to come under pressure. I don't feel as wealthy as I did a year ago but I can survive. For poorer Thais though, they are really feeling the effects of rising oil prices and general inflation, and many are having trouble making ends meet. One of my students was telling me about her parents who live in a rural area of Trang province. She comes from a large, poor family and her mother buys rice in large sacks. These used to cost Bt800 not so long ago, but the price now has risen by over 50%. It's the same with most foodstuff, and the cost of transportation has risen significantly. Some large Thai companies have started paying employees more to offset the cost of inflation but what about the millions of Thais who don't work for large companies or the government? One sector of the economy I believe will continue to do well is medical services. Vacations are a luxury but people will never stop getting sick, and with such poor service in countries like the UK, health tourism to countries like Thailand continues to be a viable option. My mother was a health tourist earlier this year. She went to Singapore, however, as it was more convenient for her to stay with my brother than come to Thailand. Several vertebrae had started to collapse and as nerves had become trapped she was in a great deal of pain, being effectively housebound. The response from doctors in the UK was very poor but in Singapore she saw a surgeon who diagnosed the problem and did a great job of fixing it. She says that the problem is 100% fixed now. I'm sure her experience would have been similar had she come to Thailand. With lengthy waiting lists, there is actually a debate raging in the UK at the moment about whether the National Health Service (NHS) should reimburse patients for being treated abroad if they cannot treat the patient quickly enough. Like my mother, I suspect that most health tourists coming to Thailand for operations would be paying privately so it's unlikely the NHS will pay for you to have your ingrown toenail sorted out in Phuket where, of course, you would need to stay for another couple of weeks to fully recuperate. This current recession is making life difficult for many of us, including many Thais, but I think that lessons are being learnt and we will all come out of it a little wiser and stronger.
Tuesday 1st July 2008
There are some fabulous dogs in this country, just like the one in the photo that I met yesterday (click on the photo for a larger image). There were a couple of pups of about the same age that I assumed came from the same litter. Not only were they super looking dogs, but they had a perfect temperament, and simply oozed personality. What's more, is that dogs like this are free. You meet them at temples and wandering around the streets. Thais pay lots of money for things like Shih Tzus and Pugs but why would you want to pay out good money for a toy dog when you could have a fabulous mutt like this for free? So, what are the most annoying dogs in Thailand? The typical temple and street dogs are no problem. They sleep most of the day and can't be bothered barking at anyone because they are too lethargic. Some seem to be aware it is their dog duty to bark at strangers but the exertion of opening their mouths to make a sound is too much for them, and they fall asleep again. I occasionally see some 'dangerous dog' breeds but generally they aren't a problem either. I'm not an expert but I understand that dogs are trained to be aggressive, or otherwise, and the Rottweilers I have encountered in Thailand have been fine. No. The most annoying and troublesome dogs in Thailand are ...... bloody poodles. There are a few close to where I live and they go crazy whenever I walk past. If ever there were candidates for sausages laced with rat poison, these are them. They're only brave, however, when they are on the other side of a fence or gate. I sometimes see the same dogs on the street when there is nothing in between us and they don't make a sound. Pesky little things.
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