|
The first honest man in Thailand
April 26, 2004 (Monday)
OK, slight glitch in the work plans. I am at work at Sacred Heart Convent for about an hour, when I get a call from YYY College. Seems that my non-immigrant, multiple-entry B visa ($125 in Washington D.C.) has a bit of Thai scribble that says I will be working for Sacred Heart. That’s OK- I believe I just have to resign there and have new offer from YYY College to keep the visa valid. But- YYY College now says that Sacred Heart is a “sister” school and it wouldn’t be right to steal me away. Wouldn’t you know it, I run into the one per-son in Thailand who actually has scruples! Pratheep, the oh-so-slow-and-careful personnel director, tells me that one of two things can happen: either Sacred Heart voluntarily releases me from my contract or I do a visa run to Malaysia or somewhere. ...!? I am in the probationary period at Sacred Heart Convent and am allowed to just give notice and quit. I tell Pratheep to let me talk to Sacred Heart Convent and that I will have them give him a call tomorrow, after I tell Shawn, my boss at Sacred Heart Convent, that I’m leaving. Don’t anticipate any problems (note: that alone should be a huge warning sign in Thailand). Shawn is not at school today, so I can’t talk to him. April 23, 2004 Friday This morning, I called Pratheep as soon as I had time in the morning. He says there’s a big problem. Apparently, he has ALREADY called my boss at Sacred Heart Convent, before I had a chance to talk to him, and told him that I wanted to leave. Bad enough, but… Shawn actually told him that he would NOT let me out of my con-tract. Pratheep said that, therefore, they would not be able to hire me. What a bunch of crap. I’m allowed to quit anytime I want. I get to school and Shawn is away again. Cannot get a hold of him, but I ask the next boss down, a nice guy, to clear this up. He asks me the details- and then asks me if YYY College has any more openings! Yes, he says, he’ll straighten everything out. I limp worriedly through the day and the weekend. April 28, 2004 Wednesday As of this morning, five days later, I’ve still not heard back from YYY College. Great- I’ve given notice at one job and not gotten a contract at the other. That means that my visa expires on Saturday and I’ve then got seven days to leave the country and to get a new visa. The fact that I paid $125 USD for a visa that I could have had for FREE, if I’d known this was going to happen (30 day tourist en-try stamp, not actually a visa), just adds to my minor frustration. Call Pratheep. He says everything is OK, just come in Monday. Monday!? School starts on Monday. Sure would be nice to have some simple things, like textbooks, a contract and knowledge of what my actual classes will be, before starting. But, OK, I’ll just trust that this is the Thai way and that everything will work out fine. April 29-May 3, 2004 Finish the year at Sacred Heart Convent. Kids don’t know I’m leaving, so no sad scenes. Staff has wished me a fond farewell, after such a short time. Several have inquired about positions at YYY College. They return my original diploma and pay me in cash for the twelve days that I’ve worked (actually, nine class days). They de-duct 1000 baht ($25 USD) for the day I took off and 2000 baht for mailing my contract to the States. $50 to mail as letter? Oh well, it could be MUCH worse! A milestone of sorts, too- receiving my first Thai income. Probably illegal, since I never got a work permit or a teacher’s license. I said a couple of weeks ago that the cosmic reasons for not getting my “most de-sired” apartments would be revealed eventually. As usual, everything works out for the best. Rompo Mansion is on a month-month basis. If I’d gotten any of the other apartments, I’d be locked into a six to twelve month lease. Rompo is close to Sa-cred Heart Convent, but it is up to 45 minutes and 100 baht from YYY College. I’ll now have as chance to look for other digs before my lease expires on May 15. In the meantime, I start tomorrow at the new school. Quite excited. Very decent money, hours, holidays, etc. Very professional (appearing) school. |
Collapsing (in laughter)
May 4, 2004
First day at my second job. Students will not start until May 11. Big meeting with all of the teachers, some 250 of us! After that, Chinese food is served (atrocious), the teachers play games, like musical chairs to Thai go-go music (really!), prizes are awarded and the appropriate big-wigs are fawned over. There is a performance by a troupe of Thai dancers, highlighting the cultures of many of the nationalities that teach at YYY College. The theme for the American segment: the most stereo-typed cowboys and Indians that you can imagine. We are then told where our offices are. There are 10 farang (white folk), nine guys and one woman and one Thai woman, the so-called instructional coordinator, as-signed to our office. I meander up to the office- a mistake (the meandering). Those teachers in the know have already gotten to the office and grabbed the best desks and locations. I get there fifth and select the next best desk, which is filled with crap. I ask the returning teachers if it belongs to anybody- “Nope”. So, I unload all of the junk into one of the falling apart desks and move to a choice spot, right under the flow of the air-con. A few computers arrive and they are setup right by my desk, along with the printer. Convenient- I can tie my laptop into the system and can avoid using the slow office computers (Win XP, 128 Mb RAM). There is also a large metal closet behind my desk but- oops- the English teachers have already stripped the shelves out and put them in their small book closet. Oh well, they do need the space more than I do. I leave and return about an hour later. The crap desk that I put everything on has been moved to my location, with a note saying, “Sorry. My desk”. Turns out, I un-wittingly stole the desk of the Thai instructional coordinator, a woman who appar-ently is also good friends with my boss. I make sure that I give her the appropriate apologies and courtesies when I see her again. Off to get my books. “Oh, we have them on order” (BTW: books don’t arrive until June 14). Office supplies: fill out requisition, give to boss, have it translated into Thai, submit to supplies office and wait for them to bring materials. Paper clips: “buy them yourself”. Pens: “Why do you need more than two pens?” Stapler: “your office already has one” (it’s tiny, holds about 25 staples and there are 11 god-damned people in our office). So, we’ve got students paying 250,000-300,000 baht tuition/year and we have to fight to get 2 baht office supplies? ...!? Not an aus-picious start. Class lists: you’ll get them next week. Labs: we don’t have keys. I just take every-thing in stride. No sense to get upset or make a fuss- that can only serve to frus-trate you and make you look bad to the Thais. I requisition the carpenters to repair my desk. A guy comes and actually cuts small strips of wood to secure the drawers and feet of the desk He glues and screws them into place. The desk collapses the following day! :) |
On The Move in BKK
May 16, 2004
Today we moved to ZZZ Apartments at Victory Monument. 22K baht/month, brand new furnishings, kitchen, AC units, etc. Very plush, even if a bit expensive. Only a 300 step walk from the BTS, so getting to work will be a breeze. I’ll start buying the 30 day, 30 trip BTS pass for 540 baht, cutting the daily round trip cost to 36 baht. Before checking out of Rompo, we went to ZZZ Apts and paid the security, etc. Never a good idea to leave one place until the next is solid- might find yourself and your possessions roaming the streets of Bangkok. Had a bit of a go-round on the telephone deposit. I had given a down payment about 2 weeks ago and got a receipt showing the balance due upon moving in. No telephone deposit required, according to the receipt, just the itemized bill, including the final amount due, to move in. The girl doing the check-in calls her boss to confirm everything and boss tells her to collect a 5000 baht security deposit for the telephone. I point out that, accord-ing to the contract and receipt, I don’t owe a telephone deposit. They insist and tell me that the contract was wrong. I tell them I, too, thought it was wrong- that the rent should only be 18K/month, not 22K. I said change that and I’ll pay the telephone deposit. They still insist on 5K and tell me not to worry, it will come back when I move. I say fine, give me back the down payment and I’ll go somewhere else. Now the person on the other end of the line tells me that she will have to lay out the money herself. I tell her not to worry, it will come back when I move. They then tell me that if I will pay a 2000 baht fee, I can have the phone line in my own name and pay only 150 baht/month and 5 baht per call. I point out that I AL-READY HAVE that deal, without paying the 2K. When they see that I’m still not budging, they give me yet another offer: if my calls exceed 3K baht the first month, then I pay 5K security. I say OK, knowing that my calls will never exceed 1000K/month. OK now, deal is done, key in hand. A guy appears out of nowhere offering to help us move, with his pickup truck. Now, when I arrived, I had three large suitcases (with a year’s worth of clothes, computer, camera, electronics, gifts, etc. My first move was a one taxi move. Now I am thinking either a hatchback taxi or maybe two taxis. This guy has a small pickup and offers to drive across town and back, load and unload our stuff, and to cover the gas, for only 400 baht! I think it’s a great deal: hell, the taxi ride back to Rompo alone will be at least 100 baht. So off we go to get our stuff. We get to Rompo and Fon and the truck owner load up while I do checkout. Checkout went very well at Rompo. We got back the full deposit, no questions asked. I was very anal about documenting every defect that I could find when we moved in. They have a sheet that they use listing everything in the place and its condition and I wrote down all of the chipped tiles, broken molding, water stains, repaired shower curtain rod, etc. In one month, we used only 1,600 baht of electricity, 150 baht or so water and 150 baht for the phone. I would definitely recommend this place to a beginner in BKK. 40 baht taxi to Phrom Pong BTS at Emporium on Sukhumvit, Tesco and Carrefour a five minute walk away. After checkout, I go outside and look at the pickup- it is packed to the brim. Great job of getting everything in and securing it well and in not crushing anything. We take off towards Victory Monument. While we are stuck in traffic on Asoke, we spot the black clouds moving in. I sug-gest to the driver that we pull over and try to cover the electronics, bedclothes and clothing. We do so and he whips out a huge tarp and bungee cord and gets eve-rything covered, about ten seconds before the skies open up. Not a drop lands on our stuff! We get to Victory Monument and unload with the help of the truck driver and sev-eral helpful/nosy residents. Give the guy his 400 baht, plus tip him another 100, to be split between the other “helpers”. Excellent job he did- $12.50 USD was well worth it! Sometimes, everything works! |
Non-motivation
July 5, 2004
Teaching is going well. My school is the oldest non-government school in Thailand, YYY College, founded in 1852 by the Church of Christ missionaries. >5000 students, all boys. Weird mix of traditional Buddhism, casual Christians and a few right-wing Christians (all of them are white guys, go figure. Not really a problem because everybody ignores their soapbox ****e.) We seem to get holidays con-stantly. School started May 4, with a week off next week, because of the Interna-tional AIDS Conference XV, a month in October, a week at Christmas, 17 Bud-dhist/Royal holidays, classes end March 5 or so, so most of March and all of April off. They supply a RT ticket to the States and back each year. Right now, I'm “head” of the science department, in a place where they don't know what a lab is! We joke that we are the 2nd richest school, but every lab that we science teach-ers perform has to use straws, toothpicks and clay! Oh yeah- by law/rule/convention (not sure which), EVERY child must pass. This is interpreted as "retest” until a passing grade (only 50%!) is achieved. Hard to really be concerned in that kind of a system. Grades are meaningless. Another oh yeah- an "A" is given if the student scores anywhere above a 79! That means that a mediocre, high “C”/low “B” student is given the same grade as an outstanding, overachieving genius. This sure makes it hard to motivate students- they know that working twice as hard might result in the same grade that they already have. |
Best Seat in the House
July 10, 2004
I have the next nine days off- a last minute bonus from the school, sort of. The government ordered schools in Bangkok to close from June 11-16, because the In-ternational AIDS Conference XV will be in town. Seems the schools push traffic to the limit and they want to ensure a good face for the 20,000 or so delegates at-tending the convention. What else is new!? YYY College was originally going to give the holiday to only the students, but relented at the last minute. Tonight, we will take the 10:00 PM VIP bus to Loei from Mo Chit. It is about a 7.5 hour ride, but the VIP bus is quite luxurious. Non-stop, BIG seats with built-in back, shoulder and head vibrating massagers, a meal and a snack enroute, Thai video (oh well, can’t be all good) and full recline, good for sleep. Will laze around the house today, cleaning and packing, take the BTS to Mo Chit BTS station at about 7:30, then take a taxi to Mo Chit bus station and get tickets. Hope we can get tickets for the VIP- somebody said that many Thais are returning up-country this weekend to register in their villages for the upcoming elections. We get to Mo Chit bus station at 8:30. The VIP bus is sold out, according to Fon. I notice that the window where we usually buy the tickets (not the one where she just asked) also has a VIP bus. Fon goes there and gets the tickets. 990 baht for two one-way tickets, seats 17 and 18. These seats are directly over the rear wheel wells. The top of the wheel well in-trudes about 6 inches into the foot space, which means you cannot actually extend your legs all of the way when sitting upright, because the space under the seat in front of you is blocked. OK when reclined (almost 90 degree recline to the seats), but still, not the best seats in the house. Also, these seats are directly across from the air-con, so it’s pretty noisy, so noisy that we cannot hear the Thai pro-gram on the TV (therefore, the noisy AC may be a blessing in disguise . One can-not really see the TV well from these seats, either. The seat directly across the aisle from us, number 16, has a special problem- it is right behind the stairs coming up from the door and is VERY close to the small wall at the top of the stairs. Therefore, the legroom is severely restricted in this seat. If it’s the last seat on the bus, might as well take the non-VIP for only 320 baht. The rear-most seats have ultimate legroom, but I’m not sure if they have full recline. The attendant- she looks like an old-fashioned airline FA, with her crisp blue uni-form and her jaunty little hat- passes out bottled water, cakes and sandwiches. It turns out that this bus doesn’t stop at the rest stop for a free meal, as does every other bus I’ve been on. Fon takes a sleeping pill. I just let the seat recline, turn on the massagers that are built in and promptly fall asleep. Woke up once and fell right back to sleep. The next time I awoke, Fon was shaking me- we were already in Loei- about seven good hours of sleep! Buy the best seats you can afford- it’s always worth it. |
A very different but interesting trip report. Wouldn't mind hearing about the background, how you ended up in Thailand and such.
J. |
Originally Posted by teahan
A very different but interesting trip report. Wouldn't mind hearing about the background, how you ended up in Thailand and such.
J. It is very different from the other trip reports that I read on this board. We all include the minutiae that we feel is significant- I guess my significant minutiae is just different from other's. I think it's a credit to the FT community that I'm not flamed/bashed because of those differences. Short version of how I arrived: 3 events coincided: A great offer: I have a Thai friend, a female researcher at Chiang Mai University who was doing similar work that I was doing at University of Virginia. We had maintained contact for a long time and she was always telling me to visit Thailand, if I had time, and that she would be my guide. A presentation of the Thai culture: A few years back, I was teaching at an elite school in central Virginia. The students had to do a project that presented a different culture. My kids did one on the food, music, religion, history, etc. of Thailand. The opportunity: I had tickets to travel to Hawaii with my girlfriend. We broke up. I turned tickets for two to Hawaii into tickets for one to Thailand. I've never looked back. When I realized that I could do early (very early) retirement, live a very comfortable life in Thailand, diving and dining for pennies (2 of my favorite pastimes), on the income that renting my US properties would provide, my attitude towards life changed dramatically. While I had a decent job in the States, it was fraught with the usual politics and bickering that occur wherever big egos congregate. My new attitude was to not compete anymore, but to simply acquiesce to other's whims. About six months later, my boss pointed out to me that I didn't seem to "care" anymore. That was close to correct! The reality was that, while still performing the same quality of work, Ii could not/chose not to be provoked by the daily BS anymore- this was interpreted as "not caring". And that is exactly what was wrong with that work environment! :) After numerous trips, helped by the fact that, with UAL's mileage programs, I got 5 trips for every 3 that I paid for (and one bonus trip, with a generous gift from FT'er XPacific), I relocated to BKK. I found a job as head of the science department at a Thai college. That's pretty much where I am today. I'm hoping that FT'ers will find these stories a little bit helpful and a little bit amusing. Cheers :cool: :cool: :cool: |
The Rainmakers
July 11, 2004
Getting to the Village: We emerged from the bus at 0530 hours. We called Goo, our motorbike connec-tion, with whom we had previously arranged to rent a bike. Rented from Goo several times in the past, nice guy, nice family and his sister is married to a farang in Rich-mond, VA. Nobody was awake at the shop, so we decided to visit Fon’s brother and his wife at the local hospital. They had just had a baby girl at 6:00 the night before. We took a tuk-tuk to the hospital and wandered around until we found the maternity ward. The maternity ward is fitting of the word “ward”. It was one big room, with about twenty beds. Each was occupied by a woman, sitting upright and cross-legged, holding her baby. In all but two cases, her husband was sitting on a small chair next to her, maybe wiping her brow, rubbing her back, fanning her or in some other way taking care of his wife. With all of the talk about what *******s the Thai husbands are, it was a pleasant surprise to see this gentle caring for the family. The baby did not yet have a name- Fon said that Thai families will typically until the baby is born before naming the infant. Tiny baby- not even 5 pounds, but they all looked small. Fon’s male cousin arrived a short time later. We sat outside on the walkway and chatted. While doing this, we watched the Thai husbands rinsing tow-els and hanging them up to dry on small clothes racks. Seems you supply your own towels at the hospital. This prompted me to ask about the 30 baht health coverage, to which all Thais are entitled- but only in their home town. Seems that the hospi-tal stay was covered, but the physicians’ charges were not. Typical maternity fee: After an hour or so, Goo called. We said goodbye and took a tuk-tuk to Goo’s shop. He and his wife were waiting for us, with a little Honda Wave, 125 cc warmed up and ready to go. We made small talk, paid them 300 baht for two day’s rental and headed off to Baan Huay Wai, Fon’s village, about 25 Kms west of Loei and up in the mountains. The village is 50 Kms south of the Mekong River and the Thai-Lao border. There is a border crossing at Nang Khai, about 80 Kms northeast of Loei The air smelled wonderfully fresh, especially after breathing the smog of Bangkok for the last three months. The recently planted rice paddies were the brilliant spring green of new growth. Farmers were already up and about, tending the field and their buffalo. Itans, the ubiquitous upcountry Isaan version of a John Deere tractor, were prowling the streets and fields. The Itans are a wonderful machine. About $750 USD, they can be equipped as plows, trailers, passenger vehicles, tow-trucks or just about anything else that needs wheels and a motor. They seem to chug along forever. Here’s a website for them: www.itans.com Before we left Bangkok, Fon’s father had told us that it had not rained in over two weeks and that the farmers were getting nervous. Rice cultivation is water inten-sive and these people do not exactly have extensive irrigation systems. Being the bringers of good luck that we are, it seemed to start raining on our arrival and to never fully let up during our three day stay. Lucky us. |
Best Seat in the House
July 11, 2004
The house: We have been working on our house for about 1.5 years. It is a small house- 12 poles, or about 54 meters square (~500 square feet). I’ve got to redo my math- it feels much bigger than that. It is probably 95% finished. The roof is on, the floors are tiled with light blue tile, the water and electricity are in and functional, all of the doors and windows are complete, the TV and antenna are both installed, the front porch is finished, and both the inside and outside are fully painted a nice light blue color. The house is very modestly furnished. The ceiling still must be fin-ished- the only room with a ceiling is the bedroom. It was great to arrive and see that the hot water heater had been installed since my last visit. We have the only Western style bathroom in town, complete with a flushing, sit down toilet. Now, that might not seem like such a big deal to those of you living in farangland, but here, the installation of the toilet was enough of a cause celebre that everyone in the village came over to sit on the toilet- not to use it, but just to sit on it! If you’ve ever used a squat toilet, you can appreciate the luxury of a sit-down. Thais don’t use toilet paper generally. To clean you just dip and bowlful of water from the ever present can and kind of swish it around a bit. Then you flush by dumping bowls of water in the toilet. The next level up is a squat toilet, but with a sort of hand held bidet, with which you spray your butt clean. Then comes the sit-down with the butt sprayer. I initially thought that the sprayer was a kind of primitive deal, but, when you think about it, which is more civilized: a refreshing, hands-free cleansing or smearing your excrement off with a piece of paper? As I said recently, it always pays to buy the best seats one can afford. |
I Wanna Play, Too!
July 12, 2004
I’ve had much time to write for the last couple of days, because there is not a heck of a lot to do in Loei. The almost constant, light, yet annoying rain precludes a long distance journey on the motorbike. We do manage to get out, though. Of course, everyone in the village comes to say hello to Fon and her white husband. Everybody wants to see photos of our place in the big city. Many have waited for Fon’s return, so that she can cut their hair. While Fon’s mother and father are both still alive, she is definitely the head matriarch of the family. She mediates the disputes, controls the finances and decides who can do what when. Thai women may be diminutive, but that should never be misconstrued as subservience- not if you know what’s good for you! We don’t yet have a refrigerator in our house. Fon’s parents’ house is next door, so we use theirs during our short and infrequent visits. Well, this time, we saw that their freezer was in desperate need of defrosting. 8 hours later, after the ice was gone and the floor was mopped, we plugged it back in. NOTHING! I couldn’t get the damn thing to work again. Now there is no place to keep the babies’ milk, no way to make ice to take to the rice paddies in the mornings, no way to store meat, etc. Off we go to the city to buy a refrigerator. After a short hunt, we settle on a mid-size Sanyo, which set us back 4,700 baht ($110 USD), with delivery. The Chinese owner of the shop wants us to pay first. We tell him that we do not do business that way- if he cannot trust his driver to collect the money and pay him, then I cannot trust the driver to safely deliver a working appliance. OK, he says, give me 2000 baht. I thank him, turn and walk away. He immediately calls to Fon. 2 minutes later, they have the directions to the house and promise delivery within 1 hour. Our next stop is the Thai Department of Motor Vehicles. I want to get a license and I feel well-armed with a new, one year visa, my work permit and a copy of my US license. But, it’s not to be. First, the guy says that I can only get a license in Bangkok, because that’s where I work. Then he says that I need a paper from im-migration. That would require a 100 Km round trip, in the rain, and I cannot under-stand what paper he could possibly want, since I was at immigration one week ago and have all of the latest stamps. I offered to pay any “processing” fees neces-sary- but even that didn’t work (damn- the second honest Thai that I’ve met). If I have to live in a corrupt country, why can’t I play, too? |
Feels Good to be Home
July 13, 2004
Fitful night’s sleep- our bed is hard as a rock. Got up about 0700. More rain- funny, Fon’s father said that it hadn’t rained in about 2 weeks. We get packed and fart around until 0930. It is raining on and off. We take the motorbike over to Fon’s brother’s house and see the baby. I get an opportunity to see a kind of strange Thai maternity event. Seems that af-ter women give birth, they sit for about 15 days on a straw platform and lean against a rack with their backs to a fire. There is a pot of water boiling and incense burning. Some special variety of leaves are laid out on the mat, on which they sit. The leaves are there because they might still have some bleeding from the child-birth- keeps the mat from becoming stained. Apparently, the idea is to sit there every day for the 15 days and let the lower back get very red. Promotes healing and feeling good, so they say. While we are there, it starts pouring. I’m getting in a bit of a bad mood- I want to get on the road, but now, not only are we wasting time, but it looks like we’re going to get soaked riding back to the city (about a 35 minute ride). The rain stops after 10 minutes. We return to the house and pickup our bags. As usual, there are no goodbyes- everybody just kind of wanders off and we lock the house and leave. We get to Goo’s, but he‘s not there, so we end up waiting a bit longer. Eventually, he and his wife return, Fon’s daughter shows up out of nowhere and we sit around for another ½-hour bull****ting. Finally we leave- good news, we did not have to pay another 150 baht for the bike, even though we are about four hours into the third day and we’ve only paid for two days. We take a tuk-tuk to the bus station. Had to be the slowest tuk-tuk in Thailand. I swear I could have run just as fast. It sounded like the clutch gave out as we pulled into the bus station. We pay him 20 baht and go for tickets. Unfortunately, we’ve missed the 1030 bus by 45 minutes, so we have to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for the 1230 bus- and it's not a VIP. Note: the once/day VIP bus leaves around 0800. I sit and watch a strange American television show dubbed into Thai. Fon goes to buy some yarn- it’s ½ price, compared to Bangkok. She returns with about ten min-utes to spare and we board the bus. Seats 15 and 16- not so good, it’s the sunny side, so it gets quite hot on the return to Bangkok. As usual, the bus leaves about fifteen minutes late. I’m a bit cranky- it looks like three days in Loei have cost me about 9000 baht. Yeah, I have a new refrigerator, but it’s not really something I needed right now. Moreover, Scott called and said he would not be going to Pat-taya, so that part of my holiday is probably gone now, too. The bus trip is about ½ over now- we seem to stop about every three minutes for some reason (not really). Best part of the trip, so far: we’ve passed through the Phu Khradung National Park, located high in the mountains of Isaan. I believe that this is the only location in Thailand that has a deciduous hardwood forest. There are beautiful, rugged peaks, laced together by delicate mists. Another scenic view is the large lake, located about 3-4 hours north of Bangkok, which the bus passes. I do not yet know the name of this lake. I’ll try to find out- I think it would be a nice place for a car trip. Any help on the name out there? The rest of the trip is agonizingly slow. These local busses might be a good choice for those who want a quick view of some small Thai towns. Roll in, pickup/drop-off one person and roll out. We eventually stop at a rest stop, where we can use the vouchers that came with the tickets to get a plate of Thai food, some rice with curry, rice with pork, noodle soup, etc. There is a market where one can restock on drinks and snacks, if desired. We eventually pull in to Mor Chit- 9.5 hours after leaving Loei! This is 2.5 hours more than the VIP bus. Again, for the difference in price ($4 USD) and the addi-tional comfort, the VIP bus is the only way to go. Home always feels a bit better after a vacation. |
Lessons from the Cosmos
July 13, 2004
Fitful night’s sleep- our bed is hard as a rock. Got up about 0700. More rain- funny, Fon’s father said that it hadn’t rained in about 2 weeks. We get packed and fart around until 0930. It is raining on and off. We take the motorbike over to Fon’s brother’s house and see the baby. I get an opportunity to see a kind of strange Thai maternity event. Seems that af-ter women give birth, they sit for about 15 days on a straw platform and lean against a rack with their backs to a fire. There is a pot of water boiling and incense burning. Some special variety of leaves are laid out on the mat, on which they sit. The leaves are there because they might still have some bleeding from the child-birth- keeps the mat from becoming stained. Apparently, the idea is to sit there every day for the 15 days and let the lower back get very red. Promotes healing and feeling good, so they say. While we are there, it starts pouring. I’m getting in a bit of a bad mood- I want to get on the road, but now, not only are we wasting time, but it looks like we’re going to get soaked riding back to the city (about a 35 minute ride). The rain stops after 10 minutes. We return to the house and pickup our bags. As usual, there are no goodbyes- everybody just kind of wanders off and we lock the house and leave. We get to Goo’s, but he‘s not there, so we end up waiting a bit longer. Eventually, he and his wife return, Fon’s daughter shows up out of nowhere and we sit around for another ½-hour bull****ting. Finally we leave- good news, we did not have to pay another 150 baht for the bike, even though we are about four hours into the third day and we’ve only paid for two days. We take a tuk-tuk to the bus station. Had to be the slowest tuk-tuk in Thailand. I swear I could have run just as fast. It sounded like the clutch gave out as we pulled into the bus station. We pay him 20 baht and go for tickets. Unfortunately, we’ve missed the 1030 bus by 45 minutes, so we have to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for the 1230 bus- and it's not a VIP. Note: the once/day VIP bus leaves around 0800. I sit and watch a strange American television show dubbed into Thai. Fon goes to buy some yarn- it’s ½ price, compared to Bangkok. She returns with about ten min-utes to spare and we board the bus. Seats 15 and 16- not so good, it’s the sunny side, so it gets quite hot on the return to Bangkok. As usual, the bus leaves about fifteen minutes late. I’m a bit cranky- it looks like three days in Loei have cost me about 9000 baht. Yeah, I have a new refrigerator, but it’s not really something I needed right now. Moreover, Scott called and said he would not be going to Pat-taya, so that part of my holiday is probably gone now, too. The bus trip is about ½ over now- we seem to stop about every three minutes for some reason (not really). Best part of the trip, so far: we’ve passed through the Phu Khradung National Park, located high in the mountains of Isaan. I believe that this is the only location in Thailand that has a deciduous hardwood forest. There are beautiful, rugged peaks, laced together by delicate mists. Another scenic view is the large lake, located about 3-4 hours north of Bangkok, which the bus passes. I do not yet know the name of this lake. I’ll try to find out- I think it would be a nice place for a car trip. Any help on the name out there? The rest of the trip is agonizingly slow. These local busses might be a good choice for those who want a quick view of some small Thai towns. Roll in, pickup/drop-off one person and roll out. We eventually stop at a rest stop, where we can use the vouchers that came with the tickets to get a plate of Thai food, some rice with curry, rice with pork, noodle soup, etc. There is a market where one can restock on drinks and snacks, if desired. We eventually pull in to Mor Chit- 9.5 hours after leaving Loei! This is 2.5 hours more than the VIP bus. Again, for the difference in price ($4 USD) and the addi-tional comfort, the VIP bus is the only way to go. Home always feels a bit better after a vacation. |
Child at Heart
July 14, 2004
Well, today is the day to get my license. Did a bit of research on the ‘net and I’m all prepared. I have my passport, my work permit, photos, US driver’s license, health certificate, rent receipts, bankbooks, ATM cards, cash, and the kitchen sink. All I need is a letter from the embassy attesting to the fact that I’m a resi-dent of Bangkok. Since I am an American citizen, I know that I will receive quick, courteous service from the fine people who staff the local consulate and that I should be out in no time. I head off to the American consulate on Wireless Rd, taking the BTS to Ratchadamri. A ten minute walk down Wireless and I spy the soil of my beloved Amerika. I walk into the outer security office and inquire politely about getting a paper to certify my residency. With a big smile and a slight titter almost bordering on gid-diness, the woman at the desk gleefully informs me that the American Services are closed today, as she jerks her thumb in the general direction of a wallful of signs posted behind her. Since I can actually read English, I glance at the signs that she has indicated and see that none of them address today’s closing. I ask, “Why?” Again, she responds with that attitude that causes myself and countless others to have a particular de-gree of respect for these fine representatives of my government. Her answer: “Closed Saturday, Sunday and holidays.” Feeling confidant that today is not a Sat-urday or Sunday and knowing that the July 4 celebrations have just passed and that there are no more major holidays in July for either the Thais or Americans, I ask, “So why is the office closed today?” “Thai holiday” was her courteous and elo-quent answer. “Really? What holiday would that be? “AIDS conference.” she re-sponded. I could almost see the horns emerging from her skull and hear her de-monic laughter. I am sure that the cosmos has sent me to Thailand to work on patience and anger management, because at that moment, I wanted to slap her silly. July 15, 2004 Played badminton today with Fon, Scott, and his GF. Big building on Soi Yen Akhat, off Chong Nongsi- well, not directly off. I actually could not tell you how to get there. We took the BTS to Chong Nongsi Station, then a taxi to the badminton hall. Taxi was 45 baht. Price: 100 baht/hour. Indoor, non-air-conditioned facility. Good lighting. Reserva-tions must be made a couple of days in advance. Plenty of liquids, snacks, and equip-ment are on sale. Very difficult to get a taxi out of there. Soi Yen Akhat is a dead end street, I think, so there was NO through traffic. As we were leaving, about 1700, there were crowds of laborers returning from their jobs. I might not feel safe walking through this neighborhood after dark. Walked for about twelve minutes, finally flagged a taxi. Taxi to Chong Nongsi to BTS to home, jumped right into the swim-ming pool. 45 minute swim- most refreshing. I guess I’m still a child at heart- wish more of life was fun and games. |
Priceless
July 16, 2004
Up at 0800. BEAUTIFUL day today- not a cloud in the sky! Turns out to be the first day in weeks without rain. At the time, little did I realize what type of omen this represented. Feeling confidant today, I decided to try for a Thai driver’s license again. Here’s a list of what is needed: 1. Original Affidavit of residence executed at your Embassy or consulate. (under 1 month old). If doing two licenses e.g.. car/motorbike then you can use a copy for the 2nd license. 2. Non-immigrant visa. 3. Passport 4. Medical report from a doctor or hospital (original, not a copy). About 20-50 baht cost at most clinics. 5. Your country’s driver's license to verify what license you hold (if not you take a test written multi choice & road test. If no bike or car, you can rent). Watch the motorcycles as they have no brakes but the test is simple- slalom through five poles. 6. 2 photos size 1" X 1" 7. fee baht 105 baht. motorcycle 55 baht Forewarned and forearmed, with the above necessities in hand, I headed to the American consulate on Wireless Rd. Cleared security with no problems and headed to the ACS (American Citizen Ser-vices). Bear to the right after passing through security. No lines at all. Talked to a guy who more than made up for the unpleasant woman at the door two days ago. He was very nice, helpful, and informative. He answered all of my questions clearly and even sympathized with my minor rant about the costs of notary services- $30 USD (1200 THB) per SIGNATURE!!! I asked under what laws the consulate operated. As expected, US Federal Law. I want to check on what they say about how much nota-ries can charge. I believe that in Virginia, the maximum charge is $10 USD. The consulate gives me a paper with a nice summary of what is required for both a Thai driver’s license and for an international license. The paper also lists the ad-dresses and phone numbers for four motor vehicle offices in Bangkok. We try to call the office on Sukhumvit Soi 62, but the number is constantly busy (phone off the hook, maybe???). OK, the office closes at 1100, it is now 1105. Now it is time to take all of the papers up to the Department of Land Transport. The only address that I recognize is the one on Suk Soi 62, but they are not an-swering the phone. I stop and ask a traffic cop where the nearest office is and he tells me to go tot the Mor Chit office. I walk back to the BTS and head up to Mor Chit. After getting off the Skytrain, I ask a security guard where to go and he heads me in the right direction. To walk to the office will take about ten minutes. Leave the BTS station on the right hand set of stairs, relative to the direction the train was taking. Walk back to the large building with the red-orange, Thai-style roof. Enter through the front door , walk straight through and out the back door. Keep walking straight ahead. You will pass two large white buildings on your right, as you head straight back to-wards the parking garage that you will see. When you reach the parking garage, make a right, and head towards the white building that will be ahead of you and slightly to your left. It will be the one that has a swarm of motorbikes and double-parked cars surrounding it. When you reach the building, make a left, walk down 50 meters, and enter through the main doors on your right. Walk past the bathrooms on your left and take the staircase on the left up to the second floor. Walk into the interior room, where there will be an L-shaped desk right in front of you. This desk will be staffed by people who look grumpy. Be nice to them-it can pay off later (and, it’s a nice thing to do!). Really, just smiling and speaking nicely to someone who does the same boring job, year after year, can make a big difference in their day. If you can be waited on by Nim, the oldest lady (47 years old) behind the desk, you will be in excellent hands! Whoever waits on you will fill out all of your paperwork and ensure that you have the proper documents. There is a photo counter (70 baht for 6 1x1 inch photos) and a copy counter, both located to your right. The folks at the L-shaped desk will be very patient as they send you to get the copies that you will invariably be lack-ing. After your papers are filled out, you will be sent to window #6, for all foreigners, farang or otherwise. They will be closed if you arrive between 1200 and 1300. Of course, I got there at 1230, so I had a nice ½ hour wait. It’s OK- this will give you time to bond with the other poor souls, those kindred spirits who, like you, are about to be ground up and spit out by the deux ex machina known as … ***The Thailand Department of Land Transport*** Everybody sits and waits for the window to reopen. I apparently missed the start-ing gun, because, at 1255, there was suddenly a long line of people waiting at the window. I dutifully joined the line- there were actually only about 7 people in front of me, but it seemed like a lot, considering that there was only 1 other person wait-ing when I arrived at 1230. I think Thailand as we know it would cease to exist if any of several common items suddenly ceased to exist. Three that come to my mind immediately: whistles for security guards (more on that later), plastics bags, which are mostly used to deco-rate the streets, sidewalks and countrysides, and rubber stamps, which seem to be used to establish the personal worth of a particular beaurocrat (I must be impor-tant- look at all of my stamps). As I said, I’m the eighth person in line. All of us have had our papers filled out at the initial desk. How long can it take to process each person? How much time have you got? The line moves excruciatingly sloooowwwly. As each person moves to the yet-to-be-seen beaurocrat, all I can hear are dull murmurings, grunting, and an almost non-stop pock-pock-pock of papers being rubber-stamped. There is also a fairly constant stream of people who, after much stamping, grunting and murmuring, leave the line hurriedly, their faces horribly contorted in the same manner one sees on the faces of those leaving a dentist’s office- a bad dentist. Finally, my turn at the window. The woman has two sets of papers, one for each li-cense. She shuffles the papers, reorganizes and reorders everything, attaches pa-per clips and starts pock-pock-pocking away, with an assortment of rubber stamps that clearly indicate her position in the office food chain. I am sent away twice to get additional copies of this or that- one was when she made a small tear in the copy of my license, the other because the smallest corner of my passport had gone off the edge of the photocopy. It didn’t even have text, obviously, but it was still no good. She asks me about the “M” endorsement on my license. I explain that it means that not only can I drive a car, but I can also drive a motorcycle. The pock stops. She shuffles off to a guy with even more stamps than she has, sitting by himself at a large desk in the rear of the office, wearing a crisp, blue shirt. Obviously, the man with all answers. She returns, smiling, pocking my papers, which she then re-turns to me. “Cannot drive car” Excuse me? “Kop rot mai dai” WHY?? Because my license has the “M” endorsement, they assume that it is my motorcycle license only and that it does not qualify me to drive a car. No amount of explanation will help. They tell me to go back to the consulate and get another notarized form stating that Virginia issues only one license, which covers anything you might drive. Somewhat dejected, I shuffle off to the third floor for my eye exam. I glance at my reflection in the office glass. There, I see the same pained face adopted by the other guys who have left window #6. Ah, the eye exam. It is a color blindness test. Now, every color blindness test that I have ever seen works like this: there is a round circle, inside of which are many colored dots. If you have normal vision, you see a particular number. If you are color blind, you see a different number. I wear contacts all of the time and I wear glasses for reading. It’s been many years since I’ve had an eye exam. I look at the color blindness chart. I see no numbers at all! The woman tells me to stand behind a line. Then, she simply picks up a pointer and starts pointing to different dots. I tell her the colors. I pass. I’m asked to sign pa-pers. I have to fumble for my glasses, so that I can read what she’s pointing to. Why doesn’t this set off any alarm bells at the eye exam department? Pock-pock-pock. Back downstairs, to wait again at window #6. While waiting, Nim, from the first desk (remember her?) passes us and mentions that she’s on her way to the bathroom. A rather personal comment, but, when I first dealt with Nim, I chatted with her, using my very faltering Thai: how is your day, what’s your name, how long have you worked here, that’s a pretty ring, etc. On her way back from the bathroom, I ask her if there’s anything she can do about the denial of an automobile license. She takes me to the window and calls blue shirt over. After much explanation, the guy agrees to OK this license, too! I am told to get yet another copy of my license, on which I must make a sworn, written state-ment regarding my driving qualifications. Pock-pock-pock. I’m done. Ten minutes later, I’m holding my two new licenses in my hands. BTW, they do have cars and motorbikes (no brakes!), for rent, with which to take a road test. I could have chosen that option, if need be. I don’t know the cost. Also, when I got the final copy of my license, the Thai woman who made the copy recog-nized it, because her sister lives in Virginia. When I explained what happened, she said she knows that only one license is used. The photocopy girl has this informa-tion- I must be the first American ever to be processed at window #6. In conclusion: • Three trips on the BTS: 54 THB • Thieving notary at the US Consulate: 1200 THB • Two Thai Licenses, both motorbike and car: 160 THB • The look on your face when they tell you to return to the consulate for another 1200 baht piece of meaningless paper: PRICELESS! |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 4:34 am. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.