finally, a new post from Thailand!

Well,

We made it to Thailand all fine and dandy. (I am traveling with my friend Angie Booth who is doing some buying for her shop back in the butte.) The drive to Denver was gorgeous, new snow on the mountains and a crystal clear fall day. I have pictures I will try to post to Picasa, but one step at a time, (since this is new and when I go to the blog spot here in thailand, the text on the page is all in thai, which is kinda hard for me to read and figure out which one is the sign-in, but I digress, and obviously, i figured it out.)

The plane ride was fine, and i did sleep most of it, so the jet lag hasnt been too bad (for once). Walking off the plane at the Bangkok airport, there is that instant realization that your not in kansas anymore. For one, it is warm and humid, plus there is that spicy scent in the air. Then, of course, the anouncements are in a foreign language and displays and what not in the airport are in the distinctive curved thai architectural style with thai color schemes versus the cold, crisp lines in a western airport.

(Of course not all the unusual smells are pleasant as the sewer lines are not deep and tend to vent into the sidewalk atmosphere pretty much everywhere in the city.)

We are staying here at Rick and Methet Truscott's fine new house in Pattaya, about an hour and a half south of Bangkok. It is a combination of closed rooms (bedrooms where they can run air conditioning, office, dining room) and open rooms (living room, den) since being in the tropics, it never gets cold here and heating is not an issue. Their old house now serves as the guest house and kitchen and is just a few feet from the beautiful new house. Their three kids, Missah, Qino and Caleb are all doing well and seem the same to me in the two years since I have seen them. We arrived in the early AM, so once we were here it was off to the beach for lunch... nothing like thai food in thailand... and we would have taken a dip in the gulf, but a storm blew in, so no swim. And that is also why this blog has taken so long, and will be so long ... trouble with the internet due to the weather that we have been having here (it is rainy season).

So Friday, Methet, Angie and I went into Bangkok and did some shopping. Strange for a mountain boy to say, but it almost felt like coming home driving and walking around in crowded Bangkok, still my favorite city. Methet had to go to the US embassy for Missah's passport re-newal, and Ange and i got our tickets to Bali arranged and tried to go to my favorite spa for some massage and pampering, only to find it torn down! In fact, many things have changed in Bangkok since I was here three years ago, many an old building is gone and many a new shiny skyscraper has sprouted. Many of the old shopping malls on the main shopping street crammed full of tiny stall-like shops where all manner of inexpensive goods could be had are completely gone. they are being replaced with swanky new, modern air-conditioned western style malls... where did all the el-cheapo venders that Blake and Anette used to shop at go? Enough were still around for Ange to find some good stuff tho.

After wandering around in what was left of the crammed vendor "malls" we wandered over to Siam Paragon a new super fancy mall, across the street from what used to be the one fancy mall, Gaysorn, on the shopping mecca street. It is also right next door to Siam Center, which Glo knew back in the day when she was in Bangkok. I doubt Glo would recognize Bangkok today, as Siam Center was THE fancy mall then, it is now the been-remodeled-a-dozen-times-but-still on the low-end side of the "mall" spectrum in a town that has lots of "malls."

We saw a western style rock show out on the new wide plaza on the street at Siam Paragon ( a nice change from the narrow side-walk space for the foot traffic and ever-present street vendors that used to crowd the street). And there was a demonstration of a traditional Thai dance inside the Siam Paragon (see pictures at Picasa). We ate at a nice thai restaurant in Paragon and Methet got some grocercies in the new swank grocery store inside -- think Central Market for you texans or one of the new, big Whole Foods (without the whole). My Thai friend Tony (who is unfortuantely busy working all this week) stopped by while we were there and said hello. It was good to see him, and he said he might be able to come visit us for a few days while we are in Bali. I hope so since a ten minute visit seems far too short.

There are things in Thailand that are just very different from the west. For example, they dont have just a few wires on the poles as in the west; here it seems that if someone needs a new service, they simply put up a new wire. As a result, the concrete (wood wouldnt last very long in the tropical climate) poles dont have five or six lines on them, they have thirty or forty (Angie thinks eighty) wires strung along. And we saw some people instaling yet another wire at one point.

Or the utter lack of enforcement on the highway lends an autobahn type of feel... sort of. For example, they have posted speed limits, but no enforcement, so Rick's driver basically drives as fast as possible all the time... 90 MPH in a 80 KPH zone passing semi's like they are standing still is a typical example. And they have lines on the road just like at home, dashed yellow lines for passing zones, solid yellow lines for do not pass zones, white dashed lines denoting lanes, solid white lines for a shoulder, but that seems to be merely advisory. Many a time (at high speeds,mind you) on a two lane highway we will pass slower vehicles (trucks, busses) in a do not pass zone while there are oncoming vehicles. People just scoot over enough to let us by (whichever way they may be traveling). And no one ever lays on the horn. If there is enough room, drivers take it and go. I tried to memorilaize the practice with some short movies on my camera, but I dont think they worked out too well, very bouncy roads at 140+KPH for one.

Also different from the west (and something I find refreshing) the Thais dont separate their rich and poor people. For example a fancy high rise apartment building in the swankiest neighborhood in town has a corrugated tin shanty right next to it. Also, the streets are always crowded with people. Besides pedestrians, there are street vendors everywhere selling everything from clothing to pirated DVDs to grilled food. This has a way of cluttering up the very limited sidewalk space.

Saturday (11 October) Angie and I went to the Weekend Market -- an open air market -- for more buying, and Ange made some good scores. Methet tells us that it too is about to be no more; the site is slated for high end condo development. So yet another low cost shopping experieince is about to go away. After a hot and sweaty day of that, we came back to the Truscott house for a delightful party. About 18 or so of their friends (with many a kid) came over for dinner, drinking, a little pool playin and otherwise socializing. Mostly foreigners, some with Thai wives ... friends mostly centered around the kids English based international school. As a result there were a number of Brits, a retired American named Dave (with whom I had quite an interesting conversation) a Frenchman from Strausbourg, a Swiss, etc. Dave had extensive international business experience and gave Angie a bunch of really good advice on her business. Leaning quite to the right politically it was interesting to hear him voice his support for Obama in the upcoming election because "Obama is the right guy with the right message for what our country needs right now." It seemed that most of the people who cared about our upcoming election in this small slice of the ex-pat community residing in Pattaya was hopeful for an Obama victory. (Just as the mostly republican American ex-pat community I met in Bangkok four years ago was hopeful for a Kerry victory when i was here in 2004.)

There was also quite a bit of concern about the turmoils in the economy, and having just arrived from the USA they wanted to know if it was as bad back home as it seems. One of the Brits who worked for GE was quite certain that the market had severly undervalued that Company's stock. But enough politics and business talk. They were a delightful group of people, and it was a great party, even if the electricity did go out twice for extended periods due to the lightening in the area -- party by candlelight in the open air house listening to the frogs chirpping and squeaking made it feel like a camp-out party ala Chateau Angelique.

This morning we woke up for the Sunday morning bowling get together some of these people (and the Truscott's) seem to engage in on a semi(?) regular basis. That was fun. Then the whole truscott clan, Ange and I went into Bangkok. Ange and Methet went back to the weekend market for some more, and I went with Rick and the kids on his errand for a new lense for his camera. It was good to spend time with Rick as I wont have much more time to see him this trip as the work week will eat up a lot of the time remaining during our stay in Thailand. (I'll be back here in November before returning to the USA.) Rick and Methet are such great people and very good friends. They are wonderful hosts, and it is good just hanging with them and the kids.

After picking up the ladies we had a delicious japanese dinner in bangkok, and then back to Pattaya. As we got close to their home, a small village along the way had a bunch of bright lights, and there was a bunch of smoke in the air. Earlier we had been diverted off the main road and thru the town because a movie was being shot, so we thought. "Hey, lets stop and see the shooting." Methet had heard that it was a Johnny Depp movie, and wanted to see. Turns out it was a Claude Van Damme movie, and we watched a few minutes of the shooting with the muscle man himself. What we saw might end up as a few seconds in the final film, but if you see a new Van Damme movie that has a scene or two at the "Eagle's Nest" bar at night, we were there! That was fun.

Anyway. I just needed to catch up on the blog, and let everyone know that I am here, safe and sound, and having a smashing good time. Tomorrow I hope to get to the dental clinic for a cleaning and consultation regarding the other three quarter of my mouth. (replacing the old fillings at a cost savings that provides some justification for the small fortune of the airplane fare cost is the goal -- sorry Dr. Anderson!) Then perhaps a little relaxation will be in order before we head to Bali on Wednesday AM. We've only been here a few days, but it already feels like I've been here forever...again a strange kind of homecoming feeling... the Thai people are in so many ways so very warm and nice....

The flickering lights are making me nervous about the power lasting long enough for me to upload the blog, so until next time

Newo out.