Stuart's Life in Thailand

Here we are at the end of another month, and I didn't write a single thing here the last thirty days. I am definitely out of the habit of keeping up this blog now, both due to lack of time, but also to lack of inspiration. Not to say that my life has been boring, lately. April was a fairly exciting month for Thailand, actually. But for some reason I just haven't made myself sit down and write about it.

Part of the problem is that the format for this website has always been long essays. And lately I just can't seem to make the time to crank them out. So this past month, in place of long blog posts here, I have been doing some "micro-blogging" on Facebook and Twitter. So feel free to check me out there, in case you are ever worried if I am still alive.

Looking back at what I posted there gives you some idea of what was on my mind this past month:

• 5:16 PM April 5: On the train from Prachinburi after a 65 km bike ride through the countryside.
• 6:15 PM Apr 7th: What a great storm we just had in Bangkok. Lost electricity twice. And it's not even rainy season yet!
• 10:22 PM Apr 7th in reply to bradlai1982: I decided to give Twitter another try. And for some reason, I like it a lot more this time around.
• 10:25 PM Apr 7th: Had a new dish for lunch today: radish, egg, and squid stir-fry. It was MUCH tastier than it sounds!
• 8:03 AM Apr 8th: "Comfort has its place, but it seems rude to visit another country dressed as if you've come to mow its lawns." - David Sedaris (via @nickgray)

And then the Red Shirt Protests started, and pretty much took over everyone's life for a few days:

• 2:19 PM Apr 8th: Live blog of the Red Shirt protest in Bangkok today from Nirmal Ghosh of the Straits Times http://tinyurl.com/csajbp (h/t @bangkokpundit)
• 4:41 PM Apr 9th: Day 2 of the Red Shirt Protest has moved to Victory Monument, a major transportation hub in BKK. Nermal's Liveblog http://tinyurl.com/c5ldlh
• 6:13 PM Apr 9th: Hope no one is planning on driving on Thong Lo or Ekkamai tonight. Both are parking lots.

And then I thought things had settled down:

• 9:04 PM Apr 10th: Time to go out for a drink before the Songkran madness starts tomorrow.

But boy was I wrong, or at least the "madness" was not what I was expecting:

• 1:02 PM Apr 11th: Holding Prime Ministers of all the Asian countries hostage in a hotel does not bode well for the future of Thailand.
• 3:33 PM Apr 12th: Unbelievable scenes on Thai TV now. #redshirt mobs attacking government officals' cars. Why are the Thai Police so completely impotent?!
• 3:26 PM Apr 13th in reply to underexpose: I wouldn't call this #redshirt mess a Civil War, yet. More like Civil Skirmish. But I worry that a real war is looming.
• 5:14 PM Apr 13th: Just finished filing my income tax, two days before it's due. Now it's back to watching Thai events unfold on TV and Twitter.
• 12:35 PM Apr 14th: The #redshirt protest seems to be slowly breaking up, thankfully. Protests are OK. Burning busses and attacking the PM's car is not.

And then, finally, it really was over:

• 7:32 PM Apr 14th: Watching thousands of Thais celebrate Songkran on Silom. Looks like a great release after a stressful weekend!

After the Red-Shirt-tainted Songkran, my attention turned to moving to Phuket:

• 9:31 AM Apr 18th: In Phuket for the weekend. Let the apartment search begin!
• 6:48 PM Apr 18th: Enjoying the sea breeze and a beautiful sunset on Mai Kao Beach. Maybe this move won't be so bad after all.
• 11:53 PM Apr 18th in reply to nickgray I'm glad we had a chance to see you tonight. We had fun hanging out with your folks as well. Have a great flight tomorrow!
• 5:33 PM Apr 20th: Back to BKK from Phuket. The search for a place to live was successful. Now it's time to start packing up the house.
• 6:35 PM Apr 20th from Nambu in reply to robdejonge: Yes, I'm moving to Phuket and taking the official @ITS4Thai office with me. That's the beauty of working online...from anywhere!
• 8:43 AM Apr 21st in reply to augustahopkins: We have some new business opportunities down there. Plus, it's time for change! Been in BKK for over 6 years now. (Amazing)

And after that, I was definitely off-balance and leading a chaotic life:

• 5:24 PM Apr 22nd in reply to jonrandy: Around Xmas I started playing a web-based game called Travian and had to quit this week because I was too addicted! :P
• 8:48 AM Apr 28th: I have officially given up on my New Year Resolutions. Three and a half months was not too bad, right?

But then we ended the month on a high note (63 stories high, that is!)

• 11:30 PM Apr 30: Celebrated Piyawat's new unemployment with a ginger-flavored martini at Vertigo tonight.

The month of May will be mostly all about our move to Phuket. But before that starts, we will spend the long Labor Day holiday in Ko Chang with Piyawat's family. Then it's time to pack everything and move to the South. It's going to be a busy month.

It's been a busy last couple of weeks, as you might have guessed by the lack of posts here. Most of my time has been spent working on ITS4Thai. And I have to say that I have finally marked a few big items off my to-do list.

From the very beginning of building the site, I wanted to provide a way to subscribe to all of the content for a low monthly fee. Some people shy away from monthly subscriptions, but I am one who prefers them. So now that we have over 200 lessons at ITS4Thai, we finally had enough content to offer a subscription to everything for only US$6.99 per month.

We also added an option to buy all of our courses at once. That is now listed at $79.99. And of course, people can still buy individual courses, which range from US$5.49 - US$14.99.

In other ITS4Thai news, we also joined Facebook this week. If you have a Facebook profile, please help us spread the word by becoming a "Fan" of ITS4Thai. You can find us by searching for "Thai Language" in the search box in the upper right corner of any Facebook page.

We'll be sure to post ITS4Thai updates to Facebook, so it's a great way to keep in touch with us. There's more to come, so stay tuned!

I have spent the last week in what is definitely one of my favorite places in the world: Luang Prabang, Laos. It was a spur of the moment trip, but I had three good reasons to go.

The first reason was to join some new friends from the US on the Lao leg of their trip. James, Todd, Paul, and Beth were friends of a friend. We had such a good time hanging out in Bangkok last week that I decided to take them up on their offer to join them in Luang Prabang.

My second reason to go was to try to drag along some of my few remaining friends who have never been to Laos. Only one (Vic) was able to go, but he ended up loving it so much that he extended his trip and is still there!

The third reason was to visit my Lao friend Sack who was doing a three month teacher's training in Sayaburi province, south of Luang Prabang. He invited me to come visit him and see where he is doing his training, and since I had been wanting to go to Sayaburi, I thought it was a great opportunity.

By the way, I have no idea how to spell Sayaburi. At the bus station I saw both Sayaboury and Xayabouli. Lonely Planet calls it Sainyabuli. And Google Maps lists it as Xaignabouri. And I thought translitterating Thai was difficult!

In any case, the first few days in LPB were great. I took my friends to all of my favorite places: lunch and beers at Noy's family guesthouse, BBQ grill at Mali's, dinner at Lao Lao Garden one night and Blue Lagoon another, and dancing at the infamous Dao Fa (Blue Star) Lao disco. A trip to the Kuang Si waterfall and rope swing was also a well-received outing for the group.

All in all it was another great trip to Luang Prabang. And, as usual, I can hardly wait to go back!

One of the things I love about Thailand is the amount of live music and shows that I get to see. Sometimes it's a band playing at a restaurant, or perhaps it's karaoke at a village festival, or maybe it's a children's troop performing a dance routine. Not all of it is great talent, but it is always performed with zest and fun and huge smiles, so it's easy to forgive the off-key notes and asynchronous dance steps.

I was in Pattaya last night and as we strolled down the infamous Walking Street (think Bourbon Street on steroids) I was amazed at how many bands were performing in the bars. And they were all quite good, whether they were playing Thai love songs or Bob Marley or the Rolling Stones or hip hop cover songs. Even the Thai Elvis wasn't bad.

But live performances are even better when I know the people who are performing. I have always loved watching my friends in band concerts or in stage plays or dance recitals. When I know the person on stage and I know their normal everyday personality, and then I see them become someone else for a few minutes, it sends chills down my spine. Especially when they forget the crowd in front of them and it's just them and their bass or their dance or their script. They tilt their head back a bit and close their eyes and pour their soul into their art. It brings me close to tears every time.

This week I was lucky enough to experience this not once but twice. The reason for being in Pattaya last night was to watch my friend Jay give a singing concert at a fundraiser. (Jay is the "male voice" for the ITS4Thai website, by the way.) We thought it would be a small affair at a piano bar, but in fact it was in the street in front of the bar and hundreds of Thais and farang were in attendance. Jay's performance was great, and the songs he picked (none of which I knew) really highlighted his talent.

And then this evening I went to hear an ex-student of mine named Yossiri play bass in his band at Central World. He said that it was a hard-rock band, but the music they played was surprisingly melodic and downright bouncy at times. Again, I loved being in the crowd and watching someone I know pour his passion out for an appreciative audience.

Yossiri sent me a link to his band's You Tube video from this show. It's not very high quality, but you can still make him out playing bass on the right side of the stage. Feel free to check it out!

The Thai Government says that tap water in Bangkok is safe to drink, and as far as I know, I have never had any trouble with it. But I have always tended to stick to bottled water for my drinking and my cooking. But buying plastic jug after plastic jug of water that will end up in a landfill somewhere is not very environmentally responsible thing to do.

So for a long time, we have been filling up empty jugs with water at water stations like this one. They are all over Bangkok, and for only 1 baht per liter (10 cents per gallon), you can have supposedly clean, filtered water.

But it was a hassle to remember to take the empty jugs to the gas station, fill them up, then lug them back to the house. And who knows how safe the water really is?

So now we are getting Sprinkle water from a company called M Water. They started us off with three 5-gallon containers of water and 24 coupons redeemable for full containers. Every week, we put the empties outside our door with the appropriate number of coupons, and they stop by to collect and replace them with full ones.

The price is a little bit more than the water stations, but the free delivery and quality assurances make it a great deal in my opinion.

Sprinkle Water
Delivered by M Water Co.
136/2 Moo 9 Vibhavadee-Rangsit Road
Sikun, Don Muang, Bangkok
Sales Tel: 02-712-7272

For my long bike ride this weekend, I decided to try a route recommended by someone on The Klong Cyclist website. The site said that there was a good walkway along the Saen Sap Canal that would take me to a few lakes in the Seri Thai area. Then, on the way home I could take some back roads behind Ramkamhaeng and avoid the busy roads in this area.

I decided to do an afternoon ride this time, and unfortunately that meant that I didn't get to explore as much as I would have liked to, as I ran out of daylight. But on the other hand, I didn't have to get out of bed at the crack of dawn!

The pathway along the Saen Sap canal turned out to be a great one. It's about 2 meters wide and goes for about 4 kilometers on both sides of the canal, from Ramkamhaeng Soi 29 to Soi 107. And other than a few stray dogs and small children, it was mostly obstacle-free. It also gave me a chance to see some interesting life along the canal, including lots of temples, including an Islamic mosque and a Buddhist temple almost next door to each other. Not to mention, it is much more peaceful than riding on Ramkamhaeng!

Eventually I made my way over to Seri Thai road (which runs parallel to Ramkamhaeng and the Saen Sap Canal) and to an area called Buengkum. There are a few small lakes that are all linked together, and a very nice city park around some of them called Seri Thai Park. Here is what the information sign said about the park:

The park was open for public use in 1987. It was the flood prevention project initiated by His Majesty the King Rama IX. Once known as Bueng Kum or Beung Tathong, the vast public reservoir was renamed to Seri Thai Park in honor for the Seri Thai or Free Thai movement on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the end of World War II. The park covers an area of 350 rai (about 140 acres). One part of which is allocated for the Creation of Bangkok Forest Park as a commemoration to His Majesty the King Rama IX's 50th reigning anniversary. The forest park consist of 3 parts, namely Thaimisuk, Rom Sai, and Charoenkan, all of which are partly planted with perennial plants and partially allocated for flower and fruit tree gardens, with both Thai and foreign species, as well as an island pavilion.

I then headed over to find the back roads off of Ramkamhaeng Soi 118. But before I did, I stopped for some dinner. The first thing on the recommended menu at the restaurant where I stopped was grapaow blaa, which I read as gapraow blah, or basil fish, and which sounded delicious! But instead, the grapow blaa came -- a bowl of fish stomachs!

So let's review the Thai language lesson of the day: gRa-paow = basil, ga-pRaow = bag or stomach.

The full name of the dish was gapraow blah nam daeng. The nam daeng part means "red liquid/sauce", and since I wasn't familiar with this term, I really had no idea what I was getting. But it turned out to be pretty good. The fish stomachs actually don't have much taste, and the "red liquid" is really a thick brown gravy with mushrooms. A handful of shredded crab and some green onion was thrown on top. Not bad at all!

But after that mistake, it didn't get much better. The sun was going down, and I proceeded to get myself lost down the labyrinth of Ramkamhaeng Soi 118. I ended up having to backtrack out to the main road and head home. (And busy Ramkamhaeng is not a very fun road to bike on!) But I'll definitely try this route again and see if I can figure out how to take the back roads next time.

Some pictures from the ride can be viewed here, and here is a map of my 48-kilometer route:

View Larger Map

I am very happy to report that after a short hiatus, the ITS4Thai Language website is finally growing again. Yesterday, we released the brand-new Conversation Course 2. This course is the same format as the first online Conversation Course that we have been offering since last year, but covers the following new topics:

• Small Talk: Conversations about living in Thailand and learning the Thai language.
• Entertainment: Useful words and phrases for going out, and for watching TV and movies.
• Business Around Town: Going to the gym, the spa, the post office, and getting a haircut.
• Time Chapter 2: These lessons build on the time lessons in the first course and cover being on time, setting time for meetings, and expiration dates.
• Eating Chapter 2: These lessons build on the eating lessons in the first course and cover different types of meat, vegetarian food, breakfast, and late-night snacks.
• Adjectives: This course also includes some vocabulary lessons which teaches about 70 very common and very useful adjectives.

The 40-lesson Conversation Course 2 has the same low price as the first one: US$14.99 or 499 Thai Baht and it can be purchased on the ITS4Thai website. Just log in at http://www.its4thai.com and go to the "Courses" page.

Yesterday, we invited our students who have gone through previous courses on our site to try the new course, and the response has been great. I am very glad to see that a lot of people are still using ITS4Thai to learn the Thai language.

This year I have been doing my best to follow a new diet to lose a few inches off my middle. The main key to this diet is to avoid grains as much as possible. That's a pretty big change for me, as it means no rice, no noodles, no Au Bon Pain croissants, and no beer. I'm not sure which of those I miss the most.

But even though it's been hard to stick to the diet, it has definitely made a positive difference in the way I look and feel, so I am going to keep it up for now.

One of my favorite Thai foods (or, food that is available in Thailand) has always been noodle soup. Since I am not eating noodles now, I just get the soup, with pork and veggies. The pork is often moo daeng (red pork) and the veggie is a bitter, green leaf that tastes similar to spinach. The way I ordered it today was gao lao sai moo daeng.

The soup also has green onions, roasted garlic, and small bits of a pickled vegetable (maybe cabbage?). Add the usual table condiments little pepper, some vinegar with pickled chilis, some red chili powder, and fish sauce, and you have a gourmet meal:

This was my lunch today, and set me back 40 baht (a bit over US$1), including a bottle of Pepsi.

Hillary Clinton is traveling through Asia this week in her first over seas trip as the Secretary of State. She has been in Indonesia for the past couple of days, but Thailand isn't on her list of places to visit. Apparently, someone at the Bangkok Post got their feelings hurt over this "snub".

In an editorial published a few days ago in the Post entitled So what are friends for? an unnamed author states:

The Barack Obama presidency starts what it promises will be a new foreign policy era this week. Top officials and envoys are off to Europe and South Asia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins her term with a trip to Asia that brings mixed reactions. On one hand, Mrs Clinton is clearly showing how important this region has become. On the other, the decision to visit Indonesia but ignore close US friends and allies is confusing...

Many in Thailand, which has 175 years of rock-solid support and harmony with the US, feel the new leadership in Washington is turning its back on an old friend. Singaporeans and Filipinos have said much the same. The new administration maintains it truly wants to focus on our region. It is important to include wary countries like Indonesia in the dialogue. But it is vital not to ignore old and trusted friends.

Those last two sentences almost sounds like the author is jealous of Indonesia! I wonder what makes Indonesia "wary" while Thailand is "trusted". In fact, I'd go so far to say that it is the other way around, at least in the eyes of the U.S. State Department. So why might Thailand not be on the top of the list of important allies in Asia? Clinton gave the answer when she showed the State Department's view of Indonesia by saying:

Indonesia is one of Asia's most dynamic nations, where human energy and aspiration combine to help lead the country to a free and fair system of elections, a free press, a robust civil society, and a prominent role for women in the Indonesian Government. We will support Indonesia and other countries in the region that are actively promoting shared values.

So when Thailand is "actively promoting shared values" like a "free and fair system of elections" instead of coups and mob rule, a free press instead of an environment where people fight over control of the media, and the protection of human rights instead of setting immigrants adrift on the ocean without food or water, then we'll talk about being trustworthy.

In my last post, I mentioned the small Italian restaurant in Phuket called La Gaetana that Piyawat and I both enjoyed very much. When I got back to Bangkok I looked it up online, and I see that people have been raving about it for quite some time.

So what was so great about it? For starters, the moment you walk into the small shophouse-sized restaurant, you know you are in a special place. The decorations are vaguely home-style Italian, with lots of warm deep colors, and lots of quirky, unique details. The dining area has only 6 tables, so right away you know that chances are good that the food will be prepared with care.

We were waited on by the Italian owner and chief of the restaurant who did an excellent job explaining the specials of the day, the various appetizers and the wines. We ordered a carafe of the Italian house wine, but the table next to us ordered a bottle and we were treated to a grand sommelier show as the owner opened the bottle and decanted the wine for them with great flair. I think that his performance alone is a great reason to upgrade to a full bottle next time!

The food was excellent and the service was amazingly attentive, yet not overbearing. And for desert, the creme brulee (with another table show of caramelizing the sugar on top) was out of this world. Piyawat ordered the tiramisu, and the owner delivered it and signed his name in the powdered chocolate on the plate with a long cinnamon stick. While that might seem completely over the top, it really was quite fitting as his personality and high standards are stamped on every aspect of the restaurant.

So while Phuket might not be my favorite place in the world, I can hardly wait to go back to La Gaetana!

La Gaetana
352 Phuket Road
Muang Phuket Thailand 83000
Tel: 07-625-0523
Closed on Wednesday
Reservations Recommended