Behind the Noodle Curtain

My get-up-and-go has got up and gone

Some of you may be familiar with the term "no replacement." Now some of you retirees will have to reach far back in your mind to the day when company revenue was squeezed (say, the recession of 1991) and you had to get your job done and another guy's when he was on vacation. Yeah, you remember now! Long hours and no extra pay, except the promise that you can take a day off in lieu. Right. You have about as much chance of getting that day off as marrying a beautiful/handsome  national lottery winner or getting the entire winter off. 

These days, corporate revenue is being squeezed even more and yours truly has had to get along with "no replacement" in our three-man team.  It used to be that we'd get in a fourth or even a fifth in the heady days of fat profits and no end of premiums and bonuses.   All that extra cash is gone and we're having to do more work when "fully" staffed and even more work when down a guy.

So now you know how I feel as I've been shirking my blog work. Just too tired to spark a match inside the cranium. When I get home, all I can think about is dinner and a nap. That takes me to 9 o'clock or so and all I want to do is read other people's blogs as long as they're not too engaging, or put another way, burn up my last few brain cells. And I've hardly even done that, preferring instead to sit front of the boob tube -- watching a good movie; no matter how desperate, I cannot bring myself to watch vacuous sit-coms and I'd have to throw myself of my balcony before I'd watch an unreality show.

I did find the time and energy to take a one-day photography course this past weekend. I nearly split a cranium with information.  I learned so much and filled in some  dreadful gaps in my knowledge. I had a great teacher, a 30-year-old Scot who's been living and working in Canada for the last few years. Very talented he is. And passionate. In a way, that may have been the best part. His intensity and knowledge lit a fire in my heart. 

And yes, the point of signing up for the intense one-day cram session was to become brave enough to get a real camera, with real lenses and take some real photos. Nothing wrong with a point-and-shoot, but I am knocked out at how much better photographs are and how much more coverage I can get with a Real Camera (tm) [said camera being a Canon Rebel T1i, which can shoot high-def movies, with Sigma 18-200mm  zoom and 35mm fixed lens, the latter one having tremendous low-light and short-range capability]. I hope to be able to raise my game in terms of blog photos.

It's been nearly two weeks since I last posted. I do have lots to write about (I keep saying that but, well, nobody believes me now, I imagine) but I do miss my time in Bangkok when I could shoot out two and sometimes three posts in a day, never mind a week. And my work conditions won't improve until mid- to late September.

Ah, good old September. Here in the north lands, that month usually has the absolute best weather. The sun is a little farther down the horizon as the earth tilts away, it's warm, breezy and the streets are teeming with life. School and university students are walking to class in their fresh fall clothes, stores and markets are loaded with goods and garden fruits and vegetables, people have returned from vacation and are revived from the past winter gulag (which, it just so happens, seems to have stuck around till July this year, which makes me really optimistic about the fall because the August weather has been hot and a bit steamy and reminiscent of LOS); the bars and restaurants and patios fill up, the weekend events are packed.It's all good.

Instead, I got another month's worth of heavy slogging before I can ratchet down to plain old slogging and watch  my vacation dates come into view.  This season I won't return until mid-December. I usually return in November. I spent six months off work last season as I was on leave. Well, I finished work on a Friday evening and was on the jet Sunday morning. I arrived in Bangkok in late September and almost kissed the Swampy floor (being careful not to stray in duty-free shops!!!). I returned to Canada in April. I can't believe that I SKIPPED WINTER. Never did that before and I, well, could get used to it. A friend suggested that this season I go later in the year and miss some of the cold and snow. So yeah, I'm into that.

Once you've experienced the thrill of six months of sun, warmth and mai penh rai, and for six glorious months did not experience ice, sleet, snow, slush, rain, boot-swallowing mud puddles, late transit services and impassable sidewalks and roads, there's no replacement.

Images: bars and other features in Surin, Thailand, Part 2

Back in Surin, but this time my photos show the streets and other features of the small city. Most of the photos were taken in March this year, during the hot season. Whoa! 38, 39, 40 C every day.

I stayed at the Thong Tarin for two weeks and just wandered around, relaxing mostly, going for espresso at a shop closer to the bus station, owned by a Lao-speaking  lady and her sister, and one on the other side of the station, owned by Canadian Brian from Vancouver. Then it was brekkie at the Farang Connection or  N & N's on soi Kola. That got me to 1 in the afternoon, then it was back to the hotel to cool off for a while and a nap.

Then I was back out around 4 or 5 for a beer, then my second and last meal of the day.  Then a break at the hotel for shower and bit of TV watching. Then it was out to the bars on Sirirat and Kola till the wee hours. Sometimes, I had a noodle soup or other meat and rice dish in front of the 7-11 on Sirirat  very early in the morning. Good food. And just sat there watching the arrivals and departures of the local female population on their motorcycles. Strange but most of the travellers were girls.

Couple of curious Bangkok buddies came up for a few days to see what Surin was all about. I don't think they were impressed but were happy to check it out anyway. Or at least that was what they told me. After two weeks, I was ready to pack it in because touring in the heat of the day was just too harsh, as my friends found out one day when we walked the city. I was going to go on to Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani, toward the Lao border.  But I'm keeping those visits till this coming winter when the daytime temps are under 35.

So here we go (by the way, all pix were taken by my trusty Canon point and shoot, namely SD850is):

 

Brian and partner, shown, at their espresso shop, which drew a lot of Thai businessmen and ladies. It faces the Majestic Hotel and bus station. It's also a 10-minute walk to the train station, behind this building.

Walk away from the bus station to the rail station along this soi and turn right.

       

 

Hmmm, came across this on a tour of town.

     

Left to right, the Surin Mall that looks like a KFC (pix 1 & 2); a Chinese temple near a night market; and the sign of an elephant, the city being famous for its annual (November) elephant roundup.

  

Came across this spectacular dinner setting  being readied  for the evening. Don't know what the celebration was for. Anyone read Thai?

   

Must transportation in Thailand, motos are used for everything and anything, this one being modified for hauling whatever.

 

I came across this "temple," still under construction. Don't know what it is for as there was no English on the signs. I asked several residents and they could not tell me -- or they didn't understand me, which is the more likely. Anyone know?

   

   

That's it for now from Surin.

I leave you with a bit of "elephantics". I had a barside view of our be-trunked friend eyeing our beer on our table at The Oasis in Surin. And, no, that's not his scooter. Photos taken with iPhone so not so great.

 

 

Easy transition back to Canada from Thailand -- sort of

Jetlag problems were minor since coming home to Canada two weeks ago today, which was a pleasant surprise. I usually suffer for seven to 10 days. I had even come home a week in advance of resuming work to reorient myself. And I fell into the work mode quite easily, with "finger memory" carrying me through the daily grind of computing and creativity.

This is a different planet here in Canada compared with Thailand and Southeast Asia. For one thing, temperatures here are cold, with April nights dropping toward zero Celsius. Bangkok was hitting the mid- to high-30s and humid in daytime and dropping only to 25 or so overnight. That was a real shock to the body. My skin here was drying out severely, my hands even cracking. I had to resort to oiling my skin with shea butter. The worst of it was over in about 10 days or less. In Thailand, the air is so moist you never have to worry about "moisturizing."

I had also forgot about how many layers of clothing you had to throw on. Leaving in the warmish sunny late morning for work, you had to be prepared for the cool or cold evening walk home. At times, I forgot where I was. I remember one morning  wearing my walking shorts and no shirt and opening the balcony door to go for a smoke and retreating like a scalded cat from the brittle cold breeze. 

Another shock -- I don't know why it is every time I come back home -- is the price of everything. Ten- and 20-dollar bills fly out of your pocket. That's 280 to 500-plus baht. You could actually eat three times in Bangkok in one day and only spend 100 baht. At the Londoner Brew pub, you can down four pints of a very good lager for a little over 300 baht, taxes and tip included. That would only get you  a pint and a half in Toronto before  tip. 

A single TTC fare of $2.75 would get you four trips in the Bangkok BTS Skytrain or MRT subway. That $2.75 (77 baht) would get you two air-con taxi rides in downtown Bangkok. In Toronto, the taxi pickup rate starts at $4 or 110 baht. The pick up rate in Bangkok is 35 baht and that gets you a long way before the meter starts its slow rise.

One nice thing about Toronto is that I can take transit all the way from the airport to home for $2.25 (token fare). (Limos are about $60 and taxis about $50 to my home.) Can't do that yet in Bangkok, although they are extending the Skytrain out to Swampy (nickname for the main international airport because it's built on a  . . . right . . . a swamp . . . a cobra swamp, in fact.) It's official name is: Suvarnabhumi (phonetically: Suwannaphum).

One not so nice thing is the oppressive regulatory environment here. A friend picked me up on the street and offered to drive me to work during a heavy rain. He dropped me off at the office and had to park momentarily on the bicycle laneway in front of the entrance, after rush hour when traffic is, frankly, quite light. Only other choice is block one of two traffic lanes. We sat a minute and talked and up behind us came a Parking Enforcement van, honking its horn. He honked a second time and I finally got out and ignored the officer. He was probably ready to give us a ticket. We caused exactly no problem for traffic. What's wrong with a cyclist, if there were any, riding out around a momentarily stationary vehicle? In all honesty, I prefer Bangkok's chaos. That's all I'm saying. For now.

Could rainy season in Thailand be early?

A few days before Songkran, the Thai water festival to mark the transition between the hot, dry season and the coming rainy season, daily rains started. Bit of a surprise to the locals.

It rained only for half an hour or so. Then last week, the rains went on for an hour or two and came down in substantial amounts. Last April 7, a Wednesday, the rain pelted down and lasted for a couple of hours. I've never been in Thailand during the rainy season so it was an awesome experience.

Here are some pictures of that rainy day, as seen from the patio of the Silver Dollar, on Washington Square. (A friend, PN, experimented with tilting my camera so those two images are taken by him.)

Before the deluge,  friend David, mobile glued to his ear for business reasons, joins me at the Silver Dollar.

Calm before the storm, as the garlands on the restaurant's spirit house, right of picture, and Thailand flag hang barely motionless. But the winds pick up soon.

The rains start and motorcyclist tries to keep dry.

Umbrellas sprout on the street as taxi tours square for desperate passengers.

The water caroms off the awnings and roof extensions, which also serve to keep front office windows in the shade and away from the blistering sunshine.

It was relaxing to sit on the patio and listen to the rain. There was however, much thunder and lightning.

Things to look forward to in Canada after six months in Thailand

My days in Thailand are dwindling. Down to seven more after today. Thought I'd take a look at the positives of that, in other words, I am thinking of the things to look forward to in Canada.

One of the easiest positives is the coolness of the weather back home. I am ready for a break from the high heat and humidity. You don't want to be too active outdoors from about 11 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. But in the evenings the humidity hangs really heavily. Still it's better than direct blazing sunlight of the daylight hours. And this is Thailand's peak heat season.

Consequently, one is going through shirts and other clothing at a fairly high rate, doing laundry more often and showering three, four, five times a day, if only to shower off the sweat. So it will be nice to get back to more normal frequency of all of the above.

One of the things I miss are the natural products, whether food or toiletries or cleaners.

I haven't really found products to replace what I have back home. I am thinking of the natural shower soaps, laundry detergent, deodorant, toothpaste, etc. Some of that may be available here but I have failed to find any, other than crystal based deodorant. There is a natural toothpaste but it is truly unappealing in appearance, looking like rolled up dirt and weeds. Still, last trip, I got used to it. This time I went with a commercial product when I ran out of the Canadian natural paste.

I have been using standard brand-name laundry powder and liquid detergents, which leave a chemical smell and often lots of white residue. The local commercial shampoos and hand soaps don't feel right. Although I did find an anti-bacterial soap, Asepso, that has been pretty good.

I  really look forward to food that is unadulterated by sugar. Juices are often heavy on added sugars, although I did find a couple of brands (Malee and Tipco) that have no sugar added. Still though, you often find the over-sweet grape juice as a prime constituent. Juices and just about every other food product are so heavy in sugar they are almost undrinkable or inedible. For example, 7-11 has a good variety of refrigerated prepared foods. But the spaghetti and chicken in tomato sauce is sickeningly sweet. Thai people love sweetness. I once saw a Thai spoon six heaps of sugar into his morning noodle soup.

I look forward to becoming relaxed pedestrian in Canada. You do get used to walking in the Bangkok traffic chaos. But it will be nice to go back to far more orderly traffic back in Toronto where the sidewalks are mostly free of dangers and you don't need to constantly weave around obstacles, duck under low overheads and step up then down all the time.

I also am looking forward to the mental stimulation of work. Being on vacation this whole time, I depended on my blog writing to simulate the mental processors. That was fun and very engaging because I tried to keep track of the details of everyday life and activities of both foreigners and Thai people. In the process, I started to understand a little better the Thai culture and appreciate it more.

I will also welcome getting back to an English-speaking environment. Whether shopping or eating out or just being able to read all the signs, it will be a bit of a relief, frankly. I do like the Thai langauge, but I have so much to learn yet and look forward to when I can go beyond the simple language of meals, taxis and shopping. Unfortunately, there are no Thai language courses in Toronto. I hope to find a tutor and raise my game a little while back home.

 And last, I am really, really looking forward to getting on my 800 cc motorbike, a real motorbike, unlike the putt-putts of Thailand. When I get home, the first thing I will do after dropping the bags is visit the garage and gaze upon (and maybe even ride) my blue dual-sport bike.

Bar hopping in Washington Square, Bangkok

[Update: images added]

 

As soon as you turn away from Mambo ladyboy theatre (see inset image), after leaving Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok, you will see the Silver Dollar straight ahead.

The impetus for our bar hopping adventure last Sunday was the free meal at the Silver Dollar. The bar does this every Sunday afternoon!

First though, Washington Square is a down at the heels square off Sukhumvit Road and soi 22. You get there from the Phrom Pong Skytrain station, and walk inbound to a large alley. The Square's most prominent tenant is right there in your face, the Mambo ladyboy club, a huge old theatre that features a dazzling show every night. But, as we discovered, it appears as though the place is under  demolition.

From the alley, you head toward the club, about 50 metres and turn left, after perusing the shiny, begowned ladyboys assembling after their (nightly) shows to salute the customers (mostly tour groups of Koreans and Japanese). You're staring straight at the Silver Dollar.

It's a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, probably 33-34 degrees and breezy.  I meet my Danish friend, Jannik and later Englishman David shows up. We sit outside on the veranda to smoke, drink 65 baht Heineken draft and await our meals. It turns out this is not a buffet style. The girls serve you at the tables. This Sunday it's pork roast, mash potatoes and veg. Free.

After all this time in Bangkok, none of us, except Jannik, has gone for the free-meal Sundays. It was bloody good. So we drank and ate for a couple of hours. The Silver Dollar is an old-style, classic Bangkok bar, which has its origins in the days of American soldiers holidaying from the Vietnam War. Some of the vets still go in there because they've stayed in Southeast Asia since the '60s-70's action.

The Silver Dollar still looks rudimentary. Wooden and plastic banquettes, chrome stools and basic long-U-shaped bar, from which the girls would woo soldiers for a little lovin'. And it's cheap. Bottle premium beer is 80 baht ($2.85 Cdn), Sang Som (gut rot whisky/rum from Thailand) is 65 ($2.30) a shot.

Fed and watered, we decide this is a theme and we need to tour all the bars on the Square, which is pretty big. We start calling our Londoner pals for support in this attack.

Next is another classic bar in the Vietnam  mode . . .

   . . . the Texas Lone Staar (with 2 a's).  But even more so, thanks to the walls of memorabilia and a particularly good painting of a typical Lone Staar scene. The bar looks a little lopsided, as do the bar stools, which are anchored into cement (I can only imagine why?!?!?!), and banquettes. But it's a durned friendly place.  An Aussie patron, Ross, regales us with recent escapades at the bar as well as his "activities" at a host of bars far and wide.  Yikes! Some of it's believable, some not so much.

Well, it's time to add the Sang Som shots to the drinking activity and a couple of hours later, we decide we like the Lone Staar. The company was good and the booze was even cheaper (50 baht for Sang Som). But, alas, we must move on to complete our fact-finding mission.

One of our trio remembers an earlier visit to the Wild Country, right next door . . .

. . . Look at the name, dear reader, and you will get it. So we went in to the notorious bar, which I had visited once before. Well, Sunday afternoon and we were the only customers, but one. We had one beer and decided we must go back sometime when the small club gets out of second gear. 

Turn left out the door of Wild Country and head toward  Bourbon Street Restaurant and Bar, left  with yellow sign and below in inset image.

We pass by Bourbon Street restaurant, with its excellent overall menu, which specializes in Cajun and Mexican cuisine (it has a particularly good hamburger). So it's past the massage parlours catering to Japanese and Korean "needs,"  right side and left, and swing round the next corner heading toward soi 22 Sukhumvit Road. Another area humming with night life bars, mostly beer/pool bars. 

We spy other bars, including the Prince of Wales and Hare and Hound . . .

Good food here at Hare and Hound on Washington Square, Bangkok. We've eaten there twice now and will likely go back.

. . . . And there's Aussie Ross, tucking into a beer  at the Prince. Beside the Prince is the Hare. While the hostesses at the Prince beckon us,  we spot food  at the Hare. We sit outside on a cool, heavy wooden table with (very comfortable) wicker chairs. Jannik has a surprisingly good chicken noodle soup and I have a generously sized and tasty hamburger with delicious fries. By now, we've gathered another tour judge, a former long-time resident who has been working back in England for a while.

Food good, service good and patio very nice. We must go back (and we did, just two nights ago). Well, off in the distance we spot .  . . wait for it . . . Taffy's Hairy Pie Club! Ooooie! We look at each other and put it on the list just out of sheer curiosity.  But first we have a cigarette run to the 7 (I volunteer to buy the smokes) and I catch up with the crew at the Green Room. Nice, small  patio, agreeable service. At this point, our numbers grew to five, with American Chuck.

But the nearby Happy Bar drew our attention. Wooden tables and chairs out on the covered  porch set a very comfortable tone. The girls took our orders, again and again, because, well, we were comfortable. And there was a nice evening breeze. Did I mention our table companions?

It seemed like we were saving our most "intriguing" bar to the last . . .

A dive, a real dive. We had to return one draft beer because it tasted like vinegar and urine.

Taffy's Hairy Pie Club. I can only imagine. In we walk and it's a dive. A pool table at the entrance, square bar, with dancing poles behind it for the girls, and a feeling that at no time in the past has the owner ever bought a dust pad. We all order bottled beer (safest) and Jannik orders a Chang draft.

You should have seen the look on the Dane's face when he took that first sip. It looked like he'd just eaten his first fried bug guts. Chuck tries and then I do. Appalling! It had a vinegary-urine taste. Jannik returns the draft and gets a bottle.

The boys play pool, no floor show ever appears and we decide we'd had enough of Taffy's establishment. We look toward soi 22 (see inset image) but decide to finish where we started, at the Silver Dollar. We close the place. Someone tells us about the free food at the Soi  8 Bar on Friday evenings. Wheels turn, idea lightbulbs flash and we decide to inaugurate  an all-free-food bar tour next Friday (today, in Internet time).

Heat and humidity back in Bangkok

Here it is, 28 degrees at 4 in the morning in Bangkok. How do I know?  I got home around 4:30 a.m. and checked the Thai meteorological web site. And I also knew because I was still outdoors with two friends at the Asok street bars. The relative humidity was 81 per cent. Felt like it too.

The street bar girls were fanning us. Didn't need it but they felt hot too. But the cold towels were a welcome relief.

Yesterday's max was only 34 degrees. A virtual cool season. We had just come back from Surin and Buriram, where it was 37 to 40 everyday. That was hot, too hot to travel. Certainly, too hot to walk the towns and cities iof Isaan.

So, yeah, it's diferent here.

Heat on rise in Bangkok winter

You can tell things are changing as Thai people go out of their way to walk in the shade or shield their faces from the direct sunlight.

The heat of Bangkok is starting to come back. It's been above 30 now for a few days and I've been sweating again. Others are remarking about the same thing. The humidity is running around only 50% though. The real hot season begins in March, apparently, bloody hot.

The forecasts for Bangkok from the Thai weather service and Wunderground web weather site diverge significantly on temps over next few days. Here are two screen grabs of the forecasters' web pages:

 

'Cold' in the north very real for Thais who have no home heating

Here's a screen capture of the forecast for "northern" Thailand from the Thai Meterological Dept. Notice the cute little figures indicating "cold" weather for three areas of the northeast (Isaan). The cold overnight lows are very real for Thai people who have no heaters.

Cool winds add chill to Bangkok night

Last night, the low temp in Bangkok hit 16. It felt it. We were sitting on the rooftop of a downtown condo and the breeze up there caused quite a windchill. All of us were literally shivering. It was, dare I say it, cold. Not going to get any sympathy back home but the chilly winds from China are having their impact. This week, lows are expected to hit mid-teens. What's kind of amusing is watching Thai girlfriends and wives last night bundled up in sweaters and extra clothing, balled up and visibly shivering.

But when February comes, the temps begin rising. Then in March daytime highs start hitting 35 and lows only descend to about 25, with heavy humidity. In April, which I've never experienced, daytime highs can hit 38 and nighttime lows only falling to about 26 or 27. Humidity will make those temps feel like low-to-mid 40s and 30+ at night.

I see in Toronto, temps are below zero and lots of snow falling. As far as my weather preferences are concerned, I won't have to toss a coin.