The Noodle Curtain

New apartment, new neighbourhood, new life

 

The apartment hunt is over, thank Buddha. And I’m excited because I will be living in a part of town I only know a little about, but at least it’s off the Sukhumvit same old, same old.

As a tourist you will spend a lot of time with Sukhumvit at your back because it’s where most of the western oriented services are located and it’s also the east-west spine of the BTS Skytrain -- a huge factor in locating your place to live.

Instead I will be living near the MRT subway, the main north-south transit spine, which is more or less Asok-Ratachadapisek Roads. Ratchada goes on and on northward, but I will be at the lower end, namely Ratchada soi 5. It’s right between the Fortune Town IT mall (love this place) at the Pra Ram 9 MRT station and northward to The Esplanade shopping mall, which  is near the next stop, Thailand Cultural Centre.

Many residential projects that would appeal to westerners staying in the capital will be on or near the transit systems. You pay a premium for that of several thousand baht. Go 10 walking minutes down a soi and the rents start to fall. (Don’t believe the ads that say only 5 minutes to BTS. On a motorcycle taxi maybe. Count on 15 minutes on foot if it says 5.) Go way down the longer main roads from a station to the little soi’s and monthly rents plunge to the mid single digits, such as 6000 to 10,000 baht ($200 to $330 Canadian) depending on apartment size. Although, in my experience, you’ll still see rents of 20,000 + for distant 1-bedroom apartments, although they may be a bit bigger.

My new place is about 8-10 minute slow walk to Pra Ram 9 on Ratchada Road. I haven’t checked out time to TCC MRT stop.

It’s a 42 square metre studio, a format I had at one time rejected. But it was so well laid out and was such a good deal with free stuff thrown in -- and I was tired of looking. In my excitement I forgot to take pictures, so words will have to do for now. Pictures of my neighbourhood and apartment now online in separate post

The unit is in a spotless  3-to-4 year old apartment building, not a condo project, owned by an Indian family. The place still looks brand new, it is so well maintained.

The sizeable kitchen is off to the left and out of sight when you enter. Then comes a four-chair dining table in the kitchen area, then sofa behind that on the left viewing a 32-inch LCD TV, and then an office/working area on the right. Past room dividers comes the king-size bed and huge enclosed wall storage area, which I don’t think I will ever be able to fill.

On the back wall is a sizeable bathroom and shower to the left and large sliding glass doors on the right looking westward and southward to the downtown. It’s a sixth floor corner unit. The huge balcony would easily hold a four-chair table, alongside the outside water tap and sink for doing dishes, plus large working counter.

Amazing thing is, that with a one-year contract, 10 megabit Internet service and 30-plus channel satellite TV are free. That’s got to be 2500 baht a month if taken individually -- not to mention the little hassles of signing up, getting things installed and operating and paying the monthly bill at the 7-11. All in, 12,000 baht a month ($400). I hit my budget right on the head.

And the bestest thing: a couple of minutes walk away is a large Thai neighbourhood and all that that means. There are hardware shops, Internet cafes, food vendors everywhere, other neat shops and, well, I shall need to explore soon. And Fortune Town has food courts and fastfood joints, plus all the computer equipment and mobile phone shops, banks, and a huge Tesco Lotus grocery/drygoods store.

Coming next year, across Ratchada from Fortune Town, is the new Central Plaza Rama 9 shopping complex. I do like Central stores.

So a new life begins Nov. 1.

Brain activity detected on Thailand arrival

I’m not sure why but it happens every time I go to Thailand: I become brainless. So I resolved to start off on a good foot.

  So I got up on my first Monday in Bangkok and went to my favourite Thai street corner coffee stand and pondered about what I usually forget to do. The list is pretty substantial and if I go on forgetting some of my goals, further brainless activity will surely lead to more  brainless activity of the kind resulting from excessive  intake of alcohol, cigarettes, socializing with friends and locals, all of which can lead to getting up late.

Today I was up at 8 a.m., which for me is some kind of accomplishment. I could have rested on my laurels then and there. A bit of cleanup ensued. My 35 sq. metre serviced apartment on soi 22 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, required some immediate re-organization. Make that organization, with clothing, shoes, odds and ends everywhere and anywhere.

I arrived from Tokyo late Friday night. Nothing to do but join a party already in progress at the Londoner on soi 33. Who can blame a guy who has been waiting eight long torturous months to return to the Land of Smiles.

Saturday involved checking out after one night at a soi 19 hotel and seeing if my apartment was ready or my reservation even given a moment’s thought. “No” to both questions. Surprised? Nope. However, it being the slow season, I got a place with a balcony. A must, as far as I am concerned. The manager showed me a nice place in the new wing but, no balcony, no deal. So they conferred with each other for 1 or 2 minutes and gave me my place. It’s 11,000 baht for a month, Internet included! (That’s $380 Canadian at this particularly unappealing currency juncture of 29 baht to the dollar..)

Time to reunite with the social scene and what a good time! That takes care of Saturday night and Sunday. I survived in reasonable shape, especially financially since some buds who I haven’t seen since last winter took it upon themselves to “take care of me.” Well, it did go beyond just buying me drinks.

Now, as you can see, that kind of activity could go for days and weeks and months. So back to Monday and need to steady the course, as the Brits would say.

I chose Bangkok for obvious reasons, at least to myself! Over the next month I have to do some exploring to see where I might live in Bangkok. But, and this is a mountainous BUT, I’m giving some thought to alternative sites and will visit the Pattaya-Jomtien area, which is cheaper to live and not far (2 hours) from the Big Bang. Somewhere down the road I will visit Chiang Mai (again) and Chiang Rai in the north. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Be it resolved: I will write. I am carrying out one promise. as you can see.  At least five days a week, I plan to do some research, write this blog and work on other unnamed writing projects, including a related blog. Sorry, subject to be named later -- after much research. Yes, I’m putting this in print because I not only plan to do this but NEED to do this. Ya can’t do much with a mushy brain so you have to exercise it like anything else.

Be it resolved: I will keep up on the news, something I definitely lacked any interest in back home in Canada, what with no sympathy for local activity or any interest for that matter. (Hmmm, note to self: I have to go out and buy the local English papers.)

Be it resolved: I will do a better job of keeping up with my fave local (as in Thailand)  blogs, especially Catherine’s “Women Learning Thai . . . and some men too.”  Which leads me to . . .

Be it resolved: Take a more disciplined approach to learning the Thai language. You really can’t do that living in the tourist district of Bangkok. Yes, if I had the discipline, but I figure, with my laziness, I need to force myself by living in a real Thai neighbourhood. That ought to be hilarious grist for a few blog posts.

Those are some basic resolutions and probably enough to commit myself to, given some friends’ penchant for laughing at my plans.

And see how it’s taken me almost three days to finally put up a new post. That’s that slippery slope of brainlessness lurking in the background.

Beauty and grace in film about Thai rice farmers

A scene from Thai film Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival Nov. 14.

Two recent Thai films that I’ve seen, Nymph and Agrarian Utopia, really played with my head. I’ve been sitting here at home in Canada for seven months now hearing nothing but Big City noises: Trains, car horns, heavy gravel trucks, unmufflered heavy cruiser motorbikes, drunken voices, car alarms, clank of streetcars, diesel buses and the sounds to really tell me I’m in a western consumerist society, the waste-picking pigeons and gulls. Almost no natural sounds. In the theatres, when I was  immersed in the soundscape of these two films, I was transported  back to my home away from home. It was almost relaxing and comforting to hear the multi-layered bird, insect, animal and plant noises.

The Nymph soundtrack was brilliant, but it was peppered with some synthetic music and creature-like sounds. Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival this weekend, was a non-stop symphony of the beauty of nature. I could ride on that rhythm all day.

Those sounds were a natural foreground as well as background to the story of two families of rice farmers in what only could be Isaan. One family is the hired labour of the other family. Both families are bending under the weight of insurmountable farm loans, the kind that could only be paid back if they win a lottery. The financial burden is the driving force behind the political angles of the story. We get a peak at some political rallies and round-the-night-time campfire talk about how greedy (now former premier) Thaksin politicians and bureaucracies are. There’s even anti-Thaksin speeches. And a few kicks at (current premier) Aphisit in opposition.

The rest is the beauty of human endeavour.

My word skills couldn’t come anywhere near to conveying the sublime images director  Uruophong Raksasad (who attended the festival) has conjured from the camera lens. We watch all of the activities on a rice farm, hunting and fishing, living off the land, “interesting” meals, bedtime chatter,  rice bagging, transport and selling, kids at play, the grace with which good-hearted farm workers carry out their tasks and listen to the families talk about their dire situation. Stunning.  Powerful. Truthful. Intimate. Colourful. Detailed. Heart-aching beauty.

As a counterpoint to the farmers’ burden is a side story (really?) of a neighbour, working his farm all alone, who doesn’t use chemicals,  fertilizer, loans, or anything else that could harm the land or his future. He’s a good humoured character so don’t expect to get teacherish lecture from an earnest, new-wave Thai environmentalist. He is a former professor, and he works his farm  in the most natural, albeit slower, way possible. His neighbours call him a fool. But the labourer  goes to him in a last ditch effort to stay in  farm country to ask him a few questions. The last scene of the movie tells you what he chose.

It’s interesting to note, I think, that there’s not a single girl or young woman in the film.  In Thai country culture, typically, young women from the farms are often the ones  who go to the big city (namely Bangkok) to get a job and help support the family. That could be in a shop, factory or go go bar. The lack of young women kind of highlights that condition so the lack of same may be deliberate.  Another reflection of the male-dominated culture is the fact that the wifely women in the film hardly say a word. In male dominated Thai society, the men have important discussions and make the decisions. Deliberate? Don’t know.

When you watch the film, ask yourself this: is it a documentary or drama?

A scene from Taiwanese film Yang-Yang, which was shown at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.

I also watched the Taiwanese film Yang-Yang. If it weren’t for the electrifying actress Sandrine Pinna (French-Chinese actress), director Cheng Yu-Chieh would have empty reels. The story is about teenager Yang-Yang whose mother ends up marrying Yang-Yang’s track coach. In the deal, Yang-Yang’s friend and track rival ends up being her sister. The sister’s boyfriend takes  a liking to Yang-Yang, and, well you know the rest. The boyfriend, coach, Yang-Yang’s mom and sis are pretty much empty puppets. It seems director Cheng forgot to write a story. The camera almost swallows Yang-Yang in every scene. It’s not surprising that Pinna’s exotic looks, easy nature and formidable acting talent inspire Cheng. But that’s not enough. About 80 minutes into the film and I was thinking about leaving. Moments later, during a pointless scene, a fellow got up near me and left, as did three others. In the space of  four or five minutes, I was the fifth to leave.

I also saw the insane but likeable Malaysian film When the Full Moon Rises by Mamat Khalid. Will get around to this soon.

Photo tour of Phra Khanong district in eastern Bangkok

Somehow a place strikes you in the right way and that's how I felt about Phra Khanong district in Bangkok. You could easily mistake it for any area of the  sprawling city, although a "district" or khet in the Thai language is pretty big piece of city. Until you explore the area on foot, you won't discover the differences.

Map of Khet Phra Khanong, Bangkok

I first was introduced to it by a friend who invited me out to see his place after describing how much he likes it. I loved his apartment building complex. It's older and has a leisurely seven or eight stories.  It has a bit of class, and to help it, it is set among trees and other greenery in a quiet spot between Rama 4 Road and Chalong Rat Expressway, southeast of one of the city's best known (and longest) arterials, Sukhumvit Road.  The several buildings seem just right for the spot, with several pools, many different stairways leading to several courtyards.  And you reach it by crossing a small bridge over a khlong (canal).

I'd been out his way several times and vowed to walk the district and so I did one steamy afternoon, all based on our plan to meet, eat and hit our favourite downtown watering hole that evening. So I started from Phra Khanong BTS Skytrain station -- a very key issue in deciding where to live in the city if you want fast, air-con transit into the main central district and its playgrounds.

But instead of heading directly to my friend's living area, toward the southeast, I walked backward, i.e., away and to the south, first down soi 44/1, then east to Rama 4. This is also a key arteiral, which leads to the  major business district of Silom. (In fact, as you head west along Rama 4 toward Silom, you pass the vast Khlong Toei market, Lumphini Park (Muay Thai boxing ring there), across the street from which is the Canadian Embassy in  Abdulrahim Building.)

Okay, enough words for now, on to the pictures:

Soi 44/1 entrance.

        

The soi curves toward my eventual direction and in the last picture, it heads  to Rama 4.

Rama 4 Road: left turn takes you to Sukhumvit, right toward -- eventually -- Silom business district.

       

Along Rama 4 toward Sukhumvit, is the elephant wall, warning tourists not to feed the elephants, which I wrote about here. The third picture shows a sign pointing to Ekkamai area, left, and On Nut area, right. And last, a wheel and tire specialist focusing on the tuner crowd.

     

Now I headed back to Sukhumvit to walk along the busy multi-lane road. As I did I got my bearings by looking up Phum Chit, first photo, to the Phra Khanong BTS and the other direction, down Phum Chit toward where my Danish friend lives. And  still does. You have to cross Rama 4 median to continue down Phum Chit. It's a bit hairy to say the least sometimes.  (Not entirely sure the narrow, tiny sub-soi in the first photo is also Phum Chit.) Picture four is of northside soi 71 joining  Sukhumvit.

 But first, let's explore Sukhumvit by walking farther eastward and then rejoin Phum Chit. Somehow!

First soi off Sukhumvit, east of Rama 4, where the motorcycle is going.

       

The street home of some poor soul on Sukhumvit, picture 2, was just around the corner from this lovely residence down a subsoi. The abandoned Renault has obviously been there on the next subsoi for a long time.

     

Picture 1 is just past the Renault. Farther on was kind of a deadend. So I doubled back and went round a few corners and, via dead reckoning, headed toward my friend's place. I took an unscheduled detour because I spotted some modern buildings and found myself in a retail area and almost back on Rama 4. Wrong move.

 

Aha, I knew I was back on track when I came across these soi dogs. This is back on Phum Chit, heading, once again, in the right direction. As long as these doggies don't mind . . .

 

Here we are, for sure back on Phum Chit and heading toward a real Thai neighbourhood. Great food in the area, nice people, plus the ever present 7-Eleven and bonus! Tesco Express.

   

 

Past all the shops and services of the Thai area and just across the bridge is my friend's oasis from mad Bangkok. In fact, there is my friend Jannik  waiting for my arrival. He's peering into the khlong and wondering what sort of fish the Thais are pulling up from the fetid waters. Hope I don't find out.

Thai life and other challenges get in way of China plans

I was supposed to go to Taiwan and China in November. Well, that hasn't happened. And I'm beginning to wonder whether it will happen at all.

The Bangkok airport seizure didn't help matters. That was the period I was hoping to use to travel.

I also had to wait till the end of that month for some fresh infusion of funds, after spending a few thousand baht more per month on an apartment closer to downtown and the Skytrain, having to hand over a 30,000 baht/$1,000 Cdn in security deposits (owners in the country require two months' security)  and spend more than planned to get my apartment set up.

The seizure came and went and it became early December, the high season and higher airfares and hotel rates. Maybe I was also feeling too comfortable in Bangkok and vicinity. It's way too easy to stay here and enjoy all its life and services.

A friend teaching in Taipei is now moving to south of Shanghai next month, so that gets me closer to my China goal. But, I want to spend more time in northeastern Thailand where I felt I could really relax and enjoy the real Thailand. So I'll leave after the language course and spend about a month there, touring the villages and cities farther east. And I hope to get into Cambodia.

A big motorcycle tour of Laos starts in mid-March and lasts 7-10 days. Then there's a trip to Chiang Mai and area. Well, April will pretty much have started and my return to Canada comes mid-month.

Guess I'll just have to move here permanently.

Thai toilet sprayer saves toilet paper

One of the surprises for me when visiting Thailand and Cambodia in 2004 was the toilet. The older facililties have a squat toilet, the newer ones are regulation and the latest hotel ones can be rather stylish, as above in Pattaya. But all of them come with a sprayer.

For what you may ask? Can't you guess? Many toilets these days will indeed have toilet paper. But they will al have a sprayer. No not for cleaning the floor, but yourself. Most sewer systems can't handle tissue paper and this is mostly still true. You will find signs in many bar and restaurant toilets that urge you to deposit the paper in a provided garbage can. Use the spray hose. It's quite refreshing and I'd never build a home without it. The water is tepid, by the way. One shortcoming of the system in Canada would occur in winter and spring -- a water blast could cause quite the shock!

The spray hose is also handy for rinsing a floor after washing it. All toilets have tiles, floor drains and are sealed till about 6 to 10 cm above or below the main floor level of say, a bedroom or hallway. Some toilets in older hotels will have a shower head with inline heater right there with the toilet bowl, and not in a separate room or bathtub.

The inline heaters are much more energy efficient, drawing electricity only when called upon, compared to big hot water tanks back home. The inlines are usually pretty good, with infinite heating adjustments. Some though, like mine, only have three settings and are a bit of a pain to balance, i.e., between hot and cold water in the shower.

You could look at the system as green technology: a toilet sprayer that could save toilet paper.

Messy arrival in tidy northeastern Thai city of Korat

 

It's funny how each time I've entered another city after leaving the embrace of Bangkok, I've found the quality of buildings, roads and infrastructure to be superior to that of the City of Angels. Korat looks healthier, wealthier and busier, believe it or not. There were many more cars, pickups and motorcycles on the roads, many of them new.

The streets were tidy,  cleaner, better designed, wider, safer and traffic was controlled by many light  signals, which people pretty much obeyed. You can't say any of this about Bangkok.

  

But my arrival started out a mess. Hotels are a bit hard to find -- until you start stumbling across them  while sitting having a Thai coffee (delicious sludge) in an insignificant sub-soi and staring across the street to see the small "hotel" sign, out of view from merely passing by. This is not a tourist destination city. Sure, you get many Thais travelling on business and some tourists, but you'll never find hotels side by side here. I arrived without reservations -- still unnecessary. I started to walk around, with both bags slung over my shoulders. I even retraced my steps. Came across two hotels, which I rejected: one because it was in a kind of desolate space, nowhere to walk to; and the other looked like it had seen better days and was probably now used as a, well, could be rented by the hour, shall we say. Both 350 to 400 baht a night. Good price.

Met two Frenchmen in a cafe who pointed me to their hotel. We coaxed a moto over and in French, English and my very limited Thai, tried to tell him where it was. 5 minutes away. The hotel business card was useless since the moto claimed poor eyesight. That's good to know. Sheeesh. Got another moto over who explained the location to the first, which was on the road back to Bangkok, which happened to be called Central Pattaya Road.

The first moto looked doubtful. But he insisted he knew where it was and proceeded to take me to the new bus terminal where I could get  bus to Bangkok and Pattaya. Yikes! Not a clue.  I got him to take me to a reject hotel but it just left me cold.

I stood outside the reject for a smoke. And another moto came along and I told him to take me to a "big hotel" in Thai. Went into the old city -- this was looking good -- and to the Chomsurang. Yikes, 700 baht a night plus extra charge for WiFi. I tried to bargain that down but clerk brought out map, asked me what I want to pay and showed me the Assadang, three blocks away through the night bazaar. That's where I am now. The whole process, from bus arrival and first smoke in 4 hours to landing at the Assadang, was more than two hours. And I hadn't anything to eat. Oh, well, a beer would have to do. I needed a shower.

Then I hit the Night Bazaar right down my street for food and orientation. Image by day (shot day after arrival) and night image shot same night.

Where some of 'hi-so' live Bangkok

[Update: image added.]

The BTS Skytrain heads northward at one point and does a half circle of Victory Monument. It's an odd feeling as the train swings right and skirts the eastern edge of the monument's square, and you can look down on the sizeable statues and mount, as the Kingdom memorializes its fallen war heroes. Then the train straightens out and heads north again along Avenue Pahon Yotin to eventually join up with the MRT subway at Mo Chit bus terminal.

A friend who used to live around the Ari BTS stop, noted how much he liked it around there and that the area  was a favourite of Bangkok's "hi-so" families. I peered out over the Ari BTS platfform and saw a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Hmmm. Then came Honda, Isuzu and Mazda dealers. There were Shell and Esso stations, a Starbucks (that wasn't in a mall -- OK, it was in a plaza), big name buildings and some rather lovely soi's and Homes (with a capital H).

A few photos (note: click on image for pop-up of even larger image) :

A BTS Skytrain arrives at Ari station from downtown  . . .

 

The "flyover" or catwalk under the BTS statioin at Ari, Pahon Yotin Ave. . . .

Fuel is 65 to 80 cents a litre . . .

Avenue Pahon Yotin, with Esso station . . .

 

Mercedes-Benz dealer on Ave. Pahon Yotin at Ari BTS station . . .

 

A sub-soi of Pahon Yotin soi 5 . . .

Other homes on PY soi 5 . . .

 

 

 

 

Finally, a building that make syou go hmmm . . .

 

English (and Thai) language courses are a big business in Thailand and most of Asia.

Wandering the soi's of Bangkok - soi's 20-22 and 36 to Rama 4

Tuesday, a friend and I wandered into soi 36 Sukhumvit to Rama 4 Road and to the giant Carrefour Rama 4 department store and mall. It was a lovely day for a walk, about 29-31, and lower humidity. I think we covered about 1.5 km. I took a few pictures, except I forgot to shoot the Carrefour. By the way, the French-based retailer provides a level of goods quality superior to Tesco but at reasonable prices, comparable or lower than Central. Images are from the sub-soi's, leading to Rama 4, except the police activity on Rama 4 where a motorist driving a Lexus IS appears to have been stopped for some infraction, possibly driving an expensive car. After visiting the mall and having a Starbucks coffee -- I think the coffee seller must have a shop in every important mall in the country -- we walked another half klick to the MRT, in this case, Queen Sirikit Centre. On the way to the subway, I watched a hydro lineman working a lofty perch above traffic, held by fate and the soles of his sneakers, wearing them Thai style, which is to stay with the heal of his foot out.

Then Wednesday, another friend and I wandered down soi 20 Sukhumvit, through some smaller sub-soi's and over to 22. We were trying to walk off some of our western breakfast after seeing another friend off on his journey to Cambodia. We then rewarded ourselves with a beer. Just one! Took far more pictures.Images: Looking up soi 20 (away from Sukhumvit); interesting building on soi 20 and equally interesting restaurant called Crystal; two of four identical condo towers on soi 20 soar skyward; and interesting metal work on security gate at private home on sub-soi of 20.