The Noodle Curtain

Hot weekend forecast for Toronto Taste of Thailand

 

The annual Taste of Thailand festival this year marks 50 years of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Canada.

And you can experience it all starting today in Toronto. The festival opens Saturday, July 16 at 1100 hours (11 a.m.), and closes at 2000 (8 p.m.). It will resume tomorrow (Sunday, 17th) at 11 and closes one hour earlier at 7 p.m. It's at Nathan Phillips Square, as always.

There appears to be some new features in the 2011 edition of the festival: Wat Prah Kaew (Emerald Buddha), Walking Street Chiang Mai and Siam String Ensemble. A popular feature is back, namely a selection of Thai fruits brought in by the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, free for the tasting!

I'm not sure how Wat Phra Kaew and Walking Street Chiang Mai will be presented but it may be worth checking out.

As always too, temperatures will be appropriate for a festival from a tropical country. The forecast high today is 30 and 33 Sunday. And clear and sunny!

Canada and Thailand inaugurated formal relations on Nov. 8, 1961. For a good summary of Canada-Thailand relations, which have been growing healthily more recently, go to a message from the Canadian Ambassador to Thailand, Ron Hoffmann. As well, here is a message from the Thai Ambassador to Canada, Udomphol Ninnad.

 PHOTO NOTES: Two scenes from 2009 festival at Toronto City Hall.

 

 

Finally find iPhone 4 in Bangkok

I have finally found an iPhone 4, or I should say an authorized dealer  that will order one for me, namely True Move.

A friend recently received his iPhone 4 from True after booking and waiting about four weeks. I was told this week I would have to wait for my little black beauty two to three weeks.

And True said they could port my old AIS number to my new phone. This I thought was not possible. I first asked the agent at the Fortune Town branch if this was possible and she replied it was. Then I walked away and thought well, maybe she misunderstood me and that I was merely asking if she would take my current number so she can call to tell me my long-awaited iPhone upgrade would be ready (I have a 2.5 year old 3G).

Well, I went back to the kiosk and with hand gestures and some Thai, she said in broken English that I could keep my old number. Hope that's True!

But what a struggle. I revisited DTAC, an Apple authorized dealer, several times to see if they had any iPhone 4's, because I liked their contract plans, but the answer was "no have." This week DTAC said I couldn't even get on a reservation list. So I decided to give up. But my friend's sucess encouraged me to visit True, which offers true 3G signal.

I gave the English-speaking agent a copy of my passport, current AIS number and 5,500 baht down payment and presto, order confirmed. The 16 gigabyte phone is 22,000 baht ($750 Canadian, VAT included). The special iPhone 4 promotion plan package is 599 baht a month, giving me unlimited Internet time, 300 voice minutes and 300 SMS's, plus 50 MMS uploads. I was currently spending about 600-800 baht a month on just voice and SMS's with AIS's 1-2 Call service. (If you go to the True iPhone 4 website, you will see this offer expired Oct. 31, 2010. Hmmm.)

You can buy an iPhone 4 anywhere at MBK, Fortune Town and tukcom.com IT Mall in Pattaya for about 25,000 plus baht for the 16 gigabyte device and about 29,000 for the 32 gb one. But authorized provider DTAC seemingly can't sell you one. I didn't try AIS this time around.

The advantage of buying one from an authorized dealer is obvious, it's covered under the Apple warranty. The IT Mall shops will sell you the phone but after that you're on your own, mostly because I think the origins of the device at some shops are somewhat suspect.

As for the iPhone 4, I mostly wanted it for the 5 megapixel camera, high definition movie quality, stunning screen display and speedier operating system. There's also Facetime (2 cameras) and Find My iPhone (search and destroy service if stolen -- the onboard data not the thief).

There were times when I wanted to take a picture RIGHT NOW, but the activation of the old 3G camera is so clunky and slow that I would miss the shot. And even if I did get it, the image would be so grainy and the subject, if caught moving, blurred. It was then I wanted to cast the 3G into the nearest klong and listen to the satisfying thunk.

The iPhone 4 should be so much more satisfying.

 

Exchange your dollars for baht in Thailand

I was reading some of my site statistics and one of the Google search strings was: “where to buy baht in Toronto.” In short, DO NOT!

You will pay way over the top for the privilege; imagine how rare it is that Canada's Big Banks  get requests for baht then imagine how much they will charge you!

ATMs are everywhere in Thailand. If you tripped over one, you would fall head first into another one. They are tucked away between stores along a street, in the lobbies of every building, in subway and Skytrain stations, big malls and tiny malls, in theatres, 7-11s and Family Marts, on and on.

There are regular ATMs and currency exchanges at the main Bangkok airport. I don’t know for sure whether the exchange rates are less advantageous there, but I’d change a little bit of currency and wait till you get downtown to change more. If you are arriving in the daytime, all you need is about 1,000 to 5,000 baht ($30-$150): public meter taxi 350 to 400 baht to get to a downtown hotel and maybe a few baht for water, cigarettes,  drinks  and whatever. Then you can go to a local exchange for bigger amounts.

Now, having said that, if you go to an ATM in Bangkok and draw on your Canadian account, you will pay 150 baht ($5 Cdn) on the Thai end for the privilege. Your bank back home will charge you an equally inflated fee of roughly $8-$10 and more, unless you’re a high roller and your bank waives such charges on international withdrawals. So with every ATM withdrawal, make it count.


Most Thai ATMs let you take out 20,000 ($680) maximum. But on the Canadian side, you’re usually limited to $500 (under 15,000 baht) per day. It is a security feature, of course, in case a traveller  (or even someone at home) is forced to withdraw money in a robbery.

You will do a bit better if you bring your Canadian and U.S. travellers’ cheques because they trade at a more preferential rate and are exchangeable in any country. Even dollar bills get a pretty good rate at any of the hundreds of currency exchanges, almost all of them run by the big Thai banks. They’re usually open till 9 p.m., some later in heavy tourist districts.

And Canadian money is no problem. Any exchange will take them. The current exchange rate on the Canadian dollar is 30 baht. See currency exchange rates at Kasikorn Bank and Thai Military Bank.

Another thing you could do is what a Bangkok resident friend did. He got an instant credit card advance (a substantial one) at a currency exchange (in this case, Bangkok Bank), it cost him almost nothing; he went home online and immediately paid off the advance for a small charge.

Credit cards can be used at big stores, but I’d be wary of using them. I will use them for online airfares, hotels where I have stayed before, brand name department stores (Central, Robinson, Carrefour, Tesco Lotus, but you will pay a 3% surcharge on the total, VAT included), and some businesses that are likely to cater to big spending tourists.

But really, cash is king.

Always, always, have small denomination bills, such as 10 baht coins, 20 and 100 baht bills in your pocket for taxis, tickets and other small purchases. Since you’re going to look like a tourist -- and I can tell as well as the Thais -- some drivers and vendors will claim not to have change and you will be out 10 and 20 baht here and there. As well, the 7-11s and Family Marts are not as apt to want to change those 1,000 baht bills. It’s a lot of money in Thailand. As a resident myself,  I horde 10s and 20s.

But bring baht to Thailand? No point.

Maybe Pattaya needs a second (and third) look

 
View from the sidewalk on Beach Road, Pattaya, looking almost northward.

I was visiting Pattaya this week. I cannot believe that I stayed five nights after setting a two-night limit. That’s three extra nights and four more than I stayed in 2008 when  I couldn’t wait to leave.

  There’s just too much of everything, especially the beer bars, go-go bars, restaurants, taxis, traffic, mobile and stationary hawkers, and an eye-bleeding forest of signs, many of them in English, and now Russian. There’s a small fruit market on Second Road (a north-south arterial) that has signs solely in Russian -- no English and no Thai!

  There can never be enough Thai girls but Pattaya somehow manages to get more than its share of stunners as well as the ordinarily beautiful. As for expat residents, I think there are more decidedly porky, old, misshapen, unshaven, tattooed expats than would be normal in any statistical analysis. (And before you snow me with emails, I expect some day a blogger will say the same thing about me, if they haven’t already.)

But the past notwithstanding, I wanted to go Pattaya. It happens to be where Talen, author of the very popular and entertaining Thailand, Land of Smiles blog, hangs his walking shorts. We’ve exchanged emails and comments on each others’ blogs in the past two-plus years and promised to get together some day. We did it and had a great time together. This was due in large part to Talen’s generosity in time and effort to show me what's new in the big town. He’s a sharp observer, as reflected in his blog,  energetic, outgoing and yet down-to-earth. In short, a great guide. (I had to say this because he has a picture of me!)

A frequent sight is the Englishman who dresses himself and his bicycle in the finest accessories and  conducts his daily colourful parade on the streets of Pattaya.

I also wanted to catch up with a fellow Canadian who I met through my Bangkok/Toronto pal Mike. Bill, with a long history in the Canadian bar and restaurant  industry, quickly got the measure of Pattaya and was a great help in introducing me to the cheaper part of the town, which is saying something. How about Sang Som (Thai whisky or rum) and Coke for 25 baht? Or small Leo’s for 35? Or a glass of Johnnie Walker Black for 75 baht? Compared to Bangkok (low end prices: 70/50/100 baht), Pattaya does indeed offer cheaper booze. But 95 baht cigarettes will be 95 baht cigarettes everywhere in Thailand. (I have recently heard from nearly half a dozen friends and acquaintances who are seriously considering leaving expensive Bangkok for cheaper Pattaya, if not permanently then part-time.)

  

Just some of the hundreds of beer bars in Pattaya, first photo. The Canadian flag hangs in one of the soi Diana beer bars in Pattaya.

There was a third reason for going to Pattaya, which was actually the first reason. I wanted to meet up with a girl I met online. She and her sister have been running a car rental agency in Pattaya. Seems like they have been pretty successful. The divorced 35-year-old  turned out to be a hard working businesswoman and yet was a very pleasing companion, as in a very Thai girl. Whether there’s more to report, only time will reveal.

I am coming around to liking Pattaya. But first, what I remember of the negatives last time  was: dense and chaotic traffic on all the main roads and many bar streets in Central Pattaya in particular; in full view were the poor clothing choices and bareback tattoo displays of the double-X-large expat residents who fill their days with girls, booze and grease-sodden food;  constant though low-key hawkers who ply the bar soi’s with oversize lighters, pirate DVD movies and tribal trinkets; the din of high-amp sound systems pumping out everything from 50s rock and roll to hip hop and disco electronica.

This time all of the above remains. Traffic on arterial Central Pattaya Road going from Beach Road, on the Gulf of Thailand, to Sukhumvit Road (yes, the same road out of Bangkok) is six to eight lanes of diesel buses, baht buses, trucks, moto couriers and service trucks crowding for the same privilege to get somewhere. Ugly, just as is Sukhumvit.

Expat residents for some reason or another all seem to come from the same school where everyone graduated with bulging bellies, the need for tattoos, the neckless look and an insatiable thirst for beer. I’ve seen guys walking around talking to some ghosts in their heads, some strut down the street like they own the world, some manage to break important cultural rule such that they will eventually meet a Thai who will set them straight -- into a hospital; some who have had way too many cigarettes, beer and sessions in front of the football/rugby/cricket TV superchannels. You’ll know what I mean when you’re shaken awake by the sight of a straight-backed, clean-cut, fit, casually and tastefully dressed man. Rare as a bar without hookers.

The hawkers are still there -- one night I was hit on two to three times per five-minute periods over a 1.5 hour period in a beer bar complex. And the sound systems can still knock your back teeth out.

Yet a tour of some soi’s off Second Road shows Pattaya can be quiet and the walking life unfettered. Another great thing is the availability of good western food. Now it sounds like I do not know Thailand. I enjoyed the fact I could get a Chicken Donner (50 or 60 baht) or hamburger (75) or spaghetti (don’t remember the price because I never bought  any, for reasons I might not have to explain) or pizza slice (55) or even English breakfast at 2, 3, or 5 in the morning (85 to 110 baht). I did indulge in a delicious Donner one morning and twice I raided the pizza place at soi LK Metro and Diana. It’s a nice change from the daytime diet of Thai soups, omelettes, fried rice, and som tam (spicy papaya salad). Somehow, a westerner’s palate will only be satisfied after a number of beers by a greasy Donner or slice.

Another sign of change in the Pattaya lifestyle is the growing appearance of the big European and American hotel chains, top shelf jewellers and clothing lines, massive swank Central Festival mall, expensively designed shops and even fast-food outlets. There’s also the growing appearance of shoppers from Russia, India, China as well  Korea and Japan. And families are showing up in Sin City. Plus the area is reputed to  have some outstanding golf courses. Which means price tags will start to creep up, which could be good for Thais but not so good for those of us on a budget.

I think though the key outstanding memory is the friendliness of the girls. It seems like they still have the country girl shyness, easy going nature, the ready smile that life in Bangkok seems to sand away over time. I think the Isaan girls who tend to populate the bars  in Bangkok distinctly dislike being in the big hot, steamy, crowded, noisy city, whereas Pattaya is just a big town (city, actually) and feels more like home. The girls tend to be more relaxed and undemanding. Not once in my five nights there was I ever asked to buy a lady drink.  I did of course, but I dislike the badgering you get in BKK bars. I certainly felt more relaxed there. So maybe it’s a combination of both: relaxed visitor, relaxed worker.

And too, I can never get over looking toward the palm framed and green waters of the Gulf of Thailand when walking down the soi’s toward Beach Road. It just feels so right. Maybe I need to move to the beach, although Pattaya’s beach is hardly first class. Jomtien, south and next door, is reputed to have a much nicer beach front.

I think I will need to confirm my  initial positive feelings about Pattaya. Yeah, maybe in a couple of weeks.

PHOTOS: Two favourite night time eateries (Kiss and Nongjai); fruit stalls on Second Road with Russian-only signs; expats show their colours; Thai riders prepare to rumble on their custom choppers from the back of Mike Shopping Centre; a VW booze van at The Avenue Pattaya shopping centre; a view down soi 13/x looking from Second Road; forest of signs on soi LK Metro where my hotel resides; and an actual  pedestrian crossing on Second Road  guarded by an officer and with traffic signal!

    

   

   

 

 

 

 

Getting my kicks above waistline in Bangkok*

 

I arrived in Thailand for the first time in the autumn of 2004 and I’ll never forget stepping from Don Mueang airport arrivals hall late one night and into the oven that is Bangkok. A friend from Toronto had invited me to join him and thus began a lengthy exploration of  an alien culture and, more important, a rethinking about life.

But there’s no deep thinking in this post. So don’t rush for the exits. This is  just about stuff I like about Bangkok, the city that changed my life. Whoops, sorry . . .

Coming up in a few weeks will be my eighth visit. I am pumped for a number of reasons, the main one being that I’m finished work. Done. Signed off. End of (work) file. Never to go back to the office. Period. I’d use the word “retired” but it doesn’t feel right at the moment. I doubt I’m retired in the classical sense of popular TV and business magazines and seniors tourism. Could be because I’m not even 60 yet, being a few soi’s away from that monument. I’ve got many things to do and people to see.

Here’s what I’m looking forward to:

My first night. I should just end it here.  But you, dear reader, didn’t come here to imagine what I’m thinking, so I’ll tell you. I’ve often thought of doing this: stepping out into the arrival concourse of Suvarnabhumi Airport, ducking and diving the limo taxi touts (which I’m told are kept farther away from arriving suckers, er, tourists) and kissing Thai soil. Yes, getting down on my knees and laying a restrained and delicate kiss on those cold tiles. One of two things could happen: Stun the touts into silence (worth every satang) or be led away for a private moment with my hosts. One of these days.

Same night, step out onto soi 22 from my serviced apartment, gaze up toward Tourist Avenue, otherwise known as Sukhumvit Road, past my local 7-11 (then a Family Mart, then another 7-11 and another Family Mart and yet another 7-11 at the top of the soi at Sukhumvit), my favourite Thai-run espresso vendor (20 baht), the moto taxi boys who are well into the Hong Thong whisky by now because it’s 11 o’clock, past the Parrot Cafe, and taxi stand for the Queen’s Park Hotel, and Queen’s Park beer bars, past the massage parlours (crowding both sides of the street), and finally to the entrance to Washington Square. Hmm, which way to go? Right and around the square past Bourbon Street restaurant (excellent), then Wild Country (guess?), Lone Staar and then a real fave, The Silver Dollar. But I’ll go left because I don’t want to say Hi to the girls at the Dollar yet. So it’s past  three bars and two Thai karaokes, left and right, then round the corner to the new Sportsman bar (a must visit on the right) with the Dubliner on the left. But I bypass them all to cross Death Road to the corner of soi 33 and join my much-missed friends at Frank’s Corner, at The Londoner pub. An excellent pilsner made by brewmeister Peter will be consumed immediately. With a few more pints and cigs and laughs to follow. Alas, my Toronto friends will not be in attendance. A shame. But M and G will be back.
 
Can’t wait to see my Italian friend at the corner espresso bar the next morning. Great meeting spot. Then a bit of blogging and it’s out into the city via the Skytrain. I miss the BTS. You get a tour of the city for a few baht, can cross the tourist district and go up into the various districts of this sprawling city, east toward the main airport, west to  the marbled shopping meccas, south to the business district and north to the bus terminal or big residential districts with their humongous malls (reachable via a subway connection). I can’t forget, of course, all the eye candy on any given Skytrain car. 

Which reminds me, I think I got down to Siam Square and my favourite coffee bar only once on my last vacation in January.  It’s near Chulalongkorn University. Need I mention all the smart, pretty girls who throng the endless shops and markets down there? Okay, plan made!

The only reason I like to go to the upscale Emporium mall between 22 and 24 is the Burger King on the fifth floor. I need a big helping of beef once in a while. Oh, and some fries. I hear there are some new terrific burgers in town these days, including Emporium.

Fortune Town, yes! Out on the MRT at Pra Ram 9, the electronics mall. At least there you can walk and gawk at leisure, unlike MBK at National Stadium BTS stop -- a monster mall of mind boggling cellphone and clothing stores.  Fortune also  has a great pure fruit drink stand in the basement level and (I think) on the third or fourth floor.  There’s a Tesco Lotus department store there too, if I’m feeling cheap and needful. Have to admit, if you need to get your mobile unlocked or larded with a hundred apps, MBK is the ticket. And it’s conveniently located near Siam Square. Choices, choices, choices . . .

I love the Chao Praya river and related canals (klongs). Jump on a water taxi way out in the east end and you can float (and sometimes bounce and get a shower) toward the river. Then head to a river pier and find a regular service water taxi to wherever your heart wants to go.

Food, how can I forget food? My fave places: The Corner Place Chinese-Thai  restaurant at soi Cowboy, sunrise Tacos at soi 14 and another Mexican place on the south side of Sukhumvit, just inbound past the entrance to Washington Square and across from Coyote’s.  The pork noodle soup at Thong Lor BTS, plus a great espresso bar both in a small street alley to Lady Gunn Apartments, Loads of great Thai and Japanese good on soi 38, also at Thong Lor. The aforementioned Bourbon Street  (for great burger and Mexican and Cajun foods) and Silver Dollar (for cheap, light breakfast of about 120 bt). Of course,  The Londoner has some great dishes, but it’s for those with a bit more of a budget. If you’re profoundly hungry, check out plate-filling meals at Soi 8 bar at Nana BTS. In general, eat just about anywhere the locals fill the tables.

I like walking in a city of activity. I remember my first visit to New York City. The vibe was so thick you could cut it with a knife; it left a lasting impression on me; there was so much life around me I almost couldn’t come down. Toronto was  lifeless after that. Bangkok is pulsing with life. Sometimes the heat, humidity, density, activity and noise get too much. Then it’s time for a trip. I plan to return to Chiang Mai, as well as make a first appearance in Chiang Rai. One of my faves, Vientianne, is a quiet, quaint capital of Lao PDR that has just the right low-watt get-away vibe for me. It’s on the list.

I’ll also keep an eye out for the famous Thai smile, although I may have to leave Bangkok, as it is these days. You can live for days on just one encounter.

So much more to tell but I’ll write about those things down the road, from Palm World, otherwise known as the Land of Smiles.

*From "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head

Too much stuff? Don't move it, get rid of it

Moving is never easy, especially if one suffers from the western genetic mutation called consumption. 

And moving to another part of the world, as I am this autumn,  makes the process an even greater challenge because I have too much stuff. Even though I have no plans to bring any stuff to Bangkok, I have equally strong plans to leave little behind; the more you leave behind the heavier the mental and physical chains. I’ve had enough of the chains in my 50 plus years. 

I don’t think of myself as a consumer. I have hardly bought anything in the last three or four  years. Most of what I got was obtained in my formative consumer years, which go back to the 1990s.

And have I got a lot. My last consumer era consisted of buying Asian films from the cheaper than cheap Chinatown in Toronto. Before that, earlier this century, I followed some terrific TV series, such as Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, Heroes, Dead Like Me,  Wonderfalls, Firefly, and well before that, Babylon 5. In the early ’90s, I geeked out on Babylon 5. I have the novels, comics,  calendars (OK, now I’m embarrassed) and collectible cards. Before that it was comics such as Sandman and Death (do you think there’s a theme here?).

All along the way I read science Fiction. So I have a lot of books and DVD movies, and VHS movies and series, and music CDs (I even threw out some music cassettes this week!).  What to do with this stuff? Since I have entered the age of common sense, which is only about four or five years ago (it happens when you turn 50, hopefully) I will not carry stuff from place to place.  And, thanks to my stronger sense of living lightly,  it must go. All of it.

Which is a long about way to say I am looking back on my accumulating years  and going, What The F--k was I thinking?   Frankly, none of this stuff is worth much. Never was. Back then, when I had the full-on collector virus, you accept the consensus that all of this will be worth something some day, at least more than you paid for it. Ha! What a sucker! Those were in the Boomer Era days, when old stuff was gaining popularity and desirability. Suddenly, that old 33 rpm record was worth 10 times what you paid for it. Now, well, I just sold 40 albums from the 1970s rock years for $40. (Don’t ask me why I carried this anchor for nearly 40 years! Paying to move it each time, with its cumulative cost of . . . I don’t want to know!)

Of course, better technology and cheaper products overtake most of the old stuff.

So it’s out with everything: sell it, dustbin it or give it away. I was ruthless. I’ve up-ended boxes of novels into the recycling bin or trundled better ones to a local library; dragged bags of clothing, and DVDs and CDs to charity services; and I’ve bagged useless stuff and sent them plunging into the building garbage compactor.

If you think you’ve weeded out a good hunk of domestic driftwood, think again. You have always got more stuff than you think. One night I spent 4.5 hours in my building locker pawing dust-laden boxes and asking myself why did I think I’d want to see these cancelled race track tickets again? Ever? Or track ID badges? Or cheap automobile souvenir models? Or news clippings? Or calendars from some obscure industry?

That’s not all. I’ve got enough souvenir t-shirts that would probably clothe the entire populace of Monaco, should anyone be needy there. You see, I got rid of a lot of  stuff back in late 2008 just before embarking on my six-month sojourn in Bangkok. I really did. Or I thought I did. You see, I really got rid of only half of it. So the lesson here is: Be Ruthless. You will never need anything in your garage or locker or basement ever again if you haven’t look at it in a year. Ever! No qualifications.

The only thing I salvaged was some personal pictures of relatives and friends in my earlier years. They were good memories. They all fit in a shoebox. That’s all I have left. Oh, plus financial papers, which are a must to keep for are least seven years in Canada.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been selling a lot of stuff to collectors (Cf. dictionary definition, suckers) through online classified services. I discovered 1/18 scale race and road cars (but not 1/43 scale) are desirable, vinyl record albums (but only if they’re pristine, not like mine),  DVD movies, music CDs, and last and least, books.

I’ve been going out every night and coming home with empty bags and more than a $100 in my pocket from selling off DVD movies ($4 to $20 each) and music CDs, the latter practically worthless (e.g. 5 discs for $2). Sad to acknowledge how little value there is in books. I have some good ones, but while I haven’t tried to sell any, just a perusal of second-hand shops tells you all you need to know. They buy them by the pound. Or boxful. Not the title.

I’ll own up to the fact I bought a lot of travel books on Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. But did I really need five or six books, phrase and language books on each country? Plus multiple maps? I think you know the answer; they’re now lying in the recycling bin.

So in my preparation for my departure from Canada for a long-term stay in Southeast Asia this autumn, I really wanted to leave very little behind, only my apartment and some furniture. That’s my goal and I’m almost there. Really!

Hobbled by loss of laptop recharging cable

I may be out of circulation for a few days as I managed to leave my laptop recharging cable in Tha Khek, Laos. Am endeavouring to replace. Not hopeful here in Vientiane, where I arrived Saturday afternoon after six-hour VIP bus ride from Tha Khek. Can't find an Apple dealer via Net.

Internet cafes are just not condusive to hours of picture processing, writing and finally posting blog items. Although I'm at one now. So I may not be able to post until next week when I return to Tha Khek on a motorcycle, where my rather expensive cable sits in a hotel backroom. They won't mai/courier it. Don't ask.

Speaking of which, Apple cables are the magnetic, breakaway kind of interface so any old cable will not do.

Coyote dancing at Fortune Town IT mall

An entertaining moment at Bangkok's Fortune Town IT mall

If your camera can’t talk to your computer, you’re lost. So I had to venture out to the Fortune Town IT mall Saturday and buy the vital camera-to-computer USB cable.  With two cameras -- 8 megapixel point and shoot and 12 megapixel DSLR, both Canon -- and no communication conduit, I wouldn’t be able to illustrate my blog posts. And my reader(s) would be bored to tears.  Yep, important stuff.  And I’d see my stats numbers plunge.

That’s lesson number 1: Bring all the equipment. Lesson No. 2 is: shop around.  I began shooting with the Big One almost as soon as I hit the top of my soi today. Under Asoke BTS station, workers are replacing the horrible sidewalk surface with concrete tiles. The day before my head snapped around when I  spotted a female worker, jeans and jean jacket, white hat, slim, trim, short body, all the right bumps, bouncy pony tail peaking out from under the brim of her white sun hat.  (So sorry, but more on her pictorially speaking real soon.) I shot from a distance and within half an hour, my battery was down to 35% after constant metering and I still hadn’t made it to my prime destination out at Lat Phrao, north end of the city.  

I had to take action. Lesson No. 3. Always carry a spare battery. Maybe even two. So out to Fortune Town at Phra Ram 9 on the MRT subway. Always a pleasure using the Bangkok subway but that’s another blog post. (My promises are mounting . . . oh, oh.)

I checked five shops. I was looking for a Canon LXP-E5 rechargeable Li-Ion battery. Prices went like this (in Thai baht: 31 to the Canadian dollar; 33 to U.S. dollar; 53 to UK pound): 1990, 2220, 1950, 1900. Odd that the cheapest came at the last boutique I checked. So I saved 320 baht.  Off-brand copies went for 800 to 890 bt. “Assembled” in China. When you translate baht into dollars, $10 doesn’t sound like much, but 320 baht is four beers.  In Canada $10 is bit more than one beer and tip. Get it now!?!?!?

The cable is cheap anyway so bought a shortie for 40 baht; an alternative wire on a reel comes in at 50 baht.
       
I was feeling pretty proud of myself as an aware consumer. Loud dance music suddenly shook the third floor walkways nearest the southern escalators (Fortune Town is huge and long and the IT mall has five floors, I think). Clerks and customers stopped wheeling and dealing, smiled and bobbed up and down as four coyote dancers proceeded to draw attention to a broadband service. I whipped out the Canon SD850 IS and began shooting. Then took a movie, which I royally screwed up. (And I still haven’t learned to upload video anyway . . .)

Pictures tell the story better:

   

And last, below, that cascade of colour is a bus, shot from an outdoor cafe at Fortune Town IT Mall. Not uncommon to see buses adorned with all manner of colourful charms to protect against misfortune (hahaha):

Warning: Scary scam at main Bangkok airport involving 'shoplifting'

A frightening scenario is told by a British couple who were "caught" shoplifting at Suvarnabhumi Airport's King Power Duty Free shops. They were forced to pay 8,000 GBP in "bail"  and "fees" to secure their release from the alleged incident. They escaped a hotel where they were told to stay and went directly to the British Embassy and told their harrowing tale. It appears as though it's happened to other nationals who were in or near the shops, which are pretty hard to avoid if you're going to a departure gate.

Let's see if  Thailand can dig itself any deeper in the negative-publicity  hole?

Read the whole sordid tale in posts at Thaivisa.com.

Eating on and off the streets of Bangkok, Part 1

The vendors sell food on the run around Huay Kwang market.

[Confusing posts: I had to delete twice because of browser incompatibility. See note below*]

When in doubt, write about food and show pictures. Okay, I'm being a bit lazy now. I find it hard to write about a country that's 12,000 plus km away. Though I miss it, its life is not within reach, I can't look across my balcony (image at right) and look at the sunlight streaming across the constant blue skies, cannot hear birds scrabbling and scrapping, can't hear the food vendors hawking their fruits and vegetables through their PAs, can't feel the  heat radiating from my balcony floor, can't hear the Thai news on TV, can't smell and hear Bangkok (I'll not miss the sounds of construction everywhere in this burgeoning city).

Food in Thailand is unforgettable. You can eat anywhere, anytime, and inexpensively. But I noticed myself changing my diet over the six months of living in the City of Angels. More later.

I had a number of regular eating places. The soup lady on soi 36, at the intersection where my sub-soi (soi Napha Saap 2)  joins 36 (see image left, right about where the black truck is), offered the tastiest and biggest bowl of noodles I have ever had in the city. An amazing 25 baht (85 cents Cdn). I always gave her 30. I'd passed her by many times until my friend Paul, who also lived in my apartment building, raved about her food.

Before that I used to visit soi 38, next soi eastward off Sukhumvit. A busy, busy night market that generally opens from about 4 p.m. And stays open till about 4 a.m. Great selection of noodles, fried rice, noodle soups, various other rice dishes with meat and veg, and quite the selection of Japanese and western food. The latter was a twice the price or more of Thai food but you are getting more in volume and variety. The Japanese food kitchen offered "sets", the latter are more likely to be known as combos. A "meat loaf" would come with veg, some potato, miso and  salad. For 85 to 120 baht.

I lived near Thong Lor, or soi 55 Sukhumvit. North on 55, you'd come to what I called TOPS market plaza. It has a formal name but I can't remember it, just like no one can say the entire formal name of Bangkok . TOPS had a huge amount of Thai, Japanese and Western foods, prepared or raw. There were also Segafredo and Starbucks coffee shops, plus  iBerry cafe, and what turned out be my best backup food joint, namely . . .  Burger King. It's expensive at 150 baht ($5 Cdn) for a Whopper combo, but it was good and possibly there was another reason -- it was open 24 hours! Beats McKrap by a good margin. I ate along Sukhumvit quite often (note, even numbers are on south side, odd on north side):

      

*At soi 33 -- fried rice with chicken or pork, noodle soup, and "fire" phad thai with bleedingly hot shrimp and noodles (You can ask for "phet nid noi": a little bit spicy, or "mai phet": not spicy; or kill yourself: "phet mahk mahk" (Image, far left, shows 7-11 at 33 where food vendors set up at night; second left image shows nearby open kitchen)
*At soi 22 -- noodle soup, sliced chicken or steamed pork on bed of rice, and fried rice, chicken or pork (see third image above);
*At soi 23 (actually soi Cowboy) -- you can have anything your eyes and/or mouth would accept, from fried bugs, deep fried chicken, grilled pork balls and cabbage with chilis to  death-defying som tam (killer salad), and even french fries or onion rings, which showed up in the winter (that's tropical winter, folks, that is, temps dip to 32 in daytime;
*At soi 15 -- great noodle soup available all night till 4 a.m.;
*At soi 13 -- grilled pork, chicken or beef;
*At soi 11 -- just about everything available.

Image note: fourth one above showing pans of cooked foods, is from Huay Kwang night market.

Along the way you will see single vendors of fruit slices, fruit juices, spring rolls (image at left, shows rolls from Asok), deep fried or grilled  fish and shell fish, breaded banana, kebabs of grilled meat and vegetable slices, pancakes and various sweets, fried bugs, even beef burgers.

I've eaten at all these places. But do not take this as  "Recommended Eateries" list. It's not exhaustive. There's a thousand other places on the street to eat in Bangkok. One thing to note: I do not eat at places with no customers. You will see them. You will also see places with full tables of customers. Eat there.

This is part one of my Thai food tour. Part two coming up . . . hopefully sooner rather than later.

*Note: I had to delete this post twice because  picture/words composition was falling apart. So sorry about any confusion. For geeks in the  crowd, I was using Safari browser for the first time on Typepad. Couldn't adjust picture positions at all and so went back to Firefox, which works perfectly.