Today's song is: Honky Tonk Women .. Mick and Sheryl
The best laid plans of mice and men ... sometimes go astray. I sent in my $200 a night hotel room at the Hong Kong airport, sipping green tea, which I never drink, but I hear soothes the nerves and calms oneself.
I flew from Bangkok to Hong Kong, arriving at 9:30 pm and I went to the transfer desk looking for United Air so I could get my boarding pass to stay inside the international area and look for a quiet cosy place to curl up for 7 hours and catch some sleep until I had to check in at 7 am for my flight to Tokyo. However, one problem, the United air transfer desk was closed with a sign stating they would reopen at 7 am. Bummer, bummer, bummer.
I sat down and pondered what to do. This area of the airport was not a place for a conducive nod off for 7 hours. I decided that I would have to exit, go through immigration and find a hotel. I figured by the time I did all that, caught a taxi to the hotel airports, etc., I would be really grouchy so I just logged into Expedia and booked a room at the only hotel attached to the airport which of course is pricey but convenient, so what the hell, here I am sipping green tea justifying my poor plan.
Luckily I bought a cheap meal on the plane as the room service for a club sandwich is $30. Maybe the green tea will stop my stomach rumbling.
There is one bright side to all this. Tomorrow, I will be showered and refreshed for my flight to Tokyo and then Chicago, and then Ottawa.
Time to catch some shuteye. Let's see, 8 hours at $200 is $25 per hour. That's a lot of fun in Bangkok :-)
Update: June 1st morning (if you are East of the international dateline).
I am waiting to board my ANA flight to Tokyo. Uneventful morning, breakfast at McD's, and check in were uneventful other than United sending me off to ANA because my flight is a Star Alliance code share and they farmed me off to ANA which is better service anyways. Sixty minutes until boarding. I think it will be a long day.
The bus trip from the village to Bangkok was uneventful except for the Thai lady who snuggled up to me and ended up falling asleep first leaning against me then sprawling across my lap. Hey, this is Thailand :-)
I arrived in Bangkok at 1:30 pm and caught a taxi to Soi 20 where my hotel, the Golden Tulip is located. Check in was uneventful and I was impressed with the size, decor, and cleanliness of my $50 a night hotel that I would classify as 4 star. Highly recommended if you are planning on visiting Bangkok and want to be located right in the middle of where all the action is in Bangkok.
Last night I visited many of my favorite bars; Country Road (Pool), Dollhouse (pretty Ladies), and Crazy House (crazy pretty ladies). An old friend Jimmy was at Country Road and was sad because his dog of many, many years, who went everywhere with him passed away. The dog was really cute and very well behaved. I asked Jimmy if he planned to replace the dog and Jimmy said he would not because he is fairly old and would probably die before the new dog. Jimmy is quite the character, must be in his late 70's and is of mixed ethnicity, speaks about 4 languages and is quite a good pool player.
Today I woke up feeling a wee bit hungover but 2 coffees later I am feeling better. I have some business to attend to and then I met King John and Arthur for wings and beer and then the 3 kings will head out for a night of bar hopping in Bangkok. I won't over indulge (famous lat words) because I have a 24 hour trip back to Ottawa starting tomorrow with an overnight stay in Hong Kong with a 6 am flight out the next morning.
Well, I made it, 29 days without wimping out. After my morning run, high on endorphins, I was trying to come up with something I will miss in the village. I thought of one thing, farm fresh eggs. I eat 3 soft boiled eggs every morning for my breakfast. I certainly won't miss the critters and bugs, especially the mosquitoes that have come out in earnest after the rains came. I should have brought some spray (deet). Even the natives are sleeping under mosquito nets now.
I will pack today. I will package up my 34 inch curved Samsung monitor and stash it away someplace safe out of the dust. Speaking of dust, I decided to clean the air filters on my air-con. I usually do this once a month in Bangkok. Here in the village they were coated thickly with dust and they will have to be cleaned every 2 weeks. There are 2 reasons why Thavorn's family will have problems using the air-con when Thavorn, Jaidan, and I are in Bangkok. Number 1 is remembering to do the maintenance every 2 weeks and number 2 is paying for the electricity it uses (I anticipate 3,000 baht a month for 24/7 use). A third reason is not messing with the remote settings. They have a knack of messing up the refrigerator settings (which are really simple, but in English) and then complaining why their drinks are not cold. I shudder to think how they will mess up the air-con settings which are also in English.
Thavorn went to a 'meet the teacher' morning at her kids' school and the big theme this year is individualized learning combined with more movement and phys'ed in the afternoon. I must think, in their old system that the students must have been nodding off in the pm in non air-conditioned classrooms, especially given the Thai propensity for nodding off at all times of the day.
I showed Thavorn some videos of the Ottawa Catholic School board classrooms and she was astonished at the difference between Thai schools and farang schools. She is starting to understand why Thais not go moon.
Tomorrow morning I will take my backpack with 2 laptops and my gym bag with shoes, clothing, and toiletries and jump on the motorbike with Thavorn and Jaidan to head into Wichian Buri to catch the bus to Bangkok. The next time you hear from me will be from Bangkok.
in case you think he never sings a complete song ..
I am getting really excited about getting back to Bangkok for 2 nights. I have Sunday to myself, arriving in Bangkok about 3 pm after catching the bus out of Wichian Buri about 9:30 am and then a taxi from Mo Chit (Northern Bus Terminal in Bangkok) to my hotel. I will head out for some beers and entertainment on my own on Sunday night.
On Monday I will join King Arthur and King John for some wings at 7 pm and then we three kings are off for a night on the town.It should be fun and usually winds up quite late the next morning. Unfortunately I will start my journey back to Canada about 2 pm a wee bit under the weather. You can't always get what you want at Alice's restaurant. You have to take the bad with the good.
I hope to play some pool Monday afternoon before meeting for wings. Bangkok is a great place to play pool and the beautiful young ladies are quite good pool players and present quite a challenge if I am not on my game (lucky and concentrating). It is usually 20 baht a game where the loser pays, unless you are playing one of the pool girls and then you always pay.
My programming (conversion of existing programs) has been going well but it cost me 200 ml of red wine (180 calories) yesterday and a Singha Lite (95 calories) today. It is monkey work and extremely boring, but needs to be done as the existing programs were written in flash and Google is starting to make noises about abandoning supporting the use of Flash. Newer Android devices, iPhones, and Macs already prohibit its use.
I was considering buying an RV for my 5 months in Ontario each summer but after exploring teh cost of securing a campsite I think I would be further ahead to purchase some cottage property and use it for my summer months. I am looking at 150K to 200K, but would prefer a cheaper fixer upper. If you have the skills and time to renovate (I do) you might as well make use of them.
Thavorn is doing a final wash for me and I will pack tomorrow. I always travel light with a small backpack and a carry-on bag. Many airlines now charge for checked luggage which should be a crime, alongside their fuel charges which never seem to disappear or get adjusted even with half price fuel they are now buying.
Today' song is: Sunshine of your Love .. Cream 2005
I am booked into a nice 4 star hotel at about $50 for the 2 nights in Bangkok. Really looking forward to some English television news and a soft bed with a comforter. Simple things in life. Oh yes, and a hot shower and bath tub.
Toady we drove into Wichian Buri for some juice for Jaidan and some chicken legs. The legs were 200 baht for 40. That is about $7 CDN. Yummy, I will have 5 for supper and squirrel 5 away for tomorrow's lunch. I also bought a 180 ml bottle of red wine as a treat. About 160 calories :-) Peter Vella House Red .. cheap and highly recommended (California).
On the way in we came across a heard of buffalo chillin in the ditch beside the road.
Jaidan takes great delight (prompted by Thavorn) in scaring me with his pet snake (rubber).
We have a threesome for Monday night out in Bangkok. King Arthur, King John, and yours truly, King James. It should be a lot of fun and a great company to spend my last night with.
The Canadian dollar is climbing again, gaining almost a half baht in the last 3 days. For every baht it goes up, my income goes up 5,000 baht a month :-)
Another country (Japan) has opted in to make programming mandatory in schools.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to make computer programming a compulsory subject at primary schools in fiscal 2020, followed by middle schools in fiscal 2021 and high schools in fiscal 2022.
Janis was a big hit when I was a student at University. One of the best female rockers of the time.
It is hump day today here in the village and the market at the Buddhist temple will be open at 4 pm. I hope to buy a couple of roasted chickens to get me through the rest of the week.
I fly out of Bangkok on the 31st and get into Hong Kong at about 9:30 pm. My conundrum (word of the day) is what to do with myself until I fly out at 6 am the next morning. My first thought is to get a bite to eat and then maybe a beer and then look for a place to sleep for about 6 hours (11 pm to 5 am). The hotels at the airport are expensive for a 6 hour sleep. I can also buy a lounge pass for about $80 but I find that steep as well. The floor is looking like an excellent option.
I used to have lots of lounge options on platinum cards but I cancelled them all because I was not flying as often and they made no sense to keep paying their yearly fees. United's lounge pass is $50 US but at today's exchange rates that is not a good deal. It was at even par. The downside to the United lounge is that it closes at midnight. The Premium Lounges are open 24 hours a day. If I cave, it will be for the Premium lounge.
Tonight at 6 pm they are having an exercise/dance session across the street. Many of the village's women are there working out. Jabba is eating while watching the exercise. Having watched her for close to a month I have noticed she eats often, large amounts, and very quickly. She sits or sleeps all day long so she does not burn any calories. I would think she is still in a very large calorie surplus over her daily needs. She will continue to gain weight. It is all on her stomach which is probably not a good thing.
In Canada, we have a law that prevents selling alcohol to inebriated patrons in a bar. Probably a good law. I think there should also be a law that prevents stores from selling junk food to obese customers. I have been watching Jabba eat 'Joe Louis' type pastries for breakfast and throughout the day. She is now completely out of breath when venturing back from the toilet. She starts popping who knows what pills at that moment. It does not take a genius to figure out this does not end well. Stoke or heart attack. Heart attack would be faster and kinder. The only solution at this stage would to be to open her up and carve out the 50 kgs of fat which is not covered by health care in Thailand.
I am on target to hit 90 kgs before returning back to Bangkok. That would mean a drop of 5.6 kilos in 29 days. It has not been easy! I fall asleep at night thinking, wouldn't a beer go well now, or a chocolate bar, bag of cashews, Big Mac, etc. The exercise stuff is easier now and I have learned to just say NO to carbs :-)
Today's song is a duet .. very unlikely couple .. Willie and Julio
Drinking water in the village has changed since Thavorn was a child. It used to be the drinking water was collected in cisterns that were filled by rain water falling from the roof. I asked Thavorn if the water was treated or boiled before drinking and she no. I hate to think of the bugs and mosquito larve that was in the water. Thavorn said they did not get sick.
Nowadays, a truck comes by with large containers of water (maybe 25 liters) which sell for 12 baht. Thavorn says it comes from wells and is treated before being placed in recycled containers. I have been drinking this for the past month with no ill effects.
Here is what the old cisterns looked like and the new containers:
The new recyclable containers.
Old cistern used to collect rain water.
Two cisterns outside the house.
There are countless numbers of these cisterns located on every property througout the village. They are huge and there is no place to put them, and no garbase collection. They will still be here 50 years from now. Too big to be flower pots :-)
Jaidan's closest in age friend is Ice. He plays with her all the time. Here they are visiting me in my man cave and chowing back on chicken legs cooked up by Thavorn.
Jaidan spends much of his day asleep in the hammock while the children are at school.
I am still running and working out (chairs). I hope to make my goal of 90 kg by the end of the month. Thavorn tempted me with a glass of beer last night and I caved. However, it was Leo beer and cost me 160 calories. My favorites, Singha Lite and San Miguel Lite are 95 and 100 calories respectively.
Today's song is: Bridge Over Troubled Water .. Elvis
The Honda motorbike had a flat rear tire and it looked like it should be replaced so Thavorn pushed it a kilometer to the local tire guy and 600 baht later the new tire was installed. That is less than $25 CDN (including the price of the new tire). You have to love Thai women. I don't know any farang women who would push the bike a kilometer, never mind get the tire changed .. that's a dick job in their minds :-)
I have been doing a week's worth of programming starting to rewrite one of our Flash apps to JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5. So far so good, but it is mostly just monkey work and extremely boring. Normally I would fortify myself with a keg of red wine or a bottle of Scotch but since I am on a diet I have been grunting it out. Certainly not a task for a seasoned programmer such as I :-)
I think Thavorn will move her 2 older children into our air-conditioned man cave while I am in Canada and it has been quite hot and they have been snuggling up to the door to catch any cold air that escapes. I guess Jabba and Lot will just end up sweating out out by themselves. That is if they are still talking but they had a fight last night and Jabba uttered the Thai equivalent of WTF when Lot called her a buffalo. I thought, maybe that was a term of endearment, aptly descriptive, but what do I know :-)
I have been taking a walk around the village and most of them treat garbage like Thavorn's family. The next door neighbour had some broken glass and glass does not burn so they just moved it to the no man's land on the edge of the property. Pic:
My internet connection is a little slower today for some reason. It is usually twice this.
Still not bad for the middle of nowhere. I get 20 GB of downloads a month and then it gets throttled back but is still useful for a lot of things.
I am now waffling about going back to Bangkok a day early. I may opt for my original departure of May 29th .. but then again ...
Fitness and strength training is something I have engaged in since I first started working out at 20 years of age. What works well when you are younger may not be so good as you age and your body starts to wear down. Recent trends and research are suggesting high intensity training for short intervals is better or equal to long sessions in the gym. I tend to agree.
There’s a lot of talk in the exercise world about high intensity interval training (HIIT) lately, which is exactly what it sounds like — alternating episodes of exercise with periods of less intensive activity or recovery. It’s not an new idea, although many gyms, trainers and some experts are touting it as if it’s a new phenomenon. Professional and elite athletes have been using interval training for nearly a century to maintain their peak performance with the least wear and tear on their bodies. And it’s baked in to workouts like SoulCycle, Cross Fit and many group classes at gyms. from Time Magazine: http://time.com/4311373/interval-training-benefits/
Other, easy to read articles include:
It certainly looks like the research has gone mainstream :-)
I also drink about 4 cups of strong coffee with a bit of milk and no sugar. The reason I do that is most of the diet pills out there contain large quantities of caffeine to speed up your metabolism. Seems to work.
Initially the running was really, really, really hard, but it is easier now as I have moved from a slog to a run where I can modulate my speed and gait. My 6,000 baht Asics were up to the task and I definitely needed them without the benefits of a cushioned treadmill. The 40 degree heat also did not help much but I imagine it helped melt the fat :-)
What I have leaned from this experience is:
It is easier to stay in shape than get back in shape.
It is easier to put weight on than take it off.
Putting yourself in an environment where it is difficult to cheat is good.
When the results come in quickly it is motivating.
Getting old sucks, but having all your original body parts helps.
Once you hit 60 don't give up, ramp up!
Sex is better when you are in shape.
The other thing I forgot to mention is I have not had an alcoholic drink since I arrived. (maybe 1 :-) and I am drinking 3-5 liters of water a day.
If you need some motivation just watch these 2 video2:
I started my diet and exercise program at 95.6 kilos. I am happy with my progress to date, having lost 4.1 kilos in about 3 weeks. I actually look better than that as I have put on some muscle which to replace some of the fat I have lost so I look and feel better. I hope to break 90 kilos before I head back to Bangkok next weekend.
Thais love to gamble. In the village there are at least 2 ladies who run their own lotteries which is against Thai law. A lot of Thais play, including Jabba. They also play card games where they bet with real cash. These games are also against the law. The local police look for more than 1 or 2 motorbikes outside a house and then walk right in to inspect what is going on. Unlike North America they don't need a warrant, only have to suspect. To get around this, the villagers park their motorbikes at some other house to mislead the police.
There are many free range chickens and free ranging dogs that come by every day to partake of the food scraps that get thrown out the on property. I guess that means they go to good use.
The best part of staying in the village is Jaidan gets so many more chances to play and interact with children close to his own age. Close, being 3.5 years to 9 years of age. No one, seems to be Jaidan's 22 months old. However he seems to keep up physically and is learning to speak Thai. The Thai children seem to really enjoy hanging around the farang boy.
Free range chicken besides the motorbike
Jaidan running after the chickens
Playing with the bigger boys
Children everywhere like to make their own play areas
Jaidan with 2 of his GFs
It is Saturday night and the boys are out back getting pissed on Thai whisky. They will then sleep it off all day Sunday .. this is a weekly routine. They keep trying to get me to join in, but if I wish to drink I usually do it with pretty Thai ladies :-)
Speaking about Saturday, I am seriously considering heading back to Bangkok next Saturday rather than Sunday, as it is the most fun night in Bangkok and will be my only Saturday in 3 months. It will also be a real treat to walk to the toilet without looking for snakes on the path, or lifting the toilet seat to check for spiders before getting down to business, or jumping into bed without having to crawl under a mosquito net or having to check for scorpions. You only go around once ...
Today's song is: Roll Me up and Smoke Me When I die .. Willie
Thavorn spotted a snake in the tree out front. She went a fetched a 2 meter long stick and knocked it out of the tree and then deftly dealt it a couple of blows to the head, quickly dispatching it to snake heaven. It was about 2 meters long. What I found troubling is no one seems to know the venomous snakes from the non venomous snakes.
As you can see, it is a bright lime green color. Thavorn has now dispatched 1 scorpion and one snake in 3 weeks. You don't want to mess with Thai women :-)
I have decided to start porting some of my Flash apps over to HTML5 now that Google is making noise to limit the use of Flash in their Chrome browser. FireFox has already been doing this for a year. Both browsers will now ask you if you wish to enable Flash when you visit a website that uses it. Now, most reasonable people will click yes if they trust the web site but there are so many clueless netizens out there who will click yes to anything to advance to the site. Think, 'porn' and 'sharing illegal content, such as songs' sites. Users get what they deserve and unfortunately Flash is sometimes used to deliver what they deserve. Flash is (was) a great platform to develop for.
Other than a bit of programming, life in the village is pretty boring (except for snakes and scorpions, but who needs that kind of excitement). Ten more days and I am back in Bangkok for 2 days and nights and then off to Canada for 55 days.
My post yesterday must have had some effect on Lot's karma because he had no work today and decided to build a bamboo fence around the property which took all day and looks quite nice compared to the neighbor's fence.
Sloth (Latin, tristitia or acedia("without care")) refers to a peculiar jumble of notions, dating from antiquity and including mental, spiritual, pathological, and physical states. It may be defined as absence of interest or habitual disinclination to exertion. Mentally, acedia, has a number of distinctive components of which the most important is affectlessness, a lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish mentation, Physically, acedia is fundamentally associated with a cessation of motion and an indifference to work; it finds expression in laziness, idleness, and indolence. Sloth has also been defined as a failure to do things that one should do. By this definition, evil exists when "good" people fail to act.
Thavorn's mamma and live-in BF both exhibit high levels of sloth (IMHO). Yesterday Lot had the day off work so spent the whole day alternating between watching television and sleeping. It is not that there is a shortage of work to do. Both Mamma and Lot find work fascinating ... they can watch it all day .. they seem fascinated by it!
Today, Thavorn and I have been cleaning and washing now for over 2 hours. I asked Thavorn why her mamma does not hire a cleaning lady once a week for 300 baht to clean and Thavorn stated that by the end of the week there is no one in the village willing to clean up such a mess. Seems like most of the village is slothful. Mamma is simply a pig, making a mess all around her wooden platform where she sits and eats all day long, except to get on the motorbike and go visit a friend to gossip. I do believe everyone has a redeeming feature but I have yet to discover it in Thavorn's mamma.
Thais find farangs fascinating, they can watch them all day. For example, they are probably all gossiping about the farang who runs around the lake every morning. You certainly do not see Thais exercising except in hi-so gyms in Bangkok and perhaps some body builders in the park. But, then again, there are quite a few runners in the park in Bangkok. Maybe 50 people out of the 10 million that live in Bangkok. When I lived in Malaysia I found Malaysians to be even worse. I would guess they blame it on the temperature.
Walking around Bangkok is always a chore as Thais walk so slowly, twice as slow as a farang. They also tend to be oblivious to the foot traffic around them. They certainly would never hold a door open for anyone. Just not in their culture.
Rereading my post, it sounds like I am becoming disenchanted with Thais and Thai culture but that is not the case. I am simply making observations of what I experience and sharing those observations. Thais are simply different than farangs and that leads many farangs to become upset at the differences. It is simply the way of Thai. I am also certain, it are these differences that explain democracy's failures to date.
A perfect example of the differences is the use of the word farang to describe all caucasian foreigners. In Canada we would ascertain a person's nationality and then refer to them as German, Italian, etc. In Thailand, that is simply too much work and I also doubt if the school system does a good job teaching them about the countries of the world and how they differ from each other. Very few Thais hold passports. One wonders why?
Ok, I am now officially bored. I can also understand why Thavorn has a hard time making simple decisions. The only decision you have to make in the village is what to eat. Otherwise it is simply a routine .. eat, sleep, watch TV (except in my case, no English TV so read whatever on the net).
The door to my man cave is probably the worst installation of a door I have ever seen. There is no gap, where shims are placed to make every thing line up. This gap is always covered with a molding. Pretty well every guy kind of guy, knows how to hang a door. Not so in Thailand. To close the door you basically just jam it shut. It does not close fully as the latch never fully engages. To open it, you give it a good shove and it opens with quite a noise, loud enough to wake Thavorn's family who are outside sleeping in the 35 degree heat, while I slumber at 28 which feels relatively cold compared to outside.
I asked Thavorn how long the door has been this way and it appears to be as long as she can remember so about 20 years. Well after 17 days I have had enough so we jumped on the motorbike and rode into Wichian Buri to pick up a wood chisel. It came to 150 baht, so about $5. I then rode back to the village and started chiseling out the wood frame which is attached directly to the concrete. I inserted some paper and closed and opened the door (as much as possible) and found out what needed to be chiseled off. Two hours later, the door closes snugly, without noise, and latches and evens locks from inside.
This is why you often hear me say, 'Thais not go moon!' Somehow, somewhere, all initiative is beaten out of them. I suspect both the family and the school system. I also suspect it works quite nicely to keep the lo-so .. lo-so. This is an interesting web site:
It mentions that only 12% of the population is below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 0.7 percent. I guess it depends on where you draw the poverty line. If the minimum wage is 300 baht ($10) for a 12 hour day, 6 days a week, I would guess these workers are not included in the 12% poverty figure. But I would also guess they make up the vast majority of the lo-so population. Bernie Sanders would have a fit!
The big joke among farang lifers is going native. Some farangs, when living in the village, embrace the Walden Pond lifestyle and stay put, start growing things, and listening to Thai music (highly repetitive). The life style is more akin to the time I spent at my family's cottage on Palmerston Lake about 90 minutes from Ottawa.
Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods), by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, is a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and (to some degree) manual for self-reliance. Thoreau also used this time to write his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. First published in 1854, Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. The book compresses the time into a single calendar year and uses passages of four seasons to symbolize human development. By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to gain a more objective understanding of society through personal introspection. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period. (from Wikipedia)
My time at our cottage, from about 10 years of age to 20, was a time of enjoyment and exploration as I grew from a child to an adult. There was ample time for reflection but mostly it was just enjoyment and self discovery as I grew into my teenage years.
At first, our cottage did not have electricity and when night fell we relied on the tried and true Coleman gas lantern. I quickly became adept at lighting the light. There was no television, but we had cheap Japanese portable radios but the reception was poor except for US stations bouncing off the atmosphere from time to time. We had an old wooden row boat with a 1 horsepower gas motor that we used for fishing (trolling). We had an outhouse at back.
Eventually, over the years, we added an indoor toilet with a septic system, electricity, a real stove, and my own personal speedboat (that my Dad and I built) with a 7.5 hp motor. It did not get any better, or so I thought. A young boy and his boat, a big lake to explore, but it did. Dad added a 50 hp boat and water skiing became a passion. I soon gravitated to slalom and could touch either shoulder down to the water. However, I never did master bare foot skiing as the boat could not tow me at over 35 mph which is required.
From 16 years old, I spent whole summers at the cottage with teenage friends. We had little money, but we would raid the farmers' fields, stealing carrots, corn, etc. At night, we would wake up at 3 am and steal down to the rented cottages and siphon gas out of the cars to use for water skiing the next day. Many the night we spent burping gas, but we were rewarded the next day, inviting the girls of the parents whose gas we stole the night before, to go water skiing. So much fun, if only their parents knew!
My best memory of cottage life is the summer of 69 (Thank you Bryan Adams) when my best friend Kerry and I and my GF at the time, spent an idyllic day on the water, skiing and contemplating life just after graduating high school. How naive we were. But, nevertheless, happier than a pig in shit :-), as life was an oyster waiting to be plucked (chucked?)!
So what does cottage life have in common with village life? They were both simple lifestyles, where you live in the present, and basic needs are met. Relationships are important and you are confidant that the future will look after itself.
What is different? Well, village life provides me with a high speed internet connection and I am more cognizant of what is happening in the world than ever, as I have lots of time on my hands. I can also stay in contact with friends, with this blog, eMail, LINE, Viber, and WhatsApp. I really do not like Facebook as I find it so narcissistic.
What are the chances of me going native? Zero percent. My Mother nicknamed me as Walter Mitty, and Walter Mitty I remain!
Mitty is a meek, mild man with a vivid fantasy life. In a few dozen paragraphs he imagines himself a wartime pilot, an emergency-room surgeon, and a devil-may-care killer. Although the story has humorous elements, there is a darker and more significant message underlying the text, leading to a more tragic interpretation of the Mitty character. Even in his heroic daydreams, Mitty does not triumph, several fantasies being interrupted before the final one sees Mitty dying bravely in front of a firing squad. In the brief snatches of reality that punctuate Mitty's fantasies the audience meets well-meaning but insensitive strangers who inadvertently rob Mitty of some of his remaining dignity. The character's name has come into more general use to refer to an ineffectual dreamer and appears in several dictionaries. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Walter Mitty as "an ordinary, often ineffectual person who indulges in fantastic daydreams of personal triumphs". The most famous of Thurber's inept male protagonists, the character is considered "the archetype for dreamy, hapless, Thurber Man". (from Wikipedia) The world awaits ...
TTYL
Today's song is: B the Dashboard Light .. Meatloaf .. classic line .. Praying for the End of Time
Today's song somewhat appropriate for weddings .. cynic that I am :-)
I am now halfway into my village odyssey .. so far .. so good .. 14 days to go to civilization.
BTW, new stats out for North America .. 25% of pregnancies end in abortions! Poor form of birth control .. Planned Parenthood aught to be ashamed of themselves
Sunday is the traditional day for weddings in Thailand as it is usually the only day that Thais get off in their 6 day work week. Today, in the village is what Thavorn refers to as a hi-so wedding. I asked who was getting married and why the wedding is hi-so. Thavorn says it is hi-so because the groom gave 4000,000 baht and 10 pieces of gold jewelry to the mother of the bride. I was intrigued with what the groom does for a living. It turns out he is a policeman in the small town of Wichian Buri. Now I have discussed what police make in Thailand so his occupation would not make him hi-so. It turns out poppa and some of his uncles are also men in brown, higher up the food chain and hence, probably the source of the goodies for mom.
The bride is Thavorn's age and has not been married before but has had a serious boyfriend before but has been living with the groom for a couple of years. Sounds like your usual farang type of relationship in North America. The wedding difference is in Thailand, the bride's family is gifting you with the bride and hence the dowry, whereas in North America, the groom is taking over responsibility and care for the daughter and the bride's family pays for the wedding to unload the daughter :-)
Yesterday, the family installed about 10 lighting poles along the street reaching form the highway to the wedding reception. They guide the guests to the reception. Thavorn's family has an invitation to the reception so Thavorn and I will attend. Should be fun. I noticed the drinking has started already. The wedding takes place at noon and the reception starts at 6 pm and continues until everyone passes out :-) (just the young males).
The wedding procession moved down the street at 9 am. I took some pics:
No, it is not raining, keeping the sun off
Music boom truck .. lid folds up with about 20 speakers.
I may have some more pics from the reception later today. The dress at weddings appears to be jeans and a shirt or t-shirt. Good choices as it is stinking hot today. Only the immediate family and wedding party get dressed up, usually in traditional Thai attire.
I was robbed of my run today. Apparently the lake, enclosed by the track I run on, was seeded with fish about a year or two ago and today was fishing day. The village folk descended with their nets and carried off bushels of good sized fish. They will be eating fish for the next week at least. I did not want to be the lone farang running in the heat around a lake full of fisher folk. I can hear them now, 'What is that crazy farang doing?'
The weather has also become quite predictable for the past 4 days. The temperature steadily climbs towards about 40 degrees until about 3:30 pm when a strong wind suddenly appears and starts blowing dust everywhere. The sky gradually darkens and about 4:30 pm the heavens let loose with a deluge of water for about an hour. It has the nice effect of dropping the temperature to about 30 degrees by 6 pm.
Today, Thavorn gave the man cave a thorough inspection for any lingering scorpions. I think she too will be sleeping under our umbrella-like folding mosquito nets. Only the best mosquito nets for my man cave. Pics:
Thavorn and Jaidan's bed with the mosquito net folded in the corner.
My sleeping area with my mosquito net deployed already.
My meals today consisted of, you guessed it, fish from the lake, with rice and hot sauce for lunch. Supper was 3 boiled eggs mopped up with 2 slices of brown bread. Throughout the day I researched stuff on the net and drank 3 coffees, one for breakfast, lunch, and supper. I am not sure how many calories but I think under 1,000 calories for the day
I think the lake is now fished out so I should be able to continue my running tomorrow morning about 7 am. Actually, they had some sort of Buddhist ceremony in the morning but it was over by 11 am and it was cooler today so I did get my run in but late.
At 3 pm we headed into Wichian Buri to buy a sharpening stone to remedy the dull blades around the house. It will give me something to do. You should not have to whack the fins on a fish 5 times before they separate from the body. Just not efficient, but efficiency takes planning I guess and remember, Thais live in the present. The past is gone and the future is tomorrow and we need not worry about it.
Today is Friday in the village, but it may be Thursday for you as I sit beyond the international dateline. So what's happening in the village on a Friday. Pretty well what happens every other day :-) not much. Oh I do miss the bright lights, music, food, and pretty girls of Bangkok! There is always so much happening and so many people descending on Bangkok from all over the world. This is the down season so it is not quite so busy, but probably still busier than other city in the world.
Time to play the Bangkok song once again: Robey this time around
My diet so far consists of 3 boiled eggs in the morning and some meat and a bit of rice at supper time. Sometimes I cave when I can't sleep and I have one slice of bed with peanut butter on it and then I can usually fall asleep before my stomach starts grumbling once again. I keep my stomach full during the day by drinking about 5 liters of water. I also have 2 cups of coffee in the early morning as a wake me up.
It was scary last night as we lost power from late afternoon until 9 pm. I had visions of having to choose between sleeping outside with the mosquitoes and red ants and a 28 degree temperature or sleeping in my man cave with no air-con and a 40 degree temperature. Corrugated tin roofs and concrete walls make for an oven that holds its heat for quite some time. Fortunately the power came back on in time to get to sleep.
However, about midnight, Thavorn woke up with a yell as she was bitten by something in her bed. She flipped on the light and hunted for the culprit which turned out to be a scorpion that stung her on her ear. Shit, I thought I only had to worry about snakes, spiders and assorted bugs, but scorpions are over the top. I felt a little safer hiding under my popup mosquito net but I am not sure it would keep scorpions out. Evil critters :-(
The little bugger was caught and killed by Thavorn
Today is the first day of school and all the urchins headed off in their school uniforms of light purple shirts (Queens colors) and navy blue shorts or skirts. Thavorn loaded up Jaidan, Tai, Tai's boyfriend, and Dun on the motorbike and off they headed the half kilometer to school. Some pics:
Jaidan with Ice, his little sweetie who is 3 years old
Jabba is certainly regular. Regular in the sense that she rips a mega fart every 30 minutes like Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. Quite endearing, especially when she lifts a cheek to let lose. On those occasions the fart can be heard from 50 feet away. Jabba is not the least bit chagrined but Thavorn cringes. I think she thinks it bothers me, But WTF, everyone has some sort of talent :-)
I think Jabba fuels these mega farts by her high cellulose diet combines with fatty meats. Last night Lot came home with about 10 big frogs which got diced up like minced meat, then fried and combine with rices and leafy something or others. The frogs croak certainly seemed to fuel the sonic booms emanating from Jabba's ample nether regions. The farts are usually followed by a laugh ...
I just noticed my passport expires early next year on Feb 12, 2017. It seems only yesterday I was living in downtown Vancouver with my Russian friends. Five years go by quickly, too quickly! I will have to renew my retirement visa in Oct of this year and I I need at least a year left on my passport so that means I will renew it in Ottawa in June or July when I am there.
It is 3 o'clock and 39 degrees so I suspect we will hit 40 degrees again in the next half hour. The heat does kind of zap the energy out of you but I retreat to my air-conned man cave when I feel the heat or need some quiet time. Thais are the like the Chinese, they like to speak (yell) loudly. The Chinese are starting to travel internationally in hordes and they are viewed as a little bit crude (spitting, pointing, etc.). They are coming to a city near you :-)
I am getting bored with the selection of foods here in the village. I guess if I ate rat or frog or snake I would have more choice. I do miss my fast food outlets and CoffeeBean and Starbucks, not to mention my favorite bars. I leave for Bangkok on the 29th so 17 days to go.
I am, however, losing wight and getting in shape which is one of the goals of this village boot camp.
Today's song is: Sympathy for the Devil .. YASS 2013
There is much warning in the medical communities in North America and Europe on the over prescription of antibiotics. The viruses and bugs adapt and become immune to most antibiotics. There is also much concern by the environmentalists in Europe and North America about pollution but those countries are relatively clean and have much smaller populations than Asia and S.E. Asia who pollute much more.
In Thailand, any Thai can walk into a Thai pharmacy and request antibiotics for a cold and the sniffles. Thavorn has done it many times. I do not know about other countries in Asia and S.E. Asia but I suspect it is much the same. The interesting thing is that cough syrup and ibuprofen (advil) are behind the counter and you have to ask the pharmacist for them. I suspect, some Thais get high on the cough syrup.
We live in a global world and the microbes that become resistant to antibiotics in Asia do not even have to buy an air ticket to get to North America or Europe. They will arrive in the bodies of travelers from other parts of the world. My other prediction is the recovery rate for Asians will be higher than for North Americans and Europeans as their immune systems are highly developed as they are exposed to way more pathogens in their daily lives than we are in antiseptic North America. You can run but you can't hide.
Another interesting observation I have made is that hospitals in Thailand are much cleaner and more efficient than North America because labor is so much cheaper (no unions). The hospital where Thavorn gave birth to Jaidan was like a 5 star hotel. The total cost was 30,000 baht which included doctor's fee, all medical services, 5 star room for 5 days, 4 nights, and all meals. The large LCD TV, iPad, extra bed (for me), kitchen, and rain shower in the washroom were all included. AND, wonder of wonders, when you pressed the red button, 2 beautiful Thai nurses appeared within 5 seconds, with welcoming smiles.
Jabba and LOT headed off to the Wichian Buri hospital early this morning to see what can be done for her knees. I know what the doctor will say .. lose some weight. They don't seem to give the big needle cortisone shots here in Thailand. Jabba's only solution for weight loss would be to staple her stomach or surgery to slice off the 50 kilos of fat. At 55 years of age I am not sure either of those will happen. Even in Canada, they would not do a knee replacement until she lost weight. Sure is quiet here in the village without Jabba jabbering loudly all the time.
I am into my 10th day and I took a day off from running as I woke up a bit late and decided it was too hot. Bit of a wimp out, but a day off will give the joints and muscles time to recover and will not hurt my aerobic development much.
Wonder of wonder, there is no construction work today as the electrical is in and the suspended ceiling is finished.
Besides a pickup truck, it appears that every house in the village has a satellite dish. I checked out the feed in Thavorn's house and it goes into a box (PSI s-x) that has only RCA outputs. Pretty archaic. I was thinking of plugging in an HDMI monitor I am not currently using but I would be looking at a RCA to HDMI converter and I would guess my chances of finding it are slim in Wichian Buri. But, given the popularity of dishes, maybe not.
The other thought I had was upgrading the box to a PSI S2 which is digital and features RCA, plus HDMI for about $60. However, I do not know if it will work with the existing dish. Apparently they put a new satellite in orbit to supply the digital content, so even if the same dish could be used, it would probably have to be reoriented. The whole package, box plus dish, plus installation is $100 and there is no monthly fee. However, I am out of the village in 20 days so this is just mental exploration at this time.
I do get NetFlix in the village on my laptop and have been watching the Marco Polo series which is excellent. However, my data plan is limited to 20 GB and I have to be careful as I need the plan for my business.
Today's song is: A Better Place .. by Glen Campbell
I missed a couple of posts due to the suspended ceiling taking 4 days and the electrical work taking 3 days. It is truly amazing the amount of work the electrician did in 3 days and only billed us 1,000 baht or about $35. However, we paid for all the materials. It makes me feel better to look at a real electrical circuit box rather than the crude contraption that was there. I am quite capable of doing all the electrical work myself, but I had no tools, and frankly, at $35 for 3 days, it would be a waste of my time.
I would now consider the 2 relatives that did the suspended ceiling over 5 days to have grossly overcharged, but the 10,000 baht did include the concrete blocks to build up the wall height, the cement, the ceiling tiles, and all suspension cabling, so maybe not, considering there was two of them.
The electrician, however did clean up after himself. He also pointed out the aircon guy used the wrong size of electrical cable and replaced it. Thavorn did try to call the aircon guy but he ended up hanging up on her. I thought he was a great worker but I guess he does not do redo's.
The last two days have featured huge rainstorms lasting 90 mins with buckets of water coming down. I guess it is the start of the rainy season and hopefully the end of the drought, but the drought kept the mosquito population down.
Jabba's live in Lot got drunk as a skunk last night and also left a quart of beer in the freezer which exploded. He has slept all day and missed his work pickup but seems not to be chagrined at all. I think this is a fairly common event.
Jabba's is off gossiping with a sister and considering the roads are a quagmire we may not see her for a while. That much weight on the skinny tires of a 125 cc motorbike would definitely result in Jabba getting stuck. Thoughts of a beached whale flit through my brain as I write this.
Thais always take off their shoes when entering a house. Not sure why, as their feet are often as dirty or dirtier than their shoes. I have had to wash the cushion on my Ikea chair and have now banned all the urchins from sitting on it (actually lounging with their feet up on it) as they make it dirty again in one day.
Some pics:
These two chairs are the same age, I left the right one in the village the past year.
The Thais like to cook on these outdoor barbecue devices as it is cheaper to buy charcoal (brown bag on the right) than propane. Saving the planet?
Urchins at play
Gossiping
New electrical box at upper right, old shit to the left.
Thavorn dressing down in the village
Cooking pork on the barbecue
My running is going okay but I can't say it is easy yet .. maybe a little bit easier
Today's song is: Whisky in the Jar .. Irish Rovers
The saying dirt poor comes from rural farmers who own land but don't usually have a lot of money to spend. They eat well but probably don't have an iPhone 6 in their back pocket. Dirty poor is the way I would describe Thavorn's family. They have their plot of land and a house but they are simply dirty. They don't clean! There are cobwebs everywhere and dust an eighth inch thick in places. They have 5 old filthy pots to cook in and will leave the first 4 dirty all week until Friday and then clean all five at once. Meanwhile the red ants feast and bite. If anything drives me out of the village early it will be the lack of cleanliness and sloth-like approach to getting anything done. Being dirt poor does not give you licence to live like pigs. Soap is cheap!
Jabba's excuse is her weight. We put her on the scales and she was 112 kilos which is more than me and she's 5' tall. Of course her knees are giving out as would mine if I was carrying 62 extra kilos around. Why is she fat? I would say because she eats 5 times the amount of food I eat!At 55 years of age she is beyond help and will probably develop diabetes or hopefully heart attack out. She was telling Thavorn she hopes to last another 10 years to see Tai and Dun grow up. I would not bet on 5.
What pisses me off is neither Jabba or Lot seems to know how to say thank you in English or Thai. They seem to think they have an entitlement coming because Thavorn has a farang. There are many village legends about the largess (word of the day) of farangs but I think they are mostly legends. There is no shortage of gossipers in the village and many of them stop by during the day and I hear the farang word often.
I now have a 9 year old running buddy. He is a cute Thai boy who joined me a day ago and now shows up every morning to run laps with me. He is now my running conscience :-) He runs in sandals that probably cost 100 baht and I run in 6,000 baht asics. He has no trouble keeping up with me despite being 4' nothing. This is the best of Thai. Tai and Dun are much too lazy to run. They have Jabba and Lot as their role models as they are now just getting to spend time with Thavorn and I.
Tomorrow is Sunday which is the day most Thai males get drunk all day on Thai whisky. They work 6 days a week and indulge on Sundays. Maybe I will join them for a shot or 2 :-)
This blog has readers from many different countries. Here are the stats since I started the blog a year ago. Here are the page views by country:
France continues to puzzle me as I do not know anyone in France. I suppose Google is responsible.
The next time you visit Thailand and you are chowing down the superb cuisine that is available everywhere you may want to have these articles (courtesy of the Bangkok Post) in the back of your mind.
Reflections: Getting the aircon in was a dream. The suspended ceiling has been a Thai experience. The boss is 66 and his grunt is at least 45 and they are both Thavorn's uncles (should have been a clue). It has now been 3 days and they are still not done. Meanwhile they leave a mess that has to be seen to believed. Apparently Thai workers do not clean up after themselves. So I have swept (with Thavorn's help (Lot and Jabba are useless) and mopped the complete floor 3 times and moved mt stuff in and out of my man cave 3 times and no doubt I will have to do so on the 4th day if they happen to finish.
What gets in their way as they work is simply tossed out the window.
I will have more on garbage in the village later on in this post.
It was over 40 degrees in the village today and has been for the last 3 days. I have been without aircon during the day and I sit in a hammock drinking 5-6 liters of water a day. However, at this moment I sit in my man cave with the temperature dialed down to 24 degrees chowing back on fried pork and steamed rice, with a little hot sauce. It tastes wonderful!
The other morning I got up and poured my pre-run coffee and added milk to discover many ants floating belly up. I thought maybe someone had left the coffee jar open, but no ants there! I then checked the sugar jar, but no ants there! I thought the milk was in the fridge all this time and it was sealed so it can't be the culprit. I then checked the kettle and found at least 50 of the little buggers all boiled up as mini lobsters. I felt no pity! These little buggers are red ants and their sting or bite is really bad and takes 3-5 days to go down. I was happy the little buggers had been using my kettle for their nightly swim. Bring it on you red devils :-)
Oh yes, garbage. I had mentioned previously that the village Thais simply throw every thing on the ground and when it starts sticking to their feet they rake it into a pile with all their waste paper and plastic and set it on fire. I asked about garbage collection and there is none. I asked about a municipal or town dump and that seemed to amuse them. What I have observed with my own eyes is the many pickup trucks in the village stopped on the side of the highway tossing garbage out willy nilly. I shudder to think what the garbage police in my older sister's building would think of such behavior!
Here are some pics of my completed man cave. It is not much but it is home for the next month.
Thavorn and Jaidan share the queen and I sleep on the grey mattress topper.
Puppy (Ikea) goes everywhere with Jaidan.
My blessed aircon :-) Samsung
My work area with my wonderful 34 inch monitor.
My getting into shape is going well but I have found it much harder than in the past. I have been using air-conned gyms and cushioned tread mills. I now have concrete and a morning run temperature of just over 30. My new Asics Kayano 22's help to cushion the run but when you are 65 and have not run (swimming instead) for the past 2 years it is going to hurt. However, some things never change. Day 3 is always the hardest and then it slowly starts to get better. I am on Day 6 tomorrow.
My asics - not thrilled with the color, but it was the least ugly!
I am really watching what I eat but I did give into a coke craving at 7/11 today as the 3 of us, Jaidan, Thavorn, and I shared a small bottle of coke. Many of the soft drinks here in Thailand still come in the familiar glass bottle we used to get in Canada 50 years ago. It is like stepping back in time.
I am hoping I reach my goals of 3 kilometers in under 18 minutes and a weight of 190 pounds which was the weight I played University football at. If I do then I think that is not bad for a 65 year old :-)
