It is now 20 days since we submitted Thavorn's visa request and we still have no news. Maybe Trump has overloaded the Canadian visa system as people around the world are looking for someplace other than the US to visit.
It is starting to warm up in Bangkok as winter approaches an end and Spring is near sprung. This also means that Thavorn's 2 older children will have their March and April holidays and come visit us in Bangkok.
Thavorn's mom is going to under go twin cataract removal and Thavorn left with Jaidan today to look after her mom's convalescence. I am taking advantage of being alone and are planning on rewriting one or two of our business software programs. This usually means 15 hour days coding for me. The only problem that presents me is lack of sleep. There is something about coding that invokes insomnia in me. I become a night hawk.
I also like to code with a libation (WOTD) handy and this month's flavour is Piper's Scotch on the rocks.
The reason I enjoy a drink or two while coding, is that after 47 years of coding, much of what I do, I can do in my sleep, and it is boring. The good news is my palate is unable to tell good (expensive) form cheap (inexpensive) scotch which is identical to my wine tastes.
I also will get out and see a movie or two and hopefully go bar hopping a couple of nights.
Thavorn, Jaidan and I are still awaiting a decision on Thavorn's visitor visa. It has been 16 days since it was submitted, which is well over the listed 7 working days for processing. We hope to hear anon (WOTD - word of the day).
Last night I had dinner with my visitors from Canada who have returned from the wilds of Myanmar. They are here in Bangkok until Friday when they fly to Phuket for a week's rest at a Marriott resort. John and his mother Margaret joined us for dinner as well. Margaret will be visiting until may and flew to Bangkok from Canada by herself. Margaret is in her mid 80's so shame on all of you who say it is just too far to visit.
Is democracy at risk? When 51% of the population wants something and the other 49% want something else, can a government function effectively. It is not unusual for political parties to take turns governing as familiarity breeds discontent. It used to be that voters waiting for their chance to turf out the exiting political party. However, it seems now, the opposition does not even want to give the ruling party a chance to govern.
The media seems to have set themselves up as the moral compass for the nation. I am not sure what gives them the moral authority to do so other than they all seem to think their shit doesn't stink :-)
A future democracy needs a better voting system. I would suggest that governments should use bio-metric data such as finger printing and retinal scanning to record a vote. All registered citizens would be in a voter bank (no names, just the bio-metric data, eligible, voted fields). That would ensure that a person can only vote once and only is authorized.
Of course we would know almost immediately the results of an election if we had the voting ballots online as well. We could even use the system to poll the population on something as important as Brexit.
However,, that would not solve the problem of poor losers who are not willing to wait 4 years to give the winning party a chance. Here in Thailand, there are no stop signs at most intersections. Everyone just takes their turn and their is very little horn honking. Maybe if North America got rid of their stop signs people would learn to get along with each other.
As always, no answers, just some random thoughts on a topic.
It’s easy to get labeled entering the bar industry here in Bangkok. I wouldn’t call the majority of bar girls or gogo dancers here hookers, that’s is just too extreme. Most are in it for the same reason, they have a family to support!! More than likely they have been left high and dry by some guy who impregnated them at a young age and they will be supporting other members of their family, mother, father, grandparents and lets not forget about the brothers. Therefore it would be rather cold labeling these women … Hookers!! On the other hand the women who have a boyfriend it’s easy to label them. They are working for the wrong reason … Their pimp! I mean boyfriend. Who else? Most freelancers I would. The freelancers are out blatantly working the streets for all to see and with only one agenda. I recognize faces from 3 years ago and they’re still as skinny as ever. I'm sure they have a drug problem and have entered prostitution so they can keep their drug habit on track. You’ve got the long term bar girls who missed out on finding Mr Right. They are just stuck in the industry not knowing what else to do. Most are experienced enough to work a bar and get more than a few drinks for the night. Again it’s hard labeling them past just a bar girl. I know many a bar girl / gogo dancer that if they really dig a guy then they will be happy with 1000฿ for the night. There are bar girls that spend the night drinking with someone at their bar the night before and for that guy to come in early the next evening, since they got on so well the night before, and bar fine her just to go and hit a club or a restaurant. Before paying the bar fine let her know what you have planned for the evening and you may be surprised at what she says when you bring up how much does she expect to get paid…. More than likely it will be… ‘up to you’. These are the women that I described in the opening paragraph. They want out of the bar industry. You can build some real friendships with some of these women. You just have to be lucky enough in meeting them early in their employment and more importantly before the older hardened bar girls lead them down the wrong path. It’s so obvious why they have never bagged a long term boyfriend or husband.
I don't agree with everything written on this website but he is spot on in this post. Well worth reading.
I am maintaining a low profile these days waiting for my friends travelling to Myanmar to return to Bangkok and looking froward to my two friends from Canada (Mike and Mike) to arrive at the end of this month.
If you need a fix on Bangkok news, the above website is worth reading as is:
Saturday night is the busiest night in Bangkok but not for Thavorn and I. That will change when Tai and Dun come to visit on their school holidays. We then get a baby sitter and Jaidan gets some one to play with, closer to his age :-)
In the meantime, we spend a lot of time at the park.
It is 10 days now for Thavorn's visa application so we hope to hear back early next week.
On another note, I watch a lot of CNN. I used to get Fox News as well which gave me a balanced news view but for now I am left with CNN.
A couple of observations.
The network news anchors are full of themselves. I think Walter Cronkite would be turning over in his grave.
The "most trusted man in America" is gone. Walter Cronkite, who personified television journalism for more than a generation as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," has died. CBS vice president Linda Mason says Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. Friday with his family by his side at his home in New York after a long illness. He was 92. Known for his steady and straightforward delivery, his trim moustache, and his iconic sign-off line -"That's the way it is" - Cronkite dominated the television news industry during one of the most volatile periods of American history. He broke the news of the Kennedy assassination, reported extensively on Vietnam and Civil Rights and Watergate, and seemed to be the very embodiment of TV journalism. Special Section: Walter Cronkite: 1916-2009 "Cronkite came to be the sort of personification of his era," veteran PBS Correspondent Robert McNeil once said. "He became kind of the media figure of his time. Very few people in history, except maybe political and military leaders, are the embodiment of their time, and Cronkite seemed to be." At one time, his audience was so large, and his image so credible, that a 1972 poll determined he was "the most trusted man in America" - surpassing even the president, vice president, members of Congress and all other journalists. In a time of turmoil and mistrust, after Vietnam and Watergate, the title was a rare feat - and the label stuck.
I also find it strange that the entire network came down hard on Trump for calling Rosie O'Donnell a fat pig when you never see any homely, chubby people delivering the news on CNN. They obviously are very bigoted in their hiring policies.
But, what kills me is their indignation and holier than thou, and 'we are never wrong' attitude. But, that is to be expected as they are a product of universities which are so politically correct and left of center.
CNN also trots out panels that have very suspect individuals who almost always have a book that is being promoted. I guess these folks come cheap. Definitely a conflict of interest. To be fair, they do try to have some conservatives on their panels as well.
I guess what peeves me most of all is I really do not think they are fair and they certainly do not take criticism about the media well. Thin skinned they are :-)
My buddy John just arrived back from Canada after 3 weeks of travel to japan and the US. Needless to say, he needed a night out and we decided to meet at the Bier garden at 7 pm. However, I had not been out for a while so I headed out to Country Road for a beer.
At Country Road I bumped into my namesake, Jimmy who originally hailed from Singapore and has called Bangkok his home for the past 20 years or so. Jimmy is about 80, plays excellent pool and speaks about 4 languages. I was surprised to hear he is working, albeit for a friend as favor. His friend just opened a new factory in Rayong and needed someone to oversee his 3 Bangkok businesses until he get Rayong in maintenance mode.
After about an hour, a youngish girl and guy sat down beside us and revealed themselves as newbies when they pulled out a map of Bangkok. It turns out she was born in Austria and works in Switzerland as a stewardess for Swiss Air. Her BF was from Ecuador and did not fit my stereotype of playing flutes and wearing a straw hat. Turns out he is a hi-so Ecuadorian who married a Swiss girl on holidays and eventually became a Swiss Citizen and their marriage ended in divorce. He met his current GF in Switzerland.
I broached the subject of him marry the girl to obtain Swiss citizenship and he stated it looks that way, but like many marriages they just drifted apart and they maintain their friendship. This is the kind of thing that Canadian Immigration frowns upon as they see it as a marriage of convenience which I am sure happens quite frequently.
We had a great chat covering many topics over the next hour but then I had to say my goodbyes as I had to go meet John and my friend Arthur who is a US citizen. After a couple of beers at the Bier Garden we headed off to Butterflies and BillBoard bars for some bar hopping where I met another crazy Australian who decided to hang out with the Bangkok Lifers who seemed to know where to go to have fun. Meeting people from all over the world is one of the things that makes Bangkok so very interesting.
After about 90 mins we jumped on Motorcycle taxis and proceeded to Cowboy to visit the Dollhouse as I had not visited my friend Ratanna for quite a while. Eventually we said our goodbyes and I left my new found Australian in the good hands of Ratanna. Besotted he was, in more ways than one.
On my walk home (I walk most everywhere I go in Bangkok, bumped into a friend named Phai who I had lost contact with. We communicated over LINE and she had bought a new iPhone (the bar business is good for her) and she did not migrate her LINE settings to her new phone. We remedied that by adding me anew and we are good to chat again.
All in all, a great night in Bangkok and I was home in bed by midnight as today is a gym day for me :-)
Thavorn submitted her visa application on Feb 6th. Processing times for a TRV (visitor's visa) to Canada is currently at 7 days. Today is the 7th day so we hope to hear from Canada sometime tomorrow. I spent today reading visa forums and it can take longer than the times listed. However, reading the visa forums made me realize that many people applying really do not understand the process or simply do not qualify for a visitor's visa. I don't relish the CIC (Canadian Immigration Center) staff their jobs.
My visitor's from Canada who are now in the wilds of Myanmar are not communicating much these days. Myanmar is definitely a developing country so I am not surprised. Two more friends arrive in Phuket around February 20th and will be in Thailand for a month. They plan on flying up to Bangkok for a few days in the City of Angels. It is always lots of fun to tour Bangkok with newbies :-)
I am still noticing more and more individual tourists from China which is much preferable over the bus loads that arrive and move like lemmings following their tour guides.
The weather has been great with the temperature being in the low 30's and then dropping to the mid 20's during the evening hours. Sure beats winter in the Great White North.
Valentine's Day has come and gone. It is just about as commercialized in Thailand as Canada. Thavorn. Thavorn decided to go out with her girl friends . They started partying in our condo about 9 pm and left at midnight for a local Thai night club that they like to frequent. Thavorn says, mostly Thais with the odd farang accompanying his Thai GF. She arrived home at 4 am and after brief spell chatting with the big white telephone fell asleep. As usual, she was out of commission most the the next day with a hangover.
Speaking of hangovers, the bar featured in the movie, 'Hangover 2' is one of the tamest bars on Soi Cowboy. They even have a sign outside stating as featured in Hangover 2. I assume the movie chose that bar to make sure they did not get a, 'Restricted' rating on the flick.
Tilac .. inside and out
My gym workouts are going well. Now all I need to do is lose the 3 kilos I gained while sick with that rotten cold that seemed to infect half the population of Bangkok. Eating stopped the coughing so eat .. I did :-)
There will always be winners and losers, haves and have nots, leftists and rightists.
The Republican party won the US election and the democrats are not willing to accept that. Interesting enough, that was a major question asked of Trump, whether or not he would accept the results of the election if he lost.
For democracy to work, the populace must accept the winners and work within the government and constitutions framework to moderate the winning parties agenda. However, what I am seeing is the anarchists working outside of the existing structures to basically get what they want by protesting and lobbying using the new media to organize.
That is the key difference. Anarchists are in media heaven with twitter and Facebook among other social media platforms. There also seems to be quite a large percentage of younger folks that seem to have lots of time on their hands to move around the country to protest. Perhaps if they had families to support or real, full time jobs they would be too busy to protest.
And what are they protesting? I wonder how many of these anarchists have the 7 visa banned countries on their bucket list to visit. I doubt very many of them. Face it, these countries are in turmoil. Bad things happen when good people sit and do nothing. But then again, that may be how the anarchists view themselves :-)
Just some random thoughts .. but the future for democracies does not look good!
Today's song is: Rock Your Body and Can't Stop the fFeeling .. Timberlake
I finally finished getting all the required documents in place in order to submit an application for a visitor's visa for Thavorn to visit Canada. here is the list of documents I had to upload:
After going through this process I really do not see how your average Thai person would be able to submit an application online. You need a fair amount of computer expertise to scan documents and add them to a single PDF. You also need a fair amount of record keeping over the years. Thais seem to live in the present so I am not sure how much record keeping they do.
I wonder at the expertise of the staff at the local visa application center in Bangkok. If I had been allowed to visit with Thavorn, it would have been interesting to observe it first hand. I suspect that is why a Thai person is not permitted to bring a friend or spouse along. Thais hate losing face.
The application process seems to take a week at this moment in space and time. The actual online process is well done and kudos to Immigration Canada for having a robust website and intuitive online process. But, then again, I am an IT professional. Your experience may vary.
While I was submitting the required documents I was listening to CNN on TV. I have decided that CNN reporters are full of themselves and color the news with their personal biases. They bring in their political pundits to reinforce their political beliefs.
The reason I was listening to CNN is they are attacking the president for trying to get a handle on the visas from countries are basically in chaos of sort or another. I really can't see people from these countries being able to come up with the documents I just delivered for Thavorn's visa. The far left liberals are out of control. They should check in with the Swedes to see how they are enjoying their new immigrants and how those immigrants have contributed to Sweden.
It is probably easier for a refugee with little educations and 5 kids in tow to get into a developed country than a regular visa applicant who is jumping through the hoops.
The high tech companies are now lobbying the US government stating they are being hurt by the visa travel ban. Honestly, I don't see Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, and Syria as hotbeds of IT talent. Are they saying that the US is unable to develop the It talent nationally and they have to resort to importing talent from these 7 countries. If so, it is time to 'Make America Great Again!' What a sad state of affairs for the greatest nation on earth!
I think the issue is that they get IT talent from these countries at a much lower salary. You get what you pay for!
Today's song is: This is What You Came For .. Calvin Harris and Rihanna
My friends (Brent, Jeannine, Doug and Linda) flew off to Myanmar this morning. They have a day in Yangon and then they are off on their riverboat tour. I wish them luck. They should be back in Bangkok in 2 weeks :-)
Myanmar is having trouble these days and they are truly a developing country. My friends enjoyed the aquarium at Siam paragon which is world class. That mall also has a Rolls Royce dealership inside as well as a Lamborghini, Ducati, and other vehicle dealership.
Here are two pics of the entrance way.
The fountain and sky train above.
Entrance to the mall - definitely the hi-so mall in Bangkok
Our supper out (with friends on Saturday night was a let down. Despite being rated as the #6 restaurant in Bangkok, the food sucked, was slightly warm and rather tasteless. I grabbed a big handful of condoms on the way out to make up for the tasteless meal.
I also took a few pics of Jaidan while waiting for our meal.
However the Sunday night meal at The Wine Connection was a much better meal and the atmosphere was conducive to chatting and enjoying a bottle of wine. French and European cuisine at moderate pricing. Highly recommended.
It is high season for tourists and I have noticed an uptake in the number I see. on the street. There are many types of tourists I often see in Thailand ...
Older retired couples traveling in twos or packs
Young couples
2 girls or guys travelling together
back packers
groups of Chinese tourists
single punters and lifers
among other types
I am being spoiled this month as I have 6 people coming to visit over the next 30 days. They are all from Canada and probably escaping the great white north.
Yesterday we explored Siam Paragon Mall (hi-so) and MBK Mall (lo-so). It was a jet lag day so you don't want to try anything strenuous as you will crash. Today my friends are doing the river boat tour and the Grand Palace. Thavorn, Jaidan, and I will join them for supper at the popular Cabbages and Condoms restaurant that funds the abortion clinic.
Highly recommended for whatever .. make sure you grab a handful of condoms on the way out!
