Today's song is: Leaving on a Jet Plane .. Denver and Elliot
All good things eventually must end and my love affair with Thailand has come to an end or is, at least on hold, for 18 months. At this moment we are planning to visit Thailand again from June 1st to Augusts 31st 2021. More than likely, Pattaya will be our home base with visits to Bangkok, Wichian Buri, and Phang Nga (Phuket).
Our home base in Canada is going to be the sleepy rural village of Osgoode, about a half hour drive outside of Ottawa. Sounds like a good place to sit out the Corona Virus Pandemic that I suspect will be announced shortly after we arrive in Canada. It appears we are getting out of S.E. Asia just in time.
We had a lovely Thai dinner last night, courtesy of the seniors on my basketball team. They are a wonderful group of young men, and I will miss them.
My visit to downtown Bangkok was anti climatic. Cowboy was a ghost town so we visited the Beer Garden and the beer bars of Soi 7. Both of these areas were very busy. Why the distinction? Cowboy is a tourist destination and there are very few tourists these days and Soi 7 is frequented by lifers and expats.
I just booked a van, via grab taxi to take us to the airport at 7 am tomorrow morning. My senior boys asked to see us off at 8:30 just before we pass through to our gates. Seems like I made a difference in their lives and you can't ask for more than that.
So, I am a little melancholy as I reach the end, but I am really excited about the next stage of my life. It is great to re event your life every decade. So many people seem to get stuck in the same, same.
Today's song is: One Night in Bangkok .. Murray Head
Actually, my last night in Bangkok for close to 2 years.
The last week has seemed so long, but we are close now to start a new adventure. Adventures are great and quickly rids you of boredom. Off to greener pastures, one always hopes :-)
I handed out the team certificates to my varsity basketball team to cap off a great and final season with the boys I committed to for 3 years. It was rewarding seeing them develop as basketball players and become young men rather than boys. I believe they will do well in life.
The team gifted me with a signed jersey, thank you card and a memento of Thailand, a tuk tuk souvenir.
Missing Yen, my grade 8 starter ... he was at the middle school assembly
My manager and Most Improved Player
Tonight, my seniors are taking Thavorn, Jaidan, and I out to dinner at Mega Bagna. It is my last official duty (not really a duty :-) in Thailand. After dinner, Thavorn and Jaidan will head home and I will catch the BTS to Soi Cowboy to meet up with John for one last walk on the wild side.
Tomorrow should be a day of rest and a time for reflection, and of course the last minute packing of computers and monitors.
I am having fun teasing Thavorn that she only has one week remaining in Thailand and then we are off to the Great White North. She is handling it well. I suspect the reason is, she is looking forward to a change.
Jaidan continues to mark the days off on his calendar and even seems reconciled to the fact that he will be attending school in Canada. perhaps, he too, is looking forward to a change.
That brings me to me. Yes, I am definitely looking for a change. It is always good to get away, but it is always good to get back home. The problem, for me, lately, was defining where home was. Home is where your friends and family are. It is were you feel comfortable and safe. recently, Thailand has not been providing those things for me.
The virus numbers in Thailand are no longer reported. Obviously the government is repressing the reporting because they want tourism to rebound. I believe that says quite a bit about the ruling junta party, 'The buck trumps all'.
Meanwhile the virus is spreading to many other countries. I believe it is far from done and will decimate the southern continents of South America and Africa who are ill equipped to handle it. nature has a way of curtailing populations of every species.
Will be be safe in Canada. Yes if Canada controls exposure to the virus. No, if the virus spreads as our hospitals are already operating at 100% capacity and we can't construct a hospital in 2 weeks as China did. As always there is good and bad (ying and yang) everywhere.
I can't believe how excited I am about having wheel for the first time in over 10 years. makes me want to start thinking about my 2 wheel addiction :-)
Today's song is: Homeward Bound ... Simon and Garfunkel
In 10 days we are in the air, having said our goodbyes to friends and family in Thailand. I have 3 practices and one basketball tournament with my basketball team that I committed to for 3 years. I leave behind the genesis for next year's team and a basketball culture which should provide the grounds for success in future years.
I have been coaching basketball now for 35 years and I am not sure if it is time to hangup the basketball clipboard. I will decide when I get back to Canada. I get back in time for the Canadian University finals which starts on March 5th at TD Place, Lansdowne Park.
Jaidan continues to mark off his calendar and we are hoping for lots of snow when we arrive. We are probably the only ones hoping for snow at this time of year.
I am also looking forward to picking up my car on March the 4th. After much research I have decide on a 2020 Kia Forte GT.
It reminds me of my Chevy Cobalt SS I owned in the late 2000s, about the same horsepower but this one has much more torque because it is a turbo, so I expect more get up and go, especially with the 7 speed dual clutch transmission.
The Forte Kia comes fully equipped with the the safety features that you would want. It should be fun to drive.
We will start to pack and give things away over this week. We hope to travel with one suitcase each.
Today's song is: You Got to Run .. Buffy and Tanya .. Indigenous Peoples
The railroad system in Canada has been shut down for over a week by a group protesting the construction of a pipeline owned by the federal government that would add greatly to the GDP of Canada benefiting all Canadians.
There is much support for the group protesting by the leftists and snow flake generations. Many of them are ill informed. Here is a recent post by an indigenous person:
This post is gonna hurt some feelings. I am good with that. I am totally tired of people who say stupid things like "Give us back our land". Like seriously. I like to look them in the eyes and say: "Ok. If you had your land back, what would you do with it?" I will wait for the answer. Have you ever taken the time to use google maps and look at the huge tracts of Federal land that are not being used for any purpose at all? No one is trapping any beavers on the land. No one is hunting wolves or coyotes, or any other fur bearing animal on that land. Very rarely do you ever see anyone hunting anymore. If we compare that land to the land owned by the Hutterite Colonies, you would shit yourself if you saw what they are doing on their land. They have hay and oats and barley and grain, and they run large herds of livestock and flocks of domestic geese and chickens. Well, ever since I was 18, I have owned my own home. Seriously! I bought my first mobile home in Fraser Lake BC and darn it all, it was mine. Nobody gave it to me. I never held my hand out for it like a pet monkey in a zoo. I earned it. And I have never, ever, EVER been without at least one house on land ever since that day. I guess you could say that I am the kind of Indian who just goes to work every day, and buys my own piece of land with the money I earn at my job. I have every single right that anyone else in Canada has. Oh. But because I am a status Indian, (I am non Treaty.) That means even though I am Status, I am not bound by any treaty agreements or obligations. I have WAY more rights than most Canadians. Firstly, I have the right to be free. I have the right to become educated if I want to. I have the right to freedom of speech, and I have the right to every single privilege that any other Canadian has. But that is not where it ends! I can hunt and fish and trap and do significantly more than all my non Indigenous friends do. No one has ever stopped me from trapping animals for subsistence on crown land. No one has ever stopped me from hunting for subsistence on crown land. No one has ever stopped me from gathering medicines, plants, fungi, berries or roots for traditional or ceremonial purposes. So if I can do all those things like my ancestors did before me, why would I want to have that land back?? Isn't it actually already mine to use anyway?? Only, unlike the land that I have bought for myself over the years, I do not have the burden of paying property taxes on the land where I harvest my moose. I just drive out there, walk a few miles along a river amongst the red willows, and when I see a bull moose, (I don't take cows because they make baby moose), I decide if it is the right one for the freezer. Here I am with a couple of wolves in this photo. I can use the meat, skin and tan the hide, and I can use the fur to make a nice blanket or for the top of my moccasins. Yep. I still have those too! You will never hear me say that you owe me any land. As Canadians you have already given me the most important things. And that is the freedom to carry on my Indigenous culture and traditions on Crown Land. I don't want my land back. I already have purchased my own, and I have the rest of the Canadian Boreal forest to do anything else I want to do. Thank you Canada. That is more than enough for me. Oh. Just one more thing. Thanks for not standing in my way when I go to work each day. That would really suck if you did that. And I promise not to stand in your way either. That's what us real Indians call "A GOOD TRADE"
It appears that the groups protesting the pipeline do not represent all indigenous persons. 20 of the 29 indigenous elected councils fully support the project and stand to gain a great economic benefit for their communities.
The indigenous people arguing against the project are heredity (thinks kings and queens) not elected and have an axe to grind (oops, is that a racist statement) as they have been replaced with an elected council.
I don't pretend to have all the answers but there are some obvious questions to be asked here. Are anarchist actions by a few people (indigenous or otherwise) to be allowed to shut down the railroad, leading to loss of GDP and jobs of people employed in the transportation industry, such as railroad employees, truckers, dock workers, etc. Do those people not have rights as well.
I also question how these protesters have the time to take weeks off work to protest. I tend to think they do not have jobs other than protesting.
I also question why these protesters would be the first to protest the killing of wolves for their fur, but apparently, it is okay for indigenous peoples to do so.
I have been writing this blog for many years and this blog post is 676. I started writing this blog for the following reason:
All of the above are beliefs that lead me to where I am now. This blog hopefully, will describe my journey over the next 10 or 20 years (by the grace of God) as I live out my life, trying to make a difference in other's lives. Buddhists refer to it as karma. (From the 'Why This blog' page)
I have decided the world has passed blogs by, and will stop contributing to this blog sometime in March, probably around post #700.
People seem to be obsessed with sound bites (Twitter) rather than substance. VLOGs are also very popular as it takes no effort (reading). I dislike VLOGs because I find them an intrusion of privacy as Vloggers do not ask for permission of the people in their videos.
My page 'Why This Blog' details why I started this blog. I was embarking on a new road in my life and I thought it would be interesting to people to travel with me. That road is nearing its end as my family and I move back to Canada to start a new journey.
My objection to social media is that I believe it leads to anarchy when misused. Special interest groups can have a much larger impact on society than they may or may not deserve. Fact checking is in vogue these days, but there is just so much information being disseminated that you can't fact check it all. Twitter has resulted in people being fired for comments they have made. Mob rule is now possible. Unfortunately, people have forgotten that you readily hear from people who are not satisfied, but seldom from people who are satisfied.
I had my last night out in the Big Mango yesterday with a couple of friends and I had very little goodbyes to make as many of my bar girl friends have left the business for one reason or another. I had an interesting discussion with one girl (not really a girl, she is 37) that I have known for years and I told her she would not see me for close to 2 years. She stated, 'You and your family have such a good life!' and I stupidly replied that I had worked hard for it. She jumped on me stating that she too works hard for every baht she earns and I quickly agreed with her. What I really meant to say was that I worked hard and long (35 years) to get to the stage I am at.
That lead to an interesting discussion about her disappointment that she could not continue in high school beyond grade 9 as her parents did not have the money to pay for grades 10 - 12. She has been working since she was 15 years of age, for a total of 22 years, often for less than 300 baht a day. I admire her.
I watched many farang tourist in many bars last night, and today, when I reflect on the experience I wonder what they thought as they watched the girls perform. I had hoped that this blog would have changed their perception of the Angels in the City of Angels. Maybe I have become a pessimist, but I doubt they understand. Tina Turner summed it up best perhaps in her song Private Dancer.
I make no apologies for not being politically correct over the years and truth be told I often stated things I knew people (especially family) would object to, and I did not necessarily believe in, hoping to get some lively discussion in the comments section. I believe discourse is important in society and through discourse, people may begin to understand that most things in life are not black or white, but shades of gray.
Today's song is: Straight from the Heart .. Canadian Bryan Adams
One of the advantages of living and visiting different parts of the world is that you start to develop a world view rather than national or local view. An advantage of living a while is that you watch things change over time, and perhaps, become a little bit wiser.
One major observation I have come to realize is that the gate keepers of information have changed dramatically.
It used to be that newspapers were the major source of information and people read them to find out what was going on in the world. It used to be just reporting the facts and personal opinions were reserved to the editorial page. In this day and age, newspapers are dwindling and the facts are often shaded with the newspapers political bias. I am thinking the New York times and the Washington Post for example. Nowadays I read very few newspapers and mostly just articles published online.
Countries often ensure they are the gatekeepers of information by owning and publishing news content themselves. I am thinking China and Russia. Their citizens only see and read what their governments want them to see. China also goes so far as to restrict what information sources their citizens have access to throughout the world.
It used to be that reporters prided themselves about being impartial on reporting the news. I am thinking about Walter Cronkite. Nowadays, reporters have become a brand. Anderson Cooper for example. You know where he is coming from before he opens his mouth. Ditto for his CNN sidekick Don Lemon. Of course Fox news is just as guilty!
I have also noticed that many people get their news from Facebook which I find particularly scary. The trend these days is to fact check news and I have found that fact checking is very biased as well as stats can be viewed and interpreted through exclusion and inclusion to demonstrate what message a person wants to convey.
I have also found Google news shows me what it thinks I am interested rather than what, perhaps I should be reading. This perpetuates a person's world view and biases.
My hometown newspapers online version shows every article with the picture of the reporter who wrote the article. What is important, the article or the person who wrote it? At least the leftist CBC online website does not do that!
The question that needs to be asked is how can a person get information in this day and age to stay informed and make rational fact based decisions about what to believe.
My daily activity starts with reading online on many websites. I start with USA Today, move to BBC, and then CBC and then the Financial Post. I then read Google News and the Ottawa Citizen. Next up is ESPN for basketball news. I then follow us with CNN and Fox news for bias checks. Lastly I read the Bangkok Post for Thai news written by expats in English. This amounts to almost 2 hours of news consumption that I only able to do because I am retired.
I don't know how normal working people would find the time to do what I do.
An interesting trend I see developing is the US election will probably become the 'boomers' vs the 'snowflakes'. I don't mean that in a derogatory manner, just in what I see developing. Millennials or snowflakes, or whatever you want to call them think very differently than boomers.
What I find disconcerting is that both groups reject what the the other group has to offer, whereas, as often in life, a middle ground may be where you want to be.
The world is becoming polarized. Rich vs poor, developed vs undeveloped, educated vs uneducated, hiso vs loso, capitalist vs socialist, young vs old, elite vs rednecks, etc. We used to say, 'we can learn from one another', not so sure that happens much anymore.
It rained overnight a bit. Apparently Thailand is in one of it's worst droughts in 5 years. Rice and sugar crops have suffered and it could lead to global price increases. Trouble times ahead for Thailand as Tourism will also suffer this year. You would think the Central Bank of Thailand would try to lower what the Thai baht is worth but it does not appear to want to do so. I have read that the Thai elite are quite happy with the high Thai baht as it makes their purchases of luxury goods and property outside of Thailand less expensive. Hiso's would not do that, would they?
On another note, the Minister in Charge of Health found himself having to apologize after his rant against western tourists who seem better informed about the Corona Virus than he is. You don't suppose he is in the position because of the military junta ... you think?
It may sound like I am a little jaundiced in my view of Thailand these days but that is far from the truth. I like the rank and file of Thailand but the Thai elite are like the elite of most societies as they are self serving. The difference is the Thai elite are military, police, and the ultra rich, whereas in Western countries, the elite are much more diverse such as sports heroes, move stars, politicians, and the ultra rich, who tend to be rich because they made some smart decisions and worked hard rather than being born into a particular family or inheriting wealth. Maybe that is why Thaksin was so threatening to the elite.
Today's song is: Under my Umbrella ... The Hollies
It rained today for the first time in about 5 months. That should flush the air of some pollutants and maybe a virus or two.
I am not hearing much from Pattaya and Phuket, other than the Chinese have disappeared and the the hotels and bars are empty. I am assuming the planes are flying around half full. I think that Thavorn and Jaidan are good to fly to Phuket to visit her daughter and sister before departing to Canada. They leave on the 12th and come back on the 19th, 10 days before we depart to Canada.
Meanwhile outside of Thailand the virus seems to be promulgating, stranding cruise ships in Japan and Hong Kong. Not hearing very much from the Thai government other than they have everything under control.
My school open up a week late on February 11th and my bball team will practice.
Other than that I am waiting for my cold to run its course.
Today's song is: The Boys are back in Town ...Thin Lizzy
After a 5 hour bus trip we arrived in the Northern Bus Terminal. Once you arrive at the bus terminal, albeit North or South, you are faced with e dilemma of getting to your urban destination. Your choices are:
1. Accept the offer of the person greeting you when getting off the bus.
2. Take a van to another drop off point.
3. Find the legitimate taxi queue and travel by meter.
Under no circumstance accept the offer of #1
Option two is a cheap option as the van waits until it is full and then each person pays 40 baht to arrive at your new destination. This was less than half price of a taxi with 3 of us paying. It is a no brainer if you know your destination and our familiar with Bangkok.
The third option is also safe and fairly cheap, especially if their are 4 of you splitting the fare. Ensure the driver is going by meter before disembarking. You will be at the mercy of the traffic at that moment in time and space.
We took the van and spent an hour in traffic and ended up in The market Village Mall where we decided Pizza Hut would be a welcome change to rats and ate well. We then shopped at the local drug store for needed items and took a taxi home for 60 baht, about $2.30 CDN. You can't get in a taxi for that amount back home.
We wore face masks while on the bus and in the van. Unfortunately my cough seems a bit worse. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help. It is going to be luxurious to sleep in a bed tonight! No mosquito net or a nightly trip to the outhouse.
Does not get much better. Oh, the simple things in life that you begin to appreciate when you are without them.
I woke up to a polluted sky reminiscent to what I see in Bangkok daily. I went for my morning walk around the artificial lake and noticed the sky was full of black embers, drifting slowly to the ground. The farmers are burning their fields all over Thailand as their crops are harvested. Of course, like many things in Thailand, like speeding and prostitution, the law is seldom enforced.
I would guess the field that is burning is many kilometers for where I am. Of course evidence in Thavorn's village is easy to find as I constantly see fields burning.
Above field in the village
Black embers on the ground
Of course this is not unique to Thailand. It is happening all over Asia and S.E. Asia. Compounded with cooking by charcoal or gas, there is no wonder there is pollution and global warming.
CO2 emissions seem to be the end all when it comes to global warming. I say again, you can't count on many countries to report truthfully. What I see on the ground in Thailand does not correlate with their rankings.
Canada always come out looking bad. Population 30 million vs 78 million for Thailand. Canada produces most of its electricity fro Nuclear and Hydro. Thailand, from Coal and oil. I see way more manufacturing in Thailand than I see in Canada. I can trust the Canadian government to report correctly. Cars in Canada have catalytic converters and are relatively new. Canada has 3 minute idling laws. In Thailand, cars are older, mufflers replace with non catalytic mufflers, and Thais sleep in their cars with the aircon on for an hour at a time. Most Canadians cook with electricity. Most Thais cook with propane , charcoal, or wood. Does all this factor into reporting?
I have the same reflection on all of the S.E. Asian countries I have visited except for Singapore.
Somehow the pristine blue sky of Canada does not jive with my concept of global warming and pollution.
I coach basketball at an International School with a large population of Chinese students. The school was closed for the past 10 days for Chinese New Year. I just received notice that the school is abiding by Thai Educational Policy guidelines and will remain closed until February 10th. There is nothing in the news about this as it would be bad for tourism.
Yippee, that means I can stay in the village for another 10 days. Of course, I mean that sarcastically. My choice is to die of boredom or potentially die of the virus. I also seem to be coming down with the flu as I have not had my flue shot yet. The chances of me catching the new corona virus is next to nothing as the village does not draw many Chinese visitors. However, it is a safe place for taxi drivers and bar girls to ride out the virus. You can run, but you can't hide.
It is getting more and more likely that we will have to eat Thavorn and Jaidan's air tickets from Bangkok to Puket return on the February 12 to the 20th. Both locations are Chine tourist hot spots, but were not when I booked.
It also appears my last month in Thailand will not be much fun.
