Today's song is: Love me Like you do .. Ellie Goulding
The Bangkok Post has an interesting article today about 40% of Thai farmers living below the poverty line. That was interesting because Thailand is a land of contrasts and Bangkok is home to more Ferraris, Porsches, Maseratis, etc. than Los Angeles (My seat of the pants observation). However, what was more interesting was the poverty line. It is currently set at: 32,000 baht a year which is $1287 Canadian . Hopefully those farmers grow their own food and have no housing costs.
That amount is about what I pay monthly for my apartment in downtown Bangkok or on entertain on 8 Saturday nights out in the Big Mango.
Arthur and I were out last night and spent most of it at Hillary 2 in Nana. Hillary 2 is a great spot for life music and dancing. There is no end of young ladies looking for a dance partner so it is always a good time. It is low season for tourists so it was not too busy but still busy enough to have fun. It is month end and the ladies need to make rent :-)
I hope to have some good news next week so check in every now and again.
Today's song is: The Wind at Your Back .. an ode to an Irish Buddy
I just realized I have gone over 500 posts on this blog (actually 516). I never thought I would posting this long. My original post was on October 27, 2014:
Tails vs Tales
Ideally, alliteration aside, I would have preferred Thai Tales but that URL was taken. However Thai Tails is appropriate as this is Blog is appended to my Malaysian House Blog at http://malaysianhouse.blogspot.ca/ which I will keep online but not add to. It is a chapter in my life that is now closed and I begin a new chapter with this new blog. You can expect my usual non politically correct narrative about how I view the world around me. Expect lots of pictures and stories from 'The Land of Smiles'.
I have tried to be true to the above statement and call things the way I see them.
When I started this blog, I had already been living in Thailand, off and on for a couple of years and had been visiting Thailand since the Fall of 2009. I have changed and Thailand has changed. One reason I started this blog was to document the changes as I entered into a permanent relationship with a Thai woman which led to the birth of our child Jaidan who will be turning 4 years old on July 31st of this year.
The changes are not over and in fact will start to accelerate this summer. Stay tuned for the latest news. However, Thavorn is not pregnant, at least at this moment in time and place.
I meet people from all over the world and today was no different. I met my buddy John at the Kiwi pub, along with his Thai wife Fon and we ended up talking with an American who has embraced life after being given a death sentence of cancer. He came to Thailand to fight it and is now in remission and enjoying his new found life. As usual, he is different from the run of the mill person you would meet at Starbucks or Tim Hortons back home.
I like to say, that the lifers I meet are usually running away from something or running to something, although I am not sure their is a difference. They all seem to have asked themselves the question, 'Is this all there is?' Are they all blissfully happy? No, not all the time, but they are happier than they were in their former life. Do some of them bail and go back to their former existence? Yes, because unlike fairy tails (and massage parlors), sometimes there is not a happy ending.
Yes, and we are in the midst of sauna hell, as some like to refer to the summer season in Thailand, but you surely do not have to shovel it, and you can always hideout in the air condition comfort of homes or the mall. However, I am always puzzled by the tourists in the Tuk Tuks, paying 3 times the amount an air-con Taxi would charge, to suck back on gas fumes, and sit stalled in traffic, unlike motorcycle taxis. Be warned .. forgo the Tuk Tuk ride!
So am I ecstatic? No, I get bored at times (been same place for 4 years now), my pool game sucks at times as I don't practice or play enough, and my friends come and go for months at a time. The winds of change, they be a blowing soon :-)
Today's song is: Summer in the City .. Lovin Spoonful
Sometimes you just have to stray off the good eats diet and indulge in some good back home junk food. Most of the time I am good but sometimes I start craving a good old fashioned cheesy and thankfully Villa Market caters to farang tastes but these imported yummies are almost twice the price of back home.
A couple of nights ago, Thavorn had the girls over for a Thai fashion BBQ of very fatty pork.
Of course after eating too much and drinking too much Leo beer, they all headed off to Queens Park Plaza on Soi 22 to continue the party. Thavorn came home about 1 am which is good for her :-)
Thai ladies like to party hard and they are lots of fun .. One of the major attractions of Thailand :-)
It is definitely hot season in Bangkok. We tend to hide out in the air-con apartment during the afternoon and head out around 6pm. Definitely a good time to visit a beach resort.
The play Les Miserables is, IMHO, a story about the ethical dilemma of morality. Morality lives within the realm of culture, whereas ethics lives cross culturally.
In the play, Jean Valjean is a convict who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for stealing some bread because he was hungry. When he gets out he steals some silverware from a church where a bishop gave him shelter. He is arrested for this theft but the bishop covers for him saying the silverware was a gift. Jean Valjean is tranformed by this act of kindness and becomes a 'good' citizen.
Meanwhile Fantine, gets knocked up by a wealthy student who abandons her and has a child named Cosette. Fantine loses jobs whenever anyone finds out she has an illegitimate child. She eventually turns to prostitution to support Cossette, but dies due to an STD.
Now most folks readily identify with Jean Valjean but I think fewer folks identify with Fantine.
The story of Fantine gets acted out nightly on the streets of Bangkok. I know many ladies who live the life of Fantine, supporting children after being deserted by their Thai boyfriend of husband. Often the lady is glad to be rid of the drunkard, abuser, or womanizer. These ladies not only look after their their own children but also send money home to mamma and poppa, who have no pensions and often give money to their sisters and good-for-nothing brothers.
However, when I walked to Nana and back tonight for some exercise tonight I noticed there is an increasing number of young girls who are into sex for the traditional reason of making easy money. We can thank the internet for that as it has made Thai girls discover they can make three times what a university grad makes in a month, tax free and also have the chance of meeting a nice farang who will 'look after' her.
Back to morality. Obviously the hermit kingdom of North Korea, and its leader does not have the same sense of morality as say Canadians and foolish leader Trudope. Morality is culturally driven. Christian Judaeo cultures have a different sense of morality that Muslim or Buddhist cultures.
In Thailand, Thais view sex very differently than Christian Judaeo women so I think it is easier for them to consider different ways of making money. After all, they are not going to hell and can earn karma along the way to a better life style.
However I do feel that the Thai men who are pimping their ladies out so they can live a better lifestyle and not have to work, belong in a special place in hell :-)
So, in Thailand, I feel Fantine plays out better than Jean Valjean, my observation from a walk on Sukhumvit ...
Food for Thought on a Friday Night on Sukhumvit
Back in the village .. a fair arrives .. Jaidan having fun
Fun and games .. tonight .. tomorrow they come back home ..
My longest Thai lady friend .. Sa .. I always buy her a Heineken ..
She has a cooking stall on Soi Cowboy .. she used to be a bar girl and then a greeter ..
My newest acquaintances .. Austrian (pinhead) and Martin, Irishman who was lots of fun!
Yes, Martin on the right ... pinhead was a moralist ... Martin a realist
Today's song is: Creedence Clearwater Revival in Concert
A Great Band .. Some Great Songs
I have been spending 16 hours a day coding for the past week. It takes its toll after awhile because some of it is simply monkey work but I have no junior programmer to hand it off to. I am it! The software architect, the database manager, the server maintenance guy, and the programmer and tester rolled into one person! Some people call that type of guy, the full stack developer.
If I was 27 and not not 67 I would be pulling down around $130,000 a year working for some company. Unfortunately, for some reason, companies don't think we older folks can get the job done and prefer to pay $130,000 to some guy out of college with no experience and dick all expertise in one of the areas I excel in.
Begs the question, why do I do it. Perhaps it is the love of a challenge. Perhaps it is seeing some of my products approaching 20 years in production and watching it like a baby growing up. It is a hobby and always will be. Some say programming is an art form that fights back and i tend to agree. When I program, I am oblivious to the world around me. I think that is why Thavorn and her children headed off to the village for some social life.
I just ate my supper .. programmers fare:
I don't know why, when programming monkey code, I need to indulge in either a glass of red wine or a couple of shots of scotch .. less pain I guess.
Meanwhile, back in the village, progress is being made. The closest hamlet is Wichian Buri and it has sprouted a water park (funded by a smart farang), a Big C, and a KFC. The village itself, now has a pizza oven and turns out very good pizza. Must be another farang behind that venture. The pizza is very popular, especially with Jaidan.
Meanwhile .. at the water park .. admission is only 50 baht!
Jaidan likes to spend the whole day at the park so we invested in a 50 SPA swim suit for him. Not that he burns, but Thavorn wants him to stay white :-) Go figure .. we like tans!
Well, Saturday night lasted well into Sunday morning as Ashley and rolled home about 5 am. We had started out at 5 pm on Saturday so we partied for a sweet 12 hours. I must admit I paid for it at 6:30 Sunday morning when Jaidan woke me up with a 'Jim wake up, the sun come up!' which he is wont to do every morning. He has given up trying to stir Thavorn awake :-)
Ashley now truly understands the allure of Bangkok night life which offers up whatever you want. We hit big bars, small bars, gogo bars, beer bars, dance bars, free lancer bars, but no roof top bars (not my thing). All in all, a fun night.
The ladies packed it in about 11 pm after dinner and a dancing on soi 4, Hillary 2 and a disco on soi 11. They all said they enjoyed the evening.
Today, Thavorn and I are meeting Ashley and Bridget with their luggage in tow at Rumours bar which is a great bar to sit at and reflect on the journey of your life. Happy hout until 5 pm. We meet them at 12:30 and they leave for the airport at 2 pm by taxi. They both agree that they should have gone with my recommendation to travel with one carry-on bag and vow to do that next time around which may be South America for them.
It has been raining on and off for the past 2 days but it is a lovely sunny day with no clouds in sight for their goodbyes.
Thavorn and the children will also say goodbye as they head back to the village soon for teh start of the next semester in school. We have to go buy an iron at Big C today as Thai, the older one has discovered that ironing removes the wrinkles in her shirts and skirts and they look better. Of course no iron at home back in the village. The things we take for granted.
I will spend the next week cranking out conversion code on one of our apps. I will have to buy some red wine. Coding always goes better with red wine for some reason.
Jaidan, besides looking like a girl, also looks like an elf ..
girl ..
boy ..
an elf ..
Our household is now down to 5 people as Thavorn and I bade farewell to Jit and Bai Derri at Don Mueang Airport as they flew back to Phang Nga, which was the grandmother and child's first airplane flight. I think the grandmother was more excited and rightly so. The child is a bit of a princess and expects good things to come her way. It is really not good to coddle and spoil children IMHO.
The remaining children will head back to their village at the end of the month. Thavorn and Jaidan will accompany them and stay over for about 5 days. Thavorn's mother enjoys it when Jaidan visits. Actually most of the village seems to enjoy Jaidan. I will spend that time programming as I have some rewrites to complete in the near future.
Tonight (Saturday) Thavorn and I are joining my buddy John and his wife Fon, my buddy Arthur, and Ashley and his gf Bridget. Ashley and Bridget have been visiting S.E. Asia for the past 4 months and head home at the end of the month. The one thing Ashley has yet to do is a boy's night out in Bangkok! John, Arthur and I will rectify that tonight as we recreate hangover 2 (without the tattoos) but enhancing it somewhat.
The group is meeting at the Kiwi Bar on Soi 8 for happy about at 6pm. After an hour or so we split up. ladies to get dinner and then off to Hillary 2 on Nana for music and dance. The boys head off to the land of debauchery. You may, or may not get details on a later post, dependent on how much I remember and how much of it I can share. It could be heavily redacted :-)
It is now rainy season and the start of low season. That means the bars are not so packed and the ladies are willingly to negotiate. It is also best to go spelunking at the end of the month when the rent is due as many of the ladies are not great at planning or saving. It's a free marketplace out there :-)
Time to check for pics (shot by the kids):
Crowded in the condo
Jaidan gets a new remote vehicle
Thavorn modelling a new sleeper .. 100 baht
Jaidan eating peanut butter toast for breakfast
That is it for now .. hopefully some fun anecdotes tomorrow ..
