There were many more that we could see in the far distance around the city (watch the horizon carefully in the video below) but it wasn’t the twinkling lights which struck me most – it was the sound!  I couldn’t help but think that this must be at least close to what it is like being in a city being bombarded – especially when the big ones were set off and the whole building throbbed. I went out on the balcony and recorded this video to try to capture the sheer noise of it. The video is not visually interesting but it goes a little way to getting it across.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that this kind of service is part of the person’s job and I can handle a certain level of it by reminding myself that I worked my way through much of Uni as a nanny but it’s not quite the same – for one thing, I called my employer ‘Tanya’ not ‘Madame’.  I also remind myself that if I have said “Mai Pen Rai” (it’s doesn’t matter, it’s okay) with a smile and insisted on carrying my own shopping to the door of the store, and the shop assistant’s manager then sees me doing so, said shop assistant may get into trouble. So, I am learning to accept a certain elevated level of service while always smiling, returning the Wai as much as I can and using as much Thai as I can. The thing is, I see so many Westerners who have become accustomed to this service, and treat those who provide it as beneath them, or even simply not worth acknowledging at all and I don’t want to become that person. It’s a balancing act.

Sometimes, getting that balance right can be tricky. Take this evening, for example.

For several weeks, I have been looking to buy an easel – a good sturdy one to work on, not just a display easel – and I’ve been back and forth to one of the malls looking at them and finding it very hard to find anyone in that part of the store to help me out. Because I’ve been ill, I’ve been going on the weekend when we need to find over-time for Superman’s driver (finally he calls me Khun Dani instead of “Madame”, or his original “Mrs Boss”** – yay! lol) but today I felt strong so I went out by BTS (Skytrain), ready to order the easel and have it delivered some time in a week or so. Note that the reason I’ve told you this is to emphasise that I had no car at my disposal.

I get to the shopping centre,  find the easel and find some help almost immediately, all is going well. The shop assistant takes me to the gift wrap lady who speaks better English and we start discussing delivery. They speak Thai to each other, Gift Wrap lady speaks English to me, asking for address and times and so on. At some point I start to suspect that they are discussing delivery by the shop assistant herself. Obviously I can’t be sure because they are speaking Thai very fast but when the shop assistant gives me her mobile number (her name is An, it seems) and the word “TukTuk” is used I’m pretty sure. You see, often when you ask for something in Thailand, they won’t tell you if it is not available, they will simply try to make it happen – and it seemed that there was no sort of official delivery for this easel. I immediately understood why the girl had looked askance when I’d replied “Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon” when asked for a delivery time – she would be working then!

So, I looked at the easel and assessed it. It’s big but it folds down to about the width of a car and flattish so I asked if I could just take the floor stock and said I would get a taxi. They were fine with my taking the one in stock but did not think it would fit in a taxi, a tuk tuk would be better! We went back and forth and finally I said I’ll try a taxi and if not, I promised An I would try a Tuk Tuk. She seemed satisfied with that. Okay. Guilt gone. Taking it home myself. I try to pick it up and immediately An (who is at least a foot shorter than me) says “No. Madame. One minute” and I realize someone is coming to help. Some big strapping lad, no doubt.

So, the two tiny Thai women take one end each of this easel and say “Pay taxi”, which means “go taxi’”, and I think “Okay, as long as she’s not taking time off work to bring it to me in a tuk tuk, I’ll let them help me to the taxi rank” which wasn’t far from where we were. At least the one I knew wasn’t, but we weren’t going to that one. We weren’t going through the shopping centre, we were going through the car park, then winding our way down the up ramp, stopping and flattening ourselves and the easel against the wall when trucks went by. All the while I’m trying desperately not to have a giggle fit because the two women are having an argument about whether the easel will fit in a taxi or a tuk tuk and the tuk tuk is winning.

When, at last, we reached the road, it was not the road I was expecting, nor was the traffic going in the direction of my building but An had everything under control (she also had the rest of my shopping by now) and motioned for me to stand in place while she flagged down a tuk tuk. Just the thought of me in a tuk tuk, with my easel sticking out the back made me both giggle and want to do it but, before a tuk tuk could be found, the other assistant had flagged down a taxi and was determinedly proving that the easel could, in fact, fit on the back seat lengthways. An looked deflated but shrugged and nodded her defeat. I made preparations to Wai them goodbye but of course, “Madame” must have the front door of the taxi opened for her and the taxi hadn’t pulled all the way over so I obediently got into the car, all of us giggling away. All of us. Giggling. In the car.

All of us.

The two tiny Thai girls had folded themselves into the back with easel. They took out the card I had given them which had my address in Thai and they proceeded to give the taxi driver directions, at which point the driver turned to me and, in perfect English, asked “Is that the building with the Longtable Restaurant?” This brought squeals of “Phuut Phasaat Angkrit!” (he speaks English) and more squeals when I said “Chai dii maak ka” (Yes very well) and the rest of the 30 minutes journey was passed discussing how he had learned his English (just from passengers) and whether the girls should upgrade their iPhones to the Galaxy SII, with the taxi driver translating as necessary.

When we parted ways outside our building, I made sure to give the driver enough money to take them back to their work shift which was still going and I gave them tips which should allow them to have a good meal, you know in case they got fired when they got back.

*I’m sure there are other nationalities who have similar struggles but I don’t have enough experience to make such sweeping statements about them – Aussies and Kiwis, in general, are egalitarian at heart and the borderline (often over it) obsequiousness here can make us uncomfortable.

**Yes that does mean Superman is called Boss on a daily basis

Anonymous Car Concern has put the families of ICTs on notice that we might be requested to co-operate with being required to voluntarily temporarily repatriate, should the situation become more uncertain. (I’m not making up that language…) Seriously, though, apparently the waters are finally making their way into the city. The ‘levees’ I was hearing about being built so quickly in mid October, appear now to have been made of sandbags (interesting tactic for handling something which happens every year, one way or another, but oh well.) From what I can tell, while they are holding, it seems the water is seeping through the sandbags but that this is by design – they were only meant/expected to slow the waters down rather than stop or divert them.

If anyone really becomes concerned and you are looking up maps etc.… officially we are in an area which is considered to be a possible flood risk, “Klongtoei” sometimes spelled “Klong Toey”, but we are on the furthest, Eastern edge of it, away from the river and very close to the areas which they believe will not flood. As has always been the case, the main problems we are likely to face, if any, is a worsening of the supply situation, which we are already experiencing in supermarkets, and any crisis which might arise if some infrastructure loses the battle with the water.

As to the voluntary repatriation (of which 109 family members have apparently already taken advantage) I’ve told Superman to tell them that I’m not repatriating unless he does – if it’s safe for him to be here, I’m not going anywhere.

For the next few days, though, assuming the international airport doesn’t close before our flight, tomorrow, we will be right out of the whole situation, spending our 10th wedding anniversary in Hong Kong – so you can all stop worrying till late Sunday night, when we return. Of course, if the international airport closes while we’re away, then we’ll be out of it for a bit longer – we’ll let you know

If you’ve just begun the relocation process and are filling out the survey from your relocation consultants, there’s probably a question asking you which type of housing you want – when I came across this question, my response was “That’s what I was going to ask you.” If you are an ICT (Inter-Company Transferee) couple that has children, your answer could simply be ‘house’ and you might choose/have the budget to live in one of the green, gated, outer suburbs of Bangkok, where some wealthy Thais, but mostly expats, live in white houses, amidst manicured lawns. Without the extra budget or motivation for yard space that comes with having children, though, you are more likely to do what the rest of us do: rent an apartment in a condominium, serviced apartment building or “apart-hotel” in downtown Bangkok – and your relocation agent will ask you which one you want. So, here’s my understanding based on what I learned while we were home-hunting, and a few things since we arrived (a whopping month ago) to help you out.

Condominiums

Condo apartments are apartments in buildings in which each apartment may be individually owned and may or may not be rented. Condos can be larger than apartments in the other building types but have little to no service, the attitude/quality of support from property managers are as much of an unknown quantity as they are anywhere and not all of the apartments will be rented, so condo dwellers are very much tenants rather than ‘guests’. This may be attractive if you’d rather either do your own housekeeping, or hire your own staff because in most serviced apartments, and definitely in the hotels, you will have little control over who cleans your house, and when. It is illegal for non-Thais to own land but they can own property on the land, so many condos are owned by expats and your neighbours, or your landlord may be expats – for what it’s worth.

Also, you might think that if you don’t care about having housekeeping you could get some more space for the same, or even less, money than a serviced building but it’s not necessarily so. Because condo apartments are mostly individually rented out, your relocation agent won’t be able to negotiate a special price based on the many ICTs that your company might bring to the building (this also applies to the smaller serviced apartment buildings.) If you are being transferred by a company with a small presence in Thailand then a condo might be cheaper per square inch than a serviced building, but I cannot speak to that, as Anonymous Car Concern is far from a small company.

Serviced Apartment Buildings

Serviced apartment buildings offer apartments that are, we found, usually, a little larger than in apart-hotels – the ones we saw had larger kitchens and they were the only apartments in which we saw any gas stoves. A serviced apartment will be partly to fully furnished and you can request for furniture to be removed or rearranged if you want to bring your own. Serviced apartments provide housekeeping a few times a week (on average, more is negotiable) and varying other services, depending on the building. Like hotels, many will have shuttles to the nearest BTS station or shopping complex, if it’s not within walking distance. All residents in a serviced apartment building are medium to long-term, usually from companies that the building managers would like to ‘keep sweet’ for future business, so residents are valued tenants, treated more like guests and will, potentially, be more stable neighbours than you will get in an apart-hotel. 

“Apart-Hotels”

An “apart-hotel” is an apartment in an hotel with a varying number of self-contained rooms (i.e., with small kitchens) in which they are happy to take medium to longer term guests (from what I gather, mostly with an agreement with a company who brings many ICTs through the city.) Hotel rooms are, of course, fully furnished but all of the hotels we were shown were happy to move or completely remove furniture (and furnishings) to accommodate any of our own furniture that we wanted to bring or buy (in our case, desks, desk chairs and bookshelves.) In an hotel, the rooms are mostly going to be smaller than the other types (bedrooms particularly, living areas seem to be large.) Of course, to be attractive to tourists without cars, hotels are often in locations which are closer to transport and/or entertainment/restaurants. Hotel housekeeping is likely to be every day (which can be great in some ways but challenging if one is used to one’s privacy) and all the usual hotel services are available: room service; laundry; concierge etc.… 

A few points on transport and location:

• If the place you’re looking at has a shuttle to the nearest station or shopping centre, check the timetable to make sure that it goes both ways – many shuttles are at your service at any time from a building but do not have a regular round so you cannot be picked up to go back.
• We find being walking distance to the BTS (Sky Train) and/or MRT (subway) be VERY handy. The trains of both kinds are clean and safe (the  MRT stations are cool on a hot day, too) and can get you at least a short taxi ride to anywhere.
• On the matter of short taxi rides, consider how far away your building is from places you may need to get a taxi (if only in the rain.) Taxi drivers prefer short trips – very short ones. We have seen many people – expat and Thai – rejected by a driver because their destination will take him too far away from good fairs, or from his base, especially on rainy nights when everyone wants a taxi.

So, that’s the basics that I found to be the most important while we were house hunting and as I look back, now that we’re here. Which apartment type you choose will depend on lots of factors but I hope this little summary helps.

The first, and still funniest, was during the orientation visit. I was filling in the form for some laundry to be done while we were out home-hunting, and was using the last laundry bag, so I wrote on the bag: “May we please also have 2 more laundry bags? Thank you.” For those who have read my writing and think they already know the problem, I assure you that I printed it very carefully and legibly. When we returned to the hotel that evening, we found our laundry done but our King size bed had been replaced by two single beds, pushed together. After checking the closets to make sure we were in the right room, I rang down (already giggling slightly, because the situation alone was funny enough) and was told it was a misunderstanding due to something written on the laundry bag. I asked our relocation agent, who speaks English fluently, what it was about the sentence that caused the mistranslation, and she couldn’t work it out – even after she stopped laughing.

The latest example came up in the gym, today – this time the English was not supplied by me, and the ‘mistranlsation’ was probably simply a matter of taking it too literally, but I managed to get this one in pictures, so I thought I’d post it. First, here is a warning notice on a, rather odd looking, piece of equipment in the gym, downstairs – do read the whole thing, it’s worth it.

Now here is a picture of the piece of equipment, itself – notice anything?

I’m sure you’ll have noticed the actual stepladder provided (it is high but the video on the equipment site does not show the models using one) but do you see the little black thing on the window sill, in the background? Yup, that’s a bicycle lock.

Those of you who read my previous post “What would your air shipment say about you”, or  have moved abroad will know that, often, when you move, you are given an allowance for a small air shipment to transport the things you feel you can’t live without, for the 6+ weeks it takes the Sea Shipment to arrive. The air shipment to Thailand, we were told, takes up to 15 days, depending on processing. 

Today was day 15.

At this point, those of you who have done the moving to Thailand thing will know what’s coming and be laughing, I hope fondly, at my frustration, so I want to say one thing first: when we moved to Japan EVERYONE told us to expect our shipments to be late – and they weren’t. Air was estimated at 7 days and arrived on day 7. Sea was estimated at 4-6 weeks and arrived well before the 6 weeks was up. So, as per usual, Japan had set the bar high.

Back to Thailand:  Being the 15th day, I called Allied Pickfords to see if there was any date we could be expecting our computers and the rest of my project notes, so I can get back to my WIP (I did actually just say “air shipment” but that was what I was thinking.)

Answer: It hasn’t left Sydney yet.

Reaction:  —

Question: Why?

Answer: Superman doesn’t have a long term work permit yet.

Reaction: —

Question: He won’t for another 6 weeks, at least, are you saying you can’t ship them till then?

Answer:  –  Yes.

The thing is, I do actually understand – bureaucracy is bureaucracy – it’s almost always a long, annoying process, whatever country you are dealing with so I wouldn’t have been upset IF someone had mentioned AT ANY POINT BEFORE DAY 15 anything OTHER THAN: "The air shipment will take 15 days." Leaving us expecting to receive goods which will start to make this hotel room a home and not telling us that, in fact, they haven’t even left Australia – THAT is NOT okay, in fact it’s borderline cruel. What is more, that lack of communication has nothing to do with Thai bureaucracy, it’s straight customer service, from either side.

To make sure I’m being fair, considering I’ve mentioned the company’s name (which has been fantastic, so far),it was pointed out that Superman had been asked to supply his short term visa and the long term one when it came – apparently he should have realised from that what the situation was. Well. No. See, he doesn’t spend all day dealing with Thai import law. He’s been a tad busy with a major IT project for a major car company to make himself aware of the subtleties of Thai goods importation. He did make an assumption that the short term one would suffice as the goods were shipped and that the goods might sit on a wharf in Thailand for a while until his long-term visa came through but it would only be a matter of a week or so if the shipping took 6 weeks. What’s really important, though, is that he was only guessing because there was no communication about what was actually happening.

And here’s the kicker: that final “Yes” answer, above, turns out, with some probing, to actually be: “Not necessarily, but it’s for your own good.”

It seems that the hold-up is that importing goods on a long term visa attracts less tax on those goods (yes, your own, second-hand goods which you won’t be selling to anyone) than a short term visa (possibly the long term visa makes you exempt entirely, but I’m not sure – I’ll try to update.) So, Allied Pickfords are trying to do the right thing by us and save us money – and maybe it’s a lot of money, maybe too much money but, I’d have preferred that they offer us the choice.

Here’s where “it’s the little things” comes in – it’s not a reference to the goods at all, but to Choice. It’s not genius to observe that the lack of choice, and therefore control, is the source of so much expat-spouse malaise. Making decisions, however small or inevitable they might seem to others, is all we really have in this life. Our decisions about how to handle whatever comes our way – be it poverty or great fortune – make us who we are. And, yes, I know how lucky we are to live this life, and I am grateful for it everyday, especially considering where I came from, but it’s no “white whine” to observe that when you take away a person’s choices, when you make decisions for them, no matter how well intentioned or well aligned with the choices they would have made, you are taking away their humanity – or, at the very least, signalling to them that you have no respect for it.  For expat spouses, a group of people who have, for the most part, already given up what Western society uses to define a person – work – taking away even the little choices is no small thing.

One of the first things I did when I found out we were moving to Bangkok was look up the power options. Finding the voltage was pretty easy: it’s 220 (so Europe, UK, Australia, NZ appliances do not need transformers to run, but the US, Japan and anyone on 100-110 will)  but which plugs were available was not so easy. Sure, I found the charts which told me that plug types A and C were used in Thailand and that meant the two pronged round ones, like in Europe and the two prong straight ones like in the US and Japan, but all I really wanted was this:

I did, eventually find photos like this on a couple of sites but they were described as “universal” and I didn’t take a good look so we were a little disappointed when we got here, because they ain’t universal y’all – they won’t take the enormous British plugs, nor the daintier, angled ANZAC ones (spot the pun .) It’s not a big problem, though, because there are lots and lots of genuinely universal adaptors available, including power boards from 3 to 6 plugs and cost from 200 – 500baht (at the more expansive stores).

If you use the British or Australian type sockets, here’s what to look for in a truly universal socket:

The second circle in the middle and the extra dips in the top two holes accommodate the Australian plug and while the extra width of the top two holes and the bottom hole accommodates the British plug (obviously the bottom holes being for grounding third prongs, in any type.)

One of the other things you will notice if you are from countries which don’t just have constantly live sockets on their walls (as our friends from the States pointed out to us in Sydney) there are no switches on the Bangkok power outlets, to turn them off. Now, I’m sure that if I’d grown up with that, it would be fine, but it kind of freaks me out – especially in the bathroom – so I was happy to find both power-boards and single adaptors which had switches for each outlet.

The beauty of the power-boards having these switches  is that they also create more space between each socket, so that you can use plugs with large transformers on them (like for your notebook, or phone charger) and you don’t have to waste a plug between. Even if you have one of those appliances which, for some reason, has a plug set on an angle, there is still space for a normal sized plug beside it (though the switch will need to be left on, in this case.)

The stores you want to get your relocation agent to take you to find these are either “PowerMall” which are in the big “Department Stores” (which is what the Thais call a mall) there is one on the 5th floor of Emporium (cnr Sukhumvit road and Soi 24) and another in Siam Paragon, or, the cheaper option is any of the HomePro stores (if you go out to the big one outside Bangkok, you can pretty much get everything you need to build your own house and furnish it there!)

So you know what you are looking for, here are some packaged pics:

These are the ones we got from PowerMall this three plug cost 266 baht – slightly more expensive than ones you’d get at HomePro but nice and solid (and they will exchange them any time if there are problems):

These are some available at HomePro, I didn’t get prices, sorry, but they were all cheaper than at PowerMall (I’ve no idea how the build quality felt):

Universal power-board with switches and Universal Long Lead

Plain A&C Grounded Power-Board and a roll-up long lead with 3 A&C ungrounded plugs with one switch for all.

So there you go, when deciding what to bring the answer is that any plug can be accommodated, you just need to make sure that anything not running on 220-240volts either has a transformer brick on the power cord or you will have to buy a step-up/step-down transformer here (also available at the same stores )

Good luck!

So, what caused the culture shock? Was it the playing of the national anthem and standing to honour the King, before the show began? No, definitely not: a) we’d been told to expect that b) I was brought up with manners, so I stand for any legitimate national anthem and c) it was the first time I’d heard the Thai Anthem and it’s quite beautiful, as was the voice of the woman singing. What caused the culture shock was one of the ads before the show.

The ad came amidst the usual 30 sec soft drink and car spots and – how to put it -it didn’t exactly match the essentially shallow, “action flick” mood. Obviously, when we saw it there were no English subtitles, only Thai ones for the father’s signing (that the father is deaf is no spoiler) and when the sign for the company came up I wasn’t really watching (sniffling and trying not to sob out loud, as I was) but I hoped it was for some Deafness charity, though the logo looked more like some kind of insurance company – I assumed health.

The ad follows and is 3mins long but please do watch it – grab some tissues first, though, and be warned it’s not a tear jerker because there are ducklings and toddlers or Italian Grandmothers getting long distance phone calls.

I don’t remember any of the ads between this one and the rest, because I spent the time wondering, how far should an ad go? Does purely tugging the heart-strings work, even if it doesn’t seem to be directly relevant, or is there a point where the audience feels too manipulated (I wouldn’t buy from them – it’s just too much)? Where is “the line” in different markets – would this ad work in Australia, if it works at all? The thing is, it wasn’t till Superman found the version with the subtitles and we found out what the ad was actually advertising that I actually understood how far the ad goes – at least I think I do, because it’s pretty hard to believe – but how else does life insurance come into it? Did the hospital allow the father to die giving her his blood and so now the daughter needs his life insurance? If so, is that too far? I wonder if the companies sales went up? I wonder if it would work – or even pass the taste, or regulatory tests elsewhere.

Personally, I think it would make a great ad against bullying.

So, we are in limbo. Superman is playing what appears to be Angband on his laptop and I’m writing this terribly self –indulgent piece which is more journal entry than blog post while, in the corner of the room,  James, Jeremy and Richard re-enact the journey of the 3 wise men, only in cars rather than on camels (equally self-indulgent but far more entertaining for their audience and fun for them.)  Tomorrow, the house will be cleaned, the morning after it will be inspected and keys turned over before we head to the airport to start our next stint as international expats (instead of just interstate expats, as we have been here.) I’m looking forward to it, even excited somewhere deep down but right now I’m just too tired to feel anything that I don’t want to banish with Panadol.

When we do get to Bangkok, I will be focusing this blog on information about adjusting to living in the city, using the same principals I did in Japan: if I go looking for information on something and find that there is little that helps me, I’ll muddle my way through as best I can and then write a blog post about what I discovered, in the hopes that it will help the next person looking for similar information. I should note that my advice about life in Bangkok will be from the point of view of an expat wife in the city for a long(ish) period, not a backpacker moving through or someone scrimping on money (though not wasting it, either) so it may not suit everyone, but there is very little easily accessible advice for expat wives, while there is plenty of information for backpackers – both on the web and in heavy, print tomes in bookstores – so I feel no remorse in helping to fill that gap. Of course, there will also be the “isn’t this astonishing” posts and the odd photography, gadget geek, ink obsession and writing posts, so you’ll have to forgive a little self-indulgence amidst the expat wife help.

For now, it’s goodnight and see you on the other side of the equator, when we have arrived in what will be the 40th home of my life.

I was reminded of this, today, as I watched the movers pack up our air and sea shipments to go off to Thailand. Now, I’ve known for many years that I am more of a geek than I am a “girl”, I’ve worn the geek title proudly, but I have occasionally backed down when my geek-hood was questioned (online, of course.) Well, no more. Between my suitcase and the air shipment, the items that I have chosen not to live without include: 3 Computers of various size and power (but real ones, no iPad), an Android Tablet, a Kindle, all my camera gear, 46 fountain pens, 52 bottles of fountain pen ink … and 2 pairs of shoes. 

If you had to move overseas and you had the volume of 5 tea chests in which you had to put your most essential items, what would you put in your air shipment? What would it say about you?

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Despite the cover, this book is not for sex-tourists, it will be useful for anyone who wants a quick run-down on how not to offend Thai’s or get into trouble, but also provides a positive, enthusiastic attitude toward living, and relaxing, in Thailand. I read it while in Bangkok and found myself remembering and applying bits and pieces immediately, sometimes checking first with my Thai companions and finding that it was the right way to go. For the price, I’d definitely recommend it but perhaps hide the cover…

View all my reviews

The property we have decided upon is in Sukhumvit, where many of the expats we are already in touch with live, and is walking distance to a major Skytrain and Subway station (see photo left, the Skytrain is halfway across the bridge, it has just left the station to which we can walk.) Our building is on a street we had driven down on the first day and had stuck in my mind, because of its many little cafes, restaurants, spas and general liveliness, which is something we crave after 18months in the Sydney Suburbs! Not only is it ideally located but it’s pretty, too – dark wood floors (the soft, Japanese kind), and modern furnishings, so what little furniture we will bring will fit in well. Most importantly, after having no view even of our own street in Sydney we now have a wonderful view from every room but the best is from the living room and study – it’s the view in the photo at the top left of this post. I took the photo standing at one of the windows of what will be our living room, and the view is the same from the study – we can’t wait to see it at night!

Exhausted though we are, we are excited and we cannot thank Khun Pat, Khun Pin-Orn and Khun Pattii, from Transpo Asian Tigers , for their endless patience, flexibility and attention to our every question, concern and desire, whether apartment related, or more personal. Also a big thank you to our driver for this week, who has made driving pushing through Bangkok traffic look easy!

I will write a more detailed/helpful post about our home search experience, with tips for other expats and expat wives when we return to Sydney and I have some time.

Tomorrow will be a day of administration (hospital, bank accounts etc.…) and a little more orientation of our new area. Let’s hope we have some energy left to explore on the Saturday we have to ourselves! 

I had today to myself because the people Michael will be working with wanted him to spend a couple of days with them, and I opted to have only one day house-hunting without him (tomorrow). Thus, this morning, after checking how #storycraft had gone without me (perfectly well) and putting up the transcript, I found myself in the hotel room facing a choice: let my apprehension guide me and stay in the air-con all day, “recovering from the flight” or; pluck up some courage and get out there and see for myself whether all these dangers that I’ve allowed to fill my bucket of Thai knowledge, actually come upon me. Rain – bullet-like, tropical rain – gave me an excuse to put off a decision for a couple of hours, but I’d left a bag of carefully decanted, 100ml portions of shampoo & such at home, so when it cleared I headed out with a goal, but no particular time frame.

I didn’t take a camera on my promenade, so apologies for no pictures but I find that I feel that I’m hiding, or at least setting myself apart, when I’m taking photos and that would have defeated the purpose.

So here’s a list of things I saw and did in my few hours walking around on my first day in Bangkok.

I crossed a Bangkok street.
Okay maybe that doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it was only a two way street (not including parking lanes) but this was one of the things I was worried about – so I decided to do as often as possible on my journey toward the Skytrain station (where I assumed there would be some shops.) Here’s how the first crossing, right outside the hotel went: The traffic was solid (but moving at a good 50km – no grid lock) so I ducked in front of a tuk-tuk, which was going the right way, and waited in the middle of the road for a gap in cars doing the same but on the other side of the road, then, just as I was thinking it was something of an anti-climax, I had to dodge two motorbike-taxis which were winding between cars, just as I was (but much, much faster,) heading to park with their mates at the rank across from the hotel. Perfect – tuk-tuks moto-taxis, trucks and cars all navigated – check!

Saw why some have called Thai electricity scary.
The wires that are strung between poles sag, some of them so much so that Superman would have to duck if he were walking on that part of the footpath, and the wires at intersections criss cross each other in a way that makes me want to spend some time with my Engineer father in-law (does he get to be Jor-El, in my silly anonymity game? Except if he’s also Batman’s Dad, then he’s dead… sorry) so that he can explain to me why they don’t spark each other and start fires. Did you notice that I said, “the wires that are strung between poles”? Well, some aren’t, they are sort of coiled in the way one coils an extension cord, and hung on hooks on the poles, with their ends either going back to the top to become part of the string again, or just hanging free. There will be photos.

I saw and smelled my first street food.
Boy did it smell good!? (I NEED a font with an interrobang) I’m not going to risk street food this trip, we’ve been told to ease our stomachs into that (and mine is so damned fragile) but I’m looking forward to it when we are living here.

Walked ON a Bangkok road with the traffic
Maybe this is another ‘so what?’ but this is all about addressing how wimpy I’d become in the past few weeks, and remember? So this felt like an achievement, because I could have crossed to the other side, where there was a footpath. Basically, there was a large block boarded off for building and the boards enclosed the footpath, a string of street food vendors had set themselves up in the parking lane, so the only place to walk was with the traffic. Moto-taxis were riding right up to the vendors and buying food, so I thought for a second that maybe it wasn’t a place for walking but then I thought: I’m a great big white woman wearing an enormous, cerise* shirt, I might as well BE a traffic cone, no-one’s going to hit me.  A couple of moto-taxis swerved in front of me rather close, but they knew what they were doing.

Discovered that there is something called “Visitor’s Gold”
“Vistor’s Gold” gives you 5% off when purchasing some items, thus reducing the 7%VAT to 2%. I assume it’s some kind of ‘duty free’, which I’ve never quite understood, and I don’t really care about such things but the writer in me grinned at the image of doubloons for visitors. For those who are interested, it was applied on a purchase moisturiser at Clinique but not at Boots (a chemist), so I don’t know what it applies to – though I do know that even without it, the moisturizer was cheaper than it was at Duty Free at Sydney airport.

I found a shampoo that works for me!
For those of you yawning, this one is for Augusta and anyone who has lived in Japan and found it impossible to get shampoo that doesn’t stick your hair to your head (I mean literally, some of them stuck my hand to my head!) I wonder if the Thai women don’t die their hair as much? /shrug.

Some things I learned today:

• If you stand still for even a moment, a taxi, tuk-tuk, or moto-taxi driver will slow to offer you a lift but not in an aggressive away at all, just hopeful and when you smile and shake your head, they just wave, or nod, or smile and go on – maipenrai, I guess.
• The advice to watch were you walk, and especially to avoid walking on man-holes and other such covered openings on the ground is advice that the Thai’s, too, take. I saw many people carefully stepping aside and even waiting their turn rather than step on the kinds of cement hole covers that we’d happily walk over in Australia.
• This is the big one as I was approaching the hotel on my way back, I realised I was quite enjoying the weather. Yes, it was hot and muggy and, yes, I was hot and “glowing” but not through clothes or anything, it actually just felt like a nice, balmy day. Even my asthma was fine. I think the trick was that it was still overcast, had the Sun seared its way through the cloud layer, I’d have been miserable, as I was during the Japanese Summer, but despite it being a very wet heat, I found it was actually a little like walking through silk.

So, that was my day and, I hope, the end of my apprehension and the beginning of the honeymoon part of the culture shock cycle. I’d particularly like to thank Tim and Margaret at ICC (no anonymity, here, they deserve a plug because helping expats is exactly the work they do and boy do I appreciate them even more, now) and Mark Willis (who also deserves a plug for the work he does, but selling diamonds isn’t exactly relevant to soothing the mind of a distraught woma- hmm, then again…) each of whom took the time to help me out in different ways, with the assurance of future support, personal enthusiasm for Bangkok and even talking me off the “I’m going to go back to Melbourne and make audiobooks, instead” ledge.

*Re: the cerise shirt: any linen was hard to find in Sydney in Winter – don’t judge me!