I’ve just experienced my first earthquake. We slept through a couple of quakes in Nagoya, but this is the first time I’ve been awake for one. I felt no movement, just heard the building creaking in a slow, swinging rhythm and what sounded like the occasional banging on a metal tank. I thought that something was going terribly wrong with the air-conditioning, because the sound was loudest in them, but the sound was also clearly coming down the wall that my computer backs against. I wondered, briefly, if it was a quake, but there was no movement and nothing outside seemed to be moving, either. I called reception and the housekeeping manager came up to say that she had just called the engineer to come and check the air-conditioning in another room. While she was with me, the news of the quake came in and reception called to let us know. 

As you can see from the map, above, the epicentre was a long way away, off the coast of Northern Sumatra, so it’s not surprising to find that the quake was huge, magnitude 8.7, since we felt it, here. That something can move the very earth so deeply that we feel it so far away, and only in the bones of a building, reminds me how flimsy our layer of cement and metal really is on the surface of this planet.

I have to admit that I’m – pardon the pun – a little shaken by the whole thing, and wondering whether my building is safe, so I feel for those living closer to the epicentre, they must be terrified. This quake was in almost exactly the same place as the 2004 earthquake, which was magnitude 9.1, and set off that terrible tsunami. I pray that the wave will not develop, this time, and that, if it does, everyone is more prepared, and will be safe.

I was recently approached by the editor of a local expat magazine to write a feature article for their April/May edition. The brief was to write something about Easter, so I quickly informed her that I am not Christian, but I am an ancient historian and I could do something on the pagan origins of many Easter traditions, if she’d like. The editor thought that it would be an interesting perspective and so I set to work, just hoping that I could find some kind of expat/Thailand angle as I went. As you’ll see, I soon found my ‘angle’, and the article became much more than just a report on the origins of Easter traditions (at least, I hope it did!)
The magazine, “In Touch”, is available only to advertisers and members of the Australia New Zealand Women’s Group, here in Thailand, so I thought I’d post the article here, since it went into print today. “Celebrating Spring!” is my first attempt at feature writing, and I must say that, compared to fiction, it felt rather like schoolwork, but I was happy with what I came up with in the end. I hope you enjoy it.

Celebrating Spring!

One of the most identifiably different things about living in another country and culture is the change in the festival calendar. When living in a Buddhist country, like Thailand, there are so many colourful festivals to enjoy and religious traditions to try to appreciate, and that is exciting, but the other side of that coin is a lack of public celebration of your own cultural traditions. Easter particularly, it seems, is a Christian holiday which has not taken off in Asia (unlike Christmas, if superficially) and I imagine that, while it would not be difficult to keep up the solemn, particularly religious elements of the Paschal Season, it must be difficult to buoy the same sense of community celebration, come Easter Sunday morning, as at home. Of course, you can make sure that you celebrate in your own home, get together with expat friends who also share your festival, but it’s not the same when, outside your home (including at work because there is no public holiday), there is little or no recognition that it is a special time – or is there?

Living in the Antipodes, where the religious calendar is not in sync with the seasons of its originating hemisphere, it is easy to forget that there is more to Easter than the Christian narrative. It is, of course, the most important religious festival for many Christians and I wish to take nothing from that, but Easter also falls upon one of the most important times in the agricultural calendar: the start of the growing season. All but the most orthodox of Christians celebrate Easter with many traditions that have their origins in Springtime celebrations going back to pre-Christian times. In fact, the English word “Easter” comes directly from “Oestre”, the Anglo-Saxon name of the pre-Christian European Goddess of Spring and fertility (whose symbol was the equilateral cross and for whom hot cross buns were originally made!) In Thailand, few locals are not directly connected to a farming family and community, even when living and working in Bangkok, so their religious festivals, though Buddhist, are still very much about praying for a good and safe growing season, just like some of our Easter traditions. If we look at the origins of many of the European Easter traditions, it is possible to see that the two festivals have much in common, and, in doing so, Christians could feel more connected to the culture in which they currently live, rather than isolated. Let’s take a look at the main, non-religious parts of the Easter festival.

Easter Eggs

All over Europe, people have long come together at Easter to decorate eggs, whether in solid colours, as in Greece, or with astonishing, intricate, batik-like patterns, as in Poland and the Ukraine. The foil-wrapped chocolate eggs that flood shops back home, seemingly earlier each year, are the descendants of these traditions. Those of us raised in Christian households, or who sat through the various Religious Instruction classes at school, were taught some variation on the following theme: eggs represent new life and, at Easter, the new life that Easter Eggs symbolize the new life brought to us all by the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. That is, of course, true for Christians, but why are eggs considered a symbol of new life in the first place? The answer to that question goes back to pre-history and is far from exclusive to Christianity.

Before artificial heating, eggs were not laid over winter, it was just too cold, and the sight of egg-filled nests was a symbol that the Earth was warm enough to begin nurturing new life again. If it was warm enough for eggs, especially for ground-laid eggs, the ground was soft enough to till and would soon be warm enough for seeds to germinate. The laying of eggs was a direct indication that the dangerous Winter was over, and the fields would soon be filled with food for the coming year – certainly something to celebrate and celebrate they did, with a feast of eggs!

The Easter Bunny & the Egg Hunt

Now that we know what the eggs are about, what about the Easter Bunny? What on Earth does a rabbit have to do with eggs? To be honest, rabbits have nothing to do with it – the Easter Bunny is actually a hare.

Unlike rabbits, hares do not burrow. Hares build ‘forms’, a shallow depression in the ground or flattened grass which looks much like a bird’s nest. People walking the moors would often see the weather-hardy hares sleeping in their forms, but then, come Spring, the forms would be filled with eggs. Perhaps because people were not quite so sure of biology, or perhaps it was a story which delighted children, but the legend grew that hares laid eggs. Of course the truth, of which I tend to think the adults were fully aware, was that ground-laying birds, particularly the Lapwing (also known as the Plover), make their ground nests out of similar shallow depressions and grass, in the same moor-country that hares inhabit. Often, a Lapwing will simply move into a ‘vacant’ hare’s nest to lay their eggs and the very nest that may have been occupied by a hare one day, could be filled with eggs the next. You can see where it is likely the Easter Egg hunt originated. The only way to harvest these eggs was to, carefully, wander the fields, looking under clumps of blown over grasses for eggs in the nests.

Since Plovers only lay in Spring, their eggs were a traditional Spring celebration food for millennia. Unfortunately for the Plover/Lapwing, their eggs are particularly rich and delicious so they were also Easter delicacies for anyone who could afford to send for them. After Queen Victoria took a public liking to the delicacy, and Mrs. Beaton provided plover’s eggs recipes for inclusion in the traditional Easter menu, the harvesting of the eggs became commercial on a scale such that Lapwings became in danger of extinction. In 1926, the Lapwing Act was passed prohibiting such commercial harvests and helped to increase numbers again, briefly. Today, Lapwing numbers are still low, and declining each year, but mostly due to modern farming practices which deny them their traditional habitat.

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning is a tradition most of us will know, which comes from our cold-weather roots. After the snowy months, during which opening the house to the cold air for long was dangerous, Spring brought a chance to clean and air out the house. Even though Australian Winters are milder than European ones, we still feel the bubble of excitement that the warmer weather brings, and respond to the urge to open the house that has been heater-warmed for the Winter months, clean it up and air it out.

People ‘of the Book’, undertake spiritual Spring Cleanings, too. Many Christians participate in Lent in the weeks leading up to Easter, in which they forego one or more activities or foods which are considered unhealthy, unclean or sinful. During the remembrance of Passover, observant Jews refrain from ingesting leavened foods (chametz) and must also clean their house of them, so the house is cleaned and there is often a “chametz hunt” (parents hide crumbs and children hunt for them), the night before Passover begins.

Songkran

Here in Thailand, the ground does not freeze under snow, but the Flood Season is often dangerous and it is certainly a fallow time. At Songkran, Thais celebrate the end of the Flood Season and the beginning of the farming New Year. The soil is dry enough to be planted again, and water becomes a friend, not a foe. They can take control of the water and revel in it by having water fights, in a joyous, community prayer that Summer will not be too harsh or too dry, so that the crops will grow and their families and community will thrive. Thailand also has a Spring Cleaning to mark their traditional New Year. The day, or days before Songkran begins, Thais clean out their houses, which have been through the often devastating Flood Season, and burn the refuse in a rite of renewal and spiritual purification before the water fight fun begins!

Of course, Easter and Songkran have very different religious narratives but, beyond those, the festivals are both joyous celebrations of the re-birth of the growing year as the earth warms up in Europe, dries up in South East Asia and is once again capable of nurturing new life. Perhaps, rather than feeling more isolated during our own traditional festive times, those of us from European traditions (whether religious or secularly inclined) can look to the local festivals and join in whole-heartedly, knowing that reliance on the Earth and its bounty is something which unites us all. Happy Springtime!

** Image Credit: ‘Hare’ by Bill Worthington, from ‘The Druid Animal Oracle’ by Phillip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is an odd book which is kind of a stream of consciousness rant about the ways in which an artist struggles with what the author calls “Resistance.” That in itself is not odd, there are many books on ‘the writer’s journey’ but this one reads as though it has been written by someone who is on, then off his lithium (or cocaine, whatever the cause may be.) The whole thing is a rant, sometimes it’s an enthusiastic, insightful rant and sometimes it’s just a manic bitch rant (people who are sick, or who put attending the birth of their child above their art are simply giving in to resistance) and sometimes it’s just straight out spiritual/religious mish-mash-whackadoo (and I put ‘mystic agnosticism’ on the census as my religion, so I can handle a high level of spiritual mish-mash.)

The best way to approach this book is probably to think of it as an editorial – it’s just a guy with a bunch of opinions about why a true artist takes his art seriously. If you’re pining for someone to tell you that it’s okay to ignore the world, your loved ones etc… while you work, then this is the book for you (personally, though I don’t know what on earth you’re going to write about if you avoid the world as completely as he seems to suggest.) The other warning about the book is not to expect anything on how to actually achieve this resistance to Resistance. Yes, he mentions over and again, sitting down to it every day but that’s hardly new advice though the angels and God and muses just arriving is not something I’ve heard expressed in quite that way before.

As I said. Odd.

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Maybe I’m cheating a little because, as I watched it today, I remembered how much it tugged at my heart when I first discovered it and Levni Yilmaz’s other morsels of human insight, early last year, and I realised that I’m already a step away from that person. Of course, getting to the point where watching this with merely a nostalgic chuckle is a multi-year project, in itself, so maybe I’m not cheating that much.

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.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a beautifully detailed portrait of a young love and marriage, corrupted by both the selfishness of a man and his mistress but also by every person, including his wife, who felt that somehow his genius, his work meant that different rules applied. As “bohemian” as those in Paris were attempting to be, Hemingway and Hadley made very traditional, formal vows and, thus, he should have been held to them. In fact, in not holding him to adult standards, they ignored a man in great need of help and they share in responsibility for his suffering and his suicide.

The Paris Wife is, of course, also the story of the beginning of a second marriage and the picture that McLain draws of Pauline, from Hadley’s point of view is brilliant. Pauline is one of those limpet-women, who insinuate themselves into the company of the men to whom they wish to attach themselves, so that by the time they have their suckers in, it is she who appears to be the victim if anybody suggests she does not belong. Perhaps women like that might read a novel like this and, assuming they even see themselves in Pauline, experience a little of what they do to the women upon whose men they set their sights.

Lastly, I’d like to comment upon the declarations by many in the book, even Hadley, that “his work” was worth all the suffering he experienced and caused. Such sentiments are understandable, but I hope that they are not serious and rather an attempt to alleviate the guilt and helplessness of not being able to know what was wrong and to help him. Being bi-polar myself, when I hear “it was all worth it because he was a writer of a generation” I hear only cruel romanticism and a total lack of understanding.

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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

I can’t think of a better way to honour him than to re-circulate one of his articles which sought to shine light upon the showboating of a pope, the hypocrisy of his money-grubbing, brain-washing institution and the dangerous, anti-women, pro-poverty fanaticism of “Mother Teresa of Calcutta”, all of which culminated in the farce of her “beatification”.

If after reading the linked article you want to dismiss it as wrong for logical, definable, reasons, that is your right — in fact, post your proofs in the comments. If your instinct is to dismiss it as wrong before you’ve even read it then at least know, just privately for yourself, that you might be one of the brain-washed and read it to prove that you aren’t. If you really can’t bring yourself to read it because it makes you angry to even think that an article exists that might express the sentiments above, then I hope that being confronted with the fact that you don’t even have the free will to read an article which might question your beliefs will at least niggle at you and, eventually, set you free.

I was a rebel for National Novel Writing Month, this year, albeit a tame one. Instead of starting a new novel, I used NaNo as an excuse/permission to put away a draft which was becoming a spaghetti bowl of potential plot threads and spend a month simply writing from the start again, knowing my characters and their situation but otherwise just seeing how the story played itself out, intuitively.   I thought it might be easier, knowing the characters and important story beats as I did, this time, but I found it much harder. Not only did I miss the wonderful support of my neighbour, Toni, in Sydney, but doing a re-write put a lot more pressure on me than the almost ‘free association” writing the NaNo concept encourages. I also found myself back pedalling and editing as I went, more, because I wanted to come out with as many usable words for my After Africa alpha draft* as possible, and I think I achieved that. Nevertheless I got the 50k done, have a new opening which is structurally more sound and gets us to the ‘bad guy’ faster, so I’m satisfied.

As with last year, I’m going to try to keep this momentum going beyond November because my aim is getting the alpha draft done, not winning NaNo, so posts should be fairly scarce through December, as well. For now, though, I’m going to go and have a rest because it seems my new medication’s “may cause drowsiness” warning should actually read “may cause drowsiness all through the next day, too!”  

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

I have just posted this on The StoryCraft Blog and, since hosting  #storycraft has been such a big part of my life these last 18 months (often my only regular appointment for the week,) I think it’s significant enough to post here on my personal blog, too. For those of you who have come here prompted by the invitation at the end of this post – sorry for the double-up!

As you all know, when I moved to Bangkok about 2 months ago, the old #storycraft time became around 4a.m. for me (depending on US DST) so I moved the chat to 10pm Bangkok time, which was about 11a.m. Sunday, New York Time.  After a good 6 weeks, those of you who have been managing to get to this new time won’t deny that it’s proving to be too early in North America to get enough people together for a fast flowing, idea-inspiring #storycraft.  I’ve tried to will the time zones to work in some better way but, alas, I don’t have such god-like power and I have had to admit that I have moved to the very worst time zone from which to host a tweetchat.

I am too fond & too proud of #storycraft and its community to let the chat die because of my time zone so I have faced the fact that, if the time can’t move then the host will have to change.

I have asked the lovely Kim Koning  (@AuthorKimKoning), an original #storycraft regular, who lives in New Zealand, if she would take over hosting #storycraft at the old time (3pm Sunday, US Pacific)and she has very kindly agreed to do so, starting next week.

Kim & I have similar sensibilities when it comes to the craft (we are both ‘hybrid’ pantster-planners) and agree on why a chat without ‘biz’ talk is valuable. She has a background in journalism, so her communication and editing skills are strong and she writes fiction so she understands what “my characters keep me awake at night” means and won’t be suggesting anyone needs to see a psychologist! Kim also shares my strong beliefs regarding no self-promotion during the chat and has a tougher skin than I (I feel horrible for hours after I’ve had to come down on even the worst troll) so will be able to keep those who are only interested in self-promo away from the chat at least as well as I have. I have every confidence that she will be a great host and I’m a little jealous of you all that you’ll get to participate!

When I announced this change on this week’s #Storycraft, I was asked if I will be participating at all. As Kim put it in a tweet last night, #storycraft will still be “@Danisidhe’s baby” – first and foremost because asking someone to take over the whole thing would be asking too much but also because, at this stage, Kim can only commit until February, so I’ll be looking for other solutions after that. Of course, I also don’t want to pull out entirely – I’m not doing this because I want to – but I will be leaving Kim sole control when it comes to hosting and chat topics because trying to host a topic imposed by someone else is just too difficult. Of course I’ll be supporting Kim in any way she needs and I’ll still be webmaster, so I’ll see the transcripts as I pull them each week & I might comment on the blog or Facebook between chats. Kim and I are both admins on the Facebook Page and Group, so we’ll both participate there, too. As to the chats themselves, if I am up at 4a.m. on Monday mornings, I’ll definitely pop in to participate because I’m going to miss everyone, but I hope that that will be rare because that would mean my insomnia is back!

There will be a period of rebuilding as the chat moves back to its old time and I hope that as many of you as possible will return to help Kim make that transition. Kim will be using her own account: @AuthorKimKoning, not @Story_Craft to host, so anything from @Story_Craft (or @Danisidhe), you’ll know is me Do follow @AuthorKimKoning and Kim’s Facebook page for updates, as well as The StoryCraft Blog for transcripts and other communications from both Kim and I.

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful chats I’ve been lucky enough to host over the last 18months, I hope to see you all around the #storycraft interwebs very soon. If you’d like to keep up with me outside of #storycraft, do come say ‘Hi’ over at my personal blog: Narrative Disorder and/or on Facebook.

As always,
Happy Writing!
Danielle
@Story_Craft/@Danisidhe

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.