20100815 - Hosting Guests (and a short tour of Bangkok)

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. Benjamin Franklin

Now, Ben Franklin didn't have refrigeration, so we'll cut him some slack. What I've found to be helpful in hosting guests is to start asking questions from the second you know they are coming. What one person expects from a trip to Bangkok certainly doesn't align with another person's expectations. Anyone who is smart enough to avoid package tours which tout the highlights of Bangkok probably has something in mind, and it is much better to understand that desire than to have it surprise you. This might not seem like rocket science, but trust me, not many people think this through.

For example, we've had 2 sets of visitors pass through here recently and neither of them wanted to see the Grand Palace or Wat Pho, Wat Arun, etc., etc. These are all major highlights of Bangkok, but in both cases, these were not destinations that would have made sense for our guests.

I could make a fancy matrix based on age, whether children are present, religion, etc., but in general, here are a couple of things to think about when visiting Bangkok (or anywhere, really).

1. How much time do you have?

This might seem obvious, but it's the first thing to think about (even before you ask the #2 question "where should we go?"). In bangkok, if you only have 2 days, then I'd say that you absolutely need to go to the Grand Palace, preferably by water taxi from Saphin Taksin, Jim Thompson House, sample the street food, and if you don't have children, catch the sunset at one of the Skybars, then hit the Suan Lum night bazaar. if you have another day, then add in Chatuchuk weekend market, and hang out at MBK and Siam Paragon malls (just to see how much the Thais love consumerism). 4 days gets a little tricky, as you could easily head up to Kanchanaburi for an overnight adventure, but that really depends on how ambitious one is. The other complicating factor is children. actually, it's not complicating, as traveling in Thailand (or most of asia for that matter) with children is SUPER easy. With kids, I'd definitely add in the Red Cross Snake farm, as it's a great show, and you will also learn a ton. If you are in your 20s and you don't give a crap about the buddhism stuff, then just spend your weekend on Sukhumvit... the party never stops.

2. Where should you go?

This really depends on how much time you have and really gets into the important questions: #3

3. What interests you?

I've got a single friend who couldn't give a crap about temples, so i would never say that he should go, even though it's a uniquely Thai experience, and learning about Thai buddhism is pretty interesting. he likes bars, so we go to bars. same goes for my friend Dietmar, who is married and has 2 little girls. temples are mildly interesting, but by noon, the girls are fried, so they just want a pool to relax in. So, the important thing is to remember that no matter what the lonely Planet tells you in interesting... if you don't inherently care, then you're not going to have a good time.

4. How much money do you want to spend?

I can have a lot of fun at a 2 starred michelin restaurant, or i can take that money and spend a week camping.

20100726 - Hong Kong

I feel that while there are many cities in the world that hold universal appeal, there are only 5 major ones that are set in a marine environment with stark contrasting mountains, a positive, energetic environment, great food and tons to do. San Francisco, Vancouver, Cape Town, Rio and Hong Kong.

A 2 hour 45 minute flight from Bangkok, Hong Kong is accessible (if only in distance). Hong Kong has tons to offer, from great food (dimsum), shopping (the malls are out of control) and sights (Victoria Peak, Kowloon, etc.). What a lot of people don't realize is that Hong Kong has some amazing natural sights as well, with great mountain biking and hiking trails just a short trip away on several outlying islands.

our whole point of going was to visit good friends who were passing through asia, but had just passed through bangkok last year. it was great catching up with sarah and Erik, and i'm sure that they will have a blast in indonesia and singapore (the rest of their trip).

as we had less than 72 hours, we decided to focus mainly on the food and alcohol part, with great dim sum trips to Maxim Palace at city hall and the mandarin in Kowloon. We also splurged (as if $70 USD set lunch at the mandarin isn't "splurging" enough) at Bo innovation - a molecular chinese influenced restaurant that was absolutely amazing. We also hit all sorts of crazy bars, most of which i really can't remember the name, but do remember the $20 USD cocktails.

the city retains a distinct english feel, complete with people with bad teeth, crappy little roads, where people insist on driving on the wrong side. also of note are the double decker street cars - which i find amazing! speaking of which, as a whole, the public transport is very comprehensive, even including over a kilometer of a moving escalator, although in general, it's a little more tired than bangkok's BTS and MRT.

i did my part for the economy, splashing out on some cole haans (although, $200 shoes really isn't splashing out in hong kong), and was mildly amused when i found out that they were made in India!

All in all, I think that Hong Kong is a great city to splash out in for 48 hours (a little like Las Vegas, but way cooler), which is why I would rank it 5th out of the 5 cities listed above.

20100720 - Work (a 1-year anniversary post)

Today is my 1-year anniversary working for the US Department of State. it's been a very rewarding 1st year, having met a lot of folks and learned a lot about how an embassy functions. it's also been challenging, with different obstacles than in the private sector. it's been a year of starting over, coming from a career where i could make decisions without going through layers of red-tape to a culture of "full accountability to the tax payer". i'm not making a statement on which system is better, but it's been a challenge adjusting to a different system.

i'm looking forward to year 2 - spent wholly working within Thailand!!!

20100715 - home sick

I'm not one who gets sick often, but when I do, i'm a big baby.

this particular cold started a few days ago, and i've been very good at getting plenty of water and supplements to fight it off.

my guess is that the stress of work, the air pollution, the odd sleep patterns (world cup games were at 130am here in bangkok), and the lack of actual nutrition in thai food caught up with me. plus, at 33, my immune system isn't as strong. anyway, i'm home, trying to log into the rather crappy citrix environment at the state department (with no luck so far). i should take it easy, but my mind doesn't agree with my body.

wow - that was a boring post.

20100714 - Night Golf

"Golf is a Good Walk Spoiled" - Mark Twain.

I like golf. Having picked it up in Junior High, and having the body type for it (I'm white, therefore I golf), oops, I mean; tall, lanky, long arms, I have a naturally decent swing. This is the opposite of my basketball game, which is horrible. Anyway, this isn't about basketball.

Golf in Thailand is great. It's culturally acceptable to play, the Thais love golf (Tiger is half-Thai), and the grass grows really well here. The Thais also don't let something like the sun get in the way of having enough light to be able to see the ball. Quite a few golf courses in Bangkok are lit at night, so you can get in 18 after work.

My friend Bhishma introduced me to Summit Windmill, which is in Bang-Na Trat, 20 km East of my house (a 200 baht ($6 USD) taxi ride). The course is well maintained (although the greens are not to my liking), and it's a pretty challenging course (143 slope, I think).

Usually I can get in 9 holes in the light, and it starts to get dark at the turn. The course "marshalls" are Thai, so they don't really monitor the flow well, and the back 9 usually gets backed up.

Caddies: From what i've been told, the caddies (all Thai women) are available for a "19th hole", but in my experience, it's very easy to avoid this altogether. they are nice enough and they know the greens very well, even though they don't actually play golf! i find that a lot of "businessmen" from Korea or Japan are more interested in flirting with the caddies than playing golf. this is likely why these countries tend not to have many players on the PGA, and probably why the "19th hole" discussion comes up quite a bit.

at any rate, Night Golf is fun, and playing at night, you avoid the blazing heat of the day, even though it's still well above 90F at night, and the mosquitos are an issues.

20100711 - Singapore

Short version: I find Singapore to be a wierd combination of Las Vegas, Los Angeles... and a maximum security prison.

Longer version: Having only visited Singapore once (in 2003), I had found the city to be a bit distant, as if I was missing something, or the entire population was away during my time spent there. 7 years on, there was a little more development, but the same sameness still blanketed the City-state.

To be fair, I wasn't there to be a tourist. There is NOTHING that Singapore has (that I'm interested in) that is more appealing that Thailand. I was there to see my cousin Marcus. Freshly graduated, and taking his first tour of Asia, I really wanted to catch up, hear about his studies, his plans for the future, and his impressions of Singapore and Hong Kong.

A little rewind: I had the pleasure of watching Marcus grow up, I helped coach him in soccer, skied with him (he's since switched to boarding), and I very much liked spending time with the Dufort family during my studies at Santa Clara University. I'd frequently just show up on my bicycle and check in.

At any rate, Marcus is now an adult, an engineering grad who is looking forward to more studies and changing the world. A fresh perspective is always wonderful to hear, and catching up with Marcus was great.

We explored Sentosa Island (an all-inclusive resort, a mini-Singapore within Singapore), complete with Universal Studios, Golf Courses, a fake 5-foot wave machine, street luge, and every possible other attraction to extract money from you. We took this extremely cheesy photo in front of an imported sand beach. Marcus wasn't looking at the camera because he was focused on a few co-eds who were in a bubble bath hot tub (on the beach, of course).

Besides catching up, Corina and I hit all the food places to eat (Little India, Chinatown, Orchard Road, Clarke Quay, etc., etc.). We also spent a lot of time at the Botanical gardens, and that was hands-down the best site we went to. Corina took about 400 pictures of Orchids, and we're not normally Botanical Garden fans. I also got in a great run through here on Sunday morning! Regardless of what type of travel you are into, I would recommend the gardens to just about anyone.

I get the impression that Singapore would be a great place to raise a family-in-bubble, or to press your luck with your Diplomatic immunity (I would be a gum chewer), or even better - a journalist. There would be nothing more challenging that trying to be a journalist in a city that even edits Hollywood DVDs for content.

All said, I think that I will be back to Singapore, because it would be the PERFECT place to recover from a hardship post (like Dili, East Timor, or Jakarta, Indonesia - both places I wouldn't mind being posted).

20100706 - Chiang Mai Weekend

Corina and I spent the weekend in Chiang Mai... which you could probably deduce from the title. Anyway - Chiang Mai is a a super chill place to go to. It's more laid back than Bangkok, and from a vegetarian perspective, it's WAY better than Bangkok. It also has cooler weather, mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing... so basically - it's way better than bangkok.

we got a GREAT deal at the Chedi Hotel, and if you can get the same deal, stay there. It's hands-down the best in Chiang Mai, and probably one of the nicest in Thailand. This made our stay quite nice.

We did the usual temple-spotting, but being neither buddhist nor really caring about this crap, we went mountain biking. I'd recommend the mountain biking, but if you can - bring your own bike and arrange your own transport up the hill. Chiang Mai Mountain Biking was expensive (1550 baht) and they were just way too lax with timing for our preferences. for example, we started about an hour+ late, and "lunch" was then about 4pm. corina also got stung by huge wasps, so that wasn't cool either. the guide was a decent biker, but knew nothing about what we were bking through (what crops were being planted, what the flora or fauna were, etc.). if you're a dirty hippie backpacker, or some faux-adrenaline junkie, then it would be fine, but if you're there for real, then find a different way. anyway - we also got in a good session at the bouldering wall.

one side note - i picked up 2 kilos of chiang mai pork skins for my staff in bangkok. that part was cool, since i got to practice my thai, and it was fun to buy stuff in the local market, where there were no farang. carrying smelly pork skins through the airport like all the other Thai people was cool, too.

20100702 - Elevator Hell

Being trapped in an elevator is never very fun. I got to spend 35 minutes in my building elevator today. i was heading into work, roughly 640am and the elevator came to an amazingly fast stop. i thought that i was on the ground floor, but then the elevator bounced up and down a few times. while a little rattled, i tried to keep my cool (as best as one can in a non-air conditioned elevator in Bangkok). first i tried ringing the alarm bell, which was ignored. then i just kept pushing it. this finally got the attention of the building staff. a voice over the intercom "hello?"

"hello - i am trapped in the elevator"

"hello?"

"help me (chuay duay in thai) i'm trapped in the elevator)"

"okay okay". click.

so, from my experience with thai people, this either meant that she wasn't doing a damn thing, or she was on it. in either case, i wanted a second opinion. i decided to try to use the call button. as soon as i pressed it, it broke into 3 pieces. i could tell that it was never hooked into anything in the first place. as i had my blackberry, i called my office to explain the situation, then they called the building management to reconfirm. 10 minutes later, while the rather incompetent building staff had to locate where exactly i was trapped, i tried calling corina, but the reception was pretty bad. 5 minutes later, i heard knocking on the elevator doors. i knocked back. then more knocking. i reciprocated. fun. like a game. except i'm in a damn elevator shaft!

another ten sweaty minutes go by and finally the doors are pried apart. while the story should end here, it doesn't. i was staring at 3 feet of concrete, with 10 inches below me to the 7th floor and 30+ inches above me to the 8th floor.

all smiles from the two maintenance workers.

no smiles from me.

they didn't come with an elevator jam, so if i crawl out and the elevator moves, i die. realizing that my thai isn't good enough to say "elevator jam" and they are too incompetent to know what that is anyway, i toss my bags up to the 8th floor, and then proceed to put myself into a pretty tight climbing position, toe jamming on one side of the shaft, and lifting with my opposite arm on the other. Probably a V3 bouldering move.

I get out, sweaty, dirty and pissed off. they are all smiles and try to escort me down to the front door so i can go on my merry way, but i decided that i need a shower, a change of clothes and a change of attitude.

20100624

Tawandang Beer Hall and Khlong Toei market are two things that are not touristy about Bangkok, but anyone who lives here knows about.

Khlong Toei is one of Bangkok's largest urban districts, and it's also one of the poorest. The market here is fantastic, which every vegetable and half living animal for sale. Come early, wear closed toed shoes and prepare your senses for overload.

Tawandang is a massive Beer Hall which has nightly cabaret performances, mostly with Katoeys (transgender, transvestite, etc., etc.). I'd go into the political acceptance of the "3rd gender" here in Thailand, but for me personally, I don't have a problem with katoeys, and find Westerners who do to be quite rude (you're in Thailand, deal with it... the Thais don't come to your country and criticize you for being fat or having a stupid religion). ANYWAY - the shows are usually quite amazing and the performers are talented. the beer is also brewed right there and it pretty darn good. Whole tables of Thais go to gorge themselves on beer and food, and it's quite a show!

20100612

We've been leaving bangkok a lot on weekends. This time, we've headed down to Koh Tao (turtle Island) for 4+ days of snorkeling. For you divers out there, Koh Tao is one of Thailand's gems, comparable to the Semillion Islands, but accessed at different times of the year due to weather. We lucked out with the weather, for sure. The snorkeling was amazing: black tip reef sharks, titan triggerfish, etc., etc.

Why go here? it's accessed by a flight to Ko Samui, then a 2-hour ferry ride north (READ: it's remote, so you deal with less touristy riff raff, less development). Don't go here if you want a fully pampered experience - one hotel we stayed at in Mango Bay doesn't have electricity during daylight hours (but how many hotels have you stayed at where you access by dock, and see some great snorkeling by jumping in right in front of the hotel?

20100604

Kanchanaburi is another fantastic place in Thailand. Located only 3 hour drive (or in our case, given Friday afternoon traffic, a 6 hour drive) West of Bangkok, it is a great weekend escape. I compare it to Lake Tahoe for Bay Area people, or, um... well, I don't know where the rest of you fools go on the weekends for outdoor activities.

For those coming to Thailand for the first time, and who do not have enough time / money to go to Chiang Mai, Kanchanaburi makes a lot of sense. Also - if you are a WW2 Pacific Arena buff, this is where "the bridge over the river Kwai" is located. I'd go on about the Japanese building a railway using POW labor, but you've probably seen the movie. Anyway, the railway is neat, as is the museum which follows the old rail line for about 4km - it's likely the best museum in Thailand.

Heaps of fun is the plethora of mountain bike riding in the area. There are few things more rewarding that tearing down some village path (READ: single track) and asking some villager where the trail goes (in Thai). Most just stare at you and tell you "no where" or "it just ends", then politely keep going onto the next little village which is another 4-5 km down the road.

Also in Kanchanaburi: floating down the river in a life jacket at sunset (or on a bamboo raft if you don't like chancing the water), elephant trekking, hiking around beautiful fwaterfalls (Erawan National Park), visiting a Buddhist temple where they have taken in Asiatic tigers (petting them is okay), etc., etc. Basically, it's as good as Chiang Mai in all aspects except food and temples (and a lot easier to get to).

20100528

With the red shirts freshly kicked out of Bangkok (just for Jamie's visit), we headed to Railay Beach for some rock climbing, relaxing, and more rock climbing. The 4 day weekend (our Memorial Day plus some Thai holiday (the perk of being in the foreign service is you get US and local holidays (as well as using a lot of operands))).

Railay Beach is some of the best limestone rock climbing in the world, and it's only a 20 minute taxi + 20 minute longtail boat ride from Krabi international airport, located in the South of Thailand.

I spent 4 days rock climbing, while Corina and Jamie spent 4 days not-rock climbing: swimming, snorkling, kayaking, hiking, getting stung by massive amounts of jelly fish, etc.

Located 60 km due east of Phuket (READ: far enough away from fat tourists), and due to the huge variety of outdoor activities, Krabi province is one of my favorites in Thailand.

20100514

Angkor Wat is an amazing place, that keeps improving over time. Better said: the Cambodians know it's a gravy train, so they put a lot of money into the place.

I've been back in Thailand for less than two weeks and I had the opportunity to visit Corina while she was attending a workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia (staying at le Meridien, of course). For her it was non-stop gorging on delicious food, fine wines, and 5 star amenities, all while learning how to take care of poor people (don't fool yourself, people, World Bank and USAID-types never are uncomfortable in their quest for improving the lives of disaffected peoples). For me, it was a last ditch effort for me to get out of Bangkok for a weekend during the red shirt protests.

We had a tremendous time here, exploring Khmer temples, some of which have been left for the jungle to "reclaim" (well, as much as it takes to attract Angelina Jolie back for another shoot of "Tomb Raider"). If you've never been, the temples themselves are worth a few days of exploring, and if you haven't been in a few years, then please NOTE: the town of Siem Reap has improved remarkably (roads, restaurants and shops). Come back to visit!