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That's normal

In the June 10th 2012 Bangkok Post, Andrew Biggs writes in his column Sanook, about how after a time things that at first caused him pause, have become normal to him now, and how he cannot recall how this happened.

Well, today was one of those type of days for me, when at some point, I stopped and said, "this used to bother me, now it's just normal". In a few months I will go back to Canada for a few weeks, and I am beginning to inventory the things I now take for granted, and how out of place it may be when I am back in Canada. How my new normal, may seem, well, abnormal, to my friends and family.

Thai Time

Time is a rather relative term here. Having come from a western background, and working by a schedule that never saw enough of it, being retired, it seems I have the time, sometimes it feels too much time. But if you have read previous posts, it is clear that for the most part in my dealings here, time is an abstract thing, and it is always important in any discussion involving meetings or appointments to be very precise, and then be prepared for waiting.

I had learned previously, that when pressed to give a time estimate, be it for meeting you, or getting something done, 10 minutes is the standard response. It seems everyone is 10 minutes late, or they will be there in 10 minutes or the manager will come in 10 minutes. I have yet to encounter it, but I am sure if I called a call center the estimated time for your call would be 10 minutes.

Water- Part 1

Songkran Festivities in Rawai

Well Songkran has passed, and what a water filled fun time was had. Prior to Songkran, we had water issues at the house, and with the knowledge that over Songkran, virtually all work stops and businesses close for about 5 days, a bit of a panic set in. Having experienced Thai tradespeople work, we knew that whatever was wrong, would not be fixed on one visit.

Thai O-A Visa Renewal

This will hopefully be of benefit to people who decide after they have been here a year, to go for the second year of being here on an O-A (Long Stay or Retirement Visa). I learned that terminology can be confusing. This experience is for the Phuket office, and may be different depending on the office and the officer. I must admit that the Immigration Police Volunteers, dressed in white shirts and all foreigners, are incredibly helpful. They also have a counter set up that has all the blank forms on it, as well as the blue pens and sample forms for you to follow.

So I took a shower, put on deodorant, brushed my teeth, found my lone pair of long pants and a nice shirt and headed off. Not before I got questioned by Clive about why I was doing this dressing up routine. I explained that OI thought it proper when I went to a government office that I should be presentable. As I waited for the office to open; it closes for lunch from 1200-1300, I watched the collection of people assembling waiting for the office opening. I was particularly riveted to a group of men, all in a pair of flip flops and beach shorts, with 9 empty beer cans in front of them, as they all cracked open more, whiling their time to go into the office. I thought, maybe I am overdressed. But I am also seeing many instances of people who go out in the daytime for business dealings, still smelling like the booze they downed the night before, probably not having a shower, and in obvious cases, not being in possession of deodorant, and in their best beach attire.  I am also one who researched my documents, checks all the boxes in the right place, and rewrites a form if I made a mistake on it. I would attribute any time delays today to the people who do not research and hand in 1/2 done forms, thus holding many people back. They also seem oblivious to that impact. But then again they may be drunk and not notice anyway.

The Wild Wild West

A song that I used to like to dance to when I was much much younger and went to dance clubs instead of nodding off about the time most people are getting ready to go out, was The Wild Wild West by the Escape Club. There are times that song bounces around my head, especially when I go out motorbike riding, and especially during the high tourist season, such as now.

There is a real sense of lawlessness and the tales of the wild untamed west in North America must be how it feels for the tourists. Indeed many times, I wondered if there were actually laws here, let alone enforced. I meet the tourists who try to hide their open bottle of beer on the sidewalk, when it is legal to carry and drink it here. I have often said that if you want it you can find it or buy it. I find that the expats who seem to rant on in the local comments section of the English language papers, seem to have lots to say about law and order. It is usually about the laws they don't like having enforced, such as drunk driving and wearing of helmets or having a valid driver licence. After a period of time, you begin to think that the westerners who come to visit, get caught up in the loose approach to law and order, and soon they are drunk driving, not wearing helmets and generally driving in ways they would never even dare to dream of doing back home. But for some reason they feel that they can do whatever they want, so they do. I get some enjoyment, I must admit, when they do run into a roadblock and the traffic fines begin to pile up.

The Wedding

Drummers and Dancers at the Wedding

A while ago a some friends told us that they were going to have a wedding in November, and they wanted us to be there. It would be a traditional Thai wedding, so we were quite interested to experience this new facet of Thai life as part of our continuing education about the culture we are currently living in.

The invitation arrived and it was primarily in Thai, with some English. Enough for us to know the date and time, and that there would be a western celebration to follow. From what little Thai I can read, it looked like the ceremony started at 0709 AM! The something at 1209 PM and then something at 1700PM. One of our Thai friends was over visiting, so we showed him this invitation and asked him to read it for us, especially the information in Thai about where it was. Now, I should have known better than to ask this. This is the same guy who had us driving all over old Phuket town with the largest concentration of one way streets and 5 road traffic round-abouts, only to find out 45 minutes later that he actually did not know exactly how to get there, but he did know where it was.
Basis Thai 101, always ask specific follow-up questions.
Question :Do you know where Super Cheap is?
Answer: Yes.
Assumption: you know how to drive there and guide me through the shortest possible route to avoid those traffic round-abouts.
Without the follow-up questions, you will find that you may be no further ahead than when you sought an answer in the first place.

Thai Driving License

A previous post outlined the steps for getting a Thai driver license. Initially it is good for one year. technically it is good for 1 year and 6 months. The best way to understand it is that the first license is only a temporary license. It must expire and then you apply for your 5 year license. You have 6 months from expiry date to renew for the 5 year license. If you fail to do so, then you have to undergo the whole first year license process again. The strange part of the 5 year license is that you have to renew BEFORE it expires. Or you go back to step one again. The good news is that it expires on your birthday, so in effect because my one year expired, and I waited past my birthday, my new license is actually good for 5 years and 8 months!

Empty Shelves

The flooding has continued and it seems the worst may be coming to an end, but the aftermath will be more long term I suspect. The media report conflicts between the Prime Minister and the Governor of Bangkok on the projections of how soon waters will recede and the clean-up begins. Today they report that the costs appears to be around 300 Billion Baht. But as with all things of this nature, I am sure exact figures will have to wait. The cost impacts are more than the costs of clean-up in the long run.

In Phuket it is reported that an international sporting event has seen 15 teams withdraw, and they attribute it directly to the flooding reports internationally, and the fact that some people are unaware of Thailand geography, assuming that Phuket was flooding. There was an influx this past weekend of Bangkok residents headed here for the proclaimed 5 day holiday to assist in reducing the number of people in Bangkok. The tourists continue to arrive, despite travel advisories from their home governments, only I fear they are in for a bit of a shock.

Thailand Flooding Part 2

The flooding in the central and northern parts of Thailand continue. Water levels are peaking as they approach Bangkok. While there has been some reference on the international news scene, the coverage here is more extensive obviously. A satellite image in the Nation newspaper today shows a very wide swath of blue that covers most of the central part of Thailand. Over 1/3 of the country is under water.
The Don Muang airport in Bangkok is the disaster coordination centre, a refugee shelter and the domestic air terminal for three airlines. Today all flights have been cancelled form there as water has begun to cover the runways and there are some reports of affecting buildings on the property.

My heart goes out to those affects and having lost everything, with no relief in sight, and to those 10 million residents of Bangkok, now beginning to feel the effects literally in their own homes. I cannot help but also feel sorry for the Prime Minister who in less than 2 months in office, is having to deal with this huge natural disaster.

Thailand Flooding

Back Yard 5 minutes after the rain started

I have been fortunate that so far in Phuket we have not been hit with the devastation they have seen in the north and central regions. I am watching as the flood concerns are approaching Bangkok, with industrial estates flooding. A few hundred dead, devastation to the rice crops and homelessness in the millions. They seriously need help and many international organizations are trying to assist. If you can help from your end, every donation counts. While I have had to deal with sudden deluges (as in the picture) it has receded quickly. Some parts of Thailand are still under a meter or more of water.

The tourism industry is being hit hard, with many countries issuing travel advisories to not come to Thailand because of the flooding. Meanwhile the Tourism Authority here seems to be gearing up for an increase and touting numbers, that my friends in the hotel business seem to not be realizing in reality. Somehow there seems to be a disconnect.

We have had very heavy rainfall, and high winds, and there have been landslides blocking major roadways. All of the media coverage has been of the bypass road and the main east-west connection to Patong. We were out for a drive to the area going to Cape Panwa and were not quite prepared for the number of slides impeding the roadways there, complete with electrical poles and lines crashed and debris covering in some places 2/3 of the roads and no signs of clean-up. A bit nerve racking when you have to navigate a blind corner, with 1/3 of a roadway and no signs or people to direct you. You simply make the drive in blind faith that there is no-one oncoming.

Our household water is a dark shade of beige. It seems cleaner to bathe in the swimming pool, but that is to be expected I am sure with the sediment caused by the run-off's.

Canada, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila

I have been very busy with travel since August. First to Canada for 3 weeks, then to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur and now this week to the Philippines. I am hoping it is the end of travel for a while, although I know I have yet one more trip, this time to melbourne before the end of the year. But thankfully that will not involve much adjustment and no more hotel rooms!!

Still Fighting with Google

Sorry for no posts. Again I have spent weeks trying to do password recovery and get back into my blog. The problem continues to be Google defaulting to Thai when I am set for English, and then it locked my account. Thi sproblem is apparently well known to Google, but they are unable to do anything about it. I believe I have not gotten back to my blog account. They also changed the interface and I have difficulty trying to use it. The Flickr link is also not working again. I may drop this blog site and switch to something more user friendly, but will attempt to log back in here and let you know. For my followers I apologize and I have a mountain of material to get posted!

Translation and Google

I have been trying for about three weeks to get into my Blog site. This has been somewhat complicated because even if I set my base language to English, when I try to recover my account, Google insists on sending me everything in Thai. It is a problem commented on a lot, but has not managed to tweak the people at Google.
I will busy myself with getting posts up to date, because much has been happening!

Natural Beauty

I am currently with my family in Saskatchewan Canada. It has been a very rewarding trip on many levels, and tonight my brother calls to tell me that I need to go to the dock at the lake and bring my camera. It is 1130PM, but my brother-in-law drives me to the dock where we were treated a wonderful demonstration of the Northern Lights. Makes me feel grateful for having had the opportunity to see the amazing light display you see in the photo Just sharing with those from other countries who may never have had the experience, thta the local people tend to take for granted. So there I was on the dock with my family, as the moon beamed down on Cowan lake with the light show from the Northern Lights dancing across the sky, in awe.

Canada and Taipei

China Airlines in Hong Kong with Air Canada in the background

Just a note to say that I am on the road, through Taipei, with a stop in both directions, and apparently just at, or after the typhoon hits there, and back to Canada, for the next few weeks. I love China Airlines for this Trip, as they have never let me down and their on-line services are incredible. They also tend to have consistent seat sales from Vancouver to Asia. And it is the one airline I can fly direct from Phuket, with a stop-over and then go to Vancouver, without having to hub through Bangkok, entailing two stop-overs normally!
I have 2 blog posts I am in the process of finalizing, so there will still be posts.

Go Karting

There are two Go Kart tracks here in Phuket. During the Grumpy Old Men car rally (previous post) we used the track in Kathu for our driving skills testing of the participants. Now I will find myself behind the wheel of a Go Kart in about 2 weeks at the track Chalong, closer to my home.

It never started out to be that way. At a meeting of the Tourist Police Volunteers,

Music Made In Phuket - Dark Fiber

Yesterday morning I tuned into one of the local radio stations and they were doing an intro of a song performed by a group named Dark Fiber. Not to be confused with another group, I believe out of America of the same name. This Dark Fiber is a local Phuket based group, who have recorded in the studios of Legend Music at the Boat Lagoon.

The announcer made a great intro explaining the artist and the Legend Music studio as well as our friend Gary Crause who owns the studio and produces the group. The song getting airplay was a remake of the House of the Rising Sun. Gary has been toying with the concept of a disco-rock style of music and this is a great example of how you can take an old song, rework it and find yourself singing along and bopping around, in my case, cleaning floors. The track itself goes for 6 minutes, quite a bit more air time than a standard top 40's radio air play song with an average of 3 minutes, but great for just listening and probably dancing to in a club. And then again, I am not a music industry person, so it is my opinion strictly as a consumer.

Our friends Gary, Deb and their son Blaze were the first friends we made when we moved here. We all met at the Thai Airways cargo offices in Phuket airport, as we awaiting the arrival of our respective dogs who had been shipped seperate from us. Like us they had uprooted everything from their home in South africa, including a productive recording career, to live the life that the land of smiles promised. And together we have lived through each others adjustments and sometimes the conflict of the dream with the reality. And as time has moved along we do nto see each other as much as we used to, but the good news is because the dream of recording and producing in Thailand is finally happeneing for them, it means little socializing time. We also live abut a one hour drive away from each other. when they have not been building the studio, getting business, managing their sons education and travelling to do recording work elsewhere, or keeping up with the name acts that are appearing here, and then trying to match our life schedule, it gets difficult. But we always do manage to find time to get together and it is always good.

We have followed the trials and tribulations as observers on getting the songs together dealing with the issues of studio and recording times and schedules, not to mention the challanges brought by the general infrastructure isses like a building location and lease, electricity and internet access. But in the end they have done it. And yesterday for a few minutes, I thought, hey wait a minute I know this recording, and who made it, and even some of how it got to be where it was on the radio.

I am so happy that this project has made it out of the studio, ready for the world to listen and then for more business to follow. http://www.myspace.com/legendmusicproductions/music/songs/house-of-the-rising-sun-dark-fiber-80901820

Surviving A Rip Current

In the hope that this message helps just one person, will make me happy.

Every year at this time, monsoon season, and the seasonal tropical storms. The water get very unpredictable and have proven fatal to more than one visitor. Today the local radio stations are telling people that the tropical storm coming in today, having worked it's way from the south China sea, wreaking destruction across Vietnam and caused flooding in northern Thailand while winding down is headed our way and has caused all the beaches to be closed.

The issue is what is locally referred to as a rip current or in some countries a rip tide.

Crackdown of the week

I have debated writing this entry for  a number of reasons. But it is a reflection of my reality or perceived reality. The subject is crackdowns.

Over the past few months we have been having what I refer to as the "crackdown of the week". Police or some government department with jurisdiction (there is no apparent cross-jurisdiction), swarm into an area and cracks down on an activity.