A Shopping Adventure

     I believe that I have already told you about the "food police" - the store clerks that have followed me around the grocery store when I have taken too long to hold a product while trying to decipher what is in it -- I'm sorry -- I still can't read Thai, let alone Japanese, Chinese, or whatever other language these product labels might be written in.  I can barely speak "taxi Thai" -- that is just enough Thai to get you from one place to another around the city, or to say thank you or it was delicious!  But I digress . . .

     I have a new category, or a subcategory to talk about today.  I might have mentioned in the past how there is very little unemployment here in Thailand, they actually have to import people into the city to have enough workers for major building projects.  But in department stores they are way overstaffed.  During a weekday there are usually more staff in the stores than shoppers.  They try to stay busy by dusting or straightening their shelves.  But most of the girls seem to be putting on lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, looking at themselves in the mirror, primping their hair, or playing on their phones.  I have gotten so used to it now that it usually doesn't bother me, until it interfers with what I need to do.

     The other day I went into Boots drug store which is like CVS but a lot smaller.  I really needed some mascara.  I walked over to that area and all they had in one section was "VOLUME" "PLUMPING" "BIG LASHES".  I didn't want that!  I just wanted regular mascara.  Ah ha!  I spied it, but there was a problem.  It was hidden behind 3 clerks who were busy putting on their make-up!  They had no concern at all for customers, their boss or how it looked to be putting on make-up at work!  I shouldn't have been, but I was still amazed.  Anyway, I stood behind them for what seemed like a few minutes until they finally one by one moved away. 

     To top that off, I moved over to the nail polish.  There were 2 other girl clerks standing there just talking.  I said "sawatee Kha" and the tall one who was made up like a China doll said "sawatee Kha" back to me in a DEEP voice!  It was a girly-boy.  I was shocked but tried not to show it. 

     What a day of shopping !!

At the Top of the World !

     Steve and I decided to take a day trip to see the tallest building in Bangkok.  It is called the Baiyoke Sky Hotel.  After getting off the BTS we walked through a crowded clothes market, and when I say crowded, I mean, wow, you could hardly move.  Luckily I had all my money in my front pants pockets and Steve didn't have his wallet on him that day.  I haven't felt unsafe in this city until a few days ago when our driver Somchai told me to watch out for pick pockets and people that will slit your purse to get your wallet.  Now I am very cautious. 

 
     Back to my story . . . All of a sudden . . . there was this super tall building.  The observation ticket counter was right by the front door.  It cost us B300 each which was $20 total.  We made it to the elevator ahead of a bus load of Japanese tourists.  I expected to be crammed into the elevator with them, but the operator let just Steve and I in.  I soon found out why.  A voice began to describe in English how they built the tower - how tall it is - 328 meters, it has 85 floors and that it opened in 1997.  It is Thailand's tallest building and contains the Baiyoke Sky Hotel which is the tallest hotel in Southeast Asia and is the 4th tallest of all hotel structures in the world. 

 

     We first went to the observation floor on the 77th floor.  It was ok.  We took pictures at all 4 points - N, S, E, W and tried to find our apartment building - impossible!  

 

 

 

 

Steve has been working out lately and has really been taking his Thai lessons seriously!  Way too seriously!

 

 

 

Steve says I really haven't changed much, but I have been demanding a bit more jewelry lately!

 

 

     Since we were thirsty and our ticket said were to get a free drink we headed to the elevator to go to the 83rd floor to go to the Roof Top Lounge where our drink was waiting.  We were met by . . . "the elevator police"!  He said we had to go around the whole observation floor before we could go up to the 83rd floor.  We told him we had already gone around the whole perimeter.  He said we should go around the observation floor and when we were ready come back to the elevator he would let us go up to the 83rd floor.  We gave up and walked around again quickly .  He gave us a smile when he saw us - it had been no more than 2 minutes since he'd last seen us.  Then he pushed the button to let us up to the 83rd floor.  He acted very feminine, I think he was one of those girly-boys. 

 

     We finally made it to the 83rd floor!  I had water in a plastic bottle shaped like the tower and Steve had a juice.  The lounge was a GREAT disappointment!  It was so shabby.  This building should have been the jewel of this city but the whole thing felt very old with paint peeling, no beauty, no Thai music playing, just a run-down feeling.  I didn't like it one bit.  We walked up one floor to the revolving floor which maybe is pretty and nice to see at night with all of the lights of the city, but during the day, it was just o.k.  We didn't stay long at all. 

 

 

I wasn't impressed and I really wouldn't bring guests here.  If you've been to one tall building this is just another one.  Sorry about that.
                                                                       Linda

The Friendliest Man in Bangkok

     Someone you must learn about is our driver Somchai.  He tries to keep everything on a professional level and usually when you ask him a question he ends his answer with a laugh.  But I have found that when I am with him, especially when Steve is not around I can get some amazing stories out of him especially about his childhood - about soldiers coming to Thailand from the Vietnam war, his village, and his family. 

 

     One Friday night Somchai picked me up around 5 pm to take me to Steve's plant.  We were going to paint his office.  A huge thunderstorm had already come through the city, plus more rain was to come.  Anyway, just some rain can shut the city down for a little bit, add on that it was Friday night, pay day, plus a huge amount of rain --  well, Somchai and I sat for 2 1/2 hours in traffic.  We had plenty of time to talk.  Here was one of the first stories I got out of him:

 

Movie Night

     Somchai comes from the Northeastern part of Thailand also called Isan.  There are a lot of very poor people in that part of the country and it seems like a lot of the young people come to Bangkok to try to make money so that they can send some back home to help out their families.

 

     His village was very poor and there was not a lot of entertainment to be had, but something special happened once every couple of months.  This was in the early 60's, before his village had any form of television.  A man would come through the village with a megaphone and announce "The movie is coming!  Mamas bring your children, Papas bring your families!"  Over and over he would say this.  The excitement would build.  Finally movie night came and everyone assembled in the village center

. 

     The man would have a microphone, but there was no electricity to power it so they had to pour gasoline into some container to get the microphone going.  Somchai said that you didn't want to be anywhere near that microphone!   I asked, "Was it a Thai movie or an American movie?"  He said "American of course!"  I wanted to know how those poor villagers could possibly understand English words.  He had a solution for that - the man with the microphone would play all the parts!!  He would use a deep voice for the man and a high voice for the woman.  Somchai laughed and said that they never knew if the man was translating exactly word for word, but they enjoyed it just as well!

 

What does the _______say?

 

     I realize that a lot of people don't think the way that I do and that is ok, but bear with me, Somchai and I laughed and laughed over this one.  I hope you find it funny too. 

 

     Ok, so maybe an hour into our trip, we may have gone a mile or two, so I asked Somchai, "What does a dog say?"  He looked at me like I was nuts, which is no big deal to me because Steve looks at me like that all the time.  So I boldly asked him again.  He said "Nurf  Nurf!  I laughed and laughed.  He asked what was so funny.  He laughed when I told him that a dog in English says woof woof or bark bark.  So on and on we went trying to find a similarity between animals.  We finally found two animals that could actually talk to each other in Thai and English and I bet you can't guess who they are. 

                                                    

                                        A Cat  - Meow

                                        A Horse - Naaa

 

Everything had a different sound, very interesting don't you think?

 



 

   

The Jim Thompson House

     Who is this Jim Thompson you might ask which is exactly what I asked when I came to Bangkok.  Well if you are not an interior decorator or a lover of fine silk you might not know his name, but he is someone very important in Thailand, and he just happens to be an American!

     Prior to WWII he was an architect.  During the war he was sent to Bangkok as a military officer and fell in love with Thailand.  After leaving the service he decided to return and live here permanently.  The hand weaving of silk captured Jim's attention and he decided to devote himself to reviving the craft. 

Here are some examples of silk worm cocoons.  The white ones are like the ones we saw in China.  The colored ones are of course already dyed.  The yellow are the most interesting to me.  They are supposedly only found in Thailand and are naturally yellow.  They are all very beautiful. 

Later I watched a man sit on that orange cushion and boil the cocoons.  Then he hooked 10 of the strings together to make one stronger thread.   An amazing process. 

I wish there had been someone spinning or weaving the cloth while we were there, but no such luck.  It was a beautiful old machine. 

Look at the colorful, amazing silk threads.  Can't you just imagine something wonderful being made on this machine?!!

     So the main reason you go to this Home and Museum is to see Jim Thompson's beautiful home and compound that he put together.  There isn't a silk factory here - Steve was disappointed, he wanted to see how the Thai people make silk - but it shows how Jim Thompson brought together six teak houses and combined them into one large house seamlessly.  It is truly beautiful.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I got a lot of decorating ideas by walking through his gorgeous house. 
 

The red paint that is used on the outside of all the buildings is a preservative often found on many old buildings.

Here is Steve getting ready to go into the compound.  I think he is telling me to hurry up and stop taking so many pictures!  :)

After the tour of the house they have a lovely restaurant which we took full advantage of.  We sat next to the Koi pond.  What a beautiful place.  I can see why Jim Thompson loved living here. 

 

So that is our trip to the Jim Thompson house.  For those of you that are coming out, if you like beautiful houses, silk, fish, or even just eating, we will take you here!!

                       Bye for Now!

                                       Linda

The Thai National Museum Continued

I am going to start with two of my favorite Thai Kings.  Most of you have heard of the movie "The King and I".  Well it was taken from the life of King Mongkut.  He had I think about 6 wives and way too many children to count.  He was the first Thai King to try to modernize the Thai kingdom. 

 

 

 

This boat was just a beautiful example of a ship during that period.

 

 

He banished the conscripted labour system, developed the country's modern style education in order to modernize.  He hired wives of misionaries like Anna Leonowens to teach English. 

 

 

 This movie, The King and I is banned in Thailand, because they feel that it shows the King in a poor light and belittles the Monarchy.  I like the movie myself!

     My next favorite King was during the early 1900's.  His name was King Chulalongkorng or Rama 5.  The reason I like him was that he was friends with the last Czar of Russia Nicholas  which is a period of history that I like very much. 

So here is a picture of the King and the Czar meeting in Russia .  Pretty cool, right?!

This is the King's gun collection.  Matt, I'm sure you wouldn't mind having a few of those, right?

Here is the King's throne chair.

Here is a statue of the King.  He was a very short man.

Next, the current Queen's exhibit, it was a small collection, a few dolls, some clothes, purses, not too much.

Hannah, (my daughter-in-law),  these next two pictures I took especially for you.  They were from the Queen's exhibit, and when I saw them, guess who I thought of . . .

They were from her collection of purses.  I bet you would give up a few of your Coach purses for one of these, right?

Some examples of traditional Thai dresses.  Women don't dress like this anymore!

     The last part of the museum that I will talk about was the puppet museum.  Puppets are still a big part of the culture of Bangkok.  They still have shows here.  In the museum they have beautiful old puppets, hand held ones, plain wooden puppets, just about any kind that you could think of.  They are really beautiful. 

 

 

So that was my trip to the museum.  I hope you enjoyed it too!

                                                              Linda

The National Museum

          The Thai National Museum is in downtownBangkok just down the street from the Grand Palace.  As we were walking to it we passed The Thammasat University.

 

     This university was the scene of a bloody massacre that looked like it was supposed to actually be  a peaceful protest against a military coup government.  If you would like more information on this you can go to Google and type in Massacre at Thammasat University.  It happened on October 6, 1976.  The people you see in front of the sign are school children.  All of the children seem to wear uniforms in Thailand.  (When I first moved here I thought - "there can't be that many Catholic school children here, can there?" )  Silly me!!!

   Right next door to the University is the Museum. . .

 

     The museum only costs B200 per person which works out to be about $6.  It is an incredible price for all that we saw that day.
 
     I want to begin with what I was most impressed with that day and which happened to be just about the last exhibit we saw.  It was the Royal Funeral Carriage.  What made it even more special was that Deb had gotten to see it in action this past April when the King's Aunt had her funeral.
 

 

Do you see how close you are allowed to stand next to this carriage?  I swear, they trust you closer to their national treasures than they trust you in their grocery stores.  I have been followed around by the grocery security when I take too long to read labels!  And yet I am allowed to stand within inches of this beautiful carriage.  

This is the lift that they use to raise the body up into the carriage.  They don't lay the body down like we do.  They let the body ride standing up.

This is the King's Aunt who passed away on July 27, 2011.  Her name was HRH Princess Bejaratana.  They hold the body for a certain number of days for official mourning and then wait for an auspicious day for the funeral and cremation.  Her funeral was set for April 9, 2012.  My friend Deb watched the funeral dress rehearsal.  Here is a picture of the dress rehearsal, but you can go on You Tube, click on videos and then type in     HRH Princess Bejaratana Thailand
  then pick one of the funeral ones.  You should then see some of the buildings that I saw and the carriages that carried her body and the other dignataries. 

 

Below are other views of the carriage.  They had at least 3 of these carriages, maybe 4.

 

These are called umbrellas and they are carried on either side of the carriage.

 

This is where the ashes of the body either go or something about the cremation of the body.  The man that explained it didn't speak very good English, but he tried, and I thanked him very much for trying to help explain it to us.

 

This is the Queen lighting a candle to her husband's dead aunt.  This is during the funeral ceremony.

So that's it for this blog.  The next one will show some of the other things I saw at the museum, but I hope that you will check out those websites.  They are pretty cool and help to explain what I saw. 
                               Bye for now!!                               Linda

My Adventure to the National Museum

     Hi Everyone!  
 
          Sorry it has taken so long to get back to blogging.  I went through a little blue period.  The ladies I have met here said it's normal and that it's even normal to have a good cry once a week for the first 6 months, so I was long overdue.  Anyway, I am back to normal and back to having adventures!  This week I have had quite a few, and I will begin this blog with how I got to the National Museum in downtown Bangkok with my friend Deb. 

     A little background on Deb.  She is here for only 2 years with her doctor husband.  He works for the World Health Organization.  She has only been here 10 months but is quite an adventurer and loves to trek around the city.  She said that she would teach me how to use the river taxi boats to manuever up the Chao Phraya River to get to the National Museum which is very close to the Grand Palace.  I said "Let's Go!" 

     So After meeting her at the end of the BTS line we walked a short distance to the Central Pier where we were to pick up the orange flag boat.  There are orange, yellow and green flags which stop at different stops and a good map will show you where they stop.  Here we are getting on the boat.

 

as you can see there are a lot of people just waiting to get on these boats.  These runs are very popular. 

 

The water in the river reminds me very much of the Ohio River, kind of brownish looking,"UGH".  I love riding on the river, the wind in my hair!  It is just so fun!!

This is Deb - the adverturer!

This woman walks through the boat shaking her little tube of money which is how she asks for you to pay her for the ticket.  It costs 15 baht to ride the boat which is about 50 cents.  It doesn't matter how long you ride it, 1 stop or all the way up and down the river, it only costs you 15 baht!  What a country!

Here is a tourist buying a ticket from her.  It is on the honor system.  You don't pay as you get on.  You take your seat or stand, and as she comes by and shakes her can you pay her if you haven't already done so.

 

Here is an example of a sign that shows one of the stops.  We were looking for 9 N which meant we were going north on the river and  stop number 9.  If we were going south it would have of course been 9 S.  

 

.

This is a type of boat that you can rent by the hour to go up a "Klong" which is a small river that goes past houses. The Klongs usually don't smell very good, but I still want to try this some day

 

This guy had the most annoying job on the boat. When we came close to a dock he blew is whistle, not once, not twice, but almost constantly to let the driver know where we were in relation to the dock. Which was ok for safety and all, but if you were anywhere near him it was really hard on the ears!!!

 

So this was just the very first part of our day, the next part will be what I saw at the National Museum . . .

Bye for Now   Sawaatee Kha!