More Random Observations

1) There is a moisturizer that is available in almost every pharmacy that claims to lighten the color of your skin. Apparently it is very popular with teenagers. I see advertisements all over Bangkok that are for products made here, for Thai people and almost all the models are white people. Almost all the Thai fashion models have very pale skin. 95% of the people I see on the street are dark skinned.

2) I have never seen anyone over the age of fifty left on the bus with no place to sit. Someone will give them their seat.

3)All Thai people do is eat. If they are not eating they are thinking about what they will eat next and rarely do I ever see anyone overweight. And I mean RARELY.

4)There are 7-11's everywhere! Sometimes two or three on the same street.

5)Thai people are not to specific about time. If your class starts at noon and you show up 10 to 15 minutes late, it is no big deal. I am sure this is due to how difficult it can be to get around.

6)It is perfectly legal for motorcycles to drive on the sidewalk.

7)"Sir" in Thai means "stupid." So "Thank you, sir" means "Thank you, stupid." Luckily I was told this before I found out the hard way.

8)When getting dressed up and wanting to look professional - a belt is more important than a tie.

9)If you work in a retail store - your manager will lead you in physical exercises before your shift starts.

My neighbors had a party for their grandson's second birthday and I was invited. What a great time we had!

First of all, the kid is so adorable and a great kid to hang out with. I bought him a ABC book - of course because I have been hanging out and speaking English with him. The kid is so sharp. He picks things up so fast.

Second - the food.. For appetizers we had pork and carrots wrapped in rice paper, crab rangoon and fish bone. Now - crab rangoon in Thailand has no cream cheese. It is only crab in fried wontons. And my new opinion is that is the way God intended them to be. OK - fish bone. It is fish bones that have been breaded and fried. They still have fish sticking to the bone for flavor and you crunch on them much like a potato chip and dip them in this hot chili sauce. (I will be honest - not my favorite.)

And now the entree. Cubes of beef liver, chicken breast, roasted pork, scallions, rice noodles, bean sprouts and a hard boiled duck egg. (Duck egg is very popular here and it is much meatier or dense than a chicken egg and it does take a little getting use to but I have grown to love them. They are often used as a garnish to soups.) And then this lovely pork based broth is added. And let me tell you... It was amazing. The taste combinations are so different from what we are used to in America, but after the second bite you really get into it. And just one bowl was so filling. I asked if there was a name and they said there really wasn't. They just call it dinner.

After dinner, the adults hung out, drank Thai beer ( with ice - but when in Rome..)and played poker.

Now - Thai poker:

It is similar to Blackjack - but not.

You are dealt two cards face down and have the option for one more card - also face down.

The scoring system is 0 to 9

Face cards and 10s are worth zero.

So if you are dealt a 10 and a 7 - you have seven points.

If you are dealt a 4 and a 3 - you have seven points.
If you are dealt an 8 or 9 - you must show it immediately.

A winning hand using two cards of the same suit pays double.

Three face cards ( which technically equal 0) pay triple.

Three face cards in sequence also pay triple.

And three face cards in sequence of the same suit pay 5 times.

It is such a great game. It is fast and furious. It is possible to win with one point - because the dealer could get zero. And ties are possible. We had a blast drinking beer on a hot Thai evening, laughing and I took it upon myself to teach then some poker English. ( Poker face, jinxed, cooler, cut, goocher.) We played until 2 in the AM and I stumbled across the street and got up to teach a 12 o'clock class. I lost three dollars.

When I got to school, I told another teacher about my night and he said, "Ya know, poker is illegal in Thailand." Here for less than a month and I am already breaking the law. Not bad. But when you are a world traveler like me - you run that risk.

Gotta go!

Random Observations about Thailand

1) There are phone booths! Remember those? And they are everywhere. And they all work.
And there are cell phone stores everywhere. A couple of the malls I have been to have one entire floor devoted to cell phones mini stores that are privately owned. They all like cell phone markets and they are always empty.

2)When you but a movie ticket you actually get a seat number. I saw 2010 and I had seat f19.

3)There are doormen all over this city. They are dressed in uniforms much like if they were in their military dress and if you smile at them as they open the door - they salute you.

4)Wherever there are Buddhist shrines - which are all over the place - people stop and do a quick bow even if they are just passing by.

5)Thai people do not use chopsticks generally speaking. They eat with a fork and large spoon. You gather the food with the fork onto the spoon and eat with the spoon.The only time I have seen chopsticks in use was in a Japanese restaurant.

6)Hardly anyone watches any television.

7)People who commute back and forth from the city, as I often do, can be on the bus for up to two hours and no one reads. A few of the younger people listen to their IPods - but most just sit and patiently wait.

8) It is easy enough to get used to a country where they drive on the opposite side of the road - except when you are crossing the street. I still instinctively look to the left - but the cars are coming from the right. Could it be when my mother told me to look both ways before crossing the street, she was preparing me for global travel? I like to think so.

Happy Thanksgiving from Thailand. I celebrated with my favorite pad thai.

I went to the Immigration Office today to apply for my non- immigrant visa. What a place! Imagine your local Registry of Motor Vehicles and multiply it by ten. 7 floors of madness. Language barriers all over the place. Overheard frustrations like - "No one ever told me I needed that document! How much more do I have to pay? I can't wait two weeks! I can't find where I need to go next."

I was so lucky that a representative from ECC went with me. He has been doing this for 7 years. He knew most of the people there. He told me beforehand what I needed to bring and I brought those things and he told me to sit in a chair and wait. After about 15 minutes he came back out of the office and said, "We're done."

The next step is waiting for my work visa. He will process all that information and then I am all set.

And O.K. - I confess - I had McDonald's today.

The Thai greeting is known as the wai and consists of the palms being pressed together and lifted towards the chin. The wai evolved from an ancient greeting used to show that neither party was carrying weapons. The wai is layered with intricacies of class, gender and age: each of these dictates a certain height at which the two hands must be held. Non-Thais are not expected to be familiar with these complexities, and the easiest method is simply mirror what ever greeting you receive.

More shots of Bangkok from today's stroll around the city.

Just finished reading this book that my best friend Kathy gave me by Thoreau called Walking.

"He who sits still in the house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river. For every walk is a sort of crusade."