Thailand 12: January 30, 2002

We've had a busy January. A little traveling, but also work and some activities in and around Bangkok.

Despite my semi-usable left shoulder, I still attempt to play softball. Though limited to DH and catcher (some would say my natural positions), I joined my softball team in the season opening mid-January tournament. Our team, "Goldfingers," is the only squad with female teammembers. We also are sponsored by a Patpong girlie bar. No irony there. The tournament consisted of 8 teams, including a team from Pattaya whose average age was 55 (our only win), a team made up of mostly Thais (pretty good), and a team sponsored by Nike (notorious bad sports). I managed a single and despite the umpire's ruling to the contrary, successfully went from first to third on a base hit. We followed up the tournament this week with a double-header against the league's best team. We kept it tight, managing to lose the two games by a combined 40-2. It was like Duke football, it got so ugly.

I also played a little golf over the weekend, managing to upgrade my game from absolute humiliation to merely embarassing. My next target is bad with an ultimate goal of mediocre. The highight of the round was nudging out my 3 co-workers who had played golf a total of 5 times prior to our outing. I have learned to define down success.

Earlier this month, a Congressional delegation led by Speaker Hastert, which also included Reps. Dunn and Granger, paid Bangkok a visit. The Embassy set up a control room at their hotel, which we staffed from 7 am to 11 pm to answer any questions they might have. I volunteered for duty one evening and so got to meet most of the party. Actually, a very nice group, which had several substantive meetings on at least one day of their visit. My tasks, however, included negotiating silk purchases, helping one Congressperson get onto the internet, and arranging for a visit by the tailor. Finally, at 11 pm, when the Embassy van was supposed to take me home, several members of the delegation (though not including any Members of Congress) hijacked the van to take them into Patpong. I'm certain they just went for the night market.

Liz and I both are fortunate to work with good people (Liz should give you a full run down on what its like to work for a large, family owned Sino-Thai conglomerate). A few weeks ago, the Thai members of the Embassy economic section took the rest of the section out for an evening in Chinatown. Bangkok's Chinatown is reputed to be the largest outside of China, though since so much of the Bangkok population is of Chinese descent, it can be difficult figuring where the "Chinatown" actually begins or ends. No matter how you define it, it is quite large and has a distinct atmosphere different from the area in which we live. Even more crowded food markets, carrying a variety of Chinese fruits, vegetables, meats, spices, pastries etc., along with gold stores, restaurants, teahouses and temples. If you squint your eyes on the main road, with all the Chinese character neon signs, you can imagine you're in Hong Kong. We visited several Chinese temples. Chinese Buddhas tend to be of the fat, jolly type, which contrasts with the trimmer, more serene Buddhas from Southeast Asia. The Chinese temples also have a host of other shrines to other deities or venerated scholars/rulers. Following the temples, we stopped at a coffee shop famous for its toast and custard and its special combination of milky coffee and tea. Its populated mostly by older Sino-Thai men who gather to gossip about politics. It's been around for over 40 years and is something of an institution. We had Pad Thai from a stand that our Thai colleagues claimed was the best in Bangkok. The secret: using shrimp fat in the cooking process. It was very good and and very popular. They charge 25 baht (around 65 cents) per serving. They're open 5 nights a week and serve an estimated 1,000 servings per evening ( a lot of takeaway). We figured that the owners must bring in between $25,000 and $50,000 per year, which for Thailand is in the top 1% of earners.

On Friday, Liz and I joined a few other couples from the Embassy at a dinner celebrating the opening of the new textile exhibit at the National Museum. Princess Sirindhorn,who presided over the National Geographic event several months ago at which I was confused for the Ambassador, presided here as well. As we waited for her to arrive, we sipped on lychee and lemongrass juices and wandered around the exhibit of the Queen's old clothing. The dinner was outside, under the stars, or under the bats as it were. Members of a local symphony played various waltzes as we fought off mosquitoes in our suits. The food was very good, but it took over 3 hours to serve a 3 course meal. By the end, we were chasing the wait staff for extra bread.

We also took a quick trip to Ko Samet. Samet is a small island located off the coast about 3 hours Southeast of Bangkok. Its a quick drive down (Thailand has an amazing road system for a developing country) and a short speed boat across the 2-3 mile channel. Most of the island's visitors are Thai or Westerners resident in Bangkok who visit for the weekend. Samet has no airport and no luxury resorts, just collections of bungalows on its several beaches. Its nice and quiet and it was particularly enjoyable to see so many Thai guests. It gets tiring going to various resorts catering mostly to foreigners. You feel guilty for sort of hijacking someone else's country. Anyway, at Samet, large groups of young Thai men and women took over parts of the beaches and the ocean. Of course, when they go swimming, most wear pants (sometimes shorts for the men, almost always long pants for the women) and t-shirts. Once again, the Germans did their best to offend, with several obese older women wallowing around topless. Their men, fearful of seeming less culturaly insensitive, followed suit and we actually saw one poor, deluded older man strutting down the beach in neon-pink semi-thong. What do these people see when they look in the mirror?

Finally, I enjoyed one more bout with food poisoning. I'll mercifully spare you the details other than to note that if your digestive tract is going to go haywire, Bangkok is a great place for it to happen. Very good hospitals, well-qualified doctors and attentive nurses at affordable prices. The only downside -- getting to the hospitals in Bangkok traffic. It took us an hour to travel the one mile to the nearest hospital. Now, imagine, if you will, sitting in unmoving traffic while suffering from dissentery-like symptoms (you know what I'm talking about). That may have been the longest hour of my life.