Thailand 21: September 23, 2002

Liz and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary last month. Our friend Alisara arranged a weekend package for us at the Peninsula Hotel. We were picked up by a Rolls-Royce which took us to our 31st floor suite overlooking the Chao Phraya and downtown Bangkok. Wall to wall windows, champagne waiting for us, and a surround sound stereo. Yes, the foreign service is full of sacrifices.

Bangkok has wonderful food, beautiful temples, and great people. But, it is not known for sophisticated cultural offerings -- few art museums, little theater etc. However, this month, Bangkok is sponsoring a cultural festival with arts from around the world. Last week, we went to see Aida, presented by the Bucharest National Opera Company. Like you, when I think of quality opera, the first thing I think of is Romania. Actually, it was an excellent performance, by which I mean I did not fall asleep once. That may have had something to do with the seats in the Arts Center. Its really a beautiful building, but the seats were made for Thais, and small Thais at that. It was like flying coach . . . on People's Express.

As many of you already know, I have a talent, no . . . a gift for fashion. Actually, our friend Kay recently suggested that I appeared to still use the Garanimals method of matching tops and pants. Anyway, two weeks ago, Liz and I joined a group of friends at a fashion show put on by Campari, entitled "A red passion for fashion." Yes, indeed. I blended right in with the young and beautiful of high-society Bangkok. Actually, after a year here, we (well, actually Liz) have gotten to know a few people and we can go to an event like that and not just stand in the corner. MTV Thailand covered the event and I kept trying to wander in front of their cameras, but never seemed to get onto TV. By the way, is there a more foul substance in the world than Campari? Its like the dregs that pharmaceutical companies throw out as too disgusting to go into cough medicine. Nevertheless, some seem to consider it a "hip" European drink and trendy Thais seemed willing to try a variety of Campari cocktails.

We had another Congressional Delegation come through last month. It was a bipartisan group, interested in the non-partisan topic of shopping. I spent seven hours escorting some of the delegation around assorted markets. No further comment is necessary. Actually, Liz's company, Telecom Asia, sponsored a dinner cruise for the delegation. Liz organized the event on a great boat that left from the Oriental Hotel. The delegation loved it.

A few quick stories of life in the consular section. We receive about 150-200 visa applications each day. We approve many of those without interviews (but not without security checks), but end up interviewing about 75 people per day. As I've written before, I refuse around half of those applicants that I interview (my number of refusals has increased somewhat following my anti-fraud training). Most interviews are not particularly memorable. A few stand out. The other day, I asked a woman where she wanted to visit in the U.S. She paused, pulled out a sheet and began to study it. She had difficulty reading it and asked me to look at it. On the sheet, someone had written out all her answers for her, along with helpful suggestions such as "if they don't ask it, don't answer it." Another woman approached the window with her American boyfriend. After speaking with the boyfriend for a minute, I asked him to take a seat while I spoke to her. In reviewing her passport, it seemed that she had already applied for an immigrant visa to Germany -- because she had a German husband. I explained to her that she could not visit the U.S. with an American boyfriend when she had already sought to move to Germany with another man. When I called her boyfriend up to the window, I explained that his girlfriend simply didn't qualify for a visa. He took it pretty well. Actually, a good percentage of Americans (always men) do not argue particularly vociferously when we refuse tourist visas to their girlfriends. Many simply are confused. How is it that they as taxpaying American citizens are not entitled to bring in their girlfriends? Yet, they often accept (or at least don't fight with) our decisions. That's not always the case. About once a day, I end up getting yelled at by some hill-billy upset that I won't issue his Pattaya bar-girl lap dancer, whom he's known for 3 weeks, a visa to come to the U.S. "to learn about the cultural diversity of America." One American wrote a letter to the INS and his Congressman comparing me to Osama Bin Laden, noting that I had stripped him of all of his rights as an American citizen.

Interviewing can be difficult. My Thai improves by the day, but I still miss a fair amount of what the applicants say. Also, its no fun when a family comes up to the window and I know right away that I will not be able to issue a visa to them. They often have the children come up to hand me the number and wai. Occasionally, I like to crack a joke or two, but you really can't do that with someone you think you probably will refuse. If you get too friendly, they think they're doing well and are crushed when you refuse them a visa. My big joke is with married women who are traveling without their families to the U.S. I ask them whether their husbands are capable of raising the kids in their absence. It never fails to elicit a chuckle from the women. Of course, they're praying I'll give them a visa, so they'd laugh at just about anything I say.

We have an e-mail address in which we take questions on the visa process. Most are simple. Some are rehashes of complaints -- often cc'ed to their Congressmen/women. We also get some random questions. One man wrote that he had met a Thai woman over the internet and invited her to visit him in the U.S. She stated that the U.S. Embassy required that she obtain "visa insurance" at $20 a day before we issued her a visa. He had already sent her $1,000 for her air ticket and her visa application and wanted to know about this visa insurance policy. I informed him that there was no such thing.

I am also working half days in the American Citizen Services section. Much of this work is fairly routine -- notarizing documents (at $30 a pop, not very popular with many of our fellow Americans) and renewing or adding pages to passports. We also get some very difficult cases involving custody disputes, mentally imbalanced Americans, destitute Americans, and deaths. I had my first death case last week. An American had jumped to his death from his 14th floor apartment in Pattaya. I traveled down to Pattaya with a Thai colleague to investigate his death and collect his belongings. We had to contact his next of kin (a brother) to let him know the details of his brother's death (the State Dept. in Washington had already informed the brother of the death itself). I met with the police, went through his apartment, spoke with his landlord and a friend, and was shown a bloody kitchen knife with which he apparently had stabbed himself before he jumped. At times like that, document productions don't seem so bad. However, I think it is important that we work with the families and I know that many appreciate what we do. Its just sad seeing how so many Americans end their lives without family after completely bottoming out. The man whom I was dealing with had had a nice apartment, some money and kept in touch with his brother. Many others end up in cheap rooms, with prostitutes (of either sex), surrounded by drugs, alcohol and porn. Either they had become completely estranged from their families or their deaths (and the surrounding circumstances) come as a complete surprise to their families. At times, we have to tell a grieving family member that their husband or brother was leading a double-life. Those are not pleasant conversations.