Thailand 24: January 7, 2003

I finally have finished my time in non-immigrant visas. Its good to be out of a section where Thai applicants obtain our home phone number and call at 10 pm at night to ask for advice and American Citizens tell me I treat people like dogs when I refuse visas to their girlfriends. One friendly fellow (a lawyer, surprisingly) threatened to sic the federal judiciary on me when I turned down his sister in law. Of course, leaving visas means that I am in American Citizen Services full time. On my first day, I had to call two sets of elderly parents to tell them that their children died in a car crash. We had 110 deaths in our consular district last year and I spend a good chunk of my time identifying dead people, collecting their possessions and making funeral arrangements. When not focused on that, I deal with a variety of requests from Americans living in or visiting Thailand. I console veterans angry at their inability to purchase cigarettes duty free at the Embassy commissary (But I served my country, dammit!), replace lost or stolen passports (quick hint for travelers, always carry a copy of your passport separate from the actual passport), respond to the more than occasional loony (I had no idea how many CIA plots I was involved in until I took this job). And how do you respond to a woman who wants to know how the Embassy can help prevent her husband's ex-mistress from harassing her?

Outside of work, we've kepts ourselves pretty busy. Liz had an editorial on telecom regulation published in the Nation newspaper. I didn't. Last month, we both ran a 5 k race in Lumpini Park. The race started at 8 am, but by that time the temperature already was pushing 90 with tremendous humidity. Unlike races in DC, where they set aside a course for the runners, here we had to jostle our way through the normal morning crowd in the park. Lots of "excuse me's" and sidestepping. We made it until the end though Liz went to the hospital that evening worried about possible dehydration.

Liz's sister, Marisa, and brother in law, Todd, spent over two weeks with us in December. We visited Angkor Wat and Saigon, both remarkable in their own way. Angkor truly amazes with the sheer volume of well-preserved ruins. It's a photographer's dream and, if anyone is interested, we can bore you with the over 200 photos the four of us took over 2 days. Unlike the U.S., the Cambodian government has few preservation statutes and an even less effective liability law. Thus, visitors today can clamber all over the ruins from top to bottom. It can't be good for the buildings, but its one unique experience. Considering the ruins are from 700 to 1000 years old and have suffered from lots of recent pillage (not to mention the Khmer Rouge using them as sanctuaries), many are in remarkable condition, with exquisite bas reliefs detailing daily life and giant carved serene stone faces representing the Angkorian god-kings. Siem Reap, the city closest to the ruins, is growing dramatically. Many new hotels and restaurants contrasting with the abject poverty in the surrounding areas. Over the next 10 years, the smalltown feeling will disappear and the touts and ripoffs will only increase, so I would recommend a visit sooner, not later.

Saigon impresses in a different way. It's a large city, but the city center, which contains most sites of interest to tourists, is rather compact. Unlike Bangkok, which already is a cosmopolitan, westernized metropolis, the center of Saigon maintains a distinctly Vietnamese feel. As of yet, it contains few skyscrapers, instead, the city still has a host of colonial, French buildings which now are being refurbished. Few passenger cars, but lots of scooters and bicycyles. As in Hanoi, crossing the street is a challenge that basically requires you to screw up your nerve and just start walking into traffic. Many women still dress in the graceful Ao Dai and wear long sleeved gloves while biking to keep the sun off their arms. There are several terrific French/Vietnamese restaurants and Liz and Marisa can better describe the many shopping options.

We visited the "War Remnants" Museum, formerly known as the "Museum of American War Atrocities." It is the Vietnamese Government's museum detailing the war from its perspective. Some sections of the museum are very good, particularly the wing featuring photographs and stories about Western war correspondents, many of whom died covering the conflict. Other areas were more disturbing, detailing the devastation of chemical defoliants and B-52 bombing raids. The museum's bias was shown more through omission than commission. Though most of the English descriptions were not horribly prejudicial (Marisa said the French was a bit more one-sided and I can only imagine what the Vietnamese said) they detailed the results of American actions, without any mention of conduct by the North Vietnamese or Viet Cong. This lack of balance clearly was lost on many of the site's European (and some American) visitors who scrawled various anti-American diatribes in the museum visiting books. One American wrote that the museum's photos could never be shown in the U.S., perhaps forgetting to note that most of the pictures were taken by American photographers. Many of the Europeans drew paralells between American imperialism in Vietnam and Iraq (televised images of dancing Afghans after we drove out the Taliban perhaps explain why there were few references to Afghanistan) and others noted the obvious influence of the Zionist lobby on American Vietnam policy. Many praised Vietnam for its resistance to American expansionism. Now, whatever your views about American involvement in Vietnam, the Vietnamese people have a right to be proud at how they have recovered from the war. But, no fair observer of that nation's history can fail to note that Vietnam sent its military into both Laos and Cambodia (controlling Cambodia for 10 years in the 80s) and that its centralized agricultural policy led to tens of thousands of boat people fleeing the country. But, many European guests would prefer to think that American meddling keeps Vietnam down.

Todd and I also visited the CuChi tunnels, a collection of Viet Cong tunnels about 50 kilometers from downtown Saigon. The massive complex housed numerous Viet Cong fighters right under the noses of the South Vietnamese government and American military. The tunnels, short sections of a few have been widened for more full-figured Western guests, remain claustrophobic, hot, dark and humid. The guides described in great detail the traps the Viet Cong laid for American soldiers, including, he claimed, trained hornets.

On our return to Thailand, Todd and I ventured out again, this time to the Bridge over the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi province about 150 kilometers west of Bangkok. The Bridge itself is underwhelming as it swarms with tourists and no longer transverses jungle, but instead connects two sides of a small city. However, the countryside close to the Burmese border is beautiful and we took a claustrophic train ride through sugar cane and tapioca plantations. I noted several Japanese tourists who must feel similar to how we felt at the museum in Vietnam. They were welcomed, but it was the horrible actions of their nation that the bridge and nearby museum described.

We recovered from all this strenuous activity by going to Bed for New Years -- Bed being a new club in Bangkok in which you recline on a long line of mattresses while being served dinner and drinks. The decor is 1960s space age, but the food was great and we took over the back quarter of the bar with our group of 16. No photographers, so no more pictures in Thai society pages, but we'll keep trying.