Category: Thai Society/Culture

Songkran 2010

Although I went to work on Friday, most people here have the whole week off to celebrate Thai New Year – I’m probably the only blogger in Thailand not posting photos of water fights and drunken merriment, but that’s only because I have a two kids who love playing with water every single day, so it’s not that special… And since I’m in no particular hurry to see people get hurt in horrible traffic accidents in the name of water fight shits and giggles,we mostly stay at home. Bah, humbug.
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Something exciting did happen last weekend, though. Our booming housing development’s manager called us up to let us know she was having a good masseuse come through, so we asked if he could stop by our place. In short – he’s the best we’ve ever experienced, any place, any price. He’s more of an acupressure specialist than a masseuse, but he works magic. He has one of the few claims to fame as a masseuse that means something in my mind – he was recognized for his skills by Thaksin (regardless of what you think of the man or the politician, it’s pretty much given that Mr. T could hire any masseuse in the world so the fact that he chose this guy means something). This guy, seriously, is at least the very best in this province, and we’ve been to the majority of them here, including three different blind parlors/schools (I was convinced for the longest time that blind masseuses weer the best). He diagnosed some preexisting conditions that Nam, Max, and I had just by touching our arms, and he had a very unique style, using arms as localizers and working mostly on the legs. He mostly used his elbows. His massage did not really hurt at all, except when working on high tension points, but the final effect was complete and total relaxation and an enervating high. We are keen on trying it again, if for no other reason than to make sure he really is as good as we think he is.
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Trying to put two little kids to sleep is like playing whack-a-mole, except that you can’t whack them. It’s amazing how they can set each other off crying so you end up with a symphony of tears that makes you want to tear your ears off.

Thai Red Shirts

The Big Picture covers the red shirts clashing with police and military. This is the unrest I referred to when we visited the US embassy two weeks ago. And yes, the consulate was again chosen as a protest site after we left, so… Baby luck was on our side.
UPDATE: Some people have asked me if the reds are paid to gather. Yes, we know of people from around here who went to Bangkok to make money demonstrating both this time and the last time when the yellow shirts overran the airport.
(thx Mark)

Khon Kaen Passport Office

We spent this morning getting Max and Mina’s Thai passports. The only reason this is remarkable is that the passport office, located at city hall in Khon Kaen was the most clean and efficient government office I have seen in a long time. There was ample staff, and they were friendly and helpful. The offices were well-equipped and modern, and they completely obliterate the usual Thai bureaucratic need for duplicate signed copies and other such nonsense – it’s a totally paper-free operation (well, except for the end product, of course)! The passports take about a week to get to you by mail and cost a thousand baht ($30 US).

What Mina Thinks of Bangkok (Daddy Concurs)

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Quite predictably, the long car ride to and from Bangkok was not appreciated by either baby, which they were quite vocal about. This was a kind of test run; do we really want to unleash these two on a plane full of innocents for the cumulative nineteen or so hours it takes to get back to Cali (w/one stopover)? The answer might just be children’s cold medicine…
Mina’s birth abroad has been duly reported, and her passport is in the works. Legally, she’s not a citizen exactly but has all the same rights as a citizen when she gets the passport. Say what? Yeah, it’s kind of a funny thing (though not half as funny as finding out that there is a Thai way of counting months for the Chinese zodiac and that Mina is a Tiger like me instead of an Ox because she was born in December) that way. I asked the vice consul to explain better what a non-citizen who bears all the rights (and responsibilities) of a citizen is, but even she didn’t know, so hey, that’s some pedantic shit right there.
Bangkok was hot and muggy as ever, and it was a relief to get back home. It’s hotter here, but it’s kind of a clean heat – Bangkok pollution just has a way of working itself into every pore and just making you sticky and gross. Plus, the scourge of mosquitoes in our room was epic. They attacked Max and I until Nam and I just got fed up with it and turned on all the lights and went medieval on their asses. It was like a Tarantino scene because I kept having to use various tools to get at these mosquitoes hiding in different places – a rolled-up newspaper to bat one off the ceiling, and a pillow to smash on in a headboard groove. One even got inside Mina’s portable framed mosquito net and bit her cheek, which woke her up, too.
Itchy, screaming babies at 3 in the morning sucks hard. So getting payback against the insect kingdom in general felt really good, and after we devoted twenty minutes to smashing every bug in the room, we fell asleep again and had no more problems. Up until that though, I’ve never seen mosquitoes so voracious. We had the AC and two floor fans pointed at Max and the bastards were still getting through to torture him.

We Against the World

I have a master’s class to teach this morning, then our whole family + nanny are off to Bangkok. We have an appointment tomorrow morning at the embassy’s ACS building to report Mina’s birth abroad and apply for a passport. The problem? There are 100,000 demonstrators trying to get noticed at high profile venues such as, say, in the front of the US embassy. So I’m in my crowd-dodging mode and have hardened my forearms just in case.
I would have waited for the demonstrators to go home, but last year it took them months just to give up their hold on the airport, and we really need this passport now.

Doctor Fish Foot Spa

In the true spirit of Christmas, we visited the biggest shopping mall in this part of Thailand, Central Plaza Khon Kaen, that just opened a few weeks ago. We were mostly there to buy Max a new booster seat for the car so Mina could inherit his old one, but we stumbled across a very recently opened foot spa featuring 15 minute doctor fish treatments for 99 baht. We’ve seen doctor fish spas on TV for the past ten years or so, and we always wanted to try them out… I mean, a stupid fish willing to gnaw on my stinky dogs? I had to try that!
The verdict: It’s kinda freaky at first. The fish are actually eating you, so it takes some getting used to, but it was worth it. Your skin comes out feeling very smooth.


Note: Max was totally freaked out and wouldn’t touch the water, even though he usually likes fish and aquariums.

Royalty Visiteth

The crown princess is coming to Rajabhat Mahasarakham University for some kind of contest to be held at our new indoor event hall. This means I saw the first helicopter since the last time a member of the royal family came (last year, when another princess landed on our track to be taken by motorcade to preside over the graduation festivities for the sports college next door, where I exercise every day). Our building’s parking lot has been declared the space for motorbikes, so there are probably a thousand parked out there so far.
In an hour or so when I leave for my workout, I hope I can get my car out. I parked it under some trees far away, but even those spaces might fill up.