Bangkok Street Scenes
Sidewalk Seamstress
Small Family
Taking A Break From Shopping
Bangkok
Coffee Yen
Iced Coffee Stands
Street Food
Eggs For Sale
Soup Stand
BBQ
BBQ2
BBQ3
Fruit Stand
Motorcycle Serenade
Last night I hopped a motorcycle taxi at the corner. “Where you from?” the cute young driver asked. “America,” I said. “America Pie” he sang to me all the way to my dentist appointment. “I used to work at cocktail bar,” he laughed, “and I learn all the words to American Pie!” I enjoyed the song but really hoped I wasn’t going to lose my knees as he dodged in and out the cars and other cyclists at terrifying speed.
Bar Girls
Bar Girls Waiting For Customers To Buy Them A Beer And Whatever…
Street Noodles
My favorite food in Thailand is one of the many varieties of noodle soup found on street carts. Street food is safe if you select a cart in early to mid day, when the food will be fresh, and watch to see that the broth has been boiling. There usually is a choice of wide or narrow noodles. There will be a table or two where I can sit and add ground chilis or chili oil, fish sauce or sugar (Thais put sugar in everything which is why I think Thai food appeals to Westerners) to a steaming bowl of rather sweet clear broth that I think is made with turnips. I usually request fish balls, fried ground pork or crispy pork and bean sprouts from a selection of meat and vegetables resting on shelves in a small glass case in front of the huge pot of broth. (I avoid the reddish-brown chunks in the case which my son says is congealed blood.) All for 25 baht or about 50 cents.
A Light In The South of Thailand
Visitors, to the south of Thailand, including foreigners, will soon have an opportunity to experience muslim life in a village in the province of Yala. A “Widower’s Village” is being built in Rotanbu Village under a resettlement project funded by Her Majesty the Queen. The 150 homes, built by the Thai military, are for Buddhist and Muslim women who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks and deaths caused by the Thai military in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Holiday makers can stay in a home for a week-end for 200 baht ($5) a day. The Queen requests that visitors not interfere with muslim prayer rituals out of respect for the Quran. There will be no time for loneliness, one woman says.
Lucky Luk!
I called my son Doug yesterday morning. He had just returned from the fish market on Koh Samui with a salad bowl of large fresh gung (shrimp) with heads still on for $1.60 and had cooked up a traditional Thai omelet with puk (vegetables) and prik (chilis) and steamed rice. Doug does all the cooking. Lucky Luk!
Teach The Children What?
On National Children’s Day in Thailand, it is a tradition for the Prime Minister to deliver a positive “motto.” This year the wealthy PM Thaksin who owns Thai Air and other assets said that children should read more and think for themselves so they become smart successful adults. A secondary student, however, respectfully asked the PM whether children should value honesty and simplicity over succeeding by any means necessary. Oops.
The irony is that the PM evidently does not believe in advocating the same for the adults ministers under him. Amid flagging popularity in the cities and on-going feuding with the press, Thaksin recently took a dog and pony show to Roi Et in an impoverished province in the northeast. In his “reality show” he says he has done all the thinking and ministers just have to follow his instructions, eg, women should add sticky rice to their hand-woven baskets to add value…never mind that the coconut milk in sticky rice would sour on it’s way to Bangkok.
Most people here seem to think (for themselves) as, one columnist put it, “it’s just a stunt to fool the farmers” into thinking he is doing something for them. “When he comes to camp out in Roi Et just to give us some buffalos, land or knock-down houses it goes to show he doesn’t understand the root causes of poverty.”
Most people reportedly are not even listening to the show as it is on pay for view TV that most cannot afford.
Bumrungrad Hospital
Nearly as diverse as New York, sitting in a Bumrungrad waiting room is a show of national and ethnic costume…many from the middle east…burkas, jalabas and Arabic head wear…males greeting each other by touching noses…or foreheads…I couldn’t tell.
The hospital, which caters to expats and foreigners, has an American CEO, is run by U.S. hospital standards and provides care in the English language. Most of the doctors have obtained their degrees and practiced medicine in the US…returning to Thailand to retire near their families with inexpensive household help, cooks and gardeners. Plush and efficient, it hardly even feels like a hospital. You are allowed to consult any kind of specialist you want without a referral…last year I saw a cardiologist who, upon reading an echocardiogram, adjusted my medication that brought down my blood pressure by 30 points. If I had had similar care in the U.S. much earlier I might have avoided a thickening of the heart muscle but doctors there avoid expensive tests and “unnecessary” referrals.
Today, I had a routine blood screen, chest film, physical exam and eye exam all for 5000 baht, or $125 and considering that my American insurance has a $1,000 deductible, it’s a deal to have medical care here. And that doesn’t even take into account the incredibly respectful and gracious Thai demeanor.
Laughingnomad 