Dearly Beloved ...

About a month ago, we were invited to attend the wedding reception of Noi, one of Patrick’s work colleagues. The reception was held at a hotel just down the street from our apartment.


One of the most important parts of the reception were three blessing speeches for the couple, given by VIPs. One of those VIPs was Patrick and Noi’s boss, Tom. We spent weeks teasing both Tom and Noi about the speech. Tom’s favorite topic in staff meetings was to give an update on the writing of his speech. “Well, I’ve got about 35 pages written, so I’m about halfway there!”

As it turned out, it was a brief but very successful speech. Tom started out with a few lines in inexpert but enthusiastic Thai, which won over the crowd. By the end, he had us all in the palm of his hand.


We weren’t the only ones from the office at the reception. It was great to see everyone all dressed up and ready to have a good time. We had a lot of fun getting Noi and her husband started off on the right foot for their wedding adventure!

Real Anarchy in the BKK!

Well, our Thanksgiving plans fell through this year. We had planned to fly on Wednesday afternoon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to visit some of our friends from Dhaka. We had planned out the whole Thanksgiving day menu, bought tickets to see a Cambodian rock opera about the Khmer Rouge, and were even ready to play some ultimate Frisbee. What we hadn’t counted on was the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement taking over the airport.

The political situation in Thailand (see "Politics, Thai-Style" earlier) has not been very stable over the last couple of years. Since August, a group calling itself the PAD has staged a sit-in at Government House to protest what they feel is a power-hungry and corrupt government. Here's a summary from BBC News. So far the protests haven't caused much disruption of daily life in Bangkok.

Maybe that's why they decided to take over the airport. The Prime Minister was at the APEC summit in Peru, so thousands of protesters decided to go to the airport on Tuesday night to meet him. They almost met Patrick, who was flying home after a week-and-a-half in Nepal. Patrick arrived as the protesters were on their way to the airport, but before they took over. The immigration official who stamped his passport told Patrick, "Outside crazy. Taxi difficult."

Patrick's bag was the first off the carousel, so he made a dash for the taxi stand. The lines there were very long, so he went to another part of the airport where he knew taxis sometimes lingered. He managed to find a taxi who would take him for 400 baht -- about twice the normal fare, but much less than the 800 baht that the first two taxis tried to charge him. (It turns out that the driver who took Patrick was an amateur guitarist. Patrick had his mandolin with him, so he thinks the taxi driver was just interested in talking music with him. The taxi driver told Patrick, "I think you look like professional [musician]!") As they drove away from the airport, they saw big trucks filled with protesters driving towards the terminal. He got home just as the airport was being overrun.

We'd hoped that the situation would be resolved by Thanksgiving day, but as of the time of writing this post, the protesters are still in control of both of the major airports in Bangkok. So, we've cancelled our trip and will be having dinner with a bunch of our co-workers, many of whom have spouses stranded in airports across the region. It's disappointing, but considering that Patrick could have been stuck in Kathmandu or even at the airport here in Bangkok, it's not that bad. We definitely have something to be thankful for this year!

No one really knows how this situation will resolve itself. So far there's been no serious violence, and while thousands of tourists have been inconvenienced, it doesn’t feel scary or unstable here. There is absolutely no threat to foreigners -- this is just part of Thai politics these days. We firmly believe that we're safe here and are hopeful that the Thais will find a peaceful solution to this crisis.

Just as long as they don't try to take our sweet potatoes. Then there'll be real trouble.

Anarchy in the BKK

All right, young lady -- tomorrow you're going to the groomers, and that's final!

The Privilege of the Non-Canine American

We've lived and worked in a lot of different countries and have seen everything from communism to kleptocracy to monarchy and beyond. After all that we've experienced, we agree with Winston Churchill, who, in a speech before the British House of Commons on 11 November 1947, said:

"Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government ... except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Tomorrow is Election Day in the U.S. Vote for the people you think are best suited to represent our communities and lead our nation. Then celebrate our imperfect, chaotic, wonderfully free democratic republic -- and be thankful for the privilege.

(Note: Sarawat's political opinions are her own and do not reflect the official policy of the U.S. Government. She can’t vote in any case.)

The Brides of Dracula ... and Dracula's Dog

UPDATE: Now with the Count!


Happy Hallowe'en!

Travel is grand...

... but staying at home is sweet.

For the first time in -- well, we can’t remember how long! -- we have not traveled out of the country in almost three solid months. How nice it has been! We have really enjoyed settling back in after a great home leave.

That said, we have managed a couple of weekend getaways in Thailand, thanks to our friends in the building, Joy and David. They, and their pug named Amos, have taken care of Sarawat for us when we’ve wanted to get out of Bangkok.

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove about two hours northeast of Bangkok to Kao Yai National Park. A friend had told us about a place to stay there called Kamol Farm, a small, private horse farm. The farm has a restaurant, cabins outfitted with their own bathrooms, and beautiful scenery. Butterflies filled the clean, clear air, and there was no construction noise to be heard for miles -- a welcome change from Bangkok!

We rode a horse around their practice ring (the same horse, but not at the same time) but found out their horses weren’t being ridden very much. As a result, they were a bit barn-sour and cantankerous, so we decided to pass on taking them out for a trail ride. Fortunately, there were plenty of other activities to keep us busy.

The major attraction in the region is the National Park. We had expected a nice little forest, but were amazed to find a sophisticated park with an information center, well-marked trails, campsites, food facilities, and nicely maintained scenic overlooks.


Park information boards told of elephants, exotic birds, tigers, gaur (we didn’t know either ... a water buffalo-type creature), monkeys, and – get this! – king cobras. Luckily we never saw those, but we did see some beautiful hornbills, cranes, a few monkeys, and some big lizards. Gibbons in the trees surrounded us on our hikes with their musical, haunting calls.

We were also joined on our hikes by some unwanted hitchhikers – leeches. All one can really say about leeches is that even if you know they are harmless, they still give you the heebie jeebies and you find yourself running around like a little girl screaming, “Pull it off! Pull it off!”

(Note: Patrick never ran around like a little girl screaming. He may have given the occasional manly shudder.)



There are also vineyards in the area. The wine is not fantastic, but it is nice to see some Thai entrepreneurs making a real effort to produce there. We visited one vineyard for a tasting and an amazing dinner at their restaurant.

Over Columbus Day weekend, we drove about one hour southwest to a town called Samut Songkhram, which is famous for its fireflies. Yes, lightning bugs are a big deal in this place. The Rough Guide calls it a “tiny estuarine province” that sits along the Mae Khlong river, crisscrossed with a network of 300 canals. Our accommodation there was a “home-stay” on a coconut farm. The family has a few small, Thai-style cabins (on stilts!) on their grounds and offers its visitors boat trips to see the local sights.

They even showed us how to collect palm sugar from the coconut trees and make candies from it. (Just the knowledge you need when you’re on a deserted tropical island....)



We took a traditional Thai rowboat out in the afternoon and saw traditional Thai homes, traditional Thai temples, and traditional Thai fruit farms (pomelo, coconuts, guavas, lychees) on the banks.


Then we rowed right down Main Street (er, Canal) of a town called Amphawa. Fascinating old buildings were built right on the canal, which was the site of a vibrant floating market. This is how most of Thailand used to be, before the Thais paved over all of their canals and started using cars instead of boats.

The fireflies are the night attraction. This species of firefly likes lamphu trees. Floating close to the bank in the canal after dark, one can easily recognize these trees. They’re absolutely full of fireflies, who pulse their tiny lights quickly -- like Christmas lights! What’s weirder is that they are all synchronized with each other. Imagine 100-200 tiny fairy lights in a tree, blinking on and off all at the same time. What fun to be sitting in a small wooden rowboat on a canal in Thailand, watching fireflies!

The other claim to fame of Samut Songkhram is as the birthplace of Eng and Chang, the original Siamese twins. That was exciting to learn, as we only recently discovered that they called Wilkesboro, NC home for a number of years (but we don’t think they ever attended Merlefest) and eventually settled on a farm in White Plains, NC (in the northwest of the state, near Mount Airy, Andy Griffith’s hometown). We felt it our duty as North Carolinians in Thailand to go visit the small memorial erected to the brothers.

Other than these two side-trips, we have enjoyed spending our weekends at home with Sarawat, enjoying our favorite places (a lot of them having to do with food) in Bangkok, and hanging out with friends. November will feature a lot more travel – Patrick will go to Hanoi for a week and Kathmandu for a week-and-a-half for work ... and we’re off to Cambodia for Thanksgiving!

Politics, Thai-Style

By now many of you have probably heard something about the current political unrest in Thailand. Thai politics are pretty complicated, but there are good summaries for novices at Time magazine's website and BBC News.

The protests haven't really had much of an effect on us -- we live a few miles away from Government House, where the protesters have focused their attention. However, we hear a lot about it from the Thais around us. According to reports in the news, tourist numbers are down 20%-30% since the crisis started. The Thai economy depends heavily on tourism, so the drop has made a lot of people nervous.

The other day, we took a cab to work and heard a 10-minute tirade from the taxi driver about the situation:

"Thailand crazy! Many problem, government no good! Look -- no traffic, no tourist coming! Today I make 200 baht -- I start three o'clock in morning! [It was about eight a.m. at this point.] Normally make 1200, 1500 baht!"

He wanted to know where we were from; when we told him we're American, he said, "Oh, America good!" Well, sometimes, we said. "No, American people good, like Thai people -- Thai people good. Only government crazy! Bush crazy -- like fighting, all the time! Everywhere -- Iraq, Afghan -- always fighting, fighting! Bush crazy, like Thaksin crazy."

No one yet seems to be sure where the current crisis is headed, but so far the coolest heads on all sides seem to be prevailing. Meanwhile, the Thais are playing to their strengths in coping with the chaos -- this week we got this brochure from the spa across the street:


"Sawadee-ka, you like foot massage?"

summer camp is over

goodbye, doggie ice cream from thonglor pet hospital.

goodbye, interesting traffic on soi 12.

goodbye, maid who fed me by hand.

goodbye, Virasingh family -- and thank you for taking care of me this summer when I was so sick.

love,

sarawat

Our Home, Courtesy of Messrs. Smith and Murray

Our "special project" while on home leave was to buy a house. We've been thinking about it for a few years now, and with the housing market in the U.S. declining, we thought this summer would be an ideal time to buy.

After some -- but not much! -- debate, we decided to look at Asheville, NC. We were in Asheville last Christmas and fell in love with the town. It has so much that we like: lots of interesting people, a small town feel, a vibrant arts & music scene, and proximity to some of the most beautiful national parks in the U.S.


We started looking at houses on the Internet in January. By May we felt we had a pretty good idea of what would be available in the market. Jennifer interviewed our agent, June, over the phone from Bangkok. "We want to start looking at houses on a Monday and make an offer on something by Friday," Jennifer told her. "Is that possible?" June responded with what we would soon learn was her usual (and well-founded!) confidence: "If you haven't found a house you love within three days, then I'm not doing my job."

So that's what we did. We showed up in Asheville at nine-thirty on a Monday morning. We saw seven houses that day and seven houses the next. We decided on a house -- number 13! -- on Wednesday, put together an offer for delivery on Wednesday night, and by three o'clock on Thursday afternoon we had a signed contract with the sellers. Closing on the house took another month, but thanks to our crack team from Beverly-Hanks and Associates, everything worked perfectly. We closed on the house four days before we left the States to come back to Bangkok.


Here's our new home: 129 Pearson Drive, Asheville, NC.


It was designed and built in 1907 by a man named Richard Sharp Smith. When George Vanderbilt II, one of the richest men ever to have lived, decided he wanted a country estate, he built the Biltmore House. Biltmore, a 175,000-square-foot mansion modelled after the châteaus of the Loire Valley, is the largest privately-owned home in the U.S. Richard Morris Hunt designed Biltmore for Vanderbilt, and brought a man from England to serve as the supervising architect for the construction. That man was Richard Sharp Smith.

When Hunt died, Smith became Vanderbilt's personal architect. Smith built a number of homes in Asheville, including ours. The original blueprints show the name "G.R. Murray, Esq." We don't know who Murray was yet, but we're working on it.

The house itself is on the smaller side, about 1900 square feet (not including the basement). Behind the house is a guest cottage with an additional 480 square feet.



Both houses have been meticulously preserved and restored. Almost everything, from the cedar shake siding and hardwood floors to the blown glass windows, is in pristine condition. The house sits in the Montford neighborhood, one of the largest National Register Historic Districts in the southeastern U.S. Our neighbors include two famous bed-and-breakfast inns, the Lion & the Rose and the Black Walnut.

The main house features two fireplaces, one in the main room and one in the den. Ceramic tiles surround the firepit in each.


The main room also has built-in oak bookcases, original to the year 1907.


The kitchen is long and narrow, with beautiful tiles and beadboard walls.


The office, set up here as a bedroom, was once part of the front porch. The bathroom in the rear is not original, but the installation was done with wonderful sensitivity to the history of the house.



There are two bedrooms and two baths upstairs. Like the downstairs bathroom, the guest bath features a clawfoot tub. The master bedroom features additional closets that were built into the room -- again, done with great style!


The master bathroom was once a sleeping porch. It has been enclosed but still shows the original cedar shake siding from the exterior of the house.















The guest cottage has its own fireplace, kitchen and bathroom -- with another clawfoot tub! The ceiling was raised in the center to create a wonderful feeling of spaciousness in what is really a tiny little home.



This house really is just the perfect place for us. It's fifteen minutes' walk from the center of downtown Asheville and fifteen minutes' drive from the national parks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We even have a swing in the front yard!


It will be a few years before we can move in, but we're so happy we've decided to buy this now. So from now on, when people ask us where we’re from, we'll be proud to tell them: "Asheville!"

What's for Dinner?

Much of our home leave seemed to revolve around food. We ate barbecue in four states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and sampled lots of local produce, like this at the Raleigh Farmers' Market:



Thailand wasn't far from our minds, though -- we couldn't bring ourselves to eat any Thai food in the States, because we knew there was no way it could hold a candle to what we get here.


We managed to avoid fast food for the most part. After all, some of it sounded kind of scary:

There’s No Place Like Home ... Leave

During June and July we were in the U.S. on "home leave." The government requires us to go back to the homeland every couple of years to reacclimate to American culture and remember who we're working for out here. Patrick took a two-week course on federal contracting (mmm, exciting!) while Jennifer did some networking with her old contacts, but we were able to spend almost five full weeks on vacation, visiting family and friends. Patrick's friend Tammy flew down to Washington, DC from St. Paul, MN to visit for a weekend and meet with their friend Judy, who Patrick hadn't seen since 1996!

We started our vacation in Columbia, SC with Jennifer's dad. Art & Kerry ensured that we got off on the right foot with quality relaxation. We went to see Kung Fu Panda -- great film! -- and enjoyed a nice picnic along the river.




We spent a lot of time in Asheville, NC, working on a special project (more on that in a separate post). Asheville sits in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains, so we got a chance to do some hiking, reconnect with nature, and enjoy some peace & quiet -- something we miss, living in Bangkok. (Can you spot the moth?)





Of course, we spent a lot of time on the road.



We drove down to Georgia to visit Patrick's extended family, including his grandparents, a couple of aunts & uncles, and many, many animals at the farm in Hawkinsville! Then it was off to the Isle of Palms, near Charleston, SC, to visit the Beall family: Ben, Mary, Jack, Sara, and Max. We had a great Fourth of July weekend with them, playing on the beach, helping Ben & Mary shop for houses, and renewing our friendship.

After another quick trip to Asheville, we spent a week with Jennifer's mom, sister and aunt in Raleigh, NC. There were some home projects to help out with -- cleaning out storage and re-sealing the deck -- but also lots of good time to simply hang out. We also had a wonderful but all-too-brief visit with Tina and Mark while Helen enjoyed playing with Charlie.



Then it was off to Prince George, VA to Patrick's parents' new house. We earned our keep out in the yard with various construction projects and managed to find time to pull a few fish out of the lake with the newest member of the Wilson family, Guinness.





Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Bangkok! We squeezed in a quick visit with Eric, Sheryl and Katie Johnson, and our last official visit was with Eric's mom, the night before we left. It was an ideal trip -- we were ready to come back to the States, we made the most out of our time with friends and family, and we came back to own home here refreshed and ready to continue our adventure abroad. Thanks to everyone who made home leave so much fun!