• Tag Archives Thailand

  • A Night I Needed Friends. And They Were There.

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                      Waxing Bee Hiving Moon

    On the way back from the Red Stag, the Woolly Monday night meeting, the moon hung in the western sky, a thin crescent, a slice, almost too faint to see, a shy moon against a dark blue backdrop.

    Warren and Mark were there tonight.  We had a couple of laughs over hearing as we each turned our heads to hear what the other had said.  Aging men, old ears.  We talked about nuclear power, the Republican health and human services budget which Warren covers for the Star-Tribune.  Mark told me he and Elizabeth had learned Tai Chi from a Chinese teacher in Shanghai.  The instructor spoke no English.  We’re going to practice together at the next Woolly meeting.

    We spoke a bit about Mark (brother) and his coming to America.  Mark (Woolly) met some of the ex-pat community in Thailand.  He said they’re a bit edgy, a different group than other places.

    We each had one of Red Stag’s local food dishes.  I had a Kale gratin that was wonderful with a Limousin hamburger.

    This was a night I needed to talk to friends and I’m glad they were there.

    So, life will change, again.  As it always does.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Family Woolly Mammoths 📎and tagged

  • Scot Escapes With The Gold

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    More on the situation in Bangkok:

    from the Scotsman for December 1st, 2008

    Published Date: 01 December 2008
    By CLAIRE GARDNER
    IT WAS supposed to be a relaxing sunshine holiday in Thailand after a punishing schedule following his record three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
    But Scots cycling champion Chris Hoy found himself caught up in the chaos at Bangkok’s international airport, which has been taken over by anti-government protesters.

    There are more than 500 Britons trapped in the country and Thai officials say the airport will remain closed until at least tonight.

    Fortunately for Hoy, 32, who became a household name after his victories at the Olympics this year, he was able to pull a few strings.

    Thanks to a longstanding relationship with the global parcel delivery company DHL, he and his girlfriend, Sarra Kemp, were among the lucky few to find a flight out of the country – not from Bangkok airport, but from Phuket.

    Last night, Hoy’s agent, Ricky Cowan, revealed the cyclist had managed to fly out of Thailand “avoiding the Bangkok airport altogether”.


    📂This entry was posted in Asia Woolly Mammoths 📎and tagged

  • Ex-Pat Life in Troubled Times

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    37  bar falls 29.69  0mph NW  windchill 36   Samhain

    New Moon (Moon of Long Nights)

    2004 Photo SE Asia Trip Bangkok

    As many of you know, my brother Mark lives in Bangkok.  Thailand is almost invisible in the American press, so you may not have noticed the protests that have been going on there since early in the year.  The politics, even to Mark, a long term resident of Thailand, do not make much sense.   One school of thought believes it is the Bangkok royalist elite facing off against the more rural and populist base of recent prime minister and now exile, Thaksin.

    Difficult to say, but this Buddhist country has a lot of unregistered guns and the protests have taken a nasty turn.  Apparently the goal of the yellow-shirted PAD protesters is a coup by the military which they hope would turn the government back to more traditional  royalist influenced politics.

    Mark and Mary, both ex-pats, live out their lives as foreign nationals in cultures far removed from the West.  Even English speaking, British spawned Singapore has a Chinese government and a citizenry made of up of Malays, Chinese, Indians and a few Caucasians.  As non-citizens, even though well established, their daily lives can get upset when the politics turn nationalist as ex-pats are often visible reminders of the other.

    In Mark’s case, as an American and a white man, he is culturally and physically obviously other almost every where he goes in Thailand.  When jingoism gets cranked up, no matter what the cause, the tendency is to notice strangers/farangi when at other times they may well be invisible.  He feels understandably a bit nervous, but he also says, “It’s a rush to be here.”  The politics are an alive moment, a culture trying to sort out its future and its present, searching for the mix of groups that can govern.  We just had such a moment in the last year here in America.

    I respect and sometimes envy my brother and sister.  They have access every day to the unique and the different, to the daily lives of persons who respond to different customs and values than those we learned in Alexandria, Indiana.  Like them, I value those kinds of interactions and find their willingness to stay admirable.


    📂This entry was posted in Asia Family 📎and tagged

  • The Quiet American

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    53  bar falls 29.88 4mph NE dewpoint 33 Beltane   sunny

                   First Quarter of the Hare Moon

             odebangkok400.jpg

                                      The Quiet American

    Here’s my buddy, Mark Odegard in Thailand.  I can’t tell if this is the palace grounds or not, but I do remember just this sign.  It made me stop and think, too.  He’s just finishing up a safe sex exhibit for UNESCO and says he has come to love Thailand. 

    Southeast Asia has a fascinating pull.  Mark and Mary succumbed to it years ago and have spent much of their adult lives there.  I’ve visited only once, but the memories are fresh and pull me back.  Part of the allure, of course, is the unfamiliar.  Southeast Asia as a place has figured little in American thought and history with the notable exception of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  In those instances subjugation, not understanding was our goal, so the cultures and the people there remained opaque.

    Another part of the attraction is the sense of confidence in their culture that these small countries have.  Thailand has not been conquered since the Angkor days of Khmer invasions.  Cambodia, though pummeled and ruined by first the U.S., then the Khmer Rouge, has a sweet, ancient flavor that overcomes even those dismal moments.  Singapore is a confident, bustling country, Asia lite as my sister says.  Malaysia has an old culture, too, layered over now with Islam, but still retaining a rotating monarchy and other traditional customs.  Burma remains largely the old days when the flying fishes went to play in far off Mandalay.  It retains a more traditional cast because the ruling junta has placed an umbrella over the country, blocking out the light and keeping the people subservient.  Indonesia has a huge population and much diversity with its many islands, but its Indonesian reality seems strong to me.

    It is also cheap, easy for Americans to navigate financially and in that regard much more appealing than the Euro dominated Europe.

    Since I travel often to become a stranger, an outsider, a foreigner, Southeast Asia fulfilled my need at each stop, but each time in a different way:  food, ruins, people, cities, colors, art. 

    Someday I will return


    📂This entry was posted in Friends Travel Woolly Mammoths 📎and tagged