It happened Again!

I was just walking around a night market at Ramkahaeng a friend told me about and a lady stopped me and asked where I was from. I usually say Sukhumvit “si sip gow”
(where I live) but she seemed so sincere I didn’t want to shock her so I said Toronto. It turns out she works for the Ministry of Education and wanted to practice her English. She asked what I was doing here and so on and I told her about my background. She works in the department of innovation and I told her I had very clear ideas about where the Thai education system should be going. Who knows where that contact will lead in the long run, but certainly in the short run she invited us to a Thai wedding on December 18 at the Erawan hotel, which is the poshest hotel in Bangkok. I imagine it should be absolutely great.( as well as costly!). Apparently Thais have huge weddings.

The reason I was at the market, is, of course, all about pants. Can’t remember if I gave you an update on the pants situation since I mentioned I left my black pants in the taxi but here is the story. I decided to have pants made for me and went to one of the 10,000 tailors on Sukhumvit. I clearly chose the wrong one and have been back with the same pair of pants about 5 times. I asked him the last time:” do you have anyone who pays a deposit but doesn’t pick up their pants?” He said sure and runs upstairs to bring down more pants. I can’t resist a bargain and bought two more pair ( neither of which fit) which led to 5 more visits. Needless to say, we are on a first name basis, but we both hate seeing each other.

What an ordeal and what stupidity on my part. This is why my colleague phoned me to-night and told me he was at an outdoor Thai market where they were selling Dockers pants for about $5.00 and all kinds of other neat stuff and I should get out there. I bought a pair of casual pants and read the label: “Assembled in the Dominican Republic” What a story that must be about manufacturing, marketing, transportation etc. Would love to explore that route from design, to assembly and purchase of raw materials, to shipment, to sales and how it ended up in an outdoor market for $5.00 in Thailand! I bet Friedberg could write a book about that.

Sylvia and Josh are coming next week so things should be a little different around here. In preparation, my owner bought me a new air conditioner which sounds like a 737 staring up, a new fridge which just appeared when I came home from the week-end down south and God knows what else. Will have to go and look as the country is gearing up for the King’s birthday this Wednesday. Should be a blast…literally. There are fireworks and concerts every night so lots to do.