People I met along the way!

I just came back from my nightly swim and was reflecting on how many interesting people I met this week just looking for an apartment. Of course, the most interesting for me were the ladies of the night I talked about in the last entry. It looked like they lived in hovel, shared rooms and God knows what else, but were so generous to a stranger, offering me a beer and refusing to take money for it. That impressed me!

Today, I entered the world of little India. A guy was renting his house, or more like a townhouse with two floors and three bedrooms for about $300 a month. It was right beside the klong (canal) and therefore really quiet but to get there you had to wind your way through a labyrinth of streets getting more and more narrow and more and more Indian. It was Dawali today and when he picked me up he had a red mark on his forehead since he just returned from prayers. He was an Indian who told me about his arranged marriage to a Thai Indian and how successful his marriage turned out even though he was from a different country. He also told me that he lived in Bangkok for the past 18 years but when I asked him to speak to a taxi driver in Thai, he told me he did not speak Thai. Later on, I went on a motorcycle looking for more apartments and the driver was also an Indian who was born in Bangkok but still considered an outsider by the indigenous population. I know since I have had many talks with Indian tailors who feel quite like outsiders in their own country. Even though they went to Thai schools, speak fluent Thai they will never feel part of the country.

I should also mention that when I went to look at the house, it was pretty much what I expected with mattresses on the floor, a dank smell and clothes strewn all around. However, I did meet the three young British tenants who were teachers in Bangkok sitting around playing the guitar and hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. I guess I am really privileged and spoiled to have a neat apartment that looks and feels quite airy.

I guess what strikes me the most about all of the apartments is how people live. Some seem so inviting, but most look quite bleak. No wonder people spend so much time out of doors eating and drinking. Who would want to be inside when all you see in 4 walls and naked light bulb or two?

Did I mention in my last blog the two English guys I met who ran the restaurant at one of the apartments I went to? They were sitting in their bathing suits by the pool communicating with each other and the world by way of their computer and supposedly making fabulous business deals. They just appeared to me like two guys on vacation! One of them had incredibly bad luck. For 17 years, he said, he ran some bars in Bangkok, finally sold and got out and was thrilled to buy a million dollar hotel right on the beach in Pukhet. He told me he loved to sit on the beach, have a beer, look at his hotel and just pinch himself at his luck at living in Paradise. Right…you got it. The tsunami took care of that and the insurance gave him nothing which is why he was glad to be able to sell me French toast, one scrambled egg and tomato juice which I wish I did not order. All this for about 60 cents while he talked about making another million.

Of course, I told you about the guy with the language school whose mother owns a fabulous golf course. His father died, he told me, when he was eleven. He certainly seems to be a go getter and is quite involved in buying more important apartments and other businesses.

I also spoke yesterday with a Hawaiian guy who has lived in Bangkok for the past ten years, appears to be about thirty years old and bought about 4 townhouses and is renting out 50 square meter rooms for about $300 in quite a fashionable neighbourhood but away from the maddening crowd down some winding roads. He was very interesting but perhaps the most interesting person I met was a black woman lawyer, probably middle aged, who left a burgeoning law practice in Washington, she said, to just get away from it all for a year. She is about to start teaching kindergarten kids tomorrow. Hope she did not pay for that year lease!

Apartment Hunting!

Apartment hunting, I have learned, is serious and tiring business. I have spent the last few days and nights hunting all over Bangkok for the best deal and have learned so much about life in Bangkok. For example, last night I wondered over a few streets from where I live to a side soi or laneway that appeared to have a bunch of townhouses. I went into one thinking that because it looked so rundown I could get the house for 10,000 baht or 300 a month. Instead, I was invited in by a bunch of women, was poured a beer ( I hate beer) and shown a room which they apologetically offered me at 6,000 baht a moth or about $200 which was actually quite nice, if you like basic. It was very large, had a bathroom, bed, table, chair and the other things you would expect to find in a room.

What I found interesting was the various stages of undress the ladies were in. I think there was something like seven rooms in the house and six were occupied by women, or I assume, at were women but you can never tell in Bangkok without looking at their hands. When they asked me if I was going to be living there alone and I said yes, they told me I could bring in a woman whenever I wanted, but if I was going to bring in a man, they said I would have to find another apartment! I cannot understand that reasoning at all, except to say that this is Bangkok.

This morning, I went to a lovely condominium apartment near the last BTS stop on the way to the airport. This is the area I want to live in since it is close to the golf courses in the south east of Bangkok and close to the airport. When I told the owner the actual apartment was too small and too expensive for what I was getting and I would not even have room for my golf clubs he told me his mother owned Green Valley Golf Course, a very swanky course that I used to play all the time last year. I couldn’t believe it. I told him I would take the apartment right then and there if he could get me on to the course for half price whenever I wanted to play. He phoned his mother immediately and the best she was willing to offer was $50 which included caddie fees instead of the usual $66. Ummm, what to do? I do love the course and this apartment did have a covered swimming pool.

I also went to another apartment nearby which also had the aura of being very tranquil. I would have to put my name on a waiting list to get in and the first available apartment is a two bedroom on December 1st. She promised to move me to a one bedroom March 1st It is tempting because my clubs, believe it or not, take up a lot of space. I also have boxes of books which are not easy to display in a small place.

I also walked down lots of dirty laneways all over Bangkok and looked at rooms only the Thais live in. Even I noticed the floors and walls were filthy, beds rickety, walls covered with dirt from layers and layers of carbon dioxide emissions and lots of noise. You cannot even turn on the air conditioning to drown out the sound of the cars outside and children playing because there is no air-conditioning. The attraction for me is a personal challenge. How would I make out really living like Thais people and secondly learning Thai. One old man (the owner) of a little two story house told me he was looking forward to speaking with me. Another attraction is, of course, the price. A Thai apartment, like the one I described, rents for about $100 a month in really excellent locations. You can virtually find an apartment in any area of the city if you are willing to walk down some dark and dusty soi just behind the elegant stores and department buildings to find them!

I am going to Myanmar in the next few days for a few weeks so I would like to get this settled before I go. Any ideas on what I should do?

The performing monkey

I am now sitting in a Vietnamese class in Haiphong with a bunch of 12 year old Vietnamese kids taking a math class. Unlike the kids from Myanmar where there is silence no matter what you do, the Vietnamese kids are noisy, lively and rambunctious. They are all leaning over my computer looking at what I am writing. Thankfully, their English is not that good so I can write with impunity. I cannot take a candid picture of them because whenever they even get a whiff of the camera they are all posing and giving the victory sign. I gave them my card and now they are busy copying the words on the card. They are so anxious to learn they are like sponges. When the teacher started by singing a song, they were all with her like it was a rock concert. Look at the pictures to see what I mean.

I am in Haiphong to do my talking monkey routine. I am regularly paraded out in my tie, old white face and grey hair to talk to teachers, parents, managers or whoever they can dredge up to listen. One teacher said to me the other day at lunch, he was so honoured to meet me and couldn’t wait to learn from me. I got to thinking that in Canada, no matter what your credentials, no-one would give you automatic respect; you have to earn it. The colonial mentality is still in force here, even if they did kick the bejesus out of the Americans! . Here all I have to do is look old and Caucasian and they are impressed.

I was paraded in front of a university president and his cronies, and we talked for about 30 minutes. Thankfully my translator said all of the appropriate things, no matter what I said and I had time to think and appear serious. He wants me to come in and do professional development with his professors. He has never seen me teach and only knows me from what he sees in front of him. Sooner or later I am certain I will be found out. I am like the emperor with no clothes.

Yesterday, in the morning I went to visit Loa Hoa prison, probably better known to you as the Hanoi Hilton. What you probably don’t know is that it was built by the French in the nineteenth century to punish the Vietnamese rebels. What the present day Vietnamese love to do is parade out the iniquities of the enemy and since the French are the number one enemy they love to hate. The guillotine had a place of honour both in this prison as well as the museum in Ho Chi Minh City. They sure love the fact that John McCain is running for the President of the United States and they even changed some of the signs in the prison to update his pictures.

I think I now have the hang of crossing the street in Hanoi by the way. There is a never ending stream of motor scooters and if you waited for it to abate you would never get to the other side. Here is the deal : you never even have to look when you are crossing. Just take a deep breath, step out and keep walking at an even pace. The scooters will scoot around you, not a problem. If you speed up or run, you are dead…literally.

I am still alive after about 5 hours of walking around Hanoi to-night. It is a very walkable city and there are beautiful lakes and places to hide. You certainly have to get out of the din of the traffic every once in a while. As usual, a university student approached me in the park and eventually took me to supper on the sidewalk. Other than sitting almost on the sidewalk in our low chairs, the food was delicious and I have not vomited yet. Don’t know what it was and don’t want to do.

I have to go. Back to Bangkok in the morning. See ya.

A week-end in Yangon

Week-end in Yangon

It was like a jungle out there. The air was literally steaming and I was sweating so badly I could not see. My bitter sweat kept going in my eyes which needless to say did not help my golf game. On the other hand, I was playing so badly it probably didn’t hurt either. What made the day memorable for me was that I was playing in the Singapore tournament with the military attaché from Vietnam and a colonel from military intelligence from Laos.

When the Vietnamese attaché was on the putting green, he got down on one knee and cocked the putter like it was a rifle pointing at the hole. He closed one eye while he was doing this and I could not help but think that this is what it must have been like for him in l974 when he was in the Chu Chi tunnels aiming at American GI’s. He was extremely serious and did get 4 birdies, making the whole experience rather eerie for me. It was something like being in Germany when you hear sirens going off and you can’t help but think it is l943 even though you were clearly not there.

To-night, at the banquet, my Singaporean boss MC’d the proceedings which gave me a good insight into how the 100 Singaporeans live in Yangon. As I watched them interact with each other. I especially liked how they did a cheer when they gave a toast. All 500 of us yelled out at the same time AH something or other………………………………………………for about 45 seconds then shouted ‘SING”

Good fun. Tomorrow, I am taking a tour of Yangon and really looking forward to it. Even though it started late, probably because the guide was bargaining for a car, it was well worth it. Did I tell you how I met the guide? The other night I was wondering around downtown and this guy came up to me and asked if I wanted a tour of Yangon on his tricycle Shaw for 1.000 chat or $1.00. I said sure and got up in the seat with some trepidation. Before too long, he was driving me all over Yangon, swerving in and out of traffic and, in my opinion, almost getting all three of us killed. Yes, he drove, there was another guy sitting on the back and I was in the buggy. At the top of the hill, when we got out towalk around a beautiful lake filled with restaurants and bars, I gave the rider $2.00 to go home and told the tour guide I would pay him and a cab driver to get home. Both of them could not believe it and when the guide told the driver why: they both laughed their heads off at this crazy Canadian being scared of being on a bicycle.

For some reason, over lime juice, which I now love, the guide told me he was considering going to Israel for a trip. When I told him I was Jewish he started talking to me in Hebrew and today when he picked me up he took me to the synagogue. It was fantastic, and looked like any middle ages Spanish or European synagogue, even though the 8 families, or members, not sure which, are Iraqi Jews. I am really sorry I did not know about this synagogue Tuesday night for Rosh Hashanah. Apparently, there were Jews there from various embassies and they held a reform service, even though there was seating upstairs for the women.

My Filipino teacher colleague had never seen a synagogue before and he was quite amazed.

We made up for this by visiting lots of Pagodas, one of which reminded me of Mt. St. Michel in France where we had to take a boat to get to it. You can see from the pictures it was really quite nice. We also visited the Botataung Pagoda in town and unlike other pagodas I have visited there was a maze you travelled around and each part of the maze had its own little narrow corner where you could sit and meditate. We also went to two Catholic churches which made him feel comfortable, even though one had no roof, was covered in jungle and not allowed to be restored. The other was in the process of being restored because of Nargis.

After visiting the Strand Hotel, an elegant former British hotel on the Strand ( there were absolutely no tourists) but three coming to-night, we went to the wholesale food market, far off the beaten path. Like Asian markets it was dirty, busy, vibrant and fun. I love it and prefer markets to mosques or pagodas any day of the week.

I will send this from Bangkok tomorrow. Have to go and pack since I am leaving at 6 am.