Saw the Funniest Thing Today...
I was doing some sightseeing, and visited a particularly nice temple just south of town. There's a tradition of the temples taking in strays, so it's normal to see a few dogs lounging around. This temple had a number of cats as well, which is less common in my experience.

I was sitting on the steps of a sanctuary putting my sandals on (shoes off in the sanctuaries), and saw a mid-sized mutt walking towards where a cat was sitting. I started watching to see if the cat would run off. Instead, he got up and started strolling towards the dog.

I was thinking "How nice. They're friends.", when the dog pulled up alongside the cat, casually lifted his leg, and peed right on the cat! The cat didn't seem to realize at first, but when he got hit in the head, he sort of shook himself, walking away from the dog with all of the dignity in the world, just giving a slight shake of the head. The dog trotted off with a doggy-grin in place.

I could have died laughing.
- posted by Gary @ 7:03 PM (0) comments

 
Monthly Budgets
A benefit of blogging is the chance to think out loud in public (and also to incite envy in my readers). My chief reason for moving to Thailand was to achieve a sustainable living budget. Now that I'm settling in a bit, I'm trying to track expenditures to see if I can stay on target.

I've now been back a full month (hard to believe), and I thought I'd share the results so far.

This covers my direct costs in Thailand. I'm also still spending money in US, more than I like to think about. I'll take that up another time. Also, I reserve the right to omit expenditures I deem embarrassing or unsuitable for children (this being a family blog).

First off, the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter. My basic rent is 8000 baht a month (this for a 5-br townhouse in a good neighborhood near the beach). The exchange rate is hovering around 38.6 baht to the dollar, so this works out as $207. Some of my friends think I pay too much. It's true that I could live in a smaller and cheaper place (I have more room than I can use, really), but I like it here, and when you consider that my landlady does my laundry and gives me half my meals, it's well worth it.

My utilities for this month were 300 baht. This is low because I was out of town. I expect to pay more like 1000-1200B per month, mostly for electricity for air conditioning, etc.

I also spent a night at a hotel in Bangkok when I got off the plane. This was a relatively expensive place (1100B) that I booked because I was arriving late with heavy bags. I tipped the bellhop 20 baht (52 cents) as well, so my total cost of lodging, with the utilities, was 9,420B ($244, or $7.86 per day).

As I mentioned, my landlord is giving me about half my meals. It's not a formal arrangement, but I don't see it changing. When I feed myself, I eat out. It just doesn't compute for me to cook, although I might get into some later for the enjoyment. Much of my outside eating is at roadside carts where I can get a light, but tasty and satisfying feed for 20-60 baht. Sometimes I spend a little more. I also have not completely jettisoned my junk food habits, though I'm making progress. Convenience stores are prevalent here (7-11 is BIG), and they have all the overpriced chips and sodas you'd expect. In the end, I came up with a total of 3044B ($79, or $2.54/day) spent on food.

I spent almost nothing on clothes this month, as I bought very little (a hat and a pair of flip-flops) and my laundry is done for me. I did drop of my stuff once, so the total came to 326 baht, or 27 cents a day.

Total of food-clothing-shelter: $331, or just over $10/day.

Of course, Man does not live by bread alone. He must have beer and an Internet connection, not to mention wheels. My communications budget consists of a phone line for dial-up (nobody uses land lines here for anything except Internet), cell phone service, and Internet access. I fill up my cell phone 300 baht at a time and buy a card for Internet access that gives me unlimited service for 15 days at 170 baht each time. I also rang up some charges at a local Internet cafe using their printer. Total for this month came to 1080 baht ($28, less than $1 a day).

I'm using my bicycle almost exclusively, so local transportation costs are very low (batteries for my headlight, and an occasional tire). I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when the rainy season gets here, but I have a few months to think that through.

I also spend a little for fares back and forth to Bangkok, and taxis and skytrain fares when I'm there. I took a relatively pricey service to Hua Hin when I came in, for the convenience of being picked up at the hotel and dropped at my house. More usually, I take a mini-van that charges 140B ($3.60) each way. I did that once this month. Also took a motorcycle taxi in HH once when I had to return my friend's suitcase! Total for the month: 1641B ($43). Hurt me.

My bar tab turns out to be one of my higher expenditures. There's a few reasons for this (I'm not really drinking like a fish, although I may have overindulge from time to time). One is that bars are the primary social venue here. When I want to see my friends, that's where they'll mostly be. For another thing, a drink in a bar is one of the lesser bargains here. A bottle of beer in a farang-oriented drinking spot will run between $1 and $2, depending on the place and the brand. Less than most places in US, but not by a spectacular margin.

At the end of the month, I had rung up $108 in the bars (includes some sodas. I don't always hit the beer). Not too bad, but something to monitor. I don't want to turn into a lush here, nor piss my money away. I dropped an additional $7 on movies and $14 on a car and driver for an excursion to the local waterfall with a friend. Total entertainment expenditures for the month: $129, or a little over $4/day.

Naturally, I also incur some costs for personal maintenance. My biggest expenditure here is for massages. Before I left, I was doing these twice a week at 300B a pop. Since I got back I've gone a little easier in this department, and ran up just 960B ($25). I had my hair cut twice ($3 for both) and spent $7 on razor blades, shampoo, etc. For the month, $35.

I spent about $13 on gifts for friends (Atya's birthday was this month. I gave her a framed montage of photos, which went over really well). My total "operational" expenses for the month, including all the ordinary expenditures for necessities and entertainment came to 22,294 baht, or $578. That's less than $19 a day!

But that isn't all I spent this month. I invested significantly in musical and entertainment equipment, as well as furnishings and decorations for my home. The big expenditure here was for a new digital piano (64,000 baht, or $1658). That will serve me for years, so it's appropriate to capitalize it rather than treat it as a monthly expenditure. I put it on the Visa and will pay it off over the next few months anyway.

I also bought a set of powered speakers for my listening (I feed it off the computer, which has my entire CD collection ripped to MP3 as well as an excellent online music service, Rhapsody), plus some odds and ends for the computer and cell phone. Total equipment expenditure, exclusive of the piano: 2,835 baht or $73.

For the house I bought a few lamps, cabinets, bookcases, and a small table, as well as a fair collection of house plants and some posters for the walls. I also paid to have some electrical outlets installed. Total for furnishings and improvements: 10,773B, or $279.

I also initiated my Thai language study program, spending 3,500B for a private teacher and an additional 3,208B for books and tapes. All together 6,708 baht ($173).

Taken together, my entire life in Thailand for the month cost me 46,445 baht, or US $1,203, exclusive of major purchases. I can live with that. The question will be whether expenditures from here go up, down, or remain the same. My apartment still has more rooms unfurnished and undecorated than otherwise, so I can see that I'll be spending for furnishings, decor, and entertainment equipment for quite a while. I expect to keep up the Thai lessons, although expenditures for books should drop off. I'll need to go see the dentist and the optometrist shortly, and will due for a checkup in the Spring. I'm not sure where my entertainment expenditures will go, and I do plan to travel around the country a bit.

Eventually, I expect I'll buy a car. Also, I'll have to spend a bit from time to time to keep my visa status up to date. I'm still working out how to approach this. Most of the farang around here do a once-monthly "visa run" to the Burmese border, which has a package price of 1200 baht. This is by far the simplest option, and I'll be doing that for a few months at least. In another post, I'll go over what I've figured out about the visa scene. It's a little bit complicated.

On the other side, I'm getting better at scoring good prices on things. In Thailand, even more than in US, what you pay for something depends very much on where you buy it. It also depends on your ability to negotiate, especially if you're a farang. Thais are smart enough to see that they can often get an inflated price from a foreigner. Undoubtedly I paid too much for some of the furnishings I bought this month.

Overall, I expect I can hold the current levels. That should give enough headroom to set a bit aside for my planned once-yearly return visit and other occasional expenditures. I'll keep you posted.
- posted by Gary @ 9:37 AM (0) comments

 
Learning Thai
Since I got back from US, one of my projects has been to start learning some Thai language. It's turned into something of an intense program and I'm starting to make some progress (I have a long way to go, though).

What happened is that I spotted a classified ad for Thai lessons in a local magazine and called the person. He gave me his rate, 3500 baht (about $90) for 12 hours of private instruction, delivered at my home and divided up any way I wanted it. I decided to try him out and signed up for one "unit." At the first lesson, I decided to opt for 90 minute lessons twice a week. That works out that one 12-hour unit will cover about a month. I can afford that, and I thought that would set a reasonable pace.

When I mentioned to Wisut and Atya that I had signed up for lessons, they asked the cost and were shocked at what I was paying. Personally, I think it's reasonable for private instruction from a qualified teacher. If you work it out, he's going to have a hard time making a living. He's unlikely to have more than 10 students at a time, and more likely 4-5. A lot of people here make less than than the $360-$900 a month this implies, but a lot of folks also sleep on the floor in their family's house and don't ever expect anything more. For a college grad who wants to start a family, this is quite marginal, especially when you factor in the unsteadiness of freelance work.

Anyway, Atya took it upon herself, as District Director of the Department of Non-Formal Education (that's the actual title) to arrange lessons for me for free, from one of her staff members. In theory these are group lessons, but it's worked out that I'm the only one in the group this time. So now I'm getting lessons four days a week.

In addition, I decided I wanted to learn to read and write Thai script. Neither of my teachers thought this was the way to go, so I had to make a start from books and a software program I obtained. I made enough progress on my own to convince them, so now one teacher is focusing in that area with me.

Thai is a bit of a touch language to get going with. It has no relationship with English, with exception of a few words with Indo-European roots (from Sanskrit, by way of India in times long gone) and a few borrowed words.

The pronunciation is fiendlishly difficult for us to hear and reproduce. For one thing, the language uses tone to change the meaning of a word. The word glai, for instance, spoken in a flat tone, means "far". But said in a questioning, rising, tone it means "near". There are five different tones used: flat, low, high, rising, and falling. Say something with the wrong tone, and you may have said "suitcase" instead of "chicken". Enjoy your lunch!

This runs counter to all of our habits and creates some funny situations. We habitually use tones such as rising to indicate uncertainty or questioning. It's happened a few times in pronunciation practice that my teacher would repeat a word that had the rising tone, and I would repeat it back in a flat tone. Because that's how we do question-and-response in the English. Glai? Glai. In Thai, the would be like they said "near" and I responded "far'.

Another trap is when I practice a word or phrase and then finally haul it out in use. Because of my uncertainty, I'm liable to add a rising tone at the end, which renders what I tried to say into nonsense.

For all that, I'm beginning to master a few easy phrases. I can now greet my friends and inquire of their health. I can also indicate when I've had enough to eat. This is important, as Thais are likely to feed you until bursting otherwise!. I've also learned the correct response to the common Thai greeting "Where are you going?" It turns out that this is equivalent to our use of "How's it going?" Nobody really cares where you're going, and if you stop and try to explain it gets everyone confused. The right response is one of a few formulas. "Bai thio" (just around), "Bai gin kao" (going to eat), or "Bai pheuan" (going to see a friend), will get you off the hook easily.

I've also learned how to negotiate price, something that Thais expect at least in the street markets and small shops. The number system is not too hard to learn. Once you have that, you can ask somebody's price ("Nee taorai?"). When they tell you ("roi ha sip baht" [150 baht] for example), you respond with a lower price that you're willing to pay, followed by "dai mai" (can you?). They will either "dai" (I can), which probably means you were higher than you needed to be, or "mai dai" (I can't). If it's the latter, you just name a higher price until you reach agreement or you walk away.

The writing system is another matter. Basically, it's not too terribly difficult, but it is definitely different from ours. In some ways it's more complex. On the other hand, spelling in Thai is a lot more regular than it is in English.

I wanted to learn the system in part because the Thai script I saw on the street just looked like gibberish to me, and that bothered me. No matter how much I stared at it, it never seemed to look like words. I found out that that's because Thai doesn't use space between words. This seems odd, but a little experiment will show that space between words are necessarily needed even in English.

Ifyourunallthewordsinasentencetogether itlooksfunnybutyoucanstillfigureitoutprettyeasily.

The key thing, of course, is knowledge of the language so you tell where words start and end.

Thai script does have some oddities, though. The big one is that that vowels and consonants work. In English, we have 26 letters, some of which are vowels and most of which are consonants. In Thai, in theory there are 32 consonants and a separate set of 24 vowel symbols.

Spelling goes by syllables, with a syllable consisting of a consonant sound followed by a vowel sound. So "na", ba', "ja", etc. are valid syllables. However, although the vowel sound always follows the initial consonant, depending on which vowel it is, it may appear after the consonant, above it, below it, or even before it! To make matters worse, the individual vowel symbols are combined to create composite vowel sounds. It's quite possible for a single consonant to be combined with a vowel symbol ahead of it, one above it, and two following it, all to make a single syllable!

Syllables can also have a final consonant. Some syllable do not have an initial consonant sound, but the writing system requires the use of a "null consonant" in this case. btw, the same symbol that serves as the null consonant also appears as a vowel symbol, so it gets confusing. There are also symbols written over the consonants to indicate which tone level to use.

I haven't completely mastered all this, but I've gotten to the point that I can phonetically decipher street signs. Usually, the result is still meaningless to me, but in some cases I've found I can read common words and place names. Of course, these are often the ones written in dual language for benefit of foreigners anyway, so the utility is limited. Still, I feel better that the writing around me is becoming less mysterious.

Blogspot doesn't allow for multiple scripts, so I can't show you these things directly. But here's a link to some pictures of local street signs and their meanings. It might help you get the idea, and also show you what I've been dealing with!

Click here to see the example pictures
- posted by Gary @ 4:54 PM (0) comments

 
Heartbreaker
One of the attractions for me of moving to Thailand is that my valence in romantic equations is quite different here than it is in the US. I think a lot of middle-aged single men stateside would agree with me that it's often difficult for us to date in America, owing to a whole complex of attitudes and issues that I can't even begin to articulate.

It's different in Thailand, for a variety of reasons. One, I think, is that Thais are just more inclined to affairs of the heart (or of other parts of the anatomy. I'm not going to quibble). Another is that for Thais, older men are sexy. It's thought to be quite a good thing for a younger person to associate romantically with an older partner (though I haven't figured out if that applies in the same way for older women).

Also, there's the farang factor. Not to create the wrong impression, the great majority of Thais (women and men) are oblivious to Westerners. But a significant minority seem to think foreigners are pretty cool. For some, it's a matter of money. With exception of some of the backpacking crowd, most of the folks who come to Thailand have more jingle in their pockets than the average Thai. Some have a lot more. For sure, some Thai ladies (and boys) look to hook up with a foreign guy as a way of bettering their economic status.

I've also heard that Western guys have a reputation for treating their partners better in many cases than Thais do. Divorcees seem to account for a share of the farang-ophiles. Hoping for better luck on the other side, I guess. Others just seem to be attracted to Western culture and like to associate with people from America and Europe.

In any case, although I've only begun to actually date here, I'm finding that I'm already dealing with issues of relationship management that just weren't part of my life back home. It's flattering, but challenging at the same time.

First of all, there's my hairdresser. The lady who cuts my hair is thirty-something, very cute, and apparently divorced with a single male child. She speaks little English, but is trying to add to her repertoire. That's cool, because I'm also getting started speaking Thai and can use the practice. Each time she cuts my hair, she initiates a conversation that very quickly comes around to whether I have a girlfriend. The first time she did this, she had not actually acquired the English words for "girlfriend" or for "have". That made it interesting.

Initially, I answered 'no' and that got her a bit excited. She *is* cute, but I'm leery of taking her up on the implicit offer. It strikes me as a situation easier to get into than to get out of. So the last time I went, I answered 'yes' to the girlfriend question. That prompted her to insist I bring my girlfriend around. I'm sure I can finesse all this, but it's sort of amusing. btw, I get a complete haircut and shave, with trimming of my eyebrows and all undesirable facial hair for $1.50.

Then there's Aey, a twenty-something cutie who I've been recommended to by my landlord, Wisut, who's an old friend of her mother's. So far, she's a pen-friend only, as she lives in Nakhon Si Thammarat, about 500 miles South of here. She's been pretty friendly in her emails and phone calls, but somehow I doubt it's going to hook up. She works in a bar on the resort island of Koh Samui. I think the dynamic here is that it's her mother who wants to get her daughter paired off.

Also, it's developed lately that I have a secret admirer. Not so secret now, though. As I've described in previous postings, I have a regular masseur, Tilek, who is a sheer genius of Chinese foot massage. Tilek also has a wife, who fancies herself a fox. (She has a sexy figure but a face that's seen a bit of hard use. Not my cup of tea at all.) She speaks no English, but I had picked up from other folks around, and her own manner, that she's something of a space shot. Reportedly, Tilek's big regret in life is having married her.

Well, it seems that this woman has developed a crush on me. I found out from another friend, who she approached to get my phone number. She told my friend that she's crazy for me and wants to have my love child. Or something. She did manage to extract my number. On Valentine's day, I got a phone call, which I missed and which failed to connect on return. Later in the day I got a text message from the same number, reading "I miss you and wish you a happy Valentine's Day" with no signature. I guess she got somebody to help her with the English, as all the words were spelled correctly. Heck, my American friends can't even do that.

So now I've got an awkward situation at my masseur's. I'm betting that the best response here is no response. I'll skip my massage next week. When I do get back, I'll make sure to completely ignore Mrs. Tilek. Sheesh.

Then there's my friend Nam. Nam is quite a different case from anyone else I've met in Thailand. Nam is Indian, although she has lived her whole life in Thailand. She's fiercely independent, and I gather, a bit of a maverick in her community. She also speaks excellent English (and 6 other languages!). Thus I can have real honest-to-God conversations with her.

When I first met Nam, she had a shop across from Tilek's massage studio, and we had some good chats while I was getting my twice-weekly foot massages. Lately, we've been getting together for dinner from time to time, and doing some excursions to local sights. It's all on the basis of friends, which is quite relaxed and nice

Meanwhile, I'm keeping the divorcees, bar girls, and married stalkers at bay. What a life.
- posted by Gary @ 10:17 PM (0) comments

 
Chicken Fest
I don't know if any of you follow the news from Asia, but a big topic here has been the Bird Flu.

It seems to be under control now, and it's not clear that it ever was much of a threat to humans (a handful of chicken farmers have gotten sick). But it caused the coutries in the region to boycott one another's poultry and in Thailand it resulted in the slaughter of about 26 million defenseless chickens.

So what do you do with 26 million dead chickens? Well, if you're Thailand, you serve fried chicken dinner for about 63 million folks. And that's what they tried to do. Yesterday was Chicken Festival nationwide, with every town setting up chicken kitchens and bandstands. The local venue was the oceanside park down the street from me.

I don't think this was one of the country's most successful efforts at problem solving or image enhancement. Although there were plenty of chickens, there were too few fryers, resulting in long lines. I stood in one for about 20 minutes before giving up. Fried chicken legs sell for about 5 baht (12 cents) apiece, anyway so what's the point. When I walked around to the front, I could see about 20 hands reaching for each piece as it came out of the pan.

Meanwhile, an obnoxious and hyperactive Thai MC kept urging people to "rapratan gai" (eat chicken), competing with a band doing Santana covers and Thai pop songs. If you were close enough to either, it would drown out the other one, but in most of the space the two audio feeds blended into total cacophony. Eventually, I gave up and went into town to drink in peace.
- posted by Gary @ 7:15 PM (0) comments

 
New, Improved Digs
I like the approach of my landlords, Wisut and Atya. They're taking the rent money I'm paying and applying it directly to improving the property, in ways I get to enjoy.

When I moved in here last October I had a large, sunny patio on the second-story, adjoining my main bedroom. Just a little bit too sunny, I'm afraid. Facing South, the sun would beat on the porch all day, and also heat up the bedroom through the windows. Also, when it rained, it was right there.

While I was away, Wisut and Atya arranged to have a roof built over the patio. When I got back, there was a lovely peaked roof of corrugated tin with a blue finish. Really quite did the job. But they weren't finished. In the first week I was back, the same craftsman who did the roof finished the wall around the deck with some lovely pale blue tile. He's given it outstanding attention to detail, too, going so far as to paint the grout between the tiles (a nicely contrasting darker blue).

The next project is my new kitchen. When I moved in, the one facility missing was a real kitchen. Not as unusual as it sounds. Thais are amazing flexible in setting up their cooking facilities. But it's still nice to have an area with a sink, a stove, and some counter space.

This is now being made to appear in the downstairs. The same guy is doing all the work. I think he's a genius. It's amazing to watch the technique. The dominant construction in Thai homes today is mixed break and concrete block finished with smoothed concrete. It's really quite nice, and works well in the climate. The great thing about it is that when you want to add on, you just mix up more concrete. My new sinktop and counter space are being built this way. Also the supporting pillars and wall for the patio roof.

The kitchen is shaping up beautifully (I'll get some pictures up soon). This past week, he finished up the tiles for the wall, and got the sink/counter top configured. It's going to be nice. Once this is done, I understand that he's to return to the upstairs and add a ceiling to the patio. Wisut and Atya had him do a similar addition on their place, and the ceiling looks great. I can't wait to see how he does it. Along the way, I'm going to have the same fellow install a bunch of new AC and modem outlets around the interior.

How much does all of this cost? According to Wisut, this craftsperson (one of the most skilled building trades people I've ever seen) is getting about $10 a day. He'll be here maybe a month, so $250-$300. The total bill for the materials is running in the neighborhood of $500. A complete new kitchen, and a deluxe finished roofed deck for well under $1000. Of course, that doesn't include permits and inspections. (Ha ha).

And you wonder why I love Thailand.

- posted by Gary @ 1:08 AM (0) comments