Independence Day in the Big Mango

It may surprise you to hear that there was a large celebration of July 4th in Bangkok.  The American Chamber of Commerce hosts the annual festivities, which bring together not only the disparate American expat community, but also many Thais and people from other countries who have lived or studied in the US, or just appreciate a chance for a taste of real American tradition.

Last year was my first year attending, in the company of several other American expats who had pretty much only negative things to say about the experience.  I won't go into that episode again, suffice it to say I enjoyed it enough to not only show up for a second year, but also to volunteer for almost seven hours of working at the raffle tickets table.

While some expats take the approach of, "I don't like the United States, that's why I left", I look at it from the belief that even if there are aspects of US culture for which I don't care, it is within my ability to actively participate and influence the changes I want to see.  That's why last year I volunteered at the Democrats Abroad table, registering expats to vote and talking up the need for change in Washington.  I'd like to think that my efforts contributed in some small part to moving the world's perception of America back towards the right track.

This year's event was held at the American School, a private primary and secondary school that is located just a few blocks from my condo, behind Samitivej Hospital.  Their campus has lots of trees and the main basketball court / stage area has a large roof over it, giving celebrants plenty of shaded areas to enjoy the breezy day.

Several thousand people attended, representing every star and stripe of American culture.  We had many expat families who are here on temporary work assignments, we had Mormon missionaries and young Peace Corps volunteers, we had a group of "butch" lesbians with lots of piercings and tattoos, plenty of gay couples of all ages, long-term expats who have been here for dozens of years, tourists who just happened to be in town this weekend, and of course the typical hugely overweight American men with their tiny Thai girlfriends/wives who were half their age and one-quarter their size.

Where some might have seen ugly stereotypes, I saw the diversity that is America, for better or for worse.

There were also lots of Thai families there, many of whom have children attending the American School and others of whom were there just for the fun of it.  There was a large play area set up for children with all sorts of games, including all the traditional Fourth of July favorites: tug o' war, bucket relays, three-legged races, potato (or, in this case, rice) sack races, face painting, etc.

Below, a short video look at some of the fun.

On the food side of things, the local branch of the Veterans of Foreign Wars were grilling hamburgers while the Wives' Auxiliary were cooking hot dogs and selling the most popular item - Sam Adams beer (which is not sold here and has to be imported through the embassy!).  Bourbon Street, Great American Rib Company, Roadhouse Barbecue and Sunrise Tacos were all present, selling their specialties.  Another military service group was selling homemade apple pie and at the booth next door, Dairy Queen would put a dollop of vanilla soft serve on top.  Of course, what Fourth would be complete without a chili cookoff?

Above, a direct hit at the dunking tank.

Most of my day was spent at the tables by the entrance where I and other volunteers hawked raffle tickets.  Fifty baht (about $1.60) a ticket for a chance to win fifty fabulous prizes.  First prize was two free tickets to anywhere in the U.S. that United Airlines flies.  We had hotel room stays, spa visits, bicycles, car rentals and all sorts of other prizes.  Best of all, proceeds went to support the chamber of commerce's Adopt a School program, which provides support to poor schools in rural Thailand, including the building of playgrounds and providing of supplies.  We must have raised at least $4,000 just from the raffle.

So it was a fun day celebrating the 233rd anniversary of America's declaration of independence.  I hope that those of you who were in the U.S. had a chance to enjoy the holiday, too.  For those of you outside the U.S., I hope you had a nice weekend!

Air Conditioning Fiasco Resolved

A week after it started, we finally resolved the air conditioning situation.  You will recall that we moved the unit from bedroom A to bedroom B because it was a bit too loud for Tawn.  But the replacement installed into bedroom A stopped working after exactly one night.  Since the owner of the air conditioning company was out of town on a New Zealand holiday, we had to wait for his return to do anything more than have the new unit and compressor removed.

Instead of replacing the Panasonic unit that lasted only one night with another Panasonic unit, the decision was made to return to the same Mitsubishi model that we originally had installed in bedroom A - the one that we removed because it makes too much noise. 

According to the sales person, the noise issue was because of how it was installed and isn't related to the machine itself.  That may be true, since I work in bedroom B and haven't heard any noises when running the Mitsubishi until throughout the week.

In any case, this should help lower our electricity bill next month, since for the past week we had the main living room air con running all night and used fans to blow the cool air into bedroom A.

Check that off the list!

Shots from Around Town

Let me conclude the week with a few shots I took while out and about.

The morning after we have a heavy rain storm, the skies are really clear and the sun is tremendously intense.  Here at the Thong Lo BTS station, passengers huddle in the only shaded area as the sun is at such a point that during midmorning, it floods the inbound platform with bright light.

The passengers waited until the train had arrived and come to a full stop before they left the shade to board.

Walking to my Thai class on a warm and increasingly humid Thursday afternoon, about two hours before another thunderstorm set in, I was following a tourist who was carrying his toddler daughter.  I felt so sorry for him, trying to navigate the unevenly paved sidewalks of a miserably warm Big Mango in flip-flops while carrying a sleeping child who looked so warm and uncomfortable with her sweat-matted hair.  Add to that the pollution and noise coming from the neighboring street and the Tourism Authority of Thailand would have a fit!

Interesting billboard for an English Language school near Chulalongkorn University.  The stated message: "You... can do it."  The implied message, "Unleash your inner farang."  Is it any wonder that so many Thais (especially the better-off ones such as those who might find their way to Chula U) apply whitening lotions and have plastic surgery to shape their features to be more "pleasing" (i.e. more Western)?  With messages like this plastered along the street, who wouldn't feel a bit dissatisfied with themselves?

Action Adventure Dream

Normally, I sleep without dreams, at least none that I remember.  But last night I had a rather intense dream that seemed to last a long while.  Perhaps because I've been thinking about my primary school days recently, combined with the question of adding and deleting people on Facebook, the dream took an odd form.

Set in an action/adventure genre along the lines of James Bond or various Hong Kong cop and mafia movies, in my dream I was (as an adult) working in some half-finished abandoned office building.  Several bad guys, all of whom had been bullies in my primary school, were after me, trying to kill me.  I had to fight back using nothing more than my gun, my fists and my wits.

I woke up before anything substantial happened, like stepping out of the cinema mid-film and not returning. 

Thinking more about it, I think the dream was partly influenced by the fact that I chose not to add a few suggested friends on Facebook who were people I don't have pleasant memories of.  One in particular used to tease me in junior high school because my jeans were a bit short - I was growing taller quite fast - making fun of my "floods", as he called them.

Yeah, not going to add him to my Facebook friends list.

Dining on Sukhumvit Soi 38

Our friend Jackson is in town from San Francisco, his first time back since late 2006.  The other evening we took him for dinner to Sukhumvit Soi 38, a side street near the Thong Lo BTS station known for its nighttime eateries.

Both sides of this Bangkok soi are lined with food shops that spill onto the streets, offering nearly every type of Thai food you can imagine.  The food is very fresh, very cheap and very authentic.  Because of the location - lots of expats live nearby - some concessions have been made to non-Thais for everyone's convenience.  For example, it is increasingly common to find laminated menus that have some of the more popular items with both English and Japanese names.  If you want some of the more obscure items, though, you have to read and speak Thai.

Regardless of your Thai literacy, no corners are cut when it comes to preparing the food!  This is the real deal.

Fatty pork (roasted then fried in oil for an extra-crispy skin) served over rice with a Hoisin-type sauce.

A "red soup" with various pork parts including cubes of boiled blood.

Borrowed from Malaysia and Singapore: chicken and oily rice.

Wide rice noodles stir fried with egg and shrimp - kind of like pad thai but without the tamarind sauce.

Everyone's favorite - and also a Malaysian import - chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce.

One of the nice features of Soi 38 is that if you are sitting in one vendor's building, you can still order form other vendors elsewhere on the soi.  They will deliver the food to you, collecting the money and then returning for the utensils and plates later on.  Each vendor uses a different type of plate, so it is easier to identify what belongs to whom.

Here's a little video:

While eating, the rain started to pour outside.  After several hot days with no rain, we seem to be back into the typical rainy season cycle.  Building humidity and clouds throughout the day, giving way to intense storms for thirty minutes or an hour in the late afternoon or early evening. 

Above, Jackson dodges the rain.

Since there was nowhere to go and no way to get home without getting soaked, we stopped in at a massage parlor around the corner for a 90-minute foot massage.  This was a very "old school" parlor, Chinese owned with the menthol smell of balm thick in the air.  My masseuse was a blind man who was surprisingly in tune with the knots in my feet and lower legs.  What the parlor lacked in ambience, the masseuse more than made up for with skill.