Christmas tree

I arrived home from work yesterday evening to find a Christmas tree in the lobby of my apartment building. Complete with presents. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but I really wasn't expecting it.

Singing for the King

If someone had told me a year ago today that on December 3, 2010 I would be standing on a soccer field at a carpet mill in Thailand singing songs (well mostly listening and trying to be present) in honor of the Thai King's birthday I would have told them they were crazy. But there I was standing in a line with the factory management team in front of many of the first shift factory and office workers looking at a picture of the king on a raised platform while everyone sang songs, listened to some mercifully short speeches (both songs and speeches in Thai of course) and posed for group photos. After about 35 minutes we were back to work except for the volunteers who went to pick up litter from the road that runs in front of the factory.

And the good news is that we have Monday off to commemorate his birthday, which actually falls on Sunday. His birthday is also Father's day in Thailand so happy father's day to all the dads out there.

Thanksgiving

Getting to spend Thanksgiving with family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Something to really be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Back home (for a few days)

 I am headed to New York City for a couple of days of meetings then flying to Virginia where I will spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my folks. I very excited about getting to see my parents as well as being back in the States. I'm even looking forward to the meetings!
I'm posting this from the airport in Seoul, Korea and wishing I could say I'm halfway there. Alas I still have   about 14 hours of flying time to get to New York, after leaving Bangkok circa 1 AM BKK time, early Sunday. The flight here was about 5 hours of flying time but that doesn't include the sitting around in an airport time. The funny thing is that my flight is scheduled to leave Seoul at 11 AM on Sunday morning and I get into JFK at 10:40 AM Sunday morning. Could be some serious jet lag ahead! But I don't even care, just glad to be going. (Check with me again when I'm nodding off in a meeting.)

Energy

I donated blood at work today. I didn't even feel light-headed afterwards but my staff kept brining me snacks so i would keep my energy up. They brought me papaya, taro chips and an unidentified snack wrapped in a leaf (not the leaf wrapped snack I'm familiar with). I ate them all too. Felt energetic!

Yesterday was a brilliantly sunny day in Bangkok and I played tourist. My tutor and friend Goong showed me the Wat Phra Kaew (the temple of the emerald Buddha), the Grand Palace, the Wat Pho and the Dusit Palace complex. Here are some photos from the day.

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew architectural detail

Wat Phra Kaew

Garuda on Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Hanuman, detail of a mural of the spectacular Ramayana at the Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

Grand Palace

Wat Phra Kaew architectural detail

Reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho

 Wat Pho

 Wat Pho

 Wat Pho

 Wat Pho

 One of several Marco Polo statues at Wat Pho

 Wat Pho

 Wat Pho architectural detail

Vimanmek Mansion

Vimanmek Mansion

The River

As I've mentioned before in this blog I live next to the Chao Phraya river in Thailand. It is the rainy season  and has been raining almost every day since mid-June. It rarely rains all day, usually just brief bursts of intense rain for maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Then sometimes it will drizzle for longer periods of time. I don't mind the rain at all - it usually cools things off and cleans the air and I like sitting on my balcony and watching a storm blow through.
The rainy season is almost over - the end of October signals the end of the wet season and that's close. However for the past month I've watched the river gradually and steadily rise until now it's well over it's normal banks and is flooding several streets in my neighborhood. It's problematic because of the especially high tides (called king tides) this time of year which slow the water flow to the ocean. And this after months of rain so there's no other place for the water to go. In some provinces to the North there's major flooding as in three to four feet deep in places where it's normally dry. It's not nearly as bad as Pakistan but for me it's a lot closer to home. One of my co-workers spent a day last week moving all his furniture to the second floor, just to be safe. Of course I am dry on the 9th floor of my apartment building although we all moved our cars from the underground parking garage. And there are sandbags lining places in the drive leading up to the building.
Sitting on my balcony I can see that some of my neighbor's are not as lucky as I am. There's a small house almost directly below which sits on stilts as many of the houses do around here. For one thing it's cooler if the air can circulate under the house but the main reason is for times like these of high water. The water level is almost up to the first floor and the raised walkway that is used to access the house is under water although I can see that it's at ankle level. They have their wash drying on lines extending over the railings of the walkway. It is almost surreal to see clothes drying over water. I feel somewhat helpless - as close as it is visually I can't see how I would get there or what I could do if I did. I hope the water starts receding soon but I hear we're in for a couple of more days at least before that starts to happen.
I'm happy to say that my housekeeper, Khun Malee, who lives right on the river, right across from me is fine.

View of some houses across the river with some clumps of water hyacinths floating by.  The water level is high 

If you look closely you can see the clothes hanging in the upper left quadrant of the image. The round leaves in the water are lotuses.