Saturday in BKK

Last Saturday in Bangkok, I started the day with meditation then participated in the 97th (!) birthday of the well respected monk, Phra Boonyarit,  who lives in a house on the property. The celebration for me was mainly giving rice to the many monks who came to pay homage to the elder one. The rice is a symbolic offering and the ceremony took place right in front of my building. 

Waiting for the  ceremony

Quite a crowd (on the driveway outside the condo)

Phra Boonyarit

One of the monks receiving the rice

Later that morning I attended a yoga class where, among other asanas we did at least 12 navasanas (boat pose) over the course of 120 minutes, mercifully not all at once. It's a great class taught by a Canadian named Mark at Elements Studio in downtown BKK and it's always challenging and very worthwhile. It always provides me with something to add to my home practice.


Followed that with a Thai lunch (pad thai gai), some errands and then later I met Kanyarat after she finished work and we saw the very entertaining film The King's Speech. After that dinner at an Italian restaurant and then off to Titanium where we danced to the excellent all female house band Unicorn. 


Normally my Saturdays are not that packed but then again I'm never at a loss for something to do here.

China

The first part of this was written a few weeks ago in China:

Last week I went to China to visit our factory located in Nanhai, which is about 45 minutes drive from Foshan. Foshan is near the mega city of Guangzhou in Southeastern, China. It’s also not far from Hong Kong and the scenic way to come is to take the ferry from Hong Kong up the Pearl River and then a car for about an hour to reach the factory. I was coming from Bangkok though and the easiest way was to fly into Guangzhou and where a car picked me up and took me the new Intercontinental Hotel in Foshan. I have a nice room on the 31^st floor overlooking a park with an artificial lake. But you can’t see much beyond that because of the smog, most of which I am told is generated by the huge ceramic tile industries in this area. 

Smoggy view f/ the room

Our factory is small by comparison to the ceramic factories. 

A view of the Tai Ping factory in Nanhai

We make Axminster woven carpets for the hospitality industry (mostly hotels and restaurants) and public spaces like airports and theatres and high-end hand-tufted rugs for residences, boutiques, private planes, as well as public spaces and hotels. They are made with tufting guns that look like oversized drills and that shoot yarn into a canvas like substrate. 

The hand-tufted rugs can be like artwork for the floor – think of painting with yarns of wool and silk instead of paint. It’s more craft than industry. The (mostly) women who make them require 3 to 4 years of experience to be able to make the more complicated ones. Then they are hand-sheared and carved by other craftspeople and the finished rug is a thing of beauty – and usually one of a kind.

Somewhat surreally, at lest in my mind, the hotel has a Brazilian steakhouse restaurant (a chrascaria tipo rodízio where different types of meat are grilled over an open flame)). The chef is a mineiro (someone from the state of Minas Gerais where I grew up) and we had a good chat. He’s done a pretty good job of finding ingredients to create some of the regional specialties and his picanha, a particular Brazilian cut of beef, was most excellent. I enjoyed the taste of Brazil in China, especially since there are no Brazilian restaurants in Bangkok. I know: what about Chinese food? I can get good Chinese in Bangkok and will certainly have that opportunity here in Foshan before I leave.

Somewhere along the way, I suspect lunch at the company canteen although none of my lunch companions who had the same food suffered (but as was pointed out – they are Indian and “can eat anything with impunity), I picked up some intestinal plague that keep me up and miserable most of the night and following morning. My normal hardcore remedy of Imodium, even in a double dose, had no effect. Fortunately a British colleague, MJ, who lives and works here came to my rescue: he sent me some Norfloxacin capsules which he swears by from his days of living in India and I have started feeling better although weak from the experience and not eating. I hate not eating and not even wanting to eat. I should be fully recovered by tomorrow night in time for the commemorative factory dinner, which will be held outside despite temps in the high 40s at night. Oh, the factory is not heated – neither manufacturing areas nor offices so I guess the Chinese are made of sterner stuff than me. I was cold yesterday at least until the afternoon where some of the sun’s warmth had worked its way into the buildings. A colleague from Bangkok visited some factories in Northern China last week and despite temps well below freezing they were not heated. She nearly froze. So it’s not so bad here. Anyway the dinner is to commemorate the end of the year and the start of the Chinese New Year holiday when everyone takes two weeks off and the country – or at least industry – takes a holiday. Most of the factory workers come from villages in the countryside, often many miles away and they all travel back to visit family. Sometimes they don’t come back either for social reasons or because they find something closer to home. The company provides dormitories located right next to the factory for the workforce and also provides free meals at the company canteen so in a way it’s easy to pick up and move.

Feeling much better after the medicine from MJ, I enjoyed the next day and particularly the factory's festive Chinese New Year celebration. Here are some images from the event.

Starting the party

One of the dragon (or lion?) dancers

It's the year of the rabbit. These kids were cute.

Our table: I'm about in the middle of the group. We didn't stay seated for long.

Some of the food 

Awards were given and drawings for gifts went on throughout the evening.

There were dancing girls (and guys too but mostly girls)

More dancing: most of the performers, except the kids, work at the factory. There was singing and a comedy skit too. The MC (not pictured) had an amazing voice although I had no idea what he was saying.

Balloons, bubbles and an almost full moon

Locked door

Last Saturday as I was leaving the bedroom I shut the door behind me. When I tried to go back in I found that at some point the push button lock had been pushed and I was locked out. Both landline and cell phone were in there along with my wallet, car and house keys. And since it was early morning there was no one about to whom I could have asked for help even if I spoke enough Thai to do that. So I tried unsuccessfully to pick the lock  - fortunately I had access to my toolbox. If you watched enough thrillers you know how easy it is: you just stick in a long narrow pointed object (assuming you have one – and I tried several) jiggle it around a little and presto – the door pops open. Well I must not know the right jiggle or have the right tool because it didn’t open. And the door was too tight with the frame to use the credit card trick so finally I chiseled out some to the wood with a hammer and screwdriver and was able to pry it open with the screwdriver. I didn't panic at any point although I did give the door a couple of good kicks. It didn't give. Anyway I got in and made it to yoga on time but the door doesn't look too great. It was funny in retrospect. And by the way, there are no keys that I know of or could find for any of those internal apartment doors.

Two Treats

I had two treats today:
1. My staff  - the ones who are not on vacation - treated me to lunch today at a nearby restaurant that I hadn't been to before. I didn't realize they were treating until the bill came and they wouldn't take my money. That was very nice on their part. I had pad thai with shrimp which I can order on my own but learned from them how to order some other dishes if I'm on my own. The menu is of course entirely in Thai (and no pictures!).

Last Friday I had treated all of them to lunch at a nearby favorite place that specializes in guay tiaw phet or noodles with duck.

2. I saw an elephant on a busy street in my neighborhood as I was driving home from work. This has happened only once before and no matter how often it happens will always be a treat.

Kanchanaburi

Last weekend I went to Kanchanaburi which is a town about two hours west of Bangkok near the Burmese border.
If you're interested in knowing more about Kanchanaburi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanchanaburi

I went with my friend Julie who has taken in four teenagers whose American father can't care for to visit their Thai mother who lives near Kanchanaburi. Saturday night the kid's mother, Deng, cooked us a wonderful dinner with about 7 dishes besides the rice. If I had been less hungry I would have taken a picture of it. Instead I ate.

Most of the extended Thai family we had dinner with on Saturday. Deng is in front on the left with her hand on the head of her eldest son Patrick.

I stayed at a guesthouse, which is like an inn, smaller than a hotel although this one was fairly large. My room was about $17 per night. The room was nothing fancy but clean and spacious except for the bathroom which was clean but small. The food there was good too.

The guesthouse from the pool area

Guesthouse grounds

River Kwae f/ the guesthouse, early morning

A picture of me on the bridge over the river Kwae, which was built by Australian, British and SE Asian prisoners of war under the Japanese during WW II.

My friend Julie on the river Kwae bridge

One view from the river Kwae bridge

Train a comin' on the Kwae bridge

And I acquired a hunk of jade:

Sunday we drove a few mile north to the Sai Yok National Park. It was nice to see mountains again. It was nice to be in the mountains, even if briefly.

Nice to see mountains

Structures on the river at Sai Yok park

View from the river

We took a boat like this one on the Kwae Noi river in the park

In the boat

One of the falls on the river

You can rent these floating cabanas to stay in

Some of them looked very nice

Another waterfall

Teak forest - teak trees are protected

We went to the Hellfire Pass Museum, a memorial to the POWs and SE Asians who were forced to build the railroad for the Japanese between Bangkok and Rangoon. The conditions for the POWs were horrible and 45% of them died. It was a very sad place albeit beautiful.

Hellfire Pass view

Hellfire Pass memorial

Another view

Another view from Hellfire Pass

More info on Hellfire Pass at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_Pass

Getting the maximum from your vehicle

Deng's cats