My favourite Thai song

"om pra maa pood" from the album Bird-Sek by Bird & Sek Loso (in pic above)

ter dern maa haa tam naa sao
(You come to me with a sad face)
ter bork waa rao bai gun mai dai
(and tell me that we can't get along.)
ter bork waa chun dee gern bai sam rup ter
(You say I'm too good, for you.)
kum poot ter nun mun ngai dee yung nohn yung nee tam naa dtaa
(But those words are too easy.)
tam meuan waa chun ben puk blaa mai chai kon
(You're acting like I'm a vegetable, a fish, not a man.)
... more lyrics here

Source: http://www.ethaimusic.com/lyrics/225.htm (You can listent to the song here!)

My books

... on bookshelves in Chonburi province.

A quote from one of those books:

“Thailand is greatly appreciated by tourists for having beautiful Buddhist temples, so much that it has been known as ‘The Kingdom of the yellow Robe’.” (Phya Anuman Rajadhom, Introducing Cultural Thailand in Outline).

World’s Largest Football

Although I’m not a football fan, and I don’t follow football at all, the Thais are big fans of Man U and Chelsea. So, for all those Thai football fans out there surfing the World Wide Web and the rest of the world here’s something I’m sure you didn’t know!

About this time last year, the world’s largest football was displyed in Doha, the capital of Qatar, at the Abdhulla Signal, in front of the Lexus/Toyota building. It was made in 2006, probably with the occasion of the 16th Asian Games which took place in Doha. The football had 30 feet diameter and 94.28 feet circumference. It was hand made and 20.610 stitches were used when making it.

The Internet

If I were asked what the greatest invention of the modern world is, I would answer without hesitation: THE INTERNET. (If you’re wondering what I think the greatest invention of all time is, then I have to vote for ‘fire’.) I remember that soon after my brother and I bought a computer in the late 1990s, I heard of the Internet and wondered what the use of it is. People were saying many things about games and chat rooms, but even before I connected my computer to the Internet, I wasn’t too interested in such trivial stuff.

Due to the fact that my brother and I didn’t want to raise our parents’ phone bill to enormous sums, we had to use the Internet at night, after 24:00. The first couple of months I spent almost every night in front of the computer surfing the Internet and downloading pictures and documents for later use.

In the morning, when I had class, I would literally fall asleep during the brakes. Once I couldn’t wake up when the professor started his second part of the lecture, and when he called the roll he marked me absent. My desk mate thought that I was just resting my head on the books, and that I would answer when the professor called my name.

But after five hours on the Internet during the previous night, with only two and a half hours of sleep, I was peacefully dreaming. In the end, someone woke me up, and I informed the professor that I was present, and he asked me if I had been sleeping when he called the roll. I didn’t answer, but if I were sitting in the first row, he would have noticed the marks my pullover left on my face from sleeping on my forearms.

After those wild nights in front of the computer I became proficient enough in surfing the Internet and started to do research and make connections around the world with interesting people that I knew I might never meet. But, thanks to Timothy-Berners Lee (above pic from Wikipedia), the British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web in the 1980s, I started a prolific exchange of e-mails with the president of Nipponica Foundation from my native country and in 1999 founded a branch of this Foundation in my hometown. Then I got a book about Japan published the same year, and had the honour to meet the ambassador of Japan in my country at a special event that celebrated Japan’s national day.

And to make sure all you Americans out there understand this right, YES, the Internet was invented by a European and first put in use in Europe. If you don’t believe me, then read one of your favourite American bestsellers, Dan Brown, who in his Angels and Demons explains the whole situation in more detail. (But, don’t get me wrong, the quality of the books is questionable, but perfect for the American public, as an American friend of mine says. Nevertheless, I can say that it has the most gripping plot I have ever read, but at the same time it is the worst written book.)

To continue the Internet saga, in July 2002 I got a job as a teacher of English at a catholic school in Chonburi, Thailand. After a year I moved to Bangkok where I started my Masters, and got another job at a famous Thai school. All this was done almost exclusively through the Internet, with only a few phone calls to make sure the taxi drivers took me to the right destination.

I could surf the Internet for hours and hours, but I try not to spend more than one or two hours daily browsing the WWW, and limit my searches to topics of immediate interest. I wouldn’t do the things I do today without the Internet, and if Lee hadn’t invented it, this world would have been emptier.

Stories from the past

With my Stendhal presentation in my bag, I went to the language school where I take French lessons and hoped that I didn’t make too many spelling mistakes. This language school is quite far from where I live, but if the weather is nice, I can get there in about 40 minutes by motorbike. My motorbike. It’s a Kawasaki Kaze 112 cc.

But of course that it started raining. I had to stop under a bridge and wait for the rain to cease, but I spent the time under the bridge fruitfully (not like Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, who did drugs under the bridge and then wrote that great song) reading a couple of pages from Lorelei.

I should have realized that the rain was a sign, and things will go worse if I continue my journey. Luckily, I didn’t have an accident, although I saw one as I was coming down Saphan Taksin, but when I was three minutes away from the language school, I felt my mobile phone vibrating in my trousers pocket. When I ride my bike I never stop to answer the phone (how could I, I’m always in between lanes, weaving in and out of traffic), but as soon as I entered the language school, and saw the expression on the girl’s face behind the front desk, I knew it was my French teacher who called. And I was right, he did cancel the class, so I came back home, stopped at an internet café.

Travel and read

One thing that I realized a while back is the fact that when you travel in Bangkok, either to work, or to meet someone, it’s good to have a book in your bag. Some time ago, on my way to my Saturday job I continued reading Lorelei, which at times frustrates me because, due to my limited knowledge of the language, I cannot enjoy its literary part. But I didn't despair because I knew that’s one way of learning a foreign language. I remember the first unabridged book I read in English (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald) triggered similar emotions, but the difference was that my knowledge of English at that time was far greater than my current knowledge of French.

On my way back home, although I was tired after teaching for four hours spoiled brats that didn’t want to be in a classroom and learn English, I kept reading my French book when riding the BTS Skytrain. In the evening, after my French teacher had called to tell me that on Monday we have a class at the usual time, and that he no longer wanted to lend me Lorelei, but give it to me as a present, I started doing my French homework. I wrote, actually translated from English into French, about Stendhal’s masterpiece, Le rouge et le noir, a book I read in high school.

Although I read other French authors (though not too many) in my life, my experience with Stendhal is somehow unforgettable. By unforgettable I don’t mean that I remember every detail in the book, which, as a matter of fact, I don’t, but I think of the book itself, with its green hard covers, and thin, white, Bible paper.

As a teenager I wanted to read that book, but I was always discouraged by its thickness, and at the same time attracted by its shape. Not to mention the fact that the book was on a shelf right next to the telephone, so I saw it every day, at least once, when I was on the phone. I cannot recall the decisive moment that made me take the book into my room and start reading it, but eventually I did take it and I didn’t regret the time spent pouring through Julien Sorel’s life.

Book and letter reached Gor

Last month I sent Books and letter to Gor at the prison in Samut Prakan where he makes time for drug possession. Richard Barrow informed me that the package arrived and that the books are being read by the foreign prisoners.

I found out about Gor from Thailand Life, a website/blog about his life growing up in Thailand.

Reading Thai Prison Life I found out about many other aspects of life in Thai prisons and decided to do the little I can to help those behind bars. You can send books (both in English and Thai, up to you) and letters to this address.

Read more about Thai prisons here.

The Maggot

Some time ago I finished The Maggot by John Fowles. I got the book from Sarah Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, when I was in October 2005. Only a couple of days after I had started reading the book, I realized that the first 50 pages or so were missing. All the foreign teachers in the Staff Room at my old school from Bangkok, where I used to work at that time, started laughing when they found out, but still I went on reading the book because it made perfect sense even without the missing part.

Anyway, the first part of the book is really interesting. It starts as a mystery, but when I finished the book, I had the feeling that Fowles didn't do justice to the very interesting situation he created. The book is about witchcraft, obsessions, prostitutes, Stonehenge, mysticism, religion, philosophy, actors, liars, traveling and what not.

The book has very interesting characters, although most of them are unreliable: Henry Ayscough (the investigator), Mr. Bartholemew (a duke’s son, traveling under this false name, while his real name remains a mystery throughout the novel, just being referred to as Lordship), Dick (his Lordship’s trusted deaf-mute servant), Rebecca Hocknell (aka Louise or Fanny the whore), Francis Lacy (an actor who played the role of Mr. Brown, Mr. Bartholemew’s uncle), Jones (the party’s bodyguard who travels under Farthing), Mrs. Claiborne (Louise’s employer in the whore house), Thomas Puddicombe (the innkeeper of Black Heart, where the traveling party has last been seen), and other minor characters.

His Lordship mysteriously disappears, his servant apparently commits suicide, and the rest of the characters are part of an investigation that tries to bring light to what really happened in a cave in the woods of Exmoor, England.

I wasn't too satisfied with the ending, but I cannot say I didn't enjoy the book. Fowles was one of my favourite writers when I did my BA in Europe. But compared to the other three books I read by Fowles, i.e. The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Magus (which I can hardly recall, having abandoned it half-way through as a classmate revealed the ending!), and The Collector, I think that I like it the least.

If you like Fowles visit Fowles’s official website – which is pretty good, with a comprehensive summary of The Maggot.

Lorelei

Although I have many books in English that I bought and haven’t read yet, some time ago I decided to start reading a book in French. Why in French? Because together with two other American female colleagues from my old school in Bangkok I was taking French lessons. I asked our French teacher to lend me a book that I can read, so he gave me Lorelei, a novel written by Maurice Genevoix, a member of L’Academie Francaise. After I had read a couple of pages, and I realised that it was not easy, having in mind that my knowledge of French was not that great.

Although I studied French in high school for four years, plus one more year at the university, I never really liked it. At that time I wanted to study Japanese (which I did, but never became proficient), and didn’t care about any other language except English, and maybe Italian. Now that I have other plans, I decided to improve my speaking, writing, listening and reading skills in French. I consider myself a “linguist”, and I’m proud to say that I can speak, read, write or, at least, understand five foreign languages, but without practice I will eventually forget them. Maybe not English, which has become the language I think and dream in.

Coming back to Lorelei, it was very difficult to understand the descriptions, but at least I got the gist of it. Nevertheless, the dialogues were pretty easy to follow.

Journal writing

I have been living far away from my home country in Europe for five years and two months in an amazing country, called Thailand. The story of how I arrived here and what happened up to this date might be the main focus of other posts, or maybe they would never be mention here again.

I started and abandoned journal writing for a couple of times in my life. My first recollection of journal writing is of the time when I was a little boy and my father bought me and my older brother small diaries. We used to write in them every since in a while with ordinary information, such as how the weather was like or how many bars of chocolates we ate. When I grew a little bit older I gave up writing in that silly little diary. I had more important things to do, one of them being impersonating superheroes while wondering into the night and saving innocent people.

I started rewriting a journal when I was in my teens. That one was a secret diary filled with trivial stuff I cannot remember. What I can remember is the fact that my parents found it and, as far as I can tell, read it. The only compromising element in that diary was my financial record from which one could tell that I was claiming more money for my Maths tutoring that I actually had to give the teacher. But my parents never said anything. Anyway, I stopped writing and shredded the diary to pieces.

Later on, after I graduated from university, after I started teaching, after I arrived here in Thailand, I started and failed to continue a sort of a literary journal with responses to whatever I was reading. I can’t remember the reason why I stopped writing that journal, but I remember that I used some of the entries for another journal I was supposed to write for the World of Writing course in the third trimester of my masters studies at in Bangkok. I passed the course with an ‘A’, and the professor had given me nice feedback on my writing.

Soon after that I started writing short stories and stories for children which I still do at odd times. I have completed quite a few stories and I have tried to publish one story for children, but that is a long story that can be saved for later.

As a matter a fact, I’ve just remembered that I had written another sort of travelogue, which dealt mostly with my adventures and misadventures during my first year in Thailand. I stopped writing it as soon as I moved to Bangkok, and started a new period of my life. It is important to mention that I wrote it in my native language, and now when I come to think about it, it was a nice project. At the moment those journal entries are being published in a weekly newspaper in Europe.

Golden Triangle

“Golden Triangle”, the words evoke images of opium poppies, of hill tribes, of mist–shrouded hills, of the mighty Mekong River, and of tropical forests. But most of all the words “Golden Triangle” evoke images of mystery and danger surrounding drug production and trafficking: porous borders; civil wars; armies, police, and smugglers clashing; poor hill farmers eking out a living from a beautiful poisonous plant; raids on hidden heroin factories; donkey caravans along old jungle trade paths... more.

Pics from my personal collection.

Text from http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/ .

Doi Suthep

No trip to Chiang Mai would be complete without visiting Wat Phra Thart Doi Suthep; the spectacular Buddhist temple that can be seen, from wherever you happen to be in the city, clinging to the mountainside near the summit of Doi Suthep... read more here.

Photo from my personal collection.

Text via http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com./

Thailand Grand Festival

Ranked as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, Thailand has fascinating destinations and can be explored throughout the year. Come now and enjoy what so many others have discovered. Wonderous sites and sounds and memories to treasure for a lifetime.

September - International Boat Races

Long-tailed boats are the cultural heritage of Thai waterfront lives. In an ancient time during the rainy season when the rivers overflowed its banks and agricultural activities were in a long haul, Thai farmers traveled on their long-tailed boats to... read more

Info and logos from http://www.thailandgrandfestival.com/.

Floating Market

Damnoen Floating Market from Ratchaburi province is a popular and well-known tourist destination from Thailand.

The market is know by local villagers as Klong Lad Pli Talat Nam. Every day from 7 to 11 a.m the place is bustling with hundreds of boats, big and small, laden with local food products and handicrafts for sale. Visitors can also get a glimpse of Thai traditional life along the river, where houses alternate with lush orchards, where canals replace roads.

About 200 small canals are connected to the main canal, creating a fascinating labyrinth of waterways. Boats for hire for canal tours are also available near the floating market area.

One more pic here!

Circle of Asia

There is much for you to discover in Thailand. The country offers a huge range of new experiences in sights, sounds, tastes, and outlook. But different as it may be from your home, Thailand is probably the easiest exotic country for visitors. The people are friendly, leisure activities are well organized, the food is great and you receive excellent value for money. But before coming here it might be a good idea to have a look at what Circle of Asia has to recommend.

Logo, map and text from: http://www.circleofasia.com/thailand/.

Water Buffalo Race

I was today in Chonburi to watch the water buffalo races.

A very hot day, but the buffaloes put on a great show!