One Month In…
We have been out of quarantine for just over a month now! So much change, shifting perspectives, relearning of day-to-day tasks, and more. To be honest there is too much to explain or capture in an entry but I want to share some thoughts and reflections thus far.
We have begun making new friends and have been lucky enough to eat great food. We are slowly learning cultural norms and Thai language. There have been days of exploring and relaxation. There have also been days when the reality of living abroad and dealing with such a different system of living can be quite challenging. Time has moved so fast and by the end of each day, Emily and I are exhausted. While I am still in the process of figuring out my job situation, filling my days with adventure and tasks has been easy.
With all the amazing things that have happened, there has also been plenty that hasn’t been easy. Emily and I are so fortunate to have this opportunity to live abroad , but with that comes the realities of culture shock and the emotional side of things that can be up and down. At times the stress and anxiety that come with living in a foreign country weigh on both of us. The politics of working for a private host national school can be overwhelming and the reality of white privilege and white superiority plague countries like Thailand even when they have never been colonized.
All of this is to say that we are enjoying our time here, and we acknowledge that the first few months are the most difficult. We are optimistic things will continue to become more comfortable and we will become more adjusted.
Now that we have expressed some of the difficulties we have been experiencing we would like to share some other things that we have been adapting to…
Our first month has been filled with great adventures!
To name a few...
For starters, shooting a small (but sometimes powerful) jet stream of water at your bum, ain't that big of a deal! It saves on toilet paper and it really does a great job at keeping all things clean down there. Totally used to it.
Secondly, malls are seriously something else here. Bangkok takes them to the next level, literally. My experience with malls in the U.S. mainly consisted of a floor or two of stores and a small food court. Here, we are talking floors on floors on floors with one or even two floors dedicated to a food court! And it isn't just small shops selling things, there are also tons of kiosks and stalls. Often there are entire grocery and home improvement stores inside! Large movie theaters, laser tag, spas and even IKEA can be found!
“Malls definitely make the case for never needing to leave them for anything outside of sleeping in your own bed.”
Half way up Terminal 21 Mall.
There are even areas if you just want to play video games or exercise to pass the time. Malls are much more than just a shopping experience. It is where everyone goes to hang out and avoid the heat. They are a whole subculture in and of themselves. Malls definitely make the case for never needing to leave them for anything outside of sleeping in your own bed.
Food in malls is also taken very seriously. You will find some seriously good eats at the mall. We experienced our first Korean BBQ meal at the Promenade, which is a mall attached to another mall! Not only that, later I went to an area that had six malls all connected to each other! I wish I was making this up.
As many of you may know, I am always on the hunt for the best almond croissant. I had five years to scour every bakery and coffee shop searching for the best almond croissant in Seattle. Bangkok will be no different. My search has led me to believe that not only are almond croissants difficult to find in Bangkok, there aren’t even that many bakeries that feel familiar to me. Most of the croissants are bready and lack true almond paste. Needless to say, I will not be deterred!
The next adventure was to host an impromptu Sunday lunch, Indonesian style! A few weeks back I accidentally followed a couple from the neighborhood Chinese market all the way back to our apartment building, even up the same flight of stairs. I quickly learned they were our next door neighbors, Alex and Ichaa. Alex is from Britain and teaches at another international school close by. Ichaa is a flight attendant from Indonesia who has been stuck in Bangkok for the past several months. After chatting for awhile, one thing led to another and we ended up hosting them along with some of Ichaa’s Indonesian friends for our first authentic Indonesian meal.
The KFC was for the small child (not pictured).
Ichaa made the majority of the food and her friends also contributed a few dishes. The food was unbelievable and the company of new friends was much enjoyed.
My plate of pure deliciousness.
Another aspect of life in Bangkok that we are acquainting ourselves with is the wildlife. It is unlike any experience we have had in the places we have previously lived in the U.S. Usually you see wildlife when you go out into nature. Here you see huge monitor lizards roam freely in the khlongs (canals) and often take up space around the neighborhood ponds. I have seen them crossing roads and hiding in sewer drains. The locals don't seem too worried about them but they do keep their distance.
Geckos have also become part of our daily life. Even with all our windows closed (to keep the heat out), they manage to find their way inside the apartment. Because they are so small, they do not bite and are very skittish around humans. They tend to scurry behind the air con unit when we arrive home. They can also be found on sides of buildings and ceilings of restaurants at night.
Aside from those reptiles and a few odd looking birds, there are more dangerous animals to watch out for in Bangkok. We have heard to watch out for poisonous snakes and giant centipedes. They like to hide in shoes when it rains and are apparently found everywhere. We haven't come across any yet, fortunately. We are interested in some hiking trips while we are here, and we will be sure to take extra precautions by always checking our shoes!
The rain here is next level as well, especially during the rainy season. Intense rain can last for hours and will make traffic even worse than you thought possible. Our neighborhood has several small ponds and sits a bit lower than other parts in the area. This makes us more prone to flooding which our neighborhood does often. This aside, experiencing the rain from a safe distance is rather relaxing. Sometimes it rains nonstop for a whole day. That said, don’t let the rain fool you. It is not your friend.
Because it’s the rainy season in Thailand it's less hot. By less hot, I mean low 90s to mid 110s with humidity. It is by far one of the most in-your-face differences you cannot escape. It’s never a question of if you will come home sweaty, it’s a matter of how sweaty. We can’t imagine what the hot season will feel like.
I wasn't aware of how modest the country of Thailand was before stocking up on tanks and shorts. But I’m trying to be more aware of what I wear. Thai's generally wear shorts at or below the knee and don't show shoulders or armpits. Thinking ahead, especially after hearing how it is like in the summer with the heat, I can't imagine how much more the heat can intensify. Side-note, for anyone who believes wearing a mask impairs their breathing, try doing it walking around in over 100 degree heat for an hour or two at a time. Everyone here wears them inside and outside and no one is complaining.
Traffic in Bangkok is by far the worst traffic I have ever experienced in my life. Apparently traffic in Asia can be some of the worst in the world. It makes the traffic I've seen in places like New York, Chicago, and Seattle, seem like nothing. A big reason that traffic seems to be so congested is because the way the roads are organized feeds all smaller roads onto the main highways to travel between villages/neighborhoods. This leads to a very high volume of vehicles on the main roads which are the roads you have to take to get from one place to another within the city.
That said, Bangkok has many different ways of getting around town. Options include: car, taxi, moto-taxi, bus, songthaew (a pick up truck that is used as a taxi to pick up many people at once), ferries and khlong boats, and trains like the MRT Subway and BTS Skytrain. While it is definitely the most dangerous, moto-taxis seem to be the fastest method since they can weave in and out of traffic, especially during traffic jams.
Boats are nice because there is no traffic, they travel rather quickly but with the drawback of ending up smelling like the khlong a bit and getting wet if you sit towards the back of them. Outside of those two options, you better just leave lots of time for whatever may occur along the route or travel during times when traffic is generally low (which isn’t very often). Since it is the rainy season, a downpour can happen in a flash. In which case, traffic becomes 10x worse and moto-taxis do not operate.
A goal of mine is to learn how to cook Thai cuisine. I have been practicing with a few recipes from Andy Ricker’s cookbook, Pok Pok, for over a year and a half. Now that I do not have to hunt down each and every ingredient, hopefully the whole process become more seamless. I haven’t had any luck with finding people willing to help me learn but I have taken initiative to buy my first large mortar and pestle to make curry pastes from scratch.
I have befriended the owner of the popular northern Thai restaurant, Maan Muang, in Sammakorn. Her name is Aon and after discussing my interest in cooking, she let me borrow a northern Thai cookbook by Austin Bush called The Food of Northern Thailand. I hope to learn to cook new and exciting recipes soon. The downside is our kitchen stove makes cooking multiple things or even things at a high temperature rather difficult. Like with our last tiny kitchen, I’ll just have to get creative.
Emily and I have begun taking Thai language lessons from a Thai local named Sunny. She is wonderful. She is our age and knows a lot of RIS faculty. She loves showing off what her country has to offer. We have two lessons a week and while I can’t say my communication is even remotely there, I am slowly becoming more comfortable speaking Thai little by little each day. We are very appreciative of Sunny, her wealth of knowledge, and her enthusiasm about Thai culture and history.
Lastly, Emily went on a women’s getaway with others from her school community to the island of Koh Samed. There she experienced her first boat ride in Thailand. It was at night which made it difficult to predict when the waves were coming. By the time they arrived at the island, many of the passengers were soaked. She also experienced hopping on a songthaew for the first time to get to the hotel they were staying at. Unfortunately, that weekend the weather predicted a huge rain storm. This impacted the weekend somewhat as it rained most of the day on Sunday. But despite the rain, she had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. She enjoyed the beach, her first Thai massage, getting to know other women in the school community, and exploring the island a bit. It was a relaxing getaway and she was excited to experience another site in Thailand so soon after arriving.
This of course is not an exhaustive list or explanation of our time thus far but we have touched on a lot of the differences we have noticed and the new things we are adjusting to here in our first month. With that in mind, we wanted to end this post with some observations we’ve made thus far and share some things we are still wondering.
Observation: The job and income you have is very closely tied to your social status.
Thoughts/Reflection: Emily has a well paying job, especially compared to the average Thai person. This results in better service and treatment overall. One downfall is that people try to rip us off because they assume we are wealthy based on our appearance. Classism seems to be prevalent in this culture.
Questions/What we are still wondering: How do we appropriately and respectfully communicate that we don’t hold ourselves above others?
Observation: We receive exceptional service (when shopping and dining at restaurants), almost too much at times.
Thoughts/Reflection: Several people are ready and waiting to assist and serve us at shopping centers. Maybe this is because we are white Americans and they assume we are wealthy. Not sure yet if this type of assistance is granted to Thai people.
In restaurants as soon as we are seated the wait staff wait very close to the table until we are ready to place our order. Oftentimes the menu is in Thai and is very long so we have a lot to look through and consider.
Questions/What we are still wondering: What is the reason there are so many employees working at shopping centers? Is it to give lots of people jobs? Is this only based on our appearance and assumed wealth? Or do Thai people also receive what we consider above average service?
Do Thai people just know what they want right away so the wait staff usually doesn’t have to wait very long for them to decide? If that is the case, it makes sense why they would stand very close to us. Or is it because they want to be there in case we need any little thing?
Observation: It takes much longer to accomplish everything in Thailand.
Thoughts/Reflection: Transportation takes longer due to traffic, and some methods are faster than others (none of them are actually fast BTW). Paperwork and bureaucratic processes are very slow and convoluted. Not that they aren’t in the U.S. as well though. Also there is the “Thai 50/50.” 50% of the time you get what you ask for and 50% of the time you don’t, and it’s fine either way. Often what you receive takes quite a bit longer than expected.
Questions/What we are still wondering: Is it because we are unfamiliar and don’t know the shortcuts so our methods don’t work as well here? Is it because the Thai way of life isn’t as much about the hustle and bustle like the U.S.? Is it because Thai culture is generally more laid back so they don’t mind waiting and have more patience?
Observation: The city/country’s relationship to and view of waste is quite different than we are used to.
Thoughts/Reflection: Thailand is a developing country. They are still in the process of creating infrastructure to process their waste. Thailand, and Asia as a whole, loves plastic and creates a ton of waste. When you order a bubble tea you get the plastic cup, lid, straw, straw wrapper, and a plastic bag to carry it around in. Although, right before we moved here they banned plastic bags in grocery stores so that’s encouraging!
We would like to be able to recycle and compost while living here, but unfortunately that was a privilege we were afforded in Seattle and that isn’t even an option everywhere in the U.S.
The water, specifically the khlongs, is certainly something to get used to here. They are very dirty and full of trash. We’ve been told that is where our waste from our toilets goes. This is not a problem unique to Thailand and we understand the U.S. has plenty of issues with water contamination, it is just very close to home here (literally in our backyard). We have a khlong right behind our apartment and it is stinky. When it rains and pours the streets often flood and the water that ends up filling the streets. It’s not something you want to get stuck in.
Questions/What we are still wondering: What education is happening with the public about waste, recycling, etc.? How can we get involved with sustainable practices while we are in Thailand?
