Last Day in Bangkok

Finally, the last day of June is also the last day that I will need to be in the vibrant, excessive, populous, and friendly city of Bangkok, Thailand. You can get whatever you want if you smile like a Thai and carry a full wallet. My last visit to the hospital was brief. One more freeze and check-up and I was almost out the door but not until a group of 7 nurses surrounded me, put their hands together and all at once said; "Krup Khun Krup" and bowed.(thank you) Something very unusual happened after that......I was hugged by each of the nurses. Thai people do not hug!! Ponsak's wife will not let me hug her and I have known her for 10 years. My first day at the hospital I gave my nurse a hug. Each treatment I had the nurse hold my hand and gave a hug. They never initiated it until today. It was very touching and I was a little emotional from it all. My new theory is that if you are going to learn a new language, you need to be totally immersed into that language and culture. I had three years of French in high school but it was really a joke. You must be forced to only use that language to literally get what you need. Hotel, towel, food (many kinds), golf, taxi, pay for the Loot fi far(train), change of money, and the list is endless. I had very pretty nurses so you must learn to say; Coon sway mak, you are beautiful. I have been on my own with anyone to translate for me in the city and I used it as an incentive to learn as much Thai as possible. It was just amazing to be in a city with 99% of the people not speaking any of your language. The tall building has an all you can eat on Saturday, including Maine lobster. The restaurant is on the very top floor and is the tallest building in Bangkok until a new high rise will replace it in 2016. My Durian story is yet to come. It was deleted from the blog but will return. UPDATE: It was an anticipation that built and built for many days. I was apprehensive but anxious to try this "forbidden fruit". I was also thinking about what a major letdown this will be if it is not a delicacy. I went to the Paragon Mall in Bangkok. It is the largest mall in the country. Very high prices, but you can find any European, Asian, American style you can think of. This is the mall that sells peaches for 4 dollar each. My sole goal after the hospital was to buy some Durian and try this fruit. I went into the Paragon Market to look for some of the spiny fruit and was not disappointed. The ladies were cutting up the fruit and taking out the center of the fruit. It is only 20 percent edible. All the stories and folklore about this fruit was about to face the real test. I bought 1/2 a kilogram (about 24 ounces). I was going to bring it back to my hotel but my curiosity got the best of me. I went out into the food court and ordered a glass of milk. I unwrapped the Durian and cut a one inch piece and tried it with great reservation. Oh My God, or for those who text(OMG). Most things in life can be compared to something else that has been a prior experience or schemata. NOT THIS! I was having this euphoric feeling that was the result of my taste buds experiencing something that had never experienced before. OK, I see the the intrigue for this fruit!!! The dried fruit can be transported by airplane but the fresh fruit will be confiscated. Many fruits in Thailand can only be brought back to the USA if it is dried.

PARTY TIME

I stayed up to watch the Brazil/Chile soccer game. It concluded after a double overtime and a shootout at 2:00 AM. I am preparing for jet lag. I hope that all my Gifted students who are watching the World Cup are showing off their geographical knowledge about South America. I was very, very proud of your ability to identify all the countries of Central America and South America this spring. Several times I was asked, "why do I need to know this?" I hope you can now understand why. The party was a huge success. It so happened that I was the only American represented at the party. I did my best to make America proud. My boys will often ask, "are we eating Thai style tonight". That means all the dishes are shared among everyone at the table and you pick from the Lazy Susan. Below is an example of a Thai style meal with goose, chicken, pork, sea bass, lotus won ton, black and white rice. Everything on the table was delicious. Above is Poon, Ponsak's daughter and her friend Art. I have noticed over my several times of being in Thailand that it is not important to people if their meal is hot or not when they eat it. The food above was on the table for twenty minutes before we began eating. Drinking and talking always come first, then you can eat your meal. I do most of the cooking at home and demand that everyone come immediately to the table to eat when the food comes out of the oven. Coldness does a disservice to the food you just spent so much tie preparing. The Thai's justify waiting to eat by saying the tropical heat keeps the food warm enough to eat and that cool food is more palatable since it gives the person eating a break from the heat. I will be adding to the adventures of the day with a second post later. The internet here is extremely slow because the Thai people have to be online with their Iphones or apple computer at all times. This is making the internet ridiculously slow. Also, incredible update on the fruit Durian. Continued..................The party was just a social get together for the Poopatanapong's friends who live in several different countries including the USA (Boca Raton, FL). During our meal we had a conversation about the spiny fruit called Durian. Six different families and they all knew someone who died from eating the fruit. They mixed alcohol with eating the fruit and it becomes a deadly combination. It is a very interesting fruit but it has too many negative consequences to become attached to. I will have to try it and give a report on my blog in the upcoming days. Ponsak has three daughters. Poon, Pom and Bo are their names. They range from 23-18 years of age. I want to add these pictures of them to update my family on how quickly they have become young ladies. They always ask about Deb, Dalton and Garrett. There must have been a surplus of gray Mercedes Benz cars in Thailand because the first five cars to show up at the house were exactly that. I am constantly going to get into the driver's side of cars and taxi's here in Thailand. The driver is on the right side or passenger side of American cars. Labor is so cheap that there is little need for modern machines to do any of the work that a man or woman can do. These guys are spreading lime on the golfing greens. The broadcast of the lime seems very wasteful with much of it blowing away in the air. That is why a low drop spreader is used to apply lime to a lawn or field. The owner of the golf course has this secluded pen way off in the woods. I took a walk with Ponsak's brother, Chai Yung and came across it. Daring, I took some pictures of the birds that were cooped up in the pens. There were Toucans, doves, Peacocks and Peahens. I was interested in the bizarre look of the Toucan. I read on the internet that these are a protected species in Thailand and holding them in captivity is against the law. Inspector Shost will get to the bottom of this. I hate to see anything in a cage anyway. This is the same guy that raises thousands if not millions of the exotic colorful fish. That was a two hour post. Very slow internet. Have a great day everyone.

Post #30 Random Pictures

My very first day at the hospital, a Thai monk told me that I should not shave until all my medical procedures are done. I am very superstitious, so he only had to say it once and I have not shaved in 9 days. I have only shared the complexity of my time at BKK Hospital with my wife. I will spare the details, but I would hate to see how things might have gone if I did not listen to monk and shaved. The doctor gave me encouragement by saying "No matter who it is in the world, if you die today, there will be someone else there to take your place tomorrow"! He was talking about himself, but his timing was off considering how I was feeling. I took my very first "Selfie" ever today and I am sharing it with the world. The last time I had a beard there was not any of those gray colored whiskers. I took the golf cart out for a ride today and took some pictures of the flowers and trees in bloom There is no winter or summer here, just rainy and dry seasons. I am in the rainy season but the longest stretch of rain has lasted 45 minutes and it cools things down 3 degrees (maximum). It is sometimes worse after a shower because of the humidity. While touring the grounds, I came across an avocado tree and picked some. There were a couple on the ground that were starting to soften up. If Thailand runs out of rice, I have avocado to eat.< /a> It amazes me that all the workers throughout Thailand wear long pants, long shirt and partially cover their face with a cloth. It is 95 degrees!!!! How about using SPF 100? It seems like a setup for hyperthermia. Today's blog is below. I had extra time today, so I have posted twice. Good day everyone.

Party Preparation

I am headed back to Rang Sit today to stay with Ponsak for the weekend. The family is having a big party for a friend who is Thai but lives in Boca Raton, Florida. She is married to a man from India who is a professor from India. I told Ponsak that I would help with the preparations for the party. Last night I went to bed at 8pm. The hospital gave me six sleeping pills. I took one and woke up at 10:00 AM. I had not slept like that for many years. The phone rang at 10 AM to tell me my taxi was there. I showered and packed in 4 minutes. I checked out and headed back "home". My taxi driver Sujinda(he has become my personal chauffeur when I need him)gave me my best lesson in Thai. I learned 50 new phases and I can count to 100,000. He has a wife who is pregnant with their first child and he works 16 hours a day to pay bills, 7 days a week. His goal is to make 32,000 baht or one thousand dollars per month. When I was back home I noticed that my avocado was looking ripe. Sure enough it was getting soft so I decided to try it. Just like the peach, delicious, Au Roi! and, just like I said in an earlier blog, the avocado ripens once it is picked from the tree. Five days ago, the avocado was hard as a rock. Today, perfect. A couple days ago, I was coming out of a MBK shopping mall(check it out online)and a Tuk tuk driver said he would get me back to the hotel for 100 baht, 3 dollars. He told me we had to make one stop and I would have to go into the tailors shop so he would get a stamp. All the Tuk tuk drivers are hooked up with businesses and basically force riders to visit the shop. I was quite angry at him and I think he knew it but he wanted the stamp to show he is bringing them customers. Well, two stops. We had to get LPG for his Tuk tuk. When we arrived at the tailors, I knew this was going to cost me money. I went inside and "Sawatdee Khrup.(Hello) He asked if he could help me and my eyes became fixated on the ties, not Thais, and asked how much to make some ties. He said four would cost about 44 dollars. He had pre-made ties that I really liked for 500 baht. I chose the 4 I liked, paid and got back on the tuk tuk. The driver got his stamp and actually brought a sale to the shop and everyone went home happy. Temples abound in Thailand and the Thai people are very respectful of the temples. This temple shown here is only a mile away from Ponsak's house. It is really beautiful. The fine detail to every aspect of it boggles the mind. Males must wear long pants and collar shirt, Ladies must wear a dress below the knees and no shoulders exposed. It is all out of respect. If you are in the area on Sunday(remember we are a day ahead of you), stop by and join the party. Ponsak Poopatanapong, Krung Kavee, Rang Sit, Thailand. Good day.

Down Day

I am recuperating today from a three day marathon at Bangkok Hospital. I apologize to all my readers that I do not have any experiences to share with you. I did shop for some pharmacy supplies that were prescribed. I was very happy to hear that USA is going on to the knock-out round of 16 teams in the World Cup Futbal Tournament. They play Belgium but since we are 12 hours different in time, the game comes on TV at 3:00 AM. I plan to eat my 4 dollar peach when I get off the computer. The pool is on the top floor of the hotel. There is a cooling system that runs to bring the temperature of the pool to a refreshing 80 degrees. This hotel is dwarfed by surrounding high rises. The peach was delicious! It was seriously the juiciest peach EVER and I am not saying that b/c of it's astronomical price. Here is one FYI for you today: Every Thai person has a nickname that they are informally known as. They are given this name at birth. The nickname is given to ward off evil spirits. The evil spirit is constantly on the lookout for new born children to snatch away and control. Using a nickname confuses the evil spirit and help keep the child safe. It is prevalent throughout the country to use nicknames and some kids may know each other for years and never know their friend's real name.

Bangkok Transportation System

I was up early and had a very nice breakfast at the hotel. Eggs easy over, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, coffee, OJ and 2 slices of toast. All for just 6 dollars. I then set out on the Bangkok Transit System BTS. It was my first experience and it went well except for going by my transfer station two times. It was a good thing I just had to walk down and over to the other line and then vise versa. I did it on purpose to get the switching of lines and learn the system through repeated practice. I has cost me 300 baht using the taxi and the the BTS is 56 baht. 100 baht is equal to $3.33. The BTS is super clean. NO food or drink on the line or it is a 1000 baht fine. It is a very efficient transportation system for the center of Bangkok but it does not extend out of the main part of the city. You have to take a bus or taxi to get to other destinations. I stopped at Siam station on my way home and the grocery store was amazing!!!! Never in my travels have I seen so much fresh fruit in one place. The spiny fruit, Durian, is a controversial fruit. It is a fruit that many say attracts foreigners to come to Thailand. I am including a really fascinating story of this fruit at the end of the blog. Please read it. You will be glad you did. Let's import them!!! The apples shown here are the largest I have seen in my life. They weigh one Kilogram ((2.2 lbs) They are the size of a cantaloupe. I was surprised by this woman who came up to me at the grocery store. She began to whisper sweet nothings in my ear. The were sweet nothings because I do not understand Thai when it is spoken quickly. There was a jumbo tron in the grocery store and this woman and I were broadcast on the screen. She gave me a peck on the cheek and and said my whiskers were rough in Thai. It made many Thai customers laugh but upon checkout I received many smiles. I was caught up in the "heat" of the moment and proceeded to bag two peaches (from Georgia, USA). I did not check the price and upon checkout I found out they were 300 baht, FOR TWO. Luckily they were absolutely awesome. I went back after I paid to see if there was a mistake, but not mistake about it. It very much rivals the 3 dollar Mountain Dew I bought on a cross country bicycle trip in Wyoming. At least I know where the good peaches are but it is a far trip to get them. Many of the peaches we buy in Florida are mealy. I had to pose with the mother of Buddha I am sure that few of you have seen a 4 dollar peach before, so here is what one would look like. A USA peach in Thailand. It must be the shipping cost!! DURING FRUIT---Southeast Asia's most popular fruit, no wonder. I had problems with getting the article to copy but here is the link. Cut and past. goseasia.about.com/od/malaysianculturepeople/a/durian_fruit.htm