Ships That Pass in the Night

When we moved into our condo on the Gulf of Thailand, we expected the continuous, mesmerizing roar of the waves, the kind that would lull us to sleep at night.  But the waves are scarcely noticed, only occasionally being heard above the hum of the air conditioner.  Perhaps the big ocean waves loose their enthusiasm by the time they wander into the cozy corner of Pattaya Bay.  I remember having dinner with Ted in California, and the roar of the ocean was so savage, we thought it must have been thunder.

Last night, we had a tremendous storm with high winds and driving rain.  Today the clouds hang an impenetrable steely gray, the winds have once again picked up, and the docile Gulf of Thailand is at last showing some enthusiasm.  The waves are relentless, pounding and spilling over the stone piers, making the surface a frothy white.  It feels an undeserved privilege to be able to witness the moods of the sea.

We often wonder about what kind of wildlife exists below the surface.  I have had little success trying to determine the answer.  A recent news story gave us a tiny glimpse; a rare whale shark was spotted in Pattaya Bay last week.  Approximately twenty-three feet long, it swam around a tourist boat for about three minutes, then disappeared.  It was once common, but this is only the third sighting so close to Pattaya in the last six years.  My neighbor, a grade school teacher, said some of her students told her about the sighting.  She was a bit concerned, as her husband is regularly out on the water with his little catamaran.  But although the whale shark is reportedly the biggest of fish, it is not a danger to humans, eating only krill, plankton and the like.  Still, pretty exciting to imagine such a giant lurking somewhere out there.

Although we can only wonder about what swims below the water, what we can see are the many different watercraft that are outside our windows everyday.  Unlike the lakes at home, that sport mostly recreational craft, the gulf is a workplace for many here.  In addition to the jet skis and speed boats, a myriad of other vessels grace these waters.

my neighbor's husband

massive freighters masquerading as islands

a pleasure craft

fishing boats of every kind...

these boats are known as "long-tails,"
characterized by an inboard car or truck engine
 with a long rudder attached behind

a fisherman casting his net

a longboat

 a Chinese junk?

and a pirate ship!

Anchors aweigh!

A Matter of Class

We had been studying Thai with a tutor that came to our place every Sunday morning.  Several difficulties arose from this arrangement.  First, being that it was only once a week, carryover from one lesson to the next was quite difficult.  Also, Sunday was really the only day Tim had free time.  So not only was he being robbed of a day off, he also had little to no time during the week to study.  It just wasn't working for us.  We stopped the lessons when we went home in April, and decided not to start them up again when we returned, at least for a while.

Fortunately, I learned of a language school in town that was offering 30 hours of Thai lessons, every Wednesday and Thursday for seven weeks, for free!  This sounded like a good alternative, for me at least; I could do it while Tim was at work.  Also, I had someone to go with; my friend, Mika, told me about the class and signed up for it as well.  Several language schools offer Thai classes in the city, and I couldn't really tell which were reputable.  As far as I can tell, no accreditation criteria exist, or if they do, it isn't well-publicized.  But for free, you can't really go wrong, can you?

I met my friend for lunch before the first day of class at a new restaurant just around the corner from the school.  "Loaf" just opened their third location here, and we had enjoyed lunch at their other cafe' in the past.  It's a trendy little coffee shop with a pretty good lunch menu.  This location, on Soi Town in Town (street named for the Town in Town Hotel), is quite a bit bigger than the other, where a group of us squeezed in for lunch a while back (the staff kept moving us to bigger tables as they became available.)  The new location is just off Central Pattaya road near Foodland, the "farang food emporium."  "Loaf" a feel-good, upbeat vibe as is illustrated on their logo that uses the "o" and "a" as the eyes of a happy face.

We had a quick lunch, then ventured out into the heat for a quick walk around the block to the Wardtawan Language School.  Lots of motor bikes were parked out front, along with several pairs of shoes.  Mika had given me a heads up that I needed to bring slippers to school since shoes were to be removed at the door.  This is a common practice in homes and temples, but I rarely see it in places of business. 

The new students all gathered in the shiny, new lobby, where a giant chess board was set up in one corner.  Must be a good place, right Wagners, Johnsons, Dustin?  My classmates were an interesting mix - Mika, me, and a young woman from Russia were the only females.  The other ten or so males on first glance were all white men in their fifties and sixties, the typical farangs that populate the bar stools of Pattaya.  One forms a certain impression of these expats fairly quickly upon arrival in this city, so it was enlightening to me that some have interests other than beer and bar girls.  This class will be educational in more ways than one!

Our teacher (Kru in Thai) arrived promptly at start time, a petite little woman with a professional, "teacherly" manner.  She led us to our classroom, up a narrow back stairway with steps of varying heights, to our "upper room," like the twelve apostles, and we squeezed into the Thai-sized desks. 

After one class it was clear that this teacher knows what she is doing.  I think I learned as much in one class as I did in all the Sunday morning sessions combined.  And it feels so good to be back in a classroom, one of the greatest pleasures in life when a good teacher is presiding   I can feel the satisfied sigh of my brain after these sumptuous "meals."

Now that I am four weeks in, I am amazed at how much more I have retained.  I am getting a lot of enjoyment testing out my new skills on poor Mick, whose frequent reaction is, "Huh?"  Guess I've got a ways to go...

Epicurean Delight

Consult TripAdvisor for the number one restaurant in Pattaya, and you will discover Cafe Des Amis.  Many people have been stunned when we say that we have never been to Cafe Des Amis, and all would encourage us to go.  Tim and I received a very generous Cafe Des Amis gift certificate at Christmas, and attempted to use it for a special occasion twice, but no reservations had been available.

We finally found a chance to use the certificate this past Friday when Tim was able to leave work at a reasonable hour, and we took the chance that they would be able to seat us.  I was unable to reach the restaurant by phone, but I left a message and we hoped for the best.  We are moving into the low season here in Pattaya, with fewer vacationers and many families heading home for the summer.  So we were able to wiggle into a spot at the last minute.  Tim was preparing for a two-week trip to India, and it was as good an excuse as any to have a special evening out.

I gave Mick the general idea of where to go, and he didn't seem too confident, but when we turned down the street, he remembered right away - he had driven previous bosses here.  He always seems to feel better when he recognizes a place as "farang-approved." We pulled up to a gate at the end of the road; the entrance gave the impression of entering someone's private residence.  A small, lush courtyard lead to walls of glass windows that revealed the glow of candlelight beyond.

The dress code was "smart casual," with the polite warning that underdressed guests would be offered a table in the outside dining area.  So Tim wore a dress shirt and suitcoat, and I wore dress slacks and a blouse.  But the dress code in Pattaya is waaaay laid back, and even Cafe Des Amis was not so strict with their guests.  We were invited to have a drink in the cozy lounge before being shown to a table.

Service was provided by a well-mannered, well-trained and attentive staff and the food was excellent.  We enjoyed a smoked salmon appetizer, Tim had a steak and I had a delicious salmon filet atop a bed of greens.  The chef attends to every detail, and we finished our meal with a digestif offered by the owner.  What a lovely evening.

The next night we enjoyed the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Thai Garden, a place that we have begun referring to as "the old people place" (lan-ah-han kuhn gae in Thai).  Our driver thinks this is hilarious, and really, sometimes we feel like we've walked into a Lawrence Welk episode.  But the food is really good for the price, the dining area is a lovely poolside spot, and they have great entertainment.  Wrap your head around this - a mariachi band from the Philippines serenaded us with Coldplay's Yellow.  Awesome.

Adventures in eating:

I tried two fruits recently that have come into season here:  the first was the purple mangosteen, a cute little fruit that almost looks like it was drawn in a cartoon.  The bottom of the fruit has a flower-shape that indicates how many sections are contained inside, usually six.  It looks a bit like a white orange inside, but tastes much sweeter.

The second was much more daunting - the rambutan, which looks like a very hairy strawberry.  The driver tells me that these are very popular in south Thailand, and he grew up eating them by climbing the trees.  When the bunches ripen, they weigh down the branches and hang low to the ground.  The flesh is also surprisingly white, and some have a pit in the middle similar to a plum.  The fruit is really sweet, and reminded me of eating a big, skinned green grape.  And I survived to write another day...

Piano Player

A concert, a concert!  I gleefully spotted the tiny paragraph in the Pattaya Mail, the handy little farang paper I pick up from the back of church each week, if I get there before they're all gone.  (Reminds me of the little ladies that used to hover around the Farmington Library counter every Wednesday (?) waiting for the free Farmington weekly to be released.)

I was even happier when I discovered that Mika was interested in attending the concert with her family.  This was a perfect opportunity for an evening out together with our spouses and families.  Tim was in, so I reserved two tickets.  The next week, Tim apologized but said he was going to have to be in India at the time of the concert - bummer.  So I let Mika know that Tim wouldn't be joining us, but that I still wanted to go.

Just days before Tim was scheduled to leave, it was discovered that his India work visa would expire while he was in India.  So the trip had to be postponed until he could get a new one.  This is no quick phone call;  he had to again relinquish several documents to the Indian embassy, then travel to Bangkok to resubmit everything.  I don't understand why this is necessary when they already have all the information on file.  Anyway, because of the visa delay, Tim would be able to attend the concert after all.

The concert was on a Sunday, Mick's usual day off, so we gave him Saturday off that weekend.  I went to Sunday morning mass instead of my usual Saturday evening (alas, all the Pattaya Mails were gone by then.)  Tim needed a haircut, so after mass we had Mick drop us at the mall.  We looked for a breakfast place, winding up at Mulligans, an Irish pub in front of the mall on Beach Road.

Mulligans has one breakfast item on the menu, so we ordered it: the usual English breakfast of eggs, bangers, bacon, baked beans, black pudding, etc.  We were a little concerned when they said their coffee machine was broken, but the waitress kindly offered to run next door to Starbucks to pick up some coffee for Tim.  The food was so-so, but the decor was fun and the soundtrack was great.

After breakfast, we stopped in at Starbucks to have them grind a bag of beans for us.  (We are down to a precious two bags left from the stash we brought from home.  We can buy beans here, but the bags are twice the price and half the size.)  Then we headed up to the "Cut and Curl," the place in the mall that does a pretty good job cutting hair.  I have yet to get my hair done in Thailand, but Tim has used this place several times.

In the afternoon, we headed back to the condo and got ready for our evening out.  The Dusit Thani Hotel is quite close to us - this is the same place that hosted the tennis tournament back in February.  We arrived in time to walk in behind the bell-ringing lady featured in an earlier blog about the Thailand Philharmonic concert in Pattaya.  Thankfully she was just a fellow concertgoer this time.  We picked up our tickets and headed into a ballroom that was set up like a wedding reception with large, round tables and a buffet set up in the middle.  We found a table off to the side and staked out some seats for Mika and her family.  They came in shortly after, with their little one asleep in the stroller.  It was nice to meet each others' husbands, and we all seemed to enjoy getting acquainted.  The food was quite good, with a nice combination of salads, entrees and desserts, including some very good California rolls.

Young people dressed in traditional Thai clothing were at the table next to us, all Asian in appearance, but clearly speaking American English.  We surmised they must be the musicians, and we were surprised to see how young they were; the oldest was no more than seventeen, the youngest perhaps eight or nine.  We were also curious about their backgrounds - were they Thai students attending a school in America, or a school in Thailand with the name "American Northwest Music School?"  It was never really explained, but this was clearly a school in America, and the emcees spoke distinctly American.  The American accent is more conspicuous once you are away from it for a while; a bit harsh yet comforting to hear.  From the surnames, we figured maybe four of them were Thai nationals who live in America; the others had names that sounded Chinese and maybe Vietnamese.

The stage was set with five beautiful grand pianos arranged in a circle.  The program started with the Thai Royal Anthem, for which we all stood, then a Thai song medley, with two musicians at each piano, hence the "20 Hands and Five Pianos."  The first solo was Watch My Fingers Rock, performed by a young boy of eight or nine.  Tim and I were both instantly reminded of watching Michael play when he was little, when his only tempo was "fast."  So cute.

The concert continued with several solos, duets, and various other combinations, working their way through Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saens, and the like.  They even played Sousa, and a piece composed by HRH King Bhumibol Adulyadej which was quite lovely.  They tackled some pretty difficult pieces, some quite expertly.  The pieces with all ten players could get a bit muddy at times;  it is pretty ambitious to expect synchronization of twenty hands with such complex pieces.  In the second half, one piece was performed by five musicians lying on their backs reaching their hands over their heads!  Victor Johnson, I thought you were the only one that could do that :)

All in all it was a lovely evening - a nice escape to a different world.  I'm anxious to see what hidden treasures might appear in the paper next.

What I'm Reading:  Just finished reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, a simple yet insightful story of a young man's search for meaning.  I'd never read this classic before, and found Thailand to be a good backdrop.  It's a reassuring tale to be read and reread by those who feel like they are wandering through life without direction.  It strips away all the "shoulds," and refocuses the reader on the beauty of the journey.

Sink or Swim

Lesson learned:  don't go swimming in the pool at sundown.

I have been trying to swim every day, and so far I've been successful.  It takes me longer than it should to get from one end to the other, but I'm hoping the repetition will somehow improve my form.  Anyway, it gets me moving.

The other day I was unbuckling my seat belt when I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder.  I convinced myself that it was a signal to take a day off from my routine.  I got busy doing other things, and Tim texted me that he was going to be home quite late.  By this time, the sun was just dipping below the horizon.  We have a clear view of the sunset now, and frequently watch the very quick process of the sun disappearing once it hits the horizon.  Well, since I had a couple more hours before Tim got home, I told myself to "man up" and get down to the pool to do my laps.

The pool is dimly lit at night, but I could still see pretty well from the residual twilight.  After a few laps, I caught something from the corner of my eye swooping low to the pool.  "Just a bird," I thought.  Another lap and another swoop; this time it was clear to me that a bat was dive-bombing the pool!  I suppose it was just finding bugs to eat, but it freaked me out enough to cut my swim short.

Unfortunately, on the last lap I lost a comb from my hair, and when I searched for it, I saw its vague, dark form at the bottom of the deep end.  Now, Tim always marvels at how easy it is for me to float - I could probably float for hours with little effort.  But the same quality that makes it easy for me to float, also makes it extremely difficult for me to submerge!  I tried several times to swim down to the elusive dark spot, and felt like I was going really deep, but never touched the bottom.  Go ahead, you can laugh.

I realized Plan B was in order, and fetched the long-handled skimmer that is kept up in the rafters of the pool bar.  I had to climb up on a stone wall to reach it, then maneuvered it down carefully.  I climbed over the pool bar wall and managed, by sitting and sidling, to step onto the first submerged stool.  After trying to scoop up the fugitive comb several times, I noticed it would move a bit when I swiped at it, so I thought it would be better to just guide it over to the shallow end.  Try not to picture this: me swiping at the comb, stepping/squatting from one stool to the next, trying not to lose my balance or the skimmer.  When I got to the last stool, I clambered ungracefully into the water, and managed to pick up the shifty comb with my toes.  Then I realized that the security guard was probably watching the whole thing on the security camera.  Yep, that's how I roll.

I am never alone at the pool.  Although the bat made me uncomfortable, my other companions are usually less intimidating.  Have a look:

This tree at one end of the pool is always full
 of White-vented Mynas.  I think they build their
nests in the holes of the tree.

These cats like to hang around
 when people are swimming.

This one hides from the other one.

This snail hung out
on the wall of
the pool shower
for many days.

Mourning dove coos softly in the background.