So, let's begin with travel stuff! Life is pretty good here in BKK. Ella and I went to the National Museum and Siam Museum. I had only been to the National Museum once before, actually just the 2nd day I arrived in Bangkok. It's been remodeled, which is good I think, because I remember it being more like a bunch of warehouses stuck together than a museum. But I still feel it's organized a bit haphazardly, with about a dozen buildings displaying random things with little context. There is some cool stuff, but I feel that the real "national treasures" are in temples or in the ancient capitals. If you're a history buff, it's probably worth it, but also I feel it's a bit expensive (250b) for what it is.
The Siam Museum is more interesting I feel, and only 100b (~$3). It's in a beautiful old house, and their main exhibit tries to answer the question "What is Thai-ness?" I love the whimsy, for lack of a better word, they put into this place. They have a model of a school classroom you can poke around in, learn how to make Kha Phrao Moo, or play dress up. And what other museum can you display an old CD-ROM, and say it is used by ancient Thai people as a tail light for elephants? Or have a "wai-ing" Ronald McDonald statue next to a gogo dancer? At the time, they also had an exhibit on childhood toys like Jenga, origami, and even a Famicom. So you can bet I played some Mega Man. Really cool place that is definitely worth your time, and just goes to show how creative Thai people can be.
But in other BKK news, some BFFs arrived from Shanghai recently. They went off to India and the UK for a while, before making the big move here, along with their cats. It's great to see them of course, but also just by being here they make this place feel more and more like home. So we've been spending almost every weekend with them, getting them settled, talking about life here, and showing them around some of our haunts. One place we wound up that I didn't expect to go was Lumphini Park. If you've never been, it's downtown in the Silom area, and was the very first place I ever visited in Bangkok, over a decade ago. My hostel was about 5 minutes away from here, and at the time, the entire park was occupied by protesters. These "Yellow Shirts" were Royalists and not fans of the then-current PM, Yingluck Shinawatra. I visited to see what was going on, and they couldn't have been nicer - my first meal in Bangkok was free food and a concert. Not having a single dog in this fight, they won me over pretty quickly. Not two months later, there was a coup, and the new government gave everyone a day off work and threw a party. So yeah, they certainly know how to charm a fellow. Fun times in Lumphini.
Nowadays, it's a far cry from that. It's just a large city park, to escape the hustle and bustle. But actually Lumphini has a bad reputation with the locals, as the ponds and waterways are filled with monitor lizards. They are seen as very bad luck in Thailand, and even their name is perhaps the strongest curse word in the language. To help out with this, years ago the government said they will remove them from the park. There are so many, so even at the time I was living here, I said "Pfft, yeah right." And it turns out that was impossible after all, because they've just given up and embraced them. There are cute monitor lizard signs and statues around, I guess realizing that even if Thais don't like them, tourists really do. I admit they're pretty cool, because they're huge, and fairly harmless unless you're a fish or something.
That
same day we needed to pick up a gift for another friend that was
visiting, so we went over to the Jim Thompson Shop nearby. And I need to
stop for another story, because if you don't know about Jim Thompson,
he's pretty interesting - he worked as a spy for the CIA (then called
the OSS) during WWII, loved Thailand, settled here, and revived the Thai
silk industry to become the famous institution it is today. He became
extremely wealthy, and built a really nice house downtown using
traditional architecture with lots of other flair, and now it's a
popular museum. At the height of his career, he went on a holiday in
Malaysia, whereupon he disappeared without a trace. So there are
conspiracy theories abound about what happened to him, but still to do
this day, nobody knows. Regardless, his business lives on, with a very
fancy showroom, full of very fancy things I could not even imagine
buying even if I were very wealthy. We bought a tie, and it is certainly
the most I ever have spent or will spend on a tie. But we also got to
attend a very fancy dinner, eating things that I would not normally eat
myself, such as crab or Cantonese style pig skin. Tasty enough, but I
feel I don't have the palate to truly enjoy such things - and I shudder
at the thought of how much it probably cost.
But
I suppose the real travel story of note is that I popped over to
Malaysia for a weekend. Unfortunately I had run out of time to get my
visa processed, so I needed to do a visa run. And I might as well take
the chance to visit some friends! More Shanghai folk made the move
there, and it was lovely to see them again. They were also kind enough
to put me up for the night, so I also got to meet their cats (I'm
detecting a pattern, here). I only had about 24 hours in Malaysia, but I
did walk around downtown Kuala Lumpur to take in some sights. I have
been to KL before, so there was nothing that was a must see for me. I
did see the Petronas Towers, which I maintain are some of the coolest
looking buildings in the world, although you need to go at night to
really appreciate them. I also went to Merdeka 118, the 3rd tallest
building in the world (after the Burj Khalifa and the Shanghai Tower).
It is pretty much finished, but still under construction - but knowing
that Malaysian people are, in my experience, the nicest people I've ever
met, I thought I'd try asking to see if I could go inside. Yup! The
security guard said I could check it out if I promise not to leave the
lobby. To be honest, the lobby isn't too notable, but it was still
really cool of them to let me in. The outside's pretty though, and well
worth the photo. Other than that, I only had about 3 hours to explore,
so I just took in some sights, bought some souvenirs, and ate at Uncle
Roger's Restaurant - after seeing his Youtube videos for so long, it was
nice to see what he considers good fried rice. And yeah, gotta be
honest - pretty solid fried rice, 8/10. Although I still think the lady
near the canal at Wat Saket makes the best fried rice in the world.
That's
about it for travel, so shifting gears to work - Ella's job is going
great, so no news there. Mine though... haha. Last time I mentioned I
was the Principal of a school, well, no longer. It's a long story that
maybe I should not air out in public, so apologies if I'm a bit cagey.
But in short, I felt that I had a different vision for how a school
should be run. After saying "Well, you'll have to fire me if you want to
do that, because I refuse" on a pretty regular basis, they decided to
consider that offer. I wasn't fired, in fact, they asked me to stay on
as a teacher. But they went ahead and had someone else do the thing I
refused to do so that I wouldn't be attached to it. However it involved
treating someone unfairly, and I thought there's no reason why they
wouldn't do that to me in the future. So maybe best to make my exit. Not
one day after, I went to Ella's school to inquire about positions, and
it seems there will be something opening in two months. So I guess I
have two months to have some "me time", which has involved figuring out
my visa situation, but also throwing myself into studying Thai. In the
future I'll probably write more about it, but it's pretty rewarding to
walk around and finally read signs I've passed by a thousands times
without giving a second thought.
And now what everyone is really
here for, the cat. If you know anything about Ella, she's been dying to
get a cat forever, but we just wanted to be settled somewhere before
that happened. Well, settled we are, so we decided to go for it. We went
to a shelter called PAWS Bangkok, run by this very lovely person who
really dedicates herself into taking care of stray cats around the city.
Our little guy was found along with his sister in a car park at only a
few months old. Both of them were really shy in the shelter, maybe
feeling intimidated by all the other cats there. So they stuck together
like glue, however, his sister was adopted about a month ago. Ever
since, he's been especially shy and lonely. When we visited, he was
hiding as far away from everyone as possible in this donut-shaped tunnel
thing. But when we opened it, he instantly went to cuddle with Ella and
became a purr factory. We decided to adopt him then, but I went back
the next day to grab him after we did some shopping. He was actually due
to have his next rabies shot, so straight from the shelter I took him
to the vet. I also thought that it's probably best that it's me, so he
can vow revenge on only me and not Ella. Overall he did very well,
though he very much does not like cars. At red lights he's fine, but
when the car is moving, he meows up a storm. But now on solid ground in
the apartment he's cool. For now he likes hiding, as expected for such a
big change. He will come out, insist on cuddles, and then go disappear
somewhere else for a few hours. Actually he is very much a cuddly guy,
if you scratch around his face he just melts into a puddle. I know
orange cats have a reputation for being dumb, but at least for now he
certainly is not. He figured out where his food and litter box were
immediately, and has been cautiously exploring the apartment. Anyway,
meet Masala. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of him.
