Hey all, been a while. I haven't really updated since Ella and I moved to Thailand, so let's catch everyone up! As is the namesake of this blog, I'm going to divide it into three parts: why Thailand has been in the news lately, our life in Bangkok, and our recent travels here.

Part I: What are Thailand and Cambodia Doing?

<shrug>

Like so many problems in the world, it all comes down to Europeans drawing lines on maps. And I find border disputes particularly fascinating, as I previously wrote during COVID lockdown (oh what a strange time that was). But to massively summarize: some 100 years ago, Thailand and France (who controlled Cambodia at the time), had disagreements on where the border was. So they said "let's sit down and figure this out". They wrote up a treaty that said that the border should try to follow along natural features, and everyone was like great, lets do it. The two sides hired a survey team both were happy with, and they made a map. They then submitted this map to the relevant authorities and said "Yup, this is the map, all hunky dory." Except the map had an oversight, and didn't exactly follow the treaty. There's this historical temple on top of a cliff, overlooking the south (Cambodia), and so is only accessible from the north (Thai) side. Following the natural course should have definitely put it on the Thai side, but an oversight on the map had the border cut across the cliff, putting the temple on Cambodia's side.

Fast forward 50-some years, what with WWII and the Khmer Rouge, this issue was kind of put on the back burner. Both sides agreed to petition the ICJ to resolve it and abide by the ruling. The ICJ said "Well, that map has been the official map for a long time, and you haven't brought it up before, meaning you kind of accepted it. So we side with Cambodia." That wasn't what Thailand wanted to here, so they chose not to abide by the ruling. They argued the map was invalid because of the words in the treaty, so they petitioned again decades later. The ICJ again sided with Cambodia, and again, Thailand chose to ignore that. Both countries have had this tit for tat for a while, but it was usually just empty words. Unfortunately it got serious this time, and we can only hope that things resolve quickly. I mean, I can understand both sides here, because there is a discrepancy - but I also like to think that this is something that could be solved by reasonable people sitting down and having a chat. For now there is a cease fire, and it seems like it is on the path to getting resolved. Regardless, we're far, far away from all that trouble here in the Bangkok.

Part II: Life

I ended the last blog briefly mentioning we found an apartment and jobs. To start with the apartment, it's seconds from a metro station, so I'm a big fan - actually it's on the transfer point between two metro lines, and we can be downtown in 20 minutes. There's a 7-11 downstairs, multiple restaurants, a 24/7 grocery store, and a Tesco just around the corner, so overall it's one of the more accessible places I've ever lived. And even though I'm not much of a swimmer, I do admit that the infinity pool here looks pretty cool. There's a good chance I'm there while writing this, because there's such a nice breeze and view of the metro. Overall it's a lovely place, and probably 1/10th the price of what you'd pay in the US. It's on the way from the airport, so stop in if you're ever on this side of the world.

For jobs, Ella officially starts tomorrow, and in fact she had to go back to China to process her visa. That means we were sadly separated for about 3 weeks, and I had to get everything set up here myself. I felt like a crazy person walking down the sidewalk carrying a microwave with a broom sticking out of my backpack, but as you do. Thankfully she is back now, enjoying her last bit of freedom. She's teaching English at a university not far from our apartment, hopefully to very polite students. So far the staff has been incredibly kind to her, so she is excited to begin. Fingers crossed this one turns out better, although she always did like teaching at her previous university job.

As for my job, hoo boy. I'm somehow the Head of School/Principal for a new international school opening at the end of August. While I have some experience in that, it's definitely a big step up, and I constantly have imposter syndrome. I didn't even apply for this job, I was just searching to be a teacher. But then right as I reached out to them, the previous head was on his way out. They asked since I have more experience than everyone else, if I would be interested. It's a lot to take in, and a lot more to do. But I'm cautiously optimistic we can get it done on time. I'd say my biggest whiplash is hiring teachers, as I myself was on the other side of the interview process just weeks ago.

Perhaps more silly than this

And if I can say, I now can really sympathize with HR personnel. For one teaching advert, we've probably received 500 applications from all around the world. It is a full time job to sort through them, not counting the hundred other things I need to do. Also, did you know that some people are just nuts? After being on the other side of the review process, I realize that I need to get some drinks with HR people more often, because I'd imagine they've got some crazy stories. As for my limited experience, things I've seen so far include:

• Resumes with egregious spelling/grammar mistakes, applying to teach English
• Just terrible formatting decisions - such as one person who wrote in bright red text on a neon yellow background.
• People with no teaching background or experience, in another country, saying how it is their dream to have this kind of job. Cool, and even though I'm impressed by your 20 year career as an infrastructure engineer, I don't see how that's relevant for teaching English to 7 year olds.  
• It's kind of standard in Asia to have a photo on your resume, and they ranged from odd (finger guns, or showing off their "gains" at the gym) to wildly unprofessional (swimsuit photos or sexy dresses).
• For an interview, one person spent quite a bit of time telling me about their conspiracy theory where the world was going to literally end. They asked if it would be an issue to have one day off to prepare for that. The details were very TMI.
• Another person who showed up in a T-shirt that said "Hire me - why?" Attire aside, I asked them about their teaching philosophy. They said all kids are bad. If they listen, it will be a good class. If they do not listen, it will be a bad for everyone. Yikes.
• One person ended the interview by saying they are satisfied (great!). And they will tell me next week if they accept the job (I haven't offered it yet?), and what their work hours will be (what?!)

So yeah, it's been a thing. Hopefully the next update I'll have more to say. I try to remind myself that I don't have to do this, I can easily go back to just teaching without so much mental burden - like China, there is no shortage of positions. But at the same time, this is a new challenge that is a big jump in my career. I'll just try my best to hold on. Will I get fired? Will it crash and burn? I dunno. I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Part III: Travel

Alright, finally the good part! Our first journey was to the other side of the river, to Thonburi. Even though Thonburi is part of Bangkok (and in fact, was the capital of Thailand before Bangkok), we never often went there. To be honest, this is probably only the 3rd or 4th time. But Ella found an artist village attached to a floating market, which is kind of the most Thai thing ever. Klong Bang Luang is a bit off the tourist trail, but infinitely more accessible now with the new MRT Blue Line extension. I wouldn't say it is anything too special, but is a great example of how Thailand does markets so well - lots of little shops selling unique things, with Thailand's eclectic yet functional style. There were people at the artist village staying there as a homestay, both foreigners and locals, working on their projects. While that didn't appeal to me as much, the canal and market were both really nice, with some great coffee and food to boot.

After, we took a walk to another temple nearby. I think I've gone on record to say "If you've seen one Wat, you've seen 99% of them". Which is true, however, I have also said "I am a sucker for the world's blankiest blank". Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen holds the record for the largest buddha statue in Bangkok - so while not the world, I'll take it. It's actually not even finished yet, but its visage looms large over the temple, and to be honest, the entire neighborhood. There's not much to do except feel intimidated by this 10 story tall figure, but definitely worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.

And rounding out Thonburi was a very interesting surprise - from Portugal no less. The Baan Kudichin Museum is totally free, and documents the little community of Portuguese who lived in Bangkok about 500 years ago. They arrived as traders, but when war broke out, they took up arms to help defend the kingdom. The king rewarded them with a little enclave to call their own. Also of interest to me, the museum talks about how these traders added Portuguese vocabulary to the Thai language - for example, "soup" in Portuguese is sabão, and Thai is sabu. The Portuguese are also the source of the Thai word "farang", something that many expats in Thailand are very familiar with - because it is what they call white foreigners. The Portuguese borrowed the Persian word "farangi", which means "Franks (Germans) of Europe", but Thailand took it to mean all white people of European descent. Anyway, many people that live in the village now are descendants of that group, who make Thai food with a Portuguese flair. We ate a local place, that as far as I can find, is the only "Portuguese" restaurant in Bangkok. For $2.50, it's a welcome change from the 10 euros plus we used to pay in Lisbon.

Back on the side of the river, we visited something I've walked past probably 100 times without realizing it - in Benchakitti Park, there is a warehouse that looks well... like a warehouse. Certainly not the most inviting place for people, you'd think maybe it's storage for landscaping equipment and maybe some offices. While it does seem to be under construction, there is a museum of sorts inside, that contains a giant scale model of Bangkok. It's similar in size to the one in Shanghai, and while very cool, that's sort of all there is to do? But it just goes to show you, that Bangkok is full of surprises. I literally worked across the street from this place and never knew about it. Actually when Ella and I were dating, we found a blog titled "100 hidden things to do in Bangkok", and probably 75% we hadn't heard of before. We went to one of them nearly every weekend, and there's still probably a dozen or two left. It may be time for a revival or expanded list.

Whew! I think that's enough for now. We had some great friends visit recently, and had a chance to get some food from them. Plus, two more friends are moving here next week. As much as I like Shanghai, I love how Bangkok seems to be the interchange station for the world. But I think a good way to end things today is to mention the most famous site in Bangkok - some motorcycle taxi drivers adopted a stray cat, and added her as a tourist attraction on Google Maps. They even gave her a little motorcycle taxi jacket, which is just too cute. She's very chill, and loves to eat cat treats from 7-11, so if you're in Asok make sure to stop and say hi to Ma Win.

Well hi there.

This is a whirlwind kind of post, covering five, count em, five destinations. But the first was back to the USA, so let's call Episode One "How 'bout That Dumpster Fire?" Honestly, I was not too thrilled about going back to the USA. Not that I have dislike it, at least any more than normal (tipping, hating pennies with a passion, lack of public transit, etc). However because of <gestures at everything>, I was concerned about the immigration process for Ella. We usually enter through Detroit, and this is the first time we entered through Newark. So it was pretty much an open book what would happen.

I'm glad to say it was actually pretty straightforward. Actually, the easiest process so far. In the past I've had immigration officers ask us deliberately wrong questions to I guess "test" that we are who we say we are. For example, one time when I said we were passing through to Cincinnati, they asked me how the Bears were doing this season. I'm no American Football fan, but even I know the team is the Bengals, so I suppose they are waiting for you to correct him. This time, nope. He didn't even look at Ella's return ticket. Easy peasy, though maybe we just got lucky.

But backing up, we connected through Newark, at the height of all their dumpster firey-ness. So while we were in the air, our fight onto Cincinnati was canceled. Instead we were re-booked onto D.C., and then to Cincinnati. And then after we got to the gate, we heard our flight to D.C. was delayed. So I'm sitting there thinking oh great, we're going to be stuck in D.C. instead. When we got to the gate in D.C., United's stellar customer service came into focus - the flight attendant came on, and without any preamble, announced all the gate connections. But it was noisy with everyone getting their bags, and Cincinnati was the first one. So by the time I realized what she was saying, I missed it. I thought she would repeat it, but nope. So after getting off, I asked the gate agent which one Cincinnati was. She looked really angry, and gave me some attitude - "You all need to listen better, it's Gate A15."

Well fine. Mea culpa, I guess.

Since our flight left shortly, us and the other Cincinnati folks ran to the gate, only to see it was not Cincinnati. I asked the agent there, and she had said nope, this isn't Cincinnati. But she did say that behind this gate was the ground transportation. After finding an information board, turns out Cincinnati is in another terminal. Why didn't they just say "B7" instead, so we'd look for the ground transportation signs? I dunno. But yes, behind A15 are Dulles's famous AT-ATs to take us to another terminal. I thought "Ah we're probably going to miss it", only to find that it also was delayed. According to the pilot, it was due to a light that went out on the wing. So, hooray for faulty light-bulbs I guess, because otherwise we'd probably be stuck in D.C. for who knows how long.

Anyway, now in Cincinnati near midnight, or 5am our time, we were due for a long sleep. As expected, the time visiting the family wasn't so eventful - seeing the nephews, a lot of eating, and planning on when/where to eat next. But it was also the most Kentucky of visits. One day we went to Churchill Downs, although this time our gambling luck ran out - after losing $2, we've now broken even on horse racing thanks to the $2 win from the last trip to Belterra. To really step up the Kentucy-ness though, we visited Mecca - the first KFC in Corbin, Kentucky. I had always kept it in the back of my mind that we should go there one day, so Ella can have this "experience" for the rest of her life. I had visited many years ago, and it was honestly nothing too special. They improved it a lot in the interim though, and now they have a sort of proper museum to go along with it. I mean, it's still probably not worth going out of your way - but for a KFC zealot like Ella, it was worth the trip. We also combined it with a trip to The Glitz, a place I am not familiar with but the aunt and uncle are big fans of. Essentially a fancy southern, antebellum kind of restaurant/antique shop in the middle of nowhere. And of course, as you do, a stop at Buc-ees on the way back.

But mostly, we sat around for two weeks of putting on fat for winter. In fact, we even helped by cooking a Portuguese - Thai - Chinese meal. But soon thereafter, we were off to our next destination, Chicago. In truth we were just there to catch a flight, but we went up a day early to see the place. I've always liked Chicago. It's sort of a "what if" Cincinnati would look like if it kept its status as a large city. I like New York more, but as weird as it sounds, Chicago looks more "Americany" or at least "Midwest Americany" than other cities. Plus there is a metro, which you know I'm a fan of. With only one full day available for sightseeing though, we had to be picky and squeeze things in. For Ella, that meant the Art Institute of Chicago, which again, may as well be Mecca for her. I had never been before, but even I recognized some of the stuff there. I never would have expected stuff like that is in Chicago, I would have assumed the Met or Smithsonian. So it was nice to see that, for the experience that I have once in my life. The museum is huge, and we saw pretty much all of it, although we breezed through a few sections. It's pretty impressive overall, and even me, a non-art person, was saying a lot of "Wow"s. We spent the day seeing some other places around Chicago, without too much to say about each. So let's put in photos from the Art Museum, and then go rapid fire:

 

The Leaning Tower of Niles: Why is there a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa? I don't know. But it was near our hotel, and worth a stop for a silly photo.

The Route 66 Sign: Another silly photo stop, but it was cool to see "the original".

 The Chicago Fed Museum: This was a nice surprise. Located on the first floor of the Chicago Federal Reserve, it's a small museum about money. I thought it was really cool, and they even pay you for going there - by giving you a bag of shredded money as a souvenir. I really liked the giant cube of a million dollars, which really encapsulates how ridiculous the existence of billionaires is.

The Tiffany Dome: In the Chicago Cultural Center, it's just a really pretty glass dome. Nothing there but a photo, but absolutely worth the stop.

Holy Name Cathedral: Gotta see a church for Ella! This one was pretty nice, I liked the wooden ceilings. We followed this group of people to some parts you're not allowed to visit, only to later realize it was a tour group we were not a part of. Oops.

Starbucks Reserve: Weird, I know, but it was right next to the Cathedral. These are the "premium" Starbucks, and there's only a few dozen in the world. Always interesting to see the coffee equipment, and the very overpriced bar making weird coffee cocktails. It had a curved escalator, which is pretty rare. I've only seen those before in Macau and Shanghai.

 The Bean: How can you not?

 Deep Dish at Giordano's: We gotta have one of Chicago's signature foods, right? I am sure a local will say "I can't believe you didn't try X!", which is fair. But now we have a good baseline to compare all other deep dishes to. But unfortunately, they did not have malort for the full Chicago experience.

 Not so bad for one day! But the next morning we had to say goodbye to the US and head back to Shanghai. We were able to visit some friends, again, mostly hanging out by walking their dog and playing video games. I guess our life is boring now? We did start to binge watch a Chinese show, which I honestly need to recommend - it's called "边水住事", or "Escape from the Trilateral Slopes". It's all subtitled and on Youtube. It's about a naive kid who goes to essentially Myanmar for work, and gets wrapped up in organized crime. Sort of like Southeast Asian Breaking Bad, and absolutely worth your time.

But the next destination was back home to Qujing, Yunnan. I have even less to say about coming back here, because I unfortunately got sick somewhere on the way. So I spent the week in bed, trying to stay away from people. I actually even had a bit of a fever, so maybe it was COVID or the flu. Regardless, it was not great, and I only got to spend 1 or 2 days with the family. It was a bit concerning for a while, since two days before the flight I still had a fever. Fortunately it broke the night before, and I was pretty much back to normal after that.

And then it was back to Bangkok, which is where I am now. Even though it's only been a few months since we visited here, it always feels good to be back. I'm sure part of it is being somewhere familiar, which aside from Cincinnati, may be the best example of a "home" that I have. But there is just something so refreshing about interacting with Thai folks, that kind of takes a way a lot of stress in the world. I know that sounds vague, but it's almost like I can breathe easier here. Ella and I were trying to put our finger on it, and I think one of the great things about Thailand is that the people constantly exhibit "micro-kindness" that just makes the day flow a little better. For example, in the mall, some older foreigner in a wheelchair got on the elevator. He told his partner, in English, "4", but she was unable to reach the button. One of the Thai people understood, and in Thai, asked the person near the buttons to push 4.

Or another example, I was on the train, when a grandma and grandpa sat on the two seats next to me. They also had a grandson, so I stood up and offered my seat to him. He sat down, and the grandma told him in Thai to say thank you to me. So he stood up and wai-ed (a Thai bow) to me. I could go on, such as when the train driver leaned out the window to wave at these kids on the bridge - but there's just a sense of relaxing, whimsy, and be cool to each other I never see anywhere else. I mean, there was a giant crocodile mascot family wandering around the mall. Why? I dunno. I guess they were promoting something, but they were also doing 3 Stooges like comedy while they were. 10/10.

Since being back, we've had been at an appropriate level of busy. Our main goal was to find a job for at least one of us, so that person could have a work permit and the other a spouse visa. Fortunately we both were able to land something in a pretty short time, so no worries on that front. We also got an apartment that is pretty close to both, so it seems life is pretty settled. We did have a chance to do some traveling, surprisingly to places we haven't been before. But this entry is becoming long enough, so I think we'll leave it here for now.