June 2006 archive

Don't want to leave my life here

Friday, 30 Jun 2006 | Journal

It might be the fact that the last couple of weeks I seem to only sleep in hotels, which turns out to be a very lonely life. Thank goodness for my mobile phone and apologies to all of you who just can’t seem to get rid of me when you’re talking to me on the phone. But having any kind of social calender is a little difficult to maintain because of this.

Or it’s because all I seem to do at the moment is work. It seemed I was working around the clock, every day of the week. So, even though I love my job, I recently started to block out some time for myself to do nothing related to work. But it still seems all I do is work.

Maybe it’s because I don’t really have a home. Hotels never feel like home if you’re only there for the night. And although I feel very welcome and ‘at home’ in the places I stay in between (be it with Kim, my ‘base’ at the moment, or elsewhere), they are never my home. This whole ‘being home’ concept is an interesting thing!

Or perhaps it’s just the endless uncertainty of what is to come after september 5th, that is starting to get to me. I’ve actually always regarded this as something amazing and a ‘fresh start’, although I try to stay away from that word because of what some people think it implies. But despite being awesome, it’s also a little scary …

But for some reason I’ve recently developed a little melancholy. It will hit, when I’m sitting in the train and listening to a saddish song on my (borrowed from Kim) iPod. Or when I’m sitting outside on a patio, watching the people go about their daily lives, rushing from here to there or just sitting down to have a drink with friends.

I guess this is the ‘to be expected’ point in time where I start doubting my decision. But I don’t. Perhaps the feeling is better described as the one you get when having to say goodbye soon and not really wanting to go. Like the last few days before you go back home after an amazing holiday. Or the last few hours of saying goodbye to a loved one, before you go away for a long time.

I can’t wait to get to Bangkok. But I wish I didn’t have to leave my life here.

The basic things in life

Monday, 26 Jun 2006 | Life in Asia

Moving to a completely different culture from your own, does not only involve having to face the major changes. It’s not only about learning a new language, figuring out how people deal with one another, discovering a new value system and finding new friends.

It can also be about figuring out what a bum-gun is. Yeah, you read it right: a bum-gun. I always wondered what those things were for when I was in Thailand. By chance, I read an article the other day that explained it to me.

No toilet is complete without a water sprayer on a flexible hose - a.k.a. the bum-gun. You can end the misery of scratchy toilet paper by pointing the thing at your arse.”

-‘Sit & smile: Thai toilet habits’ on mangosauce.com

It seems so logical when you know what it is but I guess I never put 2 and 2 together. I figured a wet floor meant someone preferred using it over a shower. Alright, stop laughing! Fine, I’ll admit it is a little funny. I wonder what other quirky things I’ll get to learn about!

Am I making a mistake?

Thursday, 22 Jun 2006 | Leaving the Netherlands

When I tell someone about my move, he or she is often very surprised. The first question usually is “for work?”, which is ofcourse not the reason. Most people admire the decision I made. Some are really interested and ask some critical questions, only to find out I’m actually quite well prepared. Most wish they could do it too. Those close to me or people that have known me for a while, often tell me they completely understand and that it makes a lot of sense for me to do this. I get nothing but support from most. And I really appreciate that support.

There is one exception. One person who is close to me has been very quiet about this whole thing. I got a comment here and there, but it was never really discussed. I felt she was just sad to see me go (as I will be about leaving her) and that I should not pour any salt in the wound. But for some reason, I felt I needed to ask about her opinion tonight. It matters to me and I would like her support. She says she can’t support me. She thinks I’m making a mistake, thinks it was an impulse decision and feels I will not be happy there. I was sad to hear this. But I don’t think she is right.

I do agree that I made the decision based on nothing more than a feeling and without a solid argument back then. But over time, I’ve increasingly felt I made the right decision. And now, I am very confident in saying I’m doing the right thing. I’m doing this because I’m looking to discover what else is out there. I understand that giving up a very nice and comfortable life, the security of owning a home and an incredible job to some may seem alien. For me, there is more to life. I want to be challenged by new surroundings and discover what other cultures are like. I want to expand my horizon.

Who knows, she might turn out to be right. I might not be happy there or I might not find a job there. Well, there really is only one way to find out. But to not do this because of ‘what might be’, I think would be a mistake. And even if this should turn out to happen, I’ll come back to Amsterdam having gained an undoubtedly incredible experience and learned a whole lot.

Ofcourse, I’m no fool and I do realize this whole thing is not without risk. I’ve tried to minimize this risk as much as I can in preparing this properly. And I feel I have prepared myself as best possible.

I’m confident. And I’m ready to go.

Ode to Sam

Monday, 19 Jun 2006 | Journal

you’re right behind me, every single day
taking from my shoulders, intolerable burden
always waiting with me, side by side
keeping together, what is precious to me

where would I be, if it were not for you
thank you, for being my friend

I think it was in 1999 when I bought Sam. Sam is a Samsonite carry-on trolley. I’ve taken Sam with me on many trips, all around the world - both east and west. It has always performed flawlessly and still does so until this very day.

It’s doing overtime at the moment. Travelling as much as I do for my job right now, added on top the homeless state I’m in, Sam travels with me several times a week. And at times, acting as my personal mule. Even though Sam is a modest size trolley, I have packed it with numerous times it’s own volume and weight, hanging additional bags and more from those even still. And then piling some more on top. I have abused it, lifting it up stairs in ways I’m sure the designers never considered, or letting it bounce each step when going down. It has sometimes been so heavily packed, where it would be a task for me to pull it forward for any length of time. And still, it performs flawlessly. The wheels show no sign of wear and the case shows no signs of falling apart.

I felt my Samsonite deserved a thank you.

First Thai class

Sunday, 18 Jun 2006 | Journal

Last friday I took my first Thai class. Although I did for a while consider trying to pick up an additional language, I decided to focus on Thai exclusively for now. And after this first lesson, I’m happy I made that decision.

Learning some basic Thai I feel will be good to be able to make my way around Bangkok. I don’t think I need to be fluent in Thai, but just so I can ask some basic questions, get what I want and where I want, etc. There are countless ways to pick up a language. Some people do it by immersion only, which is how I picked up the few dozen Thai words I know now - I simply asked natives to tell me how to say something. Or got hit with a word so many times that eventually it stuck, like for instance the word farang. Another way to do it is by taking some kind of written or computerized course. These are fairly cheap and available everywhere.

I decided to go for what I feel is the best way, learning it from a native speaker who has made it her business to teach her own language. Both Arjan and Frank took a course with her and I had met this lady a few times before. We have now agreed she is going to teach me 10 lessons of 2 hours each, in 1 on 1 setting. So I get my very own private tutor. Awesome. And like I said, friday was the first.

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And it was overwhelming. As I was in the tram on my way to get a coffee, my head was still spinning. This is not at all going to be an easy task. Although Thai has fairly easy grammar, here are a few things that will make learning the language difficult:

• It’s a tonal language. That means a word can be pronounced slightly different and have a completely different meaning. For example, the word ‘ped’ can mean duck, spicy and the number 8 when pronounced slightly different.
• The Thai alphabet has no relation to the latin alphabet at all. It has a 44 character alphabet, none of which even slightly resemble my own. There is no official spelling of Thai words in the latin alphabet, like there is for Mandarin for instance. Well, I have been told that there actually is an official spelling, but nobody uses it.
• To learn which tone is meant when a word is written in the latin alphabet, there are ‘marks’ and even a few new characters to tell me how to pronounce certain things. Marks and characters that are new to me and for now do not come naturally just yet.
• I sucked at learning other languages in highschool.

Basically, the tonal thing means that vowels can be pronounced in different ways. There is no one letter ‘e’, there are 5: a high, mid and low e and a rising and falling letter e. In the course I’m taking, an added symbol indicates which version of the letter is supposed to be pronounced, for instance é indicates a high letter e. This right now seems like the biggest challenge to me. I’ve been browsing the syllabus I got and I think the next lesson is all about pronounciation of the tones. Yikes. There are also new sounds that I’m not accustomed to using, but I think I will pick up on those fairly easily. It’s just like learning to pronounce the ‘th’ in the English language or the hard ‘g’ that we use in Dutch.

Another interesting aspect are so called particles. These are words that don’t really mean anything. They are added at the end of a sentence and used to indicate the mood or formality of that sentence. For instance, adding ‘na’ at the end of a sentence makes it softer and friendlier. This seems like a very foreign concept to westerners, but I feel it actually does work from the little experience I have with the Thai language. The word ‘khrab’ (or the female version ‘kha’) does have a meaning, it actually has many. It can mean yes, thank you, please and it can be a particle to express respect for the person being spoken to. The word ‘khrab’ for men is supposed to convey strength and ‘kha’ for the women makes her sound soft. Cool, huh?

Grammar is relatively easy as far as I know now. There are no conjugations of verbs for instance. Adjectives usually follow the noun being described. By putting ‘mai’ in front of a verb, it indicates you don’t . Most people who speak (a little) Thai have told me that the grammar is easy, it is the tonal aspect that is killing about this language.

So we will see what happens, I guess. It was very interesting though and very exciting to actually start to learn the Thai language. And my teacher was very patient in answering all the questions I had, which would take us away from the set course. I’m sure over the next few months I will at least pick up something. And as long as I’m having fun doing it!

Where exactly is Thailand?

Saturday, 17 Jun 2006 | Miscellaneous

Last week I was talking to Natalie about how some people can’t even point out their own country on a world map. I remember years ago there was a show on Dutch television where they would every week visit a popular holiday destination and ask the people there to point out the Netherlands on a map. Most couldn’t. Or would with full conviction point to places like Africa -which is not correct, but ofcourse you already knew that.

So where is Thailand exactly?

Thailand is in Asia, but I’m sure you all knew that. Asia is a pretty big place though, covering an area from Turkey to Japan. So to narrow it down a bit: it’s in an area commonly referred to as South East Asia (SEA), close to places such as Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Phillipines. It’s pretty close to the equator.

Bangkok is a little over 9000 kilometers (almost 6000 miles) from Amsterdam. By comparison, thats about 26 times as far as London is from Amsterdam. Or for my family, it’s about 85 times as far as Amsterdam is from Eindhoven. The flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok takes 12 hours non-stop and you’ll fly over countries such as Turkey, Iraq and India. Flying from Los Angeles is a 15.5 hour flight, New York a whopping 17 hour non-stop (!) flight. No direct flight from Toronto, Nat. Sucks, eh?

You’ll fly across many timezones, Thailand is 5 hours ahead of Amsterdam time in the summer. In the winter, the time difference is 6 hours because Thailand has no daylight savings time. It’s 11 (or 12) hours ahead of eastern time.

Some Thailand Trivia

The name “Thailand” means ‘land of the free’, the capital Krung Thep (which westerners refer to as Bangkok) means ‘city of angels’.

Thailand is about 12 times the size of the Netherlands, but it has only 4 times the number of people living in it - almost 65 million people. It’s about half the size of Ontario. Bangkok officially has about 8 million inhabitants, roughly the same as places like New York, London and Hong Kong. Countless people live there without being registered though, a more realistic number is perhaps 10 million.

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Bangkok has been deemed the ‘hottest city in the world’ by the World Meteorological Organization. Not because it has the highest temperature of any city in the world, but because it has the highest average year-round temperature. It doesn’t really cool down during the night, perhaps only a few degrees. I don’t know why not, perhaps because of the smog? Thailand does sort of have seasons, which I guess could be defined as hot, really hot and really, really hot. The mildest is in December/January with lows of 25 degrees (77F), the hottest in April. Especially in the rainy season, the air is very humid so I guess it feels even hotter than it actually is. I’ve been told that Chiang Mai (in the north) does have real seasons, where you actually have to wear some sort of a coat in the winter.

Thailand by standards of the European Union is still a developing country, but that is not the same as a ‘third world country’. I bet you didn’t know that! Bangkok is a very modern city with everything a spoiled westerner could ever dream of needing, but in rural areas life is a lot different from the big city. A lot of people live in little rice farms (a very common way of making money), without electricity or running water.

The average wage of people in Thailand is about 150 euro per month, people in the big cities perhaps make a little more. Japan is by far Thailands’ biggest trading partner, which explains why there is a fairly large Japanese community in Bangkok.

Food and transportation are relatively cheap. Appliances such as a computer cost about the same as they do in the west. Basically, if something involves manual labor and is not imported from abroad, the price will most likely be lower than they are in the west. An example of ‘how cheap labor is’ can be found by walking into any shopping mall, I’ve more than once seen staff sitting on the floor and chatting for hours. They have nothing else to do, because there are simply too many of them.

Have anything else you would like to know about Bangkok or Thailand? Send me an email, I’ll happily research it and let you know the results!

Mouthwatering dreams of days to come

Sunday, 4 Jun 2006 | Journal

One of the things I look forward to the most, is the food in Thailand. Any kind of food can be found there, especially in Bangkok. I actually met someone in Bangkok once who never ate Thai food. Such a shame! One of the things I look forward to the most is being able to eat sushi for a few euro instead of the 40-50 euro it costs here. But obviously, Thai food will be on the menu most of the days and I for one will be eating a whole lot of it.

Food in Thailand is cheap, cheap, cheap. Everybody knows that. I never knew how cheap it really was until I went and had lunch with Arjan in Pantip Plaza - we both had a plate of food and a drink for the grand total of just over a euro. At those prices, there is really no reason to make your own food. And especially when cooking for one, it’s not only more convenient but probably also cheaper to just go out. So, although I do enjoy spending time in the kitchen from time to time, I expect to eat out most of the time.

Outside of the real restaurants and eateries, there are two ways of ‘eating out’ that I have come to really like but are fairly uncommon in the Netherlands. The first is the famous food carts to be found on every street corner. They sell all kinds of stuff at dirt cheap prices. There are a lot of barbecue carts that have all kinds of meat on skewers grilling, to be enjoyed with some sauce or just as is. Also everywhere are the noodle carts, where you can just pick the ingredients and they whip up a nice plate for you. My personal favorite are the fruit carts; fill a little plastic bag with whatever you want and use the skewer handed to you to eat out of the bag. Brilliant!

The other one is food courts. My personal favorite in Bangkok (so far) is the Foodloft at Central Chidlom (a department store) where you can feast on all kinds of Asian cuisine but also get a slice of pizza if you want. You get a barcode handed upon entry and at every counter pay with that barcode. Upon leaving the place, you hand over the barcode and pay the total in one go. Very convenient. Other food courts make you buy coupons with which you can pay and will refund any remaining coupons when you leave.

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Poor execution

I’m an avid guest of restaurants in the Netherlands. I’ll save you the rant on the generally poor quality of eating out at a moderate price in the Netherlands. But I have found variations on the above in Amsterdam that I found interesting.

The food carts would need a million and one licenses in the Netherlands, so they basically just put one and set it inside a little shop and called it ‘Wok To Walk’. These are of the ‘noodle cart’ variation where you just tell them what you want and a Thai (!) chef makes it right then and there. Perhaps I’m too picky or perhaps the average Dutch person is too un-picky, because even though the food is ‘just ok’ as far as I’m concerned, they seem wildly successful. Equally so are the La Place restaurants, more of the food court type. I actually tried their new style Asian corner recently and ordered a lunchdish with some rice and chicken. It had no flavor, the rice was undercooked and the girl who prepared it for me had no clue about or love for food. It turns out, when I went back, that she had forgotten to put the required flavoring curry paste into the dish. She actually wondered why I was appalled when she asked if she could reheat my dish and just add the paste then. Luckily, she did not dehydrate my chicken and just made a new serving. She should not be allowed in a kitchen.

While I applaud the fact that these things are making their way to the Netherlands, the poor execution commonly found here prevails again.

With that being said, it is time for me to head out and get myself some pad thai. At Thai snackbar Bird on the Zeedijk, in case you are wondering.

No more than six handshakes

Saturday, 3 Jun 2006 | Work in Asia

When I first started considering moving to Asia, my mom suggested I try to get in touch with some people living in Asia or people that had gone through a similar move in order to see what their experiences had been. I actually did, briefly, but only after I had made the decision to move there. However, I couldn’t keep those conversations interesting for the other parties involved at that time - I guess because my plans were too vague and I didn’t really know what to ask those people anyway.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been getting and staying in touch with a few people who are in Asia or Bangkok specifically, or people that frequently visit Bangkok. I’ve gotten in touch with these people by chance, via this or their weblog or through expat forums like thaivisa.com. Some are just in passing, discussing a photo on their photoblog and then the odd exchange of comments here and there. With others, the exchange has been slightly more involved. There has even been someone who has sort of done the same thing I’m planning to do, a dutchie as a matter of fact! There is the occasional useful tip, mostly these are conversations of the chit chat and anecdotal kind. Most are also positive about my plan, which is ofcourse always nice to hear.

I have also exchanged ‘keep-alive’ messages with people I met in Bangkok on my previous trip. I’ll try to stay in touch with these people this way, so they won’t have forgotten me when I make my way back to Bangkok 10 months after having met them last.

Less so is the case for Hong Kong, but only because I know less people in Hong Kong and have not yet started researching jobs in Hong Kong other than the odd one I find in the jobs section of a magazine I subscribe to. I did receive a message from a lady I spoke to at the Dutch consulat in Hong Kong suggesting that the job market there was getting back on it’s feet and she expected I should be able to find something, which was very unexpected and really nice of her to do!

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Although all these messages are not terribly useful for any other reason than to stay in touch, I like exchanging them. It puts me in the ‘Asia mindset’ and as those close to me know - there is nothing I enjoy more at the moment than to talk about Asia. And because I’ve got some people I’ve been in touch with all that time, I will have some people to meet for coffee once I get settled in Bangkok. Never a bad thing, I think.

Professional contacts

Most of the emails I’ve exchanged are just personal messages. But there are also people that I discuss possible future employment with. I’ve decided to not actively hunt for a job from over here, as I’ve heard and experienced myself that companies seem reluctant to even talk to you. Or respond to letters, for that matter. Mostly, it’s a mutual getting to know eachother and agreeing we’ll talk more once I get settled in Asia.

What I’ve also found is that a lot of people have business contacts in Asia. I plan to ask for referrals to these contacts in a few months from now, not right away. Talking to them now would perhaps make for a serious opportunity, but which I then would not be able to follow up on due to my obligations here. I think better results will come from being able to act upon opportunities. And I think those contacts will appreciate it more as well, as I won’t be wasting their time.

The best feelings are left by chance encounters. From sources you least expect it, you are suddenly presented a connection, contact or even possible employment lead. Or just someone to have that coffee with sometime.

Checked another box

Thursday, 1 Jun 2006 | Leaving the Netherlands

This moving abroad thing has been decidedly easier than I ever expected it to be. There is suspiciously little you really have to do and I honestly wish there was more I had to take care off. Ofcourse there are a lot of things that need research, which I then ofcourse do extensively because it allows me to work on my move in some semi tangible form.

But really, it all just comes down to this …

Make the decision - check.

Figure out what to do with your possessions - check.

End contracts - check.

And it’s this ending of contracts that hold the news of today. Sure, ending contracts from my end in regards to things like subscriptions, insurance, etc. is easy because all it involves is writing the right letter on time. But there is that one big contract, about which I received word today. As of today, I am officially a replacement candidate. Which essentially means I got fired to do and was given a 3 months notice. It was the final little thing that could prevent this all from happening, so you can imagine how happy I was in receiving this letter.

Check.

Where is the number for my travel agent?