Where is David?

Living as a foreigner in another country is an interesting experience. There are advantages and disadvantages to the situation, and I think they pretty much balance each other out. What I like about living in a foreign country is more the newness of everything. I have an incredible propensity to get bored quickly with things, and I think that’s one reason that keeps me in locations that are quite different from my foundation in the U.S.

Some people aren’t like me, and they prefer to have a routine when they go about their daily life. I respect that and admire these people’s commitment to living a consistent life. That, however, is not for me.

This constant sense of newness seems to create a distortion of time in my mind, also. I can imagine working in an office in the U.S. and staying at the same job for 5 years, and asking, ‘where did the years go?’ When living in a new environment, time seems to go on for much longer. I could probably elaborate more on this but am boring myself as I write.

I thought this was a joke when I first saw it….but apparently, the right field bleachers of Dodger Stadium are being converted into an all you can eat zone? (L.A. Times article). Come on, people, it was sacrilegious enough that you stopped selling beer in the bleachers, now you’re going to create an all-you-can-eat zone in right field ….as if Americans weren’t fat enough already?

How much are dodger dogs and soda costing now, anyways? The all you can eat zone tickets are going to cost $40, while a normal left-field bleacher seat costs around $10 (maybe risen to $12?). Are people really going to be eating $30 worth of hot dogs and soda anyways? Even if a Dodger Dog was $6, how many people can eat 5 of them, except that Japanese guy who wins eating contests all the time (Takeru Kobayashi)

Apparently, there’s a new phenomenon in Bangkok called double-pricing for tourists…have you heard about it? I’ll try to link to the Bangkok Post article here, but they’re always changing their website so you’ll probably have to search for it from bangkokpost.com if you want to read it.

Basically, there have been some seafood restaurants charging exorbitant prices over the New Year’s holiday, which I assume is because not many people (both local and foreign) have been going out, so the restaurants thought it would be funny to play Enron with foreign customer’s bills.

In typical Bangkok Post fashion, facts are few and far between. The list one customer being charged about 4,500 baht (about $125) for a giant prawn (uhh…do they mean lobster hopefully?) and 200 baht (about $5.50) for a plate of fried morning glory. They also list a group of 10 tourists getting charged more than a thousand dollars for ‘just a couple of dishes’, but I find that hard to believe, must have just ‘accidentally’ added another zero in the credit card machine.

Underneath the Bangkok Post’s sorry excuse for a story, there does exist overcharging in Thailand, of course, as well as many other tourist zones in the world (and probably more so in developing countries). Even I’m guilty in a way. When I worked at a pizza restaurant in Santa Monica, near the promenade, our cash register would automatically add gratuity for parties of 6 or more. After getting stiffed by clueless Europeans time after time (the restaurant was in a tourist zone, French and Germans were the worst), I would just mark the table as a 6-top, even if there were only four or five people. I justify this because……well, I don’t really justify it, but many restaurants in Europe and tourist zones around the world add a 10% service charge to the bill, so I figure I was just making the tourists feel more at home.

A couple years later, karma decided to kick my a__ and I ended up working in a restaurant in Japan (Wolfgang Puck’s). I originally took the position thinking the waiter actually gets to keep the service charge that gets collected (WRONG…at least in Japan this doesn’t happen, not sure about other places that have a service charge).

But, the real double-pricing that goes on in Thailand is more often a rigged taxi meter or an outrageous price from a tuk-tuk driver. If you look at it simply from an economic perspective, double-pricing seems a bit fairer. There is also definitely a difference between a price being negotiated beforehand, like a tuk-tuk, and an inflated restaurant bill or taxi fare, which are a bit more deceitful.

Another issue of double-pricing that angers foreigners sometimes is National Park entry. Currently, foreigners have to pay about $10 for entry, while Thais pay $1. It’s said that this is because foreigners don’t pay tax in Thailand, which is half true. While foreigners don’t pay income tax in Thailand, they do pay plenty of sales tax (VAT) to the government. Still, it would be interesting to see how much foreigners are put off by these double-standard fees and the elasticity of demand of the National park entry fee. National parks also give foreigners who work in Thailand the Thai price ($1), as long as they show their work permit at the entrance.

Also, for those of you not interested in reading all of the Bangkok Post article (it’s actually quite short), here’s my favorite quote from it:

”In fact, we have to admit that some restaurant operators have been overcharging foreign tourists for a long time. We just didn’t receive any complaints”

That’s a quote from the deputy director-general of Thailand’s Department of Internal Trade, Songklod Ubolsing. Just gotta wonder, if they didn’t receive any complaints, how did they know about it?

Was trying to fall asleep last night so I flipped on the most boring channel I could think of, Animal Planet (Yes, we do get Animal Planet in Thailand, and NO, I’m not counting Thai channels when I say ‘Most boring channel’).

It was a show on dog ownership in Japan, and were showing how dedicated some Japanese can be to their dogs. I have seen this firsthand actually, a friend of mine kept a huge golden retriever in her apartment, a one bedroom studio about 35 sqm. in size. I always felt sorry for that dog, but it was pretty old and didn’t need to move around much, plus my friend showed it a lot of affection when she was home.

Another interesting experience with dogs in Japan was when I’d walk home from Shinjuku station, I’d pass through Kabukicho (hostess bar area….among other things) on my way to akebonobashi. It’d basically be a ratio of 8 hostess bars to 1 flower shop to 1 nail salon….but there was a random pet store on the outskirts of this ‘reddish-light district’ that always confused me. Finally, I asked a friend who’d been in Japan a while what was up with this pet store. He told me that the girls would walk by with their club patron, who’d walk them to a taxi or take them to a new bar/place, and the girls would get the guy to buy them a dog. Oh, how sweet, right? Well, no, not really. The next day, the girl would take the dog back to the store and get her money back (minus a cut for the store of course). (Note: if I remember correctly, dogs in Japan cost around a thousand dollars).

So…maybe these girls weren’t the ideal pet-owners they seemed, but, by watching the Animal Planet show, I got to see some other pet-related businesses that I never knew existed in Japan. The first segment was about a dog rental shop. The piece focused on a couple that was really busy during the week, but rented a dog from a dog rental shop for the weekend. It didn’t list any prices, so I’d be curious how much it cost to rent a dog for 48 hours (any people in Japan care to comment?).

The second part of the piece was a much simpler idea, actually. It was basically a kennel, which is nothing new, but this kennel was special, because it had a web-cam installed in the dog’s room. Being Japan, of course the woman could view her dog at all times on her cell phone, and even speak to it. She was speaking of herself in the third person ‘mama’ (English).

The next part, where I fell asleep, was a Japanese engineer/IT looking guy who had two small dogs, the kind where I’ve seen Bangkok sewer rats bigger than these dogs. He also had a webcam that he kept track of his dogs on, and to top it all off, he had an automatic food dispenser that he could activate with his computer at work somehow. Apparently, these dogs were so stupid they’d eat themselves to death if he gave them all their food at once. They did seem pretty stupid, there were two food bowls, but they’d fight over one. You’d think that after a couple years of this, they’d have gotten the hang of it already.

for a good grasp on the pre/post coup situation in Thailand, check out this article by Shawn Crispin in the Asia Times, it gives you (pretty much) all you need to know:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IA02Ae01.html

Kind of a random title, I know, but I saw an interesting article at New Mandala bringing up this exact question, and it reminded me of some ideas I’d thought about before, mainly in China, but I’ll be considering its application to Thailand a bit in this article.

Basically, for those of you too lazy to read the article, it brings up the idea that it isn’t in a developing countries’ middle classes’ interest to have a full-fledged democracy functioning in the country. Why? Well, because the rural poor (who we’re assuming would have numerical superiority) would vote in their interest and the government’s policies would favor them.

The question is, who knows what’s best for a country, the uneducated masses or the more-informed educated middle class? Does being able to afford a daily newspaper and attending a couple of university classes make you a better authority on what’s good for the country?

Thaksin was one of the kings of populist politics. If there were an election tomorrow in Thailand, I honestly believe he would win. Farmers in Isan don’t forget who gave them that water buffalo that plows their fields every day. He also tried to win over the Bangkok middle class by building the new Suvarnabhumi airport (”The Pride of Thailand”) and numerous mass-transit improvements, but they turned on him and it was only with their support that the military was able to overthrow him. (The old-money rich families, resentful of the ‘new-money’ families, had wanted to overthrow him long before, but couldn’t do it without convincing the middle-class first).

Thaksin’s story is very much like the Tortoise and the Hare fable, where Thaksin (the Hare) got too cocky (aka corrupt and greedy) and fell asleep at the end of the race. Instead of being content with a multi-billion dollar fortune for himself, he tried to create his own dynasty among his friends and supporters, thus alienating the old-rich and creating his first enemies, jealous of his success.

Back to the article mentioned and how it applies to Thailand, if the rural poor were in charge of the country, what would (or should) they do?
Who knows, but here are some of my ideas on what I think would help the country modernize.

#1. (kind-of) Monopolize the distribution of rice. I’m not a big fan of monopolies, but this one would be key. Basically, you’d have to create a law that requires all rice produced by farmers to be bought by the government, who would in turn sell it to processors for distribution. This would allow the government to increase farmers’ income (by simply increasing the price they pay the farmers), basically a subsidy for rice farmers. (also would work for sugar, fruits, etc.)

#2. Flood controls. This one should be kind of obvious, but it basically boils down to corruption. There have been countless public works to try to avoid flooding, which normal people think of as a wet basement, but farmers think of as a year’s income lost, but either they suffer from lack of upkeep or they just don’t happen. Maybe to cut costs a politician would say, “Just make the levy a meter shorter” and pocket the money saved. Flood damages total in the billions of dollars lost for the Thai economy each year, and it would be in everyone’s benefit to see it stopped.

I think Thailand would be better off if it tried these ideas, but obviously #1 will never happen. Still, #2 might and hopefully will.

As for the bombs, no news lately. There have been lots of bomb hoaxes and suspect packages sighted, kind of gives you a sense of everyone’s paranoid state of mind recently. I’ll update with this as soon as I have any info worth reporting.

As most people have already heard, Bangkok was the victim of a number of bomb attacks spread across the city this New Year’s Eve holiday.

There are a number of theories about who is to blame, but it seems it’s a bit too early to even try to ponder who’s to blame, and it’s quite possible that no culprits will ever be found.

(for a good round-up of the current situation, check Bangkok Pundit’s blog)

There are precedents for Bombs in Bangkok over the past year, however.

In March, a bomb exploded outside Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda’s house, and in August, a bomb was discovered supposedly aimed at (then) Prime Minister Thaksin’s motorcade. I haven’t heard any mention of connections between the incidents, so it’ll be interesting to see if the media starts asking questions and connecting the dots.

Just want to let everyone know I’m ok……

more info later, gonna get some sleep now….

Two more bombs explode at Central World, Pratunam

Two more bombs exploded in the heart of Bangkok once the new year started, severely injuring many foreign tourists and some Thais.

The two bombs exploded nearly at the same time seconds after the new year started.

The first bomb exploded at the Best Sea Foods restaurant on the Saen Saeb Canal near the Pratunam Pier just seconds after the New Year countdown ended.

Three foreigners and two Thais were injured. One of the foreigners had one leg amputated by the blast. The foreign tourists were having dinner at the restaurant.

Police said the bomb was hidden in a bumper tire at the pier.

The second bomb exploded at a public telephone booth at the pedestrian flyover linking Central World and Kesorn Plaza. Several foreigners were injured and rushed to hospitals.

It was fortunately that the New Year countdown event at Central World was earlier cancelled by 8 pm and thousands of revellers had already dispersed but many were still wandering around.

Police had to ask tourists and revellers to try to leave the area as soon as possible for fear that there could be another bomb.

Police said the bomb near Central World might be planted shortly before it exploded as police earlier checked the area but did not find it.

There were rumours of bomb explosions in many areas throughout the night and objects suspected to be bombs were sighted in several areas.

A suspected bomb was located at the Buddy Bar on Khao Sarn Road about half an hour after midnight and tourists were evacuated from the area.

By 1 am, police also disposed another bomb at the Lumpini Night Bazaar before it explodes.

The Nation

It’s kinda difficult to get into the holiday spirit in Bangkok, but I’m gonna give it a shot with this list I compiled with some simple research.

10 Things you might not know (or care?) about Christmas

1. Christmas was outlawed in Boston, MA from 1659 to 1681.

2. Christmas was declared a U.S. federal holiday in 1870.

3. In The Netherlands, Santa Claus has a ‘black servant’ that helps him named Pete.

Dutch Woman as Black Pete.
image courtesy of Wikipedia

4. The original Finnish Santa Claus, called Joulupukki, demanded presents from children, instead of giving them.

5. Japanese celebrate Christmas as a romantic holiday (similar to our Valentine’s Day) and eat Christmas Cake (white sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream) as a couple.

6. Some Latin American countries believe that Santa Claus makes the presents and then gives them to baby Jesus, who then gives them to the children.

7. 44% of men in the U.S. admitted to having an affair with a co-worker at the company Christmas party at least once. (seems high, but if Men’s Health magazine says it’s true, then who am I to doubt them?)

8. It is estimated that Christmas’ deadweight economic loss hovers around $4 billion (2001 statistic, in U.S. dollars). This means that people pay $4 billion more on gifts for other people than they would if they bought the same thing for themselves.

9. Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer saying “Happy Christmas” because “Merry” can also have the meaning of ‘tipsy’ or ‘drunk’.

10. Iceland has 13 ‘Santa Clauses’, called the Yule Lads, who were traditionally the sons of trolls. Children who were bad were told they would be eaten by the ‘Christmas Cat’, the Yule Lads’ family pet.

In case any of you were considering visiting Thailand and wondering about local customs and behaviours, here is an example of what not to do here:

Drunk Swiss faces Thai wrath for King grafitti

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A drunk Swiss has been arrested for defacing portraits of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the revered monarch’s birthday and faces up to 15 years in jail, a newspaper and police said on Friday.

Police in Chiang Mai identified the man as Oliver Rudolf Jufer, a long-term resident of the northern province, but declined to give details, citing the sensitivity that surrounds any alleged disrespect to the king, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine.

(photo from Thai Photo Blogs)

“I can’t tell you anything because it is a lese majeste case,” Chiang Mai city police chief Colonel Yutachai Puaprasert told Reuters.

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej reviews a parade to mark his 79th birthday in Bangkok December 2, 2006. A drunk Swiss has been arrested for defacing portraits of Adulyadej on the revered monarch’s birthday and faces up to 15 years in jail, a newspaper and police said on Friday. (REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom)
The southeast Asian nation’s lese majeste laws carry a penalty of between three and 15 years in jail for anybody found guilty of slandering or defaming a member of the royal family.

The Matichon newspaper said Jufer, 57, had told police he sprayed black paint on portraits of the world’s longest-reigning monarch in six villages in the province on Tuesday, the king’s 79th birthday.

He had admitted to being drunk at the time, the paper said. Dried paint was found on his fingers and he was caught on security cameras going into a shop which sold a spray can found discarded near one of the defaced images, it added.

As is customary in Thai detective work, he had to return to the scene of the crime for a police re-enactment — but early in the morning to avoid the risk of being lynched by passers-by.

The Swiss embassy in Bangkok said it had been informed about the arrest of a Swiss national in Chiang Mai and that police were seeking a court order to extend his detention for further interrogation.

Matichon was the only newspaper to report the episode after Chiang Mai police asked local journalists to kill their coverage to minimise the disrespect.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters